The name of Vera Fedorovna Komissarzhevskaya (1864-1910) personifies an era in the history of the Russian theater. Contemporaries admired her and idolized her, rewarding her with epithets of an almost Pushkin scale. What is the phenomenon of universal falling in love and universal admiration for this fragile woman? Why did she become a symbol that united several generations? How to explain the fact that an actress who achieved national recognition and incredible fame, at the peak of her career, left the theater in order to create - no more, no less - a “school for a new person”? And only a tragic death in the prime of her life did not allow her to begin this unprecedented task... About the life of “The Seagull of the Russian Stage” - a life full of suffering and love, loud triumphs and equally loud failures, sharp turns and eternal doubts , says the regular author of the ZhZL series, literary historian, professor at Moscow University Anna Sergeeva-Klyatis, who is also a distant relative of the great Russian actress.