“Chaliapin killed a man”: the singer’s letter to Gorky was put up for auction

The danger is over. The police are investigating…

The Litfond auction house will offer 380 artifacts at online auctions. Among them is a letter worth 100 thousand rubles, written by Fyodor Chaliapin two days after the tragic incident in his life, as well as a lifetime edition of A. S. Pushkin’s poem “Boris Godunov”, worth 2 million 800 thousand rubles.

Imagine: a secluded dacha, hidden 8 miles from Sochi, the clock hand points to 5 o’clock in the morning, you are sleeping in a cozy place, and around there is only forest and enveloping silence. Suddenly the atmosphere of a paradise is destroyed by noise of unknown origin. You quickly get out of bed and suddenly realize: these sounds are not from a dog that accidentally ran into the yard, but because of the presence of an unknown person hiding behind the screen of your room literally two steps away from you.

Dangerous situation – isn’t it? But Fyodor Chaliapin didn’t even have to imagine, because this nightmare happened to him in the morning of September 10, 1916 at the dacha of Mikhail Stakhovich. Realizing that he needed to act immediately, Chaliapin quickly grabbed a revolver from the night table and, having previously shouted out that he would shoot, began to wait for further actions from the unknown person, hoping that he would run away. However, the “native” only slowly backed away and took an indefinite object with a grip that is usually used to take a gun at the ready – only after that the actor fired. Servants and household members came running at the noise.

At that very moment a doctor was called, who, after turning over and examining the body, pronounced death. According to the actor’s recollections, the murdered man looked to be about fifty years old. He was wearing rags, and his oriental face was framed by a gray beard. As it turned out later, the robber turned out to be a beggar old man, Abram, known to Sochi residents, in whose hands was not a gun, as the artist thought in the twilight, but just a stick.

“Immediately after the examination, I went with Stakhovich to Sochi and informed the authorities about what had happened. The police arrived at the scene. They sent for a forensic investigator. The body lay on the terrace until everyone was questioned. Then it was removed for autopsy …,” the famous bass shared the tragic details of the incident with the newspaper “Kama-Volzhskaya Rech” on September 27, 1916.

A criminal case was opened. But fortunately, Themis was on the side of Fyodor Chaliapin: he was acquitted. The court found that this was necessary self-defense. Two days after the tragic incident, the opera singer wrote a letter to Maxim Gorky, which will soon be sold at auction with a starting price of 100 thousand rubles.

“Dear Alexey Maksimovich! Thank you for your worries and help. I’m fine. The danger is over. The police are looking into it. I bow with respect to F. Chaliapin,” reads the text located at the top of the front side of the postcard.

Of the 380 artifacts, one more is associated with the name of Fyodor Chaliapin: a lifetime edition of A. S. Pushkin’s poem “Boris Godunov” from 1831. The fact is that the book was once presented to the artist by one of his admirers for his brilliant embodiment of Godunov’s image on stage. There is even a signature: “To Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin, the brilliant embodiment, created by the genius of Pushkin, of the image of Tsar Boris. X-27-1913. Moscow. AK”. It is no less remarkable that the initials belong to a man of the famous merchant family, A. A. Karzinkin. The starting cost is 2 million 800 thousand rubles.