MOSCOW, April 28 – RIA Novosti, Pavel Surkov. Many well-known theater and film actors fought for their homeland, some of them even participated in more than one war and were seriously injured. About the heroes of the front and popularly loved actors in the material of RIA Novosti on the eve of Victory Day.

Yuri Nikulin went through two wars: Finland and the Great Patriotic War. He fought as part of the anti-aircraft battery – he was not only an artilleryman, but also captured fascist saboteurs who were trying to break into the location of our units.

He participated in the lifting of the blockade of Leningrad and met Victory Day in the Baltic States. The artist himself recalled: “No one knew how and with what to express happiness. They shot into the air with machine guns, pistols, rifles … Not far from us was a dilapidated barn … We set the barn on fire and he jumped around like crazy … “

Anatoly Papanov was thrown in the Kharkov direction at the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War, in the middle of the conflict. In the first war, only 14 of 42 soldiers survived. The artist’s best friend, Alik Rafaevich, who studied at VGIK and dreamed of becoming a cameraman, died right before Anatoly Dmitrievich. As Papanov later said: “I saw how people turned white overnight … I thought it was just a literary device, it turned out not to be. It’s a method of warfare.”

In one of the following battles, Papanov was seriously wounded. Hospital, several surgeries, amputation of part of the foot – the future actor was commissioned and never returned to the front. And I decided to continue my passion for theatre. It was a kind of challenge to the enemy. A man who was only fit to be a watchman after he was injured became an artist.

Zinovy ​​Gerdt was also seriously injured at the front, participating in the clearing of fields on the outskirts of Kharkov. Vera Vedenina, a young nurse, saved his life: she dragged him several kilometers to the medical unit. Gerdt communicated with him until the last days – on the anniversary evening, which took place a few weeks before his death, Zinovy ​​u200bu200bEfimovich, already seriously ill, went on stage to sit next to the one who carried him from the battlefield.

Gerdt underwent fifteen operations in the hospital, he was treated by the legendary Ksenia Vintsetini, the wife of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev. Although some surgeons insisted on amputation, it was he who saved the artist’s leg. And for his services in the war, Zinovy ​​u200bu200bEfimovich was awarded the Order of the Red Star.

Alexei Smirnov, one of the most popular comics actors in the Soviet Union, did not like to remember his frontline past. And he lived through the whole war, receiving medals and orders in one of the battles, in which he personally captured seven fascists. I was almost on my way to Berlin – I met Pobeda in the hospital because of a concussion.

Innokenty Smoktunovsky fought on the Kursk Bulge, liberating Kiev. He was surrounded and captured, but escaped, went to the partisans, and then returned to his own army, the regular army. Appointed as team leader. He liberated Warsaw, reached Germany. And after the war he said in surprise: “I was never injured … I stood under the muzzles of fascist machine guns, I escaped from captivity, I was surrounded … But I was never injured.”

Elina Bystritskaya attended nursing courses during the war and from the age of 13 was a nurse in a mobile hospital on the front line. His mother and sister worked next to him: they bandaged the wounded, assisted in operations, and his father, who returned from the front after the Victory and was also a doctor, joined the family.

Vladimir Basov voluntarily went to the front, became the commander of a mortar battery and fought on the front line almost until the Victory. He finished the war with the rank of captain – and was offered to continue his military career, but his desire for cinema overpowered him, he entered VGIK.