Fatal slap in the face of Beria: Why did the life of actress Yevgenia Garkusha end at 33

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

She managed to star in only two films, after which she seemed to dissolve. Evgenia Garkusha, a bright, talented and happy actress, disappeared from the screens, was fired from the Mossovet theater and from the lives of her two 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.

Short happiness

Pyotr Shirshov first saw Evgenia Garkusha on the screen in a cinema. Charming girl who played the pilot in the movie "The Fifth Ocean". Some time later, already in 1941, driving through the streets of Moscow in a car, he saw a girl, surprisingly similar to Sanya, the heroine of his beloved picture. And he rushed after her.

They wandered the street all day, Pyotr Shirshov talked about his polar campaigns, and Zhenya did not take her enthusiastic eyes off him. Young, handsome, somewhat reminiscent of Jack London, he seemed to her a living embodiment of a girl's dream. Feelings have already swirled them in their crazy round dance, as if there was nothing and no one in their lives before this fateful meeting.

Then he sent his family to evacuation. This clear-eyed girl became his happiness. She accompanied him everywhere, and by the time Pyotr Shirshov's family returned from evacuation, he and Evgenia had a daughter. And the young people's commissar of the navy remained with his new lover. Then, intoxicated with feelings, they did not yet know that they had very little time for happiness.

In 1946, at a reception in the Kremlin, Lavrenty Beria drew attention to Yevgeny Garkusha. He was no longer the People's Commissar for State Security, but he still had influence and weight, holding the post of Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars.

Naturally, Beria practically did not know the refusal, and therefore quite casually suggested to Yevgenia Garkusha, the wife of the People's Commissar of the USSR Navy, to share a bed with him. A proud and rather ambitious actress, insulted to the core, publicly answered Beria with a slap in the face. At that moment, she hardly thought that her act would break the life of herself and her entire family.

The payment for love

A few days later they were all together at the dacha. One-year-old Marina was already asleep in her carriage, and Pyotr Petrovich stood on the balcony, admiring the sunset near Moscow. His Zhenya quickly ran out onto the balcony and clung to him. She said something about her happiness, and then together they dreamed of how they would have another Marinka, how good it would be for the four of them. Then they did not yet know that this was their last evening together.

On the morning of July 28, 1946, he left for work, and she stayed with the daughter and son of Pyotr Petrovich Roald, who spent the holidays with them at the dacha. In the middle of the day, Pyotr Shirshov, succumbing to unaccountable anxiety, began to call his wife, but the phone was constantly busy. He was summoned to the Lubyanka at seven in the evening and informed about the arrest of his wife, his beloved Zhenya.

Minister of State Security Viktor Abakumov himself came to the dacha for her. He advised me to a non-working phone, informed that Evgenia was urgently summoned to the theater. And he offered to give her a lift to Moscow. She, delighted by the news, hoped that the urgent call was connected with the upcoming tour, which she had been waiting for. She got into the car immediately, not doubting the veracity of Abakumov's words. She never returned home.

Broken lives

Pyotr Petrovich at first refused to believe what had happened. All of this was reminiscent of a bad movie in his life. Only yesterday a happy, laughing wife pressed against his shoulder and now he does not know where she is.

Days went by, and they refused to tell him about her whereabouts. After another question posed to Beria, the latter answered very sharply, promising to simply shoot Shirshov if he dared to inquire about his wife's fate again. He turned to Stalin, not personally, persuaded the legendary Ivan Papanin to ask the leader a question. The answer was merciless in its cruelty: “We will find him another wife. Let him forget about this”. But Shirshov did not want to forget.

For half a year, Evgenia Garkusha-Shirshova was listed on all lists as prisoner No. 13. Only on December 29, 1946, a warrant for her arrest was issued. She spent 16 months in prison. By signing all papers during interrogations and agreeing with all charges. She was told that he had forgotten her. For 16 months of endless moral torture, she plunged into the deepest depression. At the end of 1947, she was sentenced to 8 years of exile to the Kolyma.

They escorted Yevgeny Garkusha to the place of serving his sentence under a reinforced escort, and the accompanying letter instructed to use her only for gold mining, not giving the opportunity to even engage in amateur performances. On August 11, 1948, Evgenia Garkusha died after drinking a large dose of sleeping pills.

Pyotr Shirshov, according to the recollections of his colleagues, died with her. Only the need to take care of his daughter kept him from committing suicide. He lived until 1953 and died of cancer. In 1956, Yevgeny Garkusha was completely rehabilitated.

Marina Shirshova for a long time lived with the hope of finding out the truth about the true causes of the tragedy in their family. She corresponded with those who remembered Yevgenia, who was serving a sentence in Kolyma, after opening the KGB archives she got acquainted with her mother's case. Thanks to Marina Petrovna, in 2003 the book "The Forgotten Diary of a Polar Biologist" was published, containing the diary entries of her father and her own memories and research about their family.

Marina Petrovna dreamed of becoming an actress, like a mother, but as a result she works at the Institute of Oceanology, which was founded by Pyotr Shirshov. And all his life he remembers the story of great love and irreparable misfortune that happened in their family.

The wives of statesmen of the Soviet Union were very different - housewives and activists, loved ones and forgiven betrayal, simpletons and intelligent ladies. But often their husbands, who were in power and entered the highest offices,