The truth about how Jewish roots influenced Vysotsky. Aguzar’s mother was her grandmother, and Vysotsky was baptized for his stepmother. Life after the war

Nina Vysotskaya about her son - Vladimir Vysotsky...

Friends

Volodya’s friends changed over the years. Tolya Utevsky is still on Bolshoy Karetny. I remember him, such a handsome guy. Bobrov is the son of a famous pop artist... And this was a time when young guys were dudes. So, Bobrov - he was a dude. Our son too - he wore tight trousers and a bouclé jacket. And there was some article about a dude, where Bobrov’s name was mentioned. And Semyon and I were terribly worried that this matter would affect Volodya.

When Volodya became a student, Valya Burov, Valya Nikulin, Zhora Epifantsev began to come to us on Meshchanskaya... Zhora helped us move to a new house. He said: “Well, we’ve moved!” - and came to us with his goods. Semyon Vladimirovich bought a huge bed. This bed was in the bedroom, and Volodya and Epifantsev slept on it, because there was no space left on the floor.

There was such a trio: Roman Vildan, Zhora Epifantsev and Volodya Vysotsky... They drank, of course... They had classes in social manners in their studio - Princess Volkonskaya taught. So they sometimes poured wine into cups instead of tea. And the teacher said: “I don’t understand anything, by the end of the lesson they are all so cheerful...”

Childhood

There was such a case: Volodya, a schoolboy, said to me: “Mommy, I need to grow mold on my bread.” And there was a carrot on my table on a saucer, I mechanically covered it with a jar and forgot. And mold formed on it - very beautiful. I say to Volodya: “Why does it have to be on bread? There’s mold on my carrot.”

He laughed so hard and said: “Well, good. I’ll take it tomorrow.” And he brought this carrot to school. The class was down! Because the botany teacher Elena Sergeevna was nicknamed Carrot, and she knew it. She said: “Vysotsky, what a terrible creature you are!” And Volodya joked: “I was a substance, but I became a being.” And again everyone started laughing. Well, we all did mischief as children...

We had an apartment neighbor, Gisya Moiseevna. A very interesting woman. For example, she said:

Seryozha called you.
- Which Seryozha? Maybe Grisha?
- It could very well be Grisha.

She didn’t remember the names, and Volodya later repeated: “It could very well be.”

Volodya was born in January - and our house is old, and it was poorly heated, and Gisia Moiseevna’s room was warmer than ours. So my baby Volodya and I spent the night with them several times. In general, Volodya was so handsome, curly, the smallest in the corridor. Everyone loved him, the girls carried him in their arms, some with a bun, some with candy... Then everyone cooked dinner together in the kitchen and treated each other, although they lived very poorly.

My family

My maiden name is Seregina. I had a sister, Raechka, she died early. In 1931, winter. She was only 21 years old. And then my mother died. Brother Sergei was a very handsome man: enormously tall, dark-skinned, black-eyed. All the women paid attention to him. He studied at a flight school in Sevastopol. He started working in Orenburg as an instructor pilot. From there he was summoned to Moscow, to the headquarters of the Air Force. At the same time there were these “star” long-distance flights, he took part and was awarded for it. Then Sergei left Moscow and commanded a squadron. He had three sleepers, that is, he had the rank of colonel. And then he was arrested. There were exercises, and one bomb did not explode. Children accidentally found her, an explosion occurred, and three children died. And in his personal file it is said that the squadron commander is to blame. But how could he know that the bomb would not explode, that the children would walk across this field and find it...

Sergei was under investigation for two years and in prison for a year somewhere in the north, on some lakes. He was sentenced by the “troika”, that is, without trial or investigation. In the north, in the camp, he experienced this... He ate pine needles, got sick, and was in the hospital. Seryozha tried never to remember this. He suffered madly from the fact that it was all so unfair. They broke a man for no reason. But now the General Staff has sent me a paper saying that Sergei has been completely rehabilitated.

My brother told me about the transit prison. Thousands of people were herded there, and they stood like this - right next to each other. That is, people could neither sit down nor even fall. Unhappy and hungry, they sometimes died standing. And when someone was called, there was a terrible stampede, and in this stampede people also died! And in this crowd, exhausted, they came up with such a half-squat in order to rest at least a little...

And just imagine, then the head of this Lukyanovskaya prison was the director of the plant where I worked during the evacuation. And there he mocked the workers.

Seryozha died in 1952. Volodya, I remember, was very worried. Then, many years later, Volodya suddenly says:

Mom, tell me about Uncle Seryozha.
- Well, what can I tell you? Why is this?
- Ah, you’re afraid, because my wife is a foreigner.
- I’m not afraid of anything, she’s afraid of everything...

Disease

I loved Marina Vladi so much... But now, after her publications, I will take down all her portraits and take them out of the house. She offended us, offended all our children and grandchildren.

She writes that seven bottles of vodka a day were the norm for Volodya. But this cannot be - even alcoholics say so. After all, a book is not published for one day. It will be in libraries, people will read it. One woman wrote to the publisher asking that some parts be toned down and some removed completely. Russians do not have a tradition of showing off their dirty linen...

It's some kind of nonsense. The man worked in the theater, acted, performed in hundreds of cities of the Soviet Union, communicated with people, traveled abroad. When did he drink if he worked so much? There are thousands of his photographs - and not one of them shows a drunken Vysotsky!

Marina writes that he crawled home drunk. When we lived with Volodya, there were no such cases. True, if company gathered somewhere, he liked to stay there with his comrades. Well, they sat and talked at night, especially since we lived far away.

If he drank, it was an illness. When this happened, Volodya looked like a shot bird. It was impossible to influence him in such a state, but we tried to protect him and distract him. He didn’t eat anything - we cooked broths, gave him juices... His brain was constantly working, he suffered, and those who loved him suffered. I suffered!

Who cares that Volodya, as Marina writes, lay under the blanket ice-cold, that he had convulsions... Who cares?! Tabloid literature - and nothing more. Yesterday I asked Nikita:

Nikita, have you ever seen dad drunk or indecent?
- No, I don’t even know anything like that...

I can say for sure that Volodya never offended or offended anyone, even if he was in such a state.

July 1980

People forget that parents are alive and they are in pain. I cried and cry when I read all these articles with details about Volodin’s death. Although they protect me, they hide these articles from me... Do you know that near the Kremlin itself one person was holding a poster “I demand clarification of the circumstances of Vysotsky’s death!”?..

What were his last days like? I returned to Moscow on July 10. Volodya told me that Kolokolnikov, an actor at the Taganka Theater, had died; the funeral was in two days. But Volodya was not at the funeral. On July 14, I also visited Volodya. On the 16th he had a concert somewhere outside the city. I say: “Take me with you. I want to go too." And Volodya: “Wait, mom. There will be a concert in Moscow soon, then you will come with me...”

Then the opening of the Olympics is July 19. I went to Volodya, the children came. “Mom, take something from the refrigerator and feed the kids. And I’ll go up to Nisanov (Valery Nisanov, photographer, Vysotsky’s housemate on Malaya Gruzinskaya. - Izvestia).” Volodya returned already bad...

On the 23rd I was with Volodya all day. I left late and went to bed. Two nights without sleep - I turned off my phone. I wake up to the doorbell ringing. Neighbors: “They’re calling you, Nina Maksimovna. Urgent matter." Valera Yanklovich, Volodya’s administrator: “Nina Maksimovna, should we send Volodya to the hospital or not? What is your opinion? I say: “Of course, send it! In any case, send me to the hospital!” But they decided to postpone it.

On the 24th, Volodya spent the whole day again. I told Seva Abdulov: “Seva, stay.” But no - he has tours, rehearsals... If I had been there at night, maybe Volodya would not have died. They say Volodya allegedly told me that day: “I’m going to die today.” This is not true. It was much earlier that he told me: “I’m going to die soon, Mommy,” back in March. And if Volodya had said then: “I’m going to die today...” - wouldn’t I have stayed?!

After death

We buried Volodya all together. Marina was gone for nine days; she arrived for forty days. She, of course, was worried, she lost a lot of weight. She was in a terrible state, but was already dealing with inheritance matters. Marina is generally a smart, practical, business-like woman. But we are Soviet people, we don’t know anything about this. And they didn’t want to do anything. We didn’t buy the cars, we didn’t build the dacha...

We lost our son and did not interfere in any matters. Yes, no one asked us anything. They discussed and decided everything themselves. I was doing housework here and heard Arthur Makarov (writer, film scriptwriter, adopted son of Sergei Gerasimov and Tamara Makarova - Izvestia) say: “I’ll give forty thousand for the dacha, but not right away. I can’t do it right away.” And Marina says: “Okay. You will slowly transfer this money to Nina Maksimovna...” This is a noble gesture: money is for mothers.

The manuscripts were taken from the apartment, as were the photographs. They were looking for some documents. Then, after Volodya’s death, I didn’t understand anything. And they believed that everything in the apartment belonged to Marina. Volodya had a huge musical installation, but it disappeared. There was another tape recorder in the bedroom. Volodya turned it on before going to bed, usually listening to classical things - the tape recorder was also given to someone.

We just looked and were surprised. But I was silent. And then someone whispered something to Marina, and she left home and lived in the country. I was worried, cried, told her on the phone:

Why did you leave? Come home!

But she never returned...

Two historians Vadim Tkachenko and Mikhail Kalnitsky studied the family tree of the great singer. They researched the ancestors of Vladimir Vysotsky from the beginning of the 19th century. It has been established that the bard’s great-great-grandfather on his father’s side was Leiba Buklkovshtein; he was born in a village near Brest. He was very religious and attended synagogue regularly.

Great-grandfather Shliom worked as a Russian teacher; his family raised 4 children. At the end of the 19th century, the family moved to the small town of Vysokoye - according to some sources, it was the name of this town that played a key role in the celebrity’s surname. But there are no facts that can prove this theory.

1941. Volodya Vysotsky “with a bear” in Moscow in the first days of the war. Photo from the end of June

Vysotsky’s maternal grandfather moved to Moscow from the Tula province. It is known that he worked as a doorman in several capital hotels. When he got married, his chosen one gave him 5 children, one of whom was the mother of the future great bard.

Vladimir Vysotsky’s paternal grandfather was Jewish by nationality, and at home the family spoke Yiddish. He had three higher educations and spoke three languages. Due to persecution in the Russian Empire, he changed his first and last name to Russian. So he turned from Wolf Shliomovich into Vladimir Vysotsky. Before her marriage, my grandmother’s name was Dora Bronstein; she also changed her name and converted to Orthodoxy. Despite the fact that the grandmother worked as a nurse and cosmetologist all her life, she was a big theatergoer and her grandson’s main supporter - she was pleased with her relative’s desire for art. In the very later years of her life, she was a real fan of Vladimir Semyonovich’s songs.

In Soviet times, Vladimir Vysotsky’s father was already far from religion and alienated from his own culture.

Vladimir with his parents

It is interesting that one of the singer’s sons, Arkady, married a Jewish woman. After the divorce, his wife took the children from him and currently she and the children live in the United States. The granddaughter of Vladimir Vysotsky, Natalya, became deeply religious and married according to the Jewish rite.

How did Vladimir Vysotsky perceive himself?

Despite the fact that the great singer knew his ancestry, he considered himself Russian. Moreover, according to Jewish tradition, nationality is determined by the mother, and for Vladimir Vysotsky it was Russian. According to his Soviet passport, he was also “Russian.” The bard himself spoke openly about his origins and never hid his Jewish roots. He even wrote the work “Once Upon a Time There Were the Jews Vysotsky.”

Vladimir Vysotsky and Marina Vladimir on vacation in Pitsunda

Despite his pedigree, the singer was better than others able to express the Russian soul and character of the Soviet era in songs. Thanks to his talent, he became a legend, an icon and history of the Soviet Union.

Who was Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky for me? A wonderful actor, a poet, a cheerful hooligan and a gentle romantic, a talented performer and songwriter who was loved and listened to by millions of my peers, a complex person, a debauchee and a hard-drinker in life and love, walking on the edge, living on the edge, on the verge of aortic rupture...

Desk calendar sheet January 25, 1938 (first day of the six-day period, Tuesday)

Nina Maksimovna Seregina and Semyon Vladimirovich (Volfovich) Vysotsky

Volodya Vysotsky was born in Moscow on January 25, 1938. His parents met in 1935. Ninotchka Seregina, an intelligent, well-read, romantic girl, a translator from German from the Transcription Bureau at the Main Directorate of Geodesy and Cartography of the NKVD of the USSR and Semyon Vysotsky - cheerful, witty, plays the piano and performs Vertinsky's romances, a clear-eyed student at the Polytechnic College of Communications, a friend of his brother Nina, Volodya. According to Semyon's assignment, the newlyweds left for Novosibirsk, but there was no work for Nina there, and she returned to the capital in 1937. Soon, having learned about his wife’s pregnancy, Semyon also came to Moscow, but began to live with his father, despite the fact that the relationship between the poet’s future parents remained friendly.

Volodya is six months old. Photo from July 25, 1938

Volodya was born two weeks later than planned, on Tatyana’s day at 9-40 in the morning with a weight of 4 kg and a height of 52 cm. From maternity hospital No. 8 (MONIKI) on Third Meshchanskaya Street, Nina Maksimovna and little Volodya were met by Semyon Vladimirovich’s younger brother, Alexey, who later became a good friend and mentor to his nephew.

1st Meshchanskaya street, house number 126. Photo from 1925
...But I was born, and I lived, and I survived, -
House on Pervaya Meshchanskaya at the end...

In the courtyard of the house on Pervaya Meshchanskaya, 126, winter 1940 Sings: Smile, Masha, look joyfully...

The boy spent the first years of his life in a large communal apartment (where for thirty-eight rooms there is only one toilet...) on 1st Meshchanskaya Street in house No. 126. Nina Maksimovna first took her little son with her to work, where he slept on a large table. Later, Vysotsky’s grandfather, who worked as an economic engineer at the plant, enrolled his grandson in a kindergarten. Relatives and friends recalled that in early childhood Volodya was a very sociable and entertaining child, a favorite of the residents of an apartment complex, he performed at his own concerts, sang, and read poetry, which, despite his young age, he knew a lot of.

3-year-old Volodya Vysotsky with a bear in Moscow in the first days of the war. Photo from the end of June 1941

At the beginning of the war, after seeing his father off to the front, Volodya and his mother lived in evacuation for two years in the village of Vorontsovka, Buzuluk district, Chkalovsk (now Orenburg) region. At first, Nina Maksimovna was going to go to Kazan, but the kindergarten where Volodya was raised was leaving for the Urals. Volodya was offended and muttered: You promised everything: to Kazania, to Kazania, and we ourselves are going to some Muzuluk! In the village, schoolchildren, kindergarten students and their parents were accommodated in peasant families.

Vova Vysotsky, factory kindergarten Freedom, Art. Malakhovka, Moscow region, 1943
In 1943, mother and son from the Urals returned home to Moscow, to Pervaya Meshchanskaya, 126.

Volodya Vysotsky in primary school (school photo) 1946

Volodya Sevryukov and Volodya Vysotsky. Photo from 1947

In 1945, Volodya went to first grade at school No. 273 in the Rostokinsky district of Moscow. Two years after the end of the war, Vladimir’s parents separated. The father remarried Evgenia Stepanovna Vysotskaya-Likhalatova, whom the boy called mother Zhenya. Later, Nina Maksimovna married Grigory Bantosh. In Moscow, Volodya was often left unattended, so his parents decided that until he finished school, he would live with his father and Evgenia Stepanovna. In January 1947, Semyon Vladimirovich was sent to serve in the GSVG in the city of Eberswalde, where his son and wife went with him.

Alexey and Semyon Vysotsky. Germany, 1945

Semyon and Alexey Vysotsky with their wives and children, Germany, Rathenow, 1947

Eberswalde, June 1947. Photo by Alexander Svishchev

Here, in Germany, but in the city of Ratenov, Semyon Vladimirovich’s brother, Alexey Vladimirovich, also served. The brothers' families constantly communicated, were friends, and visited each other on weekends. Conversations between adults about the events of the past war, stories about military operations, the exploits of friends, constant contact with military personnel largely determined Vladimir’s first dream of a future profession; like his father and uncle, he decided to become an officer, a defender of the homeland.

Mom Zhenya and Volodya are on vacation in Eberswalde, Germany. Photo May 25, 1947

Volodya Vysotsky with Evgenia Stepanovna and dad Semyon Vladimirovich in Eberswalde, Germany, 1948

Volodya in military uniform, Eberswalde, Germany, 1947

Volodya’s father was not at home often, sometimes he disappeared for weeks: training, field training, shooting. So Evgenia Stepanovna was mainly concerned with the boy. They got along well from the first days and treated each other tenderly. Mom Zhenya tried to fulfill any wishes of her son. When he wanted to have a military uniform and definitely chrome boots with blunt toes, she made every effort, but found a master, a shoemaker. When the form was ready, the boy's joy knew no bounds. Here, in Eberswalde, young Volodya learned to play the piano. To develop interest in classes and develop perseverance, Zhenya’s mother resorted to a trick: she began to study music herself and challenged Volodya to a competition. This greatly disciplined the boy.

Of course, Volodya missed his own mother, Nina Maksimovna, often wrote letters to her and looked forward to her answers.

Volodya Vysotsky in the children's sanatorium in Bad Elster, Germany. May-June 1948

Volodya Vysotsky on horseback. Bad Elster, Germany, 1948

Volodya Vysotsky with Igor Zernov in Eberswalde, Germany. Photo from 1948

In the fall of 1949, the Vysotskys returned from Germany to Moscow. The family settled in the center of the capital at Bolshoi Karetny Lane, 15 ( Where are your seventeen years? On Bolshoy Karetny!). Volodya went to the 5th grade of men's secondary school No. 186. He studied well, but without much enthusiasm, thanks to his abilities, not his diligence. Physical strength and strong fists were valued among boys. It happened that stronger guys even beat Vysotsky.

Volodya Vysotsky in the pioneer camp Mechanical engineer Pokrov, Vladimir region, 1950

Director of the pioneer camp Mechanical engineer Taisiya Dmitrievna Tyurina and Volodya Vysotsky. January 1950

Mother Nina Maksimovna and Volodya Vysotsky. Moscow, May 1950. Photo by N. Lvov

Volodya Vysotsky, his younger uncle Volodya the hen and the shepherd Karat in the city of Gaysin, Ukrainian SSR, July 9, 1950. Photo by A. Vysotsky

Volodya Vysotsky in Gaysin, Ukrainian SSR, summer 1950. Photo by A. Vysotsky

Marlen Matveev, Sasha and Volodya Vysotsky with friend Valerik Gukasov at the Kiev Zoo, 1950. Photo by Alexey Vysotsky

The boy most often spent his winter and summer holidays in pioneer camps, visiting relatives in Ukraine. He was very lively and sociable, therefore, wherever he was, he immediately made many friends - peers, whom he certainly dominated, conquering them with his daring, daring, interesting inventions, stories, and performances.

Vladimir Vysotsky with a teacher in the 9th grade of Moscow school No. 165. Photo from 1954

Svetlana Zakurdaeva and Vladimir Vysotsky on Bolshoi Karetny, March 5, 1955

In the spring of 1955, Vysotsky’s mother Nina Maksimovna received a room in a three-room apartment in a new house on the same First Meshchanskaya. And in the 10th grade, Vladimir moved to live with her. The young man made new acquaintances, but he did not forget his old friends from Bolshoi Karetny, about whom he later wrote: ... all were interesting people of a fairly high level, no matter who did what...

Vladimir Vysotsky with classmates after the graduation party at VDNKh.
From left to right: V. Akimov, V. Ageev, A. Yakushev, V. Vysotsky, R. Denisov, 1955.

Volodya Vysotsky in his mother’s apartment on 1st Meshchanskaya Street, 1955

In the tenth grade, Vladimir began studying in the drama club at the Teacher's House, located in an old merchant mansion on Gorky Street. The circle was led by Moscow Art Theater artist Vladimir Nikolaevich Bogomolov, who based his classes on the theatrical principles of Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky: truth of feelings, the truth of a living person on stage, which were new, sharp, relevant. The charming, unusually sincere and cheerful young man pleased Bogomolov. He considered the young man a very talented person and predicted a career for him as a famous artist. It’s no wonder that Vladimir disappeared into the circle until late at night.

Certificate of maturity of Vladimir Vysotsky on graduation from school No. 186 of the Kominternovsky district of Moscow in 1955

Vladimir Vysotsky. Photo from the mid-1950s

I am aware that during these anniversary days a lot of photographs of Vladimir Vysotsky will appear, and yet I decided to make several posts about the Poet. I collected photographs for a long time, some from books, old magazines, not all of good quality, but fortunately now you can find decent photographs online. Thanks to those kind people who are not greedy and give us the opportunity to use better quality photographs. So to be continued)