From the film idol of all pioneers to the crime boss: the zigzags of fate of Sergei Shevkunenko

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

On films "Dagger" and "Bronze Bird" more than one generation of Soviet children grew up. Parents set them up as an example of the main character, Misha Polyakov, whose role was played by Sergey Shevkunenko … But neither the pioneers nor the adults suspected that criminal talent would replace his acting talent, and in the future he would become an anti-example to follow.

His fate was associated with "Mosfilm" since childhood: his father was the director of the Second Creative Association of the film studio, and his mother was an assistant director. Seryozha was a long-awaited child, Polina Shevkunenko gave her husband a son at the age of 41. My father was so happy that in honor of the heir he wrote the play "Earring with Malaya Bronnaya", which was staged in many theaters of the country. Based on her motives, the song "About Earring with Malaya Bronnaya and Vitka with Mokhovaya" was born, which was performed by Mark Bernes.

But the happy childhood ended when my father died of cancer. Serezha at that time was only 4 years old. Mother returned to work and disappeared there all day to improve the difficult financial situation of the family, and Seryozha spent almost all the time with his older sister. But when he was 13 years old, she married a foreigner and went abroad. At that time it was a disaster: many acquaintances turned away from the family of the "traitor to the motherland." In addition, the sister was the closest person to the boy, and her departure was a great shock for him.

After that, he became uncontrollable, and the street was his main teacher. Friends-hooligans gave him the nickname Chef - by his last name. The mother feared that he would contact bad company, and in order to prevent this, she took her son with her to the film studio. So "Mosfilm" became a second home for Sergei. In the beginning, everything went as well as possible: in 1973 he was approved for the main role in the film "Dagger", although his mother dreamed that her son would be taken at least in some episode. But Anatoly Rybakov personally insisted on his candidacy - the writer, according to whose book the picture was filmed.

Misha Polyakov became a real idol of the pioneers, the film studio was bombarded with enthusiastic letters. A sequel to the film - "The Bronze Bird" was immediately filmed, after which Sergey Shevkunenko began to receive offers from other directors. The young actor chose the adventure epic "The Lost Expedition". On the set, he had to perform complex stunts - to ride a horse, climb mountain slopes - and he did all this with ease and pleasure. On the set next to Kaidanovsky and Simonova, he behaved relaxed and free. It seemed that a bright future awaited him.

The director planned to shoot a sequel to The Lost Expedition, but the young actor was not destined to star in this film. One evening, 16-year-old Sergei drank a bottle of port with a friend and began to seek adventure. In the courtyard of the house, he stuck to the man who was walking the dog - began to pat her ears. Then the man threatened to let the dog go if the young man did not get away. This was enough for Sergei to get involved in a fight. The victim wrote a statement to the police and brought the case to court. So the actor received one year in prison for hooliganism.

After his release, his mother again gave her son a job at Mosfilm. He was no longer offered roles in films, even episodic ones, and he worked as a lighting fixture. But soon he was drawn to adventure again. Once he drank with the workers of the film studio, and when the snack was over, he offered to enclose the buffet. "Theft of state property" turned out to be a sentence for him to 4 years in prison. A year later he was released, but the path to the film studio was now closed for him.

Sergei Shevkunenko did not stop there. The artist, as he was called in prison, formed a gang and began to rob apartments in the Mosfilm area. And got another 4 years. In prison, the bandit developed tuberculosis and returned to freedom as a disabled person of the second group.

In the 1990s. the bandit again thundered into prison - for possession of weapons and stolen icons. He became a real repeat offender and crime boss. In 1994, Shevkunenko was released after the fifth term and became the organizer of a criminal group that was engaged in racketeering, fraud in the field of real estate privatization, drug trafficking, etc.

In the winter of 1995, Sergei took up the paperwork to travel to his sister in the United States for himself and for his mother, but they were destined for a completely different fate. On February 11, a killer was waiting at the entrance of the house of the bandit. Having received a bullet in the stomach, Sergei managed to jump into the elevator and run into the apartment. But he left a key in the door. The killer followed him and shot Shevkunenko and his mother. At that time he was only 35 years old.

And the films "Dagger" and "Bronze Bird" are still called among the best Soviet films worth showing modern children