The Mandelstam brothers in Koktebel (1916)

Abstract

The article considers an episode from the biography of Osip Mandelstam and his brothers Eugene and Alexander during the two summer months of 1916, which previously had documentary contradictions in circumstances and dates. The author of the article draws attention to the fact that the poet’s brother Eugene insists in his memoirs that he visited Koktebel only once — in 1915. However, a number of documentary evidence cited in the article allow to correct this information. The analysis involves memoirs and archival sources, in particular the house book of the Elena Voloshina boarding house, according to which the arrival of Evgeny Mandelstam was recorded on June 9 (that of Osip Mandelstam — on June 7), the departure of both — on July 25, 1916. Comparison of this information, in particular with the documented fact of E. Mandelstam's acquaintance with Olga Vaksel and Yulia Lvova, whose first visited Koktebel in 1916, makes it possible to assert that in fact the memoirs describe the summer trip of 1916. At the same time, when comparing the records from the house book with other sources, it turns out that the date of E. Mandelstam’s departure is, most likely, fictitious and refers to the poet’s brother Alexander. Thus, the proposed notes clarify the facts of O.E. Mandelstam’s and his family’s biography on the basis of a comparative study of memoirs, epistolary and other sources.

Keywords

• osip mandelstam
• evgeny mandelstam
• alexander mandelstam
• elena voloshina
• vladimir kupchenko
• koktebel