Yulia Menshova has often been compared to America's Oprah Winfrey. Her women's talk show on TV6, "Ya sama" (I'll Do It Myself), regularly ruled the ratings. She is from pedigree showbiz stock. Her father, actor and director Vladimir Menshov, won the 1980 best foreign film Oscar for "Moscow Doesn't Believe in Tears," in which her mother, actress Vera Alentova, played the leading role.
Menshova followed in her parents' footsteps, graduating from a theatrical academy and going to work at the Moscow Art Theater. Over a period of four years, she played a dozen leading roles and appeared in several movies. But just as everything was going right in her acting career, Menshova stepped off the stage and into the television studio as an editor. Soon she was tapped to host her own show, which in time became TV6's prime attraction.
As of Monday, Menshova is on the move again, this time to NTV, Channel 4, where she will launch a new talk show, "Prodolzheniye sleduyet" (To Be Continued). Menshova rarely gives interviews, but she recently made an exception and talked with The Moscow Times about her life and career.
Q:Why did you decide to give up a successful acting career and go into television?
A:I began to doubt that acting was really for me. I went into it out of inertia; I was just continuing the family tradition, though I was never enthralled by the stage or movies. My change of heart coincided with a steep drop in the number of people attending the theater. I appeared in eight films, but hardly anyone saw them. Acting had lost its prestige.
Q:Your parents have said that you were a very independent child. Did the show "Ya sama" come out of your childhood?
A:My parents were terribly busy people. I learned early on that I had to do things for myself: to warm up my dinner, cook, tidy up. I never had a nanny. I was a typical Soviet latch-key kid. The habit of being independent did help me build my career, of course. It taught me to go out and get what I wanted without relying on help from others; to find a way out of any situation without complaining, whining or losing heart.
Q:It struck me that the main idea behind the show was that women could do anything they wanted using their smarts, charm and drive. Does that sound about right?
A:Not entirely. Originally, the idea was to compare male and female psychology in an attempt to understand one another. To explain how differently we perceive the world in order to avert the conflicts that result not from fundamental differences of opinion, but because of our different interpretations of one and the same situation. My own convictions led to another theme of the show: women's independence. Not as a goal in itself, but as a guiding principle that coincided, as it happened, with the ideals and goals of the younger generation.
Lots of women don't even know they are capable of dealing with life's trials and tribulations on their own, without a man. It's important to me that they understand this, not so that they become man-haters, but so they might change the way they and their families live.
Q:That outlook clashes with the values of traditional Russian culture in which women, raised on the "Domostroi" and the three German K's -- cooking, children and church, played a submissive role. Women stood behind their men "as behind a stone wall." Is the independent Western woman closer to your way of thinking?
A:My way of thinking is more contemporary than traditional. I don't think we should uphold traditions without examining them, nor do I think we should necessarily abandon them. We have to proceed from our own reality. And today, it's a fact that women often earn more than men. Men are also more conservative; they adapt more slowly than women. If, according to tradition, a woman is supposed to work all day, then come home and cook, wash the clothes and clean the apartment, while the "stone wall" is lying on the sofa, then who needs it? This sort of tradition enshrines the worst sort of inequality.
At the same time, I have never considered myself a feminist. That is one extreme, and I think in our country any extreme is dangerous. We Russians are a nation of extremes. I share many of the goals of feminism, but I avoid this label so that I won't be perceived as a man-hater.
Q:Your show ran for seven years. Have your own views of the relations between men and women changed during that time?
A:I used to think that my way of thinking was shared by the majority of women. Over the years, I have come to realize that I'm in the minority, sad to say.
Q:You've heard a lot of stories on the show. Have any of them stuck with you?
A:I remember most of them. Recently, for example, Larisa Savitskaya was on the show. Twenty years ago she and her husband were in a plane wreck. The plane crashed in the taiga from a height of 5,200 meters. Her husband died, but she survived. I was struck by the strength of this amazing woman. Everyone told her that she wouldn't make it, but she refused to die. They told her: "Your spine is broken. You'll never walk again." She can walk now. She even gave birth. She's handicapped, but that's just a formality. In fact, she's a perfectly normal person, a fighter.
Q:You've made the move to NTV. Was your decision connected with the events of this past spring?
A:It was connected to some extent. It seems to me that it wasn't terribly ethical for the NTV team to use the airwaves for airing their own problems. Conflicts arise in any profession, but doctors, for instance, don't have the television equipment to inform the world about their woes in minute detail, as NTV did. I think their response should have been more humble, more measured.
What happened at the end was a catastrophe for me. I was disappointed in these people from a purely professional standpoint. They showed us everything, from the special edition of "Antropologia" to the discussion with Alfred Kokh. Whatever you might think of him, he should have been warned that his every word would be broadcast to the nation.
Q:Kokh is hardly a naive man. He knew perfectly well what he was getting into.
A:But there is such a thing as professional ethics. At a certain point it's no longer important who's wrong and who's right. You begin to see the real person. They all attacked Kokh, provoked and taunted him. This was out of line, and it was hard to watch, because previously these journalists had been a brilliant team. They spoiled all that with their own hands.
Q:Weren't other hands responsible for humiliating and insulting them, then forcing them to move to TV6?
A:Didn't they humiliate the staff of TV6? This offended but united unit, these soldiers of freedom and democracy led by Yevgeny Kiselyov came to TV6, into someone else's home, and scattered the original residents to the four winds, saying: It's all right, folks. Just sit quietly. The big boys are here, and we're taking over. They couldn't have cared less what happened to the people who had been working at TV6 all these years.
Q:Didn't Kiselyov try to explain his actions to you and work something out?
A:No one at any time tried to speak with me, to explain anything to me, even though the network held a contract for my show that ran for another three months. When the contract expired, and I began to entertain offers from other networks, the TV6 management still showed no inkling of interest. When they finally did approach me, they offered to pay half the previous fee for my show, although that had barely covered our expenses to begin with. So we parted ways. NTV made a fair offer, and we packed our bags.
Q:You're sometimes called the Russian Oprah Winfrey. Are you flattered?
A:Definitely. It's a nice comparison. For me she is an ideal to be emulated in the sense that she's a woman who has hosted her own show for 25 years and feels great. I'd like to be able to say the same some day.
Menshova followed in her parents' footsteps, graduating from a theatrical academy and going to work at the Moscow Art Theater. Over a period of four years, she played a dozen leading roles and appeared in several movies. But just as everything was going right in her acting career, Menshova stepped off the stage and into the television studio as an editor. Soon she was tapped to host her own show, which in time became TV6's prime attraction.
As of Monday, Menshova is on the move again, this time to NTV, Channel 4, where she will launch a new talk show, "Prodolzheniye sleduyet" (To Be Continued). Menshova rarely gives interviews, but she recently made an exception and talked with The Moscow Times about her life and career.
Q:Why did you decide to give up a successful acting career and go into television?
A:I began to doubt that acting was really for me. I went into it out of inertia; I was just continuing the family tradition, though I was never enthralled by the stage or movies. My change of heart coincided with a steep drop in the number of people attending the theater. I appeared in eight films, but hardly anyone saw them. Acting had lost its prestige.
Q:Your parents have said that you were a very independent child. Did the show "Ya sama" come out of your childhood?
A:My parents were terribly busy people. I learned early on that I had to do things for myself: to warm up my dinner, cook, tidy up. I never had a nanny. I was a typical Soviet latch-key kid. The habit of being independent did help me build my career, of course. It taught me to go out and get what I wanted without relying on help from others; to find a way out of any situation without complaining, whining or losing heart.
Q:It struck me that the main idea behind the show was that women could do anything they wanted using their smarts, charm and drive. Does that sound about right?
A:Not entirely. Originally, the idea was to compare male and female psychology in an attempt to understand one another. To explain how differently we perceive the world in order to avert the conflicts that result not from fundamental differences of opinion, but because of our different interpretations of one and the same situation. My own convictions led to another theme of the show: women's independence. Not as a goal in itself, but as a guiding principle that coincided, as it happened, with the ideals and goals of the younger generation.
Lots of women don't even know they are capable of dealing with life's trials and tribulations on their own, without a man. It's important to me that they understand this, not so that they become man-haters, but so they might change the way they and their families live.
Q:That outlook clashes with the values of traditional Russian culture in which women, raised on the "Domostroi" and the three German K's -- cooking, children and church, played a submissive role. Women stood behind their men "as behind a stone wall." Is the independent Western woman closer to your way of thinking?
A:My way of thinking is more contemporary than traditional. I don't think we should uphold traditions without examining them, nor do I think we should necessarily abandon them. We have to proceed from our own reality. And today, it's a fact that women often earn more than men. Men are also more conservative; they adapt more slowly than women. If, according to tradition, a woman is supposed to work all day, then come home and cook, wash the clothes and clean the apartment, while the "stone wall" is lying on the sofa, then who needs it? This sort of tradition enshrines the worst sort of inequality.
At the same time, I have never considered myself a feminist. That is one extreme, and I think in our country any extreme is dangerous. We Russians are a nation of extremes. I share many of the goals of feminism, but I avoid this label so that I won't be perceived as a man-hater.
Q:Your show ran for seven years. Have your own views of the relations between men and women changed during that time?
A:I used to think that my way of thinking was shared by the majority of women. Over the years, I have come to realize that I'm in the minority, sad to say.
Q:You've heard a lot of stories on the show. Have any of them stuck with you?
A:I remember most of them. Recently, for example, Larisa Savitskaya was on the show. Twenty years ago she and her husband were in a plane wreck. The plane crashed in the taiga from a height of 5,200 meters. Her husband died, but she survived. I was struck by the strength of this amazing woman. Everyone told her that she wouldn't make it, but she refused to die. They told her: "Your spine is broken. You'll never walk again." She can walk now. She even gave birth. She's handicapped, but that's just a formality. In fact, she's a perfectly normal person, a fighter.
Q:You've made the move to NTV. Was your decision connected with the events of this past spring?
A:It was connected to some extent. It seems to me that it wasn't terribly ethical for the NTV team to use the airwaves for airing their own problems. Conflicts arise in any profession, but doctors, for instance, don't have the television equipment to inform the world about their woes in minute detail, as NTV did. I think their response should have been more humble, more measured.
What happened at the end was a catastrophe for me. I was disappointed in these people from a purely professional standpoint. They showed us everything, from the special edition of "Antropologia" to the discussion with Alfred Kokh. Whatever you might think of him, he should have been warned that his every word would be broadcast to the nation.
Q:Kokh is hardly a naive man. He knew perfectly well what he was getting into.
A:But there is such a thing as professional ethics. At a certain point it's no longer important who's wrong and who's right. You begin to see the real person. They all attacked Kokh, provoked and taunted him. This was out of line, and it was hard to watch, because previously these journalists had been a brilliant team. They spoiled all that with their own hands.
Q:Weren't other hands responsible for humiliating and insulting them, then forcing them to move to TV6?
A:Didn't they humiliate the staff of TV6? This offended but united unit, these soldiers of freedom and democracy led by Yevgeny Kiselyov came to TV6, into someone else's home, and scattered the original residents to the four winds, saying: It's all right, folks. Just sit quietly. The big boys are here, and we're taking over. They couldn't have cared less what happened to the people who had been working at TV6 all these years.
Q:Didn't Kiselyov try to explain his actions to you and work something out?
A:No one at any time tried to speak with me, to explain anything to me, even though the network held a contract for my show that ran for another three months. When the contract expired, and I began to entertain offers from other networks, the TV6 management still showed no inkling of interest. When they finally did approach me, they offered to pay half the previous fee for my show, although that had barely covered our expenses to begin with. So we parted ways. NTV made a fair offer, and we packed our bags.
Q:You're sometimes called the Russian Oprah Winfrey. Are you flattered?
A:Definitely. It's a nice comparison. For me she is an ideal to be emulated in the sense that she's a woman who has hosted her own show for 25 years and feels great. I'd like to be able to say the same some day.
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