Galina Kravchenko: biography and career of the Soviet actress

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

Galina Kravchenko is a silent film star, a well-known actress, a representative of the first graduate of the State College of Cinematography (VGIK).

The beginning of an acting career

Galina was born on February 11, 1905 in Kazan. Later she moved with her mother to Moscow, where she was noticed by aspiring director Vladimir Pudovkin. Fascinated by the spontaneity and beauty of the girl, he persuaded Galina to try herself in the acting field. Considering her to be his goddaughter, Pudovkin carefully watched the career of the actress for many years, helping in difficult times with a kind word and the right advice.

In 1921, Galina graduated from the theater and choreography school in Moscow and for two years was a ballet soloist in the opera by S. M. Zimin.

In 1922, Kravchenko entered the State College of Cinematography at the acting department, having successfully passed the exams for the director and one of its organizers Gardin VladimirRostislavovich. The girl studied there for 5 years. The mentor of the famous first graduation was Lev Vladimirovich Kuleshov, a well-known teacher, film theorist and director. Together with Galina, the educational institution (now VGIK) graduated from Nina Shaternikova, Evgeny Chernyakov, Andrey Fait, Ada Voytsik. In parallel with her studies from 1922 to 1924, Galina was a ballerina of the experimental theater.

First steps in cinema

Galina Kravchenko began acting in films in her student years. The film school regularly sent its students to extras, giving them the opportunity to express themselves from the practical side. For the first time Galina starred in the film "Aelita". It was a small episode that gave a talented girl a great start in the world of cinema. Then there were roles in the film "Batka Knysh's Gang" by A. Razumny and "Cigarette from Mosselprom" by Y. Zhelyabuzhsky.

Galina Kravchenko played her first significant role in the film In the Heat of NEP (1924) directed by Boris Svetozarov. The picture told about the moral decay of a business executive who fell under the influence of the Nepman environment. The 18-year-old actress was invited to play the role of a 40-year-old woman. To the bewildered question of the girl about why she gets such an oversized image and whether she can play it, the director replied that the ability of an actor to transform is a real art. With these words, he gave a huge impetus from which Galina Kravchenko, an actress, grew up!

Biography, roles, films of Galina Kravchenko

In 1925, Galina was invited to the Belgoskino studio. Directed by Yuri Tarich filmedthe film "Forest Story" based on the work of Mikhas Charota "Swineherd" about the confrontation in 1920 of Belarusian partisans against Polish troops. Galina was approved for the role of the daughter of the Polish landowner Wanda.

At the end of her studies, Galina Kravchenko was accepted into the staff of the Mezhrabpom-Rus film studio, which became her home for many years. The actress became the brightest star of this film factory: in the 1920s and 1930s, posters with her portraits were present in all Soviet cities. But nothing is permanent, everything in life changes. The fashion for movie heroes has also changed. Cheerful Komsomol members, whose standards Kravchenko did not fit into, smiled into the auditorium from the screens. Probably, the actress, like her colleagues of a similar role, would have been oblivion, if not for Kuleshov.

In 1933, the director invited Galina to play the role of Annabelle Adams in the sound film The Great Comforter, based on the stories of O. Henry. This picture became a kind of confession of the maestro of cinema, permeated through and through with a piercing longing for the bright days of silent cinema. Kravchenko wittily and gracefully played a parody of the movie heroine of the 20s, that is, herself.

Galina Kravchenko: filmography

Soviet actresses of the 20s have long been forgotten at that time. But this did not affect our heroine. Galina Kravchenko actively filmed until the 1980s. True, the roles were completely different (elderly mothers, etc.).

From 1942 to 1943, Galina was an actress in the Russian Drama Theater in Tbilisi, and then in the Theater-Studio of the film actor. Actress careercontinued during the Khrushchev thaw. True, she now played the roles of aging secular ladies and Soviet mothers.

Filmed by Kravchenko until the very beginning of the 1980s. There were no good roles and even episodes, but the actress always remained in sight. For her, even a new hypostasis was found: the living history of Soviet cinema. This role went to her by right, and Galina Kravchenko performed it with dignity and brilliance for almost 40 years. She wrote a book of memoirs, performed a lot on television, at evenings at the Cinema House, was in demand and full of life until the end of her days.

In 1980, Galina Kravchenko was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR.

Personal life of Galina Kravchenko

In the life of Galina Kravchenko there were three marriages. The first, with actor Andrey Fayt, did not last long and ended in divorce. In 1930, Galina married a military pilot Alexander Kamenev, the son of a well-known politician Lev Kamenev. The young family settled in the father-in-law's house; Galina began to communicate with famous people of that time - Alexandra Kollontai, Sergei Kirov, Leonid Utesov, Sergei Eisenstein. In 1931, the son Vitaly was born. Lev Borisovich was shot in 1936, Alexander in 1937, his mother-in-law Olga Kameneva in 1941. For Galina, a family relationship with the Kamenevs turned into a ban on filming a movie.

In 1939, the actress married the Georgian director Nikolai Sanishvili, from whom she gave birth to a daughter, Karina.

Galina Kravchenko's sonIn 1949 he was arrested and exiled to Karaganda for 25 years. Vitaly was rehabilitated in the mid-50s, allowing him to return home. The link greatly undermined the he alth of the young man, and he died in 1966. After the Kamenevs were repressed, the road to the big cinema was closed for Galina.

March 5, 1996 - the day when Galina Kravchenko died, an actress with a capital letter, who managed, under the influence of the ongoing changes, to rebuild correctly, to become a legend of Soviet cinema during her lifetime.