Leonid Iovich Gaidai (Russian: Леонид Иович Ð"айдай;
30 January 1923 â€" 19 November 1993) was a Soviet and Russian comedy
film director who enjoyed immense popularity and broad public
recognition in the former Soviet Union. His films broke theatre
attendance records and are still some of the top-selling DVDs in
Russia. He has been described as "the king of Soviet comedy".Gaidai
was born on 30 January 1923 in Svobodny, Amur Oblast, where he is
commemorated by a statue. His father Iov Isidorovich Gaidai came from
a Ukrainian family of serfs of the Poltava Governorate. At the age of
22 he was sentenced to several years of katorga for revolutionary
activity and sent to the Far East to work at the railway. Leonid's
mother Maria Ivanovna Lubimova was born in the Ryazan Oblast to
Russian parents. She met her Iove through her brother Egor, also a
katorga worker who sent her a photo of his friend along with a
marriage proposal. After Gaidai's term expired, they settled down in
the Amur Oblast where Gaidai continued working at the railway building
site.Leonid was the third child in the family. His elder brother
Aleksandr (1919â€"1994) was a well-known poet and a war correspondent.
Leonid took part in amateur dramatics from a young age. He graduated
from school on 20 August 1941. In just two days the Great Patriotic
War started.
30 January 1923 â€" 19 November 1993) was a Soviet and Russian comedy
film director who enjoyed immense popularity and broad public
recognition in the former Soviet Union. His films broke theatre
attendance records and are still some of the top-selling DVDs in
Russia. He has been described as "the king of Soviet comedy".Gaidai
was born on 30 January 1923 in Svobodny, Amur Oblast, where he is
commemorated by a statue. His father Iov Isidorovich Gaidai came from
a Ukrainian family of serfs of the Poltava Governorate. At the age of
22 he was sentenced to several years of katorga for revolutionary
activity and sent to the Far East to work at the railway. Leonid's
mother Maria Ivanovna Lubimova was born in the Ryazan Oblast to
Russian parents. She met her Iove through her brother Egor, also a
katorga worker who sent her a photo of his friend along with a
marriage proposal. After Gaidai's term expired, they settled down in
the Amur Oblast where Gaidai continued working at the railway building
site.Leonid was the third child in the family. His elder brother
Aleksandr (1919â€"1994) was a well-known poet and a war correspondent.
Leonid took part in amateur dramatics from a young age. He graduated
from school on 20 August 1941. In just two days the Great Patriotic
War started.
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