The mystery of the death of Brodsky. Why the poet's ashes restored a year and a half later. VENICE: Embankment of the Inisteable and Cemetery of San Michele San Michele

On the island of San Michele, the tourist is not a frequent guest, although the island is located within visibility - it is not more than half a kilometer from Venice. In ancient times there was a monastery of Archangel Mikhail, and in 1807, Cimitero appeared - the city cemetery asked by cypressses, which in the 1870s came with a red brick wall. Now it is the most famous "Island of the Dead" in the world. He is interested in Russian because it is here that the dust of several people, our compatriots, whose names of the road of Russian and world culture are resting.

Entering inside through the portal on which St. Mikhail wins the dragon, inappropriate in the backyard of the monastery.

San Michele cemetery is divided into zones: Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Jewish.

Entrance to the first zone

Local cemetery culture, of course, is very different from our. Strongly striking, brightness, even some screaming colorfulness. In most tombstones, people smile.

Tombstones, as a rule, are good, here are samples.

Very many family crypts, like these

A separate plot is highlighted for soldiers and officers who died in the First World War.

Here is a general monument

This is a monument to the crew of the deceased submarine

On the morning of August 7, 1917, 7 miles from Brioni Island, the Sea Base of Paul, during maneuvers, the submarine "F-14" was in the submerged state, Missori's deployed state. The boat sank at a depth of 40 meters. After 34 hours, it was raised, but 27 people of the crew of the boat died 3 hours before the rise, damn the gas chloride.

Some local speaker

Entrance to the Orthodox Cemetery (Reparto Greco-Ortodosso)

Well maintained and chic here less less.

But it is it that is the place of international pilgrimage - because of the two graves located at the rear wall.

Left - Dyagilevskaya. According to the Italian composer of Casella, in the last years of his life, Dyagilev "lived on credit, without having to pay for the hotel" in Venice, and on August 19, 1929 "one died, in a hotel room, poor, which was always." The funeral of the Great Impresario paid Coco Chanel - a good friend of Dyagilev, during the life of the maestro that gave money to many of his stages.

The grave is decorated with an inscription: "Venice, permanent inspirer of our calm" (Dyagilev's death words), immediately lie ballet pointes.

To the right of it rests the ashes of Igor Stravinsky and his wife faith.

Someone brought the maestro Kashtanchik.

From the Orthodox cemeteries are heading to Protestant (Reparto Evangelico),

for it should be here to seek the grave of Joseph Brodsky.
Here it is between two cypresses.

Initially, Joseph Brodsky wanted to bury on the Orthodox cemetery, between Dyagilev and Stravinsky. But the Russian Orthodox Church in Venice did not give consent, since no evidence was granted that the poet was Orthodox. The Catholic clergy showed no less rigor.

In fact, big poets are usually not mistaken, speaking of their fate. Brodsky was wrong.
Young wrote:

Neither country nor
I do not want to choose.
On Vasilyevsky Island
I will come to die.

However, in Russia, he never returned to Petersburg. They say he had a deep conviction that it was impossible to return back. One of his last arguments was: "The best part of me is already there - my poems." I do not know, on my hearing, it sounds not very convincing.
Be that as it may, now he is forever adjacent to the grave of Ezra Pound - the outcast of Western civilization, stamped for cooperation with fascism, whose execution demanded Arthur Miller, Lyon Feichtvanger and other left intellectuals.

Such a black humor, which is hardly appropriate on the cemetery.

"What kind of biography, however, make our redhead!" - Anna Akhmatova was sadly joking in the midst of the lawsuit over Joseph Brodsky. In addition to the loud court, contradictive fate disadvantaged the poet to the north and the Nobel Prize, incomplete eight classes of education and a university professor career, 24 years outside the native language environment and the opening of the new opportunities of the Russian language.

Leningrad Youth

Joseph Brodsky was born in Leningrad in 1940. After 42, in an interview with the Dutch journalist, he so recalled his hometown: "Leningrad forms your life, your consciousness to the extent to which visual aspects of life can have an impact on us this is a huge cultural conglomerate, but without a misery, without messenger. An amazing sense of proportion, classic facades breathe peace. And all this affects you, makes you strive for order in life, although you are aware of what is doomed. Such noble attitude towards chaos, pouring out either in stoicism or in snobism ".

In the first year of war after the blockade winter of 1941-1942, the mother of Joseph Maria Volpert took him to evacuation in Cherepovets, where they lived until 1944. Volpert served as a translator in the camp for prisoners of war, and the father of Brodsky, the marine officer and photocurrent Alexander Brodsky, participated in the defense of the small earth and breakthrough of the blockade of Leningrad. He returned to the family only in 1948 and continued his service by the head of the photo lab in the Central Naval Museum. Joseph Brodsky all his life recalled walks in the museum as a child: "In general, I have quite wonderful feelings in relation to the sea fleet. I don't know where they came from, but here and childhood, and father, and their native city ... How to remember the Naval Museum, the Andreevsky Flag - the Blue Cross on a white cloth ... There is no better flag in the world! "

Joseph often changed schools; It was not crowned with success and his attempt to go after the seventh grade in the maritime school. In 1955, he left the eighth class and settled on the Arsenal Plant by the milloverr. Then he worked as an anoint assistant in the morgue, a fireman, photographer. Finally, he joined the group of geologists and participated in the expeditions for several years, during one of which was opened a small uranium deposit in the Far East. At the same time, the future poet actively engaged in self-education, carried away by literature. The strongest impression was made by the verses of Eugene Baratynsky and Boris Slutsky.

Joseph Brodsky. Photo: Yeltsin.ru.

Joseph Brodsky with a cat. Photo: interesno.cc.

Joseph Brodsky. Photo: Dayonline.ru.

In Leningrad about Brodsky, they spoke in the early 1960s, when he performed at the poetic tournament in the Gorky DC. The poet Nikolai Rubtsov told about this speech in the letter:

"Of course, there were poets and decadent soul. For example, Brodsky. Having been following the foot of the microphone with both hands and bringing it close to the mouth itself, it is loud and kartvo, shaking his head in the rhythm of the poems, read:
Everyone has their own shrlam!
Everyone has his own grob!
Noise was! Some shout:
- What does poetry have?!
- Down with him!
Others scream:
- Brodsky, also! "

At the same time Brodsky began to communicate with the poet Eugene Rhine. In 1961, Raine presented Joseph Anna Akhmatova. Although in the verses of Brodsky, the influence of Marina Tsvetaeva, with the work of which he first met in the early 1960s, it was Akhmatov who became his full-time critic and teacher. Poet Lev Losev wrote: "The phrase of Akhmatova" You yourself do not understand what you wrote! " After reading the "big Elegy, John Donna" entered the personal myth of Brodsky as the moment of initiation ".

Court and world glory

In 1963, after speech at the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the first secretary of the Central Committee of Nikita Khrushchev, among young people, began to eradicate "Liegeblock, moral hints and whiskers"Writing on "Bird jargon of idlers and failures". Joseph Brodsky, who, by this time, delayed law enforcement agencies by this time: for the first time for publication in the handwritten magazine "Syntax", in the second - on the bonus of a friend. He himself did not like to remember those events, because he considered: the biography of the poet - only "In his vowels and hissing, in his meters, rhymes and metaphors".

Joseph Brodsky. Photo: BESSMERTNYBARAK.RU

Joseph Brodsky at the presentation of the Nobel Prize. Photo: russalon.su.

Joseph Brodsky with his cat. Photo: binokl.cc.

In the newspaper "Evening Leningrad" of November 29, 1963, an article "Occolteral Trunner" appeared, the authors of which Brodsky branded, quoting not his poems and juggling fiction about him. February 13, 1964 Brodsky arrested again. He was accused of tune, although by this time his verses were regularly printed in children's magazines, publishers ordered translations to him. On the details of the process, the whole world found out thanks to the Moscow journalist Frido Vigdorova, which was present in the courtroom. Wigdor's records were shipped to the West and fell into the press.

Judge: What do you do?
Brodsky: I am writing poetry. Translate. I suppose…
Judge: No "I suppose." Stand as you should! Do not lean the walls!<...> Do you have a permanent job?
Brodsky: I thought it was a permanent job.
Judge: answer for sure!
Brodsky: I wrote poems! I thought they would be printed. I suppose…
Judge: We are not interested in "I suppose." Answer why you did not work?
Brodsky: I worked. I wrote poems.
Judge: This is not interested in us ...

The Poet Natalia Beadinine and prominent Leningrad professors-philologists and translators Efim Etkind and Vladimir Admonimi were witnessed. They tried to convince the court that literary labor could not be equated to the tune, and published by Brodsky translations were performed at a high professional level. The prosecution witnesses were not familiar with the Brodsky and his work: among them, the Zanegosis, the military, the working pipe-layer, the pensioner and the teacher of Marxism-Leninism were found. The representative of the Writers' Union also spoke on the accusation side. The sentence was brought by severe: expulsion from Leningrad for five years with mandatory involvement of work.

Brodsky settled in the village of Nurny Arkhangelsk region. He worked in the state farm, and in his spare time he read a lot, became interested in English poetry and began to learn English. Frida Wigdorova and writer Lidia Chukovskaya, Lydia Chukovskaya, were about the early return of the poet from the reference. The letter in his defense was signed by Dmitry Shostakovich, Samuel Marshak, the roots of Chukovsky, Konstantin Poist, Alexander Tvardovsky, Yuri Herman and many others. For Brodsky, the "friend of the Soviet Union" french philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre ends. In September 1965, Joseph Brodsky was officially released.

Russian Poet and American Citizen

In the same year, the first collection of Pychs of Brodsky came out in the United States, prepared without the author's knowledge on the basis of the materials of samizdat for the West. The next book, "Stop in the Desert," reached in New York in 1970 - it is considered the first authorized edition of Brodsky. After the reference of the poet, they enrolled in a kind of "professional group" with the Union of Writers, which made it possible to avoid further suspicion of the tune. But only his children's poems were printed in their homeland, sometimes orders for translations of poetry or literary dubbing treatment for films. At the same time, the circle of foreign Slavists, journalists and publishers, with whom Brodsky communicated personally and according to the correspondence, was becoming wider. In May 1972 he was summoned to Ovir and offered to leave the country to avoid new persecution. Usually, the execution of documents for departure from the Soviet Union took from six months to a year, but the visa for Brodsky was issued for 12 days. On June 4, 1972, Joseph Brodsky flew to Vienna. In Leningrad, his parents remained, friends, the former beloved Marianna Basmanov, who is devoted to almost all the Love Lyrics of Brodsky, and their son. "Russian poet, English-speaking esseist and, of course, American citizen." A sample of his mature Russian-speaking creativity was the poem, included in the collections "Part of Speech" (1977) and "Urania" (1987). In a conversation with a researcher of the works of Brodsky Valentine, the half of the poetess Bella Ahmadulin explained the phenomenon of the Russian-speaking author in emigration.

In 1987, Joseph Brodsky was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature with the wording "for a comprehensive literary activity, distinguished by the clarity of thought and poetic intensity." In 1991, Brodsky took the post of the US Poet Laureate - Congress Consultant and launched the American Poetry and Literacy Program on the distribution of cheap verses among the population. In 1990, the poet married Italian with the Russian roots of Maria Soczqi, but only a half years have been released by their lucky union.

In January 1996, Joseph Brodsky did not. He was buried in one of the favorite cities - Venice, on the ancient cemetery on the island of San Michele.

The poet Joseph Brodsky did not become in the winter of 1996, but his dust gained his last refinement only a year and a half later, in the summer of the 97th. Before finding the rest, the poet's body was buried in a temporary grave, and the question of the place of final burial remained open for a long time.

"With death, not all ends"

Joseph Brodsky went away on January 28, 1996. He was 55 years old. Long before the death, in 1962, the 22-year-old poet wrote: "Neither the country, nor the weather, I do not want to choose, I will come to die on Vasilyevsky Island." The poet in America died, and he was buried on the island - only not on Vasilyevsky, but at one of the Venetian - San Michele.

Joseph Alexandrovich died in New York, on the night of January 28th. The heart, according to the physicians, stopped suddenly - infarction, fifth on the score. The first burial of Brodsky was temporary - the body in an upholstered zinc of the coffin was placed in the crypt at the Church of the Holy Trinity on the shore of Hudzon. The decision of the question of the final place of the rest took more than a year. The proposal of the Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Galina Starovytaya to bury the poet in St. Petersburg was rejected - "This would mean to solve for the Brodsky question about returning to the homeland." It is worth recalling that the Iosifa himself was not allowed to come to the USSR either at the funeral of the mother, nor on the funeral of the Father.

Joseph Brodsky lived to 55 years. Photo: Commons.Wikimedia.org.

According to the widow of the poet Mary (neborn Soczhani, Italian aristocrats with Russian roots): "An idea of \u200b\u200ba funeral in Venice expressed one of the friends. This is a city that, not counting St. Petersburg, Joseph loved most. "

On June 21, 1997, a reburon of Brodsky's body was reburied at the San Michele cemetery. Planned to bury the poet in the Russian half of the cemetery between the graves of Stravinsky and Dyagilev. But it turned out to be impossible, because Joseph was not Orthodox. Catholic clergy refused. As a result, the grave is located in the Protestant part of the cemetery. At first, on the grave there was a wooden cross named Joseph Brodsky, after a few years he was replaced by a monument of the American artist - an emigrant from the USSR Vladimir Radunsky, who at his time illustrated one of Brodsky's poems.

On the back of the monument there is an inscription in Latin - a string from the ancient Roman poet's elegance, which means: "With death, not everything ends." At the grave of Brodsky, visitors leave poems, letters, pebbles, photos, pencils, cigarettes - as you know, Joseph smoked a lot.

Do not write a biography!

Shortly before the death of Brodsky sent a letter to the department of manuscripts of the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg, where the main part of the poet archive until 1972, his expulsion time from the USSR was kept. In the Message, he asked for 50 years to close access to his diaries, letters and family documents. On the manuscript and other similar materials, the ban did not apply, the literary part of the archive is open to researchers.

The poet asked his loved ones to not participate in writing his biography. Photo: From the archive of Yakov Gordin

Brodsky asked friends and relatives to not participate in writing his biography. He emphasized: "I do not mind the philological styles associated with my Hood. Works - they, as they say, the property of the public. But my life, my physical condition, with God's help belonged and belongs only to me ... What seems to me the most bad in this checkout, this is that such writings serve the same goal as the events in them are described: that they are reduced literature to the level of political reality. Olyu or unwittingly (I hope that unwittingly) you simplify the idea of \u200b\u200bmy grace for the reader. ... A, "will say a Frenchman from Bordeaux," everything is clear. Dissident. For this to him Nobel and gave these Swedes anti-Sovers. And the "poem" will not buy ... I do not feel myself, I feel sorry for me. "

I do not object to the philological styles associated with my works - they, as they say, the property of the public. But my life, my physical condition, with God's help belonged and belongs only to me

The only literary biography of Brodsky today belongs to his friend, an emigrant, as well as Joseph born in Leningrad - Lion Losev. According to the Life Researcher and the Creativity of Brodsky Valentina, half-breed, the spelling of the biography is prohibited until 2071, that is, 75 years after the death of the poet.

In one of the interviews to the question: "What do you value the above all in a person?", Brodsky replied: "The ability to forgive, the ability to regret. The most frequent feeling that I have in relation to people, and this may seem likely, is pity. Probably because we are all finite. " And he also claimed: "Two things justify the existence of a person on Earth: love and creativity."

Refuge for work

As is known, in St. Petersburg at the Muri House (Foundry Ave., 24), in which the poet lived from 1955 to 1972, a memorial board was established. But the memorial museum in the apartment is never open. But in the Anna Akhmatova Museum in the Fountain House, you can see the exhibition "American Cabinet Joseph Brodsky", which includes genuine things from the poet's house in South Hadley, transferred by the widow.

The grave of Joseph Brodsky is located on the Cemetery of San Michele. Photo: Commons.Wikimedia.org / Levi Kitrossky

It was in this town that Joseph was going to go in the morning on January 28 - here he taught at the university since the beginning of the 1980s. In South Hadley, Brodsky had half a day, which the poet considered the "refuge, where you can safely work." The fountain house presents a desk, a secret, a table lamp, a chair, a sofa, a library, postcards and photos.

On the table - a pack of cigarettes "L & M", uniformly passion for which Brodsky told, was the cause of his first heart attack. Immediately a small transistor receiver, printed machines - the poet did not use the computer.

The old leather suitcase, brought by the father of Brodsky from China in 1948, attracts attention. It is with this suitcase Joseph left his homeland forever. Sitting on this suitcase at the airport "Pulkovo" on the day of departure on June 4, 1972 captured his one of his friends. Interestingly, a pen, a notebook, envelopes and even open boxes with medicines were discovered in the boxes of the secret, and even the exposure, these trifles are creating an impression that Brodsky can go to his idea for any minute.

Joseph Brodsky was buried at the Protestant sector of the Cemetery of San Michele, because the Catholic and Orthodox is not allowed to bury people without religion. The waves of the Venetian lagoon are splashing behind the brick cemetery wall. Susan Zontag noticed that - the perfect place for Brodsky's grave, because nowhere. "Nowhere" is the same reverse address that Brodsky gives at the beginning of one of its most beautiful lyrical poems: "Nothing with love ...". About the history of his reburial and transportation from America to Venice writes to Omitstovaya.ru Arkady Belman, with reference to the original Publication:

"Two weeks before death, he bought a place in the cemetery. He was afraid of death, he was terribly afraid, did not want to be neither buried nor burned, he would arrange if he was closed somewhere closed. So it initially happened. He bought a place in a small chapel on a terrible New York cemetery, located on the border with bad Broadway. It was his will ...
And then there was a reburial in Venice. This is generally a Gogol history, which in Russia almost no one knows. Brodsky was neither Judea nor a Christian for the reason that a person may be granted not to faith, but according to his acts, although his widow of Maria Sodroli (they married in September 1990, and after three years, Brodsky was born daughter ) His His Catholic ritual burned. Joseph had two definitions for themselves: Russian poet and American essayist. And that's it. So, about the reburial. Mystic began on the plane: the coffin in the flight opened. It must be said that in America the coffins are not clogged with nails, they are closed on screws and bolts, they do not open even from drops of height and pressure. Sometimes at the aircraft crashs do not open, and here - no with this. In Venice, they began to ship the coffin on the catatal, he broke in half. I had to shift the body into another home. Let me remind you that it was a year after the death. Further on the gondolas, he was taken to the San Michele. The initial plan assumed his burial in the Russian half of the cemetery, between the graves of Stravinsky and Dyagilev. It turned out that this is impossible, since it is necessary to permit the Russian Orthodox Church in Venice, and she does not give it, because he was not Orthodox ... As a result, it was decided to bury him on the evangelical side. But there are no free places, while in Russian - how much soul is pleased. Nevertheless, the place was found - in the legs of Ezra Pound. (I note that Porenda, as a person and anti-Semite, Brodsky did not remove, but as the poet appreciated very high ... In short, it was not the best place to rest for a genius.) We began to dig - the rod skull yes bone, it is impossible to bury. In the end, poor Joseph Alexandrovich in the new coffin attributed to the wall, behind which electric copies and other techniques were treated, putting him a bottle of his beloved whiskey and a pack of favorite cigarettes, they buried almost on the surface, barely sprinkled. Then they put a cross in the heads. Well, I think he will lead this cross. "
And one more circumstance, which was written only in Italy. Russian President Yeltsin sent to the funeral of Brodsky six cubic meters of yellow roses. Mikhail Baryshnikov with comrades suffered all these roses on the grave of Ezra Pound. Not a single flower from the Russian government on the grave of the Russian poet remained and not still. What, in fact, answers his will. "

This summer I visited Italy, on the coast near Venice. In the very Venice, I managed to spend only one day, which, however, was remembered for a long time.

For a long time, I wanted to visit the island of San Michele, the famous Island Cemetery, on which many famous people were buried, among them the great writer Joseph Brodsky. The island is visible from the pier, and get to it - as we naively assumed - extremely simple and fast: fifteen minutes on water by any type of water transport. It was not here! Whether the day was not ours, or the shadows of the great people, to whom we were heading, for something we were on us in the offense, only the journey on San Michele was simple, well, did not work.

Islands of Venice. San Michele

River Taxi ticket cost 15 euros. We took our places, the boat was despair. Everything was fine! .. While I did not find that the island, which was in front of the berth, somehow completely unexpectedly and in a mystical way completely disappeared from the view, and we were in an absolutely unknown place. The Italians' passengers are friendly on my questions and spoke Friendly: Si. Why "Si", if no San Michele is visible and in mom, I first did not understand. But then guessed. I showed to the side where the island was supposed to be. Here they seem to think that I am proud of my knowledge of Venetian geography and correctly show the direction to their local attractions. Of course, they supported my erudition with their SI - I showed something right!
By the order of the ending, which is still a little bit - and we generally sail unknown where, we jumped out at the nearest stop. I note that by the time we sailed about thirty minutes!
As soon as we came out, I started looking for the name of the island on the scheme of the river taxi movement, but there was no name. That is, it was, of course, but since I don't know Italian, to understand which of the words is translated as a "cemetery", we did not succeed for a long time.
At that moment I had to be in mind that, it should be our journey to mystical areas, too, it turns out some kind of mystical. And where is mystic, so there is nothing to do, there is intuition there! I reel on the sixth sense, pushed my finger into the card - and I was not mistaken: Cimitero is really translated from Italian as a cemetery.
Waiting for the next taxi we had to be long. Fifteen minutes later it arrived. "Herly Lalael!" - He turned to us and a cheerful and friendly driver on singement, beautiful, but, unfortunately, incomprehensible Italian. "Simitero!" - In one voice, we will respond to him mystical spell.
And the most nor to eat mystically changed. More forty minutes in the opposite direction - and we were in place.
... Cemetery San Michele turned out to be very large. Huge seagulls flew over the famous graves. Being on San Michele, you feel in another reality, in another time, in another space.
Passing all the cemetery, we reached the grave of Brodsky. Pointers in Russian are leading to his grave. His grave is covered with flowers, decorated with ribbons. I stood around the box for letters filled almost to the edges, and in my head, the lines were heard from the film, filmed shortly before his death: "You can not imagine how I am pleased to show Venice to Russian ..."
It was a strange journey.
Italy. Venice. Brodsky.

Maria Pakhomov

01/28/2016 Polina Elistratova

On January 28, 1996, the greatest poet of modernity Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky left the life. He died in his apartment in Brooklyn, one of the five districts of the world's largest city in New York, and this event truly marked the "end of the beautiful era."

Saturday night on January 27, 1996 Joseph Brodsky collected the manuscript and books in the portfolio, to take them with him the next morning and go to the city of South Hadley, where he taught at the university (the spring semester began). Wanted a good night wife, he said that he still needed to work and climbed into his office.

In the morning the wife discovered him dead on the floor in the office. On the desk, next to the glasses lay the opened book - the bilingual edition of Greek epigram. The heart of the poet stopped suddenly. Heart attack. On February 1, in one of the churches near the house of Brodsky, funeral was held. The next day, the body of the poet in the coffin, an insulted metal, was placed in the crypt on the cemetery of the Holy Trinity on the shore of Hudzon, where it was resting until June 21, 1997.

The proposal of the State Duma Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Galina Starovytaya to bury the poet on Vasilyevsky Island in St. Petersburg ("Neither the country, nor I want to choose, I will come to Vasilyevsky Island ...") was rejected. A friend of the Brodsky poet Lev Losev said the following: "It would mean to solve for the Brodsky question about returning to the homeland." And this question was for the poet one of the most painful: "I threw the country that I focused me, from the forgets you can be a city."

The memorial service took place on March 8 in Manhattan in the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Bogoslov. There were no speeches. Poems read almost all those present, among which were the Polish poet Cheslav Milos, a native of St. Lucia and the laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature of 1992 Derek Walcott, the Irish writer and the poet, also the Nobel laureate in the 1995 literature Sheimas Khini, Soviet and American ballet artist and Balletmaster Mikhail Baryshnikov, poets Lion Losev and Evgeny Rain, the widow of the poet Maria Soczhani-Brodskaya and others.

The decision of the final place of resting the poet took more than a year. According to the widow of Brodsky Mary, the idea of \u200b\u200bthe possibility of burial of the poet's body in Venice expressed one of his friends. Brodsky loved Venice almost as much as Petersburg. In addition, Maria Socyzani-Brodskaya - Italian, and how she herself said: "Correcting selfishly, Italy is my country, so it was better that my husband was buried there."

On June 21, 1997, on the ancient cemetery of San Michele in Venice, the reburon of the body of Joseph Brodsky took place. Initially, the poet was planned to bury in the Russian half of the cemetery between the graves of Stravinsky and Dyagilev, but it turned out to be impossible, since the poet was not Orthodox. At the burial in the Catholic part of the cemetery, the corresponding clergy also did not give consent. As a result, the poet's body ran into the Protestant part. At first, the resting place was marked with a modest wooden cross named Joseph Brodsky.

San Michele - Venetian Necropolis

A few years later, a monument to the artist Vladimir Radunsky was installed on the grave.

On the back of the monument was made on Latin - this is a row from Elegy Properration - Letum Non Omnia Finit - "With death, not all ends." Two years ago I managed to see Brodsky's grave with my own eyes, and this event was destined to become one of the most exciting and bright events in my life. From the mainland Venice to the small island, on which the cemetery is located, about five to seven minutes of the Waterway Vaporetto's water tram. Despite the fact that quite a few tourists landed on the island, no unnecessary bustle has arisen, everything somehow spread the island quietly, which is worth noting, not so small.

To find the grave of the poet was quite simple - according to the signs that there are many. On that sunny day, I brought a poet a couple of packs of Malkarer's cigarettes: he smoked a lot, and was a loved one to drink, so to this day, Brody's admirers from all over the land of the earth are brought to the grave of the genius of cigarettes and whiskey, as well as pebbles, letters, poems, pencils and photos. All this is very touching, the emotions are difficult to restrain. At some point, I noticed that there is a place nearby where anyone can take a small watering can, dial water and pour flowers on the graves.

I walked to take one of the leek. At that moment, the old Italian watchman approached me and in a broken English asked where I and whose grave came to put in order.

- Brodsky? - Smiled man. - Relative?
- No, admirer.
"A lot of people comes to him," the old man took the canister from my hands and helped to gain water. - Did you bring cigarettes?

I quive in response, the man smiles again and hands me a water-filled watering can.

While I watered the flowers, interested tourists from other countries passed past the graves along the neat tracks.

- WHO IS IT? Brodsky? Oh, I Like His Poetry, Like His Essays, You Know. (English - "Who is this? Brodsky? Oh, I like his poetry, like essays").

- Brodski? Pass auf! Das Ist Das Grab Des Dichters Joseph Brodski. Lies, Was Es Hinten Geschrieben IST! Das Ist Latein. (Him. - "Brodsky? Look, ka! This is the grave of the poet Joseph Brodsky. Read that it is written in the back! It's on Latin).

- LA TOMBE DU POèTE JOSEPH BRODSKY! Oh Mon Dieu, Regardez Ce Marbre Blanc! (Franz. - "The grave of the poet Joseph Brodsky! Oh, my God, look at this white marble!").

American writer and girlfriend Poet Susan Sontag somehow noticed that Venice is an ideal place for Brodsky's grave, since Venice is nowhere. "Nowhere" is the reverse address that Brodsky gives at the beginning of one of the most lyrical-saturated poems: "Nothing with love ...".

A man of difficult character, a man with a challenging fate, a recognized genius, an unsurpassed master of the word, a tanner of the language as the highest form of the whole, wrestler for freedom and human rights, the voice of the era. Every brodsky has its own. With difficulty I can submit my life without creativity of this person, and I do not want to represent. 20 years have passed since the death of one of the greatest geniuses of all time.

"Let the time silent about me.
Let's easily smoky wind sharp
And above my grave Jewish
The mlauding life is persistently shouting. "

Source photo:spbhi.ru.

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San Michele Cemetery Island in Venice

San Michele Cemetery. San Michele Island is located near Venice, on this island at the beginning of the 19th century, a city cemetery was located. Since Venice is an island community, it is not surprising that the cemetery is also an island, although at first it can be rather strange.

San Michele was designed by Mauro Kodusy in the distant 1460s and was one of the earliest churches of the Renaissance in Venice. The facade of the church was made of white marble, and the church itself was overlooking the lagoon. The opening hours of the Church are limited and can be reduced if the ministry will be held.

But you still have to visit this place, not only to look at the church, but also to see the beautiful Capella Emiliani. Capella Emiliani is a chapel, located on the very edge of the lagoon.

Italian cemeteries.

Cemeteries in Italy are usually attractions, there are no tourist routes in them. They are usually located outside the cities. Italian families make a pilgrimage to the graves of their loved ones on the 1st and 2nd November to lay flowers (buy flowers can be near the cemetery gate).

The mystery of the death of Brodsky. Why the poet's ashes restored a year and a half later

In Venice, these dates are special ferry delivery of people in the cemetery.

It is important to remember that in Italy Chrysanthemums are flowers that lay on the graves of dead people, and to give them alive people, is considered a bad tone and an hopelessness.

To the tombs and memorials of outstanding historical figures, as a rule, it is easier to reach, and tourists will quickly find them in signs.

Despite the fact that the Cemetery on San Michele is prepared for visitors and contains pointers showing how to get to the graves of famous people, it should be remembered that this is still a cemetery, most of the tomb here appeared relatively recently and are visited by mournful families. Therefore, visitors must comply with this cemetery not only silence, but also certain rules (it is impossible to dress brightly, you need to wear a modest dress).

Graves.

The cemetery is divided into many sections, and without a map you can easily get lost. The signs will lead visitors to the graves of the Orthodox people of Protestants, the other graves will be harder. But you stand on this cemetery. For example, one site is given to the modest nun memorials and the graves of priests.

The Orthodox part of the cemetery is a charming fenced garden that catches the late sunlight, there are many colors and living creatures in it (lizards can run here).

In this cemetery, you can also find the graves of our compatriots: Sergey Dyagileva (Russian Theater and Artistic Worker) and Igor Stravinsky (Russian composer), Joseph Brodsky (Russian poet).

Since over time there stopped the place on the island of the place, and the graves began to stand very closely with each other. Therefore, relatives of the deceased Venetians are allowed to get buried their loved ones for several years, after about 10 years, the remains are exemed and stored elsewhere.

How to get there.

San Michele is located near the North Shore of Venice and stands out for its high walls and cypresses. Regular routes are held on the island. Stop is called "Cemetery". Remember, the Church of San Michele is closed at lunchtime.

Northern Funeral House offers you ritual services. We understand that the loss of a loved one, the most severe loss. Conduct a person in the last path worthy, and the organization of this way trust us.

Many rumors walk around death, and especially the funeral of the poet. Severally clarifies the situation of his close friend and part-time secretary I. Kutik:

And then there was a reburial in Venice. This is generally a Gogol history, which in Russia almost no one knows. Brodsky was neither Judea nor a Christian for the reason that a person may be granted not to faith, but according to his acts, although his widow of Maria Sodroli (they married in September 1990, and after three years, Brodsky was born daughter ) His His Catholic ritual burned. Joseph had two definitions for themselves: Russian poet and American essayist. And that's it.

So, about the reburial. Mystic began on the plane: the coffin in the flight opened. It must be said that in America the coffins are not clogged with nails, they are closed on screws and bolts, they do not open even from drops of height and pressure. Sometimes at the aircraft crashs do not open, and here - no with this. In Venice, they began to ship the coffin on the catatal, he broke in half. I had to shift the body into another home. Let me remind you that it was a year after the death. Further on the gondolas it was taken to the island of the dead. The initial plan assumed his burial in the Russian half of the cemetery, between the graves of Stravinsky and Dyagilev. It turned out that this is impossible, since it is necessary to resolve the Russian Orthodox Church in Venice, and she does not give it, because he was not Orthodox. The coffin in the end is worth it, people are waiting. Stayed throwing, riding, divergent; Two hours went negotiations. As a result, it is decided to bury him on the evangelical side. But there are no free places, while in Russian - how much soul is pleased. Nevertheless, the place was found - in the legs of Ezra Pound. (I note that Porenda as a person and anti-Semite Brodsky did not remove, but as the poet appreciated very high. The middle of half is somehow it turns out.

Brodsky's grave

In short, not the best place of resting for genius.) Began to dig - the rod of the skull yes bone, it is impossible to bury. In the end, poor Joseph Alexandrovich in the new coffin attributed to the wall, behind which electric copies and other techniques were treated, putting him a bottle of his beloved whiskey and a pack of favorite cigarettes, they buried almost on the surface, barely sprinkled. Then they put a cross in the heads. Well, I think he will lead this cross. "

And one more circumstance, which was written only in Italy. Russian President Yeltsin sent to the funeral of Brodsky six cubic meters of yellow roses. Mikhail Baryshnikov with comrades suffered all these roses on the grave of Ezra Pound. Not a single flower from the Russian government on the grave of the Russian poet remained and not still. What, in fact, answers his will.
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