Writers Museums

This morning we spent some time staring at another part of St. Petersburg's dark heart. We visited the moving Akhmatova Museum in the Fountain Palace. The museum recreates the flat where she lived with art critic Nickolai Punin and various other families. We decided to do an audio tour and it was one of the best decisions we made all trip.

While part of the museum is an installation designed to capture the life and essence of Akmahtova's work poetically, the rest of the museum recreates the flat as it was in the 30's. With the added benefit of the audio tour the whole experience bought to life the terrible struggles faced by the Leningrad intelligentsia during the purges. Stories of the poet's friends secretly memorising lines of verse so they could be recorded later tore at the very core of my heart. It is humbling to think that the poet's of the thirties suffered so much, yet I can draw so much enjoyment, knowledge and inspiration from their verses.

After Akhmatova we found a local produce market and the Dostoyevsky Museum. The Dostoyevsky Museum was interesting but, like most writer's museums, a little hokey. I mean they had Dosty's hat, his kids toys and his last box of snuff. But I found it really didn't float my boat. Oh well it was a fun way to kill an hour. And turns out the miserable fella was quite the cheery family man after all.

paka