Photos from Oleg Dahl's funeral. Everything is calm
On March 3, 1981, in a hotel with the self-explanatory name "Kino", one of the most talented Soviet actors Oleg Dal died...
Photo January 1981.
In the summer of 1980, Vladimir Vysotsky, with whom Dal had recently become close, died in Moscow. According to eyewitnesses who saw Oleg at that funeral, he looked terrible and repeated: "Okay, now it's my turn." M. Kozakov recalls: “At the funeral, G. Volchek came up to me and asked in my ear: “ Maybe this will at least stop Oleg?” Didn't stop..."
After these funerals, Dahl began to think more and more often about death. In his diary in October 1980, he wrote: “I began to think often about death. The worthlessness is depressing. But I want to fight. Cruelly. If I’m going to leave, then leave in a frantic fight. Try with all my remaining strength to say everything I’ve been thinking and thinking about. The main thing is to do it!”
On V. Vysotsky’s birthday - January 25, 1981 - Dahl woke up in the morning at his dacha and said to his wife: "I dreamed about Volodya. He is calling me."
Literally a few days after this, in a conversation with V. Sedov, Oleg sadly remarked: “You don’t need to heal me, now I can do anything - nothing will help me now, because I don’t want to act or play in the theater anymore.”
Dahl spoke about the imminent approach of death not only to his relatives, but also to friends and work colleagues. I will give just two examples of these “prophecies”. The first dates back to the summer of 1978. I. Dmitriev recalls:
“We were filming “The Adventures of Prince Florizel.” The theme of approaching death was constantly heard in Oleg’s conversations. Once in Vilnius, a funeral hearse with a driver in a top hat and swinging beautiful lanterns drove past our bus. “Look how beautifully they bury in Lithuania, and I will be driven around Moscow in a closed bus. How uninteresting."
Here is an incident that occurred just a few days before the sudden death of the actor. L. Maryagin recalls after the film “The Uninvited Friend” was completely ready at the beginning of 1981:
“We talked with Romashin about the difficulties with which the film was filmed. Dal was silent, looking past us. And only half an hour later he asked Anatoly Romashin:
- Tolya, do you live there?
Romashin then lived near the Vagankovsky cemetery.
“Yes,” Romashin answered.
“I’ll be there soon,” said Dahl...”
At the beginning of 1981, Dahl actively rehearsed the role of Yezhov in the Maly Theater's production of Foma Gordeev. He liked the role, but he had already clearly decided for himself: he would play the premiere and leave this theater too.
At the same time, he suddenly received an offer from a Kyiv film studio to star in a lyrical comedy. Apparently, the actor was interested in it, and he agreed to audition. On March 1, he left Moscow for the capital of Ukraine. But he did not live there long - on March 3, he died in his hotel room.
The actor's funeral took place at the Vagankovskoye cemetery.
Poems written by Oleg in the winter of 1981:
And they broke me,
And they tormented me,
Bent, bent to the ground,
And I straightened up...
I didn’t swear, I didn’t swear -
I lived easily in the world,
At least I fought against four walls -
Don't howl at the moon like a wolf...
You can spit down the hill into the river.
Strain, strain
And jump an inch.
Can you soul a person?
Grind into powder...
Oh, break me, break me...
Ah, torment me, torment me!..
Winter. Monino. 1981
Help and save Oh, Lord Save and cover Oh, Lord Cover me with soft snow, Lord And don’t close your eyes, Lord Look at me Oh, Lord Here I am all before you Oh, Lord I live without swearing Oh, Lord Give me peace Oh , God...
V. Vysotsky. Brother.
Now I remember... We said goodbye... Forever.
The trail is broken... Beginning of May... I stumble... Words, words, words.
He was born in 1941 in Lyublino, which was not yet Moscow, into an intelligent family and had heart problems since childhood. As a boy, Dahl showed a talent for painting, music and literature. After graduating from high school, he, against the wishes of his parents, wanted to become an actor and even independently got rid of his speech impediment - burr. Oleg entered the Shchepkinsky Theater School and, after receiving his diploma, became an actor at the Maly Theater. Then he came to Sovremennik to Oleg Efremov, already having a good reputation as an actor. There he met his first love - actress Nina Doroshina, who became his wife in 1963. But this marriage quickly fell apart: Doroshina, in love with Efremov, cheated on him.
The roles that Dahl played in Sovremennik were not very large. But in some, he nevertheless managed to express his vision of the image, and Moscow theatergoers often went to the theater to watch his performance. Oleg’s film debut was the drama “My Little Brother,” in which he played Alik. In 1966, he got an interesting role in the military comedy “Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha,” where the audience noticed him, and Sobolevsky’s role in the next film “Chronicle of a Dive Bomber” made Oleg Dal famous. Then there were brilliant roles in fairy tales that revealed the actor’s talent in all its fullness: “The Old, Old Tale” and “The Shadow”, the role of the jester in “King Lear” and Krestovsky in “Sannikov Land”, which the actor himself did not like.
Becoming more and more popular with viewers, Dahl did not become happier. His second marriage to actress Tatyana Lavrova was also not successful and lasted six months. He was often not satisfied with the roles offered in performances and he was demanding not only of himself, but also of directors and stage colleagues. Anatoly Efros recalled that “Dal was withdrawn, nervous and impatient, deadly witty, and sometimes unbearable” and there was always a sense of “rebellion... against... the absurdities of life... its ugliness.” Oleg often refused spectacular roles and moved from theater to theater. And he also drank, knowing that it was harmful to the heart and could end badly.
Dahl was lucky to star for TV in the role of Pechorin, which he dreamed of, to play a Soviet intelligence officer in the mini-series “Omega Option”, making the dream of any Russian actor come true and to create the romantic image of Prince Florizel. On the theater stage he also had some interesting successes, noted by the public and critics. Despite the fact that the whole country fell in love with him for his roles in films, Dahl was, first of all, a magnificent theater actor: sensitive, subtle and inventive. He played “in his own unique image,” as Veniamin Kaverin puts it. But all this was at some kind of breaking point, with the eternal possibility of breaking, refusing, throwing into the pool of oblivion.
His third wife was Elizaveta Eikhenbaum, who managed to create comfort, care and stability for her husband in the house, but she was unable to change his creative life. Dahl clashed with his superiors and others and started drinking. During a creative business trip to Kyiv, he drank after leaving the care of his wife, although he had been holding on for several years. The anti-alcohol ampoule, sewn into him by doctors in 1973, caused a corresponding vascular reaction and a crisis ensued. The actor’s widow opposed this version, insisting that Dal was struck down by an ordinary heart attack, but many of Oleg Ivanovich’s friends mentioned the “torpedo.”
However, the question of why Oleg Dal died in 1981, at the age of 39, turned out to be not as important as the decision to bury him: there was no place for this actor in any of the main capital cemeteries. The problem was resolved at a high level and, finally, the authorities ordered the director of the Vagankovsky cemetery to find a suitable site in the center. It was found on the abandoned grave of the 19th century Russian ballerina Roslavleva. There, in cramped conditions, Oleg Dal is buried.
6013 ViewsBiography and episodes of life Oleg Dal. When born and died Oleg Dal, memorable places and dates of important events in his life. Actor Quotes, Photo and video.
Years of Oleg Dal's life:
born May 25, 1941, died March 3, 1981
Epitaph
"Help and save,
Oh my God,
Save and hide
Oh my God,
Cover me with soft snow, Lord,
And don’t close your eyes, Lord,
Look at me
Oh my God,
Here I am all in front of you,
Oh my God,
I live without swearing
Oh my God,
Give me peace
Oh my God…"
A poem by Oleg Dahl, written by him in the year of his death.
Biography
The great-grandson of the famous Vladimir Dahl, compiler of the dictionary, Oleg was born near Moscow, in the family of an engineer and a teacher. Already at school, the boy was interested in literature and art, and he, going against the will of his parents, decided to enter the theater school. Shchepkina. And he passed, ending up on the same “brilliant” course with Viktor Pavlov, Mikhail Kononov and Vitaly Solomin.
Oleg Dal played his first film role at the age of 21. But real love in the audience was awakened by his two roles, which followed one after another - in the films “Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha” and “Chronicle of a Dive Bomber” in 1967. After this, Dahl’s roles in films became more diverse and deep: the jester in "King Lear", Theodore and his Shadow in "The Shadow". Since 1963, young Dahl has been playing in Sovremennik, although at first only in supporting roles. Then his Vaska Ash from the play “At the Lower Depths” appears, and Dahl’s dramatic talent shines brighter than ever.
But despite his undeniable, unique talent in his work, Dahl is fickle; his character is uneven, tossing, and complex. In 1973-1974 he manages to star in five films, including the brilliant five-part saga “The Omega Option.” And then he sits idle for months, refusing to play roles that he doesn’t like. He breaks off relations with colleagues, refuses directors who are unthinkable to refuse, and changes theaters.
The crowning achievement and downfall for Oleg Dal was his brilliant work in the 1979 film “Vacation in September” based on the play “Duck Hunt” by A. Vampilov. This role became a true triumph of his acting skills. But by a fateful coincidence, it also became a turning point in his career and his whole life: the film was banned, and Dahl, who played in it an immoral drunkard and a failed suicide in a midlife crisis, fell into disgrace. Constant quarrels with directors added fuel to the fire: they no longer wanted to give Oleg Dal roles.
Problems with alcohol and a weak heart since childhood, the death in 1980 of Vladimir Vysotsky, with whom Dahl was friends in the last years of his life, all this brought Dahl’s death closer. He himself had a presentiment of it, telling his wife and friends that he didn’t want anything else, that he would soon die. And during a business trip to Kyiv, Oleg Dal said to the actor Leonid Markov, with whom he was having dinner: “That’s it, I’ll go to my place to die.” That night Dahl, who had taken a considerable dose of alcohol, died in his hotel room. Oleg Dahl was buried four days later at the Vagankovskoye cemetery.
Oleg Dal as Prince Florizel
Life line
May 21, 1941 Date of birth of Oleg Ivanovich Dahl.
1959 Admission to the Higher Theater School named after M. S. Shchepkin.
1962 Debut film role in the film “My Little Brother”.
1963 Invitation to the Sovremennik Theater.
1969 Meeting E. A. Apraksina on the set of the film “King Lear” and wedding.
1972 The release of the film “Sannikov’s Land”, which received nationwide recognition.
1975 The role of Sir Andrew Egyuchik in the play “Twelfth Night” at the Sovremennik Theater.
1975-1977 Break with Sovremennik and transition to Theater on Malaya Bronnaya.
1980 Joining the Maly Theater troupe.
March 3, 1981 Date of death of Oleg Dahl.
March 7, 1981 Oleg Dahl's funeral at the Vagankovskoye cemetery in Moscow.
Memorable places
1. House 63 on Lyublinskaya Street in Moscow (formerly Moskovskaya Street in the city of Lyublino), in the courtyard of which Oleg Dal spent his childhood.
2. Higher Theater School named after Shchepkin, from which Dal graduated.
3. Old town in Tallinn (Estonia), where the filming of the film “Omega Option” with Dahl in the title role took place.
4. “Writers' House” on the Petrograd side in St. Petersburg (34 Lenina St.), where Dal lived until 1975, moving in with his wife.
5. Smolensky Boulevard, 6 - address of the house where Oleg Dal lived in Moscow.
6. Vagankovskoe cemetery in Moscow, where Oleg Dal is buried in plot No. 12.
Episodes of life
Oleg Dal was a perfectionist and more often refused directors than agreed to the role. He was invited to the main roles of Ryazanov in “The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath” and Mitt in “Crew”. And Dahl not only often did not agree with brilliant proposals, but could even quit his job a few days before the premiere of the play. For example, it was only by a miracle that they managed to force him to finish work on the film “Sannikov’s Land”, for which the whole country fell in love with Dal, who considered this role his worst work.
At the same time, there were roles that Dahl had been striving for all his life. Since childhood, his favorite writer was Lermontov, and Dahl dreamed of playing Pechorin for many years (V. Efros gave him this opportunity in 1975). Another equally precious role for Dahl is Zilov from “Duck Hunt,” which, as it seemed to Dahl, was written as if especially for him.
Oleg Dal repeatedly tried to overcome his craving for alcohol. Vladimir Vysotsky, who suffered from a similar illness, helped him in this. Vysotsky’s wife, Marina Vladi, brought the drug “Esperal” from France, which was then unavailable in Russia and with which the actor was “fixed” several times.
The grave of Oleg and Elizaveta Dal at the Vagankovskoye cemetery
Testaments
“God grant that everything be as it is and as you want!”
“Deal, action and more action! Everything else is vanity."
“The worthlessness is depressing. I don't want to fight. If we’re going to leave, then leave in a furious fight.”
Oleg Dal reads “Testament” by M. Yu. Lermontov
Condolences
“There was always some kind of rebellion in him. And if you try to figure out why he constantly raised this rebellion in his own soul, I would say - against all the absurdities of our life, against all its ugliness.”
Anatoly Efros, one of the last directors to work with Oleg Dal
“Dahl never played any roles. He simply existed in his own, unique way. But his personality, like that of every talented person, changed to the extent that these changes were necessary to embody this or that artistic image that was offered to him.”
Veniamin Kaverin, writer
“Our dear neighbor is orphaned! I remember how he came to your men’s council through your unlocked door. His soul is still with you. The road to you is open for her. Tell him that I love him as souls love God. Find the words - I don’t know them now, I always loved him like an earthly woman.”
Elizaveta Dal, actor's wife
On April 1, 1973, Oleg “sewed up,” and the next two years, according to Lisa Dahl, were years of happiness and work. Dahl returned to Sovremennik and played four new roles, including the famous Sir Aeguchik. In cinema, he fulfilled “the age-old dream of every Soviet artist” - he played a Soviet intelligence officer in the television film “Omega Option” (which in acting circles was immediately changed to “Oleg’s Option”). Filming ended in 1974, but for unknown reasons the premiere was pushed back almost year. But with this film, the artist, having been banned from traveling abroad for ten years, went abroad to the festival “Golden Prague.”
But in 1976, at the birthday party of Viktor Shklovsky, the “prohibition law” was violated. In March, dismissal from Sovremennik follows for violation of labor discipline. Unable to exist normally in an atmosphere that was abnormal for him, Dahl again threw his fate into the doldrums.
“SEND me, Lord, a second one, so that he can pull it out like I did...” - Vysotsky sang in “Akyn’s Song” to Voznesensky’s verses. Many (both then and now) put these names - Dal and Vysotsky - side by side. They met in the film by I. Kheifits "Bad Good Man", based on Chekhov's "Duel". It was an “acting doublet”, a perfect double hit in a role, an ideal interaction in a duet. Someone famously formulated: “Vysotsky is weak in his strength, and Dahl is strong in his weakness.”
They were not everyday friends, they rarely communicated, they were not friends at home, but the spiritual connection between them was very strong. They understood and felt each other. Even in the movement towards death, both had some kind of devilish synchronicity. In February 1980, Dahl said: “Volodya will leave first, then I will.”
In May, he spent three days with Vysotsky, “listening to his poems without interruption.” They never saw each other again. Photo dated July 1980: Dal at Vysotsky’s funeral. If you look into the eyes, you will see doom there. On January 25, 1981, on Vysotsky’s birthday, Dahl told his wife a dream: “I dreamed about Volodya. He is calling me.” And he said to his doctor: “Nothing will help me now, because I don’t want to act or play in the theater anymore.” The poem “Now I Remember...” with a dedication to “V. Vysotsky. Brother” is also dated January 1981.
March 3, 1981. Dahl on set in Kyiv. At the hotel he has dinner with his film partner Leonid Markov, then goes to his room with a dark joke - “I’ll go to my room to die.” It seems that Oleg, having deliberately injected himself with a critical dose of vodka, understood: the next “sewn in” torpedo would react to it with a sharp surge in pressure. The vessels could not stand it, and Oleg Dal died from internal bleeding. It seems that his departure was quite conscious .
Oleg Dal died in 1981. There was nowhere to bury the famous actor. The Novodevichy cemetery refused to accept the actor, citing the fact that all the places had long been “dismantled.” There was no place at the Vagankovskoye cemetery. Then the theater management turned to the Union of Cinematographers. They went higher. Vagankov’s director was given instructions to build the actor’s grave in the central alley of the cemetery at any cost.
As a result, by decision of the WTO commission, they decided to put Dahl in the grave of the ballerina of the Imperial Theater Lyubov Roslavleva. She died in 1904, the grave was located in the central part of the cemetery. Of course, over such a period of time this burial acquired an unsightly appearance, because no one looked after it for many years, recalls Vladimir Borisovich. - When the workers were digging the ground, they came across the red sarcophagus of the deceased. They did not dare to take out and burn the coffin; they considered it blasphemy. As a result, the hole for Dahl’s coffin was dug a little further away, and a marble tombstone with the actor’s name was installed next to the ballerina’s cross on empty ground. The whole thing was surrounded by a fence, but the real grave didn’t fit into the fence! The hill was covered with spruce branches so that at least people would not attack.
You can buy films with the actor:
1962 MY LITTLE BROTHER (buy VHS)
1963 FIRST TROLLEYBUS (buy VHS)
1967 ZHENYA, ZHENECHKA AND “KATYUSHA (buy DVD) (buy VHS)
1967 CHRONICLE OF A DIVE BOMBER (buy VHS)
1970 KING LEAR (buy VHS) (buy VHS)
1973 LAND OF SANNIKOV (buy VHS)
1973 BAD GOOD MAN
Man is mortal. And, moreover, suddenly mortal. Human life was not and is not worth almost anything to us. That is why human death is worth nothing. The high fences and sharp stakes of our cemeteries are no obstacle to vandals; foreign churchyards do without palisade fences, and there are much fewer problems with the desecration of graves. Perhaps it is precisely this calm, desacralized attitude towards death that is the main thing that distinguishes the West from Russia. We mourn our losses for years - and forget to clean up the graves. We speak lofty words about Memory, but sometimes we forget even about deceased parents, husbands, and wives. It is difficult, almost impossible, to write a regular “metropolitan report” about the Vagankovskoe cemetery. There is too much natural human pain and unnatural spiritual callousness. The Moscow myth about Vagankovsky, where the people's idols “lie,” is too strong. The line between drama and melodrama is too thin. Therefore, any text about Vagankovo is inevitably an essay on morals. Laughter through tears, not just stating facts. We were born and that means we will die. We will die and, therefore, we must treat this as an irrevocable given. Worthy. Honestly. Purely. Humanly. People are divided into two categories. The first ones love to wander alone through the cemetery among the graves, believing that this calms them down and makes them think about the eternal. The latter are afraid of the peace of the cemetery and even prefer not to come to the graves of loved ones alone. We came to look at other people's graves. On Vagankovo. Gravediggers The cemetery begins with gravediggers. For most of us, a gravedigger is primarily associated with a person who constantly drinks intoxicating drinks. You can understand: a funeral is not a wedding, and no matter how many years you work in a cemetery, it is still impossible to get used to the grief of others. However, Vagankov’s gravediggers prefer philosophy to vodka and are partly reminiscent of Shakespeare’s gravediggers from Hamlet. “Hard drinks” are not consumed at all. Not because they will be fired from their jobs, but because a drinking person gets out of shape very quickly. And in order to dig the ground, you need very good physical shape. Working in a cemetery naturally leaves a peculiar imprint on people. They are more cynical than the rest of us, but this cynicism is justified. As one of the cemetery workers quite rightly noted, if you seriously think about what is happening here, on the second day of work you can easily become Kashchenko’s patient. The “hard workers” have a trained eye. They instantly figure out what business a person came to the cemetery for. One of them, without any embarrassment, suggested that I find a place. To my taste. - You’ll still be walking around the cemetery, so look around. In the central part, of course, I don’t promise, but in the outskirts it’s possible to arrange it. Inexpensive. I politely refused: I’m not in a hurry, I want to live a little longer. - Well as you know! Prices are rising every year. And so, you can stake out a place and live in peace for as long as you want. It’s good for you and it’s good for your relatives. Cynically? Undoubtedly. It’s not for nothing that they say about gravediggers that any of them can easily turn prayer into a farce. “There are few places left” Several years ago in the cemetery office I saw a nice little note: “There are few places left.” The person who wrote it clearly meant that the places in the columbarium, which could be bought for future use, had already been sold out. So I decided to “revive” the dead kingdom with such a funny announcement. On the other hand, who knows, maybe he did it on purpose in order to somehow distract the grief-stricken people. Suddenly they look at it, read it and, at least for a second, forget about their grief. As cynical as it may sound, the Vagankovskoe cemetery is a very profitable place. "Grandmothers" sit along the central alley. Each of them has its own place, which has not changed for many years. They also have a trained eye. They know when and to whom to extend their hand asking for alms, and when it is better not to do this, because they might run into trouble. At the end of the alley stands a middle-aged man. He makes his living through heartbreaking music. Small business on a big mountain. Guides Vagankovskoe cemetery is special. People come here to gawk. On an excursion. What can you do, the lives of famous people always arouse curiosity. A few years ago, a very funny character appeared on the territory of the Vagankovsky cemetery. A man of about forty-five, of small stature, apparently one of the former cemetery workers. His face showed not only interest in what was happening and a desire to convey the piquant stories of the posthumous lives of the greats to a curious public, but also an obvious love for the commemoration of souls. No one knew how old he really was (except himself), what he worked for was also unknown (most likely a gravedigger), but he was a master at telling stories. And besides the tales, there are true stories about famous actors, many of whom found their final refuge here. How they buried whom, who takes care of the graves, who ultimately died from what. Today there is a different “tour guide” at Vagankovo. “I give excursions completely free,” he said proudly. True, when asked to identify himself and take a photo, he reacted very strangely: he simply disappeared. It's like he fell through the ground. Then it seemed to grow out of the ground. In half an hour, he managed to conduct four excursions to the graves of famous artists. It looked something like this: “Mironov’s grave is far away, there’s a sign there, you’ll find it yourself. This is Dahl’s grave, he died, as you know, from drunkenness, now we’ll run to Ivan Lapikov, and then I’ll show you Burkov, Bogatyrev and Ivashov.” . What can you do, excursions to the cemetery have become an integral part of our lives. People are interested in seeing who got which monument, how much it costs, “offhand,” and which relatives come to the grave. So that later, somewhere in some company, they could say, “I was here once at Mironov’s, he had a strange monument.” That is why such guides appear. Previously, at the entrance to Vagankovo there was a sign: “Excursions are prohibited,” but now it is gone. Autograph for eternal memory... It was a long time ago. In one of the crematoria in Moscow, Alexander Semenovich Menaker was seen off on his last journey. How the onlookers got there is unclear. But they came to see what their favorite actor, Menaker’s son, Andrei Mironov, looked like in grief. One of the idle observers easily approached Mironov and asked for an autograph. “How can you?” asked the intelligent Mironov. In this situation, Alla Pugacheva, fortunately, turned out to be less intelligent and during the funeral of Andrei Mironov himself, when asked for an autograph, she answered an onlooker in such a way that he probably remembers to this day. Autographs are autographs, but each actor has his own fate - bitter, tragic, happy and not so happy. Let's find their graves, stand and be silent. And just remember... Together with the cemetery workers, with strangers who come here to not only bow to memory, lay flowers, but also care for the graves of their favorite actors. Some do this voluntarily, others are hired by relatives. Many of the graves of famous actors hide entire stories behind them. Oleg Dal Few people know that the actor was “buried” with the ballerina of the Imperial Theater Lyubov Rosslavleva, who died in 1904. Why they did this is still a mystery. They say that the WTO commission decided this because the grave of a little-known ballerina is located in the central part. And no one knows at all that in Dahl’s grave... Dahl is not there. A cemetery worker recalls: “When they started digging the ground, they saw the sarcophagus of a red ballerina, and they decided to bury the actor nearby.” The small hill behind the fence is Oleg Dahl’s grave. And the marble slab with the name of the actor, where there is no photo or unnecessary words, is simply installed on the ground, next to the ballerina’s cross. When asked if it was possible to move the fence a little, the worker looked at me strangely: “It costs a lot of money. People still come here. They’ll stand, look, lay flowers, remember. And where is he buried? the difference. The main thing is that there is somewhere to put the flowers." Rufina Nifontova A legendary woman of unearthly beauty died on November 27, 1994. Monstrous and cruel death - alone in an empty apartment late at night. Apparently, she wanted to wipe something, so she went into the bathroom, placed a rag near the tap, and opened it. Boiling water sprayed from the tap. Did she have time to feel the pain or did fate save her from suffering by immediately stopping her heart? No one will ever know how she felt in the last minutes of her life. Did she have time to understand that her beautiful face would be forever disfigured?... She was buried on December 1 in the costume of her most beloved heroine from Gorky's "Dachniks". The actress's face was covered with a veil. She wanted to be buried next to her husband, but fate decreed otherwise. The actress’s coffin could not be carried to the grave of Gleb Ivanovich Nifontov - fences were in the way, the passage was too narrow, and she was buried in another place. Here, on Vagankovo. She was only sixty-three years old... She had just turned. A play had already been found for her, where she would play the main role... On this day, the actors took the stage in the play "Wolves and Sheep". In the same performance where Nifontova did not have time to play her role. And there was a rumor going around Moscow: “It seems Nifontova has died.” After some time, obituaries appeared in some newspapers, where her creative path, interrupted so unexpectedly for everyone, was described as a triumphal procession. There was no triumphant procession, there were painful times of downtime in the best years for the actress, when she was full of strength to play and create... The fate of the most beautiful actress of our time turned out to be very tragic. There were legends about her: how she openly fought with the artistic director of the Maly Theater Tsarev, how she defended the weak, how she defended performances at artistic councils. Everyone was afraid of her - from the Minister of Culture to the cleaning lady at the theater. And everyone loved her - from the cleaning lady to the minister. Needless to say, she caused too much trouble to the incompetents of the Maly Theater. She always said everything to her face. And she couldn’t stand people talking behind her back. And they said a lot - that she was rude, uncontrollable. That she drinks, and most often alone. She knew everything that was said about her. And if earlier she responded to the offender, then in the last years of her life she preferred not to do so. She changed a lot after the death of her husband Gleb Nifontov, with whom they lived together for almost forty years. Although it was very painful and insulting that they mostly said bad things and remembered old “antics.” That at the same time they completely forget about the good that she did to many. I didn't show it. She laughed it off: they say, in the next world we’ll all be close anyway, and then we’ll talk. She didn’t know how to impose herself on people. In the end, she had the right to slam her fist on the table, as she did before, to demand a role. But after the death of her husband, she was completely lost in this life, sometimes it seemed that she was indifferent to everything. The actress “did not impose herself” even after her death. For a long time, her modest grave had a small cross, a small marble slab and a smiling face in a photograph. Now a beautiful monument has been erected. It appeared a few years after Nifontova’s death, after articles in the Moscow and central press. I don't want to blame anyone. I will say one thing: apparently, Rufina Dmitrievna’s daughter had more important things to do. Or maybe there was simply no money? Bogatyrev and Burkov Their graves are located not far from each other. On February 2, 1989, Yuri Bogatyrev died at the entrance of his own house. The called ambulance was late. There was no time to save him. A wonderful actor and a wonderful artist did not live two weeks before the opening of his personal exhibition, which he was so looking forward to and of which he was so proud. He was only 42 years old. Literally a few days after his death, the name of Yuri Bogatyrev was crossed out from all the programs of the performances in which he participated. Simple and fast: sometimes with a ballpoint pen, sometimes with a pencil. What can you do, life is life. What’s worse is that some people erased it from their memory. The actor’s grave is watched over by a woman who comes to Vagankovo from the Moscow region every weekend. Her name is Zinaida Ivanovna. Georgy Burkov died in 1990. He died when things seemed to be getting better, when Eldar Ryazanov was waiting for his return from the hospital to film in his film “Promised Heaven.” Georgy Burkov had a difficult fate. Rock haunts him even after death. The monstrous hurricane that swept over Moscow in the summer of 1998 for some reason chose the burial of this wonderful actor out of all the graves. The wind uprooted a tree growing nearby and “rotated” the grave to such an extent that I could see the coffin. The workers called the actor’s widow and told him about what had happened. And in response they heard that she had more important things to do. There was nothing to do, they corrected the grave as best they could, sawed the tree, and the root lay on the ground for a long time. The tree was cut down. After this incident, rumors spread that the widow did not care at all about her late husband. Nothing is a pity for a friend. Old workers' cemeteries tell an amazing story that perfectly characterizes the actors of the old generation. Boris Andreev, People's Artist of the Soviet Union, was so upset by the death of his friend Pyotr Aleinikov that he gave up (!) his place at the Novodevichy cemetery. In those days, only people's artists of the USSR were buried at the Novodevichy cemetery, and even then not all of them. So Andreev came to the high authorities and asked: “Where will I be buried?” “According to your status, you are entitled to the Novodevichy Cemetery,” they answered him. “That’s good, then in the cemetery where you think I myself should lie, bury Aleinikov, and I’ll somehow...” Whether this is true or a story about a favorite artist is unknown. But, be that as it may, at the Vagankovskoye cemetery one fence unites the graves of Boris Andreev and Mikhail Reshimov, an artist of the imperial Moscow theaters who died in 1887. The disappeared grave Many people come to Vagankovo to find the graves of their favorite actors. It seems to me that it is very important that a person is remembered even after his death. So that they are not consigned to oblivion. So that the grave is not razed to the ground because there is no inscription or cross on it. What can you do - such is life. These are the laws of the cemetery. And not only Vagankovsky. A similar story happened with the grave of actor Stanislav Khitrov (everyone remembered his boy in a kubanka from the film “Girls”). Leonid Filatov, when he was preparing a program about this actor from the series “To Be Remembered,” was amazed to learn this story: “We went to Vagankovo, raised everyone to their feet. Where is Khitrov’s grave? He’s a famous actor. They searched and searched, but they can’t find him. We ask : “Did anyone come to the grave?” They answer, “Hardly.” And then it turns out that there is none. Because if no one takes care of the grave for ten years, it is leveled to the ground.” This is the worst thing when there is no inscription or cross on the grave. But it’s even worse when a person is forgotten. It is not for nothing that they say that a person lives as long as he is remembered. Relatives, friends, just people. P.S. Above the main entrance to Western cemeteries you will see the obligatory stucco angel and read a quote from the Holy Scriptures. On the territory of Vagankovo, I saw a new foreign car, which the priest was selflessly consecrating. Paid. Information from Izvestia The Vagankovsky necropolis owes its birth to the plague epidemic of 1771. By decree of the Senate, it was forbidden to bury deceased patients in city churchyards. It was ordered that special cemeteries be set aside for them outside the city and at least small wooden churches be built there for the first time. At that time, Moscow was much smaller and the cemetery was formed to the west of the Krasnopresnenskaya outpost - near the village of Vagankovo. For almost a century and a half, it was the last refuge of poor people, mainly the peasant and bourgeois class, and less often - petty officials and retired military personnel. Around the middle of the 19th century, burials began of people who left their mark on Russian history, science, and culture. And in the last third of the twentieth century, the Vagankovskoye cemetery became the third most prestigious in the country - after the Kremlin and Novodevichy necropolises.