Theater shed
The famous actor Vyacheslav Nevinny is a native Tula. He was born on November 30, 1934 in the central maternity hospital on Revolution Street. Father Mikhail Yakovlevich was the chief mechanic of the Tula Arms Plant, mother Lidia Fedorovna was a secretary-typist in the Tula branch of the railway.
Idle local historians, however, discovered that Nevinny is not a Tula surname and, most likely, the actor’s grandfather once moved to Tula from Stary Oskol in what is now the Belgorod region. Be that as it may, by the time of Slava’s birth, the Innocents were already representatives of the Tula surname; its bearers were known in various spheres of public life.
Photo TIAM
Childhood friend Igor Moskalev recalled how he and Vyacheslav Nevinny, during his visit to Tula in 1990, tried to find the graves of their parents at the All Saints Cemetery. Apparently, they were not found; these burials were considered lost for a long time. Only in the spring of 2023, during an inspection of the All Saints Cemetery, the grave of the parents of People’s Artist of the USSR Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Nevinny was discovered.
“It’s just that by this time the gravestone – an ordinary one, made of marble chips – fell flat, face down. The names turned out to be hidden,” says Irina Kovshar, a researcher at the Tula Historical and Architectural Museum.
Improvement of the burial of Innocent’s parents at the All Saints Cemetery by students of Central Educational Center No. 4. Photo: TIAM
The fact that the burial was discovered became known to the Central Election Commission
No. 4 in Myasnovo, where Slava Nevinny once studied. At the request of the staff of the Tula Necropolis Museum, the management and students responded to the request to clean up. The area was cleared of the pile of dry branches and foliage that had formed on top, and the monument itself was raised and secured.
Igor Moskalev and Vyacheslav Nevinny met in 1945. Moskalev had just been brought back from evacuation. Since, as they say, his parents were repressed, Igor was raised by a neighbor in the yard. Their houses were also nearby. In the Innocents – No. 102, in Moskalev –
№ 100 (Odoevskoe highway, – editor’s note). And in house No. 108 there was the famous “theater barn” – the place of the first stage experience of the future famous theatrical figures of Tula, where they tested the influence of, as Nevinny himself called it, vitamin T – talent.
Vyacheslav Nevinny with a Tula samovar. “Guest from the Future”
Nevinny and Moskalev were the smallest in this courtyard theater; they most often sold tickets at the box office. Everything on the tickets was adult-like: both the row and the place were indicated, although many spectators came to the performances with their own stools. But, as Igor Mikhailovich said, they themselves wrote dramatizations based on their favorite books and went on stage. Older children also took part in the performances. Some are almost adults – local punks.
In the play “Puss in Boots”. From top to bottom: Anatoly Ivanovich Dmitriev, Igor Moskalev, Slava Nevinny. Photo from the archive of I. Moskalev.
Since vitamin T continued its effect, they went to enroll in a theater studio at the gunsmiths’ cultural center, which was led by the famous Anatoly Dmitriev in Tula. In 1941, he created the Red Eaglets concert team at the Palace of Pioneers. The young artists were 12-13 years old, and they traveled to hospitals and military units to perform. All members of the brigade and their leader were awarded medals “For the Defense of Moscow” for their contribution to the Victory.
“Our teacher constantly reminded us at every lesson that we must serve art from the bottom of our hearts, with love and knowledge, giving all of ourselves. At every rehearsal, he demanded that we do nothing half-heartedly or half-heartedly,” Vyacheslav Nevinny later recalled.
In the summer of 1980, a creative evening of the already famous artist Nevinny took place in Ostankino. Many of his star colleagues were sitting in the hall. Broadcast to the whole country. And Vyacheslav Mikhailovich again remembered his first teacher with gratitude.
“He opened the door wide for me to great art, armed me and hundreds like me with the knowledge and skill of an artist, love for the theater, and determined our destiny.
1928 or 1929. The Tula team “Builder” had just beaten their teammates from Moscow. Far left is the actor’s uncle Alexander Nevinny
The first roles that the boys were given were heroes from Pushkin’s fairy tale. Then the repertoire became more and more complicated. Not only “Puss in Boots”, but also “The Tale of Truth” based on Margarita Aliger’s play about Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. Innocent also played Oleg Koshevoy in the dramatization of Fadeev’s novel “The Young Guard”.
Now I support Spartak
The friends had another great passion – football. Yes, in fact, everyone had this passion then. Until deep darkness, they kicked the ball on the school playground, and their fans were the wounded who watched the football battles from the windows of the hospital. Everyone shouted “Goal!” when someone sent the ball into the goal, worried about how the game was going. Post-war street football is a completely separate issue. At that time they played with a ball made from an old stocking stuffed with rags. Where can I get a real one?.. When Vyacheslav Nevinny actively began acting in films, one of his first works was the film “The Third Half”, where he very convincingly played a football player.
They also went to the matches of the Tula “Zenith” at the stadium of the same name in the Kremlin.
Slava Nevinny generally had a sports family. Uncle Zhenya was a football coach, Uncle Sasha was a track and field coach. Evgeny Nevinny was generally a famous football player; in the 20s he played for the Profintern team of co-workers and became the champion of Tula. They are often seen in many old photos: Evgeniy and Alexander Nevinny are their father’s brothers, it turns out.
Team “Profintern” Tula. 1924-25 E. Innocent – penultimate.
And commentator Vadim Sinyavsky, talking on the radio about the famous Dynamo Moscow tour of England in the fall of 1945, made me fall in love with this team. Both boys became fans of Dynamo Moscow. They saved money on school lunches, saved money and went to Moscow to cheer for Dynamo.
The road was very difficult for those times – as a rule, it was a crossroad. First to Serpukhov, then with a transfer to Moscow, we slept at the station on the window sills. Moreover, the train of that time was powered by a coal fire. Igor Moskalev recalled that after one trip to Serpukhov, the palms became black because of the soot on the handrails, and sometimes the faces were also black from soot. It’s just that no one paid attention to it – it’s an everyday matter.
And then, Igor Moskalev recalled, somehow in the early sixties he met Slava and began to admire the next exploits of Dynamo.
“He lowered his eyes and said: “Now I’m a fan of Spartak.” It turns out that the Moscow Art Theater, where he joined the service, was Spartak’s fiefdom, and if you wanted to work in the theater, you simply couldn’t root for another team there. All the legendary old men were fans of Spartak – Yanshin, Gribov, Livanov, and the then young Nikolai Ozerov. But Slava was afraid of upsetting me, so he didn’t admit it for a long time.
On Schastlivaya Street
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich loved his city very much, but it was no longer possible to come to Tula often. He said that “love is memory. I see the task of art as being to educate people rich in memory, and not Ivans who do not remember their kinship.”
I was surprised how anyone could forget the Tula Kremlin. “An ordinary person should not forget anything, an artist has no right. True, I don’t like the word “artist” – it’s too loud.” At the same time, let us remember that the Tula Kremlin of his childhood was not at all similar to the present one, after restoration.
During rare visits to Tula, I always went to the Palace of Pioneers or the Youth Theater. The theater for young spectators generally played a special role in his fate. After failing to enter the theater the first time, Nevinny returned to Tula and worked at the Youth Theater for a year. He played his first role in the play “On Schastlivaya Street” based on the play by Yuri Printsev about the first Komsomol members. There is a famous film adaptation of this play – the film “They Were First” directed by Yuri Egorov.
“This is a real theater,” Vyacheslav Mikhailovich said about the Tula Youth Theater.
“Slava had an amazing memory,” recalled Igor Moskalev. “Decades later, he could easily talk for half an hour in the smallest detail about his years of work at the Youth Theater, and accurately name all the people with whom fate brought him together.
He also recalled that in the summer of 1959 Nevinny was accepted into the Moscow Art Theater troupe and came to Tula to visit his parents. I came to visit Moskalev, and he had just staged the play “Six Beloved” by A. Arbuzov in the drama studio at the drama theater, and the next day he was going to play it in prison.
“Slava was delighted,” recalled Igor Mikhailovich. – “I want to watch your performance, and it’s interesting to communicate with the prisoners.”
He communicated very easily, told them jokes with pictures, identifying characters with unusual expressiveness through speech and gesture. Then I thought that he would become a very good actor.
His first film role was as a young police officer Sergei Zaitsev in the 1960 film “Probationary Period,” in which Oleg Efremov and Oleg Tabakov became Nevinny’s partners. In general, there are plenty of films with his participation, which to this day remain beloved by several generations of viewers. This is “It can’t be!” (Gorbushkina’s brother), “Garage” (Karpukhin), “Old New Year” (Petr Sebeikin), “For Matches” (Jussi Vatanen), “Dead Souls” (Sobakevich), “Guest from the Future” (Veselchak U) and many other.
Innocent had a special love for Gogol. He played Khlestakov in Dmitriev’s studio, read his monologue at the entrance exams, then played at the Moscow Art Theater, and many years later he himself restored the play “The Inspector General” on this stage. In 1990, when Dmitriev’s anniversary was celebrated, I again read in
Youth Theater excerpt from “The Inspector General”.
– Do you know what it’s like to play Khlestakov? – he said. “It’s waking up every morning and knowing that in the evening you have to go down into the mine and chop eight tons of coal. I’m not exaggerating – such a role. Three actions – three shirts out of me. But this is Khlestakov! After the performance you get a rare satisfaction if the resistance of the material is overcome and the barrier is taken.
According to him, all the roles are loved as long as the performance is alive. “When he dies, you start to lose interest in the role.”
In 1994, almost immediately after the actor’s sixtieth birthday, the Moscow Art Theater came to Tula for a short tour. The performances took place on the stage of the regional philharmonic, and this was also symbolic. During the time of the Innocent, the regional drama theater operated here. The beloved actor was greeted incredibly warmly in the city. In the play “The Blissful Island” a whole dynasty appeared. The elder Nevinny played the main character – the everyman Guska. His wife Sekletia Semyonovna is his wife Nina Gulyaeva, with whom they lived happily all their lives. One of the suitors was played by Vyacheslav Nevinny Jr. Now he is already an Honored Artist of Russia, plays in the theater, and has starred in more than twenty films.
In 2005, trouble happened to Vyacheslav Mikhailovich; he was seriously ill for a long time. Fate gave him less than 75 years. He died on May 31, 2009 at the age of 75 in his Moscow apartment on Tverskaya Street from complications of diabetes. He was buried at Troekurovskoye Cemetery in Moscow.
