On April 14, 1930, the body of the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky was found in apartment 12 of building No. 3 on Lubyansky proezd in Moscow. The cause of death was suicide.

Unrequited love

During his lifetime, Mayakovsky had many novels, although he was never officially married. Among his lovers were many Russian emigrants - Tatyana Yakovleva, Ellie Jones. The most serious hobby in Mayakovsky's life was an affair with Lilya Brik. Despite the fact that she was married, the relationship between them persisted for many years. Moreover, for a long period of his life the poet lived in the same house with the Brick family. This love triangle existed for several years, until Mayakovsky met the young actress Veronica Polonskaya, who at that time was 21 years old. Neither the age difference of 15 years, nor the presence of an official spouse could interfere with this relationship. It is known that the poet planned a life together with her and in every possible way insisted on a divorce. This story became the reason for the official version of suicide. On the day of his death, Mayakovsky received a refusal from Veronica, which provoked, as many historians say, a serious nervous shock that led to such tragic events. In any case, the Mayakovsky family, including his mother and sisters, believed that the blame for his death lay precisely on Polonskaya.

Mayakovsky left a suicide note with the following content: “ALL

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 am with life in mind and there is no need for a list of mutual pains, troubles and grievances. Happy to stay

VLADIMIR MAYAKOVSKY.

Mental trauma

Historians also consider difficult emotional experiences as one of the theories of suicide. 1930 was not a very good year for the poet. First, he was ill a lot. Secondly, Mayakovsky was harshly criticized, believing that he had completely "written out". Local newspapers saw him as an anti-Soviet writer. At one of the meetings with readers, which took place 2 days before the fatal event, he listened to many unflattering reviews addressed to him. Mayakovsky himself during this period considered himself deeply unhappy. Therefore, this version has a right to exist. In many historical works one can find information about what exactly the oppressed emotional condition together with failed love became the reason for such an act.

Indiscriminate communications contributed to the emergence of a version of syphilis, which could lead to suicide. But most researchers refute this hypothesis, arguing that such a life-loving person like Mayakovsky could not take his own life just because of this disease. And there is no official evidence that the poet was really sick. After the poet's death, criminologists insisted on a second autopsy to finally make sure that this version was untenable.

Political motives

There were also rumors that the poet was killed for ideological reasons. Some believed that Mayakovsky, with his rebellious character, posed a danger to the Soviet regime. Indeed, in recent years, he could afford unflattering statements, but this has nothing to do with his death. The murder theory has no ground whatsoever. The fact that the poet shot himself was officially confirmed by criminologists.

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

Versions and facts

On April 14, 1930, Krasnaya Gazeta reported: “Today, at 10 hours 17 minutes, Vladimir Mayakovsky committed suicide in his working room with a revolver to the heart. The ambulance arrived and found him already dead. V the last days VV Mayakovsky did not reveal any mental discord and nothing foreshadowed a catastrophe. "
In the afternoon, the body was transported to the poet's apartment in Gendrikov Lane. The sculptor K. Lutsky removed the death mask, and badly - he peeled off the face of the deceased. Employees of the Institute of Brain removed Mayakovsky's brain, which weighed in 1700. On the very first day in the presecture of the clinic of the medical faculty of Moscow State University, the pathologist Professor Talalay performed an autopsy of the body, and on the night of April 17, a re-autopsy took place: due to rumors that the poet allegedly had a venereal disease, which were not confirmed. Then the body was cremated.

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

The version that Mayakovsky not figuratively, but literally “lay down on the barrel with his head”, put a bullet in his head, does not stand up to criticism. The poet's brain has been preserved to this day and, as the staff of the Institute of the Brain rightly reported in those days, "according to external examination, the brain does not represent any significant deviations from the norm."
Several years ago, in the program "Before and After Midnight," the well-known TV journalist Vladimir Molchanov suggested that the posthumous photograph clearly shows the marks of TWO shots on Mayakovsky's chest.

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

Poet's shirt

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

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

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

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

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

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

From the "Conclusion" of the experts:

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

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

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

4. The shape and small size of blood blots located below the damage, 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 during the downward movement of the right hand, splashed with blood, or from weapons in the same hand. "

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

Death autograph

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

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

From the "Conclusion" of the experts:

"The submitted letter on behalf of Mayakovsky was made by Mayakovsky himself in unusual conditions, the most probable cause of which is a psychophysiological state caused by anxiety. "
There was no doubt about the dating - it was April 12, two days before his death - "immediately before the suicide, the signs of unusualness would have been more pronounced." So the secret of the decision to die is hidden not in the 14th day of April, but in the 12th.

"Your word, comrade Mauser"

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

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

Chemical analysis of the plaque in the bore of the Browning barrel made it possible to conclude that "no shot was fired from the weapon after the last cleaning." But the bullet, once removed from the body of Mayakovsky, really "is part of the 7.65 mm Browning cartridge of the 1900 model." So what's the deal? The examination showed: "The caliber of the bullet, the number of tracks, the width, the angle of inclination and the right-hand direction of the tracks indicate that the bullet was fired from a Mauser pistol of the 1914 model."
The results of the experimental shooting finally confirmed that "the 7.65 mm bullet from the Browning cartridge was fired not from the Browning pistol # 268979, but from a 7.65 mm Mauser."

Still - a Mauser. Who changed the weapon? In 1944, an NKGB officer, “talking” with the disgraced writer MM Zoshchenko, asked if he considered the cause of Mayakovsky’s death clear, to which the writer adequately replied: “It remains mysterious further. It is curious that the revolver from which Mayakovsky shot himself was presented to him by the famous Chekist Agranov. "
Could it be that Agranov himself, to whom all the materials of the investigation flocked, changed the weapon, attaching Mayakovsky's Browning to the case? What for? Many knew about the "gift", besides, the Mauser was not registered with Mayakovsky, which could have a big backfire on Agranov himself (by the way, he was later shot, but for what?). However, this is from the realm of guesswork. It is better to respect the poet's last request: “... please do not gossip. The deceased did not like this terribly "

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (1893-1930) is considered an outstanding Soviet poet. In addition to poetry, he was also engaged in drama, writing screenplays, tried himself 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 is not 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 that 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 carried out 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 somewhat different from other people. Always some kind of throwing, doubts, disappointments and a constant search for something elusive all the time. 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 were 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, at first we will take a closer look at the Brik family, with whom our hero had a long close relationship.

Breeks

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, not far from 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 had 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 Lily Brick a French car. 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 of joining the bonds of Hymen with Tatiana and finally saying 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 had 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 the death of Mayakovsky took place 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 publishing houses. 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, 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 all sorts of "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 take care of 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 when an OGPU employee comes to the apartment on a friendly visit. We should also not forget 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 turned out to be 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 poet's body 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. Lilya, 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 14th. At the same time, an amorous 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 co-operative 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 the letter, 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, with 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 printed 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. Popular wisdom says: "What does not happen is always for the best."

"Miracles and Adventures" 2/95

MAYAKOVSKY: “Who, I shot myself. This is bent!

Valentin Skoryatin

There is hardly a person in Russia who has not read or heard about the tragic end of Mayakovsky. Co, school years we have been and are still instilling in our children only one thought about the naturalness of the poet's suicide on the basis of his tangled love relationship, complicated by creative failures, nervousness, and also long illness. Many of the poet's friends supported the avaricious official version, which considered the motive for suicide to be "reasons of a personal nature."

Declared on the day of the poet's death, it actually turned the investigation onto the formal path of stating this conclusion, leading him away from the answer: “but numerous questions. Literary historians, who were under the vigilant supervision of the censorship introduced by the authorities a few hours after the shot and acting - already behind the scenes - to this day, practically took up the detailed development and "maintenance" of this version.

The arguments of the writers were reduced to a list of facts, the totality of which allegedly led Mayakovsky to suicide: in the fall of 1929 the poet was denied a visa to France, where he was going to marry T. Yakovleva; then he received the news of the marriage of T. Yakovleva herself; the painful condition was aggravated by the rejection of the criticism of his "Bath"; in April 1930, the poet's personal relationship with V. Polonskaya, whom the poet loved and with whom he wanted to create a family, was upset; and most importantly, Mayakovsky left a letter from his death, where he explained the reasons for his voluntary departure from life.

About 25 years ago, journalist Valentin Skoryatin began collecting facts from Mayakovsky's biography related to his death. When the materials accumulated, he unexpectedly saw that in the poet's deathbed chronicle there are many gaping voids that require at least some explanation. Here it is true, following the logic of already reliably established facts, to fill the missing ... From that moment, the search for Valentn Ivanovich took on the character of a real independent investigation - independent of any department and focused on a single goal - to reach the truth.

Unable to order Valentin Ivanovich a general article on the results of his investigation (he died in May 1994), we publish real stuff, prepared on the basis of his book, which has not yet been published. V. Skoryatin carried out a colossal journalistic work, for which he received in 1991 the prize of the Union of Journalists of the USSR. The importance of his research is evident from the words of the American professor Albert Todd, expressed by him at the Russian-American symposium on Mayakovsky: “Both in Russia and in America, many classified documents and annoying unanswered questions suggest that the true truth has been distorted and hidden. The outstanding work recently done by the Russian researcher Valentin Skoryatin ... makes us take a fresh look at the version of Mayakovsky's suicide. "

DID MAYAKOVSKY REALLY WANT TO PARIS?

The beginning of Skoryatin's doubts about the poet's voluntary departure from life was laid by the absence of any serious evidence of his refusal to obtain a visa for a trip to Paris, which was supposed to end in a marriage with T. Yakovleva.

It should be noted here not only the special role of Lily Brick in the dissemination of this version, but also the special goal that she pursued in this case. The fact is that living together with the poet completely satisfied Brikov, since it gave many noticeable material advantages. Therefore, the Briks did not want to let go of Mayakovsky - after all, his intention to create his own family would lead to the obligatory departure. Therefore, when Mayakovsky goes to Nice in October 1928 on a date with his two-year-old daughter Ellie and her American mother Elizabeth Siebert (Ellie Jones), L. Brik (Elsa), who is alarmed by this circumstance, introduces Mayakovsky to a beautiful emigrant from Russia Tatyana Yakovleva. She is not going to return to her homeland, and Mayakovsky will never stay abroad either. And flirting with T. Yakovleva, according to L. Brik, will distract the poet from his father's worries.

But as soon as the poet falls in love seriously and he has a firm intention to connect his life with T. Yakovleva, Briki, after Mayakovsky's arrival in April 1929. from Paris to Moscow, introduce him to “22-year-old spectacular V. Yablonskaya, an actress of the Moscow Art Theater.

“The sudden outbreak of Mayakovsky’s hobby, - pshivt Skoryatin, - seemed to push T. Yakovleva into the background and ruled out marrying her. Such a turn suited Brikov quite well. Polonskaya in Moscow. Should something happen, there is an opportunity to hint at the possible publicity of her relationship with the poet. " After V. Polonskaya was married to actor Yanshin.

Mayakovsky begins to understand that his love for T. Yakovleva is without a future, and on October 5, 1929, he sent his last letter to Paris.

The trip to Paris lost its meaning for Mayakovsky and for another reason. On October 11, 1929, L. Brik received a letter from his sister Elsa, which said that "Yakovleva ... is marrying a viscount." Let us note two details: Lily Brik's intention to bring this information to the poet, ocoi ^ tte but unpleasant to him because V. Paul and her husband were in the room, and also the fact that Elsa is much ahead of the events in her letter.

Therefore, when Skoryatin checked the archival documents, he was not surprised by what he found: Mayakovsky did not write an application for a visa and did not receive any refusal. This means that this situation could in no way affect the poet's mood in the spring of 1930 and did not give him a reason for serious experiences, which, as it was believed, led him to the tragedy of April 14.

In the spring of 1930, Mayakovsky was upset by an ideological spat with the Russian Economic Forum, a boycott of his former associates of his exhibition, and was experiencing a failure with the Bath. And then there's a severe sore throat, possibly the flu. He does not hide his discomfort, striving to be in public more often in order to overcome the dreary mood. To some he seemed gloomy at that time, to others - broken, to the third - who had lost faith in their strength. Skoryatin notes that "these fleeting observations, having subsequently been filled with speculation and rumors, turned into a solid support for the official announcement of the suicide."

At this time, Mayakovsky becomes more and more attached to Veronica Polonskaya and associates his entire future with her. This was not the first time he decided to "build a family", but he always ran into stubborn resistance from Lily Brik, who uses female tricks, tricks, hysteria, and Mayakovsky retreated. It was a strange life for the three of us ... In the spring of 1930, Oi decides to separate from the Briks at any cost, feeling a great attraction to his normal family. After all, brikami he was, in essence, lonely and homeless. Relations with V. Polonskaya make him act. On April 4, he contributes money to the housing cooperative RZHSKT them. Krasin (after the death of the poet, Briks will move there), asks V. Sutyrin (from the FOSP) to help him with an apartment so that he can leave Briki before they return from abroad. But he didn't have time ...

On the evening of April 13, Mayakovsky went to visit V. Kataev. There were also Polonskaya and Yanshin. We parted late, at three o'clock. It's Monday April 14th.

Mayakovsky appeared at V. Polonskaya's at 8.30. They took a taxi to the fatal apartment in Lubyanskoye. There Polonskaya warned that at 10.30 she had an important rehearsal and she could not be late. When she reassured Mayakovsky, who, according to her, demanded that she stay with him now, she said that she loved him, would be with him, but could not stay. Yanshin will not tolerate her departure in this form. "I left. Took a few steps to front door... A shot rang out ... I screamed. I rushed along the corridor ... I probably came in a moment later. There was still a puff of smoke from the shot in the room. Vladimir Vladimirovich was lying on the floor with his arms outstretched ... "

Skoryatin notes that "then none of those present heard Polonskaya talking about the revolver in the poet's hands when she ran out of the room." This important detail would immediately explain everything: Polonskaya runs out - Mayakovsky immediately shoots in the heart. And no doubt about suicide. Maybe by that time the investigators had not yet succeeded in forcing Polonskaya to agree with the “explaining everything” version?

Skoryatin drew attention to the fact that everyone who came running immediately after the shot found the poet's body lying in one position ("with their feet to the door"), and those who appeared later in another ("head to the door"). Why did you move the body? Maybe in that confusion someone needed to imagine such a picture - at the moment of the shot the poet stood 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. Undoubted suicide! What if he was facing the door? The same blow would have knocked him backwards again, but with his feet to the door. True, in this case, the shot could have been fired not only by the poet himself, but also by someone who suddenly appeared at the door ... The head of the secret department of the GPU, Y. Agranov, who arrived first, immediately took the investigation into his own hands. L. Krasnoshchekova recalled that she persuaded Agranov to wait for Lilya, but he said that the funeral would be "tomorrow or the day after tomorrow" and Brikov would not wait. Then, apparently, Agranov realized (or someone suggested to him) that such a hasty funeral would undoubtedly arouse unnecessary suspicion.

In the evening came the sculptor K. Lutsky, who removed the mask from Mayakovsky's face. On June 22, 1989, in the Leningrad TV program "The Fifth Wheel", the artist A. Davydov, showing this mask, drew the attention of viewers that the deceased had a broken nose. This means that Mayakovsky fell facedown, he suggested, and not on his back, as happens when shooting himself.

Then dissectors arrived to remove the poet's brain for scientific research at the Brain Institute. The fact that the surname of Mayakovsky was in the "ranks of the elite" seemed to Skoryatin " a sure sign the fact that the course of tragic events is controlled by omnipotent forces. "

“Around midnight,” recalls E. Lavinskaya, “Agranov’s voice came from the dining room. He stood with papers in his hands and read aloud the last letter of Vladimir Vladimirovich Agranov read it and left the letter with him. "

And the autopsy, as it should be according to the investigative laws, was never carried out, if not for V. Sutyrin, who demanded an autopsy on April 16, when he heard rumors of Mayakovsky's 6 incurable venereal disease, allegedly leading him to suicide ("Rapid illness" - so it was said even in the official obituary "In memory of a friend" in "Pravda" signed by Ya. Agranov, M. Gorb, V. Katanyan, M. Koltsov, S. Tretyakov, L. Elbert and others). The autopsy results showed that the malicious gossip was unfounded. But this conclusion has not been published.

Agranov took for himself the photograph that E. Lavinskaya saw in his hands when he showed it to a handful of Lefovites in the FOSP club: “It was a photograph of Mayakovsky, prostrate as if he was crucified on the floor, with outstretched arms and legs and wide open in a desperate cry mouth ... Miav explained: “They filmed right away when they entered the room Agranov, Tretyakov and Koltsov. I have never seen this photo again ”. (Skoryatin thinks the picture was taken before the arrival of the investigation team.)

Briks arrived, visiting, as many knew, with Lilya Yuryevna's mother, E. Kagan, who worked in the Soviet trade mission in London. About who and how found her abroad with her husband, Brick never told.

Some Briks, perhaps, were not surprised at anything. For them, the death of the poet never presented any mystery K. Zelensky recalls how Osip Brik convinced him: “Reread his poems and you will see how often he speaks ... about his inevitable suicide”. Lilya Brik cited other motives for the poet's supposedly inevitable suicide: “Volodya was a neurasthenic. With a 37-degree temperature, he felt seriously ill. As soon as I recognized him, he was already thinking about suicide. Dying farewell letters he wrote more than once. " L. Brick everything was clear.

Let's follow the thought of Valentin Ivanovich Skoryatin, the only person who seriously thought about the so-called "dying letter" of Vladimir Mayakovsky. Maybe something will become clear to us too - and not only about the poet, but even about Lilya Brik herself.

FOREIGN LETTER: DOCUMENT OR FAKE?

Here is his text, always quoted to prove the poet's intention to commit suicide (and Skoryatin's commentary):

“Everyone

Don't blame anyone for dying, and please don't gossip. The deceased did not like this terribly.

Mom, sisters and comrades, forgive me - this is not a way (I do not advise others) - but I have no other options. Lily - love me.

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.

“Responding to Mayakovsky’s death, his enemy V. Khodasevich called this document“ petty and insignificant ”and quipped: the poet had been carrying a“ letter ”in his pocket for two days. The writing is poisonous, but, honestly, this letter does not paint Mayakovsky in the best light ...

First of all, let us turn to the line where the poet lists the composition of the “family”. He mentions relatives twice. But where the appeal is purely emotional, they are named first, and in the place where, in fact, the heirs are listed, the relatives for some reason turn out to be after L. Brik. (Later, the right to inheritance will be secured by the Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR: 1/2 part was assigned to L. Brik, 1/6 to the mother and sisters, V. Polonskaya, in violation of the poet's will, will not get anything). But, in fact, it is not this truly unrighteous decision that causes bewilderment, but the very moral meaning of such a "list". It is well known that Mayakovsky, who admitted sharpness in public polemics, was extremely noble with people close to him. Why, when addressing the “comrade government”, does he so carelessly cast a shadow ... no, not on L. Brik (she has long been known in the official opinion as the unofficial wife of the poet with her official husband), but above all on a married young woman? Moreover, having made public his connection with her, he immediately humiliates her again by exclaiming: "Lilya - love me."

And it would be okay to write the letter hastily, in the deathly languor of the last minutes, but on a double sheet of the ledger there is a date - April 12th. Another thing is striking: why, preparing for the decisive conversation with his beloved, Mayakovsky in advance, already on April 12, predetermines the outcome of the conversation that has not yet taken place with her - "the love boat crashed ..."? But in fact, it did not break in general: as we know, the poet's proposal was accepted by Veronika Vitoldovna ...

However, the poems were not related to Polonskaya. They were written by the poet ... back in 1928. The sketch was transferred by the poet from one notebook to another. And now it came in handy for contacting ... the government. It turns out that Mayakovsky, without straining his mind or heart, took his old blanks and built them into his dying letter, disorienting everyone about the addressee?

Not to mention the financial calculations at the end of the letter. What does a person think about in the face of eternity? What taxes, what GIZ! Whether you like it or not, you have to agree with V. Khodasevich on something.

We have to, but something interferes. It does not fit in my head that such a frankly vain letter came out of the poet's pen. However, just ... not from the pen. According to the newspapers that reprinted the letter, the readers could not understand that the original was written ... in pencil.

It is known that getting a poet's pen even on a short time it was very difficult. Yes, and it is almost impossible to forge the handwriting of an "alien" fountain pen, But all these difficulties are eliminated if you use ... a pencil. And the handwriting itself is a mere trifle for professionals from the Agranov department. And if we admit this assumption, then all the upsetting bewilderment about the pencil text flutters.

The letter, like many other material evidence, was "taken over" by Agranov. It is known that even members of the government, when dividing Mayakovsky's inheritance, were guided not by the original, but ... by its newspaper reprint (an unprecedented fact!) ”.

The notes of film director S. Eisenstein found by Skoryatin say that he, noting in his suicide letter "the proximity of the rhythmic structure" to the "thieves Odessa poetry", as well as the "foolish folklore" of the times civil war(thus hinting at the impossibility of Mayakovsky to be the author of the letter), makes an unambiguous conclusion: "Mayakovsky never wrote anything like this!" And one more thing: “It had to be removed. And they removed it ... "

The insulting tone of the letter in relation to the mother and sister, as well as the unprecedented violation of their inherited "rights, prove that the poet did not write anything like this.

Mayakovsky spent the most tragic year with Polonskaya and wanted to introduce her into his new house as a wife. Mentioned in Mayakovsky's suicide letter as a member of his family, she was cleverly removed from any rights to the poet's inheritance. ... She got only painful conversations with Syrtsov and Agranov, gossip, a quick divorce from her husband and an ambiguous position in society, when L. Brik for some reason was considered “Mayakovsky's widow”, being not divorced from O. Brik, but she; Polonskaya, in fact, is the poet's "illegal" beloved. And in bad dream the young actress could not have dreamed what an ungrateful role was destined for her in this theater of absurdity Brikov.

Considering that from 1930 to 1958 the letter lay in the top-secret archives of the OGPU, and then in the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, it can be argued that it was a fake, drawn up by the OGPU and designed to convince everyone as the main evidence of Mayakovsky's suicide.

"CRIMINAL CASE No. 02-29"

Several years ago, after numerous searches, Skoryatin managed to get in the secret archive “Criminal case No. 02-29, 1930, people's investigator 2 uch. Baum. district of Moscow I. Syrtsov about the suicide of V. V. Mayakovsky ".

Here are just a few facts from the police protocol that caused serious bewilderment:

The protocol does not mention the suicide letter;

The calendar reported by V. Polonskaya is not mentioned. Now there is a calendar in the Mayakovsky Museum;

The "bookseller" was not found and interrogated (did not come under the guise of his man participating in the preparation of the murder?);

The examination of Mayakovsky's shirt was not carried out. L. Brick took the shirt for herself and handed it over to the museum only 24 years later. You cannot vouch for the fact that they did not "work" with her in such a way that she would correspond to the version of suicide.

This protocol, which conveys a strange and indisputable interference in the case of Agranov and his "colleagues", was then, together with the case, for some reason transferred to investigator I. Syrtsov, who was in charge of another member of the region. Syrtsov turned out to be for Agranov, apparently, more accommodating.

The contradictions between V. Polonskaya's recollections and her testimony to the investigator, in Skoryatin's opinion, are explained by the fact that she wrote them eight years later and not for the general public, and it seemed to her that the damned interrogation pages had sunk into obscurity forever.

As for the tseta of the protocol testimony (“she was annoying”, “she was not going to leave her husband”), this is exactly the version that investigator I. Syrtsov wanted to get from her.

On April 14, I. Syrtsov, after interrogating V. Polonskaya at Lubyanskoye, declared: “The suicide was caused by reasons of a personal nature,” which will be published in the press the next day.

On April 15, Syrtsov makes a sudden "unreasonable" break in the investigation, which Skoryatin explains by the fact that on that day Syrtsov received the necessary instructions for further actions at the Lubyanka. There is a document in the case that speaks of a keen interest in the death of the poet on the part of two OGPU units at once: counterintelligence (Gendin) and secret, which was led by Agranov, in whose hands all the threads of the case turned out to be. Probably, the GPU was embarrassed in the interrogation record by the phrase: "I went out the door of his room ..." It turns out that the poet was left alone for some time, and this could give rise to all kinds of rumors.

“The fears of the GEP were not in vain,” V. Skoryatin develops the conjecture, “because the question of where Polonskaya was at the moment of the shot caused a lot of misinterpretation. Yu. Olesha wrote to V. Meyerhold in Berlin on April 30, 1930: "... She ran out crying" Save me ", and a shot rang out ..." rooms ", and already" ran down the stairs. " In her notebook she wrote: “When P. (Polonskaya) ran down the stairs and a shot rang out, Agran immediately appeared. (Agranov), Tretyak. (Tretyakov), Koltsov. They entered and did not let anyone into the room. "

The materials of the case did not answer the question: did Polonskaya manage to run out of Mayakovsky's room or from the apartment, or did the shot occur in front of her? They did not give it, because, apparently, such an answer was simply not needed.

All the haste and incompleteness, Skoryatin believes, is due to the fact that Syrtsov was clearly "driving" the case, and on April 19 he closes it, passing a resolution, which only once mentions the suicide letter - "note".

The prosecutor's office adds another document to the case: “Receipt. I received from P.M.O, pr-ra Comrade Gerchikova, money found in the room of Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky in the amount of 2113 rubles. 82 kopecks and 2 gold rings. Two thousand one hundred thirteen rubles 82 kopecks and 2 evils. rings received. L. Brick. 21.4.30 ".

“Lilya Yurievna,” comments V. Skoryatin, “who was not (with her husband alive!) In no official relationship with Mayakovsky, for no reason at all receives money and things found in his room, and then all his legacy is both in material values ​​and in priceless archives, which are, in essence, the national heritage. The special cynicism of this situation is this. In a letter from the poet's sister Olga Vladimirovna, sent to her relatives a few days after the tragedy, it is said: “On the 12th I spoke to him on the phone ... Volodya ordered me to come to him on Monday 14th, and, leaving home in the morning, I I said that I would go to Volodya from the service. This conversation was the last on the 12th. " It's clear; the same that "Volodya" prepared an envelope for his sister with fifty rubles as usual, ordinary help to the family. And this manual is given out in the materials of the case almost as the final, supposedly dying calculation of the poet with his loved ones! Not to mention the fact that this fact best of all testifies: the poet did not even have a thought to leave life of his own accord ”.

Let us add to the words of V. Skoryatin that all the behavior of J. Brik is the best evidence of the numerous areas of personal interest of L. Brik and her husband in this matter, of her extensive connections with the KGB circles that she has developed thanks to her husband's work in the Cheka since 1920 (first in the speculative department, and then "authorized by the 7th department of the secret department"). As Skoryatin discovered, Lily herself was an agent of this terrible department. The number of her Chekist ID is 15073, and Osip Brik's number is 25541. It is clear which organization helped the Briks to urgently leave Moscow in February 1930 to leave the poet alone. In connection with this reasoning of Skoryatina, it becomes clear why Lilya Brik organizes in 1935 the transmission of her letter through Agranov to Stalin. The Stalinist resolution ("Mayakovsky was and remains the best, most talented poet of our Soviet era") was to force Soviet publishers to publish Mayakovsky's works in huge editions, in which Lilya Brik was directly interested as an heiress.

After what Skoryatin said, a natural conclusion suggests itself: L. and O. Briki could not but know that Mayakovsky would soon be killed. All their behavior proves it.

And the last thing. In the folder of the criminal case, instead of the "Mauser No. 312045" mentioned in the police protocol, Skoryatin

The reader, of course, drew attention to how many bewilderments, violations, questions aroused by this case of such a simple and ordinary suicide "for personal reasons", nevertheless surrounded by the strictest secrecy. But all questions and problems disappear or are explained if we assume that the poet was killed. This is the conclusion made by Skoryatin. And then the really last question remains: why was it done and by whom? Skoryatin admits that until the end of his life “the poet was faithful to the romantic ideals of the revolution. But more and more often notes of tragic disappointment burst into his "party books", and more and more strained he sang the praises of reality. But the satirical denunciation of "rubbish" grew stronger. In the course of the growing jubilation over the success, the poet's voice began to sound like a dangerous dissonance. There were also formidable warning signals: performances based on the plays "The Bedbug" and "The Bath" were defamed, a portrait was taken from a magazine, and the persecution in the press is becoming more and more embittered.

Reflecting on how quickly the circle of Chekists around the poets narrowed in the last month, Skoryatin considers this not accidental. (Right after Brikov left, L. Elbert moved to his apartment, who worked in 1921 at the VChK as deputy head of the information department and a special representative of the foreign department dealing with espionage and international terrorism, the Volovich family of Chekists often visited Ya. Agranov, about whom Roman Gul writes: "Under Dzerzhinsky he was, and Stalin's bloody Cheka investigator Yakov (Yankel) Agranov reached the highest KGB posts ... who became the executioner of the Russian intelligentsia. He ... destroyed the flower of Russian science and the public. .. This bloody insignificance is the actual killer of the remarkable Russian poet NS Gumilyov ... ") Mayakovsky, apparently, did not understand" with what all-devouring fire he is playing ", coming into contact with some secrets of the GPU. And therefore there are very serious grounds for conclusions about the murder of the poet. An analysis of the poet's last days suggests that the murder was being prepared under the leadership of the GPU on April 12, but for some reason it failed. (Skoryatin's brilliant conjecture, explaining why this date is on the poet's supposedly suicide letter.) The influx of GPU officers on April 14 (from the secret department, counterintelligence and the operative that was involved in arrests, searches, provocations, acts of terrorism), Skoryatin believes, on the one hand, throws a shadow on the reputation of the proletarian poet, forcing us today to suspect him not only of creative cooperation with the regime, but, on the other hand, may become evidence of the authorities' distrust of the poet.

Skoryatin established that on the day of Mayakovsky's death, the activity of the GPU employees was clearly higher than on other days. Apparently, having long ago discovered surveillance, the poet was constantly upset by this. From the testimony of V. Polonskaya it follows that when she ran out into the street after the shot, “a man approached her,

asked for my address. " The same thing happened with the bookseller, whose interrogation protocol was kept in deep secrecy for decades. And the bookseller Loktev: he was in the apartment, probably, just a few minutes before the shot, because he accidentally saw how "Mayakovsky was kneeling in front of her to (Polonskaya) ...". From the protocol of the examination of the poet's body, it is clear that the shot was fired from top to bottom & i (since the bullet entered near the heart, and was felt near the last ribs in the lower back) "and it looks like," Skoryatin concludes, "at the moment when Mayakovsky was on his knees ". This is the last thing he came to in the investigation.

Skoryatin did not find who the murderer was. But by his research, he proved that the Soviet official myth about the suicide of the poet Mayakovsky no longer exists, that the secret of this tragic event was revealed to him - the poet Mayakovsky was killed.

The name of the killer is unknown. But we know who benefited from it, who was interested in it, who did not like his plays, the desire to write the poem "Bad" and much of what had already been born within him and was only looking for a way out. Hence his desire to free himself from the yoke of the Briks, who have become spiritually alien to him for a long time, to break with the Chekist environment, the desire to speak "at the top of his voice" what was born in his heart. It is no coincidence that on one of his visits to Paris, he told Y. Annenkov with amazing frankness, “that communism, the ideas of communism, its ideal, this is one thing, while“ communist party"Very powerfully organized ... and led by people who enjoy all the benefits of" full power "and" freedom of action, "this is a completely different thing."

It is no accident that his faith is shaken. Late in the evening of April 13, 1930 "... he burst out an exclamation:" Oh my God! " Polonskaya said: “Incredible! World turned upside down. Mayakovsky calls on the Lord. You aren’t. believer?" And he replied: "Oh, I myself do not understand anything now ... what I believe in!"

If Mayakovsky wanted to adapt, he would have written the poem "Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin." The poet did not go for it, although he was probably persistently prompted. But those main mistakes that he made in life and in poetry (taking the side of those who needed to be deprived of this word with an artistic word), they were sincere. And like any person who is sincerely mistaken, he very slowly regains his sight. But when he will see clearly, such a steel will, such a colossal power, given to him by the very truth of his life, will be born in him, then this person will no longer be able to cope. He will do anything and do what needs to be done. And such Mayakovsky was born.

I know the power of words

I know the words of the alarm.

They are not the ones

to which the lodges applaud ...

Isn't this colossal spiritual power, just fledged into vague lines, just emerging from the soul of his heart, but already proclaiming that the old Mayakovsky with his countless volumes of his "party books" will never be heard again, even if for this it will take that he is not himself. The reborn Mayakovsky does not want to put up with what he put up with before, does not want to listen to those whom he listened to before, does not want to bow down to anyone anymore, but wants to BE, no matter what it costs him. He challenges Death itself - ... and she accepts him.

On one thing, perhaps, one can agree with Lilya Yurievna and Osip Maksimovich - yes, Mayakovsky really predicted his death, but his death was violent! And he not only predicted, but also wanted, but also called, but also thirsted with all his soul. And the closer to the 30th year, the stronger this unknown impulse of the soul, breaking through only in poetry.

MAYAKOVSKY. THE MYSTERY OF DEATH: THE POINT OVER i DELIVERED
For the first time, a professional examination of the shirt was carried out, in which the poet was found in his office on the Lubyanka, his pistol and a fatal bulletV At eleven o'clock in the morning on April 14, 1930 in Moscow, in Lubyansky passage, a shot was fired in Vladimir Mayakovsky's room ... The Leningrad "Krasnaya Gazeta" reported: "Mayakovsky's suicide. Today at 10 hours 17 minutes in his working room Vladimir Mayakovsky committed suicide with a revolver in the heart area. The ambulance arrived and found him already dead. Last few days
V.V. Mayakovsky did not reveal any mental discord, and nothing foreshadowed a catastrophe. On the night of yesterday, contrary to custom, he did not spend the night at home. I returned home at 7 o'clock. in the morning. During the day he did not leave the room. He spent the night at home. This morning he went out somewhere and after a short time returned to a taxi, accompanied by an artist from the Moscow Art Theater X. Soon a shot was heard from Mayakovsky's room, followed by artist X. An ambulance was immediately called, but even before her arrival Mayakovsky died ... Those who ran into the room found Mayakovsky lying on the floor with a bullet through his chest. The deceased left two notes: one - to his sister, in which he gives her money, and the other - to friends, where he writes that “he knows very well that suicide is not an option, but he has no other way ...”.
A criminal case was opened into the death of V. Mayakovsky, led by investigator Syrtsov.
On the afternoon of April 14, Mayakovsky's body was transported to an apartment in Gendrikov Lane, where he permanently lived. In a small room of the apartment at 20 o'clock, researchers from the Institute of the Brain removed the poet's brain.
It is known that the last person who saw the poet alive was the 22-year-old actress of the Moscow Art Theater Veronika Polonskaya, who was in a hurry that morning for a rehearsal. V. Polonskaya recalled: “I went out. She walked a few steps to the front door. A shot rang out. My legs gave way, I screamed and rushed along the corridor, could not bring myself to enter.

Nameless killer?
Research journalist V.I. Skoryatin managed to collect and analyze a wealth of factual material. Many facts from the life of the poet and people close to him before this study, published in the journal "Journalist" (1989-1994), and later in the book "The Mystery of the Death of Vladimir Mayakovsky" (M., "Zvonnitsa-MG", 1998) remained unknown.
He managed to establish that in 1930 in a communal apartment in Lubyansky passage, in which the poet's study was located, there was another small room, subsequently laid by a wall. “Now let's imagine,” the journalist muses, “Polonskaya is quickly going down the stairs. The door to the poet's room opens. Someone is on the doorstep. Seeing the weapon in his hands, Mayakovsky shouts indignantly ... Shot. The poet falls. The killer approaches the table. Leaves a letter on it. Places the weapon on the floor. And then hides in the bathroom or toilet. And after the neighbors came running to the noise, he gets to the stairs by the back door ”. Well, a bold version that certainly requires strong evidence.
In support of the version of the murder of the poet, the journalist cites a photograph in which Mayakovsky's body lies on the floor, "his mouth is open in a scream." V. Skoryatin asks: "The suicide shouts before the shot ?!"
By the way, it could be. And you should also know that after death, the human body relaxes, the muscles become soft, come to a state of rest, as it were. The deceased's mouth opens slightly, the lower jaw drops, which, in fact, is reflected in the photograph.
Veronika Vitoldovna returned immediately after the shot. And when did “someone” manage to commit his atrocity, and even hide so that no one saw him?
Three "young" neighbors of Mayakovsky, as V. Skoryatin writes, at that time were in "a small room in the kitchen." Naturally, hearing a shot and jumping out into the corridor, they should have certainly run into a man leaving the poet's room. However, neither the actress nor the "young neighbors" saw anyone.
Polonskaya claimed that Mayakovsky was lying on his back. But a number of researchers believe that the poet's body was lying face down. However, in the photographs taken at the scene, the poet lies face up, on the left of his shirt there is a dark spot. This is what blood usually looks like in black and white photographs.
There were also sensational statements that Mayakovsky had been shot twice ... In the program "Before and After Midnight," the well-known TV journalist Vladimir Molchanov suggested that there were traces of two shots on the photograph of the dead Mayakovsky shown to him.
And there was a lot of gossip about the forensic study of the poet's body. On the very first day, the autopsy of the poet's body was performed by the famous professor-pathologist V. Talalaev in the morgue of the medical faculty of Moscow State University. According to the recollections of V. Sutyrin, on the night of April 17, a re-dissection of the body took place due to the fact that rumors spread about Mayakovsky's alleged venereal disease. An autopsy performed by Professor Talalaev did not reveal any traces of sexually transmitted diseases.
Rumors and speculation about the death of Mayakovsky fanned an unhealthy excitement, but at the same time pointed to the miscalculations of the investigators of the 30s.
The journalist Skoryatin, obviously, had no idea what a valuable service he rendered to the specialists by mentioning the shirt Mayakovsky was wearing at the time of the shot. Therefore, the shirt has survived! But this is the most valuable material evidence!
After the poet's death, this relic was kept by L.Yu. Brick. In the mid-50s, Lilya Yurievna donated the shirt to the museum for safekeeping, about which there is a corresponding entry in the museum's "Book of Receipts".
In the special storage of the museum, the head of the sector of material assets L. E. Kolesnikova took out an oblong box, carefully unfolded several layers of paper impregnated with a special composition. It turns out that no examination of the shirt was carried out either in 1930 or in subsequent years! An agreement was immediately reached with the museum that the shirt would be handed over to specialists for research.

Expertise
Researchers of the Federal Center for Forensic Examinations of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation E. Safronsky immediately began the study,
I. Kudesheva, a specialist in the field of shot marks, and the author of these lines is a forensic medical expert. First of all, it was necessary to establish that it was in this shirt, bought by the poet in Paris, that Mayakovsky was at the moment of the shot.
On the photographs of Mayakovsky's body, taken at the scene, the pattern of the fabric, the texture of the shirt, the shape and localization of the blood stain, and the gunshot injury itself are clearly distinguishable. These photos have been enlarged. The experts photographed the presented shirt in the same angle and with the same magnification and carried out the photo combination. All the details matched.
From Research: "On the left side of the front of the shirt, there is one through damage of a rounded shape measuring 6 x 8 mm."... Thus, immediately the version about the traces of two shots on the shirt burst. The results of microscopic examination, the shape and size of the damage, the state of the edges of this damage, the presence of a defect (absence) of the tissue made it possible to draw a conclusion about the firing nature of the hole that arose from a single projectile shot.
It is known that, in order to determine whether a person shot himself or was shot at him, it is necessary to establish the distance of the shot. In forensic science and forensic science, it is customary to distinguish between three main distances: point-blank, close-range, and long-range. If it is established that on April 14, 1930, in V.V. Mayakovsky, a shot sounded from a long distance, which means that someone was shooting at the poet ...
The specialists had to work hard and painstakingly - to find the signs that characterize the distance of the shot, which sounded more than 60 years ago.
From the "Conclusion": "1. Damage to V.V.'s shirt Mayakovsky is an entrance firearm, formed when fired from a distance "side stop" in the direction from front to back and somewhat from right to left in an almost horizontal plane.
2. Judging by the features of the damage, a short-barreled weapon (for example, a pistol) was used and a low-power cartridge was used.
3. The small size of the blood-soaked area located around the input gunshot injury indicates its formation as a result of a single-stage release of blood from the wound, and the absence of vertical blood streaks indicates that immediately after receiving the wound, V.V. Mayakovsky was in a horizontal position, lying on his back. "
So the dispute about the position of Mayakovsky's body after the shot is over.
"4. 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. who was in the same hand. "
The detection of traces of a shot at the side stop, the absence of traces of struggle and self-defense are characteristic of the shot fired own hand.
Neither the age of the shot, nor the treatment of the shirt with a special compound should not serve as an obstacle in carrying out complex medical and ballistic examinations. Thus, the research carried out has not only historical but also scientific interest.

Death autograph
“He was without a jacket. The jacket was hanging on a chair and there was a letter, his last letter, which he wrote, "- recalled the artist N.F. Denisovsky. From this room - "boats", as the poet liked to call it, rumors have reached our days that this letter was not written by Mayakovsky. Moreover, the name of the "author" of the letter was also given.
But it is impossible to forge a handwriting so that this forgery would not be detected by forensic specialists. Only now, work is underway abroad on the possibility of computer (!) Handwriting counterfeiting.
How many copies have crossed around the suicide letter, written in pencil, with almost no punctuation marks: “Everyone. Don't blame anyone for dying, and please don't gossip. The deceased did not like this terribly ... ".
This dying request of the poet did not even occur to anyone to take into account.
The letter was sent in December 1991 for research to the laboratory of forensic handwriting examinations of the All-Russian Research Institute of Forensic Examinations of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation (now the Federal Center for Forensic Examinations of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation). The experts were asked the question: to establish whether the specified letter was executed by V.V. Mayakovsky. or by another person.
The head of the Research Institute of Forensic Handwriting Expertise, Candidate of Legal Sciences Yu.N. Pogibko and senior researcher of the same laboratory, candidate of legal sciences R.Kh. Panova. The "Conclusions" made by the experts are fully consistent with the research part: “The handwritten text of the suicide letter on behalf of VV Mayakovsky, beginning with the words“ Everyone. Don't blame anyone for dying… ”, and ending with the words“… Get the rest from Gr.VM ”, dated 04/12/30, - made by Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky himself.
This text was made by V.V. Mayakovsky. under the influence of some factors "knocking down" his usual writing process, among which the most probable is an unusual psychophysiological state associated with excitement "... But the letter was written not on the day of the suicide, but earlier: "Immediately before suicide, the signs of unusualness would have been more pronounced." The letter, according to experts, indeed it was written on April 12, as the poet dated it.
Researchers of V.V. Mayakovsky, journalists tried to find a criminal case on the "fact of Mayakovsky's death." However, he was nowhere to be found ... To put an end to the research, to check our results, it was necessary to "Delo". But there was no "Deal" ...

Yezhov's folder
Materials about Mayakovsky's death were kept in the Presidential Archives, but in a completely different folder, and were finally transferred to the special storage of the V.V. Mayakovsky. Museum Director S.E. Strizhneva kindly agreed to acquaint me with the documents.
I am sitting in a small cozy office of Svetlana Evgenievna. In front of me is a gray cardboard folder, the inscription in large black type immediately catches my eyes: "EZHOV NIKOLAY IVANOVICH". Below - "Started on April 12, 1930. Completed on January 24, 1958". The folder contains the second folder: “Criminal case no. 02 - 29. 1930 About the suicide of Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky. Started April 14, 1930 ". Consequently, the case "On the suicide of Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky" was under the control of the almighty and sinister secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b), who oversaw administrative bodies, including the state security agencies. The folder contains only a few sheets of slightly yellowed paper. Here, in compliance with the spelling, are excerpts from the protocol of the inspection of the scene:
"PROTOCOL.
Mayakovsky's corpse lies on the floor.
In the middle of the room, Mayakovsky's corpse lies on the back on the floor. Lies head to front door... The head is slightly turned to the right, the eyes are open, the pupils are dilated, the mouth is half-open. Rigor mortis is absent. There is a round wound on the chest 3 cm above the left nipple, about two-thirds of a centimeter in diameter. The circumference of the wound is slightly stained with blood. There is no outlet. On the right side of the back in the area of ​​the last ribs under the skin, a solid foreign body is felt, not significant in size. The corpse is dressed in a shirt ... on the left side of the chest, according to the described wound on the shirt, there is a hole of an irregular shape, about one centimeter in diameter, around this hole the shirt is stained with blood for about ten centimeters. The circumference of the shirt hole with traces of opal. Between the legs of the corpse lies a Mauser system revolver, caliber 7.65 No. 312045 (this revolver was taken from the GPU by Comrade Gendin). Not a single cartridge was found in the revolver. On the left side of the corpse, at a distance from the body, lies an empty spent cartridge case from a Mauser revolver of the specified caliber.
Duty investigator
/signature/. Medical expert
/signature/. Understood / signatures / ".
The protocol was drawn up at an extremely low methodological level. But what we have, we have ...
Pay attention: "On the right side of the back, in the area of ​​the last ribs, a solid foreign body is felt, not significant in size."
The presence of a "foreign object" under the skin in the region of the lower right ribs, obviously, suggested that the shot was fired from left to right, i.e. left hand. Experts also know about the possibility of changing the direction of flight of a bullet in the body when it meets an obstacle.
Professor A.P. Gromov and V.G. Naumenko pointed out: “The diameter of the channel is also affected by different densities, as well as internal ricochet (change in the direction of the bullet). Ricochet can arise not only from a meeting with a bone, but also with soft tissues. " American experts call these bullets "wandering". And in this case, a bullet from a low-power cartridge, meeting with an obstacle (vertebra, rib, etc.), slid down and, having lost its lethal force, got stuck in the subcutaneous fat, where it was felt in the form of a "hard foreign body."
Examining the shirt, not knowing the protocol, the experts turned out to be right: the shot was fired at point-blank range, Mayakovsky's body lay on its back. Memory did not disappoint V.V. Polonskaya: "He looked directly at me and kept trying to raise his head ...".
Next sheet:
"Report. ... of this date at 11 o'clock I arrived at the scene of the incident along Lubyansky proezd, 3, apt. No. 12, where the writer Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky shot himself ... subsequently, officers of the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department arrived ... early. secret department Agranov ... Olievsky withdrew the suicide note. The forensic expert found that Mr. Mayakovsky committed suicide by shooting himself in the heart with a Mauser revolver, after which an instant death occurred.
V.V. Polonskaya confirmed the facts known to us during interrogation.
On the second day after the death of V.V. Mayakovsky were summoned for interrogation by citizens N.Ya. Krivtsov, Skobeleva and other neighbors. None of them categorically could assert that at the time of the shot Polonskaya was in Mayakovsky's room.
There were many familiar KGB officers around Mayakovsky. But it should be remembered that in those years the very word "chekist" was surrounded by a romantic halo. In particular, the poet was friends with Ya.S. Agranov, head of the secret department of the OGPU. Moreover, Agranov gave Mayakovsky, a great lover of weapons, a pistol. Agranov, who was subsequently shot, is an ominous figure. It was Agranov who received the operational information collected by agents after the death of the poet. The most unexpected things can be found on the pages of once secret documents.
"WITH. secret.
Summary.
From 9 o'clock. on the street Vorovsky,
52, where Mayakovsky's corpse is located, the audience began to gather and by 10.20 am gathered about
3000 people. At 11 o'clock, the audience began to be admitted to Mayakovsky's coffin. Standing in line ... about the reason for Mayakovsky's suicide and the political nature of the talk is not heard.
Pom. early 3 dep. Operoda
/Signature/".
"Beginning. SO OGPU to comrade Agranov.
Intelligence report
5 dep. SO OGPU No. 45 dated April 18, 1930
The news of Mayakovsky's suicide made a very strong impression on the public ... Talk exclusively about the romantic cause of death. From the conversations, the following can be emphasized ...
Conversations, gossip.
Newspaper reports of suicide, a romantic lining, an intriguing posthumous letter aroused, for the most part, an unhealthy curiosity among the common people.
... The newspaper hype about Mayakovsky was called a clever collision for fools. It was necessary in the face of abroad, in front of public opinion abroad, to present the death of Mayakovsky as the death of a revolutionary poet who died because of a personal drama.
The report of Syrtsov (the investigator) about Mayakovsky's long-term illness was found extremely unsuccessful. They talk about syphilis, etc.
Beginning 5 dep. SO OGPU / Signature / ".
Even after many years, the state security agencies tried to "probe" the mood of the intelligentsia, its attitude towards Mayakovsky's death. I happened to get acquainted with the "Conversation Protocol"
MM. Zoshchenko with an employee of the Leningrad Department of the NKGB, held on July 20, 1944:
"22. Do you consider the cause of Mayakovsky's death clear now?
“She continues to remain mysterious. It is curious that the revolver from which Mayakovsky shot himself was donated by the famous Chekist Agranov. "
23. Does this suggest that Mayakovsky's suicide was provocatively prepared?
"Perhaps. In any case, it's not about women. Veronica Polonskaya, about whom there were so many different guesses, told me that she was not intimately close to Mayakovsky. "
The dignity and courage with which the disgraced Zoshchenko held on during the so-called conversation, and in fact - the interrogation, is striking.

The conclusion of the forensic experts
In the name of the Director of the Russian Federal Center for Forensic Examination, Director of the State Museum of Mayakovsky S.E. Strizhneva was sent a letter with a request to conduct a study of the Browning pistol, the bullet and the cartridge case received by the museum from the Presidential Archives, from the materials of the Mayakovsky investigation file ...
Let's get back to the Protocol: "... lies a revolver of the Mauser system, caliber 7.65"... What weapon did Mayakovsky shoot himself with? According to certificate No. 4178/22076, Mayakovsky had two pistols: the Browning system and the Bayard system - a short-barreled weapon. Maybe the shot was fired from a Browning? But I don’t believe a professional investigator would mistake the Browning for the Mauser.
On the table in front of the experts is a spent cartridge case, a bullet and a holster with a weapon. With a habitual movement, Emil Grigorievich removes from the holster ... Browning No. 268979!
“As a result of the study, a set of signs was revealed that indicated that from the weapon presented for examination ... a shot (shots) was not fired (not fired),” S. Nikolaeva established. Means, Was the wrong weapon attached to the case file as material evidence? The examination of the bullet removed from Mayakovsky's body and the cartridge case, also attached to the case, was carried out by expert E.G. Safronsky. After examining the bullet, the expert dispassionately writes: "The established data indicate that the bullet presented is part of the 7.65 mm Browning cartridge of the 1900 model."
So what's the deal? But then the expert found that the bullet under investigation was fired from a Mauser pistol, model 1914. "Nevertheless,- the expert continues the research, - To test the version about the possibility of firing the investigated bullet from the Browning pistol No. 268979 presented for examination, we conducted experimental firing from the specified pistol with five 7.65 mm Browning cartridges ... The results of the study allow us to make a categorical conclusion that the bullet 7 , 65 mm Browning cartridge of the 1900 model was fired ... from a Mauser pistol, model 1914, caliber 7.65 mm. " The 7.65 mm case of the Browning cartridge of the 1900 model presented for research was fired, expert Safronsky found, not in the Browning pistol No. 268979, but in the Mauser pistol of the 1914 model of 7.65 mm caliber.
Hence, the shot was fired from a Mauser! Brilliantly done research! It was the Mauser that was noted in the inspection report.
Who changed the weapon? Let us recall the minutes of the "conversation" between the NKGB officer and M.M. Zoshchenko: "It is curious that the revolver from which Mayakovsky shot himself was presented to him by the famous Chekist Agranov." Could it be that Agranov himself changed the weapon, attaching Mayakovsky's Browning to the case?

Instead of an epilogue
The decision to die in the overwhelming majority of cases is an intimate matter: to close in a room and not see anyone else.
We will never know what actually happened to Vladimir Vladimirovich. He was a very important poet with an absolutely unprotected emotional life. Suicide is always associated with the deepest layers of the psyche. The spiritual world of man is a mysterious and silent space ...

Alexander MASLOV, professor of forensic medicine, forensic expert

16.09.2002