There, on unknown paths, are traces of unprecedented animals. Pushkin Alexander Sergeevich - (Poems)

ISBN 978-5-4493-2042-1

Created in the intellectual publishing system Ridero

They met in Crimea. In Koktebel. In the house-museum of Maximilian Voloshin. In June. We met by chance. And at the same time it is not accidental. This was their destiny. And the fate of Koktebel, which unites hearts.

She is slim beautiful girl with aristocratic features and refined manners.

He is young and very handsome man. Of those that appeal to all women, without exception: both young and old. They like it precisely because of their magnificent appearance. The appearance of an impeccable handsome man, to whom one is drawn like a magnet.

She came to the museum on purpose. To write about him in her course work, which she was preparing on the works of Maximilian Voloshin, while studying at the Institute of Culture.

He entered the museum just out of boredom. He had an appointment with a friend near the museum, but he did not show up on time. The man waited in vain for about an hour. And when he got tired of waiting, he decided to go to the museum.

There they met. He looked at her. She looked at him. And that spark flashed between them, which is called love at first sight.

He came up first. He spoke politely:

- Hello, beautiful stranger. I've never seen you in our area. Have you come from far away?

- From Moscow. - the girl answered, looking at the man with interest.

-Are you relaxing here?

- I relax and work.

- What does it mean?

- I write coursework based on the work of writer Maximilian Voloshin. And I visit the places that meant a lot to him. For example, this house-museum. Maximilian Voloshin lived and died here. Here he collected famous poets and writers and spent literary evenings with them. Here…

- I got it. - said the man, interrupting the girl. “No need to talk about Voloshin.” Let's talk about you better. I really liked you. Maybe we can meet? My name is Alexander. How about you?

- Olga. Olya. Olenka. Beautiful name. Beautiful. Just like you. You are very beautiful, Olenka.

- Thanks for the compliment. You are also very beautiful.

- Nice to hear. Usually only old women tell me this.

- Why?

– Young girls admire themselves.

- I'm not one of them. I am stating a fact. You are a very handsome man, Alexander. And you know it yourself.

- Yes I know. But believe me, I was not at all proud of this.

- This is good. But you won’t deny that women like you, will you?

- I won’t. Do you like me, Olenka?

– Purely outwardly, yes. Your bright beauty will not leave anyone indifferent. What is your inner world, - I don't know.

- My inner world? – Alexander repeated thoughtfully. “I probably don’t know him myself.”

However, my inner world will not be to your liking. Most likely so.

- Why do you think so? – Olga asked in surprise.

“I judge by your aristocratic features and refined manners.” And also about your involvement in Voloshin’s work. I am very far from all this.

- Yes? And what is your profession?

- Oh, I don’t know how to tell you... And is it even worth talking about this?.. I don’t want to,

so that you turn away from me.

– Is your profession so terrible?

- No, not a profession. My occupation... Let's better not talk about it, Olenka.

Or we will. But not now. Now I want to get to know you better... make friends...

Maybe we can go outside and take a walk? The museum is not very suitable for continuing acquaintance.

- Fine. Let's go outside.

They came out house-museum Maximilian Voloshin and walked along the road towards the sea.

- Today is such a hot day. - said Alexander after some silence. - Maybe

Shall we swim in the sea?

“I don’t have a swimsuit with me,” Olga answered.

- It's not a problem. Let's go to some store and buy it. I have enough money

to buy you a swimsuit.

- I have enough too. My parents are rich people. And I am their only daughter.

But now I don't want to swim.

- What do you want, Olenka? Maybe we can sit in some cafe and enjoy some ice cream?

– I don’t mind about the cafe. Let’s go here.” The girl turned to the right. “There’s a cozy cafe nearby.”

– You probably mean the Lazurnoe cafe? – Alexander asked, following Olga.

- Yes. I've been there several times. I like it.

- You good taste, Olenka. The cafe is really great. They serve excellent cakes.

– I can’t eat cakes. And ice cream is also not allowed.

- Why? Are you afraid of gaining weight?

- No I'm not afraid. It's just... I... I have diabetes.

- What? Really? – Alexander exclaimed in surprise. -I can’t believe that such a young and beautiful girl like you has diabetes.

– Nevertheless, it is so. I have been diagnosed with this since childhood.

– Do you feel the need for insulin?

- Yes. I give myself injections. I learned not to depend on anyone.

“I see,” Alexander said sadly.

- Well, why are you sad? Have you already changed your mind about getting to know me better? – the girl asked sarcastically.

- No. What do you? No, Olenka,” the man said, as if making excuses. -I'm just really sorry...

- Don't feel sorry for me. I don't like it.

- Fine. I won't. Forgive me, Olenka... Well, we’ve reached the cafe.” Alexander stopped and pointed to the cafe standing nearby.

– We’ll choose a table outside under a tent. Do you mind? – the girl approached one of the tables standing on the street near the cafe. – How do you like this one?

- Like. I'll call the waiter.

- No need. He'll do it himself. Sit down.

Olga and Alexander sat down at the table. And they looked into each other's eyes. And again the same spark flashed between them as in the museum, which is called love at first sight.

He looked at her. She looked at him. His eyes asked: “Yes?” Her eyes answered:

"Yes." This silent conversation was interrupted by the waiter who came to take the order.

- Hello. What will you order? - he asked.

“I’d like freshly squeezed orange juice,” Olga answered.

- And I'll have ice cream. With chocolate,” said Alexander.

Maximilian Aleksandrovich Kirienko-Voloshin was born on May 16 (28), 1877 in Kyiv, in the family of a member of the Kyiv Chamber of Criminal and Civil Court A.M. Kirienko-Voloshin (1838-1881) and his wife Elena Ottobaldovna, née Glaser (1850-1923). In 1881, when Max was not yet five years old, his father died. Mother and son moved to Moscow, and at the beginning of 1893 - to Koktebel. Max studied at the Feodosia state gymnasium. After graduating in 1897, he entered the Faculty of Law of Moscow University. At that time, at the end of the 19th century, a wave of student strikes swept across all of Russia, into which Voloshin was drawn into the orbit. In 1899 he was expelled from the university " for campaigning"and was sent to Feodosia with a certificate of unreliability. A year later he was reinstated at the university, but almost immediately this was followed by arrest and subsequent deportation to Crimea." until further notice».

In September 1900, he left for Central Asia to survey the Orenburg-Tashkent railway. " The year 1900, the turn of two centuries, was the year of my spiritual birth. I walked with caravans through the desert. Here Nietzsche and Vl.’s “Three Conversations” overtook me. Solovyova. They gave me the opportunity to look at the entire European culture retrospectively - from the heights of the Asian plateaus - and re-evaluate cultural values ", the poet recalled.

Voloshin decided not to return to university, but to go to Paris and study literature and art.

In the spring of 1901 he went abroad. Been to many European countries and cities, he lived in Paris for a total of more than six years, and it became the poet’s favorite city.

In 1903, having arrived briefly in Moscow, Voloshin met the aspiring artist and poetess Margarita Sabashnikova (1882-1973). Nothing foreshadowed their rapprochement then. But six months later, in the spring of 1904, in Paris, their relationship with each other will begin to change. They wander through the night streets of the old city, visit theaters and museums, and walk in Versailles Park.

Their relationship was not unambiguous and definite. It was attraction and repulsion at the same time: the aspirations of these two extraordinary people were too different. " I would like, - Sabashnikova dreamed, - so that a giant would come, take me in his arms and carry me away. I would just look into his eyes and only in them would I see the reflection of the world... I would tell him fairy tales, and he would create new worlds for me - just like that, jokingly playing. Will this giant never come..." Was Maximilian Voloshin suitable for such a role? " For several days now, - Voloshin wrote in his diary, - I haven't seen M<аргариту>IN<асильевну>. I went to see her and didn’t find her. And I wanted not to catch her. Did I love or not? When did I lie and where was the lie created?».

Despite the difficulties in the relationship, Voloshin and Sabashnikova still decided to get married. The wedding took place in Moscow, in the Church of St. Vlasiya. However, their life together did not improve, and in 1907 their marriage actually broke up.

That loss was mortally bitter to me.
And in the seeing twilight I was left alone... -

this is how the poet expressed himself tragic love which he carried throughout his entire life.

In 1905, an event occurred that radically influenced the creative and life biography Voloshin and Sabashnikova. They met the outstanding German philosopher, the founder of anthroposophy - Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). Subsequently, Voloshin would call Steiner the one to whom he “ most of all people owe knowledge of themselves", and Sabashnikova will devote her entire future life to the study and promotion of anthroposophy - the spiritual science of self-knowledge. Both of them became members of the General Anthroposophical Society.

In 1910, the first poetry collection Voloshin - “Poems: 1900-1910.” It included five poetic cycles, which brought the young poet the fame of one of the most interesting and original Russian poets. Your credo early period He himself formulated his creativity as follows:

See everything, understand everything, know everything, experience everything,
Take in all the shapes, all the colors with your eyes,
Walk across the entire earth with burning feet,
To perceive everything and embody it again.

In Paris, Voloshin studied a lot and intensively: “ Artistic form - from France, a sense of color - from Paris, logic - from Gothic cathedrals, medieval Latin - from Gaston Paris, structure of thought - from Bergson, skepticism - from Anatole France, prose - from Flaubert, verse - from Gautier and Heredia..." In the capital of France, he met outstanding cultural figures: E. Verhaeren, M. Maeterlinck, O. Mirbeau, O. Rodin, R. Gilles, O. Redon, F. Feneon. Until now, according to experts, Voloshin’s translations French poets late XIX- beginning of the 20th century are considered one of the best.

In 1914, literally the day before the start of the First World War, Voloshin, at the invitation of Sabashnikova, came to Switzerland, to the small village of Dornach, where Steiner’s students, friends and like-minded people gathered to build an anthroposophical center - the Goetheanum.

In 1916, Voloshin finally returned from his travels abroad to Russia. " Returning to Crimea in the spring of 1917, - the poet recalled, - I no longer leave it: I’m not fleeing from anyone, I’m not emigrating anywhere - and all the waves of civil war and changes of governments pass over my head».

During the Civil War, he took a position “above the fray.” Brought up in the best traditions of Western European humanism, the poet believed that in the years of terror and fratricidal bloodshed one must remain, first of all, a Man and save people, regardless of their political beliefs.

And here and there between the rows
The same voice sounds:
“Whoever is not for us is against us.
No one is indifferent: the truth is with us.”
And I stand alone between them
In roaring flames and smoke
And with all our might
I pray for both.

His humanistic position was not just a declaration - he saved specific people in specific circumstances. Thanks to Voloshin’s direct participation, N. Marx, who published at the beginning of the 20th century, was saved from certain death. three collections of “Legends of Crimea”, poet Osip Mandelstam, Sergei Efron and many, many others.

In those days my house was blind and desolate -
Kept the rights of refuge like a temple,
And dissolved only to fugitives,
Hiding from the noose and execution.
And the red leader and the white officer -
Fanatics of irreconcilable faiths -
They were looking here, under the roof of the poet,
Shelter, protection and advice.
I did everything to stop my brothers
To destroy ourselves, to destroy each other.

« During the revolution, - wrote the Russian theologian and publicist Fr. Alexander Men, - none of the Russian poets rose to such insight into events as Voloshin».

IN Soviet time his position was accepted with irony and condescendingly called “abstract humanism.” In 1923, an article by B.P. appeared in print. Tal “Counter-revolution in the poetry of M. Voloshin,” which said: “ With his work, Maximilian Voloshin himself gives a clear answer to the question - who he is. This is a consistent, ardent and self-possessed counter-revolutionary monarchist. Let him address his appeals to the dead of the counter-revolution. Living, creative, steadily moving forward - towards communism - workers' and peasants' Soviet Russia this kind of creativity is not needed" The poet was labeled a counter-revolutionary and an unspoken ban was imposed on the publication of his works.

After the revolution, Voloshin focused on creativity, trying to comprehend the events that took place before his eyes. In his poetry, the theme of Russia and reflections on its historical destinies. Evidence of this is the poems “Demetrius the Emperor”, “Russia”, “Archpriest Avvakum”, “Saint Seraphim”, the poems “The Burning Bush”, “Our Lady of Vladimir”, the cycle “In the Ways of Cain” - the final and most philosophically rich work of the poet.

On August 11, 1932, Maximilian Voloshin passed away. According to his last will, he was buried on the top of Mount Kuchuk-Yenishar, from where one of the best views to the Koktebel district.

Maximilian Voloshin is rightfully considered the poetic discoverer of Cimmeria - the mysterious and legendary country, sung by Homer as “ cimmerian sad region"and seen by the creative genius of the poet in the beauty of the landscape of South-Eastern Crimea. " Cimmeria, - wrote Voloshin, - I call eastern region Crimea from ancient Surog (Pike perch) to the Cimmerian Bosphorus (Kerch Strait), in contrast to Taurida, its western part (Southern coast and Tauride Chersonese)" And he proclaimed:

So my whole soul is in your bays.
Oh, Cimmeria is a dark country,
Enclosed and transformed.

The poet's development of Cimmerian themes is one of his most original features. creative biography. « Theme of Cimmeria, - wrote one of the researchers of Voloshin’s creativity L.A. Evstigneeva (Spiridonova), - becoming central to his poetry, illuminated all images with the mysterious glow of past eras" The poet dedicated more than sixty poems, eight articles and the vast majority of watercolors to Cimmeria. But Cimmeria, which became the true “homeland of the spirit” of Voloshin, did not immediately enter his soul. Needed " years of wandering» across European countries to appreciate the uniqueness and originality of the harsh and tart beauty of Koktebel. " Koktebel, he later recalled, did not immediately enter my soul: I gradually realized it as the true homeland of my spirit. And it took me many years of wandering along the shores of the Mediterranean to understand its beauty and uniqueness».

The theme of Cimmeria was first heard in the cycle “Cimmerian Twilight” (1906-1909), not yet entirely clear and meaningful, but already quite distinctive and original. A major role in its creation was played by the poet’s experiences generated by his separation from Margarita Sabashnikova. Spiritual bitterness, consonant with the bitterness of Koktebel wormwood, brought to life the first plot - “Wormwood”, created at the end of 1906:

My fire was burning out on the desert shore.
The rustling of flowing glass rustled.
And the bitter soul of yearning wormwood
In the languid darkness it swayed and flowed.

At the end of May 1907, he returned from St. Petersburg to Koktebel. It is here, in " Cimmeria sad", the soul of the poet, exhausted by the difficult experiences of separation from his beloved, will find long-awaited peace. A new, hitherto unknown feeling of “filiality” towards Cimmeria begins to awaken in her.

The image of Cimmeria acquired final meaning from the poet in the poetic cycle “Cimmerian Spring” (1910-1926) and in articles about the work of the Feodosian artist Konstantin Fedorovich Bogaevsky (1872-1943). In contrast to the tragic mood of “Cimmerian Twilight,” “Cimmerian Spring” by its very name speaks of optimism and a joyful, harmonious worldview. This cycle is perhaps the most the best meeting works of Cimmerian themes, in it landscape sketches the poet gained refinement and virtuosity.

The scarlet sunset rusted rays
On the slopes of red mountains... and a cloudy galley
The sails went out. Without edge and without measure
Growing night Shadow. Stop. Be quiet.
The stones are hot in the darkness in the heat of the day.
The wormwood meadows of the uplands are dull gray...
And low above the hill the trembling sickle of Venus,
Like the flame of a candle shaken by air...

Friendship and creative interaction between Voloshin and Bogaevsky, united by their love for “ sad, deserted and huge” to the beauty of the Cimmerian landscape, yielded wonderful results. " Koktebel, - Bogaevsky wrote to Voloshin in 1907, - my holy land, because nowhere have I seen the face of the earth so fully and significantly expressed as in Koktebel». An important event in their creative biography was the appearance in 1912 in the magazine "Apollo" of Voloshin's article "Konstantin Bogaevsky", containing a number of very precise and important aesthetic formulations. They helped both Bogaevsky and Voloshin to comprehend and justify the conceptual development of the Cimmerian theme.

« Bogaevsky's art, - wrote Voloshin, - came entirely from the land on which he was born. In order to understand his work, one must know this land; his soul was molded according to its hills and valleys, and the dream developed, replenishing its damages and inhabiting it with non-existent life. Therefore, before talking about Bogaevsky and his art, I will try to give an idea of the land whose voice he is in modern painting...

If you look to the west from Opuk or from the height of the Scythian rampart passing over Kenegez, then beyond the hilly plains, beyond the dried-up lakes, beyond the winged bows of yellow sea shallows, beyond the flat hills, beyond several plans of distances, increasingly blue, more radiant and marked like the crosses of windmills, on those evenings when there is no darkness over the earth, at the very edge of the horizon, behind the dim flickering of two sea bays deep into the earth, there is a pile of sharp teeth, peaks and conical hills. And among them, a dilapidated Gothic cathedral with unfinished towers in a lace of arrows, bindings and soaring tongues of petrified flame stands the complex structure of Karadag. Koktebel seems to be such a romantic fairy-tale country from the depths of the Kerch steppes.

All of Cimmeria is worked by volcanic forces. But the nests of fire went out, and the water, which dug up the slopes, exposed and sharpened the tops of the ridges. The Koktebel Mountains were the focus of volcanic activity in Crimea, and the bones of the volcanoes, gnawed by the sea, preserve traces of geological convulsions. It seems as if herds of antediluvian monsters were caught here in the ashes. Under the hills of these valleys one can discern the outlines of swollen ribs, long trunks reveal the spines buried beneath them, flat and predatory skulls rise from the sea, one cape seems to be a scaled paw set aside, curled wings with powerful tendons are exposed from under the gray scree; and on the basalt walls of Karadag, hanging over the sea, you can see the petrified, complex six-winged Cherub, retaining the shape of its radiant feathers.

If we add to these main landscapes of Cimmeria the muscular and leafy junipers of Sudak, the cave cities of Bakhchisarai and the huge Lombard poplars and ash trees of Shakh-Mamai, before whose height the steppe horizon seems low and flat, then we have before us all the elements from which Bogaevsky’s landscapes were formed.”

It seems that such a deep and imaginative description of Bogaevsky’s work is also applicable to the artistic work of Maximilian Voloshin himself.

Voloshin began painting in Paris under the influence of the Russian artist E.S. Kruglikova, who had her own workshop there. The turn to painting was not accidental: Voloshin shared many of the aesthetic principles of Russian symbolism with its desire for a synthesis of the arts. In the work of Maximilian Alexandrovich, poetry and painting mutually complemented each other. " Poem - talking picture. A painting is a silent poem“- this ancient saying perfectly characterizes his attitude towards the union of poetry and painting, especially since such famous classic masters Japanese prints, like Hokusai and Utamaro, Voloshin himself named among those who contributed big influence on his development as an artist.

Art critic E.A. Hollerbach, who knew Voloshin and his work well, noted in the article “Mirages of Cimmeria”: “ The artist and the poet in him are almost equivalent and, in any case, congenial. If it were ever possible to carry out an impeccable polychrome reproduction of Voloshin’s landscapes accompanied by the author’s poems, we would have an exceptional example of the perfect consonance of image and text».

In 1930, in connection with the proposed exhibition of his watercolors, Voloshin wrote an article “About himself,” where he outlined in detail his views on artistic creativity: « A landscape artist must depict land on which one can walk, and paint a sky on which one can fly, that is, in landscapes there must be such an edge of the horizon that one wants to cross, and one must feel the air that one wants to breathe deeply, and in the sky those rising currents on which you can take off in a glider" He was very proud that the first connoisseurs of his watercolors " geologists and glider pilots appeared, just as well as by the fact that... the sonnet “Noon” was at one time reprinted in the Crimean viticulture magazine. This indicates their accuracy».

Voloshin attached great attention to the symbolism of light used in painting. The artist’s choice of this or that color was not at all accidental; it responded to his deep philosophical intuition: “ Red corresponds to the color of the earth, blue - air, yellow - sunlight. Let's translate this into symbols. Red will represent the clay from which the human body is created - flesh, blood, passion. Blue - air and spirit, thought, infinity, the unknown. Yellow - the sun, light, will, self-awareness, royalty... The lilac color is formed from the fusion of red with blue - “a sense of mystery”, “the color of prayer”, green - from the mixture of green with blue - “the color of the plant kingdom, hope, the joy of being "».

Voloshin sang his beloved Cimmeria both in poetry and in painting, “ paid tribute with pictures and words", and Cimmeria, this " mysterious reflection of past eras", responded to the poetic call:

My dream has been filled with water since then
Foothills heroic dreams
And Koktebel has a stone mane;
Its wormwood is intoxicated with my melancholy,
My verse sings in the waves of its tide.

And a kind of apotheosis of this two-way connection between the poet and his spiritual homeland - Cimmeria - was an interesting geological and mystical event:

And on the rock that closed the swell of the bay,
Fate and the winds have sculpted my profile.

In 1913, after a strong landslide, on the spur of the Kok-Kaya rock, which closes the Koktebel Bay from the seashore, a kind of human profile was formed, in which it is not difficult to guess the profile of Voloshin himself.

The image of Cimmeria, evoked from the depths of history by the poetic “dream” of Maximilian Voloshin, still hovers over Koktebel, inspiring new generations of artists, writers, and poets.

One of the plots in Koktebel was bought by Elena Ottobaldovna Voloshina, the mother of the future poet. She moved to this wilderness with her 16-year-old son Maximilian in 1893. The son studied at the Feodosia gymnasium, and came to his mother on vacation. In 1897, Max entered the law faculty of Moscow University. He had clashes with the police - for his democratic sentiments, freethinking, for his increased interest in “Capital” and other books of Marx, which he completely abandoned after the 1917 revolution. In a word, because he did not tolerate state pressure on the individual.

In 1900, he was kept under arrest for ten days, expelled from the university, and deprived of the right to enter higher education. educational establishments Russia, live in capitals and university cities. Fortunately, Europe was available for education, and most importantly, the poet knew how to truly learn from his great predecessors (“But the shelves of books rise like a wall...”). In the same year, 1900, a strange, symbolic notice came from the Tsar’s secret police with a prophetic verdict: “Not guilty of anything, but does not deserve leniency.” Then the Soviet authorities treated him according to the same principle.

Voloshin felt his calling early and therefore was burdened by boring studies, really regretted the lost time, and then wrote in one of his autobiographies: “The end of adolescence was poisoned by the gymnasium.” In 1903, after wandering around Europe, Maximilian Voloshin again found himself in Koktebel to settle here forever.

“His mother is a friend, an old bachelor, and generally docile, not without grumbling. And they have a bachelor's household: on a terrace with an earthen floor, attached to a modest dacha, at an angle to the surf itself, we are treated to lunch - a watery, unseasoned broth of cabbage, washed down with tea brewed with salty Koktebel water. Tin spoons, no tablecloth... Both are unpretentious in food, indifferent to convenience, free from everyday shackles. But even then, Voloshin’s room attracted attention with many rare French books and artistic handicraft carvings - the work of Elena Ottobaldovna.”

At the beginning of the 20th century, a tradition of scientists and writers resting in Koktebel developed, and the small resort village became a place of worship for connoisseurs and connoisseurs of poetry. Already in 1909, guidebooks to Crimea began to advertise Koktebel as a fashionable literary and artistic resort. Local historians count almost 180 “famous guests of Koktebel of the pre-war era.”

Koktebel, 1911. From left to right E.O. Voloshina, Marina Tsvetaeva, Anastasia Tsvetaeva, Vera Efron, Sergei Efron, Elizaveta Efron.

“Koktebel did not immediately enter my soul: I gradually realized it as the homeland of my spirit. And it took me many years of wandering... to understand its beauty and uniqueness.” On a plot that belonged to his mother, near the sea, Maximilian Alexandrovich built two-storey house, planted trees... All the money the poet inherited was spent on this. Elena Ottobaldovna built a house nearby in 1908. There she opened a boarding house to earn a living and for her son’s travels.

According to Andrei Bely: “Voloshin’s house in Koktebel was one of the most cultural centers not only in Russia, but also in Europe.” “I recommend bringing with you bags of hay and a dinner set (with a plate), and a basin, if you need it, the table will be at the dacha (dinners cost about a ruble), rooms are free. There are no servants. Carry water yourself. Not a resort at all. Free friendly coexistence, where everyone who comes “to the court” becomes a full member. This requires a joyful acceptance of life, love for people and bringing your share of intellectual life.”

Cherubina de Gabriac

From M. Voloshin’s letter: “... Voloshin’s birthday was celebrated on May 16th. By this day, Max had personally put together a plywood box - like a mailbox - and nailed it to the wall on the terrace. Everyone was invited to omit any... poems and drawings, caricatures, funny wishes - any creative gifts. And so - Max, without a signature, put into the box... the manuscript of “Koktebel Sonnets”. A gift to yourself and everyone else." Leonid Feinberg.

M. Sabashnikov in the poet’s house. Koktebel. Summer 1907. Photo by Maximilian Voloshin

Margarita Sabashnikova. Koktebel, 1907. Collections of the M. Voloshin Museum.

Among many guests, including famous ones, poets came here silver age Stars: Nikolay Gumilyov, Osip Mandelstam, Valery Bryusov, Marina Tsvetaeva. But all these poets were guests and probably understood that it was very difficult to say about Eastern Crimea better than the owner, and it is simply impossible to say more than him. Whichever direction you turn, whatever your gaze is aimed at, everything has already been sung in its sonorous, immaculately harmonious and, as literary scholars say, “tangible” stanzas.

Maximilian Voloshin alone eclipsed the entire galaxy of poets who usually arrived here in the summer, swam in the sea, collected pebbles, wandered along the paths, admired “Cimmeria” - and left, leaving behind their wonderful, but still isolated, random poems. It is impossible to talk about Voloshin separately from Koktebel! If Chekhov lived in Yalta forcedly, at first he did not like it, and then got used to it without changing his skeptical attitude, then Voloshin became close to Koktebel.

At the Poet's House. From left to right: L. E. Feinberg, S. Ya. Efron, M. P. Cuvillier (in depth), M. I. Tsvetaeva, E. O. Voloshina, V. A. Rogozinsky, M. A. Voloshin, unidentified faces. 1913.

Participants in the play “The Ways of Max” on Maximilian’s name day. Koktebel. August 17, 1926. In the center - A. G. Gabrichevsky, above - E. S. Kruglikova.

From left to right - E.O. Kirienko-Voloshina, Vera Efron, S. Efron, M. Tsvetaeva, Manya Gekhtman, Bella Feinberg, Koktebel, 1911

Biography of any poet in his poems. Especially with Maximilian Aleksandrovich, because he paints life events in verbal watercolor in detail and colorfully, rarely resorting to invention. In addition, his house, the “House of the Poet,” turned a tiny Bulgarian village into a literary capital for the summer, and so on from year to year. When we mention guests, we always refer to their own stories about the host.

M.A. Voloshin in the workshop of his home. 1920s. Album by O.S. Severtsova.

From these memories the image of Voloshin is formed more accurately than from strict biographical information. The main thing that makes the village and the entire region live, what it is famous for, what attracts its unusually regular guests, has already been rhymed. It’s not for nothing that Voloshin’s house became the most visited of memorial museums Crimea. It was built with guests in mind; it could not help but become a museum! These walls remember not only the summer fun, but also the poet’s hard work in the lonely off-season: “The hole of my soul, the nest of my visions, / and lair of thoughts - my Koktebel / home...”.

M.A. Voloshin and E.V. Kozlova, traveler to Mongolia, geographer. Koktebel, 1928

Voloshin's house-museum in Koktebel with restored interiors of the owners:

Maximilian Aleksandrovich Voloshin (1877-1932) – poet and translator, subtle artist, brilliant thinker, critic, philosopher.

Even in the most difficult 20s, Voloshin’s house was filled with residents; up to six hundred people stayed with hospitable hosts over the summer. Free shelter for scientists, writers, artists, performers, aviators. A vacation filled with impressions of Cimmerian nature, serious scientific and cultural discussions, humorous practical jokes and communication with Voloshin inspired the creativity of the guests.

In Koktebel. House of Maximilian Voloshin. Bogaevsky-1905. National Art Gallery named after I.K. Aivazovsky, Feodosia

Maximilian Voloshin: “I call the eastern region of Crimea from ancient Surozh (Sudak) to the Cimmerian Bosphorus (Kerch Strait) Cimmeria, in contrast to Taurida, its western part (the southern coast and Tauric Chersonesus."

In Koktebel, on the very shore of a picturesque bay, between the oldest volcano on the planet Karadag and the Cimmerian hills, there is an extraordinary House that preserves many realities and legends of the 20th century. The house, open “towards all roads”, created by Maximilian Voloshin for communication and creativity, “is one of the most cultural centers not only in Russia, but also in Europe.” On the picture:
M. A. Voloshin and M. S. Voloshina at their house.

The village of Koktebel is located 25 km from Feodosia. "Koktebel" means a large bed and breakfast. This place is unique even for Crimea. The sea, mountains, steppes create an amazing climate, especially noticeable in the region. Maximilian Voloshin and Cimmeria are one of the most organic interactions between man and the surrounding nature. “Koktebel is Voloshin, in the sense that the late poet saw, as it were, the very idea of the area and gave it in a variety of modifications...” wrote Andrei Bely.

The inseparability of the aesthetics of the landscape, the historical richness of the south-eastern Crimea and the geologically determined, but incomprehensible energy of the Kara-Dag is heard in many of the works of Maximilian Voloshin. Central location in this “Cimmerian space” the House of M.A. Voloshin quite naturally occupies, since its very inception it has carried the stamp of significance, symbol, even museum-ness.

The Poet's House as a historical and cultural object includes not only a building with immediate museum territory, creative heritage And objective world the owner, but also the circumstances of his life, his circle of friends and interests, the surrounding buildings and landscape, i.e. everything that actualizes the personality of Maximilian Voloshin. It is this integral object that is cultural heritage and by its very existence demanded the creation of a form of reserve, which, following Homer, was called Cimmeria by M. Voloshin.

“At the end of the last century, the Koktebel Valley was a deserted, almost uninhabited place... Elena Ottobaldovna was one of the first to buy a plot of land near the sea, who came here from Moscow in the summer of 1893... Soon dachas were built in Koktebel... But the real center The established cultural colony of southeastern Crimea was the House of the Poet in Koktebel.”

September 2013 marks 100 years since the completion of the House of the Poet, a unique cultural symbol. A center of freethinking and creativity, it attracted many generations of creative intelligentsia to Koktebel. Innovation and originality have always been welcomed here. Since the beginning of the last century, the latest literary and musical works have been heard in the House, debates about the paths of modern art and culture in general have not subsided, and ideas have emerged that determine scientific and historical turns.

The house of Maximilian Voloshin occupies one of the first places among Koktebel excursions. The Literary and Memorial Museum of M. Voloshin is located on the Embankment of the village of Koktebel. Opposite the House - Museum there is a monument to the poet and artist Maximilian Voloshin.

At the end of the last century, Koktebel was little known not only for tourists, but also for residents of the Crimean peninsula. Everything changed when Voloshin moved to the village in 1911.

"Come in, my guest,
shake off the dust of life
And the mold of thoughts is at my doorstep” - these lines by M. Voloshin always come to mind when you come to Koktebel. While constructing his home on the southeastern coast of Crimea (according to his own plans and drawings), the writer dreamed that its doors would be open to welcome every guest

And on the rock that closed the swell of the bay, Fate and the winds sculpted my profile... This phenomenon - the distinct profile of Maximilian Voloshin on the cliff of the Karadag massif visible from almost everywhere towards the sea - seems like a miracle. But, if you know how much soul and creativity the poet invested in Koktebel, this miracle seems natural. And he mastered not only the eastern coast - Cimmeria, in his words, but also the entire peninsula.

They say there are no coincidences. The incredible similarity between Voloshin's profile and the contours of the Karadag cliff... The fact that the greatest figure of his time, Maximilian Voloshin, praising the beauty of the Crimea, settled here is undoubtedly a sign of Fate.

Since 1984, the memorial building has housed the M.A. House-Museum. Voloshin (1877–1932), wonderful poet, artist, translator, original critic, brilliant thinker and visionary - a unique museum, widely known internationally cultural environment. Historical building and the authentic collection allow us to put it in a short row European museums, who were lucky enough to withstand the storms of the twentieth century unbreakably.

View of M. Voloshin’s house in Koktebel. Kostyanitsyn V.N. 1935 Oil on canvas. 58.5x78.5.

“The summer of 1911 became the first “stupid” (Voloshin’s definition) summer in Koktebel... An indispensable condition in the rules of “stupid” was a focus on freedom and natural behavior. In particular, clothes should be worn extremely simple and comfortable, in contrast to “bourgeois type” suits.”

Among those with whom Maximilian Voloshin closely communicated were artists of brush and word, cultural and scientific figures: poets R. Gil, N. Gumilyov, K. Balmont, Andrei Bely, V. Bryusov, M. Tsvetaeva, I. Erenburg, A. Block; writers R. Rolland, A. Tolstoy, I. Bunin; playwright M. Maeterlinck, philosophers V. Solovyov, N. Berdyaev, founder of anthroposophy R. Steiner, theosophist A. Mintslova; artists O. Redon, F. Leger, A. Modigliani, P. Picasso, D. Rivera, V. Surikov, A. Benois, M. Kustodiev; dancer Isadora Duncan, composers V. Rebikov, G. Neuhaus, theater figure S. Diaghilev, aircraft designers S. Korolev and O. Antonov, and many others.

“The workshop was not only a place where the poet and artist worked, but also a place of meetings, communication and relaxation for the numerous inhabitants of the house... In the workshop, poetry and prose, reports and essays were read, and literary games were held.”

There were always a lot of guests here. Both during the life of Maximilian Alexandrovich and after his death. Perhaps because the house amazingly absorbed the features of his owner, a man of extraordinary talent and enormous spiritual generosity.
Today it is still as crowded. Atmosphere of high spirituality - attractive force unique museum.

“It is impossible to tell about all the guests of the House of the Poet, about those in whose life and work Voloshin left a noticeable mark. The exhibition contains many photographs and other documents that testify to the diversity of these meetings.”

The house-museum continues the glorious Voloshin traditions in Koktebel. Widely known in many countries scientific conferences“Voloshin Readings”, annual events of the International Creative Symposium “Voloshin September” - Voloshin Literary Competition, Literary festival them. M.A. Voloshin, Artistic plein air "Koktebel", presentation of the International Voloshin Prize, scientific and cultural conference "Cimmerian topos: myths and reality" and youth seminars.

Winter office

Dining room

The Voloshin house-museum was officially opened on August 1, 1984. However, back in 1933, the famous writer and cultural critic Andrei Bely wrote: “Not a house, but a museum; and the museum is the only... whole only life… plaster cast from his living, beautiful human face, eternal living memory of him; it will not be replaced by monuments.”

Upon entering the museum, you immediately find yourself in a special intellectual world. The first hall houses a literary and historical exhibition. Getting to know her, as it were, prepares you for a further tour of the house. Documents, photographs, letters tell in detail about the life and creative destiny of Maximilian Voloshin - an outstanding Russian poet and translator, a brilliant critic and subtle artist.

Of no less interest to visitors is the workshop located on the second floor of the building. After the renovation, the furnishings of this room did not change at all. All things took their places, as they did during the owner’s life. A desk, an easel, shelves with books... Racks for working tools, paints and brushes... There are dry mountain plants in clay vases.

The center of the workshop is the “Taiah cabin”. On the wall - sculptural portrait Egyptian queen, women of amazing beauty. Nearby are several paintings - watercolor works masters who capture the features of the art of East and West. And everywhere sea shells, beads made of gems, figurines made of wood and stone.

Voloshin's house. Koktebel, P. Krylov, 1986 (Canvas on cardboard, oil 35x50).

The tragic and majestic ridge of the ancient Karadag volcano, which millions of years ago created a gigantic rock scenery - a portrait-monument to Genio loki (genius of the place) Maximilian Voloshin - from the southwest, the reviving Cape Chameleon and the frozen waves of the Cimmerian hills, raising the grave of the Poet to the sky - from the north -east framed extraordinary beauty a bay, on the very shore of which a three-story house looks like a light boat.

House with at different levels windows, surrounded by light blue terraces-decks, with a tower-bridge turned out amazingly
harmonious, forming a single whole with the Koktebel intersecting landscape.

It should be noted that the preservation of the authentic interiors of the Voloshin rooms, where almost every object occupies the place assigned to it by its owner a century earlier, is completely unique for European museums that have survived more than one war.

The pride of the museum's exhibition is the unique memorial authentic interiors of living rooms. Created by Voloshin with his own hands, these interiors reflect his worldview and create a special, unique atmosphere of the House of the Poet. All things have been in their place for about a hundred years and preserve the memory of all the guests who visited the House both during the life of the owner and after his departure.

The exhibition of the Voloshin House-Museum occupies three halls, in which about three hundred exhibits of various nature are presented, reflecting the biography and work of Maximilian Voloshin. These are mainly photographic materials, personal belongings, autographs, fine works, books by Voloshin and his closest family and friends.

The museum's stock collection is unique in its authenticity; for a century, museum objects have not left the building. The Voloshin House Museum contains 150 paintings and more than 1,500 graphic works by Voloshin, as well as about 350 works by other authors. The basis of the book fund is the Voloshin memorial library. Many publications can be classified as rare books, a considerable number of books with autographs and dedicatory inscriptions.

Voloshin's house-museum remains today cultural center-international scientific conferences on issues of cultural studies, philosophy, literature, international creative events are systematically held, exhibitions are created, exhibitions are exchanged with other museums, and publishing programs are conducted. International Voloshin Readings are held every two years, and collections of materials are published based on the results of the conferences.

The artist and poet was always hospitable and many writers of that time appreciated creativity and personal qualities Voloshin, and also his love for simplicity in everything (he even preferred simple attire over aristocratic costumes in clothing). Therefore, it is not surprising that Maximilian’s house was for him not only the birthplace of many masterpieces, but also a meeting place, literary evenings, communication and recreation of the intelligentsia. In the Voloshin Museum in Koktebel you can still see exhibitions depicting the ongoing meetings of that time (photos, various documents).

It is Voloshin who is considered the founder of the intelligentsia in Koktebel and it is not without reason that it is named after him main square village Voloshin Museum in Koktebel - a place to get acquainted with cultural era and the intelligentsia during the development of the village of Koktebel.

Guests of Voloshin

Numerous guests of a welcoming home.

M.A. Voloshin with guests. Among the guests is S.Ya. Efron (standing third from left)

Photo of Marina Tsvetaeva's tea party with Maximilian Voloshin.

Koktebel and Voloshin.

M. Voloshin with one of the house guests - poet Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky

“My shelter is wretched.
And times are harsh.
But the shelves of books rise like a wall.
Here at night they talk to me
historians, poets, theologians."

A number of problems during the restoration work The museum was connected with Voloshin's library, numbering more than nine thousand books. How was this wealth taken out, where to store it? And yet, the answer to these questions was found. Now the poet’s “pearls”, collected throughout his life, have been returned to the house: publications on history, philosophy, art, botany, physics, archeology, astronomy, medicine... Over three thousand books on French, as well as in German, English, Italian. It’s amazing to look at this collection, which testifies to the breadth of interests of its owner.

Currently, the reserve "Cimmeria M.A. Vlolshina" unites a complex of movable and immovable historical and cultural monuments: five museums with adjacent territories and a total museum fund of more than 70 thousand items, the grave of M.A. Voloshin on Mount Kuchuk-Yenishary, graves and tombstones in Koktebel and Starokrymsk cemeteries, a memorial sign on the site of the ruined crypt of the Junge family - the founders holiday village Koktebel.

Voloshin died in 1932 and was buried on Mount Kuchuk-Yenishar in accordance with his last will.

Photo: Maximilian Voloshin. Viktor Igumnov

"Oh Cimmeria! Wonderful country, You were created by the inspiration of God!..."