Operezhaia nekrolog [Ahead of the Obituary]

In 2019, Alexander Shirvindt, a popularly beloved actor, director and TV presenter, celebrated his anniversary. 'When I turned 85, I thought it was quite a serious figure to formulate myself,' he writes in the preface to his memoir Ahead of the obituary. Divided into two parts, this is a book of memories: from early childhood to the present day - about family and loved ones, about service in the theater, about filming a movie. And, of course, about your beloved friends. Alexander Shirvindt shares his thoughts with an unsurpassed sense of humor and recalls with tenderness and warmth Evgeny Yevtushenko and Eldar Ryazanov, Arkady Arkanov and Bulat Okudzhava, Andrei Mironov and Alexander Abdulov, Valentin Gaft, Oleg Tabakov, Mark Primakov, and many others. I, throwing myself into graphomania, thought: there is no need to aim at monumental memoirs with the most modest sections 'I am about myself' and 'They are about me, and I am about them.' Now I thought: why not? Let one more little book