Literary evenings at the Old Vienna hotel, evening of Yulia Belomlinskaya

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The streets of St. Petersburg keep thousands of memories of great people who have ever lived and worked here. It is thanks to the rich cultural history of this city that many come here to fully immerse themselves in the atmosphere of classical works. Walking around "Pushkin's places", Dostoevsky's St. Petersburg, numerous museums-apartments: Nekrasov, Blok, Zoshchenko, etc. give an amazing calmness and allow you to better understand the events described in the works of well-known authors.

There are also very special places in this city that preserve the spirit of their time, although they are not an official museum or monument. Among them is the literary lounge at the Old Vienna Hotel on Gorokhovaya Street. Read more about it in our material.

A little about the history of "Vienna"

Various taverns and restaurants on the corner of Malaya Morskaya and Gorokhovaya have long been popular. The first was opened back in 1870 under the leadership of the entrepreneur F. M. Rotin. However, it gained the greatest popularity in 1903, when I. Sokolov became its owner. Here is how contemporaries wrote about this place: “Who among those who have survived to this day who have been in St. Petersburg at the beginning of the 20th century and have anything to do with literature, have not been to Vienna, do not recall with admiration this famous“literary”restaurant, a favorite meeting place for metropolitan writers, poets, artists, painters, composers, sculptors!.."

The entire Petersburg elite really gathered here. The owner realized that delicious food alone would not be enough for the popularity of the institution (although the dishes were excellent here), so he invited famous musicians, writers, poets and artists to spend the evening here. Over time, visiting “Vienna” became a tradition for them. Kuprin, Averchenko, Andreev, Blok, Gorodetsky, Chaliapin and many others gathered here: about half a thousand people came to the restaurant every day.

After the revolution, the restaurant was closed, and many of its regular guests suffered a hard fate. However, in our time, thanks to the efforts of the owners of the "Old Vienna" hotel, here, in a small living room, they began to hold meetings of art workers with their admirers.

Poems are heard again, books are read, music is playing. So, at the end of August, the “Vienna Evening” by Victoria and Yulia Belomlinsky took place here.

An evening with a beautiful

The life story of the Belomlinsky family is quite interesting. Victoria was famous among the Soviet bohemians, but her works were not accepted for publication. She studied at the Moscow Art Theater, was married to the artist Mikhail Belomlinsky. Despite the patronage of Yuri Nagibin, only one of her stories was published in the USSR. She was closely acquainted with Joseph Brodsky, Sergei Dovlatov, Bella Akhmadulina and Alexander Galich. Like many writers of that time, she was forced to emigrate to the United States. There her talent was recognized: she twice became a finalist for the Booker Prize. She wrote several interesting books, memories of her creative friends.

Her daughter, Julia, followed in her mother's footsteps. Her works have been published in non-Soviet Russia since 2002. She studied at the Theater Institute, worked as a book graphic artist and costume designer in theater and cinema. She lived in the USA for about 12 years, where she staged the one-man show "Poor Girl". She opened her own publishing house "Juliet and Spirits", where books by Aleksey Khvostenko, Vladimir Druk and others were published. Most of them were designed independently. Now she lives in St. Petersburg, writes pictures, designs books for children and adults, puts on performances.

Poems, prose and songs of these wonderful women, memories of life, communication with other talented writers sounded at the Vienna Evening. There were no empty seats, but an amazing chamber atmosphere was created, in which there is a place for reflection, harmony and creativity. And very soon the doors of the “Old Vienna” living room will open again to please the residents and guests of St. Petersburg with a new meeting with the next “living legend”.