May 28 (May 16 - according to the old style), 1877, Maximilian Alexandrovich Voloshin was born (real name - Kiriyenko-Voloshin) - Russian symbolist poet, critic, essayist, artist, philosopher, one of the brightest poets of the Silver Age.

Even during his lifetime, Maximilian Voloshin became a legend. Now the legend has grown into a myth and has been practically forgotten by our contemporaries. Nevertheless, the man-Sun, artist, poet, sculptor, Master Maximilian Aleksandrovich Voloshin is a real figure in the history of Russian literature and Russian art. He was the guardian of the "holy craft". Its traces are imprinted not only in the soil of the Crimea, but also in the soil of Russian culture of our century: in poetry, the art of translation, prose, painting, art criticism, philosophy.

Generously gifted by nature, Maximilian Voloshin could do anything. He had golden hands. A poet and an artist united in Voloshin. He was a Master and looked like a descendant of some ancient tribe of strong men, travelers, artists. There was something solid, reliable, solid, renaissance in him. He was looking for support. Voloshin brought together, combined, formed clusters and nests of workers and creators, rejoiced at meetings and grieved over non-meetings. He believed (and remained in this belief until the end of his life) that a person is a genius from birth, that the energy of the Sun is in him. There was no other such Master and, perhaps, there never will be again on Russian soil...

early years

Maximilian Alexandrovich was born in Kyiv, in the family of a lawyer, collegiate adviser Alexander Maksimovich Kirienko-Voloshin (1838-1881) and Elena Ottobaldovna (1850-1923), née Glaser. Father led his family tree from the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks. Mother's ancestors were Russified Germans who came to Russia in the 18th century. As the poet himself believed, he was "a product of mixed blood (German, Russian, Italian-Greek)".

From Kyiv, the Kiriyenko-Voloshin family moved to Taganrog. At the age of four, Maximilian lost his father and was raised by his mother. Elena Ottobaldovna, being an active and independent nature, did not want to remain dependent on her husband's relatives. Together with her four-year-old son, she moved to Moscow, where she got a job and earned money herself for the maintenance and upbringing of Max. Until the age of 16, the boy lived in Moscow, studied at the 1st State Gymnasium, began to write poetry, and translated Heine.

In 1893, Elena Ottobaldovna left the capital due to financial difficulties. For pennies, she buys a small plot of land in the Crimea, near the Bulgarian village of Koktebel. Maximilian and his mother moved to the Crimea. Feodosia with its Genoese fortresses and Turkish ruins and Koktebel first appear in his life: the sea, wormwood, heaps of the ancient Karadag volcano. The whole life of the poet will be connected with Koktebel - nature itself took care of this: one of the mountains of Karadag is strikingly similar to the profile of Voloshin. “And on the rock that closed the swell of the bay, Fate and the winds sculpted my profile ...” (poem “Koktebel”, 1918).

The Koktebel house of the Voloshins was located seven miles from Feodosia. Maximilian, until he finished his studies at the gymnasium, lived in the city in a rented apartment. In Moscow, he studied very badly, getting "twos" and "ones" in all subjects, remained in the same class for the second year. Low scores were given to Voloshin by teachers not for lack of knowledge or interest in learning, but for the fact that he asked too many questions, was too “original” and could not stand a formal, formal approach to human personality. According to the memoirs of Elena Ottobaldovna, who later acquired the status of a family legend, when she handed Max's Moscow report card to the director of the gymnasium in Feodosia, he shrugged his shoulders in bewilderment and remarked that "we do not correct idiots." However, the mores in the provinces were simpler: a capable young man who drew well, wrote poetry and had an undeniable artistic talent was noticed. Soon, Max became almost a local celebrity, he was prophesied a great future and was called nothing more than "the second Pushkin."

In 1897, at the insistence of his mother, Voloshin entered the law faculty of Moscow University. In 1899, for active participation in the All-Russian student strike, he was expelled for a year and exiled to Feodosia under covert police supervision. On August 29 of the same year, he and his mother leave for Europe for almost half a year, on their first trip abroad. Returning to Moscow, Voloshin externally passed the exams at the university, transferred to the third year, and in May 1900 he again set off on a two-month trip around Europe along the route he had developed himself. This time - on foot, with friends: Vasily Isheev, Leonid Kandaurov, Alexei Smirnov. Upon his return to Russia, Maximilian Voloshin was arrested on suspicion of distributing illegal literature. He was transferred from Crimea to Moscow, kept in solitary confinement for two weeks, but was soon released, depriving him of the right to enter Moscow and St. Petersburg. This hastened Voloshin's departure to Central Asia with a survey party for the construction of the Orenburg-Tashkent railway. At that time - in a voluntary exile. In September 1900, a survey party headed by V.O. Vyazemsky, arrived in Tashkent. It includes M.A. Voloshin, who, according to the certificate, was listed as a paramedic. However, he showed such remarkable organizational skills that when the party left for the expedition, he was appointed to the responsible position of head of the caravan and head of the camp.

“1900, the junction of two centuries, was the year of my spiritual birth. I traveled with caravans in the desert. Here Nietzsche and "Three Conversations" by Vl. Solovyov. They gave me the opportunity to take a retrospective look at the entire European culture - from the height of the Asian plateaus and reassess cultural values, ”M. Voloshin wrote about this time of his life.

In Tashkent, he decides not to return to the university, but to go to Europe, to educate himself.

Citizen of the world

In 1901, M.A. Voloshin came to Paris for the second time and connected his life with this city for a long time. Having not received a systematic education as an artist, he willingly draws in the studio of Kruglikova, studies painting at the Colarossi Academy, absorbs French literature. The range of his interests extends to all manifestations modern culture France. His reviews of French events and critical articles are published in many periodicals in Russia.

In Paris M.A. Voloshin communicates with French poets and writers - M. Leclerc, Henri de Regnier, J. Lemaitre, A. Mercereau, O. Mirbeau, E. Verharne, G. Apollinaire, R. Gil, A. Frans, Sadia Levy, M. Maeterlinck , R. Rolland, artists - Odilon Redon, Ory Robin, A. Matisse, F. Leger, A. Modigliani, P. Picasso, D. Rivera, sculptors - A. Bourdelle, J. Charmois, A. Mayol, and also - with T. Garnier, G. Brandes, Khambo Lama of Tibet Agvan Dorzhiev, theosophists A. Mintslova, A. Besant, G. Olcott, anthroposophist R. Steiner, occultist Papus. In 1905, he was initiated into the Freemasons of the Grand Lodge of France, and in 1908 - to the 2nd Masonic degree, in 1909 - elevated to the degree of master, receives the nominal "Charter ...".

Even then, as a very young man, Voloshin outlined a life program for himself, based on the desire

The poet enjoys the atmosphere of the capital of France, absorbs its indescribable spirit, writes poems that will soon make up a wonderful cycle "Paris" - a kind of declaration of love to this city, a feeling of merging with it, an elegiac song of farewell to the passing youth. About the place occupied by Paris, France in the life of the poet, you can read in the memoirs of Voloshin, written by M. Tsvetaeva:

In 1908, the Polish sculptor Edward Wittig creates a large sculptural portrait of M.A. Voloshin, which was exhibited at the Autumn Salon, was purchased by the Paris Mayor's Office and installed the following year at 66 Exelman Boulevard, where it stands to this day.

Voloshin often visits Russia, but not only there. “Years of Wanderings” is the name of the first cycle of the first collection of poems by the poet. Wandering - this word can define the initial stage of his life path.

“These years, I’m just an absorbent sponge. I am all eyes, all ears. I wander around countries, museums, libraries: Rome, Spain, Corsica, Andorra, Louvre, Prado, Vatican… National Library. In addition to the technique of the word, I master the technique of the brush and pencil… The stages of the wandering of the spirit: Buddhism, Catholicism, magic, Freemasonry, occultism, theosophy, R. Steiner. A period of great personal experiences of a romantic and mystical nature ... ”, the artist writes in his 1925 Autobiography.

Maximilian Voloshin was interested in everything new and original - in literature, art, philosophy, being. Grain by grain, he collected everything that corresponded to his worldview, which then crystallized into his extraordinary tolerance, visionary lines of poetry, amazing watercolors, original critical articles and lectures. Being an Orthodox person and gravitating towards the Old Believers, Voloshin and in Everyday life and in creativity he strove for self-restraint and self-giving.

“You have given and you are rich in this, but you are slaves of everything that is a pity to give,” he said, recognizing the House and the library as the only physical property.

“He gave everything, gave everything,” recalled Marina Tsvetaeva.

Margarita Sabashnikova

For all his outward originality and charm, Maximilian Aleksandrovich was deprived of what is called male attractiveness for a very long time. Women preferred to be friends with him, trusted him as a friend, but nothing more. In her youth, even Elena Ottobaldovna often laughed at her son: “What kind of poet are you if you have never fallen in love?” And some of his girlfriends admitted that they would boldly go to the bath with him and allow themselves to wash their backs, not considering this act to be beyond the bounds of decency.

Only in 1903, in Moscow, visiting the famous collector S.I. Schukin Maximilian Aleksandrovich met a girl who struck him with her peculiar beauty, sophistication and original worldview. Her name was Margarita Vasilievna Sabashnikova. An artist of the Repin school, an admirer of Vrubel's work, known in the artistic environment as a fine portrait painter and colorist, as well as a symbolist poet, she won Voloshin's heart. Many critics noted "heaviness" and "tightness" love lyrics Maximilian Voloshin, giving all the praise to his civil poetry. However, in the first years of his meetings with Margarita Vasilievna, he almost became a lyric poet:

On April 12, 1906, Sabashnikova and Voloshin got married in Moscow. Later, looking back at the past, Maximilian Alexandrovich was inclined to consider Margarita Sabashnikova his first and almost only love. Only their marriage was short-lived. According to contemporaries, the spouses did not suit each other too much: their worldview turned out to be different, the tone of Margarita Vasilievna was too edifying. Voloshin, who did not accept teaching, but only companionship, tried to save love from everyday life, but his efforts were in vain. Even outwardly, the Sabashnikov-Voloshin alliance made a strange impression. There is a case when once Max brought his young wife to Koktebel, and a little girl who was visiting Elena Ottobaldovna exclaimed in bewilderment: “Mom! Why did such a princess marry this janitor?!”

A year later, the couple broke up, maintaining friendly relations until the end of Voloshin's life. One of the external reasons was Margarita Vasilievna's infatuation with Vyacheslav Ivanov, with whom the Voloshins lived next door in St. Petersburg. But their romance also did not work out. In 1922 M.V. Voloshina was forced to leave Soviet Russia. She settled in the south of Germany, in Stuttgart, where she lived until her death in 1976 and was engaged in spiritual painting of the Christian and anthroposophical direction.

House of the Poet in Koktebel

In 1903, Maximilian Voloshin started building his own house in Koktebel. His sketches of the project of the house have been preserved. The interior layout is unique - 22 small rooms are all connected by doors so that when you enter the house, you can walk around the house without going outside. But from each room there was a door outside - it was possible to retire and live, as in a cell. The house was originally planned for the convenience of guests, for their relaxation, creativity and mutual communication.

The house was built in two stages. In 1913, Voloshin completed an extension to the house - a double-height workshop made of wild stone with a high bay window. The building, with different rhythms of architectural volumes and windows, surrounded by light blue deck terraces, with a bridge tower turned out to be surprisingly harmonious, making up a single whole with the Koktebel intersecting landscape. Many pieces of furniture and the interior of the house are also made by the hands of Voloshin himself. Currently, they have a cultural, historical and artistic value.

The phrase "House of the Poet" carries both direct and figurative meaning. This is the residence, the workshop of the poet and artist. And at the same time, the House of the Poet expands to the concept of the World of the Poet.

Voloshin's house is like a ship. That's what they call it - the ship. Haven home? Not only. Above the house is a tower with a platform for observing the stars. Launch pad for the flight of thought. Here the poet felt the connection of the house, the lonely soul and the immensity of the universe. Cimmeria becomes not only the place of Voloshin's physical residence, his place of residence, but also the true homeland of his spirit, replacing wandering, "hunting for change of place."

Here, in the midst of the turmoil of the hot years of the revolution and the Civil War, the tragedies of the first years Soviet power MA Voloshin managed to create a unique style of life and communication, to maintain an atmosphere of hospitality, high culture and true creativity.

brilliant hoax

In 1907, after parting with Sobashnikova, Voloshin decides to leave for Koktebel. Here he writes his famous Cimmerian Twilight cycle. Since 1910, he has been working on monographic articles about K.F. Bogaevsky, A.S. Golubkina, M.S. Saryan, speaks in defense artistic groups"Jack of Diamonds" and "Donkey's Tail". During this period, spending a lot of time in Koktebel, Voloshin remains no stranger to the life of St. Petersburg bohemia: the “omnipresent” Max attends the evenings at the “Tower” of Vyacheslav Ivanov, actively communicates with symbolist poets, participates in the creation of the famous literary magazine"Apollo".

In the summer of 1909, young poets Nikolai Gumilev and Elizaveta (Lilya) Dmitrieva, an ugly, lame, but very talented girl, came to Voloshin in Koktebel. Maximilian Alexandrovich, unlike Gumilyov and other members of the Apollo editorial staff, immediately felt great potential in the modest Lila and managed to inspire her with faith in her creative possibilities. Voloshin and Dmitrieva soon created the most famous literary hoax of the 20th century, Cherubina de Gabriac. Voloshin invented the legend, the literary mask of Cherubina, and acted as an intermediary between Dmitrieva and the editor of Apollo, S. Makovsky. Poems were written only by Lily.

On November 22, 1909, a duel took place between Voloshin and N. Gumilyov on the Black River. Much has been said about the reasons for this duel in studies on the history of the Silver Age. According to the "Confession", written by Elizaveta Dmitrieva in 1926 (shortly before her death), the main reason was the immodesty of N. Gumilyov, who talked everywhere about his affair with Cherubina de Gabriac. Giving Gumilyov a public slap in the face in the studio of the artist Golovin, Voloshin stood up not for his literary hoax, but for the honor of a woman close to him - Elizaveta Dmitrieva. However, the scandalous duel, in which Voloshin acted as a knight - a defender and a "slave" of honor - did not bring Maximilian Alexandrovich anything but ridicule. Ignoring Gumilyov's impartial act, contemporaries for some reason were inclined to condemn the behavior of his opponent: instead of a symbolic slap in the face, Voloshin gave Gumilev a real slap in the face, lost a galosh on the way to the place of the duel and forced everyone to look for it, then basically did not shoot, etc. .d. etc.

However, the duel of poets, despite all the fantastic rumors and anecdotes associated with it, was a serious duel. Gumilyov fired twice at Voloshin, but missed. Voloshin deliberately fired into the air, and his pistol misfired twice in a row. All participants in the duel were punished with a fine of ten rubles. Contrary to newspaper reports, the opponents did not shake hands with each other after the duel and did not reconcile. Only in 1921, having met Gumilyov in the Crimea, Voloshin answered his handshake, but Gumilyov did not consider the long-standing incident settled, and this meeting was clearly unpleasant for him.

Elizaveta Dmitrieva (Cherubina de Gabriak) left Voloshin immediately after the duel and married her childhood friend, engineer Vsevolod Vasiliev. For the rest of her life (until 1928), she, like Maximilian Alexandrovich, was an active member of the Anthroposophical Society, corresponded with Voloshin.

Voloshin: poet, artist

The first collection of poems by M. Voloshin “Poems. 1900-1910" came out in Moscow in 1910, when Voloshin was already 33 years old. Meanwhile, he has long been a prominent figure in the literary process: an influential critic and established poet with a reputation as a "strict Parnassian". In 1914, a book of his selected articles on culture, "Faces of Creativity" was published; and in 1915, a book of passionate poems about the horror of war, Anno mundi ardentis 1915.

In 1910-1914, Voloshin rarely leaves Koktebel. He pays more and more attention to painting, paints watercolor landscapes of the Crimea, exhibits his works at exhibitions of the World of Art.

“... In Voloshin's poetry, in his amazing brush, giving birth to the idea of ​​Koktebel discovered by him, in the whole way of life, starting from the sketch of the house, from the arrangement of rooms, verandas, stairs to the artist's landscapes, his paintings, collections of pebbles, fossils and a peculiar selection of books from his library we get creatively experienced and therefore born for the first time in the life of culture Koktebel. Forty years of creative life and thoughts in Koktebel, thoughts about Koktebel is the culture of open Koktebel, attached to the heights of Western European culture. … M.A. appeared in Moscow, quickly entering into its topic of the day and acting mainly as a peacemaker, smoothing out the contradictions between opponents ...; and then disappeared without a trace either to Europe, where he collected, so to speak, honey from the artistic culture of the West, or to his native Koktebel, where in solitude he transformed everything he saw and heard into that new quality, which subsequently created Voloshin's house as one of the most cultural centers not only in Russia, but also in Europe,” wrote a contemporary of Maximilian Voloshin.

Voloshin called the first manifestations of popular discontent at the beginning of 1905 "rebellion on his knees". In January of this year, Voloshin was in St. Petersburg. He writes the article "Bloody Week in St. Petersburg", an article that, on the one hand, is an eyewitness account, on the other hand, shows the mood of the poet himself. He already understood at that time that what happened in the days bloody january is the first link in the chain of revolutionary events. The poet foresaw the end of the empire, although he expressed it, perhaps too pompously, theatrically. In prose, it sounds like this: “Spectator, be quiet! The curtain goes up." In verses written in St. Petersburg in 1905 ("Premonitions"), he says:

The “wanderings of the spirit” take possession of the poet, he is fond of theosophy, self-knowledge, studies the history of the French Revolution, continuing to reflect on the fate of his homeland.

What is the path of history? Voloshin does not know. But he strongly rejects cruelty and bloodshed. War, murder, terror - these means are not justified by any end, and therefore are unacceptable to him. This is the position of Maximilian Voloshin. Throughout his life, she could take on one shade or another, but in essence he remained true to Christian principles, especially strong during the First World War:

World War I

In July 1914, Voloshin left at the invitation of M. Sabashnikova to Switzerland, to Dornach. Here representatives different countries, united around Rudolf Steiner, began the construction of the Ioannov building (Goetheanum) - an anthroposophical temple, symbolizing the unity of religions and nations.

Subsequently, Maximilian Alexandrovich recalled that on this journey, fate seemed to keep him. He was in time everywhere at the last moment before the start of the world massacre: he boarded the last steamer, jumped on the bandwagon of the last train, and all the doors seemed to slam behind him, preventing him from turning back:

As a militia warrior of the second category, a completely healthy and capable man, M. Voloshin was subject to conscription. His stay in Switzerland, France, Spain in 1914-1916 could be regarded as desertion, evasion of civic duty and entailed the deprivation of Russian citizenship. Voloshin could be considered a "citizen of the world": his work was in constant interaction with the cultural traditions of many countries and peoples, but the fate of the motherland was also of great concern to the poet. Not wanting to be called either a deserter or an emigrant, in the spring of 1916 Maximilian Aleksandrovich returned to Russia. He formally addresses the minister with a refusal military service and expresses his readiness to suffer any punishment for this:

“I refuse to be a soldier, as a European, as an artist, as a poet ... As a poet, I have no right to raise a sword, since the Word has been given to me, and to take part in discord, since understanding is my duty.”

The war for Voloshin is the greatest tragedy of the peoples. For him, "these days there is no enemy, no brother: everything is in me, and I am in everyone." It goes without saying that Voloshin's socio-historical position is compared with Tolstoy's non-resistance to evil by violence. Of course, Tolstoy's teaching is not limited to such non-resistance, it is much broader and more ambitious. In the article “The Fate of Leo Tolstoy” (1910), Voloshin notes: “The formula for universal healing from evil is simple: do not resist evil, and evil will not touch you. Tolstoy spent it in his life consistently and to the end. And further - contritely: "Tolstoy did not understand the meaning of evil on earth and could not solve its secrets."

There is no point in turning Voloshin into a Tolstoyan, but it is quite natural to speak of humanism as the principle that unites them. Only there are times when such a position in the eyes of the majority looks not just ridiculous foolishness, but partly a crime.

What exactly the minister replied to the poet’s message is not indicated in any of the famous biographies and autobiographies of M.A. Voloshin. Evidently, in 1916 the Russian War Ministry had other things to do than analyze the anthroposophical views of Mr. Voloshin and appeal to his patriotism. It is only known that on November 20, 1916, Voloshin was released from military service by a medical examination and left for Koktebel.

Revolution and Civil War

However, already in 1917, after the Bolshevik coup, the humanistic position “above the fight” taken by Maximilian Alexandrovich did not meet with understanding even among the closest people.

The October Revolution, as well as the events of 1917 in general, are perceived by Voloshin as a catastrophe even greater and closer to his heart than the entire previous world war:

From November 10 to November 25, 1917, ensign Sergei Yakovlevich Efron and his wife Marina Tsvetaeva were in Koktebel. Maximilian Aleksandrovich and Elena Ottobaldovna had long-standing friendly relations with the Tsvetaeva-Efron family: Sergey and Marina met in their house in Koktebel, Elena Ottobaldovna was the godmother of their eldest daughter, Ariadna Efron, and Maximilian was an attorney in all family affairs. Sergei Efron, who took part in the anti-Bolshevik uprising in Moscow, clearly sided with the opponents of Soviet power. From the Voloshins, he immediately went to the Don to join the Volunteer Army.

According to the memoirs of M. Tsvetaeva, in those fateful, decisive days for Russia, even the mother reproached Max for his defiant inaction:

“- Look, Max, at Seryozha, here is a real man! Husband. War is fighting. And you? What are you doing, Max?

Mom, I can’t get into my tunic and shoot at living people just because they think differently than I do.

They think, they think. There are times, Max, when you don't have to think, but do. Do not think - do.

Such times, mother, are always with animals - this is called "animal instincts."

Having resisted the authority of Elena Ottobaldovna, an adult 40-year-old man Voloshin deliberately chooses for himself the unprofitable, ridiculous role of a peacemaker precisely when there can be no talk of reconciliation of opponents. On the one hand, he actually stands "between the hammer and the anvil", in the center of a raging element in which there is no mercy for anyone:

And a person who has chosen such a place in history for himself cannot be called a coward.

On the other hand, the position of M. Voloshin during the bloody civil strife is a high example of humanity. Consciously refusing to take up arms, he does not stand in a detached pose of an outside observer. The poet, citizen, man Voloshin, without thinking, does everything in his power to save people who have fallen into the crucible of the Civil War:

In the most hard years(from 1917 to 1921) Voloshin's Koktebel house was filled with tenants, up to six hundred people stayed with hospitable hosts over the summer. It was a free shelter for scientists, writers, artists, artists, aviators.

"Those who knew Voloshin in the era civil war, the change of governments, which lasted more than three years in the Crimea, they correctly remembered how alien it was to throwing, fright, short-term political enthusiasm. In his own way, but just as stubbornly as Leo Tolstoy resisted the whirlwinds of history that beat on the threshold of his house ... ”, recalled E. Gertsyk.

Voloshin's house in Koktebel - the House of the Poet - becomes an island of warmth and light for everyone. Not accepting either white or red terror, the poet saved both of them: he gave shelter, acted as a defender and intercessor for the Reds before the Whites, for the Whites before the Reds. Often his intercession and participation in the fate of this or that person saved the life of a person condemned to death, commuted the sentence of the court, and prevented the inevitable death of cultural monuments and works of art.

In 1918, the poet managed to save the Koktebel estate of the heirs of E. A. Junge from destruction, where many works of art and a rare library were kept. In January 1919, he takes part in the second conference of the Taurida Scientific Association in Sevastopol, dedicated to the protection of cultural and natural monuments.

In the summer of 1919, Voloshin saved General N. A. Marx, a prominent paleographer and compiler of the Legends of Crimea, from an unfair White Guard trial. In May 1920, when the underground Bolshevik congress, which had gathered in Koktebel, was overtaken by white counterintelligence, one of the delegates found shelter and protection in Voloshin's house. At the end of July, Maximilian Alexandrovich helped the release of the poet O. E. Mandelstam, who was arrested by the White Guards.

On October 3, 1920, Voloshin wrote a letter to the Bureau of the Taurida Scientific Congress (in Simferopol), petitioning for the inviolability of "libraries, collections of paintings, offices of scientists and writers, studios of artists" in Feodosia. “And in the military camp, those few nests in which creative work continues,” he cries, asking to free the gallery of I.K. Aivazovsky, his house and the house of K.F. Bogaevsky, A.M. Petrova, artist N. I. Khrustachev, astronomer V. K. Tserasky.

The success of the active peacemaker Voloshin was due to the fact that Maximilian Aleksandrovich was never afraid of anyone. He believed that the best human qualities, in the end, will prevail over malice and hatred, that love and goodness are higher than bloodshed and strife. Voloshin in every possible way emphasized his apathy in relations with both the red commissars and the white military leaders. His contemporaries noted more than once that Max, by his mere presence, could force the disputants to reconcile, and imperceptibly make the hand raised for a blow lowered and even extended for a friendly shake. He could afford to appear for negotiations in a government office without pants, in a chiton and sandals on his bare feet, with his hair tied up with a strap. And no one dared to call it a pose or foolishness. He was like "above the world", beyond such concepts as "officially" or "decently".

According to contemporaries, Voloshin was many-sided, but not duplicitous. If he was wrong, then always in the direction of a person’s life, and not his death: there are no right, no guilty, everyone is worthy of both pity and condemnation.

There is a legend that during the Red Terror (end of 1920), when thousands of people were shot in the Crimea, Bela Kun himself visited the House of the Poet and allowed Voloshin to delete every tenth from the execution lists. And Voloshin crossed out those to whom he had gone yesterday with requests for pardon for opponents of the white regime.

Cimmerian recluse

Despite the constant troubles associated with relations with the authorities, the maintenance of the estate and the economy, in the twenties Voloshin opened a large and serious stage in his poetic work, wrote a large number of beautiful Cimmerian watercolors, about which the artist and discerning critic Alexandre Benois wrote:

“There is not much in the history of painting, dedicated only to “real” artists, there are works that can evoke thoughts and dreams, similar to those that excite the improvisations of this “amateur”…”.

During the years of the Civil War, Voloshin created a number of his most famous poems and poems (the cycles "Communication", "Portraits", the poems "Saint Seraphim", "Habakkuk", translations by A. de Renier). Collections of his poems and poetic translations are published in Moscow and Kharkov.

Veresaev makes an accurate diagnosis:

“The revolution hit his work like a steel on flint, and bright, magnificent sparks rained down from it. As if a completely different poet appeared, courageous, strong, with a simple and wise word ... "

“Neither the war nor the revolution frightened me and disappointed me in nothing ... - Voloshin wrote in his 1925 Autobiography. “The principle of communist economics responded perfectly to my aversion to wages and to buying and selling.”

After the occupation of the Crimea by the Red Army, in 1921 Voloshin worked in the field of public education. He was appointed head of the protection of monuments of art and science in the Feodosiya district, participates in cultural and educational events of the Crimean national education, teaches at command courses and at the People's University.

In 1922, Maximilian Alexandrovich's health deteriorated noticeably: he fell ill with paleorthritis. Elena Ottobaldovna, having survived the Civil War and famine in the Crimea, also went to bed. She died in 1923. After the death of his mother, M.A. Voloshin officially married Maria Stepanovna Zabolotskaya, a paramedic who helped him take care of Elena Ottobaldovna in the last years of her life.

Perhaps this marriage somewhat extended the life of Voloshin himself. For the remaining ten years, he was ill a lot and almost did not leave the Crimea.

But "Soviet reality" now and then itself invaded the life of the House of the Poet. The local village council treated Voloshin as a dacha owner and a "bourgeois", from time to time demanding his eviction from Koktebel. The financial inspection could not believe that the poet did not rent rooms for money - and demanded payment of tax for "maintenance of the hotel." Komsomol activists burst into the house, calling for donations to Povitroflot and Osoaviakhim, then branding Voloshin for his refusal, which they regarded as a “counter-revolution” ... Again and again they had to turn to Moscow, ask for intercession from Lunacharsky, Gorky, Yenukidze; collect guests' signatures under the "certificate" of the free of charge of their home ...

In a letter to L. B. Kamenev in November 1924, turning to the party boss for assistance in his undertaking, Voloshin explained: “Poets and artists came to me here from year to year, which created a kind of literary- art center. During the life of my mother, the house was adapted for renting out in the summer, and after her death, I turned it into a free home for writers, artists, scientists ... The doors are open to everyone, even those who come from the street.

Finally, in 1925, by the Decree of the Crimean Central Executive Committee, Voloshin's house, as well as his mother's house, located on the same plot of land, were assigned to Maximilian Aleksandrovich. He receives a certificate from the People's Commissar of Education A. V. Lunacharsky, allowing the creation of a free rest home for writers in the Koktebel House. The House of the Poet again becomes the center of the cultural life of the country. In 1925 alone, almost three hundred people visited his house and stayed for a week, some for a month: poets, artists, writers. The entire restless household rested on the shoulders of Voloshin and his wife Maria Stepanovna. Maximilian Alexandrovich was accepted as a member of the Writers' Union, exhibitions of his artworks are held in Moscow, Kharkov, Leningrad, he was elected an honorary member of the Society for the Study of the Crimea, lectures on the history of art, writes memoirs.

But the time of relative prosperity is very quickly replaced by a "black streak": since 1929, Maximilian Voloshin's health has deteriorated sharply. In addition to paleorthritis, asthma worsened. The state of mind of the poet was pressed by a heightened sense of what was happening in the country - the approaching thirties made themselves felt more and more clearly, news of the arrests and deaths of acquaintances came more and more often. The local authorities were ready to change their decision regarding Voloshin's ownership of the Poet's House in Koktebel and subject the artist to socialist "densification". Due to worries about the fate of the House, which could not only be taken away, but also subjected to restructuring, in fact destroying the artist’s favorite brainchild, on December 9, 1929, Voloshin had a stroke.

In 1931, M.A. Voloshin gave up ownership of the land and transferred his mother's house and the first floor of his house to the All-Russian Union of Soviet Writers to set up a house of creativity there. House of M.A. Voloshin became building No. 1, and the house of E.O. Kiriyenko-Voloshina - building No. 2 of the House of Creativity of the VSSP.

According to eyewitnesses, Voloshin's state of mind in the last year of his life was terrible. The love for a man, by which he lived and escaped during the years of the bloody Russian massacre, did not save the poet himself. In the summer of 1931, a terrible famine broke out in the Crimea and throughout Ukraine, caused by forced collectivization, the genocide of the authorities against their own people. Humanity did not combine with inhumanity and therefore was abolished as an ideology alien to the proletariat, alien to Stalinist socialism, contrary to the spirit of the dictatorial regime. In this calculated and filtered perception of artistic values ​​there was no place for Voloshin's poetry. Feeling how the last soil that held him is leaving from under his feet, the poet begins to think about a way to commit suicide. Inclined to “shoot himself” - write a few truthful poems about “ current moment”, say whatever he sees fit and die. There was no longer any strength to row "against the current".

In the summer of 1932, Maximilian Alexandrovich Voloshin fell ill with pneumonia, did not begin to be treated and died on August 11, 1932, at the age of 56. According to his will, the poet was buried on Mount Kuchuk-Yenishary (later called Voloshinskaya). “At the top of Karadag there is the grave of a Mohammedan saint, and on this peak is the grave of Voloshin, a Russian saint,” local Tatars said about him.

Memory

The house of Maximilian Voloshin - the House of the Poet continued to play a significant role in the culture and literary process of the 20th century even after the departure of the owner. A symbol of free-thinking and free-creation, he attracted creative intelligentsia to Koktebel. At various times, the most famous figures of culture and science worked and rested in the House of the Poet: N. Gumilyov, V. Bryusov, S. Solovyov, V. Khodasevich, O. Mandelstam, M. and A. Tsvetaev, G. Shengeli, K. Chukovsky, I. Ehrenburg, A. Tolstoy, M. Bulgakov, M. Gorky, V. Veresaev, A. Gabrichevsky, N. Zamyatin, L. Leonov, M. Prishvin, K. Paustovsky, K. Trenev, A. Tvardovsky, I. Brodsky, V. Aksenov, K. Petrov-Vodkin, B. Kustodiev, V. Polenov, St. Richter and many others.

Until 1976, his widow Maria Stepanovna Voloshina (Zabolotskaya) lived on the second or third floors of the house of M.A. Voloshin. She preserved the memorial furnishings of Maximilian Alexandrovich's rooms and preserved the House of the Poet, its library and archive.

The name of Maximilian Voloshin was hushed up by the official authorities until 1977, when, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the poet's birth, a small book of his poems with large denominations was published. For almost sixty years in a cultural environment, his poems were copied by hand and retyped on a typewriter, rare exhibitions of his watercolors aroused great interest.

At the request of M.S. Voloshina in 1975, work began on the creation of the museum, and only on August 1, 1984, the M.A. Voloshin opened the doors wide for visitors. It was another small victory of culture over ideology.

House-Museum of M.A. Voloshin today is one of the most unique museums that have preserved the authenticity of the collection in the memorial building. Almost all the furniture in the House is handmade by the owner and is a work of art with paintings, inlays and burning. The house is filled with objects, books and rarities, acquired, donated, brought from abroad. By the will of fate and the efforts of many people, all these things were preserved in the places determined by their owner a century earlier, and together with the archive and artistic heritage of Maximilian Voloshin, today they make up the museum's stock collection, numbering more than 55 thousand items. For Europe, which has survived more than one war, this is - the rarest phenomenon in the museum world.

Maximilian Alexandrovich Voloshin(surname at birth -Kirienko-Voloshin; May 16, 1877, Kyiv, Russian Empire - August 11, 1932, Koktebel, Crimean ASSR, RSFSR, USSR) - Russian poet, translator , landscape painter, art and literary critic.

Maximilian Kirienko-Voloshin (born May 16 (28), 1877 in Kyiv, in the family of a lawyer, collegiate adviser).

Soon after the birth of their son, Voloshin's parents had a break in relations, Maximilian stayed with his mother, Elena Ottobaldovna (nee Glazer, 1850-1923), the poet maintained family and creative relations with her until the end of her life. Maximilian's father died in 1881.

Early childhood was spent in Taganrog and Sevastopol.

Voloshin began his secondary education at the 1st Moscow Gymnasium.

When he and his mother moved to the Crimea in Koktebel (1893), Maximilian went to the Feodosia gymnasium (the building has been preserved, now it houses the Feodosia State Financial and Economic Institute (FSFEI)). The walking path from Koktebel to Feodosia is about seven kilometers through a mountainous desert area, so Voloshin lived in rented apartments in Feodosia.

From 1897 to 1899, Maximilian studied at Moscow University, was expelled "for participation in the riots" with the right to be reinstated, did not continue his studies, and took up self-education. In the 1900s he traveled a lot, studied in the libraries of Europe, listened to lectures at the Sorbonne. In Paris, he also took drawing and engraving lessons from the artist E. S. Kruglikova.

Returning to Moscow at the beginning of 1903, he easily becomes "his own" among the Russians. symbolists; starts publishing. From that time on, living alternately at home, then in Paris, he does a lot to bring Russian and French art closer together; since 1904, from Paris, he regularly sends correspondence for the newspaper Rus and the magazine Libra, and writes about Russia for the French press.

On March 23, 1905, he became a Freemason in Paris, having received initiation in the Masonic Lodge "Labor and True True Friends" No. 137 (VLF). In April of the same year, he moved to the Mount Sinai Lodge No. 6 (VLF).

In April 1906, he marries the artist Margarita Vasilievna Sabashnikova and settles with her in St. Petersburg. Their complex relationship was reflected in many of Voloshin's works.

In 1907, Voloshin decides to leave for Koktebel. He writes the cycle "Cimmerian Twilight". Since 1910, he has been working on monographic articles about K. F. Bogaevsky, A. S. Golubkina, M. S. Saryan, advocates for the art groups "Jack of Diamonds" and "Donkey's Tail" (although he himself stands outside the literary and artistic groups ).

On November 22, 1909, a duel took place between Voloshin and N. Gumilyov on the Black River. Gumilyov's second was Evgeny Znosko-Borovsky. Voloshin's second was Count Alexei Tolstoy. The reason for the duel was the poetess Elizaveta Dmitrieva, with whom Voloshin composed a very successful literary hoax - Cherubina de Gabriak. He asked her for a petition to join the anthroposophical society, their correspondence lasted a lifetime, until the death of Dmitrieva in 1928.

The first collection of "Poems. 1900-1910" came out in Moscow in 1910, when Voloshin became a prominent figure in the literary process: an influential critic and an established poet with a reputation as a "strict Parnassian". In 1914, a book of selected articles on culture, Faces of Creativity, was published; in 1915 - a book of passionate poems about the horror of war - "Anno mundi ardentis 1915" ("In the year of the burning world 1915"). At this time, he pays more and more attention to painting, paints watercolor landscapes of the Crimea, and exhibits his works at exhibitions of the World of Art.

On February 13, 1913, Voloshin gave a public lecture at the Polytechnic Museum "On the artistic value of the affected painting by Repin." In the lecture, he expressed the idea that in the painting itself “self-destructive forces lurk”, that it was its content and art form that caused aggression against it.

In the summer of 1914, carried away by the ideas of anthroposophy, Voloshin arrived in Dornach (Switzerland), where, together with like-minded people from more than 70 countries (including Andrei Bely, Asya Turgeneva, Margarita Voloshina, etc.), he began the construction of the Goetheanum - the church of St. John, symbol of the brotherhood of peoples and religions .

In 1914, Voloshin wrote a letter to the Minister of War of Russia Sukhomlinov refusing military service and participation in the “bloody massacre” of the First World War.

After the revolution, Maximilian Voloshin finally settled in Koktebel, in a house built in 1903-1913 by his mother, Elena Ottobaldovna Voloshina. Here he created many watercolors that formed his Koktebel Suite. M. Voloshin often signs his watercolors: “Your wet light and matte shadows give the stones a turquoise shade” (about the Moon); “The distances are thinly carved, washed away by the light of the cloud”; “Purple hills in saffron twilight”… These inscriptions give some idea of ​​the artist’s watercolors — poetic, perfectly conveying not so much the real landscape as the mood it evokes, the endless untiring variety of lines of the hilly “country of Cimmeria”, their soft, muted colors, the line of the sea horizon - some kind of magical, organizing dash, clouds melting in the ashen moon sky. That allows us to attribute these harmonious landscapes to the Cimmerian school of painting.

During the years of the Civil War, the poet tried to moderate enmity by saving the persecuted in his house: first the Reds from the Whites, then, after the change of power, the Whites from the Reds. The letter sent by M. Voloshin in defense of O. E. Mandelstam, who was arrested by the Whites, very likely saved him from execution.

In 1924, with the approval of the People's Commissariat of Education, Voloshin turned his house in Koktebel into a free house of creativity (later - the House of Creativity of the Literary Fund of the USSR).

On March 9, 1927, the marriage of Maximilian Voloshin with Maria Stepanovna Zabolotskaya (1887-1976) was registered, who, having become the wife of the poet, shared the difficult years (1922-1932) with him and was his support. After the death of the poet, she managed to preserve his creative heritage and the Poet's House itself, which is a vivid example of civic courage.

Voloshin died after a second stroke on August 11, 1932 in Koktebel and was buried on Mount Kuchuk-Yanyshar near Koktebel. Voloshin bequeathed his house to the Union of Writers.

The work of Maximilian Alexandrovich had and has great popularity. Among the people who were influenced by his writings were Tsvetaeva, Zhukovsky, Anufrieva and many others.

Bibliography

• Voloshin M. Autobiography. // Memories of Maximilian Voloshin. - Collection, comp. Kupchenko V.P., Davydov Z.D. - M., Soviet writer, 1990 - 720 p.
• Voloshin M. About myself. // Memories of Maximilian Voloshin. - Collection, comp. Kupchenko V.P., Davydov Z.D. - M., Soviet writer, 1990 - 720 p.
• Voloshin M. Poems. 1900-1910 / Frontispieces and drawings. in the text of K. F. Bogaevsky; Region A. Arnstam. - M .: Grif, 1910. - 128 p.
• "Faces of creativity" (1914)
• Voloshin M. Anno mundi ardentis. 1915 / Region L. Bakst. — M.: Zerna, 1916. — 70 p.
• Voloshin M. Iverny: (Selected Poems) / Obl. S. Chekhonina (Art. B-chka "Creativity". N 9-10) - M .: Creativity, 1918. - 136 p.
• Voloshin M. Deaf and mute demons / Fig., screensavers and front. author; Portrait poet in the region K. A. Shervashidze. - Kharkov: Kamena, 1919. - 62 p.
• Voloshin M. Strife: Poems about the Revolution. - Lvov: Living Word, 1923. - 24 p.
• Voloshin M. Poems about terror / Obl. L. Golubev-Pagryanorodny. - Berlin: Book of Writers in Berlin, 1923. - 72 p.
• Voloshin M. Deaf and dumb demons / Region. Iv. Puni. Ed. 2nd. - Berlin: Book of Writers in Berlin, 1923. - 74 p.
• Voloshin M. Ways of Russia: Poems / Ed. and with preface. Vyach. Zavalishina. - Regensburg: Echo, 1946. - 62 p.
• Maximilian Voloshin is an artist. Collection of materials. - M .: Soviet artist, 1976. - 240 p. ill.

Painting works

• "Spain. By the sea" (1914)
• "Paris. Place de la Concorde at Night (1914)
• “Two trees in the valley. Koktebel (1921)
• "Landscape with Lake and Mountains" (1921)
• "Pink Twilight" (1925)
• "Hills parched with heat" (1925)
• "Moon Vortex" (1926)
• "Lead Light" (1926)

Photograph of the poet, taken in Odessa by photographer Maslov.

Maximilian Aleksandrovich Voloshin (real name Kirienko-Voloshin) is a poet, translator, literary critic, essayist, art critic, artist.

Maximilian's childhood passed in Moscow, where the family lived from 1881 to 1893. At the same time, he wrote his first poems.

In 1893 the family moved to the Crimea. Maximilian's mother bought a plot of land in Koktebel, where the family lived permanently.

In 1897, Maximilian graduated from the gymnasium in the city of Feodosia. In the same year, M. Voloshin moved to Moscow and entered the law faculty of the university.

In 1903, the first publication of poems by M.A. Voloshin.

The first and only record of reading poetry by M. Voloshin was in April 1924 (M. Voloshin read two poems: “The Burning Bush” and “Every day is getting quieter and quieter”).

“With the head of Zeus and the body of a bear,” this is how Valentin Kataev unfriendly, but truthfully, gave an idea of ​​​​the appearance of Maximilian Voloshin. Like, there was such an aesthetic, mediocre sybarite poet, who fell out of the era and was forgotten by almost everyone. In his time he preached fashionable truths, like Moses descended from Sinai. There was a house left - something like a museum, and a grave, attractive for holidaymakers, where instead of flowers it is customary to bring outlandish sea pebbles. Yes, there was a well-organized official oblivion, for decades Voloshin was not published in the USSR, because he did not fit into a well-planned literary framework. But everyone went, the “pilgrims” went to his Koktebel house and rewrote verses in tune with the soul from four weighty typewritten collections bound in canvas.

Portrait of M. Voloshin by A. Golovin

Today, without Voloshin, mention of the Silver Age is not complete, his poetry collections and volumes of prose are printed, watercolors and memoirs are published, and not only at home. In 1984, the French publishing house "YMCA-PRESS" released almost complete collection poems and poems with extensive commentary. Today (June-July 2010), within the framework of the "France-Russia" year, the exhibition "Voloshin in Paris" is opened on Sulpice Square in the French capital. And this is quite understandable - Voloshin considered Paris his spiritual homeland, he lived there repeatedly and for a long time. It is believed that Russian museums are indebted to Voloshin for an excellent collection of new French art, since the collector and philanthropist Sergei Shchukin trusted his taste, erudition and insight. Voloshin's erudition and contacts were immense. He communicated with Balmont, Bely, Benois, Bryusov, Blok, Merezhkovsky, Meyerhold, Stanislavsky, Gumilyov, Tsvetaeva, Surikov, Saryan. Let's add here Modigliani, Verhaarn, Maeterlinck, Rodin, Steiner. His portraits were created by such famous contemporaries as Golovin, Ostroumova-Lebedeva, Vereisky, Kruglikova, Petrov-Vodkin, Diego Rivera. For a hundred years now, one of the corners of Paris has been adorned with a sculptural portrait of the poet, made by Edward Wittig. However, Voloshin was not only a poet, but also a translator, literary critic, essayist, art critic and, of course, an artist. He seemed interested in everything in the world, from archeology and geography to magic, the occult, Freemasonry and Theosophy. He owned a colossal library:

Portrait of Voloshin by D. Rivera. Paris, 1916

Shelves of books rise like a wall.

Here at night they talk to me

Historians, poets, theologians.

World war and revolution destroyed the concept of the old and familiar values. “Our age is sick with neurasthenia,” declared Voloshin, who remained Robinson in his own artistic and poetic world, imbued with high morality and humanism. But even an undemanding poet in everyday life had to think about a way to survive. “I decided to go to Odessa to give lectures, hoping to earn money. I had Tsetlins in Odessa, who called me to them.

And so, at the end of January of the chaotic 1919, Voloshin arrived in our city and stopped at 36 Nezhinskaya, with his friends, who were still in Paris, Maria and Mikhail Tsetlin. "I came to Odessa as the last concentration of Russian culture and intellectual life." It was here that the last stop before the Great Exodus was. Against the backdrop of a motley intervention, unemployment, typhus and a half-starved life, the city was flooded with refugees from the Soviet of Deputies: industrialists, financiers, officials, speculators, terry banditry flourished, but cultural life flourished in parallel. Here were A. Tolstoy, E. Kuzmina-Karavaeva, Teffi, G. Shengeli, I. Bunin, V. Doroshevich, T. Shchepkina-Kupernik, A. Vertinsky, I. Kremer. I. Poddubny spoke. Dozens of newspapers and magazines were published. Adalis, Bagritsky, Bisk, Grossman, Inber, Kataev, Shishova, Fioletov, Olesha, Babadzhan gathered for literary evenings.

Voloshin reads poetry at meetings and in clubs, participates in disputes, makes presentations in the Literary-Artistic and Religious-Philosophical Societies, publishes in the press, speaks in the Oral Newspaper of the Union of Journalists, prepares a collection of his translations from E. Verhaarn for the Omphalos publishing house ". He also translates A. de Regnier “with rapture” and communicates friendly with young Odessa poets. Y. Olesha writes: “He treated us, young poets, condescendingly<...>He recited poetry excellently<...>Who did he sympathize with? What did he want for his country? Then he did not answer these questions.” However, Voloshin's answers were: "A person is more important to me than his convictions" and "I have a claim to be the author of my own social system."

Self portrait, 1919

In the tenacious memory of Bunin, Voloshin of 1919 was preserved as follows: "... he speaks with the greatest willingness and a lot, his whole body shines with sociability, goodwill towards everything and everyone, pleasure from everyone and everything - not only from what surrounds him in this bright, crowded and warm dining room, but even, as it were, from all that huge and terrible thing that is happening in the world in general and in dark, terrible Odessa, in particular, already close to the arrival of the Bolsheviks. brown velvet blouse, black pants so shiny and shoes broken<...>He was in great need at that time.” In the funds of the Koktebel House-Museum, there was a photograph of the poet, taken in Odessa by the photographer Maslov.

On the day the Bolsheviks arrived, April 4, Voloshin sent Alexei Tolstoy to emigration, but he himself refused to leave, explaining: "... when a mother is sick, her children stay with her." May Day was approaching and Voloshin decided to participate in the festive decoration of the city, offering to decorate the streets with colored banners with geometric shapes and poetic quotations, but the new government recalled his publications in the Socialist-Revolutionary press and removed him from the team of artists.

Portrait of Voloshin by G. Vereisky

I wanted to go home, to Koktebel. Voloshin uses his acquaintance with the chairman of the Odessa Cheka and receives permission to travel to the Crimea. But how? A man of incredible biography, Rear Admiral Alexander Nemitz, comes to the rescue and highlights the only available oak tree “Cossack” with three Chekist sailors, allegedly sent to communicate with Sevastopol.

And behind the city

All in a red frenzy

splashed banners,

All inflamed with anger and fear,

Chills of rumors, tremors of expectations,

Tormented by hunger, fads, blood,

Where late spring slips furtively

In transparent lace of acacias and flowers...

Four days of navigation were not calm, the sea was blocked by French destroyers, and one of the officers landed on a suspicious oak tree. Voloshin spoke to him without an interpreter, introduced himself as a refugee, it turned out along the way that there were mutual acquaintances in Paris, and everything, in general, worked out. The ship reached the Crimean shores, where, for a start, it was still fired from machine guns. At the same time, Voloshin translated Henri de Regnier.

House-Museum of M. Voloshin in Koktebel

There are many impressions about the outstanding personality of the poet and artist. He excited and amazed not only his friends, but even enemies. It's funny that some features of Voloshin during the Civil War can be guessed in Professor Maxim Gornostaev from Konstantin Trenev's highly revolutionary play Love Yarovaya, created in the mid-1920s. Lives in the Crimea, but also appeared in Odessa, the Soviet government issued him a safe-conduct for a house and books. Characteristic features of appearance are a beard and a wild hairstyle. His wife calls "Max". Therefore, the daring revolutionary sailor Shvandya is convinced that this is either Karl Marx, or, in extreme cases, his younger brother. In one of Gornostaev's remarks, Voloshin's motive sounded: “Man has been working for tens of thousands of years. From a half-beast to a demigod, he grew up. He crawled out of the cave on all fours, and now he flew up to the sky. His voice is heard for thousands of miles. Is it a man or a god? Turns out it's all a ghost. We are the same half-beasts.”

Grave of M.A. Voloshin in Koktebel. The photos were taken by S. Kalmykov with an interval of 45 years.

Portrait of Voloshin by Petrov-Vodkin

So, is the unique poet and artist only in the past? Judge for yourself. In Odessa in 2002-2003. two amazing books were published under the auspices of the World Club of Odessans - a reprint edition of the rarest poetic collection “The Ark” (Feodosia, 1920) with a poem by Voloshin and his beautifully published poem “Saint Seraphim”. The memorial plaque was installed in Kyiv, where Maximilian Voloshin was born. More recently, a monument was erected to him in Koktebel.

Voloshin bequeathed his house to the Union of Writers.

Sergey Kalmykov, local historian

Maksimilian Voloshin, poet, artist, literary critic and art critic. His father, lawyer and collegiate adviser Alexander Kiriyenko-Voloshyn, came from a family of Zaporozhye Cossacks, his mother, Elena Glazer, from Russified German nobles.

Voloshin's childhood passed in Taganrog. The father died when the boy was four years old, and the mother and son moved to Moscow.

"The end of adolescence is poisoned by the gymnasium", - wrote the poet, to whom study was not a joy. But he devoted himself to reading with rapture. First Pushkin, Lermontov, Nekrasov, Gogol and Dostoevsky, later Byron and Edgar Allan Poe.

In 1893, Voloshin's mother purchased a small plot of land in the Tatar-Bulgarian village of Koktebel and transferred her 16-year-old son to a gymnasium in Feodosia. Voloshin fell in love with the Crimea and carried this feeling through his whole life.

In 1897, at the insistence of his mother, Maximilian Voloshin entered the Faculty of Law at Moscow University, but did not study for long. Having joined the All-Russian student strike, he was suspended from classes in 1899 for "negative outlook and campaigning" and sent to Feodosia.

“My family name is Kiriyenko-Voloshyn, and it comes from Zaporozhye. I know from Kostomarov that in the 16th century there was a blind bandura player Matvey Voloshin in Ukraine, who was flayed alive by the Poles for political songs, and from Frantseva’s memoirs that the name of the young man who took Pushkin to the gypsy camp was Kirienko- Voloshin. I wouldn't mind if they were my ancestors."

Autobiography of Maximilian Voloshin. 1925

In the next two years, Voloshin made several trips to Europe. He visited Vienna, Italy, Switzerland, Paris, Greece and Constantinople. And at the same time he changed his mind about recovering at the university and decided to engage in self-education. Wanderings and an insatiable thirst for knowledge of the surrounding world became the engine, thanks to which all the facets of Voloshin's talent were revealed.

See everything, understand everything, know everything, experience everything
All forms, all colors to absorb with your eyes,
To walk all over the earth with burning feet,
Take it all in and make it happen again.

He studied literature in the best European libraries, listened to lectures at the Sorbonne, attended drawing lessons in the Parisian workshop of the artist Elizaveta Kruglikova. By the way, he decided to take up painting in order to professionally judge other people's work. In total, he stayed abroad from 1901 to 1916, living alternately either in Europe or in the Crimea.

Most of all, he loved Paris, where he visited often. In this Mecca of art of the early twentieth century, Voloshin communicated with the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, writers Anatole France, Maurice Maeterlinck and Romain Rolland, artists Henri Matisse, Francois Léger, Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, Diego Rivera, sculptors Emile Antoine Bourdelle and Aristide Maillol. The self-taught intellectual surprised his contemporaries with his versatility. At home, he easily entered the circle of symbolist poets and avant-garde artists. In 1903, Voloshin began to build a house in Koktebel according to his own design.

“... Koktebel did not immediately enter my soul: I gradually realized it as the true home of my spirit. And it took me many years of wandering along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea to understand its beauty and uniqueness ... ".

Maximilian Voloshin

In 1910, the first collection of his poems was published. In 1915 - the second - about the horrors of war. He did not accept the First World War, just as he later did not accept the revolution - "the cosmic drama of being." AT Soviet Russia his "Iveria" (1918) and "Deaf and Dumb Demons" (1919) are published. In 1923, the official persecution of the poet begins, he is no longer published.

From 1928 to 1961, not a single line of his was published in the USSR. But in addition to poetry collections, the creative baggage of Voloshin the critic contained 36 articles on Russian literature, 28 on French, 35 on Russian and French theater, 49 on events in French cultural life, 34 articles on Russian fine arts and 37 on art France.

After the revolution, Voloshin constantly lived in the Crimea. In 1924, he created the "Poet's House", reminiscent of both a medieval castle and a Mediterranean villa. The Tsvetaeva sisters, Nikolai Gumilyov, Sergei Solovyov, Korney Chukovsky, Osip Mandelstam, Andrei Bely, Valery Bryusov, Alexander Grin, Alexei Tolstoy, Ilya Ehrenburg, Vladislav Khodasevich, artists Vasily Polenov, Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Boris Kustodiev, Pyotr Konchalovsky, Aristarkh Lentulov, Alexander Benois ...

Maximilian Voloshin. Crimea. In the vicinity of Koktebel. 1910s

In the Crimea, the gift of Voloshin the artist was also truly revealed. The self-taught painter turned out to be a talented watercolorist. However, he painted his Cimmeria not from life, but according to his own method of finished image, thanks to which from under his brush came out impeccable in form and light views of the Crimea. “The landscape should depict the land on which you can walk- said Voloshin, - and the sky through which you can fly, that is, in landscapes ... you should feel the air that you want to breathe in deeply ... "

Maximilian Voloshin. Koktebel. Sunset. 1928

“Almost all of his watercolors are dedicated to the Crimea. But this is not the Crimea that any photographic camera can take, but this is some kind of idealized, synthetic Crimea, the elements of which he found around him, combining them at his own discretion, emphasizing the very thing that in the vicinity of Feodosia leads to comparison with Hellas, with the Thebaid, with some places in Spain, and in general with everything in which the beauty of the stone skeleton of our planet is especially revealed.

Art critic and artist Alexandre Benois

Maximilian Voloshin was a fan of Japanese prints. Following the example of the Japanese classics Katsushika Hokusai and Kitagawa Utamaro, he signed his watercolors with lines of his own poems. Each color for him had a special symbolic meaning: red is earth, clay, flesh, blood and passion; blue - air and spirit, thought, infinity and the unknown; yellow - the sun, light, will, self-awareness; purple - the color of prayer and mystery; green - the vegetable kingdom, hope and joy of being.

Biography

VOLOSHIN, MAKSIMILIAN ALEKSANDROVICH (pseud.; real name Kirienko-Voloshin) (1877−1932), Russian poet, artist, literary critic, art historian. Born May 16 (28), 1877 in Kyiv, paternal ancestors - Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, maternal ancestors - Russified in the 17th century. Germans. At the age of three he was left without a father, childhood and adolescence passed in Moscow. In 1893, his mother acquired a plot of land in Koktebel (near Feodosia), where Voloshin graduated from high school in 1897. Entering the Faculty of Law of Moscow University, he became involved in revolutionary activities, for his involvement in the All-Russian student strike (February 1900), as well as for his "negative outlook" and "a tendency to all kinds of agitation" was suspended from classes. In order to avoid other consequences, in the fall of 1900 he went to work on the construction of the Tashkent-Orenburg railway. Voloshin later called this period “the decisive moment in my spiritual life. Here I felt Asia, the East, antiquity, the relativity of European culture.”

Nevertheless, it is precisely the active familiarization with the achievements of the artistic and intellectual culture of Western Europe that becomes his life purpose starting with the first travels 1899−1900 to France, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, Greece. He was especially attracted to Paris, in which he saw the center of European and, therefore, universal spiritual life. Returning from Asia and fearing further persecution, Voloshin decides to "go to the West, go through the Latin discipline of form."

Voloshin lives in Paris from April 1901 to January 1903, from December 1903 to June 1906, from May 1908 to January 1909, from September 1911 to January 1912, and from January 1915 to April 1916. visits happen in both Russian capitals and lives in his Koktebel "poet's house", which becomes a kind of cultural center, a haven and a resting place for the writers' elite, "Cimmerian Athens", in the words of the poet and translator G. Shengeli. At different times, V. Bryusov, Andrei Bely, M. Gorky, A. Tolstoy, N. Gumilyov, M. Tsvetaeva, O. Mandelstam, G. Ivanov, E. Zamyatin, V. Khodasevich, M. Bulgakov, K. Chukovsky and many other writers, artists, actors, scientists.

Voloshin made his debut as a literary critic: in 1899 the journal Russkaya Mysl published his small reviews without a signature, and in May 1900 a large article In Defense of Hauptmann appeared there, signed “Max. Voloshin" and is one of the first Russian manifestos of modernist aesthetics. His further articles (36 on Russian literature, 28 on French, 35 on Russian and French theatre, 49 on events in the cultural life of France) proclaim and affirm the artistic principles of modernism, introduce new phenomena in Russian literature (especially the work of the "younger" symbolists ) in the context of modern European culture. “Voloshin was needed these years,” Andrey Bely recalled, “without him, the rounder sharp corners, I don’t know how the sharpening of opinions would end ... ”. F. Sologub called him “the questioner of this age”, and he was also called the “answering poet”. He was a literary agent, expert and intercessor, entrepreneur and consultant for the Scorpio and Grif publishing houses and the Sabashnikov brothers. Voloshin himself called his educational mission as follows: "Buddhism, Catholicism, magic, Freemasonry, occultism, theosophy ...". All this was perceived through the prism of art - the "poetry of ideas and the pathos of thought" were especially appreciated; therefore, “articles similar to poetry, poems similar to articles” were written (according to the remark of I. Ehrenburg, who dedicated an essay to Voloshin in the book Portraits contemporary poets (1923). At first, few poems were written, and almost all of them were collected in the book of Poems. 1900−1910 (1910). The reviewer V. Bryusov saw the “hand of a real master”, “jeweler” in it; Voloshin considered his teachers the virtuosos of poetic plasticity (as opposed to the "musical", Verlaine direction) T. Gauthier, J. M. Heredia and other French "Parnassian" poets. This self-characterization can be attributed to the first and second, unpublished (compiled in the early 1920s) collection Selva oscura, which included poems from 1910-1914: most of them were included in the book of the chosen Iverny (1916). From the beginning of World War I, Voloshin’s clear poetic reference point was E. Verhaern, whose translations by Bryusov were subjected to crushing criticism in the article by Emil Verhaarn and Valery Bryusov (1907), whom he himself translated “in different eras and from different points of view” and the attitude to summed up in Verhaarn's book. Fate. Creation. Translations (1919). Quite consonant with Verhaarn's poetics are the poems about the war that made up the collection Anno mundi ardentis 1915 (1916). Here the techniques and images of that poetic rhetoric were practiced, which became a stable characteristic of Voloshin's poetry during the revolution, civil war and subsequent years. Some of the poems of that time were published in the collection Deaf and Dumb Demons (1919), some under the conditional unifying title Poems about Terror was published in Berlin in 1923; but for the most part they remained in manuscript. In the 1920s, Voloshin compiled the books The Burning Bush from them. Poems about war and revolution and the Ways of Cain. Tragedy of material culture. However, in 1923 the official persecution of Voloshin began, his name was consigned to oblivion, and from 1928 to 1961 not a single line of his appeared in print in the USSR. When in 1961 Ehrenburg respectfully mentioned Voloshin in his memoirs, this caused an immediate rebuke from A. Dymshits, who pointed out: "M. Voloshin was one of the most insignificant decadents, he ... reacted negatively to the revolution." Voloshin returned to the Crimea in the spring of 1917. “I don’t leave it anymore,” he wrote in his autobiography (1925), “I don’t escape from anyone, I don’t emigrate anywhere ...”. “Not being on any of the fighting sides,” he said earlier, “I live only in Russia and what is happening in it ... I (I know this) need to stay in Russia to the end.” His house in Koktebel remained hospitable throughout the civil war: they found shelter and even hid from persecution "both the red leader and the white officer," as he wrote in the poem The Poet's House (1926). The “Red Leader” was Bela Kun, after the defeat of Wrangel, he was in charge of pacifying the Crimea through terror and organized famine. Apparently, as a reward for his harboring Voloshin, under the Soviet regime, the house was kept and relative safety was ensured. But neither these merits, nor the efforts of the influential V. Veresaev, nor the pleading and partly repentant appeal to the all-powerful ideologist L. Kamenev (1924) helped him break into the press. "Verse remains for me the only way to express my thoughts," wrote Voloshin. His thoughts rushed in two directions: historiosophical (poems about the fate of Russia, often taking on a conditionally religious coloring) and anti-historical (the cycle of the Paths of Cain imbued with the ideas of universal anarchism: “there I formulate almost all my social ideas, mostly negative. The general tone is ironic "). The inconsistency of thoughts characteristic of Voloshin often led to the fact that his poems were perceived as high-sounding melodic declamation (Holy Russia, Transubstantiation, the Angel of Times, Kitezh, the Wild Field), pretentious stylization (The Tale of the Monk Epiphanius, Saint Seraphim, Archpriest Avvakum, Dmetrius the Emperor) or aestheticized speculations (Thanob, Leviathan, Cosmos and some other poems from the cycle of the Ways of Cain). Nevertheless, many of Voloshin's poems of the revolutionary era were recognized as accurate and capacious poetic evidence (typological portraits of the Red Guard, Speculator, Bourgeois, etc., the poetic diary of the Red Terror, the rhetorical masterpiece Severovostok and such lyrical declarations as Readiness and At the bottom of the underworld) . The activity of Voloshin as an art critic ceased after the revolution, but he managed to publish 34 articles on Russian fine art and 37 on French. His first monographic work on Surikov retains its significance. The book Spirit of the Gothic, on which Voloshin worked in 1912-1913, remained unfinished. Voloshin took up painting in order to professionally judge the fine arts - and turned out to be a gifted artist, watercolor Crimean landscapes with poetic inscriptions became his favorite genre. Voloshin died in Koktebel on August 11, 1932.

Maximilian Alexandrovich Voloshin (real name Kirienko-Voloshin) (1877-1932) - Russian poet, artist, literary critic and art historian. He comes from Kyiv. At the age of 3 he lost his father. Mother in 1893 bought land in Koktebel, so the boy studied and graduated from the local gymnasium in 1897. While studying at Moscow University as a lawyer, he joined the revolutionaries, which was the reason for his dismissal. To avoid further repressions, in 1900 he went to the construction site of the Tashkent-Orenburg railway. Here there was a turning point in the outlook of the young man.

Numerous travels across Europe with frequent stops in his beloved Paris alternate with visits to Moscow, St. Petersburg and Koktebel. As for the latter, Voloshin's house becomes a "poet's house", which gathers not only the literary elite, but also creative people.

Since 1899, Voloshin has been publishing critical articles in support of modernism. At first, Voloshin had little poetry. All of it fit in the collection "Poems 1900−1910 (1910)". Many of his works remain unpublished. But V. Bryusov was able to discern the talent.

Since 1923, Voloshin has been persona non grata. Not a single printed edition of the Soviet Union from 1928 to 1961 contains a single word about Voloshin. The writer returned to Crimea in 1917 and remained to live in his "poet's house", where he received various disgraced friends and comrades. Voloshin's poetry of this period is either universally anarchic or historiosophical. As an art critic, Voloshin was exhausted after the revolution. Although he managed to print 71 articles about the fine arts of Russia and France. The monograph dedicated to Surikov is a very significant work. Voloshin worked on the work "The Spirit of the Gothic" in 1912-1913, but never completed it. Voloshin decided to paint pictures in order to plunge into the world of fine arts, but he turned out to be a rather talented artist. He liked to draw landscapes of the Crimea and leave poetic inscriptions on them. The writer died in August 1932 in Koktebel.