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Lecture "The Life of Osip Mandelstam. Poetry and the Image of the City"

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When
now
30.03.2026 · 19:00
Where
Saint Petersburg
Центральная городская публичная библиотека имени Маяковского
Intent
Socializing
About

How does the poetry of Osip Mandelstam change the view of the city and time? In Nina Popova's lecture, Petersburg comes out of textbooks, transforming into a living space of meanings, memory, and the pain of the century. The conversation about the poet's verses, prose, and fate will help to hear his voice amidst today's noise and look at familiar streets in a new way. Osip Mandelstam is always thought of in connection with Petersburg, even when biographical facts lead to other cities and eras. The meeting will discuss how his path was formed from his youth to the last years of his life and why it was here that the poetic world we recognize from a few lines was created. The lecturer suggests looking at the poet's fate through the prism of the city, its streets, houses, and the voices that resonate between the lines. The conversation begins with his early years: the Tenishev School, the first attempts at translation, and the rhythm of pre-revolutionary Petersburg. Through memories, quotes, and biographical details, listeners will see how his circle of reading was formed, which meetings were decisive, and how everyday reality turned into symbolic material. An important part of the discussion is dedicated to how Mandelstam experienced the collapse of the imperial capital and why the theme of the city's destruction persistently returns in his texts. A separate block of the lecture is related to how the poet works with the image of streets and yards, bridges and squares. Here, the background transforms into independent characters, changing along with the history of the country. Nina Popova will show how hidden parallels with antiquity and biblical motifs arise in poetry and prose, how the city becomes a space of memory, judgment, and hope simultaneously. It will be interesting for those who are used to reading familiar texts without listening to the urban noise behind their lines. Concluding the conversation, the lecturer will return to the theme of personal choice and inner freedom - how to preserve one's voice under pressure, censorship, and fear, where to seek inner anchors, and why the poetic experience of the first third of the 20th century still resonates in today's world.

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