Petr Leshchenko in life and on the screen: Truth and fiction in the series about the famous singer

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

When the series “Petr Leshchenko. All that was …”, many viewers first heard about the idol of pre-war Europe - during the Soviet era, the name of the singer remained banned for a long time, his first disc was released only in 1988, 34 years after Pyotr Leshchenko passed away. The image created by Konstantin Khabensky was very striking, but was it possible to judge from it about its prototype?

The creators of the series stated that there was no deviation from the historical truth in it. At the same time, screenwriter Eduard Volodarsky admitted that he had to think out a lot in the singer's biography. He knew his songs from childhood. "", - said Volodarsky. The fact is that in the biography of Pyotr Leshchenko there really were many blank spots, and the scriptwriter had only a few reliable facts at his disposal.

Petr Leshchenko often told his friends stories from his life, but they were not recorded. The only written sources on which the existing biographies of the singer are based are the protocol of the interrogation of the artist after his arrest by the Romanian state security service and the recollections of the widow of the singer Vera Belousova “Tell me. Why? . She released this book at the age of 85 and did not live to see the premiere of the series. Her friend Olga Petukhova was a consultant on the set.

Most sources indicate that Pyotr Leshchenko was born in 1898 in the village of Isaevo, Kherson province. It is known for certain that from the age of 11 he lived with his family in Chisinau, where he studied at the parish school and sang in the bishop's choir. After World War I, Bessarabia became part of Romania and they became Romanian subjects. In the early 1920s. Leshchenko graduated from a ballet school in Paris, where he met a dancer from Riga, Zhenya (Zinaida) Zakitt, who became his wife. Together they began to sing and perform in a duet. In the 1930s. Peter became a restaurateur in Bucharest, where he sang with the "Trio Leshchenko" ensemble. In the 1930-1940s. he became a very popular chansonnier, who was called "the king of romance", he toured in Paris, Berlin, London, Belgrade. Circulation of his records was much larger than that of Chaliapin and Vertinsky. In 1944, the singer divorced and married the artist Vera Belousova for the second time. In 1951, he was arrested by the Romanian state security authorities, and 3 years later, the singer died in a prison hospital. Here, perhaps, are all the scant facts of his biography.

The singer's widow Vera Belousova dreamed that the story of her husband's life would form the basis of the script for a feature film, and that the famous artist was finally learned in his homeland. Eldar Ryazanov had the idea to shoot such a picture, but this idea was never destined to come true. It is interesting that even 15 years before director Vladimir Kott began filming his series, Vera Belousova approved in absentia the candidacy of Konstantin Khabensky for the main role. Once she saw this actor on TV, called her friend and said: "". But the screenwriter Eduard Volodarsky was categorically against his approval for this role. He said: "".

The director also doubted the choice of an actor for the lead role. But the more he looked at the photographs of Pyotr Leshchenko, the more he noticed the similarity with Khabensky, and not only the external one. In his opinion, the actor had the same intelligence with a tendency to hooliganism, the same nerve with external equanimity: "". As a result, Khabensky was approved without casting, and after that they chose a young actor similar to him - Ivan Stebunov, who played Leshchenko in his younger years.

According to many viewers and critics, both actors brilliantly coped with their roles. Most of the controversy was caused by the director's decision not to include songs performed by Pyotr Leshchenko himself in the series - they were all sung by Khabensky and Stebunov. Especially for this, they took vocal lessons, and although their vocal abilities cannot be called outstanding, many appreciated the result. Their opponents objected: although the songs sound good, this is not Leshchenko at all! They said that from his voice the ladies were suffocating with delight. At the same time, Peter was not a professional singer, and took it not with vocals, but with charm and sincerity. Therefore, according to the creators of the series, Khabensky's manner of performance was the final touch in the image he created and did not go against the historical truth.

The director of the series adhered to the same point of view: Leshchenko was a phenomenon of his time. Vladimir Kott said: "".

Leshchenko performed without an impresario, and such a character named Zeltser appears in the series. On stage, Khabensky did not look quite like his prototype: he said that he felt very uncomfortable in brightly embroidered gypsy-style shirts, in which Leshchenko performed, and insisted on creating a classic image in strict suits. And for extras they were looking for real clothes of those times. Make-up artists thoroughly worked on men's haircuts: the actors, in the fashion of that time, shaved their heads, leaving forelocks, and curled their mustaches in different ways for officers and commoners.

The series mentions women with whom the singer really had a relationship - his wives Zinaida Zakitt and Vera Belousova. But at the same time, the emphasis is on the first love of the singer Katya Zavyalova. Director Kott explained his interpretation as follows: "". Whether it really was so is unknown.

Vera Belousova in her memoirs did not say anything about her and her husband's connections with the partisan underground. She only remembers that shortly before the occupation of Odessa she performed in concert brigades in Soviet military units. Pyotr Leshchenko, according to her, toured occupied Odessa and more than once helped his Jewish acquaintances to cross to a safe territory for them. And in the series, the singer meets a Russian underground worker and agrees to carry out a dangerous task - to carry a suitcase with explosives to occupied Odessa. And Vera Belousova turns out to be a liaison who was supposed to hand her over to the Odessa underground workers. If this were true, in her memoirs, she probably would have mentioned this.

In the USSR, for a long time, Pyotr Leshchenko was considered a White Guard, a renegade and even a foreign spy. He was accused of having forced the Soviet citizen Belousova to move to Romania, who, after her marriage to Leshchenko, was officially considered a traitor to the homeland in the USSR. In our time, new facts are opening up about his personality, and the fact that thanks to this series many viewers who are not familiar with his work discovered Leshchenko's songs is undoubtedly a big plus. Well, the share of fiction in cinema always remains, because these are not documentaries.

You can compare them and look for inconsistencies, or you can just enjoy the results of creativity. "My Marusechka": Konstantin Khabensky sings a song by Pyotr Leshchenko.