“Those who talked about the gray life are lying”: Natalya Varley’s scathing response to those who criticize the USSR

Natalya was born in Romania, but soon her family moved to the USSR, which very soon became the homeland of the girl, whom she sincerely loved.

Natalia’s father was a sea captain, and therefore the girl’s parents often moved. Natasha went to school in Murmansk, finished it – already in Moscow. Varley found her calling at an early age: once she and her mother went to the circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard and saw an advertisement for the recruitment of children in a circus studio. Despite the lack of special training, Natasha managed to enter the number of students.

Varley graduated from the State School of Circus and Variety Art and became a balancing act. She got into the cinema thanks to the clown Leonid Yengibarov, who introduced the girl to the director Yungvald-Khilkevich. So Varley got her first role in the movie “Rainbow Formula”, and soon after she was invited to audition for the role of Nina in “Prisoner of the Caucasus”.

A total of 500 girls took part in the casting, including Natalya Fateeva, Natalya Kustinskaya and Nadezhda Rumyantseva. But Gaidai loved Varley. In the film, the actress herself performed all the tricks – only for a jump from a cliff into the water they invited an understudy. However, it turned out that the stuntwoman is actually an ordinary woman who tricked the film crew in order to see famous performers. As a result, Natalya also starred in the risky scene of Shurik’s rescue.

Choosing between circus and cinema, Varley chose the latter. She entered the Shchukin School, after which she got a job at the Stanislavsky Theater. In total, Varley starred in 60 films. She still continues to appear on the screens: in 2021 the series “Aunt Lucy” was released with Natalya in the title role.

Natalya Varley wrote the book “Rope Walker”: the actress later said that she was tired of the work of “smart” journalists and literature, the works of which are half-true, densely interwoven with gossip. Varley herself wanted to talk about her life. In the book, the woman responded to everyone who criticizes the Soviet Union, recalling that everything was not at all as they like to remember now.

According to Natalia, Soviet life was completely different: “On free days, hours, minutes, we did not rest, but ran around theaters, exhibitions, museums, sat in reading rooms, did not miss new programs in the circus and film premieres … […] We had the flexibility to go to any theater for any show with student tickets. […] Life was boiling and bubbling! The glory of our circus, the Bolshoi and Maly Theaters, the Vakhtangov Theater, the Moscow Art Theater, the Bolshoi Theater – thundered all over the world! And our musicians! And the overcrowded halls of conservatories and concert halls… So who needs today’s lies and why?!”

Here’s how the actress remembers fashion in the USSR: “Yes, there were no piles of clothes. Moreover, it was indecent to suffer from materialism – it was considered philistinism. But if it was necessary to dress beautifully – there would be a taste! The country produced beautiful fabrics – not just for export. In the luxury workshop they sewed cheaply and well. Plus, you can always buy your favorite ready-made template…

When I already starred in The Prisoner of the Caucasus and started traveling around the world with this photo and with Viy, I was dressed by a wonderful fashion designer Lidia Alekseevna from an atelier on Herzen Street . And she dressed me in such beautiful and unusual clothes and in such high-quality fabrics that when they saw how I was dressed – on stage, at receptions, at press conferences – journalists would certainly ask for who I dressed…

Yes! There weren’t those stupid “shops” in which small size cloths hang with exorbitant prices, often completely incompatible with quality…

But I remember how I, fifteen years old, go along the Arbat to the Praga culinary restaurant to buy something from unusually tasty and very cheap semi-finished products, and I wear a white dress with a small delicate flower with a pleated skirt. And everyone is looking at me. And this dress that my mother and I bought in “Kids’ World”…”

Everything changed, Natalya believes, during perestroika: “Overnight, everything on the shelves was thrown into a landfill, factories and factories were closed. And those who sewed cheap clothes and shoes – for children, the elderly, for the middle classes – were also closed … Shops and markets began to fill with cheap consumer goods, mainly Chinese , then crafts …

The bar for art and culture fell “below the ground”… Cinemas stopped showing films, and furniture began to be sold. Or cars… Terrifyingly vulgar clips of pop music and talk shows played on TV, asking questions still deemed indecent… But above all, the TV screen was filled with good American craftsmanship. market – they were bought in “packages” by our TV bosses, who suddenly became “bosses”… That’s when life became really miserable and gray!

The result, Varley writes, was disappointing: the people destroyed the best country in the world with their own hands. It was only later that many realized: they were deceived, like savages, beckoning with glass beads. But it was already too late – many can no longer be returned.