Nero's last words before his death. The terrible last words of dying people, which were remembered by Internet users for a long time

Many people throughout their lives wonder how it will be, what I will be like at this moment... But no one can predict. However, they are capable brilliant people for wonderful insights. The periodic table of elements appeared to Mendeleev in a dream. Jules Verne's technological fantasies came true decades later. And many brilliant Russian writers not only had a presentiment, but even guessed in their works the atmosphere and circumstances of their death.

Who said what when leaving?

The Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle, dying, calmly said: “So this is what this death is like!”

Composer Edvard Grieg: “Well, if this is inevitable...”.

Queen Marie Antoinette was completely calm before her execution. While ascending the scaffold, she stumbled and stepped on the executioner’s foot: “Please forgive me, monsieur, I did it by accident...”.

The Roman emperor and tyrant Nero cried out before his death: “What great artist dies!".

Vaslav Nijinsky, Anatole France, Garibaldi, Byron whispered the same word before their death: “Mother!”

When the Prussian king Frederick I was dying, the priest read prayers at his bedside. At the words “naked I came into this world and naked I will leave,” Frederick pushed him away with his hand and exclaimed: “Don’t you dare bury me naked, not in dress uniform!”

Dying, Balzac recalled one of the characters in his stories, the experienced doctor Bianchon: “He would have saved me...”.

IN last moment before death the great Leonardo da Vinci exclaimed: “I insulted God and people! My works did not reach the heights to which I aspired!”

Before his execution, Mikhail Romanov gave his boots to the executioners - “Use them, guys, they are royal after all.”

Spy-dancer Mata Hari blew a kiss to the soldiers aiming at her: “I’m ready, boys.”

The philosopher Immanuel Kant said: “Das ist gut.”

Sick Anna Akhmatova after a camphor injection: “Still, I feel very bad!”

One of the filmmaker brothers, 92-year-old O. Lumiere: “My film is running out.”

Ibsen, after lying paralyzed for several years, stood up and said: “On the contrary!” - and died.

Nadezhda Mandelstam to her nurse: “Don’t be afraid.”

Last words Einstein remained unknown because the nurse did not understand German.

Do the writers know in advance how it will go?

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev died on August 22, 1883 at the age of 65 in the town of Bougival near Paris. His last words were strange: “Farewell, my dears, my whitish ones...”.

There were no grief-stricken relatives standing around the dying man’s bed: despite several novels he had experienced, the writer never married, spending his life in an ambiguous role true friend family of Pauline Viardot. The death of Turgenev, who all his life, by his own admission, “huddled on the edge of someone else’s nest,” was in some ways similar to his death famous hero- Evgenia Bazarova. Both were escorted into another world by a woman who was dearly loved and never completely belonged to them.

Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky woke up at dawn on January 28, 1881 with the clear realization that today was the last day of his life. He waited silently for his wife to wake up. Anna Grigorievna did not believe her husband’s words, because the day before he was better. But Dostoevsky insisted that a priest be brought, took communion, confessed, and soon died.

When Elder Zosima, one of the key characters in the novel “The Brothers Karamazov,” was dying, his friends were amazed by this, because “they were even convinced that there had been a noticeable improvement in his health.” The elder felt the approach of death and humbly met it: “He bowed his face to the ground... and, as if in joyful delight, kissing the ground and praying, he quietly and joyfully gave his soul to God.”

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov died on the night of July 2, 1904 in a hotel room in the German resort town of Badenweiler. The German doctor decided that death was already behind him. According to the ancient German medical tradition, a doctor who diagnosed his colleague terminal diagnosis, treats the dying man with champagne... Anton Pavlovich said in German: “I’m dying” - and drank a glass of champagne to the bottom.

The writer's wife, Olga Leonardovna, would later write that the “terrible silence” of that night when Chekhov died was broken only by “a huge black moth, which painfully beat against the burning night lamps and dangled around the room.”

Here is his hero, the merchant Lopakhin, who bought The Cherry Orchard and who was about to cut it down at the root, suggested that Ranevskaya, for whom the loss of her family nest is tantamount to spiritual death, celebrate the purchase with a glass of champagne. And at the end of the play, before the curtain, in the silence you can hear “how far away in the garden an ax is being knocked on a tree.”

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy He spent the last days of his life at the provincial railway station of Astapovo. At the age of 83, the count decided to break with the orderly, prosperous existence in Yasnaya Polyana. Accompanied by his daughter and the family doctor, he left incognito, in a third-class carriage. On the way, I caught a cold and developed pneumonia.

Tolstoy’s last words, spoken by him on the morning of November 7, 1910, already in oblivion, were: “I love the truth” (according to another version, he said “I don’t understand”).

In “The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” an official exhausted by pain and fear on his deathbed admits that everything in his life was “wrong.” “What about ‘that’?” he asked himself and suddenly fell silent. Having come to terms with the inevitability of death, Ivan Ilyich suddenly discovered that “there was no fear, because there was no death. Instead of death there was light.”

Gennady Poroshenko, Doctor of Biological Sciences: “Our souls remain in the noosphere”

The boomerang, no matter what its flight may be, must return back. If you put your hand on your pulse, you will feel the countdown starting at the moment of your birth. You will definitely die. All your life, if you are not mute, you talk - you comment on yourself. You say words, words about words... Someday, what you say will be your last word, your last comment. Below are the last words from others that I listened to during my five years working in the hospital. First I started writing them down in a notebook so as not to forget. Then I realized that I was remembering it forever and stopped writing it down. Not everything here is just selective...

At first, when I stopped working at the hospital, I regretted that I could now hear such things extremely rarely. Only later did I realize that the last words can be heard from living people. It’s enough just to listen more closely and understand that most of them won’t say anything else either.

The last words of the dying.

"Wash the currants, son, they just came from the garden...."
A. 79 years old

(This was the first entry in my notebook, the first thing I heard when I was still an orderly. I went to wash the currants, and when I returned, my grandmother had already died of a heart attack with the same expression on her face with which I left her)

"Take the carriage away, it’s burning your dick."
B. 52 years old

(A huge miner from Donbass who did not know how to correctly pronounce half of the most common words in the Russian language. He spoke in a clipped bass voice. Until he died, the catheter was never removed.)

"But he is still more intelligent than you..."
V. 47 years old

(An elderly, very rich Azerbaijani woman who threw a tantrum that she wanted to see her son. They were given ten minutes to talk and when I came to escort him out of the department, I heard how this was the last thing she said to him. After that, when he left, she looked at everyone quite angrily, didn’t talk to anyone, and an hour later she died as a result of cardiac arrest.)

"Hands off, armed gang! You swore eternal friendship to me!"
G. 44 years old

(This was some old Jew in complete insanity. On the first day after the operation, apparently after anesthesia, he confessed his love to everyone, and on the second he decided that we were “an evil gang who disguised themselves as people of a sacred profession.” He was not far from the truth He swore all day and in the evening, without ceasing to swear, he died.)

"I’ve already sprayed myself with this... it five hundred times!"
D. 66 years old

(Some mechanic died from an attack of bronchial asthma while standing in front of me. This is the only thing he managed to tell me, showing me a bottle with an inhaler that dilates the airways. After which he collapsed on the floor.)

"Did you... eat... poison? What the... poison... did you eat? Did you... eat... poison?"
E. 47 years old

(Also, probably, a mechanic. Or a carpenter. In short, some kind of drunk with a rare disease for science. His heart stopped when he, standing naked on the marble floor, urinated on the floor. He fell, we began to transfer him to the bed, while trying to perform a heart massage. At this time, he, gasping for breath, asked us his “last questions.”)

"Potassium..."
E. 34 years old

(Potassium was the cause of his death. The nurse did not set the speed of the drip and the lightning-quick injection of potassium caused cardiac arrest. Apparently, he felt this, because when I ran into the hall at the sound of the instruments, he raised his head up forefinger and pointing to an empty jar, he told me what was in it. This, by the way, was the only case of potassium overdose out of several dozen in my practice, which resulted in death.)

"How aware are you of what you are doing? Write to me on a piece of paper how aware you are of what you are doing now..."
J. 53 years old

(J. was a hydraulic engineer. He suffered from hypochondriacal delirium, asking everyone and everything about the mechanism of action of each pill and “why it itches here and pricks here.” He asked the doctors to sign his notebook for each injection. To be honest, either he died because of the nurse’s abuse, or she mixed up the cardiotonic, or his dose... I don’t remember. I only remember what he said at the end.)

"This is where it really hurts!"
Z. 24 years old

(This one has young man one of the “youngest” heart attacks in Moscow was registered. He constantly asked only to “p-i-t...” and said, placing his hand on the area of his heart, that he was in great pain. His mother said he was very stressed. Three days later, the youngest death from myocardial infarction was registered. He died repeating these words...)

"I want to go home"
I. 8 years old

(A girl who spoke only these two words for two weeks after liver surgery. She died on my watch.)

"There was a better condition..."
K. 46 years old

(A patient who, after two unconscious months, asked to deflate the cuff on his tracheostomy, convincing everyone that he definitely needed to say something. Having croaked these two words, he lost consciousness again and never came to his senses.)

"I am a relative of Igor Langno."
L. 28 years old

(He was a blond Baltic guy with a severe heart defect named Igor Langno.)

"Larisa, Lara, Larisa..."
M. 45 years old

(M. had a repeated extensive myocardial infarction. He died and agonized for three days, all the time holding on to wedding ring fingers of the other hand and repeating his wife's name. When he died I took off this ring to give it to her.)

"Don't stand at my cold feet."
N. 74 years old

(This grandmother told everyone that they were “strangers” to her. She said her last phrase proudly and slightly angrily. She told me during a night round, refusing treatment. After that, she pointedly turned to the wall and fell asleep. In the morning, her neighbors discovered her ward, who died in this position. I really didn’t have to stand at her cold feet)

"Girls, buy me two “Wagon Wheels”, please. Your wife will give you the money. To the seagull. Thank you."
O. 57 years old

(A precocious-looking diabetic who, fearing that he had accidentally been given a glucose drip, injected himself with an “overdose” of insulin. At this time, the nurses went to the store on the street and he asked them to buy him a chocolate bar to raise his sugar level. After he lost consciousness from hypoglycemia. He never came to his senses. They brought chocolates when he had already died. His wife never gave him the money.)

"You are a doctor... Therefore, it will be so, as you tell me."
P. 44 years old

(An intelligent, gray-haired Georgian who constantly shook hands in a friendly manner with everyone who approached him, repeating that he trusted everyone and believed in everyone. He said these words after an injection of morphine, before they put an oxygen mask on him. In his sleep, he began to experience fibrillation ventricles. They shocked him thirty times. Then his heart stopped. They didn’t start.)

"Of course, I'm getting old..."
R. 62 years old

(An asthenic grandfather with a gray bald spot, who was successfully recovering from a banal coronary artery bypass surgery. He lay alone in a single room and constantly tossed and turned in bed so that the sheet “crumpled” and it had to be pulled regularly to avoid bedsores. He complained about his age, groaning, how once at that moment, swaying from side to side. He had no complications. I gave him an injection of rellanium to make him sleep. He died in his sleep, apparently “of old age.”)

"All?.. Yes?.. All?.. All?.. Yes?.. All?.. Yes?.."
T. 56 years old

(This patient died approximately like the above-mentioned E. He stood up without permission to urinate into the “duck” on his own. At that moment, ventricular fibrillation began and he fell to the floor. We, the whole shift, put him on the bed. Cardiac arrest began, someone then he began to “pump”... He, which is difficult to explain, remained conscious. For each compression of his chest, as he exhaled, he squeezed out one of these questions. No one answered him. This lasted about ten seconds.)

"Come to me! I'll share the buzz with you!"
F. 19 years old

(It wasn’t me who heard this. This was heard by a friend of mine, whom I met when he worked as a salesman in a music store. These words belong to his girlfriend, who died a few minutes later from a heroin overdose. At his home, in his bed. Only later , I asked him if he remembered her last words. “Of course, I will never forget them!” he answered and shared with me.)

Lesha Samokhin was talented person- journalist, musician and doctor. Saving the lives of many, he himself left young - in best traditions poets, at 37 years old. His most striking legacy is the amazing text “Last Words”. In memory of Alexey, we are publishing it.

The boomerang, whatever its flight, must return back. If you put your hand on your pulse, you will feel the countdown starting at the moment of your birth. Someday you will definitely die. All your life, unless you are mute, you speak. You say words, words about words... Someday, what you say will be your last word. What follows are the last words I listened to during my five years of working in the hospital. At first I wrote them down in a notebook so as not to forget. Then I realized that I was remembering it forever, and I stopped writing it down. This is not all here, I just selected...

Wash the currants, son, they just came from the garden...

This was the first entry in my notebook, the first thing I heard when I was still an orderly. I went to wash the currants, and when I returned, my grandmother had already died of a heart attack with the same expression on her face with which I left her.

But he is still more intelligent than you...

An elderly, very rich Azerbaijani woman who threw a tantrum that she wanted to see her son. They were given ten minutes to talk, and when I came to escort him out of the department, I heard the last thing she said to him. After he left, she looked at everyone rather angrily, did not speak to anyone, and an hour later she died as a result of cardiac arrest.

Hands off, armed gang! You swore eternal friendship to me!

G., 44 years old

It was some old Jew in complete insanity. On the first day after the operation, apparently after anesthesia, he confessed his love to everyone, and on the second he decided that we were “an evil gang who disguised themselves as people of a sacred profession.” He cursed all day and by the evening, without ceasing to curse, he died.

I’ve already sprayed myself with this *** [garbage] five hundred times!

Some mechanic died from an attack of bronchial asthma before my eyes. This is the only thing he managed to tell me, showing me a bottle with an inhaler that expands the airways. Then he collapsed on the floor.

E., 34 years old

Potassium was the cause of his death. The nurse did not set the IV speed, and the rapid administration of potassium caused cardiac arrest. Apparently, he felt this, because when I ran into the hall at the sound of the instruments, he raised his index finger and, pointing to an empty jar, told me what was in it. This, by the way, was the only case of potassium overdose out of several dozen in my practice, which resulted in death.

How aware are you of what you are doing? Write to me on a piece of paper how aware you are of what you are doing now...

J., 53 years old

J. was a hydraulic engineer. He suffered from hypochondriacal delirium, asking everyone and everything about the mechanism of action of each pill and “why it itches here and pricks here.” He asked the doctors to sign his notebook for each injection. To be honest, he died because of the *** [carelessness] of the nurse: either she mixed up the cardiotonic, or its dose... I don’t remember. I only remember what he said at the end.

This young man had one of the youngest heart attacks in Moscow. He constantly asked only to “p-i-t...” and said, placing his hand on the area of his heart, that he was in great pain. His mother said he was very stressed. Three days later, the youngest death from myocardial infarction was recorded. He died repeating these words...

I want to go home...

A girl who spoke only these two words for two weeks after liver surgery. She died while on my watch.

There was a better condition...

A patient who, after two unconscious months, asked to deflate the cuff on his tracheostomy, convincing everyone that he definitely needed to say something. Having croaked these two words, he lost consciousness again and never came to his senses.

I am a relative of Igor Langno.

He was a blond Baltic guy with a severe heart defect named Igor Langno.

Larisa, Lara, Larisa...

M. had a repeated extensive myocardial infarction. He died and agonized for three days, all the while holding onto his wedding ring with the fingers of his other hand and repeating his wife's name. When he died, I took off this ring to give it to her.

Don't stand at my cold feet.

N., 74 years old

This grandmother told everyone that they were “strangers” to her. She said her last phrase proudly and slightly angrily. She told me during the night rounds, refusing treatment. After that, she pointedly turned to the wall and fell asleep. In the morning, her roommates discovered her, dying in this position. I really didn’t have to stand at her cold feet.

Girls, buy me two “Wagon Wheels”, please. Your wife will give you the money. To the seagull. Thank you.

A precocious-looking diabetic who, fearing that he had accidentally been given a glucose drip, injected himself with an “overdose” of insulin. At this time, the nurses went to the store outside, and he asked them to buy him a chocolate bar to raise his sugar level. After this, he lost consciousness from hypoglycemia. I never came to my senses. The chocolates were brought when he had already died. My wife never gave me the money.

You are a doctor... Therefore, it will be so, as you tell me.

P., 44 years old

An intelligent, gray-haired Georgian who constantly shook hands in a friendly manner with everyone who approached him, repeating that he trusted everyone and believed in everyone. He said these words after an injection of morphine, before he was put on an oxygen mask. During his sleep, he developed ventricular fibrillation. He was shocked thirty times. Then my heart stopped. They didn't start it.

Of course, I have become a bit old...

R., 62 years old

An asthenic grandfather with a gray bald spot, who was successfully recovering from a banal coronary artery bypass surgery. He lay alone in a single room and constantly tossed and turned in the bed so that the sheet crumpled and had to be pulled up regularly. He complained about his age, grunting, just at that moment, waddling from side to side. He had no complications. I gave him an injection of Relanium to make him sleep. He died in his sleep - apparently “of old age.”

If I recover normally and my heart grows back, I can bring you real high boots from the North. You can go hunting in high boots, so you won’t know grief in Moscow. If there is no rejection, like the submariner, then you can visit me. We have times there when the sun does not set below the horizon. I try to go there, I try to go back... It will hover a centimeter from the horizon - and back. There I will arrange a celebration of life for you. I'll take you to the hills. You'll relax so much in our north that you won't want to go south. Okay, I’ll sleep, I’ll sleep... When I sleep, it doesn’t seem so anxious... Be careful with the electrodes, otherwise I woke up in the morning, nothing was running... Well, I think that’s it... Yes, that’s just me, what am I going to tell you, you know everything...

S., 43 years old

During this story, the nurse administered a sleeping pill, on which he fell asleep. This patient was a mustachioed resident of the Far North. He came to Moscow with a diagnosis of dilated cardiomyopathy, which has only one treatment option - a heart transplant, after which we were on duty with him. “Submariner” is his friend from the squad, who served on a submarine all his life, and died during a crisis of rejection, a month after the operation. He had the same indications for a transplant, which he brought himself to by making a vow to “fuck a hundred women” and breaking down on the 76th. S. didn’t even make it to the crisis. He died seven or eight hours later from some kind of fulminant infection. I remember that there was a big scandal with surgeons who reproached us for not maintaining sterility. I think they even called the SES...

All?.. Yes?.. All?.. All?.. Yes?.. All?.. Yes?..

This patient died much like the above-mentioned E. He stood up without permission to urinate in the duck himself. At that moment, ventricular fibrillation began and he fell to the floor. The whole shift put him on the bed. Cardiac arrest began, someone began to “pump”... For each chest compression, as he exhaled, he asked one of these questions. Nobody answered him. This lasted about ten seconds.

When I was flying, I saw white lights, but drink this one yourself when your daughter comes.

In fact, it was the military pilot Belousov. Charming, handsome and very strong-willed uncle. Due to the complication, he was on a ventilator for four months until he died of sepsis. These are not words (due to the tracheostomy he could not speak), these are his last note, which he wrote in huge letters that resembled the scribbles of a preschooler. He tried to explain to me about the white lights three times - unfortunately, I still didn’t understand anything. “Drink it yourself” - regarding the “miraculous” medicine mumiyo, with which he was conscientiously soldered at the insistence sibling, also, by the way, a military pilot. I was on duty with Belousov for a month and a half, fifteen shifts in a row. I really cared for him and really wanted him to get better. He died during the night and I was incredibly sad. In the morning, leaving work, I ran into his daughter at the door of the department. She knew me and, smiling, asked: “How is he doing?” I brought him baby purees, mineral water, honey...” I frowned, deliberately rudely muttered something about being tired after a sleepless night, and quickly ran into the elevator. They say she sat at the entrance for two hours, no one dared to tell her...

Take the carriage away, it’s burning your dick.

B., 52 years old

A huge miner from Donbass who did not know how to correctly pronounce half of the most common words in the Russian language. He spoke in a clipped bass voice. Until he died, the catheter was never removed.

Come to me! I'll share the buzz with you!

It wasn't me who heard it. A friend of mine, whom I met when he worked as a salesman in a music store, heard this. These words belong to his girlfriend, who died a few minutes later from a heroin overdose. At his home, in his bed. Later I asked him if he remembered her last words. "Certainly. I will never forget them!” - he answered and shared with me.

Man's attitude towards death is great secret. No matter what he says about this during his lifetime, only he knows about real feelings in the minute before death. People who seek to lift the veil of this mystery collect and examine the last words spoken by a person before death. Of particular interest are the statements of people who left a noticeable mark on history and culture. As a rule, their last words are deep meaning and significance for posterity. Today we bring to the attention of the reader another publication.

DENIS IVANOVICH FONVIZIN (1745-1792), Russian writer
Shortly before his death, Fonvizin, already paralyzed, was riding on wheelchair in front of the university and shouted to the students: “This is what literature leads to. Never be a writer! Never study literature!
ALEXANDER NIKOLAEVICH RADISHCHEV (1749-1802), Russian philosopher and writer
From the memoirs of his son, Pavel Alexandrovich: “...at ten o’clock in the morning Radishchev, feeling unwell and having taken medicine, constantly worrying, suddenly takes a glass with “strong vodka” prepared in it (a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid) to burn out the old officer's epaulets of his eldest son and drinks it at once. Then, grabbing a razor, he wants to cut himself. His eldest son noticed this, rushes to him and snatches the razor. “I will have to suffer,” said Radishchev. An hour later, Ville’s physician, sent by Emperor Alexander I, arrives. Ville shouts: “Water, water!” - and prescribes medicine. But there was little hope... Before his death, Radishchev said: “Posterity will avenge me...”.”
IVAN SERGEEVICH TURGENEV (1809-1883), Russian writer
His last words were addressed to the Viardot family around him: “Closer, closer to me, and let me feel you all near me... The moment has come to say goodbye... Forgive me!”
NIKOLAI VASILIEVICH GOGOL (1810-1852), Russian writer
He died of malarial encephalitis in terrible agony. His inadequate mental state caused by the disease became the cause of the tragedy when, a few days before his death, he burned the second volume “ Dead souls" Count A.P. Tolstoy, in whose house Gogol lived, invited Moscow medical luminaries to the sick writer, but everything was in vain.
He died on February 21 at 8 a.m., leaving an inheritance in the amount of 43 rubles. 88 kop. and... your immortal name. His last words were: “Stairs. Crushes... the stairs! And to the doctors: “Don’t disturb me, for God’s sake!”
VISSARION GRIGORIEVICH BELINSKY (1811-1848) Russian literary critic
According to eyewitnesses who were present at the death famous critic: “Belinsky, already lying in the heat exhausted and unconscious on the bed, suddenly, to their amazement, jumped up; His eyes sparkling, he took a few steps, spoke some words indistinctly, but with energy, and began to fall. They supported him, put him to bed, and a quarter of an hour later he was gone...”
NIKOLAI ALEXANDROVICH DOBROLUBOV (1836-1861), Russian philosopher and literary critic
From the memoirs of Avdotya Yakovlevna Panaeva, a close friend of Dobrolyubov: “I entrust you with my brothers... Don’t let them waste money on stupid things... Bury me easier and cheaper.” A little later he asked: “Give me your hand...” I took his hand , she was cold... He looked at me intently and said: “Goodbye... go home! Soon!" These were his last words."
FEDOR MIKHAILOVICH DOSTOEVSKY (1821-1881), Russian writer
From the memoirs of the writer’s wife: “...He kissed the children’s lips, they kissed him and, on the doctor’s orders, immediately left... 2 hours before his death, when the children came to his call, Fyodor Mikhailovich ordered the Gospel to be given to his son Fedya and, holding my hand in his, he said: “Poor... dear, what am I leaving you with... poor thing, how hard it will be for you to live.”
IVAN ALEXANDROVICH GONCHAROV (1812-1891), Russian writer
In September, the sick writer was moved from his dacha to his city apartment, where medical care could be more accessible. On the night of September 15, Ivan Alexandrovich quietly died of pneumonia. Before his death, Goncharov asked his friends to be buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, somewhere on a hill near a cliff.
MIKHAIL EVGRAFOVICH SALTYKOV-SHCHEDRIN (1826-1889), Russian writer
“Before my death, I wanted to remind the public of some valuable and weighty words for them: shame, conscience, honor, etc., which others have forgotten and have no effect on anyone,” he told Eliseev. “There were, you know, words: well, conscience, fatherland, humanity... there are others there. Now take the trouble to look for them! We need to remind them...” - he said this to Mikhailovsky. He was getting worse and worse. On the night of April 27-28, he suffered a stroke and lost consciousness, which never returned to him. He died on April 28 at 4 p.m.
MAXIM GORKY (1868-1936), Russian writer
In one of last days of his life he said, barely audibly: “Let me go.” And the second time, when he could no longer speak, he pointed with his hand at the ceiling and doors, as if wanting to escape from the room. The Socialist Messenger of 1954 reported that B. Gerland, imprisoned in the Gulag in Vorkuta, worked in the infirmary with Professor Pletnev. He was sentenced to death for the murder of Gorky, but he was replaced death penalty for 25 years in camps ( later date was reduced by 10 years). B. Gerland wrote: “Gorky loved to treat his visitors to bonbonnieres (sweets). This time he generously gave gifts to two orderlies and ate some himself. An hour later, all three began to experience excruciating stomach pains, and death soon followed. An autopsy was performed which showed that everyone died from poison.”
LEV NIKOLAEVICH TOLSTOY (1828-1910), Russian writer
Leo Tolstoy died at the Ostapovo postal station on his way south. He muttered something indistinctly, as if in a dream: “...I love the truth more.” “A lot, a lot... it’s pressing... it’s pressing, well,” he suddenly shouted loudly, and... the end came.
ANTON PAVLOVICH CHEKHOV (1860-1904), Russian writer
When the doctor arrived, Chekhov himself told him that he was dying and that he should not send for oxygen, since by the time they brought it, he would be dead. The doctor ordered to give the dying man a glass of champagne. Chekhov took the glass and, as Olga Leonardovna recalls, turned to her, smiled his amazing smile, and said: “I haven’t drunk champagne for a long time.” He drank it all down, quietly lay down on his left side, and soon left forever.
ALEXANDER STEPANOVICH GREEN (1880-1932), Russian writer
He died as hard as he lived. He asked to put his bed next to the window. Outside the window, the distant Crimean mountains gleamed... A few days before his death, author’s copies were sent to him from Leningrad last book « Autobiographical story" Green smiled faintly and tried to read the inscription on the cover, but could not. The book fell out of his hands. Green's eyes, which were able to see the world so unusually, were already dying. Green’s last word was either a groan or a whisper: “I’m dying!..”
ALEXANDER IVANOVICH KUPRIN (1870-1938), Russian writer
From the memoirs of the writer’s daughter, Ksenia: “Mom wrote down in her diary everything that my father said shortly before his death: “I don’t want to die, I want life.” He crossed himself and said: “Read me the Our Father and the Mother of God,” he prayed and cried: “Why am I sick? What happened? Don’t leave me.” “Mommy, how good life is! After all, we are in our homeland? Tell me, tell me, are there Russians all around? How good it is! I feel something is wrong, call a doctor. Sit with me, mommy, it’s so cozy when you’re with me, next to me! I have a strange mind now, I don’t understand everything. Here it begins, don't leave me. I'm scared"".
MIKHAIL MIKHAILOVICH PRISHVIN (1873-1954), Russian writer
From the memoirs of the writer’s wife, Valeria Dmitrievna: “In the afternoon, severe pain began, and he asked me with anxiety: “How are we going to live now?” I tried as best I could to calm him down. By the evening the pain had passed, and he received A in the office A. and P. L. Kapits, drinking his light wine with them, said that he was buying a new car - an “all-terrain vehicle”... Listened new record with a recording of his voice. After seeing the guests off, he said that he was very tired and went to bed. He asked me to read poetry to him. I read Fet... I perked up. In bed I talked very cheerfully with Rodionov who had arrived. At about 12 o'clock at night the heart attack began. Then he began to choke: he would sit up, then lie down, I supported him with my hands and said: “Be patient.” And he answered very energetically, even angrily: “This is about something else, but we must deal with this ourselves.” Under the influence of the pantopon, he calmed down, turned to the wall, put his palm under his cheek, as if settling down comfortably to fall asleep... and quietly died".
NIKOLAI ALEXEEVICH OSTROVSKY (1904-1936), Soviet writer
From the memoirs of his wife, Raisa Ostrovskaya: “He talked to me about how a person should be persistent and courageous and not give up under the blows of life: “Anything can happen in life, Raek... Remember how life beat me, tried to knock me out of action.” . But I didn’t give up, I stubbornly walked towards my goal. And he came out victorious. My books are witnesses to this." I listened silently. He asked me not to give up my studies... Then I remembered our old mothers: “Our old ladies spent their whole lives taking care of us... We owe them so much... but give nothing back We don’t have time... Remember about them, Rayusha, take care of them...” That night was endless... Without coming to his senses, he died in the evening, at 7:50 p.m., December 22, 1936.”
MIKHAIL AFANASIEVICH BULGAKOV (1891-1940), Russian writer
In her memoirs, the writer’s wife, Elena Sergeevna Bulgakova, cites her husband’s very last words: “He made me understand that he needed something, that he wanted something from me. I offered him medicine, drink, lemon juice, but I clearly understood that this was not the point. Then I guessed and asked: “Your things?” He nodded with an expression that said “yes” and “no.” I said: “The Master and Margarita”? He, terribly delighted, made a sign with his head that “yes, these are ". And he squeezed out two words: “So that they know, so that they know.”
ALEXANDER ALEXANDROVICH FADEYEV (1901-1956), Soviet writer
According to the recollections of housekeeper Landysheva, Fadeev came to her kitchen on the morning of May 13, but refused breakfast and went to his office. Before he shot himself, he wrote suicide letter, addressed to the Central Committee of the CPSU: “I don’t see the opportunity to continue living, since the art to which I gave my life has been ruined by the self-confident and ignorant leadership of the party, and now can no longer be corrected. The best cadres of literature - in numbers that the royal satraps could not even dream of - were physically exterminated or died thanks to the criminal connivance of those in power... My life as a writer loses all meaning, and I am with great joy, as a deliverance from this vile existence, where on meanness, lies and slander fall upon you, I am leaving this life... My last hope was to at least say this to the people who rule the state, but for the past three years, despite my requests, they cannot even accept me. I ask you to bury me next to my mother.”
VLADIMIR VLADIMIROVICH NABOKOV (1899-1977), Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate
The writer's son, Dmitry, says that when he said goodbye to his father on the eve of his death, the dying man's eyes suddenly filled with tears. “I asked: why? He said that some butterflies have probably already begun to fly..."
MIKHAIL MIKHAILOVICH ZOSCHENKO (1894-1958), Soviet writer
He was alone. He lay there, covering himself with his coat. There were bottles of medicine on a chair nearby. The room was not tidy. There was dust everywhere, on the table, on the books. He was sad and said: “I keep thinking that a person needs to die on time. God, how right Mayakovsky was! I'm too late to die. You have to die on time."
VASILY MAKAROVICH SHUKSHIN (1929-1974), Soviet writer
From the memoirs of artist Georgy Ivanovich Burkov: “There was no doctor on the ship: he left that day for a wedding in one of the villages. Validol didn't help. I remembered that my mother drinks Zelenin drops from her heart. Shukshin took this medicine.
- Well, Vasya, is it easier?
- What do you think, does it work right away? We have to wait...
“You know,” said Vasily Makarovich, after a slight pause, “I just read in a book of memoirs about Nekrasov how he died difficultly and for a long time, he himself asked God for death.”
- Come on, stop talking about it! Vasya, you know what, let me go to bed with you today...
- Why is this? What am I, a girl or something, to protect me. If you need me, I'll call you. Go to sleep.
These were his last words, in the morning he was found sleeping eternal sleep».

Based on Varazdat Stepanyan’s book “Dying Words” famous people”, Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg state university, 2002. Illustrations prepared by designer Marina Provotorova

Many of us would like to leave a mark on history and know that we will be remembered even when we are gone. But even the final chord must be played perfectly. However, since we don’t know when that very hour will come, we won’t have time to think of what to say. But some apparently succeeded. I wonder how some famous personalities They didn’t make a mistake even at their last moment. Some of the quotes below are quite funny, others are brilliant with wisdom.

Winston Churchill

Even when he passed away, the British Prime Minister did not change his dry wit. Churchill left this world, saying that he was “bored” here.

Joan Crawford

Crawford's characteristic harshness did not leave her even in her dying hour. According to her housekeeper, before her death, Joan said: “Don’t you dare ask God to help me.”

Buddy Rich

But Buddy Rich managed to joke before his death. He died in 1987 after surgery, and his last words were in response to a nurse asking if he was allergic to anything. The musician replied that it was country music.

Pancho Villa

The rebel, one of the leaders of the Mexican Revolution, clearly wanted to say something epic before his death. Why else would he tell reporters, while dying from a bullet, to say he "said something"?

Arthur Conan Doyle

Chekhov was right when he spoke about brevity. Arthur Conan Doyle uttered only two words, but they were so memorable. They were addressed to his wife and sounded like "You are beautiful."

George Harrison

Real wisdom was spoken by George Harrison before his death. His words were: "Love one another."

James French

The dying remarks of executed criminals are always recorded, although they rarely deserve attention. James French is an exception. This murderer was executed in the electric chair. His words became the headline for many subsequent articles: "French fries!" (“french fries”, but literally “toasted French”).

V.S. Fields

Before his death, the comedian, like the author of Sherlock Holmes, turned to his beloved. But his statement is much more interesting: “Damn the whole world and everyone in it, except you, Carlotta.”

Chico Marks

And Marx was among those who turned to their soulmate. Chico gave her peculiar instructions: to place “a deck of cards, a hockey stick and a cute blonde” in his coffin.

Groucho Marx

Marx's brother, Groucho, was witty person. Dying, he said: “This is no way to live!”

Bing Crosby

There are also those who, looking back at their lives, remember only the good things. Crosby, for example, said, “That was a great game of golf!”

Voltaire

Voltaire was not religious and did not change his beliefs even on his deathbed. When the priest asked him to renounce the devil, the philosopher said that now was “not the time to make new enemies.”

Leonardo Da Vinci

The problem with being a perfectionist is that you are never satisfied with your work, even when you are dying. So Da Vinci expressed himself self-critically: “I offended God and people, because my work is not as high quality as it should be.”

Ramo

Once a composer, always a composer. That's why Rameau's last words contained complaints about singing in his honor: "You are out of tune."

Nostradamus

The predictor was not mistaken in his dying words. When he said, “Tomorrow I won’t be here,” he turned out to be absolutely right.

Mozart

Poetic words are just in the spirit of a true creator. "The taste of death is on my lips. I feel something not from this earth."

Marie Antoinette

The famous queen of France, a great figure, an idol of many women, ended her life on the guillotine. While climbing the scaffold, Marie Antoinette stepped on her executioner's foot. That is why her dying statement: “Forgive me, monsignor” (orig. “Pardonnez-moi, monsieur”)

Jack Daniel

Jack Daniel had the perfect parting words. Creator of the popular alcoholic drink famous brand could not say otherwise than: “Pour the last one, please.”