Vkontakte Anatoly Vasiliev. Anatoly Vasiliev: "It seems to me that a Russian artist must be an Orthodox person" (1988)

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Anatoly Alexandrovich Vasiliev (born 1942) is a Soviet and Russian theater director, teacher, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation, creator of the School of Dramatic Art. Below is his conversation with Andrei Borodin. The text is given according to the edition: "Continent", 1988. No. 58.

Anatoly Alexandrovich, first I have an almost personal request to you: so that I don’t raise the whole heap of those dedicated to you in recent times in the domestic, and in the world press articles in search of your biographical data, please tell us about yourself.

I was born in evacuation in the village of Danilovka, Penza Region, in 1942. This area turned out to be significant for me later. Meyerhold was born in Penza, and in the village where I was born, the famous folk singer Ruslanova was born. I spent my childhood in different cities. From the evacuation, my parents returned to Orel, then I lived in Baku (still as a child), then for quite a large part of my life - in Tula. I studied there from first to fourth grade. Then we moved to Rostov-on-Don. In Rostov, I finished school, the chemical department of the university and was supposed to become a chemist, studied in graduate school. But I left graduate school and went to Novokuznetsk - it was the 63rd year. In January 1964 I started working there as a chemist. Then I served in the army, although I graduated from the university (it was not an easy service in Kazakhstan). Then he went to the Far East. Worked for Far East sailor of the civil fleet, went to pacific ocean. He returned to Rostov and stayed there for about a year. In 1968, I came to Moscow and entered a theater university, since then I have been living in the capital, not leaving it for a long time.

He graduated from high school with two very prominent teachers: Andrey Popov and Maria Osipovna Knebel. I staged my first performance there - it was my thesis based on Arbuzov's play "Tales of the Old Arbat". I staged my first professional performance within the walls of the Moscow Art Theater, with Oleg Efremov. It was a play called "Solo for Chilling Clocks", in which the old Mkhatovites played. For some time I worked at the Moscow Art Theater, and then left it. We somehow said goodbye to Efremov - it would be more correct to say that he said goodbye to me, although, in general, it was mutual. For some time I traveled, went to Rostov-on-Don, staged a performance in an operetta - a musical. He returned to Moscow, worked at the Stanislavsky Theater, Lenin Komsomol, then at the Taganka Theater ... Now I work in my own theater.

Today's surge theater life in Moscow is connected, in my opinion, in many respects with socially critical performances. For example, on a recent theater festival theater in Munich Yermolova brought the play "Speak" about the collective farm of the post-Stalin era with a good, newly arrived secretary of the district committee, the Moscow Youth Theater showed a staging of Bulgakov's story " dog's heart"- three years ago this work was simply banned in the USSR, the theater. Lenin Komsomol - the sensational "Dictatorship of Conscience" in its time. Your work is less connected with the topic of the day, so if the Yermolova Theater and the Youth Theater can write off their recent unpopularity for years of stagnation, then maybe you, remembering the recent past, can simply sum up some works, creative successes ... Let's say, over the past ten years.

In Avignon, during a recent tour of our theater, a press conference was organized by the newspaper La Croix, and when I said there that all of today's theater, whatever it is, good and bad, was prepared during the period of the previous general secretary, during the Brezhnev period , then the French thought, and Antoine Vitez even repeated several times: look, Vasilyev is right, as we supposedly did not take into account. Well, what is there to consider, everything is clear. It is clear that this period prepared both theater and literature. Someone left - emigration was strong, but someone stayed. In 1977, after the Moscow Art Theater, I came to the Stanislavsky Theater with my teacher Andrei Popov. In November 1977 I started rehearsing, and in 1978 the first premiere came out. This was the first version of Vassa Zheleznova, the text of the 1910 edition. In the 79th year, "Adult Daughter ..." came out. In 1981 we began to leave the Stanislavsky Theatre, and that year I no longer worked there. In 1980 I was supposed to release a play about Alexander Ulyanov - I deliberately started rehearsing a play about terror.

It was written by a then young playwright - now 10 years have already passed - Alexander Remez, with whom I was friends. And Sasha, on my order, wrote a play about the Ulyanov family, about what happened in the Russian family a century ago. How it was reborn and changed under the influence of all kinds of processes... In 1980, this performance was not released, and in 1981 it was already released at the Moscow Theater Academy, where I was only the artistic director of the performance. It was released by Valery Sarkisov, a student of Marya Osipovna Knebel. The story was simple: when I left the Stanislavsky Theater and “travelled, wandered” around Moscow, Oleg Efremov, with whom I was very friendly and whom, despite any slander against him, nor how we have been lately treated each other, I love, then asked me to open the Small Stage of the Art Theater, said: “Tolya, come on, do it, well, do it.”

And I agreed, but not as a director, but only as an artistic director. In the 81st year, on March 1, on the day of the centenary of the assassination of Alexander II by Narodnaya Volya, there was a premiere. It was an inconspicuous premiere, but very important for me. The situation with revolutionary terror, in those years, and even now, is not very popularized in our country. There was a certain period in my life when I consciously turned to this topic, to the topic of terror. At the same time, we conceived a play based on Yuri Davydov's novel about Degaev. I somehow circled around this topic. And in the end, in the 81st year, a performance was released, which I kind of gave away. I gave the text, development, layout, as if I had just signed. I felt more comfortable that way.

- But do you have any creative pleasure from this work?

No, I just had obligations to the author. In general, I try to maintain a very decent relationship with the authors. When we started working at the Stanislavsky Theater, many young authors gathered around us, and they believed me very much. I loved them and they wrote plays for me.

Yes, although he is a little older ... Therefore, when, due to circumstances for which it was not my fault, I had to leave the theater, I felt guilty in front of these people: it turned out that I, as it were, were leaving them. And then I decided for myself to return the play to the author at all costs. And therefore, just as it was natural for me not to continue this work when I left the Stanislavsky Theater, it was just as natural to complete it when the Moscow Art Theater offered it to me. I handed it over and I think I did the right thing, because I gave a hand to my fellow director, a graduate. I can say that my relationship with these authors did not end there. There remained one more play, the premiere of which took place 10 years after the author, Andrey Kuternitsky, from Leningrad, brought it to me. This performance was released in Riga, the play is called "Variations of the Fairy Dragee" - this is about Leningrad. The performance has been running for two years and was also made by my student, but I was the director there. This is my performance, my directing student started it, and I finished it.

- Let's fill the resulting vacuum, from the 81st to the 86th year.

Those were very busy years. It seems to me that I did everything in them that worked out or did not work out, but thanks to which I survived and how I still live. These were some painful years for me - they insulted me, they wrote that I was not doing anything, that, they say, I was arrogant, and so on and so forth. You know, as long as I live, the same thought haunts me so much that criticism knows nothing. She practically does not know the life of the theater, which she should know. Quite recently, just before a trip to Austria, I read in Sovetskaya Kultura that Vasiliev went to the basement and, it seems, does not want to get out of there ... The very phrase “does not want to get out of there” is worth something! .. I I can list what I have done since I left the Stanislavsky Theatre. In the 79th year, the premiere " adult daughter...”, and my next premiere came out only in the 85th year. Six years my name did not appear on posters. Over the years, I have made The Picture of Dorian Gray on the radio - this is a very large program and very important for me, this is a whole stage in my life. I worked on it for almost two years. Anyone who knows what radio is will understand that this is incredible. Moreover, after half a year they were going to close it, simply throw it away, let's call it that, because of the harmfulness of my character or the harmfulness of those who worked on the radio. The transmission came out thanks to a miracle.

One and a half episodes of “Adult Daughter ... They didn’t let me finish it in any way, I returned to this work several times, and now I can’t release it on the screen for lack of time. This is a television version of the performance, and I showed it at the festival in Munich, however, under a different name: “Road to Chitana”. Further, I rehearse Beckett's play "On Happy Days" with Maria Ivanovna Babanova, who played with Meyerhold and was his "star". The famous actress, a miracle, not an actress was. The play was rehearsed at Maria Ivanovna's house. We were about to go to the studio, for a rehearsal at the microphone, in order to go to the hall later: Maria Ivanovna falls ill and dies. I am rehearsing King Lear with Andrey Popov. In 1983 Andrey Popov dies. Now the Taganka Theatre. Lyubimov is leaving for another production in the West, and I am helping him rehearse Boris Godunov. I rehearsed for three months, and upon Lyubimov's return, I handed over the fruits of my efforts to him and, naturally, was already busy with other work.

With the actors, within the walls of the Taganka Theater, we rehearse the first version of Vassa Zheleznova, hand it over to the Department of Culture and play a performance. In the same years, I start rehearsing the play "Serso". Since 1981, I have been teaching on a course with Efros. I am rehearsing "Duck Hunt" by Vampilov, "Woe from Wit" by Griboyedov. These are all detailed developments, and this is all done in the "years of stagnation". For three years we have been rehearsing the play Serso, and in 1985 the premiere comes out. Three years of work with the author, three years life together with actors. We are writing a screenplay for the film studio "Mosfilm" - a dramatization of Vitaly Semin's story "Seven in the same house", about Rostov. We have been writing for almost two years, finishing, and the script is put on the shelf, the shooting does not start.

Anatoly Aleksandrovich, how important is the final result for you in general - a performance or a filmed film?

You know, I think it’s right that everything turned out like that for me in those years. Any artist must do a lot, but fate takes away little. When we were rehearsing the play "Serso", I was preparing a four-act performance, and on the eve of the premiere I threw out one dance act, all built on jazz dance, where there was still big story, connected with the story about Paul I: the murder of Paul I, a scene from Merezhkovsky's play "Paul the First". We rehearsed this act for two and a half years - for me, its loss meant almost the loss of the performance itself. The genre was changed, something for which I lived for four years ...

- Was it ordered from above?

No, it’s me, it’s just that the actors didn’t have enough strength to play the whole performance. I didn't have the strength to pull it through. No, for all these years, censorship has not thrown out a single word from my performances. Can you imagine! They didn’t close the performances, they didn’t throw out my words. Of course, they made some claims against me, like everyone else, but the matter ended with the fact that everything remained. There was, perhaps, some kind of struggle, and even then it was not led by me, but by Andrey Popov.

- And yet your goal is a performance?

You know, directing, as a rule, does not engage in a performance when it has already been released. And this is a separate chapter or even a whole book about how to save a performance and what it is - a director and actors, a director and a performance. I'll tell you now: "Six characters in search of an author", a play that we brought to Austria, in total we rehearsed for a month. Twice for fifteen days. “Serso” I rehearsed for three years, and this one for a month! I assembled the entire performance in one night and showed it to the public. But now, when we were in Austria, and then went on tour, I rehearsed this play every day for eight hours, like in a ballet. Eight hours to play the evening play. And I never let go of the performance that I put on. I believe that when a performance is released, then the struggle for it begins, life begins with it. And although the performance is finished, it is finished just like a person is finished, it is constantly evolving, it lives, and everything influences it. And then it's flour. To release a performance is to begin to suffer. Are there happy moments at work?.. You know, I don't even remember them. No, of course, I also have happy periods - maybe in each performance there are two or three rehearsals. They remain in memory for almost a lifetime. Everything else is work.

What, then, did “perestroika” bring to you, what seems to you the most important among the changes that have already taken place?

I have already found some answer to this question, in my opinion, more or less fair. I think the only essential thing is that the artist could feel more worthy. If this self-esteem has been preserved in him, then now he can experience it freely. I'm not sure that a conversation on an equal footing is already beginning, I only know that those who really do art can now feel their dignity without fear. And what did perestroika bring to me personally?.. Firstly, the theater is allowed to me. Probably, I myself participated in this, probably, the story of my life developed in such a way that sooner or later, but in the end it was necessary to give the theater to “this type”. And my last departure from the Taganka Theater was an all-in game, although I myself seriously thought that it would be enough, that I would no longer work.

I acted abruptly, that is, I put the question unambiguously: either I will have a theater, or there will be no theater. And three days later they called me and offered to open a theater under my leadership. The theater is open and, in general, on ideal conditions. This is a city theater, and it is on a city subsidy. It is state-owned, so the Ministry of Culture helps the theater, the Union of Theater Workers helps the theater. The theater is open - and this is the only case in the country - as fully contractual. The repertoire is freely formed in the theater. I build it freely, that is, depending on the needs of the troupe, we play or not play a performance. At the theater I conduct pedagogical activity. These are two courses at the department at the State Institute of Theater Arts, but they are organized in such a way that they seem to “suck two queens”: they are both in GITIS and in the theater. The theater began to travel and travels a lot. And this is important.

- So many that it seems appropriate to ask: does the Moscow audience know your performances, your theater?

Me? My theater in Moscow?! Well, of course you are!

You say: “I left the Stanislavsky Theatre”, “I left the Taganka Theatre”... Could you clarify this a bit: with whom did the friction occur, with whom did you so inevitably come into conflict?

With artists, with my comrades... I don't know what it was, I don't want to tell. Let's just suppose that my comrades and I, together with my teacher, came to the Stanislavsky Theater. Exactly half a year later, the son of Georgy Alexandrovich Tovstonogov, Alexander Tovstonogov, came to the theater. At first he was on the rights of the next director, then he became the main one. During this period, when he was between the next and the main, my comrades left the theater, and I also left. I asked him then, and I want to ask him now: why did he come there? He understood everything perfectly. Theater actors knew why they called him. Now they are complaining, although in general they should not complain. Previously, the theater was in a very poor condition, now Alexander Georgievich copes with it. But, nevertheless, with his arrival, about 15 people are the most best artists- left the theater Stanislavsky.

- And what happened to Taganka?

With Taganka, the story was more complicated. After all, I was invited to the theater by Lyubimov. I was already wandering around Moscow then, some theaters invited me to work, but I refused because they invited me not with actors, but I wanted to be with the troupe. And Yuri Petrovich suggested this to me. We started working, then the autumn of 1983 came, Lyubimov did not return. A commotion broke out in the theatre. I was waiting for someone to come. Then comes Efros. With Efros I was just in friendly relations I was a teacher on his course. Exactly six months later, quite strong friction began between me and Efros. And in 1985 the situation turned out to be insoluble. But the conflicts with Efros were purely creative, they were on the course, but I also taught the course at the same time. Let's call it creative conflict.

You worked at the Taganka Theater. How do you feel about Lyubov's dramatizations of The Master and Margarita and Houses on the Embankment? Yuri Lyubimov himself justified such a path (which, by the way, seemed to many obviously advantageous, because when a novel on the black market costs half the salary, the viewer of a performance based on this novel is provided) by the notorious weakness of Soviet drama, compared to prose. Now the Youth Theater has gained fame for itself by staging "Heart of a Dog" ...

Maybe because of my upbringing - I don't like staging. I don't like alterations. So far, I've only done dramaturgy. And only in the last two years, perhaps in connection with pedagogical activity I started writing literature. But I think I do it differently than others. At my theater I produced two evenings: the evening of Alexandre Dumas - the performance is called "Dumas" - and the evening of Dostoevsky, which is called "Vis-Avis" - and prepared a large performance based on Dostoevsky's novel "Demons". What it is? This is literature as it is written. They are practically chapters from a novel. A chapter is taken from the novel, not a single word is thrown out, and it is played in succession. You do not have a special article, and therefore I will tell approximately. The actors gather, a theme is given - suppose Dostoevsky - and a free choice is offered: please, whatever you want from Dostoevsky. Chapters are selected from the novel on one condition: the chapter is taken in its entirety and rehearsed in its entirety. Further, from this chaos of different chapters, a composition is compiled, and as the composition of the parts of the symphony turns into a symphonic thing and has a meaningful, complete character, it thereby turns into a performance. The last experience, with "Demons", is the most interesting for me. Practically we play all the chapters of the novel. Literally, this can be described by the phrase "enraged novel", but this definition came later.

- But after all, the novel is gigantic, how do you fit in, play at two in the evening?

I will now tell you how. We play on the top of our theater, in a former Moscow apartment, it has been vacated and now belongs to us (the theater itself is located downstairs in the basement). This is a multi-room apartment, it is more than 300 square meters, and we play in four rooms at the same time 4-5 chapters, non-stop, play once, then again. The audience is launched into the corridor and redistributed itself: everyone watches what they want, but since everything is repeated two or three times, the viewer practically sees all the scenes. The first section is a break, the second section is a break, the third section. The performance lasts about five hours, from the beginning of the novel to the end, so the last chapter, the murder of Shatov, completes the novel - no, there is also a "Conclusion" in the novel - it completes the performance. This is the most essential experience, the result of all my experience of relations with literature today.

But I haven't done the 4th part yet. In the beginning, I had a different structure, "linear": one act, two, three and four. And the last act was the chapter "At Tikhon's". But the performance has already been released, now in January I will gather my students, we will rehearse, and in February I will decide whether I will do the whole big performance or not. If I do, it will be played in some special hall, we will build a pavilion of 400-500 square meters. A special hall, a special pavilion with dressing rooms, with underground passages, with attics. A special tiered theater will be built, where the last chapter - the last part - should be played. If I do this, then the performance will employ about 30 first-class actors, it will be a specially rehearsed thing. And in the form in which it exists now, it has already been filmed. Everything was filmed completely, on two cameras, and fixed on "Audio" at each individual point of the apartment. There is a director's script. This is a big project.<...>

- "Sixties" and perestroika. As far as I know, a number of leaders of the Khrushchev thaw perceived the changes emerging in the country as their second youth ...

In the theatre, this is a special case. Firstly, I think that such directors as, first of all, Efremov and Efros (Tovstonogov and Lyubimov are not directly related to the “sixties”) did a lot to make the theater exist. You can't say bad things about them that they didn't do anything back then in the 1960s. And then the story took a turn. I came to the theater in 1973, it was the Moscow Art Theater. Subsequently, I worked with Efros, with Lyubimov, with Zakharov, and I can say how it ended. First of all, they, these directors, did not leave direct students, from hand to hand. The students who remained were, as it were, indirect, who sat in the hall, looked at the rehearsals, but did not communicate directly. Being engaged in the practice of the theater, I can say for sure that direct communication cannot be replaced by anything - this is the first thing. Second: the efforts of the sixties in the field of the theater, in general, turned out to be rather meaningless. Because in the process of time they had to object to their own ideas. Because after the idea of a fresh person came the idea of criticizing a stale person. And this idea has become quite powerful, many are tired of it, delayed.

Because terrible times were coming again, it was necessary to somehow attack. And their struggle was primarily in the nature of burning through, or something. I don't know how it is in literature, but in the theater... Well, what kind of second youth can there be if Efros is not there: a great director died in the fight against Taganka. Love abroad. Efremov is going through hard times at the Moscow Art Theater. He, perhaps, accomplished a feat by dividing the Moscow Art Theater and separating the grain from, how to say, from the chaff ... Perhaps this is the biggest thing he did. But there is also flip side medals - the actors raise a riot ... What kind of second youth is there !? In literature - I don't know, but in the theater it's definitely not.

You worked together with Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov, and recently, after all the upheavals, he visited Moscow, spent a week and a half there. Do you know anything about this?

Of course. Yuri Petrovich was at my theater on the eve of his departure. He came to us, and we met him with the whole team, with champagne. Even some Yugoslav magazine published material about this meeting, photos and information. Then we showed him excerpts from our performances, and I talked to him as best I could for two or three minutes. Yuri Petrovich was met in Moscow magnificently. I was at the dress rehearsal of "Boris Godunov" - what was happening in the hall! .. A huge number of people ... Of course, such honors, such fame, such delight, such recognition, I think he will not be able to see in the West. The West is dumb both to his life and to his fate, to his gray hairs. And this once again proves that the theater is a national thing.

As if parallel to this is the question of the existence to this day, despite the publication in the domestic periodicals of some émigré authors, the division of Russian culture. I am interested not so much in your attitude to this sad fact as in the valuable thing that you see in the work of Russian writers working in the West.

Well, the way I feel about it, I think it's understandable. It seems to me that I am a person who nevertheless occupies a certain position in the public life of the country. And I worked it out, I experienced it a few years ago. Thanks to the views that developed along with the development of this position, I began to work differently. First of all, I made sure that in my performances I eliminated the element of denial and, in general, any criticism, and thereby avoided compromises. I did not accept the ideology of compromise, which was very fashionable in its time, in the early seventies. Maybe because of the harmfulness of my character, I did not accept it, or I tried, but nothing worked out for me ... And then the time came when I deliberately stopped engaging in criticism. I want to reflect the world as it is, in terms of art. And when I began to do this, for the first time I felt light, I felt peace, and it became easy for me to speak. I could look at life from afar, at myself, assess the current situation, tell what is good and what is bad in it, and give people the opportunity, as it were, to be far away.

It began even before the rehearsals of the play "Serso", after "Adult Daughter ...". In the play "Serso" this was finally formulated. It tells about people who are on the edge, on the sidelines, away from the public, social, political life, but this does not mean that the play is not saturated with politics, no. It's just that everything in it is given on behalf of a person who looks at life from a height. And this is very important to me. All subsequent work I would like to do from this point of view. I return to your question. I am not very familiar with émigré literature. I simply could not read these books, although I did see something. A little, but enough to have an idea, to somehow navigate, because it is not necessary to read all the books, you can read two or three, and everything will become clear. So, my most valuable observations and impressions concern the preservation of the atmosphere in exile artistic creativity- in a word, in a sentence, in a paragraph, in a chapter ...

- Do you mean Nabokov?

Not only. Everything that preserves the roots of this mighty tree called “Russian artistic literature” is wonderful. And everything that squanders itself by turning literature into politics ... Then it does not matter which side this politics is from, right or left? From specific names... Perhaps, in my age, I like Aksenov the most. I saw his books "Paper Landscape" and "In Search of the Sad Baby". I haven't read Ostrov Krym and only partially heard it on the wave.

- Joseph Brodsky...

Well, he can no longer be called an emigrant! Joseph Brodsky is a poet, one cannot say magnificent, this is not enough! But after he got Nobel Prize, and after his poetry is published on the pages of our press, I cannot say that this is émigré literature. But when you asked the question, and when I started to answer, I had in mind, first of all, Joseph Brodsky. I did not name him only because his books are now open, and Aksenov's books are not very good. Brodsky even has a book being prepared by some publishing house.

- He published in America only in Russian six books of original poems and one play ...

I know marble. But if we read two books of poetry, that's enough.

There is, after all, émigré dramaturgy. Nabokov wrote several plays. Plays were written by Aksenov, Voinovich, Brodsky...

You know, I'm going to rehearse Aksyonov's play "Heron". It will be difficult. Someone will have to explain that this is a wonderful play. But I'm going to do it because the play is good, very good even. Gorenstein has a play "Berdichev". A magnificent play, I read it to the troupe before his emigration, about the Jews in Berdichev, a grandiose play. At one time I was going to rehearse. It is a pity that I did not return to it, and in general they do not return to it. You did not ask this question, although somehow they always ask if I am going to return to contemporary theme. After I rehearsed "Cerso", I somehow suddenly felt that everything I could say, I said. And from what I would like to rehearse from modern literature, in a modern topic, there are only two things left. I have already announced one - this is Andrei Bitov's novel "Pushkin's House", I will be doing a "Treatise on Art". I'm not going to rehearse a plot thing, but I'm going to do a sequel to Six Characters in Search of an Author in a sense. In general, now I am mainly engaged in the classics.

You know, I think why the topic “Serso” sounded so convincing in the West. Probably, simply no one could have expected that this kind of representation - as a text, as visual art, as a game of actors - could arise in the Soviet Union. They got used to the fact that there is emigre literature, there is dissident literature - everyone reads it, and suddenly something similar and, in general, not badly done appears in the Soviet Union. What I'm leading to: the most important thing for me is that everything that happens happens where I live. Because the theater is life from hand to hand. From my hands to the hands of others. Russian theater cannot exist abroad. Literature, perhaps, can, but the theater cannot. Theater is an exclusively national phenomenon. And when it exists there and is passed from hand to hand, then it has colossal power.

Which of the recent cultural events in the Soviet Union - the publication of a previously banned book, the rehabilitation of a once-stigmatized writer, a film that was taken off the shelf, a play that was allowed, etc. - made a special impression on you?

Unlike many people, my comrades and not my comrades, I do not consider everything that is happening now in our country a big event. I think it's normal, it's normal. It is a pity that this is only just beginning in our country, that the pages of our terrible history have been hushed up for so long. And in this sense, it is not the norm that people read all this avidly. I want to say that there has not been such an event in cultural life recently that would have had a strong effect on me. Subtle girlish feelings about the book she read, which she did not have time to read at 16 and read at 18, are deeply alien to me. Some kind of cultural event that reflects today, August 1988, in my country, where I live, and not over the hill. And if it were, I would say “it was, it worked”, but so far no significant events have taken place.

Almost from October 17th, the division of all prominent figures of that era was adopted according to the principle "accepted the revolution - did not accept the revolution." Now they ask the question differently: “if you believe in perestroika, you don’t believe in perestroika,” which, in my opinion, is the same bad tradition. Therefore, let's formulate the question in a different way: taking into account the political changes taking shape in the country today, what would you wish now to the Russian people, to people in the USSR in general?

I would like people who have been exposed to recently banned literature, little-known, previously banned pages of our history, so that they do not fall into hysterics. Not drunk. Not in a state of joyful affectation: finally, they say ... So that they get acquainted with this story as neutrally as a person gets acquainted with food at lunch on a weekday, no more, no less. Then these people can endure. And if they fail, it will turn into a catastrophe, a nightmare. And I don't think another nightmare can save people. You know, I am now starting to rehearse Pirandello's play "Today we are improvising." I'm considering the idea of improvisation and freedom in general. So there freedom, which at first exists as improvisation, gradually develops and becomes an element! Any relationship with freedom in the history of mankind, in the history of the existence of the planet in general - the cosmos! - have always been fraught with the most terrible disasters. So there must be something to regulate this liberation. People must be, I have already said, self-possessed, courageous for this act.

The last question is about the relationship with Christianity, with Orthodoxy, with the Church, if it's not difficult for you to talk about it...

Since childhood, I have not left any clear memories of the Church, of my relationship with her. I only remember that my grandmother threatened my mother that she would baptize me: I lived then in Tula, and the temple was not far from our house ... But I came to morality and the Spirit on my own. And I began to live a spiritual life, more or less complete, at a late age, when I was already over thirty. This was partly facilitated by my travels, and the fact that I still graduated from the university, changed professions, went to the Pacific Ocean, and so on. So after thirty years, I touched spiritual issues quite closely. And at the age of 40 it seemed to me that I could establish some kind of relationship with the Church and religion, with God, but I don’t think that these relationships would be of a truly religious nature: it would be dishonest, wrong, because since childhood I not so brought up, and the understanding of religion should still be inherited.

But I can say that I am a Christian. Otherwise, I wouldn't feel what I feel. It seems to me that I understand the peculiarities of the country in which I live, the peculiarities of Russia. It seems to me that I understand the nature of Russian literature, the nature of the Russian Spirit. And it seems to me that I am an Orthodox person. I just can't say that to the end, completely... I would like to be Orthodox, no doubt. It seems to me that a Russian artist must be an Orthodox person, but I cannot say the same about myself yet.

Name: Anatoly Vasilyev

Age: 70 years old

Place of Birth: Nizhny Tagil

Growth: 181 cm

The weight: 91 kg

Activity: theater and film actor

Family status: married

Anatoly Vasiliev - biography

Anatoly Vasiliev - famous and talented actor theater and cinema. His roles in cinema are always positive and carry a charge of energy and kindness. But few people realize that behind this kind and cheerful way lies a deep personality and an unusual fate. The biography of this actor is interesting to most fans of his theatrical and cinematic work.

Childhood years, the actor's family

Anatoly Vasiliev was born in 1946. He was born on November 6 in the city of Nizhny Tagil. His family was not simple, since his father at that time held a high leadership position in the city and was quite influential person. Anatoly's upbringing was mainly done by his mother, since his father worked constantly and rarely appeared at home. The mother of the future film actor did not work and was a housewife. But this did not stop her from having hobbies. She was very passionate about art: she adored music and theater.

In such an unusual atmosphere, a popular theater actor grew up for many years. Mom passed her passion on to her son.

Anatoly Vasiliev - education

Anatoly Vasiliev went to his first class in his native city - Nizhny Tagil, but he was soon forced to leave this school. In 1955, my father moved up his career ladder and was transferred to Bryansk. That's where the whole Vasiliev family was forced to move. So the future star actor had to go to study at a new school, but already in Bryansk. But the boy hardly felt the change.

Very soon he was able to get acquainted with all the guys, became practically the soul of their company. Here he began to attend the drama club. At the same time, his musical abilities are revealed. He learned to play the guitar, played well, imitating foreign bands.

When the exams were passed at school, and it was necessary to choose their further education, the father insisted that Anatoly go to study at the engineering college. He got into it educational institution but he did not like to study there at all. Studying was difficult for him, and he did not want to study anything. Therefore, after two years, he leaves the technical school and goes to the capital.

Vasilyev immediately upon arrival in Moscow submits documents to the Moscow Art Theater and soon becomes a student at the studio - school. He gets on a course to the famous Makarov. But the father was not happy with the choice of his son, since he still wanted Anatoly to become an engineer and stand firmly on his feet. But on the other hand, his mother supported him, proving to his father that their son had a real acting gift. In 1969, Anatoly Vasiliev successfully completed acting training and went to conquer the theaters of Moscow.

Anatoly Vasiliev - theatrical biography

A new and unusual page in the biography of Anatoly Vasiliev begins immediately after he graduates from theater courses. At first he enters the Theater of Satire, but after working there for five years and practically not getting the main roles, he is transferred to another theater. The theater became Soviet army. In it, he worked for twenty-two years, but already in 1995 he left him, choosing the theater of the Moscow City Council. It was in this theater that he was able to get many new and major roles. But most of all, he was given comedic roles.

Anatoly Vasiliev - movies

The debut in cinema with Anatoly Alexandrovich took place in 1978, when his famous director Sergei Bondarchuk invited to one of the roles. After that, almost immediately receives a large number of proposals in his acting activities. But his most delightful work is his role in the famous film "Crew", where he plays the main character Vladimir with a famous actor Leonid Filatov.

For a long time he was offered to play only heroes of the same character with an unfortunate fate. But all this changes dramatically in the nineties, when, unexpectedly for both him and the viewer, he is offered to play the role of a vampire.

But to the younger generation of viewers, he was remembered for the role of Yuri Nikolaevich in the TV series "Matchmakers", which is constantly broadcast on television and enjoys great success. At some point, he became disillusioned with this series and left it. But this does not mean at all that he left his work in the theater and in cinema.

Anatoly Vasilyev - biography of the actor's personal life

In 1966, Anatoly Vasiliev saw a student of the Moscow Art Theater Tatyana and immediately got married. So his wife became famous in the modern cinematic and theatrical world Tatyana Vasilyeva. But the offer was made not by the timid young actor Anatoly Vasilyevich, but by the girl herself, who was crazy about a talented and charismatic man. In this couple, in 1978, the son Philip is born. But six years later, Tatyana becomes interested in another actor, and, taking her son, goes to him. After that, a rather complicated divorce took place.

Currently, Philip Vasiliev, who is very similar to his father, has three children: two sons from his first marriage and a daughter in the second union. Philip also followed his parents' fathers and became an actor.

But a new and successful streak in the biography of the famous actor happened in 1991, after his second marriage with Vera Vasilyeva, who works on television as an editor-in-chief on the Kultura channel. In this union, the couple had a daughter, Varvara.

People's Artist of Russia Anatoly Vasiliev is known to the older generation for the film "The Crew", and to young people for the role of the grandfather professor in the comedy series.

Anatoly was born on November 6, 1946 in Nizhny Tagil. The father was an influential Soviet official, the mother took care of the house and the upbringing of her son. The woman was a fan of theater and music, from childhood she taught her son to this.

When Anatoly was 9 years old, his parents moved to Bryansk: the move was connected with his father's career. AT new school the boy adapted quickly, just as quickly gained authority among his classmates. In Bryansk, Anatoly Vasilyev began attending the drama club. At the same time, the boy for the first time seriously thought about professional acting career.

After school, the young man was going to enter a theater university, but his father insisted that his son go to a mechanical engineering college. For two years, Vasiliev studied regularly at a technical school, then left and went to Moscow to become an actor.

Anatoly was lucky - the young man entered the Moscow Art Theater on the first try. Naturally, the father did not approve of the choice of his son, and the mother stood up for Vasiliev Jr. The woman always knew that the child had talent. In 1969, Anatoly Vasiliev successfully graduated from the Moscow Art Theater.

Theatre

After graduating from the theater institute, Vasilyev got a job at the Satire Theater, where he worked for 4 years. Then he moved to the Theater of the Soviet Army - the actor gave 22 years to this scene. In 1995 he got a job at the Mossovet Theatre, where he has been working to this day. On the stage of this theater, the actor played his best roles, among them - the role of Anatoly in the play "School of Non-Payers", Anderson in the production of "The Devil's Apprentice", Adamov in "A Man on Weekends".

In 2011, the premiere performance of the play "Rally" took place, in which Anatoly Vasilyev appeared on stage with his ex-wife and son from his first marriage. The actors did not even have to reincarnate - the Vasilievs showed themselves on stage, ex-husband and wife, connected by a common child.

Movies

Anatoly Vasilyev made his film debut in 1977. The director invited the artist to the role of Dymov in the film "Steppe" based on stories. The start was successful - the directors drew attention to the actor. A year later, with the participation of Vasilyev, the shooting of two films was completed - the melodrama "Close Distance", where she became the actor's partner, and the drama "Ivantsov, Petrov, Sidorov", in which the actor appeared in an episodic role.

In 1979, Anatoly Vasiliev appeared in the main cast of the cult Soviet film The Crew, which viewers of different generations enjoy watching. Anatoly played pilot Valentin, who dreams of returning to big aviation. Together with Vasiliev, they got into the frame,.

The character of Vasiliev turned out to be touching and truthful, the actor managed to convey the personal drama of the hero. With this work, Vasiliev began new stage in his own creative biography. In 1980, work in the military film "General Shubnikov's Corps" followed, where Anatoly Vasilyev embodied on the screen the image of a major general participating in a counterattack against fascist tank troops. The drama also starred,.

The image of the military, but now of our days, Vasiliev implements in the drama "The Cry of the Loon". In the same year, with the participation of Anatoly Vasiliev, the show of the production drama "Extraordinary Circumstances" about the construction of a new oil refinery starts.

A year later, the artist appeared in the comedy melodrama "Beloved Woman of the Mechanic Gavrilov" with and in the lead roles, played the main character - the archaeologist Levashov in the film "An Apple in the Palm". In 1982 he returned to military theme in the films "If the Enemy Doesn't Surrender..." and "Gate to Heaven". Anatoly Vasilyev also played Fomin's first secretary in "Hope and Support", and in the melodrama "Ladies' Tango" he appeared as a married worker Fyodor, who had an affair with Catherine (Valentina Fedotova).

In the television movie "Mikhailo Lomonosov" Anatoly Vasiliev appeared before the audience in the image of the father of the future scientist and public figure. The film received positive reviews from film critics and the love of the audience. In the mid-80s, the popular actor also starred in the films “Calm Waters Are Deep”, “Rough Landing”, “Not Subject to Publication”, “Without a Uniform”.

In the joint Soviet-German project - the drama "" he played Peter Basmanov. In the film adaptation of the novel "If I want to - I'll love!" the actor appeared in the role of a free artist Elersky, the beloved of the main character Natalia Polonskaya ().

In the 90s, when Soviet cinema experienced best period, the actor continued to act, however, in a different role. The audience saw Vasilyev in the role of an aristocrat in the film “Your Fingers Smell of Incense” and in the image of the head of the criminal investigation department in the film “Why does an honest man need an alibi?”. In the 2000s, Anatoly Vasiliev starred in the TV series "The Times Do Not Choose", "New Year's Men", "Tatiana's Day", "Short Breath", "Major Vetrov", "All Men Are Theirs ...".

In 2008, the actor was invited to leading role in the comedy series "". The actor played grandfather professor Yura, husband of Olga Kovaleva (). Anatoly Vasiliev recalls that he completely and completely immersed himself in the work, imbued with the hero’s lifestyle, tried to convey the character of the character as plausibly as possible.

This continued until the fourth season of "Matchmakers", but then a conflict broke out between Vasiliev and the artist. The reason for this was the scenario in which the hero of Dobronravov constantly teased the hero of Vasiliev. Then Anatoly Aleksandrovich said that he was no longer interested in "Matchmakers", because any film, even a comedy one, should not humiliate human dignity, but elevate. After that, the actor left the project.

Later, Vasiliev played the main character in the series "Family Detective". In 2013, the actor appeared in the drama Owl Scream, where he reincarnated as a kingpin. The film was about the events of 1957, unfolding in a provincial town. A year later, Anatoly Vasiliev appeared in the melodrama "The Exclusion Strip", where he played the role of the father of the hero Pavel Dunaev ().

Personal life

Anatoly Vasiliev was married twice. The young man met his first wife Tatyana Itsykovich at the age of 20. Later, the actor admitted that he did not have any special feelings for the girl, but Tatyana persistently won the actor. The young people got married and lived together for 17 years. When Tatyana and Anatoly decided to divorce, their son was 5 years old. became famous in the theater and cinema under the name of her husband.

The divorce was not easy for the spouses, the Vasilievs do not support the relationship, they do not talk about that period of life. It is known that the reason for the gap was Tatyana's departure to the actor.

In 1991, the actor's personal life improved again - Anatoly Vasiliev married a second time. This time, Vera, an employee of television, became the chosen one. A year later, a daughter, Barbara, was born in this marriage. Anatoly helped his wife after the birth of his daughter, refused some roles so that his wife would not quit her job.

The actor says that it was hard, but the efforts and sacrifices were worth it, because family happiness is priceless. family photos the artist and information about private life rarely get into the media, as Vasiliev values the peace of mind of his relatives.

In a play with ex-wife and his son Anatoly Vasilyev participated only because of the fee, because at that time it was difficult with finances. Shortly before the production, the actor suffered a heart attack, so the actor was not invited to the roles in the theater and cinema. These relations did not go further than the theatrical stage.

Anatoly Vasiliev now

Now Anatoly Vasilyev has crossed the line of his seventieth birthday and continues to play on the stage of his native Theater. Moscow City Council, as well as in the enterprise.