Regina Zbarskaya is the first Soviet fashion model who was also known outside the USSR. The biography of Regina Zbarskaya is shrouded in mystery, and the cause of death is not completely clear.
Regina's maiden name is Kolesnikova. The future star of Soviet fashion was born in 1935, although the exact year of birth is still unknown. Nobody knows the place of birth either: either in Vologda, or in Leningrad. Regina also always talked negligible about her parents. There is a beautiful legend according to which the parents of the future Soviet top model were circus performers and once, while performing a dangerous stunt, they both died. True, there is a second, more prosaic version: Regina's mother was an employee, and her father was a retired officer. They also say that Zbarskaya was a pupil of an orphanage. Familiar fashion models said that the girl diligently tried to hide her simple origin under the guise of aristocracy.
In 1953, the future star of the catwalk entered the VGIK at the Faculty of Economics. In addition to her studies, the pretty student began to often attend parties where Moscow bohemians gathered. At one such reception, she met Vera Aralova, a Moscow fashion designer. Regina began to take part in the shows of a young promising Soviet couturier and became famous not only in the USSR, but also abroad. The model appeared on the cover of the French magazine Paris Match and became the favorite model of the novice designer Vyacheslav Zaitsev.
She spoke fluent French with Christian Dior and Pierre Cardin. Regina was a very private person; she did not have close friends who could tell the truth about her life. She was unusually beautiful, but many ill-wishers sarcastically noted that her legs were far from ideal. However, Regina was able to masterfully beat the curvature of her legs, which later helped thousands of Soviet girls with a similar disadvantage to get rid of complexes.
In 1967, the first International Fashion Festival was held in Moscow, which was attended by famous Western couturiers.
The European sophisticated beauty of Zbarskaya attracted attention. For example, the great Italian filmmaker Fellini noted that Regina in a red dress looks like Sophia Loren. The model was later compared more than once with the Italian cinema star. The first Soviet supermodel was also admired by Fidel Castro, Yves Montand and Pierre Cardin.
The only lover of Regina was the artist Lev Zbarsky - the son of the famous scientist Boris Zbarsky. Regina married this man in the early sixties of the last century. Despite the fact that Regina was his official wife, Lev Borisovich did not want a child from her. The capricious husband saw in the beautiful wife his muse, and not the woman who washes the diapers.
When he found out that his young wife had become pregnant, he insisted on an abortion, and soon became carried away by the beautiful actress Marianna Vertinskaya. Immediately after the abortion, the fashion model began to often take antidepressants, which helped to escape reality for a while. Soon Lev Zbarsky left Regina and went to Lyudmila Maksakova, who bore him a son. True, Zbarsky later abandoned Maksakova, leaving for permanent residence abroad. After such a family life, Regina ended up in a psychiatric hospital with signs of severe depression.
It is also known that Zbarskaya collaborated with the KGB. The model was fluent in two foreign languages and often traveled abroad. This was the reason for the close attention to it from the state security agencies. Constant supervision and the obligation to tell the KGB officers in detail about all their contacts could also have played a fatal role in the state of mind of the first Soviet top model. She felt guilty all the time.
After treatment at the clinic, Zbarskaya returned to the podium. The Soviet top model had an affair with a journalist from Yugoslavia, who later wrote the book "One Hundred Nights with Regina Zbarskaya". This publication described in detail the sexual relations of the catwalk star with members of the Central Committee. After the publication of this scandalous book, Zbarskaya twice tried to commit suicide. After the next exit from the hospital, it was painful to look at the beauty. She became very stout and could no longer be a fashion model. Her star has sunk forever. In the last years of her life, Zbarskaya worked as a cleaner at the Fashion House. Vyacheslav Zaitsev gave her such an opportunity.
In November 1987, on the third attempt, Zbarskaya still took her own life by drinking sleeping pills. She was only 51 years old. What was the real reason for such an early departure from life: mental illness, hopelessness or unnecessary revelations with a foreign journalist about the difficult life in the USSR, remains a mystery. There is also a version that Zbarskaya died in a psychiatric clinic.
None of her colleagues attended her funeral. The model's body was cremated, and the place of her burial is also unknown. The Necropolis Society has been trying unsuccessfully for many years to find her grave.
