Leo Krugly in the world of theater and cinema had a reputation for being a difficult person with a cool and independent character. Perhaps this was the reason for his decision, unexpected for many, to leave the Soviet Union. Leave at the peak of fame. For good.
“I was a dissident, but did not become a dissident” …
The decision to emigrate ripened during a period of life completely unsuitable for departure: the performances with his participation thundered throughout the capital, the popularity in the cinema reached an all-Union scale. According to the actor himself, acquaintances looked at him in bewilderment. But too much was disgusted. It was too unbearable to be under the hood of the "organizations" that "climbed into the soul."
Leo Krugly has always been a dissent. But he did not become a dissident. “Because I could not stand the camps, ” as the actor admitted to reporters in an interview.
Leo Round: biography
The future actor was born in 1931 in Moscow. His father was a metro worker, and his mother was a musician. The history of his family bears the imprint of time, like many other families that have fallen in this time to live.
Childhood
The little future actor for a long time could not understand why the photograph of his grandfather shows only one carefully carved head. He asked his mother questions, and she tried to somehow explain to her son why it is impossible for someone to see the shoulder straps of the tsarist officer in the portrait of his grandfather. She could save her father’s portrait only by carving his face.
The atmosphere prevailing in the family, in many respects influenced the formation of the personality of the Round Leo. In March 53, when the whole country was sobbing over the departed leader, the close circle of his parents had a different attitude to this “loss”. The famous artist of that time Zhuravlev, a family friend, according to the observations of little Leo, "just shone." His mood was shared by his father and mother, and their other friends.
His parents were talented, highly intelligent people. Mom was lucky in her time to study with the famous Goldenweiser. Father before the war, in order to support his family, he worked as an electrician in conditions of increased danger - he built the metro station “Dzerzhinskaya”, where due to the presence of “quicks” an increased payment was provided for employees who risk their lives and health every minute. We cut very deeply, we had to work almost under the caisson. But the financial situation of the family was so deplorable that his father was glad of this earnings.
In the atmosphere of such people, Leo Krugly formed - an actor.
War
His father and three older brothers died at the front. Relatives of his father lived in Kiev. As Jews, they died during the Holocaust.
Hardship
The post-war time Leo Krugly recalls the same as many of his peers. First of all, the terrible poverty of the family. Material deprivation for the future artist was not news, but the post-war years were really hungry. All three children in the family were accustomed to modesty in requests and expenses. According to the recollections of the future artist, the younger ones were wearing the changed clothes of the elders. The main thing in the suit was neatness and lack of holes.
Leo Krugly, actor: biography, roles, films. Start
He had the good fortune to study at the Shchepkinsky School with the great Vera Nikolaevna Pashennaya. In 1953, Leo went on distribution to the Khabarovsk Regional Drama Theater.
The beginning of an acting career was remembered for a long time. Then there was a lot of things: success in theater and cinema, becoming an individual and an actor, marriage, a more or less established way of life. But recalling the Khabarovsk period of his life (1953-1956), Leo Krugly saw a terrible cold room with conveniences in the yard, where he lived with his former classmate, terrible frosts and pea briquettes, which were on their daily menu. To make liquid soup from this briquette, it was necessary to knead it thoroughly with your fingers to the state of the powder and cook. If there were any, potatoes and some cheapest sausage were added to the soup. Sometimes in the mornings, young artists allowed themselves to buy two shriveled, slimy pies from a street vendor.
In the future, sharing with journalists the memories of his life, Krugly Lev Borisovich recalled a detail that particularly firmly cut into the memory of an impressionable young man. Once they decided to buy fresh pies. The immense forms of the saleswoman, who had just “fallen out” of the dining room, were dressed in a dressing gown, which white could be called very conditionally. A huge basket filled with the aroma of hot pies was covered with sheets of the same purity. The saleswoman rummaged for a long time inside the basket, fingering and pushing pies with meat of uncertain origin with her thick fingers. Young people for some time had to perplexedly watch her fingers scurry among the pies with peeling manicure and black fringe under her nails. The explanation was simple: the woman at all costs wanted to comply with the instructions. Under a pile of hot cakes, she had a fork that she had not yet managed to reach. Having rummaged with dubious purity with her hands in the "product", she removed the tool and handed the customers pies, piercing them with a fork, as it should be according to the instructions.
Moscow
Upon returning, the actor served in Sovremennik. Here he met his love, actress Natalia Enke, who later became his wife.
Fate here was scheduled to meet with the legendary director A. Efros. This meeting was significantly enriched biography of the actor. Round Lev Borisovich, among several other artists, followed the great director, first to the Lenin Komsomol Theater (1964), and then to the Theater on Malaya Bronnaya (1967).
The heyday of excellence. Popularity
The heyday of the skill of actor Leo Krugly, as well as its popularity, are associated precisely with the director A. Efros. In 1965, the play "Marat, Lika and Leonidik", staged on the play "My poor Marat" by A. Arbuzov, enjoyed extraordinary success in Moscow. Lev Borisovich played the role of Leonidik in it. And this was the beginning of his fame among the Moscow public.
Movie
He began acting in films in 1959. The first among his works were roles in the paintings: "Lullaby." “Ahead - a sharp turn”, “Noisy day”. It is thanks to the work in the cinema that the artist Lev Krugly gained all-Union popularity, whose filmography includes more than thirty films. Among the most famous: "Fourth." "713th asks for a landing, " "Ivan da Marya, " "The Living and the Dead."
Emigration at the peak of fame
When the actor announced the family’s decision to go abroad, others regarded it as insanity. At a banquet at the Theater on Malaya Bronnaya, held at the end of his farewell performance, colleagues looked at him with undisguised surprise. But the decision has already been made. Years later, Lev Borisovich explained this decision, which seemed to many unexpected, in different ways. He called the awakened spirit of adventurism, the propensity for vagrancy inherent in many comedians. He talked about the fact that the well-known “organizations” that “climb into the soul”, trying to control everything, are terribly disgusted. He called their emigration "flight." But that was not the main thing.
About freedom of choice
Not adventurism, in fact, was the main reason that sent the Krugli family on a trip. Then, in 1979, they left for freedom. For true freedom, in all its manifestations. First of all, for freedom to make your own decisions, not dictated by anyone from outside.
For freedom to choose thoughts, work, hobbies, addictions, worldview, love. For freedom to realize this opportunity of choice, which distinguishes man from everything on earth.
Towards the unknown
They left their homes, established life and life, and, according to Lev Borisovich, set off "towards the unknown." It was possible to leave the Soviet Union only with an Israeli visa. All who traveled were considered "renegades." Mostly this was accepted in relation to the Jews.
When the son of the Kruglykh spouses, Nikita, having received a summons, told the military enlistment office that his parents were applying for travel to Israel, they yelled at him, called him a "Jew" and drove him out. Preparation of documents and various checks lasted about nine months. Then they were given $ 200, and the Round went to a transshipment point in Vienna, after which they were redirected to Paris. They had no property - no costumes, no props. Everything had to be left in Moscow. They were three together on a foreign land. The fourth is a dog who got sick on the road, and had to spend on his treatment all the money available at that time.
In exile
The family lived and worked in Paris, in Munich. For three years, Lev Borisovich served as an announcer on Radio Liberty. His wife, Natalya Vladimirovna, formerly an actress of the Satire Theater, Sovremennik, Musical Theater named after At first, Stanislavsky was engaged in farming, led a children's amateur group in one of the Sunday schools at the Russian Church, worked in the newspaper "Russian Thought".
In Paris, Lev Borisovich was engaged in teaching, starred in two films. In addition, Krugly and his wife traveled extensively around the world with tours of their own theater, created abroad. This theater was destined to last a quarter of a century, but, unfortunately, the actors failed to experience the former popularity, the one that they knew at home.
About demand
Fears, which from time to time came up during the period of bearing the decision to leave, were in vain. In exile, the Russian theater was very much in demand. During the Iron Curtain, theaters from the Union were rare guests abroad. The audience wanted to hear Russian from the stage.
The round ones immediately upon arrival began to be invited to all kinds of performances in Switzerland and Austria. For some time they had a chance to speak for free at universities, in Russian societies. At the end of these speeches, noble ladies let off a hat in a circle - "elegant, with ribbons, with flowers." Subsequently, Lev Borisovich called this action "terribly funny."
Visits to the Homeland
Spouses visited Russia twice. In 1993, at the invitation of the Ministry of Culture, the actors visited St. Petersburg and Moscow on tour. The performances “Poor People”, “Marriage”, “Meek” were offered to the Soviet audience. The second time they brought the play "In the carriage of the past" (2003).
“The main thing is to remain yourself”
In the last years of Lev Borisovich's life, the couple lived on a small pension and surcharges from charitable organizations in a municipal four-room apartment. Mostly emigrants lived in their house: Arabs, Negroes. The spouses had an old car at their disposal.
According to Lev Borisovich, said during one of the interviews, poverty does not bother them. The main thing for each person, according to the spouses, is to "remain yourself." Leo Krugly died at the age of 79 in 2010. This happened after a long and serious illness. The actor was buried in Paris at the Russian cemetery of Saint-Genevieve de Bois.
