Konstantin Balmont

Konstantin Balmont
Portrait of Konstantin Balmont by Valentin Serov . 1905.
Born	Konstantin Dmitrievich Balmont 15 June [O.S. 3 June] 1867 Shuya, Ivanovo Oblast, Russian Empire
Died	23 September 1942(1942-09-23) (aged 75) Paris, France
Occupation	Poet
Nationality	Russian
Citizenship	Russian Empire / France
Education	Moscow University (dropped)
Period	1885–1937
Genre	poetry • memoirs • political essay
Literary movement	Russian symbolism
Notable works	Burning Buildings (1900) • Let Us Be Like the Sun (1903)
Spouse	Larisa Garelina • Yekaterina Andreeva • Elena Tzvetkovskaya
Children	Nikolai Bal'mont, Nina (Ninika) Bruni (neé Balmont), Mirra Balmont, Georges Shahovskoy, Svetlana Shales (neé Shahovskoy)

Konstantin Dmitriyevich Balmont (Russian: Константи́н Дми́триевич Бальмо́нт; IPA: [kənstɐnˈtʲin ˈdmʲitrʲɪjɪvʲɪtɕ bɐlʲˈmont]; 15 June [O.S. 3 June] 1867 – 23 December 1942) was a Russian symbolist poet and translator. He was one of the major figures of the Silver Age of Russian Poetry.

Konstantin Balmont was born at his family's estate Gumnishchi, Shuya (then Vladimir Guberniya, now Ivanovskaya oblast), the third of the seven sons of a Russian nobleman, lawyer and senior state official Dmitry Konstantinovich Balmont and Vera Nikolayevna (née Le′bedeva) who came from a military family. The latter knew several foreign languages, was enthusiastic about literature and theater and exerted strong influence on her son. Balmont learned to read at the age of five and cited Aleksandr Pushkin, Nikolai Nekrasov, Alexey Koltsov and Ivan Nikitin as his earliest influences. Later he remembered the first ten years of his life spent at Gumnishchi with great affection and referred to the place as 'a tiny kingdom of silent comfort'.

In 1876 the family moved to Shuya where Vera Nikolayevna owned a two-story house. At age ten Konstantin joined the local gymnasium, an institution he later described as "the home of decadence and capitalism, good only at air and water contamination." It was there that he became interested in French and German poetry and started writing himself. His first two poems, though, have been panned by his mother in such a manner that for the next six years he made no attempt at repeating this first poetic venture. At the gymnasium Balmont became involved with a secret circle (formed by students and some teachers) which printed and distributed Narodnaya Volya proclamations. "I was happy and I wanted everybody to be happy. The fact that only a minority, myself included, were entitled to such happiness, seemed outrageous to me," he later wrote. On 30 June 1886 he was expelled from the Shuia gymnasium for his political activities.