Love story: Sergei Yesenin and Isadora Duncan
On May 2, 1922, the poet Sergei Yesenin and the world famous dancer Isadora Duncan became husband and wife. AiF.ru tells a tragic love story, in which there were scandals, jealousy, an 18-year age difference, and even assault.
Sergei Yesenin did not recognize any other language other than his native one. Isadora Duncan spoke only English. Her Russian vocabulary was limited to about two dozen words - but this was enough for the poet and dancer to get married and travel around the world.
Tragedy Duncan
Isadora Duncan's style of dancing - without pointe shoes, a tutu or a corset, but barefoot, in a light Greek chiton - made a real revolution in choreography. The dancer was called the “divine sandal” and her movements were adopted, and at fashionable parties girls tried to move like Duncan.
She is considered the founder of modern dance, but few people know that the creative life of the “divine sandal” was much happier than her personal life. A staunch feminist, Duncan vowed never to marry, and by the age of 44 she had several unsuccessful romances under her belt. The dancer gave birth to children out of wedlock three times, but they all died. First there was a terrible car accident: a car in which the eldest boy and girl were, fell from a bridge into the Seine and drowned, burying the children and governess with it. The doors jammed - none of the passengers were able to escape from the death trap. The tragedy shocked all of Paris, but at the trial Duncan interceded for the driver - because he was a family man.
After some time, Isadora decided to become a mother again. She gave birth to a son, but he lived only a few hours. After another tragedy, the dancer never had children again: all her time was now occupied by dancing and teaching - Duncan taught choreography to girls. Therefore, when she received a telegram from the People's Commissar of Education Anatoly Lunacharsky with an invitation to come to Soviet Union and establish her own school there, Duncan was surprised, but agreed. Sailing to Moscow, the dancer met a fortune teller on the ship - she promised the red-haired passenger a wedding in a foreign country. Isadora, wise from difficult life experiences, just laughed.
"Za-la-taya ga-la-va"
Sergei Yesenin by that time was already considered a national poet. At just 26, he also had a “turbulent” biography: at the age of 18 he became a father for the first time (the poet was not married at that time), and a few years later he had two more children - already in an official marriage.
According to the recollections of contemporaries, from the very first meeting Yesenin and Duncan behaved as if they had known each other for a long time. When the world dance star appeared at a party for the artist Georges (George) Yakulov in a flowing red tunic, Yesenin immediately surrounded her with attention. According to the testimony of one of the journalists, soon Isadora was already imposingly reclining on the sofa, and the poet was kneeling next to her. She stroked his hair and said in broken Russian: “Za-la-taya ga-la-va...”. All her communication with the temperamental stranger that evening was limited to these words: “Patched Galava”, “Angel” and “Tchort”. Then the dancer kissed him for the first time - and soon Yesenin moved to her mansion on Prechistenka. Neither stopped them the language barrier, nor a significant age difference.
Does it mean he loves?
After some time, Duncan realized that her creative career in the Soviet Union was not developing very successfully. The dancer decided to return home to America. She wanted to take her “golden-headed” lover with her, but there could be problems with a visa for him. And then Isadora (as Yesenin called her) retreated from her main principle: the couple got married. This happened six months after we met.
The newly-made spouses signed at the Khamovnichesky registry office in Moscow. According to Duncan's secretary and translator, on the eve of the ceremony she asked him to slightly correct the date of birth in her passport. “This is for Ezenin,” she replied. - He and I don’t feel these fifteen years of difference, but it’s written here... and tomorrow we’ll give our passports into the wrong hands... It might be unpleasant for him... I won’t need a passport soon. I’ll get another one” (editor’s note - the age difference between the spouses was not 15, but 18 years). And the translator agreed. So the poet’s wife became a woman “only” 9 years older.
However, the family life of the Yesenin-Duncan couple (and both spouses took a double surname) was not cloudless. Soon, the poet, who was addicted to alcohol, “awakened” his violent character: he began to be jealous, beat Isadora and leave the house, taking all his things. True, he soon returned - and everything began anew. Duncan forgave him every time.
Russian husband of Isadora Duncan
The couple married on May 2, 1922 and left the Union that same month. Isadora had to go on tour - first in Western Europe, and then to the States. Yesenin accompanied his wife everywhere. However, the trip did not work out: it turned out that everyone abroad perceived the poet only as an “addendum” to the incomparable Duncan, although at home he was almost idolized. Quarrels and scandals arose more and more often - once Isadora called the police to calm down the brawler. Apparently, the poet’s ardent love began to fade away - he allowed himself to speak unflatteringly about his wife, for example, he could complain to friends: “Here she is, she sticks like molasses!”
In 1923, a little more than a year after the wedding, the couple returned to Moscow. By that time, relations had already become very tense, and a month later Isadora left the Union - this time alone. Soon she received a telegram: “I love someone else. Married. Happy. Yesenin." It was about Galina Benislavskaya - the woman with whom he lived before meeting Duncan and with whom he settled immediately after his return. True, Yesenin never married Benislavskaya - but Isadora did not know this.
Thus ended this difficult and complicated story love. Isadora Duncan never allowed herself a single bad word about her only husband. Two years after the separation, Sergei Yesenin hanged himself - but during this time he managed to become a father again and get married again. A year and a half after the poet’s death, Isadora also passed away. She was driving a convertible wearing a long, flowing scarf, the edge of which accidentally got caught in the wheel axle. Like her children, Duncan died as a result of a car accident, and, as in the case of her beloved Yesenin, the cause of death was strangulation.
Beloved Sergei Yesenin
Anna Izryadnova. The poet lived with his proofreader Anna Izryadnova for several years, but the couple was not married. In 1914, their son Yuri was born, but the couple soon separated on the initiative of the newly-made father.
Zinaida Reich. Yesenin married an actress of German origin in 1917. The couple had two children: a year after the wedding, daughter Tatyana was born, and two years later, son Konstantin. After another year, the couple divorced.
Galina Benislavskaya. Sergei Yesenin lived with a journalist and literary worker until he met Isadora Duncan. After his divorce from Duncan, the poet moved back to Benislavskaya, but the matter never came to a wedding. Yesenin broke off relations with the journalist twice, and after both times she ended up in a clinic for nervous disorders. A year after the poet’s death, Benislavskaya shot herself at his grave.
Sofia Tolstaya. The granddaughter of Leo Tolstoy became Yesenin’s last wife. The writer died a year after the wedding; they had no children.
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First
“I had three thousand women!” - Sergei Yesenin once boasted to a friend. To the incredulous “Vyatka, don’t make a mistake!” smiled: “Well, three hundred. Well, thirty." It was impossible not to love him...
In 1912, a seventeen-year-old village boy, Seryozha Yesenin, handsome as a willow cherub, came to conquer Moscow and soon got a job at Sytin’s printing house as a proofreader. In his brown suit and bright green tie, he looked like a city guy: he was not ashamed to go into the editorial office and meet a young lady. But the editors did not want to publish his poems, and the young ladies laughed at his speech, tie and independent manners. Only student Anya, Anna Izryadnova, who also served as a proofreader for Sytin, was able to see a real poet in a boy who was four years younger than her. How she understood him! How she loved him!
Anna became his first woman. Sergei felt like a grown man, a husband. Yesenin’s family life begins in the room they rented near the Serpukhov outpost.
Work, home, family, Anna is expecting a child, and she doesn’t have enough energy and time for poetry. For inspiration, Sergei leaves for Crimea. One. I returned full of impressions and inspiration. He quit his job and wrote poetry all day. Anna did not contradict and did not demand anything from him. I just loved it. It was so convenient for him.
In December 1914, Yesenin took his wife to the maternity hospital. I was terribly proud when my son was born. By the time Anna returned from the hospital, he had cleaned the room to a shine and prepared dinner. The 19-year-old father peered in surprise at his son’s tiny face, looking for his own features in it, and could not stop admiring it. He named the baby George, Yurochka.
The joy ended quickly. Baby crying, dirty diapers, sleepless nights. Three months later, Yesenin left for Petrograd: either in search of success, or simply ran away from family happiness. I spent almost a year wandering back and forth. But neither Anya’s love nor the child could hold him back. Helped financially when I could. But soon the capital spun and spun. “Ah, a nugget from Ryazan! Ah, the new Koltsov!” - they talked about him.
And he became a fashionable poet literary salons in great demand. There were always people who wanted to drink with a genius. Probably, then the quiet youth, chanting the golden Rus', turned into a tavern hooligan...
Darling
ONE day in the summer of 1917, Yesenin and a friend went to the editorial office of the newspaper “Delo Naroda”, where Sergei met the secretary Zinochka. Zinaida Reich was a rare beauty. He had never seen anything like it before.
Smart, educated, surrounded by
fans, she dreamed of the stage. How did he persuade her to go with him to the North?!
They got married in a small church near Vologda, sincerely believing that they would live happily ever after and die on the same day. Having returned, we settled with Zinaida. Her earnings were enough for two, and she tried to create for Seryozha all the conditions for creativity.
Yesenin was jealous. After drinking, he became simply unbearable, causing ugly scandals for his pregnant wife. He loved in the Russian way: first he beat, and then he lay at his feet, begging for forgiveness.
In 1918, the Yesenin family left Petrograd. Zinaida went to Orel to see her parents to give birth, and Sergei and a friend rented a room in the center of Moscow, where he lived like a bachelor: drinking bouts, women, poetry...
The daughter was born in May 1918. Zinaida named her in honor of Sergei's mother - Tatyana. But when his wife and little Tanya arrived in Moscow, Sergei greeted them in such a way that the very next day Zinaida went back. Then Yesenin asked for forgiveness, they made peace, and scandals began again. After he beat her, who was pregnant with her second child, Zinaida finally ran away from him to her parents. The son was named Kostya in honor of the village of Konstantinovo, where Yesenin was born.
Subsequently, Zinaida became an actress in the theater of the famous director Vsevolod Meyerhold. In October 1921, Yesenin and Zinaida officially divorced, she married Meyerhold.
The famous director raised Kostya and Tanechka, and Yesenin carried their photograph in his breast pocket as proof of his love for children.
Expensive
ONE day, the great American ballerina Isadora Duncan, who came to Russia in 1921, was invited to a creative evening... She entered with a flying gait, took off her fur coat and straightened the folds of her silk chiton. The dancer looked like a living statue of an ancient goddess. They poured her a “penalty” glass of wine. She looked up from her glass and saw Him. He started reading poetry. Isadora didn’t understand a word, but she couldn’t take her eyes off him. And he recited, looking only at her. It seemed like there was no one else in the room. Having finished reading, Yesenin came down from the dais and fell into her arms.
“Isadora! My Isadora! - Yesenin knelt down in front of the dancer. She kissed him on the lips and said: “For-la-taya galava, for-la-taya gal-la-va.” It was love at first sight, seething passion, a hurricane. And it didn’t matter that Isadora hardly spoke Russian, and Sergei did not know English. They understood each other without words, because they were similar - talented
willows, emotional, reckless...
Since that memorable night, Yesenin moved into Isadora’s apartment. Yesenin’s poet friends gladly went to this hospitable house, although they could not believe that the reveler and heartthrob sincerely fell in love with a woman who was almost twice his age. And he, watching Isadora dance for him, losing his head, whispered: “Mine, mine forever!”
The world-famous ballerina was rich and ready to give everything just to make her beloved Yesenin happy. Revelations, champagne, fruits, gifts. She paid for everything.
But after a few months, Yesenin’s passion faded and scandals began. In a drunken stupor, he shouted: “Dunka, dance.” And she danced in front of him and his drinking companions, without words showing her love, humiliation, pride, and indignation. She saw that her beloved was becoming an alcoholic, and in order to save him, she decided to take him abroad.
In May 1922, Yesenin and Duncan registered their marriage and left first for Europe, then for America.
But there he went from being a great poet to just being Duncan’s husband. This made him angry, he drank, he walked, he beat him, then he repented and declared his love.
Isadora's friends were horrified by her family life.
How do you allow yourself to be treated like this?! You are a great ballerina!
Isadora made excuses: “He is sick. I can't leave him. It’s like abandoning a sick child.”
IN Soviet Russia It was very difficult for him, and without Russia it was impossible. And the Yesenin couple - Duncan - returned back. She felt that the marriage was falling apart, she was incredibly jealous and tormented. Having gone on tour to Crimea, Isadora waited there for Sergei, who promised to come soon. But instead a telegram came: “I love someone else, married, happy. Yesenin."
This other was his fan Galina Benislavskaya.
good
People rarely love as selflessly as Galina loved. Yesenin considered her his closest friend, but did not see her as a woman. Well, what was he missing?! Slender, green-eyed, her braids almost reached the floor, but he didn’t notice it, he talked about his feelings for others.
Galina tore him away from Duncan, tried to get him away from his drinking buddies, and waited at the door at night like a faithful dog. She helped as much as she could, ran around the editorial offices, extorting fees. And it was she who gave the telegram to Isadora in Crimea. Galina considered him her husband, but he told her: “Galya, you are very good, you are my closest friend, but I don’t love you...” Yesenin brought women to her house and immediately consoled her: “I’m afraid myself, I don’t want to, but I know that I will beat. I don’t want to hit you, I can’t
beat him. I beat two women - Zinaida and Isadora - and could not do otherwise. For me, love is a terrible torment, it’s so painful.”
Galina was still waiting for him to see in her not only a friend. But she didn’t wait. In 1925 he married... Sonechka Tolstoy.
Darling
AT THE BEGINNING of 1925, the poet met Leo Tolstoy’s granddaughter Sophia. Like most intelligent girls of that time, she was in love with Yesenin’s poetry and a little with the poet himself. 29-year-old Sergei was timid before Sophia’s aristocracy and innocence. One summer, in a linden alley in the park, a gypsy woman approached them:
Hey, young, handsome, give me some money, you’ll find out your fate!
Yesenin laughed and took out the money.
You'll be getting married soon, curly haired! - the gypsy laughed.
In July 1925, a modest wedding took place. Sonechka was ready, like her famous grandmother, to devote her whole life to her husband and his work.
Everything was surprisingly good. The poet now has a home, a loving wife, a friend and an assistant. Sophia took care of his health and prepared his poems for his collected works. And I was absolutely happy.
And Yesenin, having met a friend, answered the question: “How is life?” - “I’m preparing a collection of works in three volumes and living with an unloved woman.”
Yesenin continued to live a life where there was always room for drunken revelry and love affairs with fans.
"What's happened? What happened to me? Every day I am at other knees,” he wrote about himself. And for some reason I felt my imminent death:
“I know, I know. Soon soon,
Not my fault or anyone else's
Under the low mourning fence
I’ll have to lie down the same way.”
This was written by a 30-year-old handsome man who had recently married a sweet and intelligent girl who adored him, a poet whose collections flew straight out of the printing house.
It all ended on December 28, 1925 at the Angleterre Hotel in Leningrad. Sergei Yesenin was found hanging from a suitcase rope. Nearby was a letter written in blood: “Goodbye, my friend, goodbye...”
All his wives, except Isadora, who was in Paris, attended the funeral. Galina Benislavskaya shot herself at Yesenin’s grave.
There were many women who loved him, but there was little love in his life. Yesenin himself explained it this way: “No matter how much I swore mad love to anyone, no matter how much I assured myself of the same, all this is, in essence, a huge and fatal mistake. There is something that I love above all women, above any woman, and that I would not trade for any caresses or any love. This is art…"
Shortly before his death, Sergei boasted to one of his friends that he had three thousand women! To this the friend replied, “Don’t make a mistake!” Yesenin smiled and corrected: “Three hundred. Well, okay, thirty.” Perhaps there really were much more women than thirty, because it was impossible not to love Sergei. A cheerful, blond, talented, mischievous guy with big bright eyes was liked by all the girls. It’s no wonder that the poet began his first novels when he was not yet seventeen years old. Most of Yesenin's novels and marriages were fleeting. He didn’t have enough time for anything - he was a man who adored life, and tried to get the most out of it, as if he knew that fate had only given him thirty years...
Anna Izryadnova. Sergei met her after arriving in Moscow, when he was seventeen. Yesenin got a job as a proofreader in a printing house, and Izryadnova also worked there. Despite the four-year age difference, Anna and Sergei began an affair. They say Izryadnova was his first woman. They rented a room in the center of Moscow, and when Anya became pregnant, Yesenin went to Crimea for “inspiration.” When Yesenin's son was born, he was happy, but sleepless nights and dirty diapers quickly helped Yesenin come down to earth. Three months later he “flees” from his wife and son to Petrograd. For a year, Yesenin practically did not live at home, but helped Anna and his son. Moscow life spun the poet, and he soon forgot about his family.
Zinaida Reich. She was a secretary at the newspaper Delo Naroda, where Sergei once went with a friend. Zina dreamed of becoming an actress, and Yesenin fell in love with the beauty at first sight. Soon they got married, and the poet moved into Reich’s tiny apartment. When Zina became pregnant, Sergei changed: he staged scenes of jealousy for his wife, beat her, and then begged her to forgive, on his knees. A year later, the couple separated - Zina returned to her parents in Orel, and Sergei rented a room in Moscow. When Zina’s daughter was born, she came with her to visit Sergei, but the very next day she returned to Orel because Yesenin threw a scandal. Soon the couple reconciled, and Reich became pregnant again, but after another beating, she ran away from the poet forever. Zina had a son, and official divorce the poet and Reich took place only in 1921, when Zina was already a famous actress and lived with director Meyerhold.
Isadora Duncan. Also in 1921, dancer Isadora Duncan came to Russia. After the performance, she was invited to a creative evening, where Duncan saw Sergei. He read his poems to her, and Isadora did not understand a word, but the poet and dancer fell in love with each other at first sight. Yesenin settled with Isadora, who decided to stay in Russia and open a dance school. Drunken scandals began a few months later. Duncan forgave Yesenin’s drunken antics and allowed his friends to almost live in her apartment. Realizing that Sergei was a drunkard, Isadora persuaded him to leave for America. They got married, but Duncan's friends were shocked by the way Sergei treated his wife. And Yesenin was irritated by the fact that in a foreign country no one knew him, and they called him “husband Duncan.” The young people decided to return to Russia. Isadora went on tour to Crimea and waited for the poet there, but he did not come, but sent a short telegram in which he said that he loved someone else and would marry her.
Photo: Sergey Yesenin and Isadora Duncan
Galina Benislavskaya. Yesenin's most devoted and selfless woman, who loved the poet long years and was next to him when he left his mistresses. Yesenin slept with her, but never saw Benislavskaya as a woman. Their relationship began only on the friendly feelings of the poet. Galina saved Sergei from drunken friends, ran around the editorial offices and demanded fees for the poet. By the way, it was Galya who sent Duncan the telegram. She knew that Yesenin loved Duncan, but was tormented by her feelings, so she decided to become a “consolation” for the poet. Once he told Benislavskaya that she was the most good woman, but he won’t be able to live with her because he doesn’t love her. And if he doesn’t love you, then he will beat you. Benislavskaya did not lose hope, but Sergei decided to connect his life with an influential person in order to achieve even greater success. Exactly a year after Yesenin’s death, Galina shot herself at his grave.
Photo: Ekaterina Yesenina, Wolf Ehrlich and Galina Benislavskaya
Sofia Tolstaya. At the beginning of 1925, Sergei met Sophia, the granddaughter of the writer Leo Tolstoy. Sophia had long been in love with the poet, so Yesenin decided not to miss the chance and within a few months he married Sophia. His wife took care of Yesenin like a child. A warm dinner, comfort, and a woman who not only loved him, but was also an assistant in his work, were always waiting for him. However, when asked by friends “How is life?” Sergei replied, “I’m writing another three-volume book and living with an unloved woman.” A few months later, Yesenin was found hanged in a hotel. All the poet's women were present at the funeral, with the exception of Duncan - she was in Paris at that time.
Photo: Sergey Yesenin and Sofya Tolstaya
The phenomenon of Yesenin as a poet from the people, born at a time when literature was the property of the elite and the bohemian class, can only be explained by revolutionary events.
At the same time, peasant origin in conditions of such specificity of its creative activity forced his sensitive soul to the most striking ways of self-expression, which forever left him the opinion of a hooligan and a drunkard. At the same time, if we consider the very essence of his poetry, it is clear that such behavior did not at all correspond to the depths of his soul and character. At a time when Mayakovsky, a white bone by origin, in contradiction to him, chopped up slogans from armored cars, Yesenin’s poems were always distinguished by simple lyrics, which reflected the popular element of nature.
His women were largely the same way of expressing themselves.
Yesenin’s women were distinguished by some special qualities that made them public people. Zinaida Reich is a theater actress who later became the wife of Vsevolod Meyerhold, Sophia is the fat granddaughter of Leo Tolstoy. This was especially significant in the example of Isadora Duncan, a theatrical prima donna who by that time had earned world fame, but was 17 years older than Yesenin himself. By marrying her, he gained access to fame in Europe.
In general, the novels with Yesenin were sometimes notorious, with the eccentric antics of his passions.
Anna IZRYADNOVA. She was the common-law wife of Sergei Yesenin. They met at Sytin's printing house in 1913. They rented an apartment in Moscow, and a year later their son Yuri was born. His fate was tragic. At the age of 22, Yuri was shot in the basements of the Lubyanka.
Zinaida REICH. Paix became the poet's legal wife. Their meeting took place thanks to Yesenin’s friend Alexei Ganin, who invited then-unknown Zinaida and Sergei to spend a few days in his homeland. On the train, Yesenin confessed his love to Reich, they got off at an unnamed station near Vologda and got married in a rural church. Zinaida Reich gave birth to the poet two children, Tatyana and Konstantin.
Isadora DUNCAN. Yesenin's loudest and brightest novel. They understood each other from the first meeting without words. Yesenin didn't know foreign languages, and Isadora did not speak Russian, but immediately fell in love with Sergei with all her soul. Even the huge age difference didn’t matter to them: Duncan was 17 years and 8 months older than Yesenin. They signed in Moscow on May 10, 1922 and went abroad. But in 1924 their relationship ended.
Sophia is FAT. The granddaughter of Leo Tolstoy became the poet's wife at the end of July 1925, although Yesenin had not yet been divorced from Duncan.
Galina BENISLAVSKAYA. The poet's girlfriend shared shelter with him in recent months his life. Her husband did not survive the betrayal and shot himself. And Galya herself committed suicide at Yesenin’s grave on December 3, 1926.
Nadezhda VOLPIN. She occupied a special place in Yesenin’s life. Remember the last lines from “Shagane...”?
Yesenin and Zinaida Reich
Great love stories: Sergei Yesenin and Zinaida Reich
...The wife of Sergei Yesenin, Zinaida Reich, was called a femme fatale, who lived two different lives: in one - poverty and personal drama, in the other - prosperity, devoted love, professional success. And - a heartbreaking cry at the end... Zinaida was born in 1894 into the family of a Russified German, Nikolai Reich, and a poor noblewoman, Anna Viktorova. The daughter shared the beliefs of her father, one of the first Social Democrats, for which she paid with expulsion from the gymnasium. In 1917 - the year of her meeting with Yesenin - she lived in Petrograd and served as a typist in the editorial office of the Left Socialist Revolutionary newspaper Delo Naroda.
She was also the chairman of the Society for the Distribution of Propaganda Literature. There was also an art library, where Sergei Yesenin often visited - books were issued by the Socialist Revolutionary Mina Svirskaya, and everyone thought that Sergei sympathized with her. And Zina was already getting ready to marry his friend, the aspiring poet Alexei Ganin.
Before the engagement, we decided to go together to Solovki and further north. My friend couldn’t, but Zinaida went.
Alexey Ganin, Zinaida's supposed fiancé
Down the aisle like a fire. ...The black-haired beauty looks great on the deck of a white ship. Ganin stepped aside, admiring the bride; he did not hear what Zinaida and Sergei were talking about:
– Zina, this is very serious. Understand, I love you... at first sight. Let's get married! Immediately! If you refuse, I will commit suicide... Soon the shore... the church... Make up your mind! Yes or no?!
On the way, Sergei picked wildflowers. Without remembering themselves, forgetting about Ganin, the young people got married in a small church near Vologda.
Sergei Yesenin and Zinaida Reich. They originally loved each other
Now there was no question of further travel. They returned to Petrograd, settled in an apartment on Liteiny and lived a completely normal life. family life- Yesenin even dissuaded himself from bachelor drinking bouts: they say, I love my wife, we, brother, are adults. And when the struggle for survival began - it was a troubled and hungry time - he began to mope... Closer to the birth, Zina went to her parents in Orel, and Sergei went to Moscow to join the imagist poets.
Yesenin and Reich
In the family feuds, the same point that haunted Yesenin also surfaced - after all, like a peasant, he could not forgive the fact that he was not the first to win the marriage doge. When I cried to my friend Anatoly Mariengof, my face was cramped, my eyes turned purple, my hands clenched into fists: “Why did you lie, you reptile?!” However, this did not stop him from boasting about the “Don Juan victories” of those years: “Not 400, but there were probably 40 already.”
Sergei Yesenin and Anatoly Mariengof. They were very friendly then
Is this life? I didn’t visit my wife, didn’t call or wait for her. Then she took one-year-old Tanechka and came to his room on Bogoslovsky, where he lived with Mariengof. Sergei did not show much joy, but he reached out to his daughter with all his heart. But the child's darling felt something was wrong...
The “little girl” did not sit still, climbed onto the laps of her mother, nanny and strangers, but avoided her father. “And they resorted to cunning,” Mariengof wrote in his memoirs, “and to flattery, and to bribery, and to severity - all in vain.” Zinaida bit her lips so as not to cry, and Yesenin became very angry, deciding that this was her “intrigue.” Soon he told her to leave, saying that all feelings had passed, that he was quite happy with the life he was leading. Zinaida did not want to believe: “You love me, Sergun, I know that and I don’t want to know anything else...”.
Zinaida Reich with children from Sergei Yesenin
And then Yesenin... involved Mariengof. He took me out into the corridor, gently hugged him by the shoulders, looked into his eyes:
– Do you love me, Anatoly? Are you really my friend or not?
-What are you talking about!
- But here’s what... I can’t live with Zinaida... Tell her, Tolya (I’m asking you like you can’t ask anymore!), that I have another woman.
- What are you saying, Seryozha... How can you?
- Are you a friend to me or not?.. Her love is a noose to me... Tolyuk, dear, I’ll go... I’ll go along the boulevards to the Moscow River... and you say (she will certainly ask) that I’m with a woman. .. they say, I’m confused and deeply in love... Let me kiss you...
Also – Zinaida Reich with children
He did not recognize his own son. ...The next day Zinaida left. After some time, I realized that I was expecting a child, I thought, maybe this is for the best, the children will bond... I discussed the name with my husband over the phone - we agreed that if it was a boy, then we would name him Konstantin. And again no news...
A little over a year later, on her way to Kislovodsk with her son, she met Mariengof on the platform of the Rostov station. Having learned that Yesenin was walking somewhere nearby, she asked: “Tell Seryozha that I’m going to Kostya. He didn't see him. Let him come in and have a look... If he doesn’t want to meet me, I can leave the compartment.”
The poet reluctantly came in, looked at his son and said: “Ugh... Black... Yesenins are not black.” The poor woman turned to the window, her shoulders trembled, and Yesenin turned on his heels and walked out... with a light, dancing gait.
Isadora Duncan. Yesenin fell madly in love with her
Very soon the unknown Oryol wife will be replaced by the popular American dancer Isadora Duncan. But the time is not so far away when Sergei Yesenin will be on duty near someone else’s house, dying of longing for his children, knocking on the door and plaintively asking to be let in for one minute, just to look... Have you fallen asleep? Let them be carried out... sleeping... he wants to see them.
And Zina... his wife... the famous actress, wife of Vsevolod Meyerhold. How will Zinaida behave? More on this later. In the meantime, let's return to Yesenin and Mariengof. Tatyana Yesenina writes in her memoirs that her father left her mother because of her growing closeness with Mariengof.
Sergei Yesenin and Anatoly Mariengof
Sergey+Anatoly=? Indeed, a question mark. Both traveled with lectures throughout Russia, believing that they were creating new poetry - hence their partnership and a certain fanaticism. But it was noticeable that they did a lot of strange things.
In winter there was a subzero temperature, so they laid a mattress in the bathtub and slept together, throwing old books into the column to warm the water. This was their “promised bath.” Until the residents of the communal apartment kicked them out, everyone liked the idea, and everyone wanted to warm up. In the room they also slept together on the same bed, covering themselves with several blankets and fur coats.
Sergei Yesenin, Anatoly Mariengof, Velemir Khlebnikov
Then they came up with a game: on even days Mariengof, and on odd days Yesenin writhed on a cold sheet to warm it with his body. When one poetess asked Yesenin to help her get a job, he offered her a typist’s salary only for her to come to them at one in the morning for 15 minutes. The condition was this: they turn away, don’t look, and she undresses, warms the bed, then gets dressed and leaves. Three days later, the poetess could not stand it:
– I do not intend to continue my service!
– What’s the matter?.. We religiously observed the conditions.
– Exactly!.. But I didn’t hire myself to warm the sheets of the saints.
Friends had common money, ate and drank together, dressed alike, usually in white jackets, blue trousers and white canvas shoes, and wore the same hats. But Yesenin could not stand loneliness.
Anatoly Mariengof, Dmitry Shostakovich and Anna Nikritina
When Anatoly Mariengof became seriously interested in actress Anna Nikritina and once came at 10 am, Sergei raised his heavy red eyelids at him:
- Yes. Drank. And every day I will... if you start hanging around at night... With whomever you want to dance there, but to spend the night at home.
Did they sleep “tightly hugged”? Who will admit this? Mariengof in “A Novel Without Lies” boasts that Sergei called him a “berry”, that he was so attached to him that he was jealous of women, or rather, suffered from a lack of attention to himself.
Were Sergei Yesenin and Anatoly Mariengof more than attached to each other?
Anna Nikritina, Mariengof’s wife, was subsequently outraged by the writers’ assumptions about her friends’ bisexuality and completely rejected these speculations. And Nabokov... wrote in his later memoirs about Yesenin’s homosexuality arising from time to time and his sudden aversion to it, thereby explaining the reason for his drunkenness and cruel treatment of women.
Vladimir Nabokov suspected the poet of many bad things...
About Yesenin’s habit of sharing a bed with men close circle many contemporaries knew, but no one stated unequivocally whether there was something more hidden behind this than overnight stays due to late gatherings. Perhaps the fact itself is also an image...
But the “dear friends” laughed at Zinaida in an unmanly way. Mariengof called her “a plump Jewish lady” with crooked legs, with “sensual lips on a face as round as a plate.” The poet Vadim Shershenevich joked: “Oh, how tired I am of looking at rickety legs!” But director Vsevolod Meyerhold believed that there is no woman more beautiful and slender than Zinaida Reich.
Anatoly Mariengof, Sergey Yesenin, Alexander Kusikov, Vadim Shershenevich. 1919
She will force herself to be respected. Meyerhold, by the way, had been eyeing Zinaida Reich for a long time. Once at one of the parties I asked Yesenin:
- You know, Seryozha, I’m in love with your wife... If we get married, won’t you be angry with me?
The poet playfully bowed at the director’s feet:
- Take her, do me a favor... I will be grateful to you to death.
Whether it’s long or short, life, terrible for its uncertainty and suffering, the loss of both revolutionary and family ideals, filled with humiliation and the hardships of everyday life, a complete lack of love and mercy, has reached the point beyond which either complete oblivion and collapse, or ... Something must happen, otherwise... it’s simply unbearable.
And yet, Sergei did not appreciate his wife, she will prove to him what she is capable of... She will become an actress. And Zinaida entered directing courses.
Yesenin, Reich, Meyerhold - a “semi-criminal” trinity
“...And I will adopt children.” In the fall of 1921, she came to the studio of 48-year-old Vsevolod Meyerhold, and he immediately offered her his hand and heart. Zinaida couldn’t make up her mind for a long time: they say, she’s divorced, she has two children, I don’t trust anyone... To which the famous director simply and clearly replied: “I love you, Zinochka. And I will adopt children.” Before this, Vsevolod lived for a quarter of a century with his first wife Olga, whom he had known since childhood, and had three daughters with her.
His legal wife almost went crazy when she returned from a trip and saw Zinaida: what did he see in this gloomy woman, how dare he bring her into their house? And then she cursed them both in front of the image: “Lord, punish them!”
I did it out of desperation, but I took it upon myself terrible sin- she herself was left with nothing, and years later the death of Vsevolod and Zinaida was brutal, monstrous... But that came later, and now Meyerhold is happy, he didn’t even know that it was possible to love so much... However, Yesenin was hurt by this: “I rubbed myself into into my family, he portrayed an unrecognized genius... He stole my wife...”
All roles - Zinochka. Reich seemed to the director to be the living embodiment of the elements, a destroyer and a creator, with whom one could make revolutionary theater. It doesn’t matter that many considered her a mediocre actress, but her husband idolized her and was ready to give her all the roles - both female and male.
When the conversation came up about staging Hamlet and Meyerhold was asked who would play the main character, he replied: “Of course, Zinochka.” Then actor Nikolai Okhlopkov said that he would play Ophelia, and even wrote a written application for this role, after which he flew out of the theater.
They said about Zina that she moved around the stage like a “cow”.
Maria Babanova - former prima of the Meyerhold theater, who was replaced by Zinaida
Having heard the gossip, Vsevolod Emilievich fires the audience's favorite Maria Babanova from the theater - thin, flexible, with a crystal voice (she gets more clapping). His favorite student, actor Erast Garin, leaves the theater - Zinochka quarreled with him.
Scene from The Inspector General. Khlestakov – Erast Garin, Anna Andreevna – Zinaida Reich
Meyerhold especially comes up with such mise-en-scène for her that there is no need to move - the action unfolds around the heroine. The light falls on her beautiful face and white shoulders, the audience watches sudden outbursts of frantic anger - this is something that the actress mastered to perfection.
Next to Meyerhold, Zina truly blossomed. She felt love and care. The husband even took her last name as his second name and signed it as Meyerhold-Reich. The parents moved from Orel to Moscow, the children have everything they need: the best doctors, teachers, expensive toys, separate rooms. Soon the family moved to a hundred-meter apartment. Zinaida is one of the first ladies of Moscow; she attends diplomatic and government receptions and receives the most eminent guests in her home.
Professional success. Immediately after the wedding, Vsevolod Emilievich asked Mariengof whether Zinaida would be a great actress, to which the “evil genius” replied, not without malice: “Why not the inventor of the light bulb!?” That is, no one believed in her success on stage, the actors hated her, critics wrote that “Zinaida Reich played the worst,” the imagists from Yesenin’s entourage gloated...
Zinaida Reich. Her beauty and success were envied
But the love and talent of the great director created a miracle - Zinaida Reich became great actress. She beautifully played Aksyusha (“The Forest” by Alexander Ostrovsky), Varka (“The Mandate” by Nikolai Erdman), Anna Andreevna (“The Inspector General” by Nikolai Gogol), the Phosphoric Woman (“The Bathhouse” by Vladimir Mayakovsky), Margarita (“The Lady of the Camellias” by Alexandre Dumas -son) etc.
The play “Lady with Camellias” was the last one played by Zinaida Reich on the stage of the Theater. Meyerhold on January 7, 1938. Having played the final scene - the death of Marguerite Gautier, the actress lost consciousness and was carried backstage in her arms. This was also facilitated by the fact that the Committee on Arts Affairs adopted a resolution to liquidate the theater...
Portrait of Zinaida Reich as Marguerite Gautier
It’s just that one day there was a spectator in the hall who not only appreciated the beauty of the French aristocratic court, but also “understood” the idea of the performance - the desire for a prosperous life, free from ideology and class prejudices.
It was Joseph Stalin. Meyerhold was accused of switching to petty bourgeoisism - in Soviet life there is no place for what Dumas the son talks about. And people flocked to the performance in droves, yearning for true human feelings. We went to Zinaida Reich. From the silence of the hall came sobbing and blowing noses. Critics noted that “there was an unusually elegant, sophisticated French beauty on stage.”
Zinaida Reich became a talented actress
She was torn between feeling and morality, between passion and morality. And even the beautiful Arman (actor Mikhail Tsarev) “was simple-minded” next to this “absolute femininity.” He lacked the natural relaxedness of a true aristocrat.
And only Meyerhold knew that he was right. Despite the harsh times, he had to stage Dumas in order to give Zinaida the opportunity to survive and release her former passion for Yesenin...
Zinaida Reich and Mikhail Tsarev played together
Secret dates. After America, after the break with Isadora Duncan, after Zinaida became an actress of the most avant-garde theater, the beautiful and prosperous wife of a popular director, Yesenin fell in love with his ex-wife again...
Zinaida Reich secretly met with him in the room of her friend Zinaida Gaiman. But Gaiman didn’t tell her that Meyerhold knew everything, that one evening he looked disgustedly into the eyes of the pimp: “I know that you are helping Zinaida meet with Yesenin. Please stop this: if they get back together, she will be unhappy...” The friend hid her eyes, shrugged, saying that it was jealousy, the fantasies of a fevered imagination...
Yesenin and Duncan
And Sergei Yesenin suffered without children, was jealous and desired Zinaida, whose success in Moscow and St. Petersburg overshadowed the success of Isadora Duncan. But... on one of the dates Reich said ex-husband that “parallels do not cross,” that’s enough, she won’t leave Vsevolod. Although some people slandered her pathological dependence on Yesenin, that if she called, she would run barefoot in winter. It was difficult to fight this addiction...
After the poet’s death, Reich gave Gaiman a photograph with the inscription: “To you, Zinushka, as a memory of the most important and most terrible thing in my life - about Sergei”...
Sergei Yesenin fell in love with his ex-wife again
The soul suffered in its own way. Meyerhold had reason to worry. Zinaida couldn’t even control herself on stage. While playing the mayor, she pinched her daughter so much that she really screamed. At a reception in the Kremlin, she furiously attacked Mikhail Kalinin himself: “Everyone knows that you are a womanizer!” She took any mocking glance in her direction with hostility, and could immediately throw a tantrum...
Therefore, Meyerhold was more concerned about his wife’s health than about his connection with Yesenin - after all, after America, he was also not himself, they say that his epileptic attacks became more frequent...
...The Meyerholds were informed about Yesenin’s death by telephone. Zinaida, with a distorted face, rushed into the hallway:
- I'm going to see him!
- Zinochka, think...
- I'm going to see him!
- I'm going with you...
Vsevolod Emilievich supported Zina near Yesenin’s coffin when she shouted: “My fairy tale, where are you going?”, and blocked his back from his former mother-in-law when she said in public: “It’s all your fault!” Accompanied everywhere, did not take his eyes off - as long as there was no breakdown, as long as everything worked out...
Zinaid Reich and Vsevolod Meyerhold survived. But not for long...
Before the storm. In the 30s, the Meyerhold house was considered one of the most prosperous and hospitable in Moscow. They said that Zinaida again fed him all sorts of goodies, and how good she is: a famous actress, beautiful woman, her husband simply idolizes her.
True, son Kostya made me a little worried - he organized a “Justice League” at school, wrote the “Charter”, “Program”, published the newspaper “Alliance” - so that there were no favorites, so that teachers deservedly gave grades, so that parents did not influence grades with their position children... In general, Meyerhold, with difficulty, but still defended his stepson, settled the “rebellion against the party”...
But the comrades from Lubyanka decided not to take risks and took note of the director...
Zinaida Reich reigned
Parallels do not cross. The time came when there were only “enemies” all around. In 1938, articles about “Meyerholdism” appeared. This implied the director's secret passion for bourgeois art. Meyerhold was not given the title of People's Artist of the USSR, and the theater was closed. And the city had long been shaking at night from the sharp sound of approaching cars - endless arrests were being made. Vsevolod Emilievich has turned very gray and aged...
They had not touched him yet, but something else was depressing... In 1939, his wife’s illness worsened. Zina shouted through the window to the police guard that she loved Soviet power that they closed the theater in vain, then wrote a furious letter to Stalin. She threw herself at her children and husband, saying that she didn’t know them, let them go away. I had to tie her to the bed with ropes. But Meyerhold did not send his wife to an insane asylum: he spoon-fed her, washed her, talked to her, held her hand until she fell asleep.
Vsevolod Meyerhold with Yesenin’s children Kostya and Tanya
A few weeks later, she calmly woke up, looked at her hands and said in surprise: “What dirt, what dirt...”. Zinaida returned to normal life again - her husband saved her again... But there were several weeks left before the tragic ending...
Meyerhold was taken in St. Petersburg. At the same time, a search was carried out in the Moscow apartment. Zinaida understands that the world has collapsed, that she will no longer see her husband - the only true and true friend of life - but does not yet know that the night ahead is ahead, which will become fatal for her - from July 14 to 15, 1939.
The body of the actress with numerous stab wounds was found in the office, and in the corridor a housekeeper was lying with a broken head, hurrying to hear the mistress’s cry.
Meyerhold's burial in the mass grave of the Donskoy Monastery. Cenotaph at the Vagankovskoye cemetery
Vsevolod Meyerhold was shot as a “spy of British and Japanese intelligence”, kept in prison for several months and beaten beyond recognition. Where his body lies is still unknown, but fate wanted Yesenin, Reich and Meyerhold to be together in another life.
Zinaida was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery, not far from Yesenin’s grave. After some time, another inscription appeared on the Reich monument - Vsevolod Emilievich Meyerhold.
Yesenin's grave at the Vagankovskoye cemetery
Grave of Zinaida Reich
Vsevolod's soul found its Love, and Zinaida's soul made its choice...
Information from the Internet.
What a wonderful corner this is,
A suburb near Paris and on a slope,
There's a cloud floating over the pine tree,
The Museum of Sèvres speaks of porcelain,
Golitsyn library,
An estate called Meudon,
And there's a cemetery nearby,
And the temple under the domes,
Here the sisters walked under the plane trees,
A bow was sent to the Motherland here.
Oh, if only I knew earlier
That Marina lived there,
After all, I haven’t read those poems yet,
I full breasts I breathed France,
And she didn’t look at the mountain ash with sadness.
Their hair was curly and the color was similar,
Yesenin and Tsvetaeva are poets,
In Meudon these lines are about Seryozha,
“What, I’m a bullfinch” sailed quietly into oblivion.