Meeting with famous Russian actor, director and writer Veniamin Smekhov was held at the Baku Book Center on Nov. 22.

Welcoming the guest, the director of the Baku Book Center, Gunel Rzayeva, expressed hope that such events dedicated to dramatic art and poetry would become a good tradition.

During the event which was held in a humor and friendly atmosphere, Smekhov shared his memories of the famous Moscow Taganka Theater under the direction of Yury Lyubimov, spoke about the years of friendship with Vladimir Vysotsky and Valeri Zolotukhin.

As part of the evening, Smekhov also answered the questions of the audience and presented his new book titled “Hello, however ...”, which was released in January 2018 by the Moscow publishing house “Old Cinema”.The title of the book was taken from the first line of a letter, written by famous actors of the Taganka Theater - Vladimir Vysotsky and Valeri Zolotukhin to V. Smekhov in the late 60-s.

In the book, V. Smekhov shares memories not only of Vysotsky, but also describes legendary performances of the Taganka Theater and speaks about great people he worked with.

The book also contains various interviews, pages from the diaries of V. Smekhov of 1973-1980.

V. Smekhov arrived in Baku with a poetic program called “From Volodya to Volodya.”  The program includes favorite poems by Vladimir Mayakovsky, Igor Severyanin, Nikolai Erdman, David Samoilov, Alexander Mezhirov, Iosif Brodsky, Vladimir Vysotsky and other poets, as well as stories and memoirs.

Poetic evenings of Veniamin Smekhov reflect actor’s personal view on his favorite poets in the context of life and literature.