Translated material
Daisies for Lyudmila
00:00, 07 July 2009
She did not work as a seamstress in Kashchenko
The singer’s biography contains a short line: “She worked as a seamstress at the Kashchenko Hospital.” And nothing more about it. Nowhere. Journalists from Sobesednik decided to go through the places of Lyudmila Georgievna’s labor glory.
Tell someone “Kashchenko” - anyone will understand what you’re talking about. Who doesn’t know the main psychiatric hospital in the country! True, now it is called the Alekseev Psychiatric Hospital. When and under what circumstances Zykina could have worked there, we decided to find out.
Let’s be honest: we stepped outside the hospital gates timidly. It seems to us that everyone has some kind of almost genetic fear of a mental hospital. However, the local view was incredibly surprising. Emerald grass. Lawns trimmed, like in English palaces. Cyclamen blooms luxuriantly in the flower beds. We looked at the flowers, and the sick people walking along the alleys looked at us. With undisguised curiosity.
– Yes, Zykina didn’t work here as a seamstress! – one of the responsible managers of this institution got angry with us.
- Well, of course - it’s written in the biographies...
– Spit on these biographies! Didn't work. And she didn’t lie down. She lived here. Yes, on our territory, which is called Kanatchikova Dacha.
The oldest employee of the hospital, Antonina Vasilievna, turned out to be not at all angry; on the contrary, she was very kind towards journalists. She said that Lyudmila Georgievna’s mother worked as a nurse in Kashchenko and lived nearby.
- The Zykins lived over there! – she waved her hand towards the birch and linden trees. - There is now a children's hospital there. But before there was a general hospital for everyone. And the employees lived in small barracks-type houses. And Lyudmila and her parents too. The places here are very beautiful. There used to be a clover field. There are vegetable gardens on it. Everyone fed from them. It was a hard time.
And at the Kashchenko hospital club, little Lyudmila Zykina performed on stage. In amateur performances. Here, so to speak, was her first stage. In place of the old one-story club there is now a three-story one. The sign on it: “Club, library, trade union committee.”
– Zykina became so popular later. And how many times have we invited her - sing for us, Lyudmila Georgievna, in your own club! But she never arrived,” Antonina Vasilievna sighs. – But Vladimir Vysotsky performed for us. He was treated for alcoholism here. And then he came for concerts. Remember, one of his songs is about Kashchenko, he also mentions the former chief physician Morkovkin. True, Vysotsky called him Margulis. He said: “Look at his face, what a Morkovkin he is!” An excellent doctor, by the way, was...
Luda became a victim of the dictates of the public,
says the famous poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko
We met her in our youth, in 1954. paths crossed in amateur performances. The times were hungry, and we worked part-time in clubs and red corners. My friend Zhenya Vinokurov and I read poetry, and Lyuda and her friend sang. Even then I noticed that she was cheerful, beautiful and could sing so well. And how he laughs! My friend and I decided to hit on our girlfriends. They invited me to a cafe, and then went to visit Zhenya. There we saw terrible dust everywhere. It even became awkward! But Luda was not at a loss, she invited everyone to pick up rags and start cleaning up.
Several years have passed. Our paths diverged. And then at one concert we met again. I didn’t recognize this famous singer as the same girl from the red corner. Luda herself came up to me and confessed. it was so uncomfortable. And it made her laugh. And at every meeting she remembered this story and laughed.
Luda sang Russian songs, but, by the way, she dreamed of something else. Once he says: “Why does everyone want to turn me into some kind of “cow”? And I would like to sing spirituals or jazz.”
I was struck by her dream, and Arno Babajanyan and I wrote “Your Traces” for her. This song was later performed by Muslim Magomayev.
She could sing all sorts of things. But she was constantly limited, this monotonous repertoire was imposed, and she was made into a kind of symbol of the USSR. She didn't mind. And the audience demanded only this from her. So Luda became a victim of the dictates of the public.
She was friends with Ekaterina Furtseva, and when she fell on hard times, Zykina was one of the few who remained faithful to their friendship.
I had a presentiment that she would leave soon. I couldn't go to say goodbye to her. Which I regret. Had to fly to Ireland for my first son's wedding.
This was planned in advance, and I was unable to cancel everything.
Who was dearer to the singer?
She was officially married four times
On the Soviet stage, only Zykina and Pugacheva had such gaps between their front teeth. People's artists fully confirmed the popular belief about the passion of such natures with their fate.
Lyudmila Georgievna received, perhaps, even more than enough male attention. But at the end of her life she admitted that she herself did not like her.
Rumor attributed romances with the singer Kobzon and Prime Minister Kosygin to the darling of the whole country, and the public believed in them, despite the fact that Zykina spent her entire life debunking these myths. Although she did have one party functionary. “He loved me very much. I was even ready to leave the family, but I came to my senses in time. She said that I can’t imagine myself without a song. What kind of husband would like it when his wife spends 20 days a month on tour? There cannot be a truly strong family when one is always on the road.” No matter how many times they asked Zykina to voice the name of “Mr. X,” she remained silent. So she took the secret of that passion with her.
With Lyudmila Georgievna’s four official marriages, everything is much more certain. The first person she agreed to was Vladlen Pozdnov, an engineer at the Likhachev plant. Then she went to the registry office with a photojournalist for the magazine “Soviet Warrior” Yevgeny Svalov. They did not live together for long - the new husband turned out to be such a walker. The reason for the third stamp in the passport was a meeting with translator Vladimir Kotelkin. But this attempt to create a family cannot be called successful. Her most recent marriage, with Viktor Gridin, lasted the longest. First, she invited him to the position of conductor in the “Russia” ensemble she was creating, for which she “stole” him from the Alexandrov Song and Dance Ensemble. After several years of working together, he invited her to live together. As Zykina herself explained, they broke up for the same reason that they got together - they again became more colleagues than spouses. But when Gridin was diagnosed with liver cancer, the singer helped get him admitted to the hospital. Victor lived without Lyudmila for only three years.
Of course, Zykina had much more marriage proposals than marriages. The story of the courtship of the singer by an American, a chocolate magnate of Russian origin, is widely known. The feelings were mutual, but he did not want to return to the country of his ancestors, and she loved Russia more than this man.
Lyudmila Georgievna explained her not-so-developed personal life by the absence of children and the fact that work was always in first... second and third place for her. Only on stage, Zykina said, did she feel happy.
The only person for whom Zykina was truly torn between her feelings and the stage was resuscitator Vladimir Konstantinov. She introduced him to the general public at the anniversary and, as it turned out, the last press conference in her life, recommending him as the man who pulled her out of the other world. A personal doctor was supposed to accompany Lyudmila Georgievna on a large tour. However, only those close to him knew: his presence nearby was required not only by the alarming health of a diabetic with experience and a whole bunch of diseases, but also by the soul of the singer. Konstantinov personally participated in the selection of venues where Zykina was to perform. He made sure that the singer with bad legs would be able to sing comfortably even while sitting. The doctor literally lived at Zykina’s dacha.
The singer herself spoke extremely vaguely about her relationship with Konstantinov: “I love him with all my heart. I’ve lived for so many years, but I still love her like the first time. When he’s not around, I literally go crazy... It’s a different relationship than that of spouses, but it’s also love.”
“I think that she had platonic feelings with Vladimir,” says cautiously one of those who was part of the film crew of a television film about Zykina and at the dacha observed her relationship with her personal doctor. “But I can say for sure: in the last months of her life, Konstantinov was constantly by her side, and this made her happy.
I didn’t leave my friends
says the son of the director of the machine tool plant named after S. Ordzhonikidze Vyacheslav Chikirev
Zykina was not always a singer. She began her career as a turner at the machine tool plant named after. Sergo Ordzhonikidze. At 13 years old! Don't gasp, that's how it happened. I gave myself two years and in 1942 I started working at the machine. I turned out parts for mines. To reach, she placed a stool under her feet.
Next to her was a white-toothed, curly-haired boy, Kolya Chikirev, he was two years older than her. “Let me help you sharpen your cutter,” he once suggested. This is how their friendship began. Nikolai rose to the rank of general director of the Sergo Ordzhonikidze Machine Tool Plant association. They remained best friends throughout life until the very end.
Now only a few working buildings remain from the former factory giant. Huge areas are given over to a shopping center. Workshop No. 2, where Zykina worked, has been preserved. Only in the place of her machine there is now another one. Nikolai Chikirev died more than ten years ago. His son works at the plant: Vyacheslav Nikolaevich heads the Service Electronics division.
“They were friends with their families,” he recalls. – My father received the Stalin Prize: as a high-speed turner, he fulfilled several dozen standards. And they gave us an apartment in a high-rise building on Vosstaniya Square. And Lyudmila Georgievna then moved to Kotelnicheskaya embankment. They still went to visit each other. At the 19th Moscow Party Conference, my father spoke out against Yeltsin, and problems began for him. He had to leave the factory. Many friends then turned away from him. But not Zykina. She was, it seems, in Germany at that moment. She came from there and immediately came to us. There was vodka on the table, my wife accompanied her on the button accordion. “With song we will survive all adversity,” said Zykina. By the way, there were also accusations against her: allegedly, when the troops were being withdrawn from Germany, she privatized something. All this is a lie!
Many people envied her. She often traveled abroad. Indeed, there was a case when in Korea Kim Il Sung himself gave her a gold ring.
Bouquets from Mireille and Sofia
At the entrance to the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in a mourning frame there is a picturesque portrait of Lyudmila Zykina. In the portrait she holds daisies in her hands. She loved them since childhood, collecting bouquets at Kanatchikova’s dacha.
Strict Joseph Kobzon walks behind the scenes. Mourning bandage on the sleeve. Today he is a senior in a sad ceremony.
All in black, artistic director of the Pyatnitsky folk choir Alexandra Permyakova:
– What, did someone feel bad again?! Take me to that room. There are doctors there. We've already gone through almost all of them.
– Alexandra Andreevna, why did Zykina leave Pyatnitsky’s choir? They wrote that she had a cold and lost her voice.
“Her mother died at that time.” For her, this was a very close person. And against the backdrop of nervous shock, she could not sing. Why didn't you come back? It's hard for me to say.
TV presenter Angelina Vovk, a friend of Lyudmila Georgievna, hearing the song “The Volga River Flows,” wipes away her tears with an embroidered handkerchief:
- This is my favorite! I visited Lyuda so often at her cozy dacha, surrounded by greenery. This is on the Desna, along the Kaluga highway. She was very sick this year. But she wasn't lonely. Next to her was Tatyana, her faithful friend, assistant, secretary, director. And there was a doctor.
The people, saying goodbye to their beloved singer, filled the stage with flowers. Two bouquets in particular stood out. One is from Mireille Mathieu, the other is from Sofia Rotaru. Both consisted of daisies.