“Egor Letov was not a star. He was the one and only. Long happy life Yegor Letov turned out to be alive

Fans prefer to gather at the grave of the famous singer to mark the anniversary of his death. The largest fan celebration is considered to be the “party” organized in 2010, when exactly 20 years had passed since Tsoi’s death.

Fans of Tsoi's work gathered at the singer's grave. The video was filmed in 2010.

During the “partying all night until the morning,” the fans behaved as if they were at a street concert: they smoked, drank and shouted “Kino” songs with a guitar. True, most of the alcoholic drinks ended up not in the hands of fans, but on the singer’s tombstone - in the video it is completely filled with glasses, cans and bottles of wine and port. Despite the torrential downpour that fell on August 15, 2010, connoisseurs of creativity put cigarettes and CDs with his recordings there.

On the 25th anniversary of the artist’s death, in 2015, fans behaved more decorously: they gathered, honored the memory of the deceased, and dispersed. But by this time, the singer’s grave had already become a rather dangerous place: from time to time, “Kino” listeners welcome guests cordially, but on other days they drag the bodies of unconscious brawl victims onto the railway tracks.

On August 15, 2016, because of these events, a police squad was on duty at the grave of Viktor Tsoi. Apparently, not the last time.

Yuri Klinskikh, "Gas Sector"

Where is he buried: Left Bank Cemetery, Voronezh.

Judging by the collection of videos on the Internet, there are always people standing at the grave of the lead singer of the Gaza Sector group. These can be a variety of characters: fans, punks, or just .

The fence within a radius of hundreds of meters from the artist’s burial site is covered with the words “Punky Hoy!” and mentions of the cities from which fans came. Despite this, a popular video on request “Yuri Klinskikh” is instructions on how to get to the singer’s grave.

Performance of the song "Collective Farm Punk" at the grave of Yuri Klinsky.

Another popular video is from an incident in 2010, when the guitarist of the first line-up of the Gaza Strip, Igor Kushchev, came to celebrate 10 years since the death of the Klinskys. The musician, who had had too much to drink, became very emotional and at some point became talk to the singer's gravestone and reproach the deceased for “betraying them.”

Video of fans singing songs at the singer's grave.

Mikhail Gorshenev, "The King and the Clown"

Where he is buried: Theological Cemetery, St. Petersburg.

There is silence and calm at the grave of the lead singer of the group “The King and the Jester”: no tears of former colleagues or alcoholic parties. A year after the singer’s funeral, a monument appeared at the grave. It was installed with money raised from a charity concert of the Kukryniksy group, in which Mikhail’s brother sings.

An amateur video filmed in the year of the singer’s death.

On the anniversary of “Gorshka’s” death, his mother Tatyana Ivanovna came to the grave together with fans of “The King and the Jester”, touchingly showed the singer’s “goat” to the singer’s friends, and read poetry own composition and was glad that the fans of the group dug up her entire garden at the dacha.

Despite the exemplary behavior of Gorshk fans, the authorities of Russian cities are in no hurry to meet them halfway - projects to erect a monument to the late soloist in Krasnoyarsk, Voronezh and St. Petersburg did not find support.

Egor Letov, "Civil Defense"

Where is he buried: Old Eastern Cemetery, Omsk.

The grave of Yegor Letov in Omsk is perhaps the most peaceful place in the city. Nobody organizes holidays there; relatives come alone, without dozens of fans.

There are no videos on YouTube of fans “getting together” with a guitar and beer. Like the Klinskys, Letov has visual instructions on how to get from the entrance to the Staro-Vostochnoe cemetery to the singer’s burial place. He has more videos like this than any other Russian musicians- Either the cemetery in Omsk is very large, or it’s easy to get lost in it.

Celebrities and politicians come to honor the memory of the singer. In 2011, the head of the A Just Russia party, Sergei Mironov, visited Letov’s grave, and in 2014, Yuri Shevchuk came to the Staro-Vostochnoe cemetery.

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Since the death of Igor "Egor" Letov, one of the most famous musicians USSR and Russia, more than 9 years have passed.

Having created a large number of projects and developing in different directions, Egor excited the minds of several generations. There are still debates about his work, but it is impossible not to recognize his gigantic contribution to art.

Yegor Letov was found alive in Siberia: life, work, cause of death

Egor Letov died on February 19, 2008 in his apartment in Omsk. The leader of Civil Defense was 43 years old. Letov's cause of death was a heart attack. This, in particular, was stated by Letov’s colleagues at Gr.Ob. and the musician's widow.

By the way, she said that the prosecutor’s office did not initiate any case, in their own words, due to the lack of criminality.

Everything that was written about this was some kind of sick fantasy, one more absurd than the other. He died at home, in bed, without even changing the position in which he slept. My heart stopped, my breathing stopped...

Most of all, Yegor did not want any excitement around his person, and wanted to be buried so that no one knew this place. But it was unrealistic... unfortunately. He was buried with that pectoral cross that he wore for everything. lately- Jerusalem.

Letov founded the Civil Defense group in 1984 and until recently remained its only permanent member. The group “Gr.Ob” has recorded several dozen albums; in addition, Letov managed to release 9 solo records. The last album of "Civil Defense" entitled "Why Dreams Dream" was released in 2007. At the end of work on this record at the end of January 2008, Letov said in an interview that “the last album took all my strength” and the new recordings of “Gr.Ob.” are unlikely to appear at all.

The music of "Grob" is traditional punk rock. At that time there were many bands that played approximately the same thing, but Letov had exceptional genius and charisma. Therefore, both in lyrics and music, he was the number one hero among informal youth.

Since you called yourself a punk, you have to live up to it. Letov started with appearance, and ended with a name change. In fact, his name was Igor. But it seemed too ordinary to him, but he thought the name Yegor was stupid, that’s why he chose it.

Most of Letov’s songs were regarded as openly anti-Soviet, but after 1991 “ Civil defense“refused to support Boris Yeltsin, going over to the side of the “national patriots.”

In October 1993, Letov actively supported the Supreme Council, and then for some time took part in the political projects of Dugin and Limonov.

Yegor Letov was found alive in Siberia: fact or fiction?

Sensation! Egor Letov is alive! He left the taiga in Ust-Kamenogorsk.

The leader of the Civil Defense group, Igor Fedorovich, also known as Yegor Letov, died back in February 2008. But fans still remember this man. He was the most extraordinary figure in the history of Russian rock, the first punk in the Soviet Union, talented person with a difficult fate.

We have already written about it in more detail. And today, “Your News”, with some difficulty, found Igor Fedorovich’s brother, Sergei Letov, and asked him several exciting questions. And although Yegor has not been with us for a long time, we have an exceptional opportunity to communicate directly with his closest relative and once again remember the legendary figure.

Please tell us how you live and what you do?

I have lived in Moscow since 1974. Currently I serve in three Moscow theaters: the Taganka Theater, the Chelovek Theater-Studio, and the Center for Directing and Drama. I am currently performing in three plays. In addition, I am the author of the music for these performances.

I do musical accompaniment for silent films. This year he performed dubbing films in Paris, Brussels, Liege, Dordrecht, Madrid, not to mention St. Petersburg, Moscow and Yekaterinburg. I teach at the Institute of Journalism and literary creativity for 13 years already. In January, he lectured at Niigata University and in Tokyo (Japan), and at the same time played there in clubs and museums with local free jazz musicians.

They performed with Alexander Sklyar and Oleg “Sharr” (ex-Aquarium) at a festival in Teriberka, on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. It was there, in Teriberka, that the film “Leviathan” was filmed.

Recorded this year with the group “25/17” and Gleb Samoilov. There was a recording with rapper Rich (“Lithium”). Also with Vadim Kurylev (“Electric Partisans”, “Adaptation”, ex-DDT), this album is still in the works.

I have three daughters - the youngest is 5 years old. Three granddaughters - the eldest is in her 3rd year at university, the middle one is learning to play the saxophone at a music school.

What happened to the members of the Civil Defense group after the death of Igor Fedorovich Letov?

Natalya Chumakova (wife of Yegor Letov - author's note) is actively involved in publishing creative heritage Igor, made a film about him. Chesnokov recently performed in Omsk with arrangements of Civil Defense songs. Kuzma Ryabinov is the most active of the “Defense” participants at present moment. With our participation, his double vinyl album was released in Canada this year. In the Kamchatka boiler room, his project “Virtuosi of the Universe” celebrated its anniversary this summer. I specially came to this concert from Moscow on the Sapsan.

Do you know about rumors on the Internet that Yegor Letov is alive and hiding from prying eyes somewhere in the vast expanses of our homeland. What do you think about this?

The word "Motherland" in Russian is written with capital letters. I didn’t find your question interesting, to put it mildly.

Sorry... What kind of relationship did you have with Igor Fedorovich? I really want to know some new details of his life.

The relationship was different. In the early 80s, Igor came to me in the Moscow region and began to take his first steps in music and began writing poetry. We tried to play free jazz together. He was unable to adapt to Moscow life, he was expelled from vocational school, and his parents demanded that he return to Omsk. In the first years after his return to Omsk, he wrote me long letters weekly - often accompanied by handwritten lyrics of the songs “Time Machine”, “Sunday” and the like. I sent him tape recordings of the DK albums in which I participated. Then he had a conflict with the KGB. He was forcibly placed in a mental hospital, and the letters stopped arriving. In 1988, when I was at jazz festival in Estonia, our mother died. I found a telegram about this at the door when I returned. Mobile phones and there was no Internet then. However, Igor was very worried that I did not come to the funeral (and I simply did not know that she had died). There was a pause in communication for some time. In 1993, Igor and his group, together with the “Barkashovites,” stood in defense of the Supreme Council, and I was very worried about him. Since 1993, we have again become closer. Evgeny Grekhov, director of Civil Defense in the first half of the 90s, contacted me due to the fact that Igor had problems with alcohol, asked me to use all my influence as an older brother...

In 1997, Igor, Kuzma and Makhno came to the performance of my ensemble TRI "O" at the Marat Gelman Gallery. We were drinking at some construction site and there we first started talking about playing together again. From 1998 to 2004 I began to participate in Civil Defense concerts, even together with Igor. Although such duets have happened before - in 1997, for example, at my birthday in the Skrin Internet cafe...

From 1998 to 2004, I was engaged in mastering discs for “CHORAL Records,” a company that mainly produced discs and cassettes of Igor and his circle. In recent years 2004-2008 we communicated much less.

What are your plans for the future? Will there be any other musical projects?

In October I am dubbing the Argentine film “Antenna” with Oleg “Sharr” at the Bashmet Center. Then I fly to Sochi for the festival of youth and students with the play “Revolution Square, 17”. In Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk I play with Va-Bank musical accompaniment to a Japanese silent film. On the day of returning from Sakhalin, I fly to Brussels - there I will accompany you in the evening French actress Valerie Chenet, who will recite “About This” by Mayakovsky. There is still a tour of Siberia ahead - first solo, and in a couple of months with Oleg Garkusha (soloist of the group "AuktYon" - author's note).

What do you think about the current order, how do you like the situation in the country as a whole?

Everything is going according to plan!

That’s how simple but informative our short conversation with Sergei Fedorovich Letov, brother of the great Russian rock musician Yegor Letov, was. As can be seen from the interview, these two are completely different people, With different destinies, but, of course, both are absolutely outstanding people.

Stay tuned for more news. Perhaps a few more exclusives from the incomprehensible world of art await you.

We decided to recall his biography and try to understand the work of the cult figure of Russian rock.

When in the spring of this year there was a rumor that Yegor Letov supposedly did not die, but lived in the taiga as a hermit for all these nine years, and now he was found and brought to the hospital, many believed it. Maybe even for one second, but they believed it.

Because it would be very much in the spirit of Letov.

A multifaceted man, a quirky man, a man who demanded a lot from others, a man who clearly felt that something was wrong with the world and rabidly did not agree to put up with it, a man who walked with leaps and bounds somewhere beyond the horizon.

Punitive psychiatry, running from the KGB, dozens of albums, sometimes recorded in complete solitude, participation in the NBP, intense passion for psychedelics, walks through Siberian forests and mountains - everything, it all happened.

The early albums, reckless, angry, dirty, can give the impression of purely political protest. Like, the USSR is bad, but without it it will be good. Some are still sure that Letov is about this, and now he is relevant only because we have a lot of Soviet things left in us. When the Union collapsed and Letov began making different music, many guessed that it was not the Soviets who were at fault. In any case, not only in them.

What is the song “KGB Rock” about then? And why “Lenin is Hitler, Lenin is Stalin”? And then a song dedicated to the defenders of the House of Soviets in October 1993? How is this possible? No, no, this is late Letov blown away! About some “phenomenon of a hare sitting in the grass covered with drops of dew”, about “a kind glow, a bottomless window”...

“For me, all the totalitarian categories and realities I use are images, symbols of eternal, metaphysical totalitarianism, inherent in the very essence of any group, any area, any community, as well as in the world order itself. It’s in this charmingly unholy sense that I will always be against it!”

By and large, all these political realities, all this shouting, all this uncouthness, all this rudeness and dirt of early Letov - it’s just artistic technique. A technique that he practiced while he was surrounded by industrial melancholy, the magazine “Korea”, and the “Memory” society. And what was familiar to the listener was suddenly transformed in a completely uncompromising form, turned inside out. And the point is not that an asphalt plant devouring a forest is an ugly phenomenon, but that it is only a manifestation of ugly human traits.

Gnashing guitar riffs, ear-scratching solos, heart-rending prowess of the drums, scream, scream, scream - the scream of a slaughtered animal.

There was such a language then. Then only he got there. Then it was impossible to do this, and therefore Letov did just that.

According to Bakunin, freedom among slaves becomes a privilege: the ideal anarchist is a free person who liberates others. So Yegor Letov tried to free him: to let him look at everything from a detached perspective, to drag him out of the zoo. And, in general, it worked: cassettes with his albums were rewritten and re-recorded throughout the USSR, quiet rumors were everywhere, and without him, the notorious Siberian punk, perhaps, would not have existed in the form in which we know it.

“Civil Defense” of the eighties is such a wild vitality, such crazy energy, drive that it is absolutely clear in my head: “we will tear the world to shreds, but we will live as we see fit.” Just look at how Letov behaves at concerts. Well, from Letov’s main opus of those years, "Russian field of experiments", it’s simply scary. However, fear is the dizziness of freedom, as Soren Kierkegaard wrote.

And I think: well, everything can’t be that bad... But it is! And even worse! However, it is stupid to think that Letov is just a gloomy person. If you casually read Dostoevsky, you can also see one darkness, one destruction, one depression. But the main thing there is not this, but the light in spite of it. Or rather, hope for light.

“Everything that is real is generally quite scary. For the right individual. But in general, you know, everyone tells me that you have nothing but darkness, obscurantism, depression... This once again shows that no one gives a damn! I’m speaking completely soberly and sincerely now - all my songs (or almost all) are about love, light And joy. That is, about what does it feel like- when this is not the case! Or what it is like when it is born in you, or, more accurately, when it dies. When you are alone with all the rubbish that is rotting inside you and that is flooding you outside. When you are not who you are must be!"

That's how early Letov.

The mature period of his work begins after the dissolution of Civil Defense. The group has become too popular, they are about to fill stadiums. But Letov doesn’t want to sell himself: he doesn’t even need songs into the void. Because he creates new project“Egor and...” (the name is obscene: just so that we and any other press could not really mention it) and records the most powerful album “Jump-Jump”.

Psychedelia, the spirit of garage rock of the 60s, noise tricks worked out in the “Communism” project, and new heights, new methods of struggle. There is no longer room for political realities here - despite the tragic events in the country. Here is a fool walking through the forest, a bear climbing a pine tree, Mayakovsky squeezing the trigger, songs about holiness, mice and reeds.

The figurative series becomes wider and seemingly more meaningless. The music is mostly made softer and more melodic. Something thoughtful and mysterious appears. It is becoming increasingly difficult to interpret songs directly. But scary things are still present: this, of course, is a ten-minute "Jump-jump"- a pile of meanings and images, either about the departure of the soul from the body, or about disincarnation. True shamanism. A real mind blower.

Yegor himself said that this album is about love. Very beautiful and very sad. Perhaps the most beautiful things of Letov are collected here. “Strangle with obedient hands your disobedient Christ.” “We quickly hurried, without hiding, the hours to our absurd funny country.” "Eternal spring in solitary confinement."

This album, like Yegor’s most demonic works (“Everything is like people’s”, “Russian Field of Experiments”, “Conspiracy”), leads to unexpected catharsis. Acts like LSD.

Letov's poetry is structured in a strange way. Indeed, she gravitates towards futurists and zaumists like Vvedensky or Kruchenykh. But he does not have a deconstruction of language: with a sort of abstractionist’s brush he paints images, concepts, aphorisms. And they make it clear something- let it be something and it is not always possible to express it verbally.

In the album “One Hundred Years of Solitude” this poetry (in which something broad and Russian is increasingly evident) is also supported by extremely inventive and varied music (inspired by 60s bands, Sonic Youth, Michael Gira and others). There has never been such a scattering of all kinds of effects, solos and musical-noise discoveries in Letov’s work: neither before nor after.

But then there was a return to politics, both in practice and in the albums “Solstice” and “The Unbearable Lightness of Being.” But here, perhaps, it turned out like with Kuryokhin: when just music was not enough for him, he went into politics: and one thing continued, but did not interfere at all. As is known, a real artist- wide

Some still consider it a big mistake that Letov got involved with the red-browns in the 90s and did not continue to work in the same aesthetics that he developed in the album “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” This is, of course, funny. Letov, after all, always fled from the clutches of certainty, from a too clear paradigm. When everyone already perceived him as an anarchist, he sang “I don’t believe in anarchy!” So, when he was already branded a National Bolshevik, he renounced and recorded his thoughtful and enchanting last albums: “Long happy life" and "Why do you dream?" Like the German romantic writers, Letov does not know the truth, but he sees indications of it and points it out to others.

One can discern stupidity and immaturity in his interviews, in his inconsistency, in his changeable views. But still it was the smartest person: from those that almost everyone read and listened to. With an incredible taste for art. Moreover, unlike other Russian rockers, he never scolded the so-called “pop” without reason, if it was really interesting and well made. And changeability is always better than callousness - if a person is still firm in his main ideals.

“I don’t think our rebellion is over. On the contrary, he reached a new level. The latest album is an example of this. Rebellion against rebellion as a cliche.”

So what is Letov? The phenomenon in Russian culture is not yet fully understood and experienced. A man who devoted himself entirely not just to music, but to some unknown service. Kicking with all his might against something that is impossible to overcome. He honestly tried to do what he had to do, living by the principle “why aren’t they all saints if they can be them right away?” And just a romantic figure. An idealistic reasoner who sang about things that, unfortunately, are still eternal. And although “dogs rule the world,” the “plastic world” has not yet won. For “the fallen will pick up a star, the blind will overcome the rainbow.”

If you walk around Moscow, along Arbat, along the passages and listen to street musicians, here and there you will still come across “Everything is going according to plan,” “Obsession,” “The detachment did not notice the loss of a soldier.” " Recently Letova

The leader of the Civil Defense group, Egor Letov, died at home in Omsk at the age of 43. According to the band's drummer Pavel Peretolchin, death was due to heart disease.

The leader is different famous rock band– “Metal Corrosion” - Sergei Pauk suggested that Letov’s death could be beneficial to someone in the recording industry. “In Russia it begins after a rock idol dies, as it happened with Tsoi and Talkov. Then the record company earns huge sums,” says Pauk.

“An outstanding musician who influenced more than one generation of people who in one way or another associated themselves with non-conformist music, punk rock, garage rock, and protest rock has passed away,” said the leader of the Russian punk rock group Naiv. Alexander (Chacha) Ivanov. According to him, Letov was “the most prominent representative of Soviet punk rock, original and very extraordinary.”

The leader of another famous rock band, “Corrosion of Metal,” Sergei Pauk, suggested that Letov’s death could be beneficial to someone in the recording industry. “In Russia, show business begins after a rock idol dies, as was the case with Tsoi and Talkov. Then the record company earns huge sums,” says Pauk.

Showman of the group "AuktYon" Oleg Garkusha said that an entire generation grew up on the songs of Yegor Letov. “He was a wonderful person. An insane number of young and older people grew up listening to his songs - songs of protest, challenge and freedom. Letov was a talented and brilliant person, and such a person left,” he added.

Igor Fedorovich Letov, known as Egor Letov, was born in Omsk on September 10, 1964. Leader of the Civil Defense group, he was one of the most prominent representatives punk movements in the USSR in general, and in Siberia in particular. The younger brother of the famous saxophonist Sergei Letov.

He began his musical activity in the early 1980s in Omsk, forming, together with like-minded people, the rock group “Posev”, and later the rock group “Civil Defense,” popular Internet portals report. At the dawn of their activities, the musicians of “Civil Defense”, due to political persecution by the authorities, were forced to record musical works in semi-underground apartment conditions.

In 1987-1989, Letov and his associates recorded a number of Civil Defense albums (“Red Album”, “Good!”, “Mousetrap”, “Totalitarianism”, “Necrophilia”, “So the Steel Was Tempered”, “Combat Stimulus” , “Everything is going according to plan”, “Songs of joy and happiness”, “War”, “Armageddon Pops”, “Healthy and Forever”, “Russian Field of Experiments”), at the same time albums of the project “Communism” (Egor Letov) were recorded , Konstantin Ryabinov, Oleg Sudakov (Manager)), the collaboration between Letov and Yanka Diaghileva began.

Despite the semi-underground existence of musicians and their so-called. GroB studios, by the end of the 1980s and especially in the early 1990s, they became widely known in the USSR (later Russia), mainly in youth circles. Letov's songs were distinguished by powerful energy, lively, simple, energetic rhythm, non-standard, sometimes shocking lyrics, and a kind of rough and, at the same time, refined poetry. The basis of Letov’s lyrics is the incorrectness of everything around him, and he expresses his position not directly, but through the depiction of this incorrectness. Yegor Letov was not a star. He was the one and only. Letov created provincial, Siberian urban rock, the most accurate, direct, most authentic.

In the early 1990s, Letov, as part of the project “Yegor and the Opissed”, recorded the albums “Jump-Jump” (1990) and “One Hundred Years of Solitude” (1992), which are among his most popular and beloved albums . In 1994, Letov became one of the leaders of the national communist rock movement “Russian Breakthrough” and was actively touring.

In 1995-1996, he recorded two more albums, “Solstice” and “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” (his group is again called “Civil Defense”); the music in these albums becomes more polished, “faceted”, the lyrics lose their excessive roughness, becoming more poetic, each song resembles a hymn, at the same time acquiring psychedelicity.

Yegor Letov supported the National Bolshevik Party for a long time, which many consider to be a contradiction to the ideals of anti-fascism, anti-nationalism and punk rock in general. In February 2004, Letov officially disowned any political forces, including nationalist ones. To recent years interest in the work of Yegor Letov waned until in 2004-2005, two new albums of the group “Long Happy Life” and “Reanimation” were released, which collected all the songs written from the release of the albums “Solstice” and “Unbearable Lightness of Being” in mid 90's.

In May 2007, the album “Why Do I Dream” was released. It should be noted that a song with this name appears on the album “Psychedelia Tomorrow” released in 2001 as part of the “Opi***nevye” project.

Egor Letov. "My Defense"