Lenin’s Sister Anna’s Place
The apartment museums in St Petersburg are like time capsules. History comes out of the walls and you absorb it effortlessly just by walking through the rooms or gazing at an old photograph on top of a piano.
Such a museum is the Elizarov apartment in St Petersburg, preserved exactly as it was in the 1920s. It belonged to Lenin’s sister Anna who was married to Mark Elisarov. Mark had been a friend of Sasha, Lenin’s elder brother who was hanged by the Tsar as a terrorist. It had fallen to Lenin to break the news of Sasha’s death to his mother - a catalysing moment for the revolutionary.
No 52 Shirokaya was famously the scene of Lenin’s homecoming from years as a fugitive in Europe - a life of forged papers, coded knocks on doors and meals cooked on a portable stove in dismal rented rooms. When news of the revolution reached Lenin in 1917 he immediately cabled his sister Anna from Zurich: ‘Leaving Wednesday. Arriving Monday 11 P M. Inform Pravda.’
This is the apartment Anna and Lenin’s younger sister Maria readied for Lenin’s return.
Lenin and Nadya shared this room - but little more. Their marriage had effectively ceased in Europe as a result of Lenin’s long affair with Inessa Armand.
According to Michael Pearson, ‘the arrival of Lenin and Nadya had required a change in the family’s living arrangements. Maria had moved into the same room as her sister. Mark had a bed set up in his study. This was to be Lenin’s home for some weeksâ€â€until it was no longer safe for him to remain in the city. In the living room was a chess table, fitted with a secret drawer which had long been a hiding place for the more incriminating documents and which had survived many police raids.’
Besides being a treasure trove of Lenin trivia - you’ll find his glasses in the drawer and his suitcase in the hall - there’s also lots of bric a brac for people who prefer flea markets to musea. Oil lamps, samovars and an old two-button telephone, one of the first in St Petersburg.
Although Lenin lost his title to Leningrad, Shirokaya has been renamed Ulitsa Lenina - many give the address of the apartment incorrectly.
Address: Ulitsa Lenina #52, Sixth Floor. Metro Petrogradskaya. Phone: (812) 235-3778. Opened: 10.00 - 18.00, closed on Wednesdays and Sundays.
Wow, what a stupid piece of drivel this is. Only a real psycho would think this is interesting. I guess you are so bitter towards me because my blog is so much more successful than yours (you have less than 1,500 google hits, I have more than 10,000), so your bitterness is understandable. But writing about Lenin’s sister is really not exactly proof that you know anything about anything and are in a position to be a critic.
How do you like your medicine, Russophile wacko?
i find this interesting. it’s a part of history. every detail in history counts, just it is up to people to decide on the importance of such details.
to la russophobe: you should try to watch beyond the borders and not to insult people simply because they have different opinion. after all, isn’t that what youre ‘fighting’ for?
It’s amazing what psychos find interesting, Russophobe. You’ll be appalled to learn that I plan to drivel on soon about Anna Akhmatova’s apartment museum in St P. It attracts 30,000 psychos a year and has a team of 32 curators.
But I liked Lenin’s sister’s place because it is really not so well known and I had a personal tour - it was just like dropping round to Anna’s for afternoon tea. For those who found this interesting, by the way, it’s a good idea to call first.
Thanks for the comment, Katjusha.
Hi. Isn’t it amazing how rude people feel the need to be. Russophobe: if it’s not interesting, nobody forces you to read it, or drop by the blog ever again. We won’t miss you.
It looks a bit like the Bulgakov Museum in Kiev, which has all the domestic details of Mikhail Bulgakov’s life in his house, plus all the virtual details from his book the White Guard, which is set in the same house. It’s my favourite museum.
There is a fun take on this over at the always amusing Gridskipper.
Actually, Josh quite right that there is nothing worth stealing in the apartment. There isn’t even a souvenir shop.
But according to the book, ‘The Sealed Train’, Lenin was given millions in gold Marks on his way there. The Kaiser slipped it to him to help bring down the Russian Government. So I wouldn’t mind a look under the floorboards.
VARSKE: Your statement is rather ignorant. The only reason my comment is there is because COPYDUDE stopped by my blog, which nobody forced him to read, and made such comments there. You really ought to ask questions before you come to conclusions if you want to avoid looking like a total idiot.
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