Alma-ata, first impressions. Legendary schools in Almaty

In our school, as they say now, the children of the elite of our country studied. Despite this, the students and their parents showed modesty and respected the teachers. No one tried to stand out at the expense of a loud surname. Sometimes I found out about what I taught the son or daughter of a minister or the head of the regional committee only at graduation, when I met with my parents.

School number 56 is one of the oldest in the city. The first two-story building, with its facade overlooking Furmanova Street, was built back in 1926. In 1928, the school was named after A. S. Pushkin.

In 1930, a three-story extension was built, and in 1967 a new building was built. The main entrance to the school, framed by columns and made in the style typical of the Stalinist architecture of those years, is part of the original building.

Thanks to its location in the "golden square", the children of famous cultural figures, politicians and scientists entered the school. The children and grandchildren of Kanysh Satpayev, Mukanov, Auezov, the son of Zhamal Omarova, and the daughter of Bibigul Tulegenova studied here. Among famous alumni Dariga Nazarbayeva is also listed. In 1964, the school was renamed in honor of Satpaev, and the Academy of Sciences took patronage over it, providing all possible assistance to the educational institution.

A French teacher tells about the atmosphere that reigned among teachers and students of one of the most elite Almaty schools of the Soviet era Nelya Aleksandrovna Gerina who has worked here for over a decade.

“There were very strong teachers here. Getting a job at this school was not easy. Directors conducted a real selection, choosing only the best, like coaches creating a sports team. Beginning with elementary school there were no passing teachers. Everyone was passionate about their work. Many had the titles of "excellent student of education of the Kazakh SSR" or "people's teacher". Mathematicians had doctoral degrees, and writers were real artists. When I first came here, I went to their classes and opened my mouth in surprise.

The school had a physical and mathematical bias, and this was reflected in the learning process. In high school, the number of mathematics lessons, along with electives, reached seven to nine per week. Graduates still remember such teachers as Lyudmila Stepanovna Shestakova and Dmitry Evgenievich Mysyagin. In the 56th school, Archimedes Iskakov also worked as a teacher of mathematics for a long time, later he founded the legendary Archimedes. Graduates of the school entered technical specialties at Moscow State University, MGIMO, Bauman School. When university teachers found out where the applicant studied at the exams for these universities, all questions fell away. Such was the authority of the 56th school.

Despite the bias towards technical specialties, the 56th did not forget about the humanities. Thus, English and French were taught at a high level. In French, the school competed even with the 25th, where this subject was considered one of the core.

Boiled and school life outside of classes. Pupils attended various circles, put on full-fledged performances and organized concerts. Sports teams in volleyball and basketball regularly won cups of city competitions.

- We had a lot of interesting things going on. A festival of song and order was regularly arranged. Once, on the anniversary of the liberation of besieged Leningrad, they held a thematic evening dedicated to this event. The schoolchildren prepared bright theatrical performances, all the spectators were given 125 grams of bread, baked by the students with their own hands - the norm for issuing cards in the most difficult years of the blockade. Teachers and parents had tears in their eyes. Many years have passed, but we still remember this event,” says Nelya Alexandrovna.

In the 56th school, for the first time, an experiment was conducted when gifted children were transferred from the third to the fifth grade immediately. Some classes had up to 25 gold medalists.

In 1987, an event took place in the 56th school that became an urban legend. One of the graduates was the author of the cult "Needle" Rashid Nugmanov. Mathematics teacher Archimedes Iskakov took part in the filming. One day, the students, having learned that their teacher works at the same site with Viktor Tsoi, asked him to arrange a meeting with a Soviet rock star. Tsoi easily agreed to the offer and after filming dropped into the school. Only the Archimedes class was present at the meeting. Choi tried to communicate with the guys for three hours and sang for them, but they, shocked by such an unexpected visit from the legend, could not squeeze out a word. The next day, after apologizing to the teacher, they asked to repeat the meeting. Tsoi again agreed to speak to the schoolchildren.

“It was an amazing event in the history of our school. The arrival of Tsoi was announced in advance, and about 150 people gathered - teachers, students and their parents. For an hour, the musician played his songs and communicated with the audience. After that, in that office, we hung newspaper clippings and photographs from that performance. In 2009, a commemorative plaque was installed, - Nelya Alexandrovna recalls.

The 56th school is characterized by the continuity of generations. Many of her students sent their children there, and then their grandchildren. One of the directors of the school was her former student.

— Since we were supervised by the Academy of Sciences, my students and I often went on hikes and expeditions. One of the teachers took his class to the excavations of the city of Otrar. Teachers regularly organized tours. At one time, the school even had its own summer camp on the shore of Issyk-Kul.

Another teacher of the 56th school, Natalia Alexandrovna Popova, who has worked there since 1981, recalls the unusual relationship that developed between the teacher and his students.

— I came here from the 33rd school. Despite the fact that before that I had already worked in the Medeu district for seven years, the administration was still keeping an eye on me before finally hiring me. However, the students gave me the biggest test. One day I go into the classroom, and one of the students, Bopesh Zhandaev, who later became a famous Kazakh actor, immediately asks: “Tell me, how did the earth form?” I had to get out, improvise and respond. The level of knowledge of the students was very high. Not only did they learn from me, but I myself learned something from them.

In our school, as they say now, the children of the elite of our country studied. Despite this, the students and their parents showed modesty and respected the teachers. No one tried to stand out at the expense of a loud surname. Sometimes I found out about what I taught the son or daughter of a minister or the head of the regional committee only at graduation, when I met with my parents. Kolbin's grandson studied with me. The driver deliberately left him away from the school so as not to embarrass his classmates. The boy did not stand out among the others, and his grandfather at that time was no less than the leader of the republic. Nazarbayev's wife also came to see me. Sara Alpysovna handed over party dues, and I just was the head of the party committee of the school. She ran to me, greeted me, asked about her daughter, sometimes briefly talked about everyday things. There was no arrogance.

Gymnasium No. 25 im. I. Esenberlin

When the 12th school was opened, many English teachers were taken away from us. Then we were forced to introduce Chinese as a second foreign language. We were probably the only school in the city where they taught this language.

School number 25 was built in 1937. It was located on Dzerzhinsky Street, now Nauryzbai Batyr. Opposite was the KGB building and the Dynamo police stadium. It is not surprising that in such an environment, the school was originally named after Yezhov, but after the arrest of the disgraced head of the NKVD, it received the name of Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky and wore it until the 90s.

In the courtyard of the school there was even a monument to the famous Chekist, who was diligently looked after by the students of the school.

About interesting history 25th School and its famous graduates tells the 90-year-old Serafima Filatovna Nikonova who has been a history teacher there since 1950.

- I graduated with honors from the Faculty of History and Philology and could go to graduate school or work at a party school. However, in my biography I had one item - the daughter of a dispossessed - and therefore the path there was closed. I was offered to work in one of the city's schools, and the choice fell on the 25th. Then it was one of the elite schools with a very high level of education.

— When I came here, the school was male. Morals here reigned quite severe. At the very first lesson, the students threw a dead mouse on my table. Later we became friends with them.

Almost from the very foundation, the school acquired a language bias. Since 1964, an in-depth study of the French language began. At the 25th school, a whole French department appeared. As a result, her students regularly won city and republican Olympiads in this subject.

Such an exotic subject as the Chinese language was also taught here.

- When the 12th school was opened, many English teachers were taken away from us. Then we were forced to introduce Chinese as a second foreign language. We were probably the only school in the city where they taught this language. It was taught by Susana Isifovna, who had lived in China for many years. I remember it was very hard for her because no one wanted to learn Chinese. As a result, when this graduation went to the university, they were recorded that the applicants did not study a foreign language, since there were no such teachers there. We made sure that they still noted the study foreign language, because they were not to blame for being in the "Chinese" group.

Pupils and teachers for a long time felt the influence of the internal affairs bodies. The Ministry of Internal Affairs took patronage over this educational institution, providing it with various assistance, employees of the authorities came here to conduct conversations and explanatory work, and among the students there were many children of employees and even heads of the police and the KGB.

The school was considered sports. There were strong sections of athletics and gymnastics. Many alumni have achieved great success in these sports. Pupils often studied at the nearby Dynamo stadium. There were classes in the school, where all the conditions were created for practicing various sports disciplines.

In the assembly hall of the school, designed for 100 people, and in the courtyard, quite large-scale events were periodically held and open lessons. They were attended by several hundred people.

— Among our team there were many representatives of the Jewish diaspora. They were wonderful, very educated teachers and real professionals, for example, Elena Mikhailovna Blinder, Anna Borisovna Igdal and the former director Adolf Evseevich Selitsky. They fully confirmed the opinion about the representatives of this nation as very smart people. Naturally, there were also many Jews among the students. Our school was jokingly called Jewish.

Among the graduates of the school there were many famous politicians, businessmen, doctors, scientists and artists. These are such personalities as the famous banker Daulet Sembaev, one of the country's leading pulmonologists Abai Baigenzhin, musicologist Anatoly Kelberg, leader of the LDPR party Vladimir Zhirinovsky and chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Serafima Filatovna taught many of them. She remembers almost every one of her graduates.

- I remember well the issue of 64 years. Between themselves, the teachers called them "Zhirinovites", because it was in that year that Vladimir Volfovich graduated from school. Among his classmates there were many other prominent people. He was never considered the leader in the class, but he was very talkative. He was an active member of the club of political discussions, was very persuasive and always knew how to prove his point of view. At the same time, he was never rude or insulted his teachers or opponents. I called him a fighter for justice. He was not an excellent student, but he studied well. He was an active teenager with thick red hair. Classmates and teachers called him Vovchik. Later, after entering the university, he wrote to me in a letter that he passed the history exams better than other subjects. During each of his visits to Almaty, he invited me to meetings, saying that I was his favorite teacher.

In the same class with Zhirinovsky, the famous surgeon, Doctor of Medical Sciences Yuri Anoshin studied. From childhood he was a very intelligent and charismatic person.

— The former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chairman of the Senate, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, also studied with me. He was remembered as a very handsome young man, he was a success with girls. He was an intelligent young man. He studied well, was an activist, and even at that time I knew that he would become an outstanding personality. The school preserved a letter from Komsomol members to the future, in 2017. His signature is also there,” recalls Serafima Nikonova.

— Our graduates, even the most famous of them, often come to their native school. We regularly host meetings of former classmates, to which teachers are also invited. Our students proudly say: "We are graduates of the 25th."

Lyceum № 28 im. M. Mametova

Shortly after the founding of the museum, history teacher Yevgeny Dinershtein put forward an initiative to erect a monument in honor of the students and teachers of the school who died at the front. We supported this idea. To raise money for a bronze monument, all forces were thrown. After classes, teachers and high school students went to the Canning Plant. There we spent hours peeling onions, crying, but endured. All the money earned in this way went to the construction of the monument and the development of the museum.

The history of Lyceum No. 28 is closely connected with the Great Patriotic War. It was founded back in 1932. The first one-story building was located at the intersection of Karasai Batyr (former Vinogradov) and Tulebaev.

In 1934, a new building appeared on Furmanova - Kazybek bi (formerly Soviet). It has become significant event, since there were few schools in the city, and the first secretary of the RCP (b) of Kazakhstan, Levon Mirzoyan, was present at the opening.

The students of the school achieved success in their studies, and in 1938 she was awarded the title of exemplary school and the name of I.V. Stalin.

Some of the best teachers in the republic, S. Baigulova and S. Savina, worked at the school.

When the war began, most of the students and teachers of the school went to the front. One of the first ranks of the Red Army was replenished by the director of the school, Gennady Fadeevich Zvantsev. In total, 120 teachers and students of the lyceum participated in the hostilities. Among them are three heroes Soviet Union: Vladimir Zasyadko, Vladimir Breusov and Manshuk Mametova. Despite the war, the school continued to work, and in 1943 it was renamed the Men's Gymnasium No. I. Stalin.

In 1931, the future heroine of the country, Manshuk Mametova, began studying at the school. She studied here until 1937, then entered the medical institute, from where she went to the front. The news of the feat and heroic death of Manshuk was accepted by the school staff with sadness and pride.

History teacher Yevgeny Iosifovich Dinershtein studied the past of the school and the glorious military path of its graduates. Together with his students, he collected valuable materials, such as photographs and letters from front-line soldiers, personal belongings of heroes-graduates. These exhibits became the basis of the School Museum of Military Glory, founded on May 6, 1978. Already in March 1980, he was awarded the title of "Excellent School Museum".

Evgeny Iosifovich, on his own initiative, carried out scientific and search work, involving schoolchildren and teachers in it. He organized the "Search" expedition, going with his students to the places of military glory of Manshuk Mametova and Vladimir Zasyadko. From there, shell casings and earth from the battlefields were brought. The exhibits found during the search work replenished the school museum.

Primary school teacher Salikha Sadykovna worked in the 28th lyceum for many years. She recalls the atmosphere that prevailed in this educational institution in the years when the school museum appeared.

- When I came to this school, it was general education, but even then it was believed that there was a high level of teaching here. Particular attention was paid technical sciences. Parents who live even in another part of the city gladly brought their children here. Relationships among the teachers were excellent. Together we carried the name of this school with pride. In addition to lessons, there were many creative electives and circles. The students danced and sang in the choir.

“Given the deep connection of the school with the exploits of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War, special attention has always been paid to patriotic education. Shortly after the founding of the museum, history teacher Yevgeny Dinershtein put forward an initiative to erect a monument in honor of the students and teachers of the school who died at the front. We supported this idea. To raise money for a bronze monument, all forces were thrown. After classes, teachers and high school students went to the Canning Plant. There we spent hours peeling onions, crying, but endured. All the money earned in this way went to the construction of the monument and the development of the museum.

Many famous figures of Kazakhstan studied within the walls of the 28th school. Among its graduates are the famous poet and writer Olzhas Suleimenov, former Minister of Justice and Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bauyrzhan Mukhamedzhanov, choreographer Bolat Ayukhanov, conductor Fuat Mansurov, political scientist Dosym Satpaev, Alik Shpekbaev, Mazan Sergazin, Aldzhan Braliev, Yerlan Akchalov, Viktor Burdin, Galina Rutkovskaya , Anatoly Noskov, Bukeikhanov brothers. Many of them visit their home school.

Kazakh language teacher Aiman ​​Suleimenovna currently one of oldest teachers lyceum. She has been working here since 1975.

— The level of students in this school, when I came here, was very high. These were future ministers, big businessmen, lawyers and doctors. Each lesson was like an exam for me. In order to keep the attention of the class and not lose authority in the eyes of the students, I had to carefully prepare for each lesson. I think it's part of our profession. You need to be educated, educated and intelligent. It is important to have the ability to select the keys to the heart of each student. This is a real gift, and not everyone is given it.

- Many teachers of the highest category, candidates of sciences, worked in the 28th school. We had especially strong physicists and mathematicians. Some of the teachers wrote methodological manuals, according to which we are still studying. I never thought of changing this school and have worked here all my life. Many of my pupils subsequently received higher education and worked all over the world.

In 1991, the school became experimental. An in-depth study of the exact sciences began. Computer classes appeared among the first educational institutions in the school.

In 1993, it was certified by the State Commission, and one of the first in the city to receive a certificate confirming the declared status of a technical lyceum. The lyceum provided professional training at the college level in such specialties as "programmer", "PC user", "accountant-economist", "office manager", "laboratory chemist-ecologist".

Currently, the school has the status of a lyceum. Its graduates after passing specialized training receive certificates of qualification "technician-programmer", "PC user", "accountant-economist with PC skills".

The main attraction of the school continues to be the Museum of Military Glory. More than 1000 exhibits are collected here. In the center there is an exposition depicting the last battle of Manshuk Mametova, which was created especially for the museum by the Honored Artist of the Republic of Kazakhstan Vladimir Pozharsky.

The attention of visitors is still attracted by the Manshuk school desk, which has been carefully kept by the Lyceum staff all these years.

The museum council involves students in the work of recording and digitizing photographs, letters and other valuable materials of the exhibition. On the occasion of the Victory Day and the anniversary of Manshuk Mametova, events are held at the school with the participation of war veterans, relatives and fellow soldiers of heroes from among the graduates of the school.

In 2012, a group of students and teachers made a trip to Russia, visiting the city of Nevel, the site of the death and burial of Manshuk Mametova. New exhibits were brought from the trip to the museum.

Gymnasium No. 15

We had a very rich library of books in English at school. Imagine, there was the whole series of the Library of World Literature in English. These books at that time and in Russian were hard to find in stores. Having such a rich collection of books was a good motivation for learning foreign languages.

The school was founded in 1937, initially as a specialized school for girls. In 1939, it became the first school in the republic with in-depth study of English language and received the name of V.I. Lenin due to its location in the Leninsky district of the city.

For a long time, the primary, secondary and senior levels of the school were located in the old building, built back in the 1930s. Hardwood floors, plywood ceilings and dilapidated walls didn't help the prestige educational institution, and in 1986 a spacious new building was built. In the old one, where major repairs were carried out, only the elementary school remained.

Worked here for a while night school working youth. Later, for the first time in Almaty, a six-year-old child appeared in the old building. Pupils of elementary grades were at school until the evening, going to lunch for a quiet hour and doing their homework right at school under the supervision of a teacher.

Throughout its history, English has remained the main profile subject of the gymnasium. His training began in the first grade and continued until the eleventh. The total staff of English teachers at one time reached 27 people.

A foreign language teacher with forty years of experience spoke about how the 15th gymnasium with an English bias differed from other schools Valeria Isidorovna Smirnova.

- In 63, the implementation began state program, according to which in the capitals of the Union republics in each district there should have been a school with in-depth study of English, German and French. The 15th school also got into this program. Then they tried to introduce the teaching of most subjects, such as mathematics and physics, in a foreign language. What is being done now in the most prestigious universities countries, invented forty years ago. However, then this program was not developed due to the fact that the teacher himself had to initially study the subject in the language of instruction. If, for example, it was a chemistry teacher, even if he spoke English, it is not a fact that he could teach his subject in this language.

In the end, a compromise was reached. General subjects were taught in Russian, but there were several special subjects in English. In addition to the language itself, we taught regional studies, technical translation, literature, language stylistics and British history. In grades 10-11, the number of lessons in English could reach ten per week.

In the lower grades, school teachers practiced new for that time game methods learning. They used famous Soviet songs translated into English.

In high school, part of the lessons were based on the newspaper The Moscow News, published in the USSR for foreign specialists. This edition featured inserts from the Financial Times and The Economist. It was these complex texts that high school students of the 15th school learned to translate. At the end of school, most of them could read and listen to news in foreign languages ​​fluently.

After leaving school, graduates received a certificate, according to which they could work as translators of fiction and technical literature. Many of them entered the faculties international relations in best universities countries, easily passing the entrance exams.

- I had a class where out of 20 people 6 entered the universities of Moscow and Leningrad, and the rest - at KazGU. In general, thanks to high level teaching, "transfer" was almost one hundred percent.

Graduates and employees of the school still remember the names of teachers left in the annals school history: teachers of English — Pilipenko T.B., Perekolskaya T.I., Barzali F.I., Parasyuta E.I., Grigoriadi M.N., Matyunin E.N., Veldyaev I.V., Pitertseva A. S., Sorokin T.V., Kukatov E.V., Smirnov V.I.; teachers of mathematics - Lozovatsky M.I., Blekh R.R., Esperson A.Ya., Luft F.E.; teachers of physics - Podlesnov N.P., Brovkin N.I.; history teachers - Begelman R.D., Orlova T.A.; teachers of the Russian language and literature - Sashin N.I., Deshko T.V.; primary school teachers - Tychinin A.S., Stepanov S.A. and many other high school teachers.

- To involve students in studying proccess, we organized concerts and put on performances. My students showed excerpts from plays by Bernard Shaw and Shakespeare on stage. We had a very rich library of books in English at school. Imagine, there was the whole series of the Library of World Literature in English. These books at that time and in Russian were hard to find in stores. Having such a rich collection of books was a good motivation for learning foreign languages.

In addition to the main subjects, the school actively developed literary and theatrical circles, as well as sports sections.

The school also had its own Museum of Military Glory, which was headed by the former director, Fedor Ivanovich Barzali. Students communicated with veterans and participated in search work.

In 1993, classes were opened in the gymnasium with teaching in the Kazakh language. Since 1996, the study of a second foreign language, French, has been introduced. In 1999, specialized school No. 15 became the winner of the competition of the akim of Almaty for the title of "The best teaching staff of the education system." In 2001, the results of the work of teachers were adequately presented at the competition of projects "The Best Creative Teaching Team".

Currently, school graduates live, work and study in Kazakhstan, Russia, America, China, England, New Zealand, Holland, Norway, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand. However, they all remember their native school with warmth.

Photo gallery

Unfortunately, those who have already passed away told me about this. veteran of the Great Patriotic War, sniper Lidiya Efimovna BAKIEV(on account of her 78 destroyed Nazis, most of whom are officers) and former chairman of the KGB of the Kazakh SSR, Lieutenant General Vasily Tarasovich SHEVCHENKO.

They came here to “slope” from the front ...

After my husband Satai Bakiyev left for the war, I literally began to besiege the Alma-Ata military registration and enlistment office, - Lidia Efimovna recalled. - But since I was not yet 18 years old at that time, I received refusals. As a result, I was nevertheless sent to the Central Women's School of Snipers, first to Veshnyaki near Moscow, and then to Podolsk, where we were trained for 6 months. By the way, I also studied there. Hero of the Soviet Union Aliya Moldagulova She was one issue older than me.

So, while I ran to the draft board, I saw more than once how adult, healthy and strong men, by hook or by crook, sought to get a reservation from the draft, or at least a deferment. For this, everything was used: from scoliosis and weak lungs to flat feet ...

…and recruit the disgruntled

According to Lieutenant General Vasily Tarasovich Shevchenko, not only agents of Nazi Germany and militaristic Japan, but also allies of the USSR - the USA and Great Britain, were hiding among those hiding from the draft in Alma-Ata and other cities of the Kazakh SSR.

The latter were interested in the richest deposits of minerals in Kazakhstan, - said Vasily Tarasovich. - And the Abwehr specialists preferred to train saboteurs from the children of the kulaks and the White Guards, who burned with hatred for the Bolshevik system. Therefore, they were not even paid, but forced to work for the idea. In 1944 the Ministry state security liquidated in Alma-Ata a group of seven saboteurs - deserters from the Soviet Army.

They prepared assassination attempts on the lives of major party and economic leaders, organized terrorist attacks on enterprises evacuated to Alma-Ata, and recruited those who were dissatisfied with the Soviet regime. One of the most dangerous lone agents was Vasily Karpenko.

While in the Kazakh SSR, this experienced and well-trained saboteur changed his surname and appearance seven times.

After the end of the war, many traitors and deserters, hiding behind false passports, tried to sit out in Alma-Ata. But the Soviet counterintelligence managed to neutralize almost everyone.

Saboteur under the mask of a major

We learned about the tragic attempt to detain the leader of one of the largest sabotage groups of the Almaty underground - Robert Geisin, from the moment of which 68 years have passed, we learned from Director of the Museum of Internal Affairs of the city of Almaty Lyudmila Mikhailovna Kolesnikova.

Robert did not stand out among his peers with anything particularly remarkable, - says Lyudmila Kolesnikova. - Now he would be called a major.

His mother, the director of the dermatovenerological dispensary, was an honored medical worker, she was well known by the city and regional party leadership. She and her son lived in a large private house near the intersection of Oktyabrskaya (Kazybek bi) and Muratbaev streets.

During the war years, an honored medical worker, through her connections, got her son a job at the Mining and Metallurgical Institute (Kazakh National Polytechnic University), and he avoided being drafted into the army.

And at the same time, brutal robberies began in Alma-Ata, which almost always ended in the murder of victims. As it turned out later, Robert managed to successfully combine three roles. During the day he was an exemplary student, carefully attending lectures and practical classes, in the evening he turned into a cruel murderous raider, and at night he gave instructions to his young accomplices - members of the pro-Nazi underground.

True, the latter became clear much later. Only in 1948, the investigators of the Almaty Criminal Investigation Department came on the trail of Robert and believed that he was an ordinary robber.

The organizer of the underground network was my mother

By the way, as it turned out later, Robert was recruited by German agents not alone, but together with his mother. Nobody could have thought that honored medical worker is actually the organizer of a terrorist fascist organization, whose members wore black jackets and hid a small swastika badge under their lapels.

Robert's mother often went on business trips to Moscow, which not only was an excellent cover, but also allowed her to act as a courier. Meeting in the capital with curators, the woman secretly brought weapons and instructions for her son.

Unfortunately, while preparing to detain Robert, the operatives did not know anything about this and suspected him only of criminality. Meanwhile, the money and valuables obtained during the raids were spent by the underground on the purchase of weapons and explosives.

tragic ending

Surrounding the house where Robert lived, policemen led by Head of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Almaty Police, Lieutenant Colonel Rodion Filippovich SAGINADZE, went inside. The first was Lieutenant Colonel Saginadze. Seeing him, Robert's mother shouted to her son, who was in the next room: "They came to you from the police!"

He did not even think of giving up, but began to shoot back “in Macedonian” from two TT pistols. Such shooting was taught to him by German agents sent to Alma-Ata.

Rodion Saginadze was the first to die, then bullets hit police captain Mikhail Zuev, and operative Vasily Kobrisov was seriously wounded. They tried to save him, but during the operation, which was carried out by A.N. Syzganov, the wounded man died ...

It's not easy to talk about it, but some policemen got scared and fled, - continues Lyudmila Kolesnikova. - Then they tried to justify themselves, they said that they went to call an ambulance, but no one believed them ...

During the shootout, Robert's mother ran into the room where Robert sat down. Mistaking her for a policeman, he killed her on the spot. He, seriously wounded, was interrogated before his death Minister of the Interior of the Kazakh SSR, Major General Afanasy Afanasyevich PCHELKIN.

As it turned out, Robert had always been the ideological enemy of the Soviet state, so he gladly agreed to lead the military wing of the underground. Being a German by nationality, he was recruited by Nazi agents and then he himself recruited his peers from among the students for the underground struggle against the USSR. Those who refused, he lured to secluded places and mercilessly killed.

Robert received special training, studying shooting, recruiting techniques and subversion. Writhing in pain, he cursed Soviet power and bitterly regretted that he did not have time to kill the entire task force. Robert and his mother were buried in the same cemetery where criminals sentenced to death were buried.

Referring to the testimonies of veterans of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Kazakh SSR, Lyudmila Kolesnikova says that immediately after the murder of operatives in Alma-Ata, general arrests began: young fascists were brought in whole groups.

The whole Alma-Ata buried the operatives…

The funeral of the dead police officers became a truly national grief: thousands of citizens came to say goodbye to the heroes.

Rodion Filippovich Saginadze served in the authorities for 21 years, started as a simple security officer and rose to lieutenant colonel. For long-term and impeccable service in the NKVD - the Ministry of Internal Affairs was awarded with orders Red Banner, Red Star, medal "For the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic war”, as well as letters and nominal military weapons - a Mauser - for the courage shown in the fight against banditry.

Vasily Ivanovich Kobrisov and Mikhail Pavlovich Zuev were also excellent and promising employees.

At the funeral he gave a farewell speech Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the Kazakh SSR Pyotr Vasilievich NIKOLAEV.

All detained members of the terrorist underground were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment, since the exceptional measure - execution, was temporarily canceled.

“We declare you husband and wife,” 65-year-old Lydia Makarova heard these words in February 1996 at the Bristol City Hall. Her chosen one was 67-year-old Robert Woods, an English aristocrat, a former engineer at Rolls-Royce. For the celebration, the bride chose an elegant beige outfit, and the groom put on a new satin gray suit ... She went to the dream of becoming an English lady for almost half a century.

Spirit of England

As a child, Lida, a rural girl, came up with the motto “You deserve it!” and, no matter how pressed fate, continued to believe in the best. In 1951, she entered the institute in Alma-Ata as a teacher of English and German.

Later, a friend gave her the original book. And Lydia became ill with works about the delightful life of ladies and gentlemen in luxurious mansions with servants. To please her, acquaintances got out the bestsellers of Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie.

During her studies, at a rally, Lida met her first husband, the handsome Vladimir Ushakov. In 1954, the couple had their only son, Sasha. The marriage lasted only two years, because the young people had too different goals ... Later, Lydia met another man, he was twenty years older, worked as a school principal in Krasnodar. She married a second time and moved with her son to her husband. In a new place, she quickly got a job as an English teacher at the Pedagogical University. Students adored her, despite the severity and high demands.

“Mom graduated from graduate school, brilliantly defended her dissertation and became an associate professor, candidate of philological sciences,” Alexander tells StarHit. - When perestroika came, there was room for business, she "caught the wave" - ​​she created her own college. I rented a room (today they would say - an office) in the medical unit, which was engaged in issuing certificates for obtaining driver's licenses and examinations. She agreed with the owner that she would start paying rent when she received the first money from the students. Interested people were found very quickly. Lidia Konstantinovna had an excellent reputation, on the recommendation of her, graduates of schools and universities signed up for her, many Krasnodar officials wanted to arrange children for education. They also brought foreign guests to the college.”

“I met a linguistics professor from London,” Lidia Konstantinovna said. Over time, we became business partners. I always wanted to see how they teach students there. An English colleague invited to exchange experience. For a couple of weeks I stayed at his posh mansion in Chelsea. And as a result, I fell in love with England even more.

After retiring, Lydia closed the college. In her free time, she corresponded with her favorite graduates. One of the former students married British Martin Ruston and moved to the city of Bristol. Svetlana, knowing the teacher's dream, invited her to stay for a couple of months. Makarova gladly accepted the offer.

Ladies' man

One evening, 66-year-old Robert Woods looked into the Ruston cottage, he wanted to borrow a caravan like a neighbor. I saw Lydia and disappeared!

“Even in my wildest dreams, I could not imagine this,” Lidia Konstantinovna admits. - Well, what feelings when you are well over 60! But Bob was so courting that I gave up. Daily bouquets from my own garden were a humble beginning...”

By car, Mr. Woods drove his lady around the country. Arranged romantic picnics in the most beautiful parks, they talked about everything in the world. It turned out that Bob was married, but the marriage was short-lived. The son and daughter grew up without him, they hardly communicate. Robert also spoke about serious health problems: many years ago, Woods was riding a bicycle and was hit by a truck. The result is severe damage to the spine. Twice a year, a man has to go to the hospital for examination and rehabilitation, and during breaks he is forced to lead a calm lifestyle.

The two-month vacation ended with a marriage proposal, supported by a modest ring with a tiny diamond droplet, which Lidia Konstantinovna accepted with almost childish delight.

On February 14, 1996, citizen Makarova officially became Mrs. Lydia Woods. The newlyweds celebrated the joyful event together at the Pipal Tree restaurant. Later, the couple sold Bob's old three-story house, bought another, smaller, but beautiful, cozy, in the center of Bristol. Repairs began, building materials were quite cheap, but it was not affordable to hire workers. Alexander, the son of Lydia, came to the rescue. A visa was then given without problems for two years, he stayed for several months and helped to equip a home. This was a real family idyll, which the heroine always dreamed of. No matter how much mother invited the heir to move, he refused. Although then nothing kept him in Russia - he did not make children in two marriages.

Complete loneliness

The Woods spent their last years on the shores of Bristol Bay in the town of Weston-super-Mare, located in Somerset. They bought a house in the resort, deciding to change the noisy, busy city to a "village". They led a quiet, measured life.

Two years ago, 86-year-old Robert went to the hospital for another examination, but he didn’t come out anymore - his worn out heart stopped. The wife was there until the end, holding her hand. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Woods suffered greatly: it is even difficult for her to move around because of a problem with the vestibular apparatus. Lives all alone. The son is trying to go to his mother, but so far to no avail.

“I applied to the Joint Visa Center of Volgograd and the Volgograd Region,” Ushakov told StarHit. - On his website it says: “The cost of our services is three thousand rubles. Additionally paid (if required): consular fee - $ 140, the cost of returning the passport to Volgograd - $ 30. That is about 13 thousand rubles. But I was assured that the longer the term of the visa, the higher the price. In general, they took 34 thousand. I requested permission to enter for six months. Appeared at the Moscow consulate and was refused.

For two months, the son cannot get through to his mother, she only has a home phone, she does not recognize either a mobile or Internet connection. What happened to Lydia is unknown. Now Alexander dreams of one thing - to hear her voice again.

Yesterday morning I flew to Alma-Ata or, as it is customary to call it here - Almaty, the former capital of Kazakhstan, which remains so to this day, despite the formal transfer of the "main city of the country" to Astana.
I am here at the invitation of Air Astana on a two-day visit, during which I have already managed to visit the Discovery Flight School flight training center, about which there will be a separate story, but for now let's run around the city.

Monument to The Beatles in the park on Kok-Tobe - a local mountain with an observation deck.

2. I just get to meet the dawn when I check into the hotel - this is the view from the balcony.

3. Access to LiveJournal in Kazakhstan is blocked for most providers, so I use the local Bilan, for which everything works, but slowly.

6. We pass the French house with the Eiffel.

8. Sayakhat area with a view of the central mosque.

9. They sculpted the Beatles, got an A-studio.

10. Evening views from Kok-Tobe.

11. I live opposite the wheel of resentment.

14. What is this?
Already seven in the comments wrote what it is. Who else will add?
No one reads the previous commentators along the way ...

15. And this is the Nurly Tau business center.

16. There is a good view on the mountain from a cafe with Moscow prices, but it is too long to wait for a waitress to order. Therefore, I photograph through the gaps in the bushes. For some reason, the rest of the shooting points of the city were forced into cages with chickens and peacocks. The park is undergoing reconstruction and there is nowhere to turn around.

17. There are several rides for big and small and a monument to the Beatles.

18. In the evening, the city is in traffic jams, and catching a ride with one or two fellow travelers is the most common thing here. An official taxi costs one and a half times more expensive and is not popular. You can travel from one end of the city to the other for a maximum of a couple of thousand tenge (400 rubles). Usually, they offer 500 (100 rubles) for a train.

20. We go down to the subway - the youngest of all existing ones. I immediately like the fence on the escalator and the indicator. Moreover, the escalator is idle until a passenger steps on it.

22. One metro ride costs 80 tenge (16 r) - a yellow plastic token is issued, which must be lowered into the turnstile at the entrance.

23. Composition "Wedding" at the station "Auezov Drama Theatre".

24. The Almaty metro opened on December 1, 2011 and has seven stations - Rayymbek Batyr, Zhibek-Zholy, Almaly, Abai, Baikonur, Auezov Drama Theater and Alatau. The stations "Moscow" and "Sairan" are next in line.
While waiting for the train, you can poke into the monitors that are hung upstairs.

25. Station "Baikonur" is really really coosmic.

26. And, judging by the shiny floor, not very crowded ...

27. How is this translated? "The Way of the Leader" - a movie about Nazarbayev.

28. On the "theatrical" beautiful round bas-reliefs.

The time has come when it became impossible to work even during the day, especially at night. The government decided to evacuate filmmakers. The first to leave was "Mashenka" Reizman, followed by "A guy from our city." Then the entire Mosfilm was evacuated, and a little later - Lenfilm, which jumped out of the city literally at the last second before the blockade. Most of the filmmakers came to Alma - Ata, and Room, Lukov, Studio. Gorky - to Tashkent. Mosfilm and Lenfilm formed TsOKS, the Central United Film Studio. I was approved for the role of Varya in the film "The Boy from Our City" just before leaving. In the autumn of 1941, Nikolai Afanasyevich Kryuchkov, Stolper, Ivanov, cameramen Uralov and Rubashkin and I rode in the same car. On the way, the train was bombed, we stopped for a long time.

When you for the first time leave your usual places, your loved ones - Aunt Marusya, Mila, they are in Moscow, in danger - it’s very hard on your soul. The most important thing is that Sergei is at the front, it is not known whether he is alive or not. Sergei once studied with Stolper at the Literary Institute and asked him to “look after” me. Oh, let the goat into the garden! He not only began to patronize me, but also tried to start an affair. It was not easy to fight back, especially since there is some kind of dependence, the fear of being left out of work, after all, he is the main one in the film.

Now, taught by bitter experience, I advise young actresses: “Do not start an affair with a director, this is the most harmful thing that can be for a picture, for a role and for your destiny, because true love is rarely born, and the position of the director dictates your dependence desire to please, to please. You can’t quarrel - if you refuse sharply, the director can take revenge, but you can’t love either, otherwise you will fall into even greater dependence.

The actor Vladimir Kandelaki, a very talented, slightly naive and very selfish person, was traveling with us in the same carriage, which I managed to notice on the way.

We drove for a long, long time. So far, there have been enough products. We all have bad stomachs. We did intensive gymnastics - nothing helped. I almost had a volvulus of the intestines and the temperature rose. Kandelaki also suffered incredibly - every time he returned from the toilet, he had such sad eyes. And suddenly, one fine day, on the fifth day, or something, there was a loud voice: “I am a gypsy baron!” He sang loudly and so joyfully that the whole carriage understood: he was relieved of his burden! Since then, I have associated this aria with indigestion.

In general, there were many funny episodes. Everyone bought or exchanged salt for things. Salt was in short supply. Ivanov, the famous Lenfilm make-up artist, for example, bought two bags. Suddenly there was a rumor that some kind of commission was coming to expose the "speculators". Then the director of the picture ordered: “Pour salt into the toilet for everyone!” There was a long queue. Then I deliberately looked out the window of the tail car - the whole way was strewn with salt. Only Ivanov did not want to part with his wealth. There was no commission, and he alone won.

On the way, as I said, we were bombed. The train stopped, we rushed into the forest. A woman ran out with me, she was dragging some huge suitcase. I hid behind a fallen tree, and she covered the suitcase with her body. Then I asked: why not her suitcase, but she his?

“There are my silver foxes, and what am I without silver foxes?” she answered, whispering. Then we started talking, she told me about her affair with the famous critic Yuzovsky and kept repeating: “What am I without silver foxes?” It seemed like a stupid episode, but no. Many years have passed, I rehearsed the matchmaker in Balzaminov's Marriage. I was very tormented - I didn’t know at all how my matchmaker was talking. Voinov was angry that I could not think of a manner of speaking. While I am silent, and the crinoline, and the red wig, and the toned nose, and the little drunken eyes - everything seems to be working, but when I start talking - everything is not true! Konstantin Naumovich almost shouts: “Well, how does she speak after all?” I squeaked, and grunted, and burred, and suddenly remembered this woman, her lisping: “What am I without silver foxes?”

And when she began to say: “I never have a snack, I don’t have this stupid habit ...” - whispering, I suddenly felt so comfortable. It was the very thing that an actor needs when he works on character, manner of speaking, walking... This is the very emotional memory that lives in an actor all his life. Well, when the director prompts, sometimes he can hit the mark, but the actor must first of all rely on himself. I kept people's intonations in my memory, as any writer saves successful phrases in his notebooks.

In Alma - Ata we were met by an amazing autumn. Oh, what a city it was against the backdrop of white, snow-capped peaks, how beautiful were the golden crowns of trees, ditches running from the mountains, alleys of the famous apple trees “aport”! And the Kazakhs? All my life I feel gratitude to this people, so hospitable. They moved in, moved in, shared everything they could.

And how terrible it is that now most of the refugees from Kazakhstan are Russians. They are forced out of there, they are not allowed to live and work. I do not believe that these are ordinary Kazakhs. I think this is leadership, Nazarbayev. And there are dark nationalist forces in any country. They support this policy.

In Alma - Ata we were placed in the hotel "Soviet". Ordinary actors lived here, and the stars - Pyryev, Eisenstein, Ladynina, Cherkasov, Pudovkin, Tisse - in the house, which was nicknamed the "laureate". Eisenstein began filming Ivan the Terrible. Ermler was here, and Zavadsky, and Ulanova, and Maretskaya. Life in Alma - Ata is the most difficult period of time, very complex and unusually interesting. When we arrived, all the shops were filled with alcohol. They also sold amazing natural juices. There were no juices! Then cards were already introduced, with which we received bread. For some reason, I remember Pudovkin very well. He has a string bag in his hands, and in it is a loaf of black bread, which he tried to exchange or sell for something, like everyone else.

Fate pushed me in Alma - Ata with very remarkable women much older than me, who belonged to the Moscow beau monde: Natalia Konchalovskaya, Zina Sveshnikova, Ira Lerr, Maretskaya, Sudakevich, Ilyushchenko.

Ilyushchenko, Yutkevich's wife, portrayed the sovereign princess in the ballet Swan Lake all her life. She was a princess in everyday life - she never did anything. The poetess Konchalovskaya, Mikhalkov's wife, very amusingly told us how she reacts to the love affairs of her Sergei. First of all, she begins to make friends with her rivals, and then very deftly “withdraws” them. She was older than Mikhalkov and extraordinarily smart. Zina Sveshnikova is a woman of bright, original destiny. Her husband worked as a second director for Eisenstein. Now the second directors have transferred, turned into administrators, and before they held all the mass scenes, the selection of actors. From all this they freed the master. Zina was once Mayakovsky's mistress and told us about her relationship with him with juicy details. Or here is the beautiful Anelya Sudakevich, the wife of Asaf Messerer, and before that - the famous Gentle, director of the Moscow Art Theater, who during the war brought to Tbilisi the entire gold fund of theater actors. Previously, she was an actress, starred in Kuleshov, Barnet and Pudovkin, and then became a costume designer, for many years she worked as the main circus artist. She just turned ninety!

In general, these women had something to tell me, young and inexperienced. Ira Jlepp, an operetta actress, had an affair with Pudovkin. This whole affair proceeded before our eyes, and we knew all the habits and inclinations of Pudovkin, his pranks, his temperament, his thoughts. In Alma - Ata, he once spoke and talked about his trip abroad. He stood on the stage, and behind him was a bust of Lenin. Pudovkin spoke very temperamentally, waved his arms, then took off his jacket and threw it over his shoulder right on Lenin's head! Then it was an emergency.

Pudovkin lived widely, beyond his possibilities. In addition to his wife, he always had mistresses. One of them was Ira Lerr. We witnessed how she prepared to meet him. We all gossip together, laugh, joke, exchange “experiences”, and Ira sits in a large basin, rubs the soles, heels, knees, elbows with pumice to make them soft. And then I found out that if you wash them and rub them with a pumice stone, they will become tender, like a newborn's. And at this time we are talking some nasty things about Pudovkin, hinting that he is not as holy as she thinks, and in the end we present her with a colorful, but frivolous drawing depicting their future meeting. Sudakevich painted, Konchalovskaya wrote poetry. This is what our society was like.

And Maretskaya at that time did her best to seduce the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of Kazakhstan - no more, no less. Something didn’t work out very well for her, and every time we asked: “Well, did he give himself up to you or not?” Finally, Vera comes and says: "He's mine." And he tells in detail how it happened.

Once we even played such a game - everyone had to tell about the most embarrassing thing in their lives. I saw that people's faces became a little more serious and thoughtful. I am sure that not the most shameful cases were selected. It's so clear! One famous actress said that she stole a blouse in the dressing room at the theater. Kryuchkov told something very nasty, connected with the old woman - the cleaner. But all the same, actors are actors - they spoke juicy, tasty, played, went over the details.

Sergei Prokofiev lived in a hotel near me with his Italian wife and two sons. He made music all the time. It wasn't easy to endure. He worked very hard, endlessly practiced the first two notes. And I kept waiting for the third one to be born, and he again returned to the first two. I absolutely hated him, I wanted to hit him on the head with a frying pan. Only then I realized that next to me was a genius. And he composed at that time the famous "Cinderella".

Visited Alma - Ata and Kapler - the author of the script "She defends the Motherland." I remember he was sitting in one of the hotel rooms and next to him was Gerasimov. He and Makarova somehow came to Alma-Ata for a short time, and we were all amazed, and some were delighted by their warlike appearance - in leather jackets, with revolvers. Whom and where they defended, I don't remember now. Gerasimov managed to teach - VGIK was also there.

In a hotel, usually everyone visits each other, so I was in the room where Kapler, Zoshchenko, Barnet and Rima Karmen lived. Zoshchenko told us. He had "his own method", he asked the one he was guessing her secrets. He was so serious, sad, so he remained in my memory. I remember Barnet, handsome, always drunk. All women were in love with him.

Rima Carmen at this time had personal troubles. Stalin's son, Vasya, took his wife away from him. Rima was very worried and wrote a letter to Stalin. He, angry, gave the order: to return his wife Carmena, and send Vasya to the front.

And at that moment Kapler had an affair with Svetlana, Stalin's daughter, everyone knew about it. “Lucy,” said those gathered in the room, “well, where are you going? Do you love her? Or do you like that she is the chief's daughter? Think what are you risking? What will happen to you? And he answered honestly, I remember his face: “Yes, I love her. I can't leave her, I'll do anything." And he paid the price, he spent so many years in the camps!

Meanwhile, life became more and more difficult. I wanted to eat all the time. We stood in a long line at a restaurant or in a canteen for some black dumplings - we got them on cards. Something was cooked in the room or in the courtyard of the hotel.

Some of the people were placed in the foyer of the cinema, where wooden trestle beds were placed for them. Families were separated from each other by sheets and blankets. At the same time, there is one toilet, one sink, you have to cook somewhere. And in this anthill there were a lot of everyday, curious things, some kind of family scandals or, conversely, some kind of novels. There was a lot of tragedy. Still, life went on.

So tragicomic was my attempt to play Silva in the film of the same name. I knew that they were going to put it into production, and I decided to try it. What the hell is not joking, maybe they will take me? Tairov taught us to be synthetic actors, everything went on the stage of the Chamber - from tragedy to operetta. Both music and dance were taught very professionally. But I never rehearsed Silva, let alone played. And it was necessary to start to learn at least her exit aria. I - thin, always hungry - I sell my luxurious bathrobe and spend all the money I get not on food, but on teachers - tutors. I work out until the seventh sweat, I sing: “Hey - I, hey - I” - and dance incendiary.

At this moment, one of my well-wishers asks the group if Smirnova is going to try for the main role.

Yes, we took it a long time ago, namely Smirnova, and the shooting is already in full swing.

A well-wisher runs to me with good news.

But I didn't even show up!

The casket opened easily. They approved another Smirnova - the wife of Nemirovich's son - Danchenko, a professional singer. And she demanded that they write in the credits: Silva - Smirnova - Nemirovich. Apparently, she was afraid that we would be confused.

In the luxurious new opera and ballet theater, Ulanova danced Swan Lake. The film factory also began to work. They built scenery and shot pictures, and synchronously. And no subsequent voiceovers, as now. This is my sore subject, I am categorically against the dubbing technique that the Italians have imposed on us. We have lost the living word, the real one.

The Alma-Ata film factory was a tiny studio with one large pavilion and several small ones. They worked in three shifts. It was already winter, but there was no heating in the pavilions. Kryuchkov and I were filming at night in "A Guy from Our City", we had steam coming out of our mouths. And we dreamed of a glass of hot tea, not even tea, but just boiling water. In the morning, after filming, Kolya Kryuchkov drank a glass of alcohol, played the harmonica a little, for which Marina Pastukhova, his then wife, scolded him mercilessly - she did not like his harmonica - went to bed, woke up, drank a glass of water and became drunk. Again they quarreled, then at night we again went to shift, and there was a shooting.

And the famous scene in the garden, where he jumps from the window from above, was filmed in the studio courtyard in the spring, when the gardens were in bloom. The painting was finished in 1942. She was received by Bolshakov, the minister, who specially came to Alma-Ata. Bolshakov really liked the picture, he officially accepted it. I remember we were walking down the street with him, and he said some laudatory words to me, and then he said: “Did your voice change somehow?” I say: “What, has it gotten worse? Maybe because I don't have a ration?" I was very hungry, very needy, I sold everything I had. I did not have enough money for food, and the winners received quite decent rations. And then Bolshakov ordered to give me half a ration.

At that time, I was going through a severe grief. Sergei was at the front, and there was not a single line from him, I remember looking at the moon, as in childhood, when I sang a song about orphans and asked: “Moon, light the way for orphans.” And now I said: "Let the moon that shines for me, also shines for him." At the same time, she was afraid that he was lying dead in the field. Of course, I loved him, but here - loneliness and insecurity. I asked the minister to help find him. A year later, I received a notice that he had died.

And against this background, there were some endless courtship, harassment, persecution. Just an invasion! But Bolshakov, on the contrary, I was convinced that he was a man of strict rules, he did not start novels on the side. He asked me what I would like to do in a movie. I hesitated: you never know what I want, you need to know the "portfolio" of the studio, to know which scripts are being put into production, and I only heard that preparations were underway for Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and that director Arnshtam was looking for an actress for the main role. And I foolishly blurted out: "I would like to play Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya."

The minister's order was not discussed then. Above him was only Stalin. Bolshakov, however, asked me: “Are you suitable for this role?” To which I replied: “So there is makeup, you can put on makeup.” And then he called Arnshtam and said that he, as a minister, proposed to approve Lidia Smirnova for the role of Zoya. He was madly frightened: at that time Galya Vodyanitskaya had already been invited. Galya was a student of VGIK and my ardent admirer, she often accompanied me to the hotel, declared her love. Arnshtam called me to his office and said: “I was ordered to take you on this role, but you are completely unsuitable. But since an order is an order, I will offer you, and you, I ask you, refuse. Of course he was right. I did not resemble Zoya either in color or in character. And she was played by Vodyanitskaya.

Eisenstein and I tried for the role of Tsarina Anastasia in Ivan the Terrible. He liked me, but in the end they approved Tselikovskaya. Looking at my portrait as Anastasia, I understand why. I am too earthly, sinful, and he needed meek, gentle, with a dove's look, purity and innocence itself.

Am I upset then? Not too much. I was young, full of energy, I knew that my whole life was ahead, that so many roles and films awaited me.

After The Boy from Our City, director Ermler (at that time he was also the artistic director of the studio) invites me to play the role of Fenka in the film She Defends the Homeland. The main character is Maretskaya. In other roles - Bogolyubov, Aleinikov. Operator - Rapoport. I am a simple country girl.

I remember that Ermler then said to me a prophetic phrase: “And why are you climbing into lyrical heroines with your nose? You are a character actress!” He was the first to say it. And he kept opening my forehead, joking that, oddly enough, I have a good, smart forehead, and I always cover it with curls. “Remove the curls,” he ordered the make-up artists, but before the command “Ready, attention, move!” she managed to let her curls down on her forehead, and Ermler said menacingly: “Stop, stop, open your forehead!” I resisted because I was always afraid of my profile. It seemed to me that I had an ugly nose and thick lips, that I was generally ugly. I did not understand that in this snub nose - these are the words of Ermler - and there was the charm of Fenka. Naive eyes, plump lips, upturned nose - this is the whole Fenka, clean, open. That is why her love is so pure. My partner was Aleinikov, as always, incredibly charming. Fenka dreamed that she would be his wife, that they would build a hut, that she would be waiting for him from work - and their life was spent in a partisan detachment, in the forest. There is a wonderful scene where they blew up the bridge, they are running, and she says: "Listen to how the heart beats." She presses his hand to her chest, and he says: "Fool, tea, it is on the left, the heart." And Maretskaya, the commander of the detachment, patronized them.

We filmed all this partisan life in the forests of Medeo near Alma-Ata. It was very difficult to find vegetation similar to Russian forests, but somehow they found: both a piece of forest and landscapes that we needed. We were filming in the mountains, where cars couldn't drive, and I have a shot where the whole group is walking in single file to shoot. I carry a tripod, someone comes with a camera, someone with a backlight, they even carried the kitchen. And there they found something like an abandoned stone old castle - only walls and windows where the whole group was located. Everyone slept on the floor, they brought linen, and Maretskaya and I were fenced off with sheets in a small corner. I remember the incredible beauty of the night when the moon was shining, I remember how the sun was setting - a huge - a huge ball - and the illuminated hills.

I went for a walk and somehow I met Rapoport. He immediately fell in love with me for the rest of his life. The atmosphere on the set was wonderful, we lived as one family, one destiny - a picture, whether it was a lighting engineer, a make-up artist, an auxiliary worker, or Maretskaya herself.

Ermler - smart, erudite - one of those masters who are obsessed with work. He was considered a party director, as he staged a picture about the life of Kirov - "The Great Citizen". So, Ermler also fell in love with me, even wanted to leave his wife and son. He loved his son very much, he dreamed that his Mark would become a conductor (and he really became the chief conductor of the Bolshoi Theater). (When I now visit the Bolshoi and see the beautiful gray hair of Ermler Jr. in front of me, I want to go up to him and say: “Baby, it’s because of me that your family didn’t fall apart.” But everything could have been different.) Ermler's wife, an artist, was a very strange woman: she walked barefoot, in a wide gypsy skirt. Many considered her not quite normal.

Once Ermler and I were walking around the city. There, in Alma-Ata, ditches flowed from the mountains, they made such a noise, they murmured so amazingly. And these white peaks, and blooming gardens against their background - just a miracle! And in the mountains! If you look at the city from a height, you see a carpet of amazing tones - yellow, pink, lilac. This is apricot, cherry, apple tree, each blooming in its own color. And spring in the mountains is no less beautiful than autumn.

Ermler is a very musical person, he liked to whistle melodies. We walked, he whistled, and ditches murmured in unison. Suddenly Ermler impulsively kissed me on the cheek and ran away. Another time, during a walk, he said that he loved me, and timidly asked: maybe I will reciprocate?

Ermler was close friends with Mikhoels. They often recalled Jewish rituals, customs, holidays, joked a lot, even fooled around, recalled stories, were witty, sparkling, tireless for practical jokes.

Mikhoels acted as a matchmaker, at each of our meetings he told how Friedrich loves me. I did not react to this in any way and rather preferred Rapoport, and Ermler was jealous of him. He even wrote on some kind of plywood how many times during the shooting Rapoport approached me, and Maretskaya counted how many times Ermler. She joked, made jokes about this, but I felt jealous: after all, she plays the main role, she is the leading, famous, she is a master, and the two main people in the film - the director and the cameraman - prefer me.

We had a scene with her when Aleinikov was lying dead in the barn, covered with a rag. I see him, I crawl towards him, I say: “Senya, Senya! You said there is no death, it was invented. An episode is being filmed, as we both look at him and cry. We couldn't cry at the same time. She asks:

You cry?

Not yet.

I'm already crying.

I cried - she stopped. She cried - I stopped. It's funny, but in this dramatic scene, we could not cry at the same time. It seemed to me that she had such creative experience, such acting technique, that she had no right not to cry when necessary.

Ermler filmed this scene like this: I enter, or rather, run into the barn, I guess that this is Senka. And I'm afraid to approach him. So I back up, then I start crawling. It lasts quite a long time, the camera takes a close-up of me, then I rip off the rag that Senka is covered with, move back. I repeat, it took a long time, but Ermler seemed to bathe in scenes of such emotional intensity.

In the same way, the scene was filmed when, in front of Maretskaya, a fascist crushes her child. She turns gray and looks at her gray strand in a barrel of water, where it is reflected. The camera keeps her blackened face in the frame for a long, long time.

The director told me later that he thought the barn scene was my best scene. But alas, it broke the rhythm of the picture, and it had to be cut.

Ermler filmed She Defends the Motherland with headphones. He was very fond of when I or Maretskaya uttered monologues, to conduct. I have never met such directors. And I was surprised that Maretskaya liked it. It bothered me a lot. “Friedrich Markovich,” I asked, “well, don’t wave your hand.”

There were funny cases. Let's say they put on a light, we wait and forget that someone there can hear all our woman's secrets in headphones. Ermler, it turns out, eavesdropped a lot, although perhaps not on purpose. Maretskaya once told me terribly indecent jokes, I laughed, and suddenly I heard: “Vera, I beg you, don’t spoil Lida, stop it!”

The next day, she provokes me: "Now it's your turn!" I again forgot that he had headphones, and told a no less obscene anecdote. Maretskaya waited a little, and then said: “Friedrich, now you know who spoils whom?”

I will add that Maretskaya was an unimportant partner for me. We didn’t have with her - “you give me a hook, I give you a loop.” On the set, your partner feeds you or only takes from you ...

Enamored Ermler on the set of "She Defends the Motherland" constantly whistled Beethoven. Musically gifted, he dreamed of making a film about the great composer. When the war ended and the Union of Cinematographers was formed under the chairmanship of Pyriev, I headed the acting section and attended the meetings of the secretariat. And of course, there was always someone from the Central Committee, some regular instructor - without this, of course, neither socialism nor communism can be built.

And at one of the meetings, when Ermler was still alive, his request to stage a picture of Beethoven was discussed. I spoke, said that he had dreamed about it since the war, and then, Beethoven is our revolutionary composer. I say: “Let him bet. Maybe he will make a brilliant picture? A pause, and suddenly someone shouted: “But he is a party director! They do not meet so often, he created the "Great Citizen", "She defends the Motherland." And suddenly about the composer! You can’t lose such an experienced party artist!”

So they didn't support it. And then I was summoned to the Central Committee, where they simply, without fantasies, paternally scolded me: “What did you carry yesterday, Lida? Well, think, where is it seen that the artist does what he wants? You, workers of art - directors, actors - assistants to the party. You complete the tasks assigned to you communist party. You promote our ideas. This means that we need Ermler to make those pictures and solve those topics that are useful to us, and not to himself! Now, in our time, at least we can talk about it openly.

Let's remember how they closed the theater of Tairov, how people of art were destroyed under Stalin. We were an uncomplaining crowd, understanding nothing, not realizing anything. I also believed that it was necessary, because I did not know another life.

But back to Alma - Ata. Shooting "She defends the Motherland" is underway. Mikhoels comes and says that I should appreciate Ermler's love and attitude towards me. But I liked Rapoport more. He lived with his mother, sister, nephew. He was unmarried. Before the war, he was the husband of Zoya Fedorova, but in 1940 they separated. Of course, he was less active, perhaps remembering that "the less we love a woman, the easier she likes us." And indeed, I was more likely to seek him than he was to me. He, like Ermler, was a laureate of the State Prize. Both of them received laureate food rations.

And here sit Mikhoels, Maretskaya. There is a knock on the door, Ermler enters and brings a wick - such a small oil lamp (there was no light, of course) - and a small teapot in which two eggs are boiled:

Lidochka, here's light and food for you.

So touching! Well, Mikhoels, of course, does not miss such trump cards:

You see how wonderful he is, how he loves you, how he cares, how tenderly he shows his feelings.

Of course, I'm pleased. And here again there is a knock on the door, Rapoport comes running and brings all the fifty eggs that he received in the ration. He put it silently in front of me and ran away.

Then Maretskaya says:

And you still think? That one will carry two soft-boiled eggs to you all his life, and this one will give everything he has.

I myself instinctively felt how disinterested Rapoport was and how selfish Ermler was. I recently read, not without pleasure, confirmation of this in the "Phone Book" by Evgeny Schwartz.

“In him,” he wrote about Ermler, “the fire of that very love shines through, which is so touching in young mothers and so annoying when a person directs it at himself.”

Indeed, he adored himself like a child, and subsequently, childishly, but by no means harmless, took revenge on me.

In Alma - Ata, I still managed to act in one of the film collections and began work in the "Naval Battalion". We had only troubles with the film collection. I played a welder, and Blinov - a wonderful actor - my lover. I was welding some kind of pipe, and he was standing behind. Nobody gave us any instructions. It turns out that you must first apply a mask to your face, and then make an arc. And I did the opposite. After two or three hours, strong pains began in my eyes, as if hot sand had been poured. Blinov says that his eyes hurt too. By the end of the day we were taken to the clinic. I had a severe eye burn, the doctors thought that I would lose my sight. The temperature rose, I was bandaged, and for a week I was actually blind. Blinov suffered less, after all, he was a little further from the welding machine.

And then we both got typhoid fever. The doctors tested the local flies: out of every 100, 98 were typhoid. I remember that, thanks to Ermler's efforts, they put me in a children's hospital: they opened an infectious diseases department there, and the conditions were better. Blinov died soon after. I was very sick. But cinema is cinema: when people get typhoid, they usually cut their hair, because the heat induces lice, and here the studio asked that my hair not be touched, since I had already started acting in the lead role, and it’s expensive to make a replacement.

I was treated by an old doctor who later contracted typhus and died himself. In this disease, the intestines become as thin as parchment paper, and at any moment there may be perforation and death. Anything too tough will get into the food, and that's it - the end. I remember chewing ground meat and suddenly I feel: a bone! I wanted to live so much that I looked at her like a murderer.

And I also remember that I had three waves of illness and each time an incredible temperature. I was lying on a bed that was a little small for me, and in the window I saw a tree branch with five leaves. I looked at her and remembered O'Henry's The Last Leaf. I felt very bad, I was afraid to fall asleep, so as not to miss when the last leaf would fall from my tree. And yet she missed. I had a terrible headache.

Just then I received a telegram from Dunayevsky: "A human being like you cannot die." Then Ermler told me that Dunayevsky was very sorry that I was sick, and asked me to give me food. And Rapoport baked apples for me on dry leaves. He came, I was very weak, I probably didn’t care about anything, I only remember that thin white legs stuck out from under the blanket, some kind of strangers, not mine, with bright red nails. Such completely lifeless white legs and red nails.

But the day came when they put me in jail and said that they would wash my hair now. I took hold of my hair - they remained in my hands, and I saw that they were covered with nits.

Rapoport taught me to walk - the muscles were atrophied. When I left the hospital, it was necessary to save the remaining hair, there were no wigs then, and Rapoport and I went to the mountains, found a clearing with a stump, he sat on it, laid my head on his knees, smeared my hair with kerosene, and then removed the dead ones with his nails nits. They could not be combed, they could only be removed with nails. And with these nits in his hands, he spoke to me about his love. So many people looked after me, tried to achieve reciprocity, and only one cared, truly understood how lonely, defenseless I was, that my relatives were far away, my husband died at the front and at every step they could offend me. He just brought baked apples, which he himself cooked on dry leaves, just removed the nits from my hair, just taught me how to walk. Vladimir Rapoport became my second husband.