Why was the road to the cinema closed to the star of the film "The Train Goes East" Lydia Dranovskaya

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

After the release of the film "The Train Goes East" Lydia Dranovskaya, who had previously starred in small roles, literally woke up famous. The audience revised the picture several times, and the actress herself received an incredible number of letters from different cities of the vast country. Physicians and teachers, soldiers, sailors, engineers and even children wrote to her. But after her star film, the actress starred only in episodes and small roles. Why was Lydia Dranovskaya deprived of the opportunity to work fully?

Meteoric rise

She was born into a teacher's family in 1922 in the Ukrainian village of Moskalenki, Kharkov region. She was seven when her father was transferred to work in Sumy, and then the family moved to the Moscow region. At the age of 15, Lydia Dranovskaya starred in a movie for the first time, in the children's film "Seventh Graders", which was released in 1938. The girl acted in films twice more and was completely convinced that she should become an actress.

When the war began, the girl went to Alma-Ata and entered VGIK, on the course of Boris Bibikov and Olga Pyzhova. She was shy, almost shy, but also very talented. At that time, Lyubov Orlova and Marina Ladynina were shining on the screens, with whom Lydia Dranovskaya would later be compared, but the girl sincerely believed: she would definitely achieve success.

She received her diploma from VGIK in 1946 and almost immediately got on the set of the film "The Train Goes East", which was filmed by Julius Raizman. The director specially chose not famous actors and actresses for filming, but young ones who were not yet familiar to the viewer.

Lydia Dranovskaya was approved for the role of Zina Sokolova, a graduate of the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy, and her lover, Lieutenant Commander Nikolai Lavrentyev, was played by the actor of the Yermolova Theater Leonid Gallis. For him, "The Train Goes East" became his debut film work.

It should be understood that in the difficult post-war period, few films were filmed, and romantic films were not filmed at all. Mostly, serious war dramas and pictures of a production orientation were released on the screens, designed to inspire labor exploits.

Julius Raizman filmed for a long time. He was extremely attentive to the little things and could cancel the work if he did not like the actor's appearance or suddenly the vessels on the actress's hands were too visible. The episode with the declaration of love was removed only on the eighth or ninth attempt. Before that, the group gathered at the facility, but the director did not like something all the time. As a result, the film was great, but too different from anything that came out in the post-war era.

Broken dreams

The film enjoyed incredible audience success. Joseph Stalin also looked at it, along with his son Vasily. Vasily liked the film very much, and he practically fell in love with the young and bright actress who played Zina and even allowed himself to joke that he would marry Lydia Dranovskaya. His father did not share his stormy enthusiasm. On the contrary, somewhere in the middle of the viewing, he got up and said: "I'll get off at the next station", left the hall.

Naturally, such a reaction of the leader did not hide from his subordinates. Both the film and the actors who starred in it received a wave of criticism. After that, the picture was shown only, as they say, "the second and third screens." The country needed working hands to rebuild the economy after the war, and it needed strong production pictures, not some kind of romantic comedies.

Surprisingly, ordinary people fell in love with the film, despite criticism from the authorities. It was watched many times, and Lydia Dranovskaya's mailbox simply did not contain all the letters received daily in her name. From Chelyabinsk and Vladivostok, Murmansk and Chita, messages flew, sometimes signed by "dear Lida" or "Zinochka".

The play of the actress was admired, she was thanked for her excellent work and real talent. And the directors seemed to have forgotten about the existence of this actress. Of course, she acted in films, but only in small roles that did not leave a special mark on her own soul.

Later confession

At the same time, Lydia Dranovskaya never complained about her fate. She was actually a very pure and bright person. It never entered her head to complain about life. When it became clear that her acting career did not work out, she devoted herself entirely to her family.

Agasi Babayan was Lydia Dranovskaya's classmate at VGIK, but later he decided that his eastern appearance would not allow him to reveal himself as an actor. First, he became an assistant director to Alexander Zgurili, who shot popular science films, then graduated from the directing department of VGIK, worked as a second director and set off on an independent voyage.

Agasi and Lydia became husband and wife, they had a beautiful daughter, Katyusha. The actress knew how to create a warm and cozy atmosphere in their house, so the doors of their apartment were always open to friends and colleagues. Actress Lyubov Sokolova, with whom Lydia Dranovskaya was friends all her life, visited them often, could come running after work with a request to feed her. True, she herself never refused help if she needed it.

When Agasi Babayan died, Lydia Dranovskaya remained to live with her daughter.

In 1990, she played Nadezhda Krupskaya in the historical film Enemy of the People Bukharin. In 1993, during the week of Russian cinema at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, "The Train Goes East" was demonstrated. American filmmakers became interested in the starring actress. And suddenly it turned out that no one knew anything about her.

In 1997 she was invited by Igor Apasyan to play the role of Mrs. Bentley in the film "Dandelion Wine". Half a century after the release of the film "The Train Goes East" Lydia Dranovskaya shone again. And then the program "My Silver Ball" was released, dedicated to the work of the actress. Vitaly Wolf, author and presenter, later organized an evening in honor of Lydia Dranovskaya on the stage of the Central House of Arts. For the first time in her life, she was able to hear long applause.

In 1999 she was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the Russian Federation. Lydia Dranovskaya in the last years of her life struggled with the consequences of a stroke, she could barely walk, but at the same time she was amazingly optimistic and interested in life. And I hoped to get better and certainly play something else … But, unfortunately, it did not work out … Lydia Dranovskaya died in July 2008.

Evgeniya Garkusha, bright, talented and happy the actress disappeared from the screens, from the theater of the Mossovet and from the life of two of her most dear people, her husband Peter Shirshov and one and a half year old daughter Marina. Her name was consigned to oblivion, and only years later the matured Marina Petrovna Shirshova managed to restore the circumstances of her mother's death from the records of her father's diary.