8 key places from Osip Mandelstam’s life

Jan 15 2016

special to RBTH

The poet Osip Mandelstam was one of the Soviet Union’s most outspoken critics and ultimately paid for this defiance with his life.

Osip Mandelstam openly confronted the Soviet government and Stalin personally through his poetry. As a result he was banned, exiled, and ultimately sent to a prison camp, where he died. His poetry remained banned in the Soviet Union for two decades after his death.

Mandelstam owned very little and did not stay very long in one place. He constantly moved from apartment to apartment, living in Moscow for a time, then St. Petersburg and so on. He traveled a lot across Russia and lived in Europe for several years.

QUIZ: Test your knowledge of Russian poetry

read russia! russian literature Literature Viral in Russia Bookworm's blog

The search for one's self: key places in Joseph Brodsky’s life
10 places where Anton Chekhov checked in
The final days of Russian writers: Osip Mandelstam