49 Facts About Konstantin Balmont

Konstantin Balmont then attended two gymnasiums, being expelled from the first for political activities and graduating from the second.

Konstantin Balmont started studying law at the Imperial Moscow University in 1886 but was quickly expelled for taking part in student unrest.

Konstantin Balmont tried again at the Demidov Law College from 1889 but dropped out in 1890.

Konstantin Balmont became involved in two other common-law marriages and attempted suicide a second time in 1909.

Konstantin Balmont wrote poetry and prose prolifically and published his works to wide audiences in Imperial Russia.

Konstantin Balmont translated the works of other writers, including Edgar Allan Poe.

Konstantin Balmont was thought of among the pre-revolutionary Russian intellectual milieu as an innovative poet and enjoyed friendships with many of his fellow Russian emigrant poets.

Konstantin Balmont was born at his family's estate, Gumnishchi, Shuya, the third of seven sons of a Russian nobleman, lawyer, and senior state official, Dmitry Konstantinovich Balmont, and Vera Nikolayevna who came from a military family.

Konstantin Balmont learned to read at the age of five and cited Alexander Pushkin, Nikolay Nekrasov, Aleksey Koltsov, and Ivan Nikitin as his earliest influences.

At the gymnasium Konstantin Balmont became involved with a secret circle which printed and distributed Narodnaya Volya proclamations.

In late 1885 Konstantin Balmont made his publishing debut: three of his poems appeared in the popular Saint Petersburg magazine Zhivopisnoe obozrenie.

Konstantin Balmont spent three days in jail, was expelled from the University, and returned home to Shuya.

In 1889 Konstantin Balmont returned to the University but soon quit again after suffering a nervous breakdown.

Konstantin Balmont joined the Demidov Law College in Yaroslavl but dropped out in September 1890 deciding he'd had enough formal education.

In February 1889 he married Larisa Mikhailovna Garelina; unhappy in marriage, on 13 March 1890 Konstantin Balmont attempted suicide by jumping from a third-story window, leaving him with a limp and an injured writing hand for the rest of his life.

In 1890 Konstantin Balmont released a self-financed book called Collection of Poems, which included some of the pieces published in 1885.

Konstantin Balmont was greatly impressed with the famous writer's magnanimity and later referred to Korolenko as his 'literary godfather'.

Disgusted with it, Konstantin Balmont purchased and burnt all the remaining copies.

In 1894 Konstantin Balmont met Valery Bryusov, who, impressed by the young poet's "personality and his fanatical passion for poetry," soon became his best friend.

The second collection, In Boundlessness saw Konstantin Balmont starting to experiment with the Russian language's musical and rhythmical structures.

Around this time Konstantin Balmont met and became close friends with Sergei Poliakov, Knut Hamsun's Russian translator and an influential literary entrepreneur.

Konstantin Balmont became a close friend of Bryusov, who had a formative influence on the development of Balmont's poetic and critical voice.

In 1896 Konstantin Balmont married Ekaterina Alekseyevna Andreeva, and the couple went abroad that year to travel through Western Europe.

All the while Konstantin Balmont was engaged in intensive self-education: he learned several languages and became an expert in various subjects like the Spanish art and Chinese culture.

Konstantin Balmont introduced formal innovations that were widely emulated in Russian verse, including melodic rhythms, abundant rhymes, and the meticulous organization of short lyric poems into narrative poems, cycles, and other units of composition.

Konstantin Balmont was known for his prolific output, which became seen as a shortcoming over time.

In March 1901 Konstantin Balmont took part in a student demonstration on the square in front of Kazan Cathedral which was violently disrupted by police and Cossack units.

On 14 March 1902 Konstantin Balmont left Russia for Britain and France, lecturing at the Russian College of Social Sciences, Paris.

In 1903 Konstantin Balmont returned to Russia, his administrative restrictions having been removed by Interior Minister von Plehve.

Konstantin Balmont's posturing as a political immigrant was ridiculed in Russia at the time, but years later researchers found evidence that the Russian secret police considered the poet a 'dangerous political activist' and tried to spy on him abroad.

Konstantin Balmont returned to Russia only in 1913 after an amnesty on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty was declared.

Konstantin Balmont made new friends, including the composers Alexander Scriabin and Sergei Prokofiev, collaborating with the latter on musical works.

Konstantin Balmont joined the Constitutional Democratic Party and praised Lavr Kornilov in one of his articles.

Konstantin Balmont condemned the doctrine of the dictatorship of the proletariat as destructive and suppressing.

Konstantin Balmont struck up a friendship with Marina Tsvetaeva, another poet on the verge of physical collapse.

Konstantin Balmont denied these rumors, and there is no evidence to support them, but by 1921 Konstantin Balmont was regularly publishing inflammatory articles against the Soviet government in the emigre press.

Lunacharsky, with his apologetic article ensuring the public at home that Konstantin Balmont's stance was not in any way anti-Bolshevik, played up to these suspicions.

In 1921 Konstantin Balmont moved out of Paris into the provinces where he and his family rented houses in Brittany, the Vendee, Bordeaux, and the Gironde.

Konstantin Balmont's views were in many ways similar to those of Ivan Bunin; the two disliked each other personally, but spoke in one voice on many occasions.

In emigration Konstantin Balmont published several books of poetry, including A Gift to Earth, Lightened Hour, The Haze, From Me to Her.

Konstantin Balmont died on 23 December 1942 in a refuge for Russian emigres, the Russian House, due to complications from pneumonia.

Konstantin Balmont is interred in Noisy-le-Grand's Catholic cemetery, four words engraved on his grey tomb: "Constantin Balmont, poete russe".

Konstantin Balmont has been characterized variously as theatrical, pretentious, erratic and egotistical.

Bohemian habits notwithstanding, Konstantin Balmont was a hard worker, proficient and prolific.

In 1889, ignoring his mother's warnings, Konstantin Balmont married Larisa Mikhaylovna Garelina, a daughter of Shuya-based factory-owner, described as a neurasthenic who "gave [the poet] the love of a truly demonic nature".

On 27 September 1896 Konstantin Balmont married Yekaterina Alekseyevna Andreyeva, a well-educated woman who came from a rich merchant's family, related to the well-known Moscow publishers, the Sabashnikovs Andreyeva and Konstantin Balmont had much in common; they formed a tandem of translators and worked together on the works of Gerhart Hauptmann and Oscar Wilde.

From 1919 Konstantin Balmont was romantically linked with Dagmar Shahovskaya, who followed Konstantin Balmont to France in 1921.

Konstantin Balmont died in 1943, surviving him by a year.

Konstantin Balmont surely influenced Aleksandr Scriabin for his Poeme de l'extase.