
The dancer of Vladimir Veselkin himself called to the Grand Opera, and now he is begging without a leg and without a house. On the take-off and fall of the sex symbol of perestroika-Denis Boyarinov
Paris lay down to the feet of Vova Veselkin in April 1989. For the first time in the history of the Soviet Union, three underground rock groups were released abroad as official representatives of Soviet culture-according to artistic visas. After a complex combination, which was involved in the Minister of Culture of France Jacques Lang, Minister of Foreign Affairs Roland Dumas and his Soviet colleague Eduard Shevarnadze, Air France aircraft with participants in the Kino, Auction groups (still without a clumsy “y” in the name) flew to Paris. The landing of the Soviet rockers went to speak at the Printemps de Bourges festival.
To the first visit of the ambassadors of the Soviet rock culture, the attention of the entire French nation was riveted. The TF1 state television channel shot a news plot, in the final of which the “dancer of Volodya” - a student of the great ballerina Alla Osipenko - sparkled the dedication of Maurice Bezhar and thereby stole a show at his colleagues. Even before the performance of the Soviet triple in the Balerun Bourget, Veselkin, admitted to the Auction, in order to shade Oleg Garkush, became a symbol of Soviet rock and the changes taking place in a huge country:
The documentary Rock in Soviet, which starred during the visit of Soviet rockers to France, begins with Veselkin, walking in a cloak sewn from kumachi flags, and ends with a group portrait of the participants of the Auction, winning champagne at the top of the Eiffel Tower. According to the dancer, the annoyed participants of the Sounds Mu and Kino at that time roamed somewhere at the foot-only the Auction wanted to shoot, and the excursion planned for all other excursions was supposed to begin later.
Nuriev himself called me: "Get out of rock and roll-return to the theater in which you will do anything." But then I believed in rock and roll Twist this quote for jumping and pirouettes Veselkin, “the only one who in the“ auction ”in their specialty,” shown on French television, had an effect. Prior to the performance of the musicians in the bourgeois, immediately after the press conference, in the dressing room of the Auction materialized "luxurious gentleman in a pale sand-colored cashmere coat." The gentleman brought Veselkin a magnificent bouquet of roses and an invitation to work in a Grand Opera from Rudolf Nuriev, a friend of Alla Evgenievna Osipenko, with whom she danced in Mariinsky. “Here I have a real job! Paris is already at my feet, ”Vladimir Veselkin recalls the moment when his life could change dramatically. -Nuriev himself called me: "Get out of rock and roll, go back to the theater in which you will do anything." But then I believed in rock and roll, and I did not want to at the Academic Theater. I said: “Well, how can I! Without them (“auction” - approx. Aut.) I would not be here. We are a brotherhood. Thanks for the roses. ” Leaving a bouquet, a sad gentleman in a cashmere coat left.
- Guys, great. Can't we add a little to beer? We can’t dug up, ”the swollen bityug in a ragged tracksuit, who dedicated to us from a neighboring shop. On Friday noon in the Pushkin Square, near the Moscow Station, there is no free space, although the usual passerby will not linger here for a long time,-people gather at the monument to Pushkin, who went wrong in life.
“I can treat it with cigarettes.” And I have no horseradish - 34 rubles are left. And I still need to smoke,-my interlocutor, ex-focus of Paris Vladimir Veselkin, is instantly answered by Bityugu. It stands out among the foul -looking and smelling inhabitants of the square - clean and stylishly dressed: a red T -shirt with the inscription "CCCR", a baseball cap of wet asphalt, a black bolognium jacket and sand trousers, one leg that is neatly trimmed just above the knee. A crutches are attached to the bench. Veselkin looks good - only bad teeth and stumps instead of his left leg give out a person of a lame fate in him. An elegant legless holds out a bite in a tracksuit of a pack of cigarettes. "Well," Cosmos "?" - he says disappointedly, chooses two cigarettes more sympathetic and returns to the opposite shop.
In the hostel photo: Alexey Loshchilov for TD
In the hostel photo: Alexey Loshchilov for TDVladimir Veselkin resumes a story about his misadventures - in early September he was again on the street, without a roof over his head. “I received a pension. Meet with friends. I know one artist for almost two years. I know another month. They live in Rubinstein in a huge studio with four rooms, in the house where we lived with my first wife. They promoted me: Uncle Vova, live with us. Everything will be fine. Let's walk. I say: Come on. He believed this idiot, whom I know for almost two years. He never substituted me. And through a drink and walking, the situation flew past me, that both of them were also drug addicts. They have no conscience, alcoholics have at least some remnants. When all my money was lowered, they pointed me to the door. ”
Left without a corner and means of existence, Veselkin began to bomes. For educational purposes, he spent the night in the basement on Zagorodny Prospekt, "among rats and shit, - he thought what to do with himself." "Here, Vova, finally nowhere to go down!" Having got out of the basement and washed in a fountain on Italian, he wandered into a shelter for the homeless on a black river. At the opening of the first such shelter in St. Petersburg, which was located near the Pushkinsky square, Veselkin performed in the early 1990s. "Who would have thought that after decades I would look for help from them?" He was refused, and “Uncle Vova” began to live on the street according to the scheme invented by him: at night he went to a round -the -clock bookstore “Bukvoed” in the Square of the Uprising, where he took coffee and read books of his favorite writers all night, poured in the morning on the Marse Field or Italian Street, then went to the library with a free Internet.
At the fountain on Manezhnaya Square Photo: Alexey Loshchilov for TDOn September 15, Vladimir Veselkin turned through help through help, writing: “I lost the room, and ... for the fifth day on the street on almost one leg, I don’t eat, I don’t sleep ... how it would be perfectly to get into the watchmen-I would have returned the time of poets and watchmen!” The call was widely dispersed on social networks, was reprinted by some Internet media, and strangers began to send the ex-dance of Auctsyon the money to which he withdrew the bunk in the hostel near the Moscow station.
“Mindful of the fate of the greatest artists, they all finished badly. Alone. In hunger and cold. I don't want such a fate for myself " Twist this quote “Now you will see a hostel where I live. Very decent, ”says Verelkin, quickly rising from the shop on crutches. - But expensive. I used to pay 500 rubles a day, from October 1 I pay 600, and I still have to stay for food and a smoke. I am looking for a room to eat. As soon as I instill, I immediately call my future employer. I am offered in the region to lead the department of culture. My experience is huge, I know a lot. I will receive a decent salary and feel independent. And then I can calmly engage in prosthetics. In the meantime, I have an endless chatter, I can’t do this. ”
On the crutches, Vladimir Veselkin moves very briskly, he almost runs along Pushkinskaya, I, just from the station, with a heavy bag, barely have time behind him. While we rush to the hostel, the hero complains of an article on some site that put it on an Internet flash. “Why did I ask people for help? Mindful of the fate of the greatest artists, I personally knew some - they all finished badly. Alone. In hunger and cold. I don’t want such a fate for myself. ” Then suddenly changes the topic abruptly. “Oh, what a wonderful place is Pushkinskaya! - Veselkin exclaims theatrically. -I once lived here in the early 1990s. And on Kolomenskaya, Natasha Pivovarova was a squat under the roof. Who just did not walk there! "
Vladimir demonstrates his jewelry. Photo: Alexey Loshchilov for TD
On Sadovaya Street. On the shoulder of Vladimir - Tattoo Merlin Monroe. Her nose is burned with a cigarette. Photo: Alexey Loshchilov for TDThrough the door protected by the code castle, we slip into the courtyard yard in Kuznechny Lane. Before dialing the code at the brown access door, Vladimir Veselkin, turning to me, becomes on crutches like on Kuturns, bends his back and says another monologue: “Watching in childhood, my favorite film“ Parisian Secrets ”with Jean Mare, I never thought that I would repeat this fabulous history. I will live at the very bottom, and when necessary, I will return to the light, again becoming a star. Prince of Darkness! "
At the Auction Bourget festival, the French made the most powerful impression (“Cinema” was considered by the imitation of The Cure, “The Sounds of Mu” - too conceptual “A mixture of classicism and madness”). Veselkin’s wild dances were added to the fire, who was not afraid of shocking in the Soviet Union, performed in his ownedly stitched suit “Wound Demel”, was in contact with the public in the auditorium and, which was the bolder, walked during the tour of the Nalchik in shorts. In his homeland, Bezhara Veselkin did nothing unusual for himself: on the song “Nepman”, he undressed to the flesh -colored bandage, which was sewn in front. They did not pay attention to the bow, but the photograph of the supposedly naked Veselkin ass, taken by Reuters, flew at first to Europe, and then the Soviet Union.
Greetings of French newspapers wrote that "the face of perestroika is an ass of Veselkin." Sovetsky condo - that the "auction" profits Soviet culture and discloses Soviet citizens. A big scandal rose, which Vladimir Veselkin settled himself, bringing a letter to the group in defense of the group, signed by cultural figures of Leningrad. A little later, the “auction” repeated the French performance on the air of the popular television program “Musical Ring” for the whole Union and in the audience voting lost the Country group “His Game”.
Feeling that he had groped a sore subject, Vladimir Veselkin began to develop the found image of a sex revolutionary. In 1990, the premiere of the project “internal affairs body”, dedicated to the rehabilitation of the rights of Soviet sexual minorities, took place on the live air program “A”. Having gathered on one stage the musicians “Brigades C” and “Auctions”, Veselkin in a short blue robe on his naked body sang a song by Claudia Schulzhenko “Friendship” and dashed with Garkusha in a strict white suit. The song was not allowed to sound to the end, the live broadcast was stopped, as soon as the soloist in the robe reached the second verse. Veselkin continued his sex mine: publicly collected signatures for the abolition of a criminal article against homosexuality (the article was soon canceled), preached the fight against AIDS, recognized the newspapers in his bisexuality and organized exhibitions of provocative photographs, where he, like Madonna in the SEX album, was shot in frank poses with men and women.
In 1992, Veselkin, together with the artist Kirill Miller, left the Auctions, organized a cabaret-project “Vova and the ATS” and released the debut plate “Impossible Love”, in which, according to the author and the performer, “all types of sexuality are sung. On the front cover of the album, the drawing of the famous Ga-graph of Tom of Finland, donated by himself, on the back-Veselkin in the peignoir. Mannered songs were composed and written by Veselkin, who turned out to be a textured tenor. Electronic acoustic arrangements were made by a jazz pianist Yuri Sobolev, who in the same year recorded “small tragedies” for the “hummingbird”. Two songs on the record were stones with the Kapriberian vocalist Natalya Pivovarova, with whom Veselkin was then close. Despite the hints of non -traditional sex and the deficiency, “impossible love” received only positive reviews - even in Komsomolskaya Pravda, which had recently destroyed the “auction” for the Veselkin’s bandage and bad taste. It seems that Leonid Fedorov liked the record.
After “impossible love”, the glory of a vicious sex symbol from post-Soviet music, a sort of our “Madonna in Pants”, was fixed after Veselkin. He even became the face of the first St. Petersburg legal porn show, which he advertised in a simple way at concerts, declaring between the songs: "Come to masturbate to me." According to Veselkin, the bisexuality he raised by the flag was a conscious provocation of the public. For the recognition made in the most popular Speed-Info newspaper, he was well paid.
The co -author of Vova and the ATS and a close friend of Veselkin, the artist Kirill Miller describes the genre, in which Vova and the police department acted as “pop up -game”: “The project had an original sound, for those times non -standard. We worked with phonograms because there was no living team, and at the same time retained an informal spirit. There was attention to the project, there was a demand - clubs, festivals. Veselkin had energy and glory. ”
Despite the success of “impossible love”, Vladimir Veselkin soon lost interest in the project. “I refused an invitation to the theater after the institute, because I decided that the Party of the Jester in the“ Swan Lake ”is e ******,” says the ex-sextile-minister of the Soviet Union. - I left the auction because I was tired. I was so bored that at the end of the dancer’s career in the group, I changed the costume and makeup four times in one song! But I did not expect that it was possible for myself so quickly. I was discounted from concerts. I preferred stupidly to lie and drink money, which I had enough. Sometimes it went to work as a loader so as not to lose consciousness, then he could hardly return to the stage. I wrote some new things, but I myself did not like it. I understood that we had to work. But I did not want to work, but wanted to enjoy life. Live carelessly. Was a fool! "
Kirill Miller says that he had a divorce with Veselkin, who lived at one time, because of his friend’s alcoholism. “He could not drink at all. He is from a family of chronic alcoholics. I remember the times when he did not drink, with a shudder recalling his parents. But genetics took its own. It all started with the fact that he began to drink on the tour with an auction in Germany. Apparently, he lacked the courage. He explained this by the fact that it is so easier for him to speak German. But nature heard his native singing, and he quickly began to resemble his native mother. He got drunk, quickly superimposed, and then fell like a knocked out where he stood. His mother did the same. When I saw this, I realized that he went wrong. In his life, alcoholic chernukha began, and it was impossible to stop it. And it is a pity that he was very talented as the author - the author of songs, dances, his image. He was a very interesting artist, made exquisite “myriscus” drawings. He had a big gift. Where did such subtlety come from in this drunken monster? "
In January 1995, Vladimir Veselkin moved from St. Petersburg to Moscow, hoping to find inspiration there. But inspiration did not come, after moving, he only sometimes performed with solo programs and the Van Gogh ears group. Instead, a strip of failure came. Somewhere in the second half of the 1990s, the dancer, the singer and the artist for the first time ended up on the street. In 1996, he was forced to sell a three-room apartment of his mother in Gatchina in order to save Valerka from the debts of her older brother, with whom he was at a party since childhood. After that, according to him, a divorce with his second wife occurred, leaving, he left her a Moscow apartment on Sevastopolsky Prospekt, in which he was registered. “After I sold the Gatchina apartment, something collapsed with me,” says Veselkin. - I lost touch with Gatchina. I have only my mother’s grave and my grandmother’s grave. I understand that I need to come to terms with my brother, forgive and let go of all emotional debts, but so far everything is dead inside me. No matter how much I pray or repent, does not let go.
I hate this surname - Veselkin. I have nothing to do with her. My father, Bandit Oleg Filippov, after the Imilliya, to marry her mother, fulfilled her demand - he took her passport surname from her first marriage. So I became from Filippov Veselkin. It will take place for several years, and I will change all my documents to the surname Filippov. When I have a prosthesis. ”
In the hostel, where Vladimir Verelkin-Filippov lives, purely and empty. He occupies a bed in a room for four people, where no one lives besides him. On one bedside table by the bed of Veselkin - Detective Alexei Bushkov, a prayer book and oil depicting Matrona of Moscow, consecrated in the Pokrovsky monastery. On the other - a piece of black bread, clean mug and plate.
Sitting on the bed, Vladimir Veselkin changes clothes and talks about where he buys clothes, - prefers to dress expensive. From somewhere a beautiful checkered scarf appears. “This is how disabled people have entertained themselves: I bought a Scottish scarf and a pop belt,” the former sex revolutionary, laughing, shows a candy pink belt on trousers. Then Veselkin takes out a clean footcloth to match the belt and carefully wraps the stump of the left leg.
Veselkin lost his leg in 2006 in Moscow. He retells the circumstances of the tragedy with a everyday tongue twister, which is why it sounds even more wild. “Well, how did you get under the tram? Usually. Sokolniki. Tram stop near Kalancha. Green light. We are all going. And I lose consciousness on the rails, because on the eve I buried a friend - a very cool look around Arbat, holder of the gangster cash desk Lenya Sternberg. I spent three days without sleep and without control over what was happening, because I was friends with Lenya, with his son, and with his widow, who was driven by the Baroness. А параллельно еще занимался проектом с Домом Булгакова. Я как раз ехал на работу в Дом Булгакова, — в кашемировом пальто, весь такой роскошный, — и потерял сознание. Меня затянуло под трамвай, который поехал на зеленый свет для пешеходов. Очнулся я в такой позе: здоровой ногой я выбил первую дверь трамвая и ей зацепился, иначе бы меня смололо на рельсах. Меня волокло по земле 18 метров. Я там зубы потерял, переломался весь. А сумку с документами люди украли у меня на глазах. Меня приняли в 33-ю больницу как бомжа. Эта больница меня изуродовала, отрезав от ноги лишнее».
Владимир едет в автобусе по Невскому проспекту. Photo: Alexey Loshchilov for TDОдной операцией дело не ограничилось. «Я жил в аду. Физическом. В постоянном состоянии боли, —вспоминает Веселкин. — Четыре больницы. Одни врачи исправляли ошибки других врачей. Но, чтобы не сломаться окончательно, иногда давал концерты — в Туле, в Челябинске. В Питер приезжал, даже записи делал. Принимал участие в каких-то проектах, но тем не менее понимал, что еще чуть-чуть, и я просто свихнусь. Потому что я отказывался принимать обезболивающие. Я, как каждый русский человек, предпочитал глушить боль алкоголем».
С 2006 года деньги на протез для попавшего в беду артиста несколько раз пытались собирать через Интернет. Но ничем хорошим эти кампании не заканчивались, Веселкин ругался с инициаторами сборов, обвинял их в злоупотреблении его именем и воровстве, а та сторона конфликта задыхалась от веселкинской злобы и неблагодарности, причины которой все видели в алкоголизме. «Ему многие люди пытались помогать, какие-то барышни с ним цацкались, но кончалось это всегда плохо. Он уходил оттуда, где о нем заботились. Больно кусал бывших благотворителей и поливал их грязью. Все перед ним виноваты, все ему должны», — говорят об артисте бывшие друзья.
У Веселкина есть объяснение своей неуживчивости: «Каждый раз, когда меня кто-то принимал, взамен требовал от меня больше, чем я мог дать. Я устал их благодарить, устал мыть их унитазы, устал мыть их посуду и ухаживать за их собаками. Каждая копейка, которая в меня вкладывается, обходится мне десятью рублями. Каждый раз я рву отношения с этими людьми. Я понимаю, что они тоже устают. Но тогда пусть не помогают мне и не зовут. И не рассказывают всем, что помогали самому Веселкину. Я — обычный человек, которому х***о. Уже много лет — х***о».
Владимир часто прикрывает свою культю. Photo: Alexey Loshchilov for TD
Владимир кормит голубей у Музея Арктики и Антарктики. Photo: Alexey Loshchilov for TDСейчас отсутствие левой ноги не доставляет больших неудобств бывшему танцору. Острая боль из ноги ушла, — последняя операция, которая состоялась в 2009-м, прошла успешно: «Спасибо Кириллу Серебренникову и его благотворительному фонду «Артист». Он позвонил мне, когда увидел программу «Пусть говорят» с моим участием. Сказал, что мне надо обязательно вернуться на сцену. Он все устроил — и гостиницу, и проживание, и водителя с Volvo. Положил в 29-ю больницу на операцию, и мне там прекрасно вычистили ногу. И деньги на протез мне уже собрали, они лежат на банковском счету фонда «Артист», который переведет их в Питер в клинику Альбрехта. Но когда я проснулся после операции без боли, то понял, сколько во мне накопилось усталости, и подумал — нет, я сначала отдохну, а потом уже лягу на протезирование».
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlmVlBOHGMA
Отдохнуть у Веселкина не получается, с ним постоянно что-то случается. В июле он ездил в Москву в 34-й раз восстанавливать утерянные документы. Его несколько раз грабили и избивали в Москве, один раз — в Петербурге. По словам неприкаянного артиста, при свете дня и всем честном народе, зеваки снимали сцену избиения на мобильные телефоны, а он хохотал в лицо нападавшим и просил добавить ему еще. «Хорошо, что у меня пониженный порог боли и прекрасная генетика, — улыбается Веселкин. - I am 54 years old. Я очень уставший, но посмотри, как хорошо я выгляжу. А представляешь, как я буду выглядеть, когда отдохну, когда вставлю зубы и отпущу свою густую шевелюру?»
Секс-символ Союза, за которым в 1990-е, по собственным словам, в очередь выстраивались мужчины и женщины, признает, что не любил никогда никого кроме себя и всю жизнь занимался только собой. «Участники «Аукциона» по наивности считают, что я изменился, когда начал пить. Ничего подобного — я всегда был таким! Вежливость — это была защита. Зачем травмировать людей и допускать их в свою душу? Я делал все, чтобы не нравиться людям. Чтобы люди на меня обижались и старались не контачить. Некоторые вступали в зону моего сумасшествия. Но долго это терпеть невозможно. Поэтому у меня по большому счету никогда не было друзей и никогда не было жен».
Из всех женщин, которые были в его жизни, Владимир Веселкин с теплотой вспоминает только мать, сильно пьющую «Кармен из Гатчины», убийство которой тяжело переживал, бывшую учительницу литературы Людмилу Майорову, к которой уехал пожить в Орел на полгода, а провел пять лет, и вновь обретенную дочь Елизавету, о которой он с гордостью говорит: «Она красотой в мать, характером — в меня. Я ее в этом году всем показал, и все обалдели».
На Фонтанке. Photo: Alexey Loshchilov for TD21-летняя Елизавета Никитина тоже любит своего незаурядного отца, который возник в ее жизни три-четыре года назад, и прощает ему его слабости. «Он очень честный и справедливый, — описывает Елизавета качества, который ей нравятся в отце. — Он никогда не говорит в пустоту. Он знает, о чем он говорит. Он умеет дать совет. Он замечательно танцует, несмотря на свой недуг. У него замечательные движения руками, потрясающая мимика, сильный голос. Он очень вкусно готовит — особенно драники по фирменному рецепту. He is a wonderful person. Жаль, что многие об этом забыли. Ему, на самом деле, одиноко очень, но он пытается не показывать этого».
Веселкин хочет курить, и мы выходим на улицу, потому что в хостеле курение запрещено. Идем по Лиговскому проспекту. Дядя Вова ловко лавирует между людскими потоками и рассказывает мне байки из 1990-х, как он на спор перепил двух челябинских бандитов (один из конкурсантов в финале умер) и противостоял ограблению порносалона. Идем мимо магазина, Веселкин предлагает зайти туда взять пива. «За то время, что я живу на деньги моих поклонников, это всего лишь четвертая банка пива, которую я себе позволяю, — слегка извиняющимся тоном комментирует Веселкин, платя деньги в кассу. — И еще была бутылочка коньяка. This is all! Остальное трачу только на еду и на курево».
Покурить и выпить пиво Веселкин решает у входа на станцию метро «Площадь Восстания». Прислоняет к парапету костыли и присаживается на него. Его сигарета «Космос» постоянно гаснет на резком питерском ветру, и ее приходится поминутно поджигать. Веселкин говорит о том, что его задача — работать звездой в любом состоянии. «Вот случилась со мной такая ситуация — я буду другим бомжом. Буду работать в шалях. В роскошных куртках. В любимом боевом копыте, которое купил на блошином рынке в Берлине в 1988-м году, — Веселкин лихо стучит правой ногой, обутой в мощный ботинок. — Свиная кожа!»
К нам, шатаясь, подходит помятый парень в синяках и ссадинах и просительным тоном произносит что-то невнятное. Веселкин отдает ему последнюю сигарету, парень, что-то пробормотав, уходит, оставляя после себя сильный запах алкоголя. «Он даже меня не узнал, — кивает на удаляющуюся спину Веселкин. — Я как-то сидел четыре месяца назад на остановке. Он мимо шел, у него рука была сломана — ему было х***о, у него было похмелье. А я коньяк пил и курил. Он тоже у меня сигарету стрельнул. Меня потрясает, что здоровые парни — при ногах, при голове, при руках — у меня, инвалида, сигареты последние стреляют и даже деньги. Я их не сужу — просто удивляюсь».
Владимир Веселкин Фото: Алексей Лощилов для ТД
Слева: Владимир спускается с третьего этажа, где находится хостел. Справа: Владимир надевает носок на культю. Photo: Alexey Loshchilov for TDЯ спрашиваю Веселкина, когда он собирается бросить пить, ведь Бог давно уже подает ему знаки, что хватит. «Будет 60 — и брошу. 30 лет не пил и 30 лет пил. Осталось недолго, — в следующем году мне исполнится 55, — недолго думая, говорит Веселкин. — А может, и раньше брошу. Я категорически против навязывания здорового образа жизни. Я за тот образ жизни, который люди хотят вести. И за то, чтобы нести за это ответственность».
Символ Перестройки делает неудачное резкое движение пивной банкой, и из нее лезет обильная пена, обливая ему слегка дрожащие руки. «Меня всегда тянула бездна, — заводит финальный монолог талантливый артист, побывавший на вершине и решивший спрыгнуть вниз. — Знаешь, один человек мне сказал: я тебе завидую, потому что ты уже при жизни несешь наказание. На том свете ты будешь от него избавлен».
В Санкт-Петербурге есть ночлежка, которая помогает людям, оставшимся на улице без средств к существованию. Фонд «Нужна Помощь» собирает деньги на работу этого проекта. Это — зарплаты для сотрудников, административные расходы, а также коммунальные услуги и аренда помещения для участников программы.