She beat Luchko so that the dress fell apart, and Tolokonnikova carried him in her arms: how Nina Ruslanova fought with fate

The wonderful actress Nina Ruslanova has not been with us for a little over a year. In her rich filmography, it is impossible to choose and name a single picture as your favorite. For most of her life, Nina Ivanovna was distinguished by her inflexibility, but in the 2000s she began to become seriously ill. Hence, she even stopped acting in films. But the public has not ceased to love the actress. On December 5, Ruslanova could celebrate her 77th birthday.

“I didn’t celebrate a birthday at all”

However, when the artist was actually born, no one knew, including herself. A tiny little girl was found in a godforsaken half-station in Ukraine.

The little girl received her surname in honor of the very popular at that time performer of Russian folk songs Lidia Ruslanova. Nina chose her birth date. On Constitution Day, December 5, fun concerts were held in the orphanage where the future movie star was brought up.

“Birthdays were celebrated in our orphanage. And I was in the kitchen washing dishes for everyone. I didn’t celebrate a birthday at all. And once they told me: choose any day, ”recalled Nina Ivanovna. She didn’t like talking about her childhood: there was a lot of pain and resentment in it.

Asked to consider her a boy

Fate hardly promised Nina that life would often smile at her. And yet Ruslanova felt something special in herself. She received the specialty of a plasterer, but at the same time she was very fond of amateur performances. Later she took her and entered the Kharkov Theater, and a year later she came to Moscow.

I learned of the shortage of young people in the Theater School. Shukin. She asked the selection committee: “Listen to me as a boy, I agree to play male roles.”

The teachers smiled and considered Nina talented enough to be enrolled in the class. The future actress’s classmates had everything they needed: Leonid Filatov, Alexander Kaidanovsky, Anastasia Vertinskaya, Yan Arlazorov.

Ruslanova made her film debut as a student – she played one of the main roles in Kira Muratova’s Short Encounters. Shot with Vladimir Vysotsky. However, the picture was put on the shelf for a long 15 years.

The film was shown to a large audience only in 1987. The actress then received “Nick” for the best female role.

“I knew how to fight and I fought”

“Gypsy” is one of the films with the participation of Ruslanova, especially loved by the audience. Shooting one of the scenes was not easy for both Nina and her colleague Clara Luchko.

As intended by the director, their heroines were supposed to beat each other with wet towels in the rain. Alexander Blank, who worked on the film, was dissatisfied for a long time, believing that the actresses did not show enough temperament.

“My character is this: I have always known how to defend myself, I have known how to fight and fight. He hit Luchko so hard that his dress broke! Clara was taken aback, and then reacted. In general, we fought to the point of frenzy, to bruises. I slipped, fell into the mud, Klara collapsed next to me, both roaring, ”said Nina Ivanovna.

Many were interested in how they shot the scene in “Heart of a Dog”, where Ruslanova knocks out Sharikov, played by Vladimir Tolokonnikov. The artist dispelled all doubts:

“He really wore Tolokonnikova in his arms, this“ dog in the form of a man ”! And we, Russian women, are strong in every sense, we will be stronger than a peasant girl.”

“Nina was very worried about her impotence”

However, Ruslanova never enjoyed good health. As she was preparing to become a mother, doctors discovered a heart defect. Not advised to give birth, but she the actress did not want to hear anything.

It was daughter Olesya and grandson Kostya who were closest to Nina Ivanovna in recent years. She didn’t do well with men.

With her first husband, Physics and Mathematics graduate Gennady Rudakov, they divorced a few years after becoming parents. Rudakov, however, never quite disappeared from the life of his daughter and ex-wife. I tried to help both.

The artist’s unofficial marriage to sound engineer Rafkat Gabitov lasted almost 30 years. This was the version of the relationship commonly referred to as a guest relationship.

Two strokes forced Ruslanova to change her lifestyle and move away from active creativity. The last time fans saw her on screen was in 2015 in the TV series Once Upon a Woman. “Nina was very worried about her impotence,” assured her colleague Stanislav Sadalsky.

Ruslanova underwent an operation to replace a heart valve. However, her health was deteriorating. The artist suffered a heart attack, in addition, she was diagnosed with the coronavirus.

The actress left us in November 2021, just before her 76th birthday. Nina Ivanovna Ruslanova was buried in the Troekurovsky cemetery in Moscow.