Biography of Pahomova Lyudmila Alekseevna. See what "Pakhomova L" is

(1946-1986)

“She loved to live.

Always beautiful, elegant,

real woman.

And the coach to remain a woman

very hard..."

T. Tarasova

People around her called her Mila. She was like that - or rather, we, the audience, have always seen her like this: cheerful, joyful, with a half-faced smile, igniting energy.

Lyudmila was born in Moscow in the family of a pilot. Father - Alexei Konstantinovich Pakhomov, Hero of the Soviet Union, aviation colonel. And my mother is a doctor, also Lyudmila.

Her father taught her fearlessness and perseverance, perseverance in achieving the goal. He taught her to do everything according to the highest score, without the right to make a mistake.

She started at the Moscow Stadium of Young Pioneers, together with the future famous coach T. Tarasova. Tarasova recalled this time like this: “Mila and I grew up together, we were friends. We were connected by love for figure skating and joint classes at the Young Pioneers stadium. As strange as it may seem, the coaches did not pin any hopes on us. Assigned to the number of unpromising athletes, we were to some extent left to our own devices, and one consolation was that we set programs for ourselves and, as it seemed to us, performed them successfully. Then we really moved on. Mila went into pair skating, then trained in singles with Viktor Kudryavtsev, and finally ended up in dancing.

So everything was difficult for the young athlete, and before she became the queen of ice dance, it was still far away. But in the character of Pakhomova there was perseverance, and willpower, and a desire to achieve results. Everything you need for a real athlete. And it's nothing that physical data was not enough, the main thing is that the desire to search lived in her. This fearlessness of the search was always noted in her character, it was felt in a proud posture, high, in a special way freely raised head.

Tarasova, herself a strong person, said: “From childhood she was a man possessed. I loved the holidays of new productions. I never doubted that Mila is a gifted figure skater, perhaps this idea was born at the time when we admired each other at the Young Pioneers stadium, but be that as it may, I always believed in her talent.

Pakhomova came to dance when they were not yet an Olympic sport. And the fact that now we admire sports dancing on ice is also her merit.

She was not just a figure skater who knew certain skating techniques and applied them with brilliance, rather she brought her artistry and soul into the technique. Lyudmila Pakhomova served in figure skating as an art first and foremost. She was a real actress - restless, trying to find her image, her own language for expressiveness.

“I would have twisted my soul if I began to complain about the burden of “championship”. I liked being a star. Doesn't every artist dream of this? - wrote Lyudmila Pakhomova in her book "Monologue after applause." - I wanted to ride in such a way that after me I didn’t want to look at anyone. That's what the top was in front of me. Did I get close to her? We were given “sixes”, they wrote about us, they made a film about us, they gave us flattering epithets. I knew my worth as an athlete, as a figure skater. But as for the perfection of our dance, my performing skills, I did not delude myself here.

She, indeed, always knew how to soberly assess her strength and go forward. It was possible to continue on the path of improving her technique, but she felt the need for something else - the need to enhance the expressiveness of the dance, enriching it with the Russian ballet heritage. It was at the level of some kind of internal, unconscious sensations, the need of her heart reaching for beauty suggested her the way. So she came to study at GITIS.

“No kind uncle took me there by the hand. I came by myself. And only childish naivete and arrogance can explain such an act. There was a huge competition at GITIS, but they should not have accepted her at all, she did not have a special choreographic education, and she was not allowed to take exams. Then she went to the authorities, sought, said that she was a figure skater, that now figure skating needs specialists with ballet master education. She was able to convince everyone, and she was accepted conditionally, for the sake of the experiment. By this time, Elena Chaikovskaya had already graduated from GITIS and received such a mysterious profession as "choreographer on ice." But Chaikovskaya came to the Institute already an adult, mature person, and Mila was still a very young girl, yesterday's seventeen-year-old schoolgirl.

“I thought that if I acquire special knowledge, if I master ballet master's technique, it will teach me to be a reasonable performer, to understand what needs to be done and why. I was a figure skater, I didn’t want to go away from figure skating. I wanted to be mindful of what I love to do. That was my goal, as it seemed to me from afar. I’m not sure that I would have dared to enter GITIS if I had known properly what kind of university it was, what I would have to do and what moral tests awaited me there. All my life I wonder how I had the strength and patience to endure all this.

It was indeed a difficult test for her. She was a stranger here, still very young, who did not understand anything in the art of classical dance. It must have been hard for the experts to watch her.

The teacher P.A. Pestov, who led the class, had a cramp in his face and spoiled his mood for the whole day when he saw Pakhomova in class: “Pakhomova, don’t you have training now? Not? And I hoped so much ... "He suffered like a professional:" Pakhomova, what kind of position do you have? You are not on the ice!”, “Pakhomova, why did you open your arms like an airplane...” But a feeling of gratitude for the serious attitude towards her, and, above all, for science! She kept it for the rest of her life. “Even then I was and still am full of gratitude to my teachers for being patient with me, for taking me seriously. The same Pyotr Antonovich Pestov, who taught the class, what torments he endured because of me, and for what! Well, maybe my sock turned a little during the six years that I went to him. Suppose, for me, as a figure skater, this was essential. But for him, a specialist dealing with professional dancers, looking at me was torture.

She was the youngest in the course, the next student was twenty-eight years old. They were already professionals who knew many parts by heart, studied the scores of classical ballets, all danced on stage. She just lacked experience and professionalism. “What should a girl do in such an environment, who, at best, saw something from the stalls? What was expected of me when I had to compose an adagio for The Sleeping Beauty or for The Legend of Love? she wrote in her memoirs. - They asked me: “Mila, have you already kissed? Or not yet? I was treated with care, commissioned works that were more suitable for age, for example, "Wild Dog Dingo" by Difa or "Youth" by Eccentrics. It was quite obvious to me and to everyone that I had not grown up to this institute. It was interesting to study, I was captured, but ... I could not cope, I could not cope. I was smart enough to do it. In many classes in directing, in acting, I could not understand the simplest things, I could not let them through myself, live artificially, because I did not live them in my life ... "

But she knew how to work, to absorb everything that could be taught to her. “You need to know why you do what you do. I myself went to classes in the class to Pestov. Nobody forced me to go there. I knew why I needed it. What conquered me in the atmosphere of GITIS, what became a moral lesson for me, is the cult of service to art, which manifests itself in everything, in all forms. At GITIS, I came across such a high culture of intra-professional relations that we can’t even dream of in sports.”

Pakhomova learned a lot at GITIS. When, after the first year, she took an academic leave, it was the right decision. The leave is only in the form, in fact, she left herself for the second year, attended all the classes, went through everything again and passed, got involved, got used to it. In GITIS, she became a real "priestess" of art, learned to understand beauty, learned to appreciate everyday communication with people of high professional and spiritual culture, she was instilled with an interest in books on the history of art, theater, and literature. She was taught to "collect" aesthetic impressions from various fields of art. Then, wherever she went, Pakhomova loved to go to museums, look, absorb.

In 1970, along with the diploma of GITIS, she also received the diploma of the world champion. It was easy to achieve results further. But she did not calm down: “The consciousness that I am the first in my kind of figure skating did not deprive me of the habit of critically evaluating my dancing skills. It made me bleed a lot. I sometimes hated myself when I was dancing.”

In training, she was looking for her own style, trying to convey everything that she was taught: “I myself felt that, when I came to training from the institute, I start skating somehow differently”, “I held my back differently, felt my feet” , "I involuntarily reached for that other dance, which was, of course, a high, unattainable model of mastery of my body."

And this inner work, dissatisfaction and the already high level of skill helped him and A. Gorshkov create special, unforgettable compositions-performances that absolutely changed the style of ice dancing - before that, strict, academic, mostly classical melodies dominated. So many years have passed, and we all remember their dances "Nightingale", "Along the Piterskaya", "Naughty ditties", "Kumparsita".

I especially want to emphasize that Lyudmila and Alexander made a kind of revolution in ice art, just as Russian ballet made a breakthrough in art with its Russian Seasons in Paris. Of course, the art of Lyudmila was so noticeable because it reflected the beauty and breadth of the Russian soul, emotional freshness and folk character. The audience applauded. The stands could not but respond to such a creative charge of this couple. “Tribunes value courage. The public quite accurately guesses the state of the athlete. Sometimes a skater falls, but the audience does not see this fall, does not want to see: “Did you fall? What are you doing!” And another will fall, and the audience will sigh dejectedly: "Well, here ... fell."

For the first time she became the champion of the USSR, dancing in tandem with her coach Viktor Ivanovich Ryzhkin, they were trained by Stanislav Zhuk. Ryzhkin also trained Alexander Gorshkov with other partners.

Lyudmila Pakhomova did not find her way right away: “I started as a single skater. I tried myself in pair skating. Dancing has never interested me. It was believed that this was an activity for the elderly ... And then Viktor Ivanovich Ryzhkin suggested that I ride with him in a pair of dances. Now I understand why I agreed with such ease: I did not sacrifice anything, did not leave anything. I liked figure skating, but nothing good came of it. My data was average. I stayed in the middle roles. Our pair with Seleznev, which at first seemed promising, fell apart, and I was either transferred or “fused” to coach Kudryavtsev, who was engaged in singles. (Maybe even my parents arranged it, they didn’t tell me everything.) I didn’t shine in this field either, although I was the champion of Russia. For some time she returned to the pair, replacing the injured partner Farida Safargaleeva. Previously, many skated both in pairs and in singles at the same time ... In general, somehow slowly, I was engaged in figure skating, and then dances arose. Ryzhkin inspired me that it was very interesting. And it seemed interesting to me to go to CSKA, to train with Zhuk. It was prestigious. But... I became a partner of my former coach and worked out quite zealously - a new environment, a new goal, a new coach. Ryzhkin and I performed confidently from the very beginning. Whether it’s good or bad, it’s hard to say: at that time there was almost no competition, there was, in essence, the very type - sports dances.

In 1965, they watched from the stands the European Championship in Luzhniki, to which they were not allowed. Foreign dancers showed in Moscow a class for which our athletes were not yet ready: excellent technique, high speed and artistic taste. During the championship, she went to all the training sessions of foreign athletes, trained with them, did not hesitate to ask. “Imagine now what it looked like: some Mila Pakhomova at the Kristall rink easily takes the famous Bernard Ford by the hand and says: “Bernard, show me how you do this exit. I really like". And he says, "Please." He leaves his partner and rides with a kind of inquisitive Mila and explains to her what's what.

Since 1967, Mila Pakhomova and Alexander Gorshkov began to skate together, and Elena Chaikovskaya began to train them. This is how this star trio was born, creating an ice hymn to beauty and dance.

But before that it was still far away - to study and study. They came to the European Championships in Ljubljana, and then Sasha was already shocked by the skating of foreign dancers: “We came to the training shortly before the end of the first group, in which the British skated. Sasha stands, looks dumbfounded at the Tauler and Ford and says to me: “Mila, what kind of dance is this?” I answer: "It's a tango." - “So this has nothing to do with what we are doing with you! They have a completely different pattern!” - "We are not up to the drawing yet with you, Sasha." Yes, then we were novice students - inept, but by no means timid. Without complexes. And most importantly, we were not embarrassed to learn ... We never hesitated to learn later ... ”- this is how Lyudmila recalled the beginning of joint skating.

Indeed, they were never afraid to learn, master and assimilate new things. This was their common quality. They had a lot in common and a lot of different things with Sasha. But most importantly, they had a "common breath", and not only in skating. The audience saw it too.

Lyudmila clearly understood what a duet is, what a real relationship between a man and a woman is in pair skating, and specifically in dance. This "theory" was very important to her, she constantly talks about it in her books and interviews.

“I was a member of the team. I was in a duet. In a dance duet, one should talk about the absolute similarity of partners, if we keep in mind the attitude to the matter, the sporting nature. As for the spectacular side, it is rather a unity of opposites: the dance roles of the partner and the partner are different. The partner is the leader. He leads, he dances with a partner ... "That was her plank for Alexander Gorshkov, a high bar for a man - to be a leader ...

“In compulsory dances, not only how each of the athletes owns the skate is evaluated, but also how they maneuver together, obeying a sophisticated rhythm, what their “common breath” is, how it, this breath, is transmitted to the movement of the knees working in the same rhythm . Here you can assess the proximity of the positions of the partners, see how correctly the partner leads the partner, how clearly, in a timely manner she follows his movements. All this can be seen in the obligatory and the viewer ... "

“Ballroom dancing, as well as historical, historical and everyday dances, reflect the poetic relationship of “lady and gentleman”. Therefore, the classic canons of the costume are so rigid here - the severity of lines, finishes, elegance of cut. And with their appearance and dance, athletes must correspond to the knightly concepts of a lady and a gentleman.

Of course, the unity of views on the profession, on style, on skating is born in work. So it was in their relationship with Sasha.

In 1970 they got married. Then such frank and unleashed interviews about personal life were not accepted, as is practiced today on the pages of newspapers and magazines, which is why we do not know how their family life developed. Maybe we don't need to know. But we all saw their “single breath”, their well-coordinated, joyful skating, their interest in each other in dance, and therefore in life. This cannot be played. The relationship of “lady and gentleman”, when the partner is the leader ... And the partner is the soul, the light of the dance. She was the soul of this duet.

She was also a real woman, not just a partner. Tatyana Tarasova wrote about Pakhomova the woman when their married duet with Gorshkov had already experienced a lot and left the sport when Lyudmila became a coach: “Pakhomova was an example in everything: a loving daughter, a good wife, a wonderful mother. Brought up in love for work, she brought up her Yulia in the same way. She loved to live. Always a beautiful, elegant, real woman. And it’s very difficult for a coach to remain a woman when you spend most of your life in trousers, in monoboots, screaming, running and forgetting about everything in your work.”

They dominated ice dancing for a decade. "Dances have received citizenship rights at the Olympics due to their brilliant talent, the complexity of the programs, the performing skills." They were six-time European champions (1970, 1971, 1973-1976), six-time world champions (1970-1974, 1976), Olympic champions (1976) and multiple USSR champions in ice dancing. In 1970, they were the first among Soviet figure skaters to win the championship title at the world and European championships. Elena Chaikovskaya remained their coach until the very end of her performances in amateur sports.

And they left just in time! This is increasingly becoming a rarity in sports, in pop music, in ruling circles. The first ones are the hardest to leave, but they did it by changing their life and giving it a new direction.

But first there was Kumparsita. Today, our children probably do not even know what it is. And then we knew everything, “Kumparsita” by Pakhomova and Gorshkov filled us with the southern sun and hot temperament, it was hard to remain indifferent, watching this passionate dance. It was a dance miracle. The dance was also born for them as a miracle, “as if on a whim”, “calling to something intimate, very dear, which you almost don’t remember, but you always remember.”

"Kumparsita" was their first showcase number, their favorite, growing in popularity with their success. “And at the premiere, the audience in Luzhniki remained, in general, indifferent to him, and the experts - they just pecked at us: “It's not clear! Why do you need to show an old-fashioned, obsolete dance? - “What tastes can such a production bring up: some kind of frivolous movements with the hips, shoulders?” Yes, no matter how ridiculous it is now to recall it, but then our dear “Kumparsita” seemed too bold to some ... However, to our surprise and delight, the very next show of “Kumparsita” caused a warm ovation.” They won and performed already freely and uninhibited, and the audience was infected with this mood: “We always performed this dance with special inspiration, and our enthusiasm was instantly transmitted to the public. That's exactly what happens. The only way". Surprisingly, they staged this dance on a whim, they never knew how it was danced. They didn't even know how to dance classical tango!

The idea for "Kumparsity" belonged to Anatoly Tchaikovsky, Elena Tchaikovsky's husband, who was actively involved in their creative life in general, and when it came to choosing music and plot, they often listened to him. “It’s mysterious, but true: his favorite works in some way corresponded to our appearance, the style of our couple,” Pakhomova wrote about the history of the creation of this dance. - So, he saw "Kumparsita" a long time ago in an old film. The famous Rudolf Valentino seemed to be dancing the tango there...” They could not see this picture, they did not even find it in the State Film Fund. “But Tolya retained the impression of Kumparsita so clearly that he quite accurately in meaning, in content, showed us the dance - gestures, contours of the drawing. He walked around the room in some kind of ecstasy in sweatpants, portraying a sultry Rudolph.<...>The dance was staged in one night. The choreographic drawing did not change all the subsequent time.

It was like a revelation. After the performance of this dance, it became their visiting card for many years, although only then they saw a real performance of tango, only then, after their dance, the fashion for tango melodies returned in our stage. It had everything - expressive plasticity, interesting choreography, but first of all, it had the character of Lyudmila, the refinement and beauty of her gesture, the maximum return in the dance.

“Maybe we hit the mark with this dance. Apparently, it was our best dance, if everyone remembered “Kumparsita”, and asked for “Kumparsita”, and judged us by “Kumparsita”, and loved us for “Kumparsita”. I think that this act corresponded as closely as possible to our temperament, our vision of dance - dance in general, dance as a phenomenon, as a special means of self-expression. Kumparsita is us, this is us at that time, this is that time.”

With this dance they ended their performances. “The decision to leave was sudden, and the reason for it was a still unfamiliar feeling - I don’t want to ride. Of course, we already knew that it was time. Sasha is thirty years old, I am twenty-nine. At first we thought: well, we’ll skate another season, but then they took it and interrupted training in September, when a lot of effort and work had already been spent on a new program. We understood that we were doing something ridiculous, awkward, but we could not, and for the first time did not want to resist the ensuing apathy. From overwork, overstrain, sometimes such bouts of blues happened before, but this time it was something much more serious, inevitable. And we came to the conclusion that it is pointless to overpower ourselves and do mechanically what we used to put our soul into. The future showed that we were not mistaken: we left at that very time, at that very hour. Many, having declared that they are leaving, continue to skate for some time, perform with demonstration numbers. It wasn't like that with us. We refused all offers, did not go anywhere. And never since then have I been tempted to go out on the ice. I danced, apparently, for life ... "

They came to Tchaikovsky and said they were leaving. And for her it was a surprise. “Finally, we plucked up the courage and went to Tchaikovsky’s house and right from the doorway uttered terrible words for us, and most likely for her, the words: “Lena, we decided that we don’t need to ride anymore.” And in tears. I roar. She roars. There was a bottle of champagne in the house. We drank a glass, calmed down a bit. I remember that Lena told us that this, of course, is very bitter, very difficult, but that, probably, this is how it should be, although she cannot imagine how we should live on now.

They were seen off beautifully. Chairman of the Sports Committee Pavlov was at first beside himself with surprise, and then he said: “Well, since you decided to leave beautifully, we will see you off beautifully.” And they had a farewell ball at the Sports Palace. Then it was the first time, and now it has become a tradition.

At the farewell ball there were many flowers, tears, touching speeches, dance numbers, and they danced their "Kumparsita", for the last time. “But this Kumparsita was special. We danced - separation, we danced - farewell. Our dear Kumparsita. Only she could convey everything that we experienced that evening ... Did the audience catch it? Hope so".

For her, it really has always been important what the public thinks, what people feel.

After the last Kumparsita, a new life began for Lyudmila, in which everything was also interesting and joyful for her. She became a coach. “I don’t know, maybe I have a penchant for apprenticeship? Maybe the process itself fascinates me? Later, when I became a coach, I became convinced that I was also interested in teaching. It's probably connected somehow." Since 1978, Pakhomova became the coach of the USSR national team. Her students were two well-known dance duets: Moiseeva-Minenkov and Anenko-Sretensky. She also had a group that she coached since childhood, and some of her students became junior world champions.

Everything was victorious. And most importantly - in 1978, her daughter Yulenka was born with Sasha.

Everything was ahead. She wrote three books: “Choreography in figure skating”, “Monologue after applause”, “And music always sounds” (with A. Gorshkov), her daughter grew up, there were successes in coaching.

But fate has its own account. On May 17, 1986, Lyudmila Pakhomova died of leukemia. Burned down. She was only 39 years old. Tatyana Tarasova will say: “Mila managed so much in her short life that another, who lived much more, would not have had a few.”

Maris Liepa, a person of the profession that she idolized, admiring her, gave an exhaustive description of her contribution to the art of dance: “Pakhomova brought emotional dance to figure skating, she also has priority in the development of plot dance. She created her own Russian style in ice dancing. Her dance has always evoked associations that are inherent only in real art.

It was really an actress of the Russian school, emotional, sincere, open and always new. Only today you understand this, when sometimes in the dance of our skaters there is everything - technique, style, skill, there is not only that very national feeling of pride in their homeland.

As if the fantastic dance was over. The music died down, the skaters left the ice, only the trace of the skate, the curl, and also the breath of delight of the auditorium and the memory of this beautiful and strong woman remained. Don't feel sorry for her. She wouldn't want that because she always wanted you to be happy.

She wrote about herself in the book: “Time, strength, shed sweat, health - all this could not be mentioned, because these are the conditions of life in big sport. I didn’t count either time or effort, I didn’t sacrifice anything: I was doing what I loved.”

Marina Ganicheva

Lyudmila Pakhomova and Alexander Gorshkov

Their names are listed in the Guinness Book of Records as six-time winners of the world figure skating championships, because the achievement of this Soviet couple has not yet been beaten - Alexander Gorshkov and Lyudmila Pakhomova are one of the best duets in world practice.
Alexander and Lyudmila were born in the same year (October 8 and December 31, 1946, respectively), in the same city - Moscow. They met thanks to belonging to the same sports club - CSKA. Pakhomova by that time was already the national ice dancing champion (in 1964), but due to a leg injury she had to postpone training for a certain time, and she went on the ice only to watch other couples. Then she noticed Gorshkov. Having become a duet, at first they trained on their own, however, when it was time to choose a coach, they persuaded Elena Tchaikovsky (although she had not taken dance pairs on ice before). Elena remained a mentor until their departure from the world of sports. Gorshkov and Pakhomova were together outside of sports, having married after the first common successes in 1969.
At that time, the strongest opponents on the world stage were skaters from the UK. Sometimes Alexander and Lyudmila had to train for 12 hours a day to hone complex elements. Thanks to their dedication, they not only mastered some of the nuances of Western technology, but also introduced their innovations into the world of dance style on ice, because their numbers "Kumparsita", "Chatushki" and others were clearly knocked out of the classic ballroom rhythms that everyone was used to.
The reward for this couple was their victories and recognition around the world. They won 6 world championships (1970-1974, 1976), the same number of victories at the European championships (1970, 1971, 1973-1976), as well as Gorshkov and Pakhomova became the first champions in sports ice dancing in the history of the Olympic Games (1976).
They not only “rolled back” their joint sports career by 6.0, but were also able to finish it on time, leaving at the peak of fame in 1976. After that, Alexander became a personnel worker in the Sports Committee, and Lyudmila became a coach.

The famous figure skater Lyudmila Alekseevna Pakhomova died on May 17, 1986 from leukemia - she was only 39 years old. She was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery in Moscow.

Pakhomova Lyudmila Alekseevna (December 31, 1946, Moscow - May 17, 1986, ibid.) - Soviet athlete, Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1970), Honored Coach of Russia (1984). Olympic champion (1976), multiple world and European champion (in 1970-76), USSR (in 1964-75) in sports ice dancing (with V. I. Ryzhkin in 1964-1966, with A. G. Gorshkov with 1969). Author of the books Choreography in Figure Skating, Monologue After Applause, And Music Always Sounds.

Mother - Lyudmila Ivanovna (1924-1993), doctor; father - Alexei Konstantinovich (1912-1968), general, Hero of the Soviet Union, was deputy chairman of the Central Committee of DOSAAF. He wanted his daughter to become a parachutist.

I liked being a star. Doesn't every artist dream of this? I wanted to ride in such a way that after me I didn’t want to look at anyone. That's what the top was in front of me. Did I get close to her? We were given "sixes", they wrote about us, they made a film about us, they gave us flattering epithets. I knew my worth as an athlete, as a figure skater. But as for the perfection of our dance, my performing skills, I did not delude myself here. GITIS had a decisive influence on my ability for a sober self-assessment. There, at the Institute of Theater Arts, I was evaluated according to completely different criteria. We had a teacher Petr Antonovich Pestov, he taught the class. When he saw me, his face cramped and his mood deteriorated for the whole day. “Pakhomov,” he said, “do you have a workout now? Not? And I was hoping…”

Pakhomova Lyudmila Alekseevna

She began figure skating at the age of seven at the Youth Sports School at the Young Pioneers Stadium in Moscow; she tried herself in pair skating and as a single skater, but for a long time she was considered an unpromising figure skater. Viktor Ivanovich Ryzhkin, the coach of CSKA, who did not leave ambitious sports plans, convinced her to change her role, despite the fact that he was much older than her. It was he who first explained to Lyudmila that dancing is also interesting. The couple was coached by Stanislav Zhuk.

They stubbornly did not want to allow them to the first national championship in sports dancing on ice, which took place in 1964 in Kirov. But still, Pakhomova and Ryzhkin took to the ice and became the first champions in sports dancing on ice. This was her first championship title.

But the Pakhomov-Ryzhkin duet did not last long. Lyudmila Pakhomova called the change of dance partner "the very first of the difficult tests" in her sports biography.

Since 1967, Lyudmila Pakhomova has been performing with Alexander Gorshkov. With him, they became six-time world champions. The coach of the "golden pair" was Elena Anatolyevna Chaikovskaya and remained the coach of this pair until they left amateur sports.

A pair of Pakhomova - Gorshkov began their sports career on the big ice, when domestic dance duets were significantly inferior to foreign ones. But already in 1969 they won silver medals at the world championship, and in 1970 they were the first Soviet figure skaters to win the championship title at the world and European championships.

Pakhomova and Gorshkov changed the style of ice dancing. Before them, strict, academic dances dominated, mainly to classical melodies. They also brought a lively, emotional folk dance to figure skating: “The Nightingale”, “Along the Piterskaya”, “Naughty ditties”, “Kumparsita”. Largely due to their successful (beautiful and, most importantly, complex in sports) performances at the world championships (in 1974, the judges gave eight marks of 6.0), Europe, and in 1976, sports dancing was included in the program of the Olympic Games for the first time, where Pakhomova and Gorshkov became gold medalists.

Russian figure skater, dancer, choreographer.

Since 1969 she has performed with A.G. Gorshkov (pair coach - Elena Anatolyevna Chaikovskaya). Sports couple: L.A. Pakhomov And A.G. Gorshkov won the 1976 Olympics, 6 world championships, etc. The tango "Kumparsita" in their performance has become the standard of demonstration dance.

Lyudmila Pakhomova about her father:“He comes from the Vologda region. He was a shepherd and a shoemaker's apprentice. He graduated from the flight school, flew, fought. He was all burned - these were his military regalia. He landed a burning plane. There was no living place on it - burn marks, scars, scars. Such a classic knight of his time. He flew to the limit. He became a general, a Hero of the Soviet Union after the war. He was a very reserved person, spoke little about himself, spoke little at all. In the theory of upbringing, he contrasted two principles, two ways of life: work or "chase the dogs." He preferred his child to work. I grew up like this girl: get up, eat, take lessons. I worked. And it was easy and pleasant for me. I was born this way - in my father. I never saw him rest at all. He probably didn't know what it was. He was always doing something: either writing, or drawing, or developing films, printing photographs. He was, among other things, the President of the FAI (International Aviation Sports Federation), a significant position, presumably troublesome.”

Pakhomova L.A., Monologue after applause, M., "Soviet Russia", 1988, pp. 128-129.

Lyudmila Pakhomova about her credo:“... my credo - both in life, and creative, and professional - is to work. A professional works, he does not wait for inspiration, he works every day, every hour. My head can break from pain, but I still do what I have appointed - for example, I listen to music. Constant work is necessary, strictly obligatory, it sharpens the skill and even, probably, sharpens the intuition ... "

Pakhomova L.A., Monologue after applause, M., "Soviet Russia", 1988, p. 8-9.

The husband, Alexander Gorshkov, recalls:“We started training. Saying it was difficult is like saying nothing. It was unbearable!!! I endured, worked and understood that I needed it. But I don’t know what made Lyudmila put up with me, diligently help correct my mistakes. She spent ten hours with me on the ice! Mila was an incredibly purposeful person, demanding of herself and others. She clearly knew what she wanted. For example, today I could raise my hand like that, tomorrow in a different way, but Pakhomova - never! All her movements were perfected. She had a mirror in her house, in front of which she worked out some elements, so the floor in that place was wiped to the ground!

Alexander Gorshkov, Male fidelity, in Sat.: Female view of Oksana Pushkina. Vertier only for himself, M., Tsentrpoligraf, 2000, p. 349.

“Every year, all figure skating fans were waiting to see Pakhomov And Gorshkov. And our expectations were not in vain. Tchaikovsky loved her athletes, put them on great programs. It is difficult to overestimate the role of this trio in the world development of ice dancing. Every year they are amazing. “Nightingale”, “Along the Piterskaya”, “Burn, burn, my star”, a waltz from “Masquerade”, which you now remember, and goosebumps run through your body. They have lived a great creative life."

Tarasova T.A. , Beauty and the Beast, M., Astrel, 2008, p. 90.

sick, L.A. Pakhomov was in the hospital and in the remaining six months of her life managed to write a book: Monologue after applause ...

Fragments from it are cited in this section.

On that day in May 1985, Lyudmila Pakhomova and I had to go to the Sovetskaya Rossiya publishing house to negotiate about this book. She arrived a little earlier at the agreed meeting place at the corner of 25 October Street and Sapunov Drive, and waited, imperturbable in the midst of the near-Gum crowd, with a glass of ice cream. When she saw me, she smiled and was about to throw in the trash the half-eaten ice cream. I stopped her: “Finish! We are not late.” “Yes? Can? Thanks! I don’t remember when I stood like this and ate ice cream. Never, I don't think..." She laughed. Her laughter was peculiar, and it was precisely its unusualness that evoked an answering smile, created the impression of sincerity and immediacy.

Half an hour later, when we left the publishing house, the former Pakhomova, smiling, a little shy, was gone. With a businesslike gait, she was heading towards a car parked somewhere nearby, listening to me absently, as if she was an accidental acquaintance who met at the wrong time. “But we need to talk!” - "About what?" - “How about what?! About the book! We need to get our summer plans together!” “We'll talk along the way. I'm in Luzhniki. Where are you going?"

Later, in June, during the training camp in Jurmala, where I came to work with her, we met with Pakhomova every day, and I learned to recognize such "pauses" - she allowed herself to relax for a moment, innocently surrender to such small joys as ice cream, doing nothing. And from these, so to speak, gaps, the transition to business was sudden. She considered the book a “deed”, which, it seems to me, she managed to fall in love with, but which she did not have in the first place, not even in the second, but in some special place of her own, and when the hour (my hour) came, I recognized Pakhomova - a great athlete. I do not mean the content of our conversations with her, but her amazing ability to switch, to concentrate on a momentary occupation. At the appointed (very often transferable) time, in the windows between training sessions or other labors that fell out at the whim of the prevailing circumstances, we sat down next to each other, and with the click of a voice recorder, she began to “work” - the intellect, memory, always heightened feelings, always awake desire to believe past present. The dosage of our meetings did not in the least affect the nature of the conversation, which was always relaxed, fluid, free, overgrown with branches of associations. The fruitfulness and richness of these short business meetings kept me in high spirits, a feeling of rare luck.

I accompanied the skaters everywhere. Sitting somewhere on the side, I watched how the athletes, who are much more dependent on the force of gravity than on ice, work out the elements of dance. It was not always possible to talk with Pakhomova. But I was not upset, because in the very expectation, no matter how long it was, there was a foretaste of the joy of communication. For this is happiness - a smart, lively, intelligent, subtle, extraordinary-minded interlocutor. And this interlocutor is Lyudmila Pakhomova! A rare opportunity to talk about figure skating! About sports - about this wonderful country, which we, fans, spectators, know as tourists. Now I was led by such a guide!

She was an excellent storyteller. The professional habit of being methodical, of iron self-discipline somehow coexisted, even intertwined in her with a purely feminine charming willfulness. She spoke well only when she caught fire, and she worried only about what gave rise to an idea or clung to some turn for today, for her coaching life. It was by no means a memory, something she was talking about. For example, very sparingly, casually, without any enthusiasm, she talked about competitions, as such, about the ups and downs of the struggle in her victorious championships. Not because she was very modest or indifferent to her brilliant sports career. But because she was simply not interested in it, just as we are not interested in the once topical chronicle in the old newspapers.

For me, our dates were not limited to a face-to-face meeting. I spent long hours alone with her voice, transcribing the notes. The room filled with the chirping of birds, the sounds of the beach. The weather in Jurmala was not so hot. She was catching grains of the sun. We talked, stretched out on the sand, to the noisy fuss of the younger guys from her group. On cloudy days we sat in the loggia of her room. At first she brewed strong coffee. Without fuss, with apparent pleasure, she served treats: biscuits, a box of chocolates, which she then methodically ate, interspersing them with cigarettes. Under the window, daughter Yulia was playing on the green lawn. ("Julia! Julia!" - now and then heard from the tape recorder.) But she never (!) Lost the thread of the conversation, interrupted, but not distracted. Our meetings ended suddenly, because, as I said, their time was limited. Every time I was ready to continue, I groped for new moves in the development of the topic, but, having said “everything”, she immediately, at the same instant, “disappeared” - she lost interest in the conversation, in the interlocutor, in the book. Something else was waiting for its turn in her strictly lined bottom ...

A month (or rather, it was three pedals) flew by. “I don’t advise you to come to the training camp anymore,” she said. “There will be ice, a completely different job, a different mood, there’s no time for talking. We will continue in the fall in Moscow.”

She went to bed in the fall. We saw each other in December when she was briefly released from the hospital. She did not leave the house, but her day was nevertheless scheduled, and in this schedule devoted to figure skating, the place of the book was still neither the first nor the second. At the same time, deadlines were pressed. I began to spin the yarn of the future book from the chaos of episodes, pictures, reasonings, digressions. Actually, not a single passage highlighted by the title of the topic existed, as such, in its entirety. The only exception is "Test". Dialogue, and very dynamic, I had to turn into a monologue. I took care to preserve the oral intonation so that the book retains all the charm of the original document. Several times during this time I visited Pakhomova. We sorted through a huge family photo archive, choosing material for illustrations and talked about the last event of the season - competitions for the prize of the Moscow News newspaper. Quite thin streams, but the material continued to flow, and I carefully, so that the seams were imperceptible, attached, melted it into the finished fabric of the book.

"Monologue after applause" (there was no name then) was smoked at the end of February 86th. We decided that I would read the book aloud to her; before that, I had read several prepared passages to her from the manuscript. The final reading did not take place. She unexpectedly found herself again in the hospital, and already there she was reading a book that was brought to her in parts. There were few edits - large children's handwriting. She was worried that some harsh judgments might offend certain people, that some of what was important to her was not included in the book. I consoled her quite sincerely that there would be more books. At the same time, the idea of ​​the missing ending - "Unspoken" - arose. We explained in writing, but in March I visited her a couple of times. We worked on the text for the photos, we decided to make them as a commentary on a family photo album. She had little strength. Did she know that she was terminally ill? It seems to me that then in March she was full of hope.

Our last conversation was on the phone. She called after reading the manuscript several times and signing it. “Congratulations,” she said. “There was no such book. There is nothing to change there." A few days later, the disease worsened. I never saw or heard from Lyudmila Pakhomova again.

Now the reader will open the book and ... I'm sure, knowing the history of its creation, he will forgive some fragmentation, incompleteness, insufficient development of individual topics. Compensation is more than sufficient - the lively voice of Lyudmila Pakhomova. Millions of figure skating fans loved the image of Lyudmila Pakhomova, created by her in ice dancing. Now they will recognize and, I hope, fall in love with Lyudmila Pakhomova herself.