The article presents an original approach to interpreting the role of women in the works and biographies of prominent Russian writers and philosophers (Isaac Babel, Mikhail Bulgakov, Nikolai Berdyaev, Osip Mandelstam, Dmitry Merezhkovsky) through botanical metaphors. Each figure is associated with a specific plant that reveals the essence of their personality and legacy: Babel as a plane tree, Bulgakov as a linden, Berdyaev as an oak, Mandelstam as a willow, and Merezhkovsky as a laurel. This method draws inspiration from Michael Marder’s “The Philosopher’s Plant: An Intellectual Herbarium” and Olga Kushlina’s “Russian Literature Read Through the Nose”, where plants and scents serve as tools for cultural analysis. The article demonstrates how botanical imagery offers a fresh perspective on texts and destinies: Antonina Pirozhkova (Babel’s wife) is compared to an Antonovka apple, Elena Bulgakova to a narcissus, Nadezhda Mandelstam to an elderberry etc. Through these metaphors, themes of memory, creative duty, love, and survival in the era of repression are explored. The authors argue that plants are not just symbols but living witnesses of history, connecting literature, philosophy, and personal experience.
