The future “patriarch of Siberian rock” Igor Letov (Egor is a pseudonym) was born on September 10, 1964 in Omsk, in an ordinary Soviet family. Yegor's father was a military man, then acted as secretary of the city district committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, his mother worked as a doctor. According to rumors, Letov suffered clinical death 14 times as a child.

Since childhood, the boy had before his eyes a living example of an inexhaustible love for music: Yegor’s older brother Sergei is a famous saxophonist, musician, working in different styles. Egor studied at high school No. 45 of the city of Omsk, from which he successfully graduated in 1982. After graduating from school, Letov went to his brother in the Moscow region. There, Egor entered a construction vocational school, but a year later he was expelled for poor academic performance.

Returning to Omsk, Letov continued to work on a project called Sowing, which he founded in 1982. From that time on, the biography and life of the pioneer of “Russian punk rock” was inextricably linked with music and creativity.

In those years, Yegor Letov worked at tire and motor factories in Omsk. As an artist, the musician painted portraits of Ilyich and propaganda posters for communist rallies and meetings, and later worked as a janitor and plasterer.

Music

The Posev group recorded their songs on magnetic albums. This process took place in ordinary apartments using primitive equipment, due to which the sound was dull, rattling and unclear. Subsequently, even having gained access to normal recording equipment, Letov did not abandon the “apartment” method, making “garage sound” his signature style.

The uniqueness of the artisanal sound, characteristic of the later Civil Defense, was largely due to the musical preferences of the leader of both groups. In interviews, Letov has repeatedly mentioned that his songs were influenced by American garage rock of the 1960s and the work of performers working in the spirit of experimental, punk, and psychedelic rock.

The Posev group ended its existence in 1984. Around the same time, the legendary " civil defense", also known as "G.O." or "Grob". Letov continued to work in his favorite “garage” style, while simultaneously opening an independent recording studio, GroB-Records.

The studio was located in an ordinary Omsk Khrushchev apartment. With the money raised from the concerts, Yegor published the albums “G.O.” and other groups related to Siberian punk rock.

Released albums, underground concerts, hand-distributed recordings and a completely unique performance style along with obscene lyrics performed by deep meaning, brought “Civil Defense” deafening popularity among Soviet youth. Letov's songs are distinguished by unprecedented energy, recognizable rhythm and original sound.

According to his colleagues in the workshop, Yegor was able to prove that you can play rock even without knowing how to masterly play complex chords or brilliantly use a drum kit. Surprisingly, Letov himself never considered himself a member of the punk movement, he was simply always “against”. Against the system, the system, established stereotypes, against oneself. And this nihilism, along with the criticality of the lyrics, was taken as a model by subsequent Soviet and Russian punk bands.

Intelligence services and psychiatric hospital

At its dawn musical career leader of "G.O." was a staunch opponent of communism and the established system, although he never spoke out against the Soviet government itself. However, the political and philosophical context of his songs was so clearly visible through the feigned punk indifference that the relevant authorities could not help but become interested in the group and its creator.

Egor was repeatedly made suggestions by KGB officers. They demanded that the group's activities be stopped. Since Letov refused, in 1985 he was placed in a psychiatric hospital. The musician was subjected to violent treatment methods, pumped full of powerful antipsychotics. These drugs were used for complete change the psyche of the “patient”, and Letov himself compared their effect to a lobotomy.

Fortunately, the imprisonment lasted only 4 months. Egor was helped out of the mental hospital by his brother Sergei, who threatened to publish in Western media a story about how the USSR was fighting unwanted musicians.

Creation

In the period from 1987 to 1988, Egor returned to the “Civil Defense” project and recorded several albums, including “Mousetrap”, “Everything is going according to plan” and others. He performs songs himself, plays instruments, acts as a sound engineer and sound producer. In 1988, a bootleg “Russian Field of Experiment” was recorded at Firsov’s studio.

In 1989, albums for Yegor’s new project “Communism” were recorded, a little earlier he met and began working with, an outstanding rock singer and songwriter, whose life was tragically cut short in 1991. After Yanka’s death, Yegor completed and released her last album, “Shame and Disgrace.”

In 1990, Letov disbanded Civil Defense after playing a concert in Tallinn. Deciding that his project was turning into pop, the musician became interested in psychedelic rock. The result of this hobby was the next project “Egor and O...zdenevshie”, within which two albums were released. In 1993, Letov revived Civil Defense, continuing to work as part of both musical groups.

In subsequent years, the musician released several albums, some of which were composed of newly recorded old songs. The last concert of “GO” took place in Yekaterinburg on February 9, 2008.

At the turn of the century, Letov became interested in politics, was a member of the NBP, and was friends with Limonov, Anpilov, and Dugin. In 2004, Yegor Letov officially renounced politics.

Personal life

The personal life of such an extraordinary person as Letov was quite stormy. Friends described him as a very versatile personality. Yegor was capable of repeatedly changing his views. His opinion could easily be influenced by a film or a book, while he was a born leader, next to whom everyone else faded.

On rare photos the musician is depicted during concerts, with friends or with fellow rock bands, and at home - exclusively with cats, but this does not mean that there were no women in his life. Letov was officially married once, unofficially twice, the musician had no children.

In the late 80s, the common-law wife of the leader of Civil Defense was Yanka Diaghileva, Letov’s lover, muse and colleague. Together they recorded several albums and played many apartment concerts.

After the tragic and mysterious death The musician’s Yankee wife was Diaghileva’s friend Anna Volkova, who also took part in the recording of some G.O. albums. In 1997, Letov married Natalya Chumakova, part-time bass guitarist of the group.

Death

Yegor had many creative ideas, including a film project based on Cortazar’s novel “The Hopscotch Game” and alternative musical projects. However, these plans were not destined to come true.

On February 19, 2008, the musician and singer died. The cause of Letov’s death was officially named cardiac arrest, but an alternative version was subsequently made public: acute respiratory failure as a consequence of ethanol poisoning.

The funeral, which was attended by many people, including from both capitals, was accompanied by a civil memorial service. Yegor Letov was buried in Omsk next to his mother’s grave.

Discography

Solo albums:

• "Russian Field of Experiment", 1988;
• “Concert in the hero city of Leningrad”, 1994;
• “Egor Letov, concert at the rock club “Polygon””, 1997;
• “The Letov Brothers” (with Sergei Letov), ​​2002;
• “Egor Letov, GO, The Best” (collection of St. Petersburg concerts), 2003;
• “Tops and Roots”, 2005;
• “Everything is like people”, 2005;
• "Orange. Acoustics", 2011.

Other projects:

• “Songs into the Void” (acoustics with E. Filatov), ​​1986;
• “Music of Spring” (pirate collection), 1990-1993;
• "Border Civil Defense Detachment", 1988.

Best songs:

• "Russian field of experiments";
• "Eternal Spring";
• “About a fool”;
• "Everything goes according to plan";
• “I will always be against”;
• "Zoo";
• “My Defense” and others.

Egor Letov (Igor Fedorovich Letov) is a Soviet and Russian rock musician, founder of the Civil Defense group. He remained the leader of this team until his death.

Biography

Igor Fedorovich Letov was born on September 10, 1964 in Omsk, in the family of a military man and a nurse. He received his secondary education in Omsk secondary school No. 45. In 1980, he graduated from ten classes. Soon after this, it began musical activity Letova. His first team was \"Posev\", created with like-minded friends. And in 1984, “Civil Defense” appeared, as part of which Egor Letov later became famous.

Naturally, at that time the authorities were not very fond of rocker musicians, so Letov’s group recorded material in apartment studios. At first there were simply no other possibilities. And later, when they appeared, the group decided to continue recording in such simple and familiar home studios. At the dawn of its activity, “GO” was famous in Omsk, then in Siberia, and later throughout the country. In parallel with the growth of popularity, confrontation with the authorities is also intensifying. The most serious problems occurred in 1985, when Letov became a victim of punitive psychiatry. He was in the hospital from December 8, 1985 to March 7, 1986. As Letov later recalled, he almost went crazy because of the powerful drugs that doctors intensively fed him with.

In 1987, Letov, together with friends from Civil Defense, recorded the albums “Good!!”, “Red Album”, “Totalitarianism”, “Necrophilia”, “Mousetrap”. By the end of the 1980s, a number of more albums were released. By this time, literally, “Civil Defense” was known throughout the entire Soviet Union.

In 1990, Egor suspended performances as part of “GO” and created new project"Egor and the Opizdenevshie." In 1993, Letov returned to Civil Defense and continued studio and concert activities. Active touring continued until the end of the 1990s. In 1994, Letov entered into a civil marriage with Anna Volkova, with whom he lived until 1997. In the same 1997, Letov became the husband of Natalya Chumakova (bassist of Civil Defense).

In the early 2000s, interest in Letov’s work decreased somewhat, but grew again in 2004, after the release of the album “Long happy life" Then several other albums are released, reissues of old records. In 2007, the album “Why Do I Dream?” was released. This was the last album of Civil Defense, and Letov called it the best of his entire creative career.

On February 19, 2008, at the age of 43, Egor Letov died suddenly at home in Omsk. Initially, the cause of death was stated to be cardiac arrest, which was confirmed by Letov’s relatives.

Letov's main achievements

In total, Letov recorded more than a thousand compositions as part of various groups and independently. The texts of most of them were also created by him. In particular, eight studio albums were recorded.

It is generally accepted that Yegor Letov and his group “Civil Defense” became the people who laid the foundations for the formation of the punk movement “Siberian Underground”. In addition, Letov's lyrics had big influence for the development of a number of groups outside of Siberia. In particular, these are the groups “Teplya Trassa”, “Gang of Four”, “Snowdrifts” and a number of others.

Important dates in Letov’s biography

• September 10, 1964 – birth in Omsk.
• 1977 – experienced clinical death.
• 1980 – graduation from 10th grade school.
• 1982 - formation of the Posev group.
• 1984 - creation of the Civil Defense team.
• 1985-1986 – forced treatment in a psychiatric hospital due to persecution by the authorities.
• 1987 - meeting Yanka Diaghileva.
• 1990-1993 – work as part of the project “Egor and the Opizdenevshie”.
• 1994 – joining the National Bolshevik Party.
• 1994-1997 - civil marriage with Anna Volkova, friend of Yanka Diaghileva.
• 1997 - official marriage with Natalya Chumakova.
• 2007 - the album “Why Do I Dream?” is released, later called by Letov the best of his life.
• February 9, 2008 - the last concert of “Civil Defense”.
• February 19, 2008 - Egor Letov died suddenly in Omsk.

• The lyrics of the song “Overdose” from the album “One Hundred Years of Solitude” were written by Yegor Letov after his cat, who had lived for 11 years, died.
• Several times Letov was banned from entering Estonia and Latvia.
• Yegor himself said that he wrote almost all the songs from the albums “Reanimation” and “Long, Happy Life” while under the influence of drugs.
• At the first major concert of Civil Defense, held in 1988, Letov appeared on stage in bell-bottoms and a pea coat, and sang not very respectful songs about Lenin.
• When the KGB began to take a serious interest in Letov in 1985, he was even accused of planning an explosion at an oil refinery.
• From the moment he left the psychiatric hospital until 1988, Yegor was forced to wander throughout the Soviet Union. At that time, he was even forced to steal food from time to time.
• Egor's brother, Sergei Letov, is a famous jazz saxophonist.

There are only rumors: as if Yegor choked on vomit in his sleep, supposedly his heart stopped due to alcohol poisoning... The most interesting thing is that even the relatives of the deceased do not know the whole truth (or are they carefully hiding it?). At the very least, Yegor’s older brother, the “widely known in narrow circles” Moscow jazzman Sergei Letov, still does not understand what happened to his brother.

For the last four years, Igor (Egor’s real name) and I have not communicated,” Sergei tells EG. - Once again we quarreled. We had quarrels before, after which we didn’t communicate for two or three years.

- What didn’t you share the last time?

The quarrel happened in absentia. We agreed that I would come to Omsk to record Igor’s new album. Not long before, I bought him a professional digital tape recorder, since my brother’s equipment had fallen into disrepair by that time. The GroB Records studio was only called a studio, in fact it was a room in my father’s three-room Khrushchev house, our former children’s room... Shortly before the trip, I had financial difficulties. And I wrote to Igor e-mail that I will come to Omsk if he pays for my air ticket at least one way. He was apparently terribly offended and didn’t even answer. Since then, my brother and I have had virtually no contact.

- But you, as a brother, probably know under what circumstances Yegor died?

This is a mystery to me myself. I have even more suspicions than published versions. I spoke with the director of the group, Sergei Popkov, he is the most reliable person in my brother’s circle. Sergei said that, according to the testimony of ambulance workers, death occurred around noon (relatives discovered that Yegor was dead at about five o’clock in the evening).

- Some people find it strange that Yegor died in a new apartment without living in it for even three months...

Egor Letov. Concert photo from the official website of Civil Defense

Indeed, at the end of December 2007, he and his wife Natalya Chumakova, guitarist of Civil Defense, moved to a new three-room apartment in an elite area of ​​Omsk. But they didn’t take their 82-year-old father with them. Perhaps this played a fatal role. After all, dad always kept an eye on Igor and, if anything happened, called an ambulance.

Best of the day

- And often did you have to call? Did Yegor have serious health problems?

My father told me that six months before his death, Igor had a respiratory arrest. Dad immediately called an ambulance, and the doctors resuscitated his brother with mouth-to-mouth breathing and cardiac stimulation. In general, Igor experienced 14-15 clinical deaths during his life. More than once my father and I carried him out on sheets to the ambulance... The fact is that our mother is from Semipalatinsk. She received a decent dose of radiation. And, as a result, my brother and I spent our entire childhood in hospitals. Igor was extremely ill - he had congenital pancreatic insufficiency.

- Is it true that Yegor and his father lived like a cat and a dog? They say your brother could even raise a hand against him?

I wouldn’t like to talk about it... But I think it very well could. It’s strange, because his parents adored him and allowed him literally everything. They believed that Igor was not longing for this world, so his every wish was immediately fulfilled. One day my brother saw a pot of cactus in some window and said that he wanted the same one. So the father went to that apartment and asked for a “baby” from the plant! At the same time, Igor and his father had a very difficult relationship all his life. But on the contrary, he had very close contact with his mother. She died at 53 from cancer, just like her mother, my grandmother. So from then on, every year on December 31, Igor went alone to his mother’s grave and decorated a New Year tree for her!

- Sergey, such a version of death as a drug overdose is also being discussed. Could this happen? Egor said more than once in interviews that he used LSD...

I never saw him take drugs. He didn't even smoke! True, when I had problems with my girlfriend, he advised me to take LSD. But he himself tried drugs only once or twice. His problem was different...

- Alcohol?

Unfortunately yes. I suspect he started drinking alcohol to cope with two-hour concerts. He needed “doping” for drive, for inspiration. By the way, I myself drank alcohol before a performance only a few times - and only when I played with Civil Defense. During the concert and during the break, everyone drank. Not for intoxication, no. To have enough strength to see the concert through to the end.

I first heard that my brother had problems with alcohol in 1996 from his administrator Zhenya Grekhov. Then, two years later, his publisher Evgeniy Kolesov turned to me with the same request: “You are the only one whom Igor will listen to.” And I fought. Force fed him pills.

- Did it help?

Sometimes. I analyzed why this was happening to him. And I remembered that among our ancestors there was one alcoholic. Our maternal grandfather, the Cossack Martemyanov, who was repressed in 1937, wrote to my grandmother: “Our parents had five of us.” But he only listed four. This always seemed strange to me. And it all explained like this: my grandfather had a brother, Volodya, an alcoholic, and his grandfather was embarrassed by him, bought him clothes, gave him money, as long as he didn’t show his face.

-Have you tried to convince Yegor to encode?

Psychiatrists told me he couldn't be coded. Since he is a man of very strong will, he is not afraid of anything. And the fear of death will not stop him.

- Sergey, as I understand it, your relationship with Yegor was not very warm. Not talking for four years is a lot...

This is the wrong conclusion. Yes, we periodically had long-term quarrels. And it happened that every week I received a 5-6 page letter from him from Omsk! But then the correspondence was interrupted - the KGB fought with Igor, he was put on compulsory psychiatric treatment. We even talked on the phone dryly - in the late 80s the line was tapped.

But our relations cannot be called strained. It was probably when I started bringing records to 8-year-old Igor that he decided to become a musician. As a child, my parents assigned me to music school, but this grinding quickly became boring for me, and I left my mother and father for the Novosibirsk physics and mathematics boarding school. And there... I became homesick for music. A few years later I bought a saxophone and moved to Moscow. And after some time, 16-year-old Igor came to me and announced that he wanted to learn to play the bass guitar. And we found this guitar for him - with the help of the famous St. Petersburg sound engineer Andrey Tropillo, who recorded “Aquarium” and “Kino”. By the way, my brother lived his life musically illiterate and never studied anywhere...

- I don’t understand how the parents let their teenage son go to Moscow...

Igor was a rather difficult person in everyday life. And then there’s the transitional age... His parents cried and wrote me letters: “Sergei, take him with you.” He lost his temper easily. He could be driven to white heat by a running television. He perceived Soviet propaganda as enemy propaganda. And our father was an army political worker, so they quarreled throughout their lives.

- I was always wondering where Yegor picked up this opposition?

All his life he had this position: “I’m against it!” In the 80s, I had patriotic beliefs, which is why he often called me a fascist, a nationalist, we quarreled, did not communicate for a long time... At the same time, Igor was very easily influenced. Someone will tell him something bright - and then the brother begins to passionately defend a new point of view. Look, at the end of his life he renamed all his albums. There was a “Solstice” - it became a “Lunar revolution”. I renounced a lot.

In the early 90s, our opposition tried to take advantage of his popularity. My brother first succumbed to their influence, and then told me: “I realized that the opposition is the same power as the official one. Only some play the red clown, while others play the white one. A good investigator and an evil one." In a word, he came to the conclusion that the opposition, no less than the authorities, is responsible for what is happening in the country.

- Did Yegor dream of fame?

He was always interested in the recognition of the masses. And this is where we differed greatly. For me, it’s better to play for 15-20 people, but for those whom you respect. And Igor condemned me for elitism. He said: “I play in stadiums. Good music everyone should like it." I immediately retorted: “So it turns out best musician“Is this Kirkorov?” But with this desire for popularity, he never dreamed of wealth. He needed money to engage in creative work, buy books and records. He left behind a huge library and music library. He was generally much more developed than most rockers, and even more so punk musicians. He led a completely non-rocker lifestyle. After all, how does a rocker live? He drank, met girls, or better yet, two, got inspired on stage, broke an instrument... And in Moscow, the first thing Igor did was go to a bookstore and take 20-30 kilograms of books to Omsk. And then for months he sat in his apartment in a Khrushchev building in the Chkalovsky village, did not communicate with anyone, read books and composed new music.

- Sergey, a few words about the women in Yegor’s life. Some blame him for the fact that his first common-law wife, singer Yanka Diaghileva, committed suicide...

What nonsense! Igor treated her very well. I didn’t take it at first. I remember they came to see me in Moscow together, and I was amazed at my brother’s lack of taste: Yanka was an ugly, overweight, absolutely unfeminine person. I remember I even said something to him about this. I learned that she wrote poems and songs only after her death. The brother was so worried about this that he even inflicted two deep cross cuts on his hand with a knife. To drown out mental pain with physical pain. By the way, there is also a lot of uncertainty about the death of the Yankees. It is believed that it was suicide, that she drowned in the Ina River, but they say that when her corpse was taken out of the water, it was noticeable that her skull was broken...

- In general, was Yegor a lover of women?

Absolutely not. We can say that throughout his life he had stable relationships with three women: Yanka, Anya Volkova and his last wife Natalya Chumakova, the daughter of a Novosibirsk professor. With her, Igor’s only marriage was officially registered.

-Which of your brother’s wives did you like most?

To be honest, Anya Volkova. Tall, beautiful, a jack of all trades... I think that if she and her brother had not separated, he would be alive now. I soldered wires, “built” everyone, carried guitars when the musicians were not “in condition.” And she could also give slaps in the face to bring those who were too “relaxed” to their senses!

- Why did Anya and Egor break up?

Because at the very beginning of 1998 my brother fell in love with some 19-year-old married lady who was then living in Moscow. I don't know who she is. But I know that this is what led to the quarrel and breakup with Anya.

Despite the semi-underground existence of the musicians and the GroB-studio, by the end of the 1980s and especially in the early 1990s they became widely known in the USSR, mainly in youth circles; according to some estimates, hundreds of thousands of people became fans of the group. According to critics, A’s work is distinguished by powerful energy and presentation of material, unusual, original sound, lively and simple rhythm, non-standard texts, and a kind of rough and at the same time refined poetry and language.

1990s

In the early 1990s, Egor, who by that time had stopped the concert activities of “Civil Defense” and announced the dissolution of the group, recorded the albums “Jump-Jump” (1990) and “One Hundred Years” as part of the psychedelic project “Egor and the Opi...eves.” loneliness" (1992), which are one of his most popular albums. In 1993, he again assembled “Civil Defense” for concert and studio activities. During the same period, he became one of the leaders of the national communist rock movement “Russian Breakthrough” and was actively touring. In 1994-1998, Egor supported the National Bolshevik Party and had a party card with number 4. In 1999, he went on a tour in support of Viktor Anpilov in the State Duma elections. In 1995-1996, Egor recorded two more albums: “Solstice” and “Unbearable” ease of being”, again as part of the “Civil Defense” group. Both albums were released in 1997.

2000s

In 2002, the album “Civil Defense” “Starfall” was released, entirely composed of famous Soviet songs in the author’s interpretation of Yegor, and the album “Egor and Opizdenevshikh” “Psychedelia Tomorrow” was also released. In February 2004, Yegor officially disowned any political forces, including nationalist ones. In 2004-2005, two new albums of the group were released - “Long Happy Life” and “Reanimation”, the appearance of which caused new wave interest in “Civil Defense”, both among the general public and in the press. At the same time, reissues of the albums “Solstice” and “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” appeared, which were remixed and released under the new names “Lunar Revolution” and “The Tolerable Heaviness of Non-existence”, respectively. In May 2007, the album “Why Do Dreams?” was released, which became the group’s last album. Subsequently, this album was named Egor's best.

Death

He died suddenly in Omsk on February 19, 2008 at 16.57 local time at the age of 43. According to the initial version, the cause of death was cardiac arrest, although later another version appeared: acute respiratory failure that developed from alcohol poisoning, but this was refuted by the musician’s wife Natalya and the rest of the group. It was published on the Civil Defense website that Yegor Fedorovich died of cardiac arrest. He was buried in Omsk at the Staro-Vostochny cemetery, next to his mother’s grave.

Egor Letov- Soviet and Russian musician and poet, founder of the group “ civil defense».

Biography of Yegor Letov

Egor Letov born on September 10, 1964 in Omsk. Yegor's mother was a doctor, and his father was a military man who went through the Great Patriotic War, who later took the position of secretary of the district committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Yegor also has an elder Sergey - musician and saxophonist.

After graduation Letov moved to the Moscow region to join his brother to enter the Moscow construction vocational school. However, soon after admission he was expelled for poor academic performance and returned to hometown. In 1982 Egor created a rock band Sowing”, named after the socio-political magazine.

Two years later, Letov formed the group “ civil defense" Soon after its creation, the group became popular outside of Siberia. In 1985 Letov was forcibly hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital, where he stayed for several months.

By the early 1990s, the Civil Defense group recorded several albums and became one of the most popular Soviet rock groups. In May 2007, the group’s last album was released, entitled “Why Do I Dream?”, which was later recognized best album Letova.

On February 19, 2008, the musician died suddenly at the age of 43 due to cardiac arrest.

In memory of Egor Letov several were filmed documentaries and several volumes with the musician’s poems were published. On this moment Letov is one of the most prominent representatives Russian rock and a key figure in the “Siberian underground”.