Great-granddaughter Evgenia Vakhtangov spoke about family legends

From the MK dossier: Yevgeny Vakhtangov, who was born in Vladikavkaz in 1883, married Nadezhda Baitsurova, a native of this city. They had a son, Sergei. In turn, Sergei had a son, who was named Eugene in honor of his grandfather. Evgeny has two daughters, one of them is Dina Vakhtangov.

– Dina Evgenievna, did you find your grandfather?

– Yes, I still remember my grandfather Sergei – the son of Evgeny Vakhtangov. He was handsome – tall, very slender. It is enough to look at his photo to understand that with such data he could become an actor. But Sergei became an architect, worked with Meyerhold on the creation of his theater GosTIM (Meyerhold State Theatre. — M.R.). This building now houses the Philharmonic – the Tchaikovsky Hall. Then he worked in an architectural bureau and headed it for some time.

Grandfather Sergei’s wife was also an architect, and their son, that is, my father, graduated from the Surikov Art Institute and became an artist. Subsequently, he received the title of academician of the Russian Academy of Arts. Father was born in evacuation, in Omsk, where Vakhtangovsky worked during the war. My mother, a professional athlete, was a swimming coach. They met at a sports camp where my mother taught swimming; he was in the senior detachment, and she was five years older than him. They were very beautiful. I found my childhood photo – they say I look like my great-grandfather on it.

– Your grandfather was 15 years old when Yevgeny Bogrationovich died, that is, he had to remember his father. What did he and your father say about the family?

– Well, what can I tell from our family legends? .. My grandfather Sergey smoked a lot, he told me why. Because his grandfather, my, it turns out, great-great-grandfather Bagration Vakhtangov, had his own tobacco factory, and the whole family naturally smoked. And Evgeny Bogrationovich (this is how it is customary to write the patronymic of the director – “MK”) smoked. Even when Bagration did not approve of his son’s marriage and stopped sending him money from Vladikavkaz, he did not refuse him cigarettes. He did not send money, but cigarettes – always. And we all have this hereditary addiction to nicotine. I myself smoke from the age of 15, my mother and father smoked, but my sister quit.

From my grandfather Sergei, I also heard such a legend about the factory: people with poor eyesight or completely blind worked there. Because cigarettes had to be packaged, and such people “saw” better with their hands than sighted ones. And after the revolution, the new government accused Bagration Vakhtangov of exploiting the work of the blind. Although, on the contrary, it was he who gave them work. Here is such a paradox and a touch to the portrait of our ancestor.

– And what did your grandfather Sergey tell about your father, the great director, innovator, founder of the theater school?

– Yevgeny Bogrationovich has always been with the theater in his thoughts. In the afternoon from the theater he always came home in a cab, dined and went back. He always liked to dress beautifully: in a bow tie, he considered the white color to be festive, he loved the holiday. His student Maria Davydovna Sinelnikova told me how they, young actresses, coming home from the theater, immediately washed their white blouses, quickly ironed them, so that they could wear them to the theater in the evening. After all, they lived in poverty, they did not have other blouses, but they had to meet the requirements of the teacher.

– What principles did the Vakhtangovs have? What was considered decent and what was not? What was not allowed under any circumstances?

– My father’s parents treated him strictly, they probably wanted to bring up something special in him. The grandfather’s family was so, one might say, patriarchal, puritanical and not very friendly. Therefore, when we were born, my father said: “I will never be like my parents.” That is, there will be no prohibitions, everything is based on reason. And so it was.

– I read the correspondence between Evgeny Bogrationovich and his friend Oleg Leonidov. In one letter, he complained that he had completely lost at cards, there was nothing to take his family to rest in the Crimea. What did grandfather say?

– What is there to tell if his son, my grandfather, also played. This is inherited. But, as far as I know, there were no major losses – they played without fanaticism, as they say. It’s just that my grandfather had his own company, which included architects and artists, and they played.

– Little is said about the wife of Yevgeny Bogrationovich – Nadezhda Mikhailovna Baitsurova, who has always been in the shadow of her great husband.

She could have become an actress, but she became a housewife. After the death of her husband, she created a museum-apartment in Denezhny Lane, and was its director. As my father used to say, not a single ray of the sun ever got there – the first floor, after all. Somehow I passed by here, looked carefully: it seems to me that there was a little sun. Many things from our family moved there. Nadezhda Mikhailovna was very devoted to Yevgeny Bogrationovich and his family. And she spoiled her son: when he woke up, he, already an adult, was immediately carried coffee to bed on a hot plate. As they do now in expensive restaurants. So in the morning – coffee and a cigarette. Without food. This was true even when he got married.

Grandmother cooked very well, and I even know the recipe for cabbage pie. My father loved the stuffing of cabbage and boiled eggs in it. Yes, this is the Vakhtangov recipe. But there was no cult of food in the house, it was considered well … one of the attributes of life, nothing more. Nadezhda Mikhailovna kept the house, life, and she, by the way, always helped young actors. For example, the mother of Alexander Zbruev was friends with her, they were neighbors on the Arbat. She showed her Sasha to Nadezhda Mikhailovna, and she was the first to see in him a talent for acting.

Vakhtangov had two sisters – Nina and Sofia. Nina lived with them all her life, but we don’t know anything about her second sister, Sophia, except that her husband was a Chekist.

None of the descendants of Vakhtangov began to engage in theater. For example, I work at the Museum of Oriental Art as the head of the library, which is unique here. My sister is engaged in producing musicians, and her children, my nephews, went into design and IT technologies. Probably because everyone understood in advance that it was impossible to be better than Yevgeny Bogrationovich in the theater. But, in principle, we always seem to feel help and support from him and from the theater.

– What does it mean?

We are no longer fighting for a place in the sun. When you open Wikipedia, you can read who Vakhtangov and his family are. And people lay down their lives to get there.

– Did you change your last name?

– No, I’m Vakhtangov, but my nephews have a different surname. I don’t have children.

– It turns out that you are the only successor to the family name?

– Yes, I am the eldest of the descendants, but I do not consider this my achievement. And then, nephews, if they want, can change their surname. We already have grandchildren. I’m just the oldest. And here, in Vladikavkaz, we have roots. The father, when he was alive, communicated with cousins, second cousins ​​and sisters on the line of grandfather and grandmother. It will be necessary to search, but this is a task for future generations. Being born into such a family is an interesting experience.

– You did not have to suffer for the surname? Didn’t they tell you “Dina, you are Vakhtangov, how are you behaving”?

– I didn’t have to, but the teachers told my father at school. Thanks to the theater and especially its director, Kirill Igorevich Krok, Vakhtangov’s name has now flared up with renewed vigor.

– Do you have any of the family things, something that you value and that you will pass on to your descendants?

Everything has been transferred to the museum. Here in the house in Vladikavkaz, we just gave an ivory mouthpiece, it is inlaid. This is just the personal mouthpiece of Evgeny Bogrationovich. I am very glad to be here, it is such a holiday. And I am very grateful to the theater for this. The family honors.

– And yet it is surprising that, having Vladikavkaz roots, you first came to this city. How did it happen?

— So it happened. But now I walk the streets, the house of my great-grandfather (he is amazing) – and the feeling is that I didn’t leave here.

Vladikavkaz.