Alexey Shcheglov. Ranevskaya. Fragments of a Life

Her life was long. With flashes of happiness. With years of despondency, decades of melancholy and loneliness. She felt uncomfortable in her own body, in the fate allotted to her by God. She didn't fight - she lived. The tragedy of mismatch, experienced every second, created a phenomenon called Ranevskaya. She said: "I was smart enough to live my life stupidly." Great, courageous stupidity - not to seek rapprochement with an alien world. Children shouted after her: "Mulya, don't make me nervous!" She drove them away, scolding them. Friends - one after another - faded into oblivion. All that remained were photographs. The hateful "Mulya!.." was heard from all sides. The audience loved her. But time did not love her. It nibbled away at the space around it, piece by piece. Until it got very close.

Faina Ranevskaya spent nearly seventy years on stage. She spent the same amount of time as a member of the Wulf family after her parents emigrated in 1917. Ranevskaya found a new family in the home of her mentor, actress Pavla Leontyevna; her daughter Irina, also an actress and director; and Alexei Shcheglov, Irina's son, born in 1939, whom Ranevskaya called her "ersatz grandson," and he called her "Fufa." When Ranevskaya's 100th birthday was celebrated, all of Moscow was engrossed in Alexei Shcheglov's short memoir about Faina Georgievna.
The author is not a writer, but a professor of architecture. Perhaps this is why the manuscript contains a minimum of "reflections" and a maximum of direct speech from Faina Georgievna, entries from her diaries, letters, rough drafts, and other "primary materials."