Georgiy Stepanovich Zhzhonov was a Soviet actor and writer.

Having matriculated from the Leningrad

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

 Circus

Circus

A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...

 Tekhnikum in 1932, he appeared in several movies, including the legendary Chapaev

Chapaev (film)

Chapaev is a 1934 Soviet film. It was directed by the Vasilyev brothers on Lenfilm. It is a story about Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev , a legendary Red Army commander who became a hero of the Russian Civil War...

(1934).

In 1939, he was repressed and spent 15 years in the Siberia

Siberia

Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

n corrective labour camps

Gulag

The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...

. When released in 1955, he started his film career anew and rose to become a People's Artist of the USSR

People's Artist of the USSR

People's Artist of the USSR, also sometimes translated as National Artist of the USSR, was an honorary title granted to citizens of the Soviet Union.- Nomenclature and significance :...

in 1980. In a curious twist of fate, he was frequently cast in the roles of policemen and KGB

KGB

The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...

 agents. This Gulag

Gulag

The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...

 victim was even awarded a special KGB prize for the screen versions of three novels by Yulian Semyonov

Yulian Semyonov

Yulian Semyonovich Semyonov , pen-name of Yulian Semyonovich Lyandres , was a Soviet and Russian writer of spy fiction and crime fiction.-Career:...

. Zhzhonov was also invited to play Stirlitz

Stirlitz

Max Otto von Stierlitz is the lead character in a popular Russian book series written in the 1960s by novelist Julian Semyonov and of the television adaptation Seventeen Moments of Spring, starring Vyacheslav Tikhonov, as well as in feature films, produced in the Soviet era, and in a number of...

, but declined for personal reasons.

During the Perestroika

Perestroika

Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...

, Zhzhonov started publishing his own fiction. In the 1990s, he received many awards, including the Nika Award

Nika Award

The Nika Award is a prestigious annual ceremony held by the Russian Academy of Cinema Arts and Sciences which was established in 1987 in Moscow, Russia by Yuli Gusman, and ostensibly modelled on the Academy Awards . Russian Academy Award takes its name from Nike, the goddess of victory...

 for lifelong career. A monument to him was opened in Chelyabinsk

Chelyabinsk

Chelyabinsk is a city and the administrative center of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located in the northwestern side of the oblast, south of Yekaterinburg, just to the east of the Ural Mountains, on the Miass River. Population: -History:...

 in 2000.

Zhzhonov spent his 90th birthday acting in the Soviet Army Theatre. Later that day, he was invited to the Kremlin

Kremlin

A kremlin , same root as in kremen is a major fortified central complex found in historic Russian cities. This word is often used to refer to the best-known one, the Moscow Kremlin, or metonymically to the government that is based there...

 to be invested with the highest civilian decoration of Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. During a conversation that followed, President Putin

Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...

 admitted that Zhzhonov's roles had prompted him to become an intelligence officer.

Films

• 1931 - Road to Life
• 1932 - Oshibka geroya - Pavel Vetrov
• 1934 - Chapayev
  Chapaev (film)
  Chapaev is a 1934 Soviet film. It was directed by the Vasilyev brothers on Lenfilm. It is a story about Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev , a legendary Red Army commander who became a hero of the Russian Civil War...
  
  
• 1934 - Naslednyy prints respubliki - Bachelor-architect
• 1938 - Komsomolsk
• 1955 - Other People's Relatives
• 1957 - The Storm
• 1957 - Na ostrove dalnem
• 1958 - The Night Guest
• 1959 - Ispravlennomu verit - Braitsev
• 1960 - Chelovek ne sdayotsya
• 1960 - Baltic Skies: Part 2
• 1960 - Baltic Skies: Part 1
• 1961 - Vodil poyezda mashinist
• 1961 - The Day You Get 30 Years Old (День, когда исполняется 30 лет)
• 1962 - Storm Planet - Bobrov
• 1963 - The Third Flare (Третья ракета)
• 1964 - The Big Ore
• 1964 - Silence
• 1965 - End of Squadron (Гибель эскадры)
• 1966 - The Man I Love - Muromtsev
• 1966 - Beware of the Car - Militiaman
• 1967 - Spring on the Oder - Ryzheusy
• 1967 - The Final Of 'Saturn' - Timerin
• 1967 - The Way To 'Saturn' - Timerin
• 1967 - Doktor Vera
• 1967 - Now You Judge (А теперь суди) - Arkadi Iskra
• 1968 - A Little Crane - Father Leonid
• 1968 - Dawn Dates (Встречи на рассвете)
• 1968 - Resident's Mistake (Ошибка резидента) - Mikhail Tulyev
• 1970 - Resident's Way (Судьба резидента) - Mikhail Tulyev
• 1971 - All The King's Men - Stark
• 1971 - The End of the Lyubavins (Конец Любавиных)
• 1972 - Tracer Element (Меченый атом)
• 1972 - The Hot Snow - Bessonov (Горячий снег)
• 1972 - Battle after the Victory (Бой после победы)
• 1974 - Choosing Target (Выбор цели)
• 1974 - The Ocean
• 1974 - Looking for My Destiny
• 1975 - Obretesh v boyu
• 1977 - Poseidon Comes to Rescue - Chigrinov
• 1978 - The Cure Against Fear
• 1980 - Air Crew - Andrei Timchenko, Captain
• 1982 - Resident is Back - Mikhail Tulyev
• 1982 - Krepysh
• 1983 - Gate to Heaven
• 1985 - The City of Brides
• 1986 - The Time of Sons
• 1986 - End of RESIDENT Project - Mikhail Tulyev
• 1987 - Enclosure
• 1987 - End of Infinity - Laban Twissel
• 1999 - Viewless Traveller (Незримый странник)

External links