All his life he made the audience laugh, but only the inner circle knew that behind the external grotesque there was a mental pain. Once upon a time, the name of Nikolai Yakovchenko thundered throughout the Union thanks to the films "Viy", "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka" and "For Two Hares", and every resident of Kiev knew the artist by sight. Universal love and popularity came to him in adulthood, ironically coincided with years of deep personal loneliness.