Famous people who grew up or lived in and around Saint Petersburg

Diana Vishneva1976–1995

📍 Saint Petersburg, Russia

Diana Vishneva was born in Leningrad in July 1976, and grew up in the city of canals, palaces and white nights, home of the Kirov Ballet. At six she began going to a children's choreography…

Fyodor Dostoevsky1878–1881

📍 Kuznechny Lane 5/2, St Petersburg, Russia

I grew up in Moscow in the grounds of the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor, where my father was a doctor; from the window I saw suffering before I understood it. St Petersburg became my city…

Mathilde Kschessinska1906–1917

📍 Kuybysheva Street 2-4, Saint Petersburg, Russia

In 1906 I moved into the house I had built for myself on the corner of Kronverksky Prospekt and Bolshaya Dvoryanskaya Street, on the Petrograd Side of Saint Petersburg, across the Neva from…

Natalia Makarova1940–1970

📍 Saint Petersburg, Russia

Natalia Romanovna Makarova was born in Leningrad in November 1940, months before the Nazi siege began, and grew up in the city as it slowly recovered from the war. Her childhood was spent…

Tamara Karsavina1894–1902

📍 Rossi Street, Saint Petersburg, Russia

I was born in Saint Petersburg in March 1885. My father, Platon Karsavin, was a principal dancer and mime of the Imperial Ballet, once the favourite pupil of Marius Petipa, and later a…