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

Max Voloshin is, of course, the genius of the place, the good spirit of Koktebel. True, it seems that Max’s mother said that Max Koktebel discovered it and thereby ruined him. It seems that Koktebel would have been discovered and destroyed someday anyway, but Max created a legend for it.

Maximilian Voloshin was born in Kyiv, so do not listen to guides who say that he is a native of Feodosia. No, he was born in Kyiv, but almost immediately the family moved to Taganrog, where Max’s father served in the District Court. That's where dad died. The Azov region - those same Cimmerian steppes that Max will find in Eastern Crimea. Max's childhood impressions are also connected with Crimean Sevastopol, which was not yet fully restored after the siege. So the south and the sea were apparently predestined from an early age.

Max then studied in Moscow, at the gymnasium. And only in high school the family moved to Crimea. In fact, Voloshin suffered from asthma, and changing his climate was beneficial for him. They bought land in Kokteble, and in Feodosia Max continued his studies. He considered the move to the south from gloomy Moscow a holiday.

Max will learn and walk many places: France, Italy, Andorra, Spain, Corsica, Sardinia, the Balearics... There he will get acquainted with the culture and nature of the Mediterranean and understand the place of his Koktebel, his Cimmeria in this world.

Then Max will settle down. He will write poems about Koktebel and watercolors, where the Koktebel landscape will become the main character. Here, of course, it is noticeable Japanese influence in painting.

Max's mother was also an extraordinary woman. At first she wanted pants to do gymnastics, then she began to wear pants all the time. Only at a friends’ wedding (or at a christening?) did she put on a skirt and condescendingly sign herself “the troublesome widow Kirienko-Voloshina.”

Mom and Max.

Elena Ottobaldovna Kirienko-Voloshina wore not only trousers, but also boots, and smoked cigars. It was she who became the manager of Voloshin’s house in Koktebel.

Max and mom.

From his home, Max set up a free holiday home for friends. Hundreds of people a year visited Max. The entire Russian culture of the early 20th century passed through his house. We lived in a commune. They led an intellectual life and had fun. In this house, Gumilyov wrote his “Captains”, and Tsvetaeva met her future husband.

Max and greetings to visitors.

The “Order of Morons,” as this society was called, was commanded by the Ruler of Pra—that’s how Elena Ottobaldovna was nicknamed.

I am Pra from Prey. My whole life is straight.
I, vigilant, watch over the house,
Stunned by the ceaseless sodom,
I feed a herd of hungry animals.
Rushing around all day, frying and cooking,
I cook myself in a cauldron that I have known for a long time.
I crushed Marya's skull with a crowbar
And she kicked out the tenants who were living in vain.
Cook borscht and set samovars
I, thirty years old wearing bloomers,
And curse the cooks! No! Thank you
When everyone is prostrated before Proya,
Throwing back my mane, I smoke proudly,
Shaking the ashes onto the red boots.

This is, of course, Max's sonnet. And Pra is the Foremother.

And here's also about her:

Form into companies, you fools,
in honor of the ruler Pra!..
...
Gray-haired, yellow-haired,
anyway, we're stupid!
Sandals, tramps,
catcatchers, rhymers,
painters,
crabbills,
for us - tunics and wreaths!
From morning to late night
we are yelling that there is enough urine,
in honor of the ruler Pra!
Ew! Hip-hip! Hooray!

Max and seeing off those departing.

Maximilan Voloshin and his wife Maria Stepanovna see off those leaving.

After the death of the Grandmother, Voloshin’s wife Maria Stepanovna became the mistress of the house.

The house looked like a ship - with decks, with a bright workshop. Voloshin donated it to the Union of Writers of the USSR.

When Max built the house, Koktebel was a deserted place. On the left is the Karadag ridge. On the right is Kuchuk-Yenishar, where the poet was buried.

Max on the bridge near his house.

Now the House of the Poet looks like this:

Beach in front of the House.

The water is not transparent even at a depth of several centimeters.

Cimmerian Hills.

Karadag.

It's him.

Photos of Voloshin from the book: krym.sarov.info.

Maximilian Voloshin and Koktebel are absolutely inextricably linked. Well, who would have known about this small Crimean village. Perhaps it would have become known thanks to the constant upward flows on the Uzun-Syrt plateau (in the 20-30s of the 20th century, Koktebel became the center of gliding and was renamed Planerskoe), but rather in a narrow circle of glider pilots. Or thanks beautiful scenery, surrounding Koktebel, located at the foot extinct volcano Karadag. But you never know how many magnificent landscapes there are in Crimea - they are there at every step. But Max Voloshin, who traveled a lot (he lived in Paris, Berlin, Rome, traveled through Central Asia, the Pamirs, Egypt, Germany and Spain), “walked all the coasts Mediterranean Sea") considered the Koktebel landscape "one of the most beautiful landscapes on earth."

Having settled in Koktebel, Voloshin explored its surroundings as carefully as he had previously explored the Mediterranean coast. Merged with him, became part of him. He described the landscapes around him a lot with words and a brush.

E. Gollerbach, art and literary critic, wrote about Voloshin:

“In 1925, observing Voloshin in Koktebel, I was convinced of his co-natural connection, complete fusion with the landscape of Cimmeria, with its style. If in an urban setting he seemed like some kind of “exception to the rule”, “a lawless comet in the circle of calculated luminaries” , almost a “monster,” here he seemed to be the ruler of Koktebel, not only the master of his house, but the sovereign ruler of this entire country, and even more than the ruler: its creator, the Demiurge, and, at the same time, the high priest of the temple he created. "

But still, it was not Voloshin’s numerous poems glorifying the local region, nor his wonderful watercolors that glorified Koktebel - it was not the most famous poet and an artist of his time, the time of Blok and Bryusov, Mandelstam and Marina Tsvetaeva, Serov and Kustodiev. He turned his house in Koktebel into a house of creativity, a haven for artists, writers, and scientists. In the 20-30s, up to 600 people came here to relax per summer, the most prominent representatives artistic intelligentsia, finding here free shelter, recreation, a particularly rich spiritual and intellectual atmosphere, an excellent library, lively and creative communication. It was this endless stream that spread the fame of Koktebel.

Convinced that "the root of all social evils lies in the institution wages", Voloshin did not take money for accommodation from visitors. This aroused fierce hatred among all residents of the village, who believed that the Voloshins, by allowing many people into their house for free, were depriving the rest of the property owners of seasonal earnings.

"He gave just as others take. With greed. He gave as he gave. He and his Koktebel house, obtained with such labor, so hammered out, so deserved, so his by spiritual right, blood, internally his own, as if born with him , more like him than him plaster cast, “I didn’t feel like my own, physically my own...” recalled Marina Tsvetaeva.

Voloshin suffered a lot from the local authorities, who sought to evict Voloshin as a bourgeois, tried to either requisition his house, or densify it, taking away part of it, or demanded payment of taxes for the “maintenance of the hotel.” Who knows, maybe it was the persecution organized local residents, who accused the poet of allegedly tearing apart several sheep by his dogs, the workers' and peasants' court that followed finished off Voloshin and caused a stroke, after which he creative activity has practically stopped.

Maximilian Voloshin died in 1932, after a second stroke, he was only 55 years old. It’s good that the authorities at least fulfilled last will poet, burying him on the Kuchuk-Yenishar hill, east of the village. Maria Stepanovna, his second wife, was also buried there in 1976, who after the poet’s death became the custodian of his House, which was transferred by Voloshin’s will to the Writers’ Union. Maria Stepanovna was the poet’s devoted companion and support; during the war she managed to German occupation preserve all unique artistic and literary heritage from destruction and plunder.

I don’t know whether his popularity benefited Koktebel - probably yes. It’s difficult for me to judge this, because I don’t like the current crowded, fussy, “party” Koktebel. Here I agree with Maria PETROVIKH

But Voloshin’s spirit is still here, living and breathing in every hill and stone, wave and wormwood bush.

VERA ZVYAGINTSEVA I'm probably in my deathbed I will respond to your distant call, turquoise bay of Koktebel in a multi-colored frame of hills. I am the path of faithful memory on high mountain I'll climb - there above the endless water desert sadness turned into harmony. I'll run over the jangling stones, and, with an armful of wormwood in his hands, I'll go up familiar steps, to see Taiah's face. Neither oblivion, nor decay, nor mold these eternal signs will not be erased the one who is the companion of life and songs once made by a Russian poet. This time is getting closer and closer, - like a fading watercolor, I can see through closed eyelids floating Koktebel...

To visit Koktebel and not go to the House of the Poet is unforgivable. The unusual house-ship has been standing on the embankment for more than 100 years, facing the sea with its elongated windows, and somehow resembles its owner, the poet and artist Maximilian Voloshin.

He was an extraordinary person. Even friends admitted that it was impossible to understand whether Voloshin was joking or speaking seriously. “Tell me, is everything they say about the order in your house true?” the newly arrived guests asked Max. "What do they say?" - “They say that everyone who comes to your house must swear: they say, I consider Voloshin higher than Pushkin! That you have the right to the first night with any guest. And that, while living with you, women dress in “half pajamas”: one walks around according to Koktebel in the lower part on a naked body, the other in the upper part. Also, that you pray to Zeus. Heal by laying on of hands. Guess the future from the stars. Walk on water, like dry land. You tamed a dolphin and milk it every day like a cow. Is this true? " "Of course it's true!" - Voloshin answered proudly. And there were those who believed! Its versatility attracted many, and perhaps, largely thanks to Maximilian Aleksandrovich, Koktebel turned from a backwater into a fashionable country town, which was primarily chosen by poets, writers and artists. But first things first.

Now trees have grown thickly around the house. Therefore, you don’t immediately notice that the multi-level stone building is surrounded by light blue terraces and balconies, and you can climb to the workshop along a long staircase, like a ship’s gangplank.

On the ground floor there are small cabin rooms, 3 of which are open for inspection. In the first room, the walls are hung with photographs from the home archive, and personal belongings, books and manuscripts are under glass. Here we will talk about the biography of Maximilian Voloshin.

Maximilian Aleksandrovich Voloshin was born on May 28, 1877 in Kyiv. His father Alexander Maksimovich Kirienko-Voloshin was a member of the Kyiv Chamber of Criminal and Civil Courts and served as a collegiate adviser. Mother Elena Ottobaldovna, née Glaser, came from a family of Russified Germans. Soon after Maximilian's birth, the boy's parents separated, and Voloshin did not remember his father. Alexander Maksimovich Kirienko-Voloshin died in 1881, when Max was not even 5 years old.

The mother took care of raising her son. A few years after the death of her husband, she and her son moved to Moscow, where Elena Ottobaldovna got a job in an office at the Moscow-Brest Railway under construction. Max stays at home with a nanny. Already at the age of 5 he learned to read, and when he got a little older he began to memorize the poems of Lermontov and Pushkin.

In Moscow, Max's mother sends him to a gymnasium. Voloshin considered the years spent in the gymnasium wasted. He himself dreams of only two things - to write poetry and to live lightly. He began writing poetry at the age of 12, and a little later, in 1893, his second dream came true - his mother bought land in Koktebel and they moved to the south. Elena Ottobaldovna decides to make this move because of the high cost in Moscow and because of Maximilian’s asthma. On March 17, 1893, Voloshin wrote in his diary: “Today is a great day. Today it was decided that we are going to the Crimea, to Feodosia, and we will live there. We are going forever!.. Farewell, Moscow! Now to the south, to the south! To this bright , forever young, forever blooming, beautiful, wonderful south!

Voloshin continued his studies at the Feodosia Gymnasium, where he likes it better than in Moscow. He continued to write poetry, and in 1895 his poem “Over the grave of V.K. Vinogradov” (director of the Feodosia gymnasium) was published. But the poet himself considered his true literary debut to be the publication of poems in the magazine " New way"in 1903.

In Feodosia, girls already recognize Max on the street, not only as a poet, but also as an actor in the gymnasium theater. According to the recollections of his contemporaries, he got so accustomed to the role of the mayor in Gogol’s play “The Inspector General” that he not only received a standing ovation from the audience, but also received personal gratitude from the police chief present at the performance.

After graduating from high school, Max dreams of studying history and philology at Moscow University, but enters law school. A year later, he is expelled for participating in the preparation of student strikes and sent to Feodosia under the secret supervision of the police.

At this time, Maximilian makes his first trip to Europe with his mother. Returning to Moscow, he learns that he is still not allowed to take classes. He sends a petition to the rector of Moscow University, he is reinstated, and, having passed the exams as an external student, Max enters the third year of law school.

After the exams, Voloshin, together with his friends Vasily Isheev and Leonid Kandaurov, sets off on his second trip to Europe. Having left Moscow on May 26, 1900, the young people took turns keeping a diary, “Travel Journal, or How Many Countries Can You See for One and a Fifteen Rubles.” Everyone had 150 rubles and it turned out that for this money you can visit 4 countries - Austria-Hungary, Germany, Italy and Greece (Switzerland and Turkey do not count).

In the central photo, Voloshin with friends L.V. Kandaurov and V.P. Ishcheev, Rome. 1900

The young travelers saw European sights, along the way getting into emergency situations, and luckily they got out of them safely. From Constantinople, where for some reason the friends were first detained and then released by the Turkish police, they arrive in Sevastopol. And most importantly, on this journey the poems for Voloshin’s book “Years of Wandering” were born - the first cycle of the first collection of poems, published in 1910. With the same phrase, the poet defined the corresponding stage of his life path.

On the 20th of August 1900, upon his arrival in Feodosia, Max was arrested and sent to a Moscow prison, but on September 1 he was released “until further notice.” Anticipating an imminent exile, he decides to accept his friend’s offer and leave for Central Asia for route reconnaissance railway Orenburg - Tashkent.

The year 1900 became a turning point in Voloshin’s life. As he himself would later write about this: “The year 1900, the junction of two centuries, was the year of my spiritual birth.” Realizing that he no longer wants to return to the law faculty, and the only thing that truly fascinates him and what he is ready to devote himself to is art history. In 1901, Maximilian Alexandrovich left for Paris, having tied up long years your life with an amazing city.

Voloshin will write about this period in his autobiography: “During these years, I was just an absorbing sponge. I was all eyes, all ears.” He attends school at the Louvre, lectures at the Sorbonne, begins to write articles about French artists, sculptors and published for Russian publications.

In 1903, Maximilian Alexandrovich came to Moscow for a short time, where he met Margarita Vasilievna Sabashnikova - Amore, as her relatives called her. According to Voloshin, he saw in her “an amazing combination of intelligence and beauty.”

Margarita Vasilyevna Sabashnikova was the heiress of two strong merchant families - the Sabashnikovs and the Andreevs. By the time she met Voloshin, she was an artist and poet, whose poems were already being published. After some time, Margarita comes to Paris to improve in painting. Max becomes a guide for her, and she becomes a poetic muse for him. Poems from 1903-1907 dedicated to her were included in the poetic cycle "Ainori Amara Sacrum" ("The Holy Bitterness of Love").

Voloshin calls the years of his life spent in Paris “a period of wandering of the spirit.” At this time, he passed through many religions: he studied Buddhism, Catholicism, the occult, magic, and entered Masonic lodge. Together with Margarita, they attend lectures by Rudolf Steiner, the founder of the spiritual science of anthroposophy. “It is Steiner who owes the knowledge of himself most of all,” Voloshin wrote. True, he subsequently moved away from anthroposophy, as well as from other religions. Unlike Margarita, who remained faithful to Steiner's teachings until the end of her life.

The attitude of the young people was not easy, but, nevertheless, on April 12, 1906, they got married in the Church of St. Blaise in Moscow. After the wedding, the newlyweds returned to Paris and then went to Honeymoon along the Danube.

Margarita Sabashnikova and Maximilian Voloshin, Paris, 1906

In July 1906, they came to Koktebel to see Elena Ottobaldovna, but already in November they went to St. Petersburg, where they settled in the famous “house with towers” ​​or simply “Tower” on Tavricheskaya Street. At the same time, the philosopher and symbolist poet Vyacheslav Ivanov lived there, where poets gathered for “Ivanovo Wednesdays” silver age. And it so happened that here on the “Tower” between Amore, Ivanov and his wife Lydia Zinovieva-Annibal arise difficult relationships, which led to Max and Margarita breaking up in 1907.

The divorce was officially filed only 20 years later, and all these years the former spouses maintained friendly relations. So, in 1914, at the request of Margarita, Voloshin came to the town of Dornach in Switzerland, where an anthroposophical center was being built - the St. John's Building or the Temple of Steiner's Goetheanum. Margarita works on the construction of the temple as an artist, and Voloshin was entrusted with a sketch of a 400-meter curtain for the Goetheanum. He works as a woodcarver, but already in January 1915 he left for Paris.

At this time, his second collection of poems, dedicated to the First World War, “The Year of the Burning World,” was published. He works a lot as a translator: he translates as French poets, and the Belgian poet Emile Verhaeren. To this day, Voloshin’s translations of Verhaeren’s poems are considered one of the best.

In 1916, at the request of Elena Ottobaldovna, Max returned to Russia. At the same time, the third collection of his poems, “Iverni,” which means “shards,” was published, since the collection included his best works.

In the fateful 1917, Voloshin comes to this house in Koktebel, and never leaves it until his death. Here he meets the revolution and the ensuing civil war. During a difficult period in the history of Russia, he takes a position above the fray, not joining either side, not sharing the views of either the whites or the reds. However, in his attic he arranges a hiding place where he hides those sentenced to death. When General Sulkevich drove the Reds out of Crimea, Voloshin was hiding a delegate from the underground Bolshevik congress. “Keep in mind that when you are in power, I will do the same with your enemies!” Max promised.

In 1919, Voloshin published latest collection poems "Deaf and Mute Demons". After the publication in 1923 in the magazine "On Post" of B. Tal's article "Poetic counter-revolution in the verses of M. Voloshin" by Maximilian Aleksandrovich, they stopped publishing. The poet is assigned the label of an ardent, self-possessed counter-revolutionary and monarchist, whose work is alien to the young Soviet country under construction.

But despite everything, after civil war Representatives of the Russian creative intelligentsia continue to come to Voloshin’s Koktebel house. The poet's house becomes a free holiday home for writers. But local authorities do not believe this, and demand that Voloshin pay taxes for the maintenance of the hotel. Therefore, guests were forced to write receipts stating that the housing was rented to them absolutely free. One of these “subscriptions” lies under the glass of a museum display case;

In 1922, famine began in Crimea. Elena Ottobaldovna became seriously ill, and nurse Maria Stepanovna Zabolotskaya was invited from Feodosia. Before her death, Elena Ottobaldovna advises Max “marry Marus, she will save both you and this house.” After the death of her mother in 1923, the faithful Marusya enters the house as Voloshin’s mistress and wife, and takes upon herself all the care of the guests.

Maximilian Alexandrovich continued to write poetry and paintings. When he was asked who he considered himself to be - a poet or an artist, he answered without hesitation - a poet. But then he certainly added: “And an artist.” Voloshin's paintings are collected in one of the rooms on the first floor, and you want to linger longer next to each of them. Despite the enchanting nature of their creator, the paintings themselves can be called restrained, and in some places even sedately majestic.

Voloshin's works - "Self-Portrait", "Asthma" and "Purple Bay"

He began working as an artist in Paris, going through many techniques. I tried to write with charcoal, pencil, gouache, worked in mixed media, but ultimately settles on watercolors. The main subject of the paintings is the landscapes of ancient Cimmeria. Voloshin adhered to the theory that Cimmeria occupied the territories from the Kerch Strait to Sudak.

Watercolor M.A. Voloshin "Cimmeria"

Voloshin considered “classical Japanese (Hokusai, Utamaro)” to be one of his teachers in painting, and in the manner of the Japanese, he signed some of his paintings with poetic lines. He willingly gave away his canvases to friends, saying: “You gave: and with this you are rich, But you are slaves to everything that is a pity to give.”

Voloshin called himself the last Hellene and dressed accordingly. Behind the glass is displayed Voloshin’s Koktebel tunic, which Elena Ottobaldovna and Marusya sewed for him. He wore sandals on his feet, a wreath of wormwood on his head, and always had a staff in his hand. Here on the shelf lies the Kodak camera that Max used to photograph the guests.

Photographed nearby archaeological excavations on Tepsen Hill ("wooden mosque"), located on the western outskirts of Koktebel. While observing the archaeologists, Voloshin wrote the now famous lines:

"What traces are there in this soil?

For the archaeologist and numismatist -

From Roman plaques and Hellenic coins

To the button of a Russian soldier."

The last room on the first floor is dedicated to the history of Koktebele and the guests of Voloshin. It is known that on the site of the village of Koktebel there was once a deserted coast. Only a small village near Karadag was inhabited. IN late XIX century, Eduard Andreevich Junge, an ophthalmologist from St. Petersburg, came here. While exploring the coast while on horseback, he was so fascinated by the local landscapes that he decided to buy the entire coast, fortunately, no one was interested in the local land and was sold cheaply - at 1 ruble per tithe.

Having purchased the land, Junge decided to move here, plant vineyards, and, most importantly, bring water to the valley. But he soon realized that the ophthalmologist’s pension was not enough for irrigation work. Although he managed to plant vineyards and start a winery, which I talked about in a post about.

Contacting the Ministry Agriculture for assistance in land reclamation did not bring success, and Junge decides to sell off the coast for summer cottages. Thus, a note appeared in the Moskovskie Vedomosti newspaper that summer cottages were being sold very inexpensively on the Crimean coast, and Elena Ottobaldovna and Pavel Pavlovich von Tesha were among the first to respond to this advertisement. At that time they were in a civil marriage, but subsequently Voloshin’s mother started her own household.

In September 1903, Elena Ottobaldovna and a representative of the Yunge family, by proxy, completed a “deed of deed of sale” with a notary in Feodosia for a plot of land in Koktebel of one thousand three hundred and two square fathoms for M.A. Voloshin. In the same year, Maximilian Alexandrovich began construction of a house based on his own sketches, which lasted for a decade and ended in 1913 with the construction of a workshop, which became the sacred center of his house.

Coastal plots in Koktebel were mainly bought by writers, poets and actors - they were called normal summer residents. But the guests who came to the Voloshin estate were called idiots, and Elena Ottobaldovna herself was considered the leader of the idiots. In the house they called her Pra - the ancestor, the foremother of these places. She was a constant participant in pranks, hoaxes and performances that Max staged for guests.

For the guests, the charter of the “Order of Reckless” was invented, the defining point of which was: “The requirement for residents is love for people and making a contribution to the intellectual life of the house.” IN different years The charter was strictly observed by Nikolai Gumilyov, Alexander Green, Alexei Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky, Osip Mandelstam, Valery Bryusov, Andrei Bely, Mikhail Zoshchenko.

Maximilian Voloshin with his mother Elena Ottobaldovna in Koktebel

In total, Voloshin rented out 21 rooms to guests, and about 600 people could relax here during the season. Vacationers brought everything they needed with them. There were no amenities or servants. Only to help Marusya were they hired women from a neighboring Bulgarian village to help her cook. The rest of the worries fell on the shoulders of the hostess.

In May 1911, the Tsvetaeva sisters stayed with Max. Here Marina met her future husband, and a few years later she returned here with her daughter and Sergei Efron. In one of her letters to Voloshin, Marina Ivanovna wrote: “How will I repay you? This summer was the best of all my adult years and I owe it to you.” Later, in the book of memoirs “Living about Living,” she tried to show the character and originality of the “Koktebel Pan”: “I owe Max the strength and openness of my handshake and the trust that came with it in people. If I lived as before, I would not trust as before; Maybe it would be better - but worse."

Voloshin has a painting “Farewell to Koktebel”. It depicts a young girl kissing the seashore goodbye. There is an assumption that this is none other than Marina Tsvetaeva.

Voloshin's painting "Farewell to Koktebel"

And one day the pilot Konstantin Konstantinovich Artseulov came here, and while walking with Max along one of the hills, Artseulov threw his hat up, but the hat did not fall to the ground, but continued to glide in the air. Thus, rising air currents were discovered, which still contribute to gliding on the nearby Klementyev Mountain.

However, Voloshin did not have a good relationship with the local authorities. In 1928, shepherds charged Max with his dogs killing sheep. Voloshin had to pay a heavy fine. Because of this story, he suffered a stroke, from which he was unable to recover, about which he wrote: “I am rapidly aging. Both physically and spiritually.” In 1932, Voloshin contracted the flu, which complicated his already weak lungs. On August 11 of the same year, the poet passed away. He was only 55 years old.

Voloshin bequeathed to bury himself on the highest hill of Koktebel - Kuchuk-Yenishary. He walked through this hill from Koktebel to Feodosia, stopping here to rest and admire the scenery. He asked not to plant flowers and trees around the grave, so as not to disturb the beauty of the area. Instead, he bequeathed stones to be brought to the grave. Since then, a tradition has arisen when going up the hill to Voloshin’s grave, to carry a pebble with you and make a wish.

Next to Maximilian Alexandrovich lies the ashes of Maria Stepanovna, who survived her husband by 44 years. It was largely thanks to her that this house was saved. To preserve future exhibits of the museum during the German occupation of Crimea, she hid memorial items in the basement and even buried them in the ground. Organizing the museum was not an easy and very long task. Maria Stepanovna did not live to see the official opening of the museum in the poet’s house, which took place on August 1, 1984.

Having walked around the rooms on the first floor, we go up the stairs to the workshop, about which Voloshin himself wrote:

"Full breasts to the sea, straight to the east,

Turned like a church, a workshop,

And again the human flow

It flows through the door without drying up."

Huge windows with shutters in Voloshin’s workshop.

Here Maximilian Aleksandrovich painted his watercolors, because he did not like to draw from life. He said that watercolor loves the table. We read the poem “The Poet’s House” further:

"Come in, my guest, shake off the dust of life

And the mold of thoughts is at my doorstep...

From the bottom of centuries he will greet you strictly

The huge face of Queen Taiakh."

These lines refer to a copy of a sculpture of the ancient Egyptian Queen Taiah, mounted on a high pedestal in the center of the "cabin" - a small corner of the workshop, so named because the house was conceived as a ship rushing along the waves. After all, in Voloshin’s time there was no embankment in front of the windows of the house, and from the door to the sea there was only some 30 meters.

Associated with this sculpture romantic story love of Maximilian Voloshin and Margarita Sabashnikova. They once visited a museum together oriental arts in Paris, and, seeing the statue of Taiah there, Voloshin was struck by Margarita’s resemblance to Egyptian queen. Subsequently, he ordered a plaster cast of the sculpture, and never parted with it again. She was in all his Parisian workshops, then he brought her to the Koktebel house.

According to Voloshin, the sculpture was so unusual that he noticed various oddities behind it. For example, during the August full moon, the light, penetrating through the Gothic windows of his workshop, fell on Taiah’s face, and the sculpture began to smile mysteriously. They say that after she was hidden in a basement during the war, the smile on her face no longer appears.

In the cabin there were two low homemade sofas on which the guests sat. Above the sofas are Japanese woodcuts from Voloshin’s collection. On the shelves there are dry plants and gabriacs.

Once upon a time, Max. while walking by the sea with his friend Lilya (Elizaveta Ivanovna Dmitrieva), he picked up a bizarre piece of driftwood from a grape root, brought ashore by a wave. The snag resembled an imp, and they came up with a name for it - Gabriakh, which over time turned into "Gavryushu". Voloshin found the word “gabriakh” in a book on demonology, according to which Gabriakh is a demon that protects from evil spirits. Later, the hoaxer Voloshin, together with Lilya, used the name of the demon to play a prank on the publisher of the magazine, who did not want to publish Dmitrieva’s poems until she began posing as a Spanish woman, Cherubiina de Gabriac (the letter X was deliberately replaced with K). But this is a completely different story, which led Voloshin to a duel with Nikolai Gumilev.

The residents of Voloshin's house picked up grape roots on the shore, and each of these figures awakened the imagination of the guests, who gave the gabriaks names. For example, a gabriak is stored here, which Alexander Green, who visited Voloshin, called “Running on the Waves.”

In the corner on the sofa shelf sits a wooden man with a fallen off leg. According to legend, this doll and a secret door behind the canvas in Voloshin's attic prompted Alexei Tolstoy to turn to the Italian fairy tale "Pinocchio", thanks to which we know the fairy tale about Pinocchio.

A shipwreck, petrified by time, that was shipwrecked off the coast of Koktebel a long time ago is also kept here. Voloshin assured everyone that this was a fragment of Odysseus’s ship, descending at the foot of Karadag into the roaring grotto through which the kingdom of Hades passed.

Almost all the things in the workshop - bookshelves, shelving, picture frames, window shutters, stairs, etc., were made by the hands of Maximilian Voloshin himself. He didn’t like factory-made things and called them strangers: “In my workshop there are only three strangers’ things - a bureau, an armchair and a mirror.”

The workshop still has a high desk that Voloshin made especially for Alexei Tolstoy, who liked to work while standing.

The memorial library contains 9.5 thousand books. Most of them are written in French, but is available in Russian, German and Italian. Many copies are autographed. Except fiction, books on biology, physics, and astronomy are collected here. Voloshin was very sensitive to books, and guests would get very upset if a copy taken from the library was left on the beach or on the street.

Above the stairs are portraits of Voloshin. One of them, painted by the Mexican artist Diego Rivere, with whom Max was friends when he lived in Paris, the poet considered the best of his images. The longer you look at the portrait, the more you notice the objects depicted on it - a bowl of fruit, a sailboat, a ladder, the moon, a hand clenched into a fist. All these details, to one degree or another, described the owner of the house himself.

Portrait of Voloshin by Mexican artist Diego Rivera

Nearby there is a portrait of Voloshin by Petrov-Vodkin, then there is an unfinished portrait of an Irish artist, a portrait of Tatyana Davydovna Tsemakh (the poetess Tatida, with whom Voloshin had a close relationship, but not for long, because Elena Ottobaldovna did not like her). A painting is also exhibited here, which depicts the poet’s house, which fits so organically into the Koktebel landscape.

All guests of the house knew that Voloshin worked only until lunch - in the workshop or in the summer office, and no one dared to disturb him during these hours. But after lunch, anyone could come here, even just a passer-by on the street, to show their poems or just talk with Maximilian Alexandrovich. "Voloshin's house in Koktebel was one of cultural centers not only Russia, but also Europe,” the poet Andrei Bely spoke about the Koktebel house.

You can learn about Voloshin from the memoirs of his contemporaries, but turn to his poems and paintings. It’s logical to end the tour of the hospitable house with lines from “The Poet’s House” and move on.

"Understand the simple lesson of my land:

How Greece and Genoa passed,

So blowjob everything - Europe and Russia,

Civil unrest is a combustible element

Will dispel... Will arrange a new century

In the backwaters of everyday life there are other waters...

The days fade, a man passes by,

But heaven and earth are the same from eternity.

Therefore, live for the current day.

Bless your blue eye.

Be as simple as the wind, inexhaustible as the sea,

And full of memory, like the earth.

Love the distant sail of a ship

And the song of the waves rustling in the open space.

All the thrill of life of all ages and races

Lives in you. Always. Now. Now".

12/25/1926

View of Cape Chameleon (Lagerny) from the hills above the city

Tags: Crimea, Koktebel, Voloshin

2017-05-27