Family secrets of Secretary General Brezhnev (15 photos). Biography of Galina Brezhneva
Leonid Brezhnev said about his daughter that he had to keep an eye on the country with one eye and Galina with the other. He had been watching all his life, but she always knew how to slip away. The daughter of the Soviet General Secretary, who loved diamonds, dresses and interesting men, died 20 years ago in a clinic for the mentally ill near Moscow. “Gazeta.Ru” is about the main occupation in the life of Galina Brezhneva.
Galina Brezhneva with her father. Photo: 24smi.org
Galina Brezhneva died on June 30, 1998 - in a clinic for mentally ill people near Moscow, trying to recover from alcohol addiction. Galina Leonidovna was admitted to the hospital by her daughter Victoria. As she later explained in the “Let Them Talk” program, she was forced to do this - otherwise her mother would have ended up on the street.
“I couldn’t let her die under the fence. She didn’t want to live with me, but it was impossible to force her. They called me to the house where she lived and said - take her away from here or we will evict her. She was not alone for a day - all the time her friends were in the apartment, who flew in from everywhere and visited strangers, from the street... That's why they disappeared, the jewelry was stolen..."
Galina Brezhneva lived 69 years - and it was a life full of passions, rumors, scandals and the desire for love.
“I’ve only made love all my life,” Galina Brezhneva said about herself. And indeed, speaking about her, today they remember the names of her husbands and lovers, who, thanks to their relationship with the daughter of the Secretary General, brilliant career.
Galina Brezhneva first got married at the age of 22 - this happened in 1951, when the family lived in Chisinau. Leonid Brezhnev was then the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Moldova, his daughter studied at the philological department of the Chisinau State University, and one day, when the big top circus came to the city, she went to a performance - and fell in love with the circus tightrope walker and strongman Evgeniy Milaev.
An affair with an acrobat, a widower 20 years older than her, who was raising three-year-old twins Sasha and Natasha, led to Galina Brezhneva leaving Chisinau with a traveling circus, and returning home a year later married woman and with a child. Galina Brezhneva's only daughter was raised by her grandparents, while their daughter went on tour with the circus as a costume designer until the early 1960s.
The life of nomenklatura workers did not attract Galina Brezhneva - she had an enthusiastic artistic nature. It was not for nothing that she wanted to become an actress - only her father categorically forbade her. However, publicist Evgeny Dodolev, author of the books “Galina Brezhneva. The Life of a Soviet Princess" and "The Case of Galina Brezhneva. Diamonds for the Princess,” believes that the daughter of the Soviet General Secretary was a person who did not like to work.
“She was a completely textbook example of a bohemian. I wasn’t used to it and didn’t like to work and just enjoyed life. She loved to drink, loved courage, fun and, in my opinion, did not realize that everything had completely changed, that she was no longer an attractive sexual object,” a publicist who communicated with Galina Brezhneva at the end of her life told the publication.
Thanks to his “elite” wife, the father of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev’s granddaughter made a brilliant career - he quickly received the Hero of Socialist Labor, and later became the director of the circus on Vernadsky Avenue. However, the marriage lasted just over ten years and broke up due to Milaev’s infidelity.
In 1962, Galina Brezhneva quickly got married again. Then she met another circus performer on tour in Japan, the young illusionist Igor Kio. Galina was 33, he was 18. Having accepted the young man’s proposal, Galina Brezhneva terminated her alliance with Milaev. The marriage was quickly concluded in Sochi, but Brezhnev’s father intervened and forced it to be annulled - Galina was married to Igor Kio for nine days, but the affair continued for another three years, ending when Leonid Brezhnev became general secretary Central Committee of the CPSU.
Galina Brezhneva's next husband was Yuri Churbanov - they met in 1971 at a party and got married pretty soon. For the sake of marriage with the daughter of the Secretary General, Churbanov, 34-year-old major internal service and father of two, quickly ended his marriage to his then-wife. Then the saying “Don’t have a hundred sheep, but marry like Churbanov” appeared among the people.
Marriage to 41-year-old Galina Brezhneva helped him, of course, make a career - he quickly became Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR (Lieutenant General), and then First Deputy (Colonel General) of the Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
However, this union was not happy - Galina Brezhneva loved art too much to have feelings for her calculating general husband, although Leonid Brezhnev, of course, approved of her choice.
But the exalted nature of the leader’s daughter was attracted to completely different people - so lovers appeared in her life - ballet dancer Maris Liepa (one of the two men whom, according to Brezhneva’s daughter, she truly loved) and artist of the Romen Theater Boris Buryatsa.
The affair with Liepa lasted five years - all this time, a bouquet of flowers ended up on Brezhneva’s chair at the Bolshoi Theater before the performance. The Secretary General's daughter waited too long for Liepa to divorce his wife and propose to her - but this never happened. As for the extravagant Buryatsy, who became a soloist thanks to his connection with Galina Brezhneva Bolshoi Theater, then the affair ended in prison. In 1981, he was accused of stealing diamonds from the apartment of artist Irina Bugrimova and sentenced to five years. They said that this was Yuri Churbanov’s revenge.
With the death of Leonid Brezhnev in 1982, major troubles began in the family. Yuri Churbanov was accused of corruption and imprisoned - Galina Brezhneva filed an official divorce in 1991, when he was still in prison. By that time, Brezhneva was already drinking heavily and had lost almost all her property - she only had an apartment in Moscow.
Galina Brezhneva, who so loved fun, diamonds and interesting men, spent the last years of her life almost alone. Only her friend Lyudmila Moskaleva visited her.
“When Galya ended up in a madhouse, and this was not done without reason, not without some forces interested in this, she asked me to take her home. There were terrible, gangster times in the country. While Galya was in the hospital, a rich Ossetian quickly bought her apartment. I told him that this apartment would backfire on him, he didn’t believe it, and soon they killed him,” Lyudmila Moskaleva later said.
People familiar with Galina Brezhneva spoke of her as an enthusiastic, vulnerable nature - kind and unforgiving. And also about the fact that the secretary general’s daughter was needed by her friends only because it was profitable.
"Galya was kindest soul. I couldn't refuse anyone. Even when Mstislav Zapashny turned to her, famous trainer, asked her to save him sibling Igor, accused of murder out of jealousy of his own wife - to save him from execution, to which he was supposed to be sentenced, Galya humiliated herself, found people who had the opportunity to mitigate the trial, and Igor received only 15 years,” she told the mk website about Brezhneva in 2016. ru Victoria Lazich, now a senior methodologist in the political department of the House of Architects. And then she added that “she was broken and betrayed by everyone she trusted.”
Awards of Galina Brezhneva
30.06.1998
Brezhneva Galina Leonidovna
Daughter of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev
News & Events
Twenty years have passed since the death of Galina Brezhneva
Daughter of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev.
Galina Brezhneva was born on April 18, 1929 in the city of Yekaterinburg. Father, Leonid Ilyich, at that time worked as deputy chairman of the Bisertsky district committee of the Ural region. Mother, Victoria Petrovna. She spent her childhood and youth following her father to his destinations. Studied at the philological faculty of Orekhovo-Zuevsky pedagogical institute. When my father began working in Moldova, she transferred to the philological faculty of Chisinau State University, but had little interest in science and pedagogy. In 1951, she left the university altogether, leaving Chisinau with her future husband, Evgeniy Milaev.
Over the years of her life, Galina Leonidovna worked as a costume designer in the circus, in the Novosti press agency, in the archive department of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the rank of adviser-envoy, in the Moscow state university named after Mikhail Lomonosov.
The woman was constantly popular among men, the list of her husbands and lovers was made public long ago, and their names are known. Galina Leonidovna became one of the most scandalous figures of the domestic elite. One of the most high-profile cases is associated with the name of Yuri Churbanov, Galina’s third husband, who was convicted in 1988 in the so-called Uzbek cotton-mafia corruption case, for which he received twelve years of strict regime.
After the death of her father in 1982, Galina Leonidovna actually fell under House arrest at his dacha near Moscow. However, she managed to win a lawsuit against the state, which tried to confiscate her dacha, car and other gifts from her father. The subsequent accusation of stealing jewelry only added to the scandal, but had no serious basis. Later, having withdrawn from social life, Galina took part in church charitable activities.
Despite the negative image created, people close to her noted positive traits: kindness, help to many cultural figures, including disgraced artists. By character, Galina generally remained a kind and sympathetic person. But she could not cope with temptations and whims, she got used to the atmosphere of flattery and insincerity that surrounded her since childhood. Little by little this led to alcohol addiction.
Galina Leonidovna Brezhneva died on June 30, 1998 in psychiatric hospital No. 2 named after Oleg Kerbikov, where she was placed by her own daughter from her first marriage, Victoria Milaeva. Buried at Novodevichy Cemetery capital, next to the grave of the mother.
Awards of Galina Brezhneva
Galina's adopted children (children of Evgeny Milaev from his first marriage) are Alexander and Natalya Milaev. We worked in the circus all our lives, including in our father’s act “Tightrope walkers on leg ladders.”
Second husband - Igor Kio, illusionist. Galina accepted Igor’s offer to become his wife, officially filed for a divorce from Milaev and entered into marriage with him, presenting Leonid Ilyich with a fait accompli and left with her young husband for Sochi. The daughter’s action aroused the anger of Leonid Ilyich. He sent state security officers for the young people, who took Galina to Moscow, and Kio’s passport was taken away. Later he was given back a new passport, without the marriage mark. They were officially married for only 10 days. The divorce did not prevent Galina from dating Igor Kio, and their romance continued for about three more years: she went on tour with him, where they met in hotels, and in Moscow they spent time at friends’ apartments. Meetings became less and less frequent, and the romance faded away only during the period when Leonid Brezhnev became General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee.
Third husband - Yuri Churbanov, military man. Major of the interior. After a week of their whirlwind romance, Galina introduced her chosen one to her father. Leonid Ilyich, tired of his daughter’s extravagant love affairs, liked Churbanov. Yuri Mikhailovich divorced his wife and married Galina Leonidovna.
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev held the highest position Soviet Union- position of General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee from 1966 to 1982. No one had ever stood at the helm of the USSR for so long. Who were the people who surrounded the leader in the most intimate, family atmosphere?Large Brezhnev family. In the first row: wife Victoria Petrovna and Leonid Ilyich himself with his great-granddaughter Galya, in the second: son-in-law Yuri Churbanov, grandchildren Victoria (daughter of Galina) and Leonid (son of Yuri), Galina with brother Yuri, Elena (wife of Leonid), daughter-in-law Lyudmila (wife Yuri), grandson Andrey.
Parents
Leonid Ilyich's father and mother - hereditary workers Ilya Yakovlevich Brezhnev and Natalya Denisovna Mazalova - were born in what is now the Kursk region.
Brother and sister
Younger brother - Yakov Ilyich Brezhnev (1912-1993). He looked a little like Leonid Ilyich: vertically challenged, reddish. Worked for metallurgical plant head of the rolling shop, then at the USSR Ministry of Ferrous Metallurgy. He was successful with women. Had a nickname " wedding brother" - he was invited to feasts, and took on the task of solving the personal affairs of the petitioners. He was forcibly treated for chronic alcoholism and the mental disorders that arose on this sad basis. Yakov has two daughters from his first marriage - Elena and Mila, and a daughter from his second.
Sister - Vera Ilyinichna Brezhneva (1910-1997). Since moving to Moscow in 1966, she has not worked; she was married to Nikifor Andreevich Grechkin, an engineer.
Lyubov Yakovlevna Brezhneva. Niece
Daughter of Yakov Ilyich from his second marriage. She became famous for her connections with foreigners. In 1990 she emigrated to the United States, and in 1999 she published a book of memoirs, “The Secretary General’s Niece.”
Victoria Petrovna Brezhneva (Denisova)
In 1925, technical school student Leonid Brezhnev met Victoria, a student at the Kursk Medical College. In 1928 they got married. Despite her husband’s career, Victoria Petrovna devoted all her time to the household, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
In 1929, their daughter Galina was born, and in 1933 their son Yuri was born.
Galina Leonidovna Brezhneva
She was distinguished by an extremely strong, passionate, restless character. Over the years of her life, the leader’s daughter worked in the circus, in the Novosti press agency, in the archives department of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the rank of advisor-envoy, and at Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov. Galina Leonidovna was only officially married three times and became famous for her high-profile romances.
The first husband, acrobat-strongman Evgeny Milaev, was 20 years older than Galina and raised two children. For his sake, the daughter of the first secretary (at that time) of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Moldova ran away from home and traveled around the country as a circus dresser. Born from this marriage only daughter Galina Leonidovna - Victoria. The second husband, 18-year-old illusionist Igor Kio, was younger than Galina for 15 years. However, their official marriage, which infuriated Leonid Ilyich, lasted only 10 days...
In 1971, Galina Brezhneva married Lieutenant Colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yuri Churbanov, who was 7 years younger than her, left his wife and children for her, and became his second wife. This was her third marriage.
In 1987, Churbanov was arrested on suspicion of corruption and expelled from the ranks of the CPSU, sentenced by the Military Collegium Supreme Court USSR to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property. While he was serving his sentence, Galina Brezhneva filed for divorce and division of property.
During her third marriage, Galina started high-profile romance with the artist of the Romany theater "Romen" Boris Buryatsa. At that time, the daughter of the Secretary General was already over 50, and her lover was 17 years younger than her.
Galina abused alcohol, and after her father’s death she found herself under virtual house arrest at her dacha. She was treated in a psychiatric clinic, where she died in the summer of 1998.
Victoria Milaeva
In the photo: Brezhnev with his granddaughter Victoria (to the left of the Secretary General), her second husband Gennady Varakuta and great-granddaughter Galya.
Victoria's first husband, Mikhail Filippov, worked in the Ministry foreign trade, then in the bank. Today he lives in Malta. The second husband, Gennady Varakuta, rose to the rank of KGB lieutenant general. After 1991, he divorced Victoria, a businessman.
Galina Filippova
In 1973, Victoria Evgenievna had a daughter (great-granddaughter of Leonid Brezhnev) Galina Filippova. In the photo she is on the lap of her grandmother and namesake Galina Brezhneva.
General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev with his wife Victoria Petrovna and great-granddaughter Galya.
Galina Filippova today
Graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University, was married, acquired alcohol addiction... After many years of treatment in psychiatric clinic lost all property. Today she lives in a modest apartment in the Moscow region, which one of her relatives bought for her.
Yuri Leonidovich Brezhnev
Yuri Brezhnev was born in 1933. Highlight of his career: Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade of the USSR. All my life I have been collecting porcelain dogs. There are four grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. He died in 2013 at the age of 80.
His wife: Lyudmila Vladimirovna Brezhneva, in her youth was a pretty, snub-nosed blonde with delicate pink skin. She behaved modestly. Unlike other nomenklatura wives Soviet elite smart and well educated.
They had two sons: Leonid (born 1956) - a teacher at the Chemistry Department of Moscow State University, a businessman, he has three daughters (Alina, Maria) and a son Yuri, a businessman.
Junior - Andrei Yuryevich Brezhnev (born 1961) economist and Russian politician, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Social Justice.
Andrey Yurievich Brezhnev
Grandson Secretary General Central Committee of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev, son of Yuri Brezhnev, Soviet economist and Russian politician. In 1983 he graduated from the Faculty of International economic relations MGIMO.
His first wife Nadezhda Lyamina later became the wife of banker Alexander Mamut. Son Leonid works as a translator in the military department, and son Dmitry graduated from Oxford University. The second wife's name is Elena.
Leonid Ilyich with his wife and grandson Andrey at the dacha, 1971.
Leonid Yurievich Brezhnev
Grandson of Secretary General Brezhnev, son of his son Yuri. Does business. In the early 2000s, he lived in his grandfather’s apartment at 26 Kutuzovsky Prospekt. Entrepreneur. Married four times, three children.
Children of famous politicians are always under close public attention. From birth in their lives there is not only material wealth and great opportunities, but also a lot of restrictions and prohibitions. Feeling like a strange bird in a “golden cage,” they want to get out, but often “break their wings.” The fate of the daughter of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Galina, was just as difficult.
Childhood and youth
On April 18, 1929, the first-born daughter Galya was born into Leonid’s family. The couple lived at that time in Sverdlovsk (present-day Yekaterinburg). The head of the family worked as deputy chairman of the local district executive committee, and the young mother, an obstetrician by training, took care of the housework. 4 years later, in 1933, Galina had younger brother Yuri.
Victoria devoted herself entirely to caring for her two children, her home and her husband. Leonid Brezhnev was already at that time closely involved in public service. True, the whole family, including little Galina and her brother, often had to move after their father.
Youth years Gali fell on war time. The Great has begun Patriotic War. With the end of this tragic period for the country in 1945, Galina turned 16 years old, and the time had come to decide on her future profession.
Brezhnev's daughter
In June 1945, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev became the head of the political department of the Fourth Ukrainian Front. At the Victory Parade, the future Secretary General walked alongside Army General Eremenko, leading the column. Leonid Brezhnev was a serious man with strict views and was successfully advancing in his career. Therefore, when young Galina told her father that she was going to become an actress and wanted to enroll in Moscow acting department, Brezhnev took this news extremely negatively.
The girl, who had a wayward character since childhood, had to change her desires and dreams and obey her father. As a result, Galya entered the correct, from the parents’ point of view, literature department of the pedagogical institute in Orekhovo-Zuevo.
Career
Throughout her life, Galina was first and foremost “Brezhnev’s daughter.” There was no definite career. While still a student, she once again moved with her family for her father’s official business. This time to Moldova. In Chisinau, the girl transferred to the philological faculty of the local university. But she didn’t finish her studies.
At the age of 22, Galya fell in love with a 42-year-old circus performer and, having dropped out of school, in defiance of her parents, left the city with her future husband.
Galina's first job was as a circus costume designer - the girl helped her husband. Afterwards she managed to work at the Novosti press agency, the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and for some time at Moscow State University.
Personal life
Unlike her career, Galina Brezhneva’s personal life was stormy and eventful. She was officially married three times, while the fleeting romances of an enviable Soviet bride decorated her life with different emotions.
Galina's first lover and husband was circus artist Evgeny Milaev. While touring around Moldova, the strongman, holding 10 people on his shoulders, made such an impression on the young girl that she purchased tickets for all his performances until the end of the tour.
Having met Evgeny in person, Galina surrendered to her feelings, not paying attention to the 20-year age difference and two twin children from her lover’s first wife. Their mother died during childbirth, and little Sasha and Natasha soon became adopted by Galina - new wife father.
After getting married, Galya followed her husband everywhere, just as she had followed her father before. The family toured the country. Eugene performed in the arena, and his young wife took care of his costumes.
A year after the wedding, in 1952, the couple had a daughter, who was named after her grandmother - Victoria. Galina and her mother had a warm relationship, and besides, her mother was for her an example of a wife, parent and housewife.
Unfortunately, although Galina tried to create an ideal family, this did not happen. The husband was often carried away by young circus performers and did not really appreciate Galina’s personal devotion, as well as care not only for his own daughter, but also for Evgeniy’s two children. After 10 years, the marriage broke up. During this time, Milaev managed to take off career ladder. He became the director of the Moscow Circus and received the title of Hero Socialist Labor.
Recovering from a divorce in 1962, 33-year-old Galina fell in love with a young illusionist. On that moment young man just turned 18 years old. Without informing their parents, the couple registered their marriage and left for Sochi. To soften her father’s reaction, the daughter “added” 7 years to the groom. Leonid and Victoria Brezhnev learned the news from a note containing the text:
“Dad, I fell in love. He’s 25.”
Officially, Galina’s second marriage lasted only 10 days. The angry father sent state security officers to the couple. As a result, the naughty daughter was returned to Moscow, and the young illusionist was “showed a trick” - they took away his passport with a marriage mark, and returned it without a stamp.
Once again Galina obeyed her father’s will, but you can’t command your heart. The lovers continued their secret meetings. For three years, the couple looked for places for dates: in hotels and at the apartments of friends. When Brezhnev became the General Secretary of the KSPP Central Committee in 1966, it became impossible to go against his father, and the relationship ended.
Galina Leonidovna's third marriage finally pleased her high-ranking father. The era of “circus performers and magicians” is over. In January 1971, Galina, who was 41 at the time, met 34-year-old Yuri Churbanov at a party. A stately military man, the major impressed the daughter of the Secretary General.
It was impossible to refuse such a bride - Yuri divorced his wife and without regret entered into a new marriage, which promised him not only home in abundance, but also promotion. Expectations were justified - soon the major became a lieutenant general and took the post of Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR. After Churbanov he advanced to the rank of colonel general. After 20 years of marriage, Yuri was arrested, and Galina filed for divorce.
In addition to official marriages, Galina was also interested in other men, one of whom was famous artist ballet Their dates lasted 5 years, and this despite the fact that Maris was officially married. The promise of divorce was never fulfilled, so the affair eventually fizzled out.
The contemporaries of the secretary general’s daughter especially remembered her affair with another creative person. While married to Yuri Churbanov, Galina, who had crossed the 50-year mark, became interested in the gypsy singer Boris Buryatsya.
The artist's career has also advanced amazingly. From an ordinary participant in the Romen Theater, he became a soloist at the Bolshoi Theater. Soon Boris was accused of involvement in the theft of diamonds. The loss was not found, but women's fur coats were found in his apartment. Then, not without the help of Churbanov, Galina’s legal husband, Boris was sentenced to 5 years in prison.
Death
On November 10, 1982, her father and head of state Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev died. When Galina came to power, she moved to live at her family’s dacha near Moscow and was actually under house arrest. Later, during the reign, they tried to confiscate her property, but the daughter of the former secretary general won the case, and her housing, cars, antiques and other valuables remained with her. To all other, new government accused the woman of stealing jewelry, but the attempt was unsuccessful.
During the life of her influential father, her life was not easy, and after her death it became completely difficult. Galina started drinking heavily and after a while ended up in mental asylum No. 2 in the village of Dobrynikha, Moscow region. On June 29, 1998, Galina Leonidovna Brezhneva passed away. She was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery next to her mother’s grave.
Her own daughter Victoria gave birth to a daughter in 1973, whom she named after her mother, Galina.
Memory
- 1993 - book by Yu.M. Churbanova “I’ll tell you everything as it happened”
- 2013 - book by E. Dodolev “The Case of Galina Brezhneva. Diamonds for the Princess”
- 2013 - book by E. Dodolev “Galina Brezhneva. Life of a Soviet Princess"
- 2013 - film by L. Mlechin “Galina Brezhneva. Expulsion from Paradise"
