St. Petersburg: A Cultural History [Hardcover]

Solomon Volkov (Author), Antonia W. Bouis (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 10, 1995

Long considered to be the mad dream of an imperious autocrat - the "Venice of the North, " conceived in a setting of malarial swamps - St. Petersburg was built in 1703 by Peter the Great as Russia's gateway to the West. For almost 300 years this splendid city has survived the most extreme attempts of man and nature to extinguish it, from flood, famine, and disease to civil war, Stalinist purges, and the epic 900-day siege by Hitler's armies. It has even been renamed twice, and became St. Petersburg again only in 1991. Yet not only has it retained its special, almost mystical identity as the schizophrenic soul of modern Russia, but it remains one of the most beautiful and alluring cities in the world. Every great city creates its own image in literature and art, and Petersburg is no exception. For Pushkin, Gogol, and Dostoyevsky, Petersburg was a spectral city that symbolized the near-apocalyptic conflicts of imperial Russia. As the monarchy declined, allowing intellectuals and artists to flourish, Petersburg became a center of avant-garde experiment and flamboyant bohemian challenge to the dominating power of the state, first czarist and then communist. The names of the Russian modern masters who found expression in St. Petersburg still resonate powerfully in every field of art: in music, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich; in literature, Akhmatova, Blok, Mandelstam, Nabokov, and Brodsky; in dance, Diaghilev, Nijinsky, and Balanchine; in theater, Meyerhold; in painting, Chagall and Malevich; and many others, whose works are now part of the permanent fabric of Western civilization. Yet no comprehensive portrait of this thriving distinctive, and highly influential cosmopolitanculture, and the city that inspired it, has previously been attempted. Now Solomon Volkov, a Russian emigre and acclaimed cultural historian, has written the definitive cultural biography of this city and its transcendent artistic and spiritual legacy.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For the city Dostoyevski called "the most abstract and premeditated city in the whole world," artists were crucial to creating an identity and a mythos. In each of six impressive chapters, Volkov focuses on an era and on a typically Petersburgian art form of the time. From Peter the Great's imperial mandate impelling the city from the marshy Baltic coast in 1703, Volkov moves on to Gogol's and Dostoyevski's cynical anti-Petersburg writings; the passionate, European/Russian hybrid of Tchaikovsky and the Mighty Five (Musorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, Balakirev, Cui); the waxing sense of doom and the concomitant nostalgia of Anna Akhmatova and Alexander Blok; the emigre Petersburg created abroad by Balanchine, Stravinksy and Nabokov; Shostakovitch's city, depleted by the Great Terror and pounded during the Siege of Leningrad; and finally, to the beleaguered postwar city of Joseph Brodsky. This is a complicated strategy involving a tacking back and forth to pick up numerous themes and biographies and there are, perhaps inevitably, redundancies. Also Volkov, a musicologist by training and a devotee of literature by inclination (his previous books include Joseph Brodsky in New York and the controversial Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich) is sketchier in his treatment of the visual arts. But this well-researched and deeply personal book gives a complex, subtle view of the city's haughty and tortured history. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Volkov, a Russian emigre musicologist, offers an absorbing overview of the traditions and individuals responsible for the great cultural evolution of St. Petersburg (Leningrad) and its ever-shifting mythos?from Pushkin to Chagall, from Gogol to Stravinsky and on to the cultural diaspora of the late 20th century. Particularly noteworthy is Volkov's ability to place culture within a clear historical framework, since St. Petersburg's cultural impulse has been repeatedly assaulted by Russia's tormented history. The reader will be moved by the genius of Akhmatova and Brodsky, Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky, and the other St. Petersburg icons whose 150-year parade makes strikingly clear that despite floods, famine, wars, and purges, the contributions of one city represent the very core of Russian culture. In contrast to this readable work, Katerina Clark's scholarly Petersburg: Crucible of Cultural Revolution (LJ 8/95) covers a much narrower time period. Highly recommended for most academic and public collections.?Mark R. Yerburgh, Fern Ridge Community Lib., Veneta, Ore.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 598 pages
• Publisher: The Free Press / Simon & Schuster; 1st edition (November 10, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0028740521
• ISBN-13: 978-0028740522
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #241,756 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An enjoyable look at the cultural heart of modern Russia, September 7, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: St. Petersburg: A Cultural History (Hardcover)

Not only is the author obviously erudite about his subject matter, he is in love with it, making this book more than just an outsider's account of a city's cultural history. Exploring the 'mythos' of St. Petersburg through the work and lives of many of the creative spirits who either lived here or reflected the city in their works -- Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoyevski, Akhmatova among the better-known -- Volkov brings to life the very streets, houses, and canals of a great city on the border of Russia and Europe. But even more, his reader has the great pleasure of being accompanies on this journey by the very Russian-intellectual thoughtfulness and erudition, 'intelligentnost', of the author. Warmly recommended indeed.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Anyone who has seen "The Nutcracker Ballet" should read this, June 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: St. Petersburg: A Cultural History (Hardcover)

Solomon Volkov has prepared for Western readers a breathtaking history of St. Petersburg's cultural treasures. Anyone who has seen "The Nutcracker Ballet" should read this book. Volkov brings forth the great ballet artists, classical music composers, painters, and writers who were centered in St. Petersburg, Russia's "window on Europe". Most of these great artists are as familiar to western readers as Tchaikovsky. But we are also introduced to equally great artists, poets, and writers we didn't know before. The introduction is invaluable. Underlying the "stars" of center stage, and running throughout the 300 years of cultural history is a constant reference to the "mythos of St. Petersburg" which Russian emigres worldwide will recognize with longing and affection. It is important to learn of the deeply-felt magical aura this city imposed on the artists and writers who lived there, including on Solomon Volkov himself.

19 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Volkov bares the Soul of St.Petersburg in this work., October 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: St. Petersburg: A Cultural History (Hardcover)

Solomon Volkov is a sorcerer. He will have you chuckling out loud one minute & weeping the next! In the pages of this book, you will come to know the people of St. Petersburg; their glory, their sorrow, their passion, their genius. Volkov has brought this immortal city across the ocean and planted it firmly in my heart. It has instilled in me a deep appreciation for the talents of those who, in some cases, forfeited theirs lives for the sake of creative freedom.