Nikolai Dupak: blessed memory to the artist

The remarkable Soviet and Russian actor Nikolai Lukyanovich Dupak passed away.

The artist was in his 102nd year. Surprisingly, the neighbors of Nikolai Lukyanovich say that until recently he drove a car himself and retained clarity of mind and a sober memory.

Nikolai Lukyanovich witnessed many events of the twentieth century that we know only from history books. He was born before the formation of the Soviet Union, saw the formation of the USSR, went through the Great Patriotic War, was wounded, participated in the creation of legendary Soviet films, played in iconic performances in the capital and survived the USSR for three decades.

Nikolai Dupak began acting in films in his youth. Moreover, he always wanted to be an artist, and unlike his peers who dreamed of conquering the depths of space or descending “into the depths of the sea”, he boldly declared his desire to go on stage.

At the age of seventeen, he entered the theater school in Rostov-on-Don, began to play in the theater.

It is symbolic that he learned about the beginning of the war at the time of the rehearsal of the play about the Battle of Borodino. The artist himself recalled that the aircraft rumble in the sky was heard in the words “It’s not without reason that all of Russia remembers the day of Borodin …”. The actors jumped out into the street and saw unfamiliar “crosses” on low-flying planes. Now the family archive stores photographs from which the commander of the guards cavalry squadron, Lieutenant Dupak (1942), is looking at us.

It is curious that in those first days of the war, approved by the director Dovzhenko for a role in the film “Taras Bulba”, the young actor went to the military registration and enlistment office. And he himself asked to serve in the cavalry, being an excellent rider.

In battles he was wounded, and three times, he participated in the liberation of Stalingrad.

After the injury, which resulted in hearing loss, he was treated for a long time … And then he began acting. “Forty-First”, “Two Comrades Were Serving”, “Intervention”, “Bumbarash”, “Eternal Call”, “Two Captains” – Nikolay Dupak, Honored Artist of the RSFSR and Honored Art Worker of Moscow, plays in all these legendary films.

For two decades in a row, he was considered the leading actor of the Theater. Stanislavsky, played at the Taganka Theater for twenty-seven years, being also the director of the group. By the way, the famous Taganka emblem – a red square with black letters – was invented by him.

And Dupak persuaded Lyubimov to take Vladimir Vysotsky into the troupe, insisted that Vladimir Semyonovich be approved for the role of Hamlet. He also organized the funeral of Vysotsky, and later he also participated in the creation of the house-museum of Vladimir Vysotsky and the House of Russian Abroad named after Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

The artist experienced the collapse of the Soviet Union as a personal tragedy, saying that he was “personally robbed.”

He also believed in God, believing that the Lord was “incredibly merciful” to him at every moment of his life. With this faith, I left.

Eternal bright memory to a wonderful artist and a wonderful person.

Elena Bulova.