Why actor Leonid Bykov called his son his pain, and how Les Bykov escaped from the USSR

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

December 12 would have turned 92 years old, the famous Soviet actor and director Leonid Bykov, but for 41 years he has been dead. His most famous acting and directing work - "Only" old men "go into battle - was called one of the best films about the war, but he was not allowed to realize all his creative ideas. Even if not for the fatal accident that took his life, Bykov, who had suffered three heart attacks by the age of 50, would hardly have survived the fourth. And the reason was not only that he was not allowed to film. The actor suffered most of all because of his son, who was taken to a psychiatric clinic and, as a result, was forced to flee the USSR …

All his life Leonid Bykov lived with one woman - Tamara Kravchenko, whom he married in his student years. They met in 1947, when Bykov entered the Kharkov Theater Institute. Tamara dreamed of becoming an operetta artist, but abandoned her acting career after marriage and the birth of children. In 1956, the couple had a son, Alexander, who was called Les in the family, and 2 years later, daughter Maryana. She said that her parents loved each other all their lives, and my father always had a family in the first place: "".

The creative destiny of Leonid Bykov could hardly be called very successful. His takeoff in the acting profession was very rapid - after the very first roles they paid attention to him and invited him to Lenfilm. In 1959 he and his family moved to Leningrad. The films "Tiger Tamer", "Maxim Perepelitsa" and "Aleshkin's Love" brought him the first resounding popularity, but the rapid rise was soon replaced by stagnation. Bykov tried to realize himself as a director, but his first works were not very successful.

Straightforward and uncompromising, he did not know how to please, curry favor, beg and bow. His daughter Maryana told: "". Due to conflicts with the leadership in 1963, Bykov suffered his first heart attack. In a letter to a friend, Bykov admitted: "".

In the late 1960s. he was persuaded to return to Kiev, to the film studio. Dovzhenko, however, was not allowed to work there, the scripts written by him were given to other directors. He had to "punch" the way for the film "Only" old men "go into battle for 5 years! The Ministry of Culture called the plot of the film implausible and contrived, the characters - "unheroic", and the characters-pilots - "singing clowns." And when Bykov still managed to get permission to shoot and realize his plan, none of his colleagues was happy about his deafening success with the audience. He had many envious people who turned the leadership against him. Bykov had to wait 4 years for permission for the next production. During this time, he suffered two more heart attacks.

Leonid Bykov had a presentiment of his imminent departure and feared that the next heart attack would be the last. And he wrote a letter to his loved ones that sounded like a will. In it, the actor shared the most intimate thoughts that haunted him: "". Problems with his son began after he joined the army. Les was as much a truth-lover as his father, and just as he did not know how to please his superiors.

Once Leonid Bykov was invited to the unit of his son for a creative meeting. He came, spoke, but refused to drink at the banquet hosted by the command. After that, Les began to get into trouble, he regularly began to receive outfits out of turn. A month later, Leonid Bykov was again invited to speak to the high authorities. This time he refused. A few days later, during the night watch Les, an incident occurred that ruined his life. His sister said that one major made insulting remarks about his parents, but he could not restrain himself and answered rudely. The major, together with the warrant officer, beat him, and then, to evade responsibility, referred to his mental problems, sent him to a psychiatric hospital, where he was held for about two months, using psychotropic drugs, and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Maryana Bykova was sure that in fact it was revenge on her father for intractability.

After he was discharged, Les could not get a job anywhere - with such a stamp on his military ID, it was simply impossible. Even a loader or a watchman did not take him. Les got in touch with a bad company and once got into a criminal story - he was involved in a robbery of a jewelry store. He himself did not participate in this, but waited for his accomplices in his father's "Volga", while they carried around the store. He did not go to jail, but he was again sent to a psychiatric hospital.

Leonid Bykov failed to send Les to Moscow for an independent examination, and the diagnosis was never removed. In despair, the actor said in one of the letters: "".

It was at this time that Bykov was awarded the State Prize of the Ukrainian SSR for the films "Only" old men "and" Aty-baty, soldiers were going into battle … ". He refused to come to the presentation, stating that he was not worthy of such a high award, and the award was delivered to him at home. And soon a tragedy struck: on April 11, 1979, when trying to overtake, Leonid Bykov drove into the oncoming lane and collided with a truck. The actor died on the spot.

Les was very upset about the departure of his father. He understood that he had lost his only support and support and did not want to stay in this country any longer. He did not manage to get a job. Several times he applied to travel to the USSR, but did not receive permission. In 1989 Les went to Moscow with a request to allow emigration and was again refused. Then he stood at the Moscow Hotel with a poster: "Communists, I do not want to live with you!" They tied him up, took him to Matrosskaya Tishina, and then sent him back to Kiev.

And then Les decided on a desperate step - to escape from the USSR. On the way to Lviv, he tore off the brake crane, jumped out of the train, swam across the Tisza. He ended up in a Magyar refugee camp, and upon learning of the decision to deport him to the USSR, he crossed the Austrian border. In Austria, an independent psychiatric examination found him absolutely healthy. In 1991, Les went to Canada, where he was accepted as a political refugee. A year later, he managed to transport his wife with three children, and later a fourth child was born. In Canada, Les Bykov got a job as a builder and never returned to his homeland.

For a long time, those close to the actor doubted that an accident took his life: The mystery of the death of Leonid Bykov.