An invented life: a series about the artist Petr Leshchenko made it to Russian television screens. How the legendary artist Pyotr Leshchenko became “the enemy of the people

Leshchenko was born in the village of Isaevo, Kherson province (now Nikolaevsky district, Odessa region). His mother gave birth to him out of wedlock. There is an entry in the register of the district archive: "Leshchenkova Maria Kalinovna, the daughter of a retired soldier, gave birth to a son, Peter 02.06.1898." Peter was baptized on 07/03/1898, later in the documents of Peter Leshchenko it was the date of baptism that appeared - July 3, 1898. In the column "father" there is an entry: "illegitimate". Godparents: nobleman Alexander Ivanovich Krivosheev and noblewoman Katerina Yakovlevna Orlova.

Peter's mother had an absolute ear for music, knew many folk songs and sang well, which had a proper influence on the formation of the personality of Peter, who from early childhood also showed outstanding musical abilities. The mother's family, together with 9-month-old Peter, moved to Chisinau, where about nine years later the mother married a dental technician Alexei Vasilyevich Alfimov. Pyotr Leshchenko spoke Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian, French and German.

Pyotr Leshchenko wrote about himself:

At the age of 9 months, my mother, together with her parents, moved to the city of Chisinau. Until 1906, I grew up and was brought up at home, and then, as one who had the ability to dance and music, I was taken into a soldier's church choir. The choir director Kogan later assigned me to the 7th public parish school in Chisinau. At the same time, the choir director Berezovsky, drawing attention to me, assigned me to the choir. Thus, by 1915, I received a general and musical education. In 1915, due to the change in my voice, I could not participate in the choir and was left without funds, so I decided to go to the front. He got a job as a volunteer in the 7th Don Cossack Regiment and served there until November 1916. From there I was sent to the infantry school of warrant officers in the city of Kiev, from which I graduated in March 1917, and I was awarded the rank of warrant officer. After graduating from the aforementioned school, through the 40th reserve regiment in Odessa, he was sent to the Romanian front and enlisted in the 55th Podolsk Infantry Regiment of the 14th Infantry Division as a platoon commander. In August 1917, on the territory of Romania, he was seriously wounded and shell-shocked - and sent to the hospital, first in the field, and then to the city of Chisinau.

The revolutionary events of October 1917 found me in the same hospital. Even after the revolution, I continued to be on treatment until January 1918, that is, until the capture of Bessarabia by the Romanian troops.

Pyotr Leshchenko: personal life, children, son

The beloved of Peter Konstantinovich Vera Georgievna Belousova is from Odessa. It was there that she met Pyotr Konstantinovich. Then, in May 1942, Romanian fascists ruled in Odessa, and the invaders invited Pyotr Leshchenko to give a concert. The meeting took place at a rehearsal at the Russian Drama Theater. Seeing a pretty 19-year-old girl, Leshchenko asked Vera to sing, and during her performance he immediately fell in love, although the age difference between them was 25 years, and his wife and 11-year-old son were waiting for him at home.

Later, the musicians said that there were tears in the eyes of Pyotr Konstantinovich when I sang. - Vera Georgievna recalled. - After the concert, Pyotr Konstantinovich found me and came to me that evening. We sat for a long time, but only he spoke. He told me and my mother how, having stepped on his native land, he knelt down, picked up the Odessa earth in his palm and kissed her. We saw that there was no leavened patriotism in this. Before us was a man longing for his land. So Pyotr Konstantinovich stayed. Not right away, of course, he was delicate.

Pyotr Leshchenko no longer wanted to return to his wife. He looked after Verochka, gave flowers. His wife, artist Zinaida Zakit, did not want to divorce. Petr Leshchenko still did not return, began to live in the apartment of his beloved.

Since the time was military, Petr Leshchenko, like all men, was called to fight. But he didn't want to do it. Leshchenko's biographies say that he ignored the subpoenas several times and was left behind because he was a prominent figure. However, this was not entirely true.

In May 1944, Petr Leshchenko divorced his legal wife Zinaida Zakit and registered his marriage with Vera Belousova. The newlyweds moved from Odessa to Bucharest. They began to go on tour together, perform in theaters and restaurants in Romania. But in parallel, Pyotr Konstantinovich wrote letters to Stalin and Kalinin with a request to facilitate the return to the Soviet Union. This played a detrimental role. In March 1951, Pyotr Konstantinovich was arrested right during a concert in the Romanian city of Brasov.

Music. Petr Leshchenko songs

Since 1926 he has been touring Europe and the Middle East for two years. After the tour, Peter returned to Romania and worked for some time at the Teatrul Nostra theater, but soon left for the Baltics, then to Ukraine, where he performed in various restaurants. His voice becomes recognizable.

At the end of 1931, the singer met the prominent composer Oskar Strok, who wrote popular melodies in the style of tango and foxtrot, as well as pop songs and soulful romances. At the suggestion of Strok, Petr Leshchenko records his voice for the first time. Gramophone records are published with the songs "Black Eyes", "Blue Rhapsody", "Tell Why", and later - "Tatiana", "Miranda" and "Nastya-berry".

The success of these songs leads to the fact that the performer is offered a contract by the Romanian branch of the British record company "Columbia", on which he has recorded more than 80 records. Also his recordings were published by other record companies - German "Parlophone Records", Romanian "Electrecord" and Latvian "Bellaccord". In total, Petr Leshchenko managed to record about 180 records in his life.

The sound recording raises the fame of Petr Leshchenko, and he tours a lot not only in Bessarabia, but also performs in the best halls in Vienna, Bucharest, London.

At the end of 1941, the vocalist gave a number of concerts in Odessa, occupied by the Romanian troops, in the central hall of the Bristol Hotel.

Petr Leshchenko: "Everything that was" series

In the series “Petr Leshchenko. Everything That Was ... ”tells the dramatic story of the life of the legendary performer of romances and folk songs Pyotr Leshchenko (1898-1954). The film will tell about the singer's childhood and youth, which took place in Chisinau, about the battles in the First World War, about fiery love, about the beginning of a career and about days of stormy glory. The famous artist at different ages was played by two actors - Ivan Stebunov and Konstantin Khabensky.

The television movie became the first feature film about one of the most famous performers of the early twentieth century. Edward Volodarsky worked on the script for the series, who created scripts for such popularly beloved films as "At home among strangers, a stranger among friends", "Passion for Chapay", "My friend Ivan Lapshin" and many others.

In the series “Petr Leshchenko. Everything that happened ... ”, in addition to the leading actors Stebunov and Khabensky, they also starred: Victoria Isakova, Andrey Merzlikin, Boris Kamorzin, Oleg Mazurov, Miriam Sekhon, Elena Lotova, Alexey Kravchenko, Evgenia Dobrovolskaya, Evgeny Sidikhin and others.

Petr Leshchenko All that was the series actors and roles, who sings songs

Cool and absolutely in sync with Khabensky, the role of the young Leshchenko was played by Ivan Stebunov.

In general, today, the personality of Peter Leshchenko is clearly underestimated - he was not just a chansonnier (in the good French sense of the word), a performer of gypsy songs and Russian romances, Leshchenko was the most famous non-Argentine tango musician! And thanks to the director for paying tribute to the memory of this great Artist with such respect and talent.

By genre, this film is not a biopic musical, but rather a musical drama, the atmosphere of the film, like the fate of Leshchenko himself, is quite tragic, but what else can you expect when speaking of a country that devours its geniuses with an enviable appetite.

During the years of creativity, the main character of the picture was never afraid to go to the most dangerous places, where fierce battles raged. There he held concerts that raised the morale and spirit of the fighters, who thanked and adored the artist. From another trip, Peter could return with injuries, but love for the Motherland and faith in his own strength allowed Leshchenko to go through many trials, remaining on his own two feet.

This magnificent film will show the exciting story of a great man who was not even broken by the war. The series is a film biography of a popular singer, who sounded "At the Samovar", "Do not go away", "Black Eyes", "Komarik", "Chubchik", "My Marusechka "," Farewell, my camp "and many other famous songs of the 1930-1940s.

Songs from the series Petr Leshchenko

Singer Leshchenko Petr Konstantinovich, photo

Petr Leshchenko and Zinaida Zakitt

He considered his dance technique imperfect, so he entered the best French ballet school. Here he met the artist Zinaida Zakitt, her stage name was Zhenya. Zinaida was Latvian by birth, originally from Riga. Together with Peter, Zhenya learned several numbers, and they began to perform in pairs in restaurants in Paris. A resounding success quickly came to them, and soon Peter and Zinaida got married.

Since 1926 Leshchenko and Zakitt toured Europe and the Middle East with Polish musicians for two years. They were applauded in Thessaloniki and Constantinople, in Athens and Adana, in Aleppo and Smyrna, Damascus and Beirut.

After the tour, the couple returned to Romania, where they went to work in a theater called Teatrul Nostra, which was located in Bucharest. But they did not stay in one place for a long time. For about three months they performed in a restaurant in Chernivtsi, then they gave performances in Chisinau in cinemas. Later, Riga became their refuge, where Peter alone went to work in the restaurant “A. T." as a vocalist. They stopped dancing because of Zinaida's pregnancy. At the beginning of 1931, the couple had a son, Igor.

While working in a restaurant, Peter met the composer Oskar Strok, who later wrote many songs and romances for the singer. His musical compositions were gaining popularity, Leshchenko began to collaborate with other composers and, in 1932, began recording for record companies.

In 1933, Peter with his wife and child settled in Bucharest, from where he sometimes went on tour and on recordings. Zinaida also returned to dancing, and the couple began performing together again.

In 1935, Peter opened his own restaurant called Leshchenko, in which he performed himself, and the ensemble Trio Leshchenko was very popular, it included Zinaida and Peter's younger sisters.

Death of Peter Leshchenko

Cooperation with a German recording studio and touring in Western countries did not go unnoticed by the Soviet government. The socialist system, which Romania joined after the Second World War, considered the singer unreliable, impermissibly vulgar and even anti-communist. He was also accused of having forced the Soviet citizen Belousova to move to Romania, who, after her marriage to Leshchenko, was officially considered a traitor to her homeland in the USSR.

On a direct order from Moscow, the Romanian state security agencies arrest Peter Leshchenko right during the intermission of a concert that took place in the city of Brasov at the end of March 1951.

For three years he was transferred from one prison to another. Leshchenko was in Zilava, Kapul Midia, Borjeshte, and in 1954 he was transferred to the Tyrgu-Okna prison hospital, as he had an old stomach ulcer. An operation was performed, but he was never discharged from the hospital. A new aggravation and an organism weakened by imprisonment caused the death of Pyotr Konstantinovich Leshchenko on July 16, 1954.

Peter Leshchenko to listen to songs

Black eyes
My last tango
Tell me why
At the samovar
Nastya-berry
Sing gypsy, cry gypsy
Tatiana
Miranda
Faceted cups
Blue rhapsody

Petr Konstantinovich Leschenko (rum. Petre Leșcenco, June 2 (14), 1898 - July 16, 1954) - Russian and Romanian pop singer, performer of folk and character dances, restaurateur.

Early years, World War I

Leshchenko was born in the village of Isaevo, Kherson province (now Nikolaevsky district, Odessa region). His mother gave birth to him out of wedlock. In the column "father" there is an entry: "illegitimate". Peter had younger half-sisters Valentina and Ekaterina.
9 months after the birth of her first child, Maria Kalinovna leaves with her parents for Chisinau. Until the age of 8, the boy was educated at home by his mother, grandmother and stepfather Aleksey Vasilyevich Alfimov, who was a dental technician. Maria had an absolute ear for music, loved and knew how to sing, knew many folk songs by heart. These abilities were inherited by Peter, who in 1906 was admitted to the soldier's church choir for his demonstrated abilities in the field of vocal and dancing, and a few months later he was enrolled in the 7th People's Parish School in Chisinau. Thus, at the age of 17, Petr Leshchenko graduated from both general and music schools.

Then the young man is taken to the front. First, he served for a year in the 7th Don Cossack regiment, and then, after graduating from the Kiev infantry school of warrant officers, in the Odessa 40th reserve regiment as a warrant officer, even later as a platoon commander of the Podolsk infantry regiment. At the end of the summer of 1917, he was wounded, seriously wounded and sent for treatment to a hospital in Chisinau. Recovery dragged on, and Leshchenko left the hospital after the October revolution. And since Bessarabia went to Romania, the future singer turned out to be a Romanian citizen.

Pyotr Leshchenko spoke Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian, French and German.
After the army, he worked in different directions - he was a turner, held various positions in the church, sang in a vocal quartet, danced in the theater and sang in the Kishinev Opera House.

At the end of 1919, Petr Leshchenko switches exclusively to pop activity. He tours a lot as part of the Elizarov dance group, with the Guslyar balalaika ensemble, performs as a solo singer and in a guitar duet. Once in Paris, he entered the Trefilova ballet school, well-known at that time, after which he worked in the prestigious Normandy restaurant with dance and vocal numbers.

Since 1926 he has been touring Europe and the Middle East for two years. After the tour, Peter returned to Romania and worked for some time at the Teatrul Nostra theater, but soon left for the Baltics, then to Ukraine, where he performed in various restaurants. His voice becomes recognizable.

At the end of 1931, the singer met the prominent composer Oskar Strok, who wrote popular melodies in the style of tango and foxtrot, as well as pop songs and soulful romances. At the suggestion of Strok, Petr Leshchenko records his voice for the first time. Gramophone records are published with the songs "Black Eyes", "Blue Rhapsody", "Tell Why", and later - "Tatiana", "Miranda" and "Nastya-berry".

The success of these songs leads to the fact that the performer is offered a contract by the Romanian branch of the British record company "Columbia", on which he has recorded more than 80 records. Also his recordings were published by other record companies - German "Parlophone Records", Romanian "Electrecord" and Latvian "Bellaccord". In total, Petr Leshchenko managed to record about 180 records in his life.

In 1933 he moved permanently to Bucharest. In 1935-1940 he collaborated there with the recording companies Bellacord and Columbia and recorded more than a hundred songs of various genres. In 1935 he again went to England, performed in restaurants, in 1938 - in Riga, in 1940 - in Paris ...
The sound recording raises the fame of Petr Leshchenko, and he tours a lot not only in Bessarabia, but also performs in the best halls in Vienna, Bucharest, London.
At the end of 1941, the vocalist gave a number of concerts in Odessa, occupied by the Romanian troops, in the central hall of the Bristol Hotel.

In September 1944, after the liberation of Bucharest by the Red Army, Leshchenko gave concerts in hospitals, military garrisons, and officers' clubs. He sang patriotic songs about Russian girls composed by him - "Natasha", "Nadya-Nadechka", sang "Dark Night" by Nikita Bogoslovsky, popular Russian songs. His new wife also performed with him. Their concerts were also attended by major military leaders - Marshals Zhukov and Konev.
In 1944-1945 Leshchenko changed his repertoire and a sad tonality began to dominate in his songs: "Tramp", "Bell", "Mother's Heart", "Evening Bells", "Don't Leave".
Since the summer of 1948, the couple performed in various cafes and cinemas in Bucharest.

Personal life

While studying at a ballet school in France, Petr Leshchenko met the Latvian Zhenya Zakitt, who came to study at the same school from Riga. Their romance developed rapidly, despite the fact that Peter was 25 years older than Vera. In the same year, they officially registered their marriage. The couple went on all the tours together and performed a lot in a duet. In this union, their son, Ikki Leshchenko, was born in January 1931.

During the Second World War, while on tour in Odessa, Pyotr Konstantinovich met 19-year-old student of the Conservatory Vera Belousova. On one of the first evenings, he proposes to the girl and leaves for Bucharest to file a divorce from Zakitt, with whom he was still officially signed. Due to the war and threats of mobilization, the wedding was postponed for a long time. Only in 1944 Leshchenko and Belousova were able to register their marriage.

Cooperation with a German recording studio and touring in Western countries did not go unnoticed by the Soviet government. The socialist system, which Romania joined after the Second World War, considered the singer unreliable, impermissibly vulgar and even anti-communist. He was also accused of having forced the Soviet citizen Belousova to move to Romania, who, after her marriage to Leshchenko, was officially considered a traitor to her homeland in the USSR. Leshchenko investigated the possibility of returning to the Soviet Union, appealed to the "competent authorities", wrote letters to Stalin and Kalinin asking for Soviet citizenship.
But on a direct order from Moscow, the Romanian state security bodies arrest Peter Leshchenko right during the intermission of a concert that took place in the city of Brasov at the end of March 1951.

For three years he was transferred from one prison to another. Leshchenko was in Zilava, Kapul Midia, Borjeshte, and in 1954 he was transferred to the Tyrgu-Okna prison hospital, as he had an old stomach ulcer. An operation was performed, but he was never discharged from the hospital. A new aggravation and an organism weakened by imprisonment caused the death of Pyotr Konstantinovich Leshchenko on July 16, 1954.

On August 5, 1952, Belousova, who, like Leshchenko, was accused of treason (speaking in occupied Odessa), was sentenced to 25 years in prison. In 1954 she was released for lack of corpus delicti. Many years later, his wife found out: Pyotr Konstantinovich became one of thousands of builders of the Danube Canal in Romania and died on July 16, 1954 at the age of 56, either from a stomach ulcer or from poisoning. The location of his grave is unknown. The archives of the Soviet and Romanian KGB in the Leshchenko case have not yet been investigated. Vera Leshchenko died in Moscow in 2009.

Discography. Resurgence in popularity in 1988

In the postwar years in Moscow, on the wave of popularity of Pyotr Leshchenko, a whole underground company for the release and distribution of records "under Leshchenko" flourished. The backbone of the company was the so-called "Jazz of Tabachnikov" (composer Boris Fomin also worked there at one time) and its soloist Nikolai Markov, whose voice was almost identical to that of the famous singer. In a short time, forty works from Leshchenko's repertoire were recorded, including the "Cranes" that had nothing to do with him. The records were distributed mainly in Ukraine, in Moldova ... Officially, the records of Pyotr Konstantinovich Leshchenko were not sold in stores, because they were not released, and the singer's voice sounded almost in every home. Genuine or fake - guess what.

There was no official permission for the appearance of the voice of Peter Konstantinovich in the late 80s of the XX century, they just stopped banning. On Soviet radio, recordings of songs performed by Leshchenko began to sound. Then there were programs and articles about him. In 1988, the Melodiya company released the disc “Pyotr Leshchenko Singing”, which was called the sensation of the month. In May, the disc took 73rd place in the All-Union hit parade, and in a couple of weeks it took first place in popularity among giant discs. For the first time legally, Pyotr Leshchenko was named the best.

In 2013, the series “Pyotr Leshchenko. Everything that happened ... ”–– 8-part biographical film (directed by Vladimir Kott, scriptwriter Eduard Volodarsky, the role of Leshchenko was played by Konstantin Khabensky and Ivan Stebunov).

Using songs:
1996 - Animated film Funny Pictures. Fantasy in retro style (director R. Kobzarev, scriptwriter R. Kobzarev) - song "Gypsy".
1997 - Animation film Pink Doll (director V. Olshwang, scriptwriter N. Kozhushanaya) - song "Lola".

There is a street in Chisinau, as well as a lane that bears his name.

The king of romances and tango Pyotr Leshchenko, whose biography is full of unsolved mysteries, was also a dancer and polyglot. He lived a bright, stormy life. Creativity, love and war are closely intertwined in it. It is a pity that it ended tragically. And even the name of Pyotr Leshchenko after his death was banned.

The first secret in the history of Peter is connected with his birth. The boy was born in the summer of 1898. The name of his mother, Maria Kalinovna Leshchenkova, is known. But who was Peter's father remains a mystery. And it is not surprising, because in those days the illegitimacy of children was not advertised. Therefore, Maria Kalinovna did not even tell her son anything about her father.

The second question: who is Pyotr Leshchenko by nationality? His place of birth is the village of Isaevo, Kherson province. In those years it was the Russian Empire, after the First World War the territory became Romanian, and today it is Ukrainian. Due to the controversy of the problem, Petr Leshchenko is usually called a Russian and Romanian singer at the same time. It is a pity that none of these citizenships brought him happiness. But more on that later.

The son was not yet a year old when Maria Kalinovna moved with him to Chisinau. Several years later she married A.V. Alfimova, dental technician. Peter has two sisters.

By the beginning of the First World War, Petr Leshchenko received both general and musical education. From the age of 8 he sang in the church soldiers' choir. He spoke fluently in Russian, Ukrainian, German, Romanian and French, which later came in handy in his creative touring life.

And who knows how his life would have turned out, but all plans were canceled out by the war. In 1917, he received a severe concussion and injury. Peter's treatment took place in a hospital in Chisinau. And when it ended, the world was different. A revolution took place, Petr Leshchenko became a citizen of Romania, without a profession and without a means of subsistence.

The young man tried to work as a turner, church clerk, and singing. But they still could not arrange life. A new round and the beginning of his creative career took place in 1919, when Pyotr Leshchenko was admitted to the Elizarov dance group.

His path as a dancer lasted twelve years. And on this way in France in 1925, Peter met his first wife - the artist Zinaida (Zhenya) Zakitt. She was originally from Latvia. Family life began with joint creativity, bright concert numbers, countless tours. The young couple traveled all over Europe and the Middle East.

But in 1931, little son Igor was born. Zhenya could not perform, and Peter had to come up with something to keep the family afloat. This is how his singing career began.

And here's a joke of fate. As once, having arrived to dance in Paris, Pyotr Leshchenko fell in love with Zhenya, so in 1941 in Odessa he met the young beauty Vera Belousova and fell in love. 19-year-old student of the conservatory won the heart of the master. He decided to divorce his first wife. But the Second World War was going on. Peter was subject to mobilization, served in the Crimea. He managed to take the family of his beloved to Bucharest so that they would not be sent to Germany. The wedding of Peter and Vera took place only in 1944.

The couple sang together a lot, gave concerts. However, imperceptibly, clouds of political persecution were gathering over them. Petr Leshchenko was taken into custody during the intermission at one of his concerts in 1951. Vera was recognized as a traitor to the Motherland only because she was the wife of a foreigner.

As for many hundreds and thousands of victims in those years, his stay in prison ended with the death of Peter on July 16, 1954 "from a prolonged illness." Even the grave of the famous singer today is not left. Vera Leshchenko was also arrested, but later released and rehabilitated. She passed away in 2009 in Moscow. Peter's son, Igor Leshchenko, became a choreographer.

Petr Leshchenko: creativity

It should be noted that from an early age Pyotr Leshchenko was surrounded by a creative and musical atmosphere. My stepfather played the guitar, and my mother sang wonderfully. It was from her that her son got an absolute ear for music and an indisputable talent for singing and dancing.

Leshchenko's most famous romances, including Black Eyes, My Last Tango, At the Samovar, Nastya Berry, Sing the Gypsy, Cry, Gypsy, Blue Rhapsody, remain popular today. But few people remember that Peter began his creative career not with singing, but with dancing.

Since 1919, he toured Romania for five years. And in 1925 he went to conquer Paris. In France, Peter worked a lot in restaurants, performed rather unusual numbers using daggers. To improve his technique, he studied at one of the best ballet school at that time, Trefilova.

For another five years, Petr Leshchenko toured with paired dance numbers together with his first wife, Zhenya. The tour ended with the return of the spouses to their homeland, where they settled in Teatrul Nostra (Bucharest).

Actually, Peter owes his singing career to some extent to Zhenya. After the birth of his son, he returned to songwriting, and then met Oskar Strok, a famous composer.

Strok advised Peter to record records. Leshchenko's voice sounded in a new way and remained for centuries. As a result of cooperation with record companies in Germany, England, Latvia, Romania, Petr Leshchenko has recorded more than 180 discs. It was they who helped bring the name of the talented performer back from undeserved oblivion.

Three decades after the death of the singer, in the 80s of the twentieth century, the ban on his name was lifted in the USSR. Soulful romances sounded on the radio, publications in the press began to appear.

And again, Pyotr Leshchenko became popular in 1988 after the release of the disc "Pyotr Leshchenko Singing" (Melodiya firm). She made a splash, and since then his name has taken its rightful place in the musical horizon.

In 2013, a biography film “Pyotr Leshchenko. All that has gone before…". In Chisinau, a street and a lane were named after him.

Yes, life is not easy for many creative people. But nevertheless, true talent, as Petr Leshchenko was and remains in our memory, is a rarity, and it is criminal to forget such names.

Many even today, more than half a century after the death of the great artist, are interested in the biography of Pyotr Leshchenko. This man left his mark on the hearts of many people of the former USSR. The biography of Peter Leshchenko is known to the older generation. However, young people are usually unfamiliar with this artist. We invite you to learn about his life and work by reading this article.

Parents of the future artist

Peter Konstantinovich was born in 1898, on July 3. Petr Leshchenko's small homeland is the village of Isaevo, located near Odessa. Maria Konstantinovna, the boy's mother, was an illiterate poor peasant woman. The father, who died when the future artist was only 3 years old, was replaced by Aleksey Vasilyevich Alfimov, who became Peter's stepfather. He was a kind, simple person who knew how and loved to play the guitar and harmonica.

Childhood

When the boy was 9 months old, he moved with his mother and her parents to a new place of residence - to Chisinau. Peter was brought up at home until 1906, and then, as he had an ability in music and dancing, he was taken into the soldier's church choir. Kogan, his regent, then assigned the boy to the 7th parish public school of the city of Chisinau. Berezovsky at the same time appointed him to the bishop's choir (Berezovsky was his choir director). So by 1915, Peter received a musical and general education. Due to the change in voice this year he could not participate in the choir and was left without funds. And Peter decided to go to the front. He got a job in the 7th Don Cossack regiment as a volunteer and served in it until November 1916. The biography of Pyotr Leshchenko continued with the fact that he was sent to Kiev, to the infantry school of warrant officers, which he graduated in March 1917.

Peter goes to the army and is wounded

Romania, which fought for the Entente, began to suffer defeat. To help her army, among the mobilized, Peter went ahead of schedule to the front line. Leshchenko was hospitalized after being seriously wounded. Here he met the October Revolution. The political situation in Romania has now changed: the country has unilaterally resolved a long-standing territorial dispute by annexing new lands. In 1918 (in January), she occupied Bessarabia, which had previously belonged to Russia.

The first years after the revolution

Thus, Petr Konstantinovich Leshchenko turns out to be an emigrant, unexpectedly for himself. He works as a singer, carpenter, dishwasher, and moonlights in cafes and cinemas. In 1918-19, for example, Leshchenko performed as an artist between screenings at the Suzanna and Orpheum cinemas.

After leaving the hospital, Peter lived for some time with his relatives. Leshchenko until 1919 worked as a turner for a private trader, after which he served as a psalmist in the church built at the Olginsky orphanage, and was also a subregent of the church choir in the cemetery and Chuflinsky churches. At the same time, he participated in a vocal quartet, and also sang at the Chisinau Opera. As part of a dance group called "Elizarov" (Antonina Kanziger, Tovbis and Danila Zeltser) from the fall of 1919, Peter performed for 4 months at the Alagambra theater in Bucharest. Then he wanted to feel more confident in the dance, as he felt the lack of his professional training. Peter decided to enter the Trefilova ballet school in Paris. This school was among the best in France. In 1923 Leshchenko left for Paris.

Meeting with Zinaida Zakis

Leshchenko met in the capital of France with the charming Zinaida Zakis, a 19-year-old dancer. She came with a choreographic ensemble from Riga to this city. They got married 2 years later. After that, several joint song and dance numbers were prepared by Zinaida and Petr Leshchenko. His wife was a wonderful classical ballerina. She also performed solo numbers.

Tours abroad and the beginning of a solo career

In the summer of 1926, the duo of the couple toured the countries of the Middle East and Europe and gained fame. Peter and Zinaida arrived in Chisinau in 1928, where Leshchenko introduced his wife to her stepfather, mother and sisters.

After Zinaida became pregnant, she had to temporarily leave the stage, and Petr Konstantinovich Leshchenko began to perform independently with concert programs. In 1931, in January, Peter had a son, Igor Leshchenko. Petr Konstantinovich began his solo career at the age of 32 - far from a young age. Nevertheless, overwhelming success awaited him. Posters all over Chisinau were soon filled with posters announcing the concerts of this artist. And flowers, confessions, applause poured from all sides.

Collaboration with renowned composers

The singer became friends with Oskar Strok, a renowned composer who was the creator of the most popular foxtrots, romances, tangos and songs. It was he who managed to combine the intonations of the Argentine tango with the sincerity and melody of the Russian romance. The best works of this famous composer were performed and recorded by Leshchenko: "Blue Rhapsody", "Black Eyes", "Tell me why" and other romances and tango maestro. He also worked with other composers, for example, with Mark Maryanovsky, who was the author of "Nastya Berry", "Miranda" and "Tatiana".

Moving to Bucharest and opening of "Our House"

Leshchenko in the first half of the 30s moved to Bucharest for permanent residence. Here he sang for a while in a cafe called Galeries Lafayette.

Then Leshchenko, Kavura and Gerutsky opened a small restaurant in Bucharest in 1933 and named it "Our House". Gerutsky invested and welcomed the guests. Kavura, an experienced chef, ran the kitchen, while Leshchenko created the mood in the establishment by playing the guitar. Leshchenko's mother and stepfather received the visitors' wardrobe. Things went well in Our House: there was no shortage of visitors, due to their large number, we even had to think about changing the premises.

Restaurant "Leshchenko"

So on Victoria Street, the main street of Bucharest, in the fall of 1936 a new restaurant called "Leshchenko" was opened. Since Peter Konstantinovich was very popular in the city, this place was visited by exquisite Romanian and Russian society. A magnificent orchestra played for the guests. Zinaida made good dancers out of Peter's sisters - Katya and Vali. All performed together, but Leshchenko was the highlight of the program. Alla Bayanova, who later became a famous singer, also began her career in the restaurant.

Growing popularity

Petr Leshchenko, whose life story interests us, in 1935-40 collaborated with such record companies as Columbia and Bellacord. During this period, he released over 100 songs of various genres. The songs of this singer sounded on the radio, in restaurants, and at parties. Leshchenko's records even made it to the USSR. There were especially many of them in the black markets and bazaars of the Baltic states and Bessarabia, which were included in the Soviet Union in 1940. However, they did not sound on Soviet radio. Leshchenko was still an emigrant.

The life of Petr Leshchenko in Romania

Peter Konstantinovich was highly respected, living among the Romanians, although he did not feel much love for them. Leshchenko often admired the musicality of this people. Peter did not smoke, but he loved to drink. His weakness was good wines and champagne, which were extremely abundant at that time in Romania. Often the singer and owner of the most fashionable restaurant in Bucharest was greeted a little drunk, which was almost imperceptible in the atmosphere of the restaurant frenzy. Peter enjoyed great success with women and was not indifferent to them. One interesting fact speaks about the popularity of Leshchenko at this time. The father of Mihai, the leader of the dynasty ruling in Romania, King Charles often brought him to his country mansion in an armored car. He liked the romances of Peter Leshchenko.

Occupation of Odessa and a visit to this city Leshchenko

In 1940, the last concerts of this artist took place in Paris. In 1941 Germany attacked the Soviet Union, Romania occupied Odessa. Peter Leshchenko was summoned to the regiment, but he refused to fight against his people. Then he was tried by an official court, but Leshchenko was released as a popular singer.

Almost a year has passed since the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. In May 1942, the singer Pyotr Leshchenko arrived in Odessa. He arrived in this city, occupied by the Romanian troops, on May 19 and stayed at the local hotel "Bristol". On June 5, 7 and 9, Peter gave recitals at the Russian Drama Theater. The real excitement began in the city: from the early morning queues for tickets were lined up. All concerts, at the request of the Romanian command, had to begin with a song sung in Romanian. And only then the famous "Two Guitars", "My Marusichka", "Tatiana" sounded. The concerts ended with "Chubchik".

Acquaintance with Vera Belousova

At the same time, Leshchenko first met Vera Belousova, who later became the singer's wife. A slender, beautiful girl with an accordion won the heart of Peter. They soon began performing together.

Service in Crimea and registration of a new marriage

Peter Konstantinovich was drafted into the army in October 1943. He worked in the Crimea as the head of an officer's canteen and returned to Romania with the approach of Soviet troops.

Peter Konstantinovich in May 1944 officially divorced his wife Zinaida Zakis and registered a relationship with Vera Belousova. He gave concerts after the arrival of the Red Army, playing in hospitals, officers' clubs, military garrisons. Also, Petr Leshchenko sang patriotic songs dedicated to Russian girls, which he composed himself - "Nadya-Nadechka", "Natasha", sang the song "Dark Night" by Bogoslovsky, as well as popular Russian songs at that time. His new wife performed with him.

Repertoire change

Since the summer of 1948, the couple performed in various cinemas and cafes in Bucharest. Then they found work at the Variety Theater, just created. At this time Leshchenko was already more than 50 years old. His repertoire has also changed with age. The songs performed by Pyotr Leshchenko became more sentimental. Tempo hits such as "Nastenka" and "My Marusichka" gradually disappeared from the programs, a taste for romances and lyrics, colored with sadness and longing, appeared. Even in the plate recordings made in 1944-45, a gloomy tonality dominates: "Bell", "Tramp", "Don't go away", "Evening bells", "Mother's heart", etc.

Arrest and death in prison

At the beginning of 1951, Leshchenko began another petition for his return to his homeland, to the USSR. He was arrested in March by the Romanian security forces for being an officer in the army, in which the future Soviet order bearer was the commander-in-chief. By this time, Romania had turned from an "anti-people monarchy" into a People's Republic. Leshchenko, a Russian singer, died in 1954 in a prison hospital in Bucharest, either from poisoning or from a stomach ulcer. This is the end of the biography of Pyotr Leshchenko, but his memory is still alive.

The fate of Peter's relatives

Belousova Vera Georgievna was arrested a year later. She received 25 years for treason to the Motherland. In June 1954, the Supreme Court of the USSR ruled to release the former Komsomol member for lack of corpus delicti. It is known that Belousova sang to the defenders of Odessa in 1941. Vera Georgievna is a native of Odessa. During the defense of this city, she went to the front with concerts and was even wounded during the next trip. Now Vera Georgievna is completely rehabilitated. Leshchenko Vera Georgievna performed as a singer, pianist and accordionist on many stages of the country, sang in the "Hermitage" in Moscow. In the mid-80s, she went on a well-deserved retirement. Vera Georgievna died in 2009 in Moscow.

Valentina, Peter's sister, once saw her brother when he was led down the street by a convoy to dig ditches. Pyotr Leshchenko noticed his sister and cried.

The children of this singer and their fate are also of interest to many. Therefore, one cannot fail to mention that his son Igor was an excellent choreographer who worked at the Bucharest Theater. He died at the age of 47.

As you know, famous Russian songs largely belong not only to Russian performers, but were written for a specific audience. One of the luminaries of mass musical production was Pyotr Leshchenko, who had Ukrainian roots, and in his upbringing and cultural environment, he was a Moldovan. He became famous thanks to the songs "Black Eyes", "Tell me why", "Tatiana". We will tell in more detail about the successes and falls in the career and personal life of Peter Leshchenko in this material.

Petr Leshchenko biography and personal life: childhood and youth of the famous singer, the war years

Petr Leshchenko was born in the village of Isaevo, which is located in the Odessa region. Mother - Maria Kalinovna Leshchenkova gave birth to a son out of wedlock, and he never recognized his biological father. As the illegitimate Peter was not given a birth certificate, and the first document was a certificate of baptism, which took place on July 3, 1898. Peter had younger half-sisters Valentina and Ekaterina.

9 months after the birth of her first child, Maria Kalinovna leaves with her parents for Chisinau. Until the age of 8, the boy was educated at home by his mother, grandmother and stepfather Aleksey Vasilyevich Alfimov, a dental technician. Maria had an absolute ear for music, loved and knew how to sing, knew many folk songs by heart. These abilities were inherited by Peter, who in 1906 was admitted to the soldier's church choir for his demonstrated abilities in the field of vocal and dancing, and a few months later he was enrolled in the 7th public parish school in Chisinau. Thus, at the age of 17, Petr Leshchenko graduated from both general and music schools.

Then the young man is taken to the front. First, he served for a year in the 7th Don Cossack regiment, and then, after graduating from the Kiev infantry school of warrant officers, in the Odessa 40th reserve regiment as a warrant officer, even later as a platoon commander of the Podolsk infantry regiment. At the end of the summer of 1917, he was wounded, seriously wounded and sent for treatment to a hospital in Chisinau. Recovery dragged on, and Leshchenko left the hospital after the October revolution. And since Bessarabia went to Romania, the future singer turned out to be a Romanian citizen.

After the army, he worked in different directions - he was a turner, held various positions in the church, sang in a vocal quartet, danced in the theater and sang in the Chisinau Opera House. At the end of 1919, Petr Leshchenko switches exclusively to pop activity. He tours a lot as part of the Elizarov dance group, with the Guslyar balalaika ensemble, performs as a solo singer and in a guitar duet. Once in Paris, he entered the Trefilova ballet school, well-known at that time, after which he worked in the prestigious Normandy restaurant with dance and vocal numbers.

Petr Leshchenko biography and personal life: how Peter met music and began to build a career

Since 1926 he has been touring Europe and the Middle East for two years. After the tour, Peter returned to Romania and worked for some time at the Teatrul Nostra theater, but soon left for the Baltics, then to Ukraine, where he performed in various restaurants. His voice becomes recognizable.

At the end of 1931, the singer met the prominent composer Oskar Strok, who wrote popular melodies in the style of tango and foxtrot, as well as pop songs and soulful romances. At the suggestion of Strok, Petr Leshchenko records his voice for the first time. Gramophone records are published with the songs "Black Eyes", "Blue Rhapsody", "Tell Why", and later - "Tatiana", "Miranda" and "Nastya-berry".

The success of these songs leads to the fact that the performer is offered a contract by the Romanian branch of the British record company "Columbia", on which he has recorded more than 80 records. Also his recordings were published by other record companies - German "Parlophone Records", Romanian "Electrecord" and Latvian "Bellaccord". In total, Petr Leshchenko managed to record about 180 records in his life. The sound recording raises the fame of Petr Leshchenko, and he tours a lot not only in Bessarabia, but also performs in the best halls in Vienna, Bucharest, London. At the end of 1941, the vocalist gave a number of concerts in Odessa, occupied by the Romanian troops, in the central hall of the Bristol Hotel.

Petr Leshchenko biography and personal life: family, children and hobbies of the famous musician

While studying at a ballet school in France, Petr Leshchenko met the Latvian Zhenya Zakitt, who came to study at the same school from Riga. In the same year, they officially registered their marriage. The couple went on all the tours together and performed a lot in a duet. In this union, their son, Ikki Leshchenko, was born in January 1931.

During the Second World War, while on tour in Odessa, Pyotr Konstantinovich met 19-year-old student of the Conservatory Vera Belousova. On one of the first evenings, he proposes to the girl and leaves for Bucharest to file a divorce from Zakitt, with whom he was still officially signed. Due to the war and threats of mobilization, the wedding was postponed for a long time. Only in 1944 Leshchenko and Belousova were able to register their marriage. Pyotr Leshchenko was fluent in Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian, French and German.

Cooperation with a German recording studio and touring in Western countries did not go unnoticed by the Soviet government. The socialist system, which Romania joined after the Second World War, considered the singer unreliable, impermissibly vulgar and even anti-communist. He was also accused of having forced the Soviet citizen Belousova to move to Romania, who, after her marriage to Leshchenko, was officially considered a traitor to her homeland in the USSR. On a direct order from Moscow, the Romanian state security bodies arrest Petr Leshchenko right during the intermission of a concert that took place in the city of Brasov at the end of March 1951.

For three years he was transferred from one prison to another. Leshchenko was in Zilava, Kapul Midia, Borjeshte, and in 1954 he was transferred to the Tyrgu-Okna prison hospital, as he had an old stomach ulcer. An operation was performed, but he was never discharged from the hospital. A new aggravation and an organism weakened by imprisonment caused the death of Pyotr Konstantinovich Leshchenko on July 16, 1954.