Beyond public morality: love polygons from the Silver Age
Beyond public morality: love polygons from the Silver Age

Video: Beyond public morality: love polygons from the Silver Age

Video: Beyond public morality: love polygons from the Silver Age
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Osip Brik, Lilya Brik and Vladimir Mayakovsky
Osip Brik, Lilya Brik and Vladimir Mayakovsky

The beginning of the twentieth century. was marked not only by active philosophical and aesthetic searches, but also by a radical change in traditional foundations and values. The institution of marriage in its usual sense was not only shattered, but practically overthrown. Representatives creative elite of the Silver Age tried to prove by an example of their own life that love knows no restrictions and rules. In their experiments, they often violated moral norms and shocked the public. polygamous marriages.

Z. Gippius, D. Filosofov and D. Merezhkovsky, 1900s
Z. Gippius, D. Filosofov and D. Merezhkovsky, 1900s
D. Filosofov, Z. Gippius and D. Merezhkovsky, 1911
D. Filosofov, Z. Gippius and D. Merezhkovsky, 1911

This can hardly be called a sexual revolution - at the heart of triple alliances was not sexual promiscuity, but spiritual quest and the desire to go beyond traditional interpersonal relationships. Thus, for example, the philosopher and writer D. Merezhkovsky and his wife, poet and literary critic Z. Gippius were convinced that the society of the future would be built according to the laws of the “triple structure of the world” of the Kingdom of the Third Testament, which would replace Christianity. And in this new society there will be other forms of family relations - a kind of creative unions based on the similarity of worldviews. They themselves tried to create one.

Left - D. S. Merezhkovsky. Portrait by I. Repin, approx. 1900 Right - L. Bakst. Portrait of Z. Gippius, 1906
Left - D. S. Merezhkovsky. Portrait by I. Repin, approx. 1900 Right - L. Bakst. Portrait of Z. Gippius, 1906
D. Filosofov, D. Merezhkovsky, Z. Gippius and V. Zlobin, 1920
D. Filosofov, D. Merezhkovsky, Z. Gippius and V. Zlobin, 1920

The marriage of D. Merezhkovsky and Z. Gippius was not based on physical intimacy - they did not seem sexually attractive to each other. At the same time, the spouses did not deny themselves in relationships with other partners. Gippius was fond of women and other men, often of homosexual orientation - she was attracted by their unattainability. Therefore, their triple alliance with the literary critic, editor of the magazine "World of Art" D. Filosofov did not seem strange to them. For 15 years of their life together, they annually repeated a kind of wedding ceremony: the three of them read prayers in front of the icons and exchanged body crosses. Gippius was in love with Filosofov, but he could not even think about physical intimacy: "With a terrible aspiration to you with all my spirit, with all my being, I developed some kind of hatred for your flesh, rooted in something purely physiological."

V. Mayakovsky and O. Brik
V. Mayakovsky and O. Brik
V. Mayakovsky and L. Brik
V. Mayakovsky and L. Brik

“Besides your love, I have no sun, and I don’t know where you are and with whom,” V. Mayakovsky addressed these lines to Lilya Brik. When they met, she was married to Osip Brik, and was not going to leave him. Feelings at first sight and until the end of days absorbed Mayakovsky so much that he resigned himself to the existing state of affairs. The poet lived in the Brikov apartment, later Lilya told A. Voznesensky that, making love, she and Osip closed him in the kitchen, and he "scratched at the door and cried." Lilya believed that suffering was good for him, as it was a good stimulus for creativity. She stated: “I loved, I love and will love Oshya more than my brother, more than my husband, more than my son. I have not read about such love in any poetry. This love did not interfere with my love for Volodya. " At the same time, none of the participants in the triple alliance did not limit themselves in intimate relations with other people: Lilya Brik is credited with novels with the deputy of the People's Commissariat of Finance A. Krasnoshchekov, director L. Kuleshov, security officer Y. Agranov, Osip Brik was in a guest marriage with E for 20 years. Sokolova-Pearl, Mayakovsky was fond of other women.

Spouses Brik and second wife Osip E. Sokolova-Pearl
Spouses Brik and second wife Osip E. Sokolova-Pearl

For A. Blok, his wife L. Mendeleeva was a Beautiful Lady, the ideal of Eternal Femininity, so the relationship with her could only be platonic. Marriage was for him a sacred mystery, a sacred union. Prostitutes served to satisfy carnal desires, in addition, Blok had affairs - with the actress N. Volokhova, with the singer L. Delmas. At the same time, he supported the cult of his wife among his friends. It is not surprising that one of them, the poet Andrei Bely, was no less carried away by her than her husband. Mendeleeva responded to his feelings, their relationship lasted two years. Later, she had other novels, but their alliance with Blok lasted 18 years, until the very death of Blok.

Andrey Bely, Lyubov Mendeleeva and Alexander Blok
Andrey Bely, Lyubov Mendeleeva and Alexander Blok

When Ivan Bunin was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in Stockholm, there were two women next to him - his wife Vera Muromtseva and his mistress Galina Kuznetsova. Their life together, the three of them, can hardly be called a search for new forms of relationship. Bunin brought a girl half his age to their house and presented his wife with a fact: this is his student, personal secretary and adopted daughter, they will live together. Only Bunin was completely satisfied with this union, the women tolerated each other until Kuznetsova met … another woman and went to her.

Galina Kuznetsova (standing), in the center Ivan Bunin, Vera Bunina and Leonid Zurov, 1933
Galina Kuznetsova (standing), in the center Ivan Bunin, Vera Bunina and Leonid Zurov, 1933

And these are only the most famous stories - there were many such unusual families in the era of the Silver Age in the bohemian environment. And if Lila Brik was often written about, then her sister was mentioned less often. In the shadow of Lily Brik: why in Russia the name Elsa Triolet was undeservedly forgotten

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