Masha and Dasha Krivoschljapowa
Marija "Mascha" and Darja "Dasha" Ivanovna Kriwoschljapowa (born January 3, 1950 , † April 17, 2003 in Moscow ) were two Siamese twin sisters ( Ischiopagus tripus ).
Life
Masha and Dasha were born on January 3, 1950 in a town near Moscow. The birth of the girls turned out to be complicated. Soon after their birth, the girls were separated from their mother, Ekaterina Kriwoschljapowa; the mother was told that her daughters were "monsters" (урод) and had died. Visits by the mother were prevented. She managed to visit her daughters only once, secretly, during the night, with the help of a cleaning lady. The ban on visits served to conceal the further fate of the girls. It was not until 1985 that the mother managed to get in touch with her daughters.
When they were still babies, the girls were transferred to the Moscow Institute of Pediatrics, where the physiologist and brain researcher Pyotr Anochin carried out experiments on them. These included painful stitches with long, sharp needles; Try boiling milk bottles; Attempts with hunger; Attempts with sleep deprivation; daily blood draws; Try cooling down your body temperature and taking gastric juice every day. The trials lasted for about six years.
The experiments revealed that each of the girls controlled half of their body; A kind of dividing line ran through the common body, dividing the nervous system into two parts. One part belonged to Masha, the other to Dasha. The girls only felt pain, urge to bladder and touch on “their” side. The third leg that we shared, which had not separated in time in the womb and stood back, belonged to Mascha. It was used by the sisters to keep their balance while they ran. The leg was later amputated.
A Soviet documentary came from this time and was kept under lock and key for a long time.
After the experiments were over, the girls were transferred to the hospital of the Moscow Central Institute of Scientific Prosthetics . There the nurses taught them to walk and eat independently, among other things, whereby the sisters always got in each other's way at the beginning, because Mascha was left-handed and Dasha was right-handed. The girls also learned to run independently, ride a tricycle and climb trees; they attended school up to the age of nine.
At the age of nine, Dasha had an experience that shocked her: She saw her reflection for the first time and thus also learned how other people saw her. From that moment on, the sisters avoided meeting the public because of the onlookers and their derogatory remarks.
Mascha and Dasha had developed completely opposite characters: while Mascha was dominant and was considered a brawl, Dasha was reserved, sensitive, quiet, could express himself better linguistically and developed an interest in mathematics.
At the age of 14, the girls were moved to a boarding school for handicapped children and young people in Novocherkassk in southern Russia, where they felt at home despite the poor facilities. It was there that Dasha had her first relationship with a boy, Slava, who was in a wheelchair with muscular dystrophy . In her jealousy, Masha pushed the boy and his wheelchair into the bushes.
By the age of 18 at the latest, people with disabilities in the Soviet Union were deported to old people's homes - a nightmarish experience for the girls, as their homes were mostly old women who kept opening the door and staring at the twin girls. Due to the risk of suicide, the possession of sharp objects (needles, sewing tools, scissors, etc.) and lighters was prohibited; the staff stole; many residents, including Mascha and Dasha, became addicted to alcohol.
It was only during the Glasnost and Perestroika era that the twins could turn to Russian television, after years of ignoring their written requests for relocation. The twins have finally been moved. They were given a 25 square meter room in a government-funded home with a toilet, shower and telephone. The music system, color TV and video recorder were financed by donations.
In 1993 the twins went on a private ten-day trip to Germany; there they experienced accessibility and respect for people with disabilities for the first time.
The twins tried unsuccessfully to get rid of their alcohol addiction , including through acupuncture, hypnosis and ampoules that were implanted under the skin .
In recent years, due to massive discrimination, the twins avoided the public eye, listened to Modern Talking music and read novels about World War II .
On April 13, 2003, Masha began to complain of back pain; on April 17, both twins died in a Moscow hospital. Her ashes were buried in the Novodewitschi Cemetery (Новоде́вичье кла́дбище, in German "Neujungfrauenfriedhof").
Quotes
“They have been living in one body for 49 years and yet are as different as day and night: the Siamese twins Masha and Dasha. One is rebellious and combative, the other gentle and popular. They tell from very different perspectives about their one, inextricably linked life, the dramatic conditions under which they grew up in Russia, and the thoughts and feelings of Siamese twins. "
“Review note on 'Süddeutsche Zeitung', March 31, 2000: Fascinated and equally horrified, Bettina Ehrhardt speaks about the life story of the Siamese twins Masha and Dasha recorded here, who each have their own nervous and digestive systems, but only one blood circulation . The reviewer is horrified not by the book, but by the life that the two of them have been expected to face up to now. Her autobiography also sheds light on how the physically handicapped were treated in the USSR. From the fact that their mother was told that they had died, to the cruel human experiments that were carried out on the twins, to their deportation to a nursing home and the “monster” greed for sensation among the population: “A disturbing story of the fight about dignity and humanity and normality ”is offered to the reader here. According to the reviewer, the author tries to orient herself as closely as possible to the language of the two women. "
“Book of a journalist revealed: Cruel experiments on Siamese twins; dated August 12th, 2017: 'Moscow (Russia) - Mascha and Dascha Krivoshlyopova were the oldest living Siamese twins in the world. They died in 2003 at the age of 53. In their childhood they were abused by Russian scientists for experiments. '; 'The full extent of the ordeal of the mutated twins and their different characters is described by journalist Juliet Butler in her recently published book:' The Less You Know the Sounder You Sleep '.' ... The journalist had made friends with the twins, whose personalities could not have been more different. ... Mascha was mean, a psychopath who emotionally abused Dasha, says Juliet Butler. 'Normal people can escape from such relationships - Dasha was at the mercy of Masha,' Butler told the 'Dailymail'. "
literature
- Juliet Butler: Masha & Dasha. Autobiography. Scherz, Bern / Munich / Vienna 2000, ISBN 978-3-502-15097-8 .
Web links
- Article from SPIEGEL No. 11/2000 of March 13, 2000: "No more gossiping"
- "Siamese twins tortured by Stalin's scientists - and how one condemned herself to death after refusing separation when her sister died" (English)
- "Life in a sister's shadow - Juliet Butler on how she came to write a novel based on the lives of Russian conjoined twins" (English)
- The torture and sadness of Russia's most famous conjoined twins - Juliet Butler on the suffering and resilience of Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapova, two mismatched souls bound up in the same body - by Joanne Latimer;
- Soviet documentary about Masha and Dasha on YouTube