Favorite artist died today, on the eve of his 74th birthday. How he lived in recent years. read in our material. “Antenna” visited the actor’s country house on the eve of his birthday in 2015.
- Photo Shoot:
- Dmitry Drozdov / “Antenna”
“We live on suitcases, moving in search of warm places,” says Karachentsov’s wife Lyudmila Porgina. – In May we were in Spain in Alicante on the seashore and even swam. In mid-June they returned to Moscow, and on July 1 they left for Bulgaria to the house that the son and daughter-in-law built. There Kolya worked with a physiotherapist in a nearby sanatorium. Then they lived in Russia for several days and in August left for a neurorehabilitation sanatorium near Riga, where Koka works with a speech therapist, physiotherapist and other doctors every year. In winter, as a rule, we travel to Tunisia, Turkey or Spain. It’s slippery in Moscow, and Kolya cannot walk, and in order to prolong his life, he has to move a lot. In Russia, we live in the country almost all the time. There is everything for relaxation and health restoration.
Our site in the famous acting village of Valentinovka is 25 years old. First, we bought 10 acres, then gradually bought it, and now we have 50 acres. I used to think: “Why such a large area?” And now it is very useful. Where can a disabled person walk in the center of Moscow? We live around Moscow Art Theater named after Gorky, we walk along Tverskoy Boulevard or on the Patriarch’s Ponds, but there are roads, cars and polluted air on all sides. And at the dacha there is a pine forest, the birds are singing. When Koka walked well, we walked around the village, and then he began to have spasticity (impaired neuromuscular activity), and we became limited in space. Paths are laid along the entire perimeter of the summer cottage, benches are placed, and Kolya walks for hours, and when he gets tired, he sits down – like this all day in the fresh air. It is very convenient when you can leave the house and immediately start walking. There is also a swing on the site, a gazebo in which we have lunch with friends. But Kolino’s favorite place is the Japanese garden, as we call it. There are linden trees, rowan trees, always shade, a beautiful perspective on the garden, rose bushes and a mini-pool. Previously, Koka studied scripts here, but now we sit and read poetry, novels, fairy tales. There are exercise equipment under the maple trees next to the Japanese garden. They were left from the son. Kolya trains his legs and arms on them every day.
In winter, the program of the First Channel “Ideal Repair” came to us. They converted the balcony on the second floor of the house into a winter garden. The style was invented for the scenery of the legendary performance of Lenkom, Juno and Avos, in which Kolya and I played. Palm trees like in San Francisco, a curtain on the wall like a curtain, a lamp with a lampshade with the inscription “Lenkom” and a cage with lovebird parrots, which Kolya presented to the kindergarten. We loved to read here.
The workers of Idealny Remont offered to renovate the facade of the house for the 70th anniversary of Nikolai Petrovich. The house used to be white, but they said yellow was in vogue now and finished it with yellow plaster. We finished it only at the end of July. We are very grateful to them for such a gift.
The main place in the house is the living room. Previously, they gathered in it Sasha Kalyagin, Petya Fomenko, Oleg Efremov. They sat, looked at the birches and discussed theatrical life. Now, it happens that 20-30 guests come to us. Before the trip to Bulgaria, I gathered all Kolya’s theatrical friends, we wrote the slogan “Age is not a diagnosis” and from three o’clock in the afternoon to twelve at night we read poetry, sang, laughed. Coca used to tell jokes and interesting stories, but now everyone amuses him. There is joy around him all the time. We are never sad.
There is a piano in the living room, children play on it. Petya’s twelve-year-old grandson won an award in the Italian city of Bari in the competition for young performers. There are photographs on the walls, some of them were sent by fans, icons of Nicholas the Benefactor, everyone gives them to us. To the left of the dining table hangs a tapestry that one woman weaved for Kolya, reciting a prayer above each line. Over the past two years, Kokochka has begun to feel much better, he is calmer, more resilient, walks more, and speaks better.
Animals also create a pleasant atmosphere in the house. Labrador Tsitsilia adores everyone, even our cats. These cats can beat Tsilya in the face and drive her out of her place. We have two cats, Caesar and Klepa, and now I brought them another girl Vlasa from Bulgaria. Yanochka’s granddaughter, she is 9 years old, picked up a ginger kitten in the ravine and told me: “You are Orthodox, but God loves the Trinity. And you yourself taught that you cannot refuse help. You won’t let the little creature die. ” I made the kitten a passport, and now he happily rushes around our dacha.
We will celebrate Kolya’s 70th birthday at the theater. First there will be a gala performance, then a skit from Lenkom, congratulations from Kobzon, Gverdtsiteli, Boyarsky, Kharatyan. We will set tables in the foyer so that everyone can have a drink and a bite to eat. For Kolya, a visit to his theater is always a holiday, he puts on the best costume, goes straight. His energy is also invested in these walls, there are many friends with whom he suffered, sweated and cried together on stage. It is very expensive. Here we will survive the 70th anniversary, and then a quiet life will begin.