Biography of Alexander Alexandrovich Fadeev. Actor Fadeev Alexander: biography, personal life, filmography Fadeev Alexander Alexandrovich writer biography

The life and work of the writer: myths and facts

60 years ago, on May 13, 1956, the silence of the writer’s village of Peredelkino near Moscow was broken by the roar of a shot - the famous Soviet writer, the former all-powerful chairman of the Union of Writers of the USSR, 54-year-old Alexander Aleksandrovich Fadeev, shot himself with a revolver at his dacha. The writers' plots there are large and none of the neighbors heard the shot. They didn’t even hear him in the house where he lived.

His young son Misha discovered his father who had shot himself when he went up to the writer’s office to call him for dinner. The writer lay on the sofa, covered with pillows, in a pool of blood. On the bedside table lay a letter addressed to the Central Committee of the CPSU. When an investigator from the Odintsovo prosecutor’s office wanted to pick up the letter, he was warned by a KGB officer: “This is not for you.”

Fadeev’s wife, actress Angelina Stepanova, who was in Yugoslavia on tour with the theater, was not told about what happened. She learned about the tragedy only in Kyiv, having bought a newspaper at the airport, which contained a portrait of her husband in a black frame and a message that he had committed suicide while intoxicated. Having later learned about her husband’s suicide letter, she turned to the authorities with a request to give her the opportunity to familiarize herself with it. But she was categorically refused. Stepanova was able to find out about its contents only in 1990, when the letter was published in one of the magazines.

Fadeev did not shoot himself because of drunkenness, as Pravda wrote, although at the end of his life he did drink heavily. However, during the autopsy, experts found no traces of alcohol in his blood. Writer in general last days before his death he was completely sober, which was noted by all his friends and relatives. Moreover, it is known that Fadeev prepared for a long time and carefully to take his own life. He traveled to memorable places, visited old friends, as if saying goodbye to what was dear to him...

His suicide letter addressed to the Central Committee of the CPSU said: “I see no way to continue living, since the art to which I gave my life was ruined by the self-confident and ignorant leadership of the party, and now cannot be corrected.

The best cadres of literature - in numbers not even dreamed of by the royal satraps - were physically exterminated or died thanks to the criminal connivance of those in power; best people literature died at a premature age; everything else more or less capable of creating true values, died before reaching 40–50 years of age.

(...) My life, as a writer, loses all meaning, and with great joy, as a deliverance from this vile existence, where meanness, lies and slander fall upon you, I am leaving this life...”

Was gifted since childhood

Alexander Fadeev was born in the village of Kimry in the Tver region. Father and mother were paramedics. From childhood he grew gifted child. At the age of four he independently mastered reading and writing. He amazed adults with his imagination, writing extraordinary stories and fairy tales. In 1908, the family moved to the South Ussuri region (now Primorsky), where Fadeev spent his childhood and youth. He studied at the Vladivostok Commercial School, but did not complete his studies, deciding to devote himself to revolutionary activities. He joined the RCP(b), became a party agitator, and then joined the Special Communist Detachment of Red Partisans. Participated in hostilities on Far East, was wounded. His cousin, Vsevolod Sibirtsev, together with Sergei Lazo, were captured by the Japanese and handed over to the White Guards, who burned them alive in the furnace of a steam locomotive. In 1921, as a delegate to the Tenth Congress of the RCP(b), he took part in the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising, receiving a second wound. After treatment and demobilization, Fadeev remained in Moscow.

He soon began writing, and after the success of his first novel, Mayhem, he decided to become a professional writer. Civil War dedicated and next novel Fadeev "The Last of Udege". Stalin noticed the talented writer and soon Fadeev became chairman of the USSR Writers' Union, a member of the Central Committee, and held many other important positions. He was called the “writers’ minister,” and for almost two decades he actually led literature in the USSR.

In mid-February 1943, after the liberation of Donetsk Krasnodon by Soviet troops, several dozen corpses of members of the underground organization “Young Guard”, tortured by the Nazis, were recovered from the pit of mine No. 5. And a few months later, Fadeev’s article “Immortality” was published in Pravda, on the basis of which he later wrote his famous novel"Young Guard". He did this on the instructions of Stalin, who, immediately after the article appeared, declared that a book should be written about this feat.

Fuss around the Young Guard

Fadeev himself went to Krasnodon, and soon the novel was published. And then a bad fuss began around the Young Guard. The head of the MGB, Viktor Abakumov, prepared a note for Stalin, which stated that the novel was a falsification. According to St. Petersburg writer Nikolai Konyaev, who studied this topic, this was a provocation of the “authorities.” Of course, there were inaccuracies in the novel; relatives of the victims noticed them and complained. But the fact is that Fadeev did not write a documentary book, but work of art, and therefore he had to figure out a lot himself. However, such a demarche on the part of the state security agencies could be costly even for the influential chairman of the Writers' Union. And then, according to Konyaev, Fadeev was saved by Stalin.

He stated that the novel did not sufficiently reflect the role of the party and instructed Fadeev to rewrite it. Which he did, although in the course of his work he admitted that he was remaking the “Young Guard” into the “old one”. But then the novel received the Stalin Prize. More than one generation of Soviet people grew up and learned patriotism from this book. This was well understood abroad as well. The Parisian newspaper Lettre Française wrote:

"If the history of one civilization and one of its greatest moments are to be expressed by one literary work, then in the USSR “The Young Guard” by Alexander Fadeev could well serve as such a work.”

Bullying colleagues

In 1956, from the rostrum of the 20th Congress of the CPSU, the activities of the leader of Soviet writers were subjected to harsh criticism. Fadeev was removed from the post of chairman of the Union, was not elected a member, but only a candidate member of the CPSU Central Committee. Fadeev was directly called one of the perpetrators of repression among Soviet writers. Colleagues began to fiercely persecute Stalin's former favorite. One of them organized an anonymous letter against Fadeev to the Central Audit Commission of the CPSU. The anonymous letter said: “The Central Committee embodies the wisdom and purity of our party. The people see in him their beloved collective leader, whom they will follow into any battle. Every member of the Central Committee must be worthy of this trust and respect of the people. And Fadeev, a member of the Central Committee, is unworthy. Fadeev's drunkenness became a proverb. In the village of Peredelkino, residents call the snack bar “Fadeevskaya”. There is a verse circulating in the Writers' Union:

"Then we see the general,

When he drinks mineral.

When will he take a sip of natural food,

Then we don’t see the general.”

They said about Fadeev that he was the one who “turned over” writers who suffered during the years of repression. However, these slander is refuted by numerous copies of those characteristics, letters and notes that Fadeev wrote to Molotov, Voroshilov, Beria, the USSR Prosecutor General Vyshinsky, to the Main Military Prosecutor's Office with requests to “consider” or “expedite the consideration of the case”, to take into account that the person was “unjustly convicted “or that there was an “excess” when considering the issue.
Letters have been preserved in which he defended writers who unfairly suffered from all kinds of “workings” of that time. He worked hard to allocate a significant amount from the funds of the Union of Writers of the USSR for Zoshchenko, who was left without a penny, showed sincere participation in the fate of many writers unloved by the authorities: Pasternak, Zabolotsky, Lev Gumilyov, and slowly transferred money for Platonov’s treatment to his wife.

Meanwhile, as chairman of the Writers' Union, Fadeev was forced to carry out the “party line” when Zoshchenko and Anna Akhmatova were persecuted, and therefore had a hard time with such a split, suffered from insomnia, and fell into depression.

Some believe that the direct reason for the shooting was the drama of the writer Ivan Makariev. He was allegedly one of those who was arrested on a warrant allegedly endorsed by Fadeev. When, after Stalin’s death, Makariev returned from the camp to Moscow, it is alleged that he publicly called Fadeev a scoundrel and almost spat in his face, and then hanged himself. However, in fact, Makariev committed suicide in 1958 (i.e., two years after Fadeev), and secondly, he did not hang himself, but opened his veins. And thirdly, the reason for his suicide, as L. Kopelev and R. Orlova testify, was generally different - he drank two thousand rubles of party contributions and was afraid of a “personal matter.”

Fadeev was acutely aware of the accusations and slander against him. He asked many times to be accepted by the party leadership, tried to justify himself, but they did not listen to him. On May 11, 1956, two days before his death, the disgraced writer was nevertheless called to the new leader. In addition to Fadeev, Khrushchev invited several surviving members of the Krasnodon group “Young Guard” to join him. According to V. Ogryzko, it seems that the leader wanted to clarify the role of Tretyakevich, whom Fadeev in his novel brought out under a different name as a traitor. Khrushchev’s interest in Tretyakevich was not accidental. They said that before the war Tretyakevich was friends with Khrushchev’s son. But, according to Valeria Borts, the conversation with Khrushchev did not work out. The temperamental Fadeev at some point lost his temper and called the General Secretary a former Trotskyist. It is clear that the vindictive Khrushchev never forgave the writer for such an attack...

In addition, Fadeev was experiencing an acute creative crisis. He could not finish his last novel, Ferrous Metallurgy, probably feeling that he could no longer create anything bright. Following his last wish to be buried next to his mother, Fadeev was buried in Moscow on Novodevichy Cemetery.

Slander after death

After the collapse of the USSR, Fadeev's novel The Young Guard again became the object of fierce attacks, this time from domestic liberals, as well as Ukrainian nationalists, who sought to destroy or slander all symbols of Soviet patriotism. They began to spit on the exploits of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, Alexander Matrosov, and at the same time the Young Guards. And in Ukraine, Bandera’s followers tried to appropriate their immortal feat.

Alexander Fadeev's book was confiscated from stores there.

A falsehood was launched that the “Young Guard” was not a Komsomol, but a nationalist, Bandera organization and was allegedly headed by an OUN functionary, a certain Yevgeny Stakhiv.

In the newspaper Literaturna Ukraina, in an article by Vladimir Pokotylo “Fadeev and the truth. From the notes of a Ukrainian nationalist,” the following was literally written, for example: “In the first days of the German occupation, Bandera marching groups moved to the eastern territories of Ukraine to create centers of struggle for the liberation of Ukraine from fascist hordes. Such a group arrived in Krasnodon. Stakhiv, an assertive and intelligent gang from this group, settled among the Krasnodon residents, found restive daredevils and created a rebel center from them with the slogan “Ukraine without Stalin and Hitler!”

Stakhiv himself, who fled to the United States, later came to Ukraine and announced that Oleg Koshevoy was him.

The provocation was convincingly refuted by Vladimir Minaev in the book “Young Guard”: betrayal again.” Stakhiv, he notes, implemented the instructions of his American patrons, who were interested in “so that in the subsequent war there would be no Young Guards, no Kosmodemyansk and Sailors.” In multinational Krasnodon there was not even the thinnest layer of soil capable of giving birth to Ukrainian nationalism. Thus, among the 72 most active underground workers, 43 people were from Russian families, 11 people were from the families of the former Don Cossack class, 8 had Ukrainian roots, the rest were Belarusians, Armenians, Jews, Moldovans and Azerbaijanis.

In addition, the American puppeteers did not clearly develop the legend for their emissary. And so Stakhiv was confused all the time, misinterpreted himself, and could not even clearly state the facts of his own biography. He insisted that Koshevoy had not died, but had allegedly escaped and was living in America. However, in fact, Stakhiv ended up in the USA, and Oleg Koshevoy did not kneel before the executioners and was executed by the Nazis. And the novel by Alexander Fadeev, on which generations of patriots in our country were raised, despite everything, continues to live...

Special for the Centenary

Alexander Fadeev- Russian Soviet writer and public figure, journalist, war correspondent. For his works, Fadeev received many prestigious awards, including the Stalin Prize.

The writer is best known for his legendary novel The Young Guard.

In this article we will tell you about the main events of Fadeev, as well as interesting facts from his life.

So, in front of you short biography Fadeeva.

Biography of Fadeev

Alexander Alexandrovich Fadeev was born on December 11, 1901 in the village of Kimry (Tver province). His father, Alexander Ivanovich, with youth was absorbed in revolutionary ideas, as a result of which he was often persecuted by the tsarist authorities.

For his convictions, he repeatedly found himself in prison, where he actually met his future wife Antonina Kunz.

In addition to Alexander, another girl, Tatyana, and a boy, Vladimir, were born into the Fadeev family.

Childhood and youth

When little Sasha Fadeev was barely 4 years old, he independently mastered literacy and learned to read. Most of all he liked the works of Mine Reid, and.

Even before going to school, Alexander Fadeev composed a lot interesting tales which he loved to tell his loved ones.

Mother and father instilled in the children a love of work. They encouraged them to do various household work and with early age taught to be independent.

When Fadeev was 11 years old, he was sent to education. During this period of his biography, the boy lived with relatives.

He successfully passed the exams at a commercial school, but never completed it, because he decided to devote his life to revolutionary activities.

In 1918, Alexander voluntarily joined the underground Bolshevik association, and therefore repeatedly participated in skirmishes with the White Guards.

An interesting fact is that during the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising (1921), he was wounded. He treated his wound in, where he later remained to live.

Creative biography of Fadeev

The first serious work in Fadeev’s biography was the story “Spill”. However, it did not arouse much interest among readers.

After this, he wrote a story called “Destruction.” She brought him some popularity, after which he firmly decided to take up writing.

In his works, Alexander Fadeev vividly described the confrontation between the “reds” and the “whites,” praising the former and humiliating the latter. He was proud to have participated in the Civil War (1918-1922) and was one of those who contributed to the overthrow of the old government.

The book brought him enormous popularity and universal love of Soviet citizens. It talked about the exploits of Soviet teenagers who were engaged in partisan activities in.

5 years later, the second version of the “Young Guard” was published, in which many patriotic slogans and glorifications of the current government appeared. Soon this work became part of the compulsory school curriculum.

Being at the peak of his popularity, Alexander Fadeev was admitted to the Writers' Union, and after the release of the immortal novel he headed it. During the biography period 1939-1956. he was a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU, as well as a deputy of the Supreme Council.

In 1946, Fadeev put his signature in the famous resolution of Andrei Zhdanov, in which creativity was outlawed.

Moreover, Fadeev was obliged to personally ensure that the works of disgraced writers were not published anywhere.

It is interesting that after 2 years Alexander Fadeev provided Zoshchenko with financial support, since he found himself in dire need due to the decree that had been issued (see). Fadeev also participated in raising funds necessary for the treatment of Andrei Platonov (see).

It is obvious that Alexander Fadeev understood his guilt and tried to somehow correct the mistakes he had made. As a result, he began to drink frequently and fell into a deep depression.

For some time he even had to be treated “for a nervous illness” in one of the sanatoriums. In the future, his addiction to alcohol will lead to his death.

Personal life

The first wife in the biography of Alexander Fadeev was Valeria Gerasimova, who was also a writer. This marriage was unsuccessful, as a result of which the couple decided to separate.

Fadeev married the second time in 1936 to actress Angelina Stepanova. In this marriage they had 2 boys - Alexander and Mikhail.

Interestingly, Fadeev’s biography also included a daughter, Maria, born from the poetess Margarita Aliger.

Fadeev at the dacha, 1952

Death

On May 13, 1956, Alexander Alexandrovich Fadeev shot himself at his dacha in Peredelkino. According to the official version, he committed suicide due to alcoholism.

It is worth noting that a number of biographers claim that a couple of weeks before his suicide, Fadeev stopped drinking alcohol, and a week before his death he began to prepare for suicide. These days he wrote many letters to his friends and fellow party members.

Alexander Fadeev was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery next to his mother, since this was his last will. It is interesting that some biographers of the writer believe that he was allegedly killed, but this version has no reliable facts.

Photo by Fadeev

Alexander Fadeev in his youth

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Alexander Alexandrovich Fadeev was born on December 11 (24), 1901 in the chalk of Kimry (now a city in the Tver region). Russian

Fadeev's parents, paramedics by profession, were professional revolutionaries by lifestyle. Father - Alexander Ivanovich Fadeev (1862-1916), mother - Antonina Vladimirovna Kunz.

For about four years, I learned to read and write on my own - I watched from the side as my sister Tanya was taught, and learned the entire alphabet. From the age of four, he began reading books, amazing adults with his irrepressible imagination, composing the most extraordinary stories and fairy tales. His favorite writers since childhood were Jack London, Mine Reid, Fenimore Cooper. In 1908, his family moved to the South Ussuri region (now Primorsky), where Fadeev spent his childhood and youth. From 1912 to 1918, Fadeev studied at the Vladivostok Commercial School, but did not complete his studies, deciding to devote himself to revolutionary activities.
While still studying at the Vladivostok Commercial School, he carried out orders from the underground Bolshevik committee. In 1918 he joined the RCP(b) and adopted the nickname Bulyga. Became a party agitator. In 1919 he joined the Special Communist Detachment of Red Partisans.
In 1919-1921 he took part in hostilities in the Far East and was wounded. Held positions: commissar of the 13th Amur Regiment and commissar of the 8th Amur Rifle Brigade. In 1921-1922 he studied at the Moscow Mining Academy. In 1921, as a delegate to the Tenth Congress of the RCP(b), he went to Petrograd. He took part in the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising, and was wounded for the second time. After treatment and demobilization, Fadeev remained in Moscow.
Alexander Fadeev wrote his first serious work, the story “Spill,” in 1922-1923. In 1925-1926, while working on the novel "Destruction", he decided to become a professional writer. “Destruction” brought fame and recognition to the young writer, but after this work he could no longer pay attention to literature alone, becoming a prominent literary leader and public figure. One of the leaders of RAPP.
Action early works- the novels “Destruction” and “The Last of Udege” take place in the Ussuri region. The issues of “Destruction” relate to issues of party leadership; the novel shows the class struggle, the formation Soviet power. The main characters are red partisans, communists (for example, Levinson). Fadeev’s next novel, “The Last of Udege” (parts 1-4, 1929-1941, unfinished), is also dedicated to the Civil War.
Fadeev is also known for a number of essays and articles devoted to the development of literature in the conditions of socialist realism.
The “Minister of Writers,” as Fadeev was called, actually led literature in the USSR for almost two decades. He had almost no time or energy left for creativity. Last novel"Ferrous Metallurgy" remained unfinished. The writer planned to create a fundamental work of 50-60 author's sheets. As a result, for posthumous publication in Ogonyok, it was possible to collect 8 chapters onto 3 printed sheets from the drafts.
Fadeev took the idea for his book from the book “Hearts of the Brave” by V.G. Lisyansky and M. Kotov, published in 1944. Immediately after the end of the Great Patriotic War(1941-1945) Fadeev sat down to write a novel about the Krasnodon underground organization "Young Guard", which operated in territory occupied by Nazi Germany, many of whose members were exterminated by the Nazis.
The book was first published in 1946. Fadeev was sharply criticized for the fact that the “leading and directing” role of the Communist Party was not clearly expressed in the novel and received severe criticism in the newspaper Pravda, the organ of the CPSU Central Committee, in fact from Stalin himself.
Nevertheless, the writer took into account the wishes, and in 1951 the second edition of the novel “The Young Guard” was released. In it, Fadeev, having seriously revised the book, paid more attention in the plot to the leadership of the underground organization by the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).
Fadeev joked bitterly at the time when he told his friends: “I’m remaking the Young Guard into the old one...”. The film "The Young Guard" was shot according to the first edition, but completely remaking the film (which also underwent certain edits) was much more difficult than rewriting the book.
Until the end of the 1980s, the novel “The Young Guard” was perceived as the history of the organization ideologically approved by the party, and any other interpretation of events was impossible. The novel was part of curriculum The USSR was well known to any schoolchild in the years 1950-1980.
For many years Fadeev led writers' organizations different levels. in 1926-1932 he was one of the organizers and ideologists of RAPP.

In the Union of Writers of the USSR:

In 1932, he was a member of the Organizing Committee for the creation of the USSR Joint Venture after the liquidation of RAPP;
1934-1939 - deputy chairman of the organizing committee;
1939-1944 - secretary;
1946-1954 - general secretary and chairman of the board;
1954-1956 - secretary of the board.

Vice-President of the World Peace Council (since 1950). Member of the CPSU Central Committee (1939-1956); At the 20th Congress of the CPSU (1956) he was elected a candidate member of the CPSU Central Committee. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 2nd-4th convocations (since 1946) and the Supreme Council of the RSFSR of the 3rd convocation.

In 1942-1944, Fadeev worked as editor-in-chief of Literaturnaya Gazeta, was the organizer of the October magazine and was a member of its editorial board.

During the Great Patriotic War, Fadeev was a war correspondent for the newspaper Pravda and the Sovinformburo. In January 1942, the writer visited the Kalinin Front, collecting materials for a report in the most dangerous area. On January 14, 1942, Fadeev published an article in the newspaper Pravda, “Monster Destroyers and People-Creators,” where he described his impressions of what he saw during the war.

In the essay “Fighter” he described the feat of the Red Army soldier Y.N. Paderin, who received the title of Hero Soviet Union posthumously.

Standing at the head of the Union of Writers of the USSR, Alexander Fadeev implemented the decisions of the party and government in relation to his colleagues: M.M. Zoshchenko, A.A. Akhmatova, A.P. Platonov. In 1946, after the historical decree of Zhdanov, which actually destroyed Zoshchenko and Akhmatova as writers, Fadeev was among those who carried out this sentence. In 1949, Alexander Fadeev became one of the authors of a programmatic editorial in the organ of the CPSU Central Committee, the newspaper Pravda, entitled “On an anti-patriotic group of theater critics.” This article was the beginning of a campaign that became known as the "Fight Against Cospolitanism."

But in 1948 he tried to allocate a significant amount from the funds of the USSR joint venture for M.M. Zoshchenko, who was left without a penny. Fadeev showed sincere participation in the fate of many writers disliked by the authorities: B.L. Pasternak, N.A. Zabolotsky, L.N. Gumilyov, several times he quietly transferred money for the treatment of A.P. Platonov to his wife.

Having a hard time experiencing such a split, he suffered from insomnia and fell into depression. IN recent years Fadeev became addicted to alcohol and went into long binges. He underwent treatment at the Barvikha sanatorium.

Fadeev did not accept the Khrushchev thaw. In 1956, from the rostrum of the 20th Congress of the CPSU, the activities of the leader of Soviet writers were harshly criticized by M.A. Sholokhov. Fadeev was not elected a member, but only a candidate member of the CPSU Central Committee. Fadeev was directly called one of the perpetrators of repression among Soviet writers.

After the 20th Congress of the CPSU, Fadeev’s conflict with his conscience escalated to the limit. He confessed to his old friend Yuri Libedinsky - Conscience torments. It's hard to live, Yura, with bloody hands.

On May 13, 1956, Alexander Fadeev shot himself with a revolver at his dacha in Peredelkino. The obituary listed alcoholism as the official cause of suicide. In fact, two weeks before his suicide, A. A. Fadeev stopped drinking, “about a week before suicide he began to prepare for it, wrote letters different people"(Vyacheslav Ivanov).

Contrary to his last wish - to be buried next to his mother, Fadeev was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery

Fadeev’s first wife was Valeria Anatolyevna Gerasimova, the second (since 1936) was Angelina Stepanova, People's Artist USSR, who raised two children with Fadeev: Alexander and Mikhail. In addition, in 1943, the common daughter of Fadeev and M.I. Aliger, Maria Alexandrovna Fadeeva-Makarova-Enzensberger, was born

Lived on Tverskaya Street (Tverskoy district of Moscow)

Brigade commissar (1941, since 1942 colonel). Winner of the Stalin Prize, first degree (1946). Member of the RCP(b) since 1918. In 1939, Fadeev became a member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

two Orders of Lenin (1939, 1951)
Order of the Red Banner
Stalin Prize, first degree (1946) - for the novel “The Young Guard”
Lenin Komsomol Prize (1970 - posthumously) - for the novel “The Young Guard”

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Alexander Alexandrovich Fadeev - Soviet actor, son of the writer Alexander Fadeev. He became famous for his role as the Viscount in the film War and Peace.

It is generally accepted that a person’s talent will always help him become successful in life, achieve fame and universal love. But how often has this statement turned out to be wrong? Many truly gifted people were never able to properly use this gift of fate, wasted it in vain and did not achieve any heights. This fully applies to actor Alexander Fadeev. Neither his amazing talent nor his influential parents helped him in life.

What happened, why did the brilliant start creative biography the artist so quickly faded away and ended episodic roles, whose artist's name wasn't even in the credits?

Star parents

Nobody ever knew the name of Alexander Fadeev’s real father. This remained a secret that the actor’s mother kept until her death. But everyone knew Sasha’s mother very well - this is Angelina Stepanova, one of the cult actresses of the USSR, whose name was on everyone theater posters Moscow Art Theater.

Angelina’s husband was the director of the Moscow Art Theater Nikolai Gorchakov, but this marriage cannot be called happy, because the secret passion of the beautiful Angelina was the writer Nikolai Erdman. Their romance lasted for seven whole years, but despite this, Angelina never filed for divorce from her husband and did not connect her life with her loved one. The reason is simple to the point of banality - she was afraid that this divorce would affect her career, which was so dependent on her director husband. And then divorces were not encouraged in the Soviet Union and Stepanova could easily be banned from traveling abroad, without even taking into account all her merits.

Photo: Alexander Fadeev in childhood with his family

Fate itself provided a way out of this difficult triangle - in 1933, the actress’s lover was arrested and exiled. After 2 years, Stepanova and Gorchakov finally broke up. AND real reason This breakup remained unknown, whether the actress stopped fearing for her career and broke up with her unloved husband, or Gorchakov himself was afraid for his reputation, which could be spoiled by a marriage with the mistress of a repressed writer.

But Angelina was not alone for long. While touring in Paris with the theater, she meets famous writer– Alexander Fadeev, who was there on official business.

Their romance developed very rapidly, so after returning home they decided to get married. They lived in marriage for twenty years, until Alexander’s suicide, which he committed in 1956. During this time, a lot happened - including her husband’s frequent drinking and his infidelity, but this beautiful, elegant, intelligent and courageous woman endured everything. Probably because she loved her Sasha very much. Angelina outlived her husband by 44 years and asked to be buried next to her beloved. It was in 2000, the actress turned 95 years old.

In July 1936, literally immediately after the wedding, the young couple had a son, who was named Sasha in honor of his adoptive father. Fadeev adopted the child, giving him not only his last and patronymic names, but also his first name. The son became the full namesake of his adoptive father, and to avoid confusion, they began to call him Alexander Fadeev Jr.

Early years

Fadeev Sr. was a very famous writer. He wrote “Young Guard”, “Destruction”, “The Last of Udege”. These books were read to the gills; they were loved by several generations of Soviet people. He was a deputy, awarded orders and Stalin Prize, stood at the origins of the creation of the Union of Writers of the USSR, the ruling elite reckoned with him.

Angelina Stepanova was a successful, sought-after actress, prima of the Moscow Art Theater. It was not easy in those years, but the family had normal income, so in childhood Sasha Fadeev Jr. did not need anything financially.

The couple soon had a son together, who was named Misha. The boys were very friendly with each other, and tried not to forget their sister, their father’s illegitimate daughter Masha. Despite so many children, Sasha was loved most of all.

Choosing a life path

It remains a mystery why Sasha decided to devote his life to the acting profession. Maybe my mother’s genes affected me, or my childhood, which was spent almost in the theater. And perhaps his refined nature liked the art of theater more than the writing of his stepfather. The young man made his choice in favor of the theater, and his parents raised all their connections to find a home for their beloved child. And immediately after graduating from the Moscow Art Theater School, Sasha was accepted into the Theater troupe Soviet Army, where he shone for several years.

Film debut

Fadeev Jr.'s film debut took place in 1965 - he played the role of a viscount in the filming of the film "War and Peace" based on the novel by L. Tolstoy. The role was not the main one, but Alexander performed it simply superbly. A handsome young man with aristocratic manners and straight posture - this is how the audience remembered him. It didn’t even look like acting, he looked so natural in this role.

A successful debut showed everyone that the young man is undoubtedly very talented and can reach the highest heights in cinema.

Only one thing depressed Alexander - his father did not see his success. By this time, Fadeev Sr. had committed suicide; he shot himself with a pistol, left alone in the dacha.

At that time, my wife was touring with the theater abroad. This tragic event happened in 1956, after he made a denunciatory speech against Stalin. The writer was only 54.

This tragedy greatly affected all of Fadeev’s children. Years later, daughter Masha would also commit suicide, and Alexander Jr.’s relatives also began to notice suicidal tendencies. But this is in the future, but for now, Fadeev Jr.’s career, after a successful debut role, has rapidly rushed upward - he is approved main role in a film about mountain climbers.

Main role in the film "Vertical"

The plot of the film was quite simple, but despite this, “Vertical” received very high praise from the audience. The lion's share of the film's success lay in the songs that he wrote specifically for it. These songs became hits; more than one generation of the singer’s fans listen to them. The success of the film was also brought by the actor Fadeev, who very harmoniously played the main role - Nikitin.

During filming, a romance broke out between actor Alexander Fadeev and the actress. Vladimir Vysotsky also liked the pretty girl, but his popularity could not be compared with Fadeevskaya, so preference was given to the handsome Alexander. In addition, he was a more promising party than the little-known Vladimir. Larisa was already ready to marry Alexander, but stopped in time. The actor drank heavily and a lot, became uncontrollable and impulsive, grabbed a gun to shoot himself and Larisa sometimes had to save him from certain death. This stopped the girl from getting married.

The collapse of a film career

Inspired by his first successes in cinema, the actor soared too high in the skies and very soon became a victim of a real star fever. He argues with directors, doesn’t show up for rehearsals, and shows up on set with a severe hangover. They forgave him a lot and for a long time, maybe due to his talent and charm, or maybe out of a feeling of respect for the mother, who asked for her dissolute son. It seemed to everyone that this was temporary, Sasha would come to her senses and start working at full capacity. But the actor did not live up to these hopes.

At the end of the 60s, actor Fadeev practically stopped being invited to films. After the release of the film “Vertical”, he starred in the films “One Chance in a Thousand” and “Conscience” - these were serious roles, and after that he was trusted only with episodes. “In the same microdistrict”, “Front behind the front line”, “Singles are provided with a hostel”, “Accident - the daughter of a cop”, “Mother” - in these films he appears exclusively in episodes; his name is not even in the credits for the films.

Theater career

Compared to his film career, the theater career of Alexander Fadeev Jr. was more successful. But this is not thanks to his talent, but rather to the efforts of his mother, who was respected among her colleagues. She realized that her son’s film career was over, and in the theater he was facing dismissal due to unworthy behavior. Therefore, he asks to admit Alexander to the Moscow Art Theater. Efremov was not delighted with such an offer, but agreed to the persuasion.

Alexander Fadeev was known for his scandalous antics, but in terms of acting was very useful in the theater. He participated in the productions of Efremov himself, he had a role in the plays “The Dream of Reason” and “Old New Year”.

But again feeling permissiveness, Alexander gradually begins to become impudent and enter into disputes with Oleg Efremov. The conflict was enormous, the Moscow Art Theater was divided into two parts and Fadeev, not wanting to work for Efremov anymore, moved to, and Stepanova remained with Oleg Nikolaevich. Fadeev continued to play in the new theater until 1993.

Personal life

Alexander Fadeev was very famous among the theater elite. And it’s not just his creativity, which began to decline - he was famous for his love affairs and revelries. Nature endowed Alexander with beauty, but this is not the main thing, he was a very charming and attentive gentleman, he knew how to look after beautifully and interest any lady. He took full advantage of his stepfather’s connections and his mother’s authority, his life was free and prosperous, and he himself did not make any effort for this.

But the time came when Alexander was fed up with novels and realized that he wanted a serious relationship. For the first time, he entered into an official marriage with. Their acquaintance took place in the WTO restaurant. Lyudochka was simply charmed by the capital’s handsome gentleman. They didn't date for long; they soon registered their marriage. But a long and happy personal life did not work out. Too spoiled by fate, Alexander continued to lead his old life - restaurants and cheerful companies, and Lyudmila worked hard. Their marriage lasted only 2 years, after which Gurchenko realized that it was a mistake and divorced her husband.

In the personal life of Alexander Fadeev there were two more marriages. The artist’s second wife was Natella Kandelaki. But this marriage did not last long; they divorced very quickly.

Fadeev is getting married for the third time. Now this is Nadya Stalin, the granddaughter of Joseph Vissarionovich and the daughter of his son Vasily. This was the actor's last wife; they lived together until her death. No one knows how happy the couple were, because Nadya never told anyone about what was going on in the family. But judging by Alexander’s character, there is no doubt that his wife’s life was difficult. In this marriage, in 1974, Fadeev had a daughter, Anastasia, who is recorded by the name of her grandfather and father, Stalin. In 1992, Anastasia gave birth to a daughter, Galya, whom her mother registered as Fadeeva.

Recent years

Already in adulthood, the artist never changed his lifestyle. The drinking and partying continued. The artist had an alcohol addiction and suicidal tendencies.

Selected filmography

1965 - War and Peace
1966 - Vertical
1968 - One chance in a thousand
1974 - Conscience
1989 - Mother

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Russian Soviet writer and public figure, journalist, war correspondent

Alexander Fadeev

Brief biography

Youth

Alexander Fadeev born in the village of Kimry (now a city in the Tver region). He was baptized in the Kimri Intercession Cathedral. From childhood I grew up as a gifted child. He was about four years old when he independently mastered reading and writing - he watched from the side as his sister Tanya was taught, and learned the entire alphabet. From the age of four, he began reading books, amazing adults with his irrepressible imagination, composing the most extraordinary stories and fairy tales. His favorite writers since childhood were Jack London, Mine Reid, Fenimore Cooper.

In 1908, the family moved to the South Ussuri region (now Primorsky), and in 1912 settled in the village of Chuguevka, where Fadeev spent his childhood and youth.

From 1912 to 1918, Fadeev studied at the Vladivostok Commercial School, but did not complete his studies, deciding to devote himself to revolutionary activities.

Revolutionary activities

While still studying at the Vladivostok Commercial School, he carried out orders from the underground Bolshevik committee.

In 1918 he joined the RCP (b) and adopted a party pseudonym Bulyga. Became a party agitator.

In 1919 he joined the Special Communist Detachment of Red Partisans.

In 1919-1921 he took part in hostilities in the Far East and was wounded. Held positions: commissar of the 13th Amur Regiment and commissar of the 8th Amur Rifle Brigade.

In 1921-1922 he studied at the Moscow Mining Academy.

In 1921, as a delegate to the Tenth Congress of the RCP(b), he took part in the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising, and was wounded for the second time. After treatment and demobilization, Fadeev remained in Moscow.

Creation

Beginning of literary activity

Alexander Fadeev wrote his first serious work, the story “Spill,” in 1922-1923. In 1925-1926, while working on the novel “Devastation,” he decided to become a professional writer. “Destruction” brought fame and recognition to the young writer, but after this work he could no longer pay attention to literature alone, becoming a prominent literary leader and public figure. One of the leaders of RAPP.

Further literary work

The action of the early works - the novels "Destruction" and "The Last of Udege" - takes place in the Ussuri region. The issues of “Destruction” relate to issues of party leadership; the novel shows the class struggle and the formation of Soviet power. The main characters are red partisans, communists (for example, Levinson). Fadeev’s next novel, “The Last of Udege” (parts 1-4, 1929-1941, unfinished), is also dedicated to the Civil War.

Fadeev is also known for a number of essays and articles devoted to the development of literature in the conditions of socialist realism.

The “Minister of Writers,” as Fadeev was called, actually led literature in the USSR for almost two decades. He had almost no time or energy left for creativity. The last novel, “Ferrous Metallurgy,” remained unfinished. The writer planned to create a fundamental work of 50-60 author's sheets. As a result, for posthumous publication in Ogonyok, it was possible to collect 8 chapters onto 3 printed sheets from the drafts.

Novel "The Young Guard". Truth and fiction

Fadeev took the idea for his book from the book “Hearts of the Brave” by V. G. Lyaskovsky and M. Kotov, published in 1944. In 1945, immediately after the end of the Great Patriotic War, Fadeev sat down to write a novel about the Krasnodon underground organization “Young Guard”, operating in territory occupied by Nazi Germany, many of whose members were killed by the Nazis.

In mid-February 1943, after the liberation of Donetsk Krasnodon by Soviet troops, several dozen corpses of teenagers tortured by the Nazis, who were members of the underground organization “Young Guard” during the occupation, were extracted from the pit of mine No. 5 located near the city. And a few months later in “Pravda” “Alexander Fadeev’s article “Immortality” was published, on the basis of which the novel “The Young Guard” was written a little later

The book was first published in 1946. Fadeev was sharply criticized for the fact that the “leading and directing” role of the Communist Party was not clearly expressed in the novel and received severe criticism in the newspaper Pravda, the organ of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, in fact from Stalin himself.

Fadeev explained:

I didn't write true story Young Guards, but a novel that not only allows, but even presupposes artistic fiction.

Nevertheless, the writer took into account the wishes, and in 1951 the second edition of the novel “The Young Guard” was released. In it, Fadeev, having seriously revised the book, paid more attention in the plot to the leadership of the underground organization by the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Fadeev joked bitterly at the time when he told his friends: “I’m remaking the Young Guard into the old one...”.

The film “The Young Guard” was shot according to the first edition, but completely remaking the film (which also underwent certain edits) was much more difficult than rewriting the book.

Until the end of the 1980s, the novel “The Young Guard” was perceived as the history of the organization ideologically approved by the party, and any other interpretation of events was impossible. The novel was included in the USSR curriculum and was well known to any schoolchild of the 1950-1980s.

Social and political activities

For many years, Fadeev led writers' organizations at various levels. In 1926-1932 he was one of the organizers and ideologists of RAPP.

In the Union of Writers of the USSR:

In 1932, he was a member of the Organizing Committee for the creation of the Union of Writers of the USSR after the liquidation of the RAPP;
1934-1939 - deputy chairman of the organizing committee;
1939-1944 - secretary;
1946-1954 - general secretary and chairman of the board;
1954-1956 - secretary of the board.

Vice-President of the World Peace Council (since 1950). Member of the CPSU Central Committee (1939-1956); At the 20th Congress of the CPSU (1956) he was elected a candidate member of the CPSU Central Committee. Member of the USSR Supreme Council of the 2nd-4th convocations (since 1946) and the RSFSR Supreme Soviet of the 3rd convocation.

Colonel (1942), brigade commissar (1941).

In 1942-1944, Fadeev worked as editor-in-chief of Literaturnaya Gazeta, was the organizer of the October magazine and was a member of its editorial board.

Public position. Recent years

In 1949, Alexander Fadeev became one of the authors of a programmatic editorial article in the Pravda newspaper entitled “About one anti-patriotic group of theater critics”(?), This article served as the beginning of a campaign that became known as “The Fight against Cosmopolitanism.” In the fall of 1949, he participated in the persecution in the press of Boris Eikhenbaum and other Leningrad State University employees.

But in 1948 he tried to allocate a significant amount from the funds of the Union of Writers of the USSR for M. M. Zoshchenko, who was left without a livelihood. Fadeev showed sincere participation in the fate of many writers disliked by the authorities: B. L. Pasternak, N. A. Zabolotsky, L. N. Gumilyov, several times donated money for the treatment of A. P. Platonov to his wife.

Having a hard time experiencing such a split, he suffered from insomnia and fell into depression. In recent years, Fadeev became addicted to alcohol and went on long binges. He underwent treatment at the Barvikha sanatorium.

Ilya Ehrenburg wrote about him:

Fadeev was a brave but disciplined soldier; he never forgot the prerogatives of the commander-in-chief.

Fadeev did not accept the Khrushchev thaw. In 1956, from the rostrum of the 20th Congress of the CPSU, the activities of the leader of Soviet writers were harshly criticized by M. A. Sholokhov. Fadeev was not elected a member, but only a candidate member of the CPSU Central Committee. Fadeev was directly called one of the perpetrators of repression among Soviet writers.

After the XX Congress of the CPSU internal conflict Fadeev's situation escalated to the limit. He confessed to his old friend Yuri Libedinsky: “My conscience torments me. It’s hard to live, Yura, with bloody hands.”

Suicide

Fadeev’s suicide letter, addressed to the CPSU Central Committee, was seized by the KGB and published for the first time only in 1990:

I don’t see the possibility of living any longer, since the art to which I gave my life has been ruined by the self-confident and ignorant leadership of the party and now cannot be corrected.<…>My life, as a writer, loses all meaning, and with great joy, as a deliverance from this vile existence, where meanness, lies and slander fall upon you, I am leaving this life. The last hope was to at least tell this to the people who rule the state, but for the past 3 years, despite my requests, they cannot even accept me. I ask you to bury me next to my mother.

A. A. Fadeev’s suicide letter to the CPSU Central Committee. May 13, 1956
(News of the Central Committee of the CPSU. - 1990. - No. 10. - P. 147-151)

Researchers point to the strange circumstances surrounding the writer's suicide.

Personal life

Fadeev's parents, paramedics by profession, were professional revolutionaries by lifestyle. Father - Alexander Ivanovich Fadeev (1862-1917), mother - Antonina Vladimirovna Kunz (1873-1954).

Fadeev's first wife was Valeria Anatolyevna Gerasimova, the second (since 1936) was Angelina Iosifovna Stepanova, People's Artist of the USSR, who raised two children with Fadeev: Alexander and Mikhail. In addition, in 1943, the common daughter of Fadeev and M.I. Aliger was born: Maria Aleksandrovna Fadeeva-Makarova-Enzensberger (committed suicide on 10/06/1992).

Awards

two Orders of Lenin (01/31/1939; 12/23/1951)
Order of the Red Banner (1922)
medals
Stalin Prize, first degree (1946) - for the novel “The Young Guard”,
Lenin Komsomol Prize (1970 - posthumously) - for the novel “The Young Guard”.

Memory

Memorial plaque on the building of the cultural monument “Big Siberian Hotel” (Bashkortostan, Ufa, Karl Marx Street, 14 / Kommunisticheskaya Street, 43), where Alexander Fadeev performed on April 12, 1932

They are named after Fadeev.

Biography of Alexander Alexandrovich Fadeev. Actor Fadeev Alexander: biography, personal life, filmography Fadeev Alexander Alexandrovich writer biography