In mid-November, the country’s chief comedian Eldar Ryazanov would have turned 95. He passed away seven years ago, but the director’s films will be loved by many generations to come. And while the creator is remembered, he is alive. Meanwhile, we decided to visit the graves of Eldar Alexandrovich and his closest people.
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Mom Zoya Mikhailovna and stepfather Lev Mikhailovich
Eldar’s parents divorced when he was three years old (the smart kid already knew how to read – though, mostly, newspaper headlines). Since 1934, he was raised by his stepfather, Lev Mikhailovich Kopp, a civil engineer, a specialist in metal and reinforced concrete structures, a researcher at the Promstalkonstruktsiya design institute of the USSR Minmontazhspetsstroy, author of textbooks and monographs. Married to this man, the mother of the future director gave birth to a daughter, Frida (alas, she lived only three years) and a son, Mikhail, who became the chief researcher at the Laboratory for Comparative Analysis of Sedimentary Basins at the Tectonics Department of the Geological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
“My stepfather was an amazing person. And never in my life have I felt the difference between his relationship to his own son and to me. A completely ordinary person, but with great inner intelligence. He lived a worthy 86 years, – said Ryazanov.
The director’s mother, before she married his father, had the surname Shusterman.
Her parents, Rezhitsa philistines Movsha Yankelevich and Chaya-Freida Leibovna, moved from Rezhitsa (now the Latvian city of Rezekne near the border with Russia) at the beginning of the last century, where they owned a furniture store, then a fabric store, to Samara. They opened a candy factory there.
First wife Zoya Fomina
The first wife of Eldar was classmate Zoya Fomina. In the spring of 1950, having defended their diplomas, they got a job at the Central Documentary Film Studio. And two months later, leaving for Yerevan on the first big expedition, they learned that Zoya was pregnant.
The marriage lasted almost a quarter of a century – they just fell short of the silver wedding. The couple understood that things were heading for a divorce – they were arguing more and more often, moving away from each other. The director secretly began to meet with the editor of Mosfilm, Nina Skuibina, whom he was in love with as a student.
“Our divorce from Zoya was a flaying, but I might no longer resist feelings for Nina,” Ryazanov will say later. And he mightn’t lie anymore.
Second wife Nina Skuybina
Ryazanov first saw his future second wife at a student party when he studied at VGIK. She bore the surname Zelichenko and was in love with classmate Vladimir Skuybin. Soon they got married, son Kolya was born. And then the head of the family fell ill with the flu. He got a complication, and his little finger on his hand went numb. Didn’t matter. And this was the beginning of the emerging amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which developed very quickly. Muscles began to atrophy. Vladimir fought desperately for several years, continued to make films, supervised the process while lying on a stretcher – Nina was his eyes, arms and legs. In 1963, 34-year-old Skuybin died. Their son and Nina were then only 9.
In memory of her husband, Nina took his last name and promised herself to be faithful to him.
And then, in the corridors of Mosfilm, I accidentally ran into Eldar …
For 10 years they were lovers, they tried to leave more than once. And then Ryazanov confessed everything to his wife, and he and Nina went to the registry office. The groom was 51 years old, the bride – 49, but they felt like they were 20 years old. And how passionate their honeymoon was!
The director left the apartment to his ex-wife and daughter, and for the new wife he bought the house of Mikhail Romm – from his heirs.
For 15 years of family life with Skuybina, the director made his best films: “The Irony of Fate …”, “Office Romance”, “Say a Word About the Poor Hussar”, “Garage”. The wife was always next to Eldar on the set, advised, helped, extinguished his conflicts with obstinate actors.
In October 1993, Nina began to have an obsessive sore throat. Examination showed cancer of the esophagus in the last stage. Ryazanov understood that it was very difficult to get out, but he drove to the best doctors. Even to Germany. But the Germans were powerless.
– One day she turned to her husband with a request to give her an injection. Eldar understood that it was regarding euthanasia. He refused. Nina decided to end her painful journey herself. She had the medication she needed. Took care of everything beforehand. As well as regarding the funeral and commemoration, giving detailed instructions to her friend – the wife of the critic Vasya Katanyan, – the writer Victoria Tokareva recalled.
Nina passed away in 1994. She was 64.
Ryazanov ordered to dig a grave a meter deeper than expected – he wanted to rest nearby when his time comes. He erected a monument in the form of a stone broken into two parts. On the right is Nina’s sign. On the left is for myself.
Everyone knew regarding his plans. And the last wife Emma as well. But when the doctors announced the death of Ryazanov, she first called Nikita Mikhalkov with a request for a separate burial for her husband.
Eldar Alexandrovich was buried at the same Novodevichy. But not in that grave, but nearby – in the same row as Skuibina. The Irony of Fate? Or maybe Nikita Sergeevich did this on purpose in order to somehow fulfill the last will of his colleague, without offending his widow?
Emil Braginsky
For more than 20 years, Ryazanov was friends and made films in collaboration with this playwright, who was born in a family of doctors – a father’s gynecologist and a mother’s surgeon. By education, Emil Veniaminovich is a lawyer, but he also had a chance to work as a nurse. At the age of 20, he married a classmate Irma and lived with her until the end of his days. 13 years following the wedding, the couple had a son, Victor, who later became a pastel artist.
Braginsky became a writer thanks to his passion for chess – once he wrote a report regarding the All-Union tournament and sent it to the newspaper “Soviet Latvia”. And he was immediately enlisted as a freelance correspondent for the Moscow region.
Emil Veniaminovich lived very modestly in a cozy apartment near the Aeroport metro station. Friends were surprised: “In Hollywood, you would have become a millionaire long ago!” And he just shrugged: “But I’m not poor, I’m average.”
In 1975, the playwright suffered a massive heart attack. At the Institute of Cardiology, where he was lying, his wife was directly told: “He has a maximum of two days left.” Miraculously got out and lived another 23 years.
He died suddenly – on the night of May 1998 in Sheremetyevo, having arrived with his wife from a trip to Europe. Heart.
Photo source: Olga Emelyanova, Ivan Makeev/”KP”, Legion-Media