Maximilian Voloshin. Russian poet, landscape painter and literary critic

One of the remarkable representatives of the Silver Age was a man of many talents and very original (he was called the most eccentric Russian of the beginning of the XX century) - Maximilian Voloshin (1877-1932). He very organically fit into that fine period of Russian literature, to which the words of the poetess A. Akhmatova fit: "And the silver month shone brightly over the silver age ...", although M. Voloshin himself did not belong to any of the directions that predominate in the Russian Art.

A talented person is talented in everything.

In May 1877, a son was born in Kiev, in the family of a collegiate adviser (grade VI, corresponding to the army colonel) AM Kirienko-Voloshin and EO Glaser. Immediately after the birth of the child, a mother who absorbed the free customs of that time left her husband, who died after three years, and never again thought of him. Little Max, she brought up herself according to her wild nature. And, probably, was right if appeared in Russia as a result of her education encyclopedist Maximilian Voloshin, a qualified and talented translator, a wonderful, original poet and an amazing artist. In addition, he was an interesting literary critic. And, in support of all that has been said, it's as though nature itself created a profile of a bearded man on Karadag, Maximilian Voloshin became incredibly like over time.

Unusual fate

And his fate was lucky. This cheerful person, a foolish hoaxer, in principle, he lived to the end of his days, as well as where he wanted, wrote that he did not, of course, publish it. And later, only for the storage of his poems, people could disappear without a trace. He even had an estate, consisting of two 2-storey mansions and a spacious outbuilding, the Bolsheviks did not take away. And in Koktebel, right up to the very death of this "shaggy Zeus", during the summer periods hundreds of friends and friends of his friends visited him. Voloshin's estate was something like a free sanatorium, a home of creativity for poets, writers and artists.

The Turning Year

Maximilian Voloshin studied in gymnasiums - Feodosia and two Moscow schools, at Moscow University (in the legal department), and everywhere he learned science unimportantly. And then, years later, he said that ten years spent in educational institutions did not enrich him with a single thought, and that years have been thrown away. However, he attended interested courses of his lectures at the Sorbonne and was trained in the workshops of artists of Paris.

In 1900, which Mr. Voloshin considers the year of his formation, he was deported from Moscow to Central Asia for participating in student unrest. It was here that he decided to devote himself to art and literature, for which, in his opinion, he needed to "go to the West."

From half-educated people to encyclopaedists

Maximilian Voloshin, whose biography until 1912 will be closely connected with Paris, traveled all over Europe and visited Egypt. Over the years, the undergraduated student turned into an erudite - he traveled through the cities, spending a lot of time in libraries, absorbing the culture of ancient and medieval civilizations into himself, like a sponge. He was actively engaged in translations, opening the French to Russian poets, and his compatriots - French. His critical articles were intensively published in popular Russian publications, and by the time he returned to Koktebel he already had a literary name.

The Talented Hoaxer

But in 1913 this absolutely free person, whose views always differed from those of others (and the motto of the mother was the motto: to grow by anyone, just not like the others) committed two acts, which resulted in a boycott declared to him. The first story was a talented hoax with the poetess Elizaveta Dmitrieva. They published a cycle of poems under the pseudonym Cherbina de Gabriak. Poetry enjoyed a frenzied popularity. But the exposure was difficult, as a result, defending the honor of a woman, M. Voloshin shot a duel with N. Gumilev. Maxim Alexandrovich's second was Count A. Tolstoy.

Contrary to public opinion

The second story ripped up Voloshin with many literary friends. In February and a month he gave a lecture at the Polytechnic Museum, in which he dared to express his own opinion, different from everyone, about the reason for the attack of the maniac on I. Repin's painting "Ivan the Terrible Kills His Son". In 1914 he published a book of his essays "Faces of Creativity", which became very popular. And in 1910 saw the first collection of his poems, before his poetry was published neither M. Gorky nor V. Ivanov.

Plot in the Crimea

Some researchers believe that in our days neither the scale of the individual nor the creative heritage of the artist, poet and literary critic named Voloshin Maximilian is completely appreciated. Koktebel is inextricably linked with his name. The idea of settling there belonged to his mother. Back in 1893 (Max was 16 then) she was one of the first to buy a piece of land near the sea here, believing that only air, nature and the long history of the Crimea, in which so many different cultures left their mark, fits her priceless Maximilian, in which Mixed so many different blood.

The legendary house

From the moment of his return from abroad, the poet and artist almost all the time live in his estate, which gradually becomes a kind of center of Russian cultural thought. Although, according to rumors, here not only thought. In the hardest years of the Civil War, the house of Maximilian Voloshin was a haven for all his friends, despite their "coloring" - he saved the reds from whites and whites from the Reds. He did not go to emigration, although his friend AK Tolstoy in 1918 (in 1923 returned to Soviet Russia) begged him to flee abroad. Voloshin did not give up his homeland.

Singer of Cimmeria

While in Koktebel, M. Voloshin drew a lot - according to contemporaries, two watercolors a day. Many of his works are accompanied by beautiful poems. He was in love with his Cimmeria (from the ancient Greeks - "Nordic countries"), wrote about her and painted it. Maximilian Voloshin painted his paintings in cycles. Some of them took part in exhibitions of artists of the "World of Art". But they were not familiar to a wide audience for a long time, although now beautiful collections, accompanied by poems, can be found in wide access. Many of the master's works are kept in the museum of his name and in Feodosia, in the Aivazovsky Museum.

Heritage keeper

The Maximilian Voloshin Museum in his house in Koktebel opened in 1984. His existence is due to the widow Maximilian Alexandrovich MS Voloshina (in the nephew of Zabolotskaya), who until 1976 not only lived in a former estate, but carefully stored and collected everything related to her beloved husband. She knew that someday the inhabitants of Russia would appreciate the heritage of the great artist and poet with dignity.

The museum receives the annual International Award of Maximilian Voloshin for the best poetic book, the days of its presentation are named Voloshinsky September. The poet and the artist were buried nearby - on Kuchuk-Yanyshar mountain. Under one plate lies his wife and his wife.