For this, in the 1970s, the popular family duo was declared enemies of the Motherland and expelled from the stage: Alla Ioshpe and Stakhan Rakhimov

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

On January 30, pop singer, People's Artist of Russia Alla Ioshpe passed away. The day before that, her last interview was published, in which the artist told how she and her husband, singer Stakhan Rakhimov, with whom she sang in a duet in the 1960s-1970s, were banned from performing on stage. Their songs "Alyosha", "Nightingales", "Goodbye, boys" were known by the whole country, but at one point the audience's favorites turned into enemies of the Motherland. For 10 years, their names were consigned to oblivion, and the records were destroyed. The artists lived together for 60 years, and only thanks to the support of each other, they could not break down due to the persecution of the authorities.

Alla Ioshpe was born into a Jewish family in Ukraine and grew up in Moscow. At the age of 10, she severely injured her leg, sepsis began, and the doctors insisted on amputation. Fortunately, this was avoided, but her health problems remained for life and later caused trouble for her family. Since childhood, Alla dreamed of performing on stage, but at first she did not think about this as her main professional activity. After school, she entered Moscow State University at the Faculty of Philosophy, and later defended her Ph. D. thesis. During her studies, Alla participated in amateur performances and was a soloist of the university's pop and symphony orchestra.

In 1960, a meeting took place that changed her destiny forever. At the amateur art competition of Moscow universities, Alla Ioshpe met the Uzbek singer Stakhan Rakhimov, with whom they shared the first place. Their life for two began with this joint award. After a while, Alla invited Stakhan to the anniversary concert of the orchestra in which she performed. Then the couple first tried to sing a duet, and since then they have not parted either on stage or in life.

At the time of their acquaintance, both artists were not free, both had families, both raised little daughters. The singer said about her husband: "". Alla and Stakhan lived with music and could not imagine another life for themselves. And from the moment we sang together for the first time, we could not do without each other. Despite protests from relatives, they decided to leave their families and get married.

In 1963, they began performing together on the professional stage, and by the early 1970s. their duet was no less popular than Muslim Magomayev, Joseph Kobzon and Edita Piekha. But the names of their colleagues thundered throughout the Union and are still known to everyone, and their own names were soon erased from the history of the Soviet stage and consigned to oblivion for a long time. At first everything went very well: not a single Kremlin concert and New Year's "Ogonyok" was complete without songs by Ioshpe and Rakhimov, the compositions "Alyosha", "Goodbye, boys", "Nightingales", "Meadow night", "Autumn Leaves" she knew by heart the whole country, they performed more than a thousand songs on stage, the duet traveled with concerts all over the Union and half the world, they turned into stars of the first magnitude. Once Alla Ioshpe for 40 minutes in the "Kinopanorama" program sang songs to the music of Mikael Tariverdiev, and he accompanied her. After that, he confessed to her: "".

And then at one point the favorites of the public suddenly became enemies of the Motherland. Health problems, which began in Alla Ioshpe as a child, worsened with age. All her life she was tormented by severe pain in her leg, after a month spent on tour, she had to lie in bed for two more. The artist needed an operation that could be done in Israel, New York or Paris, but they were denied travel abroad. Their desire to be treated abroad was considered insolence. Alla Ioshpe was strongly advised to undergo surgery with domestic specialists and not to discredit Soviet medicine.

In 1979, the couple took the risk of applying to leave for Israel for permanent residence. There was no political overtones in their decision - it was a forced measure. Before that, they went around all domestic specialists, but none of them promised to help. This time, the duo was not only banned from leaving the country, but also declared the artists enemies of the Motherland, stripped of all titles, destroyed their records, all recordings on radio and television, and were banned from performing on stage. Fortunately, the staff of the Gosfilmofond kept part of the archive at home, and the records remained in the collections of fans.

On television and in the press, their names were no longer mentioned, as if such artists had never existed. The singer's daughter from her first marriage, Tatyana, was expelled from the university as “not corresponding to the high rank of a Soviet student,” Stakhan was repeatedly summoned to the Lubyanka and “advised” to divorce the “traitor” Alla Ioshpe. To this the singer replied: "".

The artists found themselves in a desperate situation. They had to hand over all the furniture and all the valuables to the consignment shop in order to survive this difficult period. Someone started rumors that the singers had left for Israel, were leading a beggarly lifestyle there, asking to be returned to the USSR, but traitors were not allowed to return to their homeland. Then Alla and Stakhan wrote about 100 letters to different publications, where they spoke about the same thing: "" Of course, none of these letters was published.

Then many acquaintances turned away from them, but new friends appeared - the same as them, those artists who were also denied travel abroad. On Saturdays, musician Alexander Brusilovsky, pianist Vladimir Feltsman, actor Savely Kramarov and others visited their house. The singers began to arrange home concerts, and their improvised theater was called Music in Refusal. Sometimes they gathered up to 70 people, and the police were on duty under the windows.

The situation changed only during the Perestroika era. They were finally allowed to tour officially, but only without posters, which is why almost no one came to the concerts. After that, the artists were summoned to the Ministry of Culture and told them that people no longer want to listen to them. Only after Joseph Kobzon stood up for them in 1989, the singers finally got rid of the stigma of enemies of the Motherland. The duo returned to the stage again, and not only in Russia, but also in Israel, America, Australia and Germany, where they were called “people's artists of the Russian emigration”. In 2002, Alla Ioshpe and Stakhan Rakhimov were awarded the title of People's Artists of Russia.

Of course, such popularity as in the 1960s-1970s. the singers didn't have any more. Only the most devoted fans remained loyal to them, because for any artist to fall out of the cage for 10 years is almost tantamount to creative death. But the most important thing for them was that they remained true to themselves and to each other. Their marriage withstood all the tests and only got stronger. They lived together for 60 years, and during this time their lives were intertwined into one. Unfortunately, the day after their last joint interview was released, Alla Ioshpe at the age of 83 passed away due to heart problems.

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