Our heroes, child prodigies of the USSR, lived short but bright lives - they managed to achieve a lot, become famous and … disappointed. Isn't that the share of young geniuses for whom there is often no place in adult life? Someone was crushed by illness, an accident took away, and someone himself decided to leave. We tell about the tragic fate of gifted children born in the Soviet Union.
The names of Nika Turbina, Boris Ryzhy and other wunderkinds of the USSR are known even now. At all times, gifted children, who stood out noticeably among their peers, had a difficult time. Where there are phenomenal abilities, there is a huge load, plus, often, peer bullying. We tell you what happened to the child prodigies of the USSR.
Nadya Rusheva
Artist, 1952-1969
Nadia was born into a family of an artist and a ballerina and inherited the talents of her parents and a passion for art. At the age of 5, the girl began to draw - without art lessons and without making sketches. Nadya illustrated fairy tales for children, and then classical literature - for example, the famous drawings for The Master and Margarita. At the age of 12, the first exhibition of Nadya Rusheva opened, her name was known to all people born in the USSR. The child prodigy, unfortunately, lived a very short life. Everything was cut short in an instant: at the age of 17, the artist suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, the cause of which was a congenital defect in one of the vessels.
Nika Turbina
Poetess, 1974-2002
The name of Nika Turbina, a poetess girl, thundered all over the world - perhaps this is the most famous child prodigy from the USSR. At the age of 4, Nika, the artist's daughter, wrote not children's poems at all, and at the age of 9 she released the first collection, which was translated into 12 languages! Evgeny Yevtushenko took the girl under his care. At the age of 12, she received the Golden Lion at the Poetry Festival in Venice: before that, only Anna Akhmatova had received such an award.
Nika Turbina's poems sounded tragic and tormented the girl herself. Nika suffered from asthma, which interfered with sleep, and during the attacks of insomnia, the child prodigy of the USSR heard her poems in her head.
During Nika's tour of the USA, where she met with Joseph Brodsky, American experts convinced her mother and grandmother: the girl needs to communicate with a psychologist. But, unfortunately, these recommendations were not supported by the family. There were a lot of child prodigies in the USSR, but it was not accepted to work with psychologists. The turbines did not heed the advice, and at the age of 16, Nika had a nervous breakdown, she needed the help of a psychiatrist.
Nika went to Switzerland for treatment, where she married her doctor - an Italian professor who was 60 years older than her … Six months later, Nika returned to Moscow - broken and with alcohol addiction. The matured poetess, the most famous child prodigy of the USSR, never found a place in life. Nika, who abused alcohol and drugs, repeatedly tried to commit suicide and ended up in a psychiatric hospital again. Turbina began her studies at the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography and the Institute of Culture - and it would be successful, if not for the hard drinking.
At the age of 27, Nika fell from the windowsill during regular gatherings with her drinking companions - it is not known, by accident or deliberately. Everyone born in the USSR grieved for the girl. The child prodigy has forever inscribed herself in the history of Russian poetry.
Pasha Konoplev
Programmer, 1973-2002
In the 80s, newspapers admired the phenomenal abilities of Pasha Konoplev. At the age of 3 he could read and do complex calculations in his mind, at the age of 5 he mastered the piano, and at the age of 8 he mastered physics. But what the boy did not succeed in was to find friends. Peers were afraid or openly mocked the strange Pasha. The child suffered, like many other child prodigies of the USSR. His fate turned out to be very difficult.
The wunderkinds of the USSR: what happened to them? The whole country watched them, and it was extremely difficult for the guys to bear such an enormous responsibility. At the age of 15, Konoplev became a student at a technical university, at 18 he entered graduate school and became one of the first specialists to develop programs for the Soviet home computer BK 0010. This glorified - and ruined Pasha. Phenomenal abilities entailed a phenomenal load, which literally drove the young man crazy. At the age of 29, he died in a psychiatric clinic.
Sasha Putrya
Artist, 1977-1989
Sasha, the artist's daughter, started painting at the age of 3. The baby also sculpted, folded mosaics of stones and beads, embroidered, burned wood, drew, and also wrote poetry. At the age of 5, Sasha was diagnosed with blood cancer … The whole further short life of the girl-child prodigy of the USSR consisted of constant treatment and immersion in creativity, when her condition allowed.
Sasha created her last drawing two days before her death - she was 11 years old.
Maxim Troshin
Musician, 1978-1995
The young singer and songwriter from Bryansk was religious since childhood. Maxim sang in the church choir, studied music in Sunday school, served as a bell ringer and subdeacon. But love for singing and music did not arise out of nowhere. At the age of two, the child prodigy of the USSR was diagnosed with a severe form of asthma, and singing literally relieved the boy's condition.
At the age of 9, Maxim began to write music to the verses of Russian poets (Yesenin, Rubtsov, Koltsov, Klyuev) - and to his own lyrics.
Troshin's songs glorified him. Since the beginning of the 90s, Maxim began performing solo and with popular populist artists. The program of the USSR prodigy included the Russian folk song "You Sing in the Garden, Nightingale", dedicated to the memory of the murdered musician Igor Talkov, whose death the young musician felt very deeply.
At the beginning of 1995, Maxim's father died, and in the summer of that year, the body of a young man was found in a river in Bryansk. Maxim died two weeks before his 17th birthday under unclear circumstances. The last song of the wunderkind of the USSR was the "Death Bell" in memory of his father.
By the way, the young pianist-prodigy from the USSR Yevgeny Kisin was almost his age. At the beginning of their life, the fate of the prodigy of the USSR is somewhat similar: they both were applauded in huge halls when the guys were still very young. Fortunately, Evgeny Kisin is alive and well and performs successfully to this day.
Vladimir Poletaev
Poet and translator, 1951-1970
Volodya Poletaev began working while still studying at the Gorky Literary Institute. Translations of poems from German, Georgian, Belarusian and Ukrainian languages glorified the young man in professional circles. And the child prodigy of the USSR composed himself; during the short life of the writer, only three of his poems were published.
These poems became Poletaev's suicide note. At 18, he stepped out of a fifth-floor window. Thirteen years after the suicide of the poet-prodigy of the USSR, the collection "Heaven Returns to Earth" with translations and his own poems was published.
Boris Ryzhiy
Poet, 1974-2001
Boris was born into the family of a geologist professor and doctor. In his youth, he was fond of boxing and participated in geological expeditions - all this inspired Ryzhy to poetry. Boris decided to follow in his father's footsteps and entered the Sverdlovsk Mining Institute. In his first year he married a classmate and at the age of 19 he already became a father. By that time, the child prodigy of the USSR was already known for his poetry.
After graduating from graduate school, the former USSR prodigy worked as a junior researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, published scientific works on the structure of the earth's crust - and at the same time wrote poetry. Ryzhy's poetry was published not only in Russia, but also translated in Europe
If you ask the question what happened to the prodigies of the former USSR, it will be clear that unusual, early manifested talent has brought few people happiness in life.
At the age of 26, the poet Boris Ryzhiy hanged himself, leaving a suicide note: “I loved everyone. No fools. " Neither his wife nor Boris's relatives suspected the young man's condition. And he never complained - he only wrote sad verses:
Somewhere far away, where the smells of the forest roam, somewhere far away, where the air, like a swoon, is motley …
Where there is evening, where autumn, where forgotten childhood cries, wringing the elbows behind the red heads of the stars, there is a moon, not a forest, mine, in the autumn meadows
rushes about, melting in the semi-
night silver …
Where am I - a reflection of the moon in pale blue …
in a pale blue mist, where I am life, not living out the life of city lanterns.
Now Ryzhy's work is experiencing a wave of immense popularity, especially among young people, and not only Russian - all thanks to the fact that the song "Ship" of the Belarusian group "Silent Houses" based on his poems has become one of the hits of social networks on a global scale.
