Ilya Ilf and Maria Tarasenko: A touching novel in letters that helped to survive separation

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

Marusya Tarasenko appeared in the life of Ilya Ilf (real name Iekhiel-Leib Arievich Fainzilberg) at a time when he was overcome by sadness and an irrepressible desire to become famous. And then they wrote letters to each other. For many years this correspondence was unknown even to their daughter.

Chaste romance

They met in 1921 in Odessa. Ilya, as his friends called him, was already 24 years old. He was a fairly well-known journalist, edited humorous magazines and sadly dreamed of the capital, where many of his colleagues had already moved. But recently his mother died, one of his brothers emigrated, the other left for St. Petersburg, and his father needed support.

Maroussia, a little charming seventeen-year-old girl, although she grew up in the family of a simple baker, was brought up like a real princess. She drew with enthusiasm and was in love with Mikhail, Ilya's older brother, and she wrote her first letters to him, sharing her doubts and worries.

From the moment of the first meeting, Ilya was able to recognize and recognize in this fragile girl the one that will become the meaning of his whole life.

She doubted, but soon after Mikhail left for St. Petersburg, she began to be more attentive to Ilya. A little later, she realized the importance of this person in her destiny.

They began to meet in an art studio. Maroussia painted his portraits, and he read poems to her. After he accompanied her home, and barely saying goodbye to his beloved, sat down to write. He wrote to her all night, brightening up the separation.

Marusya answered him. And, sitting down to the letter, she first put herself in order: she painted herself, combed her hair, put on her dress better. As if he was sitting next to him and saw how she prints straight lines on paper.

He allowed himself to touch her hand for the first time a few months after the beginning of their touching friendship, and a few days later he was able to lay his head on her lap. On October 16, 1922, she was the first to declare her love to him.

Now their dates were not limited to just walking and watching movies. They could sit in the studio for hours, finding countless topics of conversation. They smoked cigarettes and kissed for a long time.

Moscow - Odessa

She knew that he dreamed of leaving for Moscow. She was afraid to let him go, fearing separation, and could not hold him back. He left on January 7, 1923, now only letters bound the lovers. In them, they described their feelings, were jealous, sometimes even quarreled. Everything was not easy for Ilya Ilf in Moscow, but in his letters he wrote that everything was fine with him, he was well fed and quite satisfied with his life.

He advised Marusa to go to Petrograd to study painting. Maroussia obeyed, but already at the beginning of winter on the way from Odessa to St. Petersburg she decided to leave in Moscow.

In the spring of 1924, they officially sealed their alliance. Marusia settled in a room shared by Ilya Ilf and Yuri Olesha. And for another five years, the young wife rushed between Moscow and Odessa.

Happiness is in the little things

Only in 1929, after the publication of "The Twelve Chairs", Ilf received a room in a communal apartment. Marusya retouched photographs for magazines, painted pictures and enthusiastically created coziness in their new home. She loved those rare moments when her adored Ilya climbed under a cozy blanket with a book, and she could draw, listening to his quiet puffing.

Ilf became interested in photography, having borrowed money for a device from a friend and co-author Petrov. Yevgeny Petrov joked about this for a long time, reporting that he simultaneously lost money and a friend who, instead of communicating, is now endlessly filming and showing something.

Bitter separation

In the spring of 1935, Sasha was born into the family, Pig, as Ilf called her, in a hurry to show each guest his treasure. In the fall, Ilf and Petrov set off on a great American journey. Ilya again wrote long letters to his Marusa, sharing his impressions. At the end of the trip, Ilf's condition rapidly deteriorated, and he was afraid to admit to himself that he was observing all the symptoms of tuberculosis, which he had suffered in his youth.

After returning to Moscow, his diagnosis was confirmed, and a long struggle with the terrible disease began. The most painful test for the writer was the inability to pick up his beloved Pig, to hug Marusya.

Maroussia began to selflessly look after him. Unadapted earlier to everyday life, she became just an ideal hostess. She prepared special food for her husband, constantly cleaned and washed their apartment, which they received already in 1936. However, the fight was lost. Ilya Ilf left on April 8, 1937.

Maria Nikolaevna survived him by 44 years. She loved him for the rest of her life. In their house there was no personality cult of Ilya Ilf, but during long sleepless nights Maria Nikolaevna re-read the letters she received in her youth. And sometimes she answered them as if he could read them., he thought a lot about life, only in letters to his beloved Marusa he appeared as a naive young man in love.