Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva went down in history not only as the daughter of an outstanding chemist, but also as the wife of one of the greatest Russian poets. Her life was filled with various interesting facts, and in addition to her legal husband, Alexander Blok, she was not deprived of the attention of other equally famous men.
It is paradoxical that the daughter of Dmitri Mendeleev had a completely unsightly appearance. Judging by the surviving photos and the memories of eyewitnesses, the woman was rude and had a slightly squat figure.
The legendary poetess and Blok's girlfriend, Anna Akhmatova, spoke of the poet's wife very impartially, hinting that she was rather stupid. In any case, Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva, whose memories are very ambiguous, is recognized as the main muse of the great Blok, and therefore her person definitely deserves our attention.
Childhood Story
Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva was born and grew up in a large family. Her father, Dmitri Mendeleev, had six children in total. From his first marriage, he already had a daughter, Olga, and a son, Vladimir. Lyuba was born in the second marriage of the scientist - with Anna Popova. In addition to her, the family had a sister, Maria, and two brothers, Ivan and Vasily. Many who have studied the scientist's biography know that the fate of the Beloved Father, like that of many brilliant people, was not easy. He was quite complex. After he was forced to retire from university, Mendeleev and his family spent most of their time at the estate, which was located in Boblovo.
Despite the fact that children in the family of an outstanding chemist were never especially spoiled, the future wife of Alexander Blok herself recalled that her childhood was very happy, stormy and filled with joy.
Children's meeting of future spouses
The families of Blok and Mendeleev communicated with each other quite closely and always maintained warm relations. This was the reason that Alexander Blok and Lyubov Mendeleeva, whose love story will be discussed in our article, had the opportunity to meet for the first time in childhood. When their parents worked together at the university, little Sasha and Lyuba were often taken out for joint walks in the university garden. But then they were just children, and serious feelings between them arose many years later, in 1898.
The stormy adolescence of a Russian poet
In the future LoveDmitrievna Mendeleeva will become the only and eternal muse for Blok. But before love feelings for this woman ripened in him, he was seen in a stormy and slightly strange relationship with a certain Ksenia Sadovskaya. This thirty-seven-year-old woman was married and at the time of her acquaintance with Alexander already had three children. At the same time, Blok was only 16 years old at the time of his love for Sadovskaya. The meeting of these two, it would seem, completely unsuitable for each other in terms of romantic relationships, people took place at one of the German resorts called Bad Nauheim. Blok fell deeply in love with this woman, enlightened her with his poems and made secret appointments. After they returned to St. Petersburg, a relationship develops between them. But very soon Alexander cools off towards his lady and he has a new favorite - Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva.
First crush on each other
Once Lubin's mother invited seventeen-year-old Sasha to watch one of the performances that were often staged that summer in Boblovo for local peasants. Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva, whose biography we are considering, throughout her life periodically dreamed of becoming a great actress, and, of course, she took an active part in the productions of these performances, playing even the main roles in some of them.
On that evening of a fatal meeting for young people, excerpts from Hamlet were staged on the stage of an impromptu theater. Of course, Lyuba played Ophelia, and Blok himself volunteered for the role of Hamlet.
Girlmade a huge impression on him, she was fresh, young, tender and at the same time strict and impregnable. At first, the young man made the opposite impression on her. She called him an arrogant poser.
After the performance, Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva and Blok nevertheless decided to take a walk and were left alone. It was during this joint walk that they were imbued with mutual sympathy. Later, both recalled that this meeting was the beginning of their romance.
Passion for mysticism, Solovyov's teachings and dreams of the "Beautiful Lady"
It is a well-known fact that Blok was very attached to the teachings of Solovyov and was subject to various hoaxes. He believed in the existence of some mysterious Beautiful Lady, who is the embodiment of tenderness and femininity. And the meaning of all life is to find her and love her with special love all her life.
It is this Beautiful Lady who will become the main subject of Blok's famous lyrics, and very soon he will find a living embodiment of the image in his old acquaintance - Lyuba.
Mystical meetings in St. Petersburg
After that meeting in Boblovo, relations between Sasha and Lyuba cooled down. He returned to St. Petersburg and gradually began to consider for himself that their acquaintance was completely over. Mendeleev, in turn, entered the Higher Women's Courses in St. Petersburg, completely immersed herself in the student atmosphere. It seemed that young people had long since parted ways with thoughts of each other. But chance began to bring them together. Once upon a time in Petersburg Blok quite by accidentI saw Lyuba, who was heading to study. He did not call out to the girl, but simply followed her secretly, leading her all the way to the Women's Courses.
It wasn't long before the poet saw Lyuba again. This time, a chance meeting took place at the Maly Theatre, during the premiere of King Lear. It was then that the conviction appeared and firmly rooted in Blok's head that all these meetings were far from accidental.
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He realized that everything that happens between him and Anyone is a mystical coincidence. Solovyov's ideas demanded to find their only "Beautiful Lady", and Blok found her in the person of Mendeleeva.
Resurrection of love feelings
After meeting in the theater, young people resume their communication again. In Blok, strong feelings awaken for Lyuba, which begin to border on some kind of obsession. She, on the contrary, in every possible way refuses to accept his ideas and considerations on mystical subjects. On the basis of ideological and religious considerations, they often argue and quarrel. Their relationship during this period is very unstable: they either feel tenderness for each other, or completely cool.
The logical development of all this comes in November 1902, when Alexander proposes to his beloved, and Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva accepts it.
The relationship of the poet with his mother and her dislike for Mendeleeva
Alexandra Andreevna Beketova, Blok's mother, had a rather difficult fate. In her youth, she had a stormy romance with a lawyer, AlexanderSenior block. It ended with the wedding and the birth of the future poet. But this marriage was very unsuccessful. The young husband liked to drink and allowed himself to raise his hand against his wife. She was forced to leave him and devoted her entire subsequent life to her son. She adored her Sasha and devoted all her free time to him. Of course, when he announced his imminent marriage, Alexandra Andreevna was, to put it mildly, not happy. She was very jealous of Blok, and besides, she did not really like Mendeleev herself. Beketova considered her daughter-in-law too cold and somewhat arrogant. Even after the wedding took place, the mother-in-law did not perceive her daughter-in-law normally, and their relationship did not work out in any way. It is paradoxical that women were able to make friends many years after Alexander's death. Grief brought them so close that until her death, Alexandra Andreevna lived with Lyuba, who was once hated by her.
Earthly and spiritual love in Blok's understanding
Blok's adherence to Solovyov's teachings greatly complicated his married life with Lyuba, because, strictly following them, Alexander perceived her as some kind of ideal, the embodiment of Eternal Femininity.
In the mind of the poet there was a clear division between carnal, physical and spiritual love. For his wife, he had precisely the second kind of feelings and constantly shied away from physical intimacy, believing that she would eventually destroy their relationship. Most likely, this was the factor that forced Mendeleev to seek happiness with others in the future. At the same time, Blok did not lag behind his wife and had relationships both with ordinary girls of easy virtue and started quite serious novels. The first love triangle in this family was formed with the help of Blok's close friend, the poet, known under the pseudonym Andrei Bely.
Endless cheating and romance on the side
Bely was very close to Blok in a certain period of time. Alexander and his wife often visited Bely, and with each meeting he fell more and more in love with Lyubov Dmitrievna. She behaved ambiguously: on the one hand, she was not going to leave her husband, but she maintained a spark of interest in Bely. He wrote letters to her with ardent confessions and requests to leave her husband, she showed them to her husband, and this trio had constant trials. All this went on for three years, during which Bely brought himself to a state of pathological dependence on Mendeleev. She eventually got tired of it all. At one of the last joint meetings, it was decided that Bely and the Blok family would not see each other for the next year. He kept his word and left for Munich. After that, he met with Mendeleeva several more times and finally lost interest in her.
In this non-standard couple, not only the wife of Alexander Blok sinned on the side with intrigues. The poet himself was seen in endless relationships with girls of easy virtue, but he also had serious romances. For example, it is worth remembering one of the actresses (for whom Blok always felt a special weakness) named Natalia Volokhova. She's been enoughspectacular in appearance, and at some point it seemed to Alexander that it was to her that he felt both spiritual, unearthly closeness, and carnal passion. The passion for this lady was so serious that they began to talk about the imminent divorce of Blok and Mendeleeva. But Lyuba did not lose her head, she herself came to Volkhova and invited the actress to take on not only love joys with her husband, but also all the rest of the household care for him. After that, the actress’s romance with Blok quickly ended, and her friendship with her lover’s wife, oddly enough, lasted almost her whole life.
Further intrigue starts Mendeleev, and again with one of Blok's friends - Georgy Chulkov. Blok does not pay any attention and importance to this, and Luba's gentleman soon gets bored.
Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva: children
Blok's wife also had a serious affair. Her chosen one was a young actor named Konstantin Davidovsky. The woman was with him on a theatrical tour of the Caucasus and honestly wrote about everything in letters to Blok. After the tour is over, Lyuba returns home and breaks all relations with her lover. But it turns out that she was pregnant. Since the term was considerable, Blocks decide to keep this baby and pretend that he is their common one. Unfortunately, after birth, the child lived only 8 days. Paradoxically, Alexander experienced the death of a baby much harder than his own mother.
Blok's departure from life
After the death of a child, in order to recover, the couple travel a lot, Lyuba tries to forget herself and is fond of theater. She again has an affair with an actor who is 9 years younger than her. She asks forBlock divorce, but he does not let her go. The poet himself, in turn, a little later becomes interested in an opera singer - Lyubov Delmas, but the passion passes quickly. It would seem that this string of mutual betrayals could drag on indefinitely, but Blok's strange illness, which doctors at that time could not find any explanation for, put an end to it. He was tormented by a high temperature, severe incomprehensible pain. The poet died on August 7, 1921. The mother survived her son by only 2 years, and during this time, oddly enough, she huddled in a small communal apartment with her once-hated daughter-in-law.
Lyubov Dmitrievna Blok herself, after the death of her husband, published a book of memoirs about him, worked at a choreographic school. It is said that after the death of Alexander, she did not start a single romance, thus keeping him faithful after his death and preserving his memory.
