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This is a list-in-progress. Most of the addresses have been culled from Brian Boyd's stupendous two-volume biography, others from Nabokov's published letters, and a few from Berlin directories of the time. Color photos by Dieter E. Zimmer. Black and white photos, with the exception of the picture of Vyra, by Gennady Barabtarlo, from the Nabokov Sights section of Zembla.
1899-1917: Bol'shaya Morskaya 47, St. Petersburg, Russia
![]() A virtual tour of 47 Bol'shaya Morskaya. ![]() ![]()
1904 (Summer): Villa 'Neptune' or Villa 'Apollo', Abbazia (Opatja), Croatia 1904/05 (Winter): Hotel 'Oranien', Wiesbaden 1906 (fall) to 1908 (fall): family lives on the first floor at Sergievskaya Street 38 (today Chaikovskogo Prospect) near Taurid Garden to get away from Mariinskaya Square, the place of bloodshed during the 1905 uprising; the house (then dove-blue, today yellow) Nabokov later gave to the pretty young aunt who teaches Luzhin chess (in The Defense) ![]() 1907 (autumn): with family in a rented apartment in Biarritz 1909 (2 months in autumn): with family in a rented villa in Biarritz 1910 (early autumn to January 1911): with family to Bad Kissingen and then with tutor Filip Zelenski ("Lenski") for three months to Berlin, first at Hotel Adlon, Unter den Linden 1, then at a "pension moderne" on Privatstrasse (today Bissingzeile), a lane off Potsdamer Strasse, to get his teeth fixed by the American "orthodontist" Dr. W. G. Law (remembered by Nabokov as "Lowen" or "Lowell") on In den Zelten 18a 1911 (August): Elena Nabokov and children stays with her sister-in-law Elizaveta Sayn-Wittgenstein at Kamenka, the Sayn-Wittgenstein estate in S.W. Russia (near Popelyukha, province of Podolsk) 1911-1917: attends Tenishev School on 33-35 Mokhovaya Street, St. Petersburg ![]() 1917 (November 15): Vladimir and his brother Sergey leave St. Petersburg for the Crimea 1917 (November 18): arrival on the Crimea, stay at the estate of Countess Panin in Gaspra (5 miles from Yalta) 1918 (late September): move to Livadia, the tsar's former residence, at the outskirts of Yalta 1919 (April 15): the family leaves Yalta for Piraeus, Greece, on the Greek vessel 'Nadezhda' 1919 (May 18-23): on the steamer 'Pannonia' from Piraeus to Marseilles and by train on to Paris 1919 (May 27): the whole family crosses from Le Havre to Southampton 1919 (from June): father rents apartment at 55 Stanhope Gardens, South Kensington, London 1919 (from October 1): enrollment at Trinity College, Cambridge; rooms at Great Court R6 (=staircase R, set 6) 1920 (from early August to September 5, 1921): c/o V. D. Nabokoff, Egerstrasse 1, Berlin-Wilmersdorf 1921 (June 13): to Berlin, to join his parents 1921 (September 5): V. D. Nabokoff and his family move to Sächsische Strasse 67, Berlin-Wilmersdorf 1921 (October 7): back to Cambridge, Trinity Lane 1921 (December 8): with his Cambridge friend Robert de Calry to Switzerland (Champéry and St. Moritz) for an ice-skating and skiing holiday; return trip to Berlin via Lausanne where they see Cécile Miauton, Nabokov's former governess ("Mademoiselle") 1922 (January 17): back to Cambridge for the Lent term 1922 (March 18): back to Berlin for the Easter vacation 1922 (March 28): assassination of Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov by two Russian monarchists (Peter Shabelsky-Bork and Sergey Taboritsky) in the Berlin Philharmonie, Bernburger Strasse 22/23 1922 (March 30): memorial service at the church of the Russian Embassy, Unter den Linden 1922 (March 31): memorial service at the chapel of the Russian Cemetery in Berlin-Tegel ![]() 1922 (April 20): back to Cambridge 1922 (June 21): after final examinations (second-class honors), return from Cambridge to join his widowed mother at Sächsische Strasse 67, Berlin-Wilmersdorf 1923 (April 4): reading his work at Schubertsaal, Bülowstrasse 1923 (May 8): at an émigré charity ball, meets Véra Evseevna Slonim 1923 (mid-May to late July): works at the Domaine de Beaulieu (vinyards and orchards belonging to Bespalov and managed by Solomon Samoylovich Krym) near Solliès-Pont, Alpes Maritimes, France 1923 (late July): Marseille 1923 (August 19): back in Berlin, Sächsische Strasse 67 1923 (October): Elena Nabokoff and her daughter Elena move to Prague, Smíchov district, on the west bank of the Vltava river, followed by her other daughter Olga 1923 (December to January 27, 1924): visiting his family in Prague, Smíchov district, writing much of The Tragedy of Mr. Morn 1924 (from January 31): Pension Helene Andersen, Lutherstrasse 21, third floor, Berlin-Charlottenburg 1924 (from late August): Pension Elisabeth Schmidt, Trautenaustrasse 9, Berlin-Wilmersdorf 1925 (from April to late July): Luitpoldstrasse 13, Berlin-Schöneberg, 2 rooms, c/o canned goods merchant Erich Rölke 1925 (April 15): married to Véra Slonim, at the townhall of Berlin-Wilmersdorf, Brandenburgische Strasse 1925 (August 1 to c. August 15): with Véra to meet his family at Villa Kaura 60, Radosovica near Prague 1925 (August 27 to c. September 4): hiking tour of the Schwarzwald (Freiburg, Feldberg, St. Blasien, Säckingen, Wehr) 1925 (September 4 to September 12): Constance, Pension Zeiss 1925 (from September 30): Motzstrasse 31, Berlin-Schöneberg: 2 rooms, c/o Frau M. v. Lepel (a major's widow) 1925 (from c. December 25 to January 3, 1926): skiing with Sergey Kaplan in Krummhübel (Silesia), today Karpacz (Poland) 1926 (from fall): Passauer Strasse 12, Berlin-Charlottenburg: 2 rooms, c/o merchant Horst von Dallwitz 1929 (February 8 to June 24): in Southern France, first at the Hôtel Thermal in Le Boulou (Pyrénées Orientales), from April 24 at Saurat (Ariège) 1929 (July) Nabokov and his wife spend the remainder of the summer (working on The Defense) in the postman's shack at the village of Kolberg, about 35 miles to the southeast of Berlin, after they had acquired a tiny plot of land on a nearby lake (Ziest-See) where they hoped to build a sort of dacha. After some time, the land reverted to the seller for lack of payment.
![]() 1929 (from late August to early 1932): Luitpoldstrasse 27, Berlin-Schöneberg, 2 rooms (parlor and bedroom) in the "vast and gloomy" apartment of Oberstleutnant a.D. Albrecht v. Bardeleben 1930 (c. May 10 to May 24): visiting his mother in Prague, 64-I Palackeho Trida, Karlin 1932 (from early): Westfälische Strasse 29, Berlin-Wilmersdorf, 1 room, c/o Cohn family ![]() 1932 (from July 31 to January 18, 1937): Nestorstrasse 22, 3rd floor, Berlin-Wilmersdorf, 2 rooms, c/o Véra Nabokov's (Slonim) cousin Anna Feigin ![]() 1932 (early in October to October 21): vacationing with Véra in Kolbsheim, Alsace, 8 miles west of Strasbourg, in a cottage where his cousin Nicolas Nabokov and his wife Nathalie were spending their holiday 1932 (October 21 to November 13): lodging with his cousin Nicolas Nabokov, 9 rue Jacques-Mawas, Paris 15e
![]() 1932 (November 13-26): still in Paris, as a houseguest of Ilya Fondaminsky, 1 rue Chernoviz, Passy
![]() 1932 (November 26-29): readings in Antwerp and Brussels, Belgium 1932 (November 30): back in Berlin 1934 (May 10): son Dmitri Nabokov born in private clinic Dr. Friedrich Grambow, Berchtesgadener Straße 25, Berlin-Schöneberg 1936 (mid-January): leaves for a lecture tour to Belgium (Brussels, Antwerp) and France (Paris) 1936 (from January 28): c/o Ilya Fondaminsky, 130 Avenue de Versailles, Paris 16e 1936 (February 29): back in Berlin, Nestorstrasse 22 1937 (January 18): leaves for another lecture tour to Brussels, Paris, London, and back to Paris 1937 (early March to May 20): Paris, c/o Ilya Fondaminsky, 130 avenue de Versailles 1937 (May 6): Véra and Dmitri leave Berlin for Prague 1937 (May 20): travels from Paris to Czechoslovakia by way of Switzerland and Austria (in order to avoid Germany) to meet Véra and Dmitri in Prague where he arrives on May 22, staying at his mother's flat, Koulova 6, Dejvice 1937 (end of May to June 18): with Véra and Dmitri at Hotel Egerländer, Franzensbad 1937 (June 18 to June 23): in Prague again, seeing his mother for the last time, Koulova 6, Dejvice 1937 (June 23 to June 29): with Véra and Dmitri at Villa Busch, Marienbad 1937 (June 30 to July 7): Paris, c/o Ilya Fondaminsky 1937 (July 8 to fall): Hôtel des Alpes, rue St.Dizier and rue Georges Clemenceau, Cannes 1937 (from fall): 81 rue Georges Clemenceau, Cannes, 2 room apartment; then on to Menton, Pension Les Hespérides 1938 (July): Hôtel de la Poste, Moulinet, Alpes Maritimes 1938 (from late August): Villa Les Cyprès, 18 Chemin de l'Ermitage, Cap d'Antibes 1938 (middle of October): from Cap d'Antibes to the farmhouse of Mikhail and Elizaveta Kaminka at L'Honor de Cas near Montauban 1938 (from late October): 8 rue de Saigon, Paris 16ème, 1 room apartment ![]() 1939 (from mid-February): Hôtel Royal Versailles, 31 rue Le Marois, Paris 1939 (from late April): 59 rue Boileau, Paris, 2 room apartment
![]() 1939 (April 1 to last week): in London, in search of employment, staying with Evgeny Sablins 1939 (May 2): Elena Ivanovna Nabokov dies in Prague 1939 (May 31-June 14): in London, in search of employment, staying with Vera Haskell 1939 (summer to September 2): Pension Rodnoy, Fréjus, on the French Riviera 1939 (from September 2): back in Paris, 59 rue Boileau 1940 (c. May 19): on 'Champlain' from Le Havre to New York
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