It will soon be a century since the famous song “Murka” - a unique brainchild of thieves' folklore - is walking around the world. Remember this motive?
Eh, Murka, you are my little little murky!
Murka, you are my kitten!
Murka, Marusya Klimova,
Forgive my beloved...
It would not be an exaggeration to say that its popularity was ahead of most famous hits created by professional poets and composers. People belonging to the most diverse strata of society love to listen to it, and sometimes sing it, from homeless people to oligarchs. The main character of the song is an employee of the Odessa criminal investigation department Marusya Klimova - Murka, whose biography formed the basis of this article.
A city in the hands of criminals
The story of Murka - Marusya Klimova (the photo of this woman opens the article), so vividly presented in the famous song, is a reflection of real events witnessed by Odessa shortly before the end of the Civil War. The rampant crime, caused by a series of social upheavals associated with a radical change in the state structure, became extremely aggravated in 1921. According to the recollections of contemporaries of those events, Odessa, the largest commercial port in Russia, became practically uncontrollable, which various types of criminal elements did not fail to take advantage of. They turned out to be its true masters, making robberies and robbery commonplace.
That part of the biography of Marusya Klimova (Murka), which is described by the authors of the song, is preceded by events that occurred a year before her appearance in Odessa. By order of the leadership of the local GubChK, in 1921 an attempt was made to “cleanse” the cities of thieves and bandits. For this purpose, a group of operatives under the leadership of S. Martynov was given the right to shoot on the spot all suspicious persons. The security officers themselves disguised themselves as a “stray gang,” provoking local criminals into “joint” robberies and destroying them at the scene of the crime.
Biography
Born in Leningrad in the family of a sea captain (later vice-rector of the Admiral Makarov Maritime Academy and representative of the Marine Fleet in Nicaragua). Graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Leningrad State University. After graduating from university, she worked as a translator at the USSR Register, but then, under the influence of ideas of aesthetic nonconformism, she destroyed her university diploma and for several years did odd jobs, working as a cleaner and a nurse. After the restoration of her diploma, she worked for some time as a research assistant at the St. Isaac's Cathedral Museum.
In the 1980s she was associated with the culture of the Leningrad underground, and in the early 1990s she lived in Paris. In 1994, she founded the Russian Society of Friends of Louis-Ferdinand Selina and the publishing house of the same name. In 1999 and 2000, together with Timur Novikov, he organized the “Dark Nights” festivals of St. Petersburg decadence[1]. In June 1999, on the eve of the bicentenary anniversary of A. S. Pushkin, together with Dmitry Volchek, Yaroslav Mogutin and Vyacheslav Kondratovich, she published the magazine “Dantes”, which gained scandalous fame [2]. In 2005, she directed the film “The Murder of Joachin or What Fassbinder Didn’t Film” (based on a scene from Jean Genet’s novel “Carel”), which she translated. Organized and conducted several international colloquiums dedicated to the works of Louis-Ferdinand Céline and Jean Genet. A regular contributor to Mitya's Journal, he collaborates with Radio Liberty. She has been published in Kommersant, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Russian Journal, Quira, Art-press (Paris).
The autobiographical trilogy (“Blue Bloods,” “The Little House in Bois-Colombes,” “Blonde Beasts”) provides a broad panorama of the turning points for Russia in the 1980s-1990s. Marusya Klimova's novels are characterized by extreme detachment of the author's view, indifference to good and evil, attention to absurd and comic details, blurred boundaries between common sense and madness. The images created by the writer of newly minted Russian dandies and transvestites, who easily change their masks and outfits, perfectly correspond to the atmosphere of the universal carnival of those years, marked by a rapid change in social identifications.[3]
The collection “Sea Stories” is a collection of tragicomic stories from the life of long-distance sailors, told from a male perspective in a deliberately rude and cynical manner.
My History of Russian Literature is something between a collection of essays and a novel of ideas. The destinies and works of Russian writers are presented as facts of the author’s personal biography. The book is replete with paradoxical and exaggerated subjective judgments and assessments.
In her books and interviews[4], Marusya Klimova usually positions herself as a decadent, marginalist and Nietzschean. According to the New World magazine, “writers relevant to Marusya Klimova are united by misanthropy, marginality, sexual perversion, contempt for the norm, for “bourgeois” morality (which is always treated as philistine). The direction of the political spectrum doesn’t really matter, as long as it’s at its very edge.”[5]
Translated from the French work by L.-F. Selina (Death on Credit, From Castle to Castle, North, Rigodon, Interview with Professor Y, Thunder and Lightning: Plays, Librettos, Scripts), Jean Genet (Carel) , Pierre Guyot ("Prostitution", "Eden, Eden, Eden", "Coma", "Book"), Georges Bataille ("History of the Eye"), Monique Wittig ("The Lesbian Body"), Pierre Louis ("Ladies' Island" ), Louis Aragon (“Irene’s Bosom”), François Gibot (“No Dogs and Chinese,” “Not All is So Cloudless”), Pierre Bourjade, Michel Foucault, etc. He is also the author of Russian translations of D. von Hildebrandt’s book “ Holiness and Activity" (from German) and "Symbolic Landscape" by Kenneth Clark (from English).
Member of the Writers' Union, the Union of Journalists, the International Federation of Journalists, and the Union of Cinematographers. Marusya Klimova's works have been published in French, German, English, Estonian, Latvian, Serbian and Italian.
In 2006, Marusya Klimova was awarded the French Order of Literature and Art.
In 2007, according to the results of an online vote conducted by the magazine Sobaka.ru, she was recognized as the most famous person in St. Petersburg in the field of art.
Dangerous task
For some time, this method of struggle brought results, but soon the bandits “figured out” the culprits of their failures and mercilessly shot them. This is where the events began that became a bright and heroic page in the biography of Marusya Klimova (Murka). The fact is that the situation in the city became so critical that the Main Directorate of the All-Russian Emergency Commission took control of it.
In Moscow, at Lubyanka, they decided to carry out the next operation to introduce their agent into the most dangerous gang, who was supposed to be a woman. This trick would help to lull the suspicion of criminals and ensure the success of the whole business. The most suitable candidate was considered to be Maria Prokofievna Klimova, a 25-year-old employee who already had sufficient experience in the criminal investigation department. It was she who went to Odessa on a secret mission.
For complete objectivity, it should be said that there is no data that would allow us to compile a complete biography of Marusya Klimova - Murka, as this woman is usually called. That part of the archive of the Moscow Cheka, which contained her personal file, was destroyed (at least, it is considered so), and in the hands of researchers there is only fragmentary information.
Interesting Facts
Marusya Klimova and Anya Khilkevich. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maria.klimova_/
- Her parents did not at all want their daughter’s first and last name to be associated with Murka, the heroine of the famous song of the same name. It coincided by chance that an NKVD employee, embedded in a gang of criminals, and a young Russian actress have common information. Since this happened, Masha prefers to use the well-known phrase “Marusya Klimova” as a creative nickname.
- She is such a gentle, friendly and decent person that it is impossible to find any facts about her about scandals on film sets, about “sitting around” at work, about “murky” romances with producers and other “powers that be” in cinema. Among her close friends (there are many photos on Instagram to confirm this) is the star of “Univer” Anya Khilkevich.
- It seems, what kind of competitors could there be for occasional work, unnoticed and poorly paid? But Masha had a case when she had already been approved, and then the agent announced: “Sorry, but the sister of the general producer will act in the film instead of you.” “For a long time after that, it was as if I was in emptiness - it became so offensive,” the actress said about the incident.
- Her younger sister has also achieved significant success: Daria, like Maria, is directly related to show business. True, Dasha decided to develop in another area - she is a successful model, now working in a large fashion agency in China.
- Masha is a passionate cat lover: both in childhood and in her youth, and now, cats are constantly present in her house, and several at once. “It happened that I didn’t have a pet for several months, but then I couldn’t stand it and brought home a kitten again,” a fragment from her interview.
- The girl has such a flexible nervous system that it costs her nothing to cry when she needs to during filming. For this reason, she is often invited to act in scenes where you need to cry a lot. In one picture, where perverts bet on girls fighting, Marusya cried so much that the bruises under her eyes did not go away for several months.
- The actress Klimova is excellent at Sambo techniques and has been practicing Thai boxing for about a year. But sports such as running and fitness “didn’t work out for her”: “I hated running - it’s absolutely not my thing! And fitness turned out to be insidious with the principle “when you want, then you go,” Maria wrote on Instagram about her attempts to go in for sports.
- The actress, despite her already great fame, is not going to stop there. She wants to try herself as a director, and is independently writing the script for a future film. “Mohammed himself will come to the mountain!” – that’s what she said about her intentions to film a film based on her own script.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maria.klimova_/
5 / 5 ( 17 votes)
Fearless Marusya
To carry out the assignment received from Moscow, Odessa operatives assigned the largest gang at that time, the leader of which was a certain Mishka Diamond. The introduction of a female secret agent in itself is not a new idea. Even in the pre-revolutionary years, law enforcement officers carried out many operations, as a result of which even the most seasoned criminals fell for the bait in a skirt. But in this case there was one important detail that made the already difficult task almost impossible - none of the operatives knew this very Diamond by sight.
The planned business was also associated with a number of difficulties characteristic of this kind of enterprise. First of all, the employee chosen for this task had to have remarkable acting talent, because portraying a seasoned criminal in front of seasoned criminals is an extremely difficult task, fraught with mortal risk. Moreover, the unforeseen circumstances in which she might find herself required not only a flexible mind, but also desperate courage. As noted by everyone who set themselves the task of writing a biography of Marusya Klimova, Murka fully possessed these qualities.
Cunning trick
It is known that the leadership of the Odessa Cheka carried out preparations for the operation to introduce Klimova into the Mishka Diamond gang with special care. A very convincing legend was developed, which, according to operatives, should have ensured her trust from the bandits.
Especially for her, part of the card index was removed from the old police archive, in which data on representatives of the Odessa criminal world had been stored since pre-revolutionary times. The idea was that, having contacted the gang leader, she would show him these documents, saying that she managed to steal them and now wants to sell them profitably to interested parties. Secret materials presented as goods will force Diamond to treat his new acquaintance with complete confidence. This is exactly what happened in reality.
The biography, or rather, the essays about her life, does not say whether an intimate relationship developed between the bandit Mishka and Cheka employee Marusya Klimova (Murka). It is only known that they became such close business partners that they gave her a certain part of the loot.
Personal life of Marusya Klimova
In 2020, Maria will celebrate her 31st birthday. Naturally, fans are concerned about the actress’s personal life. It is known that today the girl is not officially married. However, her heart has not been free for a long time. For several years, Karaulova has been in a relationship with screenwriter Alexei Karaulov.
Marusya Klimova and Alexey Karaulov
It is possible that he is the future husband of the talented actress.
The man worked on creating scripts for projects such as “Gogol. The Beginning”, “Call DiCaprio!”, “Diggers”, “Gogol Viy”. It is likely that Alexey met his beloved on the set and could not resist the girl’s charm and charisma.
It can be assumed that family and children are part of Klimova’s plans. But she does not share her thoughts on this matter with journalists and the public. The couple loves felines and has three cute four-legged pets in their home.
Anna Khilkevich is a good friend of Marusya Klimova
Marusya tries to keep her personal life strictly secret. If on Karaulov’s Instagram you can occasionally see photographs of his chosen one, then on Klimova’s page there is no information about her love relationships. Marusya and her potential husband participated together in the series championship in 2020. They released a trailer for the “Fortress” project, which they created themselves.
The defeat of Mishka Diamond's gang
The operation, carried out by the Odessa GubChK with the participation of Maria Klimova, lasted about three months and brought the desired results. Despite the fact that not everything could be foreseen in advance in this multi-step combination, the hitherto elusive Mishka Diamond gang, and with it several other criminal groups, were completely destroyed.
Most of the criminals were killed during arrest, and those who survived received long prison sentences. In all the fragmentary and far from complete biographies of Marusya Klimova (Murka), compiled over the years that have passed since then, she is credited with the main merit in the liquidation of so many bandits.
Personal life of Maria Klimova
Marusya has a touching relationship with her family. Fate turned out that her parents remained in Khabarovsk, and her sister works as a model in China. Despite being constantly busy on set and the enormous distance, the star of the series finds time to meet with family.
Marusya does not flaunt her personal life
Since 2014, the actress has been dating Alexei Karaulov, a young screenwriter, co-author of the scripts for “Call DiCaprio!” and the horror film "Diggers".
In the photo: Alexey Karaulov
Maria continues to do gymnastics, delighting thousands of her followers on Instagram with publications of photos in which she demonstrates excellent stretching.
Since childhood, the actress has named playing the violin and reading as her other hobbies. It is known that Masha does not watch TV, prefers a free style in clothes and is very fond of cats.
Find in the Odessa archive
The text of the famous song about Marusa Klimova is known in many versions. They say that the collectors of thieves' folklore number more than a hundred of them (a verse of one of them is given in the article). There are many differences between them, but they are similar in one thing - at the end of the song, the main character is overtaken by a bandit bullet, which served as retribution for her double game. Was it really like that? Fortunately, no. It turns out that the real story of Marusya Klimova (Murka) has a very happy continuation.
Doubts that the version presented by the authors of the song reflects the real course of events arose a long time ago. It began with the fact that Odessa historians, who had been trying for several decades to find the grave of the fearless operative, failed, failing to even find any documentary evidence of her death. The question, as they say, hung in the air, and this continued until the archives of the Odessa GubChK were declassified during the years of perestroika. They contained an account card and a photo of Murka, an employee of the Cheka, Marusya Klimova. In the biography of this legendary woman, many significant gaps were filled.
Career
I started skating at the Yunost skating rink in Sverdlovsk with Oleg Volkov. One of the first major competitions for them was the 1978 Winter Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR in Sverdlovsk, where the couple took 3rd place among juniors[1]. Until 1991, the Klimov-Ponomarenko pair, under the guidance of coach Natalya Dubova, performed in a distinctly classical style, achieving exceptional beauty and ease of movement. Since 1989, having become world leaders, Klimova and Ponomarenko sought to find new forms and styles of skating in connection with the emergence of the Duchesne pair and new trends in ice dancing, but their permanent coach Natalya Dubova was categorically against it. Creative differences with the coach led to the breakdown of their relationship in 1991. The couple's new coach, Tatyana Tarasova, dramatically changed the style to the avant-garde that came into fashion at that time, with unusual, original choreography and costumes.
They made their debut in adult competitions in 1983 and took 4th place at the European Championships. The very next season, the Klimova-Ponomarenko pair won bronze medals at the Olympics in Sarajevo and at the European Championships in Budapest. In 1986, figure skating coach Natalya Dubova choreographed the golden waltz for the couple, which became a phenomenon in figure skating. The program was developed specifically for the Klimov-Ponomarenko pair, who had perfect skating skills at the beginning of their adult careers. Today, the golden waltz has become a mandatory type of ice dancing program. From 1985 to 1988, the duo was firmly No. 2 on the international stage, following another Soviet pair Bestemyanova-Bukin. They won silver medals at all the most important competitions of this period. The exception was the USSR Championship in Dnepropetrovsk in 1985, where two of the world's leading duets swapped places. In total, the Klimov-Ponomarenko pair won four gold medals at the national championships (1985, 1986, 1989, 1990).
After the 1988 Olympic season, the Bestemyanova-Bukin couple left amateur sports and Klimova-Ponomarenko became undisputed world leaders and number one in the strongest USSR figure skating team. However, their main competition is not from domestic duets, but from the French pair of Isabel and Paul Duchesne with their innovative skating. In contrast to the classical skating of Soviet (then Russian) pairs, the French very clearly declared themselves in 1988 with avant-garde skating, making a real revolution in the most conservative form of figure skating. Despite the leadership of the Russian pair and their technical excellence, the French are beginning to surpass the Klimov-Ponomarenko pair in artistry and originality of skating. In 1991, the couple Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay won gold at the World Championships in Munich, pushing the Klimov-Ponomarenko duo to second position. The new coach of the Russian duo, Tatyana Tarasova, decides to radically change the skating style of her players, bringing them closer to the originality of the French duo Duchesne. Together with refined technique and new dance motifs, the Klimov-Ponomarenko duet triumphantly regained their leadership in 1992, winning all the most important tournaments, including the Olympic Games in Albertville. At the Olympics, rivalry with the French reached its climax. Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay were considered favorites on home soil after last year's World Championship gold. Four judges chose the French for gold, five gave preference to the Russian duet [ source not specified 560 days
]. The competition ended with a score of 5-4 in favor of Klimova and Ponomarenko and they became Olympic champions. Bronze went to another Russian pair, Usova-Zhulin.
Outstanding coach Tatyana Tarasova said the following about the greatest Olympic success of the Klimova-Ponomarenko pair[2]:
...The victory at the Olympics by Klimova and Ponomarenko is the most unique victory in dance. Because dancing couples never rose to the top step of the podium again as soon as they left first place. There are no such examples recorded in the history of dance. And they not only rose, they rose above everyone else for many years, I would say, for the rest of their lives. They are such creative people that they have not lost interest in self-renewal, in training, in everything new, in music, in classes, in art, which is something you rarely see among professionals who have reached the top.…
After the enchanting 1992 season, Klimova-Ponomarenko went into professional sports.
New profession
First of all, it became known that she was born in 1897 in Moscow. This made it possible to talk about her as a 25-year-old employee sent in 1922 to perform a difficult and dangerous task. In addition, it turned out that Maria Klimova was a doctor by training. As for the reason that prompted the young woman to part with such a prestigious profession and devote herself to capturing criminals, one can only speculate about this.
Perhaps she was attracted by the romance of detective work or was prompted to take this step by tender feelings for one of the operatives. Anything is possible, but it is also possible that in those difficult times the hospital where she worked closed, and Maria decided to get a job at the Cheka, knowing that the employees there were provided with everything they needed.
Marusya Klimova now
At the beginning of 2020, the first episodes of the comic project “Soap Drama” were released. In a hilarious story about a klutz gas station driver who became the head of a TV channel, Marusya plays the role of the secretary of the newly-minted boss, played by Sergei Burunov.
It is known that in 2020, Klimova is starring in the multi-part satirical film “Test,” which also features Mikhail Bagdasarov, Eva Aveeva, Stepan Korshunov and Elizaveta Arzamasova.
The creators have not yet disclosed information about another project called “Hearts,” in which Maria is also starring.
Leningrad police captain
The main surprise for historians was the entry that after completing the task, she served in Odessa for several more years, and then was transferred to Leningrad. Thus, a new page was opened in the biography of Marusya Klimova (Murka). What happened to her on the banks of the Neva was found out without much difficulty, since perestroika opened the doors of many archives for researchers. As it turned out, the heroine of the famous song was an employee of the Leningrad criminal investigation department for a long time and was very successful in catching criminals, as evidenced by the government awards she received. She retired in 1952 with the rank of police captain.
Childhood and youth
The biography of actress Marusya Klimova begins on July 4, 1989 - the day she was born into a family of doctors. Little Masha spent her childhood years in her hometown of Khabarovsk. Marusya became the second child in the family; she has an older sister, Dasha. Currently, Daria Klimova lives in China, building a successful modeling career.
In the photo: actress Marusya Klimova
For the summer, the parents sent the girl to the village to visit her grandmother. Mom Larisa and dad Andrei always loved their daughter, but they tried to control her, monitored all of Marusya’s actions, gave advice, and regularly gave moral lectures.
“Mom is very strict, she was always proud of me, but did not show her feelings. Apparently she thought that if you praised me, I would relax,” the TV star describes her relationship with her parents.
Nevertheless, the Klimov family was friendly, relatives always helped each other and supported each other in difficult situations. Marusya was lucky to carry warm relations with her family through the years and maintain them to this day.
Marusya Klimova is in excellent physical shape
Her sports background was very useful to the girl in the future. And today Klimova demonstrates an excellent figure, is in excellent shape, regularly demonstrates excellent stretching when doing the splits.
Masha received her secondary education in her hometown. She graduated from school No. 34. In addition, Maria studied at the Olympic Reserve Youth Sports School No. 1, achieving the title of Master of Sports in rhythmic gymnastics.
Klimova has always been very artistic, active, not a single entertainment event took place without her. The girl dreamed of an acting career. But her wishes differed from the wishes of her parents.
At the insistence of her mother and father, Masha entered the Faculty of Law of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. But the girl quickly realized that her soul lay elsewhere. In 2020, the biography of actress Marusya Klimova turned upside down. She became a student at the Shchukin Theater Institute, getting closer to her cherished dream.
On Masha’s page on the social network it is written that she studied at Pike from 2015 to 2020. But her name is not on the university website in the list of graduates. It can be assumed that Klimova never received higher acting education.
Unfinished story
And yet the story we tell remains unfinished. To this day it has not been possible to establish where and when this legendary woman passed away. The final stage of her fate is unknown. There is no record of her death in the archives of the Leningrad Civil Registry Office, which leaves room for a variety of assumptions. A short biography and photo of Marusya Klimova - Murka from a popular song - discovered in the Odessa archive is almost the entire volume of materials at the disposal of researchers. As for her personal life, there is no reliable information about her at all.
