Mayakovsky's cold star: How a Russian emigrant conquered Paris and the poet's heart

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

"I will still take you someday - alone or together with Paris" - these famous lines Vladimir Mayakovsky were addressed to Tatiana Yakovleva, a Russian emigrant who went abroad in the 1920s. In Paris, they had an affair, which then continued in letters. Mayakovsky tried to persuade Yakovlev to return to the USSR, but she remained in Paris, where she became one of the most prominent and prominent figures in the Russian emigration.

Tatyana Alekseevna Yakovleva was born in 1906 in St. Petersburg, and spent her childhood in Penza. From there she emigrated abroad when she was 19 years old. She managed to leave thanks to her uncle, the artist Alexander Yakovlev, popular in France. He knew the owner of the auto concern Citroen and asked him to procure a visa and passport for Tatyana.

Like most Russian émigré beauties, Tatyana Yakovleva got a job as a fashion model. Soon all of Paris was covered with advertising posters of a stocking depicting Tatiana against the backdrop of Cite landscapes. Already in adulthood, she admitted: "". In the very first years of her Parisian life, she had many admirers, among whom were even Fyodor Chaliapin and Sergei Prokofiev.

Mayakovsky met with Tatyana Yakovleva in 1928 at the house of Lily Brik's sister Elsa Triolet. The poet fell in love at first sight. He spent a little more than a month in Paris, devoting all his free time to long walks around the city together with Tatyana. Tall and handsome, they were a handsome couple. "", - he wrote in a poem addressed to her. But Mayakovsky had to return to the USSR, he long persuaded her to go with him, but she refused.

Before leaving, Mayakovsky left a large sum in one of the Parisian greenhouses with a request to send bouquets every Sunday to Yakovleva's address with his business card. The firm was respectable and carried out an assignment on a weekly basis: even after the death of the poet, Tatyana continued to receive flowers from him.

Although Yakovleva refused to leave after Mayakovsky, she claimed that she was in love with him. In a letter to her mother, she confessed: ". The lovers wrote letters to each other, in which they did not tire of confessing their love to each other. The poet wrote: "". Unfortunately, Tatyana Yakovleva's letters have not survived - Lilya Brik, who gained access to the poet's archive after his death, obviously destroyed all evidence of his love for another woman - she herself should have remained the only muse. Shortly before her death, Tatyana Yakovleva said: "".

In October 1929, Lilya Brik, not without gloating, told the poet the news that his new muse was about to marry Viscount Bertrand du Plessis, although there was no talk of a wedding at that time. Later, Tatyana nevertheless became his wife, and this marriage became, in her words, "an escape from Volodya." She understood that she would no longer see him - Mayakovsky was no longer allowed to go abroad (according to rumors, Lilya Brik took care of this). The poet's friend Natalya Bryukhanenko recalled: "". And in April 1930 he pulled the trigger. What circumstances prompted him to take this step, and whether it was suicide - biographers argue to this day.

Yakovleva's marriage with the Viscount du Plessis soon fell apart - Tatiana learned of his infidelity. And soon she had a new hobby - the artist and sculptor Alexander Lieberman. They met in the south of France, where Tatiana was recovering after a terrible car accident, as a result of which she had to endure several plastic surgeries. They got married in 1941 after the death of Viscount du Plessis - his plane was shot down by fascist anti-aircraft gunners. And soon the family moved to the United States.

Tatiana du Plessis-Lieberman survived Mayakovsky by 60 years. Although there were many twists and turns in her life, she lived a long and happy life. About herself Yakovleva said: "". In New York, she managed to get a job as a designer of women's hats as "Countess du Plessis". Her daughter explained her mother's success "". Her husband became the art director of Vogue magazine, and the family lived in abundance. Together they lived to a ripe old age, until Tatiana du Plessis-Lieberman died on the eve of her 85th birthday in 1991.

Tatiana's close friend was Valentina Sanina - a Kiev woman who became a fashionable American designer.