The most classified secret: why no one denied the version of the murder of Vladimir Vysotsky

Sergey Kron

July 1980. His friends gathered in Vysotsky's apartment on Malaya Gruzinskaya almost every day. Anatoly Fedotov, an intensive care physician, was always next to Volodya - his relatives, knowing about his addiction to drugs and alcohol, were afraid to leave him alone. In addition, Fedotov exactly one year before saved Vysotsky from clinical death in Bukhara...

There were rumors that Vysotsky, at the insistence of his close friend Vadim Tumanov, was going to fly to the remote taiga in order to recuperate or even "tie up" there. But he stayed in Moscow and even went on stage. On July 18, seven days before his death, Vysotsky played Hamlet - the last performance in his life. During the breaks Fedotov several times gave the actor some injections.

In the last days of his life, Vysotsky, despite feeling unwell, continued to give concerts, including those at home. On the eve of the tragedy, he was invited to sing at someone's state dacha. There was even talk that it was Galina Brezhneva and her husband Yuri Churbanov. Something happened there that Vysotsky did not like. He was furious and told his close friends about the scandal. I was even going to write a song about it. And literally immediately he was summoned to the Lubyanka. After that, Vladimir Semenovich concluded: in his immediate circle there is an informer. It was then that, according to the testimony of his friends, he broke into a big break, drank terribly...

Leonid Filatov responded to Vysotsky's death this way:

“People close to him are often asked the question: why did they not save Volodya? Like, if they were near... Yes, they would not have done anything! How can you save him? Alla Demidova correctly said: "It's like stopping an airplane taking off with your hands." His energy is indestructible, irresistible. Absolute stubbornness, faith in one's own strengths, in one's own path. You can't persuade, you can't stop".

For the last three days, Vysotsky has been spinning a deadly dive. He walked around the apartment, moaning, yelling...

And here in Moscow the solemn opening of the Summer Olympic Games took place, special security measures were introduced in the city. In such an environment, it is impossible to get drugs, and without them, Vysotsky's condition rapidly deteriorated.

July 24 was the last day in Vysotsky's life. He was practically unconscious. At some point, Volodya approached Valery Yanklovich (a close friend and chief administrator of the Taganka Theater) and said: "You know, I will die today!" Later, according to the well-established version, wandering from publication to publication, Yanklovich called doctor Tole Fedotov and asked him to change him in Vysotsky's apartment.

Fedotov himself recalled:

“I was from the shift - tired, exhausted. He lay down and fell asleep - probably at three o'clock. I woke up from some ominous silence - as if someone pulled me. And to Volodya! The pupils are dilated, there is no reaction to light. Let me breathe, and my lips are already cold. Late! Between three and half past five in the morning, there was a cardiac arrest on the background of a heart attack".

It would seem that the question of the causes of death of the national favorite was put to an end once and for all. But the Polish journalist, translator and "Vysotskologist" Marlene Zimna was alarmed by something in this story, she was in no way satisfied with the diagnosis announced to the entire Soviet Union. Forty years ago, she began her own investigation into the circumstances of Vysotsky's death. After interviewing many of the deceased idol's entourage, Marlena suddenly came to a sensational conclusion: immediately after the death of Vysotsky, the poet's friends fabricated medical documents about the reasons for his premature departure!

Moreover, in her book "Who Killed Vysotsky" Marlene Zimna wrote with all journalistic courage that Volodya was "deliberately stuffed with potent drugs used in anesthesiology". We are talking about unauthorized doses, improperly prepared solutions, which in combination with alcohol, as well as with other medications, can cause irreparable harm to the body. In other words, Vysotsky was killed slowly but surely. Marlena was unambiguously hinting at the secret services.

Fedotov, in a conversation with a Polish woman, unexpectedly let slip that at the time of the death of Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky, in addition to himself, there were several close friends in the apartment. It was they who, according to Fedotov, wrote in the posthumous diagnosis what they themselves considered necessary. They were allegedly worried that the truth about the poet's drug addiction would emerge, on whose body there were numerous marks from injections. “Such a truth could harm everyone,” Fedotov confessed. "We organized it brilliantly!"

Alas, there is no one to ask about it again today. In 1992, Fedotov died under mysterious circumstances in Israel (they say he committed suicide), and in March 2016 Marlena Zimna passed away. The investigation of the Polish colleague was continued by the Russian journalist and writer Boris Kudryavov, who "dug up" no less sensations in the case of the death of the Taganskaya celebrity.

Interestingly, in parallel with Zimny and Kudryavov, Valery Perevozchikov, the famous biographer of Vysotsky, who wrote the notorious book "The Truth of the Hour of Death", conducted his investigation. It was he who first spoke to the former district police inspector Pavel Nikolaev, who in the summer of 1980 conducted an inquiry into the death of Vysotsky. It is not difficult to imagine Valery Perevozchikov's surprise when he learned firsthand that even his relatives did not have an official death certificate at the time of the funeral. The paper was handed out at Moscow polyclinic No. 174 only three days after the farewell - July 31, 1980.

The document states:

“The disease that caused or caused the immediate cause of death is atherosclerosis of the coronary arteries of the heart. The cause of death was established by the doctor who established the death".

In the clinic, where Boris Kudryavov went, they gave the phone number of the doctor, whose signature was on the document. L.S. Semina once worked as a district therapist and treated Vysotsky.

“Of course, I remember the day of Vysotsky’s death,” Lidia Sergeevna told the journalist. - The next morning, people from the Taganka Theater came to our clinic, right on the morning five minutes into the office of the head physician. Who exactly, I can't tell. They began to ask the management of the clinic to write out a death certificate for Vysotsky without an autopsy. Well, like, considering his special services to society and so on. I did not sign Vysotsky's posthumous document! How my signature could appear there remains a mystery to me. And is she mine?"

In 2015, the former district police officer Pavel Nikolayev, who in 1980 supervised the house on Malaya Gruzinskaya 28, in which the poet died, decided to break his long-term silence and appeared in the "Live" program on the second Russian TV channel. He said then that, in hot pursuit, he conducted an independent investigation, which showed that Vysotsky... was killed by his close friends inadvertently!

There is no doubt about the competence of Nikolaev. His services to the state were appreciated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, awarding orders and medals. The Mayor's Office awarded the title of "Best Precinct in Moscow". Pavel Pavlovich rose to the rank of colonel in the police.

In the same program, another valuable witness spoke: Olga Sviridova, the common-law wife of Vysotsky's close friend - actor Vsevolod Abdulov. She said that on July 24, 1980, Seva visited Volodya's house. That day, nothing foreshadowed trouble. Everything was fine. Abdulov left his friend in the evening. On the morning of the 25th, he received a call and informed about the death of Vysotsky. “Volodya was killed. This was done by people from his environment. Vysotsky did not die of his own death. They helped him, ”Olga Sviridova quoted her husband from memory.

“I remember very well July 25, 1980,” a former district police officer said to the TV camera. - I received instructions from the authorities - to ensure public order at the house where Vysotsky lived and died. I stood in the yard and watched the situation. Naturally, I saw who came. He understood perfectly well that officers of the KGB and the investigative apparatus of the Ministry of Internal Affairs arrived in black limousines with cool numbers. I was sure that Vysotsky's death would be investigated by specialists of a higher rank than mine. And I was extremely puzzled when, a month later, the report of the criminal investigation inspector and the protocol of the examination of Vysotsky's corpse were laid on my table. Why in a month - I don't know. Most likely, the papers were under consideration somewhere".

Captain Nikolaev began to study the case carefully. To his complete surprise, it turned out that the body of the deceased was not taken to the morgue and the autopsy, as it should be, was not performed. At the same time, the police were greatly disturbed by the mention in the report about the characteristic marks on the wrists and legs of Vysotsky.

Nikolaev turned to Vysotsky's mother for clarification. Nina Maksimovna told the district police officer that on July 25, at about six o'clock in the morning, people from Lubyanka interrogated her. Then colonels from the Ministry of Internal Affairs entered the apartment. And only at 11 o'clock in the morning the inspector of the criminal investigation department from the local 88th police station was allowed there to examine and describe the corpse.

“I managed to establish that on that last night for Vysotsky, a campaign of friends was going on in his apartment, - told in the program "Live" Pavel Nikolayev. “Several people were present, including three women. And Vysotsky, when he drank, was, to put it mildly, very annoying".

Indeed, the last weeks of Vysotsky's life passed for him like a frenzy. According to the testimony of friends and neighbors, he behaved aggressively - tossed books, turned things upside down in search of "medicine."

Somewhere in the interval from 11 pm to the beginning of the first night, Vysotsky's friends, according to Nikolayev, having apparently decided to cool his ardor, tied him hand and foot with sheets and put him on the loggia.

This version, by the way, was confirmed during the very first inquiry by both Yanklovich and Fedotov, who were in Vysotsky's apartment.

It was they who left the tied landlord on the balcony, the former inspector continued his story. And at that time they themselves were quietly drinking and talking in the kitchen. They remembered about a friend only at about four in the morning. They stuck in, as the former district inspector put it, and he was already cold. All were seized with horror! When they calmed down, they carried Vysotsky's body into the room and untied it. And until six in the morning they discussed what to tell the police.

“I remember how during the first interrogation with the participants in the night events they were very worried, often confused in their testimonies. Although it was felt, - as Nikolayev recalls, - that they came to the conversation prepared, so as not to blurt out too much".

Meticulous Nikolaev decided to turn to forensic experts for explanations. In their opinion, during the binding (if it really was), most likely, the walls of the cerebral vessels were squeezed, which led to extensive hemorrhage in Vysotsky. All this was recorded in a special report. And Nikolayev, according to him, did not hide this.

Soon he was summoned to the leadership, persuaded to sign a refusal to initiate a criminal case. Most likely, Nikolayev believes, someone above gave such a command. The criminal case had to be dropped. These documents are still kept in the personal archive of the veteran of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Colonel Pavel Pavlovich Nikolaev. But they, apparently, are of little interest to anyone today.

The policeman's version could be confirmed by Oksana Afanasyeva (She is called Vysotsky's last love). It was she who, at the time of Vladimir Semenovich's death, was in his apartment and should know what actually happened there. In her few interviews, she only mysteriously told reporters: "There are things that only I know and about which I will never tell anyone".

Nevertheless, Afanasyeva said that since the beginning of 1980, Vysotsky's physical condition began to deteriorate noticeably, the amount of drugs increased. He was oppressed by his dependence on them, on the people who annoyed them...

“I remember that after Hamlet he could not sleep for a long time, he felt bad. And he gave himself an injection. "And what are you injecting yourself?" I asked. "These are vitamins." Once I fished this ampoule out of the trash heap and found out that it was promedol. Then there was Martin and Anapol - medical drugs. Volodya wanted to "jump off", but what is there! It was impossible to receive medical treatment legally in the USSR. He did not want to set up the people who got drugs for him. He was in hospital in Italy and in France. It didn't work out”, - said Oksana Afanasyeva.

She also said that on the eve of the tragic night, doctors from Sklif came to Malaya Gruzinskaya. A whole council was deciding whether to put Volodya in the hospital or not. But everyone was afraid to take responsibility. All the same - Vysotsky!

Here is what the resuscitator of the N.V. N.V. Sklifosovsky Stanislav Shcherbakov:

“We rushed to Malaya Gruzinskaya at the first call and we see that Vysotsky in asphyxiation - Fedotov pumped him with large doses of all kinds of sedatives. Volodya was lying practically without reflexes... His tongue was already collapsing! We realized that things were bad".

Another Sklif doctor Leonid Sulpovar recalled:

“I was on duty on 23 July. They came to me and said that Vysotsky's condition was serious. It became clear that more action was needed. What did I personally suggest? There is such a technique: take a person for artificial ventilation of the lungs. Keep it in a medication sleep and remove everything that is possible from the body for several days. But the fact is that the shutdown comes with drugs of a narcotic line, nevertheless, we were ready to go for it. There were other dangers as well. We consulted and decided: we must take Vysotsky. But his friends said that this is a great responsibility and it cannot be done without parental consent. We agreed to take Volodya away on July 25th".

“Vysotsky was in a very serious condition, but there was no impression that he was dying”, - said Leonid Sulpovar.

“Volodya had a presentiment of his departure,” Afanasyeva insisted. - But at some point he calmed down. After all, I fell asleep that night only because there was some strange silence and Volodya stopped screaming. He told me: "I feel fine, go to sleep." And literally in the three hours that I slept, he obviously died".

Rumors that Vysotsky did not die his own death have been circulating in Moscow for a long time. Many of the poet's close friends were sure that the reason for them was the statements of the photographer Valery Nisanov in the foreign press about the alleged murder of the poet in an apartment on Malaya Gruzinskaya. They were neighbors at the entrance with Vysotsky and were considered close friends. Since 1989, Nisanov lived in New York, where he published a literary and art magazine of the American Pushkin Foundation. But the story of the photo artist about the events of that tragic night, of which he was a participant, was announced all on the same program "Live" in Moscow.

In an interview with Boris Kudryavy, Valery Nisanov gave his own version: allegedly someone mixed poison in the champagne that Vysotsky drank that evening.

“As I was later told, Fedotov put some kind of pill in this fizzy drink. According to Fedotov himself, it was a sedative. And what really is there, no one knows. There was no autopsy. But Vysotsky died”, - Nisanov said.

And he added:

“For some reason, all my thoughts boil down to one thing - Volodya was killed! The statement is not categorical. There is no direct evidence. But all the prerequisites speak about this. Meeting with friends, I frankly say: “Volodya was killed by order! I am not the only one who knows: everyone whom Anatoly Fedotov tried to treat, died after some time ... Again, there is no direct evidence".

“Were these actions directed against Vysotsky, deliberate or accidental? - the Polish writer Marlena Zimna asked a question in her book, - There is no answer. But I call them quite conscious, considering that Anatoly Fedotov is a professional resuscitator. I am sure that it was he who should have been responsible for the death of Vladimir Semenovich before the court".

The writer Fyodor Razzakov wrote a whole book on the subject of Vysotsky's death. “Perhaps”, - he asserts, “someone benefited from the fact that Vysotsky was“ on the needle ”, in complete dependence, and his years were numbered. I am sure that the archives of the special services have answers to many questions".