Many well-known wonderful Russian actor George Zhzhenov. Biography, his family, which he created four times in his long life, are the subject of this article. Zhzhenov had to endure many adversities, but he suffered them with honor and dignity.
Origin and parents
Where was Georgy Zhzhenov born? His biography began in Petrograd in 1915 in the family of an artisan baker. His father, Stepan Filippovich, married the mother of George Maria Fedorovna, already being a widower and father of five daughters. He simply went to his native Tver village, looked after his girlfriend as a wife and took him to St. Petersburg, to raise existing children and give birth to new ones, which were already added by six people. Father did not bother with raising children, he was friends with the "green serpent". It was the mother, a simple Russian woman, whom George Zhzhenov himself remembered with special warmth until the last days of his long life, the whole huge family of Zhzhenovs during the First World War and the Civil War, the post-war devastation and the first years of Soviet power.
Youth and the beginning of an acting career
But despite all the difficulties the family lived, older children grew up and left to live an independent life. The elder brother of George Boris, with whom he was very friendly, entered the university in the early 30s, and he, being a very strong and athletic young man, after graduating from an eight-year school in 1930, entered the variety circus school in the acrobatic department. A year later, the circus actor Georgy Zhzhenov appeared, whose biography began in the arena of the Leningrad circus in the acrobatic duet "2-Georges-2." His partner in performances was one of his fellow students, his namesake, hence the name of the duet.
Georgy Zhzhenov, whose biography subsequently made many sharp turns, always gratefully recalled his circus origins. Until the end of his days, he remained in excellent physical shape (thanks to her, he probably survived in Kolyma), and even in the eighth decade he performed acrobatic exercises.
Coming to the cinema
It was in the circus that the filmmakers from Lenfilm spotted him and invited him to the main role in the film Hero's Error (1932). He leaves the circus and enters the Leningrad College of Performing Arts on the course, which was subsequently taught by the famous Soviet film director Sergei Gerasimov. In parallel, continues to act in films. His filmography before his arrest in 1938 already numbered five films, including the super-popular Soviet film hit "Chapaev", in which Zhzhenov played the orderly of Commissioner Furmanov Tereshka.
How did George Zhzhenov live then? His biography at the beginning of his life was similar to millions of other biographies of young Soviet guys. It would seem that the future promises him excellent prospects. However, the young film actor had every reason to fear for his fate, and his fears were soon confirmed.
The origins of life drama George Zhzhenov
In December 1934, the head of the regional organization of communists was killed in Leningrad, in fact the second person in the country after Stalin and his rival (at least, as many then thought) Sergey Kirov. This murder gave rise to Stalin and his entourage to the beginning of the so-called great terror in the country. Charges were brought against many former prominent party and government officials. But gradually among the victims of the criminal practice of the Stalinist repressive organs there were more and more ordinary people who had no relation to politics. So among them was a student of Leningrad University Boris Zhzhenov. The story that happened to him very clearly describes the atmosphere of hysteria and general suspicion in which Soviet society was in the second half of the thirties.
The fact is that LSU students were obliged to go through the streets of Leningrad in a funeral procession. Boris asked the secretary of the Komsomol organization of his course to free him from this event, because he simply did not have normal shoes to withstand standing for many hours and walking in the cold (he hurriedly got to the university in his completely broken boots). This request was regarded as a manifestation of unwillingness to honor the memory of the deceased communist leader, and, therefore, a hostile attitude towards the Soviet government itself. The following year, Boris was arrested, then sentenced to be sent to Vorkuta camps, and the whole Zhzhenov family was expelled from Leningrad. For George stood up his friends, "filmmakers", in particular, Sergei Gerasimov. He just then started filming the film "Komsomolsk", in which George Zhzhenov was also involved. The biography of the latter as a free man lasted another two years, but the repressive authorities simply looked for an excuse to bring him a new charge.
First arrest
In the summer of 1938, a group of film actors, in which Zhzhenov was also, rode the train to shoot in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Their companion turned out to be an American diplomat on his way to Vladivostok. There was a usual contact between fellow travelers on the way (after all, they traveled for several days). But since all foreign diplomats in the USSR were continuously monitored at that time, an appropriate report went down on a table in the central Moscow apparatus of the NKVD, listing all the actors who had contact with a foreigner. Since Zhzhenov at that time was already a relative of the convicted "enemy of the people", he was the best candidate for accusation of espionage against the USSR. Soon he was arrested in Leningrad in his apartment, where he lived with his first wife Eugenia, who was his fellow student at the College of Performing Arts.
Two and a half years in Crosses
During the investigation, Zhzhenov went through all the circles of the hell of the Stalinist dungeons. Everything happened to him that is now widely known from the memoirs of other martyrs who went the same way. Endless interrogations “with prejudice”, beatings, sleep deprivation, when the defendant was put on the so-called investigative conveyor, consisting in a continuously lasting week (or more, how many will survive) interrogation by several successive investigators. According to the memoirs of Zhzhenov himself, when he lost consciousness, fell to the floor, the hair investigator lifted him to his feet, and the interrogation continued.
Many could not stand it, signed absurd accusations, slandered other people, that is, they did exactly what the Stalin executioners needed to justify their actions. A cellmate of Zhzhenov, who had entered into a similar deal with his conscience, could not stand its remorse later and committed suicide (opened his veins under the covers).
But George Zhzhenov, whose biography will be filled more than once with such tests, withstood all bullying and torture, refused to admit the charge of espionage, and thereby saved his life. After all, all admitted, as a rule, were sentenced to death. Zhzhenov was given 5 years of camps, which, according to the "good" Stalinist tradition, lasted for two whole decades. What could Georgy Zhzhenov hope in setting off for Siberia? Biography, family, children that he might have had - all this now became inaccessible to him. He said goodbye to his wife and asked her not to wait for her return.
Kolyma, Kolyma, wonderful planet, ten months winter, the rest is summer
When the ship, the hold of which was filled with hundreds of “convicts”, delivered Zhzhenov to Nagaev Bay in Magadan, he was 25 years old. Ahead were five years of camps, hard exhausting work, hunger, cold, daily struggle for survival. After all, he suffered the most difficult war years in Kolyma, when the already scarce supply was cut to a minimum. From starvation, whole campsites with hundreds of "convicts" died out. About one such case, Zhzhenov told in one of his published stories about camp life, which is called "Sanochki."
It was winter in one of the remote camps located a few kilometers from the main camp. It was an inaccessible place where transport could only travel in the summer. The authorities deliberately did not bring there a stock of food for the winter, and several hundred inhabitants of this camp, including Zhzhenov, began to starve and slowly die. At the same time, the camp guards regularly delivered food along the toboggan track, because there were only a couple dozen security guards, and several hundred “convicts”. And then the news comes that Zhzhenov in the main camp received a package from his mother, and probably with food. But how to get to the main camp is a "walk", which, despite his youth and former strength, barely moved on his feet from chronic malnutrition. There was no question of sending the parcel to the camp, because this is a violation of order. And no one in the administration wanted to lose a warm place thousands of kilometers from the front and end up in trenches under German bombs. Zhzhenov was in despair. A random witness to this was the local authorized NKVD, who visited the unfortunate camp (arrived there on foot). It was he who suggested that Zhzhenov go to the main camp with him, as if accompanied. Imagine George's surprise when the next morning he saw this commissioner pulling a small sled in which some kind of documentation lay. When they moved a decent distance from the camp, George felt that his strength was leaving him, and he was losing consciousness. Without saying a word, the ombudsman put him in a sled and drove several kilometers to the vicinity of the main camp, where he put him away, so that they were in front of the guard in the usual form: a “convict” and an officer accompanying him. What made this officer show mercy uncharacteristic of the "enkavedeshnikam" we will never know. But for the fact that he practically saved the future prominent Russian actor, we can be grateful to him. After all, the motherboard did indeed include products that helped George survive that terrible winter.
Life between two conclusions
In 1943, the head of the traveling acting propaganda team Nikanorov literally pulled George from the penal camp at the Glukhar mine. In a terrible-looking, ragged “convict” covered with scabs and “pimples” he spotted the former movie actor and vowed to save him. First, Zhenzhenov was transferred from the camp to the propaganda team, and then to the Magadan Muzdramteatr, whose troupe consisted of almost only “convicts”. What could Georgy Zhzhenov, who was once again among his relatives in spirit, feel? Biography, family, children - all these ordinary human concepts again become close to him. He marries the same, as he himself, prisoner, actress Lidia Vorontsova, they have a daughter, Elena. This marriage could not be long, since both of them soon received new terms.
In 1945, his first sentence ended, and Zhzhenov briefly escaped from Kolyma. Director Sergei Gerasimov arranged it for the Sverdlovsk film studio. There he starred in the film "Alitet Goes into the Mountains", which talked about the socialist transformation of the life of the indigenous people of Chukotka.
Second term
And then the same thing happened to him as with many other victims of Stalinist repressions - a second arrest and a new sentence. This time he was sentenced to exile in Norilsk. Fortunately, there he managed to get into the service in the same drama theater as in Magadan. By the way, his stage partner was Innokenty Smoktunovsky, who left for Norilsk to sit there in troubled times at the turn of the forties and fifties, because he was afraid to be repressed for his short stay in German captivity in 1943.
What besides acting craft did Georgy Zhzhenov find in Norilsk? Biography, wife, children again became close to him human concepts. His third wife was the Norilsk actress Irina Makhaeva. After leaving Norilsk, their daughter Marina was born.
