Lakhtinskaya St., 3, lit. A, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 197136
Alexander Blok and Lyubov Mendeleeva, the daughter of chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, had known each other since childhood. But it was in the summer of 1898, when they worked together on an amateur home production of "Hamlet," that they grew closer. Their suburban estates, Shakhmatovo and Boblovo, were neighbors, and their parents were always friends. She fully embodied the image of a professor’s daughter: a strict and unapproachable gymnasium student. At that time, Blok was not yet "the" Blok — he was yet to become a famous poet. He asked for Mendeleeva’s hand and heart much later and married his beloved only in 1903, at the age of 23. Lyubov Dmitrievna became the poet’s muse and influenced the creation of his first book of poems, "Verses About the Beautiful Lady." Their relationship, with interruptions, lasted until the poet’s final years.
Blok saw in his chosen one not an ordinary girl, though educated and charming, but the image of the Beautiful Lady foretold by the founder of Russian symbolism, Solovyov, whom one must serve knightly, the Eternal Femininity before whom one should humbly, monastically bow. "You are my Sun, my Sky, my Bliss. I cannot live without You here or there. You are my First Secret and my Last Hope. My whole life, without exception, belongs to You from beginning to end" (to Mendeleeva, November 10, 1902).
This strange romance, like Blok’s mother’s romance, ended with a proposal and a wedding in a village church on August 17, 1903.
History holds many confirmations that the poet’s marriage to the actress was not an example of a stable married life. Despite the fact that Blok loved and was insanely jealous of his wife, he maintained relationships with many acquaintances, women whose connections could hardly be called innocent. At one time, it was the actress Natalia Nikolaevna Volokhova, then the opera singer Lyubov Alexandrovna Andreeva-Delmas. However, Lyubov Dmitrievna herself allowed herself affairs on the side.
In the house on Lakhtinskaya Street, in a small apartment No. 44, located on the fifth floor (many books mistakenly indicate the fourth floor), at the beginning of September 1906, newlyweds A. A. Blok and L. D. Blok settled. They lived there until the fall of 1907. From here, they almost parted forever. About this house, Blok wrote: "Only one hope remains for me: to look into the courtyard well..." This house is described in the poet’s poems "Cold Day," "In October," "In the Attic," "Windows to the Yard." Blok and his wife lived there for two years, and here the poet wrote the famous poem "The Stranger." Apartment No. 44 became a haven for many creative people of that time: actors of the Komissarzhevskaya Theater rehearsed here, symbolist poets gathered, and revolutionary-minded students dreamed of a bright future.
However, the relationship between Blok and Mendeleeva, which began as a ballad of knightly love and worship, turned into a painful psychological novel.
In 1904, in Moscow, Blok met Andrei Bely (Boris Bugayev), who became his "sworn friend": Bely was in love with Lyubov Mendeleeva.
At one point, their strange family life even formed a kind of love triangle: Alexander Blok, Lyubov Dmitrievna, and Andrei Bely. Anna Akhmatova once said that Lyubov Mendeleeva resembled "a hippopotamus standing on its hind legs," and "internally she was unpleasant, unfriendly, as if broken by something..." But for many poet friends, Blok’s wife became an object of admiration. Symbolists and mystics deified her, considering her pure and immaculate. Among those charmed by Mendeleeva was Blok’s close friend Andrei Bely. Soon he no longer just admired her as the Beautiful Lady but passionately loved her as an earthly woman. Mendeleeva reciprocated Bely’s feelings but was in no hurry to leave her husband. Bely could not bear the pangs of conscience and told his idol and friend Blok about his feelings for Mendeleeva, with Lyubov herself present during the conversation. According to Bely’s recollections, Blok only said: "Well... I’m glad..." The following year was agonizing for all participants of the love triangle: Mendeleeva was torn between two men, and they suffered from her indecision. The relationship between the poets finally broke down. But it was this oppressive situation that inspired Blok to write the play "The Little Booth," in which he told about his strange family situation. She, later recalling the romance with him, said: "I was thrown to the mercy of anyone who would court me." However, this was only half the truth. Lyubov Dmitrievna suffered, tossed between the call of reason and heart, returning to Blok and then again to Bely. In the end, she managed to break off the relationship, but every subsequent meeting with Andrei Bely was both a trial and a torment.
In 1909, Alexander Blok’s father and adopted son died — Lyubov Mendeleeva gave birth to his son by the actor Davidovsky. To recover from the shocks, the poet and his wife went on a trip to Italy and Germany. Based on impressions from the trip, Alexander Blok wrote the cycle "Italian Poems."
"Lyuba drove my mother to illness. Lyuba drove people away from me. Lyuba created all this unbearable complexity and tediousness of relationships... Lyuba spoiled so many years of my life, tormented me... Lyuba on earth is terrible, sent to torment and destroy earthly values. But — 1898-1902 did what I cannot part with her and love her," Blok confesses to himself in his notebook (February 18, 1910).
The joy-suffering stretched almost throughout the poet’s life. After Blok’s death, Lyubov Dmitrievna wrote memoirs, explanations, and justifications called "Both Truth and Fables about Blok and Myself." After reading them, A. A. Akhmatova cruelly and jealously said to her acquaintance: "To remain the Beautiful Lady, she was required to do only one thing: to keep silent!" (N. Ilyina, "Anna Akhmatova as I Saw Her").
Sources:
https://www.fiesta.ru/spb/routes/sem-mest-aleksandra-bloka-v-peterburge/
