St. Petersburg can be considered the cultural capital of Russia. The city is home to many of Russia’s literary greats such as Gogol, Nekrasov, Blok, Esenin, Tolstoy, Pushkin, and Brodsky (Julie G., 2013). I addition to authors from St. Petersburg, the city has also inspired many to use it as their setting, including works such as “Bronze Horsemen”, “The Queen of Spades”, and “Crime and Punishment” (Julie G., 2013). St. Petersburg is a place of creation and inspiration for both local and global literary artists. A bus tour that captured the essence of the literary world would be more difficult than a walking tour, as the guests could actually visit the sites and go inside on a walking tour.
A tour of sites associated with Dostoevsky is essential for a literary tour of St. Petersburg. While Dostoevsky was born in Moscow, he lived much of his life in St. Petersburg (Nedzhvetskaya, 2011). One would have to include the Aleksandr Nevsky Monastery where Dostoevsky and other great Russian musical composers are buried. Dostoevsky wrote thirty fiction works, twenty of which are set in St. Petersburg (Hackathal, 2011). The sites mentioned in his books would be on the tour. It would go past Trubetskoi Bastion where Dostoevsky was imprisoned for distributing a forbidden letter and nearly executed (Hackathal, 2011).
The tour of St. Petersburg would travel along the river Neva, which takes the visitor past many of the most historic buildings and the Hermitage Museum (Nedzhvetskaya, 2011). This route will take the visitor past the historic cathedrals and bridges. It will give them a feel for the St. Petersburg that was the world of the authors. The bus tour would go past St. Peter’s square where one can find the Mable lions and the bronze horseman statue mentioned in Pushkin’s poem “The Bronze Horsemen.” The most important element of the bus tour would be to give the guests a feel for the St. Petersburg of which the authors wrote.
- Hackathal, V. (2011, November 5). Becoming Dostovyevsky in St. Petersburg, Russia. Literary Traveler. Retrieved from http://www.literarytraveler.com/articles/becoming-dostoyevsky-in-st-petersburg/
- Julie G. (2013, September 10). Literary St. Petersburg. Petersburg4u. Retrieved from http://petersburg4u.com/literary-st-petersburg
- Nedzhvetskaya, N. (2011, November 7). Moscow vs. St. Petersburg: A Travel Guide with Literary Aspirations. Highbrowmagazine. Retrieved from http://www.highbrowmagazine.com/moscow-vs-st-petersburg-travel-guide-literary-aspirations
