Table of contents:
Video: The stigma of the "wife of a traitor to the Motherland": The most famous prisoners of the camp "ALZHIR"
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
For tens of thousands of people in the 1930-1940s. the word "Algeria" was associated not with a country in North Africa, but with a terrible abbreviation meaning a broken fate: "Akmola camp of the wives of traitors to the Motherland." This largest Soviet women's labor camp included those who most often did not even understand for what sins they had to serve their sentences. Among them were many who could be called the color of the Soviet intelligentsia and the world of art - actresses, poetesses, ballerinas, directors, etc. How this disaster affected the families of Maya Plisetskaya, Boris Pilnyak, Arkady Gaidar and others - further in the review.
Kira Anronikashvili
The famous writer Boris Pilnyak (real name Vogau) was a descendant of the German colonists of the Volga region. In 1937 he was arrested on trumped-up charges of a state crime - espionage for Japan, and six months later he was shot. His wife, Kira Andronikashvili, came from the Georgian princely family of the Andronikovs. She began her career as an actress of the State Committee for Industry of Georgia, then - an actress and assistant director of the Vostokfilm film studio. In 1936, Kira graduated from the directing department of VGIK, worked as an assistant director at Soyuzdetfilm.
After her husband's arrest, she realized that the fate of the ChSIR - members of families of traitors to the Motherland - awaited her, and hurried to take her three-year-old son to relatives in Georgia. There he was officially adopted by his grandmother and gave him her last name. Subsequently, Boris Andronikashvili also became an actor. And his mother was arrested in the same year and sent to "ALZHIR". She was rehabilitated only in 1956.
Natalia Sats
Soviet director and theatrical figure Natalia Sats grew up from childhood among the Moscow artistic intelligentsia - her father, Ilya Sats, was a composer, K. Stanislavsky, S. Rachmaninov, E. Vakhtangov often visited their house. In 1918, on the initiative of Natalia Sats, the first theater with a repertoire for children was created - the Children's Theater of the Moscow City Council, since 1921 she was the director and artistic director of the Moscow Theater for Children.
Her husband was I. Weitser, People's Commissar for Internal Trade of the USSR. In 1937, on charges of counter-revolutionary activities, he was arrested and shot, and after him, as a member of the family of a traitor to the Motherland, Natalia Sats was arrested. She was sentenced to 5 years in the camps and sent to the Rybinsk camp in the Yaroslavl region. After her release, she lived in Alma-Ata, where she organized the first Kazakh Youth Theater. When in the late 1950s. she was rehabilitated, Natalia Sats was able to return to Moscow, where she continued to engage in directing, theatrical activities and taught at GITIS.
Leah Solomyanskaya
Screenwriter, screenwriter, journalist Leah Solomyanskaya was the wife of the famous writer Arkady Gaidar. She worked in the editorial board of the Perm newspaper "On Change" and on the radio, in the same place in Perm Lia met her future husband. They had a son, Timur, but after 5 years this marriage broke up. Soon, Leah married a second time - to a colleague of Israel Razin. She continued to engage in journalism, from 1935 she worked at Mosfilm, and then at Soyuzdetfilm, where she was the head of the script department.
In 1937, Razin was accused of counter-revolutionary activities and was shot. Following her husband, Lia Solomyanskaya was arrested as a member of the family of a traitor to the Motherland. She was sent to serve time in "ALZHIR". Arkady Gaidar did not remain indifferent to the fate of his ex-wife. Largely thanks to his efforts, Solomyanskaya was released 2 years later. During the war, she worked as a war correspondent for the Znamya newspaper, and then continued her journalistic activities and wrote several books for children.
Rachel Messerer
Maya Plisetskaya's mother Rachel Messerer, after graduating from VGIK, became a silent film actress and starred under the pseudonym Ra Messerer. However, her film career did not last long - while still studying, she met Mikhail Plisetskiy, gave birth to three children and devoted herself to caring for the family, leaving cinema. Her husband was appointed manager of the Arktikugol mines and consul of the USSR on the Norwegian polar island of Spitsbergen, where he organized coal mining.
When Maya was 11 years old, her father was arrested and shot, followed by his mother. Maya was adopted by Rachel's sister Sulamith Messerer, Alexander was brought up in the family of her brother Asaf, and she and her newborn Azari went to "ALZHIR". In her memoirs, Maya Plisetskaya later wrote: "". Thanks to the efforts of Asaf and Sulamith Messerer, in 1939 Rachel was transferred from the camp to a free settlement in Chikment, where she worked as a dance teacher in one of the clubs. She managed to return to Moscow only in 1941, 2 months before the start of the war.
Maria Lisitsian
The Soviet coach in rhythmic gymnastics, one of the founders of the Soviet school of this sport, Maria Lisitsian, has been dancing since childhood, worked in the Eastern Ethnographic Ensemble at the Leningrad Stage. After graduating from the Ruben Simonova Drama Studio, she took part in his performances. In Moscow, Maria created and trained a children's rhythmic gymnastics group, which at that time was still considered just a form of amateur art.
In 1938, her husband Yevgeny Alibegov with a group of Soviet specialists in the electrification of railways was accused of sabotage, arrested and shot. As a member of the family of a traitor to the Motherland, Maria was also arrested. She was sentenced to 8 years in prison. The first 2, 5 years Lisitsian spent in Butyrka prison, and then she was sent to "ALZHIR". Thanks to the intercession of her uncle, the famous scientist Stepan Lisitsian, her case was reviewed, and Maria was released ahead of schedule. In 1954, together with her older sister, she founded a school of rhythmic gymnastics at the Wings of the Soviets sports society, which was considered one of the strongest not only in the USSR, but throughout the world.
The fates of these extraordinary women were no exception to the rule. Unfortunately, in those years, dozens famous artists became victims of Stalinist repressions.
Recommended:
From wife to wife: Marriages and divorces of the famous actor Anton Batyrev
As a rule, handsome actors are not only ardent and passionate heroes-lovers on the screen, they are the same courageous charming heartthrobs and ladies' men in life. Among these, without any conventions, one can name the name of the film and theater actor Anton Batyrev, a famous seducer who has gone through five civil marriages, three marriages and the same number of official divorces. Of course, the actor does not really comment on his personal life. However, almost everything is known about him without his comments. Journ
A traitor with a general's shoulder straps or How a traitor from the NKVD served the Japanese
On the night of June 1938, a Soviet citizen crossed the Manchu border, to whom the party and personally Comrade Stalin had high confidence. Genrikh Lyushkov wore the epaulettes of a lieutenant general and remained the only defector of this rank in history. Caught among the enemies, he immediately began active cooperation with Japanese intelligence. But it turned out that he only postponed his execution a little
What can be found in cookbooks written by prisoners of war and prisoners of the camps
Conditions in the camps at all times were very far from ideal. This applies to both the Gulag and the concentration camps during the Second World War. Hard work, illness, hunger and hopelessness became the lot of everyone who got there. And all the more amazing are the dumb witnesses of the horrors of the past that have come down to our time: cookbooks written by prisoners
Moving to the USA and the return of Irina Rodnina: Why the legendary figure skater was called a traitor to the Motherland
September 12 marks the 69th anniversary of the legend of Soviet figure skating, three-time Olympic champion, the most successful figure skater in the history of pair skating, Irina Rodnina. During the Soviet era, she was one of the most famous athletes in the country, and in the 1990s. she had to leave for the USA. What prompted her to this decision, and why, even after her return to Russia, she hears accusations against her, - further in the review
How the most recognizable builder of the 30s and the "standard of the Komsomol member" became a traitor to the Motherland
The fate of Viktor Kalmykov became exemplary for the USSR. At first, a simple illiterate guy was made the standard of a young Komsomol member who managed to get a "lucky ticket" - to come to one of the "great construction sites of communism", and then, using the example of his case, the state showed how effectively it can find traitors in its ranks and punish them mercilessly