She gave up her children, her academic career, her music for him. He, after 25 years of marriage, almost as much preferred not to see and not remember her. She is Natalya Reshetovskaya, he is the great Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn. About their acquaintance, romantic relationship, his betrayals and her devotion to the last breath, this article.
"Chekhovian" girl
Natalya Alekseevna Reshetovskaya was born on February 26, 1919 in Novocherkassk. Her mother was a teacher, and her father left with the White Army and nothing is known about his fate. In 1926 she and her mother moved to Rostov-on-Don. Here she graduated from a regular and music school and entered the Chemistry Department of the Rostov State University named after Molotov.
It was at the university that the first meeting between Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Natalia Reshetovskaya took place. He studied physics. In the student circle, Natasha, this fragile young lady with big eyes, who wrote poetry and played Chopin,was a general favourite. But it was Solzhenitsyn who enrolled with her in the ballroom dancing club in her second year, and there, to the rhythms of foxtrot, tango and w altz, their romance began.
Uneasy marriage
In the fourth year, in 1940, Natalya Reshetovskaya and Solzhenitsyn got married. In a small rented apartment near the university, their happiness lasted only a year. And then he went to the front, and she stayed in Rostov and entered graduate school. She waited and worked. In 1944, she defended her Ph. D. thesis already at Moscow State University, where she transferred to the graduate school of the Faculty of Chemistry.
When she was diagnosed with uterine cancer, he was not around. Since February 1945, Solzhenitsyn was arrested, and Natalya, who had difficulty surviving the operation and forever deprived of the opportunity to have children, went to see him on rare dates. This went on for 6 years.
Unreliable spouse
Immediately after the war, Natalya Reshetovskaya, the wife of Solzhenitsyn, who was convicted under the political article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, was “asked” from Moscow University. He had 8 years of camps and eternal exile, she returned to Rostov to her mother.
Natalya Alekseevna works at the Agricultural Institute, corresponds with her beloved, but hopes for a happy family are fading. And then a gallant, many years older than her, boyfriend appeared in her life - associate professor of the local medical university Vsevolod Somov. Either her hopelessness broke her, or the fact that Vsevolod had two wonderful sons, and she could never have children, but NatalyaReshetovskaya filed for divorce.
Their marriage lasted 8 years (from 1948 to 1956). She became the head of the Department of Chemistry, Vsevolod and the sons of the soul doted on the refined Natalya. But the love of her life has called, and she will drop everything.
Solzhenitsyn's wife again
In 1956, the Supreme Court of the USSR released Alexander Solzhenitsyn for lack of corpus delicti. He has two surgeries to remove cancerous growths in the testicles, years of camps and works written in prison and memorized by him. Solzhenitsyn was sent to the village of Miltsevo (Vladimir region), where he teaches mathematics and physics in a secondary school. It was here that Solzhenitsyn's first wife, Natalya Reshetovskaya, visited in November 1956. And stayed. And on February 2, 1957, she again became his official wife.
Companion and breadwinner in the family
Natalya Reshetovskaya has always been the main earner of money in their family - she is an assistant professor with a salary of three hundred rubles, he is a teacher with a rate of 60 rubles. The family moved to Ryazan, she was his secretary and spent hours copying his manuscripts. He pestered her with domesticity and the eternal saving of time and money. They did not go to theaters, they rarely received guests, but they worked and wrote a lot.
Solzhenitsyn is greeted by Nikita Khrushchev and the novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1959) is published. From that moment Alexander Solzhenitsyn became a pop star of that time. Publications, letters, fans and meetings - all this has become a lot.
Another Natalia in the writer's life
Slava spoiled the family for a short time. By 1963 whenthe writer was not awarded the Lenin Prize, the decline of his career began. And then there was the confiscation of the archive (1965) and the active dissident activity of the writer. And betrayal, betrayal.
And in August 1968, another Natalya appeared in the life of the writer - Svetlova. Reshetovskaya suffered. In April 1970, on the 25th anniversary of their life together, Solzhenitsyn still raises a toast to life with her to the grave, and a few months later goes to the pregnant Svetlova. For Natalia Reshetovskaya, this was a blow that almost led her to commit suicide. She was rescued, and she still hoped for his return.
During the divorce proceedings, to which Natalya Alekseevna did not give consent, Svetlova gave birth to 3 children, and Solzhenitsyn hated his first wife. And finally, on June 20, 1972, the divorce was finalized.
And she realized that day - she is no longer for her beloved.
Crossed out wife
After the divorce, everyone lived their own lives. But Natalya wrote memoirs and gave interviews in which she spoke about him, and he forgot about her existence and avoided meeting her. Her apartment resembled a museum named after him, Natalya Reshetovskaya's memoirs “In a Dispute with Time” (1975) saw the light, she was accepted into the Writers' Union of Russia (1996). This book about their acquaintance and marriage quarreled the former spouses forever. It was published in 20 countries and was tested by the KGB. In addition, Reshetovskaya married Konstantin Semenov and moved to Moscow, which Solzhenitsyn considered her a betrayal and work for the KGB.
He didn't mention her name and threatenedcourt if she starts quoting him again in her memoirs. And so it went on for almost 25 years. On her 80th birthday, Svetlova brought a basket of roses and repeated threats from a man so dear to Reshetovskaya. And he called her after his return to Russia once and promised to rehabilitate her in his books, but only after her death. She forgave them.
Recent years
According to her own words, she never stopped thinking about her beloved Sasha. She kept records, correspondence, personal items. And she kept waiting for him to come. I even kept a spare apartment key for him.
And I also remembered and wrote memoirs. One of the last works that remained unfinished "Cripple Love" is a monument to all those wives who remained on the other side of the barbed wire and waited, no matter what.
She got along with the historian and writer Nikolai Vasilyevich Ledovskikh and together they completed their memoirs, collected and sorted archival documents and planned a network of museums.
And although Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn paid for the expenses and the nurse for his first wife, when she broke her hip and could no longer get out of bed (in 2000), he never came to see her.
Summing up
Natalya Alekseevna Reshetovskaya - forgotten, but remembering her love, the first wife of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, died in her sleep on May 28, 2003. Until her last breath, she waited for him to visit her. She constantly asked those around her about whether Solzhenitsyn would come to her funeral. He is notcame.
Natalya Reshetovskaya was buried at the Skryabinsky cemetery in Ryazan, next to her mother.
She left behind several books and a large archive, the heir of which was her last husband and colleague journalist and writer Nikolai Vasilyevich Ledovskikh. Her books are not just collections of memories of life with Alexander Solzhenitsyn. These are touching, subtle works about love, devotion, suffering and overcoming. About correcting mistakes, about not creating an idol for yourself, about how easily fans and loved ones can be anathematized by their idol.
After going through many trials and marriages, she remained true to her first and only great love - her Sasha.
