Director of Central Television of the USSR Kaleria Kislova: I have never in my life met such a sincere person as Heydar Aliyev was (video interview). Kaleria Kislova: Brezhnev called me Miss Television Kaleria Kislova biography year of birth
M. KUNITSYN: Good night everyone. I am Mikhail Kunitsyn, collector and journalist. And together with sound engineer Nikolai Kotov, we welcome listeners of the “Vinyl” program on the “Echo of Moscow” radio station. As usual, we will listen to music recorded on records in the original sound, by the way, which is now broadcast from the player installed in our studio. Our guests and I listen to their favorite records and learn the stories associated with them.
In the fate of our guest today, records and a gramophone played a huge role. Her life is the plot of a fairy tale about Cinderella, the path from a Siberian village to the Kremlin. Today our guest is Kaleria Venediktovna Kislova, television director, laureate of the USSR State Prize, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation. Good night, Kaleria Venediktovna.
K. KISLOVA: Hello.
M. KUNITSYN: I want to add a little more that in one famous joke it was once told that several generations of Soviet viewers looked at the world through the eyes of the leading Travelers Club, Yuri Senkevich. And, I’m not afraid to say this, the whole country has always looked at the most important social and political events through the eyes of director Kaleria Kislova. Demonstrations and parades on Red Square, festive addresses first by Soviet and then Russian leaders, legendary broadcasts in the late 80s from the Congress of People's Deputies, the first television bridges with America, concerts and, of course, the broadcast of the 1980 Olympics, opening and closing. So, Kaleria Venediktovna, I hope I have introduced you as fully as possible with all your merits, regalia and titles. But, in fact, our meeting today here, in the studio of “Echo of Moscow”, in the “Vinyl” program is connected with the story that happened to you with the records and with how you ended up in Moscow.
K. KISLOVA: Well, it's a long story. I want to start with 1938.
M. KUNITSYN: Yes. Get started.
K. KISLOVA: I’m 12 years old, we live in a village, indeed, in the village of Maslyanino.
M. KUNITSYN: Did I say the truth?
K. KISLOVA: It’s all true, because I was born in a village and until I was 18, I practically went on vacation sometimes. And so we lived constantly in the village. And then the summer of 1938, my father, a rural agronomist, became a participant in the All-Union Exhibition. It was called differently then, it was called the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow.
M. KUNITSYN: This is the current VDNH.
K. KISLOVA: The current VDNKh, yes. And he was going for the first time too (this was also his first trip to Moscow), he was going to Moscow on a business trip to an exhibition. Naturally, we were waiting for him with gifts. And he returned with gifts. He arrived and brought a gramophone.
The gramophone was like this, some kind of blue-gray, it was incredibly handsome.
M. KUNITSYN: This was the first gramophone in your village.
K. KISLOVA: This is the first gramophone. In our village, this was actually our first gramophone. And he brought a set, a large set of records. Well, it’s true that the records were a little, so to speak, of this specific direction. Basically, there were gypsy records, gypsy music, gypsy songs. Well, I must say that we had such a family, because my grandfather was, indeed, such a real gypsy.
M. KUNITSYN: A real camp gypsy.
K. KISLOVA: Yes. Well, my father is already a little different.
M. KUNITSYN: But nevertheless, the gypsy blood remained and the love for the gypsy song.
K. KISLOVA: Yes. And so he brought a large set of records performed by artists of the Romani Gypsy Theater, which then opened in Moscow. And most importantly, there was a record performed by Lyalya Chernaya. And I already saw it in the film “The Last Camp”, and the song “Tramp”, which will now be played, is a record from those times and the same record on which the song “Tramp” performed by Lyalya Chernaya was recorded.
M. KUNITSYN: So, a recording from 1937, Lyalya Chernaya, the song “Tramp”, 78 rpm record.
(the song “Tramp” performed by Lyalya Chernaya is played)
M. KUNITSYN: The “Vinyl” program is on air. Dear listeners, I remind you of the number for your SMS messages with questions to our guest today. Number +7 985 970-45-45. Please, we are waiting for your questions. And our guest is Kaleria Kislova. Kaleria was the main director of the “Time” program on Channel One, then not yet on Channel One, but on Central Television for many years. And today she and I set off on a long journey with the help of those records that she once had.
K. KISLOVA: In distant childhood.
M. KUNITSYN: In distant childhood, yes. And we will find out how, in fact, the passion for these records in childhood had such an impact on one’s fate? So, the record of Lyalya Chernaya, who in fact was Nadezhda in the world, has just been played...
K.KISLOVA: ...Sergeevna Kiseleva.
M. KUNITSYN: Kiseleva, yes, yes, yes. Whom you later had a chance to meet.
K. KISLOVA: Yes.
M. KUNITSYN: How did this happen?
K. KISLOVA: Well, you see, when these records appeared, there was a large set - there were a lot of dance records, such real camp songs performed by the entire choir of the Roman Theater. There were romances, and Cherkasova sang. The set was very large. And from that moment I just decided... I didn’t linger anywhere, I quickly ran home from school, sat down at the gramophone, started it up and sat down and listened. And, of course, I was drawn somewhere, it seemed to me... You see, this coincided with the moment when I suddenly realized that the blood of this people also flows in me. To some extent, perhaps to a small extent, but still there.
M. KUNITSYN: Yes, that is, there was a chance.
K. KISLOVA: Yes.
M. KUNITSYN: Either a career in Moscow, or in a camp among the gypsies.
K. KISLOVA: Yes. Then, at first I wanted to go to the camp. I wanted to go somewhere to the steppe, to the fires, it seemed to me that... Well, some kind of childish, so to speak, romanticism that was calling me somewhere. And I even cried over these records. That's when it sounded...
M. KUNITSYN: But I now put one of these records on the player, by the way. A? It?
K. KISLOVA: “Tu balval”?
M. KUNITSYN: “That’s crazy.”
K. KISLOVA: “Tu balval” is “You are the wind.” Yes. And this is one of my favorite records, which was what called me there. True, this record is of a later date, it is an ensemble led by Zhemchuzhny. And then I had a record performed by artists of the Roman Theater. It sounded a little different, the arrangement was a little different.
M. KUNITSYN: But let’s listen to the one that we have on the program today.
K. KISLOVA: Yes.
("Tu Balval" sounds performed by the ensemble led by Zhemchuzhny)
M. KUNITSYN: The “Vinyl” program is on air. The gypsy record “Tu balval”, “You are the wind” has just been played. We listen to them together with Kaleria Kislova, with the director of Central Television. Kaleria Venediktovna is still working, and, in fact, came to our studio after work, so thank you very much. And my question, in fact, will still be like this. I know that the road from the Siberian village lay through Novosibirsk.
K. KISLOVA: Yes. So from 1938 to 1941, 3 years passed and 3 years I dreamed about... I didn’t even hope that I would meet someone. No, I just wanted to see live what the Roman Theater is like, and above all Lyalya Chernaya. And there was this dream, well, I just don’t know, I saw it in a dream, I was just delirious about it. And suddenly in the newspaper “Soviet Siberia”, which my dad received, in 1941, when the war had already begun, it was already a slightly different time, I suddenly read that in the city of Novosibirsk in mid-July a tour of the gypsy theater Romen began, and that Everyone comes there, including the object, so to speak, of my love. And I... Well, for some reason I somehow became interested in newspapers and magazines very early. This probably led me to the Vremya program later, because, in fact, I looked through newspapers, in my opinion, from the moment I learned to read.
And so I almost on my knees begged my parents for permission to go to Novosibirsk.
M. KUNITSYN: How to get there? Siberian village.
K. KISLOVA: And it’s very difficult to get there. There was no road there at that time. Now there is a highway there, and you can take a bus from Novosibirsk to Maslyanino in 5 hours.
M. KUNITSYN: Maslyanino is my native village.
K. KISLOVA: Well, I was born in another village, and then we moved to Maslyanino when I was 4 years old, and I lived there almost until I was 18 years old. And I studied there, and graduated from school there. And, in general, in July 1941, I was just before the tour... Everything was calculated there by day. I’m getting ready, I have 2 bundles with things, in one there is money and some kind of spare dress, and in the other my main things - there are my first high-heeled shoes, some clothes, even some food.
M. KUNITSYN: That is, everything you need is in two bundles, in your hands.
K. KISLOVA: Yes, the most necessary, yes. And at 5 am I, with these two bundles, go to the house of the Regional Consumer Union, where all the trucks come from. It was only possible to travel on trucks, because along this road it was possible... And there was no other transport, especially since it was 1941. The only trucks left were some old broken ones.
M. KUNITSYN: Everything was requisitioned to the front, yes.
K. KISLOVA: And everyone was sent to the front. And so I come there, it’s still so dark, cloudy, it rained the day before, and it rained all night too. I arrive, and there all the drivers are sitting under a canopy, playing cards and saying, “We’ll leave in about 4 hours. You go, girl, get some sleep. Come in 4 hours, we’ll go.” But I can’t return home - this is a bad omen. I think, I don’t know what to do for 3-4 hours, I go out and look, the convoy is being assembled from chaises drawn by oxen.
M. KUNITSYN: So it’s almost a step?
K. KISLOVA: Well, of course. They move at the speed of a human step. Well, that means I run up to the men who are going there and say, “Where? To the station?" They say, “Yes, to the station.” And the distance to the station is 90 km, to the nearest station. I say, “Take it with you.” Well, the drivers there laugh and say, “What are you doing? You will travel for 5 days. It’s better to wait, we’ll get you there in a few hours.” But I sat down anyway. I am stubborn and sat down on the carriage next to the driver, because it is uncomfortable to sit in the chaise.
M. KUNITSYN: Well, the trucks then probably caught up with these bulls, I think?
K. KISLOVA: We caught up. We caught up in about 4 hours, probably.
K. KISLOVA: And then on trucks. The main thing is that I lost the bundle with all my outfits and shoes too. And with food, which is important. And I come... By truck, then by train. I arrive in Novosibirsk and, of course, immediately, leaving only some things, I run to the theater box office. And they toured in the summer theater in Stalin Park, and I choose a place on the plan and in my fist I have the money that they gave me at home clenched in my fist, and I ask the cashier, with all this money, to give me tickets for how much, in general, it will be possible , for every day in the same place in the first row, in the very center. She tells me, “So here the performances are repeated.” I say, “It doesn’t matter. I want to go there every day." And from this moment...
M. KUNITSYN: For a whole month, every day, to the performances of the Romen Theater.
K. KISLOVA: Yes.
M. KUNITSYN: And at that moment Lyalya noticed?
K. KISLOVA: Yes. I only got 10 or 11 tickets there; I didn’t have enough money for the others. But nevertheless, I began to walk. I had the only dress, bright red cotton with a white flower, and that means I was the first to arrive every day, the first to enter the hall, sit down in my place in the empty hall and sit until the end of the performance, without going out during intermissions, anywhere. And I finally saw these performances, I cried with them, I laughed with them, I sat there until the end and was the last one to leave.
And suddenly... Well, probably 5 days passed. I didn’t go out during intermission, because, well, you can’t walk alone in the alley there in the park. Everyone left, and I sat and continued in my place. And suddenly 3 young men appeared, one was there (later I found out) Kostya Kemalov was there, Misha Dotsenko and the third I don’t remember who. Basically, they came up to me and started talking to me. Moreover, they asked me the first question in Gypsy, and I also answered them. They say, “Oh, right. Went". I say “Where did you go?” - “To Lyalya.”
M. KUNITSYN: To Lyala Chernaya?
K. KISLOVA: To Lyala Chernaya. They tell me “To Lyala” just like that. I decided that I was being deceived, but I still took a risk and went. And, indeed, they led me to her. That is, she me... Not only did I see her, she noticed me from the stage and, it turns out, told them, “Who is that girl sitting there in a red dress?”
M. KUNITSYN: He sits and cries and watches the performance.
K. KISLOVA: And she cries, yes, at every performance.
M. KUNITSYN: So here I will add that, in fact, this meeting of Kaleria Kislova with Lyalya Chernaya - it had an incredible influence on her fate, because it was the records that led, the love for Lyalya Chernaya, to these performances.
K. KISLOVA: Yes. That's right, Mish. Exactly.
M. KUNITSYN: And Lyalya influenced so much that, after all, later, under her influence, the decision was made to enter the Theater Institute?
K. KISLOVA: Of course, of course. She and I talked a lot about this topic. I told her everything about myself, who I am, where I’m from, who my parents are, and so on. She says, “Here, let’s study, finish, come to Moscow. When the war ends, you will come to Moscow and work with us.” And, in general, this, well, I can’t say friendship, this acquaintance simply continued for many, many years. And then not only with her, but I got to know, in general, a lot of people in the theater. I got to know, well, almost the entire cast of that time and I made a lot of friends, a lot of acquaintances.
M. KUNITSYN: And among them was Nikolai Slichenko.
K. KISLOVA: No, well, Nikolai Alekseevich Slichenko - he appeared in the theater much later.
M. KUNITSYN: Let's listen to his record.
K. KISLOVA: Let’s listen.
M. KUNITSYN: We will hear the song “Darling” recorded by Nikolai Slichenko.
(the song “Darling” performed by Nikolai Slichenko is played)
M. KUNITSYN: The “Vinyl” program is on air, as you understand now from this musical selection, and our guest is Kaleria Kislova, a television director. And we set off on a long journey from a Siberian village, already ending up in Novosibirsk, where Kaleria Venediktovna met Lyalya Chernaya, who blessed her for admission. That is, the desire to run away to the camp resulted in the desire to enroll and get into the Theater Institute.
K. KISLOVA: Yes, yes.
M. KUNITSYN: What was sounding on the dance floors at that moment? I suspect it's this record. I'll put it on now. Okay, let's go. "Blossoming May" is playing.
K. KISLOVA: Oh...
M. KUNITSYN: Let’s dance?
K. KISLOVA: Let's dance. (everyone laughs)
(sounds “Blossoming May”)
K. KISLOVA: And then I graduated from school in the village, and came to Novosibirsk to enter the Theater Institute. Leningradsky was there Theatre Institute. But at the same time, the Red Torch opened theatre studio, which was supposed to be modeled after the Moscow Art Theater School-Studio as a university. And I entered both here and there. And it so happened that I did it. But something else coincided: my father was transferred to Novosibirsk and I was persuaded. At the same time, there was a war going on, and in general, it was scary to go somewhere far from home. And I stayed in Novosibirsk to study in the studio of the Red Torch Theater.
M. KUNITSYN: Did you take the records with you?
K. KISLOVA: Yes, of course. We arrived, they gave us a large apartment in the city center, we settled in and, in general, got used to the city lifestyle, that the water flows from the taps, and even hotter, and in general the house is warm, there is no stove. In general, of course, it was difficult to get used to, but we got used to it. You get used to it quickly, you quickly get used to good things. And I started studying, everything is fine. But I was very interested in dancing. And since it was in our studio that it was considered indecent to go dancing, I secretly, without telling anyone, I ran to the dance floor in the summer, and in the winter to the Stalin club, which was opposite the Red Torch Theater. And there were weekends and dances, and I danced there with all my might, including to this music too.
M. KUNITSYN: It was the record “Blossoming May”, slow dance, music by Polonsky. Written "Instrumental Sextet". The record was printed immediately after the war, and the melody, by the way, was composed even before the war by this composer.
K. KISLOVA: Well, of course, yes. I know it's an old record.
M. KUNITSYN: But, of course, dancing. Have you used these records? great success.
K. KISLOVA: Yes, yes. But what attracted me even more then, of course, was the fact that... In addition to studying, we very often had in the Red Torch Theater, which was considered the Siberian Moscow Art Theater, there was no House of Arts Workers there at that time, but the theater hosted such nightly concerts after performance, after concerts. And when some big, major artists like Vertinsky were touring, others came too...
M. KUNITSYN: Oh, that is, you were at Vertinsky’s concerts?..
K. KISLOVA: Definitely, yes.
M. KUNITSYN: As a theater student...
K. KISLOVA: No, after the concert they gave a concert for arts workers in the city of Novosibirsk. Well, we, as students, were, of course, present. And we sat on the floor. It took place in the foyer, just in the theater foyer, at night. It started somewhere after 11, sometimes even 12 at night. And there I heard Klavdia Ivanovna Shulzhenko live for the first time, who was there on tour and came and gave us such a concert. I was sitting literally in front of her on the floor, literally at her feet, close. She stood by the piano because, well, the performers had good seats and we sat on the floor and listened. And of all her songs at that time, “Hands” impressed me the most. Well, because it wasn’t just... It was, well, a one-man show, one might say.
M. KUNITSYN: The record is already on the player. And as Shulzhenko herself announced, the lyrical romance “Hands” is familiar to all of you.
(the romance “Hands” performed by Klavdiya Shulzhenko sounds)
M. KUNITSYN: The “Vinyl” program is on air, our guest is Kaleria Kislova, television director. With her we went on a journey from Siberia to Moscow. And so, we finally found ourselves in Moscow. Kaleria went on a long journey... I’ll tell you, can I? Now, I know this secret.
K. KISLOVA: Yes, yes, Mish, of course.
M. KUNITSYN: ...went on a long business trip in 1961.
K. KISLOVA: No. But before that I graduated from GITIS in Moscow. I got it, so to speak, after all, higher education, I still got the theatrical one.
M. KUNITSYN: But nevertheless, I found my calling and destiny on television.
K. KISLOVA: Yes.
M. KUNITSYN: And in 1961 she came... First she started working on Novosibirsk television, and with the week of Novosibirsk she came to Moscow in 1961, on a business trip. And she remained on this business trip to this day.
And already working in the youth editorial office at Central Television, I understand that I had the opportunity to meet Klavdia Ivanovna Shulzhenko already in life.
K. KISLOVA: Yes. And it happened like this. As a director, I broadcast the Komsomol congress. I don’t remember, it was the 60s, but the end of the 60s. I broadcast the congress, and after the congress there was a concert, which for some reason was not hosted by our music editors, but hosted by us. And it was entrusted to me. And just before the concert, before the start, I stood at the transfer point, which was then in the Palace of Congresses near the control panel, and even with my back I felt some movement somewhere behind me. I turned around and saw that some strange group was walking through the technical control room. At its head is a beautiful, big, tall woman in blue, in some kind of flowing outfit, and they come straight towards me. And then there was such a hitch, because she looked at me in surprise, and I looked at her. She looked at me... Because I stood in front of her small, I am short, thin...
M. KUNITSYN: Klavdia Ivanovna was not impressed. It seemed to her that a television director should be different.
K. KISLOVA: Yes, she looked at me like that and said, “Darling, what is this? Will you be broadcasting the concert? I say “Yes, I, Klavdia Ivanovna.” She: “So, I have this request. It's too big not to show me. The closest shot should be like this” and showed me on herself well below the waist, so to speak, this very medium shot. And I had the audacity to object to her, I said, “Klavdia Ivanovna, you look great and it will be good in close-up.” She says, “Baby, when you get to my age, you will understand,” turned and walked away, leaving a trail of smells behind her.
M. KUNITSYN: The French perfume “Mitsuko” was her favorite.
K. KISLOVA: Yes. And that means this was the second meeting. But there was also a third meeting, which took place ten years later. But this was somewhere at the turn of the 70s and 80s, either 1979 or 1981. At that time I was already the chief director of the main editorial office of information, that is, the “Time” program, I was already a laureate of the State Prize, which also gave me some weight. I was already a serious person. And one day my friend, the wife of composer Valentina Levashov, called. She was lying in the Kremlin, in the Kremlin hospital, and asked me to come and visit her. And I went. I went there to see her, came to her room, they brought it to us right away... She was lying alone, naturally, in very good conditions. They brought us tea and cakes right away, we sat down with her and drank tea. And suddenly, the door opens with a noise and Klavdia Ivanovna Shulzhenko enters. She was already here in a pink peignoir, she had a pink turban on her head and she said, “So, why are you sitting in the room? This kind of weather. We must use it. Come on, go for a walk." And we unquestioningly got up, leaving all the tea, and followed her for a walk in the park. We were walking in the park, she was very animated, she was so cheerful and that’s all. And then suddenly some kind of breakdown occurred, and suddenly she became sad somehow and began to talk about her son. I don’t know what happened to her son, but there was so much in her voice...
M. KUNITSYN: She simply loved her son very much, and was always worried about him.
K. KISLOVA: And you know, such a thought, a phrase even flashed through her mind. When she talked about him, she said “I am very afraid of how he will remain without me. Now, I’ll leave, but he’ll stay and be... How will he live without me?” Something was bothering her. Either he got married, or he was going to get married. Now, this was the third such meeting with Klavdia Ivanovna. Like 3 waltzes, 3 meetings with her passed, so to speak, throughout my entire life.
M. KUNITSYN: But now we will move from Klavdia Ivanovna to another wonderful performer, whose records Kaleria also loved and still loves - this is Muslim Magomayev.
K. KISLOVA: I also knew him and knew him. And, of course, our time is somehow impossible to imagine without him.
M. KUNITSYN: Muslim Magomaev.
(the song “Heart in the Snow” performed by Muslim Magomayev is played)
M. KUNITSYN: The “Vinyl” program is on air. We listen to records with Kaleria Kislova, our guest today. By the way, in this piece, which Magomaev was performing now, there is also, in my opinion, a lot of gypsy, such an outlet.
K. KISLOVA: Yes, there is a little.
M. KUNITSYN: But now I want you to talk about another meeting.
K. KISLOVA: Yes, that’s exactly what I wanted to move on to. I know what you mean. I just want to talk about one more person who, as it were, stepped from the record into my life. Slightly. Let him touch with one wing. Doesn't matter. 1980. I am preparing to host the opening and closing of the Olympic Games. And in the summer, at the beginning of June, I fly to Greece, to Athens for the rehearsal of lighting the Olympic flame. And when I arrived there (well, the lighting was in Olympia, where we flew by helicopter) just when I was walking around the city of Athens, I saw such big posters all around, billboards with portraits of Joe Dassin, whom I also really loved as a singer, loved listen to his records. And, of course, I never even hoped to see or hear him live. Well, I went to the concert. But most importantly, I was at a reception where Joe Dassin was among the guests and was even introduced to him as... Well, I was the only representative from Moscow television, and the reception was dedicated to the future Olympic Games. And that's why this happened. And we even sat at the table... We had seats... Everything was written out there, we sat opposite. And I, naturally, looked very carefully, I wanted to remember all the features, what he was like and what. And I remember he... He was alone with only a translator, without his wife. Everyone asked him there, and he was just talking about how his wife and little son were waiting for him on the island, on his island in the Mediterranean Sea, with little Joe, as he said. And he flies... That this is the last tour of this season and he flies there. And I looked and somehow... I really want to. Let's listen.
(the song “Et si tu n’existais pas” performed by Joe Dassin is played)
K. KISLOVA: Yes, wonderful, wonderful. And somehow, in general, he felt a little sad, because, after all, these last, as he said, tours of this season turned out to be the last in his life, because, having finished touring in Greece, he actually flew to his island and there, while on vacation, he died of a heart attack.
M. KUNITSYN: Being a very young man.
K. KISLOVA: Yes, yes.
M. KUNITSYN: It was exactly 1980.
K. KISLOVA: And you know, when I was sitting like that at dinner, I looked at him and, behold, I noticed that he had such large drops of sweat on his face. Look, they are like coarse dew on the leaves when you go out into the garden in the morning. And for some reason I thought, well, the whole face, especially on the temples and forehead. And it was quite cool in the hall, the air conditioning worked well, it wasn’t hot. And I looked and thought, “He probably has a bad heart.” And lo and behold, a month later, indeed, such news came to us, which we reported already in the Vremya program in the month of July. I don't remember the date, but that's what happened.
M. KUNITSYN: But this trip to Athens was connected with the Olympic Games.
K. KISLOVA: Yes, yes.
M. KUNITSYN: This is a huge milestone in your life, working at the Olympics. In fact, there are many television programs in which Kaleria Venediktovna talked about how she worked, described in detail all these details of the most fascinating, interesting work. There is, by the way, documentary, which is called “Miss Television of the USSR”. By the way, this is what Brezhnev called Miss Television?
K. KISLOVA: Yes, Leonid Ilyich called me that.
M. KUNITSYN: Yes. And, in my opinion, 6 all-powerful men.
K. KISLOVA: That made it easier for him.
M. KUNITSYN: Before putting on the last record in today’s program, just a few words about that time, about work at the Olympics.
K. KISLOVA: Well, you see, for the Olympics, in general... I lived for the Olympics, so to speak, for a whole year, even more than a year. I worked with cameraman Sergei Zhuravlev, and was with Dunaev, the director of the opening and closing ceremonies, all the time. And it was very interesting work, extraordinary. And I think that this is probably my most important work, if we talk about my creative path.
M. KUNITSYN: Here is that famous shot, when at the closing ceremony Mishka flies away and a tear flows and rolls across this panel. This plan, in my opinion, has become textbook and is associated not only with the Olympics, but also with an entire era.
K. KISLOVA: You see, I’m pleased that... Well, I didn’t work alone, of course. There were 11 PTS at the opening and 6 PTS at the closing. Well, these are 6 mobile television stations, each station has 6 cameras. Can you imagine how many cameras there were in the Grand Sports Arena alone? And it was truly an unforgettable time. And when it was over, when this Bear flew away, when the lights went out last lights the fireworks that were over the Luzhniki Stadium, I actually felt some kind of emptiness, as if I had simply lost part of my life. Because we broadcast it together with my, so to speak, permanent partner, she was an assistant, then Tanya Petrovskaya became the second director with me, and she and I conducted this broadcast and, in my opinion, we both cried after the broadcast. The opening was...
M. KUNITSYN: Everyone cried with you then.
K. KISLOVA: Yes, we cried together, yes.
M. KUNITSYN: Both those who broadcast and those who watched this broadcast cried.
K. KISLOVA: Yes.
M. KUNITSYN: And, in fact, today, thanks to the fact that you came to this studio, you brought records, some of the records actually belonged to Kaleria Venediktovna.
K. KISLOVA: Well, part of it. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep many of them.
M. KUNITSYN: And we made this big journey, starting it in a Siberian village with records from gypsy music, and ended up in Moscow at the closing of the Olympics. And at the end of the program, I want to thank you for your participation, for telling us, in fact, so many interesting things, and to play that song...
K. KISLOVA: But I still want to interrupt you and say that I haven’t parted with Roman all my life. Still. You know this because...
M. KUNITSYN: I know this, it’s true.
K. KISLOVA: Yes. Because I still go to Romen, it’s my favorite theater and I go there regularly.
M. KUNITSYN: One of the last things in today’s program will be “Goodbye, Moscow, goodbye.”
K. KISLOVA: Yes.
(the song “Goodbye, Moscow!” plays)
She is one day older than the Queen of England. A girl from a Siberian village was the main director of the “Time” program for almost thirty years. She broadcast the Moscow Olympics, the funerals of general secretaries, all parades and demonstrations. And he still goes to work.
Kaleria Kislova: I just enjoy life and have no idea about any “secrets of youth.” Photo: A. Ageev, N. Ageev / TASS
From adored to pathetic - one step
Honestly, I don’t understand pompous phrases like “there’s nothing to watch on TV.” Such words characterize the speaker more than the TV. If there's nothing to watch, don't watch. Nobody is forcing you. Hundreds of channels are broadcast at the same time, thousands of programs are on, for every color and taste. Anyone who wants can choose.
In my house the TV is always on, I don’t like silence, so I turn on the TV. Well, there’s a program about the host of the “Time” program Katya Andreeva, how can I not watch it? I have known Katya for many years, and I am interested in her. I know her husband Dusan, he is Yugoslavian, wonderful person. All his relatives rightfully call him Dushka.
It wasn’t me who noticed that working on television often blows the minds of those who work there. Television gives recognition, audience sympathy, attention, smiles and compliments.
Television is like potassium cyanide. People are poisoned by it and want to be on the screen until their last breath.
Due to the above-mentioned points, a person from TV can be invited to some government offices, and sometimes high doors open before him. But television, like nothing else, requires intelligence. From adoration to funny and pathetic - one step. Sometimes it’s even half a step. We must always remember this.
Thanks to my profession, I had the opportunity to visit different offices, from the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee to the President of Russia. I always knew and understood that this was a temporary phenomenon...
You see, television can be potassium cyanide. People are poisoned by it and want to be on the screen until their last breath. But television, like no other, requires form. Including physical.
I’ll tell you in spirit, I’ve never been on screen, I’m a director and therefore always behind the scenes. But I left the “Time” program only because it became inconvenient for me to write the year of my birth in numerous questionnaires.
Thanks to my profession, I had the opportunity to visit different offices, from the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee to the President of Russia
I think that when the documents arrive, people will say: “Wow... auntie...” I left the main directors of the “Time” program when I was nearly eighty. You have to leave on time, on time. And it wasn’t me who said it first.
The tractor driver whom the whole world adored
My Mikhail Gorbachev? He was a collective farm tractor driver, whom the whole world later recognized and respected. This happens sometimes.
When Mikhail Sergeevich came to power, he changed everyone: waitresses, secretaries, security, photographer, all the correspondents who were in the pool were forced to change. I was the only one who wasn’t touched, but I was fully confident that there had been some kind of hitch, and I was expecting a “lights out” any day now. To this day I have no idea why they left me.
By the way, Gorbachev made his first trip as Secretary General to Leningrad. He didn’t take any of the TV people with him. Nobody! Can you imagine today that the leader of the country would go on a working trip and without television? And then it was like that...
Gorbachev, like Andropov, at the beginning of his work as the leader of the country did not understand what television was. I remember how I convinced Andropov that television was good. He was used to working only with a photographer. You see, leading the KGB is a closed specialty. Yuri Vladimirovich told me this: “We overfed the TV viewer...”
And then Gorbachev could easily call me at work and say: “Kaleria, hello! I need to consult with you, can you come to my Kremlin office by eight o’clock?”
I came, he could show me some television recording, find out my opinion. Sometimes Raisa Maksimovna also came there, once we sat with her almost until midnight, waiting for him. He was in negotiations with some foreign delegation, and the negotiations dragged on.
Did Raisa Maksimovna have influence on him? No, I think there was real love there. It was a love larger than life.
It was amazing that family was a sacred concept for Mikhail Sergeevich. Believe me, I have lived in this world for a long time and have seen a lot of men. He was devoted to Raisa Maksimovna, in the very in the best sense this word. In my opinion, he never had any “leftist” thoughts. Thoughts, not steps...
Kaleria Kislova: Mikhail Gorbachev could easily call me at work and say: “Kaleria, hello! I need to consult with you, can you come to me in the Kremlin office by eight o’clock?” Photo: Vladimir Musaelyan / TASS
I just saw it in his eyes. Our last trip with him was to Washington. It was May 1991. Raisa Maksimovna flew by helicopter with Barbara Bush to some event. I went to see him before the shoot to fix his collar and powder it; we didn’t take make-up artists with us. We did everything ourselves. I see that he has no face, he is pale as a sheet.
“You see, Raisa was supposed to arrive an hour ago, but she’s still not there,” he says with a tremble in his voice. I began to calm him down, telling him that the meeting had taken too long. But he was not himself. An event with his participation has begun, I see there is no face on him.
Suddenly I see him beaming, I tell the operator: “Quickly take a close-up.” I saw Raisa Maksimovna standing in the doorway, he saw her and simply blossomed.
I also remember how Raisa Gorbachev was buried.
The guys from his security knew me well and took me to Mikhail Sergeevich even before they brought the coffin with the body of the deceased.
I approached him, he told me everything about how they fought for her life, how hard it was for her to die. He was so unhappy, so crushed, you can’t even imagine.
On the day of her funeral, Mikhail Sergeevich was simply broken. It seemed like there was no ground underneath him. I remember he stood at the window and looked out at the street, slightly moving the curtain. Then he suddenly says to me: “You know, she had to die for people to love her. Look at the line!” And he cried...
Yeltsin's Tear
There are some moments that remain in the memory forever. One of them is the last one New Year's greetings Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin as President of Russia. Yeltsin, unlike Gorbachev, called everyone without exception “you.” I remember we recorded a holiday message. And Boris Nikolaevich says to me: “Kaleria, you leave everything here, I think that you will come to me again...” I say: “Boris Nikolaevich, everything is fine, there are no problems, everything will be edited normally, everything was recorded well..” He coughed meaningfully and remained silent.
Another thing that struck me was that after recording, Yeltsin always drank tea with the entire film crew, maybe even a glass of champagne. And he always said goodbye to everyone by shaking hands. But this didn’t happen here.
And on December 30, 1999, in the evening, we were informed that Boris Nikolaevich wants to re-register again tomorrow at 10 o’clock in the morning.
I gathered the whole group again, we went to the Kremlin. Usually he came out first to greet everyone. He will hug me and kiss me. And then he goes off to comb his hair and powder his face. But here he doesn’t come out. Strange, I think...
At a quarter to ten, Valentin Yumashev brought out the text for the teleprompter, and only then did I see famous phrase: "I'm leaving…"
Everything became clear in one second. Boris Nikolaevich came out silent and extremely collected. The address was recorded from the second take. On the first take he started to cry...
"My Olympics..."
The most quality years of my life were the years of working in the “Time” program.
Because in this period of life my inner self coincided with what I do.
I remember how they told me: “Lera, you’re not afraid to broadcast the 1980 Olympics.” This is a colossal responsibility?!" And I received from that work, from that responsibility, if you like, unearthly pleasure. It was a great drive to manage eleven mobile television stations that operated more than fifty television cameras. I knew every camera where it could go get it and what it can show.
There was a lot of impromptu, “catching” people’s faces full of delight, filled with tears of joy and putting them on the air. This is a very interesting matter.
I was the only TV crew who knew that Mishka, the symbol of the Moscow Olympics, would fly into the sky. The director of the closing ceremony told me about this in the strictest confidence. Like a state secret. You understand, even at the dress rehearsal of the closing ceremony of the Games, he did not fly away. Otherwise, there would not have been that surprise, that moment of surprise that we are talking about thirty-seven years after the Olympics.
I remember how my colleagues looked at me in bewilderment when I gave the order to set up one mobile television station on Vorobyovy Gory. The cameramen almost swore at me, shouting: “Well, what’s there to shoot?..” And I’ve already seen this historical shot, with Moscow in the background, and against this background Mishka flies into the sky.
When Mishka flew away, I also cried at the director’s console, and the men couldn’t hold back their tears.
The fall of Brezhnev and tea with Andropov
Visit of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev to Tashkent. The film crew and I, naturally, are also there. The head of the “ninth” department of the KGB of the USSR calls and says that we urgently need to go to the aircraft plant.
We arrived first, Brezhnev followed us, about five hundred meters away.
We go into the hangar, in which there is an already assembled plane, over which there is a shaky bridge. It was not designed for a large number of people, but here a lot of people climbed onto it. Everyone wanted to look at Leonid Ilyich.
The cameraman is filming, and I use my elbows to clear the way for him in front. Brezhnev is walking, next to him is Rashidov, the first secretary of the Uzbek Central Committee. As soon as Brezhnev went under the bridge, it fell through, and people from a great height began to fall on him. One person fell right on top of the General Secretary, Brezhnev falls to the floor. He had a broken collarbone...
We were the only ones who had all this removed. From the first to the last second.
I arrive at Uzbek television, I’m about to transfer these shots to Moscow, and suddenly I get a call on the “Kremlin” phone. The head of the department of the CPSU Central Committee calls and says in a stern voice: “Kaleria, don’t even think about transferring these shots. You will bring the film to Moscow yourself, you are responsible for it with your head...”
I'm standing in an embrace with this roll of film. Which was the size of a pillow, and I don’t know what to do. Where should I store it before the plane? The chairman of the Uzbek Television and Radio Company comes up to me and says, let’s put the roll in my safe. We will seal the safe. And so they did.
The next day I arrive, and he doesn’t look me in the eye: “Kaleria, the film was taken by the chairman of the Uzbek KGB, I couldn’t object to him...” It seemed to me that after these words I would die right next to this safe. I barely remember getting on the plane; it seemed to me then that if the plane had fallen and crashed, I would have been better off than coming to Moscow without this film.
From the airport I immediately went to Ostankino, it was midnight, I arrived, my editor-in-chief was sitting there and said: “Lera, Lapin calls all the time, looking for you...”
I'm dialing Chairman of the USSR State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company Sergei Georgievich Lapin. He didn’t even let me say hello, he immediately asked: “Did you bring the film?” “Sergey Georgievich, it was stolen from me,” I answered chokedly. He just hung up...
On the second day, when I came to work, I immediately remembered 1937. I get out of the elevator, and everyone walks around me, no one says hello. Someone pretends to scratch their leg and doesn’t see me, another frantically ties their shoelaces, someone starts actively talking to someone else when I appear.
At the meeting, everyone pretends that I’m not in the office. Suddenly the secretary calls me and with eyes full of horror says: “Two generals have come for your soul...”
I went into the office, they stood up when they saw me. I think now generals don't stand up when a woman comes in. Very tall “birds” came to talk to me - Tsinev, the first deputy chairman of the KGB of the USSR, and the head of the ninth directorate, Storozhev.
They spoke to me very politely, I would even say sympathetically. They bowed and left. Ten days have passed, everyone ignores me, I sit in the office as if in a vacuum.
One day, the chairman of the State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company is called into the reception room and connected via turntable to Lubyanka. “Comrade Kislova?” they ask sternly at the other end of the telephone line. “There’s a car coming for you, come to us.” I ask for the car number. And in response they say to me: “They will recognize you...”
In a black Volga, a young and very polite lieutenant rushes to the Lubyanka in the KGB of the USSR, I am handed over to an equally polite major.
No one asked for documents or issued passes. Reception room of Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov, he then headed the KGB.
Andropov spoke to me very well. He immediately called me by my first and patronymic name...
We drank tea with him. Surprisingly, I was calm. Apparently, fear and excitement have already burned out. Well, I’m not a criminal after all!
This is fantastic, but on the second day everyone began to smile sweetly: “Lerochka, hello.” The freeze frame is over...
If it happened today, I'm sure it would be the same. People do not change…
"The owner died..."
In Soviet times, there were no cell phones, so when I went somewhere to visit, the theater, or on a date, I always called the reception office of the chairman of the USSR State Television and Radio and Television and left information about where I would be, telling me what phone number I could be reached at.
I remember my husband and I were at a friends birthday party, suddenly the phone rang and they invited me to answer the phone. A polite voice says that in half an hour a car will pick me up. Doesn't explain anything and I don't ask anything. We go to the Hall of Columns. We arrive, the hall is deserted, the guard checks my passport with the list and says: “Come in.” I go up to the second floor, not a soul, I wait...
My profession taught me to wait. Then she walked into the hall and froze in surprise. All the chairs have been taken out, the hall is unusually empty, and the chandeliers are on.
At about two in the morning I hear footsteps, guys are going up the stairs, all familiar faces. They saw me and asked: “Lera, where will you install the equipment?” - “Guys, what happened?..” “The owner died,” answered one of them. Everyone started crying. And I realized that Brezhnev died.
All this talk that Brezhnev’s coffin was dropped when they were lowered into the grave is complete nonsense. Even if they dropped it, no one would know about it. There weren't any microphones there at the time.
Galya, Brezhnev's daughter, was no longer entirely adequate, and the KGB strictly banned all microphones. She might say something stupid. And the whole world watched the funeral without breathing.
Therefore, the microphones were taken away from all the operators. At that moment, when the coffin with the General Secretary was lowered into the grave, fireworks struck, the sound was booming. The country gasped and said: “Dropped.”
... His son-in-law Yuri Churbanov cried the most at the funeral. Churbanov was the last one to say goodbye to him in the Hall of Columns. Everyone had already gone to get dressed, but Churbanov was still standing at the coffin. He said goodbye to him as to his life. I think he understood perfectly well that difficult times awaited him.
"Diets? God forbid!"
What is the secret to my physical fitness? Don't know. Maybe genetics, maybe my Siberian village is to blame...
I just enjoy life and have no idea about any “secrets of youth.”
My closest friend often tortures me about this. I tell her: “Tanya, I’ve never been to any cosmetics specialist, any cosmetologist, or any makeup artist. I’ve never had any surgeries or facelifts. Because I’m afraid of it. When I look at all the people who have been transformed, I always think: “Lord, How they mutilated a man!”
Diets? God forbid! I eat everything, I like to enjoy life. And from food too...
I may not eat all day, but I eat easily at night. I come home from work late in the evening and always eat heavily. Otherwise I won't sleep.
I can drink a glass, and more than one... I had a friend, the brilliant singer Alla Bayanova, she and I could sit at the table listening to heartfelt conversations until six o’clock in the morning. Start with cognac and end with champagne.
If we continue the conversation about weaknesses, then I will say it in spirit: I have never smoked a single cigarette in my life and have not uttered a single swear word...
I have never had such a need, although there have been very difficult situations. There have always been and still are enough other words in the vocabulary. Words that are understandable, precise, but not swear words...
Why am I still working? To be honest, today I need work more than I need work. She disciplines me.
When I sit at home, I immediately start to feel bad.
According to my inner feelings, I happy man. I was not deprived of either work or love. I did everything I wanted. I found myself on television. I was bored at the theater. Maybe they didn’t discover me in the theater, or maybe I didn’t have enough talent... Although I studied acting a lot, I graduated from GITIS with honors. But it didn’t work out. But television became my destiny.
I came there for a while, but stayed for the rest of my life.
"Ogonyok" and Lyalya Chernaya
In 1940, on the cover of Ogonyok magazine, I saw grapes for the first time in my life. There was a photograph from the Kremlin Christmas tree, Santa Claus was holding out a bunch of grapes to the girl, and fabulously beautiful chandeliers were shining above their heads. When I saw this, I lost sleep and peace. I told everyone: I will grow up and definitely live in Moscow.
Everyone laughed at me, where is Moscow and where is our Siberian hut?
It’s hard to believe, but in July 1941, a month after the start of the war, the Romen Theater came to Novosibirsk on tour. A terrible war was going on, but the muses were not silent.
When I found out about this, I begged my parents to let me go to Novosibirsk to attend performances. Lyalya Chernaya played there, she was then at the zenith of her fame, and I was simply dying from her performance.
I rode to the nearest station on a cart harnessed to a pair of oxen. The mud was so bad that horses couldn't get through.
I remember that a bundle containing a dress and canvas shoes, in which I was going to the theater, fell out of my hands. But I didn’t dare tell the driver about it. I arrived in Novosibirsk in my only dress.
I bought theater tickets with all the money I had. I walked every day, sat spellbound and did not breathe. A few days later, Lyalya noticed a girl in a red dress who watched all the performances without moving.
She invited me to her dressing room. And when I said a few words in Gypsy, she hugged me and cried. It was only thanks to her that I later entered the theater school and graduated with honors. And if I were to rewind life like a film on an old camera, then I would also get on a cart with oxen and go again along this same road. For a dream.
From the biography
Kaleria Kislova, born in the village of Kargat, Novosibirsk region.
Professional actress.
From January 1961 to the present day he has been working on television.
For 29 years she was the main director of the “Time” program. Laureate of the USSR State Prize, Honored Artist of the RSFSR.
The heroine of our report was born just a day earlier than the Queen of England, and in her hands, too, for many years there was a huge empire - information television of the USSR, and then Russia.
The main director, Honored Artist Kaleria Kislova witnessed and participated in the most important, interesting and dramatic events that took place in the country. It was she who showed the Olympics-80 to the whole world, she was the only one who knew what would happen to the Olympic bear, she built the first teleconference in history between the Soviet Union and America. Before the broadcast, she knew what the first President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, would speak on December 31, 1999.
Our editors love her very much. And Kaleria Venediktovna is a real symbol of all domestic television.
She remembers the time when buttons were big, cameras were heavy, and all programs were only available in live- recording was not invented right away. All secretaries general and presidents listened to this modest and still impeccably elegant woman. Mikhail Gorbachev felt confident in front of a television camera only if she was sitting under the lens.
“He said: I can’t look into this glass, sit under the camera!” - says television director, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Kaleria Kislova.
“She knew how to very subtly, unobtrusively and somehow imperceptibly help him so that he knew exactly who he was talking to,” notes USSR Central Television announcer Igor Kirillov.
And Leonid Brezhnev, with the light hand of Heydar Aliyev, called her “Miss Television” and broke into a smile when they met.
“Oh, missus, miss. Somehow he managed to make it funny there. And he definitely hugged,” says Kaleria Kislova.
Kaleria Kislova is a legend for everyone involved in television. For almost 30 years he has been the main director of the country's main program. The country saw all the parades and demonstrations, party congresses and trips of top officials through her eyes. TV presenter Tatyana Mitkova came to TV as her assistant.
“Someone sits at the console, someone presses the buttons, moves the mixer, and Kaleria, as a conductor, stands in the control room and commands his orchestra - now this camera, now this camera, the sound is lower, the sound is louder,” says the TV presenter, deputy General Director of NTV Tatyana Mitkova.
Half a century ago, she was the first to enter the building of the Ostankino television center. On the day of moving from Shabolovka, she was asked to take the place of the cat. She personally checked Brezhnev’s path to the podium.
“Still, they laid carpets everywhere, and these carpets were end-to-end. What if he falls in my frame?” - says Kaleria Kislova.
And Leonid Ilyich Kislov’s speech was often corrected literally according to the words.
“Instead of “socialism” he will say “capitalism”! From a completely different speech, we were looking for where he said the word we needed,” recalls Kaleria Kislova.
She broadcast the funeral of the General Secretary, after which rumors spread across the country that the coffin was allegedly dropped into the grave with a roar.
“There wasn’t a single microphone on nearby! It was a salvo from several guns, and it coincided that when they lowered it,” says Kaleria Kislova.
She had to film the frail General Secretary Chernenko right in the hospital room, which was turned into a polling station during the filming of the report.
“They put an urn there, decorated everything as it should. All the same, of course, it was clear that the person was very sick, he lowered the ballot, looked, and that’s it,” says Kaleria Kislova.
She filmed Gorbachev's abdication from power. And the very next day I recorded Yeltsin. She will be the first to read the famous words “I’m leaving” on the teleprompter screen. And the first Russian President V last time will look at her with absolute trust.
“The only one he allowed to correct him, reposition him, set the lights correctly, it was her,” says Ekaterina Andreeva, presenter of the Vremya program.
But main job her life - “Olympics-80”. And the famous shots of the 20th century - a bear flying away.
“I was the only one on television at that time who knew that he would fly away, I was ready for it! I even installed an additional two-chamber PTS on the Lenin Hills,” recalls Kaleria Kislova.
When the whole world was crying, she alone had no time for tears. After all, we had to control 50 television cameras at once.
“It is imperative to show the reaction of the audience. From the huge amount that all the cameras gave me, I chose, in my opinion, some of the most emotional moments,” says Kaleria Kislova.
Her fate is like a fairy tale. A girl from a Siberian village always dreamed of being in the Kremlin. And out of love for television, she gave up theater and leading roles, and for many years she was a Kremlin director. Even today she cannot live without work. And at exactly 21 o’clock for everyone who makes the “Time” program, its signature command, like Gagarin’s “Let’s go!” - “The program has started!”
with the legendary director of Soviet and Russian television, honored artist, laureate of the USSR State PrizeKaleria Kislova.
- Kaleria Venediktovna, you graduated from GITIS. Do you regret not pursuing a career as an actress?
In general, many such events have happened in my life when you decide something temporarily, but it remains for the rest of your life. This is exactly what happened with the theater. I worked in the theater, and my husband worked in Austria, then in Germany. I didn’t agree to go with him because I couldn’t leave the theater. But then I still had to go, and I went. I couldn’t live there without work, no matter how good it was. I lived there for almost 1.5 years, and when it became simply unbearable for me, and my husband’s business trip there ended, we went to Moscow. Later I returned to my place in Novosibirsk. Probably, because I broke away from the theater during these 1.5 years, I looked at it with different eyes. When I saw how they were slandering each other, gossiping... This insincere communication caught my eye when I looked at all this from the outside.
I played a lot. I have good memory, and I remembered the role the first time. When it was necessary to replace an actress, even in another theater, I had to do it. In Novosibirsk I worked at the Red Torch Theater, this is a kind of Siberian Moscow Art Theater. Since they couldn’t hire me on staff after my return in the middle of the season, they offered to work on a one-time payment basis and promised to hire me from the beginning of the season. Promising to think, I left the theater. I was walking around the city and met a friend of mine who used to work as a director in our theater. He was appointed chief director on local television. He invited me to work for them. In the evening we met and discussed everything. And the next day I went to see the television studio.
- What attracted you to working on television?
They took me to the control room and then I saw something cosmic: a lot of buttons and monitors. It was love at first sight. I carried this love throughout my life. They took me and promised to teach me everything. I was so captivated and fascinated by all this. At home, I drew buttons, a remote control, and mixers on a large Whatman paper and imagined how I switched and controlled the process. I only worked there for a year, but many people remember me there. In the winter of the following year, I went on a business trip to Moscow for City Day, where we were supposed to broadcast all day. We brought with us performances, a socio-political program, and all live. The artists came with us, the design and other programs too. Film crew I imagined it alone.
Most of all, I love live broadcasting, and working without assistants, I do everything myself. When I sit down at the remote control, I no longer see or hear anyone. I worked at the console all day without a break, from 2 pm to 1 am, running from control room to control room. We were supervised by the youth editorial office of Central Television, and its editor-in-chief Valentina Fedotova looked at all this as if it were some kind of circus, she looked at me as if enchanted. She was surprised that this whole process was managed by one person. And she decided to invite me to work with her. She invited me to work for them on my vacation, and I gladly agreed. I worked there for free for 1.5 years because I did not have a Moscow residence permit. I started in Moscow with youth programs, and I did everything that others refused - when the program was “burning out”, the deadline was short, the registration was not ready, etc. I took on everything. I had mass programs, I even helped prepare KVN. They had an “Away Competition”, and then fate brought me together with the Azerbaijani team. According to their idea, in the "Baku" restaurant in Moscow, the artists of "Zucchini - 13 Chairs" dressed in National costumes and they danced and sang to the soundtrack of Azerbaijani singers. Aroseva really surprised me - she came in and articulated with her speech apparatus in such a way that there was a feeling that it was really her singing.
This was my first meeting with Azerbaijan.
Then I started working for the Vremya program, its editor Yuri Letunov is a very interesting person. He spent a very long time trying to persuade me to join them. And I was interested in the youth team. And here is an unknown team. And after much persuasion, he fell silent. Somewhere he will see me, talk to me, ask about everything, but no longer touches on the topic of moving to the “Time” program. At this point, apparently, something feminine jumped up inside me: “So, I’m not needed?”
One day I was away from work all day, I had to transfer my child from one kindergarten to another. I came to work and was told that Letunov was urgently looking for me. I called him, he called me to his place. I came, and he didn’t let me go. That's how I switched to the "Time" program. And I never once regretted that I left the “youth team” for information, just as I never regretted that I left the theater. At first I thought it was uninteresting, but it turned out to be the opposite. I photographed all official visits to Moscow, congresses, military parades, and filmed the Olympics in Moscow in 1980. I knew each of the 46 cameras installed. I worked for more than a year at rehearsals and knew everything by heart. The foreigners who took the whole picture from us were very surprised. Now technical capabilities have increased, in 1980 this was not the case, we were not allowed a helicopter because the entire leadership of the Soviet Union was present.
After some time, I received the State Prize, and quite quickly became the chief director of the information editorial office. In addition, I began to constantly work with Leonid Brezhnev.
- Under your leadership, serious events were broadcast. Have there been any incidents?
There were no incidents. Probably because there were no such serious mistakes. And that's why I stayed in my place for so long. Editors-in-chief, chairmen, even heads of state changed, the country itself changed, despite the fact that each new secretary general, coming to the place, changed everyone, starting with the security. This was the way it was accepted. But this did not affect me. I recorded the abdication of Mikhail Gorbachev, worked with Boris Yeltsin, and managed to work with Vladimir Putin.
- What was difficult for you when working with top government officials?
There were no special complications when working with the country's top officials. There were, of course, but minor ones. Relations with everyone were very good. Despite the fact that in life I am a shy person, in my work I am brave and never lost my temper in front of anyone. For example, I asked Andropov why he doesn’t like videography, but prefers photography. He replied that society was overfed with filming with Brezhnev. Of course, it was more difficult to work with some, and easier to work with others.
- Due to your duty, you had to visit Azerbaijan more than once. What does Azerbaijan mean to you?
I came to Baku for the first time on September 3, 1978. At that time I took a vacation. I was often pulled while resting. When I urgently needed to go somewhere with Brezhnev, I quickly got ready and left. When leaving work, I was obliged to leave my coordinates, phone number, etc. I decided to take a vacation in September to take my son to first grade. On September 1, I was at my son’s holiday, and in the evening they called me and said that I had to fly with Brezhnev to Azerbaijan for three days.
And so, on September 3 in the morning we flew to Baku. We were met by Elshad Guliyev, then he was the deputy chairman of AzTV, he brought us to the Intourist hotel. I went to see the Heydar Aliyev Palace, which then bore the name of V. Lenin. We went to the Lenin Palace, where I saw that the cameras were not positioned the way I needed them, so I rearranged them. Then we went to the chairman of the KGB V.S. Krasilnikov, his deputy was Z.M. Yusifzade. I asked for the appropriate pass, a car and a person from their office who would help me. They fulfilled all my requests. Z. Yusifzadeh and I still keep in touch and have been friends for many years. After that, I returned to the hotel and in the evening the group and I went to a restaurant. There a man comes up to me and says that they are asking me to come to the phone. E. Guliyev tells me on the phone that I need to be downstairs to go somewhere. At the scheduled time we met him and went to the Lenin Palace. There were a lot of people there - Heydar Aliyev met with all the press that would cover the event. I was the only woman there, and I was wearing a white jacket. At exactly midnight, the entire leadership of the republic and the city, headed by Heydar Alievich, entered.
- And it was there that you personally met Heydar Aliyev.
Yes. Heydar Aliyev came up to me and said: “Kaleria, let’s get acquainted.” And then he asked me a question: “Why did you rearrange the cameras?” To be honest, I was simply dumbfounded. No person of this position has ever asked me such questions. I explained that this is due to the fact that L. Brezhnev will speak, and because of some features of his face, we do not film his full face. He agreed. And then he asked me to show me what each camera was filming. We looked at it together. Then he asked if I had time to see the city, and said that I should definitely do it, since the city is very beautiful. In general, he always spoke with such love about Azerbaijan and Baku. He always spoke with such an attitude when words are not even needed, and everything is clear from his facial expression and emotions.
Heydar Aliyev traveled with us along the route of the entire program of Brezhnev’s stay in Baku and carefully monitored how we arranged the cameras. This struck me about him. Heydar Aliyev agreed with our leadership that our group would remain in Baku until Brezhnev’s arrival. During my stay in Baku, I made stories about Baku factories, oil workers, agriculture, and made study trips to the regions of Azerbaijan.
In general, that vacation was the most interesting of my life. They created excellent conditions for me and were attentive to us. It was amazing. In general, I consider Baku my second homeland, because the countdown from September 1978 in my working life completely changed my life.
My access to people like Heydar Aliyev began precisely after my visit to Baku. Heydar Aliyev knew everyone on local television personally, he knew all the journalists of Azerbaijan. He simply could not do otherwise.
I didn’t meet Brezhnev personally, I just did my job and left. G. Aliyev introduced me to him. During our stay in Baku, during a gala dinner, Heydar Aliyev introduced me to Brezhnev, calling me “Miss Television,” and Leonid Ilyich then decided that I was the head of Azerbaijani television. And when Brezhnev later realized that I was from Moscow, and that “that same Kislova” was me, he was very surprised. He said that this is not how he imagined me.
By the way, you happened to personally know not only Heydar Alievich, but also his wife. Please tell us about this meeting.
I met Zarifa Aliyeva in Kazakhstan at the country dacha of Politburo member, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR Dinmukhamed Kunaev. She received me very kindly and warmly, from our first meeting she put me at ease. This was the first acquaintance that lasted a lifetime. We actually met with her many times, and she was for me an example of an intelligent, subtle and wise woman. A month before her death in Bolshoi Theater there was an evening dedicated to Women's Day, Heydar Alievich gave a big report. And all his performances, no matter where they were, were shown only by me. I came into the hall and monitored the situation. A man came up to me and asked me to go to Zarifa Azizovna. We were left alone with her, and this was our last meeting. I still perceive with great regret her untimely departure, which deprived us all of communication with such a sensitive and pleasant person. This certain softness, femininity, modesty, and friendliness that emanated from her attracted others to her. I filmed the entire process of her funeral.
The genuine grief on the faces of the people who came to say goodbye to her was not staged photography; everyone was extremely saddened.
Since 1985, Raisa Gorbacheva organized so-called bachelorette parties in the reception house on Lenin Mountains, where the wives of Politburo members and members of the CPSU gathered. The boundless charm, affection, kindness, and sociability inherent in Z. Aliyeva naturally attracted all the people present around her. And she always felt extremely awkward at these events, because everyone present gathered around her and talked to her, despite the fact that the hostess of these evenings was Raisa Gorbacheva. Everyone was drawn to Zarifa Aliyeva.
In general, I had many meetings with different people. But with Heydar Aliyev we began not just a business, but a purely human relationship. He invited me to Azerbaijan on vacation. And starting from 1982, I spent all my holidays in Zagulba, at dacha No. 2. I came here with my son, so my son grew up here. And when he came to Moscow from Baku, he even developed an accent, he came to school, and those around him noticed it.
In the winter of 1982, Heydar Aliyev was asked to talk about Azerbaijan at one of his meetings with leading architects. And he went up to the podium and spoke without a speech prepared in advance. It was such a “bomb” for our people, because no one saw the head of the republic speak for more than an hour without a piece of paper. He spoke about his republic in numbers, covering all areas. I filmed it all.
In 1982, L. Brezhnev died, everyone came to the funeral. And after the funeral, Heydar Aliyev was elected a member of the Politburo and first deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. I accompanied him on all his trips.
In this regard, I would like to note that Heydar Aliyev was one of those who first introduced active work with journalists into practice - at all events held with his participation, journalists had direct access to him and covered all his unplanned appearances to the people. During the period of perestroika and democracy, the primacy in the application of this practice was attributed to Gorbachev and Yeltsin; they allegedly organized unscheduled visits to clinics, shops, and travel on public transport. But during such “unplanned” visits, television workers miraculously turned out to be nearby. It turns out that every clinic or store had a camera installed in advance. As a professional, I can say that this is impossible. So all this smacked of populism, both on the part of Gorbachev and on the part of Yeltsin.
At the end of the 70s, the practice of unplanned access to the people was carried out in Azerbaijan by Heydar Aliyev. Subsequently, after 1982 in the USSR, I constantly took part in them. Even chronicle footage has been preserved where the guards put Heydar Alievich into the car with great difficulty.
He treated journalists with special care and attention. One day I had to correct him. Although he spoke excellent Russian, unlike many Russians. But sometimes it happened that he placed the emphasis incorrectly. So, while reading the text on the recording, he said “leisure” with the emphasis on the first syllable. I fixed it. And he even thanked me for correcting him. And he had a large section in his speech concerning youth, and this word appeared more than once. And when he spoke, he said everything absolutely correctly and never made a mistake.
Once I had the following story: my son was 14 years old and had an attack of appendicitis, he was taken to the Sklifosovsky Institute, where they put ice on his stomach, and when the pain subsided in the evening, they told him that he was faking it and sent him home. And on the second day, when I was filming another event in the Kremlin, his appendix burst. He was unconscious, his friends called an ambulance and he was taken to the hospital. When I arrived at the hospital, my son was already lying on the operating table; the operation lasted 5 hours. The doctor told me that one cannot live with such a diagnosis, but due to the young body, everything can end well. Then they said that the son should be in intensive care for several days, and it was also unknown when he would come to his senses.
In the evening we spoke with Sasha Ivanov, the head of Heydar Aliyev’s personal security (9th Directorate of the KGB of the USSR) at work, and in the conversation I told him about my trouble. The next day, Heydar Alievich already knew about this. If a person from his close circle could easily discuss personal issues with him like this, it means that this was started by Heydar Aliyev himself. He ordered that my son's state of health be reported to him at the reception several times a day. I still wonder how they found their son. After all, I didn’t tell anyone what hospital he was in, and besides, he and I have different last names. A year or two passes, I get sick. I have been lying with a temperature of 40 for several days in a row, the temperature does not drop. I was treated by doctors from the clinic. While talking to me on the phone on official issues, Heydar Aliyev asked why I have such a voice. Having learned about my condition, he sent Lev Kumachev, Heydar Aliyev’s personal doctor, to me. Kumachev cured me in three days. And I have the World Youth Festival coming up. When I went to work, everyone was happy because they were worried about what to do with the event in my absence.
Another case characterizing Heydar Alievich. One day they called me from the Administration of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and said that I had been allocated an apartment. And the apartment I lived in was very uncomfortable, located on a noisy and dusty street. And the new apartment was located near Ostankino, which was convenient for me. Then Kumachev told me in confidence that when he returned from me, Aliyev asked him how serious everything was. It was Kumachev who told Heydar Alievich the conditions in which I live.
So I simply idolized the man who accelerated my work, saved my child, helped me when I was sick. Never, of all the representatives of the leadership with whom I worked, did as much for me as Heydar Aliyev did. He was an extraordinary man, a statesman. When Gorbachev came to power, it was clear that he was a short-sighted politician. Gorbachev was driven by a feeling of envy of Aliyev. There was even an impression that he was afraid of Heydar Aliyev. Gorbachev understood that Aliyev was much stronger than him.
SHORT:
I couldn’t find anything about working on the Kislova TV channel anywhere. Just all sorts of excerpts from interviews, eulogies and interesting details from her work. Since Utilova loves to be a bitch, I think it would be okay to tell her many facts from Kislova’s life. I cut it down and left all the interesting stuff.
Kaleria Venediktovna Kislova was born on April 20, 1926. In 1974, at the invitation of the Editor-in-Chief of Ch. ed. information from Yu.A. Letunova went to work at the main information editorial office (the “Time” program)
Director of workers' demonstrations and parades on Red Square, "Blue Lights", New Year's addresses of the Presidents of the USSR, chief director - head of the directors' department of the Directorate of Information Programs of ORT OJSC.
Mikhail Gorbachev felt confident in front of a television camera only if she was sitting under the lens.
And Leonid Brezhnev, with the light hand of Heydar Aliyev, called her “Miss Television” and broke into a smile when they met.
Kaleria Kislova is a legend for everyone involved in television. For almost 30 years he has been the main director of the country's main program. The country saw all the parades and demonstrations, party congresses and trips of top officials through her eyes. TV presenter Tatyana Mitkova came to TV as her assistant.
She broadcast the funeral of the General Secretary, after which rumors spread across the country that the coffin was allegedly dropped into the grave with a roar.
She filmed Gorbachev's abdication from power. And the very next day I recorded Yeltsin. She will be the first to read the famous words “I’m leaving” on the teleprompter screen. And the first Russian president will look at her for the last time with absolute trust.
But the main work of her life is the “Olympics-80”. And the famous shots of the 20th century - a bear flying away.
At exactly 21 o’clock for everyone who makes the “Time” program, its signature command is like Gagarin’s “Let’s go!” - “The program has started!”
Strictly according to the charter, the duties of the chief director:
1. The main task of the chief director is the unconditional and high-quality implementation of these instructions, as well as the requirements of the director related to labor functions,
2. Organizes and directs the creative and production process of creating television programs at a high artistic level,
3. Defines the creative concept of the activity; participates in the development of long-term and current thematic and production and financial plans of the department and television and radio company, develops project estimates, promotion, ensures the implementation of approved plans,
4. Improves forms of feedback with television viewers, with the creative community,
5. Summarizes and introduces into everyday practice advanced domestic and foreign experience in creating television programs, improving the types and forms of broadcasting, organizing production, labor and managing creative teams, identifying production reserves,
6. Manages the filming (creative) teams, ensures that the creators of the programs correctly interpret the author’s intention, controls the complex of works related to the production of television programs, coordinates the work of the artistic and production staff,
7. Develops script plans for programs, as well as promo videos, according to the application for the production of promos,
8. Monitors the readiness of filming (creative) crews for recording and editing; participates in receiving transmissions,
9. Controls the use of technical means, accounting for the workload of artistic and production personnel,
10. If necessary, directly prepares responsible transfers,
11. Makes proposals on tariffs, hiring, dismissal and encouragement of distinguished employees, as well as imposition disciplinary sanctions against violators of labor and production discipline, compiles monthly fee statements.
- Drying organic liquids Wine spirit and its relatives
- Laboratory work: Production of methane and experiments with it Calcium carbide was used to dehydrate ethanol
- Model of error in the form of a random elementary function Mathematical model of measurement results of measurement error
- Questions for subject and object Basic geometric shapes