Irina Miroshnichenko is one of the most beautiful actresses in Soviet cinema.
Photo: GLOBAL LOOK PRESS
Biography of People’s Actress of the RSFSR Irina Miroshnichenko
Irina Miroshnichenko died on August 3, 2023. She was not only an actress, but also a singer, in her repertoire was the song “Root Moscovite”. With the lines “I feel comfortable in this big city, here is my house, here is my house.” However, she was born in Barnaul on July 24, 1942: her father, a political instructor, was sent there. However, at a very tender age, two years old, Irina and her mother returned to the capital. Read more about the biography of Irina Miroshnichenko in our article.
Childhood and youth of Irina Miroshnichenko
In Moscow, Irina Miroshnichenko grew up in poverty. She remembered that her mother fed her pancakes with potato skins, fried almost in motor oil; there was simply no other food. But at the same time, the mother did everything possible so that her daughter received a good education as a child: she learned to play the piano and violin, knew French… And in the photographs Irina and her mother look quite prosperous: they “kept the style”.
The ability to cook porridge with an ax came in handy when Irina entered the Moscow Art Theater School (before that, she studied at the studio of the Lenin Komsomol Theater). For the last round of the creative competition, her mother sewed her a magnificent white dress with blue flowers. Irina put it on, gave a monologue in front of the selection committee and charmed everyone: it seemed that it was impossible not to fall in love with an 18-year-old girl. Then she was taken to the Moscow Art Theater, to which she remained faithful until the end of her days (and she remembered with delight the great “old MKhAT” she met, who took care of her; she singled out Boris Livanov in particular, who became her mentor).
Shot from the film “I’m walking around Moscow”
In what films did Irina Miroshnichenko star, roles?
Many people remember Irina Miroshnichenko’s first film role, but not many realize that Miroshnichenko was in the frame. She this is the sister of the hero Nikita Mikhalkov in the film “I am walking around Moscow”: it is she who insists on sewing the pants of the hero Alexei Loktev, who came to visit a random acquaintance after a dog attack. There was nothing special in this role – Inna Churikova, for whom this was the second film, performed much brighter. And yet it was “I am walking around Moscow” that laid the foundation for the magnificent film career of Irina Petrovna.
In 1966, a very popular war film “They only knew them by sight” was released, where Miroshnichenko had the main role – a Soviet intelligence officer-saboteur who worked in the rear of the Nazis and died there while fulfilling a mission. In the same 1966, Andrei Tarkovsky invited her to the role of Mary Magdalene in Andrei Rublev (remember the episode in which the Passion of Christ is transferred to the atmosphere of medieval Rus?) Then Andrei Konchalovsky, co-author of Rublev’s script , called her Uncle Vanya for the role of Elena Andreevna (“A surprisingly flexible, diligent actress,” she recalled).
Actress Irina Miroshnichenko.
Photo: GLOBAL LOOK PRESS
Well, the 70s and 80s were the heyday of Irina: “This sweet word is freedom” starring her second husband Vytautas Zhalakyavichyus, films and performances based on “Solo for the Chilling Clock”, “Three Sisters” and “The Seagull” , the role of an impeccably elegant translator, a friend of Vyacheslav Tikhonov, in the film “… And other officials.” In 1980, she played one of her most famous roles – Katya’s mother in the melodrama “You Never Dreamed” (her heroine of her pleasantly contrasted with Roman’s crazy mother, who was in love with Katya, played by Lydia Fedoseyeva- Shukshina). She appeared in the film “Profession: Researcher” in the role of a doctor who taught the deaf-mute hero Armen Dzhigarkhanyan to speak, and then married him and turned a blind eye to the fact that her husband was a criminal. She played the ruthless “pirate queen” in The Secrets of Madame Wong. The roles were different and invariably brilliant.
And yet the theater remained the main thing for Irina Miroshnichenko. In interviews, she always talked a lot more about the performances she was in, the directors, many of whom she adored. She was lucky for them: Oleg Efremov, Roman Viktyuk, Konstantin Bogomolov. In the early 90s, however, it seemed to her that the story with the theater was coming to an end, an inner emptiness settled in her, she seriously devoted herself to singing. But then I realized: “you cannot stop loving your profession, it will immediately take revenge on you.” And everything returned to normal: Miroshnichenko loved her profession, and she, it seemed, loved her.
