The story of the Siamese twins Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapov: mocking experiments of Soviet science. The tragic story of Siamese twins Russian twins Dasha and Masha

In ancient times, it was believed that the birth of Siamese twins portends the end of the world. Therefore, they tried to get rid of them as soon as possible or to sacrifice them to the gods. Later, enterprising people began to earn money from them. They took the unfortunate to fairs and put on freak shows. In this compilation, we have collected the most famous and unusual Siamese twins in history.

Siamese twins Chang and Eng were born in 1811 in Siam (now Thailand). Since then, people who have grown together in the womb have been called "Siamese". When the king of Siam was informed about the birth of so many unusual twins, connected to each other at chest level with a strip of fabric, he ordered to kill this "spawn of the devil", as he considered them "harbingers of misfortune." But the mother did not give her sons to perish. She rubbed their skin with special creams to give elasticity to the tissues that connect the twins. She ensured that Eng and Chang could not only stand face to face, but also change their position more or less freely. The king later changed his mind and allowed a Scottish merchant to take them to North America.

Where later they began to work in the circus. People gladly paid to see unusual brothers. In 1829, Chang and Eng decided to leave public life, took the American surname Bunker, bought a farm in North Carolina and took up farming. Being 44 years old, they married English sisters - Sarah Ann and Adelaide Yates. The brothers bought two houses and stayed with each sister for a week, living with one or the other. Chang had ten children, Eng had nine. All children were normal. The brothers died at the age of 63.

2. Zita and Gita Rezakhanov

Sisters Zita and Gita Rezakhanov Siamese twins were born on October 19, 1991 in Kyrgyzstan in the village of Zapadnoye. Their story became widely known in a number of Russian media after a successful operation to separate the sisters was performed in 2003 in Moscow at the Filatov Central Children's Clinical Hospital. Its peculiarity was that the Rezakhanovs were ischiopagi, just like the Krivoshlyapov sisters. This is a rather rare variety of Siamese twins - about 6% of their total number. They had three legs for two and a common pelvis that needed to be divided. The missing leg was replaced with a prosthesis. The girls spent 3 years in Moscow. Zita is currently experiencing serious health problems. Since 2012, she has been in the hospital under the constant supervision of doctors. The girl spent thirteen months in various clinics in Moscow, and has now returned to her homeland and is in a hospital in Bishkek. Zita is already completely blind in one eye, she sees very poorly in the other eye, while Gita's health condition is stable.

3. Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapov

They were born on January 4, 1950 in Moscow. When the sisters were born, the nurse of the obstetric team fainted. The girls had two heads, one body, three legs, inside they had 2 hearts and three lungs. Their mother was informed that her children were stillborn. But the compassionate nurse decided to restore justice and showed the woman her children. Her mother lost her mind, she was placed in a psychiatric clinic. The next time the sisters saw her when they were 35 years old. The father of the Siamese twins, Mikhail Krivoshlyapov, who at the time of the birth of his daughters was Beria's personal driver, under pressure from the medical leadership, signed the death certificate of his daughters and disappeared from their lives forever. Even the patronymic of the girls was given someone else's - Ivanovna. Apart from each other, the sisters had no one left.

For 7 years, the physiologist Pyotr Anokhin studied them at the Institute of Pediatrics of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. Then they were placed in the Central Research Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics. There, the girls were taught to move around with crutches and given primary education. For 20 years, the sisters were "guinea pigs" for researchers. They were only worn for newspaper photos. In total, the twins lived in Soviet institutions for the disabled for about 40 years, only in 1989 they moved to their own house in Moscow. Toward the end of their life path, the disease of alcoholism began to affect their health more and more. So, Maria and Daria suffered from cirrhosis of the liver and pulmonary edema. After years of fighting against alcohol addiction, Maria went into cardiac arrest around midnight on April 13, 2003. In the morning, because of the living sister's complaints about her well-being, the "sleeping" Maria and Daria were hospitalized, then the cause of Maria's death was revealed - "acute heart attack". But for Darya, she remained fast asleep. Since the Krivoshlyapov sisters had a common circulatory system, 17 hours after Maria's death, as a result of intoxication, Daria also died.

4. Bijani Sisters

Ladan and Lale Bijani were born on January 17, 1974 in Iran. This pair of Siamese twins had fused heads. The sisters were constantly arguing. For example, about a career - Ladan wanted to be a lawyer, and Laleh wanted to be a journalist. But, one way or another, they were forced to look for compromises. The Siamese twins studied law at the University of Tehran and became lawyers. And more than anything, they wanted to separate. And in November 2002, after meeting with the Singaporean neurosurgeon Dr. Keith Goh, who managed to successfully separate the sisters Ganga and Yamuna Shrestha from Nepal, who had grown together heads, the Bijani sisters come to Singapore. Although the doctors warned them that the operation would be associated with a high risk, they still decided to operate. Their decision caused discussions in the world press.

After seven months of extensive psychiatric examinations, they were operated on July 6, 2003 at Raffles Hospital by a large international team of 28 surgeons and over a hundred support staff. They all worked in shifts. A special chair was constructed as the sisters had to be in a sitting position. The risk was great, since their brains not only had a common vein, but also fused together. The operation ended on July 8, 2003. It was announced that the sisters were in a critical condition, both having lost a large amount of blood due to complications that arose during the operation. Ladan died at 2:30 pm on the operating table, her sister Laleh died at 4:00 pm.

5. Sisters Hensel

Abigail and Brittany Hensel were born on March 7, 1990 in New Germany, Minnesota, USA. The Hensel sisters are conjoined twins who, physically remaining one, live a completely normal full life. They are dicephalic twins with one torso, two arms, two legs and three lungs. Each has its own heart and stomach, but the blood supply between them is common. The two spinal cords end in one pelvis, and they have all the organs below the waist in common. Such twins are very rare. Only four pairs of surviving dicephalic twins have been recorded in the scientific archives. Each sister controls the arm and leg on her side, and each feels touched only on her side of the body. But they coordinate their movements so well that they can walk, run, ride a bike, drive a car and swim. They learned to sing and play the piano, with Abby playing right-handed and her sister left-handed.

6 The Hilton Sisters

Daisy and Violetta were born on February 5, 1908 in the English city of Brighton. The mother of the Siamese twins, Kate Skinner, was an unmarried barmaid. The sisters were fused in the hips and buttocks, and also had a common blood circulation and a fused pelvis. However, each had its own vital organs. Mary Hilton, their mother's boss, who assisted in childbirth, apparently saw in the girls the prospect of commercial gain. And so I actually bought them from my mother and took them under my wing. From the age of three, the Hilton sisters toured throughout Europe, and then in America. Their guardians took all the money that the sisters earned. At first it was Mary Hilton, and after her death, her daughter Edith and her husband Mayer Myers continued the business. It wasn't until 1931 that their lawyer Martin J. Arnold helped the sisters free themselves from the Meyers' grip: in January 1931, they finally received their freedom and $100,000 in compensation.

After that, the sisters left street shows and began to participate in vaudeville under the name "The Hilton Sisters' Revue". And so that they could be distinguished from each other, Daisy dyed her hair blond. And besides, both began to dress differently. Both had numerous novels, but they all ended in very short marriages. In 1932, the film Freaks was released, in which the twins play themselves. And in 1951, they starred in Chained for Life, their own biopic. On January 4, 1969, after they didn't show up for work or answer the phone, their boss called the police. The twins were found dead in their home, victims of the Hong Kong flu. According to the forensic examination, Daisy died first, Violetta died two or four days later.

7. Blazek sisters

Siamese twins Rose and Joseph Blazek were born in 1878 in Bohemia. The girls were fused in the pelvis, each had lungs and a heart, but only one common stomach. When they were born, the parents turned to a local sorceress to give them advice on what to do with such unusual children. The sorceress advised to leave them without food and drink for 8 days, which was done by the parents. However, the forced hunger strike did not kill the girls, and they strangely survived. Then the sorceress said that the little ones did not appear in the light in order to fulfill a certain mission. Namely: provide your family with money. Already at the age of 1 year they were shown at local fairs. The sisters took everything they could from life. The girls became famous for their virtuoso playing the violin and harp and the ability to dance - each with her partner.

Their life together was overshadowed only once. The reason was the romantic relationship of 28-year-old Rosa with a German officer named Franz Dvorak. However, Rosa, like most women, chose to temporarily give up friendship for the sake of her lover - after all, they shared genitals with her sister - and gave birth to an absolutely healthy son, Franz. Rosa dreamed of marrying her lover, but she succeeded only after a long trial, but even after that, until the end of his life, her husband was accused of bigamy. He died in 1917 at the front while serving in the Austrian army. Josephine was also engaged to a young man, but her chosen one died of appendicitis shortly before the wedding. In 1922, while on tour in Chicago, Josepha fell ill with jaundice. The doctors offered the sisters a separation operation to save at least Rosa's life. But she refused and said: "If Josepha dies, I also want to die." Instead, Rosa ate for two to support her sister's strength, and seeing that Josepha was doomed, she wished to die with her. And so it happened: Rosa survived her by only 15 minutes.

8. Brothers Gelion

Ronnie and Donnie Galion - by far the oldest living Siamese twins - were born in 1951 in Dayton, Ohio. And they remained in the hospital for another two years, as the doctors tried to find a way to separate them. But a safe way was never found and the parents decided to leave everything as it is. From the age of four, the Siamese twins began to bring money to the family, which they received for their performances in the circus. When the children tried to go to school, the teachers kicked them out because they were too distracting for the other students. And the twins went to Central and South America, where they performed tricks in circuses and entertained people.

At the age of 39, they ended their career in the arena and came back to the USA closer to their younger brother Jim. In 2010, due to a viral infection, their health deteriorated. Blood clots formed in the lungs and Jim suggested that they move to live with him. But his house was not suitable for the disabled. But the neighbors helped, who equipped the house with everything necessary for a comfortable life for the twins. This made life much easier for Ronnie and Donnie, so much so that their health improved. In addition, Jim and his wife really enjoy being with their brothers. They fish together, go to the fair and to restaurants. Of course, many people pay attention to them and laugh at them, but there are also those who pay their restaurant bills and say kind words to them.

9 The Hogan Sisters

Krista and Tatiana Hogan were born in 2006 in Vancouver, Canada. They were healthy, had a normal weight and the only thing that distinguished them from other pairs of twins was their fused heads. In the course of numerous examinations, it turned out that the girls have a mixed nervous system and, despite different pairs of eyes, common vision. So, one of the sisters perceives information that she is not able to see, “using” at the same time the eyes of the other. This suggested that the brains of the Hogan sisters were also interconnected.

The family signed a contract with National Geographic and the Discovery Channel to shoot a documentary. The mother and grandmother of the Siamese twins have already seen some scenes from the film and were pleasantly surprised by the "respectful, scientific approach" that the director took. That is why the family refused to participate in the popular reality show. They do not need fame, and a documentary about their life can help other Siamese twins.

10. Sahu Brothers

Siamese twins Shivanath and Shivram Sahu have caused quite a stir in India. Some villagers, which is located near the city of Raipur, even began to worship them, mistaking them for the incarnation of the Buddha. When doctors advised that the 12-year-old brothers, who were born joined at the waist, could be separated, the family refused, saying they wanted to leave things as they were. The brothers have two legs and four arms. They can bathe, dress and eat themselves. Twins share the same stomach but have independent lungs and hearts.

Thanks to training, Shivanath and Shivram learned to spend on all the basic daily procedures - shower, food, toilet - with a minimum of effort. They are able to climb down the stairs of their house and even play with the neighborhood children. They especially love cricket. They are also good students and, to the pride of their caring father, Raja Kumar, are considered among the best students in their school. He is very protective of his sons and says that he will not allow them to leave their native village. By the way, the brothers have five more sisters.

In the Soviet Union, Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapovs became celebrities, almost everyone knew the story of sisters who became a mistake of nature.

Their mother, Ekaterina Krivoshlyapova, dreamed of a child from her husband for a long time, and when she found out that she was very happy. The woman did not even realize that the child that grows inside her could develop incorrectly. The birth was very difficult, and in order not to torment the expectant mother, it was decided to perform a caesarean section.

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When the midwife saw the twins during the operation, she fainted. It was decided to tell the mother that the girls were born dead, but Catherine did not believe it, as she clearly heard the children screaming.

The nurse, taking pity on the poor mother, took her to the ward where her babies lay. After what she saw, Ekaterina lay in a mental hospital for several years. The father recognized the girls and helped financially, begging the doctors to do everything possible for the girls to survive.

mature years

A few years after the birth, Masha and Dasha were at the Institute of Pediatrics, where they were observed by doctors. The Siamese twins remembered this time with horror, as they became “guinea pigs” for doctors who performed a lot of inhuman experiments on the unfortunate.

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At the age of three, the crumbs were put on ice to find out if they both got sick or not. They observed whether they were equally affected by pain shock, pierced the body of one girl with a needle to find out if the other would feel the pain. In addition, Masha and Dasha were not allowed to sleep; for the purposes of medical research, they could not be fed for a long time.

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The doctors managed to establish that the Krivoshlyapovs have a common circulatory system. The sisters felt the pain in different ways, because each of them had their own nervous system. It was very difficult for the girls to walk, as they had three legs between them. The decision was made to remove the third one when Masha and Dasha were 15 years old. Until the end of her life, the sisters walked on crutches.

After meeting her mother at the age of 35, Dasha began to drink heavily. Since the circulatory system was common, alcohol also affected Masha, who also smoked heavily in adulthood.

Death

Despite the mocking attitude, the Krivoshlyapov sisters managed to live a long life, thanks to which they got into the Guinness Book of Records. Masha was the first to die at the age of 53 due to heart problems. Dasha could survive, she was offered an operation, but she refused. A woman died 17 hours after the death of her sister due to the entry of ptomaine into the blood. The Krivoshlyapovs did not have a grave, they were cremated.

Two souls leaving one body

Siamese twins Masha and Dasha were waiting for death as a deliverance from the cruelty of "normal" people

Last Monday, Siamese twins Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapovs died at the 1st City Hospital at the age of 54. The cause of death was an acute coronary infarction in one of the sisters. Another survived her by only 17 hours.

Masha and Dasha thought about death all their lives. Several times they tried to commit suicide. Once they almost jumped out of the window of the 11th floor, repeatedly poisoned themselves with pills, cut their veins and constantly prayed to God for death.

The last time we met with the Krivoshlyapovs was on the eve of their 50th birthday. When asked where they would like to celebrate the anniversary, the sisters unanimously sighed doomedly: "In the other world ..."

Some facts from the life of the Krivoshlyapovs were not included in the material at that time. Today we publish the details of that meeting.

"They won't last long"

There is nothing surprising in the fact that Masha had a heart attack, this was to be expected, - reacted to the information about the hospitalization of the Siamese twins Krivoshlyapovs, narcologist Sergey Fedorchenko, who coded the sisters a few years ago. - Five years ago, they already had a hard drinking heavily planted liver. Before coding Masha and Dasha, we consulted for a long time with doctors who had been observing them for many years. In addition to cirrhosis of the liver, the sisters were diagnosed with pulmonary edema, the heart was heavily planted, and in general their entire body was already poisoned then.

At the end of 1999, the Krivoshlyapov sisters began to complain more about their health. After another medical examination, the doctors issued a verdict: "If you do not stop using, you will have to live no more than two years ..."

They drank terribly. All attempts to get rid of alcohol addiction were reduced to zero. In addition, they have a rather complex character, and it was not so easy to gain their trust, - says Sergey Fedorchenko, head physician of the Perm Narcological Center. - We hunted them for two months and finally persuaded them. Finally, they drank a bottle of champagne, and we coded them.

The twins were coded using the Dovzhenko method in two hands, synchronously, for a period of a year. However, four months later, the Krivoshlyapovs again turned to Sergei Anatolyevich.

Decode us, please, an American writer is writing a book about us, and we cannot communicate freely without alcohol, they begged the doctors.

Fedorchenko arrived in Moscow a few days later.

We literally begged them on our knees: "Girls, change your mind! Start drinking - you are not tenants!" They flatly refused to listen to us.

Doctors were afraid that the sisters themselves might break. And a week later they were decoded.

After that, the sisters began to drink with renewed vigor.

Despite the fact that only one of them drank particularly hard, alcohol reached the other in a matter of minutes through the general circulatory system, says Fedorchenko. - Therefore, it is not surprising that both of them have poisoned the body, the liver has become, like pulp, friable. It is strange that Masha died first. It turns out that Dasha drove her sister to the grave with her drunkenness. She herself died after 17 hours, when, again, through the general circulatory system, cadaveric poison reached her.

In general, throughout their lives, the Krivoshlyapov sisters rarely went to doctors. They weren't just afraid of them, they hated them. At the sight of people in white coats, they recalled the time when, without their consent, at the Central Research Institute of Prosthetics and Prosthetics of the Ministry of Social Security of the RSFSR, their third leg was amputated, which was a counterweight for the sisters. Since then, they have not been able to move independently.

After our leg was taken away, we could not recover for a long time. It's like an ordinary person loses a leg. Most of all, we were afraid that everyone would laugh at us. We are already very shy, we have a complex because of our appearance. And when they were left without a leg, they were generally afraid to appear in front of people for about six months.

At the Institute of Pediatrics of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR, where they spent seven years, experiments were carried out on them weekly. The sisters often recalled how they, as very young children, were put in ice for a long time, after which one of the girls fell ill with pneumonia, the temperature reached forty. Then they barely got out.

We are surprised - did the doctors really not understand that if we get sick, we will have to be treated much longer than normal people? they said. - For example, filling one tooth takes a whole hour. Recently, we again suffered pneumonia, so one immediately recovered, while the other could not recover for two whole weeks. Also, if one picks up any infection, the second is transmitted immediately. This is how we have been treated for 50 years.

In 1958, American scientists wanted to transport girls to the United States and promised to give them work and education. But Russian doctors defended their offspring ...

The sisters cursed their family

For the first time, the girls tried alcohol at the Research Institute, where experiments were carried out on them.

We were 12 at the time. Together with us, Ida, the eldest daughter of the first secretary of Armenia Arushanyan, was undergoing treatment at the institute, they recalled during our conversation. - She was so beautiful, she always treated us with foreign sweets, she dressed well. Maybe that's why we were so drawn to her. Once she invited us to her home and gave us some kind of tincture to drink. We were so carried away then, we could hardly walk. Then she began to invite us to her house more often, poured alcohol again and laughed at us. Then we were transferred to the Novocherkessk boarding school for disabled children. Everyone was already drinking. We were afraid to be white crows, so we had to drink on an equal footing with everyone else. We were only 14 at the time...

They spent four years in the Novocherkessk boarding school for children with diseases of the musculoskeletal system.

It was the most terrible test for us, - the Krivoshlyapovs recalled. - It was there that the thought of suicide visited us for the first time in our lives. The local guys didn't like us. We were boycotted, the boys beat us, how many ridicule, humiliation, insults we endured! For a bottle of vodka, the boys from the class showed us to the village children. It used to be that classmates would pour water into the bed and shout: "Look, the freaks have peed!" And we will lay down the oilcloth and keep silent. Once a huge dog was set on us. After this incident, we began to stutter a lot.

In 1970, the sisters fled from Novocherkessk to Moscow. On the way, we lost our metric, registration, and passport. They tried to get a job in the Moscow 31st boarding school for the disabled and the elderly. They didn't take it. "Who knows, what if they die tomorrow? And should I answer?" - the director of the boarding school was worried. A month later, they were sheltered in a boarding school for the elderly No. 6.

In the fall of 1993, German journalists invited the Krivoshlyapovs to Germany. After returning, they again began to think about suicide. Because they felt flawed and lonely in the capital.

We were already standing on the windowsill of the 11th floor. But suddenly Masha changed her mind, began to resist and pushed me back into the room. Now I really regret that we didn’t jump then ... We couldn’t agree, - Dasha sighed.

Abroad, we felt like people. We walked quietly down the street. No one stopped, no one pointed a finger. And in Moscow you even ride in a wheelchair, the crowd is already gathering, they are throwing money, asking you to walk or even dance. Once, a man offered us a hundred dollars for a dance of little swans performed by us. This is how we often make money. You won't last long on our pension...

In general, the Krivoshlyapovs considered heredity to be the cause of their drunkenness.

Mother said that grandfather drank heavily, father gave in, and the brothers also loved this business, the sisters said.

By an absurd accident, even the birth of their mother, Ekaterina Alekseevna Krivoshlyapova, was taken by doctors who were drunk.

At that time, our maternity hospital was far from the best, the medical staff often gave in, ”said Inna Chernyakova, a former employee of maternity hospital No. 6. - The doctor who took delivery from Krivoshlyapova took a little on his chest before. And when instead of an ordinary child they got some strange creature, the doctor lost consciousness. I woke up sober. "Lord, delirium tremens has begun, no more, no more before work ..." - he was baptized.

Ekaterina Alekseevna was first told that her children died a few hours after birth. The mother did not believe - then the doctors had to show the Siamese twins. After what she saw, Ekaterina Krivoshlyapova spent six months in a psychiatric clinic. Two years later, she became pregnant again. And even after many years, this woman did not tell anyone about her first birth. By the way, Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapov were given a false middle name - Ivanovna. Their father Mikhail was afraid of publicity, hype at work, because at that time he was Beria's personal chauffeur. However, every month he transferred to the scientific institute where his children were, a decent amount for the treatment of twins. In 1980, Mikhail Krivoshlyapov died of brain cancer. Ekaterina Alekseevna died in February 1998. They were buried at the Khimki cemetery. Masha and Dasha often planned to visit their parents' graves, but they never made it.

We only saw my mother once. We found her address with the help of the passport office: we were lucky that she kept her husband's surname, and did not change it to her maiden one - Tarasova. When we came to her house, she began to scream, drive us away with the words: "Where were you before? Why did you remember your mother so late?" And we were just embarrassed to come to her, we didn’t want to be a burden for her. And our two brothers - Sergey and Anatoly - didn’t even want to talk to us, - Masha recalled.

Both brothers never recognized Masha and Dasha as their own sisters. They were ashamed of such a relationship, so in their entire lives they never visited the sisters and did not even call them. Many years after that meeting, the Krivoshlyapov sisters cursed their family.

They found some book of spells and one night, in complete darkness, with one candle, they read a prayer for several hours, - the roommate recalled. - The next day I saw a homemade cotton doll studded with needles. They say that this is how they send a curse ...

Yesterday we contacted Anatoly, the brother of the deceased sisters.

Mother never told us about her first birth. She said that she had twins and both girls died. I doubt she even knew about the birth of Siamese twins. But when they came to us for the first time, my mother nearly fainted. After this meeting, she began to have health problems. Noises in the heart appeared ... This disease later brought her to the grave. By the way, after their arrival, our whole life turned into a continuous hell. Brother Sergei is now generally drunk, he even speaks with difficulty. To be honest, I haven't seen him in a very long time. Maybe he has already died ... Recently, grief has befallen our family. My wife has been dying for several days now. Therefore, I am not up to Masha and Dasha now. I never considered them my family. Dead, you say? It doesn't bother me at all now.

"We warned Dasha - stop drinking!"

For most of their lives, the Krivoshlyapov sisters lived in a boarding house for the elderly No. 6. There they were given a small separate room, which served them as a bedroom, dining room and living room. An icon of the Mother of God hung on the wall, next to it was a huge portrait of Igor Talkov. There is a dressing table near the balcony. True, the mirror was practically all smeared with white paint. The huge layer of dust seemed to have not been wiped off for years.

Why do we need a mirror? We look at it only a few times a year, when we are photographed and on our birthday, the sisters said.

It seemed strange to me that these women did not use cosmetics at all, they never perfumed themselves, they even managed to comb their hair without a comb. Two pairs of tracksuits, one men's trousers, three old sweaters and formal red shirts - that's all the outfits of the Siamese twins.

We arrived at the boarding house the day after the death of the Krivoshlyapovs. Not everyone knew about their deaths. However, no one was surprised by this outcome.

We warned Dasha - the one who drinks: quit this business - you yourself will die and you will kill your sister, - an elderly resident of the boarding house shares with us. She didn't listen to us. Lately the girls have given up. They drank almost every day. And they bought the cheapest vodka. When there was not enough money, some peasant came to them, brought technical alcohol. So they diluted him with water and persuaded a liter in an evening.

Surprisingly, only Dasha took over the bad heredity. But Masha smoked two packs of strong "Belomor" a day.

At first I scolded Dasha, yelled at her, sometimes I even beat her when she was drinking, but all in vain, - Masha complained somehow. “I knew she needed it. She is a weak person, it was hard for her to survive among the cruel people who surrounded us.

I understand that drinking is harmful, but I can’t part with it, ”Dasha justified herself. - I don't want to. It's all about loneliness...

Every month, the Krivoshlyapov sisters regularly visited the Alcoholics Anonymous club. However, classes with psychologists did not help them either.

Until now, the residents of the boarding house remember the drunken antics of the twins.

Krivoshlyapovs became aggressive, angry, they could start a fight, - says grandfather Vitaly, an old-timer of the boarding house. - I remember once they were driving in their wheelchair, and then one of the men joked unsuccessfully: "Well, girls, maybe we'll somersault in a bunk?" So they attacked him, almost beat the peasant to death with crutches. He barely took his legs. In general, they were disliked here. After all, you won’t hear a kind word from them, they cursed all day long.

Throughout their lives, the Krivoshlyapov sisters dreamed of having children. Even the father was looked after for their future baby.

Only Nikolai Valentinovich lives here, a quiet, calm, very kind man, - says the cleaner of the boarding school. - He often helped them with the housework - either he would set up the TV, then he would beat the shelf. The whole boarding house knew that they themselves proposed to him, they really wanted to marry him. And as for the children, the doctors immediately told them that this was out of the question.

Masha died at about 5 o'clock in the morning. Dasha never found out about her sister's death. Doctors reassured her with the words that she had just fallen asleep.

When we talked with the Krivoshlyapovs, they said that they could read each other’s thoughts, that they didn’t need to retell their dreams - they have the same dreams, they don’t have to dine together - one will have a snack, and the other feels full, they are equally in pain. And they assured me that if one of them dies, the other will immediately understand this: "We are so unusual, we cannot hide anything from each other, especially death."

The sisters made a mistake, or maybe Dasha understood everything, but did not want to share her last human grief with outsiders?

P.S. The Krivoshlyapov sisters closely followed the fate of other Siamese twins - Zita and Gita. For more than a year, Kyrgyz girls were being prepared for the most difficult separation operation. At first, the twins were going to be operated on in Germany, but after careful examinations, the Germans considered such an operation too dangerous and unpromising. The opinion of the doctors there was unequivocal: "in the process of separation, one of the sisters will surely die."

As a result, Russian doctors took this risky step. The most difficult operation, which was carried out in the Filatov hospital at the end of March by a specially assembled team of doctors, ended in complete success.

“Thank God that at least these girls will not have to suffer all their lives, like us,” the Krivoshlyapovs said with a sigh of relief and at the same time some envy, having learned about the successful outcome of the operation.

Many years ago, doctors thought to operate on the Krivoshlyapovs as well. However, with a common circulatory system, it was impossible to separate the sisters. They had to live and die together. On Wednesday, the bodies of Dasha and Masha are cremated in the crematorium of the Nikolo-Arkhangelsk cemetery.

The names of Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapovs were known, perhaps, to every citizen of the Soviet Union. What can we say, even other countries showed interest in the sisters and even wanted to “buy them out”.

Birth

The young seamstress Ekaterina Krivoshlyapova did not realize until the last moment that her babies were developing incorrectly in her womb. In 1950, doctors decided to have a caesarean section, as the young woman's birth was very delayed, which could have a bad effect on the health of the fetus. What they saw shocked the entire staff. The team of gynecologists lied to the newly minted mother that the girls were born dead, but Ekaterina insisted on showing her the children.

The midwife took the mother to the incubator and showed the state in which the twins were born. Masha and Dasha (as the girls were later called) grew together at the hips, they have one leg in common. That is, the torsos of the girls were completely separate, but there were only three lower limbs for two.

Ekaterina Krivoshlyapova spent the next two years in a psychiatric hospital, and the father of the children begged the doctors to save Masha and Dasha's life, helped with money.

mature years

The girls were not taken home from the maternity ward, they were left under the supervision of the Institute of Pediatrics. Already adult women recalled the years spent there with a shudder. What kind of experiments were not carried out on them! They put them on ice, gave them electric shocks, tried to burn them, did not let them sleep for a long time and starved them. One of the girls had a needle pierced in her body to see if the other felt pain.

The results obtained showed that the sisters have a common circulatory system, but each has its own nervous system. The girls never learned to walk on their own, they moved with the help of crutches, the third leg only interfered with them and attracted attention, so by the age of 15 it was amputated.

Masha and Dasha had a different character. Dasha was softer and calmer, fell under the influence of Masha, who, on the contrary, tried to lead in everything, was more restless and rude. Towards the end of their lives, the twins became addicted to alcohol, especially Dasha, and Masha smoked a lot. According to eyewitnesses of that time, the woman smoked almost a full pack of Belomor a day.

Once the sisters tried to code, but a foreign journalist wanted to interview them, where she asked the twins about their lives. Negative memories forced the Krivoshlyapovs to call the doctor and ask him to decode them.

Death

As for Siamese twins, these women lived a long enough life, so the case was included in the Guinness Book of Records. The sisters died in 2003, they were a full 53 years old.

Masha died of a heart attack. Dasha was offered to save her life - this required an operation, but the woman refused. She died seventeen hours later.

The grave of the Krivoshlyapov sisters cannot be found in the cemetery - it simply does not exist. The women were cremated, but the exact location of the urn is kept secret.

Birth

Ekaterina Krivoshlyapova spent the next two years in a psychiatric hospital, and the father of the children begged the doctors to save Masha and Dasha's life, helped with money.

mature years

Death

As for Siamese twins, these women lived a long enough life, so the case was included in the Guinness Book of Records. The sisters died in 2003, they were a full 53 years old.