Yesenin's first and Mayakovsky's last love. Five stories told by museums

The life of artists is a wellspring of romantic stories, but, unfortunately, they not always have a happy ending. Pushkin State Museum, Mayakovsky State Museum, Museum of Tropinin and Moscow Artists of His Time, Yesenin Museum and Turgenev Museum tell about love experiences of these prominent men.

Collaborative article by mos.ru and Mosgortur Agency.

Alexander Pushkin and Anna Olenina

Pushkin's over-passionate nature was a legend. He called his wife Natalya Goncharova his 113th love, and it is not just a figure of speech, since the poet was keeping his Don Juan list. One of the names listed was Anna Olenina.

Her father, Alexei Olenin, Director of the Imperial Public Library, met many writers. Vasily Zhukovsky, Ivan Krylov, Nikolai Karamzin, and many others were among frequent visitors to his house. Alexander Pushkin, too, visited the Olenins' saloon a couple of times.

Anna first met Pushkin in 1819. She was only 12 then. The next time they met in 1827 at the ball of Countess Yelizaveta Khitrovo, when the poet just returned from exile. Olenina was the first to invite Pushkin to dance. He agreed, and then he approached the girl himself with an offer to dance.

In the late 1828, Alexander decided to propose to Anna, but he was refused. There are several versions. According to one of them, first Anna and her family accepted the poet's proposal, but later Pushkin did not come to dinner in honour of the engagement, which offended the father of the frustrated bride. Another version says that Anna's parents were initially against the idea of becoming related to the poet, as Alexei Olenin, as a civil servant, was aware that Pushkin had been declared politically unreliable and was being secretly followed.

Before bidding farewell to Anna, Pushkin wrote a poem in her album, well-known today:

I loved you once, nor can this heart be quiet;

For it would seem that love still lingers there;

But do not you be further troubled by it;

I would in no wise hurt you, oh, my dear.

I loved you without hope, a mute offender;

What jealous pangs, what shy despairs I knew!

A love as deep as this, as true, as tender,

God grant another may yet offer you. 

The f

The failed engagement did make the poet suffer for too long, as a few months after he broke with Olenina, he met Natalya Goncharova, and proposed to her in April 1829.

Anna got married only after Pushkin's death, in 1840, to a French nobleman, Teodor Andrault, who became a Russian citizen to make her his wife. Later, he was appointed an officer on special assignments for the Polish Governor. Between 1847 and 1862, Andrault was President of Warsaw. The couple had been married for 45 years. After her husband died, Anna became a nun in the Koretsky Holy Trinity Convent.

Vladimir Mayakovsky and Veronika Polonskaya

Naturally, the best-known female name associated with the life and work of Mayakovsky is Lilya Brik. It was her that he dedicated the poem 'About It' and 'A Cloud in Trousers' to. He wrote her letters full of tenderness and drew funny puppies. Towards the end of Mayakovsky's life, their relationship somewhat changed, as Brik still meant much to him, but other women were occupying his heart, too. Last Mayakovsky's love was Veronika Polonskaya.

They met in May 1929. Actress of the Moscow Art Theatre, Polonskaya just made her debut in 'A Glass Eye' by Lilya Brik. She first met the poet at the races. It was Osip Brik who introduced them to each other.

Polonskaya was married to actor Mikhail Yanshin, but could not resist Mayakovsky's charm. They met almost every day, with their romance growing deeper, and soon it was not enough for Mayakovsky to be just a lover. He wanted to marry Polonskaya, but she was in no hurry to divorce. This caused numerous quarrels, but each time they kissed and made up.

The tragedy that took place on 14 April 1930 had been preceded by a series of events that had a negative affect the poet's condition. In 1929, two performances based on his plays 'Public Bath House' and 'Bedbug' failed to be praised by Soviet critics. On 1 February 1930, Mayakovsky's exhibition '20 Years of Work' opened, with many writers and Soviet state leaders (including Joseph Stalin) invited to its opening day, but no one of them showed up.

On 14 April 1930, Mayakovsky was to take Polonskaya to a theatre rehearsal. Before that, they dropped in his rented apartment in Lubyanka Street. The writer urged his sweetheart once again to leave her husband and quit the theatre, but she refused. After that, he gave her money for a taxi and asked her to go to the theatre on her own. As soon as Polonskaya left, there was a gun shot. She immediately rushed back, but it was too late.

Eight years after the poet's death, Veronika Polonskaya recorded her memories of the time spent with the poet, at the request of Agniya Belozerskaya, Director of a recently opened Mayakovsky State Museum. The book ends with the words: 'I loved Mayakovsky. He loved me. And I will never give up on that.'

Ivan Turgenev and Pauline Viardot

There was the only one woman in the world for Turgenev — the French singer Pauline Viardot. The fatal meeting took place in 1843, when Viardot was on a tour in St. Petersburg. He was fascinated with her singing in 'The Barber of Seville' opera.

They met personally at the private soirée at major Alexander Komarov’s. Turgenev was introduced to Viardot as 'a young Russian landowner, a good hunter, and a bad poet'. At first, Turgenev was just one of many admirers for prima donna, but soon they got closer. Turgenev, a great storyteller, entertained Viardot during intermissions with his stories. The writer also quickly found a common ground with her husband, as they both loved hunting. Each visit of the Viardots to Russia was a much-awaited event for Turgenev. The writer also visited his sweetheart in Paris.

In 1862, the Viardot family came to Baden-Baden to buy a villa, with Ivan following. Since then, Turgenev had actually become a member of their family. In 1870, due to the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war, they left for France. In 1883, Pauline Viardot became a widow twice, as Louis Viardot died after the effects of a stroke on 5 May, and Turgenev died two months later.

Until the end of his life, the writer was feeling very lonely. Over and over again, he tried to get Viardot out of his mind and started relationships that failed one after another. 'I am subject to the will of this woman. No! She has just eclipsed everything. That serves me right. I'm only happy when a woman steps on my neck with her heel and digs my face into the dirt,' Turgenev confessed to his fellow poet Afanasy Fet.

Vasily Tropinin and Anna Katina

Life of the outstanding Russian artist Vasily Tropinin is like a ready-made book's plot. His father, Andrei, was a serf, who received a letter of enfranchisement from his master, but the document did not apply to his children and Vasily was born a property.

He was a gifted painter since childhood. Sent to study confectionery art in St. Petersburg, the young artist secretly attended classes at the Imperial Academy of Arts in his spare time. A cousin of Tropinin's master saw his works, and asked to pay for the education of the talented young man. That decision allowed the young artist to upgrade his skills, and to meet his would-be wife Anna in St. Petersburg.

There was one serious obstacle hampering the loving couple — unlike Vasily, Anna was a free peasant. According to the laws of that time, their marriage meant that she was to voluntarily become a serf, too, but she made her decision in favour of love. Shortly after graduation from the Academy, Tropinin received his first order to paint the church of the village of Kukavki, where he married his sweetheart right after finishing the work.

In 1823, a much-awaited event happened to Tropinin: as a gift for Easter, he received a letter of enfranchisement from his master. Five years later, his wife and son were granted their manumission, too. Their happy family life lasted for almost 50 years and ended in 1855, when Anna died. Vasily could not get over losing his wife, and two years later he was gone, too.

Sergei Yesenin and Anna Sardanovskaya

Sergei Yesenin first fell in love when he was 16, with Anna Sardanovskaya, the great-niece of a priest of Konstantinovo village, Yesenin's birthplace. Knowing each other since childhood, they developed a mutual liking when they were both a little older.

Their romance was destined to experience hardship. In 1912, when they confessed their feelings to each other, Yesenin was finishing school and was going to leave his village, but Anna wanted to stay and become a teacher, the same as her parents.

In one of his letters to his friend Grigory Panfilov, Yesenin wrote about Anna: 'This girl is a true Turgenev's Lisa, except for her religious views. I bid her farewell, but I will surely recall her when I meet another woman like her.'

Anna and Sergei agreed to write to each other and they did it faithfully. When the poet visited Konstantinovo for a short time, they spent almost all the time together. In the summer of 1913, they came to a nun and made a childish heart-stirring vow: 'We love each other and in the future we promise to marry. Take us apart, let the one who is unfaithful and marries another person be beaten by the other one with sticks.'

Over time, Sardanovskaya responded to the poet's letters less and less, due to her infatuation with Vladimir Olonovsky, a teacher she met at school where they worked together. In 1918, they married, but their happiness did not last long, as on 8 April 1921, Anna died in childbirth.

The news of the tragedy reached the poet in Turkestan. Yesenin could not cope with it for a long time. He was pacing the room restlessly, and when he started to get over it, he said to his friend Ivan Gruzinov: 'It was a true love of mine. Love to a simple woman. Who lived in the village. I went to see her. I came secretly. I told her everything. No one knows about it. I loved her for a long time. It makes me desperately sad. It grieves me so much. She died. It is the deepest love I've ever had. I don't love anyone else.'