Golden curls reminiscent of ripening spikelets... A friendly and enthusiastic face with blue eyes radiating light and warmth... A constant thirst for activity, striving forward... Boundless love for the native land and everything connected with it... A short but incredibly bright creative life... Such thoughts come to mind when mentioning the poet with the brightest name - Sergei Yesenin. His works are well known to every Russian person, including those who, in principle, have little interest in poetry.
On the way to creativity
His homeland is Konstantinovo, a small village in the Ryazan region. Pristine Russian nature and its indescribable beauty forever entered the heart of the boy, captivated by its greatness, and early awakened in him a penchant for poetry. By the age of eighteen, the young poet already had a notebook containing his first works. Yesenin, who sent them to St. Petersburg and was confident of quick recognition, was very surprised that they never made it into the capital’s magazines. Then he decides to personally go towards glory. And the memories of his home will warm his soul all his life and inspire him to new creative searches.
First collections
In St. Petersburg the young man was greeted cordially. “Go away, my dear Rus'...” - this and other works of Yesenin impressed Blok, Gorodetsky, and later Klyuev. His poems brought joy, sounded sincere and unique. Real fame comes from the first collections, which are published one after another: “Radunitsa”, “Dove”, “Rural Book of Hours”, “Transfiguration”. They consist mainly of Yesenin’s works about nature: “Bird cherry tree”, “The moon butts the cloud with its horn”, “The fields are compressed...”, “I left my native home...” and many others. The reader is presented with a special world in which nature is humanized and becomes the main character. Everything here is harmonious, colorful, picturesque and without the falseness inherent in people.
The young Yesenin treats animals with trepidation and tenderness, which is most clearly manifested in “Song of the Dog,” which tragically experiences the death of newly born puppies.
Unusual metaphors, epithets, comparisons aroused surprise and general delight: “the darkness floated up ... like a swan,” “clouds are knitting lace,” and, of course, the famous “Rus is a raspberry field.”
After the revolution
The poet initially perceived the changes taking place in the country with delight. He associated “transformations” with the revolution, which should benefit the people. During this period, Yesenin’s works appear: “The Jordanian Dove,” “Heavenly Drummer,” etc. However, very soon the tone of the poems changes, and instead of delight, melancholy notes are increasingly heard, caused by observations of the changes taking place in the country - the poet increasingly sees “torn apart by a storm everyday life" - and troubles in his personal life. These sentiments were most fully reflected in the collections of the early 20s, “Confession of a Hooligan” and “Moscow Tavern.” And the attitude towards him is becoming contradictory: for some he is still the singer of Blue Rus', for others he is a brawler and a brawler. The same contrast is visible in the poems of 21-24, including “A blue fire began to sweep,” “I am the last poet of the village,” “I don’t regret, I don’t call...”, “Darling, let’s sit next to each other”...
“Fun” is perhaps Yesenin’s most famous work from the cycle about Moscow, conveying the thoughts and feelings of the poet. In it, he seems to sum up his life and shares his innermost thoughts with the reader.
And soon followed an acquaintance with A. Duncan and a European trip. Being far from his homeland, Sergei Alexandrovich took a new look at his country. Now he was full of hope and dreamed of serving the Motherland and the people. It was after his return that the poems “The Grove Dissuaded...” appear, in which autumn is correlated with human life, and the incredibly warm and tender “Letter to a Mother.”
Trip to the Caucasus
Speaking about Yesenin, one cannot help but recall his “Persian Motifs”. They were inspired by a trip to the Caucasus, where Sergei Alexandrovich most acutely felt how dear his native places were to him. He expressed his feelings by contrasting the Russian expanses with the distant Persian nature - his dream of visiting this country never came true. The poems of the cycle resemble a painting, complemented by living sounds. But the real poetic masterpiece was the love lyrics, including Yesenin’s most famous work from this cycle - “Shagane”. addressed to a distant Persian woman, to whom the author told his innermost thoughts about his native Ryazan land, about the girl who remained there.
"Goodbye, my friend..."
With these words begins a poem written by the poet before his death. It is more reminiscent of an epitaph that the poet addressed to himself. Frank, born of prolonged mental anguish, this poem is, in fact, Yesenin’s farewell to life and people.
Sergey Yesenin. The name of the great Russian poet - an expert on the people's soul, the singer of peasant Rus', is familiar to every person, his poems have long become Russian classics, and on Sergei Yesenin's birthday, admirers of his work gather.
Oh you sleigh! What a sleigh!
The sounds of frozen aspen trees.
My father is a peasant,
Well, I am a peasant's son.
Sergei Yesenin: biography of the Russian poet
Ryazan Oblast. In 1895, a poet was born, whose works are still admired by fans of his work today. October 3 is the birthday of Sergei Yesenin. From childhood, the boy was raised by a wealthy and enterprising maternal grandfather, a great connoisseur of church literature. Therefore, among the child’s first impressions are spiritual poems sung by wandering blind men and fairy tales of his beloved grandmother, which prompted the future poet to create his own creativity, which began at the age of 9.
Sergei graduated from the 4th grade of the local zemstvo school, although he studied for 5 years: due to unsatisfactory behavior, he was retained for the 2nd year. He continued to gain knowledge at the Spas-Klepikovsky 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 and got a job in a butcher shop, where his father served as a clerk. After a conflict with a parent, he changed jobs: he moved to book publishing, and then to a printing house as a proofreader. There he met Anna Izryadnova, who gave birth to his 19-year-old son Yuri in December 1914, who was shot in 1937 under a false verdict of an attempt on Stalin’s life.
While in the capital, the poet took part in the literary and musical circle named after. Surikov, joined the rebellious workers, for which he received police attention. In 1912, he began to attend classes at the A. Shanyavsky People's University in Moscow as a volunteer. There Yesenin received the basics of a humanitarian education, listening to lectures on Western European and Russian literature. Sergei Yesenin's birthday 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 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, and loved.
Life and work of Sergei Yesenin
The first publication took place in 1914 in metropolitan magazines, and the beginning of a successful debut was the poem “Birch”. Literally in a century, Sergei Yesenin’s birthday will be known to almost every schoolchild, but for now the poet set foot on his thorny road leading to fame and recognition.
In Petrograd, where Sergei moved in the spring of 1915, believing that all literary life was concentrated in this city, he read his works to Blok, whom he personally came to meet. The warm welcome by the famous poet’s entourage and their approval of the poems inspired the envoy of the Russian village and endless fields for further creativity.
Recognized, published, read
Sergei Yesenin’s talent was recognized by Gorodetsky S.M., Remizov A.M., Gumilyov N.S., whose acquaintance the young man owed to Blok. Almost all the imported poems were published, and Sergei Yesenin, whose biography still arouses interest among fans of the poet’s work, became widely known. In joint poetic performances with Klyuev before the public, stylized in a folk, peasant manner, the young golden-haired poet appeared in morocco boots and an embroidered shirt. He became close to the society of “new peasant poets” and was himself interested in this trend. The key theme of Yesenin’s poetry was peasant Rus', the love for which permeates all his works.
In 1916, he was drafted into the army, but thanks to the concern and troubles of his friends, he was appointed as an orderly on the military hospital train of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, which allowed the poet to attend literary salons, perform at concerts, and attend receptions with patrons of the arts without interference.
Peasant Rus' in the poet’s work
He accepted the October Revolution joyfully in his own way and enthusiastically wrote a number of short poems “Heavenly Drummer”, “Inonia”, “Dove of Jordan”, imbued with a premonition of future changes; The life and work of Sergei Yesenin were at the beginning of a new, yet unknown 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, which together with man form , connected by roots with nature, a holistic, harmonious and beautiful world. Pictures of Yesenin's Rus' - reverent, evoking an almost religious feeling in the poet, are colored with a subtle understanding of nature with a heating stove, a dog's coop, uncut hayfields, swampy swamps, the snoring of a herd and the hubbub of mowers.
Second marriage of Sergei Yesenin
In 1917, the poet married Nikolaevna, from whose marriage Sergei Yesenin’s children 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 In 1918 - 1921, he traveled a lot around the country: Crimea, the Caucasus, Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, Turkestan, Bessarabia. He worked on the dramatic poem “Pugachev”, and 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 based on futurism, which claimed to build an “art of the future”, completely new, denying everything previous artistic experience. Yesenin became a frequent visitor to the literary cafe “Stable of Pegasus”, located in Moscow near the Nikitsky Gate. The poet, who sought to understand the “commune-raised Rus',” only partially shared the desire of the newly created direction, the goal of which was to cleanse the form from the “dust of content.” He still continued to perceive himself as a poet of “Departing Rus'.” In his poems there appeared motifs of everyday life “destroyed by a storm”, drunken prowess, which is replaced by hysterical melancholy. The poet appears as a brawler, a hooligan, a drunkard with a bloody soul, wandering from den to den, where he is surrounded by “alien and laughing rabble” (collections “Moscow tavern”, “Confession of a hooligan” and “Poems of a brawler”).
In 1920, her three-year marriage to Z. Reich broke up. Sergei Yesenin's children each followed their own path: Konstantin became a famous football statistician, and Tatyana 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 he looked at the dance of this woman, Sergei Yesenin was irreversibly drawn to her. The couple, in which Isadora was 18 years older, was not stopped by the age difference. She most often called her beloved “angel,” and he called her “Isidora.” Isadora's spontaneity and her fiery dances drove Yesenin crazy. She perceived him as a weak and unprotected child, treated Sergei with reverent tenderness, and even over time learned a dozen Russian words. In Russia, Isadora’s career did not work out because the Soviet authorities did not provide the field of activity that she expected. The couple registered their marriage and took the common surname Duncan-Yesenin.
After the wedding, Yesenin and his wife traveled a lot around Europe, visiting France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Belgium, and the USA. Duncan tried in every possible way to create PR for her husband: she organized translations of his poems and their publication, organized poetry evenings, but abroad he was recognized exclusively as an addition to a famous dancer. The poet was sad, felt unclaimed, unwanted, and became depressed. Yesenin began to drink, and frequent heartbreaking quarrels with departures and subsequent reconciliations occurred between the spouses. Over time, Yesenin’s attitude towards his wife, in whom he no longer saw an ideal, but an ordinary aging woman, changed. He still got drunk, occasionally beat Isadora, and complained to his friends that she was stuck to him and wouldn’t leave. The couple broke up in 1923, Yesenin returned to Moscow.
The last years of Yesenin's work
In his subsequent work, the poet very critically denounces the Soviet regime (“Country of Scoundrels,” 1925). After this, the persecution of the poet begins, accusing him of fighting and drunkenness. The last two years of my life were spent in regular travel; Sergei Yesenin is a Russian poet, hiding from judicial persecution, traveling to the Caucasus three times, traveling to Leningrad and constantly visiting Konstantinovo, never breaking ties with him.
During this period, the works “Poem of 26”, “Persian Motifs”, “Anna Snegina”, “The Golden Grove Dissuaded” were published. In the poems, the main place is still occupied by the theme of the homeland, now acquiring shades of drama. This period of lyricism is increasingly marked by autumn landscapes, motifs of drawing conclusions and farewells.
Goodbye, my friend, goodbye...
In the fall of 1925, the poet, trying to start his family life anew, married Sofia Andreevna, the granddaughter of Leo Tolstoy. But this union was not happy. Sergei Yesenin's life was going downhill: alcohol addiction, depression, pressure from leadership circles caused his wife to place the poet in a neuropsychiatric hospital. Only a narrow circle of people knew about this, but there were well-wishers who contributed to the establishment of round-the-clock surveillance of the clinic. The security officers began to demand from P.B. Gannushkin, a professor at this clinic, to extradite Yesenin. The latter refused, and Yesenin, having waited for an opportune moment, interrupted the course of treatment and, in a crowd of visitors, left the psychoneurological institution and left for Leningrad.
On December 14, I finished work on the poem “The Black Man,” which I spent 2 years on. The work was published after the poet’s death. On December 27, his final work “Goodbye, my friend, goodbye” was published from the pen of Sergei Yesenin. The life and work of Sergei Yesenin was coming to a terrible and incomprehensible end. The Russian poet died, whose body was found hanged in the Angleterre Hotel on the night of December 28, 1925.
On Sergei Yesenin’s birthday, people gather to honor his memory in all corners of Russia, but the most large-scale events take place in his native Konstantinov, where thousands of admirers of the poet’s work come from all over the world.
Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin (1895–1925) is an outstanding Russian poet. According to literary scholars, in the early period of his creativity he was a representative of new peasant poetry, later he was an imagist. But these definitions are nothing more than clichés and do not reflect the true essence of his gift. For understanding, To fully accept Yesenin, you must love your native land and all living things on it just as much as he does. The poet carried two characteristics characteristic of the people throughout his short life: a very serious attitude towards himself, towards his work and mercy towards his neighbors. Poems and poems are read by Denis Semyonov. The audio play “Emelyan Pugachev” by the Musical Drama Theatre, based on Sergei Yesenin’s poem “Pugachev”, resurrects one of the most dramatic eras of Russian history. Listen to these expressive lines, imbued with love and compassion for the oppressed people - and immerse yourself, together with the author and the actors inspired by his poetry, in the atmosphere of the greatest popular uprising of the 18th century. Script and production by Denis Semenov. The roles are performed by: Pugachev – Denis Semenov Kirpichnikov – Alexander Bychkov Karavaev – Stanislav Fedorchuk Zarubin – Alexey Gromov Khlopusha – Alexey Andreev Tvorogov – Alexey Rossoshansky The performance features Russian folk songs “Down along Mother Volga”, “Oh, you, the wide steppe” in Spanish . theater actors and the Cossack folk song “Black Raven, my stray friend...” in Spanish. Alexey Rossoshansky. “Pugachev’s Theme” – music and arrangement by Denis Semenov. Artistic director Denis Semenov. Recorded in 2010. Rus. “It’s already evening. Dew...” “Where the cabbage beds are...” “Winter sings and echoes...” Imitation of a song. “The scarlet light of dawn was woven on the lake...” “The flood licked the silt with smoke...” “The bird cherry is pouring snow...” Kaliki. “Under the wreath of forest daisies...” “Tanyusha was beautiful, there was no more beautiful thing in the village...” “It’s a dark night, I can’t sleep...” “Mother walked through the forest in the Swimsuit...” “Play, play, little Talyanochka, raspberry furs...” “The evening began to smoke.” , the cat is dozing on the beam...” Birch. Powder. Easter gospel. Good morning! Mother's prayer. Coachman. “Trinity morning, morning canon...” “Beloved land! My heart dreams...” “I will go to Skufia as a humble monk...” “The Lord went to torture people in love...” In the hut. “Through the village along a crooked path...” “Go away, my dear Rus'...” “I am a shepherd; my chambers...” “Is this my side, my side...” “The melted clay is drying up...” “Mantises are walking along the road...” “You are my abandoned land...” “Black, then smelly howl...” “Swamps and swamps...” Patterns. Bird cherry. “I’m weaving a wreath for you alone...” Evening. “There are bagels hanging on the fences...” “On a heavenly blue dish...” “The drought has drowned out the sowing...” The beggar. “In that land where there are yellow nettles...” “I’m here again, in my own family...” “Don’t wander, don’t crush in the crimson bushes...” Cow. Song about a dog. Herd. “Night and field, and the crowing of roosters...” The missing month. “Behind the dark strand of woods...” Autumn. “It hides the moon behind the barns...” “Behind the mountains, behind the yellow valleys...” “It spreads out in a pattern again...” Threshing. “There are lights burning across the river...” Grandfather. “A white scroll and a scarlet sash...” “The mountain ash has turned red, the water has turned blue...” “Clouds from the foal...” Fox. Singing call. Comrade. “O Rus', flap your wings...” “Wake me up early tomorrow...” “The fields are compressed, the groves are bare...” “Oh arable fields, arable fields, arable fields...” “Oh, I believe, I believe, there is happiness!..” “The spring rain danced and cried …” “Open to me, guardian above the clouds...” “Here it is, stupid happiness...” “I’ll look into the field, look into the sky...” Transfiguration. Jordan blueberry. Heavenly Drummer. “Green hairstyle...” “I left my home...” “It’s good in the autumn freshness...” “Golden foliage began to spin...” Cantata. Mare ships. Hooligan. Sorokoust. Confession of a bully. Wolf's death. “I don’t regret, I don’t call, I don’t cry...” “Don’t swear. Such a thing!..” “Every living thing is marked with a special mark from an early time...” “Yes! Now it's decided. No return...” “I won’t deceive myself...” “I have only one fun left...” “A blue fire has started...” “You are as simple as everyone else...” “Let others drink you...” A song about the great march. Poem about 36 Return to the homeland. Soviet Rus'. Rus' is leaving. Lenin. Letter to a woman. Letter from mother. Answer. Letter to grandfather. Letter to mother. Pushkin. “The golden grove dissuaded me...” “I asked the money changer today...” “You are my Shagane, Shagane!..” “Being a poet means the same...” “There are such doors in Khorossan...” Captain of the earth. The tale of the shepherd Petya, his commissarship and the kingdom of the cows. Letter to my sister. My way. Black man. “Dawn calls out to another...” “Unspeakable, blue, tender...” To Kachalov’s dog. “Well, kiss me, kiss me...” “Apparently, it’s been like this forever...” “I’m walking through the valley. On the back of the cap..." "There is a month above the window. There is a wind under the window...” “Life is a deception with enchanting melancholy...” To Sister Shura. “Oh, you sleigh! And the horses, the horses!..” “Do you hear - the sleigh is rushing...” “You are my fallen maple, you are an icy maple...” “What a night! I can't. I can’t sleep...” “You don’t love me, you don’t feel sorry...” “Maybe it’s too late, maybe it’s too early...” “Goodbye, my friend, goodbye...” Anna Snegina (poem). Emelyan Pugachev... Further