Victor Tsoy – founder, lead singer and songwriter for the rock group Kino (“Cinema”), and one of the most famous and most popular figures in Russian rock – was born 50 years ago, on June 21, 1962. He died just two months past his 28th birthday, on August 15, 1990, in an automobile accident, having fallen asleep at the wheel of his Moskvich on a road outside Riga.
Tsoy departed this world at the ideal age for a rock hero. He had been just barely older than several legendary rock idols taken from us when they were 27: Brian Jones, Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison.
Time takes its toll, and it is considerably easier to imagine a greying Hendrix, mellowed by age, than it is to consider a 50-year-old Tsoy. Even those who follow these things find it hard to believe that Tsoy would have crossed half a century of life this year.
The fact is that there is not a single other figure in Russian rock – living or dead – who has attained the same sort of cult status. And while Tsoy’s biography is well-known, it hardly explains how it is that the person and legacy of Victor Tsoy continues to this day to play such an important role in Russian culture – even in Russian mass culture.
Victor Robertovich Tsoy was born in Leningrad. His father was an Soviet-Korean engineer; his mother was a Russian-born phys ed teacher. From 1974-77 Tsoy was enrolled in art school, where he played bass guitar in the group “Ward No. 6,” named for Chekhov’s famous story. After he was expelled from art school (it was said for poor grades, but being a rocker didn’t help) he entered a technical institute, where he was trained in wood carving.
As the 1970s turned into the 1980s, Tsoy became friends with Alexei Rybin, and together they formed the group Garin and the Hyperboloids (Гарин и Гиперболоиды), which was soon renamed Kino. The group’s first album, 45 (1982), was recorded with the active support of Boris Grebenshchikov, the leader of Aquarium, which for over 30 years has been one of Russia’s leading rock groups.
In 1983 Kino and Aquarium put on a joint concert and a year later Kino (with participation by Grebenshchikov and his team) released its second album, Boss of Kamchatka (Начальник Камчатки), which led the Soviet KGB to add Kino to its list of ideologically harmful groups. In 1985 Tsoy married Marianna Rodovanskaya, and that year the couple had a son, Alexander.
Over the next year, Kino worked on two albums, This is Not Love (Это не любовь, 1985) and Night (Ночь, 1986), both recorded in more professional facilities and both leading to substantial growth in the group’s popularity. In 1986, Tsoy began working as a stoker in the Kamchatka boiler room, which has since become a place of pilgrimage for his fans, and he also began shooting for Sergei Solovyov’s film Assa, in which he played himself. The following year he played the lead in Rashid Nugmanov’s film The Needle (Игла). Both films were distributed nationwide and in 1988 Kino released what would be its finest album, Blood Type (Группа крови), which laid the foundation for “Kinomania” across the USSR.
Triumphant tours followed throughout Russia, Ukraine and Belorussia, and in 1989 the group released its next album, A Star Named The Sun (Звезда по имени Солнце). An even more active touring season followed in 1989-90, ending with a now famous concert at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium.
In the summer of 1990, Tsoy and Kino guitarist Yuri Kasparyan began recording material for a new album, but it was cut short by Tsoy’s sudden death. Tsoy was buried in Leningrad’s Bogoslovsky Cemetery, and in December of that year Kino released its final album. Yet despite the stir caused by Tsoy’s untimely end, the record did not enjoy anything like the success of the two previous albums.
Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.
Russian Life 73 Main Street, Suite 402 Montpelier VT 05602
802-223-4955
[email protected]
