Death of a Poet

On July 25, 1980, the great Russian poet Vladimir Vysotsky passed away. He was 42 years old. He did not die in a duel like Pushkin and Lermontov, nor did he fall from a bullet or in a noose like Mayakovsky and Yesenin. But the cause of his death was no less dramatic. Vysotsky struggled with death for a long time. By the beginning of 1980, this struggle turned into a fierce battle.

25 years later we present the first documentary evidence of this period.
Everyone has the right to their own views about the death of the great poet, but no one’s opinion can claim absolute truth. According to eyewitnesses, after the New Year celebrations of 1980, Vysotsky’s illness began to progress and turned into real agony. We will restore events with chronological accuracy from January 1 until July 25, 1980. Our story is told by people who knew Vysotsky closely in the last year of his life.