LITERARY MUSEUMS OF ST. PETERSBURG – THE LIVING HISTORY OF RUSSIAN LITERATURE

The article dwells on the role of the literary museums of St. Petersburg in the study of Russian literature. In the XVIII – XX centuries, St. Petersburg was the focus of Russian literature, and the stories of life and creative legacy of St. Petersburg writers were intrinsically linked to the places where they lived and worked. At the moment St. Petersburg hosts ten literary-memorial museums. The article gives an account of the history of their foundation from 1905 till present time and provides an insight into the exposition and scholarly and educational activities of the majority of them. A core finding of the article is that the existing system of the literary museums of St. Petersburg represents a sound basis for the study of the history of Russian literature and can be a great help to students, school-children, philologists, cultural historians and all those, interested in Russian literature and culture.