Photographs taken at Maximilian Voloshin's dacha in Koktebel, Crimea, in 1911

Voloshin began living in Koktebel in 1907: his mother, Elena Ottobaldovna Kirienko-Voloshina, whom the poet and his friends called "Pra", from the word for "foremother", bought a plot of land here and began building a dacha. In 1908 the "Poet's House" was completed.

Many eminent writers, performers and artists, as well as simply good friends of the family, stayed with Voloshin.

Maximilian Voloshin first invited the Tsvetaeva sisters to his Crimean dacha in 1911, and Marina Tsvetaeva arrived in Koktebel as early as 5 May. Here she met Vera, Elizaveta and Sergei Efron, with whom she formed close relationships. Less than a year later Marina Tsvetaeva and Sergei Efron were married in Moscow.