Death of Remarkable People: Vladimir Mayakovsky. Mysteries of history - Death of Mayakovsky

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky.

Love and death

Hearing about the suicide of Sergei Yesenin (other versions of what happened at that time were not considered), Vladimir Mayakovsky rather categorically condemned the poet, calling his act cowardice. Only five years passed, and Mayakovsky could not find any other way out but to commit suicide.

Many examinations were carried out and a completely definite conclusion was made: it could only be suicide. But why the poet, always speaking out against such a death, wrote in the last note: "... this is not a way (I do not advise others), but I have no other options."

Many believe the reason for his suicide unrequited love to Veronica Polonskaya, but in fact she responded to Mayakovsky's feelings. Others cite the unsuccessful exhibition as the reason. But in reality, the inner conflict was much deeper than domestic or love failures.

When Yesenin died, the whole country instantly believed in his suicide. On the contrary, they did not believe in Mayakovsky's suicide for a long time, and those who knew him well did not believe. It was argued that he always sharply condemned such actions that Mayakovsky was too strong, too big for this. And what were his reasons for committing suicide?

When Lunacharsky got a call and reported what had happened, he, deciding that he was being played, hung up. Many, hearing that Mayakovsky had shot himself, laughed and said: "A wonderful April Fool's joke!" (the tragic event really happened on April 1, old style). After publications in newspapers, people began to reflect on what had happened, but even then no one believed in suicide. They were ready to rather believe in murder, in an accident. But Mayakovsky's suicide note left no doubt: it was he who shot himself, and did it deliberately.

Here is the text of the note:

Don't blame anyone for dying, 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 recommend it to others), but I have no choice.

Lily, love me. Comrade government, my family is Lilya Brik, mother, sisters and Veronika Vitoldovna Polonskaya.

If you give them a bearable life, thank you.

Give the started verses to the Briks, they will figure it out.

As they say -

"The incident is screwed up"

love boat

crashed in everyday life.

I count with life

and there is no need for a list

mutual pain

Happy to stay.

Vladimir Mayakovsky.

Comrades Vappovtsy, do not consider me faint-hearted.

Serious - there is nothing to be done.

Tell Ermilov that it’s a pity - you removed the slogan, you ought to have a fight.

I have 2,000 rubles in my desk - add it to the tax.

Get the rest from Giza.

One could only guess what was the reason for such an act. Indeed, the most incredible assumptions soon began to be expressed. For example, the writer and journalist Mikhail Koltsov stated: “You cannot ask from the real, full-fledged Mayakovsky for suicide. Someone else was shooting, accidental, temporarily taking possession of the weakened psyche of the poet-social activist and revolutionary. We, contemporaries, friends of Mayakovsky, demand that this testimony be registered. "

The poet Nikolai Aseev a year after the tragedy wrote:

I knew that I was carrying lead to my heart,

Lifting a hundred ton weight of the trunk

You didn't press the trigger yourself,

That someone else's hand was leading.

However, not everyone was so categorical in their judgments. For example, Lilya Brik, whom Mayakovsky loved very much and who knew the poet well, having learned about his death, calmly said: “It's good that he shot himself with a big pistol. Otherwise it would be ugly: such a poet - and shoots out of a little Browning. " Regarding the causes of death, she stated that the poet was neurotic and that he had "a kind of suicide mania and fear of old age."

And yet it is not easy to understand Mayakovsky's act. In order to form a definite opinion, it is necessary to try to understand what kind of person he was, how he lived, whom he loved. And the most main question, which worries everyone who loves his work: could it have been saved?

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky was born in 1893 in the Caucasus. Despite his noble origins, his father was a forester. On the mother's side, there were Kuban Cossacks in the family.

As a child, Mayakovsky did not differ much from his peers: he studied at the gymnasium, and at first very well. Then the interest in studies disappeared and the fives in the certificate were replaced by twos. Finally, the boy was expelled from the gymnasium for non-payment of money for his studies, which did not upset him at all. This happened in 1908 when he was 15 years old. After this event, he plunged headlong into adulthood: he met revolutionary-minded students, joined the Bolshevik Party and finally ended up in Butyrka prison, where he spent 11 months.

It was this time that Mayakovsky later called the beginning of his creative path: in prison he wrote a whole notebook of poems, which, however, was taken away from him when he was released. But Mayakovsky already had a clear idea of ​​his future: he decided to "make socialist art." Did he then think that it would lead him to this end?

Vladimir was always fond of literature, read a lot, while still studying at the gymnasium. In addition, he was seriously fond of painting, for which he had good talent. Therefore, in 1911 he entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. There he met David Davidovich Burliuk, an artist and poet, a follower of the futurist movement.

Futurism (from the Latin futurum, which means "future" in translation) is a literary and artistic movement that originated in Italy at the beginning of the 20th century and became popular in other European countries, including Russia. Its essence consisted in the denial of the artistic and moral values ​​of traditional culture. However, in Russia, the term "futurism" most often denoted all leftist currents in the art of that time. The most vivid expression of this trend was considered the work of poets and artists who were part of the "Gilea" group, among whom was Burliuk. They “identified a poetic word with a thing, turned it into a sign of a self-contained physical given, a material capable of any transformation, of interaction with any sign system, any natural or artificial structure. Thus, the poetic word was conceived by them as a universal “material” means of comprehending the foundations of being and rearranging reality ”(TSB).

Mayakovsky was carried away by the new movement, read Burliuk's poems and showed him his own. Burliuk said that young man talent that he is a wonderful poet. Being already famous by that time, he asked every acquaintance: “How do you feel about the work of Mayakovsky? How, you haven't heard anything about him? This is a famous poet! My friend!" Mayakovsky tried to stop him, but Burliuk was unstoppable. "Brilliant, brilliant!"

From that time on, Mayakovsky gave up painting for a while, sat and wrote. Burliuk came to him, brought books and gave out 50 kopecks a day so that his friend would not starve to death. What Mayakovsky wrote was significantly different from his first poetic experiments in the prison period. Mayakovsky himself later said that those poems were rather weak, but still made attempts to find the selected notebook.

At the end of 1912, Mayakovsky declared himself. He received an invitation to come to St. Petersburg to participate in the exhibition of artists "Union of Youth". On it, among other works, a portrait by Mayakovsky was exhibited. A few days later, he made his first public appearance at the Stray Dog Club. Three days later, he performed at the Troitsky Theater, where he read a lecture "On the latest Russian poetry." A few weeks later, in the same year, his poems "Night" and "Morning" were published in the almanac "Slap in the face of public taste". In the same issue of the almanac, a manifesto of the futurists was published, in which it was proposed to abandon the classics of Russian literature - A. Pushkin, L. Tolstoy, F. Dostoevsky and others, and also to ignore modern authors - M. Gorky, A. Kuprin, F. Sologub , A. Blok, who, in their opinion, pursued only material benefits. The manifesto was signed by D. Burliuk, A. Kruchenykh, V. Khlebnikov and V. Mayakovsky.

For another two years, Mayakovsky continued to paint, but did not leave literature either, and also led an active social activity. It consisted in the fact that he lectured on futurism, participated in discussions about modern literature, read poetry. Often, his social activities acquired a scandalous connotation. So, one day, among other poets, he was supposed to speak at the "Second Dispute on Contemporary Art." Not paying attention to the program of the dispute, according to which he was supposed to speak the seventh, Vladimir declared loudly to the whole audience that he was a futurist and, on this basis, wanted to speak first. They tried to reason with him, to which the young man, still raising his voice, said, addressing the audience: "Gentlemen, I ask for your protection from the arbitrariness of a handful, smearing drool over the jelly of art." Of course, after these words, a terrible scream arose in the room. Some shouted: "Fine, let him speak!", "Down with!" Others demanded. The noise lasted for 15 minutes, the dispute was, one might say, thwarted. Finally Mayakovsky was allowed to speak first. You can imagine what his speech was after such introductory words. After that, the speeches of the rest of the participants, of course, could not make a strong impression.

Of course, the next day, all the newspapers described the scandal that erupted in a lecture on contemporary art. In this way, most of the other public appearances of the young poet took place.

Due to the scandals surrounding the name of Mayakovsky, he was expelled from the art school in 1914. Burliuk was expelled along with him. Vladimir (he was 21 at the time) said on the occasion of the expulsion: latrine to clean air ". Well, he didn't make an artist, so much the better, he will be a poet! In addition, he has already published the first collection of poems, and this is only the beginning.

Indeed, Mayakovsky in 1913 released his first collection, which included only four poems, which was boldly and simply entitled "I". It happened as follows: Mayakovsky copied four poems by hand into a notebook, his friends V.N. Chekrygin and L. Shekhtel illustrated them. Then the collection was reproduced by lithographic method. A total of 300 copies were released, which were mostly sold to friends. But this did not bother the young poet. The future seemed bright and cloudless to him.

It was 1915. Mayakovsky wrote his famous poem "A Cloud in Trousers" and read it wherever he could, not only at literary evenings, but also when visiting his friends. On that hot July evening, yielding to the persuasions of his friend Elsa Kogan, he agreed to visit her sister. Elsa was an old friend of Vladimir, they had known each other for more than one year. The girl was in love with him without memory, Mayakovsky, briefly carried away by Elsa, quickly cooled down, but they still remained friends, and Elsa, in spite of everything, hoped that she could regain the location of the famous poet. So they came to visit.

Mayakovsky introduced himself, looked around the audience, not keeping his eyes on anyone. Then, as usual, I got up in doorway, opened the notebook and, without asking anyone's permission, not paying attention to anyone, began to read.

Soon everyone fell silent and listened attentively. The poem really made a strong impression, which was further enhanced by the fact that the author himself read it. As soon as he finished, everyone began to applaud and admire. Mayakovsky raised his eyes and met the eyes of a young, dark-haired woman. She looked at him defiantly and slightly mockingly. Suddenly her gaze softened, admiration shimmered through it.

Mayakovsky suddenly heard Elsa say: “My sister, Lilya Brik, and this is her husband, Osip,” but did not even turn his head in her direction. The whole world ceased to exist for him, he saw only Lilya. Then he moved from his place, went up to Leela, said: "Can I dedicate this to you?" Elsa at that moment realized that the poet was forever lost to her.

About four years passed, during which a whirlwind romance developed between Lilya and Vladimir. They then met, then dispersed, then wrote mountains of letters to each other, then ignored each other. However, Lilya mostly ignored Mayakovsky, he threw notes at her, begged to answer, otherwise he would die, shoot himself ... The young woman did not pay any attention to this, calmly informing in another letter that she was tired of Petersburg, that she and her husband were leaving to Japan, but soon he would return and bring his robe to Volodya, and so that he would not forget her, he continued to write.

But once, according to Lily's testimony, Mayakovsky actually almost shot himself. It happened in 1916. Early in the morning Lilya was awakened by a phone call. She picked up the phone and heard Mayakovsky's voice: “I'm shooting. Goodbye Lilik. " The young woman was confused, but only for a second. She did not take it as a bad joke, in recent times Volodya often spoke about death. She never doubted for a moment that he could do it. Shouting into the phone: "Wait for me!" - She, putting on a dressing gown, and a light coat over it, ran out of the house, took a cab and hurried to Mayakovsky's apartment. When she reached the apartment, she began pounding on the door with her fist. It was opened by Mayakovsky himself, alive. He let her into the room and calmly said: “Shoot, misfire. The second time I didn’t dare, I was waiting for you ”.

After that, Lilya began to pay more attention to Mayakovsky, because he was an outstanding person, a famous poet.

In other words, a typical love triangle has formed: Lily, her husband and lover. However, the denouement turned out to be completely unexpected and far from typical. Leela was tired of such a relationship, and she invited Mayakovsky to settle with them. Mayakovsky was in seventh heaven. Lily's husband also had nothing against it.

They decided to live in Moscow and found a small apartment with no amenities. A sign was hung on the door: “Breeks. Mayakovsky ". So the three of them began to live.

Rumors spread throughout Moscow. Everyone began to discuss this unusual "family of threesome". Lilya called Mayakovsky her husband, and he called her his wife. Osip took this completely calmly. He was quite sure that, despite her temperament (she always had many admirers), she loved him alone. Lilya really loved him very much, or assured him that she loved him. So, despite her many hobbies, she remained with her first husband until his death, and when he was gone, she confessed: “When Mayakovsky shot himself, he died great poet... And when Osip died, I died. "

But even after the death of Osip Brik, Lily's character and temperament did not change at all: she still had many fans, then she again married the literary critic Vasily Abgarovich Katanyan, whom, as they say, she also loved dearly, and who loved her very much. despite her advanced age.

Having settled in the same apartment with her husband and lover, Lilya in every possible way denied the rumors about "love in three". This is how Lilya herself described such a life (she made this confession many years after Mayakovsky and Osip died): “I loved making love with Osia. We then locked Volodya in the kitchen. He rushed to us, scratched at the door and cried. "

Mayakovsky was forced to put up with the presence of Osip: he could not live without Lily. He had an excellent relationship with her husband. But when Lilya began to start new novels, Mayakovsky could not stand it and began to arrange a scene of jealousy for his beloved. Osip tried to calm him down with the words: “Lilya is an element, this must be taken into account. You can't stop rain or snow at will. " But Volodya did not want to listen to anything, he continued to demand that Lily belonged, if not to him alone, then at least to both of them. Once, in a fit of rage, he broke a chair, while Lilya did not pay any attention to his jealousy. When friends started a conversation with her about her second husband, she nonchalantly replied: “It is good for Volodya to suffer. He will suffer and write good poetry. " In this, Lilya was not mistaken: she knew perfectly well the character of Mayakovsky and that love suffering is the best stimulus for creativity. Indeed, Volodya wrote a lot. It was during this period that he created the poem "150,000,000", the premiere of his "Mystery-Buff" took place.

This could not last long. Mayakovsky was completely exhausted, but he could not leave "his Lilichka" either, not imagining life without her. In addition, living with Lilya and Osya, he accepted the conditions of cohabitation that Lilya offered him: during the day, everyone has the right to do what he wants, and at night all three gather in their apartment and enjoy communicating with each other.

Briks left for Riga. Mayakovsky had no choice but to write letters. Lily, tired of his jealousy, offered to part for a while. But Mayakovsky did not agree to this. However, he had no choice: he was forced to obey Lily's decision to leave for exactly three months, during this time not to make attempts to see each other, not to call each other, not to write letters.

Mayakovsky sat in the room all alone. He did not let his friends visit him, although they, having heard that Lilya had driven him out, came to support the poet. Despite the condition, he saw Lilya every day: he came to the entrance of the house where she lived and waited for her to go out into the street, but did not dare to approach her. Then he returned home and began to write letters to her with assurances of eternal love and fidelity, asking him to forgive him for jealousy. Here is an excerpt from one of these letters: “It was never so hard for me - I must have really grown too much. I used to believe in a meeting, chased by you. Now I feel that I have been completely torn from life, that nothing else will ever happen. There is no life without you. I always said it always knew now I feel it with all my being, everything that I thought about with pleasure now has no value - disgusting.

I can't promise you anything. I know there is no such promise that you would believe. I know there is no such way to see you, to put up that would not make you suffer.

And yet I am unable not to write, not to ask you to forgive me for everything. If you made a decision with gravity with a struggle, if you want to try the latter you will forgive you will answer.

But if you don't even answer, you are my only thought, how I loved you seven years ago, I love you so much, and this very second, whatever you want, whatever you order, I will do it now with delight. How awful it is to part if you know what you love and you are to blame for the parting.

I sit in a cafe and the saleswomen laugh at me. It's scary to think that my whole life will continue to be like this ... "

Three months passed in this way. Mayakovsky fled to the station: there they agreed to meet with Lilya, so that together, only two of them, go to Petrograd. In his travel bag, he carried a gift for his beloved - the poem "About this", which he wrote in "exile".

Seeing Lilya, he at the same second forgot about all his torments, forgave her all the betrayals. She also missed him, was happy to meet, and after reading the poem, she forgave him everything. Peace was restored, Volodya returned to the Brikov apartment, and everything went on as before. But could it go on forever?

Another seven years passed. Outwardly, his life seemed quite successful. He achieved universal recognition, he did not have any conflicts with the authorities. After Lenin's death, which deeply shocked him, the poet wrote the poem "Vladimir Ilyich Lenin", which was well received and soon published in a separate edition. He has repeatedly made reports that were no longer as scandalous as in his youth. His other works were also published, his plays were staged in theaters.

Mayakovsky made several trips abroad. The first trip took place in 1922, he visited Riga, Berlin, Paris. In 1925 he traveled to Europe again and also traveled to Mexico and the United States. In 1928, the poet once again traveled to Berlin and Paris.

In 1930, it was decided to celebrate Mayakovsky's peculiar anniversary: ​​20 years creative activity, or, as they wrote on the posters then, 20 years of work. The time has come to summarize, and Mayakovsky wondered: what did he do in these 20 years? This year he turned 37. He long ago abandoned his futuristic views on art, which manifested itself in the recognition of the work of Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and other classics of Russian literature.

Over the years of his creative activity, he managed to do a lot, and not only in literature. On February 1, an exhibition of his works opened, soon after that the premiere of the play "Bath" took place.

But his personal life did not bring him joy. Everyone laughed at his desire to have a normal family, children, and first of all Lily. She assured that while he was suffering, he was a real poet, but if she gave birth to his child, he would never give birth to a single talented verse. Mayakovsky himself has long come to terms with Lilin's betrayal. Why should he have a normal family, children, if he does not live long? According to eyewitnesses, he himself repeatedly said: “I will shoot myself, I will commit suicide. 35 years old. I'll live to thirty years. I won't go further. "

And yet he tried, desperately tried to find a woman who would understand him like Lilya, but would not cause him so much torment. But Lilya was well aware of this and was on the alert. It all started when one of his novels unexpectedly ended with a girl's pregnancy. This happened in 1926, when Mayakovsky was traveling in America. There he met Ellie Jones.

Volodya, upon learning about what had happened, was dumbfounded. Yes, of course, he will not love anyone as much as Lilya, but the child ... Of course, Mayakovsky takes full responsibility, will send money. Perhaps it would have come to marriage, but Lilya did everything to make her Volodya forget about this woman as soon as possible. She used a proven remedy more than once: she threatened to part. This was the only thing with which Mayakovsky still could not fight: he could not live without Lily, for her sake he was ready to give up the whole world.

There was no more talk of marrying Ellie. Mayakovsky, like a faithful knight, continued to walk everywhere for Brik, but he became sadder and sadder. He realized that this could not go on any longer, it was a dead end. Lilya has unlimited power over him. And he began to make attempts to free himself from this power at any cost. Soon he met the librarian Natalia Bryukhanenko and fell in love with her. After a while, the two of them left to rest in Yalta, and Lilya tore and threw herself. She sent him letters in which she did not stop asking if Volodinka still loved her? In Moscow, everyone lies that he wants to get married, has he really stopped loving his Lilichka? Mayakovsky answered wearily: yes, he wants to get married and live with Natalya. Perhaps this time Mayakovsky would have had the strength to get away from Lily. In addition, Natalya was a very intelligent woman and understood him perfectly. internal state, but she did not have enough strength to fight such an element as Lilya.

Brick came to the station to meet Volodya from Yalta. She stood on the platform, cheerful and confident. Volodya was the first to leave the carriage and rushed to kiss Lilya. Then Natalya appeared ... met Lily's eyes ... That was enough. She turned around and went to her apartment. One, without Volodya.

Mayakovsky increasingly began to talk about suicide as the only way out. He was tired of seeing the whole world through Lily's eyes. She noticed his depression, became worried, began to arrange evenings, tried to entertain him, offered to read poetry. He read, everyone clapped, admired, and Lilya was the loudest. As the weeks passed, Mayakovsky became more menacing than a cloud, Lilya did not know what to do. Finally, she decided that a trip abroad would help him unwind. He went to Paris, where he soon met the beautiful Tatyana Yakovleva. The girl was really incredibly beautiful and worked as a model for Coco Chanel. She had many admirers, including the famous opera singer Fyodor Chaliapin.

Lilya, of course, knew about Mayakovsky's new hobby. Moreover, it was she who planned their acquaintance: her sister Elsa lived in Paris, who helped her arrange everything. Lilya thought that a light affair would help Mayakovsky to feel the taste of life again. Elsa informed her sister about Mayakovsky's every step in Paris. It also happened before, when he came to France, and usually Elsa wrote to her sister about all Volodya's hobbies: "Empty, don't worry." But this time Mayakovsky, taking advantage of the fact that Lilya is far away, made another attempt to break this bond that was destroying his soul: he made an offer to Tatyana.

Elsa immediately informed Leela about this, she sounded the alarm. Mayakovsky returned to Moscow calm, cheerful and took up work. With Lily, he was very attentive, caring. The poet looked confidently into the future. Brick did not know what to do, but Tatyana was far away, in France, and Volodya was here in Moscow ... Soon she showed him a letter from her sister from Paris: among other things, Elsa wrote that Mayakovsky's friend, Tatyana Yakovleva, accepted the offer of a hand and hearts from the Viscount de Plessis.

There was a terrible noise: it was Mayakovsky who threw a glass at the wall, turned the chair over and ran out of the room. He could not believe in treason, he assured himself that there was something else. He rushed to get a visa, but the Breeks, who had collaborated with the Cheka for several years, used their influence. Mayakovsky was denied travel abroad.

In a rage, Mayakovsky hung a leaflet on Brikov's door with the words: “Brik lives here - he is not a verse researcher. Here lives Brik - an investigator of the Cheka, ”but he could not do more. Another attempt to find freedom ended in failure.

Mayakovsky was no longer happy with anything. Speeches on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of his work became torture for him. It seemed to him that they had ceased to be interested in his work, they did not go to the exhibition of works, the production of "Bath" was unsuccessful. He has nothing else left, so why live? Increasingly, he complained of severe headaches. He was slowly dying and he was well aware of this.

Not only Briki began to notice this, but everyone around him, both Mayakovsky's friends and strangers. Yes, his exhibition was boycotted by the writers he was most looking forward to. But those who came noted the state of Mayakovsky himself. Lunacharsky, having visited the exhibition, spoke about it like this: “Perhaps it becomes clear to me why I have an unpleasant aftertaste from today's exhibition. Strange as it may seem, this is due to Mayakovsky himself. He was somehow completely different from himself, sick, with sunken eyes, overworked, without a voice, somehow extinct. He was very attentive to me, showed me, gave explanations, but all through force. It is difficult to imagine Mayakovsky so indifferent and tired. I had to observe many times when he was out of sorts, irritated by something, when he raged, was indignant, struck right and left, sometimes touched “his own” in a big way. I prefer to see him this way compared to his current mood. It had a depressing effect on me. "

The exhibition opened on February 1, but its work was extended until March 25. All this time, Mayakovsky was sad and depressed. On March 16, the premiere of "Bath" took place. The play was not bad, but the production was deemed unsuccessful. The audience greeted the performance rather coldly. But the saddest of all were the reviews of him that appeared in the newspapers. The first article appeared seven days before the premiere. The critic who wrote it, by his own admission, did not see the production, but nevertheless wrote a rather harsh review. The writers who boycotted Mayakovsky's exhibition also reacted to the play, launching a campaign in the newspapers to persecute the poet. The poet tried to fight back, but almost no one supported him. The conflict with the writers was serious and deep, and began a long time ago. Once Mayakovsky was the poet of the revolution, but it ended long ago. Some kind of misunderstanding arose between him and other writers, they did not understand his art, but he did not understand them. He quarreled with many of his contemporaries, with those with whom he had once worked, for example, Boris Pasternak, and with others, such as Yesenin, he never found common ground.

But now it was too late to correct all this, and no one needed to. However, he did not want to leave attacks on "Bath" unanswered. He was especially outraged by the article by the critic Ermilov, entitled “On the moods of bourgeois 'leftism' in fiction". It was she who was published a week before the premiere. In response to the article, Mayakovsky hung up a slogan in the theater hall, which read:

do not evaporate

a swarm of bureaucrats.

Will not be enough

and no soap for you.

bureaucrats

helps the pen

Critics -

Like Ermilov ... "

Mayakovsky was forced to withdraw the slogan, and he was forced to comply. It was about this case that he mentioned in his suicide note.

Apparently, at that time he had already decided on the fatal step, but he postponed it, postponed it for a day, for a week. And yet he could not speak of anything other than his imminent death. So, on April 9, he gave a speech at the Plekhanov Institute of National Economy. Those present were amazed that he spoke of himself as a person who knows that he will soon die: “When I die, you will read my poems with tears of affection. And now, while I am alive, they say a lot of all sorts of nonsense about me, they scold me a lot ... ”(according to the memoirs of V. I. Slavinsky). The poet started to read the poem "At the top of his voice", but he was interrupted. Then Mayakovsky suggested writing notes with questions to which he would answer. He was handed the first note, and he read out loudly: "Is it true that Khlebnikov is a genius poet, and you, Mayakovsky, are scum in front of him?" But even here the poet showed willpower, answered politely: “I do not compete with poets, I don’t measure poets by myself. It would be stupid. " This is how the whole performance went on. If at the beginning of his career he himself did not stop before fanning the scandal, now he tried to stop it, but he did not succeed, and the scandal flared up not only at the performance, but also around Mayakovsky's whole life and work.

But could this be the reason for the suicide? The poet was always indifferent to attacks on his work, there were always people who did not understand him, but there were many admirers of his talent. Of course, he was not afraid of attacks, fear could not influence his decision to commit suicide. The anger that gradually took possession of him could affect his state of mind. Eyewitnesses claimed that there were people at the speeches who reminded him that he had repeatedly said that he was not going to live to an old age, would shoot himself, and asked when this would happen, how long to wait? Now is the time, he has written out, his work is not clear to anyone and is not interesting.

Of course, this was not the case. If Mayakovsky's poems were uninteresting, irrelevant, if they were not understood, they would simply stop publishing him, attend his performances, and forget about his existence. On the contrary, he, as never before, was in the center of attention, but the attention of the negative.

Lilya was sure that if she had been in Moscow at that time, Mayakovsky would have survived. But she was not there: she and her husband were in London.

Taking advantage of her absence, Mayakovsky made an attempt to arrange his personal life for the last time in his life, this time with the actress Veronika Polonskaya. Veronica was married, but fell deeply in love with Mayakovsky. This was not enough for him, he demanded more and more proof of her love, insisted that she leave the theater for him and belong to him completely. In vain Veronica tried to explain that theater is her whole life.

Mayakovsky did not want to understand this. Her whole life should have been only him, the rest of the world for her should not exist.

So, without noticing it, Vladimir tried to impose on Veronica the same style of relations that he had with Lilya, only this time he played the role of Lily. Knowing how to forget about everything in the world for the sake of his beloved woman, he now demanded the same attitude from Veronica. Veronica loved Mayakovsky, but she was not going to leave the theater. Mayakovsky loved her too, but his love was more like an obsession, he demanded: "All or nothing!".

It was already April in the yard. Mayakovsky was turning more and more into a living corpse, everywhere he was scolded, many friends publicly disowned him, he avoided meeting people, continued to maintain relations only with the closest ones, but communication with them was already burdensome.

On April 12, he wrote a suicide letter. The day ended, night fell, then another day. Mayakovsky did not shoot himself or destroy the letter. On the evening of the 13th, he went to visit Kataev, learning that Polonskaya and her husband Yanshin would be there.

Those present made fun of Mayakovsky, sometimes quite cruelly, but he did not respond to attacks, not paying any attention to them. He hoped to find out the relationship with Polonskaya and all evening he threw notes at her, which he wrote right there. Polonskaya read and answered. Both did not say a word to each other, their faces brightening and becoming gloomy again. Kataev called this correspondence "a deadly silent duel."

Finally, Vladimir got ready to leave. Kataev later claimed that the guest looked sick, coughed, and probably had the flu. The owner, sensing something was wrong, insisted that Volodya stay overnight with him, but the poet categorically refused, saw Polonskaya with Yanshin, then went home to the Brikov's apartment. He spent the night alone, and on the morning of April 14 went to Polonskaya and brought her by taxi to his apartment. What happened between them further, Polonskaya told repeatedly, including to the investigator:

“Vladimir Vladimirovich walked quickly around the room. Almost ran. He demanded that from that very moment I stay with him here, in this room. It's absurd to wait for an apartment, he said.

I have to quit the theater immediately. I don’t have to go to rehearsal today. He himself will go to the theater and say that I will not come again.

I replied that I love him, I will be with him, but I cannot stay here now. I love and respect my husband as a human being and I cannot do this to him.

And I won't give up the theater, and I could never leave ... So I must and must go to the rehearsal, and I will go to the rehearsal, then go home, I’ll say everything ... and in the evening I’ll move to him altogether.

Vladimir Vladimirovich did not agree with this. He continued to insist that everything should be done immediately or nothing at all. Once again, I replied that I could not do this ...

I said:

"Why don't you even accompany me?"

He came up to me, kissed me and said quite calmly and very affectionately:

"I'll call. Do you have money for a taxi? "

He gave me 20 rubles.

"So will you call?"

I went out, walked a few steps before front door.

A shot rang out. My legs gave way, I screamed and rushed along the corridor. I couldn't bring myself to come in.

It seemed to me that a very long time had passed before I decided to enter. But, obviously, I came in a moment later: there was still a cloud of smoke from the shot in the room. Vladimir Vladimirovich was lying on the carpet with his arms outstretched. There was a tiny bloody speck on his chest.

I remember rushing to him and just repeating endlessly: “What have you done? What have you done? "

His eyes were open, he was looking straight at me and he was trying to raise his head. It seemed that he wanted to say something, but the eyes were already lifeless ... ".

But even after the tragic death, the attacks on Mayakovsky did not stop immediately. At the funeral in Moscow, 150,000 people came to say goodbye to the poet.

A memorial meeting was held in Leningrad. The atmosphere of the scandal was maintained for some time, but after some time it completely dissipated, like a night fog blown away by a fresh morning wind.

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There are several facts that cast doubt on the fact that the mouthpiece of the "dictatorship of the proletariat" ended his life by suicide ...

Reconstruction of events As in the story with the suicide of Sergei Yesenin, it would seem that everything led to the voluntary departure from life and Vladimir Mayakovsky. And 1930 was a very unfortunate year for the poet. Yes, and a year earlier he was denied a visa to France, where he was going to get engaged to Tatyana Yakovleva. Later he received news of her imminent marriage. His exhibition "20 Years of Work," in which he sums up the results of his twenty years of work, has completely failed. This event was ignored by important statesmen and prominent cultural figures of that time, and Mayakovsky hoped that they would honor him with visiting the exhibition. Many colleagues and acquaintances said that not only had he completely written out, but that he had long ceased to represent the “that very” Mayakovsky, the faithful servant of the revolution.

Mayakovsky during the exhibition "20 years of work"

In addition, the production of his play "Bath" failed together with the exhibition. Yes, and throughout this year the poet was haunted by quarrels and scandals, which is why the newspapers pasted the label “fellow traveler of the Soviet regime” on him, while he himself adhered to more active positions. And soon, on the morning of April 14, 1930, in the house on Lubyanka, where Vladimir Mayakovsky was working at that time, the poet was appointed to meet with Veronika Polonskaya. Then they were in close relations for more than one year: Mayakovsky wanted to create a family with her. And it was then that he started a decisive conversation with her, demanding that she divorce the artist Mikhail Yanshin. Apparently, the conversation ended unsuccessfully for him. Then the actress left and, reaching the front door, suddenly heard a shot.
Testimony of witnesses
Actually, only Polonskaya from people close to Mayakovsky managed to catch last moments life of the poet. This is how she recalls this fateful day: “I asked if he would accompany me. “No,” he said, but promised to call. And he also asked if I had money for a taxi. I had no money, he gave twenty rubles ... I managed to reach the front door and heard a shot. I rushed about, was afraid to return. Then she entered and saw the smoke from the shot that had not yet cleared away. There was a small bloody spot on Mayakovsky's chest. I rushed to him, I repeated: "What have you done? .." He tried to raise his head. Then his head fell, and he began to turn terribly pale ... People appeared, someone said to me: "Run, meet the ambulance." I ran out and met. I returned, and on the stairs someone said to me: “Too late. Died…".

Veronica Polonskaya was the last love of Vladimir Mayakovsky

However, regarding the testimony of witnesses, there is one interesting point, which was once pointed out by the investigator of the circumstances of the death, Valentin Skoryatin. He drew attention to important detail, which consisted in the fact that all those who came running after the shot found the poet lying in the position of "feet to the door", and those who appeared later - in another "head to door". The question arises: what was the need to move the dead body of the poet? It is quite possible that in this confusion someone needed to imagine the following picture: at the moment of the shot the poet was standing with his back to the door, here was a bullet blow to the chest from inside the room and knocked him over on his back, head to the threshold. And this, in turn, already resembles an act of murder. What would it look like if he was facing the door? The same blow would have knocked him back again, but with his feet to the door. True, in this case, the shot could be made not only by Mayakovsky, but also by the killer, who acted extremely quickly.
The head of the OGPU Agranov wanted to bury Mayakovsky quickly
Also, the fact that the investigators tried to quickly bury the poet cannot but raise doubts. So, Skoryatin, on the basis of numerous documents, is sure that the head of the OGPU Yakov Agranov, by the way, one of the leaders of this repressive body, tried to arrange a hasty funeral for the suicide, but later changed his mind, considering it very suspicious.

Mayakovsky's death mask
Also, fuel is added to the fire by the remark of the artist A. Davydov regarding the death mask of Mayakovsky, which was made by Lutsky on the evening of April 14, 1930. And this gives grounds to assert that Mayakovsky fell facedown, and not on his back, as happens when shooting himself.
There is also a theory that the poet shot himself due to the fact that he was sick with syphilis. However, this argument has no basis, since the results of the autopsy carried out some time later showed that Mayakovsky did not suffer from this ailment. Moreover, the verdict itself was not published anywhere, which caused a variety of gossip about the poet's health. At least in the obituary, published in the newspaper Pravda and signed by other colleagues of the writer, a certain “rapid illness” was mentioned that led him to commit suicide.

It is impossible not to notice the difference between the noses of the living and the dead Mayakovsky
The hand of the OGPU in this case
Lilya Brik said that Mayakovsky more than once thought about suicide, and Osip Brik once persuaded his comrade: “Reread his poems, and you will see how often he talks ... about his inevitable suicide”.
It is worth noting that the investigation was carried out in the highest instances. Initially, the aforementioned Yakov Agranov undertook this, and then I. Syrtsov. The investigation was then fully referred to as “Criminal Case No. 02-29, 1930, People's Investigator 2 uch. Baum. district of Moscow I. Syrtsov about the suicide of V. V. Mayakovsky. " And on April 14, Syrtsev, after interrogating Polonskaya at the Lubyanka, said: "The suicide was caused by personal reasons." And this message was published the next day in Soviet newspapers.
Officially, Mayakovsky's suicide was caused by personal reasons


Mayakovsky treasured his friendship with Briks
When Mayakovsky died, the Briks were abroad at that time. And therefore, Valentin Skoryatin, working with numerous materials and documents, put forward a version that the Briks deliberately left their friend in February 1930, because they knew that they would soon be surely killed. And according to Skoryatin, Briks could have been involved in organizations such as the Cheka and the OGPU. They even had their own Chekist ID numbers: Lily had 15073, and Osip had 25541.
And the need to kill the poet was based on the fact that Mayakovsky was tired of the Soviet authorities. In the last years of the poet's life, notes of discontent and undisguised disappointment appeared more and more often.
At the same time, Veronika Polonskaya could not make a shot, because according to the testimony of the actress and neighbors, the shot thundered right after she left the premises. Therefore, all suspicions can be removed from her. The name of Mayakovsky's killer, if the murder did take place, is unknown.

Mayakovsky was known as one of the main allies of the October Revolution of 1917
Strange note
One cannot but pay attention to the suicide note left by Vladimir Mayakovsky. It would be appropriate to cite its text in full:
“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 recommend it to others), but I have no other options. Lily - love me.
Comrade government, my family is Lilya Brik, mother, sisters and Veronika Vitoldovna Polonskaya. If you give them a bearable life, thank you. Give the started verses to the Briks, they will figure it out. As they say - "the incident is ruined", the love boat crashed into everyday life. I count with life, and there is no need for a list of mutual pains, troubles and grievances, Happy to stay.
Vladimir Mayakovsky.
Comrades Vappovtsy, do not consider me faint-hearted. Seriously, it can't be helped. Hi. Tell Ermilov that it’s a pity - you removed the slogan, you ought to have a fight.
V. M.
I have 2,000 rubles in my desk. add to the tax.
Get the rest from Giza. "
It would seem that the suicide letter, touching at first sight, directly indicates that Mayakovsky planned suicide in advance. This thesis is supported by the fact that the note is dated April 12th. But the question arises: why, preparing for the decisive conversation with Veronika Polonskaya, Mayakovsky in advance, on April 12, predetermines the outcome of the conversation that has not yet taken place with her - "the love boat crashed ...", as he writes? It is also impossible not to pay attention to what exactly these lines are written with. And they were traced in pencil.

Mayakovsky in the working process. Photo of 1930

The fact is that the author's handwriting is most conveniently forged with a pencil. And the very dying letter of Mayakovsky was kept for a long time in the secret archives of the OGPU. Comrades Mayakovsky, Khodasevich and Eisenstein, referring to an insulting tone towards his mother and sister, stated that Mayakovsky could not write something like that in such a spirit. So it can be assumed that the note was nothing more than a fake, drawn up in the organs of the OGPU and designed to convince everyone with this as the main evidence of Mayakovsky's suicide.
Moreover, the note itself is not mentioned in any way in the protocol from the scene. She appears only in the final conclusion of the case, where it follows that the letter was written “in unusual conditions"In a state" caused by excitement. " The story of the note does not end there: Valentin Skoryatin believes that the date of April 12 can be explained quite simply. In his opinion, on that day, Mayakovsky's murder failed, and therefore this falsification was saved for the next time. And this "next time" fell on the morning of April 14, 1930.
Mayakovsky's death was like a bolt from the blue. The Breeks immediately returned from their trip to Europe. The death of the poet was a big blow to all his friends and relatives. And now it is generally accepted that Vladimir Mayakovsky voluntarily passed away, although some researchers of this case are firmly convinced that he was deliberately "removed". Some time later, Joseph Stalin will call him the best poet Soviet Union... And Polonskaya became the last close person of Mayakovsky. It was with her that the poet spent the last moments of his life.

Rumyantseva Natalia Leonidovna was born in 1948 in the city of Erfurt, Germany. Graduated from the Moscow Regional Pedagogical Institute. NK Krupskaya with a degree in Russian language and literature. A retired police lieutenant colonel. Published in the journal "Historian and Artist". Lives in Moscow. Published in Novy Mir for the first time.

On the day of Vladimir Mayakovsky's death, one of the journalists managed to call Leningrad, and Krasnaya Gazeta on April 14, 1930 came out with a message that Mayakovsky had been shot by the Moscow Art Theater actress. “This morning he<…>returned in a taxi, accompanied by the Moscow Art Theater artist N. Soon a revolver shot was heard from Mayakovsky's room, followed by the artist N. An ambulance was immediately called, but even before her arrival V. Mayakovsky died. Those who ran into the room found Mayakovsky lying on the floor with a bullet through his chest. But after a few hours they started talking about suicide. The editor-in-chief of the Izvestia newspaper, VM Gronsky, recalled that on that day he was present at an evening meeting of either the Council of People's Commissars or the Politburo of the Central Committee: “And Yagoda told me about this. We were sitting like this to the side by the window, side by side. He asked me if I knew about Mayakovsky's suicide. I say that here is Mogilny (assistant to Vyacheslav Molotov, at that time a member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee. - N. R.) said. Well he told me some details<…>"Gronsky, after the meeting at about 11 pm, arrived at the editorial office, threw, according to him, the prepared materials on suicide into the basket and wrote a short article that began with the words:" He died (did not commit suicide! - N. R.) Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky, ”called Stalin, read the text. Stalin approved the text, and on his instructions gave a report to ROSTA, Pravda and all other media outlets.

Lines from V. Veshnev's letter dated April 16-18, 1930 are quoted by Benedikt Sarnov: “On the first day, as usual, the most ridiculous rumors circulated, such as, for example, that he was shot by the Moscow Art Theater artist Veronika Polonskaya. The newspapers spread all the ridiculous rumors. "

To substantiate the official version in the first half of the 30s, an employee of the Institute of the Brain G.I.Polyakov was invited, who compiled correspondence conclusion based on the testimony of Lily and Osip Brikov and people close to them: Lev Kassil, Alexander Bromberg, Nikolai Aseev. Note that in this list there are no mothers, sisters, no friends not connected with Briks. Polyakov noted a number of mental characteristics of Mayakovsky's personality and tried to reconstruct his physical and mental state on the eve of suicide. Polyakov considered the flu suffered by Mayakovsky shortly before his death as one of the serious factors, pointed out that the poet was hoarse, overtired; before death, apathy appeared, complained of loneliness, was nervous and irritable. Polyakov pointed out that against the background of such a state, the "fatal outcome" could be provoked by the poet's "unbalanced character" and "his tendency to impulsive, under the influence of the minute, reactions."

conclusions correspondence research by G.I. True, the thought of influenza as a cause of suicide first came to mind not to an employee of the Brain Institute, but to someone else, it was announced shortly after Mayakovsky's death: in the diary of Mikhail Prezent it is written: “20.4.30. Investigation of M [Ayakovsky's] brain revealed influenza microbes that caused the poet's mental fatigue. "

Conclusions about the lack of willpower and composure in Vladimir Vladimirovich are refuted by people who knew him intimately from the “non-Brikovian” circle. The conclusion about impulsiveness in making the decision to die sounds strange: Mayakovsky, according to the official version, two days walked around with a written suicide letter, did work, made appointments, resolved the issue of creating a family with Veronika Vitoldovna Polonskaya, visited, played cards.

Relatives and friends, who knew the character of Mayakovsky no worse than Brikov, denied his tendency to suicide. Vasily Kamensky argued that when they were friends, Volodya never thought about suicide. “About love for his mother and the recognition that he would never commit suicide primarily because of her, Mayakovsky spoke to Veronika Polonskaya in that difficult year for him, when, as if jokingly, he was asked if he was going to leave this peace" . A neighbor in the apartment in Lubyansky Lane, student Bolshin, told the investigator that Mayakovsky "was of a balanced character and was very rarely gloomy."

From the interrogation protocol of M. Yanshin: “... in the society of Vl. Vl. it was always very pleasant for us to be. It was pleasant for me and Nora (my wife) to be with a person who was mentally strong and healthy, devoid of any merdichlunds ”and melancholy, which was often encountered among other people around us.”
In the report of the "Arbuzov" agent to Ya. Agranov on April 18, 1930, it is said that "the poet's sister Lyudmila, who was not allowed into the office (the investigation was underway), repeated:" I cannot believe it. I have to see him myself. It cannot be that Volodya, who is so strong, so smart, could do it. ” The plan of the conversation between Mayakovsky and Polonskaya on the eve of his death contains the paragraph: “11). I will not end my life, I will not give such pleasure<вия>thin<ожественному>theater ".

By the way, Nikolai Aseev said: “In 1913 in St. Petersburg, under the guise of a party, a secret consultation of psychiatrists was held to determine his mental abilities". The secret council did not find any pathology: Mayakovsky was recognized as a mentally healthy person.

This evidence casts doubt on the objectivity of GI Polyakov's examination. It would be interesting to know the opinion of independent experts on the conclusion made by in absentia.

The version of suicide, approved by the official investigation, was diligently carried out by Lilya Brik and her entourage. They - not mother, not sisters, not friends - looked for a suicidal disposition in the poet's character. Lilya Brik argued that Vladimir Vladimirovich made attempts to commit suicide more than once. The first was in 1916: “... early in the morning I was awakened by a phone call. The deaf, quiet voice of Mayakovsky: “I'm shooting myself. Goodbye Lilik. "
I shouted: "Wait for me!" - She threw something over her dressing gown, rolled down the stairs, begged, drove her, beat the cabman in the back with her fists. Mayakovsky opened the door for me. There was a pistol on the table in his room. He said: "I shot, a misfire, I didn't dare the second time, I was waiting for you." However, since 1915 Mayakovsky lived on Nadezhdinskaya Street in St. Petersburg, which is a five-minute walk from Zhukovsky Street, where the Briks lived. The episode with the cabman is a clear inaccuracy that casts doubt on the veracity of the whole story. About the second case, Lilya told the artist Yelizaveta Lavinskaya: “… when he wrote“ About this, ”he also shot himself. He called me on the phone and said: "I'm going to shoot myself." I told him to wait for my arrival - now I'm going. I ran out to the Lubyanka. He sits, cries, a revolver is lying next to him, he says there was a misfire, he will not shoot a second time. I shouted at him like a boy. " However, it is known that Mayakovsky and L. Brik had an agreement not to see each other for two months. They claimed that they survived him and did not meet
during the creation of the poem "About this". Let's pay attention to the same plot of each story, where phone calls and misfires appear, to inconsistencies, to the absence of witnesses who could confirm what happened.

L. Brick made attempts to find such a witness. So, she wrote to Elsa Triolet on June 29, 1939 (letter No. 29): “2. Volodya very often spoke about suicide. A little bit, he threatened: - I'll shoot myself ... "Triolet answered immediately and carefully (letter No. 30):" 2). Volodya, in those days, did not talk about suicide with strangers, I have never heard of it. "

Moreover, in October 1929, Lilya Yuryevna, according to her diary, actually provoked Mayakovsky to suicide: she read aloud in front of witnesses the lines from a letter allegedly received from Elsa Triolet that Tatyana Yakovleva was getting married. Apparently, an excess was expected, but it was not followed. Vladimir Vladimirovich went to Leningrad to give lectures. A week later, L. Yu. Brik wrote in her diary: “10/17/1929. I'm worried about Volodya. In the morning I called him in Leningrad.<…> I asked if he would put a bullet in his forehead because of Tatiana(italics mine .- N. R.) - in Paris they are worried. "

Lilya Yurievna claimed that Mayakovsky wrote his deathbed letters more than once, but she did not give any written evidence. There is no confirmation of the existence and the specified letter of Elsa Triolet.

The question arises: why did Brick need to assure the public of the poet's suicide? I would venture to suggest that Yakov Agranov asked her about this, since the facts indicate that it was this version that suited the leadership of the OGPU; further consider why.

Almost all of the poet's contemporaries had a feeling of some kind of reticence, a mystery that enveloped the last period of his life and death. The event was overgrown with legends. Whispering and hinting at murder. At the same time, they did not really believe in "a love boat that crashed against everyday life": as you know, it "crashed" at Mayakovsky's place more than once over the past eight or ten years. Marienhof wrote: “What kind of love boat” crashed? Obviously there were two of them. Or maybe three. " “When there are so many women, they don’t shoot from unhappy love” (from the notebooks of A. Akhmatova).

The agent "Arbuzov" reported on April 18, 1930: "Conversations in the literary-artist. circles are significant. The romantic lining is completely reclined. They say there is a more serious and deeper reason here. In Mayakovsky there was a turning point for a long time and he himself did not believe in what he wrote and hated what he wrote. " Agent "SHOROKH" comes to the conclusion that "what if pretext
to suicide. served as love failures, then the reasons lie much deeper: in the creative field: weakening of talent, discord between the official line of creativity and internal, bohemian tendencies, failures with the last play, consciousness worthlessness the popularity that Mayak had., etc., the main emphasis on the discord between the social. order and inner motives<…>This opinion was expressed in different shades and variations: Em. GERMAN (SHORT), E. STYRSKAYA, V. KIRILLOV, B. PASTERNAK, I. NOVIKOV, BAGRITSKY, V. SHKLOVSKY, ARGO, LEVONTIN, ZENKEVICH and many others. friend., - and all refer to what they say about it. Thus, this opinion can be considered dominant. "

Several women mentioned that they had a presentiment of the death of the poet: according to the memoirs of E. Lavinskaya, written 18 years later, Mayakovsky allegedly spoke of his intention to shoot himself to Nathan Altman's wife, who accidentally entered, and even read a letter from his death. Lavinskaya also says that the artist Rachel Smolenskaya was alarmed by his strange appearance and the pistol lying openly on the table. With Irina Schegoleva, Vladimir Vladimirovich allegedly was going to go to Leningrad on the night before his death. On the same night, Musa Malakhovskaya, Valentina Khodasevich and Natalya Bryukhanenko, in their words, offered to spend the night in an apartment in Gendrikov Lane. In Ginzburg's notebooks we find: Musya Malakhovskaya claimed that on the last night he called her on the phone in Leningrad every hour. From L. Brick's diary: “6.9.1930. Volodya asked Zina Sveshnikova if she would leave her husband if he began to live with her.<…>I called her on the 12th in the night at half past one, asked to come, but she was uncomfortable. " These memories create a sense of the inevitability of tragedy.

It is not known whether Mayakovsky really invited any of the women to visit him or whether these are myths, but it is known for sure that he was not alone in the last two days: he met Polonskaya every day, attended a rehearsal of his play, and visited, according to his neighbors , an apartment on the Lubyanka. On the night of 12-13, I played cards at the Aseevs' house. The last night I spent visiting Valentin Kataev in the company of artists and artists, where Veronica Polonskaya was also present, they dispersed almost at five o'clock in the morning. None of those present - neither during the interrogation of the investigator, nor in the memoirs - mentioned that Mayakovsky constantly ran to the phone and called someone. There is no such information in the published reports of the OGPU agents, by the way confirming the version of journalist Valentin Skoryatin that Mayakovsky is the last days life was monitored.

The OGPU agents received an order to "lead" Vladimir Vladimirovich, of course, from their leadership, which causes particular bewilderment due to the well-known close "friendship" of Mayakovsky with the Political Administration bodies.
The circle of close friends of the poet included too many of their collaborators to consider it an accident. Among the "KGB friends" were Y. Aranov (Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs G. Yagoda); Z. Volovich (professional intelligence officer); with another professional intelligence officer, L. Elbert, Mayakovsky was close for ten years, meeting abroad and in Moscow until the day of his death. Vladimir Vladimirovich was also friends with Gorb (aka Roizman), a resident of the OGPU in one of the centers of Russian emigration - Berlin, where the poet and Briks so often visited.

Mayakovsky was friends with the head of the Kharkov GPU V. M. Gorozhanin, spent a lot of time with him, rested at sea, brought him from Paris Collected Works of Anatole France, dedicated the poem "Soldiers of Dzerzhinsky". "The citizen gave him a brand new Mauser with a title deed."

Mayakovsky's acquaintances also included: P. L. Voikov (Weiner), plenipotentiary of the USSR in Poland; L. Haykis, Secretary of the Mission to the United States; J. Maga-lif, employee of the Embassy in Berlin; journalist A. Gai (A. Menshoi), who served in the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs; M. Levidov, who worked in the Trade Representation in London; M. Krichevsky from the Press Bureau of the Soviet Embassy in Riga. Their names are repeatedly found in the poet's correspondence with Lilya Brik.

Mayakovsky also maintained relations with foreign internationalists who provided assistance to the OGPU: the American communist Moreno, who during the poet's stay in New York was killed, according to Mayakovsky, by "government assassins"; with the Mexican artist Diego Rivera, who visited Vladimir Vladimirovich with Theodor Dreiser in November 1927, and in 1928 Mayakovsky brought him to his room on the Lubyanka, where he showed his pistols.

An indirect confirmation of Mayakovsky's cooperation with the OGPU can be considered too frequent trips abroad, as well as the presence of personal weapons. The book "Investigative Case of V. V. Mayakovsky" reproduces copies of five certificates for pistols (revolvers) that belonged to the poet. However, the shot was fired from a pistol not on this list. This means that he also had unregistered weapons. There is no information about the surrender of any weapons by Mayakovsky.

“Mayakovsky traveled a lot abroad. And the very events of his creative and personal life were heralded as the fulfillment of some important political task to promote the ideas of LEF among the workers (and not only) poets of a number of European countries. " Since 1922, he traveled abroad on average twice a year. In 1922 - 1929 Mayakovsky repeatedly visited Riga, Prague, Warsaw, Berlin, Konigsberg, Paris, in 1925 he visited Mexico and the USA. At the same time, he often wrote to Lilya Brik about his unwillingness to go: “I am sitting in Paris, as they promised me in two weeks to give an answer about an American visa. Even if they didn’t give it, then at the same second I’ll leave for Moscow ... ”.

V. Skoryatin remarked about Mayakovsky's last trip in 1929: “This time the Paris trip turned out to be the longest - over two months. During this time, he will speak publicly only twice ”.

Questions arise: what did he do abroad, who determined the length of stay, what money did he spend there? In 1924, Mayakovsky hosted a banquet for 20 people for Sergei Diaghilev at the prestigious Cafbe des Anglais. He constantly helped Elsa Triolet and Louis Aragon financially. Tatyana Yakovleva recalled: “Mayakovsky was fabulously generous, spoiled them (Triolet and Aragon. - N. R.), took to restaurants, made expensive gifts.<…>At that time, they mainly lived on Mayakovsky's money.<…>". And he covered Tatyana herself with flowers, having paid for the order for the delivery of baskets at the time of departure to Moscow.

Due to the fact that the archives of the OGPU for the 1920s and 1930s have not been fully disclosed, we cannot say that Mayakovsky was a career agent of this organization, but he interacted with it quite closely. Members of his "family" - Osip and Lilya Brik - were staff members of the Cheka - GPU - NKVD.
To prove this, V. Skoryatin cited in his book photocopies of relevant documents, as well as memoirs of contemporaries, including Rait-Kovaleva, that L. Brik had a certificate that “allowed her to easily enter institutions closed to all other mortals” issued to her by “Yanechka” Agranov ...

Perhaps the Briks performed a certain task of monitoring the Moscow intelligentsia, attracting writers and artists to LEF, REF, or their own "salon".

At first, contemporaries considered only Brikov to be employees of the Cheka - OGPU, then Mayakovsky's turn came. LF Katsis writes: “... this transformation (the image of Mayakovsky. - N. R.) just between 1923 and 1924 ". It seems that it did not happen, but became noticeable. "To the eternal question:" So why did Mayakovsky shoot himself? " - Akhmatova calmly replied: “You shouldn't have been friends with the Chekists”.

So what did Mayakovsky do that the OGPU organized spying on him? Since when has it been conducted?

He may have become interested in "organs" after meeting Ellie Jones in Nice in 1928. It's not about their romance. Rather, it is the result of Mayakovsky's trip to America in 1925, during which Isaiah Khurgin, the chairman of the board of Amtorg, who took care of Mayakovsky during the trip and was friends with E. Jones, was killed. Former Stalin's secretary B. Bazhanov recalled: “There are no diplomatic relations with America. There is no embassy or trade mission there. There is Amtorg - a trade mission that trades. In fact, it performs the functions of both the plenipotentiary mission, and the trade mission, and the base for all the underground work of the Comintern and the GPU ... ". Mayakovsky arrived in New York on August 1, and on August 19 Khurgin went to rest in the suburbs together with the director of the Mossukno trust E. M. Sklyansky, who had arrived on a business trip. They did not invite Mayakovsky with them. Sklyansky - Trotsky's deputy in the Revolutionary Military Council (transferred to Mossukno shortly before the trip) and his friend, sent to America at the insistence of Stalin. On August 24, Khurgin and Sklyansky tragically drowned under mysterious circumstances. Bazhanov wrote in his memoirs: "Mehlis and I were firmly convinced that Sklyansky was drowned on Stalin's orders and that the" accident "was organized."

Mayakovsky had a hard time surviving the deaths of Khurgin and Sklyansky. Ellie Jones (real name Elizabeth Siebert), who worked in the mission to help the hungry in Samara during the Civil War, and later emigrated to the United States, said that Mayakovsky knew that this death was not accidental. In 1928, he met with Ellie in Nice, they talked all night. Mayakovsky kept an affair with Ellie in secret, although he and Briki did not consider their love affairs as shameful and did not hide it. For some reason L. Yu Brik was looking for Jones and her daughter.

During the analysis of Mayakovsky's papers after his death, they found two photographs of "unclear" women and attached them to the materials of the investigation file. There is an assumption that L. Brik gave them to Agranov, since the envelope is not numbered and not hemmed. On April 14, 1930, the seizure of any papers, including women's photographs, was not reported from the poet's room. However, five days later, in the resolution on the completion of the investigation, these two photos already appear: on one of them - Tatyana Yakovleva, on the other - either her sister Lyudmila (Mayakovsky helped her to leave Soviet Russia to Paris), or Nadezhda Simon, the wife of a Parisian doctor, with whom Mayakovsky first saw Tatyana. An urgent order was given to agents to collect information about T. Yakovleva, the agent's certificate was filed in the case. The surprisingly increased attention with which on the day of the poet's death the staff of the OGPU reacted to the one with whom Mayakovsky had not met for a year; more than that - during this time she got married, and he was carried away by another.

Mayakovsky and Yakovleva introduced E. Triolet in 1928, immediately after the poet's return from Nice to Paris, in the waiting room of Dr. Simon. When comparing the memories of both women, interesting details emerge: the doctor - a specialist of surprisingly wide profile - treats teeth (for Elsa) and bronchitis (for Tatiana); the doctor's wife learns about Yakovleva's sudden call to the doctor and manages to warn Elsa; the doctor appoints both of them immediately, in the early morning; Triolet brings Mayakovsky to him almost from the station. However, judging by the recollections of eyewitnesses, the acquaintance was planned and, therefore, necessary for something. The version of a non-accidental acquaintance is confirmed by the lines of Tatyana's letter to her mother, who lived in Penza: “To him (Mayakovsky. - V.S.) <…>Ehrenburg and other acquaintances endlessly talked about me, and I received greetings from him when he had not yet seen me. Then he was invited to one house specially to introduce him. "

The circle of emigrants who provided assistance to the Foreign Ministry and the OGPU abroad was much wider than is commonly believed. Paris at that time was the center of the world's intelligence. Tatiana, who lived in a mixed society of Russian émigrés, Parisian "golden youth", diplomats and people of art, could be of some interest to the special services. It is possible that this is why Triolet introduced her to Mayakovsky. And maybe it was not Mayakovsky who "looked after" Tatiana, but she followed him.

Roman Yakobson wrote that Tatyana Yakovleva responded "evasively" to Mayakovsky's marriage proposals. She accepted the courtship of other admirers, including the impoverished Viscount du Plessis, whom she later married. The age difference between them and Mayakovsky was considerable. Doubt about Yakovleva's love is also reinforced by a letter from Triolet to Lilya Brik, which quotes, from the words of Pierre Simon, the doctor's brother, gossip about Yakovleva: with du Plessis “Tatiana lived for a long time both before Volodya and when Volodya was. They rented a house in Fontainebleau. " For his part, Mayakovsky did not confine himself to Yakovleva: he corresponded with Ellie Jones, advertised his relationship with L. Brick, bought Lilya a car and gifts with Tatyana, although it would be more logical to go shopping with Elsa Triolet, who is better acquainted with her sister's taste. A month after his last trip to Paris, he began an affair with Polonskaya. The question arises: did Mayakovsky and Yakovleva really have love or just play with it?

Observation of Mayakovsky, apparently, was conducted not only by the agents of the OGPU, but also by Briki. “Lilya Yurievna, knowing how hard he endures the absence of loved ones, foresaw not only Elbert’s stay in Gendrikov, but also asked other common acquaintances to visit the poet.<…>Often visited Mayakovsky P. Lavut, his longtime friend L. Grinkrug Brikov dropped in every day.<…>Polonskaya and Yanshin came, and besides them, all this time no one was ... ".
V. A. Katanyan writes: “In March 30th Snob (Elbert. - N. R.) even lived with him in Gendrikov for several days ... ". "What conversations with Snob<…>their breakfasts and dinners took place, we do not know, however, the state of mind of Mayakovsky clearly did not improve from them. And it is not entirely clear why Snob, who had comfortable housing in Moscow, settled in Gendrikov Lane. "

In May 1929 Osip Brik introduced Mayakovsky to Veronica Polonskaya - Nora, a friend of Lily Yurievna. Mayakovsky knew how to please women, he had fans, and never before had Briks looked for girls for him. And here - then Tatiana, then Veronica. Apparently, something in the poet's behavior began to bother Brikov, perhaps they sensed the appearance of some kind of secret in him. I will guess that it was this, and not courtship for Yakovleva, that led to the famous quarrel with Lilya upon Mayakovsky's return from Paris: in the “family” they did not quarrel over novels. Maybe Veronika Vitoldovna was introduced to him because Polonskaya was in touch with one of the Briks, and she was instructed to find out the question of interest.

Judging by the plan of the conversation with Polonskaya, drawn up before his death, Vladimir Vladimirovich doubted her love - and wanted to "know what was being done." In the days preceding the tragedy, Mayakovsky, who had a cold, worked, checked the preparation of the Melomime, and resolved issues related to Nora. Polonskaya behaved ambiguously: on April 11, she and Vladimir Vladimirovich had a big fight, “parted in mutual enmity,” but in the evening they were seen together in his car. In the evening, the four of them with Aseev and Yanshin played poker. On April 12, Vladimir Vladimirovich called Polonskaya at the theater, made an appointment at 15 o'clock. On the same day, as follows from the date, he wrote his deathbed letter and a plan for "a truce with his beloved woman." In the "plan" there are such phrases: "If they love, then the conversation is pleasant"; “I will not end my life, I will not give such pleasure. thin theater ”(we have already cited it); "Breake downthis very second or know what is being done. " Apparently, this conversation was very important for the poet, if he thought out its course so carefully. As Polonskaya writes in her memoirs, on this day (April 12) "after the performance we met at his place." During the conversation, Mayakovsky makes peace with Polonskaya. She recalled that allegedly promised to become his wife again: after that he was in a good mood, accompanied her by car to the house, drove to the apartment in Gendrikov Lane, called her in the evening; "We talked for a long time and very well", had dinner at the restaurant of the Herzen House. But Polonskaya for some reason (with a good conversation!) “Asked him to leave, at least for two days somewhere in a rest home. I remember that I noted these two days in his notebook. These days were April 13 and 14 ”. The request not to meet in the coming days is mentioned both in the interrogation protocol and in the memoirs, which convinces of its authenticity. A pause of two days suggests that Polonskaya should have consulted with someone regarding the questions raised by Mayakovsky.

Polonskaya writes that they made it up on that day. It seems that they made it up on the 11th - if they played cards together; and in this context the will, allegedly written the next morning, does not fit. One thing is certain: on the 12th, 13th, and 14th Mayakovsky tried to call Veronika Vitoldovna into an important conversation for herself, and she tried to evade this conversation. Polonskaya claimed that the conversation was about her leaving for Mayakovsky from Yanshin. Note that this is known only according to Polonskaya.

Polonskaya's testimony given to the investigator after Mayakovsky's death and her memoirs, written eight years later, have significant discrepancies. So, from the interrogation protocol, it follows that on April 13 Mayakovsky took her to the morning performance with a check-in at an apartment in Lubyansky lane, phoned the theater several times during the day, and at 4 pm Polonskaya herself went to Mayakovsky and asked “that he leave me alone for 3 days, that then I will meet with him. " In her memoirs, she writes that “on April 13 in the afternoon we did not see each other. He called at lunchtime and offered to go to the race in the morning. I said that I would go to the race with Yanshin and with the Moscow Art Theater<…>... He asked what I would do tonight. I said that I was called to see Kataev, but that I would not go to him and what I would do, I do not know yet. ” But after all, it follows from the interrogation protocol that the poet on April 13 (with a suicide letter in his pocket?) Takes Polonskaya across all of Moscow, visits, plans work for the next days. After a "good conversation" does not destroy the dying letter prepared in advance. She promises to leave to rest for two days - and immediately invites her to the race the next day ... Continuous contradictions.

One thing is indisputable: on April 13th they had a serious conversation. She tells the investigator that at 4 pm she went to see him from the theater “for half an hour”. The neighbors confirm that she came, but they say a different time. From the interrogation of the housekeeper and Mayakovsky's neighbor N. A. Gavrilova: Polonskaya "<…>visited his room very often<…>... April 13 s / y. about 13 o'clock, Mayakovsky asked me to bring two bottles of wine, which I brought the hem of the wine through the small opening of the door, there was some woman in the room at that time<…>it was undoubtedly Polonskaya, at the time when I was serving wine Mayakovsky told me to bring him a cigarette for the last time ”<...>I brought him two packs and left the cigarettes, he also took through the door. " From the transcript of the interrogation of M. S. Tatariyskaya's neighbor: “On April 13 he handed me 50 rubles. and asked to tell Giza, these two days he was noticeably nervous, he often ran away<л>, and ran to the apartment. He had a woman these days, but I did not see her, but only heard a voice. On the evening of April 13, he was behind the wall, moaning, groaning. I don’t know when he left. Apparently late. "

According to Gavrilova, it turns out that Veronika Vitoldovna came to Mayakovsky not "after the performance" at 16 o'clock, but much earlier, when she allegedly had a daytime performance. According to the testimony of neighbors, the conversation turned out to be a long one, and not half an hour, as she wrote in her memoirs; On the 13th Mayakovsky, as Bolshin's neighbor, who came to see him during the day, noted during interrogation, "was in a depressed state." Apparently, Polonskaya did not promise to go to him and become his wife, as she slyly writes in her memoirs. Veronika Vitoldovna could not help remembering such a conversation.

The interrogation report records that Polonskaya told Mayakovsky that she did not love him, and that she did not intend to leave her husband. In memories, the opposite is true.

The conclusion suggests itself that during the first interrogation, agitated, Polonskaya told the truth (perhaps not all). In the winter of 1929/1930, she decided to break off the relationship that had become difficult, but for some reason she could not do it herself: she wanted him to leave for a few days, hoping (after the arrival of the Briks?) To cut the tangled knot of relations. Mayakovsky stubbornly sought meetings to ask important questions. Maybe he felt that some kind of information leak was going through her, doubted her love and began to insist on marriage, wanting to check how everything really is. Hence, in terms of conversation, the item "Know what is being done." For example, was it not on the instructions of the Briks that she "fell in love" with him so quickly, and whether all the details of their relationships and conversations became known to the "family". Therefore, I went without an invitation to visit Kataev, where Polonskaya was supposed to be.

There he tried to find out something from Veronika Vitoldovna. Kataev, his wife and guests - Reginin, Yanshin, Livanov - witnessed the showdown. Those present called it "flirting of flowers." Kataev noted that the poet threw his notes across the table with the gesture of a gambler. Waiting for an answer, he was nervous, fiddling with the bearskin. Only Polonskaya read them. But she did not disclose what issues they discussed with Mayakovsky in writing. Polonskaya did not mention the notes in the interrogation protocol, but in her memoirs she says that Mayakovsky told her during a serious conversation before firing that "he had already destroyed the pages of his notebook containing our yesterday's correspondence, filled with mutual insults." Prudently.

Mayakovsky, apparently, did not manage to find out the question of interest to him, so he went to see Polonskaya home and negotiated - with Yanshin - about tomorrow's conversation with Veronika Vitoldovna. Yanshin's position in this context is interesting: allegedly knowing about Mayakovsky's demands regarding his wife, he shows neither curiosity about the correspondence, nor jealousy and calmly allows him to talk with her the next day. The feeling that Mikhail Mikhailovich was sure that the conversation was not about love and divorce, that Yanshin knew about the assignment, was forced to endure the poet's courtship and, if possible, covered his wife himself. This explains both his attitude towards the "friendship" of his wife with Mayakovsky, and why Polonskaya did not marry Mayakovsky and did not directly refuse him. She did not leave a child from him, she had an abortion. Recall: when the close relationship between Polonskaya and Mayakovsky was publicized, Yanshin immediately divorced her.

The discrepancies in the testimony and recollections of Polonskaya are obvious. Veronika Vitoldovna clearly wants to correct her behavior "in better side"And is hiding something. It seems that the testimony of witnesses to Mayakovsky's death and the documents, including the interrogation protocol, drawn up in hot pursuit, as less thoughtful, carry more reliable information. Yes, Polonskaya did not want to publicize her close relationship with Mayakovsky and lied to the investigator in response to a question about cohabitation with him, but she was unlikely to have time to think over everything under the impression of what had happened small parts, and therefore the testimony may turn out to be more truthful than the memories that are thought out, weighed with a cool head, and even discussed with L. Brik. Let's try, comparing the available documents, to imagine how everything really happened.

Remembering that in the interrogation protocol Polonskaya directly says that on April 13 she finally told him “that I don’t love him, I will not live with him as well as I do not intend to leave my husband”, let's see how events developed further.

On April 14 at 9.15 am “MAYAKOVSKY called my apartment on the phone and said that he would come now; I replied that it was good, he would be waiting at the gate. When I got dressed and went out into the yard, MAYAKOVSKY walked towards the door of our apartment. " We came to him at Lubyanka; Polonskaya warned that at half past ten she had a rehearsal. We entered the room. “It was about 10 o'clock. in the morning. I didn't undress, he undressed; I sat down on the sofa, he sat down on the carpet that was sent on the floor at my feet and asked me to stay with him for at least one or two weeks. I answered him that it was impossible, because I do not love him. To this he said, “Well, okay,” and asked if we would meet; I answered yes, but not now. When he was going to go to the theater for a rehearsal, he said that he would not go to see him off and asked me if I had money for a taxi. I said no. He gave me 10 rubles, which I took; said goodbye to me, shook my hand. " Note that Polonskaya, like a zombie, obediently goes to his house to repeat her "no". Why couldn't this be said near her house or in the car, for example? Something needed to be taken from the room on the Lubyanka? Perhaps there is something left in this room after a long and difficult conversation the day before? She does not undress: witnesses confirm that she was wearing a summer coat and a blue hat. Mayakovsky, apparently, hoped to stay in the room, as he hung up his cane and took off his jacket, remaining in one shirt.

What were they talking about? Is it really about getting married? Or something else? The bookseller came - Mayakovsky opened the door for him, not letting him into the room. Knigonosha Loktev, invited as a witness, confirmed Polonskaya's testimony that the poet was kneeling in front of her when she was sitting on the sofa: moment when gr. Mayakovsky opened the door for me she was sitting; and gr. Mayakovsk<ий>Kneeling in front of her(italics mine .- N. R.) ". Valentin Skoryatin read the word as “whisper”, however, if we compare it with the writing of the letters “t” and “w” in other words, the doubt that “stomp” is written disappears.

So, the bookseller came to Mayakovsky's apartment at 10 o'clock in the morning. I knocked. After the second knock, “a very agitated gr. Mayakovsky tore open the door and said: comrade, leave your books, don't come in, but get the money in the next room. " It seems that it was not on his knees that Mayakovsky opened the door for him. Apparently, hearing the voices and not waiting for the door to be opened, the bookseller peered through the crack and saw a "scene on his knees." Then he knocked a second time, and Mayakovsky jumped up, jerked open the door and sent the messenger to his neighbor. Knigonosha gave the books to a neighbor, wrote out a receipt and received money for the previous order.

Apparently, Polonskaya tried to break free (after the abortion, she felt physical disgust for the poet) —that is why there was “pounding” in the room — and Mayakovsky kept her by force. Their struggle could have continued even after the bookseller left. If Mayakovsky began to detain her, then at some moment she could grab a pistol, shoot out of despair and hit her heart. The version that Polonskaya shot him when he tried not to let her go does not look implausible. Therefore, he was lying on the sofa, as Levin's neighbor and the artist Denisovsky, one of the first to arrive at the scene, remembered. And the mouth could be open, as Lavinskaya remembered, if he tried to prevent the shot when he saw the gun in Nora's hand.

From the interrogation protocol of Polonskaya: “I went out the door of his room, he stayed inside it, and heading to go to the front door of the apartment, at that time a shot rang out in his room and I immediately understood what was happening, but did not dare to enter, began to shout ... The apartment neighbors ran out to cry, and after that we only entered the room; MAYAKOVSKY was lying on the floor with outstretched arms and legs with a wound in his chest. Approaching him she asked what you did, but he did not answer. I started crying, screaming and what happened next I don't remember. "

From the memoirs of Polonskaya: she left, “walked a few steps to the front door” of the apartment. “A shot rang out. My legs gave way, I screamed and rushed along the corridor: I could not bring myself to enter. It seemed to me that a very long time had passed before I decided to enter. But, obviously, I came in a moment later: there was still a cloud of smoke from the shot in the room. Vladimir Vladimirovich was lying on the carpet with his arms outstretched. There was a tiny bloody speck on my chest. " The clock showed 10.15. According to her, Mayakovsky was still alive: “His eyes were open, he was looking directly at me and was trying to raise his head. He seemed to want to say something, but his eyes were already lifeless. The face and neck were red, redder than usual. Then his head fell, and he gradually began to turn pale. "

So, according to Polonskaya, Mayakovsky shot himself when she walked out the door of his room into the corridor. But that Polonskaya was in the room at the time of the shot, the neighbors gave evidence. Nikolai Krivtsov, 23-year-old neighbor of Mayakovsky: “After 10-15 m., Being in my room, I heard some kind of clap, like a clap on my hands, and at the same moment I entered Skobelev’s room and said in an agitated voice that in Mayakovsky’s room, something slammed, I immediately, together with Skoboleva, left my room heading towards Mayakovsky's apartment, at that moment the door of Mayakovsky's room was opened and an unknown citizen ran from there screaming, as I later learned by the name of Polonskaya, shouting "save me, help me" "Mayakovsky shot himself" heading to our kitchen, in the first from the kitchen Polonskaya, I saw the room occupied by Mayakovsky, who was on the threshold of the room, the door was open, I cannot say whether she was in the room at the time of the shot or entered after it, but this interval was several seconds , after her screams, I immediately went into the room. Mayakovsky was lying on the floor with a gunshot wound in his chest; ambulance, Polonskaya stood on the threshold of the room cried a lot and screamed for help, the neighbors who brought her down advised her to meet an ambulance, which she brought to the apartment five minutes later<…>". Krivtsov is careful in his testimony - perhaps he did not want to harm Polonskaya, not knowing all the circumstances.

The housekeeper of the flatmates, the Bolshins, spoke more definitely - N.P. Skobina (Krivtsov called her Skobeleva and Skoboleva). Skobina, in the presence of witnesses, caught Polonskaya in a lie and gave confident testimony that she was in the room at the time of the poet's death. “Moyakovsky, together with Polonskaya, went into the room, the door of which he closed behind him, less than 15 - 20 minutes had passed when I heard a shot in Mayakovsky’s room in the kitchen, with a sound like from a scarecrow, leaving the kitchen to another room, immediately informed Nikolai Osipovich Krivtsov, that we had a misfortune, he asked what I said that Mayakovsky had a shot, it was quiet for several seconds, I only heard some kind of sound of Mayakovsky, listening to what would happen next, being at the door of the kitchen, which is located opposite the door of Mayakovsky's room, I saw the door open room and at the same time I heard Polonskaya's scream, save me, grabbed her head, which left the room, I, in a place with Krivtsov, rushed into the room, then Mayakovsky was lying on the floor. Krivtsov, began to call the ambulance station, and I ran out to the stairs and began to shout at the scream, neighbors came together, Polonskaya, it was also right there in the room, someone said that an ambulance needed to be met, and it went to the courtyard of the house, where it led in speed doctor, orderlies, and he, when examining Moyakovsky, said that he had died, turning to those present asked how it could be Polonskaya, stood with me, I replied that she was with this citizen, pointing to Polonskaya, after that she only scolded that she I came to the place with him and began to go out when I heard a shot, came back, to which I answered her no untrue, you opened the door in two seconds and asked for “help” I know that Polonskaya, very often went to Moyakovsky, almost every day she was in the afternoon and in the evening. "

From the story of Reginin, recorded by Mikhail Prezent in hot pursuit, it also follows that the shot was fired in the presence of Polonskaya: “... Reginin says: a few minutes after Mayakovsky brought Polonskaya to his place, a GIZ agent knocked on the door<…>... Mayakovsky got angry - “Not for you now, comrade!”, But it seems that he got the money, and the agent left. And after some, very short time, a shot rang out, and Polonskaya ran out of Mayakovsky's room and began to call the hostess or neighbors ... ".

If Polonskaya shot Mayakovsky, it’s not surprising that she saw and remembered a cloud of smoke, a jolt of blood from the shot that caused instant redness, and blurred eyes. The neighbors who entered a minute later did not observe the described picture. She herself, describing how the blood rushed to Mayakovsky's face after the shot, how he fell and tried to raise his head
and then he began to turn pale, in fact confirms his presence next to the body at the very moment of death. Perhaps it was in those seconds that Polonskaya saw his last look and told him: “What have you done?”, Meaning that he provoked her to murder.

The presence of Polonskaya in the room at the time of the murder can be considered proven by the testimony of two witnesses and, indirectly, her own. If we assume that Mayakovsky committed suicide, then it turns out that while Polonskaya took two or three steps to the door and went out into the corridor, he managed to go to the table or to the jacket hanging on the chair, took out a pistol, stood up so that after the shot fall on a soft ottoman, removed the safety catch, set the pistol in a rather uncomfortable position: left hand brought it closer - did not press it! - to the left side (try it!), slightly took the pistol away from the shirt (no traces of gunpowder near the hole, as the examination showed) - and then fired. It is unlikely that he would have had time to do this in the couple of seconds that it took Polonskaya to go out into the corridor. Yes, and they usually shoot with a pistol in the head, and not in the chest: it is more convenient and reliable.

Investigator Sinev wrote in the protocol of the inspection of the scene: "A shirt with traces of opal." This means that the shell of the bullet burned the fabric along the diameter of the hole. But when fired at close range, there should be points from the powder particles that did not have time to burn. They are not here. Valentin Skoryatin himself examined the poet's dying shirt and claims that even with the help of a magnifying glass he did not find any traces of a powder burn. So, he concludes, the muzzle was far enough from the chest. On the left, it means he was shooting with his left hand. It was not for nothing that after the autopsy, which discovered a bullet on the left side, Yakov Agranov wondered if Mayakovsky was left-handed. M. Prezent writes: “Mayakovsky was left-handed. The bullet pierced the heart, lungs and kidney. " Denisovsky recalls: “... suddenly Agranov comes and asks: was Vladimir Vladi-mirovich left-handed. It is very important. It turned out. That the bullet passed from the left side and he could shoot himself only with his left hand. We all confirmed that he was left-handed and right-handed. Deal with the left, played billiards with the right and left
etc." ... But for some reason they did not find out with which hand he usually fired.

Note that the bullet went from top to bottom: as if the shooter was standing, and the one who was shot was sitting. The report of the inspection of the scene indicated that the inlet with a diameter of about 6 mm is located 3 centimeters above the left nipple. There is no outlet. Right side on the back in the area of ​​the last ribs a hard foreign body, insignificant in size, is felt under the skin. Let's look at the conclusion of the examination of the shirt, in which the poet died, made in 1991: “Damage on V. V. Mayakovsky's shirt is an entrance firearm, formed when fired from a distance, a side stop in the direction from front to back and somewhat from right to left in an almost horizontal plane.<…>immediately after being wounded, V.V. Mayakovsky was in a horizontal position, lying on his back.<…>The shape and small size of the 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 a weapon that was in the same hand. " An interesting conclusion of the examination about traces of antimony, which is formed during the thermal decomposition of the primer composition: it indicates that the center of the inlet on the jacket is "slightly shifted to the right relative to the center of damage."
That is, either someone standing in front of Mayakovsky fired with his right hand, or the poet himself fired a shot with his left hand, since it is extremely inconvenient to bring the right hand with a weapon from the left side. And it was impossible for Mayakovsky to hold the pistol with his left hand at such a distance from his chest that the powder gases would not scorch his shirt.

The timing shows that Mayakovsky could not commit suicide in the 2-3 seconds Polonskaya needed to get out into the corridor. He would have to get the weapon and either load it, or (in case the pistol was already loaded) remove it from the safety lock, cock the trigger, find the exact place of the shot, take an uncomfortable position with an emphasis on the left side, move his hand away so as not to burn the shirt with powder gases , and even raise this hand (the bullet went from top to bottom) - and only then shoot. If we imagine that Polonskaya tried to get up and leave, and he, sitting on the couch, held her, tried to pull her to him and she, in a state of passion, shot at him, then this explains the movement of the bullet from top to bottom, and traces of opal on the shirt, and even those changes in his face, which she noticed in the first seconds after the shot.

It seems that this version could be verified in our time by means of an investigative experiment.

From the transcript of the interrogation of Tatariyskaya's neighbor: “On the morning of April 14, he arrived with Polonskaya (who often visited him in winter) at 9 o'clock. 40 minutes by my watch (but they seem to be lagging behind). Soon an inventory manager came from Giza and he very rudely asked him to come to me.<…>10h 3m Vlad knocked approximately. Vladim. and was very calm. He asked for matches to light a cigarette.
I suggested that he take receipts from Giza and money. Taking it in hand, he returned from the door and told me, "I'll talk to you in the evening." At 10 o'clock. 8 minutes I also went to work. " Note that a few minutes before his death, Mayakovsky promises a neighbor to talk to her in the evening - and suddenly suicide, to which he allegedly went for two days ...

Valentin Skoryatin draws the readers' attention to the following detail: “None of those present [in the apartment] (including P. Lavut) remembered that V. Polonskaya spoke about the revolver in the poet's hands when she ran out of the room. Why? After all, this is an important detail! She would explain everything at once: Polonskaya runs out - Mayakovsky immediately shoots a bullet in the heart. And no doubt about suicide. " Skoryatin believes that later the investigator or Agranov invented and forced Polonskaya to sign the version about the pistol. Mayakovsky's entrepreneur Lavut recalled that the investigator, who took evidence from Polonskaya, first of all gave the act to Agranov, who read it to someone over the phone. “The act stated that when Polonskaya heard a shot on the stairs,<…>she ran downstairs, got into the car and drove away. She allegedly ran away from Vladimir Vladimirovich, frightened by the revolver that he pulled out. She thought he was going to shoot her. " If we assume that the pistol was in the hands of Polonskaya, it becomes clear why she did not speak about it at the beginning.

Polonskaya got scared, tried to run away, jumped out of the room, slamming the door, and rushed along the corridor. Together with the neighbors who arrived in time, she approached the threshold - and was convinced that the poet was dead. From the interrogation protocol of Polonskaya: "As a result, an ambulance was called." When I was in the room, someone told me to go to meet her. I went out into the yard and outside, and waited for about 5 minutes. An ambulance arrived, with which I pointed out the apartment and, upon examining MAYAKOVSKY, stated his death. After that I felt bad, I went out into the yard, and then went to the theater, as my rehearsal was supposed to be there. "

The interrogation report says that Polonskaya went out “into the courtyard and outside(italics mine .- N. R.), waited about 5 minutes. " In fact, I think, she ran to warn Agranov: it is nearby - across the road. She managed to approach the arrival of the ambulance and entered with the brigade. Bolshin's testimony confirms that Polonskaya was waiting for an ambulance at the gate, that is, she could have time to run to Lubyanka, report the incident and return. By the way, not a single source says who so urgently called Agranov and his colleagues. From the memoirs of E. Lavinskaya: “Neighbor<…>she said that, running into the shot, she found him alive - he was still breathing. Comrades immediately came(italics mine .- N. R.) ". Note - not just a task force, but "comrades with general's shoulder straps" - Ya. Agranov and S. Gendin.

With the arrival of the OGPU employees, riddles began - with a change in body position, with a weapon from which the poet was killed. According to some sources, he was lying with his head to the door. So it appears in the protocol of the inspection of the scene, the neighbor R. Ya. Gurevich told about this: “I remember that people were crowded in the small hallway. Leaning against the jamb of the door leading to Mayakovsky's room stood Polonskaya. She, worried, confused about what had happened. I distinctly remember: one of Polonskaya's legs is in the hallway, the other is in the room. And almost at the very foot of her - the face of Mayakovsky, as if crouching against the parquet floorboards. The head is turned to the side. His whole body seemed to be leaning on an old, shabby rug. The ottoman had a pistol lying around. " N. Aseev, who found himself in Lubyansky lane also some time after the shot, recalled: head to the door". Other eyewitnesses recall, for example, the artist Denisovsky, that he was lying with his head to the window.

If the corpse was lying on the ottoman with its right arm and leg dangling (as pointed out by Levina and Denisovsky), then the cartridge case could not have been at a distance of a meter from the left side, as indicated in the protocol: the back of the ottoman is located on the left. From the protocol of the inspection of the scene: “Between the legs of the corpse lies a revolver of the mauser system”,<…>not a single cartridge was found in the revolver. On the left side of the corpse, at a distance of one meter on the floor, there is an empty spent cartridge case from a Mauser revolver of the specified caliber. " Gurevich, as mentioned above, saw the pistol "by the ottoman", Denisovsky - "on the floor", but not between his legs: "He lay with his head to the window, with his feet to the door, with open eyes, with a small dot on the light-colored shirt near the heart. His left leg was on the ottoman, his right leg came down slightly, and his body and head were on the floor. There was a Browning on the floor. It turns out that the body half slid to the floor. Most likely, at first, the body, half-lowered from the ottoman, was put on the floor, then it was turned over either when inspecting the scene of the incident (remember the link in the protocol to the absence of an outlet in the back), or when they were looking for something under it. For example, a sleeve. Apparently, the protocol of the inspection of the scene of the incident was drawn up after the body was moved. V. Skoryatin saw this as a deliberate concealment of some evidence.

The following detail is noteworthy: neither Polonskaya nor the neighbors mention the sound of a body falling to the floor. It might not have been if the body fell on the couch. Neighbor Nina Levina (then she was 9 years old) played with other children in her room. They did not immediately understand what had happened, and left the room when Polonskaya rushed in front of the door, into a large corridor. Seeing the children, the actress said that Vladimir Vladimirovich had shot himself, and immediately left. They opened the door to the room: Mayakovsky was lying on the corner of the couch. The right arm was hanging to the floor. And there was a revolver on the floor. The guys rushed to the neighboring, 11th apartment, called L.D. Raikovskaya. She ordered to put Mayakovsky on the rug in front of the couch. Vladimir Vladimirovich was put with his head to the window, with his feet to the door. "I saw it well and remembered it for the rest of my life." From the interrogation of M. Yu. Bol-shin's flatmate: “On April 14, at about 10 am I returned from the pharmacy to the apartment and I was informed that Mayakovsky shot himself, I went into his room, there was gr. Raikovskaya, I did not see anyone else in the room at that moment, Mayakovsky, was still alive for about 4 minutes, but was in an unconscious state, lying on the floor ... ". Bolshin's testimony confirms the presence of Raikovskaya in Mayakovsky's room even before the arrival of the police: it is possible that he was really lowered to the floor from the sofa before the arrival of the investigation team.

Similar discrepancies also apply to the weapon from which the shot was fired: in the protocol of the inspection of the scene, the Mauser No. 312045 was named, from someone's words about the Mauser Mikhail Prezent wrote in his diary. V. Katanyan wrote that he saw Mayakovsky, who “was lying on the floor, his arms and legs outstretched, with a stain of caked blood on his shirt, and a 7.65 Mauser (meaning caliber - N. R.), the same one that he acquired in the twenty-sixth year in Dynamo, - cocked! - lay on the left. Cocked, it means that the last cartridge has been fired, in other words, the eight-round pistol was prepared for one shot. " Katanyan either did not know, or kept the secret of acquiring a Mauser, but only sporting weapons could be bought at Dynamo, not military ones. Among the weapons listed for Mayakovsky, there was no pistol with that number.

Denisovsky believed that Mayakovsky shot himself from a Browning. Agranov presented Browning No. 268979 as material evidence, which was also not registered with Mayakovsky. Either the numbers of the Browning and the Bayard belonging to Mayakovsky (No. 268579) are confused - the number 9 instead of 5, - or the pistol from the same series, issued to someone else, so the difference is one number. (Of the four Brownings listed for Mayakovsky, only one certificate has a pistol number: No. 42508.) For some reason, the investigators did not check the registration number for the gun from which the fatal shot was fired.

Since some other pistol was involved in the case, there are great doubts about Lily Brik's assertion that Mayakovsky again loaded the pistol with one cartridge. From the correspondence between L. Brik and E. Triolet (letter 7): “Volodya, as a player, fired from a completely new, never fired revolver; I took out the clip, left only one bullet in the muzzle - and this is 50 percent - a misfire. Such a misfire was already 13 years ago, in St. Petersburg. He tested fate for the second time. He shot himself in front of Nora, but you can blame her, like the orange peel, on which he slipped, fell and crashed to death. " Attached to the investigation file was an envelope with a spent cartridge case, which has no numbering and “is most likely inscribed by L. Brik's hand.<…>How the envelope with the cartridge case ended up in the hands of Lily Yurievna and who instructed her to sign it is unknown. Where did L. Brik, who allegedly were not in Moscow in those days, get this cartridge case? The investigators recorded the presence of the cartridge case in the protocol of the inspection of the scene - they should have removed the cartridge case. Or did Lilya bring a cartridge case from another pistol, which Agranov presented as material evidence and which did not belong to Mayakovsky? And where is the bullet that was taken out during the autopsy and which Agranov was holding in the palm of his hand, according to Denisovsky? Was the enclosed case consistent with the bullet recovered during the autopsy with the pistol presented as evidence? It was never found out what kind of pistol interrupted Mayakovsky's life.

Where did L. Brik get the exact knowledge about the revolver, if it is not even precisely established what brand it was? How many bullets were in it? Was it new or used? Why - "the second time", if earlier she herself allegedly spoke about two earlier cases? Again, either discrepancies, or the creation of a myth.

The presence of numerous "flaws" in the investigation of the circumstances of the death asserts in the opinion that there was no suicide, that, most likely, Mayakovsky was shot by Polonskaya, but the investigation did not consider this version for some compelling reasons. It was not for nothing that high-ranking leaders from several services of the OGPU immediately arrived at the scene: in addition to the head of the secret department, Ya.S. Agranov, also S.G. Gendin - the head of the counterintelligence department, the head of the Rybkin operative and the assistant to the chief of the operod Olievsky (correctly - Alievsky).
In the book by Arkady Vaksberg "The Riddle and the Magic of Lily Brik" it is written: "What connection existed between Mayakovsky and counterintelligence? Or intelligence? If she was not, then why should such a high rank from this department (S.G. Gendin. - N. R.) rushed immediately after the shot and personally searched the poet's study, being interested mainly in letters and papers?<…>The search for imaginary incriminating evidence would not immediately lead to Gendrikov such a host of Lubyanka cones of the first row.<…>In the illiterate police protocol, drawn up in hot pursuit, Gendin is named the head of the 7th department of the KRO, which he really was until February 16, 1930<…>... In fact, the aforementioned comrade headed the just (in February) created 9th and 10th (both at once!) Branches of the KRO (counterintelligence department) of the OGPU.<…>The ninth was engaged in "contacts with the counter-revolutionary White emigration", the tenth - in "contacts with foreigners."<…>comrade Gendin<…>rushed to Gendrikov immediately after the murder, and this is quite logical, since the person who had just killed himself had a direct relationship to the competence of both the ninth and tenth departments. Pushing aside the other crowd, Gendin rushed to the drawers of the writing desk of the writer Moyakovsky, Vladimir Vladimirovich. " So it was written in the police report. " Apparently, the required documents were very important and there was a hope that they might be located somewhere here. Only Gendin did not come to Gendrikov immediately after the murder - here Vaksberg is mistaken, Gendin and the whole group were in an apartment in Lubyansky Lane, as evidenced by others who arrived at the place of Mayakovsky's death.

In the investigation file there is a memo on the direction on May 4, 1930 to the head of the counterintelligence department of the OGPU Gendin personally, "just in case", a photograph of Tatyana Yakovleva with an address written in her hand, as it is said, in the Mayakovsky case. There was also a notice of her marriage to Bertrand du Plessis, her photo and a photograph of an unknown woman. According to one version, this is the wife of Dr. Simon, according to the other, this is a photo of Tatyana's sister, Lyudmila Yakovleva (we have already mentioned this). A day after the poet's death, the Valentinov agent presented a certificate on the Yakovlev sisters. According to T. Yakovleva's daughter Francine du Plessis, "after Mayakovsky's death, OGPU officers seized some of Tatyana's letters to her mother, Lyubov Nikolaevna Orlova."

The question arises: was not such an interest in Yakovleva aroused by the assumption that Mayakovsky could have left some documents with her or told about them? Isn't it connected with this search that immediately after the funeral L. Brik began to sort through the poet's archive? Lilya sorted out things and papers in the absence of relatives, and they did not mind, however, during this analysis she kept witnesses with her - Wright and Bryukhanenko. Several times she visited the mother and sisters of Mayakovsky, with whom she had not previously maintained relations. But the urn with the poet's ashes did not take more than a month ...

Meanwhile, Agranov covered Polonskaya and at the same time introduced the version of Mayakovsky's suicide, took the pistol, made public the will that had appeared from nowhere, and later, with the help of L. Brik, removed Polonskaya from participation in the funeral. From the diary of M. Prezent: “Neither she, nor Yanshin, nor Livanov were at the funeral. The first two in the morning were invited to the investigator, who kept them until the evening. They say that this is done with a special purpose - to prevent them from being at the funeral.<…>". V. Skoryatin was confused by the question: who is the investigator Syrtsov? He tried to establish where he came from, where he was listed - in the prosecutor's office or the police, but did not find any traces. If Polonskaya, leaving to meet an ambulance, told Agranov that she had killed Mayakovsky, the latter could have taken with him one of his subordinates, who was either an investigator Syrtsov, or called himself such a name and therefore so quickly passed the investigation materials to Agranov ...

What made Agranov "cover" V. Polonskaya? If the guess is correct that she was also an agent of the OGPU, everything falls into place. If Polonskaya were just an actress, the mistress of a famous poet, then what happened, in the terminology of law enforcement agencies, would have been simply "everyday". Polonskaya would have been put on trial, which would have investigated whether murder or suicide had taken place in a room on Lubyanskoye. But if one agent of the OGPU shot another, then it is not known what details could be revealed under investigation and at trial. Therefore, the issue was dealt with at the highest level, and Agranov hindered and confused the matter. Therefore, there was a break in the investigation, noticed by Skoryatin for the whole day of April 15, and falsifications under the version of suicide. Therefore, Mayakovsky was cremated so urgently: a competently conducted examination could provide evidence of a committed murder. Questions about the funeral were also decided by Agranov: he was present at the autopsy and farewell, and all material evidence (weapon, bullet, testament, photographs) "took for himself." The funeral was arranged in such a way that the naked eye could see that the Chekists were burying their comrade in arms. They organized the funeral: they saw off, stood on the guard of honor, were the first to sign the obituary; the writers' organization rather helped them.

In her memoirs, Polonskaya wrote that on April 15 or 16 L. Yu. called her to her. Calls, as a rule, the head of the subordinate. So they commanded Mayakovsky - what to do, with whom to live.

Tatyana Alekseeva in the notes to the article “Lilina Love” writes about Veronika Vitoldovna: “The son, grandson and great-grandson left for the United States at different times, but Polonskaya was not allowed to leave.” The question is: what state secrets could have middle hand artist, if her exit was closed? None, I think. But if she was an unspoken agent of the OGPU, then another matter.

The "testament of Mayakovsky" was used as evidence of the fact of suicide. But it is possible that the suicide letter was a well-executed forgery. It is hastily written in pencil on a double sheet from a ledger. No measures were taken to search for the magazine from which the leaflet was torn out. The style of the document is peculiar. This is a mixture of a suicide letter designed to prove the voluntariness of death (“I ask you not to blame anyone for my death”), a money and business will, notarized or not certified by witness, and moralizing (“this is not a way (I don’t advise others)”). Contemporaries noticed that Mayakovsky casts a shadow on Polonskaya - a married woman, making public his relationship with her, and immediately humiliates her with an exclamation: "Lilya - love me." And further: "<…>why, preparing for the decisive conversation with his beloved, he in advance, already on April 12, predetermines the outcome of the conversation that has not yet taken place with her - "the boat of love has crashed ..."? But in fact, it did not break in general: as we know, the proposal of the poet was accepted by Veronika Vitoldovna. " When they draw up a will in advance (two days in advance), they either go to a notary, or at least certify what was written with the signatures of two witnesses. This was not done, that is, legally, the document cannot be recognized as a will.

For many, the poet's last letter raised doubts. He was found not at the site of Mayakovsky's death, which would be logical, not in his personal room in Gendrikov Lane, where the body was transferred. The letter was discovered not by Polonskaya, not by neighbors in Lubyansky: it surfaced on the same day in the dining room of the apartment shared with the Briks in Gendrikov Lane. E. Lavinskaya recalled: “Agranov's voice came from the dining room. He stood with papers in his hands and read aloud the last letter of Vl.<адимира>Vl<адимировича>. <...>Agranov read it and left the letter with him. " As V. Skoryatin noted, from 10.30 am to midnight there was enough time to make a fake.

And one more thing: the words about the note first appeared from the investigator I. Syrtsov in the decision to transfer the case to the prosecutor's office on April 19; in the protocol of the inspection of the scene, she is not mentioned... However, a report is filed in the case not - established person certified by another unidentified a person by the name of Volkov: moreover, both employees did not indicate their place of work, position, or rank, and the first of them did not even indicate his surname, and there was no signature. Arriving, as it is written in the report, at Mayakovsky's apartment on April 14 at 11 o'clock, saw in a small room the highest ranks of the OGPU, looking through the poet's correspondence. He also allegedly noticed that “Comrade. Olievsky withdrew the suicide note "

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (1893-1930) is considered an outstanding Soviet poet. In addition to poetry, he was also engaged in drama, writing screenplays, and dabbled in the role of a film director and film actor. He took an active part in the work of the creative association "LEF". That is, we see a bright creative person, incredibly popular in the 20s of the last century. The whole country knew the name of the poet. Someone liked his poetry, but someone not very much. Indeed, they were somewhat specific and found recognition among supporters of just such a peculiar expression of their inner world.

But our conversation will not be about the poet's work. To this day, many questions arise. Mayakovsky's unexpected death on April 14, 1930... Vladimir Vladimirovich died at the age of 36. This is the very happy life period when you look with the same irony at those who are older and those who are younger than you. There are still many, many years of life ahead, but the fateful path of the creator for some reason was cut short, leaving in the souls of people a feeling of confusion, mixed with bewilderment.

Naturally, there was a consequence. It was conducted by the organs of the OGPU. The official conclusion was suicide. One can agree with this, since creative natures are inherently very unpredictable. They see the world around them somewhat differently from other people. Always some kind of throwing, doubts, disappointments and a constant search for something all the time elusive. In short, it is very difficult to understand what they want to get out of this life. And now, at the peak of disappointment, the cold barrel of a pistol is brought to the temple or heart. Shot, and all problems are solved by themselves in the simplest and most proven way.

However, the suicide of Vladimir Vladimirovich left a lot of questions and ambiguities. They clearly indicate that there was no suicide, but there was murder... Moreover, it was carried out by the official government bodies, who are originally supposed to protect citizens from rash and dangerous acts. So where is the truth? In this case, she is not guilty, but in facts that clearly indicate not just a criminal, but a political crime. But in order to understand the essence of the issue, you need to know the particulars. Therefore, we will first get to know the Brik family in more detail, with whom our hero had a long close relationship.

Breeches

Lilya Yurievna Brik (1891-1978) - famous Soviet writer and her husband Osip Maksimovich Brik (1888-1945) - literary critic and literary critic. This couple met a talented young poet in July 1915. After that, a new stage began in Mayakovsky's life, which lasted 15 years until his death.

Vladimir and Lilya fell in love with each other. But Osip Maksimovich did not interfere with this feeling. The Trinity began to live together, which caused a lot of gossip in literary circles. What was there and how it was is irrelevant for this story. It is much more important to know that Brikov and Mayakovsky were connected not only by spiritual, but also by material relations. Under Soviet rule, the poet was not at all a poor man. Quite naturally, he shared part of his income with the Briks.

Mayakovsky and Lilya Brik

It can be assumed that this is precisely why Lilya tried with all her might to bind Vladimir to herself. Since 1926, the trio lived in a Moscow apartment, which the poet received. This is Gendrikov Lane (now Mayakovsky Lane). It is located in the very center of Moscow near Taganskaya Square. The Briks did not have the opportunity to get a separate apartment at that time. The huge city lived in communal apartments, and only outstanding personalities, bringing significant benefits to the existing regime, had their own living space.

Since 1922, Mayakovsky's works began to be printed in large publications. The fees were so high that the trio began to spend a lot of time abroad, staying in expensive hotels. Therefore, it was not in the interests of the Briks to break off relations with a gifted and naive poet, who was a good cash cow.

The heartfelt affairs of Vladimir Mayakovsky

Being completely dependent on Lily Brick, our hero from time to time entered into intimate relationships with other women. In 1925 he traveled to America and started a love affair with Ellie Jones there. She was an emigrant from Russia, so the language barrier did not bother them. From this connection, on June 15, 1926, a girl was born, named Helen (Elena). She is alive to this day. He is a philosopher and writer, maintains close ties with Russia.

In 1928, Mayakovsky met Tatyana Yakovleva in Paris. Along the way, Vladimir bought a French car for Lily Brick. He chose it together with Yakovleva. For Moscow at that time it was an unthinkable luxury. The poet wanted to create a family with his new Parisian passion, but she did not express a desire to go to Bolshevik Russia.

However, Vladimir did not lose hope to join the bonds of Hymen with Tatiana and finally say goodbye to Briks. This, of course, was not part of Lily's plans. In April 1929, she introduced the poet to a young and beautiful actress Veronica Polonskaya, who has been married to actor Mikhail Yanshin for 4 years.

Our hero was seriously carried away by a girl who was 15 years younger than him. Very opportunely the news came from Paris that Yakovleva was allegedly marrying a well-born Frenchman. Therefore, Vladimir quickly forgot his foreign passion and focused all his attention on Veronica. It was this girl who became the main witness of the tragedy, because Mayakovsky's death occurred almost in front of her eyes.

Chronology of tragic events

Possible cause of death

If we assume that Vladimir Vladimirovich was killed, then why was this done, who did he interfere with? In 1918, the poet inextricably linked his fate with the Bolshevik Party. He was a tribune preaching the ideas of the world revolution. Therefore, he enjoyed such great success with various publishers. He was paid huge fees, provided with separate housing, but in return they demanded loyalty and loyalty.

However, by the end of the 1920s, notes of disappointment with the existing regime began to slip through the poet's works. There were still years of collectivization, terrible famine, repression ahead, and Vladimir Vladimirovich already felt the mortal danger hanging over the country in his soul. It became more and more difficult for him to praise the existing reality. More and more often I had to step over my understanding of the world and moral principles.

A wave of jubilation was gaining momentum in the country. Everyone admired or pretended to admire the achievements of the socialist system, and Mayakovsky began to satirically denounce any "rubbish". It sounded like a dissonance to an enthusiastic chorus of sycophants and opportunists. The authorities very quickly felt that the poet had changed. He has changed, and in a direction dangerous for the regime. The first sign was the criticism of his plays "Bedbug" and "Bath". Then the portrait disappeared from a literary magazine, and harassment began in the press.

Along with this, the Chekists began to patronize the poet. They began to visit regularly as good friends, because Lilya Brik loved to receive guests. But it is one thing when friends-writers come, and another thing when an OGPU employee comes to the apartment on a friendly visit. It should also not be forgotten that Osip Maksimovich Brik in 1919-1921 was an employee of the Cheka. And there are no former Chekists.

All this guardianship was carried out in order to check the reliability of the poet. The results were disastrous for Vladimir Vladimirovich. It was decided to remove it. It could not be otherwise, because the transformed tribune could cause great ideological harm to the communist regime.

The last day of the poet's life

The death of Mayakovsky, as already mentioned, occurred on April 14, 1930. There were no Briks in Moscow: they left abroad in February. The poet decided to take advantage of their absence in order to finally break off the protracted relationship leading nowhere. He wanted to create a normal family and for this he chose Veronica Polonskaya. In early April, he makes a cash contribution to a housing cooperative in order to buy an apartment for himself, and leave the available living space to a voluptuous and selfish couple.

On Monday, April 14, the poet at 8 o'clock in the morning comes to Polonskaya and takes her to his place. Here a conversation takes place between them. Vladimir demands that Veronica leave her husband and go to him right now. The woman says that she cannot leave Yanshin right away. She does not refuse Mayakovsky, assures that she loves him, but she needs time. After that, Polonskaya leaves the apartment, since at 10-30 she has a rehearsal at the theater. She goes out into the front door and then hears the sound of a revolver shot. Veronica runs back into the room literally a moment after leaving and sees that Vladimir is lying on the floor with outstretched arms.

Soon an investigation team arrived, but not from the police, but from counterintelligence. It was headed by the head of the secret department of the OGPU, Yakov Saulovich Agranov (1893-1938). His appearance can be explained by the fact that he was in charge of the creative intelligentsia. The scene was examined, the body of the poet was photographed. A suicide letter from Vladimir Vladimirovich, dated April 12, was found. Agranov read it aloud and put it in his tunic pocket.

Toward evening, the sculptor Konstantin Lutsky appeared. He made a plaster mask from the face of the deceased. At first, they did not want to do an autopsy, since it was already clear that the poet had died of a shot in the heart. But rumors spread that Mayakovsky was sick with syphilis, which was the cause of the tragedy. Pathologists had to open the body, but no major organ abnormalities were found. The newspapers wrote that the poet died of a transient illness. Friends signed the obituary, and that was the end of it.

Murder or Suicide?

So how should you characterize the death of Mayakovsky? Was it murder or suicide? To shed some light on this issue, let's start, as expected, with a suicide note. Here is its text:

"Everyone ... I am dying, do not blame anyone and do not gossip. The deceased did not like this terribly. Mom, sister, comrades, forgive me, but I have no other choice. Lily, love me.

Comrade government, my family is Lilya Brik, mother, sister and Veronica Polonskaya. I would be grateful if you could arrange a tolerable life for them. Give the started verses to the Briks, they will figure it out. As they say - the incident is over, the love boat crashed into everyday life. I am counting on life, and there is no need for a list of mutual pains, troubles and grievances. Happy to stay. "

Here is a will, written according to the date of April 12th. And the fatal shot was fired on April 14. At the same time, a love explanation with Veronica also took place, although the poet knew that he was about to die. But despite this, he insisted that the beloved immediately leave her husband. Is there any logic in this?

It is also interesting that Vladimir Vladimirovich wrote the last letter in pencil. He had the money to buy a cooperative apartment, but there was not even a little change for a pen. However, the deceased had his own very good pen with a luxurious gold nib. He never gave it to anyone, but wrote only to her. But at the most crucial moment of his life he picked up a pencil. By the way, it is much easier for them to fake handwriting than with a pen.

At one time, Sergei Eisenstein said in a narrow circle of friends that if you carefully read the style of writing, you can say that it was not written by Mayakovsky. So who then gave birth to this creation. Perhaps in the apparatus of the OGPU there was an employee who took upon himself such unusual duties?

The archive contains a criminal case number 02-29. This is just the case of V.V. Mayakovsky's suicide. It was led by the investigator I. Syrtsov. So, the examination report does not mention the suicide letter, as if it did not exist. There is also no examination of the shirt that the poet was wearing at the time of his death. But she could tell a lot to the investigation.

But most importantly, it is absolutely unclear from the case where Polonskaya was when the fatal shot sounded. Either she was standing next to the poet, or she had already left the room. As Veronica herself later claimed, she went out to the front door and only there heard the sound of a shot. However, judging by the papers, her behavior can be interpreted in different ways. A woman ran down the stairs, and a shot rang out, or she ran out of the room screaming, and it was at this moment that the poet shot himself. So maybe she saw a pistol in Vladimir's hand, got scared and tried to hide? One gets the impression that the investigator did not need a clear and precise answer at all.

The criminal case was closed on April 19. At the same time, it remained a mystery whether they found a pistol near the body or not. How did the body lie? Head to the door or head to the back of the room. If someone outside entered the room and fired, then Vladimir Vladimirovich had to fall back, that is, his head deep into the room. But nothing definite can be said here. Thus, we can conclude that the investigative actions were carried out extremely carelessly. They were pure formality. All the work was done not for the sake of establishing the truth, but for the sake of a tick that such work was done.

So the conclusion suggests itself. The poet was killed by employees of the OGPU, but presented this case as suicide... It was safely archived and collected dust on the shelves until the 90s of the XX century. Who do you ask from in 60 years? Moreover, Yagoda's people, including Agranov, were shot in 37-38. So retribution was done anyway.

Who won after Mayakovsky's death?

The death of Mayakovsky was in the hands of Lily Brik. There is no talk about Osip Maksimovich, since his family life with a loving wife ended in divorce. But the Soviet government recognized Lilya as the legal heir of the deceased poet. She received his cooperative apartment and money savings.

But the most important thing is the archives, which, in fact, were the property of the people. However, this is not all. Since 1935, the so-called "widow" of Mayakovsky began to receive interest on the poet's works sold. And they were published in millions of copies, since Vladimir Vladimirovich was posthumously recognized as the best and most talented poet of the Soviet era.

As for Polonskaya, the wife received nothing without two minutes. However, no. She received gossip, conversations behind her back, malevolent grins. The last point in this epic was the divorce from her husband. Well, what can you do. This is how this world works. Someone finds, and someone loses. But let's be optimists. Folk wisdom reads: "What doesn't happen is always for the best."