Lev theremin biography. How a Soviet scientist invented the first electronic musical instrument

The phrase “wild bull” combines several varieties of these beautiful undomesticated animals. We will tell you about the most interesting of them in today’s publication.

Anoa

These small animals belonging to the bovid family are conventionally divided into two groups - mountain and lowland. Both of them live in the forests of the island of Sulawesi. But the former inhabit higher areas, while the latter live in the lowlands. Outwardly they are very similar to each other. They can only be distinguished by their horns. In lowland anoa they are triangular, while in mountain anoa they are round. The body length of this wild bull is about 170 centimeters with a height not exceeding 80 cm. The weight of adult individuals varies from 150 to 300 kilograms. The entire almost hairless body of the anoa is colored black or brown.

The diet of these herbivores is based on fruits, ginger, aquatic plants, leaves and young trees. As for drinking, they calmly drink not only fresh, but also salty sea water. Anoa are very cautious and rarely move alone. Most often they can be seen in pairs, and sometimes they even gather in small herds.

Gaur

These are the largest representatives of the genus of real bulls. They live in grassy plains and mountain forests. They can most often be found in Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, India and southern Vietnam. Gaurs come out to the plains and forest edges only to feast on fresh grass. In all other cases, they stay away from open areas.

The height of an adult individual is 2.2 meters and weighs about 1000-1200 kilograms. In addition to their impressive dimensions, gaurs have a correctly proportioned, harmonious body. Oddly enough, this huge wild bull has a calm, balanced disposition. It has virtually no natural enemies.

The body of the gaur is covered with dark brown hair. And males have white “stockings” on their legs. The feeling of power is achieved not only due to its impressive appearance, but also due to the presence of massive long horns, each of which grows up to 90-115 centimeters. The diet of these animals is based on bush shoots, bamboo shoots and young grass. They are most active in the morning and evening hours.

Watussi

These ancient animals originated from the primitive aurochs. They inhabit savannas and open fields. Despite the fact that they historical homeland is Africa, they quickly spread throughout the world. The weight of an adult varies between 400-750 kilograms. And the total length of the horns of a wild bull, penetrated by numerous blood vessels, is about 2.4 meters.

These animals are unpretentious when it comes to food. The special structure of the digestive system allows Watussi to consume even very rough food that has low nutritional value. The stomach of these creatures is capable of absorbing useful substances from everything eaten. This wild bull leads a herd lifestyle and is distinguished by a developed instinct to protect the young. When settling down for the night, the Watussi lie down in a circle, into the center of which all the calves are herded.

Yak

This unique animal is capable of climbing to dizzying heights. It never descends below two and a half kilometers above sea level. The higher the yak climbs, the better it feels. It is often called the long-haired wild bull. It lives in Turkmenistan, Mongolia and Tibet.

Externally, the yak is very similar to several animals at once. It resembles a ram, goat, horse and bison at the same time. Due to its fluffy tail and beautiful rounded shape, it is often compared to a horse. His muscular body strongly resembles the body of a bison, and his massive head with huge horns gives him a resemblance to a bull.

Yak hunting is a very dangerous activity. In addition to the fact that a person will have to possess the skills of a climber, he must also try to kill a powerful animal with a single shot. A wounded wild bull in anger is capable of destroying an unlucky hunter.

Despite the formidable nature of the yak, they managed to tame it. Mongolia and Tibet already have large herds of these animals. They are often used to transport heavy loads. One yak is capable of carrying a two hundred kilogram load.

Bison

This artiodactyl animal is on the verge of extinction, so it is listed in the Red Books of the countries in which it lives. The height of an adult wild forest bull is about 192 centimeters and weighs 450-640 kilograms. The weight of individual individuals can reach 820 kg.

The entire life of bison is directly related to the forest and relatively mild climate. He has a well-developed sense of smell and hearing. They are able to detect the scent of a person from a distance of five hundred steps.

Bison lead a gregarious lifestyle, gathering in groups of up to twenty individuals. Their basis is plant food. They successfully winter in areas where the snow cover is up to fifty centimeters high. Bison have no natural enemies except humans. And their life expectancy in the wild is about twenty-seven years.

Wild bull tour

IN historical times these animals could be found almost throughout Europe. They also lived in Asia Minor, North Africa and the Caucasus. Their disappearance is associated with intensive deforestation that began in the 9th-11th centuries. In addition, it was during this period that they were actively hunted. When the animals were on the verge of extinction, they were taken under the protection of the law. They lived in the royal parks. But, unfortunately, this did not save them from extinction. The last aurochs on the planet was destroyed in 1627.

The height of the extinct animal reached 180-200 centimeters at the withers with a mass of about 600-800 kilograms. However, in nature there were individuals that weighed a whole ton. Externally, the tur gave the impression of a fairly light animal. It had a not too massive front part of the body, huge horns and high dry limbs. The body of the extinct bull was covered with short, smooth, dark hair.

Turs ate mainly shoots, grass, leaves of bushes and trees. They lived alone or in small groups, and for the winter they united in numerous herds. These aggressive and powerful bulls easily dealt with any predators, so they had practically no natural enemies.

I have long wanted to share this information with you, but I want to warn you that this is copy-paste (a compilation of copy-paste) and, moreover, as far as I know, now there is some kind of conflict between the Theremin Center and the family of Lev Theremin, I don’t know who is right and who is wrong , history will judge, but in any case, the fate of this man is amazing.
In general, Lev Theremin was a real scientist, a patriot and an enthusiastic person; his life was worse than spy novels.

Termen Lev Sergeevich

To the question “Who is Lev Theremin?” nine out of ten people, if they have ever heard such a name, will answer - “inventor of the theremin.” Theremin is so poorly known in his homeland that when a few years ago one of the journalists mistakenly called him “Lev Davidovich” (obviously in consonance with Trotsky), this mistake began to migrate from publication to publication, including even quite reputable media. But Lev Sergeevich’s biographer B. Galeev gives him the following description: “If there had been a competition for a true representative of the 20th century, Lev Theremin could probably claim this title.”

The main range of interests of the inventor Lev Sergeevich Termen can be briefly described as follows: “he was involved in multimedia.” This vague term, introduced into use by computer scientists about twenty years ago, and now, by the way, almost out of use, can be interpreted as follows: a technical device that combines various functions of influencing the human senses.

But, perhaps, the most interesting thing about Lev Sergeevich is not even his inventions as such, but his truly fantastic fate, unique even for the 20th century. Lev Theremin, 1930s Lev Sergeevich Termen was born on August 28, 1896 in St. Petersburg, in the noble Orthodox family with French and German roots. At the gymnasium, he became interested in physics and astronomy - according to his own memoirs, he even managed to discover a new asteroid. In 1914, he entered Petrograd University - at two faculties, physics and astronomical, and at the same time studied cello at the conservatory. Then the war began, and he graduated from the military engineering school and the officer electrical engineering school. In total, by the time of his demobilization from the Red Electrotechnical Battalion in 1920, he had three diplomas - the physics and astronomical faculties remained unfinished. Since 1920, Theremin has been working at the famous Phystech (then still a laboratory) of “father” Ioffe. A.F. Ioffe appreciated him and tried not to limit the flight of imagination of a promising employee. In 1921, Theremin created his epoch-making invention, which would later glorify him throughout the world: he designed an electronic musical instrument"theremin" (meaning "voice of Theremin")

It is interesting that initially he was not involved in music at all. He was debugging a contactless radio alarm system - by changing the frequency of the oscillating circuit, when an intruder approached him, a sound signal was triggered at the security console1. Today, car enthusiasts are well aware of the ultrasonic “volume sensors” based on a similar principle, which are included in the set of “cool” car alarms. Radio engineer Termen drew attention to the fact that the position of the intruder’s body affects the tone of the signal in the speakers. A graduate of the conservatory, Theremin realized that in this way it was possible to make a real musical instrument, the likes of which had never existed in the world until now. The theremin had two antennas - when your hand approached the first, the frequency of the signal changed, and with the help of the second, you could control its volume with your other hand. Ioffe’s employees described Theremin’s manipulations very expressively: “Theremin plays Gluck on a voltmeter!”

In the fall of 1921, Theremin demonstrated his miracle device at the VIII All-Russian Electrotechnical Congress, where the famous GOELRO plan was adopted, which at one time amazed the science fiction writer H. Wells (remember his book “Russia in the Dark”). The performance of music by Massenet, Saint-Saëns, and Minkus on the theremin interested not only engineers. After an enthusiastic review in the Pravda newspaper, it was necessary to hold special radio music concerts for a wide audience. And in March 1922, Theremin was invited to the Kremlin to show his achievements to V.I. Lenin.3 However, the main goal was to demonstrate the device in a contactless “radio watchman” mode. But most of all Lenin liked how this universal “radio watchman” sang Chopin’s “Nocturne” and Glinka’s “Lark”. He even tried to play the theremin himself. His conclusions inspired the inventor: “Well, I said that electricity can work wonders. I’m glad that we have such a tool.” A few days later, Lenin wrote to his then comrade-in-arms, L. Trotsky:

“Discuss whether it is possible to reduce the guard duty of Kremlin cadets by introducing an electric alarm system in the Kremlin? (one engineer, Theremin, showed us his experiments in the Kremlin...).”4 “Radio watchdog” was actually used later - in the State Treasure Repository, the Hermitage, and the State Bank. However, only specialists knew about this. But for the theremin, after Lenin’s blessing, the time came for a triumphal march across the country. Composers Glazunov, Shostakovich, Gnessin are present at radio music concerts. The inventor expands the scope of experiments - combines a theremin with dynamic color, tries to achieve a synthesis of radio music with changing tactile influences (through specially equipped armrests of chairs). And concerts - in many cities of the country, dozens, hundreds of performances, for the benefit of promoting electrification, which turned out to be subject to art! It is difficult to refuse the pleasure of quoting some press reviews that carry the flavor of that time: “Theremin’s invention is a musical tractor, replacing the plow”; “Theremin’s invention did what the automobile did in transportation. Theremin’s invention has a very rich future”; “Solving the problem of the ideal instrument. Sounds are freed from "impurities" of the material. The beginning of the century of radio music."

Theremin perfected the theremin throughout his life. The most interesting for us are his attempts to control this system through his gaze (more precisely, using a photocell that monitors the pupil), and in another version, using biocurrents. Such control systems, as we know, are beginning to be implemented only now - at a completely different technological level. But in fact, the theremin has retained to this day almost all the features of the original invention, only amplification tubes, naturally, have been replaced by transistors and microcircuits. At the end of the 20s, Termen toured with his instrument - first in Russia, and then in Europe and America. This event was a resounding success with the public. The leader of the world proletariat was not alone in his delight - during the inventor’s performances at the Paris Grand Opera, people burned bonfires in the street at night to get to the concert. Theremin performed in the best concert halls Europe and America. One can imagine what an impression the “ideal instrument” made on his contemporaries. Although we are now accustomed to all sorts of electronic gadgets, the process of playing still has a stunning effect on the public. And in those days, when even an ordinary radio receiver was still a curiosity, Theremin’s stage manipulations gave the impression of a miracle: of course, a man can extract real music right out of thin air! In the trade union American musicians by the mid-30s, 700 representatives were already registered new profession“thereminer” (“theremin” in English is written as “theremin” - because of French origin inventor).

This begs the question: why did the theremin never find such a wide niche in musical practice, as happened later, for example, with musical synthesizers? The reason is simple: the theremin is very difficult to learn to play. There are only a few outstanding performers of all time. In addition to Theremin himself, the American Clara Rockmore, Lev Sergeevich’s friend when he was in America, became a real virtuoso of playing his instrument. Theremin's great-niece Lydia Kavina (b. 1967), whom he himself taught to play from the age of nine, is now the most famous performer in the world. This is how she characterizes playing the theremin: “Violinists have a “mechanical memory,” but the theremin is played solely by ear. Tactile memorization is impossible here; you need good hearing and clear coordination of movements.”

Yet the theremin was far from forgotten after its initial triumph. “The Voice of Theremin” can be heard in the soundtrack to the Disney film “Alice in Wonderland” and in the musical of the same name, on disc Led Zeppelin"Lotta's Love", by the Beach Boys. Hitchcock used it. Nowadays, concerts of “thereminvocal” music in Russia are held by the “Theremin Center for Electroacoustic Music and Multimedia” at the Moscow Conservatory, and there are also classes for teaching those interested. Robert Moog2, known as the creator of the electronic synthesizer, began his career with a passion for designing theremins in the 50s. Moog Music now produces theremins with a MIDI interface, allowing you to connect the instrument to computers and synthesizers.

But let's go back in time. In the mid-20s, Theremin entered the St. Petersburg Polytechnic University to complete his physics education. With the consent of A.F. Ioffe chose the transmission of images over a distance as the topic of his thesis. And he coped with it more than successfully! A few years before Zvorykin’s first experiments 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 Theremin’s primacy in this matter was proven only in our time.

Theremin, apparently, was not very upset. In 1927, with the permission of the Soviet authorities, he went on the aforementioned foreign tour and, as a result, settled in America. There he made a career unprecedented for a Soviet citizen: he became a millionaire and was included in the “Who is who” directory. And he did it according to all the canons of the classical “ American dream": he began by patenting the theremin and selling the RCA (Radio Corporation of America) company a license for the right to produce theremin."

At the same time, he toured the States with concerts, taught those who wanted to play his instrument, and along the way also engaged in invention in various areas- say, visitors to New York's Central Park could observe the metal “Coffin of Mohammed” floating in the air (the result of magnetic fields). Using money from the business, Lev Sergeevich rents a six-story building for a music and dance studio for 99 years (!) and organizes the Teletouch company. How popular Theremin was in those years can be evidenced by his social circle: among his acquaintances were Rockefeller and Dupont, Charlie Chaplin, General D. Eisenhower, L. Groves (future head of the American atomic project), S. Eisenstein, J. Gershwin, B. .Show. He was friends with A. Einstein - together they played jazz pieces by Gershwin.

All this time, Termen regularly supplied information to the intelligence department of the Red Army - moving in such circles, it was not difficult for him to obtain it. Its leader, Jan Berzin (Peters), later shot by Stalin, gave Theremin a farewell message before leaving. The version put forward in 1998 by a certain L. Weiner from the Baltimore Vestnik, that Theremin and his company were just a cover for Soviet spies, is hard to believe. Not to use such opportunities for Stalin’s intelligence would be complete idiocy, but this particular department, unlike its party leadership, was not particularly distinguished by idiocy.

One way or another, in 1938 Theremin was taken to the USSR. Termen himself, at the end of his life, claimed that he returned voluntarily. It’s also hard to believe - he was taken out illegally and taken to the USSR on the ship “Old Bolshevik”. If Theremin had voluntarily gone home, he most likely would have returned openly; there were no obstacles to this. From then until the end of the sixties, he was listed as dead in America. Shortly before leaving, Theremin got married - his wife was the charming mulatto ballerina Lavinia Williams. In those years, such marriages in the United States were treated, to put it mildly, ambiguously, and from now on the doors of many houses of the New York elite were closed to him and the opportunities for collecting information were sharply reduced. Probably, this fact served as the reason for his superiors from the intelligence department to return the “resident” to his homeland. Theremin was promised that Lavinia would come after him. Fortunately for her, no one was going to keep this promise, and Lavinia only found out in old age what really happened.

But in fact, almost immediately upon arrival, in March 1939, he was arrested. All the political accusations of that time were absurd, but this surpassed all conceivable limits: Theremin was accused of complicity in the murder of Kirov. Prove that he was on the other side at the time globe, it was pointless - on August 15, at a special meeting of the NKVD of the USSR, he was sentenced to eight years under the notorious Article 58-4 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR.

Maybe, ex-friend Einstein and Chaplin and would have perished in Kolyma, as if thereby confirming the premature inclusion of him among the dead by his American acquaintances. But chance and an ineradicable desire for invention saved him. In the camp, he invented a device for transporting wheelbarrows - a wooden monorail. The authorities reported to the top, they remembered his past, and since 1940 he has been working in the sharashka, together with A.N. Tupolev and S.P. Korolev. Truly, it’s hard to remember at least one famous figure in Russia and America of the 20th century, be it politics, art or science, with whom the fate of Lev Theremin would not have crossed one way or another. In the sharashka, he first worked on radio beacons for ships and aircraft, but at the end of the war he received the task of developing a device for externally listening to conversations taking place indoors.

It was truly a brilliant development. It was like this: in February 1945, the heads of the three allied powers gathered at the famous Yalta Conference, during which plans were developed that, as it turned out later, determined the world order for almost another 50 years. The children, who were vacationing near Yalta at the Artek pioneer camp, presented US Ambassador Harriman with a touching gift - the American coat of arms. The bald eagle on the coat of arms was made of precious wood. American experts, having listened and tapped the gift for the presence of “bugs”, gave an opinion on its safety. Harriman placed the coat of arms he liked above the table in his Moscow office, where the eagle hung for almost ten years, outliving four ambassadors. In Beria’s department, the eagle was given the meaningful code name “Zlatoust”. The Americans revealed its true purpose indirectly - the discovered information leak could only come from the ambassador's office. Having finally found the “bookmark”, the Americans remained silent about the discovery until the early sixties - not only for reasons of a conspiratorial nature, but also out of elementary shame - even the very principle of operation was not immediately guessed by overseas experts. The “bug” was a hollow metal cylinder with a membrane and a pin protruding from it. No electronics! The secret was that when exposed to 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 membrane vibrating under the influence of sound vibrations modulated the frequency of the emitted wave. Detecting the received signal was a matter of technology.

For this development, Termen not only received in 1947, at the personal recommendation of Beria, the Stalin Prize of the 1st degree (they say that Stalin personally corrected the degree from the second to the first), but also - an unprecedented case! - was even released. However, he had absolutely nothing to do in the wild - in fact, he had been isolated from local society for twenty years. The Stalin Prize was closed, the stigma of “enemy of the people” hung. Therefore, Theremin asked to return to the sharashka - as a civilian. In those years, he developed another remote listening system, the principle of which is now considered classic: sound vibrations are detected by changes in the frequency of scattered radiation reflected from window glass. According to some evidence, with the help of this device Beria listened to Stalin himself. Later, with the invention of the laser, such “eavesdropping” became very common.

In 1958, Lev Sergeevich was finally rehabilitated and even received an apartment at the Kaluga outpost in Moscow. But the formal restoration of his rights did not help him much - he could not get a job until 1964. Everyone who knew him in the twenties had already died or moved away, there were no official degrees or titles, the time for promoting electronic music was, to put it mildly, inappropriate - the fight against jazz and “hipsters” was in full swing.

Finally, he managed to get a job in the acoustics and sound recording laboratory of the Moscow Conservatory and actively took up his favorite hobby - improving electronic musical instruments. Many people visited him famous figures- for example, A. Schnittke. But this period of Lev Sergeevich’s life ended rather sadly. Rumors that the once famous Theremin was alive were bound to spread sooner or later, and in one of the issues of the New York Times in 1967, a note appeared announcing that the inventor of electronic music, who mysteriously disappeared in 1938, had not died , but lives and works in Moscow. The reaction to this was not long in coming. The high “opinion” about the overly talkative employee was conveyed to the leadership and party organization of the Moscow Conservatory. The man whom Lenin himself had once greeted was fired, his tools were thrown away and broken.

Finally, by personal order of Academician Rem Viktorovich Khokhlov, the former world celebrity hired as a 6th category mechanic in the workshops of the physics department of Moscow State University. He worked there until his death in 1993, less than three years shy of his centenary. KI here, one of the “friends” advised Termen to try to get a separate room, under the pretext of improving living conditions, and since it was already clear that no one would ever give Lev Termen a separate laboratory, Termen was inspired by this idea. As a result, he managed to get a tiny room in a communal apartment in a university building near Moscow State University. Lev Sergeevich lived there for a relatively short time, since his two pretty roommates quickly persuaded him to exchange an apartment, and as a result of the exchange, Lev Sergeevich was given a larger room in a house located not far from Moscow State University, so that it would be convenient for him to go to work. This house was precisely the departmental house of the Izvestia publishing house.

Of course, it was a communal apartment consisting of three rooms, in which, in addition to Lev Sergeevich, three elderly people lived. It is unknown whether the sounds of the theremin bothered them or not, but we think that no, since Lev Sergeevich did not abuse music. Serenely laying out all the necessary ingredients, he made theremins to order, received journalists, and sometimes stayed overnight. And he really liked it. But a little later, changes occurred that Lev Sergeevich did not like too much. Since the elderly woman who occupied one of the rooms in the apartment died, the Izvestia publishing house, guided by considerations unknown to us, gave this room to the employees of the public utilities department.

So, I moved into the vacant room married couple with two children, and youngest child was a baby, and my husband subsequently began to abuse alcohol. This situation upset Lev Sergeevich and created a sufficient amount of inconvenience, which, it should be noted, he dealt with very courageously and categorically refused to complain to anyone, although even the general telephone and questions from neighbors to people who called directly to Lev Sergeevich, and not to neighbors, were unpleasant . However, it was still his laboratory, and he invited people there.

Lev Theremin was sympathetic to his young neighbor, but of course, it was still possible to use the room, but it was already extremely inconvenient. Lev Termen was even offered an apartment in Solntsevo, but Lev Termen was categorically against it; he was interested in living space located near his place of work - Moscow State University and not far from the apartment where he lived with his daughter Natalya.

They began to poison the “old man” much later.
In 1989, Lev Termen and Natalya Termen went to the electromusical festival “Synthesis-89”, held annually in the French city of Bourges, where, in parallel with the authentic Theremin theremin, a new experimental model of theremin was demonstrated.

Lev Termen gave many interviews, the mayor of the city of Bourget presented him with a medal of an honorary citizen of the city, everything was very wonderful, the only thing that was very sad was that invitations for Lev and Natalya Termen were sent to the Union of Composers of the USSR and Lev and Natalya Termen formalized their trip through the Union Composers. Which later played a very sad role in their fate - every year the French sent invitations to Lev and Natalia Termen, but for the first two years they arranged the trip, but in last moment there were reasons why Lev and Natalya Termen could not come to the festival, which served as a very unpleasant signal.

In 1990, Lev and Natalya Termen, at the invitation of the Swedish Radio and Television Committee and the Electroacoustic Association of Sweden, performed in Stockholm.

In 1991, two weeks after submitting an application to the Union of Composers with a request to formalize the trip of Lev and Natalia Termen to the festival in Bourges and to Stanford University (USA), threats began to be received against Lev Theremin and his family, with threats of execution, which were due to publication in the newspaper Sovershenno Sekretno, which used the title “He eavesdropped on the Kremlin” for the headline and included a photograph of Lev Theremin taken in Sweden.

The trip to Bourges was disrupted - someone from the Ministry of Culture left with Lev and Natalia Termen's tickets. The trip to America took place.

After arriving in Moscow, Lev Theremin for a long time did not visit the room in the communal apartment, but since many important things for him were stored there, in the end, he was forced to go there and found that his room was completely destroyed and much was missing.

Since Lev Theremin did not appear there for a long time, one could only guess when this happened. Perhaps immediately after arriving from America, perhaps during the threats, but it is absolutely certain that it was not the neighbors who did this. This was done by people who knew who was being bullied. They poisoned the great one.

If Lev Theremin had been an “ordinary old man,” then nothing would have happened. In our country it is customary to blame everything Soviet power. This is our old Russian tradition. But the tragedy occurred during perestroika and it makes you think. There is also a tradition that as soon as Theremin begins to communicate with foreigners, people in Russia begin to break his instruments. It was from the late 1980s that strange, deceitful articles about Lev Theremin began to be published, and in total it resembled a planned event.

But the main thing that occupied Theremin’s mind in the last 10 years of his life was not the theremin. He was seriously fascinated by the problem of immortality. Moreover, he was on the verge of solving this problem.

Theremin began to think seriously about immortality back in 1924, when Lenin died. Lev Sergeevich then repeatedly turned to the Soviet leadership with a request to freeze the deceased Ilyich. To bring him back to life after some time. And in the 80s, Theremin, explaining in an interview with Bulat Galeev his idea of “microscopy of time,” which was supposed to lead him to solve the problem of immortality, said this: “Red blood cells are such “creatures” (they are visible only under a microscope) , which come in different breeds, and they change due to the age of the person. Several dates and periods of their shifts have been discovered. And at these moments, new “creatures” fight with the old ones, hence aging arises. You need to be able to select these “creatures” from donor blood in a timely manner. And you need a lot of it! Therefore, how to catch them, at what age - and you can’t tell anyone!..”

His ideas about immortality were, of course, completely visionary. And the less chance they had of being understood. Another quote: “We have already conducted experiments at the Medical Academy, with Lebedinsky. On animals. Some things have already worked out. But to study the behavior of blood cells, to learn how to select and multiply them, we needed an ultra-high-speed movie camera with 10,000 frames per second. And a very highly sensitive film is also needed, because these “creatures” cannot be illuminated strongly, they die from heat... After all, when we look through a microscope, we see everything with magnification many times over. But the speed of movement of these “creatures” in the blood remains the same. We need to slow it down by the same amount, and then we will perceive them in their natural form, as if we ourselves had penetrated their world. To do this, you will need to watch the film shot with an ultra-high-speed camera on a regular projector. I have already tried something and even figured out how to hear their voices, which we do not notice with the ordinary ear. I not only checked the blood cells, but also the sperm. All these “creatures,” you know, dance and sing under a microscope. And there is a certain pattern in their movement trajectories. This is very significant..."

These and other similar words by Theremin caused bewilderment and skepticism even among his friends from the world of science. Not to mention the people who distributed the funds... But Theremin never in his life suffered a single defeat in the implementation of his ideas, if it did come to this implementation.

Theremin was neither a convinced communist, nor even more so an anti-Soviet; rather, he can simply be called a patriot. Politics, which did not let him out of its arms even for a moment throughout his entire life long life, starting from that moment in the eighteenth year when he, a serving member of the Red Army, had to flee from the advancing White Guards, as such he was of little interest. At every opportunity he took up favorite hobby- invent. His behavior towards the authorities could be described as “one hundred percent conformism”, if not for one incident. Unexpectedly for everyone, in March 1991, at the age of 95, he became a member of the CPSU. When asked why he was joining the collapsing CPSU, Lev Sergeevich answered: “I promised Lenin.”

Lev Sergeevich Termen ( -) - Soviet inventor, creator of a family of musical instruments, the most famous of which is the theremin (1920).

Biography

Carier start

From his second year at the university, in 1916, he was drafted into the army and sent for accelerated training to the Nikolaev Engineering School, and then to officer electrical courses. The revolution found him a junior officer in a reserve electrical battalion serving the most powerful Tsarskoye Selo radio station in the empire near Petrograd.

Being a very versatile person, Theremin invented many different automatic systems (automatic doors, automatic lighting, etc.) and security alarm systems. In parallel, since 1923, he collaborated with State Institute music science in Moscow. In 1925-1926 he invented one of the first television systems - “Darnovision”.

In 1927, Theremin received an invitation to the international music exhibition in Frankfurt am Main. Theremin's report and demonstration of his inventions were a huge success and brought him worldwide fame.

The success of his concert at a music exhibition is such that Theremin is bombarded with invitations. Dresden, Nuremberg, Hamburg, Berlin saw him off with applause and flowers. There are enthusiastic reviews from listeners of “music of the air”, “music of ethereal waves”, “music of the spheres”. The musicians note that the idea of a virtuoso is not constrained by inert material, “a virtuoso touches spaces.” The incomprehensibility of where the sound is coming from is shocking. Some people call the theremin a “heavenly” instrument, others a “spherophone”. The timbre is striking, simultaneously reminiscent of both strings and wind instruments, and even some special human voice, as if “grown from distant times and spaces.”

American period

In 1928, Termen, remaining a Soviet citizen, moved to the United States. Upon his arrival in the United States, he patented the theremin and his security alarm system. He also sold the license for the right to serially produce a simplified version of the theremin to RCA (Radio Corporation of America).

Lev Termen 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.

From 1931 to 1938, Theremin was 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. George Gershwin, Maurice Ravel, Jascha Heifetz, Yehudi Menuhin, Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein visited his studio. His circle of acquaintances included financial tycoon John Rockefeller, future US President Dwight Eisenhower.

Lev Sergeevich divorced his wife Ekaterina Konstantinova and married Lavinia Williams, a dancer of the first American black ballet.

Repression, work for state security agencies

In 1938, Theremin was recalled to Moscow. He secretly left the United States, having issued a power of attorney to the owner of Teletouch, Bob Zinman, to dispose of his property and manage patent and financial affairs. Theremin wanted to take his wife Lavinia with him to the USSR, but he was told that she would arrive later. When they came for him, Lavinia happened to be at home, and she got the impression that her husband was taken away by force.

In Leningrad, Theremin tried unsuccessfully to get a job, then he 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 the murder of Kirov. He was forced to incriminate himself that a group of astronomers from the Pulkovo Observatory was preparing to place a landmine in the Foucault pendulum, and Theremin was supposed to send a radio signal from the USA and detonate the landmine as soon as Kirov approached the pendulum. A special meeting of the NKVD of the USSR sentenced Theremin to eight years in the camps, and he was sent to a camp in Kolyma.

At first, Theremin served time in Magadan, working as a foreman of a construction team. Theremin’s numerous rationalization proposals 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 of Theremin and Korolev was the development of unmanned aircraft radio-controlled prototypes of modern cruise missiles.

One of Theremin’s developments is the Buran listening system, which uses a reflected infrared beam to read glass vibrations in the windows of the room being listened to. It was this invention of Theremin that was awarded the Stalin Prize of the 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. [ ]

Not without difficulty, Theremin got a job in a laboratory at the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University. In the main building of Moscow State University, he held seminars for those who wanted to listen to his work and study the theremin; Only a few people attended the seminars. Formally, Theremin was listed as a mechanic at the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University, but in fact continued to work independently Scientific research. The active scientific work of L. S. Termen continued almost until his death.

In 1989, a trip took place (together with her daughter Natalya) to a festival in the city of Bourges (France).

In 1991, together with his daughter Natalya and granddaughter Olga, he visited the United States at the invitation of Stanford University and there, among other things, he met Clara Rockmore.

In March 1991, at the age of 95, he joined the CPSU. When asked why he was joining a collapsing party, Termen replied: “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, and 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 of supporting musicians and sound artists working in the field of experimental electroacoustic music. Lev Theremin had nothing to do with the creation of the center named after him.

In 1989, a meeting took place in Moscow between two founders of electronic music - Lev Sergeevich Termen and the English musician Brian Eno. The latter then included in his album “Music For Films 3” a composition for theremin, recorded by Russian musicians Mikhail Malin and Lydia Kavina.

In 2006, the Perm theater "U Mosta" staged the play "Theremin" based on the play by Czech playwright Petr Zelenka. The performance touches on the most interesting and dramatic period of Theremin’s life - his work in the USA.

Family

Ekaterina Konstantinova - wife in her first marriage (there were no children); Lavinia Williams - wife in second marriage (no children); Maria Gushchina - wife in her third marriage; Elena Termen - daughter; Natalya Termen - daughter; Olga Termen - granddaughter; Maria Theremin - granddaughter; Pyotr Theremin is a great-grandson.

The operating principles underlying the theremin were also used by Theremin when creating a security system that reacts to a person approaching a protected object. The Kremlin and the Hermitage, and later foreign museums, were equipped with such a system.
In 1991, at the age of 95, a few months before the collapse of the USSR, Lev Theremin joined the CPSU. He explained his decision by saying that he had once made a promise to Lenin to join the party, and that he wanted to hurry to fulfill his promise while it still existed. To join the CPSU, Lev Sergeevich, at the age of 90, came to the party committee of Moscow State University, where he was told that to join the party he needed to study at the department of Marxism-Leninism for a year, which he did, passing all the exams.
Until his death, Lev Theremin was full of energy and even joked that he was immortal. As proof, he offered to read his last name backwards: “Theremin - does not die.”

Notes

BNF ID: Open Data Platform - 2011.
SNAC - 2010.
Termen Lev Sergeevich // Simon - Heiler. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia: Soviet composer, 1981. - (Encyclopedias. Dictionaries. Reference books: Musical Encyclopedia: [in 6 volumes] / chief ed. Yu. V. Keldysh; 1973-1982, vol. 5).
Termen Lev Sergeevich// Musical encyclopedic dictionary / ch. ed. G. V. Keldysh. - M.: Sov. encyclopedia, 1990. - 672 p. - 150,000 copies- ISBN 5-85270-033-9.
Date of birth of Lev Theremin - August 15th Julian calendar was recalculated in accordance with the Decree on the introduction of the Western European calendar in the Russian Republic, but it was not taken into account that in the 19th century the difference between the calendars was 12 days, not 13. However, it was August 28 that became the official birthday of Lev Theremin. [ ]
Zhirnov E. Red Terminator (undefined) . Kommersant. Power. (02/26/2002).
Drozd-Koroleva O., Korolev A. Theremin doesn't die (undefined) . mobimag.ru (02/01/2007).

Scientist, designer and inventor.

The text was posted in the community at the request of Lev Theremin’s relatives.

We decided that the most harmless example of the “syndrome” that arises when coming into contact with the name of Lev Theremin and his biography is a journalist who wrote that he met Lev Theremin, and that Lev Sergeevich Theremin was born in Nizhny Novgorod. Unfortunately, there are many less harmless mistakes made by people who write about Lev Theremin, often claiming to be eyewitnesses and close friends of Theremin. I was very upset by the publication of Starokhamskaya ( levkonoe ) about Lev Theremin (“What the theremin does not sing about”). Perhaps Mrs. Starokhamskaya unintentionally distorted the facts of Lev Sergeevich’s life. There are inaccuracies in the article, but the most unpleasant impression was made by the beginning of the article. We consider it necessary to bring some clarity to the history of the last years of Lev Theremin’s life.

“I read a story about a 97-year-old man who lived in Moscow in a terrible bedbug-infested communal apartment opposite the Cheryomushkinsky market. When the neighbors (who, apparently, simply did not know that the Soviet Union provided all the working people with excellent housing “as best I can”) needed his pitiful closet, they, in the old man’s absence, 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 vacant. 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 seen the old man and so on... just think - how long did they wait for him square meters will be freed, they themselves have already grown old. And the old man may have come from somewhere else. Otherwise, I’ll answer you that this old man was a grandfather for a reason, how many thousands he lives in communal apartments. And it was Lev Theremin.

THE SAME LION TERMAN!

Lev Theremin died in 1993 in poverty and obscurity, hounded by his neighbors in a communal apartment.”

It is very unpleasant to read unverified information about Lev Theremin, which has spread throughout the blogosphere and beyond. Therefore, we consider it necessary to discuss the mistakes of Mrs. Starokhamskaya and give the necessary explanations.

A lot has been written about Lev Theremin, but this is the first time this has happened. The first sentence of this article is striking: “I read a story about a 97-year-old man who lived in Moscow in a terrible bedbug-infested communal apartment opposite the Cheryomushkinsky market.”

I immediately remember the famous poem by Daniil Kharms, who, by the way, according to some sources, was not too lazy to purchase a theremin in the 20s. Which is certainly very nice.

So first Daniil Kharms, we dedicate this poem to the author of the article:

There lived an old man
Small in stature,
And the old man laughed
Extremely simple:
"Ha ha ha
Yes hehehe
Hee hee hee
Yes, bang-bang!
By-by-by
Yes be-be-be,
Ding-ding-ding
Yes, trick, trick! "

Once, seeing a spider,
I was terribly scared.
But, clutching my sides,
Laughed loudly:
"Hee hee hee
Yes ha ha ha
Ho-ho-ho
Yes gul-gul!
Gi-gi-gi
Yes ha-ha-ha,
Go Go go
Yes, blah blah!"

And seeing a dragonfly,
I got terribly angry
But from laughter to the grass
And so he fell:
"Gee-gee-gee
Yes gu-gu-gu,
Go Go go
Yes bang bang!
Oh, guys, I can’t!
Oh guys
Ahah!"

Please note that we firmly believe that all older people should not be offended, regardless of whether they are famous or not. The story that happened to Lev Theremin in the context of his room in a communal apartment is much sadder and not as trivial as the author of the article tried to show.

When Lev Sergeevich Theremin, as a very young man, invented the theremin, he first called it “Aerophone”, but with light hand a lively correspondent for the Izvestia newspaper, the instrument was named “Theremin”, which actually remains to this day. A very touching coincidence was the appearance of Theremin and a theremin in one of the rooms in the communal apartment of the departmental house of the Izvestia publishing house. Perhaps not everyone understands Theremin’s desire to be in this room, since it was not the housing issue that bothered him at all. He intended to use the room as his laboratory. What came of it, we will find out later.

But now I would really like to draw the attention of our readers to the fact that throughout his entire life Lev Theremin had his own laboratory. As a child, little Lev’s parents specially organized a laboratory in his parents’ house, and there was a small observatory at the dacha. Later - at the Ioffe Institute - at first Termen was allocated a laboratory room at the Ioffe Institute, but then, Lev Termen recalls: “Ioffe offered me to occupy a much larger room - the entire large drafting room, a special hall of the Electrical Engineering Faculty of the Polytechnic Institute (on the third floor) with 20 work tables and 14 large windows. It already had two X-ray booths, the walls of which were shielded with sheet lead, as well as two brick stoves for heating with chimneys vented through the windows.”

Of course, Termen had a laboratory during his stay in the USA, where, according to the recollections of contemporaries: “All floors in the house were littered with wires. Lots of wires, tubes, screens - and there was nothing that you could call home.”

A contemporary correspondent for Fortune wrote in 1935: Teletouch has an office, factory and laboratory in a brownstone and is a crazy place. You walk through the door and immediately there are screams of an alarm going off. You touch the cabinet and another alarm immediately goes off. Go to the mirror to straighten your tie - but they start showing advertisements.”

In 1938, Lev Theremin was arrested, sentenced to 8 years and exiled to Kolyma, where he most likely did not have a laboratory, but he, nevertheless, first improved the design of a cart for transporting stones, and then assembled a theremin and performed in amateur performances . Soon Theremin was transferred to another location and provided with a laboratory and employees.

During the years of working in the laboratory of musical acoustics at the Moscow Conservatory, Lev Theremin also had a laboratory, although it was not a separate room, but a place where he could work and receive advice from qualified specialists in the areas of interest to him. An important fact was also the availability of the necessary technical equipment.

In 1967, a New York Times correspondent visited Lev Theremin in the sound recording laboratory at the Moscow Conservatory. He writes the following about Theremin: “The other day he received visitors in his laboratory - “I developed electronic tuner organ", he can tune an organ of any size. “Here,” he said, turning to another collection of tubes and resistors, is a machine to photograph sounds. It has 70 channels. And here is my rhythmicon."

During these years, Lev Theremin and a number of employees of the laboratory of musical acoustics repeatedly addressed the Ministry of Culture with a letter, asking for permission to organize an experimental section of electromusical instruments, but to no avail, except for the fact that Theremin was expelled from the laboratory of the Department of Acoustics of the Moscow Conservatory.

The “opinion” about the excessive talkativeness of the laboratory employee was conveyed to the leadership and party organization of the Moscow Conservatory. Theremin was fired, his tools were thrown away, some of them were “accidentally” broken with an ax,” wrote Vasily Borisov in the magazine “Around the World.”

Subsequently, Lev Theremin, with the help of his acquaintances and largely thanks to Rem Khokhlov, managed to get a job at Moscow University, at the Faculty of Physics, as a mechanic. The title of the position did not bother Theremin at all, since the physics department also had excellent equipment, but despite Theremin not asking, it was not possible to obtain a separate room for a personal laboratory.

And then, one of the “friends” advised Termen to try to get a separate room, under the pretext of improving living conditions, and since it was already clear that no one would ever give Lev Termen a separate laboratory, Termen was inspired by this idea. As a result, he managed to get a tiny room in a communal apartment in a university building near Moscow State University. Lev Sergeevich lived there for a relatively short time, since his two pretty roommates quickly persuaded him to exchange an apartment, and as a result of the exchange, Lev Sergeevich was given a larger room in a house located not far from Moscow State University, so that it would be convenient for him to go to work. This house was precisely the departmental house of the Izvestia publishing house.

So, a married couple with two children moved into the vacated room, the youngest child was an infant, and the husband subsequently began to abuse alcohol. This situation upset Lev Sergeevich and created a sufficient amount of inconvenience, which, it should be noted, he dealt with very courageously and categorically refused to complain to anyone, although even the general telephone and questions from neighbors to people who called directly to Lev Sergeevich, and not to neighbors, were unpleasant . However, it was still his laboratory, and he invited people there.

They began to poison the “old man” much later.

In 1989, Lev Termen and Natalya Termen went to the electromusical festival “Synthesis-89”, held annually in the French city of Bourges, where, in parallel with the authentic Theremin theremin, a new experimental model of theremin was demonstrated.

Lev Termen gave many interviews, the mayor of the city of Bourget presented him with a medal of an honorary citizen of the city, everything was very wonderful, the only thing that was very sad was that invitations for Lev and Natalya Termen were sent to the Union of Composers of the USSR and Lev and Natalya Termen formalized their trip through the Union Composers. Which later played a very sad role in their fate - every year the French sent invitations to Lev and Natalya Termen, but for the first two years they arranged the trip, but at the last moment there were reasons why Lev and Natalya Termen could not come to the festival, which served a very unpleasant signal.

In 1990, Lev and Natalya Termen, at the invitation of the Swedish Radio and Television Committee and the Electroacoustic Association of Sweden, performed in Stockholm.

The trip to Bourges was disrupted - someone from the Ministry of Culture left on the tickets of Lev and Natalia Termen. The trip to America took place.

After arriving in Moscow, Lev Theremin did not visit the room in the communal apartment for a long time, but since many important things for him were stored there, in the end he was forced to go there and discovered that his room was completely destroyed and much was missing.

If Lev Theremin had been an “ordinary old man,” then nothing would have happened. In our country it is customary to blame the Soviet regime for everything. This is our old Russian tradition. But the tragedy occurred during perestroika and it makes you think. There is also a tradition that as soon as Theremin begins to communicate with foreigners, people in Russia begin to break his instruments. It was from the late 80s that strange, deceitful articles about Lev Theremin began to be published, and in total it resembled a planned event.

Very unpleasant news for Lev Theremin in the summer of 1993 was information about the existence of the Theremin Center at the Moscow Conservatory, and the fact that this center existed for more than a year, we believe, helped Lev Sergeevich understand that no one was going to give him anything here.

In August 1993, a family exchange was carried out between Lev Theremin and his granddaughter, Masha Theremin and great-grandson Peter Theremin. Thus, it was possible to preserve the only laboratory property of Lev Theremin. For Lev Theremin, this issue was very important and his granddaughter, Masha, promised not to exchange this room, but to preserve it as the only laboratory that he managed to achieve in Russia.

Arriving in Russia in 1938, Lev Termen hoped to open an institute. In this matter, Pyotr Kapitsa turned out to be much more successful. Nevertheless, Lev Theremin considered it necessary to record the minimum result and keep the room in the communal apartment as a memory of himself. It is still unknown what the Izvestia publishing house will do in this matter.

We will be very grateful to all fans and promoters of the theremin and Lydia Kavina if, as a sign of respect for the memory of Lev Theremin, they take note of the following information:

1. Lydia Kavina is not a close relative of Lev Theremin. People and the media who call her a granddaughter, niece, great-niece, or cousin are lying.

2. In his performing and pedagogical activity Lydia Kavina uses an instrument similar in principle to Lev Theremin's instrument and embodies her own concept of performing technique and the sound of the instrument.

3. Lev Theremin learned about the existence of the Theremin Center in August 1993 from a radio broadcast and wrote a statement to the Moscow Conservatory, where he expressed his opinion about what was happening and asked to clarify the situation. They explained to Lev Theremin that his name is just a symbol and the center has the right to use Theremin’s name regardless of whether Lev Sergeevich wants it or not.

4. Lev Theremin believed that Lydia Kavina was consistently discrediting his name and the instrument bearing his name.

Theremin Center was created by A.I. Smirnov in 1992 and named after L.S. Theremin, the inventor of the first world-famous electronic musical instrument, the theremin.

About Lev Theremin was filmed documentary.

Used materials:

Materials from the Theremin family website:

(1920). Winner of the Stalin Prize, first degree.

Encyclopedic YouTube

1 / 4

✪ Theremin - music from the air. Lev Sergeevich Termen.

✪ Our everything. Lev Theremin

✪ Lev Theremin. Descendant of the Albigenses, or the Invisible Man

✪ Theremin www.eduspb.com

Subtitles

Biography

Being a very versatile person, Theremin invented many different automatic systems (automatic doors, automatic lighting, etc.) and security alarm systems. In parallel, since 1923, he collaborated with the State Institute of Music Science in Moscow. In 1925-1926 he invented one of the first television systems - “Darnovision”.

The success of his concert at a music exhibition is such that Theremin is bombarded with invitations. Dresden, Nuremberg, Hamburg, Berlin saw him off with applause and flowers. There are enthusiastic reviews from listeners of “music of the air”, “music of ethereal waves”, “music of the spheres”. The musicians note that the idea of a virtuoso is not constrained by inert material, “a virtuoso touches spaces.” The incomprehensibility of where the sound is coming from is shocking. Some people call the theremin a “heavenly” instrument, others a “spherophone”. The timbre is striking, at the same time reminiscent of strings and wind instruments, and even some special human voice, as if “grown from distant times and spaces.”

American period

From 1931 to 1938, Theremin was 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. George Gershwin, Maurice Ravel, Jascha Heifetz, Yehudi Menuhin, Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein visited his studio. His circle of acquaintances included financial magnate John Rockefeller and future US President Dwight Eisenhower.

Lev Sergeevich divorced his wife Ekaterina Konstantinova and married Lavinia Williams, a dancer of the first American black ballet.

Repression, work for state security agencies

In Leningrad, Theremin tried unsuccessfully to get a job, then he 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 the murder of 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 the landmine as soon as Kirov approached the pendulum. A special Meeting of the NKVD of the USSR sentenced Theremin to eight years in the camps, and he was sent to a camp in Kolyma.

At first, Theremin served time in Magadan, working as a foreman of a construction team. Theremin’s numerous rationalization proposals 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 areas of activity of Theremin and Korolev was the development of unmanned aerial vehicles controlled by radio - prototypes of modern cruise missiles.

One of Termen’s developments is the “Buran” listening system, which reads glass vibrations in the windows of the listening room using a reflected infrared beam. It was this invention of Theremin that was awarded the Stalin Prize of the 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.

Not without difficulty, Theremin got a job in a laboratory at the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University. In the main building of Moscow State University, he held seminars for those who wanted to listen to his work and study the theremin; Only a few people attended the seminars. Formally, Theremin was listed as a mechanic at the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University, but in fact he continued independent scientific research. The active scientific work of L. S. Termen continued almost until his death.

In 1989, a trip took place (together with her daughter, Natalia) to a festival in the city of Bourges (France).

In 1991, together with his daughter, Natalya Termen, and granddaughter, Olga Termen, he visited the United States at the invitation of Stanford University and there, among other things, met Clara Rockmore.

In March 1991, at the age of 95, he joined the CPSU. When asked why he was joining a collapsing party, Termen replied: “I promised Lenin.”

In 1992, the Theremin Center was created in Moscow, with its main goal of supporting musicians and sound artists working in the field of experimental electroacoustic music. The center’s leaders did not respond to Lev Theremin’s request to remove the name [ ] . Lev Theremin had nothing to do with the creation of the center named after him.

Died on 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 his daughters with their families and a few men, pallbearers, There was no one…".

He was buried at the Kuntsevo cemetery in Moscow.

Addresses in St. Petersburg - Petrograd - Leningrad

Heritage

Lev Theremin's daughter, Natalya, and great-grandson Peter are performers and popularizers of the theremin, the legacy of Lev Theremin.

A fan of Theremin is electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre. Jarre plays the theremin at live performances and uses the instrument in compositions studio albums. Fragments of an interview with Lev Termen are used in the joint composition “Switch on Leon” by Jarre and The Orb from the album “Electronica 2: The Heart of Noise”.

In 2006, the Perm U-Mosta Theater staged the play “Theremin” based on the play by Czech playwright Petr Zelenka. The performance touches on the most interesting and dramatic period of Theremin’s life - his work in the USA.

Family

The operating principles underlying the theremin were also used by Theremin when creating a security system that reacts to a person approaching a protected object. The Kremlin and the Hermitage, and later foreign museums, were equipped with such a system.
In 1946, Theremin was nominated for the Stalin Prize of the second degree. But Stalin, who endorsed the lists of those awarded, personally corrected the second degree to the first. In 1947, Theremin became a laureate of the Stalin Prize of the first degree.
In 1991, at the age of 95, a few months before the collapse of the USSR, Lev Theremin joined the CPSU. He explained his decision by saying that he had once made a promise to Lenin to join the party, and that he wanted to hurry to fulfill his promise while it still existed. To join the CPSU, Lev Sergeevich, at the age of 90, came to the party committee of Moscow State University, where he was told that to join the party he needed to study at the department of Marxism-Leninism for a year, which he did, passing all the exams.
Until his death, Lev Theremin was full of energy and even joked that he was immortal. As proof, he offered to read his last name backwards: “Theremin - does not die.”
In 1989, a meeting between two founders of electronic music took place in Moscow - Lev Sergeevich Termen and the English musician Brian Eno.

Notes

ID BNF: Open Data Platform - 2011.
SNAC - 2010.

Lev theremin biography. How a Soviet scientist invented the first electronic musical instrument

Anoa

Gaur

Watussi

Yak

Bison

Wild bull tour

Biography

Carier start

American period

Repression, work for state security agencies

Family

see also

Notes

Encyclopedic YouTube

Subtitles

Biography

American period

Repression, work for state security agencies

Addresses in St. Petersburg - Petrograd - Leningrad

Heritage

Family

see also

Notes