Requiem for family: Why one of the daughters of Georgy Zhzhonov cannot forgive her father

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

Marina Zhzhonova admired her father's talent. But she always smiled bitterly if she heard what a wonderful and kind person he was. She painfully searched for an answer to one question. It was difficult for her to decide to openly ask her dad, and when he was already at a very respectable age, she realized: there was no need to make a very elderly and unhealthy person worry. The conversation between Georgy Zhzhonov and his daughter never took place.

Meeting in distant Norilsk

Irina Makhaeva was invited to Norilsk by the director of the Polar Theater. He promised the young actress the main roles and a high salary. And the girl, without a shadow of a doubt, changed her native Urals to the Far North. Georgy Zhzhonov was exiled to Norilsk after another arrest and was recruited to the Norilsk Polar Drama Theater named after Mayakovsky.

Irina Makhaeva recalled how effectively a new member of the troupe appeared before her. He walked past her in his arms, losing everything that was in his pockets, and then got to his feet and smiled at the pretty girl in embarrassment. Georgy Zhzhonov was introduced to her by one of her colleagues.

The exiled actor was immediately introduced into the repertoire, and together with Irina he began to work on the play "Close", where they were to play the spouses. Georgy Stepanovich entered the character so that during the rehearsals of the scene in which he throws his stage wife on the bed, the actress had bruises on her body. She even had to ask him to moderate her ardor a little.

After the premiere of the play, Zhzhonov suddenly spoke to Irina about love. However, he immediately pulled himself up: there was no need for a girl to mess with the exiled. Irina then did not answer Georgy Stepanovich, but all night she was restlessly tossing and turning, listening to his steps behind the wall. They lived in adjoining rooms in a theater hostel.

Lawless Heart

Georgy Zhzhenov only later learned that Irina was a completely fearless girl and was ready to risk her own life for the welfare of a loved one. She responded to the actor's courtship, and soon they began to live together.

Irina turned out to be not only a talented actress, but also an amazing hostess. She knew how to sew, cooked well, the actors' house shone with cleanliness and beckoned with warmth and comfort. Georgy Stepanovich moonlighted as a photographer, thanks to which the spouses were even able to purchase a motorcycle.

After Stalin's death, Irina forced her husband to write another petition for the removal of his exile. And she herself decided to take him to the Lubyanka in Moscow so that the letter would not get lost among thousands of similar requests for clemency.

Georgy Zhzhenov and Irina Makhaeva were not registered, so the woman was able to freely come to the capital. The acquaintances with whom she stayed said goodbye to her forever. They were sure that those who came there with petitions would not return. But Irina returned. And already in 1954, Georgy Zhzhonov was among the first to be released.

Beginning of the End

The couple came to Leningrad together. At first, they huddled in a tiny room in a hostel where Georgy Stepanovich's sister lived. Only two years later they had a room in a communal apartment. They officially registered their marriage, and soon their daughter Marina was born.

During the pregnancy of his wife, Georgy Zhzhonov did not seek to pamper her. He collected money for a car, and having bought the coveted Pobeda, he began to appear at home less and less. Irina did not want to believe the rumors about her husband's novels on the side.

As soon as the daughter grew up, the woman went to work. At first, she went to the theaters of Petrozavodsk and Ryazan, then she was able to knock out a stake in the Leningrad Regional Theater. But she herself filed a letter of resignation, unable to bear her husband flirting in front of her with another. Lydia Malyukova later became the fourth and last wife of the actor.

Children's grievances

While Marina was little, Georgy Stepanovich literally doted on her. She answered him in full reciprocity. After the divorce, my mother said that my father flew to the shooting in Odessa. And little Marina sat for hours at the window, waiting for his return. She missed her desperately. It seemed to her that her father had simply deleted her from his life. However, this feeling has only intensified over the years.

He began to write letters to her, sent gifts from time to time, and when she fell ill, he came to the hospital. Before she had time to rejoice, dad began to talk about some "his Yulka". It turned out that he now has another daughter. Whenever and wherever Georgy Zhzhonov and Marina met now, he always boasted of Yulia's successes and achievements. He never praised Marina.

Despite the fact that the half-sisters became friends, Marina could not get rid of the feeling of her uselessness. In all interviews and memoirs, the father avoided the topic of his wives and children, who he had before his marriage to Lydia Malyukova.

Marina was grateful to her father for the help he tried to provide, if she asked. But the warm and trusting relationship between father and daughter did not work out, although Marina herself passionately wanted this.

Over the years, she realized that she herself could show more warmth and sympathy to her father. But the nursery has always lived in it. She could not understand in any way: why dad left not only mom, but also her, his daughter. Why was he the least interested in her affairs, successes and experiences?

She sincerely wanted to ask him this question, but she did not dare. At the celebration of his 90th birthday, she sat with her son in one of the last rows, and after that she could not come up to congratulate him. But the youngest daughter and her children were invited to the stage. Childhood resentment and adult jealousy tied into one tight knot. On that day, Marina Zhzhonova said goodbye to her father. They did not see each other again. Marina's son stayed at the banquet and then told his mother: grandfather asked several times why Marina did not come to say goodbye to him.

Later she will write a book "Requiem for the Family", in which she will try to understand herself and her relationship with her father.

Georgy Zhzhenov lived a long life and died at the age of 90, but so many trials fell to his lot that it would be enough for several lives. Many viewers are still unaware that the actor, whom they are used to seeing on the screen in the form of a policeman, pilot or scout, I had to spend many years in camps, serving a sentence on very serious charges.