Alexander Novikov singer biography personal life height. Alexander Novikov - biography, personal life, creativity

The man managed to achieve fame as a bard, composer, reliable equipment manufacturer, and also a successful studio manager.

Childhood and family of Alexander Novikov

Alexander's father was a military pilot, his mother tried to pay a lot of attention to her son and therefore became a housewife. In 1959, the head of the family retired and decided that it was time to get out of the small village, where there were no prospects for his son. As soon as Sasha turned 6 years old, his parents decided to move to Kyrgyzstan so that their son could receive a good education in Bishkek.

At first, it was difficult for the boy to get used to the new environment and those around him, but at school he quickly adapted and made friends. He was a controversial student: already in the first grade he knew Yesenin’s poems by heart, by the third grade he had read “War and Peace,” nevertheless, he had bad grades on his report card, and because of his bad behavior he was not accepted as a pioneer.

His parents moved often, so during his school years the boy changed 4 educational institutions. He received his certificate at one of the schools in Sverdlovsk in 1970.

For 10 years, he stubbornly tried to get a higher education: first at the Ural Polytechnic University, and then at the Mining and Forestry Universities. He failed to obtain the desired diploma, because he was constantly expelled for various reasons: behavior, academic performance, coincidence.

So, at the age of 18, he received his first sentence for fighting, but his motives were noble. Together with his friends, he witnessed the beating of a waitress and stood up for the woman. The rude man was beaten to his hospital bed, and while he lay unconscious, Alexander took a watch from his pocket and gave it to the victim as compensation. Alexander was given a “condition” and sentenced to compulsory labor.

During his student years, Alexander acquired a bad reputation for himself as an “anti-Soviet”, since he flatly refused to join the Komsomol and was not afraid to criticize the regime. The authorities found out about this and subsequently closely monitored him. Giving up attempts to get a tower, the guy decided to devote himself to creativity. At the end of the 70s, he began performing in expensive restaurants in Sverdlovsk: “Malachite”, “Cosmos”, “Ural dumplings”.

Music career

In parallel with this, the young man began the production of electronic musical equipment, which was not inferior in quality to foreign ones. He also worked as a coach at a sports club.

In 1984, Alexander decided to experiment with genres and released his debut solo album, “Take Me, Cabby,” in the chanson style.

The fans were delighted with the record, but they had no idea how much effort it took to record it. Other musicians also came to Alexander’s aid: Alexey Khomenko, Vladimir Elizarov and Sergey Kuznetsov. Having never agreed to rent a studio located on the territory of the Uralmash plant, the guys sneaked there at night and recorded a really good album.

Alexander Novikov - “Drive me, cab driver”

After the world heard Alexander’s new creation, the authorities placed him under surveillance. His phone conversations were monitored, his every move was monitored, and, of course, information was collected piece by piece. At some point, it accumulated enough to arrest the musician.

Arrest of Alexander Novikov

Finding himself in prison in the small town of Ivdel in the north of the Sverdlovsk region, Alexander could have gotten a good position in the library, but he chose only the hardest work. It was by this act that he earned the recognition of local authorities. Throughout his entire term, he cut up the forest and helped in construction.

In 1990, the Supreme Council of the RSFSR decided to release the prisoner, and a little later the Supreme Court of Russia pardoned Alexander. The authorities agreed that Alexander spent 6 years in prison because of a fabricated case.

Further career

In 1995, he received the prestigious Ovation Award, and two years later he recorded a new album called Sergei Yesenin. In 2000, he went to Yekaterinburg to present the bells he had made to St. Patriarch Alexei II.

Alexander Novikov - Remember, girl

During his career, Alexander released more than 300 songs, and also received the unofficial title of a pioneer of the “urban romance” genre. His most popular albums, “Carrier”, “Remember, Girl” and “Ancient City”, became true chanson classics. The video for the song “Chansonette” is well known to all connoisseurs of the genre.

Alexander Novikov – Chansonette

In the summer of 2010, Alexander Novikov became the head of the Yekaterinburg Theater, and a few months later he released another album, “Pineapples in Champagne.” In 2012, the next album was recorded, “Break Up with Her.”

Despite his advanced age, Alexander plays sports, does not smoke, and spends almost all his free time from performing with his family.

Concert of Alexander Novikov, song “In a provincial restaurant”

In 2013, he recorded an album called “E-Album”, and a year later - “Along From Memory”. In the fall of the same year, a concert took place in the Kremlin Palace, where the singer performed many songs from the beloved album “Take Me, Cabby.” You could also hear these hits on the NTV channel.

Personal life of Alexander Novikov

The singer is very proud of his daughter Natasha: she received a good education and became a professional designer. As for Igor’s son, all that is known is that he has his own photo salon.

At one of the Chanson Award ceremonies, Novikov gave a short interview in which he thanked his wife for managing to save the family in a difficult time for them. He also officially declared in front of everyone that he would never leave her, no matter what rumors the journalists started.

Alexander Novikov today

In August 2017, the singer was finally charged under the article “Fraud on an especially large scale, committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy.” However, the developer still completed the construction of Queens Bay.

There are a lot of rumors about the personal life of Alexander Novikov, but he himself does not like to talk about its details. In all interviews, the singer talks about his wife Maria, with whom he lived for more than thirty-seven years, and how he met her.

Children of Alexander Novikov- the subject of his pride, especially his youngest daughter Natasha. Now they are adults and live independent lives. The children of Alexander Novikov received a good education. When my daughter was a schoolgirl, she studied at the School of Art, drew well and showed great promise as a fashion designer. Vyacheslav Zaitsev, who was on friendly terms with Novikov, was going to take her in. Now Natasha is a designer, engaged in interior design. Sometimes, at the request of his father, he designs the covers of his CDs.

In the photo - Alexander Novikov

Novikov's son is the owner of a photo salon. The singer is very kind to his family, especially his wife, who helped him survive the difficult years of camp life. The artist considers his wife a very wise woman who managed to preserve, despite everything, their family and the good attitude of Alexander Novikov’s children towards their father.

In the photo - the family of Alexander Novikov

They met at the Mining Institute, where they were students at that time. When the children of Alexander Novikov were born into the family, he was accused of anti-Soviet propaganda and the illegal manufacture and sale of electrical musical equipment and was sentenced to ten years in prison. The singer’s wife also suffered - she was dragged through interrogations, many acquaintances turned away from her, and besides, Maria had to raise Alexander Novikov’s two small children alone.

But she did not give up on her husband, went on dates with him and believed only in good things. When perestroika began in the country, Novikov was released for lack of evidence of a crime, and after six years in prison he was released. Once free, Alexander began performing chansons. He began to earn a lot of money, he had many temptations and admirers, and at this time new trials fell on the lot of Alexander Novikov’s wife. Despite the fact that the artist never tires of repeating about his love for Maria, there were different things in his life, but his wife had enough wisdom and patience to save her family, for which Alexander Novikov is eternally grateful to her. Now their family is based on mutual understanding, respect for each other and care for the home.

Born on October 31, 1953 on the Kuril Islands, on the island of Iturup, the village of Burevestnik in the family of a military pilot, his mother is a housewife. In 1969 he moved to Sverdlovsk, which then, in defiance of everyone, was already called Yekaterinburg. He flatly refused to become a member of the Komsomol, criticized the Soviet regime, for which he was under special control of the authorities from his youth.

In 1970 he graduated from secondary school No. 110 in Sverdlovsk. He studied alternately at three universities: the Ural Polytechnic, the Sverdlovsk Mining, the Ural Forestry, and was expelled from all of them for various reasons.

In the late 70s, he became interested in rock music. In 1975-1979 worked as a musician in the restaurants "Ural dumplings", "Malachite", "Cosmos". In 1981 he created the Novik-Records studio and the Rock-Polygon group, with which he recorded an album of the same name. The group's concert activities took place in a semi-legal way, however, like all rock groups at that time. At the same time, he launched the production of homemade electrical musical equipment, which was superior in quality to all domestic models and, thanks to this, was in great demand throughout the country. The equipment was an analogue of foreign equipment and differed little from it, both in appearance and sound. Some samples of it still work today. Also in 1980-1984. worked as an industrial training instructor at a sports and technical club.

In 1984, he abruptly moved away from rock music and, unexpectedly for everyone, recorded his famous album “Take Me, Cabbie.” The following musicians took part in the recording of the album: A. Khomenko, V. Elizarov, S. Pyankov, Y. Abramov, V. Chekunov, S. Kuznetsov. The recording was made clandestinely in the Palace of Culture of the Uralmash plant, with the silent consent of the director of the cultural center Milyavsky Z.A., for which the entire group is grateful to him and considers this a direct contribution to the creation of the legendary “Carrier,” which broke all records of popularity and scale of circulation. Immediately after the release of the album, he came to the attention of the ideological sector of the CPSU Central Committee and the KGB. At the direction of the top party leadership, the musician was immediately under open surveillance, his car was constantly “guarded” by KGB surveillance, telephone conversations in the apartment were tapped, and the neighbors temporarily had spies - “well-wishers”.

On October 5, 1984, in the morning he was seized in the middle of the street by people in civilian clothes, arrested and placed in pre-trial detention center No. 1 in Sverdlovsk. A criminal case was opened, which began with a document called “Expertise on the songs of A. Novikov.” The document contained reviews of each of the songs on the album “Take Me, Cabby,” written in an offensively libelous tone and a general summary, the essence of which was that “the author of the above-mentioned songs needs, if not psychiatric, then certainly prison isolation.” ! Compiled and signed, at the direction of the relevant authorities, by composer Evgeny Rodygin - author of the songs “Oh, curly rowan, white flowers” ​​and “New settlers are traveling across virgin land”, member of the Union of Writers of the USSR Vadim Ocheretin, head of the culture department V. Olyunin. However, subsequently seeing that the case was acquiring an undesirable political overtones, the investigation refused to bring A. Novikov to criminal responsibility for the songs and took the path of fabricating a case on the “production and sale of electrical musical equipment.”
In 1985, by the verdict of the Sverdlovsk court, he received 10 years in high-security camps. He endured all attempts to put pressure on him in order to obtain repentance and renunciation of the songs and poems he had written while in the camp with pride and dignity. In the camp he refused any concessions, work in the club, library, etc. He worked on an equal basis with all prisoners, in the most difficult jobs of cutting wood, rafting and construction, for which he earned the love and respect of Russian prisoners. He served an undeserved sentence in institution N-240-2/2 in the city of Ivdel in the north of the Sverdlovsk region. In 1990, by Decree of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR, he was released, and later the Supreme Court of Russia overturned the sentence “for lack of corpus delicti.” Thus admitting that the 6 years the poet spent in prison were the result of a fabricated case.

Since 1990, A Novikov has been the artistic director of the Alexander Novikov Song Theater and the Novik-Records studio. Alexander Novikov was the first who, back in 1993, publicly condemned the shameful practice of television workers taking money from performers in the form of bribes for playing clips. He was the first to speak publicly about clanism in domestic show business and on television, and the degradation of the Russian stage. As a result of this, he was included in the secret lists of “persons undesirable to be shown,” which further added to the popularity and interest in the personality of A. Novikov on the part of ordinary citizens of Russia.

In 1994, together with the best Ural craftsmen, he developed models and cast bells at his own expense as a gift for the Temple at the site of the execution of the Romanov family. The bells are unique not only in their sound and external decoration, but also wonderful works of art, and could be exhibited in any museum. Each bell has a name - after the names of members of the royal family. The smallest is Tsarevich Alexei, the largest (weight about 400 kg) is Nicholas II.

In November 2000, A. Novikov donated these bells to the monastery built on the site of the first burial of the Royal Family on Ganina Yama near Yekaterinburg, since the Temple at the site of the execution had not yet been built.

In 2000, the visit of Alexy II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' to Yekaterinburg took place, during which the Patriarch blessed the construction, and His Eminence Vincent, Archbishop of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye blessed the erection of A. Novikov’s bells on the belfry of the temple at the first resting place of the royal family on Ganina Yama, where they still call to this day.

In 2002, with the blessing of the Russian Orthodox Church and with the support of the Governor of the Sverdlovsk Region, E. E. Rossel, he began holding a charity event “Bells of Repentance” to raise funds for casting bells for the Church on the Blood in the name of All Saints in the Russian Land, located at the site of the execution Romanov family. At his own expense he cast part of the bells, which on October 6, 2002 were consecrated by His Eminence Vincent, Archbishop of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye and on October 17 erected on one of the four belfries of the Temple. The end of the action is July 16, 2003, the opening day of the Temple. A total of 14 bells are planned to be cast. The weight of the largest ones is 1.3, 2.5, 4 and 8 tons. The bells have a unique artistic design. In addition, icons are cast on each bell, and on large bells there are several icons. The bells were manufactured by the Pyatkov and K company in Kamensk-Uralsky.

During his creative career, A. Novikov created more than two hundred songs, several dozen of which are already classics of the genre today (“Do you remember, girl?..”, “Carrier”, “Chansonette”, “Street Beauty”, “Ancient City”, etc. .)

In 1994, he recorded the song “Chansonette”, based on which, according to his own script, together with director K. Kotelnikov, he shot a video. A unique and first video in Russia in which a real image is combined with a drawn one. No computer technology was used in the video. All animation is done by hand. In addition, he shot a number of videos: “Street Beauty”, “With a Beauty in an Arm” (directed by G. Kropivsky), “Red and White”, “Let You Drink Others”, “Carrier”, “Ekaterinblues”, etc. Scenarios of all without exception, the clips were invented and written by A. Novikov himself. And also several documentaries: “I Just Got Out of the Cage”, “Remember, Girl?”, “Gop-Stop Show”.

In 1995, A. Novikov and director K. Kotelnikov made a large documentary about the group "Boney M" and its producer and composer Frank Forian - "Oh, this Forian!" Filming took place in Luxembourg and Germany. The film is very necessary and interesting, but it was not shown on central TV channels.

In 1995, A. Novikov became a laureate of the national Ovation award in the Urban Romance category. In 1997, he wrote songs based on the poems of S. Yesenin and released the album "Sergei Yesenin", which, according to music critics, art historians and public opinion, is the most successful and significant work in all the years since the death of the great Russian poet.

Having written more than 200 songs and released more than a dozen records, A. Novikov created a completely unusual genre that does not fall under any classification - the genre of the most modern urban romance, elevated to the level of high art.

Discography:

Author's albums:
1. "Drive me, cabbie"
2. "Necklace of Magadan"
3. "In a provincial restaurant"
4. "City Romance"
5. "Chanceonette"
6. "With a beauty in my arms"
7. "Notes of a criminal bard"
8. "Sergei Yesenin"
9. "Burlak"
10. "Wall"
11. "Cranes over the camp"
12. "Real"
13. "Ponty Amur"

Collections of lyrical songs:
1. "Golden Collection"
2. “Remember, girl?..”
3. "Pretty Eyed"

Concert performances:
1. "In 10 years"
2. "Concert at the Variety Theater"
3. "The cab driver is 15 years old"

Thanks to his strong and patriotic position, sincerity and love for his compatriots, he has the glory and popularity of a national hero.

According to a survey conducted by the Independent Association of Newsmakers of Russia in 1998 and covering more than 85 thousand respondents, Alexander Novikov, along with Yesenin, Galich, Vysotsky, is one of the most outstanding poets of the twentieth century.

Married. Has two children. His wife Maria Fedorovna is an employee of the Ural Academy of Public Administration. Son Igor and daughter Natalya. Hobbies: fishing, hunting, fast driving.

Alexander Vasilievich Novikov(October 31, 1953, Iturup, Kuril region, Sakhalin region, USSR) - Russian poet, singer, composer, songwriter in the genre of urban romance, artistic director of the Ural State Variety Theater.

During his creative career, Alexander Novikov wrote more than three hundred songs, including “Do you remember, girl?..”, “Take me, cabbie”, “Chanceonette”, “Street Beauty”, “Ancient City”, which have long become classics of the genre.

His current discography is [ ] has more than 25 numbered albums, 14 albums of concert recordings, 13 video discs, as well as several collections of poems, songs and an autobiographical book “Notes of a Criminal Bard.”

Together with director Kirill Kotelnikov, he shot the autobiographical film “The Real.”

Alexander Novikov is a laureate of the national Ovation award in the Urban Romance category (1995), and a multiple winner of the Chanson of the Year award. (from 2002 to 2018). Laureate of the International Literary Prize named after. Sergei Yesenin.

In addition to musical creativity and concert activities, he is engaged in social activities - he heads the Foundation “400th Anniversary of the House of Romanov in the Urals”, as well as the Charitable Foundation “Good Power” and the Children’s Recreation Organization “Big Flight”.

Biography

Childhood and youth

Born on October 31, 1953 on the island of Iturup, Kuril archipelago, in the village of Burevestnik. Father is a military pilot, mother is a housewife. For the first 2 years of his life, Novikov and his family lived on Sakhalin, then lived for some time in the Latvian village of Vainode, then ten years in the city of Frunze, and in 1969 Novikov moved to the city of Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), where he continues to live and work to this day. time.

Sasha Novikov grew up as a very smart boy. However, he studied poorly at school, did not observe discipline, and already in the 4th-5th grade Novikov was expelled from the ranks of the pioneers. In everyday life, the future musician was an open anti-Soviet.

Novikov also showed his temperamental character in boxing and sambo.

Young Alexander Novikov’s passion for music came in 1967 under the impression of watching the film “Vertical” with the participation of Vladimir Vysotsky, who performed 5 of his songs in the film. As a student at UPI, he performed as part of the institute's VIA "Polymer". He was expelled from the institute for performing the song “The Beatles” at one of the institute’s events.

In 1971, he received his first sentence for a fight in a restaurant. Novikov and his friend stood up for the waitress against her opponent, who refused to pay and used physical force against her. The opponent himself later ended up in the hospital, and the waitress got his watch, which Novikov and his friend, taking it out of the pocket of the unconscious opponent, gave it to her. Novikov was given a suspended sentence for a year with mandatory involvement in labor (popularly “chemistry”), during which he built a Public Service House in Nizhny Tagil.

In 1980 he created the group “Rock Polygon”, where he performed as a soloist, guitarist and songwriter. The songs were performed in the styles of rock and roll, reggae and new wave, with elements of punk rock, hard rock and psychedelic rock. The texts were distinguished by their philharmonic spirit. The group recorded two self-titled albums in (in the official publication for the year it is erroneously indicated as) and 1984.

In 1981, he founded the recording studio “Novik-Records”, where not only Novikov’s albums were recorded, but also many Sverdlovsk musicians - in the future the groups “Chaif”, “Agatha Christie”, Nautilus Pompilius and others.

In 1984, Novikov sharply moved away from rock music and on May 3 recorded the famous album “Take Me, Cabbie.” Musicians from the Rock Polygon took part in the recording, including Alexey Khomenko and Vladimir Elizarov. The album broke all records of popularity and circulation.

Arrest

On October 5, 1984, Novikov was arrested, and in 1985, by a verdict of the Sverdlovsk court, he was sentenced to imprisonment for a term of 10 years - under Art. 93-1 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. Officially - in connection with the production and sale of counterfeit electronic musical equipment. However, in his interviews, A. Novikov repeatedly noted that he was imprisoned specifically for the album “Take Me, Cabby,” referring to the case that began with the document “Expertise on the songs of Alexander Novikov,” which contained reviews of each song from the album “Take Me.” me, cab driver." Based on the results of this examination, it was decided that:

The examination was carried out by composer Evgeny Rodygin, a member of the USSR Writers' Union, a member of the editorial committee of the Ural magazine Vadim Ocheretin, and a representative of the USSR Ministry of Culture Viktor Nikolaevich Olyunin.

In the camp, Alexander Vasilyevich wrote most of his best poems, including “Layout Lyrics”, “I extracted pain and salt for my wounds...”, “Guitar and Organ-Gurdy”, “You and I will not see each other soon...”, “Gypsy”, “ Four teeth”, “Wife”, “The night was rammed by a star...” and others. Also, while still in a pre-trial detention center cell, Novikov created the play-fable “Komarilla”, in which, in a comic form, the whole picture of the trial is presented, and under the masks of animals real people involved in the poet’s “case” are shown.

Subsequently, in 2012, the autobiographical book “Notes of a Criminal Bard” was published, covering the period of Alexander Novikov’s life spent in the camp.

Liberation and subsequent events

The very next day after his arrival in Sverdlovsk, the bard sat down in a music studio to work on songs, most of which he composed while in prison. The result of the work was the albums “In Yekaterinburg”, which was recorded in three weeks, and “Necklace of Magadan”. Novikov gave his first concerts after his release, or rather creative meetings, in May at the cultural center of the village of Verkh-Neyvinsky (Sverdlovsk region), and from May 25 to 27, the bard, together with his accompanying group, gave his first “big” concerts at the Sverdlovsk Sports Palace.

Immediately after this, a tour of the cities of the USSR followed. At the very beginning of 1991, Novikov gave his first concerts in Moscow, and immediately at the Variety Theater. These sold-out performances were recorded on film and included in the documentary film “Gop-Stop Show”.

Novikov spent most of his first large fees on business development and charity. Thus, Novikov transferred all the funds from one of the concerts at the Variety Theater to the construction of the Yekaterinburg Church on the Blood). For this temple, he also developed, together with the Ural master Nikolai Pyatkov, models and cast 7 bells at his own expense. However, since the temple was not built at that time, in 2000 he transferred them to the monastery on Ganina Yama. All bells have bas-reliefs of members of the royal family and the names of each of them. The largest of them is called “Nicholas II”, the smallest is “Tsarevich Alexei”.

In the 90s, Novikov at different times owned several stores in Yekaterinburg, a collective farm, a cargo transportation company from the UAE, an airline, and also a difiber stones factory (there are only two such factories in the world, in Canada and Yekaterinburg).

In August 1991 he spoke out against the State Emergency Committee.

In parallel with business, producing and charitable activities, Novikov continued to record his new songs and shoot videos for some of them. In 1993, Novikov and director Kirill Kotelnikov shot a unique video of its kind for the song “Chansonette”, in which a real image was combined with a drawn one, and without the use of computer technology. The clip was quite actively shown on Russian television channels.

Despite this, Novikov even then sharply criticized the then state of domestic show business. He condemned the degradation of the Russian stage, the low taste of performers and their authors, the dominance of pederasts, clannishness and nepotism of show business itself, and also called “shameful” the practice of television workers taking money from performers in the form of bribes for playing clips. As a result of this, the bard ended up on the secret lists of “persons undesirable to be shown,” however, this only added to the popularity and interest in A. Novikov’s personality on the part of ordinary citizens.

In 1994, together with Kirill Kotelnikov, he made a documentary film about the group “Boney M.” and its creator Frank Farian “Oh, this Farian!” (“Oh, this Farian!”). Filming took place in Luxembourg and Germany, the film included unique interviews with Farian and materials from his personal archive. However, the film was never shown on Russian television.

On January 24, 1998, he took part in a gala concert in honor of the 60th anniversary of Vladimir Vysotsky, held at the Olimpiysky sports complex. Among three dozen artists, Novikov is one of the few who had the honor of performing two songs of the legendary singer-songwriter at once: “Song about an informer” and “Bolshoi Karetny”. Famous writer Fyodor Razzakov in the book “Vladimir Vysotsky. I will, of course, come back..." noted:

The idea [of the concert] was doomed to failure from the start. It’s one thing to sing “Old Songs about the Main Thing,” and quite another to sing Vysotsky’s songs. Therefore, only two or three performers (Alexander Novikov, Lesopoval, Lyube) managed, if not to come close to the author’s version, then at least not to spoil it. All the other concert participants couldn't handle it.

On June 16, 2003, Alexander Novikov was awarded the highest church award - the Order of the Holy Blessed Prince Daniel of Moscow for his services in the construction of the Church on the Blood in Yekaterinburg. Since 2004, President of the Foundation “400th Anniversary of the House of Romanov” in the Urals.

On June 24, 2010, he was appointed artistic director of the [state] Variety Theater. Having become the artistic director of the theater, Novikov first of all banned the play “Blue Puppy”, in which he saw signs of promoting pedophilia.

These vuvuzelas of homosexuality, looking at the world through an eyesore, which for some reason are always in a bulging state... So, through these eyesores, any healthy event and normal act seems to them to be an attack on their mythical homosexual rights, growing straight out of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Alexander Novikov

After this case the expression "vuvuzelas of homosexuality" has gained great popularity on the Internet.

On October 28, 2010, a new album by Alexander Novikov was released on poems by poets of the Silver Age, in the recording of which Maxim Pokrovsky took part, performing together with Novikov a song based on the poems of Sasha Cherny “Tararam”. Alexander Vasilyevich described the result of his work on the creation of this album:

The album “Pineapples in Champagne” is a gallery of quirky and unique gems of “Silver Age” poetry. I made a musical frame for each of them. Five years of fine jewelry work

Participant in the annual National Chanson of the Year Award in the Kremlin.

In 2014-2018, he was a member of the jury of the TV show “Three Chords” and repeatedly performed on its stage.

In December 2016, Novikov was charged under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud on an especially large scale). On December 23, the court sent him to house arrest for two months. According to investigators, Novikov and former Deputy Minister of Economy of the Sverdlovsk Region Mikhail Shilimanov collected about 150 million rubles from shareholders in the construction of the Queens Bay cottage community in Yekaterinburg, and then transferred this money to their accounts. Construction of the village was stopped; law enforcement officers estimated the amount of damage at 35 million 627 thousand rubles.

On July 30, 2018, the Department of State Housing and Construction Supervision of the Sverdlovsk Region signed a conclusion on the compliance of the constructed facility with the requirements of technical regulations. On September 7, 2018, the Ministry of Construction of the Sverdlovsk Region issued permission to put into operation the houses of the residential housing cooperative "Queens Bay". From this moment, shareholders can receive their apartments and issue a certificate of ownership.

Awards (Chanson of the Year)

Video on the topic

Creation

Most famous songs

Discography

• 1983 - Rock Polygon (Alexander Novikov and the Rock Polygon group) (previously not officially published, in 2008 it was included in the collection “Alexander Novikov. MP3 series” with errors in design and a shortened version)
• 1983 - Drive me, cabbie (the sound of the songs on the 1983 album is slower than on the 1984 album) (11 songs)
• 1984 - Rock Polygon II (Alexander Novikov and the Rock Polygon group)
• 1984 - Drive me, cabbie (original title “East Street”) (18 songs)
• 1990 - Second concert after release (not officially released)
• 1990 - I’m in Yekaterinburg (Alexander Novikov and the group “Grandchildren of Engels”) (magnetic album)

• 1991 - Drive me, cabbie (Alexander Novikov and the group “Khipish”) (9 songs)
• 1993 - Necklace of Magadan
• 1993 - Urban Romance (recorded 1992)
• 1993 - In a provincial restaurant ( Alexander Novikov, “Grandchildren of Engels”, “Hipish”) (some songs have already been sounded in the magnetic album “I’m in Yekaterinburg”, and the rest of the songs were already recorded in 1992)

Books

• 2001 - “Take me, cab driver...” (poems and songs)
• 2002 - “Bell Tower” (poems and songs)
• 2011 - “Street Beauty” (collection of lyric poems)
• 2012 - “Symphonies of the Court” (collection of lyric poems)
• 2012 - “Notes of a criminal bard” (Astrel Publishing House LLC, circulation 7500 copies)
• 2016 - “Notes of a criminal bard” (Socrates Publishing House, circulation 2000 copies)
• 2018 - “Poems. Songs" (collection of poems)

Data

Man's conversation

Chansonnier Alexander NOVIKOV: “The camp in which he was imprisoned was terrible: stabbings, terrible hunger... Every day someone either died or committed suicide, out of 2600 prisoners, 800 were released (300 were already “roosters”, the rest were and not a “rooster”, and not a man), in winter it’s up to 55 degrees below zero, but, sitting in a punishment cell with rats, I wasn’t thinking about how to get out of there, but how to die with dignity, not like a dog.”

Outwardly, 58-year-old Alexander Vasilyevich Novikov - an intelligent tall man in an invariable strict suit - bears little resemblance to a chansonnier (the way we are used to imagining them - cheeky, boorish, unshaven, with a golden hair fix and the manners of a street rake, in a word, prisy), and it’s even more difficult to say that my interlocutor has six years of high-security camps behind him. 30-year-old Alexander ended up there because he stood out too much from the crowd: he did not know how to lie, endure, silently bend his back, servile, betray, and he also wrote poems that were not at all Soviet - so little similar to the marches and chants to which we moved to new and new heights of a “bright future”. The song “Carrier,” written on behalf of a former convict who was released yesterday from prison and yearning for a friend who is still serving time, became fatal for Novikov: in 1984 he himself was arrested without explaining why and for what, and from that moment, Alexander’s life began to resemble an action-packed film from the category “not for the faint of heart”: bars, bunks, interrogators and interrogations - similar to those with which the Inquisition tormented prisoners in the Middle Ages. “Admit it, are you a sinner?” - “No, no, I’m telling you!” - “It only seems like this to you, but how is it really?”

True, they no longer tortured people with hot iron in the progressive twentieth century, and they forgot about stretching on the rack long ago, but only an incredibly strong-willed and bright-hearted personality could endure what befell Novikov, and now, after more than two decades years old, calmly talk about the zone: “I went through this “school” ....”

After talking with Alexander, I realized: they didn’t teach him anything bad there, and this is another advantage - an important one. Only a real man can not stumble, not become angry, not become hardened and, in the end, not become dull, being among heavy offenders with a criminal past and, in most cases, the same future, day and night. And a real man.

Once at a concert, after performing the lyrical, urban romance classics “Spring water rolled on the asphalt,” “You are leaving” and “Remember, girl?” Novikov received a note with the question: “Sanya, why don’t you want to sing about the prison?” With his characteristic kind and wise humor, the artist replied: “I know why you want to hear about her - you just weren’t there. My advice to you: don’t watch stupid films, don’t listen to ridiculous songs - only happy people who don’t have the slightest idea about prison romanticize prison.”

Following the lead of the public, thirsty for thrills and brought up on cinematic “Cossack robbers”, he could easily write about prisoners, “garbage” and “shameful wolves”, but he stubbornly writes about love, decorating with light and pleasant music as his own poems, and the poets of the Silver Age. Apparently, it was love - in the broadest sense of the word - that helped him survive, and Alexander Novikov was not used to remaining in debt.

As a child, he dreamed of becoming a military pilot, like his father (the episode is still not erased from his memory, how little Sasha, who wandered onto the airfield, had to sit in the cockpit of his father’s plane and wipe away his tears, because a four-year-old boy could not lift the car into the air without outside help knew how), but became a successful musician, producer, businessman, as well as a husband and father of two children. He speaks about them with pride and respect: “Igor is my support and support, he works in my company, and Natalya is my wife and I’s joy. When Slava Zaitsev first saw her, he said with admiration: “Listen, she could make a good model!” However, Natasha is not only beautiful, but also smart: she chose a career as a designer.”

Alexander does not regret that his heirs do not sing: firstly, he never insisted, and secondly, he does not consider modern show business a fairy tale that is worth rushing into. “The squabbles and intrigues are practically the same as in the zone,” he once admitted, “only much, much smaller.”

Apparently, this is why Novikov prefers to communicate not with colleagues, but with ordinary spectators: he carefully preserves their letters and collects notes, which he threatens to publish in a separate volume with comments, notes and almost a scientific preface, and then arrange a creative evening, where only they read out. “I think it will turn out no worse than that of pop jokers,” says Alexander, “although some things are embarrassing to even quote, honestly. One day, for example, a message came: “Sasha, you are so sexy! With love Nikolai." And somewhere there was a Nikolai, God forgive me...”

With mom

True, most often Novikov is simply thanked - for his songs, for his poems, and for his help: it’s no secret that 14 bells were cast with the money donated by the artist for the Church on the Blood, erected on the site of the tragic death of the Romanov family. “The expression: “Come what may” is more popular among us, but I like: “Do what you must,” says Alexander...

“I WROTE THE POEM “NOISY RESTAURANTS, WITCH POTION...” I WROTE AT 15 YEARS OLD”

- Sasha, you are from Iturup Island, but how long have you lived there?

Well, after being born for another year and a half, I left with my parents at an unconscious age. Then we settled on Sakhalin in the village of Matrosovo, and although I remember Sakhalin very poorly, I don’t remember Iturup at all and, to my shame, I have never been there again.

Whoever promised to take you there: at the beginning of perestroika, for example, it was possible to fly with one of the high-ranking military men - when I was in the Far East, several generals offered to use a transport plane, but it didn’t work out, and now you can’t really fly. It's getting more and more difficult every day.

- After Sakhalin, you ended up in the Urals - in Sverdlovsk...

No, I didn’t immediately move to Sverdlovsk - we were still in the Baltic states. There is a town called Vainede near Riga - there was a military airfield there, and since my father is a military pilot, all our movements are connected only with him. Then, when he retired, we moved to Frunze (today it is Bishkek), and from there, in 1969 (my mother and father divorced a long time ago, we already lived without him), to Sverdlovsk, present-day Yekaterinburg.

There you became interested in rock, played in taverns, and, as far as we know, the first and probably one of your most famous songs was “Noisy restaurants, witchcraft potion...”. How old were you when it was written?

15, but I did not compose a song, but a poem (very personal) for the table - I never showed it to anyone. I even remember my mood - what can push a 15-year-old teenager to creativity?

- Restaurants are noisy...

The most interesting thing is that even if I was in a restaurant, it was only once or twice... I came home one day feeling sad (I don’t remember the reason, but most likely it was unrequited love, or maybe some kind of failure) - so I wrote a poem: in one fell swoop! It was still lying on the table, but I liked it, and then, many years later, in 1984, when I was recording the album “Take Me, Cabbie,” I remembered it and thought: why not make a song out of it?

The thing turned out to be, in general, very famous.

- Shufutinsky soon performed it...

I just changed the words: for him “Portovaya Street”, and for me: “Vostochnaya Street” - I lived on it.

“I NEVER BECAME A Komsomol Member: IT’S HUMILIATING TO JOIN THE GENERAL MASS”

- I know that at one time you flatly refused to join the Komsomol...

Yes sir...

- ...criticized the Soviet regime...

Of course...

- ...what didn’t you like about this beautiful system?

Well, only Zyuganov can call him beautiful, and he did not join the Komsomol completely consciously.

- Did your rebellious spirit give you rest?

For me it was humiliating to join the general mass, and besides, I’m sure the story cannot be hidden: no matter how much they wrote in newspapers and books about the achievements of the Komsomol, it was clear that all this was not true. People's rumors, conversations in the family - grandfather and grandmother were ardent anti-Sovietists... Mainly grandfather, of course - he simply couldn't stand communists, he couldn't stand them, and from his statements it became clear: he knew a lot. Now, after years, I can’t remember exactly how my dislike for the Komsomol began, but I didn’t like marching in formation with pipes. At the same time, at school there were some kind of morning lineups, formations with drums...

- ...flags, chants...

I considered this a most humiliating procedure and never visited them. I ran away, they kicked me out, the tie, I remember, a pioneer one in the fourth or fifth grade, was torn off from me, and I never wore it again... In front of everyone, the teacher deprived me of it, because, in her opinion, I was not worthy to wear it, but internally I was happy and not at all offended, and then everyone joined the Komsomol, but some were not accepted there: hooligans...

-...poor students...

In short, I still had to earn such an honor, so I managed to maneuver, but in the 10th, graduating class, they wanted to force us into the Komsomol - not only me, but also other boys who did not join (at first they were not they took it, and then they themselves didn’t want it anymore). Everything was already ready for the reception, it was supposed to take place the other day, and we came to some school evening, to a dance (either it happened on November 7, or later, but there was already snow and ice), and we were taken into the room they didn’t let me in (can you imagine, the director and head teacher stood there and didn’t let me into my own school!). We were so annoyed that we turned this one out (shows) a block of ice and threw it at the teacher's window - they broke out the entire frame. Naturally, someone betrayed us...

-...as usual...

And the road to the Komsomol was already completely blocked - for completely natural reasons, and then I entered the institute, and the admissions committee immediately told me: “Your score is passing, but you understand...

-...not a Komsomol member...

Let's join - this is bad." Some activist was found and they brought me to the dean’s office or to the party committee, I don’t even remember. Komsomol workers (adults, much older than me) and some party leaders sat there and began asking why I hadn’t joined yet. I told them: “I consider myself unworthy.” Just as Schweik mocked the military medical commission, so I mocked them...

-...and everyone understood it...

And they understood, and so did I, we played the same game, and the rules were the same - both on this side and on this side. They agitate me, realizing that the Komsomol is stupidity, but it was impossible to make complaints against me, because I said: “You know, I didn’t work on myself enough.” I spoke to them in such streamlined cliches, and they realized that they could not object to me, since they themselves had invented these cliches.

- Did you accept?

No, I said that I was not worthy, I was not ready yet, and I never became a Komsomol member.

“THE AUTHOR OF THE ABOVE MENTIONED SONGS,” WAS INDICATED IN THE SO-CALLED “EXAMINATION,” “NEEDS, IF NOT PSYCHIATRIC, THEN PRISON ISOLATION FOR SURE”

In 1984, you released one of probably your best albums - “Take Me, Cabby”, and in October of the same year you were seized by people in civilian clothes in the middle of the street and arrested - what was the reason?

In the songs - only in them, however, there are little people among the artists (even today) who, due to their hostility towards me, are trying to prove that Novikov was imprisoned for speculation: these are male artists, but with Pinocchio voices. When they took me (it happened on October 5, 1984 at nine in the morning) and brought me to the department, they put a document in front of me, dated October 3, - it was called “Expertise on the songs of Alexander Novikov.” This, by the way, was illegal, because conducting examinations before the institution of a criminal case is prohibited: first they open a case, and then, within the framework of it, an examination is carried out, but they were feverish, they were impatient...

- What was in “Expertise”?

The first song is “Take Me, Cabby,” and there is a most offensive review of it (well, in such a libelous tone), the next song is another review, and so on. All 18 songs have individual reviews and one general review - the conclusion of an examination of creativity (the word “creativity” was put in quotation marks) by Alexander Novikov.

- Have you been accused of being anti-Soviet?

Not only - I was consistently accused of inciting ethnic hatred, promoting immorality, vulgarity, violence, prostitution, alcoholism, drug addiction... In general, all the mortal sins that were not indicated in the “Bible” because humanity did not know them then, in the document listed (laughs) Well, I quote the final phrase verbatim: “The author of the above-mentioned songs needs, if not psychiatric, then prison isolation for sure.” This document was signed by composer Evgeny Rodygin - the man who composed “The Sverdlovsk Waltz”, “New Settlers Are Riding Across Virgin Lands”... The songs, in general, are not bad - not to say that he is a composer at all...

- ...lost...

Yes, and the writer Vadim Ocheretin also left his autograph - well, there were some, one might say, graphomaniacs who wrote about something, were members of the Writers' Union, but, of course, nothing from their “works” was read and their descendants read nothing from them there are none left. Then some party mug signed Viktor Olyunin, someone else...

- How old were you?

30, less than 31 years old.

- Did your heart sank when you read this?

In any case, it became offensive, annoying... I understood that this was the beginning of something, because the way they watched me (closely!), they probably only watch spies. Constant tail, changing cars - I even knew all the license plates.

- Was it in Sverdlovsk?

Both there and in Ufa, when I came there. These cars were peeking out from all corners, I felt surveillance, I knew about it (but they weren’t really hiding, they were literally standing at the door)... They set up an ambush in the apartment opposite ours, set up a camera and filmed everyone who came to me. It is clear that it was not the Department of Internal Affairs that was involved in this, but a completely different department, and although it does not officially admit this, when on the day of my arrest they brought me and put a document in front of me...

That means I’m reading it, and the investigator, Captain Roldugin (later he became a colonel, head of the OBKhSS Directorate of the Sverdlovsk Region, and then was the head of the inquiry group), says: “Dig into it, but that’s not all - just a little. You won’t get more than three for this...” Article 190-1 I was charged with - “Dissemination of knowingly false slanderous fabrications discrediting the Soviet social system.” A criminal case was opened against her, but I also understood that three years would not be enough for them, because the surveillance that they carried out, and the number of people that they used, to surround me and all my friends from all sides ( they also had a permanent tail behind them) were needed for a heavier article. Imagine, a person gets on a tram, another one gets in after him, he gets out - that one follows... At the cash register, in the store they simply stood behind him, that is, the surveillance was stupid, idiotic...

- ...and undisguised...

Yes! Having read about Soviet intelligence and watched enough films, I thought that these were highly professional people, a force that always wins, but here idiots were watching - so clumsily and stupidly, as if they were on purpose for show. When this Roldugin said that this was just the beginning and I wouldn’t get away with three years, I realized: everything is just beginning. I thought: what else can I dig up? I didn’t have any sins, I made the equipment - I didn’t hide it... I didn’t steal it - what’s special about that? We bought everything in stores and made it ourselves. These were our own schemes, they were not copied from anywhere: developments created...

-...passionate people...

And the highest class specialists in the field of radio engineering (the guys were outstanding! - we got together and manufactured high-quality equipment that did not exist in the country). In general, during the interrogation, Roldugin said: “The uncle here wants to talk to you. I guess...

- ...I'll go out...

Yes, and you can talk.” This guy in civilian clothes came in - he was such a pleasant man, looked at me, exchanged a few words, and he left. Then some people appeared (again in civilian clothes) and transferred me to another office. “Sit,” they said, “here, wait,” and here I sit, probably for half an hour - that same uncle appears again. This, apparently, was his office, his department (as it turned out later, I was transferred to the regional State Security Committee - here in Yekaterinburg, it is located right next to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the buildings touch).

- Apparently, to make it easier...

To transfer from there to here along the corridors, across the courtyard - probably so, and so he offers: “Do you want some tea? Let's have a drink." I think: well, now it will be conducive to a confidential conversation...

- You're not stupid...

I agree: “Let’s have a drink.” It means he brings tea - as I remember now, with lemon - I took a sip, waiting for what will happen next, and he says: “You and I are unlikely to see each other again: this meeting is my initiative, and I just want you something.” what to say. Personally, I like your songs - very much! I don’t see anything like that in them, but (he pointed his finger to the sky)... I’ll tell you more: if you want, I’ll keep this cassette, the master tape that was confiscated from you, and when you leave, I’ll give it to you, and you’ll get you are 10 years old.” I was surprised, and he: “Yes (and again pointed his finger up), the issue is resolved. Even if you crawl on your knees, beg, ask for forgiveness and confess, you won’t be able to change anything, so my advice to you is: behave with dignity.”

“HERE'S A METER AND A HALF FOR YOU, HOLE - SIT! AT NIGHT THE RATS COME OUT TO WAK UP: THEY WILL PICK UP ALL OF YOU, AND YOU HAVE TO LIVE SOMETHING IN THIS NIGHTMARE.”

- There were people after all!

That's it - from that moment I realized that there was no way out.

- Did they give you 10?

Yes, and although they asked for 12, it was a game - the trial was generally a caricature, reminiscent of the current trial of Khodorkovsky.

- So nothing has changed...

Nothing, that is, the public understands and accepts it in its own way, but there is a certain task and people who perform it. The trial lasted 40 days, and every day they brought me there. I will not describe these procedures, but physiologically it is quite difficult to travel for interrogations or to trial for 40 days in a row. In the cell you wake up at four o'clock in the morning, they lower you into the box - such a cramping "glass", and you sit there until six in the morning. At six they give you porridge, a mug of water - you sit again, then the convoy comes, they take you out, strip you naked, you squat three times, lie down, open your mouth, get dressed, into a funnel - and off you go. You arrive - there is also a “glass”, then interrogation or trial, the same thing again, they bring you to prison, you go to the “glass”, you sit until 10 pm, they bring you some kind of gruel...

- ...and into the camera...

You go to bed there, and tomorrow at four in the morning you wake up again!

- A mechanism for humiliation and suppression of personality...

Yes, terrible humiliation was one of the tasks. This is exactly what they did - they put pressure on me precisely because it could somehow have an effect and make me repent, but I did not admit my guilt, so the pressure was terrible. A completely wild, humiliating punishment cell - I spent 30 days, I think, there... Five bars, no glass in the window, a cage one and a half by one and a half, I couldn’t stretch out. The cold air (40 degrees outside) rolls along the wall as steam, and it is all covered with such an icy crust, and you can’t wear a padded jacket in the punishment cell - only a shirt and short pants, cut to fit a chuni. Here's a meter and a half hole - sit down! At night, rats crawl out of the hole to warm themselves: they will stick all over you, and somehow you have to live in this nightmare.

First they gave me 10 days, then they added 10 more, then the same amount, and when I left the punishment cell, I couldn’t get up. He was like a skeleton - thin, dirty, overgrown: it was impossible to wash there, nothing, can you imagine? - they are kept at the level of some kind of cattle. You read about German concentration camps, how people were crammed into these heated vehicles and transported for hundreds of kilometers without basic sanitary standards, and you understand: one to one.

- Why do you love this country, answer me?

But I don’t identify the Motherland with the system: the Motherland is a geographical territory, the people who live on it, and not a state structure. I hate the system itself - the one that was there, but today...

-...she doesn’t change!..

I'm disdainful. Yes, she transforms, takes on some ugly forms, but at that time they were ugly in their own way, and at this time they were ugly in their own way, and there’s really nothing to love her for. She does not give anything good to her own people...

-... simply inhuman...

Absolutely, and I'm not even talking about myself. Compared to the general level of the population of Russia, I live well, I don’t seem to have anything to be sad about, but this is not what determines the attitude of the authorities towards the people, not the amount of money in the pockets of the rich, but the amount of it in the poor!

“I DON’T HOPE FOR PERESTROIKA,” SAID THE DEPUTY CAMP MANAGER, “PERESTROIKA IS FOR FOOLS. WE ARE SO FAR FROM HERE THAT BY BEFORE IT GETS HERE, WE WILL BE HALF THE WAY"

- How many years out of 10 did you serve?

- Did you leave under the amnesty?

No - they released me as unexpectedly as they imprisoned me, and I learned about my release from the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. I was in a camp - the city of Ivdel, Pershino station, Sverdlovsk region: I remember sitting during the day (it was lunch break) on a log... At the lumber exchange where I worked, I was smoking with the men, and suddenly I saw the political officer, Major Filaretov, running, and he has a newspaper in his hand: “Novikov! You don’t know anything yet, or what?” “Well, that’s it,” I think, “back to the punishment cell” (I was there many times)...

Well, yes. “No,” I say, “I don’t know, but what happened?” In the camp, Dmitry, what could happen? Either something burned, or there was some kind of heating, to put it in the camp, or some other situation arose. They have their own internal problems, their own sorrows and joys, and he: “They freed you!” - and shoves the newspaper. I take it and look: on the first page there is a tiny little note, like this: “By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, Alexander Vasilyevich Novikov was released from further serving his sentence.” Without giving reasons - release, and that's it.

Let me note: I did not write petitions for pardon, nothing but complaints, and the complaints were mocking - this is a classic! (I even have a few left - I scanned them). The Deputy Prosecutor General to whom I addressed was then Trubin, so in the end, knowing that no one reads my opuses, I wrote: “This whole complaint is pure garbage, because no one will read it,” and so on, I really couldn’t read all this, the duty officers gave me refusals...

Well: I look at this article - and there is absolutely no reaction, as if it’s not about me - even nothing skipped a beat inside, as if this is how it should be. I joked to the major: “Well, then I’ll go?” He: “Uh-uh, no! - a messenger must come with documents.” - “Where is he?” - “We need to wait a week.” “Well,” I think, “what about a week? It’s possible,” but in the camp the hearing goes away within five minutes. Five minutes - and everyone already knows: Novik has been released! The noise, the din, everyone understands: perestroika has begun! For the prisoners this was a signal, because the deputy head of the camp Dyuzhev - a disgusting creature - once called me and said (I quote verbatim):“Don’t rely on perestroika, perestroika is for fools. We are so far away here that by the time it gets here, it will end halfway...

-...amazing!..

And you wait in vain for her, rejoice, sew your own suits, polish your shoes. You will sit as you sat, and when perestroika ends, you will meet with the main perestroika leaders in this camp.”

In short, I waited 20 days for release, even 21. On the 20th (I found out about this later) the “Vzglyad” program arrived...

-...right there?

Yes - they wanted to film me leaving the camp.

- Class!

A lot of journalists and some public figures gathered, and they were told: “He left yesterday.” Meanwhile, out of the blue they caught me: “Novikov, come to the headquarters.” I walk in and hear: “Let’s go to the isolation ward!” - and closed. I am like? I’m already a free person!”, and they: “No, I’m not free yet, I don’t have any documents. What is in Komsomolskaya Pravda is not a decree for us - it’s for the toilet.”

- Mother Russia!..

In general, they isolated him for the whole day so that he could not transmit anything to anyone.

The Vzglyadovites, upset, packed up and left, and the next morning the duty officer came running: “Novikov, run with your things to the exit!” I barely had time to say goodbye to the men with whom I had served time.

- Did your uncle from the KGB keep the master tape?

We never met him again, but we had a second one - we have one!

“There WAS SOME SOME CRUELTY: WE HAD TO CUT SOMEONE WITH AN AX AND CUT SOMEONE WITH A KNIFE...”

The zone was red, but they treated me special. When they were just taking us there, an order came from somewhere above that Novikov was coming - a high-risk person: attention! Before my arrival, a search was carried out in the camp, all guitars and tape recorders were confiscated, the guard battalion was also searched, tape recorders and guitars were also taken from the soldiers, and then I arrived. Naturally, I had an eye on me, and besides, hostile relations with the main figures arose. These were scoundrels, some of them had already been killed...

- Are we talking about officers?

No, no, about prisoners. Our foreman and others like him were creatures, of course, of creatures, and the camp itself was terrible: stabbings, terrible hunger...

- Hunger?

Yes, every day someone either died or committed suicide. Well, imagine: out of 2,600 people, 800 are low-income (300 are already “roosters”, the rest are neither “rooster” nor a man). A difficult picture remains in my memory: a camp canteen, winter (and winters there are cold, up to 55 degrees below zero)...

- ...north of the Sverdlovsk region...

Yes, but Dyuzhev said: “It’s not 55 - my thermometer says 30, and you live by my thermometer, not yours” - and he drove everyone to work. Well, in general, in the morning, probably 100 people gather at the dining room, and sometimes even more - they are torn, dirty, bruised. They know: they will pour out slop, and now they throw it out on the snow, and this whole crowd pounces and eats the snow and slop in order to simply survive: the struggle for life is on...

Of course, I was put in the most difficult place to work - no one could stand it for more than three months. I stood there for a year!

- Timber rafting?

No, timber rafting is in the summer, but it’s not so hard (although my arms couldn’t bend and I already thought that I would never pick up a guitar - that was such a bloody cushion!), and in the winter - cutting up timber: I stood cutting firewood . It's quite a humiliating task - throwing firewood from the bank into the river for rafting in bulk! I could, of course, live with these pseudo-thieves in friendship, but I just saw how they treated men, what kind of scum they were, and I didn’t. They pulled me closer to them, but I kept to myself, and in the camp this is an insult.

- We, they say, extended our hand to you...

But you don’t want to give me yours, and they began to crush me together with the administration - they worked in a tight connection: the administration, the foremen, all these senior leaders, and so on - it was one whole. For the first two years I was under terrible pressure, everyone around me fled, some provocations began: they would throw something at you, then something else... Naturally, I had to fight back: I was desperate, and I had all this anger in me accumulated. Even when I was in a punishment cell with rats, I wasn’t thinking about how to get out of there, but how...

- ...survive?..

No, how to die with dignity. I, of course, hoped that I would survive, but I understood: it would be difficult, and this was all intensified - they told me: “Just wait, not today - tomorrow they will drag you along the corridor feet first...”. How to die with dignity, not like a dog - that’s what I was thinking about. There was some kind of bitterness: I had to chop someone with an ax, and cut someone with a knife...

- They chopped it with an ax?!

- And they cut it with a knife?! To death?

Well, I won’t say it in vain, but I had to. In the camp, you know, everyone is equal - there is no professor, academician...

“I HAD THE HANDS OF SWINGING AN AX SO THAT I WOULD SET A MATCH, AND IN AN ARGUMENT, I CUT OFF ONLY THE HEAD”

- “I’m not a sickly guy, don’t bother me”?

There were fights, massacres - either you or you. After this firewood, I worked as a lopper: the forest runs along the belt, and while it is moving, I need to chop off all the branches...

-What did you use to chop them?

A lopper is a long axe: like a razor, sharpened. You have two of them: while one is being sharpened, the other is chopping off knots. Everything is done very quickly: clap-clap, clap-clap, and so, I got the hang of swinging an ax so that they would put a match on a bet, and I would only chop off the head with a flourish.

- Is it true that Andropov personally played a fatal role in your fate?

Well, he's not alone. Andropov had already died by the time I was arrested, but the ideology was his, and “fas!” sounded from Moscow. Yeltsin, by the way, later admitted: “I didn’t imprison you.” Moreover, I cannot say that he played any role in my liberation, but this cannot be denied either: everything agrees that Boris Nikolaevich made some efforts. While I was in the camp, he met with students of the Ural Polytechnic Institute, and he was asked a question: “When you were the secretary of the regional party committee, Alexander Novikov was sent to prison - how can you explain your participation in this?” Yeltsin read the note (there’s even a video recording somewhere, I’ll try to find it) and said: “I have nothing to do with this, but I’m taking charge of it,” and put the piece of paper in his pocket.

- Class!

Yes, and after a month or two I was released - an article was published, however, many people fought here. There was Leonid Nikitinsky, a journalist, a very noble man from Komsomolskaya Pravda. We met when he came to Sverdlovsk, to prison, to interview me for the Krokodil magazine, and before that there was Chikin...

- ...future editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Soviet Russia”...

An unpleasant creature came in some kind of hat, I didn’t know who it was, we were talking, and suddenly he said: “I read your poems, now I’ll quote them. This is how you can prove that you are not an anti-adviser if you write: “You flew through the wedding troika, giving someone happiness, you wheezed with your stolen bride, biting the bridle until it hurt” - this is from the song “Phaeton”. And here’s another: “Someone saw you in a dream as war chariots, and people with royal faces drove you in war.” What, do you want to say that our victorious soldiers were driven into battle in the Great Patriotic War?

- Fool, huh?

I immediately realized that in front of me, if not a fool, then a complete provocateur. “You know,” he remarked, “this song is actually about something else,” and he: “It seems to you that it’s about something else, but those who read and listen understand everything. Or look: “And my thoughts rolled sideways like a stormy river.” This is my song “Spring water rolled on the asphalt” - a classic of poetry in general, and he: “So admit that your thoughts were rolling on one side, write that you were out of your mind...”. In general, I began to quietly suggest that I repent: they say, I’m an idiot, a graphomaniac, I have clouding of my mind and I didn’t write out of malice, not intentionally...

- How can you even invade someone’s creativity? - I write what I want...

Absolutely true, but this is now, and then: “Say that there was clouding, and the deadline will be reduced.” I looked at him, and I had only one desire - to take the shoe and hit him in the head, but I answered delicately: “You know, I can’t - this is your personal opinion, but mine is completely different.” He soared: “Well, then, actually, don’t count on anything else.” “Yes, I,” he replied, “and I don’t count on it, I just regret that I met you.”

He published the most vile article, which was called “Yes, I wanted cheap fame” (this was taken in quotation marks as my words). I still have it, that clipping, and I didn’t say such a phrase - everything in that article is slander from the first to the last word.

- In the best traditions...

Yes, and when Nikitinsky arrived, the deputy chief of the operational unit said: “A correspondent from Moscow wants to talk with you.” I refuse - after Chikin, the desire completely disappeared, and he: “I can’t force you, but understand: now they will find a reason and again they will lock you in a punishment cell.”

- To the rats...

Yeah, and I realized: the prospect, of course, is bleak - we need to communicate. And then a man with glasses comes, pleasant, polite, and says: “Tell me everything how it was, only honestly. This is not for the press - I just need to know the truth." I told him everything and we talked for two hours. He asked: “Only in detail: what, where, when” - he sat and made some notes, and when I finished, after a pause, he said: “You know, Alexander, we won’t be able to make a feuilleton.” - “What, not enough details?” - “No, there is just enough, and I will do everything to ruin this matter.”

- There were people!

He really did everything: he wrote and united some active people who fought for my liberation. This is, in particular, Gennady Burbulis - he founded with Vladimir Isakov, also a deputy...

- ...Committee...

Yes, to collect signatures in defense of Alexander Novikov. They stood and personally collected signatures...

- ...Sakharov, too, I know, mentioned you...

Yes, and Nikitinsky contacted all of them and wrote to me - this was very important, because the letters were read by the administration, and they were afraid to press me to the end. When the public intervened, we got scared: they would, of course, have buried me, but that was already scary - the invaluable help of people who said: “We know what’s happening there” prevented me from being hunted down. Yes, to some extent they starved and tortured me, so I had to fight for my life, but I came out of all situations with dignity, and not a single person sitting with me will say that Novikov bowed his head somewhere, did something nasty, or walked away from me. the administration is on board. I was in a state of war with her and with all the goats, and this, believe me, is not easy when everyone around scatters and only a few of the most devoted remain.

“MOVIES ABOUT THE ZONE RESEMIND THE STORY OF A MAN WHO NEVER SLEPT WITH A WOMAN, BUT PUBLISHES A TREATISE ABOUT HOW TO DO IT, HOW MANY TIMES, WHERE AND IN WHAT POSITIONS”

“In the zone,” you said, “they laugh at our films about her.” Is there a big difference between what is shown about the camps on screen and what happened in reality? In the film “Lawlessness,” for example...

- ... “Mayhem”, by the way, is the most accurate - it’s a film by Leonid Nikitinsky, he is the author of the script.

- What are you talking about?

Yes, and when he was working on it, I gave some advice.

- Amazing!

Well, Lenya didn’t know how it all works in real life, and I gave some advice. This was probably the first true film about this, but now... Well, maybe I didn’t manage to watch everything, I won’t be categorical, but the samples that I saw resemble the story of a man who has never slept with a woman, but publishes it. ..

- ...allowance...

A treatise on how to do it, how many times, where and in what positions. Modern directors are different in this, so when we watched movies in the zone or now, over the past 15 years, when I came there (I used to be in the camps more, now less) and then saw what was shown about the prison... People laugh, Do you understand? - and I laughed, because the fears that they show us and with which they try to create horror are not fears in the camp. There they are completely different - first of all, relationships, nothing is said out loud there, everything is done by someone else's hands, and it is a rare case when they come out head-on. What is a stabbing? It wasn’t Vasya and Petya or Abdullah who jumped out and started waving knives in front of each other, this is something else...

- They inserted the knife quietly - and remember their name...

This is, as a rule, night, barracks... There are no windows there, and if there are, they are all sealed up, and so, when its inhabitants are sleeping, let’s say five, six or 10 people run into the barracks with such with pikes and the first thing they do... If the orderly is sitting, they put a pike under his throat: “Quiet!”, then they knock out the light bulbs with a mop, and pitch darkness sets in. True, it was calculated in advance who was lying on which bed, and then... It was a couple of seconds: they flew in - clap, clap, clap of knives, and disappeared: no one was visible - who, what?

So, in our camp, when a stranger came to the barracks from another detachment, he could have been killed immediately - this means he wants to sniff out something. This is how gadflies attack: first, a reconnaissance gadfly flies to find out where something is, and the bees grab him, envelop him and strangle him, because if he is allowed to fly away, he will “tell” where they live, other gadflies will rush in and kill these bees, simply gnaw them. There were such moments in the camp, too, because it was secretly called a “meat grinder.” It was truly a meat grinder - they sent there shady heads, organizers of riots, crime bosses who had committed something especially serious in other parts of the country - heavy hitters of all kinds. There were no thieves...

-...only murderers...

And also robbers - well, what an article you need. The atmosphere, of course, was appropriate, and in addition, in the last years before my release, convoys from Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and other republics of the Caucasus and Central Asia began to arrive, and an interethnic conflict began. What’s interesting is that in the camp it’s a shame to present your nationality; the laws there are enforced much more strictly than here in the wild. You cannot say to a person: “You are bad because you are of such and such a nationality” - they will kill you right away, but the national question arose on the basis of fraternity. Well, for example, an Uzbek quarreled with a Ukrainian. Something wasn’t shared, it was a domestic situation: at a kiosk someone got in the queue ahead or something else. Once, once, again, they beat someone, but one person cannot live in the camp...

“ME AND A SEVERAL OTHER PEOPLE ARE GOING TO BE KILLED, AND WE KNEW WHO SHOULD DO IT.”

- Compatriots are flying in...

They begin to figure out who is right and who is wrong. We found out, let’s say, that this guy is to blame, but he doesn’t want to admit it, his comrades came along - they kicked them in the teeth, and then...

- ...the soul rushed to heaven...

The Ukrainian guys, the Uzbek kids were shushu-shushu among themselves, and everyone was waiting for something, and at this moment those who want some kind of nasty thing (this is called camp trickery) ...

-...they're playing off...

Yes, they take them and kill some of them. Or they beat, and it is unknown who: a man was walking past the stacks, they hit him on the head, kicked him with their heads covered and ran away - code, as they say. The groups naturally think that one of their enemies has done their best, and a stabbing and massacre begins.

I had a case once... When another massacre started - riots, arson, murders - at night the duty officer wakes me up: “Novikov, urgently on watch - the head of the colony is calling,” but in order for the head of the colony to call at night and call a prisoner to the watch, it must be that Something out of the ordinary can happen: the death of one of the relatives, for example, is, in general, an extraordinary event. I’m walking, and there’s anxiety in my soul... I pick up the phone from the person on duty, and there: “This is Nizhnikov (head of the colony - A.N.). I will now give instructions, go out to the industrial zone. If a gas car is driving by with its headlights on, you’ll meet him halfway; if I drive up, I’ll say something.” I go out, the attendants say: “Well, go.” They don’t know why the boss ordered me to go out: well, maybe to work... I’m walking and I see a gas car. The boss stops and jumps out in a training suit: he’s so tall, he’s as tall as me. He has been favoring me lately, and although he pressed me at first, he later realized that...

-...the guy is normal...

And I was even proud that I didn’t break down. It turns out: “Let’s move to the side...” and asks: “Do you have a knife?” Me: “I didn’t understand the question.” He again: “Do you have a knife?” “Yes,” I say.

- Was there?

Well, of course, there was, but you have to hide it, you don’t carry it in a boot or like horsemen carry a dagger, because they’ll kick you out and give you a prison sentence for a feather. All this is hidden in the sleeve: if anything happens, I immediately throw it off. Sometimes they would put a thread on a finger and thread it through it like a mitten, you know? (Shows). Then - once, and tightened it.

- The need for invention is cunning...

Camp bells and whistles (smiles) and this Nizhnikov says: “Put the knife in your boot and carry it with you - according to operational information, today or tomorrow you will have a big massacre. There’s nothing more I can do for you.” He can’t bring troops into the camp - he can’t do anything, even though he’s the boss: just report what’s going on. In short, they were going to kill me and several other people, and we knew who should do it.

- Who?

Well, there was a group - I don’t remember their names now. One was killed later - two weeks before his release, and, by the way, I predicted this to him. He came up to me: “I’ve served my time here, I have two months left, and you still have to sit and sit. You’re a greyhound, you won’t live to see your freedom,” and I: “You know, it could happen that a couple of weeks before leaving, they’ll stick a pike in you, and then it’s unlikely you’ll leave.” And indeed, two weeks before his release they stabbed him right in the heart. They woke me up first - and... They called him Zakhar - an abomination, of course, a creature, he killed a lot of people, and he was in prison for raping a five-year-old girl, throwing her into a well and she died there for several days.

- Look: and no one in the zone lowered...

The administration encouraged him because he gave him a plan, indicators, he put pressure on his brigade, and he had the appropriate environment...

- It’s strange: as a rule, such people don’t survive in the zone for long...

This was an exception to the rule. At first he hid the article, they didn’t find out in time, and then he grew up in this prison hierarchy, and so it happened. Well, in short, the boss warned that they wanted to kill me. Not him, of course, not Zakhar, although tentacles extended from him. I don’t remember who we were in conflict with then, but they were going to attack me and several others. The plan was simple: when you walk past the stacks from work, run up, stick a knife in - and that’s it. Or at night in the barracks - you never know, anything can happen...

Nizhnikov, I repeat, said: “Carry a knife with you and don’t leave your workplace anywhere, don’t be alone for a minute, have two or three people always with you.” Me: “What if they accept it with a feather?” - “You’ll let me know right away” - that’s the head of the colony!

“This,” he says, “is all I can do, but look, keep your ears open: the situation is extreme,” and wow, my comrade Kolka caught them! One, or rather, he caught. I won’t mention his name, he is now a very famous businessman...

- Kolka?

Yes, we are still friends. He didn’t tell me anything, he acted himself and caught it! The guy is serious, all in black belts... He dragged one of them to the rafting and started beating him: “Come on, tell me, you scum, who is doing what!”

Sometimes they ask me: “Did you write songs in the zone?” Yes, I wrote - even in that atmosphere, but because of constant searches I had to hide, and this is how the soul should work, to stew in hell, to fight somewhere for life, somewhere for a piece of bread, but to create? You don’t live there alone, I say again, your close friends are with you, and then you need to go and stand up for one of them, then they need to stand up for you. All the time the battle goes on over the step, and as soon as you find yourself a step lower, there is immediately a heap that will push you further down, and if you succumb, those who stood below that step unite with these and do nasty things to you together. Moreover, the more people push you, the more difficult it is to resist, so the main thing is not to stand on a step lower, stand your ground to death, or rise. How it is done is your business, but you must not give in under any circumstances.

“PRISONS ALL SMELL THE SAME - A MIXTURE OF BUG, ​​SWEAT, TOBACCO, SHAG, DAMP AND MOLD”

You were released by decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR due to the lack of evidence of a crime, in other words, you served time, it turns out, for nothing...

That’s right, besides, the Supreme Court of Russia later overturned the verdict altogether, that is, in fact, it rehabilitated me.

- Has anyone even apologized to you?

No, and even what was confiscated was not returned. They took away everything that was there, even letters, diaries, children’s photographs and notebooks, and everything that was confiscated was destroyed and disappeared somewhere. I tried to find it, using my connections, wrote appeals to the State Security Committee, the Ministry of Internal Affairs - nothing anywhere.

- Do you go to areas with concerts these days?

I do, but rarely. Earlier - more often.

- How are you greeted there?

Fine...

- ...and they send you off even better?

Well, I also performed in women’s colonies. It’s a sad thing, of course, but this spirit only works when the prison door really slams behind you. I just made a film about myself, “I Am Real,” it hasn’t been released yet, it’s being edited. They filmed the camp where I was sitting, the cameras, the punishment cell, which I told you about, but when I went with cameramen and filmed all this...

-...a completely different state...

It was an excursion - I understood that these fears are no longer fears for me today. Everyone in the camp knows that I lived in this barracks, slept on this bed, but then it was scary, but now it’s not, although for prisoners this is a real prison. There, fear is not visible outwardly, it’s all inside, and when the door slams behind you and you inhale the smell of prison, and prisons all smell the same...

- How?

A mixture of insecticide, sweat, tobacco, shag, dampness and mold. The prison smell is the smell of prison; it is the same in all prisons in the country. In general, when the door slams, you understand that you will now have to live according to these laws, and you begin your biography...

-...again...

Regardless of your situation before. This is what makes the zone different, but it also differs in the following way - the laws that are written there unspoken (there are no instructions on paper - they are passed on by word of mouth, from generation to generation) are carried out unshakably. Unlike what happens in the wild.

Having been released in 1990, at the very beginning of the emergence of gangster capitalism in Russia, did you speak to the leaders of gangsters at their semi-underground gatherings?

No never. For the last five or six years I have been singing at corporate events, but these are no longer gatherings - sometimes there are people of the highest government level, from the first echelons of power. I didn’t perform then, but those you’re talking about certainly came to my concerts, and I had good relations with them - I don’t want to brag, but they treated me especially. Not all of them, of course: there were clashes with some, but to a certain extent - they understood that...

- ...the kid is real...

And I never paid tribute to anyone. There were just moments when...

- ...came for tribute?

- To you?

Well, yes, asking for money for the common fund, and not just asking, demanding. Several people appeared once (I didn’t know them): “We won’t say now where we are from and what...”. Me: “Who are you?..

-...Whose will you be?”...

- “You don’t need to know - we came with a specific complaint.” - “Hmm, what is it?” - it was a troubled time, I was sitting in the office at the table, and the TT pistol was lying right in the table...

- Specifically!

Well, yes. They said that “you don’t give to the common fund - you sat back, and the boys are hanging out there,” and I couldn’t stand it: “Listen, dear, it’s not for you to discuss who I give to and what.” I’ve been to the colonies so many times with concerts, and every time, what’s there to hide, thieves in law, watching outside the city, came up. Yes, they welcomed me, yes, I drank vodka with them and took a steam bath, but I won’t ask questions about who they are.

They asked: “Can you work a concert in the zone?” - "No question". - “Okay, we will organize everything.” When we arrive, we are greeted by the head of the colony, and they tell him: “So, let us see you through so that they don’t get caught,” and so on, but there were also cases like this.

- How did you get out of that situation?

No way - he just shot out of a pistol and into the ceiling!

- In the office?

Yes, and from the ceiling ka-a-k... Well, do you know what a TT is?

- You are dashing, however!

Sometimes, but I went with him, with a pistol, because at one time they were hunting me - and my Mercedes was blown up, and there were other cases...

- Did the plaster fall right on the guys?

But of course! When they flew out of there, they broke down the door, but I never saw them again - they only had enough spirit for that. There were also some minor attacks, but they always ended with the fact that you called one of the serious kids, they would do something, and the groom seemed to be blown away by the wind.

Kyiv - Moscow - Kyiv

(Continued in the next issue)

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