Blok’s “The Stranger” – Ozerki Station

“In the evenings above the restaurants the hot air is wild and deaf…” Who isn’t familiar with these lines from Blok’s famous poem “The Stranger”? Under the poem, there is a note: “April 24, 1906, Ozerki.” It is commonly believed that the poet wrote it in the station restaurant at Ozerki. But where exactly? This popular suburban dacha area had two stations: one on the Finland Railway line, the other on the Ozerki branch of the Primorskaya (Sestroretsk) railway…

That year was quite difficult for Blok; his relationship with his wife Lyuba Mendeleeva, daughter of the great chemist, had reached an impasse. Trying to regain his peace of mind, he wandered through the suburbs of Petersburg. His favorite place became the railway station at Ozerki, where Blok, according to the poet Vladimir Pyast, went “to drink red wine.” This wine was also recalled by Blok’s close friend, publicist and children’s writer Yevgeny Ivanov: “Tart, mainly — with a purplish sheen of the night violet. That’s the whole secret.”

The poet would enter the restaurant, sit by the wide Venetian window overlooking the railway platform, slowly drink cheap wine, and watch the bustle on the platform. Yevgeny Ivanov recalled: “Trains often rush past. The appearance of The Stranger is connected with these passing trains… I almost begin to see her. A black dress, as if she or the whole station passed in the window, like the Queen of Spades before Herman. Alone, without companions…”

The poet Andrey Bely in his memoirs reflected on the moment of the poem’s creation: “The day was memorable; it was sultry and murky: a thunderstorm was approaching… at midnight Blok enters in his crumpled frock coat, strangely gray, sits down; and stiffens by the wall.” Lyuba asks: “Sasha, — drunk?” Blok agrees: “Yes, Lyuba: drunk…” After which he took out a sheet of paper with the lines “In the evenings above the restaurants…”

In May 1906, Yevgeny Ivanov wrote in his diary about a joint trip with Alexander Blok to Ozerki: “We went by steamboat. Got off at Novaya Derevnya. Took the Ozerki train on the Ozerki line… Arrived. Went to the lake where ‘the oarlocks creak’ and ‘women’s screams’ are heard. Passed through Shuvalovo. There is a café at the station. We drank coffee in the café.”

Perhaps the poet wanted to retrace the path of that evening when The Stranger appeared?.. “Finally brought to the Ozerki station. From the large Venetian window, the ‘barriers’ are visible, he pointed all this out in the poems. The railway is visible in the window, the Finland line. Trains often rush past… The piece of sky green in the dawn is sometimes covered, sometimes open,” continued Yevgeny Ivanov.

At first glance, the author clearly indicated the station of the Primorskaya railway, which Blok often used. But this statement raises doubts, since researchers have major reservations about Ivanov as a memoirist. Besides, it should not be forgotten that during the walk he was not quite sober.

There is also another circumstance: the Ozerki station of the Primorskaya railway, built in 1893, did not have Venetian windows; all of them were rectangular. The Venetian window was a large window with a semicircular arch, similar ones were at the Ozerki station of the Finland railway. Moreover, the Primorskaya line station was located at the end of the railway and its windows faced south. So it was hardly possible to observe the evening sunset from there. And finally, the Primorskaya railway stations only had buffets, while the restaurant was at the Finland railway station. So, most likely, the events took place there?

The Ozerki station was built in connection with the opening of the Ozerki Theater between two lakes — Middle and Upper — with a concert hall, restaurant, and stage where concert music was played and a military orchestra performed. On the hill stood a tower offering a view of the surroundings. Family evenings were held in the theater, amateur performances staged, including for children. The theater was also rented by professional actors. Nearby, close to Bolshaya Ozyornaya Street, there was Dr. Afanasyev’s sanatorium “for the use of various baths (sulfur, steam, saline, etc.), showers, rubbing, massage, therapeutic gymnastics, mineral waters for those suffering from nervous, chronic, and wasting diseases.” Nearby, on Beregovaya Street, appeared Oppenheim’s outpatient clinic. On Bolshaya Ozyornaya, at the site of the modern “Ozerki” cinema, was Brauns’ garden with a summer hall, skating rink, shooting range, and stage, later called “Chantecler.” The Ozerki theater was famous for concerts and performances, attracting many spectators who came especially from Petersburg.

All this was the reason for the construction of a special permanent building, connected to the theater and medical complex by a covered gallery, the so-called Oppenheim alley. The Ozerki station building was designed by Bruno Granholm in 1902. The station was two-storied. The first floor, occupied by service rooms, was stone, with a facade of facing brick. Window openings varied in shape and size with wedge-shaped lintels. Above the entrances were metal forged canopies. The second floor was wooden, log-built with siding cladding that created a pattern from the sheathing. On the sheathing, applied wooden details imitated half-timbered construction. The building’s platform side had a symmetrical flat facade with small rustications on the first floor and a raised central part of the second floor.

The facade facing the lakes differed by an asymmetrical picturesque composition of volumes, had characteristic glazing of window frames, shape and glazing of doors. Dormer windows on the roof played an active role. Between the first and second floors there was a ledge finished with a horizontal band — a cornice above the volume of the first floor. The plinth and entrance steps were made of granite.

The building was used for its intended purpose until the end of 1991. The following year it was rented by businessmen; according to some reports, there was a sewing workshop. A year later, a fire occurred, as a result of which the wooden second floor burned down.

Then the windows and doors of the remaining first floor were boarded up with iron sheets, and a roof was erected over the remains of the building. The further fate of the structure remains unclear, although the original architectural drawings by Bruno Granholm have been fully preserved, and restoration of the historic appearance is quite possible…

As for the station building of the Primorskaya branch, it burned down in 1907 and was rebuilt some time later. Passenger traffic on the Ozerki branch ceased in 1919. The station building was used as housing, but by the 1980s it had fallen into disrepair and was dismantled. Part of the former Primorskaya line route is now occupied by the Children’s Railway, which is also not operational.

By the way, the actress Natalia Volokhova, with whom Blok himself identified his Stranger, lived to be 88 years old and died in Moscow in 1966.

Sources:

https://spbvedomosti.ru/news/nasledie/zagadka-neznakomki-na-kakom-vokzale-blok-napisal-izvestnoe-stikhotvorenie/

https://terijoki.spb.ru/railway/rw_ozerki.php