Nikolai Burlyaev, theater and film director, poet and artist, presented his book "A life in three volumes" which shows that his career was significantly related to the Caucasus. The first volume’s title is "My Lermontov". “Everyone has its own Lermontov, I have my Lermontov and, fortunately, I made a film about him”, Burlyaev says. “By the way I became a stutterer in the house of the killer of Lermontov, Martynov. It so happened that at the age of five, and I was born and grew up in the house of the murderer of Lermontov, not knowing that I will have a very close and lifelong contact with Lermontov. At the age of five I was frightened, began to stutter. Now I interpret it in a way that an evil power wanted to block my mouth so that I would not be able to say about Lermontov what I had to say. But I am got out of it. And I made the movie "Lermontov".
The first volume, "Lermontov" is a cinematic narrative illustrated with frames from the movie "Lermontov" - almost a movie in photographs. When I was making a film about Lermontov, I knew it would be interesting for descendants to know how we, the film directors of the twentieth century worked, that is it how it was to create and make a movie happen. In order for the film to appear, it took four years to write the script and push it across institutions. I run, as expected, with the scenario in a file, with reviews of all specialists on Lermontov. There were only positive reviews from the IMLI, the Literary Institute, because it was required to get reviews before the launch. Everyone gave great reviews, but the movie was still not launched. And I wanted to play Lermontov myself, and I was 36, not 26, like Lermontov, and I had to learn everything he mastered, to be a horseman. Of course, at the age of 20 I rode a horse, but this was not enough, I had to perform stunts myself. For this I went to the circus to Alibek Kantemirov. Three months under the whip, he gave me a wet shirt. I had to learn everything that Lermontov knew, to learn sabers. There was no one equal to him in sabers, I took myself the best teacher in sabers, in melee weapons, an Ossetian. By the way, note that two Ossetians taught me - Alibek Kantimerov and Bimbalat Kumalagov taught me saber. They are both now gone. I am very grateful to them. No one raised a question which is simple nowadays: "What will we get from this?" They did not get anything, they just said: "Lermontov needs help."
I studied Lermontov a lot, a whole lot. I am sure it was murder, not a duel, and it is very easy to prove. Colonel Kouzenyev, a candidate of ballistic science that deals with the last days of the life of Lermontov and his death, told me that he went with ballistic equipment to the place of the duel, measured the angle. The largest angle is 3 degrees. That is, there is almost flat ground. If there was a duel, a shooting, the bullet would have hit the body of Lermontov straight. What is 3 degrees? No alternations. According to the testimony of a doctor who inspected the corpse, the bullet entered the body of Lermontov at an angle of 40 degrees. How is this possible? They started to justify that by saying that he took some English pose or something. But what kind of nonsense is it? It was a murder also because he was left to die by his friends. By all friends, including Martynov. And there was no reason for the duel. The phrase "You are a mountaineer with a large knife" is not a reason for a duel, because they made fun of each other in a much more "cruel" way at the cadet school.
I gave to the second volume the title "Oh, fragments of God's art", it is a line from my poetry. This volume includes prose, poetry, essays, and speeches at various meetings. The novel called "Twins" opens the volume. When we finished "Bambi" and I was preparing for "Lermontov" this story appeared. My co-author was Yuri Nagibin. I gave him the script of my "Lermontov" to read and the novel "Twins". He called me after he read it, he did not say anything about "Lermontov", because it was my "Lermontov". Clearly there was an mismatching, he simply walked around this topic. But about the novel "Twins" he talked to me, and I am not lying, for half an hour. I cannot remember all, but I remember a phrase that surprised me, and I do not know, if he was right. That is what he said: "I have never read nothing similar to the novel "Twins" in the Russian or foreign literature." It is a novel about two twin brothers, about two "I" personalities in each of us, at least two "I". As other writers say, we are 1000 "Is"." But at least we have two "I" in us. Dostoevsky was right to say that a fight between the God and the devil occurs in the heart, in every heart. And it is a law, it is the dialectic law of the universe. That is how God invented us all. He has given us free will, but he has not programmed us. But he gave us the right to choose to turn to him or to the other, to his opponent.
And I gave to the last volume the title "The Slavic Crown." It is a record of the film forum "Golden Champion". While I was working on the "Champion", I always kept a diary, all these 20 years. They turned into a book. These are records, illustrated, well illustrated. In general, this publication is very good, rich in quality. I would have never done it in my life and did not want to do, believe me, I did not want at all to be published during my lifetime. It is the truth. Be humiliated, run from one editor to another and so on. But it happened that six years ago "Algorithm" proposed to me to publish the first book. Since they asked me, I did it. And now the "Expo Center" helped me to publish these three volumes. And I thought to be done with it at once, and I've managed.
