In honor of the 50th wedding anniversary, Sofia Rotaru published an archival family photo. In the black and white photo, the 71-year-old artist poses with her husband Anatoly Evdokimenko, a famous Ukrainian musician and leader of the Chervona Ruta ensemble. He passed away in 2002, and Sofia has not married since then.
Anatoly Evdokimenko and Sofia Rotaru
In the photograph, the star spouses are tenderly hugging. They married on September 22, 1968. People's Artist Sofia Rotaru, who had previously been urgently taken to intensive care, published this photo in honor of her 50th wedding anniversary. “Today marks the 50th anniversary of our wedding. Family birthday! If you knew how much I miss you... Your eyes, sense of humor and support. My only one. I love more than life!" – Rotaru signed the photo.
How Sofia Rotaru monitors her weight
Anatoly Evdokimenko and Sofia Rotaru
Fans began to congratulate their favorite singer on social networks. Some of them did not even believe that such feelings could exist: “I bow to you Sofya Mikhailovna, you have carried love for your husband throughout your entire life, this is not given to everyone. Be happy”, “Let our love warm your heart at least a little”, “You are a miracle, Sofia Mikhailovna.. You are the standard of femininity.. Family.. Wives and mothers”, “Anatoly lives in every song of yours, you can feel it. Your family is a worthy example to follow!”
Sofia Rotaru lost a loved one
Biography
The history of the family of Anatoly Kirillovich Evdokimenko originates in the city of Kyiv, which shortly before the birth of our hero regained its status as the capital of the Ukrainian SSR. During this period, the government moved to Kyiv from Kharkov, along with which many party and financial structures arrived in the city, which had to be located somewhere. Therefore, the large-scale reconstruction of the Ukrainian capital was expressed, by and large, in new pompous palaces being built in the most prestigious areas of the city to replace the ensembles of St. Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral, the Church of the Three Hierarchs, the Government Buildings and even Hagia Sophia that were to be destroyed.
Kirill Evdokimenko, the father of our hero, a former career military man involved in construction while his wife taught in the lower grades of one of the Kyiv schools, also took part in these transformations. In 1939, the first-born son Valery was born into their family, and three years later Anatoly was born.
However, soon the plans of the government of the republic and the destruction of Kyiv shrines were interrupted by the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War.
Childhood
The biography of Anatoly Evdokimenko began in harsh wartime on January 20, 1942. Shortly after his birth, his father, who went to war in the very first days, ended up in a concentration camp, but his mother took full care of the little children.
Soon the evacuation began, during which the Evdokimenko family ended up in one of the villages of the Odessa region, but literally a few months later a severe famine came to those parts. To survive, my mother collected her simple belongings, picked up Tolik and Valera, boarded the train and went to Bukovina to her distant relatives living near the city of Chernivtsi, bordering Romania.
During the same period, she received news that her husband was alive, but he was transferred from the camp to a penal battalion, which in those harsh times was tantamount to execution. However, Kirill Evdokimenko miraculously managed to survive the penal battalion and even the subsequent Soviet camp, returning to his family in 1946 completely rehabilitated.
Both Valery and Anatoly have been interested in music since childhood. More precisely, her older brother began to take an interest in her, and the younger Tolik, for whom Valera had always been an unquestioned authority, immediately followed his example.
After the end of the war, their family lived very poorly, like everyone else around them. Therefore, the only instrument for which their parents had enough money was a small violin, which Tolik began to learn to play, since the elder Valery dreamed of an accordion, which was not possible to buy.
It was this seemingly insignificant little thing that determined the fates of both sons of Evdokimenko. The eldest son, lacking an accordion, soon forgot about his childhood dreams of music and with age became a prominent party figure, took an enviable position and received very wide opportunities for those times. Anatoly connected his life with music, and his further history will be discussed in this article.
In the meantime, young Anatoly Evdokimenko chose a small closet for his first musical studies, locking himself in which he spent hours practicing his first pieces among dust and other rubbish.
After graduating from school with a gold medal, he nevertheless decided to go into science.
Below in the photo is Anatoly (on the right) with his older brother Valery Evdokimenko.
Youth
The decision of a young resident of the city of Chernivtsi, Anatoly Evdokimenko, to stop studying music was caused only by the desire to quickly start earning money in order to somehow help his parents.
His first experience of non-musical education was bitter - he entered a textile technical school, where he was assigned to a cotton spinning factory with unbearable working conditions. Since childhood, not particularly distinguished by excellent health, Anatoly decided to continue his studies at the physics department of Chernivtsi State University, where he began studying optics.
During the same period, his older brother, a regular at the clubs in the city of Lviv, where he studied, intervened in his life again. During his student festivities, Valery discovered jazz, which made such a strong impression on him that one day he called his younger brother, Sofia Rotaru’s future husband Anatoly Evdokimenko, and said:
I know what instrument you should play. This is a pipe...
And Tolik, as usual, listened to his older brother.
Soon Anatoly was already playing at weddings and in restaurants. When he performed in the Chernivtsi officers' house, at least half of the city's girls came running to look at the handsome and slender musician in an impeccably pressed suit.
Nevertheless, Anatoly still did not give up science. He had very little time left before the fateful meeting with his future wife, and he was approaching this exciting moment as a physicist, a graduate of Chernivtsi University.
Anatoly Evdokimenko: biography
The famous Ukrainian musician Anatoly Evdokimenko dedicated his entire life to one woman - his beloved wife, who became Sofia Rotaru. For her sake, he created a musical group in his youth. In order to perform together with Sofia on the same stage, Anatoly mastered musical instruments - first it was a trumpet, then a double bass.
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He created all the conditions for the development of her musical career and independently directed all her performances and tours. Sofia responded in full reciprocity, always making common interests a priority. Together with his wife, Evdokimenko lived a life full of creative victories and stories of overcoming.
Anatoly Evdokimenko and Sofia Rotaru in their youth
The musician was born in 1942 in Chernivtsi. By education, he was not associated with music or creativity, having received a diploma in mathematics from a higher educational institution. Goes to the army. Then, having met his beloved Sofia and accepting her love for creativity, he decides to create all the conditions for her development at all costs.
Anatoly Evdokimenko in his youth
Thanks to his talent as an organizer, Anatoly assembles the musical group “Chervona Ruta”, in which he makes Sofia a soloist. Then he begins to perform as a musician within this group, and then retrains as an administrator and tour director for Rotaru.
Anatoly Evdokimenko is a People's Artist of Ukraine.
Sofia Rotaru
The family legend of the number one musical star of the Soviet Union and modern times, Sofia Mikhailovna Rotaru, says that when she won the Kiev Republican amateur art competition at the age of seventeen, and her photograph was placed on the cover of the magazine “Ukraine”, then by some incomprehensible zigzag of the prankster Amur, this issue publication fell into the distant Nizhny Tagil military unit, into the hands of a young soldier Anatoly Evdokimenko, who was doing military service at that time. Having fallen in love at first sight with a young student of the music school of his hometown of Chernivtsi, he found her after his return home and managed to win the favor of this proud and unapproachable beauty.
True, he did not succeed immediately - over the next two years he was invariably rejected by her.
Sofia Mikhailovna herself recalled that time as follows:
I’ll be honest: at first I wasn’t impressed by Tolya. Yes, handsome, well-mannered. But there were many such young people around me. He gave me flowers, invited me to restaurants, but I sent my friends on a date instead of myself. But one day Tolya called and spoke to me in the purest Moldavian language. I was shocked: he learned this language especially for me...
Whether this is a beautiful legend, or just a wonderful romantic narrative of the events that actually happened, we will never know.
However, Valery Evdokimenko, the elder brother of our hero, told a completely different story about how Anatoly and Sofia met.
According to him, their fateful meeting took place as part of the youth pop ensemble of Chernivtsi University, of which his younger brother was still a student at that time. In 1968, Anatoly and Sofia, together with this ensemble, attended an international folk music festival held in the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia. They returned home as winners, after which they began dating, becoming closer after their shared experiences at the competition.
At first, for some reason, Anatoly was in no hurry to get married. Until one day Sofia herself turned to his older brother for help. Valera's reaction was worse than a storm - he immediately convened a family council, which voted unanimously in favor of the announced agenda, and very soon the story of the romantic relationship between Anatoly and Sofia ended with a magnificent wedding.
Instagram and Wikipedia Sofia Rotaru
It is difficult to imagine a modern star without a page on social networks. However, Sofia Rotaru’s official pages on the Internet appeared at the end of 2020. Since then, Sofia Rotaru’s Instagram and Wikipedia have been gaining more and more popularity.
Instagram and Wikipedia Sofia Rotaru
The first social network is convenient because you can easily find photos from vacations or performances there. By the way, before the singer started her page, joint photographs could be found from the Rotaru family.
Wikipedia contains basic and comprehensive information about the artist’s life. There you can find all the awards that Sofia Rotaru has earned. Representatives of the older generation will be interested in remembering the main hits and films with the participation of the singer.
Family
More than five hundred people were present at the celebration, which took place on September 22, 1968 in Marshintsy, the bride’s native village. For three days and three nights, wine flowed like a river, and the Moldovan sky was pierced by folk songs and the music of the student ensemble of the bride and groom.
Then Sofia Rotaru’s young husband Anatoly Evdokimenko graduated from the university and was assigned to Novosibirsk, where he worked at the secret 105th military plant. Sofia came to him in Siberia, sharing a dorm room with him, and in the evenings performing at the local House of Culture.
Soon Anatoly made the most important decision of his life. He gave up his career as a physicist and devoted himself entirely to the work of his wife, creating the ensemble “Chervona Ruta”, with which Sofia Rotaru became famous throughout the country.
Family and grandchildren of Sofia Rotaru
The family and grandchildren of Sofia Rotaru are a rather interesting part of the biography of the famous singer. As stated earlier, from early childhood, she was surrounded by creative people. Sofia's own sister was blind and had excellent hearing - she learned Russian folk songs and sang with her sister. The head of the family also did not lag behind - he had certain musical talents, and he helped both daughters in every possible way. It is noteworthy that before Russian songs, the family used Moldavian as the main language.
Family and grandchildren of Sofia Rotaru
From her only son, the singer already has a grandson and a granddaughter, who, apparently, were named after the “old people” - Anatoly and Sofia.
"Chervona Ruta"
In October 1971, Sofia became a soloist of the ensemble, organized through the efforts of Anatoly Evdokimenko and his older brother Valery at the expense of the budget of the Chernivtsi Philharmonic.
At first, our hero played the trumpet as part of an ensemble. Then, over time, he became its producer, then director and, ultimately, director. The first hits of “Chervona Ruta” were Ukrainian and Moldavian folk songs. However, later Anatoly insisted that Sofia try to perform something from the increasingly popular pop repertoire.
Having performed the pop song “Mama” at the Golden Orpheus competition, held in 1973 in the Bulgarian city of Burgas, Rotaru received First Prize and real fame.
For the sake of his wife’s career, Anatoly did not allow Sofia to give birth in the first years of their marriage. However, one day the wife lied, saying that she was already pregnant. The husband grumbled at first, then got used to the fact that he would soon become a father and, naturally, lost control. Soon nature did its job, only now for real.
Personal life
In 1968, he legalized a long-standing relationship with the singer, who later became famous throughout the Soviet Union. The young people met in a peculiar way - Anatoly saw a photo of the winner of a music competition on the cover of a magazine and decided to find her and meet her. He found him, confessed his feelings, and actively courted him for another two years until Sofia reciprocated.
Anatoly Evdokimenko and Sofia Rotaru
Together Sofia and Anatoly traveled all over the world. First, Sofia followed her husband to Novosibirsk, where Anatoly was exiled during his service, then Evdokimenko accompanied his wife during her tour. They lived together as husband and wife for 34 years. The couple has a wonderful son, who already has children of his own. So, the grandson often visited his grandparents.
Anatoly Evdokimenko with his wife and son
For the sake of his wife, Anatoly did unusual things all his life. For example, in order to confess his love to Sofia in her native language, Evdokimenko mastered the Moldovan language in his youth.
Rotaru did not lag behind her husband. She devoted a lot of time and effort to his health in adulthood, literally pulling him out of illness, investing all the proceeds from the tour into his treatment.
Son
On August 24, 1970, a son, Ruslan, was born into the young family of Evdokimenko and Rotaru. Anatoly was literally jubilant. The scale with which he celebrated the birth of his son is still remembered in his native Chernivtsi. A whole orchestra greeted Sofia from the maternity hospital. Grabbing Ruslan, the happy father began to dance with him in his arms right in the middle of the roadway, stopping all traffic.
The only son of Anatoly and Sofia became the object of their parental pride and love. He grew up persistent and even stubborn, having learned from childhood to solve all his problems on his own, without asking for help from his famous mother and father, who constantly went on tour together, sometimes separately.
When Ruslan grew up, he became a music producer. He married his colleague Svetlana and gave Anatoly and Sofia two wonderful grandchildren - Anatoly, born on March 23, 1994 and named after his grandfather, and Sofia, born on May 30, 2001.
It was he, Ruslan, who subsequently convinced his mother, Sofia Mikhailovna, to continue creativity when his father died, and everything became very bad in their family.
Disease
After almost thirty years of married life between Anatoly Evdokimenko and Sofia Rotaru, filled with mutual love, respect and happiness, trouble came knocking on their home.
In 1997, during another tour, Anatoly suddenly became ill. He began to lose consciousness and suffer from terrible headaches. Three Kyiv medical luminaries immediately gave him a fatal diagnosis - brain cancer. However, Rotaru doubted this verdict of the doctors and went with her husband for a consultation at one of the specialized medical centers in Germany. Local doctors, after conducting all the studies, refuted cancer and stated another diagnosis - a stroke due to overload and nervous shock associated with the death of Anatoly’s father. He was quickly brought to his feet.
However, a few months later another attack followed, from which Evdokimenko never recovered. He completely changed and stopped communicating with everyone. At the end of 2001, a third stroke followed. Anatoly lost his speech.
Sofia Mikhailovna spent all the money she earned on the treatment of her beloved husband, who at that time no longer left the walls of the Institute of Gerontology of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, out of desperation even going to an event unprecedented for her career - a performance at the Metelitsa nightclub. However, everything turned out to be in vain.
Biography and personal life of Sofia Rotaru
The birthplace of the famous singer is the village of Marshyntsi, Chernivtsi region. Sofia Rotaru jokes that she has been involved with music since childhood, saying that “only her pacifier prevented her from singing.” However, the talent of the future singer really manifested itself from an early age: from seven Rotaru sang in a church choir, then performed Moldovan folklore in an amateur art group, and learned to play musical instruments. At the local school, the girl was a real celebrity: in addition to the fact that Sofia had an amazingly beautiful soprano voice, she also won athletics competitions and was fond of theater.
However, Rotaru found her true calling already at the age of fifteen: in 1962, she won first at the city amateur competition, then at the regional show, and then was sent to the Republican Festival of Folk Talents, where she was again recognized as the best. At the age of seventeen, success had already found the talented Moldavian: she was predicted to have a future as a famous singer, was called the “Bukovinian nightingale”, and her photo graced the cover of the magazine “Ukraine”.
Rotaru studied at the Chernivtsi Music College. 1968 was full of important events for Rotaru: after performing at the Festival of Youth and Students, she was even praised by Lyudmila Zykina herself. That same year, Rotaru married Anatoly Evdokimenko immediately after graduating from college.
The singer's fame grew quickly - in 1971 she was given her first role in the film Chervona Ruta. Rotaru's film debut was successful: she became famous in Ukraine and got a job with the Chernivtsi Philharmonic.
However, in 1975, Sofia Rotaru was forced to move with her family to Yalta due to oppression by the authorities. But this test did not break the singer: exactly a year later she received the title of People's Artist of the Ukrainian SSR. It is noteworthy that Rotaru became People's Artist of the USSR much later in 1988. By this time, she had already starred in a number of famous films and began singing songs almost entirely in Russian.
It was then that Sofia Mikhailovna stopped performing in the Chervona Ruta ensemble and began her solo career. The title of a singer on a republican scale did its job: Rotaru was constantly invited to concerts, famous directors offered roles in films. Rotaru devoted more and more time to work every day, which was reflected in her appearance: the singer looked haggard and emaciated. This is what gave rise to numerous rumors that Rotaru was sick with tuberculosis, to which after some time asthma was added, and Sofia Mikhailovna’s move to Crimea was allegedly necessary for her treatment. Rotaru hid her lung problems, combining intensive treatment with work, but the famous singer’s vocal cords were damaged and betrayed her illness. At that time, she was actively acting in films where her voice had to be replaced with voice-over: the disease had changed it so much. However, Rotaru was able to cope with this test: after some time, the singer finally regained her health.
In the 90s, a new round began in the work of Sofia Rotaru. In 1991, the singer appeared on stage with the album “Caravan of Love. The singer radically changes her image: she cuts her hair and puts on a fashionable bouffant hairstyle, and instead of folk costumes she puts on extravagant fashionable trousers. Performing hard rock on the stages of huge halls, the singer finds herself in a new wave of popularity. The author of the new image of Sofia Rotaru was Alexander Stefanovich, director of the film “Soul”, in the filming of which the singer took part at that time. The script of the film seemed to be written for Sofia Rotaru, who then underwent surgery on her vocal cords: the story about a singer losing her voice was released on the screens. It should be noted that the film caused a great resonance in the public not only because of the almost autobiographical plot, because many said that the main role in it was originally supposed to belong to Alla Pugacheva. However, due to a break in relations and a quarrel with Stefanovich, the role of the singer leaving the stage went to the young and charming Sofia.
This story gave rise to new rumors about the two Prima Donnas hating each other. Alla Pugacheva and Sofia Rotaru, who began their musical careers at about the same age and are almost the same age, have always been considered irreconcilable rivals. Many noticed that the singers did not perform together at any concert, which the performers themselves explained by conflicting tour schedules.
However, the myth of the long-standing enmity almost dispelled on Alla Borisovna’s 60th birthday, at which Sofia Rotaru sincerely congratulated her right on stage, and then the singers, hugging and kissing like old friends, together performed the hit “They Won’t Catch Up with Us.”
The final
The cause of death of Anatoly Evdokimenko was the fourth stroke. This happened on October 23, 2002. He lost consciousness and never came to his senses again, not having time to say goodbye to anyone.
His wife, Sofia Mikhailovna, was in Germany on tour that day. Having learned about what had happened, within a few hours she was in Kyiv, holding her unconscious husband’s hand and talking to him for several hours in a row, remembering all the happy moments of their life.
Suddenly Anatoly’s eyes opened. Overjoyed, Sofia began to call the doctors, but at that very moment her husband’s heart stopped forever. He was only sixty years old.
For a long time, distraught with grief, Sofya Mikhailovna sat in the ward next to her deceased husband, refusing to believe that her beloved Tolik, as she usually called him, was no more...
Sofia Rotaru's husband - Anatoly Evdokimenko
The love story of Sofia Rotaru and her husband Anatoly Evdokimenko is similar to the plot of the film: a young man completing his military service accidentally saw a photograph of an aspiring singer in the magazine “Ukraine” and fell in love at first sight. By an amazing coincidence, Evdokimenko also passionately loved music and even during his service he did not part with his favorite instrument - the trumpet, playing in the army orchestra. This is what helped him find the key to the heart of young Sofia: upon returning home, Anatoly founded the Chervona Ruta ensemble, where he invited his beloved as a soloist. Rotaru agreed, and two years later she married Evdokimenko.
Sofia Mikhailovna recalls her own wedding with a smile: “We celebrated modestly, for two hundred people.” The celebration was a real mixture of cultures and peoples: on the one hand, the poor Moldovan family of Rotaru, and on the other, the wealthy relatives of the Ukrainian Evdokimenko. But despite these and many other differences, the young people were united for many years not only by love for each other, but by a passion for music, a common cause and sincere friendship and respect. The only reason for disagreement, however, almost became the “creative brainchild” of the newlyweds: the ensemble “Chervona Ruta” for a long time could not “get out” of the Chernivtsi Regional Philharmonic, which hurt the ambitious Anatoly and forced him to completely immerse himself in work, while how Sofia dreamed of a family.
Sofia Mikhailovna admits that she even had to lie to her husband about an early pregnancy in order to persuade him to have children, but a little deception only benefited her: soon the couple had their desired son, Ruslan.
The happy marriage of Rotaru and Evdokimenko lasted for thirty long years, but in 2002 Anatoly passed away. His death was an irreparable loss for Sofia Mikhailovna; she did not stop mourning all year, not appearing on stage or at social events. The first concert that Rotaru gave, appearing again in public after a while, was dedicated to the memory of her late husband.
Now the famous singer is a widow, but the beauty and success of this woman makes many men dream of her. Sofia Mikhailovna's most famous admirer was Nikolai Baskov. At one of the joint concerts, after a joint performance of the song “I will find my love,” the famous singer confessed his love to Rotaru and proposed his hand and heart. Sofia Mikhailovna's answer was simple and unambiguous: there will be no other love in her life except her late husband.
