Before figuring out who Yesenin's parents were, we must honestly admit that the whole story will eventually come down to the life and work of the poet himself. And you can write about him endlessly, because fans have always been interested in people who influenced the formation of his personality, and the environment in which this unique Russian nugget grew, close in size to Pushkin and Lermontov, the path of love for which to this day does not grow .
Homeland
Yesenin's birthday was held in a picturesque corner of Russia on October 3, 1895. This magnificent Yesenin region today receives a huge number of visitors every day. The future poet was born in Konstantinovo (Ryazan region), in an old village, which is freely spread among the forests and fields on the right bank of the Oka. The nature of these places is inspired by God, it is not for nothing that it was here that a genius with a devoted Russian soul was born.
Yesenin's house in Konstantinovo has long been a museum. Wide carpets of flood meadows and picturesque lowlands near the river became the cradle of poetry of the great poet. His homeland was the main source of his inspiration, to which he constantly fell, drawing on the strength of Russian love for his father's house, the Russian spirit and his people.
Yesenin's parents
The poetâs father, Alexander Nikitich Yesenin (1873-1931), sang in a church choir from his youth. He was a peasant, but he was completely unsuitable for peasant affairs, since he could not even harness a horse. Therefore, he went to work in Moscow with the merchant Krylov, who was holding a butcher's shop. Alexander Yesenin was very dreamy. He could sit thoughtfully for a long time by the window, rarely smile, but at the same time he could tell such funny things that everyone laughed around.
The poetâs mother, Tatyana Fedorovna Titova (1873-1955), was also from a peasant family. She lived almost all her life in Konstantinovo. Ryazan region almost captivated her. Tatyana Fedorovna gave her son Sergey strength and confidence in talent, without which he would never have decided to go to Petersburg.
Yesenin's parents were not happy in the marriage, but his mother lived her whole life with a heavy heart and terrible pain in the soul, and there were serious reasons for this.
Brother Alexander Razgulyaev
Not everyone knows, but next to the grave of the poet at the Vagankovsky cemetery there is the grave of Yeseninâs stepbrother by mother, Alexander Ivanovich Razgulyaev. The thing is that Tatyana Fedorovna, while still very young, married Alexander Nikitich not out of love. Yesenin's parents somehow did not get along right away. Immediately after the wedding, my father returned to Moscow, to the butcher's shop of the merchant Krylov, where he had worked before. Tatyana Fedorovna was a woman with character and did not get along either with her husband or with her mother-in-law.
She sent her son Sergei to be raised with her parents, and in 1901 she went to work in Ryazan and met, as she thought, her great love. But the obsession quickly passed, and from this sinful love was born son Alexander (1902-1961).
Tatyana Fedorovna wanted to get a divorce, but her husband did not give. She had to give the boy to the nurse EP Razgulyaeva and write down on her surname. From that moment on, her life turned into a nightmare, she suffered and missed the baby, sometimes visited him, but could not pick it up. Sergei Yesenin found out about him in 1916, but they only met in 1924 in the house of his grandfather - Fedor Titov.
Alexander Nikitich Yesenin wrote to his eldest daughter Catherine, who then lived with Benislavskaya so that they would not accept Alexander Razgulyaev, since it was very painful for him to bear it. Resentment to the mother was in the heart of the poet. Although he understood that Brother Alexander was not to blame for anything, they also did not have warm relations.
Alexander Ivanovich Razgulyaev, of course, was proud of his brother. He lived the life of a modest railroad worker who raised four children. He described all his creepy memories of his orphan childhood in his Autobiography.
Sisters
Yesenin also had two beloved sisters: Catherine (1905-1977) and Alexandra (1911-1981). Catherine followed her brother from Konstantinovo to Moscow. There she helped him in literary and publishing affairs, and then after his death she became the keeper of his archives. Catherine married Yesenin's close friend, Vasily Nasedkin, who was repressed and executed by the NKVD in 1937 in a fabricated âcase of writersâ. She herself received a term of two years. Died of a heart attack in Moscow.
The second sister was called Alexandra. She also put a lot of work and effort into the creation of Yesenin's museums, providing photographs, manuscripts and other valuable family relics and artifacts. The difference with her brother was 16 years old. He affectionately called her Shurenka. At the end of 1924, having returned from abroad, he took her to his place in Moscow. Mother blessed her with the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God, which is now in the Esenin Museum in Moscow. The poet adored his sisters and received great pleasure from communicating with them.
Grandpa and Grandma
Yesenin was brought up with his motherâs parents for a long time. The grandmother's name was Natalya Evtikhievna (1847-1911), and the grandfather was Fedor Andreevich (1845-1927). In their family, apart from the granddaughter of Seryozha, there were three more of their sons. Thanks to his grandmother Yesenin met with folklore. She told him many tales, sang songs and ditties. The poet himself admitted that it was his grandmother's stories that prompted him to write the first verses. Grandfather Fedor was a believer who knew church books well, so every evening there were readings in their house.
Moving to father
After graduating from the Spas-Klepikovskaya church and teacher school in 1912 and receiving a diploma from a teacher of the literacy school, Yesenin immediately moved to his father in Moscow on ul. Pinch in Bolshoy Strochenovsky Lane d. 24 (now there is a museum of Yesenin).
Alexander Yesenin was glad of his arrival and thought that his son would be his reliable assistant, but he was very upset when he announced to him that he wanted to become a poet. At first he helped his father, but then he began to translate his ideas into reality and got a job at the printing house of I. D. Sytin. And then we will not once again retell his entire biography, which is already quite well known, but rather weâll try to understand what kind of person he was.
Hook and brawler
Many unpleasant things were often said about him. Debauch and drunkenness were indeed not uncommon in the life of the poet, but he took his talent and ministry of poetry quite seriously and with great respect. According to the poet himself and from the words of people close to him, for example, such as Ilya Schneider, he did not write while intoxicated.
As a poet of conscience, he could not remain silent and, feeling pain for a country that was plunging into complete chaos, devastation and hunger, began to use his poems as an instrument against the government ("The Golden Grove dissuaded ...", "We are now leaving a little ... â,â Soviet Russia âandâ Outgoing Russia â).
His last work bore a symbolic name - "Country of villains." After writing it, Yeseninâs life changed dramatically, he was persecuted and accused of rowdy and drunkenness. The poet was repeatedly interrogated by people from the GPU who "sewed" him a case. At first they wanted to convict him of anti-Semitism, then there were still some developments. In the winter of 1925, the granddaughter of Leo Tolstoy, Sofia, helped him escape from persecution by agreeing with the head professor Gannushkin to provide the poet with a separate chamber. But there were informants, and Esenina again "took to the front." On December 28, he is brutally murdered under the guise of suicide.
Yesenin family
Since 1914, Yesenin lived in a civil marriage with proofreader Anna Romanovna Izryadnova (1891-1946). She bore him a son, Yuri, who, after graduating from the Moscow Aviation College, served in Khabarovsk, but he was shot in 1937 on false charges. Mother died without ever learning about the fate of her son.
In 1917, the poet married Zinaida Reich, a Russian actress and future wife of the director V.E. Meyerhold. Yesenin's family acquired two more children: Tatyana (1918-1992), who later became a writer and journalist, and Konstantin (1920-1986), who became a journalist and football statistician. But the couple again something did not work out and in 1921 they officially divorced.
Almost immediately, Yesenin met with the American dancer Isadora Duncan, whom he married six months later. Together they traveled to Europe and the United States. But upon returning to their homeland, unfortunately, they parted.
A dramatic story broke out with Yeseninâs secretary, Galina Benislavskaya, who was his true and true friend in the most difficult moments for him. He met with her and sometimes lived with her. They met in 1920. After the death of the poet in 1926, she shot herself at his grave at the Vagankovsky cemetery. She was buried next to him.
Yesenin also had an illegitimate son from the poetess Nadezhda Davydovna Volpin - Alexander. He was born on May 12, 1924, as an adult he emigrated to the United States and became a mathematical scientist. Alexander died recently - in March 2016 in Boston.
Yesenin built the last family relations with Sofia Tolstoy. He wanted to start a new life, but death cut short all plans. On the birthday of Yesenin, October 3, 2015, the whole country celebrated 120 years. So much would be accomplished by this talented poet.
Epilogue
In the Leningrad blockade, Yeseninâs son, Konstantin, who fought at the front and asked for a leave, appeared on the crossroads of Nevsky and Liteiny prospect on one of the gloomy days of 1943. A soldier in a jammed cap, a worn and burnt overcoat suddenly saw that the Old Book store was working, and without any purpose simply went into it. He stood and examined smart books. After the stinking swamps and slanting trenches, being among the books was almost bliss for him. And suddenly a man came up to the saleswoman, who had a very tired and wore traces of hunger and heavy emotions, and asked her if they would have a volume of Yesenin. She replied that now his books are very rare, and the man immediately left. Konstantin was surprised that in the blockade, in a harsh and desperate life, someone needed Yesenin. And what is surprising, at that very moment in the store in the windings and dirty boots was a soldier Konstantin Yesenin - the son of a poet ...