The Marina Tsvetaeva Museum in Yelabuga is located in a small wooden house where she spent the last 10 days of her life, from August 21 to 31, 1941. It was a period of complete despair and disappointment in life, because of which Marina Tsvetaeva committed suicide.
Marina Tsvetaeva and her son George went to the evacuation when German troops were approaching Moscow. Boris Pasternak tried to persuade her to stay in Moscow, and this would most likely have saved her life. In Moscow, she had friends and contracts to print her poems. However, Marina was afraid for her son. He was already 16 years old at that time. He was eager to be on duty on the roofs and extinguish bombs during the bombing of German planes.
Marina Tsvetaeva and her son boarded a steamer that evacuated people to Chistopol and Yelabuga. On the way, she met writers who were traveling to Chistopol. Marina Tsvetaeva wanted to settle with them, but the city was already full of evacuees, and they were forced to go further to Yelabuga.
In Yelabuga, evacuated people were settled in the homes of local residents. Marina Tsvetaeva and her son were settled in the house of the blacksmith Brodelshchikov. The total area of the house is 50 sq. meters. It had three rooms: a hall, a bedroom and a kitchen. The owners lived in the hall, and the bedroom was given to the Tsvetaevs. Marina was sleeping on the couch, and her son was in bed.
Marina Tsvetaeva offered her son to get a job at a state farm. There was no work either in Yelabuga or in Chistopol. But it was not only for Tsvetaeva, but for no one at all. The population of these cities has doubled in a month because of the evacuated people, and all jobs have been occupied by locals. The statement that Marina Tsvetaeva worked as a dishwasher is very well known, but it is not entirely correct.
The conversation about working as a dishwasher occurred when Marina Tsvetaeva went from Yelabuga to Chistopol for three days, from August 25-27. There it was planned to open a canteen on shares in the Literary Fund. Her sister Anastasia Tsvetaeva wrote about this in her memoirs: "Marina was in someone`s house with V. Smirnova, there was a conversation about the organization of a canteen on shares. Everyone talked about what they could do. Marina said: - And I`ll wash the dishes. And, taking a piece of paper, she immediately wrote and gave Vera Vasilyevna a job application. In the evening of the same day , during a walk about the opening of the same canteen , there was conversation between M. Tsvetaeva, B. Selvinskaya, E. Sannikova and G. Alpers. Tsvetaeva said she would be a scullery maid. - Why a scullery maid? Selvinskaya objected. - Maybe we`ll organize a buffet, you can work in the buffet. - No, no, I can`t do that! I will immediately miscalculate!".
This canteen in Chistopol was opened only in October 1941, so Marina could not work in it, although her job application has been preserved in the museum. However, there are eyewitness accounts that she tried to get a job as a dishwasher in one of the restaurants on Karl Marx Street in Yelabuga, but she only worked there for half a day and left.
It was mentally and physically difficult for her. She reached an extreme degree of despair, so on August 31 she decided to pass away. She wrote three suicide notes in which she asked her friends to take care of the fate of her son George. One of the notes was addressed personally to her son, with whom Marina had a strained relationship after he grew up: "Murluga! Forgive me, but it would have been worse. I`m seriously ill, it`s not me anymore. I love you madly. Understand that I couldn`t live anymore. Tell Dad and Alya — if you see them—that you loved them until the last minute and explain that I got into a dead end."
Marina Tsvetaeva hanged herself on August 31, 1941 in the hallway of the house of the blacksmith Brodelshchikov on a large nail driven into a beam. Now this nail can be seen in the Tsvetaeva Museum in Yelabuga. All these events are displayed in the exposition of the Marina Tsvetaeva Museum in Yelabuga.
After visiting the Marina Tsvetaeva Memorial Museum in the house of the blacksmith Brodelshchikov, go to the Tsvetaeva Literary Museum in Yelabuga. There is an exposition dedicated to the work of the great poet of the Silver Age. It is located within walking distance. Also visit the Peter and Paul Cemetery, where the memorial grave of Marina Tsvetaeva is located.
