The events of the twentieth century are described in books and captured in feature films. At the same time, the fate of the Soviet actor Nikolai Kryukov was more interesting and more dramatic than in adventure films.
The path to the profession
In the biographies of many honored art workers, it is noted that they come from the village. Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Nikolai Nikolaevich Kryukov was born on July 8, 1915 in a peasant family. Parents lived in a poor village in the Tver province, which had a church and a school. The child was taught from an early age to work in the house and in the field. The boy grew up agile and inquisitive. I learned to play the harmonica and balalaika on my own. He sang folk songs and ditties well.
After graduating from seven classes, Nikolai, being a tall guy, went to Leningrad "for a better life." For many years in the city on the Neva, fellow countrymen had been "clumping together" who welcomed newcomers to their artel. Kryukov was assigned to a cable production plant. Here the young man received his secondary education at a school for working youth. In my free time I didn’t go to the girls, didn’t drink wine, but studied in the drama studio. After the aspiring actor played several roles in amateur performances, he was invited to the Leningrad Soviet Theater Studio.
On the roads of war
Kryukov played his first role on the stage of the Bolshoi Drama Theater when he was twenty years old. He was entrusted to embody Laertes in the famous Shakespearean tragedy "Hamlet". The textured performer began to be invited to the cinema. The acting career was successful. When the war began, the theater moved to a barracks position. I had to go with concerts to the active army and to dig anti-tank ditches. In February 1942, the troupe was taken from besieged Leningrad to the resort town of Pyatigorsk.
However, here Kryukov got into serious trouble. In early August, as a result of a surprise attack, the Nazis occupied the city, and part of the theater troupe ended up in enemy territory. The occupants forced the actors to continue performing on stage. When changes took place at the front, the troupe was taken out first to Zaporozhye, and later to Berlin. The offensive of the Soviet army and the allies brought confusion to the vaunted German order and Kryukov, together with his colleagues, reached the liberated territory.
Recognition and privacy
After returning to their homeland, all the actors had to go through a tough test. Nikolai Kryukov got off easy, he was not sent to prison, but was forbidden to live in Moscow and Leningrad. For more than ten years he had to play in provincial theaters before he returned to the city on the Neva.
The actor's personal life took shape on the second try. In 1960 he married the Lenfilm actress Lilia Gurova. Husband and wife have lived under the same roof for 33 years. Nikolai Nikolaevich Kryukov died in the spring of 1993.
