- We talked with you several years ago for one of the first publications in the RT column "Unforgotten Stories". What are you doing now and what results could you sum up on your 70th birthday?
What have I done in 70 years in this world?
He did a lot, but he could have done more.
There were roles in the theater, in the cinema.
But they didn’t let me shoot especially - they never forgave the popularity of Leni Golubkov.
I wrote three plays: "Birth", "Perestroika" and "Mandrake Apples", as well as five stories, two of which - "Unforgiven Sin" and "Date after Death" - were published in a St. Petersburg magazine.
What are these works about?
All these stories are part of my life.
In many ways, this is my understanding of God.
Birth is an autobiographical play.
I talked about her the last time we met.
"Perestroika" is a play about the social restructuring that is taking place in society and within my characters.
About how they survive in the new conditions.
And "Mandrake Apples" is a play about how the main character's friend brings her a fertility drug from Greece.
These plays are like a trilogy, the same characters go through them.
I'm waiting for one of the plays to be staged.
Theaters are interested, but so far everything is at the level of negotiations.
If I see "Birth" on stage, it will be possible to say that I have not lived my life in vain.
Then it will be possible to sum up.
- You said that there were no offers to act in films because of the popularity after the MMM advertisement.
- Yes.
When I met colleagues in the cinema workshop somewhere, they gritted their teeth at me like wolves: “Ah, Lenya Golubkov!”
I didn't even know why they hated me so much.
Only later I realized that for my popularity ... I was the "Man of 1994", playing Lenya Golubkov.
He was ten points ahead of Yeltsin, and Pugachev and Kirkorov, they got married that year and took 7-8th place.
It was in the first issue of Antenna magazine, which came out on January 5, 1995.
I bought a TV program and I watch people's popularity rating.
In the first place - Lenya Golubkov.
The article was called "Lenya - the absolute champion."
I have reviewed several times.
I thought maybe I made a mistake or misunderstood something.
Performer of the main role in the TV series "Just Maria" Victoria Ruffo and Vladimir Permyakov, 1994
- One of the then most popular actresses in Russia, Victoria Ruffo, who played the role of Maria in the Mexican TV series Just Maria, starred in an advertisement with you.
- In one of the interviews, she was asked about participating in MMM advertising: “Victoria, which of the actors on the set did you like the most?”
And she answers reporters: “All the actors were talented.
And Lenya Golubkov especially shone.
I think she still doesn't know that I'm not Lenya Golubkov.
- In one of the videos, the action takes place at the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States. How was this video filmed?
We flew to the USA.
The actor Vyacheslav Vorobyov-Likerov starred in the role of Leni Golubkov's brother.
We went to the match as ordinary spectators.
There was a game between the national teams of Russia and Brazil.
We didn’t have official permission to shoot, so we just used the location and an amateur camera.
Our producer asked a sports cameraman to film me and my partner in the stands.
We worked according to the script and improvised.
And then the director from this material, also improvising, collected videos.
Vladimir Permyakov / Tribunes before the match between Brazil and Russia at the 1994 FIFA World Cup
© Photo from personal archive / Getty Images
- In all your plays there is a heroine - Natalya Rozova. Is this image biographical?
- Yes.
We met journalist Natalya Remizova at the Khanzhonkov House at the premiere of Alexander Porokhovshchikov's film I Don't Allow Censorship in Memory, a film about his father.
Natasha and Ira Zhukova, Porokhovshchikov's wife, were friends.
The hall was full.
I had a meeting with a journalist from the Buyer newspaper.
He brought an interview with me and several newspapers.
I walked down the hallway and looked for a place to sit.
A woman was walking towards me.
I leaned against the wall to let her through, and she raised her head and said: “Oh, Lenya Golubkov.
Will you give me an interview for RIA Novosti?”
I ask: “What is this publication?”
She replies: “This is the Russian News Agency.
Just like TASS.
We have 70 publications take information.
And even in the outback, not only in Moscow.”
I left her a business card: "Okay, call, we'll meet."
The times were hard.
Natasha worked part-time in five more newspapers and magazines.
We began to communicate, go to parties together, we had an affair.
But one day she calls me, in the month of September, and says: “Volodya, today a year has passed since we met, but nothing has changed.
I let you go on all four sides.
I’m perplexed: “Natalya, we are friends with you.”
And she replies: “Volodya, they don’t sleep with friends.”
And she hung up.
I tingled inside.
I understood everything and six months later I proposed to her.
At the wedding, we had leaders - Lenin, Stalin, Brezhnev.
The twins congratulated us on behalf of the leaders.
In February 1997, a terrible flu swept through Moscow and throughout Russia.
Natasha is sick.
She was then going to write a book and went to her room to concentrate on this work there.
But it turned out that she was with her mother.
The mother-in-law called and warned that Natasha was sick, her temperature had risen to 40-41 degrees.
And then Natasha's brother Alexander called and said: "Volodya, Natasha is gone."
For me it was such a blow.
Life often and painfully beat me, but Natasha's death was probably the strongest blow in my life.
Vladimir Permyakov with his wife Natalya Remizovov and a portrait of his parents, 1996
© From the personal archive
What date did this happen?
- March 28, 1997.
And in 2002, you won’t believe it, she came to visit us with her mother-in-law.
Tatyana Andreevna and I became friends.
And on the fifth anniversary we went together to the cemetery.
Spring was early, warm winds were blowing from the Atlantic.
At the end of March the weather was like at the end of April.
The snow has melted.
Even weed began to appear.
We came with the mother-in-law, removed the grave, took all the dry grass to the trash can.
And the mother-in-law put two candles.
And birds are circling in the sky: magpies, crows - shouting something, rejoice in spring, warmth.
The day was so quiet that the candles burned on the grave and did not go out.
And suddenly, I see a magpie flying towards us.
Sits on a nearby grave.
Such an independent one.
I say even more mother-in-law: “Tatyana Andreevna, look, a magpie has arrived, to remember Natasha.”
And the magpie comes up to us between the bars, walks along the grave.
I think to myself: she lives here, people feed her, she is used to people, so she is not afraid of us.
But the magpie comes up, takes one candle with its beak, pulls it out of the ground and does not fly away, but sits down on the tombstone.
And he sits like that with this white candle in his beak.
The mother-in-law grabbed the candle from her - just mechanically - and the magpie flew away from us.
I run to her and say: “Fool, why do you need this candle, we will give you bread now.”
I run, I want to catch her.
But she took off before my very hand and disappeared into the trees.
Then I said to my mother-in-law: “Tatyana Andreevna, it’s Natasha’s soul that flew to us on a date.
For five years, she missed us too.”
And then, no matter how much we went with my mother-in-law, we all waited: maybe Natasha will fly in today, we won’t scare her, let her sit as long as she wants.
Unfortunately, she did not fly again.
Natasha had a brother, Alexander, ten years younger.
And, imagine, ten years later, exactly at 46, he also died.
It got bad in the morning.
Mother-in-law left for work, he took a shower, went to bed, fell and died.
There is something mystical here.
© Photo from personal archive / Legion-Media
Do you believe in mysticism?
- In general, I got the role of Leni Golubkov by accident.
At first I thought so.
But two or three years later, I realized that this accident was not accidental - it was my destiny.
The role of Lenya Golubkov, wife Natasha, and then the play “Birth” are links in one chain.
The play is my mission.
I now feel that I have something to happen in the coming years or maybe even months.
That God is preparing me some major role in my life.
- Do you still think that Mavrodi did not deceive people?
- I think not.
He himself was robbed first.
Remember, at that time there were still millions, 17 KamAZ trucks of cash were taken out of the gates where they were located.
And then he was accused that it was all a "pyramid".
From every iron they shouted that Mavrodi was a swindler, Mavrodi was a swindler.
Vladimir Permyakov with his wife Olga Munchausen
© Photo from personal archive
- Do you have children?
- No Unfortunately.
It so happened that in Kansk, from where I moved to Moscow, I was married twice, and twice my women already had children, so they did not want to give birth.
Natasha wanted to, but she always had no time.
And the time was such that she was afraid.
I had great popularity, but I failed to monetize it.
Although my current wife, actress and director Olga Munchausen, and I created the duet “Greetings from the 90s” and successfully perform at concerts and evenings.
How are you going to celebrate your anniversary?
- Sergey Zhukov, the lead singer of the "Hands Up" group, will set the table for me in his bar.
He will give me a present for my anniversary, for which, of course, I am very grateful to him.