Russian Femme Fatales
I’d like to tell you about Russian women who determined the course of development of art and even world history.
Elena Dyakonova
Elena Dyakonova, who became known as Gala was born on August 26, 1894 in Kazan into a poor family. Her father died early.
She was Dali and Eluard’s muse.
When the girl was 17 years old, she and her mother moved to Moscow, where they lived with her stepfather. In Moscow, Elena studied together with Tsvetaeva sisters at a grammar school. During that time she became ill with tuberculosis and was sent to Switzerland to get medical treatment. In Davos Elena became Gala. She was called so by young Frenchman Eugene Grindel, who later took the pseudonym Paul Eluard (his uncle’s name and grandmother’s surname). In 1917 they got married, but their family life was neither careless nor routine.
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