Yuri Solomin’s secret: he himself named the role that brought him audience success

Capricious Fate “shot” with a doublet, immediately taking away two masters who took the most important part in the creation of “His Excellency’s Adjutant.” One after another, in these January days, Igor Bolgarin passed away – the author of the novel, based on which the script was prepared and directed by Evgeniy Tashkov, a series about a security officer working behind enemy lines under the guise of a White Guard officer, and the one who embodied the image of the main character on the screen – artist Yuri Solomin.

As sometimes happens when making films, the star role went to Yuri Methodievich, thanks to a happy coincidence.

After all, initially he was invited to play not only a secondary character, but also an absolutely negative one: the cruel counterintelligence captain Osipov. And in the image of the security officer-intelligence officer Koltsov, director Tashkov saw another artist – the then popular Mikhail Nozhkin. He had a very suitable texture: tall, stately, with a figure that was literally “tailored” for an army uniform, and a face like that of a White Guard officer!

However, the 31-year-old actor ultimately did not want to participate in the series. He was attracted by another prospect: he received an invitation from the master of Soviet cinema himself, Sergei Gerasimov, to star in the film “By the Lake.”

Tashkov had to look for a replacement. As soon as he received Nozhkin’s call with a refusal, he began to sort through the already shot photographic tests of other artists invited to various roles in the film (as participants in those events claimed, some of the photographs were received from the darkroom literally an hour earlier). As a result, the director’s attention was drawn to footage of Yuri Solomin in the uniform of a White Army captain. Evgeny Ivanovich decided to call this artist for repeated tests – now for the role of Koltsov. This “suitability test” ended quite successfully. However, Solomin’s candidacy had opponents, and very influential ones.

Tashkov recalled: “I had 90 photographs on my table. I looked and looked, but every time I returned to Yuri Solomin, who had already been cast in the role of Captain Osipov… I thought: “We must try Solomin.” Yura passed the test. “In no case!” – the film bosses shouted. I say to Solomin: “Yuri Methodievich, let’s do one more test.” We made the second one. “What is this? Why him again? No!” – the film bosses were indignant. In general, we still did the third, fourth… The weather changed, and the “nature” went away. “Let’s film it and then approve it,” I suggested. They started working under my responsibility.”

And here’s what the artist himself wrote in his memoirs: “…A few days later I was called to Mosfilm, and I saw my photograph on the director’s table, among other contenders for the central role. And suddenly Tashkov told me: “I want to try you on Koltsov.” I tried, but even without much enthusiasm, knowing full well that with my data it was unrealistic. Indeed, they did not approve me, saying that I was too intelligent to be an intelligence officer. Tashkov tried a second time. The artistic council again did not approve me. My ordeal began. The director tried to persuade me not to lose heart. I think I auditioned five or six times. He practically played all the key episodes, but still did not make the proper impression on the members of the artistic council. Evgeny Ivanovich still insisted… So I started acting.

To be honest, the offer to play Koltsov was somewhat unexpected for me. In the theater I was considered a character artist. Before that, I had already acted a lot… but I had never played anything like Koltsov… My Koltsov is a smart, educated, focused person, able to weigh everything, accurately and quickly assess the situation and make the necessary decision. But, unlike his cinematic counterparts, he is a living person with weaknesses – he could fall in love with the daughter of a white officer, who was also the chief of counterintelligence, and open up to her, which complicated his activities as an intelligence officer. This image personified such qualities as nobility, purity…”

Work on the five-part film lasted almost eight months. Many scenes were filmed not in a studio set, but in a real environment. A suitable character was found in Moscow, Kyiv, Novorossiysk… In order to reliably portray his hero even in the most extreme scenes, Yuri Methodievich had to master, for example, some army skills “in retro style” – horse riding, shooting a Maxim machine gun from a cart…

In addition, old railway drivers taught me how to operate the complex locomotive control system. And an experienced master of hand-to-hand combat showed the artist some of the techniques necessary to stage a fight scene near a restaurant with his participation. But, perhaps, the most serious test of courage and dexterity was the episode from episode 5, when Captain Koltsov jumps from a locomotive hut at a very decent train speed.

Yuri Solomin recalled filming “Adjutant…”: “I had to master everything on the fly. Got a lot of bruises. There were no stuntmen before. Someone from the circus was invited to perform difficult episodes, but basically everything was done by the actors themselves.”

During the epic work on this series, there was another not so easy moment. Evgeny Tashkov decided to film a “bed” scene with the participation of the main characters – Pavel Koltsov and his lover – Tanya Shchukina. The director had to persuade the performer of this role, the young ballet dancer Tatyana Ivanitskaya, for a long time to perform such a bold screen action for that time. As a result, the frank episode turned out to be short and, by today’s standards, very chaste. Nothing “like that” happens between Solomin – Pavel and Ivanitskaya – Tanya. There are no kisses, no nudity in the frame: two young people who love each other are simply lying on the bed under a blanket and talking.

However, even in such a simplified version, the “erotic picture” caused outrage among some. After the first screening of the film, letters were sent to government agencies and to the film studio: the image of the heroic Soviet intelligence officer cannot be dishonored with such disgrace! “At the request of the workers,” the piquant scene was cut out.

The series turned out – also thanks to the role of adjutant Koltsov so talentedly played by Yuri Methodievich – to be filled with characters of Russian officers who were opponents of the Red Army that were not at all canonical at that time. This interpretation of the images of “enemies of the revolution” almost became the reason for the fatal verdict for Tashkov’s film. After viewing the film, members of the film studio’s artistic council were adamant: “This is a hymn to the White Guard! The emigrant rabble abroad will applaud such concoctions!”

“His Excellency’s Adjutant” was eventually shelved. However, Evgeniy Ivanovich, not coming to terms with this, undertook a “workaround maneuver.” He managed to arrange for the film to be shown to the Deputy Chairman of the USSR KGB, Semyon Tsvigun. The general really liked what he saw, and he contributed to the release of the film on television. A year later, in 1971, not without the active support of the same Tsvigun, the creators of the series and the performers of the main roles were awarded the State Prize of the RSFSR. Among others, Yuri Solomin became a laureate. And after that he received the title “Honored Artist of the RSFSR.”

Work in “Adjutant” brought the actor all-Union and even international fame. He received hundreds of letters, some of which were addressed very succinctly: “Moscow. Pavel Andreevich Koltsov.”

Sometimes such popularity helped the actor. Here is just one of these situations that Yuri Methodievich recalled: “After the release of “Adjutant,” we were invited to different countries. Once we went to the premiere in Prague… The film was received wonderfully… I also had such a case there – I was booked on the wrong plane for the one I needed, and I was late for the performance. There were no tickets for the required flight, but at the airport they said: we will send you off if you tell us what happened next in the film – then all the episodes had not yet been released. I had to tell you.”

The series was also of great importance for Solomin’s future film career. He himself admitted: “Koltsov’s role in Adjutant is not the most important in my life, but it took me into a new creative orbit… Only after this film did I start getting central roles every season. If it weren’t for Adjutant, it might have taken me a longer period of time to be appreciated. I had audience success – this is also very important…”

Years later, many film critics, evaluating numerous films “about security officers and intelligence officers” made at film studios of the Soviet Union, concluded that Captain Koltsov, performed by Yuri Solomin, became one of the best images of a security officer in our cinema.

Read also: Resigned as minister, devoted himself to the theater: the roles and life of Yuri Solomin