In
the Footsteps of Great People

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky (1821-1881), who was the most prominent and world famous Russian writer, is associated with Saint-Petersburg in the first place. Nevertheless, Dostoyevsky is a native Muscovite.

Leo Tolstoy’s life is inextricably linked to Yasnaya Polyana – the place where he was born, spent most of his life (about 60 years), where the “Green Wand” is buried at the edge of the Stary Zakaz ravine – the one which was believed to have the power to make all people happy

The great poet was not only born in Moscow but also studied there. Many of his Moscow acquaintances became the prototypes of his characters and were mentioned in his works (V. Lopukhina, P. Shalikov, General F. Mosolov).

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is one of the most famous Russian composers. His music is widely known not only in Russia, but also outside of it. He is the author of outstanding operas, lyrical sentimental songs, symphonies, concerts, and, as is widely known, ballets, etc.

Nikolai Gogol is one of the most prominent writers of the Golden Age in Russian literature (i.e. the first half of the 19th century). His works – often funny, imbued with subtle humour and stinging satire – are found by thoughtful readers to be very truthful and deep.

The name of Maxim Gorky means a lot to everyone who knows Russian culture and loves it. The writer's works are known all over the world and he was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature five times.

The legacy of Boris Pasternak holds an important place in the history of the 20th century Russian literature. His poems are still widely published, read, and learnt by heart. And his Doctor Zhivago, a novel that received recognition abroad earlier than at home.

Vladimir Lenin is the name of great significance for the world history. Lenin is the symbol of the socialist revolution of 1917 in Russia, an uncompromising fight for social equality and communism in the whole world as well as a symbol of the Red Terror.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov is a well-known Russian playwright, writer and a public figure, the author of The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, The Duel, The Lady with the Dog, among others. He was born into the family of a merchant in Taganrog in 1860 and moved to Moscow in 1877.

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev is a 19th-century Russian writer, famous for his novels and shorter fiction. Moscow occupied an important place in Turgenev’s life, who grew up and studied here. His mother’s house has survived to our day and now accommodates the Turgenev Museum.

Sergei Eisenstein was born and grew up in Riga, did his studies in St. Petersburg, but it is in Moscow that he found his true calling. Here, Eisenstein became one of the world’s top film directors, a pioneer in the theory of montage and the author noted for his Battleship Potemkin, Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible.

The reign of Ivan the Terrible is one of the most dramatic periods in Russia’s history. The name of this tsar has long become generic, personifying atrocity and murderous abuse of power.

Whenever we think about the fate of Russia in the 20th century, Prince Peter (Pyotr) Kropotkin always comes to mind. He authored numerous scholarly works on politics, economics, geography and geology.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin (1870–1953) was a great Russian writer, the first winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, the author of the internationally renowned Dark Avenues, The Gentleman from San Francisco, Cursed Days, The Life of Arseniev, and other works.

Moscow played a special role in the life of the outstanding Russian composer, conductor and pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943). This is where he did his music studies at the conservatory, went through the most controversial periods in the development of his music talent, fell in love, married, made friends with a lot of well-known figures, and decided to leave the country for good.

The avant-garde painter, graphic artist and poet Marc Chagall lived in Moscow between 1920 and 1922. He lectured on art and worked hard on his own paintings, many of which are on view in the Tretyakov Art Gallery on Krymsky Val, including his well-known Introduction to the Jewish Theatre.

Without a doubt, Peter the Great is the genius of St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg was his favourite child, and Peter did not spare himself nor others to see the city constructed. Peter didn't like Moscow. He feared its Streltsy uprisings and Boyar conspiracies.

For Moscow, Sergei Yesenin is the dearest and the most beloved poet of that inconstant but exciting early 20th century known as the Silver Age of Russian poetry and culture.

One of the best-known actor training systems in the world bears the name of the Russian theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski (1863-1938).

Alexandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn is a great Russian writer, public and political figure. In 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. It was with his works that thorough understanding of the history of communism building in the USSR began.

Vasily Kandinsky, an outstanding Russian abstract artist, was born in Moscow in 1866. In 1871 the Kandinskys moved to Odessa. When he studied in a gymnasium there he took up music and painting.

Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (1711-1765) is sometimes called Russian Leonardo da Vinci. A natural scientist, physicist, chemist, astronomer, poet and painter, he was Homo Universalis, indeed.

Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky (1938-1980) is considered to be one of the outstanding personalities of the 20th century in Russia and beyond, whose works are studied all over the world. This poet, actor and performer of his own songs singing to the Russian seven-string guitar was a cult figure throughout the Soviet Union.

Joseph Stalin is one of the most controversial figures in the history of both Russia and the world. Many episodes of his life are associated with Russia's capital. Stalin's biography is shrouded in mystery – even the date of his birth is not exactly known.

Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov is an outstanding Soviet physicist and public figure, an academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1953) and one of the creators of the hydrogen bomb, a famous human rights campaigner, and the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Alexander Herzen (25 March (6 April) 1812, Moscow – 9 (21) January 1870, Paris) is a famous Russian writer, public figure, and philosopher. He was originally a native of Moscow. Alexander was an illegitimate son of landowner Ivan Yakovlev and 16-year old Henriette Wilhelmina Luisa Haag.

Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (1879–1935) spent the first 25 years of his life outside Moscow. He was born to a large Polish family in Kiev, began his artistic career with studies in Kiev Drawing School, and then moved to Kursk, where he got married and started working as a technical drawer.

There is no Mandelstam Street in Moscow yet, but there is one in Warsaw, where the poet was born. Meanwhile, a number of cities could have a street named after Osip Mandelstam: Voronezh, where he spent three years in exile for his Stalin Epigram, Vladivostok, in a transit camp near which he died, Saint Petersburg, etc.