From Stalin to Putin: Iosif Kobzon, the main voice of the Soviet stage and a symbol of the era, has died. Symbol of the era: what Iosif Kobzon remembers Front-line love, yes
People's Artist of the USSR and deputy died at the age of 80. The crooner, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2005, was on the verge of death for the past month. In July, he ended up in intensive care, where he was connected to an auxiliary lung ventilator. tells why Kobzon was not just a pop artist, but personified the spirit of his time, and remembers who tried to kill the singer throughout his life.
First Chief
Iosif Kobzon was born in 1937 in the Ukrainian SSR, Stalin (later Donetsk) region in a poor Jewish family. He began to sing at school, in an amateur art circle, and he succeeded so well that in 1946 he, the winner of the All-Ukrainian school Olympiad in amateur art, performed at the final stage in Moscow, at the Kremlin Theater. Joseph Stalin was present in the hall - he became the first of the Soviet leaders in front of whom Kobzon sang. Then Joseph sang the song "Migratory birds are flying." According to his memoirs, children were forbidden to look at Stalin. However, the nine-year-old boy could not overcome his curiosity and kept looking into the box where the leader was sitting, - he says, he was sitting with a smile on his face. In total, he saw Stalin twice, the next time - two years later at the same concert in the same theater. Then Joseph sang "Golden Wheat."
After school, Kobzon was going to become a miner - in 1956 he graduated from the Dnepropetrovsk Mining College. Having got into the army after graduation, he entered the song and dance ensemble of the Transcaucasian military district. And already in the army he realized that the education of a mining technical school would not be useful to him. After serving, Kobzon went to Moscow, where he entered the Gnessin State Musical and Pedagogical Institute at the vocal faculty. During his studies, he realized that his voice allowed him not only to earn extra money, but also to perform on the stage, to win music competitions. Kobzon's first performance, preserved on film, is in Blue Light, where he, in the form of a Cuban barbudo, with a beard like Ernesto Che Guevara, with a submachine gun at the ready, sings the song "Cuba, my love."
In Gnesinka, however, they did not rejoice at the successful career of the artist who forgot about his studies, putting him before a choice - higher education or work. Kobzon chose the second and continued to perform, traveling around the country with concerts. In 1964, for the first time, he disgraced himself all over the country - a feuilleton “Laurels of Chohom” appeared in which it was told how a drunken Kobzon during a festival in Grozny broke into other people’s hotel rooms at night and molested women. This publication was enough for the artist to disappear for a whole year from television and radio air, as well as from all the famous concert venues in Moscow. Kobzon claims that the reason for the appearance of the feuilleton was that its author "had views" on the artist's beloved, the performer of the hit "I See Nothing". Kobzon became engaged to her shortly after the appearance of the article and lived in marriage for two years.
The next wife, whom the singer married almost immediately after the divorce from Kruglova, was an actress and singer. Her marriage lasted three years. As Kobzon later explained, life with actresses turned out to be too difficult for him - he needed a wife, not a competitor. Therefore, in 1971, he married Ninel Drizina, who at that time was not seen on any stage. He lived with her until the end of his life. A year after the wedding with Ninel, the singer realized that he still needed a diploma of higher musical education - at that time he had much more power for the singer (higher rate and away concerts), so in 1972 he returned to the institute, interrupting career.
Chernobyl autograph
In June 1986, a month and a half after the explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, a concert was organized for the liquidators of the consequences of the accident with the participation of Kobzon. His relatives say that he did not realize the danger and did not understand what this performance would turn out for him - while artists were only invited to Chernobyl. The club next to the city administration building, where the concert took place, was located a kilometer from the epicenter of the explosion, from where one could see the reactor. In a respirator, Kobzon, of course, could not sing. Out of solidarity, the liquidators also began to take off their masks.
When the singer played the performance, the second shift showed up at the club. He sang for them too. Then - the third. And another concert. Kobzon admitted that at the end he had a sharp tickle in his throat, "as if shavings had hit." The performance lasted about four hours. After 20 years, Kobzon will find a "Chernobyl autograph" - cancer. Doctors do not rule out that the disease, which the singer will fight for the rest of his life, is a consequence of those four hours without a respirator a few kilometers from the reactor. The details of the disease were never disclosed by either Kobzon or his attending physicians, however, the media claimed that the artist suffered from prostate cancer.
1 /13
When the singer was diagnosed in the early 2000s, doctors predicted that he would live for two weeks without surgery. The artist was first treated in Germany, and in 2015, doctors said that he needed to undergo treatment in Italy. However, at that time Kobzon was already on the sanctions list.
Europe "punished" Kobzon for speaking out in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and supporting the separatists, as well as for the fact that he, as a deputy, voted for the admission of Crimea to Russia. In February 2015, the artist was banned from entering the EU countries, and all his foreign accounts were ordered to be frozen. Then Kobzon said that he was proud that he was in the company of people who fell under sanctions, because they "are not indifferent to the fate of Russia and the fate of Donbass." The artist also said that Russia's response should be equivalent - it is necessary, they say, to also ban European artists from entering the country. Six months later, the doctors said that the best equipment and the best oncology clinic for his situation was in Italy. Kobzon has repeatedly emphasized that he is against treatment abroad, since doctors in Russia are also excellent, and he goes abroad only when domestic doctors advise him to do so. The singer then announced that he was ready to seek help from the president to be allowed into Europe.
Soon the artist received a national visa to Italy for a year. Representatives of the country noted that this is an exceptional case, which has no political overtones. The artist himself made conflicting statements - at first he said that he did not ask for help with a visa. Kobzon later said quite the opposite: “I am grateful to Putin. Thanks to his intervention, I was given a medical visa.”
Voice of War
Kobzon's performances in the Donbass were not something unexpected for his image - the singer repeatedly performed in zones of armed conflicts, sang in Afghanistan, Syria, visited Grozny after the first Chechen war and Israel right before the start of the Six-Day War. In March 1969, he performed at the Nizhne-Mikhailovsky frontier post near Damansky Island. Kobzon said that he had to sing on a parade ground filled with freshly made coffins in which dead soldiers lay. “I stood over their bodies and, trying not to look under their feet, performed the song “Twentieth Spring”, written in hot pursuit and: “Sleep, boys, sleep peacefully, soldiers! Silence will be the highest reward for you, ”Kobzon later said.
In March and September 1969, armed clashes took place between the USSR and the People's Republic of China related to territorial disputes and conflicts between border guards and local residents.
Before the Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan, he spoke nine times. He sang, according to him, under shelling - once a blast wave tore off the roof from the module, which was used as a concert hall. Kobzon visited Chechnya twice in 1997, after the signing of the Khasavyurt agreements. He met with - he sent him a letter demanding "to answer for drinking vodka with the Red Chechens in Moscow." After some time, Basayev called Kobzon to Grozny - "if you are not a coward." And Kobzon went.
“Basayev and I sat in some miraculously preserved house for three hours. The conversation turned sharp, nervous. At that time, I was engaged in the charity program “Frontline Children of Chechnya” ... collecting funds to treat these underage disabled people and orphans, and Shamil accused me of squandering these funds, ”the singer recalled. Basayev wanted to get money from Kobzon, but the artist, who then headed the Muscovite organization, advised him to turn to rich Chechens for help and left unharmed. And then he returned to Grozny with a concert for Chechen youth - from there and the famous photograph of Kobzon with a Makarov pistol, donated by Basayev. Kobzon became the first Russian celebrity to visit Chechnya after the end of the first military campaign and his election as president of the republic. A few years later, a bomb exploded near the office of his Moskovit company on the 20th floor of the Intourist Hotel. Kobzon will call Basayev involved in this assassination attempt. Although many then associated the incident not with a militant, but with the criminal world.
Don Kobzon
In the 1990s, every yard dog was sure that Kobzon was connected with the mafia. In 1994, she even awarded the singer the title of "Authority of the Year". And the point is not only in the powerful appearance of Don Corleone (a long coat, striped jackets, a radically black wig) and the artist's armed guards, but also in his close circle. And Kobzon all his life remained a man with a wide variety of connections. He did not deny that he sometimes found himself at "gangster corporate parties" as a singer, but emphasized that he always kept his distance with thieves.
I had no dealings with crime bosses. If he happened to be with one of the thieves at a birthday party, he always repeated: “Gentlemen are good, please do not confuse, we are members of different trade unions. You are people's criminals, and I am a people's artist.
Kobzon was accused of belonging to the criminal world, in particular, in 1995, which banned him from entering the United States of America. Representatives of the federal service reported the artist's involvement in arms and drug trafficking, as well as in ties with the Russian mafia. There were no official charges against him, but the ban was never lifted - the Americans consider Kobzon as "a foreigner who is not entitled to a visa due to criminal and related activities, and as a person who is secretly engaged (or engaged) in the circulation of illegal drugs or chemicals. According to the American intelligence services, Kobzon was associated with representatives of the "Russian mafia", in particular with (Yaponchik).
Kobzon's friendship with the entrepreneur also aroused suspicions of having links with the Russian criminal world - they met in the 1980s, and in the 1990s they created the Lev Yashin Foundation, which was designed to support sports veterans. Kvantrishvili could not be called a bandit, but he successfully communicated with both criminals and government officials, and in the way Otari successfully persuaded businessmen to donate money to the fund, many saw a different form of racketeering. In February 1994, Kvantrishvili created the Athletes of Russia party, declaring that with its help he would restore the rule of law in the country. In April of the same year, Otari was killed by three shots from a sniper rifle while leaving the Krasnopresnensky baths in Moscow. The funeral of the entrepreneur was taken over by Kobzon.
After the murder of Otari, they allegedly began to hunt for Kobzon as well - they sounded the alarm when a professionally equipped ambush bed was found under the windows of his house in Bakovka. After the incident, the artist began to walk surrounded by Afghan veterans. The killer was never found.
I don't sell friendship. I don’t have much time left to spend in this world to change my life positions and principles for the sake of the conjuncture or other nonsense.
Kobzon did not hesitate to appear in public with his friends, who followed dubious fame. He greatly valued friendship and did not turn away from his comrades - for example, the singer turned out to be one of the few artists and politicians who publicly supported Yuri Luzhkov after his scandalous resignation. Kobzon was very friendly with the then head of the capital and was ready to help in difficult times - in September 1993, at the request of Luzhkov, the singer went to the White House and reassured the rebellious deputies who sat there, and in 2002 the mayor persuaded Kobzon not to go to the terrorists in the Theater Center at Dubrovka.
Nord-Ost
Kobzon subsequently repeatedly spoke about what happened in interviews with newspapers and television channels. Insignificant details sometimes changed, but from the words of the singer you can add up a complete picture of what happened to him in the theater on Dubrovka.
Famous people, officers, politicians, officials crowded around the operational headquarters at 9 am. Many of them were ready to go to negotiations with terrorists. “They didn’t want to talk to anyone. But I knew that they should know me - for them I am not just a deputy or a singer, but a people's artist of the Chechen-Ingush SSR, ”Kobzon later said.
When the negotiators listed the terrorists who were ready to go to the captured recreation center, they demanded Kobzon. The head of the operational headquarters for the release of the hostages of the artist did not want to let go, Luzhkov was also against it. “If I don’t agree with them, then you won’t agree with him,” Kobzon replied.
The singer was the first who went to the terrorists. Together with him, a British journalist and two Swiss citizens from . Kobzon had already performed in this institution more than once, and in the foyer he had the feeling that he was just late for the performance - clothes hung neatly in the wardrobe, there was complete silence. Then he saw the girl's corpse on the floor. Kobzon went up to the stairs, where three machine gunners stopped him with shouts: “Stop, who ?!” "I am Kobzon." He was taken to Ruslan Elmurzaev, who called himself Abubakar. The terrorist was sitting with a machine gun and wearing a mask. Kobzon said: "I thought there were Chechens here." Abubakar replied: "Chechens." “Chechens get up when a person known throughout your country, twice your age, enters, and you are sitting, which means they are not Chechens!” Kobzon said. Abubakar jumped up: “What, did you come to educate us?” Kobzon persuaded the terrorist to take off his mask and suddenly realized that the invaders of the theater on Dubrovka were very young people. “You still have to live and live,” he complained. “We came here to die, not to live. And we want to die more than you want to live. If you don’t believe us… call Zulya,” Abubakar replied. A little girl in camouflage and a mask entered the room. "Zulya, show me how rich you are." The girl opened her hand and showed the detonator.
Photo: Vladimir Astapkovich / RIA Novosti
Kobzon tried to convince the terrorist that no one was going to fulfill their conditions and withdraw troops from Chechnya, however, seeing the determination of the invader, he asked to release at least the children. The terrorists "gave" Kobzon three frightened girls. One girl buried herself in the knee of the artist and said that her mother remained in the hall. “Abubakar, why do you need a mother without children or children without a mother? Either take the children or give them their mother,” said Kobzon. The singer was brought in by a woman named Lyubov Kornilova, a mother of two girls, who, according to him, first of all rushed not to the children, but to the terrorist - she asked to release the pregnant woman who was sitting with her in the hall.
The singer left the theater with the journalist, Kornilova and three children, having stayed with the terrorists for half an hour. He will go to the theater on Dubrovka again in two hours together with, but he will not be able to free more hostages. Later, he will become the godfather of another daughter of Kornilova.
In addition to the stage, Kobzon was very interested in politics - since 1989 he was a people's deputy of the USSR, he tried to get into the State Duma from the moment it appeared (he managed to do this only in 1997). In 2003, Kobzon became a member and chairman of the State Duma Committee on Culture. The performer spoke of his political career as something that burdened him: “What does the State Duma give me, besides spending time, effort, money, solving other people's issues, helping someone? I don’t have my own business, sometimes they ask me to lobby someone’s interests, I go forward if I see that it’s a decent thing, ”he complained back in 2011. During his life, Kobzon received more than 40 honorary titles, including the title of honorary citizen of 29 cities and people's artist of five countries.
Kobzon not only kept his finger on the pulse of his time, he was the personification of this time - he made acquaintance with all its iconic personalities, politicians, military men, presidents, militants, singers, leaders, businessmen and criminals. "Friendship with Kobzon" has every right to become a new phraseological unit. The singer managed to work as a deputy and travel all over the country with concerts, performed the most famous Soviet hits, and his voice was literally, although not officially, adopted. The singer was with the country at its most critical moments and was always ready to help her, even endangering his own life.
Photo: Depositphotos.com
The famous Soviet and Russian artist passed away today after a long illness. Iosif Kobzon was distinguished by incredible diligence: he constantly toured, visited more than 100 countries, gave many hours of concerts. He was a deputy of the State Duma, participated in negotiations with terrorists, defended his political interests. Facts about the rich touring and interesting personal life of the singer in one collection.
Kobzon - boxing champion of Ukraine
A few years ago, in an interview with the Network of City Portals, the singer admitted that boxing was his boyish hobby: “You had to spend your street energy somewhere! This is happiness that was spent on health. We have been deprived of all the benefits that young people today have in abundance. TV there, discos, computers. But there was a school, amateur performances, a street and, of course, sports.
Sang in front of Stalin and at Brezhnev's dacha
A rare artist can boast of such a list of the first persons of the states before which he had the opportunity to speak. The meeting with Joseph Stalin at the namesake took place in 1946, when, as a schoolboy, Kobzon performed in the finals of the Olympiad in amateur art, which was held in Moscow.
In the following years, the artist sang at Brezhnev's dacha, in front of Khrushchev, Medvedev and Putin, but not in front of Gorbachev, Chernenko and Andropov.
Sang in Chernobyl 1.5 months after the Chernobyl explosion
Kobzon was among the first to come to the exclusion zone to support the liquidators. In the house of culture, where there was a concert, the workers pulled themselves up after their shifts. Noticing this, Joseph Davydovich did not leave the stage. The concert lasted four hours in total. The press has more than once associated the artist's oncology with the same "Chernobyl autograph".
The first title of Kobzon - Honored Artist of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR
The artist has been associated with the southern republics since the distant Soviet times, in the sixties he sang "The Song of Grozny". Subsequently, Iosif Kobzon repeatedly returned to the regions and gave concerts there, to which even terrorists came.
Didn't shoot from Basayev's pistol
In the nineties, the artist performed in Grozny, and suddenly Shamil Basayev appeared in the hall. The terrorist went out to the singer and presented his pistol. According to Caucasian traditions, it is supposed to shoot into the air from donated weapons, but Kobzon only replied to this: “I won’t shoot from any weapon and I don’t want you to ever shoot.”
Became the first negotiator with the terrorists of "Nord-Ost"
In 2002, during the seizure of the Theater Center on Dubrovka, Iosif Kobzon became the first to come out to the terrorists. In an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, the singer said that he learned about the incident that same night, immediately packed up and rushed to the place. Then he managed to get five hostages out of the theater, among whom were three children.
He was married to Lyudmila Gurchenko
The artist was the second wife of the singer, but only for three years. Kobzon later admitted that family life was difficult: both were on stage. Veronika Kruglova (from 1965 to 1967) became his first wife, Joseph Kobzon was married to his third wife Ninel Drizina since 1971.
Gave 12 concerts in a day
And it was a kind of record - no one else did it. In the Soviet years, Iosif Davydovich was the richest artist in the USSR, including due to the fact that he often performed.
Renounced the title of People's Artist of Ukraine
Kobzon's problems with his homeland began after Crimea became part of Russia. The singer publicly supported the accession of the republic, and then the SBU included him in the list of persons who are prohibited from entering the country.
Iosif Kobzon entered the Russian Book of Records as the most titled artist
In addition to the highest titles, the singer has the title of honorary resident of 29 cities. Among them are Moscow, Saratov, Krasnodar, Anapa, Bratsk, Donetsk and others. True, in a number of Ukrainian cities, after the political events of 2014, Kobzon ceased to be an honorary citizen. The singer was also the owner of the awards "People's Artist" in the Soviet republics and autonomous regions. In 2011, he became an honorary worker of the Federal Bailiff Service, he had the Miner's Glory badge.
On September 11, People's Artist of the USSR, Hero of Labor of Russia, State Duma deputy turns 80 [video] Alexander GAMOV true_kpru @gamov1Lyubov MOISEEVA true_kpru
We have been preparing this interview for several months - since back in May the great singer for the ninth time (starting from 2008) came to us on Komsomolskaya Pravda Radio
(97.2 FM) for the program " Singing Victory Songs with Iosif Kobzon". Then there were Donetsk, Luhansk. There was the village of Aginskoe - our hero has been representing this region in the State Duma for more than 20 years. And in order not to repeat myself, because so much has been written about Kobzon - including by us (both in Komsomolskaya Pravda and in our books " Iosif Kobzon: How wonderful everything that happened to us"," Direct speech ") ... Today we decided to take and show you only the most interesting - fragments of an interview, phrases, remarks ...
Iosif Davydovich, it’s true that you accumulated in yourself everything that you saw in Mark Bernes, Claudia Shulzhenko, Leonid Utesov ...
Not the right word - accumulated.
But you took something from them.
Yes, of course... In the genre of Russian song I use the intonations of Lidia Andreevna Ruslanova, the lyric - Claudia Ivanovna Shulzhenko. In the genre of military song - the intonations of Mark Naumovich Bernes. When such playful, entertaining songs were in his youth, Leonid Osipovich Utesov helped. I was lucky, I worked with these masters. He performed on the same stage.
When I found out that my older comrades were participating in the concert, I always stood behind the scenes. Yura Gulyaev and Muslim Magomaev did the same.
- ABOUT! Can you show me right now? Utesova, for example...
Useless because it needs to be done at runtime. And then - I did not parody them, did not rehash, did not imitate them, my teachers. Only intonation!
So that's why you are so loved, and for many years! They hear both Leonid Osipovich and Shulzhenko in you ... And if we talk about the features of the "stage character"?
I took more from Bernes. Outwardly, despite the fact that an attractive movie character “stood” behind him, he was very strict. Why am I being reproached for not moving on stage, not running?
- Yes! Why?
Because the repertoire that Mark Naumovich sang and that I sing does not require external affectation.
- And we saw you dancing on the stage three times!
A little bit simple to point out. When they say to me: how many songs do you remember ...
- Three thousand!
Yes, I did not memorize them, I drew them like pictures. When you sing, say, "Russian field", before your eyes - this is the most Russian field. Here is Vysotsky. He had nothing to do with the war, he was a child of the war. And how heartfelt he described these combat pictures. Take "He did not return from the battle" or "The sons go to battle"...
Iosif Kobzon and poet Robert Rozhdestvensky Photo: TASS photo chronicle. true_kpru
- Did you also study with Vysotsky?
Why not? I literally have two or three songs from his repertoire, and when I sing them (say, "The Ballad of an Abandoned Ship"), I use Volodya's intonations - very bright, expressive.
- Natasha Pavlova, our stenographer, transcribed your broadcast, which was on Radio Komsomolskaya Pravda before May 9th. She sobbed when you started singing Cranes.
Well, what can I do...
- We listened to you both from the audience and from behind the scenes. Tears well up... Why didn't you cry once on stage?
No, I cried a lot. Take at least the song "Commander" - he buries his fighters there. And I am a child of the Great Patriotic War, then nine times I was in Afghanistan, the same number - in the Donbass. Much of what I sing about, I saw with my own eyes, felt with my heart.
Iosif Kobzon in Moscow, near the Bolshoi Theatre. 1959 Photo: Personal archive of Joseph Kobzon
- Several times on business trips, you noticed that you like to sleep in the dressing room.
Well, it keeps me in a good emotional state. When you feel that you are in demand, when people are waiting to meet you and you live up to their expectations, this is real satisfaction. Afraid to be late...
- And we walk along the corridor: do not make noise, Joseph Davydovich is resting! You have been called like this for a long time: Kobzon is an era.
I don't consider myself epic. I live my life and take an example from my older comrades. Here every time gave the culture of its brightest representatives. But for some reason, only a few names have come down to us, to our era. If the 30s, then these are Isabella Yuryeva, Tamara Tsereteli, Vadim Kozin, Petr Leshchenko, Alexander Vertinsky. If the 40s are also a few names. Utyosov, Shulzhenko, Bernes, Ruslanova...
- You are also called the king of pop music. Both Kirkorov and Baskov.
Well, it's a product of the times. But who will remain in history, I do not know. Edith Piaf said: there are many performers, but give me a personality. We don't have many personalities. Because everyone strives for mercantile goals. How to earn more...
- But here you are not the king of the stage and not the era. Be honest - who are you really?
Concert at the stadium in Kabul Photo: TASS photo chronicle. true_kpru
- And Khrushchev?
He loved the song of Alexandra Pakhmutova (begins to sing): “ Our concern is simple, our concern is such that our native country would live, and there are no other worries.»…
- And before Brezhnev?
He sang about Lenin: And again the battle continues, and the heart is anxious in the chest. And Lenin is so young, and young October is ahead».
- Have you sung Gorbachev yet?
No, I did not sing to Gorbachev, nor Andropov, nor Chernenko.
- And they spoke to Putin several times.
Certainly. In concerts - together with other artists.
- Which of the leaders, from Stalin to Putin, listened to you most attentively?
I can not tell. I really want to hope that we will not end with Putin, but continue with Putin ...
PACKING QUESTION: HOW MANY STARS DOES THE MATER HAVE?
« I'm a Chernobyl. That's why so patient»
Sometimes Kobzon puts on two Gold Stars - the Hero of Labor of the Russian Federation and the Hero of the DPR. The third - also Gold - Star of the Hero of Chernobyl on his jacket you will see very rarely. In fact, he almost never wears it. He says (with irony): " I don't want to look like Brezhnev". But this reward is also very dear to him. Because well deserved...
The disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred on April 26, 1986. The destruction was explosive, the reactor was completely destroyed, and a large amount of radioactive substances was released into the environment. In the first three months after the accident, 31 people died. “Long-term effects of exposure”, as the guides say, “identified over 15 years, caused the death of 60 to 80 people. 134 suffered radiation sickness. More than 115 thousand people were evacuated from the 30-kilometer zone. Significant resources were mobilized to eliminate the consequences, more than 600 thousand people.
Who does not know - Kobzon was the first to speak to the liquidators of the Chernobyl accident. And it was he who initiated the cultural service for Chernobyl victims then, in the first months after the disaster.
Kobzon was the first to speak to the liquidators of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident Photo: TASS photo chronicle. true_kpru
Of course, no one sent me there - I went myself, - Iosif Davydovich told us. - Arrived in Chernobyl on June 26, 1986 - it turns out, two months after the accident. He gave three solo albums in a day. He sang non-stop for two hours - the audience did not let go. Just finished, people dispersed - another shift comes, a full hall: “And we also need Kobzon! " What to do? I say: “Now let's start, sit down! And - again, two hours without a break. Just about to leave - the next watch is coming. And so he sang - until the voice did not sit down at all.
How far was it from the reactor? No, it's very close. I saw him with my own eyes. Maybe the distance to it was only two kilometers. I spoke right in their club, next to the administration of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
But that wasn't what shocked me... That's how all the liquidators walked around there - both down the street and indoors - wearing protective masks. And when they entered the club and saw that I was without a mask, they took off their protective masks. I say: “Why? Put it on now! "And they:" But you didn't put on ... "-" I didn't put it on because I can't sing in a mask! But you can hear everything even in a mask!"And they:" No, we will also take off our masks ... "I could not do anything with them!
And I also met Afghans there - even generals ... (For information: Iosif Kobzon flew 9 times to Afghanistan, where from December 1979 to February 1989, Soviet soldiers performed their international duty. - Auth.) And they tell me frankly they said: “You know, it’s more terrible here than in Afghanistan ... There you knew who your enemy was, you saw him ... And you could shoot back from him. You don't see here, and he - this invisible enemy - kills you, devours you.
Once we dared to ask Kobzon and, in general, forbidden questions ... “Your, - we say, - probably your heart aches when you see that every year there are less and less Chernobyl liquidators». “Yes, it is,” Kobzon said very sadly, and turned away. - What can you do? I’m still surviving because I’m actively being treated.” - " Don't you think that your illnesses are also from Chernobyl?"-" I don’t want to guess ... Maybe someone thinks that - yes. I think that if the Almighty so ordered that one must live, then one must live. While living ... "
And another time we asked Kobzon: “ Do you, as a deputy of the State Duma, probably have a lot of complaints from Chernobyl victims?» « They are patient people, - he answers, - they are not used to complaining". How is Kobzon? He chuckled, and - with irony: " Yes, by the way - I'm Chernobyl. Therefore, he is also so patient. Especially - in relation to you, journalists ...»
And this legendary singer was the first of the pop artists to visit Damansky Island (on March 2 and 15, 1969, armed clashes between the military formations of the USSR and the PRC took place in this area, several Soviet officers and soldiers were killed.) He was in all the "hot spots" on the North Caucasus. In October 2002, a gang of terrorists Movsar Baraev took hostages (up to 700 people in total) in the Theater Center on Dubrovka during the performance of the musical "Nord-Ost", Iosif Kobzon went to the terrorists four times, saved five hostages. Then... He traveled 9 times to the struggling Donbass. In February 2016, he flew to the Khmeimim base of the Russian Aerospace Forces (Syria). For more than 20 years, Iosif Davydovich has been a State Duma deputy: at first he represented the Aginsky Buryat district of Transbaikalia, now - the Transbaikal Territory as a whole.
We have already talked about some of these bright pages in Komsomolskaya Pravda, and many of our stories are yet to come ...
Donetsk - Lugansk - Aginskoe - Moscow.
Before the anniversary of Iosif Kobzon, who will turn 80 on September 11, Komsomolskaya Pravda tells about the most striking facts from the biography of the singer [video] Alexander GAMOV true_kpru @gamov1 Lyubov MOISEEVA true_kpruKomsomolskaya Pravda Samara
10.09.2017 The Social Services Center of the Komsomolsk District will host a musical event in honor of the anniversary of Joseph Kobzon.
TltOnline.Ru
03.09.2017 On Wednesday, September 6, at 11:00 am, the Social Services Center of the Komsomolsky District (Gromovaya Street, 42) will host a musical evening "Old songs about the main thing",
TltNews.Ru
03.09.2017
On February 11, Samara State College of Service Technologies and Design will host the regional stage of the Nineteenth Youth Delphic Games of Russia in the Samara Region in the Hairdressing Art nomination.
Samara.Edu.Ru
09.02.2020
On September 11, the patriarch of the Soviet stage, a native of Donbass, a member of the editorial board of Gordon Boulevard celebrates his 75th birthday
I regret that I do not wear a hat for the only weighty reason that I cannot silently take off my headdress in front of the Singer, Citizen and Man Joseph Davydovich Kobzon. While on the eve of his 75th birthday, my colleagues compete in choosing epithets appropriate for the hero of the day: “legend”, “epoch”, “symbol”, “great”, I don’t want to resort to words from a long-worn deck, but otherwise about him, a people’s artist USSR, Russia and Ukraine, a deputy of the State Duma of five convocations and our countryman, finally, to whom a bronze monument was erected in Donetsk during his lifetime, you can’t say. However, one of the reasons he has remained a leader on the musical Olympus for half a century is that he treats dithyrambs condescendingly and mockingly and, at every opportunity, “disinfects” their cloying with a solid portion of self-irony. So on the eve of the current celebrations, the master publicly announced: “I am naphthalene. Someone has to fight the moth." Against the backdrop of home-grown imitators of Timberlake, Aguilera and Beyoncé, the mighty figure of Kobzon resembles a gigantic tree among the anemic variety flora and fauna. Everyone runs to him for help, everyone can hide in his shadow, but this same powerful and tall crown attracts thunder and lightning. Is it any wonder that Iosif Davydovich was both mythologized, and demonized, and turned either into an icon or a target on both sides of the ocean?
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Kobzon not only made a name for himself, but also created a special genre, he knows how to squeeze tears out of the public and how indispensable humor is where everything can cross pathos. False in the mouths of other artists and deputies, spirit-uplifting standards with the words “Motherland”, “patriotism” and “duty” sound extremely sincere in his performance, because Iosif Davydovich proved the right to them with his life, the milestones of which were not only shock Komsomol construction projects near hell on in the middle of nowhere, but also Damansky Island, Afghanistan, Chernobyl, Nord-Ost, where he was the first to go to negotiate with the terrorists who had taken hostages.
There is an abundance of everything in it, with some kind of Old Testament scope: a wonderful baritone that has not been erased from unprecedented song marathons, an immense repertoire of three thousand songs in Russian, Ukrainian, English, Yiddish, Buryat and other languages, a unique repertoire that allows even after 50 years to reproduce the once performed text and melody with all the modulations, intonation and losses, memory, phenomenal endurance... Suffice it to recall Kobzon's farewell tour, timed to coincide with his 60th birthday, which ended with an almost 11-hour concert: from 19.00 to 5.45 the next morning - What other singer can do that?
On stage and in the State Duma, we are used to seeing him strong, self-confident, almost invulnerable - a kind of superman, and even after sepsis and a 15-day coma that occurred as a result of an oncological operation he underwent in January 2005, about which in one of our interviews Iosif Davydovich spoke with a frankness that shocked the layman, he did not change his workaholic habits. On the personal website, presented to him by his daughter Natasha for his 70th birthday, there is a dense list of planned tasks and events, in the notebook there are regular “to do”, “call”, “meet”, “congratulate on your birthday or wedding anniversary”, and nowhere the items appear: “visit a doctor”, “take medicine”, “go through the procedure”.
I have no doubt: many of those who were crippled by this terrible disease, his example gave hope and faith, in any case, Kobzon proved that even an inevitable defeat can be turned into victory, if you do not succumb to despair and self-pity, if you do not live out the measured fate term, but to live. He does not hide the fact that doctors, his wife Nelya and the stage hold him in this world, but as a courageous person, ready to face the truth, he admits that, unfortunately, there is no longer a demand for the former, that there are not enough forces not only to fly and ride, but the flirtatious chorus of artists who, they say, dream of dying in front of the public, will not join for anything. Therefore, the singer called his current tour - in spite of the disease! - not farewell, but anniversary.
His concerts will also be held in Ukraine: in Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk and Kyiv - the three cities with which fate connected him most closely, but a trip to the United States,
where performances were also planned, will not take place - to the message that the State Department, which unreasonably enrolled Iosif Davydovich as the godfathers of the Russian mafia, again refused him a visa, the Internet responded in a completely Kobzonian style with a joke: “There is nothing to be born on September 11!”.
"AND WE DID NOT SWIM - WE TALKED"
Iosif Davydovich, I am unspeakably glad that we again, for the umpteenth time, met for a serious and detailed conversation. Someone will be surprised: are there still some topics or issues that we have not discussed? - but I know that you can talk endlessly, and it will always be interesting, because you have an incredible life behind you ...
I, Dima, just remembered the story: when an ocean liner sank and in the port of Odessa all the passengers were already considered dead, two surviving Jews suddenly swim up to the pier. Onlookers came running, looking with rounded eyes: “Where are you from?” - and they call the ship that lies on the seabed. "How? they ask. “So you didn’t drown?” - "Yes, we were saved, but what?". - "How did you get there?" They shrugged their shoulders: “But we didn’t swim - we talked.” Here we are talking to you in the same way - it means that there is something to talk about.
“Well, why does time run so mercilessly, run and take our lives? - you will not have time to start living, and the shadow of death is already somewhere nearby ...
I remember my terribly poor, but still happy childhood. Happy, despite the fact that the Great Patriotic War swept through it, which became the main educator of my generation.
I was born in Ukraine. in the Donbass. In the small town of Chasov Yar. We call them PGT - an urban-type settlement: this is my historical homeland, and then my family paths led me to Lviv - there we were caught by the war. The father went to the front, and the mother with the children, with her disabled brother and mother, our grandmother, decided to evacuate. When I return to my childhood memory, I clearly remember this evacuation of ours, I remember the car, the crowded stations and how my mother ran for us to fetch water and ... fell behind the train. I remember how all of us - grandmother, and uncle, and brothers, and I, as the youngest, were in a panic: my mother was gone! - and all our hope was always on her, but three days later, at some station, my mother caught up with us. So we ended up in Uzbekistan, in the city of Yangiyul - 15 kilometers from Tashkent.
I clearly remember my military childhood, I remember how we lived in an Uzbek family, in their clay house, where even the floors were clay. From the 41st to the 44th we all huddled in the same room - our families were separated only by a curtain. When they settled down for the night, mattresses were laid out, and everyone lay down, as they say, in piles. Every morning the grown-ups got ready to go to work - they also raised us children to feed them.
They mostly fed some kind of prison, and so that it was satisfying all day, the so-called soup was cooked ... My mother was resourceful in this matter, the hostess, she cooked food, it seemed, from nothing. Everything edible was used: potato peels, sorrel, just green leaves or some biting medicinal herb that dogs and cats love to eat when they lack vitamins or some kind of disease attacks. She added all this to the broth, for which she bought a pig's head and legs, boiled them, and the broth turned out to be fat. Clean, golden droplets of fat in it were such that saliva flowed, and there was enough broth for the whole boil, and it was large, aluminum - it dragged on for a whole week.
There was no bread - only sometimes we, children, were spoiled with Uzbek cakes, but basically we ate all this prison with cake. We lived next to the fence of the oil mill, and it was there that we managed to get hold of this cake, which was made from the waste of sunflower seeds. Smelly, to the point of pleasant dizziness, and so hard that it could be chewed endlessly, this cake was the main children's delicacy - mixed with saliva, it calmed our stomachs that were always hungry. We also ate tar, ordinary black tar - we chewed it all day long, it was our chewing gum, and this also satisfied our hunger.
Having fed, the adults drove us out for a walk on the street - we spent all day and day after day there, chasing barefoot with the boys, arranging the usual kid games, so the street was my kindergarten.
Not to say that I was the ringleader then, but I always led everything as a commander. Of course, they fought, but very quickly reconciled and thus learned not to be angry with each other - the amazingly kind and hospitable Uzbek people will remain in my memory forever.
...It soon became a little easier. Mom started working as the head of the political department of the state farm (before that, in Ukraine, she had been a judge since Chasov Yar), my brothers and I helped her as much as we could, ran to the market with mugs to sell cold water. "Buy some water! Buy water! - the boys shouted vyingly, and in the heat, under the scorching Uzbek sun, they bought it willingly. True, for some pennies, but even this helped us, and we survived and ... survived.
My mother was born in 1907, she lived as a girl under the surname Shoikhet, but she got married and became Ida Isaevna Kobzon. Mom loved me, loved me very much, loved me more than anyone, because I was her youngest. It was only later, when the sixth child appeared in the family - sister Gela, she became the most beloved - also because she was a girl. Mom never called me by my first name - only my son, and I also loved her very much, and always, always, until the last days I called my mother. She did everything she could for me, and if there was one candy left, of course, I got it, if on New Year's Eve my mother managed to get a tangerine, she shyly hid it from others in order to feed me. Mom passed away in 1991 ...
As soon as the Donbass was liberated from the Germans in 1944, we immediately returned to Ukraine and settled in the city of Slavyansk. We lived in the family of my mother's brother, Mikhail, who died at the home of his aunt Tasia, a kind Russian woman with two sons (my mother's two brothers died at the front).
We lived with Aunt Tasia because in 1943 my father returned from the front, shell-shocked, but he did not return to us, but ... he stayed in Moscow, where he was treated and ... another became interested. Her name was Tamara Danilovna - such a wonderful lady, a teacher. Father, David Kunovich Kobzon, like my mother, was a political worker (by the way, I am the only one of all the children who kept his last name). My father honestly confessed to my mother that he decided to create another family - in general, he left us.
Until the 45th, we lived with Aunt Tasia - we celebrated Victory Day there, and then we moved to Kramatorsk. Mom worked as a lawyer in court, and here, in 1945, I went to school. My poor mother - she got grief! Everything fell on her shoulders, but she endured everything, and in 1946 she met a really good person - Mikhail Mikhailovich Rappoport, born in 1905, and joy came to our family - sister Gela appeared. The language does not turn to call this man stepfather - I proudly called him Batya. We all loved him madly until the end of our days, and he passed away early. The former front-line soldier did not have enough health, he is no more, but he still exists in me. Dad. My Dad!
... It's strange: as a child, I was always an excellent student and at the same time a hooligan, but not in the sense that an antisocial element, but simply never refused to fight if it was necessary to fight, as they say, for justice, that is, I was a hooligan of a different breed - I liked the role of Robin Hood. For my mother, I remained a son, and the street called its commander Kobz - the street, of course, dragged me in, but it never interfered with my studies. Mom kept letters of commendation with Lenin and Stalin - mainly for my studies, but among them there are those that testify that I was also a winner at amateur art competitions.
One of them - nine-year-old Iosif Kobzon "for the best singing": then, in 46-47, I really liked Blanter's song "Migratory Birds Are Flying". I sang it simply from the heart in Donetsk, and then in Kyiv, and when after a while I showed this letter to Blanter, the old composer burst into tears.
As a singer-winner of the Ukrainian Olympiad, I was given a ticket to Moscow. I didn’t remember my own father, but when it came time to go to the capital, my mother told me: “If you want, see him,” and I saw him, but his attitude towards my mother and my grateful attitude towards my stepfather made our communication very formal. My father took me, as I remember now, to Detsky Mir on Taganka, bought some kind of sweater, something else ... I thanked him, and he said that he would have a good dinner tomorrow and that I should come, - he also said, that in the new family he already has two sons.
The next time we met, when I became a famous artist: just a Moscow residence permit was desperately needed. I graduated from the Gnessin Institute, and in order to grow further, it was necessary to stay in Moscow. The whole Soviet Union sang my songs: “And in our yard”, “Biryusinka”, “And again in the yard”, “Morzyanka”, “Let there always be sunshine” - but you never know the successes that I managed to achieve on the stage, but Unfortunately, I did not have a Moscow residence permit, and my ex-father did not refuse me. It was 1964...”.
“DO NOT NOISE YOU, RYE, WITH A RIPE EAR. YOU DON'T SING, KOBZON, WITH A HORROWING VOICE..."
- You, I know, sang twice in front of Stalin himself - what exactly and how did it happen?
At a time when you were not yet born, when there were no discos, no karaoke, no different high-tech innovations, everyone spent their free time on the street and in amateur performances.
Imagine the dim light of a kerosene lamp - we did our homework under it, a rag ball - they drove football, and songs - they brightened up that unpretentious life. We lived in the Donbass, and Ukraine is a singing country, and they didn’t drive us to the choir or to amateur art classes - we ourselves went there with pleasure, because we loved to sing, because it was a continuation of communication, a wonderful pastime.
It so happened that I stood out a little among my peers - in general, I was in charge, I was a leader, and, say, in the pioneer camp I was always elected chairman of the council of the squad, and in Kramatorsk amateur performances, our teacher - as I remember now, Vasily Semenovich Tarasevich - trusted me with solo songs . Then, when the mutational period began, they teased me - the mocking girls sang a duet (sings): “Don't make noise, rye, with a ripe ear. You don’t sing, Kobzon, in a hoarse voice ”... I was already breaking down then, but before that my voice was normal - I knew all the popular songs and performed them at the request of the front-line soldiers.
- These were some things of Blanter, probably?
Yes, of course: “Golden Wheat”, “Migratory Birds Are Flying”, and also Fradkin - “Oh, Dnepro, Dnepro ...
- ... you are wide, powerful, cranes are flying over you "...
In short, as a representative of Kramatorsk, I became the winner of the regional Olympiad in Donetsk, then the Republican Olympiad in Kyiv, and the winners were sent to the final concert in Moscow - the All-Union Olympiad of amateur art activities of schoolchildren was held there. So I first appeared in 1946 in the Kremlin Theater... Yes, yes, there was no Kremlin Palace and the Rossiya cinema and concert hall - only the Hall of Columns...
- ... Houses of the Unions ...
He was considered the most prestigious, plus two chamber, as to this day - the Tchaikovsky Hall and the Great Hall of the Conservatory. The closed Kremlin theater was located in the building near the Spasskaya Tower - as you enter, immediately on the right side, and now the director gathered us all there and said: “Now we will start rehearsing. Please note: at a concert - the strictest discipline, they will let you out of the room only one number before going on stage.
- Did you know that Stalin was in the hall?
Of course, but we were warned: if the leader is present, there is no need to be curious and look at him.
- And Stalin was warned that Kobzon would sing?
- (Laughs). Yes, a good joke, but how can a child - and I was nine years old in 1946 - say at that time: "Don't look at Stalin"? - it's like ordering a believer: do not be baptized - when there is a temple or a priest in front of you. However, I didn’t have the opportunity to take a closer look: I just sang the song “Migratory Birds Are Flying” - and backstage, and there I was immediately ordered: march into the room!
The next day we were taken to museums, shown to Moscow, fed, put on a train and sent home, and the second time I appeared before Stalin already in the 48th. Again, as the winner of the Republican Olympiad, I performed in the same Kremlin theater, and the same picture is nothing new, only Blanter's song was already different - "Golden Wheat". (sings):“I feel good, pushing the ears apart” ... I went out in a white shirt with a red tie ...
- ...and did they see Stalin this time?
Yes, because a short distance separated us, but with a fright - he threw a lightning glance and immediately transferred it to the hall. As I remember now: with a smile on his face, he was sitting in a box on the right side, if you look from the stage, and he applauded me.
From the book of Joseph Kobzon "As before God."
“Before the speech, we were told that there would be Stalin, and he really sat in a box among the members of the government (Molotov, Voroshilov and Bulganin were next to him - Beria and Malenkov were not). I saw Stalin only from the stage when I sang (the box was about 10 meters from me, on the right side of the stage). When they told us that there would be Stalin, we were terribly worried - not because we were afraid of Stalin, but were afraid that, as we saw him, our tongue, legs and hands would cease to obey. Then it was not customary to record phonograms, as is done now according to the principle “no matter what happens”, so that, God forbid, something unforeseen does not happen under the president (suddenly someone forgets a word or, even worse, says too much )... Then, thank God, it was a different time - everything had to be real, and therefore, in order not to lose face, we rehearsed everything carefully, and although the concert was rehearsed several times, we were still very worried.
I sang the song "Migratory birds are flying" - I sang, and Stalin listened to me. I could not look at him for a long time, although I really wanted to - the fact is that before leaving I was warned not to do this. I saw him very little, but I remember I managed to see that he was in a gray tunic. I sang and bowed, as I saw bowing to the beloved king in the cinema, and bowed to the respected public. It was a great success, but went backstage on cottony children's legs. Sang to Stalin himself! - this is how my career began, but I was still small and didn’t really understand what the “leader of all peoples” was ... He was called Joseph, and my mother called me Joseph.
Unfortunately, I don’t remember in detail how Stalin reacted to my speech, and since I don’t remember to tell that he: “Bravo!” shouted, supporting endless applause, or smiled at me, I won’t ... Now I could say anything, but I don’t want to lie - I only remember that sometimes I looked at him, and I still remember how a year before, when I came to Moscow , also at the amateur art show, on May 1, on Red Square, he participated in a demonstration in front of the Mausoleum. I remember how we all looked with love and admiration at the leaders of the party and government, who organized and inspired the world victory over fascism, and especially with all eyes we looked at our heroic, but simple leader. The light green curtain in the Kremlin Theater also remained forever in my memory ...
So I wrote this and thought: but I happened to live under all the Soviet and post-Soviet tsars, except for Lenin ... How many were there? First Stalin, then Malenkov, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko, Gorbachev, Yeltsin, Putin, Medvedev... - Lord, am I really that old already?
"SASHA SEROV SAID:" IF YOU EVEN SAY THAT YOU SING BEFORE LENIN, I WILL BELIEVE IT EVERYTHING
As far as I heard, the fact that you sang twice in front of Stalin made an indelible impression on the singer Alexander Serov ...
-(Laughs). He was just so impressed with my story that he squeezed out only one phrase: "Joseph Davydovich, I believe you." - “Thank you,” I replied, “but what, have I ever given you a reason to doubt my words?” - “No,” Sasha said, “and even if you say that you sang before Lenin, I still believe.” This is of course a joke (laughs) but everything else is true.
- To the question of one of my colleagues: “Did you love Stalin then?” - you answered: "I love him now" ...
I guess, yes.
- Hmm, what do you mean?
A certain image, of course, and the songs that we sang "about wise, dear and beloved Stalin" are inseparable from it. Well, who could make people shout: “For the Motherland! For Stalin!" go to the feat, to death?
Now, however, when everyone knows how much the bloody leader has done, is he disgusting to you as a person, as a person?
It is difficult for me now, after so many years, to judge what he did. During the Great Patriotic War, my relatives died - two of my mother's brothers: Uncle Misha and Uncle Borya, and in 1943 they brought a shell-shocked father to a Moscow hospital, so they suffered decently, but they also loved Stalin and also went into battle with his name , which was a symbol of victory. Now you can talk as much as you like that the country won, the people won, but our military leaders did not carry out a single operation without the consent of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.
You have repeatedly told me how very young you were friends with such outstanding singers and actresses as Klavdia Shulzhenko, Lidia Ruslanova, Zoya Fedorova, but two of them spent more than one year in Stalin's camps and probably shared their impressions of this horror with you ...
Moreover, Dima, at one time we traveled around the country with the popular program "Variety, Theater and Cinema Artists", which was held at stadiums (it was directed by Ilya Yakovlevich Rakhlin - the kingdom of heaven to everyone I'm talking about!), And in the evenings, after concerts, gathered at the hotel. Artistic people love communication - today they call it parties, and earlier just meetings, parties, and so I went to Lidia Andreevna Ruslanova, whom I called Barynya, and she called me a killer whale, and her friends gathered: Lyubov Petrovna Orlova, Claudia Ivanovna Shulzhenko, Zoya Alekseevna Fedorova - Bunny, as we christened her ...
- Good company...
Yes, and also Kapa Lazarenko, Lyusya Zykina ... Together we had tea, and I was with them ..
- ...the only man...
- (Laughs). They personally put an old, old decanter dating back to tsarist times - then there was no such tasty vodka as it is now, so the Lady insisted on it: in the morning she poured lemon peels into the laphyte bottle or some berries fell asleep there. In the evening I pampered the ladies with tea (and they spoiled me with vodka) and in such an environment I was simply blissful - there were so many stories and memories! Do you remember that Nikita Mikhalkov's film with Gurchenko "Five Evenings" was released on the screens? - but believe me, not a single movie fairy tale, even talentedly made, can be compared with those gatherings. Tata Okunevskaya also sat with us, although very rarely ...
Also a prisoner, who later wrote in her memoirs that they were raped in the camps, and beaten, and mocked at them - they did whatever they wanted ....
Nobody mocked them! - as part of artistic teams, they performed with concerts, but Lidia Andreevna, for example, herself told me why she sat down and how she was warned. True, she did not pay attention to these warnings, because Stalin loved her very much, and there was not a single concert in the Kremlin that Ruslanova would not have been invited to.
- She suffered because of Marshal Zhukov, right?
Not because of Zhukov, but because of Lieutenant General Kryukov ...
- ... her husband - one of Zhukov's closest associates, under whom, in fact, they dug ...
No, no, as they say in Odessa, you know everything, but not exactly. The fact is that when they returned from Germany after the victory ...
- ... they carried trains of trophies with them ...
Now this is closer to the truth - they brought a lot of property, and this became the cause of Stalin's anger ... Well, again the question is: how to relate to the decision of the tsar, who punished his generals for greed? It's no secret, after all, that after the victory Zhukov gave the troops three days to plunder and revelry: they say, do what you want. Whatever you have time to grab is yours, but on the fourth day for looting they will be shot on the spot, so they rowed everything in a row: accordions ...
- ...services...
Harmonicas - all they could grab. They robbed museums, shops, apartments, and three days later there was a lull and already Berzarin, the commandant of Berlin, strictly ensured that there was no robbery and looting, but, of course, they took away a lot. Well, what to do? - this is war: the Germans, when our cities were occupied, robbed us, we answered them the same ...
"RUSLANOVA RETURNED EVERYTHING THAT WAS TAKEN FROM HER DURING THE ARREST - THE MOST VALUABLE PAINTINGS, VERY EXPENSIVE JEWELERY"
Nevertheless, Ruslanova, Fedorova and Okunevskaya, who suffered from the heavy Stalinist right hand, were angry and scolded the leader?
No, and the same Lidia Andreevna was returned, by the way, everything that had been taken from her during her arrest. I repeatedly visited her at home near the Aeroport metro station: the rarest, most valuable paintings hung in her apartment.
- She loved antiques and diamonds ...
Yes, she had very expensive jewelry. By the way, when Zoya Alekseevna Fedorova tragically passed away, there were rumors that she was killed in her own apartment, allegedly because of the jewelry. No one has yet figured out why that terrible crime was committed, but Ruslanova was a completely different level.
- People's favorite - still!
Her first husband was the famous entertainer Mikhail Naumovich Garkavy (they were friends after the divorce), then she married General Kryukov, and Zaichik was a modest, sweetest woman who fell in love with the American military attache (later Vice Admiral of the US Navy Jackson Tate). For the fact that she met with a foreigner, Tata Okunevskaya also suffered - the Cold War was going on, and both of them became victims of a difficult political situation.
From the book of Joseph Kobzon "As before God."
“Once, at the Russian Arts Festival in Grozny, I go downstairs in the hotel and see: my lady is sitting alone - she is sitting sad. Me: "Oh my lady..." I rushed to her, kissed, I asked: “What are you doing here in the hall?”, And she replies: “I’m sitting and thinking, who needs it here?”.
- Nu that you, Lydia Andreevna!
- Yes, nothing, killer whale, - no one has met me, there is no room in the hotel: what is left for me to think ?!
- It was just a joke with you, a separate room has been waiting for you for a long time! - with these words, I grab her suitcase and lead her to my room.
- So this is yours, - says Ruslanova.
- No, Lidia Andreevna, - I assure you, - this is your number, and the fact that I put my suitcase in it only indicates that I knew that you would come and live here ...
- Oh, how clever you are! You didn't know anything because you asked downstairs: why am I here?
- No, no, - I began to get out, - I assumed that you would come, I just didn’t know that I would meet you so quickly.
- Fine, fine. Now where are you?
- I? To the market (at that time I liked to go to the market for fruits and various southern dishes).
- Then buy berries, and by the evening, killer whale, I'll prepare your favorite tincture ...
I was returning from the market, I got a call: “So you put Ruslanova in your room, but we really don’t have any more rooms ...”. I: “Well, no, it’s not like that, so I’ll settle down with one of my musicians - it’s okay.” They back and forth ... - in the end, they found the number for me, but then the most interesting thing happened: “What should we do with Ruslanova? She is like snow on our heads ... ".
- Do you really think, - I was indignant, - that she just took it and came to Grozny with a concert? Surely someone invited her and ... forgot about it, so we need to come up with something.
They shrug their hands - they don’t know what to do, and then I called Tataev, their minister of culture: “Vakha Akhmetych, how is it? One of yours invited such a great artist to Grozny, but did not meet, did not provide her with housing or work ... ". Tataev was upset: "Now a concert tour is being prepared ... It's 70 kilometers from Grozny - let's send her there."
Me: “Well, how can you do this with her - send somewhere to hell in the middle of nowhere - and then her legs are sore. She can barely walk, her gout has tortured her - after this move she will no longer be and is unlikely to be able to perform. You can’t drag her over the mountains!”
“Well, then I don’t know what to do,” Tataev thought. - Apart from your performance, there are no concerts in Grozny today.
“Let him perform in my concert,” I suggested.
I come to Ruslanova, bring fruits, berries, other food and say: “Lydia Andreevna, at five o’clock you have a departure for a concert.
- Shall we go together? - asks Ruslanova.
- Of course, together.
We sit in the car, we arrive. Seeing my orchestra, Ruslanova asks the question: “Who else will sing with us?”.
- Nobody.
- Like no one?
- Yes, only you and I will perform, so decide for yourself when it is more convenient for you to go out: if you want at the end, if you want at the beginning, if you want in the middle ...
- How long are you going to sing? - Ruslanova was puzzled.
- I do not know. Songs 25-28.
- How much?
I didn’t even think when I automatically called these figures, which corresponded to my solo concert ...
- Ahh... So, I'm in your entourage...
- No, Lidia Andreevna, what are you? You are like a gift to the listeners!
Indeed, love for her was, as they say, popular. Once, while touring in Omsk, I, still a very young artist, was driving a taxi from a concert. We started talking, and suddenly the taxi driver asks: “Have you seen Ruslanova alive?” - “Not only saw, but also performed many times with her in one concert,” I answered, and then the touched taxi driver unexpectedly admitted: “But if they told me: you will have to die for seeing Ruslanova, you know, I would, without hesitation, agree to the coffin ... ".
Lidia Andreevna lived near the Aeroport metro station, and in 1973, with my still very young wife Nelya, we somehow came to visit her for tea. She already lived alone (it was true, she had a visiting housekeeper), and the imagination of the guests was always amazed by the paintings of famous artists hung on the walls. My Nelya admired: “What a beauty you have, Lydia Andreevna!”
“You will tell me too, beauty is all that remains of beauty,” Ruslanova sighed. - They took everything.
I corrected her: "Lydia Andreevna, not all - after all, a lot was returned."
- It's called "returned" - if you saw how much they took away!
For her, these paintings were truly spiritual food, and not what they are for very rich, but low-intellectual people who, without understanding anything, start collections of books, porcelain and painting - Ruslanova in everything that she collected, sorted out, led to the picture and , like a real connoisseur, gave explanations and made subtle remarks. She collected not for the sake of fashion, but for the soul, antiques, painting, jewelry and jewelry - all this was the fruit of her professional hobbies.
To the last, she skillfully put on some or other rich jewelry - in this regard, the pictures of her preparation for going on stage were remembered. She said: “It’s time to get dressed (that means dressing) - come on, killer whale, go to your place, because I’m going to climb into the safe now” - and pointed to her chest: the “safe” was on her chest. I left, she took out bags of jewelry from this “safe” of hers and began to dress up, and at the end of the concert everything happened in the reverse order. I knocked on her dressing room: “Lydia Andreevna, are you ready?” “Oh, how fast you are! Wait, wait, killer whale, I haven’t lost my mind yet ”(this meant: I haven’t changed clothes and sent my jewelry to the“ safe ”), but what a swearing woman! - listening...
Her last days and funeral were very sad - by the way, this is the fate of most famous people. On this account, there are Apukhtin’s exact poems “A Pair of Bays” - about the fate of the once popular actress:
Who escorts her to the cemetery?
She has no friends, no family...
A few only
ragged beggars,
Yes, a couple of bays, a couple of bays ...
I can’t say that few people saw off Lydia Andreevna on her last journey to Novodevichy, but, of course, incomparably less than it would have been if she had died in those years when we went to her concerts far away. They buried her in the same grave with General Kryukov, one of her beloved husbands.
Having lived to a respectable age, Ruslanova did not have children with any husband - her adopted daughter, the daughter of General Kryukov, turned out to be the owner of her richest inheritance. They had good relations, but for some reason Ruslanova’s grave was not well maintained. Of course, the state could do this, but even it has no legal right to own the grave, and no one, except those who have such a right, can undertake any action..."
I, Dima, do not argue: let Stalin be a dictator, let there be a lot of blood and suffering on him, but are the leaders of the so-called advanced democracies without sin? Look what is happening now, what has been done to Libya! What right has another country to come to foreign territory and impose its own order? - But before that, people lived quietly there ...
"NOTHING IN THIS 'BE READY!' THERE IS NO SHAME"
- So oil, after all, Joseph Davydovich ...
The reason is different - in the desire to make the whole world dance to its tune, and it is very difficult for those who live now to judge that period. Yes, the older generation now condemns the Stalinist regime and Beria's crimes, but it also accepts the film with a bang, where Lavrenty Pavlovich is praised. They scolded, criticized Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, and now television programs have gone where he is extolled ...
- Go figure it out!
That's right, and with Brezhnev the same thing ... To be honest, I would not idealize that time, but we loved our country, and today we seem to have no despots ...
- ... but we don’t put the Motherland in a penny ...
When I meet with young people, I say: “You must help Russia. You can't treat everything so selfishly: don't go to the polls, don't think about what kind of power it will be, remove yourself from responsibility for the future of your land. You have to love the country” - and suddenly one lout stood up: “Let her love us first!”.
- And I think there is something in it, right?
-(Thoughtfully). There may be something ... I'm not so highly patriotic, but I lived here for many years: I caught the Stalinist period, and all the rest, - therefore I asked a counter question: “In your opinion, the country, as you just told me , should love you, but explain: why, what did you do for her? Do you consider it your merit that your parents raised you and gave you an education? Or maybe you accomplished a feat, defended your people, or worked hard, setting an example for everyone?”... Silence was my answer...
You know, after the division of the Soviet Union, the third decade went, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and other republics became sovereign states, but of course, there is no that highest spirit of patriotism that was inherent in Soviet people.
The writer Alexander Prokhanov once said: “There are three banners left of the Soviet Union: the Mausoleum, the Communist Party of Russia and Iosif Kobzon” - do you agree with him?
No, I don’t feel like a banner, but there are enduring values for me. We did not take into account, for example, that, parting with a great power, it was necessary to preserve a single organization for children - the pioneers, and nothing in this "Be ready!" there is no shame: it is not necessary to be ready to fight for the cause of Lenin, but to fight ...
- ...for the cause of Putin-Medvedev!
And even so! - yes, just to the struggle for a better life, because a pioneer means the first, but we liquidated this all-Union organization, but you could call it all-Russian. There was a Komsomol - no matter what they say, almost all the exploits of the Great Patriotic War are connected with it, and who restored the cities ...
- ... raised Komsomol construction sites ...
Did you build hydroelectric power plants and state district power plants all over the country? I will not argue that we lived so nicely, that we had neither crime, nor alcoholism, nor drug addiction, nor prostitution, I will not - everything was! ..
- ...and prostitution?
And she, too, but these negative phenomena did not overwhelm society then and did not turn into an epidemic. Naturally, there were shortcomings that the same Komsomol eradicated - he, in particular, fought to ensure that the guys did not drink too much, so that our beauties would not go to the panel ... Today this is not the case, the younger generation was pilfered (I'm talking now about Russia ) for political communal apartments, and yet they are all citizens of the same country. Neither we nor you have another Motherland: Russia is given to us, Ukraine is given to you, and as a result, young people do not feel they are in demand. That’s why they consider it cynical: “Let the country love us first” ...
Nevertheless, we still do not know our true history, and in my opinion, the meeting of the actor Yevgeny Vesnik with the famous Marshal Timoshenko is very indicative in this sense. You once told me about it, but readers, for sure, would also be interested in listening ...
No, Dima, this story is not for an interview. You are a provocateur! - I understand perfectly well that one cannot do without strong words here, although ...
In general, a wonderful actor served in the Maly Theater - People's Artist of the USSR Yevgeny Vesnik, and he had a period in his life when every day he filmed at Lenfilm: he came to Leningrad in the morning, rushed straight from the train to the studio, worked there until lunch , and then returned to Moscow by day plane. Having played a performance in Maly, he got into the Red Arrow Express, in the morning in St. Petersburg he filmed again and again went to the airport - for a month and a half he was spinning like that, and he never bought tickets in advance: he came to the departure of the train, at best he gave the conductor ten (they all already knew the actor!), and he was somehow arranged.
And then one day he ran after the performance to the platform and heard: "There are no places." - "How not?". - "No one". Two “Arrows” are standing - on the left and on the right, he is there, he is here - everyone just shrugged his hands, and, seeing him throwing, one conductor whispered: “Marshal Timoshenko is going here in the NE, but he is supposed to take second place, so put him there we can't do you." Vesnik begged: “Can I try to negotiate with him?”. - "Well, let's".
Zhenya himself told me about this story. “I knock on this NE,” he says, “I open the door: Tymoshenko is sitting. I'm on the line: "I wish you good health, Comrade Marshal, Yevgeny Vesnik." He squinted so surprised: "Who-who?". - "Artist of the Maly Theater." - “Ahhh ... So what?”. - “You see, in Leningrad I have a shooting in the morning, but there is not a single place in the composition - at least stand in the corridor. Will you let me go with you?" The marshal answered: “Well, go ahead!”, And Evgeny Yakovlevich, I must say, liked to drink, and in order to relieve stress after the performance, fall asleep quickly and come to the shooting fresh in the morning, he always had a bottle of cognac ready. He immediately took it out: “Comrade Marshal, can I have a glass for an acquaintance?” He nodded, "Yes, please."
- What an impudent, however, actor ...
No, he was just in a completely, so to speak, amazed state, and later you will understand why. “Comrade Marshal,” Vesnik admitted, “I am very passionate about military history and I remember how in 1940 you became People’s Commissar of Defense of the USSR.” He looked at him approvingly: “Wow, well done, artist! You really do." Eugene cheered up: “Can I, since I see the Marshal of the Soviet Union alive, drink to your health?” Tymoshenko did not object: "Well, be healthy!".
When the throat had already been moistened, Vesnik continued the conversation: “Comrade Marshal, returning at that time ... 47 days before the start of the war, speaking to students of military academies, Comrade Stalin said that the Red Army has such power that England and France from the face We can erase the land within three months.” - "Well, he said." - “But why, when Germany declared war on us (well, of course, Hitler’s cunning, Stalin’s gullibility ...), after three months the Germans were near Moscow?” - and he pours on the second. Timoshenko takes a glass, looks at Vesnik... “Say? Honestly?". - "Well, if possible." - "Ah ... he knows" (shows how he drains his glass).
Vesnik, however, does not let up: “Two years later, the Germans were already near Stalingrad, they passed half of the territory of the European part of the Soviet Union - how did it happen, couldn’t we get together and give them a worthy rebuff? Why did millions of people die? - "Say? Honestly?". - "Well, yes". - "Ah ... he knows!". Bang bang! (drops the glass again).