An interesting story is always instructive and excites the feelings of many readers and listeners. If this story is still true and beautiful, then it is doubly worthy of attention.
In our country, it is customary in families to cherish the memory of their ancestors and take pride in their nobility, valor, and great achievements. More than 130 years have passed since a girl was born in one of the villages of the Bryansk region (this is according to the modern division of the territory). The pretty creature was named Anastasia. From early childhood, Nastya got used to working, and already at the age of 13, the girl realized that her vocation was to sing. And sing cheerful songs. Since 1888 Nastya has been on stage. She went from a chorus girl to a megastar of Russia. In the early 1890s, Nikolai Iosifovich Kholeva, a well-known lawyer and director of an artistic circle, noticed Nastya at one of the performances. This 40-year-old music lover fell in love at first sight with a 22-year-old girl. He organized individual vocal lessons for her, including lessons in Italy. But in 1899, the patron died, and she had to return to the theater, which was headed by S. A. Palm. But the concerts that N. I. Holeva, have done their job. Petersburg society fell in love with this singer. In addition to participating in performances, solo concerts began. In 1902, Anastasia was offered a tour of the cities - Oryol, Kursk, Kiev, Kharkov, Baku, Tiflis, Rostov-on-Don. It was a triumph. In St. Petersburg, the millionaire brothers Eliseevs created a special hall in their shop on Nevsky Prospekt, where the singer performed with concerts (now it is the Comedy Theater).
For a concert in this hall, Anastasia received a fee of 1,500 rubles (the teacher's salary at that time was 35 rubles a month). For some concerts, Anastasia received a fee of up to 20 thousand per evening - a fantastic amount. But it was a job that the audience paid well for. Anastasia drove the audience at her concerts literally to frenzy. The police often had to clean up the halls. Her fans calculated that with their romances, which after her concerts sounded in the houses of the inhabitants of Russia (“I was waiting for you”; “Got drunk”; “Under your enchanting caress”; “Gaida, troika”; “Give me a dear friend, for good luck ";" Do not ask, do not pry ";" Thirst for dates, thirst for kissing "), in four years she covered a distance of more than 175 thousand miles. A radiant smile, a bewitching timbre of voice, ease and ease of movement on the stage made Anastasia the standard of femininity and the idol of all residents of Russia.
All Russia applauded Anastasia, and in the cities where she came with a concert, there was a holiday. After the concert, young people came to the station to greet their idol at the railway tracks, to see her again. She was a "singer of the joys of life." Publications about the origin of Anastasia Dmitrievna constantly began to appear in the press. Some publicists tried to find the count's roots in her origin, while others, on the contrary, represented her as a native of the poorest strata of the population. If Venus appeared from sea foam, then Anastasia, these publicists believed, appeared from soap foam, since as a child she often had to wash in the laundry.
After the death of the Russian Emperor Alexander III, his son Nicholas II, with his liberal views and the same policy, made it possible for Russian society to become intensely polarized. Along with the growth of the urban population, various kinds of extremist and terrorist circles appeared. And although part of the intelligentsia embarked on the path of destruction of Russia, all strata of society continued to adore and admire the talent of Anastasia Vyaltseva. She has never had enemies in Russia. With the advent of gramophone records, Anastasia's popularity rose to unattainable heights. Together with this popularity, her material well-being also became enormous, but Anastasia earned her fortune only by her labor. A gramophone record with a recording of her romances, songs, arias cost 6 rubles. It was a lot of money at the time. How did this idol, the pride of Russian society, manage his income? Anastasia in her mind was magnanimous, as a patriot of Russia she was worried about everything that concerned our country, of course, except for the revolution. After an appeal to her by the Committee for the Preparation of Lieutenant Sedov's Expedition to the North Pole, Anastasia gave a number of concerts and donated the collections from them to help organize the expedition. With her money, shelters for women in labor are being created in Russia, and villages that have been burnt down by fires are being restored in the middle zone. Vyaltseva helps students, and at St. Petersburg University she institutes scholarships for a number of gifted students from poor families to continue their studies. Anastasia is elected as an honorary member of the Russian brotherly society that provides assistance in cases of accidents.
One of the admirers of her talent, a brilliant officer of the Life Guards regiment, the son of the vice-governor of Tomsk Vasily Viktorovich Biskupsky, somehow unexpectedly won Anastasia's heart. Although he was younger than his chosen one, their love became sincere, mutual, and society did not suspect anything about it. This is how a noble officer and Russia's favorite could hide their relationship for several years.
In 1904, war broke out with Japan. Anastasia's beloved takes an active part in the hostilities in Manchuria. Soon Vyaltseva receives news that her lover is seriously wounded. Anastasia, having stopped all tours and performances, forms an ambulance train at her own expense, as if out of patriotic feelings, she herself becomes a nurse and in two weeks she is already next to her lover.
Now the Russian public will learn about the love of the most popular woman in Russia and a young noble officer. Biskupski is recovering, and they decide to legally formalize the marriage. However, the officers' meeting does not give consent to the noble officer to marry a commoner and pop singer. Therefore, Biskupsky has no choice but to retire, and they, having got married in Moscow, leave to live in the capital. The mansion (house number 22) on the embankment of the Karpovka River became a gift for her beloved.
(Currently, the house looks different.)
After his resignation, Colonel Biskupsky, together with his colleagues, took up oil production on Sakhalin, for this he bought up part of the land there. Anastasia continued her successful tour throughout Russia, but she especially loved to give concerts in the hall on Nevsky Prospekt and in Sestroretsk.
The resort town of Sestroretsk was held in high esteem by the residents of St. Petersburg, so in spring, summer and early autumn it was always crowded there.
In 1912, Vyaltseva fell ill, and in February 1913, the capital buried her beloved singer and public figure, for whom the power of Russia was above all. About 200 thousand people (every tenth inhabitant of the capital) came to see Anastasia on her last journey to Nevsky Prospekt. They buried A. D. Vyaltsev in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. In 1915, a chapel was installed on the grave of Anastasia according to the sketch of the architect L. A. Ilyin.
In his will A. D. Vyaltseva bequeathed all her property to the poor strata of the population of Petrograd, including money that never reached them.
Colonel V. V. After the death of his wife, Biskupsky returned to military service and became a general. But his fate was not significant for Russia.
P. S. To the 100th anniversary of the death of A. D. Vyaltseva, the governor of Bryansk allocated funds for the restoration of the chapel over the grave of the beloved Russian singer in St. Petersburg. My grandfather, Captain M. Burunov (maternal surname) also fought in Manchuria, was seriously wounded, was in the hospital with V. V. Biskupsky. In our family, as I remember, there was a gramophone and many records with romances and arias by Vyaltseva. In 1944, after the blockade was lifted, my mother and I returned to Leningrad. We found this gramophone in our apartment. In the evenings, we often listened to the singer's voice. My constant assignment was to sharpen gramophone needles on a bar, since it was a shortage at that time, and there was no way to buy new ones. Childhood passed, I entered the school, and the gramophone with records disappeared somewhere …
