Konstantin Dmitrievich Balmont was born on June 15, 1867 in the Gumnishchi of the Vladimir province. The poet's father, Dmitry Konstantinovich, a poor landowner, served for half a century in the Shuya zemstvo - as a conciliator, magistrate, chairman of the congress of justices of the peace and, finally, chairman of the district zemstvo council. Mother, Vera Nikolaevna, received an institute education, taught and treated peasants, staged amateur performances and concerts, and was published in provincial newspapers. In Shuya, she was a famous and respected person.

In 1876, Balmont was sent to the preparatory class of the Shuya gymnasium, where he studied until 1884. He was expelled from the gymnasium for belonging to a revolutionary circle. Two months later, Balmont was admitted to the Vladimir Gymnasium, which he graduated in 1886. In the Vladimir gymnasium, the young poet began his literary career - in 1885, three of his poems were published in the Zhivopisnoe Obozreniye magazine. Immediately after graduating from the gymnasium, at the invitation of Balmont, he traveled to the districts of the Vladimir province: Suzdal, Shuisky, Melenkovsky and Muromsky.

After graduating from high school, Balmont entered Moscow University at the Faculty of Law, a year later he was expelled for participating in student riots and sent to Shuya. He tried to continue his education at the Demidov Lyceum in Yaroslavl, but again failed. Balmont owed his extensive knowledge of history, literature and philology only to himself.

In February 1889 KD Balmont married Larisa Mikhailovna Garelina, his daughter. The poet's parents were against it - he decided to break with his family. The marriage was unsuccessful.

Balmont finally decided to take up literature. He published the first "Collection of Poems", published at his own expense in Yaroslavl. This venture did not bring any creative or financial success, but the decision to continue literary studies remained unchanged.

Balmont found himself in a difficult situation: without support, without funds, he was literally starving. Fortunately, very soon people were found who took part in the fate of the aspiring poet. First of all, this is V.G. Korolenko, whom he met while still in Vladimir as a schoolboy.

Another patron of Balmont was N.I. Storozhenko, a professor at Moscow University. He helped Balmont get an order for the translation of two fundamental works of Horn-Schweitzer's History of Scandinavian Literature and Gaspari's two-volume History of Italian Literature. The time of Balmont's professional development falls on the years 1892 - 1894. He translates a lot: he makes a complete translation of Shelley, gets the opportunity to publish in magazines and newspapers, expands the circle of literary acquaintances.

At the beginning of 1894, the first "real" collection of poems by Balmont, Under the Northern Sky, was published. Balmont is already a well-known writer, translator of E. Poe, Shelley, Hoffmann, Calderon.

In 1895, Balmont published a new collection of poems "In the Boundlessness".

In September 1896, he married (two years earlier, the poet divorced his former wife). Immediately after the wedding, the young people went abroad.

Several years spent in Europe gave Balmont an extraordinary amount. He visited France, Spain, Holland, Italy and England. The letters from this period are filled with new impressions. Balmont spent a lot of time in libraries, improved languages, was invited to Oxford to give lectures on the history of Russian poetry.

The collections "Under the Northern Sky", "In Boundlessness", "Silence" are considered in the history of Russian poetry to be closely connected with the earlier period of the poet's work.

In 1900, a collection of poems "Burning Buildings" was published. With the appearance of this book, a new and main period in the life and literary activity of Balmont begins.

In March 1901, the poet became a true hero in St. Petersburg: he publicly read the anti-government poem "The Little Sultan", and this event had a huge political resonance. This was immediately followed by administrative repression and exile.

Since the spring of 1902, the poet has lived in Paris, then moved to London and Oxford, followed by Spain, Switzerland, Mexico and the United States of America. The result of this trip, in addition to poetry, were travel sketches and translations of the myths of the Aztecs and Mayans, which were combined in the book "Serpent Flowers" (1910).

At the end of 1905 in Moscow, the Grif publishing house published the book Fairy Tales. It contained 71 poems. It is dedicated to Ninika - Nina Konstantinovna Balmont-Bruni, daughter of Balmont and EA Andreeva.

In July 1905, the poet returned to Moscow. The revolution took over him. He writes accusatory verses, collaborates in the newspaper "New Life". But deciding that he was one of the clear contenders for the tsarist reprisal, Balmont left for Paris. The poet left Russia for more than seven years.

All seven years spent abroad, Balmont mostly lives in Paris, leaving for a short time to Brittany, Norway, the Balearic Islands, Spain, Belgium, London, Egypt. The poet retained his love for travel throughout his life, but he always clearly felt cut off from Russia.

On February 1, 1912, Balmont sets off on a round-the-world trip: London - Plymouth - Canary Islands - South Africa - Madagascar - Tasmania - South Australia - New Zealand - Polynesia (islands of Tonga, Samoa, Fiji) - New Guinea - Celebes, Java, Sumatra - Ceylon - India.

In February 1913, a political amnesty was announced in connection with the “three-hundredth anniversary of the Romanov dynasty,” and Balmont received the long-awaited opportunity to return to his homeland. He arrived in Moscow at the very beginning of May 1913. A huge crowd of people was waiting for him at the Brest railway station.

At the beginning of 1914, the poet again briefly left for Paris, then to Georgia, where he gave lectures. He is given a magnificent reception. After Georgia, Balmont left for France, where the First World War found him. Only at the end of May 1915, the poet managed to return to Russia.

Balmont enthusiastically accepted the February Revolution, but soon became disillusioned. After the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks, mindful of Balmont's past liberal views, summoned him to the Cheka and asked: "What party are you a member of?" Balmont replied: "I am a poet."

For KD Balmont, difficult times came. It was necessary to support two families: wife E. A. Andreeva and daughter Nina, who lived in Moscow, and Elena Tsvetkovskaya with her daughter Mirra, who lived in Petrograd. In 1920, they moved to Moscow, which meets them with cold and hunger. Balmont begins the hassle of going abroad.

On May 25, 1920, Balmont and his family left Russia forever. Separation from his homeland Balmont suffered hard. His relationship with the Russian literary emigration was not easy. He maintained close ties with.

Balmont died (of pneumonia) on the night of December 24, 1942. Noisy-le-Grand is located to the east of Paris. Here, at the local Catholic cemetery, there is a gray stone cross, on which is written in French: "Konstantin Balmont, Russian poet."

Sources:

Balmont KD Selected works: poems, translations, articles / Konstantin Balmont; comp., entry. Art. and comments. D.G. Makogonenko. - M.: Pravda, 1991 .-- S. 8-20.

In August 1876, at the age of 9, KD Balmont entered the preparatory class of the Shuya progymnasium, which was later transformed into a gymnasium. Acceptance tests were passed to the round four. On the reverse side of the examination sheet, the poet's children's autograph is a dictation and an arithmetic problem. Balmont studied mediocre, which is evident from the so-called point books, in which the quarter and annual marks of students were entered: he showed the best successes in history and in the French language, in the 3rd grade he remained for the 2nd year. According to the teachers, he was a capable boy who did not suffer from gymnasium ambition, which is why he did not pursue good grades.

Balmont's behavior, except for the preparatory class (where there was 5), was always marked with a score of 4, probably due to the liveliness of his character. There are almost no records of behavior and no serious misconduct.

In the fall of 1884, 5 students were dismissed from the Shuya gymnasium at once, including on September 18th and the youngest - 17-year-old Balmont Konstantin, 7th grade. All these students were dismissed according to the petitions of their parents - Balmont - "due to illness." The dismissal of students followed in violation of the existing rules without the participation of the pedagogical council. The director of the gymnasium Rogozinnikov suggested that parents take their sons from the gymnasium, of course, under the threat of expulsion, in case of failure to fulfill this requirement, with a worse certification, so that the parents were forced to obey. On the same day, when the students were dismissed, they were issued documents and certificates of education, and all were given a low mark in behavior - 4 and also without the pedagogical council, which had the right to certify the behavior of students. In the certificate of K. Balmont for No. 971, triplets were displayed for all subjects. All his papers - a certificate, a birth certificate and a medical certificate under the power of attorney of his mother were received by his older brother - Arkady.

What was the fault of these disciples? What was the reason for their dismissal from the gymnasium so quickly? This is what Constantine later wrote about it.

“In 1884, when I was in the seventh grade of the gymnasium, a certain D., a writer, came to my hometown of Shuyu, brought an issue of the revolutionary newspapers Znamya i Volya and Narodnaya Volya, several revolutionary brochures, and at his call they gathered in in one house, in a small number, a few high-school students and a few adults with a revolutionary attitude. D. told us that the Revolution would break out in Russia not today - tomorrow, and that for this it was only necessary to cover Russia with a network of revolutionary circles. I remember how one of my beloved comrades, the son of the mayor (Nikolai Listratov), ​​who was accustomed to arranging hunting trips for ducks and woodcocks with his comrades, sat at the window and, spreading his arms, said that, of course, Russia was completely ready for the Revolution and needed only to organize it, which is not at all easy. I silently believed that all this is not easy, but very difficult, the enterprise is stupid. But I sympathized with the idea of ​​spreading self-development, agreed to join a revolutionary circle and undertook to keep revolutionary literature at home. Searches followed very quickly in the city, but in those patriarchal times, the gendarme officer did not dare to search the houses of the two main persons of the city - the mayor and the chairman of the zemstvo council. Thus, neither I nor my friend ended up in prison, but were only expelled from the gymnasium, along with several others. We were soon admitted to the gymnasium, where we graduated under supervision. " The supervisory state of K. Balmont also gave its positive results. He hardly distracted himself from studying, studying languages, reading books, writing and translating poetry.

In early November 1884, Balmont was admitted to the 7th grade of the Vladimir provincial gymnasium. He was not taciturn or shy, but he was not eloquent either, and he quickly established relations with his new comrades. He was ordered to live in Vladimir in the apartment of his strict class teacher, the teacher of the Greek language Osip Sedlak. The first half of the school year was already coming to an end, the beginner had to sharply catch up with his peers and, at the cost of great efforts, still managed to pass all the subjects successfully and on time.

And the first appearance of Konstantin in print refers to the Vladimir period of his life. As a pupil of the 8th grade of the gymnasium, in 1885 he published three poems in the Zhivopisnoe Obozreniye magazine (No. 48, November 2 - December 7): "Bitterness of Torment", "Awakening", "Farewell Look". Of these, the first two are his own, and the third is a translation from Lenau. Subscribed - “Const. Balmont ". This event was not particularly noticed by anyone except the class teacher, who forbade Balmont to publish until he completed his studies at the gymnasium.

On December 4, 1885, Konstantin from Vladimir wrote to Nikolai Listratov, already a student at Moscow University: “I have long wanted to write to you, but everything is not working out, I can’t get away from the sciences - I’m studying, brother. I was overwhelmed by the desire to finish the gymnasium. Whether the efforts will be crowned with success and how long will the patience be enough to cram is covered in the darkness of the unknown.<…>If I stay with my nose in May, it won't matter. And if I get to the University, then I will live gloriously. By the way, the future does not seem to be pale either: Korolenko was here - an employee of Rus<ской>M<ысли>"And" North<ерного>IN<естника>"(I tell everyone about him - he can't get out of my head, how did you get out of your head during it - remember? - D-sky?) This same Korolenko, having read my poems, found in me - imagine - talent. So my thoughts on writing are getting some support. Footprints<ательно>and social studies and learning new languages ​​("Swedish, Norwegian ...") will go much faster. Maybe something will actually be danced. "

“When I was graduating from high school in Vladimir Gubernskoye, I first met a writer personally, and this writer was none other than the most honest, kind, delicate companion that I have ever met in my life, the most famous narrator in those years, Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko. Before his arrival in Vladimir, on a visit to engineer M. M. Kovalsky and his wife A. S. Kovalskaya, I gave A. S. Kovalskaya, at her request, a notebook of my poems to read. These were poems written by me mainly at the age of 16-17. She gave this notebook to Korolenko. He took her with him and later wrote me a detailed letter about my poetry. He pointed out to me the wise law of creativity, which at that time of my youth I only suspected, but he clearly and poetically expressed it in such a way that the words of V.G.Korolenko forever engraved in my memory and were remembered by feeling, like the clever word of an elder, which must be obeyed. He wrote to me that I have many beautiful details, particulars, successfully captured from the natural world, that you need to focus your attention, and not chase after every moth that flashed by, that you don't need to rush your feeling with thought, but you need to trust the unconscious region of the soul, which imperceptibly accumulates his observations and comparisons, and then all of a sudden it all blooms, like a flower suddenly blooms after a long invisible pore of accumulation of its forces. I have remembered this golden rule and I remember it now. This flower rule would have to be, sculpturally, picturesquely and verbally brought over the entrance to that strict shrine, which is called Creativity.

A feeling of gratitude tells me to say that Vladimir Galaktionovich finished his letter to me with the words: "If you manage to concentrate and work, we will hear something extraordinary from you over time." Needless to say, what delight and a stream of aspirations poured into my heart from these words of Korolenko. "

Balmont graduated from the gymnasium course in 1886, in his own words, "having lived like in prison for a year and a half." “I curse the gymnasium with all my might. It disfigured my nervous system for a long time, ”the poet later wrote.

In 1886 Balmont entered the Faculty of Law at Moscow University. But the future poet periodically came to Vladimir and wrote letters to his friends.

Vladimir province, Shuisky district, a tiny village of Gumnishchi, a modest estate - on June 3, 1867, Konstantin Dmitrievich Balmont was born here, who became one of the best symbolist poets of the "Silver Age" of Russian poetry. He was the third child in the family, and the name of the boy was given in honor of his grandfather, a naval officer. Dmitry Konstantinovich, his father, served all his life in the zemstvo and court of the city of Shuya, starting his career as a collegiate registrar, then becoming a magistrate, and later chairman of the zemstvo council. His wife Vera Nikolaevna, the daughter of a general, gave birth to seven sons to her husband, but such a large family did not prevent her from studying literature. Her poems were published in the local press, she staged amateur performances and literary evenings, knew several languages ​​and was prone to some freethinking - “unreliable” often stayed in the Balmont's house. It was the mother's influence that shaped the poet's worldview, it was she who introduced him to the world of literature, history and music and conveyed to her son the passion and unbridled nature of nature.

Kostya learned to read at the age of five, and on his own, spying on the lessons that his mother gave to his older brother. Upon learning of this, his father gave Kostya his first book of his own, and his mother began to acquaint the boy with Russian poets. Soon the Balmont moved to Shuya, where in 1876 Kostya was sent to a gymnasium. Studying bored him pretty quickly, but the boy began to read literally voraciously, and he studied French and German writers in the originals. At the age of ten, he wrote his first poems, but his mother criticized them, and Kostya left his attempts at creativity for six whole years.

In the seventh grade, the future poet joined an illegal circle that distributed proclamations of the People's Will in Shuya. The consequence of these revolutionary sentiments was the expulsion from the gymnasium. The mother managed to arrange the young People's Will in the Vladimir gymnasium and to settle with the teacher of the Greek language, who "supervised" Kostya. According to Balmont himself, the last year and a half in the gymnasium became a real prison for him, disfiguring the nervous system. But at the same time he experienced the first shock of a literary work after reading Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov.

In November and December 1885, three poems by Konstantin Balmont were published by the popular metropolitan magazine "Picturesque Review". From the poet's "adult" circle, this debut was noticed only by Kostin's mentor, who immediately forbade him to publish until he graduated from the gymnasium. But Balmont's fellow practitioners sent a notebook with his poems to the writer Korolenko, who responded with a very favorable response.

In the summer of 1886, Konstantin Balmont was enrolled in the first year of the law faculty of Moscow University. In his youth, the poet was a rebel and a revolutionary to a much greater extent than a writer - he dreamed of “going to the people” and making the dream of universal human happiness come true. It is not surprising that at the university he made friends with the sixties Nikolayev, and six months later he took part in student riots. Many students considered the new university charter reactionary and strongly opposed its introduction. As a result, Balmont was expelled from the university, arrested, and after three days spent by the poet in the Butyrka prison, he was exiled to Shuya.

Two years later, Konstantin married - the daughter of one of the Shuya manufacturers, Larisa Garelina. The parents were categorically against this marriage and deprived their son of financial assistance. Larisa Garelina gave birth to two children for Balmont, one of whom survived - his son Nikolai.

In the same 1889, Konstantin returned to Moscow, but could not continue his studies at the university. The doctors called the reason for this severe nervous exhaustion. Balmont tried to continue his education in Yaroslavl, having successfully entered the Demidov Lyceum of Legal Sciences, but he did not force himself to seriously study jurisprudence - at that time he was fascinated by German literature and wrote a lot himself. In Yaroslavl in 1890 Balmont made his real debut as a poet - he published a collection of poems for his own money. True, this book did not arouse any interest even among close people, and Konstantin burned the entire edition.

In the early spring of 1890, the twenty-two-year-old poet attempted suicide by throwing himself out of a third-floor window. The reason for this was the family and financial situation, and the impetus was the reading of The Kreutzer Sonata. Konstantin did not manage to die, but due to serious fractures he was ill for a whole year. In the fall, he was expelled from the lyceum - this time for academic failure. This was the end of the poet's "state education", and Balmont owes all his knowledge exclusively to himself and to some extent to his elder brother, who was passionately fond of philosophy.

The year spent by the poet in bed turned out to be very fruitful for him in terms of creativity and entailed, in his words, "the flourishing of cheerfulness and mental excitement." Nevertheless, Balmont parted with his wife, took offense at his freethinking friends (because of his literary activities, who accused him of betraying the "ideals of social struggle") and literally begged for quite a long time. The magazines did not want to publish his poems, but Konstantin did not lose heart. There were also well-wishers. Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko, after meeting with the poet, wrote to the editor of Severny Vestnik. Konstantin took an article about Shelley's work to the professor of Moscow University Storozhenko, and Storozhenko found him a job, persuading the publisher Soldatenkov to entrust Balmont with the translation of fundamental works. For three years the poet translated "The History of Scandinavian Literature" and "The History of Italian Literature" - and the translations not only saved him from hunger, but also made it possible to fulfill his own creative dreams. In addition, thanks to the patronage of Korolenko and Storozhenko, Balmont became a member of the editorial board of the Severny Vestnik magazine, around which young poets were then grouped.

In the fall of 1892, the poet met Nikolai Minsky, Dmitry Merezhkovsky and Zinaida Gippius in St. Petersburg. He also became close to Prince Urusov, a connoisseur of Western European literature and a well-known philanthropist. Urusov financed two books by Edgar Poe, translated by Balmont, and the patron greatly praised the poems of Konstantin Dmitrievich himself, included in his first collections "Under the Northern Sky" (1894) and "In Boundlessness" (1895). According to Balmont, it was Prince Urusov who helped him find himself and free his soul.

In 1894, Balmont met with Valery Bryusov, who became his best friend. A year later, the poet met the poet Jurgis Baltrushaitis and the publisher of the Vesy magazine Polyakov. In 1900, Polyakov founded the Scorpion publishing house of the Symbolists, which published the best books of the poet.

The first collections of Balmont's poems did not delight the critics, but nevertheless provided Konstantin Dmitrievich with access to well-known literary magazines. The last years of the 19th century generally became a time of active creativity for the poet, and in various fields. Balmont's performance was simply phenomenal - he studied languages ​​and history, natural sciences and folk art, read unthinkably a lot (from treatises on painting to research on Sanskrit).

In 1896, Konstantin Dmitrievich married again. Together with his wife, translator Ekaterina Andreeva, he left for Europe and spent several years there. In 1897 he was invited to lecture on Russian poetry at Oxford. The poet's life was full of meaning and happiness, exclusively aesthetic and mental interests reigned in it. Balmont expounded his European impressions in the 1898 collection Silence, recognized at that time as his best book. In 1899, the poet joined the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature.

In the late nineties, Konstantin Dmitrievich found another close friend, the poet Mirra Lokhvitskaya. Their relationship developed in correspondence, a real "novel in verse." Balmont tried to make these platonic feelings a reality - but the married and sober-minded Lokhvitskaya suppressed attempts, without stopping, however, the correspondence. Despite the complete "virtuality", the connection of the poets turned out to be very strong and serious and ended only in 1905 - due to the untimely death of Lokhvitskaya.

However, this strange novel did not prevent the poet from leading a far from measured personal life in reality. In 1901, his daughter Nina was born, and about the same time he met Elena Tsvetkovskaya, the daughter of a general, a student at the Sorbonne and his passionate admirer. Tsvetkovskaya caught every word of the poet, and very quickly he did not so much fall in love with her as began to need her devotion. The poet did not want to leave his wife, and his life was divided: he either returned to his family or left with Tsvetkovskaya.

In 1900, Balmont's collection "Burning Buildings" was published, which was completely different from the previous ones and took a central place in his work. The poems from this collection brought the author all-Russian fame and the status of one of the leaders of the new poetic movement - symbolism. Ten years after the release of Burning Buildings, the crown of Russian poetry belonged to Balmont - the rest of the poets either tried to imitate him, or defended independence with incredible difficulty. By this time, the poet's lifestyle had changed: assiduous homework alternated with revelry, and his wife was looking for him all over Moscow. But the inspiration did not go away, and Balmont wrote a lot, wondering and rejoicing at the depths of his own soul. The very next book, Let's Be Like the Sun, which appeared in 1902, sold almost two thousand copies in six months - an unheard-of success for a collection of poems.

However, the poet's revolutionary mood did not leave either. In 1901, Konstantin Dmitrievich took part in a student demonstration at the Kazan Cathedral, demanding the cancellation of the decree on the passage of soldier's service by unreliable students. In March, Balmont read The Little Sultan, a poem criticizing the regime of terror and the emperor, at a literary evening. The result was a link from St. Petersburg and a ban on living in the capital and university cities for a period of three years. For several months Balmont lived on the Volkonsky estate, and in the spring of 1902 he left for Paris. For more than a year he traveled around Europe, then briefly returned to Moscow, from where he went to the Baltic States and again to Europe. Glory followed him - everywhere poetic circles of followers - "balmonists" were created, and their members imitated their idol not only in poetry, but also in their way of life. According to Valery Bryusov, Russia literally fell in love with Balmont.

In 1904-1905, the Scorpion publishing house published a two-volume edition of Balmont's poems (which later turned into a ten-volume collection of works), and the poet himself at the beginning of 1905 left for America to travel to Mexico and California. His travel essays and notes, along with free translations of Indian cosmogonic legends, were subsequently included in the book "Snake Flowers", published in 1910.

Konstantin Dmitrievich returned from America in 1905 and immediately plunged into the political life of Russia. He became close to Gorky, worked actively in the social democratic newspaper Novaya Zhizn and in the Parisian magazine Krasnoe Znamya. Fortunately, in the armed Moscow uprising, Balmont participated mainly in poetry - but nevertheless he constantly stuck out in the streets, made fiery speeches in front of students, built barricades and carried a loaded revolver with him. True, the poet no longer wanted to be arrested - and on New Year's Eve he left for France, where he remained for seven whole years, believing himself to be a real political emigrant.

Balmont settled in Passy, ​​a Parisian quarter, but all the years of emigration he traveled a lot - he traveled around Europe. was in the Balearic Islands, Egypt, the Canary Islands, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India, Polynesia and Ceylon. The inhabitants of Oceania impressed him especially deeply.

The poet yearned for his homeland constantly and acutely, but he was afraid to return - and, most likely, he was rightly afraid. The tsarist secret police considered Balmont to be politically unreliable and dangerous, keeping secret surveillance over him even in Europe. His book "Poems", published in 1906 in St. Petersburg, was confiscated by the police, the collection "Evil Charms" of the same year was arrested by the censorship "for blasphemy", and "The Avenger's Songs", published a year later in Paris, were banned from distribution in Russia. Apparently, the first Russian revolution also affected Balmont's fascination with the epic side of Slavic culture - but about the collections “The Firebird. Svirel of the Slav ”and“ Green Helicopter City. Kissing words ”critics responded very dismissively.

In 1907, Elena Tsvetkovskaya gave birth to the poet's daughter Mirra, and his family life was completely confused. Mental torment again led Balmont to an unwillingness to live - but his second jump from the window did not lead to death. Before the revolutionary events in Russia, he lived in St. Petersburg with Elena and from time to time visited Catherine in Moscow.

In 1913, the emperor announced an amnesty to political emigrants, and in May Balmont returned to Moscow, where he was given a solemn welcome right at the station. The police forbade the poet to give a speech to the public, and, according to the press, he scattered the live lilies of the valley in the crowd. For several months the poet traveled across Russia with lectures, and at the beginning of the next year he again left for Paris, and from there to Georgia, where he studied the Georgian language and began to translate "The Knight in the Panther's Skin". Among other major translations of Balmont during this period is the transposition of ancient Indian literary monuments.

The First World War found Konstantin Dmitrievich in France, and he managed to return to Russia only at the end of the spring of 1915. In September, he again went to lectures in Russian cities, and a year later he repeated his tour, completing it in the Far East and Japan.

Balmont accepted the February revolution with enthusiasm and immediately began to cooperate with the Society of Proletarian Arts, but the new government disappointed him very quickly. The poet joined the Cadet Party, welcomed Kornilov's activities and watched in horror as his homeland was heading towards chaos. The October Revolution terrified him even more. Balmont did not want to compromise with the Soviet regime, but his financial situation left much to be desired - especially since the poet had to support two families. Therefore, I had to be loyal: Konstantin Dmitrievich moved with Tsvetkovskaya to Moscow, got a job at the People's Commissariat for Education, read lectures, published poetry and translations - and practically starved. In early 1920, Balmont began to bother about a trip abroad, motivating her need for the poor health of his wife. Thanks to Baltrushaitis, he got Lunacharsky on a business trip to France and left Russia for good in May.

Life in exile turned out to be little better than in Soviet Russia - meager fees, poverty and endless longing for the homeland. A new romance somewhat brightened up the existence outside Russia - Princess Shakhovskaya gave birth to Balmont's son Georges and daughter Svetlana. But in the last, most terrible years, Elena Tsvetkovskaya was with the poet.

In 1932, doctors found Balmont with a serious mental illness, and in 1935 he ended up in the clinic. Neither illness nor poverty deprived the poet of his famous eccentricity and sense of humor, but he wrote less and less poetry. By 1937, Konstantin Dmitrievich finally surrendered to mental illness and stopped writing altogether. He lived in a cheap furnished apartment, then in a charity house, which Kuzmin-Karavaeva kept for Russian emigrants. In the rare hours of spiritual enlightenment, the poet re-read War and Peace or leafed through his own books.

Konstantin Dmitrievich Balmont was killed by pneumonia. He died on December 23, 1942, at night, in the Parisian suburb of Noisy-le-Grand. They buried him at the local Catholic cemetery and wrote on a gray tombstone under the name: "Russian poet."

Konstantin Dmitrievich Balmont (06/15/1867, Gumnishchi, Vladimir province - 12/23/1942, Noisy-le-Grand, France) - Russian poet.

Constantin Balmont: biography

By birth, the future poet was a nobleman. Although his great-grandfather bore the surname Balamut. Later, the named surname was changed in a foreign way. Balmont's father was the chairman. Constantine received training at the Shuya gymnasium, however, he was expelled from it, since he attended an illegal circle. A short biography of Balmont tells that he created his first works at the age of 9.

In 1886 Balmont began his studies at the law faculty of Moscow University. A year later, due to participation in student riots, he was expelled until 1888. Soon he left the university of his own free will, entering the Demidov juridical lyceum, from which he was also expelled. It was then that the first collection of poetry, which Balmont wrote, was published.

The poet's biography tells that at the same time, due to constant quarrels with his first wife, he tried to commit suicide. The suicide attempt ended for him with a lifelong limp.

Among K. Balmont it is worth mentioning the collections “Burning Buildings” and “In Boundlessness”. The poet's relationship with the authorities was tense. So, in 1901 for the verse "Little Sultan" he was deprived of the right to live in university and capital cities for 2 years. K. Balmont, whose biography has been studied in some detail, leaves for the Volkonskys' estate (now the Belgorod region), where he is working on a poetry collection "Let's Be Like the Sun". In 1902 he moved to Paris.

In the early 1900s, Balmont wrote many romantic poems. Thus, in 1903, the collection “Only Love. Seven-flowered ", in 1905 -" Liturgy of Beauty ". These collections bring fame to Balmont. The poet himself travels at this time. So, by 1905 he managed to visit Italy, Mexico, England and Spain.

When political unrest breaks out in Russia, Balmont returns to his homeland. He collaborates with the social democratic publication Novaya Zhizn and the magazine Krasnoe Znamya. But at the end of 1905 Balmont, whose biography is rich in travel, again comes to Paris. In the years that followed, he continued to travel a lot.

When in 1913 political emigrants were granted amnesty, K. Balmont returned to Russia. The poet welcomes but opposes Oktyabrskaya. In this regard, in 1920 he again left Russia, settling in France.

While in exile, Balmont, whose biography is inextricably linked with his homeland, actively worked in Russian periodicals published in Germany, Estonia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Poland and Czechoslovakia. In 1924 he published a book of memoirs entitled Where is My Home ?, wrote essays about the revolution in Russia "White Dream" and "Torch in the Night." In the 1920s, Balmont published such collections of poems as "A Gift to the Earth", "Marevo", "Bright Hour", "Song of the Working Hammer", "In the Far Away". In 1930, K. Balmont completed the translation of the Old Russian work "The Lay of Igor's Host." The last collection of his poems was published in 1937 under the title "Light Service".

At the end of his life, the poet suffered from mental illness. K. Balmont died in an orphanage known as the Russian House, located near Paris.

Career: translator, essayist, symbolist poet

Age: 75 years old

Place of birth: Gumnishchi, Vladimir province, Russian Empire

Marital status: was married

Biography

Konstantin Balmont is a Russian poet, translator, prose writer, critic, essayist. A prominent representative of the Silver Age. He published 35 collections of poetry, 20 books with prose. He translated a large number of works by foreign writers. Konstantin Dmitrievich is the author of literary studies, philological treatises, critical essays. His poems "Snowflake", "Reeds", "Autumn", "Towards winter", "Fairy" and many others are included in the school curriculum.

Childhood and youth

Konstantin Balmont was born and lived up to 10 years in the village of Gumnishchi in the Shuisky district of the Vladimir province in a poor but noble family. His father Dmitry Konstantinovich first worked as a judge, later took the post of head of the Zemstvo Council. Mother Vera Nikolaevna came from a family where they loved and were fond of literature. The woman organized literary evenings, staged plays and published in the local newspaper.

Vera Nikolaevna knew several foreign languages, and she had a share of "free-thinking"; "unwanted" people often stayed in their house. Later he wrote that his mother not only instilled in him a love of literature, but from her he inherited his "mental structure." The family, in addition to Constantine, had seven sons. He was third. Watching his mother teach his older brothers to read, the boy independently learned to read at the age of 5.

The family lived in a house on the banks of the river, surrounded by gardens. Therefore, when it came time to send the children to school, they moved to Shuya. Thus, they had to break away from nature. The boy wrote his first poems at the age of 10. But my mother did not approve of these undertakings, and he did not write anything for the next 6 years.

In 1876, Balmont was enrolled in the Shuya gymnasium. At first, Kostya showed himself as a diligent student, but soon he got bored with all this. He became interested in reading, while he read some books in German and French in the original. He was expelled from the gymnasium for poor teaching and revolutionary sentiments. Even then, he was a member of an illegal circle that distributed leaflets of the Narodnaya Volya party.

Konstantin moved to Vladimir and studied there until 1886. While still studying at the gymnasium, his poems were published in the capital's magazine "Picturesque Review", but this event went unnoticed. After he entered the Faculty of Law at Moscow University. But even here he did not stay long.

He became close to Peter Nikolaev, who was a revolutionary in the sixties. Therefore, it is not surprising that after 2 years he was expelled for participating in the student disorder. Immediately after this incident, he was expelled from Moscow to Shuya.

In 1889, Balmont decided to recover at the university, but due to a nervous breakdown, he again could not finish his studies. The same fate befell him at the Demidov Lyceum of Legal Sciences, where he entered later. After this attempt, he decided to abandon the idea of ​​getting a "government" education.

Literature

Balmont wrote his first collection of poems when he was bedridden after a failed suicide. The book was published in Yaroslavl in 1890, but later the poet himself personally destroyed the bulk of the circulation.

Still, the collection "Under the Northern Sky" is considered the starting point in the poet's work. He was greeted by the public with admiration, as were his subsequent works - "In the vastness of darkness" and "Silence". He was eagerly published in modern magazines, Balmont became popular, he was considered the most promising of the "decadents".

In the mid-1890s, he began to communicate closely with Bryusov, Merezhkovsky, Gippius. Soon Balmont became the most popular symbolist poet in Russia. In poetry, he admires the phenomena of the world, and in some collections he openly touches on "demonic" topics. This is evident in "Evil Charm", the edition of which was confiscated by the authorities for reasons of censorship.

Balmont travels a lot, so his work is imbued with images of exotic countries and multiculturalism. This attracts and delights readers. The poet adheres to spontaneous improvisation - he never made edits to the texts, he believed that the first creative impulse was the most correct.

The Fairy Tales, written by Balmont in 1905, were highly appreciated by his contemporaries. The poet dedicated this collection of fairy songs to his daughter Nina.

Konstantin Dmitrievich Balmont was a revolutionary in spirit and in life. The expulsion from the gymnasium and the university did not stop the poet. Once he publicly read the verse "The Little Sultan", in which everyone saw a parallel with Nicholas II. For this he was expelled from St. Petersburg and banned from living in university cities for 2 years.

He was an opponent of tsarism, so his participation in the First Russian Revolution was expected. At that time, he became friends with Maxim Gorky and wrote poems that looked more like rhymed leaflets.

During the December 1905 Moscow uprising, Balmont speaks to students. But, fearing arrest, he was forced to leave Russia. From 1906 to 1913 he lived in France in the status of a political emigrant. Being in a kind of exile, he continues to write, but critics increasingly began to talk about the decline of Balmont's work. In his latest works, they noticed a certain stereotype and self-repetition.

The poet himself considered his best book Burning Buildings. Lyrics of the Modern Soul ". If before this collection his lyrics were filled with melancholy and melancholy, then “Burning Buildings” opened Balmont from the other side - “sunny” and cheerful notes appeared in his work.

Returning to Russia in 1913, he published a 10-volume complete collected works. He works on translations and lectures around the country. Balmont took the February revolution with enthusiasm, like the entire Russian intelligentsia. But soon he was horrified by the anarchy in the country.

When the October Revolution began, he was in St. Petersburg, in his words, it was a "hurricane of madness" and "chaos." In 1920, the poet moved to Moscow, but soon, due to the poor health of his wife and daughter, he moved with them to France. He never returned to Russia.

In 1923, Balmont published two autobiographies - "Under a new sickle" and "Air way". Until the first half of the 1930s, he traveled all over Europe, his performances were a success with the public. But among the Russian diaspora, he no longer enjoyed recognition.

The decline of his work fell on 1937, when he published his last collection of poems "Light Service".

Personal life

In 1889, Konstantin Balmont married the daughter of the Ivanovo-Voznesensk merchant, Larisa Mikhailovna Garelina. Their mother introduced them, but when he announced his intention to marry, she spoke out against this marriage. Konstantin showed his inflexibility and even went for the sake of his beloved to break with his family.

Konstantin Balmont and his first wife Larisa Garelina

As it turned out, his young wife was prone to unjustified jealousy. They always quarreled, the woman did not support him in either literary or revolutionary endeavors. Some researchers note that it was she who addicted Balmont to wine.

On March 13, 1890, the poet decided to commit suicide - he threw himself onto the pavement from the third floor of his own apartment. But the attempt failed - he lay in bed for a year, and from his injuries he remained lame for the rest of his life.

In a marriage with Larisa, they had two children. Their first child died in infancy, the second - their son Nikolai - was sick with a nervous breakdown. As a result, Konstantin and Larisa parted, she married a journalist and writer Engelhardt.

In 1896 Balmont married a second time. Ekaterina Alekseevna Andreeva became his wife. The girl was from a wealthy family - smart, educated and beautiful. Immediately after the wedding, the lovers left for France. In 1901, their daughter Nina was born. In many ways, they were united by their literary activities; together they worked on translations.

Konstantin Balmont and his third wife Elena Tsvetkovskaya

Ekaterina Alekseevna was not a domineering person, but she dictated the lifestyle of the spouses. And everything would have been fine if Balmont had not met Elena Konstantinovna Tsvetkovskaya in Paris. The girl was fascinated by the poet, she looked at him as if he were a god. From now on, he lived with his family, then for a couple of months he went on trips abroad with Catherine.

His family life was completely confused when Tsvetkovskaya gave birth to her daughter Mirra. This event finally tied Konstantin to Elena, but at the same time he did not want to disagree with Andreeva. Mental torment again led Balmont to commit suicide. He jumped out of the window, but, like last time, he survived.

As a result, he began to live in St. Petersburg with Tsvetkovskaya and Mirra and occasionally visited Moscow to see Andreeva and her daughter Nina. They later immigrated to France. There Balmont began to meet with Dagmar Shakhovskoy. He did not leave the family, but met with the woman regularly, wrote letters to her every day. As a result, she bore him two children - son Georges and daughter Svetlana.

Born on June 15 (June 3, old style), 1867 in the village of Gumnishchi, Shuisky district, Vladimir province, into a poor noble family. His father was an employee, his mother staged amateur performances and literary evenings, and appeared in the local press.

In 1886, Balmont entered the law faculty of Moscow University, in 1887 he was expelled for participating in student riots. In 1888 he was admitted to the university again, but was soon forced to leave him due to a severe nervous breakdown. He studied for several months at the Demidov Juridical Lyceum in Yaroslavl.

Poems were first published in 1885, his first collection of poems was published in Yaroslavl in 1890. The publication did not arouse interest either in literary circles or among the poet's relatives, so he burned almost the entire edition of the book.

His next collection "Under the Northern Sky" was published in 1894 in St. Petersburg. Balmont soon became one of the leaders of the Symbolist movement (one of the modernist trends in Russian poetry at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries) and gained great popularity as a Symbolist. One by one, his collections of poems "In the Boundless" (1895), "Silence" (1898), "Burning Buildings" (1900), "Let's Be Like the Sun" (1903), "Only Love" (1903), "Liturgy of Beauty" ... Elemental hymns "(1905).

During this period, the poet traveled a lot. In 1902 he went abroad and lived mainly in Paris, making trips to England, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Spain. In January 1905, he went (from Moscow) to Mexico and California. His essays on Mexico, along with his free transcriptions of Indian myths and legends, later compiled the book "Snake Flowers" (1910).

Balmont responded to the events of the first Russian revolution (1905-1907). His revolutionary poetry is presented in the books Poems (1906; confiscated by the police) and Songs of the Avenger (Paris, 1907; banned from distribution in Russia). At the end of December 1905, fearing reprisals from the authorities, Balmont illegally left Russia.

During this period, a national theme also appeared in his poems. Balmont's enthusiasm for Russian and Slavic antiquity was first reflected in the collection of poetry "Evil Chary" (1906; the book was arrested by the censor because of "blasphemous" poems). The folklore plots and texts processed by the poet made up the collections “The Firebird. Slav's Svirel "(1907) and" Green Helicopter City. Kissing Words ”(1909). In the collection Calls of Antiquity (1909), the poet presented the “primordial creation” of various (non-Slavic) peoples, examples of ritual-magic and priestly poetry.

From 1906 Balmont lived in Paris, traveling from there to different countries. In the spring of 1907, he visited the Balearic Islands, in late 1909 - early 1910 - Egypt. Balmont's numerous essays on Egypt later compiled the book "The Land of Osiris" (1914). In 1912, the poet made an 11-month trip to southern countries, visited the Canary Islands, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Polynesia, Ceylon, and India. This journey was also reflected in his collection of poems “The White Architect. The Mystery of the Four Lamps ”(1914).

Balmont also wrote literary-critical articles, essays on Russian and Western European poets, travel essays: "Mountain Peaks" (1904), "White Lightning" (1908); "Sea Glow" (1910).

He learned about the beginning of the First World War in the summer of 1914 in the town of Sulak on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. In June 1915 Balmont returned to Russia via England, Norway and Sweden. At the end of 1915, his book Poetry as Magic was published - a treatise on the essence and purpose of lyric poetry.

At the end of 1915 and in the spring of 1916, he traveled with lectures to the Volga, Ural and Siberian cities. In May 1916 he visited Japan. During this period, the sonnet genre became dominant in his lyrics. 255 sonnets, written by him during the war years, compiled the collection "Sonnets of the Sun, Sky and Moon" (1917).

Balmont is also known as a translator. His main work in this area is the translation by Percy Bysshe Shelley, which has been published in St. Petersburg in seven issues since 1893, and in 1903-1905 published in revised and supplemented form in three volumes.

In 1920, not accepting the revolution, Balmont emigrated from Russia, lived in Paris or in small villages on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean.

Abroad, he published collections of poems "A Gift to the Earth" (1921), "Marevo" (1922), "Mine - to Her. Poems about Russia "(1923)," In a Widened Distance "(1930)," Northern Lights "(1923)," Blue Horseshoe "(1937). In 1923 he published two books of autobiographical prose - Under a New Sickle and Airway.

Balmont translated Czech, Bulgarian, Lithuanian, Polish poets, in 1930 he published a poetic translation of "The Lay of Igor's Campaign."