The tragedy of Nonna Mordyukova: such a weak "strong woman" in life and on the movie screen

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

Nonna Mordyukova was one of the greatest actresses of her time. She embodied on the screen the images of strong-willed women who would stop a galloping horse and enter a burning hut. She herself was called "baba-flint", but the fate of the actress was such that Mordyukova could be put on a par with the tragic images that she played in the cinema.

Music was always played in the Mordyukovs' house. The mother of the future actress, the chairman of the collective farm, sang and played the guitar, went to all the movie premieres. When her daughter Nonna expressed a desire to enter Moscow "as an artist", her mother was against it. All the arguments that the girl from the Kuban could not survive in the post-war capital without relatives and acquaintances turned out to be in vain. Nonna traveled to Moscow in a freight train, and her suitcase of food contained only corn cakes.

Nonna Mordyukova was almost late for the entrance exams, but the commission agreed to listen to her. The girl from the provinces did not know that it was necessary to prepare a monologue or poetry. One of the examiners invited her to tell something from the life of her region. The commission laughed heartily, Mordyukova was accepted.

In VGIK, they tried to make an "intelligent" actress out of a restive Mordyukova. When she was given the role of Anna Karenina, Nonna managed to put on a gorgeous dress backwards, and then completely stepped on the hem and tore her skirt. It seemed that all her Kuban essence resisted such a rework.

Even in her sophomore year in 1948, Nonna Mordyukova was very lucky: she was approved for the role of Ulyana Gromova in the film adaptation of Alexander Fadeev's novel "Young Guard". The film crew went to Krasnodon, where an underground anti-fascist organization of young men and women operated during the war. The parents of the real Ulyana Gromova loved Nonna very much. This role brought the aspiring actress all-Union love and the Stalin Prize.

After the release of "Young Guard", Nonna Mordyukova's mother bought countless postcards with the image of the screen Ulyana and presented them to almost everyone she met, proudly telling that this was her daughter.

For the actress herself, such a resounding success turned into unexpected consequences. Mordyukova played such a strong character that the directors did not invite her to other films, seeing in her only Ulyana Gromova. Nonna Mordyukova very painfully experienced almost 5 years of oblivion.

Then, finally, Mordyukov began to be filmed again, however, for the most part these were secondary roles. The film that propelled her from “aspiring actresses” to the acclaimed heroine was 1960's A Simple Story. Nonna Mordyukova got the role of the young widow Sasha Potapova, who suddenly became the chairman of the collective farm. The actress to embody on the screen the image of a strong-willed woman with all the mental anguish without a gram of falsehood.

In 1967, Nonna Mordyukova again played the role of a strong woman in the film about the civil war "Commissar". According to the plot, Commissioner Klavdia Vavilova discovers that she is pregnant, and when she gives birth and takes a child in her arms, she turns from a tough warrior into an ordinary woman. This picture was considered ideologically dangerous and was banned from showing, and director Alexander Askoldov was deprived of the right to engage in professional activities. All copies of the film were ordered to be destroyed, but one copy still remained.

Only after 20 long years "Komissar" was released not only in the Soviet Union, but also in other countries. The picture was called a masterpiece of world cinema, and Nonna Mordyukova was included in the list of the ten most outstanding actresses of the twentieth century.

Along with dramatic roles, Nonna Mordyukova was not afraid to act in comedies. Just what are her roles as a house manager in the "Diamond Hand" and a domineering merchant in "The Marriage of Balzaminov."

In the personal life of Nonna Mordyukova, everything was not as perfect as she dreamed. As a student, she married Vyacheslav Tikhonov, whom she met on the set of Young Guard. Their entourage wondered how such different personalities could come together. The overly emotional Mordyukova had a tough disposition, and the intelligent Tikhonov was cold as ice. They lived in a walk-through room in the barracks. Numerous relatives often came to Mordyukova and slept right on the floor. Tikhonov, who grew up in the suburbs of Moscow, who was the only son, was terribly annoyed by this situation.

The marriage of Tikhonov and Mordyukova lasted for 13 years. Later, in her memoirs, Nonna Viktorovna wondered how the couple could be together for so long. They did not live, but suffered, because neither she nor he wanted to go home.

After the divorce, Nonna Mordyukova had several more novels, but she, like a blueprint, chose weak men who envied her fame. The actress said: “I'm so tired of hearing that I'm strong. Yes, I am soft, like wax, only a reliable man's hand did not meet."

In addition to the image of a strong-willed woman who overcomes all difficulties without fear, the actress repeatedly embodied the image of her mother on the screen. In 1978, in the film "Bog" she got the role of Matryona Bystrova, who, because of her blind love for her son, pushes him to a crime. To prevent her son from being taken to the front, she hides him, thereby making him a deserter. Physically his mother saves him, but kills him spiritually. After this role, Nonna Mordyukova came to her senses for another six months.

In the film "Russian Field" the actress played with her son Vladimir. According to the plot, the son dies, and his mother buries him. Mordyukova was categorically against the scene with the coffin. But her son insisted that everything was according to the script. After 19 years, Nonna Viktorovna had to endure a terrible tragedy and really mourn the death of her son.

A year after the death of her son, Nonna Mordyukova met the aspiring singer Julian. The woman projected on him all her unspent motherly love. The guy even moved to live with her in a one-room apartment. Newspapers were full of headlines like "Mordyukova has got herself a young lover!" Reading this, Nonna Viktorovna was indignant and told Julian in her hearts: “Lovers! Go tell them that you sleep on my cot in the kitchen!"

The last work of the actress in the cinema was the role of her mother in the film of the same name by Denis Evstigneev in 1999. The plot is based on the real story of the Ovechkin family, who in the late 1980s attempted to hijack a plane. Nonna Mordyukova perfectly coped with her role, but she could not understand how a mother could push her children to a crime.

On her 82nd birthday, Nonna Mordyukova gathered all her brothers and sisters. She seemed to feel that this was her last holiday. In recent months, the actress was very sick, almost did not communicate with anyone, but until the last moment she was waiting for a call from the directors with a proposal for a new role.

The film "Young Guard" has become a visiting card not only for Nonna Mordyukova, but also for another bright actress Inna Makarova. For the sake of national love, she had to sacrifice her female happiness.