In which city do Ioshpe and Rakhimov live. Biography

Alla IOSHPE and Stakhan RAKHIMOV: "We survived because we stayed together"


In the late 70s, they turned from popular favorites into enemies of the people. The most popular duet, Alla Ioshpe and Stakhan Rakhimov, whose songs - "Alyosha", "Nightingales" and "Goodbye, boys" - the whole country knew by heart, suddenly lost everything. The famous couple were stripped of their titles, all their records and cassettes were withdrawn from the sale and destroyed, Stakhan was expelled from the party, their daughter, an excellent student Tanya, was expelled from the university with the wording "not corresponding to the high title of a Soviet student" ...

Leave her, this traitor, this Zionist! - the representative of the "authorities" persuaded Rakhimov. - Because of some kind of Jewess, ruin your life. Let her go to hell, but you ...

Then, to the admonitions of a young KGB officer, Stakhan Rakhimov replied with a phrase that later became their motto in life:

Even if Ioshpe is put on one end of the globe, and Rakhimov is on the other, and their backs are turned to each other, they will still take their breath in one place ... We cannot but sing together. We cannot help but live together. This is out of the question.

This year marks 40 years since Alla Ioshpe and Stakhan Rakhimov live and sing together.

An Uzbek and a Jew are, to be honest ...

Alla saw him by chance. On a day off, to the sounds of the constantly bubbling TV, she put things in order in her apartment. Alla was already heading to another room, when suddenly some unknown force riveted her eyes to the screen. With half-closed eyes, a thin, non-Russian boy was either singing or praying. "God, how he sings!" - Alla whispered.

"God, how she sings!" - now it's time for Stakhan to be surprised. He was sitting in the auditorium when Alla took the stage. Thin, as it seemed to him, ugly, freckled. Limping on one leg. "The end of the concert," Stakhan chuckled to himself, "why did she come out? .." And then the girl began to sing. Stakhan was shocked. He took a pen out of his pocket, found in the program the name of an unknown singer - Alla Ioshpe - and circled it in a circle.

After some time, they met. The final competition of student amateur performances was held in the Column Hall. According to the general opinion, there were two favorites: the soloist of the Moscow State University Orchestra Alla Ioshpe and the rising star of the Moscow Power Engineering Institute Stakhan Rakhimov. In the end, they shared the first place.

Alla did not recognize him. “It’s immediately obvious that you are not a singer!” She was indignant when Stakhan sat down at her table and casually lit a cigarette. Stakhan silently extinguished his cigarette and went to the stage ...

Stakhan: "Even before the concert, I said to myself: if she stays listening to me, everything will be. And when she stayed, I quietly took off my wedding ring and put it in my pocket."

Alla: “When I heard him singing, I could not resist, went up to him and said:“ Stakhan, what a fine fellow you are! ”And then he went to see me home and told stories in Uzbek.“ Borakan-yogakan ”- I listened to this strange ligature of speech, the stars were shining ... It was so beautiful. I was a little tired, he tactfully put me on a bench at the Nikitsky gate, and we talked, talked ... But I still hadn’t thought about anything: love is not I couldn’t even imagine that I would start an affair on the side, leave my husband ... A week later Stakhan brought me to his company. , thin, high-cheeked, infection ... How he butchered this meat! Then I thought: "Yoshpe, you need to flee." But he did not let me go ... "

In the families of Stakhan and Alla, the news of their marriage was received with hostility. Alla's parents were outraged: you are married, you have such a wonderful husband, he loves you so much! And this one is Uzbek. From another family, from another republic. Don't you know, they are polygamists, they are insidious ... Alla begged her parents: "But we can't, we sing like that together! .."

Stakhan's mother at first also seemed adamant. She said: "Muscovite. They are all spoiled, spoiled. Do we have a few Uzbek women here?" - "Mom," Stakhan tried to object, "of course, Alla is a Muscovite, but she is not Russian, she is Jewish ..." Oddly enough, this phrase worked. The woman suddenly thought for a moment, sighed heavily. "Well," he says, "all the same, it's own." "I mean, a national woman," explains Stakhan.

Alla: “My first husband took our parting very hard. He was taking me to the next rehearsal, when I said:“ We won't succeed, forgive me for God's sake. ”He let go of the steering wheel, the car almost rolled into a ditch, hanging over ravine. "I beg you, change your mind," he said to me. - Then you will regret it all your life. This is not your man. I know, I feel. Let it pass six months, a year, but let's not part. I will never remind you of what happened ... "He was a real knight for me: he protected, cared for. The most intelligent, kind, delicate person who loves me indescribably. Probably, I loved him ... Of course, I loved him. But we had different lives: he is an engineer, I am a singer. And the people of the stage are abnormal, and only such an abnormal person can tolerate this abnormality. "

Was Stakhan's wife worried too?

The girl suffered, suffered. I will never forget: she came to Moscow, called him down by phone ... I felt so sorry for her!

Stakhan: "Natasha was a student, a very good girl: soft, kind. And my mother always taught me that a person should not be so beautiful as warm. Natasha was just that - with a twist. But nothing can be done - music."

"Stakhan told me:" We will not go to Rosner, I did not like the way he looked at you. "

In the early 70s, they talked about the magnificent five of the Soviet stage. In fact, there were six of them: Muslim Magomayev, Joseph Kobzon, Maya Kristalinskaya, Edita Piekha and they - Alla Ioshpe and Stakhan Rakhimov. Not a single Kremlin concert, not a single New Year's "Ogonyok" was complete without the songs of the international duet. "Alyosha", "Nightingales", "Goodbye, boys", "Meadow night" - with these hits Ioshpe and Rakhimov became stars of the first magnitude in the Soviet Union and traveled all over the world.

They were called "stage dress in a dress coat". Soft, lyrical manner of performance. Quiet, clear, pleasant voices, genuine sincerity. The audience idolized them. But my colleagues did not like it. Many of the famous artists behind Alla and Stakhan's backs whispered: "What is special about them - as there was an amateur performance, it has remained so. They have absolutely no stage presentation".

Alla: "We are very static on stage, we hardly move. I remember once we were in Jurmala, performed at a concert by Raimonds Pauls. One Latvian duet appeared in front of us. We sang quite well, even well. But we hugged all the time, showed, how they love each other. And we don't need all this. The audience caught our every nuance: how I look at him, how he takes me by the hand, how I lean on him ... This says a lot, right? they say that the loudest scream is a whisper. They said about us: when they sing on stage, there is a feeling that the audience only interferes with them. "

Stakhan: "And we were mostly disliked by those artists whom at one time we, students, cut off the oxygen with our" leftists. "We had a well-coordinated team called" seven plus seven ": Alla and I, five of our musicians and seven" phrasebooks ": Marik Rozovsky, Alik Axelrod, Semyon Farada, Alexander Filippenko and others. All graduate students - not a single professional. And we" left "- all leftists, commercial concerts in Moscow were ours. In Mosestrad, folk artists were whispering in the corners: "Where did these graduate students come from ?!" We were "square dance" by famous groups: the Moscow Music Hall, the orchestras of Lundstrem, Rosner ... "

By the way, - Alla interrupts her husband, - once we all the same came to Eddie Rosner's house. We have already agreed on the repertoire, but as soon as we left, Stakhan told me: "We will not go, I did not like the way he looked at you." And with many famous composers exactly the same story came out - Stakhan again said: no.

From the outside it might have seemed that Alla and Stakhan were some kind of darlings of fate: young, talented, favored by the authorities. In fact, their path to the pop Olympus was strewn not only with roses, but also with thorns. The first time they got a kick was because during the Seven-Day War they performed the "enemy" "Hava Nagila" in Luzhniki. Then, with the wording "for violation of labor discipline", Alla and Stakhan were not allowed on tour to Germany.

Further more. At a concert in memory of Mark Bernes, the purely patriotic song "Where the Motherland Begins" Ioshpe and Rakhimov allowed themselves to perform in the form of a dialogue, and in the end they also left the question open. This was already a real sedition. "Suckers, they ask a question, they question: where does the Motherland begin ?!" - could not hide the indignation of the "Soviet public" in the person of officials from the Ministry of Culture.

During another concert, Stakhan for a moment forgot the words of one of the songs. There was an awkward pause. But the singer was not taken aback: he went up to the ramp and asked for hints from the audience. The next day, someone spread a rumor in Moscow that Rakhimov had gone on stage drunk.

But all these were flowers - the tragedy in their life happened later.

10 years under house arrest

Once Ioshpe and Rakhimov were invited to the Ministry of Culture. The then minister Demichev began in a businesslike manner: "Here we received a letter signed by hundreds of spectators. They write:" Can't our great state help the talented artist Alla Ioshpe with treatment? "How can I help?" "We need an operation abroad," Stakhan replied. “Why abroad ?!” Demichev was indignant. “Operate here.

Almost all her life, Alla Ioshpe has been struggling with constant pain in her leg. At the age of 11, she was diagnosed with blood poisoning. It was possible to get the girl out of the afterlife, but her health problems remained. The admired spectators did not even know with what monstrous pain the singer had to fight. After working for a month, Yoshpe usually spent the next two in bed.

Alla: "As a child, my mother told me:" You are not like everyone else. Something is not given to you. But something is given to you much more than to others. "No, I never felt slighted. On the contrary, I was always surrounded by a mass of boys who looked after me, even jealous of each other. I was a pretty girl, what can I say. And the guys wanted to take care of me, protect me. Still weak, I limp. For example, in the tenth grade I had seven boys at once. Wonderful. So touching: they brought me stamps, books, flowers, pies. Mom asked: "Who are you? - Are you in love with any of them? "She answered:" In my opinion, in all. "

Stakhan: "Then, in the late 70s, Alla could still be cured. We found three clinics: in Israel, in New York and in Paris. After the refusal of the Ministry of Culture, we said that we could pay for the treatment ourselves, we are ready to sell everything. that is ... The answer was the same: not allowed. "

Alla: “That is, we are nobody for them. But we earned a lot of money for the state. need help ... "

And then Stakhan decided, as many thought, on insanity: he submitted documents to leave for permanent residence in Israel. The authorities' reaction was immediate: to ban it. "You have done too much for the Soviet state to risk you," they were told at the Lubyanka. "Anything can happen." It was then that the country was shocked by the news of the murder of one of our musicians, who decided not to return from Japan. "Are you threatening us?" - looking into the eyes of the KGB officer, asked Alla.

The very next day, yesterday's favorites were declared renegades and traitors. The artists were stripped of their titles, destroyed all their records, and banned from performing in concerts. The 1st secretary of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan Rashidov, when he was informed about the situation, almost suffocated from his own anger: "Rakhimov ?! Yes, he will go to the Far East rather than to the Middle!"

Every day, Alla and Stakhan received threatening letters, their daughter Tanya flinched from every phone call after she once heard in the receiver from a stranger: "A man came from Tashkent to kill your father." They set fire to their doors, a mailbox, smashed their car ... And they constantly called them to the Lubyanka, where Alla was offered to abandon Stakhan, Stakhan - from Alla, and their daughter Tanya - from both parents. "Let them go," they said, "stay, we are raising orphans."

Alla: “For television and the press, we seemed to have died - not a single mention. And only the lecturers of the Knowledge Society, broadcasting at various enterprises about the international situation, remembered us with a“ kind ”word. They said that the once popular singers Alla Ioshpe and Stakhan Rakhimov emigrated to Israel. That they lead a beggarly way of life. That Stakhan cooks pilaf there and sells it. That we ask to return, but the Soviet Union does not want to accept traitors. "

For almost ten years, Ioshpe and Rakhimov were not allowed to work. The money accumulated over the years of performances literally melted before our eyes. The couple had to sell the car. And after a while, the walls of their apartment were decorated only with bookshelves - all the rest of the furniture, as well as dishes and antiques eventually settled in the nearest thrift shop.

One day Alla and Stakhan wrote exactly one hundred letters to all the metropolitan publications: "We have not left, we are alive, we are here. We are not allowed to work ..." Often strangers called them from pay phones, saying: "Guys, we are with you, hold on." And friends - came to visit, brought food: cakes, sweets, salads. Of course, they asked me to sing. And soon rumors spread throughout Moscow: Ioshpe and Rakhimov were organizing home concerts. Indeed, every Saturday people began to gather in their house: actor Savely Kramarov, musician Alexander Brusilovsky, pianist Vladimir Feltsman, famous academician Alexander Lerner, current Israeli Labor Minister Natan Sharansky - all those who at various times were denied permission to leave. They called their "home theater" Music in Refusal. His emblem was a painting by one forbidden artist: two birds, on whose beaks a barn lock is hung.

"Hello, Alla Borisovna ..."

Under Gorbachev, Ioshpe and Rakhimov could no longer be banned. But they were in no hurry to resolve.

Stakhan: "We were given some kind of creepy orchestra, allowed to tour. Only without posters. We come to one city - there are only a few people in civilian clothes in the hall. In another - the same story. And for this bunch of KGB men we sang. After the episode Such "concerts" Alla and I were summoned to the Ministry of Culture, they said: "You see, people do not want to listen to you, your homeland does not accept you."

Alla: "And in order to take away our right to solo concerts, they re-certified all the artists at Mosestrad. Mark Novitsky, one of the members of the artistic council, came up to us and said:" Guys, I respect you so much, I cannot participate in this. " And he left the hall. "

And they, holding hands, sang: "Do not part with your loved ones." The audience was crying. Even someone from the commission began to clap, but pulled himself up in time ...

They were finally "forgiven" only in 1989. And even then, when Iosif Kobzon came to the meeting of the party committee, where the question was being decided: whether or not to remove the phrase "enemy of the motherland" from Stakhan Rakhimov. The singer, whose word they are used to listening to at the very top, said: "Leave them alone already." And they lagged behind.

They still collect full halls today. And not only in Russia. America, Israel, Australia, Germany - in these countries Alla and Stakhan have long been called "people's artists of the Russian emigration." And two years ago, Ioshpe and Rakhimov were awarded the titles of People's Artists of Russia.

Alla: “We have recently been to America. We are sitting in the room, suddenly the phone rings:“ Have you read this shameless article? ”-“ No, which one? ”-“ We’ll bring you now. ”Brought, we read - an interview with Alla Pugacheva. Everything seems to be delicate, not letting anyone down, not calling anyone names. And suddenly we stumble upon the last phrase. The journalist's question: why are you with one or the other: then Philip, then Galkin? Alla replies: well, of course, the acting fate is: if I were with one all the time, we would be forgotten in the same way as Ioshpe and Rakhimova.

So, dear Alla Borisovna. Thank you for not forgetting us, mentioning us in vain. But you forgot that we were destroyed by a Soviet machine. Therefore, my dear, we are not in the cage today. And not because I didn’t leave my husband or he didn’t leave me. From your side, such a statement looks, to put it mildly, shameless. To be more precise, it is impolite and unwise. "

They were not forgotten. And today, when Ioshpe and Rakhimov take the stage, the audience rises. Because they survived. Because they stayed together. Because they did not betray each other. Have not changed your style. They are not in the cage. They are in the hearts of people.
17.02.2004

Dmitry MELMAN

Source - Moskovsky Komsomolets
The permanent address of the article is

They were among the five most popular pop performers of the Soviet Union. But the resounding success was followed by almost ten years of oblivion. It would seem that after such a test, you can give up. But no, their union is still strong and continues to delight fans.

Visiting the Sodruzhestvo magazine are People's Artists of Russia Alla IOSHPE and Stakhan RAKHIMOV.

- Since we all come from childhood, my first question is about him. Could you remember the brightest event that happened to you as a child?

Stakhan Rakhimov:

- For me - the first time on stage. Although it was not quite an option ( laughs). In general, it was like this. Since mom is a singer ( People's Artist of the Uzbek SSR Shakhodat Rakhimova -approx. ed.), then I literally grew up behind the scenes. She was very popular in Uzbekistan. Every day there are performances. Where mom is - there is always a full house. There was no one to leave me with, and she took me with her. And somehow I got too close to the stage. And according to the plot, the heroine played by my mother, the partner had to strangle. When I saw this, I jumped out from behind the curtains with a shout: "Mom!" Thus, he disrupted the performance. Then, when we left the theater, many, pointing at me, said: "This one jumped onto the stage." That was the debut.

- How old were you then?

- Four years.

Alla Ioshpe:

- And I have the most vivid impressions of the evacuation. The Germans were standing near Moscow. They took me away from my parents and sent me to the Urals. I remember we were on the bus, and suddenly the bombing started. We jumped out and hid in the grass. It was very scary, but, thank God, everything worked out.

- By the way, in no interviews, neither you, Alla Yakovlevna, nor you, Stakhan Mamadzhanovich, mention this period. Could you remember something else?

Alla Ioshpe:

- Very soon our parents took us out of the evacuation, and we returned to Moscow. But then I have sad memories: about how I once again broke my leg, how my mother and father carried me on a stretcher to the Filatov hospital. It was in the evening. I lay and looked at the stars. It was just New Year's Eve. After the operation, they put me in a separate ward. And dad, to cheer me up, brought a huge Santa Claus to the hospital, who was even taller than him. He saw this giant in some showcase and persuaded him to sell him the props. Santa Claus was installed in full view, but so that I could also see him from behind my screen.

Stakhan Rakhimov:

- Our biographies with Alla have something in common, but still I have other memories of the war period. For some reason, I really remember the cake made from cake. Although there was never a shortage of food in the house. They brought something to my mother all the time - wheat, rice, literally in bags. We lived in an apartment building, perhaps one of the first multi-storey buildings in Tashkent, the so-called "House of Specialists". Our neighbors were famous scientists, writers, musicians, composers, singers. But there was also a dacha. This dacha was presented to my mother for her contribution to the Victory. The fact is that she donated a huge amount for those times, earned at her concerts, to help the front, and with this money they made not even one, but several tanks. A telegram from Stalin has survived, in which he personally thanks her for this support.

And the dacha became material gratitude. Thanks to the dacha, one can say that I grew up on earth.

- How did your introduction to music begin? Have your families contributed to this, encouraged your endeavors?

Alla Ioshpe:

- My dad sang in the choir. And then, when he was already an adult, he played King Lear in an amateur theater. The audience sobbed. In addition, my childhood was spent in the courtyard of the Jewish Theater. This, apparently, predetermined my fate. The theater knew a sick girl whom her mother took out to the yard on a sled in winter, and in summer she simply left on a chair. And I was allowed to watch not only the performances themselves, but also the rehearsals. It was more interesting than any children's games. And then my parents bought me a piano, and my mother said: “Learn to play! Music will become your profession! " And so it happened.

Stakhan Rakhimov:

- My first public appearances began when I was three. The nanny, by the way, she was Russian, drew attention to the fact that I was singing something all the time. And when she took me with her, away on business, I sang these songs in the store, in the market, in the hairdresser. So I began to receive the first "royalties" in the form of sweets and, of course, applause. And my mother's example contributed to my further introduction to art.

- You, like many, began your journey with amateur performances. Today you are both folk artists, that is, pop masters. Did this require the acquisition of additional skills and knowledge, or was everything comprehended in the process of work?

Alla Ioshpe:

- Our main school was just amateur performances. I joined her since school. She began to play in the theater. But since there were always problems with health, I was offered mostly sedentary roles. But without a stage, I simply could not. And then there were the university amateur performances, tours with the orchestra. And this is already a real creative life and good practice.

Stakhan Rakhimov:

- I spent all my childhood in the palaces of the pioneers. He was engaged in various circles. In Tashkent it was a drama club. Because they kicked me out of the choir, because my voice was "sticking out", but for some reason they didn't take me as a soloist. Then there was a dance club. I even won some prize, which is remarkable - for the Russian dance. And when I arrived with my mother in Moscow, I also went to the drawing circle. As for music itself, I studied mainly in my mother's classes, while she was retraining at the Moscow Conservatory. I even told her when she forgot some pieces. Then her teachers advised me to study singing and playing the piano. True, I was very restless. But I finally became imbued with music after Stalin's death ... Yes, yes, in 1953. The fact is that during the days of mourning, only chamber music sounded on the radio. And I literally fell ill with her. Very soon he learned everything from Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and other composers. I just cried from this music. There was a revolution in consciousness.

- That is, it turns out that both of you came to mastery in the profession through self-education?

Stakhan Rakhimov:

- The fact that Alla and I graduated - she is a university and graduate school, I am the Moscow Power Engineering Institute, and then another four years I worked in a design bureau, saved us from a lot. I do not bow before the mighty of this world, and at the same time I have no arrogance towards ordinary people. And the theater institute, the conservatory, they spoil the relationship between people of the same profession, they make it so that you begin to see a competitor in everyone.

Even in my second year at MPEI, I was offered to enter a theater institute, and without exams, and then combine my studies at both universities. But, thank God, there were people who made me understand. For example, in the Mosconcert there was such an administrator - Lenya Stepanov. And he told me this: "The moment you cross the threshold of the theater institute, there will be no MPEI, because theatrical institute is a round-the-clock concept." And I thought. But of course, my mother became the last resort. She said: “No way! Finish MEI, get a profession, but if God gave, then it will still break through ... ”And I listened to her. Now I have no regrets.

- By the way, listing everything you did besides music, you seem to have missed one more direction ... I mean boxing.

Stakhan Rakhimov:

- Yes, you have noticed quite rightly. Before getting into music thoroughly, I tried myself in this sport for a while. I had my first youth rank. I went to the final of the championship of Uzbekistan, however, I was knocked out there. In memory of this period, there is one youthful photograph, where I am in boxing gloves.

- Your duet was one of the five best artists of the USSR. Only circumstances have knocked you out of the cage. Do you regret it?

Alla Ioshpe:

- Of course, I'm sorry. It was very hard. Although it was even harder for Stakhan than for me.

Stakhan Rakhimov:

- Probably harder. But if we hadn’t decided then to leave the Soviet Union, we probably wouldn’t be singing now. I would follow the party line and become an official. After all, at that time I was already the secretary for ideology at Mosestrad.

- And yet, after the persecutions against you stopped, you headed the Mosconcert for several years? What is especially memorable for this period?

Stakhan Rakhimov:

- The fact that health has noticeably deteriorated. I just stopped sleeping at night. Imagine, 900 people, and everyone has their own problems. Empathized with everyone. Official work is a special job. An official should probably be born. An artist cannot do this!

- Your duet performed over a thousand songs from the stage. How was the repertoire selected? What was your preference?

Alla Ioshpe:

- I started with bard songs. My first hit was "Tsarevna Nesmeyana". This song was written by Gen Shangin-Berezovsky, a professor of microbiology, in general a very interesting person. I first got on television with her and immediately attracted attention. Then the amazing songs of Ada Yakusheva appeared in my repertoire. And then professional composers took up Stakhan and me. And the first was Eduard Savelievich Kolmanovsky. He offered me his song "My comrade will come". Stakhan still cries when he listens to her. Then there was Andrey Eshpai, who was very sorry that he had not seen us first. We worked very seriously with Mark Fradkin. They planned to release a disc of his songs. But it didn’t happen. Although the songs were already recorded, we just applied to leave for Israel ... Oscar Feltsman wrote his best songs at the end of his life for us. These were "Autumn Bells", "Gray Anniversaries", "A Samovar is Boiling", "Bedside Table". All - on the verses of Yuri Garin.

My meeting with Mikael Tariverdiev deserves a separate discussion. He called and invited me to speak with him on television, in the "Kinopanorama". In three days I learned several of his songs, and sang them in the program for almost forty minutes. And he accompanied me. Then Mikael said: “Do you know what the author of the words, Voznesensky, told me about you? She sings better than we write. " I understood that, of course, it was not so, the songs were fabulous.

But one day Mikael and I had a fight. Rather, he was offended by me. He brought me the song "Wagons", which was later included in the film "Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath." But then I said that I would not perform it. He asked: "Why?" And I say: "It is indecent for you to write such frivolous songs." “You fool, you fool, everyone will sing her,” he answered me then. I guess I really was a fool.

- Alla Yakovlevna, maybe a few words about the most recent work?

- Yes. These are the songs of Sasha Morozov. Most recently, Stakhan and I recorded an absolutely amazing disc, on it - 14 songs.

- Which or which of the songs performed together are especially dear to you and why?

Alla Ioshpe:

- Probably the very first. And it was "Meadow Night", or as it was called "Haymaking Time", by the composer Georgy Dekhtyarov on the verses of Anton Pryhelets. Irina Zinkina, the editor of the Yunost radio station, called me and said: “Allochka, the song came from Siberia, right for you. Come urgently! " I arrived, they wrote it down right there. I sang it in two voices - the first and the second. It was rare for that time. Everything worked out great. But when I told Stakhan about the song and even sang a little bit, he exclaimed: “Alla, this is a song about you and me! This was supposed to be our duet! " And then I called the radio and asked to listen to Stakhan and me. We rerecorded the song as a duet. And for many years not one of our concerts could do without her.

- In general, is it difficult to sing a duet?

Alla Ioshpe:

- We ourselves are quite strong vocalists. If we sang separately, then each of us could make a good solo career. Here, however, how long we would have held out on the stage is unknown. And in a duet you have to give up your own self. You can't be selfish in a duet. You need to listen and hear your partner. Only then can be born that which was born between us and Stakhan.

- What do you think, is today's stage moving in the right direction?

Alla Ioshpe:

- You see, Kobzon sang very well: "On the stage, an unfamiliar tribe, sings unfamiliar songs." I do not think that the tribe is unfamiliar, the tribe is familiar, but there is very little that is close to us, we are different.

Stakhan Rakhimov:

- Forgive me, but sometimes it seems to me that there is a banal stupidity of the people. And it consists in the fact that people do not think about anything. For example, this New Year was the first time we watched TV without sound. Something was jumping, dancing, but we did not turn on the sound. There was no need for that. Because personally, this is already beginning to annoy me. Despite the fact that they are talented people, with good voices, but they are doing hell-what: they dress up, pretend to be clowns.

I do not want to offend anyone, but sometimes it seems to me that today's performers do not even suspect that there is such a thing as "song drama." And if a duet, then this is generally a performance! When Alla and I were making our programs, theater directors, such as Leonid Viktorovich Varpakhovsky, worked with us. He gave us a program.

- Do you think there is any chance for recovery?

Stakhan Rakhimov:

- When VIAs appeared, they were practically in every yard. I then said: “This is foam. It will take 5-6 years, and everything will subside, the best will remain ”. And indeed, time passed, and “Ariel”, “Gems”, “Yalla”, Baku “Gaya”, Belarusian “Pesnyary”, Georgian “Orera” and many others shone on the stage. That is, normal, decent teams remained. So, maybe something similar will happen now. Although there is little hope.

- Today, the famous vocal duo has another direction in creativity. I'm talking about literary work. Alla Yakovlevna, what are your books about?

Alla Ioshpe:

- The first book, A Song of a Lifetime, is a book of memories. The second book "Bread with Salt and Dust" is about meetings with all sorts of people, famous and not so famous. But it has such a bonus as two independent fiction stories. In the third book "In the city of the white crow" there are already more than half of the stories and a few verses. And in the fourth "Barrel of Happiness" - a whole chapter is devoted to poetry. And all the books, except for the first, are illustrated with drawings of her husband. It seems to me that he is a good artist.

- You have met a lot of wonderful people in your life. Could you remember the most striking of these meetings?

Alla Ioshpe:

- As I said, my second book is just about these memories. But I’ll highlight something.

We are in America. We were released. Largely thanks to Joseph Kobzon. There was a commission that decided the fate of our trip, they argued a lot. He entered and said: "Leave them alone at last!" And we were allowed to leave.

We arrive in San Francisco. Let's speak. We worked out the concert. And the next day Muslim Magomayev gives the same concert. And we decided to stay for one day, especially to attend a Muslim concert. We wanted to surprise him. We bought flowers, we are sitting. And the administrator managed to warn Muslim that we were in the hall. Muslim has always been an unusually delicate person. He sang a few songs and said: "And now I want to thank those whom I respect very much and who came to my concert today, especially so far from home, and it is so nice that these are my colleagues." He called our names, we stood up, and the audience applauded. You see, not every artist will give some of their success, especially to their colleagues. And Muslim did it. I have remembered this for the rest of my life.

And I also remember the meeting with Claudia Ivanovna Shulzhenko. We sang with her in one concert. I am still a beginner, and she is a star! It so happened that there were not enough make-up artists. She was asked to let one of the concert participants, of her choice, into her dressing room. They even gave a list of speakers. And from the whole list, she chose me! I was very proud and happy. In memory of this meeting, I have an autographed photograph of her, which I still keep.

Stakhan Rakhimov:

- There were really many meetings. For example, at a time when they were banned, they organized home concerts. Many famous actors came to us, Savely Kramarov, for example, and others.

But I remember one earlier meeting. This was in 1957. The first Festival of Youth and Students, where, in fact, my debut on the professional stage took place. And by that time I already had Indian and Italian songs in my repertoire. So, the father of the famous actor Raj Kapoor, Prithviraj, came to this festival. And when he heard the song of a tramp from the film of the same name in my performance, he gave me his cap.

- And yet, what happened to your old recordings? Has nothing survived?

Stakhan Rakhimov:

- We had a lot of records, but everything that was stored in the funds was destroyed at one point. And yet, something remained in the hands of the people. In this regard, our fans work miracles. Discs are sent from everywhere, two or three songs. Recently, 19 of our old songs were sent from St. Petersburg, and not just songs, but television footage. And someone sent us an old record, another 76 turns, thick, vinyl, and on it - "Listen to the mountains" and "Love the fire", what we once lost. And last year from Germany they sent us a disc from the 1963 concert, which took place in the Column Hall of the House of Unions. On it - a record of five of my songs and five of Alla's songs, with the reaction of the audience, with applause. And even now you listen to this recording, like such young and fragile voices, but on the other hand, there is nothing to complain about, from the point of view of musicality, everything is perfect.

- Your creative and family union has been going on for more than 50 years. What is its cementing link? And have there been revaluations over the years?

Alla Ioshpe:

- Of course! Stakhan and I are very different people. And in theory, if not for the music, I think that we would not be able to be together. He is an oriental person, very quick-tempered, touchy. In his blood - the wife must obey. And I am a spoiled Moscow girl with character. To take a wife like me to an Uzbek is even a feat. But over the years, I have developed several rules that helped to keep our union. One of them is to be able to yield, even when it is obvious that the spouse is wrong. The second is to be able to forgive. He will never ask for forgiveness. And finally, the third is never to return to old grievances.

- What could you wish the readers of the Sodruzhestvo magazine, the bulk of whom are employees of the internal affairs bodies of the CIS countries?

Alla Ioshpe:

- We live in a very difficult time. Therefore, I would like to wish you endurance and patience! And also understanding of loved ones!

Stakhan Rakhimov:

- Health! And success in your service!

- And, of course, the world!

Igor Alekseev
Photo from the personal archive of A. Ioshpe and S. Rakhimov

Alla Yakovlevna Ioshpe and Stakhan Mamadzhanovich Rakhimov are of the same age, she was born in Moscow, he was in Andijan (Republic of Uzbekistan). Both very early became interested in music, actively participated in amateur performances, first at school, then at university.

Their fateful meeting took place at an amateur art competition of Moscow universities in 1961. From that time on, they went through life together. And in 1963 they began performing as a duet on the professional stage.

The duo gained popularity very quickly: radio, television, large-circulation records, collaboration with the most famous composers and songwriters of the country. The duet of Ioshpe and Rakhimov toured not only the entire Soviet Union, but also half the world.

However, in 1979, they turned from the most popular artists into outcasts overnight. The reason was their intention to leave for permanent residence in Israel. They were declared enemies of the Motherland and banned from performing on stage. The duo's radio and television recordings were demagnetized. Alla Ioshpe and Stakhan Rakhimov spent the next decade practically "under house arrest." It was only in the late 1980s that the curtain of silence began to open slightly. They were allowed to sing first in small venues, and then on the main stages of the country.

Soviet and Russian pop singer

Honored Artist of Russia (1995) People's Artist of Russia (2002) Alla Yoshpe was born in 1937 in Ukraine into a Jewish family. At the age of 10, she fell seriously ill - she injured her leg, and began sepsis. The amputation was avoided, but the leg problems remained for life. She dreamed of becoming an artist, but she graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University, and even defended her Ph.D. thesis on the topic "The speed of voluntary motor reactions in health and in frontal brain tumors." She combined her studies with participation as a soloist in the pop-symphony orchestra of the University

In 1960, a fateful meeting took place at an amateur art competition of Moscow universities. The final concert took place in the Column Hall of the House of Unions. Everyone was extremely nervous behind the scenes. Only one person was not worried - a handsome Uzbek. It was Stakhan Rakhimov. At that competition, they shared the first prize, he took her home. So their romance began. At that time, they both already had their families, but love turned out to be stronger. For the wedding, friends gave them a tiny samovar with the words: “You can divide, cut everything, even a pillow. And this samovar, with all the desire, cannot be divided. So be together forever! " They sang together, their popularity grew ... But the trouble rolled like a snowball. In the late 1970s, Alla Yakovlevna's health began to deteriorate. The operations performed did not help. They promised to help in a foreign clinic, but they were denied by the Ministry of Health. And then in 1979 Alla Yoshpe and Stakhan Rakhimov decided to apply to leave for Israel. The reaction of the authorities followed immediately: Alla and Stakhan were not only not allowed out of the country, but they were declared enemies of the Motherland and forbidden to perform on stage. All their radio and television recordings were demagnetized. The next decade Rakhimov and Yoshpe spent practically "under house arrest." They were threatened, constantly summoned to the Lubyanka, and their daughter was expelled from the institute. One day Alla and Stakhan wrote a hundred letters to all the capital's publications: We did not leave, we are alive, we are here. We are not allowed to work ... Often strangers called them from pay phones, saying: "Guys, we are with you, hold on!" And friends - came to visit, brought food: cakes, sweets, salads. Of course asked to sing

And soon rumors spread throughout Moscow: Yoshpe and Rakhimov were organizing home concerts. Indeed, every Saturday people began to gather in their house. They called their "home theater" Music in Refusal. His emblem was a painting by a forbidden artist: two birds with a barn lock on their beaks.

It was only in the late 1980s that the curtain of silence began to open slightly. They were allowed to sing in small regional centers, and then on the main stages of the country.

Now Alla Yoshpe and Stakhan Rakhimov can be seen on television and radio, at concert venues in Russia and abroad

In 2002 A. Ya. Yoshpe and S. M. Rakhimov became People's Artists of Russia.

Then there was not only the Internet, but also a free press, so when something extraordinary happened in a Soviet country, at best you could learn about it from the programs of enemy radio stations. Therefore, the sudden disappearance from the air of the very popular duet of Alla Ioshpe and Stakhan Rakhimov gave rise to many incredible rumors. On the other hand, it is not a matter of awarding medals to artists who wish to emigrate to their historical homeland.

early years

The famous singer was born on June 13, 1937 in a Jewish family in Ukraine. She was ten years old when she saw the neighbour's children running around the cornfield. Alla Ioshpe ran out barefoot and, playing, hurt her leg. From a splinter, an infection got into the blood vessels, and sepsis began. Domestic medicines did not help, but it was impossible to get imported medicines. The parents sold everything they could to provide treatment. Nothing helped, little Alla literally burned and died from infection. The doctors wanted to amputate the leg, but my mother did not agree. And then a miracle happened, the child went on the mend.

At first, her mother took her to school, she still did not walk well and practically hung on her. So they hobbled together. With a terrible diagnosis, in which many do not get out of bed, she managed to study well, sing and play the guitar. She seemed to be getting better at school. She often recalls: a thin, pale girl lies on the couch and dreams of dancing a foxtrot with her sister's friends. But the pain in her leg haunted her day and night.

First performances

Only girls studied at their school; in the eighth grade, boys from a neighboring school were invited to them. For little Alla Ioshpe, this was an exciting event, she got up early, put on her sister Faina's green coat with a fur trim, in which she considered herself irresistible. And she went for a walk around the city, did not return home - they would take away my coat. I went to the hairdresser, where I did a manicure for the first time, because today is her first performance.

It was not in vain that she prepared this way, the concert really became fateful in the biography of Alla Ioshpe. Then, at the age of fifteen, a teenage girl met her future husband, Vladimir. They got married eight years later.

Both mom and grandmother always said that on stage she was changing - literally prettier before our eyes. And later, laughing, they recalled: he was lying downright dying, all green, frozen, practically eating nothing. And as soon as he comes out to speak, he seems to be recovering so instantly. Eyes shine and glow like spotlights.

Obtaining a specialty

No matter how she dreamed of the stage, Alla went to study at the Faculty of Psychology of Moscow State University, later she even defended her Ph.D. thesis. She actually had to enter twice, she scored 19 points in the entrance exams with a passing 18, but she was not on the lists of those who entered. Alla Ioshpe went to an appointment with the rector, who simply said that she did not qualify for the competition and offered to take exams at the Faculty of Philology. Without any preparation, the young girl again received only one B - in Russian oral. She was offered to take the documents, but she refused, and the university had to allocate additional space. As her classmate later wrote, the brilliant Ioshpe had a hard time, let down both origin and nationality.

In her student years, she performed a lot with propaganda teams, became a soloist of the university pop-symphony ensemble.

Meeting with destiny

In 1960, she made it to the finals of the student competition of amateur performances in Moscow, the final concert was held in the Column Hall of the House of Unions. She performed in the first part of the concert in a modest white dress. It was sewn for her by her mother from the curtain, since there was no other suitable material in the house.

It was on this stage that Alla Ioshpe saw Stakhan Rakhimov for the first time, as he recalls: a girl as thin as a reed, when she sang, stretched towards the sky, stretching up like a string. And he realized that they feel the music the same way. They met before going on stage. The girl came up and reprimanded him. Stakhan was probably the only one who was not nervous, he just sat and smoked. Alla considered that it harms the vocalists' vocal cords.

According to the recollections of the singer's husband, she finished the first part, and he finished the second, like the singers who shared the first prize. For some reason, Stakhan wondered if Alla waited for his performance, then everything would be fine with them. After the performance, he saw the girl, hid his wedding ring in his pocket, and they went home together. We walked for a long time, on foot from the Column Hall to Malaya Bronnaya and talked, talked ...

Duo debut

Alla Ioshpe invited a new friend to the anniversary concert of her orchestra, in the Molodezhnoye cafe, which was located on Gorky Street (now Tverskaya). They took a taxi and went first to talk - they drank champagne, which Stakhan borrowed, leaving his watch in a pledge in the cafe.

Then the concert began, she sang her popular songs: "Princess Nesmeyana", "Buy violets", and then for some reason decided to sing "Song of Tbilisi". A young Uzbek singer had just returned from a tour in this city and knew her only in Georgian. Something jerked him, as he himself recalls, to the second verse he went up to her and began to sing along in a second voice. This was the first joint performance in the biography of Alla Ioshpe and Stakhan Rakhimov. The audience quieted down and even stopped dancing, impressed by the performance. Then the artists sang a few more songs at the request of the audience. They didn't need rehearsals, they just felt each other.

The best years of the duo

Soon the first solo concerts and tours of the cities of the Soviet Union took place. The debut was a trip to Siberia, where they were very well received by the audience. After that, they became popular, according to the singer Alla Ioshpe herself, because the niche was not occupied, the genre was not in great demand. And when they heard them, they fell in love.

They performed a lot, the duet's songs were constantly heard on the radio, however, they were shown on television quite rarely. Concerts were given only in those cities to which they wanted to go. They themselves planned the touring program. With their songs, Stakhan Rakhimov and Alla Ioshpe have traveled half the world. They even made a tour of Australia, where they sang for local residents, and in different languages: Russian, English, Greek.

First call

They traveled around the country with the program "Songs of the Nations of the World", in which they sounded French, German, Italian and even African songs. After the rental in Omsk, a concert took place in the Moscow "Luzhniki". Before the performance, Alla Ioshpe asked the director of Rosconcert Boris Brunov: "Can I sing 'Khava Nagila'?" He listened and allowed. However, for the performance of this Jewish song, they canceled all concerts and tours for violation of labor discipline. Because at that time the Seven Day War began.

Soon, the duo was banned from singing the songs of Alla Ioshpe, obliging to perform only the works of members of the Union of Composers. In particular, they did not like her song "Horse", which contains the words: "The quieter you go, the further you will be ..." Officials considered that these words hinted at emigration to Israel.

Failed Zionists

In the 70s, Alla again began to be very worried about her leg, injured in childhood. The operations carried out in the Soviet Union practically did not help. They began to look for the possibility of treatment abroad. It turned out that Israel could help her. When they asked the Soviet authorities to allow them to go for treatment, they were refused everywhere. In 1979, they applied to leave for Israel, they were refused, like many other future immigrants. Alla Ioshpe says that she does not know why they were not released, the authorities simply said that they are important for the country.

The ban on the profession

The authorities reacted very harshly: not only were they not allowed to leave the Soviet country, but also subjected to repression. Of course, it was no longer the 30s. But they canceled all tours, stopped inviting them to radio and television. The recordings of songs and performances were destroyed. Stakhan was constantly summoned for an interview at the KGB, offered to abandon the Jewish woman, as did Alla from him. Daughter Tatyana was expelled from the Komsomol and the university.

Sometimes strangers called them from public telephones, said words of support. Alla expressed her pain and bitterness in poetry and the book that she began to write. Creativity in the biography of Alla Ioshpe remained, although the next decade the duet was not released on stage. Stakhan tried to feed his family. They stubbornly continued to apply for the exit every six months.

The couple sold almost all of their property, first antiques, and then furniture. Slept on the bookshelves because there was nothing else left. Since the duo suddenly disappeared from the air, the wildest rumors began to circulate around the country, including that they were in poverty in Israel, and Stakhan was selling homemade pilaf there.

Home concerts

Many refused such a dangerous acquaintance, but friends continued to visit, bring food: salads, fruits, sweets, cakes and other products. And, of course, impromptu gatherings ended with home concerts. The family theater Music in Refusal was gradually formed. Once a month, 60-70 people came to them, although the spouses did not ask, but all the guests brought something. The family duet sang, and policemen were on duty under the windows.

Famous pianist Vladimir Feltsman, violist Lesha Dyachkov with his wife Fira, professor Alexander Lerner often dropped in to see them. Sometimes the popular comedian Savely Kramarov performed, who was also not allowed out of the country for a long time.

The couple began to write letters to the newspapers: if you don’t let them leave, at least give them the opportunity to earn a living. They sent their messages to about 100 publications. And it worked, they were allowed to sing in the outback. Gradually, people began to learn about this, the halls were overcrowded. Alla Ioshpe's songs appeared in the repertoire: "Violin", "The Roads of Artists", "Autumn Time", "Tango", "And Tango Again", since no one gave their works to the "enemies of the people".

Songs of the Promised Land

With perestroika, more opportunities appeared, they did not break down, they were able to start all over again. They had to win the audience again, travel a lot again. At Stakhan's insistence, Jewish songs by Alla Ioshpe appeared, and the duo gradually renewed their repertoire. The first foreign tours after a decade of oblivion were in America. They were warmly received by emigrants from the Soviet Union; in total, the artists spent almost three years in the United States.

In 2002, the singers of the once famous duet were awarded the title of "People's Artists of Russia". Every December they organize a concert in Moscow dedicated to the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Alla Ioshpe wrote four books, which contain her poems and stories.

Two husbands of the singer

For the first time, Alla married a guy whom she knew from school. The young family lived with her husband's parents, in a small multi-room house. In one of them lived Robert, the elder brother and his wife, in the other - Allan Chumak, the future famous psychic throughout the country, and in the third - Alla and Vladimir. Her husband supported all her undertakings, was a good family man. Soon the couple had a daughter, Tatiana, who became a doctor. Her son, grandson Kostya, lives in London.

With Stakhan, they settled on Vasilievsky Island, by the time they met, both were no longer free. The children of Stakhan Rakhimov and Alla Ioshpe lived with the second halves of novice artists. As the singer later recalled, their love arose there and the realization came: they should be together forever. Alla went home, but how to tell her husband about it? Vladimir suffered greatly when Alla told him that her heart belonged to another man. She left, taking her daughter Tanechka with her. Ioshpe is still grateful to him for everything.

With Rakhimov, who also studied at a Moscow university, his wife Natasha and her daughter Lola lived with his mother in Tashkent. Lola and Tatiana are the only children in the biography of Alla Ioshpe.

Alla Ioshpe was born in 1937 in Ukraine into a Jewish family. At the age of 10, she fell seriously ill - she injured her leg, and began sepsis. The amputation was avoided, but the leg problems remained for life. She dreamed of becoming an artist, but she graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University, and even defended her Ph.D. thesis on the topic "The speed of voluntary motor reactions in health and in frontal brain tumors." She combined her studies with participation as a soloist in the pop-symphony orchestra of the University. In 1960, a fateful meeting took place at an amateur art competition of Moscow universities. The final concert took place in the Column Hall of the House of Unions. Everyone was extremely nervous behind the scenes. Only one person was not worried - a handsome Uzbek. It was Stakhan Rakhimov. At that competition, they shared the first prize, he took her home. So their romance began. At that time, they both already had their families, but love turned out to be stronger. For the wedding, friends gave them a tiny samovar with the words: “You can divide, cut everything, even a pillow. And this samovar, with all the desire, cannot be divided. So be together forever! ”Alla Ioshpe - Three plus five They sang together, their popularity grew ... But the trouble rolled like a snowball. In the late 1970s, Alla Yakovlevna's health began to deteriorate. The operations performed did not help. They promised to help in a foreign clinic, but they were denied by the Ministry of Health. And then in 1979 Alla Ioshpe and Stakhan Rakhimov decided to apply to leave for Israel. The reaction of the authorities followed immediately: Alla and Stakhan were not only not allowed out of the country, but they were declared enemies of the Motherland and forbidden to perform on stage. All their radio and television recordings were demagnetized. Rakhimov and Ioshpe spent the next decade practically "under house arrest." They were threatened, constantly summoned to the Lubyanka, and their daughter was expelled from the institute. One day Alla and Stakhan wrote a hundred letters to all the capital's publications: Often strangers called them from pay phones, saying: "Guys, we are with you, hold on!" And friends - came to visit, brought food: cakes, sweets, salads. Of course, they asked me to sing, and soon rumors spread throughout Moscow: Ioshpe and Rakhimov were organizing home concerts. Indeed, every Saturday people began to gather in their house. They called their "home theater" Music in Refusal. Its emblem was a painting by a forbidden artist: two birds with a barn lock hung on their beaks, and it was only in the late 1980s that the curtain of silence began to open slightly. They were allowed to sing in small regional centers, and then on the main stages of the country. Now Alla Ioshpe and Stakhan Rakhimov can be seen on television and radio, at concert venues in Russia and abroad. In 2002, A. Ya. Ioshpe and S. M. Rakhimov became People's Artists of Russia.