Why was Zhzhenov imprisoned? Why actor Georgy Zhzhenov was imprisoned

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 of the 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 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 composed 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 period - 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 drama theater named after Mayakovsky, where he played together with Innokenty Smoktunovsky, who went to Siberia to sit out time of troubles- 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 birthday of Georgy Zhzhonov - people's artist and a former prisoner.

Georgy Zhzhenov is an actor, People's Artist of the USSR, well known to film lovers for such films as “Beware of the Car,” “Crew” and “The Fate of a Resident.” He was born on Vasilievsky Island in Petrograd into a family from a simple peasant family. Georgy had an older brother, Boris, who several times played a very significant role in the fate of Zhzhonov.

Gosha studied at a school with a focus on physics and mathematics, but science actually attracted him little. At the age of 15, he used his brother’s documents and entered the variety and circus technical school in the acrobatic department. Later, the young man confessed to his teachers what he had done and received the final diploma in his own name. It's at the circus young guy The directors noticed and invited me to the cinema.

After starring in the first film, Georgy Zhzhenov gave up his career as a circus performer and entered the Leningrad College of Performing Arts. While still studying, he acted a lot and by the time he graduated from the acting department he was already quite famous. But in 1937, trouble awaited George.

His brother Boris was convicted of failing to attend a funeral demonstration for the murder. The whole family was deported to Kazakhstan, and Boris himself died near Vorkuta. But Georgy refused to leave Leningrad. The director supported him, and the actor managed to stay.

But not for long - the authorities quickly found a new key. On one of his tours, Georgy Zhzhenov met and talked with another passenger on the train, who turned out to be an American diplomat. This meeting was enough reason to accuse the actor of espionage and treason. Zhzhonov was exiled and lived in exile until 1953.

True, at the request of the same Gerasimov, he managed to get a job in theaters in Pavlov-on-Oka and Norilsk, where Georgy Stepanovich became friends with. Zhzhenov also acted in films at the Sverdlovsk Film Studio. Only in 1955 did he manage to rehabilitate himself and return to big cities. At first he lived and worked in Leningrad, and in 1968 he moved to Moscow and joined the troupe of the Mossovet Theater.

Movies

When Georgy Zhzhenov began performing in the circus, he was invited to star in the film “A Start to Life,” although he was not listed in the credits. But this experience showed young man the thing he would like to do. But his film career was difficult.

Basically, he either got minor roles, or the films were not successful. From large flow films of the initial stage, we can highlight the famous historical drama “”, where Zhzhenov played Furmanov’s orderly named Tereshka.

But viewers became interested in Zhzhenov himself after the release of the tragicomedy “Beware of the Car,” where he played a traffic inspector. After this, George was immediately invited to the set of “I’m Going to Look” and “The Man I Love.” In these dramas, the plot revolved around Zhzhenov’s characters, which strengthened the actor’s popularity.

Soon followed by the fantastic duology “The Path to Saturn” and “The End of Saturn”, the social drama “All the King’s Men”, the famous war film “Hot Snow”, and the detective story “A Cure for Fear”.

The real boom around the artist began in 1968 after the release of the first part of the tetralogy about the Soviet intelligence officer, “The Resident's Mistake.”

To satisfy the viewer's interest, a sequel to the film “The Fate of the Resident” was filmed, and a few years later “The Return of the Resident” and “The End of Operation Resident”. In total, Georgy Zhzhenov played Western intelligence resident Tulyev for 20 years.

Another legendary role of the actor is considered to be aircraft commander Andrei Timchenko in the disaster film “Crew”. By the way, a remake of this film will be released in 2016. Georgy Stepanovich acted in films until 1998, in lately appearing in the historical films “Ivan the Great”, “The Invisible Traveler” and “The Corral”.

Personal life

For long life Georgy Zhzhenov had four wives. He first married while still a student to the aspiring actress Evgenia Golynchik, whom he himself asked to divorce him when he was arrested. In exile in 1943, he began to live with another exile, also an actress, Lydia Vorontsova, who bore him a daughter, Elena.

Zhzhenov’s eldest daughter lived with her mother after her parents’ divorce, then in orphanage, from where Georgy Stepanovich took her to him and raised her until her mother was released from a new sentence.

The third wife, actress Irina Makhaeva, served, like Zhzhenov, in the Norilsk Theater. It is to her that the actor owes his rehabilitation. Irina Efimovna traveled to Moscow and back for about two years and was able to prove her husband’s innocence. Their family grew up with a daughter, Marina, who later became a philologist. But after returning to Leningrad, Zhzhenov and Makhaeva diverged.

The actor’s last companion since 1962 was Lydia Malyukova, famous actress Lensovet Theater. Georgy Stepanovich lived with her until his last days. By the way, in this marriage he had a daughter, Yulia Zhzhenova, also an actress, and also a teacher at VGIK.

Death

On November 21, 2005, Georgy Zhzhenov accidentally fell and broke his hip. He was successfully operated on, but, as it turned out, this was only the beginning of the tragedy. Two weeks later, the 90-year-old actor was again hospitalized with respiratory inflammation. The examination showed that Zhzhenov advanced stage lung cancer.

No matter how hard the doctors fought for the life of the famous patient, they could not save him. Georgy Zhzhenov died on December 8, 2005 and was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery. A memorial plaque was installed on the house where the actor lived for the last 33 years.

Filmography

1934 - “Chapaev”
1966 - “Beware of the Car”
1968 - “The Path to Saturn”
1968 - “Resident Error”
1971 - “All the King’s Men”
1973 - “Hot Snow”
1977 - “Poseidon” to the rescue”
1978 - “The Cure for Fear”
1979 - “Crew”
1982 - “Return of the Resident”

Afterword

The last page of the painful memoirs of People's Artist of the USSR Georgy Stepanovich Zhzhenov has been read.

I admit, I am one of those military prosecutors who was involved in the “case” of Zhzhonov. Let me explain how this happened.

In 1954, I was appointed to the position of deputy chief military prosecutor.

At that time, a special group of military prosecutors who had no previous involvement in cases of special jurisdiction (meaning cases investigated by the NKVD - MGB) was created in the apparatus of the Main Military Prosecutor's Office to review them. The publication of the facts of arbitrariness committed by the convicted Beria, Abakumov, Ryumin and their henchmen caused numerous complaints and letters to the CPSU Central Committee and the government regarding the rehabilitation of the innocently repressed. Among them was a complaint from Maria Fedorovna Shchelkina, addressed to Malenkov, who became the head of the Soviet government after Stalin’s death. The consideration of the complaint was taken under special control. We were waiting for our decision...

Shchepkina, the mother of film actor Zhzhenov, wrote that her son became a victim of Yezhov-Beriev’s tyranny and suffered for many years in camps, and then in a special settlement in Siberia. The complaint ended with a plea: “Don’t let the mother die without seeing her son.”

We made inquiries. It turned out that Georgy Stepanovich Zhzhenov, born in 1915, a native of the city of Leningrad, was accused of espionage activities, for which he was convicted twice. So, it’s up to us to deal with this matter. Let me explain why. Cases against all persons (civilian and military) accused of espionage are assigned, by law, to the jurisdiction of military justice. How did it become possible to accuse an honest man of such a serious state crime as espionage?

First of all, I would like to emphasize that the tragedy he experienced was far from private. It exposes many negative phenomena related to the observance of human rights during the times of “Stalinism”, some of which, unfortunately, have not yet been completely eliminated to this day.

I will begin by outlining, as best I can, the situation that developed in 1935-1938 in Leningrad.

Immediately after the murder of Kirov, a commissar was appointed head of the NKVD Department of the city of Leningrad state security Zakovsky, who replaced the former chief of Medve-

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person who did not provide warning terrorist attack, for which he was arrested.

The new chief was given instructions to “cleanse Leningrad of Zinoviev’s rabble.”

Zakovsky knew well how to do this, having gained similar experience in working under the direct leadership of Yagoda and consigning to oblivion the KGB traditions laid down by Dzerzhinsky. Yagoda was soon arrested. Zakovsky was not touched. He was still needed...

A “campaign” of mass arrests, convictions, and expulsions from Leningrad began. At first it affected real adherents of Zinoviev, then it spread to those who simply sympathized with the “Zinovievites”, and then... and then judge for yourself who it affected...

As one would expect from the overzealous Zakovsky, he stopped taking into account the requirements of the rule of law. Zhzhenov’s brother, Boris, was also among the counter-revolutionaries. The whole fault of Boris Stepanovich, a talented student at Leningrad University, was that he did not take part in the farewell procession at Kirov’s funeral, citing the fact that he did not have warm shoes. It was a harsh December 1934...

Despite the obvious absence of any crime in Boris Zhzhenov’s act, which was also explained by respectful motives, he was nevertheless charged under Article 58.10 of the Criminal Code “for conducting counter-revolutionary agitation and propaganda.” He was sentenced to several years in prison and sent to one of the Gulag camps, from where he never returned.

Following Boris, almost the entire Zhzhenov family, native Leningrad residents, were repressed. Having illegally been deprived of their registration, they were expelled from Leningrad. George managed to stay. Now we know who helped him avoid this exile. But he failed to get rid of the “all-seeing and partial eye.”

The “rebellious” military prosecutors of the Leningrad Military District, who became aware of the illegal investigative methods used by Zakovsky’s employees, also did not help.

Here, by the way, I must tell about this story, since it has a certain relation to the “case” of Zhzhonov.

Military prosecutors of the Leningrad Military District received a complaint from one person arrested on suspicion of espionage that NKVD officers carried out a provocation against him. Being a believer, he asked to see a priest. They sent him a “masked” employee, who formalized the confession as an admission of the arrested person of espionage for the benefit of

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Poland. During the inspection, other facts of the use of illegal investigative methods were also revealed. The military prosecutor of the Leningrad Military District Kuznetsov made a representation to Zakovsky about the termination illegal practices falsification of investigative materials and punishment of those responsible. Zakovsky imposed a resolution: “So it was, so it will be.” And he not only brazenly rejected the demands of the military prosecutor, but also accused him of sabotage, of opposing the fight against the enemies of the people. With the connivance of the then chief military prosecutor Rozovsky, the military lawyer Kuznetsov was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison. A number of military prosecutors in the district were also punished “for weakening the fight against counter-revolution and weakening vigilance.”

This literally freed the hands of adventurous types, who found themselves in abundance doing investigative work in the apparatus of the NKVD Directorate of Leningrad. Their chief Zakovsky celebrated the victory.

At this time, he personally signed another arrest warrant for G.S. Zhzhenov, another spy who was unable to escape the watchful eye. A reason for the arrest was found. The Leningrad NKVD Directorate received information about Zhzhenov’s acquaintance with the American citizen Fyvonmil, one of the employees of the US Embassy in Moscow. As the proverb says, the beast runs to the catcher...

The arrested Zhzhonov hoped that the investigators would listen to him carefully. He will tell you how, on a trip, the group of actors who were on their way to Komsomolsk-on-Amur to star in the film “Komsomolsk” accidentally met with Fyvonmile. There was nothing reprehensible or criminal in the open conversation that took place with the American.

But Georgy Stepanovich’s hopes were not justified. In response, he heard rude language, insults, and threats from investigators Kirilenko and Morgul. The testimony that Zhzhonov gave did not suit them. They needed recognition.

Of course, no one witnessed the torture and abuse that the executioners Kirilenko and Morgul inflicted on Zhzhonov, but from our practice of involving criminal investigators in criminal liability for the use of illegal investigative methods, we know how they spoke without embarrassment in court about this “conveyor belt”, considering it one of the most " effective methods disarmament of enemies." They believed themselves and tried to convince the judges that they were doing a "just cause", fighting "enemies" whom "you cannot take with your bare hands", they needed " hedgehog gloves". And it was none other than Stalin himself who supplied them with them.

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Now let’s turn to the very first interrogation protocol of July 7, 1938, which follows the arrest warrant and immediately justifies the decision to arrest Georgy Stepanovich.

From the notes made in the interrogation protocol it follows that Zhzhenov gave his consent to Fyvonmil to become an American intelligence agent and received the task of collecting information about military units the Red Army, about their location in the Leningrad Military District and weapons; establish the location of military factories in Leningrad and report on the quantity of products they produce.

The “authors” of these testimonies were not at all embarrassed by how unrealistic such tasks are for a person whose profession is a film actor.

What did Zhzhonov convey to American intelligence?

He “informed” about the prospects for the development of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, about its industrial and military significance (after all, the artist Zhzhonov had just returned from Komsomolsk-on-Amur, where he participated in the filming of a film).

He also “informed” American intelligence about “the political sentiments of the Lenfilm film workers,” where he had worked since 1932 (it turns out that American intelligence was in dire need of this!).

During subsequent interrogations, Zhzhonov demanded that investigators write down that the testimony of the first interrogation was fictitious. He confirmed only the fact of a chance acquaintance with Fyvonmil and subsequent meetings with him, emphasizing that they always took place in the presence of other persons and were completely innocent. This turn of events did not suit the investigators, but Georgy Stepanovich was firm and unshakable. He entered into an open struggle with counterfeiters, foreseeing in advance what awaited him...

Since that time, Zhzhonov has been writing complaints one after another, writing to everyone, as he puts it, on whom intervention in the objective decision of his fate may depend.

But all his letters will “sink into oblivion.” Many of them did not go beyond the prison walls or camps at all. There was strict censorship, especially with regard to written statements reporting torture and beatings.

And those complaints that nevertheless broke through the forbidden restrictions and cordons and reached the addressees, as a rule, were not properly considered.

This was the situation, to our deep regret, both in the apparatus of the USSR Prosecutor’s Office and in the apparatus of the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office, whose employees were obliged to bear increased responsibility.

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ity in monitoring compliance with the law in relation to persons under investigation or serving sentences in places of deprivation of liberty.

Several of Zhzhonov’s complaints nevertheless reached the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office. They were found in the archival basement, where they lay for almost 20 years.

It is worth quoting some excerpts from them:

“In the name of what “higher considerations” - known only to my investigators,” asks Zhzhenov, “and to no one else, was it necessary to put me in prison, slander me and make me a criminal?” But Zhzhonov never received an answer to his question.

He asked the Supreme Prosecutor to pay attention to the following:

“As a result of a rude, tendentious, anti-Soviet method of investigation, as a result of a series of moral, mental and physical bullying, I was forced to sign a fictitious, false, detective story". And again the answer is silence. Zhzhenov even argues with a certain amount of irony:

“I am accused of espionage in the troops of the Leningrad Military District and in the defense industry of Leningrad. Monstrous and funny! With the same success, the idle imagination of my investigators could attribute to me the defeat suffered by the British from the Germans at the Battle of Jutland. In the imperialist war (forgetting the date of my birth), etc. .d."

Zhzhzhonov failed to convince anyone with his heartfelt statement:

“I have seen and suffered a lot, in spite of everything I was, am and will be an honest Soviet man.”

Last words he wrote in large letters, and still no attention was paid to them.

For thirteen months, in violation of the usual period of detention of a defendant established by law, the investigation into the Zhzhonov case was conducted. This gross violation law was not some rare phenomenon in the then practice of the NKVD. Painful, long-term detention in prison conditions while awaiting a decision on the case was also part of the arsenal of mental pressure on those arrested, especially on such “obstinate” ones as Zhzhonov.

Those arrested, who were in complete isolation from the outside world, did not know that in November 1938 events had occurred that directly affected their future fate. Georgy Stepanovich Zhzhenov, of course, didn’t know them either.

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In November 1938, Yezhov was arrested. Stalin did not remove Yezhov because of disobedience or because he did a “bad thing.” No, it’s just that this person became odious, intolerant beyond all measure, and it was necessary to resolutely distance oneself from him and his actions. It was in the manner of Stalin. And then a decision appeared declaring Yezhov’s actions criminal, hostile, and the illegal methods of investigation used by his accomplices and numerous collaborators - executors who carried out Yezhov’s instructions “not to stand on ceremony with those arrested” were also condemned. From now on, it was proposed that the investigation be conducted by the NKVD with “the strictest observance of all norms of criminal procedural legislation.”

Honest, principled communists, of whom there were many among the employees of the NKVD, the court and the prosecutor's office, perked up. They began to fight more confidently to comply with the requirements of the law. A number of those innocently arrested were released from prisons and camps and avoided unjust conviction. These same communists also demanded party and judicial responsibility for those who, for selfish, adventuristic purposes, committed arbitrariness and indulged in mockery of those arrested. Many criminals, whom Zhzhonov called “executioners in NKVD uniforms,” were arrested and punished extremely harshly.

Just and inevitable retribution came, although it did not “sober up” everyone...

Retribution also affected some employees of the NKVD Directorate of Leningrad and Zakovsky himself. He was arrested.

The case of the former military prosecutor of the Leningrad Military District Kuznetsov was also reviewed. He was released from the camp, but was not reinstated to his previous job.

This revealed the essence of a different attitude towards the above-mentioned resolution.

The new People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Beria, having proclaimed in his orders and directives the requirement for the strictest observance of the law in investigative work, only disguised his true attitude to legality. The “shock” that initially set in among the investigators began to quickly disappear. Beria personally demonstrated during interrogations “a merciless attitude towards those arrested who were not disarming,” whom he did not even think of releasing, although he knew that they were victims of Stalin and Yezhov. True, under the pressure of the prevailing intolerant attitude towards the executioner-investigators, he was forced to agree to the arrest of some of them, but retained, however, many who were considered unsurpassed masters on "extorting confessions." By the time of the arrest of Beria himself, many

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Some of these “specialists” reached high positions and military ranks.

Instead of Zakovsky, the Leningrad department of the NKVD was headed by State Security Commissioner Goglidze. Beria knew who needed to be sent to Leningrad, where the work of “rooting out enemies,” in his opinion, was still far from complete and must be skillfully continued.

Goglidze lived up to his boss's hopes. It is no coincidence that he later became Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR and one of the most active accomplices in the preparation after the death of Stalin of an anti-Soviet conspiracy to seize power by Beria. Fair, inevitable retribution eventually overtook this villain, which, perhaps, is some consolation for Georgy Stepanovich and for many others who became victims of Goglidze.

After a change in the leadership of the NKVD, Zhzhonov was transferred to “Kresty” and was among those who were sent, as they aptly described, “for mothballing.”

Meanwhile, investigators were thinking about what to do with people like Zhzhenov. There is no objective, sufficient evidence of their guilt. They refused “their” testimony, wrote complaints that they were beaten, tortured, reported this to the prosecutors who appeared in the prisons, and they demanded that the statements of the defendants be included in the case. Will they really have to be released, and “in batches” at that? After all, there are many of them...

Goglidze finds a solution. The “politicians” are again returned from “Kresty” to the internal prison of the department.

It is not difficult to imagine the monologue of the new head of the department, Goglidze, in front of the investigators:

“Why are you hanging your nose?.. We cannot and should not give in to the resisting enemies. We must again let them feel that we are strong, that we will not retreat in the face of their “subterfuges”, that the matter of fighting the enemies of the people has not been removed from the agenda Read the resolution of the January 1938 Plenum, Stalin’s speech. It clearly states: to continue to increase revolutionary vigilance and to intensify the fight against enemies. And not a word about any kind of legality...”

Couldn't say it any clearer. Who is Zhzhonov? American spy. An undisarmed enemy. This means that he must continue to be treated the same as before.

Remember those pages where Zhzhonov describes new stage"attack" on him. True, other investigators are already working, but they also use the same methods as their predecessors. Nothing has changed.

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But Zhzhonov did not give in even now. Then they found a way out - to send him to the camp. It's not hard to do. Investigators were given the right to make proposals on sending cases to a Special Meeting for consideration; they could even prepare in advance the minutes of the meeting of this meeting and write the period for which their “wards” should be sent to the camp. As a rule, they agreed with the investigator’s proposal. He knows better...

A few words about the history of the Special Meeting under the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR. This special extrajudicial administrative body appeared in our country in 1932, simultaneously with the formation of the NKVD to replace the liquidated OGPU.

Stalin gave the Special Meeting the right to determine the fate of those arrested by the NKVD, who were among those from the “fiercely resisting classes.” Their guilt was potentially assumed, although it was not always obvious or proven. Therefore, cases were considered in absentia, in the absence of the accused, without hearing his explanations, without calling witnesses and, of course, without the participation of a defense lawyer. The special meeting had the right to imprison in a camp for up to 8 years, send into exile for up to 5 years and evict for the same period with a ban on living in the capitals, major cities and industrial centers of the USSR, to fully or partially confiscate the personal property of convicted persons.

One can only be surprised how Stalin allowed the reactionary tsarist laws to be copied to create a Special Meeting in our country (the rules “On the procedure for the ranks of the gendarme corps to investigate crimes” dated May 19, 1871 and “Regulations” dated August 14, 1881). Stalin could not help but know that the Minister of Internal Affairs of the tsarist government was given the opportunity to punish those arrested by the gendarmerie when:

Not found obvious signs and sufficient evidence of a crime;

Acts have been committed for which the punishment has not yet been included in the punishment code or which are not mentioned at all in the law;

The incriminating information was obtained in a top secret manner and cannot be factually confirmed.”

As a result, the gendarmes had the right to arrest any person without any evidence of his guilt, for an act not recognized by law as a crime, on the basis of information that cannot be verified...

One must assume that the underground revolutionary Joseph Dzhugashvili could not help but follow the press coverage of the trial.

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trial in the case of the St. Petersburg group of the RSDLP "Trial of the 44", held in 1906 in St. Petersburg.

Attorney at law V.N. Novikov, who spoke in defense of the defendants at this trial, began his speech with the words: “Gentlemen of the judge! After all, this is not new fact that the gendarmerie inquiry, even if carried out in accordance with the Charter of Criminal Procedure, does not have reliability and that our political police does not stand up to the height of its purpose and the inquiries conducted by it have no value. Almost every page of the indictment contains the phrases: “according to information received by the security department,” “it has come to the attention of the security department.” What are these phrases? What kind of information is this?"

Exactly the same words can be said about the indictment drawn up by investigators in the “case” of Zhzhonov. Beria exercised his right and single-handedly decided his fate. By the decision of the Special Meeting, Georgy Stepanovich Zhzhonov was imprisoned in a camp for a period of 5 years. He wrote how he served this sentence. It is difficult to add anything to his words, unless we once again turn to Zhzhonov’s complaints, which he wrote from the camp. Addressing the Supreme Prosecutor, prisoner Zhzhenov categorically states:

“I protest against the Special Meeting. There are no materials of guilt. Everything is built on fiction. Not a single testimony. Despite everything I experienced during 2 years of imprisonment, I was, am and will remain an honest Soviet man. I qualify my imprisonment as an act of enemy activity of persons who have labeled me “counter-revolutionary” for the rest of my life, please remove this vile tag from me.”

And this time his protest was not heard. But the Prosecutor General was given the right to protest the unfounded decisions of the Special Meeting. But it is reliably known that not a single such protest exists. And there were a lot of unfounded decisions...

Having served an undeserved punishment, Zhzhenov returned to his favorite work - he became an artist, although not in the capital, but in the peripheral theater. He worked conscientiously. Lived honestly. Although it was a small happiness, it smiled. Just not for long. A new arrest followed in 1949.

Georgy Stepanovich turned out to be right: he was labeled “counter-revolutionary” for life.

We also looked at his second “case”. There is nothing new in it. Everything is rewritten from beginning to end from the old one.

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For the same fictitious crime, repeated punishment, by the same Special Meeting, for the same period. And again there are trials, and some even more severe ones, which you cannot calmly read about. If only the “creators” of such lawlessness, and even those who still defend the integrity of “all, without exception, the ideas and deeds of the great leader,” experienced all this!

How can one not remember that Beria, even after the death of Stalin, the founder of the Special Conference, continued to preserve and hold in his insidious hands this most tested instrument of obedience and fear. Beria also needed him to carry out his conspiratorial plans.

We must pay tribute to Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev. It was at his insistence, I know for sure, that immediately after Beria’s arrest a decision was made (September 1, 1953) to liquidate the Special Meeting. For over 35 years now, our state has managed without it. Soviet people spared from repeating what Zhzhonov, and not only him, had to experience in his life...

Nowadays no one can be punished criminally except in court; we make sure that every sentence is fair.

On the tag that was “awarded” to Georgy Stepanovich Zhzhonov, there was the word “counter-revolutionary”.

As a token of gratitude, let's shake his hand...

Retired Lieutenant General of Justice,

Candidate of Legal Sciences

Georgy ZHZHENOV

G. Zhzhenov was born on March 22, 1915 in a simple family. As family legend says, one of the artist’s great-grandfathers steamed in a Russian stove (the poor then used stoves instead of bathhouses) and burned himself in it. Hence the surname - Zhzhenov.

Zhzhenov’s parents were from the peasants of the Tver province - at the beginning of the century they moved to St. Petersburg, where the head of the family, Stepan Filippovich, opened his own bakery. There were three children in the family, all boys (George was the youngest). Since both of his brothers were fond of sports, and the eldest, Boris, was even a professional circus performer, Georgy knew where to direct himself from childhood - in 1930 he entered the Leningrad Variety and Circus College. As Zhzhenov himself later admitted, love also played a significant role in his choice. He was then in love with his classmate Lyusya Lycheva, for whom he even jumped from the embankment parapet in ice water Neva, and dreamed of appearing to her under the circus dome. And his dream came true.

After graduating from college, the aspiring artist joined a circus troupe, where he practiced tempo ground acrobatics. In 1933, film director Ioganson came to one of these performances and suddenly saw a movie actor in the young acrobat. So Zhzhenov got the role of tractor driver Pashka Vetrov and the silent film “The Hero’s Mistake” (in the same film the debut of another actor who would later become famous, Efim Kopelyan, took place). G. Zhzhenov recalls: “What’s funny is that for the screen test they chose a scene of declaration of love with kisses. I haven't turned seventeen yet; a chaste and shy boy, I was embarrassed and blushed, my hands trembled, my mouse faces twitched. And seven young actresses auditioned for the main female role!”

Thus, our hero made his film debut, and from that moment he began another life - a cinematic one.

Literally for short time Zhzhenov managed to star in several films at once: “A Strict Young Man”, “ Crown Prince Republic", "Golden Lights". Soon he finally asked for a circus and went to study as an actor - he entered the Leningrad Theater School (he immediately entered the 2nd year, which was first taught by A. Zarkhi and I. Kheifits, and then by S. Gerasimov). Pyotr Aleinikov also studied in the same course.

It is worth noting that already in those years Georgy tried his hand at literature - he wrote short stories, essays. S. Gerasimov, having familiarized himself with some of his works, remarked: “You, Zhora, can make a good screenwriter.”

Another “side” hobby of Zhzhenov in those years was football. He played as a right insider in the Leningrad trade union team and, according to experts, played well. And the same Gerasimov put a dilemma before him: “Choose: either football or cinema.” Zhzhenov chose the latter.

After graduating from college in 1935, the actor continued to actively act in films. A. Dovzhenko invites him to play Father Bozhenko’s orderly in the film “Shchors”, and the Vasilyev brothers take on a cameo role in the then famous film Chapaev” (however, during editing, for some reason, all the episodes with the participation of our hero will be cut out). In 1937, S. Gerasimov remembered him and approved him for the role of Komsomol member Mavrin in the film “Komsomolsk”. The picture was released on the screens of the country the following year, but George did not see its premiere - in those days he was already under arrest. What happened?

This statement was quite enough to accuse Boris Zhzhenov of anti-Soviet activities and arrest him. And then it was his turn younger brother- George. Moreover, he was also arrested based on a denunciation. A certain young actor wrote that during the filming of “Komsomolsk” he met the American military attache and, being in the same train compartment with him, sang songs, joked, etc. This was enough to decide Zhzhenov’s fate. True, he was arrested only on the second visit. The security officers came for him on the last day of filming, and the management of the Lenfilm film studio appealed to the NKVD with an urgent request to postpone the arrest for one day in order to complete filming. And such permission was received. The actor successfully filmed the film and was arrested the next day. He and his brother were given Article 58, given 8 years each, and sent to different places: Boris ended up in Norilsk, and Georgy in Magadan. And the Zhzhenov family was evicted from Leningrad.

For the first two years, Zhzhenov felled wood in the taiga plots of the Dukchansky timber industry enterprise (his partner with a two-handed saw was the Soviet intelligence officer Sergei Chaplin). And when the war began, they were transported to the taiga to the gold mines. Chaplin died there. George could have died a thousand times, but fate was merciful to him, each time taking the bony one away from him at the very last moment. For example, in 1943, being sick with scurvy, he walked 10 kilometers through the taiga to get to the “17” mine, where two parcels were waiting for him, which his mother had sent him from outside in 1940. And he arrived. And although all the contents of the parcels had deteriorated over the course of three years, this transition had the most profound effect on the prisoner. beneficial influence. After it, he suddenly realized that he would survive in this hell.

But for his brothers, the fate turned out to be much sadder: in 1943, Boris died in a Vorkuta camp from dystrophy, and the other was shot by the Nazis in Mariupol in front of his mother.

Meanwhile, in 1944, Zhzhenov was lucky again - he was accepted into the troupe of the Magadan Theater. The theater was multi-genre: opera, operetta, drama, variety show, and circus. The troupe consisted of 180 people, 120 of them were prisoners. Many have passed through this theater famous actors and directors: Leonid Varpakhovsky, Yuri Rozenshtraukh, Alexander Demich, Konstantin Nikanorov, Vadim Kozin and others.

It was in this theater that Zhzhenov met his first wife, also an actress from Leningrad named Lida. She was arrested as an “enemy of the people” in 1937, first sentenced to death, but then commuted to ten years in the camps. In 1946, they had a daughter, who was named Alena. At the end of that year they were finally freed and returned to the mainland. For about a year, Zhzhenov worked at the Sverdlovsk film studio - in fact, under public supervision. Then he was kicked out due to lack of registration, and he got a job in the troupe of a small theater in the town of Pavlovo-on-Oka. But life there did not last long. Already in June 1949 (when the second wave of Stalin’s purges began in the country), he was arrested again and thrown into Gorky prison. Six months later, the verdict in absentia of the Special Meeting was announced: exile to the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Stage across all Russia to Krasnoyarsk. Another two months in prison. And finally, Norilsk - the Norilsk Polar Drama Theater, where he worked as an exiled actor until his rehabilitation in 1954 (I. Smoktunovsky also played in the same theater at that time).

That year, Zhzhenov finally returned to Leningrad and was accepted into the troupe of the Lensovet Theater. And in 1956 he returned to cinema. Director Mikhail Dobson (they met in a cell of the Leningrad NKVD) began filming the film “Storm” and invited the actor to play one of the roles - soldier Gavrilov.

Regarding Zhzhenov’s personal life, I note that his first wife died in the early 50s. He married again, and in this marriage he had a daughter, Marina. But this marriage did not last long. In 1957, he married again - this time to actress Lydia Malyukova. This marriage brought another child and again a girl - she was named Yulia.

Between 1957 and 1966, Zhzhenov starred in 18 films, but most of them were episodic roles, which few people remember today. Although there were some successes among them. For example, in the films “Silence”, “The Third Rocket” (both 1963) and July Rain (1967). However, the roles played by the actor in two latest films, the viewer never saw it.

“The Third Rocket” was directed by Richard Viktorov - it was the first film adaptation of V. Bykov’s military prose. After seeing this film, Italian director Filippo De Santis said: “It should win all the awards that exist in world cinema.” However, none of this happened. GlavPUR Soviet Army stood in the way of this truthful film, and his boss, General Epishev, said: “If I see an advertisement for this film anywhere, I will order tanks to cordon off the cinema!” So the mass audience never saw the film.

Something similar happened with the film “July Rain”. Director M. Khutsiev says: “A very serious episode was cut out of the film - in fact, the entire role of Georgy Zhzhenov. He played such a half-crazy KGB officer. Uralova’s heroine, when she visited voters, ended up in his apartment. Word for word - and she already found herself, as it were, under interrogation. At the end, he said out of habit: “Give me your pass, I’ll sign” and picked up the phone: “Ivanov, let me in...” We wrote this episode out of mischief, almost certainly knowing that it would not be allowed. And when they filmed it and saw how great Zhzhenov played, we realized that the scene was becoming one of the most important in the film.”

The first fame of the actor Zhzhenov, when the viewer truly noticed and remembered him, came in 1966 - with the role of a traffic police inspector in the film “Beware of the Car!” Although there was an episode here, the actor played it brilliantly.

Then there were roles in the films: “Now Judge ...” (1967), “The Path to Saturn”, “The End of Saturn”, “Spring on the Oder”, “Doctor Vera” (all - 1968).

In 1968, Zhzhenov left the Lensovet Theater due to a conflict with the main director I. Vladimirov. This conflict especially worsened after the actor was elected chairman of the local committee of the theater. In the end, Zhzhenov was faced with a choice: either lose the respect of his theater comrades, or take the side of the administration. And he submitted his resignation. And here’s what’s surprising: after that, in his native Leningrad, only one theater offered him work - comedy, and in Moscow - seven. Faced with such a choice, Zhzhenov began to think painfully: where to go? And it is unknown whose offer he would have accepted then, if not for chance. The chief director of the Mossovet Theater, Yuri Zavadsky, called him and offered him the role that the artist had dreamed of all his life - Leo Tolstoy in the play based on S. Ermolinsky's play "Flight into Life". That's what decided future fate our hero. He moved to Moscow and lived only in this role. However, the play never saw the light of day. Minister of Culture E. Furtseva, having attended his rehearsal, stated that she would not allow the dirty laundry of the great Russian genius to be exposed to public display. And she didn’t allow it.

In 1969, Veniamin Dorman’s film “Resident’s Mistake” was released on the country’s screens, in which Zhzhenov played the main role - a foreign intelligence officer of Russian origin, Tulyev. This picture brought him all-Union fame. It took 9th place at the box office, attracting 35.4 million viewers.

G. Zhzhenov recalls: “Several episodes of the film were filmed in the famous “Matrosskaya Tishina.” This was the most painful filming for me - I remembered the past. I cannot convey that painful feeling to film set, waiting for when the shift will finally end..."

In 1970, the sequel to “The Resident’s Mistake”, the film “The Fate of the Resident,” was released on the country’s screens. This time the film took 13th place at the box office, attracting 28.7 million viewers.

In 1969, Zhzhenov had an excellent opportunity for the first time to his creative biography to play a hardened criminal: director Anatoly Bobrovsky offered him the role of the Count in the film “The Return of St. Luke.” However, Mosfilm director N. Sizov opposed this choice, explaining his decision simply: “If Zhzhenov plays this role, then all the sympathy of the audience will be on his side. It’s better to play a policeman, but not a bandit.” But the actor flatly refused to play another character and, as a result, the film was released without him. The role of the Count was played by Vladislav Dvorzhetsky.

Meanwhile, having lost this role, Zhzhenov received another one a year later, which would become one of the best in his career. It's about about the role of Willie Stark in the TV movie "All the King's Men."

Initially, the wonderful actor Pavel Luspekayev was approved for this role. However, at the very beginning of filming (in April 1970), he died. And the role was given to Zhzhenov. He later admits: “My favorite role is Willie Stark.”

But another role - General Bessonov - in the film “Hot Snow” (1972) the artist for a long time rejected. He was then very busy in the theater, filming other films, so he didn’t want to act in it. But the same director of Mosfilm, N. Sizov, literally begged him to agree to filming. As it turned out, not in vain. This role also became one of the best in the actor’s career. It was for this that in 1975 he was awarded the State Prize of the RSFSR and the Silver Medal named after A. Dovzhenko.

A new wave of audience love for Zhzhenov came in 1980, when Alexander Mitta’s film “Crew” was released on the country’s screens. In it he played one of the main roles - the commander of the liner Timchenko. The film took 3rd place at the box office, attracting 71.1 million viewers.

In 1980, G. Zhzhenov was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR.

In the next decade, the actor acted less actively than in the previous two decades, preferring to devote more time to the theater. On the stage of the Mossovet Theater he played about the performances: “The Trial of the Judges”, “Uncle Vanya”, “The Kingdom of Earth”, etc.

In 1981, he accepted V. Dorman’s offer to star in the third film about the resident, “Return of the Resident.” However, this picture turned out to be much weaker than the previous two. The film took 15th place at the box office, attracting 23.9 million viewers.

In the early 90s, a new play appeared at the Mossovet Theater - “On the Golden Lake” based on the play by E. Thompson. At one time it was staged on Broadway, then a film appeared, in which the main roles were played by Henry and Jane Fonda (father and daughter). In the Moscow production, these roles were also played by father and daughter, only the Zhzhenovs - Georgy and Yulia. As Georgy Zhzhenov admitted after the premiere: “For me, this is not just another role, acting work to my liking: this is a civic act, a socially significant action. In our time, when there is so much mutual malice and all sorts of lawlessness around, to contrast this with a soul shining with purity; not the pessimism to which a person comes at the end of his life, but the continuation of faith and life! The role in this play quenched my longing for the unplayed.”

Nowadays, Zhzhenov’s life consists of theater and home. One of his houses is two hundred meters from the apartment youngest daughter Yuli, he built another one near Moscow, on Iksha. There he spends his weekends alone or with his wife Lydia Petrovna.

G. Zhzhenov says: “In general, I like women who are soft, weak, and tender. And my wife does not have an easy-going character. That's why we fight often. We have more quarrels than peace in the family. I’m mentally stronger, or something, but Lydia Petrovna is hysterical, like most women, her nerves are frayed, like any actress with a not very happy fate. After all, Lydia Petrovna - wonderful actress was a huge success in St. Petersburg... But it’s too late for me to rock the boat...

Modern politicians disgust me. When on the TV screen the fathers of the nation talk about their incomes, when I see the three-story stone mansions of the generals, I read and hear that workers are going on hunger strikes because they are not paid wages, then I understand that I live in a sick state. Even in his native theater I, a Russian actor, play more and more foreigners. I never panicked and never blasphemed my own fate; I was always offended by the “power.” You have played more than 100 roles in the theater, more than 80 in films, so what is there to regret? I don’t have time to sit on the shore with a fishing rod, because I’m sitting here writing stories based on my memories, and I still have a lot to do. (G. Zhzhenov has already published a collection of memoirs “Omchag Valley” and a book “From Capercaillie to the Firebird.” - F.R.). I read the scripts that they send me, trying to find an interesting, deep role for myself, but there is nothing yet, and I feel sorry for this lost time...

Most of my friends are not actors. You can have friendly relations, but real friends can be anywhere you want, but not in the acting environment. I don’t know if this is good or bad, but in my life this is so...”

In the spring of 1997, during the solemn ceremony of presenting the highest cinematic award of Russia “Nika”, G. Zhzhenov became the owner of an honorary prize for honor and dignity.

P.S. Eldest daughter G. Zhzhenova - Alena - lives in Riga, works as an artist-designer and heads one of the private companies. Her daughter Dasha is already 17 years old.

The middle daughter, Marina, lives in St. Petersburg and runs an etiquette school. She has a son Peter.

The youngest daughter, Yulia, works with her father in the same theater and lives next to her parents. Her daughter Polina is 6 years old.

This text is an introductory fragment.

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One Hundred Circles of Hell Georgy Zhzhenov Georgy Zhzhenov’s film career began quite early: he was 18 years old when in 1933 he starred in the film “The Hero’s Mistake.” Then there were several more films, the most famous of which was “Komsomolsk” (1937) by Sergei Gerasimov. However, the premieres

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ZHZHENOV Georgy ZHZHENOV Georgy (theater and film actor: “The Hero’s Mistake” (1932; main role - tractor driver Pashka Vetrov), “Chapaev” (1934; Teresha), “Alien Relatives” (1956; guest at the wedding), “Storm” ( 1957; Gavrila), “Night Guest” (1959; main role – artist Sergei Petrovich), “Baltic Sky”

Georgy Rublev In Selvinsky's seminar, the yellow-faced, black-haired, old-looking, tall, stocky, sickly Zhora Rublev occasionally appeared. He was four to five years older than me, but it seemed twenty. Having met us, Rublev invited us to visit, and in his house on

Father George For me to be born on March 30, 1904, it was naturally necessary for my mother to meet my father. This in itself is a major event. historical significance did not have, but it so happened that this couple was married by Father Georgy Gapon, an acquaintance of his father - a person

Chapter 24. Unburnt Zhzhenov Georgy Zhzhenov was born on March 22, 1915 in Petrograd. His parents are from the peasants of the Tver province. At the beginning of the century, they moved to the Northern capital, where the head of the family, Stepan Filippovich, opened his own bakery. In 1930, G. Zhzhenov entered, by the way,

GEORGE GARANYAN...Nothing foreshadowed trouble: he flew to Krasnodar to participate with the city Big Band in a joint performance with Michel Legrand. The night before he felt ill. He was hospitalized in the city emergency hospital medical care with suspicion

GEORGE Engulfed in a hot and bright fire Will I forget about the past, about the dark, about the old? About the ringing silver rings chain mail, About the prince, about the brave one, I’ll forget, friends! Always in proud and tender delight I repeat your name - George! Against the backdrop of the Russian red glow - My brave

Outstanding Russian and Soviet actor Georgy Zhzhenov lived a long life. Not only fame and success fell to his lot, but also serious trials. So, in the era Stalin's repressions he was twice convicted on trumped-up charges.

Circus and cinema

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

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

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.

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