Lyubov Andreevna Mendeleeva. Who was Mendeleev's daughter - Lyubov

Mendeleev's biography is full of interesting facts that are often little known to the common man.

Dmitry Ivanovich was born into the family of the director of the Tobolsk gymnasium, Iv. P. Mendeleev and M. Dm. Kornilieva, daughter of a poor Siberian landowner, January 27 (02/08), 1834. He was the 17th son (according to another version - 14), but his mother did everything possible to ensure that her “last child” received a good education.

Childhood and education

A brief biography of Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev says that the future scientist spent part of his life in Siberia, where the Decembrists were serving exile at the same time. The Mendeleev family was familiar with I. Pushchin, A. M. Muravyov, P. N. Svistunov, M. A. Fonvizin.

The formation of Dmitry Ivanovich’s life views was also influenced by his uncle, his mother’s brother, Vasily Dmitrievich Korniliev, who was familiar with outstanding representatives of the world of art and science of his time. Perhaps, in his uncle’s house, Dmitry Ivanovich could meet N. Gogol, F. Glinka, M. Pogodin and even Sergei Lvovich and Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin.

Information has been preserved that one of Dmitry Ivanovich’s teachers at the gymnasium was the later famous poet P. Ershov (author of the famous “The Little Humpbacked Horse”).

The future scientist received his higher education in St. Petersburg, at the Main Pedagogical Institute. His mother did everything to ensure that her son was enrolled in the first year of this educational institution.

Family and children

Mendeleev was married twice. The first wife, Fiza Leshcheva, was the stepdaughter of P. Ershov, and the second, Anna Popova, was 26 years younger than the scientist. From two marriages 7 children were born. One of his daughters, Lyubov Mendeleeva, was the wife of the famous Russian Silver Age poet A. Blok.

Scientific activities

In 1855, Mendeleev graduated from the institute (with a gold medal) and began teaching. First he worked at the Simferopol gymnasium (where he met N.I. Pirogov), then at the Richelieu Lyceum in Odessa. In 1856 he defended his dissertation and received a master's degree in chemistry.

From 1857 to 1890 he worked at the Imperial St. Petersburg University in the department of chemistry.

From 1859 to 1860 he taught and worked in Germany, at the University of Heidelberg, where he met such scientists as R. Bunsen and J. Gibbson.

Since 1872, after receiving the title of professor, he taught at the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology, Nikolaev Engineering School, and also at the Institute of Transport. Since 1876 he has been a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences.

Discovery of the Periodic Law

Scientists discovered and formulated one of the fundamental laws of nature - the periodic law of chemical elements. It should be noted that Mendeleev worked on his system from 1869 to 1900 and was never completely satisfied with his work.

Last years and death

In the last years of his life, Mendeleev did a lot to open the first university in Siberia, founded the Main Chamber of Weights and Measures, contributed to the opening of the Polytechnic Institute in Kyiv, and created the first Chemical Society in the Russian Empire.

The scientist died in 1907, at the age of 72. He was buried in one of the cemeteries in St. Petersburg.

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It is difficult to discern through the thickness of the past century the image of the girl who caused an unprecedented flow of chants in Russian poetry. Judging by the photographs, she cannot be called beautiful - a rough, slightly high-cheekboned face, not very expressive, small, sleepy eyes. But once she was full of youthful charm and freshness - ruddy, golden-haired, black-browed. In her youth she loved to dress in pink, then she preferred white fur. An earthly, simple girl. The daughter of a brilliant scientist, the wife of one of the greatest Russian poets, the only true love of another...

She was born on April 17, 1882 - 120 years ago. Her father is Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev, a talented scientist. His fate, unfortunately, is typical for many talented people. He was not admitted to the Academy of Sciences, he was expelled from St. Petersburg University, and placed in the Main Chamber of Weights and Measures, which he organized. He amazed everyone who came across him with the brilliance of his scientific genius, state mentality, immensity of interests, indomitable energy and quirks of a complex and rather difficult nature. After retirement from the university, he spent most of his time on his estate in Boblovo. There, in a house built according to his own design, he lived with his second family - his wife Anna Ivanovna and children Lyuba, Vanya and twins Marusya and Vasya. According to the memoirs of Lyubov Dmitrievna, her childhood was happy, noisy, joyful. Children were loved very much, although they were not particularly spoiled.

Next door, on the Shakhmatovo estate, an old friend of Dmitry Ivanovich, rector of St. Petersburg University, botanist professor Andrei Nikolaevich Beketov, settled with his family. And he himself, and his wife Elizaveta Grigorievna, and their four daughters were very gifted people, loved literature, were familiar with many great people of that time - Gogol, Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Shchedrin - and were themselves actively involved in translations and literary creativity.

In January 1879, Alexandra Andreevna, Beketov’s third daughter, after a whirlwind romance, married a young lawyer Alexander Lvovich Blok. Immediately after the wedding, the young couple left for Warsaw, where Blok had just received an appointment. The marriage was unsuccessful - the young husband had a terrible character, he beat and humiliated his wife. When the Bloks arrived in St. Petersburg in the fall of 1880 - Alexander Lvovich was going to defend his dissertation - the Beketovs barely recognized their daughter in the tortured, intimidated woman. On top of everything else, she was eight months pregnant... Her husband returned to Warsaw alone - her parents did not let her go. When Blok, having learned about the birth of his son Alexander, came to pick up his wife, he was kicked out of the Beketovs’ house with a scandal. With great difficulty, with stormy explanations and even fights, Alexandra and her son were left in their father’s house. She could not get a divorce for several years - until Alexander Lvovich himself decided to marry again. But four years later, his second wife ran away from him along with his little daughter.

In 1889, Alexandra Andreevna married a second time - to Lieutenant of the Life Guards Grenadier Regiment Franz Feliksovich Kublitsky-Piottukh. The marriage was also not successful. Alexandra Andreevna had no more children.

Sasha Blok lived in an atmosphere of complete adoration - especially from his mother. She encouraged his passion for poetry in every possible way. It was she who introduced her son to the works of Vladimir Solovyov, whose ideas about earthly and heavenly love, about Eternal Femininity greatly influenced the worldview of Alexander Blok. Family ties with the famous philosopher also played a role in this: Blok’s mother’s cousin was married to Vladimir Solovyov’s brother Mikhail.

This was already evident in his first hobby: in the summer of 1897, at the German resort of Bad Nauheim, where he accompanied his mother, he met Ksenia Mikhailovna Sadovskaya, the wife of a state councilor and mother of three children - he was 16, she was 37. He makes dates with her. , takes her away in a closed carriage, writes enthusiastic letters to her, dedicates poems, calls her “My Deity”, addresses her as “You” - with a capital letter. This is how he will continue to address his lovers. In St. Petersburg, a connection arises between them, and Blok gradually grows cold towards her. Poetry and the prose of life turned out to be incompatible for the romantic poet.
With this understanding, Blok begins a new romance, which has grown into the main love of his life - he meets Lyubov Dmitrievna Blok.

In fact, they had known each other for a long time: when their fathers served together at the university, four-year-old Sasha and three-year-old Lyuba were taken for a walk together in the university garden. But since then they have not met - until in the spring of 1898 Blok accidentally met at an exhibition with Anna Ivanovna Mendeleeva, who invited him to visit Boblovo.

It is difficult to discern through the thickness of the past century the image of the girl who caused an unprecedented flow of chants in Russian poetry. Judging by the photographs, she cannot be called beautiful - a rough, slightly high-cheekboned face, not very expressive, small, sleepy eyes. But once she was full of youthful charm and freshness - ruddy, golden-haired, black-browed. In her youth she loved to dress in pink, then she preferred white fur. An earthly, simple girl. The daughter of a brilliant scientist, the wife of one of the greatest Russian poets, the only true love of another...

She was born on April 17, 1882 - 120 years ago. Her father is Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev, a talented scientist. His fate, unfortunately, is typical for many talented people. He was not admitted to the Academy of Sciences; he was expelled from St. Petersburg University and placed in the Main Chamber of Weights and Measures, which he organized. He amazed everyone who came across him with the brilliance of his scientific genius, state mentality, immensity of interests, indomitable energy and quirks of a complex and rather difficult nature.

After retirement from the university, he spent most of his time on his estate in Boblovo. There, in a house built according to his own design, he lived with his second family - his wife Anna Ivanovna and children Lyuba, Vanya and twins Marusya and Vasya. According to the memoirs of Lyubov Dmitrievna, her childhood was happy, noisy, joyful. Children were loved very much, although they were not particularly spoiled.

Next door, on the Shakhmatovo estate, an old friend of Dmitry Ivanovich, rector of St. Petersburg University, botanist professor Andrei Nikolaevich Beketov, settled with his family. And he himself, and his wife Elizaveta Grigorievna, and their four daughters were very gifted people, loved literature, were familiar with many great people of that time - Gogol, Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Shchedrin - and were themselves actively involved in translations and literary creativity.

In January 1879, Alexandra Andreevna, Beketov’s third daughter, after a whirlwind romance, married a young lawyer Alexander Lvovich Blok. Immediately after the wedding, the young couple left for Warsaw, where Blok had just received an appointment. The marriage was unsuccessful - the young husband had a terrible character, he beat and humiliated his wife. When the Bloks arrived in St. Petersburg in the fall of 1880 - Alexander Lvovich was going to defend his dissertation - the Beketovs barely recognized their daughter in the tortured, intimidated woman.

On top of everything else, she was eight months pregnant... Her husband returned to Warsaw alone - her parents did not let her go. When Blok, having learned about the birth of his son Alexander, came to pick up his wife, he was kicked out of the Beketovs’ house with a scandal. With great difficulty, with stormy explanations and even fights, Alexandra and her son were left in their father’s house. She could not get a divorce for several years - until Alexander Lvovich himself decided to marry again. But four years later, his second wife ran away from him along with his little daughter.

In 1889, Alexandra Andreevna married a second time - to Lieutenant of the Life Guards Grenadier Regiment Franz Feliksovich Kublitsky-Piottukh. The marriage was also not successful. Alexandra Andreevna had no more children.

Sasha Blok lived in an atmosphere of complete adoration - especially from his mother. She encouraged his passion for poetry in every possible way. It was she who introduced her son to the works of Vladimir Solovyov, whose ideas about earthly and heavenly love, about Eternal Femininity greatly influenced the worldview of Alexander Blok. Family ties with the famous philosopher also played a role in this: Blok’s mother’s cousin was married to Vladimir Solovyov’s brother Mikhail.

This was already evident in his first hobby: in the summer of 1897, at the German resort of Bad Nauheim, where he accompanied his mother, he met Ksenia Mikhailovna Sadovskaya, the wife of a state councilor and mother of three children - he was 16, she was 37. He makes dates with her , takes her away in a closed carriage, writes enthusiastic letters to her, dedicates poems, calls her “My Deity”, addresses her - “You” - with a capital letter. This is how he will continue to address his lovers. In St. Petersburg, a connection arises between them, and Blok gradually grows cold towards her. Poetry and the prose of life turned out to be incompatible for the romantic poet.

With this understanding, Blok begins a new romance, which has grown into the main love of his life - he meets Lyubov Dmitrievna Blok.

In fact, they had known each other for a long time: when their fathers served together at the university, four-year-old Sasha and three-year-old Lyuba were taken for a walk together in the university garden. But since then they have not met - until in the spring of 1898 Blok accidentally met Anna Ivanovna Mendeleeva at an exhibition, who invited him to visit Boblovo.

At the beginning of June, seventeen-year-old Alexander Blok arrived in Boblovo - on a white horse, in an elegant suit, a soft hat and smart boots. They called Lyuba - she came in a pink blouse with a tightly starched stand-up collar and a small black tie, unapproachably strict. She was sixteen years old. She immediately made an impression on Blok, but she, on the contrary, did not like him: she called him “a poser with the habits of a veil.” In the conversation, however, it turned out that they had a lot in common: for example, they both dreamed of the stage.

A lively theater life began in Boblovo: at Blok’s suggestion, excerpts from Shakespeare’s Hamlet were staged. He played Hamlet and Claudius, she played Ophelia. During rehearsals, Lyuba literally bewitched Blok with her inaccessibility, grandeur and severity. After the performance they went for a walk - the first time they were alone. It was this walk that both later recalled as the beginning of their romance.

Upon returning to St. Petersburg, we met less often. Lyubov Dmitrievna began to gradually move away from Blok, becoming more and more severe and unapproachable. She considered it humiliating for herself to fall in love with this “low veil” - and gradually this love passed away.

The following fall, Blok already considers the acquaintance to be over and stops visiting the Mendeleevs. Lyubov Dmitrievna was indifferent to this.

In 1900, she entered the Faculty of History and Philology of the Higher Women's Courses, made new friends, disappeared at student concerts and balls, and became interested in psychology and philosophy. She remembered Blok with vexation.

Blok by that time was fascinated by various mystical teachings. One day, being in a state close to a mystical trance, he saw Lyubov Dmitrievna on the street, walking from Andreevskaya Square to the Courses building. He walked behind, trying to remain unnoticed. Then he will describe this walk in an encrypted poem “Five Hidden Bends” - about the five streets of Vasilyevsky Island along which Lyubov Dmitrievna walked. Then another chance meeting - on the balcony of the Maly Theater during the performance of King Lear. He was finally convinced that she was his destiny.

For any mystic, coincidences are not just an accident - they are a manifestation of the higher mind, the divine will. That winter, Blok wandered around St. Petersburg in search of Her - his great love, which he would later call the Mysterious Maiden, Eternal Wife, Beautiful Lady... And Lyubov Dmitrievna, who accidentally met, naturally and mysteriously merged in his mind with the sublime image that he was looking for, overflowing with the ideas of Vladimir Solovyov.

Young Blok, in his love, became a faithful follower of Solovyov’s teachings. The real image of his beloved girl was idealized by him and merged with Solovyov’s idea of ​​Eternal Femininity. This was manifested in his poems, later collected in the collection “Poems about a Beautiful Lady.” Such a fusion of the earthly and the divine in love for a woman was not Blok’s invention - before him there were the troubadours, Dante, Petrarch, the German romantics Novalis and Brentano, and Solovyov himself, who addressed his poems not only to the mythological Sophia the Wisdom, but also to the real Sophia Petrovna Khitrovo. But only Blok managed to really connect with his beloved - and understand from his own experience what tragedy this could lead to.

Lyubov Dmitrievna was a mentally healthy, sober and balanced person. She forever remained alien to any mysticism and abstract reasoning. In her character, she was the absolute opposite of the restless Blok. She resisted as best she could when Blok tried to instill in her his concepts of the “unspeakable,” repeating: “Please, no mysticism!” Blok found himself in an unfortunate position: the one whom he had made the heroine of his religion and mythology was refusing the role intended for her. Lyubov Dmitrievna even wanted to break off all relations with him because of this. Didn't break it. He wanted to commit suicide. Not finished. She gradually becomes stern, arrogant and inaccessible again. Blok was going crazy. There were long walks through the night in St. Petersburg, alternating with periods of indifference and quarrels. This continued until November 1902.

On the night of November 7–8, the female students held a charity ball in the hall of the Noble Assembly. Lyubov Dmitrievna came with two friends, wearing a Parisian blue dress. As soon as Blok appeared in the hall, he without hesitation went to the place where she was sitting - although she was on the second floor and could not be seen from the hall. They both realized that this was fate. After the ball, he proposed to her. And she accepted it.

They hid their feelings for a long time. Only at the very end of December did Blok tell his mother about everything. On January 2, he made an official proposal to the Mendeleev family. Dmitry Ivanovich was very pleased that his daughter decided to link her fate with Beketov’s grandson. However, they decided to postpone the wedding.

By this time, Blok had already begun to gain fame as a talented poet. His second cousin, Mikhail Solovyov’s son Sergei, had a hand in this. Alexandra Andreevna sent her son’s poems in letters to the Solovyovs - and Sergei distributed them among his friends, members of the “Argonauts” circle. Blok’s poems made a particular impression on his old friend Sergei, the son of the famous mathematics professor Boris Bugaev, who became known under the pseudonym Andrei Bely. On January 3, Blok, having learned from the Solovyovs that Bely was going to write to him, sent his letter - on the same day as Bely himself. Of course, both took this as a “sign.” Correspondence is developing rapidly, and soon all three - Bely, Blok and Sergei Solovyov - call each other brothers and swear eternal loyalty to each other and the ideas of Vladimir Solovyov.

On January 16, a tragedy occurred: Mikhail Solovyov died of pneumonia. As soon as he closed his eyes, his wife went into the next room and shot herself.

For Blok, who was very close to the Solovievs, this was a major milestone: “I lost the Solovievs and gained Bugaev.”

On March 11, a selection of Blok’s poems is published in the magazine “New Way” - only three poems, but they were noticed. Then a publication appeared in the “Literary and Artistic Collection”, and in April, in the almanac “Northern Flowers” ​​- a cycle entitled “Poems about a Beautiful Lady”.

Many of Mendeleev’s circle were indignant that the daughter of such a great scientist was going to marry a “decadent.” Dmitry Ivanovich himself did not understand the poems of his future son-in-law, but respected him: “Talent is immediately visible, but it is not clear what he wants to say.” Disagreements also arose between Lyuba and Alexandra Andreevna - this was due to the nervousness of Blok’s mother and her jealousy of her son. But nevertheless, on May 25, Blok and Lyubov Dmitrievna got engaged in the university church, and on August 17, a wedding took place in Boblovo. The bride's best man was Sergei Soloviev. Lyubov Dmitrievna wore a snow-white cambric dress with a long train. In the evening the young people left for St. Petersburg. On January 10, 1904, at the invitation of Bely, they came to Moscow.

They stayed there for two weeks, but left a lasting memory of themselves. On the very first day, the Bloks visit Bely. He is disappointed: after reading Blok’s poems, he expected to see a sickly, short monk with burning eyes. And in front of him appeared a tall, slightly shy, fashionably dressed socialite handsome man, with a thin waist, healthy complexion and golden curls, accompanied by an elegant, slightly prim, bushy-haired young lady in a fur hat and a huge muff.

Nevertheless, by the end of the visit, Bely was fascinated by both Blok and his wife - she captivated him with her earthly beauty, golden braids, femininity, spontaneity and ringing laughter. In two weeks, Bloks charmed the entire poetic society of Moscow. Everyone recognized Blok as a great poet, Lyubov Dmitrievna charmed everyone with her beauty, modesty, simplicity and grace. Bely gave her roses, Soloviev - lilies. The symbolist consciousness of the “Argonauts” saw in Blok its prophet, and in his wife the embodiment of that very Eternal Femininity. Their wedding was perceived as a sacred mystery, foreshadowing what was promised by Vl. Solovyov's world cleansing.

Sometimes this fuss crossed all boundaries of measure and tact. The blocks very quickly got tired of the constant annoying intrusions into their personal lives and almost fled to St. Petersburg.

The seemingly ideal union of poet and muse was, however, far from so happy. From early youth, a gap formed in Blok’s consciousness between carnal, physical and spiritual, unearthly love. He could not defeat him until the end of his life. After his marriage, Blok immediately began to explain to his young wife that they did not need physical intimacy, which would only interfere with their spiritual relationship. He believed that carnal relationships could not last, and that if this happened, they would inevitably part. In the fall of 1904, they nevertheless became truly husband and wife - but their physical relationship was sporadic and by the spring of 1906 it ceased altogether.

And in the spring of 1904, Sergei Solovyov and Andrei Bely came to Shakhmatovo to visit the Bloks who were staying there. They constantly have philosophical conversations with Blok, and they simply pursue Lyubov Dmitrievna with their exalted worship. Her every action was attributed great significance, all her words were interpreted, her outfits, gestures, and hairstyle were discussed in the light of high philosophical categories. At first, Lyubov Dmitrievna willingly accepted this game, but then it began to burden both her and those around her. Blok could hardly stand it either. He will practically end his relationship with Solovyov in a year. He will have a completely different relationship with Bely for many years.

In 1905, the worship of Lyubov Dmitrievna as an unearthly being, the embodiment of the Beautiful Lady and Eternal Femininity, was replaced by Andrei Bely, who was generally prone to affect and exaltation, by a strong love passion - his only true love. The relationship between him and Blok was confused, everyone was to blame for the confusion - Blok, who constantly evaded explanations, and Lyubov Dmitrievna, who did not know how to make firm decisions, and most of all Bely himself, who in three years had brought himself to a pathological state and infected others with his hysteria .

In the summer of 1905, Sergei Solovyov left Shakhmatov with a scandal - he quarreled with Alexandra Andreevna. Blok took his mother’s side, Bely took Sergei’s side. He also left, but before leaving he managed to declare his love to Lyubov Dmitrievna with a note. She told her mother-in-law and husband about everything. In the fall, Blok and Bely exchange meaningful letters, accusing each other of betraying the ideals of friendship and immediately repenting of their sins. Lyubov Dmitrievna writes to him that she is staying with Blok.

Bely tells her that he is breaking up with her because he realized that there was “neither religion nor mysticism” in his love. However, he cannot calm down, and on December 1 he arrives in St. Petersburg. In Palkin's restaurant, a meeting between Bloks and Bely takes place, ending in another reconciliation. Soon Bely leaves back to Moscow, but returns from there angry: Blok published the play “Balaganchik,” in which he ridiculed the Moscow “Argonauts,” the established love triangle, and himself. New letters, new explanations and quarrels... Bely was particularly indignant at the figure of Columbine - in the form of a stupid cardboard doll, Blok portrayed his Beautiful Lady, Lyubov Dmitrievna...

Lyubov Dmitrievna herself at that time felt unneeded by her husband, “abandoned to the mercy of everyone who would persistently look after her,” as she herself wrote. And then Bely appears, who more and more insistently calls on her to leave Blok and live with him. She hesitated for a long time - and finally agreed. She even went to see him once, but Bely made some awkwardness, and she immediately got dressed and disappeared. Bely talks to Blok - and he moves away, leaving the decision to his wife. She breaks up with him again, makes up again, breaks up again... Bely writes letters to Blok in which he begs him to let Lyubov Dmitrievna go to him. Blok does not even open the letters.

In August 1906, the Bloks came to see Bely in Moscow - a difficult conversation took place in the Prague restaurant, which ended with Bely’s angry flight. He still thinks that he is loved, and that only circumstances and decency stand in his way. Bely's friend, poet and critic Ellis (Lev Kobylinsky), encouraged him to challenge Blok to a duel - Lyubov Dmitrievna nipped the challenge in the bud. When the Bloks from Shakhmatovo move to St. Petersburg, Bely follows them. After several difficult meetings, the three decide that they should not date for a year - so that they can then try to build a new relationship. On the same day, Bely leaves for Moscow, and then to Munich.

During his absence, Bely's friends, at his request, persuade Lyubov Dmitrievna to respond to his feelings. She completely got rid of this hobby. In the fall of 1907, they met several times - and in November they parted completely. The next time they met only in August 1916, and then at Blok’s funeral.

In November 1907, Blok fell in love with Natalya Volokhova, an actress in Vera Komissarzhevskaya’s troupe, a spectacular, lean brunette. She was 28 (Blok was 26). Blok will dedicate the “Snow Mask” and “Faina” cycles to her. The romance was stormy, there was even talk about Blok’s divorce and marriage to Volokhova. Lyubov Dmitrievna took all this hard: the wounds had not yet healed after her humiliating parting with Bely, when Blok brought his new lover to their house. One day Lyubov Dmitrievna came to Volokhova and offered to take upon herself all the worries about Blok and his future fate. She refused, thus recognizing her temporary place in Blok’s life. Lyubov Dmitrievna even becomes friends with her - this friendship survived the romance, which lasted only a year, and even Blok himself.

Now Lyubov Dmitrievna is trying to assert herself in life. She dreams of becoming a tragic actress, which irritates Blok, who did not see any talent in her. Having found a new business for herself - the theater - she simultaneously found her new position in the world. Gradually, she took the path of permissiveness and self-affirmation, which was so boasted in the decadent intellectual environment and which Blok largely followed. He found an outlet for his carnal desires in casual relationships - by his own calculations, he had more than 300 women, many of whom were cheap prostitutes.

Lyubov Dmitrievna goes into “drifts” - empty, non-binding novels and casual relationships. She meets Georgy Ivanovich Chulkov, Blok’s friend and drinking companion. A typical decadent talker, he nevertheless easily achieves what Bely sought in vain - for which Bely hated him mortally. Lyubov Dmitrievna herself characterizes this novel as “an easy love game.” Blok treated this ironically and did not enter into explanations with his wife.

On January 20, 1907, Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev died. Lyubov Dmitrievna was greatly depressed by this, and her romance gradually faded away. At the end of spring, she - alone - leaves for Shakhmatovo, from where she sends tender letters to Blok - as if nothing had happened. He answers her no less tenderly.

In winter, Lyubov Dmitrievna joins Meyerhold’s troupe, which he recruits for tours in the Caucasus. She performed under the pseudonym Basargina. She did not have the talent of an actress, but she worked very hard on herself. While she was on tour, Blok broke up with Volokhova. And Lyubov Dmitrievna begins a new romance - in Mogilev she meets the aspiring actor Dagobert, a year younger than her. She immediately informs Blok about this hobby.

In general, they constantly correspond, expressing to each other everything that is on their souls. But then Blok notices some omissions in her letters... Everything is clarified in August, upon her return: she was expecting a child. Lyubov Dmitrievna, terribly afraid of motherhood, wanted to get rid of the child, but realized it too late. By that time, she had long broken up with Dagobert, and the Blocks decide that for everyone this will be their common child.

The son, born in early February 1909, was named Dmitry in honor of Mendeleev. He lived only eight days. Blok experiences his death much more strongly than his wife... After his funeral, he will write the famous poem “On the Death of a Baby.”

Both were devastated and crushed. They decide to go to Italy. Next year they travel around Europe again. Lyubov Dmitrievna is trying to establish family life again - but it didn’t last long. She constantly quarrels with Blok's mother - Blok is even thinking about moving into a separate apartment. In the spring of 1912, a new theatrical enterprise was formed - the “Association of Actors, Artists, Writers and Musicians.”

Lyubov Dmitrievna was one of the initiators and sponsors of this enterprise. The troupe settled in Finnish Terijoki. She is having an affair again - with a law student 9 years younger than her. She goes to Zhitomir to follow him, returns, leaves again, asks Blok to let her go, offers to live together, begs him to help her...

Blok misses her, she misses being away from him, but remains in Zhitomir - the romance is going hard, her lover drinks and makes scenes for her. In June 1913, the Blocks, having agreed, went to France together. She constantly asks him for a divorce. And he understands that he loves her and needs her more than ever... They return to Russia separately.

In January 1914, Blok fell in love with the opera singer Lyubov Aleksandrovna Andreeva-Delmas, having seen her in the role of Carmen - he dedicated the cycle of poems “Carmen” to her. In love for her, he was finally able to combine earthly and spiritual love. That is why Lyubov Dmitrievna took this husband’s affair calmly and did not go to explain herself, as in the case of Volokhova. The passion passed quickly, but the friendly relationship between Blok and Delmas continued almost until Blok’s death.

Lyubov Dmitrievna cannot be called an ordinary woman. She showed a person of difficult, extremely reserved character, but, undoubtedly, a very strong will and a very high self-image, with a wide range of spiritual and intellectual needs. Otherwise, why did Blok, with all the complexity of their relationship, invariably turn to her in the most difficult moments of his life?

Blok spent his entire life paying for the family he had broken - with guilt, torment of conscience, and despair. He never stopped loving her, no matter what happened to them. She is the “holy place of the soul.” But with her everything was much simpler. She did not experience serious mental anguish, she looked at things soberly and selfishly. Having completely withdrawn into her personal life, she at the same time constantly appealed to Blok’s pity and mercy, claiming that if he left her, she would die. She knew his nobility and believed in him. And he took on this difficult mission.

The outbreak of the war and the revolutionary confusion that followed it were reflected in Blok’s work, but had little impact on his family life. Lyubov Dmitrievna still disappears on tour, he misses her, writes letters to her. During the war, she became a sister of mercy, then returned to Petrograd, where she does her best to improve the life ruined by the war and revolution - she gets food, firewood, organizes Blok’s evenings, and she herself performs in the cabaret “Stray Dog” with a reading of his poem “The Twelve”. In 1920, she went to work at the People's Comedy Theater, where she soon began an affair with the actor Georges Delvari, also known as the clown Anyuta. She “terribly wants to live”, she disappears in the company of her new friends. And Blok finally understands that in his life there were and will be “only two women - Lyuba and everyone else.”

He is already seriously ill - doctors cannot say what kind of illness it is. A constantly high temperature that could not be brought down by anything, weakness, severe muscle pain, insomnia... He was advised to go abroad, but he refused. Finally he agreed to leave - but didn’t have time. He died on the day the foreign passport arrived - August 7, 1921. No newspapers were published, and his death was announced only in a handwritten announcement on the doors of the Writers' House. All of St. Petersburg buried him.

In an empty room, Lyubov Dmitrievna and Alexandra Andreevna cried together over his coffin.

They, who constantly quarreled during Blok’s life, will live together after his death - in one room of a compact apartment that has become communal. Life will be hard: Blok will soon almost cease to be published and there will be almost no money. Lyubov Dmitrievna will move away from the theater and become interested in classical ballet. Alexandra Andreevna will live for two more years. After her death, Lyubov Dmitrievna, with the help of her friend Agrippina Vaganova, got a job at the Choreographic School at the Opera and Ballet Theater. Kirov - the former Mariinsky, will teach the history of ballet.

Now the school bears the name of Vaganova. Lyubov Dmitrievna will become a recognized expert in the theory of classical ballet and will write the book “Classical Dance. History and Modernity" - it will be published 60 years after her death. She practically does not lead a personal life after Blok’s death, having decided to become the widow of the poet, to whom she was never able to become his wife. She will also write about her life with him - she will call the book “Both true stories and fables about Blok and about herself.” She died in 1939 - not yet an old woman, in whom it was almost impossible to see the Beautiful Lady of Russian poetry...

Text: Vitaly Wulf.(

Born last, the seventeenth child in the family, he received his first lessons in chemistry by observing the production cycle at the glass factory run by his mother. Quite a lot is known about the scientific and social achievements of Dmitry Ivanovich. These include fundamental works on chemistry, physics, technological processes, metrology and meteorology, and the opening of higher courses for women in Russia. And the title of the treatise “On the combination of alcohol with water” is known to almost the entire adult population of the country, as is his famous periodic table.

Despite two official marriages and seven children born, in our time no accurate information has reached us about the direct descendants of Dmitry Ivanovich.

First marriage of D.I. Mendeleev

Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev was married twice. The first time he married Feozva Nikitichna Leshcheva, the stepdaughter of the storyteller Pyotr Ershov. With his first wife, the famous scientist had three children. The girl Masha was born in 1863 and passed away as a child. Son Volodya was born two years after Masha and died in 1898. Daughter Olga was born in 1868 and died at the age of 82.

The son, Vladimir Dmitrievich, was a naval officer on the frigate “Memory of Azov,” which very often called at the only Japanese port of Nagasaki open to foreigners. In order to prevent Russian sailors from going further than the port, the Japanese built an artificial island and placed restaurants and shops there. And, of course, the most attractive thing for men, they settled Japanese women there. According to the laws of that time, for a certain amount of money, Russian naval officers were allowed to have a contract wife (this custom is well described in V. Pikul’s novel “The Three Ages of Okini-san”). In 1893, on January 28, Vladimir Mendeleev's Japanese contract wife, Taka Hideshima, gave birth to a girl, Ofuji, the Japanese granddaughter of the great chemist. Mendeleev recognized his granddaughter and helped her mother with money. To this day, information about the Japanese descendants of the great scientist has not survived. Presumably, Ofuji and her mother died during the great earthquake. The Russian son of Vladimir Dmitrievich died in childhood, and three years later Vladimir Mendeleev himself died.

Olga lived until 1950. After the revolution, she moved to Moscow, where she served in the NKVD canine kennel, as she was fond of breeding purebred dogs. Her only daughter, Natalya, did not survive her mother much, as she suffered from an incurable disease. In 1947, Olga Dmitrievna’s book “Mendeleev and Family” was published.

Mendeleev's second marriage

Register a second marriage with D.I. Mendeleev’s relationship with seventeen-year-old artist Anna Ivanovna Popova did not work out for a long time. She was 26 years younger than the famous chemist, and the scientist had been in love with her since 1878. Having achieved a divorce with difficulty, the scientist was nevertheless punished for divorcing his first wife. According to the instructions of the church, he could not get married officially for several years. And at this time the couple already had their first daughter. However, having persuaded the priest of the Admiralty Church for 10,000 rubles, he was married to the woman he loved in 1881. And the priest, of course, was defrocked for arbitrariness and bribery.

In his second marriage, Dmitry Ivanovich had four children. Twins Vasily and Maria, daughter Lyubov and son Ivan. Reliably information about Maria and Lyubov has reached our days. Maria gave birth to a daughter, Katerina, who has lived to this day and had a son, Alexander Kamensky. Unfortunately, Alexander did not lead a very healthy lifestyle, was convicted twice and disappeared into the vastness of his homeland. In April 2014, they tried unsuccessfully to find him through the “Wait for Me” program.

There is no exact information about Vasily Mendeleev. He was interested in designing tanks and submarines. Due to a conflict with his mother, who did not allow him to meet the girl he liked, he left home. He is believed to have died during a typhus epidemic in 1922.

Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva was married to the famous poet A. Blok. She had no children by him and died in 1939.

Ivan Dmitrievich Mendeleev (1983-1936) was the only one who was able to demonstrate his talent as a writer, philosopher, and scientist. He died under strange circumstances in the village where the great chemist himself used to live.

D. I. Mendeleev and Agnessa

There are also rumors about the German branch of the great scientist and public figure D.I. Mendeleev. In Germany, he had a stormy and passionate affair with actress Agnes Voigtman. Agnes was by no means a saint and led a free lifestyle. The actress also dated other men during this period. When Agnes gave birth to a girl, strongly doubting her paternity, Mendeleev still supported the child’s mother for all eighteen years, until his daughter’s marriage. The descendants of this branch of history are still unknown.

Maybe time will pass, and the great-great-grandchildren of the great chemist will respond in Japan or Germany.

Love triangles are not that uncommon. The Silver Age alone gave us many such unions. Suffice it to recall Zinaida Gippius and her relationship with two namesakes, her husband Dmitry Merezhkovsky and her lover Dmitry Filosofov, who was called “the third Merezhkovsky” behind his back. The marriage of Alexander Blok and Lyubov Mendeleeva was quite strange.

Related poems. Evelina Bledans

“The genius of first love,” as Alexander Blok put it, visited not even the poet, but a 16-year-old boy in the German resort of Bad Nauheim, where he arrived with his mother Alexandra Andreevna and her sister Maria Andreevna in 1897 . 37-year-old Ksenia Mikhailovna Sadovskaya came there for treatment after her third birth. The attractive woman was the wife of a respectable official, the mother of two girls and one son. In her youth, she graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in vocal class.

In her diary, Aunt Bloka wrote about her nephew: “At first he was just bored, whining and capricious and tormented his mother and me. But then we met Sadovskaya, and a new game and new torment began. He courted for the first time, disappeared, abandoned us, was inexorable and selfish, she pushed him around, flirted, behaved trashy, soulless and unworthy. We were afraid for his health and for his heart. However, it all ended with Alya. (Blok’s mother. - Ed.) I learned everything from Sashura, who was hiding, and it turned out that he had no love, and it was she who lured him, she was ready for anything; only his purity and inexperience saved him from a relationship with a married, bad, and even stale woman.”

Sashura’s chosen ones will continue to get it from other women. Anna Akhmatova categorically spoke of Blok’s wife Lyubov Dmitrievna, the daughter of the famous Russian chemist Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev, as a “complete fool.”

In Blok's notebook dated June 20, 1909, before leaving Italy, the day before his arrival in Bad Nauheim, there is the following entry: " Bad Nauheim: the first love, if I’m not mistaken, was accompanied by a sweet aversion to sexual intercourse (you can’t have sex with a very beautiful woman, you have to choose only bad-looking people for this). Perhaps, however, this happened before." In the autobiography, this second largest city in Hesse is mentioned twice: "For some reason, every six years of my life I had to return to Bad Nauheim (Hessen-Nassau), with which I have connections special memories. This spring (1915) I would have to return there for the fourth time; but the general and higher mysticism of war intervened in the personal and lower mysticism of my trips to Bad Nauheim."

From such tiny pieces of evidence, literary scholars and, first of all, bloc scholars make up their own minds. Then the young man not only smelled French perfume Peau d'Espagne- “Spanish skin”, but also “Eternal femininity” (das Ewig-Weibliche) - an image borrowed from Goethe’s “Faust” and through the medium of Vladimir Solovyov, which became iconic in Blok’s work. Lyricist will never forget Sadovskaya even after her death. It was after meeting Oksana that poetry poured out of him. However, pretty soon “You” and “Oksana” in letters will be replaced by “You” and “Ksenia Mikhailovna”.

Enough with your rays

Tender dreams were nourished...

Today, parting from you,

I won't tell you anymore: "You!" ("Etude")

The grandfather of the St. Petersburg poet Andrei Nikolaevich Beketov had the Shakhmatovo estate near Moscow, and nearby, in the village of Bolotovo, the Mendeleev family lived. As a child, the chemist’s eldest daughter and Blok saw each other several times. A more conscious acquaintance with Lyuba occurs in the summer of 1895. An amateur play "Hamlet" is being staged, with Anna Ivanovna Mendeleeva becoming the director, make-up artist and costume designer. Blok - Prince of Denmark, Lyuba - Ophelia. Both prefer to prepare for the performance alone. There was a spark, but no more. Despite the cooling towards Sadovskaya, Sashura is in no hurry to visit the Mendeleevs in Boblovo more often. In manuscripts from that time, pencil marks alternate with the initials of both women: “K.M.S.” and "L.D.M." Later, in the fall of 1900, there was a break with Lyubov Dmitrievna.

“I remembered Blok with annoyance,” Lyubov Dmitrievna wrote in her memoirs “And there were fables about Blok and about myself.” “I remember that in my diary, which died in Shakhmatovo, there were very harsh phrases about him like, that “I am ashamed to remember my love for this veil with a fishy temperament and eyes...” I considered myself free.” However, already on March 7, 1901, Alexander accidentally meets Lyubov on Vasilyevsky Island, where he came to buy a dachshund, which he would later call Crabb. The girl went to the Bestuzhev courses and Blok secretly followed her. Later she would write: “His profile flashed near the course; he thought I hadn’t seen him. This meeting excited me.”

On November 7, 1902, Blok commits a mysterious act, which is still interpreted differently by researchers of his work. Alexander Alexandrovich came to the student ball in the Assembly of the Nobility, having with him a note that began with a trivial phrase: “I ask you not to blame anyone for my death. The reasons for it are completely “abstract” and have nothing to do with “human” relations. I believe in the One Holy Catholic and the Apostolic Church. Tea for the resurrection of the dead. And the Life of the Future Age. Poet Alexander Blok.

On the reverse side there is an address and date. He was not written by a madman at all. The quoted words indicate that the ability to analyze has not been lost. He tries to smooth out the sinfulness of suicide by confessing his religiosity and his church membership. The word "poet" at the end is noteworthy. Some biographers suspect that in this way the poet wanted to bring into his relationship with Lyubov Dmitrievna such drama that was not in their relationship.

On May 25, 1903, Alexander Blok became engaged to Lyubov Mendeleeva, the wedding was scheduled for August 17. On this summer day the wedding took place. On the bride’s side there are beaming parents, on the groom’s side there is only the mother. Alexander Lvovich, who gave the young couple a thousand rubles, was not invited and was greatly offended. The groom’s friend, whom he invited to be his best man, the poet Boris Bugaev, known under the pseudonym Andrei Bely, was also not at the wedding. His health was weakened by overwork caused by exams at the university, and especially by the death of his father. Boris Nikolaevich met the Blokov couple in January 1904. Somewhat later, Bely will become the third in this union. And there were reasons for this. And not only because for both poets of the Brotherhood of Knights of the Beautiful Lady, Lyubov Dmitrievna will become the Wife clothed with the Sun, Sophia the Wisdom and the Beautiful Lady in one person, the Virgin of the Rainbow Gate.