Relatives of Alexander Porokhovshchikov revealed details of the death of his wife

The artist's unusual origins

Alexander Porokhovshchikov (photo below) received his name in honor of his grandfather-inventor of the first tank in Tsarist Russia and great-grandfather-philanthropist, repressed by the Communists.

From childhood, the future artist became accustomed to being proud of his ancestors and dreamed of glorifying the family name no worse than theirs. However, in the USSR, having noble roots and being the grandson of a repressed person was very dangerous. And if you consider that Porokhovshchikov’s mother was the sister of Bishop Alexy I of the Russian Orthodox Church, then it is not difficult to guess that a young man with such a pedigree had no hopes for a bright future.

Misfortunes began to haunt Porokhovshchikov almost from birth. After his grandfather was arrested, the artist’s father, Shalva Barabadze, fearing to be associated with the family of an enemy of the people, left his wife with their two-year-old son. However, God turned out to be merciful, and soon Galina Porokhovshchikova met a worthy man who was not afraid to marry her and take care of young Alexander. So the boy got a stepfather - the famous Soviet architect Mikhail Dudin. He took the disgraced Porokhovshchikovs from Moscow to Magnitogorsk and raised the boy as his son, thanks to which he and the future artist developed a very close, trusting relationship for the rest of their lives.

The childhood of Alexander Porokhovshchikov

The future famous Soviet and Russian artist Alexander Porokhovshchikov was born on January 31, 1939.
in Moscow. His childhood was far from simple, although the boy, needless to say, was born into a family of former aristocrats. His great-grandfather was a philanthropist and a famous member of the nobility, his grandfather was the inventor of the world's first tank and all-terrain vehicle. Little 2-year-old Sasha was abandoned by his father, so he was raised by his stepfather Mikhail Dudin, who, I must say, turned out to be a very good person. He helped the Porokhovshchikov family a lot.

Alexander Porokhovshchikov in his youth

The future people's favorite Alexander Porokhovshchikov did not study well at school, bringing home only “twos” and “threes”. He was taught both music and science, as was customary in noble families; but nothing came of it. At that time, young Porokhovshchikov spent a lot of time on the street, fighting and walking with his comrades.

After Stalin's death, Alexander's family moved to Chelyabinsk, where his adoptive father received the position of chief architect. There Sasha graduated from school, which, I must say, he seriously skipped due to constant fights.

The childhood years of the grandson of an enemy of the people

Changing his last name and place of residence did not help - even after moving from Magnitogorsk to Chelyabinsk, the boy was branded as a relative of an enemy of the people.

Alexander Porokhovshchikov often recalled one sad incident: he once came to school wearing a pioneer tie, but his classmates complained to the teacher, because relatives of the repressed were forbidden to wear it. After the reprimand at recess, the whole class gathered to beat Porokhovshchikov. He desperately defended himself and seriously injured one of his attackers with an ink pen. For this “misdemeanor,” the boy was transferred to another school, where all the hooligans and problem children in the city were actually “exiled.”

In order not to become a punching bag for his new classmates, the guy enrolled in the boxing section and soon became one of the most notorious hooligans.

Choice of profession and student years

Despite having hooligan friends, Alexander Shalvovich Porokhovshchikov always remembered his great ancestors. He also dreamed of glorifying his mother’s famous surname, which he took for himself when he grew up. In early childhood, he wanted to become a traveler, then a jazzman, and only a little later became interested in the profession of a doctor.

After school, the ambitious young man entered the Chelyabinsk Medical Institute and studied there for 3 years. However, in 1960 the family had the opportunity to return to Moscow, and Alexander was forced to leave his studies.

In the capital, a medical career no longer seemed so desirable to the young man, but he became interested in theater and decided to become an artist. But they were in no hurry to admit the talented young man with a proud disposition to the theater universities of the capital. To get closer to this environment, Alexander Porokhovshchikov got a job as a props master at the Theater. Vakhtangov.

Watching famous artists work from behind the scenes, he desperately dreamed of becoming one of them. To do this, he studied to be an actor on the evening shift at the Russian Theater Society. And after some time, I was still able to enter the Shchukin School.

Medical Institute, first steps to the theater

Alexander did not immediately become an actor. After school, he entered the Chelyabinsk Medical Institute, he really liked studying there. He has the warmest memories associated with this time; then he was on duty in hospitals, where he helped the sick. Sasha was a real cheerful fellow and, at the same time, kind-hearted. He loved to amuse old ladies. It used to amuse everyone so much that many fell from their hospital beds.

Alexander Porokhovshchikov did not start his acting career right away

Studying at medical school helped Alexander a lot. Now he knew exactly how to portray an elderly man. Just “cough-cough” is not enough, an elderly person does not do anything for nothing, he weighs every movement, every word.

In 1960, young Porokhovshchikov returned to Moscow; he wanted to become famous and restore his family name to its former glory. Thanks to his mother, he was hired at the Vakhtangov Theater as a furniture maker and props maker. A year later he entered the evening department of Shchuka. He had a very subtle sense of humor and could make almost anyone laugh. Apparently, this is why he was soon invited to the Satire Theater as a witty actor-comedian.

Alexander Porokhovshchikov - theater actor

After graduating in 1966, the young artist received a place at the Moscow Satire Theater, but was faced with the fact that for the sake of leading roles he had to curry favor with directors. It seemed unworthy for the artist to behave this way, so he did not receive any special roles during these years. His greatest achievements in this theater were his participation in Mark Zakharov’s productions “Profitable Place” (Belogubov) and “Banquet” (Chairman of the District Executive Committee).

The working atmosphere at the Satire Theater soon caused deep disappointment in the young artist, and he left there in 1971, deciding to leave the profession.

From the depression into which Alexander Porokhovshchikov fell when he quit, Yuri Lyubimov pulled him out by inviting the disgraced actor to work at the iconic Taganka Theater. However, Porokhovshchikov was never able to truly find his place there. His most famous roles of that period are Britvin in Kruglyansky Bridge and Claudius in Hamlet.

The artist became more or less “one of his own” only at the Moscow Theater. Pushkin, where he moved in the early eighties. Here he played about a dozen characters, and most of the productions in which he was involved became real events in the theatrical life of Moscow.

Work in theater and cinema

His first theatrical work was a role in the play “Profitable Place”. This was followed by The Marriage of Figaro, The Convent, and The Banquet. Cruel morals reigned in the theater, and in the end Porokhovshchikov left there. In 1971, Yu. Lyubimov invited him to the Taganka Theater, where the actor began to play in the play “Alive”. There were also roles in the plays “Crossroads” and “Hamlet”.

Over time, the atmosphere in the theater changed, and in 1981 Alexander Shalvovich moved to the Moscow Theater. A.S. Pushkin. Here they played roles in the following plays:

• "Broken Happiness";
• "I am a woman";
• "Optimistic tragedy" and others.

Work in cinema began in 1966 with a small supporting role in the film “Search.” Many roles followed:

• officer in “Shine, Shine, My Star”;
• Chairman of the Cheka in “A Friend Among Strangers, a Stranger Among Our Own”;
• P. I. Pestel in “The Star of Captivating Happiness” and others.

Fig.3. On the set of the film “Isaev”

In 1989, Alexander Porokhovshchikov founded a private studio - the creative experimental workshop “Rodina”. Here he shot his own autobiographical film “I Don’t Allow Censorship to Memory.”

Since 1998, the actor taught at GITIS.

Cinematic image of a strong enemy

If his career in the theater went with varying degrees of success, the cinema quickly appreciated Porokhovshchikov’s talent. His beautiful face, which practically did not need makeup, refined manners and military bearing (although the artist never served in the army), as well as the inner strength that was felt in him - all this was ideal for the role of... villains. It is not surprising that one of his first characters was Benito Mussolini.

The first truly interesting hero who glorified the artist throughout the country was the Chairman of the Cheka Kungurov in the film “One among Strangers, a Stranger among Ones.” It is noteworthy that this role was not easy for Porokhovshchikov, because because of the fate of his grandfather, he treated the Cheka with undisguised hatred.

The next significant work in his career was the role of the Decembrist Pavel Pestel in “The Star of Captivating Happiness” in 1975. Having played a noble nobleman, Porokhovshchikov remained for a long time in the minds of viewers and directors as a performer of heroes of intelligent professions. Now most often he received the roles of military officers and investigators, doctors and scientists.

But everything changed with the film “Look for the Wind...”, in which he played a white officer who shot horses. This character turned out to be very bright, and because of him, Porokhovshchikov was assigned the role of an enemy, even a noble one.

Career blossoming

By that time, A. Porokhovshchikov had already played several episodic roles in films. Alexander was a stately, confident man, he looked like a real aristocrat. Therefore, as a rule, he got the roles of “enemies of the people”; he played traitors to the Motherland, Germans, and other negative characters.

One of his best films, “A Friend Among Strangers, a Stranger Among Our Own,” was a huge success. For this role, Alexander was extremely grateful to N. Mikhalkov.

After that, he had a huge number of offers that he simply could not refuse. So, in five years he played in more than 20 films and, as usual, played negative characters. At that time, only those who played positive roles were awarded, and therefore Alexander could only wait for changes. He noted that the better he played, the more the audience hated him. But, nevertheless, at that time he enjoyed unprecedented popularity and was, as they say now, a sex symbol. He had a bunch of girls, but it never came to marriage.

In the theater the situation was not so rosy; Taganka ceased to be the one to which everyone was accustomed. And Alexander decided to leave. So he ended up in the troupe of the Pushkin Theater. The role of the Leader in V. Vishnevsky’s “Optimistic Tragedy” turned out to be fateful: it was thanks to her that he met the one who changed his entire future fate.

Autobiographical film “I do not allow censorship of my memory”

Despite his quite successful career and the fact that he managed to glorify the family name, memories of injustice against his grandfather never left Porokhovshchikov.

One day he managed to find the person responsible for the death of his inventor grandfather. The artist began to follow this man, wondering whether he should take revenge for his crime. Ultimately, Alexander Shalvovich gave up revenge, however, in order to somehow appease his feelings, he wrote a script based on his story. Based on it, the film “I Do Not Allow Censorship of Memory” was shot in 1991.

Porokhovshchikov not only played the main role in it (himself), but also starred his mother and wife in the project.

Despite the fact that Alexander Porokhovshchikov’s film was not particularly noted by the audience, it was highly appreciated in the highest cinematic circles. Thus, she was awarded the “Golden Sail”, the “Brigantine” award and a special prize named after A. Tvardovsky at the “Golden Phoenix” festival in 2008.

Personal life and wife of Alexander Porokhovshchikov

The artist’s extraordinary aristocratic appearance and his sleek manners attracted the attention of women to him throughout his life. Porokhovshchikov had numerous affairs not only with work colleagues, but also with fans.

However, despite his success with the fair sex, he did not have a serious relationship for a long time. Some of the artist’s close acquaintances believed that this was largely due to his mother, to whom Alexander Shalvovich was very attached. Perhaps that is why he met the main love of his life after forty. She turned out to be the inconspicuous theater costume designer Irina Zhukova.

The news about the romance between the handsome Porokhovshchikov and a girl who is 24 years younger than him instantly spread throughout Moscow. The theatrical community, and even the artist’s mother herself, called this union a misalliance.

At first, the artist’s beloved had to endure hatred and humiliation from the artists, and especially the actresses of the theater in which she worked. Once they even wanted to fire the girl, but suddenly Vera Alentova herself stood up for Irina.

But most of all Irina got it from Galina Porokhovshchikova. For 14 long years the girl tried to earn her approval, but she could not. The stern woman reproached her daughter-in-law not only for the difference in age, but also for her low origin and social status. To match her lover, Irina trained as a theater critic, and later made a career as a journalist and PR specialist.

Only after the death of Galina Alexandrovna were the lovers able to get married, but their love was subjected to a new test. It turned out that due to the advanced age of the man, Alexander Porokhovshchikov and his wife will no longer be able to have children. Neither expensive treatment nor even hopes for cloning helped. Irina even agreed to adoption, but her husband was categorically against someone else’s child in the house.

In sorrow and joy

Despite the small number of fans, Alexander Porokhovshchikov focused his attention on Irina. They lived in a civil marriage for 14 years. Perhaps they would not have further formalized their relationship if not for the illness of Irina’s mother. So that Irina’s mother would not worry about her daughter’s future, Alexander proposed to his common-law wife. Their wedding took place in 1995. And exactly 12 years later, Alexander and Irina got married.

Their family life was like a roller coaster. More than once there was information that the couple was on the verge of divorce. It was rumored that the main reason for the disagreement was Irina’s addiction to alcohol. Alexander left home several times because his wife was very drunk. Then he publicly apologized to her and said that he did not consider her an alcoholic. But at the same time the couple remained together.

The only thing that darkened their happiness was the absence of children. At first, the actor did not want to have a child. He motivated this by the fact that Irina is too young and needs to pursue a career

.

Then, when Alexander got older, he felt some emptiness. He suggested that his wife try to get pregnant, if necessary, with the help of IVF. The actor really wanted twins, so that his sons would continue the family line and be heirs to his property.

But Alexander never had a chance to hear children's laughter in the house. Age and many illnesses brought him to a slaughterhouse bed. First, the actor underwent surgery to amputate part of his foot, then surgery to remove a blood clot. But his heart could not withstand such a load.

While in the hospital, Porokhovshchikov died of a stroke. Irina, realizing that he would not leave the hospital, did not want to live without him and committed suicide. So they lived together for many years and died almost on the same day. Like a fairy tale, only with a sad ending.

The story of the disappearance of the artist and his last years

With age, the artist began to look more respectable, and the role of the villain was gradually replaced by the roles of bosses. Stanislav Govorukhin’s scandalous film “The Voroshilov Shooter” (in which Porokhovshchikov played a police colonel who “kept” his rapist son and his friends out of prison) begins a new round in the artist’s film career. Generals, colonels, and sometimes even leaders of criminal gangs and businessmen are the heroes most often played in recent years by Alexander Porokhovshchikov.

Films and television series with his participation of this period are “It is not recommended to offend women” (businessman Shakhov), and “Birthday of the Bourgeois 1, 2” (Boris Ruslanovich), and “Blind” (FSB General Pyotr Krechetov), ​​and “Kadetstvo "(Major General Matveev), and "Isaev" (General V.M. Molchanov) and many others.

The last film “We are from Jazz-2” with the artist was released after his death, in 2013.

As for life behind the scenes, in the last years of his life Porokhovshchikov managed to regain a mansion in the Moscow region that belonged to his ancestors. The artist restored it and dreamed of restoring its former glory, but did not have time.

A few months before his death, in the winter of 2012, Alexander Shalvovich suddenly disappeared. His friends and wife searched for him for several days, but could not find him. They got involved in the search for power, and it soon became clear that the artist had simply gone to the dacha to be alone.

But after 2 months, due to health problems (Porokhovshchikov suffered from diabetes), part of the actor’s foot was amputated, and then he suffered a stroke and was hospitalized. Despite favorable forecasts, the artist’s condition began to deteriorate. When the doctors said that there was no hope, Irina Porokhovshchikova went home and committed suicide, leaving a note in which she explained her action as her inability to live without a loved one.

Fortunately for the artist, at that time he was unconscious and never found out about the death of his wife. Alexander Porokhovshchikov survived his wife for 1 month and 5 days, and on April 15, 2012 he died in a hospital ward from cardiac arrest.

The artist was buried next to his mother and stepfather, who replaced his father, in the village of Rozhdestveno in the Moscow region.

Alexander and Irina Porokhovshchikov: a love story with a tragic end

Alexander and Irina Porokhovshchikov played romance all their lives, wrote letters to each other, although they never parted...

Convinced bachelor

Irina and Alexander met in 1982 at the Pushkin Theater, where Porokhovshchikov was the leading actor, and Ira worked as an assistant costume designer and studied at GITIS in the theater department. She is 20 - he is 43.

Porokhovshchikov began courting girls and even young teachers while still at school. He hinted in an interview that he lost his virginity thanks to a geography teacher, and then turned the heads of female students and teachers at the medical institute where he entered after school. He started drinking early, and in medical school he actually learned to drink alcohol and, having become an actor, devoted a lot of time to this. Irina found him in this status. Porokhovshchikov played in the movies either white officers, then police officers, or governors, and outplayed the generals most of all. Film directors made full use of his texture - his thoroughbred appearance. Alexander Shalvovich remained in the memory of the audience a prince by blood, a white bone.

Irina had to win over the artist, who at first did not notice her. Alexander was not married, and this worried both the actresses and the fans, who guarded the artist after the performance and then ran after his car. In an interview, Alexander claimed that he was born a convinced bachelor, but he told me that he did not marry because of his mother. Once we had lunch at a restaurant opposite his family mansion, and he shared his memories of a very beautiful (“such eyes and a huge braid”) girl Lida, whom he met in his youth on the subway. But Galina Aleksandrovna was against her son’s marriage to a girl who lived on the outskirts of Moscow in a barracks, with a paralyzed mother and an alcoholic stepfather.

Apartment house of the Porokhovshchikovs

By the time he met Irina, he was already a confirmed bachelor with established habits: restaurants, society, billiards. Lived with my parents. Galina Aleksandrovna also met Irina with hostility. But here I found a scythe on a stone: Ira was not going to give up Sasha. She loved him just as fanatically: she waited for hours for a call, snapped and flew by taxi across all of Moscow if he called, forgave his sprees and finally ensured that Alexander began to need her more and more. They had to live with Irina’s parents. He did not make an official proposal and thus found a compromise with his mother: he did not marry, so as not to upset her, but he did not leave Irina either. The marriage was registered only two years before my mother’s death. Ira didn’t even wait, and when Alexander presented the ring, she burst into tears.

I liked visiting the Porokhovshchikovs’ mansion on Starokonyushenny Lane. You enter the front door and the noisy, bustling Arbat is gone. “Chaliapin rehearsed Boris Godunov here. “My great-grandmother played the piano four hands with the composer Sergei Rachmaninov,” Alexander recalled. – Matrona of Moscow later lived here, that’s why it’s so easy to breathe. One day a man came to me who suffered from eczema. And imagine: I sat within these walls, and the eczema went away.”

The idea of ​​renting out the family house - a monument of wooden carved architecture - was given to Alexander by a friend, ophthalmologist Svyatoslav Fedorov.

“It was terrible what happened here,” Alexander said. - Needy, homeless! There weren't even handles on the doors. The fireplace was stolen. Well, the ancient doors survived. When we opened the walls, it turned out that the logs were covered with birch bark - not a single wormhole! And then there were some who suggested demolishing the house and putting up a high-rise.”

There have been attempts on the house more than once. There were four arson incidents! Alexander Shalvovich wanted this to be not just a museum, but a functioning one. In the mid-2000s, Porokhovshchikov was still actively filming, and towards the end - less and less. The illness that crept up unnoticed gradually took away my strength. He did not complain and behaved well in public, especially with journalists, especially with women, but Irina shared with me that her husband had diabetes and some people revolved around him and their mansion.

“I'm afraid they will kill him. If something happens to Sasha, I won’t live for a second,” she said more than once.

Auden - like a small child

They had no children, and they got a dog. We still lived with our parents in a small two-room apartment. Despite the cramped conditions, they agreed to have a German shepherd in the house. Ira told me, laughing, that her grandparents vied with each other to feed the naughty puppy. Grandfather pretended that he would start eating from his bowl, and then Oden would immediately run up. Sasha could talk about him for hours, Ira fussed with him like a child. However, both admitted that Auden replaced their absence of children. Sasha starred in TV series and earned money. They built a dacha on Rublyovka and moved. When leaving for Moscow, Sasha took Auden with him. He sat in the front seat, and the traffic police inspectors jokingly saluted him. These twelve years were the happiest in the life of Alexander and Irina.

Shakespearean passions

It would seem that everything is fine, but their life was not so easy in reality. Alexander barely survived the death of his mother. Ira, to her credit, did not say a single bad word to her and tried to replace Sasha’s mother. Alexander admitted that Ira’s character was similar to her: “Jealous and just as possessive.” Then my stepfather fell ill. Alexander went every day to feed Mikhail Nikolaevich and walk his dog.

And then Irina’s parents got sick.

Between themselves, Irina and Alexander lived like on a volcano. Alexander admitted in an interview that there are violent quarrels (“She sometimes covers me like that!”). During these years, Ira became close to me and often called me when there was a scandal (usually late in the evening). It was difficult to understand what was happening there, because when Ira was in an extreme state of excitement, she spoke quickly and incoherently. Having spoken, she usually thanked me: “Thank you very much for listening. It’s very difficult for me, you know, very!” It was awkward to ask. Alexander Shalvovich always spoke about his wife with aspiration. One day Irina called, and from snatches of her incoherent speech I realized that in a rage she tore the pillow, smashed the service and pushed her husband out the door. They were still living with Irina’s parents. I try to distract him somehow: “It’s a pity, after all, he’s a people’s artist. And the service too.” - “Got it!” And in response to a weak objection that this is impossible, she says in a calm voice: “Well, I’m Zhukova after all” (she was the grandniece of the marshal, and everyone knows that he had an explosive temperament). Ira was a very charming person, but when hysterical she was uncontrollable. This happened when Auden died. I accidentally called and found out about the misfortune. Alexander said in a completely broken voice: “Talk to her, I can’t... I don’t see anything, I have a terrible headache.” Ira couldn’t talk to me because she was sobbing.

I call in the morning - no one. About two hours later, Ira finally responded: “Sasha and I are at the cemetery.” - “???” - “We need to find a coffin for Auden.” She buried her pet at the dacha. Every day I lit a candle on the grave.

Alexander said that the happiest moments were when Ira was not nervous, and emphasized that she was a child, meaning not the age difference, but her weak, unstable psyche. He never complained, and Ira did not complain, did not say, for example, that she was tired of living with him - on the contrary.

Tragic ending

After a while, Alexander adopted a shepherd puppy. Ira said: “I won’t love him!” She considered this a betrayal of Auden: “It was my child!” And that was the beginning of the end. The thick-footed clown crawled up the steep stairs in the mansion and did not suspect that he would soon become an orphan.

Once, when I asked why not adopt a child, Alexander said: “Irka doesn’t want to. I am even tomorrow." Then he thought, became sad and added: “We will have more children, I’m sure of it.” Another time he shared: “Can you imagine what Irka told me. We sat on the terrace in the evening, it was twilight. She looked at me for a long, long time, and then said: “Sasha, I love you so much that it seems to me that I gave birth to you.” Everything inside me went cold from these words, and I thought: “Lord, what a cross he carries. Does he know that she says: “I won’t live without Sasha”?”

For the last two years of her life with her husband, Irina always washed her dirty laundry in public. Either she announced a divorce to him through the press, then she made a fuss that Sasha had gone missing, and then he was found at the dacha. She has changed a lot and lost weight. When Alexander Shalvovich finally fell ill, Irina was on duty next to him. After the operation, complications began. Alexander Shalvovich was in intensive care, she was not allowed to see him. She called me: “He’s dying! I know! Everyone is deceiving me!” Most of all I was afraid that Sasha would leave, but she would stay. She was sure that the doctors would entice her with promises, and then present her with a fact. “I have to leave first! - she repeated. “I can’t see him dead!” The fear of loss drove her into a corner, and she hastened to implement her plan.

On March 10, 2012, Irina committed suicide in the mansion. Forty days later, on the night of April 15, Alexander Porokhovshchikov died.

Interesting facts

• There is a version that Alexander Shalvovich’s father was not Barabadze, who abandoned the family, but another man, whose name the artist’s mother never revealed to either her son or other close people.
• At the Taganka Theater, Alexander Porokhovshchikov was an understudy for Vladimir Vysotsky in some plays and replaced him when he missed performances.
• In the film “A Friend Among Strangers, a Stranger Among Our Own,” the artist does not speak in his own voice. For an unknown reason, he was dubbed by another actor, Igor Kvasha.
• In the film “I Don’t Allow Censorship to Memory,” according to the script, the main character’s mother dies. Porokhovshchikov was at first wary of this plot device, since he was actually prematurely “burying” his mother, to whom he was very attached. But then, with Galina Alexandrovna’s blessing, I filmed everything, as envisaged by the script.
• The film “I Don’t Allow Censorship to Memory” was filmed at the artist’s own film studio, TEM Rodina, which he founded several years earlier. It is noteworthy that this studio was one of the first non-governmental organizations of this kind.

Anxiety for the sick Alexander Porokhovshchikov drove his wife to suicide

“I CAN’T AND DON’T WANT TO LIVE WITHOUT SASHA”

Seven years ago, the life of the star of the film “One among Strangers, a Stranger among Ones,” Alexander Porokhovshchikov, tragically ended. In recent years, Alexander Shalvovich has starred in many popular TV series and participated in TV shows.

Next to Porokhovshchikov was his beloved wife Irina. They met when young Ira came to work as a costume designer at the Pushkin Theater. There their romance began. Then they got married, Irina graduated with honors from the theater studies department of GITIS. Porokhovshchikov’s wife created the TV show “My Family” and the documentary series “How the Idols Left.” In recent years, she worked as a PR manager on various film projects and managed her husband’s affairs.

As in every family, there were scandals. Sometimes the Porokhovshchikovs quarreled publicly. Irina filed for divorce in her hearts when her husband disappeared from home for several days. As it turned out later, Irina was jealous with good reason. The artist, even in his mature years, was successful with the ladies. But he always returned home, fell on his knees in front of his Irochka, and she forgave him.

Trouble came to the Porokhovshchikovs' house when the 73-year-old artist had part of his foot amputated due to complications of diabetes. At the clinic, the actor contracted pneumonia, and then suddenly suffered a stroke. Porokhovshchikov underwent a complex brain operation. Fearing that her husband would not survive the operation, Irina Porokhovshchikova took her own life, leaving a note: “I can’t and don’t want to live without Sasha.”

Porokhovshchikov never found out about his wife’s death. A month later, without regaining consciousness, the artist died of cardiac arrest in the hospital.

Georgian heirs did not receive Porokhovshchikov’s house on ArbatPhoto: Victor GUSEINOV

THE INHERITANCE HAS ALREADY SOLD

The entire inheritance of Alexander Porokhovshchikov (two apartments in Moscow, a house on Rublyovka, savings in bank accounts) went to Shalva Barabadze, the actor’s half-brother on his father’s side.

— We sold the apartments and the dacha. Our family lives in Georgia, we had no intention of moving to Moscow,” the nephew of the late actor Vakhtang Barabadze told KP.

But, according to the artist’s relatives, Porokhovshchikov’s family mansion on Arbat, where Irina committed suicide, valued by realtors at 10 million euros, was not included in the inheritance. After the death of the actor, the rental agreement for the house became invalid.

“We weren’t allowed to enter the mansion.” But I didn’t want to take anything from this house. There was a tragedy with Irina... It’s all unpleasant,” says Porokhovshchikov’s nephew. “This year, unfortunately, I won’t be able to come to my uncle’s grave.” But our family fulfilled our debt to him - we erected a bronze monument to Alexander Shalvovich in the cemetery.

More than a century has passed, and the mansion that Alexander Porokhovshchikov’s great-grandfather built on Starokonyushenny Lane still adorns the Arbat landscape. Photo: Victor GUSEINOV

THE ACTOR WAS THREATENED BY TENANTS

According to a friend of Porokhovshchikov’s wife, Anna Ashmareva, a memorial plaque also appeared on Irina’s grave. The spouses are buried in different places - Alexander Shalvovich next to his mother in the cemetery of the village of Rozhdestveno-Suvorovo, and Irina is also next to her mother, but at Vagankovsky.

- This is how the life of the Porokhovshchikovs ended tragically...

“They loved each other very much, so there was always a lot of envy around Ira and Sasha. Ira was everything for Sasha: wife, mother, child. He fulfilled her every whim. Sasha was much older - this also left an imprint on their relationship. They were one of the first famous couples where there was such an age difference between the spouses - 23 years. This is normal now, but then everyone pointed a finger at them. She was very worried.

- Was he her first love?

- The first and only one. That’s why Ira was so affected by Sasha’s illness. Plus, a fan of Sasha called her, said all sorts of nasty things, called herself Porokhovshchikov’s mistress. There were also threatening calls. Shortly before the tragedy, Sasha rented out the basement of the mansion to a company because there was not enough money to pay for utilities. And then Ira discovered that the tenants had deceived them: they broke the walls in the basement and organized an underground casino there. Ira immediately kicked them out the door. Threats and anonymous calls began. This is stressful for anyone. And even more so for such a delicate nature as Irochka. She was a normal, adequate person, and I still don’t believe that she died voluntarily.

- What about the mansion now?

— After the death of Irina and Sasha, homeless people settled in the basement of their house. Recently I passed by and knocked. The guard opened the door, but did not allow me to enter the house. As I understand it, he was sent there after an emergency with homeless people. The Porokhovshchikovs’ very expensive things remained in the house - a luxurious chandelier that Sasha brought from Germany, antiques, expensive plumbing fixtures with touch controls.

BY THE WAY

Nobody lives in the famous mansion

The carved wooden house in Starokonyushenny Lane, which was built in 1872 by the actor’s great-grandfather - a businessman, philanthropist, owner of the Slavic Bazaar hotel and restaurant, returned to the family a century later. Before the revolution, the actor’s ancestors lived in it, and also rented out rooms to wealthy residents; after the revolution, the mansion went to the Soviet state. By the end of the century, the picturesque house, whose design received a prize at the World Exhibition in Vienna in 1873, had fallen into disrepair and disrepair. Alexander Porokhovshchikov was able to rent the dilapidated family nest for 49 years. He made major renovations, opened a restaurant and a billiard hall in it, and moved in with his wife. After the tragic death of the spouses, the actor’s heirs tried to claim their rights to the mansion, but were unable to get the house, since it did not belong to Alexander Shalvovich, the actor was just a tenant. Now the mansion, which is under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Property Department, is guarded by private security company employees; no one lives in it. Since 2020 it has been recognized as a cultural heritage site.