The son of Valentina Leontyeva spoke about long-term family feuds. Son of Valentina Leontyeva: “Everything about my mother How old is Valentina Leontyeva’s son

The biography of Valentina Leontyeva's son is the story of an abandoned boy who, when he grew up, repaid his mother in the same coin. During my childhood years of loneliness...

From Masterweb

This article tells the story of another child abandoned by his parents. The lives of great people, actors and TV stars very often know no mercy. Neither to yourself, nor to others, including your closest and dearest people. The main thing is the audience...

Thorsons

Biography of Dmitry Vinogradov, son of Valentina Leontyeva, legendary TV presenter Soviet Union, originates in the northern lands of the homeland of the ancient Vikings - the Scandinavian Kingdom of Sweden.

Enterprising representatives of the glorious Thorsons family once paved their own path from the Varangians to the Greeks and settled in Northern capital Russia - the city of Petrograd.

Dmitry's grandfather, Mikhail Grigorievich Thorsons, was twenty years older than his wife Ekaterina Mikhailovna. Both of them were accountants. Grandfather - chief accountant of Oktyabrskaya railway, and my grandmother - one of the city hospitals. There was always money in this family. Instilling European manners in his two daughters, Alevtina and Lyudmila, everyone in the house spoke exclusively French and very often organized home musical masquerade evenings, at which Mikhail Grigorievich played the violin, and all three of his young ladies - his wife and two daughters, along with the guests danced to his accompaniment.

In the thirties, on the initiative of grandfather Dmitry Vinogradov, who feared Stalinist repressions due to the current situation on the border with Finland, the whole family changed their surname. So the Thorsons became the Leontyevs. And their youngest daughter Alevtina, whom the boys teased with drying oil at school, became Valentina.

Leontievs

Mikhail Grigorievich did not survive the siege of Leningrad and died of hunger, giving his last crumbs to his family. After his death, Ekaterina Mikhailovna and her daughters managed to evacuate to the Ulyanovsk region, where her youngest daughter Valentina, the future favorite of all children of the Soviet Union without exception, graduated from the school of the village of Novoselki, where their family now settled.

Dmitry Vinogradov, the son of Valentina Leontyeva, said that my mother often recalled that time and that distant village to which she would be destined to return many years later to die. After the end of the Great Patriotic War The Leontyevs remained in Novoselki - grandmother Ekaterina Mikhailovna took up accounting for the village cooperative, and her eldest daughter got married and gave birth to a child. Valentina set off to conquer the capital.

Mother

Valentina Leontyeva became a TV presenter and an idol of millions of children across a huge country. For her little admirers, she was simply Aunt Valya, the kindest aunt in the world. On the programs " Good night, kids!”, “Visiting a fairy tale” and “Alarm clock”, which were hosted by Valentina Mikhailovna, several generations have grown up.

And her program “With all my heart,” which helps people who are lost or separated by fate to find each other again, has attracted the attention of adult audiences for fifteen years. At the same time, “With All My Heart” also became the pioneer of the talk show genre on domestic television.

Valentina Leontyeva, whose son Dmitry Vinogradov is the hero of this article, was born on August 1, 1923.

The titles and awards of this legendary TV presenter speak for themselves - Honored and People's Artist RSFSR, as well as People's Artist of the USSR, for her program "With all my heart" she was awarded the USSR State Prize and the TEFI Prize "For personal contribution to the development of domestic television."

Father

Dmitry Vinogradov's dad became Valentina Leontyeva's second husband, diplomat and personal translator of Nikita Khrushchev - Yuri Vinogradov, representative of the USSR diplomatic mission in New York.

Yuri was cheerful, educated and smart person. He lived to the fullest, as if scooping up life with large spoons. Vinogradov did not divide the people around him into friends and strangers - for him everyone was his own, and he rejoiced at each of them. Therefore, in his circle one could equally meet both a boxer and an academician.

Dmitry Vinogradov, the son of Valentina Leontyeva, recalled his mother’s stories about how she met his father. Yuri Vinogradov met Leontyeva in a restaurant on a bet with his friend. The essence of the dispute was that Yuri would pretend to be a foreigner so skillfully that the girl would not suspect anything. The friend was supposed to play the role of translator.

They walked up to young Valentina and started a conversation. Yuri won the argument, and at the same time won the girl’s heart, and he himself fell in love.

Family

Soon Leontyeva and Vinogradov got married. Valentina, who by that time already had several unsuccessful attempts to get a job in one of the Moscow theaters, one day accidentally saw a newspaper advertisement about a competition for a vacant position as a TV presenter. In those distant times, television was just beginning to develop, and the girl had little idea what it really was, but she was unemployed and decided to participate as a temporary option until something truly worthwhile came her way.

We all know that there is nothing more permanent than temporary. And that attempt of young Valentina grew into almost half a century of work on television. From now on the blue screen has become main goal and the meaning of Leontyeva’s life.

Husband Yuri initially had a favorable attitude towards the rapidly developing development of his wife’s career, considering it, rather, her pampering. He himself earned very well, they had no problems with money, and he increasingly did not like the fact that Valentina began to devote herself so deeply to her work. Moreover, soon their family was expecting a new addition.

Mitya

The date of birth of Dmitry Vinogradov, the son of Valentina Leontyeva, was January 26, 1962. The TV presenter was taken by ambulance to the maternity hospital straight from work.

After birth, Mitya actually became his grandmother’s son. Taking care of him fell on Ekaterina Mikhailovna Leontyeva.

Leontyeva rarely appeared at home, disappearing at work from morning to night.

Nevertheless, little Mitya saw his mother much more often than she saw him - looking at her on the TV screen, as if through a window. Here she is, mom - very close. But you won’t touch and warm up with the warmth of her hands.

Valentina usually saw her son sleeping. She was leaving for work - Mitenka was still sleeping. I returned at night - Mitya was already asleep. And between morning and night - television. One continuous television... On which Leontyeva at that time was the presenter of several programs at once - “Alarm Clock”, “Good Night, Kids”, “Skillful Hands”, “Visiting a Fairy Tale”, “With All My Heart” and “Blue light."

Mom put millions of other people’s children to bed every evening, and her dear Mitya at that time sat at home with his grandmother and father, deliberately not watching his mother’s program “Good night, kids,” because she was not his own mother there, but everyone’s. From then on he began to hate television.

And when Valentina Leontyeva one day brought home children’s drawings that were sent to her from all over the country in the “Visiting a Fairy Tale” program to show them to her son, Mitya had her first hysteria. Bursting with tears, he tore up all the drawings and ran away.

By that time, her marriage with Yuri Vinogradov was already approaching its logical conclusion. She literally lived on television. He is traveling on business trips. The husband began to drink a lot and started an affair. Valentina herself was not sinless.

They divorced in 1977.

Youth

Dmitry Vinogradov, the son of Valentina Leontyeva, whose year of birth was 1962, was already fifteen years old at the time of his parents’ divorce. And he grew up as a difficult teenager. His whole life was a challenge to the stereotype that he had to live up to his mother. And he wanted to correspond only to himself. And the more the teachers pressured him for his bad behavior, the worse he behaved, becoming the only one at school who was not accepted into the Komsomol.

After school, Dmitry worked for some time as a lighting technician at a television center, where Leontyeva assigned him. Then he entered the cinematography department of the All-Russian state institute cinematography named after S. A. Gerasimov, who later quit in his third year. Toiled without permanent job and unsuccessfully tried to start a business.

The height of Dmitry Vinogradov, the son of Valentina Leontyeva, was almost two meters. Oblique fathom at the shoulders and Scandinavian breed.

His mother tried to get him into Vyacheslav Zaitsev’s modeling agency, but Dmitry very soon left there too, since everyone around him treated him like the son of a famous TV presenter.

He closed himself off in his own world, just as he closed himself off from his mother in the room and in real life, not sharing any of his secrets with Leontyeva and hiding from everyone, even from his girlfriend, that he is her son.

Mitya grew up as an ambiguous young man, very offended by his mother, and indeed by everyone during his childhood. He never even came to the grave of his grandmother, Ekaterina Mikhailovna, who raised him, never forgiving her for once reading his diaries.

Conflict with mother

The life path of Dmitry Vinogradov, the son of Valentina Leontyeva, is the story of a lonely man whose heart was not filled with filial love and care. Of the two parents, Dmitry preferred his father, whom he loved very much. When his father died, he went to his funeral. But mom doesn't. And this served as an additional irritant for him.

Consciously or not, he repaid his mother in kind, leaving her alone towards the end of his life.

However, Valentina Leontyeva’s son, Dmitry Vinogradov, connects this not with his attitude towards his mother, but with a long-standing hostility towards her relatives, who, as he believed, enjoyed his mother’s fame, connections and money.

One way or another, she took care of Valentina Leontyeva elder sister Lyudmila, taking her to distant Novoselovka, where they once escaped from the war.

Her The only son didn't come to the funeral. As he later explained, because of his mother’s relatives.

I didn't come to the funeral because I wasn't sure I could control myself. I was afraid that I would kill one of these scoundrels, and then it would be a criminal matter. But justice still prevailed: I wished them death, and they died. You could say that I cursed them...

Personal life

Dmitry Vinogradov, the son of Valentina Leontyeva, whose age today is fifty-six years old, lived only eleven of them independently. He got married when he was forty-five, and before that he lived with his mother and entirely at her expense.

His chosen one was a Frenchwoman. She is a professional makeup artist. At first he lived with her in Paris. There they had a son, whom Dmitry named Valentin in honor of his mother.

Now Dmitry has moved to Russia, to one of the old Russian cities. He has his own large house in the forest, in which he lives alone from everyone, reading books, boxing, riding a bike and walking with his son when he comes to him on vacation. Then Valentin flies back to his mother in Paris.

In the house of Valentina Leontyeva’s son, Dmitry Vinogradov, there are no photographs of his parents. They are in his thoughts and heart, and he does not need posturing. He was offered huge sums of money many times for in-depth interviews about his mother and father, but he turned them all down.

In 2011, Dmitry returned to his hobby from his youth - he began to draw again. Now his paintings are bought for a lot of money. He is really very talented, this Viking-like, huge, strong and bearded man.

In the photo - Vinogradov's painting "The Hallucination of a Miner".

Today, Dmitry Vinogradov, the son of Valentina Leontyeva, is one of prominent representatives Russian avant-garde, or rather Suprematism, who managed to catch the tempo modern life and not lose your own philosophy. His paintings have their own strong energy. They either like them or cause sharp rejection. However, Dmitry Vinogradov himself is of little concern about this.

After some time, when the hype around the death of Valentina Leontyeva subsided and the journalists calmed down, he, ex-boy Mitya, I came to my mother’s grave...

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Dmitry Vinogradov spoke about his relationship with the famous TV presenter and about his current life

Ten years ago, on May 20, 2007, the most beloved TV presenter of the Soviet Union died. Aunt Valya from “Visiting a Fairy Tale”, Valechka from the program “With all my Heart” and TV news programs. And according to the passport - Valentina Mikhailovna Leontyeva. It’s rare for a person on TV to be adored by both adults and children. However, Aunt Valya is just such a special example of universal love.

But it is possible that she would gladly exchange popular worship for the love of one and only herself. important person in life - my own son.

IN last years Before her death, Valentina Mikhailovna lived as a hermit in a small village near Ulyanovsk. There were various rumors about their relationship with their son - even the most monstrous ones. They gossiped about the unbearable character of Dmitry Vinogradov (the boy took the surname of his father-diplomat), even about cases of assault on his part towards the legend of Soviet TV. And when Leontyeva died, her son disappeared for 10 for long years. It was rumored that he had gone abroad. But MK managed to find the heir to the first lady of the Soviet television screen very close to the capital. And even call him for a frank conversation.

I am sitting in a beautiful two-story house more than a hundred kilometers from Moscow. In front of me is a greybeard huge man with steely eyes, somewhat similar to a Viking. This is the son of Aunt Valya, Valentina Leontyeva, Dmitry Vinogradov.

- Why did you leave Moscow, given that you are a purely urban person and have lived in big cities all your life?

I was planning to leave Moscow back in 2005. And he asked my mother to leave. I live in a very beautiful big house in the forest in an old Russian city, environmentally friendly, wonderful. I left because everything normal people at a certain age they leave to live in nature. And those who remain in Moscow are banal losers.

- What are you doing here?

With my creativity, my work, I draw pictures, read books, ride a bike, swim in a kayak, walk in the forest - I enjoy life. In all its manifestations.

They said that journalists played an important role in your departure from Moscow. They annoyed you greatly when Valentina Mikhailovna chose to move away from you, to a relative in Novoselki.

When the journalists began to pester me, I had already bought this plot. It took me two years to finish this house. And what seems to journalists is normal, because they always seem to have something. That's why they are journalists.

If you remember how many times your name was splashed around in the media, did you want to justify yourself? Just to say: everything is wrong, guys.

Those who feel guilty are justified. And to whom should I justify myself? In front of journalists, in front of relatives? I don’t see a group to which I have to justify myself, and in general I don’t really care what they think about me.

- Then let's go in order. It is believed that you had a strained relationship with your mother.

We had a wonderful relationship with my mother. She never scolded me, for example, for bad grades, never got irritated, never raised her voice at me, and was always an absolute diplomat. The fact is that she is an extremely well-mannered and educated woman; she could not afford to behave the way some boorish people behave. And as a result, we had a wonderful relationship. A big flat allowed us to live completely independently and not interfere with each other.

How different was Valentina Leontyeva in life from her image on the screen? For example, did she have any bad habits?

She was a bright, independent woman. In our family, when I was little, there was a black Chevrolet car - “Chevy”, as the Americans call it. Valentina Mikhailovna even rode it to the south herself. She smoked a lot, sometimes up to two packs a day. True, she smoked Marlboro - but her ligaments never sat down, her voice always remained young and sonorous. My mother was a purebred person.

- And at the same time surprisingly soft and friendly... Or is this part of the TV image?

I was told that my mother is a rather tough person. But this is natural! She worked on television since the late 50s - and a non-tough person cannot survive there. Valentina Mikhailovna had a large number of enemies like anyone else famous person. Moreover, when the so-called perestroika began, I immediately explained to my mother: most of the roads on television were ordered for her. She is a person of one country, and now she is a completely different country. Therefore, people like Leontyeva, Kirillov, Shilova, Morgunova, Zhiltsova, Vovk, Vedeneeva - all talented announcers - were left out of work, because we followed the path of American television. Thank God that times are changing now and our country is becoming a great empire again.

-Are you a supporter of the empire?

I am definitely a supporter of the empire, because my father was a diplomat, my mother was a troubadour of the regime, and I was brought up in the understanding that we have the biggest, best and greatest Motherland.

They loved to portray you as a lonely boy who developed complexes because of his famous mother. For example, he was jealous of Valentina Mikhailovna towards other children to whom she told bedtime stories from the television screen.

It was just some fool who wrote it, and other fools picked it up. I felt completely normal Soviet child. I went to Soviet pioneer camps until the sixth grade, spent a lot of time outside with my friends. Not only was the burden of my mother not pressing on me, but no one blamed me for her fame - no one, by and large, cared.

- And that's why you, son famous parents, ended up in a school at the Kalibr plant?

There was just a school from the Kalibr plant next to our house.

- Did you change schools often?

Well, how often... I went to first grade on Shabolovka. In the second grade - already on Mira Avenue, where there were three houses for television workers.

- Were your parents called to school? How did you generally behave at school?

At school I behaved normally, because every “goiter” - specifically with the letter Z - poked me in the face: they say, you have such a mother, and you act so badly. And, like any normal boy, I wanted to do even worse. I was the only non-Komsomol member of the three classes.

- What motivated you?

In no case is it a dislike for the Soviet regime. We never had transistors at home that broadcast Radio Liberty. The fifth column never took root in our home, and therefore non-joining the Komsomol was not connected with politics. Just a charter - it was bullshit that had to be memorized. But I can’t afford to teach bullshit.

- And you told this to the teachers?

I told them that the Komsomol is a voluntary matter. Then, of course, I joined the Komsomol. Before entering college, I worked in television as a lighting technician. And one Monday they pushed me into some stuffy, smoky room, someone voted there, and after some time they gave me a Komsomol card - so nominally I was still a Komsomol member. But I was never opposed to Soviet power. In general, I think that being opposed to power is tantamount to madness and, sorry, urinating on exposed wires.

- But your parents were party members?

Mom was non-partisan.

- I wonder how it was possible to work as an announcer on Soviet television without being a member of the CPSU?

Apparently, this was a case where talent outweighed the significance of it. In addition, in our empire there were such people as demonstrative non-party people - that is, they were allowed to travel abroad. On the other hand, I suppose that in the personnel department, when she was sent abroad, they were so sure that she was a party member that they did not even question this fact. That is, there is some kind of political anecdote here - I can say that many non-partisan people occupied high positions. And you didn’t have to be a communist to be in power.

With my father, a diplomat.

Well, your father, an employee of the USSR diplomatic mission in New York, could not be non-partisan. By the way, you are incredibly similar to him, incredibly simple.

My father is a cheerful, educated, intelligent, encyclopedically savvy person in all respects. Who was never a snob, never surrounded himself with special the right people. He went on vacation for forty years - and even more - to a small seaside town. He was surrounded by academics, drivers, and retired boxers. It was he who taught me to enjoy communicating with all people, without dividing them into classes or castes... Dad ate and lived by large tablespoons in all respects.

- Which of the parents provided greater influence to shape your character?

Of course, dad. How can a mother influence a boy?

- Sometimes this happens.

This is in painful cases. And so the son takes everything from his father, it cannot be any other way.

- They wrote that your parents’ divorce had a hard impact on you. After all, you were already an adult when they divorced.

I was so worried that I even went south with my dad and my dad’s future wife.

“She wasn’t his wife yet?”

I already understood that dad was going to marry her. The fact is that in our family everything was built on respect for each other and freedom. If I were a stupid egoist and wild man, I could tell dad: how is it, like mom, and so on. But, on the other hand, what difference does it make to me who my dad communicates with? That is, it didn’t bother me at all; I didn’t feel any negative emotions towards my dad’s passion in advance.

-Have you talked to Valentina Mikhailovna about this? She was probably worried...

She probably didn’t find out right away, and she didn’t even ask me, because she understood that I would never betray my dad.

- Do you maintain relations with that family of his?

I don't support it. I have a sister, she works somewhere abroad, probably married. I think everything is fine with her. Probably, if dad had a son, I would communicate with him, but I’m somehow not interested in my sister.

You said at one time that the only thing you wanted to keep in memory of your dad was the stack (a small stick used as a whip - author's note) given to him by Jawaharlal Nehru. Why?

You never know what I wanted... I would have been glad to get it when I had stupid ambitions, but in reality it no longer matters. I don’t have my mother’s and father’s photographs placed in my house - I think about them, they are in my head and in my heart, and showing them to someone, demonstrating that I remember them, is stupid and some kind of posturing.

In general, about the carnival in which I lived since childhood, I would not say that it was so much fun. Mom always played a little - it was in her blood.

I want to touch on that painful story - Valentina Leontyeva’s departure to relatives in Novoselki three years before her death. Why did this happen?

Mom left for Novoselki because she received a classic injury for people of that age - she broke her femur.

Did you just fall? In fact, there is a common version that during your family quarrels it came... how to put it mildly... to the use of force.

Listen, I blow men away with one blow, but my mother was small, fragile... how do you imagine that? What nonsense?! In general, relatives began to spread rumors that I beat my mother after they failed to get half of my mother’s apartment.

- Okay, let's return to Valentina Mikhailovna's injury.

She had an operation in the Kremlin, everything went well, but the question arose: she needed to invite a nurse, and this would inevitably attract the attention of journalists and so on. And then Aunt Lyusya, mother’s sister, and her daughter Galina offered Valentina Mikhailovna to live with them for a while.

-Have you already separated then?

No, we lived together, we were just getting ready to leave. Accordingly, when my mother left for Novoselki, I began to send her entire pension and salary, quite decent money. In addition, Galina took a bunch of furniture from our apartment. She arrived in Novoselki with a KamAZ truck, which was packed to capacity. The Romanian retreating army would not have collected so many trophies. In general, I didn’t care - we were changing apartments, I had to leave it all somewhere.

Now about housing. At first it was said that there would be enough space in her sister’s apartment for everyone - and, of course, Valentina Mikhailovna too. After some time, Galina called me and said that an apartment in their building on the same floor was for sale and it would be nice for my mother to buy it. I was somewhat surprised by the price of this apartment, but I had no idea that my sister could play some kind of dishonest game with me, and I sent the money. But then I was extremely surprised to learn that this apartment was allocated by the local administration.

- How did you find out?

This was mentioned on one of the TV shows. And all this turned into a banal tale about a fisherman and a fish. And in the end it ended sadly, because ill-gotten things never bring happiness, and especially in such a situation. After some time, Galina’s two sons died, who simultaneously crashed in an accident, and less than a year after that, Galina herself died.

- She died of a heart attack, as they say.

Well, what difference does it make how the gods take it? They break on the asphalt and stop the heart. Because you must always measure your actions with the wishes of the gods.

- Was your strained relationship with your relatives one of the main reasons that you did not go to your mother?

We talked on the phone, communicated, I was going to come there, but, on the other hand, she was going to return, everything was already prepared.

- The apartment was exchanged. Where would she return?

I bought her an apartment on Tverskaya, and myself on Bolshaya Akademicheskaya.

Journalists made the greatest number of complaints against you because you did not come to Valentina Mikhailovna’s funeral in May 2007.

No one, especially greyhound writers, has the right to judge what I should and should not do. But speaking of her death... she wanted to be buried next to her mother. Place on Vagankovskoe cemetery has already been allocated. And her relatives violated her will. And in the future they simply used my mother’s popularity to achieve their own personal interests.

- Did they try to communicate with you after the death of Valentina Mikhailovna? Did you call?

Yes. As I understand it, after my mother’s death they were extremely upset that I did not give them half of the Moscow apartment. As the French say, appetite comes with eating.

- Well, they still had an apartment in Novoselki, which they bought.

And a lot of money too. They received both an apartment and money. They received an apartment, money... and death.

- And you, it turns out, don’t even know where Valentina Mikhailovna is buried?

I visited my mother’s grave one day - this was before I left for the Moscow region, in 2012. Naturally, I didn’t visit my relatives.

Dmitry Vinogradov leads a secluded lifestyle.

Aunt Valya was worried that you didn’t have children. Nevertheless, there are rumors that she still has a grandson. Can you say something about your son?

Yes, she has a grandson. I have a wonderful son, and I am very lucky that he was born when I was not 20 or 30 years old, but 45. Very smart, very kind, very attentive - the most important being for me in this world. I have no one except my son, and besides my son, nothing interests me. He comes to me on vacation and lives with his mother. Mom is a very good professional makeup artist, and there is simply no work for her here. Here we ride bicycles with him, swim kayaks, walk in the forest, read books, and my greatest achievement is that I weaned him from the computer. Nobody believes me, but in fact it is very simple: you just need to do it. And we give a computer, as a rule, when we cannot and do not want to take care of the child. I want and I can, so he doesn’t need a computer at all.

- How would you like to see him when he grows up? Similar to you?

I want him to be who he wants to be. I have no right to indicate here.

- But every parent dreams of some kind of future for the child...

This is ordinary primitive parental egoism. He has the right to live his life as he sees fit. I can give him some advice, but under no circumstances put pressure on him. The pressure is on people who are squeezed, enslaved, who live in some kind of non-existent cliches that they have built for themselves; therefore, whatever he wants, he will do.

- From what moment could you call yourself an artist? Or have you always been one?

Probably always. This is part of me, but no one is interested in me as an artist (Vinogradov began painting professionally in 2011 - that’s when they bought his first painting. - Author’s note).

- Locals do they know whose son you are? Did this somehow affect your communication with them?

They found out about this not so long ago. And this had no effect, because the further a person lives from Moscow, the more decent he is, everyone is used to this. There are a lot of comrades whom I have known for 12 years and who have no idea about my mother. This knowledge hindered me more than it helped.

One of Vinogradov's paintings. As one of his close friends says, Dmitry, being a rightful heir to the Russian avant-garde, more specifically, Suprematism, managed to catch the pace of modern life and not lose his philosophy. It’s good to meditate under his paintings; you either really like them or cause sharp rejection. Vinogradov’s paintings have an extremely unique energy, and a very strong one at that.

- What is your social circle like now? Has it narrowed?

Over the years, the number of friends of any normal person decreases. If the number of friends increases, he is an aggressive schizophrenic. Over the years, a normal person becomes more and more self-sufficient and selects people who are closest to him. Accordingly, before death, a normal person must find himself completely alone.

Who on current television can you put next to Valentina Mikhailovna - in terms of professionalism and manner of presentation?

I am not very familiar with modern TV - I have cable television, I watch some historical TV channels, but I don’t watch federal channels at all. Probably in Lately something began to change, because we are starting to build a completely new society with a completely new country. will appear national idea- Television will also change. When we build an Empire, then we will have programs like “With all my heart,” and people like Valentina Leontyeva will appear. Because the Empire gives birth to such people. And creates the Empire.

If you add up your childhood love for Aunt Valya, then without exaggeration you get the road to the moon. Only she knew how to conduct a confidential dialogue with the little ones. If you watched “Visiting a Fairy Tale” or remember Stepashka and Khryusha on Aunt Valya’s shoulder, consider that you have received the most important vaccination in your life. Alas, this happens: having won an entirely children's audience, she did not receive sympathy from her son even after death. On the eve of the anniversary of Leontyeva’s passing, we talked with her older sister Lyudmila Mikhailovna Leontyeva, who Ulyanovsk region the famous announcer lived the last three years of her life and was buried there.

Lyudmila Mikhailovna, how did Aunt Valya manage to do this - both children and adults believed her?

Yes, in her programs she knew how to win over TV viewers - the kids, perhaps, could not figure it out, but the adults got the feeling that you were sitting next to Leontyeva and talking to her.

Before perestroika, did it work virtually without interruption?

Work was the main thing for her - and a great success that inspired her, and a kind of neurosis. She almost never took vacations. Then came the crisis of the 90s. We live in such an age - a person has disappeared from TV, and they immediately forget about him. This is what happened to Valya. The TV bosses promised her: we will soon re-open “With all our Hearts”, only we will rewrite the script, we will finalize something here. And she dreamed with all her heart, secretly. But there was no way to go on air. And then - a serious illness that finally ruined her plans.

Is this after the fatal fall when she had to move in with you?

Yes, she fell extremely unsuccessfully, injuring her head on a sharp corner. I suffered from wild pain. And I suffered psychologically - I understood that I would never return to work. She began to forget the text. But my sister never used paper prompts or a teleprompter. When I went to Moscow to pick her up, the doctor directly told me: “There is not much time allotted for Valentina Mikhailovna.” She lived with me for three years. After her death, many newspapers wrote: “The legendary Leontyeva died in poverty.” This was not the case: we did not live in abundance, but the house was always clean and comfortable. What was sorely lacking was communication - she rarely received calls from Moscow. Or maybe she was embarrassed by our grayish life - she was afraid that they would think: how is it possible? famous TV presenter, but lives like an ordinary middle-aged pensioner. But she held on as best she could.

Son Dmitry, who was jealous of Valentina Mikhailovna’s fame all his life, has completely turned away from her in recent years?

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After Valechka's death, he never visited her grave. Didn't come to the funeral. Didn't call, didn't visit me. According to fragmentary information, he sold his mother’s apartment on Bolshaya Gruzinskaya and bought a new one. I don't know anything about him and I don't want to know. It is clear that Vali’s slow decline, which I personally witnessed, is largely his fault. Late child- Valya gave birth to Mitya at the age of 39, which is why she spoiled her. And then he tormented her with his indifference. But the illness devastated her so much that in her last days She never remembered her son. She internally renounced him and found solace in indifference.

The son of the legendary presenter Valentina Leontyeva Dmitry Vinogradov gave frank interview. He commented on the most monstrous rumors that hovered around his relationship with his eminent mother.

May 20 will mark ten years since the death of the star of the programs “Visiting a Fairy Tale” and “With All My Heart” Valentina Leontyeva. She was an idol for adults and children, but there were persistent rumors in the media that she had a very tense relationship with her own son Dmitry. Moreover, allegedly in her old age, Leontyeva suffered beatings from her only heir. Dmitry Vinogradov commented on the most common rumors about himself and privacy to his mother.
Now the man lives more than 100 kilometers from Moscow in his own house. Dmitry is engaged in creativity - since 2011 he has been a professional artist. According to Vinogradov, he “enjoys life” - reads books, rides a bike, kayaks, walks in the forest, works.
To begin with, Dmitry denied the information that he and his mother had a strained relationship. “We had a wonderful relationship with my mother. She never scolded me, for example, for bad grades, never got irritated, never raised her voice at me, and was always an absolute diplomat. The fact is that she is an extremely well-mannered and educated woman; she could not afford to behave the way some boorish people behave. And as a result, we had a wonderful relationship. And the large apartment allowed us to live completely independently and not disturb each other,” Dmitry noted.
According to Vinogradov, his mother was a bright, independent woman who smoked a lot and even drove a car herself. In addition, Valentina Leontyeva had a very tough character. Dmitry also noted that his mother had many enemies, “like any famous person.”
The man said that he had no complexes because of his famous mother and he did not feel lonely, as journalists presented him to the public. “Not only was the burden of my mother not pressing on me, but no one blamed me for her fame - no one, by and large, didn’t care,” Vinogradov said.

Dmitry is sure that big influence It was not his mother who influenced him at all, but his father, an employee of the USSR diplomatic mission in New York, Yuri Vinogradov. “My father is a cheerful, educated, intelligent, encyclopedically savvy person in all respects. Who was never a snob, never surrounded himself with the special right people. He went on vacation for forty years - and even more - to a small seaside town. He was surrounded by academics, drivers, and retired boxers. It was he who taught me to enjoy communicating with all people, without dividing them into classes or castes... Dad ate and lived by large tablespoons in all respects,” said Dmitry.
In the 70s, Valentina Leontyeva and Yuri Vinogradov divorced. However. according to Dmitry, he was not worried about their breakup. However, he does not maintain relations with his father's other family. “I don’t have my mother’s and father’s photographs placed in my house - I think about them, they are in my head and in my heart, and showing them to someone, demonstrating that I remember them, is stupid and some kind of posturing. In general, about the carnival in which I lived since childhood, I would not say that it was so much fun. Mom always played a little - it was in her blood,” Moskovsky Komsomolets quotes Dmitry Vinogradov. Three years before Valentina’s death, Leontyeva went to stay with relatives in Novoselki. Vinogradov explained that the mother suffered a fracture of the femoral neck. The presenter's sister Lyudmila and her daughter Galina volunteered to look after her, inviting her to live with them for a while. There are rumors that this happened as a result of an alleged violent clash between Leontyeva and her son. “Listen, I’m a boxer, I demolish men with one blow, and my mother was small, fragile... how do you imagine this? What nonsense?! In general, relatives began to spread rumors that I beat my mother after they failed to get half of my mother’s apartment,” Vinogradov is convinced.
As Dmitry said, after his mother left, he began sending her her entire pension and salary. Galina also took a lot of furniture from her Moscow apartment. And then interesting things began to happen. “At first it was said that there would be enough space in my sister’s apartment for everyone – and, of course, Valentina Mikhailovna too. After some time, Galina called me and said that an apartment in their building on the same floor was for sale and it would be nice for my mother to buy it. I was somewhat surprised by the price of this apartment, but I had no idea that my sister could play some kind of dishonest game with me, and I sent the money. But then I was extremely surprised to learn that this apartment was allocated by the local administration,” the presenter’s son said.
The unpleasant story ended tragically. “Ill-gotten things never bring happiness, and especially in such a situation. After some time, Galina’s two sons died, who simultaneously crashed in an accident, and less than a year after that, Galina herself died,” said Vinogradov.
It is no secret that while Leontyeva lived with relatives, her son did not come to see her. He explained it this way: “We talked on the phone, communicated, I was going to come there, but, on the other hand, she was going to return, everything was already prepared.” It turns out that Dmitry bought two apartments for himself and his mother.
When the presenter died, Dmitry Vinogradov was not seen at the funeral. “She wanted to be buried next to her mother. A place at the Vagankovskoye cemetery has already been allocated. And her relatives violated her will. And in the future they simply used my mother’s popularity to achieve their own personal interests,” said Dmitry. At the same time, he noted that he was at his mother’s grave “one day,” before he left for the Moscow region.
Leontyeva was worried that Dmitry did not have children. However, Vinogradov became a father at the age of 45, which he does not regret at all. The man dotes on his offspring. “Very smart, very kind, very attentive - the most important being for me in this world. I have no one except my son, and besides my son, nothing interests me. He comes to me on vacation and lives with his mother. Mom is a very good professional makeup artist, and there is simply no work for her here. Here we ride bicycles with him, swim kayaks, walk in the forest, read books, and my greatest achievement is that I weaned him from the computer. Nobody believes me, but in fact it’s very simple: you just have to do it,” Vinogradov is convinced. At the same time, Dmitry does not know how he sees his son in the future.
Vinogradov explained: “I want him to be what he wants to be. I have no right to indicate here. He has the right to live his life as he sees fit. I can give him some advice, but under no circumstances put pressure on him. The pressure is on people who are squeezed, enslaved, who live in some kind of non-existent cliches that they have built for themselves; therefore, whatever he wants, he will do.”

USSR television rarely spoiled its viewers entertainment programs, especially for children. “Alarm clock”, “Visiting a fairy tale”, “Good night, kids” - this is the whole short list of programs that the children looked forward to every week. Therefore, all the children of the Soviet Union knew the host of these television programs - Valentina Leontyeva, whose biography is closely connected with Soviet television. They knew and loved.

Scorched by war

The date of birth of Valentina Leontyeva, or Alevtina Mikhailovna Thorsons (this is her real name and surname), is August 1, 1923. My father had Swedish roots, so, fearing reprisals, he changed his last name to Leontyev. The Leontyev family was friendly and intelligent. Father and mother worked as accountants at Petrograd enterprises, and in addition were creative people. They loved their girls - the eldest Lyusya and the youngest Alya - and introduced them to art.

Dad was older than mom for 20 years, I loved him madly. Years later, both my sister and I, when we got married, kept in memory of him maiden name. I remember wonderful musical evenings with competitions, balls and masquerades in our house, when dad played the violin.

When the war came in 1941, Alevtina was 18 years old. IN besieged Leningrad everyone who could provided all possible assistance in the defense of the city. So the Leontyev sisters served in the air defense detachment. My father regularly donated blood to feed his family. And he divided the meager rations so that his wife and children got more. I ate practically nothing myself. One day, while they were collecting firewood, he injured himself. Blood poisoning began, plus physical exhaustion - all this led to death.

The women were left alone. In order for the girls to survive, their mother forced them to study physical activity, so as not to freeze, she shook them when in the cold they just wanted to lie down, fall asleep and never wake up. She also taught them to smoke to curb their hunger. Already in adult life two packs of cigarettes a day will be the norm for Valentina Leontyeva.

Thanks for my son

In 1942, Alya and her family were evacuated to mainland along the Road of Life. Until the end of the war they will live in the village of Novoselki, Ulyanovsk region. In 1945, Leontyeva and her mother moved to Moscow, and her sister would remain in the village, because she had her own family, and she was a sought-after specialist.

There was an incident in the biography of Valentina Leontyeva that well demonstrates her character. One day Alevtina was walking along the street where German prisoners of war were digging trenches. Literally from underground a hand reached out to her: “Bread! Of bread!" The young girl was amazed by her fingers: they were thin and long, like a pianist’s. Leontyeva begged permission from the guards to feed him lunch.

They brought him to our house, I poured him some soup. At first he ate very slowly, he didn’t even look up at me - he was afraid. Then he became a little bolder and asked where my parents were. I told him that my father died during the Leningrad blockade from hunger psychosis, and my mother was left with us alone (she saved us by forcing us to smoke so that we would feel less hungry). The German had tears in his eyes, he didn’t finish his lunch, got up and left.

Imagine Ali’s surprise when two years later the same guy stood with his mother on the threshold of her house. He came to propose marriage to Leontyeva. But she refused, citing the fact that she could not throw in her lot with the enemy.

Then his mother began to cry and said to me goodbye: “Baby, you don’t even know what you mean to me. You saved my son from starvation. I will thank you all my life.”

Life goes on

Alevtina wanted to become an artist since childhood, but she got into acting school only the second time, after studying a little at the Institute of Chemical Technology. She simultaneously studied at the Shchepkinsky Theater School and at the opera and drama studio at the Moscow Art Theater. After completing her studies, she is sent to the Tambov Regional Theater, where she plays roles in the role of the heroine. And here she meets her first love.

Young director Yuri Richard came to the theater for an internship. He staged his graduation performance. The young people fell in love and soon got married. Upon completion of his work in Tambov, Yuri leaves for Moscow with his newly-made wife. This was in 1954. Their marriage did not last long - only three years - and broke up due to banal betrayal. As in a bad joke: one day early from a business trip he returns... no, not a husband, but a wife, and finds her beloved sleeping peacefully in an embrace with another woman. Valentina didn’t even make a fuss because she was tired, she took the cot and went to the kitchen to sleep. And in the morning I packed my things and left. Forever.

I bet she won't guess

In the biography of Valentina Leontyeva you can find a funny moment: the day she met her second husband. This happened in a restaurant. The attractive Valentina was approached by two young men who introduced themselves as an Englishman and his translator. The Englishman charmed the young girl all evening, and the next morning he called her and apologized in pure Russian for yesterday’s prank. The “Englishman” turned out to be diplomat, Nikita Khrushchev’s personal translator Yuri Vinogradov. It turns out that he bet with his friend that he could portray a foreigner in such a way that, for example, that pretty girl wouldn’t guess.

That evening, Yuri Vinogradov not only won the argument, but also won the beauty’s heart. Soon Yuri and Valentina got married and had a son, Dmitry. Along with establishing her personal life, Valentina Leontyeva’s career as a TV presenter was emerging and strengthening. Leontyeva could not get a job in the capital's theaters and therefore was in search of work. Having seen an advertisement in the newspaper about a competition for a position as a television presenter, Valentina decided to try until something worthwhile came along.

The main love of my life

Working on television, which was seen as a means of temporary income, will become main love Valentina Mikhailovna. In the life of a woman who begins career growth, she faces a choice: family or work. Because either one or the other will suffer. Rarely does anyone manage to combine these two poles. At first, Leontyeva had the same tossing. She finally confirmed her choice when she and her husband left for New York for two years. There she missed work and suffered from idleness. Therefore, when I returned to Moscow, I greedily plunged into work. Valentina made her choice.

She disappeared from work all day long. Son Mitya saw his mother only on TV. As the presenter herself admitted, she only saw Mitenka sleeping: she went to work, he was still sleeping, she came home from work, he was already asleep. And at work life was in full swing. Valentina Leontyeva was in great demand. She simultaneously hosted several programs: “Alarm Clock”, “Good Night, Kids”, “Skillful Hands”, “Visiting a Fairy Tale”, “With All My Heart”, “Blue Light”.

Dark side of the Moon

Despite the apparent prosperity, Leontyeva’s marriage was bursting at the seams. Due to constant separations - she spends days and nights on TV, he goes on business trips abroad - the relationship became formal. Leontyeva did not hide the fact that she had affairs on the side.

And so the logical conclusion was divorce in 1970. Soon, Valentina Leontyeva’s husband married the nurse who looked after him when he was in the hospital. On this family life ended, the famous TV presenter was then 54 years old.

Punch in the gut

For 35 years, Valentina Leontyeva, or, as all the children of the Union affectionately called her, Aunt Valya, worked on central television. She had honorary titles: “Honored Artist of the RSFSR”, “People’s Artist of the RSFSR”, “People’s Artist of the USSR”. She was awarded a state prize for the TV show “With All My Heart,” the Order of the Badge of Honor, the Order of Friendship and the medal “For Valiant Labor.” But the time has come, and, as follows from the biography of Valentina Leontyeva, a sharp turn took place in her life: the fairy-tale world in which Aunt Valya was a good sorceress collapsed overnight.

New times came, new people came, and television changed its format. Therefore in 1989 new director in one day he closed all Leontyeva’s television programs, and tried to see off the 65-year-old broadcast star for a well-deserved rest. But Valentina Mikhailovna simply did not want to give up and threatened to commit suicide in front of Muscovites. They left her, but took her, as they say, “outside the frame.” She was a consultant speaker in the sign language interpretation department. After this, Leontyeva could not come to her senses for a long time: the meaning of life, or even life itself, had been taken away from her.

Time to pay the bills

All subsequent years will be years of bitterness and retribution for mistakes. The biography of Valentina Leontyeva's son is the story of an abandoned boy who, when he grew up, repaid his mother in the same coin. For her son's childhood years of loneliness, Leontyeva paid for years of loneliness in old age. Just as no one needed Dmitry while he was growing up, so no one needed Valentina Mikhailovna in her old age and illness. Shortly before her death, she began to suffer from senile insanity.

Her older sister took care of Valentina. She moved Valya to her village, where “Aunt Valya” died in 2007 at the age of 83. Take her to last way many people came: fans, colleagues, fellow villagers, relatives, the only one missing was my son. He was never able to forgive his mother.

In her last photo, Valentina Leontyeva covers her face with her hands. She didn't want to be seen as old and sick. She remains in the memory of millions of TV viewers fairy-tale sorceress with kind eyes.