"My Only Love". The Main Secret of a Great Actress

It used to be believed that Faina Ranevskaya wasn’t just “an old maid,” but almost a man-hater—someone who never fell in love and never married. They even attributed authorship of a widely known quip: “A good thing won’t be called marriage.”

But it turns out that in Ranevskaya’s fate there was one—and only one—great love: love as obsession, love as “a sunstroke,” love for a lifetime.

To whom did the brilliant actress give her heart? Who could she not forget until the end of her days? To whom was she faithful—“in joy and in sorrow”? And why did she keep this secret for almost half a century?

And when she finally decided to tell—through her familiar irony, her “signature” sharp remarks and aphorisms, such genuine pain broke through; such grief, such “Lady Yaroslavna’s lament”—that a lump formed in the throat...

For many years this confession was considered lost—burned by Ranevskaya herself. But manuscripts don’t burn!