Evgenia Garkusha was one of the brightest actresses in Russian cinema. Unfortunately, she managed to star in only 2 films. Once, at a gala reception, Yevgenia Alexandrovna humiliated Beria himself in front of everyone. This slap broke the life of the actress, her husband, mother and only daughter.
Successful actress, wife and mother
Evgenia Alexandrovna Garkusha was born in 1915 in the city on the Neva. Her father was an agronomist, and her mother was an accountant. But their daughter decided to become an actress. In the 1920s, the family moved to Kiev, where Evgenia graduated from high school, and then from the theater studio at the local drama theater. In 1939, Garkusha was invited to shoot the film "The Fifth Ocean". It was after this film story that the actress began to be recognized on the streets. The hydrobiologist, academician Pyotr Shirshov also recognized her. Subsequently, Garkusha and Shirshov got married.
At first, the life of the spouses was great. Peter Shirshov received a very enviable post of People's Commissar of the Navy. Garkusha starred in another film "The Elusive Jan" and got a job in the capital's theater of the Moscow City Council. In 1944, Evgenia Alexandrovna gave birth to a daughter, Marina. However, after a year and a half, everything collapsed.
Slap arrest
In 1946, at one of the receptions, Lavrenty Beria, who was a famous womanizer, drew attention to the spectacular Evgeny Garkusha-Shirshova. According to the daughter of the actress, Marina, Beria began to pester her mother, and she, without thinking twice, slapped him in the face. A few weeks later, Minister of State Security Viktor Abakumov arrived at the dacha where Yevgenia Aleksandrovna was at that moment in his car. Abakumov said that Garkusha was expected for a rehearsal, and he volunteered to give her a lift. The artist, not suspecting anything, got into the car.
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Upon arrival at the Lubyanka, Garkusha was announced that she was detained on suspicion of spying for England, and was also accused of not leaving Moscow during the war because she was waiting for the arrival of the Germans. Evgenia Aleksandrovna was threatened with execution for agitation to overthrow the government and treason. At this time, Garkusha's husband did not even know where the actress was. He knocked off his feet looking for her. And when he did, he began knocking on all doors.
Death of an actress
As Marina Shirshova said, her father could even get to Stalin through friends. However, the leader dismissed him: "We will find him another wife." In the documentary "Arrested No. 13" Marina Petrovna recalled that once Shirshov, being a convinced Stalinist before, tore the portrait of the country's leader from the wall and trampled it underfoot. However, largely due to the perseverance of the grief-stricken People's Commissar, Yevgenia Garkusha's articles were changed and sent to a settlement for 8 years. Nevertheless, she never came back.
In 1948, 33-year-old Yevgenia Garkusha-Shirshova died in the Magadan region, where she was serving her sentence. The circumstances of her death still raise more questions than answers. Although Irina Mudrova in her book “Great love stories. 100 Stories of Great Feeling”claims that the actress was poisoned by taking sleeping pills.
Together with the artist, her mother lived in the settlement, who did not survive the rehabilitation of her daughter, which took place in 1956. Pyotr Shirshov did not wait for this either. He died in 1953 of cancer. As for Marina Shirshova, she never knew the affection of her own mother, and when her father died, the girl was only 8 years old.
Yulia Popova