An imaginary life: a series about the artist Pyotr Leshchenko has reached Russian television screens. Pedigree of Peter Leshchenko

Leshchenko Peter Konstantinovich is a Romanian and Russian pop singer, dancer of folk and characteristic types of dance, restaurateur. He was born in the small village of Isaevo, which is located near Odessa. The singer’s mother was Leshchenkova Maria Kalinovna, who gave birth to a son without having a legal spouse. Leshchenko never knew his own father. He also had half-sisters.

The early years of life of Leshchenko P.K.

Oh those black eyes
I was captivated
I can't forget them,
They are burning in front of me.
Oh those black eyes
I was loved.
Where have you disappeared to now?
Who else is close to you?

Leshchenko Pyotr Konstantinovich

For eight years, little Peter was trained at home. His mother, grandmother and mother’s husband, who worked as a dentist, were involved in his upbringing. Maria Kalinovna was a very gifted woman, she performed folk songs and could boast of excellent hearing. The future singer was also gifted with musical abilities, taking part in the church choir. Six weeks later he becomes a student at the national parish school of the city of Chisinau.

At the age of seventeen, Pyotr Leshchenko graduates from music and general education schools and goes to war. He joins a Cossack regiment, then takes the position of warrant officer and platoon commander. In August 1917, he received a shell shock and was seriously wounded, and was treated in a hospital in Chisinau. When the performer finally recovered, he became a subject of Romania. This happened after the famous revolution that happened in October.

Life in the post-war years and the beginning of a vocal career

After army service, Leshchenko worked in various fields- was a church employee, a member of a quartet, performed folk dances and was a singer at the Chisinau Opera Theater. In 1919 he completely immersed himself in variety activities. The singer goes on tour, taking part in various musical groups, a guitar duet, and also performs solo songs.

The singer's year 1926 began with a tour of European cities and Middle Eastern countries. In 1931, fate brought him together with Oscar Stroke, a composer. He invites Leshchenko to sign up at the studio and he agrees. Soon records will be released with the singer’s romances - “Black Eyes”, “Blue Rhapsody”, “Tatyana”, “Nastya the Berry” and others.

These songs become so famous that a recording company contacts the artist and offers to sign a contract. He agrees and records about one hundred and eighty records. Peter begins to tour Europe and gives concerts in Odessa, which is under occupation by Romanian soldiers.

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Biography of Pyotr Konstantinovich Leshchenko

Pyotr Konstantinovich Leshchenko was born on June 14, 1898 near Odessa in the village of Isaevo. The father was a small clerk. His mother, Maria Konstantinovna, an illiterate woman, had an absolute ear for music, sang well, and knew many Ukrainian folk songs - which, of course, had the desired influence on her son.

From early childhood, Peter showed extraordinary musical abilities. They say that at the age of seven he performed before the Cossacks in his village, for which he received a pot of porridge and a loaf of bread...

At the age of three, Petya lost his father, and a few years later, in 1909, his mother remarried, and the family moved to Bessarabia, to Chisinau. Petya is placed in a parochial school, where the boy is noticed to have a good voice and is enrolled in the bishop's choir. Let’s add along the way that the school taught not only literacy, but also artistic gymnastic dancing, music, singing...

Despite the fact that Petya only completed four years of training, he gained a lot. At the age of 17, Petya was drafted to ensign school. A year later he is already in active army(the first one was on World War) with the rank of ensign. In one of the battles, Peter was wounded and sent to a Chisinau hospital. Meanwhile, Romanian troops captured Bessarabia. Leshchenko, like thousands of others, found himself cut off from his homeland, becoming an “emigrant without emigration.”

It was necessary to work somewhere, to earn a living: young Leshchenko entered the Romanian theatrical society “Scene”, performed in Chisinau, presenting dances that were fashionable at that time (including the Lezginka) between sessions at the Orpheum cinema.

In 1917, the mother, Maria Konstantinovna, gave birth to a daughter, they named her Valentina (in 1920 another sister was born - Ekaterina) - and Peter already performed in the Chisinau restaurant "Suzanna" ...

Later, Leshchenko toured Bessarabia, then, in 1925, came to Paris, where he performed in a guitar duet and in the balalaika ensemble “Guslyar”: Peter sang, played the balalaika, then appeared in a Caucasian costume with daggers in his teeth, stabbing the daggers with lightning speed and dexterity. to the floor, then dashing “squats” and “Arab steps”. Has tremendous success. Soon, wanting to improve his dance technique, he entered the best ballet school (where the famous Vera Aleksandrovna Trefilova, née Ivanova, who recently shone on the Mariinsky stage, which gained fame both in London and Paris).

At this school, Leshchenko meets a student from Riga, Zinaida Zakit. Having learned several original numbers, perform in Parisian restaurants, and are successful everywhere... Soon the dancing couple becomes a married couple. The newlyweds make a big tour of European countries, performing in restaurants, cabarets, theater stages. Everywhere the audience enthusiastically receives the artists.

And here it is 1929. The city of Chisinau, the city of youth. They are given the stage of the most fashionable restaurant. The posters read: “Every evening in the London restaurant they perform famous artists ballet Zinaida Zakit and Pyotr Leshchenko, who came from Paris."

In the evenings, the jazz orchestra of Mikhail Weinstein played in the restaurant, and at night Pyotr Leshchenko, wearing a gypsy shirt with wide sleeves, came out performing gypsy songs to the accompaniment of a guitar (given by his stepfather). Then the beautiful Zinaida appeared. The dance numbers began. All evenings were spent with great success.

“In the spring of 1930,” recalls Konstantin Tarasovich Sokolsky, “posters appeared in Riga announcing a concert of the dance duet Zinaida Zakit and Peter Leshchenko, in the premises of the Dailes Theater on Romanovskaya Street No. 37. I was not at this concert, but after a while I saw their performance in the divertissement program at the Palladium cinema.They and the singer Lilian Fernet filled the entire divertissement program - 35-40 minutes.

Zakit shone with the precision of her movements and the characteristic performance of Russian dance figures. And Leshchenko did dashing “squats” and Arab steps, making transfers without touching the floor with his hands. Then came the Lezginka, in which Leshchenko temperamentally threw daggers... But Zakit left a special impression in his solo and characteristic comic dances, some of which she danced on pointe shoes. And here, to give his partner the opportunity to change clothes for the next solo number, Leshchenko came out in a gypsy costume, with a guitar and sang songs.

His voice had a small range, a light timbre, without “metal”, with a short breath (like a dancer’s) and therefore he was not able to cover the huge cinema hall with his voice (there were no microphones at that time). But in in this case this was not of decisive importance, because the public looked at him not as a singer, but as a dancer. But in general, his performance left a good impression... The program ended with a couple more dances.
In general, I liked their performance as a dancing couple - I felt the professionalism of the performance, the special practice of each movement, I also liked their colorful costumes.

I was especially impressed by my partner with her charm and feminine charm - such was her temperament, some kind of bewitching inner burning. Leshchenko also left the impression of a wonderful gentleman...

Soon we had the opportunity to perform in the same program and get to know each other. They turned out to be pleasant, sociable people. Zina turned out to be our Riga resident, a Latvian, as she said, “the daughter of the landlord at 27 Gertrudes Street.” And Peter is from Bessarabia, from Chisinau, where his whole family lived: his mother, stepfather and two younger sisters - Valya and Katya.

Here it must be said that after the First World War, Bessarabia ceded to Romania, and thus the entire Leshchenko family mechanically turned into Romanian subjects.

Soon the dance duo found themselves out of work. Zina was pregnant, and Peter, left to some extent without work, began to look for opportunities to use his voice data and therefore came to the management of the Riga music house "Youth and Feyerabend" (these are the names of the directors of the company), which represented the interests of the German gramophone company "Parlophone" and offered his services as a singer...

Subsequently, it seems in 1933, the company “Youth and Feyerabend” in Riga founded its own recording studio called “Bonophon”, where I, in 1934, after my first return from abroad, first sang “Heart”, “Ha- cha-cha", "Charaban-apple", and the comic song "Antoshka on an accordion".

The management received Leshchenko's visit with indifference, saying that they did not know such a singer. After Peter’s repeated visits to this company, they agreed that Leshchenko would go to Germany at his own expense and sing ten test songs on Parlophone, which Peter did. In Germany, the Parlofon company released five discs of ten works, three of which are based on the words and music of Leshchenko himself: “From Bessarabia to Riga”, “Have fun, soul”, “Boy”.

Our Riga patrons sometimes organized dinner parties to which popular artists were invited. On one of these evenings at the “doctor of ear, nose and throat” Solomir (I don’t remember his name, I just called him “doctor”), where I visited more than once with the composer Oscar Davydovich Strok, we took Pyotr Leshchenko with us. He came with a guitar...

By the way, the walls of Solomir’s office were covered with photographs of our opera and concert singers and even guest performers, such as Nadezhda Plevitskaya, Lev Sibiryakov, Dmitry Smirnov, Leonid Sobinov and Fyodor Shalyapin, with touching autographs: “Thank you for saving the concert,” “To the miracle worker.” , who gave me back my voice in time."... Solomir himself had a pleasant tenor timbre. He and I always sang romances as a duet at such evenings. It was the same that evening.

Then Oscar Strok called Peter, agreed on something with him and sat down at the piano, and Petya took the guitar. The first thing he sang (as I remember) was the romance “Hey, Guitar Friend.” He behaved boldly, confidently, his voice flowed calmly. Then he sang a couple more romances, for which he was rewarded with unanimous applause. Petya himself was delighted, went up to O. Strok and kissed him...

To be honest, I really liked him that evening. There was nothing like when he sang in cinemas. There were huge halls, but here, in a small living room, everything was different; and of course, the fact that the wonderful musician Oscar Strok accompanied him played a huge role. The music enriched the vocals. And one more thing, which I consider one of the main points: for singers, the basic principle is to sing only on a diaphragm, deep breathing. If in performances in dance duet Leshchenko sang in a short breath, excited after dancing, but now some support for the sound was felt, and hence the characteristic softness of the timbre of his voice...
At some similar family evening we met again. Everyone liked Peter's singing again. Oscar Strok became interested in Peter and included him in the concert program, with which we went to the city of Liepaja, which is on the shore Baltic Sea. But here again the history of performance in cinema repeated itself. Big hall The maritime club in which we performed did not give Peter the opportunity to show himself.

The same thing was repeated in Riga, in the Barberina cafe, where other conditions were unfavorable for the singer, and it was not clear to me why Peter agreed to perform there. I was invited there several times and was offered a good fee, but, valuing my prestige as a singer, I always refused.

In old Riga, on Izmailovskaya Street, there was a small cozy cafe called "A.T." I don’t know what these two letters meant; they were probably the initials of the owner. A small orchestra led by the excellent violinist Herbert Schmidt was playing in the cafe. Sometimes there was a small program there, singers performed and especially often a brilliant, witty storyteller-entertainer, artist of the Russian Drama Theater, Vsevolod Orlov, brother of the world famous pianist Nikolai Orlov.
One day we were sitting at a table in this cafe: Doctor Solomir, lawyer Elyashev, Oscar Strok, Vsevolod Orlov and our local impresario Isaac Teitlbaum. Someone suggested the idea: “What if Leshchenko gave a performance in this cafe? After all, he could be successful here - the room is small, and the acoustics, apparently, are not bad.”

During the break, when the orchestra paused, Herbert Schmidt came to our table. Oscar Strok, Elyashev and Solomir started talking to him about something - we, sitting at the other end of the table, did not pay attention at first. Then, at Teitlbaum’s request, the cafe manager came up, and it all ended with Solomir and Elyashev “interesting” Herbert Schmidt to work with Leshchenko, and Oscar undertook to help him with the repertoire. Peter, when he learned about this, was very happy. Rehearsals have begun. Oscar Strock and Herbert Schmidt did their job and two weeks later the first performance took place.

Already the first two songs were a success, but when it was announced that “My Last Tango” would be performed, the audience, seeing that the author himself, Oscar Strok, was in the hall, began to applaud, turning to him. Strok went up to the stage, sat down at the piano - this inspired Peter and after the tango was performed, the hall burst into thunderous applause. IN overall first, the performance was a triumph. After that, I listened to the singer several times - and everywhere the audience received his introductions well.
This was at the end of 1930, which can be considered the year of the beginning singing career Petra Leshchenko. Zina, Peter's wife, gave birth to a son, who, at his father's request, was named Igor (although Zina's relatives, Latvians, suggested a different, Latvian name).

In the spring of 1931, I was with the troupe of the Bonzo miniature theater under the direction of the comedian A.N. Werner went abroad. Peter stayed in Riga, performing at the A.T. cafe. At this time, in the same place, in Riga, the owner of the large book publishing house Gramatou Drauge, Helmar Rudzitis, opened the Bellacord Electro company. In this company, Leshchenko records several records: “My last tango”, “Tell me why” and others...

The management really liked the first recordings, the voice turned out to be very phonogenic, and this was the beginning of Pyotr Leshchenko’s career as a record singer. During his stay in Riga, Peter also sang on “Bellacord”, in addition to the songs of O. Strok and the songs of another of ours, also from Riga, composer Mark Iosifovich Maryanovsky “Tatyana”, “Marfusha”, “Caucasus”, “Pancakes” and others. [In 1944, Maryanovsky died in Buchenwald]. The company paid a good fee for singing, i.e. Leshchenko finally got the opportunity to have a good income...

Around 1932, in Yugoslavia, in Belgrade, in the cabaret "Russian Family", owned by the Serb Mark Ivanovich Garapich, our Riga dance quartet "Four Smaltsevs", which had European fame, performed with great success. The head of this number, Ivan Smaltsev, heard P. Leshchenko perform in Riga, in the A.T. cafe, he liked his singing, and therefore he invited Garapich to engage Peter. The contract was drawn up on brilliant terms for Leshchenko - 15 dollars per evening for two performances (for example, I’ll say that in Riga you could buy a good suit for fifteen dollars).

But fate again did not smile on Peter. The hall turned out to be narrow, large, and even before his arrival, the singer from Estonia Voskresenskaya, the owner of a vast, beautiful timbre, performed there dramatic soprano. Petya did not live up to the management's hopes, he got lost - and although the contract with him was concluded for a month, twelve days later (of course, having paid in full under the contract) they parted with him. I think that Peter drew a conclusion from this.

In 1932 or 33, the company of Gerutsky, Cavour and Leshchenko opened a small cafe-restaurant called "Casuca Nostru" ("our house") in Bucharest, on Brezoleanu Street 7. The capital was invested by the personable-looking Gerutsky, who greeted the guests, the experienced chef Cavour was in charge of the kitchen, and Petya with a guitar created the mood in the hall. Petya’s stepfather and mother took visitors’ clothes into the wardrobe (it was at this time that the entire Leshchenko family from Chisinau moved to live in Bucharest, and their son Igor continued to live and be raised in Riga, with Zina’s relatives, and therefore the first language he began to speak - Latvian).

At the end of 1933 I arrived in Riga. Sang in Russian drama theater all musical reviews, traveled to neighboring Lithuania and Estonia. Petya came to Riga several times to visit his son. When they went for a walk, I was always the translator, because Petya did not know the Latvian language. Soon Peter took Igor to Bucharest. Things were going well at Casutsa Nostra, the tables were taken, as they said, by fighting, and the need arose to change the premises. When in the fall of 1936, under a contract, I came to Bucharest again, there was already a new, large restaurant on the main street of Calea Victoria (N1), which was called “Leshchenko”.

In general, Peter was very popular in Bucharest. He was fluent in Romanian and sang in two languages. The restaurant was visited by sophisticated Russian and Romanian society. A wonderful orchestra played. Zina turned Peter's sisters, Valya and Katya, into good dancers, they performed together, but, of course, the highlight of the program was basically Peter himself.

Having learned all the secrets of singing on records in Riga, Petya made an agreement with the branch of the American company Columbia in Bucharest and sang many records there... His voice in those recordings has a wonderful timbre and is expressive in performance. After all, this is the truth: the less metal in the timbre of the voice of the performer of intimate songs, the better it will sound on gramophone records (some called Peter a “record singer”: Peter did not have vocal material appropriate for the stage, while performing intimate songs, tango on gramophone records , foxtrots, etc. I consider him one of the best Russian singers I have ever heard; when I sang songs in the rhythm of tango, or foxtrot, requiring softness and sincerity of the voice timbre, I always tried, when singing records, to also sing with a bright sound, completely removing metal from the timbre of the voice, which, on the contrary, is necessary on the big stage).

In 1936 I was in Bucharest. My impresario, S.Ya. Bisker once tells me: soon there will be a concert by F.I. here in Bucharest. Chaliapin, and after the concert the Bucharest public organizes a banquet in honor of his arrival at the Continental restaurant (where the Romanian virtuoso violinist Grigoras Nicu played).
The Chaliapin concert was organized by S. Ya. Bisker, and of course a place for me at the concert and at the banquet was secured...

But soon Peter came to my hotel and said: “I invite you to a banquet in honor of Chaliapin, which will take place in my restaurant!” And indeed, the banquet took place in his restaurant. It turned out that Peter managed to come to an agreement with Chaliapin’s administrator, managed to “interest” him, and the banquet from the Continental was moved to the Lescenco restaurant.

I sat fourth from F.I. Chaliapin: Chaliapin, Bisker, the critic Zolotorev and me. I was all attention, all the time listening to what Chaliapin was saying to those sitting next to him.

Speaking in the evening's program, Peter was on fire; while singing, he tried to address the table at which Chaliapin was sitting. After Peter’s performances, Bisker asked Chaliapin: “What do you think, Fedor (they were on you), Leshchenko sings well?” Chaliapin smiled, looked towards Peter and said: “Yes, stupid songs, he sings well.”

At first, when Petya learned about these words of Chaliapin, he was offended, and then I had difficulty explaining to him:

“You can only be proud of such a remark. After all, what you and I sing, various fashionable hits, romances and tangos, are really stupid songs compared to the classical repertoire. But they praised you, they said that you sing these songs well. And "Who said this - Chaliapin himself! This is the greatest compliment from the lips of a great actor."

Fyodor Ivanovich was in a great mood that evening and did not skimp on autographs.

In 1932, the Leshchenko spouses returned from Riga to Chisinau. Leshchenko gives two concerts in the Diocesan Hall, which had exceptional acoustics and was the most beautiful building in the city.

The newspaper wrote: “On January 16 and 17 in the Diocesan Hall he will perform famous performer gypsy songs and romances, enjoying enormous success in the capitals of Europe, Petr Leshchenko." After the performances, following messages: "Peter Leshchenko's concert was an exceptional success. The soulful performance and successful selection of romances delighted the audience."

Then Leshchenko and Zinaida Zakit perform at the Suzanna restaurant, after which they travel again to different cities and countries.

In 1933, Leshchenko was in Austria. In Vienna, at the Columbia company, he recorded records. Unfortunately, this best and largest company in the world (whose branches were in almost all countries) did not record all the works performed by Pyotr Leshchenko: the owners of the companies in those years needed works in rhythms that were fashionable at that time: tango, foxtrots, and they paid for them several times more than for romances or folk songs.

Thanks to records released in millions of copies, Leshchenko is gaining extraordinary popularity; the most willing to work with Peter famous composers of that time: Boris Fomin, Oscar Strok, Mark Maryanovsky, Claude Romano, Efim Sklyarov, Gera Vilnov, Sasha Vladi, Arthur Gold, Ernst Nonigsberg and others. He was accompanied by the best European orchestras: the Genigsberg brothers, the Albin brothers, Herbert Schmidt, Nikolai Chereshny (who toured Moscow and other cities of the USSR in 1962), Frank Fox's Columbia, Bellacord-Electro. About half of the works in Pyotr Leshchenko's repertoire belong to his pen and almost all of them belong to his musical arrangement.

It is interesting that if Leshchenko experienced difficulties when his voice “disappeared” in large halls, then his voice was recorded perfectly on records (Chaliapin even once called Leshchenko a “record singer”), while such masters of the stage as Chaliapin and Morfessi, who sang freely in large theater and concert halls, were always dissatisfied with their records, as K. Sokolsky noted, which conveyed only a certain fraction of their voices...

In 1935 Leshchenko came to England, performed in restaurants, and was invited to appear on the radio. In 1938 Leshchenko and Zinaida in Riga. An evening took place in Kemer Kurhaus, where Leshchenko and the orchestra famous violinist and conductor Herbert Schmidt gave his last concert in Latvia.

And in 1940 there were the last concerts in Paris: and in 1941 Germany attacked Soviet Union, Romania occupied Odessa. Leshchenko receives a call to the regiment to which he is assigned. He refuses to go to war against his people, he is tried by an officer's court, but, as a popular singer, he is released. In May 1942 he performed at the Odessa Russian Drama Theater. At the request of the Romanian command, all concerts had to begin with a song in Romanian. And only then the famous “My Marusichka”, “Two Guitars”, “Tatyana” sounded. The concerts ended with "Chubchik".

Vera Georgievna Belousova (Leshchenko) says: “I lived in Odessa then. I graduated School of Music, I was 19 years old then. She performed in concerts, played the accordion, sang... Once I saw a poster: “The famous, inimitable performer of Russian and gypsy songs, Pyotr Leshchenko, is performing.” And then, at a rehearsal for one of the concerts (where I was supposed to perform), a short man came up to me and introduced himself: Pyotr Leshchenko, inviting me to his concert.

I’m sitting in the hall, listening, and he looks at me and sings:

You are nineteen years old, you have your own path.
You can laugh and joke.
But there is no return for me, I have been through so much...

That’s how we met and soon got married. We arrived in Bucharest, Zinaida agreed to a divorce only when Peter left the restaurant and apartment to her...
We settled with his mother. In August 1944, Russian troops entered the city. Leshchenko began offering his performances. The first concerts were received very coldly, Peter was very worried, it turned out that an order was given: “Leshchenko should not be applauded.” Only when he gave a concert in front of the commanding staff did everything immediately change. We both began performing in hospitals, in units, in halls. The command allocated us an apartment...

So ten years flew by like one day. Peter kept seeking permission to return to his homeland, and one day he received this permission. He gives the last concert - the first part passed with triumph, the second begins... but he doesn’t come out. I went into the artist’s room: there was a suit and a guitar, two people in civilian clothes came up to me and said that Pyotr Konstantinovich had been taken away for a conversation, “clarification is needed.”

Nine months later they gave me an address for a date and a list of things I needed. I arrived there. They measured me six meters from the barbed wire and told me not to approach. They brought Peter: neither to say nor to touch. Parting, he folded his hands, raised them to the sky and said: “God knows, I have no guilt before anyone.”
Soon I was also arrested, “for treason,” for marrying a foreign national. Brought to Dnepropetrovsk. They sentenced him to death, then changed it to twenty-five years and sent him to a camp. In 1954 he was released. I found out that Pyotr Konstantinovich was no longer alive.

I started performing and traveling around the country. In Moscow I met Kolya Chereshnya (he was a violinist in Leshchenko’s orchestra). Kolya said that in 1954 Leshchenko died in prison, allegedly from canned food poisoning. They also say that they imprisoned him because, having gathered his friends for a farewell dinner, he raised his glass and said: “Friends! I am happy that I am returning to my homeland! My dream has come true. I am leaving, but my heart remains with you. "

The last words were the ruin. In March 1951, Leshchenko was arrested... The voice of “the favorite of the European public, Pyotr Konstantinovich Leshchenko,” stopped sounding.

Vera Georgievna Leshchenko performed on many stages throughout the country as a singer, accordionist and pianist, and sang in Moscow, at the Hermitage. In the mid-eighties, she retired; just before our meeting (in October 1985), she and her husband, pianist Eduard Vilgelmovich, returned to Moscow from the city where they passed her best years- from the beauty of Odessa. Our meetings took place in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere...

Pyotr Leshchenko’s sister, Valentna, once saw her brother when a convoy was leading him down the street, digging ditches. Peter also saw his sister and cried... Valentina still lives in Bucharest.

Another sister, Ekaterina, lives in Italy. The son, Igor, was a magnificent choreographer of the Bucharest Theater, died at the age of forty-seven years...

Yuri Sosudin

Are Pyotr Leshchenko and Lev Leshchenko relatives or namesakes? As often happens, talented people, working in the same direction, and having the same surnames, many associate with kinship. Take, for example, Peter and Lev Leshchenko. Singer Pyotr Leshchenko was famous long before his namesake, Lev, appeared on the stage.

Pyotr Konstantinovich Leshchenko (1898-1954) is known as a Romanian and Russian pop singer who also performed folk dances. At first I was a military man. Creative career started with a dance group. Later, the vocal talent of this artist clearly manifested itself. Lev Valerianovich Leshchenko (born in 1942) – Soviet and Russian singer variety shows and operettas. Since 1983 he has the title People's Artist RSFSR. Pyotr Leshchenko first saw the light of day on June 2, 1898. A native of the Kherson province, the small village of Isaevo (now Odessa region in Ukraine). The boy was born out of wedlock, so he bore his mother’s surname, and in the birth certificate in the line “father” they wrote “illegitimate.” His mother, Maria Kalinovna, had an absolute ear for music, she sang folk songs wonderfully, which influenced the formation of the boy, who was already early childhood showed extraordinary abilities in music. When the baby was nine months old, Maria Kalinovna left for Chisinau with her little son and her parents.

Until the age of eight, the boy was raised and educated at home, and in 1906 he was accepted into the military church choir, since Petya was very capable in music and dancing. In addition to these talents, he also very quickly learned languages, spoke Russian, Ukrainian, German, Romanian and French. The choir director helped place the boy in the Chisinau parish school, informs ftimes.ru. And by 1915, Peter already had a musical and general education. In 1907, his mother married Alexei Vasilyevich Alfimov. The stepfather turned out to be a simple and kind man, he loved the boy. Later, Peter had sisters: Valya in 1917, Katya in 1920. Alfimov worked as a dental technician, was a little interested in music, played the guitar and harmonica. His stepfather accepted Petya as his own son, saw that the boy was growing up talented and in adolescence gave him his guitar. In addition to studying at school and singing in the choir, Petya from childhood He helped with the housework, worked a lot and even had a small independent income. At the age of 17, the young man’s voice changed, and he could no longer sing in the church choir. Having lost his salary, he decided to go to the front. Until the end of autumn 1916, Peter was in the Don Cossack Regiment. From there he was sent to the Kyiv Infantry School of Ensigns, from which he graduated in the early spring of 1917 and received the corresponding rank. From Kyiv, through the reserve Odessa regiment, the young man was sent to command a platoon of the Podolsk infantry regiment on the Romanian front. Less than six months later, Peter was seriously wounded and shell-shocked, and therefore he was sent for treatment. At first he was in a field hospital, later the patient was transferred to Chisinau, where he learned about the revolutionary events.

In 1918, Chisinau was declared the territory of Romania and Peter left the hospital as a Romanian subject. The beginning of a creative journey. In the early autumn of 1919, Peter was accepted into the Elizarov dance group, with which he performed for four months at the Alhambra Theater in Bucharest, and then at the Orpheum and Suzanna cinemas. These were Leshchenko's first steps in his creative career. For about five years he toured Romania as part of various groups as a singer and dancer. In 1925, Peter went to Paris, where his performances in cinemas continued. He performed many numbers that were successful with the public: he performed in the balalaika ensemble “Guslyar”; participated in a guitar duet; performed Caucasian dances with a dagger in his teeth. He considered his dance technique imperfect, so he entered the best French ballet school to study. Here he met the artist Zinaida Zakitt, her stage name was Zhenya. Zinaida was Latvian by origin, originally from Riga. Together with Peter, Zhenya learned several numbers, and they began performing together in Paris restaurants, reports ftimes.ru. 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 at a theater called Teatrul Nostra, which was located in Bucharest. But they did not stay in one place for long. We performed in a restaurant in Chernivtsi for about three months, then performed in cinemas in Chisinau. Later, their refuge became Riga, where Peter alone went to work at the restaurant “A. T." as a vocalist. They stopped dancing because Zinaida was pregnant. At the beginning of 1931, the couple had a son, Igor. While working in a restaurant, Peter met the composer Oscar Strok, who later wrote many songs and romances for the singer. His musical compositions were gaining popularity, Leshchenko began collaborating with other composers and in 1932 began recording at record companies. In 1933, Peter, his wife and child, settled in Bucharest, from where he sometimes went on tour and for 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 “Leshchenko Trio”, which included Zinaida and younger sisters Petra.

After the war, Leshchenko spoke a lot to a diverse audience in Romania. But he really wanted to return to his homeland, he wrote repeated petitions to this effect addressed to Stalin and Kalinin, but did not receive a positive answer for a long time. In the early spring of 1951, after another appeal to the leadership of the Soviet Union, Pyotr Konstantinovich was given the go-ahead to return, but did not have time to do so. Romanian security authorities arrested him. This happened right during the intermission, Leshchenko was giving a concert, the hall was sold out, and between the first and second parts the singer was taken straight from the dressing room. Pyotr Konstantinovich was interrogated as a witness in the case of Vera Belousova-Leshchenko. His young wife was accused of betraying the Motherland. On July 16, 1954, Pyotr Konstantinovich Leshchenko died in the prison hospital; all materials on his case still remain closed. Due to such secrecy, there is no exact data, but most likely, Pyotr Leshchenko was one of the thousands of builders of the Danube Canal who remained unknown and nameless. Until now, no one knows where the singer’s grave is. In the summer of 1952, Vera was also arrested for marrying a foreign national, which was classified as treason, and also for taking part in concerts in occupied Odessa. The court appointed her death penalty, but then the punishment was changed to 25 years in prison. And in 1954, Vera was released, her criminal record was cleared and she was sent to Odessa. She died in Moscow in 2009.

Pyotr Leshchenko and Lev Leshchenko: biography and life path Lev Valerianovich. Lev Valerianovich was born in the Moscow Sokolniki district on February 1, 1942. There stood an old, merchant-built, two-story wooden house in which the Leshchenko family lived. It was there, and not in the maternity hospital, that the boy was born. There was a war going on, there were especially fierce battles near Moscow, but despite this, the life of the Leshchenko family in those years could not be called difficult. Their house was almost fully equipped, which was an extreme luxury for that time; they only had to light the stove themselves. Although my father was at the front, he served in a special-purpose regiment located in Bogorodskoye, not far from Sokolniki. Therefore, he was able to often visit his family and bring food from his dry rations. The Leshchenko family lived in one of the three rooms of a communal apartment, where neighbors lived in the other two - Aunt Nadya and Grandma Zhenya, who took Lev’s newly born child into her arms. Leshchenko’s family consisted of his mother, a newborn boy and his older sister Yulia, and of course, his father, when he managed to visit his relatives. Lev Valerianovich is now perplexed as to how they could have housed the whole family in a small room back then. That February day, in honor of the birth of his son, the father came home and a whole feast was arranged. Dad brought half a loaf of bread, a quarter of alcohol and some more food from his ration. On this occasion, the stove was well heated with wood, and the house became warm. The father of the future singer, Valerian Andreevich, graduated from the Kursk gymnasium before the war and began his career on a state farm. In 1931, he was sent to the capital to the Krasnopresnensky vitamin plant, where he worked as an accountant. Participated in Soviet-Finnish war, returning from which he went to serve in the NKVD. From the beginning to the victorious end he passed the Great Patriotic War, awarded many orders and medals, after the war and until his retirement he served in the MGB. Dad Lev Leshchenko can be considered a long-livers; he died at 99 years old. The singer’s mother, Klavdia Petrovna, died very early, when the boy was only one year old, and by that time she herself was barely 28 years old. After the death of his mother, little Leo was raised by his grandparents. And 5 years later, in 1948, the father married for the second time, reports ftimes.ru. Lev Valerianovich remembers his stepmother Marina Mikhailovna with respect and warmth; according to him, she always treated him like her own son, the boy did not experience a lack of love and attention. And in 1949, Lev’s little sister Valya was born. In his earliest childhood, his father often took little Lev with him to the military unit; the soldiers jokingly nicknamed him “son of the regiment.” Since the boy grew up very playful and active, it was difficult to keep track of him, so the father assigned Sergeant Major Andrei Fesenko to the child. The boy had lunch with the soldiers in the canteen, went to the cinema with them in formation, at the age of four he had already been to the shooting range and wore a military uniform. Sergeant Major Fesenko also taught the kid how to ski in winter, which were three times longer than the boy himself. And little Leo had a chance to encounter music in early childhood. He often visited his grandfather Andrei Vasilyevich Leshchenko. He worked at a sugar factory as an accountant and in his free time in the factory string quartet played the violin, and before the revolution sang in the church choir. Grandfather was a very gifted man in terms of music and little by little he taught little Leo to this art: he played the violin and taught him to sing. Leshchenko spent his childhood in Sokolniki, and then the family moved to the Voykovsky district, where the boy began studying at high school No. 201. Besides school curriculum, he became a soloist in the choir at the House of Pioneers, was fond of swimming in the pool, and studied in a club artistic word and a brass band. Soon, the choir teachers advised Lev to abandon all other hobbies and clubs, focusing only on singing. And the boy himself had already firmly decided to connect his future with creativity, but had not yet decided who he would like to become more - an artist or a singer. Therefore, I left myself two classes - in the choir and drama club. And at home he listened to records with Utesov’s songs, adored his style of performance, and imitated the great singer. After some time, the loud-voiced boy performed Utesov’s songs at everyone school events, and then at city competitions. Army and college After school, an attempt to enter the theater university turned out to be unsuccessful. Leo went to work as a stagehand Bolshoi Theater, he worked during the day, and in the evenings he watched performances from the gallery. Then he tried himself as a fitter at a measuring instruments factory. In 1961, Lev Leshchenko was drafted into the ranks Soviet army. At the military registration and enlistment office, the young man said that he would really like to serve at sea, but his father adjusted all his plans, enlisting his son in the Soviet tank forces, which were located in the GDR. But already from the first months of service, the army leadership sent Lev to the song and dance ensemble, where he soon established himself as the main soloist. In addition to solo performances of songs, Lev recited poetry and was the presenter concert programs, participated in a quartet ensemble. It is service in the army that Lev Valerianovich considers the beginning of his musical career and a long successful creative journey. Every free moment he had in the army, he prepared to enter the Theatre Institute. And in 1964, after finishing his military service, Leshchenko entered GITIS. In 1969, at the Moscow Operetta Theater, Lev was already a full member of the troupe; he had many roles to his credit, but something was missing. He wanted great job on the stage. At the beginning of 1970, he successfully passed the competition and became a soloist of the USSR State Television and Radio. Following this, he won the All-Union Variety Artists Competition. His popularity grew at a frantic pace, and it was rare that a concert on radio or television could do without the participation of Lev Leshchenko. In 1972, Leshchenko was a laureate of two prestigious music competitions: Bulgarian “Golden Orpheus” and Polish “Sopot”. The victory in Sopot made him famous throughout the country, and a fashion for Leshchenko began in the Soviet Union. One after another he received awards and prizes: the Moscow Komsomol Prize (1973); title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1977); Lenin Komsomol Prize (1978); Order of Friendship of Peoples (1980); title of People's Artist of the RSFSR (1983); Order of the Badge of Honor (1985).

“Chubchik”, “Captain”, “At the Samovar Me and My Masha”, “Black Eyes” - these are just a small part of the timeless hits performed by the legendary musician Pyotr Leshchenko.

In the first half of the 20th century, the easily recognizable voice of Pyotr Leshchenko sounded in different parts of the world, and listeners were not embarrassed that the artist was singing in a language unfamiliar to them. The main thing is how he does it. We remember tragic life a musician to whom all of Europe sang along, but in his homeland he was banned...

From the church choir to the war

Pyotr Leshchenko was born in 1898 in the Kherson province Russian Empire, and spent his childhood in Chisinau. The son of a poor peasant woman did not know his own father, but the boy was lucky with his stepfather: Alexey Vasilyevich was one of the first who recognized the artist in him, and he gave his stepson a guitar.
The young man himself did not remain in debt; he helped his parents as best he could, earning money in the church choir. But already at the age of 16, Leshchenko’s life changed dramatically: due to age-related changes in his voice, he could no longer participate in the choir. At the same time, the First World War began.
In Leshchenko’s diaries there are no patriotic words that he wanted to fight for his homeland. The young man went to the front simply because he was left without a salary, and “ new job“almost cost him his life.
Already at the end of the summer of 1917, warrant officer Leshchenko ended up in a Chisinau hospital with severe wounds. The treatment was long, but the Russian officer, who had not yet fully recovered, learned that he was now a Romanian subject - Bessarabia was declared Romanian territory in 1918.
A turner for a private entrepreneur, a psalm-reader in a shelter church, a director in a church choir at a cemetery - and that’s not yet full list professions in which the former military man had to earn his living. Only towards the end of 1919, the main income of the born musician became variety activities.


At the beginning of his career, Leshchenko performed in a guitar duet, as part of dance group"Elizarov", in the musical ensemble "Guslyar". The author's number, where he played the balalaika, then dressed in a Caucasian costume, went on stage with daggers in his teeth, dancing in a squat, was especially popular with the audience.
Despite the approval of the public, Leshchenko considered his dance technique imperfect, so he entered the best French ballet school, where he met the Latvian dancer Zinaida Zakitt. They learned several numbers and began performing as a couple in restaurants in Paris. Soon the young couple registered their marriage, and a year later they celebrated the birth of their son Igor.
Finally, at the age of 32, Leshchenko began to appear on stage alone and immediately gained stunning success. He played a huge role in this new friend, the famous composer Oscar Strok, who skillfully combined the intonations of Argentine tango with soulful Russian romances. He also helped Leshchenko record the first gramophone records, which contained such hits as “Black Eyes”, “Blue Rhapsody”, “Tell me Why”.

Scene instead of service

On the eve of World War II, Leshchenko’s tour of European countries were held with constant success, and the best recording companies in Europe opened their doors to him.
Leshchenko had no time left for everything that was not related to music, although during the war years the popular singer was suspected of collaborating with the USSR state security agencies and the fascists. In fact, the artist tried by all means to distance himself from politics, and even more so from the army - a military tribunal even tried him “for draft evasion.”


At the end of 1941, Leshchenko received an offer from the Odessa Opera House to come to the city on tour, and after a long negotiation, the Romanian side gave the artist permission to visit the city, which by that time was already occupied by German-Romanian troops.
After familiar tangos, foxtrots, romances auditorium thanked the artist with unprecedented applause. However, Leshchenko remembered the tour in the occupied city not so much for the warm welcome of the public as for the meeting with new love. At one of the rehearsals, the popular musician met conservatory student Vera Belousova, and at the next meeting he proposed to her.
In order to marry a second time, Leshchenko still had to divorce his first wife, but she gave her husband a “warm” welcome. There is a version that it was Leshchenko’s first wife, after asking for a divorce, who contributed to the army remembering the musician again, and he received another summons.


Everyone possible ways Leshchenko tried to avoid service. He even decided to have an operation to remove his appendix, although there was no need for it. The artist spent some time in the hospital, but he was never able to finally be discharged. As a result, the popular singer ended up in the military artistic group of the 6th division, and then received orders to go to Crimea, where he continued to serve as the head of the officers' mess.
As soon as the musician received his long-awaited vacation in 1944, he went to Vera in Odessa to get married. And after he learned that his young wife and her family were to be deported to Germany, he transported them to Bucharest.
It is known that after the Victory, Leshchenko looked for any opportunity to return to the Soviet Union, but he was not welcome there. Collaboration with a German recording studio and tours in Western countries did not go unnoticed.
Stalin himself spoke of Leshchenko as “the most vulgar and unprincipled white émigré tavern singer, who stained himself by collaborating with the Nazi occupiers.” The musician was also accused of forcing Soviet citizen Belousova to move to Romania.


On March 26, 1951, the popular artist was arrested during a concert in Brasov, Romania. Leshchenko’s young wife, who, like him, was accused of treason, was sentenced to 25 years, but was released in 1953 for lack of evidence of a crime. Many years later, she learned that Leshchenko died in Targu Ocna prison on July 16, 1954, of unknown causes. The location of his grave is unknown.
Elena Yakovleva

Romanian singer of Russian origin; supervisor variety ensemble. One of the most popular Russian-speaking performers of the 1930s.

Leshchenko was born on July 3, 1898 in the village of Isaevo, Kherson province (now Odessa region of Ukraine). He studied at a rural school, sang in the church choir, and began to work early. His stepfather saw artistic inclinations in him and gave him a guitar. At the age of sixteen he entered the Chisinau school of ensigns, but he was mobilized ahead of schedule to help the Romanian army and sent to the front. After being seriously wounded, he was taken to the hospital, where the October Revolution found him.

Emigrant, Paris, marriage (1918-1926)

In connection with the separation of Bessarabia from Russia (January 1918), he unexpectedly became an emigrant. He worked as a carpenter, a singer, an assistant to the cathedral regent, a dishwasher in a restaurant, and worked part-time in cinemas and cafes. Feeling a lack of professional training, in 1923 he entered a ballet school in Paris. There he married a nineteen-year-old dancer and classical ballerina Zinaida Zakis, a Latvian who came to France from Riga with a choreographic ensemble. They prepared several song and dance numbers.

Success, recordings, war (1926-1941)

In the summer of 1926, they toured the countries of Europe and the Middle East and gained fame. In 1928 they returned to Chisinau. Solo career Leshchenko started at almost 32 years old and, nevertheless, unexpectedly found stunning success.

The singer became friends with the famous composer Oscar Stroke, the creator of the most popular tangos, romances, foxtrots and songs. It was Strok who managed to combine the intonations of the burning Argentine tango with the melody and sincerity of the Russian romance.

Leshchenko performed and recorded best works famous composer: “Black Eyes”, “Blue Rhapsody”, “Tell Why” and other tangos and romances of the maestro. He also worked with other talented composers, in particular with Mark Maryanovsky, the author of “Tatyana”, “Miranda”, “Nastya-Yagodka”. In 1932, two Englishmen were captivated by his vocal abilities and, with their help, Leshchenko recorded several works in London. In 1933 he moved permanently to Bucharest. In 1935-1940 he collaborated there with the Bellacord and Columbia recording companies and recorded more than a hundred songs of various genres. In 1935, he again traveled to England, performed in restaurants, in 1938 - in Riga, in 1940 - in Paris...

Touring in occupied Odessa, second marriage (1941-1951)

In 1941, Romania, together with Germany, entered the war against the USSR. Leshchenko was on tour in Paris at that time. With great difficulty, he managed to return to Bucharest, where he continued performing in his restaurant.

The question of Leshchenko's conscription into the Romanian army was repeatedly raised, but Leshchenko managed to avoid being sent to the front. He was even tried by a military tribunal “for draft evasion.” Long before the occupation of Odessa, Leshchenko received an offer from the director of the Odessa Opera House Selyavin to give a concert in Odessa. Tickets were sold out and posters were hung around the city when Odessa was occupied by German-Romanian troops. The concert was postponed due to difficulties with Leshchenko's arrival. The director of the theater obtained permission from the cultural and educational department of the governorate for Leshchenko’s visit. Pyotr Konstantinovich left for Odessa.

In April 1942, he arrived in Nazi-occupied Odessa, where he held a triumphal concert. At one of his rehearsals, he saw Vera Belousova. I learned from the musicians that she sang in the cinema and accompanied herself on the accordion. He liked the girl, her voice, her demeanor, and she was beautiful. I met her and invited her to my concert. Vera Belousova studied at the Odessa Conservatory. Their romance developed rapidly, despite the fact that Peter was 25 years older than Vera.

In April 1943, in order to again avoid conscription into the active Romanian army, at the suggestion of a doctor he knew, he agreed to an operation to remove the appendix. He spent ten days in the hospital, then he was given leave for 25 days. After the vacation, I was ordered to report to the operational department of the infantry regiment headquarters in Kerch. But Leshchenko did not go to the regiment, but returned to Odessa. He managed to get a job in a military artistic group. As part of this group, he performed in Romanian military units. In October 1943, he was forced to leave for Kerch, where until mid-March 1944 he served as head of the canteen at the headquarters of the infantry regiment. In May 1944, he divorced Zinaida Zakis and registered his marriage with Vera Belousova. In September 1944, after the liberation of Bucharest by the Red Army, Leshchenko gave concerts in hospitals, military garrisons, and officers' clubs. He performed patriotic songs he composed about Russian girls - “Natasha”, “Nadya-Nadechka”, sang “Dark Night” by Nikita Bogoslovsky, popular Russian songs. He also performed with him new wife. 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 Rings”, “Don’t Go”.

Since the summer of 1948, the couple performed in various cafes and cinemas in Bucharest. Then they found work at the newly created Variety Theater.

Leshchenko found out the possibility of returning to the Soviet Union, contacted the “competent authorities”, wrote letters to Stalin and Kalinin asking for Soviet citizenship. It is difficult to say what guided him in this, because he was immediately told that Vera Belousova was considered a traitor in the USSR.

Arrest, prison and death (1951-1954)

Official Soviet propaganda during the time of Stalin, she characterized him: “The most vulgar and unprincipled white emigrant tavern singer, who stained himself by collaborating with the Nazi occupiers.” On March 26, 1951, on the direct orders of the USSR Ministry of State Security, Leshchenko was arrested by the Romanian state security authorities during the intermission after the first part of the concert in Brasov and taken to prison near Bucharest. On August 5, 1952, Belousova, who, like Leshchenko, was accused of treason (speeches in occupied Odessa), was sentenced to 25 years in prison. In 1953 she was released for lack of evidence of a crime. Many years later, his wife found out: Peter Konstantinovich became one of the 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 on the Leshchenko case have not yet been examined.

Revival of popularity in 1988

For my creative life the singer recorded over 180 gramophone discs, but until 1988, none of these recordings were reissued in the USSR. The first record from the series “Pyotr Leshchenko Sings” was released by Melodiya for the 90th anniversary of the singer’s birth in 1988 and in the same year took first place in the TASS hit parade.