Russian actress who played Zinaida Reich. Reich Zinaida. "Robber from Curly Fields": Zinaida Reich and Sergei Yesenin

On July 15, 1939, shocking news spread around Moscow - the leading actress of the Meyerhold Theater Zinaida Reich was brutally murdered. The Moscow actress was stabbed to death at night in her own apartment in Bryusov Lane. The MUR officers who arrived at the scene of the crime noted that there were clear signs of a struggle in the room. The window in the room was broken, shards of glass were scattered everywhere - apparently, the killers entered the house that way. The actress was still alive, but breathing with difficulty. She died on the way to the hospital.

The mystery of the death of one of the leading Moscow actresses of the last century has not been revealed so far. Who killed Zinaida Reich? What caused the bloody drama? And how did this event affect other inhabitants of the quiet Bryusov Lane? TV channel "Moscow Trust" prepared a special report.

Zinaida Reich was called in theatrical circles a devil who won the hearts of two geniuses at once - Sergei Yesenin and Vsevolod Meyerhold. True, she was not the poet's muse for long - they got married in 1918, and after 4 years the marriage broke up. After a divorce from Yesenin, Zinaida Nikolaevna, who worked as a typist in the editorial office of the newspaper Delo Naroda before marriage, decides to take up directing. In 1921, she entered the Higher Theater Workshops in Moscow, where she met her second great love.

“He was very much in love. Having married Zinaida Nikolaevna, Vsevolod Meyerhold even took her last name. And in all documents he was listed as Meyerhold-Reich,” says historian Vadim Shcherbakov.

Vsevolod Meyerhold and Zinaida Reich. Source: ITAR-TASS

The director in love not only made his wife the leading actress of his theater, he filled her with gifts and fulfilled any whims. Moreover, by the time they met, he was a wealthy man.

"Tatyana Sergeevna Yesenina, Meyerhold's stepdaughter, wrote quite frankly about their financial situation, they earned so much money that it was not only impossible to eat them, it was even impossible to drink them away," Shcherbakov adds.

Meyerhold soon bought a new apartment for his young wife in Bryusov lane, in a house built specifically for artists. 17 families settled in the house. Each apartment, at the request of the owners, had a special layout. The Meyerhold family occupied four spacious rooms. Zinaida Reich enthusiastically furnished a new home. The whole Bryusov Lane was talking about its decoration and luxurious furniture.

“Zinaida Nikolaevna bought antique furniture made of Karelian birch, she had some kind of jewelry. Vsevolod Emilievich once told her and the children that this was philistinism, one should live simply,” says Vadim Shcherbakov.

It is appropriate to assume that it was jewelry and antiques that caused tragic death famous actress. Investigators at first considered this version to be the main one. Chaos reigned in the room, the floor in the living room was covered with blood, the detectives found crimson stains on expensive furniture. The chairs were overturned, the mirrors were broken - it was obvious that in the apartment there was a battle not for life, but for death, in which the actress, despite a desperate struggle, lost. Pretty soon it turned out that jewelry, expensive outfits and even money remained intact, which means that the version of the robbery was not confirmed.

House number 12 in Bryusov Lane went down in history not only as the site of one of the most mysterious crimes in the history of the city. IN different time ballet prima Marina Semenova, chief ballet master of the Bolshoi Theater Vasily Tikhomirov, actor and artistic director of the theater Ivan Bersenev and his wife Sofia Giatsintova lived in this house. Today's residents of Bryusov Lane believe that famous artists owe much of their popularity to the place itself and to the former landowners, who were popularly considered sorcerers and warlocks, and not without some reason.

The Bruces owned the territory that today connects Tverskaya and Bolshaya Nikitskaya streets in the 18th century. Since then, the lane has been called by the names of the homeowners.

"The property on the right side, now house number 2, belonged to Yakov Alexandrovich Bruce, for some time former governor two capitals, Moscow and Petersburg. We do not confuse the two Yakovs - Yakov Velimovich and Yakov Alexandrovich - they are certainly relatives. Yakov Velimovich is a field marshal general, an ally of Peter I, a magician, sorcerer and sorcerer, as he was called in Moscow, and Yakov Alexandrovich is his great-nephew,” says Moscow expert Alexei Dedushkin.

The manor was built on the foundation of the chambers of the 17th century. The Bruces owned the two-story stone building for almost a century. During this time, the estate was rebuilt several times. By the beginning of the 19th century, the classic mansion, which once resembled a palace, had lost most of its luxurious decoration. Its inhabitants have also changed.

"In the 30s of the XIX century, there was an art class here, the forerunner of the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. In 1836, the artist Karl Bryullov was solemnly received here. He returned from Italy, having finished the famous "Last Days of Pompeii", and he was given a reception ", - adds Dedushkin.

At the end of the 19th century, the Bryusov estate became an ordinary tenement house. The writer Vladimir Gilyarovsky lodged here, the painter Isaac Levitan and the actor Mikhail Chekhov rented rooms. Today, house number 2 in Bryusov Lane continues to attract creative people. And although the luxurious chambers are more and more reminiscent of modern offices, they like to tell legends and legends of the old manor here.

"According to legend, Catherine II and Grigory Potemkin celebrated the wedding of their illegitimate son, Count Bobrinsky, in this house. Closer to the revolution, there were profitable houses, such as brothels. And there is a legend that Tolya Mariengof and Seryozhka Yesenin ran here to women," says National artist USSR Vladislav Piavko.

People's Artist of the USSR Vladislav Piavko has been working in this building for more than two decades. The famous tenor continues the work of his wife, opera singer, the main Soviet Carmen Irina Arkhipova.

"In 1992, the guys (now they are already well-known and famous) came and said:" We wanted to go to the competition, but we have no money. singers," says Piavko.

The Irina Arkhipova Foundation has become a start for many famous opera performers. Every day, opera singing is performed here, students of the Moscow Conservatory rehearse. In the Bryus mansion, you can also hear arias performed by the world's only troupe of visually impaired singers - the Homer Theater.

Now there are more than 20 artists in the Homer Chamber Theater, they give concerts not only in Russia, but also abroad. Leading soloists of the theater collaborate with other musical groups.

But there were times in the history of Bryusov Lane when completely different music sounded here. Many of the local inhabitants, at first favored by the Soviet authorities, later fully felt the brunt and ruthlessness of Stalin's repressions. The legendary director Vsevolod Meyerhold did not escape this fate.

"If you follow official version, then they arrested him for subversive Trotskyist activities and for being a spy for three intelligence agencies: Japanese, Lithuanian and English. Apparently, with the advent of Beria, he was preparing big process against creative intelligence. And Vsevolod Emilievich became one of the first defendants in this future process. Then Stalin decided that this process was not needed, and those who were arrested were shot. And at that time, which he never found out about, a bloody tragedy was unfolding here," says historian Vadim Shcherbakov.

Zinaida Reich died a month after her husband's arrest. Some eyewitnesses of those events believed that the murder famous actress was due to her unbearable nature. The sudden tantrums of the prima were familiar to the entire troupe of the theater. Her husband and colleagues tried to treat these seizures with understanding, they knew that Reich's inappropriate behavior was the result of her illness.

Vsevolod Meyerhold and Zinaida Reich

“Zinaida Nikolaevna, by the time of her romance and marriage with Meyerhold, suffered a very severe typhus, which struck her brain. Meyerhold knew that in order to deal with its mental and mental consequences, she needed to be loaded with work as much as possible,” says Shcherbakov.

But from time to time the disease reminded of itself. At such moments, Zinaida Reich was completely out of control. And that scared a lot of people.

"It was known that she could throw a scene and even a tantrum. She knew a lot, and most likely it was a way to politically eliminate an unnecessary person," the historian adds.

There is another opinion: despite the loyalty of the Soviet authorities, Vsevolod Meyerhold and his wife were not well-known in political circles and could not know any special secrets.

MUR employees were more inclined to the version of the murder on the basis of a domestic quarrel. Perhaps the unbalanced and quick-tempered actress herself provoked a scandal that cost her her life. The detectives suggested that Zinaida Reich received guests late in the evening. Stormy creative discussions could develop into a conflict and end in a fight. There was no evidence to support this version. None of the neighbors heard the sounds of struggle in the apartment and cries for help. But, despite the lack of evidence and witnesses, the perpetrators of this story were established: they were the neighbors of Zinaida Reich, the famous opera performers, the Golovin brothers.

"Scapegoats were found, there was even a criminal court, according to which the defendants were punished for banditry and robbery, accompanied by murder, but this version is unlikely to be completely reliable," says Shcherbakov.

The 1930s crippled a lot of destinies, but at the same time they became the time of the new heyday of Bryusov Lane. So, in 1932, according to the project of architect Alexei Shchusev, house No. 17 was built here for artists of the Art Theater. It is not surprising that Bryusov lane in the last century was called the street of artists and musicians. It was the only place in Moscow where dozens of celebrities lived at the same time.

A nine-story house was erected for the employees of the conservatory in Bryusov Lane. Composers Aram Khachaturian and Dmitry Shostakovich, chief conductor of the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra Pavel Kogan, one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century Svyatoslav Richter lived in a large stalinka. The administration of the Bolshoi Theater also settled Alexander Vedernikov, the owner of a unique operatic bass, who came from a simple working family, who, dreaming of a stage, once bought a one-way ticket - from the city of Kopeysk to Moscow.

"The ticket was only to Moscow, more money was not enough. I got out in Moscow at night, went to the conservatory, asked the police for directions. He came late at night, lay down on the bench and fell asleep on the suitcase. And suddenly they wake me up, I wake up and see above me a big shaggy curly head. It was a conductor who taught at the conservatory," says People's Artist of the USSR Alexander Vedernikov.

The young talented singer was immediately admitted to the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, but he had to wait several years for a separate apartment. Before, like most students, Vedernikov lived in a hostel.

In 1955, Alexander Vedernikov graduated from the conservatory, and three years later he became a soloist with the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR. Once, while on tour abroad, the singer received a joyful and long-awaited news from his relatives.

"I was then on tour in Spain with an orchestra of folk instruments. And there I received a telegram from my wife, to take or not to take an apartment near the conservatory and the Bolshoi Theater. I then hurried home, called Demichev to help with the departure home, "- says Vedernikov.

Over the years of work at the Bolshoi Theater, Vedernikov performed almost all the leading roles in classical operas. However, his booming voice was heard every day not only by the grateful public, but also by the neighbors. And they didn't always applaud.

“Once I was walking my dog, and Khachaturian came up to me, and he lived under me, and Shostakovich was above me, and he said:“ You sing so loudly and play the piano that it’s impossible. ”And he advised me to buy rubber washers under piano legs. But that didn't help," adds the artist.

For many, the lane that links Tverskaya and Bolshaya Nikitskaya streets is associated with other famous classical music performers. One of the most famous creative duets lived in house number 7: conductor and composer Nikolai Golovanov and his wife Antonina Nezhdanova. For a long time the street bore the name of this famous opera singer.

Bryusov lane surprises not only with unexpected meetings with celebrities, but also with architectural finds. House No. 1 presented a big surprise to the restorers.

Most of the secrets of Bryusov Lane are still waiting for an inquisitive researcher. One of the dramas played out in the middle of the XIX century in the house number 21.

"In 1850, Alexander Vasilyevich Sukhovo-Kobylin, a famous playwright, rented an apartment here. He rented a second apartment for his beloved Louise. In 1850, Louise was found murdered. First, the serfs who looked after Louise were accused, allegedly she treated them badly, and they killed her for it. Then it turned out that they were tortured, and they slandered themselves. Then the future playwright himself became the main accused, he was under arrest for two years, the investigation lasted 7-8 years. But the case has not been solved so far, it was suspended by the Highest command,” says Moscow expert Alexei Dedushkin.

Almost a century later, a bloody drama broke out again in Bryusov Lane. The murder of the famous actress Zinaida Reich gave rise to many rumors. Some suggested that the housing problem was the cause of the crime.

“There is also a household version - they vacated the living space. The large apartment went to the department of L.P. Beria. The apartment was divided, and one part went to his secretary, the other to the driver,” says historian Vadim Shcherbakov.

Zinaida Reich is remembered today not only in connection with the brutal murder. Theater historians appreciate the actress for her outstanding talent and excellent taste.

“Usually, she herself, together with the artist and tailors, worked on her costumes. She had suppliers who brought her good materials. When the Meyerhold Theater was closed, Zinaida Nikolaevna bought all these dresses from the theater. They were kept at home. And they even buried her in the famous black velvet dress from The Lady of the Camellias, adds Shcherbakov.

The apartment where the famous reformist director Vsevolod Meyerhold and his wife Zinaida Reich once lived is now a museum. Rare family photographs and stage costumes, scenery models for performances are carefully stored here. Museum staff do not like to talk about the tragedy that took place in this apartment, trying to keep only bright memories of the famous creative duet. However, everyone here knows the details of the brutal crime.

So what happened here on July 15, 1939? As it was established during the investigation, the murder took place around one in the morning. Zinaida Reich left the bathroom and went to the living room. At that moment, she was attacked. There were two killers. One stabbed the actress in the chest. Reich fell to the floor, but did not lose consciousness, but began desperately calling for help. Bleeding, she crawled to the table in the living room. The killers continued to strike her, and only when the victim lost consciousness did they disappear. After 75 years, historians, comparing the facts, are increasingly inclined to the contract killing version. And they even call the customer - power. Shortly before the tragic events, Zinaida Nikolaevna wrote a letter to Stalin, in which she hinted that she knew the circumstances of the death of her first husband, Sergei Yesenin, and that she was ready to prove that the popularly beloved poet was helped to part with her life. Even the all-powerful NKVD did not need the publicity of this story at all, and besides, there was a great opportunity, without wasting time on arrest, interrogation and trial, to solve the housing problems of their employees. The huge apartment was a very tasty morsel.

Nevertheless, Bryusov Lane was and remains one of the brightest places in Moscow. Today, like centuries ago, beautiful sounds of music can be heard from the windows of its houses. Every day they rush to work and study at the conservatory this way famous artists and emerging musicians. And, perhaps, each of them hears at this time a bewitching tune - the melody of Bryusov Lane.

Zinaida Reich

THEATER NOVEL

This novel was destined to become one of the loudest, scandalous, tragic in the history of Russian culture. A talented poet, a famous director - and between them the woman they loved. Sergei Yesenin, Zinaida Reich and Vsevolod Meyerhold are names forever tied into a knot with their love and death ...

It all started in Petrograd in the late spring of 1917. A beginner, but quickly becoming fashionable, the poet Sergei Yesenin often visited the editorial office of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary newspaper “Voice of the People”. There was no special need for this - just an incredible beautiful girl Zinochka. Zina Reich. She has regular features, deep black eyes and dark hair, she laughs contagiously and willingly accepts his advances. If it wasn't love at first sight, it certainly was at second sight.

Although Zina and Sergey were almost the same age, there was little in common between them: Yesenin was from the Ryazan peasants, a quick-witted guy who successfully hides his age-old peasant intelligence under the guise of a village simpleton. He came from Moscow to Petrograd to conquer it with his poems, and succeeded in this in just a few weeks. Behind him was a short marriage - albeit a civil one - with Anna Izryadnova and the birth of his son Yuri ...

And she was the daughter of the Russified German August Reich, who, under the name of Nikolai Andreevich, converted to Orthodoxy for the sake of marriage with his beloved woman, Anna Ivanovna, from the impoverished nobles. August and Anna met on the train on the way to Odessa - and when they arrived there, they immediately got married. Nikolai Reich, a highly qualified mechanic, even before his marriage had rich experience in political activity as a member of the Social Democrats, was twice in exile. His daughter inherited this passion for revolutionary ideas and was even expelled from the gymnasium for her "unreliable interests". She graduated from the Zina gymnasium in Bendery, where Nikolai Reich was sent under police supervision. And already at the age of 19 she joined the Socialist-Revolutionary Party - however, she was mainly engaged in propaganda. Since childhood, she had a strong craving for leadership, a rejection of the norms imposed by someone - in her prim gymnasium, she went down only by sliding down the railing. In 1914, Zina entered the Higher Petrograd Women's Historical, Literary and Law Courses. The affair with Yesenin that began at the beginning of summer was not the first in her life, but it was her first, passionate, all-encompassing love ...

In July, Yesenin, together with the Vologda poet Alexei Ganin and Zina Reich, went on a trip to the North - Yesenin ran from the draft, and Reich could not part with him. During this trip, on August 4, 1917, they got married - in the small church of Kirik and Ulita near Vologda. The wedding was like fake, but the love of young people was visible to everyone.

Upon returning to Petrograd, the young people settled on Liteiny Prospekt. Zina created a cozy and hospitable home for them, and Sergey turned out to be surprisingly good husband- gentle, caring ... And then the October Revolution broke out.

Zina was pregnant and went away from sin to give birth in Orel, where by that time her parents had settled. There, on May 29, 1918, a daughter was born, who was named Tatyana in honor of Sergei's mother. Her father loved her very much - blond, blue-eyed, so similar to himself ... But he loved from afar. Zinaida and her daughter lived in Orel for another year.

By this time, Yesenin had already moved to Moscow. Here, after a short friendship with the poets of Proletkult, he joined the Imagists. Together with Anatoly Mariengof, a friend and colleague, they are trying to earn some money, but for now they are forced to sleep in the same bed in a tiny room in Bogoslovsky Lane. Then things somehow got better - they started a bookstore on Bolshaya Nikitskaya, and then the Pegasus Stall on Tverskaya. Zina is not invited to Moscow: Yesenin has long begun to get tired of her; long serious relationship, as it turned out, not for him ... Her arrivals to visit only annoy both him and his friends, who categorically do not like Zina. Mariengoff describes her at that time as follows: “This is a plump Jewish lady. Generous nature endowed her with sensual lips on a face as round as a plate ... "And Vadim Shershenevich, another imagist, punned caustically:" Oh, how tired I am of looking at raichitic legs!

At the beginning of 1919, Reich came to Moscow - now with her daughter, to introduce Tanya to her father. Yesenin gladly accepted his daughter ... and then asked Mariengof, as his closest friend, to help him fuse his wife back to Orel. He already tried to explain to Zina that love had passed, but she was sure that Yesenin loved her, and flatly refused to leave. Mariengof, at the request of Yesenin, came to Reich and told her that Sergei had long had another woman, who had him in this moment and is ... Yesenin himself at that time nervously paced along Tverskoy Boulevard, waiting for the outcome of the conversation. Reich understood everything correctly: she packed her things and left.

Already after their break, in February 1920, she had a son. I called Yesenin and asked: what to call it? He thought for a long time, trying to choose some "non-literary" name, and then said - call Konstantin. After the baptism, he realized that Konstantin was the name of Balmont, strongly disliked by Yesenin, but the deed had already been done. He saw his son only a few months later, by chance: trains met in Rostov, in one of which Yesenin and Mariengof were returning from Tashkent, and in the other, Reich was taking sick Kostya to Kislovodsk. Yesenin looked at his son and jumped out of the car, muttering with displeasure: “Yesenins are not black!”

Her train crawled for another three months to its destination. Son Zinaida went out, but on the way she herself fell ill with typhus; due to brain poisoning with typhus poison, she went crazy and ended up in a lunatic asylum. When Reich came out of there, there was no trace of the former light, charming, laughing girl - now she has become tough, grip, ready for anything ...

Zinaida is trying to get back on her feet: she gets a job at the People's Commissariat of Education as an inspector of the sub-department of people's houses, museums and clubs. Musya Babanova, who was passionate about theater, worked with her. Musya studied at the studio of Fyodor Komissarzhevsky, and after his departure abroad, with the famous director Vsevolod Meyerhold. Once she asked Vsevolod Emilievich to see her friend, Zinochka Reich. And Zina began a completely different life ...

Meyerhold took Zina to his studio; moreover, he immediately fell in love with her, despite the twenty years of age difference. He threw at her feet all his life, all his future, and the past had to be thrown away and forgotten - because Zinochka was not there yet.

Meyerhold always, in any of his passions, went to the end. At the age of 21, full of sincere faith, he changed his religion and from the Lutheran Karl Theodor Kazimir Meyergold turned into Vsevolod Emilievich - Vsevolod was the name of the writer Garshin - Meyerhold, whom he adored. He studied at the Faculty of Law of Moscow University, then - at drama courses. He played at the Moscow Art Theater and wandered around the provincial theaters as a director. Even his enemies recognized his enormous talent. The premiere of Lermontov's Masquerade at the Alexandrinsky Theater on the day of the October Revolution symbolized the end of old Russia. Under the new government, his reputation as a man who overthrows the foundations elevated him above all. He had Olga Mikhailovna Munt, whom they met as children - in Penza, where Emil Meyergold, a purebred German and subject of Germany, had a vodka distillery. They got married as soon as Meyerhold graduated from the university, she was next to him in all difficult times, they had three daughters. But nothing could prevent Meyerhold and Reich from being together. Once, Vsevolod Emilievich, who was terribly afraid of any sharp conversations, sent a telegram to his wife: I’m coming with my new wife and asking to vacate the apartment ... And soon he was already living on Novinsky Boulevard with Reich.

He adopted her children and even took her last name: henceforth he signed as Meyerhold-Reich.

Olga Mikhailovna cursed them both. She was very upset by the break with the man with whom she had lived for a quarter of a century. But in the depths of her soul, she understood: Zinaida became for him the embodiment of everything that fascinated Meyerhold at that time: the revolutionary element, the violence of youth, inner strength, and nothing can be done about it ...

Vsevolod Meyerhold, Paris, 1933

Meyerhold gave Zinaida new life. He moved her parents to Moscow, surrounded the children with love and care. Soon they all moved to a new apartment in Bryusov Lane, where Zinaida immediately set up a salon for the Moscow cultural elite. Thanks to her marriage to Meyerhold, Reich became one of the first ladies of the capital. Her husband gave her everything that Yesenin could not and did not want to give her - love, care, prosperity, stability ... They are at embassy receptions, in the most luxurious restaurants and in all the houses of theatrical and literary Moscow. Reich has fashionable clothes from Paris and Vienna, expensive fur coats and French perfumes, which then cost a fortune in impoverished Moscow, her children have the best toys, teachers, doctors ...

But in 1923, Yesenin returned to Russia from a trip abroad with Isadora Duncan. The fact that his ex-wife became the happy wife of the famous director was a great shock to him. And Yesenin again went on the attack on the once conquered, but abandoned fortress. He began to come to the children - he shouted, standing under the windows, so that they would be shown to him; drunk, rang the doorbell until the children were woken up and taken to him. The only one who could cope with Yesenin in a violent hop was, oddly enough, Meyerhold. And then Yesenin began to meet with Zinaida in private. The meetings took place at the apartment of her friend Zinaida Geiman. Meyerhold found out about this - and what labors it cost him not to make a scene

Zinaida or Sergei, no one knows. After all, he was insanely jealous of her, and especially of Yesenin. But Meyerhold found the strength to only remark Geiman: “I know that you are helping Zinaida meet with Yesenin. I beg you, stop this: they will get back together, and she will be unhappy ... "

The meetings have stopped.

Zinaida Reich with children

And in December 1925, it became known that Yesenin committed suicide. Reich suffered a nervous breakdown from this news. Meyerhold personally soldered her with medicines, reassured, consoled, accompanied at the funeral ... Yesenin's mother shouted to her: "It's your fault!" And Zinaida almost rushed to Sergei into the grave that had not yet been filled up - they barely kept her ...

Attacks of insanity as a result of typhus poisoning then accompany the patient all her life. Meyerhold knew this very well: in his youth he was interested in the physiology of the brain, and while preparing for the role of Treplev in Chekhov's The Seagull, he himself drove himself into insanity and was barely able to get out of this state. He understood that Zinaida should be occupied with something that would distract her from reality. And he decided to make an actress out of his wife, so that she, living on the stage one after another other people's lives, could fearlessly return to her own.

Reich was ill-suited for Meyerhold's theater: his actors had excellent gymnastic training, knew how to sing and dance, and Reich was clumsy, overweight, bow-legged and did not know how to move on stage at all. But this did not stop Meyerhold. He began to use what Reich could be proud of - her beauty, expressive eyes, deep voice, heightened emotionality. After her first role - Aksyusha in Ostrovsky's "Forest" - criticism was sure of her mediocrity. Igor Ilyinsky, himself an actor for Meyerhold, wrote: "Her stage helplessness and, quite simply, clumsiness were all too obvious." But when Gogol's The Inspector General was staged in 1925, where Reich, in the role of Anna Andreevna, performed in a duet with Moscow's favorite, the brilliantly gifted Maria Babanova - the very one thanks to whom Zinaida came to Meyerhold - the situation has already changed dramatically. The same Ilyinsky admitted: "She managed to learn a lot from Vsevolod Emilievich and, in any case, became an actress no worse than many others." Critic Konstantin Rudnitsky wrote: “What nuances! All the scenes with the daughter are inimitable in the sophistication of the cartoon ... Did Gogol ever dream of seeing such Anna Andreevna! And the brilliant Mikhail Chekhov, after watching, turned to Reich: “I still go under the impression I received from the Inspector General ... and from two performers: from you and from the wonderful Garin ... Your ease in performing difficult tasks amazes me. And lightness is the first sign of true creativity. And after “The Lady with the Camellias” by Alexandre Dumas son, the last high-profile premiere of Reich, the musician Nikolai Vygodsky wrote: “... her game cannot be put into words: there was a spiritual, melodic power in it, radiating a special light.”

Zinaida Reich as Anna Andreevna with Erast Garin (Khlestakov) in Gogol's The Inspector General

Meyerhold managed to make the most of all the advantages of Zinaida Reich and hide her shortcomings. Knowing that she was unable to move, he seated her in the middle of the stage and organized all the action around her, making her the center of his productions. Critics admired her scream, expressiveness and scale of her heroines. And there was gossip in Moscow that Meyerhold was ridding his wife of possible competitors: Igor Ilyinsky, Sergei Eisenstein left his theater ... Erast Garin, a devoted supporter, beloved student and closest friend of Meyerhold, was

forced to leave after Reich quarreled with his wife Khesya Lokshina. Maria Babanova Reich literally survived from the theater - her crystal talent overshadowed Reich in the eyes of the public. After one incident, Nikolai Okhlopkov was fired. One day Meyerhold told the troupe that he was going to stage Hamlet. Okhlopkov, unable to resist, asked - and who is in the lead role? Meyerhold replied: "Of course, Zinaida Reich." To this Okhlopkov, always unrestrained in his language, replied: “Well, if Reich is Hamlet, then I am Ophelia!” Meyerhold did not tolerate such a "mockery" of his adored wife...

"Bath" Mayakovsky. Reich as the Phosphoric Woman. Caricature D. Mora

Both Meyerhold and Reich knew how to make enemies. But if in the twenties they could afford it, then in the thirties it became already dangerous. They both felt the gathering clouds - people, emotional to the limit - both felt, and both of them began to lose their nerves. Reich threw tantrums, even public ones - there is a case when she shouted at the Kremlin reception at the “all-Russian headman” Mikhail Kalinin: “Everyone knows that you are a womanizer!” In the mid-thirties, she had several nervous breakdowns, which she could hardly cope with. And Meyerhold gradually lost the favor of the authorities - they began to scold him in the press, the only cultural figure of his rank was not given the title of People's Artist of the USSR. Then he was removed from the construction of the building of his own future theater ... He began to see threats everywhere, attempts on his life ... Once, when he was walking down the street, Meyerhold shied away in horror from the engine exhaust behind his back: “It was they who hired the theater administrator to make him shot me!" In 1937, two ready-made performances were banned, and in January 1938, his theater was closed.

After the last performance - "The Lady of the Camellias" by Dumas son - Reich lost consciousness; she was carried backstage in her arms. It seemed to her that everything that she was afraid of in life and that she managed to avoid for so long finally overtook her ...

Meyerhold was initially sheltered in his studio by Stanislavsky; but in August 1938 he died, and Meyerhold was again out of work.

Meyerhold and Reich in Berlin, April 1930

Zinaida was seized with madness. The first attack happened in Leningrad. She went on a rampage, shouted in fits that the food was poisoned, forbade anyone to go to the window - because "they" could stand opposite and shoot; at night for fear possible explosion, in only her underwear, she was eager to run out into the street ... The violent stage passed rather quickly, but her mental state still left much to be desired. Zinaida sent a strikingly naive and harsh letter to Stalin, where she wrote that the leader, unlike Meyerhold, did not understand anything about art. As it turned out later, this letter incredibly hurt the disgraced director. Reich publicly declared that her husbands were being poisoned: first they ruined Yesenin, now they want to ruin Meyerhold ... And in 1939 she simply fell into violent insanity. Again, Meyerhold personally nursed his sick wife... And once the madness passed, as if it had never happened... As it turned out, this was the last happy event in Meyerhold's life.

He was arrested on June 20, 1939 in Leningrad, when he left after the All-Union Director's Conference and where he stayed in his former apartment, with his first wife, Olga Mikhailovna Munt. At the same time, a search was carried out in Moscow. He was accused of having links with foreign intelligence services... After long tortures and beatings, he signed accusatory confessions. Stalin could never forgive him that in 1923 he staged the play "The Earth on End", dedicating it to Trotsky.

One of the versions of Meyerhold's accusation, which was actively discussed in Moscow and St. Petersburg drawing rooms, was the following: Meyerhold was allegedly detained while trying to board a plane in order to illegally leave the country. The absurdity of the version was noticed by Akhmatova: “Well, they think he was going to run away from Soviet Union without Reich? Impossible!"

Zinaida Reich as Marguerite Gauthier in the play "The Lady of the Camellias" by A. Dumas son

After the arrest of Meyerhold, Zinaida moved to a dacha in Balashikha - she once bought it with the money received for the publication of Yesenin's collected works. Soon Konstantin and Tatyana moved to her with a six-month-old son. It was impossible to live in the old apartment, where everything reminded of a recently happy life. But Reich fought for her happiness as best she could - together with Olga Mount, she collected documents that could help Meyerhold, knocked on doorsteps, went to influential acquaintances, sat in reception rooms ...

Once Zinaida Nikolaevna arrived in Moscow, and at night she came to her apartment in Bryusov Lane. She had a daughter with her; Reich persuaded her to stay, but she hurried to Balashikha, to her husband and child. And the next day - July 15, 1939 - Zinaida Reich was found in a pool of blood. Her housekeeper lay in the hallway with a broken head. Reich inflicted 8 stab wounds; she died on the way to the hospital. Nothing was missing from the apartment.

It was evident that Reich defended herself as best she could before her death. But no one came out to the screams coming from the apartment - the neighbors knew about Reich's seizures and did not react.

Nikolai Reich called Moskvin, a friend of Meyerhold's youth, a deputy of the Supreme Soviet, asking him to help with his daughter's funeral. He replied: "The public refuses to bury your daughter." Very few people came to the ceremony on Vagankovsky. As Tatyana Yesenina recalled, inconspicuous people in civilian clothes stood at the gate and did not let anyone in. Despite this, without fear of anyone, the famous ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater Ekaterina Vasilievna Geltser came to the apartment to put flowers. Of the artists, no one else dared to cross the threshold.

They tried to accuse her son-in-law, Tatyana Yesenina's husband, of Reich's death, but they could not prove anything. Nevertheless, he spent a year in prison; his brother spent several years. Tatyana and Sergei were evicted to the street immediately after the funeral. True, they miraculously managed to take out the already sealed archive of Meyerhold. The apartment was divided in half, and the driver and Beria's secretary moved in ...

Vsevolod Meyerhold was shot on February 2, 1940. Journalist Mikhail Koltsov was shot with him. For many years, neither Meyerhold, nor Yesenin, nor Zinaida Reich was supposed to be talked about. But their names will forever remain in the history of Russian culture.

author Yarovitsky Vladislav Alekseevich

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Dear Galatea. Zinaida Reich and Vsevolod Meyerhold The famous playwright and writer Yevgeny Gabrilovich wrote about their love: “No matter how many adorations I have seen in my lifetime, there was something incomprehensible in the love of Meyerhold and Reich. Furious. Unthinkable. Defenseless and

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REICH BECOMES RANITZKY If someone had asked me in 1945 what profession I would like to take and where I would like to live, and therefore how I imagine the future, then I think I would have tried to hide my helplessness and in the end gave no answer. Work in

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Zinaida Reich, sex appeal Zinaida Reich, the wife of Vsevolod Meyerhold, the master of innovative stage direction, worked in his theatre, the Meyerhold Theatre. He, in fact, threw this theater at her feet - because of her, the great Maria Babanova, Erast Garin, Sergei Eisenstein left. But mediocre

Great love stories: Sergei Yesenin and Zinaida Reich

The wife of Sergei Yesenin, 3inaida Reich, was called a fatal woman who lived two different lives: in one - poverty and personal drama, in the other - prosperity, devoted love, professional success. And - a heartbreaking scream at the end ... Zinaida was born in 1894 in the family of a Russified German, Nikolai Reich, and a poor noblewoman, Anna Viktorova. The daughter shared the convictions of her father, one of the first Social Democrats, for which she paid with the expulsion from the gymnasium. In 1917, the year of her meeting with Yesenin, she lived in Petrograd and served as a typist in the editorial office of the Left SR newspaper Delo Naroda.

She was also the chairman of the Society for the Distribution of Propaganda Literature. There was also an art library, where Sergei Yesenin often looked in - the Socialist-Revolutionary Mina Svirskaya gave out books, and everyone thought that Sergei sympathized with her. And Zina was already going to marry his friend, the aspiring poet Alexei Ganin.

Before the engagement, they decided to go together to the Solovki and further north. A friend could not, but Zinaida went.

Alexey Ganin, alleged fiance of Zinaida

Down the aisle like a fire.... The black-haired beauty looks great on the deck of a white ship. Ganin stepped aside, admiring the bride, he does not hear what Zinaida and Sergey are talking about:

Zina, this is very serious. Understand, I love you... at first sight. Let's get married! Immediately! If you refuse, I will commit suicide... Soon the beach... the church... Make up your mind! Yes or no?!

On the way Sergey picked wildflowers. Not remembering himself, forgetting about Ganin, the young people got married in a small church near Vologda.

Sergei Yesenin and Zinaida Reich. Initially they loved each other

...Now there was no question of further travel. They returned to Petrograd, settled in an apartment on Liteiny and lived a completely normal family life - Yesenin even dissuaded himself from bachelor drinking: they say, I love my wife, we, brother, are adults. And when the struggle for survival began - the time was vague and hungry - he began to mope ... Closer to the birth, Zina went to her parents in Orel, and Sergey went to Moscow to join the Imagist poets.

Yesenin and Reich

IN family strife The very fad that haunted Yesenin also surfaced - after all, like a peasant, he could not forgive the fact that he was not the first on the matrimonial doge. When he cried to his friend Anatoly Mariengof, his face cramped, his eyes turned purple, his hands clenched into fists: “Why did you lie, you bastard ?!”. However, this did not prevent him from boasting about the “Don Juan victories” of those years: “Not 400, but 40, probably already.”

Sergei Yesenin and Anatoly Mariengof. They were very friendly then.

Is this life? He did not visit his wife, did not call and did not wait. Then she took the one-year-old Tanya and herself came to him in a room on Bogoslovsky, where he lived with Mariengof. Sergei did not show much joy, but reached out to his daughter with all his heart. But the baby darling felt something was wrong ...

"Zhivulechka" did not sit still, climbed on her knees to her mother, nanny and other men, but she bypassed her father. “And they resorted to trickery,” Mariengof wrote in his memoirs, “both flattery, and bribery, and severity - all in vain.” Zinaida bit her lips so as not to cry, and Yesenin became very angry, deciding that these were her "intrigues". Soon he told her to leave, saying that all feelings had passed, that he was quite satisfied with the life he was leading. Zinaida did not want to believe: “You love me, Sergun, I know this and I don’t want to know anything else ...”.

Zinaida Reich with children from Sergei Yesenin

And then Yesenin ... connected Mariengof. He led me out into the corridor, gently hugged my shoulders, looked into my eyes:

Do you love me, Anatoly? Are you really my friend or not?

What are you talking about!

But what ... I can’t live with Zinaida ... Tell her, Tolya (I’m asking you so much, how you can’t ask anymore!), That I have another woman.

What are you, Seryozha... How can you?

Are you my friend or not?.. Her love is noose for me... Tolyuk, dear, I look like... I’ll go along the boulevards to the Moscow River... and you tell me (she will certainly ask) that I am with a woman.. they say, I'm confused and firmly in love ... Let me kiss you ...

More - Zinaida Reich with children

He did not recognize his own son.... The next day, Zinaida left. After a while I realized that I was expecting a child, I thought maybe it was for the best, the children would be tied ... I discussed the name with my husband on the phone - we agreed that if there is a boy, then call him Konstantin. Again, no news...

A little over a year later, on her way to Kislovodsk with her son, she met Mariengof on the platform of the Rostov railway station. Upon learning that Yesenin was walking somewhere nearby, she asked: “Tell Seryozha that I am going to Kostya. He didn't take it out. Let him come in and take a look ... If he doesn’t want to meet with me, I can leave the compartment.

The poet reluctantly, but went in, looked at his son and said: "Fu ... Black ... Yesenins are not black." The poor woman turned to the window, her shoulders trembled, and Yesenin turned on his heels and went out ... with a light, dancing gait.

Isadora Duncan. Yesenin fell in love with her without memory

Very soon, the popular American dancer Isadora Duncan will replace the unknown Oryol's wife. But the time is not so far away when Sergei Yesenin will be on duty near someone else's house, dying of longing for his children, knocking on the door and plaintively asking to be let in for one minute, just to look ... Fall asleep? Let them be carried out... sleeping... he wants to see them.

And Zina... his wife... a famous actress, the wife of Vsevolod Meyerhold. How will Zinaida behave? More on this later. In the meantime, back to Yesenin and Mariengof. Tatyana Yesenina will write in her memoirs that her father left her mother because of her growing closeness with Mariengof.

Sergei Yesenin and Anatoly Mariengof

Sergey + Anatoly =? Indeed, a question mark. Both traveled with lectures in Russia, believing that they were creating a new poetry - hence their partnership and a certain fanaticism. But the fact that they were a lot of weirdos was noticeable.

In winter, the temperature in their room was sub-zero, so they put a mattress in the bath and slept together, throwing old books into the column to warm the water. It was their "promised bath". Until the tenants of the communal apartment expelled them from there, everyone liked the idea, and everyone wanted to warm up. In the room they also slept together on the same bed, covered with several blankets and fur coats.

Sergei Yesenin, Anatoly Mariengof, Velemir Khlebnikov

Then they came up with a game: on even days, Mariengof, and on odd days, Yesenin writhed on a cold sheet to warm it with his body. When one poetess asked Yesenin to help her get a job, he offered her a typist's salary only for her to come to them at one in the morning for 15 minutes. The condition was this - they turn away, do not look, and she undresses, warms the bed, then dresses and leaves. Three days later, the poetess could not stand it:

I do not intend to continue my service!

What's the matter? .. We sacredly observed the conditions.

Exactly!.. But I was not hired to warm the sheets of the saints.

Friends shared money, ate and drank together, dressed alike, usually in white jackets, blue trousers and white canvas shoes, and wore identical hats. But Yesenin could not stand loneliness.

Anatoly Mariengof, Dmitri Shostakovich and Anna Nikritina

When Anatoly Mariengof became seriously interested in the actress Anna Nikritina and somehow came at 10 in the morning, Sergey lifted his heavy red eyelids at him:

Yes. Drank. And every day I will ... if you start wandering around at night ... With whomever you want, dance around there, but to spend the night at home.

Did they sleep “hugging tightly”? Who admits this? Mariengof in "A Novel Without Lies" boasts that Sergei called him a "berry", that he was so attached to him that he was jealous of women, or rather, suffered from a lack of attention to himself.

Sergei Yesenin and Anatoly Mariengof were more than attached to each other?

Anna Nikritina, Mariengof's wife, was subsequently outraged by the assumptions of the writers about the bisexuality of her friends, completely rejected these speculations. And Nabokov ... wrote in his later memoirs about Yesenin's homosexuality arising from time to time and a sudden disgust for it, explaining by this the reason for his drunkenness and abuse with women.

Vladimir Nabokov suspected the poet of many bad things...

Many contemporaries knew about Yesenin's habit of sharing a bed with men of his inner circle, but no one unequivocally stated whether this was hiding something more than spending the night due to late gatherings. Perhaps the fact itself is also an image ...

But the "dear friends" laughed at Zinaida in a completely unmanly way. Mariengoff called her "a stout Jewish lady" with crooked legs, with "sensual lips on her face round like a plate." The poet Vadim Shershenevich joked: “Oh, how tired I am of looking at ra (th) cunning legs!”. But director Vsevolod Meyerhold believed that there is no woman more beautiful and slimmer than Zinaida Reich.

Anatoly Mariengof, Sergei Yesenin, Alexander Kusikov, Vadim Shershenevich. 1919

She will make herself respected. Meyerhold, by the way, has been eyeing Zinaida Reich for a long time. Once at one of the parties he asked Yesenin:

You know, Seryozha, I'm in love with your wife... If we get married, won't you be angry with me?

The poet jokingly bowed at the director's feet:

Take her, do me a favor ... I will be grateful to you for the coffin.

Zinaida Reich and Vsevolod Meyerhold

How long, how short, but life, terrible with its uncertainty and suffering, the loss of both revolutionary and family ideals, filled with humiliation and hardships of everyday life, a complete lack of love and mercy, has reached the point beyond which either complete oblivion and collapse, or ... Something must happen, otherwise ... it's simply unbearable.

And yet, Sergei did not appreciate his wife, she will prove to him what she is capable of ... She will become an actress. And Zinaida entered the director's courses.

Yesenin, Reich, Meyerhold - "semi-criminal" trinity

"... And I will adopt children." In the autumn of 1921, she came to the studio of 48-year-old Vsevolod Meyerhold, who immediately offered her a hand and a heart. Zinaida could not make up her mind for a long time: they say, divorced, two children, I don’t trust anyone ... To which the famous director simply and clearly replied: “I love you, Zinochka. I will adopt children." Prior to this, Vsevolod had lived for a quarter of a century with his first wife, Olga, whom he had known since childhood, and had three daughters with her.

Olga Mikhailovna Munt, first wife of Vsevolod Meyerhold

The legal wife almost lost her mind when she returned from the trip and saw Zinaida: what did he find in this gloomy woman, how dare he bring her to their house? And then she took and cursed them both in front of the image: “Lord, punish them!”.

I did it out of desperation, but I took it upon myself terrible sin- she herself was left with nothing, and years later the death of Vsevolod and Zinaida was brutal, monstrous ... But that’s later, and now Meyerhold is happy, he didn’t know that it was possible to love like that ... However, Yesenin was hurt: “I rubbed myself into into my family, portrayed an unrecognized genius... He took his wife away...”.

Vsevolod Meyerhold and Zinaida Reich

All roles - Zinochka. Reich seemed to the director a living embodiment of the elements, a destroyer and a creator, you can make a revolutionary theater with her. It doesn't matter that many considered her a mediocre actress, but her husband idolized and was ready to give her all the roles - both female and male.

When the conversation turned to the production of "Hamlet" and Meyerhold was asked who would play the main character, he replied: "Of course, Zinochka." Then the actor Nikolai Okhlopkov said that he would play Ophelia, and even wrote a written application for this role, after which he flew out of the theater.

They said about Zina that she moves around the stage like a "cow".

Maria Babanova - former prima of the Meyerhold theater, who was supplanted by Zinaida

Having heard the gossip, Vsevolod Emilievich dismisses the audience's favorite Maria Babanova from the theater - thin, flexible, with a crystal voice (she gets more applause). The beloved student, the actor Erast Garin, leaves the theater - Zinochka quarreled with him.

Scene from The Inspector. Khlestakov - Erast Garin, Anna Andreevna - Zinaida Reich

Meyerhold, especially for her, comes up with such mise-en-scenes that you don’t even need to move - the action unfolds around the heroine. The light falls on her beautiful face and white shoulders, the audience is watching sudden outbursts of furious anger - this is what the actress owned to perfection.

Vsevolod Meyerhold with a portrait of Reich

Next to Meyerhold, Zina really blossomed. She felt love and care. The husband even took her last name as a second one, and signed it - Meyerhold-Reich. Parents moved from Orel to Moscow, the children have everything they need: the best doctors, teachers, expensive toys, separate rooms. Soon the family moved into a hundred-meter apartment. Zinaida is one of the first ladies of Moscow, she attends diplomatic and government receptions, receives the most eminent guests in her house.

professional success. Immediately after the wedding, Vsevolod Emilievich asked Mariengof whether Zinaida would great actress, to which the “evil genius”, not without malice, replied: “Why not the inventor of the electric light bulb !?”. That is, no one believed in her success on stage, the actors hated it, critics wrote that "Zinaida Reich played the worst", the Imagists from Yesenin's entourage gloated ...

Zinaida Reich. Her beauty and success were envied

But the love and talent of the great director worked a miracle - Zinaida Reich became a great actress. She perfectly played Aksyusha (“Forest” by Alexander Ostrovsky), Varka (“Mandate” by Nikolai Erdman), Anna Andreevna (“Inspector General” by Nikolai Gogol), Phosphoric Woman (“Bathhouse” by Vladimir Mayakovsky), Margarita (“Lady with Camellias” by Alexandre Dumas son), etc.

Just the play "The Lady with the Camellias" was the last one played by Zinaida Reich on the stage of the Theater. Meyerhold on January 7, 1938. Having played the final scene - the death of Marguerite Gauthier, the actress lost consciousness, she was carried backstage in her arms. This was facilitated by the fact that the Committee for the Arts adopted a resolution on the liquidation of the theater ...

Portrait of Zinaida Reich as Marguerite Gauthier

Just once there was a spectator in the hall who not only appreciated the beauty of the French aristocratic court, but also “understood” the idea of ​​the performance - the desire for a prosperous life, free from ideology and class prejudices.

It was Joseph Stalin. Meyerhold was accused of switching to petit-bourgeoisism - in Soviet life there is no place for what Dumas the son talks about. And people poured into the performance in a crowd, yearning for true human feelings. We went to Zinaida Reich. From the silence of the hall came sobs and blowing noses. Critics noted that "there was an unusually elegant, sophisticated French beauty on stage."

Zinaida Reich became a talented actress

She was torn between feeling and morality, between passion and morality. And even the beautiful Arman (actor Mikhail Tsarev) "was a little rustic" next to this "absolute femininity." He lacked the natural looseness of a true aristocrat.

And only Meyerhold knew that he was right. Despite the harsh time, he had to put Dumas in order to enable Zinaida to survive and let go of her former passion for Yesenin ...

Zinaida Reich and Mikhail Tsarev played together

Secret dates. After America, after breaking up with Isadora Duncan, after Zinaida became an actress of the most avant-garde theater, the beautiful and prosperous wife of a popular director, Yesenin fell in love with his ex-wife again ...

Zinaida Reich secretly met with him in the room of her friend Zinaida Geiman. But Geiman did not tell her that Meyerhold knew everything, that one evening he looked disgustedly into the eyes of the procuress: “I know that you are helping Zinaida meet with Yesenin. Please stop this: if they get together again, then she will be unhappy ... ". A friend hid her eyes, shrugged her shoulders, they say, this is jealousy, fantasies of an inflamed imagination ...

Yesenin and Duncan

And Sergei Yesenin suffered without children, was jealous and desired Zinaida, whose success in Moscow and St. Petersburg overshadowed the success of Isadora Duncan. But ... on one of the dates, Reich told her ex-husband that "parallels do not intersect", that's enough, she will not leave Vsevolod. Although some people slandered her pathological dependence on Yesenin, that if she calls, she will run barefoot in winter. It was difficult to fight this addiction ...

After the death of the poet, Reich gave Geiman a photograph with the inscription: “To you, Zinushka, as a memory of the most important and most terrible thing in my life - about Sergei” ...

Sergei Yesenin fell in love with his ex-wife again

The soul suffered in its own way. Meyerhold had reason for concern. Zinaida, even on stage, did not control herself. Playing the mayor, she pinched her daughter so that she screamed for real. At a reception in the Kremlin, she furiously attacked Mikhail Kalinin himself: “Everyone knows that you are a womanizer!” She took any mocking glance in her direction with hostility, she could immediately throw a tantrum ...

Therefore, the health of his wife worried Meyerhold more than the connection with Yesenin - after all, after America, he is also not himself, they say, his epileptic attacks became more frequent ...

... The Meyerholds were informed about Yesenin's death by telephone. Zinaida, with a distorted face, rushed into the hallway:

I'm going to him!

Baby, think...

I'm going to him!

I'm going with you...

Zinaida Reich and Vsevolod Meyerhold at the coffin of Sergei Yesenin

Vsevolod Emilievich supported Zina near Yesenin's coffin when she shouted: “My fairy tale, where are you going?”, She closed her back from her former mother-in-law when she declared in public: “You are to blame for everything!”. Accompanied everywhere, did not take his eyes off - if only there was no breakdown, if only everything worked out ...

Zinaid Reich and Vsevolod Meyerhold survived. But not for long...

Before the storm. In the 1930s, the Meyerhold house was considered one of the most prosperous and hospitable in Moscow. They said that Zinaida again fed all sorts of goodies, and how good she herself is: a famous actress, beautiful woman, her husband simply idolizes her.

True, his son Kostya made me a little worried - he organized the Justice League at school, wrote the Charter, the Program, published the Alliance newspaper - so that there were no favorites, so that teachers deservedly put marks, so that parents with their position did not affect grades children ... In general, Meyerhold with difficulty, but still defended his stepson, settled the "revolt against the party" ...

But the comrades from Lubyanka decided not to risk it and took note of the director...

Zinaida Reich reigned

The parallels don't cross. There came a time when there were only “enemies” all around. In 1938, articles about "Meyerholdism" appeared. This implied the secret predilection of the director for bourgeois art. Meyerhold was not given the title of People's Artist of the USSR, the theater was closed. And the city has long shuddered at night from the sharp sound of approaching cars - endless arrests were carried out. Vsevolod Emilievich has become very gray and aged ...

He has not yet been touched, but something else was depressing ... In 1939, his wife's illness worsened. Zina shouted through the window to the security guard that she loved the Soviet government, that they closed the theater in vain, then wrote a furious letter to Stalin. She threw herself at the children and her husband, saying that she did not know them, let them go out. I had to tie her with ropes to the bed. But Meyerhold did not send his wife to an insane asylum: he spoon-fed, washed, talked to her, held her hand until he fell asleep.

Vsevolod Meyerhold with the children of Yesenin Kostya and Tanya

A few weeks later, she calmly woke up, looked at her hands and said in surprise: "What dirt, what dirt ...". Zinaida returned to normal life again - her husband saved her again ... But there were several weeks left before the tragic denouement ...

Meyerhold was taken in St. Petersburg. At the same time, a search was conducted in the Moscow apartment. Zinaida understands that the world has collapsed, that she will no longer see her husband - the only true and true friend of life - but she does not yet know that the night ahead will be fatal for her - from July 14 to 15, 1939.

The body of the actress with numerous stab wounds was found in the office, and in the corridor with a broken head lay a housekeeper, hurrying to the cry of the hostess.

Burial of Meyerhold in the mass grave of the Donskoy Monastery. On Vagankovsky cemetery cenotaph

Vsevolod Meyerhold was shot as a "spy for the British and Japanese intelligence services", having been kept in prison for several months and beaten beyond recognition. Where his body lies is still unknown, but fate wanted Yesenin, Reich and Meyerhold to be together in another life.

Zinaida was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery, not far from Yesenin's grave. After some time, another inscription appeared on the Reich monument - Vsevolod Emilievich Meyerhold.

Yesenin's grave at the Vagankovsky cemetery

Grave of Zinaida Reich

... The soul of Vsevolod found its Love, and the soul of Zinaida made her choice...

Tamara SHAMANKOVA, "Privet.Ru"

Favorite woman, muse Sergei Yesenin And Vsevolod Meyerhold, the famous Moscow actress of the 20th century, Zinaida Reich, never intended to work in the theater and, moreover, did not dream of such great husbands that life gave her. She was born on July 3, 1894 in the family of a railway engineer, a Russified German. Nikolai Andreevich Reich, and a poor noblewoman Anna Ioanova. Having received her secondary education in Kyiv, the girl went to Petrograd to study at the Faculty of History and Literature of the Higher Women's Courses. Zinaida was always drawn to the revolutionary movement, and she quickly joined the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, taking a job as a secretary-typist in the editorial office of the newspaper Delo Naroda. In this publication, her first meeting with her future husband, the young poet Sergei Yesenin, took place.

Zinaida Reich. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

Zinaida Reich and the "robber of curly fields"

Contemporaries of Zinaida Reich claimed that she was a talented, intelligent woman, possessed some kind of magnetic force that attracted men. Many fell in love with her, but Yesenin's friend became especially interested in the girl Alexey Ganin. The poet himself at that time courted Mina Svirskaya, worked in the library at the time of publication.

One day, Ganin and Reich gathered in Solovki, Alexei's homeland, and invited Sergei and Mina on a journey. However, Svirskaya, for family reasons, could not go, but Yesenin during the trip suddenly realized that he was crazy in love with Zinaida and invited her to go ashore to get married. The girl at first offended the sensitive poet, saying that she needed to think, but then she sent a short telegram to her father: “A hundred came out, I’m getting married. Zinaida. With this money, the lovers bought wedding rings and sealed their marriage in a small church near Vologda.

The newlyweds settled in Petrograd on Liteiny. Zinaida tried to create all the conditions for Sergei to be creative. Calm at first family life succeeded, the poet even dissuaded himself from cheerful bachelor drinking parties. But happiness was short-lived. Despite the fact that Yesenin himself boasted of "Don Juan victories", he was terribly jealous and could not forgive his beloved that he was not the first man in her life.

Every year Yesenin's fame grew, the poet had many admirers and even more drinking companions. After drinking, he became unbearable and made terrible scandals for his wife: first he beat, and then rolled at his feet, begging for forgiveness. In 1917, Zinaida became pregnant and, closer to the birth, went to her parents in Oryol.

The couple had a girl, who was named after Sergei's mother - Tatyana. After the birth of a child, the new peasant poet did not visit his wife, did not call and did not wait. Zinaida herself came to her husband with a one-year-old daughter. For about a year they lived together, but a break soon followed.

In February 1920, in the House of Mother and Child, a young wife gave birth to a son, Konstantin, whom Sergei did not even consider it necessary to meet. Their meeting happened by chance at the station, then he did not recognize his child, saying only: “Fu! Black! .. Yesenins are not black ... ".

Zinaida Reich with children, Konstantin and Tatyana Yesenin. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

Little Kostya fell seriously ill immediately after birth, and Zinaida was forced to go with her son to Kislovodsk for treatment. The break with Yesenin and the poor health of the baby had a strong impact on the young woman, she ended up in a clinic for the nervously ill. Upon returning to her parents, Zinaida was in for another shock: a telegram arrived in which Sergei asked for a divorce.

The marriage of Reich and Yesenin was annulled in 1921, and in 1924 the “robber of curly fields” dedicated the poignant lines of the poem “Letter to a Woman” to Zinaida, where he sincerely repented of his behavior:

Sergei Yesenin, 1922 Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Forgive me...
I know you are not the one
Do you live
With a serious, intelligent husband;
That you do not need our maeta,
And I myself to you
Not a bit needed.

Muse of the theater

After the break with Yesenin, another life awaited Zinaida: new love and professional success. The young woman moved away from the revolutionary movements and moved into the actress. She entered the Higher Theater Workshop, where Vsevolod Meyerhold taught. The eminent director fell desperately in love with a student, despite the fact that he was 20 years older, had a wife with whom he lived all his life, and three children. For the sake of Zinaida Meyerhold threw big family and adopted her children. Before the wedding, Vsevolod even asked Yesenin for permission to marry, who remained true to his character, answering: “Do me a favor. I'll be grateful to the grave."

Along with the stage, Zinaida became the meaning of existence for Meyerhold. The skillful director dreamed of making her the only star of the theater, but the woman in the troupe was not loved and not recognized, and critics frankly called mediocre. Soon, because of a quarrel with Zinaida, the great Maria Babanova and Erast Garin left the theater - Reich became the first actress. And over time, and a good actress: love and directorial genius performed a miracle.

Sun. Meyerhold and a portrait of Z. Reich. Photo: public domain

As soon as Zinaida became popular, Yesenin realized who he had lost. Fatherly feelings awakened in him. The poet demanded the opportunity to communicate with children, but the main thing was that secret dates of the actress began with former spouse. Meyerhold knew about these meetings, but endured. Dating was stopped by the unexpected death of the great poet, which was a real blow for Zinaida. At the funeral of Yesenin, Reich lamented: "My sun has gone ...".

After the tragic death of the poet, the Meyerhold family lived for another thirteen quiet years. But their happy life violated not a strange man, but the state. The great director was not pleasing to the authorities: in 1938 the theater was closed, and then he himself was arrested. Zinaida considered everything that was happening a terrible mistake and wrote a letter to Stalin, where she tried to explain that Meyerhold was a brilliant director, and the addressee did not understand anything in the theater. But her note only aggravated the situation: in the summer of 1939, Reich herself was brutally murdered in her own apartment.

After Zinaida's funeral, her children were evicted, and Beria's mistress and his driver moved into their apartment. Six months later, Meyerhold was shot as a "spy for British and Japanese intelligence." This finally ended difficult story love of an outstanding woman and two men who left a deep mark on the history of Russian culture.

On July 15, 1939, shocking news spread around Moscow - the leading actress of the Meyerhold Theater Zinaida Reich was brutally murdered. The Moscow actress was stabbed to death at night in her own apartment in Bryusov Lane. The MUR officers who arrived at the scene of the crime noted that there were clear signs of a struggle in the room. The window in the room was broken, shards of glass were scattered everywhere - apparently, the killers entered the house that way. The actress was still alive, but breathing with difficulty. She died on the way to the hospital.

The mystery of the death of one of the leading Moscow actresses of the last century has not been revealed so far. Who killed Zinaida Reich? What caused the bloody drama? And how did this event affect other inhabitants of the quiet Bryusov Lane? TV channel "Moscow Trust" prepared a special report.

Zinaida Reich was called in theatrical circles a devil who won the hearts of two geniuses at once - Sergei Yesenin and Vsevolod Meyerhold. True, she was not the poet's muse for long - they got married in 1918, and after 4 years the marriage broke up. After a divorce from Yesenin, Zinaida Nikolaevna, who worked as a typist in the editorial office of the newspaper Delo Naroda before marriage, decides to take up directing. In 1921, she entered the Higher Theater Workshops in Moscow, where she met her second great love.

“He was very much in love. Having married Zinaida Nikolaevna, Vsevolod Meyerhold even took her last name. And in all documents he was listed as Meyerhold-Reich,” says historian Vadim Shcherbakov.

Vsevolod Meyerhold and Zinaida Reich. Source: ITAR-TASS

The director in love not only made his wife the leading actress of his theater, he filled her with gifts and fulfilled any whims. Moreover, by the time they met, he was a wealthy man.

"Tatyana Sergeevna Yesenina, Meyerhold's stepdaughter, wrote quite frankly about their financial situation, they earned so much money that it was not only impossible to eat them, it was even impossible to drink them away," Shcherbakov adds.

Meyerhold soon bought a new apartment for his young wife in Bryusov lane, in a house built specifically for artists. 17 families settled in the house. Each apartment, at the request of the owners, had a special layout. The Meyerhold family occupied four spacious rooms. Zinaida Reich enthusiastically furnished a new home. The whole Bryusov Lane was talking about its decoration and luxurious furniture.

“Zinaida Nikolaevna bought antique furniture made of Karelian birch, she had some kind of jewelry. Vsevolod Emilievich once told her and the children that this was philistinism, one should live simply,” says Vadim Shcherbakov.

It is appropriate to assume that it was jewelry and antiques that caused the tragic death of the famous actress. Investigators at first considered this version to be the main one. Chaos reigned in the room, the floor in the living room was covered with blood, the detectives found crimson stains on expensive furniture. The chairs were overturned, the mirrors were broken - it was obvious that in the apartment there was a battle not for life, but for death, in which the actress, despite a desperate struggle, lost. Pretty soon it turned out that jewelry, expensive outfits and even money remained intact, which means that the version of the robbery was not confirmed.

House number 12 in Bryusov Lane went down in history not only as the site of one of the most mysterious crimes in the history of the city. At various times, ballet prima Marina Semenova, chief choreographer of the Bolshoi Theater Vasily Tikhomirov, actor and artistic director of the theater Ivan Bersenev and his wife Sofia Giatsintova lived in this house. Today's residents of Bryusov Lane believe that famous artists owe much of their popularity to the place itself and to the former landowners, who were popularly considered sorcerers and warlocks, and not without some reason.

The Bruces owned the territory that today connects Tverskaya and Bolshaya Nikitskaya streets in the 18th century. Since then, the lane has been called by the names of the homeowners.

"The property on the right side, now house number 2, belonged to Yakov Alexandrovich Bruce, for some time the former governor of the two capitals, Moscow and St. Petersburg. We do not confuse the two Yakovs - Yakov Velimovich and Yakov Alexandrovich - they are certainly relatives. Yakov Velimovich - Field Marshal, associate of Peter I, magician, sorcerer and sorcerer, as he was called in Moscow, and Yakov Alexandrovich is his great-nephew,” says Moscow historian Alexei Dedushkin.

The manor was built on the foundation of the chambers of the 17th century. The Bruces owned the two-story stone building for almost a century. During this time, the estate was rebuilt several times. By the beginning of the 19th century, the classic mansion, which once resembled a palace, had lost most of its luxurious decoration. Its inhabitants have also changed.

"In the 30s of the XIX century, there was an art class here, the forerunner of the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. In 1836, the artist Karl Bryullov was solemnly received here. He returned from Italy, having finished the famous "Last Days of Pompeii", and he was given a reception ", - adds Dedushkin.

At the end of the 19th century, the Bryusov estate became an ordinary tenement house. The writer Vladimir Gilyarovsky lodged here, the painter Isaac Levitan and the actor Mikhail Chekhov rented rooms. Today, house number 2 in Bryusov Lane continues to attract creative people. And although the luxurious chambers are more and more reminiscent of modern offices, they like to tell legends and legends of the old manor here.

"According to legend, Catherine II and Grigory Potemkin celebrated the wedding of their illegitimate son, Count Bobrinsky, in this house. Closer to the revolution, there were profitable houses, such as brothels. And there is a legend that Tolya Mariengof and Seryozhka Yesenin ran here to women," says the people Artist of the USSR Vladislav Piavko.

People's Artist of the USSR Vladislav Piavko has been working in this building for more than two decades. The famous tenor continues the work of his wife, opera singer, the main Soviet Carmen Irina Arkhipova.

"In 1992, the guys (now they are already well-known and famous) came and said:" We wanted to go to the competition, but we have no money. singers," says Piavko.

The Irina Arkhipova Foundation has become a start for many famous opera performers. Every day, opera singing is performed here, students of the Moscow Conservatory rehearse. In the Bryus mansion, you can also hear arias performed by the world's only troupe of visually impaired singers - the Homer Theater.

Now there are more than 20 artists in the Homer Chamber Theater, they give concerts not only in Russia, but also abroad. Leading soloists of the theater collaborate with other musical groups.

But there were times in the history of Bryusov Lane when completely different music sounded here. Many of the local inhabitants, at first favored by the Soviet authorities, later fully felt the brunt and ruthlessness of Stalin's repressions. The legendary director Vsevolod Meyerhold did not escape this fate.

“If you follow the official version, then he was arrested for subversive Trotskyist activities and for being a spy for three intelligence agencies: Japanese, Lithuanian and English. Apparently, with the arrival of Beria, a big trial was being prepared against the creative intelligentsia. And Vsevolod Emilievich became one of the first persons involved in this future process. Then Stalin decided that this process was not needed, and those who were arrested were shot. And at that time, which he did not know about, a bloody tragedy was unfolding here, "says historian Vadim Shcherbakov.

Zinaida Reich died a month after her husband's arrest. Some eyewitnesses of those events believed that the murder of a famous actress was due to her unbearable character. The sudden tantrums of the prima were familiar to the entire troupe of the theater. Her husband and colleagues tried to treat these seizures with understanding, they knew that Reich's inappropriate behavior was the result of her illness.

Vsevolod Meyerhold and Zinaida Reich

“Zinaida Nikolaevna, by the time of her romance and marriage with Meyerhold, suffered a very severe typhus, which struck her brain. Meyerhold knew that in order to deal with its mental and mental consequences, she needed to be loaded with work as much as possible,” says Shcherbakov.

But from time to time the disease reminded of itself. At such moments, Zinaida Reich was completely out of control. And that scared a lot of people.

"It was known that she could throw a scene and even a tantrum. She knew a lot, and most likely it was a way to politically eliminate an unnecessary person," the historian adds.

There is another opinion: despite the loyalty of the Soviet authorities, Vsevolod Meyerhold and his wife were not well-known in political circles and could not know any special secrets.

MUR employees were more inclined to the version of the murder on the basis of a domestic quarrel. Perhaps the unbalanced and quick-tempered actress herself provoked a scandal that cost her her life. The detectives suggested that Zinaida Reich received guests late in the evening. Stormy creative discussions could develop into a conflict and end in a fight. There was no evidence to support this version. None of the neighbors heard the sounds of struggle in the apartment and cries for help. But, despite the lack of evidence and witnesses, the perpetrators of this story were established: they were the neighbors of Zinaida Reich, the famous opera performers, the Golovin brothers.

"Scapegoats were found, there was even a criminal court, according to which the defendants were punished for banditry and robbery, accompanied by murder, but this version is unlikely to be completely reliable," says Shcherbakov.

The 1930s crippled a lot of destinies, but at the same time they became the time of the new heyday of Bryusov Lane. So, in 1932, according to the project of architect Alexei Shchusev, house No. 17 was built here for artists of the Art Theater. It is not surprising that Bryusov lane in the last century was called the street of artists and musicians. It was the only place in Moscow where dozens of celebrities lived at the same time.

A nine-story house was erected for the employees of the conservatory in Bryusov Lane. Composers Aram Khachaturian and Dmitry Shostakovich, chief conductor of the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra Pavel Kogan, one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century Svyatoslav Richter lived in a large stalinka. The administration of the Bolshoi Theater also settled here Alexander Vedernikov, the owner of a unique operatic bass, who came from a simple working-class family, who, dreaming of a stage, once bought a one-way ticket from the city of Kopeisk to Moscow.

“The ticket was only to Moscow, there wasn’t enough money. I got out in Moscow at night, went to the conservatory, asked the police for directions. I came late at night, lay down on a bench and fell asleep on a suitcase. And suddenly they wake me up, I wake up and see big shaggy curly head. It was a conductor who taught at the conservatory, "says Alexander Vedernikov, People's Artist of the USSR.

The young talented singer was immediately admitted to the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, but he had to wait several years for a separate apartment. Before, like most students, Vedernikov lived in a hostel.

In 1955, Alexander Vedernikov graduated from the conservatory, and three years later he became a soloist with the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR. Once, while on tour abroad, the singer received a joyful and long-awaited news from his relatives.

"I was then on tour in Spain with an orchestra of folk instruments. And there I received a telegram from my wife, to take or not to take an apartment near the conservatory and the Bolshoi Theater. I then hurried home, called Demichev to help with the departure home, "- says Vedernikov.

Over the years of work at the Bolshoi Theater, Vedernikov performed almost all the leading roles in classical operas. However, his booming voice was heard every day not only by the grateful public, but also by the neighbors. And they didn't always applaud.

“Once I was walking my dog, and Khachaturian came up to me, and he lived under me, and Shostakovich was above me, and he said:“ You sing so loudly and play the piano that it’s impossible. ”And he advised me to buy rubber washers under piano legs. But that didn't help," adds the artist.

For many, the lane that links Tverskaya and Bolshaya Nikitskaya streets is associated with other famous classical music performers. One of the most famous creative duets lived in house number 7: conductor and composer Nikolai Golovanov and his wife Antonina Nezhdanova. For a long time the street bore the name of this famous opera singer.

Bryusov lane surprises not only with unexpected meetings with celebrities, but also with architectural finds. House No. 1 presented a big surprise to the restorers.

Most of the secrets of Bryusov Lane are still waiting for an inquisitive researcher. One of the dramas played out in the middle of the XIX century in the house number 21.

"In 1850, Alexander Vasilyevich Sukhovo-Kobylin, a famous playwright, rented an apartment here. He rented a second apartment for his beloved Louise. In 1850, Louise was found murdered. First, the serfs who looked after Louise were accused, allegedly she treated them badly, and they killed her for it. Then it turned out that they were tortured, and they slandered themselves. Then the future playwright himself became the main accused, he was under arrest for two years, the investigation lasted 7-8 years. But the case has not been solved so far, it was suspended by the Highest command,” says Moscow expert Alexei Dedushkin.

Almost a century later, a bloody drama broke out again in Bryusov Lane. The murder of the famous actress Zinaida Reich gave rise to many rumors. Some suggested that the housing problem was the cause of the crime.

“There is also a household version - they vacated the living space. The large apartment went to the department of L.P. Beria. The apartment was divided, and one part went to his secretary, the other to the driver,” says historian Vadim Shcherbakov.

Zinaida Reich is remembered today not only in connection with the brutal murder. Theater historians appreciate the actress for her outstanding talent and excellent taste.

“Usually, she herself, together with the artist and tailors, worked on her costumes. She had suppliers who brought her good materials. When the Meyerhold Theater was closed, Zinaida Nikolaevna bought all these dresses from the theater. They were kept at home. And they even buried her in the famous black velvet dress from The Lady of the Camellias, adds Shcherbakov.

The apartment where the famous reformist director Vsevolod Meyerhold and his wife Zinaida Reich once lived is now a museum. Rare family photographs and stage costumes, scenery models for performances are carefully stored here. Museum staff do not like to talk about the tragedy that took place in this apartment, trying to keep only bright memories of the famous creative duet. However, everyone here knows the details of the brutal crime.

So what happened here on July 15, 1939? As it was established during the investigation, the murder took place around one in the morning. Zinaida Reich left the bathroom and went to the living room. At that moment, she was attacked. There were two killers. One stabbed the actress in the chest. Reich fell to the floor, but did not lose consciousness, but began desperately calling for help. Bleeding, she crawled to the table in the living room. The killers continued to strike her, and only when the victim lost consciousness did they disappear. After 75 years, historians, comparing the facts, are increasingly inclined to the contract killing version. And they even call the customer - power. Shortly before the tragic events, Zinaida Nikolaevna wrote a letter to Stalin, in which she hinted that she knew the circumstances of the death of her first husband, Sergei Yesenin, and that she was ready to prove that the popularly beloved poet was helped to part with her life. Even the all-powerful NKVD did not need the publicity of this story at all, and besides, there was a great opportunity, without wasting time on arrest, interrogation and trial, to solve the housing problems of their employees. The huge apartment was a very tasty morsel.

Nevertheless, Bryusov Lane was and remains one of the brightest places in Moscow. Today, like centuries ago, beautiful sounds of music can be heard from the windows of its houses. Every day, famous artists and young musicians rush to work and study at the conservatory by this route. And, perhaps, each of them hears at this time a bewitching tune - the melody of Bryusov Lane.