“We declare you husband and wife,” 65-year-old Lydia Makarova heard these words in February 1996 at the Bristol City Hall. Her chosen one was 67-year-old Robert Woods, an English aristocrat and former Rolls-Royce engineer. For the celebration, the bride chose an elegant beige outfit, and the groom wore a new satin gray suit... She had been pursuing her dream of becoming an English lady for almost half a century.
Spirit of England
As a child, rural girl Lida came up with the motto “You deserve it!” and, no matter how hard fate pressed her, she continued to believe in the best. In 1951, she entered the institute in Alma-Ata to major in teaching English and German.
Later, a friend gave her the original book. And Lydia fell in love with works about the delightful life of ladies and gentlemen in luxurious mansions with servants. To please her, her acquaintances used their connections to obtain bestsellers by Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie.
During her studies, at a gathering, Lida met her first husband, the handsome Vladimir Ushakov. In 1954, the couple had their only son, Sasha. The marriage lasted only two years, because the young people had too different goals... Later, Lydia met another man, he was twenty years older, worked as a school director in Krasnodar. She married for the second time and moved with her son to her husband. In a new place, she quickly got a job as an English teacher at a pedagogical university. The students adored her, despite her strictness and high demands.
“Mom graduated from graduate school, brilliantly defended her dissertation and became an associate professor, candidate of philological sciences,” Alexander tells StarHit. – When perestroika came, there was scope for business, she “caught the wave” - she created her own college. I rented a room (today they would say an office) in the medical unit, which was responsible for issuing certificates for obtaining driver’s licenses and examinations. I agreed with the owner that he would start paying rent when he received the first money from the students. Those interested were found very quickly. Lydia Konstantinovna had an excellent reputation; on her recommendation, graduates of schools and universities signed up to study with her; many Krasnodar officials wanted to arrange for their children to study. They also brought foreign guests of the city to the college.”
“I met a linguist professor from London,” said Lidia Konstantinovna. – Over time, we became business partners. I always wanted to see how they teach students there. An English colleague invited me to share experiences. I stayed at his luxurious mansion in Chelsea for a couple of weeks. And as a result, I fell in love with England even more.”
After retiring, Lydia closed the college. In my free time I corresponded with my favorite alumni. One of the former students married a British man, Martin Ruston, and moved to the city of Bristol. Svetlana, knowing the teacher’s dream, invited her to stay for a couple of months. Makarova happily accepted the offer.
Ladies' man
One evening, 66-year-old Robert Woods came into the Ruston cottage and wanted to borrow a trailer as a neighbor. I saw Lydia and disappeared!
“Even in my wildest dreams I could not imagine this,” admits Lidia Konstantinovna. – Well, what a feeling when you are well over 60! But Bob courted me so much that I gave up. Daily bouquets from my own garden were a humble beginning..."
By car, Mr. Woods drove his lady around the country. He arranged romantic picnics in beautiful parks, they talked about everything in the world. It turned out that Bob was married, but the marriage did not last long. His son and daughter grew up without him, they hardly communicate. Robert also spoke about serious health problems: many years ago, Woods was riding a bicycle and was hit by a truck. The result is severe damage to the spine. Twice a year a man has to go to the hospital for examination and rehabilitation, and during the breaks he is forced to lead a quiet lifestyle.
The two-month vacation ended with a marriage proposal, supported by a modest ring with a tiny diamond drop, which Lydia Konstantinovna accepted with almost childlike delight.
Citizen Makarova officially became Mrs. Lydia Woods on February 14, 1996. The newlyweds celebrated the joyful event together at the Pipal Tree restaurant. Later, the couple sold Bob's old three-story house and bought another, smaller, but beautiful, cozy one in the center of Bristol. We started renovations, building materials were quite cheap, but we couldn’t afford to hire workers. Alexander, Lydia's son, came to the rescue. The visa was then given without any problems for two years, he stayed for several months and helped arrange the home. This was a real family idyll, which the heroine always dreamed of. No matter how much my mother invited the heir to move, he refused. Although at that time nothing kept him in Russia - he did not have children in two marriages.
Complete loneliness
The Woods couple spent their last years on the shores of Bristol Bay in the town of Weston-super-Mare, located in Somerset. We bought a house at the resort, deciding to change the noisy, lively city to the “village”. Lead a quiet, measured life.
Two years ago, 86-year-old Robert went to the hospital for another examination, but did not come out - his worn-out heart stopped. My wife was there until the end, holding my hand. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Woods suffered greatly: it is difficult for her to even move due to a problem with the vestibular system. Lives all alone. The son is trying to go to his mother, but so far to no avail.
“I contacted the United Visa Center of Volgograd and the Volgograd Region,” Ushakov told StarHit. – On his website it says: “The cost of our services is three thousand rubles. Additional payment (if required): consular fee – $140, cost of return delivery of the passport to Volgograd – $30.” That is about 13 thousand rubles. But they assured me that the longer the visa period, the higher the price. In total, they took 34 thousand. I requested permission to enter for six months. I showed up at the Moscow consulate and was refused.”
For two months, the son has not been able to reach his mother by phone; she only has a home phone; she does not recognize either a mobile or Internet connection. What happened to Lydia is unknown. Now Alexander dreams of one thing - to hear her voice again.
Unfortunately, people who have already passed away told me about this. veteran of the Great Patriotic War, sniper Lidiya Efimovna BAKIEVA(she accounted for 78 destroyed Nazis, most of whom were officers) and former Chairman of the KGB of the Kazakh SSR, Lieutenant General Vasily Tarasovich SHEVCHENKO.
They came here to “get away” from the front...
After my husband Satay Bakiyev went to war, I literally began to besiege the Alma-Ata military registration and enlistment office,” Lidia Efimovna recalled. - But since I was not yet 18 years old at that time, I received refusals. As a result, I was nevertheless sent to the Central Women's Sniper School, first to Veshnyaki near Moscow, and then to Podolsk, where we were trained for 6 months. By the way, I studied there too Hero of the Soviet Union Aliya Moldagulova, she was one graduation older than me.
So, while I was running to the military registration and enlistment office, I saw more than once how adult, healthy and strong men, by hook or by crook, sought to get a reservation from the draft or at least a deferment. To achieve this, everything was used: from scoliosis and weak lungs to flat feet...
...and recruit the dissatisfied
According to Lieutenant General Vasily Tarasovich Shevchenko, among those hiding from conscription in Alma-Ata and other cities of the Kazakh SSR, not only agents of Nazi Germany and militaristic Japan, but also the allies of the USSR - the USA and Great Britain were disguised.
The latter were interested in the richest mineral deposits of Kazakhstan, said Vasily Tarasovich. - And Abwehr specialists preferred to train saboteurs from the children of kulaks and White Guards who burned with hatred of the Bolshevik system. Therefore, they weren’t even paid, but were forced to work for an idea. In 1944, the Ministry of State Security liquidated a group of seven saboteurs - deserters from the Soviet Army - in Almaty.
They prepared attempts on the lives of major party and economic leaders, organized terrorist attacks on enterprises evacuated in Alma-Ata, and recruited those dissatisfied with Soviet power. One of the most dangerous lone agents was Vasily Karpenko.
While in the Kazakh SSR, this experienced and well-trained saboteur changed his last name and appearance seven times.
After the end of the war, many traitors and deserters, hiding behind false passports, tried to sit out in Alma-Ata. But Soviet counterintelligence managed to neutralize almost everyone.
A saboteur disguised as a major
We learned about the tragic attempt to detain the leader of one of the largest sabotage groups of the Almaty underground, Robert Geisin, from which 68 years have passed. Director of the DVD Museum of Almaty Lyudmila Mikhailovna KOLESNIKOVA.
Robert didn’t stand out as anything particularly remarkable among his peers,” says Lyudmila Kolesnikova. - Now he would be called a major.
His mother, the director of the dermatovenerological clinic, was an honored medical worker, she was well known by the city and regional party leadership. She and her son lived in a large private house at the intersection of Oktyabrskaya (Kazybek bi) and Muratbaev streets.
During the war years, the honored medical worker, through her connections, got her son into the Mining and Metallurgical Institute (Kazakh National Polytechnic University), and he avoided being drafted into the active army.
And at the same time, brutal robberies began in Almaty, which almost always ended in the killing of the victims. As it turned out later, Robert managed to successfully combine three roles. During the day he was an exemplary student, carefully attending lectures and practical classes, in the evening he turned into a cruel raider-murderer, and at night he gave instructions to his young accomplices - members of the pro-Nazi underground.
True, the latter became clear much later. The operatives of the Almaty criminal investigation department got on the trail of Robert only in 1948 and believed that he was an ordinary robber.
The organizer of the underground network was my mother
By the way, as it later turned out, Robert was recruited by German agents not alone, but together with his mother. Nobody could have thought that the honored medical worker is actually the organizer of a terrorist fascist organization, whose members wore black jackets and hid a small swastika badge under their lapels.
Robert's mother often went on business trips to Moscow, which not only provided an excellent cover, but also allowed her to serve as a courier. Meeting with curators in the capital, the woman secretly brought weapons and instructions for her son.
Unfortunately, when preparing to detain Robert, the operatives knew nothing about this and suspected him exclusively of criminality. Meanwhile, the money and valuables obtained during the raids were spent by the underground on the purchase of weapons and explosives.
Tragic ending
Having surrounded the house in which Robert lived, the police, led by Head of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Almaty Police, Lieutenant Colonel Rodion Filippovich SAGINADZE, went inside. The first was Lieutenant Colonel Saginadze. Seeing him, Robert’s mother shouted to her son, who was in the next room: “The police have come to see you!”
He did not even think of giving up, but began to shoot back “Macedonian style” from two TT pistols. German agents sent to Alma-Ata taught him such shooting.
Rodion Saginadze was killed first, then police captain Mikhail Zuev was killed by bullets, and operative Vasily Kobrisov was seriously wounded. They tried to save him, but during the operation conducted by A. N. Syzganov, the wounded man died...
It’s not easy to talk about this, but some policemen got scared and ran away,” continues Lyudmila Kolesnikova. - Then they tried to justify themselves, saying that they had gone to call an ambulance, but no one believed them...
During the shootout, his mother ran into the room where Robert was holed up. Mistaking her for a policeman, he killed her on the spot. He, seriously wounded, was interrogated just before his death Minister of Internal Affairs of the Kazakh SSR, Major General Afanasy Afanasyevich PCHELKIN.
As it turned out, Robert had always been an ideological enemy of the Soviet state, so he happily agreed to lead the military wing of the underground. Being a German by nationality, he was recruited by Nazi agents and then himself recruited his peers from among students for the underground struggle against the USSR. He lured those who refused to secluded places and mercilessly killed them.
Robert underwent special training, studied shooting, recruitment methods and demolition. Writhing in pain, he cursed Soviet power and bitterly regretted that he did not have time to kill the entire task force. Robert and his mother were buried in the same cemetery where criminals sentenced to death were buried.
Referring to the testimony of veterans of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Kazakh SSR, Lyudmila Kolesnikova says that immediately after the murder of operatives in Alma-Ata, widespread arrests began: young fascists were brought in whole groups.
The whole of Almaty buried the operatives...
The funeral of the fallen police officers became a true national grief: thousands of citizens came to say goodbye to the heroes.
Rodion Filippovich Saginadze served in the authorities for 21 years, started as a simple detective and rose to lieutenant colonel. For his long and impeccable service in the bodies of the NKVD - Ministry of Internal Affairs, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, the Red Star, the medal “For Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War,” as well as diplomas and a registered military weapon - the Mauser - for the courage shown in the fight against banditry.
Vasily Ivanovich Kobrisov and Mikhail Pavlovich Zuev were also excellent and promising workers.
Delivered a farewell speech at the funeral Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the Kazakh SSR Petr Vasilievich NIKOLAEV.
All detained members of the terrorist underground were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment, since the exceptional measure - execution - was temporarily canceled.
Yesterday morning I flew to Alma-Ata or, as they call it here, Almaty, the former capital of Kazakhstan, which to this day remains such, despite the formal transfer of the “main city of the country” to Astana.
I am here at the invitation of Air Astana for a two-day visit, during which I have already visited the Discovery Flight School flight training center, about which there will be a separate story, but for now let’s take a look around the city.
The Beatles monument in the park on Kok-Tobe is a local mountain with an observation deck.
2. I get to see the sunrise right when I check into the hotel - this is the view from the balcony. 
3. Access to LiveJournal in Kazakhstan is blocked by most providers, so I use the local Bilan, for which everything works, but slowly. 
6. We pass the French House with Eiffel. 
8. Sayahata area with a view of the central mosque. 
9. They sculpted the Beatles and got an A-studio. 
10. Evening views from Kok-Tobe. 
11. I live opposite the wheel of outrage. 
14. What is this?
Already seven people have written in the comments what it is. Who else will add?
Along the way, no one reads the previous commentators... 
15. And this is the Nurly Tau business center. 
16. There is a good view on the mountain from a cafe with Moscow prices, but it’s too long to wait for the waitress to order. That’s why I take pictures through gaps in the bushes. For some reason, the remaining filming points of the city were made into cages with chickens and peacocks. The park is undergoing reconstruction and there is nowhere to turn around there. 
17. There are several attractions for big and small and a monument to the Beatles. 
18. In the evening, the city is jammed with traffic jams, and catching a ride with one or two fellow travelers is the most common thing here. Official taxis cost one and a half times more and are not popular. You can travel from one end of the city to the other for a maximum of a couple of thousand tenge (400 rubles). Usually they offer 500 (100 rubles) for a train. 
20. We go down to the metro - the youngest of all existing ones. I immediately like the fence on the escalator and the indicator. Moreover, the escalator remains idle until a passenger steps on it. 
22. One trip on the metro costs 80 tenge (16 rubles) - you are given a yellow plastic token, which must be inserted into the turnstile at the entrance. 
23. Composition “Wedding” at the station “Auezov Drama Theatre”. 
24. The Almaty metro opened on December 1, 2011 and has seven stations - “Rayimbek Batyr”, “Zhibek-Zholy”, “Almaly”, “Abay”, “Baikonur”, “Auezov Drama Theater” and “Alatau”. Next up are the stations "Moscow" and "Sairan".
While waiting for the train, you can poke into the monitors that are hung above. 
25. The Baikonur station is truly cosmic. 
26. And, judging by the shiny floor, it’s not very crowded... 
27. How is this translated? "The Leader's Path" - a movie about Nazarbayev. 
28. On the “theater” there are beautiful round bas-reliefs. 
The time has come when it has become impossible to work even during the day, much less at night. The government decided to evacuate the filmmakers. “Mashenka” by Raizman was the first to leave, followed by “The Guy from Our Town.” Then the entire Mosfilm was evacuated, and a little later - Lenfilm, which jumped out of the city literally at the last second before the blockade. Most of the filmmakers came to Alma-Ata, and Room, Lukov, studio named after. Gorky - to Tashkent. Mosfilm and Lenfilm formed the Central United Film Studio. I was approved for the role of Varya in the film “The Guy from Our Town” just before leaving. In the fall of 1941, Nikolai Afanasyevich Kryuchkov, Stolper, Ivanov, operators Uralov and Rubashkin and I were traveling in the same carriage. On the way, the train was bombed, we stopped for a long time.
When you leave your usual places for the first time, your loved ones - Aunt Marusya, Mila, they are in Moscow, in danger - your soul is very heavy. The most important thing is that Sergei is at the front, it is unknown whether he is alive or not. Sergei once studied with Stolper at the Literary Institute and asked him to “look after” me. Oh, let the goat into the garden! He not only began to patronize me, but also tried to start an affair. It was not easy to fight back, especially since there is some kind of dependence, the fear of being left out of work, after all, he is the main one in the film.
Now, taught by bitter experience, I advise young actresses: “Don’t have an affair with the director, this is the most harmful thing that can be for the picture, for the role and for your destiny, because true love is rarely born, and the director’s position dictates your dependence.” , the desire to please, to please. You can’t quarrel - if you sharply refuse, the director can take revenge, but you can’t love either, otherwise you will become even more dependent.”
Actor Vladimir Kandelaki was traveling in the same carriage with us - a very talented, somewhat naive and very selfish person, which I managed to notice on the way.
We drove for a long, long time. There were enough products for now. We all had bad stomachs. We did intensive gymnastics - nothing helped. I almost had a volvulus and a fever. Kandelaki also suffered incredibly - every time he returned from the toilet, he had such sad eyes. And suddenly, one fine day, on the fifth day or so, a loud voice was heard: “I am a gypsy baron!” He sang loudly and so joyfully that the whole carriage understood: he was relieved of his burden! Since then, I have associated this aria with indigestion.
In general, there were a lot of funny episodes. Everyone bought or exchanged salt for things. Salt was in short supply. Ivanov, the famous make-up artist for Lenfilm, for example, bought two bags. Suddenly a rumor spread that some commission was coming to expose the “speculators.” Then the director of the film ordered: “Pour salt into the toilet for everyone!” There was a long line. Then I specifically looked out the window of the tail car - the whole way was strewn with salt. Only Ivanov did not want to part with his wealth. There was no commission, and he alone won.
On the way, as I already said, we were bombed. The train stopped and we rushed into the forest. A woman ran out with me, she was dragging some kind of huge suitcase. I hid behind a fallen tree, and she covered the suitcase with her body. Then I asked: why not her suitcase, but she his?
“My silver foxes are there, but what am I without the silver foxes?” - she answered, lisping. Then we got to talking, she told me about her affair with the famous critic Yuzovsky and kept repeating: “What am I without silver foxes?” It seemed like a nonsense episode, but it was not. Many years passed, I was rehearsing the matchmaker in “Balzaminov’s Marriage”. I was very tormented - I didn’t know at all how my matchmaker spoke. Voinov was angry that I couldn’t come up with a way to talk. While I’m silent, the crinoline, the red wig, the tucked up nose, and the little drunken eyes - everything seems to be working, but when I start talking, it’s all not true! Konstantin Naumovich almost shouts: “Well, how does she still speak?” I squeaked, and grunted, and burbled, and suddenly I remembered this woman, her lisp: “What am I without silver foxes?”
And when she began to say: “I never snack, I don’t have this stupid habit...” - lisping, I suddenly felt so comfortable. This was the very thing that an actor needs when he is working on his character, his manner of speaking, walking... This is the same emotional memory that lives in an actor all his life. It’s good when the director gives a hint, sometimes he can hit the mark, but the actor must first of all rely on himself. I kept people’s intonations in my memory, like any writer saves successful phrases in his notebooks.
An amazing autumn greeted us in Alma-Ata. Oh, what a city it was against the backdrop of white, snow-capped peaks, how beautiful were the golden crowns of the trees, the ditches running from the mountains, the alleys of the famous “aport” apple trees! What about the Kazakhs? All my life I have been grateful to this people, so hospitable. They made room, moved around, shared everything they could.
And how terrible it is that now the majority of refugees from Kazakhstan are Russians. They are forced out of there and are not allowed to live or work. I don’t believe that these are ordinary Kazakhs. I think this is the leadership, Nazarbayev. And there are dark nationalist forces in every country. They support such a policy.
In Alma-Ata we were accommodated in the Sovetskaya Hotel. Ordinary actors lived here, and the stars - Pyryev, Eisenstein, Ladynina, Cherkasov, Pudovkin, Tisse - in the house, which was nicknamed the “laureate”. Eisenstein began filming Ivan the Terrible. Ermler, Zavadsky, Ulanova, and Maretskaya were here. Life in Alma-Ata is a difficult period of time, very complex and incredibly interesting. When we arrived, all the shops were filled with alcohol. They also sold amazing natural juices. There were all sorts of juices there! Then cards were already introduced, we received bread using them. For some reason I remember Pudovkin very well. He has a string bag in his hands, and in it is a loaf of black bread, which he tried to exchange or sell for something, like everyone else.
Fate brought me into contact in Alma-Ata with very remarkable women much older than me, who belonged to the Moscow elite: Natalya Konchalovskaya, Zina Sveshnikova, Ira Lerr, Maretskaya, Sudakevich, Ilyushchenko.
Ilyushchenko, Yutkevich’s wife, portrayed the sovereign princess in the ballet “Swan Lake” all her life. She was a princess in everyday life - she never did anything. The poetess Konchalovskaya, Mikhalkov’s wife, very funny told us how she reacts to the love affairs of her Sergei. First of all, she begins to be friends with her rivals, and then very cleverly “removes” them. She was older than Mikhalkov and unusually smart. Zina Sveshnikova is a woman of a bright, original destiny. Her husband worked as Eisenstein's second director. Now the second directors have transferred and turned into administrators, but before they were responsible for all the crowd scenes and the selection of actors. They freed the master from all this. Zina was once Mayakovsky’s mistress and told us with piquant details about her relationship with him. Or the beautiful Anelya Sudakevich, the wife of Asaf Messerer, and before that the famous Nezhny, director of the Moscow Art Theater, who during the war took the entire gold fund of theater actors to Tbilisi. Before she was an actress, she acted with Kuleshov, Barnett and Pudovkin, and then she became a costume designer and worked for many years as the chief designer of the circus. She recently turned ninety!
In general, these women had a lot to tell me, young and inexperienced. Ira Jlepp, an operetta actress, had an affair with Pudovkin. This whole novel took place before our eyes, and we knew all of Pudovkin’s habits and inclinations, his pranks, his temperament, his thoughts. In Alma-Ata, he once spoke and talked about his trip abroad. He stood on the stage, and behind him was a bust of Lenin. Pudovkin spoke very temperamentally, waved his arms, then took off his jacket and threw it over his shoulder right on Lenin’s head! It was an emergency then.
Pudovkin lived widely, beyond his capabilities. In addition to his wife, he always had mistresses. One of them was Ira Lerr. We witnessed how she prepared to meet him. We all gossip together, laugh, joke, exchange “experiences,” and Ira sits in a large basin, rubbing her soles, heels, knees, and elbows with a pumice stone so that they are soft. And then I learned that if you wash them and rub them with a pumice stone, they will become as soft as a newborn’s. And at this time we say some nasty things about Pudovkin, hint that he is not as saintly as she thinks, and in conclusion we present her with a colorful but frivolous drawing depicting their future meeting. Sudakevich painted, Konchalovskaya wrote poetry. This is the kind of society we had.
And Maretskaya at that time was seducing the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of Kazakhstan with all her might - no more, no less. Something didn’t work out very well for her, and every time we asked: “Well, did he give himself to you or not?” Finally Vera comes and says: “He’s mine.” And he tells in detail how it happened.
Once we even played such a game - everyone had to talk about the most shameful thing in their life. I saw that people’s faces became a little more serious and thoughtful. I am sure that the most shameful cases were not selected. It's so clear! One famous actress said that she stole a blouse from the costume room at the theater. Kryuchkov said something very disgusting, connected with the old woman - the cleaning lady. But still, actors are actors - they spoke richly, deliciously, played, went through the details.
Sergei Prokofiev lived in the hotel next to me with his Italian wife and two sons. He composed music all the time. It was not easy to endure this. He worked very hard, endlessly practicing the first two notes. And I kept waiting for the third one to be born, and he again returned to the first two. I absolutely hated him, I wanted to hit him over the head with a frying pan. Only later did I realize that there was a genius next to me. And at that time he was composing the famous “Cinderella”.
Alma-Ata and Kapler, the author of the script “She Defends the Motherland,” visited. I remember he was sitting in one of the hotel rooms and Gerasimov was next to him. He and Makarova once came to Alma-Ata for a short time, and we were all amazed, and some were delighted by their warlike appearance - in leather jackets, with revolvers. I don’t remember now who and where they defended. Gerasimov managed to teach - VGIK was also there.
In a hotel, everyone usually visits each other, so I was in the room where Kapler, Zoshchenko, Barnett and Rima Carmen lived. Zoshchenko told us fortunes. He had “his own method”; he asked the one he was telling fortunes about her secrets. He was so serious and sad, and that is how he remains in my memory. I remember Barnet, handsome, always drunk. All the women were in love with him.
Rima Carmen had personal troubles at this time. Stalin's son, Vasya, took his wife away from him. Rima was very worried and wrote a letter to Stalin. He, angry, gave the order: to return his wife Carmena, and to send Vasya to the front.
And at that moment Kapler was having an affair with Svetlana, Stalin’s daughter, everyone knew about it. “Lucy,” said those gathered in the room, “where are you going? Do you really love her? Or do you like that she is the leader's daughter? Think about what you are risking? What will happen to you? And he answered honestly, I remember his face: “Yes, I love her. I can’t leave her, I’ll do anything.” And he did pay, he spent so many years in the camps!
Meanwhile, life became more and more difficult. I was hungry all the time. We stood in a long line in a restaurant or in the dining room for some black dumplings - we received them using cards. Something was being cooked in the room or in the hotel courtyard.
Some people were placed in the cinema lobby, where wooden trestle beds were placed for them. Families were separated from each other by sheets and blankets. At the same time, there is one toilet, one sink, somewhere you need to cook. And in this anthill there were a lot of everyday, curious things, some kind of family scandals or, conversely, some kind of novels. There was a lot of tragicomic stuff. Still, life went on.
My attempt to play Silva in the film of the same name was so tragicomic. I knew that they were going to put it into production, and I decided to give it a try. What the hell, maybe they’ll take me? Tairov taught us to be synthetic actors; everything went on the stage of the Chamber - from tragedy to operetta. Both music and dancing were taught very professionally. But I never rehearsed Silva, much less played. But first it was necessary to learn at least her exit aria. I, thin, always hungry, sell my luxurious robe and spend all the proceeds not on food, but on teachers and tutors. I work out until I sweat, sing: “Hey - me, hey - me” - and dance fieryly.
At this moment, one of my well-wishers asks the group if they are going to try out Smirnova for the main role.
Yes, we hired Smirnova a long time ago, and filming is already in full swing.
A well-wisher runs to me with good news.
But I didn’t even show up!
The casket opened simply. They approved another Smirnova - the wife of Nemirovich's son - Danchenko, a professional singer. And she demanded that they write in the credits: Silva - Smirnova - Nemirovich. Apparently she was afraid that they would confuse us.
In the luxurious new opera and ballet theater, Ulanova danced Swan Lake. The film factory also began to operate. They built sets and filmed pictures, and simultaneously. And no subsequent voiceovers, as now. This is my sore point, I am categorically against the dubbing technique that the Italians imposed on us. We have lost the living word, the real one.
The Alma-Ata Film Factory was a tiny studio with one large pavilion and several small ones. They worked in three shifts. It was already winter, but there was no heating in the pavilions. Kryuchkov and I were filming “A Boy From Our Town” at night, and steam was coming out of our mouths. And we dreamed of a glass of hot tea, not even tea, but just boiling water. In the morning, after filming, Kolya Kryuchkov drank a glass of alcohol, played the harmonica a little, for which Marina Pastukhova, his then wife, mercilessly scolded him - she did not like his harmonica - he went to bed, woke up, drank a glass of water and became drunk. They quarreled again, then that night we went on shift again, and there was filming.
And the famous scene in the garden, where he jumps from above from the window, was filmed in the studio courtyard in the spring, when the gardens were blooming. The film was completed in 1942. She was received by Bolshakov, the minister, who came to Alma-Ata on purpose. Bolshakov really liked the picture and officially accepted it. I remember we were walking down the street with him, and he said some words of praise to me, and then said: “Has your voice changed?” I say: “What, has it gotten worse? Maybe because I don’t have rations?” I was very hungry, very needy, I sold everything I had. I didn’t have enough money for food, but the laureates received quite decent rations. And then Bolshakov ordered to give me half a ration.
At that time I was experiencing severe grief. Sergei was at the front, and there was not a single line from him, I remember looking at the moon, as in childhood, when I sang a song about orphans and asked: “Moon, light the way for orphans.” And now I said: “May the moon that shines for me also shine for him.” At the same time, I was afraid that he was lying dead in the field. I loved him, of course, but here there was loneliness and insecurity. I asked the minister to help find him. A year later I received notice that he had died.
And against this background there was some kind of endless courtship, pestering, persecution. Just some kind of invasion! But Bolshakov, on the contrary, I was convinced, was a man of strict rules, he did not have affairs on the side. He asked me what I would like to play in a movie. I hesitated: you never know what I want, I need to know the studio’s “portfolio,” to know which scripts are being put into production, but I only heard that preparations were underway for “Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya” and that director Arnstam was looking for an actress for the main role. And I foolishly blurted out: “I would like to play Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.”
The minister's order was not discussed at that time. Only Stalin was taller than him. Bolshakov, however, asked me: “Are you suitable for this role?” To which I replied: “Well, there is makeup, you can put on makeup.” And then he called Arnstam and said that he, as minister, proposed to approve Lydia Smirnova for the role of Zoya. He was incredibly scared: at that time Galya Vodyanitskaya had already been invited. Galya was a student at VGIK and an ardent fan of mine, often accompanied me to the hotel and declared her love. Arnstam called me to him and said: “They ordered me to take you for this role, but you are completely unsuitable. But since an order is an order, I will offer you, and you, I ask you, refuse.” Of course he was right. I didn’t resemble Zoya either in color or in character. And Vodyanitskaya played it.
Eisenstein also auditioned me for the role of Queen Anastasia in Ivan the Terrible. He liked me, but in the end they approved Tselikovskaya. Looking at my portrait as Anastasia, I understand why. I am too earthly, sinful, but he needed meek, gentle, with a dove’s gaze, purity and innocence itself.
Was I upset then? Not too much. I was young, full of strength, I knew that my whole life was ahead of me, that so many roles and films awaited me.
After “The Guy from Our Town,” director Ermler (at that time he was also the artistic director of the studio) invites me to play the role of Fenka in the film “She Defends the Motherland.” The main character is Maretskaya. The remaining roles include Bogolyubov and Aleinikov. Operator - Rapoport. I'm a simple village girl.
I remember Ermler then said a prophetic phrase to me: “Why are you meddling with lyrical heroines with your nose? You are a character actress!” He was the first to say it. And he kept revealing my forehead, joking that, oddly enough, I have a good, smart forehead, but I always cover it with little curls. “Remove the curls,” he ordered the make-up artists, but before I commanded “Ready, attention, engine!” She managed to let her curls fall onto her forehead, and Ermler said menacingly: “Stop, stop, open your forehead!” I resisted because I was always afraid of my profile. It seemed to me that I had an ugly nose and thick lips, that I was generally ugly. I didn’t understand that this snub nose—these were Ermler’s words—was Fenka’s charm. Naive eyes, plump lips, upturned nose - this is all Fenka, pure, open. That's why her love is so pure. My partner was Aleinikov, incredibly charming as always. Fenka dreamed that she would be his wife, that they would build a hut, that she would wait for him from work - and their life was spent in a partisan detachment, in the forest. There is a wonderful scene when they blow up the bridge, they are running, and she says: “Listen to how the heart beats.” She presses his hand to her chest, and he says: “Fool, tea, it’s on the left, the heart.” And Maretskaya, the detachment commander, patronized them.
We filmed all this partisan life in the forests of Medeo near Alma-Ata. It was very difficult to find vegetation similar to Russian forests, but somehow we found it: a piece of forest and landscapes that we needed. We were filming in the mountains, where cars could not be reached, and I have a photo where the whole group is walking single file to film. I carry a tripod, someone comes with a device, someone with a backlight, they even carried a kitchen. And there they found something like an abandoned stone old castle - only walls and windows, where the whole group settled down. Everyone slept on the floor, they brought laundry, and Maretskaya and I were fenced off with sheets in a small corner. I remember the incredible beauty of the night when the moon was shining, I remember how the sun set - a huge - huge ball - and the illuminated hills.
I went for a walk and somehow met Rapoport. He immediately fell in love with me for the rest of his life. The atmosphere on the set was wonderful, we lived as one family, one destiny - the picture, whether it was the lighting designer, the make-up artist, the auxiliary worker, or Maretskaya herself.
Ermler is smart, erudite - one of those craftsmen who is obsessed with work. He was considered a party director, since he directed a film about the life of Kirov - “The Great Citizen”. So, Ermler also fell in love with me, he even wanted to leave his wife and son. He loved his son very much and dreamed that his Mark would become a conductor (and he actually became the chief conductor of the Bolshoi Theater). (When I now visit the Bolshoi and see Ermler Jr.’s beautiful gray hair in front of me, I want to go up to him and say: “Baby, it’s because of me that your family didn’t break up.” But everything could have been different.) And Ermler's wife, an artist, was a very strange woman: she walked barefoot and wore a wide gypsy skirt. Many considered her not entirely normal.
Once Ermler and I were walking around the city. There, in Alma-Ata, ditches flowed from the mountains, they made such noise, they gurgled so amazingly. And these white peaks and the blooming gardens against their background are simply a miracle! And in the mountains! If you look at the city from above, you see a carpet of stunning colors - yellow, pink, lilac. This is an apricot, a cherry, an apple tree, each blooming in its own color. And spring in the mountains is no less beautiful than autumn.
Ermler is a very musical person; he loved to whistle melodies. We walked, he whistled, and the irrigation ditches gurgled in unison. Suddenly Ermler impulsively kissed me on the cheek and ran away. Another time, on a walk, he said that he loved me, and timidly asked: maybe I will reciprocate his feelings?
Ermler was close friends with Mikhoels. They often recalled Jewish rituals, customs, holidays, joked a lot, even fooled around, recalled stories, were witty, sparkling, tireless in practical jokes.
Mikhoels acted as a matchmaker, and at every meeting he told me how much Friedrich loved me. I didn’t react to this in any way and rather preferred Rapoport, and Ermler was jealous of him. He even wrote on some plywood how many times Rapoport approached me during the shooting, and Maretskaya counted how many times Ermler approached me. She joked and joked about this, but I felt jealous: after all, she plays the main role, she is the leading, famous, she is a master, and the two main people in the film - the director and the cameraman - give preference to me.
We had a scene with her when Aleinikov was lying dead in a barn, covered with a rag. I see him, I crawl towards him, I say: “Senya, Senya! You said there is no death, it was invented.” The episode is being filmed and we both look at it and cry. We couldn't cry at the same time. She asks:
You are crying?
Not yet.
I'm already crying.
I started crying - she stopped. She started crying - I stopped. It's funny, but in this dramatic scene we couldn't cry at the same time. It seemed to me that she had such creative experience, such an acting technique that she had no right not to cry when she needed to.
Ermler filmed this scene like this: I enter, or rather, run into the barn, I guess that it is Senka lying there. And I'm afraid to approach him. So I back away, then start crawling. This lasts quite a long time, the camera takes a close-up of me, then I tear off the rag with which Senka is covered and move back. I repeat, it lasted a long time, but Ermler seemed to be basking in scenes of such emotional intensity.
The scene was filmed in exactly the same way when, in front of Maretskaya, a fascist crushes her child. She turns gray and looks at her gray lock in a barrel of water, where it is reflected. The camera keeps her blackened face in the frame for a long, long time.
The director later told me that he considered the episode in the barn my best scene. But alas, it disrupted the rhythm of the picture and had to be cut.
Ermler filmed “She Defends the Motherland” with headphones. He really loved conducting monologues when Maretskaya or I gave monologues. I have never met such directors before. And I was surprised that Maretskaya liked it. This really bothered me. “Friedrich Markovich,” I asked, “well, don’t wave your hand.”
There were funny cases. Let’s say they put on a light, we wait and forget that someone there can hear all our women’s secrets through headphones. Ermler, it turns out, eavesdropped a lot, although perhaps not on purpose. Maretskaya once told me terribly indecent jokes, I laughed, and suddenly I heard: “Vera, I ask you, don’t spoil Lida, stop!”
The next day she provokes me: “Now it’s your turn!” I again forgot that he had headphones, and told an equally indecent joke. Maretskaya waited a little, and then said: “Friedrich, now you know who is spoiling whom?”
I will add that Maretskaya was an unimportant partner for me. She and I didn’t have the “you give me a hook, I’ll give you a loop.” On set, does your partner feed you or only take from you...
Ermler, in love, constantly whistled Beethoven on the set of “She Defends the Motherland.” Musically gifted, he dreamed of making a film about the great composer. When the war ended and the Union of Cinematographers was formed under the chairmanship of Pyryev, I headed the acting section and attended secretariat meetings. And of course, there was always someone from the Central Committee, some regular instructor - without this, of course, neither socialism nor communism could be built.
And at one of the meetings, when Ermler was still alive, his request to stage a film about Beethoven was discussed. I spoke and said that he had dreamed of this since the war, and then, Beethoven is our revolutionary composer. I say: “Let him put it on.” Maybe he will make a brilliant picture? There was a pause, and suddenly someone shouted: “But he’s a party director!” They do not meet so often, he created “The Great Citizen”, “She Defends the Motherland”. And suddenly about the composer! We must not lose such an experienced party artist!”
They never supported it. And then they called me to the Central Committee, where they simply, without any pretense, scolded me in a fatherly manner: “What were you talking about yesterday, Lida? Well, think about it, where have you seen it so that an artist does what he wants? You, artists - directors, actors - are party assistants. You carry out the tasks that the Communist Party sets for you. You are promoting our ideas. This means that we need Ermler to make those pictures and solve those topics that are useful to us, and not to himself! Now, in our time, we can at least talk about it openly.
Let us remember how the Tairov Theater was closed, how people of art were destroyed under Stalin. We were an uncomplaining crowd, understanding nothing, not being aware of anything. I also believed that this was necessary, because I didn’t know any other life.
But let's return to Alma-Ata. Filming of “She Defends the Motherland” is underway. Mikhoels comes and says that I must appreciate Ermler’s love and attitude towards me. But I liked Rapoport better. He lived with his mother, sister, and nephew. He was not married. Before the war, he was the husband of Zoya Fedorova, but in 1940 they separated. Of course, he was less active, perhaps remembering that “the less we love a woman, the easier it is for her to like us.” And indeed, I was more likely to pursue him than he was to pursue me. He, like Ermler, was a State Prize laureate. Both of them received laureate food rations.
And here sit Mikhoels and Maretskaya. There is a knock on the door, Ermler comes in and brings a wick - a small smokehouse (of course there was no light) - and a small teapot in which two eggs are boiled:
Lidochka, here's light and food for you.
So touching! Well, Mikhoels, of course, does not miss such trump cards:
You see how wonderful he is, how he loves you, how he cares, how tenderly he shows his feelings.
Of course, I'm pleased. And then there’s a knock on the door again, Rapoport comes running and brings all fifty eggs that he received in the ration. He put it in front of me silently and ran away.
Then Maretskaya says:
And are you still thinking? This one will carry you two soft-boiled eggs all your life, and this one will give you everything he has.
I myself instinctively felt how unselfish Rapoport was and how selfish Ermler was. Recently, not without pleasure, I read confirmation of this in the “Phone Book” by Evgeniy Schwartz.
“In him,” he wrote about Ermler, “the fire of that very love shines through, which is so touching in young mothers and so annoying when a person directs it at himself.”
Indeed, he adored himself like a child, and subsequently, childishly, but by no means harmlessly, took revenge on me.
In Alma-Ata, I also managed to star in one of the film collections and started working in the “Naval Battalion”. We had nothing but troubles with the film collection. I played a welder, and Blinov, a wonderful actor, played my lover. I was welding some pipe, and he stood behind. Nobody gave us any instructions. It turns out that you must first apply a mask to your face, and then make an arc. But I did the opposite. After two or three hours, strong stinging began in my eyes, as if hot sand had been poured into it. Blinov says that his eyes hurt too. At the end of the day we were taken to the clinic. I had a severe burn to my eyes, and the doctors thought I would lose my sight. The temperature rose, they bandaged me, and I was virtually blind for a week. Blinov suffered less, but he was still a little further from the welding machine.
And then we both got typhoid fever. Doctors checked the local flies: out of every hundred, 98 were typhoid. I remember that, thanks to Ermler’s efforts, I was admitted to a children’s hospital: an infectious diseases department was opened there, and the conditions were better. Blinov died soon after. I was very seriously ill. But a movie is a movie: when you get typhus, you usually cut your hair, because the high temperature causes lice, but here the studio asked that my hair not be touched, since I had already started filming the leading role, and replacing it would be expensive.
I was treated by an old doctor, who later contracted typhus and died. With this disease, the intestines become thin, like parchment paper; perforation and death can occur at any moment. Something too hard gets into the food, and that’s it. I remember chewing ground meat and suddenly I felt: a bone! I wanted to live so much that I looked at her as a murderer.
And I also remember that I had three waves of illness and each time an incredible temperature. I was lying on a bed that was a little too small for me, and in the window I saw a tree branch with five leaves. I looked at her and remembered O’Henry’s “The Last Leaf.” I felt very bad, I was afraid to fall asleep so as not to miss when the last leaf fell from my tree. And yet she missed. I had a terrible headache.
Just then I received a telegram from Dunaevsky: “A human being like you cannot die.” Then Ermler told me that Dunaevsky was very sad that I was sick, and asked me to give me food. And Rapoport baked apples for me on dry leaves. He came, I was very weak, I probably didn’t care about everything, I just remember that thin white legs were sticking out from under the blanket, some strangers, not mine, with bright red nails. Such completely lifeless white legs and red nails.
But the day came when they sat me down and said that they would wash my hair. I grabbed my hair - it remained in my hands, and I saw that it was covered with nits.
Rapoport taught me to walk - the muscles were atrophied. When I left the hospital, it was necessary to save the remaining hair, there were no wigs then, and Rapoport and I went to the mountains, found a clearing with a stump, he sat on it, put my head on his knees, smeared my hair with kerosene, and then removed the dead ones with his nails nits. They could not be scratched, they could only be removed with fingernails. And with these nits in his hands, he told me about his love. So many people looked after me, tried to achieve reciprocity, and only one cared, truly understood how lonely, defenseless I was, that my family was far away, my husband died at the front and they could offend me at every step. He simply brought baked apples, which he himself cooked on dry leaves, simply removed nits from my hair, and simply taught me to walk. Vladimir Rapoport became my second husband.
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