Lappa Tatyana Nikolaevna: biography, photos and interesting facts

Lappa Tatyana Nikolaevna (the accent in this surname falls on the second syllable) was the first wife of a Russian, Soviet playwright and writer Mikhail Afanasievich Bulgakov. Lovers of literature are familiar with her memories of the life of her ex-husband.

After the divorce from Mikhail Afanasyevich, her fate developed quite uneasy. However, as evidenced by the narrations recorded by the researchers of the writer's work, she had no negative feelings for Bulgakov. Most likely, she continued to love him, although she claimed that she was happy in her third marriage with David Kiselgoff.

A family

Lappa Tatiana Nikolayevna was born in 1892, on November 23, according to a new style or December 5, according to the old style. Her birthplace is Ryazan. Tatyana's father - Lapp Nikolai Nikolayevich - a pillar nobleman. His ancestors were natives of Lithuania. In Ryazan, Nikolai Nikolayevich was the manager of the treasury chamber. Despite the fact that Lappa was a high-ranking official, he was fond of theater and had an actor's talent. Nikolai Nikolayevich died in 1918 in Moscow.

One of Tatyana's ancestors was Matvey Demjanovich Lappa, the son of a landowner, a member of the Southern Society, a lieutenant of the Life Guards of the Izmailovsky Regiment. At one time he joined the Decembrists, for which he was demoted to rank and file on 10.07.1826, but he is not deprived of nobility at the same time. Perhaps, from her ancestor Tatyana Nikolaevna Lappa inherited the desire for independence and freedom, which did not leave her all her life.

The mother of the girl - Pakhotinskaya Eugenia Viktorovna - was from the Polish gentry. The family brought up six children. Tatyana had four brothers and a sister.

The family of the state councilor was well-off and prosperous. And, as evidenced by the memories of Tatyana Nikolaevna, as a child, she was not denied anything. Then she did not think about the future and received gifts from her parents. Her childhood was carefree, like her future husband Mikhail Bulgakov.

Moving in

In 1904 Tatyana's family moved to live in Saratov. The reason for this was the new appointment of the father. In Saratov, Nikolai Nikolayevich ran a state chamber and served under the governor of the city - PA. Stolypin.

Tatyana Nikolaevna Lappa also left her memories about these years (see the photo below).

About Saratov life she still had the brightest feelings. In her memoirs Tatyana Nikolayevna mentions a spacious state apartment, where she had a living room and a bedroom, a father's study and a dining room, as well as separate rooms for boys and girls. Life of the family flowed calmly and calmly. My father worked. Mother was engaged in children. In the summer the family went to the dacha, which she rented.

In Saratov Tatiana had a girlfriend who lived nearby (in a neighboring house). Her father kept the Ochkin Theater and had his own box in it. Tatiana often took with her to the performances, which contributed to her active involvement in art, including the opera. It is known that Bulgakov was also very fond of the opera. Most likely, this was one of the motivations that contributed to the rapprochement of young people.

Acquaintance with Bulgakov

In the summer of 1908, at the invitation of her aunt, a frail fifteen-year-old gymnast Lappa Tatiana Nikolayevna arrived in Kiev. Biography of the girl from this period has changed dramatically.

Sofya Nikolaevna (Tatyana's aunt) worked in the women's educational institution of Kiev - the Fraebel Institute. Her colleague was Varvara Bulgakov, the mother of a future writer. In order to help her niece know Kiev better, her aunt introduced her to the boy, the son of his colleague. So Lappa Tatyana Nikolaevna and Bulgakov met for the first time.

First love

In her memoirs, Lappa Tatyana Nikolayevna talked a lot about Kiev. The city made a great impression on the fifteen-year-old schoolgirl. Later, she admitted that everything she saw here exceeded her expectations. She struggled to gaze from the golden domes of churches, sinking in the dense green of hills, shady parks and gardens, theaters, strict state buildings and ancient temples. Of course, in many respects all the excitement from what he saw was due to the fact that the girl met her first love. After all, walks around Kiev with the sixteen-year-old Bulgakov gradually turned into this wonderful feeling.

This time, with joy, Bulgakov recalled. In his article "Kiev-city" he enthusiastically described the sun-drenched streets and the green hills, saying that during this period in the future capital of Ukraine there lived a carefree young generation confident in its cloudless future.

Memoirs of contemporaries

Together with Bulgakov, the future writer Konstantin Georgievich Paustovsky studied in the 1st Alexandrovskaya Gymnasium. In his memoirs, he wrote that Mikhail was older than him and had a ruthless language, liveliness and impetuosity. In each of his words, strength and certainty were felt. In addition, Bulgakov's vocabulary was full of mystifications and fictions. The future writer joked easily and for every reason.

Young provincial schoolgirl Lappa Tatiana Nikolaevna could hardly resist this young man. Not the least role played in this and Kiev - one of the largest cultural centers in Russia. Young people spent their time not only in admiring the city's beauties. They talked about theater, music and literature. They laughed at the satyrs of Saltykov-Shchedrin and often recounted the humoresques of Antoshi Chekhonte. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Bulgakov knew by heart the selected stories and letters of Chekhov. As for Saltykov, he was practically "his" for the Lapp family. The fact is that once Tatyana's grandfather Nikolai Ivanovich served in Ryazan under the leadership of Mikhail Evgrafovich, who wrote literary works under the pseudonym Shchedrin.

Confrontation of parents

Soon the idyll was over. The vacation came to an end, and Tatiana went home to Saratov. But lovers maintained relationships with the help of correspondence, causing discontent of their families.

The parents of young people were against their connection. They considered these relations unequal. The fact is that Bulgakov's father was a professor at the Kiev Theological Academy. And this title he received a few days before his death. Despite his rank of State Councilor, Afanasy Ivanovich Bulgakov was a philistine. And to become related with his family to the nobility of the nobility was odd.

Against the marriage of the son with Tatyana was the mother of Bulgakov. She believed that the girl's parents would look down upon the son-in-law from the lower class on foot.

The initiative to stop relations between young people was followed by Tatyana's parents. They wanted to send her daughter to study in Paris and were sure that she had an early relationship with her.

Tatiana Nikolaevna Lappa wanted to come to Kiev for Christmas 1908. However, her parents did not allow her. They sent their daughter to her grandmother in Moscow. And all this despite the fact that a telegram came from a friend of Mikhail Aleksandar Kaleshinsky in Saratov with a request to telegraph to Kiev about Tatyana's arrival, otherwise Misha would shoot himself.

Later, Lappa Tatyana Nikolayevna recalled the reaction of her father. He silently folded this message and sent it to his sister, Sophia Nikolaevna, to give it to Bulgakov's mother.

In that year, Michael graduated from his studies at the gymnasium and decided to come to Saratov himself for the gift of 25 rubles. However, these plans were not to come true. His parents did not let him go.

New meeting

All seemingly insurmountable obstacles only kindled love. Three years after the first meeting with Tasei (so affectionately Bulgakov called Tatyana), Mikhail himself came to Saratov on a Christmas vacation. He stayed there from December 1911 until mid-January 1912. At this time, Bulgakov studied at the Medical Faculty of the Kiev Imperial University, where he entered in 1909. The trip affected his studies in the most negative way. Michael abandoned his studies and did not pass the exams. For this he was not transferred to the next course.

Creating a family

According to the memories of Sister Nadia, Bulgakov traveled to Saratov at least seven times. And in 1913 the parents had to put up with the feelings of their children and gave a blessing to their marriage. In addition, Tatiana by this time had already transferred the medical intervention regarding the termination of pregnancy.

They played a wedding on April 26. As Lappa Tatyana Nikolaevna recalled, they stood happy before the altar, but they did not penetrate the seriousness of the moment. They all the time longed to laugh. It seemed that the most terrible thing in their lives was already behind, and ahead - happy and long years of happiness in one of the most beautiful cities in Russia.

War

A happy marriage in peaceful Russia lasted a couple of Bulgakovs a little over a year. In 1914, life changed the First World War. The unfortunate news caught Tatiana and Mikhail in Saratov, where they came to visit their parents. Soon the first wounded began to arrive in the city. They were placed in an infirmary, arranged for the money of officials. Of course, there were not enough nurses and doctors in this institution, and Bulgakov was asked to work there for a while. So Michael passed his first medical practice. In the Saratov Infirmary, Bulgakov worked before starting his studies at the university.

After graduation, Mikhail voluntarily settled in the military hospital in Kiev. However, in the summer of 1916, Bulgakov was transferred to Kamenets-Podolsky, which is near the front. Tatyana followed him. And there she was always next to her husband, working as a nurse.

New appointment

In July 1916, Lappa Tatyana Nikolaevna went together with Bulgakov to the Smolensk Province. This was due to the new appointment of her husband, who was seconded to the reserve of the Moscow District Military Sanitary Directorate. There, in the village of Nikolskoye Sychevsky district, Mikhail began to work as a zemstvo doctor. In the same period, the future writer became addicted to morphine. Most likely, because of this, and made a second abortion Tatiana Nikolaevna Lappa. Because of this intervention, the children never appeared.

In the autumn of 1917 the Bulgakovs moved to Vyazma. In this city, Mikhail began to manage the surgical and infectious department of the local hospital. Tatiana also wanted to be with her husband, but the medical staff opposed this.

Creative activity

In February 1918, after the October Revolution of 1917, a couple of Bulgakovs moved from Vyazma to Kiev. But they did not have to live long in this city. Michael, along with the white army, fled from the Bolsheviks to the Caucasus. Tatiana was able to take him out whence he fell ill with typhoid, cured and sent to Moscow. There they were caught by hungry war years. In order to survive, Bulgakov has to work hard, but at night he began to write. From the cold, Michael's hands grew cold. A faithful wife warmed him on a kerosene lamp with water and brought her to the table in the basin. Bulgakov dipped his hands, warmed them and continued to write his masterpieces.

Divorce

All efforts were not in vain. A few years later the writer Bulgakov began to become fashionable. He had money and fame. At the same time, the family life of the four began to crack. Lappa Tatyana Nikolaevna, the writer's first wife, was not very interested in her husband's literary success. In addition, it was too subtle. At this time, Bulgakov began to flirt with other women.

After Michael brought Lyubov Belozerskaya into the house and said that they would live together, Tatiana packed up her things and left. In April 1924 the divorce was formalized. Thus ended their family life.

Tatyana Nikolaevna Lappa, Bulgakov's first wife, was with him during the most difficult and difficult years of his life. She saved him from morphine and typhoid, was close to Michael in difficult moments and always supported him. After the divorce Tatiana was left alone, without work and in a cold apartment.

Years without Bulgakov

How did the woman's future turn out? Lappa Tatyana Nikolaevna, whose memories today are studied by literary critics, after a divorce from a writer she studied with a seamstress, tried to become a typist, worked as a handyman at a construction site. For a while she found a place in the clinic. There she worked in the registry.

In 1933 Tatyana met the brother of Bulgakov's friend Alexander Pavlovich Kreshkov. Soon she married a second time and moved with her new husband to the Irkutsk region. In a local hospital, Kreshkov was a pediatrician. This marriage was not registered.

In 1945, after the end of the war, Kreshkov came from the front not alone. He came with another woman. After that, Tatyana Nikolayevna moved to Kharkov. Later, she lived in Moscow for a year, where she rented a room and worked as a librarian.
Her third husband was a former friend of Bulgakov, a lawyer, David Alexandrovich Kiselgof. With it, in 1947, she moved to live in Tuapse. In the same place she died on 10.04.1982. The name Lappa-Kiselgof is on the monument.

It was in Tuapse began to come to many literary critics who were interested in the work of Bulgakov. His first wife was an invaluable witness for them, whose memories allowed him to learn more about the life of a famous writer.