How Elena Mironova turned into Helen Mirren: the Russian roots of a Hollywood star

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

All over the world she is known as a successful Hollywood actress, winner of the Oscar for her role as Elizabeth II in the film The Queen (2006). However, few viewers know that Helen Mirren was born into the family of a Russian emigrant, and her real name is Elena Vasilievna Mironova … Only after 60 did she come to her father's homeland to find relatives and see where their family estate was in the Smolensk region.

Helen Mirren's father was a descendant of Russian aristocrats. The great-grandfather of the actress, Vasily Petrovich Mironov, was a prominent public figure, military man, chairman of the Gzhatsk zemstvo council and the head of a large family - he had 7 daughters and 1 son. His wife Lidia Andreevna was the daughter of Count Kamensky, whose family belonged to the village of Kuryanovo in the Smolensk province near Gzhatsk (now the city of Gagarin). The family lived in an estate in Yekaterinovka, which was located near the village of Kuryanovo.

Helen Mirren's grandfather, Pyotr Vasilyevich Mironov, was a participant in the Russian-Japanese war, and then became a diplomat and participated in negotiations with Great Britain. Later in his memoirs, he wrote: “Even after the Bolsheviks announced the seizure of the land, the peasants of Kuryanov were in no hurry to seize the land. Mother remained the owner of the estate until 1918, when the Bolsheviks evicted her from there. After the revolution, the church was destroyed, and the count's graves were destroyed.

After the Mironovs lost their estate, they decided to emigrate, not losing hope that they could return in a while. But that did not happen. Pyotr Vasilyevich was a staunch monarchist and was never able to come to terms with the fall of the tsarist regime in Russia. In the 1920s. he established a correspondence with the sisters in the USSR, but in 1932 it broke off. Until his death, he never ceased to be proud of being a Russian officer. According to his will, his ashes were sent home for burial.

Helen Mirren's father, Vasily Petrovich Mironov, grew up in London from the age of 2. He worked as a violist in the Philharmonic Orchestra, but during the Second World War he was forced to retrain as a taxi driver. He later joined the Department of Transportation. Vasily Mironov married an Englishwoman who did not have an aristocratic origin. She was born into a large butcher family whose lineage has been involved in this activity since the days of Queen Victoria.

In 1945 they had a daughter, who received the name of Elena Vasilievna Mironova at birth. In the late 1950s, after the death of his father, Vasily Petrovich decided to assimilate in Great Britain and changed his name and the name of his daughter. Since then, he has become Basil Mirren, and Elena has become Helen Mirren. Parents wanted their daughter to become a teacher, but from her youth she was fond of theater and participated in amateur school productions. She later entered drama school, at the age of 18 she was admitted to the National Youth Theater, and then to the Royal Shakespeare Theater.

Her career has developed rapidly. After her appearance on the screen, she became a popular actress, and in the 1990s. started acting in Hollywood. Her filmography includes about 40 films, including "Caligula" by Tinto Brass, "The Chef, Thief, His Wife and Her Lover" by Peter Greenaway, etc. But world fame came to her after being awarded the "Oscar" as the best actress for the role of Elizabeth II in the film "The Queen" in 2006

A year after her triumph, Helen Mirren decided to find her relatives in Russia. For a long time, the actress knew almost nothing about her Russian roots - her grandfather died when she was little. She knew only a few words in Russian, but she always dreamed of finding the graves of her ancestors and meeting her relatives. An English journalist helped the actress find them, finding out where the Mironovs' estate was and finding her family members in the archives.

Helen Mirren's visit to Kuryanovo in 2007 was a real sensation. At the edge of the forest, 2 km from Kuryanovo, the foundation of the Mironovs' estate was discovered. When the actress arrived there, she said: "The feelings that I experienced at the Oscars are nothing compared to those that overwhelm me now!" And then in Moscow she met with the descendants of her grandfather's sisters.

The actress admitted: “I am half Russian and am proud of it, although as a child my parents forbade me to advertise my origin. At that time, communism reigned in the USSR, and we lived in Britain, and my father did not want the Soviet relatives to have problems because of their ties with the "British". When the regime fell, I tracked down my relatives, and we finally met. I am very flattered that I am the namesake of my favorite Russian actors - Andrei and Yevgeny Mironovs."

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