“Never forget that I am an actress,” Lyudmila Gurchenko liked to repeat. Her creative destiny developed dramatically, and yet she was and remains one of the most prominent Russian actresses of the second half of the 20th century. There were no others like her in either Soviet or Russian cinema. And it’s unlikely to happen. To become Lyudmila Gurchenko, it is not enough to be born talented, you also need to go through the occupation, overcome the test of “copper pipes,” and survive the terrible years of oblivion. She created herself, rising from the ashes time after time, like a phoenix. An actress who cannot be forgotten.