The cinema clan Bondarchukov is known to everyone, and he has something to be proud of. However, like many families, they also have relatives that they try to forget about. Among these outcasts is Alexei Sergeyevich Bondarchuk, the son of Sergei Bondarchuk from his second marriage.
Two muses of a famous director
Many fans of Sergey Bondarchuk’s work believe that the maestro was married twice: with the magnificent Inna Makarova, which was remembered by the audience in the films “Young Guard”, “My Dear Man”, “Height” and others, and with one of the most beautiful women of Soviet cinema Irina Skobtseva, who became famous after the roles of Desdemona, as well as Helen Bezukhova in the film "War and Peace." However, in the life of the famous director there was another woman with whom he tied the knot under rather unusual circumstances. This story, which could well become the basis of the soap opera scenario, was not well known to anyone until Inna Makarova told reporters in one of her interviews.
Zhenya from Rostov-on-Don
As you know, Bondarchuk was born in Yeysk and studied the basics of acting at the Rostov-on-Don Theater School. There he met Evgenia Belousova, who was a student of the vocal department. This was a beautiful girl from a well-known and wealthy family with great connections. When the war began, Sergei and Eugene traveled along the fronts and gave concerts to the Red Army men. Then Bondarchuk went to fight, but after the victory, the young people settled in a chic apartment located in the center of Rostov. Their happiness did not last long, and they did not formalize their relationship in the registry office.
Capital and new perspectives
In 1946, Sergei Bondarchuk left for Moscow. At that time, Eugene was already pregnant. When Alexey Bondarchuk, the son of Sergei Bondarchuk, was born, the future famous director was already in love with Inna Makarova, whom she met while studying at VGIK. In 1947, young people played together in Sergei Gerasimov’s famous film “The Young Guard” and decided to get married. This picture made the actors, who embodied on the screen the images of the Young Guard, stars of the first magnitude.
Resentment
When the Young Guard began its victorious march through the cinemas of the USSR, gathering full halls, Evgenia Belousova realized that Sergei, who had tasted loud cinematic fame, would not return to her. She bitterly told her friends that Bondarchuk lived with her “with an eye”, hinting that the former locksmith from Yeysk used the position and connections of her family to quickly get out “in people”. Being a single mother, she nevertheless did not experience financial problems, since her father, the prosecutor, provided for her daughter and grandson. However, Eugene was tormented by the fact that his son was not officially recognized by Bondarchuk.
"Foundling"
As Inna Makarova later told, once having returned home, she found a completely lost spouse, next to whom a little boy was sitting. It turned out that this is the son of Bondarchuk Alex. He was brought to the capital by his mother, who thus wanted to remind Sergey of his obligations to the child. Makarova, who at that time had no children, adopted the baby and was even ready to start raising him. But Evgenia Belousova had completely different plans. The woman sought to achieve official recognition of the child, or maybe secretly hoped to return Bondarchuk to the family.
Divorce
After some time, when Makarova and the eldest son of Sergei Bondarchuk, Aleksey Bondarchuk, became friends, the boy’s mother came to their apartment with a commission demanding that paternity be recognized as a fact that does not require evidence. Moreover, Belousova appealed to the court and stated that he and Sergey were “painted”, however, the documents were lost during the war. On this basis, she demanded that the marriage of Makarova and Bondarchuk be invalid. In the fact that the case was given a move, the connections of the Evgenia family in the prosecutor's office played an important role. Be that as it may, Sergei Fedorovich decided to acknowledge paternity. In those days, this could be done only by entering into an official marriage with the mother of the child. Bondarchuk had to divorce Makarova and go to Rostov-on-Don. There he entered into a fictitious marriage with Belousova and designed Alexei “for himself”. The whole year after that, Eugene did not give Sergei a divorce, hoping that he would change his mind and return to her with his son. However, for Bondarchuk, their relationship was a long gone stage, and he dreamed of forgetting about them.
Growing up
After the divorce from Belousova, Bondarchuk and Makarova again signed and raised their daughter Natasha. Although Sergei no longer went to the boy, he regularly sent money, and considerable, to his maintenance. At least, this is what Belousova's friends say.
Those who knew Alexei Bondarchuk, the son of Sergei Bondarchuk, as a child, recall that he grew up a quiet and clogged boy. Perhaps this was due to the fact that the child often heard from his mother about how his father had acted unjustly with him, and realized that he did not need him. His mother worked at the Helicopter Plant's Culture House and often brought the boy to rehearsals. Nevertheless, Alex did not follow in the footsteps of his parents and chose a career far from the art world.
Meeting with Bondarchuk Sr.
While the boy was growing up, Inna Makarova kept in touch with him. This was not even prevented by the fact that the actress and director divorced in 1959. The new wife of the master - Irina Skobtseva - did not encourage the relationship of her husband with his former family. Even Natalya Bondarchuk (daughter of Sergei Fedorovich and Inna Makarova) saw her father extremely rarely, although she lived with him in the same city. Perhaps she did not know about the existence of Alexei Bondarchuk. At least the members of the film crew of the film “War and Peace” claimed that the appearance of a guy for her was a real surprise. And the father did not immediately recognize his first child. He even first demanded that an outsider young man be taken away from the set, and was taken aback when he realized that in front of him was Alexey Bondarchuk.
The conversation between star dad and son went wrong. The dejected young man returned to Makarova’s apartment, where he stayed a couple of times when he arrived in the capital. Nevertheless, Bondarchuk Sr. wrote to his son a pass to the set so that they could communicate.
Subsequently, the man complained to Makarova that the guy was behaving obscenely and pestering actresses. In response, she asked him: “And who should have raised him?”, Reproaching thereby for the lack of proper attention to children born before marriage with Skobtseva.
Future life
Alexey Bondarchuk, the son of Sergei Bondarchuk, whose photo regularly appeared in the newspaper chronicle, returned to his hometown with resentment against his father. The young man realized that they were strangers and that he would never be accepted into the family. The director himself preferred to forget about his offspring, especially since at that time he worked a lot and was at the top of his cinematic career.
Meanwhile, Alexei Bondarchuk, although he did not luxuriate, it was difficult to call him distressed. Together with his mother, he continued to live in one of the most prestigious residential buildings of Rostov-on-Don, a Stalin-era building, where the party elite traditionally settled. The young man graduated from the faculty of foreign languages of the local university. He spoke excellent French, taught for some time and managed to get married twice. His first wife was a student at a local music school, but this marriage did not last long. Then Alex entered into a second marriage with a girl from the "nomenclature family." She bore him a son, who is one of the senior grandchildren of the great director Sergei Bondarchuk.
Everything secret becomes clear
For the first time before the general public, Alexei Bondarchuk appeared at the funeral of his father. Neither Inna Makarova nor Evgenia Belousova were at them. According to Natalia Bondarchuk, during the funeral in the church, Alex even wanted to say something unpleasant about Sergey Fedorovich, but she did not let him do it. In any case, it was clear to everyone that he harbored a grudge against his father, which did not die away even with his departure. By the way, at the funeral of Alexei, his younger brother Fedor first saw him. Then they could not talk and talk. However, many years later, in 2006, the son of Skobtseva and Bondarchuk once visited a Rostov relative. This happened during Fedor’s trip to Rostov-on-Don to shoot the picture "Vise". The famous director did not stay long with his brother and his mother. Apparently, he did not have the most pleasant impressions of communication with a relative, so in the future Fedor always tried to avoid questions about the Rostov branch of Bondarchukov.
Waiver of inheritance
And at the time of the departure of Sergei Bondarchuk, and today, according to Russian law, after death, the wife and all children who have been established to have paternity of the deceased can claim the inheritance of a citizen in equal shares. However, Alexei Bondarchuk did not submit an application in order to receive a portion of the property of his famous parent due to him. Apparently, a man all his life needed more fatherly love, not his money or patronage, although according to those who knew his family, he always had a shortage of finances. Moreover, Aleksey never sought to advertise who he belongs to the famous directors Sergey and Fedor Bondarchuky. At the same time, he quickly rolled down the social ladder and even twice appeared in the field of view of law enforcement agencies. The first time, Alexei Bondarchuk, whose photo was never published anywhere, was fined for petty hooliganism, and the second time for selling fruit directly on the street in 1999.
