Zhvanetsky’s widow Natalya: “He wrote without joking, but we were already laughing”

– Did Mikhail Mikhailovich manage to become a man of the era of gadgets? Did he manage to master the PC or did he work the old fashioned way?

No, he wrote everything by hand. I got the manuscripts, I supervise their analysis. Before that, we did not do this – we were afraid that extra informational reasons would stick: a famous person died, he left an inheritance, heirs. Therefore, we did not go to the information space for some time.

Is this his first book after completing his earthly journey?

– Yes, the first one. I collected it for a year – aphorisms taken from previous books, and what I found in the archives.

How much unpublished material remains in the archive, at least approximately now? Enough for one of the same book, two – or ten volumes?

– The huge volume. We are now only sorting it out, dividing it into published and unpublished. There are also a lot of old Soviet texts from the 70s and 80s, which are not very “readable” now. But I think with time it will be possible to return to them. But already there is definitely material for five or six books.

I compiled a collection, for example, of works related to animals. Misha liked to write about cats, dogs, squirrels. We wanted to publish it, but illustrations are needed, and so far we have hit this wall. I wish both children and adults could look through it. But I plan to publish themed books – about animals, for women …

— Why did you decide to start with a collection of aphorisms?

– All my friends asked me about this – they said: “Why are there no aphorisms? Why should we dig through books and look for something? Here I have collected, in my opinion, the best. I had some kind of inner confidence that this is now needed, that it will be in demand.

– Are there photographic documents, video materials in Zhvanetsky’s archive? Will the archive turn into a web institution accessible to everyone?

— Yes, it will be. There is a huge amount of audio, video and photos, we just need to figure out the possible copyright holders, and it will be possible to publish or do something similar to the channel of popular video hosting.

What unpublished texts are we talking about? Letters, stories, memoirs? You just approached the heap of papers “with a shovel”, but still what can readers expect?

– The last year or two, when it was very difficult for him to work physically, he still sat down at the table. And he was collecting another volume that we did not release, he marked it like this: “Where did my tracks lead.” There will also be short stories. Unexpectedly, we found practically a play. Very cute.

– Which of Mikhail Zhvanetsky’s friends helps you?

— I somehow cope on my own, but if I need help, everyone supports me. I just don’t want to list the names so as not to offend the unnamed. As friends were – no one turned away, neither from the rich, nor from the poor, nor from specialists, nor from doctors. All of them are present in my life.

– Who owns the copyright for everything created by Zhvanetsky?

– To me. Misha was wiser than everyone else and decided that I would deal with his legacy. Children are not interested in this yet – let them build their lives, create their own, and not sit on the work of their father.

Do your children help you sort papers?

No, this is routine work in the best sense of the word. But for young people it is not interesting. The son is 27 years old, he is engaged in business. He helps me in a different way. And he is always there when you need him.

– Has the connection with the World Club of Odessans been cut off in the light of recent events?

– This is such a strange story – all my friends are there, and I communicate with them personally, but what the club does – I have no idea.

– You said that Mikhail Mikhailovich wrote everything by hand – but what about the typewriter that dominated during the Soviet era?

– In his youth, he worked on a typewriter, I have these texts, but it seems to me that he still worked by hand, and then simply retyped to read on stage. We find many texts both in manuscript and in typewritten form.

“Didn’t he dictate his works to you?”

– No, but I used a voice recorder, there are a whole bunch of these records, I just didn’t get to them.

He got on the treadmill or walked in the park and wrote something down. I did this every day.

And he also had notebooks, two hundred or three hundred pieces, and I still did not approach this layer either. Everything that came to his mind, he brought it there.

– Yuri Borev cited the following statement: “It is not enough for a writer to have a good wife, one must have a good widow.”

— I think that anyone can be forgotten. Yes, it will be present in the book space, but it seems that it needs to be “cultivated”. For me, it all turned out like a job, and for many years. Because a lot hasn’t been revised yet. I think I’m a normal widow. (Laughs.)

– A careful reading of the collected works of Zoshchenko turns out that he has dramatic and even tragic stories and novels, although he had the image of a humorist, almost a laugher. Will it not turn out the same with Zhvanetsky?

– He was not exactly a satirist, he just had such a mindset. Misha did not write jokingly, but wrote the way he thinks. And we were already laughing.

He has a lot of scary stuff. I don’t know yet whether I will publish them, but there are texts about an orphanage, about people working in difficult conditions, about myself – his doubts, thoughts about illness.

These texts are quite concise, small stories, but they are like a mini-movie. Like, say, a lyric written at the end of life:

I got sick.

And saw.

Garden. House. Grass.

Funny birds.

On thin, thin legs.

Legs are dashes.

How do they hold on to those lines?

Although, in order to fly, the legs must be very light.

They are for flying, not for walking.

Flyers have strong wings.

Runners have strong legs.

Carnivores have silent paws.

Our cat in a small mouth dragged a lizard to the guests.

Eyes down. From a small mouth a small growl.

Terrible to all who are smaller than him!

Horror!

You had to be sick to see it.

When I was healthy, I didn’t see it, it was just mine.

I got sick – I saw it.

But in general, after it there was a huge array, we will gradually “resolve”.

APHORISMS OF ZHVANETSKY (UNPUBLISHED FROM THE SATIRIST’S ARCHIVE)

Men are icebergs.

One has a lot on top.

The other has a lot below.

Both can ruin someone’s life with their behavior.

***

The worst revenge is forgiveness.

***

A person’s rest is another person.

This is not Turkey. This is not Spain.

This is one person nearby.

If it works out, he will replace the whole of Turkey.

***

What separates the healthy from the sick is the moment you failed.

***

Ignorance is the inability to listen to others’ opinions and the truth about oneself.