Where was the FSB looking? Important facts are mixed up in the series "Doctor Preobrazhensky"

Angelica Zaozerskaya

Yesterday on Channel One the reality-based series "Doctor Preobrazhensky" about the creation of a new field of medicine in the USSR, plastic surgery, ended. According to the press service of Channel One, the series received a fairly high rating (although it was inferior to the predecessor series “Casanova”), and Channel One was bombarded with questions about the continuation of the film. Directors Sergey Taramayev and Lyubov Lvova created a story about the founders of the now very popular plastic surgery, which has everything for the audience's interest: love, beauty, danger, big politics and the almighty KGB. According to the filmmakers, without the KGB, our country would not have had the legendary Institute of Beauty on the Arbat, and there would have been no domestic plastic surgery in the 20th century, and the movie star Lyubov Orlova would not have become one of the first divas to preserve her youth through the intervention of a plastic surgeon.

The events of the film "Doctor Preobrazhensky" take place in 1966, when the main character - maxillofacial surgeon Lev Preobrazhensky (Denis Shvedov) opens the first experimental laboratory in Moscow, where he performs plastic surgeries under the watchful supervision of the KGB. In fact, the first plastic surgery hospital was created in 1960 (for 25 beds), and in 1964, at 12 Petrovka, another cosmetology department was opened. Moving away from the history of medicine for a couple of years for a feature film is not a crime. But to do a radical plastic surgery in 1966 (instead of 1983) to one of the leaders of the liberation movement in Chile, Luis Corvalan, is already a matter of principle and, perhaps, a political one.

The world famous operation "Domingo" to change the appearance in Moscow of Leonid Brezhnev's favorite - the Chilean communist Luis Corvalan (in the KGB archives the case appears "Operational file" Jorge "No. 5613 dated March 15, 1983) was made by the genius of plastic surgery Alexander Shmelev. The purpose of this operation was the illegal transfer of Corvalan to Chile for the clandestine struggle against the Pinochet junta. The end result of "Domingo" was to be another coup in Santiago and the coming to power of the communists. Note that in the film "Doctor Preobrazhensky" the Chilean patriot is presented as an ugly monster who, even before the operation to change his appearance, rudely harasses the assistant of Doctor Preobrazhensky. His appearance is very similar to Luis Corvalan before the operation.

International journalist Sergey Zavorotny told Novye Izvestia about his meetings with Luis Corvalanam in Chile (Sergey Borisovich worked for several years as a journalist in Chile and Mexico):

"I spoke with Corvalan after he had plastic surgery in Moscow. He told me that his ears were slightly pressed, his nose was reduced (it became a little snub), but the main change is connected with the beard. Corvalan to my question: "Do you like the new appearance?", replied: "Normal appearance, although I did not suffer about my natural appearance. They stopped recognizing me after my beard disappeared". When we met, Luis Corvalan had a mustache, with whom he walked around Santiago at the time, and, to be honest, he looked like himself. My interview with Corvalan was published in the newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda"", - after watching the film "Doctor Preobrazhensky" Sergey Zavorotny told Novye Izvestia.

Zavorotny very much doubts that "a similar operation with a Chilean communist, a friend of the USSR, could have happened in 1966":

"In 1966, there was no point in changing the appearance of the Chilean communists. The Christian Democrats were in power in Chile, and the Communist Party worked openly. For those who do not know the history of Chile, it may not be scary that Luis Corvalan from 1983 was abandoned in 1966 for plastic surgery, but these are, of course, ridiculous inventions that make those who understand history smile".

The question arises: where did the FSB of the Russian Federation look, passing the film with historical blunders on the air of the country's main channel? And did the security officials watch the film "Doctor Preobrazhensky"? Maybe the FSB today is not at all interested, as the KGB shows in the last century? The director of the film "Doctor Preobrazhensky" Sergey Taramayev to the question of Novye Izvestia "was there a consultant from the FSB in the film?", answered:

"We did not have a consultant from the FSB. I am at a loss to answer about showing the film to FSB officers. The material belongs to Channel One, and we are not told to whom it is shown. And about the influence of state security on plastic surgery - this question should be asked to the scriptwriters of the series - Pivovarova and Durnenkov. We worked with a script, not with real documents. But, as far as we know, there was a fact of cooperation between the scriptwriters and the FSB".

Meanwhile, in the series "Doctor Preobrazhensky" it is said in plain text: "after a successful operation, the Chilean communist was allowed by the country's leadership to open a Beauty Institute on Kalinin Avenue".

Indeed, in 1967, a Moscow medical and cosmetic clinic was opened on Kalinin Avenue (now Novy Arbat, 17). There are several departments at once: the department of dermatocosmetology, the department of outpatient surgery and dermatosurgery, the physiotherapy room and the Bucca therapy room. In 1968, another department of dermatocosmetology was organized on Komsomolsky Prospekt.

You involuntarily think: would Luis Corvalan (he died in 2010 at the age of 93) know that thanks to him the Beauty Institute was opened in the USSR? - would be glad. By the way, Luis Corvalan wrote an autobiographical book "From the Experienced", where you can learn about his "new appearance". The truth.