St Petersburg celebrates Vladimir Nabokov’s 125th birthday anniversary

Elena Chernova, Senior Vice-Rector of St Petersburg University, noted that in 2024 St Petersburg University has a double celebration: the 300th anniversary of St Petersburg University that was established in 1724 by decree of Peter the Great, and the 125th birth anniversary of Vladimir Nabokov. In 2008, the Vladimir Nabokov Museum became part of St Petersburg University. Since 2019, the museum has been headed by Associate Professor Andrei Astvatsaturov, author, philologist and literary scholar, Acting Dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences at St Petersburg University. 

The Vladimir Nabokov Museum at St Petersburg University is the only museum in the world dedicated to the life and works of the great author. The museum is located at 47 Bolshaya Morskaya Street in the house that belonged to the Nabokovs. Vladimir Nabokov was born and raised in this house. He lived there until he was 17. Later, he would often describe this house, its interior, and the family life in his letters. Externally, this early modern style mansion has remained almost unchanged. Since 1989, the ground floor of the building has housed the Vladimir Nabokov museum. Some of the historic interiors on the ground floor have been preserved.

"The museum collection contains 3,500 items, including Vladimir Nabokov’s personal belongings and an extensive collection of his books that features lifetime editions donated by domestic and foreign collectors," said Elena Chernova. "Dmitry Nabokov, the writer’s son, donated to the museum his father’s personal belongings: a pince-nez; index cards; pencils; a butterfly net. The museum also displays a unique collection of butterflies collected by Vladimir Nabokov. The Vladimir Nabokov Museum received this collection from Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology. The average annual attendance at St Petersburg University’s Vladimir Nabokov Museum is 8,000 visitors. This year, the museum attendance figures are expected to be significantly higher."

In the year of the 125th birth anniversary of Vladimir Nabokov, I would like to express my special gratitude to Alla Manilova, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Vladimir Nabokov Museum, who initiated the large-scale celebration of this event. Together with the Committee for Culture of the Government of the City of St Petersburg, which provides strong support to St Petersburg University, we have developed a rich programme to mark Vladimir Nabokov’s Days.

Elena Chernova, Senior Vice-Rector of St Petersburg University

Events dedicated to the 125th birth anniversary of Vladimir Nabokov are held at St Petersburg University and other city venues. Andrei Astvatsaturov, Director of the Vladimir Nabokov Museum and Professor in the Department of the History of Foreign Literature at St Petersburg University, provided more details about the celebration. 

Thus, back in February 2024, the Vladimir Nabokov Museum at St Petersburg University opened a lecture series focused on Vladimir Nabokov’s literary works. Some of the guest speakers have already delivered their lectures, including: Nina Shcherbak, Associate Professor in the Department of English Philology and Cultural Linguistics, and Professors in the Department of History of Russian Literature Liubov Bugaeva and Aleksandr Bolshev. On 26 April, Professor Andrei Astvatsaturov delivered a lecture on Nabokov’s novellas. On 24 May, Sergei Ilchenko, Professor in the Department of TV and Radio Journalism, gave a talk about screen adaptations of Valdimir Nabokov’s literary works. The lecture series will continue until autumn 2024. 

On 18 April, Fedor Dviniatin, Director of Vladimir Nabokov’s Heritage Research Centre and Associate Professor in the Department of Russian Language at St Petersburg University gave the public lecture "Vladimir Nabokov — commentator of Russian classics" at Singer House (the House of the Book). Fedor Dviniatin also talked about the book "Nabokov House" published by the St Petersburg University Publishing House and presented at the 19th St Petersburg International Book Salon 2023. 

"Our museum is a cultural, educational and intellectual centre, actively working in several areas. Among our numerous achievements is the publication of the monograph «Nabokov House», which details the history of the building and the museum collection. This is the result of significant research efforts of a interdisciplinary team that brought together philologists, restorers and historians. The publication was presented at various seminars and book fairs," shared Andrei Astvatsaturov. Last year, the publication appeared in the top list of the International Fair of Intellectual Literature Non/fictio№ 25 in Moscow. One of the central events of the celebration programme was the presentation of the commemorative postage stamp issued by Russian Post to mark the 125th anniversary of Vladimir Nabokov. The cancellation ceremony took place on 22 April in the Vladimir Nabokov Museum at St Petersburg University. Aleksandr Vakulenko, Director of the North-West Macroregion of Russian Post, and Elena Chernova, Senior Vice-Rector of St Petersburg University, were the first to cancel the stamps. The event was attended by the University’s students and academics. Members of the Board of Trustees of the Vladimir Nabokov Museum at St Petersburg University also took part in the cancellation ceremony. The postage stamp design was created at St Petersburg University. Earlier, as part of the general cooperation agreement with St Petersburg University, Russian Post issued a commemorative stamp depicting the Twelve Collegia building. 

Also, on 22 April, the Mariinsky Palace hosted the opening of a poster and book illustration exhibition dedicated to Vladimir Nabokov’s father — ‘State Political Figures. Vladimir Nabokov Sr (1869-1922)’.

On 26 April, during a book donation ceremony, St Petersburg University officially accepted a donation of the literary almanac ‘Borders’ published in 1922 in Berlin. The publication features two of Vladimir Nabokov’s first publications — a poem and an essay "Rupert Brooke", published under the pseudonym Vladimir Sirin. The literary almanac will be part of the rare book collection of the Nabokov Museum at St Petersburg University and one of the valuable exhibits in its permanent exposition.

Two exhibitions have been launched at St Petersburg University to mark Vladimir Nabokov’s 125th birthday anniversary. On 24 April, the Vladimir Nabokov Museum at 47 Bolshaya Morskaya Street opened the exhibition "Fashion in the language of Nabokov", presenting formal and casual wear fashionable in Russia at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The outfits illustrate quotes from Vladimir Nabokov’s books, allowing for the visitors to imagine how his literary characters looked like. From 25 April, the Vladimir Nabokov Museum has been hosting an exhibition created as part of the inter-museum exhibition project ‘The Art of Living at Home’. The project explores the principles of dialogue between contemporary artists and famous cultural figures of the past. All exhibitions created as part of this project are held in memorial house-museums. The visitors will be able to see works by the artist Vera Petrovskaia, reflecting the concept of "duality of the world" and observations of the mystery of life, which is close to Vladimir Nabokov’s worldview. In St Petersburg, the project is implemented with the participation of the North-Western branch of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. 

Additionally, St Petersburg University academics participated in the Nabokov Festival that took place on 21 to 23 April in the village of Rozhdestveno (Leningrad Region) and in St Petersburg. Lesia Kolesnikova, Director of the Museum Agency of the Leningrad Region, and Irina Avikainen, Director of the Rozhdestveno Memorial Estate Museum, gave more details about the Nabokov Festival programme at the press conference.