Life and creative path of K.D. Balmont. Childhood and youth of Konstantin Balmont

Konstantin Balmont

The greatest representative of the poetry of the early twentieth century, Konstantin Dmitrievich Balmont, was born on June 3, 1867 in the village of Gumnishchi, Vladimir province. His father was listed as a judge in the city zemstvo, and his mother was engaged in literature. She often held literary evenings, appeared in amateur performances.

It was the mother who introduced Balmont to literature, history, music and literature, influencing the boy's perception. As the poet wrote later, from his mother he learned the wildness and passion of nature, which became the basis of his entire subtle soul.

Childhood

Konstantin had 6 brothers. When the time came to teach the elders, the family settled in the city. In 1876, little Balmont went to the gymnasium. The boy soon got bored with his studies, and he spent all his days reading drunkenly. Moreover, German and French books were read in the original. Balmont was so inspired by what he read that at the age of 10 he wrote poetry for the first time.

But, like many boys of that time, little Kostya was subjected to rebellious revolutionary moods. He got acquainted with the revolutionary circle, where he actively participated, because of which he was expelled in 1884. He completed his studies in Vladimir, and somehow graduated from the gymnasium in 1886. Then the young man was sent to Moscow University to study as a lawyer. But the revolutionary spirit has not gone away, and a year later the student is expelled for holding student riots.

The beginning of the creative path

The first poetic experience of a 10-year-old boy was severely criticized by his mother. A hurt boy forgets about poetry for 6 years. The first published work dates back to 1885, and it appeared in the journal Picturesque Review. From 1887 to 1889 Konstantin came to grips with the translation of books from German and French. In 1890, due to poverty and a sad marriage, the newly-made translator is thrown out of the window. With severe injuries, he spends about a year in the hospital. As the poet himself wrote, the year spent in the ward entailed "an unprecedented flowering of mental excitement and cheerfulness." During this year, Balmont published his debut book of poems. Recognition did not follow, and, stung by indifference to his work, he destroys the whole circulation.

The heyday of the poet

After an unsuccessful experience with his own book, Balmont took up self-development. He reads books, improves languages, spends time on the road. From 1894 to 1897. translating The History of Scandinavian Literature and The History of Italian Literature. There are new, now successful, attempts to publish poetry: in 1894 the book "Under the Northern Sky" was published, 1895 - "In the Vastness", 1898 - "Silence". Balmont's works appear in the newspaper "Vesy". In 1896 the poet marries again and leaves for Europe with his wife. Travels continue: in 1897 he conducts lessons in Russian literature in England.

A new book of poems was published in 1903 with the title "Let's be like the sun." She had an unprecedented success. In 1905, Balmont again leaves Russia and goes to Mexico. Revolution of 1905-1907 the traveler met passionately, and took a direct part in it. The poet was regularly on the street, had a loaded revolver with him and read speeches to students. Fear of arrest makes the revolutionary leave in 1906 for France.

Having settled in the outback of Paris, the poet still spends all his time away from home. In 1914, having visited Georgia, he translated Rustaveli's poem "The Knight in the Panther's Skin". In 1915 he returned to Moscow, where he lectured students on literature.

Creative crisis

In 1920, Balmont again leaves for Paris with his third wife and daughter, and no longer leaves it. In France, 6 more collections of poems are published, in 1923 the autobiographies Under the New Sickle and The Air Way are published. Konstantin Dmitrievich missed his homeland very much, and often regretted that he had left it. Suffering poured into the poems of that period. It became more and more difficult for him, and soon he was diagnosed with a serious mental disorder. The poet stopped writing and devoted more and more time to reading. He spent the end of his life in the Russian House shelter in the French outback. The great poet died on December 23, 1942.

The future poet learned to read on his own at the age of five, spying on his mother, who taught her elder brother to read and write. The touched father presented Konstantin on this occasion with the first book, "something about savage oceanians." Mother introduced her son to samples of the best poetry. “The first poets I read were folk songs, Nikitin, Koltsov, Nekrasov and Pushkin. Of all the poems in the world, I love Lermontov's Mountain Peaks (not Goethe, Lermontov) the most, ”the poet later wrote. At the same time, “... My best teachers in poetry were the estate, the garden, streams, marsh lakes, the rustle of leaves, butterflies, birds and dawns,” he recalled in the 1910s. “A beautiful little kingdom of comfort and silence,” he later wrote about a village with a dozen huts, in which there was a modest estate - an old house surrounded by a shady garden. The barns and the native land where the first ten years of his life passed, the poet recalled all his life and always described with great love.

When the time came to send older children to school, the family moved to Shuya. Moving to the city did not mean a separation from nature: the Balmont house, surrounded by a vast garden, stood on the picturesque bank of the Teza River; his father, a hunting lover, often traveled to Gumnishchi, and Konstantin accompanied him more often than others. In 1876, Balmont entered the preparatory class of the Shuya gymnasium, which he later called "a nest of decadence and capitalists, whose factories spoiled the air and water in the river." At first, the boy made progress, but soon he got bored with his studies, and his performance decreased, but the time came for drunken reading, and he read French and German works in the original. Impressed by what he read, at the age of ten he began to write poetry himself. “On a bright sunny day, they arose, two poems at once, one about winter, the other about summer,” he recalled. These poetic endeavors, however, were criticized by his mother, and the boy did not try to repeat his poetic experiment for six years.

Balmont was forced to leave the seventh grade in 1884 because he belonged to an illegal circle, which consisted of high school students, visiting students and teachers, and was engaged in printing and distributing proclamations of the executive committee of the Narodnaya Volya party in Shuya. The poet later explained the background of this early revolutionary mood as follows: “... I was happy, and I wanted everyone to be just as good. It seemed to me that if it’s good only for me and for a few, it’s ugly.”

Through the efforts of his mother, Balmont was transferred to the gymnasium of the city of Vladimir. But here he had to live in an apartment with a Greek teacher, who zealously performed the duties of a "supervisor". At the end of 1885, Balmont made his literary debut. Three of his poems were published in the popular St. Petersburg magazine "Picturesque Review" (November 2 - December 7). This event was not noticed by anyone except the mentor, who forbade Balmont to publish until the end of his studies at the gymnasium. The acquaintance of the young poet with V. G. Korolenko dates back to this time. The well-known writer, having received a notebook with his poems from Balmont's comrades at the gymnasium, took them seriously and wrote a detailed letter to the gymnasium student - a benevolent mentor's review. “He wrote to me that I have a lot of beautiful details, successfully snatched from the natural world, that you need to focus your attention, and not chase after every passing moth, that you don’t need to rush your feeling with thought, but you need to trust the unconscious area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe soul, which is imperceptibly accumulates his observations and comparisons, and then all of a sudden it all blooms, like a flower blooms after a long invisible pore of accumulating its forces, ”Balmont recalled. “If you manage to concentrate and work, we will hear something extraordinary from you over time,” ended the letter of Korolenko, whom the poet later called his “godfather”. Balmont graduated from the course in 1886, in his own words, "having lived, as in prison, for a year and a half." “I curse the gymnasium with all my might. She disfigured my nervous system for a long time, ”the poet later wrote. He described his childhood and youth in detail in his autobiographical novel Under the New Sickle (Berlin, 1923). At the age of seventeen, Balmont also experienced his first literary shock: the novel The Brothers Karamazov, as he later recalled, gave him "more than any book in the world."

In 1886, Konstantin Balmont entered the law faculty of Moscow University, where he became close friends with P. F. Nikolaev, a sixties revolutionary. But already in 1887, for participating in the riots (related to the introduction of a new university charter, which students considered reactionary), Balmont was expelled, arrested and imprisoned for three days in Butyrka prison, and then sent to Shuya without trial. Balmont, who "in his youth was most interested in public issues", until the end of his life considered himself a revolutionary and a rebel who dreamed "of the embodiment of human happiness on earth." Poetry in the interests of Balmont prevailed only later; in his youth, he tried to become a propagandist and "go to the people."

The Scottish surname, unusual for Russia, came to him thanks to a distant ancestor - a sailor who forever anchored off the coast of Pushkin and Lermontov. The work of Balmont Konstantin Dmitrievich in Soviet times was forgotten for obvious reasons. The country of the hammer and sickle did not need creators who worked outside of socialist realism, whose lines did not speak about the struggle, about the heroes of war and labor ... Meanwhile, this poet, who has a really powerful talent, whose exceptionally melodic poems continued the tradition but for people.

“Create always, create everywhere…”

The legacy that Balmont left us is quite voluminous and impressive: 35 collections of poems and 20 books of prose. His verses aroused the admiration of compatriots for the lightness of the author's style. Konstantin Dmitrievich wrote a lot, but he never “forced lines out of himself” and did not optimize the text with numerous edits. His poems were always written on the first try, in one sitting. About how he created poems, Balmont told in a completely original way - in a poem.

The above is not an exaggeration. Mikhail Vasilyevich Sabashnikov, with whom the poet was visiting in 1901, recalled that dozens of lines formed in his head, and he wrote poetry on paper immediately, without a single edit. When asked about how he succeeds, Konstantin Dmitrievich answered with a disarming smile: “After all, I am a poet!”

Brief description of creativity

Literary critics, connoisseurs of his work, talk about the formation, flourishing and decline of the level of works that Balmont created. A brief biography and creativity point us, however, to an amazing capacity for work (he wrote daily and always on a whim).

The most popular works of Balmont are collections of poems by the mature poet "Only Love", "We'll Be Like the Sun", "Burning Buildings". Among the early works stands out the collection "Silence".

Creativity Balmont (briefly quoting the literary critics of the early XX century), with the subsequent general trend towards the fading of the author's talent (after the three above-mentioned collections) also has a number of "gaps". Noteworthy are "Fairy Tales" - cute children's songs written in a style later adopted by Korney Chukovsky. Also of interest are "foreign poems", created under the impression of what he saw on his travels in Egypt and Oceania.

Biography. Childhood

His father, Dmitry Konstantinovich, was a zemstvo doctor and also owned an estate. Mother, (nee Lebedeva), a creative nature, according to the future poet, “did more to foster a love of poetry and music” than all subsequent teachers. Konstantin became the third son in a family where there were seven children in total, and all of them were sons.

Konstantin Dmitrievich had his own special Tao (perception of life). It is no coincidence that the life and work of Balmont are closely related. From childhood, a powerful creative principle was laid in him, which manifested itself in the contemplation of the world outlook.

From childhood, he was sickened by schoolboyism and loyalty. Romanticism often took precedence over common sense. He never graduated from the school (Shuisky male heir to Tsesarevich Alexei), he was expelled from the 7th grade for participating in a revolutionary circle. He completed his last school course at the Vladimir Gymnasium under round-the-clock supervision of a teacher. He later recalled only two teachers with gratitude: a teacher of history and geography and a teacher of literature.

After studying for a year at Moscow University, he was also expelled for "organizing riots", then he was expelled from the Demidov Lyceum in Yaroslavl ...

As you can see, Konstantin did not easily start his poetic activity and his work is still the subject of controversy between literary critics.

Balmont's personality

The personality of Konstantin Dmitrievich Balmont is quite complex. He was not "like everyone else." Exclusivity... It can be identified even by the poet's portrait, by his gaze, by his posture. It immediately becomes clear: before us is not an apprentice, but a master of poetry. His personality was bright and charismatic. He was an amazingly organic person, the life and work of Balmont are like a single inspirational impulse.

He began writing poems at the age of 22 (for comparison, Lermontov's first compositions were written at the age of 15). Before that, as we already know, there was an unfinished education, as well as an unsuccessful marriage with the daughter of a Shuisky manufacturer, which ended in a suicide attempt (the poet jumped out of the window of the 3rd floor onto the pavement.) Balmont was pushed by the disorder of family life and the death of the first child from meningitis. His first wife Garelina Larisa Mikhailovna, a beauty of the Botticelli type, tortured him with jealousy, imbalance and disdain for dreams of great literature. He splashed out his emotions from discord (and later from divorce) with his wife in the verses “Your fragrant shoulders breathed ...”, “No, no one did me so much harm ...”, “Oh, woman, child, accustomed to play ..”.

self-education

How did the young Balmont, having become an outcast due to the allegiance of the education system, turned into an educated person, an ideologist of a new one? Self-education. It became for Konstantin Dmitrievich a springboard to the future ...

Being by nature a real worker of the pen, Konstantin Dmitrievich never followed any external system imposed on him from outside and alien to his nature. Balmont's work is entirely based on his passion for self-education and openness to impressions. He was attracted by literature, philology, history, philosophy, in which he was a real specialist. He loved to travel.

The beginning of the creative path

Inherent in Fet, Nadson and Pleshcheev, did not become an end in itself for Balmont (in the 70-80s of the XIX century, many poets created poems with motives of sadness, sadness, restlessness, orphanhood). It turned for Konstantin Dmitrievich into the path he paved to symbolism. He will write about this later.

Unconventional self-education

The unconventionality of self-education determines the features of Balmont's work. It was really a man who created with a word. Poet. And he perceived the world in the same way as a poet can see it: not with the help of analysis and reasoning, but relying only on impressions and sensations. “The first movement of the soul is the most correct”, - this rule, worked out by him, became immutable for his whole life. It raised him to the heights of creativity, it also ruined his talent.

The romantic hero of Balmont in the early period of his work is committed to Christian values. He, experimenting with combinations of different sounds and thoughts, erects a "cherished chapel".

However, it is obvious that under the influence of his travels in 1896-1897, as well as translations of foreign poetry, Balmont gradually comes to a different worldview.

It should be recognized that following the romantic style of Russian poets of the 80s. Balmont's work began, briefly evaluating which, we can say that he really became the founder of symbolism in Russian poetry. Significant for the period of the formation of the poet are considered poetry collections "Silence" and "In the boundlessness."

He outlined his views on symbolism in 1900 in the article "Elementary Words on Symbolic Poetry". Symbolists, unlike realists, according to Balmont, are not just observers, they are thinkers looking at the world through the window of their dreams. At the same time, Balmont considers “hidden abstraction” and “obvious beauty” to be the most important principles in symbolic poetry.

By its nature, Balmont was not a gray mouse, but a leader. A brief biography and creativity confirm this. Charisma and a natural desire for freedom... It was these qualities that allowed him, at the peak of his popularity, to "become a center of attraction" for numerous Russian Balmontist societies. According to Ehrenburg's memoirs (this was much later), Balmont's personality impressed even arrogant Parisians from the fashionable Passy district.

New wings of poetry

Balmont fell in love with his future second wife Ekaterina Alekseevna Andreeva at first sight. This stage in his life reflects the collection of poems "In the boundlessness." The verses dedicated to her are numerous and original: "Black-eyed doe", "Why does the moon always intoxicate us?", "Night flowers".

The lovers lived in Europe for a long time, and then, returning to Moscow, Balmont in 1898 published a collection of poems Silence by the Scorpion publishing house. The collection of poems was preceded by an epigraph chosen from Tyutchev's writings: "There is a certain hour of universal silence." The poems in it are grouped into 12 sections called "lyric poems". Konstantin Dmitrievich, inspired by the theosophical teaching of Blavatsky, already in this collection of poems noticeably departs from the Christian worldview.

The poet's understanding of his role in art

The collection "Silence" becomes the facet that distinguishes Balmont as a poet professing symbolism. Developing further the accepted vector of creativity, Konstantin Dmitrievich writes an article called "Calderon's personality drama", where he indirectly substantiated his departure from the classical Christian model. It was done, as always, figuratively. He considered earthly life "falling away from the bright Primary Source."

Innokenty Fedorovich Annensky talentedly presented the features of Balmont's work, his author's style. He believed that the "I", written by Balmont, does not in principle indicate belonging to the poet, it is initially socialized. Therefore, Konstantin Dmitrievich's verse is unique in its heartfelt lyricism, expressed in associating oneself with others, which the reader invariably feels. Reading his poems, it seems that Balmont is filled with light and energy, which he generously shares with others:

What Balmont presents as optimistic narcissism is in fact more altruistic than the phenomenon of public demonstration of poets' pride in their merits, as well as equally public hanging of laurels by them on themselves.

The work of Balmont, in short, in the words of Annensky, is saturated with the internal philosophical polemicism inherent in it, which determines the integrity of the worldview. The latter is expressed in the fact that Balmont wants to present the event to his reader comprehensively: both from the standpoint of the executioner and from the standpoint of the victim. He does not have an unambiguous assessment of anything, he is initially characterized by pluralism of opinions. He came to it thanks to his talent and diligence, a whole century ahead of the time when this became the norm of public consciousness for developed countries.

solar genius

The work of the poet Balmont is unique. In fact, Konstantin Dmitrievich purely formally joined various currents, so that it would be more convenient for him to promote his new poetic ideas, which he never lacked. In the last decade of the 19th century, a metamorphosis takes place with the poet's work: melancholy and transience give way to sunny optimism.

If in earlier poems the mood of Nietzscheanism was traced, then at the peak of the development of talent, the work of Konstantin Balmont began to be distinguished by specific authorial optimism and “sunshine”, “fiery”.

Alexander Blok, who is also a symbolist poet, presented a vivid description of Balmont's work of that period very succinctly, saying that it is as bright and life-affirming as spring.

The peak of creativity

Balmont's poetic gift sounded for the first time in full force in verses from the collection "Burning Buildings". It contains 131 poems written during the poet's stay in Polyakov's house.

All of them, according to the poet, were composed under the influence of “one mood” (Balmont did not think of creativity in a different way). “A poem should no longer be in a minor key!” Balmont decided. Starting with this collection, he finally moved away from decadence. The poet, boldly experimenting with combinations of sounds, colors and thoughts, created "lyrics of the modern soul", "torn soul", "wretched, ugly".

At this time, he was in close contact with the St. Petersburg bohemia. knew one weakness for her husband. He was not allowed to drink wine. Although Konstantin Dmitrievich was of a strong, wiry build, his nervous system (obviously torn in childhood and youth) did not "work" adequately. After wine, he was "carried" to brothels. However, as a result, he found himself in a completely miserable state: lying on the floor and paralyzed by a deep hysteria. This happened more than once while working on Burning Buildings, when he was in company with Baltrushaitis and Polyakov.

We must pay tribute to Ekaterina Alekseevna, the earthly guardian angel of her husband. She understood the essence of her husband, whom she considered the most honest and sincere and who, to her chagrin, had affairs. For example, as with Dagny Christensen in Paris, the verses “The Sun Has Retired”, “From the Family of Kings” are dedicated to her. It is significant that the romance with the Norwegian, who worked as a St. Petersburg correspondent, ended on the part of Balmont as abruptly as it began. After all, his heart still belonged to one woman - Ekaterina Andreevna, Beatrice, as he called her.

In 1903, Konstantin Dmitrievich hardly published the collection “We Will Be Like the Sun”, written in 1901-1902. It feels like the hand of a master. Note that about 10 works did not pass through the censorship. The work of the poet Balmont, according to the censors, has become too sensual and erotic.

Literary critics, on the other hand, believe that this collection of works, presenting to readers a cosmogonic model of the world, is evidence of a new, highest level of development of the poet. Being on the verge of a mental break, while working on the previous collection, Konstantin Dmitrievich, it seems, realized that it was impossible to “live in rebellion”. The poet is looking for truth at the intersection of Hinduism, paganism and Christianity. He expresses his worship of elemental objects: fire ("Hymn to Fire"), wind ("Wind"), ocean ("Appeal to the Ocean"). In the same 1903, the Grif publishing house published the third collection, crowning the peak of Balmont's work, “Only Love. Semitsvetnik".

Instead of a conclusion

Inscrutable Even for such poets "by the grace of God" as Balmont. Life and work are briefly characterized for him after 1903 in one word - "recession". Therefore, Alexander Blok, who in fact became the next leader of Russian symbolism, in his own way appreciated the further (after the collection “Only Love”) Balmont’s work. He presented him with a deadly characterization, saying that there is a great Russian poet Balmont, but there is no “new Balmont”.

However, not being literary critics of the last century, we nevertheless got acquainted with the late work of Konstantin Dmitrievich. Our verdict: it's worth reading, there's a lot of interesting stuff in there... However, we have no motives to distrust Blok's words. Indeed, from the point of view of literary criticism, Balmont as a poet is the banner of symbolism, after the collection “Only Love. Semitsvetnik "has exhausted itself. Therefore, it is logical on our part to complete this short story about the life and work of K. D. Balmont, the “solar genius” of Russian poetry.

Konstantin Balmont is a famous Russian symbolist poet, translator, member of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature.

Childhood

Balmont's father, Dmitry Konstantinovich, served as both a collegiate registrar, a magistrate, and the chairman of the zemstvo council in his native district. Mother, Vera Nikolaevna (nee Lebedeva), was a white general's daughter, loved literature, published in the local press, was the organizer of literary evenings and amateur performances. It was she who influenced the worldview of little Konstantin, introducing him from an early age to music, literature, and history. 7 brothers grew up in the family, the third of whom was the future poet.

Education

In 1876, Balmont was sent to the Shuya gymnasium. In 1884, he was expelled from the 7th grade for participating in a dubious circle that supported the Narodnaya Volya. His mother transferred him to the Vladimir Gymnasium, from which he graduated in 1886. In the same year, Balmont became a student at the Faculty of Law of Moscow University, but a year later, for participating in revolutionary circles, he was not only expelled, but also exiled to Shuya. In 1889 he returned to the university, but could not study there due to nervous exhaustion. From the Yaroslavl Demidov Lyceum of Legal Sciences, he was also expelled in 1890.

creative way

Balmont's first literary debut as a poet took place in 1885, when he was graduating from high school. However, his poems, published in the well-known St. Petersburg magazine "Picturesque Review", were not noticed. In 1890, at his own expense, Balmont published his own collection of poems, which also had no success.

By that time, Balmont was already married, because of his marriage, he seriously quarreled with his parents and found himself without a means of subsistence. In March 1890, he tried to commit suicide by throwing himself out of a third-floor window. He survived, but received many bruises and injuries that bedridden him for a whole year.

After a long illness, the writer V. G. Korolenko and professor of Moscow University N. I. Storozhenko helped him get back on his feet. He started working as a translator. In 1894–1895, his translations of Gorn-Schweitzer's History of Scandinavian Literature and Gaspari's History of Italian Literature were published, on the fees from which he lives comfortably for several years.

In 1892, Balmont met Merezhkovsky and Gippius in St. Petersburg, and in 1894 - with Bryusov, who became his closest friend. In 1894, a collection of Balmont's poems was published, which became the starting point of his work - "Under the Northern Sky". Poetic searches continue in the next collection of the poet, "In the boundlessness", which was published in 1895.

In 1896, with his new wife, Balmont went on a trip to Western Europe.

He becomes popular. In 1899 he was elected a member of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature.

Thanks to the 1900 collection Burning Buildings, Konstantin Dmitrievich gains all-Russian fame and becomes one of the leaders of symbolism. The collection of 1902 “Let's be like the Sun” strengthened the position of the poet.

In 1901, Balmont had a conflict with the authorities. On one evening he read a poem directed against Nicholas II and was expelled from the capital for this.

In 1905, Balmont resumed his revolutionary activities, which led to the first emigration to Paris from 1906 to 1913, where the collections "Poems" and "Songs of the Avenger" were published. Returning to his homeland in 1913 did not become a reassurance for the poet. He continues to travel abroad, actively participates in the revolutionary movement.

Oddly enough, Balmont does not accept the revolution because of its bloody methods. In 1920 he left with his family for Paris. Life in exile does not add up: meager fees, persecution by the Soviet authorities exhausted his mental strength. Since 1932, it has become known that the poet suffers from a serious mental illness.

Personal life

Balmont married in 1889 the daughter of a Shuya manufacturer, Larisa Garelina. The parents did not support the marriage and left their son without any financial support. This led him to attempt suicide, which became the turning point in Constantine's relationship with his wife. They parted ways.

In 1896, Balmont entered into a new marriage with the translator Ekaterina Alekseevna Andreeva, who bore him a daughter, Nina.

The third wife, civil, was Elena Konstantinovna Tsvetkovskaya, a fan of his poetry. They had a daughter Mirra. Balmont did not leave the first family and lived with one or the other, torn between two fires.

Death

On December 23, 1942, Balmont, exhausted by mental illness, died of pneumonia in the town of Noisy-le-Grand near Paris.

The main achievements of Balmont

Balmont was one of the most active symbolist poets of the Silver Age: he owns 35 published collections of poetry and 20 books of prose. He wrote in absolutely all genres: he wrote poetry, prose, autobiographies, memoirs, philological treatises, historical and literary studies, critical essays.

He was a unique translator: he translated Spanish songs; Yugoslav, Bulgarian, Lithuanian, Mexican, Japanese poetry; as well as Slovak, Georgian epic.

Important dates in Balmont's biography

1876–1884 - studying at the Shuya gymnasium.

1884 - expulsion from the Shuya gymnasium.

1884–1886 - studying at the Vladimir Gymnasium.

1885 - the first poems were printed.

1886 - admission to Moscow University.

1887 - expulsion from the university.

1889 - marriage to Garelina.

1890 - the first collection of poems, suicide attempt.

1892 - acquaintance with Merezhkovsky and Gippius.

1894 - acquaintance with Bryusov, collection "Under the northern sky".

1895 - collection "In the vastness".

1896 - marriage to Andreeva, travel abroad.

1900 - collection "Burning Buildings".

1901 - expelled from the capital for anti-government poetry.

1902 - collection "We will be like the Sun."

1906–1913 - first emigration to Paris.

1913–1920 - return to Russia.

1920 - the second emigration to Paris.

1932 - diagnosed with a serious mental illness.

1942 - death.

Many biographers of the poet consider the number 42 fateful for him: in 1942, his first wife, Liza Garelina, died; at 42, Balmont visited Egypt, which he had dreamed of since childhood; at 42, he experienced a creative crisis; he was born 42 years after the Decembrist uprising and all his life he regretted that he was not with them on Senate Square.