Commentator Viktor Gusev photo house

I live in the village of Vnukovo near Moscow on Viktor Gusev Street. It was named after my grandfather – a poet, playwright, who wrote the scripts of the famous films “Pig and Shepherd”, “At six o’clock in the evening after the war”, the words of the songs “Polyushko-pole”, “Well in the Moscow open space.” Viktor Mikhailovich died before he reached the age of 35, but by this time he was already twice a laureate of the Stalin Prize. When the construction of the writers’ town began in the 30s, the Gusev family was given a plot there, on which a typical summer cottage appeared for those times. The famous actor Igor Ilyinsky lived behind the fence, Grigory Alexandrov and Lyubov Orlova, Sergey Obraztsov, Leonid Utesov lived on the next street. Life was always in full swing here, they went to visit each other, played tennis, chess. On our site, dad organized athletics competitions for the guys. And Ilyinsky, on the territory of which there was already a court, did not spare a part for a common football ground. Over time, next to the old house, we built a new one, in which you can already live all year round.

It’s rare to get the whole family together. The daughters grew up and flew out of the nest. They, like their great-grandfather and father, are humanitarians. My dad Mikhail Viktorovich, although he wrote poetry, became a biologist, for 35 years he was the dean of the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University, a professor, a well-known scientist in Russia and abroad. He is no longer there, and his mother Galina Nikolaevna, Doctor of Science, still works at the Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology. Unlike me, he goes to the pool regularly. Well done! As a child, I was sent to school where some subjects were taught in English. This decided fate. Then he studied at the Moscow Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages, spent a semester on an internship in the United States, became a translator, went to the war in Ethiopia in the army, then worked in the English edition of TASS, but dreamed of a sports edition, where he ended up as a result. This was the beginning of my career as a sports journalist, which led me to television at the age of 36.

In TASS I met Olya. She studied at the journalism faculty and worked as a teletype operator, receiving information from correspondents. Next year – 30 years from the date of our wedding. On the last round date, Olya mysteriously brought me to TASS and took me to the hall in which at the evening I first invited her to dance. The eldest daughter Julia graduated from Moscow State University as a specialist in several languages, including Japanese, trained in Japan, worked as a translator for rock stars who came to Russia: Elton John, Rod Stewart, the U2 group. I wanted to master the profession of a music producer, went to study in London … and met my future husband Mikhail, who works there. In London, I have a granddaughter Miriam (two years) and a grandson Jude (three months). The youngest daughter, Nina, after the Moscow Art Theater School, works at the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater, starred in serials.

My son Misha is 11 years old, since last year he has been studying at a school in London to, as it should be in our family, to know several languages. Became independent. We try to fly to him, and on vacation he returns home. Misha plays tennis well and is interested in football. But he is a representative of a new generation, the whole match is incubated only when I take him with me to the commentator’s booth. And so more often he looks in the records of goals, reads the news, studies statistics and arranges matches on the computer. But to play the ball on the site is sacred.

If you ask if I have a special place in my house, I will answer: this is an attic. He is my reflection. When I go up there, consider that my family has lost me. There are books, magazines, statistical reference books necessary for work, memorable photographs that I hang on the walls. And also a collection of vinyls and compacts (about 3 thousand discs, and in principle I don’t buy counterfeit ones!). Rock music is a serious hobby. Maybe someday I’ll do a radio program on this topic. There is still a plan to write a book after the jubilee (Victor will celebrate it on October 27th. – Approx. “Antenna”). When I start to tell stories related to the student body, the army, the Antarctic rescue expedition, commentary work, they always ask why I do not publish them. But there is no time yet. And I am lazy, to be honest.