Ariadna Aleksandrovna Scriabina (; also Sarah Knut, née Ariadna Alexandrovna Schletzer, pseudonym Régine; 26 October 1905 – 22 July 1944) was a Russian poet and activist of the French Resistance, who co-founded the Zionist resistance group Armée Juive. She was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre and Médaille de la Résistance.
She was the eldest daughter of the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin and Tatyana Schloetzer. After the death of her father, Ariadna took his last name, and after the death of her mother she was exiled in Paris. Being part of the literary circles of the Russian Diaspora, she wrote and published poetry. She married three times, last time with poet Dovid Knut (real name Duvid Meerovich Fiksman). Together with her husband she supported the ideas of Revisionist Zionism. She was baptised in an Orthodox rite as a child, but later converted to Judaism taking the Hebrew name Sarah.
During the German occupation of France, she was the organizer and active member of the Jewish resistance in the south of the country. She was murdered in Toulouse by a Milice agent shortly before the fall of the Vichy regime.
Biography
Alexander Scriabin had seven children; four from the first marriage to Vera Ivanovna Scriabina: Rima (1898–1905), Elena (1900–1990), Maria (1901–1989) and Lev (1902–1910), and three from the relationship with Tatyana Fyodorovna Schletzer: Ariadna, Julian and Marina. By 1910, Scriabin lived with Schletzer; although he was formally married to Vera Scriabina, they did not meet even at the funeral of their son Lev.
Ariadna Schletzer
Ariadna Schletzer, the eldest daughter of Scriabin and Schletzer, was born in the Italian town of Bogliasco, where Scriabin worked on The Poem of Ecstasy.
Europe
It was an unstable period for Scriabin, who had been moving around Europe for several years. In July 1905, his eldest daughter Rima died in Switzerland, and the birth of Ariadna finalized his separation with a legitimate wife. In December, he broke his longstanding relations with Belyayev's publishing house, which halved their fees shortly after the death of the founder, Mitrofan Belyayev. As a result, Scriabin lost his source of income for a year, until the new owners reconsidered their offer.
In late January 1906, Scriabin moved his new family to Geneva, and in the fall to Amsterdam. He and his wife went to a concert tour in Belgium, United States and Paris, while Ariadna was watched by Schletzer's aunts, Henriette and Alina Boti. In the summer of 1907, Schletzer brought Ariadna in the Swiss village of Beatenberg, where she was soon joined by Scriabin. In September, the family moved to Lausanne, where their next child Julian was born in a few months.
Russia
Scriabin had long thought of returning to Russia. However, his reputation was spoiled by his scandalous character and dubious family situation, and thus the return was delayed to February 1910.
In Moscow, Ariadna was baptized in the Orthodox rite, and in November 1912 her sister Marina was born.
Scriabin's children were mostly raised by tutors, as both Scriabin and his wife were preoccupied with their public lives. French was spoken within the family, which was frequently visited by poets, artists, theatre workers and philosophers. Ariadna from an early age wrote poetry and studied at the Moscow Conservatory. Julian showed talents as a composer, and Marina was trained as a painter. The house had a rich library, and the children received most lessons from private teachers and their mother.
With the outbreak of World War I, life become harder, and to support his family Scriabin had to spend much time playing concerts in various Russian cities. Scriabin himself welcomed the war, hoping for changes after it was over.
Ariadna Scriabina
Ukraine
On 14 April 1915 Scriabin died of sepsis (blood infection), leaving the family without the source of income. Thanks to the efforts of family friends, the legal wife of Scriabin, Vera, accepted the status of Ariadna, Marina and Julian as Scriabin's children. As a result, they were allowed to carry his name.
Schletzer gradually managed to collect some money for the family and focused on raising Julian, whom she saw as the successor of Alexander Scriabin. Two revolutions in 1917 again undermined the barely established family life. In 1918, famine spread through Moscow, and Schletzer took the children to Kiev, located in a better-fed Ukraine.