Ilya and Irina Oleinikov: A Wedding Like a Funeral and 39 Years of Merry Happiness

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

On the first date, he borrowed money from her to pay off the restaurant bill. The atmosphere of their wedding was reminiscent of a funeral, but the whole life of Ilya and Irina Oleinikovs was generously seasoned with happiness.

A casual look from behind the curtains

After graduating from the Moscow State School of Circus and Variety Art, Ilya Klyaver (this is his real name) traveled around the country on tour. And he met his fate in the Ukrainian Slavyansk. During the concert, from behind the curtains, he noticed a strict beauty in the front row and fell in love almost at first sight. Irina Oleinikova lived and worked in Leningrad, and came to Slavyansk on a business trip as a senior researcher at the Chemical Institute.

After the performance, he immediately went to meet the girl he liked. But colleagues almost ruined the fateful meeting. Seeing how Klyaver charms a stranger, it is as if the young actor was inadvertently shamed: “Ilyusha, why not be ashamed? You have a wife and two children in Chisinau! Irina was dumbfounded, and Ilya began to prove that he had no wife, let alone two children.

However, he was married twice, but fictitiously, in order to obtain a Moscow residence permit. Irina, on the other hand, did not need to know about this yet. However, she easily believed him and even agreed to go with him to a restaurant. Unmercenary Klyaver borrowed money for their first romantic dinner from Irina herself. This did not bother her in the least.

Family ties

They signed in October 1973. A rainy autumn, Irina's dad's illness, financial difficulties did not create a festive mood for the newlyweds and their guests. The banquet hall, where the celebration was celebrated, fully conveyed the general atmosphere: dark, gloomy, tasteless. Irina bought herself a dress for the wedding, and Ilya came to the registry office in his only concert costume.

After the official registration of the marriage, the young family settled with Irina's parents. She often went on business trips, and Ilya was left alone with her mother. She did not favor her son-in-law too much, however, she regularly gave out a ruble for the "Belomorkanal".

When Ilya inserted buttons into their precious piano to simulate the sounds of the harpsichord, the patient mother-in-law could not bear this, a scandal erupted. Ilya Lvovich reacted to the anger of his wife's mother with understanding: “It's a shame when a goat comes from Chisinau and inserts buttons into the piano, for which my father in 1956 defended a huge queue”. They reached full understanding only in 1985, when Irina's mother saw Ilya on stage and presented him with a bouquet of dahlias.

Ilya's dad emotionally demanded that his son stop the Zaporozhets and release it because of the impossibility of being in the same car with this woman. But when she did not hear, he confessed to his acquaintances that his daughter-in-law was just gold. In 1975, Irina and Ilya had a son, Denis.

Lightness of Being

In 1982, Vladimir Vinokur advised Ilya to take his wife's surname, because the Jewish surname hindered his popularity; Klyaver's performances were mercilessly cut out from television programs.

The mustache was the artist's calling card, it is simply impossible to imagine him in another image. When, for the only time in his life, Ilya Lvovich shaved them off, the family had a lot of fun about this. The son found that his beardless father was very similar to Valentin Gaft, and his wife ran away from him shouting: "Don't come near me, I don't know you!"

They generally lived amicably and cheerfully. At first, they easily endured material difficulties, and every everyday conflict was translated into a joke. The artist was especially pleased with four pairs of summer cottage slippers, each of which had its own purpose: for the yard, for the porch, for the corridor and for the house. As a result, Ilya Lvovich said that he got entangled in them and began to walk everywhere barefoot. However, this did not save him from attacks - he spanked with dirty feet around the house.

Something more…

Ilya Lvovich said: “Family is not love, but much more. This is a merger of two units into one … And when a man at 50 suddenly finds a young woman and leaves, he is just … a degenerate."

They were just unusually happy Irina and Ilya, two units merged into one. On November 11, 2012, Ilya Lvovich Oleinikov left. Irina Viktorovna now lives one day, she is helped by the love of people who remember the great artist and good person Ilya Oleinikov.

A classmate of Ilya Klyaver at one time also fell in love at first sight and for life