Tragic Details About Model Ruslana Korshunova

May 2024 · 2 minute read

Confronted almost from the beginning of her career with drugs, drink, and late-night frivolity, Ruslana Korshunova initially kept her head on her shoulders. In his Newsweek piece, journalist Peter Pomerantsev found that she was early to bed and preferred writing poetry on early online social networks to champagne and cocaine. Her close friend, Dinara Bogaoutdinova, told the New York Daily News that her "best friend" remained her mother. After her Nina Ricci campaign made her one of the most in-demand models in the world, she was feted by the Moscow elite. The Russian capital became one of her favorite cities — and would eventually be home to her grave (per The New York Times).

But in Moscow, Korshunova also had her first taste of heartbreak and failure. A young tycoon who made a habit of dating models won her heart but was quick to dump her, and her career stalled just as she was dealing with the relationship's end. And while Korshunova's family insisted that she didn't take modeling that seriously, many in the profession experience mental health issues. Indeed, it's a field that requires a great deal of artifice, and the line between image and reality is obscured by external and internal expectations.

Still, friends who saw Korshunova in her final days told the New York Post that she seemed positive, enthusiastic, and busy. They were shocked to learn of her death in 2008 from suicide. Only 20 years old, Korshunova jumped nine stories from her Manhattan apartment, according to The New York Times. She left behind no note.

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