Alexander Shirvindt and Natalya Belousova: "You alone make me dream, think, want!"

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

An entire era has fit into the life of this amazing couple. The era of love, mutual respect, endless life wisdom. They are so different - Alexander and Natalia, Kis and Tatka. They are so the same: in love with life, with creativity, with each other. Their lives cannot be divided into two parts. Perhaps because their love story began so long ago that it is simply impossible to imagine them without each other.

Alexander

The future star actor was born and raised in an amazing creative environment. Mom, Raisa Samoilovna, in her youth was an actress of the Moscow Art Theater, and then an editor at the Moscow Philharmonic. Anatoly Gustavovich, violinist of the Bolshoi Theater, later - a music teacher.

Sasha, contrary to expectations, did not shine at the music school. After five years of training, the ego was practically kicked out, deciding that he had no musical inclinations. Classes at the school of ballroom dancing at the House of Scientists gave the youngest Shirvindt real pleasure. Especially polonaise and padegras.

The family had a unique atmosphere. The family was friends with many famous actors who visited the Shirwindt house. It is not surprising that the boy chose the theater for his future. And to begin with, he began performing in an amateur theater, gradually approaching his cherished dream of becoming an actor.

Natalia

Natalya turned out to be a real noblewoman, as Shirvindr himself likes to say about her. The roots of her family tree lead far into the depths of the centuries, even to Semenov-Tianshansky. Natalia's grandfather was the chief architect of the capital. And Natalya dreamed of one day designing beautiful and comfortable buildings, just like her grandfather, uncle, brother.

For the summer, the whole family went to the dacha, to the village of NIL. It was here that Natasha loved to be most of all, spending time with pleasure in the company of her peers. The village was designed and built under the guidance of her grandfather and is intended for the creative intelligentsia: writers, composers, architects. Here in 1951 she met Sasha.

In 1953, Natasha's essay “What I Dream About” was published in the Ogonyok magazine. And she still has a whole album with letters that were written to her then from all over the country.

The first love

Shirvindt fell in love once. One, but at once for life. They met in a dacha village near Moscow. Alexander immediately noticed a pretty neighbor in the country. Natalia, a charming girl from a family of hereditary architects, has always been surrounded by the attention of boys. Cheerful, kind, open, she just could not help but like her. But how could she resist the pressure of a handsome man who constantly sought to be there, help, support, surprise. They were about 15 years old and in those chaste times they were just friends. But day after day they became closer to each other.

Summer has flown by, it would seem that children's sympathy will quickly be forgotten, recede. But Sasha and Natasha continued to meet already in Moscow. Youth, love, romance of recognition and understanding. Understanding that this is the very feeling that needs to be preserved. Shirvindt once could not think of anything better than to stand on his head in front of his beloved to surprise her.

Love and life in letters

Alexander, as he wanted, entered the Shchukin School, Natalya - at the Institute of Architecture. They worried about each other during the sessions, and they celebrated their successful end by all means together. They did not always have enough time for meetings, they began to write letters to each other. Lovely, touching, filled with tender care. A huge world of feelings and great love opens up in them. The restrained screen image of Shirvindt the actor is crumbling. Deep, sensitive, loving, romantic.

He describes to Natalia all his experiences, creative throwings. And bored. Every day, every hour, every minute. He is worried if he does not receive a letter in the mail. He should receive letters from Tatka every day. Without them, he feels lonely. He loves, he suffocates without her eyes, words, hands. He writes to her in lectures, on trains, in hotels.

It would seem that there is nothing special in these letters of the two lovers. The usual confessions, the usual description of events around. But what an abyss of worldly wisdom, amazing clarity in the vision of their joint future, opens up in them. Even a simple description of a mattress or bed from a furniture store becomes a kind of ode to love and happiness.

Happiness for two

They had known each other for seven years, when Alexander decided that it was no longer possible to live like this. On a frosty January day, he burst into Natalia with the words: "Let's go to the registry office." Briefly and very succinctly. And with a flourish he put an unimaginably huge paper bundle on the table. Natalia had to shoot layer by layer to see its contents. A large bush of blooming snow-white lilacs. In January 1957, in Moscow! It was a real miracle. It turns out that the actor managed to charm the servants of the Botanical Garden that they felt the peculiarity of the moment and the need for lilac magic for their beloved.

At first, the newlyweds lived in a huge communal apartment where the Shirvindt family lived. Natasha, accustomed to a spacious apartment designed by her grandfather, absolutely calmly endured the move to much more modest conditions, sincerely believing that the most important thing is to be close to her beloved, and then they will be able to achieve everything themselves.

And so it happened. A few years later, having made several incredible exchanges, the young family of Natalia and Alexander will already find themselves in an elite house on Kotelnicheskaya embankment in the center of Moscow.

Tours, rehearsals, shooting with him, interesting projects. The discovery of new objects from her. Between them are thousands of kilometers and thin strings of letters and telegrams.

In 1958 their son Misha was born. Pride and Hope. Alexander came to Moscow from another tour and almost went crazy, looking for his wife in all maternity hospitals in Moscow. He was angry with the nurse who could not tell how his beloved Tatka was feeling.

He worried that after the pain he had endured, she would stop loving him, he wanted to see her and his son. Natasha, infinitely happy, tried to discern the familiar features of her lover on her little face. He wrote to her again, demanded to appear in the window at least for a second. They grew up together, reaching those heights that they only dreamed of in their youth. And they set themselves more and more new goals.

The secret of happiness

The days flew by like an instant. Behind the shoulders of Alexander Anatolyevich and Natalya Nikolaevna almost sixty years of a happy marriage. Rumors and gossip were gone. But not because there were none. Simply because they trusted each other immensely. Their love was stronger. Today they are still together and still happy, enjoy life, the success of their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Their secret turned out to be quite simple. They never dissolved in each other. They were always interested in the two of them, because each is an integral person, with his own character, his hobbies. They did not interfere with each other, but supported at the right time. Alexander Shirvindt is pleased to say that, unfortunately, he turned out to be a one-woman man. Natalya Nikolaevna picks up that this is - to her happiness.

In 2013, the book by Alexander Shirvindt "Walkways of the Biography" was published. It contains part of the correspondence between Natalia Nikolaevna and Alexander Anatolyevich. A touching testimony to their endless love.

Sometimes it seems that the artist is always playing. On stage, in movies, in life. In a love story Natalia Gundareva and Mikhail Filippov there was no place for play, there was real light joy and happiness in it.