Bright life and tragic death of the four-time world champion. Inga Artamonova

NOT CLINKING

On January 4, 1966, in the center of Moscow, on Petrovka, in the apartment of her mother, the four-time absolute world champion in speed skating, the favorite of Soviet fans, Inga Artamonova, was killed. The mortal stab in the heart was inflicted by Inga's husband Gennady Voronin, blinded by jealousy, as was said in the investigative documents.

In August of the same year, she was supposed to turn 30 years old.

KNIFE IN THE HEART

The tragedy that shocked the whole country (Artamonova's popularity was incredible) occurred in front of Inga's mother, her younger brother Vladimir, teenage sister Galina and seriously ill grandmother Evdokia Fedotovna, who died 40 days after the death of her granddaughter.

Endless quarrels, scandals that began between Inga and Gennady almost from the first month of their family life should have eventually led to divorce. Inga was going to do this more than once, but at the last moment she did not dare, believing that the divorce would be a dark stain on her reputation as a famous person in the country. She even tried to hide from us that her husband, who too often took a glass of wine, allowed himself to beat her. Inga, as I later found out, was often seen by colleagues with bruises on her face.

But by the end of 1965, her patience still snapped, and shortly before the New Year, she turned to the MGU "Dynamo" with a request to help quickly exchange their living space. In this regard, the chairman of the council, Stepanenko, even wrote a note to Voronin: “Gena! I ask you to come on 4/01-66 by 9.00!”

And he really came, but not to Dynamo, but to his mother-in-law. He drank beforehand, as he later told the investigator in writing, a 0.7-liter bottle of "Russian Wine" and "got very drunk because I didn't have a bite to eat..."

He was looking for Inga, who had left home the day before. new year holidays, since they seemed to have agreed on a divorce and even drank champagne on this occasion.

“Well, what do you want? Speak! She greeted him as she got up from the couch. I was sitting behind Voronin's back and suddenly saw how he, deviating slightly to the left, sharply threw forward right hand(the knife, I am sure, was prepared in advance and hidden in the right sleeve of the jacket). And in the next second, Inga’s cry cut through the ears: “Oh, mother, heart! ..”

TWO LAST BREATHS

From the testimony of Anna Mikhailovna Artamonova, Inga's mother:

“Gennady surprisingly calmly entered the apartment, surprisingly calmly behaved and did not allow a single insult to anyone, not a single reproach against Inga ... It was hard to expect that he would kill her ... He calmly stood in front of her, I only heard , as before Inga shouted: “Oh, mother, heart!” - Gennady said gently and quietly: “My dear, dear! ..”

Vladimir Artamonov says:

Until now, I cannot forgive myself for the fact that, being nearby, I could not prevent the tragedy, even despite such a “mitigating” circumstance as a stitch on my stomach that did not heal after the operation. Everything happened so quickly and unexpectedly that no one even had time to blink an eye.

In a fever, apparently not yet experiencing a painful shock, Inga pulled the blade out of her chest (the cracked wooden handle, as it turned out later, remained in the killer's hand) and rushed to the door. Mom - after her, I, after I could not keep Voronin, - into the yard, to the telephone, call the police.

Two frightened women went down to the apartment below us, where the doctors lived, and while Inga was being given first aid there, my mother called an ambulance. When she arrived, the sister was already unconscious, but still alive. Blood pressure was close to zero, the pulse was not audible. They connected artificial respiration, tried to do a heart massage, but, alas: with an interval of two minutes, she took two breaths, and that’s all ...

And Voronin was taken an hour later at the entrance of the house where he lived with Inga.

RUN FOR GLORY

During her generally short sports career, Inga Artamonova won four laurel wreaths of the absolute world champion. No one has been able to do this in speed skating either before or after her and is unlikely to succeed in the foreseeable future. This achievement is even more amazing when you find out that Inga was diagnosed with tuberculosis as a child, and already during active skating she developed an ulcer that constantly reminded herself of herself, breaking plans and knocking her out of the training schedule.

Here are two entries in the diary that Vladimir Artamonov showed me, which are very characteristic of understanding the character of Inga: “November 17, 1963. Yesterday I left the hospital. My legs hurt a lot from lying down for a long time. I just can't believe that I'm free. Very good to be a healthy person”, “From December 13 to December 30, 1963 for 11 ice trainings - 486 laps - 194.5 km. Of these, "quick work" - 85 circles - 35.5 km.

She did not immediately get into speed skating. From the age of twelve she was very actively engaged in rowing, became the national champion among girls, fulfilled the norm of a master of sports, applied for a place in the eight of the USSR national team, and then ... changed her specialization of her own free will. Inspired by skating, she took fourth place in the 1000 meters and second in the 5000 meters in her first official start (and this was the championship of the MGS Dynamo), and from this success began her rapid run along the ice track for world fame. The absolute champion of the country celebrated her debut at the 1957 World Championships in Finland with a brilliant victory, and a year later in Sweden she repeated this success.

Vladimir Artamonov says:

We were especially pleased with Inga's successes in 1962. Before that, she had a streak of failures associated with an inexpressive performance on high-mountain skating rinks: big problems with the lungs affected her in the past. And indeed, it runs perfectly below, and when it climbs into the mountains, it becomes unrecognizable. There was no habitual energy in the movements, she was suffocating. Someone hastened to put a label on her: they say, Inga cannot run in the highlands. And in 1962, when it seemed impossible to dispel this notorious myth, she did something that was generally difficult to fit in the mind. At the USSR Championship, held at the Medeo high-mountain skating rink, Inga set four (!) World records, exceeding the previous total in the all-around by more than ten points.

CONTRACT MURDER OR FANTASTIC VERSION?

Domestic crime motivated by jealousy - so it was classified law enforcement the murder of a famous sportswoman, committed on January 4, 1966 at about 1 pm. The sentence handed down to the murderer read: “Voronin, being drunk, out of jealousy and revenge for refusing to continue his married life with him, committed the deliberate murder of his wife Voronina Inga, inflicting a stab wound on her, which turned out to be fatal, in the region of the heart ... On the basis of of the foregoing, the Judicial Collegium for Criminal Cases of the Moscow City Court sentenced: Gennady Andreevich Voronin found guilty under Art. 103 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR and punish him under this law in the form of 10 years in prison with the first five years of imprisonment and the next five years in a correctional labor colony with a high security regime.

But many years later, Vladimir Ivanovich Artamonov, who voluntarily assumed the duties of the biographer of his famous sister, put forward his own version of the murder of Inga, calling it contract, and Voronin only the executor of the "social order". “But wasn’t everything orchestrated in advance? - he asks himself first of all and puts forward arguments in favor of this assumption: - There have always been enough professionals of this kind in Russia. Someone, perhaps, was even proud of the "developments" presented to the management, and received a "prize". Agree, the hint is too transparent not to understand what kind of professionals he has in mind.

However, strange as it may seem, the version, fantastic at first glance, ceases to seem so when you begin to compare the facts, analyze the events that preceded the murder and happened after it. At the same time, all this would have lost all meaning if not to tell about one story that, according to Vladimir Artamonov, cost his sister his life.

STORY OF ONE LOVE

At the 1958 World Championships in the Swedish city of Kristinehamn, where Inga won her second title of the absolute world champion, she, perhaps for the first time in her life ... I wanted to write “fell in love”, but, probably, it would be more correct to say, “seriously carried away by a man ". Her chosen one was an employee of the organizing committee of the championship, a Swede named Bengt. Or maybe it was he, as they said, a successful businessman and the son of a millionaire, who saw his fate in the Russian beauty (Komsomol member and athlete), but be that as it may, an affair began between them, which lasted, by a lucky chance for both, in the city Burlenge, where Bengt lived, and the USSR national team participated (after the championship) in demonstration performances.

In one of last nights before returning to Moscow, when the team went to the cinema in an organized manner, Inga was missing. She appeared at the hotel only in the morning, explaining her absence by the fact that ... she rode with Bengt in a car.

For those who lived in Soviet times (not to mention the 50s), it is not difficult to imagine what awaited Inga after this misconduct at home. If not for worldwide fame, fantastic popularity in the country and the title of two-time world champion, she would not see more foreign countries as her ears. Nevertheless, for some time, Artamonova was still banned from traveling abroad (which is why, as many now say, she did not get to the White Olympics-60), their monthly salary was reduced from 3,000 rubles to 800, but all these were “seeds” for compared to the serious problems that Inga had with the KGB, who strongly recommended that she stop all relations with Bengt ...

There is a beautiful legend that allegedly once one of the friends of Inga Artamonova's mother saw a tall, interesting foreigner at the grave of her daughter, who wept bitterly, not embarrassed by those around her. If Bengt really came to Vagankovo, then this was their second meeting after a night car ride along Burleng, since it is known for certain that in 1958 Inga heeded the advice of the employees of the State Security Committee and a year later she married her teammate - the world champion at a distance of 500 meters Gennady Voronin.

TWO UNDER ONE "ROOF"

So was Voronin, as Vladimir Artamonov suggests, a man with a “triple bottom”, who, according to the fine calculation of state security workers, so cruelly avenged his wife for her decision to leave him and thereby deprive her of the comfortable and parasitic life she loved? To give a concrete answer to this question is possible only if you find answers to many other questions. How, for example, did it happen that at one time Artamonova and Voronina, strangers at that time, were given a room each in ... a two-room apartment in a prestigious house built for KGB officers? The case, you see, is almost unbelievable! True, then, in his testimony in the case of the murder of Artamonova, the chairman of the Moscow city council "Dynamo" Deryugin claimed that this happened by pure chance. But there are also memories of the then head of the winter sports department and secretary of the Dynamo party organization, Kuznetsov, who believed that someone needed these young people, not burdened by families and common sports interests, to live together ...

Who then regularly threw anonymous notes into their mailbox, in which they informed Gennady about Inga's mythical adultery? Who advised Voronin, who is under investigation, to give the murder he committed a political color, putting forward the idea of treason, which his wife allegedly was going to commit? Here, for example, is an excerpt from the case file written by Gennady's hand: “By the way, I forgot to note that when Inga told me about the story of the millionaire in 1961, I told her: how did you think to stay there. Inga said that she would have stayed there and competed for Sweden, would have been a society lady, would have been to big balls. I told her: how could you compete against the USSR. She said that she didn’t give a damn about it, that she would like to live very well and not think about anything, that in the USSR they paid little money for world championships, that in the USSR you live in constraint, but there, abroad, you would live as a person ... No one would poke morality in her face. During this period, Inga told me that because of her story with a Swedish millionaire, because she directly stated this, she was summoned to the State Security Committee and talked to her ... ".

On what basis did the investigator of the Moscow prosecutor's office replace Article 102 of the Criminal Code, which was originally assigned to the murderer, which provided for punishment up to and including execution, with Article 103 (up to 10 years), and then he even wanted to bring the case under Article 104 (5 years in prison or correctional up to two years of work for a crime committed in a state of sudden emotional disturbance caused by insults)?

Why, one and a half months after the announcement of the verdict by the decision Supreme Court RSFSR Gennady canceled his stay in prison, and already in 1968 he was completely released from custody and serving a sentence (he spent the next three years in free mode, working "at construction sites National economy»)?

Why, when the KGB Directorate under the Council of Ministers of the USSR for the city of Moscow and the Moscow Region received a request on the denunciation of the then doctor of the skating team with the following content: “In 1960, our men went to the European Championships in Sweden, and Inga with one of them sent a letter to Bengt, in which she writes to him that she will come to Norway in February for the World Championships, stay there and come to him in Sweden, ”from there they answered:“ The audit established that the KGB authorities had given data on the transfer of Inga Voronina in 1960 to Soviet athletes who traveled abroad do not have letters for a Swedish citizen named Bengt and about correspondence with this citizen”?

A GLASS OF VODKA AND A TANK OF ACID

“Gennady Voronin disappeared in the Mordovian camps ... During the investigation, he spoke about grandiose frauds in the USSR Sports Committee, corruption, bribery, theft, and corruption of underage athletes. At the same time, high names were called up to the workers of the Central Committee of the Komsomol and the Central Committee of the CPSU. Sentenced to 10 years in prison, Voronin literally dissolved in one of the Potma camps six months later - by order sports mafia the criminals threw him into a tank of hydrochloric acid…”. There is as much truth in this excerpt from Friedrich Neznansky and Eduard Topol's book "Journalist for Brezhnev, or Deadly Games" as in the above-mentioned denunciation. Gennady Voronin is still alive, "dissolved" somewhere in the vastness Nizhny Novgorod region. The vice-champion of Europe in speed skating, Yuri Yumashev, who accidentally met him once, said that a little bald old man approached him with a glass: “Let's drink to all the good ...”. At that moment I thought that he was no longer a tenant, miserable, degraded ... But who did he kill! .. "

P.S

Thirty years ago, the famous Soviet film director Vladimir Chebotarev (the author of the film "Amphibian Man") made the film "The Price of Quick Seconds", which was based on the fate of Inga Artamonova. His script was rewritten several times, since the authors could not understand in any way that "in the USSR, an athlete does not kill an athlete, and even more so a husband does not kill his wife."

The role of Inga was played by the leading actress of the Vakhtangov Theater Valentina Malyavina, who was subsequently convicted (they say, unfairly) on charges of ... murdering her husband ...

VERBATIM

“I was sitting behind Voronin and suddenly saw him, leaning slightly to the left, sharply throwing his right hand forward (the knife, I'm sure, was prepared in advance and hidden in the right sleeve of his jacket). And in the next second, Inga’s cry cut through the ears: “Oh, mother, heart! ..”

Vladimir ARTAMONOV

FROM THE DOSSIER OF "SOVIET SPORT"

Artamonova Inga Grigorievna.

The best Soviet speed skater of the 60s. She was born on August 29, 1936 in Moscow. Honored Master of Sports. "Dynamo" (Moscow). World Champion 1957 (207.500 points in all-around), 1958 (208.483), 1962 (204.683), 1965 (198.583). Silver medalist at the 1963 World Championships (194.934) and 1964 (196.733). Champion of the USSR 1956, 1958, 1962 - 1964 in the all-around. Nineteen-time champion of the USSR 1956-1959, 1961-1965. at different distances. World record holder in 1956-1958, 1962-1967. She set world records in the all-around: 206.016 points (1956), 189.033 (1962) and at distances: 500 m - 44.9 (1962), 1500 m - 2.19.0 (1962), 3000 m - 5.06.0 (1962).

THE TRAGEDY OF A STAR COUPLE

A tall, slender lady with flowing hair was walking along Parkovaya Alley towards Oktyabrskaya Street. She could not be called very beautiful, but her inner strength she attracted the eyes of people. The look of the stranger was directed forward, over the heads that looked after her. The gait was smooth, light, it seemed, even swift, although she walked not at all fast. That this was an extraordinary woman was also evident from her clothes, dear, tastefully selected. Not a single passer-by passed by her indifferently, including women. The lady caused both admiration and surprise. There was no doubt that this piquant woman had come to provincial Dzerzhinsk from Moscow or even from abroad. Meanwhile, her companion, although he also walked easily and confidently, did not evoke the feeling of being a metropolitan.

It was our man, a Dzerzhinets, from the very Park Alley along which the mysterious couple was walking. And they went to his native house, which, on the left side, faced Oktyabrskaya Street. On the scale of Dzerzhinsk, this man was very significant person and almost everyone knew about it. This is world champion Gennady Voronin. The same Voronin who studied at the DKhMT. Gennady Voronin, who spent the winter with friends at the skating rink, and spent summer evenings on the park dance floor. From childhood, the whole district knew him, and in February 1959, the name of Gennady Voronin, unexpectedly for many, thundered not only throughout the city, the country, but throughout the entire planet. At the World Championships in Norway, he showed the best result in the distance skating race.

As often happens, Gennady became a professional athlete almost by accident. He was a sharp guy, playing catch up on the rink - you can’t keep up with him.

Here the physical instructor of the technical school A. Siliverstov asked Gennady one day to skate for the technical school. Not immediately, but the guy agreed and, surprisingly, ran perfectly. Then there were regional competitions, in which Voronin outran the champion of the region, Vitaly Chuvelev, famous in the sports circles of Dzerzhinsky sports, running five hundred in forty-five seconds, thereby setting a record for the region. Since then, Gennady has become seriously interested in skating. I began to go to Gorky for training. Then there was the army, training in the sports company of the Moscow Military District, the CSKA team. The results got better and better - forty-four, forty-three seconds and even less. The coach of the USSR national team in skating KK Kudryavtsev invites Voronin to the national team of the Union. Then in one of the competitions he was even ahead of the "lightning man" - Evgeny Grishin. And in February 1959 in Oslo, Gennady wins one tenth of a second from the famous Norwegian Wasp and becomes the world champion.

And shortly before that, Voronin in Moscow was given a room in a two-room "vest". Another room was already occupied, and not by anyone, but also by a skater, national champion and twice world champion - the legendary Inga Artamonova. Gennady immediately fell in love with her. A very bright 22-year-old girl could not help but thrill the heart of any man, but especially a quick-burning skater. Living under the same roof, in the same apartment, doing the same thing, talking about the same things and not being together - it became impossible. Soon the famous athletes got married.

Maybe someone planned everything that way - to connect people who are suitable for each other, to distract them from bad hobbies. In addition, there were reasons for this ... In 1958, millionaire Bengt, a member of the organizing committee of the World Cup, began to look after Inga. And Inga fell in love with him. Once she even spent the night not in the camp of the Soviet team, but with this Bengt, as she herself later admitted, she rode with him until morning in the car. This was not forgiven then. If Inga was not a talented athlete, and the whole world would not applaud her, she would immediately become “not allowed to travel abroad”, like many. But she still could not avoid a moralizing conversation in the "organs". The people who supervised Inga were afraid that the champion would remain abroad with her millionaire. And that would be a big scandal for the whole world, a shame on Soviet sport. That's why she was so tightly guarded. And Inga promised the "authorities" to behave like a Soviet athlete. However, she missed the 1959 World Championships and the 1960 and 1964 White Olympics. Maybe the Chekists did their best, or maybe because of an old serious illness.

As a child, Inga Artamonova fell ill with tuberculosis and could not recover for a long time. And only courage saved the future champion. Inga went in for sports. But not skating, but rowing. Yes, so actively and purposefully that she soon became the champion of the country among girls, a master of sports. But it's all summer. And in winter? Once Inga got on skates and immediately fell in love with the "piece of iron". And at the age of twenty in 1956 she became the absolute champion of the country. Then came a series of world-class victories. But all this was on flat skating rinks. In the mountainous area, Inga performed poorly. She couldn't breathe, she was suffocating. And the 1960 Olympics were held high in the mountains. And Inga stayed at home.

Gennady Voronin went to Squaw Valley. The coach of our team made a "bet" on him. But Gennady was not lucky at once. It fell to him to run first of our athletes, that is, to be a "cutter". But the worst part was something else. During the race, his armband began to fly off. And so that she does not get under the skates, Gennady tries to throw her off and ... loses the precious 5 tenths of a second, giving the championship. As a result, Voronin does not even take a prize.

Then new training began, but not for him, but for Inga. And Gennady Voronin trains her. He worried about his wife no less than she herself, and gave her not only technical instructions, but also psychological support, instilling confidence in new victories. To this end, Gennady even underestimated the time of Inga's races in training. And she believed that she was running better. As a result, in 1962, at the USSR Championship at the high-mountain skating rink at Medeo, Inga sets four world records and wins five gold medals.

Perhaps it was the happiest time in the life of a star skating couple. They got good furniture, bought the best Volga car, and had fun together. They had many famous people as friends - journalists, actors, poets. At this time, they just visited Dzerzhinsk. Voronin showed Inge his hometown, together they were even in the technical school where he studied. He was proud of his wife, and Inge liked it. But even then something broke in Gennady's soul. His results in sports were getting worse and worse. He was paid much less than Inge. But the athlete began to “celebrate” various events more often, sometimes even for no reason. Inga on these hobbies for a long time looked blankly. But after 1965, when she became the world champion for the fourth time, scandals began to arise in the family. And not just because of drunkenness.

Gennady saw how men "stick" to his wife. They were flattered to sit with her in the same company, to achieve her friendly disposition. There were those who dreamed of more. And here, notes compromising Inga began to be thrown into the mailbox. Whether you want to believe them or not, this annoyed me, increased my jealousy. Gennady especially did not like it when, in companies, Inga was more attentive to friends than to him. Sometimes she didn't notice him at all. In such cases, Voronin most often got drunk, made scandals, it happened that he even raised his hands to his wife.

But he himself was not an angel. With Rimma Zhukova, also a famous skater, he even had an affair. Inga probably knew about this, because Rimma was her friend on the national team. And responding to Gennady's reproaches, she blamed him for treason. But she didn't want to get divorced. Mainly because it would hurt her popularity among the people and cast a shadow on the reputation of a respectable Soviet athlete. And because of this, explanations could begin again with their curators on foreign trips. But at the end of 1965, Inga finally decided to break up with Voronin and exchange an apartment.

And he didn't seem to mind. But this is only in words. In his heart, Gennady continued to love Inga. Being together with her in public, he looked at his wife with the same ardent gaze. They had both love and jealousy at the same time. He was jealous not of anyone in particular, but of the fact that Inga was moving away from him, becoming completely indifferent. And he could not imagine his life without Inga. He was paid little. Gennady practically did not know how to do anything, although he was listed as a mechanical technician at the plant. And it’s sweet to eat, I’m already used to walking. So he didn’t want them to part ways with Inga. But everything was heading towards it. Inga was also incited to divorce by her mother, who immediately did not like Gennady. Rustic, she said, for Inga, and even a drinker.

The new year 1966 was approaching. In December, Inga was at a training camp in Kirov, but the couple agreed to spend the holiday at home, together, as usual. Gennady prepared everything, but Inga did not come. She did not appear the next day, and the second, and third of January. Voronin was worried, of course, he called Kirov, but no one answered the calls. And suddenly he finds out that Inga is in Moscow. Gennady began to look for her everywhere. His nerves were on edge. Called her mother. She said she didn't know where her daughter was. But intuition prompted Gennady that he should go there.

This is true. Inga was with her mother. The family was sitting festive table. Next to Inga is her new gentleman. Outwardly, Gennady was quite calm. Inga even offered him a glass of champagne and invited him to dance. She looked into her husband's eyes and smiled. “My sweetheart, sweetheart,” said Gennady. It seemed that they were about to reconcile again. But in the dance, Inga turned her back on her guest, and Gennady saw the alarmed face of his rival. Voronin seemed to have been shocked. He pulled out a knife and plunged it into the heart of his beloved.

Inga died almost immediately, but Gennady did not see this. He rushed home, where he was arrested. The eminent sportsman was condemned rather mildly. He served a year and a half in prison and spent three years in the Urals "in a free regime." Then he lived in Dzerzhinsk, continuing to love his Inga. His friends said that he bitterly regretted what he had done, even cried for his wife and drank, drank, and drank. This ruined the former world champion. He passed away on May 3, 2004.

An interesting analogy. At the heart of the film by Vladimir Chebotarev "The price of quick seconds" is the fate of Inga Artamonova. main role performed by the leading actress of the theater. Vakhtangov Valentina Malyavina. She was subsequently convicted on charges of murdering her husband.

The history of post-war speed skating is replete with the names of Soviet champions. From 1948 to 1966, girls from the USSR only once missed the champion title in the all-around. Isakov, Selikhov, Stenina, Skoblikova - this is an incomplete list of athletes who did something unimaginable on the ice. But she managed to surpass them all Inga Artamonova, for the first time in history, won four world titles. However, the fate of an outstanding athlete can hardly be called happy: she never competed at the Olympics and did not live to be 30 years old - she was killed by her cruel and jealous husband.

War, tuberculosis, rowing

Inga had an ordinary military childhood - difficult and hungry. The war broke out when the girl was not even five years old. The family was malnourished, Inga was often sick, and the next visit of the doctor upset the whole family at all - the girl was diagnosed with tuberculosis. The doctor recommended to the relatives to prepare for the worst: in difficult wartime conditions, it was almost impossible to recover, for this it was necessary good food and comfort. Fortunately, Inga's disease exacerbations did not happen often. Yes, and a couple of years after the war to live

it became easier: my mother got a job on a steamer, which went along the Volga and received a decent salary, although she had not been at home for weeks. Grandmother Evdokia Fedotovna, who loved her granddaughter Inga, took care of the children.

The windows of the old house on Petrovka, where the Artamonov family lived, overlooked the Dynamo stadium, and Inga, as a child, disappeared for hours at the stadium skating rink. It used to be that she just wound circles there when there was no fun with any of her peers. But when it came to serious sports, the girl was sent to rowing. This sport helped develop the chest and fight tuberculosis. And by the age of 18, Inge managed not only to cope with the disease, but also to fulfill the standard of the master of sports, and also to become a contender for getting into the national team of the Soviet Union. However, the girl never really fell in love with rowing - the passion for skating was stronger.

Two laurel wreaths

“Rowing is not my thing,” Inga told her coach. “I will go in for speed skating.” He retorted: “You are 177 centimeters tall! And in skates you need short muscles. But Artamonova firmly decided to switch to speed skating: “Just think! I’ll show everyone with my long ones!” And the truth has shown! But not at once. At the USSR championship in 1955, the athlete took only 21st place, but hard training bore fruit: the following year she became the absolute champion of the country, setting a new world record for the all-around total. However, the competition in the national team of the Soviet Union was colossal, and Inga was not taken to the team. They really believed in it only in 1957. Artamonova went to the World Championships in Imatra for the first time and immediately became the owner of the champion's laurel wreath. The audience was so delighted with the performance of the girl that after the end of the competition they rocked her in their arms for several minutes. Happy Finnish spectators took away the laurel wreath for souvenirs.

The war broke out when the girl was not even five years old. The family was malnourished, Inga was often sick, and the next visit of the doctor upset the whole family at all - the girl was diagnosed with tuberculosis.

However, a year later, Inga still managed to bring a memorable prize home. In Kristinehamn, the Soviet speed skater won the second title in a row. Artamonova also brought memories of her first serious love from Sweden. At the tournament, she met a wealthy Swede from the organizing committee named Bengt. The romantic relationship between the Soviet champion and the Swedish millionaire became known when, one evening, Inga was missed during a trip to the cinema. She arrived at the hotel in the early morning, explaining her absence by driving a car with Bengt. Such behavior was considered unacceptable in the 1950s. At home, the athlete was awaiting trial.

Restricted champion

Artamonova enjoyed tremendous popularity in the country, thousands of fellow citizens worried about her at domestic and international competitions, but this did not stop the KGB from blocking her travel abroad for several years. Because of this, the strongest Soviet athlete did not go to the 1960 Winter Olympics. It was not easy for Inga to start a new Olympic cycle - it was difficult for an athlete to perform on high-mountain skating rinks due to lung problems in childhood. However, due to the peculiarities of her character, Artamonova never backed down from difficulties. She managed to overcome them this time too: in 1962, Inga became the absolute world champion for the third time, repeating the achievement of Maria Isakova and updating a number of world records along the way.

Thousands of fellow citizens were worried about Artamonova at domestic and international competitions, but this did not stop the KGB from blocking her travel abroad for several years.

It seems that Inga's family life has also changed for the better. Even before the Olympics-60, she married a skater Gennady Voronin. However, it soon became clear that the husband was far from the ideals of the girl. He was an unpleasant, cruel man and was jealous of his wife's victories. The more she won, the more often he raised his hand to her, trying to assert himself. Voronin struck so that the bruises were not visible to anyone, and his wife hid the discord in family relationships.

Moscow lightning rod

After the victory in 1962, Inga again began to be haunted by failure. In 1963, she underwent a long course of treatment for an ulcer. By the time of the USSR championship, the athlete had almost recovered and even fulfilled the conditions that the national team coaches set for her - she got into the top three winners at one of the distances. However, Voronin was not taken to the World Cup. She did not go to the Olympics, which took place in Innsbruck. However, even after that, the athlete did not give up, but continued to fight with her rivals on ice. At the USSR championship at the end of the Olympic season, she again proved her strength to everyone, ahead of Lidia Skoblikova, who won four gold medals at the Games in Austria at once. “A Moscow lightning rod was found on the Ural lightning,” Inga’s fans wrote, pleased with the return of their favorite.

The 1965 World Championship, held in the Finnish city of Oulu, was marked by a confrontation between two Soviet athletes: Inga Voronina and Valentina Stenina. Valentina was close to winning her third title and equaling Inga. The fate of the championship wreath was decided by the outcome of the 1000m race. Voronina was two seconds faster than her compatriot and became the first four-time all-around world champion in the history of speed skating. She won world championships 10 times at separate distances, almost a dozen times updated world records and, perhaps, could have done more, because she was only 29 years old. It only remained to go to the 1968 Olympics and win gold there.

"My sweetheart, sweetheart"

At the rink, Voronina was a happy winner, and returning home brought her nothing but misfortune - her relationship with her husband was getting worse. Inga did not dare to file for divorce for many years, believing that this story would become a bad example for thousands of Soviet people. However, on the eve of 1966, the decision to divorce was nevertheless made. Gennady and Inga, by mutual agreement, decided to put an end to family quarrels and scandals. Before the New Year holidays, Inga turned to Dynamo with a request to help with the exchange of living space. The chairman of the club's council wrote a note to Voronin asking him to come to a meeting on January 4 at 9:00. However, in the morning he did not go to Dynamo, but to the store. Having bought a bottle of wine there, Voronin drank it without eating, and went to his mother-in-law, where his wife had recently lived. They let him into the house, asked what he needed, and he, quietly and calmly saying “my dear, dear”, stabbed his wife in the heart with a knife. One blow was enough: the ambulance doctors did not have time to save the champion.

They let him into the house, asked what he needed, and he, quietly and calmly saying “my dear, dear”, stabbed his wife in the heart with a knife.

Thousands of people from all over Moscow came to bury Artamonov. Some wreaths especially resembled laurel ones - those that Inga received four times. And the next day after the funeral, it seems that someone noticed a richly dressed foreigner inconsolably crying. It was rumored that he introduced himself as a certain Bengt.

Artamonova Inga Grigorievna

The best Soviet speed skating
Honored Master of Sports
Cavalier of the Order of the Badge of Honor
World Champion (1957, 1958, 1962, 1965)
Silver medalist of the world championships (1963, 1964)
Champion of the USSR (1956, 1958, 1962 -1964)
Nineteen-time champion of the USSR at different distances (1956-1959, 1961-1965) World record holder (1956-1958, 1962-1967)
All-around world record holder (1956, 1962)

Inga Artamonova was born on August 29, 1936 in Moscow, in an old house on Petrovka. Nature gave her father's large growth, and from her mother she inherited a strong character.

Inge was not even five years old when the war began. The family lived from hand to mouth, Inga was constantly sick. Once, having called a doctor, the native girls learned: “Most likely, you need to prepare for the worst. Your Inga has tuberculosis. If she had good food and treatment somewhere in a sanatorium, otherwise ... ”. It looked like a sentence, but Inga looked at the adults who were ready to cry, and suddenly said: “Nothing, we can handle it.”

Anna Artamonova, Inga's mother, had a hard time, especially after her father left the family. Inga had to rely only on herself and the help of her mother, who left for work early in the morning, and came when Inga's grandmother, Evdokia Fedotovna, was putting her grandchildren to bed. The subsistence level of the family consisted of the salary of the mother and grandmother, who worked part-time as a nurse in a dispensary. Grandmother Inga was a favorite.

In 1947, it was hard in Moscow with food. Inga's mother took out two packs of yeast once a week, diluted them in water, and, along with overcooked onions, made a casserole that she fed Inga and her brother. Inga said that when she grows up, she will only eat her mother's casserole, but a lot. One day my mother couldn't get yeast and there was nothing to eat. Hungry children brought the mother to hysterics. On the same day, Inga brought six potatoes, which she stole from one of the neighbors.

Fortunately, Inga's disease exacerbations were not so frequent. In order not to "annoy" her grandmother's eyes, the girl took her skates and went to the skating rink. The windows of their apartment overlooked the Dynamo stadium in Petrovsky Park, and on it Inga rolled one circle after another, as if trying to escape from a serious illness.

Inga always loved the skating rink, she rode it for her own pleasure, and the coaches advised the Artamonovs to send their daughter to the rowing section. There was a reason for this - many hours of training the muscles of the hands help to develop the chest, and from this the lungs in it feel freer.

When mom managed to get a job on a steamer long-distance navigation, who walked along the Volga, the family began to live much better, and the children began to eat better. Each time, together with their grandmother, they went to meet her at the River Station, and after the meeting, a lot of tasty things appeared on the table. There were even Astrakhan watermelons, and my grandmother made various jams from berries.

At school, Inga was a capable, but restless girl, distinguished by mischief and recklessness. Any tricks could be expected from her. She could tear the dress just bought by her mother, climbing over some kind of fence, or, not having learned her lesson and running away from classes, come home early and explain this by the "death" of the teacher.

At the same time, Inga was in good standing in the drama club, she also drew well. In the drama circle, Inga played the main roles - Santa Clauses, because of her tall stature, and partisan commanders, since the boys studied separately at that time.

She is a bright girl and can learn very easily, but she is lazy, her teachers said.

Inga always had fives for singing, drawing and physical education. Her class teacher, trying to somehow attract the rebellious girl to study, tried one method after another for these purposes. But nothing helped. And at a meeting of parents, she called her in her hearts a tall one. Inga's grandmother was at the meeting, and immediately went to look for the director of the school:

You know what, you at least think about me, and for a teacher, all the guys should be the same. And that is a dick! She is the same child as everyone else, only taller than they are, and who is to blame that they were born such morels?! But Inna grew up with us without a father, and she has tuberculosis ... She looks so miserable, but at home it’s bad for her ... Don’t look that she’s tall ... so warn your teacher. ..

Evdokia Fedotovna warned the teacher:

You protect her. Don't look at how tall she is, she has tuberculosis. And she is tall because her grandfather. He is in civil war he folded his head, he was also troubled. And her father is a large man, so there is someone!

None of Inga's relatives suspected the impending world fame of Inga. When she was 12 years old, the question of Inga's sports was discussed in the family, half-jokingly, half-seriously, after she was offered to go in for the rowing section. Mom suggested:

It is necessary to choose something easier, for example, skis. - And the grandmother is right there:

Well, to hell with skis, your legs will get tangled in these sticks.

This is how many sports were nominated. Inga continued rowing, achieved considerable success, became the champion of the USSR among girls, at the age of 17 she fulfilled the standard of the master of sports, was in the rowing eight. She was supposed to be included in the national team of the Soviet Union for a trip to the European Championship among adults.

After several years of rowing, Inga has become a strong and charming girl. The summer sun, fresh river air at the Dynamo water stadium had a beneficial effect. Inga trained with great eagerness, did not allow herself any allowance for the disease, and a miracle happened - tuberculosis began to gradually recede until it completely disappeared. But for all her difficult life, Inga was always very calm, and it was difficult to upset her with anything. She was a good-natured, serene, and even slightly nonchalant person. But since Great love Inga didn’t have anything to do with rowing - her love for the skating rink took its toll.

She told her coach: “Rowing is not my thing! I will go in for speed skating.” In response, the coach only smiled: “Did you think well? You are 177 centimeters tall! And in skates, short muscles are needed so that they can quickly compress and decompress!”. “Just think,” Artamonova retorted, “I’ll show everyone with my long ones!” The coach took out the last argument “out of his sleeve”: here you are twice a champion, and there you will start everything from scratch! But this argument did not work either - Artamonova left.

But recognition did not come immediately. They started talking about Inga when she first performed at the USSR championship in 1955, where she took 21st place. In 1956, at the championship of the Soviet Union at the age of nineteen, she became the absolute champion of the country with a new world record in the all-around total, and still she was not included in the team for the trip to the World Championship that year. However, in 1957 she achieved her goal and became the absolute world champion. Inga won the victory in the Finnish city of Imatra.

Scandinavian fans immediately chose her as their idol. In 1957, Artamonova had to pass the lap of honor with a laurel wreath. When Inga rolled around the stadium, flowers flew from the stands to her feet. The Finns rejoiced and shouted Russian word: "Great!". Fans demanded to ride around the stadium again and again. Spectators from the stands began to roll down the snow rollers down - thousands of people, men, women, children. Hundreds of hands reached out to Inga - and before she had time to figure anything out, she found herself in weightlessness, thrown up by these hands. They also picked up the laurel wreath and began to swing it. And the champion, and the wreath.

As they took her out of the rink, half an hour later there was a knock on the door. A man came in and said:

We were a little happy. Your wreath was taken apart for souvenirs. Now thousands of people will keep the memory of your victory for life... Sorry...

With these words, he laid a wreath on the cot. Rather, what is left of the wreath is a broom with seven leaves.

Inge did not have to hold this wreath in her hands. Rimma Zhukova reassured the champion:

Don't worry, you'll have more than one trophy like this. Trust me.

She later won four more laurel wreaths.

At the banquets arranged after the world championships, she justified her love for herself. Inga always appeared on them elegant and beautiful. This manifested her character - not to show how hard it is to win.

At the 1958 World Championships in the Swedish city of Kristinehamn, where Inga won her second title of absolute world champion, she became seriously interested in a man for the first time. Her chosen one was an employee of the organizing committee of the championship, a Swede named Bengt. An affair began between them in the city of Burlenge, where Bengt lived, and the USSR national team participated in exhibition performances after the championship.

On one of the last evenings before returning to Moscow, when the team went to the cinema in an organized manner, Inga was missing. She appeared at the hotel only in the morning, explaining her absence by driving with Bengt in a car. If not for worldwide fame, fantastic popularity in the country and the title of two-time world champion, she would no longer be released abroad. Nevertheless, for some time Artamonov was still banned from traveling abroad. She did not get to the White Olympics-60, her monthly salary was reduced from 3,000 rubles to 800, she had problems with the KGB, who insistently recommended that she stop all relations with Bengt.

In 1958, Artamonova and another skater, Gennady Voronin, by a strange coincidence, were given a room each in a two-room apartment in a prestigious house built for KGB officers. And in 1959 she married Voronin, and it was the most reckless act in her life. Gennady turned out to be a very jealous spouse and an unpleasant person. And the more victories she had, the stronger he had a desire to assert himself by humiliating her. Inga hid from everyone that she had troubles in her family life, even when Voronin began to beat her, trying to leave bruises where they would be invisible.

The stresses associated with an unsuccessful marriage affected - in the midst of preparations for the next world championship, doctors again found tuberculosis in her, and the 1960 USSR championship was left without Artamonova. It was difficult for Inge to succeed in 1962 as well. Inga had a losing streak associated with poor performance on high-mountain skating rinks. Summed up patients in the past lungs. At the bottom, she ran perfectly, won, and when she climbed the mountains, she became unrecognizable. There is no former strength in the movements, she was suffocating. Nevertheless, Inga set a cascade of world records, exceeding the previous total in speed skating by more than 10 points.

She was able to adapt to anoxic conditions, and it shocked everyone. In addition, the results were downright masculine. Here are her four world records: 500 meters - 44.9, 1500 meters - 2.19.0, 3000 meters - 5.06, total - 189.033 points.

Subsequently, Rimma Zhukova wrote: “They (records) were so magnificent that all previous sports feats in speed skating faded before them. Inga almost completely updated the table of world records. She broke the record of Tamara Rylova at a distance of 500 meters, which held for 7 years; Lydia Skoblikova - at a distance of 1500 meters, which was established by her in Squaw Valley; Rimma Zhukova - at a distance of 3000 meters, lasting 9 years, and, finally, a record in the all-around, gaining a fantastic amount ... Inga was congratulated by the whole sports world.

In the same 1962, Inga won everything she could. Including the third time she became the absolute world champion. It happened again, like five years ago, in the Finnish city of Imatra. Then - again a chain of continuous failures.

But her coach 3.F. Kholshchevnikova admitted:

She will be world champion not twice, but ten times!

Inga seemed to run out of steam, becoming a three-time world champion. Who has been able to do this? Of the women - only Maria Isakova. But Inga didn't think so. Those who knew Ingina's possibilities did not think so either. She could get sick and at the same time not train for a long time, she could quickly put on weight during this time, but a short period passed, and she was again in good shape. Coaches and fans believed in Inga. For her teammates, she was, well, something like a mother. That's what they called her - "our mother." They always came to her with their troubles. Inga, with equal responsibility, performed both at the largest competitions and at the smallest ones, even for her Dynamo district council. She could feel unwell, she could run with a temperature, she could be out of shape. But she could never give up, retreat in competitions of any rank. Everyone knew it. They also knew that if Inga stumbles, falls, she will definitely rise.

In 1963, Inga was diagnosed with an ulcer. It was on the eve of the Olympic Games in Innsbruck. Here is an entry in Inga's diary, dated November 17, 1963: “I flew to Irkutsk late in the evening. Yesterday I left the hospital. My legs hurt a lot from lying down for a long time. I just can't believe that I'm free. It's very good to be a healthy person." And here is another entry: “From December 13 to December 30, 1963, for 11 ice trainings - 486 laps - 194.5 km. Of these, fast "work" - 85 laps - 33.5 km.

In one of the photographs, Inga is captured at the time of an ulcer attack. The eyes are sunken, the lips are making an effort to make a swallowing movement. Then, when everything was over, Inga could laugh it off (“Now it’s very fashionable to have some kind of illness”) or confess to her mother her “achievements” in curing an ulcer (“Mom, I even ate a piece of chicken skin yesterday, and, you know, Nothing...").

Knowing her unusual attitude to win, a month before the Olympic starts, the coaches promised to take Inga if she took third place at least at one distance at the qualifying competitions in Moscow. Inga, not yet recovered from her illness, without even half entering her better shape, took second place at one of the distances, but they still didn’t take it, and Inga didn’t get to the Olympics for the second time. But Inga did not turn sour. She restored the strength taken away by the disease, and was able to take second place at the 1964 World Championships in the all-around sum, and at the USSR championship, which was held at the end of the season, she fully gained sports form and won against everyone, even against the strongest Chelyabinsk skater that year Lydia Skoblikova. Inga became the champion of the country for the fifth time, and Moscow fans sent her a telegram: “A Moscow lightning rod was found on the Ural lightning.” It was about a dispute on the ice track of two wonderful skaters. After that, Lida left her skates for several years, and Inga, in 1965, became inaccessible to rivals all over the world.

She went to the Finnish city of Oulu in order to formally secure the right to be called the strongest, fastest at the world championship. For the fourth time. On the day the team arrived in Oulu, it was twenty degrees below zero. The girls, wrapped in downy shawls and fur hats, ran from the hotel to the skating rink. But the entrance to the stadium was closed. Inga Artamonova remembered her mischievous childhood on Petrovka and invited her young friends to climb over the fence. They agreed. The ice was like glass. The skates did not cling to him. Inga thought that she simply had stupid skates, bent down to check the blades and crashed into the bench at full speed. How she didn't break her tibia remains a mystery. Her friends helped her get to the Arina Hotel. I had to spend two days before the start in bed. Newspapers different countries, putting forward assumptions before the championship, unanimously assigned Artamonova the place of the absolute winner. But, the lot was clearly not in favor of Inga - at all four distances she had to run in the first pair, pave the way for the rest, give them graphics.

She put all her strength into the first distance - she decided to immediately stun her rivals. And she paid with a defeat at a lorry - a distance that has always been considered hers, where she set one of her best world records. Artamonova lost to Valya Stenina. This, however, did not bother her. But the fact that the Dutchwoman Steen Kaiser and the Korean Pil Hwa Han were ahead was disturbing.

On the second, decisive day of the championship, she again opened the races. This time, a twenty-six-year-old typist from the Dutch city of Delph Steen Kaiser started in a pair with her. This girl managed to beat Inga the day before. Inge got the inside track. So, two turns she could go against the wind. And both of these turns are small. The fight was only the first half a circle. And then Inga ran away from the "flying Dutchwoman" for thirty meters.

Not only the registration of the laurel wreath - Moscow or Sverdlovsk - depended on how Valentina Stenina performed at a thousand meters. In case of luck, Stenina also became a three-time world champion, like Inga. And Artamonova, under a happy coincidence, would have left Finland four times undefeated.

Stenina ran fast, but at the finish line the stopwatch recorded the result almost two seconds weaker than that of Inga. Artamonova did not hide her joy.

Thousands of Soviet people "cheered" for Inga. Here is one small letter: “Hello, Inga! Sverdlovsk pioneer Tamara Shimanova writes to you. I study in the 5th grade "B" of school N 36. I promise you that I will study only "excellently". Now, as soon as I write carelessly, I think: "But Inga does not give herself concessions in anything." I'm in the figure skating section. 3rd grade. Know when there will be world championship competitions, that a pioneer from Sverdlovsk is "sick" for you. You are for me, Inga, an example in everything.

Inga - it really was something new in speed skating. Now it is not surprising that the victories are won mainly by tall athletes. But as for her fighting qualities, it is difficult to find something like that. At the competitions, she smiled, and if someone tried to “start” her before the start, promising to “bring 10 seconds at the finish line”, he only made it worse for himself.

Already in the title of world champion, Inga sometimes came to practice at her native Petrovka, and as soon as she went out on the ice, the knock of the opening windows was immediately heard - and the podium was ready for the spectacle. And Inga, passing by her window, nodded her head to fan No. 1 - her grandmother, Evdokia Fedotovna, who, having stuck her head somehow through a narrow window, strictly followed her granddaughter's run. A day or two before the world championship, my grandmother could not find a place for herself, she just kept asking:

They don’t transmit anything, how is our Ina? - Finally, the voice of the commentator is heard: “We are reporting on our own ...”, and the grandmother literally rushes around the apartment and excitedly, and sometimes with reproach and jealousy, reminds her neighbor, an ardent fan, if he suddenly forgot about it:

Petra, why are you sitting, turn on Radiva as soon as possible. - And already imploringly: - Ina is running.

Grandmother knew a lot of proverbs and each of them hit the target exactly. Sometimes Inga will come, upset because someone has yelled at her, and grandmother will say:

Do not be afraid of the dog that lies, but be afraid of the one that is silent. - Or another time she justifies herself for the money spent on gifts for her own grandchildren: - Not because we were naked that we ate sweetly.

Kindness in Inga could seem strange. To strangers, even strangers, she could show more sensitivity than to her relatives. She will sometimes forget to offer you food when you are visiting her, and at the same time, you could take out at least half of her apartment, and she will not pay attention to it. Somewhere at the airport she lost 200 rubles; grandmother, when she found out, threw up her hands, and Inga says calmly: “Well, what to do now, you won’t return them anyway.” And her kindness consisted in the following: come and take what you need, do not ask, you are your own person and should understand everything.

Inga Artamonova shocked the sports world with her fantastic results, she was able to do what no skater in the history of the world skates could do - she became a four-time absolute world champion.

Inga 10 times she was the world champion at separate distances, 5 times the absolute champion of the USSR, 27 times the champion of the USSR at separate distances, over 10 times she improved world records. And she was always calm about her victories.

Sport has changed Inna - after all, she had to visit many countries of the world. New character traits appeared - restraint, accuracy, strictness towards oneself. But there remained the simplicity that distinguished her from childhood, the openness of her soul and ingenuity. Her first teacher, Natalya Vasilievna, once said to Inga's mother:

You know, she's just your leader. If he wants, the whole class will be taken away from the lesson, honestly. - This trait - to be the initiator, the ringleader, to take the brunt of it - remained with her for the rest of her life.

However, due to her simplicity, elation from the victories in sports, extraordinary optimism, gullibility, Inga did not notice many bad things in people.

Inga was an extremely capable person. This was manifested in her ability to grasp everything on the fly, to instantly process the information received. For all her cheerfulness and kindness of disposition, it was better not to approach her during training. At competitions you can - there is a performance for the audience, brilliant, bright. And training is rough work in three shifts - and even your own smile can only get in the way. There is no smile during training - it is recharged, accumulated, so that later during the competition it will shine on her face.

She did not hesitate to be original and interesting. She was pleased to show off her knowledge of at least ten foreign words. As the winner of the competition for the prize of the Council of Ministers of the Kazakh SSR, she had to cut a large goose and distribute it at her discretion to those present. Inga did this "operation" very witty. Someone got the head, because his “role” is caring for others, and, therefore, he had to think more than others; someone needed fast legs - that's why paws appeared on his plate; someone needed not just to run, but to fly - wings were intended for him.

This attractiveness of her as a person encouraged others interesting people look for a meeting with her. Among them were famous production workers, honored front-line soldiers, students, to whom she was especially kind, popular actors, singers, poets ...

Inga had many friends. Her relationship with people from the world of sports is indicative. Honored Master of Sports Zoya Fedorovna Kholshchevnikova, Artamonova's coach, was distinguished by her sharpness and directness. However, Inga also knew how to stand up for herself when she was sure that she was right. Their community can be called creative. They spent many evenings discussing future starts, making training plans. Zoya Fedorovna made a great contribution to the victories of 1957-1958.

A warm friendship connected Inga with V. Stenina, I. Egorova and other athletes. Irreconcilable rivals on the ice, in life they treated each other with mutual respect. Ingina's kindness and breadth of views, her ability to understand a person, affected. She tried to see only the good in people. Girls often came to her house - novice skaters, and for each Inga had good word. She helped them make training plans.

Inga's talent was manifested not only in sports. When she began to live independently, she had to do housework. Mom and grandmother were amazed at her success in the culinary arts. No one taught her, and the recipe for how to bake a pie under some tricky name, my mother had to take from Inga. They were also surprised at her success in knitting and sewing. She made very beautiful jackets and dresses.

Inga spent all her time at work. She was always doing something with different patterns, sorting through a pile of magazines, making cookies according to a recipe she had just heard, rearranging the furniture in her room, doing a new hairstyle for herself. If tired, then just sleep.

In 1965, Inga's brother worked at the publishing house of the Pravda newspaper, and saw a decree awarding Inga an order for sports merit. Second in line. At one in the morning he called to please her:

Mistress, why are you sleeping there? - especially in such a "fire" tone so that she wakes up. Frightened response:

What's happened?

Yes, nothing happened, you are still sleeping, and you are awarded orders.

Well, she wondered, really?

She was very pleased. But her relationship with her husband never improved. Once, after another quarrel, Inga went to her home, where her mother, grandmother and brother were waiting for her. Then she decided - her patience had come to an end, she would no longer live with her husband, and filed for divorce.

Vladimir Artamonov told: “Endless quarrels, scandals that began between Inga and Gennady almost from the first month of their family life should, in the end, lead to a divorce. Inga was going to do this more than once, but at the last moment she did not dare, believing that the divorce would be a dark stain on her reputation as a famous person in the country. She even tried to hide from us that her husband, who too often took a glass of wine, allowed himself to beat her. Inga, as I later found out, was often seen by colleagues with bruises on her face. But by the end of 1965, her patience still snapped, and shortly before the New Year, she turned to the MGU "Dynamo" with a request to help quickly exchange their living space. In this regard, the chairman of the council, Stepanenko, even wrote a note to Voronin: “Gena! I ask you to come on 4/01-66 by 9.00!

And he really came, but not to Dynamo, but to his mother-in-law. He drank beforehand, as he later told the investigator in writing, a 0.7-liter bottle of "Russian wine" and "got very drunk because I didn't have a bite to eat ...".

He was looking for Inga, who had left home on the eve of the New Year holidays, since they seemed to have agreed on a divorce and even drank champagne on this occasion.

“Well, what do you want? Speak! She greeted him as she got up from the couch. I was sitting behind Voronin and suddenly saw him, leaning slightly to the left, sharply throwing his right hand forward (the knife, I'm sure, was prepared in advance and hidden in the right sleeve of his jacket). And in the next second, Inga's cry cut through the ears: "Oh, mother, heart! ..".

In a fever, still not experiencing a painful shock, Inga pulled the blade out of her chest (the cracked wooden handle, as it turned out later, remained in the killer's hand) and rushed to the door. Mom - after her, I, after I could not keep Voronin, - into the yard, to the telephone, call the police.

And Voronin was taken an hour later at the entrance of the house where he lived with Inga.

Anna Mikhailovna, Inga's mother, said: “Gennady surprisingly calmly entered the apartment, behaved surprisingly calmly and did not allow a single insult to anyone, not a single reproach against Inga ... It was hard to expect that he would kill her ... He stood calmly in front of her, I only heard how before Inga shouted: “Oh, mother, heart!” - Gennady said gently and quietly: "My dear, my dear! ..".

Later it turned out that someone regularly threw anonymous notes in the mailbox, in which he informed Gennady about Inga's mythical adultery. Did Voronin himself not hesitate to give the murder he committed a political color, putting forward the idea of treason, which his wife was supposedly going to commit? An excerpt from the case file: “By the way, I forgot to note that when Inga told me about the story of the millionaire in 1961, I told her: how did you think to stay there. Inga said that she would have stayed there and competed for Sweden, would have been a society lady, would have been to big balls. I told her: how could you compete against the USSR. She said that she didn’t give a damn about it, that she would like to live very well and not think about anything, that in the USSR they paid little money for world championships, that in the USSR you live in constraint, but there, abroad, you would live as a person ... No one would poke morality in her face. During this period, Inga told me that because of her story with a Swedish millionaire, because she directly stated this, she was summoned to the State Security Committee and talked to her ... ".

During the investigation into the murder of Inga Artamonova, there were many strange things. The investigator of the Moscow prosecutor's office replaced Article 102 of the Criminal Code, which was originally assigned to the killer, which provided for punishment up to execution, with Article 103 (up to 10 years), and then he wanted to bring the case under Article 104 (5 years in prison or corrective labor up to two years). years for a crime committed in a state of sudden mental agitation caused by insults).

A month and a half after the verdict was announced, by the decision of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR, Gennady was canceled in prison, and already in 1968 he was completely released from custody and serving his sentence. He spent the next three years in free mode, working "at the construction sites of the national economy."

Vice-champion of Europe Yuri Yumashev met him later: “Voronin - a little bald old man - came up to me with a glass: “Let's drink to all the good ...”. I thought: he is no longer a tenant, miserable, downcast ... But who did he kill!

Inga Artamonova was buried in Moscow at the Vagankovsky cemetery.

About Inga Artamonova, two episodes of a television program from the cycle “How the idols left” were prepared.

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Text prepared by Andrey Goncharov

Used materials:

Memoirs of Vladimir Artamonov
An article by Anatoly Yusin "Legends of Soviet Sports"
Article by Yuri Moskalenko “Inga Artamonova: how did a girl with tuberculosis grow into a four-time world champion?
Article by B.Valiev “The Artamonova Case”

Vladimir Artamonov

Inga Artamonova. Death on the rise. Bright life and tragic death of the four-time world champion

Remembering Inga Artamonova, I, her brother Vladimir Artamonov, bitterly experience those distant tragic events of the death of my sister, which happened half a century ago, on January 4, 1966, when she was only twenty-nine years old.

Today, Inga's age has approached the mark of eighty years, fifty years since she is not with us.

A lot has been said about her, films have been released ... However, not everything is as simple as it might seem at first glance.

According to Maria Isakova, Inga was very lonely. And it is. She, like a great champion in general, had to (and, probably, someone else has to) live among a considerable number of envious people, both from her direct rivals in sports, and from some coaches, officials, whom she once in some way she didn’t give in, she turned out to be independent, original ... And then they began to spread slander, throw up anonymous letters, falsify her results at the qualifying competitions for the world championship, Olympic Games in order to prevent them from going there ... Inga was expelled from the national team, made travel restrictions. She, the strongest at that time, was not allowed to the 1960 World Cup and the two Olympics in 1960 and 1964, so that she would by no means become an Olympic champion.

Once Inga confessed to us, her relatives: “How unsuccessfully I perform, they immediately take care of me, attention, as soon as I win, no one looks, they bypass, they don’t notice, as if I’m not there.”

How can you not feel lonely here! That is why she sought support from relatives, admiration from fans, rejoiced at their warm letters, which strengthened her faith in herself.

In the end, intrigues, hostility, outright wrecking go into oblivion ... The name of that great champion who was and remains in the history of world sports Inga Artamonova remains.

Inga died at the hands of her husband Gennady Voronin, an evil and vindictive man. Her outstanding achievements reminded him of his insignificance.

But now we also know, having studied the materials of the criminal case, that someone else "contributed" to this death, because for some "individuals" her victories were like a bone in the throat - she turned out to be unusually talented for that time. Everything was done in order to unbalance the athlete, to shake her faith in her own strength, to bring confusion into her family relationships, already tense because of the unbridled husband.

But Inga coped with all this, to her glory. Invariably, she tried to successfully perform in competitions, show the best results, defend the honor of the country.

And now, half a century later, they are still trying to hush up her victories - it seems that today, as in the past distant years, it will not be possible to boast of extraordinary achievements in speed skating!

Some people don't understand that forgetting the past doesn't bode well for the future...

So who else was involved in the death of Inga Artamonova, who was interested in this?

The book contains facts on which the reader will think of a lot for himself.

An invitation to storytelling

In Finland, as in its neighboring Scandinavian countries, winter sports are very popular. Almost everyone here does it. Local fans highly appreciate the achievements of the world champions, they know them by name and by sight. Now the attention of the fans has focused on Inga Artamonova - a phenomenal Soviet speed skater, a tall charming Russian girl who once again became the world champion here in Finland.

The past competitions were very interesting, although difficult for the athletes themselves. Soviet speed skaters, unlike in previous years, this time had to make some room. Young foreign skaters performed very successfully.

But no matter how difficult it is to defend the right to long-term hegemony, Inga Artamonova is still strong. She has worldwide popularity, she is applauded by millions of fans who expect new achievements from her.

Athlete and spectator. They quickly find mutual language. Relationships like these are like family relationships. It seems that the spectators live in these moments with the feelings of the athlete, empathize, cheer him up. Are you Russian or American, Swede or Dutch - it doesn't matter! The public that you fell in love with is enough that you are.

The public needs a fast and beautiful run - yes. But she remembers her idol. Often your whole life. As soon as it becomes known that a meeting is planned, the viewer is already waiting for the upcoming date.

Favorite athlete. How much this attractive Russian girl had to work hard to achieve this! She apparently overcame many obstacles. Physical fatigue. Doubt and failure. Excitement due to exorbitant responsibility. It was necessary to develop calmness - a reliable companion of success.

Now Inge is going out on the ice. She will have to compete in demonstration competitions. The brilliance of the skates is still hidden by covers put on the runners. The main thing is not to blunt them when you walk through the locker room, otherwise on the ice, Inga says, you will not go where you need to.

She reached the door. For some reason, she unzipped the white sweater that was loosely sitting on it, under which there was another, dark, tight-fitting sweater with a red coat of arms on the chest.

There will be a banquet in honor of the winners tonight, in her honor. She sewed several dresses with her own hands in Moscow and brought them with her. Today at the banquet she will dress up in a beautiful dress, do her hair. Today, everyone will look at her and be surprised. “And you say,” some foreign lady will say, “that this delightful woman can overtake everyone on the ice? But why is she so fresh, well-groomed? There must be a whole retinue of servants following her.”

Inga considered the world championship to be something like a battle, where she alone could protect her country. When she won, she tried to smile so that her efforts would not be noticeable. This gave charm to her victory, won the hearts of the audience. Inga was proud of her teammates - her rivals. They said: "Inga is the ideal of champions, we look up to her."

In joyful moments, bad luck and defeats, insults and even someone's unworthy behavior are forgotten.

Pushing the door open with her hand, Inga stepped out into the air. Now it was necessary to go down the stairs of the stands to the ice. The sun blinded my eyes, I could not believe that it could be so bright in winter. The audience smiled, fixing their eyes on the athlete. The boys fussed at the bottom of the stairs with papers for autographs. Now they will begin their brisk work: pulling the sleeve, holding out their pieces of paper.

Inga is well known here: three times she won world championships in the country of Suomi. Her portraits during the competition were printed on the front pages of many newspapers published here. Interviews with her were broadcast on the radio, she was shown on television. A rare popularity for a foreign skater!

The athlete unfastened the covers on the skates and went out onto the ice.

The ice is rolling. Lively Finnish speech is heard on the radio. Inga heard her last name. The stands are applauding. Passing by a podium covered with a visor, which immediately calms down at her approach, she artistically slowly raises her hand to her lips and sends an air kiss to the podium, which, like a shot from a starting pistol, responds with an instant reaction - a short but booming burst of applause.

Behind a lot of training. Today they are embodied in world recognition.

Every year the circle of acquaintances and friends expands more and more. More and more letters are coming in. There are so many questions in them that you involuntarily think deeper about everything you have gone through. You remember your relatives who are worried about you, the street where you spent your military childhood, the girls from the yard who will come later with congratulations, your Dynamo team, which soon after the World Championship, despite your exorbitant fatigue, will have to help out, speaking not at all in major competitions - maybe just for your district council ...