Vladimir Menshov

Vladimir Valentinovich Menshov (; 17 September 1939 – 5 July 2021) was a Soviet and Russian actor and film director. He was noted for depicting the Russian everyman and working class life in his films. Although Menshov mostly worked as an actor, he is better known for the films he directed, especially for the 1979 melodrama Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Actress Vera Alentova, who starred in the film, is the mother of Vladimir Menshov's daughter Yuliya Menshova.

Biography Menshov was born in a Russian family in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR. His father, Valentin Mikhailovich Menshov, was a sailor and later an NKVD officer; his mother Antonina Aleksandrovna Menshova (née Dubovskaya) was a housewife. Because of his father's work, the family lived in Baku, Arkhangelsk and Astrakhan.

As a teenager, Menshov worked as a machinist student at a factory, at a mine in Vorkuta, as a sailor on a diving boat in Baku, and also as an understudying actor at the Astrakhan Drama Theater. In 1961 he entered the acting department of the Moscow Art Theatre School. During the second year he married actress Vera Alentova who was also studying at the same theatre school. In 1965 he graduated from the acting department. After graduating, he worked for two years as an actor and assistant director at the Stavropol Regional Drama Theater.

From 1970 to 1976, Vladimir Menshov worked under contracts at the film studios Mosfilm, Lenfilm and the Odessa Film Studio. He made a short thesis film On the Question of the Dialectic of the Perception of Art, or Lost Dreams,

As an actor, Vladimir Menshov has 117 credits. Some of the most popular films that feature him include How Czar Peter the Great Married Off His Moor (1976), Night Watch (2004), Day Watch (2006) and Legend № 17 (2013). Menshov's second picture, Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears became one of Russia's box-office record holders, was awarded the State Prize of the USSR, and then the Oscar (1981) as the Best Foreign Language Film. The film tells the story of lives of three women over two decades. It was also a box-office hit.

In 1984, Menshov directed the film Love and Pigeons based on the play of Vladimir Gurkin.

Vladimir Menshov also directed the following films: What a Mess! (1995),

He wrote screenplays for the films I Serve on the Border (1973), The Night Is Short (1981), What a Mess! (1995), The Great Waltz (2008),

Vladimir Menshov was the general director and art director of "Film Studio Genre", which is a subsidiary of Mosfilm.

In 2011 as the chair of the Russian Academy Award committee he refused to co-sign the decision to nominate Nikita Mikhalkov's film Burnt by the Sun 3: The Citadel as the Russian submission for the 2011 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

He expressed support for the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and was blacklisted in Ukraine in 2015 as a result.

Awards Vladimir Menshov – Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1984), The Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree (2017)

In 2003, Menshov joined the United Russia party. In an interview with Esquire magazine in 2010, he stated that he joined it by accident and regrets it and treats the party's activities with irony, but does not leave its ranks in order to avoid scandal. However, in the 2016 legislative election, Menshov became a trusted representative of United Russia.

In 2007, answering a question about a possible third term for Vladimir Putin's presidency, Menshov said that he was "sharply negative" about this scenario and criticized his colleagues who said there were no alternatives to the current head of state. During the 2018 presidential election, Menshov became one of Putin's trusted representatives. However, in 2016, Menshov claimed that he always voted for the communists and positively assessed the Soviet Union.

In 2011, Menshov gave an interview about his political views, where he stated: "Over the years, it has become completely clear to me: if you take the path of anti-Sovietism, you will certainly come to outright Russophobia."

Menshov supported the annexation of Crimea by Russia and expressed his opinion on the need for "reunification" with Donbass, and gave Zakhar Prilepin 1 million rubles in aid "for Donbass." In 2017, the Security Service of Ukraine banned Menshov from entering the country for a period of 5 years.

Menshov planned to run for the State Duma in the 2021 legislative election from the A Just Russia party on its federal party list.

Personal life and death Menshov married actress Vera Alentova in 1962. They had a daughter, Yuliya Menshova.

He died at age 81, as a consequence of COVID-19.

Partial filmography As a director Year Title Notes 1976 Practical Joke 1972 A Man at His Place Semyon Bobrov 1976 How Czar Peter the Great Married Off His Moor Officer 1982 Under One Sky Pavlov 1983 Magistral Potappov 1984 Love and Pigeons Cameo Also directed 1987 Courier Oleg Nikolaevich 1987 Where is the Nophelet? Pavel Golikov 1989 Zerograd Prosecutor 1992 The General Georgy Zhukov 1995 What a Mess! Russian President 1997 Tsarevich AlexeiMenshikov 2002 Spartacus and Kalashnikov colonel Egorov 2004 Night Watch Geser 2012Legend No. 17Eduard Balashov 2014 Ekaterina Bestuzhev 2016 After You're GoneFather 2017 Yolki 7Valerij Michajlovič Gavrilov