Nick Turbina, whose biography arouses the sincere interest of many lovers of bright, penetrating poetry, is a child phenomenon, a poetry prodigy, who lived a very short and dramatic life.
The girl died at the age of 27, but experienced during this period as much as others could not feel for all the time of her existence.
Incomprehensible gift from above
Nick was born in 1974. From childhood, she suffered from bronchial asthma and practically did not sleep due to the common occurrence in such patients: fear of falling asleep and suffocation in a dream. On sleepless nights, little Nika sat in the bed, breathing hoarsely and heavily and whispering something in her tongue. At 4 years old, the girl’s mother realized that these were poems - piercing rhythmic spells filled with tragedy, adulthood, and non-childish experiences. Shock is the first reaction of mom and grandmother. These rhymed lines (not children's ones: about grass and the sun, but mature, adult lyrics beyond their years) frightened relatives, but at the request of Nicky, mother and grandmother sat near her, most often at night, and recorded what was spoken. Nick called Sound the reason for filling her consciousness with verses. It was an inner voice that came from nowhere and sounded in her head. Close people tried to help the girl as much as possible: they went to many doctors, asking for help so that Nika would sleep normally, and not write serious lines in the nighttime. Doctors only insisted on the treatment of asthma, not trying to explain such an incomprehensible phenomenon.
Second Anna Akhmatova?
Nick Turbina, whose biography interests the minds of many writers, was a strange, unsociable child, internally introverted, with serious adult questions. Her favorite pastime as a child was standing at the window for a long time or talking with her own reflection.
The poetess’s language is rather difficult to attribute to any direction, her poems are special, in tension they are comparable only with the creations of Anna Akhmatova (whose glory was predicted to the girl in the future). Nika is the second Soviet poetess after Akhmatova, who received the prestigious Golden Lion Award, only Anna was 60 years old at the time of the award, and Nika 12. She called herself a night person and said that she only felt safe from the world at night, from the crowd noise, problems. It was at this time that she became herself.
Evtushenko - Turbine
The world learned about the girl with a light hand of the writer Julian Semenov. Grandmother, Lyudmila Vladimirovna, practically made him read several poems when the writer lived in the Yalta hotel, where the woman headed the service department. "Brilliant!" - exclaimed Semenov, amazed at the style of writing profound poetic lines by a little 7-year-old girl, and asked the Komsomolskaya Pravda correspondent to write an article about this miracle child. A huge country learned about Nick Turbina in March 1983. The girl was invited to Moscow, her first performance took place in the House of Writers, and there she met Yevgeny Yevtushenko, who played an important role in Nika's life.
Biography of Nicky Turbina
The girl was only 9 when her first 62-page collection “Draft” was published (with an 8-page introduction by Yevgeny Yevtushenko), immediately swept away from the shelves, despite the 30-thousand circulation, and translated into 12 languages. The title of this book was jointly chosen by two poets.
The first impression of readers who came into contact with the world of Nika Turbina was the feeling that the author of the lines knew the bitterness of love, the pain of loss and parting, mortal longing. Not everyone believed that the girl wrote herself: many thought that the writer of the lines - her mother - was a failed poetess who tried to be realized through her daughter. In addition to the book, a disc with verses by Nicky was published, which became the best answer to persons doubting her talent. In the children's voice, reading their own poems, there was a feeling of a special, long-drawn ringing, filled with incredible tragedy and drama.
The biography and personality of Nika Turbina quickly attracted the attention of the public, the fame of a miracle child scattered throughout the Soviet Union and beyond. At the end of 1984, Nika was already a famous Soviet poetess who constantly participated in literary evenings. The girl went on tour across the country, there was no time for school. In all overseas trips, her grandmother accompanied Nick. More than one film was made about the girl, her name did not leave the newspaper pages, and poems were translated into dozens of languages. Nika was applauded not only in the Soviet Union, which allocated Turbine a scholarship, but also in Italy and the USA.
Nika Turbina, biography, poetry - everything was a real phenomenon, actively studied by experts. The young poetess gathered halls where she recited poetic lines in the manner of Voznesensky, beating her rhythm with her palm and breaking from a cry to a whisper.
Betrayal
Nika was 13 years old, and Yevgeny Yevtushenko began to move away from her, eventually completely stopping communication (silently, without explaining the reasons) with the girl, who over the years became attached to him as to her father. Perhaps the poet, to some extent, expected a miracle from Nicky, and then, disappointed, simply stepped aside. But living people cannot be disappointed.
As an adult, Nika Turbina, whose biography is very tragic, in an interview, argued that the man was most likely scared and thought that why spend her time on her, and suddenly the girl would not write anymore. This greatly affected the vulnerable Nick, who, with her further behavior, expressed a megaprotest against unexpected betrayal. The girl herself has changed, and the attitude of the world around her, who some time ago accepted the young talent enthusiastically. Public appearances ended, journalists ceased to bother, the story of poetess-geek Nikki Turbina became uninteresting to the public: there was a harbinger of oblivion - silence.
Please don't leave me alone …
The family changed their place of residence and moved to Moscow, where Nick attended a regular school. She was not accepted and understood there. The girl was still writing poetry, but these were completely different lines. Mom - Maya Turbina - created a family for the second time and gave birth to a child, who has become for her and her grandmother the center of the universe now. In her prophetic lines, Nika wrote:
Just hear
Do not leave me alone.
Will turn
All my poems are in trouble.
Nika did not find a common language with the new family: she rebelled, cut her veins, drank sleeping pills, and was thrown out of the window. At 13, she left home, deciding to live separately. After several years of fame and success, the girl for the first time was without her mother and grandmother - all alone.
Adult Nick
In 1990, 16-year-old Nika married an Italian psychologist, Signor Giovanni, who owns a clinic in Switzerland. He was 76 years old at that time. In a foreign country, the girl was able to withstand only a year, after which she returned back to Moscow. In Switzerland, Nika Turbina, whose biography became of little interest to modern society, became addicted to alcohol, and she drank violently - just like she wrote poetry.
Further in her fate are many white spots. A brief biography of Nika Turbina has a lot of unverified information: she studied for a while at the Institute of Culture and at VGIK, where she was accepted without exams; Nicky’s writing style was not as usual: special, with a vowel omission. This writing style helped the poetess to keep records of poetic lines raging in her head. During her studies, Nika made great friends with Alena Galich, the daughter of the poet, who taught on her course and was constantly trying to help the girl adapt to her unusual life. She dreamed of becoming a director and who had good inclinations, the gifted girl never graduated from college. Later, she tried to prove herself in the cinematic field and starred in the film “It Was By the Sea” directed by Ayan Shakhmalieva about the inmates of the special boarding school for children with spinal diseases and the harsh realities of their life in this institution. In the 90s, Nika tried herself as a radio host on one of the Moscow radio channels and even acted as a model: several pictures of the girl were published in Playboy. Some time before her death, Nika managed to make a film-reflection on suicide "Life on loan" - against the background of her interview with Mark Rozovsky.
I do not believe anybody
Further, Nika, together with her civil husband Mironov Alexander, worked on the outskirts of Moscow in the theater-studio “Range”, continuing to write all the time: on napkins, scraps of paper; I immediately forgot about them, tore to shreds and began to write new ones, complaining that no one needed poetry. The adult Nika Turbina, who had no education or profession, became of no interest to anyone. Nobody really took care that the girl learned to write correctly, no one considered it necessary to tell her how to reveal a poetic gift and polish it. The girl, completely unsuitable for life, was falling before the eyes of indifferent adults; in her life, alcohol and drugs began to take the main place. Relatives knew about the girl’s dependence, tried to treat her, but all attempts were unsuccessful. Nick closed in on herself, stopped trusting people, a dog and two cats lived with her in a small apartment.
Nicky is no more
In May 1997, Nick fell out of the balcony of the 5th floor. She broke the pelvic bones, forearms, spine, underwent 12 operations, the money for which was collected by the whole world. Later, the girl told reporters that she shook out the rug and could not keep her balance.
On May 11, 2002, Nika again fell out of the window. This time, the girl could not be saved. According to mother and grandmother, Nika once said: “I’ll leave at 27, but before that I will die dozens of times, ” and in one of the interviews she said that she would have neither children nor grandchildren, she would not live up to that age when he wants to give birth. Perhaps this was an accident, because Nika loved to sit on the windowsill, legs dangling.
At the request of Alena, a dash was put in the column about the cause of death, otherwise the girl could not be buried, and thanks to her efforts the poetess Nika Turbina, whose biography is so tragic, was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery. Alena Galich and her roommate, who also had problems with alcohol, escorted Nick Turbin to the last journey. Parents at this moment were in Yalta and could not come due to lack of money.
