Sofiia Iakovlevna Parnok
Sofiia Iakovlevna Parnok was a notable Russian poet and literary critic, born on August 11, 1885, in Taganrog, Russia. Coming from a well-off family, she received a comprehensive education and pursued musical studies in Geneva before returning to Russia to study law. Parnok's literary career began in the early 1900s, during which she expressed her experiences as a lesbian in a patriarchal society, openly addressing her sexual identity through her work. Despite her talent, she faced challenges in gaining recognition, as much of her writing was overshadowed by societal perceptions of her sexuality. After the 1917 Revolution, she engaged with the vibrant literary scene in Moscow but encountered increasing censorship under Stalin's regime. Parnok co-founded the Uzel literary cooperative in 1926 but was largely barred from publication by 1928. Her life came to an end on August 26, 1933, in Karinskoe, where it is believed she may have succumbed to the emotional toll of her silencing. Parnok's legacy continues to resonate, highlighting the intersection of art, identity, and societal constraints.
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Sofiia Iakovlevna Parnok
Poet
- Born: August 11, 1885
- Birthplace: Taganrog, Russia
- Died: August 26, 1933
- Place of death: Karinskoe, near Moscow, Russia
Biography
Sofiia Iakovlevna Parnok was born on August 11, 1885, in Taganrog in Russia. A member of a well-to-do family, she was educated at home and subsequently at the gymnasium (high school) in Taganrog. From 1905 to 1906, she went to Geneva, Switzerland, to study at the Conservatory of Music. During that period she began to publish her first poetry, searching for a voice that would dare to shout.
In 1908, she returned to Russia and studied law at St. Petersburg University. She married Vladimir Mikhailovich Volkenshtein in 1907, but the relationship soon failed and ended in divorce in 1909. Subsequently she was involved in a number of long-term relationships with other women, and her writing began to openly proclaim her lesbianism and her experiences of being a lesbian in a patriarchal society. After 1910, she was completely self-supporting as a writer and literary critic, although she wrote much of her criticism under a male pseudonym because of her notoriety as an open lesbian. Only one of her books of poetry was ever seriously reviewed, and she was regarded primarily as a lesbian who happened to be a writer. Many of her works, including her articles on Anna Akhmatova, appear to have been lost.
During 1914, she traveled widely in the West, but returned to Russia to live in the Crimea during the period of the Revolution and the Russian Civil War. She was arrested in January of 1921, but by the middle of March she was released and moved to Moscow, where she became active in the lively literary culture that flourished during that brief period when the Soviet Union seemed to offer new hope and possibility. She was one of the founding members of the Uzel (knot) literary cooperative in 1926, but by 1928, she was effectively barred from publishing by the increasingly restrictive Soviet government under Joseph Stalin. On August 26, 1933, she died in Karinskoe, a village outside of Moscow. She does not appear to have been purged, but may have died of grief at being silenced.