Caucasian epic of Vladimir Etush: a monument in Ingushetia, a street named after him

Vladimir Etush turns 101 today. People’s Artist of the USSR, front-line soldier, unique artist. The Vakhtangovites, who opened the House of their founder in Vladikavkaz a few days ago, and now play their best performances in two theaters, of course, celebrated this date. The widow of Vladimir Etush Elena with the director of the theater, artists, assistant director went to Ingushetia, neighboring Ossetia, to the city of Malgobek, to lay flowers at the bronze monument of the oldest Vakhtangov. In this city of military glory, a monument to the great artist (sculptor Philipp Trukhin) was erected a year ago. With details from the scene – the browser “MK”.

Malgobek in the biography of Vladimir Etush is not at all a random geographical point. Here he fought, was awarded the medal “For the Defense of the Caucasus”. On the way from Vladikavkaz to Malgobek, Elena Etush tells me:

– Vladimir Abramovich has passed the entire Caucasian ridge. He recalled how they walked for days on mountain passes. Tired, hungry, constantly wanted to sleep, literally fell asleep on the go. He said: “It used to wake up only when you bury your head in the back of a comrade walking in front.” Well, if you bury yourself, otherwise there were cases when people who were completely exhausted fell into the abyss. One day, he nearly broke down. And until the end of his life he could not stand millet. It so happened that for several months they had to sit on this one porridge – there was nothing else.

An hour and a half later we reached Malgobek. This town is quite small – for 39 thousand inhabitants. Neat such, all houses are made of light brick under red metal roofs. People with flowers have already gathered at the intersection of two streets near the monument. By the way, the street, where a year ago a bust of the people’s artist was erected on a high pedestal, bears the name of Vladimir Etush and it rests on Builders Street. Vladimir Abramovich is immensely respected by the Ingush: he is a well-known artist all over the country (who doesn’t remember his legendary film roles!), and, most importantly, he is the defender of their city, fought for the liberation of Malgobek, could have left his life here.

Officials came to the meeting, the first speaker was Chairman of the Government of Ingushetia Vladimir Slastinin. In a brief introductory speech, he emphasized that after the appearance of Etush Street, Vladimir Etush in the republic, even those who from the young have not seen his films, now know that there is Etush and are proud that such a person defended our land.

– Vladimir Abramovich is not a stranger here, – Elena Etush confirms, – and he is not a stranger to all the peoples of the Caucasus.

Yevgeny Knyazev recalled that once in a narrow company that gathered in the theater on the occasion of Victory Day, Vladimir Abramovich raised a toast not to victory, but to one person who saved his life at the front. He didn’t even know his name.

– In one of the battles, he raised a fighter from the ground, to whom a fascist bullet hit his lung, he was alive, he could be saved. He pressed the fighter to himself, plugged the place where the bullet had entered with his hand (this was usually done so that the air from the lung did not immediately come out and the person did not suffocate), and at that moment he heard the sound of a shot. This is another bullet that entered the wounded soldier. And it turns out that he covered Vladimir Abramovich with his body. And then he regarded it as a sign of long life.

– What is true – Etush lived a long life. Fate kept him for something important, which then happened. But a freshman at the theater school, Volodya Etush, tall, handsome, with large, slightly bulging black eyes, might not have volunteered for the front. Future artist, well, what can he do in a war? And a few days later he went to the military registration and enlistment office.

– Vladimir Abramovich told why he made such a decision? – I ask Elena.

– Of course, he did. He, along with classmates, already went on stage in the extras of the play “Field Marshal Kutuzov”. At one of these performances, I counted thirteen people in the hall. “And then I realized that artists are not needed now – soldiers are needed,” he said. The next day he went to the military enlistment office.

To be precise, Vladimir Etush, a 1st-year student at the Boris Shchukin Theater School, began his war on July 1, when, together with the same young, not shelled guys who knew nothing about the war, he went to Vyazma – dig trenches. And miraculously managed to take them out of there a few hours before the big German offensive – otherwise they would have died. Everyone would go there. Well, then there will be many dangerous episodes when life hung in the balance: retreats, advances, crossings, wounds. In 1942, he participated in the crossing near Aksay, across the Don.

“At first they were melted down only at night, and then around the clock,” continues Elena Etush. – Because they were mercilessly bombed, and he stood on the bridge and commanded the crossing. The witness of those events, Dina Gurvich, naturally, did not know who he was – well, some kind of young lieutenant, there were many of them at the front. Only later, in the 70s, when she saw him on the screen, she recognized the same lieutenant in the famous artist and wrote him a letter. “Despite his youth, this lieutenant acted very skillfully. But I was sure that he died in this meat grinder. On one of the anniversaries, Vladimir Abramovich and I were at this crossing.

– I remembered one more of his military history. Somehow they were walking with a convoy, Vladimir Abramovich was in charge. And he had a terrible sore throat, but he could not sit down, lie down in this wagon train, there was no way. The pain grew, as if a knife had been cut into his throat. Then, out of desperation, he took a pot of ice water and, while walking, drank it in small sips. By evening they came to the village, began to look for where to spend the night, knocked on the windows of houses, but there was nowhere to stay – all the huts were already occupied. And then he dug up the snow with a shovel, made a small depression, laid a raincoat in it, lay down, covered himself with his head and slept through the night like that. In the morning, when I got up, there was no sore throat. Therefore, in peacetime, if Vladimir Abramovich fell ill, he never canceled the performance – he played with the temperature. He had such a core since the war.

Lieutenant Etush was wounded near Rostov. He lay in hospitals for six months, as a result of a severe wound in March 1944, he was completely commissioned. He returned to the school and since that day for more than 70 (!!!) has been associated only with the Vakhtangov Theater.

The funny thing is, even artists get confused – how old is Vladimir Abramovich today – 100 or 101? After all, according to his passport, he was born in 1923, but in fact the year of his birth is 1922.

He is not 100, but 101 years old, – Elena Etush confirms. – I found a certificate of his birth, it is old, shabby. And the confusion arose from the fact that the parents of Vladimir Abramovich at one time reduced his year so that the boy, when he grows up, would go into the army stronger. They wanted the best, no one thought about the war. And no one knew about it until Vladimir Abramovich himself told about it a few years ago.

Actress Olga Tumaykina, who arrived in Malgobek, showed a unique photo – it was taken with Vladimir Abramovich in the theater. “He has been gone for three years, and I miss him so much. The sense of security is gone.”