Date of birth: October 3, 1895
Date of death: December 28, 1925
Place of birth: Konstantinovo village, Ryazan province

Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin - famous Russian poet, Yesenin S.A. - a follower of Imagism and peasant lyrics, was born on October 3, 1895 in the village of Konstantinovo.

His father Alexander Nikitich Yesenin was a peasant who moved with his family to Moscow and worked as a clerk in a small butcher's shop.

The poet's mother, Tatyana Fedorovna Titova, did not live with her husband for long, when the child was 2 years old, she went to work in Ryazan, and Yesenin was raised by her maternal grandparents.

Grandfather was a prosperous peasant, Yesenin's three uncles also lived in the house, who taught him horse riding, swimming and field work. The stories of the grandmother, who introduced her grandson to folklore and folk art, had a great influence on the poet's work. It was her stories, ditties and songs that caused Yesenin's love for poetry and pushed him to write his own poems. Grandfather also taught Yesenin to read and write from church books.

In 1904, Yesenin began his studies at the zemstvo school in the village of Konstantinovo, and five years later he entered the church teacher's school, which he graduated in 1912 with a teacher's diploma. After receiving his diploma, Sergei went to Moscow to his father, he worked with his father in a butcher's shop, and then began working in the printing house of I.D. Sytin. In 1913, he began attending Shanyavsky's Moscow City People's University.

His first poems were published in 1915 in the Mirok magazine. She began writing her own poems as a child. Studying at the church teacher's school allowed him to improve the skill of versification. He continued to write actively, but the opportunity for publication appeared only after moving to Moscow.

In 1915, after the first publications, he met Gorodetsky and Blok. These names were already significant for Russian literature. In Petrograd, Yesenin began military service and was assigned to Tsarskoye Selo. Once he even spoke with his poems to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

His first independent collection of poems "Radunitsa" was published a year later. Radunitsa is the name of a special day in the peasant calendar when the dead are commemorated. The same word was called spring folk songs, stoneflies. The name can be interpreted in different ways. This collection, filled with sadness, sadness and love for the native nature, made the poet popular, brought him public recognition, drew the attention of critics to him.

Yesenin met the Imagists closer to the 20s. He immediately became interested in the ideas of creating deep images, metaphor. It was after his passion for new ideas that he released many collections of poems, which were also received by the public with a warm welcome.

During this period, the collections "Treryadnitsa", "Confessions of a Hooligan", "Poems of a Brawler", "Moscow Tavern" and a large poem "Pugachev" saw the light of day. All these publications became public from 1921 to 1924. At the same time, his trip to Asia, from where he brought new impressions, which became the basis for a cycle of poems called "Persian Motifs".

Despite the active civic position of Yesenin, who at first enthusiastically wrote about the new Soviet government, and then began to criticize it and moved into the opposition, lyrical works about nature and the motherland brought him real recognition. The textbook "Golden Grove Dissuaded...", "Letter to Mother" and other works of the poet are known to every schoolchild and were loved by the writer's contemporaries.

His work is still relevant, and the easily recognizable style of versification and mood became the hallmark of the poet, who brought a lot of new things to Russian and world literature.

Important milestones in the life of Sergei Yesenin:
- Born in Konstantinovo in 1895
- Entered the zemstvo school in 1904
- Entered the church teacher's school in 1909
- Moved to Moscow in 1912
- Marriage to Anna Izryadnova in 1913
- The birth of the son of Yuri Yesenin in 1914
- The release of the first poetry collection "Radunitsa" in 1916
- Married Zinaida Reich in 1917
- Birth of daughter Tatyana Yesenina in 1918
- Birth of son Konstantin Yesenin in 1920
- Publication of the collections "Confessions of a hooligan" and "Treryadnitsa" in 1921
- Marriage to Isadora Duncan in 1922
- Publication of the collection "Poems of a brawler" in 1923
- Publication of the collection "Moscow Kabatskaya", publication of the poem "Pugachev" in 1924
- The death of the poet in "Angleterre" in 1925

Interesting facts from the biography of Sergei Yesenin:
- His son Yuri was shot in 1937
- Yesenin left his first family in 1914 after the birth of his son
- The second wife of Yesenin, Zinaida Reich, after a divorce, married V.E. Meyerhold, a famous director who gave his last name to Yesenin's two children
- Yesenin has an illegitimate son who chose to leave the double surname Volpin-Yesenin
- One of the admirers and mistresses of the poet, Galina Benislavskaya, shot herself at the poet's grave a year after his death
- The poet met with the granddaughter of Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy Sophia, who put him in a mental hospital, from where the poet escaped, and later stayed at the Angleterre Hotel
- The death of the poet is still shrouded in secrets. There is a version about the poet's suicide, and there is another version according to which the poet was killed. His active social life testifies in favor of the latter, as well as the expectation of the release of the next collection of poems, which was very tedious and pleasant for him, as he told his friends.

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Sergey Yesenin. The name of the great Russian poet - a connoisseur of the people's soul, a singer of peasant Russia, is familiar to every person, poems have long become Russian classics, and admirers of his work gather on Sergei Yesenin's birthday.

Hey sled! What a sled!

Ringing frozen aspens.

My father is a peasant

Well, I'm a peasant's son.

Sergei Yesenin: biography of the Russian poet

Ryazan Oblast. In 1895, the poet was born, whose works are still admired by admirers of his work. October 3 - Sergei Yesenin's birthday. From childhood, the boy was raised by a prosperous and enterprising maternal grandfather, a great connoisseur of church literature. Therefore, among the first impressions of the child are spiritual poems sung by wandering blind men, and fairy tales of his beloved grandmother, which prompted the future poet to his own work, which started at the age of 9.

Sergey graduated from the 4th grade of the local zemstvo school, although he studied for 5 years: due to unsatisfactory behavior, he was left for the 2nd year. He continued to acquire knowledge at the Spas-Klepikovskaya parochial school, which trained rural teachers.

The capital of Russian cities: the beginning of a new life

At the age of 17 he left for Moscow, got a job in a butcher's shop, where his father served as a clerk. After a conflict with a parent, he changed jobs: he moved to a book publishing house, and then to a printing house as a proofreader. There he met Anna Izryadnova, who gave birth to him, 19-year-old, in December 1914, the son of Yuri, who was shot in 1937 under a false sentence of an attempt on Stalin's life.

During his stay in the capital, the poet took part in the literary and musical circle named after. Surikov, joined the rebellious workers, for which he received the attention of the police. In 1912, as a volunteer, he began to attend classes at the A. Shanyavsky People's University in Moscow. There, Yesenin received the basics of a liberal education, listening to lectures on Western European and Russian literature. The birthday of Sergei Yesenin is known to many admirers of his work - October 3, 1895. His works have been translated into many languages ​​and are included in the compulsory school curriculum. To this day, many are interested in what kind of relationship the poet built with the fair sex, did the women love Sergei Yesenin, did he reciprocate? What (or who) inspired him to create; to create in such a way that after a century his poems are relevant, interesting, loved.

The life and work of Sergei Yesenin

The first publication took place in 1914 in the capital's magazines, and the poem "Birch" became the beginning of a successful debut. Literally in a century, the birthday of Sergei Yesenin will be known to almost every schoolchild, but for now the poet has set foot on his thorny path leading to fame and recognition.

In Petrograd, where Sergei moved in the spring of 1915, believing that all literary life is concentrated in this city, he read his works to Blok, to whom he personally came to get acquainted. The warm welcome of the famous poet's entourage and the approval of his poems inspired the envoy of the Russian village and endless fields for further work.

Recognized, published, read

The talent of Sergei Yesenin was recognized by Gorodetsky S.M., Remizov A.M., Gumilyov N.S., acquaintance with whom the young man was obliged to Blok. Almost all the poems brought were published, and Sergei Yesenin, whose biography to this day is of interest to fans of the poet's work, has become widely known. In joint poetic performances with Klyuev before the public, stylized as a folk, peasant style, the young golden-haired poet appeared in morocco boots and an embroidered shirt. He became close to the society of "new peasant poets" and himself was fond of this direction. The key theme of Yesenin's poetry was peasant Russia, the love for which permeates all his works.

In 1916 he was drafted into the army, but thanks to the anxiety and troubles of his friends, he was appointed as an orderly to the military hospital train of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, which allowed the poet to visit literary salons without interference, perform at concerts, attend receptions from patrons.

Peasant Russia in the work of the poet

He accepted the October Revolution joyfully in his own way and enthusiastically wrote a number of small poems “Heavenly Drummer”, “Inonia”, “Jordan Dove”, imbued with a premonition of future changes; the life and work of Sergei Yesenin were at the beginning of a new, still unexplored path - the path of fame and recognition.

In 1916, Yesenin's debut book "Radunitsa" was published, enthusiastically received by critics who discovered in it a fresh direction, the author's natural taste and his youthful spontaneity. Further, from 1914 to 1917, “Dove”, “Rus”, “Marfa-Posadnitsa”, “Mikola” were published, marked by some special Yesenin style with the humanization of animals, plants, natural phenomena, forming together with man , connected by roots with nature, a holistic, harmonious and beautiful world. The pictures of Yesenin's Russia - reverent, evoking almost a religious feeling in the poet, are painted with a subtle understanding of nature with a heating stove, a dog's shelter, unmowed hay, marshy swamps, the snoring of a herd and the hubbub of mowers.

The second marriage of Sergei Yesenin

In 1917, the poet married Nikolaevna, from whose marriage the children of Sergei Yesenin were born: son Konstantin and daughter Tatyana.

At this time, real popularity came to Yesenin, the poet became in demand, he was invited to various events. In 1918 - 1921, he traveled a lot around the country: Crimea, the Caucasus, Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, Turkestan, Bessarabia. He worked on the dramatic poem "Pugachev", in the spring he traveled to the Orenburg steppes.

In 1918-1920, the poet became close to Mariengof A.B., Shershenevich V.G., and became interested in Imagism - a post-revolutionary literary and artistic movement, which was based on futurism, which claimed to build the "art of the future", completely new, denying all the previous artistic experience. Yesenin became a frequent visitor to the Pegasus Stall literary cafe in Moscow near the Nikitsky Gate. The poet, who sought to cognize the "commune rearing Russia", only partially shared the desire of the newly created direction, the purpose of which was to cleanse the form from the "dust of content." He also continued to perceive himself as a poet of the "Departing Russia". In his poems, the motives of everyday life appeared, “torn apart by the storm”, drunken prowess, which is replaced by hysterical melancholy. The poet appears as a brawler, a hooligan, a drunkard with a bloodied soul, wandering from a brothel to a brothel, where he is surrounded by "alien and laughing rabble" (collections "Moscow Tavern", "Confessions of a Hooligan" and "Poems of a Brawler").

In 1920, a three-year marriage with Z. Reich broke up. The children of Sergei Yesenin each went their own way: Konstantin became a famous football statistician, and Tatiana became the director of her father's museum and a Member of the Writers' Union.

Isadora Duncan and Sergei Yesenin

In 1921, Yesenin met the dancer Isadora Duncan. She did not speak Russian, the poet, who read a lot and was highly educated, did not know foreign languages, but from the first meeting, when looking at the dance of this woman by Sergei Yesenin, he irreversibly reached out to her. The couple, in which Isadora was 18 years older, was not stopped by the age difference. Most often she called her beloved "angel", and he called her "Isidora". The immediacy of Isadora, her incendiary dances drove Yesenin crazy. She, on the other hand, perceived him as a weak and unprotected child, treated Sergei with quivering tenderness, and even learned a dozen Russian words over time. In Russia, Isadora's career did not work out because the Soviet authorities did not provide the field of activity that she was counting on. The couple registered their marriage and took the common surname Duncan-Yesenin.

After the wedding, Yesenin and his wife traveled extensively in Europe, visited France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Belgium, and the USA. Duncan tried her best to create PR for her husband: she organized translations of his poems and their publication, organized poetry evenings, but abroad he was recognized only as an attachment to a famous dancer. The poet yearned, felt unclaimed, useless, he began to feel depressed. Yesenin began to drink, there were frequent heartbreaking quarrels between the spouses with departures and subsequent reconciliations. Over time, Yesenin's attitude towards his wife, in whom he already saw not an ideal, but an ordinary aging woman, changed. He still got drunk, occasionally beat Isadora, complained to his friends that she stuck to him and did not come off. The couple broke up in 1923, Yesenin returned to Moscow.

The last years of Yesenin's work

In further work, the poet very critically denounces the Soviet government ("Country of Scoundrels", 1925). After that, the persecution of the poet begins, accusing him of fighting and drunkenness. The last two years of his life were spent in regular traveling; Sergei Yesenin, a Russian poet, hid from judicial persecution, traveled three times to the Caucasus, traveled to Leningrad and constantly visited Konstantinovo, never interrupting communication with him.

During this period, the works “Poem about 26”, “Persian Motifs”, “Anna Snegina”, “Golden Grove Dissuaded” were published. In the poems, the main place is still occupied by the theme of the motherland, which is now acquiring shades of drama. This period of lyrics is increasingly marked by autumn landscapes, motives for summing up and saying goodbye.

Goodbye my friend, goodbye...

In the autumn of 1925, the poet, trying to restart his family life, married Sofya Andreevna, the granddaughter of Leo Tolstoy. But this union was not happy. The life of Sergei Yesenin was going downhill: alcohol addiction, depression, pressure from the ruling circles caused the poet to be placed in a neuropsychiatric hospital by his wife. Only a narrow circle of people knew about this, but there were well-wishers who contributed to the establishment of round-the-clock monitoring of the clinic. The Chekists began to demand from P.B. Gannushkin - a professor at this clinic - the extradition of Yesenin. The latter refused, and Yesenin, after waiting for an opportune moment, interrupted the course of treatment and left the psycho-neurological institution in the crowd of visitors and left for Leningrad.

On December 14, he finished work on the poem "The Black Man", on which he spent 2 years. The work was published after the death of the poet. December 27 from the pen of Sergei Yesenin came out his final work "Goodbye, my friend, goodbye." The life and work of Sergei Yesenin was coming to an end, terrible and incomprehensible. The Russian poet died, whose body was found hanged in the Angleterre Hotel on the night of December 28, 1925.

On the birthday of Sergei Yesenin, they gather to honor his memory in all corners of Russia, but the most large-scale events are held in his native Konstantinov, where thousands of admirers of the poet's work come from all over the world.

Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin (September 21 (October 3), 1895, the village of Konstantinovo, Ryazan province - December 28, 1925, Leningrad) - a great Russian poet, one of the most prominent Russian poets of the 20th century, his lyric poems represented the new peasant poetry, and later creativity belongs to imaginism.

Sergei Yesenin: biography

Sergey Yesenin was born in the village of Konstantinovo, Kuzminskaya volost, Ryazan district, Ryazan province, in a peasant family. Father - Alexander Nikitich Yesenin (1873-1931), mother - Tatyana Fedorovna Titova (1875-1955). Sisters - Catherine (1905-1977), Alexandra (1911-1981).

Sergei Yesenin in childhood

The childhood of Sergei Yesenin

It is hardly possible to find a more Russian place in all of vast Russia than the Ryazan province. It was there, in the Kuzminskaya volost, in the small village of Konstantinovo, that a brilliant man, the poet Sergei Yesenin, was born, who loved his Russia to the point of aching pain in his heart. Only a real son of the Russian land, who turned out to be a little boy who was born on October 3, 1895, can love the Motherland so deeply, devote his whole life and work to it.

The head of the family, Alexander Nikitich, while still a child, sang in the choir at the church. And in adulthood he served in a Moscow butcher's shop, so he was at home on weekend visits. Such paternal service in Moscow served as a pretext for discord in the family, mother Tatyana Fedorovna began to work in Ryazan, where she met with another man Ivan Razgulyaev, from whom she later gave birth to a son, Alexander. Therefore, it was decided to send Seryozha to be raised by a prosperous Old Believer grandfather. Later, the parents nevertheless got back together, Sergei had two sisters: Katya and Alexandra.

And so it happened that the earliest childhood (1899-1904) of Sergei passed in the village with his maternal grandparents - Fedor and Natalia Titov.
Sergei Yesenin's grandfather was a connoisseur of church books, and his grandmother knew many songs, fairy tales, ditties, and, as the poet himself claimed, it was his grandmother who pushed him to write his first poems.

Three more of their sons lived with their grandfather and grandmother, they were not married, and the carefree childhood years of the poet passed with them. Something, but these guys had nothing to do with mischief, so already at the age of three and a half they put their little nephew on a horse without a saddle and galloped into the field. And then there was swimming training, when one of the uncles put little Seryozha with him in a boat, sailed away from the shore, took off his clothes and, like a dog, threw him into the river.

Sergey began to compose the first, not yet completely conscious, poems at an early age, the impetus for this was grandmother's tales. In the evenings before going to bed, she told their little grandson a lot, but some had a bad ending, Seryozha did not like it, and he reworked the ending of the tales in his own way.

Grandfather insisted that the boy began to learn to read and write early. Already at the age of five, Seryozha learned to read from religious literature, for which among the rural children he received the nickname Seryoga-monk, although he was known as a terrible fidget, a fighter, and his whole body was constantly covered in abrasions and scratches.

And the future poet really liked it when his mother sang. Already in adulthood, he loved to listen to her songs.

Education

After such home education, the family decided to send Seryozha to study at the Konstantinovskaya Zemstvo school. He studied there from the age of nine to fourteen and was distinguished not only by his brilliant abilities, but also by his bad behavior. Therefore, in one year of study, by decision of the school manager, he was left for the second year. Still, graduation marks were exceptionally high.

At this time, the parents of the future genius decided to live together again. The boy began to come to his home more often during the holidays. Here he went to the local priest, who had an impressive library with books by various authors. He carefully studied many volumes, which could not but affect his creative development.

After graduating from the Zemstvo school, he moved to the parish school, located in the village of Spas-Klepki. Already in 1909, after five years of study, Yesenin also graduated from the Zemsky School in Konstantinovka. His family's dream was for his grandson to become a teacher. He was able to realize it after studying at Spas-Klepiki.

It was there that he graduated from the second-class teacher's school. She also worked at the parish of the church, as was customary in those days. Now there is a museum dedicated to the work of this great poet. But after receiving a teaching education, Yesenin decided to go to Moscow.

In crowded Moscow, he had to work in a butcher's shop and in a printing house. His own father arranged for him in the shop, since the young man had to ask for help in finding employment from him. Then he got him into an office, in which Yesenin quickly became bored with the monotonous work.

When he served as an assistant proofreader in a printing house, he quickly became friends with poets who were part of Surikov's literary and musical circle.
Perhaps this influenced the fact that in 1913 S. A. Yesenin entered the Faculty of History and Philosophy of the Moscow City People's University. Shanyavsky. It was the country's first free university for volunteers. There, Sergei Yesenin listened to lectures on Western European literature and Russian poets.
The first common-law wife of the poet, Anna Izryadnova, describes Yesenin of those years as follows: “He was known as a leader, attended meetings, distributed illegal literature. He pounced on books, read all his free time, spent all his salary on books, magazines, did not at all think about how to live ... ".

But, in 1914, Yesenin gave up work and studies, and according to Anna Izryadnova, he devoted himself entirely to poetry.
In 1914, the poet's poems were first published in the children's magazine Mirok. In January, his poems begin to be published in the newspapers Nov, Parus, Zarya. In the same year, S. Yesenin and A. Izryadnova had a son, Yuri, who was shot in 1937.

The work of Sergei Yesenin

The craving for writing poetry was born in Yesenin back in Spas-Klepiki, where he studied at the parish teacher's school. Naturally, the works had a spiritual orientation, they were not yet imbued with notes of lyrics. Such works include: "Stars", "My Life". When the poet was in Moscow (1912-1915), it was there that he began his more confident attempts at writing.

It is also very important that during this period in his works:

Poetic imagery was used. The works were full of skillful metaphors, direct or figurative images.
During this period, the new peasant imagery was also traced.
One could also notice Russian symbolism, since the genius loved the work of Alexander Blok.
The first printed work was the poem "Birch". Historians note that when writing it, Yesenin was inspired by the works of A. Fet. Then he took the pseudonym Ariston, not daring to send the poem to print under his own name. It was published in 1914 by the Mirok magazine.

The first book "Radunitsa" was published in 1916. Russian modernism was also traced in it, since the young man moved to Petrograd and began to communicate with famous writers and poets:

CM. Gorodetsky.
Z.N. Gippius.
D.V. Philosophers.
A. A. Blok.

In "Radunitsa" there are also notes of dialectism, and numerous parallels drawn between the natural and the spiritual, since the title of the book is the day when the dead are honored. At the same time, the arrival of spring occurs, in honor of which the peasants sing traditional songs. This is the connection with nature, its renewal and honoring those who have passed away.

Sergei Yesenin has always been elegant

The style of the poet also changes, as he begins to dress a little fabulous and more elegant. This could also be influenced by his guardian Klyuev, who oversaw him from 1915 to 1917. The poems of the young genius then listened with attention to S.M. Gorodetsky, and the great Alexander Blok.

In 1915, the poem "Bird Cherry" was written, in which he endows nature and this tree with human qualities. Bird cherry seems to come to life and shows its feelings. After being called up for war in 1916, Sergei began to communicate with a group of new peasant poets.

Because of the released collection, including Radunitsa, Yesenin gained wider fame. She reached the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna herself. She often called Yesenin to Tsarskoye Selo so that he could read his works to her and her daughters.

In 1917 there was a revolution, which was reflected in the works of the genius. He received a "second wind" and, inspired, decided to publish a poem in 1917 called "Transfiguration". It caused a great resonance and even criticism, since it contained many slogans of the International. All of them were presented in a completely different way, in the style of the Old Testament.

The perception of the world, adherence to the church also changed. The poet even stated this openly in one of his poems. Then he began to focus on Andrei Bely, began to communicate with the poetic group "Scythians". The works of the late twenties include:

Petrograd book "Dove" (1918).
The second edition of "Radunitsa" (1918).
A series of collections of 1918-1920: Transfiguration and Rural Book of Hours.
The Imagist period began in 1919. It implies the use of a large number of images, metaphors. Sergei enlists the support of V.G. Shershenevich and founded his own group, which also absorbed the traditions of futurism, the style of Boris Pasternak. An important difference was the fact that the works were of a variety character, suggesting open reading in front of the viewer.

This gave the group more fame against the backdrop of bright performances with application.

Then they wrote:

"Sorokoust" (1920).
Poem "Pugachev" (1921).
Treatise "Keys of Mary" (1919).
It is also known that in the early twenties, Sergei began to sell books, rented a shop for the sale of printed publications. She was on Bolshaya Nikitskaya. This occupation brought him income and a little distraction from creativity.

After communication and exchange of opinions, stylistic devices with A. Mariengof Yesenin were written:

"Confessions of a Hooligan" (1921), dedicated to the actress Augusta Miklashevskaya. Seven poems from one cycle were written in her honor.
"Treyadnitsa" (1921).
“I don’t regret, I don’t call, I don’t cry” (1924).
"Poems of a brawler" (1923).
"Moscow tavern" (1924).
"Letter to a Woman" (1924).
"Letter to Mother" (1924), which is one of the best lyric poems. It was written before Yesenin's arrival in his native village and is dedicated to his mother.
"Persian Motives" (1924). In the collection you can see the famous poem "Shagane you are mine, Shagane."

Sergei Yesenin loved to travel

After that, the poet began to travel frequently. His travel geography was not limited to Orenburg and the Urals alone, he even visited Central Asia, Tashkent and even Samarkand. In Urdy, he often went to local establishments (teahouse), traveled around the old city, made new acquaintances. He was inspired by Uzbek poetry, oriental music, as well as the architecture of local streets.

After the marriage, numerous trips to Europe followed: Italy, France, Germany and other countries. Yesenin even lived in America for several months (1922-1923), after which records were made with impressions of living in this country. They were published in Izvestia and named "Zhelezny Mirgorod".

In the mid-twenties, a trip to the Caucasus was also made. There is an assumption that it was in this area that the collection "Red East" was created. It was published in the Caucasus, after which, in 1925, the poem “Message to the Evangelist Demyan” saw the light. The period of Imagism continued until the moment when the genius quarreled with A. B. Mariengof.

Also, V. Mayakovsky was considered a critic and a well-known opponent of Yesenin. But at the same time, they did not show hostility in public, although they often pushed their foreheads together. Everything was done with criticism and even respect for each other's work.

Personal life of Sergei Yesenin

Yesenin's civil wife was Anna Izryadnova. He met her when he worked as an assistant proofreader in a printing house. The result of this marriage was the birth of a son, Yuri. But the marriage did not last long, since already in 1917 Sergei married Zinaida Reich. During this time, they had two children at once - Konstantin and Tatyana. This union also proved to be fleeting.

The poet entered into an official marriage with Isadora Duncan, who was a professional dancer. This love story was remembered by many, as their relationship was beautiful, romantic and somewhat public. The woman was a famous dancer in America, which fueled public interest in this marriage.

At the same time, Isadora was older than her husband, but the age difference did not stop them.

Sergey met Duncan in a private workshop in 1921. Then they began to travel together throughout Europe, and also lived in America for four months - in the homeland of the dancer. But after returning from abroad, the marriage was annulled. The next wife was Sofya Tolstaya, who was a relative of the famous classic, the union also broke up in less than a year.

Yesenin's life was also connected with other women. For example, Galina Benislavskaya was his personal secretary. She was always by his side, partly devoting her life to this man.

Illness and death

Yesenin had problems with alcohol, which were known not only by his acquaintances, but also by Dzerzhinsky himself. In 1925, the great genius was hospitalized in a paid clinic in Moscow, specializing in neuropsychiatric disorders. But already on December 21, the treatment was completed or, possibly, interrupted at the request of Sergei himself.

He decided to temporarily move to live in Leningrad. Before that, he interrupted work with the State Publishing House and withdrew all his funds that were in state accounts. In Leningrad, he lived in a hotel and often talked with various writers: V. I. Erlikh, G. F. Ustinov, N. N. Nikitin.

Death overtook this great poet unexpectedly on December 28, 1928. The circumstances under which Yesenin passed away, as well as the cause of death, have not yet been clarified. It happened on December 28, 1925, and the funeral itself took place in Moscow, where the grave of the genius is still located.

On the night of December 28, an almost prophetic farewell poem was written. Therefore, some historians suggest that the genius committed suicide, but this is not a proven fact.

In 2005, the Russian film "Yesenin" was shot, in which Sergei Bezrukov played the main role. Also before that, the series "Poet" was filmed. Both works are dedicated to the great Russian genius and received positive reviews.

Interesting Facts

Little Sergei was unofficially an orphan for five years, as his maternal grandfather Titov took care of him. The woman simply sent the father funds for the maintenance of her son. Father at that time worked in Moscow.
At the age of five, the boy already knew how to read.

Born September 21 (October 3), 1895 in the village. Konstantinovo, Ryazan province, in a peasant family.

Education in Yesenin's biography was received at the local zemstvo school (1904-1909), then until 1912 - in the class of the parochial school. In 1913 he entered the Shanyavsky City People's University in Moscow.

The beginning of the literary path

In Petrograd, Yesenin reads his poems to Alexander Blok and other poets. He approaches a group of "new peasant poets", and he himself is fond of this direction. After the publication of the first collections ("Radunitsa", 1916), the poet became widely known.

In the lyrics, Yesenin could psychologically approach the description of landscapes. Another theme of Yesenin's poetry is peasant Russia, love for which is felt in many of his works.

Since 1914, Sergei Alexandrovich has been published in children's publications, writing poems for children (poems "The Orphan", 1914, "The Beggar", 1915, the story "Yar", 1916, "The Tale of the Shepherd Petya ...", 1925 .).

At this time, real popularity comes to Yesenin, he is invited to various poetic meetings. Maxim Gorky wrote: “The city met him with the same admiration as a glutton meets strawberries in January. His poems began to be praised, excessively and insincerely, as hypocrites and envious people know how to praise.

In 1918-1920, Yesenin was fond of imagism, published collections of poems: "Confessions of a Hooligan" (1921), "Treryadnitsa" (1921), "Poems of a Brawler" (1923), "Moscow Tavern" (1924).

Personal life

After meeting the dancer Isadora Duncan in 1921, Yesenin soon married her. Before that, he lived with A.R. Izryadnova (had a son Yuri with her), Z.N. Reich (son Konstantin, daughter Tatyana), N. Volpina (son Alexander). After his marriage to Duncan, he traveled around Europe and the USA. Their marriage was short - in 1923 the couple broke up, and Yesenin returned to Moscow.

Last years of life and death

In the further work of Yesenin, Russian leaders were very critically described (1925, "Country of Scoundrels"). In the same year, in the life of Yesenin, the publication "Soviet Rus" was published.

In the autumn of 1925, the poet marries Leo Tolstoy's granddaughter, Sofya Andreevna. Depression, alcohol addiction, pressure from the authorities caused the new wife to place Sergei in a neuropsychiatric hospital.

Then in the biography of Sergei Yesenin there was an escape to Leningrad. And on December 28, 1925, Yesenin died, his body was found hanged in the Angleterre Hotel.

Chronological table

Other biography options

• Option 2 is more concise for a report or class post

• Yesenin was well educated, read a lot, but did not know languages ​​at all. With his wife Isadora, he could not speak English, and she could hardly speak Russian. Living abroad, he communicated with foreigners with the help of an interpreter.
• Yesenin became a father quite early - at the age of 18. The first child from a civil marriage with Anna Izryadnova was the son Yuri, who was shot on false charges of an attempt on Stalin's life in 1937.
• Yesenin's ideological literary opponent was, of course, Mayakovsky, who belonged to the futurists. Poets could publicly belittle each other's work, but each of them had a high opinion of the talent of the other.
• Until now, the mystery of the death of the poet remains unsolved. In addition to the suicide version, there is also an assumption about a politically motivated murder, which was staged as a suicide.
• see all

Yesenin - Sergei Alexandrovich (1895-1925), Russian poet. From the first collections ("Radunitsa", 1916; "Rural Book of Hours", 1918) he appeared as a subtle lyricist, a master of a deeply psychologized landscape, a singer of peasant Russia, an expert in the folk language and folk soul. In 1919-23 he was a member of a group of Imagists. Tragic attitude, spiritual confusion are expressed in the cycles "Mare's Ships" (1920), "Moscow Tavern" (1924), the poem "The Black Man" (1925). In the poem "The Ballad of Twenty-Six" (1924), dedicated to the Baku commissars, the collection "Soviet Russia" (1925), the poem "Anna Snegina" (1925), Yesenin sought to comprehend the "commune rearing Russia", although he continued to feel like a poet "Russia leaving ”, “golden log hut”. Dramatic poem "Pugachev" (1921).

Childhood and youth

Born into a peasant family, as a child he lived in the family of his grandfather. Among Yesenin's first impressions are spiritual poems sung by wandering blind men and grandmother's tales. After graduating with honors from the Konstantinovsky four-year school (1909), he continued his studies at the Spas-Klepikovskaya teacher's school (1909-12), from which he graduated as a "teacher of the literacy school." In the summer of 1912, Yesenin moved to Moscow, for some time he served in a butcher's shop, where his father worked as a clerk. After a conflict with his father, he left the shop, worked in a book publishing house, then in the printing house of I. D. Sytin; during this period he joined the revolutionary workers and was under police surveillance. At the same time, Yesenin was studying at the historical and philosophical department of Shanyavsky University (1913-15).

Literary debut and success

Composing poetry from childhood (mainly in imitation of A. V. Koltsov, I. S. Nikitin, S. D. Drozhzhin), Yesenin finds like-minded people in the Surikov Literary and Musical Circle, of which he becomes a member in 1912. He begins to print in 1914 in Moscow children's magazines (the debut of the poem "Birch"). In the spring of 1915, Yesenin arrived in Petrograd, where he met A. A. Blok, S. M. Gorodetsky, A. M. Remizov, N. S. Gumilyov and others, became close to N. A. Klyuev, who had a significant influence on him . Their joint performances with poems and ditties, stylized as a "peasant", "folk" manner (Yesenin appeared to the public as a golden-haired young man in an embroidered shirt and morocco boots), were a great success.

Military service

In the first half of 1916, Yesenin was drafted into the army, but thanks to the efforts of his friends, he was appointed (“with the highest permission”) as an orderly to the Tsarskoye Selo military hospital train No. 143 of Her Imperial Majesty Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, which allows him to freely visit literary salons, visit at receptions with patrons, to perform at concerts. At one of the concerts in the infirmary, to which he was seconded (here the sisters of mercy, the empress and princesses served), he meets with the royal family. At the same time, together with N. Klyuev, they perform, dressed in ancient Russian costumes, sewn according to the sketches of V. Vasnetsov, at the evenings of the Society for the Revival of Artistic Russia at Feodorovsky Town in Tsarskoye Selo, and are also invited to Moscow to Grand Duchess Elizabeth. Together with the royal couple in May 1916, Yesenin visited Evpatoria as a train attendant. This was the last trip of Nicholas II to the Crimea.

"Radunitsa"

Yesenin's first collection of poems "Radunitsa" (1916) is enthusiastically welcomed by critics, who found a fresh stream in it, noting the author's youthful spontaneity and natural taste. In the poems of "Radunitsa" and subsequent collections ("Dove", "Transfiguration", "Country Book of Hours", all 1918, etc.), Yesenin's special "anthropomorphism" is formed: animals, plants, natural phenomena, etc. are humanized by the poet, forming together with people connected by roots and all their nature with nature, a harmonious, holistic, beautiful world. At the junction of Christian imagery, pagan symbolism and folklore stylistics, paintings of Yesenin's Russia, painted with a subtle perception of nature, are born, where everything: a heating stove and a dog's shelter, unmowed hayfields and marshy swamps, the hubbub of mowers and the snoring of a herd becomes the object of the poet's reverent, almost religious feeling ("I I pray for scarlet dawns, I take communion by the stream").

The revolution

In early 1918 Yesenin moved to Moscow. Encouraged by the revolution, he writes several short poems (The Jordanian Dove, Inonia, The Heavenly Drummer, all 1918, etc.), imbued with a joyful foreboding of the "transformation" of life. God-fighting moods are combined in them with biblical imagery to indicate the scale and significance of the events taking place. Yesenin, singing the new reality and its heroes, tried to match the time (Cantata, 1919). In later years, he wrote "Song of the Great Campaign", 1924, "Captain of the Earth", 1925, etc.). Reflecting on “where the fate of events is taking us,” the poet turns to history (dramatic poem Pugachev, 1921).

Imagism

Searches in the field of imagery bring Yesenin closer to A. B. Mariengof, V. G. Shershenevich, R. Ivnev, at the beginning of 1919 they united in a group of imagists; Yesenin becomes a regular at the Pegasus Stable, a literary cafe of the Imagists at the Nikitsky Gates in Moscow. However, the poet only partly shared their platform - the desire to clear the form from the "dust of content". His aesthetic interests are turned to the patriarchal rural way of life, folk art, the spiritual fundamental principle of the artistic image (treatise "Keys of Mary", 1919). Already in 1921, Yesenin appeared in the press criticizing the "clown's antics for the sake of the antics" of the "brothers"-Imagists. Gradually artsy metaphors leave his lyrics.

"Moscow tavern"

In the early 1920s in Yesenin's poems, motifs of “life torn apart by a storm” appear (in 1920, a marriage with Z.N. Reich, which lasted about three years, broke up), drunken prowess, replaced by anguished melancholy. The poet appears as a hooligan, a brawler, a drunkard with a bloodied soul, hobbling "from brothel to brothel", where he is surrounded by "alien and laughing rabble" (collections "Confessions of a Hooligan", 1921; "Moscow Tavern", 1924).

Isadora

An event in Yesenin's life was a meeting with the American dancer Isadora Duncan (autumn 1921), who six months later became his wife. A joint trip to Europe (Germany, Belgium, France, Italy) and America (May 1922 August 1923), accompanied by noisy scandals, shocking antics of Isadora and Yesenin, exposed their "mutual misunderstanding", aggravated by the literal lack of a common language (Yesenin did not speak foreign languages , Isadora learned several dozen Russian words). Upon returning to Russia, they parted.

Poems of recent years

Yesenin returned to his homeland with joy, a sense of renewal, a desire "to be a singer and a citizen ... in the great states of the USSR." During this period (1923-25) his best lines are created: the poems “The golden grove dissuaded ...”, “Letter to mother”, “We are now leaving little by little ...”, the cycle “Persian motives”, the poem “Anna Snegina” and others. The main place in his poems still belongs to the theme of the motherland, which is now acquiring dramatic shades. The once united harmonious world of Yesenin's Russia splits into two: "Soviet Russia", "Russia leaving". The motif of the competition between the old and the new, outlined in the poem “Sorokoust” (1920) (“the red-maned foal” and “the cast-iron train on its paws”) is being developed in the poems of recent years: fixing the signs of a new life, welcoming “stone and steel”, Yesenin more and more feels like a singer of a “golden log hut”, whose poetry “is no longer needed here” (collections “Soviet Russia”, “Soviet Country”, both 1925). The emotional dominant of the lyrics of this period are autumn landscapes, motives for summing up, farewell.

tragic ending

One of his last works was the poem "Country of Scoundrels" in which he denounced the Soviet regime. After that, persecution began in the newspapers, accusing him of drunkenness, fights, etc. The last two years of Yesenin's life were spent in constant traveling: hiding from prosecution, he travels to the Caucasus three times, travels to Leningrad several times, seven times to Konstantinovo. At the same time, he is once again trying to start a family life, but his union with S.A. Tolstoy (the granddaughter of Leo Tolstoy) was not happy. At the end of November 1925, due to the threat of arrest, he had to go to a neuropsychiatric clinic. Sofia Tolstaya agreed with Professor P.B. Gannushkin about the poet's hospitalization in a paid clinic at Moscow University. The professor promised to provide him with a separate ward where Yesenin could do literary work. Employees of the GPU and the police ran off their feet, looking for the poet. Only a few people knew about his hospitalization in the clinic, but there were informants. On November 28, security officers rushed to the director of the clinic, Professor P.B. Gannushkin and demanded the extradition of Yesenin, but he did not extradite his countryman for reprisal. The clinic is being monitored. After waiting for a moment, Yesenin interrupts the course of treatment (left the clinic in a group of visitors) and leaves for Leningrad on December 23. On the night of December 28, in the Angleterre Hotel, Sergei Yesenin is killed by staging suicide.

Yesenin's autobiography dated May 14, 1922

I am the son of a peasant. Born in 1895 on September 21 in the Ryazan province. Ryazan district. Kuzminskaya volost. From the age of two, due to the poverty of my father and the large number of my family, I was given up for education to a rather prosperous maternal grandfather, who had three adult unmarried sons, with whom almost all of my childhood passed. My uncles were mischievous and desperate guys. For three and a half years they put me on a horse without a saddle and immediately put me into a gallop. I remember that I was crazy and held on to the withers very tightly. Then I was taught to swim. One uncle (Uncle Sasha) took me to the boat, drove away from the shore, took off my clothes and, like a puppy, threw me into the water. I clumsily and frightenedly clapped my hands, and until I choked, he kept shouting: “Oh, bitch! Well, where are you fit? "Bitch" he had an affectionate word. After about eight years, I often replaced a hunting dog for another uncle, swimming in the lakes for shot ducks. Very well I was taught to climb trees. None of the boys could compete with me. For many who were disturbed by rooks at noon after plowing, I removed their nests from birch trees, a dime apiece. Once he broke loose, but very successfully, scratching only his face and stomach and breaking a jug of milk that he was carrying to his grandfather for mowing.

Among the boys, I have always been a horse-breeder and a big brawler, and I always walked around in scratches. For mischief, only one grandmother scolded me, and grandfather sometimes provoked me to fisticuffs and often told my grandmother: “Don’t touch him, you fool. He'll be stronger that way." Grandmother loved me with all her might, and her tenderness knew no bounds. On Saturdays I was washed, my nails were cut, and my head was shirred with garlic oil, because not a single comb took curly hair. But the oil did little to help. I always yelled with a good obscenity, and even now I have some kind of unpleasant feeling by Saturday. On Sundays I was always sent to mass and. to check that I was at mass, they gave 4 kopecks. Two kopecks for the prosphora and two for the removal of parts to the priest. I bought prosphora and instead of the priest made three marks on it with a penknife, and for the other two kopecks I went to the cemetery to play piggy with the guys.

This is how my childhood went. When I grew up, they really wanted to make a village teacher out of me, and therefore they sent me to a closed church teacher's school, after graduating from which, at the age of sixteen, I had to enter the Moscow Teachers' Institute. Fortunately, this did not happen. I was so fed up with the methodology and didactics that I didn’t even want to listen. I started writing poetry early, about nine years old, but I attribute conscious creativity to 16-17 years. Some of the poems of these years are placed in the "Radunitsa".

At the age of eighteen I was surprised, having sent my poems to magazines, by the fact that they were not being published, and suddenly burst into St. Petersburg. I was received very warmly there. The first one I saw was Blok, the second was Gorodetsky. When I looked at Blok, sweat dripped from me, because for the first time I saw a living poet. Gorodetsky introduced me to Klyuev, whom I had never heard a word about before. With Klyuev, for all our internal strife, a great friendship began, which continues to this day, despite the fact that we have not seen each other for six years. He now lives in Vytegra, writes to me that he eats bread with chaff, drinking empty boiling water and praying to God for a shameful death.

During the years of war and revolution, fate pushed me from side to side. I traveled far and wide across Russia, from the Arctic Ocean to the Black and Caspian Seas, from the West to China, Persia and India. The best time in my life I consider 1919. Then we spent the winter in 5 degrees of room cold. We didn't have any firewood. I have never been a member of the RCP, because I feel much more to the left. My favorite writer is Gogol. Books of my poems: "Radunitsa", "Dove", "Transfiguration", "Rural Book of Hours", "Treryadnitsa", "Confession of a Hooligan" and "Pugachev". Now I'm working on a big thing called "Country of Scoundrels." In Russia, when there was no paper, I printed my poems together with Kusikov and Mariengof on the walls of the Strastnoy Monastery or simply read it somewhere on the boulevard. The best admirers of our poetry are prostitutes and bandits. We are all in great friendship with them. The Communists do not like us because of a misunderstanding. Behind this, to all my readers, the lowest hello and a little attention to the sign: “Please do not shoot!”

Yesenin's autobiography from 1923

Born 1895 October 4th. The son of a peasant in the Ryazan province., Ryazan district, the village of Konstantinov. Childhood passed among the fields and steppes.

He grew up under the supervision of his grandmother and grandfather. Grandmother was religious, she dragged me around the monasteries. At home she gathered all the crippled who sing spiritual verses from “Lazar” to “Mikola” in Russian villages. Ros was mischievous and naughty. There was a brawler. Grandfather himself sometimes forced me to fight so that he would be stronger.

Poetry began to compose early. Grandma gave pushes. She told stories. I did not like some fairy tales with bad endings, and I remade them in my own way. Poetry began to write, imitating ditties. I had little faith in God. I did not like to go to church. At home they knew this and, in order to test me, they gave 4 kopecks for the prosphora, which I had to carry to the altar to the priest for the ritual of taking out the parts. The priest made 3 cuts on the prosphora and took 2 kopecks for this. Then I learned to do this procedure myself with a penknife, and 2 kopecks. he put it in his pocket and went to play in the cemetery with the boys, to play money. Once my grandfather figured it out. There was a scandal. I ran away to another village to my aunt and did not show up until they forgave me.

He studied at a closed teacher's school. At home they wanted me to be a village teacher. When they took me to school, I missed my grandmother terribly and one day I ran home for more than 100 miles on foot. They scolded the house and took it back.

After school, from the age of 16 to 17 he lived in the village. At the age of 17 he left for Moscow and entered the Shanyavsky University as a volunteer. At the age of 19 he came to St. Petersburg on his way to Revel to visit his uncle. I went to Blok, Blok brought Gorodetsky, and Gorodetsky with Klyuev. My poems made a big impression. All the best magazines of that time (1915) began to publish me, and in the fall (1915) my first book, Radunitsa, appeared. Much has been written about her. Everyone unanimously said that I was a talent. I knew it better than others. For "Radunitsa" I released "Dove", "Transfiguration", "Country Book of Hours", "Keys of Mary", "Treryadnitsa", "Confession of a hooligan", "Pugachev". The Country of Scoundrels and Moscow Tavern will soon be out of print.

Extremely individual. With all the foundations on the Soviet platform.

In 1916 he was called up for military service. With some patronage of Colonel Loman, adjutant of the Empress, he was presented with many benefits. He lived in Tsarskoye near Razumnik Ivanov. At the request of Loman, he once read poetry to the empress. After reading my poems, she said that my poems are beautiful, but very sad. I told her that all of Russia is like that. He referred to poverty, climate, and so on. The revolution found me at the front in one of the disciplinary battalions, where I landed because I refused to write poems in honor of the tsar. He refused, consulting and seeking support in Ivanov-Razumnik. During the revolution, he arbitrarily left Kerensky's army and, living as a deserter, worked with the Socialist-Revolutionaries not as a party member, but as a poet.

During the split of the party, he went with the left group and in October was in their fighting squad. He left Petrograd together with the Soviet authorities. In Moscow, in 18, he met with Mariengof, Shershenevich and Ivnev.

The urgent need to put into practice the power of the image prompted us to publish the manifesto of the Imagists. We were the initiators of a new era in the era of art, and we had to fight for a long time. During our war, we renamed the streets after ourselves and painted the Strastnoy Monastery with the words of our poems.

1919-1921 traveled around Russia: Murman, Solovki, Arkhangelsk, Turkestan, the Kyrgyz steppes, the Caucasus, Persia, Ukraine and Crimea. In 1922, he flew by airplane to Koenigsberg. Traveled throughout Europe and North America. I am most satisfied with the fact that I returned to Soviet Russia. What happens next remains to be seen.

Yesenin's autobiography dated June 20, 1924

I was born in 1895 on September 21 in the village of Konstantinov, Kuzminskaya volost, Ryazan province. and Ryazan district. My father is a peasant Alexander Nikitich Yesenin, my mother is Tatyana Fedorovna.

He spent his childhood with his maternal grandfather and grandmother in another part of the village, which is called. matt. My first memories date back to when I was three or four years old. I remember the forest, the big ditch road. Grandmother goes to the Radovetsky Monastery, which is 40 versts from us. I, grabbing her stick, can hardly drag my legs from fatigue, and my grandmother keeps saying: “Go, go, berry, God will give happiness.” Blind people often gathered at our house, wandering through the villages, singing spiritual verses about the beautiful paradise, about Lazar, about Mikol and about the groom, the bright guest from the city of the unknown. The nanny is an old woman who took care of me, told me fairy tales, all those fairy tales that all peasant children listen to and know. Grandfather sang old songs to me, so viscous, mournful. On Saturdays and Sundays he shared the Bible and sacred history with me.

My street life was different from my home life. My peers were mischievous guys. With them, I climbed together in other people's gardens. I ran away for 2-3 days to the meadows and ate, together with the shepherds, the fish that we caught in small lakes, first muddying the water with our hands, or broods of ducklings. After, when I returned, I often flew.

In the family we had a fit uncle, except for my grandmother, grandfather and my nanny. He loved me very much, and we often went with him to the Oka to water the horses. At night, when the weather is calm, the moon stands upright in the water. When the horses drank, it seemed to me that they were about to drink the moon, and I rejoiced when it, together with the circles, floated away from their mouths. When I was 12 years old, I was sent to study from a rural zemstvo school to a teacher's school. My relatives wanted me to become a rural teacher. Their hopes extended to the institute, fortunately for me, which I did not get into.

I started writing poetry at the age of 9, I learned to read at the age of 5. At the very beginning, rural ditties had an influence on my work. The period of study did not leave any traces on me, except for a strong knowledge of the Church Slavonic language. That's all I got. The rest he did himself under the guidance of a certain Klemenov. He introduced me to the new literature and explained why one should be afraid of the classics in some respects. Of the poets, I liked Lermontov and Koltsov the most. Later I switched to Pushkin.

In 1913 I entered Shanyavsky University as a volunteer. After staying there for 1.5 years, he had to go back to the village due to financial circumstances. At this time, I wrote a book of poems "Radunitsa". I sent some of them to the St. Petersburg magazines and, without receiving an answer, went off on my own. He came and found Gorodetsky. He received me very cordially. Then almost all the poets gathered at his apartment. They started talking about me, and they began to print me almost like hot cakes.

I published: "Russian Thought", "Life for All", "Monthly Journal" by Mirolyubov, "Northern Notes", etc. This was in the spring of 1915. And in the autumn of the same year, Klyuev sent me a telegram to the village and asked me to come to him. He found me a publisher, M.V. Averyanov, and a few months later my first book, Radunitsa, was published. It came out in November 1915 with the note 1916. During the first period of my stay in St. Petersburg, I often had to meet with Blok, with Ivanov-Razumnik. Later with Andrei Bely.

I met the first period of the revolution sympathetically, but more spontaneously than consciously. In 1917 my first marriage took place to 3. N. Reich. In 1918, I parted with her, and after that my wandering life began, like all Russians during the period 1918-21. During these years I have been in Turkestan, the Caucasus, Persia, the Crimea, Bessarabia, the Orenbur steppes, the Murmansk coast, Arkhangelsk and Solovki. In 1921, I married A. Duncan and left for America, having previously traveled all over Europe, except for Spain.

After going abroad, I looked at my country and events in a different way. I don't like our barely cooled camp. I like civilization. But I really don't like America. America is that stench where not only art disappears, but in general the best impulses of mankind. If today they are heading for America, then I am ready to prefer our gray sky and our landscape: a hut, a little rooted into the ground, a spinner, a huge pole sticking out of the spinner, a skinny horse waving its tail in the distance in the wind. It's not like the skyscrapers that have so far only given us Rockefeller and McCormick, but it's the very thing that raised Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Pushkin, Lermontov, and others. First of all, I love bringing out the organic. Art for me is not the intricacy of patterns, but the most necessary word of the language in which I want to express myself. Therefore, the Imagism trend founded in 1919, on the one hand by me, and on the other by Shershenevich, although it formally turned Russian poetry along a different channel of perception, did not give anyone else the right to claim talent. Now I reject all schools. I think that a poet cannot adhere to any particular school. It binds him hand and foot. Only a free artist can bring free speech. That's all, short, schematic, with regard to my biography. Not everything is said here. But I think it's still too early for me to draw any conclusions for myself. My life and my work is still ahead.

"About myself". October 1925

Born in 1895, September 21, in the Ryazan province, Ryazan district, Kuzminskaya volost, in the village of Konstantinov. From the age of two, I was given to be raised by a rather prosperous maternal grandfather, who had three adult unmarried sons, with whom almost all of my childhood passed. My uncles were mischievous and desperate guys. For three and a half years they put me on a horse without a saddle and immediately put me into a gallop. I remember that I was crazy and held on to the withers very tightly. Then I was taught to swim. One uncle (Uncle Sasha) took me to the boat, drove away from the shore, took off my clothes and, like a puppy, threw me into the water. I clumsily and frightenedly clapped my hands, and until I choked, he kept shouting: “Eh! Bitch! Well, where are you fit? ..” “Bitch” he had an affectionate word. After about eight years, I often replaced a hunting dog for another uncle, swam on the lakes for shot ducks. He was very good at climbing trees. Among the boys he was always a horse-breeder and a big brawler, and he always walked in scratches. Only one grandmother scolded me for mischief, and grandfather sometimes provoked me to fisticuffs and often said to my grandmother: “Don’t touch him, you fool, he will be stronger!” Grandmother loved me with all her urine, and her tenderness knew no bounds. On Saturdays I was washed, my nails were cut, and my head was shirred with garlic oil, because not a single comb took curly hair. But the oil did little to help. I always yelled with a good obscenity, and even now I have some kind of unpleasant feeling by Saturday.

This is how my childhood passed. When I grew up, they really wanted to make a rural teacher out of me, and therefore they sent me to a church teacher's school, after graduating from which I was supposed to enter the Moscow Teachers' Institute. Fortunately, this did not happen.

I started writing poetry early, about nine years old, but I attribute conscious creativity to the age of 16-17. Some of the poems of these years are placed in the "Radunitsa". At the age of eighteen, I was surprised, having sent my poems to magazines, that they were not being published, and I went to Petersburg. I was received very warmly there. The first one I saw was Blok, the second was Gorodetsky. When I looked at Blok, sweat dripped from me, because for the first time I saw a living poet. Gorodetsky introduced me to Klyuev, whom I had never heard a word about before. Despite all our internal strife, we struck up a great friendship with Klyuev. In the same years, I entered the Shanyavsky University, where I stayed for only a year and a half, and again went to the village. At the University I met the poets Semenovsky, Nasedkin, Kolokolov and Filipchenko. Of the contemporary poets, I liked Blok, Bely and Klyuev the most. Bely gave me a lot in terms of form, while Blok and Klyuev taught me lyricism.

In 1919, with a number of comrades, I published a manifesto of Imagism. Imagism was the formal school that we wanted to establish. But this school had no ground and died of itself, leaving the truth behind the organic image. I would gladly give up many of my religious verses and poems, but they are of great importance as a poet's path before the revolution.

From the age of eight, my grandmother dragged me to different monasteries, because of her, all sorts of wanderers and pilgrims always huddled with us. Various spiritual verses were sung. Grandfather opposite. Was not a fool to drink. From his side, eternal unmarried weddings were arranged. After, when I left the village, I had to figure out my way of life for a long time.

During the years of the revolution, he was entirely on the side of October, but he accepted everything in his own way, with a peasant bias. In terms of formal development, I am now more and more drawn to Pushkin. As for the rest of the autobiographical information, they are in my poems.

Yesenin's life story

Some interesting facts from the life of Sergei Yesenin:

Sergei Yesenin graduated with honors from the Konstantinovsky Zemstvo School in 1909, then the church teacher's school, but after studying for a year and a half, he left it - the profession of a teacher did not attract him much. Already in Moscow, in September 1913, Yesenin began to attend the Shanyavsky People's University. A year and a half of university gave Yesenin the foundation of education that he so lacked.

In the autumn of 1913, he entered into a civil marriage with Anna Romanovna Izryadnova, who worked together with Yesenin as a proofreader at Sytin's printing house. On December 21, 1914, their son Yuri was born, but Yesenin soon left the family. In her memoirs, Izryadnova writes: “I saw him shortly before his death. He came, he said, to say goodbye. When I asked why, he said: “I’m washing off, I’m leaving, I feel bad, I’ll probably die.” He asked not to spoil, to take care of his son. After the death of Yesenin, the people's court of the Khamovnichesky district of Moscow dealt with the case of recognizing Yuri as the child of the poet. On August 13, 1937, Yuri Yesenin was shot on charges of preparing an assassination attempt on Stalin.

On July 30, 1917, Yesenin married the beautiful actress Zinaida Reich in the Church of Kirik and Ulita in the Vologda district. On May 29, 1918, their daughter Tatyana was born. Daughter, blond and blue-eyed, Yesenin was very fond of. On February 3, 1920, after Yesenin divorced Zinaida Reich, their son Konstantin was born. One day, he accidentally found out at the station that Reich was on the train with his children. A friend persuaded Yesenin to at least look at the child. Sergei reluctantly agreed. When Reich swaddled her son, Yesenin, barely looking at him, said: “Yesenins are not black ...” But according to contemporaries, Yesenin always carried photographs of Tatyana and Konstantin in his jacket pocket, constantly took care of them, sent them money. On October 2, 1921, the Orel People's Court ruled to dissolve Yesenin's marriage to Reich. Sometimes he met with Zinaida Nikolaevna, at that time already the wife of Vsevolod Meyerhold, which caused Meyerhold's jealousy. There is an opinion that of his wives, Yesenin, until the end of his days, loved Zinaida Reich the most. Shortly before his death, in the deep autumn of 1925, Yesenin visited Reich and the children. As an adult, he talked with Tanechka, he was indignant at the mediocre children's books that his children read. Said: "You must know my poems." The conversation with Reich ended in another scandal and tears. In the summer of 1939, after the death of Meyerhold, Zinaida Reich was brutally murdered in her apartment. Many contemporaries did not believe that this was pure criminality. It was assumed (and now this assumption will more and more develop into certainty) that she was killed by NKVD agents.

On November 4, 1920, at the literary evening "Trial of the Imagists", Yesenin met Galina Benislavskaya. Their relationship with varying success lasted until the spring of 1925. Returning from Konstantinov, Yesenin finally broke with her. It was a tragedy for her. Insulted and humiliated, Galina wrote in her memoirs: “Due to the awkwardness and brokenness of my relationship with S.A. more than once I wanted to leave him as a woman, I wanted to be only a friend. But I realized that from S.A. I can’t leave, I can’t break this thread ... ”Shortly before the trip to Leningrad in November, before going to the hospital, Yesenin called Benislavskaya:“ Come say goodbye. He said that Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya would come too. Galina replied: “I don’t like such wires.” Galina Benislavskaya shot herself at Yesenin's grave. She left two notes on his grave. One is a simple postcard: “December 3, 1926. I killed myself here, although I know that after that even more dogs will hang on Yesenin ... But it doesn’t matter to him or me. In this grave, everything is dearest to me ... ”She is buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery next to the grave of the poet.

Autumn 1921 - acquaintance with the "sandal" Isadora Duncan. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Isadora fell in love with Yesenin at first sight, and Yesenin was immediately carried away by her. On May 2, 1922, Sergei Yesenin and Isadora Duncan decided to fix their marriage according to Soviet laws, as they had a trip to America. They signed at the registry office of the Khamovniki Council. When they were asked what surname they choose, both wished to have a double surname - Duncan-Yesenin. So they wrote down in the marriage certificate and in their passports. “Now I am Duncan,” Yesenin shouted when they went out into the street. This page of the life of Sergei Yesenin is the most chaotic, with endless quarrels and scandals. They broke up and got back together many times. Hundreds of volumes have been written about Yesenin's romance with Duncan. Numerous attempts have been made to unravel the mystery of the relationship between these two such dissimilar people. But was there a secret? Throughout his life, Yesenin, deprived of a real friendly family as a child (his parents constantly quarreled, often lived apart, Sergei grew up with his maternal grandparents), dreamed of family comfort and peace. He constantly said that he would marry such an artist - all his mouth was open, and would have a son who would become more famous than he was. It is clear that Duncan, who was 18 years older than Yesenin and constantly touring, could not create the family he dreamed of. In addition, Yesenin, as soon as he was married, sought to break the fetters that fettered him.

In 1920, Yesenin met and became friends with the poetess and translator Nadezhda Volpin. On May 12, 1924, the illegitimate son of Sergei Yesenin and Nadezhda Davydovna Volpin was born in Leningrad - a prominent mathematician, a well-known human rights activist, he periodically publishes poetry (only under the name Volpin). A. Yesenin-Volpin is one of the founders (together with Sakharov) of the Human Rights Committee. Now lives in the USA.

March 5, 1925 - acquaintance with the granddaughter of Leo Tolstoy Sophia Andreevna Tolstaya. She was 5 years younger than Yesenin, the blood of the world's greatest writer flowed in her veins. Sofya Andreevna was in charge of the library of the Writers' Union. On October 18, 1925, the marriage with S.A. Tolstaya was registered. Sofya Tolstaya is another failed Yesenin's hope to start a family. Coming from an aristocratic family, according to the recollections of Yesenin's friends, she was very arrogant, proud, she demanded etiquette and unquestioning obedience. These qualities of hers were in no way combined with the simplicity, generosity, cheerfulness, and mischievous nature of Sergei. They soon separated. But after his death, Sofya Andreevna dismissed various gossip about Yesenin, they said that he allegedly wrote in a state of drunken stupor. She, who repeatedly witnessed his work on poetry, claimed that Yesenin took his work very seriously, never sat down at the table drunk.

On December 24, Sergei Yesenin arrived in Leningrad and stayed at the Angleterre Hotel. Late in the evening of December 27, the body of Sergei Yesenin was found in the room. Before the eyes of those who entered the room, a terrible picture appeared: Yesenin, already dead, leaning against a steam heating pipe, blood clots on the floor, things scattered, on the table lay a note with Yesenin’s dying verses “Goodbye, my friend, goodbye .. .” The exact date and time of death has not been established.

Yesenin's body was transported to Moscow for burial at the Vagankovsky cemetery. The funeral was grandiose. According to contemporaries, not a single Russian poet was buried like this.