People's Artist of the RSFSR Anastasia Vertinskaya was the first wife of Nikita Mikhalkov.
They met and...
...love jumped out in front of us, like a killer jumps out of the ground in an alley, and struck us both at once.
These were student years - the future spouses met at the Shchukin School. Even then, their names were familiar to the public, Anastasia played Assol and Ophelia, and Nikita played the role in the popular “I Walk Through Moscow,” which later became a cult favorite.
The whole country followed their love story with fascination. The actress of incredible beauty and the amazingly charismatic and charming director loved each other even after the divorce and, most likely, still love each other. At least Nikita Sergeevich is convinced that Vertinskaya still has feelings for him that have not cooled down.
"Blown the roof off"
In 1966, lovers Mikhalkov and Vertinskaya celebrated their wedding, and before that the couple had a son, who was named Stepan.
The director, in his autobiography entitled “Territory of My Love,” openly admitted that he was “simply blown away” by love. He said that Smoktunovsky and Mironov were lining up for Vertinskaya’s attention, and her eyes, which reflected the entire sky of the world, struck Nikita Sergeevich to the very heart. He fell madly in love with a young beauty, who actually did not immediately reciprocate his feelings.
Mikhalkov admitted that after “Scarlet Sails,” Nastya was carried in the arms of the whole country, and the no less bright Gutierre from “Amphibian Man” added even more popularity to the actress. Vertinskaya toured throughout the Soviet Union, work on Hamlet was in full swing, Anastasia was preparing for filming. Nikita Sergeevich recalls that time, adding that he himself was, compared to her, a nobody. His popularity after the film “I Walk Around Moscow” was insignificant compared to Nastya’s popularity.
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“I must admit, this inaccessibility of Nastya really “broken” me back then, it besieged me internally. There was not even a ghostly chance of winning!.. I could only punch one of Nastya’s next suitors in the face. So to speak, “for self-comfort.” And he beat.”
Nikita Mikhalkov admitted why his father hated children
On Wednesday, Nikita Mikhalkov and his sons Artem and Stepan, as well as Yegor Konchalovsky, gathered at the same table to remember their loved one. Urgent matters prevented Andrei Konchalovsky from joining the evening of memories. At first, they figured out who was the beloved grandson of the famous children's writer. It is believed that this is Egor. But he denied such assumptions: “Sergei Vladimirovich loved all the children of the country equally.” Stepan Mikhalkov confirmed: “The whole country was his grandchildren.” And I remembered how the eldest Mikhalkov was informed about the birth of his great-granddaughter, Stepan’s daughter. Mikhalkov responded: “Great-granddaughter? What's the news anyway? He himself remained in childhood until his last days. His wife Natalya Konchalovskaya always repeated: “Seryozha is always 13 years old.”
Nikita Mikhalkov remembered childhood nihilism, how he argued with his father. One day they were driving in the car and he said something disparaging about his poetry. Sergei Vladimirovich stopped the car and said: “They are feeding you. Go away!" Nikita had to walk 20 km. The education system was tough. Only in adulthood did the son realize his father’s genius: “He hated children, just as children hate each other. His poems are devoid of adult assessment. How much time has passed, how many governments have changed, but his poems live on because they are devoid of edification. I recently discovered his poems - they contain diamond after diamond. How brave and amazing they are.”
When journalists pestered Sergei Mikhalkov with questions about how he managed to exist well under any government, he replied: “The Volga flows under all regimes.” According to Nikita Mikhalkov, his father had colossal immunity, and he never lied, he believed in what he said. That’s why I wrote in the book of the Stalin Museum in Gori: “I believed him. He trusted me."
"How do you feel when you see women you've had affairs with?" - the son asked his father. “Horror,” he answered. This was all Mikhalkov. He forgot who he helped, hated when they thanked him, for the sake of justice he “pointed at bayonets.” “Yes, he was a courtier,” admits Nikita Mikhalkov, “but for him power was a cross, not a dream. He loved awards, he put them on and said: “Better on the chest than on the pillow in front.” And he never lost his sense of humor and self-irony.”
When Victoria Tokareva noticed that all the Mikhalkovs had big mouths, Sergei Vladimirovich replied: “It’s more convenient to shout ‘hurray’.” He married in his mature years a woman who is 50 years younger than him. And why all? “He was never old. Many people wither and become ugly in old age. Even everything. All old people are disgusting. And he has aged beautifully,” says Tokareva. When the journalist flattered him: “What wonderful children you have,” he replied: “I accept orders.”
It turned out that Sergei Vladimirovich’s father was engaged in poultry farming, and even wrote a book about what to do to make chickens lay eggs better. And Sergei Vladimirovich saved the Panteleimon Monastery on Athos. The abbot there complained: “The Greek authorities are waiting for us to die out and everything will come under the jurisdiction of the local church.” 7 monks lived there. Already in Moscow, Mikhalkov whispered to Brezhnev: “There are countless treasures in Athos.” And they sent young monks there. Since the wife of the elder Mikhalkov - a member of the Supreme Council, chairman of the Writers' Union - was a believer, a priest came to the house. Sergei Vladimirovich quickly left. And to those who tried to attack him, he said jokingly: “My wife is 10 years older than me. I can’t change it.” In general, he found a way out of any situation.
Watch the video on the topic: “Mikhalkov countered Tokareva’s remark with a witty joke about his father”
01:21
See photo report on the topic: 105 years since the birth of Sergei Mikhalkov: memories of the writer’s family
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How they met
At one of the parties where Nikita Sergeevich was present, the doorbell rang and Anastasia entered the room with Andrei Mironov. It so happened that Nikita and Nastya sat opposite each other. Everything was calm, nothing foreshadowed a “storm”.
And then their eyes met, and then again. Nikita felt Vertinskaya’s long and intent gaze and... disappeared.
I woke up on the staircase on the floor below Dykhovichny’s apartment. We stood by the window, hugging and kissing, endlessly and uncontrollably... If it had been a summer day, I would have called what happened sunstroke. I never asked Nastya what happened then, nor did I ask her why she came there - intentionally or accidentally. The mixed feeling of amazing happiness and terrible sin did not leave me.
We connected, and it was incredible, magical, and Lena suddenly found herself outside the brackets of my life... The feeling of guilt in front of her did not leave me all my life. Still doesn't leave.
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I’m not making excuses for myself, but Nastya simply blew my mind.
We never returned for Vanya’s birthday. She literally took me away from there - although the point, of course, was not about who took whom, it was clear that if she had not wanted this, nothing would have ever happened in my life. I did not have that power of charm and many other qualities that could conquer her. But I remember the feeling of that electric vortex, that cosmic magnetism that arose...
From the moment we left Dykhovichny, I was already flying head over heels, not making out the road. I didn’t even fully realize what was happening to me, what world I was in...
Their romance blossomed, first the young people lived in the actor’s apartment, then in the country.
Unexpectedly not cynical. Mikhalkov about his love for Vertinskaya
The circumstances of our first meeting have long been erased from memory, only the irrefutable fact that I was rejected was remembered.
More precisely, they were not even rejected, but simply not noticed. It’s as if I’m not in the world. We were, as they say, in different “weight categories”. After Scarlet Sails, the whole country went crazy for Nastya; as soon as she appeared somewhere, enthusiastic crowds immediately formed around her. Soon, the equally bright Gutierre from “Amphibian Man” was added to the role of Assol. Nastya toured a lot, traveled with creative teams throughout the Soviet Union... Work on Hamlet was already underway, Nastya was preparing for filming. Just think about it! Shakespeare, Kozintsev, Ophelia!.. And who was I? The boy from “The Adventures of Krosh” and “Clouds over Borsk”? Funny! Incomparable values! Of course, the film “I Walk Through Moscow” was a success, people began to recognize me on the streets, but it was incomparable to Nastya’s popularity! I understood that we couldn’t be together: she had flown too high... Frankly, this inaccessibility of Nastya really “broke me down” and besieged me internally. There was not even a ghostly chance of winning!.. I could only punch one of Nastya’s next suitors in the face. So to speak, “for self-comfort.” And he beat.
Although waiting for many hours with a bouquet of flowers at the entrance in the hope of a chance meeting is not my style, I survived enough under Nastya’s windows. I don’t know if she ever loved me the way I was in love with her. At that time she had such a choice! Such solitaire lay in front of her... She could “take anyone off the shelf.” But eminence was not important and did not need her; she herself was Vertinsky’s daughter.
Well? No, no, it’s not fate. And, as sometimes happens in my younger years, for some time I repeated to myself: “Nothing, someday you will regret this. I’ll become..." - then came the options: Hero of the Soviet Union, Marshal Zhukov, a brilliant artist, singer, and so on and so forth. (In general, back in my school years, when it was rather difficult for me to study and when, I must say, the teachers completely deservedly scolded me humiliatingly, I later dreamed that I was a Hero of the Soviet Union and in a cloak on a horse I was riding up the stairs to the fourth floor of my school - my the horse brings me straight to the class of my main offender, a mathematician, and I, having slightly opened the hem of my cloak, casually show her the Golden Star of the Hero. By the way, perhaps these dreams served as a subconscious prototype for the scene in the film “Urga”, when one of the heroes rides into hotel on horseback.) And so Nastya, over time, had to bitterly regret “everything.” In the meantime... no, that means no. At that time, either Andrei Mironov or Smoktunovsky (or maybe both) was courting her - in general, one of the unattainable people. And maybe out of spite for Nastya, or maybe to forget myself, I even had an affair with one of our mutual friends, Lena, a talented ballerina who later made a brilliant career as a choreographer for the best dance couples in figure skating.
When the party was already in full swing, the doorbell rang and Nastya entered the room, accompanied by Andrei Mironov. They sat down at the table - I was diagonally away from them. Outwardly, everything was extremely friendly, calm and did not foreshadow any surprises. But by chance our eyes met, then again... And then I felt her gaze again - now long and intent. Then failure, loss of consciousness in reality.
I woke up on the staircase on the floor below Dykhovichny’s apartment. We stood by the window, hugging and kissing, endlessly and uncontrollably... If it had been a summer day, I would have called what happened sunstroke. I never asked Nastya what happened then, nor did I ask her why she came there - intentionally or accidentally. The mixed feeling of amazing happiness and terrible sin did not leave me.
We connected, and it was incredible, magical, and Lena suddenly found herself outside the brackets of my life... The feeling of guilt in front of her did not leave me all my life. Still doesn't leave. I’m not making excuses for myself, but Nastya simply blew my mind.
We never returned for Vanya’s birthday. She literally took me away from there - although the point, of course, was not about who took whom, it was clear that if she had not wanted this, nothing would have ever happened in my life. I did not have that power of charm and many other qualities that could conquer her. But I remember the feeling of that electric vortex, that cosmic magnetism that arose... From the moment we left Dykhovichny, I was already flying head over heels, not making out the road. I didn’t even fully realize what was happening to me, what world I was in...
Looking back, I understand that I am not able to isolate a single day, week or even month from that chaos. Everything merged into a continuous party - Nastya and I wandered from one company to another: drinking, singing, talking. True, I still fought. Endlessly! He drank and beat. For what? Yes for everything! For a word, for a look... I didn’t need a serious reason. As a pioneer, I was always ready, on edge. I ended up in the police station - you can lose count.
I experienced absolutely amazing feelings for Nastya, which are difficult to express in words, somehow identify and define. And he was very afraid of losing her. Many young men are afraid of the news that their girlfriend is expecting a child, but when I learned about Nastya’s pregnancy, I was absolutely happy. I walked through Moscow at night with an idiotic smile on my face and thought: “That’s it, now it definitely won’t “fall off”, it will be mine, it won’t go anywhere! Stepan was born, exactly like me, and this put an end to the gossip that he was not my child, but Andrei Mironov or Innokenty Smoktunovsky.
Children of Stepan Mikhalkov
The son of the famous director Nikita Mikhalkov and actress Anastasia Vertinskaya never had a desire to continue the career of his parents; he chose a different path and became a restaurateur, although he received a director's education. This work brings him pleasure, a good income and allows him to live a luxurious life. Until recently, Stepan was married to Alla Sivakova, with whom he lived for twelve years. Children of Stepan Mikhalkov
– Alexandra, Vasily and Peter were always surrounded by prosperity and care. Their mother, a former model Alla Sivakova, in addition to raising Stepan Mikhalkov’s children, helped him in business - she did accounting, handled supplies and personnel for his restaurant business. He met her thanks to his friend, and the very next day after meeting, the young people began to live together.
In the photo - Stepan Mikhalkov with his daughter and Elizaveta Ilyina
Three years later, their daughter Sasha was born, and although Stepan was already twenty-six years old by that time, he was not yet ready for the birth of a child, hoping that Stepan Mikhalkov’s children would begin to appear on light, somewhere around the age of thirty, not earlier. Two years after the birth of his daughter, Stepan officially registered with her mother, with whom he had previously lived in a civil marriage. When Stepan’s first son was born, and then his second, he took this much calmer. Five years after the birth of his youngest son Peter, Stepan met fashion model Elizaveta Ilyina, who later became his second wife.
In the photo - Stepan Mikhalkov with his sons and young wife
Lisa is seventeen years younger than Stepan, but she has also achieved a lot in her profession. She began her career as a fashion model very early and has already repeatedly taken part in fashion shows in London, Milan, Paris, and New York. They played a luxurious wedding, for which the groom did not spare a fabulous sum - the bride’s wedding dress alone cost him approximately a million rubles. There were a lot of people at the celebration, but Stepan’s father was not among the guests. They say that Nikita Sergeevich did not approve of his son’s decision to marry a second time, leaving his first wife with three children.
Almost four years have passed since this wedding, and during this time the passions managed to subside a little, and everyone close to them got used to the idea that Stepan had a new wife. Stepan Mikhalkov's children managed to get along with her and spend a lot of time in their father's new family. Now the sons of Sergei Nikitich are fourteen and eleven years old, they are schoolchildren. And the eldest daughter Sasha, having graduated from high school as an external student, at the age of fifteen became a student at the Faculty of History of Moscow State University, from which she successfully graduated quite recently. Also look: Anastasia Stotskaya, children and Zinaida Reich, children
