Сергей Есенин. Тайна жизни

This publication continues the successfully started series of psychological biographies dedicated to outstanding figures of Russian culture. Alexander Lukyanov’s first book, “Alexander Pushkin in Love,” introduced readers to the psychological characteristics of the intimate life of the great Russian poet. In the new biography, the author tries to penetrate the inner world of another wonderful and beloved poet - Sergei Yesenin, and, based on a thorough analysis of documents: memoirs of contemporaries, letters and poems, to create a psychological portrait of a man whose life and tragic death are still a mystery to researchers . As in his first book, the author uses the works of famous psychoanalysts Alexander Lowen and Wilhelm Reich, and, in particular, the research of Karen Horney, an American psychologist and psychotherapist, whose developments in the field of neurotic development provide enormous material for understanding the psychological characteristics of the behavior of such an unusual personality, like Sergei Yesenin. Many legends have developed around the poet. His image was constantly changing in the portrayal of critics and biographers from an extreme degree of rejection to giving him the appearance of an “innocent murdered”, almost a martyr of the Bolshevik terror. Recently, researchers have become involved in the obvious politicization of Yesenin’s life and death. In contrast to the currently popular direction - the use of materials from the KGB archives, the author took on a more interesting and difficult task - to analyze the main driving forces of the poet’s psyche and, on this basis, truthfully and sincerely depict the complexity of his emotional experiences, the tragic breakdown of his poetry, his unusual and ambivalent attitude to love, his restless and contradictory nature. In other words, to reveal the true secret of the life of Sergei Yesenin.