The name of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev's wife. Family secrets of the Secretary General: who really was the only wife of Leonid Brezhnev
And here, just in case, is a short information about the personal life of Leonid Ilyich - mainly for those young people who have no longer seen the “armour bearer” and do not remember.
Brezhnev's private life
And in Brezhnev’s personal life, everything was like other people – something went well, something didn’t go well.
Parents
Leonid Ilyich was born in the city of Kamenskoye (since 1936 it became Dneprodzerzhinsk) in Ukraine, then it was a small town not far from Yekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk). The future Secretary General was born into a family of hereditary metallurgists - his grandfather, Yakov Brezhnev, a metal worker and steel worker from near Kursk, moved to Kamenskoye with his family shortly after the first blast furnace was launched here. Yakov’s son, Ilya, when he grew up, went to the same rolling shop where his father worked. A few years later, he married a local girl, Natalya, and on December 19, 1906, their first-born, Leonid, was born in an adobe house in the “factory” district of the city. Soon Leni had younger brother Jacob, and then sister Vera.
Not much is known about the childhood of the future head of state. The father, like all the workers, almost never left the workshop, and the mother, Natalya Denisovna, took care of the children. Despite the fact that the family lived rather poorly, Lenya was still sent to the gymnasium. Naturally, it was very difficult to pay for education, but we must pay tribute to our hero - to enter the gymnasium, he had to pass serious exams in reading, writing and arithmetic. It is known that out of forty of his classmates, he was the only one from a working-class family.
Then the revolution Civil War, a year before graduating from school, Leonid almost died of typhus, but nevertheless, in 1921, he no longer graduated from a gymnasium, but from a labor school. Adult life has begun.
It also began quite ordinaryly - pushing around odd jobs, he left the devastation and hunger to live with his relatives in Kursk, graduated from the land management and reclamation technical school there, then moved to the Urals, worked in the local villages as a land surveyor, but in 1931 he returned back to Kamenskoye to continue family tradition. He went to work at a factory as a mechanic and entered the evening department of the local metallurgical institute. This is where his career began...
The father of the future leader, Ilya Brezhnev, worked at the Kamensky plant for more than 30 years - until his death. He died in the 30s, not even reaching sixty. But Leonid Ilyich’s mother died in the 70s in Moscow, at the age of 90. According to the memoirs of Brezhnev himself, she did not want to move to Moscow at all and lived in a small apartment in Dneprodzerzhinsk, along with her sister’s family. She didn’t go, even when Leonid Ilyich became the head of the party and state - she kept citing that all her friends were here, there was no one there to talk to, and in general - where to go, she lived her life here. Only in 1966, after the XXIII Congress, when Brezhnev became General Secretary, did she have to move in with her son; after all, she was already well over seventy. But she still managed to raise her great-granddaughter Vika - she took her death very hard, her great-grandmother was the closest person to her.
Brezhnev got married almost immediately after graduating from college, when during one season he worked as a land surveyor in Belarus near Orsha. At a youth party, 20-year-old Brezhnev met his future wife, Victoria Petrovna, who worked as a paramedic. Later there was a lot of talk about her nationality. In documents, Victoria Petrovna Brezhneva, nee Denisova, was always listed as Russian, although she was born into a Jewish family near Belgorod. However, even according to the laws Russian Empire she had every right to do this - not only she, but also her father was baptized. However, in those years when our young people got married, nationality, especially for Komsomol youth, had practically no meaning. Suffice it to say that Brezhnev himself, a purebred Russian, wrote “Ukrainian” in the registry office application form in the appropriate column. According to the principle - “Well, I’m from Ukraine!”
Thus began this long, not always cloudless, but by and large – happy marriage. Leonid Ilyich was a very prominent man, and there were and are many rumors about his alleged mistresses. One problem is that almost all of them are very reminiscent of gossip and do not stand up to even the slightest scrutiny. Thus, the supposed romance of the already very middle-aged Leonid Ilyich with his nurse, which even ended up in the series “Brezhnev,” turned out to be a duck. Academician Evgeny Chazov, former head of the 4th Main Directorate, commented on this after the release of the series: “Fiction. He did not feel love for this nurse girl at his old age. He treated this nurse for sleeping pills. In the spring of 1973, due to overwork, he began to experience insomnia. He tried to get rid of it by taking sedatives and sleeping pills. When Brezhnev was worried about something, he asked for medicine to forget. The nurse gave them. So it became addictive.”
In fact, only one reliable case is known when Leonid Ilyich’s marriage cracked. During the war, Brezhnev seriously fell in love. Fell in love with his front-line girlfriend, a nurse named Tamara. This often happens to men who are under forty. The romance was stormy, and Leonid Ilyich even wanted to leave the family. During the war, his wife and children Galina and Yuri were evacuated in Chelyabinsk, but rumors reached there too. There are many versions of how Lenya, who went on a spree, was returned to his family. According to one of them, an entire operation was developed to admonish the prodigal husband. As you know, Leonid Ilyich took part in the Victory Parade - he walked at the head of the column on the 4th Ukrainian Front. When the family became aware of this, 16-year-old Galina was sent to Moscow, to a friend sister Victoria, Alexandra Petrovna. Brezhnev did not see his daughter throughout the war, for four years. Naturally, I was amazed at how she grew, like everyone sentimental person, shed tears, and no longer thought about leaving.
Leonid Ilyich and Victoria Petrovna, “Vitya,” as he called her, lived together for almost six decades, and she lived without him for almost 13 more years. She was perhaps the most inconspicuous of our “first ladies.” You may not remember Raisa Maksimovna, but even her predecessor (and before famous events, and friend) Nina Petrovna Khrushcheva-Kukharchuk often appeared next to her husband in newspapers, people knew about her. Wife's first name Secretary General The country learned about Brezhnev only after the appearance of the fourth book, “written” by Leonid Ilyich, “Memoirs” - there it was mentioned the name of the leader’s wife. She appeared on television once - at her husband’s funeral.
This is how Brezhnev’s bodyguard, General Vladimir Medvedev, recalls her: “The relationship between Leonid Ilyich and Victoria Petrovna can be called, without exaggeration, tender; in today’s times and morals, old-fashioned. However, when it came to work, he was tough, unforgiving. You are a wife, a housewife, a mother of a family, that’s the whole range of your responsibilities. He pursued this line unquestioningly. But Victoria Petrovna did not pretend to anything. That’s how they lived: she did not interfere in politics and government affairs, he did not interfere in domestic affairs.”
Children:
The Brezhnevs had two children - eldest daughter Galina and son Yuri. Enough happened to the children too. typical story- one child is diligent and positive, the other will wear out all the nerves and spoil the blood - you won’t be able to sort it out. The Infanta terrible in this family was Galya. Yuri grew up diligent, calm and inconspicuous. Graduated from college, worked, rose to the rank of deputy minister foreign trade, was dismissed during Gorbachev’s times, retired and now leads a quiet and inconspicuous life, practically not communicating with the press.
They gossiped about Galina even during Leonid Ilyich’s life; passions for “the leader’s daughter, who loved only circus performers and diamonds” do not subside even today. Her biography really cannot be called trivial.
Galina Leonidovna began her independent life in best traditions ladies' novels - she secretly ran away from home with a visiting circus performer. Her first husband was the circus acrobat Evgeny Milaev, a handsome man and a strong man (he worked as the “bottom” in the pyramid). He was much older than 22-year-old Galina (only a few years younger than Brezhnev himself), and in general, the marriage, of course, looked like a misalliance - by that time Brezhnev had already made a good career. However, after the birth of their granddaughter Vika, who was given to her grandmother (Galina worked as a make-up artist and went on tour with her husband), the parents came to terms with their daughter’s choice, especially since this did not affect Leonid Ilyich’s career in any way - Stalin did not pay attention to such trifles.
This marriage lasted almost ten years, and even after its end, the Brezhnevs retained a good relationship with the father of his beloved granddaughter - Milaev received the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR, and then People's Artist THE USSR. The former acrobat became the director of the new Moscow circus on Vernadsky Avenue.
The marriage broke up because during a tour in Japan, Galina fell in love and, demanding a divorce from her husband, got married a second time. Again secretly from his parents and again for the “circus” - the famous illusionist Igor Kio. But this marriage lasted only nine days. Brezhnev could no longer bear his second son-in-law, a circus performer; in addition, this time the age difference was reversed - the groom was only eighteen, while the bride was thirty-two. Leonid Ilyich was furious, and Milaev also cheated his former father-in-law, noting that the marriage was registered in violation of the law - two days earlier than required. As a result, Brezhnev “called back”, the passports of the newlyweds were confiscated by the Sochi police, Galina was taken to Moscow, and a week later Kyo received a parcel post containing a passport with a torn out page about marriage registration and a sweeping inscription: “Subject to exchange.”
The third son-in-law was a more or less decent option - 32-year-old police lieutenant colonel Yuri Churbanov. True, he was not only 7 years younger than his chosen one, but also had a wife and two children, but this did not stop him from becoming the third and last husband daughter of the Secretary General. Churbanov did brilliant career- in ten years he rose to the rank of lieutenant general, deputy minister of internal affairs. This ascent, as we know, ended in a criminal case and a 12-year sentence, which Yuri Mikhailovich, unlike his accomplices in the “cotton case,” served from bell to bell.
At one time, the so-called “diamond business” made a lot of noise, especially in the West, and at one time even gave rise to set phrase"Diamonds of Gali" They talked about Galina's new lover - the gypsy Boris Buryats, nicknamed Boris Brilliantovich. He received a sentence as a spotter during the robbery of the apartment of the famous animal trainer Irina Bugrimova, and there were persistent rumors that “the threads go you know where.” Allegedly, Galina, having her eye on Bugrimova’s magnificent diamonds, organized this whole affair. However, in Lately this version is raising more and more doubts. They are increasingly claiming that Buryatse was just a “good friend” for Galya and, in fact, loved men. Recently deceased Irina Bugrimova also spoke quite clearly: “Everything that was written about me and Brezhneva is not true. I was robbed, but there was nothing to steal, I was not rich enough to have such jewelry, as they said. And Galina Brezhneva had nothing to do with it. Roy Medvedev came up with all this. I later had a confrontation with him, where I asked him directly: “Well, why did you lie, because I didn’t tell you anything?” and he just hesitated, saying that they told me here and there. This is a very dirty matter, and I don’t want to stir it up.”
Recently, a version has been heard more and more often that the noisy company is about the “depraved daughter of the Soviet general secretary”, which was staged Western media, and which, at their instigation, became widely known in the USSR, was arranged by Andropov. Allegedly, the head of the KGB, realizing that Brezhnev was already running out, deliberately arranged for the “disinformation” mixed with the truth to be leaked to the West in order to discredit the “Brezhnev” group in the Central Committee and score points in the struggle for power.
But in general, no matter what version you take, the story still turns out to be very dirty. And it ended badly. Galina was very upset about both this company and her husband’s arrest, and in the end, unable to bear it all, she broke down. IN last years she drank heavily and died in 1998.
Now the Brezhnev family has grown considerably. Leonid Ilyich had one granddaughter (Galina's daughter Victoria) and two grandchildren - Andrei and Leonid, the sons of Yuri. Andrei periodically appears on television, either as the founder of the New Communists party, or as a member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. The rest are Brezhnevs social activities They don’t engage and don’t seek fame. The second grandson, Leonid, is a chemist and works at one of the enterprises in the capital. A great-granddaughter and four great-grandchildren have already grown up (one of them, also Leonid, recently served his military service and entered the military school). The fifth generation is already growing up - Leonid Ilyich and Victoria Petrovna have a great-great-granddaughter.
Firstly, true biography Leonid Ilyich is extremely poorly known. This is a general lack of biographies of the highest party nomenklatura, retouched, censored beyond recognition, and in especially advanced cases (Andropov, Gromyko) outright falsified.
I will draw attention only to the first inconsistencies in official biography a man who for 18 years was the head of the second state on the planet.
1. Is Brezhnev Brezhnev?
Official information about the origins of Leonid Ilyich is extremely scarce; in fact, almost nothing is said. However, for some reason, the stunned reader of Brezhnev’s memoirs is shown in detail a strange curl on family tree"Soviet monarch" It’s the same as if an Indian Raja took off his trousers and began to show off a family mole on his buttock.
Brezhnev's father is Ilya Yakovlevich Brezhnev. Mother - Brezhneva Natalya Denisovna, nee Mazalova. At the same time, OTHER BREZHNEVs lived in the Brezhnev family’s apartment in Kamenskoye. Husband, a certain Arkady Brezhnev, and wife, nee Mazalova. The Mazalovs were sisters. And the Brezhnevs... are namesakes.
How could this be? It is obvious that a certain person known as “Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev” took the surname of his aunt’s husband. Or his father took the surname of his wife's sister's husband. Since before the revolution changing a surname was extremely difficult (and after the revolution it was also extremely easy), this happened after the revolution.
Why did Brezhnev begin to explain this in his official memoirs? complicated story? Obviously, he hid his last name all his life, felt a “difficulty” in his profile, and out of stupidity, trying to cover his tracks, let it slip. Most likely, Brezhnev was a Ukrainian-Jewish mestizo, perhaps with an admixture of Russian, Polish, Romanian or Gypsy blood. There is confusion in his nationality column. Somewhere it is written that he is Ukrainian, somewhere that he is Russian. This is very rare for party questionnaires. Many documents from the Brezhnev case have disappeared. Brezhnev had a good command of the Polish language. Stalin, as they say erroneously, considered him a Moldovan. It is unlikely that the former People's Commissar and natural personnel officer Stalin would have been unreasonably confused in the national attribution. In the international USSR, they vigilantly monitored national origin and appointed either a representative of the titular nation or a neutral national figure to replace the head of the union republic. Brezhnev was the first secretary of Moldova, then of multinational Kazakhstan. It's a very unusual career for a Russian communist.
2. High school student from the workers
It is alleged that Leonid Ilyich was born in simple working family. However, Brezhnev's father was not a worker. He was technical worker at a metallurgical plant - a “fabricator”. This job requires special education. Brezhnev’s memoirs say that “after the revolution” he was chosen for such a position “just like that.” This is extremely unlikely, especially since “Ilya Yakovlevich” was non-partisan.
In 1915, Brezhnev was admitted to the zero class of the classical gymnasium. It was the only privilege educational institution in Kaminsky, the children of officials and factory administration studied there, among whom there were many foreigners. The son of a worker had nothing to do there.
3. Vitya Pinsukhovna Goldberg
The biography of Brezhnev's wife is still a mystery. Her husband called her “Vitya”. Who “Vitya” is is still not known. She was a masculine woman with a grotesque oriental appearance. She explained herself with the diligence of a sleepy graduate of an intelligence school: “the train was bombed, the documents were burned, we made our way on foot to the location of the nearest military unit. Lieutenant Viktor Prokhorov, parents died during the evacuation.” Like a broken record:
“I come from a simple Russian family. Born in the city of Belgorod. Father, Pyotr Nikiforovich Denisov, mother's name was Anna Vladimirovna. Dad worked as a driver on a steam locomotive... Why was they named Victoria? We had many Polish neighbors, and mine godfather daughter's name was Victoria. Apparently, the parents liked the name. Other children have ordinary names - Alexandra, Valentina, Lydia, brother Konstantin. Only I turned out in the Polish style. In general, my parents rarely went to church, because my father was traveling more and more. On holidays, if there were no trips, especially on Easter, I went with my mother to church for matins.”
In fact, Victoria is a completely Orthodox name; Poles did not live in Belgorod, and even if they did, they would hardly have participated in the baptismal rite according to the Eastern rite. And most importantly, about the origin of “Vitya” there is no information about the origin of “Vitya” and all of it has negative character- the person is trying with all his might to prove that he “accidentally fell behind the echelon.”
IN Soviet time In the KGB-sponsored patriotic underground, deliberately distorted “lists of the daughters of Zion” were distributed. Mrs. Brezhneva walked there as “the niece of Lev Mekhlis, Victoria Pinsukhovna Goldberg.” It would seem that in conditions of freedom of the press it is easy to find out the truth and accurately establish the origin of the first lady of the USSR. They decided a long time ago about Lenin’s Jewish grandfather and Andropov’s Jewish parents. However, in the case of Viti, Soviet historians are silent. For some reason I found a scythe on a stone.
But I stopped at the most simple facts biography of Brezhnev. We are talking about a basic questionnaire. What if you dig further and deeper?
The biography of Brezhnev as presented by Soviet intellectuals, like Roy Medvedev, Burlatsky, Bovin or Mlechin, is obviously frivolous. Such literature is intended for schoolchildren and housewives and cannot be considered historical research.
Suffice it to say that Viktor Kravchenko’s memories of Brezhnev have not yet been activated, and the “Kravchenko case” itself is practically not mentioned. Let me remind you what we're talking about. Viktor Andreevich Kravchenko studied with Brezhnev at the Dneprodzerzhinsk Metallurgical Institute and was his friend. Like Brezhnev, Kravchenko made a party career, again, like Brezhnev, he was closely associated with defense industry and the NKVD. In 1943, Kravchenko, together with a group of Soviet specialists, worked in the United States, where he was involved in the acceptance of military equipment under Lend-Lease. In 1944, he was recruited by American intelligence and became a defector. As part of the growing Anglo-American confrontation, the CIA turned Kravchenko into a political figure. The famous American journalist Eugene Lyons wrote on his behalf a thick accusatory book, “I Choose Freedom,” which was immediately published in Europe. The spitting image of Brezhnev No. 2 in terms of cultural level, Kravchenko could not write even a couple of pages himself, but, naturally, he knew how to read. The book was translated into Russian by the American translator of Stanislavsky, Elizaveta Hapgood. The enraged British immediately disavowed the “dirty slander against the USSR” by organizing a leak of information in the French press. The article, signed with a pseudonym of the second order, quite rightly reported that Kravchenko was a drunkard who had taken refuge in the West after losing government sums at cards. However, they also completely unfoundedly questioned the facts set out in Lyons’ book. The facts were correct - finding incriminating evidence on the wild British crypto-colony was not difficult. A number of information, 20-30 pages long, were provided by Kravchenko himself, who knew the ins and outs of party life in Ukraine at the level of secretary of the district and regional committee. Therefore, at the beginning of 1949, the Americans organized a show trial in Paris and won the trial. Kravchenko, according to Stanislavsky’s system, strained himself in court, denouncing Stalin’s satraps. Like Brezhnev (in fact, this is Brezhnev, only placed in a different situation), Kravchenko showed quite good acting skills. However, the British did not remain in debt. Ukrainian colleagues of the renegade were brought to the trial (by the way, they undoubtedly approached Brezhnev, who was then secretary of the Dnepropetrovsk regional committee), with such proposals), ex-wife, party bosses, including Prosecutor General Rudenko (Rudenko is a Komsomol punk Br..., sorry, Kravchenko booed). Heavy artillery went into action. At the trial, a real cancan of English puppets began: the outstanding physicist Joliot-Curie, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Jean-Paul Sartre distinguished himself most of all. The low-brow “thinker” shouted hysterically into the audience: “Long live great Stalin! Communism is such a thing that it’s worth going through hell!”
It must be said that, as always, the Americans won the ideological battle with the British in a ratio of 55:45. London cleverly used the hype to consolidate the anti-American lobby on the continent.
After Brezhnev was elected general secretary, Kravchenko was shot dead in New York. He was broke and was terribly happy when his classmate became the leader of the CPSU. I was going to write a book. The elimination of Kravchenko was well documented as suicide. As they say, “without witnesses and motives, but with a suicide letter.” A la Pugo or Akhromeev.
Nevertheless, Kravchenko managed to tell a lot about his friend Lena. What happened to Kravchenko’s archive is unknown. Without a doubt, he knew well family history Brezhnev: the town is small, and the then closed caste of party members is completely a single communal apartment. All members of the Dneprodzerzhinsk party club knew each other like crazy.
I ask: are there many people in modern Russia Have you heard about the “Kravchenko case”?
I could talk about all these topics much more openly and in more detail, but this does not seem very important to me. The reader gets the gist. Time will pass and in a free independent Russia, instead of the parody “Institute of the USA and Canada”, a serious “Institute of Great Britain, its colonies and dominions” will be founded. There, the biographies of international adventurers will be studied thoroughly.
I would like to talk about something else, much more important. No matter how ridiculous it sounds, about Brezhnev’s CULTURAL INFLUENCE. In my opinion, it is colossal.
Recently, the premiere of a sad film about Leonid Filatov took place on Central Television. Filatov was a typical Russian actor, a hard-working slob with flashes of undoubted talent. It flashed here, flashed here, but in general the man piled up a Babylon of nonsense, exchanged money over trifles, realized it, but it was already too late. The train left. The most poignant scene of the film, when Filatov, half-paralyzed, with the floating speech of a ramolik, reads his poems about his fate through the approaching silence of death:
An angel stood near the bed -
like an orderly in a white coat.
- Tsits! - he convinced, - why are you shouting?
You are our brave boy...
He took it and took it to the starry distances -
I was the only one they saw here.
This is the end. This is finita.
There was Leonid - there is no Leonid.
I floated away in the stuffy lilacs,
The trumpeters' lips turned grey.
They don't have time - they should run away:
someone took them straight from the wedding.
They badly need a memorial service...
There was Leonid, there is no Leonid.
The mountain village listened to "Aida"
our music hall was sailing to Florida.
For the thousandth time I walked exemplary
children's performance at Obraztsov's.
No one looks sad -
There was Leonid, there is no Leonid.
Everything is as always, everything is out of habit -
people, bridges and trains...
What a misfortune, what a disfavor -
nothing has changed in the world!
This means fate means a planid:
There was Leonid - there is no Leonid.
As we read, the poem about the death of Leonid Filatov, a brave boy carried away into oblivion by an indifferent angel-teacher, turned into a poem about the death of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev. The message about which is placed in the genderless “information flow” of Soviet radio and dissolves in world indifference.
No one looks sad -
There was Leonid, there is no Leonid.
Who said this? Brezhnev-style chomping old senile – Leonid Filatov. At the Taganka Theater they were all Brezhnev. And Lyubimov himself, and the orphanage resident Gubenko, and the gummy bear Abdulov, and the drunken Vysotsky and the village Zolotukhin - these are all Brezhnevs. Like in an American parody of a gangster action film, where all the roles are played by 10-year-old children with machine guns and glued-on mustaches.
Yes, and in RL Lyubimov and Gubenko were appointed chief executive officers, Gubenko, in addition, actually steered for Demichev, and even higher - there was a moment in the operetta on August 19.
The same Brezhnev was Primakov, Brezhnev Yeltsin, both early and late, Brezhnev Aliev and Brezhnev Shevardnadze. Brezhnev Arbatov. Brezhnev Yevtushenko and Boznesensky, Brezhnev Akhmadullina, Brezhnev Okudzhava, Glazunov, Bitov and already on the way Brezhnev Erofeev, Gaidar and Khakamada. Soviet people crushed by Brezhnev. All generations that went through Brezhnev's stagnation are crippled by chomping absurdity. breaking the will, the ability to resist, creativity, independence, and life in general. This is something incredible. You had to live in that era to imagine a giant government sloth pumping out a ton of “Report Report” manure for four hours.
Victoria Petrovna Brezhneva - only wife Soviet General Secretary. Together they lived a long and happy life life together. In total, this couple's family life lasted more than 50 years.
Victoria Brezhneva (nee Denisova) was born in 1907 into a simple working-class family in Belgorod. Father is a railway driver. The family was large: 4 daughters and a son.
Victoria Brezhneva
Some biographers say that Brezhneva was Jewish by nationality. Firstly, she has a suitable appearance, and secondly, the name Victoria is not typical for the time and circle in which Leonid Ilyich’s wife lived. There are also disagreements about the surname - in some sources it appears as Olshevskaya, in others as Goldberg. But Victoria Petrovna during her lifetime denied these rumors, calling Denisov’s surname her “native” surname. And Victoria was allegedly named because in their area lived a large number of Poles, among whom this name was common.
Victoria Brezhneva's mother was a housewife: she raised children and provided comfort. Vika graduated high school and went to Kursk. Here she entered the medical college. After receiving her diploma, she worked for some time as a midwife.
Victoria's fate was decided when she was a technical school student. One day she and her friend went dancing. There she met Leonid Brezhnev, an agricultural student. According to her, he was not handsome. And he didn’t know how to dance. He looked like such a simpleton and a lump. That's why his girlfriend refused to dance with him. And Victoria felt sorry for the guy and went.
Since then they have never separated. They got married in 1928. At first we lived modestly - we rented a room in a hostel. Victoria Brezhneva worked in a hospital. But when the husband began to rapidly climb the career ladder, left her job and devoted herself to her family.
Secretary General's Wife
She was a simple woman, homely and economical. She cooked deliciously while caring for her husband and two children: in 1929, the couple had a daughter, and 4 years later a son, Yuri. Later, when the husband became general secretary Central Committee of the CPSU, Victoria Petrovna took care of her husband’s wardrobe.
Servants and personal chefs appeared in their house. Brezhneva taught them to cook the way her husband liked it. But star fever the woman did not get sick: she always remained in the shadow of Leonid Ilyich, avoided noisy companies in which they shone fashionable outfits and the hairstyles of the wives of party officials, and very rarely accompanied her husband on official trips.
Victoria Petrovna Brezhneva behaved very modestly. None of her contemporaries had ever seen a woman in expensive clothes or jewelry. She never got involved in intrigues high society and the work of the spouse, was not caught in gossip or “undercover” games. She was not a “first lady” in the current sense of the word.
Leonid Ilyich called his wife Vitya in everyday life. Perhaps due to some speech impediment that Victoria Brezhneva had. She was the only one who knew how to listen to him, calm him down and give unexpectedly useful advice: simple and wise at the same time. The loyal and balanced “half” was the second “I” of the Secretary General.
Daughter Galina Brezhneva was the complete opposite of her mother: bright, with an explosive temperament, a fashionista who adores luxury and expensive jewelry. There were a lot of men and romances in her life, which her mother did not like. But also more woman I was worried about alcohol abuse and the scandals that accompanied Galina all her life.
Officially, Galina got married three times. Her first husband was Evgeny Milaev, a circus artist and strongman acrobat. He was 20 years older than the girl, had two twin children, whose mother died during childbirth. Brezhneva lived in this marriage for 10 years; the couple had a daughter, Victoria, whom Galina named after her mother. Evgeny Milaev quickly made a career, becoming the director of the Moscow Circus and Hero of Socialist Labor. There is evidence that he beat Galya, and she repeatedly told her father about it. Brezhnev knew that his daughter was unhappy in her marriage to Milaev, but he said “be patient.” The reason for their divorce was Eugene’s betrayal.
Brezhnev's granddaughter Victoria spent more time with her grandparents, since her parents were constantly on tour. As she herself said in an interview, nothing was forbidden to her and she was always given freedom of choice.
Brezhnev categorically did not approve of his daughter’s second marriage. Galina was 33 years old at that time; she fell in love with an illusionist who was 18 years old. They secretly registered their relationship, but after 10 days they were given new passports without marriage stamps.
The third marriage was with the military man Yuri Churbanov. And the parents, who were already tired of their daughter’s adventures, were incredibly happy to have such a serious person in Galya’s life. Their marriage lasted 20 years.
Afterwards she had whirlwind romances with the gypsy actor and singer Boris Buryatsya, ballet dancer.
But the son of Victoria Petrovna and Leonid Ilyich followed in his father’s footsteps and devoted himself to politics. In 1979-1983 he served as First Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade of the USSR. He had one wife, Lyudmila, with whom two sons were born - Andrei and Leonid. Yuri died in 2013 from brain cancer.
Personal life
If Leonid Ilyich’s memoirs materialized in the form of a trilogy “ Malaya Zemlya”, “Renaissance” and “Virgin Land”, which, by the way, he himself read only after their publication, then based on the results of Galina Leonidovna’s life, Vitaly Pavlov’s dramatic series “Galina” was filmed in 2008. Judging by this film, Leonid Ilyich’s daughter allegedly disliked her father all her life because of his betrayal of her mother.
Today it is difficult to say whether the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee was faithful to his wife. There was talk about several of his novels. For example, with singer Anna Shalfeyeva. Allegedly, the official met her during the Great Patriotic War.
Also in 2016 - the year of the 110th anniversary of the birth of Leonid Ilyich - in the newspaper " TVNZ“An interview was released in which Galina Brezhneva’s friends spoke about the personal secrets of the Secretary General and his family.
Former actress and now public figure Victoria Lazich recalls what Galya said: when her father went to the front, they lived in poverty. And his return brought not relief, but shock. Leonid Ilyich came home and announced that he was leaving the family. At this time, his front-line girlfriend Tamara was standing outside the door. Victoria Petrovna reacted to this news boldly, she said that she would ruin his career and write a complaint against him to the party committee. Lazic says that Galya allegedly believed that her mother managed to save the family only through blackmail.
Victoria Brezhneva with her husband and grandchildren
More is known about another woman who long time was next to the official. This is his nurse Nina Korovyakova. Some biographers write that Korovyakova behaved defiantly towards Victoria Brezhneva and had influence on Leonid Ilyich. From the memoirs of the niece of the Secretary General Lyubov Brezhneva (his brother’s daughter), he admitted that Nina resembled his front-line love Tamara.
Nevertheless, Victoria Brezhneva’s personal life, according to people who knew her, turned out happily. Allotted to them years together Throughout their lives, the spouses respected each other and did not quarrel. By at least, this is how it looked to all outsiders.
Death
Victoria Petrovna was distinguished by stronger health than Leonid Ilyich himself and outlived him by almost 13 years. Immediately after the death of her husband, former party comrades did not spare his faithful wife and took her away from her most property. She lived out her life quietly and modestly, in a small Moscow apartment and in complete solitude.
IN last decade life the woman suffered from diabetes mellitus and was forced to constantly inject herself with insulin. This disease was the cause of her death. Victoria Petrovna was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery.
Victoria Brezhneva
Both the life and death of Victoria Brezhneva turned out to be quiet and not illuminated by means mass media as opposed to the life and death of a daughter. When Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev died, his daughter became even more interested in alcohol and ended up in prison. mental asylum in the Moscow region, where she underwent treatment for alcoholism. There she died of a stroke in 1998, outliving her mother by only three years. The woman was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery next to her mother’s grave.
She suffered the same fate as Victoria Petrovna. During the reign, they tried to confiscate Galina’s inheritance, but, unlike her mother, the daughter of the former secretary general did not give up so easily. She managed to win the trial. And the real estate, antiques, and cars remained with her.
The fate of her daughter Victoria was no less tragic. Having tried to sell the remaining apartments, she encountered scammers and did not receive any money. After the incident, they stopped communicating with their daughter Galya, the great-granddaughter of Victoria Petrovna and Leonid Ilyich. Galina Filipova was never able to find herself in life, the woman wandered the streets, lived in hallways. At 33, she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Her mother did not visit her and did not answer her letters.
Brezhnev's granddaughter died on January 5, 2018 from oncology, presumably from brain cancer.
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev held the highest position Soviet Union- position of General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee from 1966 to 1982. No one had ever stood at the helm of the USSR for so long. Who were the people who surrounded the leader in the most intimate, family atmosphere?
Large Brezhnev family. In the first row: wife Victoria Petrovna and Leonid Ilyich himself with his great-granddaughter Galya, in the second: son-in-law Yuri Churbanov, grandchildren Victoria (daughter of Galina) and Leonid (son of Yuri), Galina with brother Yuri, Elena (wife of Leonid), daughter-in-law Lyudmila (wife Yuri), grandson Andrey.
Parents
Leonid Ilyich's father and mother - hereditary workers Ilya Yakovlevich Brezhnev and Natalya Denisovna Mazalova - were born in what is now the Kursk region.
Brother and sister
Younger brother - Yakov Ilyich Brezhnev (1912-1993). He looked a little like Leonid Ilyich: vertically challenged, reddish. He worked at a metallurgical plant as the head of a rolling shop, then at the USSR Ministry of Ferrous Metallurgy. He was successful with women. He had the nickname “wedding brother” - he was invited to feasts, and undertook to solve the personal affairs of the petitioners. He was forcibly treated for chronic alcoholism and the mental disorders that arose on this sad basis. Yakov has two daughters from his first marriage - Elena and Mila, and a daughter from his second.
Sister - Vera Ilyinichna Brezhneva (1910-1997). Since moving to Moscow in 1966, she has not worked; she was married to Nikifor Andreevich Grechkin, an engineer.
Lyubov Yakovlevna Brezhneva. Niece
Daughter of Yakov Ilyich from his second marriage. She became famous for her connections with foreigners. In 1990 she emigrated to the United States, and in 1999 she published a book of memoirs, “The Secretary General’s Niece.”
Victoria Petrovna Brezhneva (Denisova)
In 1925, technical school student Leonid Brezhnev met Victoria, a student at the Kursk Medical College. In 1928 they got married. Despite her husband’s career, Victoria Petrovna devoted all her time to the household, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
In 1929, their daughter Galina was born, and in 1933 their son Yuri was born.
Galina Leonidovna Brezhneva
She was distinguished by an extremely strong, passionate, restless character. Over the years of her life, the leader’s daughter worked in the circus, in the Novosti press agency, in the archives department of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the rank of advisor-envoy, and at Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov. Galina Leonidovna was only officially married three times and became famous for her high-profile romances.
The first husband, acrobat-strongman Evgeny Milaev, was 20 years older than Galina and raised two children. For his sake, the daughter of the first secretary (at that time) of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Moldova ran away from home and traveled around the country as a circus dresser. Born from this marriage only daughter Galina Leonidovna - Victoria. The second husband, 18-year-old illusionist Igor Kio, was 15 years younger than Galina. However, their official marriage, which infuriated Leonid Ilyich, lasted only 10 days...
In 1971, Galina Brezhneva married Lieutenant Colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yuri Churbanov, who was 7 years younger than her, left his wife and children for her, and became his second wife. This was her third marriage.
In 1987, Churbanov was arrested on suspicion of corruption and expelled from the ranks of the CPSU, sentenced by the Military Collegium Supreme Court USSR to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property. While he was serving his sentence, Galina Brezhneva filed for divorce and division of property.
During her third marriage, Galina started high-profile romance with the artist of the Romany theater "Romen" Boris Buryatsa. At that time, the daughter of the Secretary General was already over 50, and her lover was 17 years younger than her.
Galina abused alcohol, and after her father’s death she found herself under virtual house arrest at her dacha. She was treated in a psychiatric clinic, where she died in the summer of 1998.
Victoria Milaeva
In the photo: Brezhnev with his granddaughter Victoria (to the left of the Secretary General), her second husband Gennady Varakuta and great-granddaughter Galya.
Victoria's first husband, Mikhail Filippov, worked in the Ministry of Foreign Trade, then in a bank. Today he lives in Malta. The second husband, Gennady Varakuta, rose to the rank of KGB lieutenant general. After 1991, he divorced Victoria, a businessman.
Galina Filippova
In 1973, Victoria Evgenievna had a daughter (great-granddaughter of Leonid Brezhnev) Galina Filippova. In the photo she is on the lap of her grandmother and namesake Galina Brezhneva.
General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev with his wife Victoria Petrovna and great-granddaughter Galya.
Galina Filippova today
Graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University, was married, acquired alcohol addiction... After many years of treatment in psychiatric clinic lost all property. Today she lives in a modest apartment in the Moscow region, which one of her relatives bought for her.
Yuri Leonidovich Brezhnev
Yuri Brezhnev was born in 1933. Highlight of his career: Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade of the USSR. All my life I have been collecting porcelain dogs. There are four grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. He died in 2013 at the age of 80.
His wife: Lyudmila Vladimirovna Brezhneva, in her youth was a pretty, snub-nosed blonde with delicate pink skin. She behaved modestly. Unlike other nomenklatura wives of the Soviet elite, she is smart and well educated.
They had two sons: Leonid (born 1956) - a teacher at the Chemistry Department of Moscow State University, a businessman, he has three daughters (Alina, Maria) and a son Yuri, a businessman.
Junior - Andrei Yuryevich Brezhnev (born 1961) economist and Russian politician, First Secretary of the Central Committee " Communist Party social justice."
Andrey Yurievich Brezhnev
Grandson of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev, son of Yuri Brezhnev, Soviet economist and Russian politician. In 1983 he graduated from the Faculty of International economic relations MGIMO.
His first wife Nadezhda Lyamina later became the wife of banker Alexander Mamut. Son Leonid works as a translator in the military department, and son Dmitry graduated from Oxford University. The second wife's name is Elena.
Leonid Ilyich with his wife and grandson Andrey at the dacha, 1971.
Leonid Yurievich Brezhnev
Grandson of Secretary General Brezhnev, son of his son Yuri. Does business. In the early 2000s, he lived in his grandfather’s apartment at 26 Kutuzovsky Prospekt. Entrepreneur. Married four times, three children.
Unlike her predecessor Nina Petrovna Khrushcheva, who from her youth led active image life, was a member of the Ukrainian Communist Party, and participated with pleasure in political life and her husband’s career, Victoria Petrovna Brezhneva was a homely woman. She rarely appeared at receptions (when it was absolutely impossible not to appear according to protocol), and did not participate at all in her husband’s foreign trips. Victoria Petrovna took care of her family. First she raised two children - Yuri, and then grandchildren.
Victoria Petrovna Denisova was born into the family of a machinist in Kursk in 1907. Only my father worked. At this time, the mother was raising 4 children. Probably related to family life Victoria Petrovna inherited it from her mother.
After 9 years of school, she entered the medical college in Kursk. Here, at one of the student parties, she met a young man -. At that party, a small funny thing happened to Leonid, which influenced his later life. He invited another student to dance, but she refused. Then he, not wanting to stand on the sidelines and give up the pleasure of dancing, invited Victoria. They left the party together, and since then their lives have been tightly intertwined.
They got married 3 years later, in 1928, when Victoria graduated from technical school, and Leonid was sent to Belarus. A year later, Galina was born. Victoria worked quite a bit as soon as she graduated from technical school. Then moving to Belarus. But they didn’t stay here long either. Young specialist Brezhnev was sent to the Urals. Galina was born in Sverdlovsk, where the young couple rented a room.
Brezhnev was transferred from one region to another, where it was necessary to organize, unite, and configure. And his Victoria was with him everywhere. In 1933, son Yuri was born. Victoria Petrovna made sure that her husband was comfortable and peaceful at home. She enjoyed cooking Tasty food, made sure that her husband always looked his best. After all, he has already begun to borrow leadership positions, enjoyed authority.
During the Great Patriotic War, Victoria Petrovna and her children lived in Alma-Ata. Then they returned to Dnepropetrovsk. Grandson Andrei said that Leonid Ilyich did not return from the war alone, he wanted to leave the family. But Victoria Petrovna set a condition: he himself must inform the children about his departure, that he is abandoning them. When Yuri returned from school, he threw himself on his father’s neck in joy. Leonid Ilyich loved his children and then his grandchildren very much. He never decided to leave his family or leave his children. Obviously, Victoria Petrovna knew well her husband’s affection for the children when she set this condition.
In 55-56, Brezhnev served as First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee of Kazakhstan. And from February 1956, Brezhnev, on the recommendation of Khrushchev, began working in the apparatus of the CPSU Central Committee. This is how Victoria Petrovna ended up in Moscow. The children were already grown up, but Galina had a daughter who spent most of her time with her grandmother. During her husband’s reign, she continued to focus only on her family and did not participate in politics in any way.