The fate of the USSR's most famous Siamese twins (2024)

One day in April 2003, at around midnight, Masha’s heart stopped. For the previous 14 years, she and her sister had lived in their room at Moscow’s Home for Labor Veterans No. 6. When Dasha woke up in the morning, she thought that her sister was “sleeping soundly”, but she called members of staff for help, because she didn’t feel well - she felt strangely weak and had a headache. “Please don’t leave me and Masha alone. We are very scared,” Dasha pleaded, so doctors were called to see them.

One of the Krivoshlyapova sisters had suffered an acute heart attack and was already dead. The medics realized this straight away. “We’ve always been told lies by everyone around us,” the sisters used to say prior to that moment. They were lied to on this occasion, too: Dasha was not told what had happened to her “other half”. She just slowly deteriorated. Seventeen hours later, she died in her sleep from blood poisoning. She was 53.

The fate of the USSR's most famous Siamese twins (1)

Vladimir Vyatkin/Sputnik

By that time, everybody in the new Russia had already forgotten about the Krivoshlyapova sisters. In the Soviet Union, though, they had been a sensation: The first Siamese twins born in the USSR to have survived! The girls were born with two heads, four arms and three legs (the third one was at right angles to the spine and consisted of two fused legs with nine toes). Each of the sisters had her own lungs, heart, stomach, kidneys and small intestine. The two shared a large intestine and bladder.

The fate of the USSR's most famous Siamese twins (2)

Vladimir Vyatkin/Sputnik

The Krivoshlyapova sisters were convinced that, had they not been born in the Soviet Union in the mid-20th century, everything would have been different. But, it seems they were destined to live at the most unfavourable time for them: Locked inside one body, the sisters became “guinea pigs for experiments” within days of their birth.

Difficult birth

In 1950, the first days of the new year proved to be a real hell for ordinary Soviet seamstress Yekaterina Krivoshlyapova - she was in labor for two days and two nights. She needed a Cesarean section. Ultrasound machines appeared in the USSR only eight years after Masha and Dasha were born, so nothing had been known about their abnormality until the very last moment. “Twins!” the young midwife exclaimed and promptly fainted.

The fate of the USSR's most famous Siamese twins (3)

Vladimir Vyatkin/Sputnik

While Yekaterina was still in a state of semi-consciousness, it was decided to hide the babies from her. And when she came to, the mother was told: “Unfortunately, your babies were stillborn.”

The fate of the USSR's most famous Siamese twins (4)

Vladimir Vyatkin/Sputnik

This decision was taken with the participation of the girls’ father - Mikhail Krivoshlyapov, who had been present during the childbirth. At the time, he was working as the personal chauffeur of Lavrentiy Beria, known as Stalin’s executioner. The twins’ death certificate was issued on the same day.

The fate of the USSR's most famous Siamese twins (5)

Oleg Vlasov/TASS

Yekaterina rose from her hospital bed two weeks later. She didn’t believe that the babies had been stillborn. “I heard a baby crying,” she said. One trainee nurse took pity on her and led her to an incubator ward where the twins were being kept. After what she saw, Yekaterina developed mental problems and spent the following two years in a psychiatric clinic.

The fate of the USSR's most famous Siamese twins (6)

Legion Media

The state provided full-time care for Masha and Dasha - they spent the first seven years of their life under the supervision of prominent physiologist Pyotr Anokhin at the Pediatric Institute of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, where research was carried out on this very rare case of ischiopagi - twins joined at the pelvis.

Tests of survival

As would become evident subsequently, the girls were inseparably linked to each other not just physically, but also at the level of feelings and sensations. They had identical dreams; when one drank, the other got drunk; when one ate her fill, the other also felt full; when one was receiving dental treatment, the other felt pain and nausea as the anesthetic wore off; when one began to think of something, the other would continue the thought. But at that point, in the Pediatric Institute, the physiologists were merely attempting to ascertain the limits of their responsiveness to each other - by means of cruel experiments.

The fate of the USSR's most famous Siamese twins (7)

Oleg Vlasov/TASS

Scientists wanted to discover the roles of their separate nervous and cardiovascular systems, as well as their ability to adapt to extreme situations, such as sleep deprivation, sharp temperature fluctuations and hunger. At the age of three, they were held in ice for a long period of time. After this, one of the girls caught pneumonia and her body temperature reached 40°C, while the other girl had no symptoms. Juliet Butler, a British journalist and Masha’s biographer, knew the twins for 15 years when she and her husband lived in Russia. She stated: “They were injected with various substances, including radioactive iodine, to see how quickly it affected the other sister. Then they were measured with Geiger counters.”

The fate of the USSR's most famous Siamese twins (8)

Legion Media

“The Stalin era” was the term used to explain away the utter cruelty of the scientific research. With the advent of Nikita Khrushchev and greater openness, the situation changed, and the press treated the first Soviet Siamese twins sympathetically for a time and the experiments were terminated. After the death of Professor Anokhin, American scientists made an “offer” for the twins, proposing to give the girls an education, occupational therapy and, subsequently, employment. But the Soviet medics turned down the request, despite the fact that, at the age of seven, the sisters were incapable of walking and even sitting was an effort for them.

‘We started drinking at the age of 12’

With the completion of the scientific phase of the research, interest in the Krivoshlyapovas started tailing off. Thanks to the scientists, they were briefly sent to the Central Research Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics. There, their third leg was amputated “to stop it from attracting so much attention” and they received a primary education.

The fate of the USSR's most famous Siamese twins (9)

Legion Media

The twins had troubled feelings about the amputation: “After the removal of our leg, it was a long while before we were quite ourselves again. It was just like a normal person losing their leg. Our greatest fear was that everyone would be laughing at us. We’re very shy as it is, and feel enormously self-conscious about our appearance. And when we ended up legless, we were afraid of being seen by anyone for around six months.”

But the Krivoshlyapovas describe the moment they started walking with the aid of crutches (each of the sisters could only control one leg) as “the happiest of our lives”.

The fate of the USSR's most famous Siamese twins (10)

Legion Media

“It was the most terrible experience of our lives,” they were to say soon after this when, aged 12, they ended up in another institution - a Novocherkassk boarding school for children with motor impairment.

The fate of the USSR's most famous Siamese twins (11)

Legion Media

“While we were there, the thought of suicide crossed our minds for the first time in our life. For some reason, the other kids took an immediate disliking to us. We found ourselves frequently quarelling with the other girls. Masha was always fighting. While we were at the school, we had to endure constant mockery, humiliation and insults. For instance, in return for a bottle of vodka, boys from the class would show us to the local village children. Our classmates would frequently pour water into our bed and we would spread out a sheet of impermeable cloth and say nothing about it and this drove them mad… At boarding school, we started to stammer badly. The director of studies supported us to a certain extent, but it was still very hard. Can you imagine no-one at all talking to you?” they said.

It was at this time, at the age of 12, that they started drinking.

Popular and unhappy

The alcohol problems only got worse with the passage of time. Mind you, it was only Dasha who suffered from alcoholism, while Masha smoked a lot. The two were not very tolerant of the habits of the other and, to the surprise of many, they were fundamentally different personality types. “We are two completely different people locked inside a single body,” they used to say.

The fate of the USSR's most famous Siamese twins (12)

Oleg Vlasov/TASS

Dasha was more focused, calm and responsible. Masha had a short attention span, showed mood swings and was rebellious and physically stronger (when the sisters moved around, it was Masha who supported practically the whole weight of their shared body). While Dasha’s school report book was peppered with As and Bs until Year 9, Masha scarcely managed a C and usually got no more than a D and was always copying her sister’s work. “The teachers couldn’t seat us apart,” they joked.

The fate of the USSR's most famous Siamese twins (13)

Russian Conjoined Twins Masha And Dasha Krivoshlyapova In Moscow

Legion Media

The sisters were frequently at loggerheads into adulthood. They couldn’t even agree on whether to seek out their birth mother. Masha was against the idea. In the end, they did trace her and discovered they had two birth brothers. “Instead of joyful embraces, we were greeted by a woman with the stony look of a complete stranger. From the entrance door, we were showered with reproaches and questions about where we had been and why we hadn’t come looking straight away,” Masha recalled. The brothers, two perfectly sound and healthy lads, refused point blank to accept they could be related. The sisters’ father has already passed away by that time, having succumbed to brain cancer in 1980.

They moved to Moscow in 1989 and were allocated a room in a home for war and labor veterans. But they continued to be stigmatized even there. In the 1990s, Western journalists took an interest in the Krivoshlyapovas (the twins almost always refused to talk to Russian journalists). In 1993, the sisters visited Germany, where a film was made about them, and then they went to Paris. Eventually, Masha’s autobiography, authored by Juliet Butler, earned them a large amount in royalties - around £10,000. The twins spent it on foreign foods, a computer and cigarettes, while the rest was kept in cash by them in a safe which stood in their room (and disappeared immediately after their death). “It’s envy,” is how they explained the stigmatization they were subjected to.

The fate of the USSR's most famous Siamese twins (14)

Legion Media

“In December 1997, I learned that Masha and Dasha were in a bad way,” recounted Sergei Fedorchenko, chief physician at the Perm Centre for the Treatment of Substance Abuse. “They drank terribly. All the attempts to get them to shake off their alcohol dependency came to nothing.”

Cirrhosis of the liver and pulmonary edema were diagnosed in the twins, after which they joined Alcoholics Anonymous and embarked on addiction therapy. But it didn’t last long. Fearing they would undergo a breakdown and die, the doctors took them off the treatment.

The fate of the USSR's most famous Siamese twins (15)

Legion Media

On their 50th birthday, they said: “We drink because we realize what freaks we are. Everything we’ve achieved in life we had to do for ourselves, through tears and entreaties. And that’s despite the fact that every step of the way people were shouting: ‘You’re unique! You’re entitled to anything! You need to take advantage of it!’ But take advantage of what - our freakishness? We have lived to be 50 thanks to our strong characters.”

If using any of Russia Beyond's content, partly or in full, always provide an active hyperlink to the original material.

Subscribe

to our newsletter!

Get the week's best stories straight to your inbox

') }, error: function() { $email.val(''); alert('An unknown error occurred. Try later.'); } }); } if (isDaily) { $.ajax({ type: "GET", dataType: "json", url: 'https://subscribe.rbth.com/subscribe//' + $email.val() + '?_t=' + (new Date()).getTime(), success: function () { $subscribe.addClass('subscribe_complete'); $subscribe.html('

Almost Finished...

') }, error: function() { $email.val(''); alert('An unknown error occurred. Try later.'); } }); } } }); }; initFormSubmit(); $completeButton.on('click', function (evt) { evt.preventDefault(); evt.window.location.reload(); }); }());

The fate of the USSR's most famous Siamese twins (2024)

FAQs

What happened to Masha and Dasha? ›

Death. Masha fell ill on 13 April 2003, complaining of back pain. She died of a heart attack the following day, seventeen hours after the onset of her symptoms. Dasha was taken to the First City Hospital and died seventeen hours later due to blood poisoning from the toxic byproducts of Masha's decomposing body.

Why can't you say Siamese twins anymore? ›

Most doctors now use the term conjoined twins, but the jargon hasn't been embraced the way Down's syndrome was in the 1960s. Part of the reason may be that Siam became Thailand in 1939. Perhaps many of us don't think of Siam as a place any more, so the adjective Siamese seems unobjectionable.

What happened to the Siamese twins joined at the head? ›

They were successfully separated when they were two years, four months old, in Dallas, Texas, in a 34-hour surgery. Today they live in Egypt and are doing well. Their success story can be attributed to advances made in separation surgeries that preceded them.

Who are the most famous Siamese twins? ›

By the 1830s Chang and Eng were household names, becoming so notorious that future conjoined twins would also be known as “Siamese Twins.” The twins' story continues to fascinate people today, and the brothers remain among the most famous North Carolinians.

How old were Masha and Dasha when they died? ›

They were the world's oldest living conjoined twins at the time of their death in 2003 aged 53. Snatched from their Russian mother following their birth, Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyopova were subjected to a variety of cruel medical 'experiments' by Stalin's Soviet medical authorities.

What is the story of Masha and Dasha? ›

Born in Russia in 1950, conjoined twins Masha and Dasha were studied extensively by Russian scientists. The new mother was told that her twin babies had died after birth. However the truth was far different: they were sent to an institute near Moscow to be studied.

What happens if one conjoined twin dies? ›

If one twin dies, emergency separation is necessary to save the other twin.

Are Abby and Brittany still conjoined? ›

Abby and her sister, Brittany, were not surgically separated at birth because the procedure would have been too risky. Since 1990 they have been together, leading happy lives. Both sisters now work as fifth grade teachers in their home state of Minnesota.

Have conjoined twins ever had a baby? ›

Of all the female conjoined twin sets either documented by medical authorities or referenced in ancient literary sources, in only one case were pregnancy and delivery successfully achieved by the conjoined twins themselves.

What happens to conjoined twins if one goes to jail? ›

If Guilty Twin is punished, Innocent Twin will necessarily suffer the punishment. However, forgoing punishing the innocent sets the guilty twin free. Thus, only two options are available: punish both twins or punish neither twin. What should the criminal law do?

Do conjoined twins share the same private part? ›

A single lower rectum and anus is common, and often the lower genital tract and external genitalia are fused. Ischiopagus: represents less than 5 percent of cases, the connection occurs at a single bony pelvis. Four normal legs may be attached, but often two of the four are fused into one malformed limb.

Has there ever been conjoined triplets? ›

Key words. The occurrence of conjoined twins also referred to as “Siamese twins” is a rare, but widely known, phenomenon. According to the literature, merely a handful of cases of conjoined triplets and quadruplets are known from the 19th and the early 20th century.

Do conjoined twins sleep at the same time? ›

Substantial inde- pendence of sleep and waking was present. One-fourth of the waking time of one twin and one-third of the waking time of the other occurred in the presence of sleep of his twin. While both twins were asleep, Quiet Sleep and Active Sleep were independent in their appearance.

How did Chang and Eng make babies? ›

Both couples proved to be unusually fertile, and after producing four children in two years, they alternated having sex: Chang would mate with his wife, and she would become pregnant, while Eng and his wife abstained; after Chang's wife had her baby, they would abstain, and Eng and his wife would have sex.

How rare is it to be a Siamese twin? ›

Conjoined twins, popularly referred to as Siamese twins, are twins joined in utero. It is a very rare phenomenon, estimated to occur in anywhere between one in 49,000 births to one in 189,000 births, with a somewhat higher incidence in Southwest Asia and Africa.

What happened to the baby Masha the cat saved? ›

The baby was immediately rushed to a local hospital, where he was given a checkup and declared fit and healthy, officials said. Since the child was found, Masha has been hailed as a hero by local residents — and she's been reaping the benefits. “Everyone in the block is very proud of her,” Lavrova said.

Why is Masha not with her parents? ›

Family. Parents or other adult relatives of Masha have never shown up. However, this does not mean that she does not have parents, they simply "are not suitable for a fairy tale" and "too busy, shy and do not want to act in a film". In addition, Masha has cousin Dasha living in the city — "such a cousin, as a sibling".

What happened to Jadon and Anias McDonald? ›

Anias, left, and Jadon McDonald were born conjoined at the head, something only seen in 1 out of every 2.5 million live births. They were separated in a 27-hour surgery at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center in New York in October. Nicole and Christian McDonald talk with Dr.

What happened to Katie and Eilish Holton? ›

In 1992, the twins were surgically separated. Katie Holton did not recover from the operation, dying four days later.

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Allyn Kozey

Last Updated:

Views: 5856

Rating: 4.2 / 5 (43 voted)

Reviews: 82% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Allyn Kozey

Birthday: 1993-12-21

Address: Suite 454 40343 Larson Union, Port Melia, TX 16164

Phone: +2456904400762

Job: Investor Administrator

Hobby: Sketching, Puzzles, Pet, Mountaineering, Skydiving, Dowsing, Sports

Introduction: My name is Allyn Kozey, I am a outstanding, colorful, adventurous, encouraging, zealous, tender, helpful person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.