Strictly speaking, Leonid Niessmann does not belong to the «children of the Arbat», but to the wonderful cohort of «children of the Vakhtangov street». He lived in this street in his childhood and youth.
What a wonderful street! At that point in time it was located between the Arbat and the Dog Playground. Back then the most famous house in this street was, and still is, «Shchuka» — Theater School named after Boris Vasilyevich Shchukin. Besides, in the same house, but in its other wing, there lived a lot of actors, mainly from the Vakhtangov theater. Opposite «Shchuka» there was (and still is) a two-storey house, in which once lived Fyodor Shalyapin. Of course, he occupied the whole house. Then, after Shalyapin, when the house was divided into «common» apartments, Leonid Niessmann’s family used to live in one of them. Today Stage Directing Faculty of Shchukin Art School is located in this house — the one, which back in the old days I graduated from.
Leonid was a sociable boy and very quickly became friends with his peers, children of the actors who lived nearby. In his school years his friends were Misha Derzhavin, Shura Shirvindt, Slava Shalevitch, Mitya Dorliak, Natasha Zhuravleva. He shared the same apartment with the real beauty Valya Malyavina. In the course of time, they all became very famous actors.
Leonid studied in one of the Arbat schools and graduated with the gold medal. At first he wanted to go to «Shchuka», but life made some adjustments, and he, not without difficulty, entered one of the technical Universities of Moscow and graduated with honors. While studying at the University he actively participated in amateur performances, wrote lyrics for the student parties and «wits and humour» competitions.
After graduation, he worked as a designer, researcher, invented a lot, became one of the firsts in the country to introduce the automatic design system (CAD).
He defended his thesis successfully, combined the main work with teaching at various Universities in Moscow. Since then he has written and published more than 70 scientific works — author's certificates, articles, brochures, books (including several textbooks). All these are technical literature items.
But since school years Leonid Niessmann has aspired after fiction. And not only as a reader. Ever since he has been writing poetry and prose, participating in the creation of various performances, composing songs and patters, making translations from German and English.
Having moved to Germany, Leonid does not break ties with Russia, participates in the development and implementation of a number of successful joint