page_title: Konstantin Balmont
section_title: Private life
hierarchical_section_title: Konstantin Balmont / Private life
caption_attribution_description: English: Yekaterina Andreyeva-Balmont (1967–1952)
context_page_description: Konstantin Dmitriyevich Balmont was a Russian symbolist poet and translator. He was one of the major figures of the Silver Age of Russian Poetry.
  Balmont's early education came from his mother, who knew several foreign languages, was enthusiastic about literature and theater, and exerted a strong influence on her son. He then attended two gymnasiums, was expelled from the first for political activities, and graduated from the second. He studied law at Moscow State University, but was quickly expelled for taking part in student unrest. He tried again at the Demidov Law College, but dropped out in 1890.
  In February 1889 he married Larisa Mikhailovna Garelina; unhappy in marriage, on 13 March 1890 Balmont attempted suicide by jumping from a third-story window, leaving him with a limp and an injured writing hand for the rest of his life. He was involved in two other common-law marriages and attempted suicide a second time later in life.
  He wrote poetry and prose prolifically and published his works to wide audiences in Russia, where he emigrated from after the Bolshevik revolution, and to a smaller audience in exile.
context_section_description: In 1889, ignoring his mother's warnings, Balmont married Larisa Mikhaylovna Garelina, a daughter of Shuya-based factory-owner, described as a neurasthenic who "gave [the poet] the love of a truly demonic nature". This led first to Balmont's ties with his family being severed, then his March 13, 1890, suicide attempt. The couple's first son died in infancy; the second, Nikolai, suffered from mental illness. Later some critics warned against demonizing Larisa Garelina, pointing to the fact that years later she married the well-known Russian journalist and literature historian Nikolai Engelgardt and enjoyed a normal family life with him. Their daughter Anna Engelgardt became the second wife of poet Nikolai Gumilyov.
  On 27 September 1896 Balmont married Yekaterina Alekseyevna Andreyeva (1867–1952), a well-educated woman who came from a rich merchant's family, related to the well-known Moscow publishers, the Sabashnikovs. Andreyeva and Balmont had much in common; they formed a tandem of translators and worked together on the works of Gerhart Hauptmann and Oscar Wilde. Andreyeva, a strong-minded woman, was a leading force in the family, and in her 'strong, healthy and loving hands' (according Boris Zaitsev, who knew them well) Balmont led a "disciplined, working man's life." In 1901 their daughter Nina Balmont (Bruni in marriage, died in Moscow in 1989) was born.
  In the early 1900s, while in Paris, Balmont met Yelena Konstantinovna Tsvetkovskaya (1880–1943), general K. G. Tzvetkovsky's daughter, a student of mathematics at the University of Paris and the poet's ardent fan. Balmont, as some of his letters suggested, wasn't in love with her, but soon found himself in many ways dependent upon the girl who proved to be a loyal, devoted friend. Balmont's family life got seriously complicated in 1907 when Tsvetkovskaya gave birth to a daughter Mirra, named so by her father in the memory of the poet Mirra Lokhvitskaya, who died in 1905 and with whom he had passionate platonic relations. Torn between the two families, in 1909 Balmont attempted suicide for the second time (jumping out a window) and again survived. Up until 1917 he lived in Saint Petersburg with Tsvetkovskaya and Mirra, occasionally visiting Yekaterina and Nina in Moscow. While in France Balmont continued to correspond with Andreyeva up until 1934.
  Balmont and Tsvetkovskaya, according to Teffi, communicated in a bizarrely pretentious manner. "She was always calling him 'a poet', never – 'my husband'. A simple phrase like 'My husband asks for a drink' in their special argot would turn into something like: 'A poet is willing to appease his thirst'."  Unlike Andreyeva, Yelena Tsvetkovskaya was helpless in domestic life and had no influence over Balmont whatsoever.
  From 1919 Balmont was romantically linked with Dagmar Shakhovskaya (née von Lilienfeld, 1893–1967), who followed Balmont to France in 1921. They lived apart except for brief periods, although Dagmar bore Balmont two children: Georges (1922–1943) and Svetlana (1925-2018). Balmont sent her letters or postcards almost daily; in all, 858 of them survived, mostly from 1920-1924. It was Elena Tsvetkovskaya, though, who remained with Balmont until his dying day. She died in 1943, surviving her husband by a year. Mirra Balmont (in her first marriage Boychenko, in the second Ayutina) was a published poet, who used the pseudonym Aglaya Gamayun. She died in Paris in 1970.
caption: Yekaterina Andreyeva, Balmont's second wife.
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