More Than Just Helpers: The Celebrity Housekeepers Who Played a Fatal Role in Their Destiny

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

After the victory of the October Revolution, it seemed that the institution of domestic servants should be eliminated. However, the profession of a housekeeper existed at the official level, they had their own trade union and each had a special pay book. At the same time, au pair played different roles in the lives of their employers. Some actually became family members, while others deliberately destroyed the house in which they happened to work.

Zhenya, housekeeper of Marina Ladynina and Ivan Pyriev

The marriage of a brilliant actress and a brilliant director has never been cloudless. Yes, and Ivan Pyriev married Marina Ladynina only when their son Andrei was already several months old. However, even an official marriage did not prevent the director from spinning novels with actresses.

When rumors reached his wife about Pyriev's passion for Lyudmila Marchenko, her cup of patience overflowed. And Marina Ladynina wrote a letter addressed to the party leadership about her husband's immoral lifestyle. Instead of sending it, the actress crumpled up the letter and threw it into the trash can.

From there he was taken out by the housekeeper Zhenya, who openly disliked her mistress. She showed the letter to Pyriev, and he decided to divorce Marina. The witness at the divorce proceedings was the same Zhenya, who declared Ladynina's betrayal.

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Irina Sedenkova, housekeeper of Marina Ladynina

The housekeeper who got into the actress's house when the latter was already at a venerable age became the real evil genius of the celebrity. Marina Ladynina, according to her close friend Rogneda Yatsenko, could not coexist next to this woman, who completely subjugated the famous actress. At the slightest attempt to fire her, Irina Sedenkova threatened to commit suicide, even climbed onto the cornice outside the building.

This woman controlled Ladynina's entire life, from finance to concerts and celebrity performances. She literally harassed the actress, forbidding her to communicate on the phone and demanding registration in Ladynina's apartment. Ladynina simply did not have the strength to fight the insolent servant.

Lev Oshanin's gardener

The famous Soviet poet Lev Oshanin was extremely proud of the most beautiful flower garden in Peredelkino. However, he had no time to take care of the garden and flower beds himself. And he hired a gardener.

The wife of a celebrity, Elena Uspenskaya, committed suicide when her husband left her for another woman. After the death of his wife, the poet brought a new mistress to his dacha in Peredelkino, who was much younger than himself.

He hovered on the wings of love, and then noticed that his young muse was openly showing signs of attention to his own gardener. Lev Oshanin, convinced that his beloved had become the gardener's mistress, drove them both out. Until the end of his life he blamed himself for the death of his wife. He died a completely lonely man.

Alexandra Bychkova, nanny of Stalin's daughter

With the appearance of Alexandra Bychkova in the family of Nadezhda Alliluyeva and Joseph Stalin, their home life has changed a lot. She was a soft and big woman. If before that Stalin was often dissatisfied with those who followed the children, then, according to eyewitnesses, he did not even raise his voice to Alexandra Andreevna.

The children fell in love with this simple woman and called her nothing but Myaka, from the word soft. Naturally, when she was hired, Alexander Bychkova was repeatedly checked on the part of the NKVD, but the fact that the husband of Stalin's children’s nanny in the past was a clerk in the tsarist secret police somehow passed the attention of the agents. After clarifying this circumstance, they wanted to shoot Aleksandra Bychkova. However, at the time of Myaka's arrest, Svetlana sobbed so bitterly, clutching the nanny's skirt that even Stalin's heart could not stand it.

Alexandra Andreevna remained in the family, later helped to raise the generalissimo's grandchildren. The son of Vasily Stalin, director Alexander Burdonsky recalled that there was always a special atmosphere of kindness and tenderness around Myaka. With her, no one raised their voice, and all family members seemed to be saturated with her radiant aura and themselves became softer and kinder.

After the death of Alexander Andreevna Bychkova was buried next to the grave of Nadezhda Alliluyeva at the Novodevichy cemetery. It is surprising that Stalin's wife could not stand life next to the tyrant, but Alexandra Andreevna Bychkova worked in his house for more than 30 years.

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Natalya Skobeleva, housekeeper of Mayakovsky's neighbors

For a long time, the poet lived in an apartment on the Lubyanka, where his neighbors were the Balshin family. Their housekeeper was Natalya Skobeleva, 23 years old. For some reason, Mayakovsky became close to this simple village girl. She often asked him about life, and he frankly shared his experiences with her. He did not hide his thoughts of suicide from her, he even said that he had a pistol. True, the poet always kept the revolver unloaded.

After the death of Mayakovsky, the housekeeper Natalya Skobeleva disappeared without a trace. There is an opinion that the Balshins housekeeper, like many other au pair who lived next to celebrities, was recruited by the NKVD. And it was she who put the only cartridge into Mayakovsky's pistol, completing her task. For after the poet's suicide, all information about her disappeared, even in house books. There is another version, which was adhered to by the illegitimate daughter of Vladimir Mayakovsky, Patricia Thompson. She believed that Lilia Brik had a hand in her father's death.

Not every woman could be a good nanny for the children of nobles in tsarist Russia. The requirements for them were high, they had to become practically a family member for the child, lead him into adulthood, and in some cases stay close to his death. Who raised children in noble families, how they hired home teachers, what did the governesses do and how did they live?