Christened with Crosses

Born in 1937, at the height of Stalin's repression, Eduard Kochergin was separated from his parents as a small child when they were arrested under false charges of being foreign spies. Sent to Siberia to an orphanage for children of "public enemies", some time later he managed to escape, though it took him six years to reach St. Petersburg. Upon his return to his native city, as if by a miracle, he found his mother, who had spent ten years in prison. Kochergin had survived his journey only because he had picked up some skills as a tattoo artist, and because he was also able to bend wire into the shape of Soviet leaders' profiles. It was only later, after studying at the academy of arts, that he was able to turn his talent for art into his profession. Kochergin went on to become an internationally acclaimed stage and set designer and is currently the head of stage design at the Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theatre in St. Petersburg.