000			02726cam a2200229 a 4500
001			010581
005			20231009192137.0
008			130109s19971995nyua b 001 0 eng
010			_a95024116
020			_a9780684832968
050	0	0	_aDK557 _b.V65 1995
082	0	0	_a947.453 VOL
100	1		_aVolkov, Solomon
245	1	0	_aSt. Petersburg--a cultural history _c/ Solomon Volkov ; translated by Antonina W. Bouis
246	3		_aSaint Petersburg--a cultural history
260			_aNew York _b: Free Press Paperbacks _c, 1997, c1995.
300			_axxiv, 598 p. _b: ill. _c; 25 cm.
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 551-577) and index.
520			_a"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 cosmopolitan culture, 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."--BOOK JACKET
651		0	_aSaint Petersburg (Russia) _x--Civilization
942			_cMO
999			_c229804 _d229804