Scandalous "jump into freedom": how Rudolf Nureyev managed to escape from the USSR

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

57 years ago, on June 17, 1961, an event occurred that caused a major international scandal: during the Paris tour of the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater dancer Rudolf Nureyev (He became Nuriev later, when he became famous) turned to the authorities with a request to grant him political asylum. He was under suspicion for a long time, he was under surveillance, but Nureyev managed to lull the vigilance of the KGB officers and turn them around.

A year earlier, Nureyev had learned about the planned tour in Paris, but he was sure that he would not be included in the troupe. But he was still released. Two weeks before his escape, his behavior was recognized as inappropriate: “On June 3 of this year, information was received from Paris that Rudolf Khametovich Nuriev was violating the rules of conduct of Soviet citizens abroad, one left for the city and returned to the hotel late at night. In addition, he developed close relationships with French artists, among whom there were homosexuals. Despite the preventive conversations with him, Nuriyev did not change his behavior."

The dancer managed to mislead the agents watching him. Having learned that he could be sent back to the USSR ahead of schedule, he "stopped night absences, improved his behavior, and therefore the ambassador decided to refrain from sending him to the USSR." From Paris, the troupe was supposed to go to London, and then it became known that Nureyev allegedly plans to stay in France during the departure of the troupe. Therefore, the decision to return him to the USSR was nevertheless made.

Under the pretext of an invitation to a concert in the Kremlin, Nureyev was taken to the airport and tried to be escorted to a plane bound for the USSR. His friend, millionaire Clara Sainte, who allegedly came to accompany him to the airport, whispered in his ear during parting: “You should go up to those two policemen and say that you want to stay in France. They are waiting for you. " State security officers attempted to push him away from the police, but the dancer literally jumped out of their entourage. In his Autobiography, he wrote about it this way: “I made the longest, most exhilarating jump in my entire career and landed right in the arms of two police officers. "I want to stay," I said breathlessly. " The French newspapers the next day were full of the headlines "Leap Into Freedom."

The Soviet consul tried to dissuade the dancer from this rash step, but he was adamant in his decision to stay in France. On June 19, 1961, KGB officers from France sent to the USSR a "note about treason of the ballet dancer R. Kh. Nureyev", in which it was reported: "I report that on June 16, 1961, Rudolf Khametovich Nuriev, born in 1938, betrayed his Motherland in Paris., single, Tatar, non-partisan, ballet dancer of the Leningrad Theater. Kirov, who was part of a touring troupe in France."

In January 1962, Rudolf Nureyev was tried in absentia in the USSR, and he was sentenced for treason to the Motherland to 7 years of corrective labor, serving a term in a strict regime colony with confiscation of property. And then, over the years, he was harassed with anonymous threatening calls. An adviser to the Soviet embassy in France even tried to persuade the director of the Paris Opera to remove Nureyev's performance from the program and send “much more talented” Soviet artists on tour instead. But as a result, Nureyev spoke, and the Soviet artists, by the decision of the Central Committee of the CPSU, stayed at home so as not to perform on the same stage with the fugitive.

Rudolf Nureyev continued touring around the world, his career in the West was very successful. For more than 15 years he performed with the Royal Ballet in London and became a millionaire and a darling of the public. He was even called the richest man in the world of ballet. 1983 to 1989 Nureyev was the director of the ballet troupe of the Parisian Grand Opera. He has performed almost all the leading male parts of classical ballet.

The scandalousness of the situation was aggravated by the fact that Rudolf Nureyev became the first immigrant from the USSR to officially recognize his own non-traditional sexual orientation. In addition, his beloved Eric Brun was a member of the American Ballet Company, which performed in the USSR in 1960.

Nureyev was able to return to his homeland only in 1987, during the era of perestroika. He barely had time to say goodbye to his dying mother. In 1989 he danced again on the stage of the Leningrad Theater. At that time, the dancer himself was terminally ill - for about 10 years he lived with a diagnosis of AIDS. Nureyev spent the rest of his days in Paris, where he died at the age of 54. When a friend asked him about nostalgia for his homeland, he replied: “I am completely happy here, I do not miss anyone or anything. Life gave me everything I wanted, every chance."

All the newspapers wrote about his novels. Rudolf Nureyev and Eric Brun: the strangeness of love against the background of ballet steps