At parting with Irina Miroshnichenko, Lev Leshchenko said a poignant speech

On August 7, at the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater, they said goodbye to the People’s Artist of the RSFSR Irina Miroshnichenko. It is customary to write about the funeral ceremonies of screen stars that “the whole of Russia sees them off”, but this is always hyperbole – it is clear that hardly anyone will come from Murmansk or Khabarovsk to put their modest bouquet at the coffin or hillock in the cemetery.

But the MK correspondent in the crowd gathered in Kamergersky Lane overheard a story about a 90-year-old grandmother from Elektrougli, who, in the thirty-degree heat, forced her son to bring her to the Moscow Art Theater. Chekhov. I thought that the people’s love for Miroshnichenko just manifests itself in such particulars.

Theater stage. Wreaths, among which you immediately recognize the presidential one, the coffin, two rows of chairs – on the left and right, on which colleagues, friends and relatives of the deceased were seated. Behind the stage, photographs of Irina Miroshnichenko are projected, and journalists with cameras, voice recorders and smartphones stand in front of a dense front line.

The appearance of Konstantin Khabensky caused a revival in the hall, but because of him the audience did not rush forward so eagerly as when Evgeny Mironov or Lev Leshchenko came to the microphone. Khabensky – artistic director of the Moscow Art Theater. Chekhov, and everyone understood that he could not but come. Konstantin Yurievich spoke a little hoarsely and very penetratingly.

– I am from the generation that in my youth admired Irina Petrovna on the screen, and I am from those who, at a more mature age, had the good fortune to communicate with her.

In November 2021, she came to my theater: powerful, energetic, self-confident, she offered to restore Oleg Yefremov’s performance “Three Sisters” for the 90th anniversary of Oleg Nikolayevich, she herself wanted to play. And I wanted to celebrate the anniversary (in July last year she turned 80. – I.V.), invite all her friends.

On the day of preparation for the anniversary, I saw that Irina Miroshnichenko was very nervous. I think it was not just nerves, but also overcoming the pain that settled in her. We have been very clear. Then she stopped appearing in the theater.

Khabensky explained the “disappearance” of his famous colleague with a quote from Exupery’s “The Little Prince”: she did not want to appear disheveled, like some kind of poppy. But she wanted to show herself in all the splendor of her beauty.

Like the rose from the wise book of the French classic, Irina Petrovna could not afford to come to the Moscow Art Theater “out of shape.”

Many speakers later returned to the theme of the holiday, which in the theater and in life can be replaced by tragedy. Putin’s special envoy for international cultural cooperation, Mikhail Shvydkoy, said that when the funeral ceremony began, there was a feeling that the evening of Miroshnichenko’s 80th birthday was going on.

“To be an actress of the Art Theater for 60 years is the need to prove every day that you own the profession. I will never forget the play “Solo for a Chilling Clock”, where she and other actors appeared in the company of the great second-generation artists of the Moscow Art Theater: Stanitsyn, Yanshin, Androvskaya. And it was necessary to prove that next to them they work by right. She took the baton from them, ”Mikhail Efimovich emphasized.

Among those paying tribute, Lev Leshchenko was remembered with a particularly touching speech:

– At the anniversary author’s evening, we sang a song together, where there were such words:

For others, the golden balls of August are still burning.

For others, autumn and its festivities are still ahead.

The festivities are over. The word “never” floats all the time, it is akin to eternity. We cannot comprehend it, only touch it and kneel before it. Today we are all on our knees before the brilliant actress.

After Leshchenko’s words, the farewell became hysterical, Oleg Tabakov’s widow Marina Zudina could not hold back her tears, turning to Miroshnichenko, who “is now with us, hears everything”:

“I will remember how tenderly you treated me, my husband. You will meet Oleg Pavlovich, tell him that I and his children are very, very loved and miss him very much. And now we will miss you too.

To quote everyone in detail – Avangard Leontiev, Alexander Kibovsky (head of the Department of Culture of the capital), Yevgeny Mironov – the modest volume of this note does not allow. But Mironov said something that can be done as a counterbalance to the total grief:

The most important thing in her life is theater. And the theater responded to her in return. She was a very happy actress.

“For her, happiness was a full hall,” admitted the rector of the Moscow Art Theater School, Igor Zolotovitsky, in turn. – We were afraid that summer, holidays … That you would not come.

But people came. The auditorium was more than two-thirds full. And when the audience was asked to go to Kamergersky Lane, a crowd gathered there.

Passers-by stopped, found out what had happened – and lingered to see Irina Miroshnichenko on her last journey. The actress was applauded twice – in the hall and on the street. The second time – at least 10 or even 15 minutes. The applause seemed endless.

And then there was a funeral service in the church of Sophia the Wisdom of God on Sofiyskaya embankment and a funeral at the Troekurovsky cemetery.