ThePushkin House (Russian:Пушкинский дом,romanized: Pushkinsky Dom), formally theInstitute of Russian Literature (Институ́т ру́сской литерату́ры), is a research institute inSt. Petersburg. It is part of a network of institutions affiliated with theRussian Academy of Sciences.
The Russian Literature Institute began its life in December 1905 as the main centre forAlexander Pushkin studies inImperial Russia. A commission in charge of erecting a Pushkin monument in St. Petersburg, led bySergei Oldenburg andAleksey Shakhmatov, suggested a permanent institution be set up to preserve original Pushkin manuscripts:[1]
Would it not be more appropriate to erect a monument to Alexander Pushkin not in the form of a statue, but in the form of a special museum? This museum, which is to bear Pushkin's name, will encompass everything concerning our outstanding artists of the word, including their manuscripts, personal belongings, first editions of their works.
The idea won support from all sides and was welcomed byGrand Duke Constantine Constantinovich. It was understood that the Pushkin House would be housed in a purpose-builtNeoclassical edifice, orOdeon, but the idea failed to materialize owing to a lack of funds.[1]
In 1907Vladimir Kokovtsov, Minister of Finance, came up with the proposal to acquire a huge collection of Pushkin manuscripts andmemorabilia amassed in Paris byAlexander Onegin from 1879 onwards. The negotiations dragged on until Onegin's death in 1925, but the bulk of his collection eventually ended up in Russia.[1]
The Pushkin House was originally anon-governmental organization specializing inPushkin studies, which have been recognized by Russian authorities as a separate branch of scholarly inquiry. TheRussian Revolution led to the shutdown of all non-governmental institutions, but the Pushkin House was spared and put under the umbrella of theRussian Academy of Sciences (in 1918). Such "honorary" directors asAnatoly Lunacharsky,Lev Kamenev andMaksim Gorky ensured its safe passage through the hardships of the Revolution.[1]
In 1927 Pushkin House moved from the crammed rooms in theAcademy of Sciences building to the magnificent neo-Palladian Customs House, built afterGiovanni Francesco Lucchini's designs in 1829–1832 and situated just around theStrelka.[2] It was to the original Kunstkamera rooms thatAlexander Blok referred in his last poemTo Pushkin House, celebrating Pushkin's heritage as a gleam of hope during the chaos and confusion of the post-revolutionary years:[3]
Pushkin House! A name apart,
A name with meaning for the heart!
The Pushkin House remained open during theSiege of Leningrad, although most of the staff and manuscripts were evacuated to other cities. Following the war the institute continued, employing such scholars asBoris Eikhenbaum andDmitry Likhachov.
The collections of the Pushkin House, partly housed in a modern block hidden behind the Neoclassical facade, include numerous manuscripts from the 13th century onward, portraits and personal documents of leading Russian authors, as well as a galaxy of rare music recordings. The institution has a complex structure and is subdivided into several departments:
The Pushkin memorial houses inMikhailovskoye,Trigorskoye,Tsarskoe Selo, and on theMoyka River are also affiliated with the Pushkin House.[4]
| Years | Director |
|---|---|
| 1910–1922 | acad.Nestor Kotlyarevsky |
| 1922–1924 | Corresponding Member USSR Academy of Sciences B.L. Modzalevsky (acting) |
| 1924–1925 | acad. Nestor Kotlyarevsky |
| 1925–1929 | acad.Sergey Platonov |
| 1929–1930 | acad. Pavel Sakulin |
| 1930–1931 | Corresponding Member Academy of Sciences of the USSR N.K. Kozmin (acting) |
| 1931–1933 | acad.Anatoly Lunacharsky |
| 1934 | Lev Kamenev |
| 1935–1936 | Maxim Gorky |
| 1937–1948 | acad.P. I. Lebedev-Poliansky |
| 1948–1949 | Doctor of Philosophy L.A. Plotkin (acting) |
| 1949–1955 | Corresponding Member USSR Academy of Sciences Nikolay Belchikov |
| 1955–1965 | acad. A. S. Bushmin |
| 1965–1975 | Corresponding Member USSR Academy of Sciences V. G. Bazanov |
| 1975–1977 | Doctor of Philosophy F. Ya. Priyma (acting) |
| 1978–1983 | acad. Alexei Bushmin |
| 1983–1987 | Doctor of Philosophy A.N. Jesuitov |
| 1987–2005 | Corresponding Member RAS N. N. Skatov |
| 2006–2007 | Ph.D. Yu.M. Prozorov (acting) |
| 2007–2017 | Corresponding Member RAS V. E. Bagno |
| since 2017 | Doctor of Philosophy V. V. Golovin |
59°56′41″N30°18′04″E / 59.9448°N 30.3012°E /59.9448; 30.3012
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