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The son of an affluent architect, Eisenstein attended the Institute of Civil Engineering in Petrograd as a young man. With the fall of the tsar in 1917, he worked as an engineer for the Red Army. In the following years, Eisenstein joined up with the Moscow Proletkult Theater as a set designer and then director. The Proletkult's director, Vsevolod Meyerhold, became a big influence on Eisenstein, introducing him to the concept of biomechanics, or conditioned spontaneity. Eisenstein furthered Meyerhold's theory with his own "montage of attractions"--a sequence of pictures whose total emotion effect is greater than the sum of its parts. He later theorized that this style of editing worked in a similar fashion to Marx's dialectic. Though Eisenstein wanted to make films for the common man, his intense use of symbolism and metaphor in what he called "intellectual montage" sometimes lost his audience. Though he made only seven films in his career, he and his theoretical writings demonstrated how film could move beyond its nineteenth-century predecessor--Victorian theatre-- to create abstract concepts with concrete images.- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Elem Klimov was born on 9 July 1933 in Stalingrad, Nizhne-Volzhskiy kray, RSFSR, USSR [now Volgograd, Volgogradskaya oblast, Russia]. He was a director and actor, known for Come and See (1985), Rasputin (1981) and Pokhozhdeniya zubnogo vracha (1965). He was married to Larisa Shepitko. He died on 26 October 2003 in Moscow, Russia.- Actress
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Lorina Kamburova worked in the US under commerce and granite, Lorina started her career in Sofia then went to new starts. She remained in that country until she starred in Death Race (2018).
Lorina transformed multi languages including, English language, French, Sign and Dutch
Death Race (2018) is what is Lorina most known for.- The famous Russian actor was discovered by Andrei Tarkovsky. He was looking for an actor to play the part of Andrei Rublev for his second full-length film and accidentally found the completely unknown Solonitsyn in Chelyabinsk. He worked there as an amateur actor. After Andrei Rublev, he played main parts in many of Russia's best movies.
- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Sergei Bondarchuk was one of the most important Russian filmmakers, best known for directing an Academy Award-winning film epic War and Peace (1965), based on the book by Lev Tolstoy, in which he also starred as Pierre Bezukhov.
He was born Sergei Fedorovich Bondarchuk on September, 25, 1920, in the village of Belozerka, Kherson province, Ukraine, Russian Federation (now Belozerka, Ukraine). He was brought up in Southern Ukraine, then in Azov and Taganrog, Southern Russia. Young Bondarchuk was fond of theatre and books by such authors as Anton Chekhov and Lev Tolstoy. He made his stage debut in 1937, on the stage of the Chekhov Drama Theatre in the city of Taganrog, then studied acting at Rostov Theatrical School. In 1942 his studies were interrupted by the Nazi invasion during WWII. Bondarchuk was recruited in the Red Army and served for four years until he was discharged in 1946. From 1946 - 1948 he attended the State Institute of Cinematography in Moscow (VGIK), graduating as an actor from the class of Sergey Gerasimov. In 1948 he made his film debut in Povest o nastoyashchem cheloveke (1948) then co-starred in The Young Guard (1948).
For his portrayal of the title character in Taras Shevchenko (1951) he was awarded the State Stalin's Prize of the USSR, and was designated People's Artist of the USSR, becoming the youngest actor ever to receive such honor. Then he starred in the internationally renowned adaptation of the Shakespeare's Othello (1956), in the title role opposite Irina Skobtseva as Desdemona. Bondarchuk expressed his own experience as a soldier of WWII when he starred in The Destiny of a Man (1959), a war drama based on the eponymous story by Mikhail Sholokhov, which was also Bondarchuk's directorial debut that earned him the prestigious Lenin's Prize of the USSR in 1960.
Bondarchuk shot to international fame with War and Peace (1965), a powerful adaptation of the eponymous masterpiece by Lev Tolstoy. The 7-hour-long film epic won the 1969 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and brought Bondarchuk a reputation of one of the finest directors of his generation. The most expensive project in film history, War and Peace (1965) was produced over seven years, from 1961 to 1968, at an estimated cost of $100,000,000 (over $800,000,000 adjusted for inflation in 2010). The film set several records, such as involving over three hundred professional actors from several countries and also tens of thousands extras from the Red Army in filming of the 3rd two-hour-long episode about the historic Battle of Borodino against the Napoleon's invasion, making it the largest battle scene ever filmed. Bondarchuk also made history by introducing several remote-controlled cameras that were moving on 300 meter long wires above the scene of the battlefield. Having earned international acclaim for War and Peace (1965), he starred in the epic The Battle of Neretva (1969) with fellow Russian, Yul Brynner, and Orson Welles, whom he would direct the following year.
By the late 1960s Bondarchuk was one of the most awarded actor and director in the Soviet Union. However, he was still not a member of the Soviet Communist Party, a fact that brought attention from the Soviet leadership under Leonid Brezhnev. Soon Bondarchuk received an official recommendation to join the Soviet Communist Party, an offer that nobody in the Soviet Union could refuse without risking a career. At that time he was humorously comparing his situation with the historic Hollywood trials of filmmakers during the 50s. Bondarchuk was able to avoid the Communist Party in his earlier career, but things changed in the Soviet Union under Brezhnev, so in 1970, he accepted the trade-off and joined the Soviet Communist Party for the sake of protecting his film career. In 1971 he was elected Chairman of the Union of Filmmakers, a semi-government post in the Soviet system of politically controlled culture. Eventually he evolved into a politically controlled figure and turned to making such politically charged films as Red Bells (1982) and other such films. Later, during the liberalization of the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev, Bondarchuk was seen as a symbol of conservatism in Soviet cinema, so in 1986 he was voted out of the office.
Bondarchuk was the first Russian director to make a big budget international co-production with the financial backing of Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis, such as Waterloo (1970), a Russian-Italian co-production vividly reconstructing the final battle of the Napoleonic Wars. This was his first English-language production, but several Soviet actors were cast, e.g. Sergo Zakariadze and Oleg Vidov. In this film, Orson Welles, his co-star in The Battle of Neretva (1969) made a cameo as the old King Louis XVII of France. But this time Bondarchuk was unable to control the advances of Rod Steiger, and the film was a commercial flop in Europe and America, albeit it gained the favor of critics.
After his dismissal from the office of Chairman of the Union of Cinematographers he started filming Tikhiy Don (2006) based on the eponymous novel by the Nobel Prize winner Mikhail Sholokhov, with Rupert Everett as the lead. At the end of filming, just before post-production, Bondarchuk learned about some unfavorable details in his contract, causing a bitter dispute with the producers over the rights to the film and bringing much pain to the last two years of his life. Amidst this legal battle the production was stopped and the film was stored in a bank vault, and remained unedited and undubbed for nearly fourteen years. The production was completed by Russian television company "First Channel", and aired in November 2006.
In his career that spanned over five decades, Sergei Bondarchuk had credits as actor, director, writer, and co-producer in a wide range of films. He suffered a heart attack and died on October 20, 1994, and was laid to rest in Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, Russia, next to such Russian luminaries as Anton Chekhov and Mikhail A. Bulgakov. His death caused a considerable mourning in Russia. Bondarchuk was survived by his second wife, actress Irina Skobtseva and their children, actress Alyona Bondarchuk, and actor/director Fedor Bondarchuk, and actress Natalya Bondarchuk, his daughter with his first wife, actress Inna Makarova.
As a tribute to Sergei Bondarchuk, his son, Fedor Bondarchuk called him "a father and my teacher," and dedicated his directorial debut, 9th Company (2005), set in war-torn Afghanistan, whereas Sergei's directorial debut was set in WWII.- Tatiana Samoilova (Tatyana Samojlova) is a Russian film actress known for the leading roles in The Cranes Are Flying (1957) and Anna Karenina (1967).
She was born Tatiana Evgenievna Samoilova on May 4, 1934, in Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Russia. Her father, Evgeniy Samoylov, was a notable Russian actor, Her mother, Zinaida Ilyinichna, was Jewish. Young Samojlova studied music under the tutelage of her mother. During the Second World War, she escaped from the siege of Leningrad with her parents, and moved to Moscow. There she studied ballet and graduated from the Ballet School of Stanislavsky Theatre. She was invited by Maya Plisetskaya to join the ballet school of Bolshoi Theatre, but she chose to be a dramatic actress. From 1953-1956 she studied at Shchukin Theatrical School, then at State Institute of Theatrical Art (GITIS), graduating in 1962, as actress. While a student, Samojlova made her film debut in Meksikanets (1955).
Samojlova shot to fame with the leading role as Veronika in Letyat Zhuravli (The Cranes are Flying 1957) by director Mikhail Kalatozov. In spite of the initial cold reception by the Soviet officialdom, the film was loved by public in Russia and internationally. It became the first and only Russian film to be awarded the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival in 1958. Samojlova won a Special Mention at Cannes and was nominated for Best Foreign Actress BAFTA Film Award in 1959. She received many offers internationally, and was invited to work in Hollywood, but the Soviet government forced her to decline any jobs outside the Soviet Union.
During the 60s, her career stagnated due to overall stagnation in the USSR under Leonid Brezhnev. In 1960 Samojlova lost her job with Mayakovsky Theatre in Moscow, and was practically unemployed for several years. Her next success came with the title role in Anna Karenina (1967), an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Lev Tolstoy by director Aleksandr Zarkhi. Samojlova starred as Anna Karenina opposite her ex-husband Vasiliy Lanovoy.
During the 80s and 90s, Tatiana Samojlova had a lengthy pause in her film career. She made a comeback in several TV series in the 2000s. She was married four times, and has one son. Samojlova was designated People's Actress of Russia (1993). She is living in Moscow, Russia. - Anastasiya Zavorotnyuk was born on 3 April 1971 in Astrakhan, Astrakhanskaya oblast, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia]. She was an actress, known for Moya prekrasnaya nyanya (2004), Kod apokalipsisa (2007) and Proklyatie spyaschikh (2018). She was married to Pyotr Chernyshyov, Dmitriy Stryukov and Olaf Schwarzkopf. She died on 29 May 2024 in Moscow, Russia.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Alexandr Kajdanovsky, Russian actor, director and screenwriter, now best remembered for his work in Andrei Tarkovsky's films. Kajdanovsky left Junior High School to enroll in technical college where he was training to become a welder. Apparently a prospect of becoming a worker did not appeal to him and in 1965 he started studying acting at The Shchukhin Theatre School in Moscow. Before completing the course he took his first part in the film Tainstvennaya stena (1968) (A Mysterious Wall), and upon graduation in 1969, he worked as stage actor. Still unsatisfied with his work Kajdanovsky joined the army in 1973 spending some years in cavalry.
It was a famous film director Nikita Mikhalkov who discovered Kajdanovsky and gave him the lead in his civil war drama At Home Among Strangers, a Stranger Among His Own (1974) (At Home among Strangers, Stranger at Home). By the late 1970s Kajdanovsky had had credits in some noted films, including adventure stories Propavshaya ekspeditsiya (1975) (The Lost Expedition), Zolotaya rechka (1977) (Golden River), a fantasy Pilot Pirx's Inquest (1979) (Pilot Pirks Tested). The greatest twist in his career came with Andrei Tarkovsky giving him the lead in Stalker (1979). Kajdanovsky attended Tarkovsky's writing seminar and under his teacher's influence he wrote and directed Prostaya smert (1985) (An Ordinary Death) - an adaptation of one of Leo Tolstoy's stories - the film won honour at the Malaga film festival. Kajdanovsky's starring role in Spanish film El aliento del diablo (1993) (The Devil's Breath) and in Hungarian Büvös vadász (1994) (Magic Hunter) made him an international celebrity and resulted in him having been invited to become the juryman of the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. Unfortunately alcohol ruined his life, he could hardly maintain his career between the bouts of drinking, he died on December 3, 1995, 3 months short of 50.- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Dmitri Shostakovich, one of Russian culture's most acclaimed intellectuals who was censored under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin, was an internationally recognized composer whose music was in over 100 films.
He was born Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich on September 25, 1906, in St. Petersburg, Russia. He was the second of three children of Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich, a chemical engineer, and Sofia Kokaoulina, a pianist. Young Shostakovich studied piano under his mother tutelage and at a private school in St. Petersburg. His greatest influences were Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven and Modest Mussorgsky. From 1919-1925 he studied piano and composition at St. Petersburg (Leningrad) Conservatory. He wrote his First "Classical" symphony as his graduation piece. In 1927 he won an "honorable mention diploma" at the 1st International Piano Competition in Warsaw. In 1929 he collaborated with writer Vladimir Mayakovsky, artist Alexander Rodchenko and director Vsevolod Meyerhold.
In 1934 Shostakovich collaborated with Aleksei Dikij on the legendary opera Katerina Izmailova" (aka Lady Makbeth of Mtsensk). Dikij's production of "Katerina Izmailova" had over 100 performances in Leningrad and Moscow, and was considered a highlight in his directing career. However, in 1936, the opera was severely criticized by some critics on the Pravda, the Communist Party's official newspaper, and accused of formalism and intellectualism.
In the summer of 1941 Nazi Germany and its allies invaded the Soviet Union, and German and Finnish forces and encircled Leningrad (St. Petersburg). Defenders and civilians in besieged Leningrad were doomed, because the besieging forces cut supplies of food and energy to the surrounded city. It wasn't long before the city's population of birds, pets and even rats were eaten, and not long after there were reports of cannibalism brought about by starvation. The siege of Leningrad was so impenetrable that by December of that year an average of 4000 to 6000 residents a day were dying of starvation, disease, shellfire, bombardment and a variety of other causes.
During the first months of the siege Shostakovich was in Leningrad. He survived the first bombardments and joined the "night watch" patrol, helping to put out fires during massive German air bombardments. Shostakovich personally neutralized several incendiary bombs and was actively involved in firefighting. After aerial and artillery bombardments, during the rare quiet moments, Shostakovich was back to his piano composing new music. He was evacuated from the besieged city in the end of 1941.
The Seventh "Leningrad" Symphony, which Shostakovich started composing during the Nazi aerial and artillery attacks during the siege, was the masterpiece that won him national and international recognition. His music helped lift the spirits of Leningrad citizens in a time when they were struggling to survive.
On August 9, 1942, Karl Eliasberg gave a premiere performance of Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony in Leningrad. That famous concert was made possible because Eliasberg specially created an orchestra of survivors who were still able to perform in spite of starvation and dystrophy.
Eliasberg, who was also extremely emaciated, spent some time in the hospital in the Astoria hotel and came to the rehearsals straight from the sick ward. On the score of one of the musicians of that legendary orchestra you can still see a drawing showing hollow-cheeked Eliasberg conducting his orchestra sitting on a chair. The legendary performance was broadcast live from the Radio Hall in Leningrad, so millions of civilians and defenders of the besieged city were able to hear the powerful music. The symphony written in the conventional four movements is Shostakovich's longest, and one of the longest in the repertoire, with performances taking approximately one hour and fifteen minutes. The scale and scope of the work is consistent with Shostakovich's other symphonies as well as with those of composers considered to be his strongest influences, including Bruckner, Gustav Mahler and Igor Stravinsky.
Before they tackled Shostakovich's work, Eliasberg had the players go through pieces from the standard repertoire - Ludwig van Beethoven, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - which they also performed for broadcast. Because the city was still blockaded at the time, the score was flown by night in early July for rehearsal. The concert was given on 9 August 1942. Whether this date was chosen intentionally, it was the day Hitler had chosen previously to celebrate the fall of Leningrad with a lavish reception for the top Nazi commanders. But instead of Hitler's plan, all loudspeakers delivered the live broadcast of the symphony performance throughout the city as well as to the German forces in a move of psychological warfare. The Russian commander of the Leningrad front, General Govorov, ordered a bombardment of German artillery positions in advance of the broadcast to ensure their silence during the performance of the symphony; a special operation, code-named "Squall," was executed for precisely this purpose. Three thousand high-caliber shells were lobbed onto the enemy. Then the music of Shostakovich came out of the speakers all over the siege perimeter, so the Nazis had to face the music. The music of Shostakovich brought the much needed support and catharsis to survivors who loved the symphony and applauded to Eliasberg and his orchestra. General Govorov with his staff came backstage to thank Eliasberg and his musicians for their art and courage.
The news about Dmitry Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony premiere in besieged Leningrad spread all over the world. It was an important message to all nations that Hitler's attack on Leningrad failed. Shostakovich who began to write his famous symphony before evacuation from besieged Leningrad in 1941, could not go back to attend its premier performance in 1942. The composer sent the conductor and the musicians who performed his work in the besieged city a telegram with words of gratitude.
After WWII Shostakovich was again accused of formalism in 1948. At that time, Shostakovich gained international recognition in the free world, and received several invitations to participate in music festivals and other cultural events. He was awarded the International Peace Prize (1954), State Prize five times (in 1941-1952), State Prizes of Russia and the USSR, and was designated People's Artist of the USSR. From 1957-1975 he was secretary of the Union of Composers of Russia and the USSR. He taught and promoted many talented musicians, such as Andrey Petrov, Georgi Sviridov, Karen Khachaturyan, and Boris Tishchenko among others.
Shostakovich and Yevgeniy Yevtushenko worked together on the famous Symphony No. 13 titled "Babi Yar", a vocal setting of poems by Yevtushenko. It was first performed in Moscow on December 18, 1962 under the baton of Kirill Kondrashin. Yevtushenko and Shostakovich toured many countries with the performances of "Babi Yar", and made several recordings of the Symphony No. 13. Among Shostakovich's best known film scores are 'Suite from The Gadfly' from The Gadfly (1955), and the score for director Grigoriy Kozintsev's acclaimed film Hamlet (1964) starring Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy.
In 1965 Shostakovich raised his voice in defense of poet Joseph Brodsky, who was sentenced to five years of exile and hard labor. Shostakovich co-signed protests together with such prominent figures as Korney Ivanovich Chukovskiy, Anna Akhmatova, Samuil Marshak, Yevgeniy Yevtushenko, and the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. After the protests his sentence was commuted, and Brodsky returned to Leningrad. At that time, Shostakovich joined the group of 25 distinguished intellectuals in signing the letter to Leonid Brezhnev asking not to rehabilitate Joseph Stalin.
Dmitri Shostakovich was a towering figure in Russian music of the 20th century along with 'Sergei Prokofiev (I)' and Aram Khachaturyan. He wrote 15 symphonies, of which the Fifth (1937), the Sevenths "Leningrad" (1942), and the Thurteenth "Baby Yar" (1968) are the best known. His other compositions include cantatas and oratorios, seven operas and operettas, four ballets, twelve musical comedies and other music for stage plays, 36 original motion picture scores, fifteen quartets and other chamber music for, piano, violin, and cello. Shostakovich, who was an awarded pianist himself, had composed outstanding works for piano, such as his Piano concertos No1 and No2. His 24 Preludes and Fugues for piano received numerous awards and recognitions, and were recorded in critically acclaimed performance by Vladimir Ashkenazy.
Shostakovich died of a heart attack on august 9, 1975, in Moscow, and was laid to rest in Novodevichi Convent Cemetery in Moscow, Russia. His legacy is continued by his son, conductor Maxim Shostakovich, and his grandson, pianist Dmitri Shostakovich Jr.- Actor
- Director
Yankovsky was named best actor in a 1984 reader poll by Soviet Screen for his role in "In Love Because He Wants to Be." He was awarded the State Prize in 1987 for his role in "Flying Asleep and Awake." In 1989 he received the Vasiliev State Prize for his role in "The Kreutzer Sonata." Yakovsky was given the lifetime achievement award at the 1983 All-Union Film Festival. He won the best actor NIKA in 1991, and in the same year was named People's Artist of the Soviet Union. Yankovsky was born in Kazakhstan and studied at the Slonov Theater Academy in Saratov. In 1965 he joined the Saratov Drama Theater, moving to Moscow's Lenkom Theater in 1973. He has presided over the Kinotavr Russian Open Film Festival since 1993.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Yuri Yakovlev is a popular Russian actor best known for his roles in Soviet comedies 'Ironiya sydby', Ivan Vasilevich', and Kin-dza-dza! (1986).
He was born Yuri Vasilevich Yakovlev on April 25, 1928, in Moscow, Soviet Union. His father, Vasili Vasilevich Yakovlev, was a layer, and his mother, Olga Mikhailovna Ivanova, was a homemaker. Young Yakovlev was fond of acting and theatre. From 1948 - 1952 he studied acting at Shchukin Theatrical School of Vakhtangov Theatre in Moscow.
Since 1952 Yuri Yakovlev has been member of the troupe at Vakhtangov Theatre in Moscow. There his stage partners were such actors as Mikhail Ulyanov, Ruben Simonov, Boris Zakhava, Mikhail Astangov, Varvara Popova, Irina Kupchenko, Natalya Tenyakova, Yuliya Borisova, Lyudmila Maksakova, Lyudmila Tselikovskaya, Marianna Vertinskaya, Nina Ruslanova, Nikolai Plotnikov, Vasiliy Lanovoy, Vladimir Etush, Vyacheslav Shalevich, Andrei Abrikosov, Grigori Abrikosov, Boris Babochkin, Nikolai Gritsenko, Nikolai Timofeyev, Aleksandr Grave, Evgeniy Karelskikh, Sergey Makovetskiy, and Ruben Simonov, among others. His most memorable stage performances were such roles as Triletsky in 'Play without a title', a play by Anton Chekhov (1968), as Karenin in 'Anna Karenina' (1983) by director Roman Viktyuk, and the title role in 'Kasanova' (1985). Since taking the role as Pantalone in 1963, Yakovlev has been delivering acclaimed performances in the legendary Vakhtangov's production of Carlo Gozzi's comedy 'Princess Turandot'.
He shot to fame with the leading role as Prince Myshkin in _The Idiot (1958)_ by director Ivan Pyrev. During the 1960s - 1980s Yakovlev was among the most popular actors in the Soviet Union. He was best known for such roles as Ivan Vasilyevich Bunsha in Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession (1973) by director Leonid Gaidai, and as Ippolit in The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath! (1976) by director Eldar Ryazanov.
Yuri Yakovlev was designated People's Actor of the USSR, was awarded the State Prizes of the USSR and Russia. He received the Order of Lenin (1988), the Order of the Red Banne of Labour (1978), and numerous awards and decorations for his works on stage and in film. He is married to Irina Leonidovna Sergeeva, and the couple has two sons and a daughter. Outside of his acting profession Yakovlev is fond of reading classical Russian literature and listening to classical music together with his friends and family.
In 1997 Yakovlev published his book titled 'Albom sudby moyey' (aka.. The album of my destiny). He is living with his family in Moscow, Russia.- Lyubov Polishchuk was born on 21 May 1949 in Omsk, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia]. She was an actress, known for Tayna chyornykh drozdov (1983), Persiki i perchiki. Kurtuaznye istorii (2003) and Moya prekrasnaya nyanya (2004). She was married to Sergey Tsigal and Valeriy Makarov. She died on 28 November 2006 in Moscow, Russia.
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Aleksandr Kuznetsov was born on 2 December 1959 in Petrovka, Primorskiy kray, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia]. He was an actor and writer, known for The Bourne Supremacy (2004), Space Cowboys (2000) and The Peacemaker (1997). He was married to Yuliya Rutberg, Christina and Lyudmila Sobko. He died on 6 June 2019 in Moscow, Russia.- Director
- Additional Crew
Konstantin Stanislavski was a wealthy Russian businessman turned director who founded the Moscow Art Theatre, and originated the Stanislavski's System of acting which was spread over the world by his students, such as Michael Chekhov, Aleksei Dikij, Stella Adler, Viktor Tourjansky, and Richard Boleslawski among many others.
He was born Konstantin Sergeevich Alekseev on January 5, 1863, in Moscow, Russia. His father, Sergei Alekseev, was a wealthy Russian merchant. His mother, Elisaveta Vasilevna (nee Yakovleva) was French-Russian and his grandmother was a notable actress in Paris. Young Stanislavski grew up in a bilingual environment. He was fond of theatre and arts, studied piano and singing, and performed amateur plays at home with his elder brother and two sisters. He studied business and languages at Lasarevsky Institute, the most prestigious private school in Moscow. He did not graduate, instead he continued self-education while traveling in several European countries and studying at libraries and museums. Eventually Stanislavski joined his father's company, became a successful businessman, and the head of his father's business, the Alekseev's factory and other assets. During the 1880s Stanislavski made a fortune in international business and trade, he was awarded the Gold Medal at the World's Fair in Paris. At the same time, he was an active patron of arts and theatre in Russia. In 1885 he studied acting and directing at the Maly Theatre in Moscow, and took a stage name Stanislavski. In 1888 he founded the "Society for Arts and Literature" in Moscow.
In 1898 Stanislavski together with his partner, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, founded the Moscow Art Theatre, which made a profound influence on theatrical art all over the world. They opened with staging of "Tsar Feodor" a play by Aleksei Tolstoy, then staged "The Seagull" written by Anton Chekhov specially for the Moscow Art Theatre. In 1900 Stanislavski brought the Moscow Art Theatre on tour in Sebastopol and Yalta in Crimea, where he invited then ailing Anton Chekhov to see several plays. Chekhov admired the company's stage production of his plays, and respected the theatrical achievements of Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. Chekhov's legendary collaboration with the Moscow Art Theatre was fruitful for both sides: it resulted in creation of such classics as 'The Seagull', 'Uncle Vanya', 'The Three Sisters', and 'The Cherry Orchard', the four big plays which remained in the repertoire ever since.
Stanislavski's system was developed through his own cross-cultural experience as actor, director, and businessman. He constantly updated his method through inter-disciplinary studies, absorbing from a range of sources and influences, such as the modernist developments, yoga and Pavlovian behaviorist psychology. He introduced group rehearsals and relaxation techniques to achieve better spiritual connections between actors. Pavlovian approach worked well by conditioning actors through discipline in longer, organized rehearsals, and using a thorough analysis of characters. Stanislavski himself was involved in a long and arduous practice making every actor better prepared for stage performance and eventually producing a less rigid acting style. In his own words, Stanislavski described his early approach as "Spiritual Realism." His actors worked hard to deliver perfectly believable performances, as none of his actors wanted to hear his famous verdict, "I don't believe."
As an actor, Stanislavski starred in several classical plays. His most notable stage performances, such as Othello in the Shakespeare's 'Othello', and as Gayev in Chekhov's 'The Cherry Orchard', were acclaimed by critics and loved by public. His own students said that Stanislavski was a very comfortable partner on stage, due to his highly professional and truthful acting. At the same time, he could be very demanding off stage, because of his high standards, especially during his lengthy and rigorous rehearsals, requiring nothing less but the full devotion from each actor of his company, the Moscow Art Theatre.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, his factory and all other business property was nationalized by the Soviet Communists, but he was allowed to own his mansion in Moscow. Stanislavski wisely let go of all his wealth and possessions and expressed himself in writing and directing. He remained the principal director of Moscow Art Theatre for the rest of his life. During the turbulent years before and after the Russian Revolution, and later in the 1920s and 30s, he witnessed bitter rivalry among his former students. Some actors emigrated from Russia, others fought for their share of success, and the Moscow Art Theatre was eventually divided into several companies.
In 1928 Stanislavski suffered from a heart attack. He then distanced himself from disputes and competition between his former students Michael Chekhov and Aleksei Dikij, whose individual ambitions resulted in further fragmentation of the original Moscow Art Theatre company. At the same time, his younger apprentice, Nikolay Khmelyov, remained loyal to the teacher, and eventually later filled the position held by Stanislavski at Moscow Art Theatre. However, his other students, such as Vsevolod Meyerhold and Yevgeni Vakhtangov founded their own theatre companies and continued using their versions of the Stanislavski's system. In the 1930s, Stanislavski together with Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko formed one more theatrical company in Moscow, the Musical Theatre of Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko.
Stanislavski was a proponent of democratic ideas, such as equal opportunity and equal value of every human being on the planet. At that time Stanislavski's nephew was arrested for political reasons, and died in the Gulag prison-camp. Stanislavsky was also under permanent surveillance, because his Moscow Art Theatre was frequently attended by Joseph Stalin and other Soviet strongmen. However, at that time Moscow Art Theatre became especially popular, because Russian intellectuals needed a cultural oasis to escape from the grim Soviet reality. Under Stanislavski the Moscow Art Theatre produced several brilliant plays by Mikhail A. Bulgakov, and also continued running such classics as 'The Seagull', 'The Cherry Orchard', 'The Lower Bottom' and other original productions of plays by Anton Chekhov and Maxim Gorky.
In his later years, Stanislavsky wrote a book titled "An Actor Prepares" which, in Charley Chaplin's words, ".. helps all people to reach out for big dramatic art. It tells what an actor needs to rouse the inspiration he requires for expressing profound emotions." Stanislavsky explained how actors may use his System, "Create your own method. Don't depend slavishly on mine. Make up something that will work for you! But keep braking traditions, I beg you!" And that was exactly what the best of his followers did. Stanislavski's ideas were used by many acting teachers, such as Michael Chekhov, Stella Adler, and Lee Strasberg, among others across the world.
During the 1930s Konstantin Stanislavski directed the original productions of several classic Russian plays, such as "Na Dne" (aka.. The Lower Depths) by Maxim Gorky, "Tsar Fedor Ioannovich" by A.K. Tolstoy, and other plays at the Moscow Art Theatre. After Stanislavski's death his original theatrical productions were adapted to black and white films, where Stanislavsky is credited as the original theatrical director. He died of a heart failure on August 7, 1938, in Moscow and was laid to rest in Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, Russia.
Stanislavski's mansion in central Moscow is now a public museum and research center displaying a collection of original stage sets and theatrical costumes. Stanislavski's personal library is also part of his museum. It has rare books that he collected in his numerous travels, as well as original manuscripts and letters by Stanislavski.- Director
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Dziga Vertov was born on 2 January 1896 in Bialystok, Grodno Governorate, Russian Empire [now Podlaskie, Poland]. He was a director and writer, known for Man with a Movie Camera (1929), Three Songs About Lenin (1934) and The Sixth Part of the World (1926). He was married to Elizaveta Svilova. He died on 12 February 1954 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].- Director
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Mikhail Kalatozov was born on 28 December 1903 in Tiflis, Russian Empire [now Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia]. He was a director and cinematographer, known for The Cranes Are Flying (1957), True Friends (1954) and Zagovor obrechyonnykh (1950). He died on 27 March 1973 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].- Actor
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Innokenti Smoktunovsky (birth name Smoktunovich) was born in Siberian village of Tatianovka near Tomsk in 1925. There were some speculations that his ancestors were of Polish nobility or of Jewish ethnicity and that they were exiled to Siberia for participating in the January Uprising of 1863. But, according to Smoktunovsky's own words, his ancestors were Belarusian peasants who were sent to Siberia after his grand-grandfather - a guard in the Bialowieza Forest - shot a wisent without permission. His father was killed in WWII. Smoktunovsky was drafted in the Red Army during WWII and was seized by the Nazis as a POW. He was on the road to a concentration camp, but managed to escape from the Nazis. He joined the partisans and served until the end of WWII. After the war he was under suspicion as a former POW and his career was limited to Siberia.
He studied acting for one year at the drama-studio of the Krasnoyarsk Drama Theater (1946). He found employment at the Norilsk Zapolyarny Drama Theater, where his friend and partner was Georgi Zhzhyonov, among other exiled actors. Both friends later starred in 'Beregis avtomobilya (1966)', directed by Eldar Ryazanov. But his film career started with director Mikhail Romm in 'Ubiystvo na ulitse Dante (1956), and in 'Soldaty (1956)' with director 'Aleksandr Ivanov'.
Smoktunovsky was praised by Laurence Olivier for the leading role in 'Hamlet (1964)', a B&W screen version directed by Grigoriy Kozintsev. Leading roles in Tchaikovsky (1969), 'Uncle Vanya (1970)', were among the highlights in film career of this great Russian actor. He worked with Georgi Tovstonogov from 1957-72 on stage of the Bolshoi Drama Theater (BDT) in Leningrad. He later moved to Moscow, where he worked at the Maly Theater and at the Moscow Art Theater (MKHAT). Smoktunovsky wrote an autobiographical book titled "They left me alive", in which he described his survival in Siberia, in WWII, and back again in Siberia, where he started his brilliant acting career.- Actor
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Vyacheslav Tikhonov was one of Russian cinema's best known faces, he survived hardship during the Second World War, and became renown for his portrayal of Russian aristocrats and intellectuals in several award-winning films, such as War and Peace (1965) and White Bim Black Ear (1977).
He was born Vyacheslav Vasilevich Tikhonov on February 8, 1928, in a small town of Pavlovsky Posad near Moscow, USSR (now Moscow, Russia). His father, Vasili Romanovich Tikhonov, was a technician at a local garment factory. His mother, Valentina Vyacheslavovna, was a kindergarten teacher. Tikhonov's first profession was that of a metal-worker during the Second World War. The war later became the main theme in some of his most notable film works. Young Tikhonov was obsessed with movies, his favorite actors were Nikolay Cherkasov as Aleksandr Nevsky, and Boris Babochkin as Chapaev. From 1945-1950 Tikhonov studied at the State Institute of Cinema (VGIK). He made his film debut in The Young Guard (1948) by director Sergey Gerasimov. During the filming of Molodaya Gvardiya Tikhonov met his first wife, Nonna Mordyukova. Their son, Vladimir Tikhonov, also became an actor, however, he suffered from a drug dependency and died. Vyacheslav Tikhonov met his second wife during the filming of We'll Live Till Monday (1968).
In the course of his career Tikhonov worked with some of the best Russian directors. He worked with director Stanislav Rostotskiy in five films, starting in Delo bylo v Penkove (1957). Their collaboration was especially fruitful in Dozhivem do ponedelnika (1969) and White Bim Black Ear (1977), which received an Academy Award-nomination. Before that, Tikhonov appeared in the leading role as Prince Bolkonsky in War and Peace (1965), an eight-hour epic film by actor-director Sergey Bondarchuk. In 1969 the film won the Academy Award as the best foreign-language film.
Tikhonov's most notable role on television was as Russian spy Stirlitz (Col. Maxim Isayev) in Seventeen Moments of Spring (1973), a popular TV series about a Russian intelligence agent operating in Berlin during WWII. The dual identity of Tikhonov's character is well played, and the film has won him millions of loyal fans. Tikhonov's consistent popularity made his character, Stirlitz, a hero in hundreds of jokes. After the role as Stirlitz, Tikhonov became typecast as a Soviet military character, and played heroic KGB officers and generals in several Soviet films during the 70s and 80s. In 2002 Vyacheslav Tikhonov suffered a heart attack. However, he soon recovered and returned to acting. In 2004 he played a role in a film produced by his daughter Anna Tikhonova. His last film-work was in Andersen. Zhizn bez lyubvi (2006) by director Eldar Ryazanov.
Vyacheslav Tikhonov was awarded the State Prize of the USSR and the State Prize of Russian Federation. He received numerous government awards and decorations and was designated People's Actor of the USSR (1974). Vyacheslav Tikhonov was residing in his country house in the prestigious village of Nikolina Gora, a suburb of Moscow. He died of a heart failure on the 4th of December, 2009, and was laid to rest in Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow, Russia.- Actor
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Oleg Tabakov was a renown Russian actor, director, and public figure, who played over 100 roles in film and on TV. He is best known for his roles as Count Nikita Rostov in War and Peace (1965) by Sergey Bondarchuk, and as Oblomov in the eponymous film by Nikita Mikhalkov.
He was born Oleg Pavlovich Tabakov on August 17, 1935, in Saratov, Russia, USSR. His father, Pavel Kondratevich Tabakov, and his mother, Maria Andreevna Berezovskaya, were medical doctors in Saratov. His parents separated during the Second World War, and young Tabakov was brought up by his single mother and grandmother. He attended the all-boys school in Saratov, and was active in the drama class. From 1950-1953 he studied acting at the Saratov House of Pioneers under the legendary acting coach Natalia Iosifivna Sukhostav.
In 1953, Tabakov moved to Moscow and entered the Moscow Art Theatre (MKhAT) School of Acting. He attended the class of Vasili Toporkov, graduating in 1957 as an actor. He made his film debut as Sasha in Sasha vstupayet v zhizn (1957) by director Mikhail Shvejtser, in 1956. That same year he became the youngest of the six founding members of Sovremennik Theatre under the directorship of Oleg Efremov. From 1957 - 1983, he was member of Sovremennik. There he played leading roles in such productions as 'Goly Korol' (aka.. Naked King), 'Tri Zhelaniya' (aka.. Three Wishes), 'Obyknovennaya istoriya' (aka.. Ordinary story) and other contemporary Russian plays. From 1970 - 1976 Tabakov was General Manager of Sovremennik, he promoted Galina Volchek to Principal Director of the company.
Since 1970s Tabakov had been teaching young actors at his master-class. Many of his students became successful professionals on stage as well as in film industry. His teaching credentials included workshops and productions at the Paris Conservatoire, the British American Drama Academy, Akademie Der Künst in Hamburg, the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna, Carnegie Mellon, The Juilliard School, New York University, Florida State University, The University of Delaware, and Harvard University.
In 1978 Tabakov and his students opened the "Tabakerka" Theatre in downtown Moscow. There Tabakov produced and directed several successful plays, such as 'Vesnoi ya vernus k tebe' (aka.. I'll be back in Spring), 'Proschay Maugli' (aka.. farewell to Maugli), and 'Belosnezhka i sem gnomov' (aka.. Snowhite and seven dwarfs). However, regardless of success with public and steady critical acclaim, the Soviet officials did not authorize Tabakov's new theatre, and his company dissolved by 1982. At that time Tabakov was depressed and transferred to MKhAT. There he played one of his best stage roles, Salieri, in the popular play 'Amadeus' under directorship of Oleg Efremov. Over the course of his acting career Tabakov appeared in about 150 roles, he also directed over 30 international stage productions.
During the 1990s, Oleg Tabakov was a strong supporter of democratic reforms and freedom in the new Russia. He made public speeches and was involved in many public events facilitating the cultural transformation of arts and theatres in Russia. Having himself experienced the Soviet control and suppression during his creative career, Tabakov became one of the leading proponents of cultural reforms in Russia. His efforts came to fruition in the revival of the Moscow Art Theatre under his leadership, as well as his participation in numerous cultural and political events in Russia. Over the course of his life and career, Oleg Tabakov rose to become one of the living symbols of artistic freedom in Russia. However, during the last years of life, Tabakov had shown public support of the ruling regime of Russia, supposedly out of the desire to help his students and the actors of his theatre.
Since 2000, after the death of his friend Oleg Efremov, Tabakov had been Artistic Director of Moscow Art Theatre named after A. Chekhov. He was also the Artistic Director of "Tabakerka" Theatre, and the leading actor in both companies. He was awarded the USSR State Prize for the Arts, the Russian State Prize for the Arts, and other national and international awards and decorations from Hungary, France, Poland, and the USSR. Oleg Tabakov was designated People's Actor of the USSR and Russia (1980s), and was decorated with the Order of Merit of Fatherland II degree, by the Russian president Vladimir Putin (2005).
Oleg Tabakov has been married twice. His first son, Anton Tabakov, is an actor and also a successful night-club owner in Moscow. Since 1996, Oleg Tabakov had been married to actress Marina Zudina and the couple had two children, son, Pavel (b. 1996), and daughter, Maria (b. 2006). Oleg Tabakov was hospitalized in the late November of 2017. His condition worsened gradually, ending in his death on 12th of March, 2018.- Additional Crew
Joseph Stalin (a code name meaning "Man of Steel") was born Iosif (Joseph) Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili in 1878 in Gori, Georgia, the Transcaucasian part of the Russian Empire. His father was a cobbler named Vissarion Dzhugashvili, a drunkard who beat him badly and frequently and left the family when Joseph was young. His mother, Ekaterina Gheladze, supported herself and her son (her other three children died young and Jopseph was effectively an only child) by taking in washing. She managed, despite great hardship, to send Joseph to school and then on to Tiflis Orthodox Theological Seminary in Tbilisi, hoping he would become a priest. However, after three years of studies he was expelled in 1899, for not attending an exam and for propagating communist ideas and the books of Karl Marx.
Since 1898, Stalin became active in the Communist underground as the organizer of a powerful gang involved in a series of armed robberies. After robbing several banks in southern Russia, Stalin delivered the stolen money to Vladimir Lenin to finance the Communist Party. Stalin's gang was also involved in the murders of its political opponents; Stalin himself was arrested seven times, repeatedly imprisoned, and twice exiled to Siberia between 1902 and 1913. During those years he changed his name twice and became more closely identified with revolutionary Marxism. He escaped many times from prison and was shuttling money between Lenin and other communists in hiding, where his intimacy with Lenin and Bukharin grew, as did his dissatisfaction with fellow Communist leader Lev Trotskiy. In 1912 he was co-opted on to the illegal Communist Central Committee. At that time he wrote propaganda articles, and later edited the Communist paper, "Pravda" (Truth). As Lenin's apprentice he joined the Communist majority (Bolsheviks), and was responsible for the consolidation of several secret communist cells into a larger ring. Stalin's Communist ring in St. Petersburg and across Russia played the leading role in the Russian Revolution of 1917. After the revolution the Bolsheviks Communists grabbed the power, then Communists murdered the Tsar and the Russian royal family. Stalin and Lenin took over the Tsar's palaces and used the main one in Kremlin as their private residence.
Lenin appointed Stalin the People's Commissar for Nationalities in the first Soviet government and a member of the Communist Politburo, thus giving him unlimited power. Stalin led the "Reds" against anti-Communist forces known as the "Whites" and also in the war with Poland. He also organized "Red Terror" in Tsaritsin (later renamed Stalingrad). With his appointment as General Secretary to the Party Central Committee in 1922, a post he held for the next 30 years, until his death, he consolidated the power that would ensure his control of the country after Lenin's death in 1924. He also took, or gave himself, other key positions that enabled him to amass total power in the Party and Soviet government.
Stalin was known for his piercing eyes and terrifying stare, which he used to cow his opponents into submission during private discussions. In 1927 Stalin requested medical help for his insomnia, anger and severe anxiety disorder. His doctors diagnosed him as having "typical clinical paranoia" and recommended medical treatment. Instead, Stalin became angry and summoned his secret service agents. The next day the chief psychiatrist, Dr. Bekhterev, and his assistants died of poisoning. In addition, before the doctors' diagnosis about Stalin's mental condition could become known, he ordered the executions of intellectuals, resulting in the murders of hundreds of thousands of doctors, professors, writers, and others.
Stalin's policy of amassing dictatorial power under the guise of building "socialism in the country" resulted in brutal extermination of all real and perceived anti-Communist opposition. His purges of the Soviet military brought about the execution of tens of thousands of army officers, many of them experienced combat veterans of the Revolution, the Civil War, the Polish campaigns and other military operations (this decimation of the Russian officer corps would result in the Soviet Union's initial defeats at the hands of Nazi invaders at the beginning of World War II). He also isolated and disgraced his political rivals, notably Trotsky. Stalin's economic policies of strict centralized planning (i.e., the "five-year plans") resulted in the near ruination of the Soviet economy and mass famines in many areas of the Soviet Union, notably in Central Russia and the Ukraine. Popular resistance to Stalin's policies, such as nationalization of private lands and collective farming, by independent farmers ("kulaks"), brought about brutal retaliation, in which millions of kulaks were either forced off their land or executed outright. Altogether Stalin's economic and political policies resulted in the deaths of up to 10 million peasants during 1926-1934. Between 1934 and 1939 he organized and led massive purge (known as "The Great Terror") of the party, government, armed forces and intelligentsia, in which millions of so-called "enemies of the Soviet people" were imprisoned, exiled or executed. In the late 1930s, Stalin sent some Red Army forces and material to support the Spanish Republican government in its fight against the rebels led by Gen. Francisco Franco and aided by troops and material from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.
Stalin made the Non-Aggression Pact with Adolf Hitler in 1939, which bought the Soviet Union two years' respite from involvement in World War 2. After the German invasion in 1941, the USSR became a member of the Grand Alliance and Stalin, as war leader, assumed the title of Generalissimus. He had no formal military training and scorned the advice of his senior officers, due to suspicion and his rising paranoia, actions that resulted in horrific losses to the Russian military in both men and material (not to mention civilian losses). He rejected military plans made by such experienced officers as Marshal Georgi Zhukov, and insisted they be replaced by his own plans, which led to even more horrific losses. Towards the end of WWII he took part in the conferences of Teheran, Yalta and Potsdam with Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Harry S. Truman and Clement Attlee. The agreements reached in those conferences resulted in Soviet military and political control over the liberated countries of postwar Castern and Central Europe.
From 1945 until his death Stalin resumed his repressive measures at home, resulting in censorship of the arts, literature and cinema, forced exiles of hundreds of thousands and the executions of intellectuals and other potential "enemies of the state". At that time he conducted foreign policies that contributed to the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West. Stalin had little interest in family life, although he was married twice and had several mistresses. His first wife (Ekaterina Svanidze, married c. 1904) died three years after their marriage and left a son, Jacob (also known as Yacov), an officer in the Russian army during World War II who was captured by the Nazis and died in a POW camp (his father refused German offers to exchange him for captured German officers). His second wife (Nadezhda Alliluyeva, married 1919) attempted to moderate his politics, but she died by suicide, leaving a daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, and an alcoholic son, Vasili Stalin, who later died in exile. Increasingly paranoid, Stalin launched attacks on such intellectuals as Osip Mandelstam, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Anna Akhmatova, Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev, Boris Pasternak, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and many other cultural luminaries. Stalin personally intervened in the fate of "counterrevolutionary" Yiddish writers and changed their sentences from exile to execution. Thirteen of them were executed by the Soviet secret police; their leader, Perets Markish, was executed in the typical KGB manner by a single gunshot to the head on August 12, 1952, in Moscow.
Stalin died suddenly on March 5, 1953, under somewhat mysterious circumstances, after announcing his intention to arrest Jewish doctors, whom he believed were plotting to kill him. The "official" cause of death was announced as brain hemorrhage. Stalin's apprentice, Georgi Malenkov, took the power, but was soon ousted by Nikita Khrushchev. Three years after death, Stalin was posthumously denounced by Nikita Khrushchev at the 20th Party Congress in 1956 for crimes against the Party and for building a "cult of personality." In 1961 Stalin's body was removed from Lenin's Mausoleum, where it had been displayed since his death, and buried near the Kremlin wall. In 1964 Leonid Brezhnev dismissed Khrushchev and brought back some of Stalin's hard-line policies. After 1986 Mikhail Gorbachev initiated a series of liberal political reforms known as "glasnost" and "perstroika", and many of Stalin's victims were posthumously rehabilitated, and the whole phenomenon of "Stalinism" was officially condemned by the Russian authorities.- Nadezhda Vasilevna Rumyantseva (sometimes spelled Rumiantseva) was a sort of Russian combination of Gidget + Tammy + Lucille Ball. Rumyantseva first acted on the stage, at Moscow's Central Children's Theater, when she was a teenager in the 1940s. She made her film debut at 22 in "Encountering Life." Her years of great popularity in the USSR came in the late 1950s to the mid-60s, when she starred in a series of teen-age family comedies, "The Unamenables" ('59), "Gals" ('61), "Queen of the Gas Station" ('63), etc., in a couple of which her romantic-comic partner was played by Yuri Belov. After she married a trade representative from the Georgian (Caucasus Mts.) Republic, she retired from acting in Russia for several years, in order to live with her husband abroad. In her comeback as a Russian actress in recent decades, she had to "act her age," no longer the once-beloved cute little teenager, and occasionally she has dubbed voices for animated cartoons.
- Zhanna Prokhorenko was born on 11 May, 1940, in Poltava, Ukraine, Soviet Union (now Poltava, Ukraine). Her father, Trofim Prokhorenko, an Air Force officer, was killed in WWII, when she was a one-year-old baby. She was brought up by single mother and went to school in Leningrad. Young Zhanna Prokhorenko studied acting at the acting studio of Leningrad Palace of Pioneers. There she was scouted by Moscow Art Theatre and moved to Moscow. At age nineteen, she was cast by director Grigoriy Chukhray in Ballad of a Soldier (1959) opposite Vladimir Ivashov. The movie won Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, and Zhanna Prokhorenko shot to international fame. In 1960, she toured the USA presenting the film to American audiences. At that time, Moscow Art Theatre had a strict policy against stage actors who switch to movies, so Zhanna Prokhorenko was fired. She took the acting class of Sergey Gerasimov at Soviet State Institute of Cinema (VGIK), graduating in 1964 as film actress.
Zhanna Prokhorenko was married twice. Her first husband was director Evgeniy Vasilev and the couple had one daughter, Yekaterina Vasilyeva, and granddaughter, Maryana Spivak. Her second husband, writer Artur Makarov, was killed by burglars in her lavish Moscow apartment in 1995, while Zhanna Prokhorenko was away. The murderer was never found. Zhanna Prokhorenko suffered from depression and went into seclusion in a small village away from Moscow. She died of a chronic illness, on 1 August, 2011, in a Moscow hospital, and was laid to rest in Khovanskoe Cemetery in Moscow, Russia. - Actor
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Vladimir Ivashov was born on 28 August 1939 in Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Russia]. He was an actor, known for Ballad of a Soldier (1959), Diamonds for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat (1975) and Day of Wrath (1985). He was married to Svetlana Svetlichnaya. He died on 22 March 1995 in Moscow, Russia.- Actress
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Lyudmila Gurchenko was a popular actress in the Soviet Union during the 1950s - 1980s, she was best known for Carnival Night (1956), Five Evenings (1979) and Siberiade (1979).
She was born Lyudmila Markovna Gurchenko on 12 November 1935, in Kharkov, Ukrainian Soviet Republic of the USSR. She studied acting at the VGIK (Soviet State Institute for CInema), graduating from the class of Sergey Gerasimov in 1956. That same year she shot to fame in the Soviet Union, aftr delivering a stellar performance as singer Lenochka Krylova in Carnival Night (1956), by director Eldar Ryazanov.
Gurchenko's film partners were such Russian stars, as Oleg Borisov, Sergei Shakurov, Aleksandr Abdulov, Oleg Basilashvili, Mikhail Boyarskiy, Igor Ilyinsky, Yuriy Nikulin, Armen Jigarhanian, Oleg Tabakov, Stanislav Lubshin, Andrey Mironov and Aleksandr Mikhaylov among others.
Lyudmila Gurchenko was married five times and had one daughter with her first husband, Boris Andronikashvili. She died of a pulmonary failure on 30 March 2011, at age 75, and was laid to rest in Moscow, Russia.- Actor
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Vladimir Vysotsky was an iconic Russian actor, singer-songwriter and public figure, who wrote over 700 songs and gave over 2000 public and private performances as an anti-establishment singer of the 60s and 70s in the former Soviet Union. He was one of the Soviet Union's boldest and most celebrated actors who promoted individual freedom and helped lift Russian youth out of the state of apathy and fear under the Soviet dictator Brezhnev. In the movies, Vysotsky was best known as nifty detective Zheglov in The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed (1979) by director Stanislav Govorukhin.
He was born Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky on 25 January 1938, in Moscow, then the capital of the Soviet Union. His father, Semen Volfovich Vysotsky, was Jewish; he served in the Red Army during WWII, and was decorated for his courage rising to the rank of a Colonel. His mother, Nina Maximovna Seregina, was Russian; she worked as Russian-German interpreter. During WWII, Vladimir Vysotsky with his mother escaped from the advancing Nazis by evacuation from Moscow to Orenburg province in Siberia. After the war, the parents divorced and he was living with his father and stepmother in a Soviet Military garrison in East Germany. There, from 1947 to 1949, Vladimir Vysotsky was taking piano lessons; he also became an avid movie watcher.
Upon returning to Moscow in the fall of 1949, he settled on Bolshoi Karetny, and went to the all-boys school No 186, from which he graduated in 1955. While at school, he attended the drama class of V. Bogomolov, an actor of the Moscow Art Theatre. From 1956 to 1960, he studied acting under Pavel Massalsky and Boris Vershilov at the Moscow Art Theatre Studio, graduating in 1960 as actor. He briefly worked at Moscow Pushkin Drama, then joined the troupe at the Taganka Theatre. Vysotsky made his film debut in Sverstnitsy (1959).
In 1961, in Leningrad, during filming of 713 prosit posadku (1962) Vladimir Vysotsky met actress Lyudmila Abramova who became his wife and mother of his two sons Arkady Vysotsky (born 1962) and Nikita Vysotskiy (born 1964). He was later married to the French-Russian actress Marina Vlady. During the 70s, he toured all over the former USSR and also made stage appearances in France, USA, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Yugoslavia.
Breaking all traditions, Vysotsky appeared as Hamlet with the guitar in the Shakespare's play directed by Yuriy Lyubimov. Vysotsky's Hamlet, dressed as a contemporary young man and playing his guitar, shook the Moscow establishment by overthrowing the traditional interpretation of the Shakespearean character. Vysotsky's shows was always sold out, and tickets to his performances were the most demanded "currency" in Moscow.
His opposition to Soviet authorities resulted in periodic bans of his songs. In 1968 Vysotsky wrote an open letter to the leading Soviet newspaper "Pravda" asking for fairness and equal rights; he requested that the official ban on his songs shall be lifted. That same year the first official recording of Vysotsky's songs from the film Vertikal (1966) was released on Melodia label and quickly became the best-selling record in the Soviet Union. However, the Soviet authorities stubbornly suppressed Vysotsky's film and music career, causing him much moral pain and suffering.
During the late 60s and 70s Vysotsky had problems with drugs and alcohol and suffered of a severe heart disorder which sent him into cardiac arrests on several occasions. In one case, his wife, Marina Vlady, noticed that he collapsed at home and saved his life by calling an ambulance, so he was hospitalized. He died while asleep at his home in Moscow, on 25 July, 1980. His death caused a considerable mourning in Russia. Thousands lined up to attend his funeral at Vagankovskoe Cemetery in Moscow. His numerous fans across Russia and the world continue the tradition of memorial concerts and gatherings on the 25th of July every year. His flower-adorned grave is a site of pilgrimage for his fans.
Vladimir Vysotsky's remarkable voice and style has been a lasting influence on many of Russia's actors and musicians. Though he was ostracized by the Soviet officialdom, he achieved remarkable fame during his lifetime, and remains a towering figure in Russian popular culture. Among his most notable followers and devotees are Mikhail Boyarskiy and Yuriy Shevchuk.