Mikhail Bulgakov (Yuriy Vilenskiy from “Doctor Bulgakov”)
«Let the sun of Lebedian be like a sunflower over your head and the sunflower (if there is in Lebedian!) be like a sun. Your M. », - wrote Bulgakov to Elena Sergeevna in May 1938.
During these hot days it was in fact the first separation of Mikhail Afanasievich and E.S. Bulgakova from the very beginning of their joint life. The writer surely needed the respite and change of the surroundings but this summer he was working day and night on his masterpiece “The Master and Margarita”.
“Elena Sergeevna needed the rest a lot, - wrote V.I. Losev and V.V. Petelin in the annotations to Mikhail Bulgakov’s letters of this period. Being a doctor and an excellent psychologist Bulgakov understood her state and decided to sent her immediately with the son to a calm place far from this atmosphere which caused the neurasthenia. He also forbade her to take any medicine”.
Bulgakov wrote to Lebedian more than forty letters. He often sent telegrams. The contents of these saved by Elena Sergeevna letters remind us about nearly forgotten nowadays mutual attitude of two close people toward each other. Some medical instructions are mentioned in the majority of these extremely interesting messages.
“…I beg you, have some rest, - wrote Bulgakov on the 27th May. – Do not think about theatres, Nemirovich, dramatists, do not read anything except of greasy and torn novels (maybe there aren’t any in Lebedian!)”.
“It is forbidden for you to swim three times. Sit in the shadow! – he wrote in his letter on the 14th June (before that Mikhail Afanasievich, according to V.I. Losev and V.V. Petelin, asked Sergey to write him secretly how Elena Sergeevna was recovering). Bulgakov reminded again on the 29th May: “…Keep away from the sun! I am serious! I am afraid you will pay for it. Sit in the shadow!”
Elena Sergeevna Bulgakova “Diary records”.
“It has been a lot of time since I made any notes. Now it is difficult to remember. What do I remember? Rage fatigue in spring. Then we left to Lebedian together with Sergey, Loli, Sanka. Mikhail Afanasievich came there with Genechka when everything was ready – no flies in the room, candles, old magazines, boat…Wonderful life in a simple and calm atmosphere. On the third day M.A. started to write by candlelight the play “Don Kihot” which was finished in a month ”.
Leo Tolstoy “Two hussars”
“His wish to enter the cavalry and three weeks spent with Lebedian remount officers was the brightest and happiest period of his life, so firstly he realized the wish then transferred it in reminiscence and began to believe in his cavalry past which did not prevent him from being a softhearted, honest and respectable person”.
Nikolay Zadonskiy “Life of Muraviev”
“…Alexander Nikolaevich Muraviev came to Skorniakovo in summer. … We went to the Don in the evening. After recent thunderstorms the weather was windless and warm, harvesting in the Don region was about to start, the air was filled with the notes of faded herbs and bitterish wormwood. Sunset was still flaming, and smooth surface of the river was improbable turning pink, and wonderful silence poured in the surroundings was disturbed only by turtle-dove cooing and grasshopper chirring. – Your place is wonderful, my dear brother, -said Alexander Nikolaevich, - I feel the beauty of nature nowhere but here. You chose beautiful place for living. I come to the conclusion that live nature communication makes us happier, better and clearer…”
Boris Kustodiev
“… So we are finally in the heart of Russia – in Lebediani. Tubers, churches, the Don, geese, apples, expanses, streets overgrown with grass. We were pleased by the sun on the arrival day only, we basked in the sun sitting in a marvelous garden and looking at the calm Don”. And then a little bit later in his letter to V.V. Voinov: “Last day I managed to make a trip around the whole town and look at Zadonsk part – it turned out to be so beautiful place that I was ready to stay one month more here in the rain to write about it - but it was late…”
Evgeniy Zamyatin “Autobiography”
“You will see a lonely, friendless child on a sofa lying on his stomach above the book - or under the piano, and his mother playing Chopin, and the district – windows with geranium, a piglet tied to a peg in the middle of a street, chickens fluttering in the dust. Speaking about geography, Lebedian is the most Russian-Tambovian described by Tolstoy and Turgenev…”
Ivan Turgenev “Lebedian”
Five years ago I appeared in Lebedian in full fair swing. One fine morning our brother, hunter, can leave his more or less patrimonial estate with the intention to come back next evening and then step by step, shooting snipes, reach the blessed Pechora banks; besides, people who are fond of guns and dogs passionately respect the most noble animal - the horse. So, I arrived to Lebedian, stayed at a hotel, changed my clothes and went to the fair. (The waiter, a high lean guy of 20 years old with smooth nasal tenor has already informed me that his Excellency, prince N., remount officer of ***regiment, stayed at their inn, that a lot of other gentlemen came, that gypsies sing in the evening and a play of Tvardovskiy is being performed in the theatre, that horses are expensive, but however the horses are good.)