How many times was Sergei Yesenin married? Postcard (playcast) “Interesting facts from the life of Sergei Yesenin
Romance was the meaning of life and a source of inspiration for the handsome blond poet Sergei Yesenin. A favorite of women, he had courage in his relationships with them. And the result was new and new works, which to this day tug at the souls of true lovers of Russian poetry.
He married four times, each time going into a relationship like a whirlwind. There were also fleeting short novels with women. like their mothers, they suffered from a lack of attention on his part, because poetry occupied all the thoughts and time of this great man. The life of Sergei Alexandrovich once again proves that creative personalities cannot fully devote themselves to their family, like ordinary people.
In this article we'll talk about how the destinies of the descendants of the great poet turned out. Where are Yesenin's children? What did they devote their lives to? What do the poet’s grandchildren do? We will try to answer all these questions below.
First marriage to Anna Izryadnova. Birth of eldest son
Yesenin met Anna Romanovna Izryadnova, an educated girl from an intelligent Moscow family, at Sytin’s printing house. She worked as a proofreader, and he was first a freight forwarder, and then received the position of assistant proofreader. The relationship began quickly, and the young people began to live in a civil marriage. In 1914, the son of Yesenin and Izryadnova, Yuri, was born. But family life it didn’t work out, and a year after the birth of the child, the couple broke up. The main reason for the breakup was everyday life, which very quickly consumed the poet.
These were the first serious relationship, which showed that in long-term permanent unions creative soul sooner or later the poet “asks” for freedom. Yesenin, whose wives and children never felt a solid man’s shoulder nearby, still happy people. The blood of the greatest of our time flows in their veins. The creator loved each of the children in his own way, tried to help financially, and sometimes visited.
Yesenin did not abandon his son, but due to the fact that the marriage with Izryadnova was not registered, the woman had to seek official recognition of the poet’s paternity in court after his death.
The tragic fate of Yuri Yesenin
Yesenin's children are very attractive in appearance, including Yuri. A stately, fit young man since childhood dreamed of military service. He studied at the Moscow Aviation Technical School, after which for further service he was sent to Far East. It happened there tragic accident, because of which life young man broke off so early. Yuri was arrested on false charges and taken to Lubyanka. He was charged with involvement in a “counter-revolutionary fascist-terrorist group.” At first, he categorically denied his guilt, but as a result of the use of barbaric methods, a confession was knocked out of him. In 1937 he was shot. And almost 20 years later, in 1956, he was posthumously rehabilitated.
Sergei Yesenin and Zinaida Reich
In 1917, the poet married A year later life together they were born joint daughter Tatiana. Relations with his second wife also did not go well. Three years of marriage were spent in constant quarrels and disagreements, as a result of which the couple converged and separated several times. The son of Yesenin and Reich, Konstantin, was born in 1920, when they were already officially divorced and did not live together. Having become pregnant for the second time, Zinaida hoped that in this way she would be able to keep her beloved man close. However, the rebellious spirit of the poet did not allow Yesenin to enjoy a measured family life.
Vsevolod Meyerhold and Zinaida Reich
Yesenin's children found their second father when new husband Zinaida Reich, the famous director Vsevolod Meyerhold, adopted them.
He treated them well and considered them his children. Happy childhood flew by very quickly, and a new shock awaited the grown-up Tanya and Kostya. First, in 1937, Vsevolod Emilievich was arrested and executed. He was accused of international espionage for Japan and England. And after some time, the life of their mother, Zinaida Nikolaevna, was cut short. She was brutally killed in own apartment under unclear circumstances.
However, hardships did not prevent the children of Yesenin and Zinaida Reich from completing their careers with dignity. life path, and become famous and respected people.
Children of Yesenin and Zinaida Reich: Tatyana
Sergei Alexandrovich loved his daughter Tanya, a beauty with blond curls, so similar to himself. When she lost her stepfather and mother at the age of twenty, she herself had Small child(son Vladimir), and also her younger brother remained in her care. Another blow was the decision of the authorities to evict her and the children from their parents’ apartment. However strong in spirit Tatyana did not surrender to fate. She managed to save Meyerhold’s priceless archive, which she first hid at a dacha in the Moscow region, and then, when the war began, she gave it to S. M. Eisenstein for safekeeping.
During the war, during the evacuation, Tatyana ended up in Tashkent, which became home to her. The conditions were terrible, she and her family wandered the streets until Alexei Tolstoy, who knew and loved her father, came to her aid. Being a deputy at that time Supreme Council, he made a lot of effort to get a small room in the barracks for Tatyana’s family.
Later, getting back on her feet, Tatyana Sergeevna achieved great success. She was a talented journalist, writer, and editor. It was she who initiated the process of rehabilitation of her adoptive father Vsevolod Meyerhold. T. S. Yesenina wrote a book containing her childhood memories of her parents, and published memoirs about Meyerhold and Reich. The famous researcher of Meyerhold's work K.L. Rudnitsky admitted that Tatyana Sergeevna's materials served as the most important source of information about the work of the great director of the last century. Yesenin’s children from Zinaida Nikolaevna Reich generally made a lot of effort to preserve the memory of their father, mother and stepfather.
The Poet's Daughter for a long time was the director of the S. A. Yesenin Museum. She passed away in 1992.
Konstantin
In 1938, Kostya Yesenin entered the Moscow Civil Engineering Institute. Konstantin, who had just turned 21 at the start of the war, immediately decided to volunteer for the front. He went through the hardships of the war, was seriously wounded several times, and received three Orders of the Red Star. He returned home in 1944, when, after another injury, he was discharged for health reasons.
He successfully proved himself in sports journalism and did a lot of sports statistics. From his pen came such books as “Football: Records, Paradoxes, Tragedies, Sensations”, “Moscow Football”, “USSR National Team”. For many years he served as deputy chairman of the USSR Football Federation. Lived in Moscow. Died in 1986. And to this day, Konstantin Sergeevich’s daughter, Marina, is alive.
Based on the foregoing, we can conclude that the children of Yesenin and Reich were purposeful people who proved their dignity in personal and professional life. Each of them chose their own path, but neither Konstantin nor Tatyana ever forgot that they were the children of a great man - the poet Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin.
Relationship with Nadezhda Volpin
In 1920, Yesenin met the poetess Nadezhda became interested in poetry back in teenage years, was an active participant in the poetry studio "Green Workshop", led by Andrei Bely.
Her love affair with Yesenin lasted quite a long time. On May 12, 1924, she gave birth to a son from Yesenin, whom she named Alexander.
Alexander Volpin - Yesenin's illegitimate son
When getting acquainted with the work of Sergei Alexandrovich and his biography, reasonable questions arise: are Yesenin’s children alive? Do any of his offspring write such talented poetry as their ancestor? Unfortunately, as mentioned above, the poet’s three eldest children are currently have already passed away. The only one living is the illegitimate son of the poet, Alexander Yesenin-Volpin. We can safely say that he inherited his father’s rebellious spirit, but probably no one, not even his children, could write like Yesenin.
Alexander Sergeevich studied at the Faculty of Mechanics of Moscow State University, then entered graduate school. In 1949 he became a candidate of mathematical sciences. In the same year, he was arrested for the first time for writing “anti-Soviet poetry” and sent for compulsory treatment to a psychiatric hospital. And then for several years he remained in exile in Karaganda. After returning from exile, he began to do a lot of human rights work, which was interrupted from time to time by numerous arrests and treatment in a psychiatric hospital. In total, A. Yesenin-Volpin spent 14 years in captivity.
The trio "Volpin, Chalidze and Sakharov" are the founders of the Human Rights Committee. Alexander Sergeevich is the author of a samizdat guide telling about “How to behave during interrogations.”
The older children of Sergei Yesenin (see photo below) lived their entire lives in Moscow, while younger son Alexander Volpin emigrated to America in 1972, where he still lives. He studied mathematics and philosophy. Now he is living out his life in the USA, in a shelter for elderly people with mental disorders.
Sergei Vladimirovich Yesenin - grandson of the poet
Sergei Yesenin, whose children and grandchildren became worthy people, who showed themselves in different areas activities, could be proud of his descendants. Each of them carried their love for the work of their great ancestor throughout their lives.
For example, Tatyana Yesenina’s son, Sergei Vladimirovich, who worked for many years in the construction industry and is seriously involved in sports mountaineering, in addition, studies the pedigree of his family and helps museums named after Yesenin recreate moments in the life of the great poet.
In his youth he played football. Once his team won the Uzbekistan youth championship. He was interested in chess. But his real passion in life was mountaineering. And for 10 years this activity became his profession, when he taught mountaineering athletes.
He and his family moved to Moscow in the early 90s. This could have been done earlier, because in 1957 his mother, Tatyana Yesenina, was invited to return to the capital, but she did not want to live in the city, where she tragically lost all her closest people.
Museums named after Sergei Yesenin
On this moment There are several museums dedicated to the life and work of this great man. Yesenin’s children, biography, photos of which are also exhibits in these museums, greatly helped these organizations in their work, especially Konstantin and Tatyana. And the poet’s grandson, his namesake Sergei, more than once helped organize one or another exhibition dedicated to the life and work of the great poet. Sergei Vladimirovich believes that one of the best is the Yesenin Museum, which is located in Tashkent. He also speaks well of the capital’s establishment, which is located in the house where the poet and his father rented housing.
In where Sergei Yesenin was born and spent his childhood, there is a whole museum complex. The house where the future creator was born has still been preserved. Not all the things in this house are real, but some are genuine. Sergei Yesenin really held them in his hands. Children and grandchildren added to the collection museum complex things that preserve the memory of their great ancestor. And Sergei Vladimirovich also participated in organizing the activities of the Meyerhold Museum, providing a lot of materials about the life of the director with Zinaida Reich.
Sergei Yesenin: children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren...
Two grandsons live in Russia - Vladimir and Sergei, who have already been mentioned, granddaughter Marina, as well as their offspring, who have long become adults. Vladimir Kutuzov (he took the surname of his father, Tatyana Yesenina’s husband) has two sons. Sergei and his wife raised two beautiful daughters, Zinaida and Anna. Zinaida is engaged in teaching and devotes a lot of time to compiling family tree your family. She has a son. Anna is an artist. Her daughter, the great-great-granddaughter of the poet, decided to follow in her footsteps.
Thus, not only Yesenin’s children, biography, photos of which are presented in this article, but also his more distant descendants are creative individuals.
The mystery of the poet's death
To this day, the death of S. Yesenin remains an unsolved mystery, shrouded in many incomprehensible facts. Some researchers still believe that it was a banal suicide, while others insist on the version of murder. And indeed, there are many facts pointing to the second version. This is the disorder in the hotel room, and the torn clothes of the poet, and abrasions on the body... But, be that as it may, Sergei Yesenin is a great Russian poet, whose work was, is and will be the property of our people for many centuries.
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 many 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 descend from heaven 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 the official divorce of the poet and Reich took place only in 1921, when Zina was already 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 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
In 1912, a seventeen-year-old village boy Seryozha Yesenin, handsome as a palm 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, managed 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.
Anna Izryadnova (sitting in the bottom row) and Sergei Yesenin - in top row second from the left in the group of workers of the printing house of the I. D. Sytin Partnership. 1914 Moscow Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
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. Almost whole year wandered 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 the fashionable poet became in great demand in literary salons. There were always people who wanted to drink with a genius. Probably then the quiet youth chanting golden Rus', and 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 she was a rare beauty. He had never seen anything like it before.
Zinaida Reich, 1924 Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
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 all the conditions for Seryozha to be creative.
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
Once upon a time a great American ballerina Isadora Duncan, who arrived in 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, 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 one was his fan
Galina Benislavskaya Photo: Public Domain
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, not I want to, but I know that I will beat. I don’t want to hit you, you can’t be hit. 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 his granddaughter Leo Tolstoy and 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’re going to have a wedding 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.
Sofya Tolstaya and Sergei Yesenin. 1925 Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Everything was surprisingly good. The poet has a home, loving wife, friend and helper. 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 collected 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, in essence, is 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..."
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 the fashionable poet became in great demand in literary salons. 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 all the conditions for Seryozha to be creative.
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.”
It was very difficult for him in Soviet Russia, but 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…"
