Video: The zigzags of Lydia Ruslanova's fate: from poverty to national glory, from confession to prison
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
She was called the queen of Russian folk songs. Lydia Ruslanova - a popular Soviet pop singer, Honored Artist of the RSFSR, People's Artist of Russia - went down in history as the most famous performer of Russian folk songs … In addition to fame and national recognition, there was poverty, orphanhood, war and even prison in her life. Together with the Soviet army in 1945 she reached Berlin, and in 1948 she was repressed. For what the people's favorite was punished, and how she managed to withstand all the tests - read on.
Agafya Leikina was born into a poor peasant family in 1900. The girl was left an orphan early: her father disappeared in the Russo-Japanese War, her mother died of an illness. To feed herself and her two younger children, Agasha began to sing for alms. She sang so touchingly and "emotionally" that even people from other villages came to listen to her. After a year of walking with a bag, the widow of an official took pity on the girl - she sent the children to orphanages. Peasant children were not taken to orphanages, so Agafya had to change her name - this is how Lydia Ruslanova was born.
At the shelter, her vocal abilities were immediately noticed, and soon she became a soloist of the children's church choir. Lydia Andreevna recalled: “Merchants from all over the city began to visit us, to listen to the orphan singing … And after the orphanage, when I was sent as a student to a furniture factory, everyone helped me for the songs. At the age of 17 I was already an experienced artist, I was not afraid of anything - neither the stage nor the audience."
In 1916, Lydia Ruslanova went to the front as a nurse on an ambulance train. She sang for the wounded and soldiers who were to go to the front. In 1917 she gave birth to a son, but a year later her husband left her and took the child with him. During the Civil War (1918-1920) Ruslanova performed with folk songs in front of the Red Army. She made her debut as a pop singer in 1923 in Rostov-on-Don.
Her performance of Russian folk songs is considered standard. The talent of Lydia Ruslanova was admired by Fedor Chaliapin and Leonid Utesov. The latter said about her: "Her name has become almost a household name: Ruslanova is a Russian song." Her repertoire included hundreds of folk songs, the most popular in her performance were "Valenki", "The month was painted with crimson", "The linden tree", "Charming eyes", etc.
From the very first days of the Great Patriotic War, Lydia Ruslanova was part of the front-line brigades, together with the soldiers she reached the Reichstag, on the steps of which she performed her famous "Valenki". But in the late 1940s. repressed 74 officers from the inner circle of "victory marshal" Zhukov. Ruslanova's husband, General Kryukov, was among them, and Ruslanova was arrested at the same time.
The arrest warrant stated that the singer was conducting subversive work against the party and the government, spreading slander about Soviet reality, and most importantly, being with her husband in Germany, she was engaged in the appropriation of trophy property on a large scale. Even today, there are supporters of the version that Ruslanova was deservedly arrested and the fact of looting took place. However, their opponents insist that Ruslanova has become an innocent victim of repression directed against Zhukov.
In 1948 g. Lydia Ruslanova was sentenced to 10 years in forced labor camps with confiscation of property. The singer was sent to the Siberian Ozerlag, and then transferred to the Vladimir prison. According to Ruslanova's adopted daughter, even criminals treated her with respect in the camp, and peasants from neighboring villages brought food. In 1953, after Stalin's death, Ruslanova was released, and in the fall she again gave concerts.
Until her death in 1973, Lydia Ruslanova enjoyed incredible popularity and love of the public. So many people gathered at her funeral that they had to block traffic. She has always remained a legend in the history of Russian art.
And the other day Moscow said goodbye to Nina Dorda - the oldest pop singer in Russia
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