Sergei Yesenin monument on the grave. "stronger than death and the fear of death"
In the north-west of Moscow, not far from Krasnopresnenskaya Zastava Square, there is a cemetery, which has been one of the main attractions of the capital for many decades. Singers, actors, painters, writers and athletes are buried here. But the most famous and legendary place in this cemetery, perhaps, is Yesenin's grave.
Monument
The bitter glory of the "obscene and brawler" haunts the poet even after death. To this day, personalities gather at the tombstone, perceiving the cemetery as a suitable place for drinking strong drinks. They recite poetry loudly and tell numerous stories. However, fans of the classic of Russian poetry come here no less often in order to honor the memory with quiet silence.
Where is Yesenin's grave located? Even a person who finds himself in an old Moscow cemetery for the first time can find an answer to this question. Almost every visitor will show the way to it. But it is hardly possible to pass by the Yesenin monument. It is enough just to walk along the central alley, and the monument to the golden-haired poet will catch your eye.
He stands as if alive, arms folded, in a simple peasant shirt ... And very young. When you look at him, you again remember how quickly, although extremely brightly, the brilliant poet from the Ryazan hinterland lived his life.
How to get there?
Finding the Vagankovsky cemetery is not difficult. You need to get to the metro station "Ulitsa 1905 Goda", and already when you exit the car, on the columns, you can see signs.
After exiting, you need to go along Bolshaya Decembrskaya Street past residential buildings. And five minutes later the Church of the Resurrection of the Word opens up.
An extraordinary atmosphere reigns in this historical part of Moscow. The air here seems to be saturated with the spirit of folk poetry. And even before reaching the cemetery itself, you will hear recordings with Vysotsky's hoarse voice. The last refuge here was found by poets, whose work was loved by the common people, but whose life was tragic and was interrupted too soon. And in the very center of the cemetery there is an alley named after the greatest of them - Yeseninskaya. Walking along it, you can see a marble monument depicting a young fair-haired man. This is Yesenin's grave.
History of the cemetery
AT late XVIII century, on the outskirts of Moscow, which at that time was still a small city, the village of Novoe Vagankovo was formed. At the same time, a burial place for nameless Muscovites was created, named after this settlement.
The first graves did not belong to residents of Moscow who died during the plague. In subsequent years, ordinary poor people were also buried here. The graves of representatives of the peasant class are located today in the old part of this place. Later, a temple was erected, and over time, the Vagankovskoye cemetery turned into not only a place for burials, but also into a kind of accumulation of historical monuments.
Yesenin's funeral
On the last winter day of 1925, a cross was erected here, on which were the dates of life and his name - Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin. The grave, the cemetery were surrounded by people. According to eyewitnesses, not a single Russian poet was buried like this. In addition to numerous admirers, relatives and friends came to say goodbye to the "last poet of the village". It was not only These days she was not in Moscow.
There is a version according to which the poet did not commit suicide, but was killed by the NKVD. The works of Eduard Khlystalov, a researcher, are devoted to this hypothesis. But it is customary to attribute to the evidence of the version of the murder among fans of the work of the Russian classic the fact that Yesenin was buried in the cemetery, and not behind its fence. The clergy allegedly guessed the true cause of death and agreed to bury the deceased. But it is worth remembering that the funeral took place in 1925. The authorities agreed to allocate a place of honor for the burial. The point, rather, was that it was they who decided in those years similar questions but not priests. And the tradition of burying suicides behind the cemetery fence was forgotten.
legends
Yesenin's grave at the Vagankovsky cemetery is one of the most visited places. That is why there were some rumors and legends here. According to frequent visitors to the cemetery, Yesenin's grave is periodically visited by a female ghost. The ghost appears in the night and silently stands at the monument. And those who have seen or believe in its existence are sure that this is Galina Benislavskaya.
Galina Benislavskaya
Galina Benislavskaya rests next to her - a woman who was not loved by the poet, but pathologically faithful to him. A year after his death in a deserted cemetery, at his very grave, she committed suicide, leaving on a small tombstone engraved the words from Yesenin's letter addressed to Benislavskaya.
Yesenin's grave is one of the most famous burials at the Vagankovsky cemetery, and therefore fresh flowers always lie here. In order to find the place where the ashes of the poet rest, it is enough just to go to the cemetery. Any person can show the way to it. Almost a century has passed since the death of the poet, but "the people's path will not grow to his monument."
Galina Benislavskaya was not there. M. Roizman said: " A little after Yesenin's death, I saw Benislavskaya at a table in the telegraph building. Before her lay a blank form for a telegram, she sat in thought, with a pen in her hand. I greeted her and saw that she had lost weight, even aged. I asked if she was sick?
No, I'm fine," she answered quietly. “But every minute I think that Sergei Alexandrovich is gone!”»
After his death, Galina writes in her diary: “ Terrible hopelessness and inevitability of loss came. And I have the same mortal longing for him. The one who saw him for real - not to see anyone, not to love anyone».
She tries to live somehow, pour wine into her soul, rushes from side to side. There is no relief. And Galina decides to die.
It is happened December 3, 1926 at the Vagankovsky cemetery next to Yesenin's grave.
Yesenin's grave in its original form
The woman nervously smoked cigarette after cigarette. She is still so young, and life, despite the difficulties and misfortunes, is so beautiful ... Finally, she made up her mind. She took out a piece of paper, quickly, so as not to think, sketched out a few lines: “ I killed myself here, although I know that after that even more dogs will hang on Yesenin. But for him, and for me, it doesn't matter. In this grave for me everything is most precious ... "
For a while she stood motionless. Then on the box of cigarettes she wrote: If the finka is stuck after a shot in the grave, it means that even then I did not regret it. If it’s a pity, I’ll throw it far away ... ".
Galina took out a pistol ... After a while, she was able to somehow add on a box of cigarettes: “ misfire". In Moscow, they will later say that there were several misfires. But the subsequent shot was accurate. The woman fell unconscious. The gun and the finca fell out of her hands ...
The shot was heard at the gatehouse. To the scene, timidly hiding behind monuments and fences, the cemetery watchman was the first to arrive in time. A mortally wounded woman in a checkered cap and a dark shabby coat lay in the snow and groaned inaudibly. The watchman ran to the church to sound the alarm. Soon the police came, the ambulance arrived. The dying woman was sent to the Botkin hospital, but she was no longer breathing. The cart turned around and took the body of the deceased to Pirogovka, to the anatomical theater. So tragically ended the life of 29-year-old Galina Benislavskaya, whose love and devotion to the poet was boundless. (Eduard Khlystalov. "Literary Russia" No. 50. 12/14/2001)
The suicide of Galina Benislavskaya shocked all of Moscow. It was decided to bury her next to Yesenin. The funeral took place on December 7th. The words " Faithful Galya". Now there are the words of Sergei Yesenin from his letter to her:
What was she like, this mysterious and contradictory woman, who did not want to live anymore in a world where her Poet was not, where there was no longer any reason to exist, who left it prudently and cold-bloodedly?
Galina Arturovna Benislavskaya born in Petersburg in 1897. She is the daughter of a Russified Frenchman and a Georgian.
She grew up in an aunt's family, as her father left the family early, and her mother was treated in a psychiatric clinic. She was in the Bolshevik Party, was captured by the Whites, in 1919-22 she worked in the Cheka as the secretary of the economic department.
The developers of the version about the deliberate murder of the great poet spread speculation that Benislavskaya supposedly " was assigned by the GPU to monitor the poet" (F. Morozov. Journal "Rus"). This is vile slander. In the economic department, where Galina served in the Special Interdepartmental Commission (OMK), they were engaged in " development of measures to combat speculation and increase the responsibility of officials". The commission did not set itself any intelligence-information tasks. For obvious reasons, the life of writers and poets did not interest her - that was the diocese of the secret department of the Cheka. Therefore, it is obvious that it was possible to “fasten” Benislavskaya to Agranov only with the help of imagination.
But maybe Agranov later attracted Galina Arturovna to the secret department of the Cheka? And there is a negative answer to this question, again based on her personal file.
In one of the references we read: I ask G. A. Benislavskaya, an employee for instructions from the agricultural department, as she has not actually worked in the department for about 4 months, to be seconded to the administrative department of the GPU". This document is dated April 27, 1922, and five days later a paper was signed indicating that Benislavskaya " dismissed from the service of the GPU at her own request and sent to the subdivision of accounting and distribution of the labor force of the mountains. Moscow».
Thus, the very fact of even a short, but official service in the Lubyanka ruled out the involvement of Benislavskaya as a secret employee of the GPU. Otherwise, the very concept of "secret" lost its meaning.
Later, Benislavskaya went to work in the editorial office of the newspaper " Poor". Galina read a lot, was well versed in literature, visited the famous Pegasus Stable cafe, where in the twenties they read their poems the best poets Moscow. But her whole life turned upside down September 19, 1920 when, one evening at the Polytechnic Museum, she heard Sergei Yesenin. On that day, she writes in her diary:
« Suddenly the same boy comes out: a short, unbuttoned reindeer jacket, hands in the pockets of his trousers, completely golden hair, as if alive. Slightly throwing back his head and camp, he begins to read:
Spit, wind, armfuls of leaves, -
I'm just like you, bully.
He is all element, mischievous, rebellious, unrestrained element, not only in verse, but in every movement that reflects the movement of verse. Flexible, violent, like the wind he talks about, but no, what is the wind, the wind would take Yesenin's prowess. And in the one who listens, the same element involuntarily wakes up, and one involuntarily wants to repeat after him with the same prowess: “I am the same as you, a bully” ...
What happened after reading it is hard to convey. Everyone suddenly jumped up from their seats and rushed to the stage, to him. They not only shouted at him, they begged him: "Read something else." And a few minutes later, coming up, already in a fur hat with a sable trim, childishly read again "Spit, wind ...".
Coming to my senses, I saw that I was also at the stage itself. How I ended up there, I do not know and do not remember. Obviously, this wind picked up and spun me too. What happened, I didn't know yet. There was great charm in his spontaneity, in his semi-boyar, semi-hooligan costume, in his posture and manner of reading, I wanted to listen to him, namely to listen again and again ...»
S. Yesenin reads his poems at the monument to A. Koltsov.
At the time of her acquaintance with Yesenin (1919-1920), Benislavskaya looked like a girl in whom, when she argued with enthusiasm or laughed recklessly, something boyish looked through. " Her eyes were amazing! Large, brown, with golden sparks, almost fused, pretentiously curved eyebrows under a straight, narrow nose that gave her narrow face a special significance. Luxurious curled lashes. The ironic mouth and high forehead testified to the mind and willpower". (E. Styrskaya). She looked like a Georgian woman, distinguished by her peculiar beauty and attractiveness. Then she still had braids of jackdaw color - long, fluffy.
Then she cut it off. She combed her short hair in a straight parting. When talking, she liked to put her hands in the cuffs of her sleeves.
From the diary of Galina Benislavskaya:
« I was only surprised: I read it in novels, but in life I didn’t know that it flared up so “suddenly”. I realized: yes, this is exactly the “prince” that I was waiting for. And it became clear why she had not loved anyone until now ... That very evening I clearly understood that I can give everything here: both principles (not to get married), and - body (which I still could not even imagine), and I not only can, but even, it seems, I want to…”.
Yesenin conquered Galina immediately and irrevocably. The next two weeks passed under the hypnosis of his poetry. She is present at all the poet's performances and is always in the forefront of the audience, which does not go unnoticed by Yesenin. The unusual beauty of the girl attracts the poet, but she does not “give up” immediately and does not show that she is madly in love with him. I must say that Galina never ran after Yesenin (as it was presented in the sensational film based on the work of Bezrukov Sr.), she appeared only when it was necessary and disappeared when there was no need for her intervention.
Gradually, friendly relations are established between the poet and her friends Galya and Yana Kozlovskaya.
Yesenin was very interested in articles and notes about himself and about Imagism in general. Yana, working in the newspaper Bednota, and Galina, using the information bureau of the Cheka, got him a lot of material of interest to him.
Then, according to Galina, a fairy tale began, which became the meaning of her life and which continued until 1925. She reached out to Yesenin, as to the sun. Later, in letters, she addressed him: “my sun!”.
« I was not going to achieve anything, I just could not and did not want not to think about him, not to look for an opportunity to see and hear him. And later, already having the opportunity to always see him when he began to read poetry, I often thought that, in addition to all this, I could also listen to newly written poems from him. On this day, she came home outwardly calm, but inside - sheer glee, as if, as in a fairy tale, she had found a magical treasured thing. From that evening until the autumn of 1922 (two years) I fell asleep thinking about him, and when I woke up, my first thought was about S.A., just as in childhood the first thought is: “Is there sun today?».
« So love, so selflessly and unrestrainedly love. Does it happen? But I love, and I can not do otherwise; it is stronger than me, my life. If it were necessary for him to die - without hesitation, and if at the same time he knew that he would at least smile affectionately when he learned about me, death would become a joy..
This diary was published at the end of the century both in Russia and in America, the love of Galina Benislavskaya went down in history. People remember her love for almost a century. And it is hardly possible to find an example of such a saving self-denial in love, such a disinterested all-consuming feeling that was accepted, but not shared.
She waits for him to tell her: Gail, you are an amazing person. I have no one closer to you". However, he adds: But sorry. I don't love you as a woman". She will answer: “Sergey Alexandrovich, I do not encroach on your freedom, you have nothing to worry about". And in his diary he writes: "God, how excruciatingly painful ... But I can handle it. Always love him, always be ready to respond to his call - and that's it, and nothing more! And he appreciated it and wrote to her in a letter: True, it is much better and more than I feel for women. You are so close to me in life without this that it is impossible to express.
Somewhere in the summer of 1921, Galina feels unusually happy next to him. " Yes, March-August 1921 - what good time ". Yesenin was close to her, he could not help but respond to the feelings of a devoted and passionately loving person. There is a mention of this in her diary, dated March 1922. " There is no humiliation that I would not go to, if only to make him stop only for a short time near me, but not only physically, I need more from him: he needs the warmth that was in the summer, and that's it !!!» The entry was made at the beginning of Yesenin’s already established relationship with Isadora Duncan.
Knowing that Yesenin had a wife and children, Galina did not even think about winning his heart, although her heart was already beating in a high love rhythm. Then Yesenin seemed to her already "available." " As he "seeed off" then at night, the spiders crawled, quietly, gently, warmly. Spent, forgot, but I do not want to forget. After all, Yesenin is alone».
After leaving his wife, the poet was literally on the street, the search for a roof over his head was his constant headache. Where did he live! Most often, I had to seek refuge in the apartments of various friends and acquaintances, and a crowd of adherents and freeloaders always followed it. He could not work in these conditions. Galina sheltered Sergei in her communal apartment. Then his sister Katya moved there. Then Shura...
Yesenin abroad with Duncan.
Galina is torn between jealousy and love. " After all, she (Isadora) will not be able to save? Fire cannot protect wood. Perhaps we have already seen him off forever, failed to save him? .. How dear he is to me. I feel it again and again. And everything that is dear to him is dear ...»
A decision comes, no matter what, to be always there for him, to be necessary, to be a friend and not to demand more.
After returning from abroad and leaving Duncan, Yesenin finally settled in big house in Bryusovsky lane, the so-called "house of Pravda", where the employees of the newspapers "Pravda" and "Poor" lived, in a communal apartment on the 7th floor, where Galina owned two small rooms. From the window of the room there was a view of the Kremlin.
In this house in Bryusov lane (building 2a, apt. 27) Yesenin lived for about a year ... This apartment remained communal for a long time, but now one of the new Russians bought it entirely and the guard does not let it in. Excursions lead to the courtyard and talk about Yesenin there.
Voluntarily and with great enthusiasm, this quiet ascetic took on the duties of a servant, nanny, guardian, literary secretary ... Secretary, perhaps, in the first place. Almost half of Yesenin's letters of 1924 were addressed to her. But it is in vain to look for at least one intimate word in them - all these are friendly, correct in tone, with an invariable appeal to you (albeit by name) business messages. She compiles and publishes his collections, keeps the proofs, manages money affairs, very complicated, rewrites and stores his manuscripts. A secretary, reliable and loyal, but no more.
From memories A. Mariengofa: « After Yesenin returned from America, Galya became his closest person: lover, friend, nanny. Nursing in the highest, noblest and beautiful sense this word. I, perhaps, did not meet in my life more than Gali, self-sacrifice, greater devotion, negligence and, of course, love. She gave Yesenin all of herself, demanding nothing for herself. And if you tell the truth - not getting».
In recent years, Galina was most often the first listener of his poems. She had a delicate literary taste, and Yesenin always listened to her assessments, which did not always coincide with his own, to her gentle advice. Galina had a calming effect on him.
« In my presence for two years there was only one scandal. He was comforted by my calmness and my evenness towards him; soon studied to the subtlety of all his moods. With regard to his mood and condition, I was completely unusually sensitive for me. Some kind of maternal sensitivity and attentiveness to him grew out of constant anxiety for him.". She recalls the incident:
« Suddenly he takes something out of his pocket, with fear and apprehension. As if a broken cigarette is a cartridge case mouthpiece. He bends over and in the ear, with despair - everything, they say, is over, - he says. “Axelrod gave it, you know - cocaine, I already sniffed it once, but I didn’t feel anything, it doesn’t work.” I screamed in horror: “Now quit! What is that!” And that there is strength hit him on the arm. And he, bewildered, like a boy who realized that he was indulging in something bad and dangerous, spread his fingers with fear and dropped it. He looked like this: got rid, they say, of danger. I walked through it for half an hour, and S.A., trembling, frightened, listened and gave his word that not only would he never take cocaine in his hands, but he would also give it to the face of anyone who presented him».
Who knows, if Galina Benislavskaya had not met Yesenin on the way, whether he had left us even earlier, having died from drugs or in a drunken street fight, where his life hung in the balance so many times.
Yesenin's familiar tavern entourage fiercely hates Benislavskaya. " …I passed through a line of hostile, hateful eyes. No matter what they did to eliminate me. To their greatest rage, they couldn't figure out our relationship. Wife. Not a wife. Mistress - also not. Friend. They did not see such people among themselves and did not believe in my friendship. And therefore they did not know from which side to offend Sergei Alexandrovich. And they didn’t understand why I bewitched him so much that in no way could we quarrel».
Yesenin will offer her: “ Galya, I live with you. After all, there will be all sorts of talk. If you want I can marry you". She refuses: “No, Sergei Alexandrovich. Only because of someone's conversations - no. Yes, I can't. You just always, in everything, rely on me.
In her memoirs, G. Benislavskaya tries to accuse the Soviet government of ignoring the poet. Bitterly indignant that it had no right not to understand what value was in its care, and which, nevertheless, not only did not contribute to the possibility of Yesenin's talent growing further, but even failed to preserve it; even if not to preserve, but at least to some extent provide everyday opportunities. And Sobinov, Geltser, Nezhdanova are provided with these opportunities, although their contributions to spiritual culture are immeasurably smaller, if only because their work will die with them, and what was created by Yesenin will survive many generations».
Yesenin called Benislavskaya his "caretaker". Galya - was undoubtedly the most real and faithful friend of S. Yesenin. In a letter to her, he writes: I repeat to you that you are very, very dear to me. Yes, and you yourself know that without your participation in my fate there would be a lot of deplorable things.
Do not believe what they say and write about Galina Benislavskaya in stupid books and films: she was a Chekist, knocked on Yesenin and other nonsense. It hurts to watch and read how the memory of this beautiful woman is being denigrated. Monuments of such love should be erected. Yesenin, unfortunately, did not devote a single poem to her. But if he had not died so early, I think he would have returned to her. " You can't see face to face. Big seen from a distance". There wasn't enough space...
Sergei Yesenin is the most translated Russian poet into other languages. Very soon we will celebrate the centennial anniversary of the death of this outstanding writer. But, despite this fact, his poems do not lose their relevance. And Yesenin's grave is buried in flowers all year round even today.
The life and death of a poet
Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin was born on September 21, 1895 (October 3, according to a new style) in the village of Konstantinovo in the Ryazan region. He showed his poetic talent early age. Yesenin's first poems were published on the eve of his twentieth birthday. The poet quickly became famous, he wrote a lot and published regularly, attended meetings of authoritative writers. At the same time, Yesenin's reputation in society was ambiguous. Few dared to challenge his talent, but accusations of drunkenness and hooliganism were made almost constantly.
In the autumn of 1925, the poet goes to the Moscow paid neuropsychiatric clinic. After being discharged from the clinic, Sergei Alexandrovich goes to Leningrad. There he settles in the Angleterre Hotel. For several days, the poet meets with old friends and fellow writers. On December 28, Sergei Alexandrovich was found dead in his own room. The official cause of death is suicide. It was decided that Yesenin's grave should appear in one of the prestigious Moscow cemeteries.
Suicide or murder
In 1970-1980, a version appeared about the murder of Yesenin, followed by a staged suicide. Its most ardent supporters claimed that such suspicions had appeared before, but against the backdrop of the political situation in the country, no one dared to speak openly about their suspicions.
The main "evidence" of the deliberate murder of the poet is considered to be visible injuries, in particular on the face. Indeed, before the civil memorial service, the body of the writer was in the hands of an experienced make-up artist. But even from under the special resistant cosmetics, unhealed abrasions and bruises appeared. However, it is impossible to prove that Sergei Alexandrovich received them immediately before his death. Moreover, in 1989, the circumstances of the poet's death were studied in detail by a specially created commission. A whole series of examinations was carried out, and none of them gave grounds to speak of a violent death.
All authoritative biographers of Yesenin and historians agree that the writer really decided to die on his own. It is also a recognized fact that the unstable psycho-emotional state poet in the last months of his life. It is a well-known fact that at that time, observing doctors diagnosed Sergei Alexandrovich with prolonged depression.
Farewell to Sergei Yesenin
Sergei Alexandrovich during his lifetime was a prominent figure in the literary community and had many admirers. The news of his death shocked the public. In Leningrad, a civil memorial service was held at the Union of Poets. After that, the coffin with the body of Yesenin was transported to Moscow by train. In the capital, they said goodbye to the poet in the House of Printing. This mournful ceremony was attended by close relatives and friends of Sergei Alexandrovich. The funeral took place on December 31, 1925. There were practically no disputes about where Yesenin's grave should be. The Vagankovsky cemetery in Moscow was chosen for the burial of the poet.
Unexpected suicide at Yesenin's grave
Sergei Yesenin passed away at the age of 30. In such a short period of time, he was officially married three times, and there are many legends about the number of novels and romantic hobbies of the poet. Most of all, the death of Sergei Alexandrovich shocked a woman whom many biographers of the writer do not at all rank among his mistresses. Galina Benislavskaya was a friend of the poet and his personal secretary. For some time, the writer lived free of charge in her Moscow apartment. Over the years, the poet shared with this woman his thoughts, personal experiences and took advice on professional activity. Benislavskaya did not attend the funeral, but she knew in which cemetery Yesenin was buried. From the moment they met, this woman treated Sergei Alexandrovich with particular loftiness and reverence.
Galina never dreamed of a romance or a marriage union with a writer, but at the same time he was the most important thing for her. important person in the world. On the day of Yesenin's death, Benislavskaya lost the meaning of life. She came to the cemetery on December 3, 1926. She smoked several cigarettes in a row and then wrote a brief suicide note. In her last message, she indicated that she "suicided herself", and imagines the public's reaction to such a step, but "... Both he and I will not care." After that, Galina Benislavskaya took out a gun and shot herself in the chest. The woman died before the ambulance arrived. On the same day, rumors spread around Moscow that some fan had committed suicide on Yesenin's grave. And only the closest knew tragic story relationship between the poet and his devoted friend.
Yesenin's grave today
The grave of Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin is one of the most famous in the Vagankovsky cemetery. Even in our time, fans visit their idol almost daily. The modern monument was erected in 1986. The author of the sculpture is Anatoly Bichukov. Yesenin is depicted to the waist, he is dressed in a simple shirt, and the poet's arms are crossed on his chest. According to the relatives and contemporaries of the writer, the statue has a high portrait resemblance. The monument on the grave of Yesenin is visible from afar and looks quite noble. His mother is buried next to the poet, and the grave of Galina Benislavskaya is also nearby.
How to find Yesenin's grave
The Vagankovsky cemetery can be visited daily from 9.00 to 19.00 in the summer. In winter, the cemetery closes at 5:00 pm. The nearest metro station to the necropolis is Ulitsa 1905 Goda. Follow the signs to the cemetery. From the entrance to the metro you can already see the Church of the Resurrection of the Word, located on the territory of the necropolis. Yesenin's grave at the Vagankovsky cemetery is located near the entrance. Especially for those who want to personally honor the memory of the great poet, a sign with the inscription "Yeseninskaya" is installed on the central alley. Going in the indicated direction, in a few minutes you will find yourself at the desired grave.
120 years ago, on October 3, Sergei Yesenin, the most translated Russian poet in the world, was born. He left many mysteries. But one thing is certain: his main love was Russia.
“According to the official version, Yesenin’s life was tragically cut short at the age of 30. But she didn’t break off - she was cut off, ”said the St. Petersburg poet Nikolai Brown, the son of the poet Nikolai Leopoldovich Brown, who, along with other writers, carried Yesenin’s body out of Angleterre on December 28, 1925.
“Father refused to sign the protocol, which said that Yesenin had committed suicide. The writer Boris Lavrenyov, who was also in Angleterre, did not believe in suicide, and the next day published an article in Krasnaya Gazeta about the death of the poet under the heading “Executed by degenerates”.
The father said that the poet had two deep wounds: a hole above the bridge of the nose, as if from a pistol grip, and another one under the eyebrow. There was no furrow characteristic of the gallows on the neck.
“When Yesenin had to be carried out,” my father said, “I took him, already stiff, under my shoulders. The upturned head dropped. The vertebrae were broken." When I asked if Yesenin was shot, there was a short answer: "He was tortured." The father was sure that the dead Yesenin was brought to the hotel room from interrogation.
I also knew the writer Pavel Luknitsky, one of the organizers of Yesenin's funeral, and once asked him what he remembers about the death of the poet. Luknitsky confirmed: the poet "died during interrogation", after being tortured, saying: "But there was no left eye." - "How was it not?" - "Escaped."
For the funeral, Yesenin’s appearance was so “restored” that, according to the testimony of the writer Galina Serebryakova, at parting in the Moscow House of Press, a “baked doll” lay in the coffin.
Relatives at the tomb of S. Yesenin; on the right - the poet's mother and sister. Photo: Public Domain/ S. Tules
photo: slavyanskaya-kultura.ru/
The poet was killed for the same reasons for which a number of his friends and contemporaries from the writer's circle were executed: Ganin, Klyuev, Klychkov, Vasiliev, Nasedkin, Pribludny and others. And even earlier, in 1921, - Gumilyov. The power of the militant atheists-internationalists aimed to make the recalcitrant "former" Russians (such a term appeared in the Soviet press) an obedient herd. And if a person did not give in, they killed him. In Leningrad, the party line was embodied in life by Grigory Zinoviev (head of the Comintern), in Moscow - by Leon Trotsky.
By the time of his death, 13 criminal cases had been opened against Yesenin. The poet was the only one who could shout in a restaurant near Red Square: “Beat the communists, save Russia!” This was the moment when Yesenin learned that the communists used chemical weapons to suppress the Tambov rebellion. Then 70 thousand peasants led by Ataman Antonov rebelled against the power of the Soviets. The song of the rebels - "Antonovskaya" - became the poet's favorite song. Then he portrayed Trotsky as a "Jewish commissar" in the poem "Country of Scoundrels." And he wrote to a friend: “I feel sick, the legitimate son Russian Empire, to be a stepson in your own country.”
Yesenin was saved from reprisal by the fact that he went on a trip to Europe and America with Isadora Duncan. We have already talked about this - I recommend it!
Sergei Yesenin speaks at the opening of the monument to the Russian poet A.V. Koltsov at the Kitaigorod wall. September 8, 1925 Photo: RIA Novosti
Immediately after the poet's death, Soviet newspapers wrote: "Yeseninism, which smells bad, must end," "a talented loser gone crazy." “It smelled bad” for the Bolsheviks, for example, that Yesenin “reverently dedicated” his first collection of poems in 1915 to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, whom he was personally acquainted with, as well as with the Grand Duchesses, to whom he dedicated the poem “Princesses”. Yesenin did not violate the oath given to Tsar Nicholas II. During February Revolution the poet served in the army. Then many soldiers swore allegiance to the Provisional Government. But Yesenin is not. Shortly before his death, he wrote:
“I no longer understand which revolution I belonged to. I see only one thing: that neither for February, nor for October.
The poet opposed the blasphemy against God, which was encouraged by the Bolsheviks. Six months before his death, in response to the blasphemous verses of Demyan Poor, Yesenin wrote:
When I read in Pravda
The untruth about Christ of the lecherous Demyan
I felt ashamed, as if I had
Into vomit, vomited drunk.
And when the Bolsheviks decided to remove the word “God” from all his writings, the poet had a fight with a typesetter in a printing house, but restored the previous version. Meanwhile, the new government, meanwhile, dismantled the bell tower in his native Konstantinov (on which young Yesenin rang for the holidays) in order to build a pigsty out of that brick. In Yesenin, a rural boy never died, who sang in the church on the kliros, was friends with Father John Smirnov, who was the first to discern the talent of a poet in him. This father baptized Yesenin with the name Sergei in honor of St. Sergius of Radonezh. This same priest also buried the poet.
Yesenin departed from God and returned again. Requested:
“So that for everything for my grave sins,
For disbelief in grace
They put me in a Russian shirt
Under the icons to die ... "
Under the heading "secret"
“Yesenin was buried in three places: in Moscow, his native village of Konstantinov and the neighboring village of Fedyakino. There was no doubt that he had been killed. Otherwise, no one would have buried him, ”Irina Mikhailovna Mamonova, the granddaughter of the poet’s cousin on her father’s side, later said. - My grandmother, Nadezhda Feodorovna, was seven years older than the poet, she lived for 97 years. Grandmother said that she was at the funeral service in Konstantinov. And in Moscow at the funeral - Yesenin's mother Tatyana Fedorovna. Grandmother saw Yesenin a month before his death. The poet was hiding in the hospital from the Chekists. Yesenin was loved and appreciated by the famous doctor Pyotr Gannushkin. In dangerous moments, he hid Sergei Alexandrovich. And Yesenin's enemies created a myth about his alleged mental problems and unrestrained drunkenness. However, Yesenin himself (this is in the memoirs, in particular, of I. Schneider) repeated: "I never write when drunk."
When Yesenin drank, if over the last 5 years of his life he wrote about 100 poems and 5 poems, and for Last year life he was prepared for publication and released 4 collections of poems? And in Leningrad, where the tragedy occurred, he went to work on the publication complete collection their writings.
The funeral of the poet Sergei Yesenin. December 31, 1925 Photo: RIA Novosti / Schneider
In Moscow, in the December frosts, thousands of people came to say goodbye to the poet. The queue was incredible, from five in the evening all night until the morning the flow of people did not end. Yesenin's execution continued even after his death. The poet's coffin disappeared from the grave at the Vagankovsky cemetery, says Nikolai Brown. - This was discovered in 1955 by Yesenin's sister Shura, when the grave was opened in order to bury his mother Tatyana Fedorovna next to the poet's remains. At the end of the 80s. an elderly witness was found, the driver of the OGPU Snegiryov, who on January 1, 1926 took part in the removal of the coffin from the grave. Where the coffin was taken, he did not know.
Yesenin had the opportunity not to return from abroad. But he returned, although he understood that he was going to the slaughter. In his love for Russia, he was sincere:
“If the holy army shouts:
"Throw you Russia, live in paradise!"
I will say: “There is no need for paradise,
Give me my motherland."
The murder of an anarchist, a violator of the regime, was beneficial to the top of power. That is why other versions, except for suicide, were not even considered. The poet himself had a lot of strength and many creative plans for the future. He was not going to say goodbye to life!
Having named the article ironically - "truth or fiction", it would be appropriate to add a completely logical postscript. It is quite possible that there will be those readers who will adhere to the official version. I would like to believe that there are more adequate readers of our magazine. Nonetheless…
P.S. The case of the death of the great Russian poet is still inaccessible to this day, it is still labeled "secret".
Monument to Sergei Yesenin (1895–1925), a poet who became a symbol of "peasant" poetry of the early 20th century. Granite sculpture installed at the Vagankovsky cemetery in Moscow.
Sergei Yesenin is a poet who became a symbol of "peasant" poetry of the early 20th century.
Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin (1895–1925)- the great Russian poet, who became a symbol of "peasant" poetry of the early 20th century. Born in the Ryazan province, the boy was brought up mainly by his grandmother, whose folklore talents gave him an incentive to creative development. Shortly after moving to Petrograd, Yesenin publishes the collection Radunitsa, then becomes one of the leaders of Imagism. The revolution and the disorder associated with it, the destruction of peasant life greatly influenced the state of the poet and the themes of his work. After his marriage to Duncan in 1922, Sergei Yesenin went on a trip to Europe and the USA, but he became disillusioned with this "kingdom of the bourgeoisie." Upon return to Soviet Russia, despite the difficult morale, he writes the most mature and perfect works.
Sergei Yesenin died on December 28, 1925, was buried in Moscow (plot No. 17). Next to him rests the mother of the poet Tatyana Fedorovna Yesenina (1875–1955).
In 1986, a monument by sculptor Anatoly Bichukov was opened on the poet's grave. The tombstone is a figure of Yesenin, carved from a massive granite block. made with high portrait accuracy, the poet is depicted in a simple shirt, arms crossed on his chest. The statue is placed on a high pedestal made of polished gray granite, on the front side there is a commemorative inscription: letters