Regina Zbarskaya is the first Soviet fashion model, who was also known outside the USSR. Biography of Regina Zbarsky is shrouded in mystery, and the cause of death is not completely clear.
The maiden name of Regina is Kolesnikova. The future Soviet fashion star was born in 1935, although the exact year of birth is still unknown. Nobody knows the place of birth either in Vologda, or in Leningrad. Regina also always talked about the parents negligible. There is a beautiful legend according to which, the parents of the future Soviet top model were circus artists and once, during a dangerous stunt, they both died. True, there is a second, more prosaic version: Regina's mother was an employee, and her father was a retired officer. It is also rumored that Zbarskaya was a pupil of an orphanage. Familiar fashion models said that the girl was diligently trying to hide her simple origin under the guise of aristocracy.
In 1953, the future star of the catwalk entered VGIK at the Faculty of Economics. In addition to studying, a pretty student began to frequent parties where Moscow Bohemia gathered. At one such reception, she met Vera Aralova, a Moscow fashion designer. Regina began to take part in the shows of a promising young Soviet couturier and became famous not only in the USSR, but also abroad. The model appeared on the cover of the French magazine Paris Match and became the favorite model of the beginning designer Vyacheslav Zaitsev.
She was fluent in French with Christian Dior and Pierre Cardin. Regina was a very private person, she did not have close friends who could tell the truth about her life. She was unusually beautiful, but many ill-wishers quipped that her legs were far from ideal. However, Regina was able to masterfully beat the curvature of her legs, which subsequently helped thousands of Soviet girls with a similar defect to get rid of complexes.
In 1967, Moscow hosted the first International Fashion Festival, which was attended by famous Western couturiers.
The European sophisticated beauty of Zbarskaya attracted attention. For example, the great Italian director Fellini noted that Regina in a red dress looks like Sophia Loren. The model was then repeatedly compared with the Italian cinema star. The first Soviet supermodel was also admired by Fidel Castro, Yves Montand and Pierre Cardin.
Regina's only lover was the artist Lev Zbarsky - the son of the famous scientist Boris Zbarsky. Regina married this man in the early sixties of the last century. Despite the fact that Regina was his official wife, Lev Borisovich did not want a child from her. The capricious husband saw his muse in the beautiful wife, and not the woman who washes the diaper.
When he found out that his young wife became pregnant, he insisted on an abortion, and soon became interested in the beautiful actress Marianna Vertinsky. Immediately after the abortion, the model began to often take antidepressants, which helped temporarily get away from reality. Soon Leo Zbarsky left Regina and went to Lyudmila Maksakova, who bore him a son. True, Zbarsky later abandoned Maksakova as well, having left for a permanent place of residence abroad. After such a family life, Regina landed in a psychiatric hospital with signs of severe depression.
It is also known that Zbarskaya collaborated with the KGB. The model spoke fluently in two foreign languages and often traveled abroad. This was the reason for the close attention to it on the part of state security agencies. Constant supervision and the obligation to tell the KGB in detail about all their contacts could also play their fateful role in the state of mind of the first Soviet top model. She felt guilty all the time.
After treatment at the clinic, Zbarskaya returned to the podium. The Soviet top model began an affair with a journalist from Yugoslavia, who later wrote the book One Hundred Nights with Regina Zbarskaya. This publication described in detail the sexual relations of the podium star with members of the Central Committee. After the publication of this scandalous book, Zbarskaya twice tried to commit suicide. After the next exit from the hospital, it was painful to look at the beauty. She was very fat and could no longer be a fashion model. Her star rolled forever. In the last years of her life, Zbarskaya worked as a cleaner at the Fashion House. Vyacheslav Zaitsev gave her this opportunity.
In November 1987, on the third attempt, Zbarskaya nevertheless took her own life by drinking sleeping pills. She was only 51 years old. What served as the true reason for such an early departure from life: mental illness, hopelessness or excessive revelations with a foreign journalist about the difficult life in the USSR, remains a mystery. There is also a version that Zbarskaya died in a psychiatric clinic.
None of her colleagues attended her funeral. The body of the fashion model was cremated. The place of her burial is also unknown. The necropolitan society has been unsuccessfully trying for years to find her grave.
