Little-known facts of the biography of Pushkin A.S. Mikhail Lermontov and pies with sawdust

Or me or Ilya. Or or(A Arkhangelsky).

Bell - count on count

Hit the stake on the stake - That will be the bell(N. Glazkov).

Courbets - Courbet you

Whatever you throw out kurbets,

And yet, dear friend, you are not Courbet(D. Minaev).

Putting on - on the maidens, I will give - from the ladies

I put a wig on my bald head,

I don't trust in virgins, I don't expect anything from ladies,

Though I sometimes give my life for them(D. Minaev).

Real - for real, finally - for the end

The day of bliss, the real Virgo will taste, at last,

The hour will strike and...

Virgo sits on...

(A. Pushkin (?), after: [Kruchenykh 1924]).

Nasturtiums - US Turkey

The gardener is a traitor when he sells nasturtiums(A. Chekhov, From notebooks). Innocent - innocent

The bottle was tried for drunkenness, but it turned out to be innocent(F. Krivin).

malnourished - malnourished

Letter from Ryazan to the Pravda newspaper: “Dear editors! You write all the time that people in capitalist countries are undernourished. So is it possible that they do not eat up, send to us in Ryazan?

Lack of time - no time for bitches

- Vasily Ivanovich, why don't you go to dances? Lack of time, right?

- Not up to them, Petya.

Nemnin - singing rank

Then you are not in the rank, because you are Nemchin(P. Simoni, Poel. XVII century).

Regional Committee

Outback

Good for the one whom the regional committee took care of!

(V. Berestov).

Victory-for troubles

Sometimes you go for victories

But in fact, in trouble(N. Glazkov).

Weather - by year

Than in a drought /wait for rain / by year,

Learn to arrange the weather yourself(V. Mayakovsky).

Cellar - by coffin

Derzhavin Po Grab Kept Wine Cellar(N. Glazkov).

cripple - cripple

cripple, cripple(S. Kuzmina).

I'll beat - I'll beat

“You puppies, follow me!

You will be on the kalach

Look, don't talk

Otherwise I’ll beat you”

(A. Pushkin, Drowned).

Impatient - about the speeches of the elk

I have not heard about the speeches of the elk,

Yes, I'm tempted to say!

(“Literary Shushu(t)ki”. V. Mayakovsky).

Lead - with lead

In the valley of Dragestanna With wine in my chest I fell asleep gratifyingly(N. Leskov, Midnight Occupants, VI).

Family - family, Flock - flock

Shut up family

The flock said.

-There are seven I in you,

I have up to a hundred I!

- Up to a hundred, yes,

Yes herd!

(N. Glazkov).

list-list

Piggy Piggy .Aya without a squeak.

(“Holidays of childhood”, 3 / IX-1989).

Timing - with crayfish

- Vasily Ivanovich! There white soup with crayfish eat!

-Not, Petya, these are their muzzles.

Element - element

The rift area is my element

And I write poetry easily (D. Minaev).

Waist-waist

You exclaim sadly." "Tali me?

One hundred centimeters to my waist (D. Minaev).

Longing - yearning; taz kuya - tasku i

Once the coppersmith said, forging a basin,

To his wife, yearning:

“I’ll ask my son yearning,

And disperse melancholy "

(Ya. Kozlovsky?).

Schubert - mouth coat; Schuman-here wholesale

The girl sang Schubert

The girl sang Schumann.»

Why does she make noise?

When not to open and in a fur coat of the mouth(I. Selvinsky, par. on A. Blok).

Homonymy of two phrases

(1) [Pushkin patteringly says to the count "S T, who himself lies on the sofa, and his children play on the floor]:

- "Crazy kid lies on the sofa». The Count was offended. "You forget too much, Alexander Sergeevich," he said sternly.

- "Not at all". But you don't seem to understand me." I said:-kids on the floor, smart on the couch "(Russian literary anecdote, 220).

(2) - I'm goingon the carpet you are walking,while you're lying - said Ivan Petrovich, seating

daughter in a stroller, he goes,while lying. Touch! Farewell, please!(A. Chekhov, Ionych).

(3) Without thought, without delay

I run to line from line

Even to the Finnish rocks: brown, dealing with a pun

(D. Minaev).

Puns of this type are rare, so here is one rather bold one that I heard from my school friend Hi Schelzin:

(4) Ah, Vera, ah, Inber

What eyes, what a forehead!

Everything would look, everything would look At her b

(To Simonov?).

Homonymy of proper and common nouns

Homonymy of common nouns and proper names (anthroponyms, geographical names etc.) is played quite often.

Homonymy of common nouns and anthroponyms

Ada(from Ada And hell); Paradise(from Raya And Paradise)

The wife's name was Raya, Teshu-Ada(A. Knyshev, Pen injections).

Iceberg

[Talk about a polar explorer lost among the ice]:

-Here's the article. See? "Among hummocks and icebergs".

- Icebergs! - Mitrich said mockingly - We can understand this. Ten years of no life. All Icebergs, Weisbergs, Eisenbergs, all sorts of Rabinovichs(I. Ilf-E. Petrov, The Golden Calf, XIII).

Poor

[About the "poet" Demyan Bedny]

Social security! Your deeds are fruitless,

What an incredible shame!

The poet of labor, the poet of the people Remained Poor until now("Chukokkala").

Glinka

Sing in delight, Russian choir,

A new one has come out.

Have fun, Russia! our Glinka-

Not Glinka, but porcelain!

(M. Vielgorsky).

bend; Loman

[About the poet Nikolai Loman, who in the 1860s collaborated in Iskra under the strange pseudonym-Gnut]:

Fate you are a little spoiled -

Sometimes Bent, sometimes Loman(P. Stepanov).

Kant

(1) Look at Prussia, not Kants,

Not I egeli the whole world

She was glorified, but the cants,

Shoulder straps, piping, uniform(V. Burenin, Voice of a Patriot).

(2) ..once someone said-.-"White walks with Kant." The philosopher understood: Immanuel Kant; it was understood -.- "white edging" of a student coat (...) tsalambur is characteristic of the brains of the philistines(A. Bely, Beginning of the century).

a lion

At the biology lesson, Yasha pulls his hand with all his might. -Maryivanna, and a lion lives in our house! -After lessons, Yasha, we will go and look at this rare representative of the tropical fauna.. They came and called. The door opened. -Lev Aronovich, I brought you a woman, as promised. Three rubles from you.

Poppy; Onion

[About the van with large letters on the side]: The van was gone. (...) And what was the name of the shipping company? Max Lux. What do you have, fabulous gardener? Max. And then? Bow, sir, your grace(V. Nabokov, Dar, I).

The Rose; Margarita; hyacinth

(1) In one family there were three sisters - Rosa, Margarita and Hyacinth. Sophia Arnoux was asked her opinion about them. “Oh, what a flower garden!” - the witty actress answered(Encyclical merry fellow, I).

(2)To the album of the profiteer Rosa

Sad world. All is vanity and prose.

Only women amuse us and flowers.

By two wonders you are the connection.

You're a woman! You are Rose!

(O. Mandelstam).

earring

Young people come up to two ladies on the street and ask: - Earrings are not needed?

Once Pushkin was visiting a friend of the count. Sitting comfortably in an armchair, the poet was reading a book. Not far away, on a sofa, the count was reclining, and his children frolicked on the floor near him. Very soon the owner got bored.

“Sasha,” the count turned to Pushkin, “say something impromptu.”

Pushkin immediately put down the book and, without hesitation, blurted out:
- The crazy kid is lying on the sofa.

The Count was not in the least angry.

- What do you allow yourself, Alexander Sergeevich ?! he said sternly, sitting up slightly on the couch.

“Nothing special,” Pushkin smiled radiantly. You just didn't understand me. All I said was: “The kids are on the floor, the smart one is on the couch!”

Forgetting the insult, the count burst out laughing, and Pushkin, as if nothing had happened, buried himself in the book again ...

This is how, then, the sun of our poetry entertained itself in its free time from writing masterpieces. Although, if you think about it, Pushkin's joke is also a masterpiece, only it no longer belongs to poetry, but to one wonderful word game. The essence of this fun is to look for such sentences in which one half differs from the other only by the arrangement of spaces between words. Well, just like in Pushkin's highlighted phrases about the kid-count. Such verbal curiosities are called heterograms (another name for equal letters).

It's not that hard to come up with them. Sometimes it’s enough to look closely at some familiar word and just put the spaces between the letters in the right way. For example, as the poet German Lukomnikov did with the word "nonsense" (that is, nonsense):
Gali mother I.

And now take a closer look at the title of this note - it is "arranged" in the same way.

Here are a few more heterograms that "grew" from one word:
1. Don't eat lunch
get poorer! (D. Avaliani)

2. Sleep or
crazy? (G. Lukomnikov)

3. The demon climbed, but ... -
useless. (G. Lukomnikov)

4. I'm with her
clearer! (S.F.)

5. Up to a hundred for sure
enough? (S.F.)

6. Fuck off
back off! (S.F.)

7. Thank you

thanks! (S.F.)

8. Freezing zaya,

freezing. (S.F.)

9. Weakened -
donkey would eat! (S.F.)

10. I'm crawling ... Ba!
half-tooth! (S.F.)

11. I am looking for goods for a friend,
I carry different, absurd. (S.F.)

12. Oh, boron! Oh, shadow! ..-
Werewolf! (S.F.)

But, of course, the most interesting thing is to come up with heterograms from several words. Finding such a clever phrase is no longer so easy, but what a pleasure from such a find! What is there mushroom hunting or fishing! The pursuit of heterograms in excitement is comparable only to the search for treasures. However, each successful equal letter is a treasure, for the time being hiding from us in such seemingly ordinary words. You just need to learn to look at them more carefully ...

Here are some fun examples of different Equal Bookers:

1. Raise the tanks -
zucchini underneath! (D. Avaliani)

2. Once I yell - I want to live!
I want to disarm. (V. Nikolaev)

3. Or endure at gunpoint for a hundred years,
or, musketeer, pistol! (D. Avaliani)

4. In a pancake even -
in the dugout! (E. Belyaev)

5. Do not be sad, Raya,
Negora washing! (S.F.)

6. Rich man, here
God is honored! (S.F.)

7. While alive, Lenok,
show boots! (S.F.)

8. Do you wish good luck?
You are barking at the dacha! (S.F.)

9. I'm lying, I'm throwing myself
then I give into my hands. (S.F.)

10. The world of inclinations -
hobby world! (S.F.)

11. Do not sing "MU-U" -
I don't understand! (S.F.)

12. In the "super" drive, and
radish in the soup. (S.F.)

13. New willow,
Ivanova I. (S.F.)

14. Is he nice to us
millions? (S.F.)

But I especially like to write some heterograms in one line and without spaces. Then it is not clear which of the two reading options to choose.

Such "solid" heterograms can be offered to your friends and acquaintances as half-joking tests - what they read first is closer to them.

For example, if you write to your friend on a gift this inscription:
DRUGUDARPRIMI -

and he will suddenly be offended (if Friend reads it first, take a hit!) - it means that a crack has appeared in your friendship. And if he is delighted (this is if he reads: Accept a gift for a friend!), Then everything is fine with you.

But this is, of course, a joke. In general, try to come up with some heterograms of your own - I'm sure you will definitely succeed!

Pushkin is so popular and loved in Russia that it seems we know everything about the poet. But from time to time we find something new and new. For example, very often some people are surprised when they are told that A.S. Pushkin was a Freemason. In the Pushkin family, all the men were Freemasons.

1. Once the Russian writer Ivan Dmitriev visited the house of Alexander Pushkin's parents. Alexander was then still a child, and therefore Dmitriev decided to play a trick on the boy’s original appearance and said: “What an Arab!” But the ten-year-old grandson of Hannibal was not at a loss and instantly gave the answer: “Yes, but not a hazel grouse!” The adults present were surprised and terribly embarrassed, because the face of the writer Dmitriev was ugly pockmarked!

2. One day, an officer familiar to Pushkin, Kondyb, asked the poet if he could come up with a rhyme for the words cancer and fish. Pushkin replied: "Fool Kondyba!" The officer was embarrassed and offered to make a rhyme for the combination of fish and cancer. Pushkin was not at a loss here either: "Kondyba is a fool."

Edward Ulan. Wedding

3. When he was still a chamber junker, Pushkin once appeared before a high-ranking person who was lying on the sofa and yawning from boredom. When the young poet appeared, the dignitary did not even think to change his position. Pushkin handed over to the owner of the house everything that was needed, and wanted to leave, but was ordered to utter an impromptu.

Pushkin squeezed out through his teeth: "Children on the floor - smart on the couch." The person was disappointed with the impromptu: “Well, what's so witty about it - children on the floor, smart on the couch? I can’t understand… I expected more from you.” Pushkin was silent, and the dignitary, repeating the phrase and moving the syllables, finally came to the following result: "The half-witted kid is on the couch." After the meaning of the impromptu had reached the owner, Pushkin was immediately and indignantly thrown out the door.

Painting by Ilya Glazunov "On the Eve"

4. During the period of courtship for his future wife Natalya, Pushkin told his friends a lot about her and at the same time usually said:

"I am delighted, I am fascinated,

In short, I'm disappointed!"

5. And this funny incident that happened to Pushkin during his stay at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum shows how witty and resourceful the young poet was. One day he decided to run away from the Lyceum to St. Petersburg for a walk. I went to the tutor Triko, but he does not let me in, and even scares me that he will follow Alexander. But hunting is worse than bondage - and Pushkin, together with Kuchelbecker, flees to St. Petersburg. Trico followed.

Alexander was the first to arrive at the outpost. He was asked for his last name, and he replied: "Alexander However!" Zastavny wrote down the name and let it through. Kuchelbecker drove up next. When asked what his last name was, he said: “Grigory Dvako!” Zastavny wrote down the name and shook his head doubtfully. Finally, the tutor arrives. He asked: "What is your last name?" Answers: "Triko!" “You’re lying,” shouts the outpost, “there’s something unkind here! One by one - One, Two, Three! Naughty, brother, go to the guardroom! Triko spent the whole day under arrest at the outpost, while Pushkin and his friend calmly walked around the city.

Painting by Fedorov Vladimir Kornidovich "Pushkin. In the footsteps of Pugachev"

6. Pushkin remembered himself from the age of 4. He told several times about how one day on a walk he noticed how the earth was swaying and the columns were trembling, and last earthquake in Moscow was recorded just in 1803. And, by the way, at about the same time, Pushkin's first meeting with the emperor took place - little Sasha almost fell under the hooves of the horse of Alexander I, who also went for a walk. Thank God, Alexander managed to hold his horse back, the child was not hurt, and the only one who was seriously scared was the nanny.

7. Little Pushkin spent his childhood in Moscow. His first teachers were French tutors. And for the summer, he usually went to his grandmother, Maria Alekseevna, in the village of Zakharovo near Moscow. When he was 12 years old, Pushkin entered the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, a closed educational institution with 30 students. At the Lyceum, Pushkin was seriously engaged in poetry, especially French, for which he was nicknamed "Frenchman".

Pirogov Alexander Petrovich. "Pushkin, Zhukovsky and Bryullov"

8. Pushkin got to the lyceum, as they say, by pull. The lyceum was founded by Minister Speransky himself, the enrollment was small - only 30 people, but Pushkin had an uncle - a very famous and talented poet Vasily Lvovich Pushkin, who personally knew Speransky.

9. The Lyceum published a handwritten magazine "Lyceum Sage". Pushkin wrote poetry there. Once he wrote: "Wilhelm, read your poems so that I fall asleep sooner." Offended, Küchelbecker ran to drown himself in the pond. They managed to save him. Soon, a cartoon was drawn in the "Lyceum Sage": Küchelbecker drowns himself, and his a long nose sticking out of the pond.

10. In 1817, the first graduation of lyceum students took place. Having passed 15 exams during the seventeen days of May, among which are Latin, Russian, German and French literature, General history, law, mathematics, physics, geography, Pushkin and his friends received certificates of graduation from the Lyceum. The poet turned out to be twenty-sixth in academic performance (out of 29 graduates), showing only "excellent" successes in Russian and French literature, as well as in fencing.

Pushkin at the lyceum exam in Tsarskoye Selo. Painting by I. Repin

11. It is known that Pushkin was very loving. From the age of 14 he began to visit brothels. And, already being married, he continued to visit the "merry girls", and also had married mistresses.

12. It is very curious to read not even a list of his victories, but reviews about him different people. His brother, for example, said that Pushkin was bad-looking, small in stature, but for some reason women liked him. This is confirmed by an enthusiastic letter from Vera Aleksandrovna Nashchokina, with whom Pushkin was also in love: "Pushkin was brown-haired with strongly curly hair, blue eyes and extraordinary attractiveness." However, the same brother of Pushkin admitted that when Pushkin was interested in someone, he became very tempting. On the other hand, when Pushkin was not interested, his conversation was sluggish, boring and simply unbearable.

13. Pushkin was a genius, but he was not handsome, and in this respect he contrasted with his beautiful wife Natalya Goncharova, who, at the same time, was 10 cm taller than him. For this reason, going to balls, Pushkin tried to stay away from his wife: so that others would not see such an unpleasant contrast for him.

14. Gendarmerie official III branch, Popov, wrote about Pushkin: "He was in the full sense of the word a child, and, like a child, he was not afraid of anyone." Even his literary enemy, the notorious Thaddeus Bulgarin, covered with Pushkin's epigrams, wrote about him: "Modest in judgment, amiable in society and a child at heart."

Gogol and Zhukovsky at Pushkin's in Tsarskoye Selo. Artist P. Geller. 1910

15. Pushkin's laughter produced the same charming impression as his poems. The artist Karl Bryullov said about him: “What a lucky Pushkin! Indeed, Pushkin maintained all his life that everything that excites laughter is permissible and healthy, and everything that kindles passions is criminal and pernicious.

16. Pushkin had gambling debts, and quite serious ones. True, he almost always found means to cover them, but when there were any delays, he wrote malicious epigrams to his creditors and drew their caricatures in notebooks. Once such a sheet was found, and there was a big scandal.

17. Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich advised Pushkin to quit the card game, saying;

She spoils you!

On the contrary, Your Majesty, - answered the poet, - the cards save me from the blues.

But then what about your poetry?

It serves me as a means to pay my gambling debts. Your Majesty.

And indeed, when Pushkin was weighed down by gambling debts, he sat down at his desk and worked them off in excess in one night. Thus, for example, he wrote "Count Nulin".

A. S. Pushkin on the Black Sea

18. While living in Yekaterinoslav, Pushkin was invited to one ball. This evening he was in a special shock. Lightning of witticisms flew from his lips; ladies and girls vying with each other tried to capture his attention. Two guards officers, two recent idols of the Yekaterinoslav ladies, not knowing Pushkin and considering him some kind of, probably, a teacher, decided, at all costs, to "embarrass" him. They come up to Pushkin and, bowing in the most incomparable way, turn:

Mille pardon... Not having the honor of knowing you, but seeing you as an educated person, we allow ourselves to turn to you for a little clarification. Would you be so kind as to tell us how to put it more correctly: "Hey man, give me a glass of water!" or "Hey man, bring a glass of water!".

Pushkin vividly understood the desire to play a joke on him and, not at all embarrassed, answered seriously:

I think you can put it bluntly: "Hey, man, drive us to the water."

A.S. Pushkin on top of Ai-Petri at sunrise. Canvas, oil. State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg)

19. In one literary circle, where more enemies and less friends of Pushkin gathered, where he himself sometimes looked, one of the members of this circle composed a libel on the poet, in verse, under the title "Message to the Poet." Pushkin was expected on the appointed evening, and he, as usual late, arrived. All those present were, of course, in an excited state, and especially the author of the "Message", who did not suspect that Alexander Sergeevich had already been warned about his trick. The literary part of the evening began with the reading of this very "Epistle", and its author, standing in the middle of the room, loudly proclaimed:

- "Message to the poet"! - Then, turning to the side where Pushkin was sitting, he began:
- I give the poet a donkey's head ...
Pushkin quickly interrupts him, turning more towards the audience:
- And he himself will remain with what?
The author is confused:
- I'll stay with mine.

Yes, you gave it now.

General confusion ensued. The stricken author fell silent.

V.A. Lednev. "Pushkin in Mikhailovsky"

20. According to the calculations of Pushkinists, the clash with Dantes was at least the twenty-first challenge to a duel in the poet's biography. He was the initiator of fifteen duels, of which four took place, the rest did not take place due to the reconciliation of the parties, mainly through the efforts of Pushkin's friends; in six cases the challenge to a duel came not from Pushkin, but from his opponents. Pushkin's first duel took place at the Lyceum.

21. It is known that Alexander Sergeevich was very fond of his lyceum comrade Kuchelbeker, but often played pranks on him. Kuchelbecker often visited the poet Zhukovsky, pestering him with his poems. Once Zhukovsky was invited to some friendly dinner and did not come. Then he was asked why he was not there, the poet replied: "I upset my stomach the day before, besides, Kuchelbecker came, and I stayed at home ..." Pushkin, hearing this, wrote an epigram:

I ate at dinner
Yes, Jacob closed the door by mistake -
So it was for me, my friends,
And kyukhelbekerno, and sickening ...

Küchelbecker was furious and demanded a duel! The duel took place. Both fired. But the pistols were loaded... with cranberries, and, of course, the fight ended in a draw...

B.V. Shcherbakov. Pushkin in Mikhailovsky

22. Dantes was a relative of Pushkin. At the time of the duel, he was married to the sister of Pushkin's wife, Ekaterina Goncharova.

23. Before his death, Pushkin, putting his affairs in order, exchanged notes with Emperor Nicholas I. The notes were transmitted by two prominent people: V. A. Zhukovsky, a poet, at that time the educator of the heir to the throne, the future Emperor Alexander II, and N. F. Arendt is the life physician of Emperor Nicholas I, Pushkin's doctor.

The poet asked for forgiveness for violating the royal ban on duels: "...I am waiting for the king's word in order to die peacefully..."

Sovereign: "If God does not order us to see each other in this world, I send you my forgiveness and my last advice to die a Christian. Do not worry about your wife and children, I take them into my own hands." It is believed that Zhukovsky gave this note.

“Duel A.S. Pushkin with Dantes, Adrian Markovich Volkov

24. Of the children of Pushkin, only two left offspring - Alexander and Natalya. But the poet's descendants now live all over the globe: in England, Germany, Belgium ... About fifty live in Russia. Of particular interest is Tatyana Ivanovna Lukash. Her great-grandmother (Pushkin's granddaughter) was married to Gogol's great-nephew. Now Tatyana lives in Klin.

25. And - finally - probably the most amusing fact, which, however, has nothing to do with, in fact, Pushkin's biography. In Ethiopia, a few years ago, a monument to Pushkin was erected this way. The words "Our poet" are carved on a beautiful marble pedestal.

"POET NUMBER ONE"

Alexander Pushkin ... Our glory, our pride, our joy ... Turgenev once offered a proven recipe for headaches and blues: read aloud 10 poems by Pushkin. Prosper Merimee, who knew Russian well, having got acquainted with Pushkin's work, called him the greatest poet in the world. famous lawyer late XIX century A.F. Koni, argued that it was not knowledge of the laws that allowed him not to lose a single case, but knowledge of ... Pushkin. He could recite several hundred of the poet's poems by heart, including "Eugene Onegin"!

"And he himself LAUGHS TILL YOU DROP ..,"

One of his contemporaries writes about him: “I have not met people who would be generally as loved as Pushkin; all his friends soon became his friends. In disputes - lively, sharp, irrefutable, he quickly convinced his friends. However, he knew how to listen to criticism, and reproaches, and the bitter truth - and humbled himself. His friend, Pushchin, tells how he used to listen to a sure reproach and become embarrassed - and then he starts tickling, hugging, which he usually did when he got a little lost ... fallen on horseback and, tickling and triumphant, cries out: “Don't say that! Don't say it!" - and he laughs until he drops ... "
The gendarmerie officer of the III department, Popov, wrote about him: "He was in the full sense of the word a child, and, like a child, he was not afraid of anyone." Even his literary enemy, the notorious Thaddeus Bulgarin, covered with Pushkin's epigrams, wrote about him: "Modest in judgment, amiable in society and a child at heart."
Pushkin's laughter produced the same charming impression as his poems. The artist Karl Bryullov said about him: “What a lucky Pushkin! He laughs so hard that his intestines are visible. Indeed, Pushkin maintained all his life that everything that excites laughter is permissible and healthy, and everything that kindles passions is criminal and pernicious.

ALEXANDER... HOWEVER!

And, indeed, "when he indulged in gaiety, he indulged in it, as others are incapable of it ..." Here is one characteristic episode from the life of Pushkin the lyceum student. During his stay in Tsarskoye Selo, he decided to run away to St. Petersburg - that is, in the army, to commit AWOL. He goes for permission to the tutor Trico, he does not let him in and promises to follow him. Pushkin waved his hand at this statement and, having captured his lyceum friend Grigory Kuchelbeker, rushes to St. Petersburg. Trico also rushes after them. At the very first outpost, the sentry asks Pushkin for his last name. "Alexander However!" - answers the joker.
The guard writes down the name and raises the barrier. Ten minutes later, Kuchelbecker rolls up to the outpost. "What's your last name?" - "Grigory Dvako!" The guard writes down the last name and shakes his head doubtfully. Soon the tutor appears. "Surname?" - "Triko" - "Uh, no, brother, you're lying! - loses patience sentry. - First However, then Dvako, and now Trico! You're kidding, brother! Go to the guardhouse! .. ”As a result: poor Triko spent the whole day under arrest at the outpost, and Pushkin and his friend walked heartily in the capital.
Passion for all sorts of practical jokes and fun did not leave him throughout his life. In Mikhailovsky, he arranges a water show: he will climb unnoticed into the well and scare girls passing by from there with a “terrible” voice. In Chisinau, in the mornings, lying in bed, he amuses himself by shooting at the ceiling ... bread crumb, drawing oriental patterns with it. Playing hide and seek with the children, he will crawl under the sofa and get stuck there, so much so that all the servants will run to pull him out. Or he will arrange a game “in a madman” at home - all the children, together with him, begin to pretend to be crazy, drool and fall from their chairs to the floor, depicting epileptic convulsions ... “At least endure the saints!” - one of the guests will notice.

NOT OVERCONFUSED

To say that Alexander Sergeevich had an enviable sense of humor is to say nothing. His jokes were passed from mouth to mouth "in all cities and towns." His wit won him many friends, but even more enemies.
A certain high-ranking official, to whom the chamber junker Pushkin was forced to call on business, received the poet not only arrogantly, but also disrespectfully: he met the guest lying on the sofa, with his legs up on the railing. Yawning and scratching his shoulder, the nobleman, without changing his position, turned to Pushkin:
- They say that you, Pushkin, are a great wit. Come on, right off the bat, tell me some impromptu?
Pushkin clenched his teeth:
- Kids-on-the-semi-smart-on-the-couch!
- Well, what's so witty? - the nobleman objected, - de-ti on the floor, smart on the sofa. I can't understand... I expected more from you.
Pushkin was silent. And when the person, repeating the phrase and moving the syllables, finally reached the following result: a half-witted fellow on the couch, he immediately and indignantly released Pushkin.
Once in Yekaterinoslav the poet was invited to a ball. That evening, he was in a special state of shock. Lightning witticisms flew from his lips. Ladies and girls vied with each other trying to capture his attention. Two guards officers, two recent idols of the Yekaterinoslav ladies, not knowing Pushkin and considering him some kind of, probably, teacher, decided at all costs to "embarrass" him. They come up to Pushkin and, having bowed in the most incomparable way, they turn:
- My le pardon... Not having the honor of knowing you, but seeing you as an educated person, we allow ourselves to turn to you for a little clarification. Would you be so kind as to tell us how to put it correctly: "Hey man, give me a glass of water!" or “Hey man, bring a glass of water!”?
Pushkin vividly understood the desire to play a trick on him and, not at all embarrassed, answered:
- It seems to me that you can express yourself directly: “Hey, man, drive us to a watering hole!”

BURNING RHYMS

The poet's enemies were especially offended by his ability to clothe witticisms in rhyme. A narrow-minded officer named Kandyba asked the poet with a grin:
- Come on, Pushkin, tell me a rhyme for "cancer" and
"a fish"?
- Fool Kandyba! - replied the poet.
- Nope ... Not that ... - the officer was embarrassed. - Well, what about "fish" and "cancer"?
- Kandyba fool! - Pushkin confirmed.
In one literary circle, where more enemies than Pushkin's friends gathered, and where he himself sometimes looked, one of the members of this circle composed a libel on the poet - a poem entitled "Appeal to the Poet." Pushkin was expected on the appointed evening, and he, unsuspecting, as usual a little late, arrived. All those present were, of course, in an excited state, and especially the author of the Appeal. The literary conversation began with the reading of the Address, and its author, standing in the middle of the room, loudly proclaimed:
- “Appeal to the poet”, - and noticeably turning to the side where Pushkin was sitting, he began: - I give the poet a donkey's head ...
Pushkin, turning more towards the audience, quickly interrupts:
- And he himself will remain with what?
The author, confusing:
- And I ... And I'll stay with mine.
Pushkin (personally to the author):
- Yes, you now gave it!
The enemy is defeated.

"EXCEPT THE RASPBERRY THERE WILL ALSO BE THE CHERRY..."

Almost all famous Russian writers of the 19th century either participated in duels or received a challenge to a duel. Denis Davydov, Lermontov, Griboedov, Bestuzhev-Marlinsky fought in duels ... Perhaps only Gogol avoided dueling stories. Turgenev called Goncharov, Leo Tolstoy - Turgenev, Nekrasov - Herzen ... However, the most desperate duelist among writers was, without a doubt, Alexander Sergeevich.
In the biography of Pushkin, before Dantes, there were more than ten duels - fortunately, bloodless - and twice as many incidents that almost ended in duels ”Moreover, the reasons for quarrels, as a rule, were very insignificant.
It is known that Alexander Sergeevich was very fond of his lyceum comrade Kuchelbeker, but often arranged practical jokes for him. Kuchelbecker often visited the poet Zhukovsky, pestering him with his poems. Once Zhukovsky was invited to some friendly dinner and did not come. Then he was asked why he was not, the poet replied: “I upset my stomach the day before, besides, Kuchelbecker came, and I stayed at home ...” Pushkin, hearing this, wrote an epigram:
I ate at dinner
Yes, Jacob closed the door by mistake -
So it was for me, my friends,
And kyukhelbekerno, and sickening ...
Küchelbecker was furious and demanded a duel! The duel took place. Both fired. But the pistols were loaded... with cranberries, and, of course, the fight ended in a draw...
In the spring of 1822, in the vineyards near Chisinau, in a place called by the locals "raspberries", he fought with an officer General Staff Zubov. Pushkin, going to a duel, said, laughing, to his seconds that, in addition to raspberries and grapes, there would also be cherries. He really took a full cap of cherries and ate them, not paying attention to the enemy aiming at him. His composure infuriated Zubov, and he made a mistake. Pushkin refused to shoot.
No less noise was made by his other duel in Chisinau - with Colonel Starov. According to the description of V. Dahl, who relied on eyewitness accounts, Pushkin's opponent fired first and missed. “Pushkin called him up to the barrier to the rightful place, pointed a pistol at him and asked: “Are you satisfied now?” The colonel replied, embarrassed: "I'm satisfied." Pushkin lowered his pistol, took off his hat and said, smiling:
Colonel Old,
Thank God, healthy!
The case was divulged by the seconds, and these two rhymes became a proverb in the whole city.

SPOT ON THE SUN

If you look closely, you can see spots in the sun. A paradoxical thing: Pushkin, who wrote many surprisingly tender and heartfelt lines dedicated to love, in real life treated the objects of his passion (which, by the way, brought to life his poetic masterpieces) as a complete cynic and egoist. With women who fell in love with him, he did not stand on ceremony. So, for example, he wrote in an album to one fan who was not brilliant, but desperately in love with him:
The eyes are beautiful, the bust is also beautiful,
One thing is sad, your attic is empty.
This is one of his most innocent jokes ... Another time, in response to the call of an old nanny and several girls with whom he came to the forest to pick mushrooms - “Pushkin, ayy! Where are you?”, he will give out: “You x ... I!”. - "Pushkin, where are you?" - "You x ... I!". Offended, the women will stop picking mushrooms and go home. In an hour, happy Pushkin will return and, looking at the sour faces of the girls, will explain to them that he was in the moss ...
- You shouted: “Pushkin, where are you?”! I answered you - “I’m in the moss!”
And he falls on the floor with laughter, and kicks his legs ... Well, how can you be offended by him ?!
Everyone knows Pushkin's lines -
I remember a wonderful moment:
You appeared before me
Like a fleeting vision
Like a genius of pure beauty...
This beautiful poem is dedicated to Anna Kern. At the same time, in a letter to Vyazemsky, Pushkin boasts that yesterday he god help still u ... b! ” Even if we do not recognize for Pushkin the “Intimate Diary” attributed to him, shocking with his sexual revelations, we should still admit that the poet was a romantic only in his poems, but in life ...
In life, he considered it his first duty - to seduce the enemy's wife. It gave him real pleasure. However, he did not make a difference between enemies and friends: he put horns on both with equal ease. Having seduced another victim, the next day he told everyone in a row about his victory, sharing the juicy details of a love date, publicly describing all the physical shortcomings of the one who did not have the strength to resist such a skillful seducer.
Was Pushkin aware of the vileness of his behavior? Yes, sure. But I could not help myself: And reading my life with disgust, I tremble and curse, And I complain bitterly, and shed bitter tears, But I do not wash away the sad lines.

BARIN-SULTAN

If Pushkin had not been a brilliant poet, he would have been an ordinary womanizer. From the age of 14, he began to visit brothels and remained their regular regular until the end of his life. His male libido was so strong that, even when he got married, he simultaneously had a relationship with two or three married mistresses (as well as with his wife's sister, who lived in their house), and at the same time regularly visited the "merry girls." Returning home in the very morning, he liked to tell the “wife” how and whom he used there ...
This fact can not be surprised if you remember what morals reigned in those days. In high society, it was not considered reprehensible to have a mistress or lover: only before marriage did a girl take care of her honor. But among the peasants, everything was the other way around: before marriage, a girl could sin as much as she liked, but when she got married, she was obliged to be faithful to her breadwinner husband. No one then was indignant at the “right of the first night” - when the young woman was obliged to spend her wedding night not with her fiancé, but with her master. The poet, as far as is known, never took advantage of this "right", however, living in the countryside, he did not let a single pretty peasant woman pass by. One of his village concubines will one day give him a son: Pushkin will drive the sluggish mother to his father-father and hint in a letter to him that he should not make a fuss, since in the future the father of the child (i.e. Pushkin himself, the son of the owner of the estate) will become his master...

WHO IS NOT LUCKY IN THE GAME...

They say whoever is unlucky in the game is sure to be lucky in love. Pushkin almost always lost at cards, but he was also unlucky in love. No matter how much we love Pushkin, we should be fair: it would probably not be right if a person who is physiologically incapable of being faithful were also lucky in his personal life. No matter how much we feel sorry for the poet, we must admit that the misfortunes that befell him at the end of his life were deserved by him. Pushkin, who deceived other husbands all his life, found himself in their shoes. Having married the not very smart, but beautiful, doll-like Natalya Goncharova, he, as the Italians say, exchanged "gray days in exchange for bright nights."
Alas, Pushkin miscalculated with the “bright nights”: Natalya turned out to be ... frigid. She did not grumble, but only "tolerated" her husband's overly hot temperament. And the “gray days” were too gray: the wife was a bright beauty, he was almost a freak (according to his own admission, “a real monkey face”), moreover, 10 centimeters lower than his wife. That is why, when he was at balls, he tried to stay away from his wife: so that others would not see such an unpleasant contrast for him ... At home, too, bad luck - Natalya turned out to be a useless hostess: she ran the house very badly, was sloppy and took little interest in household chores, In addition, she proved to be not a very caring mother. According to her mother's notes, from her "you only hear conversation about holidays, balls and performances."
She did not appreciate her husband's poems either: when one day the poems mysteriously came to him at night, and he, waking up from them, said them to his wife, she answered him: “Ah, Pushkin, I'm tired of you with your poems! The night is given for sleeping, not for poetry!” And these nightly “wonderful verses, in comparison with which daytime verses are weak,” as he admitted, remained unwritten and were forgotten in the morning ...
When Dantes, the killer of Pushkin, was asked his opinion about Natalya, he answered briefly: "Simply." Coquetry - that's all that this woman had enough intelligence and talent for. It was her coquetry that became the main reason for the fatal duel between Pushkin and Dantes.
"WHAT'S IN A NAME?"
What's in a name?
It will die like a sad noise
Waves splashing on the distant shore,
Like the sound of the night in a deaf forest.
It's on a memento
Leave a dead trail like
Tombstone lettering pattern
In an unknown language.
What's in it? long forgotten
In new and rebellious unrest,
It won't give your soul
Memories pure, tender,
But on the day of sadness, in silence,
Say it longingly;
Say: there is a memory of me,
There is a heart in the world where I live...
Eh, Alexander Sergeevich, Alexander Sergeevich ... They say that the ancient Slavs had a belief: if it’s good, with sadness and love, to think about a dead person, then there, in the land of the dead, this person will feel better: he will stop mourning his death and will smile. And now, I want to believe that you are smiling. Or even laugh.
Thank you for being with us... And for staying with us.

Based on the book by Alexander Kazakevich “Stars are like people. Paradoxical and little known facts from the life of famous people.

When he was still a chamber junker, Pushkin once appeared before a high-ranking person who was lying on the sofa and yawning from boredom. When the young poet appeared, the dignitary did not even think to change his position.

Pushkin handed over to the owner of the house everything that was needed, and wanted to leave, but was ordered to utter an impromptu.

Pushkin squeezed out through his teeth: "Children on the floor - smart on the couch."

The person was disappointed with the impromptu: “Well, what's so witty about it - children on the floor, smart on the couch? I can’t understand… I expected more from you.”

Pushkin was silent, and the dignitary, repeating the phrase and moving the syllables, finally came to the following result: "The half-witted kid is on the couch." After the meaning of the impromptu had reached the owner, Pushkin was immediately and indignantly thrown out the door.

Mikhail Lermontov and pies with sawdust

A story from an old book about how Lermontov tasted pies with sawdust ...

Mikhail Yuryevich had one trait about which we know very little, but the poet's contemporaries noted it especially. Artist Melikov M.E. wrote about Lermontov like this:

“He was terribly gluttonous and ate everything that was served. This caused ridicule and jokes of others, especially young ladies.

Among them was Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Sushkova, with whom the poet fell recklessly in love. However, Sushkova did not reciprocate Lermontov and, on occasion, did not miss the opportunity to laugh at him. One of the reasons for ridicule was the poet's unpretentiousness in food, which Ekaterina Alexandrovna herself spoke about in her Notes:

“We also made fun of him very much because he was not only illegible in food, but he never knew what he ate: veal or pork, game or lamb; we said that, perhaps, in time, like Saturn, he would swallow a cobblestone.

Our ridicule drove him out of patience, he argued with us almost to tears, trying to convince us of the refinement of his gastronomic taste; we bet that we will convict him otherwise in deeds. And that same day, after a long ride, we ordered to bake buns with sawdust for tea!

And what? We returned home, tired, hot, hungry, greedily set to tea, and our grocery store Michel, without flinching, swallowed one bun, started on another and already pulled a third one towards us, but Sashenka and I stopped him by the hand, showing at the same time the stuffing that is indigestible for the stomach.

Here he was seriously furious, ran away from us and not only did not speak a word to us, but did not even show himself for several days, pretending to be sick. So the ingrained opinion that “a good artist must be hungry” has at least one very striking exception ...

How Belinsky scolded Turgenev

Belinsky treated Turgenev in a fatherly way and often scolded him for his lordly manners, for youthful boastfulness, and sometimes for phrase-mongering.

Once, for example, Turgenev borrowed money from Nekrasov and did not give it back for a long time, since he himself was penniless. Belinsky was told about this. He, having come to the Panaevs, met Turgenev there, as if on purpose, who was about to go to dinner with Dusso. Belinsky knew that usually on Thursdays a lot of aristocratic youth came to dine in this fashionable restaurant, and attacked Turgenev:

“Why are you playing the gentleman? It would be much easier to take money for your work than, having done a favor to a person, apply immediately to him with loans of money. It is clear that Nekrasov is embarrassed to refuse you, and he himself borrows money for you, paying Jewish interest. It would be nice if you needed money for something worthwhile, otherwise you could posh at Dusso ... "

And he went, and he went. Turgenev looked very much like a delinquent schoolboy and objected: “But I did not commit a crime; I’ll give this money to Nekrasov ... I just acted thoughtlessly. ”

- “So think carefully ahead of what you are doing; I spoke to you so sharply for this, so that you would shamefully look after yourself.

Turgenev often had to receive such scoldings. Belinsky also "broke" him for laziness and inaccuracy.

“In 1848, Turgenev, returning from the village in late autumn, noisily expressed his joy at the planned publication of Sovremennik. Belinsky remarked to him:

- You do not express your participation in words, but in deeds.

- I give you my word of honor that I will be the most zealous employee of the future Sovremennik.

“Are you not giving the word you gave me when you left for the country, that when you return, hand me your story for my Almanac?” Belinsky asked in an ironic tone.

- I have it written for you, you just need to trim it ...

- It would be better to admit directly that it is not over than to wag.

“I swear to you that there is no more than a week’s work left.

- I know you, go wandering around secular salons. It seems that they sat in the village for a long time and could not finish it.

Turgenev swore that from tomorrow morning he would get down to work and until he finished, he would not go out anywhere and would not accept anyone. Belinsky replied:

- You are all the same berry, in words you love to grow beans, but if you just touched the case, they wouldn’t lift a finger ... and I’m a good goose, it seems that I’ve known you for more than a day, but I was stupid to count on your promise ... Well, look, Turgenev, if you do not keep your promise that everything you write will be published exclusively in Sovremennik, then know it - I will not shake hands with you, I will not let you on the threshold of my house!

Everyone present smiled at Belinsky's threats.

Of course, no one ever took offense at the scoldings received from Belinsky, although at times he made his way rather angrily. Once he cruelly attacked Turgenev when he found out that he in "high society salons" assures "ladies and gentlemen" that he does not take a literary fee and places his works for nothing.

“Yes, how did you dare to say such a vulgarity, you, Turgenev! .. Is it really shameful to take money for your own work? Or, according to your concepts, only a parasite can be a decent person? - Belinsky was worried, bringing shame and remorse to the face of a smart Russian nobleman.

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy and children

Throughout his family life, Tolstoy devoted much energy and thought to the upbringing of children. He brought a lot of humor and cheerful fun into their lives. He knew how to revive everyone and break the gloomy mood. One of the means for this was the often used "running of the Numidian cavalry."

It used to be that everyone was sitting in the hall after the departure of boring guests, quarrels, children's tears, misunderstandings. Everyone quieted down. And suddenly Lev Nikolaevich breaks down from his chair, raises one arm up and, waving it over his head, runs headlong at a gallop, skipping around the table. Everyone flies after him, exactly repeating his movements. After running around the room several times and out of breath, everyone sits down in their seats - already in a completely different mood. Everyone is lively and cheerful, quarrels, boredom and tears are forgotten ...

According to the children, mother was the first person in the house, everything depended on her. She ordered dinner for the cook, let the children go for a walk, sewed children's clothes and underwear; she was always breastfeeding some little one, and all day long she ran around the house with hurried steps. One could be capricious with her, although sometimes she was angry and punished.

It was not supposed to be capricious with dad. When he looked into his eyes, he knew everything, and therefore it was impossible for him to lie. And no one ever lied to him. Papa never punished anyone and almost never forced the children to do anything, but it always turned out that everyone, as if of their own free will and initiative, did everything the way he wanted it.

“Mom often scolded us and punished us,” says Ilya Lvovich, “and when he needed to make us do something, he only looked intently into our eyes, and his look was understandable and stronger than any order.

Here is the difference between the upbringing of a father and mother: it used to be needed for something two kopecks. If you go to your mother, she will begin to ask in detail what money is needed for, she will say a lot of reproaches and sometimes refuse. If you go to dad, he will not ask anything, he will only look into his eyes and say: “take it on the table.” And, no matter how much this two-kopeck piece was needed, I never went to my father for it, but always preferred to beg for it from my mother. The enormous strength of the father, as an educator, lay in the fact that it was impossible to hide from him, as from his conscience.

Chekhov, Gilyarovsky and watermelon

From the memoirs of Gilyarovsky.

“Somehow at seven o'clock in the evening, during Lent, Anton Pavlovich and I were driving from Miusskaya Square from the city school, where his brother Ivan was a teacher, to drink tea with me.

On Tverskaya, the snow had half melted, and the sleigh runners kept grinding on the pavement stones ... At the corner of Tverskaya and Strastnaya Square, the stone oasis turned out to be very long, and we stopped just opposite Avdeev’s lighted vegetable shop, famous throughout Moscow for cucumbers in pumpkins and salted watermelons .

While the horse was resting, we bought a watermelon tied in thick gray paper, which immediately began to get wet as soon as Chekhov took the watermelon in his hands. We crawled along Strastnaya Square, screeching with runners along the rails of the horse-drawn carriage and grinding on the stones. Chekhov swore - his wet hands froze. I took a watermelon from him.

Indeed, it was impossible to hold it in your hands, but there was nowhere to put it.

Finally, I could not stand it and said that I would throw a watermelon.

- Why quit? Here the policeman is standing, give it to him, he will eat it.

- Let him eat. Policeman! I beckoned him to me.

He, seeing my uniform cap, stretched out to the front.

- Hold on, just be careful...

I didn’t have time to finish: “be careful, it’s flowing,” when Chekhov interrupted me in mid-sentence and tragically whispered to the policeman, continuing my speech:

“Be careful, it’s a bomb… take it to the police station…”

I figured it out and order:

- We'll wait for you there. Don't drop it, look.

“I understand, your innocence.

And his teeth are chattering.

Leaving a policeman with a "bomb" at the corner of Tverskaya and Square, we went to my house in Stoleshnikov to drink tea.

The next day I learned the details of everything that had happened after that. The policeman with a “bomb” in his hands timidly reached the nearest house, called the janitor and, having told about the incident, left him at his post instead, and he himself cautiously, stepping a little, moved along Tverskaya to the site, accompanied by a bunch of curious people who learned from the janitor about " bomb."

Soon, a crowd stood at a respectful distance near the station, afraid to come close and creating whole legends about the bombs, which were very topical at that time due to frequent assassination attempts and arrests.

The policeman entered the duty room, reported to the police officer that two agents of the security department, one of whom was in uniform, ordered him to take the "bomb" and put it on the table. The police officer closed the door and rushed into the office, where he frightened the officials so much that they fled, and the bailiff reported the case to the security department. Agents appeared, but did not enter the duty room, they were waiting for the officer in charge of explosive shells, they did not dare to enter the duty room without him.

At this time, firefighters returning from the fire drove into the yard, saw the crowd, found out what was the matter, and the old fireman, the Don Cossack Bespalov, jumped off the line, just as he was, all wet, in a copper helmet, rushed to the police station and, despite warnings of danger, he went to the duty room.

A minute later, he tore off the remnants of wet paper from a salted watermelon, and then, ignoring the protests of the bailiff and his statements about the inviolability of material evidence, carried the watermelon to his apartment.

- Our, Don, striped. Haven't eaten this in a long time.

Gogol and the beggar

According to the stories of Nezhin fellow students, Gogol is still in school years he could never pass by a beggar without giving him something, and if there was nothing to give, he always said: “I'm sorry.” Once he even happened to be indebted to a beggar woman. To her words: “Give me for Christ’s sake,” he replied: “Reckon me.” And the next time, when she turned to him with the same request, he gave her twice, adding: "Here is my duty."

Gogol and clock

When Zhukovsky lived in Frankfurt am Main, Gogol stayed with him for quite a long time. Once - it was in the presence of Count A. K. Tolstoy (the poet) - Gogol came to Zhukovsky's office and, talking with his friend, drew attention to a pocket watch with a gold chain hanging on the wall.

- Whose watch is this? - he asked.

“Mine,” replied Zhukovsky.

“Ah, Zhukovsky’s watch! I will never part with them."

With these words, Gogol put the chain around his neck, put the watch in his pocket, and Zhukovsky, admiring his mischief, had to give up his property.

Alexander Kuprin and the restless fighter

From the memoirs of the writer Vladimir Krymov

We were sitting with A.I. in a restaurant, his wife pushed away a bottle of wine, and Kuprin affectionately asked:

"I'm just one more glass...pour me one."

They talked about Balmont, who was a friend of Kuprin. Even earlier, back in Russia, Balmont drank more alcohol than he should, but now it got really bad, he immediately got drunk and threw out all sorts of surprises, already showed clear signs mental abnormality, his decline, too, unfortunately, was close. To change the conversation, I asked:

- You were very fond of fighting in the old days, Alexander Ivanovich, weren't you? As it is now?..

Where should I fight now? Everything has been forgotten for a long time... Well, I remember once we fought, we fought like that... I arrived in Chernihiv. We went there to the billiard room. Some kind of healthy man is playing billiards. And they say to me: this is our local veterinarian Volkunas, he will come in the morning, take billiards and won’t let anyone play all day ... How, I say, won’t he?

I went up to him and said: will you finish playing soon? And you, he says, who are you? You, I say, do not care who I am. When you finish playing ... Get out, he says, get out! .. Ah, so - bang him in the face. And so it went... I rolled up my sleeves and gave him a proper finish... I started playing billiards... And he went, washed up and came again, and again to me... They started fighting again. They fought well. He's covered in blood... He's gone... We played billiards, we go out, and he stands on the sidewalk and waits, and again to me... They started fighting again - they fought for a long time. And I got it, but he has a lot more ...

Came to the hotel, went to bed. The next morning I get up, just started to wash, someone knocks on the door. Who is there?.. Volkunas enters again. Why, I say, have you come to fight again? Yes, I say, sister ... Dear? Yes, I say, dear ... So excuse me, please, I apologize ...

Turns out he was in love with her. Kuprin, he didn’t know who Kuprin was, but he didn’t want to fight with Zinaida Ivanovna’s brother in any way ... Well, we made peace, he suggested: let’s go to this billiard room at four o’clock, we’ll play a game together so that they can see, otherwise all the same, conversations began in the city ... All right, let's go ... We came to the billiard room, as soon as they saw us, everyone ran away ...

Sergei Yesenin and a guest from Odessa

From the memoirs of Nadezhda Volpin

Yesenin is in love with the yellowness of his hair. It is included in the figurative structure of his poetry. And he wants to see himself as a light blond: he deliberately always sits down so that the light falls on the curls. And they are not that bright. Women who are not too burdened with intelligence, for whom humanity is divided into blondes and brunettes, would enroll Yesenin in the category of “dark blondes”. But this wavy hair, the color of ripe rye, shone with unusually bright gold.

Any mention that his hair allegedly darkened, for Yesenin, is like a knife in the heart.

And then one day...

"Pegasus Stall". (cafe on Tverskaya) Twenty-first year. They stand opposite each other - Yesenin and this dark-haired man, unfamiliar to me, of the same height as him, thin, slender. Eyes alive, quick and indifferent? No, probably curious. Cold.

How many years? Really five?

Without answering, Sergei hurries to catch my hand and leads me to the guest. Introduces excitedly.

My old friend, Leonid Utyosov. Yes, friend, friend! He, without looking, shakes my hand. And looked tenderly at Yesenin.

An actor, I decided (the name didn't tell me anything).

And how dark the curls are! Not those, not those, darkened!

Yesenin sadly and somehow bewilderedly runs his hand over his head.

Yes, they are getting dark ... Youth is leaving ...

I angrily look at Utyosov. Why does he upset Sergei with his “darkened”! Doesn't know, right? Blond hair with such a pronounced golden tint is remembered even brighter and brighter. I want to explain this to Sergei. But the inhabitant of Odessa (I figured it out, the guest is from Odessa) hurried to spin the interlocutor with his “Do you remember?!.”

On Yesenin's face ... no, it's not sadness anymore, rather boredom.

When the guest hurried to leave, Sergei did not stop him. And never in the future will he remember the “friend from Odessa” - as I had never heard this name from Yesenin before: Leonid Utesov.

Found an error? Select it and left click Ctrl+Enter.