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 continued. long 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 official spouse could not interfere with this connection.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 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 counting on life and there is no need for a list of mutual pains, troubles and grievances.
Happy to stay

VLADIMIR MAYAKOVSKY.

"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 tragic end Mayakovsky. Co, school years we have been taught and still inspire our children with only one thought about the naturalness of the poet's suicide on the basis of his confused love relationship complicated by creative failures, nervousness, and long-term ill health. 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. Detailed development and 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 over the "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 suicide letter, where he explained the reasons voluntary care 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 are publishing this material based on 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 she 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 in October 1928 goes to Nice on a date with his two-year-old daughter Ellie and her American mother Elizabeth Siebert (Ellie Jones), the sister of L. Brik (Elsa), alarmed by this circumstance, introduces Mayakovsky to the 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 all costs, feeling a huge craving for normal own family... After all, brikami he was, in essence, lonely and homeless. Relations with V. Polonskaya make him act. On April 4, he deposits money in 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. She walked a few steps to the 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 (in the official opinion she has long been known as the poet's unofficial wife 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 to his new home 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 a nightmare, the young actress could not have dreamed what an ungrateful role was prepared 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,” V. Skoryatin comments, “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's 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 ties 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 it really remains last question: 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 security officers around the poet in last month, Skoryatin thinks this is not accidental. (Right after Brikov's departure, L. Elbert moved to his apartment, who worked in 1921 at the Cheka as the deputy head of the information department and a special representative of the foreign department engaged in espionage and international terrorism, often, the family of Chekists Volovich, and, finally, Y. Agranov, about whom Roman Gul writes: “Under Dzerzhinsky he was, and Stalin's bloody Cheka investigator Yakov (Yankel) Agranov reached the highest posts of Cheka ... 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 wonderful Russian poet N. S. Gumilyov ... ") 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 with 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 the“ communist party ”, very powerfully organized ... and led by people who enjoy all the benefits of "full power" and "freedom of action" 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.

The fact remains undeniable: the shot in the communal apartment where Vladimir Mayakovsky's working room was located was fired 85 years ago on April 14, 1930 at 10:17 am. The bullet hit the heart. The ambulance arrived and pronounced death. A version of suicide immediately arose. Moreover, a suicide note was found next to the poet:

"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 choice."

Will not fulfilled

Still, there was some gossip. The romantic version of the death of the poet became hot on the heels of one of the most popular. It was rumored that his last lover refused him, and also that he suffered from a venereal disease. To refute the already completely absurd unhealthy version, it was even necessary to carry out a second autopsy. But no sexually transmitted diseases were found in Mayakovsky. In his personal life, there really were excitements, but, rather, of a pleasant nature: Mayakovsky was carried away by the 22-year-old Moscow Art Theater artist Veronika Polonskaya. And, apparently, the young lady reciprocated, although she did not agree to leave her husband, as the poet demanded. She was the last person to see Mayakovsky alive - she left the room a few moments before the shot, hurrying to the rehearsal.

Is it suicide?

Hearing the shot, Polonskaya immediately returned. The main opponent of the suicide version, journalist Valentin Skoryatin, claims that Mayakovsky was in love and made plans, which means he could not decide on such a desperate step. As other evidence of his version, Skoryatin cites the first testimony of the young actress: "Then none of those present heard Polonskaya talking about the revolver in the poet's hands when she ran out of the room." According to the journalist, she was subsequently forced to change her testimony. In addition, Skoryatin gives various testimonies about the location of the body: initially, witnesses stated that the poet's body lay "with its feet to the door," those who came later - that "head to the door." From which the journalist concludes that the body was moved and moved not by accident - but to avert the suspicion that the shot was fired by someone else who suddenly appeared at the door. Skoryatin considers the head of the GPU secret department Agranov as the main suspect. It was he who arrived at the scene of the crime after the young actress. The researcher of Mayakovsky's death suggests that Agranov could have hidden in the back room and then left through the back door.

The journalist Skoryatin did not believe in the authenticity of the will, he considered it a forgery. According to Skoryatin, Mayakovsky was killed. For what? For the increasingly visible disillusionment with the Soviet system, the journalist concludes. According to him, "more and more often notes of tragic disappointment burst into his" party books ", and more and more strained he sang reality. But satirical denunciation of" rubbish "grew stronger.

Latest expertise and new secrets

With decay Soviet Union the version that Mayakovsky was killed was heard from new strength... At the same time, it turned out that the examination of the shirt that Mayakovsky was wearing at the time of his death had never been properly carried out. Until the 1950s, the shirt was kept first by the wife of the poet Lily Brik, then at the Mayakovsky Museum. Results of a study conducted by experts from the Federal Center forensic examinations Ministry of Justice Russian Federation were published already in the new century. The main conclusion is that the nature of the tracks and the absence of signs of self-defense are characteristic of a shot fired with one's own hand. Experts admitted it is possible to stage suicide; individual tracks can be staged. But it is impossible to take into account everything, including the single drops of blood found on the shirt and characteristic of the marks that a hand splattered with blood leaves when moving down.

However, one question remained unsolved, who and why changed the gun in the case of Mayakovsky's suicide. The substitution has also become known in our time. The experts were approached by employees of the Mayakovsky State Museum with a request to investigate the Browning, which was transferred along with bullets and a cartridge case from the Presidential Archives, from the materials of the investigation file of Vladimir Mayakovsky. At the same time, in the materials themselves, in particular, in the inspection report, a Mauser revolver appears. The examination showed that it was the Mauser that was shooting. So who changed the evidence? One of the plausible hypotheses was put forward by forensic scientist Alexander Maslov. He recalled the interrogation of Mikhail Zoshchenko in the NKGB and the writer's remark 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, the criminologist concludes. Mayakovsky, according to the documents, had two pistols - the Browning system and the Bayard system.

Why

The question "why" also remains unanswered. Some researchers sympathize with the romantic version, some see the cause of the tragedy in creative torment - on the eve, the public and the press received his new play "Bath" rather coldly, the production of "Bedbug" was also expected by an obviously cold welcome, colleagues and the authorities ignored his exhibition. In general, there were reasons for frustration. But what was the last straw, the criminologists are not able to give an answer to this question.

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. Arrived " Ambulance"Found him already dead. V the last days VV Mayakovsky did not reveal any mental discord and nothing foreshadowed a catastrophe. "
In the afternoon, the body was transported to the poet's apartment in Gendrikov Lane. The sculptor K. Lutsky removed the death mask, and badly - he peeled off the face of the deceased. Employees of the Institute of Brain removed Mayakovsky's brain, which weighed in 1700. On the very first day in the presecture of the clinic of the medical faculty of Moscow State University, the pathologist Professor Talalay performed an autopsy of the body, and on the night of April 17, a re-autopsy took place: due to rumors that the poet allegedly had a venereal disease, which were not confirmed. Then the body was cremated.

As with Yesenin, Mayakovsky's suicide caused different reactions and many versions. One of the "targets" was the 22-year-old Moscow Art Theater actress Veronica Polonskaya. It is known that Mayakovsky asked her to become a wife. It was she who was the last person who saw 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 famous TV journalist Vladimir Molchanov suggested that on posthumous photography marks of TWO shots are clearly visible 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, handed it over to State Museum V.V. Mayakovsky - the relic was kept in a box and was wrapped in a soaked special composition paper. On the left side of the front of the shirt - through damage, dried blood is visible around it. Surprisingly, this "material evidence" was not subjected to examination either in 1930 or later. And how many controversies there were around the photos!
Having received permission to research, I, without informing the essence of the case, showed the shirt to E.G. Safronsky, a major specialist in forensic ballistic examination, who immediately made a "diagnosis": "Input bullet fire damage, most likely a point-blank shot."

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

So, a beige-pink shirt made of cotton fabric is subject to research. Front placket with 4 mother-of-pearl buttons. The back of the shirt is cut from collar to bottom with scissors, as evidenced by the ledge-like edges of the cut and the straight ends of the threads. But to assert that this particular shirt, bought by the poet in Paris, was on him at the time of the shot, is not enough. On the photographs of Mayakovsky's body taken at the scene of the incident, the fabric pattern, texture, shape and localization of the blood stain are clearly visible, gunshot damage... 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 them in forensic medicine and forensics three: point-blank, close-range and long-range. Were found characteristic of a point-blank shot linear damage cruciform (they arise from the action of gases reflected from the body at the time of destruction of the tissue by the projectile), as well as traces of gunpowder, soot and scorching both in the damage itself and in the adjacent areas of the 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 in the process of moving down right hand splattered with blood, or from a weapon 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 which is a psychophysiological state caused by excitement. "
There was no doubt about the dating - it was April 12, two days before 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 contacted the Russian federal center forensic examinations with a request to conduct a study of the Browning pistol No. 268979, a bullet and a cartridge case, transferred from the Presidential Archives, and to establish whether the poet was shooting at himself with this weapon?

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

Still - a Mauser. Who changed the weapon? In 1944, an NKGB officer, “talking” with the disgraced writer MM Zoshchenko, asked if he considered the cause of Mayakovsky’s death clear, to which the writer adequately replied: “It remains mysterious 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 for 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 "

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

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. In recent days, V.V. Mayakovsky did not reveal any mental discord and did not portend 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.

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

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

Poet's shirt

Indeed, in the mid-50s, L.Yu. Brik, who had the poet's shirt, donated it to the V.V. Mayakovsky - the relic was kept in a box and was wrapped in 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."

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.

From the "Conclusion" of the experts:

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

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. "

Death autograph

From the "Conclusion" of the experts:

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

There was no doubt about the dating - it was April 12, two days before 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"

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."

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 for 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 "