From the handwritten notebook. Tatyana Timofeevna’s voice.

Dusya Yanshina (sister of M. M. Yanshin), Zinaida Aleksandrovna and Gennady came to visit us. It was wonderful! I was happy. At parting he [insertion above the line: kissed me]. So we marked my sixteenth birthday. And then I wrote him letters to the front, and he answered when he could. Two of his letters somehow survived with me. He survived that war, and died already in peacetime: he was driving his Volga at terrible speed and died in a car crash. That happened not far from Kislovodsk.

The main people were Aleksandra Pavlovna (Mama) and Dusya (Evdokia Mikhailovna, the sister). There was also Katyusha, Dusya’s daughter. Mama and I spent much time with them. Here I met Mikh. Mikh. Yanshin (People’s Artist of the MKhAT[?]). I met Inna Gornaya (former wife[?] of Lishin), Pavel Vlad. Massalsky (he played at the MKhAT, but he is well remembered from the film Circus) and others. Once in summer I was at the Yanshins’. Mikh. Mikh. was there. We sat at table, and then Yanshin invited everyone to a restaurant. And then he sat at the wheel and began to drive around the rooms, and his mama Aleks. Pavlovna says to him: “Let the girl go; today you will not drag the girl around the taverns for me.” I terribly wanted to go, but I did not dare. We marked my 16th modestly at home. Only a little pie; we ate as always vinaigrette and something else. Zin. Aleks., Gennady (he was in Moscow then), Dusya came. Then Mama and I went to see them off. It was already dark; one could walk the streets until 12 (curfew). At parting Gennady kissed me. That was my first kiss. And before that he had invited me to the Hermitage for some concert; Mama’s happiness knew no bounds. Mikh. Mikh. Yanshin sometimes took me to dress rehearsals at the MKhAT and the Romen Theatre, where he was chief director. At the MKhAT they were staging Simonov’s play The Russian Question at a dress rehearsal. At Tali[?] I saw him and Valentina Serova. That summer I often visited Zin. Aleksandrovna and the Yanshins (they lived on Granovsky Street, next to the government house) in a shared flat. They came to us to wash, because we had hot water in the house. Sometimes Mikh. Mikh. Yanshin came to our “bath,” General Pavel Iv. Aleksandrovich (a relative of Zin. Aleksandrovna).

By the middle of the 9th form we were separated from the boys. Our school became a girls’ school, and they moved to School 7.

Meeting Sasha

Then they (Yura Pekishev, Yura Subbotin, Sasha Kravchenko) entered the military-technical department of the Stalin Institute and in 1943/44 were admitted to the first year of the institute. We lost sight of them. But somehow they came to our evening. For us they were already students, and that was attractive. Then [they?] sat near me, went up to the room where I was preparing for the preparatory department of the Institute of Foreign Languages, because I had decided to apply[?]. At school for 2 [years?] studying French. One autumn (lessons[?] not yet[?]) the telephone rang. It turned out Sasha Kravchenko was calling (he lived in entrance 44). As I remember he told me he was going through his notes and in one of the books found [our] address[?] with the telephone and [from there] decided to call me. [They told?] me [to come] to the telephone. He said hello, and then when [we began?] the conversation lasted a very long time; [we talked?] long, and he also said: “Better let’s go for a walk.” And one day Sasha suggested I go for a walk. And then for me Kravchenko was a musician of about 20. (After all Gennady was 10 years older than I, by the way. But [he?] did not get on[?] with Papa when he was born). So we set off walking with Sasha. I kept wondering whether he would take my arm. But he did not; he took me by the elbow when we crossed the street. And so began our evening walks with him. Sometimes Yura Subbotin and his best friend joined us. Sometimes somehow Yurka invited me for a walk and we circled the embankment of the [Kremlin? / fortress?] [wall?], in the Garden; [he] read me Pushkin’s verses from Eugene Onegin. Inna, my best friend, did not yet know Sasha; I told her much about him and at that time we talked much on the telephone. She decided to play a trick on Sasha and call him herself.

So it was done. She went on a date with Sasha, and I [what?] could not find a place for myself. I felt he was not indifferent to me. I know myself well — why I did this, not finding a place for myself. I walked near the house waiting for them. And there below comes Inna[?], and next to her Sasha and Yura Subbotin. I was very glad to see them and as it later turned out she did not please Sasha; they simply remained friends, and I continued to like him more and more. Once Sasha took my hand and put it in his pocket to warm it. In that action there was so much tenderness that to this day I feel his touch. We were so well. What more could we wish. And once I needed to go to Dynamo metro, where my friend A. Muranova lived, and return a magazine I had borrowed from her. I suggested Sasha walk me there. And he asked me: “And what will I get for that?” I, a little coquettishly, said: “I won’t tell you.” And we set off. From our house to Dynamo metro is not far, but already short[?]; we stopped a minute[?]. [Parting?] at her house, Sasha said “Well, time to part.” We sat on a bench and I went nowhere. Then we returned home late. That is how our love began, which lasted all our life. And now, when he is gone, I am very lonely and dreary without him. He was an unusual and extraordinary person. So much tenderness, love, attention, tact. Once he told me he was ready to give his life for me. He spoilt me, which is why it is so hard without him. We agreed we would marry in 4 years when we finished the institute. But we did not keep our word and married in 3. Although my friend Ira Petrovskaya assured Sasha that “Tanya falls in love[?] with boys[?] not long and parts with them quickly,” everything turned out that my Sasha was serious[?]. Once Sasha invited me to his home. I was very frightened and afraid. My friend Ira came with me. We rang the bell; Sasha opened. Ira and I were dressed almost alike: dark skirt and white sweaters.

True, I had a little brooch. We went into the room, closing the door. But Sasha’s mama’s own fortress went at me. She came into the room; I led her in. Well, Sasha introduced us and conversation began. Sasha’s mama embroidered very well and began to show us her work. That is how our acquaintance took place.

Sasha had good friends at the institute, a united company. But they did not introduce me to them. And once he invited me to the institute for dances. And I felt awkward, because I felt I was being looked at. I only heard: “Zara (i.e. Sasha) has brought his girl[?].” So I met his lads and joined their company.

We marked all holidays together, mainly at my place, because our flat was large. But the lads took no money from the girls; they were gentlemen. But they got money in an original way. Times were hard. In their trade union they received orders for material. They bought the cheapest and then sold it at the market. Sasha could not trade; he stood and held a face[?].

When I studied in the preparatory department, Sasha met me every evening at Library of Lenin[?] metro, and we went for a walk.

Then his parents rather often invited me to dinner. There were still some other people.

On Victory Day he and I walked Moscow from morning. What jubilation! What joy!

In summer 1945 the Yanushins invited me to the MKhAT rest house on the Pestovo reservoir. We went there by steamer with Zinaida Aleksandrovna. That rest house was unusual: each actor was given a separate room where his family could live. Food was cooked by ourselves; only the actor was given some food. We cooked ourselves. The little house we lived in stood on the shore of the reservoir. Living there: Yanshin’s mother Aleksandra Pavlovna, his sister Dusya, his niece Katyusha. And so Zin. Aleks. and I arrived. The room was large. At that time students of the LKhAT studio were working there on agricultural work. That evening I left the house and saw the lads playing volleyball. I could play then and they took me on the team. We played well. And suddenly I see a very tall lad coming, rather handsome. Later it turned out this was Vladilen Davydov, also a student. He noticed me, and I him. And then all evening we walked with him. Yanshin kept joking about me. Once we baked a Napoleon cake and Mikh. Mikh. says to Dusya (the sister): “Dusya, call Davydov to tea with us!” Dusya did so. We sit at table; suddenly Vladik comes in and says: “Mikh. Mikh., did you call me?” And Yanshin says: “No, Tanechka invited you to tea.” And later Yanshin somehow said to me: “If something comes of you and Davydov, I will bring you rings from Prague.” But nothing came of it; it simply remained an acquaintance. True, for some time Davydov still telephoned me.

And at that time Sosna arrived (he had been resting somewhere with Mama), and we continued our meetings. We often went to the cinema, to our Udarnik, to the Soviet Cinema club, which was in the building of the Estrada Theatre of Yermolova, met at our friends’, went to the rink, and most often in the evenings wandered the city. Sometimes we came to my place… We met almost every day.

I return to 1944. Sosna had a comrade Yurka Pekishev (we all studied together in the 9th form), and he began to invite me for walks. Once he says to me: “Come out, you will all torment me.” I was surprised and say: “Yura, only after the war.” And right after the end of the war he telephones me and says: “Well? Do you remember our talk?” I: “Yura, I don’t love you,” and he to me: “You will!” I of course refused him nobly.

We continued to meet with Sasha; our friendship and feeling grew stronger. He was a good lad. As I already mentioned, Sasha had many good friends of that kind[?]. And once for one of the evenings I invited my little friend Ira Petrovskaya[?] (Valya)

The full line-oriented manuscript reading is on the Russian chapter .

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