Irina was 24 years younger than her husband. Photo: EG Archive
The famous actor Alexander Porokhovshchikov tragically passed away in 2012. But the passions surrounding his name have not subsided yet. As it became known recently, a woman who calls herself the illegitimate daughter of the star of “Voroshilov’s Shooter” can now enter the fight for the inheritance, which many call “cursed”. She is a Muscovite. And she is 39 years old.
Daughter? But where from? Alexander Shalvovich had no official children.
“Alexander Shalvovich and I talked a lot, we talked confidentially about various life issues,” star lawyer Sergei Zhorin told KP.RU. – He said that he always dreamed of children, but at first it somehow didn’t work out and then time was lost. It’s no secret that shortly before his death, Porokhovshchikov and his wife Irina wanted to adopt a child from an orphanage. I was just helping to prepare the documents…
Recall that in March 2012, Porokhovshchikov was taken to hospital with a stroke. In addition, diabetes began to worsen and his foot had to be amputated. His wife Irina (she was 24 years younger) decided that Alexander Shalvovich was leaving this life and committed suicide in their family home on Old Arbat. However, the actor spent several more weeks in intensive care; he was not informed about his wife’s death. On April 15, Alexander Porokhovshchikov died after a sudden cardiac arrest at the age of 73.
“In general, I was one hundred percent sure that Porokhovshchikov had no children,” says Zhorin.
And now it turns out that the actor knew nothing about his daughter, who was born back in the 80s, when he was at the height of his fame?
The battle for the family nest
The search for Alexander Porokhovshchikov’s inheritance began long before the actor’s death. First, his half-sister sued him for a three-room apartment near VDNKh. According to the woman, she owned 1/3 of this dwelling, although the artist himself proved in court that he had previously paid his share to his relative. A similar story occurred with the two-room apartment of Irina, Alexander Shalvovich’s wife. These square meters went to the woman after the death of her parents. And suddenly a brother appeared and demanded to be paid a million… The Porokhovshchikovs’ lawyer at that time was Sergei Zhorin. He won both cases.
And so, the actor and his wife died one after another. They wrote wills for each other in advance – who could have imagined that they would both die almost simultaneously? The famous artist had no children, at least that’s what his circle believed. Among the closest relatives are Aunt Alla and his niece Natalya. But when it came to dividing the property, other contenders appeared.
The biggest stir among the alleged heirs was caused by an old mansion in Starokonyushenny Lane. This wooden house on the Old Arbat, as an example of traditional Russian architecture, was built even before the revolution by the actor’s great-grandfather, nobleman, philanthropist and Slavophile Alexander Porokhovshchikov (along the male line, the name Alexander was passed down from generation to generation). After 1917, the family was evicted from the tower. Under Soviet rule, the building housed several offices, and in modern times, under the mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, the actor Porokhovshchikov managed to rent the family mansion for free for 49 years. Relatives remember very well that at that time the house was a sad sight – a dirty, neglected place. The actor put the family nest in order and spent all his fees on it.
After Alexander Shalvovich left, the heirs realized that they could take over this property as well. 700 square meters in the historical center of Moscow cost no less than 250 million rubles.
“A large number of unsuitable people and even just scammers appeared who declared themselves heirs of the actor: illegitimate children, mistresses, etc.,” recalls Zhorin.
brother of nothing
However, this hearing quickly disappeared. It became clear that the first-line heirs according to the law are Georgian relatives of Porokhovshchikov, whom he had never even met.
The artist’s middle name, Shalvovich, comes from his Georgian father. Before the war, Shalva Barabadze came to Moscow to study medicine and met a beautiful girl from a good family. Galina Porokhovshchikova was only 17 years old at that time. She is the daughter of an aircraft designer (the son of the same philanthropist who built the house on the Arbat). However, in 1939, the scientist was arrested, and Shalva, frightened, escaped from the house through the window, just as he was, in his underwear. Later he returned to his native Georgia, started another family and did not remember his son Sasha.
True, the boy was still very young. For most of his life, he considered his father to be a completely different person – his stepfather Mikhail Dudin. And he really loved him. However, in the documents it remains – Shalvovich.
In a word, after the funeral of the People’s Artist of Russia, Georgian relatives came to the fore. It turned out that the fugitive Shalva Barabadze had another son in Georgia, whom he named after his beloved. It turned out that the only heir was Shalva Jr., the half-brother of the deceased actor.
The house remained close to the city.
Shalva told reporters that he had been in touch with his famous Moscow relative for many years and they called each other. He was looking forward to his visit, and when the actor fell ill, he allegedly even planned to take him to Tbilisi. At the same time, it is interesting that none of the truly close people of Porokhovshchikov had heard of his Georgian brother.
At the end of 2012, the court recognised Shalva Barabadze as the actor’s legal heir. However, she did not get the house on Arbat.
“At one time, the Moscow authorities transferred the building for free use to a non-profit organization, which had only two members: Alexander Shalvovich and his wife Irina,” explains lawyer Zhorin. – Membership in an NPO is not inherited. Thus, after the death of the tenants, the building is managed by the Moscow City Property Department.
However, even without the mansion there was something to profit from. All of Alexander Porokhovshchikov’s property was quickly put up for sale. These tasks were taken over by Shalva’s eldest son, Vakhtang Barabadze.
“Alexander Shalvovich cannot be called super-rich,” Sergei Zhorin continues. “He was a creative person, not focused on commerce. But, of course, he was not poor either. My mother’s apartment on Mira Avenue near VDNKh, Irina’s apartment on Komsomolsky Prospekt, a nice country house, two cars… I think that at the exchange rate of those years, the total value of this property could reach a million dollars.”
The actor’s niece, Natalya Dmitrieva, later said with horror that the heirs took all the valuables from the family nest, and family archives, Porokhovshchikov’s film reels, photographs, etc. were simply thrown into the trash.
The money received from the inheritance was sent to Georgia. And later it became known that Shalva Barabadze was not Alexander Porokhovshchikov’s father at all.
Once upon a time, Galina Porokhovshchikova left her son a letter in which she admitted that the boy was actually born to another Georgian student, violinist Shota Shanidze.
The relationship did not last long; the boy joined the army, not knowing that the girl was pregnant. At that time, giving birth without a husband was a scandal! And Shalva Barabadze, who was courting Galina, agreed to take care of his child.
“Alexander Shalvovich told only his closest friends about his real father, Shota Shanidze,” Zhorin explains.
Meanwhile, Vakhtang Barabadze continued to make money on the actor’s name, coming to Moscow several times to film a TV show, obviously for considerable sums. In 2020, he was offered to take a DNA test at the Channel One studio. After this, it finally became clear that the actor Porokhovshchikov and the Barabadze family are not related. Vakhtang said that he would not return the money and flew home. And in 2022 he enlisted in the Georgian Legion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In April 2023, a shell hit the mercenaries’ shelter. Among the corpses, 45-year-old Vakhtang Barabadze was identified.
I heard about the girl and hung up.
By the way, Shanidze’s relatives have proudly declared that they do not claim the inheritance. But now it has become known that another person may join the fight.
In 2021, Porokhovshchikov’s niece Natalya Dmitrieva received a strange message on social media: “I was silent for a long time. You have a sister, the daughter of Alexander Shalvovich.
The woman who wrote said that many years ago she gave birth to a daughter of the actor. Natalya refused to communicate and decided that she was being targeted by another impostor. But finally I spoke to the woman on the phone. When a DNA test was performed, the result showed: Porokhovshchikov is 99.9% the father of a certain Anna Stepanova from Moscow.
Porokhovshchikov’s illegitimate daughter, Anna Stepanova. Photo by: Channel One
Anna’s mother Elena spoke on the Let Them Talk studio about her relationship with the actor:
– I was a student then. We accidentally met Alexander Shalvovich on the street. Of course, I recognized him. He approached me, was persistent, did not give in, looked for meetings. I refused him many times: I’m married! But one day I agreed to a meeting. The romance began. I was then 21 years old and he was 42.
According to Elena, the encounters took place in the actor’s apartment on Mira Avenue; this romance lasted for about two years; when a student became pregnant and gave birth, the actor called her and asked about the sex of the child. Upon hearing the word “girl”, she hung up.
Around the same time, Porokhovshchikov began a relationship with his future wife Irina. So he was no longer very free and Elena was married…
Kept secret for over 30 years.
Apparently, the romance with Elena happened in the early 1980s, when Alexander Porokhovshchikov was at the peak of his career and was filming a lot. Anya was born in 1985.
Elena says that she kept the secret for many years so as not to upset her legal husband, whom she also loved. She confessed everything to Anna only in 2020. And for a long time she refused to communicate with the media.
“When I first heard about a woman who called herself Alexander Shalvovich’s daughter, I thought it was some kind of “plan”,” says Sergei Zhorin. “But now I look at Anna and see that she really does look like Alexander Shalvovich: eyes, lips, facial expressions. DNA tests confirmed their relationship. It also says a lot that Anna was recognized and communicated with Natalya Dmitrieva, Alexander Shalvovich’s closest relative.”
– But you were informed about the birth of your daughter. Why didn’t you recognize her?
“I think he didn’t believe that it was his child.” After all, the woman had a husband at the time. Someone says that the actor supposedly only dreamed of an heir, a boy. But it seems to me that he didn’t care about the sex of the child. He simply couldn’t believe that it was his daughter.
According to the law, the inheritance can now be redistributed. Anna herself says that the most important thing for her is to preserve the good memory of her father and create a museum named after him in the Arbat mansion. Apparently, this story will continue…
SPECIFICALLY
What’s next?
Assuming Anna decides to claim the inheritance, what will she get? Barabadze was sold everything and the money was taken to Georgia…
“As we know from the story of Zhenya Belousov’s son, the timing of inheritance can still be revised if there are legal grounds for it,” says lawyer Sergei Zhorin.
We remind you that the singer died in 1997. Two different women gave birth to a daughter and a son. He was officially registered as the girl’s father and often met with the child and his mother and helped them financially. After Belousov’s death, the court recognized little Roma as the artist’s biological son. But then, in the 1990s, only the daughter received the inheritance – the boy’s mother did not file a claim. Roma grew up and, 27 years later, managed to be recognized as the equal heir of the “Girl-Girl” performer.
– In the case of Alexander Porokhovshchikov’s daughter, I see grounds for restoring the conditions of inheritance. Of course, the money was transferred to Georgia and relations between our countries are complicated. But it cannot be said that this mission is impossible.
BELIEVE IT – DON’T BELIEVE IT
The curse of the old mansion
Porokhovshchikov’s acquaintances say that either the spirit of the actor himself or the family mansion took revenge on Barabadze’s impostor heirs for the ruin they caused. After Alexander Shalvovich’s death, the stucco moldings, which he spent a lot of time and painstakingly restoring, the parquet and much more, were removed from the house, returning it to a state of complete ruin.
Shalva Barabadze Jr. died of cancer shortly after receiving the inheritance. And his son Vakhtang Barabadze died when he left to fight the Russians.
There are various rumors about the house in general. Irina Porokhovshchikova complained to her friends that the mansion seemed to be consuming all her strength, that it was cursed. It was here that she finally took her own life. People who entered the building at least once noted that they heard strange sounds, as if someone invisible was walking nearby. Porokhovshchikov himself was sure that ghosts lived in his great-grandfather’s house…
It’s a question of whether the mansion will bring happiness to the new heiress.
5 best films of the artist.
“One among strangers, a stranger among his own” (1974)
“Star of Captivating Happiness” (1975)
“Captain Nemo” (1975)
“Don’t separate yourself from your loved ones” (1979)
“Voroshilovsky’s Shooter” (1999)
