A small metal seal with a flower from the museum’s collection is a printing character that was used in the typesetting of the first book of stories, poems and plays “The Hurdy-Gurdy” by Elena Henrikhovna Guro. This edition was published in 1909. The image of this flower can be found on several pages of the book, illustrated by Guro herself.

The only review of “The Hurdy-Gurdy” was written by Varvara Grigoriyevna Malakhieva-Mirovich in the “Russkaya mysl” (Russian Mind) magazine right after the book was published. According to Mikhail Matyushin, she and the poetess got acquainted that same year.

Elena Guro and Varvara Malakhieva-Mirovich had a strong connection that did not fade away until Guro died. The poetess was nicknamed “Li” by her friend and “Kihada” (Don Quixote) by her husband Mikhail Matyushin.

Guro and Malakhieva-Mirovich wrote letters to each other. In one of her letters, Elena Guro appealed anxiously to her friend,

Elena Guro broke from the traditional canons and created a peculiar genre consisting of various parts. In her poetry, she managed to erase the boundaries between verse and prose, and while working with prose, she introduced elements of verse — rhythm, emotional syntax, and verse-based imagery. In her diary, Guro formulated this shift in genre principles,