Invulnerable Faina Ranevskaya
In the trenches of the invisible fronts of the secret war led by the KGB against the Western special services and against the so-called “dissident elements”, countless agents were recruited. All of them are representatives of a unique Russian stratum, the intelligentsia. The golden fund of the nation. They do not meet on arable land and blast furnaces. They are in diplomatic missions and in the temples of God, in design offices and in world-famous theaters.
Not all celebrities from the creative intelligentsia of the Soviet Union, who were invited to join the secret Order of the whistleblowers, found the strength to refuse the recruiters. But the popular favorite Faina Ranevskaya succeeded in this ...
THE PLAN WAS EXTENSIVE SIMPLE
There was a common opinion that the USSR People’s Artist Faina Georgievna Ranevskaya, being a very risky woman, was not even afraid once to reject the proposal made to her by Lieutenant-General Gribanov, the head of counterintelligence of the Soviet Union. Offer to cooperate with state security agencies.
To begin with, it was not Gribanov who made her this offer. With all his small stature, Oleg Mikhailovich possessed remarkable hypnotic power and an all-encompassing gift of persuasion - it was not without reason that his subordinates called him "little Bonaparte."
In addition, Gribanov in the intelligentsia get-togethers was known as the “tamer” of the 1956 Budapest uprising of the year, so one mention of his name a priori suppressed the will of the interlocutor.
So, make him personally an offer to Faina Georgievna to enter into a secret Order of secret informants, she would hardly have found the strength to refuse him, and so ... Not only refused, but also benefited from playing with the employee of the gebe authorities!
By virtue of his employment and other circumstances, Gribanov sent a young opera by the name of Korshun to a meeting with Ranevskaya.
It was assumed that this would be an instant recruitment to the forehead.
Assumed, as it turned out, Gribanov, and had Ranevskaya! Because she showed herself not only a brilliant stage actress, but also the greatest actress in life, circling Korshunova around her finger, like a boy. In general, the beast, not a woman!
DREAM OF HER CHILDHOOD
Korshunov began a recruiting conversation, as it was then taken, from a distance. And about the class struggle in the international arena, and about the intrigues of foreign intelligence on the territory of the USSR, told the interlocutor. Incredible also recalled the duty of every Soviet citizen: regardless of their professional affiliation, to provide all possible assistance to the state security agencies in their military work to protect the gains of socialism.
In a word, Korshunov filed himself in the worst light - acted as a lecturer of a rural club, not a recruiter. And the great actress saw him right away, guessed what her counterpart was driving her, but she didn’t file it.
Snitching in an artistic environment was always common, even under kings. All beau monde, without hiding, discussed it. It was the talk of the town. So it was Korshunov who believed that he was playing the game with closed cards, having senior trumps on his hands ... For her, all his attempts were an open secret.
Listening to the passionate monologue of Korshunov, Ranevskaya wondered how elegant she was to get away from the proposal, which, of course, should follow in conclusion of the ardent speech of the KGB tribune.
First, she conducted a dagger reconnaissance in force. She asked: "Young man, and where were you before, when I had not had time to exchange the seventh ten?"
“What are you, Faina Georgievna! - Korshunov waved his hands, who thought that the ship was leaving the pier right before his eyes. “No one gives you more than thirty, believe me ... You are just a girl compared to other artists of your theater!”
Korshunov, anticipating a deafening triumph after the overture performed, did not even notice that he had made a fatal mistake, calling him a Ranevskaya girl. Calling the girl a famous actress who was old enough to be his mother, is the height of tactlessness!
And Faina - nothing. Girl I am for you, well, then, a girl. So be it! A woman is, after all, as old as she looks ...
She lights another “white-clam”, slyly squints and at the same time so calmly says: “I am with you, young man, everything is clear ... As, however, I am also ... Without another word, I declare: I have been waiting for this for a long time the moment when the authorities will appreciate me and offer to cooperate! I am personally ready for this for a long time. N-yes ... Expose the intrigues of the imperialist creeping hated by me ... It can be said that this is the dream of my childhood. But ... there is one small "but"!
Firstly, I live in a communal apartment, and secondly, more importantly, I speak loudly in a dream. So let's go, colleague, and in another way I’m a young man and I’m not thinking since we met. Yes, you are my colleague! So, let's think about it together.
Imagine you are giving me a secret task, and I, being a mandatory and responsible person, think day and night about how best to perform it, and the thought processes, as you, of course, know from psychology, in the head of intellectuals occur continuously - day and night ... And suddenly! And suddenly at night, in a dream, I begin to discuss with myself the ways of accomplishing your task. Calling names, names, nicknames of objects, appearances, passwords, time of meetings, etc. ... And around me are neighbors who have been following me for years in a row. They are at my door around the clock, like watchdogs, lying to hear what and with whom it is Ranevskaya talking on the phone there! So what?
I tell you about my shortcomings in advance and honestly ... If I am mistaken - correct me, save me from making a fatal mistake in the future! I would even say - from unintentional betrayal ... But what if my parents gave me such a flaw - to talk loudly in a dream? I have already addressed to doctors, to the luminaries of medicine - everything is empty, they can not do anything. No sleeping pills and tranquilizers help. Maybe you, Comrade Korshman, excuse me, Comrade Korshunov ... there are some special preparations in order not to blur the secrets ... in a dream? ”
Passionate monologue Ranevskaya shook Korshunov. He left the turnout depressed and completely beaten by the iron arguments of the candidate for recruitment.
TO SPLIN, then NASMORK
After reporting Gribanov about the recruiting conversation, Korshunov, in conclusion of the report, said:
“Baba agrees to work for us, I can feel it in my guts, Oleg Mikhailovich! But ... There are objective difficulties, expressed in the features of its night physiology.
- What kind of features? - asked Gribanov. - Piss in bed, or what?
- No no! He speaks loudly in a dream ... And then, Oleg Mikhailovich, somehow it turns out to be undignified ... It’s not good, after all, for our renowned national actress to occupy a room in a communal apartment ... I suppose that in order to attract Ranevskaya to the secret to cooperate and use it effectively in our interests, we should allocate a separate apartment to it ... I have it all! ”
“Well, let us think ...” Gribanov answered vaguely, but a month later, Ranevskaya celebrated a housewarming party in a skyscraper on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment.
And then Korshunov again went on the attack, began to call the Theater of the Moscow Council, where Ranevskaya played the role, so that it would meet with her and formally legitimize the recruitment made by selecting a subscription for voluntary cooperation, nondisclosure, etc. Well, in general, comply with all the formalities.
However, each time it turned out that Faina Georgievna could not yet meet with him either because of her employment or her state of health - either she was preparing for the premiere, or she had a downturn, or a cold.
When, finally, in the telephone receiver, he heard her cooing voice, very trustingly informing him, as a colleague and comrade in wrestling, that she had started some “critical days”, and therefore she asks to reschedule the meeting, he became furious and hearts threw to her that the day after tomorrow will come to her house, to a new separate apartment for the final calculation.
The young lieutenant with elementary school education did not know who his fate pushed and what a hardened beast the “candidate for recruitment” courted by him turned out to be.
EDUCATION COSTS
The next day after Korshunov’s conversation with Ranevskaya, early in the morning, a man appeared in the reception of the KGB with the Council of Ministers of the USSR with a drunk mug and of uncertain age - from 15 to 85 - and asked to accept a statement from him.
He insisted that it be necessarily registered, because it is a matter of extreme national importance ...
A collective statement by the residents of the high-rise building on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment, where Ranevskaya had been living for a month, lay on the table by Gribanova an hour later, for it was addressed to him.
In their appeal, tenants (only ten signatures), who lived above Ranevskaya’s apartment, asked the state security bodies to deal with a certain artist (Ranevskaya’s name was not indicated in the statement), who would scream the night away about the intrigues of imperial intelligence services. She discusses how she is being torn-off from the hated adversaries and what gruel she will show them as soon as she is accepted into the state security organs as a freelancer.
An hour later, Korshunov was standing at attention in the general's office. Gribanov gave him a statement with the words:
“Put a cross on Faina, look for someone else ... Silent in a dream. Everything! Free! "
After some time, Korshunov from the agents surrounding Ranevskaya in the Theater. The Moscow Council became aware of the details of the creation of the notorious "collective statement".
The actress for two bottles of vodka seduced on this action plumbing from the housing office, the same applicant with a drunk face.
But what is called “the train is gone” and the apartment is left behind Ranevskaya!
Subsequently, Faina Georgievna, inviting her colleagues (among them there were quite a few KGB agents who worked for her, which was not her secret) for a cup of tea in her new apartment on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment, always repeated:
“Girls, you must understand me. I refused the authorities for one reason only. I cannot give many organs, but conscience does not allow me a little - damn upbringing! ”
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