Zurab Tsereteli's Nobility: How the Sculptor Forgave Vysotsky's Debt

When a great man passes away, the true nature of the people around him becomes especially evident. The story of how Vladimir Vysotsky's close ones reacted to the question of his debts became a true lesson in nobility and cultural wisdom.

The burden of memory and debt

After the death of Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky on July 25, 1980, his close friend Arthur Makarov faced a task that would be a test for anyone - to pay off the poet's debts to friends and acquaintances. The total amount was 38 thousand rubles - significant money for those times, equivalent to approximately one year's salary of a qualified specialist.

Makarov decided to sell both of Vysotsky's cars to fulfill this moral obligation. Most of the people to whom Volodya owed money accepted the payments without objection. Among them was the famous screenwriter Eduard Volodarsky, who received the amount due to him.

The man who remembered more

However, there was also someone who decided to take advantage of the situation. One of the acquaintances, after receiving the five thousand rubles due to him, sent his assistant with an additional request. The messenger reported that his boss allegedly remembered that he had once given Vysotsky another 700 rubles, which he had initially forgotten to mention.

This episode highlights what happened next in contrast. The difference between the pettiness of some and the nobility of others becomes especially obvious against the backdrop of Zurab Tsereteli's act.

Georgian lesson of dignity

The great sculptor Zurab Konstantinovich Tsereteli, to whom Vysotsky owed five thousand rubles, behaved completely differently. When Makarov came to pay the debt, Tsereteli categorically refused to accept the money.

His explanation became a lesson in cultural wisdom and humanity. Tsereteli said that this money should remain for Vysotsky's sons. And then he added a phrase that revealed the depth of the Georgian cultural tradition:

In Georgia, when a friend dies, money is brought to the family, not taken away.

These words reflect a fundamental principle of Caucasian culture, where the death of a friend is not a moment for summing up financial results, but a time to support the orphaned family. Debt ceases to be a debt when its debtor has passed away. Instead, a new obligation arises - to help those who remain.