Mikhail Prishvin and Valeria Liorco: the expectation of love for a lifetime

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Mikhail Mikhailovich Prishvin is rightfully called the singer of the Russian land. In his works, the surrounding nature becomes the main character, forests, fields, meadows appear with incredible completeness and fine detail on the pages of essays and stories. He enthusiastically sang the praises of nature, as if investing in these descriptions feelings that he so lacked in life.

First discoveries

Intricate, funny and dexterous Dunyasha worked as a servant in the Prishvins' house. Misha often noticed that when sweeping the floor or wiping it with a rag, Dunyasha raises her skirt very high, as if showing her legs to the teenager. The teenager was embarrassed, blushed and diligently looked away from the snow-white skin of the ingenuous seductress. She clearly sympathized with the master's boy and without much hesitation tried to win, if not his heart, then his body.

At the moment when the closeness of Dunyasha and Mikhail became possible, the boy suddenly realized how his heart was protesting against such a relationship. It is difficult to say where such thoughts came from in the mind of a teenager. But he felt that simple carnal pleasures would not bring him happiness if they were not backed up by deep feeling.

Varenka

Mikhail Mikhailovich himself will describe his feelings after a failed intimacy in his diaries. It was this episode that made the future writer think about the complexities of his nature, which left an imprint on his entire future life. The thirst for love inexplicably coexisted in him along with the denial of temptation. This turned into a personal drama for the man when he met the one he sincerely loved.

Mikhail Prishvin, a student at the University of Leipzig, went on vacation to Paris in 1902. In this city, as if created for love, a meeting of the future writer with Varenka took place, a student of the Sorbonne Varvara Petrovna Izmalkova studied history, was the daughter of a major official from St. Petersburg. The romance between Varvara and Mikhail quickly whirled the lovers. They spent days and nights together, enthusiastically talking about everything in the world. Bright, happy days filled with feelings and emotions. But everything was cut short after three weeks. Prishvin blamed himself and his idealistic expectations for this.

The young man could not even imagine that he would offend his beloved with physical lust. He idolized his Varenka, he admired her and could not touch his dream. The girl wanted a simple female happiness, an ordinary life with children. Varenka wrote a letter to her parents and showed it to her lover. She talked about her relationship with Mikhail, already imagining her future family life. But her aspirations were so different from the idea of Prishvin's future that the difference in views on love led to bitter disappointment and breakup. Varvara tore up the letter.

Many years later, the writer admits that this very event will make him a writer. Not finding comfort in love, Mikhail Mikhailovich will look for him in writing. The image of Vary, appearing in his dreams, will inspire him and encourage him to write new and new works.

Later Prishvin made one attempt to get closer to his muse. And he himself did not use it. He wrote to Varvara Petrovna about his unquenchable feelings. The girl answered him by making an appointment. But the writer shamefully confused the date of the meeting, and Varya could not forgive him for this oversight, refusing to listen to his explanations.

Efrosinya Pavlovna Smogaleva

For a long time and painfully, Mikhail suffered the loss of his ideal love. Sometimes it seemed to him that he was really going crazy. The writer was already over 40 when he met a young woman who had survived the death of her husband. There was a one-year-old child in her arms, and the look of her huge eyes is so sad that the writer at first just felt sorry for Frosya. The fascination with the idea of the guilt of the intelligentsia before ordinary people, which Prishvin was infected with, led to the marriage. The writer tried on the role of a savior. He sincerely believed that he could mold an uneducated and rude Euphrosyne into a real beautiful woman with the power of his love. But they were too different from Frosya. The girl from a resigned sad peasant woman very quickly turned into an imperious and rather grumpy wife.

The sensitive and very vulnerable Prishvin began to increasingly avoid the company of his wife. He began to travel a lot in Russia, admiring the grandeur and uniqueness of nature. At the same time, he will begin to work hard, trying to escape from his catastrophic loneliness and lack of understanding of loved ones. He blamed only himself for his loneliness, reproached for excessive haste and inability to recognize the soul of another person.

A rather unhappy marriage, which brought a lot of suffering to the writer, lasted more than 30 years. And all this time Mikhail Mikhailovich was waiting for some miracle, a wonderful deliverance from his mental wounds and an agonizing desire for happiness. He often mentioned in his diaries that he still hopes to meet with the only one who can become the light of his whole life for him.

Valeria Dmitrievna Liorko (Lebedeva)

Mikhail Mikhailovich is 67 years old. By this time, he was already living separately from his wife. The famous and recognized writer has long thought about publishing his diaries, but he still lacked the strength, time and patience to sort through the numerous archives. He decided to hire a secretary, certainly a woman who would be distinguished by special delicacy. In the diaries there were too many personal, secret, infinitely dear to the heart of the writer.

On January 16, 1940, forty-year-old Valeria Dmitrievna knocked on Prishvin's door. She had a difficult life, two marriages behind her shoulders and persecution from the authorities for her noble origins. Work with Mikhail Mikhailovich could be a real salvation for her.

The first meeting was rather dry. For some reason, Mikhail and Valeria turned out to be not sympathetic to each other. However, joint work, gradual recognition of each other led to the emergence of sympathy, and then that very deep, beautiful feeling, in anticipation of which Mikhail Mikhailovich lived all his life.

Valeria Dmitrievna became for the writer his evening star, his happiness, his dream, his ideal woman. Working on the writer's diaries opened up more and more facets of Prishvin's personality to Valeria Dmitrievna. Translating his thoughts into typewritten text, the woman became more and more convinced of the uniqueness of her employer. Subtle sensuality and endless loneliness of the writer found a response in the heart of his secretary. And along with the knowledge of his thoughts came an understanding of the kinship of their souls.

They talked for hours and could not stop talking until late at night. In the morning, Mikhail Mikhailovich was in a hurry to open the door, ahead of the housekeeper, in order to see his Valeria as soon as possible.

He wrote a lot about her, about his feelings for this amazing woman, he was afraid of his feelings and was very afraid of being rejected. And he hoped that at the end of his life he could still find his happiness. And all his hopes and dreams suddenly became his own embodied fairy tale. Valeria Dmitrievna did not see an old man in him, she felt masculine strength and depth in the writer.

The wife of Prishvin, having learned about the relationship between Mikhail Mikhailovich and Valeria, made a real scandal. She complained to the Writers' Union and categorically refused to divorce. For the opportunity to dissolve the marriage, Prishvin had to sacrifice his apartment. Only in exchange for the re-registration of housing for her, Efrosinya Pavlovna agreed to give freedom to Mikhail Mikhailovich.

Since that time, the life of the prose writer has changed. He loved and was loved. He met his ideal woman, whom he had been looking for all his life.

Crystal years

Beloved Lyalya gave the writer everything that he dreamed of in his youth. Prishvin's romanticism was complemented by her open bluntness. Openly confessing her feelings, she encouraged Mikhail Mikhailovich to take decisive action. She gave the writer the strength to fight at a time when everyone took up arms against their tender romance.

And they survived, overcame all the obstacles on the way to their marriage. The writer took his Valeria to the fabulous outback, to the village of Tryazhino near Bronnitsy. The couple spent the last 8 years of the writer's life in the village of Dunino, Odintsovo District, Moscow Region. They enjoyed their late happiness, their love, common views on feelings and events. The Crystal Years, as Prishvin called it.

The couple wrote the book “We are with you. Love Diaries . In this diary, their feelings, their views, their happiness were described in great detail. The writer was not blinded, he fully noticed the shortcomings of his wife, but they absolutely did not prevent him from being happy.

On January 16, 1954, on the day of the fourteenth anniversary of the writer’s acquaintance with his evening star, Mikhail Mikhailovich Prishvin left this world. Having met his love at sunset, finding happiness and peace, he left absolutely happy.

In contrast to calm happiness in adulthood, it is interesting to learn about the eccentric love of Antoine de Saint-Exupery and Consuelo Gomez Carrillo.