DESCRIPTION:
Tschto mne gore (What’s My Sorrow) Gypsy Romance – Pyotr Leshchenko & Frank Fox Orchestra, Columbia c. 1933 (UK)

NOTE: There’s no doubt, Pyotr Leshchenko belongs to the best European pop-singers of the interwar-period. Born in a peasant family in Ukraine (Kherson region) he sung in Russian and therefore he is often mistakenly considered as a Russian. He started his adult life during the time of the 1st WW and the Bolshevic Revolution in Russia, serving as a soldier in Cossack regiment located in Don river region. Wounded in 1919, he never returned to the army but fled from the Bolshevic Russia to Bucharest, Romania, where he performed in a Russian dance ensamble. Through the whole decade of 1920s he performed in group or solo as dancer and singer in Romania and in other Euroipean cities, where his traditional Russian repertoire was warmly welcomed within the large colonies of “white”Russians” (the anti-Bolshevik Russian émigrés). Back in Romania in 1930, he was employed in one of major theatres in Bucharest and ever since he shared his time between Bucharest and Riga in the Republic of Latvija, where his performances were also very much welcomed. In 1931 he signed with Parlophon in Berlin and with Columbia in Bucharest, and his gramophone records simply flooded Europe, everywhere arousing admiration. In 1935 he opened restaurant “Lescenco” in Bucharest – the elegant venue cosidered as “East European Maxim’s” - where he regularily performed, making longer breaks for performances in Berlin, Paris and London, where he signed contract with the radio. The first part of Leshchenko's performance would typically be dedicated to Gypsy music, but during the second part he would dress up in a tuxedo, with a white silk handkerchief and sing and dance Argentine tango or the popular foxtrotts. Though he still sung old Russian romances, and even Soviet songs (like "Serdtse", which was originally sung by Leonid Utyosov), many songs were now composed for him exclusively (with the tango songs turning Argentine in style and arrangement). One of his favourite non-Russian authors was Polish composer and bandleader Jerzy Petersburski, but he also sung works composed by Isaak Dunayevsky, Oscar Strok or Mark Maryanovsky. Many lyrics of Leshchenko songs were written by himself or by Boris Fomin. In the Soviet Union his work was banned both because he was believed to be a White émigré and because the style (tango and foxtrot) was deemed counter-revolutionary. Nevertheless, secretly he was very popular: people would even listen to Radio Tehran to hear his music, '78 records were smuggled into the country from the Baltic states.

All that ended with outhbreak of the 2nd WW. As the Romanian citizen, Leshchenko was called up for military service. He stayed in the Romanian army until 1944, and when Bucharest with the whole of Romania was seized by the Red Army, Leshchenko was not arrested, but instead he and his wife Vera became personal protégées of general Vladimir Burenin, military commander of the Soviet garrison in Bucharest. Some sources believe this was due to Marshal Georgy Zhukov being a secret admirer of his music. However in 1951, a week after receiving an official letter granting Pyotr and Vera a permission to settle in the Soviet Union, they both were arrested. Such things were quite common in the Bolshevic paradise: while one official was giving you a long-awaited passport, accompanied by his cordial smile and a handshake, the other was signing the order to arrest you when you’ll be leaving the office. Vera was extradited to the Soviet Union (where she was condemned to forced labour for amongst other things, "marrying a foreigner") and Pyotr was sent to a Romanian prison near Bucharest. Both outlived Joseph Stalin, but Pyotr died in a prison hospital in July 1954, without seeing Vera – who had already been released but did not know her husband was still alive.