"Lenta.ru" begins a series of materials about the great Russian and Soviet supermodels, who have suffered a lot of victims and hardships. They bathed in the glory and love of millions of men, imported things and trips abroad were available to them, their photographs shone in magazines and in the windows of all stores in the country. But the payback for all these benefits was sometimes the most severe. This article will focus on Leokadia Mironova. The first model of Slava Zaitsev, one of the "three stars of the USSR", Leka suffered all her life from physical ailments, greasy harassment of the party elite and was never able to find personal happiness.
Without an eye and a voice
Leka has been haunted by misfortunes since childhood. In the first years of her life, she almost lost her mother twice, who was and until the very end remained the closest person to her. As a child, she had to watch how Artemis Justinovna's husband, Leka's stepfather, tried to shoot her for treason. It was after this betrayal that a girl was born, who was named after the Soviet singer Leokadia Maslennikova.
from personal archive
Leka Mironova as a child
Naming her daughter by that name, her mother seemed to foresee her talent - the girl had perfect pitch and a clear voice, she could hit the highest notes. In addition, she often saw what was happening on stage from behind the curtains of the theater where relatives worked. She followed the dancers with admiration and constantly sang along with the vocalists, so she dreamed of becoming a professional singer or ballerina from an early age.
However, fate decreed otherwise. In her youth, Leocadia damaged her vocal cords, and had to say goodbye to her singing career. Then the girl was taken to the Vaganov School, where her outstanding abilities were appreciated by Natalya Dudinskaya herself, a teacher and a famous Soviet ballerina. But even here Mironova was not lucky. Due to poor nutrition during the war years, she developed osteoporosis. Leka had to forget about the scene forever.
Drawing was another talent of Leka Mironova, so in the end she decided to pursue a career as an architect or artist. But even the last hope was destined to collapse. “Once a ball of fire flashed in front of my eyes, and the whole perspective was flooded with bright light, changing shades. Vision never recovered,”Mironova said in an interview. So suddenly Leka went blind in one eye.
With such a disease, the girl did not have to choose, and she just entered the theater and technical school. Due to her weak eyes, Mironova could not draw from life, and she was asked to pose. During the viewing of student works, the teachers were struck by the beauty of the student, and her friend persuaded her to go to the city of Babushkin to an experimental and technical sewing factory, where young graduates of the textile institute worked. Here the fate of the future star of the Soviet podium was determined.
Zaitsev and glory
“I was standing and looking out the window when the door opened and a slight gust of breeze came to me. This is Slava Zaitsev. (…) I became his first fashion model ,
- recalled Mironova. From the first days of cooperation, the creative couple looked in the same direction - this is what kept them together for ten years. Wherever Zaitsev's shows took place - be it the House of Artists or the provincial recreation center in Lytkarino - Mironova followed him without hesitation.
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Slava Zaitsev presented his first collection in 1963 at the Krylya Sovetov sports complex. Foreign journalists were also interested in the Soviet show. One of them - a representative of the French Paris Match - noted that, although all the girls deserve the highest marks, he remembered the fashion model of Glory most of all. After such a reportage, the pictures of Mironova and Zaitsev began to be published in all magazines, and the duo themselves were invited to create in the main house of models of the country - on Kuznetsky Most.
So fame fell on Leka Mironova - both within the Union and far beyond its borders. However, the girl did not manage to visit abroad. After the filming of the American film "Three Stars of the Soviet Union", the protagonists of which were Valery Brumel, Maya Plisetskaya and Leka Mironova, the latter was invited to the States for the competition of the best models in the world. But the invitation did not find its addressee. It was only after a long time that Leka learned how the "responsible authorities" notified the Americans that she had a very weak heart, and the flight could be fatal. Instead of America - for safety net - the girl was sent to work in Siberia.
Hatred also gushed from colleagues - first of all from the then “queen” of the House of Models Regina Zbarskaya. After all, tall, slender, appearing out of nowhere and so similar to her, Leka quickly took the attention of the public, and the best avant-garde fashion designer Slava Zaitsev began to sew collections only for her. However, despite all the tortures of fate and the authorities, Mironova's face adorned all the windows of the Soviet Union. Drivers in Leninabad attached photographs of her to the windshields of trolley buses, traders in Sukhumi hung them on the walls of their shops, and in GUM, right next to the fountain in the jewelry department, Leokadia's photo hung for 21 years.
Special offers from the Central Committee
“Soviet Audrey Hepburn,” as Leka was nicknamed in foreign newspapers, could not find happiness in her personal life either. The first and only husband, whose name the fashion model never calls, turned out to be unbearably jealous and tormented her with gratuitous scandals. He loved her very much, but was jealous of photographers and other people's views. He was jealous of her even of his own mother, and so much so that in the end he put before a choice: either she or me. The last Leka could not stand and left her husband, which probably became a great relief for her. Since then, she has not married again.
Leocadia had many fans. She also started novels a couple of times. The model met with documentary filmmaker German Fradkin, the son of composer Mark Fradkin, and even with Pavel Pozner, brother of Vladimir Pozner. Both one and the other were caring, attentive gentlemen, both entertained Leka with cultural events and pleased with imported gifts. However, as soon as the conversation raised the issue of a serious relationship and, God forbid, marriage registration, Leka disappeared. She was simply not ready to start a family.
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More than one representative of the party elite took a look at the lonely Leka. Sometimes the hints grew into obsessive harassment. “They called me, explained that it was in my interests to agree, that I“had to”. And when I replied that I did not owe anything to anyone, they threatened me: "You will regret, they will destroy you," "the model recalled. Often she had to reject offers to appear nude for special magazines that were available only to members of the Central Committee. Once she was tricked into shooting, but realizing what was the matter, Leka smashed the studio and fled.
Artemida Justinovna did not tolerate such persecution of her daughter and wrote a statement to the Central Committee. From that moment, the lives of both turned into hell. Wherever Leka went, she always knew that she was under surveillance, and her mother was tried several times to be sent to a psychiatric hospital. The surveillance did not stop even while on vacation. Once, seeing two pursuers on the beach, Leka could not stand it. In a rage, she went up to them and blurted out that her German friend was working at the embassy, and if something happened to her, a letter she had prepared would immediately fall on his desk. The surveillance was stopped.
If you don't stop communicating with this Russian, you will regret it greatly
Delegating at one of the shows, Leka noticed a tall, long-haired blonde in a gray suit. He was a photographer. Due to poor eyesight, the model did not even see his face, but felt that she was posing only for him. The stranger turned out to be a foreigner, and she did not manage to get to know him that day. She met her strongest love - Antanas from Vilnius - only three years later, during a trip to Lithuania with other fashion models. They saw each other at a social event and could no longer part. Antanas took Leku to museums and restaurants, showed the city. This relationship became a panacea for Leca from everything she had to go through at home.
However, a week later Leka had to fly to Moscow. But the Lithuanian did not even think to endure the separation. So, having settled in Moscow, over the next two and a half years, he flew to Vilnius every morning, and returned home in the evening. But at home, Antanas's choice was considered unacceptable. As Mironova said, first he was crippled on the threshold of his own apartment, and then direct threats rained down: “If you don’t stop communicating with this Russian, you’ll regret it, and you go to her, we will kill your mother and sister here.”
At first, the couple decided to fight. Leka was frantically looking for work in the media for her beloved. But despite the fact that Antanas was a successful photographer with awards and experience in international exhibitions, no one wanted to accept him in the capital. Mironova understood that such a person did not deserve to spend all her life printing photographs for documents in Moscow. She understood that she had to sacrifice her feelings and release Antanas to his homeland so that he could continue his career, and the nationalists no longer threatened his family.
Vadim Tarakanov / TASS
Mironov at a festive show dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the creative activity of Vyacheslav Zaitsev and the 30th anniversary of his Fashion House
So, once Leokadia announced that she no longer wanted to see Antanas, and asked him not to come to Moscow in the future. Later she was reported that at home the man almost took his own life. Then, for many years, he still sent her telegrams with confessions. Exhausted by a difficult parting, endless humiliation from the authorities and a feeling of complete hopelessness, Mironova decided to leave the Model House. In a statement, Leka indicated that she was forced to resign, and, despite threats and requests to take the paper, she left.
As a result, all the model houses in Moscow slammed their doors in front of her. Leku was no longer invited either to the shooting or to the TV programs, and the episodes with her participation were deleted. She was able to get a job only after a year and a half - at the Model House in Khimki. It was there that she remained for the next 20 years, going out on the podium with a smile until old age, because “no matter how sad it is, no matter what somersaults fate may do, you have to get up and go forward. And don't give up. Never"
