Tamara karsavina personal life. Tamara Karsavina: photo, biography and personal life of the Russian ballerina
Tamara Platonovna Karsavina is another ballerina of the Russian ballet, whose name stands next to the names of such great ballerinas as Matilda Kshesinskaya and Anna Pavlova. You can call Karsavina their student, although this is somewhat different. Kshesinskaya patronized young Tamara, Pavlova did not love her, but nevertheless, Karsavina danced many of the ballet parts of Pavlova and Kshesinskaya one way or another. She was very hardworking, plastic and beautiful. Yes, she did not have high patrons, but among her admirers were the magnificent Carl Gustav Mannerheim himself and the life physician of Tsar Nicholas II, Dr. Botkin. What was she, the ballerina Tamara Karsavina? A small article "Tamara Karsavina - Dancing Flame" from the ladies' magazine Desnitsa and photographs, drawings and portraits of the now great ballerina will tell us about this ...
Ballerina Tamara Platonovna Karsavina (1885 - 1978)
Nature, like a kind fairy, generously rewarded her with virtues and talents, Talent, intelligence, intelligence, beauty, special feminine charm. And at the same time - a soft character, modesty and simplicity. She was loved, respected, admired. She was always aloof from any kind of intrigue - because even in her youth she decided to devote herself to His Majesty Art. And she turned this dream into reality, remaining faithful to her for her entire long life. And in the memory of lovers and connoisseurs of art, she will forever remain the "Firebird of Russian ballet" ...
Ballerina Tamara Karsavina in the ballet The Firebird to music by Igor Stravinsky in a costume designed by Leon Bakst 1910
Tamara Karsavina was born in the spring, March 9, 1885, in an intelligent family. Tatochka, as everyone affectionately called her, learned to read early, and books became her passion. And the second, even greater passion, was ballet. Tamara's father Platon Karsavin was a dancer at the Mariinsky Theater and then taught at the Theater School. In 1891, the father's benefit performance, arranged in connection with the end of his theatrical career, made a huge impression on the six-year-old Tamara. It was then that she realized how much she loves the theater. Supported in her passion by her mother, Tamara began to prepare for admission to the Theater School. And her father became her first mentor - strict and demanding, and Karsavina kept her demands on herself for life.
Young Tamara Karsavina
Classmates at the Imperial Theater School - Lydia Kyaksht, Tamara Karsavinya and Elena Polyakova
The competition for admission to the school was very large, and there were few vacancies: only 10 girls were accepted. Among them was Tamara. The very next day after the graduation performance, they started talking about the young ballerina. Her grace, ease of movement, artistry, magnificent facial expressions were noted. However, no one saw in her then a virtuoso dancer. I must say that her successes in those years testified not only to the unconditional presence of talent, but also to great diligence and diligence: it was not easy for the girl, because she suffered from anemia, and the disease from time to time took an acute form.
Tamara Karsavina
Ballets by Tamara Karsavina
After graduating from college in 1902, Tamara was enrolled in the corps de ballet of the Mariinsky Theater. But very soon she began to entrust solo parts. Just as soon, she acquired for herself a powerful patron - Matilda Kshesinskaya, and a long-term rival - Anna Pavlova, who for some reason immediately disliked the young rising star. She worked very hard, improved her technique (she took lessons from famous teachers on trips to Italy). Gradually, Karsavina begins to entrust the main parts - she dances in the ballets Giselle, Swan Lake, Raymonda, Don Quixote, and becomes the favorite of a significant part of the public.
Tamara Karsavina in the ballet The Pavilion of Armida to music by N. Tcherepnin 1909
The first serious success brought Karsavina cooperation with Mikhail Fokine. Being one of the leading dancers of the Mariinsky Theatre, Fokine began to try himself as a choreographer, trying to enrich the dance with new elements and movements. Karsavina became his active supporter - one of the few actresses who were able to truly perceive and absorb Fokine's ideas.
Tamara Karsavina and Vaslav Nijinsky in the ballet "Giselle" 1910
Tamara Karsavina in costume for the ballet "Phantom of the Rose"
Tamara Karsavina and Vaslav Nijinsky in the ballet La Sylphide
But the real glory of Karsavina is associated with the seasons of Russian ballet in Paris, which began in 1909. The success of these seasons has exceeded all expectations. And the amazingly organic duet of Karsavina with Vaslav Nijinsky has become an adornment of all the programs of these seasons. The heroines of Karsavina were different: the seductress Armida and the playful, charming Colombina, a romantic dreamer who fell asleep after the ball and waltzed with a gentleman in her dreams (“Phantom of the Rose”), the ancient nymph Echo, devoid of her own face (“Narcissus”), a ballerina doll from Russian booth ("Petrushka") and the maiden-bird ("Firebird").
Tamara Karsavina 1910-1914
Tamara Karsavina in the ballet "The Firebird"
In the descriptions of Karsavin's performances, her mimic talent, elusive grace, a naturally high jump, which Fokin deliberately used, were emphasized - the Firebird cut the stage like lightning and looked, according to Alexander Benois, like a "fiery phoenix". And when the bird turned into a miraculous maiden, a sweet languor appeared in its movements, its impulse seemed to melt in the curves of the body, in the twists of the arms. The day after the premiere of The Firebird, enthusiastic reviews appeared in French newspapers, in which the names of the main performers were written with the article: “LA KARSAVINA”, “La Nijinsky”, which meant special admiration and respect. A Parisian reviewer wrote that on stage " Karsavina is like a dancing flame, in the light and shadows of which languid bliss lives ... her dances are the most delicate tones and an airy pastel pattern».
Tamara Karsavina 1910
Tamara Karsavina and Adolf Bolm in the ballet "Tamar" 1910
Tamara Karsavina was a devoted associate of the founder of the "Russian Seasons" Diaghilev. While Kshesinskaya, disliking Diaghilev, put spokes in his wheels, using her connections at court, and Pavlova, having danced with the same Diaghilev at first, later resolutely refused to share success with other stars, Karsavina was never capricious, did not show requirements, was able to subordinate its own interests to the interests of the common cause. Having joined the troupe as the first soloist of the Mariinsky Theater and having several leading roles in the repertoire, she, nevertheless, agreed to the position of the second ballerina. Only when Pavlova left the troupe, Karsavina began to play all the main roles.
Tamara Karsavina in the ballet Phoebus and Pan
Tamara Karsavina in the ballet "The Blue God" 1912
France adored her, and after Paris fell in love with all of Europe. After the phenomenal success in Paris, Karsavina was literally bombarded with offers, they wanted to see her in England, Italy, America, Australia. The ballerina chose London - as if anticipating that most of her life will be connected with this city. England immediately fell in love with Karsavina. According to the memoirs of the ballerina, her fan at the performance in London did not have time to shout “Karsavina!” there was a roar from the gallery, like the rumble of a distant cannon, and the theater applauded for twenty minutes».
Tamara Karsavina in the ballet "Scheherazade" 1912
In 1913 Karsavina returned to Russia, to the Mariinsky. They met her very warmly and gave all the main roles in the ballets of the classical repertoire - Giselle, Swan Lake, Raymonda, The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote and others. At this time, Karsavina is already quite a mature actress. She perfectly knew how to make any dance expressive, organically and naturally moving from dance to pantomime. Critics vied with each other lavished rave reviews in her address.
Tamara Karsavina 1911
Ballerina Tamara Karsavina "Pulcinella" 1912
Vaslav Nijinsky, Tamara Karsavina and Lyudmila Shollar in "Games" 1913
In one of the books dedicated to Russian dancers, there are such lines about Karsavina: “ She, along with Ida Rubinstein, claims first place in the list of the most beautiful Russian dancers. Contemporaries vying with each other extolled female magnetism and commemorated the hearts broken by both enchantresses. But if the infernal Ida sometimes resembled a “wounded lioness” or a sharply sharpened razor, Tamara Karsavina took it to others: she was enveloped in lyric-poetic erotica. The charm of Karsavina was all the stronger because she was known as an impregnable person, not inclined to the usual vulgar cupids of dancers.". There is a lot of evidence for the latter.
Tamara Karsavina (autographed photo)
Karsavina was courted by the famous St. Petersburg Don Juan Karl Mannerheim, the future major statesman of Finland, and at that time an officer in the tsarist army. The life physician of the court, Sergei Botkin, was madly carried away by her, forgetting for the sake of Tamara his wife, the daughter of P.M. Tretyakov, founder of the famous gallery. Choreographer Fokin made her an offer three times, and each time he was refused. Karsavina married a poor nobleman Vasily Mukhin, who captivated her with kindness, knowledge of music and a passion for ballet. But ahead of her was waiting for Big Love ...
Tamara Karsavina in the ballet "Butterflies" 1914
Once, at a reception at the British Embassy, she met Henry Bruce, the head of the embassy's office. Bruce fell desperately in love, took Tamara away from the family, she gave birth to a British diplomat's son Nikita, and in 1915 she became his wife. They lived together for over thirty years.
In 1918, Karsavina left her homeland. She was 33 years old. With her husband and son, she made her way to the north, to Murmansk, to the English ships, with bated breath entering the villages that came across on the way: who will meet - white or red? For the former, the diplomatic passport of Henry Bruce was at the ready, for the latter, a travel passport in the name of Karsavina, signed by the "red" People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Chicherin. They made it to the pier a few minutes before the last British cruiser left. Karsavina and her family first came to France, and in 1929 moved to London. For two years she danced at the Balle Rambert Theater, and then decided to leave the stage. But Karsavina could not imagine life without ballet.
Tamara Karsavina in costumes with kokoshniks (Photo with autographs) 1920-1924
She began working on the renewal of Fokine's ballets, preparing the part of the Firebird with the wonderful English ballerina Margot Fontaine. Karsavina was trouble-free, she always came to the aid of everyone who needed her. Many choreographers used her advice and advice when resuming classical ballets. The ballerina even appeared in episodic roles in several silent films produced in Germany and the UK - including in the film "The Path to Strength and Beauty" with Leni Riefenstahl.
Tamara Karsavina 1922
Peru Karsavina owns a book of memoirs "Teatralnaya Street", several books on ballet, including a manual on classical dance. She developed a new method of recording dances. Karsavina was elected vice-president of the British Royal Academy of Dance and held this honorary position for a quarter of a century. Being a pupil of the Russian school, she was actually a full-fledged representative of it abroad, continuing her own "Russian seasons".
Her portraits were painted by Serov, Dobuzhinsky, Sudeikin, Serebryakova. At the Imperial Porcelain Factory, a figurine of Karsavina was made, miraculously standing on one finger. Critics in St. Petersburg, Paris and London spoke of her "Byzantine eyes" and the proportions of an ancient Greek statue.
In 1914, in honor of her birthday, the poets released the collection “A Bouquet for Karsavina”, where Kuzmin and Akhmatova sang her. She also got into English literature: Agatha Christie brought her under the name Karzanova in the detective story “The Mysterious Mr. Keen”. James Barry, the author of "Peter Pan", wrote the play "The Truth About Russian Dancers", and there her heroine was called Karrisima. He also wrote the preface to her book of memoirs "Teatralnaya Street" (1930).
She fell in love and pursued marriage proposals. The great Mikhail Fokin proposed to her three times! Gustav Mannerheim, the future president of Finland and the builder of the Mannerheim Line, courted her as early as 1902. In 1909, when her dance enchanted all of Paris, two men were especially persistent: the writer Marcel Proust and the head of the Aga Khan religious community. However, she married twice, and both times - for people who were not famous and very modest. The first, Vasily Mukhin, was a bank official and employee, and the second, Henry Bruce, was the secretary of the British embassy.
The English biographer of Karsavina believes that she was the best London ballerina, one of the “three graces” of Russian ballet of the 20th century.
The first was Anna Pavlova, the second she, Tamara Karsavina. The third was offered to Olga Spesivtseva, but you can also name Lydia Lopukhov - then you get three great "Dyagilev" ballerinas who lived in London.
Pavlova embodied the classical Russian ballet of Marius Petipa and classical beauty, although she was very fragile and short in stature. Lopukhov's super-mobile subrette became a symbol of modernism and became famous for her connections with the Bloomsberry English circle of intellectuals. Karsavina was in the middle: she danced both classical and modernism, had classical beauty, was distinguished by intelligence, calmness and goodwill.
The dance came to her through her father, Platon Karsavin, a brilliant soloist of the Mariinsky Ballet. Grandfather Konstantin started out as an actor, but earned his living as a tailor. Father's brother Vladimir, Tamara's uncle, also danced in ballet, like his grandson Nikolai Balashov. Platon Karsavin was a student of Petipa, but quarreled with him, retired at 36 and became a dance teacher. Alas, very poor: the laurel wreath donated by colleagues for a benefit performance went to soups!
The other was the line of the mother, noblewoman Anna Khomyakova, great-niece of A.S. Khomyakov, one of the leaders of the Slavophiles. Mother herself kept a philosophical diary “Thoughts and Observations”. Her inclinations were more inherited by Tamara's brother, the famous historian, philosopher, poet and one of the theorists of Eurasianism, Lev Karsavin. But Tamara also got both the mind and the Christian-philosophical attitude to life, for which her brother became famous.
The most surprising thing is that it was the decision of the mother to give her daughter to the ballerina. The father, on the contrary, selected a library for his son-philosopher, buying cheap editions and personally binding them.
In 1894, nine-year-old Tamara was admitted to the Imperial Theater School on Teatralnaya Street in St. Petersburg. In a semi-monastic setting, with enormous physical exertion, she studied for 6 years. In 1902 she made her debut, and in September she was admitted to the Mariinsky. First, in the corps de ballet, then in the luminaries, in the soloists of the second category, the first .... Finally, in 1912, she was transferred to the ballet dancers. In the decade between the assignment of these titles, her talent flourished.
The first two seasons were unsuccessful. Anna Pavlova thundered throughout the capital in Giselle. Then they both danced in "La Bayadère" and "The Awakening of Flora". Pavlova again triumphed, and Karsavina failed. In the spring of 1904, she was diagnosed with malaria - stress and painful St. Petersburg air affected. My mother and I went to Italy for treatment at government expense. A few months later, Tamara recovered, but remained in Milan to study with Katharina Beretta. The local teaching turned out to be quite hard labor: at the first lesson she fainted. But on her return to St. Petersburg, a triumph awaited her. They started talking about her, the royal family sent gifts. The number of fans has increased.
During the revolution of 1905, Tamara joined the committee of twelve ballet actors, along with Fokine and Pavlova. They made a harmless petition, and Karsavina did not participate in politics anymore.
In 1906, on a tour arranged by Georgy Kyaksht, the brother of her classmate Lydia, she performed 32 fouettes in Warsaw. The soldiers laughed: it spins like a “top”. She no longer chased records.
Around the same time, she met two people who soon became very important to her. The first was the young ballerina Lidia Lopukhova - Tamara was appointed her mentor at the school. In the future, Lopukhov will follow her on the heels. The second was Vaclav Nijinsky, a 17-year-old student of the same school, who was already striking with his “flights”.
By that time, Russian ballet had entered a period of stagnation. Created by Petipa in the 1870s, it has not changed since then. Karsavina's partner at the school, Mikhail Fokin, quickly became both the first soloist and professor, and began to create his own ballets. They are called "neo-romantic", but they were also the first step towards abstract ballet, when they dance music, not literary history.
Fokine and Nijinsky were noticed by Sergei Diaghilev and decided to try to take Russian ballet abroad. Diaghilev was a self-taught genius, a connoisseur of art and an entrepreneur. He began with art exhibitions and the World of Art magazine, literally leading the new direction represented by Benois, Bakst, Dobuzhinsky and others. In his Ballets Russes, Diaghilev combined the scenery and costumes of the “World of Art”, the brilliant productions of Fokine and the talent of three dancers: Nijinsky, Pavlova and Karsavina.
The first performance of the Ballets Russes took place in the summer of 1909 in Paris. They gave five productions of Fokine. The audience was shocked, especially by the Sylphs and Cleopatra. In the second season, in 1910, Karsavina became the prima ballerina of the Diaghilev enterprise. Pavlova refused to dance to Stravinsky's music and left. Kshesinskaya left even earlier, before the start of the first tour. “Tatochka”, according to Benois, was very modest and reliable. Karsavina was intended to interpret Fokine's new ideas. She danced in his "Cleopatra", "Scheherazade", "Petrushka", "Sylphs", "Vision of the Rose" and many others. For her, he staged The Firebird, which became a symbol of Karsavina's dance, like Pavlova's The Dying Swan. And just like that, her "Firebird" became a symbol of the times. It was her personal triumph and the best season of the pre-revolutionary Ballets Russes: the 1911 season, London.
Arriving at the Mariinsky Theater after a tour, she easily returned to classical ballet. Here she shone in Giselle, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty. Until 1913, Tamara's constant partner was Nijinsky.
Then the war began: Karsavina danced on Drury Lane, and then they reported about the murder in Sarajevo ...
She then married Henry Bruce and had a son. Throughout 1917 she continued to dance at the Mariinsky. Even on October 25 in The Nutcracker: the troupe gathered incomplete, they performed selected parts for a very select audience. A cannonade was heard outside ... The new government did not immediately abandon the old arts. On May 15, 1918, the closing of the season took place, and in June Bruce managed to take his family out - across the lakes, Red posts, with dubious passports, on the last British ship from Murmansk. Given that England was an interventionist country, they escaped by a miracle.
They first settled in Paris, but Diaghilev suggested in advance to Karsavina that they continue their cooperation in London. She could not leave her son for a long time, and now many of her parts were performed by Lopukhova or other “Russian-London” ballerinas: Chernyshova, Nemchinova, Rubinshtein.
As a matter of fact, London was not even the second, but the first capital of the Ballets Russes: it was recently calculated that it accounts for 47% of all Diaghilev's productions, while Paris accounts for only 41%.
True, the Russian Ballet was no longer the same: Fokine left Russia for New York, Leonid Myasin, whose workshop was located in Soho, became the new choreographer. Karsavina did not like his experiments, but in The Three-Cornered Hat, staged in 1919 in London, she took part in the role of the Miller, and again with triumph.
The Diaghilev entreprise moved from the Colosseum Music Hall to the solid Alhambra Theater (now the Odeon in Leicester Square). However, the glory of the Russian Ballets gave birth to new schools and enterprises: the Kyaksht school, the enterprises of Pavlova and Bronislava Nijinska. They began to be discovered by English dancers who earned fame from Diaghilev and received Russian names. Patrick Healy-Key became Anton Dolin, Vera Clark became Vera Savina, Alice Marks became Alicia Markova.
Massine fell in love with Vera Savina and was expelled by Diaghilev in 1920, as was Nijinsky in 1916 for the same “crime”. The Russian Ballets were left without a permanent choreographer. Only in 1924 did George Balanchine appear. In his production, Karsavina danced with Lifar, the last great Diaghilev.
She continued to dance the classics, only instead of the Mariinsky there was the London Coliseum. In the early 1920s, she appeared in silent films, such as The Path to Strength and Beauty (1925) with Leni Riefenstahl.
And in 1929 Diaghilev died. Then Tamara Karsavina moved to London forever and danced with Balle Rambert for another two years. The last time was in 1932, with Anton Dolin in Vision of the Rose. She was already 46 years old. Such perseverance aroused respect from Lopukhova. A year earlier, Anna Pavlova had died after catching a cold at a rehearsal in Amsterdam. After many years of rivalry, Karsavin and Lopukhov became friends again. In 1952, after the death of her husband Karsavina, the wealthy Lopukhova awarded her an annual scholarship.
Russian ballet in London continued to develop. Karsavina helped restore old productions from the repertoire of Fokine and Petipa. In 1920 she became one of the founders of the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD), and in 1930 - courses for dance teachers. In 1931, together with Dolin and Markova, she helped create The Royal Ballet. She has written several books on ballet technique. "Karsavina syllabus" is still used today. The great English ballerina Margot Fonteyn learned from her to dance the Firebird in 1954. In the same year, Lifar invited her to his production of The Firebird, but she refused: “Forgive me, but I am faithful to Fokine ...”
In total, Tamara Karsavina danced in 77 productions, performing several parts in some of them. At the end of her life, she spoke with pleasure with memories of her great contemporaries and partners, Pavlova and Nijinsky. In one program hosted by Sir Anton Dolin, he respectfully told the 90-year-old ballerina and all the listeners: “I had two dreams in my life. Dance at Diaghilev's and dance with Karsavina. And both dreams came true.
Text: Andrey Lazarev
E.M. Zablotsky about the Karsavins
Evgeny Mikhailovich Zablotsky is a relative of Tamara Karsavina, one of the most famous ballerinas of the 20th century. He helped me in my work on the Anosov-Puzanov family tree. In gratitude, I publish an article by Evgeny Mikhailovich.
I.M. Yakovleva
Tamara Platonovna Karsavina (1885–1978)
(Photo from TsGAKFFD)
The biography of the outstanding ballerina Tamara Platonovna Karsavina was told by herself in her famous memoirs "Theatre Street". London, 1930; in Russian - "Teatralnaya street". L., 1971], published many times and in many languages. 
Naturally, the main theme of the memories is the ballet theater, the artistic world, the path in art. Of great interest is the description of childhood, family environment. The ballerina's father, ballet dancer Platon Konstantinovich Karsavin, and her mother, Anna Iosifovna, nee Khomyakova, as well as her brother, the future famous philosopher Lev Platonovich Karsavin, vividly appear before the reader. It is written in detail about the grandmother, Maria Semyonovna Khomyakova, nee Paleolog, the widow of the brother of the famous Slavophil A.S. Khomyakov.
Tamara Platonovna Karsavina on stage
Colombina in "Carnival" 1910
Postcard, Berlin, 1910.
The postcard is one of a whole series,
specially published in Germany.
T. Karsavina mentions the second grandmother, without naming her, in the last chapter of the book, in connection with the “portrait of a lady in a green silk dress and a rose in her hand” [This chapter, which tells about the dramatic ups and downs of Karsavina’s departure with her husband and two-year-old son from Russia, from the Soviet edition of 1971, was removed, probably for censorship reasons.]. Occasionally appear on the pages of the book and other relatives. This is the father’s brother and sister, “Uncle Volodya” (Vladimir Konstantinovich, it’s not even said about him that he was a ballet actor) and “Aunt Katya” (Ekaterina Konstantinovna), as well as mother’s sister Raisa (Raisa Nikolaevna). Nothing is said in the book about the ballerina's cousin, Nikolai Nikolaevich Balashev, the son of "Aunt Katya", also a ballet dancer, Platon Konstantinovich's favorite nephew. 
One should not be surprised at the absence in the book of more detailed information about Karsavina's family circle. Tamara Platonovna writes about childhood memories, adding nothing from what she could draw by consciously studying the "roots" and branches of one's "family tree". Even if she had set herself the task of researching her lineage, she would certainly have encountered difficulties that were almost insurmountable. Close enough contacts would be required with people in Soviet Russia, which she left in 1918 virtually illegally. It would require work with archival documents.
Photo from TsGAKFFD
Irina Lvovna, the niece of the ballerina, the eldest daughter of her brother L.P. Karsavin, was interested in the genealogy of the Karsavin family. This is known from the words of her sister, the youngest daughter of Lev Platonovich, Susanna. In 1989, Susanna Lvovna Karsavina (1921–2003) first met my mother, Nina Nikolaevna Zablotskaya, nee Balasheva, granddaughter of “Aunt Katya” and goddaughter of Tamara Karsavina. Their relationship continued until 1994. In particular, Susanna Lvovna recalled how her sister Irina spoke about "Uncle Kolya", her father's cousin, and about his children. Thus, it was about the family of my grandfather, Nikolai Nikolaevich Balashev.
In 1989, 37 years after the death of L.P. Karsavin, his grave was found in the camp graveyard in Abezi. The book of his student and camp comrade A.A. Vaneev “Two Years in Abezi” also gained fame. The political atmosphere in Russia has changed significantly. Gone was the ban on the names and events of the true history of the country. And there was a real opportunity to bring to publication materials, both family and archival, shedding light on the genealogy of the clan, which gave world culture an outstanding religious thinker and a brilliant ballerina. The first results of this work were published [Zablotsky E.M. Karsavin and Balashev. - In the book. Perm Yearbook-95. Choreography. History, documents, research. Perm, 1995.]
* * *
Information contained in the archival files of the funds of the Ministry of the Imperial Court [Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA), fund 497 (Directorate of the Imperial Theatres), inventory 5, files 195, 1371, 1372, 1373, 2753 and fund 498 (Petersburg Theater School), inventory 1, cases 2383, 2597, 3268, 4561, 6190. ], can serve as a commentary on the few references contained in Tamara Karsavina's book about family characters and the environment of her childhood years. So, memories of the place of residence, relating to 1890, can be supplemented by indicating the exact address of the rented apartment - the embankment of the Ekaterininsky Canal (now the Griboyedov Canal), house 170, apt. 9. At this address, the Karsavin family lived until 1896, when, due to the worsening financial situation (according to the author of Teatralnaya Street), they moved to another apartment in the same building - apt. 15. House 170 is located very close to the junction of the Griboyedov Canal with the Fontanka. Until that time, the family often changed address. So, in 1888-1889, Anna Iosifovna lived at four successively changing addresses on Malaya Morskaya, Torgovaya, Officerskaya and Mogilevskaya streets. After the house on the Catherine Canal, since 1901, shortly before Tamara graduated from the ballet school, the family lived on Sadovaya street, house 93, apt. 13 [According to T. Karsavina (“Teatralnaya Street”), the house was opposite the Church of the Intercession in Kolomna (now Turgenev Square, the church was demolished in 1934)].
Tamara Platonovna Karsavina at home.
Photo from TsGAKFFD
As follows from archival materials, in the summer of 1882, when T. Karsavina's parents got married, her father lived with his sister, in the house of "Aunt Katya", which T. Karsavina mentions in his book. Indeed, this house was located “beyond the Narva Gates”, in the then Tentelevo village, Right Street, house 6.
Ekaterina Konstantinovna Balasheva was photographed against the background of this house. The house was two-story. One floor was rented out to tenants, and the Balashev family lived on these funds.
"Ekaterina Konstantinovna Karsavina ("Aunt Katya"),
after 1908. - Author's archive.
Archival documents contain information about the parents of Tamara Platonovna's father - her grandfather, about whom she writes that he was a provincial actor and playwright, and her grandmother, whom she only mentions. In the latest biographical article [Sokolov-Kaminsky A.A. "Karsavina Tamara Platonovna" - In the book: Russian Abroad: The Golden Book of Emigration. M., 1997.] says that Konstantin Mikhailovich Karsavin subsequently became a tailor. As follows from the documents, in 1851 K.M. Karsavin was already a master of the “eternal tailor shop” [“Eternal tailor shop”, i.e. those registered in the workshop on a permanent basis, in contrast to those temporarily recorded, belonged to the artisan class. After being an apprentice, and then an apprentice, a member of the guild could submit his work to the craft council for consideration and, if approved, receive a master's certificate.]. He died in 1861, being at that time the master of the ladies' tailor shop. Pelageya Pavlovna, the wife of K.M. Karsavin, died in 1890 at the age of 70. Tamara was then only five years old. Perhaps the “lady in a green silk dress” in the portrait that she kept in memory of her grandmother and the house “beyond the Narva Gates” is Pelageya Pavlovna in her youth.
From archival documents, we also learn about the study, service and dates of life (1851–1908) of Vladimir Konstantinovich Karsavin, uncle of Tamara Platonovna. He was admitted to the number of state pupils of the Theater School (from free students) in 1865 at the age of 13, graduated from college in 1867 and served as a corps de ballet dancer until his retirement in 1887. As can be seen from his official list for this year, at the age of 37 he remained single. From the Certificate from the St. Petersburg Crafts Council, we learn that in 1865 the widow Pelageya Pavlovna was dependent on three children: Ekaterina, 17 years old, Vladimir, 15 years old, and Plato, 12 years old. Considering the age of P.P. Karsavina in the year of Ekaterina’s birth, about 30 years old, it can be assumed that this was not her first child. Indeed, as Susanna Lvovna Karsavina informed me in one of her letters, it was believed in their family that Plato's grandfather had two sisters and many brothers.
Archival documents also tell about the marital status of Ekaterina Konstantinovna (“Aunt Katya” in Karsavin’s memoirs). She was born in 1849. She married between 1870 and 1872. Her husband, Nikolai Alekseevich Balashev (grandfather of my mother, Nina Nikolaevna Zablotskaya), was a theater designer, assistant decorator of the Mariinsky Theater, was a member of the bourgeois class. Apparently, N.A. Balashev was much older than his wife - his certificate of service is dated 1857 (in 1872, at the time of the birth of his son Nikolai, he was already retired). Judging by archival documents, N.A. Balashev died between 1880 and 1885, and his wife, according to N.N. Zablotskaya, in 1920.
Nikolai Nikolaevich Balashev (1872–1941)
90s.- Archive T.M. Dyachenko,
The son of "Aunt Katya", Nikolai Nikolaevich Balashev also became a ballet dancer. He was in the Theater School from 1880 to 1890, began serving in the corps de ballet of the Mariinsky Theater, in 1897 he was transferred to the luminaries and in 1910 he graduated from the service as an artist of the 3rd category. Nikolai Nikolayevich maintained close relations with his uncle, P.K. Karsavin, for many years. The father and daughter, who became a famous ballerina, took his family affairs to heart. After the death of his first wife at a young age and the actual divorce from his second wife, ballet dancer N.T. Rykhlyakova, N.N. marriage with Elena Mikhailovna Shchukina (1874–1893), his daughter Iraida (1892–1941) remained in his care. The second daughter of Nikolai Nikolaevich and Natalya Trofimovna Evgenia, died at the age of 9 in 1905. ]. According to Nina Nikolaevna Zablotskaya, her father often visited his uncle in the post-revolutionary years, first in his apartment on Petrogradskaya Storona, on Vvedenskaya Street opposite the Vvedenskaya Church (destroyed in Soviet times), and then, after the death of Anna Iosifovna in 1919, - in the nursing home of artists on Kamenny Island [According to the memoirs of Nina Nikolaevna Zablotskaya, during these years Anna Iosifovna was partially paralyzed and with one hand, still working, was engaged in embroidery, decorating church utensils. P.K. Karsavin died in 1922. ]. Nikolai Nikolaevich visited with children and in the family of L.P. Karsavin, who lived in a university apartment on the Neva embankment.
Interesting information is contained in the Baptism Certificates of two generations of the Karsavins and the marriage of Platon Konstantinovich and Anna Iosifovna (in 1882). All these solemn acts took place in the Church of the Ascension of the Lord at the Admiralty settlements. This church, one of the oldest in St. Petersburg (built in wood in 1728, in stone in 1769), was located at Voznesensky Prospekt 34-a, on the embankment of the Catherine Canal, and was mercilessly destroyed in 1936. Vladimir and Platon were baptized in it Karsavins (in 1851 and 1854), as well as the children of Platon Konstantinovich - Lev and Tamara.
From these testimonies, we also learn about close people, friends at home, who acted as baptismal recipients or witnesses at a wedding. One can see how the circle of these people changes among different generations of the Karsavins. So, for the family of Platon Konstantinovich Karsavin, these are artists of the Imperial Theaters: M.N. Lusteman (guarantor for the bride at the wedding of P.K. Karsavina). Platon's godparents were the master of the chimney-cleaning shop, the Saxon citizen Knefler, and the widow of the tailor Rezanov.
Of particular interest for clarifying the genealogy of the Karsavins are the godparents appearing in the Baptismal Certificate of the eldest son of Konstantin Mikhailovich and Pelageya Pavlovna, Vladimir. It is they who are probably directly related to the parents of the father and mother of Tamara Karsavina. This is the headquarters captain Filimon Sergeevich Zheleznikov and the landowner of the Oryol province Maria Mikhailovna Princess Angalycheva. So far, one can only assume that M. M. Angalycheva is, perhaps, the sister of Konstantin Mikhailovich, and Zheleznikov is the name of the father or mother of Pelageya Pavlovna. 
* * *
The archival files also contain interesting details about Tamara Karsavina's father, Platon Konstantinovich Karsavin, who, unlike his older brother and nephew, was an outstanding ballet dancer.
When he graduated from the school in 1875, at the age of 20, he was already a dancer of the 1st category, a soloist. The service of PK Karsavin began at the age of 16, while still at the Theater School. In 1881, for the first time in 11 years of service, he asked for an increase in salary. On his petition to the director of the Imperial Theaters, there is an inscription of the chief director: "Performs his duty with full diligence and knowledge" and the director's visa: "Introduce him to full salary." As a result, from the beginning of 1882, the salary of 700 rubles a year was increased by 443 rubles. At the end of the same year, his salary was increased to 2,000 rubles.
Platon Konstantinovich Karsavin
in the book "Theater Street", L., 1971.,
To the very end of the 80s, T. Karsavina’s remark in her memoirs dates back: “Even at that time of relatively easy existens, Mother often talked about the difficulty of making both ends meet” [“Even at this time of relatively tolerable existence, mother often spoke about how hard it is to make ends meet. ]. With a salary of 2,000 rubles, P.K. Karsavin remained until his retirement in 1891, which amounted to 1,140 rubles a year [Nevertheless, this was the pension of a dancer of the 1st category. For comparison, the pension of V.K. Karsavin, a corps de ballet dancer, was 300 rubles, and N.N. Balashev, a dancer of the 3rd category - 500 rubles a year. ]. Help (since 1882) was teaching in the dance class of the Theater School, which continued until 1896, giving another 500 rubles to the family budget. With the dismissal from teaching, life became more difficult. It is precisely in the spring of 1897 that the description in Teatralnaya Street of the mysterious operation of handing over winter things to a pawnshop, carried out by "Uncle Volodya", refers. As Tamara Platonovna figuratively puts it, “... we always lived from hand to mouth...” [“... we often lived from hand to mouth...”, i.e. "satisfied with the bare necessities." ]. Platon Konstantinovich's petitions for one-time material assistance in connection with the mother's funeral (1890) and his wife's illness (1896) also testify to the family's cramped situation. Mention in the memoirs about teaching his father at the free school of the Prince of Oldenburg (“the salary there was modest, but firm”) refers to 1900-1901.
After his retirement in 1891, Platon Konstantinovich had to "decide" on his class status. Until 1870, when he entered the number of state pupils of the Theater School (from this year the calculation of the length of his service also began), P.K. Karsavin was in a tailor's craft workshop. In 1875, after graduating from college, he was dismissed from the artisan society and excluded from the salary. Having served for over 15 years as an artist of the Imperial Theatres, Karsavin had the right to be included in the class of hereditary honorary citizens. This right, with the receipt of the corresponding letter, he took advantage of in 1891 [RGIA, fund 1343 (Department of Heraldry), inventory 40, case 2207.].
Finally, two archival files contain original documents related to the studies and service of the outstanding ballerina [“On the free pupil Tamara Karsavina” (fund 498, inventory 1, file 4561) and “On the service of the artist of the ballet troupe Tamara Karsavina (fund 497, inventory 5 , case 1373). ]. The earliest, apart from a copy of the birth and baptismal certificates, is the "Certificate of preventive smallpox vaccination of the 7-year-old daughter of a hereditary honorary citizen Tamara Karsavina", issued on April 22, 1892. The latest is a report by the chief director of the ballet troupe to the Petrograd office of the Imperial (corrected, - State) theaters dated March 16, 1917 on the return of the ballerina Karsavina from vacation.
Between these two documents are: A.I. Karsavina’s “Petition” for the admission of her daughter Tamara to the number of incoming students of the Theater School (August 17, 1894) with a visa on the back - “Enrolled as a free student” (according to the minutes of the Conference of May 23, 1895 ) and “Certificate of study from 1894 to 1902 and completion of a full course of study at the Imperial St. Petersburg Theater School”, Tamara Karsavina’s “Petition” for assignment to active service (dated May 28, 1902, with a photograph) and the instructions of the Directorate regarding advancement of T. Karsavina in the service, “Certificate of the wedding” in the Church of the School with the son of a real state councilor, provincial secretary Vasily Vasilyevich Mukhin (July 1, 1907) and contracts of the artist with the Directorate of the Imperial Theaters (for 1908–1911, 1911–1914, 1914– 1915 and 1915–1917).
The passage of Tamara Karsavina's career ladder (according to archival documents) is as follows: on June 20, 1903 she was a corps de ballet dancer with a salary of 800 rubles a year, and from May 1, 1904 she was transferred from luminaries to the category of second dancers, from September 1, 1907 she is transferred to the dancers of the 1st category (a year later her salary is 1300 rubles), since March 25, 1912, Tamara Karsavina was transferred to the category of ballerinas. ]. There are documents about the awarding of a gold medal to be worn around the neck, on the Alexander ribbon (April 14, 1913) and the award by His Highness the Emir of Bukhara a small gold medal to be worn on the chest (September 22, 1916).
* * *
An examination of archival documents on personnel sheds additional light on the reasons for the emergence of ballet dynasties, so characteristic of the Russian stage. If we talk about the Karsavin dynasty, then we can think that the placement of sons in the Theater School was a good way out of the cramped situation in which the widow of the tailor Pelageya Pavlovna Karsavina found herself. Enrolling them on a state kosht (after a preliminary stay in the position of volunteer students) in a closed educational institution with subsequent public service and a guaranteed pension, no doubt, seemed to be a more reliable and attractive field than being in the taxable estate. Probably, Ekaterina Konstantinovna Balasheva was guided by the same considerations when arranging her son Nikolai at the Theater School.
Tamara Platonovna Karsavina
in the ballet La Bayadère.
Photo from TsGAKFFD 1917.
Then there was the question of the inheritance of the profession. Here, the formation of a professional circle of friends was already of great importance. We know from Tamara Karsavina's book that the parents' opinions about her definition at the school differed. The negative position of Platon Konstantinovich was probably connected with that unpleasant aftertaste from the atmosphere of intrigue and routine, of which he himself became a victim at that time, forced to retire in his prime. But artistic nature, love for the theater quickly got the better of his first reaction. Tamara Platonovna also mentions the role of "Aunt Vera", the ballet dancer V.V. Zhukova, her father's partner and friend at home, in her preparation for entering the school. As for Nikolai Nikolayevich Balashev, his desire to send his children to the school was probably determined by more pragmatic considerations [In addition to his son Lev, who became a ballet dancer, Nikolai Nikolayevich wanted to enroll his daughter Nina in the school, but she was not accepted because of her too small height . ]. At the same time, Lev Platonovich Karsavin was categorically against the admission of the eldest daughter Irina, according to family tradition, to the Theater School.
* * *
Tamara Platonovna Karsavina
performs a torch dance.
Photo from TsGAKFFD (before 1917
USA
New York)
Having left Russia forever, which had just survived the October Revolution, Tamara Karsavina, like her brother, did not know anything about the fate of the descendants of "Aunt Katya." Many years later, a request came to England through the International Red Cross, made by my mother N.N. Zablotskaya, niece of T. Karsavina. At the end of 1973, Tamara Platonovna Karsavina answered a request from Nina Nikolaevna Zablotskaya (Balasheva), from Leningrad, about her health. And on November 6, 1973, Nina Nikolaevna received a notification from the Directorate for Search of the Executive Committee of the SOCKKiKP (Union of Societies of the Red Cross and Red Crescent) with the following content:
“It has been established that Tamara Platonovna is alive and happy. To a letter from the British Red Cross, she replied: “Because over the years her eyesight has deteriorated and she suffers from severe arthritis, it is difficult for her to read and write. Her son Nikita lives well, he has children Karolina, 16 years old, and Nikolai, 12 years old. She asks to convey to her niece big greetings and good wishes and, if it is interesting for her niece to know, that she loves and honors the country in which she lives, for her wonderful and warm attitude and assistance to ballet. Unfortunately, Tamara Platonovna Karsavina did not give her address, apparently due to her advanced age, it is difficult for her to write and answer letters..
What memories did this request evoke in the legendary ballerina, an iconic figure of the Silver Age? Perhaps she remembered the warmth of the trusting childlike hand of her little goddaughter Ninochka, an early orphaned girl - the daughter of her cousin Nikolai ... She remembered the distant years of the beginning of the 20th century, the years of her rising glory ... I don’t know that. But I know what memories connected my mother, Nina Nikolaevna, with “Aunt Tamara”, whom she had not seen since her distant and such a sad childhood? Nina Nikolaevna told me and my sister Tatyana about grandfather Nikolai Nikolaevich, whom we hardly remembered - about her kind, gentle, always preoccupied 
the earnings of a father who could not do anything with an evil stepmother. And it was by no means "literature".
And always in these stories the image of “Aunt Tamara” appeared, a good fairy who gave magical gifts and traveled with her children to her friend, Matilda Kshesinskaya, in her palace on the Petrograd side. This happened at Christmas and Easter.
Tamara Platonovna Karsavina in the role.
Photo taken in 1917.
Godson and goddaughters of T. Karsavina
- Lev, Nina and Lyuba Balashev.
Around 1910. - Archive T.M.Dyachenko.
"Aunt Tamara" was the baptismal recipient of the children of Nikolai Nikolaevich Balashev - Lev, Nina and Lyuba, as well as the daughters of his brother, Lev Platonovich Karsavin - Irina and Marianna
[Lev Nikolaevich Balashev (1904–1960),
Nina Nikolaevna Zablotskaya (1905–1994),
Lyubov Nikolaevna Balasheva (1908–1977),
Irina Lvovna Karsavina (1906–1987),
Marianna Lvovna Suvchinskaya (1911-1994)]. 
Goddaughters of T. Karsavina -
Irina and Marianna Karsavina.
Around 1914
Archive of S. L. Karsavina.
Lev Nikolaevich Balashev studied at the ballet department of the Theater School from 1914 to 1922, danced at the Mariinsky Theater, then at the Music Hall, and from 1930 earned a living as a graphic designer, heredity and friendship with the artist V. Ushakov affected.
Thus, for 70 years, representatives of three generations of the Karsavin-Balashev clan served on the stage of the Mariinsky Theatre.
Nina Balasheva hardly remembered her mother. Antonina Pavlovna Moskaleva, the third wife of Nikolai Nikolaevich, died when the girl was only five years old. And over the years, as far as I understand, the bright image of “Aunt Tamara”, her godmother, became brighter and more concrete, as is usually the case in the memory of older people. This warm and simple plot in the memoirs of my mother, Nina Nikolaevna, did not correlate in any way with the atmosphere of the “Silver Age” that was described many times. It was a different world, a different side of life. And Tamara Karsavina, already famous then, was and remained in her mother’s memories - “Aunt Tamara”.
* * *
I got acquainted with the next article by Evgeny Mikhailovich Zablotsky ");
I found it all interesting.
A scan of the famous work by A.A. Vaneev "Two Years in Abezi" (next to the photograph of the grave cross) was sent by Evgeny Mikhailovich Zablotsky. “This text by Vaneev (a kind of monument to Lev Platonovich Karsavin) was published in Brussels in 1990,” writes Evgeny Mikhailovich. “There is a photograph of the grave and an excerpt from an article by V. Sharonov about the circumstances of the discovery of the grave.”
Probably, these are the same details that I have already written about. (?)
General view of the Gulag churchyard in Abezi
The works and life of L.P. Karsavin in our time have become the object of close attention, both in Russia and in Lithuania, where he is called the “Lithuanian Plato”.
The artistic fate and biography of Tamara Karsavina, who was born in 1885 and lived to be 93 years old (she died in 1978), are widely known. Tatyana Kuznetsova, who had been a friend of Karsavina's London house since the mid-1950s, rightly remarked that "there is hardly a dancer in the history of Russian ballet who spoke in such detail about herself." We are talking, of course, about the famous "Teatralnaya Street", translated into many languages and withstood dozens of reprints. Information about her family, which cannot but be of interest to historians and biographers, also goes back to this text by Karsavina. True, the "family element" of Karsavina's memoirs is limited to the time of her departure from the country and is relatively detailed only for childhood, which essentially ended in 1894 with admission to the Theater School. The years spent in a closed educational institution, the early start of an artistic career - Tamara Karsavina graduated from college and began serving in the theater in 1902, at the age of 17, an intense creative life, naturally, pushed aside childhood memories and a family theme. From the pages of the book, the reader is confronted by the ballerina's father - Platon Konstantinovich Karsavin, a ballet dancer, a gentle and kind person, and her mother - Anna Iosifovna, nee Khomyakova, who was left without a father early and was brought up in the Smolny ("orphan") Institute. The episodic characters, participants in purely everyday situations, are the father's sister and brother - "Aunt Katya", who helps her mother with sewing, and "Uncle Volodya", who takes winter clothes to the pawnshop. Much more space is given to my grandmother, Maria Semenovna Khomyakova, about whom Karsavina says: “Grandma remained in my memory as an unusually bright and whole person; an interesting book could be written about the events of her life. The mention of the second grandmother, without specifying her name, can be found in the last chapter of the book, in the description of pre-departure preparations, in connection with the "portrait of a lady in a green silk dress and a rose in her hand." Perhaps Tamara Platonovna did not set herself the task of a biographer or genealogist. These are memories. Hence the fragmentation, the charm of impressionistic intonations and, in general, a small number of facts relating to the biography of the family. Work on the memoirs began in 1928, when his parents were no longer alive, and ties with Russia were becoming more and more dangerous. The ex-husband of Tamara Platonovna, Vasily Vasilyevich Mukhin, and the brother of the wife of Lev Platonovich, Vsevolod Nikolaevich Kuznetsov, remained in Russia. In the early 1930s, they were “spotted” by the OGPU. Correspondence with Karsavina and receipt of food parcels from abroad ended for V. V. Mukhin camp.
Other relatives of the Karsavins also lived in the USSR, including the family of their cousin, Nikolai Nikolaevich Balashev, the son of Ekaterina Konstantinovna Karsavina, in the marriage of Balasheva (1849-1920) - "Aunt Katya" of Karsavin's memoirs. It was in this family that the memory of the Karsavins, especially Tamara Platonovna, continued to be preserved. Moreover, the memory is not associated with her stage fame. There was, therefore, another plot, unknown to Karsavin scholars. The plot is purely family, which did not receive any coverage in Karsavina's memoirs. We are talking about the relationship of two families, the Karsavins and the Balashevs, which continued until the death of Platon Konstantinovich Karsavin in 1922. The information contained in the stories of my mother, Nina Nikolaevna Zablotskaya (nee Balasheva), and Susanna Lvovna Karsavina (the youngest daughter of the philosopher), with whom our family established family relations in 1989, I supplemented with data extracted from the archives of the Ministry of the Imperial Court, - Funds 497 and 498 of the Directorate of the Imperial Theaters and the State Theater School. At the same time, it was possible to establish a number of facts relating to the genealogy of the Karsavins and supplementing the memoirs of the ballerina.
Refined genealogy of the Karsavins.
II generation:
1. Konstantin Mikhailovich Karsavin? -1861.
Wife - Pelageya Pavlovna c.1820-1890.
III generation:
2/1. Catherine 1849-1920.
Husband - Nikolai Alekseevich Balashev? - ok.1883.
Children - Lyudmila (married. Knyazeva), Rimma, Olga, Nikolai 1872-1941.
Grandchildren - Valentina, Evgenia, Valerian, George, Boris and Lyudmila Knyazev;
Iraida (1892-1941), Evgenia (1896-1905), Lev (1904-1960), Nina (1905-1994, married Zablotskaya) and Lyubov (1908-1977, husband Vladimir Safronov) Balashevs.
Great-grandchildren - Nikolai Balashev (b.1944); Tatyana (b. 1936, married Dyachenko) and Evgeny (b. 1938) Zablotsky; Lyudmila Safronova (b.1937).
3/1. Vladimir 1851-1908.
4/1. Plato 1854-1922.
Wife - Anna Iosifovna (nee Khomyakova) 1860-1918.
IV generation:
5/4. Leo 1882-1952.
Wife - Lidia Nikolaevna (nee Kuznetsova) 1881-1961.
6/4. Tamara 1885-1978.
I husband - Vasily Vasilyevich Mukhin.
II husband - Henry Bruce 1880-1951.
Son - Nikita Bruce 1916-2002.
Grandchildren - Caroline Bruce (married Crampton) b.1958, Nicholas Bruce b. 1960.
Great-grandson - James Crampton b.1992.
5th generation:
7/5. Irina 1906-1987.
8/5. Marianne 1911-1994.
Husband - Pyotr Petrovich Suvchinsky 1892-1985.
9/5. Susanna 1921-2003.
Note: The latest information about the son, grandchildren and great-grandson of Tamara Platonovna Karsavina was kindly reported by A. Foster (Andrew Foster, London), for which the author is sincerely grateful.
Literature:
1. Klementiev A., Klementieva S. Chronologie. - In the book: Klementiev A.K. Lev Platonovich Karsavin. Bibliography. Paris, 1994.
2. Zablotsky E.M. Karsavin and Balashev. – Perm Yearbook-95. Choreography. Perm: "Arabesque", 1995, p. 180-186.
3. Stupnikov I.V. Henry James Bruce. - Bulletin of the Academy of Russian Ballet, 2002, No. 11, pp. 133-146.
Pedigree of the Balashevs.
II generation:1. Nikolai Alekseevich Balashev? - beg. 80s. Retired theater decorator.
Wife - Ekaterina Konstantinovna (nee Karsavina) 1849-1920.
III generation:
2/1. Nicholas 1872-1941. Ballet dancer.
Wife - (I marriage) - Elena Mikhailovna (nee Shchukina) 1874-1893.
(II marriage) - Natalya Trofimovna (née Rykhlyakova) 1873-after 1933.
Ballet dancer.
(III marriage) - Antonina Pavlovna Moskaleva 1882-1910. Home
teacher.
(IV marriage) - Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Pushkina.
3/1. Lyudmila (married Knyazev)? -1941. Children - Valentina, Evgenia, Valerian,
George, Boris, Ludmila.
4/1. Rimma? -1941.
5/1. Olga? -1941.
IV generation:
6/2. Iraida 1892-1941. Husband and sons also died in 1941 during the blockade
Leningrad
7/2. Eugene 1896-1905.
8/2. Leo 1904-1960. Ballet dancer, graphic designer.
Wife - (I marriage) - Marina Alexandrovna Shleifer? -1941.
(II marriage) - Anna Timofeevna Dmitrieva.
9/2. Nina 1905-1994. Husband (II marriage) - Mikhail Ivanovich Zablotsky. Children - Lydia (from I
marriage), Tatyana (married Dyachenko), Evgeny.
10/2. Lydia 1906-1907.
11/2. Love 1908-1977. Husband (II marriage) - Vladimir Safronov. Daughter - Lyudmila.
12/2. Victor.
13/2. Zoya.
5th generation:
14/8. Roman?-1941?
15/8. Nikolai b.1944. Wife - Nina.
VI generation:
16/15. Tatiana.
17/15. Konstantin.
Pedigree of Khomyakovs
(a branch of Nikifor Ivanovich (V generation).
5th generation:
1. Nikifor Ivanovich Khomyakov.
VI generation::
2/1. Alexander.
3/1. Yuri.
VII generation:
4/2. Name?
5/3. Name?
VIII generation:
6/4. Elisha.
7/4. Ivan.
IX generation:
8/6. Stepan. Steward.
9/6. Basil.
10/6. Ivan.
11/7. Kirill. A contemporary of Peter I.
X generation:
12/8. Fedor. Sergeant of the Life Guards Semenovsky Regiment. Cousin-nephew of Kirill Ivanovich Khomyakov.
Wife - Nadezhda Ivanovna (née Nashchokina).
13/9. Basil? -1777. Collegiate Assessor.
14/9. Ivan.
XI generation:
15/12. Alexander.
16/12. Maria.
17/12. Avdotya.
XII generation:
18/15. Stepan? -1836. Retired Life Guard Lieutenant.
Wife - Maria Alekseevna (nee Kireevskaya) 1770-1857.
XIII generation:
19/18. Fedor 1801-1829. Interpreter of the College of Foreign Affairs, chamber junker.
Wife - Anastasia Ivanovna (nee Griboyedova) -?
20/18. Anna?-1839.
21/18. Alexei 1804-1860. Poet, philosopher, leader of the Slavophil movement.
Wife - Ekaterina Mikhailovna (nee Yazykova) 1817-1852.
XIV generation:
22/19. (?) Joseph 1825?-1865? Lieutenant.
Wife - Maria Semyonovna (nee Paleolog) 1830? -1905.
23/21. Stepan 1837?-1838.
24/21. Fedor 1837?-1838.
25/21. Maria?-1919.
26/21. Dmitry 1841-1919.
Wife - Anna Sergeevna (née Ushakova).
27/21. Catherine.
28/21. Sophia 1845-1902.
29/21. Anna. Husband - M.P. Grabbe.
30/21. Nicholas 1850-1925. Member of the State Council.
31/21. Olga (married Chelishcheva).
XV generation:
32/22. Anna 1860-1919. Husband - Platon Konstantinovich Karsavin. Children: Lev, Tamara.
33/22. Raisa. Children - Nina, two sons.
34/22. Son (name?).
Literature:
1. Khomyakov Alexey Stepanovich. – Russian biographical dictionary.
2. Khomyakov Fedor Stepanovich. - In the book: Chereisky L.A. Pushkin and his entourage. L.: Nauka LO, 1989. - .
3. Yurkin I.N. Tula landowners Khomyakovs in the Catherine era. - Khomyakov collection. T. 1. Tomsk: Aquarius, 1998, p. 245-257. - .
4. Yurkin I.N. Khomyakovs, Khrushchovs, Arsenyevs: Forgotten Connections (from research on the history of the Khomyakovs' land holdings). – Rural Russia: past and present. Issue. 2. M.: Encyclopedia of Russian villages, 2001, p. 76-78. - .
5. Kovalev Yu.P. Lipetsy. - Encyclopedia of the Smolensk region. Part 2. 2003. - .
St. Petersburg, "Basement of the Stray Dog", 1914. 22 researcher. with color ill., sheet music and facsimile. In col. publishing cover according to fig. S. Sudeikina. On the region name: "Karsavina". Paper, ink, paint; manuscript, drawings 10x18 cm, 4 sheets. facsimile, 7 author's illustrations, including flowers and vignettes in the text. On the outside of the bottom cover is the publisher's stamp of the cabaret Stray Dog. Artist M.V. Dobuzhinsky. The book is accompanied by a leaflet with a version of the anthem M.A. Kuzmin "From the birth of the basement", sent to the actual members of the "Stray Dog" and invited. The poems are reproduced in facsimile. In the collection N. Evreinov, M. Kuzmin, A. Akhmatova, N. Gumilyov, G. Ivanov, and others, portraits of T. Karsavina by S. Sudeikin, Kainer, V. Serov, S. Sorin, Sargent.
The publication was timed to coincide with a theme evening in honor of the famous ballerina T.P. Karsavina. Tamara Platonovna danced in The Stray Dog on March 28, 1914. By this time, she had become famous in Russia and abroad thanks to the ballets of M.M. Fokine and Diaghilev's Russian Seasons in Paris. The book includes drawings by Sergei Yuryevich Sudeikin (1882-1946), a Russian painter, graphic artist, theater designer; sketches by Kainer (from the collection of T.P. Karsavina); poems by Anna Andreevna Akhmatova (1889-1966) and Mikhail Leonidovich Lozinsky (1886-1955), Russian poet, translator, one of the founders of the Soviet school of poetic translation. Wed a passage from Khlebnikov's story "Before the War" (1922), probably inspired by the dances of T.P. Karsavina in Stray Dog: “She danced shamelessly, throwing off her last silks, and, repeated in her eyes, was reflected in the mirrors of the basement, crowded with military youth, on the silvery planes that divided the walls and ceiling of the basement; the whole basement was like a mirror box.” On one of the pages is written in gold ink a letter of praise from the director, playwright, theater theorist and reformer, theatrical art historian, philosopher and actor, musician, artist and psychologist Nikolai Nikolaevich Evreinov (1879-1953). The book is a kind of dedication to the great ballerina, contains unique drawings and notes of the brightest representatives of the culture of the early 20th century.
So, on Tamara Karsavina's birthday in 1914, she was invited to the Stray Dog and asked to perform an impromptu dance. After that, her friends presented her with the collection “A Bouquet for Karsavina”, which had just been published, and included works by famous poets and artists created in her honor. Colombina Karsavina danced in M.M. Fokine's "Carnival" to the music of R. Schumann (premiere - February 20, 1910 in the Pavlova Hall in St. Petersburg), Salome - in the ballet of the French composer Florent Schmitt "The Tragedy of Salome" directed by B.G. Romanov (premiere - June 12, 1913 at the theater on the Champs Elysees in Paris).
"T.P. Karsavina"
Half the sky in a distant street
The swamp clouded the dawn,
Only a lone skater
Draws lake glass.
Capricious runaway zigzags:
Another flight, one, another...
Like the edge of a diamond sword
The monogram is cut by an expensive one.
In the cold glow, isn't it
And you lead your pattern,
When in a brilliant performance
At your feet - the slightest glance?
You are Columbine, Salome,
You are not the same every time
But brighter and clearer,
The word "beauty" is golden.
Mikhail Kuzmin (March 1914)
The collection also included a poem by A. Akhmatova:
... How do you compose a song a light dance,
He told us about glory.
There is a blush on pale cheeks,
And every minute more and more prisoners,
Forgotten their existence.
And leans again in the sounds of the blessed
Your flexible body.
From the book by Vitaly Ryzhenkov “IN THE SECOND YARD THE BASEMENT…”:
"... This season was marked by another bright evening, which cabaret visitors could not forget. On March 28, 1914, T.P. Karsavina danced in the Dog. S. Sudeikin described this event in his memoirs no less colorfully: an evening by Karsavina, that goddess of the air Eighteenth century - music by Couperin "Elements of Nature" staged by Boris Romanov, our trio on ancient instruments Stage in the middle of the hall with real wooden cupids of the 18th century, standing on a wonderful blue carpet of the same era with candelabra "An unprecedented intimate charm. 50 balletomanes (50 rubles each) watched with bated breath as Karsavina released a living child - Cupid from a cage made of real roses. " Karsavina herself recalled this evening in Theater Street: "I danced straight among the public in a small space surrounded by garlands of fresh flowers.
"Stray Dog", literary-artistic. cabape. Opened on December 31, 1911 in the basement of the 2nd courtyard of the house on Mikhailovskaya Square. (now Arts Square, 5). Founders: writer A.N. Tolstoy, artists M.V. Dobuzhinsky, N.N. Sapunov, S.Yu. Sudeikin, theater. figure N.N. Evreinov, architect. I.A. Fomin and others, ch. inspirer and organizer - director and actor B.K. Pronin (1875-1946). The name goes back to the parody-romantic image of a lonely artist - "a homeless stray dog". The creators of "B. s." tried to implement one of the cardinal ideas of the early 20th century. - synthesis of the arts (poetry, music, painting and theater), to unite artists of new directions. In "B. s." poetic, musical and theatrical evenings lasting all night, lectures on art, honoring Russian and foreign artists were arranged. Among the regular visitors: poets - A.A. Akhmatova, N.S. Gumilyov, M.A. Kuzmin, O.E. Mandelstam, G.V. Ivanov, K.D. Balmont, V.V. Mayakovsky; actors, musicians and composers - V.G. Karatygin, I.A. Sats, M.F. Gnesin, Yu.A. Shaporin, S.S. Prokofiev, Yu.M. Yuriev, E.I. Time, T.P. Karsavin; arch. V.A. Schuko. The visitors were united by consciously playful behavior, readiness to take part in any spontaneously arising game situation (from scandal to reading poetry and singing romances). Favorite genre in "B. s." was a parody. The desire of the wealthy public (post. visitors called them "pharmacists") to join the artistic. the spirit of the cabaret has somewhat changed the world, but the conflict between the "bourgeois" and the "artist" was in the "B. s." largely playful, parodic character. In 1915, due to financial difficulties, "B. s." closed, its successor was "Halt of Comedians".
Karsavina, Tamara Platonovna(March 9, 1885, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire - May 26, 1978, London, UK) - a famous Russian ballerina. She was a soloist at the Mariinsky Theatre, was a member of Diaghilev's Russian Ballet and often danced in tandem with Vaslav Nijinsky. After the revolution, she lived and worked in Great Britain. The ballerina was born on February 25 (March 9), 1885 in St. Petersburg in the family of the dancer of the imperial troupe Platon Karsavin and his wife Anna Iosifovna, nee Khomyakova, daughter of a cousin (that is, great-niece) of the famous Slavophil A.S. Khomyakov. Brother - Lev Karsavin, Russian philosopher.
In 1902 she graduated from the Imperial Theater School, where she learned the basics of ballet from teachers Pavel Gerdt, Alexander Gorsky and Enrico Cecchetti, then joined the troupe of the Mariinsky Theater. Karsavina quickly achieved the status of a prima ballerina and performed leading roles in the ballets of the classical repertoire - Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Carnival, etc. Since 1909, at the invitation of Sergei Diaghilev, Karsavina began performing in the tour of Russian ballet dancers organized by him in Europe, and then in the Diaghilev Russian Ballet. The most notable works of the ballerina during the period of cooperation with Diaghilev were the leading roles in the ballets The Firebird, The Phantom of the Rose, and Petrushka.
"You are Colombina, Solomeya,
You are not the same every time
But brighter and clearer,
the word is golden: "beauty" ... "
These lines in March 1914, the acmeist poet M.A. Kuzmin dedicated Tamara Karsavina, the ancestor of fundamentally new trends in performance in the ballet theater of the 1920s, recognized as the "Queen Columbine". Tamara Karsavina grew up in an intelligent family, and was the great-niece of the famous writer and Slavophil philosopher Alexei Stepanovich Khomyakov. Tamara's brother Lev Karsavin was a medievalist historian and original thinker, for which, together with others, he was expelled from Russia in 1922 on the famous "philosophical ship". The brother and sister were friendly, Lev called Tamara "the famous virtuous sister", and she called him "the young sage." Mom Karsavina was a graduate of the Institute for Noble Maidens and devoted a lot of time to raising children, she studied with her eldest son, and little Tamara, playing nearby, listened.
She learned to read early and books became her passion. There were a lot of them in the house. My father bought cheap editions and bound them himself. Possessing an excellent memory, the girl easily memorized Pushkin's poems and loved to recite them. She was attracted to the theater since childhood. But her father, Platon Karsavin, a dancer at the Mariinsky Theater and then a teacher at the Theater School, was against her daughter following in his footsteps. He believed that she did not have a “ballerina character”, that she was too delicate and shy and would not be able to protect their interests. And yet, supported by her mother, the girl began to prepare for admission to the school. On the day of the exam, she was very worried. The competition was great, and there were few vacancies. Only 10 girls were admitted, Tamara was among them. The school was located on Teatralnaya Street (now Architect Rossi Street). Subsequently, Karsavina wrote: “Teatralnaya Street will forever remain for me a masterpiece of architecture. Then I was not yet able to appreciate all the beauty that surrounded me, but I already felt it, and this feeling grew over the years.
That is why she called the book of memoirs "Theater Street". The first year at school was not marked by much success. But soon she was taken into his class by P. Gerdt, a wonderful teacher who brought up many famous ballerinas, among whom was the incomparable Anna Pavlova. The girl became more artistic, confidence appeared. Gerdt began to entrust her with the main roles in student performances. Karsavina loved her teacher and always remembered him with boundless gratitude. She successfully passed the final exams, received the first award and the right to choose a book. Tamara chose a deluxe edition of Goethe's Faust. On the title page was the inscription: "Tamara Karsavina for diligence and success in the sciences and dances and for excellent behavior." After the end of the exams, all graduates were given 100 rubles for equipment and were allowed to go home for one day. It was necessary to purchase a complete wardrobe, and the wealth in the family was very modest. Therefore, Tamara's mother decided to go to a small Jewish shop where they sold second-hand things. In her book, Karsavina recalls this visit. The owner of the shop, Minna, tried to pick up good, almost new things. After talking to her husband in Jewish, the hostess turned to Tamara: “My husband said that a happy fate is written on your face. The day will come when you will have great clothes and you will not buy from us ... But let this young lady be happy. We'll just be happy for her." Subsequently, when Karsavina already had the opportunity to dress in expensive stores, she, remembering their kind attitude towards her, sometimes went into the shop and bought some trinkets, trying to support the owners. Many years later, while on tour in Helsingfors, Minna visited her. After the death of her husband, she lived with her daughter in a small Finnish town and traveled a long way to see Tamara. After graduating from the Theater School in 1902, Karsavina was enrolled in the corps de ballet of the Mariinsky Theatre. In the corps de ballet, she did not dance for long, very soon she began to entrust solo parts. But success did not come immediately. She did not resemble the ideal ballet premiere, which at that time was personified by Matilda Kshesinskaya. Karsavina did not have such virtuoso brilliance, assertiveness. She had other features - harmony, dreaminess, languid grace. Critics wrote about her little and very reservedly. The biggest praise for her in one of the reviews was: "not without grace." The stalls, largely filled with Kshesinskaya's fans, did not favor her either. But day by day the love for her grew in the gallery, where there were many students.
She worked a lot. It was necessary to improve the technique, and she went to Milan, where she studied with the famous teacher Beretta. N. Legat, who replaced Petipa as choreographer of the troupe, encouraged the young soloist. For the first time she receives the main roles in the ballets Giselle, Swan Lake, Raymonda, Don Quixote. Gradually, Karsavina becomes the favorite of the troupe, the authorities, and a significant part of the public. She was patronized by Kshesinskaya. “If anyone lays a finger,” she said, “come straight to me. I won't let you get hurt." And the intrigues of the enemy, without naming her, Karsavina later described in her memoir book "Theatre Street", where she told how one day a jealous rival screamed at a novice ballerina backstage, accusing her stage costume of "immodesty". But only cooperation with Fokine brought real success to Karsavina. Being one of the leading dancers of the Mariinsky Theatre, Fokine began to try himself as a choreographer. Using classical dance as a basis, but trying to rid it of bombast and rhetoric, he enriched the dance with new elements and movements that acquired a stylistic coloring depending on the time and place of the action. Fokine's innovation turned a significant part of the troupe against him. But the youth believed in him and supported the young choreographer in every possible way. Karsavina was also his active supporter - one of the few actresses who were able to truly perceive, absorb the ideas of Fokine, and later the ideas of the organizers of the Diaghilev seasons. In the education of Tamara, the formation of her artistic taste, a huge role was played by her older brother, a student at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University.
Philosophical and artistic disputes were often held in their house, exhibitions were discussed, mainly by artists of the association “World of Art” that had then arisen. Fokine's first production was the ballet The Vine to the music of Rubinstein. Anna Pavlova was the leading lady in this and other early productions. He occupied Karsavina only in solo parts. When the idea of creating Diaghilev's seasons arose, the community of Diaghilev, Fokine, Benois, Bakst seemed to Karsavina a "mysterious forge" where new art was forged. Benois wrote about her: “Tatochka really became one of us. She was the most reliable of our leading artists, and her whole being was in keeping with our work." She was never capricious, did not make demands, knew how to subordinate her own interests to the interests of the common cause. Having joined the Diaghilev troupe as the first soloist of the Mariinsky Theater, having several leading roles in the repertoire, she agreed to the position of the second ballerina. But already in the next Parisian season, when A. Pavlova left the troupe, Karsavina began to play all the main roles. She knew how to get along with Fokine, who had a stormy temperament, and with Nijinsky, a very complex and unpredictable person. Diaghilev loved her very much, and therefore, no matter how the circumstances developed, and no matter what reforms he introduced, it did not affect her. For 10 years, Diaghilev's entreprise had to leave almost everyone who created it with him: Fokine, Benoit, Bakst and many others left. But he was faithful to Karsavina to the end. For her, Diaghilev always remained an indisputable authority. On the day when she finished work on the book "Theatrical Street", she learned about the death of Diaghilev. Then Karsavina decided to write the third part of the book, prefixing it with the following epigraph: “I finished this book on August 29, 1929, and on the same day I learned the sad news about the death of Diaghilev. I dedicate this last part of his unforgettable memory, as a tribute to my endless admiration and love for him.
As already mentioned, the real glory of Karsavina is associated with the seasons of Russian ballet in Paris. The success of these seasons has exceeded all expectations. The largest cultural figures of France called him "the discovery of a new world." On this occasion, Karsavina wrote: “I often asked myself whether our history is studied abroad in the same way as the history of all peoples is studied here. With regard to China, we were rather ignorant, but probably no more than Europe in relation to Russia. Russia is a wild country of great culture and amazing ignorance... No wonder Europe didn't even try to understand you, who was a mystery even to your own children. It is quite possible that Europe hardly suspected about Russian art - this most striking manifestation of our complex and ardent soul. In Karsavina, Fokin found the ideal performer. Their amazingly organic duet with Vaslav Nijinsky has become an adornment of all the programs of the Russian Seasons. The heroines of Karsavina in Fokine's ballets were different. This is Armida, a seductress who descended from the tapestries of the 18th century, from the “Pavilion of Armida”. Playful, charming Columbine from Carnival. A romantic dreamer who fell asleep after the ball and in her dreams waltzed with her gentleman in the production of The Phantom of the Rose. The ancient nymph Echo, deprived of her own face in the production of Narcissus. Doll-ballerina from a Russian booth in the production of "Petrushka". The bird-maiden from the ballet "Firebird". But all these, such dissimilar images, were connected by one theme - the theme of beauty, beauty fatal, destructive. A stunning success in Paris had ballets on a Russian theme: "The Firebird" and "Petrushka". Both of them were created specifically for Karsavina and Nijinsky. Karsavina wrote: “I am in love with Igor Stravinsky's Petrushka and Firebird. This is really a new word in ballet. Here music and ballet are not fitted to each other, but form one ... "The next day after the premiere of The Firebird, enthusiastic reviews appeared in French newspapers, in which the names of the main performers were written with the article:" La Karsavina "," La Nijinsky ”, which meant special admiration and respect. Fokine used Karsavina's high jump - the Firebird cut the stage like lightning, and, according to Benois, looked like a "fiery phoenix". And when the bird turned into a miraculous maiden, an oriental languor appeared in its plasticity, its impulse seemed to melt in the curves of the body, in the twists of the arms. Like Anna Pavlova's The Dying Swan, Tamara Karsavina's The Firebird has become one of the symbols of the times. Karsavina was also magnificent in Petrushka. Fokin considered her the best, unsurpassed performer of the ballerina doll. Many French composers and artists collaborated with the Russian ballet troupe. C. Debussy and M. Ravel, J.L. Vaudoyer and J. Cocteau, P. Picasso and M. Chagall. Almost all of them treated Karsavina with great tenderness and respect. After the phenomenal success in Paris, Karsavina was literally bombarded with offers, they wanted to see her in England, Italy, America, Australia. The ballerina signed a contract with London. At first, she felt very uncomfortable there - not a single acquaintance, a complete lack of language. But the charm of this woman conquered and attracted, friends and admirers soon appeared. England fell in love with Karsavina. She wrote: "The nation that adopted me, you are generous and infinitely indulgent towards foreigners, but deep down you are always somewhat surprised when you find that foreigners use knives and forks just like you." During the tour in London, the Russian ballet was greatly assisted by the influential Lady Ripon. Thanks to her efforts, the premiere took place in Covent Garden. She converted the ballroom in her house into a small theater, which Bakst beautifully designed. There she staged performances, concerts, carnivals. She not only contributed to the success of the Russian ballet, but also took care of the participants in the tour. She adored Karsavina and called her "my dear little friend." Lady Ripon introduced her to the artist John Sargent. The first portrait in the role of Queen Tamara from the ballet of the same name was commissioned by Lady Ripon herself.
D.S. Sargent. Tamara Karsavina as Queen Tamara.
Subsequently, the artist made many of her paintings and pencil portraits and generously gave them to the ballerina. He also introduced her to the artist De Glen, who also painted a portrait of the artist. Perhaps no ballerina was so loved by artists and poets. It was written by Serov, Bakst, Dobuzhinsky, Sudeikin, Serebryakova and many others.
V.A. Serov Portrait of a ballerina T.P. Karsavina. 1909
In St. Petersburg, Karsavina was adored by all the creative intelligentsia. Actors, poets, musicians gathered in the artistic club "Stray Dog". The artist Sudeikin painted the walls of the basement where the club was located. Laughing and grimacing heroes of Gozzi's fairy tales - Tartaglia and Pantalone, Smeraldina and Brighella greeted the incoming, as if inviting them to take part in the general fun. The programs were improvised. Poets read their new poems, actors sang and danced. There was a special procedure for admission to membership in the club. On Karsavina's birthday in 1914, she was invited to the Stray Dog and asked to perform an impromptu dance. After that, her friends presented her with the collection “A Bouquet for Karsavina”, which had just been published, and included works by famous poets and artists created in her honor.
Tamara Karsavina in the ballet Sylphide. Hood. S.A. Sorin. 1910
Karsavina was courted by the famous St. Petersburg Don Juan Karl Mannerheim (a Finnish statesman who built the Mannerheim line, who at the beginning of the century served as an officer in the tsarist army). The life physician of the court, Sergei Botkin, was madly carried away by her, forgetting for the sake of Tamara his wife, the daughter of the founder of the gallery, Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov. Choreographer Fokin made her an offer three times, receiving a refusal.
K.A. Somov Costume design for Marquise for T.P. Karsavina
(for dancing to the music of Mozart). 1924
On the other hand, there is evidence that Tamara's intelligence and erudition, unprecedented for a ballerina and a woman of those years, periodically scared away potential admirers. As a result, Karsavina married a poor nobleman Vasily Mukhin, who captivated her with kindness, knowledge of music and a passion for ballet. The marriage lasted until the ballerina came to the reception at the British Embassy in 1913. There she met Henry Bruce, head of the embassy office in St. Petersburg. Bruce fell desperately in love, took Tamara out of the family, she bore him a son, Nikita, and in 1915 became the wife of a British diplomat. They lived together for over thirty years. Subsequently, Bruce, as he wrote at the end of his life in his memoir "Thirty Dozen Moons", prematurely interrupted his diplomatic career for the sake of the triumphs of his beloved wife: "Despite the selfishness inherent in men in general, I had no ambitions, except for the desire to be in Tamara's shadow" .
Henry Bruce. Portrait of T.P. Karsavina. Paper, pencil. 1918
Karsavina's tour in Italy was a great success. This trip was also useful because Karsavina was able to work out in Rome with a wonderful teacher E. Chechetti, who once taught at the Theater School in St. Petersburg. Cecchetti was called a magician who created dancers. Karsavina was in Italy for the first time. She enthusiastically got acquainted with the sights of the eternal city. She was very lucky that Alexandre Benois, an extremely educated person, became her guide. At that time, Karsavina's brother was in Rome, who studied the history of religion there. In their free time, they wandered around the city together. Karsavina continued to work at the Diaghilev Enterprise. But the changes that took place in her, the departure of Fokine and many other artists, the productions of new choreographers disappointed her. The ballerina was increasingly drawn to the classics, and she decided to return to the Mariinsky Theater.
L. Bakst. Costume design for Tamara Karsavina.
We met Karsavina very warmly. She was given all the main roles in the ballets of the classical repertoire - Giselle, Swan Lake, Raymonda, The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote and others. Karsavina was a great actress. She knew how to make any dance expressive, organically and naturally moving from dance to pantomime. Critics vied with each other lavished rave reviews in her address. The last time she performed at the Mariinsky Theater was the role of Nikiya in the ballet La Bayadère. Many considered this role to be the best in her classical repertoire. Shortly thereafter, she left her homeland forever. She was 33 years old. In France, Diaghilev persuaded her to return to his troupe, but this did not bring her joy. The new productions of the choreographer Myasin, with his modernist quest, as she believed, "did not correspond to the spirit of ballet art." She longed for the classics, for real art.
I missed my homeland very much. In one of her letters she wrote: “For three years now, I have firmly settled in France, and about five years since I lost contact with St. Petersburg. Such homesickness… Send me rowan leaves from the Islands in a letter… I want to breathe in my native, distant, gloomy Petersburg.” In 1929, Karsavina moved to London with her husband. For two years she danced on the stage of the Balle Rambert theater, and then decided to leave the stage. She began working on the revival of Fokine's ballets The Phantom of the Rose, Carnival, prepared the part of the Firebird with the wonderful English ballerina Margo Fontaine. Karsavina was trouble-free, she always came to the aid of everyone who needed her.
Many choreographers used her advice and advice when resuming classical ballets. In addition, the ballerina appeared in episodic roles in several silent films produced in Germany and the UK - including the film "The Path to Strength and Beauty" with Leni Riefenstahl. In the book "Three Graces of the 20th Century", dedicated to the remarkable Russian ballerinas - Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina and Olga Spesivtseva, its author, Sergei Lifar, made an interesting confession. When in 1954 he invited Karsavina to the premiere of The Firebird with a modernized choreography, she categorically refused to come, saying: “Forgive me, but I am faithful to Fokine and I don’t want to see your choreography.” Karsavina was elected vice-president of the British Royal Academy of Dance and held this honorary position for 15 years. Peru Karsavina owns several books on ballet, including a textbook on classical dance. She developed a new method of recording dances. She translated into English the book by J. Noverre "Letters on Dance". "Teatralnaya Street" was published in London in 1930, a year later it was published in Paris, and only in 1971 the ballerina's memoirs were translated into Russian and published in Russia. In 1965, the 80th anniversary of the remarkable actress was widely celebrated in London. All those present at this celebration spoke about the amazing charm and fortitude of this woman. Tamara Platonovna Karsavina lived a long, very worthy life. She died in London on May 25, 1978 at the age of 93.
Tamara Platonovna Karsavina(February 25, 1885, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire - May 26, 1978, London, UK) - Russian ballerina. She was a soloist at the Mariinsky Theatre, was a member of Diaghilev's Russian Ballet and often danced in tandem with Vaslav Nijinsky. After the revolution, she lived and worked in Great Britain. Sister of the historian and philosopher L.P. Karsavin.
Biography
The ballerina was born on February 25 (March 9), 1885 in St. Petersburg in the family of the dancer of the imperial troupe Platon Karsavin and his wife Anna Iosifovna, nee Khomyakova, grandniece of the famous Slavophil A. S. Khomyakov. Brother - Lev Karsavin, Russian philosopher.
In 1902 she graduated from the Imperial Theater School, where she learned the basics of ballet from teachers Pavel Gerdt, Alexander Gorsky and Enrico Cecchetti, then joined the troupe of the Mariinsky Theater. Karsavina quickly achieved the status of a prima ballerina and performed leading roles in the ballets of the classical repertoire - Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, etc. Since 1909, at the invitation of Sergei Diaghilev, Karsavina began performing on tours organized by him Russian ballet dancers in Europe, and then in the Diaghilev Russian Ballet. The most notable works of the ballerina during the period of collaboration with Diaghilev were the leading roles in the ballets The Firebird, The Phantom of the Rose, Carnival, Petrushka (staged by Mikhail Fokin), Three-Cornered Hat, Women's Whims (staged by Leonid Myasin). ) and etc.
She played the role of Belgium in the pantomime performance "1914", the author and director of the book. S. M. Volkonsky (premiered January 6, 1915 at the Mariinsky Theatre). The performance was the "prom night" of the Rhythmic Gymnastics Courses, which closed with the outbreak of the First World War.
In 1917, Karsavina married the British diplomat Henry Bruce, and in 1918 she went with him to London. In exile, she, without stopping performing on stage and touring with the Russian Ballet of Diaghilev, was engaged in teaching. In addition, in the early 1920s, the ballerina appeared in episodic roles in several silent films produced in Germany and Great Britain - including the film The Path to Strength and Beauty (1925) with the participation of Leni Riefenstahl. From 1930-1955 she served as Vice President of the Royal Academy of Dance.
Karsavina is bred as one of the main characters of the story by Agatha Christie from the series "The Mysterious Mr. Keen" [specify]
Ilze Liepa played the role of Tamara Karsavina in the television series Empire Under Attack.
The historical costume collection of fashion historian Alexander Vasiliev includes Tamara Karsavina's 1925 evening dress, created in the Mouna Katorza fashion house. Previously, this dress was in the personal collection of Serge Lifar.