Nikolai Burlyaev: I have stuttered since childhood, and everyone thought I was nervous

Biography

Nikolai was born into a family of engineer-economists. His paternal grandparents, Lyudmila and Diomid Burlyaev, were artists and performed under the pseudonym Filipovsky even before the revolution.

The boy never dreamed of an acting career - at the age of five, little Kolya began to stutter. However, fate brought him to cinema: on the way home from school, VGIK student Andrei Konchalovsky approached him and asked the question: “Do you want to act in films?” So the teenager became the main character of Konchalovsky’s course “short film” “The Boy and the Dove.”

“On that fateful day in the summer of 1959, I was returning from school. I walked along the usual route past the monument to Yuri Dolgoruky to my house No. 6 on Gorky Street. A well-fed young man was sitting on an iron parapet not far from the Aragvi restaurant. He beckoned with his finger: “Boy, come here!” I need you. My parents warned me that talking to strangers was dangerous, but curiosity prevailed. “I’m a director,” the guy introduced himself, “I study at VGIK, I’ve been looking for a boy like you all summer.” Thank God, I found it,” recalls Nikolai.

In 1968, Nikolai Burlyaev graduated from the acting department of the B.V. Theater School. Shchukin. And in 1975, the directing department of VGIK, workshop of M.I. Romma and L.A. Kulidzhanova.

Burlyaev's work at the Mossovet Theater

A successful debut in mainstream cinema became the reason for Burlyaev’s acquaintance with many famous artists. In particular, actor V. Shurupov, who was Kolya’s partner on the set, invited him to the Mossovet Theater. For 4 years, Nikolai Burlyaev (biography, personal life - all this will interest fans a little later) played on his stage the grandson of the hero N. Mordvinov in the production of “Leningradsky Prospekt”. In total, he took part in 150 performances and left the theater after the death of his senior partner and teacher.

Theater

The film “The Boy and the Dove” starred actor Vladimir Shurupov, who brought Burlyaev to the Mossovet Theater. At that time, Faina Ranevskaya, Vera Maretskaya, Lyubov Orlova, Nikolai Mordvinov, Rostislav Plyatt, Iya Savvina worked there. The chief director of the theater, People's Artist of the USSR Yuri Zavadsky, took over the newcomer in the production of “Leningradsky Prospekt” based on the work of Isidor Stock. The leading role in this performance was played by the eminent Nikolai Mordvinov, and Nikolai Burlyaev in the play was his stage grandson, Vasya Zabrodin. The 14-year-old artist played with the outstanding master in 150 works.

“They treated me like a son of the regiment and with great respect. They protected me from everything unnecessary. There wasn’t much professional advice, because I was treated not like a child, but like a partner who plays and rehearses next to me. But there was one epoch-making incident. At the age of five I started stuttering, so I never dreamed of becoming an actor. However, when I started acting, I learned to manage it, and my speech on stage was absolutely smooth. And now, playing for the third year with Mordvinov in the play “Leningradsky Prospekt,” I decided to stutter on stage for the sake of beauty. He stuttered once, twice - and then he began to stutter, more intensely than in life. The audience found out my secret. And when the performance ended, I went into Nikolai Dmitrievich’s dressing room and said: “Tomorrow I won’t play, I’ll leave the theater.” Mordvinov very calmly answers: “There is a law in the circus: if a person falls from a trapeze or rope, he immediately gets up and repeats this act.” The next day I came and played. If Mordvinov had not been there then, I would have given up and left,” says the artist.

In 1967, Nikolai was accepted into the troupe of the Moscow Lenin Komsomol Theater: “I worked at Lenkom for one year.” At the same time, I played one role in the Satire Theater. Having left Lenkom on the same day, I ended up in the Youth Theater, where I was only a month and did not play a single role.”

Biography[ | ]

Nikolai Burlyaev was born on August 3, 1946 in Moscow. Nikolai’s acting debut took place in the early 1960s, when he starred in Andrei Konchalovsky’s course work “The Boy and the Dove.” Then Andrei Tarkovsky, on the recommendation of Konchalovsky[2], took the young actor in the film “Ivan’s Childhood”, where Burlyaev played the role of a teenager who was deprived of his childhood by the war. Recalling those shootings, the actor said that he played not so much himself, but “Tarkovsky himself” - his movements, intonations, facial expressions[3]. At the 1962 Venice Film Festival, both films with Burlyaev's participation received prizes - the Golden Lion of St. Mark" and "Bronze Lion of St. Mark."

Together with Kolya, Vladimir Shurupov, an actor at the Mossovet Theater, starred in the film “The Boy and the Dove.” The chief director of the theater, Yuri Zavadsky, took over Nikolai Burlyaev in the play “Leningradsky Prospekt” based on the play by I. Shtok. Nikolai Mordvinov played the main role of Zabrodin in the play, and Nikolai Burlyaev was his stage grandson, 14-year-old Vasya Zabrodin. This is how Nikolai Burlyaev became a theater actor[4].

Nikolai Burlyaev and the rector of the A. M. Gorky Literary Institute B. N. Tarasov at a creative meeting with students. Spring 2010

In 1961-1964 he served at the Moscow Academic Theater. Mossovet, in 1967-1968 - at the Moscow Lenin Komsomol Theater. In 1968 he graduated from the acting department of the B. Shchukin Theater School. In 1975 he graduated from the directing department of VGIK (workshop of M. I. Romm, L. A. Kulidzhanov).

Since 1992 - General Director of the Russian Film film concern. President of the International Film Festival of Slavic and Orthodox Peoples “Golden Knight”.

Since July 26, 2010 - member of the Patriarchal Council for Culture (Russian Orthodox Church)[5].

Member of the Public Council under the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation since 2020[6].

One of the founders of the “Foundation of Orthodox Culture of Priest Pavel Florensky.”[7]

Cinema

In 1961, director Andrei Tarkovsky, on the recommendation of his friend Andrei Konchalovsky, took the young actor into the film “Ivan’s Childhood.” The film takes place during the Great Patriotic War. Burlyaev played the orphan Ivan, who was deprived of his mother and sister by the Nazis. He goes to a military unit and becomes an elusive scout behind enemy lines.

“I didn’t know for a long time that Tarkovsky treated me so positively from the very beginning. On the contrary, for a long time I was not sure that he would take me for the main role. And he did not demonstrate to me in any way the attitude that I read about in his memoirs. After he passed away. They said that he went to the project only because he had four guarantors: actor Kolya Burlyaev, cameraman Vadim Yusov, artist Evgeny Chernyaev and composer Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov. But he never voiced it. Moreover, I was a child, why spoil me,” says Nikolai. “He talked to me as an adult, prepared me for the fact that now I would have perhaps the most difficult scenes in my life. I played the war. I lived through the war."

Burlyaev's debut works were awarded with awards and positive reviews from critics in different countries. At the 1962 Venice Film Festival, both films with the participation of the young actor received prestigious prizes - the Golden Lion of St. Mark" and "Bronze Lion of St. Mark."

Soviet directors began to snatch up the talented boy - Alexander Mitta invited him to star in the film “Without Fear and Reproach,” and Igor Talankin invited him to appear in the films “Introduction” and “Blizzard.”

Then Nikolai Burlyaev again starred with Tarkovsky in the famous film “Andrei Rublev”. His hero is Boriska. The son of a foundry master who knows the secret of casting a bell for the temple belfry. However, due to strict Soviet censorship, the film was shelved, and was released only in 1971, and in 1988 under a different name - “The Passion of Andrei”.

"Road check"

In 1972, another work with the participation of Burlyaev was ready - “Road Check” by Alexei German. Based on the military prose of Yuri German (documentary story “Operation Happy New Year!”). Nikolai got a small role as a policeman.

Plot: Winter 1942. The partisan movement is expanding in Nazi-occupied land. Cold, villages burned to the ground, enemies lurking everywhere, the constant whistling of bullets. To save his soldiers from starvation, the detachment commander, Lieutenant Ivan Lokotkov, decides to storm the fascist train with food. The station where the train is parked is carefully guarded, and getting there is extremely difficult. The repentant policeman Lazarev, who is well acquainted with station procedures, undertakes to guide the partisans. Having gone to serve his enemies, he renounced his homeland, and is now trying to earn forgiveness in every possible way, although he understands that this is practically impossible.

The main characters were performed by: Rolan Bykov, Anatoly Solonitsyn, Vladimir Zamansky, Oleg Borisov, Fyodor Odinokov, Anda Zaitse, Gennady Dyudyaev, Maya Bulgakova.

This war drama was released only in 1985.

Then the actor starred in the Soviet-Czechoslovak film “The Player” by Alexei Batalov. Screen adaptation of the novel of the same name by F.M. Dostoevsky. He was entrusted with the image of Alexei Ivanovich. And after this film he was banned from filming.

“After the film “The Player” there was an unspoken ban on the USSR State Cinema Committee for five years. By the way, along with me, such wonderful actors as Rolan Bykov and Inna Churikova were included in the “black list”. It was believed that we had a non-Soviet type of appearance and that we did not fit into the type of builders of communism,” says Nikolai.

"War Romance"

In 1983, Nikolai Burlyaev played one of his most famous roles in Pyotr Todorovsky’s drama “A Military Field Romance.” His hero is Alexander Netuzhilin, a former soldier who met a beautiful nurse in the realities of peacetime.

Plot: Just before the start of the fighting, a young soldier fell in love with a beauty living with a magnificent and heroic battalion commander. The war, through which the soldier carried his love as a symbol of beauty, peace, his youth and purity, is over. Sasha meets Lyuba Antipova after the war, selling pies at the Central Department Store, and the old feeling flares up in him, despite the fact that he is married to a teacher, sweet and very intelligent.

The artist’s partners on the set were Natalya Andreichenko, Inna Churikova, Katya Yudina, Zinovy ​​Gerdt, Elena Kozelkova, Victor Proskurin, Vsevolod Shilovsky.

The melodrama received more than a dozen international awards and was even nominated for an Oscar.

Among the notable works of the actor of that period are Volodya Kostsov, “Living Rainbow” - Nikolai Ivanovich, “Stove Makers” - Alexey Trofimovich Grekov, “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” - Ivan Fedorovich Shponka, “Someone else’s Wife and Husband Under the Bed” - Tvorogov , “Lermontov” – Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov.

In 1994, Burlyaev starred in the serious role of Yeshua Ha-Notsri in the film adaptation of the novel by M.A. Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita", directed by Yuri Kara. The film was released a decade after filming was completed.

The artist says about the long path to the difficult image: “I have been working towards this role all my life. Over the years and in different roles, I tried this image... At first I was offered the role of Ivan Bezdomny. I came to Yuri Kara to audition and immediately said that I would not play the proposed role, but that there was a role that I could agree to. He asked: “Who?” I answered: “Yeshua Ha-Nozri.” He was surprised, but did a test. And she was so convincing that I was approved. But on the same day when they announced to me that I had been approved, I immediately refused this role, realizing that there are images that a sinful person should not touch. A year passed, the painting began to have problems, and it was preserved. And a year later I received an offer again. And then he already agreed. Now I don't think I would do it. But then, in that moment, on that day, I took on such responsibility. And when we started working in Jerusalem, where all the scenes with Yeshua Ha-Nozri and Pontius Pilate were filmed, all my work had a feeling of calm, harmonious, prayerful and joyful. There was no feeling of sin because I was doing something forbidden. There was only help, very great spiritual help, which I felt all the time. I lived separately from the group, fasted, prayed and prepared for the moment when the camera would be turned on.

The main thing for me was to fulfill the spiritual work that I got in that film. I didn't think about how the film would turn out. But now I wouldn’t take on this role, but then I had the courage to do it.”

The film stars Russian cinema stars - Viktor Rakov, Anastasia Vertinskaya, Mikhail Ulyanov, Valentin Gaft, Alexander Filippenko, Vladimir Steklov, Viktor Pavlov, Alexandra Zakharova, Sergei Garmash and others.

And then Nikolai disappeared from the screens. The actor himself explains: “After the film “The Master and Margarita,” where I played Yeshua Ha-Nozri, I refused almost all offers for 17 years. I thought: “What else can I do after such a role?”

A new meeting between the audience and Nikolai Burlyaev took place in modern cinema. In Pyotr Todorovsky’s film “What a Wonderful Game,” the artist portrayed the sickly front-line soldier Mikhail Mikhailovich. The plot of the film is based on the story of the antics of four art school students who forgot about the terrible time in which they live - it was 1950.

In 2003, Burlyaev created the image of Fyodor Tyutchev in the film “The Love and Truth of Fyodor Tyutchev.” The lyrical film featured a brilliant female acting ensemble - Natalya Bondarchuk, Irina Bezrukova, Anna Mikhalkova. Nikolai later appeared in the television series “Admiral” and the historical drama “Gogol. Nearest".

By 2020, the artist’s filmography includes about 100 roles in various films and projects.

Director

In 1975, Nikolai Burlyaev received a diploma as a director from VGIK. His first independent work was one of the short stories in the film almanac “Poshekhon Antiquity” based on the stories of Saltykov-Shchedrin. In the story "Vanka-Cain" he appeared as the director and main character.

At the XXIII International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen, “Vanka-Cain” was awarded the prize for the best film adaptation of a literary work.

In 1987, Nikolai filmed his own project “Lermontov”, in which he acted as a director, screenwriter and leading actor. It is worth noting that his relatives – his wife, son and mother-in-law – also took part in the filming. Work on the film lasted six years. The film features drawings by Lermontov, and the poet’s poems are read by the director himself.

He says about this work: “I consciously wanted to make a film about a hero of our time, about someone whom the younger generation would want to imitate. I wanted to show an example of self-sacrifice, conscious feat in the name of those high ideals with which Lermontov came to life.”

However, the film received a negative assessment from film critics, and the director was accused of “nationalist extremism.” The film "Lermontov" has never been shown on television.

Next, the director released the drama “Everything Is Ahead.” An adaptation of the novel by the famous soil writer Vasily Belov, raising the problems of the harmful influence of Western civilization on the Russian mentality. The film stars Tatyana Petrova, Boris Nevzorov, Vladimir Gostyukhin, Aristarkh Livanov, Larisa Udovichenko, Sergey Sazontyev, Alexander Porokhovshchikov, Tatyana Konyukhova.

The childhood of Nikolai Burlyaev

According to the criteria of the post-war period, the future actor was a late child, since at the time of his birth his father was already thirty-nine years old, and his mother was thirty-five. His brothers had a great influence on him. He was especially close to Boris, who was one of the fairly successful “children of Soviet cinema” of the 60s and began acting in the 4th grade. First, he had a small role in the film “Two Friends”, and then in the film “The Ulyanov Family”.

From early childhood, Nikolai dreamed of following in Bori's footsteps. However, his parents believed that the path to the theater stage and cinema was closed for their youngest son, since he stuttered severely due to psychological trauma suffered in early childhood. Nevertheless, at the age of 11, Kolya boldly went with his brother to a screen test to participate in the filming of the film “History Lessons.” Since director Leo Arnstam chose Boris, Nikolai told his family that he had changed his mind about becoming an actor and would rather become an architect.

Writer

In 2011, Nikolai Petrovich wrote the book “Life in Three Volumes. Selected Literary Works". The publication consists of three volumes - “My Lermontov”, “Fragments of God’s Art” and “Slavic Crown. Chronicle of the "Golden Knight".

“I became a director, but time will tell whether I became a writer. Although I have already been accepted as a member of the Russian Writers’ Union, and now there has been a presentation of my first big book, which contains almost all or much of what I have written in prose, poetry, as well as journalism and memoirs about my friends over 35 years,” the writer clarifies.

Personal life

The actor was married several times. The first wife was actress Natalya Varley. The 20-year-old boy fell in love with her as soon as he saw her in the film “Prisoner of the Caucasus.” But their marriage did not last long, three years.

He brought Burlyaev together with his second wife in the film “How the Steel Was Tempered.” But a year earlier, looking at Natalya Bondarchuk in Solaris, the artist decided: “She will be with me.” He knew about Natalya’s relationship with her idol Tarkovsky and very carefully, in her own words, brought her out of a state of complete despair after their breakup. The young couple had no money, but it was at that moment that Burlyaev met his first confessor, Archimandrite Alypiy, in the Pskov-Pechersk Lavra, and he gave him a precious golden cross, gave him some money and parting words: “It will be easy for you until you are 30, and then it will be difficult. But you can handle it." That's how it all turned out.

Over the 17 years of marriage to Bondarchuk, they separated and came back together several times, but they are still spiritually close. Their firstborn, Ivan, became a composer. And daughter Masha, knowing that dad did not want the children to have an acting career, entered GITIS secretly and invited her father only to the graduation performance. Natalya respects and treats Burlyaev’s third wife well; the children were at his wedding.

Burlyaev’s third chosen one was also an actress - Shatova Inga Olegovna. She helps her husband by working as director of the Golden Knight film forum. They have two children together - son Georgy and daughter Daria. The artist admits: “We have been together for 27 years, she gave me two children. What a difference in age, only 21 years. She loves the children, me, our home. She is a wonderful person, a caring mother."

Nikolai Burlyaev spoke about the details of his personal life in the program “The Fate of a Man with Boris Korchevnikov” on the Rossiya 1 TV channel.

Personal life and wife of Nikolai Burlyaev

The personal life of creative people rarely goes well. There are too many temptations around, and besides, you constantly have to be torn between your family and the stage or film set. Rare couples withstand such tests. So Burlyaev had only three legal marriages, the first of which was concluded at a fairly young age.

His first wife was the star of one film, the beautiful Natalya Varley. The young couple was one of the most beautiful in Soviet cinema, but the marriage lasted only a few years. The couple separated, and there were no children from this union.

Burlyaev and Natalya Varley

Some time later, Burlyaev became related to the family of Bondarchuk Sr., marrying his daughter Natalya. She gave birth to two children, who also followed in the footsteps of their parents and devoted themselves to acting. And the eldest son Ivan even gave his father two wonderful grandchildren.

Today, Burlyaev’s wife is his work colleague and creative muse Inga Shatova, who is almost 20 years younger.

With Inga Shatova

The couple is raising three beautiful children and continues to realize themselves in a variety of creative projects. Over the years of his acting career, Burlyaev starred in more than 30 roles and was remembered by the audience for his extraordinary and controversial images.

Interview

About auteur cinema

“I practically don’t see any auteurism in domestic feature films. I know two or three such directors: Mikhalkov, Sokurov, Khotinenko... But three units for all domestic cinema is very little. In animated films, I can name Alexander Petrov, he produces real art, a kind of Tarkovsky in animation. There are excellent documentarians, but there are very few of them. Colleagues rushed after Hollywood, trying to integrate into Russian film distribution, which has become a branch of American film distribution, they are not successful, but they are trying, realizing that otherwise the films will not be box office.”

"Golden Knight"

“This happened in 1992 at the turning point of Russia’s destinies, when many began to open their own businesses. Then, if you remember, there was a collapse. Acting and directing work in the country began to fade away. And I began to think: what to do next? How to live further? One night I had the idea to create an all-Slavic film festival. No, not even that - at first I thought of trying to gather all the healthy forces of Russian cinema. But already our first “Golden Knight” became pan-Slavic, because he was born on the days of the holiday of Slavic culture and writing...

Look how the boundaries of our film forum have expanded: from Russian cinema to pan-Slavic cinema. And then after a year or two we opened our doors to the Chinese, Japanese, Indians, Americans, anyone with an open heart. For everyone who seeks the truth and the Lord, and who lives up to the motto of the “Golden Knight” - “For moral Christian ideals, for the elevation of the human soul”...

I was looking for an image and a name. And somehow everything came at once, and so did the motto. I wanted my film forum to be named in Russian - beautiful, strong, joyful, harmonious.

When I started thinking about the motto, it somehow quickly came to me. It was sort of left to me by Andrei Tarkovsky. He himself spoke about the same thing at the time when “The Golden Knight” appeared. He lived in Italy then and I saw his last interview. He said: “Cinema should be poetic, it should elevate the human soul.” And here, in Russia, I spoke about the same thing, so this is precisely the motto of the “Golden Knight” - “For the elevation of the human soul.”

Path to God

“I was secretly baptized as a child. I learned about this later, in my youth. But as a child, I went to church, my mother and grandmother took me there with them. Then, on the set of Andrei Rublev, Tarkovsky put the first tin prop cross around my neck. After Rublev, I began to think more and more about what faith is and what Orthodoxy is. And little by little, step by step, I entered this narrow path to the narrow gates of salvation - a very narrow and very narrow endless path. Now I have only taken the first steps. I cannot claim that I am such an orthodox Orthodoxy. But I want to be Orthodox, because this faith has been bequeathed to us.

It is very difficult. We must constantly think about the flesh and spirit. But our ancestors lived with this faith. With this faith they became a great people and took possession of a huge space. With this faith, they defeated the enemy and brought Russia to the world championship.”

Social and political position of Nikolai Burlyaev

As already mentioned, Burlyaev always emphasizes that he is an Orthodox person and speaks out sharply against the propaganda of non-traditional sexual orientation. Moreover, he openly calls himself a homophobe, and homosexuality - “sin” and “fornication.”

On March 11, 2014, the actor signed an appeal from cultural figures of the Russian Federation in support of Vladimir Putin’s policies in Crimea and Ukraine.

Now you know which films Nikolai Burlyaev starred in. You also know the actor’s biography, family and views, so now you can better understand what he wanted to convey to the audience in this or that film.

Prizes and awards

• Order of St. Peter of Cetinje (2015)
• Order of Saint Nino Equal to the Apostles (2012)
• Order of Honor (2011)
• People's Artist of the Russian Federation (1996)
• Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1984)
• Laureate of the USSR State Prize (1984)
• Lenin Komsomol Prize (1976)
• Awarded the Orders of the Holy All-Praised Apostle Andrew the First-Called and St. Sergius of Radonezh

Based on materials from Wikipedia and websites: , kino-teatr.ru, culture.ru, inter-view.org, uznayvse.ru, 24smi.org.

Filmography: Actor

• Gogol. The Closest (2009)
• Admiral (2008)
• Bread of That Winter (2008)
• Love and Truth by Fyodor Tyutchev (2003)
• What a wonderful game (1995)
• The Master and Margarita (1994)
• Web (1992)
• Ask and it will be given to you (1992)
• Weekend with a Killer (1992)
• Lord Hear My Prayer (1991)
• Everything is ahead (1990)
• Russian Roulette (1990)
• High Blood (1989)
• Wings are not a burden for birds (1989)
• Souvenir for the Prosecutor (1989)
• Lermontov (1986)
• The Youth of Bambi (1986)
• Bambi's Childhood (1985)
• Counterstrike (1985)
• Someone else's wife and husband under the bed (1984)
• War field novel (1983)
• Living Rainbow (1982)
• Stovemakers (1982)
• Camila (1981)
• A few days in the life of I.I. Oblomov (1979)
• Grandmothers said in two... (1979)
• Little Tragedies (1979)
• Vacation in September (1979)
• Poshekhon antiquity (1977)
• Always with me... (1976)
• Tryn-grass (1976)
• Target Selection (1974)
• Ivan da Marya (1974)
• Under a Stone Sky (1974)
• Player (1972)
• On the corner of Arbat and Bubulinas Street (1972)
• Committee of 19 (1972)
• Committee of 19 (1971)
• Theft (1971)
• Telegram (1971)
• Road Check (1971)
• Legend (1970)
• Risk (1970)
• Mom Got Married (1969)
• Family Happiness (1969)
• Two comrades served (1968)
• Andrey Rublev (1966)
• Boy and Girl (1966)
• A Hero of Our Time (1965)
• Blizzard (1964)
• Strict Game (1964)
• Without Fear and Reproach (1962)
• Introduction (1962)
• Ivan's childhood (1962)
• Mishka, Seryoga and me (1962)
• Court of Lunatics (1961)
• The Boy and the Dove (1960)