Free The Wives: The Women Behind Russia's Literary Giants by Alexandra Popoff Page A

unconditional love, dedication, and selflessness gave the world another classic of Russian literature. I’m confident that Ivan Bunin would not have achieved what he had without his Vera.” 762
    Throughout its history, Russia’s writers were the main opposition to repressive regimes. Their struggle for freedom was important and inspiring; some were prepared to die for their work, which put greater value on genuine literature. Russian literary wives had helped these works emerge and had ensured their survival and, by doing so, made lasting cultural contributions to the world.

    Anna in 1871, four years into her marriage with Dostoevsky.

    Anna with her grandsons, Fyodor’s boys. She did not like her photographs, except this one, made in 1912, at age sixty-six. “I consider my life to have been one of exceptional happiness, and I would not wish to change anything in it.” Photos courtesy the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art .

    The Tolstoys in 1884, the year Sophia bore their twelfth child, Alexandra. Tolstoy has already made his material renunciations, leaving her responsible for the family’s well-being. Photo courtesy the L.N. Tolstoy State Museum .

    The Tolstoys in 1908, when the writer’s 80th birthday was widely celebrated. “I cannot surrender my love of your artistic work,” Sophia wrote him earlier. Photo courtesy the L.N. Tolstoy State Museum .

    Nadezhda in the 1920s, soon after meeting Mandelstam. Both were penniless and “free as birds.” Photo courtesy the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art .

    Nadezhda in the 1960s, when Mandelstam’s poetry was finally printed. “Now it is indestructible, and therefore I feel totally and absolutely free …” Photo courtesy the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art .

    The Nabokovs in 1967, in Switzerland. Véra was Nabokov’s ideal listener: “I start to talk—you answer, as if rounding off a line of verse.” Photo: Horst Tappe/Getty images .

    Elena in 1928, one year before meeting Bulgakov. Photo courtesy the Russian State Library .

    The Bulgakovs in the late 1930s, during The Master and Margarita . “To me, when he is not … writing his own work, life loses all meaning.” Photo courtesy the Russian State Library .

    The Solzhenitsyns in 2000. Solzhenitsyn, who found a devoted collaborator in Natalya, believed himself the luckiest among Russian writers. Photo Pavel Kasin/Kommersant .

Select Bibliography
    Primary Sources
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    Bugaeva, Klavdia. Vospominaniya ob Andree Belom . Ed. John Malmstad. Sankt-Peterburg: Izdatel’stvo Ivana Limbaha, 2001.
    Bulgakov, Mikhail. The Master and Margarita . Trans. Michael Glenny. New York: Harper & Row, 1967.
    ——. Sobranie sochinenij v pyati tomah . Moskva: Hudozhestvannaya literatura,1990.
    Complete Poetry of Osip Emilievich Mandelstam . Trans. Burton Raffel and Alla Burago. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1973.
    The Diaries of Sophia Tolstoy . Trans. Cathy Porter. New York: Random House, 1985.
    The Diary of Dostoevskys’ Wife . Trans. Madge Pamberton. New York: Macmillan, 1928.
    Dnevnik Eleny Bulgakovoi . Ed. V. Losev and L. Yanovskaya. Moskva: Knizhnaya palata, 1990.
    Dostoevsky, Anna. Dostoevsky: Reminiscences . Trans. Beatrice Stillman. New York: Liveright, 1975.
    Dostoevskaia, A. G. Dnevnik 1867 goda . Ed. S.V. Zhitomirskaia. Moskva: Nauka, 1993.
    Fyodor Dostoevsky: Complete Letters . Ed. and trans. David A. Lowe. Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1990.
    Dostoevsky, F. M. Sobranie sochinenij v pyatnadtsati tomah . Peterburg: Nauka, 1996.
    Dostoevsky, F. M., and A. G. Dostoevskaia. Perepiska . Leningrad: Nauka, 1976.
    Kuzminskaia, Tatyana. Tolstoy As I Knew Him: My Life At Home and At Yasnaya Polyana . Trans. Nora Sigerist. New York: Macmillan, 1948.
    Makovitsky, D. P. 4 vols. The Yasnaya Polyana Notes . Moskva: Nauka, 1979.
    Mandelstam, Nadezhda. Hope Abandoned . Trans. Max Hayward. New York: