7 years of happiness and broken dreams of the best actress of the Moscow Art Theater: Angelina Stepanova and Nikolai Erdman

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

They were very prominent figures in the 1920s. Konstantin Stanislavsky called Angelina Stepanova the best actress of the Moscow Art Theater, Nikolai Erdman's plays were successfully performed on the best stages of the country, and films based on his scripts became classics of Soviet cinema. Their secret romance lasted seven years and contained both happiness, and the pain of separation, and the hardest trials by Erdman's exile. For his sake, Stepanova went first to see Abel Yenukidze, and then to Siberia. But he, as it turned out, did not need all her victims. Or needed, but not only from her.

Secret romance

In 1928, Angelina Stepanova was already a famous actress, she had a chance to rehearse and play with Konstantin Stanislavsky and Olga Knipper-Chekhova, Vasily Kachalov and Sofya Khalyutina, Ivan Moskvin and Mikhail Tarkhanov. In addition, her husband was Nikolai Mikhailovich Gorchakov, director of the Moscow Art Theater and teacher.

They lived with their spouse in Krivoarbatsky lane, and colleagues loved to visit their house, where a friendly atmosphere always reigned and no one left hungry after a visit. A frequent guest in the family was Vladimir Mass, who worked with Nikolai Gorchakov on the production of Sisters Gerard based on the drama Two Orphans by Adolphe d'Ennery. It was Vladimir Mass who introduced Angelina Stepanova and Nikolai Gorchakov to playwright Nikolai Erdman and his wife, ballerina Dina Vorontsova.

Nikolai Erdman was already known by that time. The premiere of his play "Mandate" was successfully held at the Meyerhold Theater on April 20, 1925, and then was staged in many cities of the Soviet Union and even in Berlin. And in 1928, when Stepanova and Erdman met, the playwright wrote another play "The Suicide", on which Meyerhold himself had high hopes. Unfortunately, in the early 1930s, the production was never released.

Angelina Stepanova and Nikolai Erdman began to often intersect in the same company, they went with their families to museums and theaters, attended exhibitions and concerts. And after Erdman began to visit the actress and her husband. Then he began to choose a time when Angelina Stepanova was at home alone.

The novel captured both, but the playwright, unlike the actress, was not going to leave the family. She, realizing how strong her feelings were, broke up with her husband and moved first to her friend Elena Elina, to the empty room of her brother, who went on a long business trip.

Nikolai Erdman often visited the actress in her new home, he also came to those cities where she was on tour. The lovers settled in different rooms, but tried to spend as much time as possible together. The actress was not deprived of the attention of men, but the strength of her feelings was such that she plunged into her secret romance, maintaining independence in public. At that moment, everything suited her in their relationship: they were in love, happy and very attached to each other. Angelina Stepanova could become the mother of Nikolai Erdman's child, but he did not want children, and the baby was never born.

He called her Khudyra, comparing this nickname with the name of Zemfira. But there were many women with such names, and his Khudyra was one, his innermost. Later, for her naivety and spontaneity, he began to call her a chick, and then remade her into Pinchik.

Test by reference

In 1933, Nikolai Erdman and Vladimir Mess were arrested during the filming of the film "Funny Fellows", on which they both worked as scriptwriters. The reason was satirical fables written by Mess and Erdman, and read at a government reception by Vasily Katchalov.

Angelina Stepanova, learning about this, fell into despair. Suddenly she realized what Nikolay Erdman meant in her life. When it became known about the upcoming expulsion of the playwright to Siberia, she decided to go to an appointment with Abel Yenukidze himself, who was not only the secretary of the USSR Central Executive Committee, but also oversaw the Moscow Art Theater. According to the memoirs of the actress, Yenukidze was aware of all the affairs in the theater, and he treated her almost like a father.

She asked him to give permission to meet with her beloved, and also allow her to visit Nikolai Erdman in exile. Yenukidze not only persuaded her to abandon the idea of going to Siberia, but even warned her: for her this could have very sad consequences, right up to her own exile. But the girl, who by that time was not yet 28 years old, was adamant. When asked what makes her go to such sacrifices, she replied simply: "Love." Abel Yenukidze allowed her both a date and a visit to Siberia on the condition that she would definitely return. And even provided with a phone number, by which she will be given a free ticket to Krasnoyarsk and back.

Their first meeting after Erdman's arrest took place on the Lubyanka, and even the warden who was present with him could not darken the joy of meeting the lovers. When Angelina Stepanova found out about sending Nikolai to Yeniseisk for three years, she began to write him postcards. And she sent them to Siberia every day. She wanted them to meet him in an unfamiliar city and brighten up his days. It was by this act that one could understand the full power of her love. Every day she wrote, thinking about the person she loved. She confessed her love to him. She talked about her affairs and believed that these short letters would save him from melancholy and depression.

Love and separation

For three years they wrote letters to each other, full of longing, love, tenderness and hope. He called her leggy and beloved, and she called him - kin and the only one. They signed their letters simply, Lina and Nikolay.

Lina sent him parcels with things and groceries, despite the fact that he asked her not to do this, not wanting to burden his beloved woman. She agreed, promised, but still sent them again and again, more than anything in the world wanting to alleviate his fate.

The actress met the parents of Nikolai Robertovich, and they began to constantly exchange news. And in the summer of 1934, she came to him in Yeniseisk, and they spent an impossibly happy 10 days together. After leaving, Angelina missed, it seems, even more desperate, she did not stop thinking about him. Through her efforts and troubles before a high rank, Erdman was transferred from Yeniseisk to Tomsk from the NKVD.

They continued to correspond, but then Angelina Stepanova found out that his wife, Dina Vorontsova, was going to visit him in Tomsk. Then she realized: he will never belong to her. And she did not answer any more of his letters. She made a decision and forbade herself to think about the one she loved.

In the archives of Nikolai Erdman, 280 letters from Angelina Stepanova have been preserved. She also saved 70 of his messages. Then they crossed only once, in 1957, in the apartment of Nikolai Erdman's brother Boris. By that time, Angelina Iosifovna had already buried her husband, the famous writer Alexander Fadeev, with whom she lived for almost 20 years. But all that remained of their former feelings was their memory and their letters, which were later published as a separate book.

Screenwriters Nikolai Erdman and Vladimir Mass during the filming of "Merry Fellows" were arrested for politically sensitive poetry and parodies. They were sent into exile, and their names were removed from the credits.