Marina Cvetajeva ✝

Russian poet, prose writer, translator, one of the most famous and prominent Russian poets of the 20th century. Her biography reflects the entire 20th century. Russian literary tragedy

In the fall of 1909, Cvetaeva attended lectures and club meetings at the Musaget publishing house of Moscow symbolists, and a year later she attended meetings of the Young Musaget circle, which significantly expanded her circle of literary acquaintances.

In September - October 1910, Tsvetaeva published at her own expense the first collection of poems, “Evening Album,” in the Partnership of A.I. Mamontov’s Printing House, which included mainly her school works. The collection is dedicated to the memory of Maria Bashkirtseva, which emphasizes its “diary” orientation. Her work attracted the attention of famous poets: Valery Bryusov, Maximilian Voloshin and Nikolai Gumilyov. In the winter of 1910/1911, Tsvetaeva wrote her first critical article, “Magic in Bryusov’s Poems.”At the end of 1910, in Moscow, Tsvetaeva met the poet and literary critic Maximilian Voloshin. Next year she visits the famous Voloshin “House of Poets” in Crimea. There, in Koktebel, in May 1911, Tsvetaeva met Sergei Efron; On January 29, 1912, they got married in the Church of the Nativity of Christ in Maly Palashevsky Lane. In September of the same year, Marina and Sergei had a daughter, Ariadna (Alya). In subsequent years, right up to the revolution, the family repeatedly spent summers in Crimea at Voloshin’s dacha. Subsequently, in emigration, Tsvetaeva recalled that this was the happiest time of her life: “Koktebel 1911 is the happiest year of my life, no Russian glow can overshadow that radiance,” “Koktebel and Czech villages are the places of my soul.”In February 1912, Tsvetaeva’s second collection, “The Magic Lantern,” was published. In March 1913, the third, “Of Two Books,” was published.

In October 1914, Tsvetaeva met the poetess and translator Sofia Parnok; their romantic relationship continued until 1916. Tsvetaeva dedicated the cycle of poems “Girlfriend” to Parnok. Tsvetaeva and Parnok separated in 1916; Marina returned to her husband Sergei Efron. Tsvetaeva described her relationship with Parnok as “the first disaster in her life.”In the summer of 1916, Tsvetaeva arrived in the city of Alexandrov, where her sister Anastasia Tsvetaeva lived with her common-law husband Mavrikiy Mints and son Andrei. In Alexandrov, Tsvetaeva wrote a series of poems (“To Akhmatova,” “Poems about Moscow,” and others), and literary scholars later called her stay in the city “Marina Tsvetaeva’s Alexandrovsky Summer.”