Georgy Zhzhenov: why the Soviet actor was in prison. Why the famous actor Georgy Zhzhenov was imprisoned. Why Zhzhenov was imprisoned.

Outstanding Russian and Soviet actor Georgy Zhzhenov lived 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

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

It was at the circus that Lenfilm employees saw him. The young man received 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 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 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.

A man of inflexible role

On December 8, 2005, in Moscow, at the Pirogov National Medical and Surgical Center, Georgy Zhzhenov, People's Artist of the USSR, holder of many orders and laureate of many awards, died at the age of 91. 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 repression “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” last days 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 jail 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 retaliation” of people offended by the authorities.

Georgy Zhzhenov is a great Soviet actor, whose contribution to Russian cinema is very difficult to overestimate. At one time he was a real symbol of cinematic art in the USSR. He was considered a classic during his lifetime. Therefore, when talking about the biography of an actor, you need to be extremely careful. After all, his life and the fate of this wonderful actor is real story movie.

Childhood and family of Georgy Zhzhenov

Our today's hero was born in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) on March 22, 1915. His parents were from simple peasants, and therefore early childhood Georgy Zhzhenov could not even think about a career in cinema and international recognition. IN early age he was the most ordinary guy. He loved to play with friends and kick the ball in the yard. The school where the future actor studied was distinguished by its physics and mathematics, but humanitarian subjects The Zhores have always been closer and dearer.

After receiving a diploma of secondary education, our today's hero went to enroll in a variety and circus technical school, but in admissions committee he was told he was too young to enroll. Not wanting to waste time and put everything off until later, Georgy Zhzhenov borrowed documents from his older brother and entered the technical school under the name Boris. Several years later, our hero admitted the fact of deception, but he was forgiven for such a small trick.

Having received the necessary education, the future actor got a job in a circus, but worked there for only a short time. During one of his performances, he was noticed by representatives of Lenfilm, who, in fact, invited him to work in cinema. From that moment on, the course of the great actor’s life entered a completely new direction.

The first films and roles of Georgy Zhzhenov

The first film with the participation of Georgy Zhzhenov was the film “The Hero’s Mistake,” which was released in 1932. Having played the role of a simple tractor driver Pashka Vetrov, the actor instantly earned the respect of his colleagues and the recognition of the audience. This role changed a lot in the fate of the actor himself. In the same year, 1932, he left his career in the circus and entered the cinematography department of the Leningrad College of Performing Arts. During his studies, he successfully starred in new Soviet films. In the period from 1932 to 1935, such films as “Chapaev”, “Golden Lights”, “ Crown Prince Republic", as well as some others.

Georgy Zhzhenov “I love life in all its manifestations”

At the early stage of his career, our today's hero played exclusively small roles. However, over time, the format of his roles constantly increased. It seemed that a real career breakthrough was just around the corner. But totalitarian Soviet Union was still not the best best place for creativity.

Repressions, Georgy Zhzhenov in exile

After the murder of Sergei Kirov, Georgiy's older brother Boris did not go to the farewell demonstration. This fact served as the basis for his exile to Kazakhstan. Subsequently, the entire Zhzhenov family was sent there. Only Georgy managed to stay in Moscow. For disobedience to the central government, he was captured and arrested, but was soon released thanks to a petition from the Lenfilm directorate.

But this was far from the last chord of this symphony. In 1938, during the filming of the film “Komsomolsk,” Zhzhenov met an American diplomat who was traveling with him on the same train to Vladivostok. This circumstance became the basis for accusing the actor of espionage, which in turn led to exile to Kolyma, where he subsequently served his sentence in a labor camp. Initially, Georgy was supposed to serve a five-year sentence, but after this period, without explanation, he was assigned another 21 months of correctional labor.

Actor Georgy Zhzhenov

In cold and gray Kolyma, the only outlet for the actor was the Magadan Musical and Drama Theater. He has performed here since 1944. During this time, he played many different roles, which earned him the respect of the prisoners and the camp administration.

It is quite remarkable that the actor did not interrupt his performances in this theater even after the expiration of his prison term. Until the end of 1946, he worked in the Magadan theater under a contract of employment, but was subsequently arrested again and sent to Norilsk. While serving his next sentence, Georgy Zhzhenov performed at the Norilsk Polar Drama Theater, where for a long time worked together with Innokenty Smoktunovsky.

New roles of Georgy Zhzhenov

Only in 1955 was Georgy Stepanovich completely rehabilitated and finally released from prison. Soviet camps. In the second half of the fifties, he began performing at the Leningrad Regional Drama Theater, and some time later began acting in films again. From that moment on, the actor's career began to slowly improve. He performed many wonderful roles in films, as well as at the Lensovet and Mossovet Theaters. In addition, for some time our today's hero also worked on the radio and worked as a writer. From the pen of the actor came many wonderful essays, stories and stories.

However, cinema has always occupied the main place in Georgy Stepanovich’s career. Bright screen roles in numerous films earned the actor the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR in 1969. After this, in the career of our today's hero there were also many other awards - the Order of Lenin, the Order of Merit for the Fatherland. In 1979 and 1980, Georgy Zhzhenov was awarded the titles of People's Artist of the RSFSR and the Soviet Union. In independent Russia, Georgy Zhzhenov continued to work in cinema and theater. During this period he main theme human rights became a part of creativity. This topic can be seen in many of his films.

Death of Georgy Zhzhenov, cause of death

Georgy Stepanovich died on December 8, 2005. The cause of death was lung cancer. The actor's funeral service took place in one of the Moscow churches. The grave of the talented figure of Soviet and Russian cinema is located at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Personal life of Georgy Zhzhenov

Georgy's first wife was the Belarusian actress Evgenia Golynchik. They met while studying, but after that their paths diverged. Therefore, relatively little is known about Evgeniy.

Another thing is the actor’s second wife, Lida. Zhzhenov met with her at the Magadan Theater. Their fates were similar in many ways. She, like him, was a “foreign spy.” And therefore find common language It was not difficult for the lovers. Soon they had a baby common daughter. However, after this the woman’s fate was tragic. She spent many years in the camps, and after her release she committed suicide.

After that, Georgy Zhzhenov was married twice more - to a woman from the Norilsk camp - Irina. And also on a native of Leningrad - Lydia Petrovna. The actor lived with her until the end of his days. Each wife of Georgy Stepanovich gave him a daughter.

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 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 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 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.

The outstanding Soviet actor Georgy Zhzhenov lived a long life. Not only fame and success fell to his lot, but also serious trials. Thus, during the era of Stalinist repressions, he was twice convicted on trumped-up charges. Circus and cinema Georgy Stepanovich Zhzhenov was born in March 1915 in Petrograd, into 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 the main role in the film “The Hero's Mistake” (1932). After that, leaving the circus, Zhzhenov entered the Leningrad College of Performing Arts on the course of Sergei Gerasimov. He starred in several films, including the legendary “Chapaev”. Walking through torment In December 1934, Kirov was killed in Leningrad. Boris Zhzhenov, like other Leningrad State University students, was supposed to take part in the funeral procession. But he refused, since he did not have proper shoes to spend several hours in the cold... This was regarded as a hostile attitude towards Soviet power. Soon Boris was expelled from the university. He was later reinstated, but in December 1936 he was again summoned to the NKVD. He never returned from there, receiving seven years for “anti-Soviet activities.” The Zhzhenov family was evicted from Leningrad. In addition to Georgy, his filmmaking friends 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 “Kresty” Zhzhonov 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. So Zhzhenov ended up in Kolyma, where he had to endure hunger, cold, exhausting work, and a 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 term - another 21 months in the camps. Second attempt In 1945, Zhzhenov was finally released, and thanks to Gerasimov, he found work at the Sverdlovsk film studio, where he starred in the film “Alitet Goes to the Mountains” - about Soviet Chukotka. But in 1949, the actor was arrested again. This time, however, he was sentenced not to the camps, but to exile in Norilsk. There he got a job at the local Mayakovsky Drama Theater, where he played with Innokenty Smoktunovsky, who had gone to Siberia to sit out the troubled times - he feared arrest for being captured by the Germans in 1943. In Norilsk, Zhzhenov tried to start a family with actress Irina Makhaeva. For him this was already the third - the previous two were interrupted by arrests... Later they had a daughter, Marina. Only in 1955, being 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. He gained national fame in the late 60s and early 70s after starring in the films “The Resident’s Mistake” and “The Resident’s Fate.” 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.