worries about who would be the conqueror of their battles, Parnok replied that they were equals. There was a mother-daughter aspect to the relationship and the poems written during it, in that Tsvetaeva entered the relationship as a novice to lesbian passion, though not to its attraction, later maturing in her relationship. On the other hand, Parnok entered their union as the less experienced poet, benefiting in her later writing from the seeds of her collaboration with Tsvetaeva. Rather than the typical stereotypical older-woman-seducer, Tsvetaeva assumed the male lover's role as pursuer in her poems, taunting Parnok with her desire to be the betrayer rather than the betrayed. Poems appeared shortly before Parnok and Tsvetaeva broke up in 1916 and displayed the mastery of her craft. The lyrics in Parnok's Poems presented the first, non-decadent, lesbian-desiring subject ever to be included in a book of Russian poetry. Parnok's poems about their affair were more restrained than Tsvetaeva's, but Parnok planned to have hers published in contrast to Tsvataeva who presented Podruga to Parnok as a gift. In the summer of 1915, Parnok and Tsvetaeva, both of their sisters, and Osip Mandelstam were guests at Maximilian Voloshin's dacha in Koktebel. Parnok did not care for Mandelstam though Tsvetaeva was openly friendly and would later have an affair with him. By July, the lovers left Koktebel, just before Tsvetaeva's husband's arrived, spending a month on holiday in Sviatye Gory. In January 1916, Tsvetaeva and Mandelstam met at a literary salon in Saint Petersburg, possibly by chance, and recognized each other's talents. The meeting caused a heated quarrel with Parnok. The following month, Mandelstam's attempt to continue the discussion with Tsvetaeva, which had begun in Saint Petersburg, proved to be the final straw in breaking up she and Parnok's relationship. Tsvetaeva came home from taking Mandelstam to see the sites of Moscow to find Parnok entertaining the actress Lyudmila Vladimirovna Erarskaya. It is unknown exactly when Parnok and Erarskaya met, but theirs would be the longest relationship of the poet's life, lasting for the next sixteen years. In a pique, Tsvetaeva asked Parnok to return her Podruga and her manuscripts. Parnok was outraged, not only that she wanted her gift returned, but that she was trying to conceal the origin of the poems in their affair. The long-reaching effects of their liaison would last until each of the poets' deaths. In her later