From the book of destinies. Sofia Parnok was born on July 30 (August 11), 1885 in Taganrog, into a Russified Jewish wealthy family. After graduating with a gold medal from the Taganrog Mariinsky Gymnasium, she lived for a year in Switzerland, where she studied at the Geneva Conservatory, and upon returning to Russia she studied at the Bestuzhev courses.

She published five collections of poetry: “Poems” (1916), “Roses of Pieria” (1922), “Vine” (1923), “Music” (1926), “Sotto voce” (1928).

Parnok did not belong to any of the leading literary groups. She was critical of both the latest trends in contemporary literature and the traditional school. Her poetry is distinguished by her masterful command of words, broad erudition, and ear for music. Her latest collections are filled with conversational intonations and a sense of the “everyday” nature of the tragedy.

IN last years Parnok, deprived of the opportunity to publish, made money through translations. She died of a broken heart on August 26, 1933 in the village of Karinskoye near Moscow. She was buried in Moscow, at the German (Vvedenskoye) cemetery in Lefortovo. Boris Pasternak and Gustav Shpet attended her funeral. In his obituary, V. Khodasevich wrote: “She published many books unknown to the general public - so much the worse for the public.”

Parnok’s return to literature took place thanks to Sofya Polyakova, who preserved her late unpublished works and published all 261 poems with a detailed preface in the USA in 1979.

Compiled based on materials from Wikipedia

The last thing I would like is for my desire to talk about Parnok to be associated with the forbidden attraction of the topic, scandalousness, “strawberry” and other things that are now teeming with bookstores, film products, TV, and the Internet. I want you to feel... the scale of her personality, the uniqueness of her lyrical voice, the strength of the passion that burned her, from which she suffered and suffered, but which she could not resist.

Given

to his age,

man of the century

Sofia Parnok

Sofia Yakovlevna has never been a beauty. This is noted by everyone who knew her during her lifetime. "Average, more likely even short stature; with blond hair, combed into a side parting and tied at the back of the head with a simple knot; with a pale face that seemed to have never been young, Sofia Yakovlevna was not pretty,” Vladislav Khodasevich wrote about her. And here are the impressions of Marina Tsvetaeva:

I really like everything about you -

Even if you are not beautiful!

Beauty, you won’t fade over the summer.

You are not a flower, you are a stalk of steel,

More evil than evil, sharper than sharp,

Taken away - from which island?

…………………………………

The wrinkle of dim lips

capricious and weak

but the ledge is dazzling

Beethoven's forehead.

Light brown ring

slightly shaded,

dominate the face

eyes like two moons...

Sofia Yakovlevna was no different good health. All her life she suffered from Graves' disease, which manifested itself quite early (already in the photograph of high school student Sofia Parnok it is clearly visible characteristic feature of this disease - severe, “protruding” eyes) and complications of which brought her to the grave at the age of 48.

Sofia Parnok lived a difficult, homeless and penniless life. Fate had not spoiled her since childhood, overshadowed by the early death of her mother (the girl was only ten years old) and her father’s remarriage to her governess. younger brother and sisters. The relationship with my stepmother did not work out; life in my father’s house was unbearable. After graduating from high school with a gold medal, the eighteen-year-old girl leaves to study in Geneva, a year later she returns to Russia, and since then her whole life has been spent tossing between St. Petersburg, Moscow and Crimea; she returns to her native Taganrog only on short visits.

This can be partly explained by difficult historical conditions (revolution, civil war and the associated destruction of all material and public life in the country) in which her life took place. But I think this is just one of the reasons. We observe the same tossing and turning in her personal life, and even in her choice of religion. Rather, the point is in internal restlessness, in the complex spiritual and mental structure of her personality, which so does not coincide with generally accepted standards that in order to understand, understand and accept herself, Sofia Parnok needed her whole life.

According to Sofia Viktorovna Polyakova, the most famous Russian-speaking researcher of the life and work of Sofia Parnok, “unlike prosperous poets, she, like a dervish, was not burdened with any property, did not even have her favorite poets, Tyutchev and Baratynsky, did not leave behind an archive, she treated her poems with carelessness and often made mistakes in the dates of their creation. Neither diaries have survived (Parnok, however, hardly kept them), nor notebooks Parnok didn’t keep any letters addressed to her, or even her own poems; more of them were found in the hands of others than in her notebooks, because what was written was readily given to anyone who wanted it.”

Once upon a time, in Soviet period, Parnok’s poems were not published as “not in tune with the era.” It's funny to read now. How consonant they were - a restless poet searching for himself and a restless age searching for himself.

Russian Sappho

To be numbered by patronymic,

So that the navy does not play around,

Don't live the way you want

Don't love those you like.

No matter how much one would like to ignore the homosexual orientation of Sofia Parnok, it is impossible to do this by studying her work, just as it is impossible to ignore any organ human body during a medical examination, the picture will be incomplete. Unfortunately, society maintains an ineradicable morbid interest in everything “ugly” and “sinful” in life creative personalities. That is why for a long time the great Russian poet Sofia Parnok was known to the general public only in connection with her affair with Marina Tsvetaeva, which is why it is terribly difficult and responsible to write about this side of her life. But Parnok’s lesbian inclinations determine too much of her work for them to be ignored.

The reason for such deviations from the norm has not yet been studied; there are many hypotheses - for every taste. Personally, I like the theory of mutations most of all - nature experiments, a variety of options is a tool for development. In the case of Sofia Parnok, lesbian tendencies were combined with Graves' disease - what is the cause, the effect, and whether there is any connection between these two anomalies at all, I do not presume to judge, but one of the manifestations of Graves' disease is the inability to bear children. Do you think it’s easy to bear the awareness of your dissimilarity from those around you, a dissimilarity so global that you cannot access (literally - forbidden both physically and mentally!) one of the fundamental properties of any living organism: reproduction, reproduction of your own kind? In Sofia Yakovlevna’s correspondence one can find bitter lines, the results of painful thoughts about the strange, special essence lurking inside her: “When I look back at my life, I feel awkward, as when reading a pulp novel. Everything that is infinitely disgusting to me in a work of art, which can never be in my poems, is obviously in me and is looking for embodiment. And so I look at my life with a disgusted grimace, like a person with good taste looks at someone else’s bad taste.”

But for some reason the Lord created her exactly like this; apparently, He had plans for her. special plans. In 1924, Sofia Parnok writes a poem in which she accepts her unusual nature and explains it:

My life! My slice is unleavened,

My wonderful feat!

Here I am - with a disembodied body,

With the deaf and dumb Muse...

Were so many grains worth it?

Grind the fiery ones,

To be so wretchedly black

Has my morsel become urgent?

God! What happiness

Lose your soul,

Exchange the communion wine

To the Kastal stream!

It was during this period that Parnok’s poems became mature, perfect, freedom of expression and masterful use of words characteristic of the classics appeared in them, and at the same time an original voice, unlike anyone else, was clearly heard. As Russian literature researcher and Boston University professor Diana Lewis Burgin writes in her book “Sofia Parnok. The life and work of the Russian Sappho”, “for quite a long time... Parnok did not take herself seriously as a poet - she looked at poetry as a game, and at the creation of poems as “the tedious prowess of light hands on strummed strings”... But as soon as she realized seriously her calling, as she feels: “The Lord has marked me too, and I dream of secret sounds.” She no longer needs to look for “names”, i.e. words, in book language: she extracts them from her own “blood calendars”.

In 1926, another very characteristic poem on this topic appeared:

Song

The old pine tree is dozing

And it makes noise from sleep.

I'm going to the rough trunk,

Leaning, I stand. -

Pine of the same age,

Give me the power!

I haven't been here for nine months, -

I wore it for forty years,

I carried it for forty years,

Begged for forty years

Begged, begged,

I carried it out

Let us once again give the floor to D.L. Burgin: “The birth of the soul was that “Castal stream” that she sought to receive in exchange for the “wine of communion.” In return for the “wine of communion” - everything that is available to ordinary, “normal” people - the poet receives as a reward the opportunity for creative expression, that very “Castal stream” that Parnok holds dearest. The mature soul is the result of intense spiritual work, inextricably linked with creativity, which Sofia Yakovlevna led throughout her adult life.

As can be understood from the above examples, the concept of “love” certainly included a spiritual component for the poet. Of course, passion did not play a role in relationships with lovers. last role, and many poems written by Parnok during periods of falling in love are undoubted confirmation of this, but this side of her work has not only been studied in detail, but has been replicated, and it is not difficult to find studies and descriptions of the erotic experiences of the Russian Sappho. But very little has been said and written about how she understood and wrote about spiritual intimacy in love, about the fact that she experienced this feeling in its entirety, primarily of emotional and spiritual experiences. In fact, we have only two serious studies of the life and work of Sofia Parnok. This is the introductory article to the collection “Sofia Parnok. Collected Poems" by S. V. Polyakova and "Sofia Parnok. Life and work of Russian Sappho” D. L. Burgin. But they are executed in extremely detail and academically, and not every reader has the strength to break through complex scientific terminology and overcome dozens of pages of serious philological and psychological research. And everything else that is written about Parnok is 99% repetitions of the same topic - the relationship between Parnok and Tsvetaeva. Undoubtedly it was important period in the lives of both poets, but still only a period. The creativity of each of them has a separate, independent value.

Own way

But in vain I'm bored

And the primrose blossomed.

From the header of extreme cases

From the preface to the book by D. L. Burgin: “As a great Russian poet, Sofia Parnok presented herself very late, already at the end of her days, on the approaches to oblivion, and the brighter and more frank her love poems sounded, going beyond the boundaries of hermeticism and self-sufficiency, rejecting all previous cultural allusions, thereby trampling on the unspoken “norms of civilized living.” Lyrics - defenseless and pitiful, begging, hungry for participation - this is the list latest conquests poet."

It should be noted that this result became possible due to the fact that Sofia Parnok never betrayed herself as a poet and as a person, she always and everywhere followed only her own path. Being mistaken, making mistakes, honestly paying for all her mistakes, she always “wandered” and returned to her own, destined path - both in life and in creativity.

In this, her innate otherness, apparently, even helped, preventing her from merging, taking away the opportunity to mimic. Try, become like everyone else, when you are “a shaggy nurse of the elements” and “not a single zoologist knows what kind of animal this is.” And there were attempts to become like everyone else. In 1907, Sofia Parnok married Vladimir Volkenshtein, a poet, playwright, theater critic and screenwriter (the marriage was concluded according to Jewish rites). But the unsuccessful marriage did not last long. In 1909, it broke up; Sofia Yakovlevna initiated the divorce. From then on, she turned her feelings only to women. In the same year (according to other sources - in 1913), Sofia Parnok converted to Orthodoxy, going against her family and national tradition- she was born into a wealthy Jewish family, although not very religious, but professing Judaism. So, gradually, by trial and error, the poet learned to understand and accept herself, to defend the right to live in accordance with her nature.

In creativity - any kind - the chance to become a real artist is only bright personality. There are not and cannot be any schemes or rules, except one: always be honest, express exactly the reality that you see, hear, feel, do not bend your soul in a single line for the sake of fashion or market conditions. This is exactly how Parnok lived and wrote.

My fascination with her poetry began with a book given to me by a friend. I opened it out of curiosity, and from the first stanzas I was drawn into the world of Sofia Parnok, unlike any other. Khodasevich said this perfectly: “...lovers of poetry knew how to find in her poems that “non-general expression” that alone holds the poems together. Without representing a poetic individuality that was too sharp or conspicuous, Parnok at the same time was far from any kind of imitation. Her poems, always intelligent, always precise, with a certain penchant for unexpected rhymes, had, as it were, their own special “handwriting” and were distinguished by that courageous clarity that poetesses so often lack.”

It is surprising that even next to the powerful talent of Marina Tsvetaeva, Sofia Parnok managed to preserve her poetic individuality, her style, and not succumb to, avoid her influence. I think it was as difficult as not getting burned while being next to a fire-breathing volcano. But Sofia Yakovlevna was able to do it. From difficult relationships with Tsvetaeva, like a Phoenix bird, she left not without mental wounds, but with an invariably independent creative physiognomy.

They won’t come, and does it matter to me, -

will they remember in joy or in evil?

I won't be homeless underground

what I was on this earth.

The wind, my unhired mourner,

A cloud of snow will swirl over me...

O my sad, distant, dark one,

I am the only one destined for the path!

These lines, written in 1917, express the credo of the poet’s entire life.

When Bulgakov wrote his famous phrase“Manuscripts do not burn,” he, of course, meant that manuscripts of a certain kind do not burn - those in which, if they do not contain the truth, then at least an attempt is made to get closer to it. The poems of Sofia Parnok belong precisely to such manuscripts. Not appreciated during her lifetime, forgotten for almost a century after her departure, they return to us. “The Stranger with Beethoven’s Brow” came to court in the twenty-first century. In her fragile, painful physical shell lived an unbending spirit - the stalk really turned out to be made of steel.

Illustrations:

photographs of Sofia Parnok over the years;

N. Krandievskaya: sculptural portrait S. Parnok, 1915;

the book includes all the poems identified at the time of publication,

a photograph from 1914 was used in the design;

cover of a CD with songs by Elena Frolova based on poems by Sofia Parnok,

the design uses a photograph from the 1910s;

Sofia Parnok's grave at the Vvedenskoye Cemetery in Moscow

Parnok Sofia Parnok Career: Poet
Birth: Russia" Rostov region» Taganrog, 30.7.1885
Parnok (real name - Parnokh) - Volkenstein Sofya Yakovlevna - Russian poetess, translator, literary critic. Author of the collections "Poems" 1916, "Roses of Pieria", "Vine" 1923, translations from French and German. She often wrote in “sapphic” stanza. A close friend of Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva. Tsvetaeva's cycle of poems "Girlfriend" is dedicated to her.

How do they become poets? By God's permission? A game of chance? The willfulness of the stars, whose laughter confuses and confuses the reading of predestination and segments of the path? It’s hard to say, it’s hard to see and unravel the tangle of contradictions, no, but something more complex and clear only at that Height that is inaccessible from the Earth, no matter how you stretch your hands to it! How do you become a poet? Nobody knows, although thousands of lines have been written about it. I’ll add a little more to the multi-volume epic. About the one who was called "Russian Sappho".

Sofya Yakovlevna Parnokh became a Poet soon after breaking the threads of Love entangling her. Before that, of course, she wrote verses, and extremely good ones, and appeared in print with critical literary reviews under the pseudonym Andrei Polyanin. But a real sea of ​​poetry poured at her feet when she let Love go to the free wind, following the Gospel parable: “Let go of your bread sail on the waters." She painfully let go of what she wanted to hold on to, perhaps eternity, with herself and her soul, and received in return a Gift, one that can define a Creator beyond the brink of sin and sinlessness

Sofia Parnokh was born on July 30, 1885, in Taganrog, in the family of a pharmacist. Her mother died quite young, after which she gave birth to twins, Valentin and Elizabeth. Sonechka was only six years old at that time! Her father, Yakov Parnokh, (having started a literary career, the poetess and critic considered it best to give the surname a more refined form - Parnok, rather than reminding her of the name of the legendary Parnassus - author), uncle of rather independent views and a tough disposition, soon remarried.

Sonya’s relationship with her stepmother, and even with her father, did not work out. Loneliness, alienation, isolation in one's own own world, were constant companions of a cocky, steep-headed girl with a shock of unruly curls and some strange, often self-absorbed gaze. She played the piano very well and studied diligently, studying difficult opera scores, claviers, Mozart sonatinas and Liszt scherzos at night. She played "Hungarian Rhapsody" easily. Sonya graduated from the Taganrog gymnasium with gold medal, and in 1903 - 1904 she left for Geneva. There she studied at the conservatory, piano class. But for some reason I didn’t become a musician. Elena Kallo writes about the failed pianist-musician Sonya Parnok: “Undoubtedly, Parnok had a melodic gift, Furthermore, it is possible to say that it was precisely through music that she felt the world. It is not without reason that the shock experienced by the sounds of an organ in a Catholic church awakened the creative element in her in her early youth (the poem “Organ”). With the development of poetic skill, the musicality of her verse became more and more obvious, to which the actual musical characteristics are fully applicable: duration, modulation, change of mode, the rhyme sounds in thirds, then the interval changes, the vibration of a refined rhythm... These properties were manifested not only in her mature life creativity, but much earlier:

Where is the sea? Where is heaven? Is it above or below?

Am I taking you across the sky or across the sea?

My dear?

Low tide. We are sailing, but we can’t hear the oar,

As if it carried us away from the shore

Azure, running back.

It was one o'clock. - Or wasn't it? - There is a coffin in the chapel,

A forehead ennobled by calmness, -

How wonderfully far away he is!

The memory was covered with autumn leaves.

The wind babbles about joy and yours

Scattered curl.

Sofia Parnok kept the music “within herself”. This gave her a lot as a Poet. Returning to Russia, she entered the Higher Women's Courses and the Faculty of Law at the university. She was also passionately fascinated by another element - literature. Translations from French, plays,

charades, sketches and the initial.. helpless cycle of poems dedicated to Nadezhda

Pavlovna Polyakova - her Geneva love.

Sofya Yakovlevna realized much ahead of time this strange oddity of hers, the difference from ordinary people. “Under no circumstances was I in love with a man,” she would later write to M.F. Gnessin, friend and teacher. She was attracted and attracted to women. What was it? An unconscious craving for maternal warmth, affection, tenderness, which was lacking in childhood, for which her human essence yearned, some kind of immaturity complex that developed into craving and vice later, or something else, more mysterious and still unknown? Irina Vetrinskaya, who has been studying the problem of “female” love for quite a long time, and who has devoted many articles and books to this, writes the following about this: “Psychatry classifies this as a neurosis, but I hold a completely opposite opinion: a lesbian is a lady with unusual developed sense own "I". Her partner is her mirror image; by what she does in bed, she says: “This is me, and I am her. This is the highest level of a woman’s love for herself.” (I. Vetrinskaya. Afterword to the book “Women who loved.. Women.” M. “OLMA-PRESS” 2002.) The opinion is controversial, perhaps, but not without foundation, and explains a lot in this strange and mysterious phenomenon - "female" love.

She does not hide her natural inclinations from society and is not ashamed of them - one must think that this required considerable courage, you must admit! - Sofya Yakovlevna, nevertheless, in the fall of 1907, soon after returning from Geneva to Russia, marries V. M. Volkenshtein - a famous writer, drama theorist, and theater critic. A year and a half later, in January 1909, the couple separated on the initiative of Sofia Yakovlevna. The official reason for the divorce was her well-being - the inability to have children. Since 1906, Sofya Yakovlevna made her debut in the magazines "Northern Notes", " Russian wealth" with critical articles written in a brilliant, witty style. Parnok, with her talent, quickly won the attentiveness of readers, and since 1910 she was already a permanent contributor to the newspaper "Russian Rumor", leading its artistic and musical theater section. In addition, she was constantly engaged in self-education and extremely She was demanding of herself. Thus, she could not help but attract the attention of many. This is what she wrote to L. Ya. Gurevich, a close friend, in a frank letter on March 10, 1911: “When I look back at my existence, I feel awkward, as if reading a pulp novel... Everything that is infinitely disgusting to me in a work of art, which under no circumstances can be in my poems, is clearly somewhere in me and is looking for embodiment, and here I look at my existence with a disgusted grimace “How a gentleman with good taste looks at someone else’s bad taste” And here in another letter to the same addressee: “If I have a talent, then it is exactly of this kind that without education I will not do anything with it. Meanwhile, it so happened that I began to think thoroughly about creativity, without reading anything at all. What I should have read, I can no longer currently, I’m sad... If there is a thought, it is not nourished by anything other than itself. And on the only nice day you don’t have a penny to your name and you’ll write fairy tales and nothing else.” Fairy tales did not suit her. She preferred to hone her sharpness of mind in critical articles and music reviews. However, not poisonous ones.

“On duty,” Sofya Yakovlevna often had to attend theater premieres and literary and musical salon evenings. She loved the secularity and brightness of life, attracted and attracted sensitivity not only with her originality of views and judgments, but also with her appearance: she wore men's suits and ties, wore a short haircut, smoked a cigar. At one of these evenings, in the house of Adelaide Kazimirovna Gertsyk - Zhukovskaya , October 16, 1914, Sofya Parnok and met Marina Tsvetaeva.

This is how Marina Tsvetaeva - Efron was seen by her contemporaries at that time: "... A very beautiful person, with decisive, daring, to the point of impudence, manners... rich and greedy, in general, despite the dogma, - a woman is a fist! Her husband - handsome, miserable boy Seryozha Efron - tubercular

consumptive." This is how R.M. Khin-Goldovskaya, in whose house the Tsvetaeva family and her husband’s sisters lived for some time, spoke about her in her diary on July 12, 1914." Pozoeva E.V. left the following memories: “Marina was extremely smart. Probably extremely talented. But she was an icy, tough gentleman; she didn’t love anyone... She often appeared in black... like a queen... and everyone whispered: “This is Tsvetaeva... Tsvetaeva has come..."). In December 1915, the romance with Parnok was already in full swing. The novel is special and captivates both of them right now. By the power of mutual penetration into the souls of a friend's friendship - and before all this was a romance of souls, it was like a dazzling solar flare. What was Marina, who was not yet a famous poet, looking for in such an unusual feeling? Re-reading the documents, research by Nikolai Dolya and Semyon Karlinsky devoted to this topic, I became increasingly convinced that Marina Tsvetaeva, being passionate and powerful by nature, like a tigress, could not be completely satisfied only with the role of a married woman and mother. She needed a consonant personality, over whom she could reign supreme - whether openly, secretly, openly or hidden - it doesn’t matter!

To rule over poems, rhymes, lines, feelings, soul, opinion, the movement of eyelashes, fingers, lips, or some kind of material embodiment - the choice of an apartment, a hotel for a meeting, a gift or

a performance and concert that is worth ending the evening with

She gladly gave Sofya Yakovlevna the “leading” image in their strange relationship. But only on the fundamental view.

Marina's influence on Sofya Parnok, as a person and a Poet, was so comprehensive that by comparing the lines of their poetic cycles, written almost at the same time, it is possible to find common motifs, similar rhymes, lines and themes. The power was unlimited and great. Submission too!

On the pages small articles On a biographical level, it is not entirely appropriate to speak about the literary merits and demerits of the works of Sofia Parnok or Marina Tsvetaeva. I won't work on this. I will only say that Sofya Parnok, as a lyrical poet, has reached in these poems, dedicated to her painful feelings for Marina and the break with her, such heights that put her on an equal footing with such personalities in Poetry as Mirra Lokhvitskaya, Karolina Pavlova or more that Anna Andreevna Akhmatova. Why do I say this?

The fact is that, in my point of view, Parnok, as a Poetess of considerable magnitude, still unsolved by us these days, with her poems, was able to show the essence of the Spirit of the Poet, and precisely what He - if true, of course - is owns all the secrets human soul, regardless of gender, age and, moreover, perhaps, accumulated life experiences. Here is one of the poems written by Sofia Parnok in 1915, at the height of the romance, in the “Koktebel summer”, when their painful romance was added to the burning feeling of Maximilian Voloshin for Marina - a sudden and quite complex feeling (encouraged by Marina, by the way):

Quirks of treacherous thoughts

The greedy spirit could not overcome, -

And so, out of a thousand hired ones,

You have given me the dark time of day.

Indifference taught you

The dashing art of love.

But suddenly, accustomed to prey,

Your embrace trembled.

Madness of opinion, stricken with melancholy,

I'm sullen and jealous pursed lips, -

By tormenting me, you are taking revenge on fate

For my late arrival.

If the addressee of this poem, Marina Tsvetaeva, had not been aptly identified by researchers, then one would be allowed to think that we're talking about about a loved one, a beloved man... But what is the difference? The main thing is, Uncle - Beloved

They took risks, but were not afraid to shock the environment; they spent the Christmas holidays of 1914-15 together in Rostov. The family of Marina and her husband, Sergei Efron, knew about this, but could not do anything! Here is one of E. O. Voloshina’s letters to Yulia Obolenskaya, which little characterizes the nervous situation that developed in the Tsvetaev-Efron house.

(*E. O. Voloshina was a close friend of Elizaveta Efron (Lili), the sister of Tsvetaeva’s husband. - author) Voloshina was worried about how Sergei Efron would react to what was happening: “What did Seryozha say to you? Why do you feel terrible for him? (...) This is comparatively scary for Marina: things got really serious there. She went somewhere with Sonya for a few days, and this Sonya had already quarreled with her friend, with whom she lived together, and had rented a separate apartment for herself on Arbat. everything confuses and worries me and Lilya, but we are unable to break this spell.” The spell intensified to such an extent that a joint trip was taken to Koktebel, where the Tsvetaevs had spent the summer before. Here Max Voloshin falls unrequitedly and passionately in love with Marina, as already mentioned. There are endless trials and disputes between Marina and her friend.

Sofya Parnok experiences pangs of jealousy, but Marina, having shown her “tiger essence” for the first time, does not submit to timid attempts to give her back to the channel of her previous feeling, which belonged only to them, the two of them. That’s not the case!

Marina, changeable, like a true daughter of the sea, (*Marina - sea - author.) encouraged Voloshin's courtship, suffered with all her soul and worried about her husband, who left for the front in March 1915 with a hospital train. She wrote to Elizaveta Yakovlevna Efron in a frank and warm letter in the summer of 1915: “I love Seryozha for the rest of my life, he is close to me, under no circumstances and anywhere will I leave him. I write to him every now and then every other day, he knows my entire existence, only about the saddest things I try to write less often. On my heart - I fall asleep with her, I wake up with her.”

“Sonya loves me very much,” the letter continues, “and I love her - it’s constant, and I can’t leave her. The tornness of the days that need to be shared, my heart combines everything.” And through a few lines: “I can’t hurt and I can’t help but do it.” The pain of having to choose between two loved ones did not go away; it was reflected both in creativity and in uneven behavior.

In the cycle of poems “Girlfriend,” Marina tries to blame Sophia for leading her into such “love jungle”... She tries to break off the relationship, makes a few drastic attempts. She describes the ending to Mikhail Kuzmin this way: love story with Sofia Yakovlevna: “It was in 1916, in the winter, I was in St. Petersburg for the fundamental time in my life. I had just arrived. I was with one person, that is, it was a lady - God, how I cried! - But this is not it’s important! She never wanted me to go to the end of the day (a melodic evening at which Mikhail Kuzmin, the author, was supposed to sing) She herself couldn’t, she had a headache - and when she has a headache, it’s unbearable. My head didn’t hurt, and I really didn’t want to stay at home.”

After some bickering, during which Sonya declares that “she feels sorry for Marin,” Tsvetaeva takes off and leaves for the end of the day. Having been there, she quickly enough begins to think back to Sonya and explains: “I have a sick friend at home.” Everyone laughs: “You say that, because you have an unhealthy child at home. Your friend will wait.”

I thought to myself: “The hell with it!”

And as a result, the dramatic ending was not long in coming: “In February 1916, we parted,” Marina Tsvetaeva wrote in the same letter. - “Almost because of Kuzmin, that is, because of Mandelstam, he, who had not agreed with me in St. Petersburg, came to Moscow to negotiate. (*Probably about the novel - the author) When I, having missed two Mandelstam days, went to see her came - a fundamental pass for years - there was another one sitting on her bed: very big, fat, black. We were friends with her for a year and a half. I don’t remember her at all. That is, I only know that I will never forgive her. Why didn’t you stay then?”

A kind of monument to Sophia’s tragically cut short love was the book “Poems,” published in 1916 and immediately remembered by readers, at one time for everything that Sophia Yakovlevn said about her feelings openly, without silence, half-hints, or encryption. It’s as if she painted a captivating portrait of a Beloved Person, with all his harshness, tears, breaks, sensitivity, vulnerability and all-encompassing tenderness of this captivatingly passionate soul! The souls of her beloved Marina. Girlfriends. Girls. Women. There was the now famous:

"I'm looking at your profile again, your cool head

And I sadly marvel at your strangely close features.

Something happened that could not have happened:

There was no room for two of us on the way.

Oh, the power of these blunt and short fingers,

And under the straight eyebrow is that same wildly motionless eye!

Repentance, say, a tear watered,

Did you water it or fog it at least once?

Isn't that why the enmity in us was mutual?

And more passionate than love and truer than love a hundred times,

What, comrade, have we found a double in a friend? Tell me,

Didn’t I execute you, my brother, by executing myself?

("Again I look at your profile, cool-headed...")

Love needed to be released. And she let go. She lived with past memories, melted them into doggerel, but around her there were new friends, new faces: Lyudmila Erarskaya, Nina Vedeneeva, Olga Tsubilbiller.

Parnok wrote verses better and better, her images became stronger and more subtle psychologically, but times that were not at all poetic were coming. The October Troubles broke out. For some time, Sofya Yakovlevna lived in the Crimea, in Sudak, and did literary “menial” work: translations, notes. Reports. She didn’t stop scribbling.

In 1922, in Moscow, with a circulation of 3,000 copies, her books were published: “Roses of Pieria” - a talented stylization of the lines of Sappho and Old French poets. And the collection “Vine” included poems from 1916 to 1923. They were greeted by the public as if they were not bad, but somehow hungry and ruined Russia had no time for poetry, and the public was refined, understanding rhythmic stanzas, thoroughly “There are no others, others are far away”

Sofya Yakovlevna’s life was hard and hungry. In order to somehow survive, she was forced to do translations, lessons - they paid a pittance - and gardening.

Being in love gave her strength. God sent her, a sinner, people who adored her and were devoted to her in soul - such as physicist Nina Evgenievna Vedeneeva. Parnok met her a year and a half before her death. And she died in her arms. She dedicated the most heartfelt and lyrical lines of her poems to Nina Evgenievna. But while dying, she incessantly looked at the portrait of Marina Tsvetaeva, standing on the nightstand, at the head of the bed. She didn't say a word about Her. Never, then February 1916. Maybe she wanted to quell her love with silence? Or - strengthen? No one knows.

Shortly before her death, she wrote the lines:

"Now, without rebelling, without resisting,

I can hear my heart beating

I'm weakening and the leash is weakening,

Tightly knitted us with you"

"Let's be happy no matter what!" (Excerpt)

At the beginning of the poem there were two capital letters barely distinguishable: “M.Ts.” So she said goodbye to her Beloved-Friend, not knowing what She said when she heard about her death, in June 1934, not far from a foreign land: “So what if she died, you don’t have to give your soul to God to rest in God!” (M. Tsvetaeva. “Letter to the Amazon”).

Her awkward, little Marina, her “girl friend,” was, as always, imperious - ruthless and harsh in her judgments! But is it right? After all, people only hate people who were loved just as much in the past.

_____________________________________

*Sofya Yakovlevna Parnok died on August 26, 1933, in the village of Karinskoye near Moscow. She was buried a few days later in the German cemetery in Lefortovo. Her work and the history of her relationship with Tsvetaeva have not yet been fully studied, as has the archive, which contains two unpublished collections, “Music” and “Sotto a Voice.”

** Internet texts were used - publications of works by N. Dolya and S. Karlinsky, as well as the author’s personal library.

Also read biographies of famous people:

Sofia Romma Sofia Romma

Her poetry is unfussy, quiet, flowing not even like water, but like air; this poetry truly knows no boundaries, neither stylistic nor...

Sofia Coppola Sofia Coppola

From childhood, Sofia was accustomed to cinema and “played” her first role at the age of one. It was a famous painting by Francis Coppola...

Sofia Gubaydulina Sofia Gubaydulina

Usually Gubaidulina is placed in the top three of the Soviet avant-garde of the 1960-1980s, immediately after E. Denisov and A. Schnittke.

Sofia Rotaru Sophia Rotaru

Sofia Rotaru is an outstanding Soviet, Ukrainian, Moldavian and Russian pop singer and actress. People's Artist of the USSR, Honored Artist..

Sofia Parnok shared difficult fate almost all the poets of the “Silver Age” - that was the time prominent figures literature, but time is extremely cruel to them. She did not emigrate after the revolution, but, fortunately, she was not repressed. However, in the last years of her life, the poetess, deprived of the opportunity to publish in Soviet Russia, had a hard time. For a long time she had to do only translations, and the very atmosphere of the 20-30s of the twentieth century oppressed Sofia Parnok. She died quite early, at the age of 48, on August 26, 1933.

The poems of Sofia Parnok enjoyed considerable popularity during her lifetime; an opera was even staged based on her libretto at the Bolshoi Theater. The poetess was never part of any literary movement Sofia Parnok wrote her poems in her own style, ignoring fashionable poetic trends. In many ways, this prevented her from receiving such wide fame as he objectively deserved. The obituary will rightly say: “She published many books unknown to the general public - so much the worse for the public.”

The youth and first literary steps of Sofia Parnok
The real name of the poetess is somewhat different - Parnokh. She was born into a well-to-do Jewish family from Taganrog, on July 31 (August 11, new style) 1885. Her brother Valentin Parnakh and sister Elizaveta Tarakhovskaya will also become famous poets in the future.

Father Parnok was the owner of a pharmacy, a very respected man in the city - he was even awarded the title of honorary citizen of Taganrog. Sofia Parnok's mother died early, and after that her father almost immediately married the governess who worked in their house. This forever ruined Sofia's relationship with him.

Parnok graduated with honors from the local gymnasium, after which she studied for some time in Switzerland, then moved to St. Petersburg, where she studied at the Bestuzhev Women’s Courses.

Sofia Parnok first published poetry in 1906. For a short time she was married to the poet Vladimir Volkenshtein. After divorce romantic relationship Parnok had relationships exclusively with women, which was reflected in the poetess’s work. From 1914 to 1916, her affair with Marina Tsvetaeva continued.

Sofia Parnok after the revolution
In the first years of Soviet power, Parnok lived in Crimea, where she communicated with many artists, including Maximilian Voloshin. There she began work on the libretto of the opera Almast, which was later staged with great success in Moscow.

Later the poetess moved to Moscow. The poems of Sofia Parnok, as well as her translations, were popular at that time and were regularly published, including in as four collections. Parnok was also a publisher - she founded the literary association “Lyrical Circle” and the publishing house “Uzel”.

Parnok was also known for her literary criticism, and for expressing rather bold opinions. Among other things, in one of her articles she named the “big four post-symbolists” - Pasternak, Akhmatova, Tsvetaeva and Mandelstam.

Last years of life, posthumous editions
In the early thirties of the twentieth century there was a change political situation, and it was no longer possible to print in Parnok. During this period, she, who lived on income from literary activities, was forced to do only translations. The poetess was very worried new era- its oppressive atmosphere and difficult life.

Fortunately, Sofia Parnok's unpublished works were not lost. They were preserved by Sofia Polyakova and published in 1979 in the United States. The collection includes 261 single poems by Parnok, to which Polyakova wrote a preface.

Poembook, 2013
All rights reserved.

Parnok Sofia Yakovlevna
Born: July 30 (August 11), 1885.
Died: August 26, 1933 (age 48).

Biography

Sofia Yakovlevna Parnok (July 30, 1885, Taganrog - August 26, 1933, Karinskoye, Moscow region) - Russian poetess, translator.

Sofia Parnok (real name Parnokh) was born on July 30 (August 11), 1885 in Taganrog, into a Russified Jewish wealthy family. Sister of the famous musical figure, poet and translator Valentin Parnakh and poetess Elizaveta Tarakhovskaya.

Father - Yakov Solomonovich Parnokh (1853-1913), pharmacist and pharmacy owner, honorary citizen of the city of Taganrog. Mother - Alexandra Abramovna Parnokh, nee Idelson (1853-1895), doctor.

Early death mother (she died shortly after the birth of the twins, Valentin and Elizabeth) and the second marriage of his father, who married their governess, made life in the Taganrog house forever unbearable, and the relationship with his father alienated.

After graduating with a gold medal from the Taganrog Mariinsky Gymnasium (1894-1903), she lived for a year in Switzerland, where she studied at the Geneva Conservatory, and upon returning to Russia she studied at the Bestuzhev courses.

She began publishing poetry in 1906. For some time she was married to the writer V.M. Volkenshtein (the marriage was concluded according to the Jewish rite); after the breakup of an unsuccessful marriage, she turned her feelings only to women; this theme is very characteristic of her lyrics. Her affair with N.P. Polyakova, to whom many poems are dedicated, dates back to this time Parnok. In 1909 she converted to Orthodoxy.

Since 1913, she collaborated in the journal “Northern Notes”, where, in addition to poetry, she published translations from French and critical articles under the pseudonym “Andrei Polyanin”. Parnok the critic was highly regarded by his contemporaries; her articles were distinguished by an even, friendly tone and a balanced assessment of the merits and originality of a particular poet. She owns concise and clear characteristics of the poetics of Mandelstam, Akhmatova, Khodasevich, Igor Severyanin and other leading poets of the 1910s; recognizing the talent of a number of Acmeists, she nevertheless rejected Acmeism as a school. Parnok owns (uncharacteristic for her in tone, but indicative of her ideas about art) one of the most striking speeches against Valery Bryusov, “playing the role of a great poet” (1917).

In 1914 she met Marina Tsvetaeva. They had an affair that lasted until 1916. Tsvetaeva dedicated her cycle of poems “Girlfriend” (“Under the caress of a plush blanket ...”, etc.).

The first collection of “Poems” was published in Petrograd in 1916 and met with generally positive reviews from critics.

In 1917 she left for the city of Sudak (Crimea), where she lived until the early twenties; Among her friends from this period were Maximilian Voloshin, sisters Adelaide and Evgenia Gertsyk. In Sudak she met the composer A. Spendiarov and, at his request, began work on the libretto of the opera “Almast”.

Returning to Moscow, she was engaged in literary and translation work. She was one of the founders of the Lyrical Circle association and the Knot cooperative publishing house.

She published four collections of poems in Moscow: “Roses of Pieria” (1922), “Vine” (1923), “Music” (1926), “Sotto voce” (1928). The last two collections were published by the publishing house “Uzel”, and “Sotto voce” - with a circulation of only 200 copies. Parnok continued her literary-critical activity after the revolution, in particular, it was she who first named the “big four” of post-symbolist poetry - Pasternak, Tsvetaeva, Akhmatova, Mandelstam (1923, in the article “B. Pasternak and others”).

Parnok did not belong to any of the leading literary groups. She was critical of both the latest trends in contemporary literature and the traditional school. Her poetry is distinguished by her masterful command of words, broad erudition, and ear for music. Her latest collections are filled with conversational intonations and a sense of the “everyday” nature of the tragedy; many poems are dedicated to the theoretical physicist Nina Vedeneeva - “The Gray Muse.”

In Moscow Bolshoi Theater On June 24, 1930, the premiere of A. Spendiarov’s opera “Almast” based on its libretto took place with triumphant success.

In recent years, Parnok, deprived of the opportunity to publish, like many writers, made money from translations. It was difficult to endure the life and cultural atmosphere of the 1920-1930s. She died of a broken heart on August 26, 1933 in the village of Karinskoye near Moscow. She was buried in Moscow, at the German (Vvedenskoye) cemetery in Lefortovo. Boris Pasternak and Gustav Shpet attended her funeral.

In his obituary, V. Khodasevich wrote: “She published many books unknown to the general public - so much the worse for the public.”

Parnok’s return to literature took place thanks to Sofya Polyakova, who preserved her late unpublished works and published all 261 poems with a detailed preface in the USA in 1979.

Family

Parnokh, Yakov Solomonovich (1853-1912) - father, pharmacist, pharmacy owner, member of the City Duma of Taganrog, honorable Sir Taganrog.
Parnakh, Valentin Yakovlevich - brother, Russian poet, translator, musician, dancer, choreographer, founder of Russian jazz.
Tarakhovskaya, Elizaveta Yakovlevna - sister, Russian poetess, translator.
Parnakh, Alexander Valentinovich - nephew, writer.
Maxim Aleksandrovich Parnakh - great-nephew, artist, teacher.

Musical interpretations

In 2002, as part of the “AZiYa+” project, singer, poet and composer Elena Frolova released the CD “Wind from Viogolosa”, songs based on poems by Sofia Parnok.

Sofia Yakovlevna Parnok(July 30 [August 11], Taganrog - August 26, Karinskoye, Moscow region) - Russian poetess and translator.

Biography

Sofia Parnok (real name Parnokh) was born on July 30 (August 11) in Taganrog, into a Russified Jewish wealthy family. Sister of the famous musical figure, poet and translator Valentin Parnakh and poetess Elizaveta Tarakhovskaya.

The early death of his mother (she died shortly after the birth of the twins, Valentin and Elizabeth) and the second marriage of his father, who married their governess, made life in the Taganrog house forever unbearable, and the relationship with his father alienated.

After graduating with a gold medal from the Taganrog Mariinsky Gymnasium (-) - she lived for a year in Switzerland, where she studied at the Geneva Conservatory, and upon returning to Russia she studied at the Bestuzhev courses.

First collection "Poems" was published in Petrograd in 1916 and met with generally positive reviews from critics.

In his obituary, V. Khodasevich wrote: “She published many books unknown to the general public - so much the worse for the public.”

Parnok’s return to literature took place thanks to Sofya Polyakova, who collected her late unpublished works and published all 261 poems with a detailed preface in 1979 in the USA.

Family

• Parnokh, Yakov Solomonovich (-) - father, pharmacist, pharmacy owner, member of the Taganrog City Duma, honorary citizen of Taganrog.
• Parnakh, Valentin Yakovlevich - brother, Russian poet, translator, musician, dancer, choreographer, founder of Russian jazz.
• Tarakhovskaya, Elizaveta Yakovlevna - sister, Russian poetess, translator.
• Parnakh, Alexander Valentinovich - nephew, writer.
• Maxim Aleksandrovich Parnakh - great-nephew, artist, teacher.

Books by S. Ya. Parnok

• Poems. - Pg. : Type. R. Golike and A. Vilborg, 1916. - 80 p.
• Roses of Pieria. - M.-Pg. : Creativity, 1922. - 32 pp., 3,000 copies.
• Vine: Poems 1922 / Region. V. Favorsky. - M.: Rosehip, 1923. - 45 p.
• Music. - M.: Knot, 1926. - 32 pp., 700 copies.
• “In a low voice”, poems 1926-1927, - M.: Knot, 1928. - 63 pp., 200 copies.
• Collected poems / Prepared by. texts, intro. Art. and comment. S. V. Polyakova. - Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1979.
• Parnok Sophia. Collected works. / Ins. article, text preparation and note by S. Polyakova. - St. Petersburg. : INAPRESS, 1998. - 544 p. - ISBN 5-87135-045-3.
• Sofia Parnok. Poems // Stanzas of the century. Anthology of Russian poetry. / Under. ed. E. Yevtushenko. - M.: Polifact, 1999. - ISBN 5-89356-006-X.
• Sofia Parnok. Poems // From Symbolists to Oberiuts. Poetry of Russian modernism. Anthology. In 2 books. Book 1. - M.: Ellis Luck, 2001. - 704 p. - ISBN 5-88889-047-2.
• Sofia Parnok. Sotto voce: Poems. - M.: O.G.I., 2010. - 312 p. - ISBN 978-5-94282-534-8.

Musical interpretations

• In 2002, as part of the “AZiYa+” project, singer, poet and composer Elena Frolova released “The Wind from Viogolosa,” songs based on poems by Sofia Parnok.

Write a review about the article "Parnok, Sofia Yakovlevna"

Literature

• Brief literary encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1962-1978. - T. 1-9.
• Burgin D.L. Sophia Parnok. The Life and Work of Russia's Sappho. - N.Y.: NY University Press, 1994. - ISBN 0-8147-1190-1.
• Stanzas of the century. Anthology of Russian poetry / Comp. E. Yevtushenko, ed. E. Vitkovsky. - Mn. ; M.: Polyfak, 1995.
• Polyakova S. V.[Introductory article to the collection] // Parnok, Sofia. Collection of poems. - St. Petersburg. : INAPRESS, 1998. - pp. 440-466.
• Burgin D. L. Sofia Parnok. The life and work of Russian Sappho. - St. Petersburg. : INAPRESS, 1999. - 512 p. - ISBN 5-87135-065-8.
• Encyclopedia of Taganrog. - Rostov n/d: Rostizdat, 2003. - 512 p. - ISBN 5-7509-0662-0.
• Romanova E. A. Experience of the creative biography of Sofia Parnok. - St. Petersburg. : Nestor-History, 2005. - 402 p. - ISBN 5-98187-088-5.
• Nerler P.[Introductory article] // Parnakh V. Ya. Pension Maubert: Memories. DIASPORA: NEW MATERIALS. - St. Petersburg. : Phoenix-ATHENAEUM, 2005. - T. VII.
• Khangulyan S. A. Silver age of Russian poetry. Book one. Modernism: symbolism, acmeism. - M.: New Newspaper, 2009. - P. 528. - ISBN 978-5-91147-006-7.
• Shcherbak N. Love of the Silver Age poets. Idols. Story great love. M.: Astrel - St. Petersburg, 2012. - pp. 71-82

Notes

Links

• .
• .
• V .
• .
• Lera Murashova.

see also

An excerpt characterizing Parnok, Sofia Yakovlevna

Was Kutuzov thinking about something completely different when he said these words, or did he say them on purpose, knowing their meaninglessness, but Count Rostopchin did not answer anything and hastily walked away from Kutuzov. And a strange thing! The commander-in-chief of Moscow, the proud Count Rostopchin, taking a whip in his hands, approached the bridge and began to disperse the crowded carts with a shout.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, Murat's troops entered Moscow. A detachment of Wirtemberg hussars rode ahead, and the Neapolitan king himself rode behind on horseback with a large retinue.
Near the middle of the Arbat, near St. Nicholas the Revealed, Murat stopped, awaiting news from the advance detachment about the situation of the city fortress “le Kremlin”.
A small group of people from the residents remaining in Moscow gathered around Murat. Everyone looked with timid bewilderment at the strange, long-haired boss adorned with feathers and gold.
- Well, is this the king himself? Nothing! – quiet voices were heard.
The translator approached a group of people.
“Take off your hat... take off your hat,” they said in the crowd, turning to each other. The translator turned to one old janitor and asked how far it was from the Kremlin? The janitor, listening in bewilderment to the alien Polish accent and not recognizing the sounds of the translator's dialect as Russian speech, did not understand what was being said to him and hid behind others.
Murat moved towards the translator and ordered to ask where the Russian troops were. One of the Russian people understood what was being asked of him, and several voices suddenly began to answer the translator. A French officer from the advance detachment rode up to Murat and reported that the gates to the fortress were sealed and that there was probably an ambush there.
“Okay,” said Murat and, turning to one of the gentlemen of his retinue, he ordered four light guns to be brought forward and fired at the gate.
The artillery rode out at a trot from behind the column following Murat and rode along the Arbat. Having descended to the end of Vzdvizhenka, the artillery stopped and lined up in the square. Several French officers controlled the cannons, positioning them, and looked into the Kremlin through a telescope.
The bell for Vespers was heard in the Kremlin, and this ringing confused the French. They assumed it was a call to arms. Several infantry soldiers ran to the Kutafyevsky Gate. There were logs and planks at the gate. Two rifle shots rang out from under the gate as soon as the officer and his team began to run up to them. The general standing at the cannons shouted command words to the officer, and the officer and the soldiers ran back.
Three more shots were heard from the gate.
One shot hit a French soldier in the leg, and a strange cry of a few voices was heard from behind the shields. On the faces of the French general, officers and soldiers at the same time, as if on command, the previous expression of gaiety and calm was replaced by a stubborn, concentrated expression of readiness to fight and suffer. For all of them, from the marshal to the last soldier, this place was not Vzdvizhenka, Mokhovaya, Kutafya and Trinity Gate, but this was a new area of ​​a new field, probably a bloody battle. And everyone prepared for this battle. The screams from the gate died down. The guns were deployed. The artillerymen blew off the burnt blazers. The officer commanded “feu!” [fallen!], and two whistling sounds of tins were heard one after another. Grapeshot bullets crackled against the stone of the gate, logs and shields; and two clouds of smoke wavered in the square.
A few moments after the rolling of shots across the stone Kremlin died down, a strange sound was heard above the heads of the French. A huge flock of jackdaws rose above the walls and, cawing and rustling with thousands of wings, circled in the air. Along with this sound, a lonely human cry was heard at the gate, and from behind the smoke the figure of a man without a hat, in a caftan, appeared. Holding a gun, he aimed at the French. Feu! - the artillery officer repeated, and at the same time one rifle and two cannon shots were heard. The smoke closed the gate again.
Nothing else moved behind the shields, and the infantry French soldiers with the officers we went to the gate. There were three wounded and four dead people lying at the gate. Two people in caftans were running away from below, along the walls, towards Znamenka.
“Enlevez moi ca, [Take it away,” said the officer, pointing to the logs and corpses; and the French, having finished off the wounded, threw the corpses down beyond the fence. Nobody knew who these people were. “Enlevez moi ca,” was the only word said about them, and they were thrown away and cleaned up later so they wouldn’t stink. Thiers alone dedicated several eloquent lines to their memory: “Ces miserables avaient envahi la citadelle sacree, s"etaient empares des fusils de l"arsenal, et tiraient (ces miserables) sur les Francais. On en sabra quelques "uns et on purgea le Kremlin de leur presence. [These unfortunates filled the sacred fortress, took possession of the guns of the arsenal and shot at the French. Some of them were cut down with sabers, and cleared the Kremlin of their presence.]
Murat was informed that the path had been cleared. The French entered the gates and began to camp on Senate Square. The soldiers threw chairs out of the Senate windows into the square and laid out fires.
Other detachments passed through the Kremlin and were stationed along Maroseyka, Lubyanka, and Pokrovka. Still others were located along Vzdvizhenka, Znamenka, Nikolskaya, Tverskaya. Everywhere, not finding owners, the French settled not as in apartments in the city, but as in a camp located in the city.
Although ragged, hungry, exhausted and reduced to 1/3 of their previous strength, the French soldiers entered Moscow in orderly order. It was an exhausted, exhausted, but still fighting and formidable army. But it was an army only until the minute the soldiers of this army went to their apartments. As soon as the people of the regiments began to disperse to empty and rich houses, the army was destroyed forever and neither residents nor soldiers were formed, but something in between, called marauders. When, five weeks later, the same people left Moscow, they no longer constituted an army. It was a crowd of marauders, each of whom carried or carried with him a bunch of things that seemed valuable and necessary to him. The goal of each of these people when leaving Moscow was not, as before, to conquer, but only to retain what they had acquired. Like that monkey who, having put his hand into the narrow neck of a jug and grabbed a handful of nuts, does not unclench his fist so as not to lose what he has grabbed, and thereby destroys himself, the French, when leaving Moscow, obviously had to die due to the fact that they were dragging with the loot, but it was as impossible for him to throw away this loot as it is impossible for a monkey to unclench a handful of nuts. Ten minutes after each French regiment entered some quarter of Moscow, not a single soldier or officer remained. In the windows of the houses people in greatcoats and boots could be seen walking around the rooms laughing; in the cellars and basements the same people managed the provisions; in the courtyards the same people unlocked or beat down the gates of barns and stables; they lit fires in the kitchens, baked, kneaded and cooked with their hands rolled up, scared, made them laugh and caressed women and children. And there were many of these people everywhere, in shops and in homes; but the army was no longer there.
On the same day, order after order was given by the French commanders to prohibit troops from dispersing throughout the city, to strictly prohibit violence against residents and looting, and to make a general roll call that same evening; but, despite any measures. the people who had previously made up the army dispersed throughout the rich, empty city, abundant in amenities and supplies. Just as a hungry herd walks in a heap across a bare field, but immediately scatters uncontrollably as soon as it attacks rich pastures, so the army scattered uncontrollably throughout the rich city.
There were no inhabitants in Moscow, and the soldiers, like water into sand, were sucked into it and, like an unstoppable star, spread out in all directions from the Kremlin, which they entered first of all. The cavalry soldiers, entering a merchant's house abandoned with all its goods and finding stalls not only for their horses, but also extra ones, still went nearby to occupy another house, which seemed better to them. Many occupied several houses, writing in chalk who occupied it, and arguing and even fighting with other teams. Before they could fit in, the soldiers ran outside to inspect the city and, hearing that everything had been abandoned, rushed to where they could take away valuables for nothing. The commanders went to stop the soldiers and themselves unwittingly became involved in the same actions. In Carriage Row there were shops with carriages, and the generals crowded there, choosing carriages and carriages for themselves. The remaining residents invited the leaders to their place, hoping to thereby protect themselves from robbery. There was an abyss of wealth, and there was no end in sight; everywhere, around the place that the French occupied, there were still unexplored, unoccupied places, in which, as it seemed to the French, there was even more wealth. And Moscow sucked them in further and further. Just as when water pours onto dry land, water and dry land disappear; in the same way, due to the fact that the hungry army entered the abundant, empty city, the army was destroyed, and the abundant city was destroyed; and there was dirt, fires and looting.

The French attributed the fire of Moscow to au patriotisme feroce de Rastopchine [to Rastopchin's wild patriotism]; Russians – to the fanaticism of the French. In essence, there were no reasons for the fire of Moscow in the sense of attributing this fire to the responsibility of one or several persons, and there could not have been such reasons. Moscow burned down due to the fact that it was placed in such conditions under which every wooden city should burn down, regardless of whether the city had one hundred and thirty bad fire pipes or not. Moscow had to burn due to the fact that the inhabitants left it, and just as inevitably as a heap of shavings should catch fire, on which sparks of fire would rain down for several days. A wooden city, in which there are fires almost every day in the summer under the residents, house owners and under the police, cannot help but burn down when there are no inhabitants in it, but live troops smoking pipes, making fires on Senate Square from Senate chairs and cooking themselves two once a day. Worth in Peaceful time troops settle into quarters in villages in a known area, and the number of fires in this area immediately increases. To what extent should the probability of fires increase in an empty wooden city in which an alien army is stationed? Le patriotisme feroce de Rastopchine and the fanaticism of the French are not to blame for anything here. Moscow caught fire from pipes, from kitchens, from fires, from the sloppiness of enemy soldiers and residents - not the owners of the houses. If there were arson (which is very doubtful, because there was no reason for anyone to set fire, and, in any case, it was troublesome and dangerous), then the arson cannot be taken as the cause, since without the arson it would have been the same.