Media Articles

Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky (b. Jan. 25, 1938, Moscow, U.S.S.R.― d. July 25, 1980, Moscow), pop star, performing poet, actor and writer whose humorous and ironic songs about life and daily hardship restored the humanness of perception of a brainwashed nation. While calling upon himself the official displeasure of the Soviet authorities, his popularity with people was enormous.

Vladimir Vysotsky was born into the family of a military service man. His father, Semyon Vladimirovich Vysotsky, was a communications officer; his mother, Nina Maksimovna Vysotskaya, was a technical translator of Russian and German. During the years of World War II, Vysotsky’s parents’ marriage fell apart.

In the late forties, Vysotsky lived in Eberswald, Germany with his father and new wife, Yevgenya Likhalatova, then returned to Moscow. Vysotsky revealed his artistic nature quite early. Biographers write that at age 17, when Vysotsky was entrusted to perform a well-known moralizing verse in a neighboring girls’ high school, he came up with an improvised parody on these verses. He won over the students but caused a scandal in the school. Vysotsky’s father insisted he obtain a practical profession. In 1955 Vysotsky attended the Institute of Civil Engineering, but in 1956 he left, submitting applications to three theatrical schools instead. He joined the Nemirovich-Danchenko Studio School of Moscow Art Theatre, graduating in 1960. In that school he met his first wife, Iza Zhukova. After graduation, Vysotsky was offered a job at the Moscow Pushkin Dramatic Theatre, and then at the Theatre of Miniatures. In 1961 Vysotsky met his second wife, Ludmila Abramova, the mother of his two sons Arkadi and Nikita. In 1964, at age 26, Vysotsky became a member of the Moscow Theatre of Drama and Comedy on Taganka which experimented with innovative trends of theatrical staging and was in need of actors who could act, sing, dance and improvise. At the same time, illegal recordings of Vysotsky’s performances, magnitizdat, started to attract attention. Soon the popularity of those recordings outran Vysotsky’s success as an actor. He became a national treasure, a legend.

In 1967, Vladimir Vysotsky made the acquaintance of French actress Marina Vladi (Marina De Poliakoff-Baidaroff.) In the Soviet Union, Marina Vladi became an instant household name for her performance in the film La Sorciere, 1955 ― “The Witch,” based on the Russian story “Olesya” by A.I. Kuprin. The story goes that Vysotsky fell in love with the sorceress’s screen image long before he met Marina Vladi in real life. They married in 1969.

In 1971 Yuri Lubimov staged Hamlet by William Shakespeare with Vladimir Vysotsky in the leading role. The success of his roles as Galileo, Hamlet and Lopakhin in Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard increased Vysotsky’s reputation in the strong and professionally capable community of Russian drama actors carefully kept behind the “iron curtain” by Soviet cultural politics. But later, Vysotsky’s pop-star popularity started to determine the success of his film roles. When in 1978 Vysotsky starred as a detective in the police series Mesto Vstrechi Izmenitj Neljzya ― “The Place of the Appointment Cannot be Changed,” it was rumored that no crimes were committed while the series was on the air. (Criminals, their victims and police (militia) were glued to their TV all over the country.)

In the last two years of his life, Vladimir Vysotsky played Svidrigailov in the production of F. Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment at Taganka, and Don Juan in Mosfilm’s movie version of A. Pushkin’s Little Tragedies.

On January 22, 1980, Ksenya Marinina, a well-known documentary maker, made the single video recording of Vladimir Vysotsky’s performance of 13 of his songs for Moscow Central Television. Despite the fact that Marinina was obviously forced to skip recording Vysotsky’s trademark songs, such as “The Wolves’ Hunt” and “My Wild Horses,” Marinina’s recording was aired first time eight years after Vysotsky’s death.

On July 18, 1980 Vladimir Vysotsky played Hamlet for the last time on the Taganka stage. He died on July 25, 1980 at age 42. Despite the Olympic Games held in Moscow at the same time, thousands of fans arrived at the funeral. The poet was laid to rest at Vagankovo cemetery in Moscow.

After his death, Vysotsky was not forgotten. The Soviet government finally allowed publication of the first collection of his poems “Nerv” and decorated him posthumously with the USSR State Award for his performance as Detective Zheglov in the TV police series Mesto vstrechi izmenitj nelzya ― “The Place of the Appointment Cannot be Changed” and for the performance of his songs. In other words, even after his death, the Communist Party camouflaged his main achievement with a television role in a mediocre police series.

Vysotsky’s monuments were erected first in the Vagankovo cemetery, and then in 1995, in the heart of Moscow. The play Vladimir Vysotsky was produced on the Taganka stage by Yuri Lubimov. After the collapse of the Communist regime, Russian publishing houses started to print Vysotsky’s works in mass editions. Today, the body of publications of Vysotsky’s works continues to grow.

Tatyana Tanika: First, let me explain that Vysotsky is in communication with many mediums in Russia as well as around the world. He is trying to let people know that he is still “living” despite the belief that even he subscribed to before his passing, which is, of course, that death would end it all. Vysotsky discovered the “When [we die], we do not leave life behind, we enter life.”

Dr. R: So, you are saying that Vysotsky’s primary purpose is to assure us that there is eternal life?

TT: Yes, and this is not a new concept. There are many examples in American and English literature of books that have been written based on material from beyond the grave that has been channeled by psychic mediums. Among the best known are “Beyond the Horizon” written by Grace Rosher, and “A World Beyond” which was dictated to Ruth Montgomery by Arthur Ford, who was himself a famous medium. According to Ford, death takes only a person’s body. The soul, consciousness, memory, and even the five senses carry on in the spirit world.

TT: He is very serious about reaching “his” Russian people as well as any other people who profess that the physical, material world is all there is. He hopes that just as he “lived” once through the tapes and copies of his poetry and performances, that he can once again send out a message about the eternal life of the human soul.

TT: Living on the other side, Vysotsky saw that too often, individuals who were convinced that life is finite often end up in limbo. This also happens to people who die accidentally before they are ready to leave their earthly life and to many who suffer a violent death that leaves them in a state of fear and negativity. According to the messages that Vysotsky gave to me, this happened to him, and he found himself trapped between the worlds of life and death until he was rescued by helpers on both sides of the veil.

TT: He did, and this fact of his afterlife made him feel compassion toward other trapped souls. He decided to return the favor given to him by increasing people’s awareness about the true nature of the next world.

Vysotsky explains that limbo can be avoided easily. “I want you to have a ‘one stop’ transition without stopping in limbo as I did,” were his words for me to pass on to his people. He believes that the leading cause of being trapped is people’s disbelief in the soul’s eternal life.

TT: Vysotsky thinks that if people believed in his words while he was on earth, they should not doubt his messages now. But how do I convince people that the invisible spirit of Vysotsky is now talking to me?

Dr. R: What have you done to convince your readers that Vysotsky’s message is real?

TT: I decided to follow the example of the English mediums. According to this tradition, a medium begins a communication session by finding out as much as possible about the spirit communicator’s identity. The medium asks the spirit to provide facts, details, ideas, and expressions that can be recognized by the audience that the spirit wants to reach. In this way, the English mediums first confirm the identity of the spirit whose words they are conveying to convince the earthly recipient of who he or she is talking to.

TT: To start, Vysotsky improvised poems during our spirit communication sessions. Although I have never written a single line of poetry in my life, I managed to write down twenty-two improvisations, and I’ve included them in the book. For comparison to Vysotsky’s work during his lifetime, I also included some of his most popular lyrics and poems.

This was important to me, but Vysotsky said, “I really do not care if these improvisations are written down or published. What I care about is spreading the message that I still live and that after death you will still live as well.”

He also gave many details of his life on earth. He spoke of artistic and political restrictions by the Communist Party, of the love of his fans, of his alcoholism, womanizing, and of his relationships with his colleagues in the theatre. He revealed previously hidden aspects of Soviet Russian cultural life and gave many details of his admired theatrical roles. But mostly, he insisted that he was murdered and did not die of a heart attack as the official Soviet version maintains.

TT: They actually posed a problem for me. I could not find any written record of much of the material that I was receiving. For example, Vysotsky spoke to me of the songs he wrote in admiration of mutilated war invalids whom he would see crawling along the train tracks of Moscow with no hands or legs. Their singing and begging broke his heart, and he began to imitate their songs as a way to survive the shame that he felt.

About two years after receiving this message, I found myself in a Russian store where I happened to buy a video tape of a concert that had been performed in Vysotsky’s memory. His son, Nikita Vysotsky, was asked to share his memories of his famous father. Among his thoughts, Nikita spilled out the half sentence that solved my dilemma. The three words that he uttered were, “…also war invalids…” This was all that I felt I needed to include this wrenching story in the book.

Dr. R: That is certainly a difficult remembrance to listen to. Are all of Vysotsky’s stories so painful?

TT: He also spoke to me about his difficult relationship with Yuri Lubimov, the director of the Taganka Theatre. I had no prior knowledge of this part of Vysotsky’s life. Vysotsky advised me to find a copy of “Taganka Diaries” by Valeri Zolotukhin. Zolothkin was a friend of Vysotsky and a fellow Taganka Theatre actor.

I found the book in a Russian online bookstore. When the brick-like volume arrived, I started to read it, frankly without much hope of finding any useful information. I was wrong. In the “Diaries” I found confirmation of every bit of Vysotsky’s information about his relationships in the theatre.

Dr. R: So you had corroborating evidence of Vysotsky’s life as a poet/songwriter and of his life in the theatre. What about the big story of the circumstances of his death?

TT: Ah, yes…Did Vysotsky die of a heart attack, as the official version states, or did he suffer a violent death at the hands of a murderer, as the spirit messages insisted? I decided to look for help from mediums of good standing in the New Age community who were not connected to the communications that I was receiving. I met separately with five prolific mediums who were not related to each other and knew nothing about Vysotsky or his enormous popularity in the Former Soviet Union. All five of them received the same information as I had; Vysotsky was murdered.

Following the preliminary publication of my book, “Channeling Vysotsky: A Poet’s Journey from Limbo Into the Light”, Vysotsky’s friend, the photographer Valeri Nisanov, broke a twenty-five year long silence and announced on Radio Liberty in Berlin that he believed Vysotsky was murdered. The next day there was a lively internet conversation as many American-Russian and Canadian-Russian websites discussed Nisanov’s revelations. Now the consensus of the American mediums that a poet from a far away country has been murdered did not sound so strange or unbelievable.

TT: Now that the information from the other side has been received and confirmed, it is up to the people’s will and wish to get a closer look at the facts of this highly sensitive case. I have tried in my writing to convey an important message not only about Vysotsky and his life and death, but also about the Russian people whom Vysotsky served so splendidly. My hope is that by making this story available in a dual Russian/English language format, people in many nations will learn the truths and mysteries of life and death that Vysotsky gave me to share with the world.

Mediumship or Mediumshipia?

Similarities and differences between books that report on ONE spirit voice communicating with a group of mediums and books that report on ONE medium talking to a chorus of spirit voices.

John Edward’s emotional article Mediumshipia¼ An Epidemic with insertion of a “cameo” by Robert Brown, the finest person on this planet, touched a problem that I was hopelessly brooding over since writing Death the Beginning (1999) when I first heard dead people speaking. I am still not sure who I am, the author of my new book, Channeling Vysotsky, a medium or someone else. Channeling Vysotsky took five years to write and $20,000 to publish. Somehow, I feel that I deserve some answers.

Strangely enough, the same question haunted Ruth Montgomery. I met Ruth at her home in Naples, Florida (with an incredible view of a blue bay) shortly before her transition. She was in her nineties, her body was obviously melting away, but her mind was sharp, young. She still enjoyed good jokes, laughter and her memory was in an enviably healthy condition. It was my first and last visit with her. Still she found it necessary to mention the problem in question. Without any visible connection to the conversation, she recalled the numerous requests from her readers and admirers regarding her attitude toward her personal mediumship. “I did not want to be a medium¼,” she explained, “because mediums give readings to people.” She added, “I am not sure I ever cared to read for strangers." I asked, “What did you name the genre of A World Beyond, a book of spirit communication with Arthur Ford, or Grace Rosher’s book Beyond the Horizon?” Ruth Montgomery lit a cigarette and gave me that special look of a professional journalist that translates into refusal to elaborate on the subject. She asked, maybe too vividly, about Grace Rosher, the English author and her book that she had not read or heard about. It gave Ruth Montgomery a good chance to steer away from a slippery ground of mediumshipia, as well as “channelingia” with all its obvious and not so obvious problems.

I also do not do readings for strangers. Fifteen years ago, at age 55, I fled to this country with zero English on my lips. Up to the present moment, talking to people from Summerland – the land of spirits on the other side of the veil, is easier for me than communicating with people on earth. My English is growing, but it is still not good enough for translation of fast spirit talk into a fluent speech in spoken English. Therefore, I cannot do readings for people and I am not a medium.

Still, sometimes I see them -- the spirits of the dead, angels and entities. Once, the Virgin Mary paid me a visit the night before a big cypress tree, close to our house, fell -- not in a logical direction -- onto the roof above my son’s bedroom, to be specific, above his bed, but in the opposite direction -- onto the garden growth. The Virgin Mary was wearing a Russian working person’s fufaika and black shiny rubber boots. She was angry with me. She shouted at me and her dark eyes were emanating irritation. Suddenly her dress started to change casting a heavenly shimmer. A new space opened in my tiny bedroom, and that space took her image into its heavenly realms. The next morning I discovered that fallen tree. I stood there pondering what would have happened had it fallen on the roof above my son’s bed¼ I knew I had to sort out my heavy doubts regarding Vysotsky’s manuscript, and accept the labor of editing and publishing. Now I could see that I was brought to this country and saved for a purpose. It was my indecision that made the Holy Visitor angry with me.

But then again came other times, and I again lost the clarity. The accusations of usurping the label of medium were probably the worst.

I found a solution: the pen name Tatyana Tanika was accepted and the word “channeling” was included in the title to draw a line between this book and the books of real mediums. Now I can see that the differences were embedded into the very nature of the authorship. In the case of Ruth Montgomery (A World Beyond), Grace Rosher (Beyond the Horizon) and I (Channeling Vysotsky), the spirit communicators are the principal authors of these works and often they report on communicating with a number of mediums. On the contrary, the books of our famous mediums, like the classic Talking to Heaven by James Van Praagh, report on one medium’s experiences with a group of spirit communicators. These examples reveal two poles of the same genre – authentic reports on spirit communication.

In one case, we see STRONG SPIRIT COMMUNICATORS like Arthur Ford or Vladimir Vysotsky using mediums Ruth Montgomery or me as instruments to send down to earth their extraordinary ideas and observations about life and death. Please note – in both cases, spirit communicators sought out professional journalists skilled in writing down other people’s thought-provoking ideas. (I come from Estonia where I was a published film critic for over three decades.)

In the other case, we see STRONG MEDIUMS who talk to several spirits. What is remarkable is also a difference in the nature of confirmations. A strong medium gathers evidence of spirit communicators’ identities. A medium is obliged to produce convincing evidence that will help his client recognize his deceased mother, father, or some other loved one talking to him. In order to reach this goal, a medium asks the spirit to give some details about his life on earth known only to the sitter (medium’s client).

Every particular detail has a meaning only to the sitter, but a body of such evidence convinces a large group of people that they will also survive death and live forever. So in the case of a strong medium, at the core of his book we see the collection of the survival evidence provided by the most reputable source there is -- the souls of ordinary men and women who once walked the earth.

In the case with a strong spirit communicator, at the core of “his” book we see sophisticated messages about the meaning of life and death. What really count here is the spirit communicator’s storytelling skills. With help from Ruth Montgomery, Arthur Ford spoke to humanity about the afterlife and the imminent connectedness of both worlds. With my little help, Vladimir Vysotsky appeals to all nations asking for tolerance.

He provided both kinds of evidence. Speaking to other mediums -- Robert Brown, Brian Hurst, Joe Gonzales, Rita Berkowicz, and some Russians, he gave them quite traditional evidence. I received both kinds of evidence. He named titles and authors of books where the details and facts were found to confirm many of his claims. At the same time, he gave more complex evidence. Interpretation of this evidence presumed some knowledge of the Russian language and Moscow art life. At the start, I was literally blown away by all of this.

Back in the year 2000, when I started to hear Vladimir Vysotsky’s voice, and received some messages from Elvis Presley (who met Vysotsky in the afterlife) as well, I was more than embarrassed. I was sure that I was losing my mind and considered surrendering to some medical institution. Thank God, I winded up knocking at the door of Robert Brown.

For a start, Robert lectured me regarding humility. The lecture lasted for a while. Reluctantly, he started the reading admitting that he could see a non-family entities around me as well. At that point, spirit blessed the reading with some influx of energy. It sped up and turned into an unforgettable event. Robert got them both, Vysotsky and Presley, and advised me on how to proceed with the writing. (I owe the book to these instructions!) Then he shared his concerns, “What will happen, if we confirm your conversations with them?” On one hand, Vysotsky provided “traditional evidence” showing shoes under a table to Robert Brown! Yes, at home sitting at my computer desk, I take my shoes off and there are always a bunch of lost slippers under my table¼ To mention this embarrassing detail was Vysotsky’s way of showing that he had been in my home when I was working on the book. However, Vysotsky also revealed how he was improvising poems during spirit communication séances, and Robert Brown described it to me and expressed his worries. Politics, Russia, murder – a true medium does not mess with politics¼ So, I was left one-on-one with Vysotsky and Mother Russia, and it was fear enough. Here is an excerpt from a channeled poem “The Sediment Bowl of Time.”

Time is whirling in a cosmic sediment bowl.
Returning to its rounds over and over again,
It bends, arches, and splatters,
Lies, loops, and wanders¼
Showering us with diamonds,
Then calamities and punches into our faces¼

My destiny was merciless –
Elevation – celebration – stoning
And drunken forgetfulness.
I should run off the rails and catch my breath,
But how could I! In that bowl, there were still the same familiar faces –
Hamlet, Gertrude and Ophelia,
With inaccessible Voznesensky and Tarkovsky. ¼

When the Communist Party banned Vysotsky’s poems (during his life not a single line was published, not a single regular concert was allowed, not a single song was recorded on radio), Vysotsky turned his banned poems into songs, and performed them in various clubs. He encouraged people to record his performances. Before the Party and the KGB knew it, copies of copies of copies of these illegal recordings swept the entire nation – from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. The hunger for humanness was so big at the time! These songs were loved by all Russians, a nation divided into two camps. A thousand-year gap between the inaccessible aristocratic culture (known in the West by Tolstoy’s War and Peace, or Anna Karenina) and the people’s “non-culture” was still part of Russian life. After the revolution this deprivation of people from their own culture manifested as an irreversible self-genocide that took the lives of millions and millions people. On the eve of the dismantling of the Soviet Union, the mission of reconciliation of the people with their own intelligentsia was a grand task attempted by every Russian progressive artist. Vysotsky was the one who succeeded in reaching the hearts of all Russians¼ and nothing weakened the power of the Communist Party more than their subjects’ discovery of a new window in their hearts, opened up by Vysotsky’s non- judgmental songs. The Party had no control over it!

After Vysotsky’s sudden death – according to mediumistic information – a violent death –Vysotsky continued his reconciliatory mission accepting the pains of communication with mediums. Probably he did it out of a need to work on the negative moments of his life – an overindulgence of fame. Vysotsky’s fame in Russia is comparable only with the fame of John Lennon and Elvis Presley in the West. As John Lennon, Vladimir Vysotsky changed the climate in Russia that led to a peaceful dissolution of the Communist regime. No one Communist Party member, not a single nachalnik – the boss – resisted the order to put on the table the little “red book,” the Communist Party membership ID and “forget it!” But sure, all of them (as well as their kids) were eager listeners of illegal tapes of Vysotsky’s songs.

Now, speaking from behind the veil, Vysotsky stands for equality of human souls. Yes, life on earth divides us making some commit unthinkable crimes and others to suffer beyond limits. However, the day will come when we discover that we are as leaves and branches of one tree – the tree of life that grows on the first pages of our Bible¼

As a poet and actor, Vysotsky does not lecture or teach readers how to live their lives. He welcomes us into his world of tolerance and inner freedom. All he says is, “Dig through the hardenings of your soul to your own heart and it will tell you everything! It is so simple, if you would only believe me!”

During times of war and hatred, when nations stand against nations and poverty and greed claims its victims everywhere, I cannot imagine a more important message than this one! I still do not know whether I am a medium or part of mediumshipia, but I do not care any more.

Vysotsky’s poems were banned. No one poem was published during his life, no one concert was allowed, no one song was recorded on radio.

TV single recording was aired eight years after his death. It would kill everyone but Vysotsky. He turned his poems into songs and

allowed people to record his performances in clubs that had invited him to perform. (Many of administrators who had invited Vysotsky, were later fired, and mot of them knew it and they sill invited him over t o have something to remember, and these unofficial concerts were sold out, of course, and every one of them produced new illegal recordings. Nation was hungry and thirsty for humanness and expression its real feelings. Vysotsky opened a window in their souls to reach out to truthfulness. Party had no power over that "window!" And the Party

that was based on lies and fear and antagonistic stand off Russia against the rest of the world -- was loosing power over its subjects. It was such a combination of everything!

When Com Party together with KGB were dismantled, no ONE of Party bosses resisted, they all tossed their "little red books" (ID's) on the tables. No one of them protested!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But EVERY ONE of them had at home Vladimir Vysotsky's illegal tapes, and listened to them FOR SURE!!!!!!!!!!! Their kids partied with these tapes.

While writing about it, it is important to remember that Vysotsky was not alone and not the first one to attempt to steal his nation’s heart!

It was again a time of cultural and artistic giants in Russia at a time when everything was forbidden! It was the time when so-called “authors’ songs had swept the country… And every author had a crowd of fans and followers, but Vysotsky was the one who was accepted by all the nation and he was the one who healed the nation…

It was a writing class for seniors well enough to enjoy each others company and writing endeavors. I was given a chance to read a chapter from my new book Channeling Vysotstky. I chose the chapter “Inferno” with Vysotsky’s unique message about the initial source of his inspiration, an unbearable emotion that started him as a poet. The spirit message described the situation in the Soviet art in the post-Stalinist period when still the unspeakable demands of “socialist realism” were used by Party to kill every live emotion that writers, musicians, film makers, directors, or actors managed to come up with. Vysotsky listed also overlooked art phenomenon that were somehow breathing on the fringe of official art and “left undefiled by the Party. This circle of “cintra-culture) included the songs of the war veterans. The remains of human beings who had lost their legs and hands in holy war for Mama Russia and were abandoned by Party and people (as no institution, prisons and labor camps included, wouldn’t accept a burden to take care of them) were now making their meager living by begging in Moscow electrical trains. They sang begging for food and vodka. They sang songs that would open people’s wallets. And these songs tore young Vysotsky’s heart into pieces. He was born into a family of a Soviet Army officer, and the discrepancy between the truths he heard at home and the truths represented by the songs of war veterans broke his heart.

I read a spirit message about it and noticed that no one believed it to be a spirit message. So, I added that the content of this message was new to me. I hadn’t read or heard about it before…

Finally, I was done with the reading and it was time to answer their questions. I expected questions about Vysotsky or spirit communication… Oh my God, how wrong I was!

Suddenly a lady asked, “How comes that the land of great oppression had produced such a Free Spirit?”

This question took me by surprise, and I left it unanswered… It would take too much time to explain that according to a basic law of nature – sooner or later – a strong oppression would birth the same strong resistance… History had seen it thousands of times, and will see it over and over again...

Media Articles: ^{Vysotsky's Bio} ^{Interview with the Author}^{Mediumship or Mediumshipia}^Droplets ^{Press Release}^{Fact Sheet}
	V. Vysotsky and artist M. Chemyakin