Lev theremin. Lev Theremin - inventor of electronic music, Soviet intelligence officer, political prisoner and Stalin Prize laureate
An old man lived in Moscow in a terrible bedbug-infested communal apartment opposite the Cheryomushkinsky market. When the neighbors needed his pitiful closet, in the old man’s absence they destroyed his property, broke his things, and destroyed his records. The old man was forced to move in with his daughter, but he became so ill from all this that, as was to be expected, he soon died. To the joy of the neighbors in the communal apartment: the room has become free.
Living space. I used it and that's enough.
So what? - you ask. - The story is ordinary.
It’s not the same in communal apartments, the neighbors could have left the old man and so on...
Just think - how long have they been waiting for its square meters to become free, they themselves have grown old.
And the old man may have come from somewhere else. And the old man was a grandfather for a reason; he lives in communal apartments for thousands.
And it was Lev Theremin.
THE SAME LION TERMAN!
TERMEN Lev Sergeevich (1896-1993) - inventor, physicist, musician.
Creator of the world's first electronic musical instrument, the theremin (1919-20); one of the first long-range television systems (1925-26); the world's first rhythm machine, Rhythmikon (1932); security alarm systems, automatic doors and lighting; the first and most advanced listening devices, etc.
Born in 1896 in St. Petersburg. He graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in cello and studied at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University.
Since 1919 - head of the laboratory of the Physico-Technical Institute in Petrograd, at the same time since 1923. - collaborated with GIMN (State Institute music science, Moscow).
In 1927, he was sent by the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR on a foreign business trip. He traveled all over Europe, was one of the most popular people in New York, and was part of the millionaires' club. In 1931-38 - Director of the joint stock company Teletouch Inc. (USA). Such people visited and worked in his New York studio outstanding people of his time, such as emigrant Albert Einstein, conductor Leopold Stokowski, actor Charlie Chaplin, artist Marie Hélène Bute, etc. and so on. His inventions, made in the 20-40s, have firmly entered our everyday life.
At the end of 1938 he returned to the USSR. Arrested in 1939 and sentenced to 8 years in the camps. Spends a year in Kolyma, but most term - in the legendary "Tupolev" sharashka. After his release, he worked at the KGB research center, developing various electronic systems.
Since 1963 - employee of the acoustic laboratory of the Moscow Conservatory. In the late 60s, due to disagreements with the administration after the publication of an article about Theremin in the American newspaper The New York Times, Lev Sergeevich was expelled from the conservatory with a scandal, and he was forced to go to work at Moscow State University.
Since 1966 - employee of the Department of Acoustics, Faculty of Physics, Moscow State University.
For the last twenty-five years, Theremin has worked in the acoustics laboratory of Moscow State University. Mechanic 6th category. He slowly worked on his theremins - he restored some, improved some, and even came up with one in which the sound through a system of photocells arose from just the musician’s glance.
Lev Theremin died in 93 in poverty and obscurity, hounded by his neighbors in a communal apartment. The legendary Theremin...
His most widely known invention is the theremin, which Lenin liked. Playing the theremin involves the musician changing the distance from his hands to the antennas of the instrument, due to which the capacitance of the oscillating circuit and, as a result, the frequency of the sound changes.
The vertical straight antenna is responsible for the tone of the sound, the horizontal horseshoe-shaped antenna is responsible for its volume.
To play the theremin you must have perfect pitch, since the musician does not touch the instrument while playing.
But not only the theremin...
He invented:
1. Group of electric musical instruments:
-– theremin
-– rhythmikon
-– terpsiton
2. Security alarm
3. Unique system eavesdropping "Buran"
4. The world's first television installation - far-sightedness
worked on:
-– speech recognition system
- human freezing technology
-– voice identification in forensics
- military sonar.
Already in 26, he demonstrated television in the Kremlin.
At that time, televisions were created with screens the size of a matchbox, and his television had a huge screen (1.5 x 1.5 m) and a resolution of 100 lines.
In 1927, the scientist demonstrated his installation to Soviet military leaders K.E. Voroshilov, I.V. Tukhachevsky and SM. Budyonny:
State minds watched in horror on the screen Stalin walking through the Kremlin courtyard.
This picture frightened them so much that the invention was immediately classified... and safely buried in the archives, and television was soon invented by the Americans.
Theremin amazed the world scientific community with his theremin, on which he himself (and in addition to physics, he also graduated from the conservatory) gave concerts of classical music.
“Heavenly music”, “voices of angels” - the bourgeois press moaned with delight.
The USSR received orders from several companies for the production of 2000 theremins with the condition that Theremin would come to America to supervise the work.
But instead of one task, Lev Sergeevich received two: one from the People’s Commissar of Education Lunacharsky and the second from the military department.
Upon his arrival in America, he rented a six-story mansion on 54th Avenue for 99 years. In addition to personal apartments, it housed a workshop and a studio. Here Lev Sergeevich often played music with Albert Einstein: the physicist on the violin, the inventor on the theremin. Einstein was fascinated by the idea of combining music and spatial images. And Theremin figured out how to do this: he invented light musical instrument Rhythmikon. Huge transparent wheels with a geometric pattern printed on them rotated in front of a strobe light. As soon as the musician changed the pitch of the sound, the frequency of the strobe flashes and the patterns changed - the spectacle was impressive. Well, the fantasy began when the walls of the studio rose and fell. Of course, not for real, but with the help of a trick of light. The spellbound visitors gasped in surprise!
Rumors about these experiments attracted many to the studio. famous people. Among Theremin's guests were millionaires DuPont, Ford and Rockefeller. However, Termen himself by the mid-30s was included in the list of twenty-five celebrities of the world. And he was even a member of the millionaires' club.
Was he really a millionaire? It is not known for certain. Some say that it’s a huge amount of money for Theremin personally and Soviet Russia brought by Teletouch Corporation. And others claim that Theremin was financed by military intelligence. Because the true purpose of his business trip to America was espionage activity.
Every two weeks Lev Sergeevich came to a small country cafe, where two young men were waiting for him. They listened to his reports and gave him new tasks. However, these tasks were not burdensome and did not particularly distract Theremin from his work. And he was already completely carried away by the most fantastic of his ideas - an instrument that gave birth to music from dance. In fact, this is a type of theremin: the sound is created not only by the hands, but also by the movements of the whole body, and the name was given to it accordingly - terpsiton - after the goddess of dance Terpsichore. In this case, each sound corresponded to a lamp of a certain color. Can you imagine what an extraordinary spectacle it was, because any movement of the dancer was echoed by sounds and the flickering of multi-colored lights!
For creating concert program Theremin invited a group of dancers from the African American Ballet Company. Unfortunately, it was not possible to achieve harmony and accuracy from them, and the project had to be postponed. But in this troupe danced the beautiful mulatto Lavinia Williams, who captivated Lev Sergeevich not only as a ballerina, but also as a woman. Theremin decided to get married.
It never occurred to him that marriage to a black woman would radically change his life. But as soon as the lovers registered their marriage, the doors of many houses in New York were closed to Theremin: America did not yet know political correctness. He lost informants, which caused serious dissatisfaction with Soviet intelligence. And in 1938, Theremin was ordered to immediately leave for Russia. Lavinia was told that she would come to her husband on the next ship.
The spouses did not see each other again. And Termen kept the marriage certificate issued by the Russian embassy in America until the end of his days.
The “Great Depression” that broke out at the turn of the 1930s ruined many.
But not Theremin: the inventive scientist had one more trump card - a security alarm.
Theremin sensors were torn off by hand. They were even installed in Sing Sing prison and Fort Knox, where the American gold reserves were kept.
Thousands of Americans enthusiastically began to learn to play the theremin, and General Electric Corporation and RCA (Radio Corporation of America) bought licenses to produce it.
By the mid-30s, Theremin was included in the list of twenty-five celebrities in the world and was a member of the millionaires' club.
In Moscow he was arrested as a “defector”, and after a month of skillful processing by socialist legality at Lubyanka, Lev Termen confessed everything.
For example, in the fact that, together with a group of astronomers, he planned the murder of Kirov.
The version was like this:
Kirov (who by that time was already long dead!) was going to visit the Pulkovo Observatory.
Astronomers planted a landmine in a Foucault pendulum.
And Theremin, with a radio signal from the USA (!!!), was supposed to blow it up as soon as Kirov approached the pendulum (!).
The investigator was not even embarrassed by the fact that Foucault’s pendulum is not in Pulkovo, but in the Kazan Cathedral.
Lev Sergeevich was given eight years and sent to Kolyma.
In the camp, he immediately invented a self-propelled car on a monorail, and he was soon taken to Tupolev’s so-called “sharashka,” where he had Sergei Pavlovich Korolev as his assistant.
The war began and he developed radio control equipment for unmanned aircraft and radio beacons for naval operations.
But not only. Termen also developed the famous “Buran” eavesdropping system in this sharashka.
They say it is still in use. 
The crowning achievement of this creation was a wooden panel that was given to the American ambassador by Soviet pioneers.
The panel was hung in the ambassador's office, and... soon they began to look for where the colossal information leak was coming from.
Only seven (!) years later, a cylinder with a membrane was discovered in this panel.
For another year and a half, American intelligence engineers struggled with the riddle - what is it?..
But it turned out that a beam was directed from the house opposite to the office window, and the membrane, oscillating in time with the speech, reflected it back.
Along with the speech, which was recorded.
Subsequently, Theremin further improved the invention: it was possible to do without even a membrane; its role was played by window glass.
The Soviet authorities were so delighted with this useful invention that they awarded Termen the Stalin Prize, 1st degree, right in prison.
And then they even released me, which was simply an outstanding act of humanism and the triumph of socialist legality, so dear to some.
And they even made him happy with two rooms of that same “free living space.”
Well, who wouldn’t agree that Lev Theremin was given two rooms for free? Of course, he was literally gifted. Has he earned enough for this country to earn two little rooms?
In the 60s, L. Theremin again wanted to take up electronic music, but some party and KGB mug simply spat in his eyes, pointing out that “electricity exists to execute traitors, and not to create music.”
These were the thinkers who decided the fate of science in the country in general and the brilliant inventor Theremin in particular.
Of course, he remained strictly classified and continued to work for intelligence, because they would not hire him anywhere else.
At first he was engaged in military hydroacoustics, and then he was tasked with developing a “device for searching for flying saucers.”
Such idiocy did not inspire him at all, and in 64 he finally left the organs and began to quietly and peacefully work in the acoustic laboratory of the Moscow Conservatory.
Yes, it would have worked if the New York Times correspondent had not been inspired to make a report about the conservatory.
And there the correspondent came across Lev Theremin. The whole world was sure that he died in 1938, ground into the meat grinder of millions of repressions.
When did the USA find out that great Theremin alive - it was a bomb. Sensation. Akhtung. Paragraph.
The scientific community of America and Europe literally roared.
An avalanche of letters from scientists and colleagues poured in to Theremin; reporters and television companies flocked to him...
He was invited to Stanford, to Paris, to Holland, to Sweden...
The leadership of the conservatory was so afraid of all this that...
Theremin was simply fired, and his equipment and developments were thrown into the trash.
And he developed a synthesizer, which was soon successfully developed by the Japanese Yamaha, earning millions and millions from it...
And for the next 25 years, the great scientist, probably not inferior in talent to Leonardo himself, the legendary inventor, whom Lenin praised and Einstein respected, worked as a 6th category mechanic in some run-of-the-mill laboratory.
He lived with his family in a two-room apartment, probably watched TV - which he was not allowed to invent - and on TV concerts of rock stars on Yamaha synthesizers.
The daughters grew up, started their own families, and five of them lived in a small two-room apartment on Leninsky Prospekt -
L. S. Termen, daughter Natalya with her husband and two children.
With great difficulty, he managed to get another room in a bedbug communal apartment, where his neighbors hounded him.”
Lev Sergeevich taught his niece Lida Kavina to play the theremin. By the age of twenty, she had become a virtuoso performer and toured all over Europe with concerts. In 1989, Theremin was invited to the Festival experimental music To France. And he, 93 years old, went!
When in 1991 a Hamburg theater decided to use a theremin, it turned out that practically the only performer in Europe was Lydia Kavina. Over the past years, the situation has changed a lot: theremin is taught in universities, and festivals are held in different countries of the world.
October 10, 2004. Jean-Michel Jarre arranges another phantasmagoria in “ Forbidden City" in Pekin.
But most of all, at the end of his life, Termen surprised those around him with his entry into the CPSU: “I promised Lenin.” Lev Sergeevich tried before, but for “terrible crimes” he was not accepted into the party. So Termen became a communist only in 1991, simultaneously with the fall of the USSR.
"Echoes of the future, sounding from the past"
The incredible fate of Lev ThereminV.P. Borisov,
Candidate of Technical Sciences
Institute of History of Natural Science and Technology
named after S.I. Vavilov RAS, Moscow
Many Muscovites first heard the name of Lev Sergeevich Termen in the summer of 1997 during the celebration of the 850th anniversary of Moscow. Guest sorcerer Jean Michel Jarre, who created a phantasmagoria of music and light near Moscow University, announced that he was performing his works on an electronic musical instrument invented by Theremin. Thanks to the visiting maestro. Maybe now domestic amateurs modern music will be able to recognize “Theremin’s voice” in the soundtrack to the Disney film “Alice in Wonderland,” Led Zeppelin’s disc “Lotta’s Love,” and the Beach Boys’ composition “Good Vibrations.”
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Theremin and theremin, 1924 |
An invention made by a Russian engineer ninety years ago is finding new incarnations in the world of modern electronic music. This is exactly what the American journalist meant when he spoke of the Theremin instrument as “an echo of the future, sounding from the past.” "The Father of the Musical Synthesizer" Robert Moog called Theremin a genius. But apparently, that’s just the nature of life. Russian geniuses that there is especially a lot of villainy going on around them.
UNIVERSITIES PHYSICS-LYRICSLev Sergeevich was born on August 15 (August 27, new style) 1896 in St. Petersburg, into a wealthy noble family. He showed versatile abilities already in childhood. With equal enthusiasm he mastered playing the cello and carried out experiments in physics. After graduating from high school, he was admitted to the St. Petersburg Conservatory in the cello class. However, this was not enough for Theremin; a year later he also entered the faculties of physics and astronomy at St. Petersburg University.
Get a second one higher education World War interfered. He is drafted into the army. The cellist-physicist is studying at the Military Electrical Engineering School. After October revolution Theremin was recruited again: as a military radio specialist, he was supposed to join the ranks of the Red Army. The service took place at the Detskoselskaya radio station near Petrograd and at the military radio laboratory in Moscow.
At the beginning of 1920 Civil War came to an end, Termen had the opportunity to change his military clothes to civilian clothes and return to Petrograd.
INVENTION IN THE FRAMEWORK OF ELECTRIFICATION OF THE WHOLE COUNTRYThe place of work of the demobilized radio specialist was the physical and technical department of “daddy” A.F. Ioffe at the Radiological Institute. Soon after Theremin arrived, this department was transformed into an independent institute (the famous Phystech).
The young specialist’s first engineering development was the creation of a capacitive-type security alarm device. The device was simple and effective: an attacker approaching a protected object found himself in the electric field created by the capacitor plate. The change in capacitance caused a deviation in the frequency of the oscillatory circuit, as a result of which a sound generator was triggered on the central console, emitting a signal similar to a whistle.
Meanwhile, the idea developed further. In the same 1920, Theremin made his first electronic musical instrument, which he called an etherophone. The main part of the instrument was two high-frequency oscillatory circuits tuned to a common frequency. The capacitor plate of one of the circuits had an external output in the form of an antenna. The movement of the hand near the antenna created a heterodyne effect, which was converted into sound by the amplifier. The pitch of the sound changed as the hand approached or moved away from the antenna. In an unprecedented way - as if out of thin air ("ether") - a melody arose. The musician did not need strings or keys: Theremin’s hand floated in space. By moving his other hand, Theremin increased or decreased the volume of the sound.
In February 1921, he demonstrated his instrument at a meeting of the Petrograd branch of the Russian Society of Radio Engineers. In October of the same year, he spoke before the participants of the VIII All-Russian Electrotechnical Congress. The Institute of Physics and Technology patented the Theremin musical instrument in Germany, Great Britain, France, and the USA (the first application was dated June 23, 1921). In 1922, Theremin presented his instrument, along with security alarm devices, to the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, V.I. Lenin. After receiving a special mandate to travel throughout the country, the inventor gave about 180 lectures and concerts in different cities of Russia.
Beginning in 1922, Theremin also conducted research in the field of television. During this period, he completed his technical education by attending lectures at the Petrograd Polytechnic Institute. As thesis In 1926, he presented a prototype of a working television installation using a 64-line mechanical scanning system. The television image was reproduced on a screen with sides of about 0.5x0.5 m.
The Red Army command was the first to show interest in Theremin’s TV. By order of the military department, an improved optical-mechanical “far-sighting” installation was manufactured. A receiving television camera was installed above the entrance to the Red Army Administration on Arbat Square. People's Commissar K.E. Voroshilov demonstrated to the Red commanders in the reception area next to his office the amazing ability to see people approaching the building without looking out the window.
Although the work on the television system is only an episode in Theremin’s biography, the installation he created became a milestone in the history of the development of domestic television.
And yet, in the mid-twenties, the “theremin” (theremin’s voice), as the musical instrument began to be called, received greater public resonance. A country undergoing electrification and industrialization needed to expand its ties with industrialized countries. Termen began to be included in delegations traveling abroad to demonstrate the cultural and scientific achievements of the Bolshevik country.
FOREIGN TRIUMPHIn 1927, Theremin was sent by the People's Commissariat for Education to Germany, England and France. Performances by the skinny one, aristocratic appearance Russian and his performance of musical works on the theremin were a great success. The concerts at the Grand Opera aroused such interest that the theater, due to the full house, for the first time in its history organized the sale of standing tickets in boxes.
At the end of the year, Lev Sergeevich leaves for the USA. In January 1928, his first concert took place in New York, which was attended by composer Sergei Rachmaninov, conductor Arturo Toscanini, and violinist Jozsef Szigeti. The performance took place in the hall of the Plaza Hotel, Termen performed works by Offenbach, Scriabin, and Schubert arranged for his instrument. The musician performed a similar program a few days later in the large hall of the Metropolitan Opera. The Russian envoy received loud publicity - this was discussed at an elite reception held that same evening in the house of K. Vanderbilt, and subsequent publications in newspapers and magazines testified to the same. This success needed to be consolidated. Theremin receives permission Soviet authorities to establish the Teletouch studio in New York. The company's task was further development musical instruments and their commercial production in the USA.
Theremin works with great creative enthusiasm. By 1930, he had created three types of theremin for solo and ensemble performance, covering different sound registers. Develops a four-octave monophonic keyboard instrument, then an electronic cello with high sound power. The customer for the cello was Leopold Stokowski, who noted that only with this instrument was he able to harmoniously perform Claude Debussy’s “Prelude No. 10” with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Theremin combined his inventive work with musical and performing work. His concerts in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Boston and other American cities were a success. His studio in New York was visited by M. Ravel, J. Gershwin, C. Chaplin, A. Einstein, A. Ziloti, L. Stokowski and other celebrities.
In 1929, RCA (Radio Corporation of America) bought a license from the inventor for the right to produce “theremins” (the American name for instruments) in the USA. Success in business is evidenced by the fact that the trade union of "thereminist" musicians in the United States numbered about 700 people in 1936.
An outstanding master of playing the Theremin instrument is Clara Reisenberg, a promising violinist who at a young age emigrated to the USA from Russia. The hungry years in post-revolutionary Petrograd affected Clara's musical career - her right hand became not strong enough for a professional violinist. The transition from the violin to the theremin made it possible to get rid of this problem, and soon Clara Rockmore (that became her last name after her marriage) received recognition as an unsurpassed virtuoso of playing the electronic instrument. Clara's marriage seems to have been to some extent connected with thoughts about her future career. Her husband Robert Rockmore was famous in the world of music show business. Our reader will be interested to know that R. Rockmore became, in particular, the impresario of the singer Paul Robeson, who repeatedly visited the USSR.
Clara's marriage noticeably upset Theremin, who was long time in a passionate romantic relationship with her. However, this did not weaken his inventive talent. In 1931, Theremin, in collaboration with composer G. Cowell, created the rhythmikon - an instrument that reproduces sounds of different frequencies when rotating wheels interact with light rays. At the same time, Lev Sergeevich was developing terpsiton - a “musical platform”, the sounds of which were generated by the movements of the dancers on it. This idea of Theremin - for dance to give birth to music, and not vice versa - was the most fantastic. To implement it, the inventor begins to work with a group of dancers from the African-American Ballet Company. However, Termen failed to achieve the necessary musical accuracy from them. The synthesis of dance and music with the help of terpsiton remains in plans for the future.
At the same time, working with the dancers of the African American Ballet Group brought changes to personal life Theremin. The charming mulatto ballerina Lavinia Williams became his wife.
American society's attitude towards mixed marriages throughout the history of this country it has been different. After his marriage to Lavinia, Theremin very quickly realized that the doors of many houses of the New York elite were closed to him.
FROM THE SHIP TO... PRISON BACKSHis return to the USSR in 1938 put an end to the American period of his life. The departure, organized in the best traditions of the detective genre, was a complete surprise for Theremin. To explain the incident, it is necessary to lift one more curtain. The fact is that, while in America, he was constantly in contact with NKVD agents.
For this department, he had to obtain the necessary information and talk about his contacts with famous people. Therefore, it seems quite likely that after the reduction in the circle of acquaintances, Theremin as a source of information lost a significant amount of value for the NKVD. According to his American biographer S. Martin, the Russian musician had the imprudence to apply for financial assistance to the German mission in New York, and this is what caused an angry reaction from Moscow.
“Our people” came to Theremin’s house on 54th Street in New York and escorted the musician to a Soviet ship stationed at the mouth of the Hudson. As Lev Sergeevich later recalled, he was told that he was urgently needed “to clarify some formal issues.” This may seem incredible to some, but it was not difficult for the security officers to take a famous person out of the center of New York without his consent and without observing the necessary rules of passport and customs control.
Already on the ship, Termen was explained that he was returning to the USSR. First of all, Lev Sergeevich asked whether his young wife could join him. He was assured that she would be sent to the USSR on the next flight. Fortunately for Lavinia, no one was going to keep this promise. The disappearance of her Russian husband remained a big mystery for the dark-skinned ballerina.
In the USSR, Theremin was awaiting a pre-trial detention center. The investigator advised the musician to voluntarily admit that he participated in a conspiracy to kill Kirov. Theremin's arguments that he could not do this while in America were not convincing enough. By court decision, Termen was sentenced to eight years. In fact, the imprisonment lasted for twenty years. The most difficult year was the first year of imprisonment, which had to be served in the notorious Kolyma. He survived, although the musician’s hands did not immediately adapt to dragging heavy wheelbarrows with frozen soil. Then the Gulag leadership remembered the technical education of the “conspirator.” He was transferred to work in the "sharags" of Omsk, then Moscow, where he worked on equipment for radio control of unmanned aircraft, as well as radio beacons for use in naval operations.
The ways of prisoners are inscrutable. At the end of the war, Theremin received the task of developing devices for external listening to conversations taking place in buildings. The inventor solved the problem using the latest advances in radio technology. Employees of foreign embassies in Moscow at that time did not realize that in order to eavesdrop on conversations in a room, it was enough for specialists to receive scattered radio emission reflected from the window glass. For the development of equipment codenamed "Buran" Termen was awarded the Stalin Prize, 1st degree, in 1947.
The “bugs” created during that period for eavesdropping were distinguished by their high technical perfection. In the early 50s, employees of the American embassy in Moscow discovered a miniature metal cylinder inside a wooden carved US coat of arms hanging in the ambassador's office. The “bug” puzzled Western experts because it had neither batteries nor electrical circuits. The principle of operation was revealed only by the British M-15 service, which appreciated the ingenuity of the unknown Russian.
Termen had to practice this specific technique for almost 10 years. He will not be judged by anyone who has been in a situation where choice is a matter of survival.
RETURN TO THE WORLD OF MUSICTermen received complete rehabilitation in 1958. The almighty department thanked him at parting with an apartment in a house on Kaluzhskaya Zastava (now Gagarin Square) in Moscow. Twin daughters grew up from a marriage with an employee of the same department. Life returned to normal.
But for Theremin, life was in creativity. How many years has he dreamed of amazing world lamps, circuits, wires, which gave birth to sounds obedient to the maestro’s hand! He waited to return to the forgotten world, but this world was no longer waiting for him. Performances on the Paris and New York stages faded into oblivion; HR officers saw in front of them just a man of retirement age with a suspicious profile.
Finally, in 1964, Theremin received the opportunity to temporarily work in the acoustics and sound recording laboratory of the Moscow Conservatory. The inventor was assigned a corner for experiments, he was not supposed to have assistants, Lev Sergeevich also had to take care of obtaining materials and components himself. Despite this, he managed to restore many of the electronic musical instruments that were once developed. There was no hope for help in manufacturing a standard chassis or body. When assembling the “Rhythmikon” type instrument, he bolted all the blocks and boards to a planed board.
But soon the dramatic ending came. Representatives of Western information publications should have learned sooner or later that the once famous Theremin was alive. The first one happened to be a correspondent for the New York Times. In one of the issues for 1967, his note appeared, announcing that the inventor of electronic music, who mysteriously disappeared in 1938, had not died, but after many misadventures lived and worked in Moscow.
The reaction to this message was not long in coming. The “opinion” about the employee’s excessive talkativeness was conveyed to the leadership and party organization of the Moscow Conservatory. Theremin was fired, his tools were thrown away, some were even smashed with an ax for good measure.
Thanks to Academician Rem Viktorovich Khokhlov, after all this he helped me get a job in the workshop of the Physics Faculty of Moscow State University. In order to preserve Theremin’s opportunity to receive a pension, he was assigned to the position of a worker. Essentially, most of the time he was doing what a worker of sufficient qualifications could do, since, as at the Moscow Conservatory, he had to work without assistants.
Times, however, were changing. Electronic instruments increasingly invaded the world of music. The aging maestro began to pass on the art of playing the theremin to his students. The most capable was his great-niece Lida Kavina, whom Termen began teaching at the age of nine. By the age of twenty, Lydia Kavina had become a virtuoso of playing an electronic instrument. Her art now delights audiences in concert halls in Europe and America, just as the performances of Lev Theremin and Clara Rockmore once delighted.
In his declining years, the inventor of electronic music himself again had the opportunity to appear before a foreign public. In 1989 he attended the Bourges Music Festival in France. Two years later, 95-year-old Theremin made a nostalgic trip to the USA - a country where he had to experience triumphant recognition, romantic infatuation and the collapse of many illusions.
The film, shot by Stephen Martin during this trip, features memorable images of the elderly maestro walking a little confused through Manhattan, barely recognizing the places where ten years of his life passed. The central place in the film is the meeting of Lev Theremin with Clara Rockmore. Women are women: 80-year-old Clara did not agree to this meeting for a long time, not wanting to appear before the adored maestro in a guise unfamiliar to him.
The trip to America was not Termen’s last trip abroad. In 1993, he visited the Netherlands at the Schoenberg-Kandinsky festival. “The reason I am so tenacious,” Lev Sergeevich liked to say, “is that my last name, on the contrary, reads “does not die.”
Theremin died on November 4, 1993 at the age of 97 and was buried at the Novo-Kuntsevo cemetery in Moscow.
Coincidentally, the death of the inventor occurred one day after the screening of the film “The Electronic Odyssey of Lev Theremin” directed by S. Martin on British television. The late maestro did not have to see either this film or the program dedicated to it on Russian television.
Theremin lived a long life, but did not live long enough to see real recognition. What can you do, this seems to be the fate of many great people.
No, actually, why is that? Why does one man live peacefully with his wife and household, never get more than a hundred miles from his estate in his entire life, and arrange his existence so decorously, so boringly, that biographers may shoot themselves or hang themselves, but it’s as if there’s nothing to write about? .
But the other one will be so deliciously smeared across the canvas of history, across the world map, through the intricacies of everyday life, that such life experience would be enough for a whole dozen people. At the same time, it is absolutely not necessary to have an adventurous character and a round-the-clock readiness for adventure: the role of an individual with a bright destiny may well fall to calm people, armchair scientists, and quiet bores.
Stormy Overture
Lev Theremin plays a musical synthesizer of his own invention (theremin), 1930s.
Levushka Theremin has been exactly like this since childhood. The thoughtful, calm boy learned to read at the age of three and loved this activity most of all. I started studying music at the age of five. And from the age of seven, he also became addicted to experiments in his home physics laboratory, which doubled as an engineering workshop. The parents equipped the laboratory especially for Levushka - they could afford to encourage a gifted child. The Theremin family was ancient, of French roots, and managed to advance in Russia. Since the 14th century, the existing Theremin motto sounded like
“No more, no less” and fully reflected the moderation characteristic of the family that chose him. Theremins were rich, but avoided pomp; noble, but did not strive to move in high society. Levushka graduated from an ordinary metropolitan gymnasium with a silver medal and entered two educational institutions at once: the conservatory in the cello class and the physics and mathematics department of the university. He managed to finish the conservatory, but did not succeed in science. The year 1916 began, the war was on, and the twenty-year-old student was drafted into the army.
He was lucky enough not to get to the German front - by the beginning of the revolution, Lev was still working at the Tsarskoye Selo radio station, where he was sent immediately after graduating from the Nikolaev Military Engineering School. After the Bolsheviks seized power, he, along with the entire staff of the radio station employees, was enlisted in the Red Army, without being particularly interested in political views newly minted Red Army soldiers.
Young Leo, like a true scientist, accepted changes in fate with praiseworthy calm. However, this did not save him from attention new government, and in 1919 he was arrested as a nobleman, an officer and a possible participant in a possible rebellion. The years of the Red Terror passed, and Lev was quite likely to get a bullet in the back of his head after a minute farce at the revolutionary tribunal, but he was lucky. The death lottery held back Theremin's black ticket, and six months later the bureaucratic-punitive institution spat out its victim on the cobblestones of the St. Petersburg street - more or less free and not quite understanding what, in fact, happened to him.
Having looked around and appreciating the scale of the changes that had taken place in the world, the young technical genius directed his steps in the only direction available to him - to the first physics laboratory he came across. A month after his release, he was already working in the physical and technical department of the Radiological Institute.
Theremin - the wild voice of the era
On instructions from his supervisor, Professor Ioffe, Theremin worked in the laboratory to create a device for studying the properties of gases. According to the conditions of the experiment, the gases were placed in an electric capacitor, and Theremin was interested in the fact that the device began to react when the researcher’s hands approached it - the gases inside the capacitor changed their parameters when the mass approached from the outside. Eventually, Theremin connected a condenser to a microphone and began experimenting with the resulting sounds. They were very unusual; he had never seen anything similar in nature. The resulting hum was simultaneously reminiscent of the howling of the wind, the voice of a person, and the sound of a cello. Theremin was not only a talented physicist, but also an excellent musician. He was able to appreciate the wild beauty of this mechanical sound born of science.
This is how the theremin appeared - the very first musical synthesizer.
Although even before the first theremin (or etheroton, as Theremin first christened his brainchild) was finally modeled, the Radiological Institute had already reported on the creation of a sound signaling apparatus. Theremin led a group of specialists who were tasked with bringing the security system to fruition. Because music is lyrics, but a box that roars when someone approaches it is a politically correct, extremely important thing!
However, the music box was also not deprived of attention. At least in 1921, when Theremin and his invention were sent to the All-Russian Electrotechnical Congress, the general public was delighted and the newspapers did not skimp on praise. The theremin was called “an instrument of the proletariat,” “a device that can make anyone a musician,” and “a musical tractor.” (The word “tractor” did not mean exactly what it means then. To understand how it was perceived soviet man 20s, try to say out loud several times: “Processor for 500 gigs, RAM for 50, wireless, high technology...” Yes, something like this.) And in your iPhone the theremin sounded a ringtone called Sci-fi.
How it works?
The basis of this musical instrument is two electric generators. One of them creates an electrical signal of a constant (or reference) frequency Ch1 - about 100 kHz. The frequency of the signal from the second generator Ch2 can fluctuate depending on whether something affects the antenna protruding from it or not.
Both signals are fed to a frequency converter, which compares their parameters. When the device is quietly collecting dust in the corner, Ch1 is equal to Ch2. The transducer is inactive and the theremin is silent. But if someone passes their hand over the antenna, the parameters of the oscillating circuit of the second generator change. After all, the human body has its own electrical capacity. The hand in this case is a capacitor brought to the antenna. The converter registers the difference between Ch1 and Ch2 and creates a new signal with frequency Ch3 (Ch1 minus Ch2). The Ch3 signal is sent to the amplifier, and then to the speaker. This is how the sound is produced (quite disgusting if a beginner raises his hand).
Most theremins have two antennas. The straight line is responsible for the tone of the sound, the arcuate line is responsible for the volume. To play the instrument you need to have perfect pitch, because hand movements cannot be “adjusted” once you start playing. The device reacts to any movements and immediately shows trembling in the hands or falsehood.
And the leader is red
The invention of the 25-year-old genius so excited the country's public that Lenin personally expressed his desire to meet the scientist. Theremin was an easy-going person. It never occurred to him to screw a box of explosives to the theremin or otherwise hint to the head of the new government that Lev Theremin had not forgotten either about the prison or about the nationalized property of the family. On the contrary, Theremin happily performed several classical works in front of Lenin, and then excitedly controlled the clumsy hands of the leader, who tried to extract something more or less harmonious from the theremin.
Lev Theremin plays the theremin.
Lenin also expressed interest in the everyday reincarnation of the theremin - a sound alarm - and soon after the meeting he sent several letters to various organizations with a proposal to adapt the invention to the needs of the revolution. Ilyich strongly advised Theremin himself to join the party. He promised to think about it.
After this meeting, Theremin remained in reverence for Lenin for the rest of his life. A big shock for the scientist was the information that after the leader’s death, his brain was removed from his skull and placed in a jar of alcohol. Just at that time, Termen became interested in the ideas of freezing living organisms and begged to freeze Ilyich’s body in order to be able to soon resurrect the political genius for the common good. But alcohol killed brain cells, and Theremin perceived this as a fatal fact (after all, they knew almost nothing about genetics and cloning at that time).
When, in his decrepit age, Theremin was asked what particularly struck him about the leader, he answered: “The most unexpected thing for me was that he was bright red. On black and white photographs it’s not visible.”
No, all of me will not die!
It was in the 1920s that Termen began to think deeply about immortality. This atheist, it must be said, treated death without any respect; he considered it physiological nonsense, harmful and unfair. In the depths of his soul he suspected that it would not affect him (however, we all suspect this, don’t we?), but he considered it wise to take measures in advance. Theremin saw a guarantee of immortality in freezing the bodies of the dead until the time when science could restore life to them again. In those years, Lev Sergeevich made his first will, in which he asked to bury himself in permafrost. Even though there are reliable signs that he is not in danger of death (for example, the surname “Theremin” is read backwards as “does not die”), but you never know what can happen!
Theremin began conducting biological experiments with freezing. Unfortunately, he was not a biologist, and this did not end in anything epoch-making. But at the same time, he continued to work at his place of duty and in passing almost invented a television - the first in the world. Or a “far-sighting system”, according to his own definition. It worked in much the same way as a modern TV, only very, very poorly. The image on the screen was shaking and extremely blurry, but in 1926 Theremin’s “visionary” seemed like a complete miracle. The leadership of the Red Army was the first to put its paw on the invention. Personally, Comrade Voroshilov shook Theremin’s hand for a long time, and then ordered the installation of a “far viewer” in his office.
Defector
Inventor Lev Theremin (left), conductor Sir Henry Wood and scientist Sir Oliver Lodge (right), at a demonstration of broadcast music, at the Savoy Hotel, London, 1927.
In 1927, Theremin was sent to the Frankfurt Music Exhibition to present to the world a Soviet musical innovation - the theremin. The decision to send was made by the leadership of the Red Army intelligence department, and before leaving, the scientist was personally instructed by the head of military intelligence, Yan Berzin. What tasks were set for Theremin? He never talked about it, but, apparently, he was ordered to spy a little - on Russian emigrants or German colleagues. Knowing Theremin’s character, we can suggest that he did not angrily refuse the dubious role of a spy, but chose to quietly and peacefully ignore the assignment, seemingly nodding respectfully at what was located between those ears.
The Frankfurt exhibition turned into a grand tour throughout Europe. Theremin and his fantastic musical apparatus were eager to be seen in Paris, Marseille, London, Berlin, Rome... Any of his concerts was accompanied by a full house, the audience swooned from the “inhuman music of the highest spheres.” Albert Einstein was enormously impressed by his performance in Berlin, and wrote later that he was “really shocked by this sound emerging from space.” The sound that arose from the void in front of the hands making mysterious passes seemed not so much technical progress, as much as a mystical action, communication with the spirits of composers of the past, seance. The image of Theremin began to smell fairly redolent of holiness and charlatanism, and therefore he became one of the most scandalous and desirable heroes. It is not surprising that at one point he began to receive tempting offers from US impresarios, who felt that the Old World seemed to be going to squeeze an extremely interesting thing from them.
This is how Theremin ended up in New York. The Motherland did not express its opinion on this matter. No cries of “Come back, you damn traitor!” did not follow, he was regularly sent the necessary documents from the Soviet consulate. And just as peacefully, without scandal, the US authorities accepted Theremin’s request for an immigration visa.
O brave new world!
In America, Termen gained even greater fame. The best musicians in the country took lessons in playing the theremin from him. The doors of the most respectable houses were wide open to genius. Manufacturing companies fought desperately for the right to acquire any of his patents. Money poured in like a river, and in a matter of months Theremin found himself: a) a member of the New York millionaires' club; b) director of a joint stock company; c) the owner of a multi-story building in New York.
Everyone tried to get to know him bright people era. Charlie Chaplin came to visit him. Albert Einstein, who emigrated from Germany, loved to play music with Theremin. Gershwin and Bernard Shaw, Rockefeller and Dwight Eisenhower were proud to know the brilliant Russian. The famous beauties were not at all against his company. The latter especially inspired the young physicist, especially since his wife, Ekaterina Konstantinova, who had arrived from Moscow, suddenly unexpectedly divorced him and married some young German, with whom she left for Germany. (Subsequently, Ekaterina Konstantinova became a member of the National Socialist Party and a convinced fascist - these are the interesting things that happened to people back in the twentieth century). And then Theremin began to make mistakes - one after another.
Firstly, he turned out to be a very bad businessman: money floated out of his hands at the speed of light.
Secondly, he hurried to sell the patent for theremins to a company that failed to implement them.
Thirdly, he married a mulatto. And in the 30s to marry blacks in America is approximately equivalent as if today you have to publicly speak there about how you despise all the black -haired bastards.
Spy passions
The mulatto was amazingly good. Her name was Lavinia Williams and she was a dancer. Especially for Lavinia, Theremin tried to invent an apparatus that could “extract music from the dancer’s movement.” But the invented “terpsiton” turned out to be a completely helpless accompaniment: he either wheezed, or squeaked, or was silent, no matter what dizzying steps the dark-skinned prima performed. The money was melting away with exceptional speed. Good friends began to communicate with the Theremin spouses in an icy voice. Termen was finally finished off by a series of newspaper publications about how hospitable New Yorkers had harbored a Soviet spy on their breasts. Theremin was accused of being an intelligence agent, collecting information about his high-society friends and prominent scientists.
The stupidest thing about this situation was that Termen actually went to the appearances. All these years, the Soviet consulate regularly contacted him and invited him to “conversations.” He walked obediently. I drank vodka with the “consuls”. It was impossible not to drink: they forced me in a very aggressive manner. Then there were conversations about nothing - about wives, performances, European politics, the successes of the socialist economy and other nonsense. It would have been easier to send consular friends a long time ago, but open confrontation was never in the nature of Lev Sergeevich. Moreover, they always willingly helped him with documents: they divorced him from Katya, married him to Lavinia. In general, no one took away Termen’s Soviet citizenship, and he himself did not refuse. Who knows?
Spy passions-2
So “you never know” has come. Debts were threateningly clicking their teeth, no new income was expected, the American intelligence services began to cut circles around the bush. As if Theremin hasn't done enough for America! Who, for example, installed the latest sound alarms on the most famous US prisons - Sing Sing and Alcatraz?
Secular acquaintances renounced him because of his black wife, scientific ones - because of his reputation as a spy. The only people who understood him and appreciated him as they should were “their own”. It was in the Soviet consulate that Lev Sergeevich was encouraged, protected and protected during this difficult period. Because they won’t abandon their own. These were approximately the thoughts that tormented the poor genius’s head and tormented him to the point that in 1938, with his own feet, he boarded the ship “Old Bolshevik” and illegally (hidden in the captain’s cabin) went home. Lavinia remained in the USA. The consular guys promised to deliver her to the USSR immediately after the scandal subsided and Lev Sergeevich re-established himself in a flourishing and prettier homeland. Here he will receive the position of director of the Institute of Acoustics, honor and respect in society, and then his wife will fly openly and with dignity - to the happy country where they live free people who don't care what skin color they have.
Bad memory, good nostalgia and the Soviet press do terrible things to the human brain. The American spy Theremin spent only a few months at large - almost in complete isolation, because “at home” everyone understood well what it was like to communicate with defectors, Americans and traitors. In 1939 he was arrested and received eight years in the camps.
Sharashka
Theremin spent his first year honestly laying the Magadan highway and almost exhausted the survival resource allotted to man. But he was lucky again: he ended up in the famous “Tupolev sharashka” - a special zone for prisoners-scientists, from whom, in return for more or less decent feeding, they were required to advance Soviet science to new horizons. Termen spent the entire war in the sharashka and felt relatively well there after Kolyma. His team performed the most noble work - they designed listening devices for the NKVD: microscopic, camouflaged, for radio beacons, for airplanes, for telephone lines, for embassies, for institutions, for citizens' apartments. All these years, Theremin’s wife attacked the Soviet consulate with a demand to immediately transport her to her beloved husband, but the consulate remained silent. Lavinia became aware of her husband's fate only in the late 50s.
The Bald Eagle Case
In 1947, Lev Theremin was not only released, but was even awarded the Stalin Prize of the first degree for a brilliant operation involving the installation of wiretapping in the American embassy. Theremin's team has developed a unique “bug” of a completely new modification. It was a hollow metal cylinder, devoid of any electronic filling, with a membrane and a pin protruding from it. The secret was that when irradiated by an external electromagnetic field of a suitable frequency, the cavity of the cylinder came into resonance with it and the radio wave was re-radiated back through the pin antenna. The “bug” was built into the American coat of arms, made of valuable wood. During his visit to Yalta, the American ambassador was presented with the coat of arms by the Artek pioneers. The ambassador was touched and hung it in his office. The “bug” functioned properly for almost 20 years, informing authorities about literally every word spoken in the ambassador’s reception area.
One more life
After his release, Lev Theremin remained in the sharashka, already a civilian employee, because there was absolutely nowhere to go. Then they allocated him two-room apartment. Theremin married a young lady, and they had two daughters. In 1956, Theremin was completely rehabilitated, and for almost forty years he continued to do what he loved - inventing. True, he no longer made great discoveries and ingenious inventions, such as the theremin, far-vision or sound signaling. To work, Theremin required serious subsidies, laboratories and qualified assistants, but he was assigned to manage small objects, insignificant for a figure of such a scale. But he didn’t want to return to the KGB laboratory. I managed to explain why in one of my last interviews. “All sorts of nonsense took up time from my inventive work. Allegedly, in the West they came up with devices to determine where flying saucers are, and in order to find out who launches them and why, we also had to work on similar devices. Then - supposedly the Americans created equipment for transmitting mental energy (and aggressive energy) over long distances - and fight again! I understood that this was a scam, and I couldn’t refuse. And one day I decided that it was better not to do this, but to retire. I left in 1966.” At the end of the 80s, for some reason, the outside world remembered Theremin again: several articles dedicated to him were published in the West, where he was called a KGB agent, informant and informer. Almost at the same time, Theremin received invitations from France and the USA to visit places of “military glory” - to give a series of Theremin concerts where he played 60 years ago. Her daughter, one of several dozen professional theremin players in the world, undertook to accompany her father on this tour.
In 1991, Lev Sergeevich suddenly remembered Lenin and regretted that he had disappointed his hopes - he had not joined the party. Theremin decided to make amends to the leader and managed to become a member of the CPSU - exactly a few months before its closure.
And in 1993, the scientist died, having lived a whole century without three years. And not just any century, but that same century, the twentieth, the living embodiment of which Lev Theremin happened to become. Although, strictly speaking, he didn’t really ask for it, but simply obediently went where the tenacious paws of fate dragged him. Journalist and writer Elena Petrushanskaya, who managed to interview Theremin several times in the last years of his life, says that he himself was aware of this humility: “Life, no matter how long it lasts, must be lived with dignity to the end. It seems that Theremin did not succeed.
Tim Blake of Hawkwind performing in London in February 2014
Beach Boys "Good Vibrations" (single, 1966).
Led Zeppelin “Whole Lotta Love” (concert film/soundtrack “The Song Remains The Same”, 1976).
Pixies "Velouria" (Bossanova, 1990).
Aquarium “Under the bridge, like Chkalov” (“Territory”, 2000).
Films: Spellbound (1945), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Ed Wood (1994), Hellboy: Hero from Hell (2004).
about one thing: not to interfere with his work.
Lev Theremin are considered one of the Soviet avant-garde artists and pioneers of electronics, they say that he either worked as a spy or died in exile, and his instrument is called such a strange invention that allegedly even he Theremin I couldn't play on it. These are just rumors - but the reality is no less interesting. The creator of the theremin turned out to be a witness to all eras of the 20th century, was familiar with celebrities from various countries, and at the same time he lived as if he did not notice the political storms of his century.
Lev Theremin born on August 15 (28), 1896 in St. Petersburg into a noble Orthodox family with French Huguenot roots (in French the family surname was written as Theremin). His father is the famous lawyer Sergei Emilievich Termen, his mother is Evgenia Antonovna. Leo was the first-born in the family. His parents contributed to the development of Lev’s abilities: he took cello lessons, a physics laboratory was equipped in the apartment, and then a home observatory. Lev was sent to study at the St. Petersburg First Men's Gymnasium. Already in the third grade, Lev became interested in physics, and in the fourth grade he demonstrated “Tesla-type resonance.” Lev graduated from high school with a silver medal in 1914.
In 1920 Lev Theremin starts working for the professor A. F. Ioffe at the newly created Physico-Technical Institute in Petrograd. Once a young scientist noticed that the movement of his hands near the capacitor plates (the gap between them was filled with gas) produced strange, wonderful sounds.
Theremin I tried to put together a melody - classes at the conservatory helped - and the device began to sing. Theremin I fitted my headphones and enjoyed the music emerging from the air and the movement of my hands. At the institute they joked: “Theremin plays the voltmeter.” This is how the world's first non-contact musical instrument was created.
Ioffe gives him a seemingly fantastic topic for his thesis: “electrical foresight.” But Ioffe believes that his brilliant graduate student will cope with any task. AND Theremin did not disappoint the teacher: he created and demonstrated working prototypes of a device for “wireless” image transmission over a distance. To put it simply, in 1926 Theremin invented television!
Several years before the first experiments Zvorykina in America he built a real electronic TV.
The TV had a screen no less than 150x150 centimeters (this was at a time when they experimented with matchbox screens), and a resolution of 100 lines. And it worked! In 1927, representatives of the military elite of the Soviets - Voroshilov, Tukhachevsky, Budyonny- watched with delight Stalin walking through the Kremlin courtyard. You could even make out a mustache and a pipe. This demonstration, as it turned out, was fatal for the invention: it was classified in the hope of using it to protect borders. Needless to say, it was never implemented, and the primacy Theremin in this case it has been proven only in our time.
In 1927 Lev Sergeevich sent to Frankfurt am Main, to the International Exhibition - to glorify with the help theremin Soviet science and culture. After the exhibition Theremin triumphantly traveled all over Germany, performing at the famous London Albert Hall and at the Paris Grand Opera. The press of all countries was filled with rave reviews. Albert Einstein wrote: “Sound freely extracted from space is a completely new phenomenon.”
Theremin's cello. The inventor plays
Theremin lived in New York for a decade. He buys a Cadillac and is accepted into the elite US Millionaires Club, although he never became a millionaire. The company he created to produce contactless security alarm systems is thriving. General Electric and RCA have acquired a license to manufacture theremin and they produced about a thousand of them. In 1930 Theremin invents the electronic cello and his first drum kit - "rhythmicon". He leases a six-story house for 99 years, where he opens music studio, instrumental workshops and laboratories, teaches musicians to play his miracle instrument.
Rhythmikon - the first rhythm machine, that is, a device for creating periodic drum fragments
Lev Theremin organized the companies Teletouch and Theremin Studio and rented a six-story building for a music and dance studio in New York for 99 years. This made it possible to create trade missions of the USSR in the United States, under whose “roof” Soviet intelligence officers could work.
In 1931-1938 Theremin was a director of Teletouch Inc. At the same time, he developed alarm systems for the Sing Sing and Alcatraz prisons.
Soon Lev Theremin became a very popular person in New York. Been to his studio George Gershwin, Maurice Ravel, Jascha Heifetz, Yehudi Menuhin, Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein. His circle of acquaintances included financial tycoon John Rockefeller, future US President Dwight Eisenhower
In 1938 Theremin recalled to Moscow. He secretly left the USA, registering in the name of the owner of the Teletouch company Bob Zinman power of attorney to dispose of his property and manage patent and financial affairs. Theremin I wanted to take my wife with me to the USSR Lavinia, but he was told that she would arrive later. When they came for him, Lavinia She happened to be at home, and she got the impression that her husband was taken away by force.
In Leningrad Theremin unsuccessfully tried to get a job, then moved to Moscow, but did not find a job there either.
In March 1939 he was arrested. There are two versions of what charge was brought against him. According to one of them, he was accused of involvement in a fascist organization, according to another - of preparing a murder Kirov. He was forced to incriminate himself that a group of astronomers from the Pulkovo Observatory was preparing to place a landmine in a Foucault pendulum, and Theremin was supposed to send a radio signal from the USA and detonate a landmine as soon as it approached the pendulum Kirov. A special meeting of the NKVD of the USSR sentenced Theremin to eight years in the camps, and he was sent to a camp for Kolyma.
First time Theremin served time in Magadan, working as a foreman of a construction team. But he was recalled to the Central Design Bureau, where he was destined to work with Sergei Korolev, who on April 21, 1939 ended up in Kolyma, where from August 3 he was at the Maldyak gold mine of the Western Mining Directorate and was employed in the so-called general works.
Aircraft designer Andrei Tupolev, who was imprisoned in those years and worked for the benefit of the country in the closed NKVD design bureau - TsKB-29 ("Tupolev's sharaga"), saw Lev Sergeevich cutting out a model of an airplane from plywood, and gave him an assistant - the same Korolev. It was a very interesting meeting between two outstanding personalities.
Numerous innovation proposals Theremin attracted the attention of the camp administration to him, and already in 1940 he was transferred to the Tupolev design bureau TsKB-29 (to the so-called “Tupolev sharaga”), where he worked for about eight years. Here his assistant was Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, later a famous designer of space technology. One of the activities Theremin And Queen was the development of radio-controlled unmanned aerial vehicles - prototypes of modern cruise missiles.
One of the developments Theremin- listening system "Buran", which uses a reflected infrared beam to read the vibrations of glass in the windows of the listening room. This is the invention Theremin It was observed Stalin Prize first degree in 1947. But due to the fact that the laureate was a prisoner at the time of presentation for the prize and the secretive nature of his work, the award was not publicly announced anywhere.
Soviet endovibrator inside a replica of the Great Seal of the United States, National Museum of Cryptography at the US National Security Agency
Another development - endovibrator "Zlatoust", a listening device without batteries and electronics based on high-frequency resonance, which worked in the office of American ambassadors undetected for eight years. The listening device was mounted in a wooden panel made of valuable wood, depicting the Great Seal of the United States.
The panel was presented in 1945 to the US ambassador invited to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Artek pioneer camp. Averell Harriman, who hung it in his office. The design of the listening device turned out to be so successful that when examining the gift, the American intelligence services did not notice anything. The “bug” was discovered in 1952, and was later presented to the UN as evidence of the intelligence activities of the USSR, but the principle of its operation remained unsolved for several years.
To “press on a tear,” the pioneers sang the American anthem at the gala concert. The touched ambassador, looking at the gift handed to him, only managed to mutter: “Where should I keep it?” Immediately behind him, Valentin Mikhailovich Berezhkov, Stalin’s personal translator, stood up and casually said: “Hang it in your office. The British will burst with envy.” He said and nodded towards the British Ambassador to the USSR, Sir Archibald Kerr, who was also present at the ceremony, but did not receive SUCH a gift.
Before hanging the wooden eagle at the embassy, American technicians, of course, “probed” it for bugs. But they were not found, because Lev Theremin’s device was passive and did not emit anything in itself. And then the souvenir was actually hung in the ambassador’s office. Operation Confession, the goal of which was to smuggle a bug into the US Embassy building, ended in success.
In 1947 Theremin was rehabilitated, but continued to work in closed design bureaus in the NKVD system of the USSR, where he was engaged, in particular, in the development of eavesdropping systems.
In 1948, he and his wife Maria Gushchina two daughters are born - Natalia Termen And Elena Termen.
In 1991, together with his daughter, Natalia Termen, and granddaughter, Olga Termen, he visited the USA at the invitation of Stanford University and there, among other things, met with Clara Rockmore.
In March 1991, at the age of 95, he joined the CPSU. When asked why he was joining a collapsing party, Theremin answered: “I promised Lenin.”
In 1992, unknown persons destroyed a laboratory room on Lomonosovsky Prospekt (the room was allocated by the Moscow authorities at the request of V. S. Grizodubova), all his instruments were broken, part of the archives were stolen. The police did not solve the crime.
In 1992, the Theremin Center was created in Moscow, with its main goal being to support musicians and sound artists working in the field of experimental electroacoustic music. Upon request Lev Theremin remove the name, the leaders of the center did not react. Lev Theremin had nothing to do with the creation of the center named after him.
Died November 3, 1993. As the newspapers later wrote: “At ninety-seven years old Lev Theremin went to those who made up the face of the era - but beyond the grave, except for daughters with families and a few men, pallbearers, There was no one…".
He invented:
1. Group of electric musical instruments:
-– theremin
-– rhythmikon
-– terpsiton
2. Security alarm
3. Unique eavesdropping system “Buran”
4. The world's first television installation - far-sightedness
worked on:
-– speech recognition system
- human freezing technology
-– voice identification in forensics
- military sonar.
On the evening of November 3, my friends and I drank a glass to commemorate the soul of the inventor and musician Lev Sergeevich Termen. I have never seen this man in my life, but I have been fascinated by his magical talent since childhood, when I first heard the amazing musical instrument theremin, from which all modern electronic music originated.
Lev Sergeevich Termen (1896-1993
invented
1. Group of electric musical instruments:
Theremin
Rhythmikon
Terpsitone
2. Security alarm
3. Unique eavesdropping system "Buran"
4. The world's first television installation - far vision
worked on:
Speech recognition system
Human freezing technology
Military sonar
In the spring of 1926, engineer Lev Theremin demonstrated at the People's Commissariat of Defense the world's first television installation - far vision. He installed the camera lens on the street, placed the screen in his office, and the Red commanders Ordzhonikidze, Voroshilov, Budyonny and Tukhachevsky cried out in delight: on the screen Stalin was walking across the yard!
It took Termen only a year to solve a fantastic problem - the creation of electrical foresight. However, for him, it seemed, there were no difficulties in life at all. From a young age, he amazed those around him with his talents: he was fond of mathematics, physics, and something was always exploding in his room. At the university, Theremin studied simultaneously in the physics and astronomy faculties, while simultaneously studying cello at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.
Before the revolution, he managed to graduate from a military engineering school and even fought for the Tsar Father with the rank of second lieutenant in a radio engineering battalion. But the Bolsheviks did not shoot him, but, on the contrary, took him into service in the electrical battalion. And a year later he was appointed head of the most powerful radio station in the country, the Tsarskoye Selo radio station.
After demobilization in 1920, he was invited to work at the Physico-Technical Institute by Professor Ioffe. Theremin receives the task of doing radio measurements of the dielectric constant of gases at variable temperatures and pressures. During testing, it turned out that the device produced a sound, the height and strength of which depended on the position of the hand between the plates of the capacitor. Perhaps a simple physicist would not have attached any importance to this, but a physicist - a graduate of the conservatory - tried to compose a melody from these sounds. And it worked!
This is how the musical instrument theremin was born - the voice of Theremin. And a simplified version of the theremin - a security alarm - built on the same principle: as soon as the attacker found himself in the electric field, a sound signal was heard. By the way, in our time, expensive cars are still equipped with an alarm system, which is based on Theremin’s invention.
And in the life of Lev Sergeevich it became the first step on the path to fame. Although his colleagues chuckled: “Theremin plays Gluck on a voltmeter,” this did not bother the scientist at all. In 1921, he demonstrates his invention at the VIII All-Russian Electrotechnical Congress. The surprise of the audience knew no bounds - no strings or keys, a timbre unlike anything else. The Pravda newspaper published an enthusiastic review, and radio concerts were held for a wide audience. In addition, during the congress the GOELRO plan was adopted, and Theremin, with his unique power tools, could become an excellent propagandist for the plan for electrification of the entire country.
A few months after the congress, Termen was invited to the Kremlin.
Stop, whoever is coming!
In addition to Lenin, there were about ten other people in the office. First, Theremin showed the high commission a security alarm. He connected the device to a large vase with a flower, and as soon as one of those present approached it, a loud bell rang. Lev Sergeevich recalled: “One of the military men said that this was wrong. Lenin asked: “Why is it wrong?” And the military man took a warm hat, put it on his head, wrapped his arm and leg in a fur coat and began to slowly crawl on his haunches to my alarm system. The signal again it worked out."
And yet the main “hero” of the audience was the theremin. Lenin liked the instrument so much that he gave the go-ahead for Theremin to tour and ordered that he be given a free train ticket “to popularize the new instrument” throughout the country.
By the way, another impressive feature of Theremin’s life is connected with Lenin.
Lev Sergeevich was passionate about the idea of fighting death. He studied studies of animal cells frozen in permafrost, and wondered what would happen to people if they were frozen and then thawed. When news of the leader’s death became known, Theremin sent his assistant to Gorki with a proposal to freeze Lenin’s body so that years later, when the technology had been worked out, he could be resurrected from the dead. But the assistant returned with sad news: the internal organs had already been removed and the body was prepared for embalming. With that, Theremin abandoned research on human revitalization. And decades later, his idea was embodied in America, and now dozens of frozen lucky people are waiting for resurrection.
An episode that could have been a milestone
After demonstrating the television installation at the People's Commissariat for Education, Theremin showed it at the V All-Union Congress of Physicists in Moscow. The invention caused a sensation, Ogonyok and Izvestia wrote with delight: “Theremin’s name is included in the history of world science along with Popov and Edison!” It seemed that it was a stone's throw from experiment to serial production...
Theremin was offered to create a television system for border military units. But it did not reach the army: the country’s technical base was too poor. Therefore, the developments were kept secret, and the title of pioneer in the field of television a few years later went to an emigrant from Russia, Vladimir Zvorykin.
Knocked out "Grand Opera" and others
In the summer of 1927, an international conference on physics and electronics was held in Frankfurt am Main. The young Country of Soviets needed to present itself with dignity. And Theremin with his instrument became the trump card of the Russian delegation. He amazed the Europeans with his report on the theremin and with classical music concerts for the general public: “heavenly music”, “voices of angels” - the newspapers were choked with delight.
Invitations from Berlin, London, and Paris followed one after another. Theremin's most enchanting concert took place in Paris: the conservative Grand Opera theater for the first time in its history gave the hall to some unknown Russian for the whole evening. Such an influx of spectators (even standing tickets for boxes were sold) and such success in the theater have not been seen for 35 years...
Meanwhile, Joffe, who was in the USA at that time, received orders from several companies to produce 2000 theremins with the condition that Theremin would come to America to supervise the work. But instead of one business trip, Lev Sergeevich received two: from the People’s Commissar of Education Lunacharsky and from the Military Department.
Trump on the table!
And so the handsome young Lev Theremin sails on the ocean liner Majestic to America. The world-famous violinist József Sighetti, who was sailing on the same ship, became envious of the fees that the largest businessmen in America offered Theremin for the honor of being the first to hear the theremin. But the inventor gave the first concert for the press, scientists and famous musicians. The success was impressive, and with the permission of the Soviet authorities, Theremin founded the Teletouch studio company in New York for the production of theremins.
Things went brilliantly. Theremin concerts took place in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Boston. Thousands of Americans enthusiastically began to learn to play the theremin, and General Electric Corporation and RCA (Radio Corporation of America) bought licenses to produce it.
The “great crisis” that broke out at the turn of the 1930s ruined many rich people. But he didn’t knock Theremin down. Of course, the people had no time for music, but the inventive Russian had one more trump card - a security alarm. Teletouch Corporation quickly refocused on its production, and Theremin volume sensors were torn off with their hands. They were even installed in the terrible US prison Sing Sing and in Fort Knox, where the American gold reserves were kept. So everything was fine with business, but there was a crisis in the music field.
Cake for a violinist with a theremin
In the enthusiastic chorus of Theremin's fans, voices of dissatisfaction began to be heard: at concerts he was shamelessly out of tune. The fact is that playing the theremin purely is incredibly difficult: the performer has no reference points (like, for example, the keys of a piano or the strings of a violin) and has to rely solely on hearing and muscle memory.
Theremin clearly lacked performing skills. A virtuoso was needed here. And then fate brought him together with a young emigrant from Russia, Clara Reisenberg. As a child, she was known as a miracle child, a violinist with a great future. But either she overplayed her hands, or because of a hungry childhood, she had to part with the violin: her muscles could not withstand the load. But the theremin was within reach, and Clara quickly learned to play it. There was also a whirlwind romance, especially since Theremin was free by that time.
For the first time, Theremin married the lovely Katya Konstantinova in 1921, and before coming to America, their family life was smooth and stable. But in New York, Katya was able to find work only in the suburbs and came home once a week. After six months of such “family” life, a young man came to Theremin and said that he and Katya loved each other. And then it became known that the visitor was a member of a fascist organization. And the Soviet embassy demanded that Termen divorce his wife. Which is what he did. Therefore, by the time of his meeting with Clara, Lev Sergeevich was open to new love.
He is 38 years old, she is 18. They were a luxurious couple, they loved to go to cafes and restaurants. Lev Sergeevich courted her very beautifully and loved to surprise his girlfriend with various miracles. For example, for her birthday, he gave her a cake that rotated around its axis and was decorated with a candle that lit up when approaching it.
The beautiful romance was not destined to end with a wedding. Clara chose someone else - Robert Rockmore, a lawyer and successful impresario, so her musical career was secured.
Why do walls float?
And Theremin plunged headlong into his work. Upon his arrival in America, he rented a six-story mansion on 54th Avenue for 99 years. In addition to personal apartments, it housed a workshop and a studio. Here Lev Sergeevich often played music with Albert Einstein: the physicist on the violin, the inventor on the theremin. Einstein was fascinated by the idea of combining music and spatial images. And Theremin figured out how to do this: he invented the rhythmicon, a light-musical instrument. Huge transparent wheels with a geometric pattern printed on them rotated in front of a strobe light. As soon as the musician changed the pitch of the sound, the frequency of the strobe flashes and the patterns changed - the spectacle was impressive. Well, the fantasy began when the walls of the studio rose and fell. Of course, not for real, but with the help of a trick of light. The spellbound visitors gasped in surprise!
Rumors about these experiments attracted many famous people to the studio. Among Theremin's guests were millionaires DuPont, Ford and Rockefeller. However, Termen himself by the mid-30s was included in the list of twenty-five celebrities of the world. And he was even a member of the millionaires' club.
Was he really a millionaire? It is not known for certain. Some say that Teletouch Corporation brought huge amounts of money to Theremin personally and to Soviet Russia. And others claim that Theremin was financed by military intelligence. Because the true purpose of his business trip to America was espionage activity.
Famous spy
Every two weeks Lev Sergeevich came to a small country cafe, where two young men were waiting for him. They listened to his reports and gave him new tasks. However, these tasks were not burdensome and did not particularly distract Theremin from his work. And he was already completely carried away by the most fantastic of his ideas - an instrument that gave birth to music from dance. In fact, this is a type of theremin: the sound is created not only by the hands, but also by the movements of the whole body, and the name was given to it accordingly - terpsiton - after the goddess of dance Terpsichore. In this case, each sound corresponded to a lamp of a certain color. Can you imagine what an extraordinary spectacle it was, because any movement of the dancer was echoed by sounds and the flickering of multi-colored lights!
To create a concert program, Theremin invited a group of dancers from the African American Ballet Company. Unfortunately, it was not possible to achieve harmony and accuracy from them, and the project had to be postponed. But in this troupe danced the beautiful mulatto Lavinia Williams, who captivated Lev Sergeevich not only as a ballerina, but also as a woman. Theremin decided to get married.
It never occurred to him that marriage to a black woman would radically change his life. But as soon as the lovers registered their marriage, the doors of many houses in New York were closed to Theremin: America did not yet know political correctness. He lost informants, which caused serious dissatisfaction with Soviet intelligence. And in 1938, Theremin was ordered to immediately leave for Russia. Lavinia was told that she would come to her husband on the next ship.
The spouses did not see each other again. And Termen kept the marriage certificate issued by the Russian embassy in America until the end of his days.
Kirov's killer
Ten years after leaving Russia, Theremin arrived in Leningrad. And it turned out that no one needed him: there were almost no old workers left at the Physico-Technical Institute. Theremin went to look for work in Moscow, but on March 15, they came for him to a hotel near the Kievsky railway station with an arrest warrant.
In the Butyrka prison, the investigator told Theremin that he, as a defector, would, of course, be shot if he did not cooperate. A month later, Theremin “admitted” that, together with a group of astronomers, he planned the murder of Kirov. His version was this: Kirov (who was already dead by that time!) was going to visit the Pulkovo Observatory. Astronomers planted a landmine in a Foucault pendulum. And Theremin, using a radio signal from the USA, was supposed to blow it up as soon as Kirov approached the pendulum. The investigator was not even embarrassed by the fact that Foucault’s pendulum is not in Pulkovo, but in the Kazan Cathedral! Lev Sergeevich was given eight years and sent to Kolyma.
But Termen spent only a year in the camp. He was appointed senior over the criminals who carried stones from the mountain and paved the road with them. Theremin mechanized the process by building a wheelbarrow with a monorail. Work is in full swing! The brigade's rations were tripled, and the papers about the unusual prisoner were sent to Moscow.
In the winter of 1940, he was transferred to Omsk, to the Tupolev aviation sharashka, where throughout the war he developed equipment for radio control of unmanned aircraft and radio beacons for naval operations. But the crowning achievement of his stay in the sharashka was the invention of the Buran listening system.
Trojan horse from the pioneers
On Independence Day, July 4, 1945, the American Ambassador to Russia Averell Harriman received a wooden panel depicting an eagle as a gift from Soviet pioneers. The panel was hung in the ambassador's office. And then the American intelligence services lost peace: a mysterious information leak began. Only 7 years later, a mysterious cylinder with a membrane inside was discovered inside the gift. For a year and a half, engineers struggled to solve this trick. The secret turned out to be simple: an invisible ray was directed from the house opposite to the office window, and the membrane, oscillating in time with the speech, reflected it back, and it was recorded on a special device.
Then Theremin improved his Buran so much that the membrane was no longer needed - its role was played by window glass. Rumor has it that Buran is still in service with our secret services.
The Soviet government highly appreciated the merits of the inventor - in 1947, the prisoner (!) was awarded the Stalin Prize, 1st degree. And after his release, Termen was given a two-room apartment on Leninsky Prospekt.
It seemed that the stupid and evil misunderstanding was over and now the inventor would be showered with honors. But Theremin did not receive any official titles; all his patents were covered with the stamp “Soviet secret”. And Lev Sergeevich continued to work in secret KGB laboratories. Soon he found himself a new wife there - a young typist Masha Gushchina, who gave birth to twin daughters.
For almost twenty years, Theremin was engaged in specific developments for the all-powerful department. At first it was promising work-- speech recognition systems, voice identification, military hydroacoustics. But over time, priorities have changed. As Theremin recalled, “supposedly in the West they came up with devices for determining where flying saucers were, and we also had to fight over such devices. I understood that this was a scam, and I couldn’t refuse - and one day I decided that it was better to retire.” .
The employers did not object, considering that they could not take anything from the old man, and in 1964 Termen finally parted with the special services, under whose invisible eye he had been for almost 40 years.
Theremin doesn't die!
70 years old. It seemed like life was over. But Lev Sergeevich, true to his motto “Theremin never dies!” (this is how his last name is read backwards), gets a job in the acoustic laboratory of the Moscow State Conservatory. Nothing disturbed the old man’s measured life until, in 1968, a New York Times correspondent, preparing a report on the Moscow Conservatory, learned that the great Theremin was alive.
This sensational news in America was perceived as a resurrection from the dead: all American encyclopedias indicated that Theremin died in 1938. A flood of letters from his overseas friends poured into Lev Sergeevich’s name, and reporters from various newspapers and television companies tried to meet with him. The conservative authorities, frightened by such interest in the modest person of the mechanic, simply fired him. And all the equipment was thrown into the trash.
For the last twenty-five years, Theremin has worked in the acoustics laboratory of Moscow State University. Mechanic 6th category. He slowly worked on his theremins - he restored some, improved some, and even came up with one in which the sound through a system of photocells arose from just the musician’s glance.
Lev Sergeevich also frequented the Scriabin Museum, where he took part in the creation of a musical synthesizer. The long-awaited time has come - the era of electronic instruments. Theremin seemed to catch ideas out of thin air that sometimes seemed utopian. And later it turned out that the Japanese company Yamaha was working on these ideas independently of him.
Well, Lev Sergeevich taught his niece Lida Kavina to play the theremin. By the age of twenty, she had become a virtuoso performer and toured all over Europe with concerts. In 1989, Theremin was invited to the Experimental Music Festival in France. And he, 93 years old, went!
But most of all, at the end of his life, Termen surprised those around him with his entry into the CPSU: “I promised Lenin.” Lev Sergeevich tried before, but for “terrible crimes” he was not accepted into the party. So Termen became a communist only in 1991, simultaneously with the fall of the USSR.
a swan song
In 1951, future American director Steve Martin saw the film “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” But it was not the aliens that shocked him, but the unearthly sound of the theremin that accompanied the action. For several years he communicated with his brother using sounds similar to those produced by a theremin. And many years later, in 1980, Steve Martin was looking for music for his film. And his search led him to Clara Rockmore, who told the director about the legendary inventor. It was then that Martin had the idea to create a story about Theremin documentary. But 11 years passed before he was able to come to Moscow, meet Theremin and invite him to America. The elderly maestro walked confusedly through the streets of New York and had difficulty recognizing the places where ten years of his life had passed. The most exciting thing was the meeting with Clara Rockmore. Clara did not agree to her for a long time - years, they say, do not make a woman beautiful.
Hey, Klarenok, how old are we! said 95-year-old Theremin.
After America, he went back to the Netherlands for the Schoenberg-Kandinsky festival, and, returning to Moscow, found his room in a communal apartment in complete destruction - broken furniture, broken equipment, trampled records. Apparently, one of the neighbors really needed his room. The daughter took Lev Sergeevich to her place. But vitality it ran out, and a few months later, on November 3, 1993, Theremin died.
Steve Martin's film "The Electronic Odyssey of Lev Theremin" was released after the death of the hero. But his theremins still live today. Among the many companies producing them is Moog Mugic, owned by the inventor of the first synthesizer, Robert Moog. He once said about Theremin: “He’s just a genius who is capable of anything!”
He failed in only one thing - to become the national pride of Russia...
Theremin sounds in:
1. album "Territory" by the group "Aquarium"
2. compositions "Good Vibrations" by the pop group "Beach Boys"
3. Hitchcock's film Spellbound ("Charmed")
4. Bill Weider's film "The Lost Weekend"