Oleg Protopopov - biography, information, personal life. Figure skaters Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov: a story of great love and resonant escape from the USSR Oleg Protopopov now

Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov: before they met

The future figure skater was born in the city of Ulyanovsk, in 1935, on November 22, in an ordinary family that had no direct relationship to sports. A few years after the birth of their daughter, the family moved to the capital, where little Luda went to school. As a child, she was involved in several sports at once, including tennis, gymnastics, and speed skating.

When Belousova was a teenager, she watched the Austrian film "Spring on Ice", and literally "got sick" with figure skating. The girl came to this sport quite late - at the age of 16, but, nevertheless, she quickly managed to achieve tangible results. Just at that time, the first large artificial ice rink in the entire Soviet Union was opened in Moscow.

Lyudmila started training in a children's group, but after only a couple of years she became a "public instructor" and she herself taught beginner skaters at the skating rink in Dzerzhinsky Park. By that time, the girl was already training in the senior group and paired with a figure skater named Kirill Gulyaev. However, Luda's partner soon announced that he had decided to end his sports career. After that, the girl even wanted to move into the category of single skating, and for some time she performed on her own. But this period did not last long, exactly until the moment the girl met the young Oleg Protopopov.

On September 29, just short of her eighty-two birthday, Lyudmila Evgenievna Belousova died. Even, perhaps, some thirty or forty years ago, with this news, many in the then still common USSR would immediately remember who Lyudmila Belousova was. Now only experts and devoted fans of figure skating who know its history remember this, and those who watched figure skating on TV in the sixties and seventies of the last century, along with football and hockey. Soviet figure skating and Soviet hockey thundered all over the world. And football. Well, football, it's always football. And, to be honest, the Soviet football championship, with all its flaws and failures, was in every possible way stronger than the current championships of the post-Soviet countries. With all due respect, as they say. But in order to immediately make it clear who passed away on September 29, it is better to write this: the famous Soviet figure skater, four-time European champion, four-time world champion, two-time Olympic champion in figure skating Lyudmila Belousova died. She is also the Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. But she was stripped of this title in 1979.

Lyudmila Belousova was born in Ulyanovsk on November 22, 1935. She lived through the pre-war and war years in this city. And almost immediately after the war, in 1946, the family ended up in Moscow. As a child, like most Soviet children of those times, Lyudmila was fond of a variety of sports. Yes, remember at least the biography of Anatoly Tarasov, who combined football and hockey at the highest level in his life. So is little Lyudmila - speed skating, tennis, gymnastics. There was no thought about figure skating. They say that she became a figure skater due to the coincidence of two reasons. Firstly, the growing girl went to the Austrian film "Spring on Ice", where she was fascinated by what she saw, and secondly, an artificial ice rink was built in Moscow - the first in the Soviet Union. It was in 1951. And then Belousova went in for figure skating. That is, at the age of sixteen. That even by the standards of that time, let's face it, a bit late.

Fateful meeting

At first, Belousova was going to skate in singles. But in 1954, at a seminar, she met Oleg Protopopov. What kind of spark flashed between them is not known for certain. But it clearly flickered. At first, they just decided to try to ride together. We tried. And it immediately seemed to them that they suit each other. As the well-known cartoon bear cub would say, “this is w-w-w for a reason!” And really for a reason. Natural love happened. And to the credit of this couple, I must say that they carried it until the death of Lyudmila. But this is jumping ahead. And then Belousova transferred from the Moscow Institute of Railway Engineers to a similar Leningrad Institute. Because Oleg served in the Baltic Fleet. And they rode together.

Technique failed

Apparently, the late start in figure skating affected Lyudmila's technical equipment. Yes, and Oleg, according to experts, which they expressed in the media, at that time probably did not have a very rich technical arsenal. Therefore, sports heights were initially given to them with great difficulty. Yes, already by 1957 they won the silver of the championship of the Soviet Union, became masters of sports. But at the 1958 European Championships, the athletes made a number of mistakes in simple technical elements and could not perform adequately. The following year, also at the European Championship, they generally fell. Perhaps banal inexperience also affected. Failures haunted them until the early sixties. But they worked hard and found their way.

Let's hit "physics" with lyrics!

Perhaps Belousova and Protopopov did not have the technical equipment that was required at the highest level, perhaps something was not given to them due to some purely, excuse me, physical culture reasons, but they found a zest that for a long time gave direction all pair skating. They brought up the technology. They showed how to write what is called a todes on the inner edge, or "cosmic spiral". They had great support. And they began to skate very clearly, very synchronously, feeling each other very much. And most importantly - the lyrics. Artistry. And it has borne fruit. In 1962, the couple won the championship of the Soviet Union. Incidentally, this was their eighth attempt. Then they took silver at the European and World Championships. And in 1964 their finest hour came, they won the Olympics!

Lovers on skates

Since that moment, they have consistently won the European and World Championships. From 1965 to 1968 inclusive, the top steps of the pedestals were "reserved" for them. They brought to perfection the very artistry that they worked so hard for. It was just very beautiful! Not a sport, but a real art. Perhaps this is Oleg's great merit. He understood the art of dancing since childhood. His mother was a ballerina. He grew up with classical music. And he wanted to devote himself to her. But they say that he was not accepted into a music school, not showing perfect pitch. Maybe it's just fiction.

But be that as it may, Belousova and Protopopov danced to excellent classical music of the best samples. They won the 1968 Olympics to the music of Beethoven and Rachmaninoff.

End of sports career

Yes, 1968 was the last year of their undisputed leadership. The very next year they became only third in the world championship. Then they began to lose allied championships one after another and stopped getting into the national team. After the 1972 championship, where they were in the top three, but only because the strongest couples did not compete, Lyudmila and Oleg left the sport.

pure art

Like many outstanding (and simply strong) skaters, Belousova and Protopopov, having finished their sports career, did not go into oblivion. They went to the Leningrad ballet on ice. And everything was fine. This is where really pure creativity is already, not constrained by the rigid framework of sports requirements. However, then came what is called a bolt from the blue. The ballet went on tour to Switzerland. And there, on September 24, 1979, Belousova and Protopopov announced that they refused to return to the Soviet Union and asked for political asylum. They were granted political asylum. They signed a contract with the American Ballet on Ice and, according to Protopopov, a month later, "they were already touring with might and main." After that, they were deprived of the titles of Honored Masters of Sports of the USSR, their names ceased to appear in the reference literature on the achievements of Soviet sports. They were declared traitors. By the way, they received Swiss citizenship only in 1994.

No politics

Interestingly, the athletes themselves have always noted that, despite the request for political asylum, they fled not for political reasons at all. Rather, Oleg Protopopov spoke more and more in various interviews. According to him, they were patriots and were ready to give everything for the sake of their country, so they sometimes performed despite their illnesses. The athlete cites the example of the Olympics in Grenoble, where he started bleeding due to kidney stones. And he also says that the reasons for their act were of a creative nature: “Something did not suit us all the time in Russia: sometimes we were too athletic, sometimes too theatrical, then vice versa.”

Is it just time gone?

There is clear resentment in these words. Someone remembers their losses at the allied championships, their failure to get into the national team and says that the athletes were moved to please new couples. This point of view has the right to life. But has the right to life and another point of view. The fact is that pair skating by the time they descended from the heights began to change rapidly. It became more and more athletic, speedy, acrobatic or something. If we remember who came to replace them and who, after them, made up the international glory of Soviet pair skating, a lot will become clear to us.

After all, it was ... Irina Rodnina! Perhaps their time has just passed.

Incomprehensible escape

And yet, why did the couple leave the Union in such a scandalous way? After all, talk about creativity can hardly be taken into account. Leningrad ballet on ice - why not creativity ?! Someone is looking for a reason in money. Of course, in our ballet on ice they did not pay the same as in the American one. But, perhaps, those who say that the main reason is not money, but ... a banal insult are also right. Athletes believed too much in themselves and did not believe that their time in sports was over.

Not without reason, after all, they continued to ride and ride, and ride at a very respectable age. Some still consider them traitors. Someone remembers how much they did for Soviet sports, for the country and ... does not hold any grudges. Someone generally says that in the USSR even great athletes turned out to be of no use to anyone after the end of their careers, and therefore it is not surprising that Protopopov and Belousova left. Although this does not seem to be their case. They could well be realized in ballet on ice.

Love till death

The only thing that can be said is that they definitely did not betray either each other or their art. How many stories do we know of different star couples from the field of sports and art, whose love did not stand the test of time and, in the end, crumbled like a sand castle. But the story of Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov is truly a love story.

The popularity of figure skating in our country has been and remains phenomenally huge. Fantastic fame came to our skaters in the early 60s of the last century, when the stars of two outstanding representatives of Soviet pair skating rose on world skating rinks: Oleg Protopopov and Lyudmila Belousova. And then began the triumphal march across the planet of our star couples: Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev, Lyudmila Pakhomova and Alexander Gorshkov, Irina Moiseeva and Andrey Minenkov. When these couples took to the ice, millions of people around the world clung to their TVs in anticipation of a unique spectacle. Their expectations were always justified, as soon as the first bars of melodies began to sound. The performances of our skaters to the perky “Kalinka” or the graceful “Kumparsita” made the audience roar with delight, and the judges gave the highest marks. About how this happened, who forged the glory of national figure skating in the "golden" 60s - 80s of the twentieth century, is described in this book.

© Razzakov F., 2014

© Design. Eksmo Publishing LLC, 2014

Runaway Skaters

Lyudmila Belousova: Oleg Protopopov

Twice champions of the Winter Olympic Games (1964, Innsbruck; 1968, Grenoble)

The age difference between the famous skaters was small - only three years and four months: Oleg Protopopov was born on July 16, 1932, Lyudmila Belousova - on November 25, 1935.

Protopopov was born in Leningrad into an acting family - his mother, Agnia Vladimirovna Grott, was a ballerina. But Oleg did not remember his father - he left the family immediately after his birth. Therefore, at first it was difficult for the family. According to the future skater, “my mother and I lived very poorly. I was always hungry." And when Oleg was not even six, the war began.

The Protopopovs spent the entire war in Leningrad, which was surrounded by the Nazis with a blockade ring. Agnia Vladimirovna had to change her ballet dress for a nurse's dressing gown in a military hospital. The son was constantly with her, seeing the horrors of the war with his own eyes.

After the war, the mother of the future skater returned to the stage and soon got married. True, she chose a man not from the acting world as her husband. It was the poet Dmitry Censor (b. 1877). His first book of poetry was published in 1907 and before the revolution he was a well-known poet. Critic K. Finkelstein wrote:

"Dm. The censor became one of the heroes of Korney Chukovsky's parody novel "The Current Eugene Onegin" ("And the Censor - the impudent poet - stealthily reaches for the buffet"), with whom he collaborated in the newspaper "Odessa News" in the early 1900s, as well as a participant in the story M Zoshchenko "A case in the province", which tells how, after the revolution, "one autumn, the imaginist poet Nikolai Ivanov, the pianist Marusya Grekova, myself and the lyric poet Dmitry Censor left St. Petersburg in search of lighter bread." I. S. Eventov recalled that Dm. The censor was one of those who carried the coffin with the body of A. Blok on his shoulders in 1921.”

The Censor was not lost even under Soviet rule. He was periodically published in large circulation, and in 1940 a book of his selected poems was published. And just before the war, he became a party organizer - secretary of the party organization of the Leningrad Union of Writers. True, at the time of his acquaintance with Protopopov's mother, he was already over sixty, but he quickly settled down in the new family. Although the happiness was short-lived - in December 1947, the Censor died, a week after his 70th birthday. However, shortly before his death, he managed to give his stepson skates, which in the end will determine the fate of the boy in the future.

Meanwhile, at first Protopopov dreamed of becoming a pianist, because he loved classical music. This love was instilled in him by his mother, who often took him on tour with her, and the boy spent all his free time with the dancers of the ballet orchestra. It was they who taught him to play the piano and the drum. His stepfather, who had an excellent musical taste, also contributed to this introduction to music. However, Protopopov was not destined to become a pianist. When he decided to take part in a music competition held at the Leningrad House of Pioneers, the jury almost unanimously announced to him that he did not have a perfect ear for music. And this despite the fact that Protopopov played Beethoven's works by ear. That's when the hockey skates given to the boy by his stepfather came in handy.

In December 1947 (a few days before the death of his stepfather), Oleg came to the figure skating section, since at that time it was mainly based on classical music. The newcomer was watched by coach Nina Vasilievna Lepninskaya, who was a pupil of the legendary Russian figure skater, Olympic champion Nikolai Panin-Kolomenkin. The beginner did not impress the coach with anything special, but she, having learned that he loves to skate, clinging to a passing car with a hook, decided to take him to the section in order to ward off a possible disaster - death under the wheels of a car. Protopopov was given only one condition: to change hockey blades to curly ones. But where to find them? As a result, blades were found two sizes smaller. But Oleg screwed them to his boots and began to ride so that the coach and the rest of the pupils just gasped.

Under the leadership of Lepninskaya, our hero studied for three years and became a first-class student. In 1951, he was preparing to participate in his first all-Union competitions. But the skater's career had to be interrupted for a while: in 1951 he was drafted into the army.

By the will of fate, it fell to serve Protopopov next to the house - a sailor in the Baltic Fleet. Therefore, in the winter, he spent all his leave days at his favorite ice rink. Even then, the idea was finally formed in him to become a figure skater, but not a single skater - to perform with someone in a pair. His idols in those years were a couple Igor Moskvin - Maya Belenkaya, so he was guided by them. And in 1953 (while still serving in the Navy), he found a partner for himself - Margarita Bogoyavlenskaya. In the spring of 1954 they became bronze medalists of the USSR championship. Later O. Protopopov recalled:

“If there were 15 couples, we would have taken the last place. Our technique was so weak. But, fortunately, there were only three couples at the championship, and by the will of fate we became winners. When I showed a diploma for the third place in my military unit, then all the authorities immediately imbued with respect for my training ... "

This success inspired young skaters, and they were ready to conquer new sports peaks. However, fate wanted Protopopov to go to these heights with another figure skater - Lyudmila Belousova. Who is she and how did she appear on his life path?

Belousova was born in Ulyanovsk in the family of a career military man: her father, Evgeny Georgievich, was a tanker. He went through the entire war and returned home with the rank of lieutenant colonel. And a year later he moved his family (wife and two daughters - Lyuda and Paradise) to Moscow. Here the girls were assigned to a new school, and devoted all their free time to ballroom dancing. But this was not enough for Lyudmila, so she also played tennis and skated on hockey skates. Their mother, Natalya Andreevna, being a housewife, supported her daughters' hobbies in every possible way, hoping that sooner or later it would come out of it.

Belousova became interested in figure skating thanks to the cinema. In those years, many trophy films were shown in the USSR, one of which, the Austrian Spring on Ice, made a strong impression on her. Struck on the spot by the virtuoso skating of the famous Sonya Henny, Belousova firmly decided to follow in her footsteps - to become a figure skater. And almost immediately after visiting this film, I went to enroll in the children's figure skating section at an artificial skating rink, which appeared in Moscow earlier than others in the country - in 1951.

However, she was not taken to the children's section because of her great age - she was 16 years old. But Lyudmila did not despair and directed her steps to the adult section. Fortunately for her, the coach there was Larisa Yakovlevna Novozhilova, a former champion of the country in sports dancing, who saw an undoubted talent in the applicant. And accepted her into the section. And three years later, Belousova was already a “public instructor” of young figure skaters in the Dzerzhinsky Park, and also continued to study in the adult group. Her partner at that time was Kirill Gulyaev, but he soon announced that he was ending the sport, and Belousova, not finding a worthy partner for herself, decided to perform in singles. It was at this time that fate brought her to Protopopov.

In 1954, a coaching seminar was held in Moscow, to which Protopopov came from Leningrad. The vast majority of those who arrived were already experienced and wise over the years, and only two of the youth were Protopopov and Belousova. Naturally, they met and one day they went to the skating rink together. And they rode separately from each other. But due to the fact that the rink was small and they constantly bumped into each other, they got the idea to skate together. And, apparently, they did it so well that one of the spectators, who came to the rink with his child, expressed his admiration for them. As a result, that evening they left the rink together and agreed not to lose sight of each other - to correspond.

Meanwhile, Protopopov returned to Leningrad, and Belousova remained in Moscow, where she began to prepare for admission to the institute. Her plans were to conquer the Moscow Power Engineering Institute, but this dream did not come true: she passed almost all the exams with excellent marks, but managed to get a triple in mathematics. And the competition failed. Then she gave the documents to the Institute of Transport Engineers, where she was accepted. However, in the fall, having started studying, Belousova decided to transfer to Leningrad. Why? Protopopov called her there, who offered her not only his hand and heart, but also a partnership on ice. They ended up skating together in December 1954. Moreover, they came up with their first program themselves, learning music to the records that they played on the Ural radiogram (they did not have their own tape recorder then). However, their then coach was very skeptical about the prospects of this duet. It seemed to him that these people were incompatible not only in life, but also on the ice: the soft and balanced Belousova and the restless Protopopov, constantly charged with movement. But the coach made a mistake, and a year later the Belousov-Protopopov duo shared third or fourth place in the Union Championship with Nina and Stanislav Zhuk. True, the coach did not admit his mistake - he considered the bronze medals of his pupils an accident. Because of this, the relationship between the coach and the athletes began to deteriorate. Eventually they separated.

For some time, Belousova and Protopopov worked with a new coach. But this partnership quickly ended. In the end, Protopopov offered his partner to train on her own, without coaches. And she agreed, because she was used to trusting her lover almost unconditionally.

In 1957, they became silver medalists of the USSR championship and masters of sports. And a year later they made their debut on the international arena - they performed at the World Championships in Paris (1958). The skating rink where the tournament was held was located in the old Sports Palace, which used to be a cycle track. By seven in the evening, the time when the competition began, few people came, but after an hour the hall was usually overcrowded. So it was on the day when Belousova - Protopopov performed. It was difficult to ride - the hall was smoky, like in a pub. Maybe that's why, in the midst of the performance, Belousova fell, trying to do the splits. Severe pain pierced her thigh, and the skater thought she had broken a bone (an x-ray would not confirm this diagnosis later). In the first moments, Lyudmila thought that she would not be able to continue the performance. But then all the same she gathered herself, jumped to her feet and slid again on the ice. Tears streamed down her face, but she continued to skate, overcoming severe pain in her thigh. However, due to a small hitch caused by the fall, the music went a little ahead, so the skaters did not get in time. In short, the performance was thwarted. At that championship, Belousova - Protopopov took 13th place out of 15 existing ones. Other pairs shone at the world championship then: Barbara Wagner - Robert Pole (Canada), Vera Suhankova - Zdenek Dolezhal (Czechoslovakia).

As for the Soviet skaters-hotbeds, they were never among the top three winners then. And the heroes of our story will have to break this tradition. But it didn't happen right away. In the meantime, there was another unsuccessful performance - at the European Championships in Davos (Switzerland). At this tournament, the “golden five-year period” of the couple from Germany Marika Kilius - Hans Jürgen Bäumler began (they will win the “gold” in 1959-1964, pushing Sukhankova - Dolezhala, who had taken gold medals for two years before that).

In the meantime, at the beginning of 1960, Belousova - Protopopov went to the Winter Olympic Games in Squaw Valley (USA) in the firm belief that they would finally be able to win there. They prepared a new program to the famous "Dreams of Love" by their beloved Franz Liszt. But dreams turned out to be just dreams - our couple got only ... 9th place. A series of failures lasted until 1963.

In 1962, at the next World Championship, Belousova - Protopopov took silver medals for the first time, losing the laurels of the winners to the Czechoslovak couple Maria Jelinek - Otto Jelinek. A year later, they went to the World Cup, which was held in the fashionable Italian resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo. Many wealthy tourists from Germany came there to attend the triumph of their skaters - the couple Marika Kilius - Hans Bäumler. As we remember, they have been since 1959 they became European champions three times, but the world crown was not given to them in any way.They hoped to break this tradition in 1963. As for the Soviet couples (in addition to Belousova - Protopopov, Tatyana Zhuk and Alexander Gavrilov claimed the medals), no one took them into account. In addition, a few months ago (in the autumn of 1962) there was a Caribbean crisis, when the world was on the brink of a nuclear war due to a confrontation between the USSR and the US All Western propaganda deliberately demonized the Soviet Union, presenting it as some kind of fiend.

L. Belousova recalls: “We felt that these were very special tourists, as soon as we went out onto the ice. A couple from Germany were third, we were tenth. They had mistakes, and quite a few, but the number of points they received said that they were guaranteed the first place. Perhaps the fact that we were wearing suits made of red matter played a special role. Under fire from the Jupiters, they sparkled like freshly shed blood. The beginning of the music was completely inaudible, although the radio operator Giovanni turned on the amplifier at full power. Standing upstairs, he made signs to Oleg, full of confusion and despair. Part of the audience, wanting to disrupt the performance of our couple, roared some kind of marching song with all their might, hooted. Of course, in addition to the "tourists", there were also benevolent people in the hall. But they could not drown out dozens of loud throats, shouting with hatred: “You are communists!” They were waiting for us to leave. But they were wrong.

“We will perform,” Oleg said and squeezed my hand tightly. I nodded: we will. By some miracle, in this roar, we heard a signal - the beginning. In the first minutes after our entry onto the ice, there was a dead, alienated silence. Then at first timidly, then louder and louder applause began to be heard.

We rode with clenched teeth. Out of spite. Let everyone see. Anger extinguished excitement, we were almost calm. And the hall realized that you couldn’t bring down these two, you couldn’t take them with your bare hands. As we were leaving, several bouquets of flowers were stretched out towards us. These were signs of sincere admiration. The tourists were silent. Probably, they themselves were amazed at the stubbornness of the "Reds" ... "

At that championship, the pair Belousov - Protopopov took second place, Zhuk - Gavrilov - third. And the same figure skaters from Germany, Marika Kilius and Hans Jürgen Bäumler, became the champions. By this time they were already five-time winners of European championships, winners of the Olympic Games in Squaw Valley (1960). In Cortina d'Ampezzo they skated well, but nothing more. However, due to the intervention of big politics, the judges did not give the legal “gold” to the Soviet couple and awarded it to the Germans. Moreover, the events around the Berlin crisis of 1961 were still fresh in the memory of many.

After the world championship in 1963, Belousova - Protopopov decided to concentrate all their efforts on preparing for the Winter Olympics-64. By mutual desire, they decided to abandon symphojazz and perform only to classical music, since only it was able to allow them to express everything that they experienced during the performance of the program. Classical music has entered their lives so tightly that they have not parted with it either at home or on vacation - for example, in the dining room or on the beach. From that moment on, the role of Belousova increased, whose femininity and innate plasticity gave their skating a refinement never seen before. The experts wrote:

“To create new images, a person needs some kind of push. Most often, the impetus for a choreographer is music, less often a book. The figure skater's thoughts on the future program are somewhat similar to the work of the choreographer's thoughts. Lyudmila and Oleg listened to music, watched films they shot at the World Championships, read books. With special interest they studied the book Against the Current by the outstanding Russian choreographer Fokine. In it, their attention was also attracted by the following lines: “The possibilities of creating an original are truly endless. They are as limitless as the experience of life itself, but only when the dancer has a strong technical foundation.”

The interrelation of perfected technique and new plastic images was undeniable. The skaters wanted to convey movement on the ice without the slightest pressure, without the slightest hint of haste, with full amplitude. And they create, one by one, original elements based on a perfectly clean soft glide. In terms of their style, these combinations - "magnetic needle", rotation of the "coin", tracing the partner behind the partner's back - continued the direction that was opened by the gentle and openwork dance "Dreams of Love". And at the same time, the role of the partner was clearly distinguished in the new elements ... "

At the Olympics-64 in Innsbruck (Austria), the entire world press prophesied the success of the West German couple Kilius - Bäumler. They themselves were also confident in their victory, and even long before the competition they participated in a special photo shoot, where they were filmed as future Olympic champions. These pictures at the Olympics were sold to the audience.

So the lot was on the side of the Germans - they started later than Belousova and Protopopov, who were ninth in a row, after the duets of Canada and the USA. However, the way they performed captivated the audience. They danced to the music of Franz Liszt and Sergei Rachmaninov (it was from them that the fashion for the classics in world figure skating would begin), and literally every sound of their music found an inspirational response in the movements of the skaters. This went on for exactly five minutes - that's how long their number lasted. And then there were several minutes of deafening applause with which the audience responded to this performance. However, not all judges were subdued: the majority gave them the highest score (6.0), but there were those who showed 5.9. But the latter remained in the minority, so the "gold" of the tournament went to a pair of Belousov - Protopopov. From that moment, the triumphal procession of Soviet figure skating on the world stage began. Note that a little earlier than this - with the world championship in 1963 - the "golden era" of Soviet hockey began. In short, world ice has become Soviet.

At the World Championship-64 in Budapest (Hungary), Belousova - Protopopov won the "silver", and the "bronze" went again to the Soviet figure skaters: Tatyana Zhuk and Alexander Gavrilov. However, at European tournaments, ours still could not enter the top three. But in 1965 a turning point came. Belousova - Protopopov won gold medals at both the World Championship and the European Championship. It was the first Soviet "gold" in pair skating. By the way, that 1964 World Championship was first shown on Soviet TV, and two years later, regular broadcasts of world figure skating championships began in the USSR.

In those years, Belousova and Protopopov were at the pinnacle of success - they were admired not only in their homeland, in the USSR (thousands of boys and girls went into figure skating under their influence), but also abroad. So, after the “gold” at the World Championships in Colorado Springs (USA) in 1965, they were offered to tour the USA and Canada. During this trip, there was a curiosity - the athletes lost their suitcase. Here is how they themselves remember it:

L. Belousova: “At the Montreal airport, we went to get our luggage, but one of our two suitcases was missing. True, the skates were with us. Then there were no such strict prohibitions as now, so we took them to the salon. In the missing suitcase were miniature gold skates with diamonds, awarded for winning the world championship, championship medals and - most importantly - costumes! They searched for luggage, nothing. And in the evening, a performance. What to do? The organizers fussed, got me a red dress of a twelve-year-old girl - short and with a waist under the armpits.

O. Protopopov: “And the suit was lent to me by the German single skater Sepp Schonmetzler. Good guy! He is now publishing a sports magazine in Germany ... In a word, Sepp came to the rescue, but he is shorter than me, the hairpins on his trousers did not reach the ankles, the sleeves on the jacket did not cover the wrists - laughter and sin!

L. Belousova: “In this form, they skated“ Dreams of Love ”. I am in a schoolgirl dress, Oleg is in a "shot" suit from someone else's shoulder. And then the suitcase was never found - and they flew away with nothing to Europe!

O. Protopopov: “In Germany, we were offered to sew new costumes. We rejoiced. Naively, they did not understand that we were doing advertising for the company. The Germans would then trumpet everywhere, they say, we are dressing champions from the Soviet Union ... In principle, we could refuse and not participate in demonstration performances, all the more there was a reason. But the Sports Committee of the USSR strictly followed everything, did not allow us to shirk, which is generally understandable: for each of our appearances on the ice, the organizers of the show laid out colossal money for those times - two and a half thousand dollars! But we were only paid fifty Swiss francs. No, I'm lying, twenty-five! Mere pennies...

Fortunately, the suitcase was still found, it was brought to our hotel. When I saw him, my first thought was: is the medal still in place? He opened the locks - they lie. It immediately melted into my heart…”

L. Belousova: “Tell me why the suitcase in Montreal went missing? Emigrants from Ukraine worked as loaders at the local airport. They saw that Russian names were written on the tag and the country of the USSR was indicated, and they immediately put the luggage aside.”

O. Protopopov: “They knew whose suitcase, they expected to disrupt the performance. Anti-Soviet sentiments in the Ukrainian diaspora were strong…”

The winning trend continued with our heroes over the next three years (1966-1968). Although these victories were sometimes difficult for them. For example, at the World Championships in Davos (Switzerland) in 1966, it was very difficult for them, especially Belousova. Just three minutes before the start of the performance, she suddenly felt ill, nausea rose up her throat. Protopopov suggested refusing to perform, but the partner firmly said: "No." And she went out on the ice, pale as chalk. She skated with a stone face, but as light and airy as before. And the judges gave them top marks.

The second couple in the USSR in those years were Tamara Moskvina and Alexei Mishin (pupils of Igor Moskvin), but they were well aware that they still could not seriously compete with Belousova and Protopov. Here is how A. Mishin himself says about it:

“Classics provides the skater with unlimited possibilities. But in our time with Moskvina, it was absolutely pointless to compete with Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov in classical skating, the beauty of lines, the refinement of movements, poses. This niche was firmly occupied by them. Igor Moskvin guessed to suggest a topic in which we would look most impressive (to the song performed by E. Khil “Tiryam-Tiryam.” - F. R.). That program fully corresponded to our physical data and was absolutely unlike anyone else. And it was perceived, which is important, as a certain avant-garde. This number and now, you see, would have sounded normal ... "

The "golden" time of this couple on the world stage lasted until 1968. Then came the era of Irina Rodnina: first, in a pair with Alexei Ulanov (1969–1972), then with Alexander Zaitsev. Note that the coach of the Rodnina-Ulanov pair was Stanislav Zhuk, who was the best in the 50s (paired with his wife Nina), but then began to suffer defeat after defeat from the Belousov-Protopopov pair. But in the end he managed to take revenge from them, but already as a coach.

In 1968, at the Winter Olympics in Grenoble (France), the pair Belousov - Protopopov won their last "gold". And again, without coaching help - on my own. O. Protopopov recalls:

“When we first became Olympic champions, a representative of the USSR Sports Committee (I don’t remember my last name) pointedly said: “Why do you compete without a coach? Not good. It doesn't suit the Soviet champions." But I replied: thank you, no need, now we can handle it ourselves. By the way, after the Olympics, there were a dime a dozen wishing to become our coaches! Everyone wanted to cling to success. (We note that at one time the choreographer Galina Koenig worked with them, who helped them stage many things, but this was not advertised then. - F.R.) And Valentin Piseev, before our second Olympics, lashed out with reproaches. We then left the training camp - we decided to relax on the Black Sea for ten days. Upon learning of this, Piseev began to scold: they say, how is it that you had to skate 104 hours in preparation for the Olympics, but it turned out much less ?! But we knew better when to take a break and when to work hard. And again they became the first. Piseev is a worthless man, he did a lot of nasty things to us, kicked us out of the sport. Together with Anna Sinilkina, director of the Luzhnikov Palace of Sports, he brainwashed us in the Central Committee of the CPSU, saying that Lyudmila and I skate too theatrically, that our style is outdated ... "

By the way, not only Piseev, but also many other figure skating experts believed that the skating of Belousova and Protopopov was outdated. This sport did not stand still - it became more and more dynamic, sharp. And the “ballet” that the heroes of our story demonstrated on the ice did not fit into the world wave that swept figure skating in the early 70s. By the way, then not only figure skating changed, but also hockey - it also became more reactive and tough (games against Canadian professionals in the fall of 1972 would give an impetus to this). As a result, already in the late 60s, Belousov and Protopopov began to actively push the younger generation. In 1969, at the European Championships, they took 2nd place, losing the first step of the podium to Rodnina - Ulanov. They never entered the top three again, although they tried their best.

The same situation developed at the All-Union competitions, where our heroes were "running out" of the youth. However, they themselves believe that they were no weaker than the young ones, but the judges wrote them off in every possible way, deliberately underestimating their marks. As, for example, during the USSR championship in January 1970 in Kyiv.

By the end of the tournament (January 14), the absolute favorites of the tournament were Belousova - Protopopov. Their main rivals Rodnina - Ulanov, having broken support in the mandatory program, lost to them 12.8 points, taking only 8th place. And suddenly, after an arbitrary composition, everything changed - yesterday's outsiders came forward. Moreover, this leap forward was regarded by many fans as clearly unfair. Why? The fact is that the judges, evaluating the performance of Belousova - Protopopov, clearly deliberately underestimated their marks for artistry. As a result, they slipped from first place to 4th (2nd place was taken by Lyudmila Smirnova - Andrey Suraikin).

On the day when this happened, most of the spectators who gathered at the Kiev Sports Palace greeted the judge's verdict with a long whistle. This indignation lasted for several minutes, while the noise was such that other skaters could not start their performances. The main referee Kononykhin, in an attempt to calm the hall, announced: “The decision of the panel of judges is final and not subject to appeal,” which caused even more indignation. Soviet figure skating did not know such incidents yet. The audience began to chant and demand Belousova and Protopopov to enter the ice. And those at that time were sitting absolutely depressed in the locker room. Finally, the management of the Sports Palace could not stand it and asked them to go out to the public, to calm her down. The skaters took to the ice and, in gratitude for the support, bowed low, in Russian, to the audience. Lyudmila Belousova was crying at the same time. As O. Protopopov recalls, “returning to the locker room, we met Pyotr Orlov, the former coach of Stanislav and Nina Zhuk, who never had sympathy for us. He extended his hand to me and said he sympathized with us. I did not shake hands with him, politely saying that we do not need any sympathy. Then one of our friends recalled that Orlov, indignant at the refereeing, said: “I would have strangled this Protopopov with my own hands, but give him three tens!” He had in mind the underestimation of our marks for the performance in Kyiv ...

After 16 years, Ulanov admitted that at that time their gold medal was already planned at the Olympics in Sapporo. Therefore, they should not have lost to anyone, especially to us ... "

This scandal had such a great resonance that it was impossible to hide it. However, they, of course, were not allowed to rattle him, getting off with a short remark in Komsomolskaya Pravda of January 16. The note was called “Why were the stands worried?”, And its author was a certain design engineer from Lobnya A. Kuzin. The article briefly described how the audience obstructed the judge's decision to lower the marks for the pair Belousov - Protopopov, and cited Kononykhin's words to this couple: "But this is a sport, it has its own age laws, unfortunately." This reservation by the referee clearly indicated that everything that had happened was by no means an accident. Apparently, the leadership of the Sports Committee, through the hands of the judges, was going to stop the hegemony of the “old men” in figure skating.

As subsequent events showed, the arrival of young people went to the benefit of Soviet figure skating - its hegemony in world sports arenas became even stronger and lasted for almost two decades.

So, in the championship of the USSR in 1970, Belousova - Protopopov took 4th place and did not get into the national team. At the USSR Championship-1971, they took 6th place, again left out of the national team. However, even then it was not without intrigue. According to some experts, the judges were clearly biased towards the Belousov-Protopopov pair. For example, Arkady Galinsky, an employee of the magazine "Physical Culture and Sport", in the newspaper "Soviet Culture" questioned the results of the national championship, which he attended as a correspondent. In his opinion, the skaters were simply "fused". And in order to avoid unnecessary witnesses and cover their tracks, they even turned off the television broadcast, allegedly for technical reasons. It was because of this publication that Galinsky was fired and excommunicated from sports journalism for seventeen years. The editor-in-chief of the magazine, Nikolai Tarasov, tried to come to the rescue of his former employee, and he was immediately removed.

This was followed by another scandal. It happened in January 1972. The next Winter Olympic Games were on the nose (they began a month later in the Japanese city of Sapporo), but Belousova and Protopopov were not taken there. Moreover, this decision was not made behind the scenes, but after a consultation with the six best coaches in the country (Zhuk, Chaikovskaya, Kudryavtsev, Tarasova, Moskvin, Piseev), who by five votes to one (it was Moskvin, who advised Belousova and Protopopov) voted against to take the "star" couple to the Olympics. Those were outraged by this decision, since they themselves considered themselves quite competitive.

The truth, however, was that their time was running out after all. They won the Olympics in Innsbruck (1964) and Grenoble (1968), but then they ceased to be leaders. They did not get to the 1971 European Championship, because they no longer had the strength for a good result. In the same year, they performed at the Spartakiad of Trade Unions in Pervouralsk and could not skate the program well - they constantly fell and did nothing but catch up with each other after the falls. So the decision not to take them to the Olympics did not become something sensational for figure skating specialists. But the skaters themselves considered it an insult.

In mid-January, they came to the head of the Sports Committee, Sergei Pavlov, to persuade him to change his mind. Next, let's listen to the story of one of the participants in those events - Valentin Piseev, who in those years led figure skating:

Belousova and Protopopov came to Pavlov's office. Lyudmila shed a tear, and they both began to beg Pavlov to change his mind. He asked: “Are you sure that you will win gold?” Protopopov answered unsteadily: "Yes ... In any case, we will be in the top three." Pavlov asked again: “And if you don’t get into the top three, what then? Can this be? Do you know what Protopopov said? That they will definitely be in the top six! Like, the Olympic team needs test points, so they will contribute to the common treasury. Pavlov almost choked. I saw this because I was also present at this conversation. Sergei Pavlovich made them understand that it is better to leave the sport beautifully. That for the sports leadership of the country the good name of Belousova and Protopopov is more valuable than the two points that they will bring to the USSR national team if they take fifth place at the Olympics (they would give a point for sixth). They don't seem to understand. We got to Kirill Mazurov, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee, and he was already processing Pavlov. Did not work out…"

And here is how O. Protopopov describes these events: “It's a thing of the past, today, probably, few people remember, but we were preparing for the Olympics-72, we were going to go to Sapporo. The pair Rodnina - Ulanov were considered favorites, our students Smirnova - Suraikin came second, but we could count on a solid third place. Least. I remember convincing Sergey Pavlov, the main athlete of the country: “There is a chance to take the entire Olympic podium! You can't miss the opportunity." Naive bastard! This is me about myself ... They didn’t even think of taking us anywhere: the “bronze” in pair skating was already promised to the GDR team, and for this the Germans promised to support Sergei Chetverukhin in singles competitions, where the positions of the USSR were weaker.

In fact, we were sold, although everything looked quite decent in form. Before the Olympics, the coaching council met and ... Nobody supported our candidacies. The games were won by Rodnina and Ulanov, although Lyuda Smirnova and Andryusha Suraykin, whom we put on a free program, should have won. They skated cleanly, but Ulanov did not complete the obligatory element, did not jump a double somersault, which was a gross violation. Nevertheless, the judges forgave the mistake. Now such a trick would not work ... "

What can be said about these words. Today it is no secret to anyone that in sports they often cheat - it used to be like that, and it happens today. And it doesn’t matter what kind of sport we are talking about - figure skating, football or hockey. There is something else worth noting here. Here Protopopov confidently declares that the Soviet sports authorities were in cahoots with their colleagues from the GDR, so that they would "stretch" extra points for Sergei Chetverukhin. Could this be? Undoubtedly. However, it could be something else: that Protopopov himself and his partner at some World or European Championship, some judges, having colluded with Soviet functionaries, also “stretched” points. And they became champions. So it turns out: exposing others, the skater unwittingly questions his own achievements. It is quite possible that it was precisely such frankness that the sports officials did not like most of all (and who would like it when someone makes dirty linen in public?), And they did everything possible so that the Belousov-Protopopov couple retired as soon as possible. It happened in 1972.

In April, Belousova - Protopopov took part in their last official competition - the USSR Championship. Moreover, there were no strongest pairs on it, however, even in this situation, the heroes of our story could not jump above their heads - they took only 3rd place. Then they decided to leave amateur sports. At that time, Protopopov was in his 40s, Belousova was in her 37s. However, having left the big sport, they did not part with figure skating - they worked in the Leningrad Ballet on Ice. They also shared their experience with young skaters.

N. and L. Velikovs recall: “Oleg Protopopov always had such a spiritual need: to share what he has. And for this he gathered around him a company of young guys, like-minded people. There were very famous people in it: Valentin Nikolaev, now a very famous coach, works in America, Elena Morozova, Lyudmila Smirnova, the late Andrei Suraikin. A few more people whose names, probably, will not tell anyone now. And Luda and I ...

Protopopov often traveled abroad - and then, when he returned, he showed things that no one had seen here. How people train, how they ride. After all, at that time we had complete archaism - the methods of Panin's times ...

Oleg, a man absolutely not greedy, disinterested, gave us, golly erratic, his tape recorder, projector, shared records, films. He supported us in everything. Protopopov rode on a small skating rink on Vasilyevsky Island, in a church on the embankment. Only 16x16 meters. It was actually his personal ice, he could skate there alone. But he brought with him all this gang of ours. We came out of there in foam and soap, but at the same time Protopopov demanded that the boys be in a bow tie, in a white shirt and pressed trousers. There was no elastic at that time, so I had to iron my pants for each workout. And it brought us up. This school of his remained for life ...

Oleg let us listen to the music he skated to, talked about his programs, tried to convey his vision of figure skating to us. This is his life's work. No one perceived figure skating the way he did in our time. He was infected with this "bacillus" from childhood, and she did not let him go until today. Protopopov is still on the ice, skating himself, helping someone. Amazing person…”

So, after leaving big-time sports, Belousova and Protopopov performed in the Leningrad Ballet on Ice. And in 1977 they were invited to a show held at New York's Madison Square Garden and paid $10,000 for the performance. Very decent money! Moreover, the Americans gave the entire amount in cash, the skaters brought it to Moscow and, without declaring, handed it over to the State Concert. And in return they received $53.25 each (with a ceiling of $75. – F. R.). In accordance with the artistic rate established in the USSR.

Note that almost all Soviet artists who gave tours abroad had to give the lion's share of the proceeds to Soviet financial agencies. However, not only artists. For example, the famous hockey goalie Vladislav Tretiak once starred in an American advertisement and was awarded a fee of $50,000. However, he gave almost everything to his native state and did not say a word of reproach to him, because he understood: these are the rules. He did not establish them, it is not for him to cancel them.

But Vladimir Vysotsky in January 1979 gave an illegal (not agreed with the Soviet authorities) tour in the United States and earned $ 38,000 on this. And he did not give a cent to the state, referring to the fact that the money, they say, is needed for the treatment of his wife, a French communist. And the Soviet authorities did not tell him anything across, and he continued his foreign trips as if nothing had happened. That is, there were also elected people in the USSR. Although many of us still consider Vysotsky a "victim of the regime."

But back to the heroes of our story.

In 1979, the Leningrad Ballet on Ice was to go on tour in Brazil. There, Belousova and Protopopov were to be paid ten dollars per performance. A three-month tour of the country was planned, and the skaters were required to skate on a platform measuring fourteen meters by twenty-eight. Let's face it, for figure skating the size is small, which is fraught with the most unpredictable consequences. In the end, things ended badly.

Our heroes performed in Chelyabinsk. The ice there was very good, the couple skated with pleasure, but the laws of aerodynamics cannot be deceived: the area is small, they simply did not have enough space. Protopopov accelerated out of habit, but there was nowhere to move. He fell on his side, his partner flew into the ramp, hit her shoulder, knee, head. Then she lay in the hospital for two months - she got out. Then Protopopov said: “That's enough!” Ice does not forgive jokes. And he does not tolerate disrespectful attitude. And they stopped training at small rinks.

In the second half of the 70s, the couple were going to join the ranks of the CPSU, but they were not accepted. Why? Here's how they themselves remember it.

O. Protopopov: “We tried to enter in order to have at least some protection. We waited in line for three years, but they never accepted us. They said, they say, the party of workers and peasants, among the candidates there are no less worthy people than you. Yes, on our part it was an opportunistic calculation. What was left to do? I was already 47 years old, at any moment they could be sent to retire, like Volodya Vasiliev. Kicked out of the Bolshoi Theater and did not gasp. That's what they would have done with us."

L. Belousova: "We wrote statements, took recommendations from Tamara Moskvina, director of the St. Petersburg Yubileiny Sports Palace Sergei Tolstikhin, but nothing helped."

O. Protopopov: “Even the names on the posters were not singled out, they wrote in the list of the corps de ballet alphabetically: Luda - at the beginning, me - towards the end. I asked: why is that? They answered, they say, there is a shortage of paper in the country, no one will print anything especially for you. In the eyes they said: "Nobody needs you here." True, when the ballet was going on tour to France, information about two-time Olympic champions was typed in large letters in the very center of the poster. The paper arrived quickly. But we canceled the trip. Out of principle. It was a real shock for the management, but they still didn’t shoot the advertisement, they deceived the French ... "

And then came the autumn of 1979, when Belousova and Protopopov decided to flee the USSR. The ground for this has already been manured, both on a personal level (skaters have accumulated too many grievances against sports officials) and ideologically. The fact is that after the USSR signed the Helsinki Accords in August 1975 and proclaimed a policy of rapprochement with the West (détente), a slow but inevitable westernization of the country began. More and more Soviet people began to perceive the capitalist world not as hostile to themselves, but, on the contrary, as friendly and more advanced. The Soviet elite, including the creative one, was westernized especially rapidly. And although the Soviet government in the second half of the 70s took a number of steps to bring down this process (increased fees for cultural figures, removed restrictions on improving housing problems, and also became more willing to let them go on foreign tours), however, Soviet reality still did not could compete with the West. As a result, since the late 1970s, the number of those wishing to leave the country among the Soviet creative elite has increased significantly. Moreover, people used every opportunity to leave: someone achieved this legally (through foreign relatives and acquaintances), and someone simply fled as soon as such an opportunity was provided. In those years, the rock group "Sunday" wrote a song about this, where there were such lines:

... Whether birds fly migratory,

Whether the rats are fleeing the ship.

In the second half of 1979, there were two such escapes from the USSR. The first to escape, in August, was Alexander Godunov, a young ballerina from the Bolshoi Theatre. He was considered a rising star of the Soviet ballet, besides, he acted in films: on the night of January 1, 79, the premiere of the TV movie June 31 took place on the Central Television, where Godunov played one of the roles. In short, the young artist had rather good prospects in the profession ahead, but he himself thought otherwise: it seemed to him that in the West he would achieve much more than in his homeland. As a result, during a tour of the United States, Godunov escaped from his troupe and asked the American authorities to give him the opportunity to stay in America. They granted this request, since any defector from the USSR was desirable for them and could bring them significant benefits in the propaganda battles of the Cold War.

A month after this escape, another one happened - with the participation of Belousova and Protopopov. Such an opportunity was given to them when the Lenbalet ice show went on another foreign tour - to Switzerland. Skaters remember:

L. Belousova: “I took a sewing machine with me. It was very expensive to order costumes for performances. Here, too, she sewed for herself and Oleg, sometimes her sister and a neighbor dressmaker helped, but there she did not count on help ... "

O. Protopopov: “And I collected art books and videotapes. It turned out to be a wild advantage, but, fortunately, our luggage was not examined in detail at the airport, we paid for the extra cargo and handed over our suitcases. We were escorted to Sheremetyevo by a distant relative who did not know anything about what we had in mind. However, no one thought about it. Even my mother and sister Luda. If they let it slip, everything could collapse. I called my mother from Switzerland. She said a single phrase: "Don't come here for as long as possible."

When we were checking in for a flight to Zurich, we were approached by a group of people who were also flying somewhere. Please, give me an autograph. I signed on the stretched sheets and asked: “Who else? Or maybe the last time…”

L. Belousova: “Then there was another situation. We had already prepared to go to the plane, but the bus did not move for a long time. The command from above did not arrive, for about forty minutes incomprehensible negotiations continued. And then we see: Oleg's heavy suitcase cannot be thrown on board. Can you imagine our condition…”

O. Protopopov: “They took off, and I whisper in Lyudmila's ear:“ It's not over yet. We are on Soviet territory. These people are capable of anything." And in fact: they landed in Zurich, the hatch opened, and there was a man on the ladder. “Comrade Protopopov? You need to call the embassy urgently.” I ask: "What happened?" I hear in response: "You must tell where you will be." I got in touch honestly. But first he called his relatives and said where the instructions are, what needs to be done urgently. I understood: immediately after the news of the flight, our housing in St. Petersburg would be sealed, I wanted my relatives to have time to take away the most valuable thing from there. Someone was quickly moved into our apartment, a garage near the garbage dump was presented to the famous conductor Evgeny Mravinsky ...

The Soviet system did not tolerate those who stood out from the crowd. Everyone was treated with the same brush. But we didn't want to. It was terribly infuriating, annoying. It got to the point that I proposed not to announce our appearance on the ice in the programs of the Leningrad Ballet. Music began to sound, the lights turned on in the hall, we made the first movement, and ... the stands exploded with applause. People didn’t need words, they were waiting for us, calling for an encore six times, which made the management wildly angry: “Don’t turn the show into a solo concert!” When we left the country, they immediately pretended that Belousova and Protopopov did not exist, they tried to erase our names from the history of figure skating. Fortunately, this task turned out to be too tough ... "

The escape of the skaters took place on 22 September. That day they were supposed to fly home, but instead they went to the police department and wrote a statement to that effect. They took away their Soviet passports, took them to some hotel, from which they asked not to leave anywhere, noting that the Soviet embassy was already looking for them. A few hours later, the spouses were informed that their application was granted, they were granted political asylum.

Note that the 8 thousand dollars that the star couple earned during those Swiss tours, she did not leave herself. Despite the fact that the money was transferred to the Swiss bank SBG in Bern, the skaters refused to take it. Protopopov then told his wife: “I know exactly why they will start throwing mud at us. Therefore, we will not take this money for ourselves.”

In my opinion, the flight of Protopopov and Belousova was a completely natural phenomenon. There are people who cannot forgive insults, fixate on them and always exaggerate them mentally. Moreover, such people often transfer insults inflicted by officials to the country, considering it the worst place on earth. And run away from it at the first opportunity. Do they benefit from this? Differently. For example, the same Alexander Godunov did not take root in a foreign land - he drank himself and died young. And Protopopov and Belousova adapted quite normally and lived happily ever after. They were not even jarred by the fact that they were declared traitors in their homeland, and former colleagues did not even say hello at random meetings during foreign competitions. Here's how they themselves remember it.

O. Protopopov: “We regularly went to the World and European Championships, but we were bypassed like lepers, they didn’t look into our eyes, they looked away. Everyone avoided contacts, you can name any name.

Once we were in an elevator with Lena Tchaikovsky. She looked at the walls so diligently, as if there was no one else in the cabin but her. Then in Leningrad she said about us: “The fans confused the sun with a light bulb hanging on a bare cord.” In Dortmund, in the toilet of the ice palace, I somehow ran into Moskvin. We stood at the neighboring urinals, and Igor Borisovich quietly asked: “Oleg, how are you?” I opened my mouth to answer, but then the door creaked, and Moskvin immediately turned away ...

Only Stasik Zhuk continued to communicate with us. It seems that in 1985 in Copenhagen he defiantly approached, hugged, shook hands and began to ask questions about this and that. And next to them were Rodnina, Moskvina, Sinilkina, the director of Luzhniki. I say: “Are you not afraid to run into trouble, to become restricted to travel abroad?” The beetle looked around and slashed: “Let them all go!” He said it loudly. He did not hear well, so he often shouted ... Apparently, later in Moscow they explained the policy of the party to him, and a year later Stasik was no longer noisy. Imperceptibly whispered in his ear: “Olezhka, these whores do not allow you to talk. Please call the hotel in the evening."

L. Belousova: “And in Gothenburg in 1981, we were sitting on the podium, and Maya Plisetskaya called us. We managed to exchange a couple of phrases, when TV commentator Georgy Sarkisyants ran up and dragged her aside: “Maya Mikhailovna, we need an interview.” Plisetskaya could barely write down our phone number. Then at night for two hours she told how she was being strangled here, Rodion was not allowed to work ... "

For reference. The legendary ballerina Maya Plisetskaya was not only strangled by the Soviet authorities (unless, of course, Protopopov's words are true and not fiction), but they were also worn on their hands. And sometimes it was not clear what was more. For example, at the age of 34 she was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR (she became the youngest Soviet ballerina with such a title - for example, Galina Ulanova was awarded one at 41), at 39 she was awarded the Lenin Prize (1964). Many Soviet people would agree to be "strangled" like that.

By the way, the Soviet authorities repeatedly awarded the heroes of our story. Even if not with Lenin Prizes, she did not skimp on orders. They were paid decent salaries, allocated apartments, cars (they had a prestigious Volga GAZ-21). Someone will say: they paid for talent. Correctly! But who created the conditions for this talent to flourish? Soviet authority. The Swiss didn't do it. Our heroes fled there, already being famous all over the world. And they became famous thanks to the Soviet "grubs", which they ate for more than one decade. Who will measure the price of these "grubs"? For example, if you put these “grubs” on one side of the scale, and all the gold medals won by Protopopov and Belousova on the other, what will outweigh? I believe that each of us will answer this question differently.

In Switzerland, the fugitive skaters settled in a small village called Grindelwald. They lived together because they had no children. Why? Here is how O. Protopopov answers this question:

“We do not regret that we do not have children. It's all about how you look at it. Some give birth to children, and then lament: wow, what a boobie she gave birth to! And how many idiots, drug addicts are walking around! It is still unknown what is better: to give the society such people or not to give birth at all. And then, if we had children, we would not be able to leave the Union. Do not leave them hostage ... "

These words are a vivid example of human selfishness, which, apparently, is characteristic of the heroes of our story. Even the birth of children is perceived by them through the prism of personal well-being. The generally accepted joys of motherhood and fatherhood are not taken into account. The whole question boils down to the fact that children must become drug addicts or jerks. No doubt, someone will definitely become one. But not all the same! But the phrase about the “hostage child” is especially killing. Say, if there was a child, he would definitely prevent them from escaping from their homeland. It turns out that the child is bad, but they are good? However, maybe the skaters are right: why have children if you are not sure that you can give them something?

After living in Switzerland for almost 16 years, Belousova and Protopopov finally received Swiss citizenship (in 1995). By that time, the Soviet Union no longer existed, but the couple were in no hurry to come to the new Russia. Although a lot was written about them then, because in capitalist Russia, which cursed the USSR, all the emigrants were recorded as heroes, and only songs were not composed about them. So Belousova and Protopopov were declared "victims of the totalitarian regime." However, despite the fact that they had no end to offers to come, they preferred not to respond to them. And only in the new millennium - February 25, 2003 - they flew to Russia for the first time in almost a quarter of a century at the invitation of the then head of the State Committee for Sports, Vyacheslav Fetisov. And in November 2005, they again visited their former homeland - already at the invitation of the Figure Skating Federation of St. Petersburg.

In the summer of 2007, Belousova and Protopopov came to Moscow to take part in the 60th anniversary of the coach Tatyana Tarasova (she herself invited them, paying them a good fee for their performance). At the same time, a long (two-page) interview with figure skaters appeared in Express Gazeta, where they again depicted their ordeals in the USSR, and also poured mud on their former colleagues in sports. Many got nuts: Irina Rodnina, Alexei Ulanov, Stanislav Zhuk, Alexander Zaitsev, Valentin Piseev. To make it clear to the reader what exactly is at stake, I will give a few excerpts from this interview.

O. Protopopov: “I can’t imagine myself at the same table with Irina Rodnina. Two years ago, at the World Championships in Moscow, she walked by without saying hello. Rodnina does not have such a habit at all - to say hello.

L. Belousova: “When she gave an interview to TV journalist Urmas Ott, she watered us like that! And in one provincial newspaper, Rodnina said that we were beggars. But at the same time we are suing the Swiss authorities. Complete nonsense. Does she even know how expensive it is to sue in the West?!”

Here we will interrupt the skaters for a short remark. The fact is that they, apparently, have both professional and personal scores with Irina Rodnina. As for the first, we have already talked about them: it was Rodnina (paired with Alexei Ulanov) who pushed them out of first place both in intra-union competitions and in world ones. As for personal grievances, they are not known to everyone. And they lie in the words that Rodnina uttered several times in her interviews. Here is what she, for example, told the publication "Gordon Boulevard":

“When Belousova and Protopopov left, it became a sensation. The fact is that in other sports this happened from time to time, but never in figure skating. It’s just that at that moment Oleg didn’t like a lot not only in our country, but also in his life. It’s probably hard for me to understand how he felt, because I never lost, and for many athletes who lost, it was an open wound.

I saw the famous weightlifter Yuri Vlasov when he was trying to regain his champion title - then we went to the weight room, worked with weights, and his coach Bagdasarov helped us. I remember that I also asked Suren Petrosovich: “Do you think Vlasov will return?” - and heard: "No!" - "Why?" I was surprised (I was probably 16-17 years old). “You see,” he said, “there are different athletes. Some gradually move towards the result, just like in life, balancing first higher, then lower - today they can fall by one or two steps, and tomorrow rise - and, in general, they are ready for this. Others quickly burst onto the pedestal, but if they suddenly fall, as a rule, they do not return back.

I remember this very well, and you know, when many years later Vlasov already became a People's Deputy of the USSR, a member of the Interregional Group, it was still noticeable (at least to me) that this did not heal in him. Other athletes also reacted painfully to the defeat. Personally, I never felt fear at competitions, but before that I was wildly afraid: as soon as the new season began, I lost my peace. In order not to come with this horror to the next championship, she worked like crazy, did everything and even more.

I myself never wanted to stay in the West. I knew how they remained - Belousova and Protopopov ... I must say that literally three days after that we performed in Vienna, and of course we were warned not to communicate with them or with the press ... The most amazing thing is that there were practically no questions about Belousova and Protopopov, and I realized that in the West this was not a super-sensational event. Let's start with the fact that athletes who have already left the arena left the arena, people of age, in addition, as far as I know, their fees, by and large, were pennies. Yes, yes, although they are two-time Olympic champions, they skated for meager money, and stayed because they were lucky enough to receive an inheritance from one lady ... Belousova and Protopopov hide this in every possible way, but I accidentally found out their secret, and when somewhere - then I said about him, they were wildly offended at me.

I think the legacy was small. They got it "to bearer" - there is such a form, but still the root cause of their act is in the psychology of people who devoted their whole lives to figure skating and lost ...

Believe me, I’m not trying to condemn them… In my youth, I generally treated some moments calmly: well, I lost and lost… Excitement appeared later, and although I worked professionally, they took me to the top for a long time – it didn’t happen in one day…

Gradually, the desire to win became my dream, a fixed idea, for the sake of which I could part with everything. It’s just that the Beetle explained to me very clearly that the period that is measured in sports is short, and the rest of the joys in life can be obtained later - everything except this one ... this period turned out to be a little more for me ... "

And let's return to the interview of Belousova and Protopopov, where they speak very unflatteringly not only about Rodnina:

O. Protopopov: “At the World Championships in Moscow, we were on the podium next to Alexei Ulanov. He sat one row up. I am sure that he saw both me and Lyuda. But he pretended not to notice.

L. Belousova: “I could apologize for the past! He condemned us that we went abroad, but what did he do? As soon as perestroika began, he flew to America. Now lives in California. (Note that Ulanov just flew away, and did not escape to the West "secret paths." - F. R.). You know, life puts everything in its place. Then, in 2005, fans came up to us in Moscow. They took autographs and asked to be photographed. And Ulanov was sitting alone, no one approached him. People forgot him, they didn't recognize him."

O. Protopopov: “When Smirnova became pregnant, Ulanov was not at all happy. He didn't want a child. He even kicked her in the stomach! They went to America together, but then divorced. Luda returned to St. Petersburg ...

Zhuk in an interview recklessly stated that Alexander Zaitsev (and he was a thin guy, he lacked strength) increased muscle mass by six kilograms in a month. Can you imagine what it is? It is impossible to strengthen muscles in a month without doping! Stasik was obviously feeding him something. And now to hell with them - no one would let Rodnina and Zaitsev win six world championships in a row. Now, for such a small thing, they would be disqualified for two years.

I don't know why Rodnina left Sasha. They say he became impotent. And he drank black. But that's their business..."

So, pouring mud on colleagues from head to toe, the fugitive skaters told the following about their life:

O. Protopopov: “Are we decrepit old people? In America, in Lake Placid, we have a good friend - Barbara Kelly. She is 80, she is the champion of the United States among figure skaters in her age category. Here's who to look up to! We come to Barbara every year for a few months, we rent housing and a skating rink from her. We also windsurf…”

L. Belousova: “Last winter in Switzerland, in Grindelwald, we saw a familiar face on the rink. Bah, yes, this is our doctor, but we barely recognized him! Because we hardly ever go to the doctor. True, Oleg checks his eyesight every two years - he needs a certificate to drive a car.

O. Protopopov: “I have been driving since 1964. And I've never been in an accident."

She died on Friday, September 29, at the age of 82. As Oleg Makarov, another famous representative of this sport in the past, told R-Sport, a year and a half ago she was diagnosed with cancer, after which Belousova moved to her place of residence in Switzerland.

Belousova, together with her partner and husband, made up the strongest sports couple in world figure skating in the 1960s.

The Soviet duo won the world championship four times in a row (1965-1968) and twice climbed to the highest step of the Olympic podium - in Innsbruck-1964 and Grenoble-1968. In addition, they have four gold medals in European championships and six similar medals for winning the very competitive USSR championship at that time.

“This is a big loss, especially for me,” the famous coach admitted. - Because I spent half of my sports life with her and Oleg in the same locker room.

I offer my condolences to Oleg and all her fans, lovers of figure skating.

I have repeatedly been to their skating rink, stayed in their modest apartment. They devoted their whole lives not to the accumulation of goods, but to their cause, which they served - figure skating. Lyudmila was an outstanding athlete and person.”

One of the most grandiose scandals in the history of Russian sports is associated with the names of Belousova and Protopopov. Having already finished their careers and working in the Leningrad Ballet on Ice, in September 1979, the athletes refused to return from the tour to their homeland and asked for political asylum in Switzerland. In the USSR, the reprisals against "traitors" turned out to be extremely cruel. They were deprived of all ranks and citizenship, deleting them from books and reference books.

As Belousova and Protopopov themselves said, their act was due to fear about the development of a future career in their country and the understanding that their work would be valued higher abroad.

In 1995, the couple received Swiss citizenship, and in February 2003, they visited Russia for the first time since the escape. Subsequently, they came to various cities more than once, including following the competitions of the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi.

The last joint release of Belousova and Protopopov is dated September 2015. Then the 79-year-old partner and the 83-year-old partner took part in the "Evening with Champions" in the United States, where they lived for an extended period.

“The careers of Lyudmila and Oleg are inseparable, they were one and personified an entire era of figure skating,” stated the president of the Russian Figure Skating Federation. - They were pioneers, they developed figure skating. It is to them that several variants of such an element as todes belong.

As the former mentor of the Russian hockey team and a number of KHL clubs said, during performances in Switzerland, he came to a couple of skaters in Grindelwald, where Belousova and Protopopov helped him recover from an injury.

“Then, when I was already coaching the team, we used their method of building the training process, skating,” the specialist admitted. - Worked quite well.

They are very pleasant, good-natured and sympathetic people, now goosebumps. I wouldn’t be surprised if they went out on the ice to the last and continued to give lessons.

They kept fit, looked after their health. It’s a pity that such people are leaving, it will be very difficult for Oleg.”

In 1954, the aspiring athlete, whose partner Kirill Gulyaev ended his career, met Protopopov at one of the seminars, who soon began to serve in the Baltic Fleet. For the sake of reunification, she transferred from the Moscow Institute of Railway Engineers to Leningrad, which she graduated from. In the northern capital, talented skaters trained under the guidance of Igor Moskvin.

“This is a huge loss. They were our close friends and students.”

Some figure skaters of younger generations also considered it necessary to comment on the incident.

“In the world of figure skating, an irreparable loss - the great Lyudmila Belousova, a two-time Olympic champion in pair skating with Oleg Protopopov, passed away,” the two-time winner of the Olympic Games-2014 paired with - wrote on Instagram, accompanying a touching post with a photo from the awards ceremony in Sochi, in which the deceased also participated. -

Having won in 1964, it was this pair that launched the greatness of the Russian school of pair skating, from 1964 to 2006 only Russian pairs won the Games.

And 50 years after their victory, Belousova and Protopopov came to Sochi to support us and see how the medals are returning to Russia. I will always remember the moment when they went down to the edge of the ice, the legends, and congratulated us with tears on our victory. Then Lyudmila seemed to me a very strong and bright person ... Let her remain so in our memory ... Rest in peace.

Other news, materials and statistics can be viewed on winter sports, as well as in the groups of the sports department in social networks

And by examples it shows what role a fragile woman can play in the life of a strong man, and what she gets instead, coming to the conclusion that what happened is, first of all, a human tragedy, a gap in life.

It is far from always that the death of a person makes one think, build a belated retrospective in his thoughts, recall some events and rethink them anew. But now it doesn’t go out of my head: Lyudmila Belousova is gone. Mila... That's what those who skated nearby always called her, that's how she introduced herself to me when we met her in 1995 at the European Figure Skating Championships in Dortmund. Then it did not even seem unnatural: Belousova was not even sixty, she looked a good two decades younger and left the impression of an unusually modest, very friendly and at the same time slightly shy woman-child. Perhaps this impression was formed because only Oleg spoke in that interview. Oleg Alekseevich Protopopov.

Unlike his wife, he not only did not feel discomfort with an emphatically respectful treatment to himself, but he himself constantly made it clear that he did not consider himself and never considered himself an ordinary skater.

I just know my worth, - he remarked sharply, talking about how he negotiated a fee with representatives of one of the famous American shows, flatly refusing the initially proposed conditions and immediately receiving a much better offer.

Then, to be honest, I was jarred by his phrase: "I know that the Russians would agree to ride for five hundred dollars, but, alas, we are not Russians."

I don't think it was outrageous. Rather, on the contrary: a completely habitual demeanor. Even when Mila and Oleg skated in Russia and were part of the national team for many years, one of the famous skaters of that time noticed that Protopopov always needed an entourage. He always had it: someone wore a camera, someone solved everyday issues, and someone simply admired the idol, since the idol encouraged this in every possible way.

Then it seemed to me that the forced emigration in 1979 left too much an imprint on the character of Protopopov, because of which Lyudmila and Oleg found themselves together against the rest of the world for many years. But as our acquaintance continued, I began to understand: Protopopov was always like that. Irreconcilable, uncompromising, one hundred percent confident in his own rightness and his own superiority, no matter what he does. And Mila - she just served him. Devotedly, every minute, all-consuming. Such unions, as they say, are formed in heaven. And even with the death of one of the spouses can not be destroyed.

That very first conversation we had for a long time sat in my memory. Protopopov categorically told me about his plans to prepare for the Olympic Games in Nagano and speak at them. For an hour and a half that we talked, or rather dived with Oleg (everything he talked about sounded too absurd), Mila did not utter a word. She simply nodded in time with some words and phrases of her husband.

Many years later, I realized that I had made a huge mistake then: I didn’t understand that the door had opened for me, allowing me to look into someone else’s and rather secluded life, to understand who they are - these legendary skaters. This did not involve any assessments, or discussions, or attempts to fit what was heard to certain stereotypes. It took time to pass before the understanding came: Mila and Oleg were just different. Not like everyone else. Although, perhaps, a different wording would be more correct here: they have never been like everyone else.

And the two have always been one. Perhaps that is why, even now, when Mila is gone, it is still impossible to talk about her in isolation from the only person who has been there for more than sixty years and, in fact, was in control of her whole life.

Protopopov (and therefore Belousova too) was characterized by an extremely selfish attitude towards his own sports career. At one time, it was a big revelation for me that the skaters worked for a long time with one of the most prominent coaches of that period, Igor Borisovich Moskvin. Mila and Oleg never mentioned this, and Moskvin himself was never inclined to advertise his own participation in their fate. Aleksey Mishin once very accurately noted this on this score, saying that Moskvin’s work was very incorrectly assessed, first of all, by Oleg himself, who sincerely believed that he was training himself, and allowed himself statements that were quite offensive to Igor Borisovich.

Moskvin himself assessed his work somewhat differently.

I can’t boast of having made this pair, he once told me. - Mila and Oleg made themselves. At a certain stage, I just developed their skating in the right direction.

Perhaps this was the main thing: Belousova and Protopopov, with their unique lyrical and airy style of skating, fit perfectly into the picture, which at that stage turned out to be the most in demand. The world was not yet ready either for the grotesque that Alexey Mishin and Tamara Moskvina were ready to offer, or for the extreme complexity that Stanislav Zhuk, who had not yet become great, with Irina Rodnina and Alexei Ulanov, pondered for days on end. The world just wanted love and beauty. Both Belousov and Protopopov made their calling card.

Surprisingly, the quiet and wordless Mila has always been the core of the couple in training. It was she who extinguished all Oleg's flashes in endless disputes on ice, and at home she simply turned into a silent fairy - the keeper of the hearth and family.

Mila always supported me too, ”Moskvin recalled. - She was an ideal figure skater: light, beautiful, she did not need to be convinced of something, forced to try some things. She just listened to the task and silently went to do it. Oleg, on the contrary, constantly needed to prove something.

Leaving Russia for Switzerland in 1979, Belousova and Protopopov cut their way back to the only country where thousands of people, despite the disgrace of the skaters, still admired them. In Switzerland, 43-year-old (at the time of departure) Lyudmila and 47-year-old Oleg could only continue to skate. They simply would not have earned anything else for a future life.

While Mila and Oleg rode with me, we were quite friendly, - said Moskvin. - We went on vacation together, lived together at the training camp in a hotel in Voskresensk, where Mila in her room constantly cooked pancakes for everyone on an electric stove, which she constantly carried with her. We often went skiing, that is, the relationship was much closer than official.

Then, when they had already left the sport, I heard that they had a conflict with the leadership of the ice ballet, where they then skated. But I never thought that the outcome could be just like that.

In Leningrad, they lived not far from Tamara and me, and, to be honest, I was touched when I received a thick envelope with photographs in the mail. A letter was also enclosed there: "Dear Igor and Tamara! Do not remember dashingly. We hope - see you soon."

There were collected all the photographs where the Protopopovs and I were captured together or in the same company. That is, they did not want their departure to create at least some difficulties for those people who knew them and with whom they were close at one stage or another in life.

Many years later, I asked Moskvin how he felt about the fact that former students, who are already over 70, continue to go on the ice in front of the public.

If a person really loves it, why not? the coach replied calmly. - Take me. If I now suddenly decided to remember my youth and started sailing again on a yacht, who could blame me for this? As for the Protopopovs, I have a certain respect for the fact that people are so dedicated to figure skating. In a way, they remind me of the mathematician who proved the Poincaré conjecture but turned down a big prize. I did not go to receive it only for the reason that I regretted wasting time on the trip, being distracted from my work. Oleg is a normal person in this respect. He always gladly accepted everything that was due to him. But he loved figure skating like no other. They had a great glide with Mila, although that's not even the point. And the fact that this slide was meaningful. filled. Including technically. That's great rarity.

I myself saw Belousova and Protopopov on ice only once - at the 1996 European Championships in Sofia. During the previous year, the skaters performed a couple of times in charity shows, and the organizers of the competition invited the Protopopovs to Sofia not only as guests of honor, but also so that the legendary skaters would take part in the opening ceremony of the competition. Oleg and Mila trained at night: daytime ice was given to the participants, and rehearsals of the opening began late in the evening.

And it was at night that the stands were actively filled with spectators.

My first impression of the skating of Belousova and Protopopov was strong. The two-time Olympic champions did not do jumps, lifts, or throws, and, probably, they could not. But some special magic of the absolute unity of movements, gestures, feelings blew from the ice. The skates glided over the ice without a single rustle. At the same time, the feeling that this skating was not intended for spectators did not leave me: it was too intimate. Apparently, the tribunes felt the same, numb in some kind of mute admiration.

Belousova and Protopopov came to Sofia free of charge. Their performance at the opening ceremony was given by the organizers for one and a half minutes and a little less than half of the ice rink (participants of the festive extras stood on the rest of the ice area).

Since then, I've regretted seeing this more than once. Protopopov went out onto the ice in a straw-colored wig (his artificial hair looked red under the spotlights), his face was covered with a thick layer of make-up with a blush painted on it, and his eyes and lips were lined. His partner was in a short red dress (“We still fit into the costumes we skated in 1968”) with a red bow in her hair.

The contrast with night training was striking: there, on the ice, there were Masters for whom skating was as natural as breathing. Here are two middle-aged people, desperately but in vain trying to hide their age. These attempts - ridiculous, and most importantly, absolutely unnecessary - completely obscured the pair's skating and made us recall the statement of the outstanding Russian choreographer Igor Moiseev: "You can dance at thirty and at sixty. But at sixty you shouldn't look at it."

Remembering all this now, I again come to the same conclusion: when dealing with unique personalities, it is hardly worth approaching them with generally accepted standards. I was desperately sorry for Mila when, in 1997, having got the opportunity to talk with the legendary figure skater in private during the World Championships in Lausanne (Oleg was invited to comment on the performances of sports couples that day), she talked about her life in Grindelwald.

- Do you have any favorite women's affairs, I asked her then. She shrugged her thin shoulders.

Except the kitchen. I cook a lot, everything is eaten, usually on the same day. I used to sew, now there is no need for it. We have a small vegetable garden - three beds. At one time they grew cucumbers, now greens. Just like that, for fun. There are also three cherries - my sister brought from Moscow. But the berries are constantly pecked by birds. A stray cat lived for 12 years. When we left on tour, she even cried. And she died two years ago. We buried her right at home, under the Christmas tree.

- What major purchase have you made for yourself in recent years?

None. I do not need anything.

What was the last gift you gave your husband?

We don't give each other gifts. It is enough that each other has ourselves. I never even wanted to have children in my life. If we had them, would we be able to ride for so long?

In the same way, I felt sorry for Oleg, who, in the same place, in Lausanne, told how in 1982, when the skaters finished skating in the famous American show Ice Capades, instead of buying their own housing, by mutual decision, they decided to make a film. About myself.

All the money (according to Protopopov, about a million francs) was spent on the purchase of professional equipment, renting an ice rink, filming. Lighting installations were ordered in Germany. The film (16 hours of pure skating without a single take) was filmed by a 17-year-old skater whose parents moved to Switzerland from Czechoslovakia in 1968. Ludmila sewed costumes for each of the demonstration numbers herself. On the same typewriter brought from St. Petersburg.

I tried to mount the film myself, I made a cassette with a duration of 1 hour and 20 minutes, - said Protopopov. - Everyone who has seen it agrees that the work is extremely professional, and the film itself is unique. We tried to contact companies that make cassettes or television material of this kind, but everyone wants to get the film for free. If there are wealthy people who can truly appreciate what we have, perhaps I will agree to sell the film. So far there are no such proposals.

There, in Switzerland, Protopopov began to write a book. When he said that he himself, it happens, reads what is written for hours and cannot tear himself away, I suddenly realized that he will never give this book to any editor in the world: for him it (as well as the film) is a child who has endured and suffered . And they don’t send their own children to the mess. Or maybe the whole point is that he did not seek to flaunt his life with Mila. He once said that he would never want to see someone auction this life.

When I returned from that championship, I wrote:

"... You can condemn legendary athletes for selfishness, which still happens to show through in their actions and statements. Or you can just envy a couple who have carried fantastic devotion to each other and their favorite sport throughout their lives. What difference does it make what we think about them we? They have earned the right to have their own opinion about the world of figure skating, in which, undoubtedly, they will forever remain as its biggest legend ... "

In fact, Belousova and Protopopov in their long sports career, in which, in relation to figure skating, the prefix "after" did not appear at all were not unhappy at all. Discussing a life in which the fates of the spouses were soldered so tightly that they could not be broken, Oleg Alekseevich once said that until now, no matter what was discussed, he sets himself (and therefore before Mila) only the maximum goals, since the maximum goal disciplines, helps to keep the psyche fresh. He was going to live a very long time, subordinated the whole household way of life to this idea, carefully studied any information about a healthy diet, about cleansing all vital organs. Training, all kinds of recovery activities and even vacations were organically included in the same system, for each of which the couple prepared very carefully.

Unfortunately, Protopopov never managed to force life to play according to its own laws: in 2009 he had a stroke. Then the legendary figure skater managed not only to fully recover, but began to treat himself with redoubled exactingness. But a few years later, Lyudmila was diagnosed with cancer ...

And now she is gone forever, leaving those who knew and loved her bright memories, and Oleg - a terrible test: to continue living alone. May God give him the strength to...