The King of Comedy and Stalin: Actor Mikhail Pugovkin in Kostroma

People's Artist of the USSR Mikhail Ivanovich Pugovkin was born on July 13, 1923 in the village of Rameshki Chukhlom district of Kostroma province.

A monument to him stands on the Yalta embankment. Pugovkin really in old age moved to the Crimea. But, confessing his love to the warm lands, he recalled his native side: “In my imagination, in the past, a boy from the distant Ramesheks in Chukhlom, Crimea seemed to be a fabulous country.”

Lived poor. There were three boys in the family. Three classes of rural school - this is all that Michael managed to learn.

“Even in the village, as a child, everyone called him Minya. Because they loved him: his character was very good, I don’t remember a single case where he judged or offended anyone. Their family lived very poor, but the Pugovkins were known throughout the district. Thanks to Minechka. Wherever they were: on the collective farm field, on the farm, on the holiday, Minya always cheered the people. Songs sang, danced, humored, invented pieces. Humor was born easily, by itself. Soon he began to be invited to village weddings as an actor, singer, tamad. Even from neighboring villages, they called and everyone said that this boy would grow into an artist.

There was collectivization, and then my mother became very ill, it was not to the fun. We decided to move to our aunt in the capital. There, a young student of an electrician and became an actor of the theater studio at the club. He was noticed, invited to the professional stage.

When the war began, he joined the militia. Surrounding, regimental reconnaissance, wounds, gangrene. They wanted to amputate his leg. At the last moment, a nurse ran into the ward with a telegram signed by Joseph Stalin, in which doctors were instructed to “stop the senseless amputation of soldiers and officers.”

Later, this man once again interfered in the fate of the Pugovkins.

During the Great Patriotic War, Stalin was ordered to put them in prison for theft and looting. My mother at that time worked in a cake shop – in a large cauldron baked cakes, which were then sold on the streets. To feed our large family - 13 people of women and children (all men were at the front), my mother did not take one cake out of the boiler and after work, hiding it in the apron, brought home. And there on this baked butter cake one soup was brewed - after all, there was a hungry card time. Once someone denounced her mother, she was put in prison and then taken somewhere to Vyatka, recalled Mikhail Pugovkin.

Two brothers died by this time, the father was fighting, Michael was treated after being wounded. He had to feed his old aunts and their children. My mother was released and said, “Because of my son’s letter.”

After the war, there were roles in theaters, managed to graduate from the Moscow Art Theatre School. But fame came through cinema. Although the first experience the actor recalled with bitterness. In 1943, director Vladimir Petrov shot the film Field Marshal Kutuzov, where Pugovkin played a young soldier Fedu. On the Borodino field, his hero died. An old soldier held him by the hand: “Semen, write to the village of Lipki, which is near Ryazan, to my mother, that her son Fedor Petrov did not give his soul to God, but laid his stomach for the Fatherland.”

After seeing the film, Stalin told the director: The episode of a dying young soldier, Fedi, will arouse compassion among the people. This is a difficult time. Don't show it.” And my monologue was cut out. I cried. This scene is still there: the old man holds my hand, and then in the frame – the banner. I don't have my monologue. All the artists have received orders except me. If I had this monologue, I would have it too. In memory of the fact that I starred in this film, I still have a diploma, recalled Mikhail Pugovkin.

The older generation will remember “Soldier Ivan Brovkin”. Those who watched “Wedding in Malinovka” will not forget his Yashka gunner. A rare Soviet fairy tale did without Mikhail Pugovkin on the royal throne. But national love came after the films of Leonid Gaidai. His foreman in a cork helmet from “Operation Y” and roles in other films made the actor a star.

But in the Gaidayev version of “12 chairs” he could not play. Despite his unserious role, Michael was a man of faith. For a long time he did not agree to play the role of Father Fedor, waiting for the blessing of his mother. Blessed.

The popular artist did not receive the title of “people’s”. The obstacle was his refusal to join the party. Only redevelopment brought a long-deserved status. In 1996, at the All-Russian Film Comedy Festival in Adler, Mikhail Pugovkin was declared the “King of Comedy” and presented with the crown of the film. Astronomers named it the planet.

There is no village where he was born. But now every year in his honor the festival "Chukhlom button" is held. In the spring of 2017, the world’s largest button with a diameter of 3 meters appeared in the district center. In New York – and then less by a meter. Guests come, remember the famous chukhlomich, take pictures at the button.

They say that in the museum of Mikhail Pugovkin in Rostov-on-Don there is a rusty key to his home from Rameshek, where he had wanted to return all his life. Between the key and Chukhloma 1600 kilometers.

When in 2023 the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mikhail Pugovkin was celebrated, his name was immortalized on the memorial plaque of the Avenue of Recognition. Guests of Kostroma can see it on the red route of daily excursions"Kostroma at 15:15.".

According to the materials of the scientific consultant of the project “Kostroma at 15:15” candidate of cultural studies Larisa Sizintseva.