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Mirra Alexandrovna Lokhvitskaya. Biography
Mirra (Maria) Alexandrovna Lokhvitskaya was born in St. Petersburg, in the family of a lawyer, professor of law. The family showed a keen interest in literature: the younger sister of the poetess later became a well-known humorous writer N. A. Teffi. Having completed home training, Mirra Lokhvitskaya received her education at the Moscow Alexander Institute. In 1892 she married the architect Gibert, lived for some time in Tikhvin and Yaroslavl, then again in Moscow. She was the mother of several children.
Lokhvitskaya began to write early, her first poems were published in 1888, even before graduation; in 1889 she appeared in the magazine "North". The poetess gained fame by 1892, when her poem "By the Sea" appeared in Russian Wealth. The name of Mirra Lokhvitskaya was raised to the shield by some of the critics and readers, attracted by the elegant decoration and sonority of her poems. The popularity of the poetess especially increased towards the end of the 19th century: at the evenings where they performed, in particular at Sluchevsky's "Fridays" or in concerts in favor of the Literary Fund, she was accompanied by a resounding success, supported by Lokhvitskaya's great personal charm; many parodies were written on her, more than once other poets were published under her name. Against the background of the sad, wingless poetry that prevailed in the 80-90s, Lokhvitskaya's poems bribed with their major tone, the assertion of freedom of feeling, a sense of joy. The poetess was gifted with an undeniable talent. But with an eclectic, even omnivorous system of her poetic means, Mirra Lokhvitskaya was far from embodying all the naturalness of feeling. She indulged in "delights" and "ecstaves" in verse, but love passion in her poetry is a passion to a large extent conditional, decorative, reeking of literature, and her "Bacchicism" is simulated. The style of Lokhvitskaya's poems can be called transitional: she started from the classical poetics of the 19th century, but did not develop her own, fundamentally new and original. Lokhvitskaya was assigned to the Balmont school, with which she was closely associated, but she also studied directly with Apollon Maykov. Her poems served as a foreground for the decadence poetry of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. No wonder Igor Severyanin named Fofanov and Mirra Lokhvitskaya among his predecessors and teachers.
In recent years, Lokhvitskaya wrote things in a dramatic form for medieval and biblical themes- "hit," as Professor S. Vengerov, her contemporary, noted, "into medieval fantasy, into the world of witches, the cult of Satan."
Collections of poems by M. Lokhvitskaya were published several times. For the first of them (1896), she was awarded the Pushkin Prize of the Academy of Sciences. In 1900, her "Poems in three volumes" were published. Mirra Lokhvitskaya died in St. Petersburg on August 27, 1905 from pulmonary tuberculosis and was buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
Poems of the poet
Maria Alexandrovna Lokhvitskaya(by husband Gibert - fr. Gibert; November 19, 1869, St. Petersburg, Russian empire- August 27, 1905, ibid) - Russian poetess, signed with the pseudonym Mirra Lokhvitskaya; and N. A. Lokhvitsky. By the end of the 1890s, having reached her creative peak and mass recognition, soon after her death, Lokhvitskaya was practically forgotten. In the 1980s and 1990s, interest in the work of the poetess revived; some researchers consider her the founder of Russian "women's poetry" of the 20th century, which opened the way for A. A. Akhmatova and M. I. Tsvetaeva.
Biography
Maria Alexandrovna Lokhvitskaya was born on November 19 (December 1), 1869 in St. Petersburg in the family of a lawyer (since August 13, 1874 - a barrister in Moscow) Alexander Vladimirovich Lokhvitsky and Varvara Alexandrovna (nee Goyer, fr. Hoer), a Russified Frenchwoman, woman well-read and fond of literature. Three years after the birth of Mary, Nadezhda (1872-1952) was born, who later entered literature under the pseudonym Teffi. 
In 1874 the Lokhvitskys moved to Moscow. In 1882, Maria entered the Moscow Alexander School (later renamed the Alexander Institute), where she studied, living as a boarding house at the expense of her parents. The information that A. N. Maikov was her teacher of Russian literature is erroneous (during these years he lived in St. Petersburg). At the age of fifteen, Lokhvitskaya began to write poetry, and her poetic talent was immediately noticed. Shortly before graduating from the institute, she published two of her poems with the permission of her superiors as a separate brochure. After the death of her husband Varvara 
Alexandrovna returned to Petersburg with her younger daughters; here in 1888, having received the certificate of a home teacher, Maria moved.
It is known that the sisters, each of whom showed early creative abilities, agreed to enter literature by seniority in order to avoid envy and rivalry. The first, therefore, was to do this Mary; it was assumed that Nadezhda would follow the example of her older sister after she completed her literary career. Lokhvitskaya made her debut in 1888 by publishing several poems in the St. Petersburg magazine Sever; at the same time, the poems “The Power of Faith” and “Day and Night” were published as a separate brochure. Publications followed in the "Artist", "World Illustration", "Russian Review", "Northern Herald", "Nedelya", "Niva". The poetess signed at first as "M. Lokhvitskaya", then as "Mirra Lokhvitskaya"; friends and acquaintances also began to call 
her exactly like that. By this time the acquaintances of the poetess with Vs. Solovyov, I. Yasinsky, V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, A. Korinfsky, P. Gnedich, V. S. Solovyov. Vsevolod Solovyov was considered the "godfather" of the poetess in literature; the latter, as he later noted more than once, always gave him, as a teacher, "the proud joy of a satisfied feeling." The first fame was brought by Lokhvitskaya's publication of the poem "By the Sea" in the journal "Russian Review" (1891, No. 8). In 1891, Mirra Lokhvitskaya married Yevgeny Ernestovich Zhiber, a civil engineer, the son of a professor of architecture, with whom the Lokhvitskys neighbored in Oranienbaum, where they had a dacha. A year later, the couple left the capital and moved first to Yaroslavl, then to Moscow.
In 1896, Lokhvitskaya published her first collection, Poems (1889-1895), which was an instant success and a year later was awarded the prestigious Pushkin Prize. “After Fet, I don’t remember a single real poet who would win “his” audience like she did,” wrote V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko. A well-known writer in those years (and the brother of a famous theater figure) about his first impression of her poems: “as if the sun had splashed on me.” The first collection, which mainly glorified love as “a bright romantic feeling that brings family happiness and the joy of motherhood,” was dedicated to her husband; included in it were poems addressed to the son. In 1898 the second collection, "Poems (1896-1898)" was published; in 1900 both books were published as a separate edition.
Having moved to St. Petersburg, the poetess, tied to her home and children, rarely appeared in public. She entered the literary circle of K. K. Sluchevsky (which was considered a "poetic academy" at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries), where she was infrequent, justifying her absence by the illness of one of the children or her own malaise. The fact that she was always looked forward to here can be judged by an anonymous entry in one of the magazines: “It’s both annoying and insulting, / Something is not visible to Lokhvitskaya,” dated February 4, 1900. The owner of "Fridays" Sluchevsky, who invariably called Lokhvitskaya "a heartily honored poetess", did not get tired of inviting her, "confirming every time that her place is honorable, next to him." It is known, however, that the circle of literary connections of Lokhvitskaya was narrow: of the Symbolists, F.K. Sologub was the most friendly towards her.
Peak of popularity
By the end of the 1890s, Lokhvitskaya had acquired the status of perhaps the most prominent figure among the poets of her generation, being practically the only representative of the poetic community of her time who had what would later be called "commercial potential". E. Poselyanin recalled that he once asked K. Sluchevsky how his books were going. “Poems go badly for everyone,” he answered frankly. “Only Lokhvitskaya walks briskly.”
At the same time, “they did not envy her success - this little fairy won everyone with the aroma of her songs ...”, wrote V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko. He also noticed: Lokhvitskaya did not have to go through "a system of critical misunderstanding." Equally accepted by the literary circle and the general public, with each new work, she “left farther and farther behind her the young poets of her time, although the chaste capons from literature cried out to all the saints of the scopal ship of the press and to the white doves of censorship about the immorality of the young talent." L. N. Tolstoy condescendingly justified the early aspirations of the poetess: “It has charged her so far ... It beats with young drunken wine. It’s leaving, it will cool down and clean water will flow!” There was only one complaint that Lokhvitskaya had to listen to everywhere: it concerned the lack of “citizenship” in her poetry. V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, the Moscow writer Liodor Palmin wrote about it this way: There is a new star on our horizon. Your St. Petersburg Mirra Lokhvitskaya is a small bird, you can’t see it from the ground, and the same Vukol Lavrov reads it and blows bubbles on his lips. I would start to print it in Russian Thought, but it is afraid of our Midasov donkey ears so that they don’t get him for the lack of civil protest. You know, Moscow is strong at the back of its head...
The third collection of works by Lokhvitskaya, "Poems (1898-1900)", was published in 1900. This, in addition to new poems, included three dramatic works: “He and she. Two words”, “On the way to the East” and “Vandelin”. In the second of them, the researchers noted autobiographical motives: the story of the poetess's acquaintance with K. Balmont (he is guessed in the image of the Greek youth Hyacinth), the hero's marriage to the daughter of a wealthy merchant (in the "role" of E. A. Andreeva - the Greek Komos), the departure of the married couple abroad.
In the fourth collection "Poems. Volume IV (1900-1902)” also included “The Tale of Prince Ishmael, Princess Svetlana and Dzhemali the Beautiful” and the five-act drama “Immortal Love”. The latter was noted as "the most endured and suffered from all such works of Lokhvitskaya"; its plot was fragmentarily prepared by such things as "Farewell of the Queen", "Abandoned", "Seraphim"; “Feast of oblivion”, “He and she. Two words". The researchers noted that despite the fact that autobiographical moments are guessed in the drama, its characters, apparently, are collective, and in the main character, along with Balmont and Zhiber, someone else is clearly guessed. The plot of the drama "Immortal Love" is directly related to the occult; Lokhvitskaya herself was not fond of him, but, as the researcher of her work T. Alexandrova writes (referring to the “magic” experiments of V. Bryusov and the mysterious nature of the “illness” that led the poetess to death), “it can be assumed that she is the object of occult influence turned out to be."
For the fifth collection (1904), M. Lokhvitskaya in 1905 (posthumously) was awarded half the Pushkin Prize. The third and fourth collections at the same time received an honorary review from the Academy of Sciences. In 1907, a posthumous collection of poems and plays by Lokhvitskaya “Before the Sunset” was published, which forced critics to re-evaluate the work of the poetess. M. O. Gershenzon, who reviewed the book, noting that, with a few exceptions, “plays suffer from nebula, their fiction is artificial and unconvincing, and one feels more impulse than creative power,” discovered the author’s power in mystical vision: Only where Lokhvitskaya tried in her purest form to express her faith, her mystical comprehension, without trying to clothe them in images, there she sometimes succeeded in truly poetic creations.
«<…>Her spirit was too weak to develop a comprehensive mystical idea; she moves in this Tyutchev world with touching helplessness and strives to express the huge vague feeling that fills her. - M. Gershenzon. Herald of Europe, 1908
Illness and death
In the late 1890s, Lokhvitskaya's health began to deteriorate rapidly. She complained of heart pain, chronic depression and nightmares. In December 1904, the illness worsened; the poetess (as the obituary later said) "at times looked at her situation with great pessimism, wondering, after terrifying attacks of pain and prolonged seizures, that she was still alive." For the summer, Lokhvitskaya moved to a dacha in Finland, where "under the influence of the wonderful air, she felt a little better"; then, however, it was necessary not only to transport her to the city, but also to place her in a clinic, "in order to give complete peace, not achievable at home." Lokhvitskaya died painfully: her suffering "took on such a terrifying character that I had to resort to injections of morphine." Under the influence of the drug, the patient spent the last two days of her life in oblivion, and died in her sleep on August 27, 1905. On August 29, the funeral of the poetess took place in the Spiritual Church of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra; there, at the Nikolsky cemetery, she, in the presence of only close relatives and friends, was buried.
The most accurate information about the cause of death M.A. Lokhvitskaya gives in his notes F.F. Fiedler: "On August 27, Lokhvitskaya died in the Bekhterev clinic - from heart disease, diphtheria and Basedow's disease." - Fidler F.F. From the world of writers. 2008
Frequently cited in curriculum vitae information that the poetess died of pulmonary tuberculosis is erroneous. Yu. Zagulyaeva's obituary mentions chronic angina pectoris, which is consistent with Fidler's data. Contemporaries have repeatedly expressed the opinion that the death of the poetess was directly related to her state of mind. “She died early; somehow mysterious; as a consequence of the disturbed balance of her spirit ... So they said ... ”, - the poetess I. Grinevskaya, who was friends with Lokhvitskaya, wrote in her memoirs.
Family and personal life
Maria Alexandrovna Lokhvitskaya was born into the family of lawyer Alexander Vladimirovich Lokhvitsky (1830-1884), a scientist, author of works on jurisprudence, who was called one of the “most talented poets of the tribune of his time” and Varvara Alexandrovna (née Goyer, French Hoer, died not earlier than 1917 ). On November 30, 1869, the girl was baptized in the Sergievsky All Artillery Cathedral, which was located next to the Lokhvitsky house; the godparents at baptism were Lieutenant Colonel V. A. von Goyer and E. A. Bestuzheva-Ryumina. Three years later, Maria's younger sister, Nadezhda Alexandrovna (1872-1952), was born, who later became known as Teffi.
The family of A.V. Lokhvitsky had many children, and the age difference between the older and younger children was significant (their exact number was not established). Maria's brother Nikolai Alexandrovich Lokhvitsky (1868-1933), a general who commanded a corps in France during the First World War, gained fame. civil war who participated in the White movement (and for some time commanded the 2nd Kolchak army). Teffi often mentioned her sister Elena (1874-1919, by her husband - Plandovskaya), with whom she was very friendly. Elena also wrote poetry, later, together with Teffi, translated Maupassant, was in a society of dramatic writers, but did not consider herself a professional writer. The names of two more older sisters are known - Varvara Alexandrovna (in the marriage of Popova) and Lydia Alexandrovna (Kozhina).
In 1891, M. A. Lokhvitskaya married the civil engineer E. E. Zhiber, the son of the Russified Frenchwoman Olga Fegin (1838-1900) and Ernest Ivanovich Zhiber (1823-1909). The latter was born in Paris, came to St. Petersburg in the 1840s, graduated from the Academy of Arts and remained in Russia, where he was, in particular, a professor at the Institute of Civil Engineers. The poetess dedicated her debut collection to her husband; meanwhile, some of her early poems pointed to some kind of secret love, unhappy or unrequited. It was noted that “some material for reflection” on this subject is provided by the fact that Lokhvitskaya met N. L. Gondatti, a researcher of Siberia and the Far East. If you believe the memoirs of V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, when asked if she loves her fiancé, Lokhvitskaya resolutely answered “no”, although she immediately added: “But I don’t know. He is good... Yes, of course, I love him. This is the threshold we girls have to cross. Otherwise, you will not enter into life. However, as T. Alexandrova notes, this evidence cannot be unconditionally accepted: in his memoirs, Nemirovich-Danchenko treated “the facts quite freely.”
Lokhvitskaya and E. Zhiber had five sons: three - Mikhail, Evgeny and Vladimir - were born in the first years of marriage, one after another; Ishmael was born in 1900, Valery - in the autumn of 1904. It is known that the poetess gave all her time to children; her attitude towards them can be judged by a comic poem, where everyone is given a brief description of(“My Michael is a brave warrior, strong in the battle of life ...”).
Alias history
There is a legend (not documented), according to which, dying, Maria Kondrat Lokhvitsky's great-grandfather said the words: “the wind carries away the smell of myrrh ...” and Maria decided to change her name after learning about the family tradition. From the memoirs of the younger sister, it follows that there is at least one more version of the origin of the pseudonym. Nadezhda Lokhvitskaya recalled that all the children in the family wrote poetry, and this occupation was considered “for some reason terribly shameful, and as soon as someone catches a brother or sister with a pencil, notebook and an inspired face, they immediately begin to shout: “Write! Writes! Out of suspicion was only the oldest brother, a creature full of dark irony. But one day after summer holidays he went to the lyceum, in his room were found scraps of papers with some poetic exclamations and several times repeated line: "O Mirra, pale moon!". Alas! And he wrote poetry! This discovery made a strong impression on us, and, who knows, maybe my older sister Masha, having become a famous poetess, took the pseudonym “Mirra Lokhvitskaya” precisely because of this impression. - Taffy. Autobiographical stories, memoirs.
Meanwhile, as T. Aleksandrova notes, the mentioned line is a distorted translation of the beginning of the romance "Mira la bianca luna ..." ("Look, here is a pale moon ..." - Italian), mentioned in I. Turgenev's novel "The Noble Nest". The researcher noted that Masha Lokhvitskaya, who studied “Italian” singing at the institute, could also perform this romance; thus - borrow a pseudonym from here, regardless of the story with the brother's poetic delights described by Teffi. The fact that “the line represents not only the literary name of the future poetess, but also the motif of the moon that is often found in her” (“Sonnambula”, “Union of Magicians”, etc.), according to the researcher, indirectly testifies in favor of this version.
Relations with K. Balmont
Lokhvitskaya and K. D. Balmont met presumably in the Crimea, in 1895. Rapprochement was predetermined by the common creative principles and ideas of the two poets; soon "a spark of mutual feeling flared up", which was realized in poetic correspondence. Balmont in the poems of the poetess became "Lionel", a young man with curls "the color of ripe rye" and eyes "greenish blue, like the sea." "Literary novel" Lokhvitskaya and Balmont received scandalous publicity; it has been repeatedly implied that both poets were physically close. P.P. Pertsov, referring to their "acclaimed romance", notes that the latter "laid the foundation" for other romantic hobbies of the poet.
Balmont himself, in his autobiographical essay "At the Dawn", claimed that only "poetic friendship" connected him with Lokhvitskaya. Subsequently, it became impossible to document either confirm or refute this: despite the fact that there are a significant number of poetic mutual dedications, only one letter from Balmont Lokhvitskaya, restrained and cold, has survived. It is known that the poets met infrequently: for most of the period of their acquaintance, Balmont was abroad. As T. Alexandrova later wrote, “Lokhvitskaya honored her duty as a wife and mother, but was unable to extinguish the flame that had not been extinguished in time.”
After the next departure of Balmont abroad in 1901, personal communication between them, apparently, ceased, and the poetic roll call grew into a kind of duel of an increasingly sinister and painful nature (“His onslaught corresponds to her pleas, his triumph - her despair, threats - horror, and in her nightmares the key expression is repeated in different ways: evil spells”). “A painful struggle with oneself and with midday charms” not only constituted the essence of the poetess’s late lyrics, but, as many believe, served as the main cause of deep depression, which largely predetermined her early death.
Balmont was not present at the funeral of Lokhvitskaya and soon after the death of the poetess, with deliberate disdain, spoke about her in a letter to V. Bryusov. In addition, in his collection, and called: "Evil Spells", created immediately after the death of Lokhvitskaya, he continues to mockingly respond to the images of her poetry. Nevertheless, he obviously took the death of his beloved very hard; in memory of her, he named his daughter from his marriage to E. K. Tsvetkovskaya, and, apparently, saw in her some kind of reincarnation of the poetess. The daughter from a relationship with Dagmar Shakhovskaya was named Svetlana (this is the name of the heroine of a short poem by Lokhvitskaya “The Tale of Prince Ishmael, Princess Svetlana and Jemali the Beautiful”).
F.F. Fidler, talking about the meeting with Balmont at the end of 1913 (8 years after the death of Lokhvitskaya), reports the following: About Mirra Lokhvitskaya "<…>Balmont said that he loved her and still loves her: her portrait accompanies him on all his travels ... ”- Fidler F.F. From the world of writers.
Character and appearance
There are few memories of M.A. Lokhvitskaya, which was due to several reasons. Closed and shy, the poetess rarely went out, justifying her seclusion with household chores, illnesses of children, and later - worsened health. Many of those with whom she maintained friendly relations belonged to the older generation and died before her (K. K. Sluchevsky, Vs. Solovyov, A. I. Urusov), leaving no memories. Her relationship with her peers was not easy, and if Bryusov and Gippius openly expressed their antipathy to her, then others showed in their memoirs, at first glance, inexplicable restraint: for example, people who knew her better than others wrote almost nothing about the poetess: Teffi and Balmont (who throughout his life kept a portrait of Lokhvitskaya on his desk).
Perhaps the most striking (but at the same time, as noted later, almost certainly idealized) portrait of the poetess was created in his memoirs by Vasily Nemirovich-Danchenko, with whom the young Lokhvitskaya developed a trusting relationship: ... She was born and grew up in a dull, draining unhealthy juices from countless bedsores Petersburg, - and the whole seemed like a wonderful tropical flower, filling my corner with a strange aroma of another land more blessed by heaven ... It seemed like a soul that was not at all related to the boring and meager, measured way of our life. And it seemed to me: the young poetess herself warms herself in uncontrollable impulses of inspiration, becomes intoxicated with the real music of freely flowing verse.
As V. Nemirovich-Danchenko recalled, she “was not a proud and greedy seeker of the strange and obscure, instead of the original, she did not invent, did not perform magic, covering up the lack of beauty and sincerity with the incomprehensible and wild. It was immediacy itself, a light that shone from the heart and did not need any prisms and screens ... ".
Spectacular appearance largely contributed to the growth of M. Lokhvitskaya's popularity; she, as noted, "subsequently ... became an obstacle to understanding her poetry." According to T. Alexandrova, “not everyone wanted to see that the external attractiveness is combined in the poetess with a lively mind, which over time began to reveal itself more and more clearly in her lyrics. Drama Lokhvitskaya - ordinary drama beautiful woman in which they refuse to notice anything but beauty.
There is information that the poetess was successful at literary evenings, but it is also known that these performances were few and constrained. Recalling one of these evenings, E. Poselyanin wrote: “When she went on stage, there was so much helpless shyness in her that she seemed much less beautiful than on her card, which was placed in all magazines.” A neighbor and friend of Lokhvitskaya, Isabella Grinevskaya, recalled meetings with the poetess at artistic evenings, but she did not indicate whether Lokhvitskaya took any part in them, except for the audience: “We met with her at the evening at Yavorskaya. This interesting actress knew how not only to play on stage, but also to receive guests, giving them the opportunity to express themselves. An impromptu concert was created on a small stage. Some of the guests spoke. By chance, I found myself next to Lokhvitskaya, who was completely unfamiliar to me then, except for her name and some poems. ”, She recalled.
As many of those who knew Lokhvitskaya personally noted, the "Bacchic" nature of the poetess's work was in complete contrast with her real character. The author of unusually bold for her time, sometimes openly erotic poems, in life she was “the most chaste married lady in St. Petersburg”, a faithful wife and a virtuous mother. At the same time, as T. Aleksandrova notes, in the circle of friends Lokhvitskaya was surrounded by "a peculiar aura of universal light love." Lokhvitskaya is one of the few about whom the usually caustic I. A. Bunin left the most pleasant memories. “And everything about her was charming: the sound of her voice, the liveliness of her speech, the sparkle of her eyes, this cute light playfulness ... Her complexion was especially beautiful: matte, even, similar to the color of a Crimean apple,” he wrote. V. N. Muromtseva-Bunina recalled their relationship in this way, paraphrasing what she heard from her husband: He met in Moscow, and then became friends, with the poetess Mirra Lokhvitskaya, Teffi's sister. They developed a tender friendship. He always admired her, remembering a snowy day on the street, her in a smart fur coat covered with snow. She was considered almost a Bacchante, as she wrote poems about love and passion, and meanwhile she was a homebody, mother of several children, with a very lively and sensitive mind, who understood the joke. - Muromtseva-Bunina V. N. Bunin's life.
Bunin himself stated: the poetess, who sang passion, in everyday life is “a big homebody, lazy in the oriental way: often she even receives guests lying on the sofa in the hood, and never speaks to them with poetic languor, but on the contrary. Chatters very sensibly, simply, with great wit, observation and wonderful mockery. The writer often visited the house of the poetess, "was on friendly terms with her" and remarked: "we even called each other by diminutive names, although always as if ironically, with jokes on each other." Bunin left little documentary evidence of this friendship. It was noted, however, that the image of Lokhvitskaya, captured by the writer in his memoirs, organically fit "into the gallery of unforgettable female images of his artistic prose" (it can be assumed that it is reflected in the story "Light Breath", in a number of Bunin's poems, as well as in some features of Lika in " Life of Arseniev).
Vasily Nemirovich-Danchenko, arguing many years later about how married life destroys talent, found a certain pattern in the fact that the life of the poetess "... ended early, suddenly and tragically." And yet, he wrote, - ... I still can not remember her indifferently. Unable to - years have already passed - to reconcile, I will not sin in saying - with a great loss for our literature. Every time I read her poems, I see her in a cozy hotel room, in the corner of an olive velvet sofa, curled up like a kitten under the uneven fire of a brightly blazing fireplace. Under this light, it seemed, a flame lit up in her lovely eyes ... I hear her nervous, tender voice ... Stanza after stanza sounds, captivating me and often Vl. Solovyov into a magical poetic dream. To what bright worlds she was able to take those who listened to her! And how charming everything was, and the shimmering face, swarthy, southern, golden! .. I was not at her funeral. I wanted her to remain in my memory the same joyful fragrant flower of a distant sunny land, abandoned in the dull everyday life of the frozen north.
You. Iv. Nemirovich-Danchenko.
Creativity Analysis
The early poems of Mirra Lokhvitskaya did not differ in formal novelty, but, as it was later admitted, “the assertion of a purely feminine view of the world was fundamentally new in them”; in this regard, it is Lokhvitskaya who is considered the founder of Russian “female poetry” of the 20th century, who paved the way for A. A. Akhmatova, M. I. Tsvetaeva and other Russian poetesses. As M. O. Gershenzon wrote, “Lokhvitskaya’s poems were not appreciated and did not penetrate the large public, but those who love the delicate aroma of poetry and the music of the verse, they were able to appreciate her wonderful talent ...”. In a review of the posthumously published collection Before Sunset (1907), Gershenzon wrote: First of all, Lokhvitskaya's verse is charming. The whole play succeeded relatively rarely for her: she definitely did not carry out her poetic idea and often embodied it when it was not yet clear in herself. But a single stanza, a single verse often achieves classical perfection in her. It seems that none of the Russian poets has approached Pushkin to such an extent in terms of purity and clarity of verse as this woman poet; her stanzas are remembered almost as easily as Pushkin's.
Gershenzon M. O., Bulletin of Europe, 1908.
You also noted the natural musicality of the poetess's verse. Nemirovich-Danchenko: “Each line glowed with a beautiful, purely southern passion and such penetration into nature that even the great poets in the honorable corner of the Russian Parnassus did not have. She was already fully tech-savvy even then. She had nothing to learn from the versifiers, whom we often called the laurels of true poetry. She, more than anyone, was distinguished by a musical ear and, running her eyes through the lines, heard poetry.
The Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron, where Lokhvitskaya was characterized as "one of the most outstanding Russian poets", confirmed: "Her verse is elegant, harmonious, light, the images are always bright and colorful, the mood is clear, the language is plastic." At the same time, it was noted that despite the fact that the poetess was considered by many to be decadents, in reality, Lokhvitskaya did not have “a shadow of that relaxation, nervous weakness, pretentiousness and, in general, morbidity and extravagance” that were associated with decadence; on the contrary, she was filled with a thirst for life, expressing the desire to enjoy and surrender to "your impulses with the fullness of an intense feeling." There were also opposite opinions: AI Izmailov saw in Lokhvitskaya's talent "a natural slope towards decadence", which was facilitated by "good theoretical knowledge of the occult." Her "imitations of mystical spells perfectly capture the spirit and tone of the creations of an old folk fiction," the critic noted.
S. A. Vengerov noticed in the poetess’s work “the same surge of social vigor that was expressed in a bold challenge to Marxism”, noting immediately that “Lokhvitskaya’s mood is completely alien to public interests”: The poetess’s ideas about the goals and objectives of life are completely oriental; she directed all the strength of her impulse and thirst for life exclusively in the direction of love. She spoke with complete frankness about "the desires of the fiery soul", about "frantic passion", etc., but the frankness and peculiar naivety with which she created the apotheosis of passion gave him great charm.
S. Vengerov, ESBE
Meanwhile, T. Alexandrova, noting that Lokhvitskaya was not only a “singer of passion”, but also a mystic by nature, cited the lines as an example: ... I hate the color red
Because he is cursed.
It contains the crimes of many years,
In it is the execution of bygone times ...
“This was said even before the first Russian revolution, which Lokhvitskaya did not even have time to see. In essence, this poem alone was enough for the poet not to be published under Soviet rule,” the researcher notes.
Vyach also wrote about the mystical side of the gift of the poetess. Ivanov. Noting the integrity of Lokhvitskaya's poetic nature, which, in his opinion, was a rare example of ancient harmony in modern man "... and treated Christianity ... with the soft tenderness of an undivided pagan soul standing outside, responding to it with all its natural, healthy kindness", he considered the poetess not "a bacchante of the insanely luxurious, godlessly carnal bacchanalia of late paganism", but a "true bacchante". Ivanov wrote: “As a true Bacchante<она>harbored a fatal polarity of worldview. Passion meets death, and pleasure - suffering. To the same extent that the poetess was inspired by the beauty of voluptuousness, she was attracted by the demonic horror of cruelty. With bold curiosity she stops over the abyss of torment; the Middle Ages breathes on it the haze of its diabolical obsessions; frenzied, she feels like one of the sorceresses who have experienced the hellish fun of the coven and the fire.
Bifurcation in a different plane was noted in the work of M. Lokhvitskaya and A. A. Kursinsky. He believed that the poetess was "... high above the dumb vale of worries and sorrows and lived as if in a different happiest world, where everything is beauty and bliss, an endless, crystal-sparkling fairy tale”, which made it seem “remote and alien” to many. Meanwhile, according to the critic, her “burning dreams were nourished by universal human sorrow for unattainable happiness, she heard heavenly choirs, but was heard through the dull ringing of the monotonous melodies of the earth”, and the creative motive was the desire to “reduce the visible sky to earth, and not in the desire get off the ground."
A. I. Izmailov, who believed that Lokhvitskaya was “the most prominent and ... the only, if we apply a strict and serious point of view, Russian poetess,” wrote: “Fiery, passionate, feminine-elegant, sometimes too nervous in her poems, almost painful , but always individual, it was a strange combination of earth and sky, flesh and spirit, sin and aspiration upward, local joy and longing for the “bliss of an unearthly country”, for the coming “kingdom of holy beauty”. The absence of strong and equal places her clearly first among women's poetry. Calling her a singer of "... burning, burning, languishing passion", the critic noted that even with the change of mood in her subsequent books, readers and critics "did not forget the first, brightly colored impression", which "remained dominant". Izmailov recalled that many noted the "one-sidedness of Lokhvitskaya's muse", which over the years only became more definite. In his opinion, the love lyrics of the poetess made "sometimes a somewhat painful impression"; it often showed a "painful nervous break...".
E. Poselyanin, calling M. Lokhvitskaya the largest figure among the poets of the new generation, put her above I. Bunin (“not bright enough”), K. Balmont and A. Bely (“... they give among a heap of incomprehensible chaotic creations only a small number of slender and sometimes beautiful things"). According to the writer, Lokhvitskaya "possessed one of hallmarks true talent - the extraordinary clarity of content and the definiteness of form. Recognizing the ideological narrowness of the poetess’s work (“Torments and joys, cries of sadness and cries of delight of a loving, eternally inflamed female heart”) and mentioning reproaches addressed to her in “exaggeration, in an overly burning flame of passion”, the Poselyanin remarked: She was one of the first women, who spoke about love from a feminine point of view as frankly as only poets, for their part, used to talk about it. But no matter how you look at this immediacy of her poetic confession, there was great sincerity in her, which created her success, together with a sonorous, brilliant form that was extremely in tune with the mood of this poem. - E. Poselyanin. Resounding strings. 1905
Recognizing that in Lokhvitskaya’s poems “... a rebellious, searching, unsatisfied, partly pagan heart beat,” Poselyanin clarified: “But this, for the most part physical, passion reached high impulses of self-denial.” Lokhvitskaya, as he believed, unwittingly paid "tribute to the mystical aspirations of the people among whom she was born", yet "in the field of ontology ... she managed to bring the most sublime and poetic element: love that never dies and blossoms in full and perfect power in eternity." It was noted that this opinion is especially interesting because it belongs to the author, who became famous for spiritual books on the history of Orthodoxy: “It is characteristic that the Poselyanin does not consider the mysticism of Lokhvitskaya’s love to be dark - he clearly sees its bright sides ...<Его заметка>- a good argument against enrolling the poetess in the ranks of the "priests of darkness",” wrote T. Aleksandrova.
Love Theme
Lokhvitskaya's poetry, elegant and colorful, was devoted almost exclusively to romantic feelings. The line: “This happiness is voluptuousness” became a kind of motto for the poetess, about which some critics spoke only of “Russian Sappho”. “All her work is subordinated to the theme of female love; sometimes there are historical motifs. Masterful poems are rich in images and comparisons, their structure is determined by parallelisms, they are not narrative, imbued with romance, eroticism, they express the acceptance of the world as a principle - both in relation to the beloved and to death, ”said V. Kazak (“Lexicon of Russian Literature XX century").
In her early works, the poetess sang love as a bright romantic feeling, the path to family happiness and the joy of motherhood. Gradually, the themes of her works narrowed; “a sinful passion, bringing discord into her soul” invaded the life of her lyrical heroine; plot appeared in love lyrics. The appearance of the “Bacchante” halo over the image of Lokhvitskaya was largely facilitated by her “literary romance” with K. D. Balmont. As S. Vengerov wrote, - Three periods should be distinguished in Lokhvitskaya's eroticism. If even in the first collection there are things that are directly cynical, then the general coloring to it, nevertheless, was imparted by naive grace; "Sweet songs of love" were, moreover, dedicated to the poet's husband for the fact that he brought her "happiness and joy." With the release of the second collection, the shy coloring of young delights disappears. The singer's feelings acquire an exceptionally sultry character.<…>With the III collection, she enters the last phase, where the shadows are already much greater than the light. The general tone of Lokhvitskaya's poetry is now gloomy; a lot is said about suffering, impotence, death. Former simplicity and clarity is replaced by pretentiousness. Plots are becoming more refined ... - ESBE, M. Lokhvitskaya.
The last years of the creative life of M. Lokhvitskaya were marked by decadent moods. A poem already included in Volume III:
“I want to die young, golden, roll like a star, fly around like an unfaded flower.
I want to die young...
May the fire not fade to the end, and the memory of the one that awakened hearts for life remains.
It was subsequently recognized as a "clearly realized prophetic epitaph." As the popularity of the "Russian Sappho" grew, criticism found in her poetry already "more sincerity than indiscretion." In volume IV, published in 1903, not a trace of recent passion remained. Poems with appeals to the beloved, written by this time, the poetess did not include here. But here there is a premonition of imminent death; in some poems, Lokhvitskaya mentally said goodbye to the children, bequeathing to them Christian ideals and the search for a way "to the gardens of the living God."
M. Gershenzon, tracing the short path traversed by the poetess through the collection “Before Sunset” (1907), noted: if in her early poems the motive expressed by the appeal prevailed: “Hurry, beloved! My oil is burning!”, then in later things the poet’s soul seemed to become “quieter and deeper; behind passion, behind the colorful veil of being, a mysterious connection of phenomena was revealed to her - as if the walls were parted and the gaze penetrated into the mysterious distance. A. Izmailov wrote that Lokhvitskaya "knew the secret of true beauty, and she sang beautifully, sincerely and boldly that Song of Songs, which no poetess had sung before her in Russian."
Meaning
Mirra Lokhvitskaya, who had a huge success in the late 1890s, noticeably lost popularity by the end of her life: “the cold ridicule of the legislators of literary fashion, the petty nitpicking of critics and the indifference of the reading public, who did not even honor their former favorite with fresh flowers at the funeral, were addressed to her” . The last echo of Lokhvitskaya’s lifetime glory was the fascination with her work by Igor Severyanin, who named his fantastic country “Mirrelia” in honor of the poetess, but (according to T. Aleksandrova) the immoderate enthusiasm of the “king of poets” did not contribute to an adequate understanding of her poetry.
In the Soviet period, the name of Lokhvitskaya was firmly forgotten, both at home and in the Russian diaspora; critics convicted her of "limitedness, triviality, salonism, vulgarity." For more than ninety years, M. Lokhvitskaya's poems have not been published in separate editions. The statement turned out to be widely disseminated: “For the future Anthology of Russian Poetry, it will be possible to choose 10-15 truly impeccable poems from Lokhvitskaya ...” (which had a less well-known continuation: “... but the attentive reader will always be excited and captivated by the inner drama of Lokhvitskaya’s soul, captured by her in all her poetry").
The situation began to change in the 1990s. The English Dictionary of Russian Women Writers (1994) noted that Lokhvitskaya's role in women's poetry "still awaits a balanced and fair assessment" and that her "influence on contemporaries and later poets is only beginning to be recognized." The American Slavist V.F. Markov argued that "her" burning, feminine verse "definitely deserves attention and rehabilitation", and "it was Lokhvitskaya, and not," she taught women to speak "". He also called Lokhvitskaya "a storehouse of prophetic anticipations." Modern researchers of the poetess's work recognize the validity of the reproach regarding the "narrowness" of the poetic world of Lokhvitskaya, but note the undoubted depth of the latter. As Vyacheslav Ivanov wrote, "its depth was a sunny depth, full of light, and therefore did not seem like a depth to an unaccustomed look."
Lokhvitskaya's poetry is elegant and colorful. Even during her lifetime, she received the name "Russian Sappho". The line "This happiness is voluptuousness" was the motto of the poetess.
In her early works, she sings of love as a bright romantic feeling that brings family happiness and the joy of motherhood. For her first poetry collection "Poems (1889 - 1895)", which appeared in 1896, Mirra Lokhvitskaya was awarded the Pushkin Prize of the Academy of Sciences. The poetess dedicated the collection to her husband and included in it poems addressed to her son.
The public exchange of messages in verse and the mutual dedications of Lokhvitskaya and Balmont aroused general interest and only emphasized the halo of the "Bacchante" inherent in Lokhvitskaya. The poet dedicated his best collection Let's Be Like the Sun (1903) to her. However, I. Bunin, who knew the poetess well and highly appreciated her work, spoke about the discrepancy between the real human appearance of the poetess and the image of her lyrical heroine: “She sang of love, passion, and therefore everyone imagined her to be almost a Bacchante, not at all suspecting that, for all her youth, she had been married for a long time ... that she was the mother of several children, a great homebody ...”(Bunin I.A.).
To late XIX As the popularity of the "Russian Sappho" constantly increased, criticism found in her poetry already "more sincerity than indiscretion".
In the 1900s, Lokhvitskaya turned to dramatic forms, wrote plays based on medieval subjects, and she was also attracted to eternal biblical stories. The poems of the last years of his life are imbued with mysticism and pessimism, thoughts of suffering and death. Along with fabulous and fantastic motifs, painful visions appeared in her works. Subsequent collections: "Poems. 1898 - 1900", 1900, - "honorary review" of the Academy of Sciences; "Poems. 1900 - 1902", 1903; "Poems. 1902-1904", 1904 - posthumously awarded half the Pushkin Prize). In addition to lyrical poems, these collections included dramatic poems "Two Words", "On the Way to the East", "Vandalin", "Immortal Love", "In nomine Domini" ("In the Name of God").
During the life of the poetess, five issues of "Poems" were published (the last - in 1904). It is widely believed that Lokhvitskaya did not have a significant impact on her contemporary and subsequent literature. Meanwhile, experience shows that this is not the case. The images of her poetry are often played up by other authors. Amfiteatrov wrote about this in the 10s in an article devoted to the analysis of the work of Igor Severyanin: “Although her life was short, she managed to say a few of her words and add a few of her thoughts to the treasury of Russian literature. Then, for a whole decade now, various gentlemen poets have been enjoying themselves with them ... ".V. F. Markovsaidthese days: “Lokhvitskaya is a storehouse of prophetic anticipations<...>She was ahead of Balmont by almost ten years with her "To the Sun"<...>Other poets are also heard in her lines. The very first poem of the first book of her poems sounds like a foreshadowing of Gippius, Balmont and Sologub, and in addition, some of the "Soloviev" aspects of Blok. Lokhvitskaya wrote about the rope dancer (and about "loneliness together") before Akhmatova, explained the nature of the naiad before Tsvetaeva, put "rain" and "cloak" in poetry before Yuri Zhivago, used words like "terevinf" before Vyacheslav Ivanov. A follower of Mirra Lokhvitskaya was Igor Severyanin. He created a kind of cult of the poetess, and her name was included in the declarations of the ego-futurists, who called her their forerunner.
White nymph - under the sad willow Looks into a pond overgrown with water lilies. Do you hear? Distant music blew - These violets are in bloom. Evening is coming. More fragrant The young grass will breathe. Do you believe? .. But the thrill of silence is more understandable, Where words fail. 1899
Nowadays
What manners, what time! Everyone lazily drags the burden, Dreaming of nothing else. Bored in their sleepy gatherings, In their ordinary amusements, In their contrived fun. We, frozen in modest desires, We are looking for semi-dark colors, Hating darkness and light. We are not attracted by the ghost of happiness, Celebrations and autocracy, There are no visions in our dreams. Everything disappeared without a return. Where once shone In a halo of gold? Those who went to the cherished goal, That they did not turn pale under torture, Didn't moan under the whip? Where those who did not know sorrows, In the wild brilliance of bacchanalia Burning years? Where are you people? By, by! Everything is irretrievably gone Everything vanished without a trace. And to the delight of the hypocrites Life crawls in a gray fog, Irresponsible and deaf. Faith sleeps. Science is silent. And boredom reigns over us Mother of vice and sin. 1898In a different country
Once you loved me For a long time, in a different country.- You were full of mighty powers You were my favorite. The sunset of radiant days flashed - For a long time, in another country.- We broke up - not according to yours, Not my fault. And the vault eclipsed blue - In a different country, for a long time.- My friend, bow before Fate, So it was destined. 1904-1905Gate of eternity
I dreamed of mountains in sunset fire Not like fogs, not like visions, But like the bulk of the earthly stronghold Gateway to the glory of another world. They rose like a double wall, Aleli bright above the clouds Everything is in wonderful signs, in treasured runes, Keeping the wisdom of the eternal secret. I understand the signs, understand the runes, - In moments of light and revelation. But how will I get through the golden walls? How can I enter the realm of the other world? Burning peaks in the fire of sunset The soul trembles and heeds the call. She hears a whisper: “You will enter into eternity, Through the gates of love and death." 1904-1905autumn sunset
Oh farewell light, oh beautiful light, Ignited in the heights of the snowy desert, You warm your soul with a vain dream, Anxious longing, tender sadness. The fields of ether bloom with you, Where the poppies of the heavenly tabernacles bloom. In you, the fusion of fire and peace, In you is the silence of the coming winter. Trusting the night, you quietly doze In the scarlet mist, in the distance obscure. Wearily heed children's prayers, Oh farewell light, oh beautiful light! 1898sleeping swan
My earthly life is ringing, The indistinct rustle of reeds, They lulled the sleeping swan, My anxious soul In the distance they flicker hastily In search of greedy ships, Quietly in the thickets of the bay, Where sadness breathes, like the oppression of the earth. But the sound, born of trembling, Slip into the rustle of reeds, And the awakened swan trembles, My immortal soul And rush into the world of freedom, Where the sighs of storms echo the waves, Where in the changing waters Looks like eternal azure. 1896***
I love you brighter than the sunset sky of lights, Cleaner than flakes of fog and words of innermost tenderness, More dazzling than the arrows that cut through the clouds in the darkness; I love you more - than you can love on earth. Like a dewdrop that bright in itself reflects the ether, I will embrace the whole sky - boundless love, like the world, That love that shines like a hidden pearl at the bottom; I love you more deeply than they love in the early morning dream. Your love has lit up the sun of my life for me. You are my day. You are my dream. You are oblivion from the torments of life. You are whom I love and whom I obey, loving. You are the one who raised my heart to yourself with love! 1900-1902 *** I want to die young Not loving, not sad about anyone, Golden star to roll Fly around with an unfaded flower. I want my stone Exhausted by a long feud Found bliss together I want to die young! Bury me aside From tiresome and noisy roads, Where the willow bowed to the wave Where uncut gorse turns yellow. For sleepy poppies to bloom For the wind to breathe over me The scents of a distant land. I want to die young! I do not look at the path traveled, On the madness of wasted years, I can sleep carefree If my last anthem is finished. Let the fire not fade to the end And the memory of the one will remain That woke hearts for life. I want to die young! 1898
Maria Alexandrovna Lokhvitskaya(by husband Gibert - fr. Gibert; November 19, 1869, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire - August 27, 1905, ibid.) - Russian poetess, signed with the pseudonym Mirra Lokhvitskaya; sister of Teffia N. A. Lokhvitsky. By the end of the 1890s, having reached her creative peak and mass recognition, soon after her death, Lokhvitskaya was practically forgotten. In the 1980s and 1990s, interest in the work of the poetess revived; some researchers consider her the founder of Russian "women's poetry" of the 20th century, which opened the way for A. A. Akhmatova and M. I. Tsvetaeva.
Mirra Alexandrovna Lokhvitskaya was born into the family of a fairly well-known lawyer Alexander Vladimirovich Lokhvitsky (1830-1884). He was a scientist, doctor of law and a talented author of many articles and works, in particular, he wrote a course in criminal law. A.V. Lokhvitsky was a practicing lawyer and barrister. The wit and brilliant dialectics of his performances attracted large audiences. Mirra Lokhvitskaya's mother, Varvara Aleksandrovna Lokhvitskaya (née Goyer), was an enlightened and well-read woman. She was born in a Russified French family, she was very fond of literature, passing this passion on to her children.
Mirra Lokhvitskaya grew up in a large family. The family quite often moved both from city to city and within cities. The father of the family graduated from Moscow University, after which he studied in Germany, and then taught in Odessa and St. Petersburg. Subsequently, the Lokhvitsky family returned to Moscow again. Therefore, the exact number of children in the family is unknown. It is known that Mirra was the second child. The eldest son was Nikolai (1868-1933), who chose military career, had many awards and rose to the rank of general. Mirra's younger sister was Nadezhda (1872-1952), who is quite famous in the literary world under the pseudonym taffy.
Mirra Lokhvitskaya was baptized on November 30, 1869 at the Sergius Cathedral. A few years later, in 1874, the Lokhvitskys moved to Moscow. In 1882, Lokhvitskaya entered the Alexander School, which was later renamed the Alexander Institute. While studying there, she lived as a boarder at her parents' expense. In 1884, after the death of her husband, her mother Varvara Alexandrovna again moved to St. Petersburg with her younger children. In 1888, Mirra Lokhvitskaya completed her course of study, received a certificate as a home teacher and returned to St. Petersburg to her family.
While studying at the school, Mirra Lokhvitskaya began to compose poetry. At the age of fifteen, she finally realized herself as a poet. In 1888, shortly before graduation, with the permission of the school administration, she published two of her poems.
Beginning in 1889, Mirra Lokhvitskaya's poems were regularly published in print periodicals. The first publication with which she began to cooperate was the St. Petersburg illustrated magazine Sever. In the future, her poems were published in such magazines as "Artist", "Picturesque Review", "Russian Review", "Books of the Week", "Labor" and so on.
During this period, Mirra Lokhvitskaya met many creative people: writers, poets, critics, philosophers. At the age of twenty, she wrote amazingly mature and powerful poems, calling to enjoy life and love. In general, love became the main theme of Mirra Lokhvitskaya’s work, for which she was called “Russian Sappho” during her lifetime. Her motto was the line of one of the poems “Is this happiness? voluptuousness." In the early works of Mirra Lokhvitskaya, love is described as a bright, joyful feeling, accompanied by the happiness of family life and motherhood. Later, the lyrical heroine of Mirra Lokhvitskaya began to experience sinful passions, which brought discord into her soul. Her work included a wide range of experiences. Her love lyrics were distinguished by a developed plot, and love poems were never monotonous.
In the 1890s, the Lokhvitsky family spent their summers in a dacha settlement located between Oranienbaum and Peterhof, called the “Oranienbaum colony”. Mirra Lokhvitskaya reflected the impressions of life in this area in a number of her poems and the poem "By the Sea".
Here Mirra Lokhvitskaya met her future husband, Yevgeny Ernestovich Zhiber. He was the son of Ernest Gibert (1823-1909), a well-known professor of architecture, who, together with his family, rented a dacha next to the Lokhvitsky dacha. Ernest Gibert was a Frenchman born in Paris who came to Petersburg in the 1840s and stayed in Russia forever. Ernest Gibert was married to Olga Fegin (1838-1900), who was also a Russified Frenchwoman.
Evgeny Ernestovich was a student at St. Petersburg University, and later worked as a civil engineer. This job involved frequent business trips and relocations. At the end of 1891, Mirra Lokhvitskaya and Yevgeny Zhiber got married, and a year later they left St. Petersburg. For some time they lived in Yaroslavl, Tikhvin, then spent several years in Moscow. In the fall of 1898, the couple returned to St. Petersburg.
In 1895, in the Crimea, Mirra Lokhvitskaya met Konstantin Balmont. Admiring his poems, she gave him a book of her poems with the signature "from the reader and admirer." The beginning of their acquaintance was filled with mutual admiration. Subsequently, they entered into a kind of creative duel, the consequences of which for Mirra Lokhvitskaya turned out to be sad, up to mental breakdown.
The real relationship between Mirra Lokhvitskaya and Konstantin Balmont remained a secret. There was an opinion that there was a short romance between them, which became the first in a series of many other novels by Balmont. Konstantin Balmont himself wrote in his autobiographical essay that he was connected with Mirra Lokhvitskaya by “poetic friendship”. Virtually no documentary evidence of their communication remains. In the archive of Mirra Lokhvitskaya, only one letter from Konstantin Balmont has been preserved, from which it can be seen that there were other letters that were destroyed.
One can learn about the development of their relationship from fragmentary mentions in correspondence with various addressees, as well as from their poetic roll call from more than a hundred poems by both poets. The image of Konstantin Balmont is easy to recognize in the work of Mirra Lokhvitskaya. From this we can conclude that their relationship was not smooth. The period of their friendship was relatively short, after which there were differences in their views, which is also evident from the critical reviews of Balmont.
Their so-called romance in verse was not evidence that the feelings between the poets were far-fetched. In reality, they did not have the opportunity to experience what they sang in their work, and this led to a deterioration and subsequent break in relations. But the poetic duel between Mirra Lokhvitskaya and Konstantin Balmont continued.
Apparently, the initial feelings of the poets were mutual, but perhaps Mirra Lokhvitskaya's feelings were deeper, but she suppressed them, allowing them to manifest themselves only in creativity. And Konstantin Balmont, who, in accordance with the principles of the modernists, strove to unite life and creativity, continued to shake the peace of mind of Mirra Lokhvitskaya, which she hardly kept stable.
Because of this hobby, Mirra Lokhvitskaya gained a somewhat scandalous reputation, she was called a "Bacchante", despite the fact that in reality she was a completely different person.
Mirra Lokhvitskaya gave birth to five sons. In the first years of marriage, three of them were born: Mikhail, Eugene and Vladimir. In 1900, Mirra Lokhvitskaya had a fourth son named Ishmael. In the early 1900s, Mirra Lokhvitskaya dedicated a playful poem to children, where she spoke about her maternal feelings and described the characters of her sons. In the autumn of 1904, the fifth son of Lokhvitskaya, Valery, was born. In the future, she more than once dedicated her poems to each of her children individually.
Mirra Lokhvitskaya was a very gifted poetess. Musicality, emotionality, brilliant metaphors were integral features of her poetry. Mirra Lokhvitskaya? the founder of women's Russian poetry. Her fame was accompanied by a certain touch of scandalousness, despite the fact that neither the work of Mirra Lokhvitskaya, nor her demeanor suggested any outrageousness. The sensual love that was described in her poetry, the love of life, the description of a woman whose happiness consists in submitting to her beloved man, were imbued with spiritual purity, innocence, and deep religiosity. Despite all the novelty and boldness of her works, Mirra Lokhvitskaya was a virtuous and chaste woman, a wonderful wife and mother.
In 1896, the first collection of poems by Mirra Lokhvitskaya was published. Shortly thereafter, she received the Pushkin Prize for him. Subsequent collections of poems by Mirra Lokhvitskaya were published in 1898, 1900, 1903 and 1904, two of which received honorary reviews from the Academy of Sciences.
By the end of the century, the popularity of the poetess increased significantly. Critics began to speak positively about her works, finding in them "more sincerity than indiscretion." Turning to dramatic forms in the 1900s, Mirra Lokhvitskaya introduced somewhat pessimistic notes into her works. She began to write plays on various medieval subjects. Lokhvitskaya was somewhat carried away by mysticism, but did not leave the biblical theme. The penchant for mysticism was especially pronounced in her later works, in which there was a noticeable premonition of imminent death.
Having moved once again to St. Petersburg, Mirra Lokhvitskaya began to participate in the literary circle of K.K. Sluchevsky, who treated her very warmly. At the literary meetings of the circle, she was always a welcome guest, although she did not visit them very often.
Speaking at literary evenings, Mirra Lokhvitskaya was rather shy, which slightly spoiled the impression of her very spectacular appearance. From the memoirs of contemporaries it follows that her beauty was somewhat exotic, like her work. Appearance, which usually has little to do with literary activity, played a significant role for Mirra Lokhvitskaya. At the beginning of the literary career of the poetess, her appearance rather even helped her, but later she began to interfere with the understanding of her work, since only a few wanted to see a lively mind behind external attractiveness. Mirra Lokhvitskaya found herself in the usual situation for a beautiful woman, when others refuse to see anything in her except her appearance.
The poetic world of Lokhvitskaya was often called too narrow. It was partly true, and of herself she said: “Me? woman and only. In her works there are more inner experiences than impressions from the outside world. At first glance, it seems that the modern era is not reflected in her work at all. But her style cannot be confused with anyone else's. In the lyrics of Mirra Lokhvitskaya, an important place was occupied by the musical element, subjugating themes, images and rhythms.
In the late 1890s, Mirra Lokhvitskaya's health began to deteriorate. Perhaps this was due to dramatic experiences. She was often ill, suffered from heart pain and depression. In 1905, she was already bedridden. At the end of August 1905, Mirra Lokhvitskaya died. There is various information about the cause of death of the poetess: from pulmonary tuberculosis to angina pectoris. In any case, her illness was connected with the state of her soul.
On August 29, 1905, Mirra Alexandrovna Lokhvitskaya was buried at the Nikolsky cemetery. She was buried in the Spiritual Church of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Konstantin Balmont, who in 1903 dedicated one of his best collections “Let's be like the sun” to her, did not come to the funeral and did not show his grief at her illness and death, although in his subsequent work images from her poetry continued to appear .
The relationship between Mirra Lokhvitskaya and Konstantin Balmont continued in the fate of their children. Balmont named his daughter after her, whom he also wanted to see as a poetess. And the fourth son of Mirra Lokhvitskaya was named Ishmael, just like the main character of one of her works, in which she reflected her relationship with Balmont. Subsequently, the son of Mirra Lokhvitskaya, Ishmael Zhiber, fell in love with Mirra Balmont, but she did not reciprocate. Soon Ishmael Zhiber shot himself.
The work of Mirra Lokhvitskaya was recognized by contemporaries and positively evaluated by critics, but did not have a significant impact on the next generations of poets. A follower of Mirra Lokhvitskaya was Igor Severyanin. He created a kind of cult of the poetess, and her name was included in the declarations of the ego-futurists, who called her their forerunner along with K.M. Fofanov. But Severyanin's admiration for her work did not contribute to the growth in popularity of the works of Mirra Lokhvitskaya, and in Soviet era her fame has completely faded. This was also due to the fact that her love, philosophical and religious lyrics could not fit into the Soviet ideology. The works of Mirra Lokhvitskaya have not been published separately for more than ninety years. Nevertheless, in fact, she had a greater impact on the literary world than is usually said.
Bibliography
- Poems (1889-1895)
- Poems (1896-1898)
- "He and she. Two words "(1899)
- "On the way to the East". Dramatic Poem (1897)
- Poems (1898-1900)
- "Vandelin". Spring Tale (1899)
- "Immortal Love" Drama in 5 acts, 8 scenes (1900)
- Poems (1900-1902)
- "The Tale of Prince Ishmael, Princess Svetlana and Dzhemali the Beautiful" (1902)
- "In Nomine Domini". Drama (1902)
- Poems (1902-1904)
- Lokhvitskaya-Zhiber M.A. Collected works vols. 1-5. (M ., 1896-1898, St. Petersburg, 1900-1904).
- Lokhvitskaya-Giber, M. A. Before sunset. (Foreword by KR) St. Petersburg, 1908. The collection was published by the relatives of the poetess in addition to the lifetime collection of works.
Lokhvitskaya Mirra (Giber Maria Alexandrovna)
L Ohvitskaya, Mirra (or Maria Alexandrovna, by her husband Zhiber) - a talented poetess (1869 - 1905), daughter. She studied at the Moscow Alexander Institute. Several of her poems were published as a separate brochure (M., 1888); then her poems appeared in various magazines. In 1896 she published the first collection (M., 1896), followed by four more in 1898-1905. The first 2 volumes in 1900 were published in the 2nd edition. Twice for her poems the Academy awarded her half the Pushkin Prize. The name "Russian Sappho" correctly defines the main character of Lokhvitskaya's poetry, all the pathos of which went into the chanting of love. Lokhvitskaya is one of the most prominent Russian poets. Her verse is elegant, harmonious, light, the images are always bright and colorful, the mood is clear, the language is plastic. When the first collection of Lokhvitskaya's poems came out, defiantly breaking off all connection with "ideological" poetry, the young poetess was ranked as a decadent. This is a mistake: in the best period of Lokhvitskaya's work there is not even a shadow of that relaxation, pretentiousness and, in general, morbidity, which are organically connected with the concept of decadence. Lokhvitskaya is full of energy, passionately wants to live and enjoy. Despite the difference in content, Lokhvitskaya's poetry was affected by the same surge of vivacity, which was expressed in a bold challenge to Marxism. Lokhvitskaya does not want to know that whining that characterizes the strip of the 1880s. “I look boldly into the distance,” the debutante declares. A thirst for happiness boils in her, she is ready to fight for it, she has no doubt that she will achieve it, and in rapture she repeats: "I believe you, dreams, spring dreams." Lokhvitskaya's mood is completely alien to public interests. Her ideas about the purpose and tasks of life are completely oriental: she directed all the strength of her impulse exclusively towards love. The peculiar naivety with which she created the apotheosis of passion gives the first collection of her poems great charm. The ecstasy of the first delights of love brightened up the hackneyed motives (spring, the moon, lilacs, kisses of the beloved, the happiness of reciprocity, the sweetness of the first caresses, etc.). With the release of the second collection, the shy coloring of young delights disappears. The feelings of the singer acquire an exceptionally sultry character. "This is happiness-voluptuousness": this is the main motive of the second collection. Next to the pungency, something else begins to creep into Lokhvitskaya's bright mood. If earlier she exclaimed: "Sun, give me the sun," now she declares: "I am sweet and the sun's ray is welcoming and the rustle of secrets beckons me." Suffering begins to attract her; the epigraph of the second collection is "amori et dolori". The farther, the more the bright mood of Lokhvitskaya disappears. Starting from the third collection, in her poems there is much more shadow than light. Much is said about suffering, impotence, death. Former simplicity and clarity are replaced by pretentiousness. The stories are getting better and better. The 4th and 5th collections of works by Lokhvitskaya did not add anything to her fame. Having lost the freshness of feeling, Lokhvitskaya fell into medieval fantasy, into the world of witches, the cult of Satan, etc. There are few purely lyrical plays; a significant part of both collections is occupied by unsuccessful medieval dramas. Lokhvitskaya defines herself thus; "my soul is a living reflection of the skies of the yearning earth." But mysticism did not at all go to the poetic temperament of Lokhvitskaya; I felt emotional breakdown, loss life purpose. S. Vengerov.