Today society treats people with disabilities kindly. They sympathize with the disabled and just those who are “not like everyone else”, offer various benefits and special conditions, and try to help. But things were quite different half a century ago. Siamese twins Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapov are one of the most famous in our country. In many interviews, the sisters said that their life was not easy, and not only because of their unusual physiology.
Difficult twins
Mikhail Krivoshlyapov worked as a personal driver for Lavrenty Beria, and his wife, Ekaterina Krivoshlyapova, was a housewife. The young couple dreamed of children and were incredibly happy when they learned about the onset of pregnancy. Catherine's belly increased quite quickly and was striking in its size, all the relatives immediately guessed: twins should be expected. On January 4, 1950, Siamese twins Masha and Dasha were born by caesarean section. According to one version, the doctor who delivered the baby occasionally allowed himself to drink alcohol in the workplace. He also abused on the day of the birth of unusual children. Seeing the twins, the doctor lost consciousness, and when he woke up, he decided never to drink alcohol again. Mothers of unusual sisters said that her children died almost immediately after giving birth. However, one of the nurses could not look at the experiences of the young woman and secretly showed her the girls. After what she saw, Catherine experienced a serious shock and went to a psychiatric hospital for several years.
Physiological features of sisters
The Krivoshlyapov twins had two heads, four arms and three legs for two. The bodies of the sisters were connected at an angle of 90 degrees. The scientific name for this developmental anomaly is dicephales tetrabrachius dipus. Also, twins in the case of fusion in their lower extremities, pelvis and abdominal wall are often called ischiopagus. Scientists, of course, were interested in these children. There were many questions: are there common internal organs, and how does such a double organism function in general. The separation of Siamese twins was a rare operation in those days. However, it was necessary to study all the physiological possibilities, after which this option could also be considered.
Childhood and youth
Siamese twins Masha and Dasha spent the first seven years of their lives at the Institute of Pediatrics of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. In their mature interviews, the sisters recalled that time with horror. According to Masha and Dasha, various experiments were carried out on them daily, sometimes simply terrifying in their cruelty and pain. Once the girls were put on ice to get sick, and the doctors were able to observe the body's reactions to the acute stage of a cold. After such a study, the sisters lay with a temperature of about 40 for several days and mentally prepared to say goodbye to life. But the girls were stronger and survived.
By the seventh birthday of the sisters, the doctors received all the data of interest and successfully defended more than a dozen dissertations. After that, the Siamese twins Dasha and Masha Krivoshlyapov were transferred to the Central Research Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics. It was there that the girls met their second mother, nurse Nadezhda Fedorovna Gorokhova. This woman was the first to treat the Krivoshlyapovs as ordinary children, and not as a scientific exhibit. At the institute, the sisters received their primary education and learned to walk.
Time passed, and interest in unusual twins faded. In adolescence, the sisters had their third leg amputated, after which they were sent from Moscow to Novocherkassk, to an ordinary boarding school for children with motor skills problems.
From the world of science to the real
Siamese twins Masha and Dasha have suffered a lot from doctors in the first twenty years of their lives. But if life in scientific institutes was not very pleasant and easy, then after that a real hell began. In the boarding school, the sisters were immediately disliked. Other children constantly mocked them, sometimes physically offended them.
After the amputation of the third leg, the sisters could only move on crutches or a wheelchair. The "extra" limb performed a supporting function, having lost it, the girls felt worse. Moreover, in some interviews, the sisters talked about what they experienced from time to time.
After 6 years of living in a boarding school in Novocherkassk, they returned to Moscow. It was 1970, they did not immediately manage to find a place for permanent accommodation. But after some time they were settled in a shelter for the elderly No. 6. The women lived there until their death. Nursing home neighbors recalled Dasha and Masha as sullen and aggressive. The sisters never smiled, often cursed, sometimes drank.
Was separation possible?
According to some sources, in 1989 the sisters were offered a separation operation. There are no guarantees in such cases. Often the operation ends with the death of one of the twins or two at once. In addition, the case of the Krivoshlyapov sisters was unique and complex in itself.
Masha and Dasha had a common circulatory system and some internal organs. The separation of Siamese twins with this structure rarely has positive results. Be that as it may, even if the operation was offered, the sisters refused it without hesitation. They were too closely related to each other. Women told reporters that they see the same dreams and even read each other's thoughts. If you eat alone, the second does not feel hungry, and even the mood is often the same for two.
Relationships with family and society
The incredibly famous Siamese twins in the USSR Masha and Dasha were the first children of their parents. After the girls were born, their mother was treated in a psychiatric institution for several years. After recovery, the woman tried to find her children, but the meeting never took place. The sisters claim that they themselves found their mother and met her in adulthood, they were then 35 years old. The father was never interested in the fate of his children. They did not want to communicate with unusual sisters and two younger brothers who were born completely healthy. Masha and Dasha kept in touch with their mother for some time, but then refused to see each other in the future. Society treated unusual sisters with hostility. Siamese twins Dasha and Masha Krivoshlyapov visited Paris as adults. They were shocked that in Europe passers-by on the streets did not look at them, and everywhere they were treated as ordinary people.
One body, two souls
Siamese twins are not so common in Russia. Masha and Dasha throughout their conscious life proved to others that they are two different people. Indeed, initially the girls had one birth certificate for two, and they did not want to give them two passports. At the same time, the sisters radically differed in characters and habits. Dasha was more vulnerable and softer, and Masha was calmer, in some ways rude. It's hard to believe, but despite their physiology, the sisters managed to fall in love with each other and once even almost got married. Dasha always dreamed of children and her family, but doctors told her in her youth that she should not think about such things. According to some sources, the sisters tried to commit suicide more than once. If such stories can be safely attributed to gossip and rumors, then there are irrefutable facts. In the last years of her life, Dasha began to drink heavily. Doctors even coded sisters for alcoholism, but this measure did not help.
Sad end
On April 13, 2003, Dasha woke up and called the doctor, as she felt very ill. The sisters were hospitalized, and it turned out that Masha had already died. A diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction was made. Alive Dasha was told that her sister was given an injection of a potent drug, and she was just sleeping. At this time, intoxication had already begun, and after 17 hours the second of the twins died. The sisters were 53 at the time. This is a rare case, because many other stories of Siamese twins end within a couple of years after the birth of unusual children. According to experts, Masha and Dasha could live longer if they refused to drink alcohol.
Media about the Krivoshlyapov twins
At first, the sisters were diligently hidden from the public. Experts believed that such a spectacle could frighten and shock Soviet citizens. But still, over time, documentaries and publications in the press began to appear. Gradually, the Krivoshlyapov sisters became known to the whole world and are quite popular. In adulthood, they from time to time personally gave interviews and talked to journalists. This unusual story was covered more than once in major print media and even on Central Television. Many viewers remember, for example, the release of the program “Let them talk” dedicated to the Krivoshlyapovs. The Siamese twins Masha and Dasha did not receive anything from such fame. The sisters lived their lives quite modestly, and the main source of income was their disability pension. After the death of the Siamese twins were cremated, their remains are buried in the columbarium at the Nikolo-Arkhangelsk cemetery.
At the time of their death in 2003, Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapov were the oldest living twins in the world: the women were 53 years old.
The story of the girls began with the fact that Masha and Dasha were taken from their mother Ekaterina Krivoshlyapova in January 1950, who was under anesthesia after a caesarean section. The woman was told that her children died shortly after birth.
The girls were taken to the Medical Institute of Pediatrics, where experiments were carried out for many years. They shared the same blood system, but each had its own functioning nervous system, which is why they were the perfect subject for research.
Dasha on the left, Masha on the right
As a child, one of the girls contracted measles, while the other did not. The fact that they had different nervous systems meant that the same diseases would affect the twins differently.
"Test Rats"
Masha and Dasha were treated like experimental rats or guinea pigs. The girls were subjected to treatment with cold and heat, they were forced to starve, electric current was passed through the body, they were not allowed to sleep, various drugs were injected under the skin to find out their effect on the body of the twins. At that time, such steps were considered sacrifices in the name of "science", writes Daily Mail.
In 1956, Dasha and Masha were transferred to the Central Research Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics. Scientists experimentally found out the reaction of one organism to a long lack of sleep, severe hunger and sudden changes in temperature.
In one of the experiments, one of the twins was subjected to an assessment of the reaction to various kinds of injections, while the other was immersed in ice water, the purpose was to check the temperature of an adjacent part of the body.
At the age of 6-7 years, cruel experiments stopped. The girls themselves hid from the public in the children's ward for eight years. After the twins were sent to a boarding school for children with disabilities in southern Russia.
Experiments on twins continued for a long time, and no one knew about them for just as long. But the broad masses nevertheless became aware of the cruelty shown by Soviet scientists.
One body - two different characters
The horrific story was first touched upon by English journalist Juliet Butler. Butler became friends with Masha and Dasha in 1988, and after several conversations with the twins, she said that, despite the common genetics and body, the sisters have completely different characters and personalities.
One person that Butler recognized is the cruel, domineering, emotionally oppressive Masha, and on the other side, the gentle and caring Dasha, longing for a normal life.
I have no doubt that Masha was a psychopath - she marked all the boxes.
"Dasha has been emotionally abused - some people find themselves in a similar emotional dependency on their partner."
“The only difference is that a person always has a chance to leave, but Dasha didn’t have it physically.”
“Masha denied absolutely everything that was ever interesting and necessary for Dasha: a chance for love, relationships with her mother, work, and even the most important goal - a separate body,”
Butler wrote in her book.
According to Butler, Masha and Dasha seem to have blocked the trauma of their early childhood.
They couldn't remember the cruelties, instead they could remember happy things, like when the nurse brought them a toy. Masha was angry, and Dasha simply said: "It's not their fault, they were just doing their job," -
the journalist said.
In addition, Dasha also said that Masha could not drink alcohol, she immediately felt sick, so Masha had to force her sister to drink in order to get drunk herself. This made both sisters drunk.
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Dasha longed for a normal life and fell in love with a boy, but Masha made a decision even earlier: her sister denied the couple happiness.
The boy really loved her, tried very hard to explain to Masha and wanted his sister to take his side. But, alas, no one could claim Dasha, except for her sister, ”-
Butler said.
There will be no separation!
With the development of medicine, the separation of twins became possible, and doctors for many years offered to perform an operation, but all proposals were rejected by Masha.
Juliet Butler remembers the moment when she visited the sisters in the late 90s, along with a letter from a British surgeon who specialized in separating Siamese twins and offered to help them. At that moment, Dasha looked at Masha, her eyes were full of hope, but Masha immediately and directly said: “No.”
Already as adults, the sisters found their mother Ekaterina, but four years later Masha decided to completely break off the relationship, contrary to the wishes of her sister. Dasha tried and wanted to work, but all Masha was interested in was smoking and reading magazines. The girl was extremely uninterested in changing her lifestyle.
After the girls made themselves known on TV, they had the opportunity to move into a home for labor veterans with significantly improved living conditions. Juliet Butler stated that despite their sad lives, the story of the two sisters is very inspiring.
Despite the dynamics of the storytelling, in the end they went through a lot together and were constantly with each other. They obviously loved each other with all their being, very deeply experiencing what was happening, ”-
On April 17, 2003, Masha died of a heart attack, and even then Dasha refused to be separated, perhaps because of her inner need to stay with her sister. Dasha was taken to the hospital, and 17 hours later, due to poisoning with toxins from the blood of her deceased sister, she also died.
The Krivoshlyapov sisters are one of the most famous Siamese twins in the world. They are classic examples of ischiopagus. These are cases when the pelvis, abdominal cavity and limbs of Siamese twins are fused at the same time.
Biography of the sisters
The Krivoshlyapov sisters were born on January 4, 1950. They were born in Moscow. Siamese twins originally had two heads, four arms and three legs. The spines of the sisters were connected at right angles. Even in the maternity hospital, their mother was told that the children died of pneumonia, and they were taken away from her.
For the first 7 years, the phenomenon of girls was studied by the famous Soviet physiologist Pyotr Anokhin. He became famous for creating the theory of functional systems - a special model that describes the structure of human behavior. The research was carried out on the basis of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR.
After the girls were transferred to another research center, which specialized in orthopedics and traumatology. The sisters' names were Dasha and Masha. In the new place, they seriously engaged in not only studying their phenomenon, but also helping them. They were taught to move with the help of crutches, they received their initial education.
life under the microscope
For many years, the Krivoshlyapov sisters have been subjects for the study of a rare disease. The real achievement was when they finally learned to walk after years of training. This was achieved only due to the fact that each of the sisters controlled her leg. The third leg was decided to be amputated. Physiologists came to this conclusion when the girls were in their teens.
The Krivoshlyapov sisters could move only with the help of crutches. But even under these conditions, everything happened very slowly. Each step demanded incredible efforts from them. Because of this, and also because of the increased general attention and curiosity of those around them, the Siamese twins of the Krivoshlyapov sisters could not get any work. And they received only primary education. They had to live on a disabled pension.
It is worth noting that not all Siamese twins who found themselves in this situation had serious problems with movement. For example, the American Hensel sisters, who are still alive, move around without any difficulty.
Own house
For most of their lives, Dasha and Masha lived in various Soviet social institutions designed for the disabled. In total, they spent almost four decades in them. Since 1964, they lived in a boarding school for minors with motor problems, which was located in Novocherkassk.
Maria and Daria Krivoshlyapovs found their own home only in 1989, when they were 39 years old. They remained to live together, despite the fact that domestic and foreign surgeons repeatedly offered them a separation operation. However, they invariably refused. In the early 90s, at the suggestion of a French company, the sisters visited France. The trip to Paris became one of the brightest impressions in their lives.
Personal life
It is worth noting that the sisters became addicted to alcohol at the age of 14. They started drinking regularly after a trip to Germany in the early 1990s. There they became the subjects of a documentary film. The sisters themselves admitted that they were struck by the attitude of those around them - respectful and interested. Conditions were created for them to feel like people. They weren't pointed at or scrutinized at every step. Unlike Moscow, where a huge crowd immediately gathered behind their wheelchair.
Despite health problems, the Krivoshlyapova sisters managed to have an intimate relationship with men. At the same time, their personal life did not develop. It was almost impossible to find a person who would understand and accept them. Each story of their love is sad, Masha and Dasha themselves admitted, and therefore they were reluctant to talk about them. Even at school, one of the teachers advised them not to even start thinking about boys when one of the sisters liked a classmate.
Different tempers
Being connected physically, the sisters were very different from each other in spiritual development and character. Dasha has always been more frivolous and amorous. Masha, on the contrary, remained as calm as possible and, in a sense, even a passive person. At the same time, doctors categorically forbade them to have sex, but nature took its toll. Not paying attention to the fact that each such experience could end tragically, they took risks. A careless movement or an unforeseen reaction of the body could result in severe bleeding for the sisters.
Thoughts of suicide
Awareness of one's hopeless situation, life under a microscope, constant attention of scientists and journalists had a negative impact on the psychological state of the heroines of our article. They repeatedly visited thoughts of suicide.
Once such an idea came to Dasha in Germany, where they were like in a fairy tale. Polite treatment, delicate attention and at the same time sadness from the situation in which they find themselves. By chance, they lived at that time in a hotel on the 11th floor, and Dasha seriously suggested that Masha jump off the roof to fix these wonderful days, so that only they would remain in their memory.
Goodbye alcohol!
Over time, the sisters decided to code, but they were not enough for a long time. Life without alcohol turned out to be a long and painful torture for them, as a result, they literally insisted that the doctors return everything back. A light dope from alcoholic vapors allowed them to forget at least for a while about life's difficulties, about their problems, which ultimately turn out to be unresolved. All attempts to give up alcohol did not lead to anything.
Parents of the Krivoshlyapov sisters
The sisters' father was Mikhail Krivoshlyapov. He worked as a personal driver for one of the leaders of the Soviet state - Lavrenty Beria. When the girls were born, it was immediately decided not to give them to their parents, but to study and research them.
Mothers simply lied, saying that Dasha and Masha died of pneumonia. Then, however, they showed her the twins, but they did not allow her to take them away. The father was literally forced to sign the death papers for his daughters. This was insisted on by the party leadership, which scientists convinced of the need to study this medical and social phenomenon. Mikhail Krivoshlyapov signed the death certificates and never again in his life tried to find out anything about the fate of his children. He left the girls his last name, but put someone else's name in the "Patronymic" column. So the girls became Ivanovnas. In the column "Father" in their questionnaires there was a dash.
Soon after the girls were shown to her, Mother Ekaterina ended up in a neuropsychiatric clinic. After spending two years there, she returned to her normal life and began looking for daughters, but to no avail. According to some journalists and biographers, she was again told that they had died. The domestic newspaper "Life" reported that the mother managed to find her daughters when they were 35 years old. She visited them for several years, but then they themselves refused to see her. At the same time, the Krivoshlyapov sisters told a different story.
Meeting with mother
Dasha and Masha said that when they decided to visit their mother, they came to her house. However, the meeting was radically different from what they imagined. On the threshold they were met by a stern and cold woman. For them, she was a complete stranger, did not show any feelings. The meeting took place already in the 90s. It turned out that the father of the Krivoshlyapovs died back in 1980. Right from the threshold, the sisters were reproached for not trying to come to her earlier. At the same time, Siamese twins have long tried to find out about the fate of their parents. But for a long time they were told that either they could not be contacted, or they were no longer alive. So, back in Soviet times, Dasha and Masha were told that their mother died during a difficult birth.
Despite all this, they believed that someday they would meet. They managed to find the address when they were already over 30. On their 35th birthday, they gathered their courage and came to visit their family. The reception was most unfriendly. It turned out that Catherine lives with two sons - Anatoly and Sergey. But we also failed to communicate with them. Both were heavy drinkers. Then the sisters had a version that their addiction to strong drinks could be largely hereditary. It was not possible to establish relations with relatives.
The mother of the Krivoshlyapov sisters died in the 1990s and was buried next to her husband at the Khimki cemetery. Dasha and Masha repeatedly planned to visit the grave of their parents, but they never visited it.
tragic end
At the end of their lives, the sisters began to have more and more health problems. The Krivoshlyapov sisters, whose biography was constantly in sight, eventually became addicted to alcohol. Doctors gave them an unequivocal diagnosis - pulmonary edema and cirrhosis of the liver.
Maria was especially abusing strong drinks. She struggled with her addiction for several years until in the spring of 2003, around midnight, she went into cardiac arrest. In the morning, Daria, who survived, began to complain of feeling unwell, she was promptly taken to the hospital. Doctors soon pronounced her dead.
The doctors managed to establish why the Krivoshlyapov sisters died. The cause of Maria's death is an acute heart attack. It is noteworthy that for Daria all this time she remained not dead, but fast asleep. The girls had a common circulatory system, so Daria's death was inevitable. She died 17 hours later. The cause of her death was intoxication of the whole organism. Realizing that the end is inevitable, and literally in a few hours, it was terrible.
The Krivoshlyapov sisters, whose funeral took place at the Nikolo-Arkhangelsk cemetery, lived only 53 painful years. Although if for an ordinary person this is a short period, then for a disabled person affected by such a disease, the age is very significant.
sisters - Siamese twins Maria and Daria Krivoshlyapovs tell
A lot was written about the Siamese twin sisters Maria and Daria Krivoshlyapov ten years ago, when the doors of state boarding schools opened to the press. Then the newspapermen lost interest in them, remembering only when it was necessary to give the reader some kind of "strawberry". Moreover, the publications were mostly condemning in nature - they say, alcoholics, prostitutes, rude women.
Negotiations about our meeting with them went on for about two months. On the phone, the sisters warned: “When you go, do not go to the director. She doesn't let journalists in." And Maria - I was talking to her - insinuatingly asked: “Aren't you afraid of us? And then everyone is afraid of us ... "
And here I am in one of the Moscow boarding schools for veterans and disabled people. It's huge. In the nine-story building - only bedridden patients, in the seven-story building - those who can move independently - on crutches or in a wheelchair. The strict mustachioed janitor, without asking unnecessary questions, leads me to the sixth floor - it turns out that the Krivoshlyapovs have done preliminary work with him.
I knock on the door. Two voices shout in unison: “Come in, come in!” Getting in. A corridor with a large wardrobe, doors to the toilet, a shower room. Nobody here. I carefully look into the room - a strange creature is sitting on a wide double bed. Two torsos, two heads, four arms and two legs in woolen socks and slippers - playfully thrown one on one. In the first second, I really feel a slight shock, although I have seen photos of the sisters many times. Both heads smile affably: “Well, why are you standing there? Hang up your coat and come in!”
Seeing the creature born, the midwife could not hold back a cry of horror
Mash, you only write the truth about us, okay? the namesake asks me. - And then they pour all the dirt on us, we get upset later. Do you want to make it clearer about us, we will turn on the film?
The twins' room has an imported color TV and VCR. Clean and cozy. On the floor there is a carpet, on the wall there is a calendar with the image of the icon of the Mother of God, photographs of the sisters in a frame under glass and three charming kittens made of poplar fluff on velvet - “a girlfriend gave”. Dasha puts on the cassette, and frames of the Nauchfilm documentary flash on the screen.
On the medical table are the swaddled twins. Pretty faces with huge eyes stare in surprise at the camera. One girl is trying to sit up, helping herself with her hands and pulling "her" leg. The second laughs happily, watching her sister's attempts from the side. A well-placed male voice-over: “Pay attention, Dasha is more active than Masha. But she manages to control only one leg. Masha hasn't made any attempts to get up yet. The third leg, with nine toes, belongs to both twins. It is located perpendicular to the body, and Dasha cannot stand up with her help. Looking at the TV screen, one of the sisters sighs:
Lord, how, I wonder, did our mother give birth to us? Probably suffered
They say that the birth of the Moscow dressmaker Ekaterina Krivoshlyapova was very difficult. Looking at her huge belly, relatives and doctors unanimously predicted twins. Katya was quietly happy: the children were welcome. On a frosty day on January 4, 1950, in the 16th city maternity hospital, she underwent a caesarean section. Seeing the creature born into the world, the midwife barely restrained a cry of horror. The operation was difficult, the woman lost a lot of blood and after giving birth she could not recover for a long time. In the meantime, the doctors consulted and worked out tactics of behavior. As soon as Katya woke up, she was informed that the twins were stillborn. But the woman in labor did not want to believe this: even under anesthesia, she clearly heard the cries of babies. And then a compassionate nanny was found, who showed Katya her children through the glass in the children's intensive care unit.
After what she saw, the young woman spent two years in a psycho-neurological dispensary in a state of severe depression.
However, there is another version: it was not the mother who refused to take the girls from the maternity hospital, but the father, Mikhail Krivoshlyapov, who at that time worked as a driver for Lavrenty Beria. When the birth certificates were issued for the babies, he, for incomprehensible reasons, ordered to leave his daughters with his last name, and change the patronymic: “Let them be Ivanovnas!”
The Siamese twins were transferred from the maternity hospital to the Research Institute of Obstetrics and Pediatrics of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. After numerous studies, it became finally clear that it was impossible to separate them: the sisters have common internal organs, circulatory systems communicate. Doctors began to study the "wonder of nature" in detail, candidates and doctors of science went in crowds to look at the sisters, took students. The well-known Soviet physiologist Academician Pyotr Anokhin came to grips with them. Experiments were carried out on the girls every week. Forced to swallow a probe, hung with sensors.
This is when we were three years old, they put us on ice on purpose to check whether we would get the same disease. Until now, from those experiments, the skin is cold.
The short film ends with a story about another pair of Siamese twins, born much earlier than the Krivoshlyapovs, in 1937. These were also girls, Galya and Ira, fused with their chests. This pathology of the anatomical structure turned out to be incompatible with life. The sisters died at the age of 1 year and 3 months.
Happy! Dasha sighs looking at the screen. - Were quickly exhausted. And we survived to suffer further.
Dasha learned poetry by heart and quietly prompted Masha. It was impossible to prevent
By the age of seven, the sisters not only could not walk, but also sat with difficulty. They were transferred to the Central Research Institute of Prosthetics of the Ministry of Social Security of the RSFSR. It took two years for the girls to learn to move independently. They were taught to coordinate movements for a long time. We trained in the gym, on mats and wall bars. For example: one leans to the right, the other to the left, one moves the right leg, the other the left. And the third leg dangles behind - it does not reach the ground, but it maintains balance. But when the sisters learned to walk, they immediately began to run along the long institute corridors. They even got the hang of jumping, simultaneously pushing off the floor.
When the sisters turned fourteen, the scientific luminaries lost interest in them. The anomaly has been studied, experiments have been carried out, candidate and doctoral dissertations have been defended. To be honest, none of the Aesculapius expected that they would live so long ... It became expensive to keep them at the institute. Yes, and there is no need.
At parting, the Krivoshlyapovs underwent an operation - they took away the third leg. The doctors thought that she was disturbing them, and it looked somehow ugly. After the operation, Dasha and Masha could no longer walk on their own, since then only on crutches and in a wheelchair.
American scientists, who learned about unusual twins, wanted to invite them to their place. They even offered a ransom. They promised to give them jobs and education. But Soviet doctors were adamant: "The USSR does not sell children." Young Muscovites were assigned to the Rostov boarding school for children with disorders of the musculoskeletal system.
M .: The question arose of what we need to teach. Although in Moscow, right next to the institute, there was a school. Teachers came to us. They knew us, and the guys knew. We were friends with the girls, we played hide and seek. With the boys - in football! But for some reason we were not allowed to go to school. Previously, the system was idiotic: do not show freaks and sick people to anyone. We didn’t understand it then, so we were eager to go to school! We thought, okay, they’ll call you a couple of times - we’ll stand up for ourselves. But they didn't let us in. You know how it hurt! They didn't take us to pioneer camps either. Once the doctor Bolshakovsky, God rest his soul, wanted to take us to Artek. He worked there every year. They didn’t let him either: “Why show freaks to normal children!”
Did you feel sorry for leaving Moscow?
M: No! We even rejoiced. After all, they lived at the institute, as in a concentration camp. Well, imagine - you only have a bedside table, a chair, a bed. And pajamas. Everything that you saw in the film - all these shirts, shorts, panties - they immediately took away from us after filming. Until the age of fourteen, they lived in striped hospital pajamas, like those under arrest. They didn't even give me panties. The mode just pissed me off! We were very active when we were little, we didn’t want to sleep, we played and played. The nurse was annoyed. They accustomed us to order: they made us make the bed, clean our room, wash the floors. Now, by the way, we are grateful to them for this. See how neat the room is? We try. And now I'm washing my floors. True, there is a cleaner here, but she is old, she cannot bend down and wash under the bed.
D .: In the room at one time a boy lived with us, who had no skin at all. He was born that way. He screamed so terribly. We plugged our ears so as not to hear. But it was soon removed. Or maybe he died.
M .: When we arrived in Rostov, we immediately began to get sick. The climate is different there. We were sick all winter, missed the school year. But the teachers treated us well. The musical director especially fell in love with Dasha and me. All the guys participated in amateur performances, the choir was good. What did the music teacher not only teach us! And on the piano in four hands, and on balalaikas. Bayan gave Dasha! But we had to give up everything - we can’t sit for a long time. Hurt. The spines, when we sit, are obtained in a curved position. We can't even ride in a wheelchair for a long time. In the summer we walk on the street - we get out of the stroller like washcloths! We lie down for half a day and rest.
“It was in Rostov that for the first time in our lives the thought of suicide came to us”
When we started talking about music, I noticed the hands of the twin sisters. Both have beautiful thin hands, elongated fingers. It would not be difficult to imagine these fingers running over the keys of a piano.
In general, Masha and Dasha are similar only at first glance. Looking closely, you can easily begin to distinguish them not only on the basis of "the one on the left and the one on the right." Dasha's face is thinner, dryish. Masha seems a little fuller. But both, especially with hair done and a little touch up, look great in their fifties. However, the sisters never used makeup in their lives. And the perfume that friends gave them for their birthday three weeks ago is still unopened. I wonder if the sisters quarrel with each other?
Masha seems to have read my mind. Because she immediately said:
For some reason, everyone considers us one person. And there are two of us. Each has its own passport, its own medical book. And the characters are very different. Dasha is more accommodating, she is kinder, more affectionate. And so it was in childhood. Her teacher will stroke her head, she sits, blooms. I told her: “What are you happy about, you fool?” On the contrary, they will kiss me - I will wipe my cheek. They always said about me that I was evil, rude. So what to do? In life, we had to achieve everything by character. Scream, tears. It just didn't come up with anything. Dasha is better for me. What I don't forgive, she forgives. Even the boys always loved her more. And I wasn't jealous. On the contrary, it was nice.
And how did you study at school? Did they copy each other?
Both smirk.
D .: Well, get it in that yellow album, look at the certificates.
Come on! Yeah, Masha, I look, has only C grades. Dasha has fours, fives. Behavior "satisfactory".
M .: At first, the teachers gave us one option. Then they look: Dasha has “4” and I have “4”. She has a 5 and I have a 5. The teachers understood what was happening, and began to give us two different options. And when it was necessary to learn poetry by heart - Dasha has a better memory - she will learn it and slowly prompts me. No one could stop us here.
D.: We lived in Rostov for five years. It was there that for the first time in our lives the thought of suicide came to us. The guys teased, poured water into the bed, the employees showed their friends for a ruble. Masha fought with classmates.
M .: And Dasha never got into a fight. Sitting down, crying.
D .: After school, they began to rush back to Moscow. Incomprehensible pains began, right here, - Dasha pats herself on the lower back. - I say: - we will die with you, Dasha, here. When our appendix was cut out, problems arose. Not a single hospital wanted to take us on. Lie down and die. It turned out - appendicitis one for two. And then suddenly pus began to appear in the morning. We didn't even know we had kidney stones. And in general, when they examined, they proved that we have one kidney. It turns out there is another one. Stones then had to be pulled out with hooks. There are big ones, they are tied in my handkerchief here, look.
“Dasha started drinking after she saw her mother”
From Kiev, I brought gifts for the Krivoshlyapov sisters: homemade Ukrainian sausage, smoked bacon, a bag of roasted seeds and, I confess, at the special request of Dasha, a bottle of Kirovogradskaya with pepper.
During our conversation, Dasha took a sip from the bottle at first once, washing down her portion with lemonade. Then a second time. Masha began to object, she did not even want to get up with her to the refrigerator, where the gift was kept in a hiding place. But Dasha moaned:
Well, one more time! Painfully it is delicious, with pepper something!
Masha, sighing, for the third time, together with her sister, went to the refrigerator. It became clear to me why the director of the boarding school is trying to protect the sisters from numerous visitors. Returning to her place, Masha said bitterly in her voice:
Well, what should I do? And I beat her, and treated, and coded, but she only got worse. And it all started at school. We were invited to have a drink in the company. I didn’t want to, Dasha also somehow hesitated. And then the guys began to tease: “Chorified!” And one stupid one: “And you drink and don’t breathe!” Dasha obeyed. And here we got it. I still can't forgive myself!
Masha nervously takes a cigarette and lights it up. Dasha immediately shouts: "Open the balcony, sprinkle some air freshener!" Masha, without dragging on, releases smoke into the room. I think she smokes in protest.
But especially she began to drink when she met her mother. Dasha got her phone through the address table. It was not difficult - the mother lived all these years in Moscow, did not go anywhere. Her last name is the same. The main thing is that Dasha did everything on the sly from me. But when I found out, I tore the paper with the address. I say to my fool: “Think for yourself, why does she need us? She refused us once and won't accept us a second time, you'll see. And you will cry again." Dasha again found her phone through the address table. Ten years persuaded me! Finally, she broke down.
The sisters decided to call their mother on the day they turned 35. Ekaterina Krivoshlyapova recognized her daughters immediately. But she wasn't happy. Her husband Michael had already died of cancer by that time. After Masha and Dasha, Catherine had two more sons - Sergei and Anatoly. Before the unexpected announcement of the sisters, they had no idea that the mother had two daughters.
M .: Aunt, mother's sister, drove us to the boarding school by car, and took us to her place. I didn't like them right away. Dasha immediately began to solder. We were offered to spend the night in the kitchen. The elder brother, as it turned out, constantly drinks. And the father, they say, drank, and the grandfather. Alcoholism in this family is hereditary. So that's probably why we ended up like this. After the first visit, we realized that we were strangers to them. The younger brother Anatoly, by the way, was invited to the 50th anniversary, but he never came.
Was your mother really in a mental hospital after you were born?
M .: (after a pause) I, you know, believe in it and do not believe it.
Ekaterina Krivoshlyapova died two years ago. Relatives blamed the sisters for this, declaring that after their “resurrection”, the elderly woman began to have serious heart problems. She was buried at the Khimki cemetery. The daughters never visited her grave. In my opinion, they never forgave their mother for the "refusal" written half a century ago.
Masha, contrary to her own stories, who did not at all give the impression of a “rude woman,” suddenly says angrily:
M .: No, we did not go. So why should I go? We've spent our whole lives hanging from strangers. From their mercy and kindness ... Why should I go to her if she did not recognize us? Why?! So, pay off the debt? I do not want
“Dashka wants to have a family. And over the years I have not liked a single man. ”
We continue to leaf through the album. Some pictures fall out of it all the time.
D .: Here is our school company. You see - what freaks?! (Crying).
M .: This guy loved us. Earring. His mother, they say, did not complete the abortion. So he was born without pens. He was the first of us Dasha taught to kiss ... Fool! Why did he teach? These are girls, our friends. This is our twenty.
Girls, it’s not very convenient for me to ask, but ... Have you ever had men?
M .: Dasha fell in love. This Earring even proposed to her. But he died at 23. And since then, there really has been nothing. So... Yes, with whom in this boarding school? Dasha has had an ideal since childhood - Yuri Gagarin. And the locals only have a bottle and a woman on their minds. I drive men from Dasha. You can’t get pregnant - we ourselves are disabled, how can we take care of a child? And you can’t do an abortion - bleeding can open. But Dasha suffers - you see, she wants to have a family, give birth to a child, live in the village, breed cows. And I have a tougher personality. I haven't really liked a single man in all these years.
And it is not surprising that Dasha drinks. She drinks in desperation! After meeting with my mother, I got it right: no one needs you and me. And cries. She no longer wants to be treated. She, you know, can't get used to the fact that we are like that. Still! There is no meaning in our life. We would like to work. In the 20th boarding school, where they used to live, they even sewed on a sewing machine. Briefs, nightgowns. Even though it was hard, we did our best! They got paid for it, they were useful to society. (On the nightstand with the Machine on the side of the bed are the books “They Fought for the Motherland” and “How the Steel Was Tempered.” - M.V.) And here? We sit all day, looking at each other. Turn on the TV, listen to music. No one to chat with
Mash, well, you don’t judge me, - Dasha raises her voice. - I'll drink, and I feel better.
The sister waves her hand: sleep, they say. Dasha covers herself with a quilt over her head and falls asleep. Masha continues:
We were in Germany for a week, at the invitation of one television company. They walked during the day and in the evening. We were taken to any restaurant, in a Mercedes. And no one was staring. Even children, can you imagine? I still regret that we were born in this country.
“Bring us a psychic from Kiev”
It's evening, it's time for me to get ready. Dasha sleeps with a blanket pulled over her head. Masha finally stretched out, straightening her spine. The table lamp is shining, the Machine's voice sounds muffled:
Don't leave. Stay still, I want to talk. You know how scary it is when a loved one dies before our eyes. My beloved sister. What should I do, how can I help her? And to yourself?.. No answer. I already ask her: “Dashenka, maybe you want to eat?” She calls: sausages there, fish. But then he doesn't eat anything. All because of alcohol.
I do not drink. The body does not accept. I'll drink a little - I feel sick. But you know what's scary? If she doesn’t drink, somewhere (runs her hand over her chest - M.V.) I want to already. There is only one blood.
I ask you: find us in Kiev such a psychic to help him. Bring it here, just so Dasha doesn't know. Maybe it will?
Already from Kiev, I got in touch by phone with a student of Academician Anokhin - the head of the Moscow Research Institute of Normal Physiology, Konstantin Sudakov. Hearing a question about the Krivoshlyapov sisters, he said with annoyance:
I remember these girls very well! They were brought to us for lectures. They were still playing the piano in four hands. Could tour the entire globe, become celebrities. And instead - I read about them in the newspaper - the ulcer of society, drug addicts, alcoholics
The Krivoshlyapov sisters, Dasha and Masha, are Siamese twins. Their fate has become a winning topic for many dissertations, and they themselves have become a welcome experimental material for prominent figures in Russian medicine. True, it was so until the moment when the girls aroused interest.
These are two people in one body, which society called only a mistake of nature, and professors considered it a scientific experiment.
The Krivoshlyapov sisters: a biography of a painful life
Their birth became sensational for the whole world. The girls lost their parents immediately, without even having time to open their eyes. January 4, 1950 Krivoshlyapova Katerina - their mother, was heavily relieved from the burden. The midwife who delivered the baby by caesarean section, stating that they were twins, immediately fainted. Doctors, thinking over the correct tactics of behavior, told the woman in labor that the children were born dead and immediately concocted a false death certificate. The mother could not believe in the death of newborns, because she clearly heard their crying. Trying to get the truth, she questioned it from the staff. One compassionate nanny-trainee took pity and led to the ward where the girls were. After what she saw, Katerina Krivoshlyapova spent two years in one of the Moscow psychiatric clinics. Never again did she remember her firstborn, "burying" them in that
The truth about the children was also known by their father, Mikhail Krivoshlyapov, who was next to his wife during childbirth. He agreed to the recognition of the imaginary death of girls, while asking the doctors to do everything possible so that the children survived. He left them his last name, the man asked only to change his patronymic. And this is not surprising, because Mikhail worked as Beria's personal driver. So the Krivoshlyapovs Maria and Daria Mikhailovna became Ivanovnas. Every month, the father transferred a decent amount to the research institute for the treatment of his children. He died of brain cancer in 1980.
At the beginning of a difficult journey
From the maternity hospital, the girls were transferred to the Institute of Pediatrics of the Academy of Medical Sciences, where they lived for 7 years. All these years, weekly experiments were carried out on the little ones, aimed at explaining. At the age of three, they were put on ice for a long time, after which one of the little ones fell ill with pneumonia. They were hung with sensors, forced to swallow a probe, drove crowds of students to demonstrate the "mistakes of nature." In 1958, American scientists tried to outbid such "interesting material", promising the little ones a secure life, work and education, but they were categorically refused. Until the end, the sisters remembered this time, and every other day of their painful life, with fear and pain.
and their lives go on
By the age of seven Krivoshlyapovs Masha and Dasha could no longer walk, they also sat with difficulty. They were transferred to the Central Research Institute of Prosthetics and Prosthetics, where in two years they were taught to move around on crutches and do without them for some time. Here the sisters were also taught to read and write. By nature, the twins had three legs. The left Machine, the right - Dashina, and the third, located perpendicular to the back and representing two fused legs with 9 fingers, was common. She served the girls to keep their balance, but it was so for the time being. Doctors, considering it superfluous, performed a surgical operation, removing the third limb. After that, the Krivoshlyapov sisters stopped walking altogether and moved around with the help of crutches or in a wheelchair.
The sisters turned to doctors, whom they hated by everyone throughout their lives, only in the most extreme cases.
Unsuitable? Overboard!
The sisters stayed at the scientific institute for 15 years. No one thought that they would live to this age. The experiments were all completed, scientific papers were written, interest in the "natural anomaly" gradually faded away. Due to their incompetence, the state decided to send them to the Novocherkassk boarding school for children suffering from diseases of the musculoskeletal system, where the Siamese twins of the Krivoshlyapova sisters stayed for 4 years. It was the worst test for them. The guys disliked them, scoffed. The girls constantly endured humiliation and ridicule, as a result of which they began to stutter badly. For a bottle of vodka, boarding school boys showed a curiosity to local residents.
Thoughts of not living
Krivoshlyapovy Masha and Dasha thought about death all their lives. Several times they tried to stop their existence in this world, they wanted to throw themselves out of the window of an 11-story building, they poisoned themselves more than once with pills, cut their veins, constantly asking for death from God.
In 1970, they moved to Moscow, where for a long time they could not resolve the issue of housing: society did not want to take on such a burden. The Krivoshlyapov sisters were assigned to nursing home No. 6, which became their last shelter. They had a separate room there, which served as a living room, dining room and bedroom at the same time. A huge portrait of Igor Talkov and an icon of the Mother of God hung on the wall. Every week, the attendants brought their acquaintances to look at the "mistake of nature".
Meeting with mother
Many years later, at the age of 35, the Krivoshlyapov sisters found their mother's address through the passport office and visited her. A woman met them with a heavy look and reproach: “Where have you been all this time?”, not realizing that if her children were like everyone else, they would have found their mother earlier. In addition to Masha and Dasha, Katerina Krivoshlyapova had two more sons who never recognized their relationship with their sisters. Years after that meeting, the unrecognized daughters cursed their family. Having found a book of spells, at night in pitch darkness for several hours they read a prayer. The next day, a neighbor saw their homemade cotton doll, all studded with needles. After meeting with her first-born, the mother began to get very sick and did not live long.
Alcohol is an integral attribute of the life of sisters
It was after a difficult meeting with the mother of the Krivoshlyapova sisters (the photo below was taken in the last years of their life) that they began to drink, daily and soundly.
Although they tried alcohol much earlier, at the age of 14. Attempts to get rid of the strongest addiction were unsuccessful. The sisters were coded, but after a while they had to be decoded, because they could not stop drinking, living in such an ugly body. They became addicted to drunkenness out of hopelessness, understanding their inferiority and dissimilarity to others. Perhaps the factor of heredity played a role: the grandfather, father and one of the brothers abused alcohol. Dasha drank the most, but since the body was common, both got drunk. But Masha smoked, she could use 2 packs of strong Belomor per day.
In the absence of a personal life sister, they had a large number of sexual partners. Dasha always dreamed of children, of her husband. But the desire to find their own family was restrained by their lack of independence, in which the sisters could not fully serve even themselves. Previously, in the boarding school, they earned a little by sewing underpants and nightgowns. It was this kind of work, which the sisters performed diligently, that endowed them with a sense of their own relevance. In the nursing home, they were completely isolated from society, and the main entertainment was the TV.
One or two?
The consciousness of many people who have seen these girls perceives them as one person, although in fact they are two completely different personalities. Each had its own passport and medical book. They easily read each other's thoughts, even saw the same dreams, could jump up in the middle of the night from a dreaming nightmare. However, with a complete external similarity, the Krivoshlyapov sisters were completely different. Dasha was soft and kind, Masha was stubborn and harsh. If Masha had only “deuces” and “triples” during her studies, then Dasha was given science easily, and the marks were an order of magnitude higher. The same with verses: one taught them responsibly, the second did not.
Cause of death of the Krivoshlyapov sisters
Thanks to the strength of character, the Siamese twins lived to be 54 years old. The cause of death was an acute coronary infarction of one of the twins. Masha died first. Dasha lived after that for 17 hours, she was killed by the circulatory system. The diagnosis was predictable, because due to heavy drinking, both had severe liver damage. Also, pulmonary edema was found in the body and the heart was badly damaged. Doctors many years ago thought about operating on the sisters and separating them. But with a common circulatory system, this turned out to be impossible.
The Krivoshlyapov sisters, whose funeral took place at the Nikolo-Arkhangelsk cemetery, ended their painful life path, which brought them a lot of pain, both physical and mental. Such is the sad story of long-lived Siamese twins.