Tales and Fictions About Blok and Myself

In her book of memoirs, the well-known Russian Soviet actress and ballet historian Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleyeva-Blok (1881–1939) tells about her life and her love for the poet. The first-person accounts about the most intimate and dear person to Blok—his only wife—are bound to draw interest as a vivid and authentic testimony to the life of a great poet. The seemingly ideal union of the poet and his “Beautiful Lady” was far from as harmonious as Lyubov Dmitrievna wished. “The Soul of the World,” “the Eternal Wife,” “the Mysterious Maiden”—even after the wedding she remained for Blok a heavenly being, an image lacking a physical shell, rather than simply a woman with earthly feelings and passions. Such ideas of ideal love for a wife were alien to a young woman dreaming of ordinary family happiness, not “superhuman relationships.” The program included Alexander Blok’s letters and Maria Beketova’s recollections.