Interesting facts from the biography. The most interesting facts from the biography of Mandelstam
The life of Alexander Blok, born on November 16, 1880, was short-lived. The poet lived only 41 years, but his life fell on a very important period for Russia. The block became recognized genius Silver Age. His works - poems, poems - still evoke mixed reaction and disputes among literary scholars.
Not only Blok’s works are interesting - his life was also very interesting. Here are the most interesting facts from the poet’s life:
1. During Blok’s next performance at the Bolshoi drama theater a few months before his death, the poet read poems about Russia. The preface to its release was the opening speech of Chukovsky, who paid tribute to the talented poet. The atmosphere of the poetry readings turned out to be very solemn and even sad, and from the ranks of the spectators it was clearly heard: “This is some kind of wake!” Unfortunately, the phrase turned out to be prophetic: Blok never appeared on the stage of this theater again.
2. In the winter of 1919, Blok was arrested. He was in custody for a day and a half on suspicion of conspiracy against the revolutionary government. He was released at the request of Anatoly Lunacharsky.
3. Blok’s wife was the daughter of the outstanding chemist Dmitry Mendeleev. The future spouses met in childhood. The poet had such sublime feelings for Lyubov Mendeleeva that for a very long time the relationship did not go beyond platonic. It was she who became the prototype of the Beautiful Lady.
4. For a long time it was believed that Blok and Anna Akhmatova had an affair. However, Akhmatova herself, after Blok’s death, more than once denied these rumors in her memoirs.
5. Before his death, the poet was delirious for several days. And one of the obsessive thoughts that tormented him was the thought of whether he had destroyed all the copies of the poem “The Twelve.” The poet wanted not one of them to remain.
6. One of the most famous poems The block "Night, Street, Lantern, Pharmacy" was immortalized as a monument in Leiden, the Netherlands. During the implementation of the “Wall poems” project, it was written on the wall of one of the houses in the city.
7. One of the asteroids discovered by astronomers in 1971 is named after Blok.
8. The poet’s passions became known from a questionnaire that he filled out while living in one of the sanatoriums: beer and ice cream.
9. Blok was only five years old when he wrote his first poems.
10. Blok could have ended his days much earlier - in 1912. One day his friend the artist Sapunov went on vacation to a small fishing village and invited several friends with him, including Blok. However, the poet was unable to go. The company, having arrived on vacation, went for a night boat ride. The boat overturned, everyone ended up in the water, and Sapunov, who could not swim, drowned. The same fate could have awaited Blok, who also could not swim.
Poets and writers for some are crazy geniuses, for others they are nothing special, but only annoying in schools with their poems, stories and biographies. But some people don’t even realize how interesting many personalities are beyond their creativity. What about the most unusual and unknown interesting facts about writers and poets?
A.S. Pushkin is “our everything,” I hope everyone remembers this. The line “let’s drink from grief” immediately comes to mind; where is the mug? - these words are partly true, although the most favorite drink was sweet lemonade!
In the process of creating the work, the writer refreshed himself not with a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, but with a glass of lemonade, the poet especially loved it at night.
Surprisingly, before the duel with Dantes, Pushkin went into a pastry shop and drank a glass of aromatic lemonade with great pleasure.
Gogol's eccentricities
Oh, how many myths there are around the author of the famous “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”. Contemporaries confirmed some of the writer’s oddities. Gogol slept sitting, loved to do needlework (sewed scarves and vests), wrote all his brilliant works only while standing!
For example, as a child I loved to roll bread balls, for which I usually got slapped on the wrist. And Gogol calmed his nerves by rolling balls all his life! Nikolai Berg, remembering the writer, said that Gogol constantly walked from corner to corner or wrote, while at the same time rolling balls of bread (precisely wheat). And the writer also threw rolled balls into kvass for his friends!
The Amazing Habits of Chekhov
But Chekhov, calming his nerves, did not roll balls, but used a hammer to smash crushed stone into dust, which was then used to sprinkle garden paths. The writer could spend hours breaking rubble without distraction!
Deep psychologist Dostoevsky
By the way, the characters of all the characters in Dostoevsky’s works were copied from real people. Dostoevsky constantly made new acquaintances, starting conversations even with random passers-by.
Contemporaries note that when the writer was immersed in writing works, he became so carried away that he forgot to eat. He walked around the room all day, saying sentences out loud. One day while writing famous novel Dostoevsky wandered from corner to corner and talked to himself about Raskolnikov’s attitude towards the old pawnbroker and his motive. The footman got scared when he accidentally overheard the conversation and decided that Dostoevsky was going to kill someone.
Religious philosopher Leo Tolstoy
Here you can make a huge list of the eccentricities and oddities of the author of Anna Karenina, War and Peace and much, much more.
Firstly, as an 82-year-old man, he ran away from his wonderful wife, who could spend hours copying his works into clear copy. And all because of a discrepancy in views, which emerged only after 48 years of marriage.
Secondly, Leo Tolstoy was a vegetarian. Thirdly, the writer lost the family estate at cards. Fourthly, Leo Tolstoy denied all material wealth, constantly communicated with peasants and valued physical labor. The writer said about himself that if he doesn’t work at least a little in the yard a day, he will be very irritable. He also loved to do handicrafts, especially sewing boots for relatives, friends and even strangers.
Vladimir Nabokov and his butterflies
Entomology was a huge passion for Nabokov; he could spend hours running around the area looking for beautiful butterflies.
One of the most funny photos Nabokov with a net. But anyway main love For Nabokov, the craft of writing remained. The author's principle of writing texts is interesting. The works were written on 3-by-5-inch cards, which were then used to create a book. The cards had to have pointed ends straight lines and an elastic band.
Mystical letters of Evgeny Petrov (Kataev)
The main hobby of the co-author satirical works“Twelve Chairs”, “Golden Calf”, etc. there was collecting stamps, but even here it’s not so simple. Petrov sent letters to invented addresses to cities that did not exist on the world map. First he chose a real country, and then fantasized about what city was missing there, who would live there, etc. You may ask: why did he do this?
After long travels around the world, the letter was returned, crowned with numerous stamps marked “Addressee not found.” But one day Petrov received a response from New Zealand; everything matched: the address, the name, and even the situation described by the domestic writer. Petrov wrote in a letter that he condoled the death of a certain Uncle Pete, and asked how his wife and daughter were doing. The addressee replied that he missed Petrov, remembered the days spent with him in New Zealand, his wife and daughter also said hello and hoped to see him soon. One would think that someone was playing a joke, but the interlocutor attached a photograph that showed a large man hugging Petrov!
The poor satirist got so excited that he ended up in the hospital with pneumonia. He had absolutely no idea who the person in the photo was and had never been to New Zealand! This story was adapted into the plot of the 2012 film “The Envelope.”
Famous personalities differ from us not only in their achievements in one or another area of life. Facts from life famous people confirm their strangeness. Famous people have so much entertaining biography that you want to study it completely. Interesting facts from the lives of famous people will appeal to both children and adults.
1. captured Italy at the age of 26.
2. Hitler was named Person of the Year by Time.
3. Cleopatra was married to her brother.
4.Facts from the lives of famous people in America confirm that Andrew Jackson, the US President, believed that the Earth was flat.
5. For her wedding, Queen Victoria was given a piece of cheese whose diameter was 3 meters and weighed 500 kilograms.
6.Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' restroom. When there was a ball, his mother felt unwell and soon gave birth to him there.
7. Beethoven always brewed coffee from 64 beans.
8.Beria had syphilis.
9. Celine Dion and Madonna are cousins of the wife of Prince Charles.
10. I almost always fell asleep in front of the fireplace. Because of this, he suffered from lack of sleep.
11. I considered socks to be the most stupid thing.
12.The most loving man is considered to be the king of the island of Tonga, which is located in the Pacific Ocean. His name was Fatafehi Paulah.
13.I never had children, and intimate relationships Same.
14.Facts from the lives of famous people of Russia say that Alexander Suvorov did not lose a single battle.
15. always worked in the field equally with other men. And this happened despite the fact that he was a count.
16.Nikola Tesla had a panicky fear of germs.
17. Andriana Lima, who is considered a famous Brazilian model, remained faithful until the wedding. And exactly 9 months after the wedding, her daughter was born.
18. Paul McCartney, due to his own workload, did not have time to purchase wedding ring your own chosen one.
19. Cristiano Ronaldo is the most expensive player in the history of football.
20. Jackie Chan’s mother carried him for 12 months and this famous man was born weighing more than 5 kilograms.
21. Interesting facts about famous people provide information that Marilyn Monroe before she became famous model, worked at an aircraft factory.
22.Brad Pitt's first job was performing on the streets dressed as a "chicken".
24.Marilyn Monroe's bra sold at auction for $14,000.
25. To hide hair loss, Julius Caesar put a laurel wreath on his head.
26.Elizabeth the First imposed taxes on men who had a beard.
27. John Rockefeller gave away more than $500 million to charity in his own life.
28.Winston Churchill smoked at least 15 cigars a day.
29. King Solomon had approximately 700 wives and 100 mistresses.
30.Moart has never been to school.
31. Sigmund Freud had a panic attack before the number 62.
32.Louis Pasteur was a sponsor of the brewery.
33. Alexander the Great knew by sight about 30,000 of his own soldiers.
34.Queen Elizabeth had approximately 3,000 outfits.
35.Voltaire's body was stolen from the grave.
36.Dutch artist Van Gogh had bouts of madness. During one of them he cut off his ear.
37. Yuri Gagarin wrote before flying into space Farewell letter wife, because he did not know how the expedition would end.
38. Luciano Pavarotti was fond of football.
39. Genghis Khan had a panicky fear of death. And this despite his cruelty towards his enemies.
40.When Alla Pugacheva was born, cancer was discovered on her throat. It was immediately removed.
41. Sylvester Stallone was often beaten in school years.
42. participated in duels more than 90 times.
43.Saddam Hussein wrote the Koran with his own blood.
44.Charlie Chaplin's body was stolen 3 months later by doormen who demanded a ransom.
45.When Vladimir Putin worked in the KGB, he code name it was "moth".
46.The largest fee of $20 million was first received by Julia Roberts.
47. All shoes for Paris Hillton were made to order, because she had big size feet and it’s difficult to find the right shoes.
48.Whoopi Goldberg, who is considered an actress, has no eyebrows.
49.Rihanna didn’t even finish school.
50.Beethoven doused himself with ice water in order to raise his mental tone.
51. During his childhood, Charles Darwin's father considered his son mediocrity.
52. Demosthenes had a speech impediment as a child.
53.Genghis Khan died while making love.
54. Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote Sherlock Holmes, was an ophthalmologist by profession.
55.Walt Disney was afraid of mice throughout his life.
56.Mozart began composing music at the age of 3. At the age of 35, he already had more than 600 works.
57.At the age of 3, Albert Einstein did not speak a word.
58.Timberlake is very afraid of spiders.
59.National italian flag created by Napoleon Bonaparte.
60. Queen Anne was the mother of 17 children.
61.The autograph of the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar was valued at $2 million.
62.Charles Dickens preferred to sleep only facing north.
63. George Washington's birthday was the only birthday that was a holiday in the United States.
64.Uma Thurman's father was a monk and professor of Eastern religion.
65. Taylor Swift first played the guitar at the age of 10.
66. Ashton Kutcher trained as a biochemist.
67. Riana was a cadet in the Barbadian Army.
68.In her childhood, Angelina Jolie wore braces and glasses, for which the guys teased her.
69.Until the age of 16, Jennifer Garner did not wear or use a thong. cosmetics because she was forbidden to do so.
70.Tom Cruise had a dream - to become a priest.
71.Demi Moore attempted suicide during her school years.
72.Queen Victoria spent 40 years in mourning after the death of her husband. She did not take off her black dresses at this time.
73.Mussolini was deathly afraid of cats.
74. Alfred Hitchcock was afraid of eggs in any form.
75. Julio Iglesias played in the Real Madrid football team in his youth.
76.Most highly paid actor Charlie Chaplin is considered.
77. Marilyn Monroe grew up in an orphanage.
78. Tchaikovsky had a legal education.
79. Ricky Martin had two children through a surrogate mother, and all his life he hid his own sexuality.
80.Hitler was a vegetarian.
81.The spouses executed two of their six English king Henry the Eighth.
82.Paul McCartney's mother was a midwife and helped children be born.
83.Kipling could not write his works in ink because they were black.
84. Benjamin Franklin wanted to make the turkey the national bird of the United States of America.
85. Bill Clinton sent only 2 emails during all his years in office.
86. George Washington did not shake hands when meeting, but only bowed.
87. Before starting his writing career, he was a doctor.
88.Cleopatra preferred to test poisons on her slaves.
89.Winston Churchill had Indian ancestors on his mother's side.
90.Queen Victoria spoke in English language with a German accent.
91.Henry Ford, who is considered a successful businessman, had only a high school education.
92.Sarah Jessica Parker tied to black little dress, that’s why she even got married in a black dress.
93.At one of his concerts, Ozzy Osbourne bit off the head of a bat.
94.Elizabeth Taylor had double rows of eyelashes.
95. During my school years I was a bad student in physics.
96.The Chupa Chups logo was drawn by Salvador Dali.
97. Kate Middleton's wedding dress could be purchased for $300 the morning after the ceremony.
98. Elvis Presley worked for a trucking company in his youth.
99. Napoleon's penis was purchased for $40,000 by an American urologist.
Surprisingly, in a very short period of time, from 1889 to 1895, six great poets were born in Russia. These are Akhmatova, Pasternak, Tsvetaeva, Mayakovsky, Yesenin and Mandelstam. And all six had tragic fate. Tsvetaeva and Yesenin hanged themselves. Mayakovsky shot himself. Akhmatova’s husband, the poet Gumilev, was shot and her son was sent to the Gulag. She herself was subjected to persecution, and the threat of arrest hung over her. Pasternak was also persecuted. Full dramatic events and the life of Mandelstam.
Conversion to Christianity
Osip Emilievich Mandelstam was born in 1891 in Warsaw. My father was a merchant of the first guild. This gave the right to live beyond the Pale of Settlement established for Jews. The family moved to St. Petersburg. Mandelstam studied at the Sorbonne and the University of Heidelberg - famous higher educational institutions Europe. However, in 1911, the father went bankrupt and could no longer pay for his son’s studies abroad. Mandelstam decided to enter St. Petersburg University. But there was a quota for Jews here. He found a way out: he accepted Protestant Christianity. However, Mandelstam began to devote more and more time to poetry and less and less time to study. He didn't finish university. 
First book
First poetry collection Mandelstam entitled “Stone” was published in 1913. This thin book includes 23 poems. The poet published it with his own money, or rather, with his father’s money. At that time, booksellers in St. Petersburg did not purchase poetry books, but took them on consignment. The only exception was made for famous poets. I had to hand over the entire circulation - 600 copies - to commission shop. This modest little book immediately placed Mandelstam among the recognized poets.
Skirmish with Blumkin
In the summer of 1918 Mandelstam was in Moscow. In one cafe, he witnessed how the left Socialist Revolutionary Blyumkin, who then headed the Cheka department, drunkenly signed execution orders and boasted that people’s lives were in his hands. The indignant poet ran up to the security officer, snatched the papers and tore them up. This brave act could have had the most serious consequences for Mandelstam. Therefore, Larisa Reisner, a famous revolutionary, the wife of Fyodor Raskolnikov, took him to Dzerzhinsky. He, having listened to the poet’s story, approved of his behavior.
A few days later, Blumkin killed the German ambassador. A revolt of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries broke out. In connection with these events, Dzerzhinsky himself was interrogated. Answering the question why Blumkin held such an important position, he said that he removed him from work as soon as he learned from Raskolnikov and Mandelstam about his methods.
Later, the poet saw Blumkin again in the same cafe. He had already been forgiven for the murder of the ambassador and was even accepted into the Bolshevik party. Blumkin began to threaten him with a pistol. Mandelstam, an impressionable, finely organized man, fainted.
Two arrests
During the Civil War, Mandelstam moved from place to place. In Kyiv I met Nadezhda Khazina who became his wife. In Crimea, he was arrested by Wrangel’s intelligence, but released after the intercession of the poet Voloshin. He had the opportunity to sail with the whites to Turkey, but he chose to stay in his homeland. If Mandelstam knew what awaits him here! He was arrested on suspicion of espionage in Menshevik Georgia. And he was also released. 
A slap in the face to Alexei Tolstoy
Mandelstam was extremely touchy, proud, and quick-tempered. However, those close to him, who knew that he had a sympathetic and kind heart, put up with his difficult character.
One young poet borrowed money from Mandelstam and did not pay it back. In response to the demand to repay the debt, he beat the frail Mandelstam and his wife. Mandelstam complained to the Writers' Comrades' Court. The court, chaired by the writer Alexei Tolstoy, ordered the defendant to return the money, but left the beatings without consequences. Mandelstam harbored a grudge against Tolstoy. Having met him in a publishing house, the poet hit the “red count,” as he was called, on the cheek and pathetically exclaimed: “I punished the executioner who issued a warrant to beat my wife!” Tolstoy shouted that he would not allow him to live in Moscow and publish now. But the writer rejected advice to write a statement to law enforcement agencies.
Poem about the “Kremlin highlander”
In 1933, Mandelstam composed the famous poem “We live without feeling the country beneath us...”, denouncing Stalin. And although he read it only to his closest acquaintances, Stalin learned about this verse. Contrary to all expectations, the leader’s decision turned out to be relatively mild: “Isolate, but preserve.” The poet and his wife were sent to a small town.
Suicide attempt
In exile, Mandelstam showed signs of mental disorder. He even tried to commit suicide by jumping out of a window. Bukharin began to intercede for the poet. Mandelstam was allowed to choose his place of exile. He settled in Voronezh.
Stavsky's denunciation
In 1938, the secretary of the Writers' Union, Stavsky, wrote a statement addressed to Yezhov, in which he called Mandelstam's poems obscene and slanderous and proposed to resolve the issue of the poet. Soon Mandelstam was arrested and sentenced to five years in the camps. 
Death
Mandelstam ended up in a transit camp in Vladivostok. His condition was terrible. His mind became confused. He became thin beyond recognition. Neighbors in the barracks accused the poet of stealing food and beat him for it. He looked for scraps in garbage heaps. This was considered the limit of the fall.
The poet died on December 27, 1938. By official version- from heart paralysis, but in reality, apparently, from exhaustion. According to eyewitnesses, Mandelstam's body was thrown into a ditch.
The “true” biographies of the giants of thought are much more interesting...
Hans Christian Andersen — Danish writer and poet, international author famous fairy tales for children and adults: " Ugly duck", "The King's New Dress", "Shadow", "The Princess and the Pea".
* Hans Christian Andersen wrote many poems, plays and novels, but went down in history primarily as great storyteller. But few people know that this talented writer could not write almost a single word correctly, and editors simply clutched their heads when he brought them his manuscripts. Until the end of his days, Andersen wrote with terrible grammatical and spelling errors. The situation was especially difficult with punctuation marks, and Andersen spent a lot of money on girls who rewrote his fairy tales before taking them to the publishing house.
* Andersen did not have his own children. He willingly told stories to strangers, but did not tolerate them sitting on his lap. Shortly before his death - and he lived for 70 years - Hans Christian asked the composer Hartmann to compose a march for his funeral. And adjust the rhythm to baby step, since children will participate in the ceremony.
* He was not afraid to traumatize the child’s psyche by hating a happy ending and leaving us with sad and sometimes gloomy tales. The only work that, as he admitted, touched him was “The Little Mermaid.”
Soviet censors tried to select for Soviet collections only those fairy tales where I was happy end and we were not talking about spiritual things. In fact, almost half of Andersen's fairy tales end rather sadly: The ballerina with Tin soldier Together they burn in the fire, the Little Mermaid says goodbye to life in order to find an immortal soul.
Few people remember how the fairy tale “Ole Lukoje” ends. And all because in the Soviet version of the fairy tale, Ole-Lukoye’s brother, the wizard on a horse, is not called by his name - Death. IN full version In fairy tales, death is shown as something natural, not scary, and even pleasant for those who behaved well. That is why the hero of the fairy tale, the boy Yalmar, says: “I am not afraid of death.”
To understand these and many other fairy tales that are now coming out large editions, you will need not only to look into Holy Bible, but, perhaps, into the soul of the storyteller himself.
* Andersen explained the meaning of his “Ugly Duckling” differently than we are used to.
“You can grow up in a poultry house, the main thing is that you hatched from a swan’s egg. If you turned out to be the son of a drake, then from an ugly duckling you would turn into just an ugly duck, no matter how kind you were!” - here is the unexpected moral of the tale. The writer was sure: his father was King Christian the Eighth, who, as a prince, allowed himself numerous novels.
From a relationship with a noble girl Elisa Ahlefeld-Laurvig, a boy was allegedly born, who was given to the family of a shoemaker and a washerwoman. During a trip to Rome, the Danish princess Charlotte Frederica actually told Andersen that he was illegitimate son king. Apparently, she just laughed at the poor dreamer. However, when a penniless writer at the age of 33 unexpectedly received an annual royal scholarship, he became even more convinced that “his father did not forget him.”
* Fairy tale by G.Kh. Andersen’s “The King’s New Clothes” was placed in the first primer by L.N. Tolstoy.
* “To live is to travel.” - uh That phrase from Andersen has been adopted by thousands of travel agencies in our time. The storyteller was obsessed with movement; in total, he made 29 large journeys, which at that time seemed almost incredible. During his travels, he showed himself to be a brave and hardy man, rode horseback and swam well.
* Hans Christian Andersen got angry when he was called a children's storyteller and said that he wrote fairy tales for both children and adults. For the same reason, he ordered that there should not be a single child on his monument, where the storyteller was originally supposed to be surrounded by children.
By the way, Andersen has a fairy tale about Isaac Newton.
* Hans Christian Andersen was a great coward. It is difficult to say what Andersen was not afraid of and what he did not suffer from. He was a terrible alarmist. The slightest scratch brought him to a fit of horror, and the names of diseases caused him to tremble. He shied away from dogs, was afraid strangers. Robberies seemed to him at every step, and his habit of saving made him constantly tormented by the question of whether he had overpaid for the purchase.
In addition, Andersen surprised those around him with his pyrophobia: he was terrified of dying in a fire, so when he traveled, he always took a rope with him, hoping to save himself with it in case of fire.
He dined only “on the side,” and for years he kept a list of “those to eat” so that he could come to them in turn.
In his nightmares, he imagined that he would be buried alive, and asked his friends that in any case, one of his arteries would be cut before they put him in the coffin. When he was sick, he often left a note on the table next to his bed. It said: “It just seems like I’m dead.”
Andersen's eternal suffering was toothache. Losing another tooth, he was upset, and after saying goodbye to the last one at the age of 68, he declared that now he would not be able to write fairy tales.
* On the love front, Hans Christian Andersen became famous as a “platonic lover.” “I am still innocent, but my blood burns,” Andersen wrote at age 29. It seems that Hans Christian never bothered to put out this fire.
He promised to marry his first girlfriend when he began to earn one and a half thousand riksdalers a year. At 35, his annual income was already higher, but he never married. Although by the end of his life his fortune had grown to half a million dollars (by today's standards), and his apartment in Copenhagen cost at least 300 thousand.
All of Andersen’s “great loves” remained platonic. For two years he traveled to Sweden to visit the singer Jenny Lindt (she was nicknamed the nightingale because beautiful voice), showered him with flowers and poems, but was rejected. But readers got a fairy tale about a wonderful songbird.
For the second half of Andersen’s life, young friends accompanied him on his travels, but no open evidence of the friends’ close relationships has been preserved.
* Hans Christian Andersen had the autograph of A.S. Pushkin
* The most famous writer Denmark of all times is Hans Christian Andersen.
Johann Wolfgang Goethe — German poet, statesman, thinker and naturalist.
* Johann Wolfgang Goethe was a multi-talented person: he not only created literary masterpieces, but also directed the local theater and conducted Scientific research(he, in particular, was the founder of morphology, and his scientific works about plants were ahead of Darwin's brilliant discoveries).
He was also familiar with anatomy, he undertook empirical research in this area and discovered one hitherto unknown bone - in the middle human face- intermaxillary bone (Sutura incisiva Goethei).
Goethe also knew how to paint: “ Historical view Heidelberg Palace from the Stückgarten", Germany, watercolor by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, 1815.
* Goethe devoted entire volumes to describing his romantic feelings. He often found himself in strange love triangles with antipodean women: one is sweet and meek, the second is mature and experienced. His novels rarely went smoothly.
One biographer points out that in his youth Goethe probably had problems with premature ejaculation, and for this reason he had virtually no sexual relations until he was 39 years old. There is no direct evidence of this, but there is a lot of documentary evidence that Goethe, indeed, was easily aroused by even the most ordinary physical contact. A kiss could send him into a state of ecstasy. Many of the women Goethe loved were unattainable for him. Some of them were the wives of his friends.
* After 18 years of dating, on October 14, 1806, Goethe legalized his relationship with Christiane Vulpius (died 1816). Johann Wolfgang Goethe and his wife Christiane had five children. The children born after Augustus's eldest son did not survive: one child was stillborn, the rest died within a few days or weeks. August had three children: Walter Wolfgang, Wolfgang Maximilian and Alma. Augustus died two years before his father's death in Rome. After the death of her husband, his wife Ottilie Goethe gave birth to a daughter, Anna Sibylla, who died a year later. The children of Augustus and Ottilie did not marry, so Goethe’s direct line was interrupted in 1885 - there were no direct descendants left
* When Goethe was 74 years old, he proposed to Ulrike von Leventzow, who was not yet 20 years old and whom he himself called “daughter.” Ulrika refused his proposal
* The poet worked on Faust almost all his life. The idea came to him when he was just over twenty years old. He finished the tragedy a few months before his death and bequeathed to publish it after his death
* Goethe was born a sickly child and was often and seriously ill throughout his life. In his quest for healthy image throughout his life he abstained from “pleasurable poisons” such as tobacco and coffee, he swam in cold water, enthusiastically danced, traveled and rode a horse.
However, despite his early heart attack, lung disease, melancholy and rheumatism, he lived for 82 years. His last words were: “Mehr Licht...” (“More light...”)
* At the end of his life, Goethe sent A.S. Pushkin has his own pen. Golden age German literature as if symbolically passing the baton to the golden age of Russian literature.
* Johann Wolfgang Goethe loved violets and practiced in an original way their breeding. So, when going for a walk around the outskirts of his native Weimar, he always took with him a bag of seeds of these flowers and sowed them in all suitable places. As a result, even during the poet’s lifetime, the suburbs of Weimar were covered with blooming lawns of violets, which the Germans still call “Goethe’s flowers.” And the German gardeners brought out great amount varieties fragrant violets, named by them in honor of the heroes of Goethe's works.
* Goethe could not stand the smoke. He simply got sick at the sight of someone smoking, and in a smoky room he began to have nightmares, he could smell the slightest smell of tobacco! One day he fired his, I must say, careless cook. In revenge, the offended cook, in the absence of her former master, entered his office and smoked a pipe of the strongest tobacco there.
* IN social psychology There is such a thing as the "Werther effect" (or "Werther syndrome") - a massive wave of copycat suicides that occur after a suicide that was widely covered on television or other media - named after the hero of Goethe's very first work, "Sorrows". young Werther»
* By order of the English Admiralty, since 1776, when producing ropes for the navy, red thread must be woven into them so that it cannot be removed even from a small piece of rope. Apparently, this measure was intended to reduce rope theft. This is where the expression “to run like a red thread” comes from main idea the author throughout literary work, and Goethe was the first to use it in the novel “Kind Natures”
Gaius Julius Caesar (Latin gaivs ivlivs cæsar) - dictator, orator, emperor, scriptor. One of the greatest and most famous Roman rulers and generals. There is evidence that he knew all his soldiers by sight and name
* Julius Caesar was distinguished by his diversity of talents. A great politician, a brilliant military leader, an excellent speaker and writer. His books “Notes on Gallic War" and "Notes on the Civil War" have historical value, and the book "Commentarii de Bello Gallico", which describes the conquest of Gaul, for a long time considered a literary classic.
* Emperor and commander Gaius Julius Caesar was well built and tall. He can rightfully be called the first metrosexual in the history of mankind. He took very good care of his body, and not only cut and shaved all the hair on his body, but also plucked it, which was not accepted then.
*Caesar wore Laurel wreath V to a greater extent not because he was a great poet, but because he hated his baldness and tried to hide it.
* In his youth, Caesar served military service in Asia Minor and he also had to carry out diplomatic assignments at the court of the Bithynian king Nicomedes. In Rome there was a persistent rumor, even to a certain extent the belief, that Caesar had entered into a homosexual relationship with King Nicomedes, and, according to some evidence, at the royal feasts he openly acted as a boy-cupbearer. Accusations and ridicule in connection with this episode haunted Caesar for the rest of his life. What is worth is only the wit of Curio the Elder, who in some speech called him “the husband of all wives and the wife of all husbands.” At the same time, accusations of homosexual debauchery were almost obligatory in ancient invective
As for his homosexual behavior in the future, there is no evidence of that. Indeed, despite the fact that, according to the testimony of ancient authors, we are relatively thoroughly aware of Caesar’s numerous affairs with women, there is not a single mention of his connections with any man, or even of his favorite boys, although having a favorite slave was considered in the order of things for a wealthy Roman, the names of the favorites of a number of famous people are known - a number of sources, especially letters from Cicero, brought to us the smallest everyday details of those years
* Caesar became famous not only for his military and political victories. According to the unanimous testimony of all ancient authors, Caesar was distinguished by sexual promiscuity. The ancient historian Suetonius in the book “The Lives of the Twelve Caesars” wrote: “He, by all accounts, was greedy and wasteful for love pleasures. He was the lover of many noble women - including Postumia, the wife of Servius Sulpicius, Lollia, the wife of Aulus Gabinius, Tertulla , the wife of Marcus Crassus, and even Mucia, the wife of Gnaeus Pompey. Indeed, the Curios, father and son, and many others reproached Pompey for the fact that, out of a thirst for power, he married the daughter of the man for whom he drove away the wife who bore him three children, and whom he more than once, with a groan, called his Aegisthus. But more than anyone else he loved Brutus’s mother, Servilia: even in his first consulate, he bought for her a pearl worth six million, and in civil war, not counting other gifts, he sold her the richest estates at auction for next to nothing. When many marveled at this cheapness, Cicero wittily remarked: “Why is the deal bad if the third part remains with the seller?” The fact is that Servilia, as they suspected, brought her daughter Junia the Third together with Caesar.
Among his mistresses were queens - for example, the Moorish Eunoe, Bogud's wife: he gave both him and her, according to Nazon, numerous and rich gifts. But most of all, of course, is known love story about Caesar and Cleopatra: with her he feasted more than once until dawn; on her ship with rich chambers, he was ready to sail through all of Egypt to Ethiopia itself, if the army had not refused to follow him. Egypt was completely conquered by Caesar and thrown at the feet of Cleopatra - he could have made Egypt a Roman province, and no one would have dared to contradict him.
Caesar ordered a cast golden statue Cleopatra, which he installed in the temple of Venus, which he brought upon himself unprecedented anger Romans, who were sacred to their gods
Finally, he invited her to Rome, showered her with great honors and rich gifts, even allowing her to name her newborn son after him - Ptolemy-Caesarion. Some Greek writers report that this son was similar to Caesar in both face and posture. Mark Antony argued before the Senate that Caesar recognized the boy as his son and that this was known to Gaius Matius, Gaius Oppius and other friends of Caesar.
The people's tribune Helvius Cinna admitted that he had written and prepared a bill, which Caesar ordered to be carried out in his absence: according to this law, Caesar was allowed to take as many wives as he wanted, to give birth to heirs, which gave rise to a lot of gossip that Caesar is about to name Cleopatra's son, Caesarion, as his heir
* IN Ancient Rome re-enactments of real naval battles were often staged on real warships in specially filled amphitheaters or artificial reservoirs called naumachia. First known to historians Julius Caesar organized a naumachia on the occasion of his triumph - it involved 2,000 prisoners of war and 4,000 oarsmen, and the largest naumachia with 30,000 soldiers was organized by Emperor Claudius on Lake Fucino. Many participants were criminals or prisoners sentenced to death, and victory in naumachia was for them real chance avoid this fate and be released.
* During the invasion of Africa, the army of Julius Caesar suffered setbacks from the very beginning. Strong storms scattered ships in the Mediterranean Sea, and Caesar arrived on the African shores with only one legion. While leaving the ship, the commander tripped and fell face down, which was a strong sign for his superstitious soldiers to return back. However, Caesar was not at a loss and, grabbing handfuls of sand, exclaimed: “I hold you in my hands, Africa!” Later he and his army triumphantly conquered Egypt.
* One day, Gaius Julius Caesar was captured by pirates. The robbers demanded a ransom of 20 coins from him. “You value me inexpensively,” Caesar laughed and offered them 50 coins for his release. Having sent his companions to collect money for the ransom, Caesar, with a friend and two servants, remained on the ship, where he lived for more than two months. Julius forbade the pirates to make noise when he went to bed, took part in their competitions, and also practiced oratory and read to them his works, which did not cause delight in them. Then Caesar called them savages and promised to crucify them on the cross. The robbers only chuckled, surprised at such unusual behavior captive. However, after his release, he kept his promise. Having received the ransom, the pirates released the hostages. Caesar immediately equipped the ships and took the offenders by surprise. He took the money from the robbers and ordered the robbers to be crucified. But, since they treated him well at one time, Caesar ordered their legs to be broken before the crucifixion in order to alleviate their suffering (if you break the legs of a crucified person, he will die quite quickly from asphyxia). Then he often showed condescension towards defeated opponents. This is where the “mercy of Caesar”, so praised by ancient authors, was manifested.
* For the first time in the Roman Empire, Gaius Julius Caesar was declared dictator for life, “father of the fatherland”
* According to legend, Caesar was predicted to die on the Ides of March (March 15). On that day in 44, he actually died at the hands of the Republican conspirators, among whom was Marcus Junius Brutus, whom Gaius Julius Caesar loved very much and considered a friend (there is a version according to which Brutus was the illegitimate son of Caesar) Famous phrase"And you Brute!" was uttered by the already mortally wounded dictator. The conspirators inflicted a total of twenty-three blows on Caesar with a dagger and sword - in the neck, in the back, in the side and in the groin (Brutus) - “since it was agreed that all the conspirators would take part in the murder and, as it were, taste the sacrificial blood” (Plutarch ).
* Leap year introduced by Gaius Julius Caesar. February 24th was called the “sixth day before the Kalends of March,” and the additional day fell on the next day and became the “second sixth day,” in Latin “bis sextus,” which is where the word “leap year” comes from.
* Caesar achieved the greatness he dreamed of in his youth, but short term. He was one of best rulers Rome, and all Roman emperors from then on began to call themselves Caesars.
By the way, the name Guy means “happy”, and Julius means “young”. And the month of July is named by another of his names, and kings are still allegorically called by another. In addition, the German Kaiser (“Kaiser”), as well as the Russian concepts “Caesar”, “tsar”, “tsarevich” are the Old Slavonic and Old Russian transfer of the Roman name and imperial title Caesar (Caesar) through the Greek kaisar - monarch, ruler
* After the death of Gaius Julius Caesar, he became the first man-god in the history of the Roman state religion.
* Gaius Julius Caesar is more famous than his great-nephew Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (Octovian Augustus), adopted by him according to his will. - the true founder of the Roman Empire, during which the empire reached the pinnacle of power, prosperity and cultural development.
And most important achievement Caesar was that he defeated huge armies Celts and conquered Gaul (southern France and northern Italy). The territories he captured remained under Roman rule for approximately five centuries. During this period they were subject to significant influence from Rome. Laws, customs, language, and later also Roman Christianity. Modern French largely derived from the spoken Latin of those times. Caesar's conquest of Gaul had an important impact on Rome itself, providing Italy with protection from attacks from the north for several centuries. In general, the capture of Gaul was a security factor for the entire Roman Empire.
