Gravestone of Stasov Vladimir Vasilievich

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Vladimir Vasilievich Stasov was born on January 2, 1824, in St. Petersburg to a family with a strong art background. His father, Vasily Petrovich Stasov, was an architect who had built several notable buildings in the city. Vladimir showed a keen interest in music and art from an early age and studied piano with the renowned educator AL Henselt while attending law school at the University of St. Petersburg. In 1847, Stasov began his literary career by writing articles on painting, sculpture, architecture, and music for the foreign literature department of the publisher Stasov Krajewski's magazine. His writings quickly gained attention, and he published over 20 articles between 1847 and 1848. However, in 1848, Stasov was suspended from his position due to his involvement with the Petrashevists, a group of Russian intellectuals who were critical of the government. Stasov spent several years working in various libraries and archives, including the Demidov San Donato Manor near Florence, Italy. There, he met several notable Russian artists and architects, such as Alexander Bryullov, Ivanov, Vorobiev, and Ivan Aivazovsky. In May 1854, Stasov returned to St. Petersburg and began working with a group of composers who would later become known as the "Mighty Handful," including AS Dargomyzhsky, MA Balakirev, TS.A. Cui, AP Borodin, MP Mussorgsky, and NA Rimsky-Korsakov. Stasov played a crucial role in promoting the work of these composers through his writings in the press, often taking credit for their ideas as well. His articles on literature, painting, and music became increasingly popular, particularly after he met Mikhail Glinka in 1849. Stasov went on to write extensively about Glinka's music and worked tirelessly to promote his work, especially his opera. In the 1880s, Stasov befriended the Belaiev circle and continued to advocate for Western music, admiring figures such as Bach, Beethoven, Liszt, Berlioz, and Schumann. At the age of 82, Vladimir Vasilievich Stasov passed away on October 10, 1906, in his hometown of St. Petersburg. The State Museum of City Sculptures was established in 1932 to study, restore, and protect city sculptures and gravestones. The museum is responsible for maintaining many famous sculptures in St. Petersburg, with several branches located throughout the city. One of these branches is the Necropolis of Masters of Culture, a cemetery that dates back to 1823 and is home to numerous notable figures from Russian culture, including writers Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nikolai Karamzin, and Ivan Krylov; composers Aleksandr Borodin, Mikhail Glinka, Modest Musorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Pyotr Tchaikovsky; and artists Boris Kustodiev, Ivan Kramskoy, and Ivan Shishkin.