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Leonid Ivanovich Tsaritsynsky (born August 11, 1920 in Grozny - died February 23, 1989 in Moscow) - painter, anti-fascist, prisoner of Buchenwald camp, twice sentenced to death.
Biography
Leonid Ivanovich was born in August, 1920 in the village Solomenskoye of Stepnovsky district.
Since childhood he spent a lot of time drawing. He travelled with his parents. The family chose the city of Grozny as their place of residence.
In 1939 Leonid Tsaritsynsky became a cadet of the local flying club. In 1940 he was drafted into the Red Army. After graduating from the regimental reconnaissance school, the young officer was appointed commissar.
War
In 1941 Leonid Tsaritsynsky joined the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, then went to the front. As a part of fourteen men Leonid Ivanovich covered the retreat of his 609th regiment. The group hit the encirclement. One by one his comrades perished. Only two of them survived. Gradually, moving blindly, without maps, and engaging in gunfire, Leonid and his comrade found themselves in enemy-occupied Ukraine.
In 1942 in the village of Vin-Stava Leonid Ivanovich organized an underground group. They fought the enemy in different ways: collecting intelligence, mined roads, staged diversions. Tsaritsynsky was arrested four times by the Gestapo. All four times he managed to escape.
In occupied Kiev, when Leonid Ivanovich was preparing another operation of his group, he was captured. He was sent to work in Germany. In Germany Tsaritsynsky was sent to work at an arms factory, producing the pride of A. Hitler missiles - FAU-1 and V-2. For agitation and sabotage Leonid Ivanovich was captured by Gestapo. He was tortured. Beatings. Prisons in Nuremberg and Hofa. In winter of 1943 he was transferred to concentration camp - Buchenwald.
At the camp
At that time there was a powerful international underground operating in Buchenwald. After several inspections, a Russian boy, Lenya, is accepted into its ranks. His new anti-fascist friends call him Leon, in the French manner. In inhuman conditions with persistence of military youth he perfected knowledge of German and English languages. He begins to learn French. In Buchenwald barracks a German communist surgeon performs an operation on his wounded leg. Secretly. At night. Scraps of clothing are used as bandages. The leg is saved. Due to the proximity of the allied forces of the USA and the USSR army, the fascists decide to destroy Buchenwald camp.
The main thing is to hide the traces of the crimes before mankind. The underground learned about it beforehand. Prisoners wrote leaflets with their blood. They were preparing for an uprising. Leon was entrusted to lead the seizure of the armory, as well as to control the communication - between the headquarters of the armed forces of the camp Buchenwald and the defense group of the Soviet detachments. On the day of the uprising, communists from various countries deliberately went to their deaths. They threw their bodies on the barbed wire with high voltage electric current. The nameless heroes saved the lives of those prisoners who followed them. Among those saved there were many young people, women and children.
After the war
Leonid Ivanovich returns to the USSR with the accompanying echelons. Since he was a prisoner on enemy territory, he is accused of treason against the Motherland. Tsaritsynsky falls under the NKVD. Friends - anti-fascists from France, Poland, and Germany - interceded for Leonid Ivanovich. By some miracle he manages to send them news.
The International Red Cross awarded him the Medal for Victory over Death. Leonid Ivanovich's health was finally undermined. A former prisoner of Buchenwald, after the NKVD prisoners, could only eat porridge and drink kefir. Restoring his health, Tsaritsynsky began with Oriental breathing exercises lying in bed. Gradually increasing the load. Books on Hatha yoga were very rare in USSR of the 50s. Basically there were samizdat with distortions and inaccuracies. Thanks to friends, Tsaritsynsky was able to get the necessary literature in French.
Having conquered the disease, Tsaritsynsky fulfilled his lifelong dream - to become an artist. He went to Kiev, where he prepared scenery for performances in the theater. In 1956, Tsaritsynsky sat at the books. After a year of hard and daily studies, he entered the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Im. Repin. The main theme of his work was the war. Deep empathy to events in Chile turned into creation of new canvases: "In memory of V.Hara", "Death of Allende", "Last Chord". The main direction in the works - graphics.
In 1968, he was accepted into the Union of Artists of the USSR. A year later, Leonid Ivanovich returns to the ChIASSR. He studies the Chechen and Ingush languages. He teaches at the drawing school, and simultaneously works at the local book publishing house, where he illustrates books by prominent Chechen authors - the writer and journalist Said Chakhkiev, Magomed Musayev and others.
Creativity
Color graphics. Artist's work "Mountains and Eagle"
Gradually, Tsaritsynsky is forming his own understanding of the unity of the world and all living things. His works become parables. For example, the drawing "Table". The viewers are presented not with the usual household item, but with a tree that was once alive. The tree rings reflect all its life: fears, joys, meetings with people and inhabitants of the forest.
Another work of the master is "The Lake". Houses and people can be seen through the water surface, in the centuries-old twilight. The surrounding world is frozen as in a "looking-glass", while below, in the depths, life goes on. Constantly communicating with children in art schools, Tsaritsynsky fascinated by the theme of fairy tales. His paintings-tales the artist generously gave kindergartens, hospitals, schools. The artist invented his own method of painting with oil paints on an ordinary canvas. It consisted in multiple superimpositions of one color on another. For instance, it took the master five years to paint a cap on Yereme, the character of the fairy tale. Only the initiated knew that if he moved the traditional flashlight along the frame of the canvas the white snow would magically turn into blue, pink and green. Yeremma's hat will turn from lemon-yellow to purple. The dark grey pike turns white before the eyes of the stunned spectator. The artist experimented a lot with colour and luminosity and had his own research in this field.
At the All-Union rally of fighters against fascism Leonid Ivanovich Tsaritsynsky presented a number of his sculptural works, in plaster - Explosion of anger, At the interrogation. The compositions received rave reviews from the participants of resistance. Work is always a joy, but Leonid Ivanovich did not like to sell his works. He gave them away, generously and unpredictably: to journalists, actors, children, neighbours.
"These are my children," the artist explained, "And children are not for sale!"
Vladimir Vysotsky liked one of his works "Vampire Woman". It was given to the actor and poet, together with a dear memory of his heart - a leaflet on burlap, scrawled with blood in the concentration camp of Buchenwald. The acquaintance occurred during one of the famous actor's visits to Grozny.
Works of L.Tsaritsynsky were acquired by the largest museums: the Russian Museum - in Leningrad, the Tretyakov Gallery - in Moscow, the Novosibirsk Art Gallery. Works are also in the Picture Gallery of the city of Krasnoarmeysk.
The artist participated in various exhibitions in the USSR and abroad. In 1972, eight of his works were awarded gold medals at the International Exhibition of Graphics in Florence.
Tsaritsynsky conducted great military-patriotic work with young people.
In the 1980s he was a member of the International Federation of Fascist Resistance Fighters. Honorary member of the international friendship club. The materials collected by him about the Great Patriotic War could turn into very interesting books. Records from memory and camp diaries. A lot of human destinies. They were quite enough on the volumetric screenplay. In vain. Leonid Ivanovich was looking for a secretary for his work. He could not find such a person, as he could not pay for the labor-intensive work.
The anti-fascist artist lived a modest Spartan life. His family happiness was not long. His beloved wife had left him for a friend. Tsaritsynsky curtained his window in the workshop with a dense, dark cloth. He switched on daylight lamps and music. He did not answer the telephone. His communication with people was selective and minimal. The artist spared moments of his life for work. Leonid Ivanovich very much loved his evenings walk with a red mongrel dog, a faithful friend of his last years.
He lived in the city of Grozny on Roza Luxemburg Street in a one-room apartment - an area of 15 m².[10] He cut the frames for his paintings himself. For many years he did not have a separate workshop to work in. The food ration of veterans of the Great Patriotic War helped him out, as did friends.
Death
Leonid Ivanovich Tsaritsinsky died in Moscow. At the 1989 Days of Culture of the ChIASSR held in the capital. Dancer Mahmud Esambayev, poetess Raisa Akhmatova, writer and journalist Said Chakhkiev and he - Leonid Tsaritsynsky, already a well-known artist - came to Moscow with him. A sudden hit-and-run accident ruined the life of the man who had become a legend. The driver fled the scene.
The artist's apartment was resold several times after his death. His diary entries and some of his works of art were lost during the First Chechen War. Four documentary films were made in the artist's memory.
Biography
Leonid Ivanovich was born in August, 1920 in the village Solomenskoye of Stepnovsky district.
Since childhood he spent a lot of time drawing. He travelled with his parents. The family chose the city of Grozny as their place of residence.
In 1939 Leonid Tsaritsynsky became a cadet of the local flying club. In 1940 he was drafted into the Red Army. After graduating from the regimental reconnaissance school, the young officer was appointed commissar.
War
In 1941 Leonid Tsaritsynsky joined the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, then went to the front. As a part of fourteen men Leonid Ivanovich covered the retreat of his 609th regiment. The group hit the encirclement. One by one his comrades perished. Only two of them survived. Gradually, moving blindly, without maps, and engaging in gunfire, Leonid and his comrade found themselves in enemy-occupied Ukraine.
In 1942 in the village of Vin-Stava Leonid Ivanovich organized an underground group. They fought the enemy in different ways: collecting intelligence, mined roads, staged diversions. Tsaritsynsky was arrested four times by the Gestapo. All four times he managed to escape.
In occupied Kiev, when Leonid Ivanovich was preparing another operation of his group, he was captured. He was sent to work in Germany. In Germany Tsaritsynsky was sent to work at an arms factory, producing the pride of A. Hitler missiles - FAU-1 and V-2. For agitation and sabotage Leonid Ivanovich was captured by Gestapo. He was tortured. Beatings. Prisons in Nuremberg and Hofa. In winter of 1943 he was transferred to concentration camp - Buchenwald.
At the camp
At that time there was a powerful international underground operating in Buchenwald. After several inspections, a Russian boy, Lenya, is accepted into its ranks. His new anti-fascist friends call him Leon, in the French manner. In inhuman conditions with persistence of military youth he perfected knowledge of German and English languages. He begins to learn French. In Buchenwald barracks a German communist surgeon performs an operation on his wounded leg. Secretly. At night. Scraps of clothing are used as bandages. The leg is saved. Due to the proximity of the allied forces of the USA and the USSR army, the fascists decide to destroy Buchenwald camp.
The main thing is to hide the traces of the crimes before mankind. The underground learned about it beforehand. Prisoners wrote leaflets with their blood. They were preparing for an uprising. Leon was entrusted to lead the seizure of the armory, as well as to control the communication - between the headquarters of the armed forces of the camp Buchenwald and the defense group of the Soviet detachments. On the day of the uprising, communists from various countries deliberately went to their deaths. They threw their bodies on the barbed wire with high voltage electric current. The nameless heroes saved the lives of those prisoners who followed them. Among those saved there were many young people, women and children.
After the war
Leonid Ivanovich returns to the USSR with the accompanying echelons. Since he was a prisoner on enemy territory, he is accused of treason against the Motherland. Tsaritsynsky falls under the NKVD. Friends - anti-fascists from France, Poland, and Germany - interceded for Leonid Ivanovich. By some miracle he manages to send them news.
The International Red Cross awarded him the Medal for Victory over Death. Leonid Ivanovich's health was finally undermined. A former prisoner of Buchenwald, after the NKVD prisoners, could only eat porridge and drink kefir. Restoring his health, Tsaritsynsky began with Oriental breathing exercises lying in bed. Gradually increasing the load. Books on Hatha yoga were very rare in USSR of the 50s. Basically there were samizdat with distortions and inaccuracies. Thanks to friends, Tsaritsynsky was able to get the necessary literature in French.
Having conquered the disease, Tsaritsynsky fulfilled his lifelong dream - to become an artist. He went to Kiev, where he prepared scenery for performances in the theater. In 1956, Tsaritsynsky sat at the books. After a year of hard and daily studies, he entered the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Im. Repin. The main theme of his work was the war. Deep empathy to events in Chile turned into creation of new canvases: "In memory of V.Hara", "Death of Allende", "Last Chord". The main direction in the works - graphics.
In 1968, he was accepted into the Union of Artists of the USSR. A year later, Leonid Ivanovich returns to the ChIASSR. He studies the Chechen and Ingush languages. He teaches at the drawing school, and simultaneously works at the local book publishing house, where he illustrates books by prominent Chechen authors - the writer and journalist Said Chakhkiev, Magomed Musayev and others.
Creativity
Color graphics. Artist's work "Mountains and Eagle"
Gradually, Tsaritsynsky is forming his own understanding of the unity of the world and all living things. His works become parables. For example, the drawing "Table". The viewers are presented not with the usual household item, but with a tree that was once alive. The tree rings reflect all its life: fears, joys, meetings with people and inhabitants of the forest.
Another work of the master is "The Lake". Houses and people can be seen through the water surface, in the centuries-old twilight. The surrounding world is frozen as in a "looking-glass", while below, in the depths, life goes on. Constantly communicating with children in art schools, Tsaritsynsky fascinated by the theme of fairy tales. His paintings-tales the artist generously gave kindergartens, hospitals, schools. The artist invented his own method of painting with oil paints on an ordinary canvas. It consisted in multiple superimpositions of one color on another. For instance, it took the master five years to paint a cap on Yereme, the character of the fairy tale. Only the initiated knew that if he moved the traditional flashlight along the frame of the canvas the white snow would magically turn into blue, pink and green. Yeremma's hat will turn from lemon-yellow to purple. The dark grey pike turns white before the eyes of the stunned spectator. The artist experimented a lot with colour and luminosity and had his own research in this field.
At the All-Union rally of fighters against fascism Leonid Ivanovich Tsaritsynsky presented a number of his sculptural works, in plaster - Explosion of anger, At the interrogation. The compositions received rave reviews from the participants of resistance. Work is always a joy, but Leonid Ivanovich did not like to sell his works. He gave them away, generously and unpredictably: to journalists, actors, children, neighbours.
"These are my children," the artist explained, "And children are not for sale!"
Vladimir Vysotsky liked one of his works "Vampire Woman". It was given to the actor and poet, together with a dear memory of his heart - a leaflet on burlap, scrawled with blood in the concentration camp of Buchenwald. The acquaintance occurred during one of the famous actor's visits to Grozny.
Works of L.Tsaritsynsky were acquired by the largest museums: the Russian Museum - in Leningrad, the Tretyakov Gallery - in Moscow, the Novosibirsk Art Gallery. Works are also in the Picture Gallery of the city of Krasnoarmeysk.
The artist participated in various exhibitions in the USSR and abroad. In 1972, eight of his works were awarded gold medals at the International Exhibition of Graphics in Florence.
Tsaritsynsky conducted great military-patriotic work with young people.
In the 1980s he was a member of the International Federation of Fascist Resistance Fighters. Honorary member of the international friendship club. The materials collected by him about the Great Patriotic War could turn into very interesting books. Records from memory and camp diaries. A lot of human destinies. They were quite enough on the volumetric screenplay. In vain. Leonid Ivanovich was looking for a secretary for his work. He could not find such a person, as he could not pay for the labor-intensive work.
The anti-fascist artist lived a modest Spartan life. His family happiness was not long. His beloved wife had left him for a friend. Tsaritsynsky curtained his window in the workshop with a dense, dark cloth. He switched on daylight lamps and music. He did not answer the telephone. His communication with people was selective and minimal. The artist spared moments of his life for work. Leonid Ivanovich very much loved his evenings walk with a red mongrel dog, a faithful friend of his last years.
He lived in the city of Grozny on Roza Luxemburg Street in a one-room apartment - an area of 15 m².[10] He cut the frames for his paintings himself. For many years he did not have a separate workshop to work in. The food ration of veterans of the Great Patriotic War helped him out, as did friends.
Death
Leonid Ivanovich Tsaritsinsky died in Moscow. At the 1989 Days of Culture of the ChIASSR held in the capital. Dancer Mahmud Esambayev, poetess Raisa Akhmatova, writer and journalist Said Chakhkiev and he - Leonid Tsaritsynsky, already a well-known artist - came to Moscow with him. A sudden hit-and-run accident ruined the life of the man who had become a legend. The driver fled the scene.
The artist's apartment was resold several times after his death. His diary entries and some of his works of art were lost during the First Chechen War. Four documentary films were made in the artist's memory.
