| The handsome, romantic hero of the Soviet screen, Nikolai Eremenko, died of a heart attack at the age of 52, having survived his father, his full namesake, by only a year, because of whom he lived his whole life with the prefix “junior”. The younger Eremenko’s popularity was much higher than his father’s, but their connection always remained patriarchally close. As a child, the elder Eremenko Jr. “tore the hell out of him.” Then he brought him to enroll in VGIK, to take a course with Sergei Gerasimov, for whom he himself acted. During his studies, Eremenko Jr. received eight severe reprimands, was conditionally transferred from course to course, but received a diploma for Alyosha in “By the Lake.” The film was directed by a master, Sergei Gerasimov, who discovered organics, masculine attractiveness and dreamy tenderness in a rustic and hooligan young man with beautiful texture. Then there were five more films by Gerasimov: “Loving a Man”, “Red and Black”, “The Youth of Peter”, “At the Beginning of Glorious Deeds”, “Leo Tolstoy”... Julien Sorel was Eremenko’s best and most subtle work. The audience especially loved him for his role in “Pirates of the 20th Century,” which offended the actor - “for his ability to swim, or what?” For the last year he began acting again, and when asked if he was happy, he answered: “Well, how can you be completely happy in a country that is completely unhappy?!” Alena Solntseva
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