Brutal war childhood
The boy Kolya was born in Odessa. Two months after the start of the Great Patriotic War, August 17, 1941. The child felt all the hardships and hardships of that terrible time. The war orphaned him. In 1942, my father died at the front. And my mother was tortured even earlier by the Germans. So Kolya Gubenko had no family. The boy ended up in an orphanage early.
However, Gubenko always spoke of this establishment with love and respect. He emphasized the importance of the fact that the state did not abandon the unfortunate orphans. Raised them to be worthy people. Nikolai Nikolaevich made his film “Wounded Animals” based on his orphanage memories.
Nikolai Gubenko in childhood and youth. Source: biography-life.ru
Here, a cheerful, artistic boy studied in a theater group and found a dream - to become an actor.
He received a good school education in an English special school.
Difficult childhood
After the death of their parents, compassionate neighbors took the children away, adopted them and gave them new surnames. The youngest Kolya stayed with his grandparents, his mother’s parents. Therefore, his family never had a group photo of their children. In the biography of Nikolai Gubenko, very little is written about the personal life of that period.
They lived very hard, barely making ends meet, despite the fact that the grandfather did not shy away from any kind of work. He was a simple man, he could do almost all the work associated with simple physical labor, he could be both a carpenter and a roofer.
Wanting to somehow improve the life of his grandson, in 1947 the grandfather attached the St. George Cross to his chest and went to the military registration and enlistment office, taking his grandson with him. Once in the office of the military commissar, he said that the boy was the son of a deceased officer and asked to be sent to a military special school (in the post-war years there were many of them opened in the country). To demonstrate his grandson’s abilities, he put Kolya on a chair and offered to read a poem. He loudly and with feeling recited an excerpt from Lermontov’s poem “Borodino”.
Long path to the profession
Gradually, step by step, Nikolai began to pave the way to his dream. To begin with, he got a job as a stagehand at the local Youth Theatre. I enjoyed participating in crowd scenes, gaining experience.
One day, Gubenko realized it was time to go to Moscow and receive professional acting education. He left the Youth Theater tour straight to the capital. Admissions to all theater schools were completed. But Nikolai was lucky. At VGIK it has not yet been completed. The young man successfully entered. I found myself on the same course with future stars: S. Nikonenko, Zh. Bolotova, L. Fedoseeva and others.
Nikolai Gubenko in his youth. Source: stuki-druki.com
For a year, Gubenko combined his studies at VGIK with classes at the circus school. Increased flexibility and plasticity of the body.
Admission to drama school
After finishing school, Nikolai had to think about the future and, in particular, about getting a profession. He dreamed of becoming an actor, and this desire sent him to the theater for young spectators as a stagehand.
A photograph showing young Nikolai Gubenko
Kolya played minor roles in the theater, but his schedule was busy. He didn’t complain about life because he was busy doing what he loved. As he grew older, he realized that the Youth Theater would not give him the education that would allow him to become a real actor.
While on tour, he literally ran away to another city with the goal of enrolling in a theater school. Gubenko did not have time to pass the exams, but was able to qualify for VGIK. There he met such honored theater and film actors as Sergei Nikonenko, Zhanna Bolotova (his future wife) and Lydia Fedoseeva-Shukshina.
The thesis was presented by the play “The Career of Arturo Ui”, where Gubenko played the role of Hitler. Nikolai did an amazing job with the role, and the project was successful.
A still from the film “Wounded Wounds”, in which Gubenko took part not only as an actor, but also as a director
Unusual debut and theatrical work of the actor
While still a student, Nikolai Gubenko first appeared on stage in the role of Adolf Hitler. It was in the play "The Career of Arturo Ui". The young aspiring actor had to learn monologues in an unfamiliar German language. But he managed it.
After graduating from a theater university, Gubenko was invited to the famous Taganka. Here he played leading classical characters: Boris Godunov, Emelyan Pugachev, Grigory Pechorin...
Nikolai Gubenko in the theater: left as Kerensky; on the right with Vladimir Vysotsky. Source: nesnilos.com
Nikolai Nikolaevich was always interested in playing a person completely opposite to him in character. He enjoyed building images of characters that would never have anything in common with the artist Gubenko himself.
The stage of the Taganka Theater became home to the actor. She had to leave for several years when Nikolai Nikolaevich decided to become a director. I entered VGIK again. Many years later, Gubenko returned to head his favorite theater. And later, after a split among the artists, he founded the “Commonwealth of Taganka Actors”.
Nikolai Gubenko in the film “Director”, 1969
Former Minister of Culture. All about Nikolai Gubenko
Actor and director Nikolai Gubenko.
Moscow, 2021. Cinema Museum, Moscow It seems that the early biography of Nikolai Gubenko can be reconstructed from one of his most tragic and poignant films - “Wounded Man,” although the author says that the film is only half autobiographical.
Like the heroes of this film, he was left without parents at an early age, did not believe in his father’s death for a long time and waited until he was 16 for his return; like them, he warmly treated the teachers of the boarding school in which he was brought up.
Nikolai Gubenko was born during the bombing in the catacombs of Odessa. It was the first year of the war. His father died at the front without ever seeing his newborn son, and his mother was hanged in 1942 for refusing to cooperate with the German occupiers. Childhood in a boarding school strengthened and disciplined the future actor and politician. Gubenko admits that the “monastic” regime under which he and his classmates lived developed a strict approach to time and daily routine. However, despite all the rigor of the content, Gubenko even then showed himself to be a versatile and enthusiastic person. Childhood friends recall that while participating in the school orchestra, he kept changing instruments, wanting to learn and master something new.
“Wounded Animals” (Nikolai Gubenko, 1976)
Kirill Razlogov
2016
12 min
Some of the subjects in the senior classes of the boarding school were taught in English; the students of this institution had a direct path to the Military Institute of Foreign Languages, which trained intelligence officers, journalists, translators or diplomats. However, the institute was abolished in 1955, and Gubenko had to choose a new profession for himself. So he became an actor. First he worked at the Odessa Theater for Young Spectators, and then went to study in Moscow. Gubenko entered VGIK, in the workshop of Sergei Gerasimov and Tamara Makarova.
“A young man from the provinces, rather ill-mannered, poorly dressed, with an Odessa thieves’ accent, who did not adequately know literature (except for the school curriculum), met someone who instilled in me and in all of us a lifelong love of language and literature. , to music, to culture, to art."
Nikolay Gubenko Photo: Valery Plotnikov / State Museum of Political History of Russia, St. Petersburg
In his second year, the young actor was approved for a role in the film “Ilyich's Outpost.” The fee for a poor student turned out to be fabulous - 250 rubles a month; He didn’t know what to do with the money - and decided to spend it on self-education: he took lessons from the teachers of the circus school. The skills of acrobatics, juggling, even walking on a wire were useful to Nikolai Gubenko in his acting career. Almost all of them were used in the film “The Last Crook,” however, many of Gubenko’s other roles required remarkable physical training.
From stage to podium
The actor played one of the most important theatrical roles in his life at VGIK. Ironically, he played Hitler in the play The Career of Arturo Ui, based on the play by Bertolt Brecht. In this image, Yuri Lyubimov first saw the young actor, and immediately after graduating from VGIK, Gubenko became an actor at the Taganka Theater. A little later, Vladimir Vysotsky, an actor with the same role as Gubenko, came to the theater. Nikolai Nikolaevich claims that there was no rivalry between them. The actors divided the repertoire among themselves, and outside the walls of the theater they did completely different things: Vysotsky wrote poetry and songs, and Gubenko realized himself as a talented film director.
Actor and director Nikolai Gubenko (left) and theater director Yuri Lyubimov. Moscow, 1975–1989. Cinema Museum, Moscow
Nikolai Gubenko as Grigory Krivoruchko in his feature film “Wounded Animals” (1976)
From left to right: Nikolai Gubenko in the role, cameraman Margarita Pilikhina and director Marlen Khutsiev on the set of Marlen Khutsiev’s feature film “Ilyich’s Outpost” (“I’m Twenty Years Old”). 1961–1970. Cinema Museum, Moscow
In 1968, Gubenko’s first short film, “Nastasya and Fomka,” was released. Three years later, the author directed his first full-length drama, “A Soldier Came from the Front,” based on the stories of Sergei Antonov. The author of the script for the film was Vasily Shukshin. When working on his paintings, Gubenko acts according to the principle of Nikolai Gogol: write (shoot) only about what he has seen and knows very well. So it turned out that for the filming of the film “From the Life of Vacationers,” the director went to the Miskhor sanatorium for 24 days, and prepared the material for the drama “Forbidden Zone” by cycling through the Russian outback and recording the people around him on a dictaphone.
Movie
Gubenko’s debut film work was the film “I’m Twenty Years Old” (a shortened version of M. Khutsiev’s film “Ilyich’s Outpost”).
After several episodic works, Nikolai Gubenko was finally lucky. The role of Colonel Blucher in the film “No Password Required” was appreciated at one of the Leningrad film festivals. Gubenko received the award for Best Actor.
The actor’s creative repertoire includes many military images: “They fought for their Motherland,” “A soldier came from the front.” Gubenko also starred in such films as “The Noble Nest”, “Golden Gate”, “Director” and others.
Still from the film “They Fought for the Motherland,” 1975
Directing
In parallel with his acting activities, Nikolai Nikolaevich himself made films. He played leading roles in them. “The Makarov Brothers”, “Wounded Animals”, “If You Want to Be Happy”, “A Soldier Came from the Front”, “From the Life of Vacationers”, “Forbidden Zone”. As a director and screenwriter, Gubenko won many prizes and awards. He took his well-deserved niche in the history of Soviet cinema.
With the advent of a new era of Russian cinema, the artist increasingly refused to appear in films. He refused even the most fashionable and famous directors. He explained his position either by not liking the scenario. Or a role that is too costly from the point of view of moral forces.
Nikolai Gubenko in the film “Wounded Man,” 1976
Most modern paintings disgusted the master. In his opinion, film production began to be treated as corrupt. Nikolai Nikolaevich wanted nothing to do with this.
civil position
According to his political views, Gubenko belonged to the Communist Party. He was nostalgic for a bygone country. More than once, through his own example, he emphasized the benefits of free education. He noted equality between peoples and social strata of society.
The artist actively advocated for the purity and preservation of the Russian language.
Nikolai Gubenko, actor, director, public figure. Source: biography-life.ru
Nikolai Nikolaevich was Minister of Culture, State Deputy. Doom. Advisor to the President on Culture and Sports.
Frequently asked questions about the political activities of Nikolai Nikolaevich Gubenko
Many viewers who know Nikolai Nikolaevich as an excellent actor and director do not even know that he is associated with political activities. Since 2009, he has been chairman of the city duma in the Russian capital.
In addition, he was a deputy in the State Duma, chairman of the Faculty of Culture and Tourism, Minister of Culture of the USSR and president of the International Association for the Promotion of Culture.
Important! Nikolai Gubenko is a member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.
Zhanna Bolotova's husband Nikolai Gubenko still works in the theater, where plays based on his scripts are staged. He perfectly combines social and theatrical activities, and also sings and voices roles. His official website: https://gubenko.mos.ru/.
Personal life
Despite stormy romances in his youth (among Gubenko’s lovers were actresses Zinaida Slavina and Inna Ulyanova), the actor married once and for the rest of his life. He lived in a happy marriage for more than half a century with his colleague and classmate Zhanna Bolotova.
True, at the beginning of their acquaintance, a major quarrel cost the proud lovers three years of silence. They avoided each other. But once they met again, they could no longer separate.
Nikolai Gubenko and his wife Zhanna Bolotova. Source: 2aktera.ru
The Lord did not give children to the spouses. But they were quite happy with each other's company. Gubenko noted his wife’s calm and reasonable character. Her erudition and intelligence, which he liked.
The actor admitted that he conquered Jeanne with his singing. Nikolai Nikolaevich often re-voiced other artists. He performed the songs of his friend Vladimir Vysotsky.
Nikolay Gubenko. Source: biography-life.ru
Nikolai Nikolaevich also admitted that he loves to cook with his wife. I took over recipes for some dishes from her. My only regret was that I didn’t become very friendly with the dough. And the actor simply adored Zhanna’s baked goods.
A little about personal
Gubenko learned that he had three sisters and a brother only at the age of sixteen, but they never became close people. After several short meetings, everyone dispersed throughout the then common country (to Odessa, Donetsk, Kolyma and Moscow). Nikolai practically does not communicate with them.
While working at the Taganka Theater, when he first entered there, he had an affair with actress Zinaida Slavina. They played in the same troupe and lived together in a dorm room. This has always happened in the biography of actor Nikolai Gubenko: personal life and acting career were closely intertwined.
Then he actually lived in a civil marriage with actress Inna Ulyanova. She played the role of Margarita Pavlovna in the popular film “Pokrovsky Gate”. Inna even introduced Nikolai to her high-ranking father, who worked as a deputy minister. He blessed the relationship, and the young couple moved to Ulyanova’s luxurious apartment. True, they never formalized their relationship.
