Dropped out of school after the third grade
Mikhail Pugovkin was born in the village of Rameshki in Kostroma province. He used the surname Pugonkin until he approached his twenties. The family faced poverty, and from an early age he helped his parents with farm work. After completing only the third grade, he left school to work and spent his spare time entertaining peasant friends with songs and dances, earning their playful predictions about a future in the arts.
At age 13, a family health crisis prompted his mother Natalya Mikhailovna to seek treatment, and the family moved to relatives in Moscow for better care and opportunity.
Worked as an electrician in a factory
In Moscow, Pugovkin added two years to his practical training and became an apprentice electrician at the Moscow Brake Plant named after Kaganovich. After shifts, he joined a drama circle at a local club to nurture his love of performance. A chance encounter with director Fyodor Kaverin led to an invitation to join the supporting cast of the Moscow Drama Theater. Although the electrician earned 450 rubles a month and the stage actor earned 75, the family supported his pursuit of acting and encouraged him to chase the dream on stage.
May lose a front leg
Between 1939 and 1941 Pugovkin performed at the Moscow Drama Theater before volunteering to serve at the front. He served as a scout in a rifle regiment and fought near Smolensk without serious injury. In 1942, near Voroshilovgrad, he sustained a leg injury that led to gangrene. A frontline doctor considered amputation, but the actor convinced him to spare the limb.
“I am an artist. How will I work if I am missing a leg?” he recalled. The doctor filled out documents incorrectly, and the artist left the hospital under the name Pugovkin. He never returned to active front-line duty.
I brought my mother back from the forced labor camp
During the war, Natalya Mikhailovna was arrested after a tip-off while working in a pie shop. She was exiled to the Vyatka forced labor camp for a pie theft that became part of a family soup plan. The young actor documented this situation in a letter to Joseph Stalin, and a week later his mother was released “by order of the son.” [citation: archival correspondence]
Expelled from the Moscow Art Theater School
Ivan Moskvin, a renowned People’s Artist of the USSR, intervened to help Pugovkin gain admission to the Moscow Art Theater School. After multiple training attempts, the actor managed to enroll and stayed for nearly two years. He failed the Marxism, history, and French exams in his second year and was expelled. In 1944 he entered the 2nd Gorky Tank School in Vetluga, where he supervised amateur artistic activities. A year later, he returned to the Moscow Art Theater School to resume his studies.
He worked in the theaters of Murmansk, Vilnius and Vologda
After graduating in 1947, Pugovkin moved to Murmansk with his wife, Nadezhda Nadezhdina, for a single season with the Northern Fleet Drama Theater. He then spent the 1948–1949 season with the Vilnius Russian Drama Theater, before returning to Moscow to perform at the Lenin Komsomol Theater for eight years. In 1958–1959 he worked at the Vologda Drama Theater, and soon after chose to devote more of his time to cinema.
He acted in six of Gaidai’s films
Many consider his collaboration with director Leonid Gaidai the highlight of his career. He appeared in a consecutive six films: Operation Y and Other Adventures of Shurik, Twelve Chairs, Ivan Vasilievich Changes Profession, Can’t Be!, For Matches, and Sportloto-82. After the role in Operation Y, Gaidai asked his performers who they wished to play, saying, I will provide the script and you tell me who you want to be.
Scalded with boiling water on the set of the film Sportloto-82
During filming for Sportloto-82, a one-liter canister of boiling water toppled and scalded Pugovkin. He required hospitalization, causing a three week halt in production. The injuries lingered for some time, and he continued working with bandages as his mobility remained limited.
I didn’t make a movie without approval
A deeply religious man, Pugovkin often consulted his mother before taking on roles. Gaidai sometimes waited three weeks for his consent to portray Father Fyodor in Twelve Chairs. “I am a believer, even my back got cold,” he would quip when donning a robe for the set. Gaidai himself acknowledged his faith and suggested a simple cross before beginning filming.
He wanted to be buried next to Alexander Abdulov
Pugovkin passed away on July 25, 2008, at age 85, in his Moscow home due to complications from diabetes. In his last will, he requested burial at Vagankovsky Cemetery beside friend and ally Alexander Abdulov, who supported him in recent years. Abdulov had helped Pugovkin secure an apartment in Moscow and a comfortable pension, and assisted him with work at the Mikhail Pugovkin Cinema Center. After Abdulov’s death on January 3, 2008, Pugovkin reportedly said he would meet his friend soon.