The man loved by everyone: 100 years since the birth of Yevgeny Yevstigneyev

Published on: 2026-10-09

Source: Moscow Government – Правительства Москвы –

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There are roles that live on for a very long time. Pioneer camp director Comrade Dynin, Professor Preobrazhensky, Ruchechnik — they are still loved and quoted today. These are the characters of Yevgeny Yevstigneyev — an actor who could be both the sun of the stage and its most precise silence. October 9 marks the 100th anniversary of his birth. Theatre “Sovremennik”, subordinate to the capital To the Department of Culture, which the actor built together with classmates, marks this anniversary with a memorable evening “EvstiGeniy”. Mos.ru also remembers the great artist and his main works.

Drummer from “Red Etna”

Yevgeny Yevstigneyev was born on October 9, 1926, in Nizhny Novgorod, into a working-class family: his father was a metallurgist, and his mother was a milling machine operator. His father died when the boy was six, and by the time he was 17, his stepfather had also passed away. Money was scarce, and no one at home encouraged the young man to pursue an acting career—but fate had its own plans.

The future People’s Artist of the USSR finished seven years of school, became an electrician at 15, then studied at a diesel engineering technical school, and from 1943 worked as a locksmith at the Krasnaya Etna factory. His great passion was jazz. In the evenings, he played in the factory orchestra — on various instruments: guitars, keyboards, drums. Yevgeny Alexandrovich was not a professional musician, but his playing conveyed excitement, precise rhythm, and that inner freedom that captivates from the first bars. One day, he was noticed by Vitaly Lebsky, the head of the Gorky Theater School. He saw natural talent in the young locksmith and persuaded him to try the exams. Thus, Evstigneev first stepped into the theater school — planning to “just look around,” but ultimately became a student.

In 1951, he graduated (by the way, today the college bears his name) and was assigned to the Vladimir Regional Drama Theatre named after A.V. Lunacharsky. There, over three years, he played dozens of roles — from Spekin in “The Inspector” and Pritykin in Gorky’s “Barbarians” to Mercutio in “Romeo and Juliet.” The small provincial theater became a good school for him: here the young actor tried everything — from vaudeville to classics — and learned not to fear the stage.

In 1954, when Evstigneev was already 28 years old, he arrived in Moscow and enrolled in the Moscow Art Theatre School-Studio in Pavel Massalsky’s course. Studying with him were Mikhail Kozakov, Oleg Basilashvili, Tatyana Doronina, Viktor Sergachev, and other future stars. At first, they found him somewhat odd — unattractive, with a provincial accent, and much older than the others. But once work began, it became clear that here was a natural actor — organic, agile, with a rumbling low voice, ready for any transformation.

“From jazz, Evstigneev took away a sense of rhythm and a taste for partnership. He valued the ease and intensity of the rehearsal process — he grasped the core of the character instantly, improvising freely within the role. He was virtuoso at capturing the paradoxical essence, revealing it in a single trait without pressure,” wrote Inna Solovyova, a theater historian.

The studies lasted two years—and already in the final year, “Sovremennik” began. Classmates led by Oleg Yefremov initiated the formation of the “Studio of Young Actors,” and Evstigneev joined. He performed in the premiere of “The Eternally Living” in April 1956—before he even received his diploma.

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The Acting Sun

At his native “Sovremennik,” the artist served until 1971 and performed in 25 productions. His first fame came from “The Naked King” based on the play by Yevgeny Schwartz. Evstigneev’s character was not a fearsome dictator, but a petty tyrant whose every whim became law — making him both funny and terrifying at the same time. Everyone wanted to see the play; tickets were impossible to get.

“He got the role of the King and immediately took the place that the sun occupies in relation to other planets,” recalled Oleg Tabakov. “He became the acting sun of our theater.”

The repertoire of those years reads like the history of domestic theater: Teddy Frank in “The Fourth” based on the play by Konstantin Simonov, the Count in “An Ordinary Story,” Alexander II in “The People’s Will,” Dorn in “The Seagull.” Also, Evstigneev twice played the People’s Commissar of Enlightenment Anatoly Lunacharsky — in the play “The Bolsheviks” and later in the film “Strokes to the Portrait of V.I. Lenin.”

Witty charm also permeated the backstage stories. After receiving her first fee for filming in a movie, Galina Volchek decided to give her husband a gift — to buy a nice suit. When Yevgeny Alexandrovich put it on, his wife ran to the kitchen to hide her feelings: the gift fit terribly. When she returned after some time, Galina Borisovna was stunned: Evstigneyev was walking around the room as if he had never worn anything but formal three-piece suits in his life.

A master for all time

Cinema began in 1957 with “The Duel,” based on the work of Alexander Kuprin, where Evstigneev played Captain Peterson; then came Grigory Chukhrai’s “Ballad of a Soldier” and Mikhail Romm’s “Nine Days of One Year.” In 1962, Petr Todorovsky entrusted Yevgeny Alexandrovich with the lead role in the drama “Never.” All-Union fame came after working with Elem Klimov: in the comedy “Welcome, or No Trespassing,” Evstigneev played the director of the pioneer camp, Comrade Dynin — the very one who bullied the weak and fawned before the strong. After this role, the actor began to be recognized on the streets.

Next comes a series of images that form a true encyclopedia of Soviet life. In Eldar Ryazanov’s film Beware of the Car, Evstigneev plays the director of an amateur theater. The underground millionaire Koreiko in The Golden Calf, the grumbling fiancé Kalachev in Zigzag of Luck with his line “I’m not young anymore, unattractive,” the wealthy émigré Korzukhin in The Run, engineer Vorobyov in The Old Men-Robbers… Professor Pleishner in Seventeen Moments of Spring — this surname became proverbial. And Ruchechnik in the series The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed: the actor appears in one episode and utters a few lines — but viewers still quote them to this day.

The actor also appeared in “The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin,” “The Incredible Adventures of Italians in Russia,” and “Old New Year.” In “A Nasty Anecdote,” based on the eponymous story by Fyodor Dostoevsky, he played the actual state councilor Ivan Ilyich. In the movie “Gardemarines, Forward!” he portrayed Vice-Chancellor Bestuzhev. In 1983, in the film “We Are from Jazz,” he took on the role of Papa the pickpocket. Karen Shakhnazarov once again drew on his love of jazz in “Winter Evening in Gagra,” where Evstigneev played the role of an old steppe man.

In 1988, Vladimir Bortko adapted Bulgakov’s “Heart of a Dog” into a film — and Evstigneev portrayed Professor Preobrazhensky, one of his greatest and most memorable roles. His scenes with Dr. Bormental, and the line about devastation being “not in the toilets, but in the heads,” are known by heart throughout the whole country. For this work, the actor received the RSFSR State Prize named after the Vasilyev brothers. In total, the actor’s filmography includes more than 100 roles. His last role was that of Ivan the Terrible in the historical film “Yermak”: the film was released after the actor had passed away.

Last exit

In 1971, after Oleg Efremov was appointed the chief director of the Moscow Art Theatre (MHAT), Yevgeny Yevstigneyev followed him there from the Sovremennik Theatre. His role as Khromov in “Steelworkers” earned the actor the USSR State Prize. Then came Chebutykin in “Three Sisters,” Serebryakov in “Uncle Vanya,” roles in plays by contemporary playwrights Mikhail Roshchin, Alexander Gelman, and Leonid Zorin. Since 1975, Yevgeny Yevstigneyev has been a teacher at the MHAT School-Studio, and since 1977, a professor. One of his students, Irina Tsyvina, would later become his third wife.

The actor’s heart began to fail in the 1980s — few people knew about this. “There was a simple bench backstage,” recalled Irina Tsyvina. “He would perform and then lie down on this bench, waiting for his next scene.” He did not take on new roles in recent years: he was afraid his heart would not hold up.

In the early 1990s, the artist was already performing in private productions — with the Anton Chekhov Theatre and the “Artel of Sergey Yursky’s Artists.” On March 1, 1992, Evstigneev took the stage for the last time — playing the card sharp Glova in Yursky’s “Players-XXI.” The next day, he flew to London for heart surgery — scheduled for March 5, and literally two weeks later, the artist was already planning to return to rehearsals. According to relatives’ recollections, the funds for the treatment were helped to be raised by former USSR Minister of Culture Nikolai Gubenko. On March 4, the day before the surgery, Evgeny Alexandrovich passed away.

Yevgeny Evstigneyev is buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery; he was posthumously awarded the theatrical prize “Crystal Turandot” “for many years of honorable service to the theater.” His son Denis became a director and cameraman, and his daughter Maria an actress.

The memory of Yevgeny Yevstigneyev continues to live on. In honor of the 100th anniversary, a memorial plaque is being unveiled on the building at 17 Nikitsky Boulevard. A mural will appear on Chistoprudny Boulevard next to the “Sovremennik” theater, created jointly with representatives from Nizhny Novgorod, the artist’s hometown. But most importantly, Yevgeny Yevstigneyev and his characters continue to live in the hearts of the audience. Comrade Dynin, Koreiko, Ruchechnik, Papa, Beglov, Professor Preobrazhensky — all of them still look out from the screen and say: a person — that sounds proud. Yevstigneyev sounded that way all his life — quietly, warmly, and, as it is now clear, for all time.

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