Plastic surgery in the USSR: what operations were performed by Orlova, Mordyukova, Gurchenko

There was no sex in the USSR. Just like there was no plastic surgery. At least it was not customary to talk about it out loud, even to be ashamed. Despite such an “underground”, aesthetic medicine developed rapidly in the Soviet Union. They mostly put the powers that be under the knife – movie stars and pop stars, as well as representatives of the party elite.

It all started in 1930: Polina Zhemchuzhina, wife of the chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars Vyacheslav Molotov, was struck by beauty salons while traveling in France. Then she made a firm decision: Soviet women also deserve to look young and beautiful. Thanks to her efforts, the Institute of Cosmetics and Hygiene, or, as it was called, the Institute of Beauty, was soon opened in Moscow, offering both cosmetic and surgical procedures.

The main disadvantage was that the USSR government did not intend to finance the new industry, so domestic surgeons were forced to study according to foreign literature and replace the necessary tools and materials for operations with improvised means. So the lack of scalpels was compensated by razors and horsehair was used as threads for a facelift. This is where the expression “terribly beautiful” takes on a literal meaning!

It is also interesting that such procedures were quite cheap. With an average salary of 60-150 rubles, a facelift was estimated at 7 rubles, blepharoplasty – about 5 rubles, rhinoplasty – 20 rubles. As you know, many women could afford ideal features, but surgeons who dared to perform plastic surgery with such a lack of knowledge and experience could be counted on the fingers of the entire USSR. The chances of getting into the Beauty Institute for an ordinary person—without a big name, high status, or dirt—were close to zero. And there was a huge number of interested parties. But here is the paradox: despite all its popularity and huge demand, plastic still caused condemnation and misunderstanding.

Top specialists appeared in the USSR as early as the 1950s. So everyone knows the legendary surgeon Alexander Shmelev, whose golden hands were admired (and used) by many celebrities and husbands of political figures.

According to legend, his main patient was Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin. Or rather his double. According to various sources, the ruler had from four to fourteen “copies”, but the most famous of them was Yevsej Lubitsky. The native of Vinnitsa looked like a leader from childhood, but the plastic surgery performed by Shmelev gave him a complete likeness. Even years later, Lubitsky is almost indistinguishable from Stalin in the pictures.

Unfortunately, the fate of the twin was extremely tragic. He quickly ceased to look like a leader due to his slower aging and was banished to the camps, forever separated from his family.

Today, it is no secret to anyone that the legendary actress Lyubov Orlova owes her inexhaustible beauty and youth to plastic surgery. On a side note, they said that the Beauty Institute was created specifically for her to compete with Western movie stars. This, of course, is an absolute myth, because Lyubov Petrovna resorted to plastic surgery only in the 60s.

Orlova struggled with the signs of aging: she regularly had facelifts, removed drooping eyelids and experimented with anti-aging procedures. Alexander Shmelev acted as her permanent sculptor. Later, in 1974, as a thank you, Lyubov invited the surgeon to appear in an episode of the film Starling and Lyra with her participation.

In pursuit of youth, the Minister of Culture of the USSR Yekaterina Furtseva always turned to Alexander Shmelev. Her most common and popular procedure was a facelift. There were two versions of why the politician was so young. According to the first, Ekaterina Alekseevna simply fell in love with a man much younger than her and tried to make up. The second version says that Furtseva was madly afraid of losing her post and influence, so she tried to stay young so that no one could even think about her resignation.

A much more serious reason to go under the surgeon’s knife was Nonna Mordyuk. In 1990, she lost her only son and was deeply depressed, she didn’t want to live. Years later, when the topic of plastic surgery was no longer taboo, the actress admitted that she needed work to cope with the loss, but the noticeably old 65-year-old actress did not attract directors and was not offered serious roles.

Despite the fact that her friends discouraged her, Nonna Viktorovna embarked on a series of anti-aging manipulations and was not disappointed: the plastic brought the expected results, and the famous artist could return to work. Subsequently, Mordyukova often repeated that the surgeons literally gave her a second life.

Plastic surgery became a real drug for Lyudmila Gurchenko. She first turned to specialists in the early 1970s, before the filming of The Straw Hat, to have her nose slightly modified. Subsequently, Lyudmila Markovna could not be stopped: until the end of her days, despite the contraindications, she continued to correct something in herself and wanted to achieve an illusory ideal. According to various sources, Gurchenko performed about two dozen plastic surgeries.