Who is Victoria Brezhnev. Jewish wife of Leonid Brezhnev

Design and interior 20.06.2019
Design and interior

Victoria Petrovna Brezhneva - only wife Soviet general secretary. Together they lived a long and happy life. life together. In total, the family life of this couple was more than 50 years.

Victoria Brezhneva (nee Denisova) was born in 1907 in a simple worker-proletarian family in Belgorod. Father is a railway engineer. The family was large: 4 daughters and a son.

Victoria Brezhneva

Some biographers say that Brezhnev 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 the wife of Leonid Ilyich lived. There are also disagreements about the surname - in some sources she appears as Olshevskaya, in others as Goldberg. But Victoria Petrovna denied these rumors during her lifetime, calling Denisov's surname her "native" surname. And Victoria was allegedly named because a large number of Poles lived in their area, 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 a diploma, for some time she worked by education - a midwife.


Victoria's fate was decided when she was a student at a technical school. Once, together with a friend, she went to the dance. There she met Leonid Brezhnev, an agricultural student. According to her, he was not handsome. And he couldn't dance. He looked like a simpleton and a goof. Therefore, the girlfriend refused to dance with him. And Victoria took pity on the guy and went.

Since then, they have not parted again. They got married in 1928. At first, they lived modestly - they rented a room in a hostel. Victoria Brezhneva worked in a hospital. But when her husband began to rapidly climb the career ladder, she left her job and devoted herself to her family.

Secretary General's wife

She was a simple woman, domestic and economic. She cooked deliciously, caring for her husband and two children: in 1929, the couple had a daughter, and 4 years later, their son Yuri. Later, when her husband became General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Viktoria Petrovna took care of her husband's wardrobe.

In their house appeared servants and personal chefs. Brezhneva taught them to cook the way her husband liked it. But the woman did not get sick with star disease: she always remained in the shadow of Leonid Ilyich, shunned noisy companies in which the wives of party officials shone with fashionable outfits and hairstyles, and 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 interfered in the intrigues of high society and the work of her husband, was not convicted of gossip or "undercover" games. She was not the "first lady" in the current sense of the word.

Leonid Ilyich used to call his wife Vitya in everyday life. Perhaps due to some speech defect that Victoria Brezhneva had. She was the only one who knew how to listen to him, calm him down and give him unexpected useful advice: simple and at the same time wise. The faithful and balanced "half" was the second "I" of the Secretary General.


Daughter Galina Brezhneva was complete opposite mother: bright, with an explosive temperament, a fashionista who loves luxury and expensive jewelry. In her life there were a lot of men and novels, which her mother did not like. But also more woman worried about the abuse of alcohol and the scandals that accompanied Galina all her life.

Officially, Galina got married three times. Her first husband was Evgeny Milaev, a circus performer, a strong acrobat. He was 20 years older than the girl, had two twin children, whose mother died in childbirth. In this marriage, Brezhnev lived 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 the Hero of Socialist Labor. There is evidence that he beat Galya, and she repeatedly told her father about this. Brezhnev knew that his daughter was unhappy in marriage with Milaev, but he said "be patient." The reason for their divorce was the betrayal of Eugene.


Brezhnev's granddaughter Victoria spent more time with her grandparents, as her parents were constantly on tour. As she herself said in an interview, she was not forbidden anything and was always given freedom of choice.

The second marriage of his daughter Brezhnev categorically did not approve. Galina at that time was 33 years old, she fell in love with an illusionist, who was 18 years old. Secretly, they registered a relationship, but after 10 days they were given new passports without marriage stamps.


The third marriage was with military Yuri Churbanov. And the parents, who were already tired of their daughter's adventures, were incredibly happy for such a serious person in Gali's life. Their marriage lasted 20 years.

After she had stormy romances with a gypsy actor and singer Boris Buryatsya, a ballet dancer.

But the son of Victoria Petrovna and Leonid Ilyich followed in the footsteps of his father, devoted himself to politics. In 1979-1983 he served as First Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade of the USSR. He had one wife, Lyudmila, in a marriage with whom two sons were born - Andrey and Leonid. Yuri died in 2013 from brain cancer.

Personal life

If the memoirs of Leonid Ilyich materialized in the form of a trilogy "Small Earth", "Renaissance" and "Virgin Land", which, by the way, he himself read only after their publication, then following the results of Galina Leonidovna's life in 2008, Vitaly Pavlov's drama series " Galina. Judging by this film, the daughter of Leonid Ilyich 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 Central Committee of the CPSU was faithful to his wife. There were talks about several of his novels. For example, with the singer Anna Shalfeeva. Allegedly, an official met her during the Great Patriotic War.


Also in 2016 - the year of the 110th anniversary of the birth of Leonid Ilyich - the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper published an interview in which Galina Brezhneva's friends told about the personal secrets of the Secretary General and his family.

Former actress and now public figure Victoria Lazich recalls that 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 boldly to this news, she said that she would ruin his career, write a complaint against him to the party committee. Lazich says that Galya allegedly believed that her mother managed to save her family only by blackmail.


Victoria Brezhneva with her husband and grandchildren

More is known about another woman who was near the official for a long time. 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 Secretary General's niece Lyubov Brezhneva (daughter of his brother), he admitted that Nina resembled his front-line love Tamara.

Nevertheless, the personal life of Victoria Brezhneva, according to people who knew her, developed happily. The joint years of life allotted to them, the spouses respected each other and did not quarrel. At least that's how it looked to 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 away most of the property from the woman. She lived out her life quietly and modestly, in a small Moscow apartment and all alone.

AT last decade life a woman suffered from diabetes and was forced to constantly inject herself with insulin. This illness was the cause of her death. Victoria Petrovna was buried on Novodevichy cemetery.


Victoria Brezhneva

Both the life and death of Victoria Brezhneva turned out to be quiet and not covered in the media, unlike the life and death of her daughter. When Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev died, his daughter became even more addicted to alcohol, and eventually ended up in mental asylum in the Moscow region, where she underwent treatment for alcoholism. There she died in 1998 of a stroke, having outlived her mother by only three years. The woman was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery next to the grave of her mother.

She was overtaken by the same fate as Victoria Petrovna. During the reign, they tried to confiscate the inheritance from Galina, but, unlike her mother, the daughter of the former Secretary General did not give up so easily. She managed to win the trial. And real estate, and antiques, and cars remained with her.


No less tragic was the fate of her daughter Victoria. While trying to sell the remaining apartments, she ran into 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 could not find herself in life, the woman wandered the streets, lived in porches. At 33, she was placed in 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.

Soviet General Secretary Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev died in 1982. And until his death, he was married to the only woman since 1928. You rarely see such constancy, especially among politicians and "people's leaders." However, this is still the Soviet Union.

Her name was Victoria Petrovna, nee Denisova. As for the surname, however, there are disagreements in the sources - in some it appears as Olshevskaya, in others as Goldberg. This secret is shrouded in darkness, but Brezhnev's faithful wife went down in history precisely as Denisova.

The early years of Brezhnev's wife

Victoria was born in 1907 in Belgorod. In terms of origin, we can say about her - a hereditary proletarian. Victoria Petrovna's father worked as a machinist at railway. And the mother, as was then customary in most families, stayed at home - ran the household, raised five children. The name Victoria, according to the memoirs of Brezhneva herself, was given to her due to the fact that in the area where her family lived, there were many Poles with whom this name was very popular.
The future first lady of the country graduated from the 9th grade of a regular school, after which she entered a medical college in Kursk. It was there that her fate was decided - on the local dance floor she met a student-agrarian Leonid Brezhnev. She talked about this moment like this: Leonid was a little uncouth, rustic and did not know how to dance; first he invited her girlfriend to dance, but she refused for the reason mentioned, then he invited Victoria, who immediately agreed.

After studying at a technical school, she received a diploma in midwifery. For some time she worked in this specialty, but then she left the profession and never returned to it, devoting herself entirely to her new (and, as it turned out later, only) family. At first, Leonid and Victoria, who married in 1928, lived modestly, renting a room. Then, when her husband began to receive high government posts, she did not want to change her lifestyle and preferred to remain a housewife. She was a quiet, inconspicuous woman, she did not like to attract increased attention to herself from the public. By the way, she was also practically not interested in politics. She watched the wardrobe of a high-ranking husband and at his table; many memories have been preserved that Viktoria Petrovna cooked well. Moreover, when Brezhnev took over as General Secretary and he had personal chefs, his wife taught them how to cook the way her husband liked.
In connection with this way of life, Victoria Brezhneva was not the "first lady" in our usual sense: she quite rarely accompanied him during official trips. They say that she dressed modestly, did not wear jewelry, did not attend noisy parties and did not know how to have fun. Yes, and it was impossible to call her beautiful either - however, like Leonid Ilyich himself. Apparently, not for external beauty, they fell in love with each other, but they loved deeply and truly. Either because of a well-known speech defect, or simply loving, Brezhnev called his wife Vitya and considered her, as it were, his second “I”.

Brezhnev's wife and daughter Galina are such different women

All this sharply distinguishes her from her daughter Galina, who was the complete opposite of her mother: Galina Brezhneva led a noisy and quite scandalous life, had many lovers, spent time in constant parties, drank a lot and adored expensive outfits. Her name was surrounded by gossip, the most noble men of the country dragged behind her, and Galina, using her status as the daughter of the leader himself, allowed herself a lot of things that Soviet people could not even dream of.
For all her modesty, Victoria Petrovna was distinguished by stronger health than Brezhnev himself, and therefore outlived him by almost 13 years. But in the end, her powers also dwindled - last years she spent in a modest Moscow apartment, living alone. The woman had to take insulin injections regularly because she suffered from diabetes. Immediately after the death of Brezhnev, his former party comrades did not regret his faithful wife and took away part of her property.

The silent death of Brezhnev's wife

Victoria Petrovna died in 1995, also quietly and imperceptibly, as she had lived all this time. And her death was almost not covered in the media - except that an article appeared in Moskovsky Komsomolets and a report on the central television channel. They practically do not talk about it even now, at a time when it is customary to glorify the glorious Soviet past with pathos. Indeed, what can we say about a woman who shunned all sorts of scandals and intrigues and led a completely ordinary existence. Journalists need heroes and villains, even if their behavior directly contradicted what the ideology taught. Victoria Petrovna really was a simple Soviet woman, a typical person of her era, and her husband and children can be safely considered "rotten capitalists", judging by their lifestyle and material needs.
Mother and daughter Galina, such dissimilar women, are buried next to each other at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Victoria Petrovna Brezhneva or Victoria Pinkhusovna Goldberg?

Leonid Ilyich and Victoria Petrovna Brezhnev

Liliana BLUSHTEIN

Among my childhood memories of life in a communal apartment on Gogol Street in St. Petersburg, there are some very strange ones. One of them is about the Jewish origin of Leonid Brezhnev's wife. I clarified some details later with my mother, and a very interesting picture emerged.

The funeral of dear Leonid Ilyich was shown on TV. Most of the inhabitants of the communal apartment at that moment already had their own “boxes”, but only in our “two-room” apartment (I quote “two-room” because in fact it was once a huge room divided by a plywood wall with some strange sign above the front door. My older brother said that this was some kind of noble coat of arms).

The elderly neighbor Varvara Stepanovna, according to her, a former ballerina of the Mariinsky Theater, was asked to be the first to join us.

Darling,” she said coyly to her mother, “would you allow me to look at Leonid Ilyich in color for the last time?

Why, Varvara Stepanovna, ”my philologically savvy mother answered in her tone,“ if you please, I will only be glad to have your company.

Maybe you are still glad that Brezhnev passed away? - asked the alcoholic uncle Vitya, who heard this dialogue.

Subsequently, reading dog's heart"Mikhail Bulgakov, I imagined him in the role of Sharikov. Vladimir Tolokonnikov played this role brilliantly, but Uncle Vitya would have been even more brilliant. The real Abyrvalg!

How can you rejoice in the death of a person? Mom sighed sadly. “Yes, and such a person ...

Yes, what kind? Uncle Vitya chuckled. - Chatter - five stars.

Fear God, Viktor Ivanovich,” Varvara Stepanovna threw up her hands and quietly added, so that, as she dreamed, only her mother could hear her: “And His vicegerent on earth in the Big House.”

Everyone in Leningrad knew what the “Big House” was. Even me, a first grader. This word terrified everyone. But not to Uncle Vitya, who nevertheless heard these words:

Are these Chekists, or something, from God? They are from the devil, from the devil, from the demonic mother. And I'm not afraid of them! What can they take from me? Only my immortal soul!

The dissident speeches of a chronic alcoholic were stopped by a retired officer, Mariy Evdokimovich, who appeared in the kitchen. When I grew up a little, I was very amused that his name and patronymic were somehow feminine. But then it didn't bother me.

Comrades, in this mournful hour it would be better to be silent, - said Mariy Yevdokimovich.

After these words, for some reason I became bored and I ran to our apartment. Turning on the TV, she found Brezhnev in a coffin, and began to call her mother and Varvara Stepanovna. They did not keep themselves waiting. Then, without even asking, other neighbors came to us. Uncle Vitya commented on almost every frame. And the rest of the silence did not differ.

When they showed a close-up like a petrified widow, Mariy Evdokimovich remarked:

And here is Victoria Pinkhusovna.

Is Brezhnev's wife Jewish? Mom was surprised.

Yes, of course, - nodded Mari Evdokimovich. “Just look at her face.

It looks like it, it looks like it,” Varvara Stepanovna confirmed. - There can be no two opinions.

Uncle Vitya also put in his "five":

Wherever you throw - everywhere the Jews!

Mariy Evdokimovich silently grabbed the alcoholic by the ear and, not paying attention to the cries, took him to the toilet and closed it from the outside.

I beg your pardon,” when he returned, he turned to his mother and another of our neighbors, Uncle Musa, who had not uttered a word until that moment. There is no place for anti-Semites among us.

Mariy Evdokimovich, how do you know that Brezhnev's wife is Pinkhusovna? Mom asked. - It seems that her patronymic is Petrovna ...

Yes, officially - Victoria Petrovna, nee Denisova, - answered Uncle Musya. - Actually - Victoria Pinkhusovna Goldberg. But it has always been carefully hidden, you understand why.

That's right, Moses Solomonovich, - nodded Mari Evdokimovich. - And this fact is known to me for certain because my father knew her real father, was his apprentice, and called Uncle Pinya.

There is no need to tell such things in front of a child, - Varvara Stepanovna looked expressively at me. What is on the mind of an adult is on the tongue of a child.

Honestly October, I won't tell anyone! - I felt terribly offended.

But the conversation went in a completely different direction, the adults began to discuss which of the members of the Politburo would take the place of the deceased, and the next morning I forgot about this conversation for a long time.

Victoria Petrovna Brezhneva

Seven years have passed. Uncle Vitya, drunk, fell into the Griboyedov Canal and the neighbors had to go to the morgue for identification. Mariy Evdokimovich, still quite a strong man, having learned that his first love was a widow, went to his native Belgorod and for the first time in his life became a family man. Varvara Stepanovna fell seriously ill. Childless Uncle Musya and his wife Aunt Faina sat on their suitcases, handing out books from their rich library to their neighbors.

We will take with us only what we need There,” Aunt Faya told Mom. - Yes, and I advise you not to linger in this melikha ...

Yes, of course, my mother agreed. - But we need to raise the children, and just about, finally, they promise us normal apartment, the queue is coming up.

You will wait in line until the second coming,” Uncle Musya said. - While they let out, you have to go.

At that moment, my brother grew up on the threshold, barely a living confirmation of this opinion. It was terrible to look at him - covered in blood, in torn clothes.

But on the other hand, they got it for the "Jewish face"!

I was the unwitting culprit of this state of emergency. We had a new history teacher at our school who spoke openly about a Jewish conspiracy against the Russian people. And since only I had such a frank surname in the class, he looked expressively in my direction. On that day, having called to the board, he unexpectedly asked me if I had anything to do with Sonya - the Golden Pen. Being a well-read girl, I knew who in question especially since our last names are very similar.

She is Blueshtein, and I am Blushtein,” I answered.

What difference does it make, all of you are “mattes,” the teacher grinned. “All of you have a craving for theft and deceit in your blood.

Even Brezhnev's wife? - from somewhere in the back streets of my memory, the day of the Secretary General's funeral surfaced. — Victoria Pinkhusovna?

What started here! The historian fought in hysterics, sarcastically asked me if Raisa Maksimovna was actually Moiseevna. Several of my classmates and classmates got involved in this persecution, and Verka Martemyanova, who was said to go to Olgino to serve sexually horny foreigners, said that the Jews drank so much Christian blood that it would be great to bleed me too.

I did not listen to further bullying. She jumped out of the classroom and buried her nose in the elbow of my brother's friend, basketball player Mishka.

Why are you covered in snot, Lilka? he wondered. - Come on, tell me.

Together with my brother, they listened to me carefully and went straight to the director. The historian was called to the carpet. The director warned him that if he allowed himself one more anti-Semitic trick, he would not be able to complete the education system until retirement.

The next day, at a meeting of the historical-patriotic circle, which he led, the historian told the high school students about what had happened. And they have already made their conclusions and called my brother for disassembly. So he suffered, one might say, not only for my honor and his national pride, but also for the supposedly Jewish widow of the Secretary General.

But on the other hand, Mishka and I beat them so hard that they will remember for the rest of their lives! - my brother proudly told my mother and neighbors.

Interestingly, the Russian guy Mishka, ten years after the events described, married a Jewish girl and now lives in Ramat Gan. But that's a completely different story.

So was Victoria Petrovna Pinkhusovna? If you do not pay attention to her unequivocally Semitic appearance and to the story of Mariya Yevdokimovich, then there is no clear evidence of her Jewish origin. At the same time, many anti-Semites clearly point to her Jewishness. They are echoed by those Jews who seek out their own among anyone.

It seems that, as the poetess Larisa Vasilyeva writes in her book The Kremlin Wives, during Leonid Ilyich’s visit to France, someone in the crowd was holding a poster with the inscription: “Victoria Petrovna! You are Jewish! Help your people! Let the Jews be released to their native land!”

Victoria Petrovna herself once said:

“I am not Jewish, although they said that I was very similar.”

Her daughter-in-law Lyudmila once remarked half-jokingly:

But did not Victoria Petrovna catch up with Anna Vladimirovna, your mother, some intelligent Jew, while your father Pyotr Nikiforovich was driving a steam locomotive?

Judging by the recollections of those who knew her, Viktoria Petrovna was a modest, gentle person. And sincerely loved Leonid Ilyich. But did she really have Jewish roots, and who is that Uncle Pinya, whom Mariy Evdokimovich, who was not prone to jokes, spoke about, and who, perhaps, actually caught up with Anna Vladimirovna, I don’t know.

In 1953, the General Secretary of the USSR Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev had a granddaughter, who was named Victoria in honor of her grandmother. Due to the busyness of the parents and the hectic business trip life, they worked in the circus and often toured, the child was given to the upbringing of grandparents. Victoria Milayeva always went on vacation with them to the country, loved to spend time with them talking and playing. There are many photographs of Victoria with her grandfather in the family archive.

Brezhnev's granddaughter - stormy youth

Victoria's youth was stormy and cheerful. As she herself told one of the newspapers, her famous and influential grandfather and grandmother did not forbid her anything, they always gave her the freedom to choose who to study, with whom to be friends, and she herself made many other decisions.

The children of party chiefs, and it was to such, for obvious reasons, that Victoria Milaeva attributed herself, were used to living well.

Victoria Filippova with her famous grandfather Leonid Brezhnev

They rested in elite sanatoriums, were treated by the best doctors in the Kremlin hospital, and at a time when it was hard to buy this or that product or thing, the doors of special stores were always open for them.

The biography of Brezhnev's granddaughter Victoria Filippova constantly surprised both the media and relatives and relatives. She listened to few people, and after the death of her beloved grandfather, she generally went into herself.

In the life of Victoria Milayeva there were 2 marriages. Her first husband was the banker Mikhail Filippov. Their meeting turned out to be accidental, after Vika was expelled from Moscow State University for poor progress. She was just walking around the shops and saw a handsome guy at the counter. The tall brunette struck Brezhnev's granddaughter, having met for a short period of time, they decided not to delay the wedding and legalized their relationship. In 1973, they became parents, Victoria gave birth to a daughter, who was named Galina.

Even when Victoria and Mikhail met, the couple realized that they had a very comfortable relationship, and they seemed to be nice to each other. Michael comes from a poor family, where only his mother worked and supported her son. But when Filippov grew up, he undertook to quickly look for a profitable party. Victoria knew about this, but nothing stopped her before marrying Mikhail.

Victoria Filippova with her daughter and mother Galina Brezhneva

Acquaintance with the future husband of the granddaughter with Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev went perfectly. The guy fell in love with him, and the grandfather gave his consent to the wedding.

But after some time, Mikhail, feeling the will, began to drink and often speculate on kinship with the Secretary General. All this was reflected in family relationships, and after 5 years of marriage, Victoria filed for divorce.

Since Victoria hid all the eccentricities and antics of her husband from relatives, and most importantly from her grandfather, she was considered to be guilty of the breakup of the family. For a long time relatives thought that the discord between the spouses happened because of the granddaughter's affair with the singer Gena Varakutu.

After the divorce, all communication, as with ex-wife, and with a daughter it has stopped.

Second marriage

Victoria met singer Gennady Varakuta at a time when she was still officially married. She entered GITIS at the faculty of theater criticism, and he was already practically a graduate of the musical theater department at the same university.

Victoria said about this relationship that it was real love! But Leonid Ilyich was against the relationship of his granddaughter with a new lover and tried in every possible way to prevent them.

Victoria and her second husband Gennady Varakuta (left)

It got to the point that the lovers were separated. In an orderly tone, Genya was offered to transfer to Leningrad. The lovers spent a year apart, but they did not give up and thus earned the indulgence of their grandfather, who gave the green light to the wedding and accepted the groom into the house.

But the marriage cracked when the singer was left without work and decided to go into business, in which he soon went bankrupt. A divorce was filed.

War with daughter

The Brezhnev family, after his death, had several apartments left, which Victoria decided to sell. As she herself said, she ran into scammers and did not receive any money. With her daughter Galya, who had a good education (she graduated from Moscow State University), Victoria stopped communicating.

Galina, however, could not find herself in life, she wandered the streets, lived on benches and in porches. At the age of 33, she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Her mother did not visit her and did not even answer letters in which her daughter asked to come and visit her. The daughter of Victoria Filippova spent more than 6 years in the hospital.

Once a program was released on television, where Victoria Evgenievna talked about the opposite, that she was talking with her daughter, visiting her. But after going to Galina's studio, the mother left the studio, as her daughter told the whole truth about her. In the last two years of the life of Victoria Filippova and her daughter Galina, a white streak came, they forgave each other and began to communicate.

Last interview

Own last interview Brezhnev's granddaughter gave it to Channel One, where she told why her life had turned out so that she was left practically alone. Why does he not like to go out in public?

Victoria admitted that she was sick and that none of her relatives ever knew what it was.

Victoria Filippova gave the last interview about the relationship with her daughter in the program “Let them talk”

Several times, the presenter Dmitry Borisov interrupted the interview, as Victoria Filippova became unwell. But everything that Victoria Evgenievna wanted to tell, she managed to do. The conversations were about the mother, who at the end of her life ended up in a nursing home, about her daughter and her life in a psychiatric hospital. Victoria Fillipova told a lot unknown facts from his biography.

Death

Victoria Filippova was a secretive person and led an almost hermitic lifestyle. The fact that she was given an incurable diagnosis - cancer of the last stage, no one knew. Only shortly before her death, when Victoria gave an interview on television, and it became publicly known about it.

On January 5, at the age of 65, Brezhnev's beloved granddaughter passed away. Victoria Filippova died in a small apartment on the outskirts of Moscow. The cause of death was cancer.

The funeral took place on January 9th. Not a single media outlet reported Victoria's death immediately. Everything became known only when the funeral took place.

Victoria Petrovna Brezhneva (1907-1995)

Even in my youth, I heard a bike from my neighbors down the street that my grandfather had distant relative wife of the General Secretary of the CPSU Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev - Victoria Petrovna Brezhneva. Grandfather and grandmother delicately left my questions. Yes, and it was not so much this mythical relationship that interested me, but rather the question: does she really come from Belgorod? Something didn't look right. The Secretary General did not favor the city with his visits. They kept silent about her relatives, yes, as well as about the whole family of Leonid Ilyich. Archival and church documents were then unavailable.

But, as a student, and studying the “imperishable” works of the head of state, I came across the following lines: “We met my future wife at one of the Komsomol evenings. She grew up in the same working family, like mine, came to Kursk from Belgorod also learn. Since then, Victoria Petrovna has always been for me and remains not only the wife and mother of my children, but also a real dear and sympathetic friend. (L.I. Brezhnev. "The feeling of the motherland").

Since then, I somehow began to be interested in this topic. There was no evidence of Viktoria Petrovna's involvement in Belgorod, except for these lines. In conversations with friends, I sometimes touched on this topic, among my acquaintances two more were found (Belgorod, the village of Stroitel) - with the same mythical distant relationship.

During the years of perestroika (not to be remembered by night), when the past of our country was indiscriminately cursed, gossip and slander did not bypass Victoria Petrovna. What I didn’t read about her is both an agent of Zionism, and her real name is Victoria Pinkhusovna Goldberg , and giving birth, she is from a place in Western Ukraine.

After perestroika, it became possible to read Victoria Petrovna’s autobiography, I don’t remember who gave it to me first: “I come from a simple Russian family. Born in the city of Belgorod. Father, Petr Nikiforovich Denisov, mother's name was Anna Vladimirovna. Dad worked as a machinist on a steam locomotive ... Why was they called Victoria? We had many Polish neighbors, and my godfather daughter's name was Victoria. Apparently, the parents liked the name. Other children have the usual names - Alexandra, Valentina, Lydia, brother Konstantin. But I turned out in the Polish manner. In general, parents rarely went to church, because my father is more and more on the road. On holidays, if there were no trips, especially on Easter, we went with my mother to church for matins.”

While working on documents in GABO, I took the opportunity to look at the parish registers of Belgorod churches. Everything has been confirmed.

On the left in the bottom row is Victoria Petrovna, her brother Konstantin Petrovich and mother Anna Vladimirovna, in the top row are sister Alexandra Petrovna and the head of the family, railway worker Pyotr Nikanorovich. Photo from the site: http://www.eg.ru/print/politics/4599/

Extracts from the metric book of the Peter and Paul Church of the settlement of Avgustov (Aigustov, Savvin), Belgorod district. (GABO)

Marriage. Petr Nikanorovich Denisov, Anna Vladimirovna Cheltsova.

Recording - October 1906

Recording - December 1907

Recording - October 1909

Recording - November 1911

Recording - March 1914

Recording - February 1917

Today, these parish registers are freely available in GABO, and the Belgorod Internet portal "Lines of Ancestors" has recently opened, where you can now freely view this data. The only thing that makes me wonder is why in her autobiography and memoirs Victoria Petrovna called her father Pyotr Nikiforovich, although in the metrics he is Pyotr Nikanorovich.

“I was born in the city of Belgorod on December 11, 1907. Father, Petr Nikiforovich Denisov, participated in the Russo-Japanese War. In 1905 he returned, married, and since 1906 they lived with their mother in Belgorod. Her name was Anna Vladimirovna. Belgorod has a large railway junction, not a passenger one, but a freight one. Dad worked as a locomotive driver, he drove freight trains. And my mother is a housewife. There was a family house. (We have five children: four sisters and a brother. I eldest daughter. She studied at school until 1925, before there were 9 classes, she graduated and entered the Kursk Medical College ”From the memoirs of V.P. Brezhneva.

A few years ago they showed me the Denisovs' house on the street. Dzerzhinsky. True, I have not been in that area for a long time, but I hope that it is still worth it.

As for kinship. Only the street of residence of the grandfather's family and the Denisov family coincided. Yes, and they were baptized in the same Peter and Paul Church with a difference of a year. Unfortunately, I did not find anyone further than Victoria Petrovna's parents and my great-grandfather and great-grandmother. So the relationship has not yet been confirmed, and this is not so important.

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