The early death of Sergei Yesenin is another tragic page in the history of Russian literature. The departure of the poet in the prime of life and creative potential was a huge shock for his loved ones and admirers. Until now, not all Yesenin's fans agree with the official version of suicide. The very first investigation does contain many inaccuracies, but alternative theories also find it difficult to provide convincing evidence in connection with the remoteness of the events.
Circumstances of death
Like many creative people, Yesenin's psychological state remained unstable throughout his life. He often drenched his mental anguish with alcohol, and sought consolation in the arms of many women. But the poet never found personal happiness, although shortly before his death he married for the third time. New wife Sophia Tolstaya, seeing her husband's unstable condition, insisted on his treatment in a specialized clinic. In an atmosphere of secrecy, Yesenin spent about a month there and on December 21, 1925, he left the walls of the medical institution.
However, according to his further actions, it is easy to understand that the poet's depression did not go away at all. He left Moscow, taking almost all of his savings. Yesenin spent the last days of his life in Leningrad within the walls of the Angleterre Hotel. He met with his literary friends and only once devoted time to creativity. "Goodbye, my friend, goodbye …" is a poem with a prophetic title and content. The poet passed it on to his colleague Wolf Ehrlich on the eve of his death.
The whole meaning of the two quatrains seems to echo what will happen in Yesenin's room very soon. And the anguish and acuteness of the poet's feelings only confirm the testimony of his friend. According to Ehrlich, he complained about the lack of ink in the hotel room, so he wrote poetry with his own blood.
The next day - December 28, 1925 - the body of the dead Yesenin was discovered by his next guests - journalist Georgy Ustinov with his wife. According to the protocol of the official investigation, the poet hanged himself from a central heating pipe. His body hung from the ceiling of the room, and next to it was an inverted curbstone. An autopsy named the cause of Yesenin's death asphyxiation. The discovered cut on the hand of the deceased and a small dent on the forehead, according to the forensic expert, did not pose a threat to life. The investigation was closed, recognizing the poet's tragic death as a suicide.
Farewell to Yesenin took place twice. In the Leningrad Union of Poets, the first civil funeral service was organized, and then the body was taken to Moscow, and another funeral ceremony was held at the House of Press. The poet was buried on the last day of 1925 - December 31 - at the famous Vagankovsky cemetery.
Murder version
For many years, the circumstances of Yesenin's death did not arouse suspicion among admirers of his work. It was only in the 1970s that the version of staged suicide began to gain popularity. Moscow investigator Eduard Khlystalov is considered to be its founder. Soon his suspicions were found by a large number of like-minded people. After examining the data of the official investigation and the posthumous photographs of the poet, supporters of the version of the murder, argued that before his death he was severely beaten, and then the dead was hung in a noose.
The USSR state security officers were called murderers. Among those involved in the crime were mentioned: Trotsky, Chekist Blumkin, forensic scientist Gorbov, head of the city police Yegorov and even Wolf Erlich, who was one of the last to see Yesenin alive. In the wake of numerous theories, in 1989 a commission chaired by the literary critic Yuri Prokushev took up the death of the poet. On her initiative, specialists conducted a number of additional examinations and studied archival documents.
In particular, the theory related to the height of the walls in the hotel was debunked. Her supporters argued that Yesenin, who had a height of 170 cm, could not hang himself from the ceiling, since his height in Angleterre reached 4 m. However, according to an investigation, the true distance to the ceiling in the room was 3.5 m, which means, the deceased could reach him on his own with the help of a one and a half meter pedestal.
Another moment that confused opponents of the suicide version was the fastening of the rope to the vertical pipe. This is supposedly impossible, and the rope must slide down. But here the experiment showed the opposite.
In addition, experts once again explained the nature of the horizontal indentation on the forehead of the deceased. A careful study of Yesenin's death masks, it was confirmed that it was formed from the contact of the head with the pipe: the diameter of the alleged object coincides, and the characteristic tilt of the head formed due to the displacement of the knot on the rope loop.
Other less significant arguments of the self-proclaimed investigators also found quite logical explanations. And creativity, behavior, mood of the poet openly indicate his suicidal thoughts. However, the lives of many great people are surrounded by rumors, bold theories, fantasies. In this sense, Yesenin was no exception.
