From the interview with the Director of Maly Theatre, National Artist of the USSR, Mikhail Tsarev, given to "Theatre Moscow" in November, 1981: "The new productions will engage masters of middle and elder generation, the young, who remain the subject of special attention of the direction of the theatre. The troupe keeps being reinforced with actors, and at that we try to engage them in work at once. …Recently we took on the staff the Shepkin Higher School graduate O. Menshikov. We believe, the beginning actors will be able to justify our hopes".
Of course, Menshikov with all his energy, efficiency and desire to act, act and act again with all his heart was ready to justify hopes of much-esteemed Mikhail Ivanovich Tsarev. But… The year Menshikov spent in the Maly theatre has brought not a single serious line into his artistic biography. However it was useless to search for plots, malicious intents, somebody's intrigues or veiled malevolence to the talented freshman. That was a fixedly existing system of a respected, state, and the oldest theatre in treating neophytes. Probably, Menshikov would've spent many years there as "gifted and up-and-coming" before he was given the real opportunity to show all that. Truth, sometimes he was engaged in old productions - these were enters for small parts, often in connection with performing out of Moscow. He substituted for those who initially were chosen by the director, thus working off his rather modest salary.
A year passed. He was to serve out as a soldier.
He serves out in the Central Theatre of Soviet Army. From Oleg Menshikov's interview:
"Ha, what soldier I could be! I served in the Theatre of Soviet Army, and I had under command my colleagues, actors. I put up the lists of duties: someone to mount decorations, someone to clean up the territory, that's what my commanding was. We had a wonderful service! And I met good fellows: Denis Evstigneyev, the late Igor Nefedov, Anton Tabakov".
Having finished the military service in the Central Theatre of Soviet Army, Menshikov would become a Sergeant!
Then at the Central Theatre of Soviet Army there was a so called "team". There served young actors, they were fulfilling their patriotic duties being reckoned soldiers. On one hand, the "team" included the sons of famous fathers, having something to do with the world of Art, on the other hand, there were truly talented young men, and the theatre needed them as any creative establishment. And among them there was Oleg Menshikov, taken to this troupe…
Professor Natalia Alekseyevna Petrova recommended Menshikov to the "team" of the Central Theatre of Soviet Army. In the building of VTO our graduates again performed one of their brilliant skits. I sat in the hall with Yuri Yeremin, who at that time was the Chief Director of the Central Theatre of Soviet Army. We've been friends since our studentship. Having pointed at Menshikov, I advised to Yuri: "Take this fellow into your "team", you will never regret, he's very capable". It happened so that the same evening Mikhail Kozakov came up to me and Yeremin (and it was already after the work on "The Pokrovskie Gate") and started to speak about the same - Oleg must be taken into the "team"! From its own side, the Maly Theatre recommended him, hoping that after the service Menshikov would return there.
Of course then I had not a slightest idea that quite soon I would meet Oleg at work on the stage of the Army Theatre. It turned out that together with Yeremin we began to stage the dramatization of Boris Rakhmanin's story "The Clock Without Hands" and invited Oleg for one of the leading parts.

Oleg was treated warmly in the theatre. He was young, communicative, friendly to people. And you might feel a strong potential in him, desire and ability not to stop, but to go on further. Once an elderly actor asked Menshikov what he was doing in his spare time. "For example, I dance an hour a day", said Oleg. "Why?" "I must keep the form". "You dance alone?" "Yes. I turn on the music and dance".
There was a sense of long perspective in him. Frankly speaking, at first I took it rather ironically: "Oh, dear boy, will you go a long way? I've seen many, I can say…" I confess, I was mistaken. Fortunately, mistaken: Oleg Menshikov found ways always to drag himself - higher, further. Though, doubtlessly, there was a good deal of luck which never leaves him.
…In the Central Theatre of Soviet Army, unlike in the Maly Theatre, Menshikov was very tightly engaged in the repertoire. The plays mostly had something to do with war themes ("Private Soldiers"). But the classics was also on, in particular, "Forest" by Ostrovsky, "Idiot" by Dostoyevsky.
The military service of Sergeant O.E. Menshikov is coming to an end. He leaves the Central Theatre of Soviet Army, but doesn't return to the Maly. Menshikov was invited to join the troupe of the Ermolova Theatre.


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