March 28, 2015

Smoktunovsky: Portrait of an Actor


Smoktunovsky: Portrait of an Actor

March 27, 2015, would have been the ninetieth birthday of beloved actor Innokenty Smoktunovsky. Renowned for his film roles, such as Hamlet in Hamlet and Yuri Detochkin in Beware of the Car, Smoktunovsky also had a highly successful career as a stage actor. In this excerpt from an interview with a Hungarian reporter, he recounts his experiences during World War II on the basis of old photographs.

[…] In this one my face is more serious. It’s another photograph from my youth. See how much red hair I had? As many red hairs as freckles on my face. But where is that hair now? Where did that incredible, enormous power go? It’s gone. Understand?

And now we’re up to the war, that is, its end – 1945. Rather often I get this request: “Bring out your military photos.” They don’t realize that if someone has military photos, it means he was near the front lines, near the battles, but wasn’t fighting – no, he was posing in his free time. Whereas I was in really, really awful binds and wrote a book about it, soon to be two. […] Just now I wrote a book titled To Be. In it I describe how out of 125 or 130 of us, only four survived. All the rest fell like grass cut in a meadow. Just like my other three comrades, I would take their bullets, their grenades, to somehow extend my life and somehow protect the road we were supposed to be guarding, to not let through the Nazi division that had broken out of Toruń (this was in Poland).

And now I’m often asked: “Show us your photos from the front!” I only have the one photograph, but it’s not from the front, it’s from after the war – 1945. I’m a staff sergeant. My mustache and beard haven’t even grown in yet, but I’ve already gone through such awful trials that I wouldn’t wish even on my enemies. Because, as I’ve already said, I was taken prisoner, then escaped from the prisoner-of-war camp, because I was torn apart by disease – dysentery, dystrophy… and complete psychological shock. I couldn’t accept the fact that any prison guard could shoot me, just like that. So I escaped. Because if I hadn’t escaped, all the same, two, or three, or five days later I would have just collapsed from exhaustion.

Later, when I was picked up by friendly Ukrainians in the Kamenets-Podolsk Oblast (now Khmelnitsky Oblast) and was left to rest in their house, there was a mirror on the wall in front of me. And because my mind wasn’t quite working yet, I thought that someone was looking at me through a window, some man with a big nose and sunken eyes. I would ask him, “What are you looking at? What do you want?” And the man “in the window” would whisper something at the same time. Then I realized that it was me. After all, a whole year I hadn’t seen myself in the mirror, being on the front lines, fighting the Nazis with my division. How could I possibly have photographs from the front, if I was busy protecting my human dignity and perhaps even my own life, as well as the life of my country?!

 

Translation: Eugenia Sokolskaya [source]

Image credit: http://agritura.livejournal.com/159547.html

 

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955