"When a wife is a reliable support": the love story of poet Alexander Tvardovsky

Poet Alexander Tvardovsky lived 40 happy years with his wife Maria Gorelova. Guests at the National Centre RUSSIA learnt about this at a meeting of the Literary Club "What to Read?!", where they discussed not only his creative work but also his personal life.

The couple got married without a lavish ceremony, but with confidence in their choice. From then on, Maria became not only a spouse to the poet but also his closest person, combining the duties of assistant, editor, secretary, whilst being his reliable support.

Soviet poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko said about Tvardovsky that he was "the strangest poet who never wrote a word about love." And it was so, he did not write about love, he had it in his life. He also did not create poems dedicated to his wife, but expressed his feelings in letters: "Everything is so serious in the world, my dear, that I think those people who preserve their tenderness and attachment to each other now will be inseparable forever." His lines addressed to his spouse during the Great Patriotic War: "And I don't know how hard it would be for me, a hundred times harder than it sometimes is, if I didn't have you and the children".

Every year on Tvardovsky's birthday, he gave his wife a bouquet of white lilac despite the fact that it was January outside.

"It is difficult to determine how characteristic love lyrics were of Alexander Tvardovsky. His feelings were probably too emotionally subtle for him to express them. Maria Illarionovna preserved Tvardovsky's archive, thanks to which it was fully published. As a result, there is work for society, and there is a wife who is his support, his rear", noted Yevgenia Kravchenkova, associate professor of the Department of World Literature at the Pushkin State Russian Language Institute.

When Tvardovsky was diagnosed with cancer, Maria was by his side until the end, and did her best to ease his pain. After her husband's death, she published his letters and released a book of memoirs.

The II All-Russian Wedding Festival "Russia. Uniting Hearts" will take place at the National Centre RUSSIA and will run from July 8 to 10. Life stories like those of Tvardovsky and his spouse remind us that true love is not just loud words, but daily loyalty and devotion.

The festival programme includes official wedding ceremonies for more than 200 couples, as well as numerous special events: concert programmes featuring popular performers, creative workshops by wedding industry specialists, fashion shows, and much more.