The town of Spas-Klepiki is 80 kilometers distant from Ryazan. In the early ХХth century it was a large trading village. An education institution that trained teachers for grammar schools was opened there in 1896. Sergei Esenin attended this school from 1909 till 1912.
His sister Ekaterina recalled: ‘Father Ivan and Aunt Kapa were invited over. At the table they discussed the future of Sergei. Father Ivan and Aunt Kapa recommended to send him for further schooling and told where to study. Our father spent three days with us and again went away. After the father’s departure our mother often went to Popov’s, made up something, brought a small chest and put Sergei’s belongings into it. Then a horse drove over to our cottage, a stranger entered, everybody prayed to God, and the mother and Sergei drove away, leaving me with the neighbour. Sergei went to study in the Spas-Klepiki Two-year Teacher’s School’.
The teachers noted that ‘at first Esenin did not stand out from his mates there’. However, as time went on, his particular qualities began to become obvious. As Yevgeny Khitrov his literature teacher, recollected: ‘Esenin began to write verses during his first year in the school. His classmates were talking about this fact. But he began to bring the poems to me only during his second year in the school. I stimulated Esenin a little, but treated his verses with restraint. His poems were short and at the beginning they all were on the theme of love. I did not like it very much. The poems on other theme seemed to me rather meaningless. Moreover, I included my main lessons in literature and stylistics in the third year programme. At that point Esenin moved forward among other school verse makers. He drowned himself in the study of literature. His studies were wider the authorized programme. His reading was vast. He particularly liked to listen to my reciting in the classroom’. Upon graduation from the school Esenin became the grammar school teacher.
In 1985 the school building became the branch of the S.A. Esenin State Memorial Museum Preserve. In 2005 a new exposition going into detail not only on Esenin’s studies, but also on the way of life of the Klepiki students of late XIXth – early XXth centuries was opened to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the birth of the poet. The kitchen and apartments of the teachers, including that of Evgeny Khitrov, who helped Esenin find himself as a poet, were reconstructed on the ground floor. The classrooms and boys’ dormitory were arranged on the first floor.
His sister Ekaterina recalled: ‘Father Ivan and Aunt Kapa were invited over. At the table they discussed the future of Sergei. Father Ivan and Aunt Kapa recommended to send him for further schooling and told where to study. Our father spent three days with us and again went away. After the father’s departure our mother often went to Popov’s, made up something, brought a small chest and put Sergei’s belongings into it. Then a horse drove over to our cottage, a stranger entered, everybody prayed to God, and the mother and Sergei drove away, leaving me with the neighbour. Sergei went to study in the Spas-Klepiki Two-year Teacher’s School’.
The teachers noted that ‘at first Esenin did not stand out from his mates there’. However, as time went on, his particular qualities began to become obvious. As Yevgeny Khitrov his literature teacher, recollected: ‘Esenin began to write verses during his first year in the school. His classmates were talking about this fact. But he began to bring the poems to me only during his second year in the school. I stimulated Esenin a little, but treated his verses with restraint. His poems were short and at the beginning they all were on the theme of love. I did not like it very much. The poems on other theme seemed to me rather meaningless. Moreover, I included my main lessons in literature and stylistics in the third year programme. At that point Esenin moved forward among other school verse makers. He drowned himself in the study of literature. His studies were wider the authorized programme. His reading was vast. He particularly liked to listen to my reciting in the classroom’. Upon graduation from the school Esenin became the grammar school teacher.
In 1985 the school building became the branch of the S.A. Esenin State Memorial Museum Preserve. In 2005 a new exposition going into detail not only on Esenin’s studies, but also on the way of life of the Klepiki students of late XIXth – early XXth centuries was opened to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the birth of the poet. The kitchen and apartments of the teachers, including that of Evgeny Khitrov, who helped Esenin find himself as a poet, were reconstructed on the ground floor. The classrooms and boys’ dormitory were arranged on the first floor.
