The Presidential Library highlights the origins of the Yesenin's family

"Yesenin lived a dazzling short life, which tragically ended at the age of 30. Nevertheless, his influence on Russian literature is so strong that the decades that passed after his death could not dissolve it. On the contrary, the time brightened and contributed to Yesenin's personality, and his work", - said Tatiana Savchenko, the Professor of the Department of World Literature at the Pushkin State Institute of the Russian Language. These words portray the poet in the video lecture entitled Actual Issues of Contemporary Yesenin Study.

Sergei Yesenin is one of the most profound Russian lyricists of the XX century. His poems are translated into 150 languages of the world. The future poet was born on October 3, 1895, in the village of Konstantinovo, Ryazan district, into a peasant family.

The study of archival documents made it possible to find traces that connect the poet with his native land, the origins of the Yesenin family, and learn about the fate and characters of the representatives of this family. Natalia Babitsyna, a Researcher of the Sergei Yesenin State Museum-Reserve, talks about it in the video lecture The Yesenin Family in the History of the Konstantinovo Village in Archival Research, available on the Presidential Library's YouTube channel.

The history of any family, regardless of its social position, in any way is connected with the history of the country. In the case of the Yesenin family, it is related to the history of the village. The lecturer said that studying the history of a peasant family was not easy in comparison with families of the other estates.

An analysis of census records of the Ryazan district made it possible to define twelve generations of the poet's ancestors. All of them were the parishioners of the Orthodox Church and lived in Konstantinovo. The researchers discovered the ancestor of Yesenin, Aksenty, who lived in the middle of the XVI century.

The ancestors of Sergei Yesenin were bright personalities. Nikita Osipov Yesenin, the poet's grandfather, was the first of his family who began to sign his full name. Yekaterina Yesenina, the poet's sister, described her grandfather as follows: "Our grandfather, Nikita Osipovich, was a village head for many years. He knew how to write all kinds of petitions, the family highly respected him as a sensible, intelligent person". He was educated thanks to Pavel Mirtov, priest of the St. Constantine Church, who worked with peasant children, teaching them to read religious books. Yesenin's younger sister, Alexandra, mentioned in her memoirs: "Our grandfather, Nikita Osipovich Yesenin, was a devout man. In his youth he wanted to take the vows and received the nickname "Monk".

Nikita Osipovich, a pious man, married his neighbour Agrafena Pankratyevna Artyushina, who was very religious. Sergei Yesenin's second cousin, Nikolai Titov, wrote: "All people stated that grandmother Grusha preserved her high moral dignity and good health until old age. She was a scrupulously moral, self-sacrificing and hardworking woman". According to the stories of the poet's sisters, Yesenin's grandmother was a talented person; she sang splendidly. The musical talent of the Yesenin family was reflected in the poet's lyrics.

Sergei Yesenin's father, Alexander Yesenin, sang in the church choir in his youth, was a peasant, and then moved to Moscow, where he worked as an assistant in a butcher's shop. Tatyana Fedorovna Titova, the poet's mother, had a loveless marriage. The couple's married life was short.

There is a lot of controversy over the origins of the surname of the Yesenins. The historian Svetlana Kovalyova notes that the poet's great-great-grandfather, Klim Yevsigneyev (1776-1840), wrote next to his surname - "Yesenyov". From that moment on, this surname had different spelling until the middle of the XIX century. Both versions of "Yesenkin" and "Yesenin" are equal. Already in the second half of the XIX century, Yesenin's surname frequently appears in archival documents.

In Yesenin's native land, people carefully preserve the memory of the poet. Thousands of people come to Konstantinovo, to the Sergei Yesenin State Museum-Reserve, to feel the spirit of his poetry and enjoy the beauty of this land. The Presidential Library's portal provides an opportunity to do it without leaving home by exploring the In Memory of the Poet section of the Sergei Yesenin (1895-1925) collection, devoted to his homeland near Ryazan.