He was a hero of his time, he is remembered and loved to this day. Yes, you can't hear Talkov's voice on TV now, it sounds extremely rare on the radio, but it's enough to go to YouTube to see multimillion-dollar views of the recordings from the artist's performances.
His songs these days have acquired new depth, additional meanings, his interviews, I want to revise. However, if you inquire, it turns out that the museum of Igor Talkov was, in fact, thrown out into the street, and there was no monument to Talkov in the capital.
Maria Dubinskaya
Talkov was shot dead on October 6, 1991 with a pistol during a scuffle that arose out of a conflict over the order of performances behind the scenes of the Yubileiny Sports Palace in St. Petersburg. Over the next years, the tragedy was overgrown with rumors and hypotheses, turning into one of the loudest crimes in the modern history of Russia.
The final answer to the question of who exactly made the fatal shot is Valery Shlyafman (after 1991 - Vysotsky), the concert director of Talkova, or kickboxer Igor Malakhov (died in 2016), the beloved of the singer Aziza, who was often called her bodyguard in the press of those years, - no. Numerous eyewitness accounts contradict each other. In November 2018, the Office of the Investigative Committee for St. Petersburg resumed the investigation, but the point has not yet been put, the crime is considered unsolved.
“Father cannot be returned. To be honest, it is not so important for me who killed him, or rather, by whose hands, the executor never interested me directly. But in my opinion, there are special services, puppeteers behind this, who perfectly know how to manipulate other people and create the necessary circumstances and emotional background for the pawns to move exactly as planned. Let's remember: father was not allowed anywhere, he was simply not allowed to move, and then suddenly - "Song of the Year" and so on.
There was a call from the KGB with an invitation to speak. We can say that the family has already begun to say goodbye to him, since, as you know, not everyone returned from the Lubyanka, but my father said, I’ll run from them, or something, from them all my life, and went. Sang all my social songs. They accepted him with a bang, a furor, a storm of applause. As a result, the whole program was “flooded” to him and, as they say, he was blessed and released.
Why did it happen? I think because those who are in the shadows had long-term plans, they are playing for a long time. These are our plans for weeks, months, and they, relatively speaking, for centuries. So they already knew when they would destroy our country, our people. And while they were working on all this, their father was beneficial to them and needed to prepare the consciousness of the Soviet people for collapse, he was a bright charismatic personality, to whom they listened. And when they finally destroyed the USSR, he was happy about it, but not for long. Abbreviations and flags changed, but the essence remained the same, and my father quickly understood this.
He wrote the song "Mr. President", where he asked straight on the forehead: "Why is the criminal Gorbachev on your left shoulder?" And thus, I believe I signed my own death warrant. He just made it clear that he would not remain silent, not in his nature. In his songs, he would have continued to dissect the actions of the authorities in even more detail and concretely and, thereby, prevent further plunder of the country.
That is, I cannot imagine that a person like my father could survive in such a situation, it was not for nothing that he sang: “They leave, having completed the task, they are recalled by the higher worlds ...”. He fulfilled his mission. He left himself in the memory of many people, left his great creative legacy, his thoughts, and left. Well, he left me too, so that I would “rake” further ... ”, Igor Talkov Jr., singer-songwriter, founder of the MirIMir musical project, told Novy Izvestia in an interview.
The museum was evicted, but they are not allowed to reopen
Meanwhile, in February last year, the Igor Talkov Museum, which had been located in Chernigovsky Lane for more than 15 years, on the territory of the Slavic Writing and Culture Foundation, was closed.
Favorite guitar, manuscripts of poetry and even the clothes in which the musician was on the day of his death - all this, in fact, was thrown out into the street.
The reason is banal: the Slavic Writing and Culture Foundation owed money for housing and communal services and was sealed by a court decision, and the Talkov Museum was asked to leave the premises.
“It was about some, in general, ridiculous amount. This money would be easy to find, if there was the will of the relevant authorities and if Russian culture was supported in our country, ”said Igor Talkov Jr.
Alas, not a single official institution has expressed a desire to take part in the fate of the museum. To the aid of Talkov's son came Vladimir Alekseevich Sidorov, the director of the Ellada gymnasium, in which Igor once studied.
The educational institution gladly responded and supported the museum in difficult times. Novye Izvestia asked Vladimir Alekseevich what condition the exhibits are in now.
“We can say in a deplorable one. Not in the sense that there is something wrong with them, no - everything is safe and sound, just since these things were brought to us in boxes, so to this day they are unopened and stand.
We wanted to open the Igor Talkov Museum right at our school. Many people were enthusiastic about this idea - both teachers and students, and a large number of fans of the singer's work. An initiative group was formed, a wonderful, I would even say, an amazing museum project was developed. We have selected a very interesting room. Everything here makes sense, everything is thought out to the nuances, everything in this concept corresponds to the spirit of Talkov. However, things are not moving.
No matter how hard we try, we cannot agree on everything with the necessary authorities. It is clear that there are corresponding requirements for the premises on the school grounds, but what we are faced with ... You know, for example, just one powder fire extinguishing system costs 5 million rubles, I'm not talking about a lot of some nagging, which is easy to explain impossible. All this is strange and sad...", Vladimir Alekseyevich shared with Novye Izvestia and sent photos.
The situation with the Talkov monument in Moscow looks no less strange. The talks about the installation of the monument have been going on for many years, but everything at the same level has stalled.
In particular, back in 2013, the chairman of the commission for the improvement of the Basmanny municipal district of Moscow, Evgeny Budnik, proposed installing a monument on Chistoprudny Boulevard, opposite the Sovremennik theater.
“Talkov immortalized Chistye Prudy in his work (in his performance, the composition of David Tukhmanov and Leonid Fadeyev Chistye Prudy became widely known - noted by Novye Izvestia), in the video for this song he just walks where I propose to erect this monument. Talkov deserved it. He deserved his civic position, his creativity, his poetry. In a sense, this is certainly one of the brightest symbols of the last century. In his songs he sang about those things that many modern young people have not even heard of...", - said Budnik in an interview with Moscow 24.
And the then head of the Moscow Department of Culture, Sergei Kapkov, and the Moscow City Duma deputies, including Yevgeny Gerasimov and Vladimir Platonov, said that, in general, the idea is great, “but monuments in Moscow need to be erected in accordance with procedures determined by law. Obviously, this initiative did not manage to go through a series of various reviews and approvals...
Is there really no monument to Talkov in the capital?
The first and so far the only monument to Talkov was erected in 2017 in the town of Shchekino, Tula Region, in the singer's and composer's small homeland. The author of the five-meter bronze monument is Vitaly Kazansky from Reutov.
Talkov was very fond of Shchekino and even dedicated the song Small Town to him.
“All the options proposed for the competition are Talkov with a guitar, Talkov with a microphone. I took a completely different path. I realized that in my composition he must move away, move away from the viewer. The idea is this: a chair with a guitar left behind, Talkov took his cloak and walked up the steps of the stage. And this "leaf" is an association with his life path, his songs, poems, lines. Talkov leaves, but finally looks around, turns to the viewer and says: “I will be back”", - said the sculptor Vitaly Kazansky.
Battle on your sector of the front
"Great poet", "opportunist, and rather vulgar", "a calculating clown who dressed up as a prophet and became a revolutionary in hindsight", "an amazing artist who infinitely loves his Motherland" ... These words belong to different people - DDT guitarist Vadim Kurylev and the famous songwriter Leonid Derbenev, they are told about one person, Igor Talkov. “Whoever was right in this controversy in absentia, it is obvious that Talkov, who caused such different emotions, influenced the Russian music scene. We can say that even today Talkov's influence is quite evident in the most different, sometimes polar genres - from Russian rock to chanson, and a patriotic song ", - wrote in TASS.
So you can relate to the performer's personality in different ways, but there are facts that, 29 years after Talkov's death, speak for themselves: "Chistye Prudy" - almost 8 million views, "Russia" - 1.3 million views, "I'll be back" - almost 22 million views ... This is data from youtube. Today there are websites dedicated to the work of Igor Talkov (for example, talkov.info ), which strive to do everything so that his name is not consigned to oblivion.
And in 2013, the Taraskov secondary school from Kashira presented to the district competition of student projects an educational research project on the topic: “Songs of the XX century. The history of the song - the history of the country ”, which can be found on the website of the leading educational portal of Russia Infourok.
“Recently, the work of Igor Talkov has been completely forgotten, his songs have ceased to sound on television. We need to widely disseminate and explain the work of Igor Talkov in songs, poetry and prose in educational institutions and in the media. Today we need this spiritual nourishment for the improvement of our life and the revival of Russia ”, - noted in the project work.
Also, fans post the surviving recordings of Talkov's video interviews on the Internet.
“The stage is my tribune,” he said. Talkov believed that songs are the shortest path to the heart and mind of a person. The stage for him was a battlefield, and the viewer was the army that united under the banner of his songs.
Today, remembering the artist, I really want to provide him with such a tribune within the framework of this material and publish an excerpt from Talkov's interview with a Voronezh television correspondent , it was recorded in February 1990.
“You see, the fate... You see, how I sit and choose my words... It is difficult to talk about this topic, because the topic is vulgarized and devalued.
I mean the theme of the Motherland.
That is, words like Motherland, Fatherland, Fatherland, they are not spoken without shame now. Generally. Well, just began to pronounce...
I mean, all these years we have been gathering... Young people ... And if someone told us: “How do you feel about your fatherland?”, Homeric laughter would simply rise.
This is because, in general, love for one's Motherland, and for its history, and for its roots has been etched away.
Separation from these roots gave rise to lack of spirituality. And lack of spirituality is the mother of immorality.
From this we have, in general, all the troubles. From immorality.
We all live badly and many do not understand why?
So I, before coming here, was in the traffic police, my license was taken away. Never. I was innocent.
And they took away my rights for the fact that I began to speak in an unceremonious tone with a representative of the authorities. That is, as? I spoke to him normally, correctly, but without, so to speak, something familiar to them, or something, such a "reptile tone." And my license was taken away.
I went after them. I came, they told me that "we won't give you your license, come back in three months." I said that it was impossible, that I was working, I was constantly shooting, giving concerts, I could not go to Ostankino by trolleybus, and now in Moscow it was almost impossible to get a taxi.
So he says to me: "We can't do anything, you were rude to our policeman." What am I talking about? Yes! He says to me - do you think we live easily? We are also cooking in this mess, we also feel very bad, and we get little money, and day and night at work, and there is no time to watch TV, and so on. Here he tells me this.
And I tell him, do you know why we all live badly? Because we live by wolf laws.
That is, this immorality, which, like metal corrosion, has eaten away our society, it goes on like a chain reaction. The worse people treat each other and their country, the worse they live, the worse each of us lives.
So I told him about it. He looked at me for a long time with incomprehensible eyes. So, apparently, he did not understand anything.
But I've gone far. This means that the theme of the Motherland and Russia is a sore subject.
This topic has drilled me over the course of, probably, I will not be mistaken, if I say, thirteen. Somewhere from 1976 - 1977.
I wrote a significant number of ballads and songs on this topic, and I wanted to somehow bring them to the court of a wide audience. But I was not able to do this, in fact, until 1987, inclusive.
And after 1987, until 1989, there were also many difficulties, I did not think that I would be hindered in the performance of these songs, but obstacles were posed and the Central Television did not want to shoot these songs, in particular, the program "Vzglyad", which plays in democracy , but in fact, it just remains a game, and many understand this.
They didn't want to film me. Here. Vladimir Kirillovich Molchanov helped me, who took my song “Russia” and showed it in the program “Before and after midnight”.
He answered me that "I'm not afraid of anything, I really like the song and I'll give it".
As soon as the song "Russia" sounded, it became somehow quieter to live and work, and they began to invite me to certain programs with social songs. And before that they didn’t want to listen to anything except Chistye Prudy ”.
... What is your attitude to my nomination as a people's deputy? I already reacted negatively. The Moscow Association of Intellectuals proposed to nominate me for deputy. I refused. I believe that everyone should do their own thing in this life. I write songs, write poetry, sing. This is my calling.
And I have to fight as much as possible on my sector of the front so that we all live... ...normally".