The blows of fate of Valentina Tolkunova: What was hidden behind the smile of the "Russian Gioconda"

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

On July 12, the famous singer, People's Artist of the RSFSR Valentina Tolkunova could have turned 74, but 10 years ago she passed away. She was called "the crystal voice of the Soviet stage" and "Russian Mona Lisa", from whose face a half-smile never left. The audience was used to seeing her blooming and smiling, and no one knew how much pain and suffering was hidden behind this smile. The singer remained on stage until the last days of her life, until after the concert she was taken away by ambulance …

Valentina Tolkunova knew that she would become an artist from childhood - she began to sing at school. After graduating from the music school. Gnesins and the Moscow State Institute of Culture, Tolkunova became a soloist of the vocal and instrumental orchestra. In the late 1960s. her repertoire consisted mainly of jazz and instrumental music, and in the 1970s. she began to perform pop and folk songs. After Tolkunova became the soloist of the Mosconcert, all-Union popularity came to her. The best composers of the USSR worked with the singer, her songs “I can’t do otherwise”, “Snub-noses”, “Talk to me, mother” and others. Millions of listeners knew by heart.

She was truly a people's artist in every sense of the word. In her repertoire there were more than 30 folk songs, she traveled to the villages and looked for little-known songs. Lev Leshchenko often said that "". In addition to touring, Tolkunova was engaged in charity work, helped poor families, performed with patronage concerts, and at the end of her life she provided assistance to church communities in the provinces.

Valentina Tolkunova always went on stage with a constant smile, and it seemed to the audience that she never had a bad mood. In fact, the singer suffered from prolonged depression for many years. Everyone was sure that she had a happy family, because the singer gave the impression of an ideal wife and mother. But her path to personal happiness was very long and difficult. At the age of 19, Tolkunova married the head of her vocal and instrumental orchestra, Yuri Saulsky, who was 18 years older than her. Then the singer was sure that this would be her only man for life. But 5 years after the wedding, Tolkunova found out that her husband was carried away by a young actress, and did not want to put up with infidelity.

After the divorce, Tolkunova fell into a severe depression, the salvation from which was work. She always found solace in music and singing, and it was during this period that the whole country recognized her name. And soon the singer married a second time, to international journalist Yuri Paporov. They had a son, Nikolai, and at first Tolkunova felt absolutely happy. But soon her husband went on a long business trip to Mexico, which dragged on for 12 years!

She had to raise her son alone and solve everyday problems, and again creativity became her salvation. Paporov called his wife to him, but she understood that leaving the USSR at the peak of popularity, where she was loved by millions of fans, to Mexico, where she would be nobody, meant putting an end to her career. For a long time, Tolkunova could not forgive her husband that for the sake of his work he left his family for so long, but after he returned to the USSR, and then had an accident and received serious injuries, she did not leave him and took care of him.

The relationship with his son was also very difficult - he grew up without a father, his mother was constantly at rehearsals and tours, he lacked parental attention, and he became very wayward and arrogant. Tolkunova admitted that the main man in her life is her son Nikolai, but she did not hide the fact that they have completely different views on life. He entered Moscow State University, but dropped out. At the age of 20, he had problems with alcohol and drugs, and the singer took him with her on tour so that he remained under her supervision. He was able to cope with bad habits only after his mother was gone.

Even in the most difficult moments of her life, Valentina Tolkunova took the stage and still smiled at the audience. Music remained an outlet for her in those periods when nothing was already pleasing. In front of the audience, she invariably appeared radiant and happy, and no one knew how difficult the last years of her life were. She sang about the joy of motherhood, but rarely saw her own son, talked about love, but she could not wait for personal happiness.

Her last love was nuclear physicist Vladimir Baranov, in whom she found a kindred spirit. But both had families, meetings were rare and short-lived, and in 2007 he died of cancer. Few knew that at this time the singer herself was struggling with the same serious illness. Valentina Tolkunova was offered to undergo treatment in America, but she refused.

Despite feeling unwell, the singer continued to appear on stage until the last days. The son asked her to work less, but answered him: "". During a concert in Mogilev she became ill, she was taken by ambulance to a local hospital, then transported to Moscow. Unfortunately, it was no longer possible to save Tolkunova. On March 22, 2010, she was gone, and a month and a half later her husband, Yuri Paporov, passed away.

In the 1970s. another star shone on the Soviet stage, which soon suddenly disappeared from the screens: How was the fate of Sofia Rotaru's constant rival Nadezhda Chepragi.