How the brilliant muse of the Silver Age became a cook: Princess Salome Andronikova

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

She was one of the most notable and significant figures of the Silver Age, but at the same time she herself was not engaged in creativity. Princess Salome Andronikova had a completely different mission: to inspire poets and artists, to be the mistress of a literary salon, to shine in society. Fate gave Salome Andronikova many vivid meetings and unforgettable impressions, but the princess at the end of her life confessed: she made one irreparable mistake.

Brilliant Salome

She was born in 1888 in Tiflis, whom she loved until the end of her life. However, Salome Andronikashvili was destined to become the star of a completely different city. The daughter of the Kakhetian prince Niko Zakharievich Andronikashvili was 18 years old when she, together with her cousin Tinatin Dzhorzhadze, went to St. Petersburg to enroll in the Bestuzhev courses.

The apartment in which the sisters lived in the northern capital very soon turned into a literary salon, where the best representatives of the creative intelligentsia loved to visit: poets and writers, artists and actors.

Acquaintance with Zinovy Peshkov, the brother of Yakov Sverdlov and the adopted son of Maxim Gorky, could well have ended in marriage, but the girl's parents considered the poor young man completely unsuitable for their daughter. Salome did not particularly resist, and with the blessing of her father and mother, she married the widower Pavel Semyonovich Andreev, a large tea and tobacco merchant, who was 18 years older than the bride.

Muse of the Silver Age

Unfortunately, the husband of Salome Andronikova was not only rich, but also too loving. Almost all the girls who came into his field of vision became the subject of his male claims. Even the younger sister of his wife Maria was no exception. Salome was not going to put up with this state of affairs for a long time. In 1911, the daughter of the spouses Irina was born, in 1915 Salome and Pavel Semyonovich no longer lived together, and the divorce, thanks to which Andronikova received an apartment and a decent amount of compensation, they issued a little later.

Princess Andronikova was still the owner of the literary salon. She did not write music, had nothing to do with theater or literature, but she was what was called the muse and inspirer.

Artists considered it an honor to paint a portrait of the incomparable Salome, and the works by Zinaida Serebryakova, Vasily Shukhaev, Savely Sorin, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin and other portrait painters became real masterpieces. Thanks to Osip Mandelstam, she received a touching poetic nickname Straw and a poem of the same name dedicated to her.

To Paris for a hat

The summer of 1917 was the last in her Petersburg life. Leaving with her daughter and her then friend, the poet Sergei Rafailovich, to the dacha in Alushta, Salome could not even imagine that she would never return home. In Crimea, Andronikova had a great time in her usual circle: poets, including Osip Mandelstam, rested nearby. The atmosphere in the evenings, when everyone got together, was akin to that which reigned in Salome's literary salon in St. Petersburg.

In Alushta, she received a letter from a lawyer and ardently in love with her, Alexander Galpern. In the message, Halpern not only informed Salome about the abdication of Nicholas II from the throne, but also strongly recommended that he abandon thoughts of returning to Petrograd, and go to his parents in Tiflis. Halpern very much hoped that in Tiflis the brilliant Salome would finally answer his feelings and agree to marry him.

But at the same time, Zinovy Peshkov, who was the French ambassador to Georgia, which gained independence after the revolution, ended up in Georgia. Forgotten feelings flashed with renewed vigor. When in 1920 it became clear that the Red Army would soon enter Georgia, Peshkov suggested Salome Andronikova to go with him to Paris, for example, for a new hat.

And the muse of the Silver Age gave her consent almost without a doubt, despite the fact that she did not even have documents with her. When Salome was refused to be allowed on board a French ship without an identity card, Peshkov, with weapons in hand, proved her right to travel to France. Andronikova's daughter Irina then remained in Georgia.

Agreeing with Peshkov's proposal, Salome completely did not take the trouble to think about the consequences. She settled in Paris on the Champs Elysees, and a year later, in 1921, a friend of Salome brought Irina to Paris. By this time, her civil marriage with Zinovy Peshkov broke up, however, friendly relations with him were forever preserved. She soon married her longtime admirer Alexander Galpern.

Not a muse, but a cook

Marina Tsvetaeva's acquaintance with Salome played a truly fateful role in the life of the poetess. The princess at that time worked in a magazine and received a fairly decent salary. Seeing the plight of the Russian poetess, Andronikova-Galpern began to pay Tsvetaeva, according to various sources, from 200 to 4,000 francs every month, in addition to the clothes and shoes sent to the poetess. Andronikova and Tsvetaeva constantly corresponded, many of their letters have survived. Both women did not hide their warm feelings for each other, and Tsvetaeva never tired of thanking Salome for not letting her die in poverty and oblivion.

Salome, along with her grandson on the eve of World War II, joined Halpern, who worked in New York. In 1945, the couple moved to London, where Salome's husband was appointed. In the capital of Great Britain, the princess remained true to herself: she gladly arranged receptions and received guests. She was visited by representatives of the aristocracy and famous actors. And even if the princess did not expect anyone to visit, she never allowed herself to go out to dinner in a home dress: exclusively evening dress and makeup.

The aristocrat cooked amazingly and even wrote a cookbook. It was then that the woman, who abroad was called exclusively the muse of the Silver Age, said about herself her famous phrase that she considered herself a muse, but it turned out that she was a simple cook. Unfortunately, by the end of her life she did not have a single copy of her own book: she donated everything, and gave the last one to someone to read.

The princess refused any offers to visit Russia, explaining that her heart would immediately burst with happiness. And she spoke with bitterness that she had made one unforgivable mistake in her life: she had left Georgia in a difficult time for her. She desperately yearned for her homeland until the end of her days.

Even when Salome Andronikova practically lost her hearing and sight, she continued to be a woman. She was proud that at the age of 90 no one gives her more than seventy and sincerely believed that she would celebrate her 100th anniversary. But Salome Andronikova-Halpern did not live to see the century, incomplete seven years. On May 8, 1982, the legend and the last brilliant woman of the Silver Age passed away.

It is not known what the fate of Marina Tsvetaeva would have been if it had not been for the help and support of Salome Andronikova. We might never have been able to read many soulful lines poetess who filled the world with special poems about love.