Аркадий Райкин. Смехоностальгия

"Pustʹ vsë budet, no chego-to chutʹ-chutʹ ne khvataet…" - ėta replika odnogo iz geroev Arkadii͡a Raĭkina stala prorochestvom dli͡a samogo artista. Desi͡atki ego korotkikh repriz - lëgkikh, paradoksalʹnykh i bʹi͡ushchikh tochno v t͡selʹ - namertvo vpechatalisʹ v narodnui͡u pami͡atʹ po obe storony ideologicheskikh barrikad. Zheleznyĭ zanaves pal pered magieĭ ego talanta zadolgo do svoego istoricheskogo krushenii͡a. Zapisi kont͡sertnykh nomerov Raĭkina translirovalisʹ britanskoĭ korporat͡sieĭ BBC, a otechestvennoe televidenie, skovannoe t͡senzuroĭ i formatom, dopustilo vsenarodnogo li͡ubimt͡sa na ėkrany znachitelʹno pozzhe. Velikiĭ peresmeshnik, virtuozno balansirovavshiĭ na grani dozvolennogo, besposhchadnyĭ diagnost obshchestvennykh i͡azv i vechnoĭ chelovecheskoĭ gluposti. No kem zhe on byl, kogda gasli sofity? Li͡ubi͡ashchim muzhem, chʹi͡a poluvekovai͡a supruzheskai͡a zhiznʹ s Romochkoĭ (Rufʹi͡u Markovnoĭ) stala primerom absoli͡utnoĭ predannosti st͡sene i drug drugu. Nezhnym ott͡som, podarivshim svoim deti͡am - Kati͡ushe i Koste - ne tolʹko familii͡u, no i sluzhenie iskusstvu. I surovym masterom, sozdavshim unikalʹnyĭ teatr avtorskoĭ satiry, gde poluchili putëvku v bolʹshui͡u literaturu Mikhail Zhvanet͡skiĭ, Semën Alʹtov, Vladimir Poli͡akov i mnogie drugie.

"Let everything be, but something is a little bit missing ..." — this remark of one of Arkady Raikin's heroes became a prophecy for the artist himself. Dozens of his short reprises — light, paradoxical and hitting exactly the target — are firmly imprinted in the national memory on both sides of the ideological barricades. The Iron Curtain fell before the magic of his talent long before its historic collapse. Recordings of Raikin's concert numbers were broadcast by the British BBC Corporation, and domestic television, constrained by censorship and format, allowed the popular favorite to appear on screens much later. The great mockingbird, masterfully balanced on the edge of what was permissible, a merciless diagnostician of social ulcers and eternal human stupidity. But who was he when the lights went out? A loving husband, whose half-century of married life with Romochka (Ruth Markovna) has become an example of absolute devotion to the stage and to each other. A gentle father who gave his children, Katusha and Kostya— not only a surname, but also a service to art. And a stern master who created a unique theater of author's satire, where Mikhail Zhvanetsky, Semyon Altov, Vladimir Polyakov and many others received a ticket to great literature.