Konstantin Balmont

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Konstantin Balmont : biography

1867 – 23 December 1942

In the early 1900s, while in Paris, Balmont met Yelena Konstantinovna Tsvetkovskaya (1880–1943), general K. G. Tzvetkovsky’s daughter, who was at the time studying mathematics in Sorbonne and was the poet’s ardent fan. Balmont, as some of his letters suggested, had never been in love with her, but soon found himself in many ways dependent on the girl who proved to be a loyal, devoted friend. Balmont’s family life got seriously complicated after Tsvetkovskaya in 1907 gave birth to a daughter. Balmont called her Mirra in memory of a poet Mirra Lokhvitskaya who died in 1905 and whom he had passionate but platonic relations with. Torn apart between the two families, in 1909 Balmont attempted suicide for the second time (jumping out a window) and again survived. Up until 1917 he lived in Saint Petersburg with Tsvetkovskaya and Mirra, occasionally visiting Yekaterina and Nina in Moscow. While in immigration Balmont continued to correspond with Andreeva until 1934 (when such links between relatives were officially banned in the USSR).

Teffi thus described Balmont and Tsvetkovskaya: "He [entered the room], head held high, a true Fame’s laurels bearer, neck wrapped in a black tie of a kind Lermontov might have found useful but nobody would even dream of wearing today. Lynx’ eyes, mane of long reddish hair. Followed by a shadow, Yelena: small, thin, dark-skinned creature who was obviously depending in life on two strong things: tea and her love." The couple, according to Teffi, communicated in strange and pretentious manner. "She was always calling him ‘a poet’, never – ‘my husband’. A simple phrase: ‘My husband asks for a drink’ in their special argot would turn into something like: ‘A poet is willing to appease his thirst’." Unlike Andreeva, Yelena Tsvetkovskaya was totally helpless in domestic life and had no influence whatsoever over Balmont, whom she felt as her duty to follow wherever he went to drink, spending nights by his side, never being able take him home. "Small wonder that, leading such a life, at 40 she looked like a very old woman," Teffi remarked.

The last woman Balmont has been romantically linked with was Dagmar Shakhovskaya (1893–1967), an Estonian baroness. The lovers met rarely, but had two children: George (1922–194?) and Svetlana (b. 1925). Balmont wrote to her almost daily; all in all 858 of his letters and postcards remained. Still, it was Yelena Tsvetkovskaya who was remaining beside him till his dying day. She died in 1943, a year after her husband. Mirra Balmont (in marriage Boychenko, then Autina) published poetry as Aglaya Gamayun. She died in Paris in 1970.