During his lifetime, Mayakovsky had many affairs, although he was never officially married. Among his lovers there 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 remained long years. Moreover, for a long period of his life the poet lived in the same house with the Brik family. This love triangle existed for several years until Mayakovsky met the young actress Veronica Polonskaya, who at that time was 21 years old. Neither the age difference of 15 years, nor the presence of an official spouse could interfere with this connection. It is known that the poet planned with her life together and insisted in every possible way on 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, Mayakovsky’s family, including his mother and sisters, believed that Polonskaya was to blame for his death.
Mayakovsky left a suicide note with the following content:
"EVERYONE
Don’t blame anyone for the fact that I’m dying and please don’t gossip. The deceased did not like this terribly.
Mom, sisters and comrades, forgive me - this is not the way (I don’t recommend it to others), but I have no choice.
Lilya - love me.
Comrade government, my family is Lilya Brik, mother, sisters and Veronica Vitoldovna Polonskaya. –
If you give them a tolerable life, thank you.
Give the poems you started to the Briks, they will figure it out.
As they say - “the incident is ruined”, the love boat crashed into everyday life
I am at peace with life and there is no need for a list of mutual pains, troubles and insults.
Happy stay
VLADIMIR MAYAKOVSKY.
There are several facts that cast doubt on the fact that the mouthpiece of the “dictatorship of the proletariat” committed suicide...
Reconstruction of events As in the story of Sergei Yesenin’s suicide, it would seem that everything led to the voluntary departure of Vladimir Mayakovsky from life. And 1930 was an extremely unfortunate year for the poet in many ways. And a year earlier, he was denied a visa to France, where he was going to get engaged to Tatyana Yakovleva. Later he received news of her imminent marriage. His exhibition “20 Years of Work,” in which he sums up his twenty years of creativity, was a complete failure. This event was ignored by important government officials and prominent cultural figures of the time, and Mayakovsky hoped that they would honor him with the honor of visiting the exhibition. Many colleagues and acquaintances said that not only had he completely written himself off, but also that he had long ceased to represent “that same” Mayakovsky, a faithful servant of the revolution.
Mayakovsky during the exhibition “20 years of work”
In addition, along with the exhibition, the production of his play “Bathhouse” failed. And all this year the poet was haunted by quarrels and scandals, which is why newspapers labeled him a “fellow traveler of the Soviet regime,” while he himself adhered to more active positions. And soon, on the morning of April 14, 1930, in the house on Lubyanka, where Vladimir Mayakovsky was working at that time, a meeting was scheduled between the poet and Veronica Polonskaya. Then they had been in a close relationship for more than one year: Mayakovsky wanted to start a family with her. And it was then that he started a decisive conversation with her, demanding that she divorce her from the artist Mikhail Yanshin. Apparently, the conversation ended unsuccessfully for him. Then the actress left and, reaching the front door, suddenly heard a shot.
Witness testimony
Actually, only Polonskaya, of the people close to Mayakovsky, managed to catch last moments poet's life. This is how she remembers that fateful day: “I asked if he would accompany me. “No,” he said, but promised to call. And he also asked if I had money for a taxi. I didn’t have any money, he gave me twenty rubles... I managed to get to the front door and heard a shot. I rushed about, afraid to return. Then she walked in and saw the smoke from the shot that had not yet cleared. On Mayakovsky's chest there was a small bloody stain. I rushed to him, I repeated: “What did you do?..” He tried to raise his head. Then his head fell, and he began to turn terribly pale... People appeared, someone said to me: “Run, meet the ambulance.” She ran out and met him. I returned, and on the stairs someone said to me: “It’s late. Died…".
Veronica Polonskaya was last love Vladimir Mayakovsky
However, regarding the testimony of witnesses, there is one interesting point, which was once pointed out by Valentin Skoryatin, a researcher into the circumstances of the death. He paid attention to important detail, which consisted in the fact that all those who came running after the shot found the poet lying in the “legs to the door” position, and those who appeared later found him in another “head to the door” position. The question arises: what was the need to move the poet’s dead body? It is quite possible that in this turmoil someone needed to imagine the following picture: at the moment of the shot, the poet was standing with his back to the door, then a bullet hit him in the chest from inside the room and knocked him over, head to the threshold. And this, in turn, already resembles an act of murder. What would it look like if he was facing the door? The same blow would again have knocked him over backwards, but with his feet towards the door. True, in this case, the shot could have been fired not only by Mayakovsky, but also by the killer, who acted extremely quickly.
The head of the OGPU Agranov wanted to bury Mayakovsky quickly
Also, the fact that investigators tried to quickly bury the poet cannot but raise doubts. Thus, Skoryatin, based on numerous documents, is confident that the head of the OGPU, Yakov Agranov, by the way, one of the leaders of this repressive body, tried to arrange a hasty funeral for the suicide, but later changed his mind, considering it very suspicious.
Death mask of Mayakovsky
Also adding fuel to the fire is the remark of the artist A. Davydov regarding Mayakovsky’s death mask, which was made by Lutsky on the evening of April 14, 1930. And this gives grounds to assert that Mayakovsky fell face down, and not on his back, as happens when he shoots himself.
There is also a theory that the poet shot himself because he was sick with syphilis. However, this argument has no basis, since the results of an autopsy performed some time later showed that Mayakovsky did not suffer from this illness. Moreover, the verdict itself was not published anywhere, which caused a wide variety of gossip regarding the poet’s health. At least, the obituary published in the newspaper Pravda and signed by other colleagues of the writer mentioned a certain “swift illness” that led him to suicide.
It is impossible not to notice the difference between the noses of the living and dead Mayakovsky
The OGPU's hand in this matter
Lilya Brik said that Mayakovsky more than once thought about suicide, and Osip Brik once convinced his comrade: “Re-read his poems, and you will see how often he talks ... about his inevitable suicide.”
It is worth noting that the investigation was carried out at the highest levels. Initially, the above-mentioned Yakov Agranov took up this task, and then I. Syrtsov. The investigation was then fully referred to as “Criminal Case No. 02−29, 1930, People's Investigator 2nd Academic. Baum. district of Moscow I. Syrtsov about the suicide of V.V. Mayakovsky.” And already on April 14, Syrtsev, after interrogating Polonskaya at Lubyanka, said: “Suicide was caused by personal reasons.” And this message was published the next day in Soviet newspapers.
Officially, Mayakovsky’s suicide was caused by personal reasons 
Mayakovsky valued his friendship with the Briks very much
When Mayakovsky died, the Briks were abroad at that time. And therefore Valentin Skoryatin, working with numerous materials and documents, put forward the version that the Briks deliberately left their friend in February 1930, because they knew that he would certainly be killed soon. And according to Skoryatin, the Briks could have been involved in such organizations as the Cheka and the OGPU. They even had their own Chekist ID numbers: 15073 for Lily, and 25541 for Osip.
And the need to kill the poet was based on the fact that Mayakovsky was quite tired Soviet authorities. IN last years In the poet's life, notes of discontent and undisguised disappointment increasingly appeared.
At the same time, Veronica Polonskaya could not have fired the shot, because according to the testimony of the actress and neighbors, the shot rang out immediately after she left the room. Therefore, all suspicions can be removed from her. The name of Mayakovsky's killer, if the murder did take place, is unknown.
Mayakovsky was reputed to be one of the main allies October revolution 1917
Strange note
One cannot help but pay attention to the suicide note left by Vladimir Mayakovsky. It would be appropriate to quote its text in full:
"Everyone
Don’t blame anyone for the fact that I’m dying and please don’t gossip. The deceased did not like this terribly.
Mom, sisters and comrades, sorry, this is not the way (I don’t recommend it to others), but I have no choice. Lilya - love me.
Comrade government, my family is Lilya Brik, mother, sisters and Veronica Vitoldovna Polonskaya. If you give them a tolerable life, thank you. Give the poems you started to the Briks, they will figure it out. As they say, “the incident is ruined,” the love boat crashed into everyday life. I’m at peace with life, and there’s no need for a list of mutual pains, troubles and insults. Stay happily.
Vladimir Mayakovsky.
Comrades Vappovtsy, do not consider me cowardly. Seriously - nothing can be done. Hello. Tell Ermilov that it’s a pity - he removed the slogan, we should have a fight.
V.M.
I have 2000 rubles in my table. contribute to the tax.
You will get the rest from Giza."
It would seem that the suicide letter, touching at first glance, directly indicates that Mayakovsky planned suicide in advance. This thesis is supported by the fact that the note is dated April 12. But the question arises: why, preparing for a decisive conversation with Veronica Polonskaya, Mayakovsky in advance, on April 12, predetermines the outcome of a conversation that has not yet taken place with her - “the love boat crashed...”, as he writes? It is also impossible not to pay attention to what exactly these lines were written with. And they were written in pencil.
Mayakovsky at work. Photo from 1930
The fact is that it is most convenient to fake the author’s handwriting with a pencil. And Mayakovsky’s suicide letter itself for a long time was kept in the secret archives of the OGPU. Mayakovsky's comrades, Khodasevich and Eisenstein, citing an insulting tone towards his mother and sister, stated that Mayakovsky could not have written something in such a spirit. So we can assume that the note was nothing more than a fake, compiled by the OGPU and intended to convince everyone as the main evidence of Mayakovsky’s suicide.
Moreover, the note itself is not mentioned in any way in the protocol from the scene of the incident. It appears only in the final conclusion of the case, where it follows that the letter was written “in unusual conditions” in a state “caused by excitement.” The story of the note does not end there: Valentin Skoryatin believes that the dating of April 12 is explained quite simply. In his opinion, on that day the murder of Mayakovsky went wrong, and therefore this falsification was saved for the next time. And this “next time” fell on the morning of April 14, 1930.
Mayakovsky's death was like a bolt from the blue. The Briks immediately returned from their trip to Europe. The poet's death was a big blow for all his friends and relatives. And now it is generally accepted that Vladimir Mayakovsky died voluntarily, although some researchers of this case are firmly convinced that he was deliberately “removed.” Some time later, Joseph Stalin would call him the best poet Soviet Union. And Polonskaya became Mayakovsky’s last close person. It was with her that the poet spent the last moments of his life.
This happened on April 14, 1930 in Moscow, in Lubyansky Proezd. A shot was fired in Vladimir Mayakovsky's workroom. The debate over whether the poet died voluntarily or was killed has not subsided to this day.
One of its participants, professor of the Department of Forensic Medicine of the Sechenov MMA, Alexander Vasilyevich Maslov, talks about the masterly investigation of the experts.
Versions and facts
On April 14, 1930, Krasnaya Gazeta reported: “Today at 10:17 a.m. in his work room, Vladimir Mayakovsky committed suicide with a revolver shot to the heart area. The ambulance arrived and found him. already dead. IN last days V.V. Mayakovsky did not reveal any mental discord and nothing foreshadowed a catastrophe.”
In the afternoon the body was transported to the poet’s apartment on Gendrikov Lane. Was removed by sculptor K. Lutsky death mask, and badly - he tore off the deceased’s face. Employees of the Brain Institute extracted Mayakovsky's brain, which weighed 1,700. On the very first day, pathologist Professor Talalay performed an autopsy at the prezector clinic of the Faculty of Medicine of Moscow State University, 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 22-year-old Moscow Art Theater actress Veronika Polonskaya. It is known that Mayakovsky asked her to become his wife. She was the one last person who saw the poet alive. However, the testimony of the actress, apartment neighbors and investigative data indicate that the shot rang out immediately after Polonskaya left Mayakovsky’s room. That means she couldn't shoot.
The version that Mayakovsky is not figurative, but literally“lay his head on the barrel”, put a bullet in his head, cannot stand criticism. The poet’s brain has been preserved to this day and, as the staff of the Brain Institute rightly reported in those days, “by external examination, the brain does not present any significant deviations from the norm.”
Several years ago, in the program “Before and After Midnight,” the famous television journalist Vladimir Molchanov suggested that the post-mortem photograph on Mayakovsky’s chest clearly shows traces of TWO shots.
This dubious hypothesis was dispelled by another journalist, V. Skoryatin, who conducted a thorough investigation. There was only one shot, but he also believes he 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 a suicide letter and again goes out into the street by the back door. And then he goes up to the scene as a security officer. The version is interesting and almost fits into the laws of that time. However, without knowing it, the journalist unexpectedly helped the experts. Mentioning 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 I did not find any traces of a powder burn. There is nothing on her except a brown blood stain.” So the shirt was preserved!
Poet's shirt
Indeed, in the mid-50s, L.Yu. Brik, who had the poet’s shirt, gave it to State Museum 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 there is a through wound, with dried blood visible around it. Surprisingly, this “material evidence” was not examined either in 1930 or later. And how much controversy there was around the photographs!
Having received permission to conduct the research, I, without revealing the essence of the matter, showed the shirt to a major specialist in forensic ballistics, E.G. Safronsky, who immediately made a “diagnosis”: “Entry bullet damage, most likely a point-blank shot.”
Having learned that the shot was fired more than 60 years ago, Safronsky noted that such examinations were not carried out in the USSR at that time. An agreement was reached: specialists from the Federal Center for Forensic Expertise, where the shirt was transferred, would not know that it belonged to the poet - for the purity of the experiment.
So, a beige-pink shirt made of cotton fabric is subject to research. There are 4 mother-of-pearl buttons on the front placket. The back of the shirt from the collar to the bottom is cut with scissors, as evidenced by the ledge-shaped edges of the cut and the straight ends of the threads. But it is not enough to assert that this particular shirt, bought by the poet in Paris, was on him at the time of the shot. In photographs of Mayakovsky’s body taken at the scene of the incident, the fabric pattern, texture, shape and location of the blood stain and gunshot wound are clearly visible. When the museum shirt was photographed from the same angle, magnification and photo alignment was carried out, all the details coincided.
Experts from the Federal Center had a difficult job to do - to find traces of a shot on the shirt that was more than 60 years old and to establish its distance. And in forensic medicine and criminology there are three of them: a point-blank shot, at close range and at long range. Linear cross-shaped damage characteristic of a point-blank shot was discovered (they arise from the action of gases reflected from the body at the moment the tissue is destroyed by the projectile), as well as traces of gunpowder, soot and scorching both in the damage itself and in adjacent areas of the tissue.
But it was necessary to identify a number of stable signs, for which the diffusion-contact method was used, which does not destroy the shirt. It is known: when a shot is fired, a hot cloud flies out along with the bullet, then the bullet gets ahead of it and flies away further. If they shot from a long distance, the cloud did not reach the object; if from a close distance, the gas-powder suspension should have settled on the shirt. It was necessary to investigate the complex of metals that make up the bullet shell of the proposed cartridge.
The resulting impressions showed an insignificant amount of lead in the damaged area, and practically no copper was detected. But thanks to the diffuse-contact method of determining antimony (one of the components of the capsule composition), it was possible to establish a large zone of this substance with a diameter of about 10 mm around the damage with a topography characteristic of a shot at the side. 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 being fired from right to left, almost in a horizontal plane, with a slight downward inclination.
From the “Conclusion” of the experts:
"1. The damage on V.V. Mayakovsky’s shirt is an entrance gunshot wound, formed when fired from a “side rest” distance in the direction from front to back and slightly from right to left, almost in a horizontal plane.
2. Judging by the characteristics 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 wound indicates its formation as a result of the immediate release of blood from the wound, and the absence of vertical blood streaks indicates that immediately after receiving the wound V.V. Mayakovsky was in a horizontal position, lying down on the back.
4. The shape and small size of the blood stains located below the injury, and the peculiarity of their arrangement along an 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 downwards right hand splattered with blood, or from a weapon in the same hand.”
Is it possible to fake suicide so carefully? Yes, in expert practice there are cases of staging one, two, or less often five signs. But it is impossible to falsify the entire complex of signs. It was established that the drops of blood were not traces of bleeding from a wound: they fell from a small height from a hand or weapon. Even if we assume that the security officer Agranov (and he really knew his job) was a murderer and caused drops of blood after being shot, 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 drops of blood that became the pinnacle of this research.
Autograph of death
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 suicide letter, written in pencil with almost no punctuation marks:
“Everyone. Don’t blame anyone for the fact that I’m dying and please don’t gossip. The deceased did not like this terribly. Mom, sisters and comrades, I’m sorry this is not the way (I don’t recommend it to others), but I have no choice. Lilya - love me. My family is Lilya Brik, mother, sisters and Veronica Vitoldovna Polonskaya...
The love boat\has crashed into everyday life.\I'm even with life\And there's no point in listing\Mutual troubles\And grievances. Stay happy.\ Vladimir\ Mayakovsky. 12.IV.30"
From the “Conclusion” of the experts:
“The presented letter on behalf of Mayakovsky was written by Mayakovsky himself in unusual conditions, the most probable cause which is a psychophysiological state caused by excitement.”
There was no doubt about the date - exactly 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 lies not in the 14th day of April, but in the 12th.
"Your word, Comrade Mauser"
Relatively recently, the case “On the Suicide of V.V. Mayakovsky” was transferred from the Presidential Archive to the Museum of the Poet, along with the fatal Browning, bullet and cartridge case. But the protocol for examining the scene of the incident, signed by the investigator and the medical expert, states that he shot himself with a “Mauser revolver, caliber 7.65, No. 312045.” According to his identification, the poet had two pistols - a Browning and a Bayard. And although “Krasnaya Gazeta” wrote about a shot from a revolver, eyewitness V.A. Katanyan mentions a Mauser, and N. Denisovsky, years later, a Browning, it is still difficult to imagine that a professional investigator could confuse a Browning with a Mauser.
Employees of the V.V. Mayakovsky Museum contacted the Russian federal center forensic experts with a request to conduct a study of the Browning pistol No. 268979, a bullet and a cartridge case transferred to them from the Presidential Archives, and to establish whether the poet shot himself with this weapon?
Chemical analysis of the deposits in the Browning barrel led to the conclusion that “the weapon was not fired after the last cleaning.” But the bullet once removed from Mayakovsky’s body “is indeed part of a 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 marks, the width, angle of inclination and right-hand direction of the marks indicate that the bullet was fired from a Mauser model 1914 pistol.”
The results of the experimental shooting finally confirmed that “the 7.65 mm Browning cartridge bullet was fired not from Browning pistol No. 268979, but from a 7.65 mm Mauser.”
Still, it’s a Mauser. Who changed the weapon? In 1944, an NKGB officer, “talking” with the disgraced writer M.M. Zoshchenko, asked whether he considered the cause of Mayakovsky’s death clear, to which the writer responded with dignity: “It continues to remain mysterious. It is curious that the revolver with which Mayakovsky shot himself was given to him by the famous security officer Agranov.”
Could it be that Agranov himself, to whom all the investigation materials flocked, switched weapons, adding Mayakovsky’s Browning to the case? For what? Many people knew about the “gift,” and besides, the Mauser was not registered with Mayakovsky, which could have come back to haunt Agranov himself (by the way, he was later shot, but for what?). However, this is a matter of guesswork. Let’s better respect the poet’s last request: “...please don’t gossip. The dead man didn’t like it terribly.”
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky is a Soviet poet who achieved success and recognition. He was born in 1893 in the Caucasus. His works can be identified by the emotional nature of the poems and by the well-recognized “ladder” of text presentation, which later became his “calling card.”
In life he was energetic, did not keep his mouth shut, for which he was imprisoned, he was a scandalous person. Vladimir Mayakovsky contributed huge contribution into the treasury of Russian culture. But who would have thought that Mayakovsky V.V. such a short line is allotted. He died when he was 36 years old. But why and how did Mayakovsky die?
From the poet's personal life
The mysterious death of Mayakovsky worried experts for a very long time.
His personal life did not please him. Everyone laughed at his desire to have a normal family, especially Lilya Brik, the beloved woman of his life. She said that if she gave birth to a child, he would never give birth to a single talented poem. And he increasingly began to talk about suicide as the only salvation.
Love and death
Trying to free himself from Lily's spell, he tried to start his life from scratch.
His last passion was Veronica Polonskaya, beautiful actress Moscow Art Theater. On April 14, 1930, they were supposed to have a date. He locked the doors and spoke for a long time about how she should divorce her husband and move in with him immediately. But Veronica (Nora) could not decide to leave Mikhail Yanshin, realizing that at any moment their romance could end. He walked out the door, she heard the sound of a shot, ran to her lover and saw blood on his body.
The shot was fired point-blank into the heart. A suicide note dated April 12 was also found.
Versions of Mayakovsky's death
What is the cause of Mayakovsky's death? The woman he loved, or the fact that he was afraid of old age, or his conflicts with poets, whom he no longer understood, just as they did him. He was a revolutionary, but the revolution was already over. There are several versions of the poet’s death, each with its own supporters and opponents.
Murder. Perhaps someone wanted him dead? Opponents of this version say that Vladimir Vladimirovich was preparing to die. After all, he left a suicide note. But the fact that the note was written with a simple pencil, is alarming. Since, firstly, handwriting with a pencil can be forged more easily, as graphologists assure. In addition, as V.I. Skoryatin argued, Mayakovsky was sensitive to his fountain pen and, most likely, would have started writing last letter exactly by her. And S. Eisenstein notes that Mayakovsky did not write anything like this at all, and the note was the work of his killers. The version of murder is also supported by the fact that Mayakovsky had a broken nose, although he fell on his back. According to Nora, when they found him, Vladimir Vladimirovich was lying on his back with his eyes open and tried to tell her something, but did not have time. Another argument in favor of the fact that Mayakovsky would not kill himself: when he heard the news of Sergei Yesenin’s suicide, he severely condemned him, calling such an act cowardice. As a rule, the Soviet secret services are accused of killing the poet.
Accident. The most unpopular version says that the poet died as a result of a sad coincidence. The fact is that Mayakovsky several times tried extreme sports with one bullet in a seven-shot pistol. And could it be that this time his luck refused him in the game “Russian roulette”?
Suicide. Today it is official version. Most researchers adhere to it. And according to the memoirs of Liliya Brik, Mayakovsky more than once tried to take his own life. It is also noted that the poet had sudden mood swings. He was overwhelmed with emotions of joy when he had success, and failures led him into deep depression.
The true cause of the poet's death still remains a subject of heated debate.
