Faina Ranevskaya. A Whole Life

Faina Georgievna Ranevskaya (1896—1984) — a great Russian actress, People's Artist of the USSR. She began performing on stage during the pre-revolutionary era. She appeared in iconic Soviet films "Spring", "Foundling", "Dream". She was friends with Anna Akhmatova, Lyubov Orlova, and Rostislav Plyatt. During her lifetime, she became a legend.

These memories were written by architect A.V. Shcheglov, the son of her closest friend, actress P.L. Vulf, in whose family Ranevskaya lived her entire life. She herself carried little Leshchenka Shcheglov from the maternity hospital 63 years ago, called him "surrogate grandson," and was very close to him.

The life of Faina Ranevskaya was long. With glimpses of happiness. With years of gloom. With decades of longing and loneliness. She felt uncomfortable in her own body, in the fate God had allotted to her. The tragedy of dissonance, experienced every second, created a phenomenon known as Ranevskaya. She said: "I had the sense to live life foolishly." Great, courageous foolishness — not to seek rapprochement with a foreign world. She was loved by the audience, but not by the times. It took bites piece by piece from the space around. Until it approached closely.

This edition is the third; the author supplemented the book with new facts, rare photographs, and his own drawings of "the addresses of her life."