Lidiya Khaindrova

Lidiya Yulianovna Serebrova ( Khaindrova; ; 14 June 1910 – 19 June 1986) was a Russian poet and author. Khaindrova's family left Russia in the years immediately preceding the Russian Revolution and she lived in China from 1916 to 1947. In China, Khaindrova was involved in literary circles and published poems in magazines, journals and her own collections. Central themes in her work are the longing for home, the revolution, peace and war. In 1947 she moved to Russia, and she later worked as a proofreader and English teacher.

Khaindrova published five collections of her poems: Steps (1939), Wings (1941), Crossroads (1943), Heart (1947) and Dates, Dates (1976). She also contributed to the anthology Convolutions (1935) alongside other Russian poets in China.

Biography

Early life Lidiya Yulianovna Khaindrova was born in Odessa on 14 June 1910. Her father was Yulian Levanovich Khaindrava, and an older sister named Sabina. which also included writers such as Valery Pereleshin, , and . Nesmelov became somewhat of a mentor to Khaindrova and she later played a significant part in preserving his work. It was not possible for Khaindrova to solely live off of her writing and she thus also worked at the Zaria and Rubezh publishing presses in Harbin. Although Churaevka had stopped meeting by that point, Khaindrova and several other members published an anthology together in 1935, titled Convolutions. Each poet received five pages in the volume. Produced in 200 copies, Convolutions was not very successful and was met with mixed reception from reviewers.

In 1937, Khaindrova moved to Dalian, where she worked as a news correspondent. Khaindrova sometimes also read her poems on the radio. Central themes present in much of her work is war, the longing for peace, the longing for home, and revolution. Unlike those of the older generation of Russian immigrants in China, Khaindrova's nostalgia for Russia was motivated not by vivid personal experiences but by vague childhood memories, patriotic education and tales from elders. Several of her poems include traditional Russian Orthodox Christian virtues such as meekness, humility and the necessity of finding consolation in religion. Khaindrova's favorite historical poets included Anna Akhmatova, Alexander Blok, Nikolay Gumilyov, Mikhail Lermontov and Boris Pasternak.

Khaindrova sometimes used the pseudonym "Eristavi" when publishing her writings. Besides her poems, Khaindrova also wrote some prose, though only one of her sketches are known to have been published. In addition to her five published poetry collections and surviving material from newspapers and journals, Khaindrova's daughter has also kept an archive of her writings.

Personal life Khaindrova married Alexei Leonidovich Serebrov in 1933. Their marriage eventually broke down. They had one daughter, Tatiana.