The life and death of the “spy” Meyerhold. Avant-garde theater

In Sevolod, Meyerhold became one of the first avant-garde directors of the Soviet Union. He experimented with sets and acting techniques, used his own directorial techniques and studied the traditions of ancient theaters. After the revolution, he wrote the “Theatrical October” program and created a “biomechanics” exercise system for actors.

"My idea fixe"

Vsevolod Meyerhold - his real name is Karl Kazimir Theodor Meyerhold - was born in Penza in 1874 into a Lutheran German family. As a child, Meyerhold often played in amateur performances with his brothers and sisters; their mother organized musical evenings at home.

The future director graduated from the Penza gymnasium and in 1895 entered the law faculty of Moscow University. In the same year, he converted to Orthodoxy and took the surname Meyerhold and the name Vsevolod - in honor of his favorite writer Vsevolod Garshin. Meyerhold received a Russian passport, renounced Prussian citizenship and married his peer Olga Munt.

Soon Vsevolod Meyerhold left the Faculty of Law and moved to the second year of the Theater and Music School of the Moscow Philharmonic Society - in the class of Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. Meyerhold enjoyed studying literature, music and the history of theater, wrote well and dreamed of trying himself as a director.

In 1898, the Art and Public Theater was created - the future Moscow Art Theater. A graduate of the school, Vsevolod Meyerhold, together with his fellow students Olga Knipper and Ivan Moskvin, joined his troupe. During the first four seasons at the Moscow Art Theater, Meyerhold played 18 roles. Among them are the role of Treplev from The Seagull, Tuzenbach from Three Sisters, Ivan from The Death of Ivan the Terrible. He was the first on the Russian stage to play Vasily Shuisky from Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich.

In 1902, Meyerhold left the Art Theater. Together with actor Alexander Kosheverov, he published an open letter in the newspaper, in which he explained the reason for leaving - the desire to realize his own creative program.

Vsevolod Meyerhold moved to Kherson and headed the New Drama Association troupe there. The premiere of the new theater took place in 1902. At the New Drama Partnership, Meyerhold and Kosheverov staged the repertoire of the first seasons of the Art Theater - plays by Anton Chekhov and Gerhart Hauptmann, Maxim Gorky and Alexei Tolstoy. Over three years, the director staged about 200 performances.

Vsevolod Meyerhold staged a modernist performance - “an interweaving of the forms of puppet theater with the theater of live actors.” The prompter, as planned, climbed into his booth already during the action, the actor who voiced the author's text was dragged off the stage by a rope. The decorations were extremely laconic, and at the end of the production they soared to the ceiling: in their place a traditional columned hall descended.

According to the recollections of contemporaries, after the premiere, real passions raged in the hall. Some spectators wildly applauded the director, others booed him. Many critical articles were published about the performance, and the halls of the Komissarzhevskaya Theater were constantly sold out. “Balaganchik” became a theatrical sensation in St. Petersburg and the first production of the Russian “conventional theater.”

Since 1907, Vsevolod Meyerhold was the chief director of the Imperial Theaters - Alexandrinsky and Mariinsky. He worked at Alexandrinsky until the revolution. During these years, Meyerhold was fascinated by the traditions of ancient theaters - he experimented with various techniques, decorations and techniques.

"Theatrical October" and GosTiM

After the October Revolution, Vsevolod Meyerhold joined the Communist Party. Immediately after the coup, he and Alexander Blok, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Rurik Ivnev and Nathan Altman came to Smolny, where they offered cooperation to the new authorities.

Since 1918, Meyerhold was in charge of the Courses for the Mastery of Stage Productions - he taught directing and stage management. The director created a system of exercises called “biomechanics”. They had to develop the actors physically and prepare them to quickly complete tasks on the stage.

For the anniversary of the revolution, Meyerhold staged the first Soviet comedy "Mystery-bouffe" based on Mayakovsky - a "heroic, epic and satirical depiction" of that era. The performance was designed by avant-garde artist Kazimir Malevich.

“I graduated from the mystery.<...>Directed by Meyerhold with K. Malevich. They roared around terribly. Especially the communist intelligentsia.<...>They set it three times - then they broke it. And then came the Macbeths.

Vladimir Mayakovsky, excerpt from autobiography “I Myself”

In 1919–1920, Vsevolod Meyerhold toured the Crimea and the Caucasus - there white counterintelligence took him under arrest. The director spent six months in a Novorossiysk prison under the threat of execution, but later he managed to leave for Moscow.

Anatoly Lunacharsky invited him to the position of head of the Theater Department of the People's Commissariat for Education. In October 1920, the director made a report to the department employees - he proposed the “Theatrical October” program. According to Meyerhold, in modern theater it was necessary to make a revolution similar to a state one, and all productions had to be politicized. However, during the next reorganization of the Theater Department, Lunacharsky relieved the director of his post, and after some time, Meyerhold’s own theater opened in Moscow - “Theater of the RSFSR-1”. A few years later it became known as the State Theater named after Vsevolod Meyerhold (GosTiM). On its stage, following the program of “Theater October”, the director staged the second edition of “Mystery Bouffe”, Emil Verhaeren’s heroic drama “The Dawns” and more than 20 more performances.

During that period, changes occurred in the director’s personal life. In 1924, the young actress Zinaida Reich, the ex-wife of Sergei Yesenin, made her debut at GosTiM. Vsevolod Meyerhold fell in love with her. He left the family, married Reich and adopted her children from her first marriage.

“He listened in silence, calmly and sadly answered me like this (I don’t remember the exact words): from my high school years I carried revolution in my soul and always in its extreme, maximalist forms. I know you're right - my end will be as you say. But I will return to the Soviet Union. My question is - why? - he answered: out of honesty.”

Mikhail Chekhov, actor, teacher

In 1934, Meyerhold directed "The Lady with the Camellias" with Zinaida Reich in the title role. Joseph Stalin did not like the performance; Soviet critics attacked the director with accusations of aesthetics. Reich sent Stalin a letter in which she wrote that he did not understand art. The theater began to be accused of being out of touch with Soviet realities, not adhering to the course of socialist realism, and staging plays by writers who turned out to be enemies of the people. In 1938, the Vsevolod Meyerhold Theater was closed.

For some time the director worked at the Konstantin Stanislavsky Opera House, and in 1939 he was arrested. A few days after this, Zinaida Reich was killed. Meyerhold spent several months in the Lubyanka prison, where he was interrogated and tortured. In February 1940, he was shot on charges of counter-revolutionary activities.

In 1955, Vsevolod Meyerhold was posthumously rehabilitated. A year later, the director’s granddaughter Maria Valentey erected a common monument for the spouses at the grave of Zinaida Reich at the Vagankovskoye cemetery. In the 80s, it became known that Meyerhold’s ashes were buried in “Common Grave No. 1” in the cemetery of the Moscow crematorium.

The death of the red director

Vsevolod MEYERHOLD

V. Meyerhold was born on February 9, 1874 in Penza into a large family (he had two more brothers and several sisters). His father, Emilius Fedorovich, was a native of Germany, half French, and his mother, Alvina Danilovna, was a Riga German. At birth, the boy was given the name Karl Theodor Casimir, and he became Vsevolod at the age of 21, when he converted to Orthodoxy.

Meyerhold spent his childhood and youth in Penza, where his father owned a distillery. The boy went to study at the 2nd Penza Gymnasium, and, it is worth noting, he studied extremely poorly. During his gymnasium course, he stayed in the second year three times and instead of eight years he studied at the gymnasium for eleven. In addition, the Meyerholds were clearly unlucky with the head of the family. Emilius Fedorovich was an extremely despotic person and constantly bullied his family members (he cheated on his wife almost openly). As a result, the eldest son left home, the middle one began to drink too much, and the youngest - Kazimir - once declared: “I should hate such a father!”

Meyerhold became interested in theater while still in Penza and at the age of 18 staged his first amateur play, “Woe from Wit.” In it he played Repetilov. The premiere of this performance took place on what seemed to be a mournful day for our hero - February 14, 1892, the day when the head of the family, Emilius Fedorovich, died in the Meyerhold house. However, Meyerhold’s relationship with his father was so damaged that he did not even think of visiting the dying man (the same thing happened with his middle brother, Fyodor, who was also a participant in this performance).

After the death of the head of the family, it seemed that the Meyerholds had finally found the long-awaited peace and freedom. Alas, everything turned out not so rosy. The eldest son went to Rostov, the middle one tried to sort out his father’s accounting and drank more and more often. Kazimir did not want to inherit his father’s business and decided to devote himself entirely to the theater. Studying at the gymnasium frankly disgusted him, and he literally struggled to finish his studies for the last two years. At the same time, Meyerhold’s first love came to him - his peer Olga Munt played with him in an amateur theater. But this love - unrequited, as it seemed to him - tormented the young man and took away his last strength. Meyerhold was repeatedly visited by thoughts of suicide.

In the summer of 1895, a whole series of significant events take place in the life of our hero: on June 24, he changes his name to Vsevolod and enters the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University. On the same days, he announces to his relatives his engagement to O. Munt, but the family reacts negatively to this. The arguments seem convincing: you should wait until you graduate from university, because student marriages are so short-lived. But Meyerhold does not want to listen to anything. He inherited his stubbornness and explosive temperament from his father. The young couple's engagement took place, but the wedding took place the following year - April 17, 1896. A month earlier, Meyerhold created the People's Theater in Penza.

In September 1896, Meyerhold realized his long-time dream - he entered the music and drama school of the Moscow Philharmonic Society. During the exams, he read monologues with such temperament that the examiners were pleasantly surprised and enrolled him straight into the second year. In this institution, unlike the Penza gymnasium, Meyerhold would soon become the best student.

In February 1898, Vsevolod and Olga had a daughter, Maria. In the same year, Meyerhold finished his studies at the school, met K. S. Stanislavsky and entered the newly created Art Theater. He meets the revolutionary A. Remizov, who introduces him to the ideas of K. Marx. The Penza gendarmerie puts Meyerhold on the list of “unreliable persons.”

At the Art Theater, Meyerhold strived with all his might to become a leading actor, but this desire of his did not always find understanding from other members of the team. For example, in the production of “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich” he was first given the main role, he prepared for it, but then the role was given to I. Moskvin. But soon in “The Seagull” he gets the role of Treplev (Meyerhold himself considered it his best role). Real fame comes to him; photographs with his image are sold in all stationery stores in the city. A.P. Chekhov becomes close to him.

And yet Meyerhold does not feel complete satisfaction from his stay at the Art Theater. His relationship with V. Nemirovich-Danchenko is not going well, and although Vsevolod is busy in four out of five performances, thoughts of leaving increasingly come to his mind. The situation reached its climax on February 12, 1902. On that day, Meyerhold learned that he was not included among the theater’s founding shareholders. His anger knows no bounds, and he immediately announces his resignation. Together with K. Stanislavsky they create the Studio Theater on Povarskaya, but in 1905, on the eve of the opening, Stanislavsky suddenly refuses to work with Meyerhold. He goes to the Komissarzhevskaya Theater. He works there for some time and fails again: at the height of the season, Komissarzhevskaya breaks the contract with him. After this, Meyerhold's creative path will be connected with two theaters: the Alexandrinsky and the Mariinsky.

Just before the revolution, Meyerhold staged performances at the Petrograd Studio on Borodinskaya. At the same time, the director's first contact with silent cinema took place. In 1915, the Partnership of Tieman, Reinhardt, Osipov and K°, which produced films of the Russian Golden Series, turned to Meyerhold with a request to try his hand at cinema. By that time, the “series” was going through a streak of failures, and the participation of the famous theater director in it should, in the opinion of its creators, once again attract people to cinemas. Meyerhold directed two films: The Picture of Dorian Gray and Strong Man. However, none of these films were successful with audiences.

Meyerhold greeted the October Revolution with delight. A few months after it, he joined the ranks of the CPSU (b). In 1919, following a denunciation from ill-wishers, Meyerhold was arrested as a Bolshevik agitator in the Crimea by White Guards. Without a doubt, he could easily have been shot, but they did not do this, since Meyerhold was a fairly famous actor and director. General Kutepov accepted Meyerhold's passion for Bolshevism as a cost of his creative nature and ordered the director to be released. This episode, and the subsequent behavior of Meyerhold, when he, already in Moscow, put on a leather jacket and put a Mauser on his belt, the Bolsheviks did not forget and hastened to note: in 1920 he became the head of the First Theater of the RSFSR, which in 1923 became be called the State Theater named after V. Meyerhold (GOSTIM). Also in 1923, Meyerhold was awarded the title of People's Artist of the Republic.

In contrast to his stormy creative and social life, Meyerhold's personal life outwardly looked calm. Olga Munt gave him three children, all of them girls. During the revolution, the Meyerholds lived in Moscow on Novinsky Boulevard, in house No. 32. The Higher Theater Workshops, which Meyerhold led, were located in the same house. In 1921, 27-year-old Zinaida Reich, the ex-wife of Sergei Yesenin, became a student of the directing department in these workshops.

Reich met Yesenin in Petrograd in 1917. She then worked as a typist at the newspaper Delo Naroda, where Yesenin visited quite often. Reich was a beautiful woman, and Yesenin, of course, could not help but pay attention to her. They first met in the spring, and in the summer of the same year they already went on a trip to the White Sea together. Then they got married. However, their marriage, during which Reich gave birth to two children, lasted only three years. In 1920 they separated, and Reich came to Moscow with two tiny children. Here I got a job as a typist at the People's Commissariat for Education. It was there that Meyerhold first saw her. Soon she became a student in his workshops, and even moreover, she began to visit his house. First just as a guest. Meyerhold's wife received her quite warmly, as she knew about Zinaida's plight. Soon Reich became her own person in their home. This continued until the summer of 1922.

That summer, Meyerhold's wife went south with their children to rest. And when they returned back, the mistress of their house was already Zinaida Reich. Olga Mikhailovna had no choice but to look for another home together with her children.

According to some researchers, Reich did not love Meyerhold and married him solely for convenience. There is some truth in this statement. After all, Reich had two small children in her arms, and Meyerhold at that time was already a fairly famous director. In addition, marriage to the head of a major theater allowed Reich to claim the role of prima donna in it. According to Reich’s daughter Tatyana, her mother “... never loved anyone at all. She was sensitive, emotional, she could get carried away, but she did not know love. She was perhaps too rational for that. And most importantly, she always put herself, her well-being and her interests above all else. Yes, she liked to turn men’s heads, but it was unlikely that she would enter into any relationship deeper than simple coquetry with her fans, of whom there were always more than enough.”

Meanwhile, in the spring of 1926, the country celebrated the 5th anniversary of GOSTIM with great fanfare. It was almost a nationwide event, or at least that’s how they wanted to present it. At that time, this was still unusual, since anniversaries were hardly celebrated then. The anniversary committee was headed by Clara Zetkin, one of her deputies was the People's Commissar of Education A. Lunacharsky himself. The committee included S. Budyonny, K. Radek, N. Semashko, O. Kameneva and other leaders of the party and state. K. Stanislavsky, M. Chekhov, V. Mayakovsky were delegated from the creative intelligentsia. This anniversary was celebrated for three days in a row. Detailed reports about each day of celebrations were published on its pages by the country's main newspaper, Pravda (issues dated April 27–29). We can safely say that this was Meyerhold's greatest triumph.

In 1927, J. Stalin visited GOSTIM for the first time. He came to the performance “Window to the Village” and sat in the usual row, since there was no government box in the theater at that time (the theater was located on Sadovaya-Triumfalnaya). Stalin did not like the performance, and he left the theater openly dissatisfied. This was the first sad call for Meyerhold.

However, in spite of everything, GOSTIM in those years was rightfully considered one of the most innovative theaters in the country. Such authors as Mayakovsky, Vishnevsky, Bezymensky, Olesha, Selvinsky, German worked with him. It was on his stage that the performances “Mystery-Bouffe”, “The Generous Cuckold”, “Forest”, “Mandate”, “The Inspector General”, “Woe to Wit”, “The Bedbug”, “Bathhouse” were staged.

The last performance in the spring of 1930 was a failure. However, this did not prevent the theater from going on tour abroad. In Berlin, Meyerhold and Reich met with M. Chekhov, who shortly before had left the USSR forever. They tried to persuade the artist to come back, but he remained adamant. Moreover, he himself suggested that they emigrate immediately, otherwise, according to him, certain death awaits them in their homeland. To which Meyerhold allegedly replied: “I know you are right, my end will be as you say. But I will return to the Soviet Union."

In 1931, GOSTIM moved from the old building on Sadovaya-Triumfalnaya to Tverskaya, where the Yermolova Theater is now located. And on the site of the old theater, it was decided to build a new, largest theater in Moscow, equipped with the latest technology. Its auditorium was supposed to accommodate three thousand seats; the theater was planned to have an open arena stage and a glass ceiling. In this building, Meyerhold intended to stage Hamlet, Othello by W. Shakespeare, and Boris Godunov by A. Pushkin.

By the 1930s, Meyerhold's wife was considered an unconditional prima in his theater. Due to conflicts with her, many artists left the theater, including former prima Maria Babanova. Although in this case not everything is clear. I will quote the words of N. Bernovskaya: “In the press of the 20s, discussing the situation in Meyerhold’s theater, without hesitation, they used the common cliche “Babanov - Reich”. Indeed, there was: an adored wife, from whom Meyerhold sought to make an actress at all costs, and persecution of young Babanova, who seemed to be the main competitor due to her extraordinary talent, and the realization of the desired goal, when on June 17, 1927, Maria Ivanovna finally I left the theater in tears. (Then all my life these tears returned every time the conversation came up about Meyerhold.)

For a very long time, the formula “Babanova - Reich” remained relevant for Maria Ivanovna herself, too directly and vividly it connected with all the endless injustices that could not be forgotten...

And yet, towards the end of her life, she began to realize that Meyerhold appeared in that situation not as a preoccupied husband, but as an artist, irrepressible, inexorable, jealous, capriciously arranging pieces on the board with his unwavering will. An artist who did not allow any outside influences.”

According to one version, the conflict between Babanov and Reich was also predetermined by the fact that both women loved Meyerhold and laid claim to his affection. However, unlike M. Babanova, her rival was much more decisive and persistent in her actions. Sometimes it came down to prohibited techniques. For example, in the play "The Inspector General" both actresses played the main roles: Reich - the mayor's wife, Babanova - her daughter. So, during the performance, Reich secretly pinched her rival so much that after that she had bruises on her body for a long time.

Meyerhold himself was no less vindictive and had a tough disposition (he clearly inherited this disposition from his father). Here is how D. Fernandez wrote: “Meyerhold had a difficult, domineering character. “I fear and hate you,” he said to the students of his workshop. He was nicknamed Doctor Dapertutto (Everywhere), a reference to the inquisitorial pettiness with which he commanded his school. He did not leave the slightest freedom to his actors. Instead of helping them develop their own capabilities, he told them what*!*o*!* they should do, in great detail. Of course, the father, but the father is a dictator and a tyrant.”

In public, Meyerhold and Reich maintained the appearance of family well-being, but within the walls of their house on Bryusov Lane they gave free rein to their feelings. Daughter Z. Reich recalls that at home there was a constant war between the spouses. Scandals followed scandals, and the children were afraid that sooner or later everything would end in divorce. However, the divorce never followed. Although all the prerequisites for it already existed.

It should also be noted that Meyerhold was a homosexual. According to I. Romanovich, who knew him closely, “Meyerhold’s circle of homosexual relationships was quite wide, it included many famous people. This fact of the Master’s intimate life undoubtedly had a huge impact on his relationship with Zinaida Nikolaevna. Maybe I will be branded by the guardians of the “purity of vestments,” but I suppose that in Meyerhold’s bisexuality, along with many other things - for he was a complex and contradictory, multi-layered man - lies, at least partially, the answer to the question of why he accepted the Bolshevik revolution . In old Russia, freedom and non-trivial sexual life were not encouraged. Perhaps Meyerhold associated with the Bolshevik revolution access to the realm of true freedom, including creative and sexual freedom. He could not imagine that this coup would bring even greater unfreedom, the enslavement of everyone, that homosexuality would be prosecuted as a criminal or even state crime.”

Touching on this sensitive topic, I note that Meyerhold was quite often carried away by the actors of his theater. For example, it is known that he strongly sympathized with Mikhail Tsarev and, as T. Yesenina notes, “Meyerhold constantly dragged Tsarev into the house, to the dacha. He didn’t let go of himself. I constantly admired him and my friendship with him.”

Meyerhold showed similar signs of attention to other young actors: Evgeny Samoilov, Arkady Raikin. There is a known case when the still young Arkady Isaakovich came to a rehearsal with Meyerhold and sat quietly in the back of the hall. However, the director noticed an unfamiliar young man, met him and began to persuade him to move from Leningrad to Moscow, even offering him an apartment.

Meanwhile, in the mid-30s, clouds began to gather over Meyerhold. And although the parties that were held for the capital’s bohemians in their house (they moved to a cooperative house on Bryusov Lane in 1928) were attended by very influential people (including security officers), the owner of the house himself understood that he could seriously count on their help in in case of danger he will not have to. On January 28, 1936, the article “Confusion Instead of Music” appeared in Pravda. It was about D. Shostakovich's opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, which had just been staged at the Bolshoi Theater. The article denounced “leftist art,” which “generally denies simplicity, realism, clarity of image, and the natural sound of words in the theater.” And all this is nothing more than “transferring into opera, into music, the most negative features of “Meyerholdism.”

On September 6, 1936, the titles of People's Artists of the USSR were first awarded to a whole group of figures, among whom were Stanislavsky, Nemirovich-Danchenko, Kachalov, Moskvin, Shchukin and others. Meyerhold's name was not on this list.

In order to somehow justify himself before the authorities, Meyerhold went to great lengths. He first undertook to stage L. Seifulina’s play “Natasha,” which took place in a collective farm village. Then he began rehearsing the play “One Life” based on the play by E. Gabrilovich, which was based on N. Ostrovsky’s novel “How the Steel Was Tempered.” The performance was presented before the formidable eyes of the selection committee in November 1937. And it didn't lead to anything good. According to eyewitnesses, Z. Reich strongly advised her husband to contact Stalin personally. However, Meyerhold hesitated, since he had a cool relationship with the General Secretary (they only had a short conversation after the play “Roar, China!”). He did not believe that this meeting could change anything in his fate. B. Pasternak, one of the few who continued to maintain friendly relations with the disgraced director, told him about this then. At the same time, the poet talked about the unworthy behavior of A. Tolstoy, who first made Stalin laugh with anecdotes, and then, as if casually, asked for help in getting a new dacha. So the meeting between Meyerhold and Stalin did not take place. And soon there was no need for it at all. On January 7, 1938, the Committee for Arts issued a resolution on the liquidation of the State Theater named after V. Meyerhold.

Meyerhold knew that he and his theater were doomed to destruction long before January 1938. Back in 1936, he and Z. Reich tried to leave the USSR and asked for a visa to travel to Europe for themselves and their children. However, the authorities were prudent and issued a visa only to adult family members. It was as if the children remained hostage. The flight from the country never took place.

Having lost the theater, Meyerhold was left to his own devices for several months. At this time, he read a lot and attended concerts almost every day. The savings gradually melted away, and Meyerhold was planning to sell his car in those days. But then he suddenly received an invitation to work: in May 1938 he was appointed director of the K. Stanislavsky Opera Theater. This appointment occurred under the direct patronage of Konstantin Stanislavsky himself. However, on August 7 of the same year, the recognized master died, and there was no one left to protect Meyerhold. Although for some time he continued to work in the theater as chief director.

On March 10, 1939, the premiere of D. Verdi’s opera “Rigoletto” took place. And on June 20 of the same year, Meyerhold was arrested in Leningrad. The arrest took place in the director’s apartment on Karpovka, house number 13. Literally a few hours before, the director was visiting actor Erast Garin, with whom he broke up with a scandal two years ago. Now their reconciliation has occurred. According to the actor, Meyerhold joked that evening, drank and did not look depressed at all. And at this time, security officers were already waiting for him at Karpovka.

25 days after her husband’s arrest - on the night of July 14-15 - Zinaida Reich was stabbed to death in her apartment on Bryusov Lane. On that fateful day, she was in the house with her housekeeper Lidia Anisimovna: her daughter Tatyana and her one-year-old son lived at the dacha in Gorenki, and Kostya went to S. Yesenin’s homeland in Konstantinovo. Before going to bed, Reich went to the bathroom. At that very moment, two unknown men entered the apartment through the balcony. When they were in the corridor, the owner of the house suddenly came out of the bathroom. Seeing the uninvited guests, Reich began to scream heart-rendingly, but the criminals pulled out knives and began to strike her mercilessly from both sides. All this time, Reich continued to scream, but the neighbors did not dare to intervene, apparently confident that another search was taking place in Meyerhold’s apartment and Reich began to go hysterical. The housewife and housekeeper could not help in any way. As a result, the criminals inflicted seventeen stab wounds on the unfortunate woman and then fled through the front door. They did not take anything from the apartment. When the police called by the housekeeper arrived at the scene, Reich was still alive. The operatives even managed to interrogate her. Then the victim was sent to the Sklifosovsky hospital, but the doctors were unable to bring her alive: Reich died from blood loss. Soon their four-room apartment was given to the MGB department: Beria’s driver and a certain employee of the same department settled there. The criminals who killed Reich were never found.

Meanwhile, Meyerhold was tortured in Butyrka prison. In his statement addressed to V. Molotov, the director wrote: “They beat me here - a sick sixty-six-year-old man, they put me on the floor face down, they beat me on my heels and back with rubber bands; when I was sitting on a chair, they beat me with the same rubber on my legs (from above, with great force) and in places from my knees to the upper parts of my legs. And in the following days, when these places of the legs were covered with profuse internal hemorrhage, these red-blue-yellow bruises were again beaten with this tourniquet, and the pain was such that it seemed as if boiling water was poured onto the sore sensitive places of the legs (I screamed and cried in pain). They hit me on the back with this rubber, they hit me in the face with swings from a height...”

Let me remind you that Meyerhold was in prison twice throughout his life. In 1919 in Crimea, when he was arrested by the White Guards, and exactly 20 years after that, Meyerhold ended up in the dungeons of the NKVD as a “Japanese spy.” He never left these dungeons alive. On February 2, 1940, he was shot in the basement of the military collegium building of the Supreme Court of the USSR (building on Lubyanka, opposite the current Children's World) along with a group of other prisoners, among whom was the famous journalist Mikhail Koltsov. Meyerhold was rehabilitated 15 years later - November 26, 1955. Moreover, his relatives were given a false certificate, which stated that Meyerhold died of illness on March 17, 1942. However, later prosecutor Ryazhsky investigated this case in detail and established that the famous director had been shot.

Utesov and Meyerhold In some night gatherings, Utesov, whom Meyerhold had never seen by that time, posed as an English entrepreneur, and director Gutman as a translator from English. Meyerhold began to offer English tours of his theater,