If Ruslana Korshunova were alive, she would be a super beauty on the model list.
When she debuted at the age of 16, she was nicknamed "Russian Rapunzel" by the industry for her long knee-length hair.
Fairy-like looks, princess-like posture, before the age of 20, she won a number of big-name advertising endorsements, and the perfume advertisement shot for Nina Ricci was even titled a classic.
But it all came to an abrupt end in the early hours of June 28, 2008. Ruth Lana, who was 21 days old, jumped from a 9-story apartment in the lower half of Manhattan and died on the spot. When the security guards of the apartment building found her, they found that Ruth Lana was not only unclothed, but also had her beautiful long hair cut.
Over the next 11 years, conspiracy theories about what Luslana had experienced that led to suicide, sexual assault by gangsters, forced prostitution, and so on spread.
It wasn't until 2019 that an investigative journalist for the Russian newspaper Novata, named Elena Kostyuchenko, Elena Kostyuchenko, revealed on Facebook the investigation in which he had personally participated.
in Elena
A heartbreaking dark story has finally surfaced.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="25" > the collapse of the rapunzel</h1>
Ruslana was born on July 2, 1987 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where her father died when she was 5 years old and her mother lived with her and her brother, who was 8 years her senior.
Cheerful and lively Ruth Lana, with the support of her mother, began model auditioning, from Moscow and Milan all the way to the big stage of New York. Ruth Lana's appearance is in line with the trend of elf baby face models.
At that time, the British version of VOGUE already considered her to be an "exciting face".
The money brought by fame allowed Ruth Lana's mother and brother to live a good life. Her mum, Valentina, said her daughter was intimate and had nothing to say: "She was an ambitious child, serious about every job, always looking for the next opportunity to make her more successful. ”
But her mother did not know that Ruth Lana, who had left home as a young child, her life in New York was not as happy and smooth as she said.
After Ruth Lana jumped to her death, her model friend said in an anonymous interview: "In Paris, Milan and New York, rich businessmen often hold dinners and invite us for free. Ruth Lana and I both went there, because we were poor models who had just debuted, and it was the only chance to eat good things. ”
When the news of Ruth Lana's suicide by jumping off a building came out, many media did news investigations and found that a large number of teenage models were recruited to the United States by companies from various countries, but only provided cheap accommodation and meager hourly wages.
After becoming famous, Ruth Lana, who had been hungry, met more wealthy merchants "hunting". Free island tours, VIP boxes in nightclubs, men chasing teenage girls, wanting to "taste the early".
In the end, Ruth Lana is chased by a wealthy merchant who calls himself Alexander, who is married, cheats him that he has separated from his wife, and vows to divorce and marry her.
The 18-year-old girl took him home to meet her mother and brother and believed in the promise. But after living together for more than a year, Alexander found a new little girlfriend and immediately dumped Ruth Lana. Her friend said: "Suddenly she became one of his thousand girls, nothing." ”
Unfortunately, 20-year-old Ruth Lana has passed the golden age of the fashion circle's "beloved young woman", and she is facing transformation and competition. At this time, she met a second relationship, a Russian businessman who ran a luxury car business in New York.
According to Ruth Lana's friend, she is truly in love with her boyfriend, but the other party is no different from the rich businessman before: "He 'test drives' more women than his car." In the bottleneck period of her career, in the torture of two relationships, 20-year-old Ruth Lana exploded and fell to the brink of collapse step by step.
In the spring of 2008, Ruth Lana, who had returned to Moscow in poor spirits, and a Ukrainian model friend named Anastasia Drozdova, overheard the popular "devotional course" in the modeling circle and decided to sign up with curiosity.
(Anastasia also committed suicide in Kiev, Ukraine, in 2009 after Ruth Lana committed suicide by jumping off a building.) ）
They entered "Rose of the World's Earthly Roses," an organization founded in Russia. Founder and mentor Vladislav Novgorodtsev attracted wealthy people from all walks of life with a spiritual curriculum wrapped in a religious cloak.
After three months of "spiritual baptism," Ruth Lana returned to New York. When her friends thought she would return to her state, the girl soon jumped out of her 9th-floor apartment and ended her short life.
She was unsuited, her signature long hair was cut, and her final landing position did not conform to physical reckoning. For a time, rumors of "Ruth Lana jumped off the building after prostitution", "Ruth Lana was sexually assaulted and jumped off the building", and "Ruth Lana was kidnapped by the gang and escaped and jumped off the building".
There is no topic, more eye-catching than the tragic death of a 20-year-old girl.
(Ruth Lana's "luxury car" boyfriend mourned at the place of her death)
Ruth Lana's mother rushed to New York, cried to the media that her daughter's unjust death was murder, and did not believe that she had just finished talking to her on the phone shortly after, saying that her daughter who wanted to continue her study and work would choose suicide: "She is so young, so many plans, impossible!" ”
However, after the FBI scene and autopsy investigation, it was said that there was no suspicion at the scene, and there were no drug residues in Ruth Lana's body, including the location of the landing, presumably caused by her last moment of acceleration and rushing out of the balcony.
The case soon ended, and her mother performed a funeral for her and brought her ashes back to Moscow for burial.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="25" > withered "earthly roses."</h1>
The news of Ruth Lana's death sparked a big discussion in the New York modeling industry at that time, and there were continuous initiatives to care for young models, anti-exploitation, and focus on mental illness intervention.
When the news returned to Kazakhstan and Russia, it attracted the attention of Elena Kostyuchenko, an investigative journalist for The New Newspaper, Elena Kostyuchenko.
(Elena and Ruth Lana were the same age, both in their early 20s.) ）
As Elena went through the interviews of Ruth Lana's friends, she noticed that someone had mentioned the "Rose of the World," a religious spiritual organization. So she decided to infiltrate the organization herself, wondering what Ruth had experienced in the three months of her life.
In a Facebook post in 2019, she wrote: "Did I hesitate? No, not at all. Am I afraid? Of course not. I am a mentally healthy investigative journalist, and only those 'weak' who are easily seduced by cults will be affected! ”
(Schematic)
However, to be on the safe side, before the five-day "devotional," a psychologist gave Elena a training session and asked her to meet with her and tell what she had seen and heard after each day's "devotional."
The five-day devotional officially began, and Elena, who had a mini camera hidden in her chest, paid about 1500 yuan and entered the "Rose of the World" headquarters.
According to her recollection, the entire classroom was dimly lit, the windows were covered with black cloth, and dozens of people were divided into groups of 5 people, from all walks of life, from beautiful female anchors to small and wealthy businessmen.
(Mentor Vladislav Novgorodtsev and wife) (Mentor Vladislav Novgorodtsev and wife)
She said that on the first day, the founder gave everyone a dismount: "Everyone sat around together and heard the mentor shout out' 'The weak can't pass my training, the end is very miserable'." After that, a whole set of brainwashing processes officially began.
The group members sat up together in the mentor's slogan and repeated it for several hours, during which the tutor shouted empty sentences such as "Unite as one, overcome obstacles" and so on. A group of people then sat around, sharing the darkest experiences and thoughts of their lives, and vowed to "protect the privacy of the group members and not to mention the training content to anyone outside the organization." ”
Again, during the 12-hour "training," there was only a short lunch break at noon, and smoking was not allowed, and once found, it was labeled "loser" and kicked out.
Elena said: "On the first day, this man made me very angry, he kept talking about meaningless excerpts, and regularly picked out participants to come out and insult, which was too stupid. ”
Elena said that during the second half of the first day of grinding training, she was so tired that she could not think, but mechanically repeated the teacher's request for "I have a problem" slogan.
(Vladislav Novgorodtsev)
When she talked to the psychologist at the end of the day, she confidently said, "It's not a cult at all, it's just a bunch of adults who are yelling and screaming and confused." But psychologists ask me, 'Why don't you smoke?' The day is over, why not smoke? I realized that I had begun to be influenced, and I often thought back to what my mentor had said and felt that I had a problem. ”
"To be honest, I don't remember the details of the next three days, I just remember when I couldn't win the game with everyone, the mentor said ' I'm afraid of taking responsibility, I should be ashamed', so I lay on the ground and cried, feeling terrible. Other members also began to 'admit' that they were losers, with too many shortcomings to cry uncontrollably. ”
"I even want to go undercover publicly, feeling sorry for everyone who is 'united', should not betray, and hope that they will forgive me." At the end of the fourth day, I argued with her in the psychologist's office, trying to prove to her that we were wrong, that the organization was good, that everyone just wanted to be better people, that people who helped each other, that people who committed suicide were weak, that the wrong lives were their own fault. ”
Seeing that Elena's state had taken a sharp turn for the worse, before the fifth day of the devotional, the psychologist stopped her and notified her colleagues at the newspaper office to watch her.
Elena said, "I actually felt very sorry for the devotional team members, and I was ashamed and embarrassed. ”
Worse didn't come, and in the weeks that followed, Elena entered a period of intense self-loathing and depression, unable to raise interest in anything, desperate:
"All the things I'm afraid of get big, the night, the spiders, I can't go out and take the subway to work. I thought, 'If I jump off a building and commit suicide, all the pain will be over.' But I realized that I didn't even have the strength to climb to the windowsill, I couldn't die, and I was even more desperate. ”
Elena was lucky in the end, the psychologist carried out a timely psychological intervention, a month and a half later successfully discharged from the hospital, but she said: "The sunny part of my body, disappeared a lot, and then the depression also recurred." ”
(Ruth Lana "Please don't touch the model")
Fearing that her illness would delay her job and reputation, Elena did not disclose her experience. It wasn't until 2019 that she plucked up the courage to make her story public, wanting to let people know about some similar experiences before Ruth Lana's suicide and the terrible impact of the cult on people.
in Ruth Lana
Elena, a determined investigative journalist, was tortured like this after only four days of "devotionals." It's hard to imagine what kind of fatal blow Ruth Lana's three-month "devotional" experience would have brought her.
Ironically, so many years after Ruth Lana's death, the "Earthly Roses" organization was simply disbanded, and the founder started a new "psychotherapy training course" and is still active.
(Continued to travel with his wife on luxury tours throughout Europe for many years)
Ruth Lana's mother, who still does not believe her daughter committed suicide, believes that it is murder. In a sense, maybe it's right.
She grew up with her mother and brother, and began to work away from home when she was a teenager. In the colorful showbiz industry, beauty brings fame and fortune, but also because of beauty to become a prey, it is targeted and eventually played in the palm of the hand.
(From left: Canadian model Jessica Stan, British model Lily Cole, Ruth Lana)
When I wanted to save myself, I fell into a new abyss, and for three months of "spiritual cultivation" of "you have a problem, suicide is your fault", in exchange for a shell-like mental state. Before Ruth Lana died, she cut off her trademark long hair and sped off the balcony on the 9th floor.
The long-haired fairy fell into the mortal world, crossed countless disasters and returned to heaven. Beautiful girl, may you rest in peace.