March 30, 2013
Passed away Valery Zolotukhin. A theater and film actor, he was the artistic director of the Taganka Theater for two years. He played Bumbarash in "Bumbarash," and Ivan Kivrin from the National University of the Arts in "The Wizards." He was a friend of Vysotsky.
I was born with a complete lack of envy, you see? True, Vysotsky defined it quite peculiarly: "Zolotukhin knows he's better than everyone, so he envies no one."
Born the day before the war, June 21, 1941, in the village Fast Source в Altai Krai. My father was the chairman of a collective farm, my mother worked at the post office, at a household goods factory (she made candy), and as a bank cashier.
There was nowhere to put us [the Zolotukhins had three children – ed.], and she had to take us with her to work. The war was going on, and my mother counted bags of money, worthless and worthless, to the point of insanity, rapping the abacus with fervor, which we mercilessly and methodically turned over whenever she took a break.
As a child, he fell from a height. When they treated his leg, they discovered tuberculosis of the bone. It took him a long time to recover. For several years, he walked on crutches, hiding them under the stairs at school.
He dreamed of becoming an artist. At 17, after graduating from high school with a silver medal, he went to Moscow to study at the Moscow Academy of Arts. According to locals, his father sold a cow to buy him a suit.
He enrolled in the musical comedy department at GITIS. He graduated in 1963 and worked for a year at the Mossovet Theatre. In 1964, he became an actor at the Taganka Theatre. He began keeping diaries.
Season 65/66: introduction to the Water-Bearer [his debut role in Brecht's "The Good Person of Szechwan" - ed.], the little monk, work in "Fallen." Not so bad, just excellent, in my opinion. If every season brings in such goldfish as the Water-Bearer and Fulganzio, what else do you need? Of course, if I were asked if I was satisfied, I would say no. My greed haunts me. If you think you could die any day, everything you've done seems small, unworthy, and therefore you can't take it slow.
He made his film debut in 1965, playing the lead role of Red Army soldier Petya Trofimov in the film "The Package" Vladimir Nazarov. After that, I was often invited to film, to my displeasure. Yuri Lyubimov. He starred in several films together with Vladimir Vysotsky ("Intervention", "Master of the Taiga", "The Tale of How Tsar Peter Married Off His Moor").
I've noticed that when a person falls into trouble, they become more Christian. They listen to others with kindness, respect, condescension, and a certain expectation, and they themselves become more open and frank. Those around them no longer seem like a herd, but like a family in which they find solace and healing for their wounds. Arrogance and haughtiness disappear—they become simpler, more ordinary, and purer.
In 1971 he played the leading role in "Bumbarash", where he also performed several songs: “I don’t give a damn, I don’t give a damn, I’m tired of fighting…” His private Semyon Bumbarash was very popular with the audience. The role could have been given to To Mikhail Kononov, but Zolotukhin was convincing:
I approached the director and said: “If you want to make a good film, take Kononov, but if you want to look into eternity, take me.”
He wrote. In 1978, his first book, "To the Istok River, to My Childhood," was published. He published ten books in total, several dedicated to Taganka, Vysotsky, and Lyubimov.
In 2011, after Yuri Lyubimov left the theater, he took over its direction. He served as artistic director until March 2013. However, he was unable to work actively since December 2012, when doctors diagnosed him with glioblastoma.
He passed away at the age of 71. He was buried, in accordance with his wishes, in his native village, on the grounds of a church built, in part, with funds from the actor.
Hey, you biographers! Listen, I'm making your job easier, thank me! But read between the lines, because the censors are standing around like hungry dogs, and I'm the first one. Sometimes insincerely, sometimes out of malice, sometimes out of stupidity, so try your best, the hardest part has fallen to your lot—deciphering the human soul, in this case, mine. A person can spin a yarn in their life, and they themselves won't even understand where they're real and where they're pretending, so all the strings and threads will get tangled, just don't tear them when you get tired of untangling them, otherwise it'll hurt.
