Today, society treats people with disabilities kindly. They sympathize with the disabled and just those who are “not like everyone else”, offer various benefits and special conditions, and try to help. But things were quite different half a century ago. Siamese twins Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapov are one of the most famous in our country. In many interviews, the sisters talked about the fact that their life was not easy, and not only because of the unusual physiology.
Uneasy twins
Mikhail Krivoshlyapov worked as a personal driver for Lavrenty Beria, and his wife, Ekaterina Krivoshlyapova, was a housewife. The young couple dreamed of children and were incredibly happy when they learned about the onset of pregnancy. Catherine's belly increased quite quickly and was striking in its size, all the relatives immediately guessed: twins should be expected. On January 4, 1950, Siamese twins Masha and Dasha were born by caesarean section. According to one version, the doctor who delivered the baby would occasionally allowdrinking alcohol at work. He also abused on the day of the birth of unusual children. Seeing the twins, the doctor lost consciousness, and when he woke up, he decided never to drink alcohol again. Mothers of unusual sisters said that her children died almost immediately after giving birth. However, one of the nurses could not look at the experiences of the young woman and secretly showed her the girls. After what she saw, Ekaterina experienced a serious shock and went to a psychiatric hospital for several years.
Physiological characteristics of sisters
The Krivoshlyapov twins had two heads, four arms and three legs for two. The bodies of the sisters were connected at an angle of 90 degrees. The scientific name for this developmental anomaly is dicephales tetrabrachius dipus. Also, twins in the case of fusion in their lower extremities, pelvis and abdominal wall are often called ischiopagus. Scientists, of course, were interested in these children. There were many questions: are there common internal organs, and how does such a double organism function in general. The separation of Siamese twins was a rare operation in those days. However, all physiological possibilities should have been explored, after which this option could also be considered.
Childhood and youth
The Siamese twins Masha and Dasha spent the first seven years of their lives at the Institute of Pediatrics of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. In their mature interviews, the sisters recalled that time with horror. According to Masha and Dasha, various experiments were carried out on them daily, sometimes justterrifying in their cruelty and morbidity. Once the girls were put on ice to get sick, and the doctors were able to observe the body's reactions to the acute stage of a cold. After such a study, the sisters lay with a temperature of about 40 for several days and mentally prepared to say goodbye to life. But the girls were stronger and survived.
By the seventh birthday of the sisters, doctors received all the data they were interested in and successfully defended more than a dozen dissertations. After that, the Siamese twins Dasha and Masha Krivoshlyapov were transferred to the Central Research Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics. It was there that the girls met their second mother, nurse Nadezhda Fyodorovna Gorokhova. This woman was the first to treat the Krivoshlyapovs as ordinary children, and not as a scientific exhibit. At the institute, the sisters received their primary education and learned to walk.
Time passed, and interest in unusual twins faded. In adolescence, the sisters had their third leg amputated, after which they were sent from Moscow to Novocherkassk, to a regular boarding school for children with motor problems.
From the world of science to the real world
Siamese twins Masha and Dasha have suffered a lot from doctors in their first twenty years of life. But if life in scientific institutes was not very pleasant and easy, then after that a real hell began. In the boarding school, the sisters were immediately disliked. Other children constantly mocked them, sometimes physically offended them.
After the amputation of the third leg, the sisters could only move on crutches or a wheelchair. The "extra" limb performed a supporting function,having lost it, the girls felt worse. Moreover, in some interviews, the sisters said that they experienced phantom pains from time to time.
After 6 years of living in a boarding school in Novocherkassk, the Krivoshlyapov sisters returned to Moscow. It was 1970, they did not immediately manage to find a place for permanent accommodation. But after some time they were settled in a shelter for the elderly No. 6. The women lived there until their death. Nursing home neighbors recalled Dasha and Masha as sullen and aggressive. The sisters never smiled, often cursed, sometimes drank.
Was a separation possible?
According to some sources, in 1989 the sisters were offered a separation operation. There are no guarantees in such cases. Often the operation ends with the death of one of the twins or two at once. In addition, the case of the Krivoshlyapov sisters was unique and complex in itself.
Masha and Dasha had a common circulatory system and some internal organs. The separation of Siamese twins with this structure rarely has positive results. Be that as it may, even if the operation was offered, the sisters refused it without hesitation. They were too closely related to each other. Women told reporters that they see the same dreams and even read each other's thoughts. If you eat alone, the second does not feel hungry, and even the mood is often the same for two.
Relationships with family and society
Incredibly famousSiamese twins in the USSR Masha and Dasha were the first children of their parents. After the girls were born, their mother was treated in a psychiatric institution for several years. After recovery, the woman tried to find her children, but the meeting never took place. The sisters claim that they themselves found their mother and met her in adulthood, they were then 35 years old. The father was never interested in the fate of his children. They did not want to communicate with unusual sisters and two younger brothers who were born completely he althy. Masha and Dasha kept in touch with their mother for some time, but then refused to see each other in the future. Society treated unusual sisters with hostility. Siamese twins Dasha and Masha Krivoshlyapov visited Paris as adults. They were shocked that in Europe, passers-by on the streets did not look at them, and everywhere they were treated as ordinary people.
One body, two souls
Siamese twins are not so common in Russia. Masha and Dasha throughout their conscious life proved to others that they are two different people. Indeed, initially the girls had one birth certificate for two, and they did not want to give them two passports. At the same time, the sisters radically differed in characters and habits. Dasha was more vulnerable and softer, and Masha was calmer, in some ways rude. It's hard to believe, but despite their physiology, the sisters managed to fall in love with each other and once even almost got married. Dasha always dreamed of children and her family, but doctors told her in her youththat you shouldn't think about it. According to some sources, the sisters tried to commit suicide more than once. If such stories can be safely attributed to gossip and rumors, then there are irrefutable facts. In the last years of her life, Dasha began to drink heavily. Doctors even coded sisters for alcoholism, but this measure did not help.
A sad end
April 13, 2003 Dasha woke up and called the doctor because she felt very bad. The sisters were hospitalized, and it turned out that Masha had already died. A diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction was made. Alive Dasha was told that her sister was given an injection of a potent drug, and she was just sleeping. At this time, intoxication had already begun, and after 17 hours the second of the twins died. The sisters were 53 at the time. This is a rare case, because many other stories of Siamese twins end within a couple of years after the birth of unusual children. According to experts, Masha and Dasha could live longer if they refused to drink alcohol.
Media about the Krivoshlyapov twins
At first, the sisters were diligently hidden from the public. Experts believed that such a spectacle could frighten and shock Soviet citizens. But still, over time, documentaries and publications in the press began to appear. Gradually, the Krivoshlyapov sisters became known to the whole world and are quite popular. In adulthood, they from time to time personally gave interviews and talked to journalists. This unusual story has been covered more than once in major print media and even onCentral Television. Many viewers remember, for example, the release of the program “Let them talk” dedicated to the Krivoshlyapovs. The Siamese twins Masha and Dasha did not receive anything from such fame. The sisters lived their lives quite modestly, and the main source of income was their disability pension. After the death of the Siamese twins were cremated, their remains are buried in the columbarium at the Nikolo-Arkhangelsk cemetery.
