Igor Severyanin
Born: May 4 (16), 1887.
Died: December 20, 1941

Biography

Igor Severyanin (for most of his literary activity, the author preferred the spelling Igor-Severyanin; real name - Igor Vasilyevich Lotarev; May 4 (16), 1887, St. Petersburg - December 20, 1941, Tallinn) - Russian poet of the Silver Age.

The beginning of literary activity

Born in St. Petersburg at number 66 on Gorokhovaya Street on May 4 (16), 1887 in the family of the captain of the 1st railway battalion (later regiment) Vasily Petrovich Lotarev (1860 - 06/10/1904, Yalta). Mother, Natalia Stepanovna Lotareva (1837 (?) -13.11.1921, Estonia Toila), nee Shenshina (daughter of the leader of the nobility of the Shchigrovsky district of the Kursk province Stepan Sergeevich Shenshin), by her first marriage Domontovich (widow of Lieutenant General G.I. Domontovich). On the mother's side, Igor Lotarev was related to the poet Afanasy Fet (Shenshin). Relationship with the historian N.M. Karamzin, which the poet himself mentions, has not been confirmed. Early childhood passed in St. Petersburg. After the break in relations between his parents, he lived on the estate of his uncle Mikhail Petrovich Lotarev (1854-1925) "Vladimirovka" or on the estate of his aunt Elizaveta Petrovna Lotareva (1850-1918) "Soyvola" on the Suda River in the Novgorod province (now the Vologda region), near Cherepovets. In the estate "Vladimirovka" there is a museum of Igor-Severyanin.

The future poet graduated from the four classes of the Cherepovets real school. In 1904, he went to his father in Manchuria in the city of Dalniy, and also lived for some time in Port Arthur (Luishun). On the eve of the Russo-Japanese War, he returned to St. Petersburg, to his mother, with whom he lived in the house of his half-sister Zoya, nee Domonotovich (Middle Podyacheskaya, 5).

Igor Lotarev signed the first publications in periodicals with the pseudonyms "Count Evgraf d'Axangraf" (fr.accent grave), "Needle", "Mimosa". He began to publish regularly in 1904: “To the upcoming release of the Port Arthur squadron. Poem"; "The death of" Rurik ". Poem"; “The feat of Novik. To the cruiser "Izumrud". Poems". However, he considered the day of the beginning of his literary activity the publication in the Time-based edition for soldiers and people “Leisure and Business”, which was edited by Lieutenant General S.P. Zykov in February 1905 and celebrated the date every year since 1925. In 1925, two novels in verse were published in Tartu (Estonia) ("The Bells of the Cathedral of Feelings", "The Dew of the Orange Hour"), dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the beginning of literary activity. In March 1940, the event was celebrated in Tallinn for the last time.

In total, the poet published 35 pamphlets at his own expense, which he intended to later combine into the "Complete collection of poetry." The first 8 pamphlets (the ninth pamphlet "The Battle of Tsushima" received censorship permission, but was not printed) the author intended to combine into the "Naval War" cycle. The first 15 editions are signed by the poet's civil name, the next 20 by a pseudonym "Igor-Severyanin". The appearance of the pseudonym is connected with the acquaintance and subsequent friendship with the poet of the older generation Konstantin Mikhailovich Fofanov in November 1907 in Gatchina. The author's version of the pseudonym without division into first and last name - "Igor-Severyanin" is an act of initiation (the birth of a "poet"), a talisman and a mythologeme. The complex pseudonym is a fact of the cultural and literary process in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. Konstantin Fofanov and Mirra Lokhvitskaya, who died early, Igor-Severyanin considered his forerunners.

Writer Ivan Nazhivin brought one of Igor-Severyanin's pamphlets to Leo Tolstoy's Yasnaya Polyana estate. The writer's commentary on the poem "Habanera II" Nazhivin made public in the press:

“What do they do, what do they do ... And this is literature? Around - the gallows, hordes of the unemployed, murders, incredible drunkenness, and they have the elasticity of a cork ... "

From egofuturism to the "king of poets".

In 1911, Igor-Severyanin, together with the publisher of the newspaper Petersburg Herald Ivan Ignatiev (Kazansky), the son of Konstantin Fofanov, Konstantin Olimpov and Graal-Arelsky (Stefan Stefanovich Petrov), founded the literary direction of egofuturism. The emergence of the current is associated with the brochure of Igor-Severyanin “Prologue of ego-futurism. Poetry grandiose. Apotheosis notebook of the 3rd volume. Pamphlet 32. (St. Petersburg, "Ego", 1911, 100 copies) Grail-Arelsky wrote in the article "Ego-poetry in poetry":

“The fear of death, which so unexpectedly breaks the thread of life, the desire to somehow prolong its short-term existence, forced a person to create religion and art. Death has created poetry. (…) Nature created us. In our actions and deeds, we should be guided only by Her. She put selfishness in us, we must develop it. Selfishness unites everyone, because everyone is selfish.” ("Orange Urn" Almanac in memory of Fofanov.)

Igor-Severyanin left the group of ego-futurists less than a year later, explaining that he had completed the task “I am in the future”. Parting with the ego-futurists was marked by a scandal:

“Konstantin Olimpov slandered me in the press. I forgive him: my work is conclusive. Now that the need for the doctrine “I am in the future” has passed for me, and finding the mission of my Ego-Futurism accomplished, I wish to be alone, I consider myself only a poet, and for this I am sunnyly glad. (…) Brave and strong, it is up to you to become Ego-Futurists!” (“An open letter from Igor-Severyanin”, October 23, 1912.)

The first large collection of poems by Igor-Severyanin The Thundering Cup (1913) was published by Sergei Sokolov (Krechetov) "Vulture". The preface to the collection was written by Fyodor Sologub: “One of the sweetest consolations of life is free poetry, a light, joyful gift from heaven. The appearance of a poet pleases, and when a new poet appears, the soul is excited, just as it is excited by the arrival of spring. In the continuous numbering of the poet, the collection received the status of the first volume.

The debut of Igor-Severyanin in St. Petersburg took place in October 1912 at the Salon of Sologub on Razyezzhaya Street, and already on December 20 in Moscow at the Society of Free Aesthetics with Valery Bryusov. In March 1913, Igor-Severyanin takes part in the tour of Fyodor Sologub in the South of Russia: Minsk, Vilna, Kharkov, Yekaterinoslav, Odessa, Simferopol, Rostov-on-Don, Yekaterinodar, Baku, Tiflis, Kutais. By 1918, the poet took part in 48 concerts and gave 87 personally (135 in total).

In November 1913, Igor-Severyanin and Vladimir Mayakovsky performed together twice: on November 16 at a party of the Vologda community in the hall of the Higher Petersburg Women's Courses and on November 29 at an evening in the Salt Town hall. The famous tour of poets in the south of Russia in January 1914 was organized by Vadim Bayan (Vladimir Ivanovich Sidorov). The poster read:

“THE FIRST OLYMPIAD OF RUSSIAN FUTURISM. \ The contestants will be led by VLADIMIR MAYAKOVSKY \ II. COMPETE \ Vadim Bayan (poetry), Igor Severyanin (poetry), David Burliuk (poetry), Vladimir Mayakovsky (poetry and fragments of the tragedy, was in St. Petersburg, Komissarzhevskaya Theater).

The Estonian poet Valmar Adams, who knew Igor-Severyanin closely, noted that he had an excellent musical memory, which allowed him to reproduce even the most complex opera parts by ear: “And his voice was a concert one - the walls were trembling!” At his first performances, Igor-Severyanin sang his poems to the motif of Filina's polonaise from Ambroise Thomas' opera "Mignon".

Expressionist poet Sergei Spassky in March 1913 was at the concert of F. Sologub, about which he recalled that during the speech of Igor-Severyanin in Tiflis, the audience laughed to tears at his manner of reading poetry:

“... he came out unpainted and dressed in a decent frock coat, He was neatly ironed. The elongated face of an international snob. In the hand is a lily on a long stem. We greeted him with complete silence. He frankly sang to a certain distinct tune. It seemed incredibly funny. Probably, the complete surprise of such a manner acted. (...) The poet's sloppy, howling baritone, nasal, supposedly French pronunciation made fun. All this was combined with the contemptuous equanimity of the lanky figure, with a gaze fixed on the listeners, with the lazy waving of a lily, swaying in time with the words. The hall laughed uncontrollably and defiantly. People grabbed their heads. Some, exhausted by laughter, with red faces, rushed out of the ranks into the corridor. I have never heard such deafening laughter at any other poetry evening. And the strangest thing of all is that in a year and a half or two years the same public will listen to the same verses, just as they are performed, in silent, wary delight. .

Konstantin Paustovsky recalled one of Igor-Severyanin's late Russian performances:

“... my passenger in a black frock coat stepped onto the stage, leaned against the wall and, lowering his eyes, waited for a long time until the enthusiastic cries and applause subsided. Flowers were thrown at his feet - dark roses. But he stood as still and did not pick up a single flower. Then he took a step forward, the hall fell silent, and I heard a slightly burry singing of very salon and musical verses: "Champagne - into a lily, into champagne - into a lily! It sanctifies with her chastity! Mignon with Escamillo, Mignon with Escamillo! Champagne in a lily is sacred wine!" There was magic in this, in this singing of poetry, where the melody was extracted from words that did not make sense. Language existed only as music. Nothing more was required of him. Human thought turned into the gleam of glass beads, the rustle of perfumed silk, into ostrich feathers of fans and the foam of champagne.

In January 1918, Igor-Severyanin left Petrograd for Estonia, where he settled in the village of Toila together with his common-law wife, Maria Volnyanskaya (Dombrovskaya). In February, fulfilling his obligations to the entrepreneur Fyodor Dolidze, Igor-Severyanin travels to Moscow, where he takes part in the "election of the king of poets", which took place on February 27, 1918 in the Large Auditorium of the Moscow Polytechnic Museum. The future Soviet literary critic Yakov Chernyak recalled:

“In Moscow, at the end of February 1918, the election of the king of poets was scheduled. The elections were to be held at the Polytechnic Museum, in the Great Auditorium. A number of poets, announced in the poster, did not come - for example, K. Balmont. Poems of St. Petersburg poets were read by artists. Among the many speakers at this peculiar evening were Mayakovsky and Igor Severyanin. Passionate arguments, screams and whistles arose every now and then in the audience, and during the break it almost came to a fight between supporters of Severyanin and Mayakovsky. Mayakovsky read wonderfully. He read the beginning of "Clouds" and the just completed "Our March" ... Severyanin was elected king - Mayakovsky followed him in terms of the number of votes. It seems that thirty or forty votes have decided this mistake of the public.

An enormous wreath of myrtle, borrowed from a nearby funeral home, had been delivered in advance. It was laid on the neck of a long, skinny Severyanin in a long black frock coat, who was supposed to read poetry in a wreath. The wreath hung down to the knees. He clasped his hands behind his back, stretched out and sang something from the Northern "classics".

The same procedure was to be carried out with Mayakovsky, the elected Viceroy. But Mayakovsky with a sharp gesture pushed away both the wreath and the people who tried to put a wreath on him, and with an exclamation: “I won’t allow it!” - jumped up on the pulpit and read, standing on the table, the third part of the Cloud. Something unimaginable happened in the audience. Shouts, whistles, applause mixed into a continuous roar ... "After the elections, a special almanac" Poetry Concert. Selected Poetry for Public Reading. (M. “Enlightenment of the people”, 1918, 80 pp., 8000 copies, portrait of Igor-Severyanin on the cover). In addition to Igor-Severyanin, Maria Clark, Pyotr Larionov, Lev Nikulin, Elizaveta Panayotti, Kirill Khalafov took part in it.

In the first days of March 1918, Igor-Severyanin returned to Estonia, which, after the conclusion of the Brest Peace, was occupied by Germany. In Toila, he gets through quarantine in Narva and a filtration camp in Tallinn. He will never get to Russia again. For him, forced emigration began.

In exile in Estonia (1918-1941)

Emigration was a surprise for the poet. He arrived in Toila with his civil wife Maria Vasilievna Volnyanskaya, a performer of gypsy romances, mother Natalia Stepanovna Lotareva, nanny Maria Neupokoeva (Dur-Masha), former civil wife Elena Semyonova and daughter Valeria. There is a widespread version that even before the revolution the poet bought a dacha in the town of Toila, but this is not true: in 1918 he rented half of the house that belonged to the local carpenter Mihkel Kruut.

For some time, a large family existed at the expense of the fee for participation in the “election of the king of poets” and the earnings of M. Volnyanskaya. The poet begins his concert activity in Estonia on March 22, 1919 with a concert in Reval at the Russian Theater: Stella Arbenina, G. Rakhmatov and V. Vladimirov perform in the first part, Igor Severyanin in the second part. In total, during the years of his life in Estonia, he gave more than 40 concerts. The last public performance took place in the hall of the Brotherhood of Blackheads on March 14, 1940 - an anniversary evening on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of literary activity.

In 1921, the poet's marital status changed: he parted with M. Volnyanskaya and, in the Assumption Cathedral in Yuryev, married the landlord's daughter Felissa Kruut, married to Lotareva, who soon gave birth to a son, baptized by Bacchus. For the sake of marriage, Felissa converted from Lutheranism to Orthodoxy and became the only legal wife of the poet. Until March 1935, Felissa was the poet's guardian angel, we owe it to her that the literary work of Igor-Severyanin did not die out in exile, but developed: the verse acquired clarity and classical simplicity.

Making a choice between “a stylistic frill and a no-frills poem”, Igor-Severyanin “simplicity goes va banque” (Autobiographical novel in verse “The Bells of the Cathedral of Feelings”). Anticipating the novel in the stanzas “Royal Leander. (Lugne)”, the poet declares: “Not out of enthusiasm, not for glory \ I am writing in Onegin’s stanza \ Unpretentious chapters \ Where the spirit of poetry is alive.”

During the years of emigration, the poet published new collections of poems: Vervena (Yuriev, 1920), Minstrel (1921), Mirrelia (Berlin, 1922), Nightingale (Berlin, 1923), Classic Roses (Belgrade, 1931), and others. He created four autobiographical novels in verse: The Dew of the Orange Hour (childhood), Falling Rapids (youth), Bells of the Cathedral of Feelings (1914 tour with Mayakovsky and Bayan), Leandra's Piano. (Lugne)" (a panorama of the artistic life of St. Petersburg). A special place is occupied by the utopia "Sunny Savage" (1924).

Igor-Severyanin became the first major translator of Estonian poetry into Russian. He owns the first anthology of Estonian poetry in Russian "Poets of Estonia" (Yuriev, 1928), two collections of poems by Henrik Visnapu - "Amores" (Moscow, 1922) and "Field Violet" (Narva, 1939), two collections of poems by Alexis Rannita ( Aleksey Dolgoshev) - "In a Window Binding" (Tallinn, 1938) and "Via Dolorosa" (Stockholm, Sev.Ogni, 1940) and a collection of poems by the poetess Marie Under "Forebloom" (Tallinn, 1937).

Of undoubted interest is the collection "Medallions" (Belgrade, 1934), composed of 100 sonnets - characteristics dedicated to poets, writers and composers. In each sonnet, the names of the character's works are beaten.

Also of interest is the study “Versification Theory. Stylistics of poetics" and memoirs "My about Mayakovsky" (1940).

In the first years of emigration, the poet actively tours in Europe: Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Danzig, Czechoslovakia, Finland. In December 1930, through Riga, the poet and his wife went to Yugoslavia, where the State Commission for Russian Refugees organized a tour of Russian cadet corps and women's institutes.

In February 1931, the poet gets to Paris, where, through the efforts of Prince Felix Yusupov, two performances are organized for him in the Debussi halls (February 12) and Chopin (February 27), both halls on Rue Daru, 8. Marina Tsvetaeva was present at the second performance:

“The only joy (not counting the Russian reading of Moore, Alina’s drawing successes and my poems - for all this time - long months - is the evening of Igor Severyanin. He is more than: he remained a poet, he became one. It was twenty years old on the stage. : wrinkles like a three-hundred-year-old, but - he lifts his head - everything is gone - the nightingale! Doesn't sing! That dictionary is gone. At the meeting I will tell everything how it was, for now: my first POET, that is, the first consciousness of a POET in 9 years (as I am from Russia )".

Then there will be a tour of Bulgaria from November to December 1931 and an almost year-long tour that began in Romania in March 1933, through Bulgaria and Yugoslavia it will end in April 1934 in Chisinau, this will be the last trip abroad. The last civil wife of the poet, Vera Korendi, claimed that after 1935 she was with the poet several times in Riga, but there is no other evidence of these trips.

Women in the life and work of Igor-Severyanin occupied a special place. To the novel “The Bells of the Cathedral of Feelings” he will preface “visions of the introduction”:

In the fragrant twilight of the cathedral, Under a quiet, measured chime, Lamps of tenderness at the gaze of the icons deeply venerated by me. But before the iconic face Imprinted on the wall, the Living One met me with a cry of Love and walked towards me Trustingly, impetuously, directly, Giving everything away, not demanding anything in return. From now on, She is a deity for the temple. My beloved - now In the cathedral of my eternal feelings Rest in peace, like a goddess. And before the faces of the saints I bow reverently verse And worship their shrine. (...) In silence I perform masses, A sad mourning ceremony, And all of them, my princesses, Silently speak to me. And the louder the soundless whisper, And the more gentle the words, The harder it is for me to experience the Destruction of the deity...

The so-called "Don Juan list of the poet" is small, but notable for successive novels with several sisters: Evgenia Gutsan (Zlata) and Elizaveta Gutsan (Miss Lil), Elena Novikova (Madlena) and cousin Tiana (Tatyana Shenfeld), Dina G. and Zinaida G. (Raisa), Anna Vorobyova (Queen) and Valeria Vorobyova (Violett), Irina Borman and Antonina Borman, Vera Korendi (Zapolskaya) and Valeria Zapolskaya.

The collections "The Thundering Cup", "Zlatolira", "Pineapples in Champagne", "Poezoentrakt" are full of poems dedicated to Evgenia Gutsan - the famous Zlata. They are easily recognizable by similar plots. The most famous "Her monologue": "It can't be! you lie to me, dreams! \ You failed to forget me in separation ... \ I remembered when, in a rush of flour, \ You wanted to burn my letters ... burn! .. you! was by the sea”: “It was by the sea, where there is openwork foam, \ Where the city carriage is rarely found ... \ The queen played - in the tower of the castle - Chopin, \ And, listening to Chopin, the page fell in love with her.

To Elena Novikova - Madeleine, the poet was grateful for the all-Russian fame she brought. The famous poem "In Charm" is dedicated to her:

Perhaps because you are not young, But somehow touchingly painfully youthful, Perhaps that is why I so want to always be with you; when, laughing slyly, You open wide enticing eyes And expose your pale face to kisses, I feel that you are all bliss, all thunder, All youth, all passion; and feelings without a name Compress my heart with captivating longing, And to lose you - my fear is immeasurable ... And you, having understood me, in anxiety, suddenly droop your beautiful head nervously - And here is another you: all - autumn, all - peace ...

Fictionist Tatiana Krasnopolskaya (Schönfelt) is dedicated to the penetrating poem "Tiana":

Tiana, how wild! I'm wild, Tiana, Put your tickets in a purple envelope And wait for a pompous poetic concert: After all, before it was so simple - the moon and the clearing.

And suddenly - you, Snow Maiden, Nymphaeum, Liana, Returned to me again all the moments of those years, When I was a timid, unknown poet, Dreaming of glory - Without the glory of dope ... Tiana, how painful! I'm in pain, Tiana!

The poet's wife Felissa was sympathetic to the poet's touring novels with Valentina Bernikova in Yugoslavia, with Victoria Shea de Wandt in Chisinau. She endured drawn-out romances with Irina Borman and Evdokia Shtrandell. With the latter, also because she was the wife of the owner of a grocery store in Toila and the credit in the store depended on her. The poet talks about fatal passion in one of the letters to Countess Sophia Caruso, nee Stavrokova, we find the characteristic of E. Strandell:

“And I am dying of passion. No seriously. Can you imagine me being able to glow by the age of five? To one and one. At first, the wife did not really sympathize with this, but then she waved her hand, withdrew into herself, now watching with contemptuous irony from above and from afar. The woman, however, is charming - a Petersburger, beautiful, 27 years old. And there is a husband. The personality is rather impersonal. She visits us almost every day. The wife appreciates her great and rare tact in her. She is charmingly gracious and sweet to Fel. Mich. But this "Circe" positively destroys me: closed, cold, sensual, cautious, deceitful and changeable. But the eyes, of course, Madonna ... Jealous, tormented - saturating, does not allow to be fed up. You can't even get enough of her. With her and her. Some Lamia. Here I am frankly with you. For some reason, I wanted to tell you all this. Lately I can't even write anything. The longer this extraordinary connection lasts, the more I lose my head. I marvel at myself. And where did it all come from? In the desolate wilderness! How many, it would seem, women are everywhere on the way, so no - everyone remains alien, and this Nereid attracts more and more. I even tear up the tour after two or three months, painfully drawn by her. And often - in the midst of success, when it would be possible to work and earn.

Igor-Severyanin in regular letters to Georgy Shengeli described the state of his health. Based on the symptoms he described, MD Natan Elshtein concluded that Igor-Severyanin suffered from severe tuberculosis. The phenomenon is such that at a certain stage of the disease, tuberculosis patients become extremely loving (amorous).

School teacher Vera Borisovna Korendi (née Zapolskaya, after Korenev's husband), the poet called "a wife in conscience." According to Felissa, after the return of the poet from Chisinau, V. Korendi developed a violent activity: bombarded the poet with letters, demanded meetings, threatened suicide. On March 7, 1935, the denouement came: a quarrel, after which Felissa kicked the poet out of the house. Living with Korendi, the poet regularly wrote letters of repentance to his wife and begged her to return. When V. Korendi found out about the existence of these letters, she wrote a letter to the Estonian Literary Museum with a categorical demand to seize the “false letters” and hand them over to her for destruction.

In the summer of 1935, V. Korendi announced that her daughter, nee Valeria Porfirievna Koreneva (02/06/1932 - 06/03/1982) was in fact the fruit of secret love with the poet, which was the final reason for the break in relations. In 1951, with the help of Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky, Secretary of the Union of Writers of the USSR, Korendi obtained a Soviet passport for her daughter in the name of Valeria Igorevna Severyanina. The tombstone on her grave does not contain a date of birth. Korendi claimed that the poet demanded to hide the date of birth: "The poet's daughter belongs to eternity!"

The daughter of the poet Valery Igorevna Semenova (06/21/1913 - 12/6/1976), named after Valery Bryusov, was born in St. Petersburg. After moving to Estonia in 1918, she lived for the most part in Ust-Narva and worked in Toila on the Oktober fishing collective farm. She was buried at the cemetery in Toila, probably not far from the lost grave of Elena Yakovlevna Semenova's mother. The Estonian literary critic Rein Krus, based on a misunderstood oral story by Valeria Semenova, believed that her mother's surname was Zolotareva. The story was written down by the director of the local history museum in Ust-Narva Evgeny Krivosheev. A probable explanation: the surname was formed from a fragment of the phrase “married Lotarev” perceived by ear.

Son Vakh Igorevich (08/01/1922 - 05/22/1991) since 1944 lived in Sweden, where his children, the poet's grandchildren, now live.

Igor-Severyanin spent the last years of his life in Sarkul, a village between the mouth of the Rossoni and the coast of the Gulf of Finland. Now Sarkul is located on the territory of Russia and is notable for the fact that one of its two streets bears the name of Igor-Severyanin. The brightest event was the trip from Sarkul to Tallinn for the Nobel lecture by Ivan Bunin. The poets met on the platform of the Tapa railway station. It turned out that Bunin did not know the patronymic of a colleague by profession. We traveled to Tallinn in a dining car. Bunin offered to get off the train together, but Igor-Severyanin wished to get off his car. The brightest event of life in Ust-Narva is the arrival of Zlata (Eugenia Menneke) from Germany, self-confident, prosperous, wealthy and with a suitcase full of gifts. As a result, a quarrel with Vera Borisovna, who expected to meet her "first love" in the form of a wretched old woman.

The poet spent the winter of 1940-1941 in Paide, where Korendi got a job at a school. He was constantly sick. In Ust-Narva in May there was a sharp deterioration in the condition. With the outbreak of war, Igor-Severyanin wanted to evacuate to Russia, but due to health reasons he could not do this in a general manner. In October 1941, Korendi moved the poet to Tallinn, where he died on December 20. Some publications erroneously indicate the date of death as December 22. The origin of the error is related to the poet's death certificate published by Rein Kruus. The certificate was issued in Estonian on December 22, 1941.

Relatives of V. Korendi did not allow the poet to be buried in the family fence at the Alexander Nevsky cemetery. A place for the grave was found by chance twenty meters further to the right on the central alley, in a fence with the graves of Maria Shterk († 1903) and Maria Pnevskaya († 1910), who are neither his relatives nor acquaintances. Initially, a simple wooden cross was erected on the grave, but in the early 1950s, the writer Valentin Rushkis replaced the cross with a plaque with a quote from the poem "Classic Roses". In the late 1980s, a granite tombstone by sculptor Ivan Zubak was placed on the grave.

According to the above-mentioned professor Valmar Adams, already in the 1930s it was possible to talk about the world reception of Igor-Severyanin's work. Here, for example, is how the Slavist and literary critic from Germany, Wolfgang Kazak, evaluates the work of Igor-Severyanin

The intelligible musicality of his poems, often with rather unusual metrics, side by side with Severyanin's love for neologisms. Severyanin's bold word creation creates his style. In his neologisms there is much of his own ironic alienation, which hides the author's true emotion behind an exaggerated verbal game.

Artworks

"The Thundering Cup", M., "Vulture", 1913 (total 9 editions)
"Zlatolira", M., "Vulture", 1914 (total 6 editions)
"Pineapples in champagne", M .: Publishing House "Our Days", 1915 (4 editions)
"Victoria regia", M., "Our days", 1915 (total 3 editions)
"Poezoentrakt" M., "Our Days", 1915 (cover 1916); 3rd ed. ed. St. Petersburg, 1918
“Collection of poetry”, vols. 1-4.6. M., V. Pashukanis, 1915-18; 2nd St. Petersburg "Earth", 1918
“Behind the stringed fence of the lyre. Chosen. poetry”, M., V. Pashukanis, 1918
Poezoconcert, M., Enlightenment of the People, 1918
"Creme de Violettes. Selected Poets", Yuryev: "Odamees", 1919
"Puhajogi", Yuriev: "Odamees", 1919
"Vervain", Yuryev: "Odamees", 1920
"Minstrel. The latest poetry", Berlin: ed. "Moscow", 1921
"Mirralia", Berlin: ed. "Moscow", 1922
"Falling rapids. A novel in 2 parts, Berlin: Ed. "Otto Kirchner", 1922
"Fairy Eiole", Berlin: "Otto Kirchner & Co", 1922
"I can feel the leaves falling." Music by D.Pokrass. Notes. M., 1923 4 s.
Nightingale Berlin - Moscow: Ed. share Islands "On the Eve", 1923
“The tragedy of titan. Space. Izbornik the first”, Berlin-Moscow, “On the Eve”, 1923
Bells of the Cathedral of the Senses: Autobiography. novel at 2 o'clock, Yuryev-Tartu, ed. "V. Bergman", 1925
"The dew of the orange hour: A poem of childhood at 3 o'clock", Yuryev-Tartu, ed. "V. Bergman", 1925
"Classic roses. Poems 1922 - 1930", Belgrade, 1931. (Russian library; Book 33)
"Adriatic. Lyrics, Narva, ed. author, 1932
"Medallions" Belgrade, ed. author, 1934.
"Leander's piano. (Lugne). A novel in stanzas, Bucharest: author's edition, 1935

Exploring creativity

Criticism about the work of Igor Severyanin. Edition of V.V. Pashukanis, M., 1916. Articles by prof. R.F. Brandt, V.Ya. Bryusov, S. Bobrov.

K.I. Chukovsky. Futurists. "Polar Star", Pg., 1922. (Igor Severyanin, Kruchenykh, Vl. Khlebnikov, Vas. Kamensky, Vl. Mayakovsky

N.S. Gumilyov. Letters about Russian poetry. Central cooperative publishing house "Thought", Pg., 1923

Valmar Adams. Vene kijandus mu arm. (Bilingual edition, article "Igor the Northerner's Utopia") Eesti Raamat, Tallinn, 1977.

Yuri Shumakov. I would like to stick to my native shore ... Igor-Severyanin and his entourage in Estonia. Union of Slavic educational and charitable societies in Estonia. Tallinn, 1992.

Vitaly Minin. Manor "Soivola". Poetic cradle of Igor Severyanin. Cherepovets Museum Association, Cherepovets, 2002.

Vera Kruglova. The warmth of days gone by (Narva), 1998.

Igor Severyanin. Letters to Augusta Baranova. 1916-1938. Compilation, preparation of the text, introduction and comments: Bengt Jangfeldt and Rein Kruus. Almqvist & Wiksell International, Stocholm / Sweden.

Mikhail Shapovalov. King of Poets. "Globe", M., 1997.

A.V. Krusanov. Russian Vanguard. "New Literary Review", M., 2003. Volume II, book 2.

Mikhail Petrov. A glass of forgiveness. Materials for the biography of Igor-Severyanin. Narva, 2004.

Mikhail Petrov. Aging poet. Play. Reval, 2005.

Mikhail Petrov. Don Juan list of Igor-Severyanin. Narva. 2009.

Igor Severyanin. Autobiographical materials. Letters. Criticism. Compiled by V.Trekhina and N.Shubnikova. Rostok, St. Petersburg, 2005.

Dictionary of the literary environment of Igor-Severyanin (1905-1941). Bio-bibliographic edition in 2 volumes. Compiled by the candidate of philological sciences D.S. Prokofiev. IS, Pskov, 2007.

Boris Podberezin. My northerner. "Literary Brotherhood", Riga, 2013.

Igor Severyanin. Complete works in one volume. Compiled by M. Petrov. "Alfa-Kniga", M., 2014.

Editions

Igor Severyanin. Poems, L.: Soviet writer, 1975 - 490s. (Poet's Bible, small series)

Wreath to the poet (Igor-Severyanin). - Tallinn: Eesti Raamat, 1987.
Severyanin I. Poems. - Tallinn: Eesti Raamat, 1987.
Severyanin I. Poems. - M.: Sov. Russia, 1988. - 464 p. (Poetic Russia)
Igor Severyanin. Poems. Poems. publishing house "Russian North", Arkhangelsk, 1988.
Severyanin I. Minstrel. - M .: Young Guard, 1989 (Reprint 1921)
Severyanin I. Works. - Tallinn: Eesti raamat, 1990.
Severyanin I. Pineapples in champagne. M .: Association "Globe", (part of the shooting range - in morocco and leather), 1990.
Severyanin I. Nightingale. Poetry. - M.: "Soyuzteatr" STD USSR, TOMO, 1990. (Reprint 1923)
Severyanin I. Classic roses. Medallions. M.: Hudlit, 1990. - 224 p. (series "The Forgotten Book")
Severyanin I. Poems and poems (1918-1941), letters to G. Shengeli, M .: Sovremennik, 1990.
Severyanin I. Pineapples in champagne. Poetry. - M.: Book, 1991. - 143 p. (Reprint 1915)
Severyanin I. Creme de Violettes. - M.: Book, 1994 (Reprint 1919)
Severyanin I. Favorites. "Lyumosh", 1995 - 400 p. (ISBN: 5-7717-0002-9 / 5771700029)
Severyanin I. Collected works in 5 volumes, St. Petersburg: "Logos", 1995 - 1996
Severyanin I. Unanswered toast. - M.: Respublika, 1999.
Severyanin I. I have been elected the king of poets. - M.: EKSMO-Press, 2000.
Severyanin I. Poems. - M.: Ellis Luck, 2000, 2003.
Igor Severyanin. Four books of poetry. Early books. Versification theory. M.: "Nauka", 2004-870 p.
Igor-Severyanin. Screw. Engineer's Notes. - Ed. Mikhail Petrov, 2005.
Igor Lotarev. Nine poems about the Russo-Japanese War. - Ed. Mikhail Petrov. Reval, 2005.
Igor-Severyanin. Posthumous poems to one beautiful lady. - Foreword by T. Alexandrova, afterword by M. Petrov. Tallinn - Moscow, 2005.
Igor-Severyanin in translations. - Published by Mikhail Petrov, Tallinn, 2007.
Severyanin I. Complete works in one volume. - M.: Alfa-Kniga, 2014.

Igor Severyanin (pseudonym of Igor Vasilievich Lotarev) (1887-1941) was born in St. Petersburg, the son of an officer. He studied at the Cherepovets real school. He began to publish in 1905 in provincial newspapers. His first collection of poems, The Lightning Lightning of Thought, was published in 1908. Since 1911, he was the head of the ego-futurists who published the newspaper Petersburg Herald. Severyanin's books of poetry: "The Thundering Cup" (1913) withstood seven editions in two years), "Zlatolira" (1914), "Pineapples in Champagne" (1915), "Victoria Regia" (1915), "Poezoantrakt" (l915). At an evening at the Polytechnic Museum in Moscow, he was proclaimed by the public as the "King of Poets". The second was Mayakovsky. In March of the same year he left for Estonia and soon found himself cut off from his homeland. He never returned to Russia, although he yearned for her. He failed, despite his ardent desire, to escape to his homeland in June 1941, when Estonia was captured by Nazi troops. He died in Tallinn.

The Severyanin (Igor Vasilyevich Lotarev) was proud of his kinship with two famous people in the history of Russian literature.

The poet's friend, priest Sergius Polozhensky, brought the Shenshin family from the depths of the 15th century, calling it the ancestor of Samuil "Shenshu". In this glorious noble family we find Major Boris Shenshin in the 18th century. His grandson Sergiy Leontievich Shenshin had the rank of collegiate assessor and served as the chief of police of the Shchigrovsky district of the Kursk province, and his son, Stepan Sergeyevich, is known to us as the leader of the district nobility. He was married to Olga Kozminichna Deberina. The marriage was successful. Six children were born: sons - Iosaf (lieutenant), Nikolai (hussar), Mikhail (died hunting in his youth), daughters - Alexandra, Elizabeth and Natalia.

A wealthy landowner, captain Afanasy Neofitovich Shenshin, when he was in Germany, married the widow Charlotte Fet (Foeth), née Becker. Afanasy Afanasyevich, the future poet, was born from a marriage with Charlotte. Until the age of 14, Athanasius was written by Shenshin, but it suddenly turned out that the Lutheran blessing for marriage in Russia had no legal force, and the Orthodox wedding of his parents took place after his birth. From that moment on, he began to bear the name of his mother.

But let's get back to Natalya Stepanovna Shenshina, whose first marriage was to Lieutenant General, engineer Georgy Ivanovich Domontovich, from whom she had a daughter, Zoya, who died in her youth. It was Zoya who was the link that connected Igor Vasilyevich Lotarev with the Domontovich family. Through kinship with Zoya, the poet was in property (not consanguinity through marriage or marriage) with several well-known people in the history of the Russian state at once. Here are some of them - the brothers of Georgy Domontovich: the vowel of the St. Petersburg Duma Ivan Ivanovich Domontovich, the senator Konstantin Ivanovich Domontovich, General Mikhail Alekseevich Domontovich (cousin). Igor Severyanin. Poems. M. Russia, 2007. Entry. article by V.P. Koshelev, p. 7

Senator Konstantin Domontovich was married to Adelaide Konstantinovna Muravinskaya, whose sister Evgenia Konstantinovna Muravinskaya became famous throughout Russia as a soloist of the Mariinsky Theater (coloratura soprano). Her stage name was Mravina, and the roles were Manon Lescaut in Manon by J. Massenet, Gilda in Rigoletto and Violetta in G. Verdi's La Traviata, Mimi in D. Puccini's La Boheme. One of the most brilliant beauties of St. Petersburg, Evgenia Mravina, died in the Crimea after a severe and prolonged illness in October 1914. Igor-Severyanin dedicated the essay "The Tragic Nightingale" to Mravina. By the way, in the note "Relatives and" -chki "" the poet stubbornly calls her Muravinsky, although, according to the widow of the conductor Yevgeny Mravinsky A.M. the poet can only be explained by wrong perception by ear.

The daughter of cousin Mikhail Alekseevich Domontovich was Shurochka, known to us as Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai. Kuzina Shurochka became famous for her advanced views on sex and marriage, took part in the revolutionary movement and was the first woman in the world to receive the rank of ambassador. In the 1920s, there were rumors about her among the Russian emigration that she outshone royalty with her outfits, furs and diamonds. Alexandra Mikhailovna remains perhaps the most mysterious woman in Soviet Russia. It is said that until a very old age, she drove men crazy. However, for us this does not matter at all, because she is dear to us only by the mere recollection of the poet, in which he appears before us "a little boy with a white collar and not childishly sad eyes."

The paternal line seems to us less ramified, although here there are names worthy of mention. Vasily Petrovich Lotarev rose to the rank of staff captain. After retiring, he tried to do business in his homeland, but extremely unsuccessfully and who knows how he ended up in China. At that time, the Russian army was settling in the ports of Dalniy (Dalian) and Port Arthur (Luishun). Vasily Petrovich, obviously, participated in some kind of army supplies, but not for long - illness prevented him. He died of consumption in Yalta on June 10, 1904.

The paternal family included merchants, engineers, chemists and lawyers. Of interest to us is the cousin of the future poet Viktor Alexandrovich Zhurov, the son of Elisaveta Petrovna Lotareva and the Moscow merchant Alexander Irodionovich Zhurov, a graduate of the law faculty of Moscow University. Zhurov is better known as the baritone Vittorio Andoga. Tradition says that he even became a director at the famous La Scala theater in Milan. The cousin was married to Natalia Fesenko from Odessa, known to us as the opera singer Aida Marchella.

This was written almost a quarter of a century later, but how excellently good and still fresh are the "eyes, melting at the bottom of their ecstasies." Without any doubt, Elizabeth always made a strong impression on her cousin. It suffices to find in the "Thunder-boiling Cup" the poem "Excessive Woman", in which the poet admits: "I did not see a cousin in a cousin, and it is hardly my fault."

Igor-Severyanin did not leave us his biography, but there are many interesting details in the childhood poem "The Dew of the Orange Hour". The text of the poem is now available, which eliminates the need to retell them, so I will mention only those that directly relate to the poet's parents.

The poet tells about his father that he was from the Vladimir philistines by origin. Vasily Lotarev, together with his brother Mikhail, spent his childhood and adolescence in one of the German pensions in Revel. He studied in St. Petersburg at the Engineering School (Mikhailovsky or Engineering Castle), having received an engineering specialty - a sapper and an officer's rank, he was recruited into the 1st railway battalion (later a regiment). My father was well-read, knew several languages, loved the theater. Of officer entertainment, he preferred orgies and revels, had an increased weakness for the female sex.

Mother, according to the poet, until the age of twenty-two had no idea what a kitchen was. In her youth, the future Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Boris Shtyurmer, wooed her, but she married Lieutenant General Georgy Domontovich, who was much older than her. The husband took part in the construction of the Admiralty in St. Petersburg and the Trinity Bridge across the Neva. His family, however, had nothing to do with Hetman Dovmont, as Igor-Severyanin believed. The acquaintance of the general's widow, Domontovich, and adjutant Vasily Lotarev took place in the Gorna cafe in Mayorengof. Their son Igor was born on May 4 (old style) 1887 in St. Petersburg, in a house on Gorokhovaya Street.

The work of Severyanin also reflected such episodes of his childhood as mother's stories about the friends of her first husband. The poem contains a story about how Lieutenant General Domontovich played weekly screw with four admirals von Berents, Kroun, Dugamel and Puzino. All four characters are undoubtedly real historical figures. For example, the name of Rear Admiral Orest Polikarpovich Puzino is often found in Russian maritime literature, and two capes were named after Alexander Yegorovich Kroun at the end of the 19th century: the first on the Korean Peninsula in the Sea of ​​Japan, the second in the Bering Sea in Providence Bay.

A reference to the poems of the poetess Maria (Mirra) Alexandrovna Lokhvitskaya, who died at the age of 36, will help to better understand the origin of these "dreams". “She died in August 1905, and the poet never knew her personally, but he chose her as his Beautiful Lady, he worshiped her, praised her in verse” Pinaev S.M. Above the bottomless pit into eternity... Russian poetry of the Silver Age. M.: Unicum-Center, Pomatur, 2001

In the poetry of the "Silver Age" it is difficult to find a more striking example of the worship of one poet to another than the worship of Igor the Severyanin Mirra Lokhvitskaya. He devoted many poems to Lokhvitskaya, and many times used her motives in his poems. Igor-Severyanin, however, never thought about the fact that Maria Alexandrovna Lokhvitskaya, so dear to his heart, was possessed by demonomania, and in a severe form. He simply followed her, obeying her call: "Follow me, tired of the yoke of doubt! You who drink greedily from the muddy wave."

The poet began to openly bow before Mirra Lokhvitskaya only after almost five years, although he later claimed that the beginning was laid in August 1905 immediately after her death: “Your voice, unabsorbed by me, is familiar to me”; "And truthful, and innocent, and beautiful! .. She died, hurting us ...". He brought flowers to her grave, swore love, celebrated her birthday in November, came to the cemetery in May on his birthday, asked her for advice, took her lines as epigraphs to his poems.

But despite the abundance of verses dedicated to Mirra Lokhvitskaya, the poet did not leave us an exact indication of the specific reasons for his prayerful attitude towards her: "Only to a poet she is dear, only to a poet she shines like a star!" must be endowed with real talents and unearthly beauty in life. But the case of worshiping Mirra Lokhvitskaya somehow does not fit into the standard beautiful lady's dimensions:

I put Lokhvitskaya above all:

And Byron, and Pushkin, and Dante.

I myself shine in the rays of her talent.

Before talking about the poet's work, it is necessary to talk about his unusual literary pseudonym. The form of the literary pseudonym chosen by Igor Lotarev, even for Russian literature rich in all sorts of delights, seems rather unusual. I always adhere to the rule of writing it with a hyphen, not separating it like a first and last name, for the simple reason that he himself came up with it. It's wild to read literary articles and journalism, in which the poet is called Igor Vasilyevich Severyanin.

Pre-revolutionary criticism and journalism, together with publishers, could not come to terms with the hyphen in the pseudonym and stubbornly reproduced the pseudonym in the form of a first and last name. “The first 15 brochures and two separate poems published by the poet at his own expense are signed by his civil name - Igor Lotarev” Site information http://severyanin.narod.ru/

Another 20 small collections of poems were already published under the pseudonym "Igor-Severyanin". The first major publisher of Igor Lotarev's poems, Sergei Krechetov - "Vulture" * categorically opposed writing a pseudonym with a hyphen. "The Loud-boiling Cup", "Zlatolira" in the edition of Grif, as well as the collections "Pineapples in Champagne" and "Victoria Regia" that followed them in the publishing house "Our Days" were published without a hyphen. The well-known publisher Vikentiy Pashukanis, who published the collected works of the poet, did not find it possible to reproduce the hyphen. Nevertheless, in Pashukanis's "Thunder-boiling Cup" there was a photograph of the author with a reproduced autograph "Igor-Severyanin".

In the editions of the Estonian time, there is a discrepancy. So, in the early Estonian editions of "Creme des Violettes", "Vervain", "The Dew of the Orange Hour", "The Bells of the Cathedral of Feelings", the pseudonym is reproduced in the author's spelling, and in the Berlin editions of the same period and in later Estonian editions, the hyphen in it again disappears .

The manuscript of the unpublished collection "Lyrika" with poems of 1918-1928 - the pseudonym on the cover is written out with a hyphen. The same picture in the manuscripts "Tuning the lyre", "Timpani of the sun", "Medallions". The prefaces to both of Rannita's books are signed with the pseudonym "Igor the Severyanin". All known autographs of the poet, with the exception of the one referred to by V. Ilyashevich *, contain a hyphen in the spelling of the pseudonym. On the books given to my wife* and in letters to her, in letters to Georgy Shengeli, in letters to Irina Borman*, one can see an abbreviated form of the pseudonym "Igor. -" Now I open two of the most important documents - two wills, one of which is dated March 9, 1940 year, and the other on October 20 of the same year. In both documents we find a signature in the form of a full pseudonym with the addition of the civil name of the poet: "Igor-Severyanin. (Lotarev)". Such is the "late Severyanin without a hyphen."

He became the founder of ego-futurism, in addition to mere futurism, proclaiming the cult of individualism, towering over the faceless crowd of ordinary people. But this pleasantly tickled the vanity of the townsfolk themselves. With futurism, Mayakovsky Severyanin was united by shocking mischief, contempt for militaristic patriotism and a mockery of the musty artificial world of deadly boring classicists. However, the bourgeoisie, which Severyanin teased and mockingly teased with ridicule, became his main admirer. At a poetry evening at the Polytechnic Museum, Severyanin was elected the King of Poets, despite the presence of Blok and Mayakovsky. The northerner enjoyed introducing into poetry such then new words as "cinema", "auto", and invented a bunch of parlor-technical neologisms. His bizarre grandiloquence sometimes sounded like self-parody. He never hesitated to call himself a genius, but in everyday life he was very simple. Young Antokolsky was shocked when Severyanin, in his presence, ordered in a restaurant not "pineapples in champagne", not "lilac ice cream", but a damask of vodka and a pickle. For all his "reverie" Severyanin is a very Russian, provincial-theatrical phenomenon. But on the other hand, he has one quality of a real poet - you can never confuse his poems with anyone. When Severyanin emigrated, the émigré writers, not as famous as he, took vengeance on him for his fame with their arrogance, lordly disdain, which Severyanin himself never had. Removed from the list of "real poets," Severyanin found himself all alone in Estonia, and after its annexation, he wrote an ode saluting, in the style of his early neologisms, the "sixteen-republic Union." It was not a political poem, but rather a nostalgic one. The northerner was happy before his death, having received a letter from his admirers from somewhere in Altai. He did not even suspect that his name in the Stalinist USSR was overgrown with legends, and his poems were copied by hand. But he foresaw this in his bitter paraphrase of Myatlev: "How good, how fresh will be the roses of my country thrown into my coffin!" A flirtatious talent, artificial in a way. But his flirtatiousness is irresistibly charming, and his artificiality is the most natural. According to a well-known expression, many tragedies end in farce. In the case of Severyanin, the farce turned into a tragedy.

Turning directly to the analysis of the work of the ego-futurist, it should be noted that Igor-Severyanin's favorite poetic forms were the sonnet and rondo, although he also invented such forms that the art of versification was unknown to him before: minionette, diesel, kenzel, sexta, rondolet, roll, overflow , splash, quintine, square of squares.

He often named his poems after the names of musical genres and forms: "Overture", "Rondo", "Intermezzo", "Sonata", "Introduction", "Prelude", "Ballad", "Fantasy", "Romance", "Improvisation". ", "Leitmotif", "Canon", "Dithyramb", "Hymn", "Elegy", "Symphony", "Duet of Souls", "Quartet" M. Petrov. A glass of forgiveness.//http://www.hot.ee/interjer/bocal/bocal-0.html. Konstantin Fofanov has several nocturnes, but Igor-Severyanin has more - 9 pieces in the first five collections of poems. The poet's favorite musical form is the song: "Song", "Chanson russe", "Chanson coquette", "Chansonette of the maid", "Brindisi" (Italian drinking song), "Epitalama" (wedding song), "Serenade". There are also lullabies - "Berceus lilac", "Crimson berceus", "Berceus languor". Igor-Severyanin paid tribute to the dance: "Champagne Polonaise", "Habanera", "Cadrillon" (from quadrille - pair dance), "Waltz", "Dance of May", "Foxtrott". By the way, he did not like the foxtrot and called it a vertical bed.

The thirty years between his literary debut (1905) and emigration (1918) were years of storm and stress for Severyanin. Before the release of The Loud-Boiling Cup (1913) - the first book - I. Severyanin published 35 brochures with poems, created the "Academy of Egopoetry" and the literary direction of egofuturism, performed with numerous "poetry concerts" in all corners of the Russian Empire, caused ridicule and scolding of critics and delights of crowded audiences. Self-promotion, posture, triviality veiled with irony - none of these or other qualities, however, could affect the judgments of serious criticism. V. Bryusov saw in I. Severyanin "a true poet, deeply experiencing life." Gumilyov, who was skeptical about ego-futuristic innovation, admitted: "Of all those who dare ... Igor Severyanin is perhaps the most interesting of all: he dares the most" Pinaev S.M. Above the bottomless pit into eternity... Russian poetry of the Silver Age. M.: Unicum-Center, Pomatur, 2001

From the beginning of 1918, the poet settled in the quiet Estonian village of Toila. Beginning in 1921, he resumed his "poetry concerts", performed poetry readings in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania, Germany, France, and Finland. In total, he appeared before the audience even more than at the time of his "boiling" success in Russia. How much - nibul significant funds "poezoconcerts" did not bring. In one of his emigrant letters we read: "Everything that I earn goes to pay off the debt. We literally do not allow ourselves anything ..." Trips, however, were episodic. “So, I’m sitting in the wilderness, completely renouncing “cultural” temptations, among nature and love,” Severyanin wrote about his everyday life.

The myth about the elimination of I. Severyanin from emigration was repeated more than once. But his numerous performances before an émigré audience testify otherwise. In exile, the poet works tirelessly. His poems are published in many Russian newspapers - in Harbin, Paris, Tallinn, Riga, Kovno, Berlin. More than 20 of his books were published in exile, including collections of translations. A significant number of poems have not yet been published.

Igor Severyanin (for most of his literary activity, the author preferred the spelling Igor-Severyanin; real name Igor Vasilyevich Lotarev; May 4 (May 16 NS) 1887, St. Petersburg - December 20, 1941, Tallinn) - Russian poet of the Silver Age.

Born in St. Petersburg in the family of military engineer Vasily Petrovich Lotarev (1860-1904) (a distant relative of N. M. Karamzin and A. A. Fet by mother, second cousin of A. M. Kollontai). The first 9 years he spent in St. Petersburg.

After the breakup of his parents, he lived with his aunt and uncle on their estate in the Novgorod province. Having finished four classes of the Cherepovets real school, in 1904 he left with his father for the Far East. Then he returned back to Petersburg, to his mother.

The first publications appeared in 1904 (at his own expense), later for nine years Severyanin published thin brochures with poems, which for a long time brought only scandalous fame (for example, Leo Tolstoy's replicated indignant review of one of his poems in early 1910) .

Of the poets of the older generation, at first only Konstantin Fofanov drew attention to the young Severyanin (subsequently Severyanin declared him and Mirra Lokhvitskaya to be teachers and forerunners of ego-futurism).

Success came to the poet after the publication of the collection The Thundering Cup (1913, the preface to which was written by F. Sologub).

During 1913-1914. Severyanin performed with many evenings (“poetry concerts”) in Moscow and St. Petersburg, meeting with great popularity among the public and sympathetic reviews from critics of various orientations, including those who were skeptical of futurism.

His lyrics are characterized by a bold for the taste of that time (to the point of parody) aestheticization of the images of the salon, the modern city (“airplanes”, “chauffeurs”) and the play of romantic individualism and “egoism”, conditional romantic-fairy-tale images.

Severyanin's verse is musical (in many respects he continues the traditions of Balmont), the poet often uses long lines, solid forms (some invented by himself), alliteration, dissonant rhymes.

Severyanin was the founder of the literary movement of ego-futurism (beginning of 1912), however, having quarreled with Konstantin Olimpov (Fofanov’s son), who claimed leadership in the movement, in the fall of 1912 he left the “Academy of Ego-Poetry” (he announced his withdrawal from the movement with the famous “poetry”, beginning “ I, the genius Igor-Severyanin…”). Subsequently, he went on a tour of Russia in 1914 with cubo-futurists (Mayakovsky, Kruchenykh, Khlebnikov).

The collections of 1914-1915 that came out after the "Boiling Cup" ("Victoria regia", "Zlatolira", "Pineapples in champagne") were perceived by critics more coolly than "The Cup": Severyanin included in them a large number of early, immature "poets", and new texts from these books largely exploited the imagery "Cup", without adding anything new.

In 1915-1917. Severyanin supported (joint performances, tours, collections) a number of young authors, most of whom did not leave any trace in literature; Severyanin's most notable student of this period was Georgy Shengeli, who retained his gratitude to his teacher and dedicated several poems to his memory after Severyanin's death.

The poetics of Severyanin of this period also had a certain influence on the early work of such famous poets as Georgy Ivanov, Vadim Shershenevich, Rurik Ivnev, who later joined other areas.

Of the thirty-eight years of literary activity, Severyanin spent almost twenty-four years in Estonia, where he moved in 1918. In 1921 he married an Estonian Felissa Kruut (his only registered marriage). Later he traveled with performances to France and Yugoslavia.

Severyanin's later lyrics depart in many respects from his style of the 1910s. His most notable works of this period are several well-known poems (“The Nightingales of the Monastery Garden”, “Classic Roses”), autobiographical novels in verse “The Bells of the Cathedral of Feelings”, “The Dew of the Orange Hour”, “Falling Rapids” and the collection of sonnets “Medallions "(portraits of writers, artists, composers, both classics and contemporaries of Severyanin).

He translated poems by A. Mickiewicz, P. Verlaine, C. Baudelaire, Estonian and Yugoslav poets.

No other Russian poet has reflected the nature and life of Estonia so widely in his poems as Igor Severyanin. He also became the largest translator of Estonian poetry into Russian.

Among the Estonian poets whose works Severyanin translated into Russian are Henrik Visnapuu, Maria Under, Alexis Rannit, Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, Friedrich Kulbars, Lydia Koidula, Juhan Liiv, Gustav Suits, Friedebert Tuglas, Johannes Barbarus and Johannes Semper.

After the annexation of Estonia to the Soviet Union in 1940, he resumed his creative activity, trying to publish in the Soviet press.

He died in German-occupied Tallinn from a heart attack, in the presence of Valeria, the younger sister of his civil wife Vera Borisovna Korendi (maiden name - Zapolskaya, Korendi - the Estonianized surname of her first husband Korenov).

He was buried at the Alexander Nevsky cemetery in Tallinn.

— Works
* "Spring Day" (1911)
* "Grözerki rocking chair" (1912)
* "The Thundering Cup" (1913)
* "With a Lilac Cross" (1913)
* "Zlatolira" (1914)
* Pineapples in Champagne (1915)
* "Victoria regia" (1915)
* "Poezoentrakt" (1915)
* "Collection of poetry" (1916)
* "Behind the stringed fence of the lyre" (1918)
* "Poezo Concert" (1918)
* "Collection of Poetry" (1918)
* Creme de Violettes (1919)
* "Puhajogi" (1919)
* "Vervain" (1920)
* Minstrel (1921)
* "Mirreliya" (1922)
* Novel in verse "Falling rapids" (1922)
* Comedy "Plymouthrock" (1922)
* "Fairy Eiole" (1922)
* Nightingale (1923)
* "Tragedy of the Titan" (1923)
* Autobiographical novel in verse "The Bells of the Cathedral of Feelings" (1925)
* "The Dew of the Orange Hour" (1925)
* Novel in verse "Royal Leander" (1925)
* "Adriatic" (1932)
* "Medallions" (1934)
* Handwritten poetry collection "Timpani of the Sun" (1934, was not published)

My ambiguous glory

My unique talent...
I. Severyanin

Childhood of Igor Vasilyevich

In fact, Severyanin is a literary pseudonym. In 1887, Igor Vasilievich Lotarev was born in St. Petersburg in the family of a retired staff captain, a cultured family that loved literature and music, especially opera (“I heard one Sobinov at least forty times”). Igor's mother came from a noble family of the Shenshin family. A. Fet, N. Karamzin belonged to this well-known family. The parents separated. And all subsequent years, Igor Vasilyevich lived in the Novgorod province in the Cherepovets district. The future poet lived on the estate of his father's sister.

Traveling around the native country and the beginning of creativity

Then Igor Severyanin travels all over Russia with his father. Then he goes to the Far East, where he stays for several years. And in the year nineteen hundred and four he returns to his mother. It is there that he will meet many future famous poets, writers, cultural figures. Severyanin himself will call his early editions pamphlets. The young poet sent out his poetic experiences to various editions, which regularly returned back. However, in 1905 the poem "The Death of Rurik" was published, followed by a number of separate poems.

The appearance of a pseudonym or big name

A new era began in Russian literature and poetry. Lotarev, or the future Igor Severyanin, whose biography was such that he appeared as a poet at the same time, will become truly famous much later. But it was at this time that his literary pseudonym appeared. At first it was Igor-Severyanin, that is, through a hyphen, and a little later this sign will disappear and a big name will remain.

Interesting facts about the poet's work

The first poet who welcomed the appearance of "Severyanin in poetry" was K. Fofanov (1907), the second - V. Bryusov (1911).

One of the poems, which begins like this: "Put the corkscrew into the elasticity of the cork ...", was read in Tolstoy's house in Yasnaya Polyana. It was an ordinary noble life - reading books aloud. The entire pamphlet of Severyanin caused an unusual revival, but this work made a splash. Everyone laughed at the unusual moves of the author's new poetry. But unexpectedly, Lev Nikolaevich got angry and said: "There are gallows around, murders, funerals, and they have a corkscrew in a traffic jam." Soon these words were replicated in many newspapers. So Igor Vasilyevich Severyanin gained fame. His biography and work became popular the very next morning.

The true popularity of the creator and the most famous book

But the real glory came after the publication of the book "The Thundering Cup". This was followed by other collections of poems by Severyanin - Zlatolira (1914), Pineapples in Champagne (1915) and others, which were reprinted many times. Severyanin's name was associated with a new trend in literature - futurism. In 1912, a direction of ego-futurism developed, and Severyanin was at the head of it. Then he will move away from his brothers.

The search for the creative circle

There was much that was new in Igor Vasilyevich's verses. After all, it is no coincidence that he declared himself as a poet who changed the course of Russian literature and poetry. He was an innovator in the field of poetic language, was engaged in word creation, introduced many new words into Russian literature. The Severyanin was so versatile.

King of Poets

Severyanin spoke at the Polytechnic Museum, at an evening of poetry. It was February 27, 1918. Evenings were regularly held there, where poets of various schools of trends performed. Previously, posters were posted, where everyone was invited to the competition for the title of "king of poetry."
The stage was as crowded as a tram. Severyanin's manner of reading acted hypnotically on the public.
The election of the "king" was accompanied by a playful crowning with a mantle and a crown, but it is known that the poet himself took this very seriously. In May, the almanac "Poezokontsert" was published with a portrait of Igor-Severyanin on the cover indicating his new title.

From the memoirs of Gergy Ivanov - "Petersburg Winters":
"Then Severyanin was at the zenith of his fame. Triumphant trips around Russia. The huge hall of the City Duma, which did not accommodate everyone who wanted to get to his" poetry evenings ". Thousands of fans, flowers, cars, champagne. It was a real, somewhat acting, perhaps glory ".

From the memories of Vs. Rozhdestvensky about poetry evenings:

“The poet appeared on stage in a long frock coat, narrow at the waist. He kept himself straight, looked at the hall slightly from above, occasionally shaking his black curls hanging over his forehead.

Laying his hand behind his back or crossing them on his chest near a lush orchid in his buttonhole, he began in a dead voice, more and more intoned, with a special cadenza, inherent only to him, with fading, rises and a sharp break in a poetic line ...

The mournfully intoxicating melody of the half-chant half-chant powerfully and hypnotizingly captured the listeners ... "

last years of life

In 1920, Severyanov went on vacation to the Estonian seaside village of Toila, and in 1920 Estonia seceded from Russia. The poet ended up in forced exile.
He lived with Felissa Krut for 16 years. She protected him from all worldly problems. Before his death, he admitted that breaking up with her in 1935 was a tragic mistake.
And there, cut off from Russia, Igor Vasilievich Severyanin will continue to create and create a kind of epic lyrics that will reflect a person's life, suffering and ideas of happiness.
While in exile, he published collections of poems "Vervena" (1920), "Minstrel" (1921), a novel in verse "Falling rapids" and others. He published an anthology of Estonian classical poetry.
In recent years, he lived very poorly in Estonia.

"I have a blue boat,
I have a poetess wife.

He was starving. For whole days he fished from his blue boat and from the sparkling water ripples began to lose his sight.

The accession of Estonia to the Soviet Union in 1940 awakened in him hopes for the publication of his poems, the possibility of traveling around the country. Illness prevented the implementation of not only these plans, but even the departure from Estonia when the war began.
On December 22, 1941, Severyanin died in Nazi-occupied Tallinn.
A northerner once prophetically wrote: “How good, how fresh the roses will be, / Thrown into my grave by my country!”

Brief biography from the book: Russian writers and poets. Brief biographical dictionary. Moscow, 2000.

Igor Severyanin (real name and surname Lotarev Igor Vasilyevich; 1887-1941). Born in St. Petersburg in the family of an officer, on the maternal side was a descendant of Karamzin and a distant relative of Fet. He graduated from a real school in the city of Cherepovets, composed poetry from childhood, the first poem about the Russian-Japanese war appeared in print in 1905 in the magazine "for soldiers and lower ranks" "Leisure and business".

Youthful experiences did not attract the attention of readers and criticism, and the poet had to publish more than thirty different booklets-brochures at his own expense, sending them out for review to the editors of magazines and eminent people ("Zarnitsy thought", 1908; "Intuitive colors", 1908; "Necklace Princess"; 1910; "Electric Poems", 1910, etc.).

In 1909, Leo Tolstoy became indignant at the collection “Intuitive Colors” (the great old man was outraged by the lines: “Put a corkscrew into the elasticity of the cork / And the eyes of women will not be timid”) and attacked the poet with a rebuke. “With the light hand of Tolstoy, everyone who was not lazy began to scold me. Magazines began to publish my poems willingly, the organizers of charity evenings strongly invited me to take part in them.

In 1911, together with the poet Kolimpov, the son of Fofanov, he declared himself the founder of a new poetic school - ego-futurism. In The Prologue of Egofuturism (1911) he manifested: "We live in sharp and instantaneous ... and every word is a surprise"; in his poems, narcissism and self-praise took hypertrophied - on the verge of parody and vulgarity - forms: "I, the genius Igor Severyanin, am intoxicated with my victory."

Triumphant fame came to the poet in 1913, after the release of the collection The Thundering Cup. Soon, Igor Severyanin refuses to participate in any literary associations, preferring not to share laurels with anyone. The following collections, Zlatolir, Pineapples in Champagne, Poezoantrakt (1915) and others, did not add anything new to the current image of the salon-boudoir poet, disappointed serious readers who placed hopes on Severyanin to update the poetic language, but secured his reputation "The idol of high school students."

In February 1918, in the hall of the Polytechnic Museum, Severyanin was elected the "king of poets" (to the annoyance of his rivals - V. Mayakovsky, K. Balmont). In the same year, he leaves for Estonia and, after proclaiming it an independent state, finds himself cut off from his homeland.

During the years of emigration, Severyanin published 17 books, but there were fewer and fewer readers, the circulation of books was scanty, and even they did not disperse. The last years the poet spent in need and obscurity. Igor Severyanin owns one of the most famous lines in the literature of the Russian diaspora: “How good, how fresh the roses will be, Thrown to me by my country in a coffin!”