Georgy Zhzhenov: biography, personal life, family, wife, children

Many are well aware of the wonderful Russian actor Georgy Zhzhenov. Biography, his family, which he created four times in his long life, is the topic of the proposed article. Zhzhenov suffered a lot of adversity, but he transferred them with honor and dignity.

Origins and parents

Where was Georgy Zhzhenov born? His biography began in Petrograd in 1915 in the family of an artisan-baker. On the mother of Georgy Maria Feodorovna his father Stepan Filippovich married, already being a widower and the father of five daughters. He just went to his native Tver village, he looked after his wife and took her to St. Petersburg, educate the existing children and give birth to new ones, who were already added by six people. The father did not bother raising his children, he was friends with the "green serpent". All the huge Zhzhenov family during the First World War and the Civil War, post-war devastation and the first years of Soviet power, was pulled out on its hump by a mother, a simple Russian woman, whom Georgy Zhzhenov himself recalled with special warmth until the last days of his long life.

Youth and the beginning of acting career

But despite all the difficulties the family lived, older children grew up and went off to live an independent life. The elder brother of George Boris, with whom he was very friendly, entered the university in the early 1930s, and he himself, being a very strong and athletic young man, entered the circus college in acrobatics after the end of the eight-year school in 1930. A year later appeared circus actor Georgy Zhzhenov, whose biography began in the arena of the Leningrad Circus in the acrobatic duet "2-Georges-2." His partner in the speeches was one of his fellow students, his namesake, hence the name of the duo.

Georgy Zhzhenov, whose biography later made many sharp turns, always recalled with gratitude his circus sources. Until the end of his days, he retained an excellent physical form (thanks to him, he probably survived on the Kolyma), and even at the age of eighty performed acrobatics 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 "The Bug of the Hero" (1932). He leaves the circus and enters the Leningrad College of theatrical arts for a course that was later led by the famous Soviet film director Sergei Gerasimov. At the same time he continues to act in films. His filmography before his arrest in 1938 consisted of five films, including the super popular Soviet movie "Chapayev", in which Zhzhenov played the orderly of Commissioner Furmanov Tereshku.

How did Georgy Zhzhenov live then? His biography at the beginning of his life was like a million other biographies of young Soviet boys. It would seem that the future promises him great prospects. However, the young actor had every reason to fear for his fate, and his fears were soon confirmed.

The origins of Georgy Zhzhenov's life drama

In December 1934, in Leningrad, the head of the regional organization of communists was killed, in fact the second person in the country after Stalin and his rival (at least, so many thought then) Sergei Kirov. This murder served as an occasion for Stalin and his entourage to begin the so-called great terror in the country. Charges were brought against many former prominent party and state figures. But gradually, among the victims of the criminal practice of the Stalinist repressive organs, there appeared more and more ordinary people who had nothing to do with politics. So among them was a student at the Leningrad University Boris Zhzhenov. The story that happened to him very vividly characterizes the atmosphere of hysteria and general suspicion in which Soviet society was in the second half of the thirties.

The fact is that students of Leningrad State University were ordered to pass through the streets of Leningrad in a funeral procession. Boris also asked the secretary of the Komsomol organization of his course to release him from this event, since he simply did not have normal shoes to withstand a long hours standing and walking in the cold (he hastily got to his university in his completely broken shoes). This request was regarded as a manifestation of unwillingness to honor the memory of the dead communist leader, and therefore, a hostile attitude to the very power of the Soviet Union. The following year, Boris was arrested, then sentenced to be sent to Vorkuta camps, and the whole family Zhzhenov was deported from Leningrad. For George, his friends, the "film-makers", in particular Sergey Gerasimov himself, stood up . He just then proceeded to shoot the film "Komsomolsk", in which Georgy Zhzhenov was involved. Biography of the latter as a free man lasted for another two years, but the repressive authorities were simply looking for an excuse to bring him another charge.

First arrest

In the summer of 1938, a group of film actors, in which Zhzhenov was, rode on a train for shooting in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Their fellow traveler was an American diplomat headed to Vladivostok. There was a normal contact on the way between fellow travelers (after all, drove a few days). But since all foreign diplomats in the USSR were continuously monitored at that time, then a certain report was placed on a table in the central Moscow NKVD apparatus, in which all actors who had contact with a foreign player were listed. Since Zhzhenov was already a relative of the convicted "enemy of the people" at that time, he was the best candidate for accusing him of espionage against the USSR. Soon he was arrested in Leningrad in his apartment, where he lived together with his first wife Eugenia, who was his classmate in the technical school of theatrical arts.

Two and a half years in the Crosses

During the investigation Zhzhenov passed all the circles of hell of Stalin's torture chambers. With him, everything that is now widely known from the memories of other martyrs that have gone the same way happened. Endless interrogations "with passion", beatings, sleep deprivation, when the suspect was put on the so-called investigative conveyor, consisting in a continuously lasting week (or more, how many will survive) interrogation by several interchangeable investigators. According to the memoirs of Zhzhenov himself, when he fell unconscious on the floor, the investigator pulled his hair up to his feet, and the interrogation continued.

Many could not stand it, signed absurd accusations, talked about other people, that is, they did exactly what the Stalin executioners needed to justify their actions. Cellmate Zhzhenova, who went to such a deal with his conscience, could not withstand her remorse afterwards and committed suicide (she opened her veins under the blanket).

But Georgy Zhzhenov, whose biography is more than once filled with such trials, has withstood all mockery and torture, refused to recognize the charge of espionage, and thereby saved his life. After all, all those admitted, as a rule, were sentenced to be shot. Zhzhenov was given 5 years of camps, which, according to the "good" Stalinist tradition, lasted for two decades. What could Georgy Zhzhenov hope for when he went to Siberia? Biography, family, children that he could have - all this was now inaccessible to him. He said goodbye to his wife and asked her not to wait for her return.

Kolyma, Kolyma, a wonderful planet, ten months of winter, the rest - summer

When the ship, the hold of which was filled with hundreds of "zeks", 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 on the Kolyma River, when already scarce supply was cut to a minimum. From the famine, whole camps with hundreds of "zeks" were dying out. On one such case Zhzhenov told in one of his published stories about the camp life, which is called "Sanochki".

The case was in the winter in one of the remote camp sites, located a few kilometers from the main camp. It was a hard-to-reach place where transport could only pass in the summer. The authorities intentionally did not bring there in the summer a stock of products for the winter, and several hundred inhabitants of this camp, including Zhzhenov, began to starve and die slowly. In this camp security products were regularly delivered along the sledge path, because the security guards are only a couple dozen, and "zeks" - several hundred. And then comes the news that Zhzhenov to the main camp came a parcel from his mother, and probably with food. But how to get to the main camp "goner", who, despite his youth and former strength, could hardly walk on his feet from chronic malnutrition. About the transfer of the parcel to the camp was out of the question, 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 to be in the trenches under German bombs. Zhzhenov was in despair. An accidental witness to this was the local NKVD commissioner, who visited the ill-fated camp (he arrived there on foot). He suggested that Zhzhenov go to the main camp together with him, as if accompanied. What was Georgi's surprise when the next morning he saw this commissioner pulling a small sled, in which lay some documentation. When they moved away from the camp for a decent distance, George felt that his strength was being left, and he was losing consciousness. Without saying a word, the commissioner put him in a sledge and drove several kilometers to the vicinity of the main camp where he had been seated, so that before the guard they were in ordinary form: "zek" and the officer accompanying him. What caused this officer to show mercy to the uncharacteristic "Enkavadeshnikam", we will never know. But for the fact that he practically saved the future of the outstanding Russian actor, we can be grateful to him. After all, in the mother's parcel there were really products that helped Georgi survive that terrible winter.

Life between two conclusions

In 1943, Georgy from the penalty camp at the Glukhar mine was literally dragged out by the head of the traveling instructor's campaign team Nikanorov. In a scary-looking, ragged "zeke," covered in scabs and "pimples," he discerned a former actor and swore to save him. First, Zhzhenov was transferred from the camp to the propaganda brigade, and then to the Magadan Muzdramt Theater, whose troupe consisted practically of the same "zeks." What could Georgi Zhzhenov, who was once again among his kindred people, feel? Biography, family, children - all these ordinary human concepts again become close to him. He marries the same, like himself, a prisoner, the actress Lydia Vorontsova, they have a daughter, Elena. This marriage could not be long, since both of them soon received new terms.

In 1945, the term of 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 movie "Alitet goes to the mountains," which talked about the socialist transformation of the life of the indigenous inhabitants of Chukotka.

The second term

And further with him happened the same thing as with many other victims of Stalinist repression - the second arrest and a new verdict. 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 partner on the stage was Innokenty Smoktunovsky, who went to Norilsk to sit there in troubled times at the turn of the 1940s-fifties, because he was afraid to be repressed for his short stay in the German captivity in 1943.

What except for the acting profession found in Norilsk George Zhzhenov? Biography, wife, children again became human concepts close to him. His third wife was a Norilsk actress Irina Makhaeva. Even after their departure from Norilsk they had a daughter, Marina.

The discovery of freedom

In 1955, fully rehabilitated Zhzhenov returned to Leningrad. At first, he works in the regional drama theater, but a year later he is given a film act on Lenfilm. Since then almost every year there have been films with his participation. He blended into the new life surprisingly easily, as rarely anyone could manage from those who went through the horrors of the Gulag. Undoubtedly, this contributed to the good physical form, which Zhzhenov managed to preserve after all the scraps that had fallen on his share. Kinogenerators also attracted in the images created by him a restrained, full of genuinely courageous manner of acting performance Zhzhenov.

In 1960 he entered the Theater. The Leningrad City Council. What did Georgy Zhzhenov find in this collective? Biography, his personal life again made a zigzag. Georgy Stepanovich met his fourth wife Lidia Malyukova here, with whom she lived until her death. They had a daughter, Julia.

So how many descendants did Georgy Zhzhenov leave? Biography, children, family - all these concepts were always close to him, he aspired to family life. In total, Zhzhenov has three daughters from three marriages, as well as several granddaughters and grandchildren.

In the late sixties and early seventies Zhzhenov came to national renown after performing the role of Zarokov-Tuliev in the film "The Resident's Error" and "Fate of the Resident". He moved to Moscow, entered the theater. The Moscow Soviet, which will work for more than three and a half decades, until his death at the 91st year of life.

On the slope of the years Zhzhenov became a true patriarch of Russian film and theater art. He was awarded many state awards. He filmed documentary films, the country was widely celebrated its 90th anniversary.