Russian Folk Figure. She became famous for her tragic love and obsession with Russian poet Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin. She wrote him several letters and he did answer some of them but did not return the same affection for her; this was a one-sided relationship. By the age of thirty, he had been married four times, had several mistresses and fathered four children. An alcoholic, he had just escaped from a mental clinic after being diagnosed with depression when he apparently hung himself in his hotel room. Three weeks before the first anniversary of his death, she, as a devoted fan, was overcome with grief and hung herself on a tree near his grave. After this tragic incident, all the trees surrounding the poet's grave had to be removed to prevent other fans from copying Benislavskaya's act.
Russian Folk Figure. She became famous for her tragic love and obsession with Russian poet Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin. She wrote him several letters and he did answer some of them but did not return the same affection for her; this was a one-sided relationship. By the age of thirty, he had been married four times, had several mistresses and fathered four children. An alcoholic, he had just escaped from a mental clinic after being diagnosed with depression when he apparently hung himself in his hotel room. Three weeks before the first anniversary of his death, she, as a devoted fan, was overcome with grief and hung herself on a tree near his grave. After this tragic incident, all the trees surrounding the poet's grave had to be removed to prevent other fans from copying Benislavskaya's act.
Bio by: Linda Davis
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