“Operation “Y” and other adventures of Shurik”: how the legendary comedy was filmed. Operation “Y” and other adventures of Shurik Operation “Y” or the adventures of poets scenario

but in general, of course, this is also an alteration, if you read the history of the creation of this song

Wait, locomotive, don't knock the wheels. History of the song

*Involuntary provocation of Fima Zhiganets

THE HISTORY OF BLATY SONGS reflects the history of the Russian people - difficult, vivid, often tragic. Many masterpieces of criminal “classics” originate in a folk song, and then absorb the events and realities of a different, new, differently seething life. This topic in itself is adventurous and exciting. But sometimes detective touches and nuances are added to it, giving a seemingly purely historical or philological study a scandalous shade.

This is what happened with the famous criminal song, which some call “Wait, locomotive, don’t knock the wheels,” others call it “The locomotive is flying through the valleys and hills.” It is still a kind of “apple of discord” among lovers of penitentiary folklore. The song about the steam locomotive gained enormous popularity after it was performed in Leonid Gaidai’s film comedy “Operation Y” by Yuri Nikulin and Georgy Vitsyn.

And in 1999, the Rostov publishing house “Phoenix” published my book “Blatnye songs with comments by Fima Zhiganets”, where attention was drawn to the fact that the song “Wait, locomotive, don’t knock, wheels” is an adaptation of the pre-revolutionary one - “Here the train has set off towards a distant place " It is spoken from the perspective of a soldier who was given three days leave to say goodbye to his mother:

Now the train has set off towards a distant place -
Conductor, apply the brakes:
I go to my dear mother with a farewell bow
I hasten to show myself.

He flies to God knows where;

And the deadline was given to me for three days.

Forgive me mom
Sorry, honey! –
That's all I'll tell my mom.

I'll lay down my violent head...

A version of this song is known, in particular, performed by Zhanna Bichevskaya. Next to me I placed an extended criminal version of “Steam Locomotive”:

The locomotive flies through the valleys and hills,
He flies to God knows where.
The boy called himself a swindler and a thief,
And his life is an eternal game.

Wait, locomotive, don't knock the wheels,
Conductor, hit the brakes!
I'm going to my mother's house with my last greetings
I hasten to show myself.

Don't wait for me, mom, for a good son -
Your son is not the same as he was yesterday:
I was sucked into a dangerous quagmire,
And my life is an eternal game.

And if they put me behind bars,
In prison I will break through the bars.
And let the moon shine with its corrupt light -
And I, I’ll still run away!

And if the prison guards notice -
Then I, little boy, disappeared:
Alarm and shot - and head down
He fell off the longboat and fell.

I will lie and die...
And you won’t come to me, dear mother,
Caress me, kiss me.

This is where it all comes to a head..., as the wonderful Russian satirist Arkady Averchenko once said.

**Nephew plays trains

IT TURNS OUT THAT BY THAT TIME, or rather, since 1996, the authorship of “Steam Locomotive” had already been attributed former employee"Lenfilm" to Nikolai Ivanovsky! And they even brought up the “canonical version”:

Wait, locomotive, don't knock the wheels,
Conductor, apply the brakes.
I go to my dear mother with my last bow
I want to show myself.

Don't wait, mother, for your son, ever.
He was sucked into the prison quagmire,
He willingly said goodbye forever.

My years will pass like meltwater,
My years will pass, perhaps in vain.
No joy awaits me, I swear to you freedom,
And they are waiting for me at the new camp.
(1946, Karelia, Petrozavodsk)

In principle, there would be nothing criminal in Ivanovsky’s authorship. The man is quite suitable for this role. Born in 1928. At the age of fourteen he was sent to a children's colony for theft. According to him, he wrote the song in the zone when he was 18 years old. He was released at the age of 25 (in the year of Stalin’s death; possibly due to the famous “Beriev” amnesty). He left the life of crime, and a year after the zone he ended up at Lenfilm, where he worked for 35 years as the head of the lighting department. I knew Nikulin, Vitsin, Dahl, and many other actors. He wrote poetry and prose and published in periodicals. Member of the Writers' Union and the Cinematographers' Union. In general, a suitable biography.

Ivanovsky's nephew Alexander Duris hints that his friends knew about his uncle's authorship. Although this statement is more than controversial. Thus, Yuri Nikulin recalled in one of his interviews:

“In addition to jokes, I collected songs. I even took a little album into the army that went with me through the war. The song “Wait, Locomotive” was also in that album. Of course, I don’t know the author. I recorded it after the war, when I was demobilized. And in the film the song appeared like this. During the filming of “Operation Y,” Gaidai said: “We need a song, some kind of criminal song.” I sang a couple, but they seemed rude to him, and what was needed was a pitiful lyrical one. And I remembered “Wait, locomotive...”, and she came up...”

Another of his film studio comrades also does not remember Ivanovsky’s performance of “Steam Locomotive”:

“I myself have not heard any songs performed by him,” says Lenfilm’s current head of lighting, Maxim Aleksandrovich. “Although he read poetry often.”

But let’s still assume that the author of the thieves “Steam Locomotive” is Ivanovsky. Well, a man wrote a “thieves’ version” of a folk song - honor and praise to him. Moreover, Ivanovsky himself never said a word that he created the song with clean slate, and did not remake it from an already known folklore one. However, his nephew to this day insists that “Wait, Locomotive” is the fruit of his uncle’s original creativity! And pointing to folklore sources infuriates him. He constantly fights with “slanderers.”

The question is - why? Well, if my uncle were recognized as the author of a talented adaptation, that would also be glory. But in a strange way, the rights to the authorship of “Steam Locomotive” were presented just when Ivanovsky himself had a stroke, the left side of his body was paralyzed, and his speech was impaired. As the Tribune newspaper wrote on January 8, 2002 (“Conductor, hit the brakes!”):

“About five years ago he had a stroke. Special medications are needed. Meanwhile, his sister and nephew, with whom he now lives, are sure that Nikolai can be put back on his feet if only he had the money. But there are none. Now, if we managed to defend copyrights, achieve some royalties, who knows, maybe there would be enough for treatment...”

However, if "Locomotive" is just a reworking of a folk song, copyright issues may arise. We need “clean” text. I do not claim that this was precisely the motivating factor for Duris. Perhaps he really feels like he is “fighting for justice.” IN in this case his motives are not so important for establishing the truth. For reference, we note that Ivanovsky himself has been virtually unable to say anything since 1996. However, Tatyana Maksimova, the author of the article quoted above, clarifies:

“I speak poorly,” as if apologizing, Nikolai Nikolaevich barely scrapes together two words upon my departure. And suddenly he easily and deftly adds a well-known Russian expression of three words, one of which is unprintable.”

But otherwise, my uncle couldn’t say anything intelligible. The entire “interview” was “voiced” by the nephew...

***The peasants are not our decree!

AND STILL – DOES THE BLAT SONG about a steam locomotive and a conductor have folk roots? Without a doubt. There are many indications of this, which Alexandre Duris persistently tries to refute. As for the “recruit” text of Zhanna Bichevskaya, Duris casually pours a tub of slop on the singer, “convicting” her of deliberately “stylizing” the criminal “Steam Locomotive”, written by Ivanovsky, as a folk popular print. The purpose of such strange stylization, however, is completely unclear.

However, there is other evidence. So, for example, Viktor Astafiev published the novel “The Snow is Melting” in 1958, where he writes:

“Women walked behind the tractor with buckets, baskets and shovels. Every now and then they turned onto the boundary and overturned buckets. The pile of potatoes grew noticeably. A song reached Ptakhin. He was surprised. It’s been a long time since people worked with songs, especially in the fall. In spring it's a different matter. The song was old, local, about a girl who leaves for distant lands, unable to bear mental anguish.

The train has started
To a distant place,
Conductor, hit the brakes!
I'm mommy's dear
With final bow
I want to show myself...

Tasya sang along with everyone. She didn’t know the words, but she quickly got used to the melody and picked up on it...”

However, Duris “refutes” this instruction, claiming that Astafiev, in his youth, did not know village life, and therefore also... converted the thieves' song into a folk song! Russian chanson researcher Mikhail Dyukov, speaking in support of Duris, explains:

“The novel mentions that this song is local and ancient. For some reason I think that the author has bent his heart a little, because he couldn’t have written that it was modern and camp, those were not the times.”

Of course, it is not forbidden to think whatever you want. But there must be at least the slightest basis for conclusions. Meanwhile, many other facts point to the folklore “original source” of the song about the steam locomotive.

In the book by Michael and Lydia Jacobson “Song folklore of the Gulag as historical source(1917 - 1939)”, another interesting version of the song about a steam locomotive was published:

Stop the locomotives, don't knock the wheels,
Conductor, apply the brakes.
To my dear mother at the last minute
I want to show myself.

Don't wait, my mother, for a handsome son.
Don't wait, he'll never come back,
He was sucked into prison bars
He said goodbye to his will forever.

Khevra is daring, brave, thieves,
The one whose life is like grass,
All my Kiryukhs, the whole big family,
Goes on tour to camps.

What else should we do, hot boys?
Our families were sent to Siberia.
We got away, worked at the dacha,
And for this they are sent to Anadyr.

I will never forget my dear mother,
I know he will waste away and grieve for me.
After all, her sons, the whole large family,
The dispossessed girl is driving along the ground.

The notes indicate that the text is taken from the collection of Alexander Vardi, an emigrant who collected folklore for many years Stalin's camps(He himself served time in Magadan from 1939 to 1941). It is now kept at Stanford University. In the margin of the manuscript there is a note “Magadan, 1939.”

But this did not convince the nephew either. He undertook " lexical analysis” of the text, having agreed to the point that the term “dacha” did not exist in Soviet everyday life, as a “bourgeois” one, until the very mid-50s, “Our families were sent to Siberia” - “phraseology of a Marxist-Leninist character”, which also before The 50s was unknown, and so on.

Of course, all this is complete and unconditional nonsense, it is unclear where it was taken from. Just watch the movie " Hearts of four“or read “Timur and his team” by Gaidar, where the action takes place precisely in dacha villages, and also leaf through the volumes of memoirs of Russian Narodnaya Volya members, who were sent to Siberia without asking permission from Marx and Lenin. Mikhail Dyukov added that the lines about the “dispossession” are complete nonsense: what kind of thieves with peasant origins can there be? The rest of the argument is of the same order. Of course, if Mikhail had at least read Varlam Shalamov, he would have learned to his surprise that it was in the 30s that thousands of young healthy peasant boys joined the ranks of professional criminals and they played a significant role among the prisoners (although they were not “legal thieves” were).

But main question: Why would an emigrant “reinterpret” Ivanovo’s “Steam Locomotive”? There is only one answer: only because Ivanovsky’s nephew doesn’t like it. It is curious that he questions and ridicules any testimony of the camp inmates, forgetting that his uncle’s “testimony” is nothing more than words.

****Song of the Flying Locomotive

HOWEVER, THIS IS NOT ALL. The Hoover Institution houses Vladimir Yurasov's work “Song in Soviet Prisons and Camps.” It was written in 1950, when the “author” of “Steam Locomotive” Nikolai Ivanovsky was still serving time. The work presents a version of the song with the first line “A steam locomotive is flying through the valleys and villages” - the one that is absent in Ivanovsky’s “canonical” text, but is present in many others, primarily in the “recruit” folk song performed by Bichevskaya. A little about Yurasov: born in 1914. In 1938 he was arrested, in 1941 he escaped from the camp, lived on false documents, fought, lieutenant colonel (1945), after the war, commissioner of the Ministry of Construction Materials Industry in East Germany, fled to West Germany, from 1951 to the USA, editor of the magazine "America", commentator for Radio Liberty. That is, after 1941, Yurasov was never in the Soviet Union and could not hear the song allegedly created in 1946 and circulated in the camps. Surely he quoted a text that he heard directly in the Gulag.

Question: how could a verse with a “flying” steam locomotive appear in West Germany in 1950, which is present in many performances of the song (including those performed by Vladimir Vysotsky in the first half of the 60s)?

Duris’s comrade in battle, Mikhail Dyukov, tries to answer this:

“In Mikhail Demin’s novel “Blatnoy,” the fact is mentioned that Demin himself heard the song “Wait, Locomotive” and added (we will leave the likelihood of this fact to the author’s conscience) with his own verse with the words:
"Fly, locomotive, through the valleys and hills,
He flies to God knows where...”
Well, now we know where and where the alien verse was “sewn in”. If we take into account the fact that Demin himself went to prison only in the middle of the war (1942-43), and the alteration took place some time later (he does not mention specifically), then we can assume that this song was heard in the camp and altered there , and this was the year 1946-47.”

Everything here is not true, from beginning to end. Demin wrote about “Steam Locomotive” in autobiographical novel"Blatnoy", published in France in 1972, the following:

“The repertoire of Maidanniks is no less diverse; here trains, stations, the expanses of the homeland are sung... “A steam locomotive is flying across the green expanses. It flies to God knows where... I called myself a swindler and a thief, boy, and said goodbye to my freedom forever.”

It is clear that Dyukov did not read this passage and therefore quoted the song inaccurately. And at the same time he manipulated something in passing. After all, Demin does not claim that he “added” any verse. He simply cites an excerpt from a prison song, widely known in criminal circles. By the way, along with “The Steam Locomotive,” Demin quotes many other criminal songs, including songs from the Solovetsky camps, which were completely unknown to the general public at that time: their full texts came out much later.

So the reference to Demin’s novel does not explain at all how a former prisoner who left the camp in 1941 wrote a work abroad in 1950 in which he quotes a song about a steam locomotive with lines that Ivanovsky does not have, but which are present in most subsequent variations !

However, the story of “flying locomotives” does not end there. In the first half of the 90s, in the program of Eduard Uspensky and Eleonora Filina “Ships came into our harbor...” another version of “Steam Locomotive” was heard. Its text was published in 1995 in the collection of songs “Ships Came into Our Harbor”:

A steam locomotive flies through the valleys and mountains
He flies to God knows where.
She called herself, girl, I'm a factory donkey,

I work in a factory, making parts,
I got used to the lathe.

I will run away from this factory.

Boss, boss, don't stomp your feet,
And master, don’t jump like a goat!
Give me three days off,
I'll eat my fill at home.

I drove for a long time, dirty and hungry,
I arrived and ate my fill.
Oh, dear mother, they tortured you in the factory,
I won't go again before the trial!

The conductor doesn't apply the brakes...
Now I, girl, am going to the North,
Far away to the North forever!

Judging by the reality of this song, it was created in the period from 1940 to 1956. In 1940 the Presidium Supreme Council The USSR issued a number of decrees: on the transition to an 8-hour working day, on the transition to a 7-day working week and on the prohibition of unauthorized departure of workers and employees from the enterprise. Violation of these decrees carried criminal penalties ranging from 2 to 4 years in prison. The consolidation was complete and concerned everyone - from students of factory schools to directors of enterprises. Some historians believe that millions of people were convicted under these decrees. Only in 1956 was criminal liability for leaving work without permission (by the way, for being late for workplace) has been cancelled.

So, the version about the factory girl is historically completely reliable. And if we assume that the folk recruitment song “Here the train has set off to a distant place” did not exist, it turns out that the song about the plant was remade from the “stylization” of Zhanna Bichevskaya BACK IN THE 40s - 50s! That is, long before Bichevskaya’s “stylization” came into being. There is no other way to explain the obvious coincidences. Here's your first clue:

Now I don't know what minute
I will run away from this factory.

Compare with the “recruit” option:

Now I don't know what minute
I will lay down my violent head.

Give me three days off.

Where is the mention of vacation and specifically in three days - in the text of Nikolai Ivanovsky? It doesn't exist and it can't exist! He doesn't stick to the criminal world. What kind of vacation does the urkagan have? And to the hard workers - just right! That’s why this mention migrated from the popular version “and the deadline was given to me for three days.”

However, it is also undeniable that by the time the “proletarian” adaptation was created, a criminal adaptation of “Steam Locomotive” already existed, as indicated by the lines:

I called myself, girl, a factory donkey
And I said goodbye to my will forever.

In the thieves version:

I, little boy, called myself a swindler and a thief,
And he said goodbye to his will forever.

However, Duris has his own line of defense: the “Havana” text dates back to 1995, therefore, it was simply “stylized” after “Wait, Locomotive” became popular thanks to the movie “Operation Y”. That is, this “stylization” is based on Ivanovsky, and Bichevskaya, and everything known variants performance of a criminal hit. But here’s the question: why did someone suddenly need to “stylize” “Steam Locomotive” in the 90s to look like the 40s?! This is just paranoia: according to Duris, there is something like a worldwide Masonic conspiracy, aimed solely at depriving Nikolai Ivanovsky of the right to authorship of the thieves’ masterpiece through numerous stylizations and manipulations! For some reason, they not only “steal” the song from his uncle, but also fake it, either as a recruit song, or as a kulak song, or as a factory song, or as a peasant song... Moreover, these insidious machinations began back in the 50s of the last century (after all
the obviousness that Vladimir Yurasov’s work on Soviet prison songs appeared precisely in 1950, even Ivanovsky’s nephew did not dare to dispute). Well, this is a topic not for historians of folklore, but for psychiatrists.

*****George Westinghouse provides evidence

But things get really bad for the fiery nephew when he tries to “analyze” the text of the folklore source of the famous thieves’ song. To begin with, he gets into trouble by asserting the following:

“From the guy’s words, I know that one distortion crept into his song,” says Sasha. - Instead of “I go to my mother with my last greetings,” it should be “with my last bow.” “Bow” was more in line with the thieves’ sentimentality of those years, when a criminal could easily stab someone to death, and an hour later in the barracks “shed tears” to songs...”

The sentimentality of thieves, frankly speaking, has nothing to do with it. In the original thug song, the words about “ last bow"Mama sounds ridiculous. What “mama”?! There is not and cannot be any such purely popular appeal in any of the original thieves' songs. Only - mother, mother, in the extreme - mommy. Neither “mama” nor “mother”. You can check with famous songs“Mommy, mommy, forgive me dear”, “The ice melts on the bay in the spring”, etc. “Mama” is a pre-revolutionary vocabulary, but not “sub-Soviet”.

Now let's move on to bows. What kind of ritual is this? Among the people - yes, but not among
thieves! Bowing to Father-Mother is characteristic of Russian pre-revolutionary life. After collectivization and industrialization, the breaking of the old patriarchal order by the new power over the knee - where are the bows, what “mama”?!

Mama was in Ostrovsky’s “The Thunderstorm”, there are also scenes of farewell with bows to the ground and three kisses, with everyone according to seniority. Or let’s remember Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov”:

Absolutely possible! - Krasotkin immediately agreed and, taking the cannon from Ilyusha’s hands, he himself handed it over to his mother with the most polite bow.

The same tradition of bowing to the mother is also in the Russian song “Steppe and steppe all around”:

You're a horse
Take me to Father
Give your regards
To my dear mother.

And here is “The Adventures of a Sailor” by Stanyukovich:

And tell daddy and mommy my deepest bow and how grateful I am for the affection.
Thousands of such examples can be cited in Russian literature and folklore. In thieves' folklore - not a single one!

Other claims by Alexander Duris to the folk song about a recruit sound just as ridiculous. Continuing to accuse Bichevskaya of “remaking” his uncle’s locomotive, he writes:
“The social (technical) characteristics were set by the original song “Wait, Engine”: “steam locomotive”, “don’t knock the wheels”, “conductor, press the brakes”. And also a derivative version: “a steam locomotive is flying.” In the rewritten, adapted version, technical and clerical terms were added: “the deadline was presented to me for three days,” “at what minute.”
Since we are dealing with Russian folklore, which existed in its own linguistic (and temporal, and social) patterns, let us ask where suddenly the folk linguistic element manifests bureaucraticism in its creativity - “the term is presented”? (K.I. Chukovsky, in his book “Alive as Life,” spoke about the penetration of bureaucratic language into the Russian language during the Soviet era). Well, “presented to the St. George Cross” is understandable: an award, a Knight of St. George, etc. Vacation: given, in extreme cases - granted...
…If Zh. Bichevskaya had invited a competent specialist, instead of “at what minute” he would have been able to insert “in someone else’s”, “in the distant”, “in the enemy’s side” “I will lay down my violent head.” Which would better disguise the song as Russian folk. Moreover, he would have built it in rhythmically, without mutilating the words and their combinations (“and the deadline was presented to me for three days”).”

For all his attempts at irony, Duris looks completely helpless. I'm not even talking about the wild phrase “ folklore" “And the term given to me is for three days,” “at what minute,” “I’ll lay down my violent head” - all this is just living vernacular! In order to understand and feel it, it would not be harmful to start by reading the wonderful works of Russian folklorists. For example, “The Accurate Moscow Word” by Evgeny Ivanov. Fairy tales and legends of Boris Shergin. Yes, at least just Russian fairy tales by Afanasyev! Or open Vladimir Ivanovich Dahl. There vivid examples: “which puppy are you taking?”, “I’m not taking any apples, they’re bad”, “whatever God soaks, he will dry”, “whichever”, “whichever is”... Argue on this topic with a person who is at the same time completely confidently declares that in the 30s there were no dachas in the Soviet Union - he is not serious.

It’s tiresome to list all Duris’ nonsense. But quite by accident, he suggested another argument in favor of the existence of a folklore source for the criminal song about a steam locomotive and a conductor. Duris writes:

“It is unlikely that the trains carrying soldiers to the front of World War I had conductors and brakes. Most likely, the driver controlled the movement of the train (and braking) - from the locomotive.”

Absolutely wonderful replica! Firstly, it is not clear why a soldier should go on leave to visit his mother in a freight car, and not in an ordinary carriage? But this is not the main thing. Unwittingly, the nephew gave a “beacon” tying the action specifically to pre-revolutionary times.

It is quite obvious that the hero of the song does not have the slightest idea about the principle of operation of the train! At least about the principle of operation of the brakes. Indeed, under no circumstances could the conductor PRESS the brakes! From the very beginning (1868), it was not possible to press the pneumatic railway brake invented by George Westinghouse, which operated using compressed air. Emergency braking was initially carried out using a special handle, which was pulled down, and later they began to pull a lever called the “stop tap”.

An illiterate soldier from the common people of the early twentieth century could easily not have known this. For a simple boy from the outback, such wisdom was a novelty. For him the train was something like spaceship for today's average person. But for an experienced “swindler” of the late 40s, such ignorance was unimaginable! Urkagans constantly “toured” cities, “worked” on trains, and by the middle of the twentieth century in Russia the swindler was very familiar with railway transport. He “bombed” in the “centers of civilization”, and not plowed land in the village... Moreover, the guy from Leningrad Nikolai Ivanovsky knew what a “stop tap” was.

So the heartbreaking cry of the Gulag crook - “Conductor, hit the brakes!” is perceived as a wild anachronism.

However, knowledgeable people can object to me: in trains BEFORE the 30s of the 20th century there was such a position as a “brake conductor”. There is even the famous song “Here is a train rushing down the slope” - an adaptation of the no less famous miner’s “Konogon”:

There's a train rushing down the slope
Dense Siberian taiga.
And to the young driver
The brakeman shouts:

"Oh, hush, hush, for God's sake,
We could fall downhill!
Here is the Transbaikal road,
You can't collect your bones...

The brigade consisted of five people: a conductor - now he would probably be called a foreman, a driver, a brake conductor (who, by the way, was sitting in a booth on the brake platform of the last car), an assistant driver and a fireman. Before the revolution, the conductor was an official of grade 12-13 - a respected and extremely highly paid specialist. But already in Soviet time such conductors are a thing of the past.

There was even a lively discussion about this on the search site. Here's what they write about the role of the brake conductor:

"In those days, when not all carriages were equipped with brakes, the last carriage was special. On level ground, the locomotive would brake - this is all clear. But on steep slopes the locomotive could not be braked - the entire mass of carriages would simply fall off the rails. Therefore, the last carriage There was a special one - with brakes. Most likely, these brakes were mechanical, since there was a steering wheel in the conductor’s booth.”

Another participant in the discussion elaborates:

“They braked with mechanical brakes, now preserved as a parking brake (in the vestibule of a passenger car you can see red folding handles, and some freight cars have “brake booths” where the brake handles are visible - now these are cargo security booths, etc.), and to brake, the driver gave a signal with a whistle - at the signal, the conductors activated the brake, ROTATING THE HANDLES, and there was a signal to release the brakes.
The Westinghouse brake was invented in 1868, but was introduced in Russia later. Since 1931, the vigorous introduction of the Matrosov brake, similar in design, began, so the creation of the song can be attributed to the 20s."

We have already clarified that the song was created even earlier. And, in any case, before Kolya Ivanovsky was born. By the way: even in those days, conductors did not press the brakes, but turned the handles.

******Someone came down the hill

But there is one more circumstance. The fact is that in pre-revolutionary urban folklore there was one more thing (according to at least one) mention of a conductor who performs duties unusual for him. We're talking about the song "Here's someone coming down the hill." Yes, yes, about the same one that was later remade into the famous song about a sweetheart in a “protective tunic.”
Here are a few of her verses:

Someone came down from the hill,
My darling is probably coming.
He's wearing a blue shirt,
She'll drive me crazy.

He's wearing a gold chain,
Flower in the buttonhole on the chest...
Why, why did I meet
Him on the path of life?

I’ll buy a three arshin ribbon -
You, wind, flutter the ribbon!
My dear gets into the car -
Conductor, close the doors.

Next, the heroine decides, “I’ll go to the pharmacy and buy poison,” and even despite the fact that “the pharmacy doesn’t give poison,” the girl commits suicide, having managed to utter a pathetic speech addressed to her beloved.
But this is not important for us. The role played by the conductor in the song is curious. It's quite strange that he manipulates the doors in the car. What kind of conductor can be in the car?! Of course, one can assume that the heroine calls a horse-drawn horse (or even a tram) a “car,” but there the conductor also did not open and close the doors, especially since there were no doors in either the horse-drawn horse or the tram. Closing doors are a later invention.
Thus, we see that strange conductors fit well into the pre-revolutionary urban song folklore, while from the Soviet one they are completely broken out.

*******There is no song, but they sing it!

“If this song is old, then why is it not in the repertoire of singers of the early 20th century, either by Soviet or emigrants?! During the First World War, patriotic songs were popular, but even among them “Here the train has started” or something similar in meaning and text could not be found. Why?
Maybe it just hadn’t been written yet?!
I wasn't too lazy and leafed through "Russians" folk songs“(quite an extensive work, about 300 texts), there is a section “Soldiers’ and Recruitment Songs”, but nothing similar to Zh. Bichevskaya’s version could be found.”

I, of course, appreciate Mikhail’s titanic work, but for reference I have to say that there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Russian folk songs. And the texts of not all of them are published even in special collections. A collection of 300 songs can be considered in this sea as a comic book for defective teenagers. Five or six years ago I could not find the “Cossack” lyrics of the song “A River Flows.” Now there are about a dozen of these texts on the Internet.

The fact that a song is not included in a small collection does not mean that it does not exist. Even if you don’t find it in a hundred collections, it can sound great at the same time among the people. Because folklore is still oral folk art.

Dyukov also refers to the fact that the song about the steam locomotive is not mentioned either by Varlam Shalamov, or by Dmitry Likhachev, or by Andrei Sinyavsky, who wrote about thieves' song folklore. Well, first of all, this is not entirely true. Sinyavsky just quotes two whole verses of the full version of the song:

And if the prison guards notice,
Then I, the little boy, am gone!
Alarm and shot and head down
He fell off the ledge and fell.

I'll be lying on a prison bed
I will lie and die...
And you won’t come to me, dear mother,
Hug and kiss me.

True, Sinyavsky was sent to prison already in 1965, so the reference to him is not entirely correct. But note that the quotes actually belong to the OLD BLOOD SONG. If only because a number of performers (including Arkady Severny) instead of “from the cornice” sing “from the longboat” (or from the longboat). “Barkaz” - in the old pre-war hairdryer it means “prison wall” (see, for example, the same Likhachev). This word is not in post-war and modern criminal jargon; it has long been forgotten.
For the sake of fairness, we note that both of these verses are absent in the version attributed to Ivanovsky. But they are present in almost all performance variants. We turn to Sinyavsky only because Dyukov himself referred to him. Alas, all of the listed authors - Likhachev, Shalamov, and Terts-Sinyavsky - quote in their works only a small part of the classic thieves' songs. Therefore, the argument that these researchers of criminal folklore do not mention any of them should be recognized (in legal terms) as insignificant.

However, recently on the Internet site “Nostalgia” someone under the nickname Olegvi also expressed a number of doubts about the fact that there was a “recruit” original source for the song about the steam locomotive:

“Only Bichevskaya claims this...
There are logical inconsistencies in the text, in comparison with which “he went to Odessa, but came out to Kherson” simply fades.

So, the train is “flying to God knows where.” Wait, who knows where? The hero goes by train to his mother, he was released for three days. This means the train is flying to God knows where.

The hero “hurries to show himself” and immediately asks the brakeman to stop the train. FOR WHAT??? With Ivanovsky, everything is clear - the hero is being transported, he dreams of a date with his mother, driving past his native place. Here it is unclear.

Don't wait, mother, for your son, for your dissolute son,
Mother, never wait for your son.

Nikulin’s is a little softened, but also - “don’t wait for me, mom.” And this is understandable - the conductor will not fulfill the request anyway. And here:

Forgive me mom
Sorry, honey! -
That's all I'll tell my mom.

Forgive for what? If the hero of the song is taken into the army, what is his fault?”

Alas, most of the arguments are, to put it mildly, far-fetched. For example, about the fact that the train is “flying to God knows where.” Like, it’s clear that it’s to mom! Just not. It is no coincidence that the recruiting song begins with the words: “Here the train has set off to a faraway place.” That is, the train is not going to mommy, but to unknown lands. And that is why the hero asks the conductor to “press on the brakes,” since he “will stop by his mother’s for a short time.” That is, the soldier asks to be dropped off at an intermediate station, and he has every right to do so: after all, “I was given a deadline of three days.” What is unclear here?

Well, we’ve already figured out the “brake conductor” thing a long time ago. But the last remark - “Why forgive? If the hero of the song is taken into the army, what is his fault?” - Deserves attention. Indeed: from Zhanna Bichevskaya’s version it is really unclear why the soldier was so frightened that he asked his mother for forgiveness. And now it’s time to pull the piano out of the bushes.

The fact is that, although Dyukov did not find traces of the “recruit” pre-revolutionary song about the conductor and the brakes, it still exists and is still not only in the repertoire of Zhanna Bichevskaya. One of the “Cossack” versions was recorded on the CD “Cossack Songs” (Polyphony Studio, Novosibirsk, 2006) folklore ensemble"Beauty". And here we clearly understand the meaning of filial repentance:

The train started moving towards a distant place.
“Conductor, hit the brakes!”
I say my last bow to my mother
I want to show myself.

The locomotive flies through the valleys and mountains,
He flies to God knows where.
I’ll visit my dear mother for a while,
And I was given a deadline of three days.

“You cannot live, mother, neither with your son nor with your granddaughter,
Don't live with your young daughter-in-law!
I have a share left - they have become my family
Just a saber and a black horse.”

“Forgive me, mom, forgive me, dear!” -
That's all I'll tell my mom.
Now I don't know in what wild land
I will lay down my violent head.

“Cover me, mother, with prayer with love,
And I will pray for you.”
Forgive me mom, save me God
Or maybe I'll return to my mother.

So, the son asks for forgiveness for the fact that he did not have time to start a family and because of this, “You, mother, should not live with your son or your granddaughter, You should not live with your young daughter-in-law!”

Of course, Nikolai Ivanovsky’s nephew can also call this version a “remake” of the song performed by Zhanna Bichevskaya. However, the song has also been preserved in the repertoire of the Cossack System ensemble from Mariinsk, Kemerovo region. The Cossack recruit song, which served as the basis for the thieves' "Steam Locomotive", is also mentioned by the author of a note about the Cossack folklore festival "Will you be an Ataman?", published in the newspaper "Evening Tyumen" (No. 39, October this year).

So if a researcher fails to find something, this is not yet an argument in the dispute. Perhaps it is simply a matter of the conscientiousness of the researcher himself.

********Dear Mom!, or Maria Spiridonova enters the battle

However, if we dig further, then the “recruit” song also has an inspiring source that inspired its unknown creators. This is the famous romance by Yakov Prigozhey to the poems of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich Romanov (widely known in poetic circles under the initials K.R.) “The poor fellow died in a military hospital...”. Poem by K.R. It was simply called “Died” and was written in 1895, and gained wide popularity in all layers of Russian society precisely thanks to the romance, first recorded in Moscow at the Pathé company in 1908. It was performed by the incomparable Nadezhda Vasilyevna Plevitskaya, the favorite singer of the last Russian emperor. Here are the words of the romance (the prince’s poem is longer):

The poor guy died in a military hospital,
My dear one lay there for a long time.
This soldier's life gradually
A serious illness has finished me off.

He was torn away from his family early,
The mother cried bitterly,
All the depth of a mother's sadness
It's hard to describe with a pen!

With inexpressible melancholy in his eyes
The wife hugged her husband
A full cup of great grief
She drank early.

And he stretched out his little hands to him, crying.
Boy, baby...
The native huts disappeared from sight,
He left his native land.

True, the reader may notice: this romance does not have much in common with “The Steam Locomotive”! Is it just a mention of mom and the fact that the unfortunate man once left motherland. That's how it is. But! The romance about a poor man in a prison hospital turned out to be so popular that many adaptations immediately followed. There are known folklore variants performed in Russian-Japanese war 1904-1905, during the first war and even during the Great Patriotic War. For example, Nikolai Klyuev’s revision, which dates back to 1914, is known:

He died, poor fellow, in a military hospital,
In death he is beautiful and holy,
Isn't this a valuable cover for him?
Woven an autumn sunset? -

So: one of the anonymous folklore variations was dedicated to the Socialist-Revolutionary terrorist Maria Aleksandrovna Spiridonova - the same one who, on January 16, 1906 in Tambov, emptied a revolver at the provincial councilor Gavrila Nikolaevich Luzhenovsky, who led the suppression peasant uprisings in the Tambov region. Luzhenovsky, who received five bullets, died three and a half weeks later. The visiting session of the Moscow District Military Court in Tambov sentenced Spiridonov to death by hanging. On death row, she waited 16 days for her sentence to be approved, but in the end her execution was replaced with indefinite hard labor.

While under investigation, Maria Spiridonova was subjected to beatings, torture and abuse - in particular, by the Cossack officer Avramov and assistant police officer Zhdanov. The case of torture was dealt with by a special investigative commission; journalist V. E. Vladimirov told the Russian reading public about the details of the beating of the Socialist-Revolutionary, as well as about her meeting with her mother in the Russian reading public. In particular, he wrote:

“When the iron door of the cell was unlocked and the iron bolt was turned on rusty hinges with a cold clanging of metal, I saw before my mother’s eyes scary picture: on the floor, in the corner of the room, lies her daughter Marusya! Her glorious little Marusya, her favorite! The head rests motionless on a pillow, covered with compresses. There is also a compress on the eye.
With full consciousness and a clear understanding of things, the patient began to reassure her mother; urged her not to despair, not to be killed by the thought that she would be hanged for the act she had committed.
- Mommy! - she said. - I will die with joy! Don't worry, don't kill yourself for me; You still have four children left, take care of them! It’s just hard that I didn’t have time to commit suicide and was given to these tormentors and torturers alive!”

Maria Spiridonova became a real heroine in the eyes of intellectuals and people. Maximilian Voloshin dedicates poetry to her:

There is a mark of a whip on a clean body,
And blood on the marble forehead...
And the wings of a free white seagull
They barely drag along the ground...

And soon, to a tune similar to “The poor fellow died in a military hospital,” an untitled song appears:

It's dark in the women's prison hospital
A gloomy day looks through the window.
Sad, all in black, with my dear daughter,
An old woman sits crying.

This unfortunate daughter is her Maria
With a broken chest, he lies near death,
The living place on the body is not visible,
The skull is broken, and the eye cannot see.

She extended her weak hand,
To shake her own hand.
Mother covered her hand with kisses
And she began to sob even louder.

The complete “Spiridon” version has not reached us; we can only reconstruct it approximately according to later criminal revisions - in particular, according to famous song“Quiet and gloomy in the prison hospital”, “Boring and gloomy in the prison hospital”, etc. For example, in the 1932 version, recorded by VRLU student N. Kholina in the MUR cell, we find an appeal to her mother asking for forgiveness, as well as indications of the beating of the heroine (as some researchers indicate, instead of the words “beaten with a revolver”, originally it was “beaten” whip"):

"Poor mother, I'm sorry, dear,
Your thief daughter!
I die so proudly and boldly
Hiding your secret.

The cops beat me, they beat me with a revolver,
The boss at that time also beat me,
I answered so proudly and boldly:
“This is my spiritual secret!”

Dear mother, I'm sorry, dear,
I'll die soon now...

Most likely, the original source of both the Urkagan and “recruit” episodes was precisely the song about Maria Spiridonova. And then the appeal to the mother and the “prison bed” migrated from both songs to the prisoner’s “Steam Locomotive”. Moreover, farewell to the mother is a traditional technique of Russian folklore (“Black Raven”, “Steppe and steppe all around” and so on).

True, the romance “Here the train has started” was created, followed by “Wait, Locomotive” to a different melody than the song about Maria Spiridonova and its prison reworking. Some researchers are inclined to believe that the motive of “Steam Locomotive” is reminiscent of the same waltz “Autumn Dream”, which is sung in the song “Inaudible, weightless, a yellow leaf flies from the birches” by Matvey Blanter and Mikhail Isakovsky.

Actually, the waltz is not as old as the song claims: its author, the English composer Archibald Joyce, was born in 1873 and died in 1963. Joyce allegedly created “Autumn Dream” (“Songe d'Automne”, or “Autumn Dream”) in 1908. The composer quickly acquired the title “ English king waltzes", his works "Dreams of Love", "Memories", "Dreams", "A Thousand Kisses" and others received world fame. According to legend, it was “Autumn Dream” that was played on April 15, 1912 aboard the infamous Titanic as the ship slowly sank into the depths of the ocean.

“Autumn Dream” was also extremely popular in Russia. More than once poetic texts were created to this melody. Prince F. Kasatkin-Rostovsky was the first to compose the words to Joyce's music and dedicated them to Baroness Olga Nikolaevna Taube. Yuri Morfessi sang the song with different words. In the 30s and 40s, attempts were made by poets Viktor Bokov, Vadim Malkov and Vasily Lebedev-Kumach to come up with song lyrics for the melody of the waltz “Autumn Dream” and introduce them into performing practice. The latter composed a poetic version of “Autumn Dream” after persistent requests from Lydia Andreevna Ruslanova.

So the version with Joyce's waltz would have a right to exist. If not for one “but”: the music of the English composer can hardly remind the melody of “Wait, Locomotive”! This parallel seems to me artificial and unfounded. Many musicologists agree with this.

********* “And “Yuri Miloslavsky” is also your composition?”
REMEMBER THIS PLACE from Gogol's "The Inspector General", where the mayor's wife asks Khlestakov if he is the author of the then famous historical novel (actually written by Mikhail Zagoskin)? The same story happened with Ivanovsky. Moreover, there are strong suspicions that the culprit of the error (or confusion) is not Nikolai Nikolaevich himself. Most likely, his nephew Sasha plays the role of Khlestakov.

But Nikolai Nikolaevich could just be mistaken. Mikhail Dyukov, proposing to consider the old prisoner as the author of “Steam Locomotive,” writes:

“He himself says that he wrote it to someone else’s melody, but here are his words.”

It is quite possible that this is exactly how Nikolai Ivanovsky expressed himself. Or perhaps his words were simply “interpreted” that way. In the same way, for example, Ivanovsky was made the author of the song... “Black Rose, Emblem of Sadness”! Yes Yes.

We already mentioned at the beginning of our notes that in December 2001, Tatyana Maksimova met with the paralyzed Nikolai Ivanovsky and wrote a short piece “Wait, locomotive, don’t knock the wheels!” Among other things, there is this paragraph:

“At the film studio, Ivanovsky wrote a film script based on his story “They Can’t Steal Further than the Sun.” There, one character sings a song: “A black rose, the emblem of sadness, When I met the last one, I brought it to you, We both sighed, we were both silent, We wanted to cry, but there were no tears.” Sergei Soloviev read the script, and the quote ended up in the title of his film...”

And a month later, in January 2002, Irina Kedrova’s publication appeared in the St. Petersburg newspaper “Tribuna” under the heading “Conductor, press the brakes!” The correspondent already states quite definitely:

"The black rose, the emblem of sadness,
At our last meeting, I brought you
I wanted to cry, but there were no tears...
It turns out that these lines included in the title of Solovyov’s film belong to the pen of the tireless Nikolai Nikolaevich.”

And already in “ Encyclopedic Dictionary winged words and expressions”, author-compiler Vadim Serov secured this version as the only correct one:

“The black rose is an emblem of sadness

The author of these lines is the writer Nikolai Nikolaevich Ivanovsky (b. 1928, for more information about him, see Wait, locomotive, don’t knock, wheels!). In the film script that he wrote based on his own story “They Can’t Send Farther than the Sun,” one of the characters sings a song:

Black rose, emblem of sadness,
At our last meeting, I brought you
We both sighed, we both remained silent,
We wanted to cry, but there were no tears.”

True, below the compiler still makes a reservation:

“This song is a version of the romance “It’s a shame, a shame...” (1920s), written to the poems of the poet Alexander Borisovich Kusikov (1896-1977), a friend of S. A. Yesenin.”

Wonderful wording! What is this “version”? Let's compare Kusikov's text, created in 1916, and Ivanovsky's text. From the author of the original song:

Two black roses - emblems of sadness
On the day of the last meeting, I brought it to you.
And, full of forebodings, we were both silent,
And I wanted to cry, but there were no tears.

You can read Ivanovsky’s text just above. Well, did you find many differences? And, of course, it’s ridiculous to assume that Sergei Solovyov was inspired by a line in Ivanovsky’s adaptation. In any case, the director in the title of the film “Black Rose is the Emblem of Sadness, Red Rose is the Emblem of Love” quotes not Ivanovsky’s variation, but the lines of a “children’s” song:

The black rose is an emblem of sadness,
The red rose is an emblem of love.
The devils shouted to us about the black rose,
The nightingales sing about the red rose.

This song is also a kind of adaptation of the romance by Alexander Kusikov. In Ivanovsky’s adaptation there are no words about a red rose at all.

If the journalist herself did not invent the story about Sergei Solovyov (there are serious doubts about this), then Tamara Maksimova conveyed the story to either her uncle or her nephew. In any case, it is obvious that the quatrain is present in the script. That is, Ivanovsky, with a light soul, considered himself the author of “The Black Rose,” although his quatrain was just a simple alteration. The old prisoner had the same attitude towards “Steam Locomotive”. And what? He changed a lot in the folk song, shortened it - why is he not the author?

Yes, there were other options. There were other couplets as well. But Nikolai Ivanovsky could consider himself the author of the song, even making such minor changes to it as in “Black Rose”...

As for the statements about the “authorship” of certain criminal prison songs, I would not be in a hurry to trust them. Researchers of thieves' folklore know how easily former camp inmates take credit for the creation of this or that prison masterpiece. Maybe out of forgetfulness, maybe out of simplicity...

By the way, “Parovoz” has already found another author - former prisoner, musician Genrikh Sechkin. Well, this is all clear. From his memoirs “Behind Barbed Wire,” Sechkin managed to “remember” how in the post-war Gulag a camp song sounded in his ears:

I walked to the punishment cell barefoot,
Like Christ, both calm and quiet..."

That is, the same “Butt” that Yuz Aleshkovsky composed... in 1963!

**********Epilogue
AND STILL THE AUTHORS OF THE “LOCOMOTIVE” SCANDAL should be thanked with all our hearts. After all, if it weren’t for them, it might not have been possible to uncover such layers of folklore material, to learn about the stormy biography of the “comic couplets” performed by the Goonie and the Coward in a funny film. But this biography is worth a lot. It intertwines song folklore and Russian life, the fate of the soldiers of Tsarist Russia, collectivization and hard labor of Soviet people, the camp everyday life of prisoners and even the history of the Westinghouse steam brake. No, whatever you say, this was worth discussing!

An anniversary for any man is a special and significant holiday. On this day, it is customary to look back at the past years and sum up certain results, rejoicing in victories, successes and achievements. On his anniversary, any man wants to feel that he is needed where he is: warmly loved as a husband and father by his family and friends, indispensable in the workplace as a master and expert in his field.

A man is especially pleased with compliments related to his career and work. After all, men are very sensitive to their success in their careers. Therefore, you will do the right thing by fully admiring his professional achievements. And to do this fun and without excessive pathos, you can organize a celebration for the hero of the day "Operation Yu"! based on the popular comedies of Gaidai, this one will undoubtedly surprise guests.

Invitations to the anniversary can be designed in the style of the announcement that the House Manager hung up from the film “The Diamond Arm”, adding at the end “Attendance is strictly required”

Don’t forget about the music that creates the right mood when greeting guests arriving for the anniversary. For spectacular musical arrangement For any moment of celebration in Gaidai’s films you can find suitable music: lyrical, dance, fast, funny. At the same time, this music is very positive and loved by all the guests.

The beginning of the holiday

The presenter of the anniversary will look very interesting in the image of the house manager from the film “The Diamond Arm”. For her role, a colorful, artistic, confident lady with a commanding voice and preferably a sense of humor is best suited. Each of her appearances can be accompanied by a cheerful march from the film “The Diamond Arm,” which sounded at the beginning of the film, when Gorbunkov-Nikulin was escorted to Istanbul. After just a couple of times, having heard these cheerful call signs, the guests themselves, without additional invitations, will understand that the time has come to take their seats and listen to the Anniversary Host.

LEADERSHIP JUBILEE : (with feigned importance, without a smile)

Citizens! Please take a seat at the table! Everything will be all right: the hero of the day is here!

(skeptically looking around the room decorated for the holiday)

Great, great. Modest, but tasteful.

(looks towards the banquet table)

How lovely! Champagne, caviar, olives... (with a challenge) By the way, I’m hungry too! But, you yourself know, it’s a public matter - first of all! We'll have to write a script for the anniversary!

At this time, they get up from the table and confidently walk towards the microphones. several people - friends and employees of the Jubilee (prepared, able to sing and knowing the text of the congratulatory song)

Leading Jubilee: (indignantly) Citizens! Who exactly are you?!
EMPLOYEE: For example, I am an employee of the Jubilee.
D r u g: Well, I am a friend of the Hero of the Day.
LEADERSHIP JUBILEE: (with an offended look) It’s you at home who is a friend of the Hero of Anniversary, and here the House Manager is a friend of the Hero of Anniversary!
Friend: So maybe you can sing it yourself, Comrade House Manager?
LEADERSHIP JUBILEE: (straightens her hair offendedly) No way! Sing it yourself.

The presenter of the Jubilee steps aside, but during the song she perks up and begins to dance contentedly on the spot.

Friends and employees sing a congratulatory song.

• Congratulatory song

(to the tune of the song “Suddenly, like in a fairy tale, the door creaked”)

The anniversary has arrived -
The long-awaited holiday!
He gathered all his friends
This is wonderful!
We waited for so many days
To gather here
And now on the Anniversary
Let's have fun!

Chorus:

Let's drink champagne together,
Dance, have fun, joke,
To the hero of the day give gifts,
Speak toasts to him together!
Our hall will sparkle with happiness.
Everyone will remember the festive ball.
We will congratulate you, hero of the day,
Happy Anniversary!

Dear hero of the day,
Let's be honest:
It’s so easy for us with you -
We appreciate you for this!
Congratulations to you too
We wish you well
Let happiness flow to you
Without end and edge!

(if you wish and according to the mood of the group, at the end of this song you can shout “Everybody dance!” and turn on incendiary music)

LEADERSHIP JUBILEE: (with a reproach to fellow employees leaving for their places) Singing and dancing is not difficult. But, as usual, there is no one to give the first toast! Well, we'll have to take action. Please hand out these numbers (hands a stack of numbers to the two guests closest to her) to all guests. Let the lot decide! And if they don’t take it, we’ll deprive you of your salary!

Guests begin to hand out numbers, which can then be used for lotteries and determining participants in competitions and games for the anniversary.

At this time, the head of the organization in which the Jubilee works enters the room or gets up from the table and approaches the leading one. He is eloquently silent behind the back of the Presenter, who promises to deprive everyone of their salaries and “does not notice” the boss.

LEADERSHIP JUBILEE: (suddenly noticing the boss, he screams in fear) Ah!!! Ivan Ivanovich, is that you? (breaks into a dazzling smile) She didn't recognize it. You will be rich! And here I am in charge of the anniversary scenario (coquettishly adjusts her hair)
Chef: (meaningfully) But I see.
LEADERSHIP JUBILEE: (ingratiatingly) I keep thinking, maybe I need...
Chef: (strictly) No need.
LEADERSHIP JUBILEE: (confused) I see...Then maybe we should...
Chef: No need.
HEADER JUBILEE: At least allow me... (hands the chef a tray with two glasses filled with champagne)
Chef: (smiles) But try this!

The chef takes a glass of champagne from the tray and makes a congratulatory speech and the first toast.

After the first part of the feast.

• Anniversary competition for knowledge of phrases from Gaidai’s films

Leading Anniversary: ​​Well, as they say, citizens are guests, toasts are toasts, and drunkenness is a fight! Let’s check it out now , who has already reached the condition and who has not. And our dear Shurik will test your erudition! Applause please!

Music from “Prisoner of the Caucasus” plays and one of the guests is dressed as Shurik. It’s good if it’s an employee well-known to everyone – it will be funnier for the guests.

Shurik: (rubbing hands) Well. Let's start our quiz! Dangerous? Of course it's dangerous! But how interesting and useful for the development of the mind!

HOST JUBILEE: If I were the guests, Shurik, I would have a snack, and not solve your riddles.

SHURIK : If I were the guests, I wouldn’t have a snack at all. And you, Comrade House Manager, can better determine the participants in the game for the anniversary.

The presenter takes out a container with numbers and pulls out the numbers of three participants in the competition.

Shurik: Dear participants, now we will check how well you remember catchphrases from Gaidai’s films. I say a phrase. The participant who guessed which movie this phrase is from receives a star from our House Manager. Whoever has the most stars at the end wins.

After the competition and prize presentation

Leader of the Anniversary: ​​Our people don’t sit at the table for so long! Let's all get up and dance!

Music at dances can also be composed of songs and compositions from Gaidai’s film. This will enliven and diversify the dances, adding a festive and cheerful atmosphere to them.

Second part of the banquet

After several toasts.

• Quiz on knowledge of the favorite aphorisms, heroes, films and scenes of the hero of the day

Leader of the Anniversary: ​​Here our respected Shurik shone with erudition. But I came up with a cooler competition for the anniversary (shakes a piece of paper with some text in the air). Quiz on knowledge of favorite aphorisms, characters and scenes from Gaidai's films of our Anniversary. Yes, yes, you will have to fight hard for the prize in my competition!

Shurik approaches the presenter.

Shurik: (shrugging) Actually, I came up with this competition. But, if you really want to do it, please do so. I do not mind. I will give out stars.

Leader of the Anniversary: ​​Shurik - don’t waste your time on trifles! So, now we will find out which of you knows the Jubilee best!

Again, contestants are selected using a guest number lottery.

The presenter asks questions:

• Favorite phrase of the hero of the day in the film “Operation Y”?
• Favorite heroine from Gaidai's films?
• What movie would the hero of the day like to live in if it were possible? And. etc.

Information regarding the tastes of the Jubilee is taken from preliminary conversation with him on the eve of the holiday.

Whoever has the most answers wins a prize.

Dances are announced again.

The third part of the banquet.

• Cash gift for the Anniversary “Diamond Hand”

HOST ANNIVERSARY: Dear citizens, I have an important announcement! Guests arrived from Istanbul. But on the way to us they were robbed. Help in any way you can, please.

Two guests appear, dressed as bandits from the Diamond Arm, and they sadly say “Sjort pobieri!” and “Russo jubilee!” and walk around all the guests with outstretched hats in their hands. Guests throw money there - as much as they can.

After this, the Bandits from Istanbul drag the hero of the day into the center of the hall, seat him on a chair and, to the cheerful music from the film “The Diamond Arm,” they begin to wrap money in a bandage on his hand.

On the territory of the former Soviet Union no, probably not
a person who has not watched these films at least once. So I decided to re-read the collection of scripts “Operation Y”, “Prisoner of the Caucasus” and
"The Diamond Arm".

Some, including playwrights, believe that the script is
this is just a literary draft of a future film,
a kind of sketch containing descriptions of actions and dialogues.

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In August 1965, the film “Operation Y and Other Adventures of Shurik” directed by Leonid Gaidai was released on the country’s screens.

And it all started like this.

At the beginning of 1964, Gaidai met two screenwriters: Maurice Slobodsky and. They offer the director the script “Frivolous Stories,” which includes two film novels about the bespectacled student Vladik Arkov. In the first short story, he re-educates a certain Gloomy type, who treats his work with lukewarmness, is impolite with ladies, etc. In the second short story, Vladik gets a job as a tutor and prepares the only son of loving parents, a blockhead Ilyusha, for entering the institute, who dreams of leaving his bourgeois family somewhere far away. Gaidai joins the creation of the script.

On March 10, 1964, the 2nd creative association of the Mosfilm film studio accepted an application for the script “Frivolous Stories” and entered into an agreement with its authors.

March 25 was approved literary script and the go-ahead was given to launch it into director’s development. True, the literary script was already very different from the original application: the name of the student remained the same - Vladik Arkov, but the plot of the short stories changed and acquired the basis that is well known to us from the film. In the first short story, “Partner,” Vladik rehabilitates a parasite, a “fifteen-day worker,” at a construction site; in the second, “Spring Obsession,” he falls in love with a girl, Lida.

Gaidai “spied” the plot of the novel about a student’s love for a classmate during the examination period in the Polish magazine “Shpilki”.

But two short stories were clearly not enough for full-length film, and the screenwriters were given the task of coming up with a third, and in it it was necessary to bring together the new hero - Vladik with the old ones - the trio Dunce-Coward-Experienced, which the audience loved so much and with which Gaidai did not intend to part. After a month of hard work, the short story “Operation Y” was born: this time Vladik, the only “cross-cutting” hero of all three short stories, had to expose the plunderers of socialist property.

The most difficult part was the search for the main character, student Vladik. Gaidai reviewed more than a hundred candidates, among whom were actors who soon became famous: Vitaly Solomin, Sergei Nikonenko, Evgeniy Zharikov, Vsevolod Abdulov, Ivan Bortnik, Valery Nosik, Alexander Zbruev, Evgeniy Petrosyan and even Andrei Mironov, although only negotiations were conducted with the latter.

Photo tests of Evgeny Petrosyan for the role of Vladik Arkov

As a result, the studio’s artistic council settled on the candidacy of Valery Nosik, although Gaidai himself had doubts.

Photo tests of Valery Nosik for the role of Vladik Arkov

He was not entirely satisfied with Mikhail Pugovkin, whom the artistic council recommended for the role of Big Man in the first short story. As always, chance helped.

Even while working on the script, Gaidai came to the conclusion that he would based the main character... on himself. That is why, even externally, Vladik Arkov was written out in the script as a copy of Gaidai: a long young man with glasses.

As the director’s wife Nina Grebeshkova would note much later: “Vladik is Leonid Iovich himself. All his actions, gestures. Of course, the actor refracted them through himself. But the image came from Leni. He really was like that - awkward, naive and very decent.”

And then someone in film crew said the last name young actor. Looking at his photograph, Gaidai instantly discovered an external resemblance to himself. As a result, on July 11, Gaidai went to Leningrad for personal negotiations with Demyanenko. Both were pleased with each other.

The actor later recalled: “When I read the script for Operation Y, I realized that the film was doomed to success. There was nothing like this in our cinema then.”

From St. Petersburg, Gaidai brought another Leningrad actor, whom he knew well from working together in “Business People” - Alexei Smirnov. He wanted to try him for the role of Big Man instead of Pugovkin.

The last one was rejected artistic director 2nd creative association Ivan Pyryev, who, after watching the audition, said: “For this role, such a gangster face as Pugovkin’s is not suitable!” As a result, Pugovkin will get the role of foreman, for which Vladimir Vysotsky originally auditioned.

Then Gaidai will find an actress for main role in the second story - Natalya Selezneva.

Selezneva came to the audition without any hope of success, having previously had a good time on the beach.

As soon as she entered the pavilion, Gaidai invited her to take a very risky test: to undress in front of the camera. The actress hesitated. Then Gaidai uttered the fatal phrase: “Of course, I like you, but it seems to me that your figure is not very good...” Then Selezneva’s pride rose up, and she took off her dress, remaining in only a swimsuit. And she was immediately cast in the role of a modest Soviet student.

The Arts Council of the 2nd association looked at these tests and put an end to it - approved the actors for the main roles: Shurik - Demyanenko, Verzila - Smirnov, foreman - Pugovkin, Lida - Selezneva.

And poor fellow Valery Nosik will play the episodic role of a student gambler taking exams in the short story “Obsession.”

By the beginning of filming, Vladik unexpectedly (for censorship reasons) becomes Shurik - Vladik was rejected by political censorship with the argument that Vladik is Vladlen, and Vladlen is Vladimir Lenin.

You cannot call a comic hero after the leader of the world proletariat.

The first shooting day of the film “Operation Y” was dated July 27. That day, on the territory of Mosfilm, they filmed an episode “in the police yard” with the participation of extras (she portrayed alcoholic parasites) and two actors: Smirnov (Big Man) and Vladimir Basov (policeman).

In this episode Gaidai inserted an incident from own biography- this concerns the scene during which those arrested are divided into labor work. True, in his life it was connected with the war. A military commissar came to the Irkutsk theater, where he worked during the war. All the men were lined up, and he asked: “Who wants to go to the front?” Everyone took a step forward. Then the military commissar said: “First, we will take those who know German" Only one person took a step forward - Leonid Iovich himself. Gaidai himself played a small role here - in many publications they write that this is the role of an alcoholic who utters the phrase: “Announce the entire list, please!” But in fact, this is a non-professional actor Oleg Skvortsov, and Gaidai played another, less noticeable detainee

Leonid Iovich Gaidai as a detainee in the film “Operation “y”” (right)

On July 30, the group moved to one of the construction sites in Sviblovo to begin filming “on construction” episodes. Throughout August and September the group worked in nervous mode. The filmmakers were let down by the weather, the technology, or bad film. As a result, on October 3, Gaidai, along with the cameraman and artist, flew to Baku to select locations for location filming, since the weather in Moscow had deteriorated completely and irrevocably. However, the weather in the capital of Azerbaijan was no better. Then the choice fell on Odessa. Filming in Odessa began on October 21. But even there the group continued to be pursued evil rock: The shooting scheduled for that day was canceled due to Demyanenko’s sudden illness: the downtime lasted until October 25. And when filming resumed, the weather suddenly deteriorated and the subject “near Lida’s house” (22 Proletarsky Boulevard) had to be filmed in several passes.

Filming of the first short story continued in Odessa. In the Novye Cheryomushki area (there is also one in Odessa), in particular, they filmed the episode where Shurik landed in bitumen. But even here there were some incidents: due to someone’s carelessness, the bitumen suddenly caught fire. Both builders and filmmakers put out the fire. Filming in Odessa continued until November 22.

Then the group returned to Moscow - they rented “Lida’s apartment” at Mosfilm.

On December 12, the group moved to Leningrad, where the third story was supposed to be filmed. However, the weather there was not pleasant either. On December 14, 10 dump trucks brought snow to the location of the upcoming filming, but it all melted before filming began. It was decided to replace the snow with improvised materials - cotton wool, mothballs. When everything was ready, so that the “snow” would not be blown away by the wind, they began filming... from the end. From the episode when the old lady “God’s dandelion” comes running to the warehouse and finds four sleeping men there: Shurik, Coward, Dunce and Experienced, and a mouse brought by the trainer Knyazev. By the way, the mouse was criticized the most at the artistic council and they wanted to cut it out of the picture, but the director defended the gray artist.

On January 12, a meeting of the artistic council of the 2nd association was held, at which the footage was viewed.

It was at this meeting that Ivan Pyryev proposed changing the title of the film “ Funny stories" to "Operation Y and other adventures of Shurik."

Meanwhile, filming continues. On January 21, in pavilion No. 13 of Mosfilm they filmed the “lair of the trinity”: it’s there that the Goonie sings the song “Wait, Locomotive...”, and the Coward trains first on his partners, and then on porcelain cats

At first the censorship did not want to let the criminal song pass, but Gaidai defended it by removing one verse, which, according to screenwriter Yakov Kostyukovsky, sounded something like this:

Let me be a bastard
I'll get the file
I'll cut the grate for her
Let the moon shine with its insidious light
But I will escape from prison

Yuri Nikulin recalls: “For the episode “Foil Fighting,” they invited a fencing teacher who taught us how to fight with rapiers. After several lessons we fought like real athletes. They showed the fight to Leonid Gaidai. He looked bored and said: “You fight well, but all this is boring, but it should be funny.” Ours is a comedy."

It was then that Gaidai came up with an episode where Shurik pierces the Goonie with a sword, he starts bleeding, which then turns out to be wine from a bottle hidden in his bosom.

Do you remember in the third novel, in the chase sequence in the warehouse, the Goonie stumbles upon a skeleton? Eight versions of this scene were filmed. During one of the takes, Nikulin decided to act out - he put his finger between the open jaws (which was not provided for in the script), and they suddenly closed and clicked. It was this random improvisation that ended up in the film.

On February 25, an artistic council was held, at which the third story of the film was discussed. Here is an excerpt from the speech of the artistic director of the 2nd creative association of Mosfilm, Ivan Pyryev: “In comedy, the main thing is clarity and tact in behavior. But sometimes this tactful execution is not enough. Here is Morgunov. He is not funny, but often unpleasant. The same thing happens with Vitsin. His demeanor was wonderful in “Barbos the Dog,” but here a lot seems false. You can’t work with the same paint all the time... Nikulin is wonderful in this regard. In every scene he is original, but always different...”

At the next artistic council, after viewing the entire film, Pyryev demanded “to stop filming Morgunov and Pugovkin. They are not interesting and tired...” After which another authority - the scriptwriting and editorial board - demanded that Gaidai cut out a number of episodes, in particular, when the “negro” Big Man is chasing Shurik and when the students are taking exams.

But Gaidai left everything as it was. A little later he was reminded of this when the category was assigned to the film. On July 2, the commission to determine the group classified “Operation “Y” into the 2nd category.

July 8, 1965 CEO“Mosfilm” V. Surin and the artistic director of the 2nd creative association I. Pyryev write a letter to the Chairman of the State Committee of the USSR Council of Ministers for Cinematography A. Romanov, in which they declare that Leonid Gaidai’s film deserves the highest praise. Quote from the letter: “In this case, it seems to us, the principle of objectivity and impartiality was violated primarily because behind the dismissive assessment of the film “Operation Y” lies a disdainful attitude towards comedy in general and eccentricity in particular. Neither the numerous appeals of the press, nor the persistent wishes of the audience, asking and demanding new and good film comedies, can refute the still prevailing belief that the comic in art, the comic in cinema is a frivolous and low genre...” This letter did have an effect - the film was given 1st category.

The film “Operation Y” was released in the country in mid-August 1965. The audience greeted him enthusiastically. Evidence of this is the record number of viewers who watched the film in the entire history of Soviet cinema (at that time) - 69 million 600 thousand.

« Operation “Y” and other adventures of Shurik" - comedy feature film by Leonid Gaidai. The film had big success, was the leader in box office in the USSR in 1965. It was watched by 69.6 million viewers. In 1965, at the short film festival in Krakow, the short story “Obsession” was awarded Grand Prize"Silver Dragon of Wawel".

The plot of the film is made up of three short stories: “Partner”, “Obsession”, “Operation Y”. All three short stories are united by the figure of the main character - a funny and cheerful student Shurik performed by Alexander Demyanenko, whose adventures were continued in the film “Prisoner of the Caucasus”. “Operation Y” also uses the comic anti-heroes-swindlers Coward, Dunce and Experienced from Gaidai’s short films “Dog Barbos and the Unusual Cross” and “Moonshiners”, together with which it forms a trilogy.

Process of creation

• Launch into production: May 19, 1964
• Filming began: July 27, 1964
• End of filming: April 3, 1965
• End of production: April 23, 1965
• World Film Festival Premiere: August 16, 1965
• Start of film distribution in the USSR: August 16, 1965

Preparing for filming

After the success of his previous film "Business People" Leonid Gaidai decides to make a film based on original script on a modern topic. From many options, he chooses a comedy film script called “Frivolous Stories” written by two authors: Yakov Kostyukovsky and Maurice Slobodsky. The original version consisted of two short stories, the main character of which was student Vladik Arkov, a bespectacled intellectual who found himself in various comical situations and came out of them with honor. In the first short story, the student re-educated a gloomy and ignorant type, and in the second, Vladik got a job as a tutor and prepared his parents’ only son, the blockhead Ilyusha, for admission to college.

Still from the short story “Obsession”
- Mustards!
- Uh-huh...

Shurik and Lida, students in parallel streams, pass the exam successfully. After the change, Shurik celebrates an “A” at the soda machine, drinking a couple of glasses and pouring a couple more on his head. His friend approaches him. Here Shurik freezes like a pillar: he saw an angel girl who, as it seemed to him, was swimming. He asks his friend who it is, the friend, it turns out, knows her and offers to introduce Shurik to Lida.

Lida and Shurik do not recognize each other. Shurik was so embarrassed that he mixed up his name and initially called himself Petya. After meeting, Shurik accompanies Lida home. All the obstacles that were successfully overcome in the state of “studying notes” during a joint journey home and back, in the “usual” state required the application of elements of thinking. At the entrance of the house where she lives, an unpleasant surprise awaits them: the folded belongings of the moving neighbor (Georgi Georgiou) are guarded by an angry dog. Brave and quick-witted, Shurik knows how to take Lida home; he carries out a combination with a cat in the elevator, but the struggle with angry dog cost him his trousers. Lida volunteers to sew up Shurik’s trousers, so he ends up at her house again.

It seems to Shurik that he has already been here (the word deja vu practically did not exist in the Russian language at that time). Lida has an assumption that Shurik has, as she believes, the gift of foresight or telepathy (in her words, like Wolf Messing). She immediately comes up with a test (find a teddy bear). Shurik does not pass the test; instead of finding a teddy bear, he kisses Lida. However, Lida was satisfied with the check...

Cast

• Alexander Demyanenko - Shurik
• Natalya Selezneva - Lida
• Vladimir Rautbart - Professor
• Victor Pavlov - Oak
• Valery Nosik - student player
• Georgiy Georgiou - neighbor with a bandaged throat
• Natalia Gitserot - neighbor's wife
• Zoya Fedorova - neighbor
• Sergey Zhirnov - Shurik's friend
• Lyudmila Kovalets - Lida's friend who fell asleep on the tram
• Victor Zozulin - radio operator Kostya

Quotes

• The professor, of course, is a mug, but we’ll accept the equipment, accept it! How can you hear?
• - But I can not! I have a sore throat.

• - And the head.

- Without brains.

- What is this in connection with? Are you having any holiday today?

- An exam is always a holiday for me, professor.

Operation Y" Plot Winter. Zarechensky collective farm market. The people trade in what they bring from their household plots and handicrafts, and the Goonie (Yuri Nikulin) and the Coward (Georgy Vitsin) sell porcelain cats, small wall rugs, and lollipops there. Their boss, Experienced (Evgeniy Morgunov), comes up to them and instructs them to wind down, there is “business” for them.

At the exit from the market, in the place where they placed their
wheelchair

Cast

• Alexander Demyanenko - Shurik
• (the trio rides around in a two-seater SMZ S-3A motorized carriage) the van driver (Vladimir Komarovsky) is waiting for them, unhappy that the road is blocked. The experienced man easily turns the motorized stroller in the right direction and the trio drives off. Trinity of criminals:
• - Roll up! Yury Nikulin -
• Dunce Georgy Vitsin -
• Coward Evgeniy Morgunov -
• Experienced Vladimir Vladislavsky -
• director of the Petukhov base Maria Kravchunovskaya -
• Grandma - God's dandelion Vladimir Komarovsky -
• truck driver at the market Tanya Gradova -

Quotes

• restless girl Lena
• Alexey Smirnov -
• buyer at the market

• Can you tell me how many degrees below zero it is now?
• -Where is this damn disabled person?
• - Do not be noisy! I am disabled!
• - Newly settled citizens, introduce culture! Hang rugs on dry plaster!
• - Is the watchman strong?
• -Can you tell me how to get to the library?

• - Train better... on cats.

• - Found the time!

• to the tune of a lullaby:

• - Thank you, okay, put it on the chest of drawers...
• - Break it?

- Half liter? - Half liter. - To pieces?

• - Well, of course, to pieces!
• - Yes, I thank you for this!..
• - You had to approach the old woman as a passer-by and attract her attention with a simple, natural question. What did you ask?
• - How to get to the library... - At three o'clock in the morning. Idiot!
• - Come on, hurry up, buy the painting!
• -Where is grandma?
• - I'm for her.

Film crew

• When there is a fight on the bus, Fedya knocks Shurik's notebook out of the bus onto the street, and Shurik knocks Fedya's hat off. And during the interrogation, the heroes have a book and a hat.
• Fedya slides down the railings dismantled by Shurik almost on his stomach. But for some reason his holes are high on his buttocks.
• The construction site in the chase scene is completely deserted.
• The washcloth that Fedya takes to wrap his loins is much smaller than the one that ends up on him.
• Shurik presses four sleeping pills into a piece of sausage. After the boxer eats the sausage, there are five of them left on the asphalt. By the way, in the same scene the dog has two clear shadows (from the spotlights).
• As Oak takes his exam, the students in the background switch places, disappear, appear, and change clothes.
• At the warehouse, Nikulin pushes a cart with bags at Shurik. She drives to the wooden gate, suddenly a car tire appears there, from which it shocks and knocks Shurik off his feet. Immediately after this the tire disappears.
• When Vitsin asks Morgunov “Where is the toilet?”, his left hand, which he places on his shoulder, becomes his right.
• In the short story “Partner”, the foreman says, “And if we take the entire volume of work carried out by our SMU in the first quarter, floor by floor, and put these floors on top of each other, then we will get a building that will be twice as tall as the world famous