Tragedy with a happy ending: why the famous French pianist, after 13 years in the camps, decided to stay in the USSR

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

This extraordinary woman cannot but amaze and delight. All her life she seemed to be swimming against the tide: during the time of mass emigration from the USSR to France, pianist Vera Lothar married a Soviet engineer and decided to go to his homeland. There her husband was arrested, and she had to spend 13 years in Stalin's camps. But after that, she found the strength not only to survive, but to start life anew and at 65 years old to achieve what she dreamed of in her youth.

She had every opportunity to make a brilliant career in France and live comfortably. Vera Lothar was born in Turin in 1901 to a family of university teachers. Father was a mathematician, mother - a philologist, both lectured at the Sorbonne. Vera has been fascinated by music and literature since childhood. At the age of 12, she already performed with the Arturo Toscanini Orchestra. Vera studied in Paris with the famous pianist Alfred Corteau, and then trained at the Vienna Academy of Music. At the age of 14, she began to give concerts and traveled all over Europe and America.

Vera Lothar was young, beautiful, wealthy and successful. She could have successfully married, but her choice fell on a man of modest income, an acoustic engineer, creator of bowed instruments, Vladimir Shevchenko. His father emigrated from Russia after the 1905 revolution, and in 1917 decided to return, leaving his son to continue his education in Paris. All this time Vladimir dreamed of leaving after his father. After his marriage, he obtained an entry permit and went to the USSR with his wife. It was 1938.

At first, they had to get used to difficult living conditions - they were settled in a hostel, there was no work, Vera was selling her Parisian dresses. Thanks to the patronage of the pianist Maria Yudina, she managed to get a job at the Leningrad State Philharmonic. First, Volodymyr Shevchenko was arrested. Vera came to the NKVD and very emotionally rushed to defend her husband. She herself was arrested next. She learned about her husband's death only many years later.

The French pianist spent 13 long years in Stalin's camps. She worked hard labor in Sakhalinlag and Sevurallag. For the first two years she thought she was going to die. But then she decided: since she survived, it means that she must live on, following the Beethoven's behest, whom she worshiped: “Die or be!”. She cut out a piano keyboard on wooden planks and in her free minutes she “played” this instrument, flexing her fingers so that they would not get stiff at all.

When in the early 1950s. amnesty was announced, Vera Lotar-Shevchenko ended up in Nizhny Tagil. In a camp quilted jacket, she went to a music school and asked to let her play the piano. She was allowed. For a long time she sat, not daring to touch the keys - she was afraid that after such a long break she would no longer be able to play. But the hands themselves began to perform Chopin, Bach, Beethoven … As it turned out, she did not lose her skill, although she had to restore her former technique for a very long time. Hearing her play, the director of the music school took Vera to work.

When Vera Lotar-Shevchenko gave her first concert after her release at the Sverdlovsk Philharmonic, the presenter looked into the rehearsal hall - she wanted to make sure that the pianist looked decent. At that time, Vera had already managed to sew herself a black dress to the floor. After the presenter left, the pianist said: "She thinks I am from Tagil, she forgot that I am from Paris."

They learned about the terrible fate of the pianist in the USSR after journalist Simon Soloveichik wrote about her in Komsomolskaya Pravda in 1965. In the mid-1970s. Vera Lotar-Shevchenko, at the invitation of Academician Lavrentyev, moved to Akademgorodok near Novosibirsk and became a soloist of the Novosibirsk State Philharmonic Society. 16 years spent in Akademgorodok became truly happy: she again performed on stage, gave concerts in Moscow, Leningrad, Odessa, Sverdlovsk. Recognition returned to her, the audience received her with admiration.

In Paris, the pianist remained with relatives, they persuaded her to return, but she flatly refused: "It would be a betrayal of those Russian women who supported me in the most difficult years in the Stalinist camps."

She passed away in 1982 and was buried at the South Cemetery of Akademgorodok. On her tombstone are carved the words of the legendary pianist: "The life in which Bach is, is blessed." In 2006, the International Pianists' Competition in memory of Vera Lotar-Shevchenko was held in Novosibirsk for the first time. Since then it has become a tradition, competitions are held every two years. The fate of the pianist formed the basis for the plot of the film "Ruth" (1989), where the role of Lothar-Shevchenko was played by Annie Girardot.

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