Pavel Wulf and Ranevskaya. Faina Ranevskaya regretted not becoming a mother all her life. It has always been unclear to me - people are ashamed of poverty and not ashamed of wealth

Today is the birthday of the actress beloved by millions, the inimitable Faina Georgievna Ranevskaya.
In her native Taganrog, they adore Ranevskaya, they name a cafe in her honor, and they are going to open a house-museum.
And, by the way, in Taganrog there is Tchaikovsky’s house, where Pyotr Ilyich stayed with his brother, and Taganrog also gave the world the beautiful poetess Sofya Parnok.
In addition to their sparkling talent, these people have something else in common. You probably guessed it...

on the right is young Faya Feldman

Since today is the birthday of the wonderful Faina Ranevskaya, we will leave Pyotr Ilyich for now and talk about the ladies, our fellow countrymen, who glorified Taganrog.

Let's start with the oldest - Sofia Parnok...
Poet Sofia Parnok (1885 - 1933) was the most openly lesbian figure in Russian literature of the Silver Age. As a lesbian, Parnok lived to the fullest, and her long romances with women, very different - in age, profession and character, entered the work of the poetess; she spoke the language of poetry on behalf of her many silent sisters.

The first poems were written by Sofia Parnok at the age of six. Later, while studying at the Mariinsky Gymnasium in Taganrog, she would start her first poetry notebooks. It must be said that Sofia was very capable in her studies and in 1904 she completed her gymnasium education with a gold medal. Seventeen-year-old Parnok, without hesitation, broke up with Taganrog and “ran” after some actress she liked on her first of three European trips. She attempts to enter the Geneva Conservatory, but gives up music and returns to St. Petersburg, where she takes law courses, which, however, she also does not complete.

Twenty-year-old Parnok is having an affair with Nadezhda Pavlovna Polyakova. Their relationship lasted more than five years. N.P.P. became the main recipient of poems in Parnok’s student notebooks.

In 1914, Sofya Parnok meets Marina Tsvetaeva...
Sofia Parnok was 29, she was 7 years older than Marina Tsvetaeva, who quickly fell in love with a confident and outwardly somewhat aggressive woman. Their relationship was on the verge of what was permitted: Marina completely submitted to her Sonechka, and she “pushed away, forced to beg, trampled underfoot...”, but - and Marina believed in this until the end of her days - “loved...”

The greenhouse for Tsvetaeva is hers" femme fatale". Rock will also be included in the poetics of Tsvetaeva’s texts addressed to Parnok. In them, the main motive will be the motive of moderate humility and worship before the beloved, from whom you do not expect reciprocity, but whom you idolize. In to a large extent This novel, the emphasized coldness towards the “gray-eyed friend”, the feeling of power over the submissive girl who abandoned her husband and family for Sonechka, transformed the inner feelings of Parnok herself. She accepted love for the first time, allowed herself to be loved and, as often happens, it was as if she was taking revenge for the fact that once in her youth she herself had become a victim of such blind love for Polyakova, who disappointed her ("... and this is what I have been doing for five years gave her life").

After Tsvetaeva, there were many women in Sofia’s life. Left a noticeable mark new love- theater actress Nezlobina Lyudmila Vladimirovna Erarskaya. Their affection for each other dates back to the dark revolutionary years.

In the summer of 1917, when everyone was in a “murderous mood” and life had become “almost impossible,” the two of them went to Crimea

In the early 1920s, Sofia Parnok met professor of mathematics Olga Nikolaevna Tsuberbiller, who became main support Parnok "in the most terrible" years. “Invaluable” and “blessed” friend Olga took Sofia, as she put it in one of her letters, “as her dependent.” Parnok finally settled in one of the Moscow communal apartments. Being under the peculiar everyday patronage of a friend, she does not give up trying to improve her literary life.

Sofia Parnok and Olga Tsuberbiller

In Parnok's personal life, at the end of 1929, a short infatuation with singer Maria Maksakova unexpectedly sparkled, but she, however, did not understand the “strange” desires of the aging poetess.

Rejected and misunderstood by Maksakova, Parnok, who in literature could only hope for the work of a laborer-translator, is approaching the end of her life.

Sofia Parnok spent half of the penultimate year of her life in the city of Kashin with her casual friend, physicist Nina Evgenievna Vedeneeva. Both were under 50...Vedeneeva became last love Parnok - Before her death, Sofia seemed to have received a reward from God... By the way, born into a family that professed Judaism, Sofia was consciously baptized, converted to Orthodoxy and Christian culture. On the verge of death, Parnok fully felt the power of love and again found creative freedom, which was inspired by her feelings for the “gray-haired Muse” - Vedeneeva.

Oh, on this night, the last on earth,
While the heat has not yet cooled down in the ashes,
With a parched mouth, with all my thirst to fall to you,
My gray-haired, my fatal passion!

After staying in Kashin, a cycle of poems remained - the last from the poetess. Kashin cycle - by all accounts, highest achievement lyrics by Parnok.

Next summer, in the midst of its unusual late novel and a bright creative takeoff, “overwhelmed” by feelings, Parnok died in a small Russian village not far from Moscow.

And in this photo, in an embrace, two of our fellow countrymen, two Taganrog women, Sofya Parnok and Faina Ranevskaya

Unlike her older friend, Faina was a monogamist. Through her whole life she passed red, or rather pink thread, love for actress Pavla Wulf.

Faina spent her childhood in a large two-story family house in the center of Taganrog. From a very young age she felt a passion for the game.

In the spring of 1911, on the stage of the Taganrog Theater, Faina saw Pavla Leontyevna Wulf for the first time...

Pavla Wulf

But another four years will pass before, after graduating from high school, Faina gives up everything and, against the wishes of her parents, leaves for Moscow, dreaming of becoming an actress. Having spent her savings, having lost the money sent by her father, who was desperate to guide his daughter on the true path, chilled from the cold, Faina will stand helplessly in the colonnade Bolshoi Theater. Her pitiful appearance will attract attention famous ballerina Ekaterina Vasilievna Geltser. She will bring the chilled girl to her house, then to the Moscow Art Theater; will take you to actors’ meetings and salons. There Faina will meet Marina Tsvetaeva, and a little later, probably, Sofia Parnok. Marina called her her hairdresser: Faina cut her bangs...

In the spring of 1917, Ranevskaya learned that her family had fled to Turkey on their own steamship "St. Nicholas". She remained in the country alone - until the mid-1960s, when her sister Bela returned from emigration.

Pavel Leontyevna Wulf saved Faina Ranevskaya from family loneliness. New meeting happened to her in Rostov-on-Don just in those days when the “St. Nicholas” landed on the Turkish coast. Faina Ranevskaya’s almost forty-year life began side by side, together with Pavel Wulf.

It must be said that there are no direct indications of the lesbian nature of the relationship between Faina and Pavla, there are only indirect ones. Yes, they were close as close as can be best friends. Yes, the artistic crowd cannot remember a single romance between Ranevskaya and men, except that they can remember her incomprehensible short friendship with Tolbukhin, which ended with the death of the marshal in 1949.

Add here the sparkling humor of Faina Georgievna, who loved to joke about her lesbianism. She often told a story about how, in her youth, she experienced a terrible insult inflicted on her by a man:

“One day a young man came to me - I carefully prepared for his visit: I cleaned the apartment, set up a table from meager funds - and said: “I want to ask you, please give me your room for today, I have nowhere to meet a girl".

As art critic Olga Zhuk writes in her book “Russian Amazons...”, Ranevskaya usually concluded this story with the words “since then I became a lesbian...”

However, that’s not why we love and honor them anyway))

Faina never saw her father, mother, or brother again. She only got to see Bella, and even then only forty years later. But she never regretted her decision.

In 1918, in Rostov-on-Don, Faina Ranevskaya met Pavel Leontyevna Wulf.

It was a terrible year. Hunger, terror and destruction, Civil War and intervention... But on the other hand, Pavel Wulf, a wonderful actress, whom Faina saw in her youth in Taganrog in the play “The Noble Nest,” toured Rostov-on-Don. This time she firmly decided to meet her, waited for her in the morning near the theater and almost without beating around the bush asked to be her student.

And Pavel Wulf agreed. Somehow it happened that both women immediately felt great sympathy for each other, became friends, and this friendship continued with them until their deaths. Perhaps, without this meeting, both of their lives would have turned out completely differently...

On Pavel's first day, Wulf gave Ranevskaya a play, told her to choose a role and show her what she was capable of. It was the role of an Italian actress, and in order to play it authentically, Faina found the only Italian in the city and learned from him how to speak and gesture correctly. Pavel Wulf was shocked by the result - she immediately realized that she had met real talent. From that day she began studying with Ranevskaya stagecraft, and then got her into the theater.

Soon the theater left for Crimea, and Faina Ranevskaya went with him, whom Pavel Wulf invited to stay with her.

Of course, Faina immediately happily agreed - she was already imbued with great love for Pavla Wulf and did not want to part with her. And why, when everything was going so well! Together with Pavla Leontievna and her daughter Irina Ranevskaya went to Simferopol to the former noble theater, now renamed the “First Soviet theater in Crimea".

Perhaps in those terrible years continually passing from one hand to another, Crimea was one of the most terrible places in the former Russian Empire. Ranevskaya herself recalled this time like this: “Crimea, famine, typhus, cholera, authorities are changing, terror: they played in Sevastopol, in winter the theater was not heated, on the way to the theater there were swollen, dying, dead people on the street... the stench... I go to the theater, I hold on behind the walls of houses, my legs are weak, I’m tormented by hunger...”

But there Ranevskaya studied with Pavla Wulf, lived in her house, in her family - one can say that she became closer to her adored teacher than her own daughter.

Since then, Faina Ranevskaya and Pavel Wulf could not imagine their lives without each other. They lived together for thirty years and separated only in 1948, and even then it was forced - the Wolf family received an apartment in Moscow on Khoroshevskoye Shosse, and Ranevskaya remained to live in the center of Moscow in order to quickly get from the theater to home.

In the Simferopol theater, Faina Feldman became Faina Ranevskaya.

The new surname became for her not just a stage name, as it was for most artists. She did not like to do anything halfway, so she soon became Ranevskaya and according to all documents. The past was over.

Why did she decide to take a pseudonym? Perhaps, just for the sake of euphony - this could have been advised to her by Pavel Wulf, who suffered a lot because of her German surname. Or maybe because it became too dangerous to be a relative of the Feldmans who emigrated.

There are also several versions regarding the origin of her pseudonym. She herself wrote: “I became Ranevskaya primarily because I dropped everything. Everything was falling out of my hands." Some of her acquaintances said that it was a matter of love for Chekhov and the fact that she felt like his countrywoman and almost a relative. There is another option that one of the friends compared Faina with the heroine of the play, seeing how the wind tore the money from her hands, and she, looking after them, said: “How beautifully they fly!”

By the way, the newly minted Faina Ranevskaya opened her first season in Crimea with the role of Charlotte in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. And it was this role that became her first big success.

In hungry, devastated Simferopol, Faina Ranevskaya and Pavel Wulf managed to survive largely thanks to Maximilian Voloshin.

It was he who saved them from starvation. Ranevskaya recalled: “In the morning he appeared with a backpack on his back. The backpack contained small fish called anchovy wrapped in newspaper. There was also bread, if this mess could be called bread. There was also a bottle of castor oil, which he had difficulty getting at the pharmacy. The fish were fried in castor oil..."

One evening on April 21, 1921, when Voloshin was with them, shooting started in the street, and the frightened women persuaded him to stay with them for the night. During that night, he wrote one of his most famous and terrible poems, “Red Easter,” after reading which, you can get an idea of ​​what was going on in Crimea then and in what conditions Ranevskaya lived.

In winter, corpses littered the roads

People and horses. And packs of dogs

They ate into their stomachs and tore the meat.

The east wind howled through the broken windows.

And at night machine guns banged.

Whistling like a whip over the flesh of the naked

Male and female bodies...

Ranevskaya knew how to draw lessons from any, even the most difficult and unpleasant events in her life, which later helped her in creating new roles.

IN difficult years“war communism”, when the feeling of hunger was constant and familiar, one lady invited Ranevskaya and several other actors to listen to her play. The lady said that following the reading of the play there would be sweet tea and cake, after which all the guests, of course, joyfully gathered at her house.

Many years later, Ranevskaya recalled this “plump, round woman” who read them a play about Christ walking in the Garden of Gethsemane. The performers pretended to listen to her, but the room smelled too strongly of fresh pie for them to think about the play or anything else except food.

“I hated the author fiercely; which described in great detail, with long remarks, the pastime of the infant Christ,” Ranevskaya wrote in her memoirs. “The fat woman, the author, cried and drank valerian while reading. And we all, without waiting for the end of the reading, asked to take a break in the hope that during the break they would treat us to a pie... Subsequently, this gave me a reason to play a sobbing writer in a dramatization of Chekhov's story "Drama"..."

At the end of the 20s in Leningrad, Ranevskaya met Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak.

Marshak first heard about Ranevskaya when she played at the Baku Theater in the play “Our Youth” based on the novel by Victor Keen. Kina’s widow recalled: “I will never forget how Viktor persuaded Samuil Yakovlevich to go with him to Baku to watch this performance. Marshak said: “I really want to go to Baku, and even more to see the actress Ranevskaya. I’ve heard so much about her...” He even asked Victor to take a ticket for him too. I don’t remember why, but this trip did not take place.”

When they finally met, they quickly became friends, and as was almost always the case with Ranevskaya - if they became friends, then for life.

The last time they saw each other was in 1963, in a sanatorium near Moscow, when both were experiencing a severe loss: Faina Georgievna - the death of her sister, and Samuil Yakovlevich - the death of Tamara Gabbe.

And a year later, Ranevskaya became one of those who accompanied Marshak himself to last way, and at an evening dedicated to his memory, she read her favorite poems:

They rustle and work secretly, like mice,

The wheels of our watches...

This year marks 27 years since the death of the great actress, incredible stories which is still recounted to this day. Faina Ranevskaya was never married, but Soviet time no one dared to classify her as a person with gay. Now there is more and more evidence that Ranevskaya loved ladies and could go to great lengths for the sake of her chosen ones.

Recently a woman died in Moscow who could tell a lot about the life of Faina Georgievna, since she herself was part of her circle.

Galina Grinevetskaya was an economist by profession, but in theater circles she was known as an interesting, creative person, in whose house many actors, poets and directors found refuge.

She was a true theatergoer and once met Faina Ranevskaya at one of the premieres. It should be noted that in the 50s, acquaintances simply called Ranevskaya Fanny; she was not considered either “legendary” or “great” - fate did not spoil her with roles. Ranevskaya was very worried about her appearance, so beautiful girls evoked her sincere admiration. She called them fifas and patronized them.

By the way, Ranevskaya herself also became an actress thanks to female patronage. When Faina was not accepted into any theater, she charmed the actress Ekaterina Geltser, who got her a job as an extra at the theater in Malakhovka.
Her friend Elena Lipova told us about how Ranevskaya’s relationship with Grinevetskaya developed, or rather did not work out:

– Grinevetskaya had an amazing appearance. Many people looked after her famous people, and she herself loved to flirt. She was a natural and never gave Ranevskaya any reason to think that she liked women.

Most likely, Grinevetskaya was fascinated by Ranevskaya as an actress, as a person, and because of this she became close to her. But one day their meeting ended in a scandal. Faina Georgievna, left alone with Grinevetskaya, allowed herself too much and was so persistent that she barely managed to get away. After this, Grinevetskaya broke up with Ranevskaya and other celebrities of a similar orientation - Rina Zelenaya and Tatyana Peltzer.

History has preserved many female names associated with Ranevskaya. Her fleeting hobbies were Lyudmila Tselikovskaya and Vera Maretskaya. And Faina was friends with her patron Ekaterina Geltser until her death.

A funny story came out about the mother of the late Vitaly Vulf, Pavla. Faina practically lived in their family and did not hide her relationship with Pavel Leontyevna, despite the fact that she was married. Wulf himself recalled the moment when, as a small child, he entered the room and saw that close communication was taking place between Ranevskaya and his mother, which could only be called friendly with a stretch. But even from this, frankly speaking, very awkward situation, Ranevskaya came out with honor.

– Vitaly, your mother and I are doing exercises! – she said confidently and escorted the child out the door.

Another person who decided to show Faina Ranevskaya as she really was was journalist Gleb Skorokhodov. In the sixties he became friends with great actress, although he was still a very young man. She loved him like a son. And she didn’t suspect that the guy carefully writes down all their conversations in a notebook every evening. Skorokhodov became aware of Ranevskaya’s several crushes on women. As an honest man, he did not immediately take the manuscript to the publishing house, but first showed it to Faina Georgievna. The actress was horrified and immediately broke off relations with Skorokhodov. The journalist published the book only after the actress’s death, although he made significant corrections to the text.

Ranevskaya’s reputation was also “tarnished” by Dmitry Shcheglov, a man who was also close to the actress in last years her life. She even called him her “adopted grandson.” Shcheglov in his memoirs cited Ranevskaya’s words about love and sex, from which it was clear what her orientation was. The only man who interested Ranevskaya as a person was Pushkin. She loved to talk about him and collected interesting information about his life. But even this innocent affection ended in an incident. Ranevskaya told her friends how Alexander Sergeevich once appeared to her in a dream and said with feeling:
- How tired of you you are, you old b...!

They say that Faina Georgievna was an ardent defender of homosexuals, who at that time, unlike now, had a hard time. In the USSR, you could be imprisoned for sodomy. When a show trial took place over one of the actors, Ranevskaya uttered the following phrase: “Every person has the right to independently dispose of his ass.”

Kirill Peskov

The brilliant actress Pavla Wulf played on the stages of provincial theaters, occasionally visiting the capital of Russia. The woman tried on roles in productions around the world famous plays and made acquaintances with famous directors and actors. She became the first theater teacher and close friend.

Childhood and youth

Pavel Leontievna was born in the city of Porkhov (Pskov province) into a family of hereditary nobles. Some sources claim that the parents are Russified Germans, but there are versions that they have French or Jewish roots.

A wealthy family had the opportunity to involve teachers from Moscow University in the education of their children. program high school Pavla settled down at home, and then became a student at the St. Petersburg Institute of Noble Maidens.

The girl dreamed of becoming an actress since childhood and enjoyed trying on various roles in home performances. Once I was so fascinated by the performance of Vera Komissarzhevskaya, the famous Russian actress, the founder of her own theater, that she decided at all costs to also devote her life to acting.

Pavla wrote a letter to Vera Feodorovna, which, surprisingly, did not go unanswered. The actress recommended that the girl enroll in the Pollack Drama School. After Wulf accepted into its ranks the Imperial Ballet School, opened under Alexandrinsky Theater. The graduate wanted to get into the capital Art Theater, but was refused. Pavla Leontyevna was destined to do brilliant career provincial actress in the role of a lyrical heroine.

Theater

Exit to big stage Pavly Wulf happened back in student years– played Laura in the play “The Fight of the Butterflies”, written by the German playwright Hermann Sudermann. The certified actress first went on tour around Ukraine with her idol Komissarzhevskaya. On the stages of Nikolaev, Kharkov and Odessa, she got roles in a scattering of productions - she played Lisa in “ fairy tale", Polixena in the play "Truth is good, but happiness is better", Nastya in "Fighters". Young actress in behavior and appearance I tried to copy my mentor.

In 1901, Woolf came to Nizhny Novgorod, where she gave a year to the enterprise of Konstantin Nezlobin. Here creative biography I was inspired by the role of Edwige from the drama “The Wild Duck”. Then she served in the Riga City Theater, where women were also assigned vivid images– she represented herself from a famous play, from a tragedy.

Pavla Leontyevna had to wander across the expanses of Russia and Ukraine. The actress was received by theaters in Kharkov, Kyiv, Irkutsk, and Moscow. And after the revolution, the woman settled in Rostov-on-Don. However, not for long. Three years later, residents of Simferopol enjoyed Wulf’s game. The collection of works has been replenished with the roles of Lisa from “ Noble nest", Nina from "The Seagull" and Nastya from the play "At the Depths".

Additional opportunities for career development have opened up in Simferopol. Pavla Wulf was invited to teach at theater school. Later, in the early 30s, an actress and already a director theatrical productions led a movement class and staged a stage speech for members of the section of the Baku Theater of Working Youth.

In 1931, Wulf again found herself in Moscow. She worked tirelessly, managed to combine the stage with teaching at school Chamber Theater, then taught acting wisdom to young people in drama school, opened on the basis of the Red Army Theater.

One of latest works women became the role of Agrafena in the play “Wolf”, created by Leonid Leonov. However, in 1938, Pavel Wulf suffered from a serious illness, due to which she had to say goodbye to the stage.

Wulf’s grandson, Alexey Shcheglov, eloquently wrote in his memoirs about Pavla Leontyevna’s acquaintance and friendship with Faina Ranevskaya. Faina Feldman remained under this strong impression from the performance of an actress of the Rostov Theater in the production “ The Cherry Orchard”, that the very next day she came to her house.

Wulf, suffering from a migraine that morning, at first did not want to accept the guest, but she turned out to be too persistent. Faina Georgievna begged to be taken into the troupe. To get rid of the girl, Pavel Leontyevna handed her a play she didn’t like based on the plot and told her to come back in a week with any role she had learned.

When the future Ranevskaya appeared in the image of an Italian actress, Wulf was delighted and realized that in front of her was a real diamond. Moreover, Faina prepared very thoroughly - she was not too lazy to find an Italian in the city, from whom she adopted facial expressions and gestures. Since then, Ranevskaya settled in the house of Pavla Leontyevna, who became young talent mentor and close friend.

Personal life

Pavel Wulf did not live long with her first husband Sergei Anisimov. Then the woman met a gentleman of Tatar blood, the son of a military man, Konstantin Karateev, who died early. The actress did not have time to divorce her first husband and marry her second. Therefore, daughter Irina, born in 1906, received the surname and patronymic of her first husband.

Pavla Leontievna had a hard life, filled with travel and frequent changes of residence. They say that the actress called her wanderings “provincial hard labor.” This affected her daughter’s health - Ira became very ill.

The child was nursed by costume designer Natalya Ivanova, who in the Wulf household was simply called Tata. The girl took on all the worries about Irina, becoming her second mother. Pavel Leontievna was immensely grateful to her assistant for giving her the opportunity to devote herself to acting.

In the future, Irina Sergeevna Wulf became a theater actress and director, and played Yuri Zavadsky in plays. The woman gave Pavel Leontyevna her grandson Alexei.

Death

For the last 20-odd years, Pavel Wulf has been seriously ill. The great theater actress died in early June 1961. Ranevskaya noted that her friend was dying in terrible agony. Until the end of her days, Faina Georgievna never came to terms with her loss. Pavel Leontyevna rests in the Donskoye Cemetery.

In the biographical series “Faina”, which airs on Channel One, Pavla Wulf plays.

Performances

• “The Snow Maiden”, Alexander Ostrovsky - the role of the Snow Maiden
• "Romeo and Juliet", William Shakespeare - the role of Juliet
• “The Noble Nest” - the role of Lisa
• “The Seagull” - the role of Nina Zarechnaya
• “The Cherry Orchard”, Anton Chekhov - the role of Anya
• “Ivanov”, Anton Chekhova - the role of Sasha
• “Woe from Wit” - the role of Sophia
• "The Wild Duck", Henrik Ibsen - role of Edwige

...Mother said, consoling:
"Don't be afraid, don't tremble, dear!
I will go to the palace crying;
With tears, screams and prayers
I will awaken the heart on the throne...
And in the morning, how will they lead
Take you to the square, I’ll stand here,
At the place of execution, on the balcony.
If I'm in a black dress.
Know that your death is inevitable...
Isn’t it true, my son, with a bold step
Will you go towards your destiny?
After all, Hungarian blood is in you!
But if in a white blanket
You'll see me above the crowd
Know - I begged with tears
Spare the life of the young..."

Later, Ranevskaya learned these poems by heart. Elizaveta Moiseevna told me that Bella, dying in Moscow, suddenly asked Faina if she remembered Sergei - that was the name of the high school student who was in love with her - and the poem “The White Veil”. Ranevskaya said that she still remembers some lines, especially those that describe her mother’s act:

...The Count does not notice anything:
He looks forward to the square.
There's a mother standing on the balcony -
Calm, in a white blanket.
And his heart began to play!
And take a bold step to the place of execution
He went... with a happy face
Stepped onto the platform with the executioner...
And clear to the noose rose...
And in the loop itself - he smiled!
Why was the mother wearing white?
Oh, holy lie!.. It could
Only a mother, full of fear, can lie,
So that the son does not flinch before execution!

Bella died in the spring of 1963, and then last meeting Ranevskaya with Marshak in a sanatorium near Moscow. She recalled that Samuil Yakovlevich cried about his grief - Tamara Grigorievna Gabbe died shortly before this - and Ranevskaya about hers - about the death of Pavla Leontyevna Wulf. Then Marshak told Faina Georgievna that her story about her deceased brother turned out to be unforgettable for him: “Sometime after my brother’s death, I turned to the mirror to see how in tears I was. And I felt like an actress.”

But speaking about what made Ranevskaya an actress, we need to remember about whose death we began this chapter - about Chekhov. He became one of the few people who deeply influenced her and determined the course of her entire life - this was reflected in her very pseudonym, taken, as many say, in honor of the heroine of Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard.” In addition to the theater, they were brought together by another thing - Taganrog, although Chekhov, who was born here in 1868, did not like this city, experiencing the same dislike for it, combined with a special, strange attraction - Ranevskaya also experienced a similar feeling.

ABOUT hometown Chekhov wrote this: “Taganrog is absolutely dead city. Quiet, deserted, completely deserted streets, planted on both sides with trees in two rows - acacias, poplars, linden, because of which houses are not visible in the summer... lack of traffic on the streets, lack of commercial activity, a small port that did not allow large ships to come close to Taganrog... deserted sleepy boulevards by the sea and above the sea - and everywhere there is silence, dead, dull, overwhelming silence, which makes... you want to run out into the street and shout “guard”. The quiet charm of sadness and loneliness, abandonment, slow dying emanates from the deserted wide streets overgrown with trees, immersed in drowsy silence; it seems that a few more years will pass - and the lush acacias and Brazilian poplars will bury the city, and in its place a dense, impenetrable, dense forest will rustle." In the article "Chekhov in Taganrog" Vladimir Lensky notes: "Chekhov could not help but be born in this city of sad silence, dreary hopelessness; he would not have been Chekhov, perhaps, if he had not been born in Taganrog."

As you know, Chekhov left Taganrog in 1879, came there almost every year, but invariably spoke sharply critically about the city. Faina Feldman, having left Taganrog in 1915, never returned there. She and the writer have one more thing in common. Unfortunately, the first drama written by Chekhov as a seventh-grader has not reached us (the author mercilessly destroyed it), but the title “Fatherlessness” has been preserved, which says a lot. In one of his letters, Chekhov wrote: “As a child, I had no childhood.” In another: “The difference between the time when they beat me and the time when they stopped fighting was terrible.” Faina was not beaten at home, but, as we saw, her impression of family life was almost as bleak; maybe this was one of the reasons that she never started a family. She had in common with her beloved writer a sharp, merciless, perhaps overly pessimistic view of life and people - a view that gave rise to many of her famous aphorisms.

During Ranevskaya’s childhood, Chekhov remained distant and incomprehensible to her. She, like all children, was more strongly influenced by those people whom she saw in person, for example, the neighboring Parnok (Parnakh) family. The Parnok and Feldman families were friends. Marianna Elizarovna Tavrog, in her memoirs about Ranevskaya, more than once mentioned Sofia Yakovlevna Parnok, the original poetess Silver Age. She was ten years older than Faina. They hardly met at the Mariinsky Gymnasium in Taganrog, but their destinies had mystically a lot in common. It so happened that Sofia Parnok was left early without a mother, who died while giving birth to twins - a son and a daughter. Loneliness became almost the main impression of her childhood and youth. Sofia left Taganrog in 1904, and they met Faina Feldman in Moscow, after the revolution.

Marianna Elizarovna recalled that during meetings Ranevskaya more than once asked her to recite Sofia Parnok’s poem “I don’t know my ancestors - who are they?” She immediately read this wonderful poem to me from memory, falteringly. Later I found out that it was written in 1915, back when Faina lived in Taganrog:

I don’t know my ancestors - who are they?
Where did you go when you came out of the desert?
Only the heart beats more excitedly,
Let's talk a little about Madrid.

To these oatmeal and clover fields,
My great-grandfather, where did you come from?
All colors to my northern eyes
Black and yellow are more intoxicating.

My great-grandson, with our old blood,
Will you blush, pale-faced one,
How do you envy a singer with a guitar?
Or a woman with a red carnation?

Marianna Elizarovna continued: “She dreamed of, if not writing, then at least telling some of her “trusted” listeners about Sofia Parnok - after all, acquaintance with her led Ranevskaya to Marina Tsvetaeva, and, perhaps, to A. Akhmatova... I think that in her personal life, her acquaintance with Parnok played an important role. Sofia Yakovlevna Parnok wrote in one of her letters (to M. F. Gnesin - M. G.): “I have never, unfortunately, been in love with a man.” Sofia Yakovlevna was so in love with Marina Tsvetaeva that they both did not even find it necessary to hide it. Of course, Faina never told me about this, but conversations about Parnok, and not only about her, hovered all my life..."

However, this is evidenced by Tsvetaeva’s own poems from the “Girlfriend” cycle dedicated to Sofia Parnok:

Can I not remember
That smell of White-Rose and tea,
And Sevres figurines
Above the glowing fireplace...

We were: me - in a fluffy dress
From a little golden faye,
You are wearing a knitted black jacket
With a winged collar...

And although the relationship between Tsvetaeva and Parnok caused undisguised condemnation from people who knew them (E. O. Kirienko-Voloshina, the poet’s mother, even addressed Parnok personally about this), for a long time it didn't lead to anything. In one of Tsvetaeva’s letters to A. Efron it is written: “Sonya loves me very much, and I love her - and this is forever.”

Knowing that Ranevskaya knew both Tsvetaeva and Parnok, there is no doubt that the details of this novel were not a secret to Faina, although by the time they met (the mid-1910s) it had already become a thing of the past. We know nothing about her attitude to the personal life of the “Russian Sappho,” as Sofia Parnok was often called - Faina Georgievna never spoke publicly about such things. Her close, albeit short-lived, communication with Parnok, as well as many years of tender friendship with E.V. Geltser and P.L. Wulf, can (and already does) arouse in the public a certain kind of suspicion regarding Ranevskaya’s own commitment to same-sex love, to which, As you know, many creative people are prone to this. On this score, only one thing can be said: if Faina Georgievna herself considered it necessary not to make public the circumstances of her personal life, then getting to the bottom of them - especially in the complete absence of facts - is clearly unethical.

Having remembered Sofia Parnok, I want to add to the story about her talented brother Valentin Yakovlevich Parnakh - especially since I also heard a lot about him from Elizaveta Moiseevna. Valentin Parnakh graduated with honors from the Taganrog Gymnasium in 1909, and in 1912, despite all sorts of percentage standards, he was admitted to the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University. The all-round talent of this young man aroused the admiration of many: his music lessons It was directed by Mikhail Fabianovich Gnesin himself, his artistic talent was not only noticed, but also highly appreciated by Meyerhold; in his magazine “Love for Three Oranges”, on the recommendation of Alexander Blok himself, he published a selection of poems by Valentin Parnach.

Elizaveta Moiseevna told me that Ranevskaya quoted many of V. Parnakh’s poems from memory. Here's her story about last date two fellow countrymen: "I will never forget cold winter 1951. We were with her at the funeral of Valentin Parnakh on Novodevichy Cemetery. Ehrenburg, Gnessin, Utesov, and I think Shostakovich were present there. On the way home, Faina suddenly said: “God grant that we don’t envy Valentin!” Why did she say this? The doctors' case has not yet begun, and Faina herself recently received another Stalin Prize". Ranevskaya helped Parnach in difficult years for him, placing his brilliant, but “ideologically dubious” translations of Spanish and Portuguese poets in various publishing houses.