The actor and deputy of the Moscow City Duma Nikolai Gubenko died

In Moscow, in the 79th year of his life, an actor, deputy of the Moscow City Duma and the last Minister of Culture of the USSR Nikolai Gubenko died. This was announced by the chairman of the Moscow City Duma Alexei Shaposhnikov, Interfax reports.

The cause of the actor’s death is not specified. Earlier it was reported that Gubenko and his wife were ill with coronavirus.

Nikolai Gubenko was born on August 17, 1941 in Odessa. His father died at the front, his mother was executed by the Nazis for refusing to cooperate, so Gubenko was brought up in an orphanage.

In 1958, he began to play at the local theater of the young spectator, and then entered the VGIK. In 1964, Gubenko was enrolled in the troupe of the Taganka Theater, which he headed in 1987.

He was the last Minister of Culture of the USSR since November 1989. After the return of director Yuri Lyubimov to Moscow in 1993, a conflict occurred in the troupe of the theater, after which the new theater "The Commonwealth of the Actors of Taganka" was created.

Since 1995, Gubenko has been a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, since 2005 - Moscow City Duma. He tried to amend the Russian Constitution on the restoration of the USSR, which was rejected.

Gubenko often starred in a movie. Many became known to many, voicing in the 1980s of Vladimir Lenin in a documentary about his life.