Julia Borisova
In mid-March, the 98th anniversary was celebrated by the legendary Yulia Borisova from the Theater. Vakhtangov. The People’s Artist of the USSR was remembered by a wide audience for the films “The Idiot” by Pyryev and “Ambassador of the Soviet Union” by Natanson, and in her native theater many years ago she earned the title of the exemplary princess Turandot. She is now in line with Irina Kupchenko and goes on stage in “Eugene Onegin” – she reads “Tatyana’s Dream”.
Not so long ago, trouble came to Borisova’s house – her 72-year-old only son Alexander, in the past, a major government official and diplomat, died of cancer. After the tragedy, Yulia Konstantinovna fell into a terrible depression and almost without getting out she sits in her apartment as a recluse.
Today I’ll tell you about celebrities who survived the worst – the death of their own children.
Borisova noted that she owes everything she has achieved in life to her mother. It was Serafima Stepanovna, the only one of all relatives, who advised her daughter to go to study as an actress. As a result, Yulia Konstantinovna became a student of Pike during the war years. And in 1947, without waiting for her to receive a diploma, she was called to the Vakhtangov Theater, which became her fate.
To enroll in the troupe, a strong girl with rosy cheeks was forced to lose weight. For the sake of this, Borisova began to smoke Belomor a lot, sometimes to the point of fainting. But since then, she has never gained weight.
Then she developed relations with might and main with her former classmate Zhenya Simonov, the son of the famous director of the Vakhtangov stage, Ruben Simonov. The guys were already thinking about getting married, but one day fate brought Yulia a meeting with the married Isai Spector, who was in charge of the front-line branch of her native theater and then had just returned to peaceful Moscow.
When Isai and Yulia fled together from the New Year’s Eve, the enraged Simonov Jr. threw a wild scandal on the bride and “rewarded” her with a slap in the face. But Borisova believed that she was doing the right thing. As a result, she married Isai and lived with him a happy quarter of a century. Spector has served as deputy director and managing director of the theatre.
The couple and their only son Alexander lived in abundance. In the 60s and 70s, Isai Isaakovich organized tours of his native team in France, Greece and Yugoslavia. Abroad, he was nicknamed “impresario number one.”
He himself went on stage. But only once a year – in New Year’s skits, which he skillfully led with incredible humor and irony. From his youth, suffering from a heart disease, Spector died suddenly at the age of 57 in April 1974. That evening, Borisova had to go to the Arbat – to play the main role in her signature play “Princess Turandot”.
– She played with a veil on her face, and when partner Vasily Lanovoy saw her face blackened with grief, it jammed – she experienced a shock. And then Mikhail Ulyanov hit him on the back, they say, we continue, – colleagues recalled.
After the death of her beloved, the people’s artist closed herself in an apartment and starved herself for several days. She vowed to remain faithful to her late husband until the end. And the promise is still kept. She was only friends with men – her closest social circle included stage partners Vasily Lanovoy and Vladimir Etush.
The light in the window for Yulia Konstantinovna was her son. Alexander graduated from an English school with a silver medal, received a diploma from MGIMO and entered the civil service. And there he gradually rose to the positions of the head of departments for Europe and North America in the Ministries of Foreign Economic Relations, Trade, Economic Development and Trade of Russia.
“I love”
Married to the daughter of the People’s Artist Vladimir Druzhnikov – Natalya, Alexander Isaevich had two daughters – Maria, and then Daria. The eldest followed in her father’s footsteps: she graduated from MGIMO, worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and now takes care of her family – she has three sons. The youngest, having studied at GITIS, has been working as an administrator in her grandmother’s native theater for seven years. And he is raising his daughter Marusya.
For a large and friendly family, the death of Alexander Borisov was a shock. It was assumed that he would be buried next to his father at the super-elite Novodevichy cemetery. Many were sure that Yulia Konstantinovna had prepared a grave for herself and her son ahead of time.
At the burial place of Isai Spektor, a granite monument was erected by the sculptor Georgy Toidze, the author of the famous poster “The Motherland Calls!”. A stone theatrical curtain spreads along the pedestal on the left, on which stands an ironic mask. Spector’s name, positions and years of life are engraved on the monument, below on the right is the inscription: “I love”, and then with all the regalia are the names of Borisova and their heir. And almost the same size font as the top inscription.
Visitors to the graveyard had the impression that when relatives were buried near the director, only the years of their lives would be left to be added to the monument.
– As an Orthodox person, Yulia Konstantinovna was going to bury her son in a coffin, but this has not been practiced for a long time on the old territory of Novodevichy. They are only allowed to bury the urn with the ashes of the deceased. But she did not go for it and buried Alexander next to her mother at the Danilovsky cemetery. In addition, she said: “If so, I forbid myself to be buried at Novodevichy. The time will come – I will also lie down on Danilovsky, ”a person from the circle of the people’s artist told us.
When asked whether it would be necessary to change the composition of the monument to Isai Spector and remove information about the widow and son from it, our interlocutor replied:
– The word “I love” is also written there, and the names of the Borisovs can be regarded as a signature under this short saying.
