Galina Nikolaevna Kuznetsova: biography, personal life, contribution to literature

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

It is hardly worth writing about the poetess Galina Kuznetsova. This name will not say anything to anyone, except for literary critics and lovers of the work of I. A. Bunin. Allegedly adopted, but in fact - his mistress, she lived with Ivan Alekseevich and his wife in French Grasse and Paris. This strange "family" was joined by an unknown writer Leonid Zurov. They stayed in Paris, but much more often - in Grasse, in a villa. The Alps on one side, the sea on the other. No wonder there was written "The Life of Arseniev", a novel that so admired, for example, Paustovsky. Galina was also inspired, who later published a prose work about that period of her life. This was the most significant success of her work.

Kiev childhood. Emigration

Galya was born at the turn of the century, December 10, 1900. It was on this day that a daughter was born in a noble, with ancient roots, Kyiv family, who was to livevery difficult, contradictory, full of tragic events life. Soon they moved from the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital to the street, which she remembered primarily for its chestnuts. She was called Lewandowska. After 18 years, she graduated from the same gymnasium, women's, of course. Education there was good, but quite traditional, classical.

She lived with her mother, who married a second time, and with her stepfather. Relations between family members were very difficult. More about this can be found in the Prologue. This is the name of the autobiographical novel by G. N. Kuznetsova. There are vague, deaf references to this in her surviving diaries. This was the main reason for her very early marriage. She met the revolution as a married lady. The chosen one was a lawyer and officer of the White Army Dmitry Petrov. With him, she sailed in 1920 to the refuge of many emigrants from Russia, Constantinople. The ship, like all others like it, was crowded with fugitives, desperate and not seeing the future, but they did not accept the present of Russia, the Bolshevik, in any form. Maybe this was one of the reasons for the rapid rapprochement between Galina Nikolaevna Kuznetsova and Bunin? But this happened much later, when she was almost 33 years old.

Prague became the first European city for honeymooners. Naturally, there was no own house. They lived in the famous emigrant hostel. This "Dictionary" left a mark on the fate of many fugitives from the former empire. She tried to engage in creativity for a long time and now she entered the institute located in Paris. Soonthere, in the romantic French capital, they moved. This city is also famous for its chestnut trees, but in her memories they are not at all like those in Kyiv that grew near her childhood home.

Creativity

Poems of the new poetess immediately began to appear in numerous then Russian-language magazines. Prose was also written: stories, sketches, short stories. Critics praised, reviews were quite friendly. But Galina never became a poet with a capital letter. Her poems are too cold, although many are skillful. From the side of the form, there are not many claims to them. But she never learned to let her own feelings and emotions go through the description. And can it be learned? Her watercolor landscapes are transparent, but faceless, there is no author.

Compared to a painting, it is an exact depiction of what one sees, similar to a photograph. In her work, it is not in vain that there are almost no poems about love. She herself was vaguely aware of this. “The Artist” is the name of the story, where she tries to characterize herself. Nevertheless, her poems were highly appreciated by Vyacheslav Ivanov. However, it is understandable. The mystical, symbolist thinking of the author was close to him. Kuznetsova's poetry remained scattered in magazines. However, for its time, it started pretty well. At this time, the main event of her life took place.

A life-changing meeting

As evidenced by the biography, Galina Nikolaevna Kuznetsova lived quite well by that time. Okay, small stature, with a good figure, mischievous. So herperceived by many, especially at sea, where they went with Dmitry, as soon as such an opportunity was given. Only those closest to her could see the sadness in her eyes. They had already met with Bunin before. He took the manuscript that she was asked to deliver, said something, and they parted without making the slightest impression on each other.

They got to know each other again and again in 1926. It was the velvet season on the coast. She walked along the sea with the poet Mikhail Hoffman. Ivan Alekseevich was already sixty. He shook her hand at the meeting, she looked into his eyes. This was enough for her to leave her husband almost immediately after returning home. He didn't understand at all what had happened. For a long time he persuaded her to change her mind, even threatened the classics with death. After parting, he came for a long time with flowers, brought money. Everything was useless. He probably understood something and disappeared forever, dissolving among the many fellow countrymen who lived in Paris.

Two women and Bunin

A new life began, hardly expecting this from the fate of Galina. A longtime admirer of Bunin's work, Galina Nikolaevna Kuznetsova now felt mesmerized by his personality. Sometimes she tried to resist this, began to tear up his letters, but this only lasted until their next meeting. Nor did other people's opinions mean much to her. After all, rumors about the novel immediately became the number one news among the Russian emigration. Most of them, of course, condemned. Including Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva, his wife. How is it, to give 30 years to a man, to go with himthrough such trials, and now patiently endure the insult, smiling in bewilderment at acquaintances? What was she to do? The woman was well aware that without him there would be no life for her, as well as for him without her. Too many have been bound by these years.

Vera Nikolaevna found an incredible, but in many ways saving move. Her husband once lost a child from his first wife. A five-year-old boy burned out in just a week from the then deadly scarlet fever. There were no more children. So what did he see in this more like a young girly woman? Well, of course. She replaced his child. In such a double capacity, Galina began to live in their family. Officially for outsiders - a student of the master and an adopted daughter, in fact - a mistress. However, what actually happened in the triangle, the apex of which was Bunin, is not known. He himself destroyed the diaries of those years, burned them.

Memories

At least somehow hint at the truth, at least in order to avoid gossip, Galina herself could. The best and most famous of her creations is the Grasse Diary, dedicated precisely to the time of close communication between the three heroes of this article. But she did not say a word about her true attitude towards Ivan Alekseevich. A faithful admirer and student who fulfills the instructions of the owners, makes up a company during walks if necessary, listens to Bunin's reasoning about literature, daring to insert her remarks far from always. This is her image in this book.

But there is also the complexity of such an unusual, to put it mildly, situation. Characterthe owner of the house was well known to his wife. Over the years of living together, she managed to adapt to him, she understood that in all situations he would remain at the forefront. Irritable, caustic, often ruthless to others, a person who himself suffered no less than others from his egocentrism. Galina understood all this far from immediately. She writes about his anger at her attempts to engage in literature herself, about the impossibility of being herself in his presence. But she does not seem to understand the reasons for all this.

Four in one house

The situation became even more unusual and even extravagant when Bunin invited Zurov to live with them. Galina does not conceal this situation, but also only partially. This man was long and unrequitedly in love with V. N. Muromtseva. Moreover, Ivan Alekseevich knew about it. Piquant, of course. It is not in vain that so many colleagues in the pen who have never seen him like to write and mention the low moral character of the writer. Only everything there was much more complicated.

Gradually, she became more and more burdened by lack of freedom. Sometimes she escaped to Paris, went to exhibitions, to museums. He responded with a muffled annoyance, clenching his fists in anger. Leonid, meaning Zurov, did not add harmony to this company. He was a very unbalanced, perpetually despondent man. And Vera Nikolaevna did nothing but pity them all: her young rival, understanding her craving for freedom, Lenya, her husband. She didn't even try to change the situation.

Desperation

In Galina's bookNikolaevna Kuznetsova (photo in the article) the word “hopelessness” appears more and more often. The suffocating feeling of omnipotence over another person does not allow her to live and work. Yes, and Bunin himself let slip to his wife that the two of them would probably be better. Of course, more boring, but calmer. Everything was aggravated by the bad character of the owner. Over the years, he managed to quarrel with almost the entire literary community of the Russian emigration. He couldn't stand the rivalry. Hence his mocking, becoming famous, remarks about the poets and writers of Europe of that time. They almost never had guests in their house. Close friends and neighbors in Grasse said they would not like to have all four of them at once. The thread binding them and suffocating them all was immediately felt.

Galina Nikolaevna Kuznetsova (1900-1976) also writes about poverty, which was already becoming simply threatening. In this situation, the hope of winning the Nobel Prize became the only thing that promised salvation. And as it turned out, it was a trip to Stockholm that would be the salvation for all four. But before that, there was an acquaintance with Fedor Stepun, who was visiting them during his lecture trip. He turned out to be one of the few who were not at all embarrassed by Bunin's character. A man with sparkling humor, loving and able to argue, he practically did not agree with him in everything, but Ivan Alekseevich, which is strange, tolerated it. The presence of the guest somewhat relieved the situation, but he went to his place in Germany, and everything returned to normal.

"Grasse diary" is six years oldthe life of a woman who, probably, was not capable of independent, strong deeds. She could escape from the house that had become almost a prison, when the artist who did not leave her indifferent looked after her. His last name was Sorin. He did not insist as strongly as he should have done in this case, and she did not dare to break with the past.

Gap

They went to Stockholm without Zurov. They decided to return by a roundabout way, first visiting Stepun in Dresden. This turned out to be the beginning of the end of an already unbearable relationship for all. The fact is that at that time his sister, a talented and quite famous singer, who was an ardent lesbian, was visiting him. And Galina, after so many years of living with a talented poet and prose writer, but an unbearable person, perhaps, was no longer able to fall in love with a man. Accustomed to the role of a "slave" person, she was unable to resist the pressure of a domineering woman who charmed her from the first meeting.

Not much is known about the life of Margarita Stepun before meeting Galina. She was from a very we althy family of a manufacturer. Until 1917, most likely, she lived in Moscow. In exile, she performed a lot with concerts. Music, a beautiful voice of a new friend, a different environment. All this played a role, and another Galina returned to Grasse, whom Bunin internally did not accept. And soon Marga, as her relatives and friends called her, came to them. What happened then in the house is known from the records of V. N. Muromtseva. She calls the guest a special proud, with a difficult character and inflated conceit. But that's why she fit in with themestablished company. However, everything was balanced by her calm disposition. Bunin became more and more annoyed about the friendship of Galina Nikolaevna Kuznetsova and Margarita Stepun (photo in the article), but endured. He didn't really understand what was going on. When Margarita Stepun left, he tried to bring relations with the "student" back on track, but this was hardly possible. It wasn't long before she also went to Germany.

For Bunin, this was a collapse, a shock. He perceived the act of Galina Nikolaevna Kuznetsova, whose personal life is discussed in the article, as a betrayal, an insult. And she understood that the new hobby left her no choice. From now on, there was no place for her next to Jan, as Vera Nikolaevna called him. She needed self-justification, and she found it in the fact that after receiving the award, he no longer needed support so much. A complete break in relations, however, did not happen. The classic's wife really became attached to her, as to her daughter. And during the Nazi occupation, circumstances developed in such a way that women in love were forced to live in the same Grasse house. Bunin did not attempt to return it. Angry, perplexed about the "weird couple", but almost reconciled.

New life

Margarita was not so painfully selfish, but in authority she was not much inferior to Ivan Alekseevich. Galya, in fact, remained in the same subordinate position, but was not burdened by them. She became more self-confident, somewhat overcoming her complexes, continuedliterary studies, published. But the first violin in this duet was, of course, Marga. The stories and poems of Galina Nikolaevna Kuznetsova again began, although not often, to be taken to magazines, published, but she never gained any significant status. Too much time has been wasted. The Grasse Diary by Galina Nikolaevna Kuznetsova was published in Washington in 1967. It was a separate publication that immediately aroused great interest. Despite the fact that she nevertheless decided to break off relations with Bunin, she remained in the minds of her contemporaries and descendants only thanks to him.

Back in 1949, Galina Nikolaevna Kuznetsova and Margarita Stepun left for the USA. The personal life of both was quite satisfactory. They stayed together until the very end. Since 1955, they worked at the UN, in the Russian department. Together with all the staff, ten years later they were transferred to Geneva. In recent years, Munich has become a place of residence. Galina survived Margarita Avgustovna by five years. She died in 1976, February 8. Both were buried in the same German city.

Afterword

It is worth mentioning the fate of other heroes of this story. Bunin's bonus money did not last long. The last years the writer spent in poverty, which would not be an exaggeration to call terrifying. I had little contact with people, and even more so with writers. With age, he became more and more bilious and unbearable in a relationship. But he became close with Soviet writers, even thinking about returning. However, his biography is well known to everyone. And in 1961, 8 years after the death of the author of The Darkalleys,”his martyr-wife was gone. By the way, in recent years she was paid a pension that came from the USSR. This allowed the status of the wife of a Russian writer. Zurov remained. He did not start an independent life. Lived with the Bunins. A very severe mental disorder, which led to nothing literary work and death in a psychiatric asylum in 1971. He rested with Ivan and Vera Bunin at the Parisian cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, famous for the graves of Russian emigrants.