Ilona Bronevitskaya: “Grandchildren are another chance to experience first love”

— Ilona, ​​today we see you at a sporting event, but what is your relationship with sports?

— In fact, Soviet people passed the GTO standards. Run a cross-country race, go for a hike – of course. I am a candidate for master of sports in small-caliber pistol shooting. I shot in early childhood, and I was good at it. And then I quit. I played volleyball during my school years – and I did everything I could. In the Komsomol she was a crucible and drummer, as they say. And it was really great, it came in handy. For example, I went somewhere to the mountains with my husband. Let’s climb in? Lets do it! And they climbed in. It was easier for a Soviet person than for some stooped current user sitting at a computer.

— Was the shooting useful?

– No, shooting hasn’t come in handy yet, although I was thinking about resuming these classes. Now sport for me is fast walking. I don’t go to the gym, I don’t like to go there and do something on the principle of “living for myself.” I’m not interested. If I went for a walk, it was with my granddaughter or with the dogs. That is, for the sake of some normal goal.

— By the way, many grandmothers admit that their grandchildren really contribute to a healthy lifestyle…

— Yes, grandchildren are another chance to experience the first love in life. When it already seems to you that nothing like this will happen in life anymore and love is gone… Nothing like that! Life is so wisely arranged that it suddenly gives you another gift. You know, I get up at half past seven in the morning with the good joyful thought that we will see our grandchildren.

– With everyone?

– Well, I have three grandchildren. My daughter’s daughter lives with me, she is 10 years old.

– How is she doing? Already have artistic talents?

“She studies well, but in general I believe that in our family there cannot be people without talents.” My grandmother was an artist, not only my mother and father. We are all artists – where can we go? I’ve already joked about this. Remember, the writer Boris Zakhoder had a fairy tale about a caterpillar that lived in nettles, ate in nettles and only nettles, and knew only about nettles. This is about our family. We were born and live in this nettle (smiles).

—What kind of grandmother would you call yourself?

– Well, which one? Good. Grandmother Ilona. My granddaughters say to me: “Ilona, ​​you don’t understand!..” We are probably repeating our relatives. My paternal grandmother was a beautiful opera singer. She gave birth to two sons, one of whom organized the first ensemble of its kind in the Soviet Union and married a Polish woman. And the second son created the country’s first vocal and instrumental ensemble. So my grandmother was a good mother, she was beautiful and she loved nature.

– Are you a strict grandmother or can you sit on your neck?

– No, you can’t be strict. Well, it’s for the good. I love my grandchildren very much, but I need to be somehow tougher. This is fine. We have no discipline whatsoever.

— So it’s thanks to you that this discipline is maintained?

“I don’t think it’s only thanks to me.”

— I can’t help but ask about the New Year. How are you planning to spend it?

— New Year is such a meaningless holiday. Some kind of Olivier that everyone is talking about! I have the best memories of the New Year, when artists of a good, decent level performed in Moscow at organized venues in parks and districts. I remember Diana Gurtskaya, Kristina Orbakaite, my son and others sang. And people from different regions of our country and even from other countries came to these sites. And then everyone counted the chimes: three, two, one… It was great, and it was truly a holiday, and I really liked it. I liked being this part of everyone’s joy and celebration, it’s very nice. But sitting at home and eating Olivier… I don’t like it at all.

— Is it possible to organize it so that your whole talented family gets together for the New Year and celebrates the holiday on stage?

– No, this is impossible, and this has never happened. Well, we just have different age audiences. This happened to me several years ago, when I asked to go to the same venue where Stasik performed. I swapped with someone. But it wasn’t even the New Year, it was just some holidays. And we haven’t celebrated the New Year together for a long time.

— It turns out that you really can’t see your children either?

– No, well, we periodically intersect somewhere in between. Stasik is now just on some kind of busy tour: today, for example, a solo concert in Yekaterinburg. Edita is in St. Petersburg – I’ll go to her. We are normal: there is always time to meet and talk.

— By the way, how are Edita Stanislavovna doing now?

— Edita Stanislavovna’s affairs are commensurate with her age. She doesn’t work, she’s at home, she has a wonderful place: silence, air… She’s doing well, in general. I go to see her once a month by train. Sometimes it happens twice a month.

— All your fans also know about your endless love for animals, you help them, give them homes, keep them, etc. Who helps you in this difficult task, especially since the artist’s work takes up the lion’s share of time?

— I am surrounded by good people, we have a team, many volunteers. December 5 was Volunteer Day, and I was just thinking that volunteers are our treasure. Recently a little boy came and said that he had saved up several thousand rubles, they gave it to him for his birthday, and he brought them to us. He said: “Take it.” It’s so warm and so impossibly good. I then thought: with such children you see some kind of future against the backdrop of what is happening. And that means there is some kind of spiritual background that makes these children like this. I am often asked: why do you need dogs? This is a kind of unifying factor that gathers many circles of goodness around itself. I currently have seven dogs at home, but it is such a fluctuating number.

— Where do you live now: in St. Petersburg or Moscow?

— I’ve been living in the Moscow region for 30 years. It’s better in the house than in the center in the apartment. I don’t want and have never wanted to live in the center in my life.

— Is there something like a vegetable garden?

– Why should I? No, I don’t do that. I live a kilometer from the Moscow Ring Road, Butovo is behind me. I didn’t specifically choose this place, it just happened; there was an opportunity to purchase a plot there. Normal, good, I like it. It’s close to Moscow, and at the same time there is a house.

— What is your favorite corner in the house?

– Right now, specifically the bed – I just dream about it: to lie down and sleep. In general, I work all the time, but at home it’s just good. You come home and relax: children, dogs…

— Today those present admired your appearance. It seems that you are a regular visitor to beauty salons…

— I have never been to a cosmetologist even once in my life.

— Have you even tried Botox?

– Look at my forehead: what Botox! (Ilona removes her bangs and wrinkles her forehead, demonstrating facial expressions.) I’m like a spaniel (laughs). So I have bangs. In fact, it’s all heredity. Thanks mom. I haven’t done anything yet. But I’m thinking about doing something. My colleagues tried to lead me down this path, but I did not give in. I’m exploiting heredity for now. Thank you if you really think I look good because I don’t like myself terribly. I’m still getting better, and I’m tired.

– Maybe we should go on vacation?

– I don’t know when now. I haven’t been on vacation for many years.