Arkady Raikin’s letters helped to find out how he managed to introduce Brezhnev to Juna

Among those who left a noticeable mark on the history of the “late” USSR and the first decades of post-Soviet Russia is the legendary female phenomenon Juna Davitashvili. Her unique abilities are discussed, argue about them so far. However, there are facts that cannot be doubted: even the highest party and state officials of the country resorted to the services of a healer, including Leonid Brezhnev himself. And the popular artist Arkady Raikin introduced the General Secretary of the CPSU to Juna.

In the last years of Leonid Ilyich’s life, as a rule, only notes by members of the top Soviet leadership and materials on the most important issues related primarily to the security of the country were delivered to him. Everyone in the Kremlin knew that Brezhnev was seriously ill, and in order not to tire the Secretary General once again, they did not even show him the appeals of various celebrities.

But sometimes the loyal Brezhnev ally Konstantin Chernenko, who controlled the General Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU, made exceptions and brought letters from fresh mail to his boss. So on September 7, 1980, he decided to show Brezhnev an appeal to him by the People’s Artist of the USSR Arkady Raikin.

The author of these lines had a chance to get acquainted with this and other letters of the famous Soviet actor.

The question arises: why did Chernenko specifically single out the message sent to the Secretary General by Raikin? Of course, he knew that Brezhnev had a warm attitude towards the artist. They first met a few days before the start of the war in Dnepropetrovsk: Raikin was there with his team on tour, and Brezhnev was then secretary in the local regional party committee. During the Great Patriotic War, already as the head of the political department of the 18th Army, Brezhnev helped Arkady Isaakovich and his artists get out of the encirclement. Subsequently, Brezhnev and Raikin met at various government receptions, where Raikin spoke to the country’s leadership with his satirical miniatures.

In 1965, Leonid Ilyich even instructed to give the artist a four-room apartment in the very center of Moscow – in Blagoveshchensky Lane. The contacts of these two people did not stop even in the 1970s.

The funds of the former archive of the Central Committee of the CPSU (now it is the Russian State Archive of Contemporary History) store Raikin’s telegram sent to the General Secretary from Leningrad on March 21, 1972:

“Dear and respected Leonid Ilyich. Forgive me for taking you away from important affairs of state. Let me remind you of the promise to receive me, I am in dire need of this very important conversation. I will be in Moscow from 24 to 30 March. I will be immensely grateful to you if you can give me half an hour. Deeply respecting you and devoted to you, your Arkady Raikin.

There was a note on this telegram: “Reported. K.U.” K.U. – This is Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko.

However, in the fall of 1980, Chernenko selected Raikin’s new appeal for a report to Brezhnev not in order to dip the sick general secretary into memories of the past. The topic of the letter seemed extremely important to him: the fate of non-traditional methods of treatment of a certain Juna Davitashvili who recently appeared in Moscow.

Chernenko knew that Brezhnev was very ill, doctors from the Kremlin hospital could not bring the general secretary into good physical shape, and yet the next party congress was approaching, and the Soviet leader was about to take the podium. And then Juna suddenly appeared. There was hope: maybe she would be able to perform a miracle and heal the party leader?

“Juna Davitashvili,” Raikin admitted in a letter to Brezhnev, “personally, who has suffered from a heart disease since the age of 13, suffered two heart attacks, atrial fibrillation and joint disease, cured me after 13 sessions, dramatically improved my condition.”

The People’s Artist, in his address to the Secretary General, emphasized that Davitashvili helped famous writers Irakli Andronikov, Rasul Gamzatov, Robert Rozhdestvensky and Elizar Maltsev get rid of various diseases. He also noted that all experiments involving Juna in the Moscow polyclinic No. 112 and in the State Planning Commission gave positive results. At the same time, Boris Petrovsky, Minister of Health of the USSR, took a sharply negative position regarding the healer.

Raikin asked Brezhnev for a personal reception and for helping Juna.

But how did Arkady Isaakovich himself get to the healer? This must have happened in 1977. The popular artist and his wife were then in the hospital at the same time as the wife of the chairman of the State Planning Committee of the country, Nikolai Baibakov, Claudia. The woman confessed to them that a certain Juna saved her from many pains. Then Raikin underwent rehabilitation at the Sosny sanatorium near Moscow, where Baibakov once visited. The artist begged the chief planner of the country to bring him to the doctor.

Let’s go back to the events of 1980. As expected, Brezhnev reacted very lively to Raikin’s letter. He immediately started giving orders. On September 9, Galina Doroshina, who worked in the general department of the Central Committee for Chernenko, recorded on a separate piece of paper:

“In connection with the letter of Comrade Raikina A.I. comrade Brezhnev L.I. spoke with the following comrades:

1. Shevardnadze E.A.

2. Baibakov N.K.

3. Burenkov S.P. (Ministry of Health of the USSR)

4. Trapeznikov S.P.

5. Tyazhelnikov E.M.

6. Chazov E.I.

7. Raikin A.I.

I will clarify the positions of these subscribers of Leonid Ilyich. Shevardnadze was the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia, Baibakov, as already mentioned above, headed the State Planning Committee of the USSR, Burenkov served as the 1st Deputy Minister of Health of the USSR, Trapeznikov and Tyazhelnikov were in charge of the science and propaganda departments in the Central Committee, respectively, and Chazov led the fourth commander in chief of the Ministry of Health, who was responsible for the health of the Secretary General and all members of the Politburo.

Apparently, Brezhnev ordered to make all the inquiries about the healer, to find out who she was, and whether her methods could really put sick people on their feet.

Why did the Secretary General involve the Georgian leader Shevardnadze in clarifying all the issues? Because Juna lived in Tbilisi for a long time, and she should have been well known in Georgia.

However, Brezhnev assigned Trapeznikov the main role in the study of the emerging topic. In fact, this functionary was responsible for science in the apparatus of the Central Committee. It turned out that the Secretary General a priori perceived Juna’s medical manipulations as the result of scientific activity? No, not quite right. Trapeznikov, in addition to science, oversaw the Central Committee and all Soviet health care.

First of all, he demanded that academicians of medicine N. Blokhin, S. Burenkov and the director of the Institute of Neurology E. Schmidt meet with the healer and probe the ground. But the conversation of three medical luminaries with a guest from Georgia gave little. They perceived Juna as a charlatan.

Then Trapeznikov sent his deputy Oleg Shchepin to Tbilisi, who, by the way, was a doctor by his first profession. He went around almost all the offices of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia and the Republican Ministry of Health, even met with the swaggering Shevardnadze. And everywhere they poured tubs of mud on Juna.

By the way, in the corridors of Tbilisi, the Prime Minister of Georgia, Zurab Pataridze, could have given a good review of Juna (it was he who recommended Juna to Baibakov, who saved the wife of the head of the State Planning Committee from severe pain). But Shevardnadze advised Shchepin not to meet with Pataridze: he had his own scores to settle with this Georgian functionary.

Under the influence of the medical authorities and his deputy, Trapeznikov developed a very negative attitude towards the healer. On October 23, 1980, he signed a three-page statement about June. In it, a high-ranking party official said that Juna lacked not only a higher, but even a secondary education (massage courses do not count), and she had worked as a waitress in Ordzhonikidze, Chelyabinsk and Tbilisi for more than twenty years. Further, Trapeznikov accused Juna of an immoral lifestyle, contacts with the underworld and promiscuity in personal relationships. At the same time, he did not disdain to repeat all sorts of dirty gossip and delve into someone else’s underwear. Some fragments of his help cannot even be quoted for this reason.

In general, Trapeznikov initially wanted to turn Brezhnev against Juna. But he did not take into account one thing: the seriously ill Secretary General was not interested in the moral character of this woman, but in the effectiveness of her methods of healing ailments.

As for the medical practice of Juna, Trapeznikov was adamant here too: they say, all this is nonsense. He said that scientists had been observing Juna’s work for a whole month: “D. Dovtashvili’s manipulations (Trapeznikov in his certificate could not even correctly indicate the name of the healer – Davitashvili. – IN.), – the party apparatchik emphasized, – they did not give positive results, the patients did not show signs of a cure.

However, what was written in the certificate was not true. Raikin, when he sent a letter to Brezhnev, attached to his appeal the reviews of both the writers whom Juna helped, and her opponents. In particular, he cited the conclusion of K. Levchenko, deputy chief physician of the Moscow polyclinic No. 112. The doctor said that from May 5 to May 12, 1980, Davitashvili treated eleven neurological patients who suffered from spinal osteochondrosis, acute plexitis and sciatica. So she removed pain syndromes from all her wards after the first session. In seven people, the cure came on the second – maximum third day. And by the end of the week, all eleven observed patients forgot about their suffering.

Another confession was made by the famous writer Irakli Andronikov. He said that Juna restored his sleep and relieved him of nighttime leg cramps.

Trapeznikov, apparently, assumed that he could be asked: what about the cured people? Therefore, without waiting for the question, he gave the answer in the certificate prepared by him. “At the basis of some therapeutic effect,” the party apparatchik expressed his point of view, “is not a cure, but the psychotherapeutic effect of suggestion, and in some cases massage.”

Following that, Trapeznikov could not resist accusing Juna of huge earnings on people’s illnesses. He said that the healer took 250 rubles from patients for a three-five-minute massage.

But most of all, the party official was outraged by the rumors spreading in the West: they say that “D. Davitashvili was treated and cured by the leaders of the Communist Party and the Soviet state.” Trapeznikov believed that the time had come to excommunicate Juna from medical practice.

A very eloquent fact: L. Brezhnev left his autograph on the first page of this certificate. What did it say? The General Secretary continued to be interested in everything that was connected with the healer. But he drew conclusions directly opposite to Trapeznikov. And their instructions were no longer given to Trapeznikov, but to Konstantin Chernenko. The Secretary General instructed him to create all the conditions for Juna to work and live in Moscow.

Later, Chernenko left two notes on Doroshina’s already mentioned leaflet. The first read: “Comrade. Baibakov agrees to provide work in (hereinafter illegible. – V.O.)”. Apparently, it was about the appointment of a healer in the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics.

And here is the second note: “Comrade. Promyslov (then chairman of the Moscow City Council. – V.O.) allocated an apartment.

Brezhnev’s behavior was quite understandable. What you will not do, if only to improve your health and keep power in your hands.

According to rumors, Juna was then invited to the Secretary General and performed several wellness manipulations with him. But again, these are just rumors.

What exactly is known? Raikin soon again reminded the Kremlin of himself. In Leningrad, he was almost hunted down by the first secretary of the regional party committee there, Grigory Romanov. The artist has long dreamed of finally moving with his theater group to Moscow. Personally, he had an apartment in the capital. And how to knock out a building for a theater in Moscow? Only Brezhnev could decide this. But someone had to prepare the general secretary.

Raikin believed that he should have enlisted the support of Mikhail Zimyanin, Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee for Propaganda. At the end of the summer of 1981, he sent his new appeal to Staraya Square. The artist wrote:

“Dear and dear Mikhail Vasilyevich! I am leaving for treatment and rest in Jurmala. I will probably stay there until the end of August, then I will return to Moscow. Before the season responsible for me (I celebrate a rather large date of 70 years on October 24). I would very much like to come to you, if you will, to consult and talk “for life” at any time convenient for you. With deep respect, I am grateful for your kindness and attitude towards me Ark. Raikin.

On this address there was a mark: “Comrade. Zimyanin M.V. September 11, 81 accepted comrade. A.I. Raikin. Letter to the archive. V. Kuzmin. 09/11/81″.

As you know, the 70th anniversary of Arkady Isaakovich passed with great fanfare. And immediately after the anniversary, the issue of providing Raikin in Moscow with a building for his theater was also resolved.