Mikhail Kuzmin Bio
Mikhail Alexeyevich Kuzmin was born on October 18, 1872 in Yaroslavl, Russia. He was a professional composer, and throughout his life he produced a number of books, plays, musical compositions, instances of poetry, and other works.
He grew up with a mother, a father, and several siblings. Kuzmin had connections to a famous actor, Jean Aufresne, on his mother’s side, which both encouraged his love for French culture and his inclination toward theatre. However, Kuzmin reported in an autobiographical piece he wrote in 1906 (unpublished until 1990) titled “Histoire edifiante de mes commencements” or “The Edifying Story of My Beginnings” (Tcherkassova and Vishnevetsky 2004) that he felt loneliness in his family during his childhood.
His formal music education began alongside his more standard education. He was a studious person and took interest in European music and literature. After graduating from the Eighth Gymnasium in St. Petersburg in 1891, he continued his studies at the St. Petersburg Conservatory until 1894, and then took private music lessons after that. In parallel, he worked on his writing, including poetry both to pair with his musical compositions and otherwise and some literary works which were not published at the time. He lived with his parents until their deaths, of his father in 1886 and his mother in 1904.
From his early life, Kuzmin struggled with his religion. He wanted religion in his life, but strayed away from the Russian Orthodox Church due to tensions between him and its teachings, including those pertaining to homosexuality. Kuzmin was aware of his own homosexuality by the mid-1880s. He explored Catholicism and the practices of the Old Believers but converted to neither.
Wings (1906) was Kuzmin’s first published prose work. Vanya’s exploration of religion in the book parallels these events in Kuzmin’s life, even to the extent that Canon Mori (whom Vanya meets in Italy in Part 3 of the book) was based on a real Roman Catholic canon whom Kuzmin met during a 1897 trip to Italy.
The exploration of religion entwines with the exploration of love. The characters of Wings are regularly depicted discussing issues of morality, which is at least in part defined by religion, when it comes to love. For example, in Part Two of the book, there is much talk of this. That portion opens with discussions from three characters — Maria Dmitriyevna, Prokhor Nikitich, and Sergei — who discuss the presence or absence of passion in relationships in and out of wedlock and what is it that makes a relationship or tryst a sin. The discussion is not so settled, leaving readers with the thought of the murky distinction. Due to these examples, among others in the book, one of the messages of Wings seems to be that ignoring “one’s true nature is a betrayal of God’s plan” (Kahn 2018). As such, it suggests that seeking, receiving, and giving love is good on some important base ground, and reflects what Kuzmin may have found in his exploration of his religious inclinations in his own life.
Another figure in Kuzmin’s life who may have a parallel in Wings is Georgii Vasil’evich Chicherin (1872-1936). The two became friends in 1886, and Chicherin encouraged Kuzmin’s writing, as well as encouraging him to study foreign languages and cultures. Chicherin was supportive enough of Kuzmin’s writing to provide for him financially for a while after the death of his mother to allow him to continue to focus on it. Their relationship could have been similar to Vanya’s relationship with Larion Dmitriyevich Stroop. Stroop influences Vanya’s interest in Greek specifically and learning more broadly, and assumes a mentorship role in Vanya’s life during the first part of the book.
Throughout Kuzmin’s life, he participated in a number of art movements and communities. Leading up to and around the time that Wings was published, Kuzmin along with several of his friends were involved in the “World of Art” movement. It promoted an “understanding of art as ‘play,’ as ‘a joyful and divine craft that does not concern itself with its purpose’” (Tcherkassova and Vishnevetsky 2004) — or, a brand of aestheticism. It also valued an elegant physical aesthetic ideal, and encouraged a drive towards productivity. Additionally, this community was open to and accepting of homosexuality.
Later in life, Kuzmin helped create another art group called the Emotionalists. Their take on the meaning of art was to produce “unique, unrepeatable” emotions through “unique, unrepeatable” perception (Kahn 2018).
Kuzmin was quite popular in the artistic community of St. Petersburg when Wings was released. As the first openly homosexual work in Russia, the novel was highly controversial in some circles. While the details of Vanya’s and Stroop’s relationship occur “offscreen” and the story itself ends before the potential couple settle things together or otherwise, the book clearly represents a journey towards acceptance of homosexuality, among other coming-of-age concerns, for Vanya. As previously discussed, the book also features a number of discussions of homosexuality — in addition to the religious perspective, known gay historical figures are mentioned, and the book does not condemn any of these individuals or ideas. Kuzmin’s future works also contained homosexual themes, and in fact some later works were considered erotic.
Throughout Kuzmin’s life, while Kuzmin’s ideas about art brought tension between him and the Soviet government, which wanted art to promote Soviet ideals and be generally politically-motivated, he was not otherwise heavily involved in politics.
Later in life, Kuzmin continued to publish a variety of writings. Two of significant note were a critical essay called “On Beautiful Clarity,” published in 1910, credited for starting off the Acmeist movement which prioritized clarity over the older lean towards Symbolism in poetry, and a collection of poetry titled The Trout Breaks the Ice, published from 1925-1928 in six cycles, which was the last collection Kuzmin published. Overall, however, particularly in the decade before his death, he had turned mostly to translation work for financial reasons.
After a life rich with art, love, and writing, Kuzmin died on March 1, 1936 at age 63 in Leningrad.
Bibliography
Kahn, Andrew, et al. A History of Russian Literature. First edition, Oxford University Press, 2018.
Kuzmin, Mikhail Alekseevich, and Hugh Aplin. Wings. Hesperus Press Ltd, 2007.
"Mikhail Kuzmin." In Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2001. Gale Literature Resource Center (accessed October 3, 2020). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1000056527/LitRC?u=swar94187&sid=LitRC&xid=8dc2f068.
Tcherkassova, Farida A., and I. G. Vishnevetsky. "Mikhail Kuzmin." In Russian Writers of the Silver Age, 1890-1925, edited by Judith E. Kalb, J. Alexander Ogden, and I. G. Vishnevetsky. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 295. Detroit, MI: Gale, 2004. Gale Literature Resource Center (accessed October 3, 2020). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1200011779/LitRC?u=swar94187&sid=LitRC&xid=f9a14add.
