Generation M: 5 best actors of our time

I missed last week’s column. Due to objective circumstances, one might say, personal ones. “I was lying in intensive care, naked and defenseless…” – as Khobotov said to Lyudochka in the Pokrovsky Gate, remember? But, unlike him, my beloved wife Ira found me right away, right there and… thereby probably saved me.

However, I lost my memory. No, partially: I remember here, I don’t remember here. I forgot the name of my brother Dima’s wife, my best friend. And only a few days later I remembered – Oksana. I forgot… When they came for me and said that all my things would remain in the room, I just wanted to tell you that you need not to forget… this… well, what’s her name… I don’t remember. And only a few days later I remembered the razor. I forgot what our Stasik’s last name is. I wanted to remember everything, but I couldn’t. And I thought: Sadalsky? Lyubshin? No, one turned 90 this year, the other turned 70 next year, and our Stasik will only be 50 in 24. “Among coaches without sidelocks, our Stas Cherchesov is the best,” my other brother, Vova, advises from Israel. Again it doesn’t fit, that Stasik turned 60 this year. And now: “The lights came on the scoreboard, Sergei Shavlo scored a goal” – Spartak fans, remember this chant? And finally: “The lights came on on the scoreboard, our Stas Skoblo scored a goal.” Phew, finally.

Okay, that’s all lyrics. I will return to myself, my beloved. In the meantime… A week ago, an important event took place at OTR again. This time “Five Evenings with Yevgeny Mironov”, now it’s called that. You know, it was amazing.

“Anchor! Also Anchor!”, “Muslim”, “Space as a Premonition”, “Transformation”… This is Zhenya Mironov of the 90s, young and fresh. But what a master! Here he represents generation M: Mashkov, Menshikov, Makovetsky and he, Mironov. And also Bezrukov, of course. These five people, like Atlanta, stand and hold the sky, which the best Soviet artists used to hold and always held. And so they say: who is behind them, in the post-Soviet space? No? Yes, it is still there. Yes, there are few of them, there are still five of them. And of the current, young ones who have joined the ranks, there are only two: Petrov and Kozlovsky. What should I do…

Mironov – wow, what a last name. We have to comply, just as we should. And Zhenya Mironov is an absolute descendant of Andrei Alexandrovich. Even more, further.

But – to Mironov of the 90s. Here you can also remember his “Love” from Todorovsky Jr., where Mironov is nothing at all – 20, no more. And there he is – and in all the current “five evenings” – this is something unusually charming, emotional, tragic, psychologically sharpened, back and forth, in various directions. Moreover, Evgeniy plays almost every role in this way. For others it may happen once and that’s it, thank you. But not Zhenya.

And in the 2000s, the 2000s, this was a different Mironov. This is something already deep, deep, extraordinary. Here he is Gleb Nerzhin in “The First Circle” and is simply on friendly terms with Solzhenitsyn. But Lenin Vladimir Ilyich from Khotinenko. Lenin was still young, ambiguous, unpresentable, caustic. Not Shchukin, not Strauch, where else will you see such a Lenin? But Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich, again from the same Khotinenko. Well, guys, this is actually an era! So deep, so on the cutting edge, so precise – this is an impossible level. And here is “The Idiot”, Prince Myshkin. And he outplayed Yakovlev himself – can you imagine? – himself! Another breakthrough into the psychology of the Russian man of God, and you can’t stop watching. Yes, and this is all Mironov, this is all about him.

And there is also a theatrical one. “We’re playing Shukshin” – he and Chulpan are enchanting to the point of horror, to the point of falling, to the point of hilariousness. This is Zhenya.

And recently they played the Gorbachevs: he is Mikhail Sergeevich, she is Raisa Maksimovna. It’s a pity that this music didn’t play for long.

This is Mironov – open, sincere, light, unrestrained. Uncompromising indeed. He serves art as best he can, from the heart. Like few others. The rest is details.

…And now I’ll go back to my place. There, in the intensive care unit, I had a dream: a planning meeting was starting at MK. Everyone has gathered… the editor-in-chief comes in. He comes in, sits down and says: “Sasha Melman has died. Our Sasha Melman.” And he cried…

“Guys, we will live!” – as the Maestro said in the film… oh, something happened to my memory… I remembered! “Only old men go into battle.”

Guys, we will live. Will live!

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29182 dated December 20, 2023

Newspaper headline:
About Evgeny Mironov and a little about me