How was the fate of the last muse of Vladimir Vysotsky: Two lives of Oksana Afanasyeva

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The role of this woman in the life of Vladimir Vysotsky is usually silent in official biographies. His last wife was Marina Vlady, but shortly before he left, he was going to dissolve the marriage and marry another woman - Oksana Afanasyeva. She remained close to the genius in the most difficult period for him, until his last days, and never speculated on the topic of her relationship with Vysotsky. After he left, she met the man who later became her husband, Leonid Yarmolnik. Later she said that she seemed to have lived two different lives - at first incredibly difficult and full of trials, and then - calm and happy …

Oksana Afanasyeva had to grow up very early. As a child, she lost her mother and stayed with her father, the famous pop playwright Pavel Afanasyev-Sevastyanov, with whom she had a very difficult relationship. They lived with his second cousins, noisy companies often gathered in their house - film and stage artists. Oksana grew up in a creative atmosphere, but from childhood she learned the seamy side of bohemian life - they all drank a lot. The father in this state became aggressive, and soon the existence with him became unbearable. After school, Oksana insisted on changing the apartment and began an independent life.

She dreamed of sewing costumes for performances in the theater, entered the Moscow Textile Institute and subsequently became a theater artist. She had a young man whom she was going to marry, but then a meeting happened that changed her whole subsequent life. When Oksana Afanasyeva met Vladimir Vysotsky, she was only 18 years old, and he was already 40. He was married to Marina Vlady, but recently discord has ripened in their relationship - the poet was tired of overprotection and excessive control of his wife, and she was already losing hope to overcome his alcohol addiction. She lived in Paris, he - in Moscow, their meetings were infrequent and short-lived.

When they met with Oksana Afanasyeva, Vysotsky experienced a creative upsurge - he almost did not drink and worked a lot. The girl was an avid theatergoer, talked with many artists and often visited the Taganka Theater. Once, during the intermission, Oksana went to call the administrator's room, and Vysotsky was there at that moment. Having barely met, he immediately offered to give her a lift home after the performance. The next day Afanasyeva parted with her fiancé.

On the very first evening, Oksana got the feeling that they had known each other for many years - they had a lot in common in habits, characters and tastes. The 22-year age difference made no difference to either. Later she recalled: "".

Their relationship was not a casual relationship, Vysotsky was going to divorce Marina Vlady and marry Oksana Afanasyeva. She dissuaded him from this step, because the stamp in the passport meant nothing to her. Vysotsky even found a priest who was ready to marry them, without waiting for the painting in the registry office. But this was never destined to happen.

She was amazed at Vysotsky's working capacity, the fact that he was on the move all the time, spoke during the day, wrote at night. He had many plans, he dreamed of writing a script and making a film, but the editor-in-chief of the Ekran association did not want to hear about Vysotsky the director. This greatly crippled him - too often his undertakings remained unfulfilled. And at that moment he started drinking again.

At first, Oksana did not suspect that the poet suffered not only from alcohol addiction. It turned out that the doctors unwittingly addicted him to potent drugs when they took him out of the binge and removed the hangover syndrome, and later Vysotsky began to take them himself, constantly increasing the dose. Probably, the experience gained in childhood helped her survive this nightmare, however, Vysotsky, unlike her father, in a state of intoxication was never angry and aggressive. But in the second year of their relationship, he changed a lot. Later Afanasyeva said: "". In a state of unconsciousness, Vysotsky turned out to be of no use to anyone except her, and she tried to always be there - she brought him home, brought him to his senses. Oksana stayed with him until the last day, but could not save him.

When he died, she was only 20 years old. And at 40 she said: "". 2 years after the departure of Vysotsky, she married an artist whom the poet introduced her to in the same Taganka Theater - Leonid Yarmolnik.

Before meeting her, the actor had a reputation as a womanizer, and with Oksana he became an exemplary family man and a wonderful father for their daughter Alexandra. Yarmolnik never asked her questions about her first love, and his respect for her past allowed them to build a strong family without looking back at the experience that both had behind them.

Until now, their family is called one of the most beautiful and harmonious in the acting environment: Leonid Yarmolnik and Oksana Afanasyeva.