Lidia Andreyevna Ruslanova
Лидия Андреевна Русланова
Background information
Birth namePraskovya Andrianovna Leykina-Gorshenina
Russian: Прасковья Андриановна Ле́йкина-Горшенина
Born(1900-10-27)27 October 1900
Chernavka, Serdobsky Uyezd, Saratov Governorate, Russian Empire
Died21 September 1973(1973-09-21) (aged 72)
Moscow, USSR
Genresrussian folk music
Instrument(s)singing

Lidia Andreyevna Ruslanova (sometimes spelt Lidiya or Lydia, Russian: Лидия Андреевна Русланова; 27 October 1900 in Saratov Governorate – 21 September 1973 in Moscow) was a performer of Russian folk songs.[1]

Early life

She was born in the village of Chernavka near Saratov, into a peasant family, and was baptized as Praskovya Andrianovna Leykina-Gorshenina (Russian: Прасковья Андриановна Ле́йкина-Горшенина).[2] Her mother was an Erzya by ethnicity.[3] By the time she was five, both her parents had died; her father in the Russo-Japanese War and her mother soon after. As a result, she spent most of her childhood in an orphanage.[4] She began singing when she joined the local parish children's choir and soon became a soloist.[5][3]

Her uncle invited her to work in a furniture factory. One of the factory's owners heard her singing as she worked and recommended that she go to study at the Saratov Conservatory.[6] However, she did not enjoy academic study.[1] During the First World War, she worked on a hospital train and met Vitalii Stepanov during this period, with whom she had a child, born in May 1917. He left her after a year, due to her erratic lifestyle.[6] According to a Saratov source, she married a different man who later died in the Russian Civil War, whom she took her surname from.[7]

Career

Ruslanova gave her first concert at the age of 16, to a military audience, where she sang everything she knew.[6] She first started singing for Russian soldiers during the Russian Civil War, and debuted as a professional singer in Rostov-on-Don in 1923.[5] She was noted for her peculiar singing voice and timbre, which was a revival of old traditions in which female soloists would perform on festive occasions.[1] Until 1929, she lived with a Cheka official, then she married again, this time to Vladimir Kryukov.[8]

During the 1930s, Ruslanova became extremely popular.[8] She became an artist of the state association of musical, variety and circus enterprises in 1933, and performed all over Russia throughout the rest of the decade.[1] When World War II broke out, she ceaselessly toured from one front to another, helping to boost the soldiers' courage with her patriotic songs.[9] Her signature songs were Valenki and Katyusha, written specially for her. During the Battle of Berlin, she performed on the doorsteps of the smouldering Reichstag.[10]

Ruslanova became one of the richest women in Soviet Russia and even financed the construction of two Katyusha batteries, which she presented to the Red Army in 1942.[5] That same year, she was made an Artist of Honour of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.[1] Her rough manners and racy language appealed to the soldiers to the point that she was regarded as a potential threat to the Soviet authorities. In 1948, due to association with Marshal Georgy Zhukov (who led the Red Army to the defeat of Nazi-Germany during World War II, and who became a strong political opponent of Joseph Stalin in the post-war years) Ruslanova's husband, Hero of the Soviet Union, Lieutenant-General Vladimir Kryukov was arrested and Ruslanova followed two years later. Ruslanova was forced to sign a declaration that her husband was guilty of treason, but refused, so she was sentenced to 10 years of camp labour.[5]

In the gulag she was dispatched to, Ruslanova became a star lionized by inmates and administration alike. Therefore, she was moved to a prison cell in the Vladimirsky Tsentral. Following Stalin's death, she was released on 4 August 1953; she was thin, gray, and had difficulty walking. However, she returned to singing almost immediately. Her time in prison was unmentioned in the press until decades after.[11] Although awards and titles bypassed her, Ruslanova presided over the first All-Soviet Festival of Soviet Songs, together with Leonid Utyosov, Mark Bernes, and Klavdiya Shulzhenko. She went on singing right up until her death in 1973, at the age of 72.[5]

Ruslanova crater on Venus is named after her.

Discography

Stamp of Russia devoted to Lidiya Ruslanova, 1999, 2 rub. (Michel 759, Scott 6545)
  • 1996: Поёт Лидия Русланова (Lydia Ruslanova sings)[12]
  • 2000: Царица Русской песни (Queen of the Russian Song)[13]
  • 2001: Великие исполнители России XX века (Great performers of Russia of the XX century)
  • 2002: Русские народные песни (Russian folk songs)[14]
  • 2007: Имена на все времена (Names for all time)[15]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Ruslanova Lidia singer :: people :: Russia-InfoCentre". Russia-InfoCentre. Retrieved 2008-10-16.
  2. ↑ MacFadyen, David (2002). Songs for Fat People. McGill-Queen's Press. p. 201. ISBN 0-7735-2441-X.
  3. 1 2 Юрий Белов. "Девушка пела в церковном хоре" (in Russian). Молва. Archived from the original on 2009-03-18. Retrieved 2009-02-23.
  4. ↑ MacFadyen, pp.201-202
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Ferrero, Ángel. "Katiusha is 70 years old". Cubanow.net. Retrieved 2008-10-16.
  6. 1 2 3 MacFadyen, p.202
  7. ↑ MacFadyen, pp.202–3
  8. 1 2 MacFadyen, p.203
  9. ↑ MacFadyen, p.204
  10. ↑ Виолетта Баша. "Она пела на ступенях Рейхстага". Retrieved 2009-02-23.
  11. ↑ MacFadyen, p.208
  12. ↑ "альбом "Поёт Лидия Русланова"". Archived from the original on 2009-03-18. Retrieved 2009-02-25.
  13. ↑ "альбом «Царица русской песни". Retrieved 2009-02-25.
  14. ↑ "Поёт Лидия Русланова. Русские народные песни. Записи 1930-40-х годов". Retrieved 2009-02-25.
  15. ↑ "Имена на все времена. Лидия Русланова (mp3)".
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