In December 1981, shortly before the celebration of Brezhnev’s jubilee, in one of the houses on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, a Soviet film star Zoya Fedorova was shot in the back of the head. The fate of the actress in those years was remembered a lot in the Western press. Fedorova spent many years in prison just because she had the imprudence to start a love affair with a US citizen named Jackson Tate. Overshadow the anniversary of the Secretary General was not unpleasant news. Not a word was said about the murder of the actress in the Soviet press. The crime has not yet been solved.
Star of the Soviet cinema
Biography of Zoe Fedorova resembles the plot of a movie drama. Her star rose in the mid-thirties, after the premiere of the film "Girlfriends". Then there were the pictures “Wedding”, “Miners”, “On the Border”. Twice the actress was awarded the Stalin Prize. She was often invited to important receptions in the Kremlin. After all, Fedorova was a symbol of Soviet cinema. At one of these receptions, the US Marine Officer Jackson Tate met the actress.
Fedorova and Beria
The actress enjoyed the favor of those in power. Among her fans was Beria himself. But the head of state security unsuccessfully tried to achieve her sympathy. Once he invited Fedorov to his mansion. After a glass of champagne, Lavrenty Pavlovich tried to transfer relations with the artist to a more serious stage. However, the girl rejected him. When Zoya left the luxurious mansion, she waved to the failed lover the bouquet that he presented to her and said “Thank you for the flowers!” To which Beria replied: “These are not flowers. This is a wreath. ”
Several films have been created about the fate of Fedorova, many articles have been written, and even several books have been published. There are three versions of her death. But none have official confirmation. However, there is no doubt that Jackson Tate, whose meeting took place in the last year of the war, ruined the career and personal life of the Soviet film actress. However, the American diplomat did not do this on purpose.
Admiral
Jackson Tate, whose photo is posted below, began his military career as an ordinary. He became one of the first naval aviators. After the war he received the rank of vice admiral.
In 1945, an American officer arrived in the Soviet Union as deputy attache. There was a meeting that Jackson Tate remembered until the end of his days. The biography of this man was extremely interested in the employees of the Soviet special services in the seventies. Acquaintance with the Soviet actress entailed events that were worthy of a Hollywood story.
Fatal meeting
Zoya Fedorova and Jackson Tate met during an official reception at Molotov. The actress had already managed to be married by then. However, there was no love in her life. Perhaps the presence at the ill-fated reception was not accidental. There is an assumption that the actress was recruited by the NKVD. She attracted the attention of foreigners, could attract to frank conversations. But Fedorova was not only a famous actress, but also an ordinary woman. Therefore, when I saw a tall handsome officer, I completely forgot about my mission at the official diplomatic evening.
Their romance lasted a little over two months. One of May days, the actress was unexpectedly sent on tour along the Crimean coast. When she returned to Moscow, Tate was no longer there: he was declared persona non grata and, as a result, was forced to leave the country in a matter of days.
Several months have passed. Fedorova married her compatriot - musician Alexander Ryazanov. Soon a child was born in a young family. With this marriage, the actress tried to hide the consequences of a relationship with a foreigner. Jackson Tate - the father of Victoria Fedorova - that in 1946 he had a child in the Soviet Union, he only found out in the seventies.
Arrest
No matter how hard the actress tried to hide the name of the father of her child, everyone knew about her relationship with foreigners. A fictitious marriage with Ryazanov, who, risking his career, tried to save her, did not save him from arrest. Late night, there was a knock at the door, demanding, persistent. Everyone who knocks at such a late hour was known to all. Fedorova opened the door, saw people in a leather coat and heard the wild word “arrest”.
She was not given the opportunity to say goodbye to her daughter, who was only a few months old. Zoya Fedorov, the famous actress, the pride of Soviet cinema, was tortured for several days in the dungeons of Lubyanka. She was thirty-seven years old. Behind the back of the actress - twenty roles played in the movie, the love of fans, quite comfortable life by Soviet standards. She was not one of the persistent and enduring heroes of the books of Shalamov or Solzhenitsyn. And therefore admitted to all the crimes in which she was accused. And then, in solitary confinement, she made an attempt to commit suicide.
Daughter
After severe beatings, the once brilliant actress woke up in a prison hospital and found out about the sentence: twenty-five years in camps. Sister Fedorova was sent together with her daughter Victoria for life imprisonment. Another relative was sentenced to ten years. All of them, including a one-year-old child, were accused of espionage.
But in 1955, the actress was released under an amnesty. Then she saw her daughter for the first time in many years. Victoria did not know that the woman who so passionately embraces her is her mother. And therefore, to the question of Zoe about whether the girl knows who she is, she answered: "You are my aunt."
After school, Victoria entered the theater university. She became, like her mother, an actress. The director of the picture, in which Victoria debuted, claims that the character of this girl lived forever left an indelible, painful imprint.
In the late sixties, Victoria managed to leave for the United States and meet with her father. Admiral Jackson Tate passed away in 1978. After his death, Victoria published a biographical book in which she reflected all that she and her mother had to go through.
