Famous Russian composer loved life

On April 4, 91-year old composer Nikita Bogoslovsky died.
In his life Nikita Bogoslovsky became the legend, every Russian knows his songs “Dark Night”, “Beloved City” and many others.  For the several dozens of years in writing music, the composer wrote music to 300 songs of 120 films and 80 plays. During the Great patriotic War the composer gave concerts in the Army and in hospitals, after the war he toured the entire Soviet Union with his concerts. During Nikita Bogoslovsky’s life, astronomers called a small planet after him, and in 1998 on the Star Square in Moscow a plate was set in honor of the famous composer.

Nikita Bogoslovsky loved life: it expressed positive energy of joy. Here is the story by Newsinfo how he fooled famous singer Marc Bernes.

In 1964 Soviet leader Nikita Khrushev was dismissed and Leonid Brezhnev took over his post of the Communist Party leader. One day Nikita Bogoslovsky and  poet Sergey Mikhalkov were sitting after sauna in Metropol restaurant – the meeting place of intelligentsia. Marc Bernes entered the restaurant and joined the two men.

All of a sudden, Nikita Bogoslovsky started fooling Marc Bernes. The composer told about the high class bath house the new party leader allegedly built for himself. “The young female masseurs there are so nice!”

Marc Bernes got excited, “How can I get to this bath house?” “We can’t promise anything, but we’ll try work something out for you”.

A month later Mikhalkov and Bogoslovsky met to have a drink and called Bernes, ”Marc, we arranged visit in the bath house for you!” “Thank you! Where will we meet?” “At 7pm near the Metropol. Don’t take anything with you”.

”How about a dressing-gown and slippers?” “You will get there all you want. And dressing-gown, and slippers, and massage made by young girls”.

The next day Mikhalkov and Bogoslovsky picked up Bernes and were driving him around Moscow Chinatown for about 40 minutes. Bernes was puzzled with this, but Bogoslovsky explained that they had to escape from KGB “tail”.

After 30 more minutes they entered a dark dirty gateway. 

”Is this the notorious bath house of Brezhnev?”, asked Bernes in disappointment. “No, this is a back entrance, empty bottles are taken away through it.
They entered the bath house, passed long dark corridors and entered a private office. It had luxury furniture, leather arm-chairs and a telephone.

“This is something! Is this Brezhnev’s office?”, asked Bernes. “No, this is the room of the attendant. Take off your clothes, let’s go and take a steam bath”.

”Where should I undress?” “Right here”.

They drank a wine-glass of cognac, and Bernes undressed. “How about a dressing-gown and a towel?” “Go ahead, they will give you all you need”. “Why aren’t you taking off your clothes?” asked Bernes. “Go, we’ve already been there. We’ll join you after drinking some more cognac”, replied Bogoslovsky. “Go straight away along the corridor, turn right, you will see curtains and the door. Open this door and go to have a steam bath”.

Naked Bernes immediately followed the directions. He reached the curtain, opened the door… Bright light…. This was the banquet hall of “Slavynsky Bazaar” restaurant, and some men was celebrating his anniversary there with many guests. Bernes entered when a toast was being proposed….

Bernes had a reputation of a tough man, and therefore Bogoslovsky and Mikhalkov were scared to run into him. The two men had to move out of town, to their country house. Bernes frequently called Mikhalkov’s wife and asked, “Has this whore and his buddy Bogoslovsky showed up yet?