Poverty and separation from Vera Alentova: the trials of Vladimir Menshov

Turner, miner, sailor

On September 17, 1939, the father of the Menshov family, Vladimir Valentinovich, . We might not have known him as a talented director if not for his innate determination.

At school he fell just short of the gold medal and in 1957 he went to storm VGIK. It didn’t work out, and only he knows what he heard at home about this!..

Be that as it may, the guy drew conclusions: he went to work at the factory and at the same time began to comprehend the basics of art, as they say, “from the inside,” joining the auxiliary staff of the Astrakhan Drama Theater.

Then there were other positions, and they had nothing to do with art: I had to work as a miner in Vorkuta and as a sailor in Baku. But everything was not the same, and in 1961 Vladimir nevertheless entered the Moscow Art Theater School-Studio in the acting department.

Under the strict leadership of Mikhail Romm

Teachers almost unanimously recognized him as unpromising. Frankly speaking, this did not add confidence. Vladimir's main achievement during his studies was his marriage to Vera Alentova .

Graduation from the Studio School dealt the first blow to the young family: there was no place for Vladimir in any theater in the capital. This was the first separation of the spouses: Vera was lucky to find a place in Moscow, and he was forced to leave, getting a job at the Stavropol Theater, where he first learned what directing was.

And when he returned to the capital in 1967, he was determined to enter again, this time to the directing department of the Moscow Art Theater.

Vladimir Menshov, “unpromising” Oscar winner. Photo: Anatoly Kovtun/ITAR-TASS

The second time, the studies were much more successful: Mikhail Ilyich Romm . He accepted the actor immediately into the second year, and for the next three years Menshov studied directing under his strict guidance.

Tests

After the wedding, the newlyweds lived in two houses, since there was no common housing. The young wife turned out to be a poor cook, so family chores were divided according to ability: he cooked dinner, she cleaned and nailed shelves.

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Vladimir Menshov and Vera Alentova with their daughter Yulia
After graduating from the studio school, young actors were not invited to Moscow theaters. Vladimir moved to Stavropol, and Vera managed to get a job as an actress at the Theater. Pushkin, who became the main one in his creative destiny. In the future, Alentova always easily refused film roles if the theater needed her.

With the advent of their daughter Julia, the relationship between the spouses went wrong. Domestic troubles, a small child, and lack of stability seem to have nullified the student’s love. The couple was in a state of divorce for 4 long years. There was no official dissolution of the marriage, but everyone began to have a personal life. The feeling of great love, which was so lacking nearby, did not allow us to take the last step towards a final break. Menshov moved into the apartment where Vera and her daughter lived.

Everything was ruined by the housing issue

With his return to Moscow, Menshov seemed to have become closer to his young wife, but the family boat was not destined to stay afloat. It was not possible to find a family hostel; they were not entitled to an apartment for a long time, so living apart led the couple to a final separation.

Even the birth of their daughter Julia in 1969 did not save the family. Now Vera Valentinovna says that if that separation had not happened, something else would have happened later. And this other thing certainly would not allow them to return to each other.

Vera Alentova in the film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears”, 1979

Yulia was three years old when the family finally collapsed. For four whole years, Vladimir and Vera tried to find themselves, started new relationships, but in the end, during their next visit to their daughter, Vladimir announced with a gloomy look that he was returning. He said that anyway, neither he nor she would find anyone better. And Vera agreed.

The love story of Vladimir Menshov and Vera Alentova

Vera Alentova and Vladimir Menshov are considered one of the strongest couples in modern Russian cinema. But, as it turned out, all sorts of things happened to them over the course of half a century of family life.

The star of the Soviet film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears” Vera Alentova has been happy for more than half a century with director Vladimir Menshov, no less famous throughout the country. But even in such a harmonious family, serious disagreements occurred. There were scandals, separations, and grievances. But they were able to maintain their love despite all the difficulties and storms of everyday life. How did they do it? According to the actress herself, love and patience are always on the side of family happiness.

The love story of Vladimir Menshov and Vera Alentova

Vera Alentova has an actor's view of life, but Vladimir Menshov has a director's view. And yet, this did not stop them from living together for more than 55 years.

Vera Alentova did not live up to the hopes of her mother, who saw a doctor in her daughter, and entered the Moscow Art Theater School the first time. There I met classmate Vladimir Menshov, who conquered acting only on the 4th try. Student friendship grew into love for the 3rd year. The teachers of the talented Vera dissuaded her from a relationship with the unpromising Menshov, but she did not understand how such talent could be overlooked.

Later, Menshov himself will say that they differ in type, and if it were not for studying in the same course, the couple would not be destined to be together.

“We were given a rare chance to get to know each other,” the actor explains in an interview.

In 1963, Alentova and Menshov got married. Both newcomers, without support from relatives, the young people used their last 20 rubles to celebrate their wedding with classmates in a dorm room. After the wedding, the newlyweds lived in two houses, since there was no common housing. The young wife turned out to be a poor cook, so family chores were divided according to ability: he cooked dinner, she cleaned and nailed shelves.

After graduating from the studio school, young actors were not invited to Moscow theaters. Vladimir moved to Stavropol, and Vera managed to get a job as an actress at the Theater. Pushkin, who became the main one in his creative destiny.

The reconciliation benefited his creative career. In 1980, the film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears” became the box office leader, which brought Vladimir Menshov an Oscar and made Vera Alentova the idol of millions of women.

They say they are very similar to each other, they like to argue, each defends their own point of view. Over the years, Vera has learned to smooth out rough edges and admit her mistakes. This has saved relationships from breaking up more than once.

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Another happy return

Yulia Menshova, who repeated the fate of her mother.
Photo: Boris Kudryavov Children often copy the behavior or situation in their parents’ family. Yulia Menshova met actor Igor Gordin backstage at the Moscow Youth Theater after the performance. Courtship, love, wedding, birth of son Andrei and daughter Taisiya .

Everything seemed to be going great. But when my daughter was three years old, the family broke up. And then everything is again like mom’s. And like the mother’s character from the Oscar-winning film: four years of life as a single mother. After these four years, Igor’s happy return happened, and since then the couple has been inseparable.

Igor Gordin returned to his wife after separation, as did her father. Photo: Evgenia Guseva/KP

Do you have an extra ticket?

Many years have passed, unnecessary passions have subsided. Menshov and Alentova celebrated their golden wedding, and now their family is considered one of the strongest in theater circles.

Vera amazingly always knew how to calm and support her husband. Even when tons of poison were poured on his work from the lips of critics, she was there and believed that everything would pass and work itself out.

This was the case when everyone shouted with one voice about the mediocrity of the film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears.” Vera believed. And in 1981, the film unexpectedly brought Menshov an Oscar.

In general, the attitude of his colleagues towards Menshov’s work cannot be called positive or supportive. They didn’t believe in the director, every time before the release of his next film they predicted failure for him, but every time huge queues lined up in front of the Menshov box office, and at the entrance people asked for an extra ticket.

Still from the film “The Hoax” (1976). Natalya Vavilova, Dmitry Kharatyan.

And how many actors Menchov made stars or gave them new shine! In “The Raffle” (1976), the very young Dmitry Kharatyan , Dina (Evdokia) Germanova , and Natalya Vavilova . The role in the film “Love and Doves” (1984) became one of the best in the film career of the wonderful Nina Doroshina . “Shirley Myrli” (1995) is a parade of acting successes of Soviet cinema stars. Depardieu played in Menshov’s “Envy of the Gods” (2000) !

Vladimir Menshov and Danila Kozlovsky in the film “Legend No. 17” (2013)

Fortunately, the prophecies of those who considered Vladimir Menshov unsuitable for the acting profession did not come true. For half a century, Vladimir Valentinovich has played a variety of roles for such directors as Alexander Mitta, Karen Shakhnazarov, Vitaly Melnikov, Nikolai Lebedev and others.

Childhood

Vera Alentova, nee Bykova, was born on February 21, 1942 in the Arkhangelsk region, in the acting family of Irina Nikolaevna Alentova and Valentin Mikhailovich Bykov. Both served at the Kotlas Drama Theater.

The girl, named after her grandmother, was born 8 months after the start of the war. Vera’s mother continued to perform in the theater, and after work she went to the factory shift, after which, already at home, she sewed buttons on soldiers’ clothes.

In 1945, Valentin was transferred to the theater in Grozny. The family followed him. Soon he caught a bad cold. In the hungry post-war period, this was enough for a 28-year-old man to suffer a complication in the form of pneumonia and die. On January 4, 1946, he passed away.

Vera practically did not remember her father, all that remained was the elusive feeling of someone close nearby. But she remembered her mother’s words: “Everything will be fine with you, because God helps orphans.” Soon after the death of the head of the family, Vera and her mother left their native Kotlas and settled with relatives in Ukraine.

Childhood was not easy: there was food, but it was very simple; Vera didn’t even know the taste of sweets, and her mother made all the toys from cardboard with her own hands. While the girl went to kindergarten, Irina Alentova worked tirelessly. She served in the Krivoy Rog theater, and in the evenings she picked up a thread and a needle. Working as seamstresses helped them not die of hunger, because salaries at the theater were delayed for months.