Lydia Zirgvava, married to Vertinsky, lived a bright and long life. She was born in China in 1923, spent her childhood and youth here. And then her whole big family moved to the Soviet Union.
Lydia's dad worked at the Railroad Office, and my mother was a housewife. A grandfather, a retired career officer, also lived with them. They lived together in Harbin, but had Soviet citizenship and considered themselves citizens of their country, performing their civic duty abroad.
In her diary, Lydia wrote that when the Great Patriotic War began, the whole family began to discuss the issue of moving to the Soviet Union in order to help the country in the fight against invaders in difficult times. And in 1943, the Tsirgvava family moved to Moscow. Of course, it was difficult, but they survived everything because they were very friendly.
Creative life
Only at the age of 28, Lydia was able to enter the Moscow Art Theater. Surikov, at the faculty of painting. She painted very well, and her works were exhibited at various exhibitions in Moscow. After graduation, Lydia went to work at a printing plant as an artist.
Her paintings, meanwhile, sold well - they were mainly landscapes and prints.
At one of the exhibitions, Lydia was seen by Alexander Ptushko, who at that time was already a famous director. He was struck by the sharp and penetrating look of the girl, and immediately invited her to star in his film.
And soon the audience saw the beautiful bird Phoenix in the film "Sadko" - this was Lydia Tsirgvava, by then already bearing the name Vertinskaya. It was amazing that a girl without an acting education did an excellent job with the role and received many good reviews from critics. However, Lydia herself did not rush into a whirlpool, in an acting career: in the movie she played only five roles. The most famous films: "Don Quixote", "Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors", "The New Adventures of Puss in Boots". As a rule, she played characters with magical properties - apparently, her appearance was suitable for this role.
