Why was Zhzhenov in prison? Cruel universities of Zhzhonov

“Father literally pushed Smoktunovsky out of the Arctic. He said: “I am an exiled face, I have to sit here. What are you doing? Times have changed, go to the mainland!” With Innokenty Smoktunovsky in the film “Beware of the Car.” 1966 Photo: RIA NOVOSTI

It took more than two months to get to the place by stage, half of the people died on the road during this time. And here is the timber industry enterprise. The prisoners there worked in logging, but Zhzhenov began to ask to work as a driver in an auto mechanic shop. He had no experience. He simply sat in a cell with the director of the road transport technical school, and he “taught” them, young guys, auto business. So dad became a driver. And the camp authorities respected him. The film “Fighters” was brought to a neighboring village, Georgy heard about it. I went to the head of the camp: “Allow me to meet with my wife.” - “With which wife?” He explained that Zhenya Golynchik, who starred in this film, is his wife and he himself is a former artist. “Let me go to a film screening so I can see my wife at least on the screen...” They let him go, the boss was even happy: “Look who’s sitting with me!” Artist!"

In 1943, Zhzhenov’s term ended, but until the end of the war, none of the repressed were released. They just extended the deadline. On top of that, Georgy was transferred to a gold mine, where he had to work with a pick and a shovel in ice water knee-deep 16 hours a day. My father recalled that he began to “get there”... And then the head of the concert crew, Konstantin Nikanorov, arrived at the mine. He was advised to watch the “artist Zhzhenov”. Konstantin Aleksandrovich remembered this show all his life. Before him appeared a typical prisoner with rough hands and a weather-beaten face, on which huge blue eyes burned with anguish and pain. Gorky Vaska Ashes! Dad began to read Chekhov’s “The Joke,” the finest psychological prose. Nikanorov was so amazed that he vowed to get this guy out of the camp. And he kept his oath. So Georgy first ended up in the concert brigade, and then in the Magadan Drama Theater, whose troupe consisted half of prisoners. Here people began to follow Zhzhenov, and he had fans, including among the camp authorities. And one day the wife of the head of the camp administration told him: “Congratulations on your liberation! The husband signed the order..."

After serving his sentence for two years, my father was released in March 1945. In Magadan, he married for the second time, to the “Japanese spy” Lydia Vorontsova. A Leningrader, she went through the same trials as him - and also survived. They had a daughter, Alena. On this day, the father decided to arrange a celebration, among others, he invited famous singer Vadim Kozin. He also served time in Magadan. There weren't enough dishes. Georgy Stepanovich went to a hardware store, bought all the chamber pots there, knocked off their handles - they set the table with them! This is how they lived... It seemed that the trials were over. Zhzhenov even took advantage of the help of Gerasimov, who remembered him and gave a recommendation to the Sverdlovsk film studio. Dad starred there in the film “Alitet Goes to the Mountains.” But then the Sverdlovsk film studio was reorganized, Zhzhenov had to look for work in other places. Meanwhile, people began to be re-imprisoned. Georgy Stepanovich recalled: “You ask the question: “How much?” - they answer: “Forever!” You ask the investigator: “For what?” - he says: “If I knew...”

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 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 corpus delicti 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. Georgiy 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 warrant for the arrest of G.S. Zhzhenov, another spy who was unable to escape the watchful eye. A reason for the arrest was found. The NKVD Directorate of Leningrad 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" who "you can't 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 Zhzhonov, “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 order 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, despite everything I was, is and will be 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 took place that directly affected them 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 existing 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 further 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 changed.

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But Zhzhonov did not give in even now. Then they found a way out - to send him to a camp. It's not difficult 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 reactionary tsarist laws to be copied to create a Special Meeting in our country (the rules “On the procedure for the operation of gendarme corps officers for the investigation of crime” 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. But not for long. A new arrest followed in 1949.

Georgy Stepanovich turned out to be right: the tag “counter-revolutionary” was hung on him 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 Zhzhenov, 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

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 the second year circus school Georgy Zhzhenov, while performing an acrobatic act at the Shapito circus, was noticed by director Eduard Ioganson and invited to star in 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 had starred in the films " Crown Prince 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 just a few years 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

A man of inflexible role

On December 8, 2005, in Moscow at the Pirogov National Medical and Surgical Center, he died at the age of 91. National artist USSR, holder of many orders and laureate of many awards Georgy Zhzhenov. His life included about 200 roles and 16 years of prisons, camps, and exile.

Perhaps the secret of the active longevity of Georgy Zhzhenov, who until his death appeared on the stage of the Mossovet Theater in Ernst Thompson’s play “On Golden Lake,” is precisely that 16 best years life. There was such a unique breed of people who served incredible terms and seemed to decide that the wasted years “didn’t count” and they had to do everything that they would have done if their life had turned out like a human being, and until then not die. These were the writer Oleg Volkov, who served 28 years and lived to be almost 100, the artist Alexander Baturin, who served 20 years and lived to be 90, and Georgy Zhzhenov.

It is more difficult for an actor to start life over than for a writer. Zhzhenov’s second film debut took place after rehabilitation in 1955, the first in 1932 in “The Hero’s Mistake” by Eduard Ioganson, where his friend Efim Kopelyan also made his debut. He had already trained as an acrobat at the Leningrad Variety and Circus College, where he entered at the age of 15 according to the documents of his older brother Boris, and performed in the circus act of cascading eccentrics “2-Georges-2”. Hardening helped in the camp, although Zhzhenov himself believed that he survived thanks to his “low intelligence” and the fact that even before his arrest he had “no faith in justice, in the law.”

In 1932, Georgy Zhzhenov entered the workshop of Sergei Gerasimov at the Leningrad Institute of Performing Arts, starred in small roles, but in high-profile films: in “Chapaev” (1934) he played Timoshka, Furmanov’s adjutant. At the request of Sergei Gerasimov, the NKVD released him to film “Komsomolsk” (1938). He was supposed to go into exile: Boris was already in prison, he would die in Vorkuta in 1943, and then the Romanian occupiers would kill his second brother in Mariupol. Zhzhenov believed that from then on he lived for three people.

Returning from filming, he was arrested, asked his wife not to wait for him, and was tortured at Kresty. I didn’t forget or forgive anything. During perestroika, he published stories comparable in degree of horror and vigilance to the prose of Varlam Shalamov. I went with director Sergei Miroshnichenko around Kolyma. In the television film “Russian Cross”, from under the actor’s imperturbable mask, a desperate grin flashed, as the thieves called him, of a “murky fraer” with whom it is better not to mess: it is unknown how he will respond to an attack. Having been released from Kolyma in 1945, he played in the First Polar Drama Theater (1945-1946), at the request of Gerasimov, who had not forgotten him, worked at the Sverdlovsk Film Studio (1947-1948), after its transfer to Moscow, where the exile’s path was barred, at the Theater drama Pavlov-on-Oka, from where he was taken again and sent into lifelong exile. While waiting for Stalin's death, he played at the Norilsk Theater together with the wary Innokenty Smoktunovsky, who was hiding there from repressions "for captivity." Zhzhenov literally pushed him, so that such talent would not be lost, to Moscow with letters of recommendation to his friend from his youth, Arkady Raikin.

In 1955, he returned to Leningrad, played in the regional theater at Liteiny, the Lensovet Theater, in 1968 Yuri Zavadsky invited him to Moscow to play in the play “Escape from Life” the last days of Leo Tolstoy. The play was closed, but the Mossovet Theater became Zhzhenov’s home for 35 years.

There are strange rhymes in life. Zhzhenov was imprisoned as an “American spy”: on the Trans-Siberian train, the actors drank with the American naval attache. In his “second life” he was the most “American” actor in Soviet cinema. He can only be compared with the stars of the “golden age” of Hollywood - Humphrey Bogart, James Stewart. He didn't "reincarnate". He filled the screen with proud individualism, restrained masculinity, sophisticated insight, and weighty presence in any role. He was proud that writer James Aldridge imagined him as the pilot from “The Last Inch,” and an American consultant on the set of “All the King’s Men” (1972) by Naum Ardashnikov and Alexander Gutkevich called his face “the most American.” He rightly considered the role of the demagogue-governor Willie Stark, the embodiment of imperious madness, to be the best in his life. A shiver goes through when Willie cries in front of the crowd: “Blood! I see blood on the moon! Give me the axe!”

He spoke about other roles, not complaining, but stating: “I only played what Oleg Efremov, Mikhail Ulyanov and also Evgeny Matveev could not digest.” Zhzhenov always played with dignity in strong genre films. Military ("Hot Snow", 1973), espionage ("Marked Atom", 1972), historical-revolutionary ("Death of the Squadron", 1965), production ("Selecting a Target", 1974). Even in the first Soviet disaster film, “Crew” (1980). Two characters stood out sharply from the series of stern and noble men he played: the traffic inspector pursuing the thief Detochkin, but understanding him, in “Beware of the Car” (1966) by Eldar Ryazanov and the white emigrant Count Tulyev in “The Resident’s Mistake” (1968) by Veniamin Dorman. In four films about the resident, Zhzhenov played not a spy propagated by the KGB, but the broken Russian fate of the twentieth century, a hero who always took responsibility, albeit mistakenly, for himself.

For his roles as security officers, Zhzhenov was showered with awards from the KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Receiving one of them, he joked: “Will you at least give me a sunny place in my cell for this if you put me in prison again?” Over the past 17 years, he only played in “The Invisible Traveler” (1998) by Igor and Dmitry Talankin: he said that they were inviting him to act “in something that I despise, hated and hate.” In 2000, a monument to him was unveiled in Chelyabinsk; he did not know whether to “laugh or cry,” feeling only awkwardness. They gave one after another awards “For Honor and Dignity”: well, what other formula could be applied to this incredible person and the actor? He swam in the sea, drank vodka, worked on the pardon commission, complained that he had “just stopped caring for girls,” “looked closely” at Putin with the eyes of an old camp inmate and passionately rejoiced at the “acts of retribution” of people offended by the authorities.

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 Vasilyevsky 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, Georgy was immediately invited to film set“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

Behind 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.