Ryazan addresses of blond Lelya
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Ryazan addresses of blond Lelya
During his short but bright life, Sergei Yesenin managed to see and experience a lot. In Western Europe alone he visited more than 30 cities. But the memory of this amazing man is preserved not only by the fashionable quarters of New York, Berlin and Paris, but also by the streets of Ryazan, which a century ago was the city closest to the poet’s small homeland.
Today, thanks to the efforts of the Yesenin Center at Ryazan State University and the research of local historian Yuri Vadimovich BLUDOV, more than 20 addresses have been identified in Ryazan with which the life and work of Sergei Yesenin are connected.
In this material we want to introduce you to the most significant Yesenin addresses in Ryazan, with a special emphasis on buildings crowned with memorial plaques. 
One of the leading Yesenin scholars in the country, head of the Yesenin Center at Ryazan State University, Doctor of Philology, Professor, kindly agreed to become our guide. Olga Efimovna VORONOVA.
A poem with action elements
“2016, by Decree of President V.V. Putin declared the Year of Russian Cinema. And, probably, it would be logical to start the story about the memorable Yesenin places in Ryazan with house number 63 on Pochtovaya street, says Olga Voronova. - 100 years ago, the Daryaly electric theater was located here. In the summer of 1917 Yesenin visited him.
In December 2005, a memorial plaque recording this fact was installed on the facade of the building. It became the first memorial sign of this kind on the territory of Ryazan associated with Yesenin.
Sergei Alexandrovich loved this new art very much. He later used many cinematic techniques in his play “Country of Scoundrels,” which, based on its genre characteristics and plot intrigue, can be considered the first Soviet Western, a relevant political action film.
By the way, the muse of the poet Augusta Miklashevskaya, to whom the cycle “The Love of a Hooligan” is dedicated, starred in many silent films. A good friend of the poet was a regular guest of the Kashins’ estate, Ivan Khudoleev, one of the significant figures of Russian pre-revolutionary cinema.”
Attempt at writing
Another memorial plaque was installed on the building located at the address: , where the Ryazinvest enterprise is now located.
Before the revolution, public places were located here, that is, structures that were in one way or another connected with the then local government, including the editorial office of the Ryazan Provincial Gazette. It was here in the summer of 1912 that Yesenin came with his first handwritten cycle “Sick Thoughts,” written during his years of study at the Spas-Klepikovskaya church-teachers’ school. The poems of the aspiring poet, unfortunately, were not appreciated and, accordingly, were not accepted for publication.
“He gave the treasured notebook to his friend Sergei Ilyin, and these early experiments of a budding writer were published only in the 60s of the last century,” explains Olga Voronova.
Savior of the Peasants
The third plaque is located on the building of the Russian FSB Directorate for the Ryazan Region.
Before the revolution, Steiert's hotel was located here, and in the first post-revolutionary years - Ryazgubchek's hotel. There is an amazing story associated with this property. According to Olga Voronova, she characterizes Yesenin as a people's defender and a truly brave person.
In the summer of 1918, at the height of the civil war, residents of the village of Konstantinovo experienced hunger and deprivation. Driven to despair, the peasants decided to expropriate the cargo of the barge traveling along the Oka.
Having sailed in boats to the barge, they ordered the captain of the ship to stop on pain of death and took away the bags of apricots and roach that were on board.
The next day, a detachment of Red Army soldiers surrounded the village, and its leaders demanded that the instigators of the robbery be handed over. The villagers refused to do this, and about 20 people were taken hostage and taken to Ryazan, to the Gubchek.
According to martial law, detained peasants could be shot. About three weeks passed in anxious anticipation. In order to discuss the current situation, a village meeting gathered. Fortunately, Yesenin arrived in Konstantinovo at this time.
The poet personally went to Ryazan and came to the building of the provincial Cheka to negotiate the release of his fellow countrymen.
“At that time, Yesenin was already a recognized poet in the country,” says Olga Efimovna. - His poems and poems appeared in collections and were published in leading magazines and newspapers in Russia.
Sergei Aleksandrovich met in the building of the “Chrezvychaika” a classmate from school in Spas-Klepiki, Mikhail Kalabukhov, who headed a company of special forces (CHON), whose duties included, in particular, the suppression of peasant unrest.
As a result, at Yesenin’s request, all peasants were released without preconditions.”
This story is still passed on by Konstantinovites from generation to generation.
It is curious that at that harsh time the Ryazan gubchek was headed by Ivan Potemkin, who at the same time worked as the executive editor of the provincial newspaper Izvestia.
It was in this newspaper, shortly after the poet’s noble deed, that Yesenin’s only lifetime publication in the regional press appeared - the poem “The Jordan Dove”. The lines from this work “The sky is like a bell, The month is a language, My mother is my homeland, I am a Bolshevik” soon became textbook.
Deferment for conscripts
The fourth plaque is related to the First World War. In the year of the centenary of its beginning, in September 2014, it was installed on the building of the former Kalinkin Brewing Partnership during the regular International Yesenin Conference. The author of the board is the famous Ryazan sculptor Raisa Lysenina. The Russian Military Historical Society, RRO “Business Russia”, local historian, member of the city toponymic commission Arsen Baburin contributed to the installation of the plaque. During Soviet times, a soft drink factory was located here. Now the building is owned by the Russian Brewing Company.
On the second floor of the mentioned house, before the revolution, the Ryazan district conscription office was located (analogous to the current military registration and enlistment office).
According to the Decree of Emperor Nicholas II, issued in the spring of 1915, recruits of 1916, which included Yesenin, were subject to early conscription. The poet was forced to come from Petrograd, where he was already taking steps towards all-Russian glory, to Ryazan in order to pass the draft board.
Sergei Alexandrovich, who arrived in this building on May 20, 1915, was enrolled in “second-class warriors” due to myopia and given a deferment until January 1916.
A few months later, the poet was drafted into the army and became a military orderly on the Tsarskoye Selo military ambulance train. Yesenin plunged into the elements of war and saw it from such a terrible side, from which even many of those who fought on the front line did not know it. His impressions of that time were reflected not only in the poems of the war period, but also in the poem “Anna Snegina”, written 10 years later.
The fifth memorial plaque is not directly related to the life and work of the famous poet. It is installed on the building of the Ryazan branch of the Moscow State Institute of Culture (Lenin street, building 1/70) and perpetuates the renaming of Ryazhskaya Street into Yesenin Street, which took place on June 19, 1965 in the year of the poet’s 70th anniversary.
By the way, a few tens of meters from the building there is a cafe “Ash”, and it is from the name of this tree, sacred to the ancient Slavs, that, according to one version, the surname “Yesenin” comes from. Although the poet himself still believed that his surname originates from the Old Slavonic “esen”, that is, autumn.
Yesenin Center of the Russian State University named after S.A. Yesenina and Ryazan social activists plan to continue work on installing memorial plaques dedicated to our great fellow countryman in the regional center.
Prepared by Denis Abrakov
Weekly "Dom.Stroy"
№ 2
(01/20/2016)