Often considered the poet who radically changed the approach to poetry in the 19th century, Alexander Pushkin is one of the most celebrated poets in Russia. This great poet of all times was not only a fruitful author of poems and novels but the one who finally created Russian literature language. St Petersburg, as no other city in Russia, carefully preserves the life and history about the Russian genius. Strolling along the streets of St Petersburg you can wrap up in the atmosphere of the 19th century city in the way Pushkin saw it.
Part of Pushkin’s life is closely linked to the best educational establishment from the first half of the 19th century – the Lyceum – situated in Tsarskoe Selo. Pushkin was among the first students who entered this privileged school on the 19th of October 1811. This day is traditionally celebrated as a festival and called “The Day of the Lyceum.” This year the festival is dedicated to the All-Russian Museum of Pushkin which marked 135 years since its foundation in 1879. Nowadays it is a significant complex numbering five memorial museums highlighting the essential moments of the famous poet’s life.
The festival will last for a couple of weeks – from the 2nd till the 20th of October, 2014 with the main events taking place during the last four days. The program of the festival enables visitors to discover Pushkin’s literature more precisely by participating in a literary salon on the 17th of October. The festival organizers will present the literary miscellany called ”Pushkin’s Museum.”
The memorial museum of Pushkin located at Moika Embankment 12 has prepared a special exhibition of unique objects that once belonged to Pushkin and his family – the emerald ring of the poet, his christening robe, and a beaded purse made by his wife Nataliya.
Concerts with local musicians will take place in St Petersburg starting from the 15th of October. The highlight of the Day of the Lyceum program is the gala ball in the Great Hall of the Lyceum. There anyone could feel like a hero of Pushkin’s poem ”Eugene Onegin” who once said: ”In days of carefree aspirations, the ballroom drove me off my head: the safest place for declarations, and where most surely notes are sped.” (Eugene Onegin, I, XXIX).