Mirra Lokhvitskaya
| Mirra Lokhvitskaya | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | Maria Alexanrovna Lokhvitskaya November 19, 1869 Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire |
| Died | August 27, 1905 (aged 35) Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire |
| Occupation | poet |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Ethnicity | Russian, French |
| Notable awards | Pushkin Prize |
| Spouse | Eugeny Gibert |
Mirra Lokhvitskaya (Russian: Ми́рра Ло́хвицкая; born Maria Alexandrovna Lokhvitskaya – Russian: Мари́я Алекса́ндровна Ло́хвицкая; November 19, 1869 – August 27, 1905) was a Russian poet who rose to fame in the late 1890s. In her short lifetime Lokhvitskaya published five books of poetry, the first and the last of which received the most coveted Russian literary award of the day, the Pushkin Prize. Due to the flamboyantly erotic sensuality of her works, Lokhvitskaya was regarded as the "Russian Sappho" by her contemporaries, which did not correspond with her conservative life style of dedicated wife and mother of five sons. Forgotten in Soviet times, in the late 20th century Lokhvitskaya's legacy was reassessed and she came to be regarded as one of the most original and influential voices of the Silver Age of Russian Poetry and the first in the line of modern Russian women poets who paved the way for Anna Akhmatova and Marina Tsvetaeva.
Maria Lokhvitskaya was born on November 19, 1869 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Her father Alexander Vladimirovich Lokhvitsky (1830–1884) was a well-known lawyer of the time, famous for his public speeches, the author of several academic works on jurisprudence. The primary source of young Maria's creative aspirations, though, was her mother Varvara Alexandrovna (née Hoer), a well-educated Frenchwoman, fond of literature and poetry. Lokhvitskaya's younger sister Nadezhda would later become a well-known humorist writer better known as Teffi, their brother (1868–1933), a Russian White Army general and a one-time associate of Kolchak, fought against the Red Army forces in Siberia. Another sister Yelena Lokhvitskaya (1874–1919) wrote poetry, translated Maupassant (together with Teffi) and was a Drama Society member, but never regarded herself professional. Of Mirra's two other sisters only the names are known: Varvara Alexandrovna (Popova) and Lydia Alexandrovna (Kozhina).
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