Ariadna Aleksandrovna Scriabina (; also Sarah Knut, née Ariadna Alexandrovna Schletzer, pseudonym Régine; 26 October 1905 – 22 July 1944) was a Russian poet and activist of the French Resistance, who co-founded the Zionist resistance group Armée Juive. She was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre and Médaille de la Résistance.
She was the eldest daughter of the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin and Tatyana Schloetzer. After the death of her father, Ariadna took his last name, and after the death of her mother she was exiled in Paris. Being part of the literary circles of the Russian Diaspora, she wrote and published poetry. She married three times, last time with poet Dovid Knut (real name Duvid Meerovich Fiksman). Together with her husband she supported the ideas of Revisionist Zionism. She was baptised in an Orthodox rite as a child, but later converted to Judaism taking the Hebrew name Sarah.
During the German occupation of France, she was the organizer and active member of the Jewish resistance in the south of the country. She was murdered in Toulouse by a Milice agent shortly before the fall of the Vichy regime.
Biography
Alexander Scriabin had seven children; four from the first marriage to Vera Ivanovna Scriabina: Rima (1898–1905), Elena (1900–1990), Maria (1901–1989) and Lev (1902–1910), and three from the relationship with Tatyana Fyodorovna Schletzer: Ariadna, Julian and Marina.Pryanishnikova, p. 179 By 1910, Scriabin lived with Schletzer; although he was formally married to Vera Scriabina, they did not meet even at the funeral of their son Lev.
Ariadna Schletzer Ariadna Schletzer, the eldest daughter of Scriabin and Schletzer, was born in the Ligurian seaside village of Bogliasco north west Italy,Kashperova, p. 399 where Scriabin worked on The Poem of Ecstasy.Khazan, p. 240
Europe It was an unstable period for Scriabin, who had been moving around Europe for several years. In July 1905, his eldest daughter Rima died in Switzerland, and the birth of Ariadna finalized his separation with a legitimate wife. In December, he broke his longstanding relations with Belyayev's publishing house, which halved their fees shortly after the death of the founder, Mitrofan Belyayev.Kashperova, p. 402 As a result, Scriabin lost his source of income for a year, until the new owners reconsidered their offer.Kashperova, p. 432
In late January 1906, Scriabin moved his new family to Geneva, and in the fall to Amsterdam. He and his wife went to a concert tour in Belgium, United States and Paris, while Ariadna was watched by Schletzer's aunts, Henriette and Alina Boti.Pryanishnikova, pp. 143, 147 In the summer of 1907, Schletzer brought Ariadna in the Swiss village of Beatenberg, where she was soon joined by Scriabin. In September, the family moved to Lausanne, where their next child Julian was born in a few months.
Russia
Scriabin had long thought of returning to Russia. However, his reputation was spoiled by his scandalous character and dubious family situation, and thus the return was delayed to February 1910.Sabaneev, pp. 16, 20
In Moscow, Ariadna was baptized in the Orthodox rite, and in November 1912 her sister Marina was born.
Scriabin's children were mostly raised by tutors, as both Scriabin and his wife were preoccupied with their public lives.Sabaneev, pp. 155–157 French was spoken within the family, which was frequently visited by poets, artists, theatre workers and philosophers.Tompakova, p. 5 Ariadna from an early age wrote poetry and studied at the Moscow Conservatory.Tompakova, p. 8 Julian showed talents as a composer, and Marina was trained as a painter. The house had a rich library, and the children received most lessons from private teachers and their mother.
With the outbreak of World War I, life become harder, and to support his family Scriabin had to spend much time playing concerts in various Russian cities. Scriabin himself welcomed the war, hoping for changes after it was over.Sabaneev, p. 273
Ariadna Scriabina
Ukraine
On 14 April 1915 Scriabin died of sepsis (blood infection), leaving the family without the source of income.Scriabin, p. 170 Thanks to the efforts of family friends, the legal wife of Scriabin, Vera, accepted the status of Ariadna, Marina and Julian as Scriabin's children. As a result, they were allowed to carry his name.Pryanishnikova, p. 246
Schletzer gradually managed to collect some money for the family and focused on raising Julian, whom she saw as the successor of Alexander Scriabin. Two revolutions in 1917 again undermined the barely established family life. In 1918, famine spread through Moscow, and Schletzer took the children to Kiev, located in a better-fed Ukraine.Khazan, p. 242
The Soviet government decided to organize Scriabin's museum in his Moscow house, and Schletzer was asked to assist in this matter. While she was away, in June 1919, Julian drowned in the Dnieper River. Since then, Ariadna developed a fear of deep water for life.Lazaris, p. 229
Julian's death shattered Schletzer. She took Marina to Moscow, while placing Ariadna in the boarding school in Novocherkassk.Tompakova, p. 9 However, the school was soon closed down, and Ariadna was sent to her sister and mother in Moscow.
Moscow
By that time, Ariadna already developed a strong and edgy personality. Although she was disliked in school due to her noble origin and temperament, she simply ignored that.Tompakova, pp. 22–24 By that time, she set herself a goal to become a distinguished poet.Khazan, p. 249
Her favourites in literature were Dostoevsky, Shakespeare and the ancient Greeks, for their well-defined style and dramatism. She also liked the poems of Alexander Blok and Konstantin Balmont. She loved to recite the line of Balmont "I want to be the first in the world, on land and on the water".Tompakova, p. 29
At 15, she was composing verses together with her sister Marina under the collective pseudonym Mirra. Those verses were often devoted to Russian names and followed the style of Marina Tsvetaeva, who was a family friend.Rybakova, pp. 10–12 When writing alone, Ariadna used the pen name Ariadna Orlitskaya – while she adored her father, she did not want to ride on his fame.Rybakova, p. 15
One year before graduation, Ariadna decided to leave school and enroll in college. She was joined by Katia Zhdanko, her friend from Novocherkassk whom she treated like a sister. They both passed the entrance exams.Tompakova, pp. 23, 26 In college, Ariadna attended only lectures that she liked: linguistics and orthoepy, the history of Western literature, poetics, and aesthetics.Tompakova, pp. 9, 30
In January 1922, her college was closed down, and in March her mother died after a long period of depression. She was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery, next to her husband.Tompakova, p. 31 The sisters had to vacate their Moscow flat which was to become the Scriabin's museum. They left Russia for Europe – Maria went to relatives in Belgium and Ariadna to her uncle, Boris de Schloezer, in Paris.Khazan, p. 245
Paris Little is known about Ariadna's first years in Europe. As most other immigrants, she needed money for living. She enrolled to the philological faculty in Sorbonne, but was not much interested in the lectures.Lazaris, p. 231 Around 1923 she entered the Russian poet club, which was also attended by her future husband, Dovid Knut.Khazan, pp. 246–247
Attempt at writing and first marriage
Next year Ariadna published her collection of poetry, entitled simply as "Poems". It was criticised by Georgy Adamovich for lack of original style, whereas Semyon Liberman describes them as smooth, competent, pleasant, middle-level verses. The key poem of the collection was dedicated to Boris de Schloezer and prefaced with lines of "Poem of Ecstasy" by her father.Khazan, pp. 247–249
In early 1924 she married the French composer Daniel Lazarus. She surprised him by her extraordinary looseness, sometimes bordering arrogance. She smoked a lot, drank vodka with no hesitation, and was always hungry – a consequence of the difficult years in Russia – although she remained skinny through her whole life, weighing about 47 kg.Lazaris, p. 237 As before, she ignored manners and bystanders – this all attracted Lazarus, who felt her dominance even though he was seven years older and was wounded in battles of World War I. He also adored Scriabin, and thus his daughter. He conquered her heart by setting to music three of her poems; however, his relatives did not approve of his choice, calling Ariadna "gypsy."Lazaris, pp. 231–232
The wedding solved financial problems of Ariadna, but brought other problems. While pregnant, she slipped while stepping off a tram and had a miscarriage; she was poorly received by her husband's family; finally, she was dissatisfied with her poetry.
Later Ariadna gave birth to two daughters, Tatiana-Miriam (3 February 1925) and Gilbert-Elizabeth (Betty; 1926).Khazan, p. 246 Soon after birth of Betty, Ariadna left Lazarus, taking both daughters with her.Lazaris, p. 233
Second marriage Pianist Vladimir Sofronitsky visited Paris in 1928 with his wife Elena, the beloved step-sister of Ariadna. After a fight with Vladimir, Elena sent him to Russia and remained in Paris, staying close with Ariadna for years.Lazaris, p. 234
During those years, Ariadna met and married French writer René Méjean. While Méjean was same type of aristocrat as Lazarus, his family was rather friendly to Ariadna and did not mind that she had two children from a broken marriage. The marriage somewhat spoiled the friendship between Ariadna and Elena, who finally returned to her husband in Russia.
Ariadna soon became disillusioned with Méjean. While being pregnant, she told him that he was not the child's father, thereby breaking his heart. She later told her son that his father was Knut, and Méjean learned that the child was his only in his old age. She also persuaded Knut to support her story.Lazaris, p. 235
Romance with Knut Paris was then the capital of Russian exile, where Russian immigrants visited Russian cafes, restaurants, shops and hairdressers, and published Russian newspapers, magazines and books. Most marriages were performed within the community, and the children attended Russian kindergartens and schools.Lazaris, pp. 241–242 However, Russian Jews separated within this community, and Ariadna associated herself with them, so as her third husband Dovid Knut.
Knut was a Bessarabian Jew, the son of a grocer born in Chișinău. After the annexation of Bessarabia to Romania he moved to Paris where he took all kind of odd jobs, eventually opening a cheap restaurant and employing his sisters and a younger brother.Lazaris, p. 240
Knut admired the poetry of Alexander Pushkin,Khazan, p. 36 and began to publish his own poems back in Chișinău, His poetry and character fit very well into the nature of Ariadna.
They started dating in late 1934,Khazan, p. 253 10 years after their first acquaintance. Although Ariadna ran away from Méjean, he remained friendly with Knut until at least late 1936. Ariadna and Méjean officially divorced only in 1937, whereas Knut parted with his first wife in 1933.Khazan, p. 255
After her disappointing poetry experience, Ariadna turned to the prose and for many years worked on a novel about a Jewish girl named Leah Livshits, which she never finished.Shapiro, p. 194 She usually worked in bed, while smoking, and disliked to be interrupted by anyone. She was a poor housewife, and was always in need for money; yet her housemaids liked her and stayed even when they received no payment.Lazaris, pp. 237–238
Zionism