Lidiya Andreevna Ruslanova: biography, life story, creativity and the best songs

Who is Ruslanov Lydia Andreevna? A biography summarizing the life of this outstanding artist could look something like this: the famous performer of Russian folk songs, the same age as the 20th century, experienced all the steep turns of Russian history in its first half. She knew orphans and poverty, glory, wealth and popular adoration, as well as the horror of Stalin's prison dungeons and humiliating camp life for any human person. But the Russian singer Lydia Andreevna Ruslanova managed again, in spite of everything, to return to active creative work. And did not stop her until her death.

Lidia Andreevna Ruslanova: biography

Childhood and her youth passed in Saratov province. She was born in 1900, in the peasant family of Andrey and Tatyana Leikins. At birth, the girl was called Praskovia (according to other sources, Agafia). From the father-mordvin Praskovie got dark almond-shaped eyes, oblong "non-curcular" face and thick dark hair.

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

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

Tests of childhood and adolescence

After parting with the Soviet past in Russia at one time it was fashionable to idealize life in tsarist Russia in the early twentieth century. And the industry then, they say, developed, and the work was enough, and social harmony prevailed 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 "Russia that we lost." However, an acquaintance with the facts, which contains the biography of Ruslana Lydia Andreevna, refutes this popular view.

Judge for yourself, reader. In 1904, the Russian-Japanese war begins, and Andrei Leikin, the father of three young children, is taken to the army in the first recruitment set. Moreover, as the researcher of Ruslanova's biography, writer Sergei Mikheenkov in his book "Lydia Ruslanova. Soul-singer, "it was arranged by the stepfather, although the younger childless brother of Andrei Leikin Fedot was to serve. But the Old Believer-stepfather was a true family despot, nobody dared to contradict him in the house (and how to object if the opponent claims that he is guided by God's will!)

Then everything went even worse. Mom of Praskovia, in order to feed the children, is getting ready to work at a brick factory in Saratov. Do you think she was offered easy work? Nothing of the kind, put on such a hard job, which in less than a year broke, fell ill and went blind. And soon she died, leaving three young orphans.

Soon came the notification of the missing father at the front. In fact, the story that happened to him fully characterizes the disenfranchisement of society in the then Russia, and the complete absence of a system of social protection. Having remained a legless invalid, without any assistance from the authorities, he did not see an opportunity to return to the family, as he would be an additional burden for the children and for his parents (especially for the stepfather-Old Believer). Therefore, having arrived in Saratov, he begged, asking for alms on the steps of the temple. Here is a "social harmony" in the Russian version.

Street singer

How did the biography of Ruslanov Lydia Andreevna develop after the loss of her parents? Older-Old Believer, after the loss of his stepchild in the war and the death of the daughter-in-law, suffered his dislike of Leikin to the elder granddaughter of Praskovya, mocked her and beat the girl. The grandmother from the mother's side, who lived in the neighboring village, who took her to her with her little brother, found out about this. But my grandmother herself was poor and, in addition, soon became blind. So six-year-old Praskovya became a minor beggar, together with her blind grandmother, she walked the streets of Saratov and the surrounding villages, sang folk songs, and my grandmother asked for alms. To their happiness, the girl had an unusually clean and strong voice along with an ideal musical ear. Plus extraordinarily tenacious memory, so that a young street singer rejoiced the audience with a wide repertoire of village and city songs, and listeners paid her what they could.

A year has passed of such "happy creativity". Died, unable to withstand the ordeals and deprivations, grandmother, and the seven-year-old girl continued to sing in the streets. But apparently, at this time, some kind of a wheel in the "heavenly office" turned out, and the compassionate widow-official, who was once present among the street listeners of her singing, paid attention to the poor orphan. By her efforts, all three young orphans of the Leikins were attached to various shelters, and the elder Praskovie had to forever change her name and name, becoming Lydia 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 a church choir, in which talented students were recruited. But the trouble is, they did not take orphan children from the orphanage (apparently because there were a huge number of them in the "prosperous" tsarist Russia), but the real name and surname of the girl gave her peasant origin. Therefore, she had to give up her own name in order to survive.

First successes

How did Lydia Andreevna Ruslanova live after that? Her biography developed under the influence of her own talent. At the orphanage, a small Lida was immediately accepted into the choir and made a soloist, she began to study at the parish school. With the choristers, the professional regent was engaged, apparently, it was thanks to his efforts that Lida had a voice so well delivered, which brought her nationwide fame.

In the meantime, a small soloist sang church songs in the choir . Even then, her art had almost magical effect on listeners. Fans of church singing from all over Saratov came to the temple where she performed, to listen to a young singer nicknamed "The Orphan", and they said: "Let's go to the Orphan". The famous Soviet playwright and screenwriter I. Prut, who met Lydia as a child, left enthusiastic memories of her singing in the temple. By the way, according to his words, it is known that the invalid father of Lida asked for alms in the porch of this church, but neither he nor the daughter showed their kinship, because officially she was listed as a round orphan, and this gave her grounds to stay in the shelter.

This lasted for several years. But in church shelters, the children were not kept for long. As soon as the child was growing up, he was given a pupil to some enterprise. So it happened with Lida. As soon as she was twelve she became a polisher in the furniture factory. But here she was already known, some heard her singing in church, so many asked a young female worker to sing, and in return they helped her to carry out assignments.

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

During the "German War" and during the Revolution

How did Lidia Andreevna Ruslanova continue her life? Her biography abruptly changed with the outbreak of the First World War. Many Russians embraced it with enthusiasm. Indeed, Germany declared war on Russia, in response to strict demands to stop pressing on Serbia, which was always perceived as a brotherly country and ally. It is quite natural that a general wave of enthusiasm seized Lydia. Hardly having waited for sixteen years, she is engaged by the sister of mercy in an ambulance train. Here she also sang, but already for the wounded.

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

How in the future, during the Civil War, did Lydia Andreevna Ruslanova live? Her biography turned out to be connected with the new, Soviet Russia. The fugitive husband made his choice, and Lydia - his. Since 1918, she began touring in parts of the Red Army as part of the concert brigades. That's where skills of professional skill, obtained in Saratov, came in handy. The speeches of the collective in which Ruslanova worked were of immense success. Her repertoire consisted of two large song blocks: folk songs in the original "Ruslan" interpretation and urban, so-called. Cruel romances such as "Painted a month with a crimson" or "Here is a troika riding away". Among the admirers of her talent in those years were the famous heroes of the Civil War, for example Mikhail Budyonny.

During the tour of Ukraine Lidia gets acquainted with the 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, it will be all

These lines of the communist anthem "Internationale" fully apply to the fate of our heroine after the Civil War. Together with her husband, she moved to Moscow (Naumin received a post in the central apparatus of the Cheka). They have a comfortable apartment, the husband receives a decent salary. How did you take advantage of this gift of fate Lydia Andreevna Ruslanova? Her biography shows that in full. She gets acquainted among Moscow's bohemians, takes lessons from singing from the famous singers of the Bolshoi Theater and continues to tour. Most often, her tours take place in the south, in Rostov-on-Don and other large southern cities. It's not so hungry there as in the center of Russia, the public 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.

In this period, the beginning of her famous collection of paintings, rare books, antiques and jewelry was laid. A poor peasant daughter, a round orphan who never had either her own home or decent earnings, suddenly becomes a wealthy lady, beautifully and dearly dressed, hospitable hostess who always generously treats numerous guests with Naumina of her Moscow apartment (in between tours).

Rise to the heights of popularity

By 1929, her acquaintance with Mikhail Garkavi, the famous entertainer and, as they say today, a professional art manager, relates. By that time, Ruslanova's concert activity had turned into a serious show business, to put it in modern terms, which was in desperate need for a competent organizer. She needed a man like Garkavi, and then, in turn, a star like Ruslanova, on his own horizon. Both of them needed each other, and therefore decided to unite in a married couple, making up a creative and life-union. Naumin understood everything correctly and did not interfere with Lydia. They are peacefully divorced.

Under the leadership of Garkavi concert-tour activity Ruslanova in the 30 years has acquired the greatest scope, she became a truly popular singer. On sale there were records with her records. Ruslanova's voice then sounded in every house where the gramophone was, her records were often broadcast on the All-Union radio.

One of these programs was heard by Fedor Shalyapin, who lives in emigration. He was delighted with her singing talent and voice and conveyed sincere congratulations to Lydia Andreyevna.

For all her fame, she was not a "court" Stalinist singer, like many famous performers of the time. I did not like official events and concerts in front of the representatives of the party economic committee. Her bold remark, expressed to Stalin himself, is widely known when, at one of the concerts in the Kremlin, which could not be abandoned, the leader invited her to his table and offered to treat himself to fruit. To which Lydia Andreevena replied that she herself is not hungry, but her countrymen from the Volga region who are hungry, it would not be bad to feed. Then this her outburst of immediate consequences did not have, but, as is known, the "leader of all peoples" never forgot anything and forgave nothing to anyone.

I was with my people in all the trials

Ruslana Lydia Andreevna, the biography, whose life history is investigated by us, is inseparable from the wartime in the minds of our people (at least representatives of the older generation). The war for Ruslanova, as for the entire Russian people, was also the time of the greatest tests of the strength of the spirit and the forces of the physical, and at the same time elevated her personality to the rank of a real national symbol. Her selfless, selfless work during all the years of the war remained forever in the memory of the people, and this memory could no longer be obliterated either by the forgetfulness of power, by years of imprisonment, or by new postwar trends in art and life itself.

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

In 1942, she toured in the first guards cavalry commanded by General Vladimir Kryukov, a former brave hussar of World War I, a dashing red cavalryman of the Civil War, and finally a 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 gateway. Their novel developed so swiftly that even at the first meeting alone they agreed to get married.

Mikhail Garkavi showed nobility and stepped aside, remaining a good friend of Lydia Andreyevna until the end of his days. She herself became a devoted wife to General Kriukov and a caring adoptive mother of his only five-year-old daughter Margosha, whose mother died before the war.

Trophy case

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

What are these contradictions? First of all, between the ostentatious, declared in basic ideological attitudes the equality of all Soviet citizens and their glaring inequality in reality, creating opportunities for the Party, economic and military leaders 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 was simply screaming, because after the victory the Soviet generals concentrated huge wealth in their hands, which were placed at the disposal of the occupation authorities on the territory of Germany and the countries of Eastern Europe. Priceless works of art, antiques, jewelry began to fill the cottages and apartments of many Soviet officers and generals, including top military leaders. General Kriukov did not become an exception, and Lydia Ruslanova played a significant role in the accumulation of the wealth of the general's couple, with her great connections among the people of art and a good understanding of the potential value of this or that thing.

Initially, Stalin and his closest political circle did not prevent this and even encouraged this practice, but this was only a delicate tactical move by a brilliant political intriguer. Observing (through the secret services) how the Soviet generals build up countless luxuries, he rubbed his hands in anticipation of how he would be able to bring charges against them in moral corruption and illegal enrichment. After all, he was panic afraid of their conspiracy against himself and his power. And these fears were fully justified. Many of the past generals could not forgive Stalin pre-war repression, believed him guilty of the shameful defeats of the first two years of the war, sought to get rid of the constant fear of falling out of favor with the leader. But some of them compromised themselves, appropriating their trophy values and doing so often bypassing even very loyal official procedures. And Stalin did not fail to take advantage of this.

In the fall of 1948, a large group of generals and officers was arrested, mainly from the number of Marshal Zhukov's colleagues when he was commander of the occupying forces in Germany. Among them was Vladimir Kryukov. One day, Lydia Ruslanova, who was on tour in Kazan, was arrested along with two of her accompanists and entertainers, so to speak, "for the company".

"God grant that your country will not kick you with a bootleg ..."

What was Lidia Ruslanova accused of? Her biography and work were so transparent, and the origin was so proletarian that, it would seem, the notorious "bodies" should not have any claims to it. So, in addition to the standard charge of anti-Soviet propaganda, she was accused of misappropriating trophy property. That's where the craving for luxury aided by the Stalinist power first encouraged itself, and then punished its own, even imaginary opponents, for it.

But the main thing the investigators were trying to achieve was a conspiracy of Marshal Zhukov, who was under investigation. It was he who was the main goal of this large-scale event. To the credit of Lydia Ruslanova it should be said that she behaved well and did not go into a deal with her conscience. The same can be said of General Kryukov, who was tortured in the KGB investigative prisons for four years and was sentenced to 25 years only in the early 1950s.

Lidia Ruslanov, according to the verdict, except the trophy values, was deprived of all the property she accumulated over three decades of hard labor on the stage. She was confiscated a collection of paintings by Russian artists (later it was returned), furniture, antiques, rare books and, most importantly, a box of diamonds that she had collected since the Revolution. In order to outline the term of imprisonment, to 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, which qualified theft as counter-revolutionary activity .

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

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

Conclusion

After the release, Ruslanova lived for another 20 years, surviving for 14 years her husband, who did not recover from the consequences of torture. She again returned to the stage, toured a lot, earned good money again. At the same time, she remained, as it were, aloof from the general direction of development of the Soviet stage, did not seek to modernize her repertoire, continued to perform in traditional folk costumes. Many then, her style seemed archaic, but Ruslanova remained true to herself and her eternal, as now it became clear, deeply folk art.

What does this name mean for Rus- sians today-Ruslanov Lydia Andreevna? Biography, her filmography, limited to a few short films, do not give a complete idea of her talent, the degree of popularity among the people at one time. But there are sound recordings that retained her wonderful voice, inimitable manner of performance. Listen to them, reader. And if there are in your heart those same "Russian strings", which Turgenev mentioned in his "Singers", then they will necessarily respond to Ruslanova's voice.