The last letter of Vera Leshchenko. "Pyotr Leshchenko

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

Parents of the future artist

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

Childhood

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

Peter goes to the army and gets wounded

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

First years after the revolution

Thus, Petr Konstantinovich Leshchenko turns out to be an emigrant unexpectedly for himself. He works as a singer, a carpenter, and a dishwasher, earns extra money in cafes and cinemas. In 1918-19, for example, Leshchenko acted as an artist between sessions at the Susanna and Orpheum cinemas.

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

Meeting with Zinaida Zakis

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

Touring abroad and the beginning of a solo career

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

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

Collaboration with famous composers

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

Moving to Bucharest and opening of "Our House"

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

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

Restaurant "Leshchenko"

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

Growing popularity

Petr Leshchenko, whose life story interests us, in 1935-40 collaborated with such record companies as Columbia and Bellacord. He released more than 100 songs during this period, different in genre. And on the radio, and in restaurants, and at parties, the songs of this singer sounded. Leshchenko's records even got to the USSR. There were especially many of them in the black markets and bazaars of the Baltic and Bessarabia, which were included in the Soviet Union in 1940. However, they did not sound on Soviet radio. Leshchenko was still an emigrant.

Life of Petr Leshchenko in Romania

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

Occupation of Odessa and Leshchenko's visit to this city

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

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

Acquaintance with Vera Belousova

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

Service in the Crimea and registration of a new marriage

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

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

Changing the repertoire

Spouses from the summer of 1948 performed in various cinemas and cafes in Bucharest. Then they found work at the Variety Theater, which had just been created. At this time, Leshchenko was already over 50 years old. His repertoire, in line with his age, has also changed. Songs performed by Petr Leshchenko became more sentimental. Tempo hits such as "Nastenka" and "My Marusichka" gradually left the programs, a taste for romances and lyrics, colored with sadness and melancholy, appeared. Even in the records made in 1944-45, a joyless tone dominates: "Bell", "Tramp", "Don't Go", "Evening Bells", "Mother's Heart", etc.

Arrest and death in prison

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

The fate of Peter's relatives

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

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

The children of this singer and their fate are also of interest to many. Therefore, it is impossible not to mention that his son Igor was an excellent choreographer who worked in the Bucharest theater. He died at the age of 47.

We appeal to everyone who can help in finding people who knew Petr Leshchenko, a popular singer in Romania in the 30-50s. Perhaps there are materials, documents related to this artist. His wife Vera Leshchenko, who performed with him on stage, unsuccessfully tried to find out where her husband was buried. Here is a letter she wrote a week before she passed away:

“I, Vera Leshchenko, married Petr Leshchenko, a singer beloved in Romania, and came with him to Bucharest in 1944. Until 1952 I lived in Bucharest. On tour performances in Romania, I accompanied my husband, in concerts I accompanied him on the accordion, we also sang in a duet, I also had solo numbers. In 1951, in Brasov, during the intermission of a group concert, the Romanian secret services arrested my husband. I managed to see him in Zhilava, where Pyotr Konstantinovich was kept under arrest. Then he told me: “I am not guilty of anything. I'll be home soon". I did not wait for my beloved, as I was arrested by the Soviet special services in 1952 and taken under escort to Constanta. There they sentenced me to death, then they replaced me with 25 years "for treason." What did it mean? Petr Leshchenko was a Romanian subject, but marriage to a foreigner, according to Soviet laws, was regarded as treason. Pyotr Leshchenko was also brought to Constanta, where I was judged by the Soviet "troika". In my file there is his interrogation. At night I heard his screams, heard how he was beaten, but we were not allowed to meet. I was sent to Russia, to the Ivdel camp. I was enrolled in a camp concert group. Stalin died and in 1954 I was released, but only 10 years later I was fully rehabilitated. I began to seek the rehabilitation of the name of Peter Leshchenko. They began to write about him and release his records in Russia. But I can't find his grave. I know that Igor died. At my request, my friend was at his grave. Bowed to his memory. He was a very nice boy. I know that a lot of bad things were said about me, but my conscience is clear in front of everyone. After the camp, I worked as a soloist in various Soviet concert organizations. Long years I tried to find out about my husband, where is he? I was informed that Peter had passed away, that Last year he was in the prison hospital of Targnu Okna. last information became available after the Romanian archives of the Securitate with information about prisoners were opened and published. There is an entry about Petr Leshchenko, an artist who died in 1954 on July 16 in Tirgnu Okna. I am 86 years old. With the help of friends, I managed to restore my husband's good name in Russia. His CDs began to be published, songs performed by him on the radio, but official, were heard. I wrote petitions to many authorities in order to obtain reliable information about Pyotr Konstantinovich. I also contacted Electrocord in Bucharest, I wanted to know if the recordings of the last disc that we recorded with Petr before his arrest were preserved. Alas, all my letters remained unanswered. In November, a month ago (approx. 2009) a book of my memories of my beloved Petya was published. But I still don't know the truth about him last days I don't know where he is buried. I count on the kindness and responsiveness of the Romanian people. All these years I have been living in the hope of finding my husband's grave. I was told that Peter was beaten by the Romanian guards when he refused to sing for them. I don't believe the Romanians loved Peter very much." I knew very little about Igor, the son of Peter Konstantinovich. I wished him only the best and never claimed anything, in the sense of inheritance. I only needed the truth about Petr Leshchenko for the official rehabilitation of his name, for the removal of illegal accusations against him. He was kind and honest man. He loved Russia and was attached with all his heart to Romania and its people, among whom he spent most of his life. He did not try to hide, to escape, because he knew that he was clean and had never violated the law. Help me recover the truth. Petr Leshchenko deserves this, because his songs are still alive, his name is remembered. Please, if you have any information about Petr Leshchenko, write to me. I would be very grateful, with hope, Vera Leshchenko Moscow, Russia. December 15, 2009".

*****

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 the Odessa region of Ukraine). He studied at a rural school, sang in the church choir, joined the work early. His stepfather saw artistic inclinations in him and gave him a guitar. At the age of sixteen he entered the Chisinau ensign school, but he was mobilized ahead of schedule to help the Romanian army and sent to the front. After a serious wound, he ended up in the hospital, where he was caught by the October Revolution.

Emigrant, Paris, marriage (1918-1926)

In connection with the separation of Bessarabia from Russia (January 1918), he suddenly became an emigrant. He worked as a carpenter, choirboy, assistant to the cathedral regent, dishwasher in a restaurant, worked part-time in cinemas and cafes. Feeling a lack of professional training, in 1923 he entered the ballet school in Paris. There he married 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, records, war (1926-1941)

In the summer of 1926 they made a tour 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 a resounding success.

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

Leshchenko performed and recorded the best works famous composer: "Black Eyes", "Blue Rhapsody", "Tell me 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, and Nastya-berries. In 1932, two Englishmen were captivated by his vocal abilities and with their help Leshchenko recorded several works already in London. In 1933 he moved permanently to Bucharest. In 1935-1940, he collaborated there with the recording companies Bellacord and Columbia and recorded more than a hundred songs of various genres. In 1935, he again traveled to England, performed in restaurants, in 1938 - in Riga, in 1940 - in Paris ...

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

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

The question of conscripting Leshchenko 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 Selyavina to give a concert in Odessa. Tickets were sold out, posters were hung around the city when Odessa was occupied by German-Romanian troops. The concert was postponed, as there were difficulties with the arrival of Leshchenko. The director of the theater obtained permission from the cultural and educational department of the governorate for Leshchenko to arrive. Pyotr Konstantinovich left for Odessa.

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

In April 1943, in order to again avoid being drafted into the active Romanian army, at the suggestion of a doctor friend, he agreed to an operation to remove the appendix. He spent ten days in the hospital, then he was granted leave for 25 days. After the vacation, there was an order to report to the operational department of the headquarters of the infantry regiment 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 team, he performed in the 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 an 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 composed by him 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 sad tonality began to dominate in his songs: "Tramp", "Bell", "Mother's Heart", "Evening Ringing", "Don't Leave".

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

Leshchenko found out the possibility of returning to the Soviet Union, turned to the "competent authorities", wrote letters to Stalin and Kalinin with a request 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 Stalin's time characterized him: "The most vulgar and unprincipled white émigré tavern singer, who stained himself with cooperation with the Nazi occupiers." On March 26, 1951, on the direct orders of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR, Leshchenko was arrested by the state security authorities of Romania during the intermission after the first part of the concert in Brasov and placed in a prison near Bucharest. On August 5, 1952, Belousova, who, like Leshchenko, was accused of treason (performances in occupied Odessa), was sentenced to 25 years in prison. In 1953, she was released for lack of corpus delicti. 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 in the case of Leshchenko have not yet been investigated.

Resurgence in popularity in 1988

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

But before the meeting with him, which so changed the fate of Leshchenko, it was still so far away! First, Petr Leshchenko performs with his wife in cafes and cinemas, moreover, rather, as a dancing partner for Zakis. While his wife is changing clothes for a new number, he sings to the audience with a guitar, sings, like all dancers, "on a short breath." The voice is not strong, the rooms are large and often with poor acoustics, the audience is inattentive, everyone understands that this singing is so simple while the dancer changes her stage appearance.
Much later, Leshchenko would establish the reputation of a "record singer", who really revealed himself in the studio. Or it needed some kind of chamber atmosphere and an attentive audience.
In the end, Leshchenko was lucky. He was invited to sing in the house famous doctor Solomir. The famous otolaryngologist saved many singers for the stage, among his grateful patients were Sobinov and Chaliapin. In the cozy living room of Solomir, Leshchenko made his debut as a singer in front of a select audience. Among his listeners was the famous Oscar Borisovich Strok.
A fruitful collaboration between the singer and the composer began.
In 1932, two Englishmen were captivated by Leshchenko's singing, and he recorded his songs in London.

Prosperity

For a short period of time, Petr Leshchenko sang more than sixty records. And he returned in 1933 to Bucharest with his wife, son and considerable fortune.
In the autumn of 1936, the Leshchenko restaurant opened on the main street of Bucharest, decorated with a truly Russian scale. It was a family business in the full sense of the word: Peter sang and carried out general management of the business, Katya and Valya danced, and his mother and stepfather were in charge of the wardrobe. Among the artistic forces that Leshchenko attracted to perform at his restaurant was the young Alla Bayanova.
home concert program Leshchenko's speech began at midnight. Champagne flowed like water, all the nobility of Bucharest danced to his singing and had fun in the restaurant until six in the morning. True, there is evidence that during the performances of Peter Konstantinovich himself not only did not dance, but even stopped drinking and chewing.
Petr Leshchenko was the star of bohemia and light of the Romanian capital. More than once an armored car took him to the villa to King Karol, big fan his talent.
Not only in the palace of the Romanian monarch, but also in the homes of ordinary Soviet citizens, cheerful and languid songs and Leshchenko's tango were endlessly "chased". But few of our citizens were aware that it was not the voice of Leshchenko himself (his records were confiscated by Soviet customs) that sounded from the records, but the voice of the singer Nikolai Markov, the soloist of the Jazz Tabaknikov ensemble. Worked in this team for a while famous composer Boris Fomin. The income of the creators of these counterfeit products was measured by suitcases of money!
However, the recognition of the Romanian king and Soviet people did not at all make Leshchenko a "serious" singer in the eyes of aesthetes. A. Vertinsky called him a "restaurant singer" and treated Leshchenko's work extremely dismissively.
And is Vertinsky alone? Once Fedor Ivanovich Chaliapin himself looked into Leshchenko's restaurant in Bucharest. The owner sang all night for the eminent guest, and then asked how he found his singing. “Yes, you sing silly songs well!” Chaliapin answered imposingly.
Leshchenko was terribly offended at first. But his friends assured him that great singer praised him: the songs were often really stupid

"Sleep, my poor heart"

Increasingly, German officers became guests of the restaurant. They behaved very correctly, they applauded the singer with pleasure. It is unlikely that Petr Leshchenko, far from politics, immediately saw in the rapprochement of Romania and Nazi Germany a threat to himself as well. More than once, the singer ignored the summons that ordered him to appear at the military training camp.
In 1941, Romania, together with Germany, entered the war with the USSR. The question of conscripting Leshchenko into the Romanian army has not yet been raised, but it was about giving a series of concerts in the occupied Soviet territory. Pyotr Konstantinovich agreed, not realizing what this would be fraught with for him both in the very near future and in the more distant future.
In May 1942 he gave several concerts in occupied Odessa. The concerts had to start with a repertoire in Romanian, because Peter Leshchenko was a subject of the Romanian king. But then came the turn of the Russian repertoire, and then the hall burst into applause. For several hours the listeners forgot about the war and the occupation.
At one of the concerts, he saw in the front row a dazzling beautiful girl. After the concert, they started talking. The girl's name was Vera Belousova, she studied at the Odessa Conservatory.
Their romance developed rapidly. It seemed that there was no age gap of a quarter of a century between him and her!

life path Soviet singer and dancer Pyotr Leshchenko turned out to be bright, rich, but not too long. Miserly fate measured him only 56 years, a significant part of which fell on both world wars and difficult post-war years. Despite this, Peter Leshchenko managed to become famous for being rich. creative heritage and many legends about himself.

More questions than answers

In July 1954, a man died in the prison hospital in Târgu-Okna. Fans of Petr Leshchenko's work would hardly have recognized in this beaten man, exhausted by torture and hunger, their idol, whom Europe applauded for the unique performance of the songs "Black Eyes", "My Marusechka", "Curly Forelock" and others.

The exact place where the "sweet-voiced nightingale" is buried is still unknown. Also, no one knows for sure what he died from. popular artist before the war: from an open stomach ulcer, poisoning or beatings. Together with Peter Konstantinovich, other secrets also disappeared into oblivion.

Either Odessa, or Moldavian

Biographers even find it difficult to name the exact place of birth future star stage. It is only known for sure that Peter's childhood passed in Chisinau. The family lived modestly, if not poorly. Petya and his half-sisters were raised by their mother and stepfather. But the main teacher of the boy was the street. Here he sang for the first time for the crowd, collecting money in a dusty hat.

He did this out of annoyance at the priest, who did not give another miserable “salary” to Petya, who was guilty of something, for singing in the church choir. Thanks to his soulful voice, the boy earned almost as much in a day as in a month in the church. For a daring trick, Leshchenko is expelled from the choir, but this does not bother him.

Peter already understands that his singing touches the souls and hearts of people. Friendship with gypsies, gatherings by the fire on the river bank, the first guitar lessons - and gypsy romances will firmly enter the life and work of the famous chansonnier. He performed them in a special virtuoso, passionately, with inspiration.

A dancer is no worse than a singer

Participation in the First World War cost the 19-year-old warrant officer Leshchenko a severe wound. A long recovery in a hospital in Chisinau ended after October revolution, so Peter returned home as a citizen of Romania.

I made a living in different ways. He was a turner, sang in the church and the cemetery choir, soloed in a vocal quartet and opera. As part of various pop groups Leshchenko went on tour.

Once in Paris, he did not miss the opportunity to graduate from the ballet school of Vera Trefilova. Here he met his first wife, Zinaida Zakitt. Their dancing couple successfully performed in restaurants in Europe and the Middle East, until Zina became pregnant. The only son will be called Igor, but that will be later. Now Peter needs to decide what to do next. And he decides to sing again.

The triumph of the new idol of Europe

First solo concert Leshchenko gives in Chisinau. Soon, in addition to his own, unpretentious, but charming songs, compositions from venerable authors of that time appeared in his repertoire. Tours in Paris, Berlin, London, Riga, Belgrade. Hits in Russian, Romanian, English and French. Huge circulation records. It was a resounding success and rapid wealth.

At his own expense, the "king of romances" opened his own restaurant "At Leshchenko", where he performed and where, without regret, he invested a lot of money. The singing of the “sweet-voiced nightingale” is admired even by the Romanian royal couple, but in the USSR little is known about it. Newspapers do not write about a successful emigrant, and after the Second World War, the popularization of his work will become completely punishable.

Despite this, already at the end of the 1930s, the performer's romances were secretly listened to in many Soviet apartments. Leshchenko dreams of going home, and in 1942 he goes on tour to Odessa occupied by the Nazis. There he will meet his last love and second wife Vera Belousova, a student at the conservatory, who is younger famous singer for 25 years.

traitor or spy

In Odessa, the enterprising singer not only gives concerts, but also opens another restaurant of his own. At the height of the war, only the German invaders can afford gourmet food and entertainment, so Leshchenko quickly earns a negative reputation among Soviet citizens and state security agencies. Almost 10 years later, for some reason, he will be called a foreign spy.

An appeal to Joseph Stalin about returning to the USSR will only aggravate the situation of Pyotr Konstantinovich and ensure close attention to his person. The thought of visiting Soviet Union turns into a fixed idea.

In the early 1950s, Leshchenko receives approval, but does not have time to make the trip. During the next concert, the Romanian police take him away for interrogation by representatives of the Soviet special services.

A popular singer has been taken to different prisons for 3 years, from where he never returns. Not underground, but official records with songs by Pyotr Leshchenko began to appear in the USSR only in the era of perestroika. The voice of the "king of romances" sounded again in the homeland, as the talented performer once dreamed of.