Writer's Skyscraper

The plot of house No. 9 on the Griboedov Canal Embankment belonged to the Court Stables Department since the 1720s. Various residential and utility buildings were located here. The existing house was built between 1838 and 1851 by the architect of the Stables Office, A. K. Bourgeois. At the same time, house No. 2 on Malaya Konyushennaya Street was also constructed. These buildings formed a single complex with a shared courtyard. Initially, they were three stories high.

Originally, the first two floors of house No. 9 housed the court hospital, and the third floor contained apartments for its staff. This hospital was called the Stables Infirmary. In 1882, this house was transferred to the Court Music Choir. At that time, this was the name for the Court Orchestra, intended to serve the imperial court. Part of it consisted of musical ensembles from the Cavalry Guards and the Life Guards Horse Regiments.

The idea of adding extra floors to the house was realized in the 1930s, when it was finally extended by two floors for the writers' housing cooperative. The building was thoroughly restored, and residential apartments and writers' offices were placed here. In the "writers' house" lived O. D. Forsh, V. Ya. Shishkov, V. A. Kaverin, E. L. Schwartz, Yu. P. German, V. A. Rozhdestvensky, B. V. Tomashevsky. The writers called their home "our skyscraper," "the half-scraper." The translator Nikolai Tomashevsky, son of the famous literary scholar, called the house "much-suffering." On September 1, 1934, the final session of the First Congress of Soviet Writers took place here, and three months later Kirov was killed in Leningrad. A terrible and ominous time began. Up to 90% of the writers who joined the newly formed union were repressed. Soon many of the happy new residents were arrested.

In 1934, Georgy Davydovich Venus, author of the books "War and People," "Steel Helmet," "Finches in Armor," and others, was arrested in the house on the Griboedov Canal. Returning to the USSR from emigration in the mid-1920s, he was one of the first to expose the emerging fascism. Venus was exiled to Kuybyshev, then arrested again, and died in 1939 in Syzran, in a prison hospital. Ostrov, Shteiman, Maizel (apt. 50), E. M. Tager (apt. 55), Ya. A. Kalnyn (apt. 80), Yu. S. Berzin (apt. 18), G. Kuklin were also arrested. The famous poet Boris Kornilov, author of the song set to Shostakovich's music for the film "Vstrechny" ("Morning Greets Us with Coolness"), was arrested in 1937 and executed a year later. In the same year, Nikolai Oleynikov—a poet belonging to the literary group OBERIU and editor of children's magazines "Chizh" and "Yozh"—was arrested in the writers' extension. Translator and critic Valentin Osipovich Stenich, described as a "brilliant wit and inventor," was also arrested and executed. In 1938, poet Nikolai Zabolotsky was arrested; his wife and children were exiled to Urzhum. The poet served his sentence in the Altai NKVD labor camp, while his family returned to Leningrad and survived the blockade in E. L. Schwartz's apartment.

In his diaries and a peculiar "Phone Book," written based on an ordinary alphabetical notebook, the famous playwright and storyteller Yevgeny Lvovich Schwartz devoted much attention to the people he lived with in the same house and the events that took place there, describing the "terrifying in their everydayness" days of the blockade. The well-known literary scholar Boris Mikhailovich Eikhenbaum, who lost his son, son-in-law, and granddaughter during these years, also endured the blockade here. During the war, an improvised shelter was set up in the basement of the wing facing Malaya Konyushennaya Street, where many sought refuge from air raids. Vera Kazimirovna Ketlinskaya moved here from the apartment in the extension; she managed to save her infant son but could not save her mother, who died of dystrophy. In 1947, Ketlinskaya wrote the novel "Under Siege" in this house.

Since 1934, the family of writer Mikhail Leonidovich Slonimsky has lived in the house. His son, S. M. Slonimsky, became a famous composer. In the left wing facing Malaya Konyushennaya Street, on the fifth floor, lived Veniamin Alexandrovich Kaverin with his family. After the war, they moved to Moscow. Since 1934, the Tomashevsky family has lived in this house. Anna Andreyevna Akhmatova endured the wartime here, first in this family and then in the janitor's apartment of the writers' house, until her evacuation.

In the postwar years, repressions began again, and those who had been "missed" in 1937 were now awaiting arrest. Cars once again arrived at the "much-suffering house" at night. Among many arrested were the writer Chetverikov, chief editor of the "Soviet Writer" publishing house Sorokin, and in 1948, Zoya Alexandrovna Nikitina—the wife of writer M. E. Kozakov and mother of the famous actor and director Mikhail Mikhailovich Kozakov—was arrested.

In 1935, Mikhail Mikhailovich Zoshchenko moved into the eight-room apartment No. 122. By that time, he was already a famous satirist. In 1946, the writer was repressed and expelled from the Union of Soviet Writers. N. B. Tomashevsky recalled that after the issuance of the "monstrous in essence and indecent in tone" decree of August 14, 1946, "On the magazines 'Zvezda' and 'Leningrad'," he often met Zoshchenko in the entrance late at night, who was waiting for arrest on the windowsill between the fourth and fifth floors, not wanting it to happen at home. Due to the large debts that arose after this, Zoshchenko had to move to a more modest two-room apartment No. 119. He lived there until his death in 1958.

Olga Dmitrievna Forsh moved to house No. 9 from Tsarskoye Selo in 1929 and lived here until 1954. The visiting artist M. F. Yaltseva described her dwelling as follows: "Olga Dmitrievna's room consisted of two spaces: a large room and a small corridor, which Olga Dmitrievna called the 'anteroom.' In the room stood two round tables, on which necessary books were laid out. Olga Dmitrievna worked at the tables, and on the small table near the couch there were also books, apparently ones she browsed when going to bed. There was also a small bureau with a ribbed lid closing the shelf. That was the entire furnishing of her working and simultaneously living room. Expensive engravings hung on the wall above the couch."

By circumstance, M. M. Zoshchenko's study remained untouched for a long time, while the writer's son lived in the neighboring room. In 1988, a decision was made to open the M. M. Zoshchenko museum-apartment here as a branch of the F. M. Dostoevsky Literary Memorial Museum. The museum was opened in 1992.

Sources:

A. R. Kuchinova, HISTORY OF HOUSE NO. 9 ON THE GRIBOEDOV CANAL EMBANKMENT

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Писательский_небоскрёб