Joseph Brodsky, the 1987 Nobel Prize winner, was kicked out of the USSR in 1972 on an Israeli visa contrived by the Soviet authorities – refusal to emigrate would have resulted in compulsory psychiatric “treatment.” Before his rushed departure, this high-school dropout eked out a living in menial jobs, was tried for “social parasitism,” and wrote apolitical verse smuggled abroad for publication. Somewhat typically given the Soviet living space deficit, he shared a room with his parents. The room was located on the second floor of a stately late 19th-century building known as the House of Muruzi, in the historic center of Saint Petersburg (then Leningrad). Muruzi, the original Greek owner of the building, had designed it in opulent Moorish style (the main synagogue offers another impressive example of this style in the city). After the revolution the spacious quarters were converted into communal apartments. The Brodsky family occupied a room in the former apartment of Muruzi’s lawyer, sharing the kitchen and common areas with a few other families.
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