The daughter of Mikhail Ulyanov will not see the monument to her great father

On International Theater Day – March 27. In Moscow, a monument to the great artist Mikhail Ulyanov will be unveiled in a solemn ceremony. The Vakhtangov Theater has been working towards this day for a long time – six years. The key word in this information is “finally”.

In fact, over the years, the theater managed to erect two monuments: to its founder Evgeny Vakhtangov, who now sits in his young guise at the main entrance to the building on Arbat 26, as well as to Etush, Lanovoy, Yakovlev – the trio of luminaries frozen in bronze near the Simonov stage. Moreover, the idea of ​​​​installing these sculptures arose later than the Ulyanovsk one, and the statue of Mikhail Alexandrovich will decorate the old district of Zamoskvorechye only now. Why?

As MK learned, the idea to perpetuate the memory of a great artist and artistic director, who suffered the most difficult years – the 90s, arose back in 2018, and the management of the theater in the person of Rimas Tuminas (and it was Ulyanov who invited him to the theater) and the director Kirill Krok appealed to the capital authorities with a proposal to erect a monument to the People’s Artist of the USSR, Chairman of the STD and deputy of the Supreme Council, although his name alone sounded above all positions and titles. And in December 2018 in Yaroslavl, when Vladimir Putin met with theater workers, he asked Rimas Tuminas, what are the problems? He said that there is one main problem – with the installation of the monument to Mikhail Ulyanov. “Prepare a letter,” was all the president said then. The letter was prepared, after which an order appeared signed by the capital’s mayor – “to establish.”

And the work began – long, official, full of bureaucratic, dramatic and even comical twists and turns. First, it was necessary to find a place in Moscow for Ulyanov; the commission had to approve the artistic design of the monument and its technical design. But monuments, not city sculptures, cannot be erected everywhere in the Russian capital; there are a number of restrictions. After all approvals, the old district of Moscow, Zamoskvorechye, was proposed. And not just in the depths of its cozy streets, but in the Mikhailovsky Garden, near the Bakhrushinsky Museum. And then something happened that the theater and even the Department of Cultural Heritage did not expect. This happened at a municipal level meeting, where deputies representing different factions had to approve the location of the Ulyanov monument. The deputies were determined. The leading actress of the theater, Yulia Rutberg, was a participant in those events, and this is what she told MK:

– We came to this meeting with Vasily Semenovich Lanov, deputy director of the theater Anton Prokhorov and the architect of the monument. What we saw and heard there was reminiscent of a story from Saltykov-Shchedrin. One faction of the people’s representatives stood out in front of the other, demonstrating “concern” for the citizens. “We need to build benches, not monuments,” they fumed, and the model, which included benches and playgrounds around the monument, did not convince them. Some young deputy turned to Vasily Semenovich with the words: “Introduce yourself,” while another, who with tears in her eyes swore her love to him and said that she had taken to the intensive care unit, where her son lay, a portrait of the artist from the film “Officers” ”, repeating sobbing: “I love you so much, I love you so much, but I will vote against.”

Vasily Semenovich spoke, I spoke, and our task was only one thing – to win three votes to our side so that there was a draw. And when we achieved our goal, Vasily Semenovich, as I remember now, said: “Let’s go home, to the theater.” And returning to Arbat, we drank tea, coffee, a glass and realized that we, unlike these people, have a home. Mikhail Ulyanov lived for him, and Rimas Tuminas lived for him.

According to the Moscow government’s plan, the monument to the famous Vakhtangov worker at the expense of the city was supposed to be opened at the end of 2022, then due to circumstances the opening was moved to 2023 – that also did not happen. It must be said that Mikhail Ulyanov’s daughter Elena worked a lot on the monument, but, alas, she was not destined to see her father’s statue in the center of the capital: Elena suddenly passed away last summer. But the bronze monument to Mikhail Alexandrovich will still stand in the Mikhailovsky Garden and decorate it. “People will look, remember, maybe say: “We haven’t been to the theater for a long time” and will go there,” Yulia Rutberg is sure.

It remains to add that Vakhtangovsky in Moscow will now have four monuments to his own: two – to Evgeniy Bagrationovich himself (the first in the courtyard of the Boris Shchukin Theater Institute, the second – at the facade of the theater), a city sculpture to three Vakhtangovsky members near the Simonovsky stage, and now 12 days later in Mikhailovsky in the garden near the Bakhrushinsky Museum, Mikhail Ulyanov will stand in full growth, open to all winds. The author of the monument is sculptor Andrei Balashov, who has already made one monument to the artist, installed in his hometown of Tara and a memorial plaque on the house on Tverskaya Street where he lived. Together with Balashov, artist Igor Burganov and architect Yuri Menchits worked on the monument.