“PEOPLE OF THE SAME KIND”: WHAT SIGRID UNDSET MEANT FOR MARINA TSVETAEVA

Abstract

Analysis of Marina Tsvetaeva’s statements in her letters, diaries, memoirs of her contemporaries as well as a biography and works of a Norwegian writer Sigrid Undset (Nobel prize, 1928) proves that both authors, despite all national, cultural differences, were people of “the same kind”, “the same breed” (Tsvetaeva), they were marked with the same seal - genius and karmic tragedy. In 1930, being in France, Tsvetaeva read (in German translation) Undset’s epic trilogy “Kristin, Lavransdaughter” (1920-1922) which became “her favourite book” for life. Tsvetaeva’s attitude towards Undset reveals her attitude to literature as an existential sphere of human experience, as a saving source of life.