Life story
Boris Metlitsky writes: “His easily recognizable voice, original songs, often composed by himself, to which it was so pleasant to relax or dance, were heard on all continents. Moreover, none of the foreign listeners was embarrassed that the artist sang in a Russian language unfamiliar to them. The main thing was how he sang. And he sang with his soul, sincerely, sometimes smiling, sometimes sad.”
Pyotr Konstantinovich Leshchenko was born on July 3, 1898 in the village of Isaev near Odessa. Mother, Maria Konstantinovna, was a poor, illiterate peasant woman. The father, who died when the boy was three years old, was replaced by his stepfather, Alexey Vasilyevich Alfimov. It was simple a kind person, who loved and knew how to play the harmonica and guitar.
Peter studied at rural school, sang in the church choir; got involved in work early. He was lucky that his stepfather, who loved him like his own son, recognized artistic inclinations in the boy and gave him a guitar.
When the First World War began, Peter was sixteen years old. The young man did not escape the influence of patriotic sentiments in Russian society: Leshchenko entered the Chisinau school of ensigns. Romania, which fought on the side of the Entente, suffers one defeat after another; Among those mobilized to help the Romanian army, Peter was sent to the front ahead of schedule.
After being seriously wounded, Leshchenko ends up in the hospital, where he was found October Revolution. Meanwhile, the political situation in the region changed: Romania unilaterally resolved a long-standing territorial dispute in its favor. In January 1918, she occupied Bessarabia, tearing it away from Russia.
So Peter unexpectedly became an emigrant. He works as a carpenter, as a singer, as an assistant to the cathedral regent, as a dishwasher in a restaurant, and works part-time in cinemas and cafes. For example, in 1918-1919, Leshchenko performed between sessions as an artist in the Chisinau cinemas “Orpheum” and “Suzanna”.
Leshchenko feels a lack vocational training and in 1923 he entered the ballet school in Paris. He wanted to feel much more confident in dancing.
In Paris, Leshchenko met the charming nineteen-year-old dancer Zinaida Zakis, a Latvian who came to France from Riga with a choreographic ensemble. Two years later they got married and then prepared several song and dance numbers. Zakis, a wonderful classical ballerina, also danced solo numbers.
In the summer of 1926, the husband and wife duo toured Europe and the Middle East and gained fame. In 1928, the couple arrived in Chisinau, where Peter introduced his wife to his mother, stepfather, and sisters.
Then Peter and Zinaida go to Riga, where Zakis’s parents lived. Zinaida had a desire to give birth in Riga. Konstantin Tarasovich Sokolsky, a witness to Leshchenko’s speeches in 1930, recalled:
“In the spring of 1930, posters appeared in Riga announcing a concert of the dance duet Zinaida Zakis and Peter Leshchenko in the premises of the Dailem Theater on Romanovskaya Street, 37...
...To let his partner change clothes for the next dance, Leshchenko came out during pauses. He was in a bright gypsy costume, with a guitar. Sang songs.
His voice had a small range, a light timbre, without “metal”, with a short breath, like all dancers, and therefore he could not cover with sound huge space cinema hall, and microphones were not yet used at that time. But in this case this was not of decisive importance, because the public perceived Leshchenko so far only as a dancer, not a singer, and understood that the purpose of his performance was to fill the pause and give his partner an opportunity to rest.”
However, his wife's pregnancy became more and more noticeable. She had to cancel her performances.
L. Pishnograeva writes:
“Zina had to leave the stage, and Peter began performing independently with concert programs. Finally! One. On the stage. Leshchenko began his solo career at almost 32 years old - far from young. All the more unexpected was his stunning success: soon the billboards of the entire city were full of advertisements for Leshchenko’s concerts. And again applause, recognition, flowers fell as if from a cornucopia.
Suddenly it turned out that it was him - an elegant, handsome man, with a languid, gentle look and a deep, caressing voice - that the capricious public was looking forward to. She, like a spoiled society lady, craved beautiful words, unfulfilled promises and passionate confessions. And then he appeared romantic hero, to whom one could surrender without hesitation. Again and again she demanded her favorite songs and caressing sounds of foreign tango. 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 at the recording company the best works of the famous composer: “Black Eyes”, “Blue Rhapsody”, “Tell Why” and other tangos and romances of the maestro. He also worked with others talented composers, in particular with Mark Maryanovsky - the author of “Tatyana”, “Miranda”, “Nastya-berry”.
In the first half of the thirties, Leshchenko moved permanently to Bucharest, where for some time he sang in the Galeries Lafayette cafe. Konstantin Sokolsky writes: “In 1933, the company of Gerutsky, Cavour and Leshchenko opened a small restaurant “Our House” in Bucharest at 7 Brezoleanu Street. The capital was invested by the personable-looking Gerutsky, who greeted the guests. The experienced chef Cavour was in charge of the kitchen, and Leshchenko with a guitar created the mood in the hall. Leshchenko's stepfather and mother received the wardrobe of visitors.
Things were going well at Our Little House: visitors were pouring in, tables were taken, as they say, in a fight, and the need arose to change the premises.
In the fall of 1936, and maybe earlier, on the main street of Bucharest, Victoria, a new restaurant was opened, which was called “Leshchenko”. Since Peter Konstantinovich was very popular in the city, the restaurant was visited by sophisticated Russian and Romanian society. A wonderful orchestra played. Zinaida made Peter's sisters - Valya and Katya - good dancers. Everyone performed together, but the highlight of the program was, of course, Leshchenko himself...”
Interestingly, the later famous singer Alla Bayanova also performed in the restaurant.
In 1935-1940, Leshchenko collaborated with the Bellacord and Columbia recording companies (Bucharest). During that period he recorded more than a hundred songs of different genres. The singer's songs are heard on the radio, at parties, and in restaurants. Leshchenko's plates penetrate even into Soviet Union. Especially many of them appeared in the black markets and bazaars of Bessarabia and the Baltic states, which were included in the USSR in 1940. But they don’t sound on Soviet radio. Leshchenko still remains an emigrant.
Bibs Eckel gives the following portrait of the singer of that time: “The most contradictory stories circulated about the character of Pyotr Leshchenko. Some who knew him personally spoke of his stinginess. At the same time, one woman told in Bucharest how he generously helped many, including a young man from one poor Jewish family- pianist Efim Sklyarov, whose father came to Leshchenko with a request to pay attention to musical abilities son. Leshchenko took him into his ensemble and was not mistaken. Efim Sklyarov wrote several for his idol musical compositions, later recorded on gramophone records.
Living among the Romanians, Leshchenko was very respected, although he himself treated them without much love, but often expressed admiration for the musicality of this people. Leshchenko drove a brand new German car of the DKV brand. He didn't smoke, but he liked to drink. Leshchenko's weakness is champagne and good wines, of which there were extremely many in Romania at that time. Often the owner and singer of the most fashionable restaurant in Bucharest was greeted slightly drunk, which in general atmosphere restaurant frenzy is almost unnoticeable. Leshchenko enjoyed enormous success with women, to whom he himself was not indifferent.”
This fact speaks about the singer’s popularity. King Charles, the father of Mihai, the leader of the ruling dynasty in Romania, often brought Leshchenko to his country mansion in an armored car to listen to him.
Almost a year has passed Patriotic War when Leshchenko arrives in Odessa in May 1942. His concert is scheduled in Russian drama theater. There was a real rush in the city: lines for tickets started forming early in the morning.
One of the eyewitnesses recalled: “The day of the concert became a true triumph for Pyotr Konstantinovich. Small theater Hall filled to capacity, many were standing in the aisles. At first, the singer was upset: he suddenly began to sing the first things in Romanian, - it turned out, at the request of the authorities... Then the already well-known, beloved tangos, foxtrots, romances began to sound, and each thing was accompanied by frantic applause from the listeners. The concert ended with a real ovation...”
At the same time, Leshchenko’s first meeting took place with Vera Belousova, who later became the singer’s wife. A beautiful, slender girl who played the accordion won the artist’s heart. Soon they begin performing together.
In October 1943, Pyotr Konstantinovich was drafted into the army. In Crimea, he works as the head of the officers' canteen. With the approach of Soviet troops, Leshchenko returns to Romania.
In May 1944, Pyotr Konstantinovich officially divorced Zinaida Zakis and registered his marriage with Vera Belousova. After the arrival of the Red Army, Leshchenko gave concerts in hospitals, military garrisons, and officers' clubs. He performs patriotic songs he composed about Russian girls - “Natasha”, “Nadya-Nadechka”, sings “Dark Night” by Nikita Bogoslovsky, popular Russian songs. His new wife also performed with him.
Here is an excerpt from the memoirs of G. Kipnis-Grigoriev: “... Leshchenko announces the following number:
“The most precious thing for every person,” he says, “is the Motherland.” Wherever you are, wherever fate takes you. My wife Vera Belousova-Leshchenko and I will sing about longing for the Motherland.
And then she begins in her strong voice to the accompaniment of her own accordion:
“I am not walking on our land,
The blue morning wakes up..."
And when the first verse ends, Pyotr Leshchenko comes on with a guitar, and they sing the chorus in two voices - they sing sincerely, with sincere and undisguised suffering:
"I'm homesick
On my native side,
I'm on a long journey now,
In an unfamiliar country.
I yearn for Russian fields.
My pain cannot be relieved without them...”
What can I tell you? Usually they write - “thunder of applause.” No, it was a squall, a thunder squall! And there are tears in the eyes of many. Everyone, of course, has their own memories, but we are all united by one pain, longing for loved ones, and for many - for wives and children, “my pain cannot be relieved without them”... And Pyotr Leshchenko and the beautiful Vera sing an encore "and the second time. And the third. And the hall has already become different. Warnings about the need for ideological and political restraint have been forgotten. And Leshchenko beams, feeling, like an experienced artist, that he has completely captured the audience. He quickly announces the next song - the famous “Chubchik”, but ends with a new verse:
“So flutter, flutter, my little forelock... in Berlin!
Flow, little forelock, in the wind!
Then they alternated between “our” “Dark Night” and some of his “Marfusha”, and the audience constantly shouted “encore!”
Since the summer of 1948, the couple have performed in various cafes and cinemas in Bucharest. Then they find work in the newly created Variety Theater.
“Leshchenko has already passed the fifty-year mark,” writes B.A. Savchenko. - In accordance with his age, his repertoire also changes - the singer becomes more sentimental. Tempo hits such as “My Marusichka” and “Nastenka” are disappearing from the programmes, and a taste for lyrics and romances, tinged with melancholy and sadness, is emerging. Even in his record recordings made in 1944-1945, it is not a joyful tonality that dominates: “Tramp”, “Bell”, “Mama’s Heart”, “Evening Rings”, “Don’t Go Away”.
And further: “Peter Konstantinovich continues to find out the possibility of returning to the Soviet Union, contacts the “competent authorities”, writes letters to Stalin and Kalinin. It would be better if he didn’t do this - maybe then he would be able to live the rest of his life in peace.”
In March 1951, Pyotr Konstantinovich was arrested. This happened at a concert in Brasov. Many years later, his wife found out: Pyotr Konstantinovich died in the camp in the summer of 1954, either from a stomach ulcer or from poisoning.
Vera and Peter Leshchenko.
Russian viewers finally saw the series “Peter Leshchenko. Everything that was…”, created back in 2013.
In reports from film set this series has been stated more than once, with reference to authoritative sources, that there is no distortion in it historical truth. And this despite the fact that the screenwriter of “Everything That Was...” Eduard Volodarsky did not hide: he wrote Leshchenko’s fate. Based, of course, on undeniable biographical conflicts.
Although Pyotr Leshchenko was a rather open person and, at least in a narrow circle of friends, he liked to tell different stories. fascinating stories From his life, in particular, about his service in the White Army, little is known about him. These stories were probably not written down or retold.
The biography of Peter Leshchenko, which wanders around numerous sites with slight variations, is compiled on the basis of a 17-page protocol of one of the interrogations of the artist arrested by the Romanian State Security Service. The interrogation was conducted by a Soviet investigator, the protocol was in Russian.
Another popular source of information about the singer is the book by his widow Vera Belousova-Leshchenko “Tell me why?” Vera Georgievna took it up at the age of 85, but claimed that she began to take the first notes about her famous husband much earlier. Belousova did not live to see the start of filming. Her friend Olga Petukhova, who became a consultant for the series, already spoke about why the role of Leshchenko (in adulthood) was played by Konstantin Khabensky.
Why Khabensky?
Vera Belousova thought about which artist could play Pyotr Leshchenko on the screen even when this series was not even in the project. After all, the idea of making a picture about her famous husband fascinated Eldar Ryazanov. Vera Georgievna watched different films on TV, but she never met anyone who reminded her of Pyotr Leshchenko.
And suddenly one day she called Petukhova and told her friend to turn on the TV. Khabensky was shown on TV. “He has delicacy, restraint, and strength of character is felt. That’s how Petenka was!” – Petukhova heard.
The director of the series, Vladimir Kott, was choosing an artist for main role in your own way. He laid out photographs of Leshchenko in front of him, and the more he looked at them, the more clearly Khabensky’s face appeared before him. According to Kott, Khabensky has the same intelligence with a clear tendency towards hooliganism, the same nervousness.
As a result, Khabensky was approved without casting, and after that they began to look for someone similar to him young artist- for the role of Leshchenko in his youth.
The biggest disappointment of many viewers was the director’s decision not to include songs performed by Pyotr Leshchenko himself in the series. Khabensky, who also sings in the film, does it well, but this is not Leshchenko at all, whose voice made especially sensitive ladies gasp with delight and were ready for madness. However, Kott’s words that Leshchenko was a phenomenon of his time and would not have made such an impression on the public today also have their own bitter truth.
To spite the security officers?
Reading the protocol of Leshchenko's interrogation suggests that some episodes of the film were made to spite the security officers. To mock them. The investigator is interested in Leshchenko’s foreign acquaintances, and here you have it, in the series, an episode of the singer’s meeting with a friend of his youth - a Russian underground fighter. That is, for a Romanian citizen, Leshchenko is with a foreigner. The singer agrees to carry out the most dangerous task - to smuggle a suitcase with explosives into occupied Odessa to be handed over to local anti-fascists.
The investigator insisted that by joining her life with Leshchenko, Vera Belousova had betrayed her Motherland? And here’s another episode about Vera. After all, she, a young singer from a restaurant, turns out to be a messenger who must pass the explosives further along the underground chain...
If Pyotr Leshchenko and Vera were at least somehow connected with the partisan underground, Belousova would undoubtedly talk about it in her book. But she only remembers that shortly before the occupation of her native Odessa, she performed as part of a concert brigade in Soviet military units. It would have been difficult to expect anything else in that situation from a conservatory student, Komsomol member, daughter of an NKVD employee who volunteered for the front. And Pyotr Leshchenko, according to her testimony, more than once helped Jewish acquaintances cross to territory that was safe for them and avoid extermination.
There are two documentary versions of the first meeting of Pyotr Leshchenko and Vera Belousova. One can be found out by reading the protocol of Leshchenko’s interrogation, the other by reading Belousova’s book of memoirs.
Leshchenko told the investigator that, having arrived in Odessa with a concert, he heard about a young singer who sings to her own accompaniment on the accordion in one of the restaurants, and wanted to hear her. This was Vera. He really liked both her and her songs. He invited Vera to perform at his concert.
And Vera Georgievna writes about how she dreamed of going to Leshchenko’s concert, but there was no money for a ticket. Fortunately, she met a good friend, a musician who was supposed to play in the orchestra at this concert. He couldn’t take Vera to the celebrity concert, but he couldn’t take Vera to the concert rehearsal. Leshchenko even introduced her. Pyotr Konstantinovich asked Vera to sing something. She sang Tabachnikov’s song “Mama,” and tears welled up in Leshchenko’s eyes. This is where it all started for them.
Did either spouse's memory fail? Perhaps Leshchenko simply made up his story of meeting Vera so that the young musician who introduced them would not also appear in the case.
There is a romantic version that Leshchenko died because he refused to betray his wife. From the moment Soviet troops entered Bucharest, Leshchenko and his wife performed without fail wherever they were invited by Soviet military officials and the new local authorities. The Soviet military often asked if Leshchenko was thinking about returning to his homeland, and he answered that he had always dreamed about it.
Once a similar dialogue took place in the presence of Vera Georgievna, and a certain Soviet military official suggested that he fulfill his dream without delay, and Belousova directly said: “It will take a year or two to fell the forest.” And then he lied. For what they were going to accuse her of, it was impossible to get off with a year or two. Leshchenko's wife was sentenced to death by a military tribunal.
Leshchenko did not even want to think about returning to his homeland without Vera. However, even if he had decided to do so, he still would not have avoided arrest. Vera Georgievna recalled that the investigator asked her why she married this renegade and White Guard?
"White Guard and renegade." This is how he was and remained in the eyes of the then authorities.
What then?
According to official version, Pyotr Leshchenko died in a prison hospital after an unsuccessful operation for a stomach ulcer. His case has not been declassified to this day, and it is unknown where his remains are buried.
For Vera Belousova, the death penalty was replaced with 25 years in the camps, but she was released two years after her arrest: Stalin died, and a wave of rehabilitation began. Belousova was released with her criminal record expunged.
She worked in regional philharmonic societies, married twice and remained a widow again. Both of her husbands, even before meeting her, were sincerely interested in the work of Pyotr Leshchenko.
In the last years of her life, Vera Georgievna complained that although Pyotr Leshchenko returned to the cultural landscape of Russia, his image is often distorted, giving him criminal features, but he was never like that and never sang criminal songs. On Sundays I went to church and sang during the choir service. Once Vera Georgievna thought to please Leshchenko with an observation: the parishioners listened to his singing!
“My dear child,” Pyotr Konstantinovich answered his young wife, “they don’t sing in church for the parishioners.” I don't sing, I talk to God.
Leshchenko Petr Konstantinovich(June 2, 1898 - July 16, 1954) - Romanian singer of Russian origin (baritone); director of the pop ensemble. One of the most popular Russian-speaking performers 1930s
Pyotr 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 registry book of the district archive there is an entry: “Maria Kalinovna Leshchenkova, the daughter of a retired soldier, gave birth to a son, Peter, on June 2, 1898.” Peter was baptized on 07/03/1898; subsequently, the date of baptism appeared in Peter Leshchenko’s documents - July 3, 1898. In the “father” column 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 due influence on the formation of the personality of Peter, who early childhood also discovered extraordinary musical abilities. The mother's family, together with 9-month-old Peter, moved to Chisinau, where about nine years later the mother married dental technician Alexei Vasilyevich Alfimov. Pyotr Leshchenko spoke Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian, French and German languages.
Pyotr Leshchenko sang in the soldiers' church choir (1906). In 1917 he graduated from the infantry school for warrant officers in Kyiv and was sent to the Romanian front. In August of the same year, he was seriously wounded and, after leaving the hospital, served for a short time as a psalm-reader in the Chisinau church. In the fall of 1919 he performed as part of a dance group at the Alagambra Theater (Bucharest). In 1920 he began working in the Romanian theatrical society "Scene", performing in tandem with the ballerina Rosica under the pseudonym "Martynovich". From 1923 to 1925 he studied at the Paris ballet school, after which, together with his first wife, ballerina Zhenya-Johanne, Zakit prepared several song and dance numbers and went on tour to the countries of the Middle East.
His debut performance as a performer of gypsy romances took place in 1929 at the Londra restaurant (Chisinau). In 1930 he sang in Belgrade at the family celebration of King Alexander Karadjordjevic. In the same year, in the Riga cafe "A.T.", accompanied by an orchestra conducted by G. Schmidt, he presented a large solo program, which included songs written especially for Leshchenko by Oscar Strok: "Black Eyes", "Katya", " Musenka dear" and others. The singer's repertoire includes works of various genres: tango, foxtrots, gypsy and everyday romances, as well as songs unknown authors, among which the song Chubchik was the most popular. Performs songs by Mark Maryanovsky: “Tatyana”, “Vanka, sing”, “Marfusha” and several songs own composition- “You’ve returned again”, “Horses”. He writes arrangements for many songs. In the early 30s he entered into a contract with the Romanian branch of the English recording company Columbia (about 80 songs were recorded). In addition, the singer’s records are published by Parlophon (Germany), Electrecord (Romania), Bellacord (Latvia).
Having moved to Bucharest in 1933, Leshchenko became a co-owner of the restaurant “Our House”, and in 1935 he opened the restaurant “Leshchenko”, in which he performed together with the ensemble “Leshchenko Trio” (the singer’s wife and his younger sisters- Valya and Katya) and beginner pop singer Alla Bayanova.
The announcement of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War finds the singer in Romania. Being a Romanian subject, Leshchenko avoids serving in the Romanian army and continues concert activities. In the summer of 1942, accompanied by an opera orchestra, the singer performed in Nazi-occupied Odessa. In September 1944, after the liberation of Bucharest, he gives big concert for officers Soviet army, performing his own songs: “I miss my homeland,” “Natasha,” “Nadya-Nadechka,” as well as songs by Soviet composers, including “Dark Night” by N. Bogoslovsky.
IN concert programs post-war years songs are played: “Tell me why”, “Don’t leave”, “Sleep, my poor heart” by O. Strok, “Everything that was” by D. Pokrass, “Petrushka” by A. Albin, “Autumn Mirage” by A. Sukhanov and etc. March 26, 1951 Pyotr Leshchenko was arrested by Romanian state security authorities during the intermission after the first part of the concert. This was followed in July 1952 by the arrest of his wife Vera Belousova, who, like Leshchenko, was accused of treason (speeches in occupied Odessa). On August 5, 1952, Belousova was sentenced to 25 years in prison, but was released in 1953 for lack of corpus delicti. Pyotr Leshchenko died in 1954 in a prison hospital.
For my creative life the singer recorded over 180 gramophone discs, but until the end of the 80s, not a single one of these recordings was reissued in the USSR.
The first record from the series “Petr 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.
During his creative life, the singer recorded over 180 gramophone discs.
Petr Leshchenko about himself:
At the age of 9 months, together with her mother, as well as with her parents, they moved to live in the city of Chisinau. Until 1906, I grew up and was raised at home, and then, as I had talent for dancing and music, I was taken into the soldiers’ church choir. The director of this choir, Kogan, later sent me to the 7th National Parish School in Chisinau. At the same time, the regent of the bishop's choir, Berezovsky, drew attention to me and assigned me to the choir. Thus, by 1905 I received the general and musical education. In 1915, due to a 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 for warrant officers in the city of Kyiv, from which I graduated in March 1917, and I was awarded the rank of warrant officer. After graduating from the mentioned school, the 40th reserve regiment in Odessa 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 was sent to a hospital, first to a field hospital, and then to the city of Chisinau. Revolutionary events October 1917 they found me in the same hospital. Even after the revolution, I continued to be treated until January 1918, that is, until the capture of Bessarabia by Romanian troops.
Was born Petr Konstantinovich Leshchenko June 2, 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 was already in the active army (the First World War was in progress) 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 her dance technique, she entered the best ballet school (where the famous Vera Aleksandrovna Trefilova, née Ivanova, who recently shone on the Mariinsky stage and won fame in both London and Paris), teaches.
At this school, Leshchenko meets a student from Riga, Zinaida Zakit. Having learned several original numbers, they perform in Parisian restaurants, and are successful everywhere... Soon the dancing couple becomes a married couple. The newlyweds go on a long tour of European countries, performing in restaurants, cabarets, and 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, famous ballet dancers Zinaida Zakit and Pyotr Leshchenko, who came from Paris, perform at the London restaurant.”
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 solo character and 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 this case this was not of decisive importance, because the audience 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, their performance is like dancing couple I liked it - 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 they were invited popular artists. 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 Chaliapin, 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 with diaphragmatic, deep breathing. If in performances in a dance duet Leshchenko sang in a short breath, excited after dancing, 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, on the shores of the 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 general, the first 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 of a dramatic soprano, had performed there. 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. He sang all the musical reviews at the Russian Drama Theater and 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, which required 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.”
Petya, at first, when he learned about these words of Chaliapin, was offended, and I then explained to him with difficulty: “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 according to compared to classical repertoire. But they praised you and said that you sing these songs well. And who said this - Chaliapin himself! This is the biggest compliment from 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, Peter Leshchenko." After the performances, the following messages appeared: "The concert of Peter Leshchenko was an exceptional success. The sincere 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, they conveyed only a certain proportion 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 the Kemer Kurhaus, where Leshchenko and the orchestra of the 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 the 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 he, as popular singer, are 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 applaud.” 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...
People's History www.peoples.ru
The king of romances and tango Pyotr Leshchenko, whose biography is complete unsolved mysteries, was also a dancer and polyglot. He lived a bright, stormy life. Creativity, love and war are closely intertwined in it. It's a shame it ended tragically. And even the name of Pyotr Leshchenko was banned after his death.
The first mystery in the history of Peter is connected with his birth. The boy was born in the summer of 1898. The name of his mother is known - Maria Kalinovna Leshchenkova. But who Peter's father was remains a mystery. And it’s not surprising, because in those days the illegitimacy of children was not advertised. That’s why Maria Kalinovna didn’t 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 Russian empire, after the First World War the territory became Romanian, and today it is Ukrainian. Due to the controversial nature of the problem, Pyotr 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.
My son was not yet a year old when Maria Kalinovna moved with him to Chisinau. A few years later she married A.V. Alfimov, dental technician. Peter got two sisters.
By the beginning of the First World War, Pyotr Leshchenko received both general and musical education. From the age of 8 he sang in the church soldiers' choir. He spoke fluent 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 the war crossed out all his plans. 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 turned out to be different. A revolution took place, Peter Leshchenko became a citizen of Romania, without a profession and without a means of livelihood.
The young man tried to work as a turner, a church worker, and earned extra money by singing. But life still could not be arranged. A new round and the beginning of his creative career occurred in 1919, when Pyotr Leshchenko was accepted into dance group"Elizarov".
His journey as a dancer lasted twelve years. And on this path 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 performances, and countless tours. The young couple traveled all over Europe and the Middle East.
But in 1931, a 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 that's the joke of fate. Just as once, having come 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. A 19-year-old conservatory student won the master’s heart. He decided to divorce his first wife. But the Second World War was going on. Peter was subject to mobilization and served in Crimea. He managed to take his beloved’s family 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 a lot together and gave concerts. However, unnoticed, the clouds of political persecution gathered over them. Pyotr Leshchenko was taken into custody during 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.
Like many hundreds and thousands of victims in those years, his stay in prison ended with the death of Peter on July 16, 1954 “from long illness" There is not even a grave left for the famous singer today. 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 an atmosphere of creativity and music. My stepfather played the guitar, and my mother sang wonderfully. It was from her that her son inherited an absolute ear for music and an undeniable talent for singing and dancing.
Leshchenko’s most famous romances, including “Black Eyes”, “My Last Tango”, “At the Samovar”, “Nastya the Berry”, “Sing 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 set off to conquer Paris. In France, Peter worked a lot in restaurants, performing rather unusual acts using daggers. To improve his technique, he studied at one of the best ballet schools at that time, Trefilova.
For another five years, Petr Leshchenko toured with doubles dance numbers together with his first wife Zhenya. The tour ended with the couple returning to their homeland, where they settled at 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 Oscar Stroke, 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, and Romania, Pyotr Leshchenko recorded more than 180 records. It was they who helped bring back the name of the talented performer from undeserved oblivion.
Three decades after the singer’s death, in the 80s of the twentieth century, the ban on his name was lifted in the USSR. Heartfelt romances began to appear on the radio, and publications began to appear in the press.
And Pyotr Leshchenko became popular again in 1988 after the release of the album “Pyotr Leshchenko Sings” (Melodiya company). She created a sensation, and since then his name has taken its rightful place on the musical horizon.
In 2013, a biography film “Peter Leshchenko” was shot. All that has gone before…". In Chisinau, a street and an alley were named after him.
Yes, many creative people life is not easy. But still, true talent, as Peter Leshchenko was and remains in our memory, is a rarity, and it is criminal to forget such names.
Romanian singer of Russian origin; director of the pop 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. Leshchenko began his solo career at almost 32 years old and, nevertheless, unexpectedly gained 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 the best works of the 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. 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 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 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
During his 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.
