Excursion to the village of Novospasskoye, the birthplace of the great composer M.I. Glinka

Mikhail Glinka is a Russian composer, the founder of the Russian national opera, the author of the world-famous operas “Life for the Tsar” (“Ivan Susanin”) and “Ruslan and Lyudmila”.

Mikhail Glinka was born on May 20 (June 1) 1804 in the village of Novospasskoye Smolensk province, on the estate of his father, retired captain Ivan Nikolaevich Glinka (1777-1834). His mother was his father's second cousin, Eugene Andreevna Glinka-Zemelka (1783-1851). Mikhail Glinka is a representative of the nobility. From 1611 to 1654, the Smolensk lands were under Polish rule. The Polish king Vladislav IV granted the patrimony of Victorin-Wladislav Glinka, the great-grandfather of the composer, an estate in the Smolensk Voivodeship (1641). When Smolensk passed to Russia, Victorin Vladislav Glinka converted to Orthodoxy, was named Yakov Yakovlevich, and from Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was paid estates (+ 1655). The three sons of the ancestor: Peter, Stepan and Andrei were such sons.

Glinka’s biography is a story of a man’s love for music, but the composer had a more mundane personal life. During his travels in Europe, Michael became the hero of several amorous adventures. Returning to Russia, the composer decided to marry. Following the example of his father, he chose his distant relative as a companion of life. The composer’s wife was Maria (Maria) Petrovna Ivanova. The couple had a fourteen-year age difference, but this did not stop the composer. The marriage was unhappy. Mikhail Ivanovich quickly realized that he had made the wrong choice. Marriage ties connected the musician with his unloved wife, and the heart was given to another woman. The new love of the composer was Catherine Kern. The girl was the daughter of Pushkin’s muse, to whom Alexander Sergeyevich dedicated the poem “I remember a wonderful moment.” Glinka's relationship with her lover lasted almost 10 years. Most of the time, the musician was officially married. His legal wife Maria Ivanova, not having lived a year in a legal marriage, began to look for amorous adventures on the side. Glinka knew about her adventures. The wife reproached the musician for waste, scandalized and cheated. The composer was very depressed. After six years of marriage with Glinka, Maria Ivanova secretly married a cornet Nikolai Vasilchikov. When this circumstance was discovered, Glinka received hope for divorce. All this time the composer was in a relationship with Catherine Kern.

Catherine was born in the family of General E. F. Kern and his wife A. P. Kern Godfather of Emperor Alexander I. Due to frequent quarrels, Catherine’s parents did not engage in upbringing. She was given for education in the Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens, which she graduated with honors in 1836. For about 3 years she lived with an old father, who served at that time as the commandant of Smolensk. Then she got a job in the alma mater as a class lady.

In 1840, a meeting of E. E. Kern with M. I. Glinka took place. Meeting the composer turned into love. From Glinka's letter: "...my gaze unwittingly stopped at her: her clear expressive eyes, unusually slender camp (...) and a special kind of charm and dignity, spilled in all her person, more and more attracted me. (...) I found a way to talk to this sweet girl. (...) Extremely deftly expressed my feelings at the time. (...) Soon my feelings were quite divided by the dear E. K., and the dates with her became more pleasant. Everything in life is a counterpoint, that is, a counterpoint [...] I was disgusted at home, but there was so much life and pleasure on the other side: the fiery poetic feelings for E. K., which she fully understood and shared.

Becoming the composer’s muse at the time of his life, Katenka Kern was an inspiration to Glinka.

“In his proximity to a person who understands him, the artist draws new strength.”

A number of small works, composed by him in 1839, were dedicated to Catherine Kern, in particular, the romance “If I meet you”, the words of which were written by Catherine Kern.

E. K. chose from the works of Koltsov and rewrote for me. (...) It was also written by Valse-Fantaisie[1].

After at the end of 1839 M. I. Glinka left his wife M. P. Ivanova[2], since 1840, relations with E. Kern continued to develop rapidly. But she soon became seriously ill and moved in with her mother. In the spring of 1840, the composer constantly visited Catherine and it was then that he wrote the romance “I remember a wonderful moment” on Pushkin’s poems, dedicating it to the daughter to whom the poet addressed these poems.

In 1841 E. Kern became pregnant. Started shortly before the divorce process Glinka with his wife, caught in a secret wedding with the nephew of a major dignitary[2], gave Catherine hope to become the wife of the composer. Mikhail Ivanovich was also sure that the case would be resolved quickly and soon he would be able to marry Catherine. But the trial took an unexpected turn. And although Glinka did not miss a single court hearing, the case dragged on. Ekaterina constantly cried and demanded decisive action from Mikhail Ivanovich. Glinka decided to give her a significant amount to “liberate” her illegitimate child[3], although he was very worried about what had happened. To keep everything secret and avoid scandal in society, the mother took her daughter to Lubny to Ukraine “for climate change”.

In 1842 Kern returned to St. Petersburg. Glinka, who has not yet divorced his former wife, has seen her frequently, but he admits in his Notes:

“There was no old poetry and no old passion.”

In the summer of 1844 Glinka, leaving St. Petersburg, went to E. Kern and said goodbye to her. After that, their relationship almost ceased. Glinka received such a desirable divorce only in 1846[2], but he was afraid to tie the knot and lived the rest of his life as a bachelor. .

According to one version, the child was born because Catherine Kern was absent for too long. During this time, the feelings of the musician faded, he left the passion. Glinka towards the end of his life was very sorry that he asked Catherine to get rid of the child. Catherine Kern waited almost 10 years for the composer to return to her. Despite the constant persuasion of relatives, Kern refused to marry for a long time. Only in 1854, having lost hope of returning to her Glinka, E. Kern married the lawyer Mikhail Osipovich Shokalsky. In 1856, she gave birth to a son, Julia, and 10 years later she was widowed, left with a young child almost without any means of subsistence. The desire to give her son a good education that would ensure his career, forced her to serve as a governess in wealthy homes. At home, she herself prepared the boy for admission to the Marine Corps. A family friend – the son of A. S. Pushkin, Grigory Alexandrovich – helped Ekaterina Yermolaevna in the upbringing of her son Yulia Shokalsky (later chairman of the Russian Geographical Society). Ekaterina Ermolaevna spent the rest of her life in her son’s family in his apartment on English Avenue in St. Petersburg. Every summer she went to her estate in the Smolensk province, where her favorite pastime was reading Pushkin's fairy tales and poems to children from the surrounding villages, specially collected for this occasion. "Barschina" ended with the distribution of copper fives to small listeners. Ekaterina Ermolaevna preserved her love for Glinka for life, and even dying in 1904, she remembered the composer with deep feelings.