Nikolai Bunin was the son of Ivan Alekseevich and his first wife Anna, daughter of Nikolai Tsakni, the publisher of the Odessa newspaper ‘Iuzhnoe Obozrenie’. The writer fell in love with the spectacular beauty at first sight in 1898, and the couple quickly got married – but very soon it turned out that their marriage was not successful.
Vera Muromtseva-Bunina, the second wife of the writer, spoke about the relationship between Ivan Alekseevich and Anna Nikolaevna: ‘I read all the letters from the Tsakni period at once. I got upset: I had imagined differently – considered Ivan Alekseevich more guilty. And, judging by the letters, not only was life not for creative work, but Anna Nikolaevna herself did not have a real feeling, and she wanted to break up… This is understandable, of course, they were people very different by nature, surrounding and soul. And how over the years Ivan Alekseevich, I will not say, forgiven, but simply forgot everything that she caused him. I don’t know a less vindictive person than he is. When a certain period of this or that attitude of a person to him passed, he forgot almost everything’.
In March 1900, Bunin and Tsakni broke up. And in August of the same year, the only son of the writer, Nikolai, was born. Bunin almost did not see him and was very upset about it. So he wrote to his brother Yuly: “I”m going to Ognevka, the mood is devilishly bad. After all, I was in Odessa again and I am terribly longing for Anna. I saw her twice on the street. And my son, I haven”t seen him of course, – I saw him only from afar while passing by, he was on the balcony of the third floor”. Already being in emigration, in the 1920s, Bunin told the writer Galina Kuznetsova that he had seen his son “five times a year”, and “at that time the everyone in the house was in their rooms and was angry with me”.
In 1905, the writer was shocked by the news of his son’s death. Vera Muromtseva recalled in her book ‘Bunin”s life’: ‘After Christmastide, he received news of the illness, and then of the death of his Kolia, who died “after scarlet fever and measles from the sick heart”. When Ivan Alekseevich died, Sofia Yulevna Pregel sent me an extract from the book “Life and Love”. Scenes by Yury Morfessi’. The book says: ‘I remember my first meeting with the newly famous poet-writer I. A. Bunin. He was sweet and graceful. I met him in the family of the publisher of “Iuzhnoe Obozrenie” - N. P. Tsakni. Bunin was married to his daughter. The son of Bunin, five years old, was a charming child, who spoke in poetry’. Ivan Alekseevich did not tell that Kolia spoke in poetry. He complained that at times the Tsaknis family prevented him from seeing his son, recalled that sometimes he found him on the seashore’.
Vera Muromtseva-Bunina, the second wife of the writer, spoke about the relationship between Ivan Alekseevich and Anna Nikolaevna: ‘I read all the letters from the Tsakni period at once. I got upset: I had imagined differently – considered Ivan Alekseevich more guilty. And, judging by the letters, not only was life not for creative work, but Anna Nikolaevna herself did not have a real feeling, and she wanted to break up… This is understandable, of course, they were people very different by nature, surrounding and soul. And how over the years Ivan Alekseevich, I will not say, forgiven, but simply forgot everything that she caused him. I don’t know a less vindictive person than he is. When a certain period of this or that attitude of a person to him passed, he forgot almost everything’.
In March 1900, Bunin and Tsakni broke up. And in August of the same year, the only son of the writer, Nikolai, was born. Bunin almost did not see him and was very upset about it. So he wrote to his brother Yuly: “I”m going to Ognevka, the mood is devilishly bad. After all, I was in Odessa again and I am terribly longing for Anna. I saw her twice on the street. And my son, I haven”t seen him of course, – I saw him only from afar while passing by, he was on the balcony of the third floor”. Already being in emigration, in the 1920s, Bunin told the writer Galina Kuznetsova that he had seen his son “five times a year”, and “at that time the everyone in the house was in their rooms and was angry with me”.
In 1905, the writer was shocked by the news of his son’s death. Vera Muromtseva recalled in her book ‘Bunin”s life’: ‘After Christmastide, he received news of the illness, and then of the death of his Kolia, who died “after scarlet fever and measles from the sick heart”. When Ivan Alekseevich died, Sofia Yulevna Pregel sent me an extract from the book “Life and Love”. Scenes by Yury Morfessi’. The book says: ‘I remember my first meeting with the newly famous poet-writer I. A. Bunin. He was sweet and graceful. I met him in the family of the publisher of “Iuzhnoe Obozrenie” - N. P. Tsakni. Bunin was married to his daughter. The son of Bunin, five years old, was a charming child, who spoke in poetry’. Ivan Alekseevich did not tell that Kolia spoke in poetry. He complained that at times the Tsaknis family prevented him from seeing his son, recalled that sometimes he found him on the seashore’.
