Color cycle. Marina Tsvetaeva's cycle. The last years of Marina Ivanovna’s life

Key dates of life and work

1892 , October 8 (September 26, old style) - born in Moscow in the family of Professor Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev and his wife Maria Alexandrovna (née Main). Until 1902 - life between Moscow and Tarusa on the Oka.

October 25 (Old style) – the Bolsheviks seized power in Petrograd. Ensign Sergei Efron takes part in street fighting and defense of the Kremlin in Moscow.

After the victory of the Bolsheviks, S. Efron leaves for Crimea.

Tsvetaeva's acquaintance with the Evgeni Vakhtangov Studio. "Theatrical novel".

Tsvetaeva’s poems were published in the first issue of the Parisian magazine “Modern Notes”, collaboration with which continued until 1938.

Work from 1917 to 1920 on the collection “Swan Camp” (published in 1957).

Meeting in Berlin with S. Efron after more than four years of separation.

The beginning of an epistolary novel with Boris Pasternak.

Books by M. Tsvetaeva are published in Moscow: “The End of Casanova”, “Marches. Issue I,” “Versts” (poems 1917–1920), 2nd ed.; "Tsar-Maiden".

Books by M. Tsvetaeva are published in Berlin: “Separation”, “Poems to Blok”, “Tsar-Maiden”.

The beginning of cooperation in the magazine “Will of Russia”.

Romance and breakup with Konstantin Rodzevich. "Poem of the Mountain".

The fairy tale poem “Well done” is published in Prague.

Work on the editorial board of the collection “Ark”.

Lyrical satire "The Pied Piper".

Rapprochement with the Eurasians. Efron is on the editorial board of the collection “March”.

Tsvetaeva collaborates in the collections “Versts” and “Well-Intentioned”.

Spring and summer in Saint-Gilles-sur-Vie. Correspondence with B. Pasternak and R. M. Rilke.

Anastasia Tsvetaeva's visit to Paris is the last meeting of the sisters.

Preparation of the collection “After Russia”.

Release in Paris of “After Russia,” the last lifetime book by M. Tsvetaeva.

Beginning of work on the Poem about the Royal Family.

Death of M. Voloshin in Koktebel. Poem “Ici-Haut (In Memory of Maximilian Voloshin).”

S. Ya. Efron submits an application for a Soviet passport.

S. Ya. Efron works in the Homecoming Union.

Worsening relations in the family: everyone except Tsvetaeva strives to return to the Soviet Union.

Ariadna Efron collaborates with the pro-Soviet magazine Our Union.

News of the death in Moscow of S. E. Golliday. "The Tale of Sonechka."

September 4 – the murder of the Soviet defector Ignatius Reiss, one of the organizers of which was S. Ya. Efron. Efron is being questioned by French police.

Tsvetaeva is being interrogated by the French police.

Transfer of a large part of the archive to M. N. Lebedeva in Paris (disappeared during the German occupation).

Transfer of part of the archive to Professor of the University of Basel E. E. Mahler.

Munich agreement on the division of Czechoslovakia. Beginning of work on “Poems for the Czech Republic” (cycle “September”, published as individual poems in 1956, 1961, 1965).

Translation of M. Lermontov's poems into French.

Escape from Bolshevo.

Work on translations of poems by the Georgian classic Vazha Pshavela (published in 1947).

Husband of Marina Tsvetaeva, father of their children – Ariadna, Irina and Georgy (Moura). (return)

The hero of M. Tsvetaeva’s poems “Poem of the Mountain” and “Poem of the End”. At the end of 1926, Rodzevich in Paris renewed acquaintance with Marina Tsvetaeva and her husband Sergei Efron. He settled in the same house where Tsvetaeva, Efron and their children live. (return)

Lyatsky Evgeniy Aleksandrovich (1868–1942) – literary historian, writer and publisher.

Bulgakov Valentin Fedorovich (1886–1966) - the last secretary of L. N. Tolstoy, founder of the Russian Cultural and Historical Museum in Czechoslovakia. (return)

From May to August 1900 - second stay in Russia and Ukraine (Moscow - Tula - Yasnaya Polyana - Kiev - Kremenchug - Poltava - Kharkov - Voronezh - Saratov - Simbirsk - Kazan - Nizhny Novgorod - Yaroslavl - Moscow). During his second visit to Moscow, he again met the Pasternak family and met the poet Spiridon Drozhzhin. In 1900–1901 he wrote several poems in Russian. Later he called two places his homeland: Bohemia and Russia.

Subsequently, Rilke maintained a correspondence (partly in poetry) with Marina Tsvetaeva, although they never met in person. Tsvetaeva dedicated the poem “New Year’s Eve” and the essay “Your Death” to Rilke’s memory. (return)

With the poem “Red Bull” Tsvetaeva responded to the death of her friend Vera Zavadskaya’s brother. In a letter dated March 11, 1928, Tsvetaeva informs her correspondent: “...my friend’s brother, Volodya, 28 years old, 18 in appearance and in everything, died of intestinal tuberculosis... Died quietly, dreamed all night . “Mom, what a funny dream I had: as if a red bull was chasing me through the green grass...” And in the morning I fell asleep forever.” (Letters to Anna Teskova. Prague: Akademia, 1969. pp. 62–63).

Vera Aleksandrovna Zavadskaya (1895–1930), Tsvetaeva’s acquaintance from her gymnasium years; sister of director Yuri Zavadsky. (return)

She illustrated books by futurists: A. Kruchenykh and V. Khlebnikov - “The End of the World”, “Game in Hell” (1912), A. Kruchenykh - “Blown Up”, “Two Poems. Hermits. The Hermit" (1913), Collection "Tank of Judges" No. 2 (1913), K. Bolshakov - "Le futur", "Heart in Gloves" (1913), etc. On the initiative of A. Kruchenykh, lithographed postcards with drawings are published Goncharova.

Together with Larionov, she organized and participated in the exhibitions “Jack of Diamonds” (1910), “Donkey’s Tail” (1912), “Target” (1914), “No. 4”. She was a member of the Munich association “Blue Rider” and participated in the exhibition of the same name in 1912. She took part in exhibitions at the World of Art (1911–1913, Moscow, St. Petersburg).

Marina Tsvetaeva and Natalya Goncharova met in the summer of 1928. Mark Slonim told Tsvetaeva about his conversations with Goncharova and Larionov. “MI lit up: “How, Natalya Goncharova? Coincidence or relationship?” Slonim wrote. The acquaintance took place in a small Parisian cafe, where poets, artists, journalists often gathered, and Goncharova and Larionov almost always dined.

Natalya Goncharova was the great-niece of the poet’s wife Natalya Nikolaevna. Hence Tsvetaeva’s idea to write an essay about the two Goncharovs. By the time she met Tsvetaeva, Goncharova was a famous avant-garde artist who, together with Mikhail Larionov, participated in many futuristic exhibitions in Russia and abroad. The design of Diaghilev's "The Golden Cockerel" in 1914 gave her recognition and the opportunity to acquire a studio in Paris.

When creating the essay, Tsvetaeva used E. Eganbyuri’s monograph “Natalia Goncharova. Mikhail Larionov" (M., 1913). And to compare the two Goncharovs (the former, Pushkin’s Natalie and the modern Natalya Sergeevna) - the book by V. Veresaev “Pushkin in Life”. As a result, she managed to skillfully intertwine three genres: research, interviews and essays.

Translator of prose and poetry, memoirist, artist, art critic, poet (original poems, except those written in childhood, were not published during her lifetime).

Parents and relatives called Ariadna Alya; A large number of Tsvetaeva’s poems are dedicated to her (including the series “Poems to my Daughter”), Alya herself wrote poetry from early childhood (20 poems were published by her mother as part of her collection “Psyche”), and kept diaries that are striking in their originality and depth. In 1922 she went abroad with her mother. From 1922 to 1925 she lived in Czechoslovakia, from 1925 to 1937 in France, from where on March 18, 1937 she was the first of her family to return to the USSR. (return)

During the Great Patriotic War, a branch of Leningrad State University under the leadership of Academician V. A. Ambartsumyan was evacuated (from 1941 to 1944). At the same time, part of the cotton factory evacuated from the city of Vyshny Volochyok was located in Yelabuga. The poetess Marina Tsvetaeva lived here and committed suicide on August 31, 1941.

On August 25 and 26, 1941, Tsvetaeva left Yelabuga for permission to settle in Chistopol. (return)

Source of illustration: Akhmatova A.A. From Tsarskoye Selo lindens: Poetry and prose. – M.: EKSMO-Press, 2000.- P. 385

Marina Tsvetaeva was born in Moscow on September 26 (October 8), 1892. Her father was a university professor, her mother a pianist. It is worth briefly noting that Tsvetaeva’s biography was replenished with her first poems at the age of six.

She received her first education in Moscow at a private girls' gymnasium, then studied in boarding schools in Switzerland, Germany, and France.

After the death of her mother, Marina and her brother and two sisters were raised by their father, who tried to give the children a good education.

The beginning of a creative journey

Tsvetaeva's first collection of poems was published in 1910 (“Evening Album”). Even then, famous people - Valery Bryusov, Maximilian Voloshin and Nikolai Gumilyov - drew attention to Tsvetaeva’s work. Their work and the works of Nikolai Nekrasov significantly influenced the early work of the poetess.

In 1912, she published her second collection of poems, The Magic Lantern. These two collections by Tsvetaeva also included poems for children: “So,” “In the classroom,” “On Saturday.” In 1913, the poetess’s third collection, entitled “From Two Books,” was published.

During the Civil War (1917-1922), for Tsvetaeva, poetry was a means of expressing sympathy. In addition to poetry, she writes plays.

Personal life

In 1912, she married Sergei Efron, and they had a daughter, Ariadne.

In 1914, Tsvetaeva met the poetess Sofia Parnok. Their romance lasted until 1916. Tsvetaeva dedicated a cycle of her poems called “Girlfriend” to her. Then Marina returned to her husband.

Marina's second daughter, Irina, died at the age of three. In 1925, their son Georgy was born.

Life in exile

In 1922, Tsvetaeva moved to Berlin, then to the Czech Republic and Paris. Tsvetaeva’s creativity of those years includes the works “Poem of the Mountain”, “Poem of the End”, “Poem of the Air”. Tsvetaeva’s poems from 1922-1925 were published in the collection “After Russia” (1928). However, the poems did not bring her popularity abroad. It was during the period of emigration that prose received great recognition in the biography of Marina Tsvetaeva.

Tsvetaeva writes a series of works dedicated to famous and significant people:

• in 1930, the poetic cycle “To Mayakovsky” was written, in honor of the famous Vladimir Mayakovsky, whose suicide shocked the poetess;
• in 1933 - “Living about Living”, memories of Maximilian Voloshin
• in 1934 - “Captive Spirit” in memory of Andrei Bely
• in 1936 - “An Unearthly Evening” about Mikhail Kuzmin
• in 1937 - “My Pushkin”, dedicated to Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin

Return to homeland and death

Having lived the 1930s in poverty, in 1939 Tsvetaeva returned to the USSR. Her daughter and husband are arrested. Sergei was shot in 1941, and his daughter was rehabilitated 15 years later.

During this period of her life, Tsvetaeva almost did not write poetry, but only did translations.

On August 31, 1941, Tsvetaeva committed suicide. The great poetess was buried in the city of Elabuga at the Peter and Paul Cemetery.

The Tsvetaeva Museum is located on Sretenka Street in Moscow, also in Bolshevo, Aleksandrov, Vladimir Region, Feodosia, Bashkortostan. The monument to the poetess was erected on the banks of the Oka River in the city of Tarusa, as well as in Odessa.

Chronological table

Other biography options

• Marina Tsvetaeva began writing her first poems as a child. And she did this not only in Russian, but also in French and German. She knew languages ​​very well, because her family often lived abroad.
• She met her husband by chance while relaxing by the sea. Marina always believed that she would fall in love with the person who gave her the stone she liked. Her future husband, without knowing it, gave Tsvetaeva a carnelian he found on the beach on the very first day they met.
• During the Second World War, Tsvetaeva and her son were evacuated to Yelabuga (Tatarstan). While helping Marina pack her suitcase, her friend, Boris Pasternak, joked about the rope he had taken to tie up the suitcase (that it was strong, even if you hang yourself). It was on this ill-fated rope that the poetess hanged herself.
• see all

Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva(September 26 (October 8) 1892, Moscow, Russian Empire - August 31, 1941, Elabuga, USSR) - Russian poet, novelist, translator , one of the greatest Russian poets of the 20th century.

Born in Moscow. Tsvetaeva's parents were Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev and Maria Aleksandrovna Tsvetaeva (née Main). His father, a classical philologist, professor, headed the department of history and theory of art at Moscow University, and was the curator of the department of fine arts and classical antiquities at the Moscow Public and Rumyantsev Museums. In her father, Tsvetaeva valued devotion to her own aspirations and ascetic work, which, as she claimed, she inherited from him. Her mother had a huge influence on Marina and on the formation of her character. She dreamed of seeing her daughter become a musician. Despite her spiritually close relationship with her mother, Tsvetaeva felt lonely and alienated in her parents’ home. Young Marina lived in a world of read books and sublime romantic images.

The family spent the winter season in Moscow, the summer in the city of Tarusa, Kaluga province. The Tsvetaevs also traveled abroad. In 1903, Tsvetaeva studied at a French boarding school in Lausanne (Switzerland), in the fall of 1904 - in the spring of 1905 she studied with her sister at a German boarding school in Freiburg (Germany), in the summer of 1909 she went alone to Paris, where she attended a course in ancient French literature at the Sorbonne.

Marina Tsvetaeva began writing poetry at the age of six, not only in Russian, but also in French and German. In 1906-1907 she wrote the story (or short story) “The Fourth”, in 1906 she translated into Russian the drama “The Eaglet” by the French writer E. Rostand, dedicated to the tragic fate of Napoleon’s son (neither the story nor the translation of the drama has survived). In literature, she was especially fond of the works of A.S. Pushkin and the works of German romantics, translated by V.A. Zhukovsky.

The works of Marina Tsvetaeva appeared in print in 1910, when she published her first book of poetry, “Evening Album,” at her own expense. “Evening Album” was very well received by critics: the novelty of the tone and the emotional authenticity of the book were noted V.Ya. Bryusov , M.A. Voloshin, N.S. Gumilev, M.S. Shaginyan. The beginning of Tsvetaeva’s creative activity is associated with the circle of Moscow symbolists. After meeting Bryusov and the poet Ellis, Tsvetaeva participated in the activities of circles and studios at the Musaget publishing house. Also, Tsvetaeva’s early work was significantly influenced by Nikolay Nekrasov, Valery Bryusov and Maximilian Voloshin (who became one of her closest friends).

In the winter of 1910-1911, Voloshin invited Marina Tsvetaeva and her sister Anastasia (Asya) to spend the summer of 1911 in Koktebel, where he lived. There Tsvetaeva met Sergei Yakovlevich Efron. In Sergei Efron, Tsvetaeva saw the embodied ideal of nobility, chivalry and, at the same time, defenselessness. Love for Efron was for her admiration, spiritual union, and almost maternal care. Tsvetaeva perceived her meeting with him as the beginning of a new, adult life and as finding happiness: In January 1912, the wedding of Marina Tsvetaeva and Sergei Efron took place. On September 5, their daughter Ariadna (Alya) was born.

Tsvetaeva's second book, The Magic Lantern (1912), was perceived as a relative failure, as a repetition of the original features of the first book, devoid of poetic novelty. Tsvetaeva herself also felt that she was beginning to repeat herself and, releasing a new collection of poems, “From Two Books” (1913), she very strictly selected the texts: of the two hundred and thirty-nine poems included in the “Evening Album” and “Magic Lantern”, there were Only forty have been reprinted.

In 1914, Marina met the poetess and translator Sofia Parnok; their romantic relationship continued until 1916. Tsvetaeva dedicated the cycle of poems “Girlfriend” to Parnok. Tsvetaeva and Parnok separated in 1916; Marina returned to her husband Sergei Efron. Tsvetaeva described her relationship with Parnok as “the first disaster in her life.”

Throughout 1913-1915, a gradual change in Tsvetaeva’s poetic style took place: the place of a touching and cozy children’s life is taken by the aestheticization of everyday details (for example, in the cycle “Girlfriend”, 1914-1915, addressed to the poetess S.Ya. Parnok), and an ideal, sublime image antiquity (poems “To the Generals of the Twelfth Year” (1913) “To Grandmother” (1914), etc.). Starting from this time, Tsvetaeva’s poems become more diverse in metric and rhythmic terms (she masters the dolnik and tonic verse, deviates from the principle of equal stress of lines); the poetic vocabulary is expanding to include colloquial vocabulary, imitation of the style of folk poetry and neologisms. In 1915-1916, Tsvetaeva’s individual poetic symbolism, her “personal mythology,” took shape. These features of poetics will be preserved in Tsvetaeva’s poems of later times.

Tsvetaeva’s characteristic demonstrative independence and sharp rejection of generally accepted ideas and behavioral norms were manifested not only in communication with other people, but also in assessments and actions related to politics. Tsvetaeva perceived the First World War as an explosion of hatred against Germany, dear to her heart since childhood. She responded to the war with poems that were sharply dissonant with the patriotic and chauvinistic sentiments of the end of 1914. She welcomed the February Revolution of 1917, as did her husband, whose parents (who died before the revolution) were Narodnaya Volya revolutionaries. She perceived the October Revolution as the triumph of destructive despotism. The news about her found Tsvetaeva in Crimea, visiting Voloshin. Soon her husband arrived here too. On November 25, 1917, she left Crimea for Moscow to pick up her children - Alya and little Irina, born in April of this year. Tsvetaeva intended to return with her children to Koktebel, to Voloshin, Sergei Efron, who sided with the Provisional Government, decided to go to the Don to continue the fight against the Bolsheviks there. It was not possible to return to Crimea: insurmountable circumstances and the fronts of the Civil War separated Tsvetaeva from her husband and from Voloshin. She never saw Voloshin again. Sergei Efron fought in the ranks of the White Army, and Tsvetaeva, who remained in Moscow, had no news of him. In hungry and impoverished Moscow in 1917-1920, she wrote poems glorifying the sacrificial feat of the White Army. By the end of 1921, these poems were combined into the collection “Swan Camp”, prepared for publication. (The collection was not published during Tsvetaeva’s lifetime; it was first published in the West in 1957). Tsvetaeva publicly and boldly read these poems in Bolshevik Moscow.

She and the children had difficulty making ends meet and were starving. At the beginning of the winter of 1919-1920, Tsvetaeva sent her daughters to an orphanage in Kuntsevo. Soon she learned about the serious condition of her daughters and took home the eldest, Alya, to whom she was attached as a friend and whom she loved frantically. Tsvetaeva’s choice was explained both by the inability to feed both of them, and by her indifferent attitude towards Irina. At the beginning of February 1920, Irina died. Her death is reflected in the poem “Two hands, easily lowered...” (1920) and in the lyrical cycle “Separation” (1921), addressed to her husband.

On July 11, 1921, she received a letter from her husband, who had evacuated with the remnants of the Volunteer Army from Crimea to Constantinople. Soon he moved to the Czech Republic, to Prague. After several grueling attempts, Tsvetaeva received permission to leave Soviet Russia and on May 11, 1922, together with her daughter Alya, left her homeland.

On May 15, 1922, Marina Ivanovna and Alya arrived in Berlin. Tsvetaeva remained there until the end of July, where she became friends with the symbolist writer Andrei Bely, who temporarily lived here. In Berlin, she published a new collection of poems - “The Craft” (published in 1923) - and the poem “The Tsar-Maiden”. Sergei Efron came to his wife and daughter in Berlin, but soon returned to the Czech Republic, to Prague, where he studied at Charles University and received a scholarship. Tsvetaeva and her daughter came to her husband in Prague on August 1, 1922. They spent more than four years in the Czech Republic. On February 1, 1925, their long-awaited son was born, named George (home name - Moore). Tsvetaeva adored him. The desire to do everything possible for the happiness and well-being of his son was perceived by the growing Moore as alienated and selfish; voluntarily and unwittingly, he played a tragic role in the fate of his mother.

In Prague, Tsvetaeva for the first time established permanent relationships with literary circles, with publishing houses and magazine editors. Her works were published on the pages of the magazines “The Will of Russia” and “In Our Own Ways”, Tsvetaeva performed editorial work for the almanac “Ark”.

In 1924 Tsvetaeva created the “Poem of the Mountain” and completed the “Poem of the End”. The first reflects Tsvetaeva’s romance with a Russian emigrant, an acquaintance of K.B.’s husband. Rodzevich, in the second - their final break. The motifs of separation, loneliness, and misunderstanding are constant in Tsvetaeva’s lyrics of these years: the cycles “Hamlet” (1923, later divided into separate poems), “Phaedra” (1923), “Ariadne” (1923). Thirst and the impossibility of meeting, the union of poets as a love union, the fruit of which will be a living child—the leitmotifs of the “Wires” cycle addressed to B.L. Pasternak. The telegraph wires stretching between Prague and Moscow become a symbol of the connection of those separated.

Poetic dialogue and correspondence with Pasternak, with whom Tsvetaeva was not closely acquainted before leaving Russia, became for Tsvetaeva in exile the friendly communication and love of two spiritually related poets. In Pasternak's three lyric poems addressed to Tsvetaeva, there are no love motives; these are appeals to a friend-poet. Tsvetaeva served as the prototype for Maria Ilyina from Pasternak’s novel in verse “Spektorsky”. Tsvetaeva, hoping as if for a miracle, was waiting for a personal meeting with Pasternak; but when he visited Paris with a delegation of Soviet writers in June 1935, their meeting turned into a conversation between two people spiritually and psychologically distant from each other.

In the second half of 1925, Tsvetaeva made the final decision to leave Czechoslovakia and move to France. Her action was explained by the difficult financial situation of the family; she believed that she could better arrange herself and her loved ones in Paris, which was then becoming the center of Russian literary emigration. November 1, 1925 Tsvetaeva and her children arrived in the French capital; Sergei Efron also moved there by Christmas.

In Paris in November 1925, she completed the poem “The Pied Piper,” based on a medieval legend about a man who rid the German city of Gammeln of rats by luring them out with the sounds of his wonderful pipe; when the stingy inhabitants of Hammel refused to pay him, he brought out their children, playing on the same pipe, and took them to the mountain, where they were swallowed up by the opening earth. The Pied Piper was published in the Prague magazine “Will of Russia”.

In France, Tsvetaeva created several more poems. The poem “New Year's Eve” (1927) is a lengthy epitaph, a response to the death of the German poet R.-M. Rilke, with whom she and Pasternak corresponded. The poem “Air” (1927) is an artistic reinterpretation of the non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean made by the American aviator C. Lindbergh. Tsvetaeva’s pilot’s flight is both a symbol of creative soaring and an allegorical, encrypted image of a person dying.

Moving to France did not make life easier for Tsvetaeva and her family. Sergei Efron, impractical and not adapted to the hardships of life, earned little. Tsvetaeva was published little; her texts were often corrected. For all her Parisian years, she was able to release only one collection of poems - “After Russia” (1928). The emigrant literary environment, predominantly focused on the revival and continuation of the classical tradition, was alien to Tsvetaeva’s emotional expression and hyperbolism, which was perceived as hysteria. Leading emigre critics and writers ( Z.N. Gippius, G.V. Adamovich, G.V. Ivanov etc.) assessed her work negatively. High appreciation of Tsvetaev’s works by the poet and critic V.F. Khodasevich and critic D.P. Svyatopolk-Mirsky, as well as the sympathies of the younger generation of writers, did not change the general situation. Tsvetaeva’s rejection was aggravated by her complex character and her husband’s reputation (Sergei Efron had been applying for a Soviet passport since 1931, expressed pro-Soviet sympathies, and worked in the Homecoming Union). He began to collaborate with Soviet intelligence services. The enthusiasm with which Tsvetaeva greeted Mayakovsky, who arrived in Paris in October 1928, was perceived by conservative emigrant circles as evidence of the pro-Soviet views of Tsvetaeva herself (in fact, Tsvetaeva, unlike her husband and children, did not have any illusions about the regime in the USSR and was not pro-Soviet).

In France, Tsvetaeva created the cycles dedicated to poetry and poets: “Mayakovsky” (1930, a response to the death of V.V. Mayakovsky), “Poems to Pushkin” (1931), “Tombstone” (1935, a response to the tragic death of the emigrant poet N. P. Gronsky), “Poems for an Orphan” (1936, addressed to the emigrant poet A.S. Steiger). Creativity as hard labor, as duty and liberation is the motive of the cycle “The Table” (1933). The antithesis of the vain human life and the divine secrets and harmony of the natural world is expressed in poems from the “Bush” cycle (1934). In the 1930s, Tsvetaeva often turned to prose: autobiographical works, essays about Pushkin and his works “My Pushkin”, “Pushkin and Pugachev”.

In the second half of the 1930s, Tsvetaeva experienced a deep creative crisis. She almost stopped writing poetry (one of the few exceptions is the cycle “Poems for the Czech Republic” (1938-1939) - a poetic protest against Hitler’s seizure of Czechoslovakia. Rejection of life and time is the leitmotif of several poems created in the mid-1930s. Tsvetaeva had a serious conflict with his daughter, who insisted, following her father, on leaving for the USSR. In September 1937, Sergei Efron was involved in the political murder of a former Soviet intelligence agent and was soon forced to hide and flee to the USSR. Following him, his daughter Ariadna returned to her homeland. Tsvetaeva remained in Paris alone with her son.Her duty and desire was to unite with her husband and daughter, and on June 18, 1939, Tsvetaeva and her son returned to their homeland.

In their homeland, Tsvetaev and his family first lived at the state dacha of the NKVD provided to S. Efron. However, soon both Efron and Ariadne were arrested. After this, Tsvetaeva was forced to wander. For six months, before receiving temporary (for a period of two years) housing in Moscow, she settled with her son in the house of writers in the village of Golitsyn near Moscow. The functionaries of the Writers' Union turned away from her as the wife and mother of “enemies of the people.” The collection of poems she prepared in 1940 was not published. There was a catastrophic lack of money. Shortly after the start of the Great Patriotic War, on August 8, 1941, Tsvetaeva and her son were evacuated from Moscow and ended up in the small town of Elabuga. There was also no work in Yelabuga; Tsvetaeva had a quarrel with her son, who, apparently, reproached her for their difficult situation.

On August 31, 1941, she committed suicide (hanged herself) in the Brodelnikovs’ house, where she and her son were assigned to stay. She left three suicide notes: to those who would bury her (“evacuees”, Aseev and son). The original note to the “evacuees” was not preserved (it was seized as evidence by the police and lost), its text is known from the list that Georgy Efron was allowed to make.

Note to son:
Purr! Forgive me, but things could get worse. I am seriously ill, this is no longer me. I love you madly. Understand that I could no longer live. Tell dad and Alya - if you see - that you loved them until the last minute and explain that you are in a dead end.

Note to Aseev:
Dear Nikolai Nikolaevich! Dear Sinyakov sisters! I beg you to take Moore to Chistopol - just take him as your son - and let him study. I can’t do anything more for him and I’m only ruining him. I have 450 rubles in my bag. and if I try to sell all my things. The chest contains several handwritten books of poetry and a stack of printed prose. I entrust them to you. Take care of my dear Moore, he is in very fragile health. Love like a son - he deserves it. And forgive me. I couldn't stand it. MC. Never leave him. I would be incredibly happy if I lived with you. If you leave, take it with you. Don't quit!

Note to “evacuees”:
Dear comrades! Don't leave Moore. I beg those of you who can, to take him to Chistopol to N.N. Aseev. Steamships are scary, I beg you not to send him alone. Help him with his luggage - fold it and carry it. In Chistopol I hope that my things will be sold. I want Moore to live and learn. He will disappear with me. Address Aseeva on the envelope. Don't bury him alive! Check it thoroughly.

Marina Tsvetaeva was buried on September 2, 1941 at the Peter and Paul Cemetery in the city. Yelabuga . The exact location of her grave is unknown. On the south side of the cemetery, near the stone wall where her lost final resting place is located, in 1960 the poetess’s sister, Anastasia Tsvetaeva , “between four unknown graves of 1941” she installed a cross with the inscription “Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva is buried in this side of the cemetery”. In 1970, a granite tombstone was built at this site.Later, when he was already over 90 years old, Anastasia Tsvetaeva began to claim that the grave is located at the exact location of her sister’s burial and all doubts are just speculation.Since the beginning of the 2000s, the location of the granite tombstone, framed by tiles and hanging chains, has been called “the official grave of M. I. Tsvetaeva” by decision of the Writers’ Union of Tatarstan. The exposition of the Memorial complex of M. I. Tsvetaeva in Elabuga also shows a map of the memorial site of the Peter and Paul Cemetery indicating two “versions” of Tsvetaeva’s graves - according to the so-called “Churbanovskaya” version and the “Matveevskaya” version. Among literary scholars and local historians there is still no single evidentiary point of view on this issue.

Collections of poems

• 1910 - “Evening Album”
• 1912 - “The Magic Lantern”, second book of poems, Ed. "Ole-Lukoje", Moscow.
• 1913 - “From two books”, Ed. "Ole-Lukoje".
• "Youthful Poems", 1913-1915.
• 1922 - “Poems for Blok” (1916-1921), Ed. Ogonki, Berlin, Cover by A. Arnstam.
• 1922 - “The End of Casanova”, Ed. Constellation, Moscow. Cover by O. S. Solovyova.
• 1920 — “The Tsar Maiden”
• 1921 — “Versts”
• 1921 - “Swan Camp”
• 1922 - “Separation”
• 1923 — “Craft”
• 1923 - “Psyche. Romance"
• 1924 - “Well done”
• 1928 — “After Russia”
• collection 1940

Poems

• The Enchanter (1914)
• On the Red Horse (1921)
• Poem of the Mountain (1924, 1939)
• Poem of the End (1924)
• The Pied Piper (1925)
• From the Sea (1926)
• Room Try (1926)
• Poem of the Staircase (1926)
• New Year's Eve (1927)
• Poem of the Air (1927)
• Red Bull (1928)
• Perekop (1929)
• Siberia (1930)

Fairy tale poems

• Tsar-Maiden (1920)
• Lanes (1922)
• Well done (1922)

Unfinished

• Yegorushka
• Unfulfilled Poem
• Singer
• Bus
• Poem about the Royal Family

Dramatic works

• Jack of Hearts (1918)
• Blizzard (1918)
• Fortune (1918)
• Adventure (1918-19)
• A Play about Mary (1919, unfinished)
• Stone Angel (1919)
• Phoenix (1919)
• Ariadne (1924)
• Phaedra (1927)

Essay prose

• "Living about living"
• "Captive Spirit"
• "My Pushkin"
• "Pushkin and Pugachev"
• "Art in the Light of Conscience"
• "The Poet and Time"
• "Epic and Lyrics of Modern Russia"
• memories of Andrei Bely, Valery Bryusov, Maximilian Voloshin, Boris Pasternak and others.
• Memoirs
• "Mother and Music"
• "Mother's Tale"
• "The Story of One Dedication"
• "House at Old Pimen"
• "The Tale of Sonechka"

Born into a Moscow professorial family: father - I.V. Tsvetaev, mother - M.A. Main (died in 1906), pianist, student of A.G. Rubinstein, grandfather of her half-sister and brother - historian D.I. Ilovaisky.

As a child, due to her mother’s illness (consumption), Tsvetaeva lived for a long time in Italy, Switzerland, and Germany; breaks in gymnasium education were made up for by studying in boarding schools in Lausanne and Freiburg. She was fluent in French and German. In 1909 she took a course in French literature at the Sorbonne.

The making of a poet

The beginning of Tsvetaeva’s literary activity is associated with the circle of Moscow symbolists; she meets V. Ya. Bryusov, who had a significant influence on her early poetry, with Ellis (L. L. Kobylinsky), participates in the activities of circles and studios at the Musaget publishing house. The poetic and artistic world of the house had an equally significant impact M. A. Voloshina in Crimea (Tsvetaeva stayed in Koktebel in 1911, 1913, 1915, 1917).

In the first two books of poems, “Evening Album” (1910), “Magic Lantern” (1912) and the poem “The Sorcerer” (1914), there is a thorough description of home life (children’s room, “hall”, mirrors and portraits), walks on the boulevard, reading, music lessons, relationships with her mother and sister, the diary of a high school student is imitated (the confessional, diary orientation is accentuated by the dedication of the “Evening Album” to the memory of Maria Bashkirtseva), who in this atmosphere of a “children’s” sentimental fairy tale grows up and joins the poetic. In the poem "On a red horse"(1921) the story of the poet’s development takes the form of a romantic fairy-tale ballad.

Poetic world and myth

In the following books, “Marches” (1921-22) and “Craft” (1923), revealing Tsvetaeva’s creative maturity, the focus on the diary and fairy tale remains, but is already transformed into part of an individual poetic myth. In the center of cycles of poems addressed to contemporary poets A. A. Blok, A. A. Akhmatova, S. Parnok, dedicated to historical figures or literary heroes - Marina Mnishek, Don Juan, etc. - a romantic personality who cannot be understood by contemporaries and descendants, but does not seek primitive understanding or philistine sympathy. Tsvetaeva, to a certain extent, identifying herself with her heroes, gives them the possibility of life outside of real spaces and times, the tragedy of their earthly existence is compensated by belonging to the higher world of the soul, love, poetry.

"After Russia"

The romantic motifs of rejection, homelessness, and sympathy for the persecuted that are characteristic of Tsvetaeva’s lyrics are reinforced by the real circumstances of the poetess’s life. In 1918-22, together with her young children, she was in revolutionary Moscow, while her husband S. Ya. Efron was fighting in the White Army (poems 1917-21, full of sympathy for the white movement, made up the cycle “Swan Camp”).

In 1922, Tsvetaeva’s emigrant existence began (a short stay in Berlin, three years in Prague, and from 1925 in Paris), marked by a constant lack of money, everyday disorder, difficult relations with the Russian emigration, and growing hostility from criticism. The best poetic works of the emigrant period (the last lifetime collection of poems “After Russia 1922-1925”, 1928; "Poem of the Mountain", "Poem of the End", both 1926; lyrical satire The Pied Piper, 1925-26; tragedies based on ancient subjects “Ariadne”, 1927, published under the title “Theseus”, and “Phaedra”, 1928; the last poetic cycle “Poems to the Czech Republic”, 1938-39, was not published during his lifetime, etc.) are characterized by philosophical depth, psychological accuracy, expressiveness of style.

Features of poetic language

The confessionalism, emotional intensity, and energy of feeling characteristic of Tsvetaeva’s poetry determined the specificity of the language, marked by the conciseness of thought and the rapid development of lyrical action.

The most striking features of Tsvetaeva’s original poetics were intonation and rhythmic diversity (including the use of raesh verse, the rhythmic pattern of ditties; folklore origins are most noticeable in the fairy tale poems “The Tsar Maiden”, 1922, “Well done”, 1924), stylistic and lexical contrasts (from vernacular and grounded everyday realities to the elation of high style and biblical imagery), unusual syntax (the dense fabric of the verse is replete with the “dash” sign, often replacing omitted words), breaking traditional metrics (mixing classical feet within one line), experiments with sound (including the constant play on paronymic consonances, turning the morphological level of language into poetically significant), etc.

Prose

Unlike her poems, which did not receive recognition among the emigrants (Tsvetaeva’s innovative poetic technique was seen as an end in itself), her prose enjoyed success, which was readily accepted by publishers and occupied the main place in her work in the 1930s. (“Emigration makes me a prose writer…”). “My Pushkin” (1937), “Mother and Music” (1935), “House at Old Pimen’s” (1934), “The Tale of Sonechka” (1938), memories of M. A. Voloshine(“Living about Living”, 1933), M. A. Kuzmine(“Unearthly Wind”, 1936), A. Bel(“Captive Spirit”, 1934) and others, combining the features of artistic memoirs, lyrical prose and philosophical essays, they recreate Tsvetaeva’s spiritual biography. The prose is accompanied by letters from the poetess to B. L. Pasternak(1922-36) and R. M. Rilke (1926) - a kind of epistolary novel.

End of the road

In 1937, Sergei Efron, who became an NKVD agent abroad in order to return to the USSR, became involved in a contracted political murder, fled from France to Moscow. In the summer of 1939, following her husband and daughter Ariadna (Alya), Tsvetaeva and her son Georgy (Moore) returned to their homeland. In the same year, both daughter and husband were arrested (S. Efron was shot in 1941, Ariadne was rehabilitated in 1955 after fifteen years of repression). Tsvetaeva herself could not find housing or work; her poems were not published. Finding herself evacuated at the beginning of the war, she tried unsuccessfully to get support from writers; committed suicide.

K. M. Polivanov

TSVETAEVA, Marina Ivanovna - Russian poetess. Daughter of Professor I.V. Tsvetaev, founder of the Moscow Museum of Fine Arts. She started writing poetry in childhood. Her first collections “Evening Album” (1910) and “Magic Lantern” (1912) met with sympathetic responses V. Bryusova, M. Voloshina, N. Gumileva. In 1913, the collection “From Two Books” was published. The book “Youth Poems. 1912-1915" (not published) marks the transition to mature romance. In the poems of 1916 (collection “Versty”, v. 1, 1921), the most important themes of Tsvetaeva’s work are formed - love, Russia, poetry.

Tsvetaeva did not understand and did not accept the October Revolution. She idealized the White Guard movement, giving it features of sublimity and holiness. This is partly due to the fact that her husband S. Ya. Efron was an officer in the White Army. At the same time, Tsvetaeva created a cycle of romantic plays (“Blizzard”, “Fortune”, “Adventure”, “Stone Angel”, “Phoenix”, etc.) and the fairy tale poem “The Tsar Maiden” (1922).

In the spring of 1922, Tsvetaeva went abroad to join her husband, at that time a student at Prague University. She lived in the Czech Republic for more than three years and at the end of 1925 she moved with her family to Paris. In the early 20s. she was widely published in White emigrant magazines. Published books: “Poems to Blok”, “Separation” (both 1922), “Psyche. Romance”, “Craft” (both - 1923), fairy tale poem “Well done” (1924). Soon, Tsvetaeva’s relations with emigrant circles worsened, which was facilitated by her growing attraction to Russia (“Poems to my son,” , , etc.). The last lifetime collection of poems is “After Russia. 1922-1925" - was published in Paris in 1928. The beginning of the 2nd World War was met with tragedy, as evidenced by Tsvetaeva’s last poetic cycle - “Poems for the Czech Republic” (1938-39), associated with the occupation of Czechoslovakia and permeated with ardent hatred of fascism. In the summer of 1939, Tsvetaeva returned to the USSR. Here she was engaged in poetic translations (I. Franko, Vazha Pshavela, C. Baudelaire, F. Garcia Lorca, etc.), and prepared a book of poems. She committed suicide while being evacuated.

The world of themes and images in Tsvetaeva’s work is extremely rich. She writes about Casanova and the burghers, recreates with disgust the details of emigrant life and glorifies her desk, pits love against the prose of life, mocks vulgarity, recreates Russian fairy tales and Greek myths. The inner meaning of her work is tragic - the collision of the poet with the outside world, their incompatibility. Tsvetaeva's poetry, including "Poem of the Mountain"(1926) and "Poem of the End"(1926), the “lyrical satire” “The Pied Piper” (1925) and even the tragedies on ancient subjects “Ariadne” (1924, published under the title “Theseus” in 1927) and “Phaedra” (1927, published in 1928) - always a confession , a continuous intense monologue. Tsvetaeva’s poetic style is marked by energy and swiftness. Back in 1916-20, folklore rhythms burst into her poetry (raeshnik, recitative - lamentations, spells - “cruel” romance, ditty, song). Each time this is not stylization, but an original, modern mastery of rhythm. After 1921, Tsvetaeva developed solemn, “odic” rhythms and vocabulary (the cycles “The Apprentice,” published in 1922; “The Youth,” published in 1922). By the mid-20s. These include the most formally complicated poems by Tsvetaeva, often difficult to understand due to the extreme condensation of speech ( "Room Attempt", 1928; “Poem of the Air”, 1930, etc.). In the 30s Tsvetaeva returned to simple and strict forms (“Poems to the Czech Republic”). However, such features as the predominance of conversational intonation over melodious intonation, the complex and original instrumentation of the verse remain common to Tsvetaeva’s entire work. Her poetry is built on contrasts, combining seemingly incompatible lexical and stylistic ranges: vernacular with high style, everyday prose with biblical vocabulary. One of the main features of Tsvetaeva’s style is the isolation of a separate word, word formation from one or phonetically similar roots, playing on the root word (“minute - past: minesh ...”). Highlighting this most important word for herself and rhythmically, Tsvetaeva breaks lines and phrases, often omits the verb, and achieves special expressiveness with an abundance of questions, exclamations and enjambements.

Tsvetaeva often turned to prose and created a special genre that combines philosophical reflections, touches of a literary portrait with personal memories. She also owns treatises on art and poetry (“Poet on Criticism”, 1926; “Poet and Time”, 1932; “Art in the Light of Conscience”, 1932-33, etc.). Tsvetaeva's works have been translated into all European languages.

Works: Favorites. [Preface, comp. and preparation text by V. Orlov], M., 1961; Favorite prod. [Intro. Art. V. Orlova], M. - L., 1965; Prose, New York, 1953; My Pushkin. [Intro. Art. V. Orlova], M., 1967; Just a heart. Poems zarub. poets in the lane M. Tsvetaeva. [Preface Vyach. Sun. Ivanova], M., 1967; Letters to A. Teskova, Prague, 1969; Captive spirit. My meeting with Andrei Bely, “Moscow”, 1964, No. 4; Father and his museum, “Prostor”, 1965, No. 10; On creativity, in the book: Day of Poetry, Leningrad, 1966; House near Old Pimen, “Moscow”, 1966, No. 7; The story of one dedication, “Lit. Armenia", 1966, No. 1; Mother and Music, “Lit. Russia", 1966, November 11; Living things about living things. Voloshin, “Lit. Armenia", 1968, No. 6-7; Modern epic and lyrics. Russia (V. Mayakovsky and B. Pasternak). Damn. Memoirs, “Lit. Georgia", 1967, No. 9; From the book “Youthful Poems”, in the book: Poetry Day, M., 1968; Mayakovsky. [Poems], “Space”, 1968, No. 3; A Mother's Tale, Det. literature", 1968, No. 6; Natalya Goncharova, “Prometheus”, 1969, No. 7; Letters from Marina Tsvetaeva, “New. world", 1969, No. 4; From autobiographical prose: Tower in the ivy. Charlottenburg. Uniform. Laurel wreath. Groom. [Publ. and entry Art. A. Efron], “Star”, 1970, No. 10; Unearthly evening, “Literary Georgia”, 1971, No. 7; Egorushka, fragments from the poem, “New World”, 1971, No. 10.

Lit.: Bryusov V., Distant and Close, M., 1912; Gumilev N., Letters about Russian. poetry, P., 1923; Ehrenburg I., Poetry of Marina Tsvetaeva, in collection: Lit. Moscow, No. 2, M., 1956; Ivanov V., Poetry of Marina Tsvetaeva, in the book: Tarussky pages, Kaluga, 1961; Paustovsky K., Laurel wreath, “Space”, 1965, No. 10; Tvardovsky A., Marina Tsvetaeva. Favorites, M., 1961. [Rec.], “New. world", 1962, No. 1; Efron A., Sahakyants A., “Eternally modern”, “Don”, 1965, No. 3; them, Marina Tsvetaeva - translator, “Don”, 1966, No. 2; Antokolsky P., Book by Marina Tsvetaeva, “New. world", 1966, No. 4; Schweitzer V., Mayakovsky and Tsvetaeva, “Prostor”, 1966, No. 8; hers, Monument to Pushkin, “New. world", 1968, No. 2; Mikhailov I., Experiments of Marina Tsvetaeva, “Zvezda”, 1967, No. 7; Efron A., Samothrace victory, “Lit. Armenia", 1967, No. 8; hers, Pages of Memories, “Star”, 1973, No. 3; Mindlin E., Marina Tsvetaeva, in his book: Unusual Interlocutors, M., 1968; Levik V., Translations of Marina Tsvetaeva, “Foreign Literature”, 1968, No. 5; Tsvetaeva A., Memoirs, M., 1971.

V. A. Schweitzer

Brief Literary Encyclopedia: In 9 volumes - Vol. 8. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1975

Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva is a Russian poetess, translator, author of biographical essays and critical articles. She is considered one of the key figures in world poetry of the 20th century. Today, Marina Tsvetaeva’s poems about love such as “Nailed to the pillory…”, “Not an impostor - I came home…”, “Yesterday I looked into your eyes…” and many others are called textbooks.

Childhood photo of Marina Tsvetaeva | Museum of M. Tsvetaeva

Marina Tsvetaeva’s birthday falls on the Orthodox holiday in memory of the Apostle John the Theologian. The poetess would later repeatedly reflect this circumstance in her works. A girl was born in Moscow, in the family of a professor at Moscow University, famous philologist and art critic Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev, and his second wife Maria Main, a professional pianist, a student of Nikolai Rubinstein himself. On her father's side, Marina had half-brothers Andrei and sister, as well as her own younger sister Anastasia. The creative professions of her parents left their mark on Tsvetaeva’s childhood. Her mother taught her to play the piano and dreamed of seeing her daughter become a musician, and her father instilled a love of quality literature and foreign languages.

Childhood photos of Marina Tsvetaeva

It so happened that Marina and her mother often lived abroad, so she spoke fluently not only Russian, but also French and German. Moreover, when little six-year-old Marina Tsvetaeva began to write poetry, she composed in all three, and most of all in French. The future famous poetess began receiving her education at a Moscow private girls' gymnasium, and later studied at boarding schools for girls in Switzerland and Germany. At the age of 16, she tried to attend a course of lectures on Old French literature at the Sorbonne in Paris, but did not complete her studies there.

With sister Anastasia, 1911 | Museum of M. Tsvetaeva

When the poetess Tsvetaeva began publishing her poems, she began to communicate closely with the circle of Moscow symbolists and actively participate in the life of literary circles and studios at the Musaget publishing house. Soon the Civil War begins. These years had a very difficult impact on the morale of the young woman. She did not accept and did not approve of the separation of her homeland into white and red components. In the spring of 1922, Marina Olegovna sought permission to emigrate from Russia and go to the Czech Republic, where her husband, Sergei Efron, who had served in the White Army and was now studying at the University of Prague, had fled several years earlier.

Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev with his daughter Marina, 1906 | Museum of M. Tsvetaeva

For a long time, Marina Tsvetaeva’s life was connected not only with Prague, but also with Berlin, and three years later her family was able to reach the French capital. But the woman did not find happiness there either. She was depressingly affected by people's rumors that her husband was involved in a conspiracy against her son and that he had been recruited by the Soviet government. In addition, Marina realized that in spirit she was not an emigrant, and Russia did not let go of her thoughts and heart.

Poems

Marina Tsvetaeva's first collection, entitled “Evening Album,” was published in 1910. It mainly included her creations written during her school years. Quite quickly, the work of the young poetess attracted the attention of famous writers, Maximilian Voloshin, husband Nikolai Gumilyov, and the founder of Russian symbolism Valery Bryusov were especially interested in her. On the wave of success, Marina writes her first prose article, “Magic in Bryusov’s Poems.” By the way, a rather remarkable fact is that she published her first books with her own money.

First edition of "Evening Album" | Feodosia Museum of Marina and Anastasia Tsvetaev

Soon Marina Tsvetaeva’s “Magic Lantern”, her second collection of poetry, was published, and then her next work, “From Two Books,” was published. Shortly before the revolution, the biography of Marina Tsvetaeva was connected with the city of Alexandrov, where she came to visit her sister Anastasia and her husband. From the point of view of creativity, this period is important because it is full of dedications to loved ones and favorite places and was later called by specialists “Tsvetaeva’s Alexander Summer.” It was then that the woman created the famous cycles of poems “To Akhmatova” and “Poems about Moscow.”

Akhmatova and Tsvetaeva in the images of Egyptian women. Monument "Silver Age", Odessa | Panoramio

During the Civil War, Marina became sympathetic to the white movement, although, as mentioned above, she generally did not approve of dividing the country into conventional colors. During that period, she wrote poems for the collection “Swan Camp”, as well as large poems “The Tsar Maiden”, “Egorushka”, “On a Red Horse” and romantic plays. After moving abroad, the poetess composed two large-scale works - “The Poem of the Mountain” and “The Poem of the End,” which will be among her main works. But most of the poems from the emigration period were not published. The last collection to be published was “After Russia,” which included the works of Marina Tsvetaeva until 1925. Although she never stopped writing.

Manuscript by Marina Tsvetaeva | Unofficial site

Foreigners appreciated Tsvetaeva's prose much more - her memories of Russian poets Andrei Bely, Maximilian Voloshin, Mikhail Kuzmin, the books “My Pushkin”, “Mother and Music”, “House at Old Pimen” and others. But they didn’t buy poetry, although Marina wrote a wonderful cycle “To Mayakovsky,” for which the “black muse” was the suicide of the Soviet poet. The death of Vladimir Vladimirovich literally shocked the woman, which can be felt many years later when reading these poems by Marina Tsvetaeva.

Personal life

The poetess met her future husband Sergei Efron in 1911 at the house of her friend Maximilian Voloshin in Koktebel. Six months later they became husband and wife, and soon their eldest daughter Ariadne was born. But Marina was a very passionate woman and at different times other men captured her heart. For example, the great Russian poet Boris Pasternak, with whom Tsvetaeva had an almost 10-year romantic relationship, which did not stop even after her emigration.

Sergei Efron and Tsvetaeva before the wedding | Museum of M. Tsvetaeva

In addition, in Prague, the poetess began a whirlwind romance with lawyer and sculptor Konstantin Rodzevich. Their relationship lasted about six months, and then Marina, who dedicated the “Poem of the Mountain” to her lover, full of frantic passion and unearthly love, volunteered to help his bride choose a wedding dress, thereby putting an end to the love relationship.

Ariadne Ephron with her mother, 1916 | Museum of M. Tsvetaeva

But Marina Tsvetaeva’s personal life was connected not only with men. Even before emigrating, in 1914 she met the poetess and translator Sofia Parnok in a literary circle. The ladies quickly discovered sympathy for each other, which soon grew into something more. Marina dedicated a cycle of poems, “Girlfriend,” to her beloved, after which their relationship came out of the shadows. Efron knew about his wife’s affair, was very jealous, caused scenes, and Tsvetaeva was forced to leave him for Sofia. However, in 1916 she broke up with Parnok, returned to her husband and a year later gave birth to a daughter, Irina. The poetess will later say about her strange relationship that it is wild for a woman to love a woman, but only men are boring. However, Marina described her love for Parnok as “the first disaster in her life.”

Portrait of Sofia Parnok | Wikipedia

After the birth of her second daughter, Marina Tsvetaeva faces a dark streak in her life. Revolution, husband's escape abroad, extreme poverty, famine. The eldest daughter Ariadna became very ill, and Tsvetaeva sent the children to an orphanage in the village of Kuntsovo near Moscow. Ariadne recovered, but Irina fell ill and died at the age of three.

Georgy Efron with his mother | Museum of M. Tsvetaeva

Later, after reuniting with her husband in Prague, the poetess gave birth to a third child - a son, George, who was called “Moore” in the family. The boy was sickly and fragile, nevertheless, during the Second World War he went to the front, where he died in the summer of 1944. Georgy Efron was buried in a mass grave in the Vitebsk region. Due to the fact that neither Ariadne nor George had children of their own, today there are no direct descendants of the great poetess Tsvetaeva.

Death

In exile, Marina and her family lived almost in poverty. Tsvetaeva’s husband could not work due to illness, Georgy was just a baby, Ariadne tried to help financially by embroidering hats, but in fact their income consisted of meager fees for articles and essays that Marina Tsvetaeva wrote. She called this financial situation a slow death from hunger. Therefore, all family members constantly turn to the Soviet embassy with a request to return to their homeland.

Monument by Zurab Tsereteli, Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, France | Evening Moscow

In 1937, Ariadne received this right; six months later, Sergei Efron secretly moved to Moscow, since in France he was threatened with arrest as an accomplice to a political murder. After some time, Marina herself and her son officially cross the border. But the return turned into tragedy. Very soon the NKVD arrests the daughter, and after her Tsvetaeva’s husband. And if Ariadne was rehabilitated after her death, having served over 15 years, then Efron was shot in October 1941.

Monument in the city of Tarusa | Pioneer Tour

However, his wife never found out about this. When the Great Patriotic War began, a woman and her teenage son went for evacuation to the town of Elabuga on the Kama River. To obtain temporary registration, the poetess is forced to get a job as a dishwasher. Her statement was dated August 28, 1941, and three days later Tsvetaeva committed suicide by hanging herself in the house where she and Georgy were assigned to stay. Marina left three suicide notes. She addressed one of them to her son and asked for forgiveness, and in the other two she asked people to take care of the boy.

Monument in the village of Usen-Ivanovskoye, Bashkiria | School of Life

It is very interesting that when Marina Tsvetaeva was just getting ready to evacuate, her old friend Boris Pasternak helped her in packing her things, who specially bought a rope for tying things up. The man boasted that he had obtained such a strong rope - “at least hang yourself”... It was this that became the instrument of Marina Ivanovna’s suicide. Tsvetaeva was buried in Yelabuga, but since the war was going on, the exact place of burial remains unclear to this day. Orthodox customs do not allow funeral services for suicides, but the ruling bishop can make an exception. And Patriarch Alexy II in 1991, on the 50th anniversary of his death, took advantage of this right. The church ceremony was held in the Moscow Church of the Ascension of the Lord at the Nikitsky Gate.

Stone of Marina Tsvetaeva in Tarusa | Wanderer

In memory of the great Russian poetess, the Marina Tsvetaeva Museum was opened, and more than one. There is a similar house of memory in the cities of Tarus, Korolev, Ivanov, Feodosiya and many other places. On the banks of the Oka River there is a monument by Boris Messerer. There are sculptural monuments in other cities of Russia, near and far abroad.

Collections

• 1910 - Evening album
• 1912 - Magic Lantern
• 1913 - From two books
• 1920 - Tsar Maiden
• 1921 - Swan Camp
• 1923 - Psyche. Romance
• 1924 - Poem of the Mountain
• 1924 - Poem of the End
• 1928 - After Russia
• 1930 - Siberia