History of Rubinstein Street
Rubinsteina Street, where ProBa Language Centre situates, is located in the heart of Saint-Petersburg, near Nevsky Prospect – the main street of our city.
This street was named after Anton Rubinstein, composer and Tchaikovsky’s mentor.
Rubinsteina Street is the city’s “dining heaven.” There is a restaurant, café, bar, or pub in almost every one of the 60 buildings along this compact street.
A lot of students and tourists visit Rubinsteina street every evening. If you love good food and drinks this street will make you a satisfied and happy person. Well, be sure fun is here! But bars are crowded up to the morning so if you don’t want a lot of dance this is the right place. However on weekdays there is no big night party here but evenings are still great! You can come here for a lunch too. The street is clean and nice, it is great even just to have a walk. A lot of places here have seats on the open air:
Famous historian Lev Lurye reported that Rubinstein Street has become one of the main restaurant streets not only in the country, but in all of Europe. This is the opinion of the editorial board of the Washington Post newspaper, which asked Lev Lurye for a comment on this city location in order to include it in its material.
To view film on Youtube “Summer evening, Rubinsteina street St Petersburg”
More than century ago, this street was a place, where many famous Russian writers and poets like Brodsky and Dovlatov, and, of course, many underground rock-stars crossed paths.
The most famous building is the “Tolstoy House”. It belonged to count Mikhail Tolstoy, distant relative of Leo Tolstoy – the greatest Russian writer. An interesting fact: a prototype of one of the Russian literature’s extravagant and mysterious characters, Professor Voland (the Devil himself) from “The Master and Margarita,” (one of the most interesting masterpieces which one could read to learn the Russian language) written by Mikhail Bulgakov, also lived in this house. While visiting Saint-Petersburg, Bulgakov used to stay in the apartment of Dmitry Pozdneev, a scholar and one of Bulgakov’s relatives. Pozdneev, a man with a remarkable personality, had a lot in common with his fictional characterization: Voland had “an empty left eye” just like Pozdneev, who wore a prosthetic glass eye; both of them were dark-haired, Orientalist professors of high stature and heavy smokers with low voices. Pozdneev was executed during Stalin’s purge in 1937, while the image of Voland lives on forever in Bulgakov’s novel.
In the 1950s among the residents of Rubinstein Street was Evgeny Rein, a poet and a friend of Joseph Brodsky. They first met in the late 50s: Brodsky visited him and read poems, which Rein really liked. So they became friends. After a little while, Rein got a room on Rubinstein Street 19 and Brodsky helped him to move. He lived nearby, so poets began to see each other daily.
Also, Rein was friends with a famous writer Sergey Dovlatov. He visited Rein almost every day as he lived nearby as well – on Rubinstein Street 23, until his emigration to the United States. Dovlatov monument, Rubinsteina street 23:
Through the windows of Tolstoy’s house one can see a beautiful yet small public garden, named after a singer Edward Khil, also known as “Mr. Trololo”. School building on Rubinsteina 11: (View school location)
In the early 1980s, there was an increasing number of the young rock musicians on the street, so in 1981 was opened the first Russian official rock club at Rubinstein 13. It was the only place, where musicians could play rock music legally. This rock club helped to start careers of the bands like “Kino”, whose songs are still popular to these days.
Today Rubinsteina Street is one of the most packed streets of Saint Petersburg especially at the evening. There are more than 50 restaurants and bars are located along the short Rubinstein Street. Every bar is trying to attract people by its own style. So, Rubinstein Street is one of the places that you definitely should visit in Saint Petersburg.
School Address: Rubinsteina str. 11, St.Petersburg, Russia
Phone: +78129061308, +79219061308
E-mail: info@russian-learning.com
