The name of the actress Evgenia Aleksandrovna Garkusha for a long time turned out to be consigned to oblivion. Having starred in two films, the bright and talented actress seemed to melt away.
Evgenia Garkusha starred in just a few films. But her life before her tragic death was bright. There was both short happiness and real grief in her. She disappeared from the life of the audience and the people most dear to her. It was possible to restore the biography only after years of her daughter.
Carier start
Evgenia was born in 1815 in Petrograd. Her mother Elena Vladimirovna worked as an accountant, her father Alexander Evmenovich was an agronomist. The family moved to Kiev in 1921. There, the girl graduated from a seven-year school in 1933.
The graduate successfully entered the theater studio at the Russian drama theater in the capital of Ukraine. From 1937 to 1938 Yevgenia worked at the Tula Drama Theater. The next year Garkusha was an actress of the working Baku theater.
From 1939 she worked at the Sverdlovsk Drama Theater. At the same time, the shooting of the film "The Fifth Ocean" took place. In the film, Evgenia got the main role of the pilot Sanya. In 1940, a bright and talented young actress was invited to participate in the film "Young Years".
In October 1941, Evgenia first met the Hero of the Soviet Union, polar explorer, hydrobiologist-hydrograph and Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences Pyotr Shirshov, her future husband.
Short happiness
He saw the girl earlier in the painting "The Fifth Ocean". The charming actress sunk into the man's soul.
Seeing a girl so similar to Sanechka on a metropolitan street, He rushed after her. During the walk, Shirshov told Zhenechka about the Pole, his hikes, and she listened to him with delight. Love flashed at first sight.
At that time, Shirshov was already married. His family was evacuated. But this could not interfere with the feelings. Young people began a life together. In 1942 Shirshov was appointed to the post of People's Commissar of the Navy.
In the same year, Evgenia was offered to star in the military adventure film "The Elusive Jan". The actress in 1943 went to work at the Mossovet Theater, where she served for three years. On December 16, 1946, a child was born in the family, daughter Marina.
Tragedy
The trouble came unexpectedly. In 1946, during a reception in the Kremlin, the beautiful actress attracted the attention of Lavrentiy Beria. He in a casual tone invited Garkusha to spend the night with him. Evgenia indignantly refused and in front of everyone answered Beria with a slap in the face. It is unlikely that the woman thought that by this act she crossed out her happy life and the happiness of the whole family.
Several days passed. Garkusha and her husband and daughter left for the dacha. The one-year-old Marina slept in the wheelchair, her parents on the balcony were discussing the birth of her younger sister and their future together. But this was the last happy evening. On July 28, Shirshov left for work.
Evgenia stayed with her daughter and the son of Peter from his first marriage, Roald, who was spending the holidays with them. At this time, Viktor Abakumov, the Minister of State Security, came to the dacha. He said that Garkusha was urgently summoned to the theater, and it was impossible to get through to her. Abakumov offered to take Yevgeny to the capital by car.
Delighted by the possible news of the tour, the actress agreed. She never returned home.
Arrest
Because of an incomprehensible alarm, Shirshov also called home. However, the phone was constantly busy. In the evening, the People's Commissar was summoned to the Lubyanka, where he was informed about the arrest of his wife. At first, Pyotr Petrovich refused to believe what was happening.
Recently, a laughing Zhenechka was pressed against his shoulder, and now he no longer knows where she is and what happened to her. Shirshov could not get any news about his wife. At the highest level, he was forbidden to take an interest in the fate of his wife.
For six months, Evgenia was number thirteen in all the lists. Constant interrogations were accompanied by torture. The actress was charged that she was expecting the entry of the Germans into the capital, being an English spy. The arrest warrant for Garkusha was issued on December 29, 1946.
During her time in prison, she constantly heard that the family had forgotten about her. As a result, the moral torture brought the women to the deepest depression. The protocols signed by Garkusha-Shirshova were shown to her husband in 1947. There was only one verdict on the crimes: “a firing squad”.
Pyotr Petrovich had to fight for the life of his beloved Zhenechka for a long time. However, by November he managed to remove the threat of execution from her.
Link and death
By the end of 1947, the actress was sentenced to eight years of exile to the Kolyma.
Before being transported, Evgenia managed to write several letters to her husband. In early December, the actress left for exile. A special instruction was given an order to provide her with work exclusively related to gold mining. It was ordered not to give any chances to engage in amateur performances.
Garkusha was accompanied to the place of serving his sentence by a reinforced convoy. In 1948, her mother moved in with her daughter and obtained permission. In the same year, her sister Svetlana came to Kolyma to visit her sister for the holidays.
Unable to endure public supervision and the obligation to appear every two weeks for registration, Yevgeny Garkush died on August 11, 1948, having taken a huge dose of sleeping pills.
She was buried in the Magadan region in the village of Omchak. At the grave of her daughter, the mother erected a monument. Evgenia Alexandrovna was posthumously rehabilitated in 1956.
For a long time she could not find out about her mother Marina. Wanting to find out the true reasons for the family tragedy, she corresponded with people who remembered Garkusha.
In 2003, thanks to the efforts of my daughter, the book "The Forgotten Diary of a Polar Biologist" was published. It includes excerpts from her father's diary and Marina Petrovna's research about the family.
The daughter of Evgenia Garkusha dreamed of the fate of the actress. But she works in the Institute of Oceanology, founded by her father. All her life Marina Petrovna remembers the story of her parents' short happiness and the irreparable grief that happened to them.
