Theater director.
Honored Artist of the RSFSR (07/29/1985).
People's Artist of Russia (21.02.1996).
Direct grandson of I.V. Stalin, eldest son of Vasily Iosifovich Stalin (1921-1962) from his first wife Galina Burdonskaya (1921-1990).
He recalled: “The life together of the parents did not work out. I was four years old when my mother left my father. She was not allowed to take her children with her. We were separated for eight years."
In 1951-1953 he studied at the Kalinin Suvorov Military School.
Later he entered the acting course of the studio at the Sovremennik Theater to Oleg Nikolaevich Efremov. In 1966 he entered GITIS (now RATI) at the director's department of the course of Maria Osipovna Knebel, at the same time graduating from school as an external student and receiving a matriculation certificate.
After graduating from GITIS in 1971, Anatoly Efros invited him to play Shakespeare's Romeo in the theater on Malaya Bronnaya. Three months later, Maria Knebel invites her student to the Army Theater to stage the play "He Who Gets Slaps" by Leonid Andreev, in which Andrey Popov and Vladimir Zeldin played. After the implementation of this production, in 1972, the chief director of the TsTSA Andrey Alekseevich Popov suggested A.V. Bourdonsky to stay in the Army Theater.
Director of the Central Academic Theater of the Soviet (Russian) Army.
He staged two performances at the Maly Theater and in Japan. The Land of the Rising Sun saw "The Seagull" by A. Chekhov, "Vassa Zheleznova" by M. Gorky and "Orpheus Descending to Hell" by T. Williams.
He taught at GITIS (RATI).
He was married to his classmate Dalia Tamulyavichyute (1940-2006), director of the State Youth Theater of Lithuania.
theatrical work
Performances staged at CATRA:
"The one who receives slaps" L. Andreev
"Lady with Camellias" by A. Dumas son
"Snows have fallen" R. Fedenev
"Garden" by V. Arro
"Orpheus Descends to Hell" by T. Williams
"Vassa Zheleznov" M. Gorky
"Your sister and captive" L. Razumovskaya
"Mandate" N. Erdman
"The conditions dictate the lady" E. Alice and R. Reese
"The last passionately in love" N. Simon
"Britannique" by J. Racine
“Trees die standing” by A. Casona
"Duet for soloist" T. Kempinski
Broadway Charades by M. Orr and R. Denham
“Harp of greeting” by M. Bogomolny
"Invitation to the Castle" J. Anouilh
"Duel of the Queen with Death" based on the play "Laughter of Lobster" by D. Marrell
"The one that is not expected ..." based on the play "The Morning Fairy" by A. Casona
"The Seagull" A.P. Chekhov
"Eleanor and her men" J. Goldman
45 years ago - March 19, 1962 - the youngest son of the "father of peoples" Vasily Stalin died
Alexander Burdonsky met his grandfather the only time - at the funeral. And before that, I saw him, like other pioneers, only at demonstrations: on Victory Day and on the October anniversary.
Some historians call Vasily the leader's favorite. Others claim that Joseph Vissarionovich adored his daughter Svetlana - "Mistress Setanka", and despised Vasily. They say that Stalin always had a bottle of Georgian wine on the table and he teased his wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva, pouring a glass to a one-year-old boy. So Vasino's tragic drunkenness began from the cradle. At the age of 20, Vasily became a colonel (directly from the majors), at 24 years old - a major general, at 29 - a lieutenant general. Until 1952 he commanded the air forces of the Moscow Military District. In April 1953 - 28 days after Stalin's death - he was arrested "for anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda, as well as abuse of office." The sentence is eight years in prison. A month after his release, while driving while intoxicated, he had an accident and was deported to Kazan, where he died of alcohol poisoning. However, there were several versions of this death. Military historian Andrei Sukhomlinov in his book "Vasily Stalin - the son of the leader" writes that Vasily committed suicide. Sergo Beria in the book "My father, Lavrenty Beria" says that Stalin Jr. was killed with a knife in a drunken fight. And Vasily's sister Svetlana Alliluyeva is sure that his last wife, Maria Nuzberg, who allegedly served in the KGB, was involved in the tragedy. But there is a document confirming the fact of natural death from acute heart failure against the background of alcohol intoxication. In the last year of his life, the youngest son of the leader drank a liter of vodka and a liter of wine daily ... After the death of Vasily Iosifovich, seven children remained: four of his own and three adopted. Now, of his own children, only 65-year-old Alexander Burdonsky is alive - the son of Vasily Stalin from his first wife Galina Burdonskaya. He is a director, People's Artist of Russia - lives in Moscow and heads the Central Academic Theater of the Russian Army. Alexander Burdonsky met his grandfather the only time - at the funeral. And before that, I saw him, like other pioneers, only at demonstrations: on Victory Day and on the October anniversary. The eternally busy head of state did not express any desire to communicate with his grandson closer. And the grandson was not too eager. At the age of 13, he basically took his mother's surname (many relatives of Galina Burdonskaya died in the Stalinist camps). Having briefly returned from emigration to her homeland, Svetlana Alliluyeva was amazed: what a dizzying rise the once “quiet, timid boy who had recently lived with a heavily drinking mother and a sister who had begun to drink” made in 17 years of separation. ... ...Alexander Vasilyevich speaks sparingly, practically does not give interviews on family topics, hides his eyes behind glasses with dark glasses.
"THE STEPMOM TREATED US TERRIBLY. FORGET TO FEED FOR THREE-FOUR DAYS, SISTER'S KIDNEYS WERE REMOVED"
- Is it true that your father - "a man of crazy courage" - beat off your mother from the famous hockey player Vladimir Menshikov in the past?
Yes, they were 19 at the time. When my father looked after my mother, he was - like Paratov from "Dowry". What were his flights on a small plane over the Kirovskaya metro station, near which she lived ... He knew how to show off! In 1940, the parents got married.
My mother was cheerful, loved the color red. She even made a red wedding dress. It turned out to be a bad omen...
In the book "Around Stalin" it is written that your grandfather did not come to this wedding. In a letter to his son, he sharply wrote: "Married - to hell with you. I pity her that she married such a fool." But after all, your parents looked like an ideal couple, even outwardly they were so similar that they were mistaken for brother and sister ...
It seems to me that my mother loved him until the end of her days, but they had to leave ... She was just a rare person - she could not pretend to be someone and never dissembled (maybe this was her misfortune) ...
According to the official version, Galina Alexandrovna left, unable to stand the constant drinking, assault and betrayal. For example, the fleeting connection between Vasily Stalin and the wife of the famous cameraman Roman Karmen Nina ...
Among other things, my mother did not know how to make friends in this circle. Head of security Nikolai Vlasik (who raised Vasily after the death of his mother in 1932. - Auth.), an eternal intriguer, tried to use it: "Tick, you have to tell me what Vasya's friends are talking about." His mother is a mother! He hissed, "You'll pay for this."
Quite possibly, the divorce from his father was the price. In order for the leader's son to take a wife from his circle, Vlasik twisted an intrigue and slipped him Katya Timoshenko, the daughter of Marshal Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko.
Is it true that the stepmother, who grew up in an orphanage after her mother ran away from her husband, offended you, almost starved you?
Ekaterina Semyonovna was a domineering and cruel woman. We, other people's children, apparently annoyed her. Perhaps that period of life was the most difficult. We lacked not only warmth, but also elementary care. They forgot to feed us for three or four days, some were locked in a room. Our stepmother treated us terribly. She beat her sister Nadia in the most cruel way - her kidneys were beaten off.
Before leaving for Germany, our family lived in the country in the winter. I remember how we, small children, crept into the cellar at night in the dark, stuffed beets and carrots into our pants, brushed unwashed vegetables with our teeth and gnawed them. Just a scene from a horror movie. The cook Isaevna got a great deal when she brought us something ....
Catherine's life with her father is full of scandals. I don't think he loved her. Most likely, there were no special feelings on both sides. Very prudent, she, like everything else in her life, simply calculated this marriage. You need to know what she was up to. If well-being, then the goal can be said to have been achieved. Catherine brought a huge amount of junk from Germany. All this was stored in a shed at our dacha, where Nadya and I were starving... And when my father sent my stepmother out in 1949, it took her several cars to take out the trophy goods. Nadia and I heard a noise in the yard and rushed to the window. We see: "Studebakers" are walking in a chain "...
From the dossier of Gordon Boulevard.
Ekaterina Timoshenko lived with Vasily Stalin in a legal marriage, although his divorce from Galina Burdonskaya was not formalized. And this family fell apart because of the betrayals and drinking bouts of Vasily. Drunk, he rushed to fight. The first time Catherine left her husband because of his new novel. And when Vasily Stalin, who commanded the Air Force of the Moscow District, had a bad air parade, his father removed him from his post and forced him to get along with his wife. At least, at the mourning events in connection with the death of the leader, Vasily and Catherine were nearby.
They had two joint children - in the 47th daughter Svetlana appeared, in the 49th - the son Vasily. Svetlana Vasilievna, who was born sickly, died at 43; Vasily Vasilyevich - he studied at the Tbilisi University at the Faculty of Law - became a drug addict and died at the age of 21 from a heroin overdose.
Ekaterina Timoshenko died in 1988. She is buried in the same grave with her son at the Novodevichy cemetery.
"FATHER WAS A DESPERATE PILOT, PARTICIPATED IN THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD AND IN THE CAPTURE OF BERLIN
- If I'm not mistaken, Kapitolina Vasilyeva, the champion of the USSR in swimming, became your second stepmother.
Yes. I remember Kapitolina Georgievna with gratitude - she was the only one at that time who humanly tried to help her father.
He wrote to her from prison: "I have become very strong. Yes, this is not accidental, because all my best days - family days - were with you, Vasilyevs" ...
By nature, my father was a kind person. He loved to make at home, locksmith. Those who knew him closely spoke of him - "golden hands". He was an excellent pilot, brave, desperate. Participated in the Battle of Stalingrad and in the capture of Berlin.
Although I love my father less than my mother: I can’t forgive him that he took my sister and me to him and we lived with our stepmothers. Dad had the surname Stalin, I changed it. By the way, everyone is interested in whether he left me a legacy of a tendency to alcoholism. But you see, I haven't drunk myself and I'm sitting in front of you...
I read that Vasily Stalin came from Lefortovo not to Kapitolina Vasilyeva, but to your mother. But she did not accept it - she already had her own life.
Mom said: "It's better to be with a tiger in a cage than to be with your father for at least a day, at least an hour." This is with all the sympathy for him ... She remembered how, separated from us, she rushed about in search of a way out and ran into a wall. I tried to get a job, but as soon as the personnel department saw a passport with a stamp on the registration of marriage with Vasily Stalin, they refused under any pretext. After Stalin's death, my mother sent a letter to Beria with a request to return the children. Thank God, it did not have time to find the addressee - Beria was arrested. Otherwise it could end badly. She wrote to Voroshilov, and only after that we were returned.
Then we settled together - my mother and I, sister Nadezhda already had her own family ( For 15 years, Nadezhda Burdonskaya lived with Alexander Fadeev Jr., the son of actress Angelina Stepanova and the adopted son of a Soviet classic writer. Fadeev Jr., who suffered from alcoholism and tried to kill himself several times, was married to Lyudmila Gurchenko before Nadezhda. -Auth.).
Sometimes people ask me: why do I like to stage performances about difficult women's lives? Because of mom...
Last May, you premiered The Queen's Duel with Death, your interpretation of John Marrell's play Laughter of the Lobster, dedicated to the great actress Sarah Bernhardt...
This play has been with me for a long time. More than 20 years ago, Elina Bystritskaya brought it to me: she really wanted to play Sarah Bernhardt. I had already decided to stage a performance with her and Vladimir Zeldin on our stage, but the theater did not want Bystritskaya's "tour" and the play left my hands.
Sarah Bernard lived a long life. Balzac and Zola admired her, Rostand and Wilde wrote plays for her. Jean Cocteau said that she does not need a theater, she can arrange a theater anywhere ... As a person of the theater, I cannot help but worry about the most legendary actress in the history of the world theater, which had no equal. But, of course, her human phenomenon was also a concern. At the end of her life, already with an amputated leg, she played the scene of the death of Marguerite Gauthier without getting out of bed. I was shocked by this thirst for life, this indefatigable love of life.
From the dossier of Gordon Boulevard.
Galina Burdonskaya, who drank heavily, was diagnosed with "smoker's vessels" in 1977 and her leg was amputated. She lived as an invalid for another 13 years and died in the corridor of the Sklifosovsky hospital in 1990.
"WE DID NOT HAVE A CLEAR ANSWER ABOUT THE CAUSES OF FATHER'S DEATH (AT 41!)"
- Stalin's adopted son Artem Sergeev recalled that when he saw your father pour himself another portion of alcohol, he told him: "Vasya, that's enough." He answered: “I have only two options: a bullet or a glass. After all, I am alive while my father is alive. And as soon as he closes his eyes, Beria will tear me to pieces the next day, and Khrushchev and Malenkov will help him, and Bulganin will go there They won't tolerate such a witness. Do you know what it's like to live under an ax? So I'm getting away from these thoughts "...
I visited my father both in the Vladimir prison and in Lefortovo. I saw a man driven into a corner who could not stand up for himself and justify himself. And his conversation was mainly, of course, about how to get out. He understood that neither I nor my sister (she died eight years ago) could help with this. He was tormented by a sense of injustice done to him.
From the dossier of "Gordon Boulevard" .
Vasily has loved animals since childhood. He brought a wounded horse from Germany and left, kept stray dogs. He had a hamster, a rabbit. Once at the dacha, Artem Sergeev saw how he was sitting next to a formidable dog, stroking him, kissing him on the nose, giving food from his plate: "This one will not deceive, will not change"...
On July 27, 1952, a parade was held in Tushino dedicated to the Day of the Air Force. Contrary to the prevailing myth that the plane crashed because of Vasily, he coped with the organization brilliantly. After watching the parade, the Politburo in full force went to Kuntsevo, to the dacha of Joseph Stalin. The leader ordered that his son be at the banquet ... Vasily was found drunk in Zubalovo. Kapitolina Vasilyeva recalls: “Vasya went to his father. He went in, and there the entire Politburo was sitting at the table. I'm not drunk." Stalin frowned: "No, you're drunk!" After that, Vasily was removed from his post ... ".
At the coffin, he wept bitterly and stubbornly repeated that his father had been poisoned. He was not in himself, he felt the approach of trouble. The patience of "Uncle Lavrenty", "Uncle Yegor" (Malenkov) and "Uncle Nikita", and they knew Vasily from childhood, burst very quickly. 53 days after his father's death, on April 27, 1953, Vasily Stalin was arrested.
The writer Voitekhov wrote in his testimony: “In the winter at the end of 1949, when I arrived at the apartment of my ex-wife, actress Lyudmila Tselikovskaya, I found her torn to pieces. She said that Vasily Stalin had just been visiting her and was trying to force her to cohabitation. I went to his apartment, where he drank in the company of pilots. Vasily knelt down, called himself a scoundrel and a scoundrel and declared that he cohabited with my wife. In 1951, I had financial difficulties, and he got me a job at the headquarters I didn’t do any work, but I received a salary as an Air Force athlete.”
The documents indicated that it was not Vasily Iosifovich Stalin who was taken to prison, but Vasily Pavlovich Vasiliev (the son of the leader should not be in prison).
In 1958, when Vasily Stalin's health deteriorated sharply, as reported by the KGB chief Shelepin, the leader's son was again transferred to the capital's Lefortovo isolation ward, and once they were taken to Khrushchev for a few minutes. Shelepin recalled how then Vasily in the office of Nikita Sergeevich fell to his knees and began to beg to release him. Khrushchev was very touched, called "dear Vasenka", asked: "What did they do to you?" He shed a tear, and then kept Vasily in Lefortovo for another year ...
- They say that a taxi driver who heard a message on Voice of America told you about the death of Vasily Iosifovich ...
Then the third wife of Kapitolin Vasiliev's father, my sister Nadya and I flew to Kazan. We saw him already under the sheet - dead. Kapitolina lifted the sheet - I remember perfectly well that he had stitches. Probably opened it up. Although a clear answer about the causes of his death - at 41! Nobody gave us...
But Vasilyeva writes that she did not see the seams from the autopsy, that the coffin stood on two stools. Without flowers, in a shabby room. And that her ex-husband was buried as a homeless person, there were few people. According to other sources, several monuments even fell into the cemetery due to the crowds of people...
People walked for a long time. Several people, passing by, parted the sides of the coat, under which there were military uniforms and orders. Apparently, the pilots arranged a farewell in this way - it was impossible otherwise.
I remember that my sister, who was then, in my opinion, 17 years old, came from this funeral completely gray-haired. It was a shock...
From the dossier of Gordon Boulevard.
Kapitolina Vasilyeva recalls: “I planned to come to Kazan for Vasily’s birthday. I thought I would stay at a hotel, bring something delicious. And suddenly a call: come to bury Vasily Iosifovich Stalin ...
Came with Sasha and Nadia. Nuzberg asked what he died of. He says, they say, the Georgians arrived, they brought a barrel of wine. It was, they say, bad - they gave an injection, then a second one. It twisted, twisted ... But this happens when blood coagulates. Toxicosis is not corrected with injections, but the stomach is washed. The man lay and suffered for 12 hours - they did not even call an ambulance. I ask why is that? Nuzberg says that the doctor herself gave him an injection.
I furtively scanned the kitchen, looked under the tables, in the trash can - I did not find any ampoule. She asked if there was an autopsy and what it showed. Yes, he says it was. Poisoned with wine. Then I told Sasha to hold the door - I decided to check for myself whether there was an autopsy. I went to the coffin. Vasily was in a tunic, swollen. I began to unbutton the buttons, and my hands were shaking ...
There are no signs of opening. Suddenly the door swung open, and two thugs burst in, who followed me on my heels as soon as we arrived in Kazan. Sasha was thrown away, Nadya was nearly knocked off her feet, and I flew off... And the KGB yelled: "You're not allowed! You have no right!"
Five years ago, the ashes of Vasily Stalin were reburied in Moscow, which you almost read about in the newspapers. But why at the Troekurovsky cemetery, if his mother, grandparents, aunt and uncle are buried at Novodevichy? So did your half-sister Tatyana, who had been striving for this for 40 years, decided to write to the Kremlin?
Let me remind you that Tatyana Dzhugashvili has nothing to do with the youngest son of Joseph Stalin. This is the daughter of Maria Nuzberg, who took the name Dzhugashvili.
The reburial was arranged in order to somehow join this family - a kind of piracy, characteristic of our time.
"WHAT COULD I THANK GRANDFATHER FOR? FOR MY MAJOR CHILDHOOD?"
- You and your cousin Yevgeny Dzhugashvili are fantastically different people. You speak in a low voice and love poetry, he is a loud-voiced military man, regretting the good old days and wondering why "the ashes of this Klaas do not knock" in your heart ...
I don't like fanatics, and Yevgeny is a fanatic who lives in the name of Stalin. I cannot see how someone adores the leader and denies the crimes he committed.
A year ago, another of your relatives along the line of Yevgeny - 33-year-old artist Yakov Dzhugashvili - turned to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a request to investigate the circumstances of the death of his great-grandfather Joseph Stalin. Your cousin-nephew claims in his letter that Stalin died a violent death and this "made possible the coming to power of Khrushchev, who imagines himself a statesman, whose so-called activities turned out to be nothing more than a betrayal of state interests." Being sure that a coup d'etat took place in March 1953, Yakov Dzhugashvili asks Vladimir Putin "to determine the degree of responsibility of all persons involved in the coup."
I don't support this idea. It seems to me that such things can only be done because there is nothing to do ... What happened, happened. People have already passed away, why stir up the past?
According to legend, Stalin refused to exchange his eldest son Yakov for Field Marshal Paulus, saying: "I do not exchange a soldier for a field marshal." Relatively recently, the Pentagon handed over to Stalin's granddaughter - Galina Yakovlevna Dzhugashvili - materials about the death of her father in Nazi captivity ...
It's never too late to take a noble step. I would be lying if I said that I shuddered or my soul ached when these documents were handed over. All this is a matter of the distant past. And it is primarily important for Yasha's daughter Galina, because she lives in the memory of her father, who loved her very much.
It is important to put an end to it, because the more time passes after all the events related to the Stalin family, the more difficult it is to reach the truth ...
Is it true that Stalin was the son of Nikolai Przhevalsky? The well-known traveler allegedly stayed in Gori in the house where Dzhugashvili's mother, Ekaterina Geladze, worked as a maid. These rumors were fueled by the amazing external resemblance of Przhevalsky and Stalin ...
I don't think so. Rather, it's something else. Stalin was fond of the teachings of the religious mystic Gurdjieff, and it suggests that a person should hide his real origin and even envelop the date of his birth with a certain veil. The legend of Przhevalsky, of course, poured water on this mill. And what is similar in appearance, so please, there are still rumors that Saddam Hussein was the son of Stalin ...
Alexander Vasilievich, have you ever heard suggestions that you inherited your talent as a director from your grandfather?
Yes, I was sometimes told: "It is clear why Bourdon director. After all, Stalin was also a director" ... Grandfather was a tyrant. Let someone really want to attach angel wings to him - they won’t stay on him ... When Stalin died, I was terribly ashamed that everyone around was crying, but I wasn’t. I sat near the coffin and saw crowds of sobbing people. I was rather frightened by it, even shocked. What good could I have for him? Thank you for what? For the crippled childhood I had? I don’t wish this on anyone .... Being Stalin’s grandson is a heavy cross. Never for any money will I go to play Stalin in the cinema, although they promised huge profits.
- And what do you think about Radzinsky's sensational book "Stalin"?
Radzinsky, apparently, wanted in me as a director to find some other key to the character of Stalin. He allegedly came to listen to me, but he himself spoke for four hours. I enjoyed sitting and listening to his monologue. But he did not understand the true Stalin, it seems to me ....
The artistic director of the Taganka Theater Yuri Lyubimov said that Iosif Vissarionovich ate and then wiped his hands on a starched tablecloth - he is a dictator, why should he be embarrassed? But your grandmother Nadezhda Alliluyeva, they say, was a very well-mannered and modest woman ...
Once, in the 1950s, my grandmother's sister, Anna Sergeevna Alliluyeva, gave us a chest containing Nadezhda Sergeevna's belongings. I was struck by the modesty of her dresses. An old jacket darned under the arm, a worn skirt of dark wool, and patched on the inside. And it was worn by a young woman who was said to love beautiful clothes...
P.S. In addition to Alexander Burdonsky, there are six more grandchildren of Stalin on another line. Three children of Yakov Dzhugashvili and three - Lana Peters, as Svetlana Alliluyeva renamed herself, having left for the USA.
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Another offspring has passed away Joseph Stalin- his grandson Alexander Burdonsky, Director of the Theater of the Russian Army, People's Artist of Russia.
Burdonsky was 75 years old. Information about his death Federal news agency confirmed in the press service of the Central Academic Theater of the Russian Army.
It was known from unofficial sources that Bourdonsky suffered from a heart disease, but in a near-theatrical environment, the FAN correspondent was told that the director had “burned out” from cancer in just a few months.
Son of Vasily Stalin
Alexander Burdonsky - the eldest son of the youngest son of Joseph Stalin - Vasily Stalin from his first marriage to Galina Burdonskaya- the daughter of an engineer in the Kremlin garage (according to other sources - a Chekist), great-great-granddaughter of a captured Napoleonic officer.
Alexander Burdonsky was born on October 14, 1941 in Kuibyshev, he told terrible things about the tragic fate of his father Vasily Stalin and about his childhood both in an interview and in the book “Around Stalin”. However, according to Bourdonsky, he saw Stalin himself only from afar - on the podium, and once with his own eyes - at the funeral in March 1953.
In one of the interviews, Burdonsky said that Stalin did not come to the wedding of Vasily and Burdonskaya and in general did not approve of his son's choice. Galina, a woman who is direct and knows how to make enemies, did not immediately have a relationship with a person very close to Vasily Stalin - the head of security Nikolai Vlasik. According to Alexander Burdonsky, it was Vlasik who “divorced” his parents. According to another version, Galina left herself, unable to bear the booze, spree and betrayal of her husband. The children were not given to her.
Further, Alexander Burdonsky and his sister were at the mercy of their stepmother, Catherine Timoshenko, marshal's daughter Timoshenko seeds. The stepmother, according to Bourdonsky, cruelly mocked him and his sister, starved him, locked him in a dark room, and beat him.
The second stepmother of the children of Burdonskaya was the champion of the USSR in swimming Kapitolina Vasilyeva. With her, the children finally breathed a sigh of peace, and soon they were allowed to live with their mother.
Alexander Burdonsky deliberately took his mother's surname, many of her relatives perished in the Gulag. And here is how Bourdonsky spoke about Joseph Stalin in 2007 in an interview with Gordon Boulevard: “Grandfather was a tyrant. Let someone really want to attach angel wings to him - they won’t stay on him. What good could I have for him? Thank you for what? For a crippled childhood? I don’t wish this on anyone .... Being Stalin’s grandson is a heavy cross.” Burdonsky, by the way, categorically refused to play Stalin in films, despite frequent invitations.
theater man
After the Suvorov School, Bourdonsky managed to “evade” a military career - he graduated from the directing department of GITIS and became a real “man of the theater”, devoting his whole life to this vocation.
After acting studio course Oleg Efremov at the Sovremennik Theater, Burdonsky played Shakespeare's Romeo in the theater on Malaya Bronnaya near Anatoly Efros and then at the prompt Maria Knebel came as a stage director to the Central Theater of the Soviet Army, and so he remained there for the rest of his life.
As Burdonsky said in an interview, his theatrical theme was determined by the tragic fate of his mother - he mainly staged performances about the difficult female lot.
Descendants of Stalin
Joseph Stalin had quite a few descendants. The niece of Alexander Burdonsky Anastasia Stalina (born in 1974) and her daughter Galina Fadeeva (born in 1992) are alive through Vasily Stalin and his first wife.
The last of the descendants of Stalin, who was talked about a lot - Evgeny Dzhugashvili(according to his version, he is a descendant of Stalin's eldest son - Yakova Dzhugashvili, however, many considered him an impostor) died last year. Evgeny Dzhugashvili wrote the book “My grandfather Stalin. He is a saint!" and tried to sue those who claimed otherwise.
From this line, according to data from open sources, alive:
Dzhugashvili Vissarion Evgenievich (born 1965) - Stalin's great-grandson, builder, lives in the USA;
Dzhugashvili Iosif Vissarionovich (born 1995) - Stalin's great-great-grandson, musician;
Dzhugashvili Yakov Evgenievich (born 1972) - great-grandson of Stalin.
Selim is the great-grandson of Stalin; artist, lives in Ryazan;
Dzhugashvili Vasily Vissarionovich - great-great-grandson of Stalin.
On the line of Stalin's daughter - Svetlana Alliluyeva - are alive:
Alliluev Ilya Iosifovich (born 1965) - great-grandson of Stalin;
Zhdanova, Ekaterina Yurievna (born 1950) - Stalin's granddaughter, lives in Russia;
Chris Evans (born 1973) - Stalin's granddaughter, daughter of Svetlana Alliluyeva.
Kozeva Anna Vsevolodovna (born 1982) - great-granddaughter of Stalin.
Alexander Vasilievich Burdonsky(born October 14, Kuibyshev, RSFSR, USSR) - Soviet and Russian director of the Central Academic Theater of the Russian Army, People's Artist of Russia (), Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1985).
Grandson of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR I. V. Stalin, eldest son of Lieutenant General of Aviation V. I. Stalin.
Biography
For ten years, together with Elina Bystritskaya, he taught at GITIS.
Childless widower. He was married to his classmate Dalia Tumalyavichuta, who worked as the chief director of the Youth Theater.
Creation
Productions
Central Academic Theater of the Russian Army
- "The one who receives a slap" by Leonid Andreev
- "The Lady of the Camellias" by A. Dumas son
- "Snows have fallen" R. Fedenev
- "Garden" by V. Arro
- "Orpheus Descends to Hell" by T. Williams
- Vassa Zheleznova by Maxim Gorky
- "Your sister and captive" L. Razumovskaya
- "Mandate" by Nikolai Erdman
- "The Lady Dictates the Terms" by E. Alice and R. Reese
- "The last passionately in love" N. Simon
- Britannic J. Racine
- "Trees Die Standing" by Alejandro Casona
- "Duet for soloist" T. Kempinski
- Broadway Charades by M. Orr and R. Denham
- “Harp of greeting” by M. Bogomolny
- "Invitation to the Castle" J. Anuya
- "Duel of the Queen" by D. Marrell
- "Silver Bells" by G. Ibsen
- “The one that is not expected ...” Alejandro Casona
- "The Seagull" by A. Chekhov
- Elinor and Her Men by James Goldman
- “Playing the Keys of the Soul” based on the play “Liv Stein” by N. Kharatishvili
- "With you and without you" K. Simonov
- “This madman Platonov” based on the play “Fatherlessness” by A.P. Chekhov
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An excerpt characterizing Burdonsky, Alexander Vasilievich
She stopped. She so needed him to say that word, which would explain to her what had happened and to which she would answer him.“Nathalie, un mot, un seul,” he repeated everything, apparently not knowing what to say, and repeated it until Helen approached them.
Helen went out into the living room again with Natasha. Not staying for supper, the Rostovs left.
Returning home, Natasha did not sleep all night: she was tormented by the insoluble question of whom she loved, Anatole or Prince Andrei. She loved Prince Andrei—she remembered clearly how much she loved him. But she loved Anatole too, that was beyond doubt. “Otherwise, how could all this be?” she thought. “If after that I could, after saying goodbye to him, answer his smile with a smile, if I could allow it to happen, it means that I fell in love with him from the first minute. It means that he is kind, noble and beautiful, and it was impossible not to love him. What should I do when I love him and love another? she said to herself, finding no answers to these terrible questions.
The morning came with its worries and vanity. Everyone got up, moved, started talking, the milliners came again, again Marya Dmitrievna came out and called for tea. Natasha, with wide eyes, as if she wanted to catch every glance directed at her, looked around uneasily at everyone and tried to appear the same as she had always been.
After breakfast, Marya Dmitrievna (it was her best time), sitting down on her armchair, called Natasha and the old count to her.
“Well, my friends, now I have thought the whole thing over and here is my advice to you,” she began. - Yesterday, as you know, I was with Prince Nikolai; Well, I talked to him... He wanted to scream. Don't shout down on me! I drank everything to him!
– Yes, what is he? asked the Count.
- What is he? madman ... does not want to hear; Well, what can I say, and so we exhausted the poor girl, ”said Marya Dmitrievna. - And my advice to you is to finish things and go home to Otradnoye ... and wait there ...
- Oh, no! Natasha screamed.
“No, go,” said Marya Dmitrievna. - And wait there. - If the groom comes here now, he won’t do without a quarrel, but he’ll talk everything over with the old man one on one and then come to you.
Ilya Andreich approved this proposal, immediately realizing its full rationality. If the old man softens, then it will be all the better to come to him in Moscow or the Bald Mountains, after that; if not, then it will be possible to get married against his will only in Otradnoye.
“And the real truth,” he said. “I regret that I went to him and drove her,” said the old count.
- No, why be sorry? Being here, it was impossible not to do respect. Well, if he doesn’t want to, that’s his business,” said Marya Dmitrievna, looking for something in her reticule. - Yes, and the dowry is ready, what else can you expect; and what is not ready, I will send it to you. Although I feel sorry for you, but better go with God. - Having found in the reticule what she was looking for, she handed it to Natasha. It was a letter from Princess Marya. - He writes to you. How he suffers, poor thing! She's afraid you'll think she doesn't love you.
“Yes, she doesn’t love me,” said Natasha.
"Nonsense, don't talk," cried Marya Dmitrievna.
- I will not believe anyone; I know that she doesn’t love me,” Natasha said boldly, taking the letter, and her face expressed a dry and spiteful determination, which made Marya Dmitrievna look at her more closely and frown.
“You, mother, don’t answer like that,” she said. - What I say is true. Write an answer.
Natasha did not answer and went to her room to read Princess Marya's letter.
Princess Marya wrote that she was in despair over the misunderstanding that had taken place between them. Whatever her father's feelings, Princess Mary wrote, she asked Natasha to believe that she could not help but love her as the one chosen by her brother, for whose happiness she was ready to sacrifice everything.
“However, she wrote, do not think that my father was ill disposed towards you. He is a sick and old man who must be excused; but he is kind, generous, and will love the one who will make his son happy.” Princess Mary further requested that Natasha appoint a time when she could see her again.
After reading the letter, Natasha sat down at the writing table to write an answer: "Chere princesse," [Dear princess,] she wrote quickly, mechanically and stopped. “What else could she write after everything that happened yesterday? Yes, yes, it was all that, and now everything is different, ”she thought, sitting over the letter she had begun. "Should I refuse him? Is it really necessary? It’s terrible! ”... And in order not to think these terrible thoughts, she went to Sonya and together with her began to sort out the patterns.
After dinner, Natasha went to her room, and again took Princess Mary's letter. “Is it all over already? she thought. Did it all happen so soon and destroy everything that had gone before? She recalled her love for Prince Andrei with all her former strength, and at the same time she felt that she loved Kuragin. She vividly imagined herself the wife of Prince Andrei, imagined the picture of happiness with him repeated by her imagination so many times, and at the same time, flaring up with excitement, imagined all the details of her meeting with Anatole yesterday.
The famous director Alexander Burdonsky passed away last night
Late the night before, in one of the Moscow clinics, Alexander Vasilievich Burdonsky, the director of the Theater of the Russian Army, the son of Vasily Stalin, the grandson of the “father of peoples”, died. His whole life was overcoming the circumstances of his relationship. Read more in the Realnoe Vremya material.
Black chick on the escalator
We met Alexander Vasilievich in October 1989, in one of the first conversations he spoke about a documentary film that he had once seen at the Moscow Film Festival. It was a film by Hungarian filmmakers about a poultry farm. There, yellow chickens ran along a long line, and when they reached the machine, he dumped them into a basket.
But then a black chicken fell on the tape, and it also ran to the right place, and the photocell did not work: the chicken was of a different color. It's hard to be a black chicken, not like everyone else. Alexander Vasilievich initially, by the fact of birth, was "not like everyone else." It is no coincidence that when he graduated from the directing department of GITIS, Yuri Zavadsky invited him to the theater. Moscow City Council for the role of Hamlet, the "black prince". After much deliberation, Bourdonsky refused.
In honor of Suvorov
He was born on October 14, 1941 in Samara, then Kuibyshev, where the Alliluyev-Stalin clan was sent for evacuation. His parents met shortly before the war, Vasily Iosifovich literally stole his bride, a charming blonde Galina Burdonskaya, from his hockey player friend. He courted beautifully, for example, he could fly up to her yard in a small plane and drop a bouquet of flowers.
The father, together with his friend, the pilot Stepan Mikoyan, flew to Samara a couple of days later - Vasily Iosifovich wanted to brag about his son. He named him Alexander in honor of Suvorov and planned a military career for him.
Galina Burdonskaya and Vasily Stalin with little Sasha. Photo bulvar.com.ua
Parents divorced almost immediately after the end of the war, and Vasily Iosifovich, in retaliation for his ex-wife, did not give her children to her and forbade even seeing them. Once Alexander Vasilyevich violated the ban and saw his mother. When the father found out about this, punishment followed: he "exiled" his son to the Suvorov School in Tver.
Burdonsky never saw his grandfather, Stalin was not interested in grandchildren. For him, his grandfather was a symbolic figure on the mausoleum, which could be seen at demonstrations. Never saw her father-in-law in her life and Galina Burdonskaya, although it is known that even after the divorce she did not fall under the hammer of repression thanks to Stalin's protection. Once he called Beria and told him: “Don’t you dare touch Svetlana and Galina!”
When Stalin died, the grandson was brought to his grandfather's funeral, and he sat near the coffin, looking at the long procession of people walking. Stalin's death did not cause any emotions in him. Soon his father was arrested, and Alexander Vasilyevich, together with his sister Nadezhda, was returned to his mother.
Vasily Iosifovich, an ambiguous, tragic figure, spent his last years in exile in Kazan. Here he died under mysterious circumstances. Burdonsky and his sister came to Kazan for his funeral. Alexander Vasilyevich later recalled that the death of Vasily Stalin was not officially reported, but the news spread throughout Kazan, and many people came to say goodbye to him. People walked and walked to his apartment on Gagarin, walked in silence. Men in civilian clothes came up, opened the flaps of their coats, and orders were visible under them. So the front-line soldiers said goodbye to the combat general - a brave pilot. Vasily Stalin really was an ace and did not hide in the war.
“He is the grandson of Stalin”
Bourdonsky never thought about a military career, from early childhood he thought only about the theater. Two of his childhood shocks are Galina Ulanova, seen at the Bolshoi Theater, and Vladimir Zeldin in the play "The Dance Teacher".
Vasily Stalin at the farewell ceremony for his father. Moscow, Column Hall of the House of the Unions, March 6, 1953. Photo jenskiymir.com
He decided to enter GITIS, the directing department. The course was recruited by the legendary student of Stanislavsky Maria Knebel, whose family suffered from repression. She later told Alexander Vasilyevich: “Stalin’s grandson stood in front of me, and I understood that now I could decide his fate. It lasted a fraction of a second, and I said to myself: “God, what am I thinking about! .. He’s not to blame for anything.” Bourdonsky later became her favorite student.
He graduated from GITIS, where he studied at the same time and was friends with the future chief director of the Kamalovsky Theater Marcel Salimzhanov, but could not find work in Moscow. Nobody wanted to take on the staff of Stalin's grandson. Maria Knebel helped, she took him as an assistant to her production of "The One Who Gets Slaps" at the Central Theater of the Soviet Army. And after a successful premiere, Alexander Vasilyevich was hired by this theater, which he did not betray until the end of his life.
Helped "Look"
Bourdonsky never advertised his relationship with Stalin. His view of his grandfather was always balanced and objective. As a matter of principle, he never staged performances about Joseph Vissarionovich, although there were such proposals. And he never got involved in politics.
During the years of perestroika, he rehearsed a play based on Erdman's comedy Mandate, and they tried to close the play, which was bold at that time. Alexander Lyubimov helped, inviting the director to the then super-popular Vzglyad program, then many learned that Alexander Burdonsky was Joseph Stalin's own eldest grandson.
Alexander Vasilyevich was one of the brightest representatives of romanticism in the Russian theater. The theater was the greatest love of his life. He worked in line with the Russian psychological theater, without betraying him even once. And that takes a lot of courage now. His "Broadway Charades" or "Invitation to the Castle" were impeccably stylish. "The Lady of the Camellias" - nostalgically beautiful. The performances of Chekhov's plays are like gentle nocturnes.
The theater was the greatest love in his life. He worked in line with the Russian psychological theater, without betraying him even once. Photo molnet.ru
A few years ago, Alexander Burdonsky came on tour to Kazan, his performances were sold out. He could no longer visit his father's grave - by this time, incomprehensible "relatives" had already reburied the ashes of General Vasily Stalin in Moscow.
It's hard to be a "black chicken". It is difficult not to fall into the temptation, having felt one's "peculiarity" due to the stellar relationship, just as it was not easy to endure the years of Stalin's overthrow and the dislike that stupid people projected onto his relatives. He passed all tests with dignity.
Tatyana Mamaeva
