F.I. Chaliapin and K.P. Pyatnitsky: The History of Their Friendship

While A.M. Gorky’s friendship with F.I. Chaliapin is quite well known, we seem to know next to nothing about Chaliapin’s friendship with one of the founders of the book-publishing partnership “Znanie” K.P. Pyatnitsky. The paper deals with the documents that could help to trace the story of their acquaintance and friendship, which are currently stored in the A.M. Gorky Archive and introduced into academic circulation for the first time. Pyatnitsky’s letters and his contemporaries’ recollections state that his first meeting with Chaliapin took place in Podolsk on November 8, 1901. Later on, Pyatnitsky’s correspondence with Gorky and his diaries allow us to trace some of his meetings with Chaliapin between late 1902 and 1904. Gradually, their friendship grew stronger and became more trusting. However, Pyatnitsky’s activity in the publishing house and Chaliapin’s concert performances did not allow them to see each other often. The history of these meetings can be traced only through some references in Pyatnitsky’s correspondence with Gorky and Е.P. Peshkova, as well as through Pyatnitsky’s diaries. In 1908 hard times hit Pyatnitsky, when his relationship with Gorky began to deteriorate due to their disputes about the work of the “Znanie” publishing house. An indication of this fact can be found in Pyatnitsky’s diary entries from 1911 to 1914 and in his letters to friends and acquaintances of those years. Chaliapin tried his best to reconcile his former friends and to support Pyatnitsky. This is evidenced by his letter to V.A. Maklakov of April 28, 1914. The last documentary evidence of Chaliapin’s friendship with Pyatnitsky is an official invitation from Chaliapin to visit the consecration of an infirmary he arranged for wounded soldiers on October 14, 1914.