Who replaced Mayakovsky's revolver? Not the last mystery of the poet's death. Death of Remarkable People: Vladimir Mayakovsky

So we promised a teaser. Here it is.

More than once we have published materials that have been united under the heading "Death wonderful people". And now we are at the finishing spurt to prepare the book, where we have collected all these - and many other clinical cases. Unfortunately, the preparation was delayed for several weeks due to the failure of the computer of one of the authors of the blog. But everything is surmountable. And here is one of the chapters of a future book.

Mayakovsky and Lilya Brik

"Cherchez la femme". This short catchphrase, who came from France, can be titled almost the entire bright, eventful and unusually tragic life of the "singer of the proletariat" Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky, whose tongue burned with fire, and the word struck the hearts of both ordinary working people and the most sophisticated intelligent public. He did not know how to do something halfway: if he wrote, he devoted himself completely to it, if he spoke, then everything that is in his thoughts and from a pure heart, if he loved, then passionately, recklessly and for life. But the ladies of the heart he came across, to put it mildly ... ungrateful. And the last of them, by the way, the thirteenth in a row, nevertheless became fatal, having played an important role in the "tragedy", according to the plot of which Mayakovsky met face to face with "Mauser". It would seem that history is as old as the world: a woman, unhappy love, superimposed on the nature of a subtle mental organization, also with signs of depression - suicide pure water... But in the words of the popular TV presenter of the 80s Vladimir Molchanov from the program "Before and After Midnight" we ask "So is this suicide or ...?"

In fact, it really is suicide. Moreover, his fact became truly scientifically proven: specialists from all industries were involved in the investigation, including the most experienced doctors and forensic experts, as well as the most modern and exact methods research. For the first time, journalist Valentin Skoryatin made an assumption about the murder, who began to doubt whether there really were personal reasons, whether Mayakovsky really wanted to go to Paris to his beloved Tatyana Yakovleva, why in the posthumous photo his mouth is open as if in a scream. He collected many arguments for his gradually strengthened independent theory, but ... However, we will tell you about everything in order.

Anamnesis vitae

"Georgian" - so the poet himself often called himself. It is no coincidence, for he was born on July 7, 1893 in the Georgian village of Bagdati, Kutaisi province. If we count the two early dead brothers of the young man - Konstantin and Alexander, then the Mayakovsky family had five children. To say that the mother had a difficult time - to say nothing. After studying three classes in the Gymnasium of Kutaisi, Vladimir endured grief - his father died, moreover, he died a rather strange and insulting death: he pierced his finger with a needle when he was stitching work papers in his forestry (he worked as a forester of the third category), after which he developed sepsis (generalized bacterial blood poisoning).

The family, not rich before, had a very difficult time, they had to move to Moscow, where Volodya entered the fourth grade of the 5th classical gymnasium on Povarskaya Street. But there was not enough money to study, and two years later he was expelled.

It must be said that the boy, while still in Georgia, participated in a revolutionary demonstration, read propaganda brochures and was generally distinguished by his radical views and courage. strong character. Already in Moscow, early, at the age of 15, he wrote his first poem, which he himself called "incredibly revolutionary and equally ugly." Naturally, he did not remain without company, so almost immediately after leaving school he joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, where he was engaged in quite active propaganda, was arrested three times, sat in several prisons, where he was transferred because he loved make a scandal ". As a result, after 11 months of the last solitary confinement cell in Butyrka prison, he was released without ever being sentenced. After prison, there was only a notebook covered with writing, which was seized upon release, which the poet himself was glad of, because the poetry, in his opinion, turned out to be extremely whiny. Despite this, he calculated his work from this notebook.

Then in 1911, the poet's bohemian friend Yevgeny Lang inspired Vladimir, who by that time was already two meters tall with a "slanting fathom" in his shoulders, to paint. Therefore, after several months of training at the Stroganov School, he entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture - by the way, the only place where a certificate of reliability was not required (otherwise they would not have taken him with his past in not so distant places). As a result, he became a cubo-futurist, and then published the first real poem "Night" in a collection with a very telling title "Slap in the face of public taste." And in the same 1912, Vladimir performed for the first time in the artistic basement "Stray Dog".

Mayakovsky, confirming the axiom about talented people, was talented in everything, therefore, in addition to art and writing, he took up drama, staging in 1916 a tragedy named after himself, where he himself played the main role(Who would doubt that). Further, lumpy works, collections, directorial and film works began to be typed, and with them - fame and popular love. He was invited to perform in various cities of the USSR, he went on tour in Europe and America, bringing from every place more and more unusual, piercing, uncompromising and completely "naked" poems.

The poet, being ardent and harsh by nature, loved to fall in love with beautiful women, for which he paid, one might say, with his life. His most striking novel was his relationship with the married Lilya Brik, whom he met in the Briks' apartment, where he was brought by the girl's sister, Elsa Triolet, who at that time was a "superficial" lady of the heart. From that moment on, all works except the poem "Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" Mayakovsky devoted exclusively to Lilya, and from the summer of 1918 he began to live with the Brik family altogether, following the extremely popular at that time love concept "Theory of a glass of water". According to her, the concept of marriage was eroded as such, and sex was equated with such important everyday needs as bathing or the same glass of water when thirsty.

However, his life was not limited to Lilya, and the “victory list” includes other pretty persons (mostly married) from intellectual circles. Some of them even left illegitimate children, because the poet was never in a registered relationship. But not a single woman could block the image of Lily in his thoughts, even despite the fact that once after their joint (together with Lily's husband, Osip Brik) visit to Germany in 1923, Mayakovsky wrote about “an irreparable turning point” and “freedom from love and from posters. "

The three of them lived like this until the last days of Vladimir in his apartment in Gendrikov Lane (which is now called Mayakovsky Lane) and became the prototype of the family for the plot of the film Three Together, the script for which was written by Viktor Shklovsky, who is in the know friend. Lily's entire attitude towards Mayakovsky can be expressed in several of her remarks at an old age, according to the memoirs of the poet Andrei Voznesensky: “I loved making love with Osia. We then locked Volodya in the kitchen. He was eager, wanted to join us, scratched at the door and cried "," It is good for Volodya to suffer, he will suffer and write good poetry. "

In addition to Lily, the poet's relationship with the Russian emigrant Tatyana Yakovleva, whom Mayakovsky met in Paris, can be called a vivid novel. By the way, this acquaintance was also "set up" by Triolet, who, only having learned that Vladimir had come from Nice and stayed at the same hotel as she, asked her "suddenly appeared" old friend to accompany her to the doctor, to whom moment came Tatiana. Why did she do it, you ask? For quite understandable selfish motives. Firstly, Mayakovsky could at any time leave for the USA to his new lover, which would greatly undermine the reputation of his sister, the “first muse of the poet” Lily Brik. And, secondly, she used his money and did not want him to leave Paris too quickly, suggesting that a new romance could delay him in the city.

But Vladimir fell head over heels in love and enveloped Yakovlev with complete care and extraordinary tenderness. That, however, did not prevent Tatiana from agreeing to return with him to Moscow. The story that he paid with his Parisian fees for many years of delivering flowers to the doors of her apartment in Paris, which continued to be delivered even after his death, flew around many ears and appeared to many from the screens.

The most tragic was Mayakovsky's last love - Veronika Polonskaya, a young actress of the Moscow Art Theater, who at the time of meeting the poet was only 21 years old. She was already married to Mikhail Yanshin and treasured her husband even though she regularly went to her lovers. But Vladimir did not like the fate of the "next", and after a while he began to literally demand that she accept only decision, and did not rush from side to side ...

Anamnesis morbi (mortis)

She was sitting on the couch, and he was kneeling in front of her and sobbing, saying that he could not live without her. She did not like him and often answered in response to these words, "Well, don't live." Was this the impetus for action on that fateful morning of April 14, 1930? May be…

Veronica Polonskaya

She was late for a rehearsal with Nemirovich-Danchenko, who scolded him terribly for being late. He asked if she had money for a taxi and, upon hearing a negative answer, gave her 20 rubles. After that, she ran into the front door of a small communal apartment in Poluektoviy Lane and heard a shot.

Yes, it was suicide. And no, there could be no murder because, firstly, according to forensic scientist Alexander Maslov and doctor Mikhail Davydov, who studied in detail the historical documents, building plans and eyewitness testimonies, the communal apartment was in direct access to the kitchen, from where the edge was even visible that same ill-fated room, and there at that moment the neighbors were talking at the table. And even if Lilya went down to the 1st floor, and at that time the murderer knocked on the apartment and shot the poet who opened his mouth indignantly (it was the fact of the open mouth that the supporters of the theory of violent death pressed on), then she would simply not physically hear the faint clap of the Mauser , and the killer would certainly not have gone unnoticed. Secondly, if she had heard, she would not have had time to rise before the "cloud frozen in the air from the shot" melted (according to Polonskaya's recollections). And the fact of the open mouth can be explained by the fact that immediately after death, the muscles before rigor mortis relax a little, as if coming to a state of rest. Because of this, the jaw dropped slightly.

Mayakovsky after death

Thirdly, it was believed that the suicide note that Mayakovsky left on the table in the same room allegedly did not belong to him, because it was written in pencil (while the poet used a Parker pen) and big amount strange little things, notes and misspellings. It was also dated April 12th. That is, Vladimir wrote it two days before the murder, which was also alarming. About this, an examination took place, which confirmed that “the handwritten text of the suicide letter on behalf of VV Mayakovsky, beginning with the words“ Everyone. Don't blame anyone for dying ... "and ending with the words" ... Get the rest from Gr.V.M. " the usual process of writing, among which the most probable is an unusual psychophysiological state associated with excitement. "

Fourthly, 60 years later, a thorough study of the shirt, which was on the poet at the time of the murder, was carried out. It was carried out at the Research Institute of Forensic Medicine by a whole commission of professors Alexander Maslov (forensic medical expert of the highest category), Emil Safronsky (specialist in forensic ballistic examination) and Irina Kudesheva (expert in examining shot marks). They were not even told whose shirt would be in their hands, so that everything was as objective as possible (blind research).

The diffuse-contact method for the determination of metals in a cloud of gas during a shot, which settled on the shirt, gave a clear idea of its direction and application (shot at the side support). Also, according to an excerpt from the conclusion about the shape and small size of blood spots below the damage, as well as the peculiarities of their location along the arc, “indicate that they arose as a result of the fall of small drops of blood from a small height onto the shirt in the process of moving down right hand splattered with blood, or from a weapon in the same hand. "

Therefore, in the end, the examination showed that the detection of traces of a shot at the side emphasis, the absence of traces of struggle and self-defense are characteristic of a shot fired own hand... And the suicide of Vladimir Mayakovsky has become a scientifically confirmed fact.

Mayakovsky's death mask

Unfortunately, data on autopsy (autopsy) have not been found so far, so it remains to "be content" only with the memories of eyewitnesses. An ambulance that arrived 5 minutes after the call (estimate the speed in the 30s!) Only stated "instant death" from a gunshot wound to the heart, that is, according to medical beliefs, clinical death within 5 minutes after injury. Thanks to the entries in the diary of one literary figure Mikhail Prezent, it was possible to establish the course of the wound channel: the bullet entered the left half of the chest along the mid-clavicular line (the trail was 3 cm above the nipple), struck the heart and left lung, and then went down, backwards and to the right and, having injured the right kidney, got stuck in the subcutaneous tissue of the right lumbar region. Thus, the wound channel had a descending direction. According to Davydov, the poet received a through gunshot wound to the heart, left lung, diaphragm, upper pole of the right kidney and soft tissues of the right retroperitoneal space, and died from a through gunshot wound to the heart with acute cardiac tamponade and cardiac arrest. Even in the conditions of modern medicine, such injuries are incompatible with life, and people die before the ambulance arrives within literally a few minutes. As it happened with Mayakovsky.

There is no autopsy data, but there is a complete and detailed examination of the brain, which was extracted by the staff of the Institute of the Brain on the same day after the death of Vladimir Vladimirovich (it was then fashionable to study the brains of great contemporaries). Surprisingly, Mayakovsky's brain weighed significantly more than the brain of an ordinary person (1700 grams versus 1330). According to the structure of the cortex, it was determined that it was highly organized with the most developed precentral gyrus (ambivalence, the ability to work equally well with both hands), the frontal and lower parietal lobes (features of thinking and poetic gift), the speech area (eloquence) and a special combination of the lower parietal frontal and occipital lobes (artistic inclinations). In addition, the area of the left hemisphere cortex was 88 thousand mm2, and the right hemisphere - 87.5 thousand mm2 versus the “usual” 82.7 thousand mm2. Thus, there were even anatomical and physiological prerequisites for the poet's extraordinary talent (however, we well know that the size of the brain does not play a decisive role).

Such a person is gifted, rich, stately, handsome, with a loud voice, caring nature, incredibly rich inner peace- and ruined by female frivolity. But he just wanted to love and be loved ...

From the "Conclusion" of the experts:

"1. Damage on V.V. Mayakovsky's shirt is an entrance fire damage, formed when fired from a distance "side stop" in the direction from front to back and somewhat from right to left in an almost horizontal plane.

2. Judging by the features of the damage, a short-barreled weapon (for example, a pistol) was used and a low-power cartridge was used.

3. Small size of the area soaked in blood, located around the entrance gunshot injury, indicate its formation as a result of a simultaneous release of blood from the wound, and the absence of vertical blood streaks indicates that immediately after receiving the injury, V.V. Mayakovsky was in a horizontal position, lying on his back.

4. The shape and small size of blood blots located below the injury, and the peculiarity of their location along the arc indicate that they arose as a result of the fall of small drops of blood from a small height onto the shirt in the process of moving down the right hand, splattered with blood, or from weapons in the same hand. "

Can suicide be so thoroughly simulated? Yes, in expert practice there are cases of staging one, two, less often five signs. But the whole complex of signs cannot be falsified. It has been established that drops of blood are not traces of bleeding from a wound: they fell from a small height from a hand or weapon. Even if we assume that the Chekist Agranov (and he really knew his business) was a murderer and applied drops of blood after firing, say, from a pipette, although according to the reconstructed timing of events he simply did not have time for this, it was necessary to achieve a complete coincidence of the localization of the drops blood and the location of traces of antimony. But the reaction to antimony was discovered only in 1987. It was the comparison of the location of antimony and blood drops that became the pinnacle of this study.

Death autograph

The specialists of the laboratory of forensic handwriting examinations also had to work, because many, even very sensitive people, doubted the authenticity of the poet's dying letter, written in pencil with almost no punctuation marks:

“Everyone. Don't blame anyone for dying, and please don't gossip. The deceased did not like this terribly. Mom, sisters and comrades, forgive me this is not a way (I do not advise others), but I have no other options. Lily - love me. My family is Lilya Brik, mother, sisters and Veronika Vitoldovna Polonskaya ...
Love boat \ crashed about everyday life. \ I count with life \ And there is no need for a list of \ Mutual \ troubles \ And grievances. Happy to stay. \ Vladimir \ Mayakovsky. 12.IV.30 g. "

From the "Conclusion" of the experts:

"The submitted letter on behalf of Mayakovsky was made by Mayakovsky himself in unusual conditions, the most probable cause of which is a psychophysiological state caused by anxiety. "

There was no doubt about the dating - it was April 12, two days before his death - "immediately before the suicide, the signs of unusualness would have been more pronounced." So the secret of the decision to die is hidden not in the 14th day of April, but in the 12th.

"Your word, comrade Mauser"

Relatively recently, the case "On the suicide of Vladimir Mayakovsky" was transferred from the Presidential Archives to the Museum of the Poet along with the fatal Browning, a bullet and a cartridge case. But in the protocol of the inspection of the scene, signed by the investigator and the expert doctor, it is said that he shot himself from "a revolver of the Mauser system, caliber 7.65, No. 312045". According to the poet's certificate, the poet had two pistols - a Browning and a Bayard. And although Krasnaya Gazeta wrote about a revolver shot, eyewitness VA Katanyan mentions a Mauser, and N. Denisovsky, years later, Browning, it is still difficult to imagine that a professional investigator could confuse a Browning with a Mauser.
The staff of the V.V. Mayakovsky Museum turned to the Russian Federal Forensic Center with a request to conduct a study of the Browning pistol No. 268979, a bullet and a cartridge case, transferred from the Presidential Archives, and to establish whether the poet was shooting at himself with this weapon.

Chemical analysis of the plaque in the bore of the Browning barrel made it possible to conclude that "no shot was fired from the weapon after the last cleaning." But the bullet, once removed from the body of Mayakovsky, really "is part of the 7.65 mm Browning cartridge of the 1900 model." So what's the deal? The examination showed: "The caliber of the bullet, the number of traces, the width, the angle of inclination and the right-hand direction of the traces indicate that the bullet was fired from a Mauser pistol of the 1914 model."

The results of the experimental shooting finally confirmed that "the 7.65 mm bullet of the Browning cartridge was fired not from the Browning pistol No. 268979, but from a 7.65 mm Mauser."

Still - a Mauser. Who changed the weapon? In 1944, an NKGB officer, “talking” with the disgraced writer MM Zoshchenko, asked if he considered the cause of Mayakovsky’s death clear, to which the writer adequately replied: “It remains mysterious even further. It is curious that the revolver from which Mayakovsky shot himself was presented to him by the famous Chekist Agranov. "

Could it be that Agranov himself, to whom all the materials of the investigation flocked, changed the weapon, attaching Mayakovsky's Browning to the case? What for? Many knew about the "gift", besides, the Mauser was not registered with Mayakovsky, which could have a big backfire on Agranov himself (by the way, he was later shot, but for what?). However, this is from the realm of guesswork. It is better to respect the poet's last request: “... please do not gossip. The deceased did not like this terribly "

Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich is a Soviet poet who has achieved success and recognition. He was born in 1893 in the Caucasus. His work can be identified by emotional nature poems and a well-recognizable "ladder" of the presentation of the text, which later became his "calling card".

In life, he was energetic, did not keep his mouth shut, for which he was in prison, he was a scandalous person. Vladimir Mayakovsky made a huge contribution to the treasury of Russian culture. But who would have thought that V.V. allotted such a short line. He died when he was 36 years old. But why and how did Mayakovsky die?

From the poet's personal life

The mysterious death of Mayakovsky has worried experts for a very long time.

His personal life did not please him. Everyone laughed at his desire to have a normal family, and especially Lilya Brik, the beloved woman of his whole life. She said that if she gives birth to a child for him, then he will never give birth to a single talented verse. And he increasingly began to talk about suicide as the only salvation.

Love and death

Trying to free himself from Lily's spell, he tried to start his life from scratch.

His last passion was Veronica Polonskaya, beautiful actress Moscow Art Theater. On April 14, 1930, they were supposed to have a date. He closed the doors with a key and he talked for a long time about the fact that she divorced her husband and move in with him immediately. But Veronica (Nora) could not dare to leave Mikhail Yanshin, realizing that at any moment their romance could end. He went out the door, she heard the sound of a shot, ran to her lover and saw blood on his body.

The shot was fired point-blank in the heart. A suicide note dated April 12 was also found.

Versions of the death of Mayakovsky

What is the cause of Mayakovsky's death? A beloved woman or that he was afraid of old age, or his conflicts with poets, whom he ceased to understand, as they did of him. He was a revolutionary, but the revolution was already over. There are several versions of the poet's death, each with its own supporters and opponents.

Murder. Perhaps someone wanted him dead? Opponents of this version say that Vladimir Vladimirovich was preparing to die. After all, he left a suicide note. But the fact that the note was written in pencil is alarming. Since, firstly, handwriting with a pencil can be faked more easily, as the graphologists assure. In addition, as V.I.Skoryatin argued, Mayakovsky was anxious about his fountain pen and, most likely, would write the last letter with it. And S. Eisenstein notes that Mayakovsky did not write anything like this at all, and the note was the work of his killers. In defense of the version of the murder, the fact that Mayakovsky had a broken nose, although he fell on his back, also speaks about the murder. According to Nora, when they found him, Vladimir Vladimirovich was lying on his back with open eyes and tried to tell her something, but did not have time. Another argument in favor of the fact that Mayakovsky would not kill himself: when he heard the news of the suicide of Sergei Yesenin, he severely condemned him, calling such an act cowardice. As a rule, the Soviet special services are accused of murdering the poet.

Accident. The most unpopular version says that the poet died as a result of a sad combination of circumstances. The fact is that Mayakovsky several times arranged for himself an extreme with one bullet in a seven-shot pistol. And really this time, luck denied him the game "Russian roulette"?

Suicide. Today this is the official version. Most researchers adhere to it. And according to the memoirs of Lilia Brik, Mayakovsky more than once tried to commit suicide. It is also noted that the poet had sudden mood swings. He was overwhelmed by emotions of joy when he had success, and failure led to deep depression.

The true cause of the poet's death is still the subject of heated debate.

On April 14, 1930, a shot was fired in Vladimir Mayakovsky's working room in Lubyansky passage in Moscow. Disputes over whether the poet died voluntarily or was killed, do not subside to this day. One of its participants, Professor of the Department of Forensic Medicine of the Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy, Alexander Vasilyevich Maslov, talks about the virtuoso investigation of the experts.

Versions and facts

On April 14, 1930, Krasnaya Gazeta reported: “Today, at 10 hours 17 minutes, Vladimir Mayakovsky committed suicide in his working room with a revolver to the heart. Arrived " Ambulance"Found him already dead. V the last days VV Mayakovsky did not reveal any mental discord and nothing foreshadowed a catastrophe. "

In the afternoon, the body was transported to the poet's apartment in Gendrikov Lane. The sculptor K. Lutsky removed the death mask, and badly - he peeled off the face of the deceased. Employees of the Institute of Brain removed Mayakovsky's brain, which weighed in 1700. On the very first day in the presecture of the clinic of the medical faculty of Moscow State University, the pathologist Professor Talalay performed an autopsy of the body, and on the night of April 17, a re-autopsy took place: due to rumors that the poet allegedly had a venereal disease, which were not confirmed. Then the body was cremated.

As with Yesenin, Mayakovsky's suicide caused different reactions and many versions. One of the "targets" was the 22-year-old Moscow Art Theater actress Veronica Polonskaya. It is known that Mayakovsky asked her to become a wife. It was she who was the last person to see the poet alive. However, the testimony of the actress, roommates and the data of the investigation indicate that the shot thundered immediately after Polonskaya left Mayakovsky's room. So she couldn't shoot.

The version that Mayakovsky not figuratively, but literally “lay down on the barrel with his head”, put a bullet in his head, does not stand up to criticism. The poet's brain has been preserved to this day and, as the staff of the Institute of the Brain rightly reported in those days, "according to external examination, the brain does not represent any significant deviations from the norm."

Several years ago, in the program "Before and After Midnight," the well-known TV journalist Vladimir Molchanov suggested that the posthumous photograph clearly shows the marks of TWO shots on Mayakovsky's chest.

This dubious hypothesis was dispelled by another journalist, V. Skoryatin, who conducted a thorough investigation. There was only one shot, but he also believes that Mayakovsky was shot. Specifically, the head of the secret department of the OGPU, Agranov, with whom, by the way, the poet was friends: hiding in the back room and waiting for Polonskaya to leave, Agranov enters the office, kills the poet, leaves his suicide letter and goes out into the street again by the back door. And then he rises to the scene as a security officer. The version is amusing and almost fits into the laws of that time. However, without knowing it, the journalist unexpectedly helped the experts. Referring to the shirt the poet was wearing at the time of the shot, he writes: “I examined it. And even with the help of a magnifying glass, he did not find traces of a powder burn. There is nothing on it but a brown stain of blood. " So the shirt has survived!

Poet's shirt

Indeed, in the mid-50s, L.Yu. Brik, who had the poet's shirt, donated it to the V.V. Mayakovsky - the relic was kept in a box and was wrapped in a soaked special composition paper. On the left side of the front of the shirt - through damage, dried blood is visible around it. Surprisingly, this "material evidence" was not subjected to examination either in 1930 or later. And how many controversies there were around the photos!
Having received permission to research, I, without informing the essence of the case, showed the shirt to E.G. Safronsky, a major specialist in forensic ballistic examination, who immediately made a "diagnosis": "Input bullet fire damage, most likely a point-blank shot."

Upon learning that the shot was fired more than 60 years ago, Safronsky noticed that no such examinations were carried out in the USSR at that time. An agreement was reached: the specialists of the Federal Center for Forensic Examination, where the shirt was transferred, will not know about its belonging to the poet - for the purity of the experiment.

So, a beige-pink shirt made of cotton fabric is subject to research. Front placket with 4 mother-of-pearl buttons. The back of the shirt is cut from collar to bottom with scissors, as evidenced by the ledge-like edges of the cut and the straight ends of the threads. But to assert that this particular shirt, bought by the poet in Paris, was on him at the time of the shot, is not enough. On the photographs of Mayakovsky's body, taken at the scene, the pattern of the fabric, texture, shape and localization of the blood stain, and gunshot injury are clearly distinguishable. When the museum shirt was photographed at the same angle, magnification and photo combination was carried out, all the details matched.

Experts from the Federal Center had a difficult job - to find traces of a shot more than 60 years ago on the shirt and establish its distance. And there are three of them in forensic medicine and forensic science: a point-blank shot, from a close and a long distance. Linear injuries of a cruciform shape characteristic of a point-blank shot were found (they arise from the action of gases reflected from the body at the time of destruction of the tissue by a projectile), as well as traces of gunpowder, soot and scorching both in the damage itself and in the adjacent areas of tissue.

But it was necessary to identify a number of stable signs, for which the diffuse-contact method was used, which did not destroy the shirt. It is known: when fired, a red-hot cloud flies out along with the bullet, then the bullet overtakes it and flies away further. If fired from a long distance, the cloud did not reach the object, if from a close distance, the powder-gas suspension should have settled on the shirt. It was necessary to investigate the complex of metals that make up the shell of the bullet of the alleged cartridge.

The impressions obtained showed a negligible amount of lead in the area of damage, and almost no copper was found. On the other hand, thanks to the diffuse-contact method for determining antimony (one of the components of the capsule composition), it was possible to establish a vast area of this substance with a diameter of about 10 mm around the damage with the topography characteristic of a side-stop shot. Moreover, the sectoral deposition of antimony indicated that the muzzle was pressed against the shirt at an angle. And intense metallization on the left side is a sign of a shot from right to left, almost in a horizontal plane, with a slight downward slope.

From the "Conclusion" of the experts:

2. Judging by the features of the damage, a short-barreled weapon (for example, a pistol) was used and a low-power cartridge was used.

3. The small size of the blood-soaked area located around the entrance gunshot injury indicates its formation as a result of a single-stage release of blood from the wound, and the absence of vertical blood streaks indicates that immediately after receiving the injury, V.V. Mayakovsky was in a horizontal position, lying on the back.

Death autograph

“Everyone. Don't blame anyone for dying, and please don't gossip. The deceased did not like this terribly. Mom, sisters and comrades, forgive me this is not a way (I do not advise others), but I have no other options. Lily - love me. My family is Lilya Brik, mother, sisters and Veronika Vitoldovna Polonskaya ...
A love boat crashed about everyday life, I am with life in calculation And there is no need for a list of mutual troubles and grievances. Happy to stay. Vladimir Mayakovsky. 12.IV.30 g. "

From the "Conclusion" of the experts:

"The submitted letter on behalf of Mayakovsky was written by Mayakovsky himself in unusual conditions, the most likely cause of which is a psychophysiological state caused by excitement."

"Your word, comrade Mauser"

The staff of the V.V. Mayakovsky Museum turned to the Russian Federal Forensic Center with a request to conduct a study of the Browning pistol No. 268979, a bullet and a cartridge case, transferred from the Presidential Archives, and to establish whether the poet was shooting at himself with this weapon.

The results of the experimental shooting finally confirmed that "the 7.65 mm bullet of the Browning cartridge was fired not from the Browning pistol No. 268979, but from a 7.65 mm Mauser."

The fatal shot that Veronika Polonskaya heard, leaving the room on the Lubyanka, the poet's last affection, sounded on April 14, 1930 ...

The death of Mayakovsky at the thirty-seventh year of life caused many questions from his contemporaries. Why did the genius, beloved by the people and the Soviet regime, "the singer of the revolution" voluntarily passed away?

There is no doubt that it was a suicide that happened. The results of an examination carried out by criminologists 60 years after the death of the poet, confirmed that Mayakovsky shot himself. authenticated what had been written two days earlier. The very fact that the note was drawn up in advance speaks in favor of the deliberation of this act.

When Yesenin passed away three years earlier, Mayakovsky writes: “It is not difficult to die in this life.
Making life much more difficult. " With these lines, he gives a bitter assessment of the escape from reality by means of suicide. About his own death, he writes: "... this is not a way ... but I have no way out."

We will never know the exact answer to the question that broke the poet so badly. But the voluntary death of Mayakovsky can be partly explained by the events preceding his death. In part, the poet's choice reveals his work. The famous lines from the poem "Man", written in 1917: "And the heart is striving for a shot, and the throat is raving with a razor ..." - speak for themselves.

In general, Mayakovsky's poetry is a mirror of his nervous, contradictory nature. His poems are full of either almost adolescent enthusiasm and enthusiasm, or bile and bitterness of disappointment. This is how Vladimir Mayakovsky was described by his contemporaries. The same main witness to the poet's suicide writes in his memoirs: “In general, he always had extremes. I do not remember Mayakovsky ... calm ... ".

The poet had many reasons to draw the last line. Married Lilya Brik, the main love and muse of Mayakovsky, all her life approached and moved away from him, but never belonged to him entirely. Long before the tragedy, the poet had already flirted with his fate twice, and the reason for this was an all-encompassing passion for this woman. But then Mayakovsky, whose death still worries minds, remained alive - the weapon misfired.

Started serious problems with health due to overwork and severe flu, the deafening failure of the play "Bath" in March 1930, the parting from which the poet asked to become his wife ... All these life collisions, indeed, blow after blow seemed to be preparing Mayakovsky's death. Kneeling in front of Veronica Polonskaya, persuading her to stay with him, the poet clung to the relationship with her, like a saving straw. But the actress was not ready for such a decisive step as a divorce from her husband ... When the door closed behind her, a revolver with a single bullet in the clip put an end to the life of one of the greatest poets.