How Countess Maria Kapnist found strength and after all the trials made a career in film Bashny.Net

Many people have probably heard that God’s plan is life-test A man as much as he can bear. But when you get acquainted with the biography of Maria Kapnist, you begin to doubt the veracity of this statement.

After all, the Countess had so much trouble, as if the higher forces wanted to test on a woman, what is the motto on the family coat of arms of the Kapnists: “In the fire unshakeable.” And Maria has proved by her steadfastness that she is a worthy representative of the famous family.



Today's edition. "Site" More about the life of Maria Kapnist, a countess who went through personal tragedies and years of imprisonment. She lost her family, lost her health, youth and beauty, but was able to fulfill her dream and became a brilliant actress.

Maria Rostislavovna Kapnist-Sirko was born on March 22, 1913 in St. Petersburg in a count family with Greek roots. And the name Sirko here at birth was indicated for a reason. After all, the famous kosh ataman of Zaporozhye Sich Ivan Sirko really was a distant relative of the girl.



And at first it seemed that Maria had a wonderful life ahead of her. She was the fifth and last child in a wealthy family, lived in a luxurious house with servants, visited by the most talented people of the city. What to say, if the Kapnistov visited even Fedor Chaliapin. It was he who gave little Mary her first vocal lessons and praised her makings. The girl herself also dreamed of becoming an artist.

However, events unfolded in unpredictable ways. The entry of the Russian Empire into the First World War, the subsequent collapse and revolution led to great changes. At first, the count's family hoped that everything in the country would improve, but quickly became disappointed. Moving to Crimea was not a salvation.

The beginning of all the troubles of Father Mary, Count Rostislav Rostislavovich, was shot in 1921, allegedly for aiding the Wrangels. That same year, Lisa’s older sister died. Elder brother Vasily passed away after 5 years, and brother Andrei went missing. My aunt was killed in front of Mary.

“At that time, we were terribly hungry. I had to grind grape seeds. They were saved by dolphin oil – one fisherman managed to catch a dolphin, Maria recalled her childhood in the Crimea.



Later, Crimean Tatars helped move 16-year-old Maria Kapnyst and her mother from Crimea to Leningrad. Things started to get better here. The girl hastened to pursue a long dream, studied in the theater studio and was in the Leningrad Institute. Teachers praised her, she began to appear on stage.

But then the information about noble Maria. This was enough to exclude the talented girl from the university, she could now forget about the scene. Even just to be in Leningrad Kapnists banned. Besides, in 1934, Sergei Kirov, who was a friend of the family and could sometimes intercede, died.

For a couple of years, a young woman had to wander around a huge country. For some time she worked as an accountant in Kiev, then moved to Batumi. However, in 1941, Mary was remembered again. She was arrested as “unreliable” (again because of her noble background).



Incarceration Maria Kapnist spent many years in prison. In 1949, she gave birth to her daughter Radislava in a prison hospital. Soon after, the girl’s father, Polish engineer Jan Volkonski, was shot. And 2-year-old Radislava was taken from her mother and given to an orphanage.

Maria was arrested again shortly after her release. For allegedly anti-Soviet agitation, she was sentenced to another ten years in prison. However, in 1956, thanks to Anastas Mikoyan, long-suffering Maria Kapnist was still free.



Instagram In Two Years A Woman fully rehabilitatedAll sentences were annulled because they did not find the “composition of the crime”. But who will bring back a decade and a half of life spent in prisons and camps on the most difficult jobs - logging, mines, sculpting and burning bricks?

Note that even in prison conditions, Maria found the strength for creativity to stage performances for prisoners. And to avoid harassment by the guards, the countess rubbed coal dust into her face. Endless hardships, losses and experiences have made the woman even older. Unsurprisingly, having been released at 42, Maria Kapnist looked 70.



She could not establish a relationship with her daughter for a long time, because she simply did not recognize her mother in Mary, did not remember her. It will be possible to find a common language between a mother and a daughter only after years, when Radislava has already become a teenager.

After her release, Maria moved to Kiev. There was no housing, so the woman slept right at the train station or in the park, and also worked as a janitor to somehow survive. And at one point, she got lucky. Director Yuri Lysenko noticed a colorful young lady who in makeup should look very spectacular. So Kapnist got the role of abbess in the film “Tavria”.

The successful work attracted the attention of other directors to Maria Kapnist. Later, she tirelessly played elderly countesses, mysterious old women, sorcerers, gypsies, witches. And the role in the two-part film of 1972 “Ruslan and Lyudmila” brought the woman all-Union fame. The actress starred in the movie until the end of his days. Amazingly, she managed to play in more than 120 films, despite the late beginning of her film career.



Biographers claim that in her youth, because of her work in the mine, Maria developed claustrophobia. She was afraid to go underground, even when it was an ordinary underground passage. Once Kapnist was crossing a busy street in the Ukrainian capital and was hit by a car. For some time doctors fought for her life, but on October 25, 1993, the actress died.

Maria Kapnist was not forgotten in Kiev. So, in 2014, to the centenary of his birth, a memorial plaque to the actress was opened. And in 2018, the city Council named one of the streets of Kiev in honor of Maria Kapnist.