1939. The murder of Zinaida Reich

Zinaida Reich and Vsevolod Meyerhold

75 years ago, on July 14, 1939, actress Zinaida Nikolaevna Reich was stabbed in her apartment in Moscow, and her housekeeper was stunned.

Reich was the wife of Sergei Yesenin, and then Vsevolod Meyerhold. After the arrest of Meyerhold, the actress wrote a letter to Stalin with a protest against her husband’s arrest and the closure of his theater.

The secret of her death has not yet been disclosed. On the charges of the murder on August 26, 1939 he was arrested and subsequently, by the verdict of the military collegium, the Defendant Defector Vladimir Tikhonovich Barnakov was shot. The verdict of the Military Collegium said: “On the night of July 15, 1939, Barnakov and his accomplices of Ogoltsov and Kournosov, while trying to steal in the Meyerhold’s apartment, according to Bryusovsky per., In house No. 12, killed the wife of Meyerhold - artist Z.N. Reich. The murder personally committed Barnakov. It is exposed to the testimonies of his accomplices for theft and murder of Reich - Koltsov A.M., A. Kournosova (arrested) and cohabitants Matyukhina. "