Many are convinced: Sergei Yesenin could not voluntarily die. Hanging yourself is too trivial and… unpoetic for a legendary poet.

So was Yesenin killed or not?

Versions of the murder

There are many versions claiming that Yesenin was killed. Some believe that in the 5th room of the International Hotel (formerly Angleterre), where the poet settled, he was first severely beaten, and only then hung in an unconscious state in a noose.

Another version. They put Yesenin on the sofa, hit him on the forehead with the handle of the pistol, where a dent formed, then wrapped him in a carpet, tried to pull him out onto the balcony in order to lower him down and take him out. But the door jammed, then the killers sat down to drink, messed around in the room, dragged the body back and, cutting the tendon to straighten the already frozen right arm, hung it in a noose (in the picture, the right arm is really bent at the elbow joint, it has a wound).

All these contradictory versions are based on the same documents: an act of inspection of the scene, compiled by the district warden of the 2nd police department of Leningrad N. Gorbov and an act of a forensic medical examination of the corpse by Professor G. Gilyarevsky, post-mortem photographs and face masks poet. It is worth noting that among the enthusiasts who tried to unravel the mystery of Yesenin's death were poets, journalists, doctors, philosophers, teachers, artists, even a pathophysiologist and a former investigator, but there was not a single professional - a forensic physician or forensic scientist.

All this prompted the All-Russian Yesenin Committee of Writers to seek help from the Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination of the Moscow Health Committee with a request to create a commission to clarify the circumstances of the death of the poet. Later, professionals from the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation and leading experts in the field of forensic medicine were involved in the case.

Investigative experiment

The act of inspection of the scene of the incident was drawn up by N. Gorbov superficially, unprofessionally: the situation in the room, the state of door and window locks, cadaveric changes, and so on, were not described.

According to the protocol, Yesenin's body hung right under the ceiling - this gave reason to doubt suicide, since the ceiling height in the room was supposedly 4-5 m, and the size of the overturned pedestal was 1.5 m and the height of the poet was 168 cm.

It was necessary to find out the real height of the ceiling. The matter was complicated by the fact that in 1986 the Angleterre hotel was reconstructed. But a photograph of the 5th issue has been preserved with an inscription on the back: “May 18, 1926, 5th number of the guest. Leningradskaya, formerly Angleterre, where Yesenin lived and died. The picture was taken through an open door, showing a vertical steam heating pipe, a carpeted floor, a fragment of the ceiling, a desk, a lamp, a chair, a wardrobe.

Criminologists, using well-known formulas and landmarks (in particular, along the back of the table, which is closest to the plane of the wall), calculated the height of the ceiling, which amounted to ... no more than 352 cm!

But there was one more "weighty" argument of the supporters of the poet's murder. So, the former investigator E. Khlystalov writes that it is impossible to tie a rope to a vertically standing pipe: under the weight of the body, it will surely slide down. In support of his words, he recalls an experiment conducted by students of the Literary Institute at Angleterre, when the hotel was still intact: a rope tied to a vertical pipe was jerked down by a jerk of the hand.

And although judicial practice shows that you can hang yourself not only on such a pipe, but also on the door handle, the back of a chair, special experiments had to be carried out: an extra with a height of 169 cm tied twisted ropes made of hemp, cotton , silk with a thickness of 0.6 to 1.0 cm. Making from 1 to 6 turns and tying all kinds of knots, he unsuccessfully tried to pull the rope off the vertical. Its freely hanging end withstood a weight load of more than 100 kg.

Is it possible to jump out of the loop?

Supporters of the murder were embarrassed that the loop did not capture the entire surface of the neck - the furrow was directed obliquely upwards and was not closed. When hanging, the furrow is always directed in this way, since one end of the rope is strengthened by an object, in this case, a pipe, and the other end is dragged down by the weight of the body, and this place of the neck has the greatest pressure.

Could Yesenin jump out of an open loop? Is self-help possible in the loop? No. Forensic medicine professors Minovich from Romania and Fleichman from Germany, independently of each other, wanting to study the phenomena of asphyxia (suffocation caused by a lack of oxygen in the blood), conducted experiments on themselves: assistants hung them on a soft rope, and Minovich managed to stay in the loop for up to 26 seconds ! Scientists noted terrible pain in the neck, excessive heaviness in the head, whistling in the ears, turning into a bell ringing, and deadly melancholy. But, most importantly, from the very first seconds there is a desire to drop the loop and ... the inability to move even a finger! With the onset of asphyxia, muscle adynamia occurs. Even if a person hangs himself on the door handle, he cannot straighten his knees.

What did the masks say?

Most of the versions were generated by an entry in the act: “In the middle of the forehead ... a depressed furrow 4 cm long and 1.5 cm wide.” Gilyarevsky himself explained it by the pressure drop in the skull during strangulation. Supporters of the murder theory interpreted the impression as a blow with a pistol handle, an iron, a blunt heavy object "with terrible force."

According to the act of examination of the corpse, it is clear that the bones of the skull are not damaged and there is no fracture. But the "pathfinders" doubted Gilyarevsky's impartiality. Then the forensic experts conducted a study of five death masks poet, having established that the impression of a “slightly arched shape” has a depth of 0.4-0.5 mm (and this is the thickness of the skin) without mechanical damage to the bones of the skull. So, it is obvious that this is a trace from the pipe: since the loop knot was on the left, the head deviated to the right and at the time of death was leaning against the pipe.

To confirm the conclusion, plasticine casts were made from plaster masks, which were hit in the frontal part with cylindrical objects. As the experiment showed, the object had to have a diameter of 3.7 cm, which just corresponds to the parameters of a water pipe.

And while bleeding...

The version that Yesenin's veins were first cut, and then the poet was hung in a noose, is found by many. It is known that during the inspection, the district police officer found a cut “on the right arm above the elbow on the palmar side” and “on the left hand there were scratches on the wrist”. Is it possible to move a cut arm, tie a rope to a pipe, move furniture with blood loss? Forensic experts have repeatedly come across the fact that people did not do the same with cut veins and arteries. But what kind of "loss of blood" in question? No traces of her were found in the room, and from the act it follows that all wounds are superficial and do not penetrate into the thickness of the skin. This means that Yesenin's veins were not cut. It is known from various sources that from December 26 to 27, Yesenin composed, but, not finding ink in the room, he decided to write down the verses in blood and made an incision on himself. Already today, experts have established the authenticity of Yesenin's handwriting and the fact that the poem "Goodbye, my friend, goodbye" was written in blood in an amount of ... no more than 0.02 ml.

And yet, asphyxia

So, Yesenin's death came from asphyxia - squeezing the organs of the neck with a loop tightening under the weight of the body. He could hang himself at that height. There were no deep cuts on the arms. There is a pipe mark on the forehead. It is safe to say that there are no marks on Yesenin's body that are characteristic of struggle or self-defense.

It should be noted that all experiments were carried out in the presence of a forensic prosecutor of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation.

"Kill" at any cost?

It would seem that an end has been put in the Yesenin case. But versions of contract killings continue to multiply and take root in the minds of the townsfolk: the recent television series of the father and son of the Bezrukovs is eloquent confirmation of this.

Why so persistently continue to "kill" Yesenin? Because he is a true Russian poet, and the church, to put it mildly, does not welcome suicide? Or maybe, as it was accurately expressed, however, about another person, T. Flor-Yesenin: “Alien fame is always attractive because it makes it possible ... to “break through the blockade” of one’s own obscurity”?

September 25, 1925 was the last public performance of Sergei Yesenin in Moscow. The life of the great poet was very hard on native land, and his death became one of the most mysterious and mysterious events of the century, because until now people cannot unravel the mystery of Yesenin's death - whether he was killed by someone or nevertheless committed suicide. Many versions are put forward today regarding the death of the poet. Today we decided to talk about five of them.

Sergei Yesenin is a Russian poet, a representative of the new peasant poetry, lyrics and imagism. Sergei Yesenin was a talented poet, had a very capricious and difficult character, and his whole life was filled with a variety of events and acquaintances - both sad and joyful. But whatever Yesenin was, his work is still revered by many people to this day.

Suicide

On December 28, 1925, Yesenin was found dead in the Angleterre Hotel in Leningrad. He hung himself with a rope under the pipes in the corner of the room. Hangman was discovered and immediately put the most common version of his death - suicide. In fact, many facts point to this alignment of Yesenin's death, because he was involved in a fatal conflict with the authorities, was on the run, and even was in a terrible depression. He was found hanged a week after treatment in a neuropsychiatric clinic.

"Accidental" suicide

One version of Yesenin's death is an accidental suicide. The fact is that when the poet's corpse was discovered, his bent right hand, lying on the pipe, seemed a strange detail. Immediately a picture was created that Yesenin tried to try to hang himself, climb into the noose, but only with the aim of injuring himself of the unsuccessful hangman, when he climbed into the noose, he tried to get out, grabbing the pipe with his right hand, but he did not succeed.

Smothered with a pillow

Many doctors who examined Yesenin's body, as well as researchers of the poet's work, such as S. Demidenko and F. Morokhov, believed that Yesenin was badly beaten before his death, seriously injured, and then strangled with a pillow, suicide was just a staging. Many believed that the authorities, with whom Yesenin had a disgusting and conflicting relationship, simply removed him as simply as possible and passed off his murder as a suicide.

shot to death

A certain Major Titarenko told that in the village of Urgau, Khabarovsk Territory, he met with the Gulag member Nikolai Leontiev, who confessed that he had shot Yesenin with his own hands. As Leontiev recalled, the murder of Yesenin, who was detained at the station, was not at all included in the plans. They simply wanted to explain to him all his position regarding Soviet power and help him find a way out of it. But, having heard this, Yesenin fell into extreme fury, and a fight broke out, during which Leontiev fired, the bullet passed under the poet's right eye and killed him.

In the first half of the 20s of the XX century, Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin (1895-1925) was unanimously recognized by both fans and critics as the best poet of the young Soviet Socialist Republic, which overthrew the power of the landowners and capitalists. Being a native of peasants, he was considered a prominent representative of the new peasant poetry. Subsequently, with the participation of Yesenin, the "Order of the Imagists" was founded. It would be more correct to call it a literary group adhering to a new literary trend.

The poet happened to live at a time when the old foundations were collapsing, and they were replaced by the new and unknown. In this difficult situation, Sergei Alexandrovich gravitated more toward the disappearing Russia, toward "golden log huts." The kind village atmosphere was familiar to him from childhood, and, therefore, closer and dearer than fluttering red banners and fiery speeches from armored cars. The poet was an excellent connoisseur of the true Russian soul. This is what people valued in him, and therefore the unexpected death of Sergei Yesenin on December 28, 1925 became a huge tragedy for the country.

Cause of Yesenin's death

The poet's life ended at the age of 30. He left the mortal world at the peak of his creativity. Depression is generally accepted as the cause of the tragedy. It is inherent in all creative individuals, as these people are constantly in search of the meaning of their existence. They are not allowed to rest serenely on their laurels, and their own works, praised by others, seem uninteresting, mediocre and faded.

In this case, depression was aggravated by loneliness. The poet's personal life was definitely not going well. On July 30, 1917, the wedding of Sergei Alexandrovich with his first wife Zinaida Nikolaevna Reich (1894-1939) took place. But family life did not last long. On October 5, 1921, the marriage was annulled at the initiative of the poet himself. In 1922, the abandoned wife tied the bonds of Hymen with Vsevolod Meyerhold, who was 20 years older than her. And on the night of July 15, 1939, Zinaida Nikolaevna was brutally murdered in her Moscow apartment. The killers were never found.

In the autumn of 1921, Yesenin met the American dancer Isadora Duncan (1877-1927). The marriage with her was formalized in 1922, and annulled in 1924. That is, family relations with our hero again did not work out. Here, as they say, I found a scythe on a stone. People who knew this couple closely noted constant scandals and showdowns. The second wife of the poet also ended her life tragically. She went for a ride in a car, a long scarf wound around the wheel axle and strangled the dancer.

On October 18, 1925, Sergei Alexandrovich registered his marriage with his third and last wife, Sophia Andreevna Tolstaya (1900-1957). But this marriage lasted a little more than 2 months, and from the first days it did not seem happy for friends and acquaintances. The newlyweds practically did not live together, which only exacerbated the loneliness of the poet.

Wives of Sergei Yesenin
From left to right: Zinaida Reich, Isadora Duncan, Sofia Tolstaya

It should also be noted that in the last years of his life Yesenin was predisposed to alcohol. He liked to drink well, make some noise and quarrel. This behavior drew close attention from the GPU. The bad inclinations of Sergei Alexandrovich did not suit the Chekists, as they contradicted the image of a bright creative personality cherished by the socialist state of workers and peasants. The poet also began ideological disagreements with the Soviet authorities. And it was much more serious than drinking and scandals.

In November, our hero underwent a course of treatment at a neuropsychiatric hospital. The reason was a shattered psyche. It affected an unsuccessful family life, abuse bad habits and creative crisis. The doctors did everything they could, and in early December, Sergei Alexandrovich said goodbye to the clinic.

In the last decade of December, Yesenin left Moscow for Leningrad. He settled in the Angleterre Hotel. Here, in room number 5, the tragedy occurred. Depression, loneliness, hopelessness fell upon the poet with a vengeance. Unable to withstand this burden, he hanged himself. This is the official version, which quite plausibly explains the death of Sergei Yesenin.

However, there were people who questioned the official conclusion. And today there is an opinion that the Chekists killed the poet. His ideological views began to diverge from the official ones. This was the reason for the crime against a talented person. But what are these suspicions based on? After all, the year is not 37, but only 25. The difference is huge, one might say, an abyss. But let's take a closer look at the documents drawn up in connection with the death of a talented Russian poet.

Investigation documents

When a misfortune happens to a person, representatives of law enforcement agencies immediately appear. They inspect the scene of the incident and draw up an appropriate act. Such an act was also drawn up upon the discovery of Yesenin's body. Comrade Gorbov, a precinct officer of the 2nd department of the Leningrad police, wrote it.

Incident site inspection report

This act was drawn up on December 28, 1925 by district police officer Gorbov in the presence of the hotel manager Comrade. Nazarov Vasily Mikhailovich and attesting witnesses about the found corpse of a hanged citizen in a hotel room. According to a telephone message from the hotel manager to the police station, I arrived at the scene and found the following: a man was hanging from a rope tied to a central heating pipe. His face is turned to the pipe. The right hand gripped the pipe. The body hangs from the ceiling, and more than a meter from the feet to the floor.

On the floor, near the hanged man, lies an overturned pedestal. There is also a candelabra nearby, which, apparently, used to stand on it. When removing the corpse and examining it, a cut was found on the inside of the right arm above the elbow. There are scratches on the left hand. A bruise under the left eye. Body worn: gray trousers, white nightgown, black socks, black shoes. The documents indicate that the hanged man is Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin, who arrived in Moscow on December 24, 1925. He has a certificate number 42-8516 and a power of attorney to receive 640 rubles.
Signatures:
V. Nazarov
(Witnesses) V. Rozhdestvensky, P. Medvedev, M. Froman, V. Erlich.
Police officer (the first letters are illegible) ... Shinsky.
Precinct 2nd dep. LGM N. Gorbov.

Yesenin's body taken out of the noose

Any specialist in forensic science can immediately say that on the basis of this act it is impossible to make a conclusion about suicide. The document is written, to put it mildly, unprofessionally. The scene was not properly inspected. The first thing to pay attention to was the condition of the door locks, the locks on the windows, the presence of a key in the keyhole. It is not indicated in what condition the things in the room were: they lay neatly or were scattered.

Nothing is clear about the clothes on the body of the deceased. Was it torn, unbuttoned, deflated, or was in a normal and tidy condition. Were there blood stains or any other stains on the floor, table, bed. What object was cut on the hand of the corpse. Where the poet took the rope to carry out the act of suicide. The act does not indicate when it was drawn up. There are also no marks on the beginning and end of investigative actions.

These flaws in the work of the district police officer aroused serious suspicions among independent researchers who carefully studied the death of Sergei Yesenin. An opinion was formed that in this way the KGB tried to hide the murder and present it as a suicide. The act itself is written with spelling errors, and the facts stated in it are reflected in inert language. Gorbov, at one time, worked as a typesetter in a printing house, and then as a political commissar in the troops, so it can be assumed that the act was not written by him. However, these activities cannot serve as proof of perfect literacy.

Even teachers of the Russian language make mistakes, let alone those who come from a peasant environment. In Russia at that time, the vast majority of the population was illiterate. The situation improved only in the second half of the 1930s, when young people who received a secondary education went to work in enterprises and institutions.

Some independent researchers suggest that Gorbov himself was involved in the murder of the young poet. This also includes the secretary of the Leningrad Council, Leonov, and the head of the city police, Yegorov. The death of Sergei Yesenin is also associated with his friend, the poet Wolf Erlich, since he was allegedly a secret employee of the GPU.

As for cooperation with the political administration, at that time very many citizens expressed their readiness to help him. Life was hard, hungry. There was unemployment in the country, and people had to somehow survive, feed their children, receive at least some money. Agents had the opportunity to get a job and lead a more or less acceptable existence. This is in the well-fed and drunk 70s, when the main independent investigations were conducted, every citizen had a guaranteed piece of bread. And so it was difficult to understand people who lived 50 years earlier.

But let's move on from the act of examining the scene of the incident to the act of autopsy. It was conducted by the forensic medical expert A. G. Gilyarevsky.

Autopsy act

On December 29, 1925, in the mortuary department of the Obukhov hospital, an autopsy was performed on the corpse of citizen Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin.

The deceased is 30 years old. Physical development correct, fatness is normal. The skin is pale. The pupils are dilated evenly. Nose openings are free, lips are closed. The tip of the tongue is pressed between the teeth. The genitals are normal, the anus is clean. The lower limbs are dark purple in color. They have petechial hemorrhages. In the middle of the forehead there is a depressed vertical furrow 4 cm long and 1.2 cm wide. An abrasion under the left eye.

Above the larynx on the neck there is a red furrow. It is directed upwards from the left and ends near the auricle. On the right, the furrow goes up to the back of the head. The width of the furrow corresponds to the diameter of the goose feather. In the lower third of the right shoulder there is a 4 cm long scratch on the skin. In the lower third of the left shoulder there is a horizontal scratch and 3 vertical scratches. The length of each of them is about 3 cm. No other damage was found.

The skull has no damage. A bruise is observed in the place of the depressed furrow on the forehead. The weight of the brain is 1920 grams, the vessels are normal. The medulla glistens at the sites of incisions. The abdominal organs are located correctly. The peritoneum is smooth, intestinal loops are red. There are traces of food mixture in the esophagus. Foamy mucus is observed in the larynx and trachea. The lungs are located in chest free. The size of the heart corresponds to the fist of the deceased. Valves and holes are in good condition.

300 grams of a semi-liquid food mixture was found in the stomach. It gives off a faint wine smell. The spleen capsule is wrinkled. The liver is dark red. The kidneys are dark red. The renal canal is normal.

Conclusion
Based on the autopsy data, it should be argued that the death of Sergei Yesenin came from asphyxia. It arose as a result of compression of the respiratory tract through hanging. The indentation found on the forehead could be the result of pressure during hanging. The dark purple color of the lower extremities and punctate bruising on them indicate that the deceased was in the loop for a very long time. Wounds on the upper limbs do not pose any danger to life.
Signatures:
Forensic medical expert Gilyarevsky.
Witnesses - illegible signatures.

Farewell to the great poet

So murder or suicide?

Is this act of autopsy objective enough? Some independent researchers thought not. Therefore, in 1989, a special commission was created to investigate the death of the poet. The chairman of the commission was Yuri Lvovich Prokushev (1920-2004). He is an honored worker of science, literary critic and writer.

At the request of the commission of the ball, a thorough examination was carried out. Pathologists studied the documents of those years, got acquainted with the KGB archives and analyzed the posthumous photographs of the poet. As a result, experts formed an opinion that refutes the statements of independent researchers.

So the supporters of the murder argued that it was impossible to hang oneself on a vertical heating pipe. They even conducted an experiment: they tied a belt on the pipe, and it slipped down. In addition, given the ceiling height of 4 meters, the poet, whose height was about 170 cm, simply could not fix his murder weapon under the ceiling.

However, in accordance with the examination, it was found that the height of the ceiling in room No. 5 was 3.52 meters. There was a stand with a height of 1.5 meters. Therefore, the poet, who had an average height, could easily fasten a cotton, hemp or silk rope with a diameter of 0.8-1 cm under the very ceiling on a smooth pipe. At the same time, the rope could withstand a load of more than 100 kg.

But there is a more weighty argument indicating that the matter is unclean. This is a depressed furrow on the forehead. It is reflected in the act of autopsy. Some independent experts argued that such an injury could only be inflicted with a heavy blunt object. This gave rise to the opinion that the death of Sergei Yesenin was violent.

Alas, this indentation also found a completely logical explanation, excluding the sinister interference of the Chekists in the life of the poet. The depth of the furrow is 3-5 mm and corresponds to the depth of the skin. But where could such an education come from? The face of the corpse was turned to the pipe. This is stated in the inspection report. The indentation could have arisen from contact with a solid cylindrical object, that is, a pipe. The agonizing man pressed his forehead against hers forcefully. But no damage to the frontal bone was found. Therefore, there was neither a blunt object nor a traumatic brain injury.

What is the conclusion? Most likely, the poet committed suicide. This is indicated at least by the fact that in the last years of his life Sergei Alexandrovich spoke very often about death. We counted the number of such references in the works of the writer. For the last two years there were 397 of them. Moreover, in half of the poems the poet speaks of his own death and suicide.

Nowadays, the version of suicide is considered official. It is supported by the opinions of very authoritative and respected people. But every reasonable person understands that since there were no direct witnesses, then it is impossible to state something with 100% certainty. Therefore, it can be assumed that Yesenin was killed. However, proofs are needed, but they are not, and will not be any more. So it remains only to assume and fantasize, and people are very good at this.

29.09.2015

Sergei Yesenin died very young, in the prime of his glory. He was recognized on the streets, both young people and the older generation read his poems. Crowds of people gathered for performances where he recited his works. Got his talent full force. The poet turned 30 years old - it would seem that life played before him with the brightest colors, all the doors are open. And suddenly terrible news spreads around the country - Yesenin was found hanged in the room of the Angleterre Hotel. How?! Why?! Nothing foreshadowed a terrible denouement ...

Rumors immediately went, but the first version of the investigation was peremptory - Yesenin took his own life, no one "helped" him in this. A special commission came to this conclusion after an examination. The following was established. Yesenin was found hanging on a heating pipe, and quite a lot of time had passed since his death. There was a distinct dent on his forehead, and three shallow cuts on one arm. The investigation concluded that the dent was formed from prolonged contact with a hot battery.

In agony, Yesenin pressed his forehead against her with force. The wounds on the hand could not be fatal. The poet inflicted them on himself, because he wanted to draw the poem “Goodbye, my friend, goodbye ...” with his own blood. It was, in fact, his suicide note. Why multiple wounds? The bleeding was weak and quickly stopped, so Yesenin made new incisions, in a hurry to finish the verse. Investigators conducted an analysis, studied the scene and delivered a verdict - Sergei Yesenin committed suicide.

The poet was buried, the case was closed for a long time. However, in the 70-80s of the last century, a new version appeared. The peasant poet was killed by the OGPU, fulfilling an order "from above". A special contribution to the dissemination of this version was made by the investigator of the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department E. A. Khlystalov. Colonel Khlystalov was sure it was a murder. As proof, he said that the dent on his forehead was formed from a blow with some kind of blunt object, cuts on his hands and bruises on his body were the result of a struggle.

In addition, the last years of Yesenin's life were overshadowed by the outbreak of conflicts with the Soviet authorities. The young poet, who loved to drink and often raged, began to interfere with the authorities, his "unstable moral character" did not fit with the ideas of a proletarian writer. Rumors about the murder and staging of suicide were so persistent that in 1992 a new commission began to work, consisting of forensic experts V. Plaksin, V. Kryukov, S. Abramov, S. Nikitin.

Careful and serious investigation allowed to confirm the conclusions in favor of suicide. It has been proven that it is impossible to inflict an injury similar to the one on Yesenin's forehead with a blunt object. The objections that it is impossible to hang yourself on a vertical pipe have not been confirmed. The investigation team conducted a series of experiments that showed that Yesenin was able to secure the knot himself and reach the battery using the table on which he stood.

Why did this tragedy happen, which no one expected? After studying the poems and letters of Yesenin, as well as the memoirs of eyewitnesses, it became clear - several recent years before committing a desperate act, the poet was in a deep depression. Just before his suicide, he had just completed a course of rehabilitation in a psychiatric hospital. On that fateful day, he drank champagne with friends.

It is known that alcohol - even a small dose - for a person so vulnerable can play a fatal role, aggravating an already severe depressive state. In the poems of recent years, Yesenin often speaks of death. His relations with the authorities really deteriorated, but there is no evidence and documents that would reveal the desire of the "top" to deal with the poet. It was much more profitable to use his talent "in the service" of the Soviet government.

Perhaps a large number of internal contradictions, coupled with alcohol, caused the fatal step. And let's not forget one more thing. Yesenin was a very lonely person. He never found personal happiness, did not meet his love - the one that is forever. So the “black man” followed him - the devil living inside the soul, insidiously pushing the poet to a terrible step. Once the poet could not stand it and stepped - right into the abyss, from where there is no way out ...

The mystery of Yesenin's death [VIDEO]

On the night of December 27-28, 1925, Sergei Yesenin was killed. His body was found in the fifth room of the Angleterre Hotel. The investigation named the cause of death as suicide. This drawn version aroused distrust among the poet's contemporaries and descendants...

Yesenin in the Angleterre room. Rice. V. Shilov



January 1926, Leningrad

That evening the "pompolite" K* arrived in the fifth room of the Angleterre Hotel. After supper, Comrade K * sat down at his desk, wishing to work before going to bed. He was haunted by his party colleague. It was feared that he would pass Comrade K* up the party ladder very quickly. Comrade K * decided to act immediately, the fate of the competitor was decided ...

The hands on the clock showed midnight. Comrade K* felt an inexplicable piercing cold... Then someone's heavy footsteps were heard behind him, causing inexplicable horror in the "pompolitan"... The guest wanted to scream, but his voice did not obey... Comrade K* felt that his legs were getting cold and he could not move from place. The unknown person approached him and stopped... Obeying an unknown force, the "pompolit" slowly turned his head...

... Comrade K * was found on the floor of the room in the morning. When he came to his senses, he began to laugh hysterically, chatting some indistinct nonsense. An experienced party fighter kept talking about a ghost with a rope wound around his neck. The head of the hotel ordered that an ambulance brigade of the psychiatric hospital be immediately called so that the anti-Soviet propaganda of obscurantism, obsessively repeated by Comrade K*, would not embarrass respectable Soviet citizens.





The ghost of the Angleterre Hotel

Rumors about the ghost of the poet Yesenin began to appear immediately after his death. Of course, all stories about the supernatural were officially attributed to anti-Soviet obscurantism.





Photo of Yesenin a month before his death, November 1925

Now it is difficult to say exactly what he was. Judging by the photo, this is a kind person



In January 1926, at the request of Sofya Tolstaya, Yesenin's wife, the photographer Presnyakov took a photo of the hotel room where the poet's body was found.

In the photo you can see that the frills of the curtains are added with strokes by hand. If you look closely, you can see that the painted strokes hide the white silhouette of a human figure.

Curtain on the right with painted edges



You can, of course, explain it by a printing defect, but then why did the poet’s wife keep this particular low-quality photograph (the photographer must have taken several pictures)? And why were the edges of the curtains added?

“The souls of people forcibly killed do not soon leave the places of their death. The soul of a person who died here could appear in the photograph, ”one of the psychics expressed the opinion.









The old hotel building was destroyed in the 80s of the last century and rebuilt. Despite the fact that the Angleterre Hotel is a remake, there are still stories from guests about the ghost of a poet who roams the corridors. Ghosts are attached to the place of the tragic death, even if the house was demolished.

This is how the photo looked without the added edges



Facts are a stubborn thing

Yesenin himself feared murder.

"They want to kill me! I feel it like a beast!” he said.

The discrepancy between the facts in the version of suicide was noticed by forensic investigators who decided to look into the circumstances of the death of the poet decades later.









E.A. Khlystalov, senior investigator of the Main Department of Internal Affairs of Moscow (since 1963) notes: “And no matter how much I peered into the photograph, I did not see signs of death from suffocation with a noose. There was no characteristically protruding tongue from the mouth, giving the face of the gallows a terrible expression ... "

“On the forehead of the corpse, just above the bridge of the nose, a lifetime injury is clearly visible. About such bodily injury, forensic experts conclude that it was caused by a blunt solid object and is classified as dangerous to human life and health ... ".





Photo of the murdered Yesenin on the sofa of the hotel. There is a dent on the forehead at the bridge of the nose from a blow.

Cuts on hand



Raises a question and the wound on Yesenin's hand. Supporters of the version of suicide claimed that the poet first cut his veins, and then changed his mind and decided to hang himself.

Criminalist E.A. Khlystalov writes about this:

“Having carefully studied the whole situation in the hotel room, I realized that this version does not stand up to criticism. Judge for yourself. The poet cuts his arm deep and waits for profuse bleeding to begin. Waiting. Consciousness does not lose. After some time, he decides to hang himself. Starts looking for rope. Finds. Unties from the suitcase. Then it climbs high under the ceiling (3 meters 80 centimeters) and begins to tie it to a vertical riser. To reach the top, the poet had to place an object with a fulcrum of about two meters. (His height is 168 centimeters). Moreover, with the obligatory condition that this item should stand next to the riser. There were no such objects near the place of the alleged hanging.”

Yesen's death mask. The dent from the impact on the forehead at the bridge of the nose is clearly visible



It is also surprising that the supposedly dying poem, written with blood from a cut vein. “While you write a line, you will bleed…”- notes the researcher E.A. Khlystalov.

It should be noted that the “death letter” was not examined by experts, no analysis was carried out - therefore, there is no evidence that it was written in Yesenin’s blood.

A cut on Yesenin's right hand. He was not left-handed. If he wanted to cut his veins, he would have cut his left hand.

The text of the poem itself in meaning does not resemble a suicide note, the addressee of which he called by myself Wolf Ehrlich, who served in the OGPU. And it is strange that the dying lines were addressed precisely to the represented party spy. Goodbye my friend, goodbye.

My dear, you are in my chest.

Destined parting

Promises to meet in the future.

Goodbye, my friend, without a hand, without a word,

Do not be sad and do not sadness of the eyebrows, -

In this life, dying is not new,

But to live, of course, is not newer.

Many years later, information appeared that these lines were written much earlier than December 1925. The poem is dedicated not to Wolf Erlich, but to Yesenin's friend who was shot, the poet Alexei Ganin.

Yesenin in the coffin. The face is heavily made up, but traces of beatings are visible



The version of suicide is clearly drawn. The only options left are:

Yesenin was killed on the orders of the party leadership.

Yesenin died during a brutal interrogation from beatings - and the executioners had to hastily create the appearance of suicide.

This is what the Angleterre hotel (the building on the left) looked like during Yesenin's time.

The new Angleterre Hotel today (my photos). By the way, it looks like the original was built.

Opinion of contemporaries

They whispered and wondered about the death of Yesenin. I did not believe in the version of suicide.

Even the famous poet of the revolution Vladimir Mayakovsky wrote: "Why? What for? The misunderstanding was gone."

"Neither the noose nor the penknife will reveal to us the reasons for the loss."

Portrait of Yesenin. Rice. V. Skorobeev



The poet Vasily Nasedkin (husband of Yesenin's sister, Catherine) said: “It doesn’t look like suicide ... Brains leaked out on my forehead ...”

One of the poet's friends, V. Knyazev, noticed that there were no traces of the rope, which usually remains on the neck of the gallows, on Yesenin's neck: In a small dead room by the window -

Golden head on the chopping block:

The stripe on the neck is not visible -

Only blood turns black on the shirt ...

Yesenin's photo on the passport (1923)



The poet's friends, Nikolai Brown and Boris Lavrenev, refused to sign the protocol, which spoke of Yesenin's suicide.

The protocol was signed by the OGPU officer Wolf Ehrlich. Interestingly, those who saw Yesenin shortly before his death, and supposedly the poet's dying verses were dedicated to him.

Nikolai Brown reproached Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky, who also signed the protocol: “Seva, how could you subscribe to this! You didn’t see how Yesenin put a noose on himself!

He replied: “I was told that another signature is needed.”

Yesenin as Orpheus. Rice. ormona

Boris Lavrenev published an article "In memory of Yesenin" with the subtitle "Executed by degenerates" and epigraph "And you will not wash away the righteous blood with all your black blood of a poet."

The author spoke boldly: “And my moral duty requires me to tell the naked truth once in my life and call the executioners and murderers executioners and murderers, whose black blood will not wash away the blood stain on the shirt of the tortured poet.”

"He was tortured!"- recalled Nikolai Brown.

There was even an assumption that Yesenin was tortured in the dungeons of the OGPU, and an already dead body was brought to the hotel, after which they staged a suicide.

Former OGPU worker Pavel Luknitsky, who emigrated to Paris, wrote in his memoirs: “He was mutilated, there were traces of blood on his clothes, and his left eye was “missing.”

“Yesenin was a little like himself. During the autopsy, his face was corrected as best they could, but still ... in the upper corner of the right eye there is a nodule ... and the left eye is flat: it leaked out. There was no blueness in the face: it was pale, and only red spots and darkened abrasions stood out.

At first there was a cross on Yesenin's grave