The satirist Arkady Arkanov did not. His work was known and loved by people of several generations. The always intelligent humor of his stories, the good “Orange Song”, the performance of the Satire Theater in the script “Little Comedies of a Big House” written in collaboration with G. Gorin, are remembered by the older generation. As the leading club "White Parrot" he knew the whole country. And although he did not like to be frank, much is known about him from the stories of friends. The biography of Arkady Arkanov is a story about the life of an extraordinary person.
Why Arkanov
Parents A. Arkanova (this is actually a creative pseudonym) bore the name Steinbock. Arkady changed it at the age of thirty-three so that the miniature written together with G. Gorin would be broadcast on the radio program “Good morning!”. The editor told them that such a combination of surnames (Steinbock and Ofshtein) in Russia would not have passed under the tsarist regime, and advised me to find pseudonyms.
Arkady Arkanov, whose stories about the change of name was heard by all his friends, explained: indeed, since childhood, friends called him Arkan, but because of the name Arkady. When the question of changing his last name arose, he chose the Hebrew word "riddle", which is pronounced "arch". So he became Arkanov on the passport. He is so known for his stage and literature.
Although Arkady was born into a Jewish family, he considers himself Russian. It happened so: the whole environment, books, school, institute in one culture, and at home too. Parents spoke Yiddish, but Arkady did not know the language. Therefore, when it was necessary to discuss something secretly, mom and dad communicated in Jewish. They lived then all equally poor. His mother, Olga Semenovna, sometimes cooked dishes of Jewish cuisine. It was rare, Arkady did not have time to get used to them, and indeed was indifferent to food.
Childhood
The biography of Arkady Arkanov originates in Kiev. Mikhail Iosifovich Steinbock, the father of the writer, was the head of the camp in Kolyma. Olga Semenovna, his mother, after marriage, worked at the Ministry of Internal Affairs-MGB, which was then led by Lavrenty Beria. In 1933, Mikhail Iosifovich served as a supply agent. In the same year, June 7, in Kiev they had a son. The family idyll was short-lived, after a year the father was repressed and imprisoned in Vyazemlag for four years. Olga Semenovna follows Vyazma and lives in a barracks. She leaves her mother in law to her little son. They live on Saksaganskogo street, eat potato pancakes, hear locomotive beeps from the railway.
After his release, in 1938, his father was appointed head of the supply of Norillag, and the family moved to the Moscow region, on Khoroshevskoe highway. This district has now become a modern city, and before the war it was built up with wooden one-story houses and barracks. In one of them, Steinbock is given a little room of nine square meters. In 1939, they still born a boy, Valery, brother of Arkady. About those conditions, the writer responded as follows: "Cramped poverty, iron trestle bed and many bugs." He even joked later that he remembers all insects in the face.
In 1941, the war began, Muscovites were evacuated. Olga Stepanovna with children leaves for Krasnoyarsk, and Mikhail Iosifovich remains in Moscow. Steinbock’s neighbors in Siberia were the family of Leonard Kruse, a polar pilot. He once drove Arkasha on a plane. In 1943, Olga Stepanovna returned with her children to Moscow, to a communal apartment on Volokolamsk Highway, 7-13. The neighbors were the prosecutor and the head of the criminal investigation department. After many years, Arkanov bought his parents an apartment in Golyanovo, and the neighbors cried, parting.
Arkady graduated from high school with a gold medal. Grandma Arkady was in the occupied territory. And although she died in 1946, according to the unwritten laws of the postwar period, the path to physicists or geologists - the most prestigious professions of the time - was ordered. And then he entered the First Medical Institute.
Student years
In 1951, the biography of Arkady Arkanov was interwoven with the biographies of A. Axelrod, who invented KVN, A. Livshits and A. Levenbuk - the duet "Baby Monitor" - and G. Gorin, playwright and satirist. They all studied together, almost all students were engaged in amateur activities. Arkady became a member of skits and KVN, the VTEC theater, the author of humoresque and songs. M. Shirvindt and M. Kozakov turned to him for help in writing witty pop numbers. By the mid-fifties, Arkady realized that life was not going to medicine, but to creativity.
A. Levenbuk says that Arkanov always had a phlegmatic look. Once, when passing the exam, he pulled out a ticket about the pulse. Instead of telling, he took the student by the area of the pulse on his arm and froze. The audience was silent. The pause lasted five minutes. "Well?" - the professor could not stand it. “Beats,” came the reply. Laughter stood at the whole institute, but Arkady remained calm. Another time, when they passed the "Health Organization" (instructions for building hospitals), Arkanov read the list he had rhymed from the section. They put it “well”, but he was offended that it was not “excellent”.
Together with a medical diploma, he received a silver medal for the script for VTEK. The performance conquered the participants of the 1957 Youth Festival.
G. Gorin
Once a tall guy rang at the Steinbock door and introduced himself as Gregory Ofstein. Shortly before this, Axelrod had already told Arkady about this talented author. The guys became friends and became a duet of pop playwrights. They understood each other perfectly, did not find disagreements in the field of humor, unanimously rejected vulgarity and felt that it was funny and what was not.
Gregory at first did not believe that this hobby could bring money. But Arkady convinced him, and the duet became in demand among entertainers and entertainers. Thirteen years of fraternal cooperation, two surnames were taken inseparably.
Many famous miniatures were written by Grigory Gorin and Arkady Arkanov. Monologues and skits were performed by A. Shurov and N. Rykunin, B. Vladimirov and V. Tonkov, B. Brunov, M. Mironova and A. Menaker, A. Shirvindt, M. Derzhavin and A. Mironov ... Since 1963, Arkanov works in the magazine "Youth", in 1965, the "Orange Song" appeared.
The duo took up writing scripts for theatrical skits, of which the most famous were “From Pushechnaya by Sparrows” (on the street Pushechnaya is located Central House of Arts) and “The Thirteenth Month of the Year”, a parody of television. The sharp satire led to the fact that something was cut out, and after the duet they were not allowed to go to the television and close.
The skill of the authors grew, they were already spinning in the writer's environment, and they were accepted by venerable "sixties." They wrote the play “A Wedding for the Whole Europe”, a battle was fought around it: they were afraid to miss such material. But Furtseva liked the play, and it was staged by 82 theaters of the Union. The second play "Banquet" was not missed for the promotion of drunkenness. And what would be a feast without him?
Gorin independently wrote the play “Forget Herostratus!”, It was a success. He went to the theater, and Arkady was drawn to literature. And in 1973, the last piece of the duet was "Little comedies of a big house." This has become the hallmark of the Theater of Satire. And the literary biography of Arkady Arkanov continued without Gorin.
Literary work
In 1968, Arkanov was admitted to the Writers Union. At that time, this meant freedom of creativity: official writers were not prosecuted for parasitism, and they no longer needed to keep a work book somewhere. He leads a page of humor in Literary Newspaper and hones his pen. Many names from the last page of Literature later became beloved by the people for their subtle satire.
It was published in "Youth", where B. Polevoi selected talents. From the pages of this journal, many authors have declared themselves as real writers. Films were delivered according to their short stories; readers were looking forward to each new work. The very atmosphere of creativity among this layer of “writing fraternity” excluded opportunism, flattery and graphomania. The ideals of the "engineers of human souls" have been and remain high.
Even earlier, Arkady and Gregory agreed that any worthwhile idea should not go on the stage. Each had a piggy bank for independent creativity. They discussed ideas, gave advice to each other. But at the same time Arkanov hated plagiarism. He believed that the writer should compose new, using what he saw in life. Do not transfer to pages, posing as your own, but skip through yourself and create a new one.
The biography of Arkady Arkanov would be incomplete, not to mention his diversity. Arkanov turned out everything he plunged into. And he dived headlong into a new, interesting business for him. Therefore, the versatility of his talent led to a dozen scenarios, six movie roles, songs, books, television and theater.
Club "White Parrot"
When friends gather at the table, tell jokes and funny incidents from life, this is interesting. When artists get together - doubly interesting. And if the main clown of the country, Yu.V. Nikulin, started it, this must be seen. This is how the program “The White Parrot” was conceived: the guests came who knew and loved each other, sat down at a real table - without props. They drank and had a bite, talked and entertained each other and viewers.
They were broadcast by Nikulin and Gorin, and later two more leading ones came - Arkanov and Boyarsky. The program got topics, famous people began to invite: scientists, politicians, athletes. Recording was carried out without pauses, all the excess was cut off only later. Therefore, laughter sounded sincere, communication was genuine. Jokes dispersed across the country instantly.
A family
It is interesting to learn about talented people as they were in ordinary life. So with Arkady Arkanov: biography, personal life, family and children - all this was very interested in readers. The writer himself had a certain point of view on publicity. He believed that no one should be allowed to leave the wings of his personal life if you do not want to lose your “I”. He wrote about this in his book Back to the Future.
The first wife of Arkanov was Maya Kristalinskaya. Arkady had a wonderful ear, an amazing sense of rhythm. He loved jazz, was friends with musicians and composers. And for him there was an ideal of a woman: musical, witty, and appearance - in the background. When in 1957 he met Maya in the company, who sang all evening, they quickly got married. We also dispersed quickly: different goals. He worked as a local doctor, she toured.
In the fall of 1958, a friend asked him to meet a girl and take him to a restaurant, as he would be late. It was Zhenya Morozova, very attractive and, according to Arkanov, amazing. Arkady entertained her, waiting for a friend, and suddenly envied his friend: such a girl! He beat her off, and they began to meet - walked along the streets, no intimacy. Then they got married, wandered around rented apartments. In 1962, Arkady bought a one-room apartment, and in 1967 Vasily was born. Now he is a writer and journalist, translating novels by American authors into Russian. This marriage broke up in 1973.
Journalist Natalya Smirnova, who later took the place of Zhenya, raved about Paris. She gave birth to a son, Peter, in alliance with Arkanov, but after a year and a half she got married and left for France.
The third marriage was happy. Natalia Vysotskaya was a true friend and wife of twenty years. She died suddenly, and it was difficult for Arkady to realize this.
In recent years, Arkady Mikhailovich lived with his common-law wife Oksana. She helped him in the fight against the disease.
Disease
Ailments overtake such strong people as Arkady Arkanov. The cause of death is oncology. In 2010, he underwent lung surgery. I didn’t stop smoking. Moreover, I was sure that a sharp change in lifestyle would lead to a heart attack or stroke. He substantiated this from a medical point of view. At eighty years old, he felt good, saying: "I know how to defeat cancer." He believed that the problem went away with the removed part of the lung.
At the evening in memory of G. Gorin, Arkady Mikhailovich became ill, the next day he was taken to the hospital for an ambulance. A few days later he was gone. The cause is called acute heart failure, which was a consequence of a disease of the pulmonary system.
Friends reviews
Few can be as friendly as the satirist Arkady Arkanov could. The biography of all people ends with a line about death. But not everyone will be cried. Simple and sincere words of friends of Arkady Mikhailovich:
- “A bright and good person. It is a pleasure to communicate with him” (V. Vinokur).
- “A real gentleman. Even in the hospital he went out to breakfast in a tie. He didn’t share with anyone how bad he was” (A. Bitov).
- "A man of true decency" (Y. Gusman).
- "Intelligent, wrestler, friend" (A. Dementiev).
Arkanov's appeal to the living
A year before his death, he published an appeal to the rulers of all countries, which can be attributed to all people in general. In it, he called to look at the planet from a heavenly height, to understand how small it is. She looks like an anthill. If someone among ants differs in something, then this is not visible from above. He urged to get together, hug and share those who have something, with those who have nothing. The collision of nations, he considered the influence of Satan and urged people, before it is too late, to think again. Caption: "Arcana is one of billions of ants."
Smart eyes look at us with a photo. Arkady Arkanov left a will to everyone. Thank Arkady Mikhailovich!