Writer Fadeev biography personal life. Fadeev Alexander Alexandrovich, writer

Alexander Fadeev is a talented writer who gave Russian-language literature the Young Guard. This novel about the feat of young communists has become the most famous work of the writer, but Fadeev has several other worthy works. In addition, Fadeev during his lifetime was known as the head of the Union of Writers of the USSR and the editor-in-chief of a literary newspaper. Unfortunately, in the biography of the writer, despite the love and respect of readers, not everything went smoothly.

Childhood and youth

The future writer was born on December 24, 1901 in a city called Kimry (in the Tver region). Fadeev's father, Alexander Ivanovich, became interested in revolutionary ideas in his youth, as a result of which he quickly came to the attention of the authorities and was forced to constantly hide and change his place of residence. So, one day he ended up in St. Petersburg, where, after a series of ordeals and imprisonment through a political article, he met Antonina Kunz, whom he later married.

Alexander Fadeev was a long-awaited and desired child. Parents were engaged in literacy with both their son and their eldest daughter Tatyana. Fadeev also had a younger brother, Vladimir. Little Sasha learned to read early and soon free time spent with volumes , . And after a while, the boy already amazed his parents with the first fairy tales and stories written on his own.

Parents also tried to instill in children respect for work. The children helped their mother with the housework, knew how to sew on buttons and take care of the garden. Later, the writer will remember this time with warmth.

In 1910, Alexander's parents sent him to Vladivostok to live with his aunt. There, the young man entered a commercial school and soon became the best student on the course. In the same place, Fadeev first published his own attempts at writing in a student newspaper and even received awards for stories and poems. And in order to earn money for food and help his aunt, Alexander Fadeev worked as a tutor, helping lagging students in learning to read and write.

Despite academic success, Fadeev never received a diploma: in 1918, the young man joined the party revolutionaries and became a member of an underground Bolshevik group. Alexander Fadeev even took part in clashes with the White Guards and was wounded during the uprising in Kronstadt. The revolutionary went to Moscow for treatment, where he stayed to live.

Literature

The first serious story by Alexander Fadeev was called "Spill". Although the work was published, it did not arouse the interest of readers. But the next test of Fadeev's pen - the story "The Rout" - became a landmark for Alexander Alexandrovich.

The plot of this work is built, of course, around the events of the civil war and the confrontation between the “reds” and the “whites”. The story was published in 1923 and immediately brought popularity to the novice writer. Then Alexander Fadeev, inspired by the first glory, decided to devote his life to creativity and become a professional writer.

Next big literary work Alexandra Fadeeva will become the main work in the life of the writer. We are talking about the novel "The Young Guard", which Alexander Alexandrovich began to work on immediately after the end of the Great Patriotic War.

It is known that the inspiration for Alexander Alexandrovich was the work of journalists Vladimir Lyaskovsky and Mikhail Kotov called "Hearts of the Brave". This book, like the subsequent novel "Young Guard", tells about the feat of Soviet teenagers who were not afraid to create an underground partisan organization and resist the invaders of the German army.

In 1946, The Young Guard was printed. Readers greeted the novel with delight, but the party leadership remained dissatisfied with the book. The fact is that, according to the authorities, Alexander Fadeev, on the pages of the Young Guard, did not sufficiently emphasize the importance of the Communist Party in the life of the heroes of the book and in their feat. The writer was offended by such remarks, Fadeev emphasized that he was not writing a documentary work, but fiction novel, in which fiction takes place.

However, the novel had to be redone. In 1951, the second version of The Young Guard was published, carefully edited and filled with communist slogans and outright propaganda of the regime. The second version of the book was considered ideologically correct, and the "Young Guard" was even included in school curriculum.

In parallel with his creative activity, Alexander Fadeev worked in the Writers' Union, and since 1946 he headed it. Besides, in different years the writer was a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU and a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

In 1946, Alexander Fadeev supported the notorious resolution, in fact outlawing creativity,. In addition, as chairman of the writers' union, Fadeev personally had to ensure that the texts of these writers were not published.

And two years later Alexander Fadeev collected funds to help Mikhail Zoshchenko, who was left penniless after that very decision, and Andrei Platonov, who needed money for treatment. Such deals with conscience did not give rest to the soul of the writer: Fadeev began to drink heavily, suffered from depression and insomnia, and was even treated "for nervous disease in one of the Soviet sanatoriums. Unfortunately, the bad taste of the writer eventually led him to death.

Personal life

Alexander Fadeev was married twice. The first chosen one of the writer was Valeria Gerasimova, also a writer. The personal life of Fadeev and Gerasimova did not work out, and this marriage soon broke up.

In 1936, Fadeev married a second time. The second wife of the writer, actress Angelina Stepanova, gave Fadeev the sons of Alexander and Mikhail.

It is also known that the writer had a daughter, Maria, whose mother was the journalist and poetess Margarita Aliger.

Death

The writer's life ended tragically. May 13, 1956 Alexander Alexandrovich shot himself. Fadeev was found in his country house in Peredelkino. The reason that pushed the writer to a terrible step, unofficially called alcohol addiction. It is also known that Alexander Fadeev began to prepare for his death in a few days: he put the papers in order, wrote last letters.

One of them - a letter to the Central Committee of the CPSU - was made public only in 1990. In it, the writer accused the party leadership of the fact that art, in particular literature, was ruined by censorship, lies and window dressing. And this, according to Fadeev, deprives him of the meaning of life and respect for himself as the head of the writers' union.

In the same letter, Alexander Alexandrovich asked to be buried next to his mother's grave. This request was fulfilled: the grave of the writer is located on the Moscow Novodevichy cemetery.

Subsequently, assumptions and conjectures related to the death of Alexander Fadeev repeatedly appeared in the press. There were people who were sure that the writer had been killed. However, neither version has received official confirmation.

The novel "The Young Guard" was subsequently removed from the school curriculum, but this book still takes pride of place on the shelves of reading lovers next to the works of other writers describing the realities of that time:, Mikhail Zoshchenko,.

Bibliography

• 1923 - "Spill"
• 1926 - "Defeat"
• 1929 - "The Highway of Proletarian Literature"
• 1929-1941 - "The Last of Udege"
• 1945 - "Young Guard"
• "Black Metallurgy" (novel not finished)

55 years ago, a famous Soviet writer, author of the novel "The Young Guard" committed suicide.

The author of the well-known novels "Young Guard", "Rout", "The Last of Udege" Alexander Fadeev in the Stalin era decided the fate of Soviet literature for more than a decade, heading the Writers' Union of the USSR. It seemed that in his life there was everything one could dream of: fame, power, material well-being, a wife - a beautiful actress, children ...

And at the age of 54, it happened a few months after the exposure of the cult of Stalin at the XX Congress of the CPSU, Fadeev, who was considered involved in the repressions among Soviet writers, voluntarily passed away. The writer shot himself with a revolver at his dacha in Peredelkino. His 11-year-old son Misha found his father dead.

In an obituary, the official cause of Alexander Fadeev's suicide was alcoholism. And only in 1990 was the writer’s suicide letter addressed to the Central Committee of the CPSU published, where he wrote: “I don’t see the opportunity to continue to live, since the art to which I gave my life has been ruined by the self-confidently ignorant leadership of the party ... The best cadres of literature have been physically exterminated ... Life mine as a writer loses all meaning, and with great joy, as a deliverance from this vile existence, where meanness, lies and slander fall upon you, I am leaving this life. last hope I even wanted to say this to the people who rule the state, but for the past three years, despite my requests, they can’t even accept me.” "FACTS" managed to find the son of Alexander Fadeev, Mikhail Fadeev, who is now 66 years old, and talk with him.

“Stalin personally called his father after writing “Rout”

- Mikhail Alexandrovich, how do you remember your father?

“When he died, I was still just a child. But, of course, do not forget how much care he treated me, how he worried about me reading and learning a lot. We had a huge library.

- There were no instructions. But prohibitions too - I read what I wanted. I liked Russian classics and adventure literature - Mine Reid, Jules Verne, Stevenson...

Where have you been with your father?

— Often went fishing, swimming. After all, they lived more at their father's service dacha in Peredelkino. The housekeeper cooked. Parents were completely absorbed in work.

- You were the first to find your father shot dead ...

— Yes, but even today it is not easy for me to talk about it.

Did you have any anxiety the day before?

“I didn’t feel anything that foreshadowed trouble. The day before the incident, my dad and I went to Moscow, returned late in the evening. And the next day, tragedy struck. I did not attend my father's funeral - I was protected from all mourning events, as I was sick.

When did the family find out about the existence of the suicide letter?

It was hidden until 1990. Nobody knew about the letter, including my mother (famous theater actress Angelina Stepanova. - Auth.). She learned about the death of her father from the newspapers in Kyiv, where she arrived, returning from a tour in Yugoslavia. She was immediately summoned to Moscow.

- Father was called the "writer's minister." How did he get to such a high position? Appointed by Stalin?

- I think yes. It played a role that Fadeev was a convinced communist from the age of 16, was a delegate to the Tenth Congress, one of the leaders of the RAPP (Russian Association of Proletarian Writers. - Auth.). Stalin, highly appreciating "The Rout", personally called his father after the release of the novel. They met ... In 1939, almost before the war, my father was appointed Secretary General of the Writers' Union of the USSR. During the war years, he lost this position and took it again in 1948.

* In 1939, Alexander Fadeev was appointed Secretary General of the Writers' Union of the USSR. During the war years, he lost this position and took it again in 1948.

- Is it true that your father repeatedly refused this position, which many dreamed of taking?

- He wrote to Stalin that he wanted to leave and devote himself entirely to creativity. But... they didn't let him go. As a communist, my father was obliged to fulfill the will of the party, he could not disobey. From a suicide letter: "Created for great creativity in the name of communism, from the age of sixteen associated with the party, with the workers and peasants, endowed by God with an outstanding talent, I was full of the highest thoughts and feelings that the life of the people, united with the beautiful ideals of communism, can give rise to. But they turned me into a draft horse, all my life I trudged under a load of incompetent, unjustified, innumerable bureaucratic affairs that could be performed by any person.

“With Sergei Mikhalkov, my father went hunting and fishing more than once. Sometimes he took my older brother with him.”

Which of the writers was your father friends with?

- Alexander Tvardovsky, Konstantin Simonov, Sergei Mikhalkov, Irakli Andronikov, Vsevolod Ivanov, Konstantin Fedin often visited our house ... Father went hunting and fishing with Sergei Mikhalkov more than once. Sometimes dad took my older brother with him.

- Which of the listed writers and poets was closest to your father?

- Probably Tvardovsky. True, before the death of their father, they had a strong quarrel due to the fact that Fadeev participated in removing him from the post of editor of the Novy Mir magazine. The time was very difficult, contradictory.

- A lot of things do not fit in my head: Fadeev called Anna Akhmatova "the vulgarity of Soviet literature" and he fussed about housing for her, about the Stalin Prize.

- He was busy with the award in 1940, and condemned, following the general line of the party, - after the Zhdanov decree issued in 1956 (in it, the work of Akhmatova and Zoshchenko was recognized as unprincipled. - Auth.). Otherwise it was impossible. In order to express what his father really thought: “Literature has been ruined by the self-confidently ignorant leadership of the party,” he had to shoot himself. No one has ever said such words before. Please note that this was written in 1956 - before the persecution of Boris Pasternak.

Was your father an atheist?

- Certainly. Convinced! I am not baptized, since my mother was an unbeliever.

Your parents have been married for about 20 years. They said they had quite complicated relationship which gradually faded away.

- The relationship of parents cannot be called simple. Two creative personalities, celebrities ... But as a child, I did not see or feel their disagreements. When my mother went on tour, and my father went to Chelyabinsk and Magnitogorsk, working on the novel Ferrous Metallurgy, they constantly corresponded. These letters are still with me.

— How did they meet?

- It happened in Paris, where my mother went on tour with the Moscow Art Theater in 1936. And my father at that time in France participated in the anti-fascist congress. They met, fell in love and have not parted since. After the death of my father, my mother did not marry, moreover, I did not see any suitors, although she was very beautiful and still quite a young woman. She was four years younger than her father.

- It is known that your father was an enthusiastic nature. One of his muses is Elena Bulgakova. And the poetess Margarita Aliger gave birth to his illegitimate daughter Maria. Did mom look at all this through her fingers?

As you can see, I forgave everything. This is how life unfolded. There is usually a lot going on in the writing/acting environment...

- But did you still communicate with your half-sister?

- I communicated with my brother (from my mother’s first marriage) Alexander, whom my father adopted and loved very much.

- Who was married to Lyudmila Gurchenko?

My brother has been married many times. One of his wives was indeed Gurchenko.

- And the first wife of your father was the writer Valeria Gerasimova. Her grandson Sergei Shargunov recently wrote a book about Fadeev, Between the Hammer and the Anvil. Have you read?

I haven't read it and don't know it. I didn't know Valeria Gerasimova either. And I know almost nothing about the relationship with her father.

“Unfortunately, many today no longer know who Alexander Fadeev is”

What was your father's hobby besides literature?

— The circle of interests was very wide. He was friends with the artist Pyotr Konchalovsky, composers Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitry Shostakovich, director Sergei Eisenstein.

- What did you collect?

- He loved books. As an adult, I read many books marked by my father, from Dante to Thomas Mann. My father had a special interest in modern literature. I was not a collector, but my mother was fond of glass and porcelain.

- And you followed in her footsteps, becoming an antique dealer and gallery owner.

- It was an accident. I worked at the Soviet Writer publishing house, then perestroika began, the publishing house ceased to exist. I became interested in art, because by education I am an art historian.

Do you have things at home that remind you of your father?

- Certainly. Mom's apartment is completely preserved. Furniture, dishes, books - everything reminds of parents.

“As an antique dealer, have you come across, in catalogues, galleries or at auctions, things that belonged to your father?”

- Once I came across some unimportant letters to writers - I did not find anything interesting in them.

- Did Alexander Fadeev often go abroad?

- He was the head of the World Peace Council, so he traveled abroad quite often. He never shared his impressions with me, but he brought me toys from trips. For example, soldiers, railroad.

Was he a gourmet in food?

- My father had been ill with Botkin's disease, therefore, due to problems with the liver, he could not afford gourmet food. Yes, and it was generally not accepted then.

- How do people react when they find out that you are the son of the author of the "Young Guard" Alexander Fadeev?

- When meeting me, almost no one asks if I am the son of a writer. Unfortunately, many today no longer know who Alexander Fadeev is.

Did someone in your family inherit your father's writing talent?

- My daughter is engaged in architecture, my son was an actor, now he teaches acting. No one does literature...

Fadeev wrote very little. His fate as a writer is an example of how disastrous for a true writer is the service of a false political idea and the readiness to step over oneself for its sake.

Biography of Alexander Fadeev (1901-1956)

As a twenty-year-old commissar, Fadeev came from distant Primorye to Moscow, to attend the 10th Party Congress. When the leader of the revolution walked past him with a quick step, Fadeev could not resist, stretched out his hand and touched Lenin, as if trying to feed on some sacred energy. The young commissar listened to his idol with reverence. And when he announced that there was a counter-revolutionary rebellion in Kronstadt, Fadeev rushed to the station along with other Red Army soldiers and then rushed straight from the train into battle. He was seriously wounded, for some time he was on the verge of life and death. He decided that if he survived, he would become a writer, would support the revolution with a pen, would sing of the new world and the new man.

Creativity of Alexander Fadeev

In the 1920s, Fadeev still lived in dreams; the spirit of revolutionary romance had not yet completely eroded from him. In 1927, all-Russian fame came - the novel "Defeat" was published. Stalin personally approved the book, emphasizing that it was precisely such prose that both the party and the whole people needed. The party extended its hand to Fadeev, and he could not resist. His deadly affair with the authorities began. And he himself began to speak with writers and poets on behalf of the authorities, realizing himself as something like a priest.

Too late, he realized that his indomitable energy would be openly used and exploited to turn writers into one obedient herd. After the revolution, as you know, many writers' associations arose, understanding the language and tasks of literature in their own way. Multicolor and discord frightened the party. Fadeev, as the ideologist of the RAPP, the association of proletarian writers, rushed into the battle for true Soviet, party literature.

In 1932 the party disbanded all literary associations. Instead, a single Union of Soviet Writers was created. He often enough had to do what his conscience rebelled against. In 1931, he was ordered to be branded for the seditious story "For the future." He saw how they were being poisoned, he saw and did not defend. Sometimes he became aware of impending arrests and searches. He did not defend either Mandelstam, or Pilnyak, or Babel, or Artyom Vesely.

In 1938, Fadeev became the head of the Writers' Union. However, every year Fadeev feels the spiritual emptiness and creative vacuum more and more sharply. He turns into a literary functionary. Fadeev is increasingly going into deaf, long drinking bouts. Stalin treats them condescendingly - he needs Fadeev. With his first wife - the writer Valeria Gerasimova - Fadeev broke up in 1932. Four years later he married actress Angelina Stepanova. For a while they were happy, but then Fadeev realized that their marriage was a union of people who were too passionate about their work.

During the war years, Fadeev collected himself, wrote articles and essays, gave orders on his sector of the front - the front of combat journalism and literature. In 1943, Fadeeva invites and makes it clear that a book about young Krasnodon underground workers is desirable. Fadeev sets to work with enthusiasm, collects material, writes unusually quickly. He is inspired, as in his distant youth. And then - devastating criticism and he is forced, by own confession, remake the young guard into the old. The new edition of the novel was canonized, filmed and included in the school literature curriculum. This story broke Fadeev completely. His last novel- "Black Metallurgy" - remained unfinished. In May 1956, Fadeev shot himself at his dacha in Peredelkino near Moscow.

• Fadeev's suicide letter was hidden for many years in the archives of the KGB and made public only in the years of perestroika. This is a cry, a cry about the ruined Soviet literature and one's own life.

Cavalier of two Orders of Lenin (1939, 1951)
Cavalier of the Order of the Red Banner
Laureate of the State Prize (1946, for the novel The Young Guard)
Laureate of the Lenin Komsomol Prize (1970, posthumously, for the novel The Young Guard)

On May 13, 1956, the village of Peredelkino writers near Moscow was full of cars - they arrived there ambulance, police and KGB officers. On this day, the author of the novels "Young Guard" and "Rout", one of the symbols of Soviet literature, Alexander Alexandrovich Fadeev, shot himself. Soon all the national newspapers published an official obituary. It was brief, without the signatures of the first persons of the state, although it was about the death of a deputy Supreme Council USSR, candidate member of the Central Committee, laureate of the Stalin Prize of the first degree, order bearer, vice-chairman of the Bureau of the World Peace Council, former secretary general of the writers' union. The obituary said: “In recent years, A.A. Fadeev suffered from a severe progressive illness - alcoholism, which led to a weakening of his creative activity... In a state of severe depression caused by another attack, Fadeev committed suicide. Such a conclusion at that time was completely unthinkable for Soviet official publications.

Nikita Khrushchev interpreted the writer's suicide in his own way in his memoirs: “... during the repressions, heading the Writers' Union of the USSR, Fadeev supported the line on repressions. And the heads of innocent writers were flying ... The tragedy of Fadeev as a man explains his suicide. Stay smart and subtle soul, he, after exposing Stalin and showing that the thousands of victims were not criminals at all, could not forgive himself for his apostasy from the truth ... He had outlived himself and, moreover, was afraid to meet face to face with those writers whom he helped Stalin drive into camps, and some returned later home ... "

At that time, few people knew that Alexander Fadeev left a suicide letter. Long years its contents were kept secret even from his wife, and the letter itself was kept in the archives of the Central Committee. And only in 1990, when it was published, did the reason for such silence become clear. Last words Fadeev sounded like a merciless sentence.

Alexander Alexandrovich Fadeev was born on December 24, 1901 in the village of Kimry, Korchevsky district, Tver province.

His father Alexander Ivanovich was a man with interesting biography. He was born into a poor peasant family in the Tver province, worked hard to get an education and become a teacher, joined the organization "Narodnaya Volya". He taught at a school in the village of Antonovskoye, where he also created a People's Volunteer circle. For the notes found during the search, containing the phrase: “The men bear the yoke, and the rest of the estates vegetate” and the verses “Stenka Razin’s Rock”, Alexander Ivanovich was fired from school without the right to teach, after which the local authorities forced him to leave the village. Alexander Ivanovich went to St. Petersburg, on the way he blabbered on the Volga and Kama, was a laborer, and when he reached St. Petersburg, he began working as a paramedic in a barracks hospital. In 1894 he was arrested in the case of the Narodnaya Volya.

The writer's mother Antonina Vladimirovna Kunz was born in Astrakhan. Her father was a Russified German, titular adviser Vladimir Petrovich Kunz, and her mother was the daughter of a Caspian fisherman. She studied at the Astrakhan gymnasium, and then moved with her mother to St. Petersburg, where she entered the Christmas paramedic courses. During her studies, Antonina Vladimirovna became close to the Social Democrats. Soon she was instructed to visit a political prisoner who had no relatives in the city, find out about his needs and deliver a package. Antonina Vladimirovna pretended to be a bride. The “groom” was the Narodnaya Volya Alexander Ivanovich Fadeev. Over time, the "fake" bride became the real one. In 1896, Alexander Ivanovich was exiled for five years to the city of Shenkursk. Antonina Vladimirovna came to him, and in 1898 they got married. Since 1899, Antonina Vladimirovna Fadeeva worked as a paramedic in Putilovo, Shlisselburg district, where in 1900 her daughter Tatyana was born. After the release of Alexander Ivanovich, the family moved to Kimry near Tver, where their son Alexander was born. Then followed a move to Vilna, where another son, Vladimir, was born. Life together did not go well and in 1905 the couple divorced. Fadeev almost did not remember his father - his parents broke up when he was about four years old. Alexander Ivanovich Fadeev was later exiled again to Siberia and died in his homeland in 1916.

Tanya, Sasha Fadeev and their cousin Veronika.

Alexander Fadeev always spoke about his mother with great love and tenderness. After her death, he wrote: “She was not only a good mother, but in general a very outstanding person, a great personality ... Only now I fully understand what a huge moral force and support my mother was for me - not only in by virtue of her personal qualities, and even simply by virtue of her maternal existence. During her life, I always felt somehow younger, there was always the opportunity to hide behind someone, and this need happens even to more strong people than I (and at any age!) - and the very concern for the mother, the necessity and need for this care, evoked her best qualities in the soul, was a natural guarantee against hardening.

Alexander grew up as a capable child - he was about four years old when he independently learned to read. He watched how his sister Tanya was taught and thus learned the entire alphabet. In 1907, Antonina Vladimirovna remarried. Her husband was Gleb Vladislavovich Svitych, the son of the Polish revolutionary populist V.S. Svitych-Illich. According to the recollections of those who were closely acquainted with the family, Gleb Vladislavovich, who at the time of his marriage was only twenty-two years old, became a caring father and friend for his wife's three children. Fadeev later said that he honored his stepfather as own father. The marriage was happy and two more sons were born in it. Antonina Vladimirovna and Gleb Vladislavovich worked as paramedics at the Vilna railway hospital, but after getting married, they decided to start a life together in a new place. The elder sister of Antonina Vladimirovna Maria Vladimirovna Sibirtseva called them to her, and in 1908 the family moved to the Far East. Deciding on such a long journey was not easy. There were three children in the family, the youngest was only two years old - and the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bmoving seemed simply unthinkable. Difficulties began immediately - there were no jobs in Vladivostok. Therefore, the parents temporarily left the children with the Sibirtsevs, while they themselves went in search of work and housing. From Fadeev’s notebook: “For a year or two we lived in the village of Sarovka, 50 versts from the city of Iman, on the banks of the Iman River - I was 7-8 years old, but I remember this village well, I studied there in rural school. My father worked even higher up the Iman, in the village of Kotelnichi. These were already completely wild places: in winter, tigers stole calves. The places along Iman are exceptionally picturesque, rich in various vegetation. Floods are the scourge of these places, and Sarovka has remained in my memory with huts in the water, with a solid sea of ​​water that connected streets and wastelands into one element. Adults and we guys, with carelessness characteristic of our age, swam from hut to hut on boats, rafts or simply in troughs in which food was given to horses and cattle.

In 1910, the family moved to the village of Chuguevka at the foot of the picturesque Sikhote-Alin Mountains, and Alexander entered the senior preparatory class of the Vladivostok Commercial School. At that time it was one of the best educational institutions in the world. Far East. Vladivostok struck the imagination of Alexander. Later, in the novel The Last of the Udege, he described it: “From the mountain, there was a view of the hulls and pipes of the military port, of Peter the Great Bay, of a smoky bay lined with ships, of the green wooded Churkin Cape. Behind the cape stretched the turquoise Sea of ​​Japan, rocky, forested blue islands were visible. On this side of the bay crowded the houses colored by the sun: they climbed the mountain, molding themselves; one could see the meandering, swarming ribbon of the main street and the crossed side streets flowing into it. Sloboda stretched left and right over the mountains and valleys in a haze from plywood factories and mills - Rabochaya, Sassy, ​​Sailor, Korean, Pigeon Pad, Cooper Pad, Egersheld, Rotten Corner. At the back foot eagle's nest green groves began, behind the groves - long cholera barracks, behind the barracks - a lonely, heavy, dark red brick prison building. The vast sky covered everything. And, propping up the sky like majestic blue mammoths, the spurs of the Sikhote-Alin Range stood in the distance ... The wharf smelled of fish, fuel oil, oranges, algae, and opium. The bay was filled with commercial, military, sailing, steam ships. Boats, Chinese shampoos, scows scurried between them. Vessels came from all over the world, adorned with variegated multi-colored flags.

During their studies, the Fadeev children lived with relatives of the Sibirtsevs. Maria Vladimirovna was the director of the progymnasium, which she herself created, and her husband Mikhail Yakovlevich, the grandson of the Decembrist, taught at the men's gymnasium and supervised drama club. In his youth, he was a member of the Narodnaya Volya circle, and this almost prevented him from graduating from St. Petersburg University. Fadeev found himself in an unusual atmosphere. In his family, children were obliged to unquestioningly fulfill the will of their parents, not only was it impossible to disobey, but even arguing with their mother was unthinkable. Everything was different with the Sibirtsevs. It seemed incredible to Fadeev that parents gave their children freedom of choice, own example instilling in them the will and self-discipline. Subsequently, he wrote: "I was brought up in this family no less than in my own family."

The Sibirtsevs had a huge library. Alexander's favorite writers were Jack London, Mine Reid and Fenimore Cooper. He became interested in the world of book adventures and soon wrote his first adventure story "Apaches and Kumachi" about boys who fled to America. Her first enthusiastic readers were her elder sister Tatyana, and then her friends, who did not even suspect that the author was a first-grade student of a commercial school. Alexander studied easily, after the fourth grade he received an award sheet. He wrote poems, essays and stories, published them in the student's handwritten magazine "General extracurricular work". As a capable student, young Fadeev received a scholarship, and at the age of 13 he began to engage in tutoring, as he wanted to earn a living on his own and help his parents. Here is how his teacher-mentor S.G. Pashkovsky described him in his notebooks: “Fadeev is a fragile figure of a boy who has not yet taken shape. Pale, with light, flaxen hair, this boy is touchingly gentle. He lives some kind of inner life. Eagerly and attentively listens to every word of the teacher. From time to time, some kind of shadow visits the face - a wrinkle lies between the eyebrows, and the face becomes stern. In front of him sit Nerezov and Borodkin on the desk. The latter, inclined to play pranks, makes grimaces at Fadeev, trying to make him laugh, but the boy casts a reproachful glance at him, shifting a wrinkle between his eyebrows. A black jacket with a stand-up collar and "Mercuries" does not fit the boy very well: it was not made by a tailor (obviously home-made). However, the boy is not embarrassed by the fact that he is dressed poorer than others: he holds himself proudly and independently ... The boy’s verbal means were not particularly rich, but bright colors were amazing. Colorfulness, truthfulness, sincerity - these are the qualities that distinguish written works Fadeev.

by the most joyful events there were vacation trips home to Chuguevka. This village was one of the most remote and abandoned in the district - at a distance of 120 miles from railway. Life there was harsh, for months there was no connection with the outside world. Mother and stepfather were paramedics, went to the sick throughout the parish. They were respected - there were no such active, attentive and responsive paramedics in Chuguevka before. Fadeev proudly wrote: “My mother, an ordinary paramedic, more than once sacrificed herself to save others. To her, hundreds of miles away, peasants went to consult not only about medical, but also about their life and social affairs; even the Old Believers, who did not recognize medicine and were not treated by their mother, went to her for advice when she was already working in the city, for which they had to travel one hundred and twenty miles on horseback and two hundred miles by train.

Parents taught children to work. Mother believed that they should have been able to do all the housework themselves. Here is how Alexander Fadeev himself later wrote about this in a letter to his son: “When I was a boy, my mother, now such a weak grandmother Nina, taught me, and sister Tanya, and brother Volodya, to all types of domestic and agricultural labor: we ourselves they sewed on torn-off buttons for themselves, put patches on and patched holes in clothes, washed dishes and floors in the house, made beds themselves, and besides, they mowed, reaped, knitted sheaves, weeded, looked after vegetables in the garden. I had carpentry tools, and I, and especially my brother Volodya, always made something. We always sawed and chopped wood and stoked the stoves ourselves. Since childhood, I knew how to harness a horse myself, saddle it and ride it. All this not only develops physically, but also disciplines a person very much. But this is not just discipline. Everything, absolutely everything, even the smallest types of such labor was necessary for me and my sister Tanya, and brother Volodya in adult life - both in the war, and in domestic life, and in communicating with people at work, when I had to work in a village or work environment and lead by example.”

Young people often gathered in the house of the Sibirtsevs - friends of Fadeev's cousins ​​- Vsevolod and Igor. Many of the guests held revolutionary views. Fadeev often witnessed lively discussions about the future fate of Russia. In 1917, he joined the Commune, a group of democratically minded youth at a commercial school. Then he began to publish articles in the newspaper "Tribune of Youth".

As usual, after spending the summer of 1918 with his parents in distant Chuguevka, Fadeev returned to Vladivostok for the new school year. But it was already a completely different city, with a different power, with a different life. Then Fadeev recalled this time: “There was a bloody battle in which the whole people was drawn, the world split, in front of each young man it was no longer figurative, but vital ... the question arose:“ In which camp to fight? However, Fadeev did not doubt his choice - in the same month he and his three best friend Zhenya Khomyakov, Grisha Bilimenko and Petya Nerezov joined the Communist Party. Thus began the fighting everyday life of the sixteen-year-old Fadeev and his friends, who were jokingly called "The Three Musketeers and D'Artagnan" back at the school - they carried out propaganda work, put up leaflets, and worked as messengers. Many years later, Alexander Fadeev wrote this about his friends: “I am forever grateful to fate that I had three such friends during the fighting years! We loved each other so selflessly, we were ready to give our lives for everyone and for everyone! We tried so hard not to drop ourselves in front of each other and so concerned about preserving each other's honor that we ourselves did not notice how we gradually brought up courage, courage, will in each other ... In general, we were completely desperate guys - we were loved in the company and in the squad. Pyotr was one year older than Grisha and Sanya, and two years older than me, he was a very firm man, not talkative, self-possessed and brave, and perhaps it was thanks to these qualities that we did not die in the very first months: in such we there were alterations due to our desperate youthful reckless courage ... War is a big and harsh educator. By this time, we had already experienced a lot of hard, cruel ... Much of the past seemed already childishly naive, required revision. some of former comrades we would now, without flinching, shoot him if he fell into our hands, we despised some, regretted others that our paths had gone apart.

In the spring of 1919, Alexander Fadeev was sent to a partisan detachment. He was provided with forged documents, according to which he was listed as Alexander Bulyga. It was in the detachment that Fadeev began to keep a diary, which later helped him in his work on his first works. “Fadeev carried several thick notebooks in his field bag, in which he made detailed notes ... They served us well more than once. It just so happened that when it was necessary to obtain detailed information about some village and its people, Lazo and I called Sasha Fadeev from the detachment and asked him to read the corresponding notes from his notebooks. I remember that it was a very valuable material,” recalled M. Gubelman.

In April 1919, Fadeev was wounded during one of the battles near Spassk. He could have died if his comrade, risking his life, had not taken him out of the encirclement to the waist in ice water. After treatment, Fadeev took part in the export of weapons and ammunition from Primorye to Amur region along the Ussuri River. After the fighting, this time seemed to him almost peaceful. He later wrote about this: “Flights along the Ussuri in 1920 are one of the happiest memories of my youth. I was 18 years old. I was recovering from the wound I received near Spassk, I was still limping, but it was already clear that everything would be fine. The weather was clear and sunny all the time, we caught a lot of fish with a net, and, due to weakness, I was the cook. Never in my life have I eaten such greasy burbot and catfish soup. Constant tension, dangers, our sometimes bloody fights with deserters from the army, who more than once tried to take possession of the steamer in order to escape the Amur - all this only invigorated the soul.

However, already in the autumn of 1920, Fadeev was again sent to the front. Years later, Fadeev recalled: “For a short time I was considered an instructor in the political department of our division. But I was actually not at the political department of the division, but at its commissar ... I even lived with him in a saloon car. I slept on the floor in the dining room, spreading our short fur coats of that time - jackets that we wore with white fur on the outside ... He read me as a regimental commissar if someone died or someone needed to be replaced. And before such an opportunity, he promised to send to units that are facing serious operations or that are in a difficult situation - as a representative of the political department, to reinforce the commissars of the units. He assigned me this role for obvious reasons: despite my youth, 19 years old, I already went through the school of partisan struggle in Primorye, the fight against the Japanese after April 4-5, was wounded, had commissar experience behind him, had a secondary education, was relatively politically literate and was already known to him as a good mass agitator. But it looks like I'm bragging." Fadeev did not boast, rather the opposite - after all, he was not yet nineteen years old at that time. The characteristics of Fadeev of those years have been preserved. It had only two words: "Good, great."

A. Fadeev. 1921

In February 1921, Alexander Fadeev was elected a delegate with a decisive vote to the X All-Russian Congress of the RCP. The country was going through a crisis - economic, political and social. Strikes and rallies with political and economic demands took place in Petrograd. Martial law was introduced in the city. These events served as an impetus for the uprising of the Kronstadt garrison. The delegates of the 10th Congress were sent to put down the uprising. During the assault on the Kronstadt fortress, Fadeev was seriously wounded in the leg. He lay unconscious for several hours on the ice of the Gulf of Finland, lost a lot of blood, but the doctors managed to save his life. For five months he was treated in a Petrograd hospital, but Fadeev was an incredible optimist and later, recalling this time, he spoke not about wounds and pains, but about pleasant moments: “I spent several months in the hospital. Never read so much in my life. Here you have utopian socialists, and Lenin, and Milton, and Blok ... I didn’t read something ... The doctor was kind, like doctors in general. My sister was beautiful, like sisters in general... And the trees in the garden were beautiful... I kept looking at them from the ward... After all, they were completely different from those we have in the Far East... Walks in the evenings were also good. And Neva was good. And the Summer Garden… In short, I fell in love.”

Students of the Moscow Mining Academy. 1921-1924 (on the right is A. Fadeev)

For health reasons, Fadeev was released from further military service. In the summer he came to Moscow and began to prepare for admission to the Mining Academy. "Listen! - Fadeev wrote to his friend Isai Dolnikov, - you would believe it, damn it! If someone told you that Sashka ... passed algebra, geometry, trigonometry, physics and arithmetic in one month and passed the exam at the Mining Academy? No, you would send that person to hell... But it's true! Carramba! This rigmarole ended only yesterday, and here I am from the military brigade to the students!

Fadeev studied at the Faculty of Geology. He wrote in May 1922: “I live a very full and wide social life, I am interested in all issues of the present ... I am disposed to the perception (albeit in an amateurish way) of universal knowledge.” While studying at the academy, Alexander Fadeev wrote his first story, Spill, the plot of which was based on the events that took place in 1917 in the village of Chuguevka, which became his native. The then well-known writer Yuri Libedinsky was the first to read it, who later recalled: “While reading, I kept looking out the window, streaming with raindrops, I saw Kuntsevo’s rather stunted country nature there. And the manuscript depicted extraordinary nature - with tall cedars, mountains, fells, valleys, and a violent river, the crushing flood of which was described in this short story. And the people that the author talked about were a match for nature: strong and courageous, passionate and truthful ... ".

In May 1923, the story "Spill" was completed and Fadeev began work on the story "Against the Current", which was published at the end of the year in the magazine "Young Guard". A few months later saw the light and "Razliv". After the publication of the first works, Alexander Fadeev was convinced of the correctness of the chosen path. He wrote: “Obviously, I have not only a great desire, but also the ability for this business.” Already in 1923, he began to proudly sign his letters “Writer Al. Bulyga-Fadeev. Having become interested in science at the beginning of his studies, over time he began to understand that he was unlikely to succeed as a mining engineer - literary work began to take more and more strength.

Fadeev did not become a mining engineer. In March 1924, in his life there was sharp turn- at that time, by decision of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, party cadres were sent to the country's regions. After studying at the Mining Academy for two courses, he left it and went to Krasnodar. Fadeev was glad to leave - studying no longer attracted him so much, and in order to write, new impressions were needed. In Krasnodar, he worked as an instructor, and then as secretary of the district committee. In his free time, the active and energetic Fadeev led the choir, was the captain football team, but the literary field continued to beckon him. In Krasnodar, entries appeared in his diary, which were writer's sketches of events, observations, heard phrases. They were like preparations for future, as yet unwritten books. It was in Krasnodar that he began work on his first great work- the novel "The Rout", based on his own memories and impressions. Literary creativity captured him so strongly that for the first time he began to think about leaving party work and devoting himself entirely to writing. Finally, he made a decision - and in September 1924 he turned to the leadership with a request to transfer him to journalistic work.

In the fall of 1924, Fadeev moved to Rostov-on-Don and began working for the regional newspaper Sovetsky Yug. Later, he wrote in one of his letters: “I was then still very young and unusually cheerful. I worked for a regional newspaper in Rostov-on-Don, lived in a small room on the fourth floor overlooking the Don and the steppe. And by the nature of my work, I traveled a lot. I lived alone, but I had no idea what loneliness was. New places, people, cities, landscapes, events - I perceived everything with extraordinary greed. In Rostov, coming home from work late at night, tired, I could spend hours looking at the lights of Bataysk in the steppe beyond the Don, at the reflection of these lights and stars in the Don, at the sky, at the black bridge, similar to Brooklyn, at the chimneys of steamers that came from Black and Seas of Azov and reminded that the world is very spacious. This greed of life has remained in me even now. The following fact speaks of the active nature of Alexander Alexandrovich. Once the editor-in-chief, leaving on a business trip, left Fadeev in his place. When he returned, he found a square hole in the floor connecting the production editor's room and the printing house, which made the transfer of manuscripts and galleys more convenient and faster - there were no stairs and long corridors to go. Another result of Fadeev's short leadership was the permission for employees to change seats - depending on personal sympathies. The editor-in-chief was surprised at the changes, but did not object, exclaiming only: “Boy!”.

In those years, Fadeev's life changed dramatically. He not only changed his job and got the opportunity to engage in literary work, but there were changes in his personal life. While still studying in Moscow, he met a student at Moscow University, a young writer Valeria Gerasimova (Fadeev called her Valya). Here is how she later recalled this meeting: “It cannot be said that this tall man in a tunic seemed handsome to me. But in the whole structure of this tall, flexible figure, as if woven from muscles, there was something that struck me. It was a warehouse in those years of not yet fully expressed, not fully minted amazing masculinity. I was also struck by the sharpness of the look of bright, sharply gleaming eyes. All this was not only not "cooperator", but something directly opposite to everything urban, room, service. This figure exuded not only a truly masculine or athletic, but most likely a hunting grip. For several years they lived in different cities: she is in Moscow, he is in Krasnodar, then in Rostov-on-Don. Short meetings were again replaced by a long, painful and painful separation for Fadeev.

Valeria Gerasimova recalled: “At the time when our relationship was just taking shape and were such that Sasha, with all the passion of his nature, loved me, and I most likely allowed myself to be loved (although internally, perhaps, something deeper was hidden under this) , a terrible misfortune befell me. It was all the more terrible and unfair because I was so young and, as they said, beautiful ... The misfortune that struck me so absurdly was the upcoming difficult operation. I could become permanently disabled. I was smitten, humiliated, I thought: how will this person behave? A man from a completely different (as I then, and also largely erroneous, it seemed) world. But the firm, truly courageous hand of Sasha invariably supported me. There was not a shadow of hesitation in him, not a second of desire to "go into the bushes." He treated me not like a lover, but like an old, smart, good friend. At the same time, there is not a shadow of a game of generosity, not a grain of sentimentality, but a courageous, serious stamina. The operation went well, and I remember how, after waking up from anesthesia and recovering a day later, I was suffocating with happiness, with the joy of life returned to me and with the fact that I had such a friend found in suffering as Fadeev.

In 1967, an interesting incident occurred - a previously unknown story by Alexander Fadeev called "About Love" was published in the magazine "Youth". The magazine wrote about him as one of the first creative experiences of the writer, written in the manner of Alexander Grin. It was a mistake. In fact, the publication was a letter from Fadeev to Valeria Gerasimova, written by him from Rostov-on-Don on May 8, 1925 on behalf of Old Pim: “... Since childhood, I have been distinguished by great curiosity and an inexhaustible love of life. Most of all I loved - in general - people, even more - in particular, girls ... You know Old Pim for a kind materialist, but the latter was always combined in him with a romantic. It has also happened: I love a girl, but I am drawn to the guys - to fish, to ski, to go to Sydney - and she cannot do this with me and asks me to stay. It immediately became painful for me, it seemed that life closed in a narrow circle - my love for her disappeared, I threw this one too. But I loved life as before; she gave me her bounty, and I was a fun 23-year-old Pim, and the girls fell on me, because the one who loves less is always stronger. Once I met a certain Valya from Boston. She liked me. I told her this and also told her who I was, and with peace of mind I went to Sydney, taking her curly image with me. It began as usual, but how strangely I began to miss her! We corresponded, she came to me, and I to her. Her love was very uneven ... I fell in love with Valya from Boston the way girls used to love me. I still went to Sydney and skied, but I did it out of habit, not desire. To put it another way, I didn't want to fish without Vali from Boston, I didn't want to go to Sydney without Vali from Boston and I wasn't interested in the girls walking down the street because I was only interested in Valya from Boston... I thought: "I'll be a fun Pim , I will thank life and Valya from Boston - both for my love for her, and for her letters that I kissed as a boy, and for the suffering that my love for her brings me, for all this is life, and life is beautiful and life death always wins! When I came to this conclusion, it was already night, sirens were screaming on the river, the window smelled of spring, beyond the river crept in fog - dark as night - epic vast steppes. I decided to write to her about it - let her know what the cheerful 23-year-old Pim went through. I wrote her the following: “I can’t forget you, Valya from Boston, I love you all, without a trace - thank you for that. But I will not “cry” anymore, I will go to Sydney, fish, ski, I will be patient and wise, like an old taiga wolf, I will kiss your letters and remember you everywhere, love every word and even the memory of you if you don't love me. And one of two things will happen: either this will happen (that is, you will stop loving me), then I will “fall from a height”, but I will not break, - because I am a cheerful 23-year-old Pim! - I will only hit hard and will be sick for a long time, but I will recover and go to Sydney, and from Sydney to Singapore - after all, the world is huge! Or you will love me deeply, and then you will want to go with me to Sydney, fish, ski, and I will gladly do a lot that you want, but you will still be Valya from Boston, and I will be cheerful cheerful Pim, for the world is huge, for the price of that love that encroaches on the freedom of a beloved being is worthless ... ".

Valya agreed to become Fadeev's wife and move to him in Rostov. However, the unexpected happened - Fadeeva was seconded to the disposal of the Central Committee to work on the Board of the RAPP (Russian Association of Proletarian Writers). Fadeev had already become famous by that time - work on "The Rout" was completed, and this work was published in separate chapters in the magazine "October". It was a strong novel and unusual for that time in terms of plot. It has been translated into English, German, French, Spanish and Chinese. Ilya Ehrenburg wrote: “It happens like this: a person experienced something significant, wanted to talk about it, he turned out to have a talent, and now new writer. Fadeev told me that during the years of the Civil War he did not even think that he would be carried away by literature; “The rout” was for him the most unexpected result of what he experienced.” And Fadeev himself admitted that he owes his birth as a writer to that time. “I learned the best side of the people from which I came,” he wrote. “For three years, with him, I walked thousands of kilometers of roads, slept under the same overcoat and ate from the same soldier’s bowler hat.”

In Moscow, the Fadeevs settled away from the noisy streets in Sokolniki. They had a tiny room with a minimum of furniture - a camp bed, a table and a chair. For a long time, Fadeev wore what he came to Moscow in - a black Caucasian shirt with a narrow leather belt with a silver notch, military boots. They lived modestly, but it was a rare time in the writer's life when he could devote himself entirely to creativity. Writer Yuri Libedinsky recalled: “Having received a room, Sasha immediately called his mother, Antonina Vasilievna, from the Far East, then her sister Tatyana Alexandrovna with her little daughter. Sasha had already talked a lot about his family and especially about his mother. He dearly loved, was proud of her ... That first summer, when we settled in Sokolniki, was for Sasha a time of especially hard work. Sometimes he wrote at our dacha, which we rented nearby ... He worked on every phrase, on every paragraph, honing them to the utmost expressiveness, to full-voiced sound. He put all his strength into this work. After sitting at the table for eight to ten hours, having a snack and sleeping, he again sat down to work, and again for many hours. This went on for two or three weeks. By the end of such work, he almost reached exhaustion, to general weakness ... In the process of this work, he mastered the text so much that he could read entire pages by heart. In 1927, Fadeev began writing the novel The Last of the Udege. Six parts were conceived. By 1929 the first two were completed.

In RAPP, Fadeev took the post of organizing secretary. In the history of literature of that period, the RAPP is known for the persecution of writers who, according to the RAPP, did not correspond to the title of a Soviet writer. One of the organizers and ideologists of the RAPP, Fadeev, publicly condemned Boris Pilnyak, Yevgeny Zamyatin and Andrey Platonov, but he himself was very self-critical about his RAPP activities. In the spring of 1931, he wrote to Serafimovich: “You see, for many weeks now I myself have been thinking about leaving the RAPP, ... but I was thinking about leaving the Secretariat, because I have no opportunity to work there, and I have to be responsible for its affairs ... The point is in our system of work, which is not adapted in any way to working with a writer. We are the least engaged in the writer and literature, however ridiculous it may seem, and to fix this, a whole revolution is needed. Of course, Fadeev was unable to accomplish a revolution in the work of the RAPP. Ilya Ehrenburg wrote about Fadeev: "Fadeev was a brave but disciplined soldier, he never forgot about the prerogatives of the commander in chief." And Stalin was always the commander-in-chief for Fadeev. “I am afraid of two people - my mother and Stalin, I am afraid and I love ...”, the writer admitted to his friends.

ebullient social activity Fadeeva practically did not leave him time for either creativity or personal life. He practically stopped writing, work on the novel "The Last of the Udege" progressed slowly. It began to be noticed. In 1932, Maxim Gorky wrote: “Having stopped in his development, he apparently experiences this as a drama, which, however, does not interfere with his desire to play the role of a literary leader, although it would be better for him and literature if he studied.” In 1929, his marriage to Valeria Gerasimova broke up (they officially divorced in 1932). Later, she explained the reasons for the breakup in this way: “My sadness, and sometimes direct malaise, sometimes clouded my life. And one more thing: I did not like the so-called "society", pseudo (for me, pseudo) fun, various parties and gatherings. My communication with people was selective. Another thing is Sasha, still a young man with then inescapable strength, with the skills of a different, “sociable” life, with organic cheerfulness ... ”They maintained good friendly relations for life, although they saw each other quite rarely. Four years after the divorce, Fadeev confessed to his mother in a letter: “Valya promised to come, but something delayed her. I regret it very much, because Valya - the only woman in the world, which I truly loved and continue to love. Of course, what is broken is unlikely to be restored, and this, in essence, is the main source of my suffering. recent years».

A. Fadeev, V. Mayakovsky, V. Stavsky. At the exhibition of VV Mayakovsky "20 years of work". 1930

In 1932, the RAPP was liquidated, and an organizing committee was formed to create a single union of Soviet writers. At the end of August, Fadeev left Moscow. He went to Bashkiria, then to the Southern Urals and, finally, to the places of his youth - the Far East. During these wanderings, he continued to work on the novel The Last of the Udege. From Khabarovsk, he wrote: “I have big plans. I feel that I have already entered the time when wind-running is the end. It is necessary to finish the novel, write several stories for Pravda, sit down thoroughly on theory and science, and at first master at least two languages ​​- German and English. I'll sit down near Vladivostok, and for a year and a half, two years, let them not wait for me in Moscow ... I feel great - in the local severity, in the local pace and scale. At first - "meeting with friends!" - we drank something (two times I even cut myself thoroughly), but now I forgot to think - not before (I really want to work). Remembering the last two years, I can sometimes not get rid of a feeling of great sadness - lived not as it should be, with little success and, in essence, without joy. I would like to have a friend of the heart in the coming life, yes, it seems that I will have to be alone. During his life, he must have held at least thirty "diamonds of these" in his hands - and from them he did not acquire true love from anyone, and he himself did not surrender to anyone to the end - now, apparently, it's too late to hope. Many years later, he described his condition during this period as follows: “All these years - from 1930 to 1936 - wandered around the world and finally, as it seemed to me, could not love anyone. It was somehow especially difficult for me to live (in the sense of my personal life) in these thirties, the years of my greatest loneliness. Quite already mature person, I thought a lot about this side of my life and compared it with the lives of others. And I understood (and just saw in the lives of others) that the happiest and most stable, standing the test of time, are marriages that naturally (in the course of life itself) have developed from youthful friendship, friendship that is either romantic from the very beginning, or turns into into a romantic after some time, but friendship is not accidental, but more or less long-term, already conscious, when convictions begin to take shape, characters and true feelings begin to form. The extraordinary purity and originality of such a feeling, its healthy romanticism, which naturally develops into true love, where young people for the first time reveal a man and a woman in each other and form each other in a spiritual and physical sense, the birth of the first child - all this is such a noble foundation for all subsequent life. !

A. Fadeev. 1933

In the Far East, Fadeev completed the third part of The Last of the Udege, and continued work on the fourth in Moscow. In the summer of 1935, Fadeev returned to the capital and soon became one of the leaders of the Writers' Union. He was given a separate apartment, but settled life did not work out. In autumn he visited Czechoslovakia with a delegation of writers, then went on vacation to Sukhumi. In 1936, Fadeev, as part of a literary delegation, went to Spain, where Civil War, then lived in the capital of France for a month. In those days, the Moscow Art Theater was touring there. academic theater. The writer met the beautiful and intelligent actress of the Moscow Art Theater Angelina Stepanova. Fadeev was fascinated, upon returning to Moscow, he proposed and they soon got married. Fadeev adopted Stepanova's son Alexander, and a few years later they had a common child, Mikhail.

Angelina Stepanova and Alexander Fadeev with their sons.

Later, Fadeev wrote: “But, of course, life nevertheless took its toll, and in 1936 I got married - married for love ... We have children, whom I was so unfairly and cruelly deprived of in my younger years and about whom I dreamed. My wife is an actress of the Moscow Art Theater Angelina Osipovna Stepanova, a very talented actress who devotes her entire spiritual life to this beloved work. In everyday life, she bears little resemblance to an actress in the usual sense, she is a big family man, passionately loves children, just dresses, darns her husband's socks and saws him if he drinks an extra glass of vodka.

V. Stanitsyn, A. Fadeev, A. Stepanova, O. Androvskaya. While on tour
Moscow Art Theater in Paris. 1937

Since 1938, the post of the first head of the Writers' Union began to be called " general secretary”And Alexander Fadeev was elected to this position. And again, as before, innumerable bureaucratic affairs did not leave him time and energy for literature. From his pen in those years nothing came out except small essays. Ilya Ehrenburg wrote about this: “They also said that Fadeev writes little because he drinks a lot. However, Faulkner drank even more and wrote dozens of novels. Apparently, Fadeev had other brakes.

Inspiration to Fadeev returned with the beginning of the war. From its first days, he became a correspondent for the Soviet Information Bureau. He flew twice - and for a long time - to besieged Leningrad as a war correspondent for Pravda. Basically, he had to visit various directions of the front. But he spent a lot of time in the city itself. After the first three-month stay there, Fadeev wrote a book of essays "Leningrad in the days of the blockade." In January 1942, he made sure that he was sent to the most dangerous sector of the Kalinin Front. According to B. Polevoy, Fadeev considered himself “not entitled to write from the front unless he sees everything with his own eyes.”

Alexander Fadeev and Mikhail Sholokhov, 1941.

In mid-February 1943, after the liberation of Krasnodon, he was offered to write a book about the Young Guard. Fadeev has long dreamed of creating a major, serious work. He readily agreed. His first response was the publication of the article "Immortality" in the Pravda newspaper. The work completely captured him. He seemed to plunge into his fighting youth again. In a conversation with a friend, Fadeev admitted: “When I started working on the Young Guard, it seemed to me that I was writing not about the underground organization of Krasnodon during the Second World War, but about the Vladivostok Bolshevik underground, and those young heroes who appeared before me the first guardsmen in those long-gone days of fierce struggle, in which we then took part with you in Primorye ... ". Fadeev was sure of the main thing - the documentary accuracy of the material. He himself went to Krasnodon, met with relatives and friends of the victims, looked at photographs, diaries. He said: “If I hadn’t gone, then all the huge and impressive material that was handed to me would still not be enough, because on the spot I saw a lot of things that, even if you were even seven spans in your forehead, and how would you no matter how talented, it is impossible to invent it or conjecture it.

In 1945, the publication of the chapters of the novel began in the newspaper " TVNZ"and the magazine" Znamya ". A separate book soon saw the light of day. By the end of the war, the novel was ready, in 1946 Fadeev received the Stalin Prize of the first degree for it. He did not consider the first edition of the novel to be final. In 1947, the writer said in one of his speeches: “For me, this is a piece of metal that has not yet cooled down at all, which you still cannot touch with your hand, I still don’t see much. I need some more time so that I can look at everything with an objective eye, and then, over the years, some things will have to be gradually corrected, supplemented, deleted. But the thunder still struck: in December 1947, an editorial was published in the Pravda newspaper containing several serious accusations. One of them was the insufficient portrayal of the role of the party in the leadership of the Komsomol underground organization. Reworking, and in fact writing anew an already finished novel, was not easy for Fadeev - it took three years. "I'm still converting the young guard into the old one," he bitterly sneered at the time. In 1951, the novel "The Young Guard" was published in a new edition. Stalin was pleased with the content, and Fadeev was awarded the Order of Lenin.

However, there was another serious accusation - worse than the first. Fadeev wrote a book based on the materials of the investigation. No one then suspected that the investigation was on the wrong track - one of the policemen slandered Tretyakevich, a member of the headquarters of the Young Guards. And although in the novel Fadeev brought him under fictitious surname, yet those who were aware of the events in Krasnodon guessed who in question. There were other inaccuracies in the book.

In 1946, Fadeev again became the secretary of the Writers' Union. During the years of leadership of the writers' organization, he participated in all companies directed against objectionable writers. Fadeev sincerely considered their works to be inconsistent with the ideas of communism. With his participation, Anna Akhmatova and Mikhail Zoshchenko were expelled from the Writers' Union, and other writers were persecuted and persecuted. But he was an unusual persecutor. Participating in the persecution of Akhmatova, he at the same time tried to help in the release of her son Lev Gumilyov from prison and fussed about housing and a pension for her. Akhmatova later said: "I have no right to judge Fadeeva." Speaking at the board of the writers' union with accusations against Boris Pasternak of the "idealism alien to Soviet society" of his poetry, he still loved his poems. Ilya Ehrenburg recalled that once in a cafe, having ordered cognac, Fadeev asked him “Ilya Grigorievich, do you want to listen to real poetry? ..” He began to read Pasternak’s poems from memory, could not stop, interrupted reading only to ask: ? Boris Pasternak once said: “Fadeev personally treated me well, but if he is ordered to quarter me, he will do it in good faith and cheerfully report about it, although later, when he gets drunk again, he will say that he is sorry for me and that I was very good.” man. There is an expression "a man with a double soul." We have many of them. About Fadeev, I would say differently. His soul is divided into many impenetrable compartments, like a submarine. Only alcohol mixes everything, all bulkheads rise ... ” Such a painful split was unbearable for Fadeev.

Fadeev was in the Kremlin hospital, getting out of binges and treating depression - and again broke down. He recalled: “I took a sip of moonshine at the age of 16, when I was in a partisan detachment in the Far East. At first, I did not want to lag behind the adult men in the detachment. I could drink a lot then. Then I got used to it. I had to. When people climb very high, it is cold there and you need to drink.” And he spoke about the onset of depression back in 1929 in a letter to R. Zemlyachka: “Neurasthenia in a very acute form drove me to the rest home. It is explained by the ever-growing and more and more tormenting contradiction between the desire, the organic need to write, the consciousness that this is my duty, and that literary and social burden that does not make it possible to write and from which it is impossible to get rid of. And later he wrote: “God gave me a soul capable of seeing, understanding, feeling goodness, happiness, life, but constantly carried away by the waves of life, unable to limit itself, obey the dictates of reason, I, instead of conveying to people this vital and good, in my own life - spontaneous, vain - I bring this vital and good to its opposite and, easily vulnerable, with the conscience of a publican, weak especially when I feel guilty, in the end I only suffer, and repent, and lose my last peace of mind ... ".

In March 1951, Fadeev for the first time cautiously complained in a letter to Stalin that he could not carry out many plans for new stories, novels, stories, because he did not have time. “They fill me up and die in me unfulfilled,” wrote Fadeev. “I can only tell these topics and stories to my friends, having turned from a writer into an akyn or ashug.” Stalin did not leave the letter without attention - after all, Alexander Fadeev had never asked for himself before. He was allowed to temporarily disconnect from the leadership of the writers' union and devote himself entirely to literary work. In an office on Staraya Square, Fadeev was even offered the idea of ​​a new novel. The basis of the plot was to be a grandiose discovery in metallurgy. This was presented as the most important task of the party. Fadeev was not embarrassed that he was metallurgy - a completely unfamiliar area for him. With the enthusiasm characteristic of him from his youth, he undertook to study new things - he went to Magnitogorsk to collect material. What he had wished for so long had come true: new places always attracted him, new knowledge attracted him, meeting new people was interesting. The legendary Magnitogorsk struck him. Fadeev plunged headlong into work. But, even while on sabbatical, he continued to do business. In April 1953, he wrote: “I can’t make a report at the plenum, I can’t work either in the Writers’ Union or in any other body before they let me finish my new novel“Ferrous Metallurgy” is a novel that I consider the best work of my life ... I was given a “vacation” for 1 year. What was this "vacation"? Six times during this year I was sent abroad. I was mercilessly dragged out of Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk, Dnepropetrovsk for another two weeks before overseas trip in order to participate in the preparation of documents that could have been prepared perfectly without me, moreover, about the same amount was spent on a trip, then a week to report back. It took 2 months to work in the Committee on Stalin Prizes, in holding the All-Union Conference of Peace Supporters in 1951. Under the conditions of this so-called "vacation" I had half as much time for my creative work as for everything else... Not letting me finish this novel now is the same as forcibly delaying the birth, preventing it. But then I will simply die as a person and as a writer, as a woman in labor would die under similar conditions ... ”.

The first eight chapters of the new novel were published in 1953 in the Ogonyok magazine. Fadeev planned in 1954 to publish the novel in parts in one of the thick magazines, and to complete its writing by the end of the year. However, these plans did not materialize. 1954 was a difficult year for Fadeev. He lost his mother - she died at the age of 81 - and could not come to the funeral, because he was again in the hospital. From the hospital, he wrote a letter to his deputy. The letter was written with the expectation that it would reach the Central Committee. And Fadeev's calculation was justified - the deputy really handed him over to the Central Committee. Fadeev wrote: Soviet literature in terms of its ideological and artistic quality, and especially in terms of skill, over the past 3-4 years, not only has it not grown, but catastrophically rolled down ... And all this happens because people who are able to give this, at least a relative, example, overburdened with everything but creative work, although most of them have been earning their literary experience and skill is literally a hump, and without an example, no talents and geniuses from the youth can spontaneously arise, just as Pushkin could not have been without Derzhavin, Lomonosov, Griboyedov, Zhukovsky, Batyushkov. Until it is understood by absolutely everyone that the main occupation of a writer (and especially a good writer, for without good writer there can be no good literature and there is nothing for young people to learn from) ... - this is his work, and everything else is additional and secondary, it is impossible to do without such an understanding of good literature.

The content of the letter was seen as an attempt at rebellion. The authorities did not forgive Fadeev for his harsh tone. He was gradually removed from all leadership positions. Fadeev took it calmly. In addition, he believed that there would now be enough time for creativity. However, the novel "Black Metallurgy" did not work out. The idea proposed to Fadeev initially turned out to be wrong: the materials that he was supplied with were fake, and those who were asked to be portrayed as “pests” in the novel turned out to be right in fact.

After Stalin's death, fellow writers began to return from the camps. Some of them could not forgive Fadeev for their arrest. There were cases when accusations were publicly thrown in his face. In February 1956, the 20th Party Congress broke out. Criticism of the personality cult made a deep impression on Fadeev. But at this congress a blow was dealt to him as well. Mikhail Sholokhov spoke: “We decided to create a collective leadership in the Writers' Union, headed by Comrade. Fadeev, but nothing good came of it. In the meantime, the Writers' Union gradually turned from a creative organization, as it should have been, into an administrative organization, and although the secretariat, sections of prose, poetry, drama and criticism were regularly meeting, protocols were written, the technical apparatus was working at full capacity and couriers were driving around, there were no books. Some good books per year for a country like ours, this is extremely small ... Fadeev turned out to be a rather power-hungry general secretary and did not want to reckon with the principle of collegiality in his work. It became impossible for the rest of the secretaries to work with him. This bagpipe dragged on for 15 years. By common and friendly efforts, we stole 15 of the best creative years of his life from Fadeev, and as a result we have neither a general secretary nor a writer ... ".

But in spite of everything, he built creative plans. He completely stopped drinking and wrote in March 1956: “Sometimes it’s sad to realize, but age already makes me soberly assess the situation, I’m more and more convinced that I won’t be able to go home soon: not earlier than in three or four years, when the novel (in the new version of it) will be completely finished. Apparently, this will be my last novel on modern material (I strive to finish the first book by the beginning of 57). Then I will finish Udege. And then I'll go! I will go for a long time, knowing that, as a writer approaching 60, it is just the right time for me to deal with topics related to my past. They can also be equipped with modern material, but already more autobiographically colored. These themes always live latently in me and ask to come out. In fact, I have written so little in my life! ”... “Now about the mood, experiences, difficulties ... I have them neither more nor less than all people, especially when people are no longer young! But my character does not change, and I still love life, and know how to enjoy it. But troubles and even difficulties often arise, alternating, however, with good things ... And then, after all, we are all not mechanical citizens, about whom Gorky wrote in his time and of which there are still many: we experience and deeply and sometimes painfully experience everything that connected with the difficulties and shortcomings in the life of the people, the state, as well as in our spheres of activity, where everything takes place in struggle, in clashes between the new and the old. However, after all, my whole life was spent in the struggle, and I got used to it, and without it, life would have seemed poor to me.

A. Fadeev fishing.

For several months before his departure, Fadeev led a secluded life. He completely abandoned alcohol and was again busy with work - he compiled a collection of his best literary critical articles “For thirty years”. News reached him that a wave of indignation and a struggle for restoration was rising in Krasnodon. good name Viktor Tretyakevich. Shortly before his death, Fadeev, in a moment of frankness, confessed to his old friend, writer Yuri Libedinsky: “Conscience torments. It's hard to live, Yura, with bloody hands." In early May, according to K.L. Zelinsky, he was already “in some kind of unquenchable anxiety” and told him: “We, Cornelius, are all in shit now,” and showed his hand to the very lips. “No one now, after what happened, will be able to truly write - neither Sholokhov, nor I, none of the people of our generation ... We are warped.”

"In the Central Committee of the CPSU

Peredelkino

I see no possibility of living on, because the art to which I gave my life has been ruined by the self-confidently ignorant leadership of the party, and now it can no longer be corrected. The best cadres of literature - including those that the tsar's satraps never even dreamed of - were physically exterminated, or died thanks to the criminal connivance of those in power; the best people literature died at a premature age; everything else, more or less valuable, capable of creating true values, died before reaching 40-50 years.

Literature—this holy of holies—has been handed over to be torn to pieces by bureaucrats and the most backward elements of the people, from the “highest” tribunes—such as the Moscow Conference or the 20th Party Congress—the new slogan “Atu her!” The way in which they are going to "correct" the situation causes indignation: a group of ignoramuses has been assembled, with the exception of a few honest people, who are in a state of the same persecution and therefore unable to tell the truth - and the conclusions are deeply anti-Leninist, because they proceed from bureaucratic habits, accompanied by the threat of the same "club".

With what feeling of freedom and openness of the world my generation entered literature under Lenin, what boundless forces were in the soul and what beautiful works we created and could still create! After Lenin's death, we were reduced to the status of boys, destroyed, ideologically frightened and called it "party". And now, when everything could be corrected, the primitiveness, ignorance - with an outrageous dose of self-confidence - of those who should have corrected all this has affected. Literature has been given over to untalented, petty, vindictive people. The units of those who have kept the sacred fire in their souls are in the position of pariahs - by their age they will soon die. And there is no longer any incentive in the soul to create.

Created for great creativity in the name of communism, from the age of sixteen associated with the party, with the workers, with the peasants, endowed by God with an outstanding talent, I was full of the highest thoughts and feelings that the life of the people, united with the beautiful ideals of communism, can give rise to.

But I was turned into a draft horse, all my life I trudged under a load of incompetent, unjustified, innumerable bureaucratic affairs that could be performed by any person. And even now, when you sum up your life, it is unbearable to remember all that number of shouts, suggestions, teachings and simply ideological vices that fell upon me - whom our wonderful people would have the right to be proud of because of the authenticity and modesty of my inner deep communist talent. Literature, the highest fruit of the new system, has been destroyed, persecuted, ruined. The complacency of the nouveaux riches from the great Leninist teaching, even when they swear by it, by this teaching, has led to complete distrust of them on my part, for one can expect even worse from them than from the satrap Stalin. He was at least educated, but these were ignoramuses.

My life as a writer loses all meaning, and with great joy, as a deliverance from this vile existence, where meanness, lies and slander fall upon you, I am leaving this life. The last hope was to at least say this to the people who rule the state, but for the past 3 years, despite my requests, they can’t even accept me.

Please bury me next to my mother.

Al. Fadeev"

The last request of the writer was not fulfilled. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Korney Chukovsky responded in his diary to the death of Alexander Fadeev: “I am very sorry for dear A.A. - in it - under all the layers - a Russian nugget was felt, big man, but my God, what were those layers! All the nonsense of the Stalin era, all its idiotic atrocities, all its terrible bureaucracy, all its corruption and officialdom found their obedient tool in him. He is essentially kind, humane, fond of literature"until tears of tenderness", had to lead the entire literary ship in the most disastrous and shameful way - and tried to combine humanity with genocide. Hence the zigzags of his behavior, hence his tormented CONSCIENCE in recent years. He was not made for failure, he was so accustomed to the role of leader, the decider of writers' destinies - that the position of a retired literary marshal was a fierce torment for him.

Boris Pasternak wrote in his essay “People and Situations”: “Coming to the idea of ​​suicide, they put an end to themselves, turn away from the past, declare themselves bankrupt, and their memories invalid. These memories can no longer reach a person, save and support him. The continuity of the inner existence is broken, the personality is over. Maybe in conclusion they kill themselves not out of loyalty decision, but from the intolerance of this longing, belonging to no one knows whom, this suffering in the absence of the suffering, this empty expectation, not filled with a continuing life ... And it seems to me that Fadeev, with that guilty smile that he managed to carry through all the intricacies of politics, at the last minute before with a shot he could say goodbye to himself with such, perhaps, words: “Well, it's all over. Farewell, Sasha."

Nikolai Svanidze about Alexander Fadeev was prepared TV Broadcast from the cycle "Historical Chronicles".

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The text was prepared by Elena Pobegailo

Used materials:

Ivan Zhukov, "Alexander Fadeev"
Fedor Razzakov, "Star Tragedies"
Natalia Ivanova, "Alexander Fadeev's Personal File"
Ovsyankin E.I., "The parents of the writer Alexander Fadeev got married in Shenkursk"
Bolshakov L.N., "Alexander Fadeev: Chronicle of combat youth"
B.Pastenak, "People and positions"
Site materials www.litrossia.ru
Site materials www.kg.riacenter.ru
Site materials www.remeny.ru
Site materials www.hrono.ru
Site materials www.chaskor.ru
Site materials www.molodguard.ru
Site materials www.zn.ua
Site materials www.sakharov-center.ru
Site materials www.sovsekretno.ru
Site materials www.peredelkino-land.ru
Site materials www.flb.ru

Alexander Alexandrovich Fadeev - Soviet actor, son of the writer Alexander Fadeev. He became famous for his role as a viscount in the film War and Peace.

It is generally accepted that a person's talent will always help him become successful in life, achieve fame and universal love. But how often has this assertion been proven wrong. Many truly gifted people could not properly dispose of this gift of fate, squandered it in vain and did not reach any heights. This fully applies to the actor Alexander Fadeev. Neither amazing talent nor influential parents helped him in life.

What happened, why did the brilliantly begun creative biography of the artist so quickly come to naught and ended with episodic roles, the name of the performer of which was not even in the credits?

star parents

No one ever knew the name of the real father of Alexander Fadeev. This remained a secret that the actor's mother kept until her death. But everyone knew Sasha’s mother very well - this is Angelina Stepanova, one of iconic actresses times of the USSR, whose name was on all theatrical posters of the Moscow Art Theater.

Angelina's husband was the director of the Moscow Art Theater Theater Nikolai Gorchakov, but this marriage cannot be called happy, because the writer Nikolai Erdman was the secret passion of the beautiful Angelina. Their romance lasted for seven whole years, but despite this, Angelina never filed for divorce from her husband and did not connect her life with her loved one. The reason is trivially simple - she was afraid that this divorce would affect her career, which was so dependent on her director husband. And then divorces in the Soviet Union were not encouraged, and Stepanov could easily be banned from traveling abroad, without even taking into account all her merits.

Fate itself provided a way out of this difficult triangle - in 1933, the actress's lover was arrested and exiled into exile. After 2 years, Stepanova and Gorchakov nevertheless broke up. And the real reason for this gap remained unknown, either the actress stopped being afraid for her career and broke up with her unloved husband, or Gorchakov himself was afraid for his reputation, which could spoil the marriage with the mistress of the repressed writer.

But Angelina was not alone for long. While touring in Paris with the theater, she met the famous writer Alexander Fadeev, who was there on official business.

Their romance developed very rapidly, so after returning home they decided to get married. They lived in marriage for twenty years, until the suicide of Alexander, which he committed in 1956. During this time, a lot happened - and the frequent drinking of her husband and his betrayal, but this beautiful, elegant, intelligent and courageous woman endured everything. Probably because she loved her Sasha very much. Angelina survived her husband by 44 years and asked to be buried next to her beloved. It was in 2000, the actress turned 95 years old.

In July 1936, literally immediately after the wedding, the young couple had a son, who was named Sasha in honor of his adoptive father. Fadeev adopted the child, gave him not only his last name and patronymic, but also his first name. The son became the full namesake of the adoptive dad, and so that there was no confusion, they began to call him Alexander Fadeev Jr.

early years

Fadeev Sr. was a very famous writer. He wrote "Young Guard", "Rout", "The Last of Udege". These books were read to holes, they were loved by several generations. Soviet people. He was a deputy, awarded the Orders of Lenin and the Stalin Prize, stood at the origins of the creation of the Union of Writers of the USSR, the ruling elite reckoned with him.

Angelina Stepanova was a successful, sought-after actress, prima of the Moscow Art Theater. In those years, it was not easy, but the family had a normal income, so in childhood Sasha Fadeev Jr. material terms didn't need anything.

The couple soon had a joint son, who was named Misha. The boys were very friendly with each other, and tried not to forget their sister, the illegitimate daughter of their father, Masha. Despite so many children, Sasha was loved the most.

Choice of life path

So it remained a mystery why Sasha decided to devote his life to the acting profession. Maybe the mother's genes, or childhood, which practically passed in the theater, affected. And perhaps his refined nature liked the art of the theater more than writer's work his stepfather. The young man made the choice in favor of the theater, and his parents raised all their connections in order to attach beloved child. And right after graduating from the Moscow Art Theater School, Sasha was accepted into the troupe of the Theater of the Soviet Army, where he shone for several years.

Film debut

The debut of Fadeev Jr. in the cinema took place in 1965 - he played the role of a viscount in the filming of the film "War and Peace" based on the novel by L. Tolstoy. The role was not the main one, but performed by Alexander just great. A handsome young man with aristocratic manners and a straight posture - this is how he was remembered by the audience. It didn't even feel like a game, he looked so natural in this role.

A successful debut showed everyone that the young man is undoubtedly very talented and can achieve the most high peaks to the cinema.

Only one thing oppressed Alexander - his father did not see his success. By this time, Fadeev Sr. had committed suicide, he shot himself with a pistol, left alone in the country.

The wife at that time toured with the theater abroad. It happened tragic event in 1956, after Khrushchev delivered a revelatory speech against Stalin. The writer was only 54.

This tragedy had a strong impact on all the children of Fadeev. Years later, daughter Masha also committed suicide, and Alexander Jr.'s relatives also began to notice suicidal tendencies. But this is in the future, but for now, the career of Fadeev Jr., after a successful debut role, has rapidly rushed up - he is being claimed for the main role in a film about climbers.

The main role in the film "Vertical"

The plot of the film was quite simple, but despite this, "Vertical" received a very high rating from the audience. The lion's share of the film's success was in the songs that V. Vysotsky wrote especially for him. These songs became hits; more than one generation of the singer's fans has been listening to them. The success of the picture was also brought by the actor Fadeev, who very harmoniously played the main role - Nikitina.

During filming, an affair broke out between actor Alexander Fadeev and actress Larisa Luzhina. Vladimir Vysotsky also liked the pretty girl, but his popularity could not be compared with Fadeevskaya, so the handsome Alexander was preferred. In addition, he was a more promising party than the little-known Vladimir. Larisa was already ready to marry Alexander, but she stopped in time. The actor drank heavily and a lot, became uncontrollable and impulsive, grabbed a gun to shoot himself, and Larisa sometimes had to save him from certain death. This stopped the girl from marriage.

The collapse of a film career

Inspired by the first successes in the cinema, the actor soared too high in the sky and very soon became a victim of a real star disease. He argues with the directors, does not come to rehearsals, and appears on the set in a state of severe hangover. He was forgiven a lot and for a long time, perhaps due to his talent and charm, or maybe out of a sense of respect for his mother, who asked for her dissolute son. It seemed to everyone that this was temporary, Sasha would come to his senses and begin to work in full force. But the actor did not justify these hopes.

In the late 60s, the actor Fadeev practically ceased to be invited to the cinema. After the release of the film "Vertical", he starred in the films "One Chance in a Thousand" and "Conscience" - these were serious roles, and after that he was only trusted with episodes. “In one microdistrict”, “Front behind the front line”, “Lonely people are provided with a hostel”, “Accident is the daughter of a cop”, “Mother” - in these films he flashes exclusively in episodes, his name is not even in the credits for films.

Theatrical career

Compared to the film career, the theater career of Alexander Fadeev Jr. was more successful. But this is not due to his talent, but rather to the efforts of his mother, who was respected among colleagues. She realized that her son's career in the cinema had come to an end, and in the theater he was threatened with dismissal due to misbehavior. Therefore, he turns to with a request to accept Alexander at the Moscow Art Theater. Efremov was not happy with such a proposal, but agreed to persuasion.

Alexander Fadeev was known for his scandalous antics, but in terms of acting, he was very useful in the theater. He participated in the productions of Efremov himself, he had a role in the performances "The Dream of Reason" and "Old New Year".

But again feeling permissiveness, Alexander gradually begins to become impudent, to enter into disputes with Oleg Efremov. The conflict was grandiose, the Moscow Art Theater was divided into two parts and Fadeev, not wanting to work with Efremov anymore, goes to, and Stepanova remains with Oleg Nikolaevich. In the new theater, Fadeev continued to play until 1993.

Personal life

Alexander Fadeev was very famous for the theatrical beau monde. And it's not just about creativity, which began to decline - he was famous for his love affairs and carousing. Nature endowed Alexander with beauty, but this is not the main thing, he was a very charming and attentive gentleman, he knew how to beautifully look after and interest any lady. He fully enjoyed the connections of his stepfather and the authority of his mother, his life was free and secure, and he himself did not make any effort for this.

But the time came when Alexander was fed up with novels and realized that he wanted a serious relationship. For the first time, he entered into an official marriage with Lyudmila Gurchenko. Their acquaintance took place in the WTO restaurant. Lyudochka was simply fascinated by the handsome cavalier of the capital. They did not meet for a long time, they soon registered a marriage. But a long and happy personal life did not work out. Too spoiled by fate, Alexander continued to lead former life- restaurants and fun companies, and Lyudmila worked hard. Their marriage lasted only 2 years, after which Gurchenko realized that it was a mistake and divorced her husband.

In the personal life of Alexander Fadeev, there were two more marriages. The second wife of the artist was Natella Kandelaki. But this marriage was also short-lived, they divorced very quickly.

Fadeev is getting married for the third time. Now this is Nadia Stalina, the granddaughter of Joseph Vissarionovich and the daughter of his son Vasily. This was the last wife of the actor, they lived together until her death. No one knows how happy the couple were, because Nadia never told anyone about what was happening in the family. But judging by the character of Alexander, there is no doubt that his wife's life was difficult. In this marriage, in 1974, Fadeev had a daughter, Anastasia, who was recorded by the name of her grandfather and father, Stalin. In 1992, Anastasia had a daughter, Galya, whom her mother recorded as Fadeeva.

Last years

Already in adulthood, the artist has not changed his lifestyle. The drinking and partying continued. The artist had alcohol addiction and suicidal tendencies.