“truth or fiction” - dedicated to Sergei Yesenin. Living stories of the Vagankovo ​​cemetery Cheerful clown with sad eyes

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 indisputable: his main love was Russia.

“According to the official version, Yesenin’s life was tragically cut short at the age of 30. But it didn’t break - it was cut off,” says the St. Petersburg poet Nikolai Brown, the son of the poet Nikolai Leopoldovich Brown, who, together with other writers, carried Yesenin’s body out of Angleterre on December 28, 1925.

“The father refused to sign the protocol, which stated that Yesenin committed suicide. The writer Boris Lavrenev, who was also in Angleterre and the next day published an article in Krasnaya Gazeta about the poet’s death under the heading “Executed by degenerates,” also did not believe in suicide.

My father said that the poet had two deep wounds: a hole above the bridge of his nose, like from the handle of a pistol, and another one under his eyebrow. There was no groove on the neck that is characteristic of a hangman.

“When Yesenin had to be carried out,” the father said, “I took him, already numb, under the shoulders. The thrown back head fell. The vertebrae were broken." To my question whether Yesenin had been 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 what he remembered about the poet’s death. Luknitsky confirmed: the poet “died during interrogation,” after torture, saying: “But his left eye was missing.” - “How was it not?” - “Leaked out.”

For the funeral, Yesenin’s appearance was so “restored” that at the farewell in the Moscow House of Press, according to the testimony of the writer Galina Serebryakova, a “painted doll” lay in the coffin.

Relatives at the tomb of S. Yesenin; on the right are 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 literary community were executed: Ganin, Klyuev, Klychkov, Vasiliev, Nasedkin, Pribludny and others. And even earlier, in 1921, Gumilyov. The government of the militant atheist internationalists aimed to make the rebellious “former” Russians (this term appeared in the Soviet press) an obedient herd. And if a person did not give in, he was killed. In Leningrad, the party line was embodied 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 uprising. 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. At the same time, he portrayed Trotsky as a “Jewish commissar” in the poem “Land of Scoundrels.” And he wrote to a friend: “I, the legitimate son of the Russian Empire, am sick of being a stepson in my own country.”

Yesenin was saved from reprisals by the fact that he went on a trip to Europe and America with Isadora Duncan.” We’ve 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 Kitai-Gorod wall. September 8, 1925 Photo: RIA Novosti

Immediately after the poet’s death, Soviet newspapers wrote: “Yeseninism, which smells bad, must be ended,” “a crazy talented loser.” “It smelled bad” for the Bolsheviks, for example, that Yesenin “reverently dedicated” his first collection of poems in 1915 to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, with whom he was personally acquainted, as well as to the great duchesses to whom he dedicated the poem “To the Princesses.” Yesenin did not violate the oath given to Tsar Nicholas II. During the 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 cease to understand which revolution I belonged to. I see only one thing: neither for February nor for October.”

The poet spoke out against blasphemy against God, which was encouraged by the Bolsheviks. Six months before his death, in response to the blasphemous poems of Demyan Bedny, Yesenin wrote:

“When I read in Pravda
The lie about Christ of the lascivious Demyan
I felt ashamed, as if I had fallen
Into the vomit spewed out of drunkenness.”

And when the Bolsheviks decided to remove the word “God” from all his works, the poet got into a fight with the typesetter at the printing house, but restored the previous version. Meanwhile, the new government dismantled the bell tower in his native Konstantinov (where young Yesenin rang for the holidays) in order to use that brick... to build a pigsty. In Yesenin, a rural boy who sang in the church on the choir and was friends with Father John Smirnov, who was the first to recognize the talent of a poet in him, never died. This priest baptized Yesenin with the name Sergei in honor of St. Sergius of Radonezh. The same priest performed the funeral service for the poet.

Yesenin departed from God and returned again. Requested:

“So that for all my grave sins,
For disbelief in grace
They put me in a Russian shirt
To die under icons..."

Classified as "secret"

“Yesenin’s funeral was held in three places: in Moscow, his native village of Konstantinov and the neighboring village of Fedyakino. There was no doubt that he was killed. Otherwise, no one would have performed his funeral service,” Irina Mikhailovna Mamonova, the granddaughter of the poet’s cousin on her father’s side, later said. - My grandmother, Nadezhda Fedorovna, was seven years older than the poet; she lived 97 years. My grandmother told me that she was at the funeral service in Konstantinov. And in Moscow at the funeral service - Yesenina’s mother Tatyana Fedorovna. Grandmother saw Yesenin a month before his death. The poet was hiding in the hospital from the security officers. Yesenin was loved and appreciated by the famous doctor Pyotr Gannushkin. In dangerous moments, he covered Sergei Alexandrovich. And Yesenin’s enemies created a myth about his alleged mental problems and continuous drunkenness. However, Yesenin himself (this is in the memoirs, in particular, in I. Schneider) repeated: “I never write drunk.”

When did Yesenin drink, if over the last 5 years of his life he wrote about 100 poems and 5 poems, and over the last year of his life he prepared and published 4 collections of poems? And he went to Leningrad, where the tragedy occurred, to work on publishing the complete collection of his works.

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 the stream of people did not end all night until the morning. “The execution of Yesenin continued after his death. The poet’s coffin disappeared from the grave at the Vagankovskoye cemetery, says Nikolai Brown. - This was discovered in 1955 by Yesenin’s sister Shura, when the grave was opened to bury his mother Tatyana Fedorovna next to the remains of the poet. At the end of the 80s. an elderly witness was found, OGPU driver Snegirev, who on January 1, 1926 took part in removing the coffin from the grave. He didn’t know where the coffin was taken.”

Yesenin had the opportunity not to return from abroad. But he returned, although he understood that he was going to the slaughter. He was sincere in his love for Russia:

“If the holy army shouts:
“Throw away Rus', live in paradise!”
I will say: “There is no need for heaven,
Give me my homeland."

The murder of an anarchist, a violator of the regime, was beneficial to the top of the government. That is why other versions other than suicide were not even considered. The poet himself had a lot of strength and many creative plans for the future. He had no intention of saying goodbye to life!

Having ironically titled the article “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. Nevertheless…

P.S. The case of the death of the great Russian poet is still inaccessible; it is still classified as “secret”.

On the afternoon of December 3, 1926, at the deserted Vagankovskoye cemetery in Moscow, near the grave of the outstanding poet Sergei Yesenin, a young woman stood. A year ago, the life of a 30-year-old poet was tragically cut short at the Angleterre Hotel in Leningrad, and he was buried here. She didn't attend the funeral. The woman nervously smoked cigarette after cigarette. She is so young, and life, despite the difficulties and misfortunes, is so beautiful... Finally, she made up her mind. I took out a piece of paper, quickly, so as not to think twice, scribbled down a few lines: “I committed suicide” here, although I know that after this even more dogs will be blamed on Yesenin. But both he and I won’t care. Everything that is most precious to me is in this grave, so in the end I don’t give a damn about Sosnovsky and the public opinion that Sosnovsky has in mind.”

She stood still for some time without moving. Then she wrote on a box of cigarettes: “If the Finn is stuck in the grave after being shot? It means that even then I didn’t regret it. If it’s a pity? I’ll throw it far away...”

The woman took out a pistol; for some reason she believed that after the shot in the heart area she would be conscious and would be able to once again prove her unearthly love for Sergei Yesenin at the last minute of death. After some time, she was able to somehow write on the box of cigarettes: “1 misfire.”

In Moscow they will later say that there were several misfires. But the subsequent shot turned out to be accurate. The woman fell unconscious. The pistol and the Finnish woman fell out of her hands...

The shot was heard at the gatehouse. The cemetery watchman was the first to arrive at the scene of the incident, fearfully hiding behind monuments and fences. A mortally wounded woman in a checkered cap and a dark, shabby coat lay in the snow and moaned barely audibly. The watchman ran to the church to raise the alarm. Soon the police came and 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. This is how the life of 29-year-old Galina Benislavskaya, whose love and devotion to the poet was boundless, was tragically cut short.

Galina was born as a result of a chance relationship between a young foreigner, Arthur Karier, and a Georgian woman. After the birth of the girl, the quarry disappeared in an unknown direction, and her mother, due to severe mental illness, ended up in a closed hospital. The girl was adopted by her aunt and her husband. Galina spent her childhood in a wealthy family in the Latvian city of Rezekne. Before the revolution, she graduated from the women's gymnasium in St. Petersburg with a gold medal.

During the civil war, Benislavskaya sympathized with the Bolsheviks; near Kharkov, she was almost accidentally shot by the whites. She managed to get to Moscow. Here she became friends with Yana Kozlovskaya, whose father was Lenin’s confidant and one of the main Bolshevik leaders at that time. He arranged for Galina to join the Cheka, contributed to her joining the Communist Party, and helped her get a room. For some time, Benislavskaya lived in the Kremlin next to the communist leaders, including the aforementioned Leiba Sosnovsky...

Benislavskaya first saw Yesenin on September 19, 1920, at an evening at the Polytechnic Museum, where the poet read his poems. This is how she described the meeting:

"...Suddenly that same boy comes out (the poet was 24 years old.? E.Kh.): a short jacket wide open, hands in his trouser pockets, completely golden hair, as if alive. Slightly throwing back his head and waist, he begins to read:

“Spit, wind, with armfuls of leaves, I’m just like you, a hooligan.”

What happened after reading it is difficult 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 wearing a fur hat with sable trim, he childishly read again “Spit, wind...”

Having come to my senses, I saw that I was also right next to the stage. How I ended up there, I don’t know, I don’t remember. Obviously, this wind picked me up and spun me too..."

Fate wanted to bring together completely different people, the 25-year-old poet Yesenin and the 23-year-old Benislavskaya, an employee of the sinister Cheka. Among some researchers of the poet’s work and biography, there is a version that the security officers specifically sent Benislavskaya to Yesenin in order to be among his friends, to report on their conversations and plans. We know that she worked next to Nikolai Krylenko, one of the most important executioners of those years, who was the prosecutor in a number of criminal trials rigged by the Cheka-GPU, and, of course, knew a lot about the secret plans of her leaders. But we have no evidence confirming Benislavskaya’s surveillance of Yesenin on instructions from the security officers, although in a fit of jealousy she could have done a lot. If Galina received the task of the security officers, she hardly fulfilled it, because from the very first meeting with the poet she fell in love with him with that unrequited love that borders on mental illness.

She and her friends attended every one of his public appearances and found out that he had children and that he had divorced Zinaida Reich. She wrote about her feelings in her diary: “...To love so much, to love so selflessly, does that really happen? But I love, and I can’t do otherwise; it’s stronger than me, my life. If I had to die for him? hesitating, and if at the same time you know that he will at least smile tenderly when he learns about me, death would become a joy..."

Soon Yesenin and Benislavskaya became close. Galina forgot that outstanding poets have loving hearts. On October 3, 1921, Yesenin’s birthday, a company gathered in the studio of the artist Yakulov. After performing at the concert, the world famous American dancer Duncan was brought to Yakulov. 45-year-old Isadora, knowing only 20-30 Russian words, upon hearing Yesenin’s poems, immediately understood the young poet’s extraordinary talent and was the first to call him a great Russian poet. Without hesitation for a second, she took Yesenin to her mansion. He did not come to Benislavskaya’s room; she ended up in a clinic for nervous diseases.

After almost a year and a half of traveling abroad, Yesenin returned to his homeland, but he did not live with the aging and jealous dancer. Two great artists cannot live side by side forever. The poet from a fashionable mansion again came to the room of a crowded communal apartment in Benislava.

Yesenin enthusiastically accepted the February Revolution, but with caution? Oktyabrskaya, but soon, especially after the arrests and executions of his friends, poets, artists, writers, famous public and political figures and especially the royal family, with whom he was friends, and his repeated arrests, his prophetic words spread across Russia:

Empty fun, just talk. Well, well, what did you take in return? The same swindlers, the same thieves came and took everyone prisoner by the law of revolution...

The authorities repeatedly put Yesenin in the execution cellars of the Lubyanka, imprisoned him in the Butyrka prison, and did everything to trample on the poet in a “legal” way. Works written abroad became known to a wide range of writers and young people. In them, the poet ridicules the deeds of the Bolshevik leaders. The persecution of the poet began. He broke with the Imagist poets and lost Duncan's maternal protection. Provocations began: unknown persons began to grab Yesenin and drag him to the police or OGPU. Some miracle saved the poet from a bandit’s knife or a bullet in the back of the head. Yesenin’s nerves are on edge, he arms himself with a metal stick for self-defense, reads his poems, shedding tears. Every day, by order of Sosnovsky (in her suicide note, Benislavskaya for the first time named one of the main stranglers of Yesenin, the ideological leader of the Bolsheviks of those years, but for decades his name was deliberately removed during the publication of this note. - E.Kh.) articles were published in Moscow newspapers on behalf of the workers who demanded reprisals against the “kulak” poet. Yesenin fled from Moscow, hid in the Caucasus, tried to escape from the USSR to Iran or Turkey. All these months Benislavskaya was his faithful assistant, but not his faithful wife. Her mental instability threw her from one extreme to another. She began to “act out of spite” to Yesenin, cheat on him with his friends, her feelings “flared up unbridled” for Lev (in her notes she does not name “Lev”’s surname; according to some researchers, she had a short affair with Lev Sedov? son of Trotsky, according to others? with Lev Povitsky. - E.Kh.).

Yesenin found out and broke off relations with her. Did Galina hate Yesenin's new entourage? poets Nikolai Klyuev, Alexei Ganin, Ivan Pribludny, who were eventually shot by the authorities. And yet Yesenin occasionally continued to call Galina.

On December 27, 1925, Yesenin’s life was cut short. Benislavskaya ended up in a psychiatric clinic. Life has lost its meaning for her.

In the room of the deceased Benislavskaya there were numerous manuscripts of the poet’s works, his letters to the deceased, various notes, diaries and “Memories of Yesenin” printed on a typewriter. Undoubtedly, these and other documents of enormous value fell into unscrupulous hands. Benislavskaya's diary was sold abroad, as was the rope on which the poet's life ended a year earlier. Quite recently it became known that enterprising people secretly took this rope to the USA, cut it into pieces there and sold it at auction (a fragment of the rope was given to a collector in Tambov by an American as a very valuable gift. - E.Kh.).

The suicide of Galina Benislavskaya shocked the public. It was decided to bury her next to Yesenin. The funeral took place on December 7. The words “Faithful Galya” were inscribed on the monument. Now the inscription is more official.

Everything in life happens at breakneck speed. Before a person has time to turn around, decades have already flown by and the finish line is ahead. Only love remains eternal.

Eduard Khlystalov, 2001

The Vagankovskoe cemetery, a necropolis with a two-century history, hundreds of thousands of graves and half a million buried, was founded in the 18th century, after the plague in Moscow. Previously, in the 15th-16th centuries, the settlement of Vagankovo ​​was located here - the royal amusing courtyard, where jesters, buffoons and the sovereign's amusing people played pranks to their heart's content. This name was assigned to the cemetery, which, following the victims of the epidemic, received the graves of ordinary people - townspeople, artisans, and minor officials. In the 19th century, famous compatriots from the world of culture began to be buried here - first, artists of the Imperial Theater, artists, writers, people of art, and after almost two centuries this tradition was finally consolidated. Now the graves of celebrities at the Vagankovskoye cemetery are numerous, overgrown with legends and have become a place of “pilgrimage” for thousands of visitors every year.

Great Russian painters - merchant, serf and Cossack

Under the restrained dark granite tombstones with the indispensable Orthodox crosses at the Vagankovskoye cemetery lie the textbook artists of Russia.

Alexey Savrasov, a landscape painter of the merchant class, teacher of Isaac Levitan, was among the founders of the Society of Itinerants. His most recognizable painting, “The Rooks Have Arrived,” depicts the Church of the Ascension in the village of Susanino, Kostroma province.

The outstanding portrait painter Vasily Tropinin is the son of a serf peasant. His artistic gift was noticed by notable patrons of the arts. Tropinin received an academic education, painted romantic, then increasingly realistic type portraits, full of soft charm.

Vasily Surikov on his maternal and paternal lines came from glorious Cossack families. This artist is best known for his large-scale historical paintings “The Morning of the Streltsy Execution”, “Menshikov in Berezovo”, “Boyaryna Morozova”, “Suvorov’s Crossing of the Alps”.

The tombstones of the great Russian painters - merchant, serf and Cossack - are installed above iconic burials in a long row, which is formed by the graves of celebrities at the Vagankovskoye cemetery.

Mass graves as milestones in history

The Vagankovskoe cemetery, founded during the epidemic, was initially a place of mass burials. Later the following were buried here:

• those who fell in the turning point and bloody Battle of Borodino in 1812;
• those who died in a mass stampede on Khodynka Field during celebrations of the coronation of Nicholas II in 1896;
• victims of mass repressions of the 1930s;
• defenders of Moscow who stopped Hitler's blitzkrieg with a counteroffensive in 1941-1942.

These mass graves at the Vagankovskoye cemetery remind us of the tragic death of many of our compatriots.

Bronze sculptural portraits on high corrugated columns are installed on a common podium made of brown granite, which covers the graves of Dmitry Komar, Vladimir Usov and Ilya Krichevsky. During the August 1991 coup, they died while trying to stop an infantry fighting vehicle in a tunnel under New Arbat. Historically, the last Heroes of the Soviet Union received the state's highest award posthumously.

Yesenin's grave.

Under the monument of dark and light gray granite lies a great poet with a unique lyrical gift. In the past are the marvelous blue eyes, the “gold and copper” of the hair, the enchanting scandals with which Yesenin tormented Isadora Duncan in Europe and America, the gloomy suicide in the Petrograd Angleterre and the last poem written in his own blood. Immortal, heartfelt, strikingly imaginative lyrics are published, read, and sung again.

Next to the pedestal with gilded letters and a block of light gray marble with a half-length sculptural portrait of Sergei Yesenin there is a low tombstone of his mother, and Galina Benislavskaya, who during her life was called the poet’s “good angel,” is buried behind. The very next winter after his death, in December 1926, she came to Yesenin’s grave and committed suicide with a shot in the head - after all, in this piece of land, as she wrote before her death, there was everything dear to her. Here, next to the ashes of the great poet, who embodied the lyrical spirit of Russia in his poems, several more suicides of his fans occurred over the years.

Stars of the stage

The galaxy of famous theater people buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery is opened by Pavel Mochalov, an outstanding romantic actor of the 19th century. His uneven performance made a deep impression: the audience came to performances because of the famous “Mochalov minutes,” when, against the background of an ordinary, unremarkable performance, several incredibly effective lines suddenly appeared, followed by a flurry of enthusiastic applause.

Director-reformer, symbolist, futurist, master of the grotesque Vsevolod Meyerhold was repressed in 1939, shot in 1940, cremated and buried among the unclaimed ashes at the Donskoy Monastery. However, the tombstone over the empty grave is located at the Vagankovskoye cemetery - the monument was erected shortly after Meyerhold’s posthumous rehabilitation, when the location of his remains was not yet known.

The burial of the incredibly popular People's Artist of the RSFSR Andrei Mironov, who died on stage during the play “The Marriage of Figaro,” is marked by a black marble monument - a triple row of wings framing a dark background stele with a narrow slot-cross. From time to time it is necessary to restore the bronze chain enclosing the burial: rumor attributes to it the ability to bring wealth and love power.

The tombstones of the original Oleg Dal, the unique Georgy Vitsin, and the famous Bulat Okudzhava are extremely restrained.

Above the grave of Igor Talkov, a rock musician with a strong political and civic position, a large bronze crucifix in the Old Church Slavonic style is installed on a base of polished black granite. The death of the artist, shot at a concert, is marked by prophetic coincidences: shortly before his death, Igor Talkov brought home a large cross he had found, and in a private conversation he predicted his own murder in front of a large crowd of people, and that the killer would not be found.

Very young stage stars, 13-year-old Arseny Kurylenko and 14-year-old Kristina Kurbatova, performed their last roles in 2002, in the musical “Nord-Ost”. They died in the terrorist attack on Dubrovka and are buried nearby, under light steles with oval bas-relief portraits.

Vladislav Listyev

The famous TV presenter, journalist, and entrepreneur was shot dead in 1995 in the entrance of his own house. The investigation into this case is still not closed, and the masterminds and perpetrators of the murder have not been found.

At the time of his death, Vladislav Listyev, the creator of the iconic television program “Vzglyad”, the first presenter of “Field of Miracles,” had served exactly 34 days as general director of the ORT channel. He planned the concept of television without commercials, conceived new projects... but now on his grave, on a black marble slab, sits a sharp-winged bronze angel, light, graceful and inconsolably mourning.

Alexander Abdulov

The most popular theater and film artist, an idol who won many hearts, did without doubles during risky filming. The last film with the participation of Alexander Abdulov was called “From Nowhere with Love or Merry Funeral.” It was released in 2007, and in 2008 the actor died at the age of 54 from a serious illness that left no hope.

Above the grave there is a block of grayish-white marble, on which the inscription “Alexander Abdulov” goes in ascending steps of letters. At the top, on a sanded area, there is a black and white portrait of the actor in the image of Lancelot from the parable film “Kill the Dragon.” A relief cross is carved on the side of the monolith.

Not only fans come to Abdulov’s grave, but also those who dream of a brilliant stage career. Rumor has it that the success envisioned here may indeed come, but the price of acting success will be a short life.

Grave of Vladimir Vysotsky

The grave of Vladimir Vysotsky is marked by a sculptural monument by Alexander Rukavishnikov. It was this option that the relatives chose, noting the extraordinary resemblance of the sculpture, right down to the mole on the left cheek, to the person they remembered alive. Vysotsky's widow, Marina Vladi, and fellow artists from the Taganka Theater believed that something abstract or completely alien - for example, a meteorite - should stand over the grave. However, the associative series that accompanies Rukavishnikov’s realistic sculpture is close and understandable to everyone who listens to Vysotsky’s songs. Here is the bard’s unchanging guitar, here is the rebellious “Fasicky Horses,” and the creator of countless songs, as if breaking out of a restrictive or, perhaps, funeral shroud, confirms: “I couldn’t do it, as I wished - all right. I, on the contrary, publicly left the granite.”

They say that a visit to this grave gives inspiration to poets, professional success to musicians, but the life of creators, like Vysotsky’s, becomes short-lived.

Undying candles at the grave of Father Valentin

Archpriest Valentin Amfitheatrov, rector of the Kremlin Archangel Cathedral from 1892 to 1902, is revered as a miracle worker. A memorial cross was erected at his burial site. Fresh flowers and unquenchable candles are left at the grave of Father Valentin by those who go to the “Moscow comforter” in search of a miracle, for healing and help from above.

Sincere believers see here a “disembodied old man” and notice the face of a kind-hearted priest on a memorial plaque. Such phenomena are considered a good sign, evidence that the request will be fulfilled.

Sonka the Goldhand

The grave of the famous adventuress of the past, Sonya the Golden Hand (Sofia Bluvshtein) at the Vagankovskoye cemetery is a legendary place and actively visited. There are different opinions about who is actually buried under the gilded sculpture of a female figure in antique drapery, devoid of arms and head. Nevertheless, the criminal public regularly covers the monument with memorable notes from the Solntsevo gang, requests to teach them how to live, to give happiness to the Zhigan and to pacify the “cops.” People go to this grave, hoping to get lucky in a card game, to save themselves from a knife and a bullet.

Here, at the Vagankovskoe cemetery, under luxurious sculptural tombstones, crime bosses Vyacheslav Ivankovich (“Yaponchik”) and Otari Kvantrishvili are buried.

Mystical stories of the Vagankovsky cemetery

The ancient necropolis, densely filled with graves from different eras, cannot do without mysterious visions and inexplicable phenomena. Sensitive people at the right time notice on the local paths a ghostly soldier in the uniform of the Napoleonic army. He tries to say something, opens his mouth wide, but utters completely silent speeches. Those who like to walk around the cemetery at dusk, no, no, and they encounter an unmarked wandering grave with a luminous cross and a hospitably open fence, which no one has yet dared to enter.

The mystical stories of the Vagankovsky cemetery also have a more precise address. The grave of Aglasia Tenkova, who died at a young age, is decorated with a bas-relief of a mourning angel, placed by her inconsolable father. According to lovers of the paranormal, anyone who lingers too long on this bas-relief falls into a trance and finds himself at a completely different grave, and sometimes far beyond the cemetery grounds.

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.

Life and death of a poet

Sergei Aleksandrovich Yesenin was born on September 21, 1895 (October 3, new style) in the village of Konstantinovo in the Ryazan region. He showed his poetic talent from an 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, and attended meetings of authoritative writers. At the same time, Yesenin’s reputation in society was ambiguous. Few people dared to challenge his talent, but accusations of drunkenness and hooliganism were brought forward almost constantly.

In the fall of 1925, the poet went to a Moscow paid psychoneurological clinic. After being discharged from the clinic, Sergei Alexandrovich goes to Leningrad. There he checks into the Angleterre Hotel. Over the course of 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 of Yesenin’s murder followed by a staged suicide appeared. Its most ardent supporters claimed that similar suspicions had arisen before, but given 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 funeral service, the body of the writer was in the hands of an experienced make-up artist. But even from under the special long-lasting 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 were carried out, and none of them gave any reason to talk about violent death.

All authoritative biographers of Yesenin and historians agree that the writer really decided to die on his own. A recognized fact is also the unstable psycho-emotional state of the poet in the last months of his life. It is a well-known fact that Sergei Alexandrovich was diagnosed with prolonged depression by the observing doctors at that time.

Farewell to Sergei Yesenin

During his lifetime, Sergei Alexandrovich was a prominent figure in the literary community and had many fans. The news of his death shocked the public. In Leningrad, a civil memorial service was held at the Union of Poets. After which the coffin with Yesenin’s body was transported to Moscow by train. In the capital they said goodbye to the poet in the House of Press. This mournful ceremony was attended by close relatives and friends of Sergei Alexandrovich. The funeral took place on December 31, 1925. There was practically no debate about where Yesenin’s grave should be located. The Vagankovskoe cemetery in Moscow was chosen for the poet’s burial.

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 the woman, whom many of the writer’s biographers do not at all count 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 course of many years, the poet shared his thoughts, personal experiences with this woman and took advice regarding his professional activities. Benislavskaya was not present at the funeral, but knew in which cemetery Yesenin was buried. From the moment they met, this woman treated Sergei Alexandrovich especially sublimely and reverently.

Galina never dreamed of an affair or marriage with a writer, but at the same time he was the most important person in the world for her. 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 short suicide note. In her last message, she indicated that she “suicided herself” and could imagine the public’s reaction to such a step, but “...Both he and I will not care.” After which Galina Benislavskaya took out a pistol and shot herself in the chest. The woman died before the ambulance arrived. On the same day, rumors spread across Moscow that some fan had committed suicide at Yesenin’s grave. And only those closest to him knew the tragic story of the relationship between the poet and his devoted friend.

Yesenin's grave today

The grave of Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin is one of the most famous at the Vagankovskoye cemetery. Even in our time, fans visit their idol almost every day. The modern monument was erected in 1986. The author of the sculpture is Anatoly Bichukov. Yesenin is depicted from the waist up, he is dressed in a simple shirt, and the poet’s hands are crossed on his chest. According to the writer's relatives and contemporaries, the statue has a high portrait resemblance. The monument at Yesenin’s grave 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 Vagankovskoe cemetery can be visited daily from 9.00 to 19.00 in the summer. In winter, the cemetery closes at 17.00. The metro station closest to the necropolis is Ulitsa 1905 Goda. You need to follow the signs towards 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 Vagankovskoye cemetery is located not far from the entrance. Especially for those who want to personally honor the memory of the great poet, there is a sign on the central alley with the inscription: “Yeseninskaya”. Having gone in the indicated direction, in a few minutes you will find yourself at the desired grave.

"Star" necropolis: what secrets does the Vagankovskoe cemetery keep?

The history of the capital's cemeteries has hundreds of secrets and legends. Reburials in which the heads of the dead, encrypted inscriptions on monuments, Scandinavian marks and bulletproof caps for tombstones disappeared...

The online publication site has launched a project in which you will learn about the history, legends and current state of the capital’s cemeteries. In the first article we are talking about the Novodevichy cemetery, next in line is the no less famous and legendary Vagankovskoye.

Officially, the history of the Vagankovsky cemetery began almost 250 years ago, when a plague epidemic broke out in Moscow. Empress Catherine II issued a decree that all plague victims would be buried outside the city.

Until the beginning of the 20th century, poor people - peasants and townspeople, as well as minor officials and retired military personnel - found their last refuge on Vagankovsky. And only at the beginning of the last century the graves of people who left their mark on history began to appear here.

Sergei Yesenin, Vladimir Vysotsky, Igor Talkov, Bulat Okudzhava, Vasily Aksenov, Leonid Filatov, Lev Yashin... Vagankovskoe cemetery is a real “star” necropolis. People come here as if on an excursion - to see the monuments and remember their favorite artist, poet or athlete.

There are also many mass graves here. For example, in the far corner of the cemetery are buried the victims of the mass stampede on Khodynka Field, which occurred in May 1896 during the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II. The revolutionary Bauman, whose funeral the Bolsheviks turned into a grandiose demonstration and used to prepare an uprising, also rests in the Vagankovskoye cemetery, and next to him is the legendary sailor Zheleznyak.

Monument without a grave

At a distance from the central alley of the cemetery lies the wife of theater director Vsevolod Meyerhold, actress Zinaida Reich and her children from her marriage to Sergei Yesenin, Konstantin and Tatyana.

The monument also has the inscription “Vsevolod Emilievich Meyerhold,” although the director’s ashes are located in the cemetery of the Moscow crematorium near the Donskoy Monastery. The couple died under tragic circumstances - Meyerhold was shot for “counter-revolutionary activities”, and Reich was killed by unknown persons shortly after her husband’s arrest.

The monument at Reich’s grave was erected by Meyerhold’s granddaughter Maria Valentey in 1956, when she did not yet know the circumstances of her grandfather’s death. The director's true burial place became known only in 1987.

“Everything that is most precious to me is in this grave.”

A year after the death of Sergei Yesenin, Galina Benislavskaya, the poet’s friend and literary secretary, committed suicide at his grave. She left a note: “I committed suicide here, although I know that after this even more dogs will be blamed on Yesenin. But he and I don’t care. Everything that is most precious to me is in this grave.”

Benislavskaya shot herself in the head and lay on the grave the whole night. She was buried next to Yesenin, on the memorial plaque there is an excerpt from Yesenin’s letter. There are rumors that after Benislavskaya, several more people committed suicide at Yesenin’s grave.

Inspiration of poets and tears of Vladi

There were many rumors surrounding the funeral of Vladimir Vysotsky. Allegedly, they planned to bury him in the far corner, but the director, a big fan of the artist’s work, allocated a place right at the entrance. They also said that before Vysotsky, another person was buried in this place, whose remains were transported to Siberia, to his small homeland, shortly before the bard’s death.

To see off Vysotsky on his last journey, so many people gathered at the cemetery that many had to climb fences and trees. It is believed that the monument gives inspiration to poets and musicians.

On the monument, Vysotsky is depicted in full height, wrapped in a cloth, which evokes thoughts about his difficult relationship with censorship. Above the head is a guitar resembling a halo, behind which the heads of horses are “hiding”. The images of these animals were not used by chance: the leitmotif of the monument was Vysotsky’s tragic and heartbreaking song “Fasicky Horses.”

Vysotsky’s wife Marina Vladi did not like the monument to such an extent that when she saw it, she burst into tears. “A brazen gilded statue, a symbol of socialist realism,” was her review.

Talkov's two crosses

A few years before his death, the poet and composer Igor Talkov, while walking in Kolomenskoye Park, found a cross that had fallen from one of the domes of the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist. The musician decided to take the cross home so that he could return it to the church when it began to be restored. He never managed to do this.

Now a large bronze cross made in the Old Slavonic style is installed on Talkov’s grave. A line from his song is engraved on the monument: “And defeated in battle, I will rise and sing.”

They say that one fan decided to bury herself next to her favorite singer. I dug a hole nearby and came up with a design so that it would immediately be covered with earth... Fortunately, the girl was saved.

Cheerful clown with sad eyes

The famous mime clown died at the age of 37 from a broken heart. It was July heat in Moscow, everything was in smoke from peat fires. Engibarov felt bad. During one of the attacks, he asked his mother to bring him cold champagne. The clown's heart gave out and he died. When Engibarov was buried, heavy rain began in the capital.

The monument depicts the artist with an umbrella in his hand. “A cheerful clown with sad eyes under a holey umbrella” is one of Engibarov’s favorite images in the arena.

Iceberg for Abdulov

The monument to actor Alexander Adbulov, who died of lung cancer in 2008, is made in the style of constructivism. Representing a block of gray-white granite, above which a white marble cross rises, the monument resembles an iceberg.

A slab with the image of Abdulov in the role of Lancelot from the film “Kill the Dragon” is mounted in the block, and the letters of the actor’s name are made in the form of a staircase. The initiators of the construction of this monument were Abdulov’s wife, his friends and relatives.

Children of Nord-Ost

Two young artists of the musical "Nord-Ost" are buried next to the columbarium - 13-year-old Arseny Kurylenko and 14-year-old Kristina Kurbatova, who were victims of the terrorist attack on Dubrovka in 2002.

Their parents wanted the two coffins to lie next to each other. Birch branches touchingly bend over the white monuments, as if protecting the peace of children who have fallen asleep forever.

Also read with the caretaker of the Vagankovsky cemetery.