Speech therapy portal / Dysgraphia / Works by Faina Ranevskaya. The lost memoirs of Faina Ranevskaya. Faina's childhood was not happy

Works by Faina Ranevskaya. The lost memoirs of Faina Ranevskaya. Faina's childhood was not happy

11.10.2023

Faina Georgievna (Grigorievna) Ranevskaya(nee Faina Girshevna Feldman) - Soviet actress theater and cinema. Three times laureateStalin Prize (1949, 1951, 1951), People's Artist of the USSR(1961).

Faina Ranevskaya (née Feldman) was born in Taganrog . Her father is Girshi Khaimovich Feldman. Mother - Milka Rafailovna Zagovailova (according to some sources Valova). Parents got married December 26, 1889.

In addition to Faina, the family already had two older sons and a daughter, Bella. At the time of Faina’s birth, her father, an honorary member of the Department of Institutions of Empress Maria, was the owner of a dry paint factory, several houses, a store and the St. Nicholas steamship.

She studied at the Taganrog Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium, without graduating. At the same time, Faina received the usual home education for a girl from a wealthy family, studied music, singing, foreign languages, and loved to read. She was interested in theater from the age of 14, attending classes at the private theater studio of A. Jagiello (A. N. Govberg).

In 1915 she left for Moscow. Ranevskaya lived in a small room on Bolshaya Nikitskaya. It was during these years that she met Marina Tsvetaeva, Osip Mandelstam,Vladimir Mayakovsky, her first meeting took place with V.I. Kachalov. From the memories of Ranevskaya herself, she was in love with Kachalov and admired his acting.

One autumn, young Faya Feldman signed a contract at the acting exchange to work in the Kerch troupe of Madame Lavrovskaya. The actress was invited “for the role of coquette heroines with singing and dancing for 35 rubles with your own wardrobe”. The work in Kerch did not work out - for some reason the public did not show due attention to the new troupe, but there she once took a walk with a certain “experienced tragedian” from the Lavrovskaya Theater to Mount Mithridates. On the way to the mountain, we decided to stop by the bank (Ranevskaya’s mother secretly sent money transfers to her daughter from her father). Faina Georgievna recalls:

When we walked out of the massive bank doors, a gust of wind tore the bills from my hands - the entire amount. I stopped and, watching the flying banknotes, said:

How sad it is when they fly away!
- Yes, you are Ranevskaya! - exclaimed the companion. - Only she could say that!
When I later had to choose a pseudonym, I decided to take the surname of Chekhov's heroine. We have something in common with her, not everything, not everything at all...

After graduating from a private theater school, she then played in many theaters, starting with provincial ones (Moscow region (Malakhovsky Dacha Theater) (1915), Kerch, Feodosia (1915-1916), Rostov-on-Don (1916-1917), Crimea (Mobile "First Soviet theater") (1918-1924), Baku Workers' Theater(1925-1927 and 1929-1931), Arkhangelsk Drama Theater (1927), Smolensk Drama Theater (1927-1928),Stalingrad Drama Theater(1928-1929)), and then in Moscow, including the theater of the Moscow Department of Public Education (1924), Chamber Theater (1931-1935), central theater of the red army(1935-1939), drama theater (now named after Mayakovsky) (1943-1949), Theater named after A. S. Pushkina (1955-1963), Theater named after Mossovet(1949-1955 and 1963-1984). Her teacher was Pavel Leontievna Wulf. Ranevskaya's stay at the Theater. The Mossovet was accompanied by frequent conflicts with the main director Yu. A. Zavadsky (which was reflected in numerous folklore stories and anecdotes), which gave rise to the dissimilarity of creative methods: the solution to the roles proposed by Ranevskaya was more organic to the theater of the Brechtian type. Ranevskaya theatrically rethought her own everyday life, sometimes turning it into a kind of tragicomic “performance”; in this feature lies the secret of her purely personal popularity, regardless of stage fame. Ranevskaya’s very peculiar style of speech and behavior was recorded in a large volume of folklore, where not all episodes are completely reliable. Many of Ranevskaya’s statements (as well as those attributed to her) turned into catchphrases, which was facilitated by capacity and imagery, as well as the absence of “internal censorship” and freedom of judgment (for example, in the form of the presence of reduced vocabulary). Stylistic flair allowed Ranevskaya to perform in the genre of parody, and not only stage; a series of parody letters from her fictitious provincial A. Kafinkin, addressed to the journalist T. Tess, is known.

She made her film debut in 1934 in the film “Pyshka” by Mikhail Romm. In 1939-1941. - actress of the Mosfilm film studio, 1941-1943. - actress Tashkent film studio. Member Union of Cinematographers of the USSR.

She took part in dubbing cartoons ( Freken Bock V " Carlson is back»).

Faina Ranevskaya died on July 19, 1984 (according to other sources - July 20 and June 20). Buried on Novy Donskoy Cemetery in Moscow with his sister Isabella. At the grave all year round you can see fresh flowers brought by admirers of her talent.

In 1992, the editorial board of the English encyclopedia "Who's Who" included her in the top ten most outstanding actresses of the 20th century.

The image of the actress was depicted in the biographical series “Star of the Epoch” (performer Tatiana Vasilyeva) and “Anna German” (Elena Bondareva-Repina).

Despite the large circle of acquaintances, Faina Georgievna always felt loneliness, from which even the devoted dog Boy, named after Stanislavsky, whom Ranevskaya idolized, could not save. Taking advantage of the actress’s gullibility and naivety, the housekeepers deceived her in the most unscrupulous way, vilely robbing the old woman.

Catchphrase from the film Foundling “Mula, don’t make me nervous!” invented by Rina Zelenaya. For the rest of her life, “Mule” pursued Ranevskaya: this is how the boys shouted when they saw her on the streets, this was the first phrase they remembered when they met her. Even Brezhnev, when presenting her with the Order of Lenin in 1976 (in connection with her 80th birthday), instead of greeting, said: “Here comes our Mulya, don’t make me nervous!” Ranevskaya replied: “Leonid Ilyich, this is how either boys or hooligans address me!” The Secretary General was embarrassed and added: “Sorry, but I love you very much.”
Faina has always been self-critical; she has a famous saying: “Talent is self-doubt and painful dissatisfaction with oneself and one’s shortcomings, which I have never encountered in mediocrity.” Artistic councils and commissions, in the presence of which one had to play, were commonplace at that time, when instead of an audience loving the artist, the “arbiters of destinies” looked at him. Often after such performances the artist was “in a clamp,” but not Ranevskaya: “I’m playing badly, the Stalin Prize committee is watching. It's a disgusting exam feeling."
Ranevskaya was very afraid that she might be asked to cooperate with the KGB - this was common at that time. One of her acquaintances advised, if such a proposal were made, to say that she screamed in her sleep. Then she will not be suitable for cooperation and the offer will be withdrawn. Once, when Faina Georgievna was working at the Mossovet Theater, the party organizer of the theater approached her with an offer to join the party. “Oh, what are you talking about, my dear! I can’t: I scream in my sleep!” - Ranevskaya exclaimed. Whether she was lying or really mixed up these departments, one can only guess.
Ranevskaya experienced a tragic death Solomon Mikhoels, they were connected by sincere friendship. In her memoirs, the actress describes one dialogue in which, with her characteristic humor, she told Mikhoels: “There are people in whom God lives, there are people in whom the devil lives, and there are people in whom only worms live. God lives in you!” To which the director replied: “If God lives in me, then He was exiled into me.” (January 14, 1948).

Faina Ranevskaya

Anecdote from personal life

Imagine that you picked up the remote control and turned on the TV. Or simply pressed a button on the “box”, if that’s more common. And the room is filled with a low and slightly hoarse female voice:

“I work like a horse. I run, I fuss, I charm, I intercede, I demand, I insist. Thanks to me, in church we sit on court benches, and in the theater we sit on director’s stools. The soldiers salute us! My daughters will soon be included in the velvet book of the first beauties of the court! Who turned our nails into rose petals? A kind sorceress, at whose door titled ladies wait for weeks. And a sorceress came to our house. The chief royal cook yesterday sent me a gift of game... In a word, I have so many connections that you could go crazy from fatigue maintaining them. Where's the gratitude? For example, my nose itches, but I can’t scratch it. No, no, move away. Cinderella, don't, otherwise I'll bite you.<За что же, матушка?>Because you yourself didn’t think of helping a poor, helpless woman.”

"Ready! All! Well, now they will dance in my palace! I will establish my own rules with them! Marianna, don't worry! The king is a widower! I'll accommodate you too. We will live! Eh, it’s a pity - the kingdom is too small, there’s nowhere to roam! That is OK! I'll quarrel with my neighbors! I can do this. Soldiers! Why are you standing there with your mouth open?! Shout “hurray” to the royal brides!”

“I've lost my mind. What a shame."

On the set of the film “Foundling”, in 1939, she came up with words for her heroine that became catchphrases, but haunted the actress all her life: “Mulya, don’t make me nervous!”

While evacuated in Tashkent, Ranevskaya often walked with Anna Akhmatova. Faina Georgievna recalled: “We wandered around the market, around the old city. The children ran after me and shouted in unison: “Mulya, don’t make me nervous.” This was very annoying and prevented me from listening to Anna Andreevna. In addition, I acutely hated the role that brought me popularity. I told Akhmatova about this. “Don’t be upset, each of us has our own Mulya!” I asked: “What do you mean, Mulya?” “I clenched my hands under a dark veil” - these are my “Mules,” said Anna Andreevna.”

Several decades later, in the Kremlin, presenting Ranevskaya with the Order of Lenin, the head of state could not resist and said: “Mulya, don’t irritate me!” “Leonid Ilyich, only hooligans call me that,” Faina Georgievna was offended. Brezhnev blushed: “Sorry, but I love you very much.”

The sharp-tongued actress made many caustic and apt statements. Passed from mouth to mouth, they became truly popular - some were overgrown with vivid details, others were deprived of details: when, to whom, on what occasion this or that phrase was said. In stories about Ranevskaya, it is often difficult to separate truth from fiction, what happened to her, from what is attributed to her. Isn’t this evidence of true love for the actress, her true nationality?

We confess our love for her too.

One night, after one of the famous night viewings arranged for the “leader of the peoples,” Ranevskaya received a call from Eisenstein.

- Faina! Listen carefully. I've just come from the Kremlin. Do you know what Stalin said about you?! “Here Comrade Zharov is a good actor, he puts on a mustache, sideburns or a beard, and it’s still immediately obvious that it’s Zharov. But Ranevskaya doesn’t stick anything on and is still always different...”

* * *

Many famous people were invited to the Kremlin for a gala reception. Among others, Ranevskaya. It was assumed that the great actress would entertain the guests, but she herself did not want this. The owner was disappointed:

“It seems to me, Comrade Ranevskaya, that even the biggest fool in the world could not make you laugh.”

“You try it,” Faina Georgievna suggested.

* * *

Ranevskaya recalled:

– I’m walking along the alley in the government sanatorium in Sochi. Kaganovich comes towards me and immediately begins a conversation:

– How are you doing at the theater? What are you working on?

– We are staging “White Nights” according to Dostoevsky.

Then he exclaims enthusiastically.

- What is the idea there, the idea?

– The idea is that a person should not kill a person.

“This is not our idea. Not ours."

And he quickly left.

* * *

During the Thaw, there were naive people who seriously discussed the problem of open borders.

– Faina Georgievna, what would you do if the borders were suddenly opened? – they asked the actress.

“I would climb a tree,” she answered.

- Why?

- They will trample! – Ranevskaya said with conviction.

* * *

Mossovet artist Nikolai Afonin lived next to Ranevskaya. He had a “hunchbacked” “Zaporozhets”, and sometimes Afonin gave Faina Georgievna a ride home from the theater. Somehow three people squeezed into his Zaporozhets from behind, and Ranevskaya sat in front, next to Afonin. Approaching her house, she asked:

– K-ring, how much does your car cost?

Afonin said:

– Two thousand two hundred rubles, Faina Georgievna.

“What b*tch on the part of the government,” Ranevskaya concluded gloomily, getting out of the hunchbacked apparatus.

* * *

“You know,” Ranevskaya recalled half a century later, “when I saw this bald man on an armored car, I realized: big troubles awaited us.”

Ranevskaya developed a special relationship with Yuri Aleksandrovich Zavadsky, the chief director of the Mossovet Theater, where Ranevskaya worked in recent years. She called him Pushko, a senile entertainer, discounted by Meyerhold, a perpetuum male. She assessed Zavadsky’s creative searches as “the whims of a pregnant kangaroo.” She once remarked: “There is a director in the family.”

* * *

When Ranevskaya was asked why she didn’t go to Zavadsky’s talks about the profession of an actor, Faina Georgievna replied:

“I don’t attend masses in a brothel.”

* * *

Once at a rehearsal, Zavadsky shouted from the audience: “Faina, you devoured my entire plan with your antics!” “I feel like I’ve eaten shit,” Faina Georgievna muttered. “Get out of the theater!” “Get out of art!!” - Ranevskaya answered.

* * *

The actress was constantly late for rehearsals, and Zavadsky once asked the actors not to notice her the next time she was late.

Out of breath, Faina Georgievna ran into the rehearsal:

- Hello!

Everyone is silent.

- Hello!

Nobody pays attention.

- Hello!

Silence again.

- Oh, there’s no one?! Then I'll go piss.

Faina Ranevskaya: lost memoirs of the actress

In 1972, Faina Ranevskaya undertook to write memoirs. Signed an agreement with
publishing house WTO, sat down at a desk for three years, and when
the manuscript was almost ready - suddenly in one night everything
destroyed. But, as it turned out, her memories were preserved...
It turns out that all these years in the Russian State Archive of Literature
and art there was a folder that no one really looked into. A
there are rough drafts of those same memoirs. Lots of recordings made
on pieces of paper, blotting pads, even scraps of cardboard with your own hand
actresses. And in these notes there is a whole life, with many details...
Ranevskaya's authentic voice sounds through them.
“I don’t understand what this is? Feeling shy? Write about yourself. Awkward
somehow. It’s like I’m washing in a bathhouse, an excursion has arrived and is looking at everyone
sides, but my build doesn’t matter. For three years I wrote a book of memories,
flattered by an advance of two thousand rubles in order to purchase warm
coat... I guess I was in vain torn up everything that would make up a book about which
requested the WTO. And now the advance must be returned. Two thousand rubles. God bless
them, with money. I'll collect it and give you an advance.

Faina Georgievna loved to draw and often spoiled her friends with cartoons. A
here she depicted herself
Having learned that I tore the manuscript, the book of my life, which I wrote in
for three years, Margarita Aliger (Soviet writer, friend
Ranevskaya. - Approx. ed.), scolding me very strongly, took from me
word that I will begin to restore in my memory everything that I destroyed. Word
have to hold it. I’ll tell you about the first one as I remember it, not
chronologically, as it was in the book...
I was born at the end of the last century, when fainting was still in fashion. To me
I really didn’t like fainting, and besides, I never hurt myself,
I tried to fall gracefully. Over the years this hobby has passed, but one of
fainting brought me great and long-lasting happiness. That day I walked along
Stoleshnikov Lane, looking at the windows of luxury stores, and
next to me I heard the voice of the man with whom I had been in love before
stupefaction. I collected his photographs, wrote him letters, never
sending.

A page from Ranevskaya's notes. Faina Georgievna wrote to everyone that
came to hand - with a pencil, pen, and sometimes foreign
felt-tip pens brought by friends
Hearing his voice, she fainted and was badly hurt. Me
dragged to a nearby pastry shop, laid on a sofa (this
the confectionery shop still exists in the same place, but then it
belonged to a French woman with a Frenchman). Compassionate spouses poured into me
mouth of the strongest rum, from which I immediately came to my senses, and then again
fainted when this voice sounded again, inquiring about whether
Am I really hurt?
Several years passed, I already became an aspiring actress, worked in
provinces and at the end of the season came to Moscow. Saw it during the day and
at night there are long queues for tickets to the Art Theater.
I became brave and wrote him a letter. “The one who is in
On Stoleshnikov Lane one day, hearing your voice, she fainted. I
Already an aspiring actress. I came to Moscow with the sole purpose -
get to the theater when you play. I have another goal in life
now it doesn’t and never will.”
I remember the letter by heart; I wrote it for several days and nights. The answer has come
very soon: “Dear Faina, please contact the administrator,
which will have two tickets in your name. Yours, V. Kachalov.” From this evening and
until the end of the life of this amazing artist and unique charm
our friendship lasted, of which I am very proud. I visited him
Constantly, at first she was timid and worried. Soon he tamed me... He
served as an example to me in his nobility. I really want to tell you
about his modesty.
I was present when you died. Iv. (Vasily Ivanovich Kachalov. -
Note ed.), returning home from the theater, to my wife’s question: how was it?
rehearsal of “Three Sisters”, where he was supposed to play Vershinin, replied:
“Nemirovich took me out of the role and gave it to Bolduman. He entered
Right. Bolduman is much younger than me, you can fall in love with him, but with me
It’s no longer possible.” I can imagine how much anger and hatred Nemirovich would have met
with another actor. They would write statements about leaving the theater, complaints about
authorities...

Faina Ranevskaya and Vladimir Voronov in the film “The Man in a Case.” 1939
Ranevskaya was stoned away from the first date
According to some special property of memory in old age one sees and remembers
childhood is amazingly bright, as if it ended just yesterday. I see myself in
in the yard of the house where I live, a large, very dirty dog runs towards me
named Bouquet, whom I love dearly. For some misdeeds of the dog, the janitor
scolds her. I feel an unbearable desire to repeat everything that he says and
the janitor does. I twirl the goat's leg and pronounce the words whose meaning
I only understood it as an adult. I portray everyone who catches my eye.
“Give for Christ’s sake...” I say after the beggar. "Sugar Ice Cream" -
I shout after the ice cream man, muttering with my toothless mouth: “I’m going to Athos to God
pray” and I walk with a stick, crouching, and I’m four years old.
I am convinced that some people are born to be actors. Due to
This reminds me of the words of the great artist V.N. Davydov: he once
said while visiting my mother, and I was there: “Absolutely
a mediocre artist is as rare as an absolutely brilliant artist.” So
here “the absolutely mediocre are those who, as they usually say, “study at
artist." This cannot be learned, it is in the blood...
I have always envied talent; it started in childhood. Came to visit
to his older sister, a high school student, read poetry to her, courted her, flirted, and
eyes, growled like a tiger, stomped his feet, wrung his arms, tore out his hair...
Reading left me in awe. The poems were called "White Veil".
The reading ended with the words: “Only a mother could lie like that.” And he burst into tears. I
was in ecstasy.
Then my sister’s friend read: “I haven’t written to you for a long time and I think that’s all for you.”
equals". And she also cried, and again my delight and envy and grief, because
that it didn’t work out for me when I tried to imitate them. So I won't be able to
to be an actress... Now, towards the end of my life, I don't play on stage.
I hate actors, “players,” I can’t stand it organically, to the point of physical
disgust. I'm sick of a partner "playing" a role and not living it
what he must do due to circumstances.

“I’ve lost my mind...” Faina Ranevskaya with Lyubov Orlova and her understudy in
film "Spring". 1947
I remember my toys... Parsley, Policeman, Gypsy, Janitor, and more
some dolls. I replayed all the roles, showing puppets with them
performances. She spoke, changing voices. My Policeman was an incredible success.
There was a screen and a ladder that I stood on. Sweetness, glory
experiences - all behind a screen, then she came out with dignity,
bowed... How could it happen that as a child I saw a colored
movie? They depicted a scene from Romeo and Juliet. Climbed the stairs to
balcony a young man, indescribably beautiful, then a girl appeared, indescribably
beautiful, they kissed. Delighted, I cried. It was a shock.
Arriving home, in a state of intoxication from art, with trembling hands I
I grab a sphinx piggy bank with small money (parents pay for drinking
I use fish oil). I'm breaking the Sphinx. I'm furious. I need to commit
something big and unusual. All my
savings, the neighbor's children attacked. I tell them: “Take it, take it, I
do not need anything else!" And now, at 80 years old, I don’t need anything either,
even perfumes from Paris! They were sent to me - a gift from friends, and now
I’m going over in my mind who to give them to. I haven’t experienced ecstasies for a long time.
Life is over, and I still don’t know what’s what.
...The first date of early youth was unsuccessful. Theater. Maksim Gorky.
"Philistines." Invitation to a date: “To the artist in a green blouse.”
Next, an indication of the meeting place, and a threat: “Just try not to come!”
Signature stamp. I regret that I did not save this document. Not this way
I received a lot of invitations for a date. That high school student amazed me
heart with a cap, where above the visor there was a magnificent coat of arms of the gymnasium... Having arrived
on a date, I found a girl at the indicated place who asked
me to leave, as I sat down on her bench, where she had a date.
Soon the hero appeared, not at all embarrassed at the sight of both of us.

Congratulatory telegram to Viktor Ardov
The hero sat down between us and began to whistle. And the rival demanded that
I immediately left, to which I reasonably replied: “I’m in this place
We made a date and I’m not going anywhere.” The opponent stated that she did not
budge, I made the same statement. Each of us for a long time
defended her rights, after which her opponent picked up several
heavy stones and began throwing them at me. I was in pain, I cried and
left the battlefield, rubbing her bruised areas. Then she came back and said:
“You’ll see, God will punish you!” And she left, full of dignity.
Mandelstam left without paying
I don’t see the stupidity in my mongrel that oppresses me.
Neanderthal friends, where can we get others now? It's getting cold, it's over
December. I hate winter. Snow is like a shroud, winter is good for “dancing on ice”
and skis, and now I’m sick of the snow-shroud...

“I am not spoiled by the attention of critics, especially critics,
who learned that I called them “Amazons in menopause”, -
Ranevskaya complains in a letter to her friend, writer Viktor Ardov
Remembering the twenties, I often think about Mandelstam. For the first time I
I saw him when Geltser and I (ballerina Ekaterina Geltser - approx.
ed.) were sitting in a pastry shop in Moscow. Sat down at a table without an invitation
Mandelstam. Ordered chocolate in a cup, cake, removing the pot,
bowed... And left, giving the opportunity to pay for it
Geltser, whom he did not know. We laughed after he left, it was
very funny. He left solemnly, raising his head and raising his small
nose. Then I thought that he was a brilliant person. When I recognized him
poems, I realized that I was not mistaken...
I first saw Mayakovsky in a house where some kind of school was located, then
either musical or theatrical, it was called the “Shor Brothers School”...
Mayakovsky was dressed in fashion: business card, striped trousers, I remember handsome
tie. He stood the whole time, ate sandwiches, and was silent. He was handsome...
The next and last meeting was in Baku in 1925. I saw him in
theater where she was playing at that time. He sat alone in the actors' restroom. IN
it was his evening at the theater...

Faina Ranevskaya in her youth. 1929
He sat, thinking. I walked in and saw such sadness in his eyes,
what happens to homeless dogs abandoned by their owners. I'm confused
said: “We met at the Shores.” He replied that he had been there once.
The actress squeaked under the door: “Nowhere except in Mosselprom.” He
said: “These are my poems.” The actress was giggling outside the door, and everyone was giggling. His
they hounded me all evening, and he, with a cigarette stuck to his lip, spoke
genius and audacity. He was a smart guy, one of the people of my time.
...And now - alone, alone, alone... I save myself with books - Pushkin, Tolstoy.
I am very sad - no Pavla Leontievna, no Akhmatova. Poems by Anna Andreevna
drove me crazy. While in Leningrad, I often went to see her outside the city, in her
“booth,” as she called her shack. I remember she was sitting by the window,
looked at the trees, and when she saw me, she screamed: “Give me, give me
Ranevskaya! Obviously, she was lonely and sad. She became
I became catastrophically fat and stopped going out into the air. I took her
walk. They sat on the bench and were silent. Leva was far away... (Akhmatova’s son Lev
Gumilyov was arrested four times, the last time in 1949, and
He was released and rehabilitated only in 1956. - Approx. ed.)
Mikhail Yanshin is no longer there. The actor was extremely talented, and it was hard to listen to
its interesting. He told me how he once refused at a rehearsal
follow Stanislavsky's instructions. Stanislavsky was taken aback and said:
“The rehearsal is over,” and he left. Yanshin got scared, the actors looked at him
They attacked and wanted to beat him up. Yanshin ran home, cried, cursed
myself. The next morning he was called to the telephone. Yanshin understood: he was being fired. But
Konstantin Sergeevich said: “I thought for a long time why you didn’t want
follow my instructions, what was my mistake. I realized you were
are right." While telling this, Yanshin began to cry. I cried too. From love... To me
they said that Yanshin was unkind. I didn't feel it. Against. He was
I have been very sick and in pain for a long time. He and I screwed up in “The Wedding,” in a terribly
hacky atmosphere, with a bad, wretched director (meaning
the famous film “The Wedding” directed by Isidor Annensky. - Approx. ed.).
Yanshin meekly endured everything, I was furious. He consoled me, pitied me for
that I'm in a bad theater. He was younger than me... And I and him, and Olya Androvskaya
experienced - sad...

In a comic poem to actress Claudia Polovikova, Ranevskaya expressed
his contempt for titles, orders for apartments and other material
benefits. 1947
I remember how I found out about Stanislavsky’s death. In Zheleznovodsk in the morning
wandered around with a mug of mineral water. My liver hurt, at that time I was still
was treated. Usually, when passing by a newsstand, I bought a newspaper. In it
It turned out to be a mourning frame with a notice of the death of Stanislavsky. I
she began to cry, but it was not crying, but something similar to a dog barking. I barked:
aw, aw, aw, and so she reached the sanatorium, without stopping barking. rushed at
bed and started crying normally.
Two years before K.S.’s death, I was rehearsing “Vassa Zheleznova” at the Theater
Red Army. The director of the play, Elizaveta Telesheva, was called to
phone, Stanislavsky called. I picked up the next phone to listen
everything that K.S. says. Telesheva answered, worried, all his questions,
stating that an actor playing in a crowd scene has a toothache. And what
the actor asks permission to bandage his cheek before going on stage, fearing
colds. K.S. categorically forbade bandaging the cheek. To the question
Telesheva: “What should I do?” K.S. said: “Replace the performance.”
In my life I had only one meeting with Stanislavsky. In the year 16,
I don’t remember exactly, I was crossing the road along Leontyevsky Lane. Cab
shouted: “Watch out!” - that’s how the vankas shouted then. I jumped away from
the cab in which Stanislavsky was sitting. For joy that I see him gray
head, began to cry and shouted: “My dear boy!” He became
laugh, stood up and waved his hat at me, and I ran next to him and shouted:
“My dear boy!..” I feel a feeling of happiness engulfing me and
Now…
Ranevskaya was not accepted into the theater school due to inability
The memories are painfully boring. I remember everything out of order, but
somehow careless, randomly... I was not accepted into the drama school, because
inability. Delightful Geltser, in whose retinue I was
a fan, treated me with sympathy and arranged for me to have a “weekend”
(now they say “passing.” - Ed.) roles in Malakhovka, summer
theater near Moscow. Introducing me to the theater enterprise, headed by
was her close friend, said: “Meet, this is my bosom
friend Fanny, from the provinces.” In those distant times in the summer theater
Malakhovka was toured by the great Sadovskaya, the great Petipa, Pevtsov and more
many other unique...

I remember a sunny summer day, a garden bench near the theater, on which
The old lady was dozing. I remember how someone greeted her and said:
“Hello, our dear Olga Osipovna!” Then I realized that I was sitting
next to the actress Sadovskaya. She jumped up... Sadovskaya asked: “What’s wrong with
you? Why are you jumping? I, stuttering (which happens to me when I have a strong
excitement), said that I was jumping with happiness that I was sitting next to Sadovskaya.
And now I’m going to run and brag about it to everyone... “What a funny young lady, you are
Are you studying? - “I want to be an artist. And now in this theater, on
exits...” - “Where did you study?” I confessed that I was sent to drama school
They didn’t accept me because I’m not talented or beautiful. To this day
I’m proud that I made Sadovskaya herself laugh to tears.
...Here I am playing in Sumbatov’s play, the Charming One who seduces a young man
handsome. The action takes place in the Caucasus mountains. I stand on the mountain and say
in a disgustingly gentle voice: “My steps are lighter than feathers. I can slide like
snake". After these words, I managed to knock down the decoration depicting a mountain and
painfully bruising my partner. There is laughter in the audience. Partner threatens
rip my head off. I promised myself to leave the stage. There was a fall
perceived by everyone, including the artist who created the set, as a failure
the performance is my fault...
I remember: I painted the white fox, which had become dirty, myself.
ink. After drying it, I decided to decorate my toilet with it, draping the fox around my neck.
The dress I was wearing was pink, with a pretense of elegance. When did I start
talk flirtatiously with my partner, when he saw my black neck, he almost
lost consciousness. This was the second reason for me to leave the stage... And one day
I had to play the morning good fairy in a children's play. It was winter,
I went to the theater wearing felt boots and forgot to take them off when going on stage. I was
reprimanded with threat of dismissal.

Crimea. Season at the Crimean City Theater. Hunger. War communism.
Civil War. The authorities changed literally every minute. There were many
such a terrible thing that cannot be forgotten until the hour of death and cannot be written about
I want to. And if you don’t say everything, then you don’t say anything. That's why
tore the book...
Pretended that the applause for Stalin was directed at her
Not caring. Sloppiness. Disrespect for the actor and the audience. This
theater today. They write to me: “Tell me, how did you become an artist? How
I envy you! After all, you have such a fun life.” To everyone who thinks so,
I answer: “A genuine, genuine actor has a difficult life. Permanent
dissatisfaction with oneself. Soon it will be 60 years since I have been on stage, and I only have
one desire, a huge desire, is to play with artists who have me
I could still study. And I say this absolutely sincerely. I love it very much
many fellow artists both of my generation and younger than me.
Now in the play “Next - Silence” my partner is Rostislav
Plyatt, an actor of rare charm, and as he was called in one newspaper article -
"giant". (The following is a later postscript made by Ranevskaya to this
records. - Approx. ed.) Five years, just five years ago I was happy and even
enjoyed playing with Plyatt. Now he is a representative, nothing
feels, plays like he played the day before. Stopped working, sucks
cynically. It has become difficult and disgusting to play with him, but you have to live, not
“play”, children play.
We have to talk about Zavadsky here. (Memories refer to the years when
Faina Georgievna serves at the Mossovet Theater and is “at war” with the main
theater director, Yuri Zavadsky. - Approx. ed.) What to do, this is mine
life and my pain now... Only here can I tell the whole truth and
justify myself, since I was not given the opportunity to say a word in my
protection.

There was a murmur in the heart and cerebral vessels. The pain was so unbearable that I
screamed. The pressure jumped... The heart spasm lasted for two days, it was
many doctors... The spasms began after I found out that about me
there was a meeting in the theater to which I was not invited. They reproached me for
arrogance and arrogance, that I took possession of the theater machine,
the best room in the hotel. That I am greeted with applause, that I
I always climb forward to take photos. That in Lviv I went to one
meeting, where I was called to the presidium, to applause related to
Stalin, pretending that the applause was for me... All speeches
were only about me, where many accusations were brought against me...
I realized that I was not called to this meeting either by the party committee or
the local committee, nor the theater management intentionally. To prevent the meeting
explanations about how the work on the play was carried out, or rather,
how no work was carried out by the chief director, who during the period
the tour did not conduct any rehearsals. I forced him to rehearse in
Sverdlovsk, where there were only three rehearsals. At rehearsals Zavadsky
was engaged mainly in “drawing” and clearly showed disinterest in
work with me, which deeply upset me. I worked actively, but
the director's passivity only aggravated my irritation, which resulted in
and was the reason for the scandal.
Which was expressed in the fact that the main director allowed himself to shout
to me: “Get out of the theater!”, to which I answered him with the same phrase
(according to the recollections of those present, Ranevskaya shouted to Zavadsky: “There
from art! - which was the reason for the proceedings in the theater. -
Note ed.). I could not react differently to the insult inflicted
for the first time in my life, moreover, publicly and in no way deservedly, because
that, going towards the theater, despite the doctors’ prohibition, I went to
these tours to the Urals. Overcoming my illness, I worked hard... And even
on the day the main director insulted me - that same evening too
played, having every right not to play for health reasons. Feeling
commitment to the theater and the audience makes me stay
until the end of the tour...

A page from Ranevskaya’s memoirs, where she talks about how her mother
mourned the death of Anton Chekhov
After the illegal meeting took place, people came to see me about me
actors... I was told that after the meeting the chairman of the local committee, having learned
that I was brought to a fit, he said: “It’s time to end this “Auschwitz”
Ranevskaya". To my question to my comrades why they were silent at the meeting,
did not find a way to refute the fictitious accusations, comrades
They replied that they were afraid of Zavadsky. An evil and petty man
vindictive, who can deprive him of his job... I think the behavior of the management and
party organizer illegal, cruel and inhumane towards my actress
age...
In a past life I was a dog
Happy New Year greetings are coming. I don't understand this. It's not
congratulations on the months. I don't see the difference.
I am, as always, without money. Tired of it. Tired of EVERYTHING. Everyone is upset by my
monstrous stinginess, because no one believes in poverty. I continue
pay an advance for a torn book. I hate writing, I love reading.
I regret that I didn’t keep a diary, there was a lot of stuff...
They brought in an old dog with broken legs, and the kind doctors treated her.
A dog is much kinder and more noble than a person. Now she's my big one and
maybe the only joy. But difficult is joy. She's guarding
he doesn’t let anyone into the house. God bless her!
...I recently realized where and why love for animals is so sad. This
from childhood, from the grief we experienced - the death of the horse that carried us,
children, to the sea, to the bathhouse. I loved this horse, as one can only love
good man. One day I saw through the window a janitor and a coachman dragging
our horse to put it on the cart. I shouted: “Where are you taking?
Vasya? The janitor replied: “To the slaughterhouse.” I didn't know this word yet, but
realized that the horse had died... And now, 75 years later, I remember the stellar
the sky and I see clearly how a dead horse is being dragged, and I feel my love for
it is sharper than then, in childhood.

I hated governesses who didn't love me. But the dog, dirty, with
matted wool, in which even nails got stuck, loved with
inexpressible tenderness. At night she rattled the chain, running around the big
yard, and did not let me sleep. I climbed out the window, looked at her,
I regretted it. This dog's name was Bouquet... Probably, in one of the incarnations of my life I
I was a dog because I love them with “love of neighbor.”
I started studying when I grew up. And now, in my old age, I try to find out
I remember more and more. And I often remember the sage who said: “I know
only that I don’t know anything.”
I know very well that I am talented, but what have I created? She squeaked - and
only. Who, besides my Pavla Leontyevna (actress Pavla Wulf, closest
Ranevskaya's friend. - Approx. ed.), wanted me to do well in the theater? Who
suffered when I was unemployed? Nobody needed me. Nikolai
Okhlopkov and Alexey Dmitrievich Popov were lenient. Zavadsky
hated it. I ran from theater to theater, looked for it and couldn’t find it. And it's all.
Personal life also did not work out. In general, life passed and did not bow,
like an angry neighbor."

Faina Ranevskaya

I am Faina Ranevskaya

* * *

Ranevskaya, unlike most other famous people, did not leave memoirs.

She was repeatedly offered to write memoirs and was even paid an advance. She started, quit and returned the money. Perhaps, she generally had a negative attitude towards memoirs, and when she was asked to write about Akhmatova, she replied that “there is also a posthumous execution, these are the memories of her “best” friends.”

And so it turned out that Ranevskaya’s full-fledged memoirs do not exist, there are only small excerpts - drafts, diary entries, letters, interviews. This is very sad, and not only because she had a lot of interesting things to say, but also because she had serious literary talent. She was a master of words and could express in a short, precise phrase what many would not be able to explain in a dozen sentences. She easily composed literary parodies and jokes, wrote poetry...

However, once Ranevskaya finally brought her book of memoirs to the end. She worked on it for three years, and then... destroyed it. In one private conversation, she said that no one would allow her to write the whole truth about herself, and she did not want to lie. Perhaps this uncompromisingness of hers was the point. And perhaps there were other reasons. We can only guess...

“I don’t want to write badly about myself. Okay - indecent. So, we must remain silent. Besides, I started making mistakes again, and this is shameful. It's like a bug on your shirtfront. I know the most important thing, I know that you have to give and not grab. So I live with this return. Memories are the wealth of old age.”

Faina Georgievna Ranevskaya was born in Taganrog in 1896 into the family of Girsh Khaimovich and Milka Rafailovna Feldman.

Of course, then her last name was also Feldman - she became Ranevskaya much later, when she chose her acting pseudonym.

Her father, Girsh Khaimovich Feldman, was a respected and influential man, he owned a chemical factory for the production of paints and over time became a very wealthy oil industrialist who had great weight in local commercial and industrial circles. In Taganrog he had a large two-story house in which he lived with his family, several apartment buildings, shops, and even the steamship “St. Nicholas”.

The Feldman family had four children - the eldest daughter Bella, son Yakov, daughter Faina and the youngest son Lazar, who died as a child. The house in which they lived has been preserved to this day, and in 2008, a monument to Faina Ranevskaya in the role of Lyalya from the film “Foundling” was erected near it. However, she herself left her father’s house even before the revolution and then never came there again.

When Faina Georgievna Ranevskaya was asked to write an autobiography, she began like this: “I am the daughter of a poor oil industrialist...”

Faina's childhood was not happy.

“I remember my bitter resentment towards everyone around me in my lonely childhood,” she said. At first glance, it is not clear what the matter was, because her family was quite wealthy and moderately loving.

Faina's loneliness was not physical, but psychological - she had a too delicate sensitive nature, and she did not find friends or generally like-minded people among those who surrounded her. She recalled that she first felt unhappy at the age of six, when she saw poor tortured animals in a visiting menagerie. They made everyone else laugh, but she cried...

In addition, she stuttered, and in childhood this is a terrible misfortune. Children are cruel, and little Faina has had enough of the ridicule of her classmates. And the teachers were not distinguished by their delicacy and patience. And so it turned out that the girl did not feel happy and protected either at home or at the gymnasium. This had a bad effect on her character - she became nervous, withdrawn, and almost stopped studying...

“A child from the first grade of school should be taught the science of loneliness.”

“...At the age of five I was vain and dreamed of receiving a medal for saving drowning people...

Now I keep medals and orders in a box where I scrawled: “Funeral supplies.”

Faina did not study at the gymnasium for long - she was soon expelled for poor academic performance. Although maybe her parents took her from there themselves.

In a letter to one of her friends, she later wrote: “I studied at the Mariinsky Women’s Gymnasium in Taganrog... It was very bad... I stayed for the second year... I hated the gymnasium... the four rules of arithmetic were not given, I solved problems, sobbing, not understanding anything about them. In the problem book... merchants sold cloth at a higher price than they bought it for! It wasn't interesting." She begged her parents to take her away from there; the gymnasium, in turn, also wanted to get rid of her, and pretty soon her parents transferred her to home education.

* * *

Ranevskaya, unlike most other famous people, did not leave memoirs.

“I don’t want to write badly about myself. Okay - indecent. So, we must remain silent. Besides, I started making mistakes again, and this is shameful. It's like a bug on your shirtfront. I know the most important thing, I know that you have to give and not grab. So I live with this return. Memories are the wealth of old age.”

Faina Georgievna Ranevskaya was born in Taganrog in 1896 into the family of Girsh Khaimovich and Milka Rafailovna Feldman.

Of course, then her last name was also Feldman - she became Ranevskaya much later, when she chose her acting pseudonym.

When Faina Georgievna Ranevskaya was asked to write an autobiography, she began like this: “I am the daughter of a poor oil industrialist...”

Faina's childhood was not happy.

“A child from the first grade of school should be taught the science of loneliness.”

“...At the age of five I was vain and dreamed of receiving a medal for saving drowning people...

Now I keep medals and orders in a box where I scrawled: “Funeral supplies.”

Faina did not study at the gymnasium for long - she was soon expelled for poor academic performance. Although maybe her parents took her from there themselves.

However, at home Faina received an education no worse than a gymnasium - she was taught reading, arithmetic, foreign languages, music, and of course good manners, sewing and home economics, as befits a girl from a decent patriarchal family. True, the quality of this education left much to be desired; the father believed that the main thing for a woman was to get married successfully, so he paid little attention to what and how his daughter was taught. And so it turned out that Faina learned everything she might need in life herself, already an adult.

“Damned nineteenth century, damned upbringing: I can’t stand when men are sitting.”

“Family replaces everything. Therefore, before you get one, you should think about what is more important to you: everything or family.”

Faina Ranevskaya “fell ill” with theater, stage acting, and acting in early childhood.

Already at the age of three, she acted out scenes with her dolls, and assigned a role to each, like a real director. As she grew older, she imitated everyone who caught her eye, happily playing role after role. And she gained her first real, albeit amateur, theatrical experience at the age of eight, staging and performing with puppet artists the famous children's play “Petrushka.”

Ranevskaya said that “Petrushka” was the number one shock of her childhood. The second shock was an excerpt from some color film (apparently hand-colored). Twelve-year-old Faina watched the beautiful love story with bated breath, and then ran home, broke her piggy bank and gave the money to the neighboring children - so she wanted to do something big and beautiful after seeing the beauty.

Ranevskaya performed at one of the literary and theatrical evenings. During the discussion, a girl of about sixteen asked:

– Faina Georgievna, what is love?

Ranevskaya thought and said:

Ranevskaya inherited the tendency to fall passionately in love with people, regardless of whether they are real, fictional, or even died many years ago, from her mother.

One of the first memories of her childhood was the death of Chekhov. She forever remembered the beautiful summer morning and her mother sobbing sadly over the newspaper. Frightened Faina cried with her, and then found the first Chekhov book she came across and read it. It turned out to be “A Boring Story,” which made such an impression on her that Ranevskaya later wrote, remembering the moment when she closed the book: “This was the end of my childhood. I understood everything about human loneliness.”

A few years later, she again heard her mother’s screams and sobs: “How can I live now? He is no longer there. It’s all over, everything is gone, conscience is gone...” This time another writer she adored, Leo Tolstoy, died. Milka Feldman took his death so hard that she fell ill for a long time.

That’s how Faina Ranevskaya later loved someone, just like that, with complete dedication. This is how she loved her friends, and this is how she loved Tolstoy and Pushkin - with all the passion, with all the spiritual strength of which she was capable.

“...At night I almost always read Pushkin...If I met him, I would tell him how wonderful he is, how we all remember him, how I live by him all my long life...Then I fall asleep and I dream of Pushkin! He walks with a cane along Tverskoy Boulevard. I run to him and scream. He stopped, looked, bowed and said: “Leave me alone, old b... I’m so tired of you with your love.”

“I loved, I admire Akhmatova. Her poems became part of my blood from a young age,” Ranevskaya wrote in her diary.

And it was the honest truth. Akhmatova’s poems, and then she herself, entered Ranevskaya’s life so firmly that it is now impossible to imagine them without each other. A great poetess and a great actress - they were inextricably linked until the end of their lives.

Their friendship really began in Tashkent, during the Great Patriotic War, but they met much earlier. Ranevskaya then, according to her own recollections, was still Faina Feldman and lived in Taganrog. She read Akhmatova’s poems, fell in love with them and firmly decided to meet the poetess. I went to St. Petersburg, found Akhmatova’s apartment and rang the doorbell.

“Anna Andreevna herself opened it to me,” she recalled. “I think I said: “You are my poet,” I apologized for my impudence. She invited me into the rooms. She gave me friendship until the end of her days.” Akhmatova then asked Faina: “Are you writing?” But she replied: “I never tried. There can’t be too many poets.” Perhaps, from this phrase, Akhmatova took a closer look at her, singling out an unusual girl from among her many admirers.

“It’s amazing, when I was twenty years old, I only thought about love. Now I only like to think.”

In 1910, Faina met the famous actress Alisa Koonen.

At that time, Koonen was very young, played at the Art Theater and was already quite famous both in Moscow and abroad. They met Faina Feldman in Yevpatoria, where Alisa was visiting her brother, the head doctor of a tuberculosis sanatorium.

As for Faina, she was then fourteen years old, and she was literally in love with Koonen - she came to Yevpatoria specifically to meet her and accompanied her idol everywhere.

Five years later, when Faina had already moved to Moscow and was trying to become an actress, Koonen was already the prima singer of the recently opened Chamber Theater under the direction of Alexander Yakovlevich Tairov.

Ranevskaya adored this theater, went to all the performances there and dreamed of someday playing there herself. “I was lucky enough to be at the play “Sakuntala”, which opened the Chamber Theater...” she wrote several decades later. – The role of Sakuntala was played by Alisa Koonen. Since then, whenever I came to Moscow (at that time I was an actress in provincial theaters), I invariably visited the Chamber Theater and remained devoted to this theater, reviewing its entire repertoire.”

In 1913, young Faina Feldman made her first attempt to conquer Moscow.

She begged her parents for some money, went to the capital and began to visit theaters in the hope of finding a job there. But alas, the attempt failed. As always, there were many who wanted to become actresses, and the future great Ranevskaya at that time could not yet present anything special to be noticed. She had no experience, no decent education, and besides, she was so worried that she began to stutter again. It got to the point that she was directly told that she was professionally unsuited for the theater, it was better for her to give up this idea and do something else, not to waste either her own or anyone else’s time.

Faina had to return home without eating, as her father demanded. True, even here there were some oddities that haunted her all her life. Her parents transferred money to her for the trip, but when she left the post office with them, the wind tore the banknotes from her hands and carried them away. Everything seemed to be against her becoming an actress.

But after the first failure, Faina did not lose heart; on the contrary, her determination to become an actress only strengthened.

Returning home to Taganrog, she passed exams at the gymnasium as an external student and began attending a theater studio. There she learned to move on stage, speak correctly, and cope with stuttering.

However, amateur performances are one thing, and a completely different thing is the professional stage. Her parents were not against Faina’s passion for the theater, but they were not going to allow her to associate herself with the stage all her life. For her part, she had already decided everything, and was ready to even go into open conflict with her father.

In 1915 she went to Moscow again. Where she got the money for this, one can only guess, because her father definitely didn’t give her anything. Although, to tell the truth, even if he had come to terms with her choice of profession, he would not have been able to provide serious material assistance. During the First World War, his affairs were greatly shaken, and there was not much time left before he left both Taganrog and Russia forever.

In 1915, Moscow again greeted Faina unkindly. But this time she was helped by chance - a fateful meeting with Ekaterina Vasilievna Geltser.

Money was melting away at an alarming rate, but there was no income. The only part-time job she managed to find was participating in a circus extras, but they paid little for it, and most importantly, this work was extremely irregular. Then Ranevskaya recalled: “Failures did not break my decision to be on stage: with difficulty I found a job in a private theater school, which I was forced to leave due to the inability to pay for lessons.” And without money in Moscow there was no opportunity not only to study, but also to live - you had to pay for a rented room, so Faina soon found herself on the street.

The situation was hopeless, and even to return home (which she did not even want to think about) there was still no money.

And then almost a miracle happened! The famous ballerina Ekaterina Vasilyevna Geltser, passing by, drew attention to the girl sobbing near the columns of the Bolshoi Theater. She took pity on the crying girl and invited her to spend the night.

This chance meeting marked the beginning of a forty-year friendship between Ekaterina Geltser and Faina Ranevskaya.

Faina became friends with Ekaterina Geltser right away.

They turned out to have an amazing kinship of souls, and even in their directness and eccentricity they were very similar to each other. Geltser was smart, caustic, witty and had a habit of calling things by their proper names. This shocked many, but of course not Ranevskaya; on the contrary, she only admired it.

Ekaterina Vasilievna told Faina a lot about the backstage of the Moscow theater, mockingly calling the Moscow bohemia nothing more than a “gang.” She introduced her to her friends, took her to performances at the Moscow Art Theater, and then they went to the Yar restaurant, where they listened to the singing of real gypsies. “Gelzer showed me all of Moscow in those years,” Ranevskaya later recalled. – These were “My Universities”.

Why did the young provincial girl captivate the famous ballerina so much? Probably due to her brightness, youth and determination - Ekaterina Geltser sincerely admired her protégé and loved to say in her inimitable style: “...How phenomenally young you are, how phenomenally lucky you are!” And when Ranevskaya became a famous actress, Geltser not only did not experience envy or feelings of rivalry, but, on the contrary, fell in love with her even more, and repeated more than once how proud she was that they were friends.

Once in Moscow, Faina sincerely enjoyed life and devoted all her time to the theater.

She was young and full of hope, so her first professional failures did not shake her cheerfulness and faith in the future. In addition, thanks to her acquaintance with Ekaterina Geltser, she immediately found herself in the thick of Moscow bohemian life and saw with her own eyes many celebrities of that time, including, for example, Vladimir Mayakovsky himself.

Of course, for now she was just an enthusiastic observer, before whose eyes the lives of famous artists, writers and musicians unfolded. But she was only twenty years old, and she knew that she still had everything ahead of her.

And every evening Faina went to the theater. Of course, she had no money, but it was not for nothing that she became one of the greatest actresses of the 20th century. And then she penetrated the best theaters in Moscow thanks to her as yet unrecognized talent. She approached the administrator’s window, made an innocently pitiful face and said soulfully that she was a provincial actress who had never been to a good theater in her life. The administrators believed her and, out of pity, let her watch the great actors play.

True, such a trick could be performed in each theater only once - Ranevskaya’s face was too memorable, and the second time she was already recognized.

Also in 1915, Ranevskaya met Marina Tsvetaeva.

They met, of course, thanks to Ekaterina Geltser, who had the habit of taking Faina with her everywhere and introducing her to her friends and acquaintances.

With Tsvetaeva, Ranevskaya did not have that deep, tender affection that connected her with Wulf, Geltser or Akhmatova, but nevertheless, they became friends and then communicated for many years and even confided secrets to each other that they could not tell everyone. For example, she knew much more than many about Tsvetaeva’s relationship with the poetess Sofia Parnok - a relationship that caused condemnation from society, but did not shock the then very young Ranevskaya at all. She respected any love, and sympathized with the “Russian Sappho,” as Parnok was called.

From Tsvetaeva she learned to always respect creativity, even if it does not look very clear and even funny. “Once such a meeting took place,” she recalled, “during the Civil War, while walking along the embankment of Feodosia, I came across some strange, absurd girl who was offering her writings to passers-by. I took a notebook and leafed through the poems. They seemed awkward to me, not very understandable, and the girl herself was askew. I laughed and returned her creation to the owner. And walking further, I suddenly noticed Tsvetaeva, turning pale with anger, and heard her indignant voice: “How dare you, Faina, how dare you talk to a poet like that!”

Ranevskaya’s first decent job in Moscow was found by the same Ekaterina Geltser - she recommended her to the Summer Theater in Malakhovka.

This theater in the dacha village of Malakhovka, where the entire flower of Moscow bohemia vacationed in the summer, was built by the wealthy theatergoer Pavel Alekseevich Sokolov. During the summer season, life was in full swing there - in the evenings the most sophisticated audience came to the performances. And it is not surprising, because Chaliapin, Sobinov, Nezhdanova, Vertinsky sang on the stage of the Summer Theater, and such famous actors as Yablochkina, Sadovskaya, Koonen, Ostuzhev, Tarkhanov played in dramatic performances.

Faina was taken there for episodic roles, but despite the fact that she had to play nothing at all, and they paid pennies for it, she was completely happy. The main thing is that working in this theater became an excellent school for her, where she learned stagecraft from the best Russian actors. And not only watched them, but also played with them on the same stage. But just recently they told her that “she is not fit to be an artist.”

But the most important event of the “Malakhov season” for Faina Ranevskaya was her acquaintance with Illarion Nikolaevich Pevtsov.

Remembering him, she always said that he did not act, but lived in his roles and each time he really died on stage.

Ranevskaya later called this outstanding artist her first teacher. However, he was like that not only for her - he loved young people very much, and after the performance he often took long walks in the company of young actors and actresses. He talked with them about nature and theater, explained that a real artist must be an educated person, must be well versed in literature, painting, music, and must love nature. Ranevskaya forever remembered how he enthusiastically told the young actors: “My friends, dear young men, travel in your free time, and you should only have a toothbrush in your pocket. Watch, observe, learn."

Pevtsov became more than just a friend and teacher for Ranevskaya - he restored her inner faith in herself, in her talent, and again helped her to believe that she would definitely become a real actress.

In Malakhovka, Ranevskaya was lucky enough to meet the great Russian theater actress Olga Osipovna Sadovskaya.

She was already over sixty, she was very famous, had the title of Honored Artist of the Imperial Theaters and continued to play leading roles on stage, despite the fact that she could not walk for health reasons. As it turned out, this is not a hindrance for a real artist; the audience received her with a bang: Kukushkina in “Profitable Place”, Apollinaria Antonovna in “Handsome Man” and Domna Panteleevna in “Talents and Admirers”. It was by watching her that Ranevskaya realized how important good diction and the ability to control her voice are for an actress.

And they met personally by chance - one fine sunny day Ranevskaya sat on a bench near the theater, where some old woman was already sitting. And then some person passing by respectfully said: “Hello, Olga Osipovna.”

Ranevskaya jumped with delight, and the surprised Sadovskaya stopped dozing and asked her why she was jumping like that. She explained that it was out of delight - because she was sitting next to such a great actress. Sadovskaya laughed and asked who she was and what she did - and that’s how their acquaintance began.

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