Sergey Yesenin and his women
To the 125th poet’s anniversary
YESENIN’S BIRTHPLACE VILLAGE OF KONSTANTINOVO
The great Russian poet Sergey Alexandrovich Yesenin was born on 21th September, [3 October] 1895 in the village of Konstantinovo, Ryazan province, located on the hilly bank of the Oka river. Sergey was a "hereditary Konstantinovo resident", the poet's great-grandfathers lived there as peasants, his grandfathers got through, his father grew up, and his mother spent her difficult life. In his early childhood, due to conflicts between the Yesenin’s family (on the father's side) and the Titov’s (on the mother's side), Tatyana Fyodorovna, the poet's mother, had to leave Yesenin’s house. Three-year-old Sergey was brought up by grandfather Fyodor Andreevich and grandmother Natalia Evteeva.
CHILDHOOD WITHOUT PARENTS
Grandmother played a big role in Sergey’s becoming as a poet. She told little Yesenin fairy-tails and sang songs. Thus, the young poet began to fantasize and changed bad endings of fairy tales, he did not like. "Sergey did not meet with his mother and father, he used to consider himself an orphan, and sometimes it was more painful than for a real orphan," elder sister recalled. That childhood without parents left a deep injury in Yesenin's soul and echoed much in his youthful poems.
SCHOOL YEARS
In 1904, Yesenin went to Konstantinovsky Zemstvo School. By that time, the poet's mother, Tatyana Fyodorovna, had returned to Yesenin’s house, and his father continued working in Moscow. During his school years, Sergey was keen on reading, and he could be always met with a book in his hands. He was a brilliant mind, answered in class smart, especially when reciting poems by Nekrasov, Koltsov, and Nikitin.
The first poems were written by Yesenin at the age of eight or nine, but, unfortunately, they haven’t survived.
In 1909, Yesenin finished village school. His father intended to take him to Moscow and teach him meat business, but his grandfather was against. He insisted on further education. He arranged everything. And, as a result, Sergey became a student at Spas-Klepikov church-parish school, where Sergey studied until 1912. Sergey got into a poetic atmosphere there, many of his comrades were fond of poetry and tried to outdo each other with their works, but talented Yesenin wrote better. His works were easy to read, they had a spirit of the countryside, life, sun and the chirping of birds, and sometimes sadness. Some of Yesenin's youthful poems were published in the first edition of Radunitsa (the end of 1915) in the section "Poppy fears".
YOUTH AND THE BEGINNING OF CREATIVITY
After finishing school, Sergey Yesenin went to Moscow to visit his father. After spending a week with him, he joined butcher's shop as a clerk, where he worked for only 3 days. Then he worked as a salesman at a bookstore, where he stayed for 6 months before returning to the hometown. In March 1912, Sergey Yesenin joined Sytin’s publishing house as a proofreader. His father arranged it. Working at the factory at daytime, he attended the University of Shanyavsky in the evening as a free listener. At the same time, he also did not stop writing poems to newspapers and magazines.
In May 1914, he resigned from Sytin’s, telling his father that he was going to Yalta. "It is hard for me to work in conditions when I am being disposed of as a thing, I do not want to depend on anyone!" He left.
A month later, Yesenin wrote to his comrades at the factory, asking them to send him money for the return trip. His ego did not allow him to ask his father, but unfortunately, his friends did not have money. They went to Sergey's father, Alexander Nikitich, and he telegraphed him 25 rubles. With this money, Sergey returned to Moscow in 3 days and went home from there.
YESENIN AND THE ROYAL FAMILY
The imperialist war of 1914 forced Sergey Yesenin to arrive in Ryazan for military conscription, where, after being examined by a medical commission, received a one-year postponement and left for Leningrad. There he was paid attention, in a short time Yesenin appeared in Tsarskoye Selo, he composed and recited his works to the Empress, and, using the grace of the "court", he was released from military service.
SOVIET PERIOD
The February Revolution of 1917 moved Yesenin to Moscow, where he was with Erdman, Shershenevich, Ivnev, and Marienhoff. He was influenced with "imagism". Being deeply in it, Sergey often told his father, "it's difficult, dad, to live, no one knows me, no one understands now, then they will understand, but it will be too late, I will die." Thanks to his wanderings in the cities, free life and free money, Yesenin started drinking. In the poems of this period there was an idea, that he was already dead and there was no return for him. "On Moscow's curved streets, God promised me to die."
During his arrival in the village, he drank all the time, brawled and argued, broke windows, tried to beat his mother. Neighbors avoided him when he was drunk, and in the evenings, drunk Sergey walked alone in the garden, singing obscene songs.
On 28th December, 1925, Sergey Yesenin was found dead in a room at Angleterre hotel in St. Petersburg. Historians, politicians and literary scholars debate whether it was a suicide or a contract murder. This question is still open
ANNA SARDANOVSKAYA
Sardanovskaya was the first Muse of the poet. Anna also lived in Konstantinovo. The young people became friends in early childhood, but the romance started when Sergey was 17 and Anna was 16. She had a beautiful voice, sang in the Church choir and at social events, played the guitar, and was fond of poetry. The young people met in 1906, before Yesenin entered Spas-Klepikov church-parish school. Young Sergey and Anna even made a secret agreement about their future wedding. Holding hands, they ran to the priest's house and asked the nun to separate them, saying, "We love each other and in the future, we promise to marry. Separate us, and if one betray or get married, the second one will be beaten with firewood." But it did not last long. Satanovskya soon knew about Yesenin’s correspondence with her friend Mary Balsamova. Unfortunately, it was she, who had introduced Masha to Sergey. In February 1914 Sergey wrote to Balzamova, "I don't know Anyuta anymore. I sent her a scathing and abusive letter in which I put the end to everything." Maybe, it was because he already had civil marriage with A. Izryadnova, and, she was already pregnant by him.
Anyway, the image of the first youthful love remained forever in Yesenin soul and his works. The Monthly magazine published poems dedicated to Anna Sardanovskaya, "Beyond the mountains, beyond the yellow valleys...", "Again spread out in a pattern".