Lidia Andreevna Ruslanova: biography, life story, creativity and best songs

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

Who is Lidia Andreevna Ruslanova? A biography that briefly outlines the life path of this outstanding artist could look something like this: the famous performer of Russian folk songs, the same age as the 20th century, who experienced all the sharp turns in Russian history in its first half. She knew orphanhood and poverty, fame, we alth and popular adoration, as well as the horror of Stalin's prison dungeons and the camp existence, humiliating for any human being. But the Russian singer Lidia Andreevna Ruslanova managed again, against all odds, to return to active creative work. And she did not stop it until her death.

Lidiya Andreevna Ruslanova: biography

She spent her childhood and youth in the Saratov province. She was born in 1900, in a peasant family of Andrey and Tatiana Leikin. At birth, the girl was named Praskovya (according to other sources, Agafya). From the Mordvinian father Praskovya inherited dark almond-shaped eyes, an oblong "snub-nosed"face and thick dark hair.

The girl's father worked as a loader on one of the Volga marinas, her mother looked after three children. Her husband's parents lived with them - mother Daria Leykina and stepfather Dmitry Gorshenin, who, as it turned out later, did not really like his adopted son.

Russia in general, and the Volga region in particular, is famous for its song traditions. Songs accompanied a Russian person throughout his life: from birth to death, Russian people sang both during work and on vacation, in villages and cities. So little Praskovya Leykina absorbed Russian melodies into her soul from childhood. She was lucky in the sense that her father's brother, Uncle Yakov, was a real singing nugget, probably from that breed of folk (not by rank, but by origin!) Artists that Ivan Turgenev described in the story "Singers" (by the way, the main the hero of the story is just Yasha the Turk). Grandmother Darya was also a famous singer, so Ruslanova inherited her singing talent from her father's side.

Trials of childhood and youth

After parting with the Soviet past in Russia, at one time it was fashionable to idealize life in Tsarist Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. And then the industry, they say, developed, and there was enough work, and social harmony reigned in society. And all this well-being was allegedly destroyed by the “damned Bolsheviks”. A striking example of this approach is Stanislav Govorukhin's documentary film "The Russia We Lost". However, acquaintance with the facts contained in the biography of Lidia Andreevna Ruslanova refutes this common view.

Judgeyourself, reader. In 1904, the Russo-Japanese War begins, and Andrei Leikin, the father of three young children, is drafted into the army in the very first recruitment set. Moreover, as the researcher of the biography of Ruslanova, the writer Sergei Mikheenkov, testifies in his book “Lydia Ruslanova. The soul-singer,”it was the stepfather who arranged this, although the younger childless brother of Andrey Leikin Fedot was supposed to serve. But the Old Believer stepfather was a real family despot, no one in the house dared to argue with him (and how to object if the opponent claims that God's will itself is leading him!)

Then things got even worse. Praskovya's mother, in order to feed her children, gets a job at a brick factory in Saratov. Do you think she was offered an easy job? Nothing like that, they put her on such hard work, in which she overstrained herself in less than a year, fell ill and fell ill. And soon she died, leaving three juvenile orphans.

Soon, a notification about the missing father at the front also came. In fact, the story that happened to him fully characterizes the lawlessness of the lower classes of society in Russia at that time, as well as the complete absence of a social protection system. Having remained a legless disabled person, having no assistance from the authorities, he did not see the opportunity to return to his family, as he would be an additional burden for his children and his parents (especially for his stepfather-Old Believer). Therefore, having arrived in Saratov, he begged, asking for alms on the steps of the temple. Here is such a "social harmony" in the Russian version.

Street Singer

How did Ruslanova's biography develop after the loss of her parentsLydia Andreevna? The Old Believer grandfather, after the loss of his stepson in the war and the death of his daughter-in-law, transferred his dislike for the Leykins to his eldest granddaughter Praskovya, mocked her and beat the girl. This was found out by her mother's grandmother, who lived in a neighboring village, who took her to her place along with her little brother. But the grandmother herself was in poverty and, besides, she soon became blind. So the six-year-old Praskovya became a juvenile beggar, along with her blind grandmother, she walked the streets of Saratov and the surrounding villages, sang folk songs, and her grandmother asked for alms. Fortunately for them, the girl turned out to have an unusually clear and strong voice, along with an ideal ear for music. Plus, an unusually tenacious memory, so the young street singer delighted the audience with a wide repertoire of village and city songs, and listeners paid her with what they could.

A year of such "happy creativity" has passed. The grandmother died, unable to withstand the ordeals and hardships, and the seven-year-old girl continued to sing in the streets. But apparently, at that time, some kind of wheel turned in the “heavenly office”, and the compassionate widow-official, who was once present among the street listeners of her singing, drew the attention of the poor orphan. Through her efforts, all three juvenile orphans of the Leikins were placed in various shelters, and the eldest Praskovya had to permanently change her first and last name, becoming Lidia Ruslanova. This was done in order to arrange the girl in a good shelter at one of the central churches of Saratov, where there was its own church choir, in which talented pupils were recruited. But the trouble is, peasant orphans were not taken to the orphanage (apparently,because there were a huge number of them in “prosperous” tsarist Russia), and the girl’s real name and surname betrayed her peasant origin. Therefore, in order to survive, she had to give up her own name.

First successes

How did Lidia Andreevna Ruslanova live after that? Her biography was formed under the influence of her own talent. In the orphanage, little Lida was immediately accepted into the choir and made a soloist, she began to study at the parochial school. A professional choir director worked with the choristers, apparently, it was thanks to his efforts that Lida got such a well-trained voice, which later brought her nationwide fame.

In the meantime, the little soloist sang church hymns in the choir. Even then, her art had an almost magical effect on the listeners. Lovers of church singing from all over Saratov flocked to the temple where she performed to listen to a young singer nicknamed "Orphan", and they said: "Let's go to Orphan." The famous Soviet playwright and screenwriter I. Prut, who met Lydia in childhood, left enthusiastic memories of her singing in the temple. By the way, according to him, it is known that Lida's disabled father asked for alms on the porch of this temple, but neither he nor his daughter showed their relationship, because officially she was considered an orphan, and this gave her reason to be in a shelter.

This went on for several years. But children were not kept in church shelters for long. As soon as the child grew up, he was given as an apprentice to some enterprise. This is what happened to Linda. As soon as she was twelve, she became a polisherin a furniture factory. But here she was already known, some heard her singing in church, so many asked the child worker to sing, and in return helped her complete the tasks.

In one of these impromptu concerts, she was heard by the professor of the Saratov Conservatory Medvedev, who came to the factory for furniture. He invited the young talent to study at the conservatory, and Lida attended his class for a couple of years. Here she received the basics of a real musical education.

On the "German war" and during the years of the revolution

How did Lidia Andreevna Ruslanova continue her life? Her biography changed dramatically with the outbreak of the First World War. Many Russians accepted its beginning with enthusiasm. After all, it was Germany that declared war on Russia, in response to tough demands to stop pressure on Serbia, which has always been perceived as a brotherly country and ally. Quite naturally, the general wave of enthusiasm captured Lydia as well. Barely waiting for her sixteenth birthday, she is hired by a sister of mercy in an ambulance train. Here she also sang, but for the wounded.

Lydia's first unsuccessful marriage also belongs to the period of service as a sister of mercy. Her chosen one was the handsome officer Vitaly Stepanov, who was twice as old as his young wife. As a result of this marriage, Lydia had a son in the spring of 1917. Lydia loved her husband and wanted a normal family life, but after October 1917 this became impossible. The appearance of Vitaly Stepanov was too bright, defiantly noble, so that he could fit into life inBolshevik Russia. Therefore, shortly after the revolution, he disappeared and took his son with him, in fact, he stole him from his own mother. Lydia never saw him or her son again.

How did Lidia Andreevna Ruslanova live in the years of the Civil War? Her biography turned out to be connected with the new, Soviet Russia. The fugitive husband made his choice, and Lydia made hers. Since 1918, she began touring in parts of the Red Army as part of concert brigades. This is where the professional skills acquired in Saratov came in handy. The performances of the team in which Ruslanova worked were always a success. Her repertoire consisted of two large song blocks: folk songs in the original "Ruslan" interpretation and urban, so-called. cruel romances like "The month turned crimson" or "Here is the daring troika rushing". Among the admirers of her talent in those years were the famous heroes of the Civil War, such as Mikhail Budyonny.

During a tour of Ukraine, Lydia meets a young Chekist Naum Naumin, who was assigned to guard their concert brigade. Soon he became her husband, and this marriage lasted almost a dozen years.

Who was nothing will become everything

These lines of the communist anthem "The Internationale" are fully applicable to the fate of our heroine after the end of the Civil War. Together with her husband, she moves to Moscow (Naumin received a position in the central apparatus of the Cheka). They have a comfortable apartment, the husband receives a decent salary. Howdid Lidia Andreevna Ruslanova take advantage of this gift of fate? Her biography shows that to the fullest. She makes acquaintances among Moscow bohemia, takes singing lessons from famous singers of the Bolshoi Theater and continues to tour. Most often, her tour takes place in the south, in Rostov-on-Don and other large southern cities. It is not as hungry there as in the center of Russia, the audience is more prosperous and does not skimp on buying tickets for concerts. Ruslanova earns well, she has a huge capacity for work, she can give concerts every day for a whole month.

This period marks the beginning of her famous collection of paintings, rare books, antiques and jewelry. A poor peasant daughter, an orphan who never had her own home or a decent income, suddenly becomes a we althy lady, beautifully and expensively dressed, a hospitable hostess, always generously treating her numerous guests to her and Naumin's Moscow apartment (during breaks between tours).

Rise to the heights of popularity

By 1929, she met Mikhail Harkavy, a famous entertainer and, as they would say today, a professional art manager. By that time, Ruslanova's concert activity had turned into a serious, in modern terms, show business, which was in dire need of a competent organizer. She needed a man like Harkavy, and he, in turn, needed a star like Ruslanova in his own sky. Both of them needed each other, and therefore decidedto unite in a married couple, having made a creative and vital union. Naumin understood everything correctly and did not interfere with Lydia. They divorced amicably.

Under the leadership of Harkavy, Ruslanova's concert and touring activities in the 30s acquired the greatest scope, she became a truly popular singer. On sale there were gramophone records with her recordings. Ruslanova's voice then sounded in every house where there was a gramophone, her recordings were often broadcast on the all-Union radio.

Fyodor Chaliapin, who lives in exile, heard one of these programs. He was delighted with her singing talent and voice and conveyed his sincere congratulations to Lidia Andreevna.

For all her fame, she was not a "court" Stalinist singer, like many famous performers of that time. She did not like official events and concerts in front of representatives of the party nomenklatura. Her bold remark, expressed to Stalin himself, is widely known when, at one of the concerts in the Kremlin, which could not be refused, the leader invited her to his table and offered to treat himself to fruit. To which Lydia Andreevena replied that she herself was not hungry, but it would be nice to feed her countrymen from the Volga region, who are starving. Then this trick of hers had no immediate consequences, but, as you know, the "leader of all peoples" never forgot anything and never forgave anyone.

She was with her people in all trials

Ruslanova Lidia Andreevna, biography, whose life story we are researching, is inseparable in the mindour people (at least representatives of the older generation) from wartime. The war for Ruslanova, as well as for the entire Russian people, became the time of the greatest tests of fortitude and physical strength, and at the same time elevated her personality to the rank of a real national symbol. Her selfless, ascetic work during all the years of the war remained forever in the memory of the people, and neither the oblivion of power, nor the years of imprisonment, nor the new post-war trends in art and life itself could erase this memory.

The image of Ruslanova, performing songs for fighters in the front line from an impromptu stage in the form of a lorry body with folded sides, has become in the memory of generations the same significant sign of wartime, like balloons in the sky over Moscow, crossed out by searchlights, or anti-tank "hedgehogs" on a city street. Probably, none of the artists of that time gave so much strength to the front, did not drive so many hundreds of thousands of kilometers along the front-line roads in four war years, like Ruslanova. It was she who was given the honor by Marshal Zhukov to give a concert on the steps of the defeated Reichstag in Berlin on May 2, 1945. And it is natural from some higher point of view that the war itself helped her, a forty-two-year-old woman who had been married three times, meet her real, long-awaited love.

In 1942, she toured in the first Guards Cavalry Corps, commanded by General Vladimir Kryukov, a former gallant hussar of the First World War, a dashing red cavalryman of the warcivil and, finally, the general of the Great Patriotic War. It can be said in the words of Mikhail Bulgakov that love attacked them as suddenly as a murderer with a knife in the alley. Their romance developed so rapidly that at the first meeting in private they agreed to get married.

Mikhail Garkavy showed nobility and stepped aside, remaining a good friend of Lidia Andreevna until the end of his days. She herself became a devoted wife to General Kryukov and a caring foster mother to his only five-year-old daughter, Margosha, whose mother died before the war.

Trophy Case

Lidiya Andreevna Ruslanova, whose biography and songs so vividly reflected her identity and truly Russian national character, suffered another terrible test after the war, namely, she lost her freedom for several years. How did it happen? Here, a whole huge knot of contradictions accumulated over decades was tied into a tight tangle, which was “cut” by the dictatorial Stalinist power with all its inherent decisiveness and cruelty.

What are these contradictions? First of all, between the ostentatious equality of all Soviet citizens declared in the basic ideological guidelines and their blatant inequality in reality, creating opportunities for the party, economic and military elite of the country to enrich themselves and provide themselves with a standard of living several orders of magnitude higher than that of the bulk of citizens. After the war, this contradiction became simply screaming, because after the victory, the Soviet generals concentrated in their hands huge we alth that fell into the hands of the occupation forces.authorities in Germany and Eastern Europe. Priceless works of art, antiques, jewelry began to fill the dachas and apartments of many Soviet officers and generals, including top military leaders. General Kryukov was no exception, and it was Lidia Ruslanova who played a significant role in the accumulation of the general's couple's we alth, with her huge connections among people of art and a good understanding of the potential value of this or that thing.

At first, Stalin and his closest political entourage did not interfere with this and even encouraged such a practice, but it was only a subtle tactical move of a brilliant political intriguer. Watching (through the secret services) how Soviet generals were surrounded by countless luxury items, he rubbed his hands in anticipation of how he could charge them with moral decay and illicit enrichment. After all, he was terribly afraid of their conspiracy against himself and his power. And these fears were well founded. Many of the generals who went through the war could not forgive Stalin for the pre-war repressions, considered him guilty of the shameful defeats of the first two years of the war, and sought to get rid of the constant fear of falling out of favor with the leader. But some of them compromised themselves by appropriating trophy values and doing this often bypassing even very loyal official procedures. And Stalin did not fail to take advantage of this.

In the autumn of 1948, a large group of generals and officers was arrested, mainly from among the colleagues of Marshal Zhukov when he was commander of the occupation forces inGermany. Among them was Vladimir Kryukov. On the same day, Lidia Ruslanova, who was on tour in Kazan, was also arrested (and at the same time her two accompanists and entertainers, so to speak, “for the company”).

“God forbid that your country does not kick you with a boot…”

What was Lidia Ruslanova accused of? Her biography and work were so transparent, and her origins so proletarian, that it would seem that the notorious "organs" should not have any complaints about her. So, in addition to the standard accusation of anti-Soviet propaganda, she was accused of misappropriation of trophy property. This is where the craving for luxury came back, which was first encouraged by the Stalinist government itself, and then punished its own, even imaginary opponents for it.

But the main thing that the investigators wanted was a slander by Marshal Zhukov under investigation. It was he who was the main goal of this whole large-scale event. To the credit of Lidia Ruslanova, it should be said that she behaved with dignity and did not make a deal with her conscience. The same can be said about General Kryukov, who was tortured in KGB remand prisons for four years and sentenced to 25 years only in the early 1950s.

Lydia Ruslanova was sentenced to be deprived of all the property that she had accumulated over three decades of hard labor on stage, in addition to trophy valuables. Her collection of paintings by Russian artists was confiscated from her (later they managed to return it), furniture, antiques, rare books and, most importantly, a box of diamonds, which she had collected since the time of the revolution. In order to impose a term of imprisonment, toto her and her husband, General Kryukov, in addition to the standard article of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR 58-10 “Anti-Soviet Propaganda”, the notorious Law “On Spikelets” of February 7, 1932 was applied, which qualified theft as counter-revolutionary activity.

For five years, Lidia Ruslanova disappeared from the stage. All mention of her name in the press and on the radio ceased. And vile rumors began to spread in society that Ruslanova and her husband were taken "for junk." She herself spent these years, first in the Ozerlag near Taishet, and then in the famous Vladimir Central (one of the camp guards tried, who wrote a denunciation that Ruslanova was conducting anti-Soviet agitation in the camp).

After the death of Stalin and the removal of Beria, Zhukov, who again took an important position, raised the issue of reviewing the case of Kryukov and Ruslanova. This married couple was rehabilitated by the very first of the millions of Gulag prisoners. They returned to Moscow in August 1953.

Conclusion

After her release, Ruslanova lived another 20 years, outliving her husband by 14 years, who never recovered from the effects of torture. She returned to the stage again, toured a lot, again earned good money. With all this, she remained, as it were, aloof from the general direction of development of the Soviet stage, did not seek to modernize her repertoire, and continued to perform in traditional folk costumes. Many then her style seemed archaic, but Ruslanova remained true to herself and her eternal, as it has now become clear, deeply folk art.

What does it meanfor today's Russians, this name is Ruslanova Lidia Andreevna? Biography, her filmography, limited to several short films, do not give a complete picture of her talent, the degree of popularity among the people at one time. But there are sound recordings that have preserved her wonderful voice, a unique manner of performance. Hear them, reader. And if there are those “Russian strings” in your heart that Turgenev mentioned in his “Singers”, then they will definitely respond to Ruslanova’s voice.