Instead of an introduction.
On March 26th, 1974 the famous Norilsk sportsman, one of the meritorious trainers of the USSR and rationalizor of the copper mine, Valeriy Vladimirovich Bure, departed this life.
On March 31st, 1971, Oavel Vladimirovich Bure, V. V.’s grandson, was born, a prospective great hockey-player, who is called “the Russian rocket” on the other side of the ocean.
… We were standing in the vestibule of the metro station, I – leaned against a column, she – light-footed, slim, without any signs of tiredness. Later, we went over the snover-covered boulevard. We sat down on a bench intending to srat some conversation, but it was rather cold and the people passing by looked at us in such a strange way. So we decided to get up and search a different place for our talk …
I had immediately recognized her, although I had never seen her before. However, she had told me in advance that she would be wearing a mink coat and get off the waggon next to thelast.
It seems that we, imagine that, were attached to eachother by the town. The most important town in both our lives – hers and mine. And I (the Nordics will understand what I mean) had the feeling of meeting a close person at first sight. I suppose that she felt something similar about me.
Permit me to introduce her to you: Liudmila Yermovna Popova. She was born I the taiga and happened to get to the tundra, far away from the polar circle, in her early years … No-no, not for reasons you might be thinking of – she went there on her own free will. She had learned by hearsay that the living conditions there, at the mouth of the big river, about a hundred verst (1 verst = 1,06 kms; translator’s note) away from it, were much better than near its spring and along its middle course: factories were built with great secrecy. It was impossible to pass through the area without special authorization. All over the place there were militarized brigades, camps, numerous groups of prisoners, which were guarded to the construction sites and workshops. A region, where there was no sunshine at all for a period of three months every year …
Sometimes, however, one will only learn from afar and from inexact reports of unknown ships’ crews that people who live in similar places suffer from a persistenly noticeable, heavy load on their minds and a kind of inner darkness, which is worse than the polar night itself.
***
Life in the settlement, which one might compare with a closed town, one of those banned from any map for a long time, was hardly connected to the life in the camp zones surrounding the huge, free territory directly attached to the enterprises. The everyday worries of both theier inhabitants developed not far from eachother, but on parallel lines, which only very infrequently met eachother. But there is an exception to every rule, particularly in the most remote places of the GULAG, where thinhs were inspected less thoroughly, and those not supervised at all were mainly colonels and generals. The reason for this phenomenon is easy to understand: the colonels and generals did not want to have their power limited, under no circumstances. And, having learned that in some camp a new talent had been discovered, an artist or a sportsman, who was able to sew fur hats or produce modern foot wear for ladies, they immediately gave the order to call in this expert … in the sense of “bring him here”.
Thus, on the free territory, one could find the elite of the best, which did not merely appear in the adjacent camp zone or one of the remote camp sub-sectors, but also publicly before the eyes of the representatives of the camp authorities, together with free workers and employees. They also received the permission to walk around without escort. Imagine how it feels to walk around free and even be allowed to pay someone a visit from time to time. Or go and work for the municipal theater – this was something one would never have dreamed of a short time ago, particularly when you had not yet served your sentence till the very end. (And then there still remained the possibility of imposing an additional sentence on you!). The greatest delight, the greatest happiness was not to be forced to return to one’s barracks anymore, even in case it was one of those special barrcks (for engineers, technicians and production managers), but be permitted by the uppermost chieves to spend the night in one’s own little corner in the theater building, in the laboratory or gym. Outside the camp zone (!).
And then, one sunny day, our heroes became acqainted – whereby they pretty soon realized that they were prepared to risk all in order to circumvent no matter which prohibition so ever, master all hurdles and get married.
… She was 20 at that time and he over 30. “She was such a wonderful singer that all listeners unconciously opened their mouths”, says one of the witness reports of a camp musician (a former pitman), which was sent to me decades after those camp concerts had taken place. Concerts given in the midst of camps! No wonder that the billboards constantly gave notice of sold out performances. And the fantastic repertory … New songs about the most essential events of 1941, 1942 and 1943 … About love and reunion after the war. “Hits” from all kinds of films made in Alma-Ata were re-written, so that the camp orchestras would be able to play them. One has to additionally mention that Liudochka’s fame and popularity in this closed towndo compare with the future adoration of the first TV announcers.
Now you can certainly imagine, who thrilled the hearts of the male population, and many of them were quite annoyed about her impudence – to get married so overhastily: “Well, he looks impressive, but he is a terrorist, anyway!”
There were a lot of terrorists (section 16 and 58-8) among the 46000 prisoners of the year 1945. Valeriy had been sentenced at the age of 24 for allegedly having had the intention to kill the highest of all leaders. At the age of 27, on August 16, 1939, he was taken to the settlement, which had just been declared a forced labor settlement. One year later, by the order of the camp authorities, he was honoured as a man of great abilities in the field of performance and recitation.
***
When talking about art you do not talk about minor matters. And this is particularly true for the art of surviving. Valeriy had always felt attracted to the stage. One was forced by the living conditions in the camp to make do with the facts and circumstances ther as quickly as possible and to somehow develop further, in order not to get lost forever. “I, as well as Yakhontov; was able to excellently recite both Mayakovskiy and Pushkin. Without screaming, so to speak with feeling”. – “He had a feeling of humour … And his movements! A man like him was a real godsend!” This is what Mikhail Godenko, a free dancer, who later became a famous ballet master, said about him.
And there, in front of me, os one of those old placards – a remarkable exhibit for the bicentennial of A.S. Pushkin’s birth: “The fountain of Bakhchisarai”. “Lead by – Valeriy Bure”.
I reply to the questions. What kind of relationship …?
A direct one. Pavel and Valeriy are hockey players – the grandsons of Valeriy Vladimirovich and Liudmila Yermovna. Valeriy was given that name to the honour of his grandfather.
- Why did’nt you tell me that at once?
***
Grandfather passed away exactly 26 years ago – on March 26th, 1974. Less and less people do remember him, even less people know about his fate. I feared that his own grandsons, too, might be unable to imagine what a clear-headed, brilliant person he was.
By the way, the profession of an actor was nothing but one out of many he tried to practice. Having chuck up the world of theater in his youth, he dedicated himself to swimming. No – not in the ocean. “Since I was rather talented and able to do a lot of different things”, he later wrote in his biography, - “I now became a master of sports”. At the age of sixteen he started to teach other pupils how to stay above water and learn different swimming styles. He himself went from triumph to triumph … He had an organizing talent, too. And two years later he, the swimming instructor, who was working for the Moscovitan Soviet of Trade, began to work his way up the ladder of success: he became the head of the school of swimming masters and the deputy director of the indoor swimming pool attached to the regional Soviet of Trade-Unions.
The seventeen year-old Valeriy kept the goals of the water-polo representative team. In the autumn of 1929 his team did not leave a bad impression during its trip through Germany (Berlin, Leipzig, Halle, Königsberg). Well, and there we have the subject all his future interrogations will be based on, the more since Bure, in his capacity as goal-keeper of the representative team of the USSR, had already spent some time in the Scandinavian capitals. He was arrested on October 14th, 1936. They sentenced him to ten years plus a four years’ deprivation of political rights in May 17th, 1937.
When Valeriy was finally released from permanent escort, he had alreadybecome the star of the camp football team, and in addition to this had approved his abilities on the tennis court. (He had learned to play tennis from the Estonians). Andrey Petrovich Starostin, the main trainer of the local “Dynamo” club, immediately proposed him as candidate for the goal-keeping … This happened in 1945. The year, when Bure’s eldest son Alexey was born. Another five years later, Vladimir the father to-be of Pavel and Valeriy, is going to become the central figure of the apartment in Sevastopol Street No. 11, in the still closed town of Norilsk.
Our hero, however, was not only ana rtist and sportsman. In 1934 he began to study at the First Moscovitan Institute of Medicine. Already in the second year he did not manage to get through the examinations anymore; something seemed to disturb him, but these three half-terms probably saved his life, for he had the possibility to demonstrate his acting talent and athletic abilities.
***
During some construction work – pseudonymous for “excavation” – Valeriy was discovered by his countryman and old friend Nikolay Nikolaevich Sukhorukov, a specialist in sports medicine and winner of several European contests in high diving. His words were sufficient to secure the former “student of medicine” the job of a doctor’s assistant.
How much did one have to love the stage to renounce a quiet and almost carefree existence under the flag of the Red Cross! Bure, however, was unable to give up what he had dedicated his life to!
And how much did one have to love wife and children to leave the stage … He broke with the world of theater being of the opinion that he did not have the right to damn his family to a never-ending starvation existence. Even art does not demand such sacrifices.
“I cannot live under the existing circumstances” – Bure wrote in a petition addressed to the director of the combine. Seven months of his period of detention were yet to serve; but what he had done was not at all in place. However, Valeriy knew, what engineer and colonel Sveriev’s attitude towards him was like. Thus, he became the head of the department of power-producing industry. In 1957 he took his leave of Norilsk, twenty years after his departure from Moscow.
***
Both sons carried on his business. The youngest one became a sports star and stayed a sports ace for a long time: twelve years in the USSR representative team, prizewinner of the Olympic Games, the first among our sprinters, European champion, vice-world champion. A unique sportsmen: he did not only win the 100 meter run, but also themetric mile run.
Apart from Vladimir Bure, let us also mention his double countryman – from Norilsk and Moscow -, a former comrade in competition, who in most cases outmatched Vladimir in the 200 meter run. Leonid Ilichov, another student of Valeriy Bure, a repeated champion of the USSR and Europe, won two medals in Mexico. Half of the best European 4 x 100 meter relay swimmers were born in Norilsk and trained by the master of the copper workshop!
The Olympics of the year 1972 were the last Olympic Games in the life of Valeriy Vladimirovich. The son became the third-best among the best sprinters of the world.
The meritorious master of sports, Vladimir Bure, admitted during a newspaper interview: a sportsman is and always remains a creature without rights, a toy in the hands of the bureaucrats”. The interview ended by the words:
- Two of my sons play hockey. The elder one has already become a member of the first team of the Central Army Sports Club; he played for different representative teams. As his father I wish that my children would find the joy of self-realization by means of their sporting activities …
***
Another ten years passed by. Whenever you watch Pavel and Valeriy Bure on the ice, a vitrine of time standing on Nevskiy Prospect will appear before your eyes – “Pavel Bure” – and the figure of grandfather Valeriy. In the veins of these two hockey millioners is the same blood that flew through the veins of their grandfather, who became famous for his talents. By the way, this statement is not entirely undisputed. It cannot be excluded that nothing much remained in the grand-grandsons, which might make one think of their relationship to a wonder-worker and clockmaker (are they able to repair a chronometer by their own hands?). Another thing is their grandfather’s straightness. There they are – the geniusses, there it is – the bundle of energy, the explosion, the starting speed, which allows him to make half of the sports grounds in 1,5 seconds and appear exactly in the place, where nobody expected him to appear yet. In that very second, which gives proof of a circus-like skill, a fiendish trick, an exactness as it needs to play billiard, an almost unbelievable combination of qualities – one can estimate one’s own and the position of the others on the smooth ice in the twinkling of an eye …
Grandfather Bure would have been content about his grandsons. His family name lives on as a symbol of the great world of sports.
Anatoliy Lvov
P.S. Grandmother Bure, who is still mentally active and also looks quite young, is soon going to be 77 years old. The grandfather passed away long ago – he died at the age of 50. This year the youngest son Vladimir celebrated his 50th birthday.
- What are you dreaming of, Liudmila Yermovna?
- That my grandchildren and grand-grandchildren feel their common roots, that they associate with eachother in friendly terms, help eachother whenever it becomes necessary. So that everybody will take them to his heart. I wish that Vova’s diabetes disappeared and that the hockey players do not get injured.
- And does your “grand-daughter” Anya mean a surprise to you (we are talking about Anna Kurnikova, Pavel Bure’s bride – “Zapolyarnaya Pravda”)?
- To a certain extent – yes. The most important thing for Pasha with regard to girls is that they distinguish themselves by a good figure, even in case they have a very inexpressive look. But here we have a real beauty, and a very rich one, too (which, of course, is not of any superior interest to him).
- And the rich grandson does not forget about his grandmother, does he?
- Oh no, what do you think? This fur coat is a gift from him. He regularly calls me, drops in together with his mother Tatiana. They are very thoughtful, indeed. Valerka has not been here for along time. I do hope that he will come here, when his brother gets married – then we will probably meet again.
A. L.
“Zapolyarnaya Pravda” No. 44 (12282) March 24th, 2000 (newspaper edited in Norilsk)