In the autumn of 1885, Kosta Khetagurov moved to Vladikavkaz and gradually began to settle in the city. He did not have a house of his own, and the poet wandered to different places: he lived with relatives and friends, and rented apartments, earning money by painting. Costa often visited the city Bulvar, where he saw Anna Popova for the first time
The poet fell in love at first sight. The girl’s unusual, soulful beauty and charm won his heart, and Kosta completely lost his peace. According to Anna’s own recollections, he sat for a long time on a large rock opposite the Popovy' house on the bank of the Terek River, looking at the windows.
Khetagurov long sought the opportunity to meet his beloved, and asked mutual friends to introduce them to each other. However, no one rushed to help the poet. Many considered this idea to be unpromising, due to the difference in social status between Kosta and Anna, who came from a wealthy merchant family of Russified Armenians. Only a relative of the poet’s stepmother, Vera Sukhieva-Alikova, a friend of Popova, told the girl that Kosta would like to meet her. A few months later, the meeting that Khetagurov had long-awaited finally took place.
Anna became Kosta’s real muse. He painted her portraits and dedicated poems to her. And in 1893, while serving his first exile in Gori, where Popova lived at the same time, Khetagurov wrote his beloved a long letter, containing an open marriage proposal:
‘Overcome your cowardice at last, boldy give me your hand, and, I swear to you, we will snatch our happiness from the clutches of hell itself. You know of my exile, of course, but it won’t prevent us from settling down as soon as we can. We will find it necessary and convenient. If you want, I can sell my land and buy a house in Vladikavkaz… in short, just say ‘yes’, and everything will go like clockwork… Do you want to be like the thousands of our ladies, spending her whole life vegetating on silk pillows, having no other calling other than the constant satisfaction of their miseable, and sometimes even vulgar, passions, complete with inactivity of the mind and heart…’
But despite the fact that Anna and Kosta had deep, mutual feelings for one another, they were never able to overcome public prejudices and get married.
In future, Anna Popova never got married, preferring loneliness to marriage without love. She wrote: “Yes! I believed the poet Costa and as a token of our friendship, honoring my fond memories of him, I did not give a word to anyone, I did not hitch my life to anyone else”s, and remained alone, with a sad, broken soul…”
The poet fell in love at first sight. The girl’s unusual, soulful beauty and charm won his heart, and Kosta completely lost his peace. According to Anna’s own recollections, he sat for a long time on a large rock opposite the Popovy' house on the bank of the Terek River, looking at the windows.
Khetagurov long sought the opportunity to meet his beloved, and asked mutual friends to introduce them to each other. However, no one rushed to help the poet. Many considered this idea to be unpromising, due to the difference in social status between Kosta and Anna, who came from a wealthy merchant family of Russified Armenians. Only a relative of the poet’s stepmother, Vera Sukhieva-Alikova, a friend of Popova, told the girl that Kosta would like to meet her. A few months later, the meeting that Khetagurov had long-awaited finally took place.
Anna became Kosta’s real muse. He painted her portraits and dedicated poems to her. And in 1893, while serving his first exile in Gori, where Popova lived at the same time, Khetagurov wrote his beloved a long letter, containing an open marriage proposal:
‘Overcome your cowardice at last, boldy give me your hand, and, I swear to you, we will snatch our happiness from the clutches of hell itself. You know of my exile, of course, but it won’t prevent us from settling down as soon as we can. We will find it necessary and convenient. If you want, I can sell my land and buy a house in Vladikavkaz… in short, just say ‘yes’, and everything will go like clockwork… Do you want to be like the thousands of our ladies, spending her whole life vegetating on silk pillows, having no other calling other than the constant satisfaction of their miseable, and sometimes even vulgar, passions, complete with inactivity of the mind and heart…’
But despite the fact that Anna and Kosta had deep, mutual feelings for one another, they were never able to overcome public prejudices and get married.
In future, Anna Popova never got married, preferring loneliness to marriage without love. She wrote: “Yes! I believed the poet Costa and as a token of our friendship, honoring my fond memories of him, I did not give a word to anyone, I did not hitch my life to anyone else”s, and remained alone, with a sad, broken soul…”
