Personal life of Georgy Zhzhenov. Why actor Georgy Zhzhenov was imprisoned

Georgy Stepanovich Zhzhenov (March 9 (22), 1915, Petrograd - December 8, 2005, Moscow) - Soviet and Russian actor theater and cinema. People's Artist of the USSR (1980).

Georgy Zhzhenov was born on March 22, 1915 in Petrograd on Vasilyevsky Island. His parents Stepan Filippovich Zhzhenov and Maria Fedorovna Shchelkina came from poor peasant families in the Tver province. Stepan Zhzhonov moved to St. Petersburg as a child, where he began working for a fellow baker. He later married, but remained a widower and married a second time to a young orphan, Maria Shchelkina. By this time, he already had five children, and then there were children together. Georgy Zhzhonov recalled that their family lived poorly, and the more severe the need became, the more the father drank, drinking away everything that was in the house, often raising his hand against his wife. Georgy Zhzhonov’s mother was a kind, wise and loving person, and for Georgy she always remained “my beautiful Mother.”

Georgy Zhzhenov clearly remembered his biography from the age of 4, at which time he returned from the village where he was taken with his brother Boris because of the revolution. The next 22 years of Georgy’s life were spent on Vasilievsky Island, where the Zhzhenov family lived on the corner of First Line and Bolshoy Prospekt. In the spring of 1930, Georgy graduated from the 7th grade of the 204th Leningrad Labor School with a physics and mathematics focus, and in order to continue his studies in the 8th grade, he had to pass exams. However, young Georgy became interested in the circus, cinema and theater, and in 1930, having borrowed documents from his older brother Boris, he entered the acrobatic department of the Leningrad Variety and Circus College under the name Boris Zhzhenov. He subsequently confessed to his crime at the technical school and was forgiven.

A year later, Georgy Zhzhenov, together with fellow student Georges Smirnov, rehearsed a cascade eccentric act called “Chinese Table”, and began performing at the Leningrad Circus “Chapiteau” as a duet “2-Georges-2” in the genre of cascade acrobatics. During one of his performances, he was noticed by employees of the film group, who were selecting artists for a new film, and invited him to film at Lenfilm, offering main role tractor driver Pashka Vetrov in the film “The Hero’s Mistake.” Many years later, Zhzhenov joked about the title of his first film: “My whole life is complete mistake: hero, resident, and so on. Here... I got into cinema, became infected with it, exchanged the healthy smell of the playpen for the smell of acetone in the film studio pavilions.”

In 1931, Zhzhenov starred in an episode of the film “A Start to Life” (uncredited). Participation in filming changed Georgy's plans, and in 1932, leaving his circus career, Georgy became a student in the film actor department of the Leningrad Theater School.
At the theater school, Zhzhonov’s teacher was director Sergei Apolinarievich Gerasimov, and even before graduating from college in 1935, Zhzhonov managed to star in the films “ Crown Prince Republic", "Golden Lights", "Komsomolsk" and "Chapaev".

After the murder of S. M. Kirov, the elder brother Boris was convicted for not going to the funeral demonstration. The family was deported to Kazakhstan, Boris died in Vorkuta. Georgy Zhzhenov showed stubbornness, refused to be deported and was arrested, but at the request of S. A. Gerasimov, he was released and sent to the Lenfilm film studio. During the filming of the film “Komsomolsk” (1938), Georgy Zhzhenov traveled by train to Komsomolsk-on-Amur. On the train, he met an American diplomat who was traveling to Vladivostok to meet a business delegation. This acquaintance was noticed by film workers, which served as a reason for accusing Zhzhonov of espionage activities. On July 4, 1938, he was arrested on charges of espionage and sentenced to 5 years in forced labor camps. Transferred to Kolyma on November 5, 1939.

Georgy Zhzhenov met his first wife, Belarusian actress Zhenya Golynchik, while still studying. “When she was on her last date in transit in St. Petersburg, I told her: “Zhenya, don’t wait for me. More than ninety percent, I’ll die somewhere. In any case, you don’t need to make your life dependent on mine. You young. Thank you for everything, but live as you want. Let me not be the chains that remain on your conscience.” I met her when I returned from my first prison sentence. We saw that our lives had completely diverged,” Zhzhenov recalled.

Until 1943, Georgy Stepanovich was at the gold mines of Dalstroy, where he worked as a dispatcher in the garage of an excavator station. Sometimes he had to work as a driver. Soon his sentence was extended for another 21 months. On March 26, 1945, for good behavior and conscientious work, Zhzhonov was early released from the camp, and until December 1946 he worked at the Magadan Polar Drama Theater, where he met his second wife Lydia Vorontsova, who was arrested in 1935 in Leningrad “for relations with foreign sailors.” ”, and received 10 years of camps in Kolyma for this.

In June 1946, Lydia and Georgy had a daughter, Lena. Zhzhenov found work as an actor in the small town of Pavlovsk-on-Oka. Lydia was released only two years later. By that time, their family life was upset. But the daughter Lena remained. And when Zhzhonov received a letter from the Sverdlovsk region from his wife: “I was arrested again, the child is in the distribution center orphanage", - rushed to save his daughter. He managed to transport Lenochka to her mother in Leningrad. Lena later became an artist-designer.

And soon he was arrested again. Zhzhenov spent six months in prison in Gorky, after which he was sent into exile in Norilsk. Georgy Stepanovich did not want to leave for the North, but, as it has now become known, it was Lydia Vorontsova who achieved his exile to Norilsk. So she tried to reunite the broken family. At first, Georgy and Lydia actually lived together in exile in Norilsk. But soon the actor began to live separately. Lydia Vorontsova met her second husband, Sergei Prokopievich Tayozhny. After Vorontsova’s rehabilitation, they left for Riga.

In the Norilsk ITL (Norillag), Zhzhenov worked until 1953 at the Norilsk Polar Drama Theater, where he met I.M. Smoktunovsky and was his partner on stage. At a local club he mastered the camera and became the first in Norilsk to take color photographs. An unimaginable luxury at that time. “The old Norilsk residents still have traces of my activities,” recalled Georgy Zhzhonov. “Sometimes people even send me letters and include THOSE pictures of me.”

With my third wife - Irina Makhaeva, Georgy Zhzhenov met at a meeting of the troupe at the Norilsk Polar Theater in 1950. Irina Makhaeva was a freelance actress there. Marrying a prisoner at that time meant sharing his unenviable position with him. Irochka was 10 years younger than Georgy, but was not afraid of difficulties. It was she who achieved the release of Zhzhonov. After lifting the exile and rehabilitation on December 2, 1955, Georgy and Irina returned to Leningrad, where Irina officially became Zhzhonov’s wife and took his last name. In 1956 they gave birth to daughter - Marina, who later became a teacher.

At the age of 38, Zhzhonov began his professional life from scratch. He got a job as an actor at the Leningrad Regional Drama Theater and at the Lensovet Theater. There Zhzhonov met his fourth, last wife- Lidia Petrovna Malyukova. They had a daughter, Yulia, who currently works at the Mossovet Theater and teaches at VGIK.

Soon he again became a film actor at Lenfilm and began working in films, but his acting fate was quite difficult. For a long time He starred in supporting roles and in films that did not have much success with audiences. The actor’s most notable works of those years were his roles in the films “Corrected to Believe” and “The Night Guest.” Another hobby of Zhzhenov was football. He played in the Leningrad trade union team and, they say, played well. He was even offered to take up sports professionally, offering a choice - either football or cinema. Zhzhonov chose the latter.

In 1961, the film “Planet of Storms” directed by Pavel Klushantsev was released on the screens of the USSR, and immediately became a real hit. The appearance of the film coincided with Gagarin’s flight and the craze for astronautics, the conquest of the planets was seen just around the corner, and Klushantsev offered the viewer an educational and fascinating picture of how this could begin to happen in the near future. For Georgy Zhzhonov, working on the role in “Planet of Storms” became one of the first notable film roles after returning from the camps.

Georgy Zhzhenov first became famous after a small role in Eldar Ryazanov’s comedy “Beware of the Car,” in which he played a traffic inspector in 1966. The actor got into the character so accurately that his character was immediately remembered by the audience. Another bright and memorable work was the main role in the duology “The Path to Saturn” and “The End of Saturn”.

In 1968, Georgy Stepanovich moved to Moscow and began working at the Mossovet Theater. For for many years On the stage of this theater he played more than a hundred roles. In the same year of 1968, cinema came to finest hour Zhzhenov after the release of Veniamin Dorman’s adventure film “The Resident’s Mistake.” In 1970, the second film, “The Fate of the Resident,” was released. Twelve years later, Benjamin Dorman returned to the audience’s favorite characters, and in 1982 the third film “Return of the Resident” was released, and in 1986 the fourth film of the tetralogy “The End of Operation Resident” was released.

Over the years creative activity Georgy Zhzhenov played about 70 roles in films, films with his participation enjoyed popular love and became classics of Russian cinema. Georgy Stepanovich is the author of more than 10 books of memoirs, including about camp life in Kolyma and polar Norilsk: “From the Wood Grouse to the Firebird”, “Omchag Valley”, “Lived” and others. Zhzhonov loved life, which is why he probably did not age - he never looked his age. At the age of 90, he took his wife to the dacha and swam in the sea. “Lida, you and I are young,” he told her. “Just don’t make any sudden movements.”

IN recent years Georgy Zhzhenov played the only role in the play “On the Golden Lake” at the Mossovet Theater. In the “great play about two old men,” as Zhzhenov called it, he appeared on stage with People’s Artist of Russia Irina Kartasheva. After Zhzhonov’s death, she said: “I lost not only wonderful person and an actor, but also an amazing partner. Last time We played the play on October 3rd - it went wonderfully, the audience accepted it with all their hearts. It never occurred to me that Zhzhonov would never appear on stage again. He hid his illnesses and really didn’t like it when people asked about them. Georgy Stepanovich behaved well, was an amazingly straightforward and honest person - if he didn’t like something, he sometimes spoke about it quite sharply.”

3 weeks before his death, Georgy Zhzhenov fell unsuccessfully at home, after which he was diagnosed with a fractured femoral neck. He was brought to the Pirogov National Medical and Surgical Center, where the next day doctors performed surgery on the artist and installed a French endoprosthesis. As the orthopedic doctor Anton Serebryakov, who operated on the artist, said, the operation lasted only fifty minutes. The elderly artist was not given general anesthesia, but gentle spinal anesthesia - after all, Georgy Stepanovich was 90 years old.

Sidenko Sergey. Portrait of G. S. Zhzhenov.

While still in intensive care, Georgy Zhzhenov, with the help of doctors and his wife, began to try to walk, for which he was fitted with a special walker. The doctors had no doubt that Georgy Stepanovich would definitely get back on his feet, but on December 4, 2004, Georgy Zhzhenov was again hospitalized with inflammation of the respiratory tract. After a thorough examination, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. The doctors did not inform him of the fatal diagnosis, but insisted on surgery. Perhaps this would help defeat the insidious disease and prolong the life of a wonderful actor. Doctors hoped that the actor would cope with the injury, but his lungs could not stand it. A hemorrhage occurred in the pleural cavity, and on December 8, 2005, at the 91st year of his life, Georgy Zhzhenov’s life was cut short.

The funeral service for the deceased took place on the morning of Saturday, December 10, in the Cathedral of the Presentation Vladimir icon Mother of God Sretensky Monastery. Farewell to Georgy Zhzhenov took place at the Mossovet Theater, after which the artist was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

In Moscow, on the house where G.S. Zhzhenov lived (Zoologicheskaya St., 12/2), a memorial plaque was installed in 2010.

In 2009, a documentary film “Georgy Zhzhonov. Agent of Hope."

Many people are well aware of the wonderful Russian actor Georgy Zhzhenov. His biography and his family, which he created four times during his long life, are the topic of this article. Zhzhenov had to endure a lot of hardships, but he endured them with honor and dignity.

Origin and parents

Where was Georgy Zhzhenov born? His biography began in Petrograd in 1915 in the family of an artisan baker. His father Stepan Filippovich married Georgy's mother Maria Fedorovna, already being a widower and the father of five daughters. I just went to my native Tver village, looked for a girl for my wife and took her to St. Petersburg to raise existing children and give birth to new ones, of which six more people were added. The father did not particularly bother with raising his children; he was friends with the “green serpent.” The entire huge Zhzhenov family during the First World War and Civil War, post-war devastation and the first years Soviet power it was the mother, a simple Russian woman, whom Georgy Zhzhenov himself recalled with special warmth before last days of his long life.

Youth and the beginning of an acting career

But despite all the difficulties, the family lived; the older children grew up and left to live independent lives. Georgy's older brother Boris, with whom he was very friendly, entered the university in the early 30s, and he himself, being a very strong and athletic young man, after graduating from an eight-year school in 1930, entered the variety and circus school in the acrobatic department. A year later, circus actor Georgy Zhzhenov appeared, whose biography began in the arena of the Leningrad Circus in the acrobatic duet “2-Georges-2”. His performance partner was one of his fellow students, his namesake, hence the name of the duet.

Georgy Zhzhenov, whose biography subsequently took many sharp turns, always recalled with gratitude his circus origins. Until the end of his days, he maintained excellent physical shape (thanks to it, he probably survived in Kolyma), and even in his eighties, he performed acrobatic exercises.

Coming to cinema

It was in the circus that the “filmmakers” from Lenfilm noticed him and invited him to the main role in the film “The Hero’s Mistake” (1932). He leaves the circus and enters the Leningrad College of Performing Arts for a course taught by the famous Soviet film director Sergei Gerasimov. At the same time, he continues to act in films. Before his arrest in 1938, his filmography already included five films, including the super popular Soviet film hit “Chapaev”, in which Zhzhenov played Commissar Furmanov’s orderly Tereshka.

How did Georgy Zhzhenov live then? His biography at the beginning of his life was similar to millions of other biographies of young Soviet boys. It would seem that the future promises him excellent prospects. However, the young film actor had every reason to fear for his fate, and his fears were soon confirmed.

The origins of the life drama of Georgy Zhzhenov

In December 1934, the leader of the regional organization communists, in fact the second person in the country after Stalin and his competitor (at least that’s what many thought then) Sergei Kirov. This murder served as a pretext for Stalin and his entourage to begin the so-called great terror in the country. Charges were brought against many former prominent party members and statesmen. But gradually among the victims of the criminal practices of Stalin’s repressive bodies there were more and more ordinary people who had nothing to do with politics. So among them was Leningrad University student Boris Zhzhenov. The story that happened to him very clearly characterizes the atmosphere of hysteria and general suspicion in which Soviet society found itself in the second half of the thirties.

The fact is that Leningrad State University students were required to walk through the streets of Leningrad in a funeral procession. Boris asked the secretary of the Komsomol organization of his course to exempt him from this event, since he simply did not have normal shoes to withstand many hours of standing and walking in the cold (he hastily got to the university in his completely broken shoes). This request was regarded as a manifestation of reluctance to honor the memory of the deceased communist leader, and therefore a hostile attitude towards Soviet power itself. The following year, Boris was arrested, then sentenced to be sent to the Vorkuta camps, and the entire Zhzhenov family was expelled from Leningrad. His “filmmakers” friends stood up for Georgy, in particular Sergei Gerasimov himself. He had just started filming the film “Komsomolsk”, in which Georgy Zhzhenov was also involved. The latter’s biography as a free man extended for another two years, but the repressive authorities were simply looking for a reason to bring new charges against him.

First arrest

In the summer of 1938, a group of film actors, which included Zhzhenov, was traveling by train to filming in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Their traveling companion turned out to be an American diplomat heading to Vladivostok. The usual contact between fellow travelers occurred along the way (after all, we had been traveling for several days). But since all foreign diplomats in the USSR were continuously monitored at that time, a corresponding report was placed on a certain table in the central Moscow office of the NKVD, which listed all the actors who had contact with the foreigner. Since Zhzhenov at that time was already a relative of a convicted “enemy of the people,” he turned out to be the best candidate for charges of espionage against the USSR. Soon he was arrested in Leningrad at his apartment, where he lived with his first wife Evgenia, who was his classmate at the College of Performing Arts.

Two and a half years in Kresty

During the investigation, Zhzhenov went through all the circles of hell in Stalin’s dungeons. Everything that happened to him happened to him that is now widely known from the memoirs of other martyrs who passed along the same path. Endless interrogations “with passion,” beatings, sleep deprivation, when the defendant was put on the so-called investigative conveyor belt, which consisted of a continuous interrogation lasting a week (or more, depending on how long someone can stand it) by several investigators replacing each other. According to the recollections of Zhzhenov himself, when he, losing consciousness, fell to the floor, the investigator lifted him to his feet by his hair, and the interrogation continued.

Many could not stand it, signed absurd accusations, slandered other people, i.e. they did exactly what Stalin’s executioners needed to justify their actions. Zhzhenov’s cellmate, who made a similar deal with his conscience, could not withstand her remorse and committed suicide (he opened his veins under the blanket).

But Georgy Zhzhenov, whose biography will be filled with similar trials more than once, withstood all the bullying and torture, refused to admit the charge of espionage, and thereby saved his life. After all, everyone who confessed was usually sentenced to death. Zhzhenov was given 5 years in the camps, which, according to the “good” Stalinist tradition, lasted for two whole decades. What could Georgy Zhzhenov hope for when going to Siberia? Biography, family, children that he could have had - all this was now becoming inaccessible to him. He said goodbye to his wife and asked her not to wait for his return.

Kolyma, Kolyma, a wonderful planet, ten months are winter, the rest is summer

When the ship, whose hold was filled with hundreds of “prisoners,” delivered Zhzhenov to Nagaev Bay in Magadan, he was 25 years old. Ahead were five years of camps, hard exhausting work, hunger, cold, and a daily struggle for survival. After all, he endured the most difficult war years in Kolyma, when the already meager supplies were cut to a minimum. Entire camps with hundreds of “prisoners” perished from hunger. Zhzhenov spoke about one such case in one of his published stories about camp life, called “Sleigh”.

It was winter in one of the remote camp points, located several kilometers from the main camp. It was a hard-to-reach place where transport could only get through summer time. The authorities deliberately did not bring there a supply of food for the winter in the summer, and several hundred inhabitants of this camp, including Zhzhenov, began to starve and slowly die. At the same time, food was regularly delivered to the camp guards along the sled trail, because there were only a couple of dozen guards, and several hundred “prisoners.” And then the news comes that Zhzhenov received a parcel from his mother at the main camp, and probably with food. But how to get to the main camp of the “walker”, who, despite his youth and former strength, had difficulty moving on his feet due to chronic malnutrition. There was no question of sending the parcel to the camp point, because this would be a violation of order. And to lose warm place no one from the administration wanted to be thousands of kilometers from the front and end up in the trenches under German bombs. Zhzhenov was in despair. An accidental witness to this was the local NKVD commissioner, who visited the ill-fated camp (he arrived there on foot). It was he who invited Zhzhenov to go to the main camp with him, as if accompanied. Imagine George’s surprise when the next morning he saw this commissioner pulling a small sled that contained some kind of documentation. When they moved a decent distance away from the camp, Georgiy felt that his strength was leaving him and he was losing consciousness. Without saying a word, the commissioner put him on a sled and drove him several kilometers to the outskirts of the main camp, where he dropped him off, so that in front of the guards they found themselves in in the usual form: “convict” and the officer accompanying him. What made this officer show mercy, unusual for the NKVD, we will never know. But for the fact that he practically saved the future outstanding Russian actor, we can be grateful to him. After all, the mother’s parcel actually contained food that helped George survive that terrible winter.

Life between two imprisonments

In 1943, George was literally pulled out of a penal camp at the Glukhar mine by the head of a traveling acting propaganda team, Nikanorov. In the scary-looking, ragged "convict", covered with scabs and "chicks", he saw a former film actor and vowed to save him. First, Zhzhenov was transferred from the camp to the propaganda brigade, and then to the Magadan Musical Drama Theater, whose troupe consisted almost entirely of “prisoners.” What could Georgy Zhzhenov feel when he found himself again among like-minded people? Biography, family, children - all these ordinary human concepts again become close to him. He marries a prisoner like himself, actress Lydia Vorontsova, and their daughter Elena is born. This marriage could not last long, since both of them soon received new terms.

In 1945, his first sentence expired, and Zhzhenov briefly escaped from Kolyma. The director got him a job at the Sverdlovsk film studio. There he starred in the film “Alitet Goes to the Mountains,” which told about the socialist transformation of the life of the indigenous people of Chukotka.

Second term

And then the same thing happened to him as to many other victims. Stalin's repressions- second arrest and new sentence. This time he was sentenced to exile in Norilsk. Fortunately, there he managed to get a job in the same drama theater as in Magadan. By the way, his stage partner was who went to Norilsk to sit out there time of troubles at the turn of the forties and fifties, because he was afraid of being repressed for his short stay in German captivity in 1943.

What did Georgy Zhzhenov find in Norilsk besides acting? Biography, wife, children again became human concepts close to him. His third wife was Norilsk actress Irina Makhaeva. After leaving Norilsk, their daughter Marina was born.

Finding Freedom

In 1955, completely rehabilitated Zhzhenov returned to Leningrad. At first he works in the regional drama theater, but a year later he gets a job as a film actor at Lenfilm. Since then, films with his participation have appeared almost every year. He fit in new life It’s amazingly easy, as rarely did anyone who went through the horrors of the Gulag succeed. Undoubtedly, this was facilitated by good physical fitness, which Zhzhenov managed to preserve after all the troubles that befell him. Moviegoers were attracted to the characters he created by Zhzhenov’s restrained acting style, filled with genuine courage.

In 1960, he entered the What did Georgy Zhzhenov find in this team? His biography and personal life made a zigzag again. Georgy Stepanovich met his fourth wife Lydia Malyukova here, with whom he lived until his death. They had a daughter, Julia.

So how many descendants did Georgy Zhzhenov leave? Biography, children, family - all these concepts were always close to him, he strived for family life. In total, Zhzhenov has three daughters from three marriages, as well as several granddaughters and grandsons.

In the late 60s - early 70s, Zhzhenov gained national fame after playing the role of Zarokov-Tulev in the film dilogy “The Resident’s Mistake” and “The Resident’s Fate.” He moves to Moscow, enters the theater. Moscow City Council, where he worked for more than three and a half decades, until his death at the age of 91.

In his declining years, Zhzhenov became a true patriarch of Russian film and theater art. He was awarded many state awards. He was filmed documentaries, his 90th birthday was widely celebrated in the country.

Graduated from the Leningrad Variety and Circus College, in 1935 - the film department of the Leningrad Institute of Performing Arts (now St. Petersburg state academy theatrical art), teacher Sergei Gerasimov.

In his second year at the circus school, Georgy Zhzhenov, while performing an acrobatic act at the Shapito circus, was noticed by director Eduard Ioganson and invited him to star in the leading role in the silent film The Hero's Mistake (1932). In 1935, Zhzhenov became an actor at the Lenfilm and Belgoskino studios. By this time, he starred in the films “Crown Prince of the Republic” (1934), “Golden Lights” (1934), “Chapaev” (1935).

In July 1938, Georgy Zhzhenov was arrested on charges of espionage and sentenced to five years in prison. The reason was meeting an American on a train en route to Komsomolsk-on-Amur, where the actor was traveling as part of the film crew of the film “Komsomolsk” (1938). Until 1943, he worked at the Dalstroy gold mines. Then another 21 months of camps were added to the sentence.

In March 1945, Zhzhenov was released early from the camp and until December 1946 he worked at the Magadan Polar Drama Theater.

In the spring of 1947 he returned to Moscow. At the request of director Sergei Gerasimov, the actor was sent to work at the Sverdlovsk film studio feature films, where he began filming the film “Alithet Goes to the Mountains” (1949). In 1948, the studio closed and production of the film was transferred to Moscow, where Zhzhenov was prohibited from living, and he took a job at the drama theater in Pavlovsk-on-Oka.

In June 1949, he was arrested again, after which he spent six months in prison in Gorky, and was sent into exile in Norilsk, where he worked in the drama theater until 1953.

On December 2, 1955, Georgy Zhzhenov was twice rehabilitated by the military tribunal of the Leningrad Military District.

After rehabilitation, he returned to Leningrad. In 1954-1962 he worked as an actor at the Leningrad Regional Drama Theater, and since 1960 he played at the Leningrad Lensovet Theater. Among his roles are Neil in Maxim Gorky's "The Bourgeois", Astrov in Anton Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya", Nikita in Leo Tolstoy's "The Power of Darkness", Teodoro in Lope de Vega's "Dog in the Manger".

In 1968-2005, Zhzhenov was an actor at the Moscow Mossovet Theater, where he played Zabrodin in Leningradsky Prospekt by Isidor Stock, the Host in the play Funeral in California by Rustam Ibragimbekov, Inspector Gul in the play He Came by John Priestley, and Norman Thayer in the production "On Golden Lake" by Ernst Thompson and others.

In total, over the years of creative activity, Zhzhenov played more than 100 roles in the theater.
He returned to cinema in the 1950s, starring in supporting roles. The actor’s most notable works of those years were his roles in the films “The Night Guest” (1958) and “The Corrected One to Believe” (1959).

One of the first notable works in cinema after returning from the camps for Georgy Zhzhenov was his role in the film “Planet of Storms” (1961). The actor became famous after a small role as a traffic inspector in Eldar Ryazanov’s comedy “Beware of the Car” (1966).

Zhzhenov's finest hour in cinema came after the release of Veniamin Dorman's adventure film "Resident's Mistake" (1968), where the actor played the son of the Russian emigrant Count Tulyev, a scout named Nadezhda. The film was such a success that it was decided to make a sequel; in 1970, the second film, “The Fate of the Resident,” was released, in 1982, the third film, “The Return of the Resident,” and in 1986, the fourth film in the tetralogy, “The End of Operation Resident.”

Georgy Zhzhenov starred in the films "The End of Saturn" and "The Path to Saturn" (1967), "Crane" (1968), "All the King's Men" (1971), "Hot Snow" (1972), "Seeking My Destiny" (1974), “Personal Happiness” (1977), “Medicine against Fear” (1978), “Crew” (1979), “Gateway to Heaven” (1983), etc.

Georgy Zhzhenov played about 70 roles in films.

Georgy Zhzhenov wrote more than 10 books of memoirs, including about camp life in Kolyma and polar Norilsk: “From the Wood Grouse to the Firebird”, “Omchag Valley”, “Lived”, etc.

Georgy Zhzhenov died at the age of 91 in Moscow. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.

The artist’s work has been recognized by many government and professional awards. He was People's Artist of the USSR (1980), laureate of the State Prize of the RSFSR named after the Vasilyev brothers (1975). Awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1985), the Order of Lenin (1991), the Order of Merit for the Fatherland IV (1995), III (1998) and II degrees (2000).

He was a laureate of the Crystal Turandot (1995), Nika (1997), and Golden Eagle (2002) awards.

In 2000, in the city of Chelyabinsk on Pionerskaya Street, a monument to Georgy Zhzhenov by sculptor Vladimir Polyansky was unveiled.

The artist was married four times. Zhzhenov is survived by his widow, actress Lydia Malyukova. His first wife was actress Lidia Vorontsova, his second wife, and Irina Makaeva’s third. Zhzhenov is survived by three daughters - Elena, Marina and Yulia.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

lived a long life. Not only fame and success fell to his lot, but also serious trials. Thus, during the era of Stalinist repressions, he was twice convicted on trumped-up charges.

Circus and cinema

Georgy Stepanovich Zhzhenov was born in March 1915 in Petrograd, in the family of a baker. Despite the fact that the family was poor, the children were drawn to study. Georgy's older brother Boris entered the university in the early 30s, and Georgy himself, after graduating from an eight-year school with a physics and mathematics degree, was admitted to the acrobatic department variety and circus school. Soon, together with one of his fellow students, his namesake, he began performing in the arena of the Leningrad Circus in the acrobatic duet “2-Georges-2”.

It was at the circus that Lenfilm employees saw him. The young man received the main role in the film “The Hero's Mistake” (1932). After that, leaving the circus, Zhzhenov entered the Leningrad College of Performing Arts on the course of Sergei Gerasimov. He starred in several films, including the legendary Chapaev.

Walking through torment

In December 1934, Kirov was killed in Leningrad. Boris Zhzhenov, like other Leningrad State University students, was supposed to take part in the funeral procession. But he refused, since he did not have proper shoes to spend several hours in the cold... This was regarded as a hostile attitude towards Soviet power. Soon Boris was expelled from the university. He was later reinstated, but in December 1936 he was again summoned to the NKVD. He never returned from there, receiving seven years for “anti-Soviet activities.”

The Zhzhenov family was evicted from Leningrad. In addition to Georgy, his fellow filmmakers and Gerasimov himself stood up for him.

In the summer of 1938, Zhzhenov, together with a group of film actors, went to film in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. On the train they met an American diplomat who was traveling to Vladivostok as part of a delegation. Of course, fellow travelers were talking to each other. After the trip, the NKVD received a report about “contacts with a foreigner.” This plus the reputation of a relative of the “enemy of the people” was quite enough to accuse Zhzhonov of espionage. When Georgy returned to Leningrad, they came for him.

In the famous Leningrad prison "Crosses" Zhzhenov had to go through all the circles of hell. He was interrogated with passion - tortured, beaten, deprived of sleep... Others could not stand the bullying and confessed to the most absurd things. But the athletic, trained artist flatly refused to admit the charge of espionage. As a result, he was not shot, but given five years in the camps.

This is how Zhzhenov ended up in Kolyma, where he had to endure hunger, cold, exhausting work, and the daily struggle for survival... During the war, almost no food was delivered to the Kolyma camps, and prisoners died in the hundreds.

In 1943, the head of a traveling acting propaganda team, Nikanorov, accidentally recognized a former film actor in a scab-covered goner from a penal camp at the Glukhar mine, and first achieved his transfer to his propaganda team, and then to the Magadan Musical Drama Theater, the troupe of which was almost entirely made up of prisoners.

In 1944, the actor’s prison term was coming to an end. However, he was summoned to the camp authorities and asked to sign a resolution for an additional term - another 21 months in the camps.

Second try

In 1945, Zhzhenov was finally released, and thanks to Gerasimov, he found work at the Sverdlovsk film studio, where he starred in the film “Alitet Goes to the Mountains” - about Soviet Chukotka. But in 1949, the actor was arrested again. This time, however, he was sentenced not to the camps, but to exile in Norilsk. There he got a job at the local Mayakovsky Drama Theater, where he played with Innokenty Smoktunovsky, who had gone to Siberia to sit out the troubled times - he feared arrest for being captured by the Germans in 1943.

In Norilsk, Zhzhenov tried to start a family with actress Irina Makhaeva. For him, this was already his third marriage - the previous two were interrupted by arrests... Later they had a daughter, Marina.

Only in 1955, having been completely rehabilitated, was the actor able to return to Leningrad. At first he worked in the regional drama theater, but already in 1956 he began acting in Lenfilm. National fame came to him in the late 60s - early 70s after filming the films “Resident Error” and “Fate

resident." The actor was awarded many state awards, and in 2005 the whole country celebrated the 90th anniversary of Georgy Zhzhonov - people's artist and a former prisoner.