Symbol of the era: what Iosif Kobzon remembers. From Stalin to Putin: Iosif Kobzon died - the main voice of the Soviet stage and a symbol of the era Kobzon sang in front of Stalin

Singer and State Duma deputy Iosif Kobzon, the main voice of the Soviet stage and a symbol of the era, died in a Moscow hospital at the age of 80. Over 60 years of his career, Kobzon sang about 3,000 songs. He was in great demand! Not a single festive concert could do without his participation, his voice was constantly heard on the radio and on television. And also performances in "hot spots", social and teaching activities. On August 30, 2018, Joseph Davydovich passed away.

Young Iosif Kobzon, a guy from Dnepropetrovsk, could not even imagine that a stellar fate awaited him. Although his vocal abilities appeared in childhood, and at the age of 9 he became the winner of a talent competition in Donetsk, then there was a competition of a higher rank, where Joseph also became a winner. After that, he even twice, as the winner of amateur performances from Ukraine, spoke in the Kremlin before Stalin.

Already in the technical school, he became interested in boxing and became the winner of the Ukrainian championship among juniors. And then there was military service - a young man with a beautiful voice was assigned to the song and dance ensemble of the Transcaucasian Military District, where he immediately became a soloist.

After the army, Joseph Kobzon went to conquer Moscow. He applied to several universities at once, and he was accepted everywhere. The young man was confused, but he made a choice - he decided to go to GITIS. But when he came to Gnesinka to pick up documents, he met the rector, who asked: “What, Kobzon, are you preparing for the academic year?” Iosif Davydovich could not say that he came for the documents.

The first performance of Joseph Kobzon in Moscow took place in the circus. It so happened that the composer Alexandra Pakhmutova and the poet Nikolai Dobronravov could not find a performer for their song "Cuba - my love" for a long time. The young singer Kobzon became a real discovery for them. When he stepped onto the stage with a glued-on beard and a wooden machine gun in his hands, jubilation began in the hall. Later, he performed this song on Blue Light, which at that time, without exaggeration, was watched by the whole big country.

And after the song “And we have one girl in the yard ...” millions of Soviet girls fell in love with Kobzon. But Joseph Davydovich did not immediately meet his girl. His first love was Veronika Kruglova. But at that time, for the girl, the meaning of life was a career, and the young people broke up. Star marriage with the magnificent Lyudmila Gurchenko also did not last long. And after two disappointments, Kobzon no longer hoped to find his family happiness - divorces were very difficult for him. The scene was a lifesaver.

But somehow he ended up in the same company with Ninel Drizina. The modest St. Petersburg girl was completely uncomfortable in the company of famous composers, poets and musicians. But Joseph was not going to part with Nelly. According to the recognition of both in life, they had everything - jealousy, and reproaches, and resentment. But the main thing is love, which allowed them to cope with all the problems and live together for more than 40 years.

Nelly was often worried about her husband. Each of his business trips to "hot spots" became a real test for the whole family. And he was only in Afghanistan with concerts 9 times, and also in Syria, in Chechnya, in Chernobyl ... He believed that, like Utyosov and Shulzhenko, he should always be at the forefront.

In October 2002, the country froze at the TV screens in fear and grief - the militants took hostage more than 900 spectators who came to the theater complex on Dubrovka to watch Nord-Ost. Kobzon was at an outdoor concert that day, and only found out about what was happening late in the evening. I found out and began to gather for Dubrovka. Nelly understood that it was useless to persuade him to stay at home, to ask and even cry. Kobzon knew what he was doing, and after the first negotiations with the terrorists he brought out four hostages. Lyuba Kornilova, whom he led out of the hall on Dubrovka, gave birth to a fourth child, a son. And she called me Joseph.

Iosif Kobzon entered the Guinness Book of Records. On September 11, 1997, he gave the longest concert in the history of the world stage.

It is difficult to list all the exploits and merits of Joseph Davydovich Kobzon. On his 60th birthday, the artist sang from 7 pm to 6 am. During breaks, he only changed costumes. There was no time for snacks and tea.

It is simply impossible to enumerate all the exploits and merits of Joseph Kobzon. In 2005, Kobzon was diagnosed with cancer. Kobzon courageously fought his illness, continuing to work. Hardworking, energetic, active, he oversaw performances and concerts, performed. And he did not part with the song until the last days.

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 The 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 into a target on both sides of the ocean?

In the end, even most of the sworn opponents understood: he is the way he is - a little old-fashioned, sentimental, too ideological for today's cynical society and living every day on an aortic rupture.

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 there are also those among them that testify that I was a winner at the Olympiads in amateur art.

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. 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’ll 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 projects ...

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 real history, and in my opinion, the meeting of the actor Yevgeny Vesnik with the famous Marshal Tymoshenko 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?” Timoshenko 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).

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 Radio Komsomolskaya Pravda

(97.2 FM) to the program "Singing songs of Victory with Iosif Kobzon". Then there were Donetsk, Lugansk. There was the village of Aginskoye - our hero has been representing this region in the State Duma for more than 20 years. And in order not to repeat myself, after all, so much has been written about Kobzon - including by us (both in Komsomolskaya Pravda and in our books Joseph Kobzon: How wonderful everything that happened to us, Direct Speech) ... We today we decided to take and show you only the most interesting - fragments of an interview, phrases, remarks ...

"Studied with Vysotsky"

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 "Sons go to battle" ...

- 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.

"I cried many times on stage"

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, for example, the song "Commander" - he buries his soldiers there. And I'm 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.

- 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, Pyotr 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?

A book was published about me - "Kobzon of the Soviet Union". Because I am an adherent of my great power - the USSR. But this is not my complete image. Sometimes I feel like akyn Dzhambul (Kazakh Soviet poet. - Auth.) Why akyn? I like this definition. There were such poets - improvisers, singers who sang what they saw. And I sang and sing the country that I love ...

REPERTOIRE

“And the battle continues again, and the heart is anxious in the chest ...”

- Iosif Davydovich, Comrade Stalin - twice - you sang the songs of Matvey Blanter ...

These were the final concerts of school amateur performances in the Kremlin, and Stalin was there. I sang from Ukraine. In the mid-1940s - "Migratory birds are flying", in 1948 - "Golden wheat".

- 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 the battle continues again, 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 either Gorbachev, or Andropov, or 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 you're 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...

HELP "KP"

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.

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. I 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, 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 it 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 couldn’t 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 frankly tell me 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 fewer and fewer 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. But I believe that if the Almighty so ordered that we must live, then we 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 grinned, and - with irony: “Yes, by the way - I'm a 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 took place in this area between the military formations of the USSR and the PRC, 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 told about some of these bright pages in Komsomolskaya Pravda, and our stories about many things are yet to come ...

Donetsk - Lugansk - Aginskoe - Moscow.

I will not part with Komsomolskaya Pravda - I will be forever young! And this interview was prepared for the 80th birthday of Joseph Kobzon, which was celebrated on September 11, 2017...

“I am my own judge, and no one has power over me ... I lived a very interesting, difficult, but beautiful life. I have everything in this life. There is my love, there is my continuation: my children, my grandchildren. There are my songs, my listeners ”- I. D. Kobzon. More than 50 years on stage, performances before Stalin, Khrushchev, Gorbachev, Yeltsin - the life of Iosif Davydovich Kobzon is closely intertwined in the history of the USSR and Russia. That is why his voice is the voice of more than one generation. Iosif Kobzon is not just the most titled singer of the national musical Olympus, a deputy of the State Duma, a musical and public figure, but also one of the most beloved artists of our country. Unique photographs from family archives, first-person narration will tell about the ups and downs, success and ups and downs of the fate of Joseph Davydovich, which hardly anyone could see behind the blinding spotlights.

Speeches before Comrade Stalin

Everything happens for the first time. My first teacher's name was Polina Nikiforovna. Good man. What to call - I remember. Forever remember. But I forgot the last name. From her I learned to write and read, draw and count only by "five".

But, perhaps, he learned to sing first from his mother, and then he continued at singing lessons and in an amateur art circle.

Then after all, there was no entertainment: no discos, no tape recorders, no TVs. Mom loved to sing romances and Ukrainian songs. We had a gramophone and a lot of records. My mother sang, and I loved to sing along with her. We sat down in the evenings, lit a kerosene lamp and sang “I marvel at the sky - I guess that thought: why didn’t I juice, why don’t I pour? ...” Mom liked this song. All in all, it was a magical time. Kerosene was expensive, they took care of it and the lamp was lit only when it was completely dark outside. We were driven home, and I was looking forward to the moment when my mother and I begin to sing ...

It was some kind of bewitching action and spectacle. Longing was replaced by joy, tears - fun, when my mother sang her favorite songs. And, probably, it was then that I was forever "poisoned" by singing. Songs have become my drugs.

I sang at school, sang with the school choir on the stage of the city recreation center. Then there were no reviews, competitions - there were art olympiads. And at the age of ten, as a representative of Kramatorsk, I won the first victory at the All-Ukrainian Olympiad of amateur art activities for schoolchildren, deserving my first award - a trip to Moscow to VDNKh of the USSR. And there I was able to speak to my famous namesake.

The fact is that Comrade Stalin himself was present at our concert in the Kremlin. I sang Matvey Blanter's song "Migratory Birds Are Flying".

In short, I first appeared in 1946 in the Kremlin Theater ... Yes, there was no Kremlin Palace and the Rossiya cinema and concert hall - only the Column Hall of the House 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 so the director gathered us all there and said: “Now we will start rehearsing. Please note: at the concert - the strictest discipline, they will let you out of the room only one number before going on stage.

And we all knew that Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin could be in the hall. We were warned: if the leader is present, then there is no need to be curious and look at him. That's what they told me: "Don't look at Stalin." But this is the same as 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 1948. Again, as the winner of the Republican Olympiad, I performed in the same Kremlin theater, and the same picture: nothing new, only Blanter's song was already different - "Golden Wheat". I went out in a white shirt with a red tie ...

This time I saw Stalin, because we were separated by a short distance, but with a fright - I threw a lightning glance and immediately transferred him 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. Molotov, Voroshilov, Bulganin sat next to him. Beria and Malenkov were not there. I saw Stalin only from the stage when I sang. The lodge was about ten meters away from me.

When they told us that there would be Stalin, we were afraid to speak. Not because they were afraid of Stalin, but feared that, as soon as we saw him, our tongue, legs and hands would cease to obey, and we would not be able to speak at all. Then it was not customary to record phonograms, as is done now on the principle of “no matter what happens”, so that, God forbid, something unforeseen does not happen under the president, in case someone forgets the words or, even worse , something superfluous will say ... Then, thank God, it was a different time. Everything had to be real. And so we, in order not to lose face, rehearsed everything carefully. The concert was rehearsed several times, but we were still terribly worried ...

I sang and Stalin listened to me. I could not look at him for a long time, although I really wanted to. I remember I managed to see that he was in a gray tunic. I sang and bowed, as I saw bowing in the cinema to the beloved king. And he bowed to the respected public. I sang and had great success. He sang and went backstage on padded children's legs. Sang to Stalin himself!

This is how my singing career began. I was still small and didn’t really understand what the “leader of all peoples” meant. His name was Joseph. And my mother named me Joseph. I think it was much more difficult for the rest of the speakers, who were older. Unfortunately, I do not remember in detail how Stalin reacted to my speech. Since I don’t remember, I don’t want to tell you that he shouted “bravo”, supporting endless applause, or smiled approvingly at me ... Now I could say anything, but I don’t want to lie.

But I remember well how a year before, when I came to Moscow, also to see amateur performances, on May 1, on Red Square, I participated with everyone in a demonstration in front of the Mausoleum. I remember how we all looked with admiration at the leaders of the party and government, who organized and inspired the great victory over fascism, and especially with all eyes we looked at our heroic, but such a simple leader. I remember all this well. And the light-green curtain in the Kremlin Theater 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, Putin again. God, am I really that old...

By the way, I really liked Blanter's song then. “Migratory birds fly in the autumn blue distance. They fly to hot countries, and I stay with you ... ”I sang it with all my heart: in Donetsk, and then in Kyiv and Moscow. When, after some time, he showed Matvey Isaakovich the diploma handed to me, the old composer burst into tears.

And one more important moment for me. When, as the winner of the Ukrainian Olympiad, I was given a ticket to Moscow, my mother said: “If you want, see your father.” And I saw. However, his attitude to my mother and my grateful attitude to my stepfather, to Bata, made our communication completely formal. He took me, as I remember now, to Detsky Mir on Taganka. Bought me some sweater, bought something else. I thanked. And he said that he would have a good dinner tomorrow, and that I should come. At that meeting, I learned that two sons were already growing up in his new family.