Highlights about Sergei Yesenin's family to be spotlighted at the Presidential Library’s video lecture

September 22, 2021, the Presidential Library hosted a video lecture entitled The Yesenin Family in the History of the Konstantinovo Village in Archives as part of the Knowledge of Russia project. The event was organized jointly with the Ryazan Regional Center of the Presidential Library. The partners were the Gorky Ryazan Regional Universal Scientific Library and the Yesenin State Museum-Reserve.

The video lecture was free. The meeting was held remotely and broadcasted live on the Presidential Library's portal in the Live broadcasts section in accordance with the live events program, on the institution's YouTube channel, as well as in the group of the Presidential Library's Poetry Club on the VKontakte social network.

Sergei Yesenin was born on October 3, 1895, in the village of Konstantinovo, Ryazan province. He lived only 30 years, but managed to make a huge contribution to the development of Russian poetry and became famous throughout the world for his extraordinary talent.

"My father is a peasant, well, and I am a peasant’s son…" - Sergei Yesenin writes in one of his poems. With all his work, he emphasized a special spiritual and blood connection with the peasant world. The poet had great respect for his numerous family, with respect he wrote more than once about his relatives. The good name of the poet's ancestors determined the Yesenins' impeccable reputation in Konstantinovo and was firmly entrenched in the history of the ancient village.

Natalya Babitsyna, PhD in Philology, talked to video lecture participants about the documents from the Yesenin family archives. She spoke about genealogical research, which makes it possible to clarify some of the biographical data of Sergei Yesenin and learn more about the poet's relatives and their life in the village of Konstantinovo.

The institution’s portal features the electronic collection dedicated to Sergei Yesenin. It includes digital copies of archival documents, books, periodicals, visual and video materials. In particular, letters from the poet's last wife, Sophia Yesenina-Tolstaya, which contain information about the Yesenins' honeymoon and family life, video works of the Presidential Library about the poet and other materials are of profound interest.