Favorite of the Soviet people and their leaders!
January 26, 1975, the heart of the brilliant actress Lyubov Petrovna Orlova stopped beating.
Having grown up in a noble environment, having received a good general and musical education, Orlova successfully played on stage and in the movies of Soviet Cinderella. The audience didn’t even think that the performer of Anyuta in the “Jolly Fellows”, Duni in the “Volga-Volga” or Tanya in the “Bright Way” - the hereditary noblewoman in the fourth generation.
Love, especially in the Stalin era, preferred not to spread about her ancestors. And without them, her biography had enough “spots” for which for a long time it was possible to go to “places not so distant”. Fortunately, for the authorities, she was largely associated with her on-screen heroines, so the actresses looked through the fingers at the "sins of youth" of their beloved people.
But in our time lovers appeared to delve into the ancestors of Lyubov Orlova, who published many tales. The founders of this kind of Orlov even tried to introduce the famous Decembrist General Mikhail Orlov. In fact, everything is much simpler.
The noble family of the Orlovs is relatively young. Its ancestor is Peter Mikhailovich Orlov, a native of a family of the clergy. After graduating from the Medical-Surgical Academy in 1826, he served as a military doctor, having served the hereditary nobility. His son, Fedor Petrovich, also a former military physician, but a veterinarian, rose to the rank of real state adviser (in the army he was assigned to major general).
Lyubov’s father, Pyotr Fedorovich, began to serve in the army as a volunteer, with great difficulty he graduated from the cadet school (he was expelled and restored several times), having received the rank of standard-cadet upon graduation. Only a year and a half later, he was promoted to officer rank of cornet and immediately retired to the reserve. He served as an official in the military department, was involved in monitoring the construction of railways and bridges. In January 1917 he was introduced to the rank of state adviser, but whether he received it is not known. Pyotr Fedorovich was undoubtedly not without talents, but passion, like many Russian nobles, managed to lose three inherited estates into cards.
The mother of Lyubov Orlova, Evgenia Nikolaevna Sukhotina, came from an old noble family, her father was a lieutenant general, and one of the relatives was married to the daughter of Leo Tolstoy, Tatyana. The Orlov family found themselves in wide kinship and friendship among artists. Peter Fedorovich, who had a pleasant voice, sang at home concerts with Chaliapin and Sobinov, and Evgenia Nikolaevna, who played the piano well, accompanied him. The Orlovs repeatedly visited Chaliapin’s country house in Ratukhino, where Lyuba could meet many famous people. The creative environment in which the girl grew up could not but affect her choice of life. When the revolutionary confusion began to subside, Luba entered the conservatory in 1919, where she studied in the piano class, but she was not destined to finish her studies. I had to think about my daily bread. There were no special savings in the family, and a small estate (dowry of the mother), of course, was selected. Lyuba found work in accordance with her abilities, she was a taper in cinemas and entertained the audience by playing the piano before the sessions, taught Nepman children dances and plastic. In parallel, I found time to study myself. She studied in a theater studio, took lessons in choreography, vocals, acting. In 1926, she got a job as a chorus girl, and after some time, an actress in the Musical Theater, led by V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko.
Beautiful and charming, Orlova has always enjoyed great success with men. But in the personal life of the actress, there was no luck. 1926 Lyubov Petrovna married Andrei Berzin, former deputy People’s Commissar of Agriculture. But in 1930, the spouse was arrested and sent into exile. At that time, they still hadn’t been shot, though he was lucky then and upon repeated arrest in 1938, he was given 8 years — at that time, it was only threatened with a finger.
Her next attempt to arrange her personal life was, according to Soviet concepts, completely seditious - a civil marriage with a German impresario. It lasted about a year, then the chosen one and the trace caught a cold. But the next serious hobby and the marriage that followed was quite decent by Soviet standards.
Her chosen one, filmmaker Grigory Alexandrov, came from a working-class family, the films that he made glorified the mighty tread of socialist construction. Even the “Great Leader and Teacher” himself sometimes gave him wise advice on how and what kind of movie to shoot. It is believed that it was Stalin who advised making a funny Soviet comedy film, indirectly predetermining the meeting between Alexandrov and Orlova.
When the script for the comedy was ready, Alexandrov began to look for the actress for the main role. The requirements were strict, she should not just be a good actress, but be able to sing and dance. Naturally, external appeal is a must.
The artists Kukryniksy (according to other sources, the artist Pyotr William) advised me to watch the game of Lyubov Orlova in the musical theater at the Moscow Art Theater. Alexandrov went to the performance of "Perikola". Seeing Orlova’s brilliant game, he realized that this was the actress he was looking for. An acquaintance took place, a creative community began, which soon grew into love.
Lyubov Petrovna by this time already had the experience of participating in filming. She starred in a cameo role in the film "Alena's Love", and then in the role of Grushenka in the film "St. Petersburg Night" by Grigory Roshal. But they made her a famous actress "Cheerful Guys" Alexandrova. The film splashing fun came out in the last days of 1934. It is from him that you can count the time of the appearance of the tradition of releasing a good comedy for the New Year.
Since that time, an actress appeared on the screens of the country, which the people sincerely loved, whom I was waiting for meetings with. Alexandrov later recalled that time: “How she was met everywhere, wherever she appeared! As a native, as a welcome, as a daughter and sister. The popular character of her heroines, her simplicity, her human charm, her enormous artistic culture, have long and firmly in the eyes of many people created a very real ideal of the Soviet film actress. "
Soon the Circus and Volga-Volga appeared on the screens.
The popularity of Orlova was growing rapidly. But the situation in the country did not allow calmly resting on its laurels and enjoying fame.
The reasons for concern were very real. In the second half of the 30s, the country was literally swept by a shaft of repression. Fortunately, Stalin himself favored Orlova, and the authorities did not even try to start a business. But, probably, it was tempting: the former husband - if not the “enemy of the people", then an obvious henchman, the former civil husband - undoubtedly a spy, and if you add to this the noble past and dubious connections that the intelligentsia has always had, at least five or six articles can be hung up without difficulty, you don’t even need to invent anything special.
Perhaps, not without the influence of these circumstances, Olga Petrovna starred in the film directed by A. Macheret, “The error of the engineer Kochin,” in the role of a repentant foreign intelligence agent, who took the path of helping the valiant NKVD officers. The script was frankly weak, but the ideological "correctness" of the film was not in doubt.
After that, Lyubov Petrovna starred in only 12 films, including a combat movie collection in 1941. Her last movie work was the role of the Soviet intelligence agent in Aleksandrov’s film “Starling and Lyra,” which never appeared on the screens.
In 1941, for her roles in the films “Circus” and “Volga-Volga”, Orlova became a laureate of the Stalin Prize - an event at that time very significant. She received another prize in 1950, at which time she became the People's Artist of the USSR. Actively acting in films, Lyubov Petrovna continued until the beginning of the 60s, then chose to work in the theater.
Performances with the participation of unfading Orlova always went with full houses.
Despite a serious illness, the actress continued to work, responding to the love of the audience with a brilliant game on the stage. Unfortunately, to stop the progression of the disease, medicine was powerless. January 26, 1975, the heart of the beloved actress of millions, unfading Lyubov Petrovna Orlova, stopped. They buried her at the Novodevichy cemetery. And films with her participation continue to live and will long delight the audience.