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Sankt
Petersburg - Petrograd
Osip Mandelstam
Winter 1915/16
Poetic Petrograd in 1915
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Only three –
Kuzmin, Akhmatova, and Pasternak – died of natural causes.
Blok starved to death. Gumilov and Mandelstam were executed by
the NKVD,
and Tsvetaeva and Mayakovsky committed suicide....
In December 1915
Marina was invited by the literary journal Severny
Zapiski (Northern
Notes) to
read her poetry in Petrograd – the name of Sankt Petersburg had
been changed during the War to hide its Germanic origins. - Literary
Petrograd regarded Tsvetaeva as a representative of
unsophisticated, provincial Moscow: A promising, slightly hysterical
young woman, who didn't fit into any of the established literary
circles of the capital. She was made to run the gauntlet. Her
appearances and presentations continued to be awkward, especially
considering the skilfully prepared productions of Akhmatova, whom she
was compared to at every step. - Moreover, she shunned glasses and
couldn't see her audiences clearly.
Marina was taken from
party to party. Kuzmin, the versatile minstrel, grand-uncle, and
co-founder of the Sankt Petersburg literary scene, took her under his
wings. He fit equally poorly into fashionable labels and liked her
poetry. Haughty Blok did not attend her readings, and Gumilyov
and Akhmatova were absent at the time. This prevented a first
confrontation with Akhmatova, her life-long rival. Notwithstanding,
Marina adored the divine Blok and revered Akhmatova.
After her return to Moscow Marina wrote a cycle of poems to Blok and a seemingly embarrassingly extravagant collection of eleven poems to Akhmatova. She ever received a response from either. As an example, two stanzas from her first poem to Akhmatova should suffice
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The form of the poem hints at
Marina's hidden objective: It is an imitation of Akhmatova's style of
writing. In the remaining poems Marina becomes more explicit, making
gentle fun of Akhmatova's diction and subjects. Akhmatova was lauded
for her “classical” structure and subjects - what
Mandelstam once called Akhmatova's “hieratic solemnity”,
which appeared stilted and arrogant to Marina. Yet Marina truly and
without jealousy admired Akhmatova.
The differences between
the two women lay deeper. Akhmatova concealed her inner fire behind a
reserved constrained harmony, while Marina, the poet of extremes, was
baring her turbulent soul, forever crying out in despair.
Characteristcs that Akmatova viewed with distate.
Marina
made few friends on that visit. Besides Kusmin she met Mandelstam and
Pasternak, who had the sense to keep his distance from her, but
became her closest and most helpful friend in her anguished later
years.
Mandelstam and Marina had first met in Koktebel in 1914, but Marina had only eyes for Sofia, and reticent Osip did only politely mingle with the guests of Voloshin's house. Now she caught fire: a young boy-poet with beautiful dark eyes covered by the longest lashes! - Forever the type she would fall for.
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О.
Э. Мандельштаму |
To
O. E. Mandelstam |
This much recited lyrical poem is
suggestive of another amorous adventure, one in which Marina was the
driving force. Ecstatic as Tvetaeva's poems are, one is inclined to
discount her poetic words in particular in a society who considered a
simple kiss an “erotic” sin. But Nadezhda Ginsburg,
Mandelstam's later wife, confirmes in her memoirs that it was indeed
“wild and vivid Marina”, who taught Osip how to love a
woman.
Mandelstam visited Tsvetaeva in Moscow in
February-March 1916. Seryozha was out of town. Marina showed him her
city, the repository of the real Russia: the golden domes of the
cathedrals in the Kremlin, the Moskva river, the bells ringing out
the long history of the land. This was not the mirage in the swamps
of the Neva, Peter's European illusion. Mandelstam would never forget
and continued to associate Moscow with Tsvetaeva and Russia.
In
exchange Madelstam let her take part in his profound understanding of
history and philosophy, subjects Marina had never contemplated before
him.
And then, one night, she was overcome by an acute
premonition.
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О.
Э. Мандельштаму |
To
Osip Mandelstam |
Marina did not realize the terrifying accuracy of her vision. Stubborn and indifferent to the ravenous “spotted bird,” Mandelstam repeatedly denounced Stalin, who had him imprisoned twice and finally executed in 1938.
Tsvetaeva was 23 and Mandelstam 25 when they parted in the summer of 1916. Mandelstam returned to Koktebel “for a retreat” and Marina was faced by a crucial change in her life.
In January 1917 Seryozha was drafted into the army. Because of his illness he was stationed in Nizhny Novgorod, not on the front. Marina was pregnant with their second child.
History turning somersaults rapidly became a blur: On March 3, 1917 Emperor Nicholas II abdicated, leaving the country to a Socialist government. In October 1917 the Bolsheviks stormed the Winter Palace. The long expected Revolution had finally taken its course In 1918 the War with Germany was ended by Trotsky at Brest-Litovsk. In July 1918 the Tsar and his entire family was executed by the Bosheviks. Years of brutal infighting between Bolsheviks, Menscheviks and remnants of the White Guard would follow. Seryozha had escaped to the Crimean and joined the White Army (1917). On Marina's instigation? In any case, she was immensely proud of him. - They would only see each other again four years later.
