Pyotr Konstantinovich Leshchenko (Russian: Пётр Константинович Лещенко; 2 June 1898 – 16 July 1954), a singer in the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union, is universally considered "the King of Russian Tango" and specifically known for his rendition of "Serdtse"—a tango, sung unusually not in Spanish but in Russian. He was born as a citizen of the Russian Empire in Isayevo village of the Kherson Governorate (now part of Odessa Oblast, Ukraine) into a poor and illiterate peasant family. During the First World War, his mother and stepfather moved to Kishinev (Bessarabia Governorate), which was later united with Romania (today's Moldova). He was proficient in numerous languages: Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian, German, and others.