Translation. Region: Russian Federal
Source: Moscow Government – Moscow Government –
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Sergei Yesenin was born in the Ryazan province, but his poems were first published in Moscow. The "mischievous reveler" was not entirely faithful to either his lovers or his city—he would sometimes leave for Petrograd, sometimes embark on long journeys, but always (except for his final, fateful departure) he returned. Sofia Lapidus, a tour guide at the Moscow State S.A. Yesenin Museum, tells the story of the poet's loves in the capital. The points of the route can be visited in any order.
Anna Sardanovskaya. "Girl in a White Cape"
The only official address where Yesenin was officially registered was Bolshoy Strochenovsky Lane, Building 24, Building 2. His father, who worked in Moscow and saw the family only on rare visits, lived here. Today, this house… Moscow State Museum S.A. Yesenina.
"Our museum has a romantic feel—echoes of his platonic love for his fellow countrywoman, Anna Sardanovskaya. Before leaving for Moscow in July 1912, Yesenin promised to marry his beloved. They swore an oath before a priest: if anyone broke the promise, the traitor would be beaten with a switch. No one beat anyone, but the poet broke his word first, and Anna later married someone else," says Sofia Lapidus.
The museum houses an image of Anna Sardanovskaya, and the poem "Anna Snegina" commemorates her:
Once upon a time, at that little gate, I was sixteen years old, and a girl in a white cape said to me tenderly: “No!” 1925
The poet's new lover, Anna Izryadnova, came to this house to see Yesenin's father, asking for help. At the time, the "hooligan" was stuck in Yalta, having spent all his money. "He had no money to live on there. He kept sending me one threatening letter after another, and I didn't know what to do. I went to his father to ask for help, and he didn't hesitate to send him money," she recalled.
Anna Izryadnova and the “willow Cherub”
Yesenin met Anna Izryadnova at the I.D. Sytin Partnership printing house in 1913. He was an assistant proofreader. Anna described him this way: "…he didn't look like a country boy. He wore a brown suit, a high starched collar, and a green tie. With his golden curls, he was doll-like in beauty; at first glance, those around him dubbed him a willow cherub."
They lived together at 3 2nd Pavlovsky Lane. Their son, Yuri, was born there. Izryadnova shared: "When I returned home, he was in perfect order: everything was cleaned, the stoves were lit, and even dinner was ready and a cake was bought, waiting. He looked at the child with curiosity, constantly repeating, 'Here I am, a father.'" But Yesenin soon left Anna and went to Petrograd, yet they remained friends for the rest of their lives.
Tatyana Yesenina, the poet's daughter and Zinaida Reich, recalled: "Anna Romanovna was one of those women whose selflessness sustains the world. Everything connected with Yesenin was sacred to her; she neither discussed nor condemned his actions."
Izryadnova became friends with the poet's second family. During difficult times, his second son, Konstantin, became an orphan and even lived with her. Anna was a wonderful mother, but her fate was tragic: Yesenin's eldest son, Yuri, was executed in 1937 on false charges.
Zinaida Reich. "Farewell, My Fairytale"
Yesenin met Zinaida Reich, a secretary and typist for the newspaper "Delo Naroda," in Petrograd in 1917. "He came to negotiate the publication of his poems, but arranged a date," notes Sofia Lapidus. Their romance was whirlwind: a trip to the Russian North and a wedding in a Vologda church. The couple had two children.
Building 36 on Ostozhenka Street was a former mother and child home, where Yesenin's second son, Konstantin, was born in 1920. Based on his childhood memories, he assumed that the poem "Letter to a Woman" was dedicated specifically to his mother. He recalled his father leaning against the wall and his mother airing her grievances. Reich, however, believed that "Letter to a Woman" was more likely a composite image of Yesenin's lovers.
You remember, you all, of course, remember, how I stood, approaching the wall, you walked excitedly around the room and threw something sharp in my face. 1924
The poet also separated from Zinaida Reich. She had a successful marriage to the director Vsevolod Meyerhold, but… she continued to love Yesenin. According to contemporaries, she even went on dates with him. At the poet's coffin, she said, "Farewell, my fairy tale!"
Her fate was also tragic. Vsevolod Meyerhold was executed, and Zinaida Reich was brutally murdered in their home on Bryusov Lane in 1939. The mystery of her death remains unsolved. Fortunately, no children were in the house that day.
Isadora Duncan. "The Firebird"
Their union was exotic and scandalous. He was a Bolshevik poet, she a world-renowned innovative dancer, a "barefooter," as the press called her for her bold decision to dance without ballet shoes. Boris Pasternak said: "Yesenin treated his life as a fairy tale. He flew across the ocean as Ivan Tsarevich on the Gray Wolf and, like the Firebird, caught Isadora Duncan by the tail."
Duncan lived and rehearsed in a mansion on Prechistenka Street (building 20), which Anatoly Lunacharsky had provided for her school-studio. Yesenin moved in with her. A few months after meeting, Yesenin and Duncan married at the Khamovnichesky Civil Registry Office.
The history of the house itself is fascinating: it gave the Russian language a new word. In the early 19th century, when the house was still wooden, the German doctor Christian Loder lived and worked there. His patients, who walked and drank water from expensive crystal glasses, irritated Muscovites with their idleness. "Thanks to them," the word "slacker" was coined.
Don't look at her wrists, or the silk flowing from her shoulders. I sought happiness in this woman, but accidentally found death. ("Sing, sing. On the damned guitar…", 1922)
The Firebird burned his hands. On a foreign tour, next to his wife, Yesenin felt like a supporting player for the first time. Duncan was 18 years older, he didn't speak English, and she didn't speak Russian. They separated, and the poet sent a telegram: "I love someone else, I'm married and happy. Yesenin."
Isadora is credited with the following quote about Yesenin: "Never marry a poet. Poets make terrible husbands and bad lovers."
Sofia Tolstaya. Granddaughter of a Genius
In 1924, Yesenin's youngest son, Alexander, was born. He had a short-lived common-law marriage with his mother, the poet Nadezhda Volpin, and did not accept the news of his fatherhood. The child was born after Yesenin and Volpin had already separated, and she raised him alone.
The poet's last Moscow address was Pomerantsev Lane, Building 3. This was the apartment building where Sofya Andreyevna Tolstaya, Leo Tolstoy's granddaughter, lived. Yesenin met her through the journalist Galina Benislavskaya. Marriage to Tolstaya provided both shelter (Yesenin still didn't have his own home) and a secure base of support. Sofya was educated and refined, and she wrote down his poems. True, she seemed a bit gloomy and overly serious (according to contemporaries, she was the spitting image of her grandfather, only without the beard).
Sofia Lapidus recounts: "The newlyweds settled into an apartment where the walls were covered with portraits and photographs of Leo Tolstoy. Yesenin complained to the writer Yuri Libedinsky: 'It's boring, I'm tired of my beard.'"
Yesenin ran off to visit Benislavskaya, and Sophia was tormented by jealousy. The torment didn't last long—the poet left her too. In the fall of 1925, Yesenin was hospitalized with a mental disorder, and in December, his life ended tragically at the Angleterre Hotel in Leningrad.
If we're going to burn, then burn while burning, And it's not for nothing that in the linden blossom I took the ring from the parrot – A sign that we'll burn together. ("Apparently, this is how it's always been…", 1925)
The poem describes a true story. Both the gypsy woman and the parrot actually existed—Yesenin and Sophia met them while out for a walk. As a joke, Yesenin gave his wife the parrot's ring, and she kept it and wore it as a second wedding ring.
Epilogue. Forgiven Genius
Sergei Yesenin's parents, peasants, respected his work but couldn't comprehend his genius and were apprehensive about his choice. "My father told him, 'You're not Gogol, Pushkin, or Tolstoy. They were wealthy people, you can't compete with them,'" recounts Sofia Lapidus.
But the women he loved were able to appreciate his genius and forgive his human weaknesses, shortcomings, and grievances. Yesenin never directly dedicated any of his poems to women, but the love his beloveds didn't always feel was present in them.
But still caress and embrace, in the sly passion of a kiss, let my heart forever dream of May and the one I love forever. ("What a night! I can't…", 1925)
In the anniversary year inYesenin Center The exhibition "1925. December" opens on October 2.
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