Olga Ilyin, a
pen name
A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen na ...
for ''Olga Baratynskaya'' or ''Olga Alexandrovna Boratynskaya'' (8 August 1894 (
N.S.)-6 November 1991) was a Russian-born American poet and novelist. Her works were published in Russian, German and English.
Life
![Rasputin 1907](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Rasputin_1907.jpg)
Olga, called Lita by her relatives, was born at Gorky Street in
Kazan
Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering a ...
in prosperous circumstances.
At the turn of the century, this manor was one of the spiritual and cultural centers of the city. Her father was a lawyer and a member of the
City Duma. In 1906
Grigory Rasputin
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (; rus, links=no, Григорий Ефимович Распутин ; – ) was a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, thus ga ...
suddenly paid a visit to the Baratynsky family and told them he could
read people's mind.
Her father arranged a room in good hotel, but when he came back the next day, Rasputin found the doors locked. She met him again in
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
visiting her aunt Anna Dmitrievna Shipova, but escaped to her room. Her description of Rasputin and his behavior is a small but no doubt valuable contribution to history. For several years in a row Lita came to the capital in Summer and got acquainted with the intricacies of court life and court etiquette, met with
Princess Eugenia Maximilianovna of Leuchtenberg and other members of the
House of Oldenburg
The House of Oldenburg is a Germans, German dynasty with links to Denmark since the 15th century. It has branches that rule or have ruled in Denmark, Iceland, Greece, Norway, Russia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Duchy of Schleswig, Schleswig, Duchy ...
.
Around the age of 14, illness led to visits with her aunt Katya to Davos, where she was recovering. Back after more than a year, attending
Mariinsky women's gymnasium, the medical faculty of
Kazan University
Kazan (Volga region) Federal University (russian: Казанский (Приволжский) федеральный университет, tt-Cyrl, Казан (Идел буе) федераль университеты) is a public research uni ...
and ''Higher Women's Courses'' she began writing poetry. The first publications were made in the Kazan magazine "Life" (1913). She met with colonel Kirill Borisovich Ilyin, since
July 1914 a hussar of the
Pavlograd regiment. When World War I broke out, she joined the Red Cross. On 16 February 1917 they married and had a child named Boris. During the
Kazan Operation
Kazan Operation was the Red Army's offensive (5–10 September 1918) against the Czechoslovak Legion
The Czechoslovak Legion (Czech language, Czech: ''Československé legie''; Slovak language, Slovak: ''Československé légie'') were v ...
the city was attacked by the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
; a third of the population left. Olga moved out with a 9-days-old baby.
She traveled separately from her husband by train to
Kurgan
A kurgan is a type of tumulus constructed over a grave, often characterized by containing a single human body along with grave vessels, weapons and horses. Originally in use on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, kurgans spread into much of Central Asi ...
in the
Ural Mountains
The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...
and was arrested while somewhere in
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
.
In
Krasnoyarsk
Krasnoyarsk ( ; rus, Красноя́рск, a=Ru-Красноярск2.ogg, p=krəsnɐˈjarsk) (in semantic translation - Red Ravine City) is the largest city and administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is situated along the Yeni ...
, the refugees were cut off from the fighting units. She lived there for five months and in May 1920 she returned with her son to Kazan. In December 1920 her husband arrived in
Harbin
Harbin (; mnc, , v=Halbin; ) is a sub-provincial city and the provincial capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, as well as the second largest city by urban population after Shenyang and largest ...
, where thousands of Russian
Émigrés gathered. In 1922, she succeeded in reaching this fashionable and booming Chinese city. They were eventually able to emigrate to the United States early 1923. They settled in
San Rafael, California
San Rafael ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "Raphael (archangel), St. Raphael", ) is a city and the county seat of Marin County, California, Marin County, California, United States. The city is located in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), ...
, where she became a shopkeeper, and sold beads and women dresses. In SF she soon joined a literary circle. In 1925 some of her poems were published. In 1930 she a became a novelist.
Her husband became one of the painters of the new
Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco Pen ...
, which opened in 1937. They lived at the end of Clay Street near
Presidio of San Francisco
The Presidio of San Francisco (originally, El Presidio Real de San Francisco or The Royal Fortress of Saint Francis) is a park and former U.S. Army post on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, and is part o ...
.
Her first novel in English, ''Dawn of the Eighth Day'', is about Nita Ogarin, an aristocratic daughter who marries an army officer soon killed in the Bolshevik Revolution.
Her second novel, ''St. Petersburg Affair'', is set in the 1850s. Kyra Beherev, an aristocratic heiress, agrees to marry Count Anatole Melin to appease her aunt, Princess Shubalov.
The couple initially decides to remain abstinent and divorce within a year, but they consume their marriage, only to have affairs with other people later.
Her third novel, ''White Road: A Russian Odyssey'', is about an aristocratic heiress who decides to flee Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution.
In 2014 ''Visits to the Imperial Court'' she recounts her experiences as a young girl.
Visits to the Imperial Court by Olga Ilyin
/ref>
Selected works
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References
Note
External links
Works by Olga Ilyin
on the Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ilyin, Olga
White Russian emigrants to the United States
Writers from San Francisco
20th-century Russian novelists
20th-century American novelists
1894 births
1991 deaths