Fyodor Chaliapin: little-known facts and milestones of creativity. The great Russian singer Fedor Ivanovich Chaliapin Chaliapin Fedor Ivanovich biography interesting

After artists or architects, something material remains. And what remains after the great singers? In many ways, technically imperfect recordings. And it’s even a shame that this is so. That's why it's better to listen to such masters live. Especially when there is such an opportunity. And if not, well, all that remains is to trust the films and memoirists.

Biography of Fyodor Chaliapin

He was born into a poor peasant family on February 1 (13), 1873. The father dreamed of seeing his son as a man of a practical profession. Of course, music was not a business in his eyes. He raised his son in strictness. It happened that he was severely flogged in the stables. In 1883, Chaliapin appeared in the theater for the first time. Everything he saw there magically amazed him for the rest of his life. Later, Chaliapin traveled a lot with various acting troupes. And due to lack of money, he had to work on the pier - either as a loader or as a hookman.

Fate brings him to Tiflis. Here Usatov, a famous singing teacher at that time, saw him and became interested. In the past, he himself was a famous opera singer. He undertook to teach the young Chaliapin vocals completely free of charge, sensing his remarkable talent. The student quickly made progress, and already in 1893 Fedor entered the professional stage. The choice was huge. In just one season, Chaliapin had to master as many as 12 opera roles. He quickly became a crowd favorite. She received him warmly and enthusiastically.

Chaliapin shone in the role of the Miller from “The Mermaid”. A year later, the novice bass went to conquer the capital. There he was also noticed and appreciated. The management of the Mariinsky Theater concludes a contract with Chaliapin for three years. The pinnacle of recognition is the imperial stage. Then he was invited to perform in a private troupe by the famous philanthropist Savva Mamontov. They immediately liked each other. However, Chaliapin does not accept Mamontov’s tempting offer. He returns to the everyday life of the imperial theater. Then, succumbing to the persuasion of his beloved woman, the Greek woman Iola Tarnaki, he moves to Moscow.

Now Chaliapin enthusiastically works at the Mamontov Theater. Here he can allow himself the most daring artistic experiments. Ivan the Terrible, Boris Godunov - a whole gallery of bright and expressive images. The then-beginning composer and conductor Sergei Rachmaninov helped Chaliapin prepare a number of parts. Their friendship continued until the end of their lives. For his part, Rachmaninov even dedicated several of his romances to Chaliapin.

There were legends about Chaliapin's cool temperament. He lost his temper over every little thing. I especially couldn’t stand falsehood and hackwork on stage. I spent as much as possible. Loved money. He said: “Only birds poop for free.” Thanks to his unique vocal range, Chaliapin was both a bass and a tenor. Chaliapin also had a chance to sing in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

The Bolsheviks' coming to power initially changed little. Chaliapin is still invited to perform at official concerts, he is in demand. He is awarded honorary titles. But immediately official voices are heard demanding to socialize creativity and put talent at the service of the people. In 1922, Chaliapin and his family left Russia forever. Officially - on tour, in fact - in exile. In 1927, in his homeland he was deprived of the title of People's Artist. He was known all over the world, but he chose France.

Numerous tours, fame, purchase of a luxurious mansion. Chaliapin tours America with enormous success. At the end of his life he will write memoirs entitled “The Mask and the Soul.” Chaliapin died of leukemia in 1938. Until his last years, he dreamed of returning to his homeland.

Few people know that Chaliapin owed the development of his voice to Savva Mamontov. He sang superbly, although he did not make a career in this field.

“The great Chaliapin was a reflection of the divided Russian reality: a tramp and an aristocrat, a family man and a “runner”, a wanderer, a regular at restaurants...” - this is what his teacher said about the world-famous artist Dmitry Usatov. Despite all life circumstances, Fyodor Chaliapin forever entered the world opera history.

Vasily Shkafer as Mozart and Fyodor Chaliapin as Salieri in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Mozart and Salieri. 1898 Photo: RIA Novosti

Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin was born on February 13 (old style - February 1), 1873 in Kazan into a peasant family from the Vyatka province. They lived poorly, their father served as a scribe in the zemstvo council, often drank, raised his hand against his wife and children, and over the years his addiction worsened.

Fedor studied at Vedernikova’s private school, but he was expelled for kissing a classmate. Then there were parochial and vocational schools; he left the latter due to his mother’s serious illness. This was the end of Chaliapin's government education. Even before college, Fyodor was assigned to his godfather to learn shoemaking. “But fate did not destined me to be a shoemaker,” the singer recalled.

One day Fyodor heard choral singing in a church, and it captivated him. He asked to join the choir, and the regent Shcherbinin accepted it. 9-year-old Chaliapin had an ear and a beautiful voice - treble, and the regent taught him how to read music and paid him a salary.

At the age of 12, Chaliapin first went to the theater - to the “Russian Wedding”. From that moment on, the theater “drove Chaliapin crazy” and became his passion for the rest of his life. Already in Parisian emigration in 1932, he wrote: “Everything that I will remember and tell will be ... connected with my theatrical life. About people and phenomena... I’m going to judge... as an actor, from an actor’s point of view...”

Actors of the opera performance “The Barber of Seville”: V. Lossky, Karakash, Fyodor Chaliapin, A. Nezhdanova and Andrei Labinsky. 1913 Photo: RIA Novosti / Mikhail Ozersky

When the opera came to Kazan, Fyodor admitted that it amazed him. Chaliapin really wanted to look behind the scenes, and he made his way behind the stage. He was hired as an extra “for a nickel.” The career of a great opera singer was still far away. Ahead were the breaking of his voice, moving to Astrakhan, a hungry life and a return to Kazan.

Chaliapin's first solo performance - the role of Zaretsky in the opera "Eugene Onegin" - took place at the end of March 1890. In September, he moved to Ufa as a choir member, where he became a soloist, replacing a sick artist. The debut of the 17-year-old Chaliapin in the opera Pebble was appreciated and occasionally he was assigned small roles. But the theater season ended, and Chaliapin again found himself without work and without money. He played passing roles, wandered, and in despair even thought about suicide.

Russian singer Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin in the role of Tsar Ivan the Terrible on the poster of the Paris Chatelet Theater. 1909 Photo: RIA Novosti / Sverdlov

Friends helped and advised me to take lessons from Dmitry Usatov- former artist of the imperial theaters. Usatov not only learned famous operas with him, but also taught him the basics of etiquette. He introduced the newcomer to the musical circle, and soon to the Lyubimov Opera, already under contract. Having successfully performed over 60 performances, Chaliapin went to Moscow and then to St. Petersburg. After the successful role of Mephistopheles in Faust, Chaliapin was invited to audition for the Mariinsky Theater and was enrolled in the troupe for three years. Chaliapin gets the role of Ruslan in the opera Glinka“Ruslan and Lyudmila,” but critics wrote that Chaliapin sang “badly” and he remained without roles for a long time.

But Chaliapin meets a famous philanthropist Savva Mamontov, who offers him a place as a soloist at the Russian Private Opera. In 1896, the artist moved to Moscow and successfully performed for four seasons, improving his repertoire and skills.

Since 1899, Chaliapin has been in the troupe of the Imperial Russian Opera in Moscow and enjoys success with the public. He is received with delight at the La Scala theater in Milan, where Chaliapin performed in the guise of Mephistopheles. The success was amazing, offers began pouring in from all over the world. Chaliapin conquers Paris and London with Diaghilev, Germany, America, South America, and becomes a world famous artist.

In 1918, Chaliapin became the artistic director of the Mariinsky Theater (having refused the position of artistic director at the Bolshoi Theater) and received the first title of “People's Artist of the Republic” in Russia.

Despite the fact that Chaliapin sympathized with the revolution from a young age, he and his family did not escape emigration. The new government confiscated the artist’s house, car, and bank savings. He tried to protect his family and theater from attacks, and repeatedly met with the country's leaders, including Lenin And Stalin, but this only helped temporarily.

In 1922, Chaliapin and his family left Russia and toured Europe and America. In 1927, the Council of People's Commissars deprived him of the title of People's Artist and the right to return to his homeland. According to one version, Chaliapin donated the proceeds from the concert to the children of emigrants, and in the USSR this gesture was regarded as support for the White Guards.

The Chaliapin family settles in Paris, and it is there that the opera singer will find his final refuge. After touring in China, Japan, and America, Chaliapin returned to Paris in May 1937, already ill. Doctors make a diagnosis of leukemia.

“I’m lying... in bed... reading... and remembering the past: theaters, cities, hardships and successes... How many roles I played! And it seems not bad. Here’s a little Vyatka peasant for you...”, wrote Chaliapin in December 1937 to his daughter Irina.

Ilya Repin paints a portrait of Fyodor Chaliapin. 1914 Photo: RIA Novosti

The great artist passed away on April 12, 1938. Chaliapin was buried in Paris, and only in 1984 his son Fyodor achieved the reburial of his father’s ashes in Moscow, at the Novodevichy cemetery. In 1991, 53 years after his death, Fyodor Chaliapin was returned to the title of People's Artist.

Fyodor Chaliapin made an invaluable contribution to the development of opera. His repertoire includes over 50 roles played in classical operas, over 400 songs, romances and Russian folk songs. In Russia, Chaliapin became famous for his bass roles of Borisov Godunov, Ivan the Terrible, and Mephistopheles. It was not only his magnificent voice that delighted the audience. Chaliapin paid great attention to the stage image of his heroes: he transformed into them on stage.

Personal life

Fyodor Chaliapin was married twice, and from both marriages he had 9 children. With his first wife - an Italian ballerina Ioloi Tornaghi- the singer meets at the Mamontov Theater. In 1898 they got married, and in this marriage Chaliapin had six children, one of whom died at an early age. After the revolution, Iola Tornaghi lived in Russia for a long time, and only in the late 50s she moved to Rome at the invitation of her son.

Fyodor Chaliapin at work on his sculptural self-portrait. 1912 Photo: RIA Novosti

While married, in 1910 Fyodor Chaliapin became close to Maria Petzold, who raised two children from her first marriage. The first marriage had not yet been dissolved, but in fact the singer had a second family in Petrograd. In this marriage, Chaliapin had three daughters, but the couple was able to formalize their relationship already in Paris in 1927. Fyodor Chaliapin spent the last years of his life with Maria.

Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his achievements and contributions to music.

Chaliapin was a wonderful draftsman and tried his hand at painting. Many of his works have survived, including “Self-Portrait”. He also tried himself in sculpture. Performing in Ufa at the age of 17 as Stolnik in the opera Moniuszko“Pebble” Chaliapin fell on stage and sat down past the chair. All his life from that moment on, he kept a vigilant eye on the seats on the stage. Leo Tolstoy after listening to the folk song “Nochenka” performed by Chaliapin, he expressed his impressions: “He sings too loudly...”. A Semyon Budyonny after meeting Chaliapin in the carriage and drinking a bottle of champagne with him, he recalled: “His powerful bass seemed to shake the entire carriage.”

Writer Alexei Maksimovich Gorky and singer Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin. 1903 Photo: RIA Novosti

Chaliapin collected weapons. Old pistols, shotguns, spears, mostly donated A.M. Gorky, hung on his walls. The house committee either took away his collection, then, at the direction of the deputy chairman of the Cheka, returned it.

“The great Chaliapin was a reflection of the divided Russian reality: a tramp and an aristocrat, a family man and a runner, a wanderer, a regular at restaurants...” - this is what his teacher said about the world-famous artist Dmitry Usatov. Despite all life circumstances, Fyodor Chaliapin forever entered the world opera history.

Vasily Shkafer as Mozart and Fyodor Chaliapin as Salieri in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Mozart and Salieri. 1898 Photo: RIA Novosti

At the age of 12, Chaliapin first went to the theater - to the Russian Wedding. From that moment on, the theater “drove Chaliapin crazy” and became his passion for the rest of his life. Already in Parisian emigration in 1932, he wrote: “Everything that I will remember and tell will be ... connected with my theatrical life. I’m going to judge people and phenomena... as an actor, from an actor’s point of view...”

Actors of the opera performance “The Barber of Seville”: V. Lossky, Karakash, Fyodor Chaliapin, A. Nezhdanova and Andrei Labinsky. 1913 Photo: RIA Novosti / Mikhail Ozersky

Chaliapin's first solo performance - the role of Zaretsky in the opera Eugene Onegin - took place at the end of March 1890. In September, he moved to Ufa as a choir member, where he became a soloist, replacing a sick artist. The debut of the 17-year-old Chaliapin in the opera Pebble was appreciated and occasionally he was assigned small roles. But the theater season ended, and Chaliapin again found himself without work and without money. He played passing roles, wandered, and in despair even thought about suicide.

Russian singer Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin in the role of Tsar Ivan the Terrible on the poster of the Paris Chatelet Theater. 1909 Photo: RIA Novosti / Sverdlov

In 1918, Chaliapin became the artistic director of the Mariinsky Theater (having refused the position of artistic director at the Bolshoi Theater) and received Russia's first title of "People's Artist of the Republic."

“I’m lying... in bed... reading... and remembering the past: theaters, cities, hardships and successes... How many roles I played! And it seems not bad. Here’s the Vyatka peasant...,” wrote Chaliapin in December 1937 to his daughter Irina.

Ilya Repin paints a portrait of Fyodor Chaliapin. 1914 Photo: RIA Novosti

Personal life

Fyodor Chaliapin was married twice, and from both marriages he had 9 children. With his first wife, an Italian ballerina Ioloi Tornaghi— the singer meets at the Mamontov Theater. In 1898 they got married, and in this marriage Chaliapin had six children, one of whom died at an early age. After the revolution, Iola Tornaghi lived in Russia for a long time, and only in the late 50s she moved to Rome at the invitation of her son.

Fyodor Chaliapin at work on his sculptural self-portrait. 1912 Photo: RIA Novosti

Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his achievements and contributions to music.

Chaliapin was a wonderful draftsman and tried his hand at painting. Many of his works have survived, including “Self-Portrait”. He also tried himself in sculpture. Performing in Ufa at the age of 17 as Stolnik in the opera Moniuszko“Pebble” Chaliapin fell on stage and sat down past his chair. All his life from that moment on, he kept a vigilant eye on the seats on the stage. Leo Tolstoy after listening to the folk song “Nochenka” performed by Chaliapin, he expressed his impressions: “He sings too loudly...”. A Semyon Budyonny after meeting Chaliapin in the carriage and drinking a bottle of champagne with him, he recalled: “His powerful bass seemed to shake the entire carriage.”

Writer Alexei Maksimovich Gorky and singer Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin. 1903 Photo:

Perhaps the most famous Soviet singer, Fyodor Chaliapin became the idol of millions, and for countless thousands of followers his voice became a real standard. Nowadays, many old audio recordings of his performances are digitized and cleared of extraneous noise so that his contemporaries can enjoy his inimitable singing. During his life, Chaliapin achieved great recognition not only in Russia, but also in a number of other countries, and he is revered as one of the best singers throughout the progressive world.

Facts from the biography of Chaliapin

As a child, Fyodor Chaliapin did not even think that he would someday become a great singer. His father convinced his son that the best way to earn his living was not to sing songs, but to get a job, for example, as a janitor. Fortunately, young Fyodor did not listen to his father.
Chaliapin’s ancestors had the surname “Shelepins,” but over time it transformed and changed.
In his youth, Fyodor Chaliapin studied at a private school, from which he was expelled some time later. The reason for this incident was that the teacher caught him kissing a classmate.
Chaliapin's first wife was the Italian ballerina Iola Tornaghi. He courted her for a very long time before she gave him consent to marriage.
The parents of the great singer were ordinary peasants.
Even before he became interested in singing, Chaliapin mastered the profession of a shoemaker, intending to earn his living from it.
At the age of nine, young Chaliapin joined the church choir - he was so fascinated by choral singing.
At the age of 12, Chaliapin first went to the theater - to the play “Russian Wedding”. From that moment on, the theater drove him crazy and became his passion for life.
The house in Moscow, which Chaliapin acquired in 1910, at one time survived the Patriotic War of 1812 and the fire started by the retreating troops of Kutuzov and devastated the city ().
During his first appearance on the theater stage, Chaliapin, who played a wordless role, was so worried that he got tangled in his robe and fell. He was unable to get up, and crawled across the entire stage. The enraged director, according to Chaliapin’s own recollections, kicked him away.
Fyodor Chaliapin collected weapons. Old pistols, rifles, spears and other examples hung all over his walls.
Fedor's parents baptized him the very next day after he was born. The child was so frail that his mother and father feared his imminent death.
One day Fyodor Ivanovich hired a cab driver in Moscow. During the conversation, the man asked what Chaliapin was doing. - Yes, I’m singing. “And I sing when I’m bored.” What is your job?
Once, in his youth, Fyodor Chaliapin auditioned for the choir together with Maxim Gorky, who was also not yet a writer. Surprisingly, preference was given to Gorky, but Chaliapin was rejected ().
In 1905, in St. Petersburg, Chaliapin started a new family, starting to live with the widow Maria Petzold and her two children. For another four years he lived in two houses, and the children from his first marriage, of whom there were five, did not suspect anything.

Chaliapin's first marriage was not officially dissolved, so his second chosen one could not bear his last name.
It was largely thanks to Chaliapin that caviar became popular in Europe. He loved to drink a shot of vodka and eat it with a sandwich with caviar. Many admirers of Chaliapin's talent began to do the same.
Once, during an American tour, Chaliapin had to pay meticulous reporters $10,000 so that they would not publicize the fact that he was living in a civil marriage with Maria Petzold, without divorcing his first wife.
The famous Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was not a fan of Chaliapin’s work - after hearing his performance, he said that he sang too loudly.
After the revolution, the Bolsheviks confiscated Chaliapin's house, car and most of his savings.
During the tour, Chaliapin visited many countries in Asia and Europe, as well as the USA ().
The Soviet authorities punished the singer for charity. He donated the profits from one of the concerts to the children of the White Guards who emigrated after the revolution, for which he was banned from ever returning to the USSR and was deprived of all his merits.
Officially, Fyodor Chaliapin was rehabilitated only after the collapse of the Union, in 1991.
One night a criminal entered Chaliapin's dacha in Sochi. The artist pulled out a revolver and killed him with a shot in the heart. The attacker turned out to be a local beggar. There was a stick in his hands, but Chaliapin assured that in the dark he mistook it for a gun.
During his tour of the United States, Chaliapin underwent inspection at customs in New York. One of the fans standing in line shouted loudly: “This is Chaliapin! He has a golden throat! The customs officers interpreted this compliment in their own way and forced the singer to take an X-ray of his throat.
Chaliapin was not only a great singer, but also a talented painter and sculptor. Many of his paintings and several sculptures have survived.
The singer died in Paris, and only 46 years later, through the efforts of his son, the ashes of Fyodor Chaliapin were returned to the USSR and reburied.

Publications in the Music section

10 facts about Fyodor Chaliapin

Fyodor Chaliapin was an artist whom the whole world knew: he performed on the most famous stages in different countries. We have collected 10 interesting facts about the singer's life. Read how Chaliapin failed his theatrical debut, signed a contract with La Scala without knowing the Italian language, and violated court etiquette in the royal box of the London theater.

Baby Fyodor Shlyapkin

Fyodor Chaliapin had his last name changed in infancy. The singer was born in a windy and frosty February, frail and sickly, nothing foreshadowed that this baby would later grow into a hero. My parents were worried that I might leave this world unbaptized. It was very cool in the Epiphany Cathedral in Kazan; the priest who baptized the baby decided to conduct the ceremony in a shortened form, so as not to completely catch a cold or freeze the child. The church scribe was also in a hurry, who made a mistake in his haste, writing “baby Fyodor Shlyapkin” in the church book, distorting Chaliapin’s surname. In this form, several years ago, researchers of the singer’s work found it in the archive.

Ilya Repin. Portrait of Fyodor Chaliapin. 1882

Valentin Serov. Portrait of the artist F.I. Shalyapin. 1905. Tretyakov Gallery

Leonid Pasternak. Portrait of Fyodor Chaliapin. 1913

First teacher - regent

Chaliapin could not be called a very religious person, but his interest in singing came to him after he once accidentally walked into an evening church service and heard the church choir. Most of all, he was amazed by the boys - his peers - who sang according to the notes. By chance, a church choir director lived in the same house as the Chaliapin family, who checked young Fyodor’s hearing, made sure that everything was fine with it and his voice, and gave him a couple of lessons in musical literacy. After them, the future great bass learned to read music and soon joined the church choir. His first vocal performance took place here.

Two days without food or water

Fyodor Chaliapin made his stage debut in the dramatic play “Tramps”, he was entrusted with the role of the gendarme Roger. More precisely, this debut did not take place. When Chaliapin entered the stage of the Panayevsky Garden in Kazan, he fell into a stupor. They told him from behind the scenes, then they shouted - in vain. The curtain was lowered, the director tore off the loser actor’s costume. Chaliapin climbed over the fence and ran wherever he could. For two days without food or water, I holed up in some barn, afraid to leave. It seemed to him that the whole city knew about his shame. By the way, excitement and shyness, despite his world fame, remained in his character.

“I love Tornagi madly!”

Chaliapin was quite an amorous person and experienced several affairs before his first marriage. But the Italian ballerina Iola Tornaghi, with whom he found himself in the same troupe, seriously turned his head. Fyodor Ivanovich came up with a very witty way of declaring his love to her. He redid the lines in Gremin’s aria in “Eugene Onegin” and instead of the required “Onegin, I won’t hide it, I love Tatyana madly” sang “Onegin, I swear on my sword, I love Tornagi madly”. It is incomprehensible how Iola, who did not know the Russian language at that time, was able to understand this, but consent to the marriage was obtained.

Fyodor Chaliapin. Photo: rufact.org

Fyodor Chaliapin. Photo: chtoby-pomnili.com

Fyodor Chaliapin and Iola Tornagi. 1890-1900. Photo: aif.ru

The first damn thing is lumpy

Chaliapin's first big role on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater was Ruslan; the singer had only two weeks to prepare for the performance, which turned out to be insufficient. It was, if not a deafening failure, then a clear failure, after which they gave up on Chaliapin for some time and began to entrust him with only small parties. Chaliapin, although he was only 21 years old, reacted to the situation wisely and later often said that this situation “knocked self-confidence out of him forever.”

Fabulous fee

When Fyodor Chaliapin received a telegram from La Scala with an offer to perform the role of Mephistopheles in the opera Boito on this stage, the singer initially decided that it was a joke. He even sent a counter telegram to the theater with a request to duplicate the first one. And when he realized that everything was serious, that he was not being played, he was terribly scared. In order for the theater to withdraw its invitation, Chaliapin appointed a fabulous fee by the standards of those years, in the hope that the contract would not be signed. But the theater accepted the conditions of the Russian bass. Who, however, did not yet sing in Italian.

Fyodor Chaliapin in the title role in the production of Modest Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov. Photo: chtoby-pomnili.com

Fyodor Chaliapin as Ivan the Terrible in a production of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “The Woman of Pskov.” 1898 Photo: chrono.ru

Fyodor Chaliapin as Prince Galitsky in the production of Alexander Borodin's opera "Prince Igor". Photo: chrono.ru

King and Tsar

On tour in London with Sergei Diaghilev's troupe, Chaliapin performed the role of Boris Godunov in the opera of the same name. The King of England was present at one of the performances in the hall. He was amazed by the Russian bass and extended an invitation to the singer to come to the royal box. It was possible to get into the king's box only through the hall, which Chaliapin did right in the makeup and costume of Tsar Boris who had just gone crazy. There was a pause in the royal box, the king was silent for some reason, then Chaliapin, who decided that the monarch was timid before the greatness of Russian music, spoke to him first. What a violation of etiquette. But the king was so moved that the singer got away with it.

Expensive watch from the emperor

Chaliapin was not at all timid before the powers that be. Once Emperor Nicholas II sent him a gold watch as a gift. It seemed to Chaliapin that they were not expensive enough; the ones he had on his hand cost a lot more. And he sent this gift to the director of the Imperial Theaters, Telyakovsky, along with a letter in which he explained why he was doing this. Telyakovsky somehow managed to settle the incident, and Chaliapin received a new watch case from the emperor. This time the watch was very expensive. Konstantin Korovin. Portrait of the artist F.I. Shalyapin. 1911. Timing

Konstantin Korovin. Portrait of the artist F.I. Shalyapin. 1905. Private collection

Didn't join the party

Chaliapin sympathized with the socialist movement for many years and even somehow decided to join the party. One day, while walking around Capri with Gorky, Fyodor Ivanovich asked the writer for advice: “Shouldn’t I, Alexey Maksimovich, join the Social Democratic Party?” Gorky looked at him sternly and replied: “You are not fit for this. Don’t join any parties, be an artist, that’s enough for you.”. Subsequently, Chaliapin was very grateful to Gorky for this advice.