Video: Blue blood: after going through the horrors of the camps and repressions, Countess Kapnist retained her dignity and faith in people
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Genuine aristocracy is not measured by titles, heirlooms and a hundred-year pedigree - probably, first of all, it is innate intelligence, fortitude and self-esteem. Otherwise, what would have helped the famous Soviet actress, Honored Artist of Ukraine, hereditary noblewoman, Countess Maria Rostislavovna Kapnist survive 15 years Stalinist camps? The woman was able not only to withstand and go through all the trials, but also to find her place in life after her release: she played in 120 films.
Maria came from the ancient noble family of the Kapnists - famous patrons of the arts, descendants of the poet and playwright Vasily Kapnist. Before the revolution, the family lived in St. Petersburg. Chaliapin often visited their house, in love with her mother, Countess Anastasia Kapnist (Baydak), whose family came from the Zaporozhye ataman Ivan Sirko.
After the revolution, the Kapnists moved to Sudak. At the age of 6, Maria witnessed the collapse of tsarist Russia. The Bolsheviks came to power, 18 searches were carried out in the Kapnistov house. The father was arrested and later shot, the aunt was killed in front of the girl. The Kapnists' house was destroyed. Crimean Tatars helped Maria and her mother escape by dressing them in their national clothes.
In 1931, Maria went to Leningrad, entered a theater studio. But soon Kirov, a close friend of the Kapnist family, was killed. The persecution began again. In 1941, Maria was arrested "for anti-Soviet propaganda and agitation" and "for espionage connections." She was sentenced to 8 years in prison, and she spent 15 years in the camps.
In conclusion, fate brought her together with Anna Timireva - Kolchak's common-law wife. At that time, she served 18 years, but did not lose her artistic ability and love for modeling and drawing. Together they staged nightly performances for the prisoners.
Neither the daily exhausting work, nor the constant beatings, nor the harassment of the head of the camp broke her will. Later she recalled: “Stages, shipments, camps. They never said where they were leading, they found out later themselves. Forever in memory is the stage from the Karaganda camp to Dzhezkazgan. Desert. Scorching sun. Strong wind with sand. People died like flies. Thirst tormented everyone. Dzhezkazgan was almost the most terrible place. Coal was mined. In the morning we went down to the mine, went up at night. Hands and leg ached unbearably. But Maria survived.
Her daughter Rada was born in the Steplag prison hospital in Kazakhstan, where Maria lived in a settlement. The girl miraculously survived - pregnant prisoners were forced to have abortions, Maria refused, for which she was beaten and poured with ice water. When her daughter was 2 years old, she was sent to kindergarten. Once Maria saw the teacher beating the girl and shouting: "I will beat the enemy of the people out of you!" Mother threw herself at the offender with fists, for which she received another 10 years.
Countess Kapnist spent 15 years in the camps, in the most difficult jobs - in mines, in mines, logging, and burning bricks. She was often beaten and insulted, but her spirit was not broken. In spite of everything, she was proud of her surname, and did not renounce her relatives. The daughter taught the same: "You, Radochka, are the only one left of the Kapnist family, keep its traditions."
She returned from the camps as an old woman, although she was only 44. In Kiev, Maria had to start her life from scratch - she spent the night at train stations and in public gardens, worked as a janitor. Director Yuri Lysenko saw her at the box office of the cinema. So she first got on the set. She played witches, countesses, gypsies and sorceresses. The most famous works - "Chance", "Bronze Bird", "Ruslan and Lyudmila", in total - more than 120 films.
Rock pursued the Countess until the end of her days - at the age of 79 she fell under the wheels of a car. Maria died in 1993 in a Kiev hospital and was buried in the family cemetery in the village of Velikaya Obukhovka, Poltava region.
Maria Kapnist was not the only victim of that terrible time: the name of Pasha Angelina saved her Christian family during the years of repression
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