The humorous duet "Tarapunka and Shtepsel" - Soviet pop stars

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Artists Yefim Berezin and Yuri Timoshenko are a duet that was familiar to every Soviet citizen. Even during the Great Patriotic War, they acted as a bath attendant Mochalkin (played by Timoshenko) and a cook named Galkin (played by Berezin). When the war ended, they created new images for themselves: Berezin became the fitter Shtepsel, and Timoshenko became the funny policeman Tarapunka. The pair entertainer turned into variety performances with characters with funny names - Tarapunka and Shtepsel.

The best performances and films of the creative duo

"Mechanical Concert", "Exactly 20-odd", "They took the stage for a decade", "From and to" and other performances were very popular with the audience. There were also comedies with famous characters, and the actors were both directors, screenwriters, and performers of the main roles in the films “Tarapunka and the Plug under the Clouds” (filmed in 1953), “The Adventure with Tarapunka’s Jacket” (1955), the famous “Plug marries Tarapunka”(1957). And the film "The Mechanical Adventures of Tarapunka and Plug" became trulySoviet classics. They also starred in the films "Funny Stars", "We drove, we drove …", "Easy Life".

Grateful viewers wrote them letters from all over the country with the address on the envelopes: "Where - Moscow, the Kremlin; to whom - Tarapunka and Shtepsel". In letters they were not only thanked, but also complained about bureaucratic arbitrariness, asked to criticize defective goods and even return their husbands to the family.

Plug and Tarapunka in real life

Tymoshenko and Berezin on stage were perceived by everyone as a single and indivisible organism - Shtepsel and Tarapunka, photos with both of them adorned postcards and covers of Soviet magazines. But in reality, the actors were the complete opposite of each other. Yuri Timoshenko was an addictive, eccentric kind, with an explosive temperament, a big child who loves to eat bagels with milk. If he was asked about the nationality of Berezin, he could hit the one who asked. When Tymoshenko was once asked why he and a colleague and friend are still not in the party, he said: "Keep all the scum out of the party, and we ourselves will come to you." Berezin, on the contrary, is restrained, calm and reasonable, a wonderful family man, excluding any adventures. Tymoshenko, on the other hand, was carried away violently and quickly, whether it be women or brands. He could drop everything and fly to Siberia for some extremely rare stamp, he could take to learning English day and night and learn it in three months.

Lifelong Friendship

The think tank in the duothere was Yefim Berezin, who knew by heart not only the lines of his character, but also the lines of Tymoshenko, who often forgets them, so during his speech he often gave hints: “You seem to want to ask me?..” When Yury Timoshenko was buried, Yefim Berezin said over the coffin of a friend: "I wanted to say so much, but for the first time in my life I forgot the text." Their unique friendship both in life and on the stage, their amazing union "Tarapunka and Plug" lasted for fifty years. Both studied at the Kiev Theater Institute, both during the war went from Kyiv to Berlin. When the war ended, both went to the capital for the All-Union Competition of Variety Artists. Having become laureates, the friends did not part until the very end of their creative and life journey.

Achievements of great actors

They said that Tymoshenko even initially refused to confer the title of Honored Artist, saying: "Either two, or none." The title was given to both. They also became People's Artists of Ukraine together, but they were never given People's Artists of the USSR. Twice the famous duo was nominated for an honorary title, and both times all documents for the performance disappeared in an incomprehensible way. Having learned that they were going to apply for the title of People's Artists for the third time, Tymoshenko spoke categorically: “Enough is enough for us. We don't want any more. We have titles - "Tarapunka and Plug". And until now, all the people who lived in the USSR remember their names.