Russian museums and world culture: Photo chronicle in honor of Joseph Brodsky to be issued in St. Petersburg

Anna Akhmatova Museum at Fountain House (St. Petersburg) will issue a photo chronicle in honor of the poet Joseph Brodsky. The book will include rare documents and photographs that have not been previously published.

The museum received photographs, notebooks and personal belongings from Brodsky's cousin Michael Rutkis. Part of the donated materials has already been displayed at the exhibition organized by the Museum of Akhmatova in 2008.

Most of the images to be included in the book date to 1940-1972. Thanks to the archival materials the museum staff was able to restore some of the details of Brodsky's biography, for example, the exact place of his birth – 2, Litovskaya str., Leningrad.

In addition, the museum received the papers of the poet's mother, Maria Wolpert, in particular, a certificate of evacuation from besieged Leningrad. It shows that Joseph Brodsky and his mother left the city in December 1941 and not in April 1942, as was believed before.

At the disposal of the museum were also a savings book of Brodsky and an answer from one of the publishers, who refused to publish his poems: "The editors have read your poems “Working alphabet” very carefully. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do to make you happy. Your poem can not be accepted ... The reason is the obvious poetic failure of your verses. "

Later Anna Akhmatova Museum plans to transfer the materials to the Museum of Brodsky in the apartment house of Mourousi, where the poet lived from 1955 to 1972, when it will be opened.