Is it true that Ukrainian refugees in Italy beat Joseph Brodsky?

In April 2022, Russian media reported that the granddaughter of the famous poet, living in Europe, was attacked by refugees from Ukraine. We checked the reliability of such publications.

On April 23, 2022, numerous materials appeared in the media dedicated to the beating of actress Agnia Mishchenko-Brodskaya. According to these publications, the woman was beaten near her house in Italy, Ukrainian refugees, and the reason for the conflict was supposedly that the Mishchenko-Brodskaya was a “Russian Jewish”. Similar notes and plots released, in particular, "Russian newspaper", "Fifth channel", Lenta.ru, "Moscow Komsomolets", Life, "Gazeta.ru" And "Ren-TV". Some publications, in particular "Tsargrad", "Komsomolskaya Pravda", "Arguments and Facts" And the newspaper "Sight", in their headlines they reported “Beating the granddaughter of Joseph Brodsky”. Writer and TV presenter Zakhar Prilepin in his Telegram channel suggestedthat the conflict can be associated with “very evil verses about the quasi -Ukrainian independence” written by the Nobel laureate (probably meaning poem "On the Independence of Ukraine").

To begin with, Agnia Brodskaya is a creative pseudonym of a 42-year-old actress. At birth she is Received The name Daria, her father is an actor and director, Honored Artist of Russia Vasily Mishchenko. In 2008, the actress to the interviewer’s question “You have so many names and surnames ... How can you dignify you?” answered: “I wanted to be remembered forever: Agnia Mishchenko-Brodskaya. Daria was called me by my parents, but my grandfather (Joseph Brodsky. - Approx. Author) at baptism gave me the name Agnia. And since all my life I lived with him in Italy, the second name was much closer to me. Daria, or rather even Dusya, only dad called me. " Now in the description of the woman’s profile on Instagram* indicated Name Agniya Brodskaya.

At the same time from interview Vasily Mishchenko is known that he was born in the Rostov region in the family of miners, and his wife and, apparently, the mother of Daria, director Olga Vikhorkova, in Dolgoprudny. In the same interview, Vasily Mishchenko told how from early morning “bombed” on the “Lada”, so that “to bring the daughter to the third lesson to dinner”.

Authoritative sources do not say anything about the connection of the Mishchenko family with Joseph Brodsky. It is known about two children of the Nobel laureate: born in Leningrad in 1967 Andrei Basmanov and was born in New York in 1993 Anna Brodskaya-Sotsani. Also the daughter of Brodsky counts Translator Anastasia Kuznetsova.

Let us return directly to media reports about the beating of the actress. Publications were based primarily on two videos compiled from the Storyz Mishchenko-Brodskaya on Instagram*. One of them is 23 seconds Published In its Telegram channel, Izvestia. In this video, the actress addresses the Ukrainians (Izvestia himself already wrote about refugees) and asks: “What did I do bad to you?” In its post, the publication also indicates: “I remember the whole chronology, a statement by the police, beatings were removed, so let law enforcement agencies understand,” the victim told Izvestia. Second video Published, in particular, the Ren-TV channel. It lasts six seconds more, at the beginning of the video, Mishchenko-Brodskaya says: “Only because I am a Russian Jewish, and me ********** (beaten.-Ed.) In front of my house.” Further, the video coincides with the published Izvestia. We were not able to find the appropriate videos in social networks of the actress.

April 24, the day after publications in the media, Mishchenko-Brodskaya Published Another video on Instagram*, at the beginning of which she stated that "she was stunned by our media." The actress said that she was “an unpleasant story” and, “being emotional and in a state of affect,” she “published Storiz rashly, somewhere infantile.” Mishchenko-Brodskaya also stated that she did not manage to delete the video, as she was busy submitting an application to the Roman police and a trip to the hospital, and immediately after that fell asleep.

According to the actress, the next morning she received numerous comments from the Russian media. To all these requests, Mishchenko-Brodskaya responded with an “absolute refusal”, and Storiz himself deleted. She called the information about Ukrainian refugees the “gag” of the Russian media: “These were not Ukrainian refugees. We have a very large community of Ukrainians from Western Ukraine. Of course, it is terrible what happened, but I did not give anyone the right to draw conclusions for me. I forgive these people. The degree of aggression that is in the air can tear the tower of anyone. I am alive, well, I have some bruises, swelling, but there are no fractures, nothing, ”said Mishchenko-Brodskaya.

The actress also challenged the reasons for the conflict presented in the publications of the Russian media: “I was beaten not because I was a Russian Jewish. I said in the video that I am not only Russian, but I am also a Jewish, and it’s scary if we now reach the fact that it was with the Jews. <...> I do not support anyone, neither Russians, nor Ukrainians. I support the Italians because I am a citizen of this country, I am married to Italian, all my earnings are in Italy. ” The woman kept silent about other details of the incident (including the circumstances in which the fight) was silent.

Thus, although actress Agnia Mishchenko-Brodskaya really reported a conflict with Ukrainians living in Italy, she did not talk about refugees anywhere. Considering that, according to the woman, she refused all the media in the comments, which are implausible and published on her behalf of the quote. Apparently, the media incorrectly indicate the reason for the fight. Contrary to the headings of a number of publications, Agnia Mishchenko-Brodskaya, is not related to the famous poet.

*Russian authorities They think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social network Instagram, an extremist organization, its activities in Russia are prohibited.

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