Nikolai Boyarsky is a Soviet theater and film actor who is remembered by the audience for his vivid, highly characteristic roles, such as the role of a physical education teacher from the movie "The Adventures of Electronics". But before becoming an actor, Boyarsky went through the entire Great Patriotic War as part of the infantry troops and met victory in Germany. Nikolai Boyarsky is also the uncle of Mikhail Boyarsky, our famous "domestic d'Artanyan", and is a member of the Boyarsky acting dynasty.
Family of Nikolai Boyarsky, childhood and adolescence
Nikolai Aleksandrovich Boyarsky was born on December 10, 1922 in the village of Kolpino near Leningrad (then - Petrograd). Mother - Boyanovskaya-Boyarskaya Ekaterina Nikolaevna - had a noble origin, spoke six languages, in her youth she wanted to be an actress, but because of the strict morals in the family, this dream did not come true. Father Boyarsky Alexander Ivanovich came from a peasant class, was educated at a theological seminary and academy, became a priest, archpriest, then a metropolitan. After the 1917 revolution, he joined the renovationist religious movement, whose members tried to adapt the Christian religion to the new socialist ideology. Such priests were called “red priests,” and the official church did not recognize them, considering them schismatics, which is why the name of Alexander Boyarsky is not on the list of metropolitans. But the main tragedy of his life was his arrest during the years of repression: in 1936 Boyarsky-father was convicted and then shot. His fate was unknown to the family for a long time; wife Ekaterina Nikolaevna worked, taught languages at the Theological Academy of Leningrad and waited for her husband's return until the end of her life, and even cooked dinner every day with the expectation of him. And only in the mid-1980s did the children and grandchildren manage to find out what really happened to Alexander Ivanovich.
In the Boyarsky-Boyanovskaya marriage, four sons were born, of whom three chose the acting profession, including Nikolai Boyarsky. He dreamed of becoming an actor as a child, he loved to read and act out scenes in the circle of his family, for example, based on the stories of M. Zoshchenko. Nikolai loved to go to cinemas, by hook or by crook breaking through to sessions for adults. Then he had a goal: to act in films. And they managed to realize it: in 1936, in the city of Kineshma, on the Volga, the film "Dowry" was filmed. Director Y. Protazanov singled out young Boyarsky from the crowd of onlookers and filmed him in a scene on the deck of a motor ship, in the role of a 10-year-old fearful boy running away into the hold from drunk merchants who threw bottles.
When, after leaving school, the question of choosing a profession arose, Nikolai Boyarsky wanted to study to be a philologist or journalist. But since he was the son of a repressed enemy of the people, the young man could not enter the university for these specialties. But in the Leningrad Theater Institute, admission was free, and Nikolai became a student of the acting department. Here he immediately fell in love with a classmate and beauty Lydia Shtykan, who later became his wife. However, studies and peaceful life were interrupted: the Great Patriotic War broke out.
Nikolai Boyarsky on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War
Nikolai Boyarsky was drafted to the front on July 25, 1941, to a rifle battalion of an infantry regiment. Like many soldiers who went to war, he was sure that in a few months he would return home with victory, resume his studies and confess his love to Lydia Shtykan; her photograph throughout the war years was kept in the pocket of Boyarsky's gymnast. The story turned out differently. On December 3, 1941, Boyarsky was wounded for the first time, then received several more wounds, and once, in the battles near Rostov, he was even captured. He was saved from death by pure chance: a woman grabbed him from a column of prisoners of war that was being driven down the street, threw a coat over him and hid him in the crowd of people, and then hid the soldier at home for several months.
After treatment in hospitals, Boyarsky returned to the front again and again, where he repeatedly showed heroism and courage, destroying or capturing enemy soldiers and officers; he had an excellent command of the machine gun, machine gun and other types of small arms. He was awarded medals "For Military Merit", "For Courage", "For the Capture of Konigsberg", the Order of the Red Star and Orders of Glory II and III degree. Despite this, Boyarsky ended the war with the rank of only a senior sergeant: as the son of an enemy of the people, he could neither be promoted in rank, nor once again presented for an award.
In moments of calm between battles or in hospitals, Nikolai Boyarsky independently studied languages - English and German, which sometimes was very useful at the front. Nikolai Alexandrovich went through the entire war with the infantry and ended it in Konigsberg.
Creativity and career of the actor Boyarsky
Demobilized from the army, Nikolai Boyarsky returned to the Theater Institute and continued his studies. One of his mentors was the famous Vasily Vasilyevich Merkuriev, People's Artist of the USSR. After graduating from the institute in 1948, Boyarsky was invited to the troupe of the Leningrad Academic Drama Theater named after V. F. Komissarzhevskaya. In this theater he worked all his life, with the exception of the 1964-65 season, when he left for the Leningrad Lensovet Theater, but returned back a year later. At first, Boyarsky was given minor roles, then more serious ones - both comedic and dramatic. The young actor brought each role to perfection, showing different facets of the characters of his characters. He played Misha Balzaminov in the play "The Marriage of Balzaminov", Kharitonov in the play "The Old Man", Golitsyn in "Going into a Thunderstorm", Zakhar in the play "Oblomov", the King in "Don Cesar de Bazan" and others. Important roles for Boyarsky were the old front-line soldier Levan Gurieladze in the production “If the sky were a mirror”, Sarpion as a widower with eight children in the play “Blizzard” and, finally, Kozlevich in “The Golden Calf”.
Working in the theater, Nikolai Boyarsky did not stop thinking about a film career. He pounded the doorsteps of the film studio, but no one wanted to shoot him in a movie under the pretext of an expressionless appearance. In 1957, at Lenfilm, it was decided to shoot a television version of the play Don Cesar de Bazan staged by the Komissarzhevskaya Drama Theater, where Boyarsky played the role of the King of Spain. So he appeared on the television screen again. However, the miracle did not happen, and for the next eight years the actor was again not invited to act in films. And only in 1965, the famous actor and director Pavel Kadochnikov, who was filming the movie "Musicians of One Regiment", called Nikolai Boyarsky to one of the main roles - the acute role of the adjutant of the musical regiment Vasily Bogolyubov. Boyarsky brilliantly played in this film, and after that invitations to act in films literally fell down.
In 1966 Boyarsky received three film roles at once - Zinovy Borisovich in Katerina Izmailova, Counselor in The Snow Queen and Kisa Vorobyaninov in the TV show 12 Chairs. And the role of the funny and touching Adam Kozlevich in The Golden Calf directed by Mikhail Schweitzer (1968) became triumphant for the actor.
For the next 20 years of his creative life, Nikolai Boyarsky constantly acted in films, an average of 1-2 films with his participation were released a year. And although the film roles were mostly of the second plan, they were certainly played brightly and talentedly. These are the roles of Petushkov in "Living Corpse", Kashchei Bessmertny in "New Year's Adventures of Masha and Viti", physical education instructor Rostislav Valerianovich ("Rostik") in "The Adventures of Electronics", a grenadier in the film "Three Men in a Boat, Excluding Dogs" and many others. The last films in which Boyarsky starred are “Primordial Rus” (1986) and “The Life of Klim Samgin” (1988).
Having played roles in more than 30 films and in many performances on the theater stage, Nikolai Boyarsky made a significant contribution to the domestic art of acting. His professional merits were appreciated: in 1977, Nikolai Aleksandrovich received the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR. And, probably, he was a little offended when, on tour in some provincial city, he came across a poster of approximately the following content: "Actor Nikolai Boyarsky, the uncle of Mikhail Boyarsky, participates in the play!" But the play began, and the audience suddenly recognized him as an actor from everyone's favorite films.
Nikolai Boyarsky was also engaged in literary creation - mainly he wrote stories about the war, some of them were published. They did not tell about heroic events and exploits of people - they were scenes from military life, comic stories.
Nikolai Aleksandrovich Boyarsky died on October 7, 1988, he did not live up to his 66th birthday a little. For several years he was seriously ill: throat cancer, loss of voice. But at the same time, he did not lose his love of life, until the last days he maintained a positive attitude and optimism. Boyarsky was buried at the Komarovsky cemetery in the Leningrad region together with his wife.
Personal life
Nikolai Boyarsky loved one single woman all his life - Lydia Shtykan and lived with her in a happy marriage until his death. The future actor fell in love with a fellow student at the theater institute at first sight. The young people were separated by the war. Lydia was in Leningrad at the very beginning of the blockade, and then went to the front, served as a nurse, and was repeatedly presented for military awards. Demobilized, Lydia Petrovna returned to Leningrad; in 1945, her son Oleg Shtykan was born, the father of the child is unknown.
Nikolai Boyarsky, who came from the front, immediately found his beloved and made an offer. In 1945 they got married and lived in perfect harmony all their lives. Lydia Shtykan was the leading actress of the Alexandrinsky Drama Theater, but she did little in films (Mussorgsky, Once upon a time there was a girl, My Dear Man, Green Carriage, etc.). Without crossing over on the theatrical stage, the spouses had many topics for communication, both on professional topics and on others. There were always a lot of guests in their house, a cheerful and friendly atmosphere reigned.
In 1957, Boyarsky and Shtykan had a daughter, Ekaterina Boyarskaya. She did not become an actress, but chose the related profession of a writer-theater critic. She penned the book "Theatrical dynasty of the Boyarsky".
Lydia Petrovna Shtykan died 6 years earlier than her husband, on June 11, 1982.
