An endless letter to a stranger that Konstantin Paustovsky wrote all his life

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

Being a wife, beloved woman, muse and inspirer of a creative person is always not easy. Often, geniuses quickly burn out and are forced to look for inspiration and the meaning of life on the side and draw longed-for feelings from other sources. Let's talk about Russian today the writer Konstantin Paustovsky, who, while remaining monogamous, changed wives throughout his life. Moreover, each of these women at one time was the only ideal to which the soul of the writer aspired so much, and to which he wrote lines filled with love and tenderness for many years.

After the death of Konstantin Georgievich, his son from his first marriage, Vadim, fell into the hands of letters to a stranger to whom the writer wrote them for many years. And they were painfully reminiscent of the letters that in his distant youth he wrote to his fiancee Katya-Khatija, and later to Valeria … Tatyana and many of his fans. The same phrases, the same turns of speech, the same warm intonations …

In the life of the writer there were many women whom he loved. To write, like air, he needed a state of constant acute love. And only in his declining years did he realize that each of them was part of one ideal woman invented by him.

- this is how his son was able to explain the inconstancy in the feelings and numerous hobbies of his father.

And, which is not at all surprising, the heroes of the books of the genius romantic wrote to their beloved exactly the same letters as the author himself wrote to his beloved women. Konstantin Georgievich wrote life and lived in his books, experiencing, loving, suffering and making others suffer.

The other side of genius

At the end of his life, tormented by remorse, Konstantin Georgievich will write with bitterness:

A bit from the personal life of a romantic writer

The pedigree of Konstantin Paustovsky had Ukrainian-Polish-Turkish roots. And he was born in 1892 in Moscow in the family of the railway statistician Georgy Paustovsky, who came from the Zaporozhye Cossacks. By the way, his family came from Hetman P. K. Sagaidachny. Little Kostya was brought up on Ukrainian folklore on Cossack songs and legends, which his grandfather, a former Chumak, introduced him to.

Father was often transferred to the service, the family moved a lot, in the end, settled in Kiev. By the way, for a total of more than 20 years, Konstantin Paustovsky, “a Muscovite by birth and a Kievite by heart,” has lived in Ukraine. It was here that he took place as a journalist and writer.

Since 1904, Konstantin studied at the 1st Kiev classical gymnasium. When he entered the 6th grade, his father left the family and, in order to pay for his further studies, the future writer had to earn money as a tutor. In 1912, the young man entered the historical and philological faculty of Kiev University. However, the guy did not manage to finish his studies, since the First World War began, and Kostya went to work: first as a tram driver, then on an ambulance train as an orderly.

First love on the roads of war

It was on the roads of war that he met his first wife, sister of mercy, Ekaterina Zagorskaya. Khatidzhe - this was the name of the girl in the Crimea by the local Tatars when she lived in a Tatar village, this is what Konstantin Georgievich called her later. In 1916 they got married in Ryazan. Catherine became the writer's muse, his friend, the mother of his son Vadim. All the years spent together, the life of Paustovsky and his Hatice was subordinated to one goal - to popularize the literary talent of the writer and his works.

Having exhausted all feelings for each other, in 1936 the Paustovsky couple broke up. Two years earlier, a deep abyss was outlined in their relationship. It was then that the couple began to feel that it was still impossible to be apart, but together it was already unbearable.

Valeria is the second wife

It was at that time that fate brought the writer together with the mother of his son's classmate. In her he recognized the woman who was the subject of his passion in 1923 in Tiflis. Then the feelings, quickly flaring up, and extinguished, not having time to flare up. And now they rushed to the writer with renewed vigor, overwhelming with passion. Valeria Valishevskaya-Navashina at that time was also going through a crisis with her husband - the scientist was going to leave the family for another woman.

Paustovsky, with his characteristic self-examination in his emotions and feelings, for two whole years hesitated and tormented, not knowing what to do. - from the memoirs of his son Vadim. Catherine herself put a fat point on their family life, demanding certainty from her husband. And he went to Valeria Valishevskaya. However, their relationship did not last long …

Third wife - Tatiana

Three years later, in 1939, the writer met Tatyana Arbuzova, the wife of a playwright, actress of the Meyerhold Theater. At first, he did not make the proper impression on Tatyana, but at first sight she conquered Paustovsky and he began to send her bouquets for almost every performance.

Then fate brought them together during the Patriotic War. Paustovsky sent his new family to evacuate to Alma-Ata. By coincidence, on the way, he met Tatiana and her daughter, who were also traveling there. And then feelings overwhelmed both …

Later, Valishevskaya did not give the writer a divorce for three years. In exchange for freedom, Paustovsky left his wife an apartment and a dacha in Peredelkino. And for a long time he lived with his new family in a 14-meter room. Tatyana had a daughter from her first marriage, later she gave birth to a son, Alexei, to the writer. He completely did not notice the terrible crampedness and lack of comfort, because he again experienced a huge, crazy love, which he had not yet seen the world …

Marlene Dietrich, conquered by the work of the Russian writer

In 1964, in the life of Konstantin Paustovsky, there was an incredible meeting with Marlene Dietrich, the details of which you can read in the review: