The dramatic fate of Alexander Ivanov: What a pernicious passion accelerated the departure of the famous satirist and parodist

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

Today Alexander Ivanov would have turned 81 years old, but for 21 years he has been dead. In the 1980s. his face was well known to all viewers - for more than 10 years he was the permanent host of the "Around Laughter" program. In addition, Ivanov was known as the author of parodies and satirical works. But after his show was closed in 1991, he disappeared from the screens, and after 5 years he died suddenly. There were many rumors about the reasons for his sudden death, and some had grounds …

His literary and television career began quite late - until the age of 30, Alexander Ivanov worked as a teacher of drawing and descriptive geometry and wrote poetry “on the table”. In the early 1960s. he became interested in the genre of epigram and poetic parody and once decided to try his luck by sending his works to the Literaturnaya Gazeta. Attention was drawn to his talent, and in 1968 he had already published a book of parodies "Love and Mustard", and two years later he was admitted to the Writers' Union.

In the 1970s. Ivanov began performing literary parodies on the stage, starring in several feature films. But real popularity came to him in the late 1970s, when he became the host of the program Around Laughter, which had no analogues on television at that time. They say that many writers themselves were looking for Ivanov and asked to write parodies of their works, because their mention in the program "Around Laughter" guaranteed all-Union popularity and recognition. Every year "Around Laughter" was shown on the evening air on December 31, which was the indicator of the highest ratings. Thanks to this program, viewers recognized most of the talented satirists: Zhvanetsky, Kartsev, Gorin, Arkanov and others.

In 1991, the program was closed. They said about the reasons: "". Alexander Ivanov was left without work. In times of political and economic crisis, this was tantamount to creative death. One of the most popular TV presenters had to sell his own books at a book fair near the Olympic sports complex. This did not bring good earnings, and lack of money and lack of professional demand exacerbated the problem that existed before that - Ivanov began to abuse alcohol.

At this time, new political forces came to power, which needed powerful levers of influence on public opinion to strengthen their positions. Boris Yeltsin's team recruited writers and artists with anti-communist views, including Alexander Ivanov. His task was to create poignant political epigrams for the competitors of the Democrats.

Since then, the talented poet seems to have been replaced. From witty subtle literary parodies, he moved on to vulgar political pamphlets, such as, for example, the quatrain addressed to Zhirinovsky: "". His former fans were shocked by the radicalism of his political speeches: "". He called the events of 1993 in Moscow "" and called for even tougher measures.

As a result, Ivanov's financial situation improved significantly, he was even able to purchase a villa in Spain, where he lived alone with his wife, actress and ballerina Olga Zabotkina. However, despite all her efforts and financial well-being, alcohol dependence began to progress. One of the acquaintances of the parodist from the Writers' Union said: "".

Unfortunately, Alexander Ivanov was not the only artist whose unique gift was sacrificed to addiction: 15 stars for whom the burden of wealth and fame turned out to be too heavy.