Directed by Kirill Serebrennikov is working on the filming of the film “Summer”, which is about famous Leningrad rock musicians. At the center of the plot - leaders of the Zoo and Kino groups Mike Naumenko and Viktor Tsoi.

Already at the production stage of the tape, many friends and acquaintances of both (now deceased) musicians attacked it with criticism. The love line was also criticized, suggesting some kind of romantic relationship between Tsoi and Mike’s wife. AiF.ru talked with Natalya Naumenko herself about how she views the hype around this story, as well as what actually connected her with Tsoi, and about what Mike himself was like.

Vladimir Polupanov, AiF: Natalya, could you comment on the situation with the film?

Natalia: What for? I don’t want to be like those who haven’t read Pasternak but condemn him. Let's wait and see, then we can have a substantive conversation. What I was able to see on the set - the atmosphere, the relationship between the actors and the director - I really liked. I believe Kirill.

Yes, it would have been much easier for me to live if many years ago I had not succumbed to the persuasion of our old friend Alexandra Zhitinsky: “I’m writing a book about Tsoi, but no one can really tell about him - not famous, not a poster boy, young...”. We agreed that Alexander would use my text exclusively for auxiliary purposes. That's why I opened up. But Sasha wrote letters asking him to leave everything as it was, because the heroes looked noble and all that jazz. I fell for it again. Now I'm unraveling...

- Was Mike jealous of you and Tsoi?

There was no reason to be jealous. Although he believed that such friendships were much more dangerous than anything else. I don’t understand why they suddenly jumped into this story? I have a very good relationship with Vita, but I am not interested in being his “classmate” (relatively speaking), of whom there are probably already three classmates, a girlfriend, an unknown love, a known love... For a very short time we had, I dare say hope, tender friendship. Congratulations on Girls' Day and Boys' Day (as in Japan, instead of February 23 and March 8) and endless conversations (no matter what anyone says about Tsoi-buk, Tsoi-silent). Deep person, smart. Not too often, but he could have fun and make you laugh with excellent jokes. And our whole “love story” - kindergarten. Thank God, you can remember without embarrassment, but with great tenderness.

Mike Naumenko with his wife. Photo from Natalia’s personal archive

- Were you a muse for your husband Mike Naumenko?

No. All best songs written about women before my appearance in his life. “Sweet N” is a collective image, an ideal, Eternal Femininity... Of course, I understood everything about lyrical hero, but it was a little disappointing to listen to “Hotel Called Marriage” or “Song common man" What if they think it’s about me and feel sorry for poor Mike... Mike smiled at my stupidity and promised to announce at concerts that the song was not about his wife, that his wife was completely different...

- Are there any songs that he dedicated to you?

No. Except that once he gave me the handwritten text of one song, where there was a line: “Natalia so that she doesn’t know the other one”...

Mike Naumenko. Photo from Natalia’s personal archive

- Were you in poverty all the time in those days?

We didn’t think then that we were in poverty. Everyone lived about the same. Then it became easier - good copyrights arrived. Then we exchanged the junk for normal furniture. It was an event.

-Who was Mike to his friends?

For some - a teacher, for some - an understanding friend, for others - someone with whom it’s cool to drink and listen silently good music. I think, to some extent, Mike was (like Boris) an educator. He knew English perfectly, read Rolling Stone, Melody Maker, Guitar player... I don’t know where he got it from. He retold the most curious and interesting things to the guests. From Mike you could find out what record had come out and what was worth listening to. And translated by ear. It’s unlikely that I (and not only me) would listen Lou Reed, if I didn’t know what his songs were about. AND Bob Dylan, And Cohen he also imagined them as great poets. I wish I could be happy for Dylan’s Nobel Prize!..

Natalya with her son Evgeniy. Photo from Natalia’s personal archive

-What kind of father was he?

He did not have a close relationship with his son. I think Mike could be a good father for a boy who has already matured. I remember how joyfully he taught our first-grader how to deduce two grades from a diary. Or start a second diary. I then asked: “Who will we hide the bad grades from?” We laughed for a long time... There are men who are not bored even with a newborn. Tsoi was exactly like that. I saw how he bathed his Sasha - deftly and carefully. He was glowing with happiness, enjoying fatherhood.

- What kind of relationship did Tsoi and Mike have? Were they friends?

No, there was no special friendship. I think it was a friendly relationship... For a while, Mike was a teacher for him. Tsoi said that he definitely needed to know Mike’s opinion about the new song. At that time, he had a lot of complexes and was very unsure of himself. And he believed Mike.

You were forced to go to work in a boiler room in order to get a room in a communal apartment on Borovaya. Why were you, and not your husband, involved in solving the housing issue?

Mike didn't want to live with his parents. And I didn't want to. There is only one way out - to become a janitor or a fireman. Or a watchman. Mike became the watchman, I became the fireman. And the work is shift work, and they give me a room. And then you can do what you like. At work too. In my small gas boiler room I could read well, and I could write letters to friends and study English. Mike also wrote songs in the cabin. There were far fewer guests there than at our house...

-You said that he was more of a friend to you than a husband?

I said so? Not very correct... Maybe later... It's great when, even a few years after the wedding, there are enough topics for conversation to last the whole night!.. Mike loved St. Petersburg very much (by the way, he never called it Leningrad), and he liked show beautiful courtyards, pretty corners, embankments of small rivers. In May, when the lilacs were blooming, he and I walked from our house on Borovaya to the Field of Mars along the Fontanka embankment. On Marsovsky, every bush breathed lilacs and returned along Nevsky. Slowly. We went to a cafe. We talked over a cup of coffee or a glass of something dry... And so every year...

-You didn’t have any attributes of star life?

I didn’t quite understand the question... What do you mean?

- You even have very few photographs of you together. Why?

Firstly, we simply did not have a camera. Secondly, I hate acting. Well, if they knew what would be useful, if they knew that the boys would leave us so quickly... Of course, it’s a shame that there are few photographs and filming!.. But if “Aquarium”, “Secret” or “ Last chance,” such was the joy! They show ours!

Photo from Natalia’s personal archive

- Did you often have guests in your communal apartment?

- Almost always. The telephone in the corridor did not appear immediately, so guests could arrive from the train late in the evening or early in the morning. And it didn’t get any easier with the phone. If a person is traveling from Kaliningrad, Chelyabinsk or Vladivostok, is it possible not to accept him?.. Often they stayed overnight. Some even lived for weeks. Nothing, we managed... If the guests did not fit in our room, the neighbors took a couple or two. It was a wonderful communal apartment! Wonderful neighbors! Guitarist of “Zoo” Sasha Khrabunov I understood this and married one of my neighbors - our singer Tasya.

Photo from Natalia’s personal archive

- Did you drink a lot then?

I think yes. Guests brought and brought. Tsoi drank little, I don’t remember him being drunk at all... Mike loved beer very much. I don’t know what drinks he liked; the choice was poor. Whatever they brought, they poured for everyone. Actually, this is a sore subject...

- IN last years Didn't he write anything at all in his life?

The songs slowed down, he himself spoke about self-repetitions, that now his poetry is better... I’m not a doctor, but now it seems to me that he began to develop depression then...

- After you left him, was he left alone?

Probably, I just didn’t have time to change my life. We divorced on August 15, 1991, and he passed away on the 27th...

Grebenshchikov’s opinion about Serebrennikov’s film “Summer” became an occasion to discuss truth and fiction in the film

The scandal came from an unexpected place. Opinion became a scandal. Boris Grebenshchikov’s opinion about Kirill Serebrennikov’s film “Summer” about Viktor Tsoi. Grebenshchikov didn’t want it, but it happened that way. We talked with Artemy Troitsky, Alexander Lipnitsky and Evgeny Dodolev about truth and fiction in Serebrennikov’s film.

The presentation of BG’s new album “Time N” went like clockwork. Suddenly someone from the audience asked a question about Kirill Serebrennikov’s new film “Summer”.

(Remember that the plot of the film is based on little known facts biography of rock musician Viktor Tsoi. The events take place in the summer of 1981 in Leningrad, where Russian rock was born. At this time, Tsoi meets the leader of the Zoo group, Mike Naumenko and his wife Natalya. The formation of the Leningrad rock club and the recording of Tsoi’s first album dates back to the same year).

The film - or rather, its script - is "a lie from beginning to end" and stated that nothing general people, about which the picture, with its characters, do not have. “It seems to me that in those days the screenwriter would have worked for the KGB,” said the musician.

To clarify and understand the situation, we turned to witnesses of that time.

Evgeny Dodolev, TV journalist:

It is extremely rare that I agree with Boris Borisovich Grebenshchikov, but here I fully support his thesis. About two months ago I read the script: it is an amazingly amateurish and illiterate thing. The only hope for Kirill’s talent is that he was able to refine it.

The motivations attributed to the characters, and their portraits in general - I see in this the scriptwriter’s deep hostility towards the entire rock movement and the people who personified it in those years. They are shown flat there. primitive. The person doesn't know the material at all.

Alexander Lipnitsky, rock musician and documentary director:

You know, I don’t want, as before, party leaders “didn’t read Pasternak, but condemned him.” I have not read the script, but in principle I am against this project.

At one time, I made a documentary about the Kino group and then interviewed the writer Alexander Zhitinsky, who at that time was working on a book about Tsoi. He told me that Natasha Naumenko sent him her diary entries, where she told him about the easy romantic relationship she had with Tsoi. So light, at the level of flirting.

Many years have passed since then. And when I learned about two years ago in St. Petersburg that a film was being made based on these memories, I treated it ironically, because the whole story there was sucked out of thin air, it does not fit into a film. Even if it's true, which I doubt. So I have no illusions that anything interesting will come out of this. Despite the fact that I have great respect for Kirill Serebrennikov, as a theater director.

Artemy Troitsky, music critic:

I read the script and also asked to be shown Tsoi and the rest of the characters in this film. They showed them to me, and it didn’t cause me any irritation.

Grebenshchikov may be one of the few who has the right to talk about this time, since in fact he was there from beginning to end, so his opinion weighs a lot. But I think Borya got a little carried away in the sense that his statement about just one script is not entirely fair, especially since the director here is also extraordinary - Kirill Serebrennikov, who can make something interesting and worthwhile out of any script. But this whole story seems very dubious to me and does not evoke positive responses from anyone who has heard about it.

Talking about Tsoi’s affair with Mike Naumenko’s wife Natasha is, of course, a very strong overstep. Even if there was some whiff of this romance, I think no one even noticed it, including, perhaps, even one of the participants in the “love” triangle.

On the other hand, I took this scenario as nothing more than an excuse to talk about the truly fun and inspiring times that reigned in St. Petersburg in the early 80s. And here you have to watch the film: how much this atmosphere is conveyed and how convincing is what the director wanted to express with this film. And he, as far as I understand, wanted to make a film primarily about time, and not about a love drama.

Since I was also filmed as a participant in the events there (there is even a guy who plays my role), I am responsible for my speeches; there is no falsehood in them. And what of this remains in the film, I have no idea. But I want to say that viewers will have every chance to correct their impressions of this film, because Alexey Rybin, co-founder of the Kino group, is now in the process of filming a film, again about Tsoi, from the same period - the beginning of the 80s -X. And at the same time, Alexey Uchitel is launching a film about Tsoi and the Kino group next year.

Let's hope that Mr. Uchitel will be the Teacher of the times when he made the honest and real documentary "Rock" and not now with his "Matilda".

The famous Russian musician, founder and frontman of the rock band “Zoo” Mike Naumenko was most popular in the 70-80s of the twentieth century and is one of the best representatives of the Leningrad underground. The most iconic songs for his contemporaries were “Sweet N”, “Fleabag”, “Suburban Blues” and others. He was a friend of Viktor Tsoi, Boris Grebenshchikov and many other Leningrad rock musicians. All my not very successful and long life Mike (Mikhail - at birth) devoted himself to music. Many of his songs are still sung and sung by other famous people. Russian groups and singers. The cause of death of Mike Naumenko was officially announced as cerebral hemorrhage.

Mike was born in 1955 in Leningrad. He was a boy from a good, intelligent family. Naumenko's passion for music began in his early youth, when he heard the songs of the famous musical group The Beatles. After that, he began to enjoy listening to Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry, Lou Reed, Marc Bolon and other foreign performers. Mike was a student at a specialized English-language school and knew the language well, so the first songs he composed were in English. They were written back in school years and were performed in a circle of friends, while playing a guitar given by my grandmother. Naumenko wrote his first song in Russian in 1972, when he was already 17 years old, on the advice of Boris Grebenshchikov.

After graduating from school, Mikhail, following his father’s example, entered the Leningrad Civil Engineering Institute and even managed to complete four courses there, although he immediately understood that construction was not his business. After dropping out of school, the young man got a job at the Bolshoi Puppet Theater as a sound engineer, and later became a watchman in order to devote as much time as possible to his favorite pastime - music. In the mid-70s, Mike joined the group “Union of Rock Music Lovers”, where he played guitar, and in 1977-1979 he collaborated with Grebenshchikov’s group “Aquarium”. In 1978, Naumenko recorded the acoustic album “All Brothers and Sisters” with B. Grebenshchikov. For quite a long time he was a bass guitarist in a variety of Leningrad groups, in which he performed many solo numbers.

In 1981, Naumenko became the organizer of his own group “Zoo”. In 1987, their team received a certain status, ceasing to be amateur after being rated at Lenconcert. The band's musicians began touring concerts throughout Soviet Union. By the end of the 80s, Mike Naumenko, as often happens, could no longer cope with the burden of fame and popularity: he began to have health problems from alcohol abuse and heavy workload. The motor skills of my left hand were very noticeably upset and this had a bad effect on my ability to play the guitar. Tired of his drinking, his wife Natalya, with whom Mike lived for about 10 years, left him, taking his son Evgeniy.

In August 1991, tragedy struck: Naumenko’s apartment neighbor found the musician on the floor in the hallway and helped him get into bed. When asked how he felt, Mike replied that he did not need help. However, by the evening he became worse and, at the request of the neighbors, his mother and sister arrived and called an ambulance. Doctors refused to hospitalize the patient, explaining that he was in a non-transportable condition. By nightfall Naumenko died. There is no specific conclusion on the cause of Mike's death. The assumption that he had a cerebral hemorrhage - approximately and why it happened, one can only guess. He was not drunk, but, according to his friends, he took a decent amount of alcohol the day before his death.

There were the most contradictory rumors about why Mike Naumenko died. They said that there were witnesses to his head hitting a concrete curb and this caused a fracture of the base of the skull, which was diagnosed by doctors. There were also rumors about an attack by hooligans and that Mike was robbed after beating him. According to other eyewitnesses, everyone knew him in the area and when he got drunk, he never became a victim of thieves, and he never drank to the point of unconsciousness. Whether this was a murder or an accident remained unclear. Naumenko was only 36 years old at the time of his death.

He is buried at the Volkovskoye cemetery in Leningrad.

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Musician and performer

I've been here too long.
I guess it's time for me to say goodbye
And still I wanted to stay
But, alas, it's time for me...

Mike Naumenko

The work of Mikhail Naumenko had a tremendous influence on Russian rock musicians. He was the first to perform classic rock and roll in Russian, which previously seemed impossible to both listeners and performers. Mike's songs to this day do not leave indifferent those who grew up listening to his work, and those who are just discovering his talent.

Mike's parents were native Leningraders, his father was a teacher at a technical university; mother is a library worker. The head of the family, the main educator, and authority for Mike was his grandmother. She was a cultured and very educated person, she loved children very much, understood them and always found mutual language. Mike learned to read at the age of 5. In kindergarten, where he began attending at the age of 6, he was a constant reader on behalf of the teacher.

Until the age of fifteen, Mike was absolutely indifferent to music. As a child, he did not sing, did not participate in amateur performances, and generally hated any kind of public performances in front of guests or at school.

My parents bought a tape recorder and a guitar for Misha’s sixteenth birthday in 1971. He loved his first guitar, although not very inexpensive, tenderly and devotedly. He learned to play the guitar on his own. In his studies, Mike showed his characteristic patience, diligence and perseverance. For a long time he did not know how to read music, but he always refused to go to music school. Mike for some reason considered this completely unnecessary and even harmful.

At the same time, Mike studied at a school with intensive study in English. After graduating from school, Mike could well have entered the philological faculty of the university, however, Mikhail used his in-depth knowledge of the language in a different direction. He read, translated and took notes on a huge amount of literature related to rock music, and became an authoritative expert in this direction.

He listened to albums by the Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and Jefferson Airplane, and collected Western articles about T.Rex, Doors, and D. Bowie. Under their influence, Mike began to compose songs in English and tried to play with various compositions.

After school, Mike entered the Institute of Civil Engineering. Misha passed the entrance exams quite successfully, and the winter session also went well. Mike started his studies at the institute quite successfully. He liked student life, a less strict regime than at school, and a scholarship. But he studied without any interest. With two academic leaves, under pressure from his parents, he completed four courses and dropped out of college when he had only a year and a half left to graduate.

Mike himself later said in an interview: “I started in 1973 as a bass player. Until 1975, he played in two or three bands, which are not worth talking about. In 1974 I met Aquarium. ...In June 1978, Grebenshchikov and I recorded a joint acoustic album, “All Brothers and Sisters.” But, in general, I fulfill the duties of a rock and roll whore: I play wherever I have to, with whom I have to, and whatever I have to do..."

At the beginning of 1977, he briefly played in the Union of Rock Music Lovers of Vladimir Kozlov. From 1977 to 1979, he periodically collaborated with Aquarium as a guest electric guitarist, performing under the comic name “Chuck Berry Vocal and Instrumental Group” with a repertoire of classic rock and roll. In the summer of 1979, he toured the villages of the Vologda region as part of the “Capital Repair” group, which was later beautifully described in Vyacheslav Zorin’s story “The Unclosed Circle.”

In mid-1978, Mike, together with Aquarium leader Boris Grebenshchikov, recorded the acoustic album “All Brothers and Sisters.” Two guitars and harmonica were recorded right on the banks of the Neva using the microphone of an old Elektronika 302 tape recorder. Mike sang half the songs, Grebenshchikov sang half. The quality of the recording was terrifying.

In the summer of 1980, in the studio of the Leningrad Bolshoi Puppet Theater, Mike recorded his first solo acoustic album, “Sweet N and others.” Of the 32 songs recorded, only 15 were included in the album. The album quickly sold out across the country and Naumenko began to be called “Leningrad’s Bob Dylan.”

The recording itself took place in the studio of the Bolshoi Puppet Theater thanks to the chief director Viktor Sudarushkin, who passed away early, recalled senior radio operator Alla Solovey, who performed part of the sound engineering work during the Sweet N session.

Naumenko did not yet have his own group, and Mike invited guitarist Vyacheslav Zorin from the group “Capital Repair” to the session. Some things were rehearsed in advance, and part of the program was decided to be recorded almost immediately. On several compositions, Boris Grebenshchikov played along with the guitar duet of Mike Naumenko and Vyacheslav Zorin.

Mike started recording a little timidly, but when he saw the reaction of the operators and the first listeners, he calmed down and went wild,” Zorin said. - After the first session, when we went outside, he said in a surprisingly solemn voice: “Today will not be lived in vain.”

Zorin recalled that except for a few compositions in which Mike overdubbed lead guitar and occasionally bass, most of the songs were played live, and each of them took no more than three rough takes.

“Mike wanted the best and was afraid to spoil the options,” Zorin said. “He assumed that some songs would be remade at another time.”

The resulting album was inspired by the sixties. The slow rock and roll of “Seventh Heaven” juxtaposed with the rhythm and blues of “Morning Together” and the magnetism of “Suburban Blues,” in which the line “I want to smoke, but there are no cigarettes left” seemed pulled from the arsenal of decadent poetry silver age. Performed at a frantic pace, this composition looked like an open bid for punk rock. At that time, “Suburban Blues” was perceived as a call for an armed uprising - it is no coincidence that a couple of years later, during a Lithuanian meeting in a rock club, instead of “I’m sitting in the toilet and reading Rolling Stone,” it turned out to be “I’m sitting in the apartment.” It’s good that the censors from Rubinshtein Street did not touch the beautiful but suspicious word “cigarette”. You never know what could be inside... The album opened with the composition “If you want”, which was actually put together at the dress rehearsal for the opening of the first version of the rock club in 1979. A spectacular recitative and a pseudo-Beatle transition from major to minor and back to major framed the formulated result life philosophy figure of the Leningrad underground culture: “And if you want, you can tease me!”

The medicine Mike invented turned out to be just a drug. Mike’s banter pills led to the temptation to work under the underground of many guys who lived for the most part in high-rise Stalinist buildings and had never seen real queues and police raids in their lives.

The first side of the album closed with several blues songs at once. “If it rains” is a beautiful acoustic ballad, slightly broken in rhythm, “I’m coming home” is a bachelor’s manifesto, accompanied by a solemn strumming of chords, and finally, the super hit “Blues de Moscou”, played with the active participation of Zorin’s guitar and his remarks: “Pour it up!”

It is curious that on this album in the composition “Blues de Moscou” “the young ladies in the capital do not yet like punk rock stars” - and not musicians, as was the case in later versions, when Mike terrible force began to disavow the vulgarized punk movement. In the meantime, Mike, in splendid isolation, pushed a heavy cart with punk blues in front of him. “This is the blues” - he announced another rock and roll at this session, calling everything blues, including typical rock and just ballads. It is said that he was not very fond of root African music, preferring to listen and cultivate white blues, although the ending of "Old Wounds" ends with a reggae guitar solo from "I Shot The Sheriff".

One of the main hits of the album was the song “Fleabag”. Mike wrote this song over the course of a whole year and only finished it in 1979. Many claimed that she melodic line is taken exactly like “T.Rex”, the bass line is taken from Morrison, and the lyrics are reminiscent of a free translation of Lou Reed and a half-forgotten action movie “The Russians” called “Muck”. In particular, Vyacheslav Zorin recalled that while sitting one evening at Mike’s house, he accidentally heard “Fleabag” in English. Vyacheslav, just don’t think anything,” Mike became worried. What is there to think about! Mike and Bob, as the most English-speaking of the Leningrad authors, knew Western rock poetry very well. It was not necessary to translate anything completely, if it was enough to study the poetic philosophy or mentality of Western rock minstrels and reproduce what was sought in relation to Soviet urban folklore or interrupted traditions of the Silver Age.

The same “Fleabag” was subsequently perceived as a brilliant improvisation and over time became a classic in the repertoire of Mike and “Zoo”. In the early 90s, the right to perform “Fleabag” was obtained from Mike’s ex-wife by the group “Crematorium”, and almost at the same time “Fleabag” was recorded by Olga Pershina, co-author of “Two Tractor Drivers” and a fighting friend of “Aquarium” from the “Aquarium” era. Triangle."

Mike never disguised the sources of his inspiration, naming Marc Bolan and Lou Reed among his favorite performers. It is no coincidence that the composition “Fear in Your Eyes,” recorded during a session at the puppet theater, was reminiscent of one of the T.Rex tunes from the ’77 album “Dandy In The Underworld,” and “I Love Boogie-Woogie” from the album “ White stripe” copied “I Love To Boogie” exactly from the same Bolan disc - without attribution. For comparison, we note that the same Grebenshchikov did not hesitate to indicate in relation to the composition “Sergei Ilyich” from “Triangle” that this is a song for MB. Go figure!

During the June session of “Sweet N,” Mike recorded sixteen more compositions that were not included in the album and were released fifteen years later on the double CD “Sweet N and Others.” Among these archival compositions there are many interesting ones - starting from several songs from “Overhaul” performed by Zorin, ending with Mike’s apartment hits from the time of “All Brothers and Sisters”: “Ode to the Bathroom”, “Woman” and “The Seventh Chapter”. Another composition not included in the album was dedicated to sound engineer Igor Sverdlov. Andrei Tropillo, who was present at the session at the puppet theater, claims that most of “Sweet N” was recorded not by Sverdlov, but by Alla Solovey - since Igor was mainly involved in port wine management and establishing alcohol contacts. In principle, Mike sings about this in his dedication to Sverdlov: “Finish the port wine - go home.”

About the semi-mythical “Sweet N”, to which several compositions were dedicated at once and whose existence Mike stubbornly denied for a long time Mike himself said in an interview with the Leningrad underground rock magazine “Roxy” a few months after recording the album:

“Sweet N is an amazing woman who I love madly, but at the same time I’m not entirely sure that she exists in nature... But maybe she looks like the one on the cover.” In reality, the prototype for “Sweet N” was the Leningrad artist Tatyana Apraksina, whom Mike met in 1974. Interesting in appearance, with an attractive inner world and the charm of a fairy-tale witch performed by Marina Vladi, Tatyana was then Mike’s main muse.

“Mike came to visit me alone or with one of his friends, modestly forming a small retinue of the Aquarium,” recalls Tatyana, whose artistic pseudonym was associated with the fact that she lived most of her life in Apraksin Lane. - Thin, puny, with a big nose, with eyes sparkling with good-natured curiosity, Mike was ready to participate in everything and be friends with everyone. By that time, he had not yet written any of his famous songs, although he already carried with him a neat notebook in which the foundations of future hits were laid. He could nurture one song for years, from time to time writing words or phrases into a notebook, considering different options - as if making a mosaic - and subjecting the text to gradual editing.”

“Aquarium” was received wonderfully. However, the star of the evening was Mike. This was the first performance in his life big hall. He came out wearing dark glasses and announced in a nasal voice that he recommended the Leningrad Belomor and Havana Club rum to everyone. Then he started “Sweet N”... One could have foreseen that Mike would greatly surprise the audience, but the spontaneity and strength of the reaction exceeded all expectations...” - from “Rock in the USSR” by Artemy Troitsky.

In the fall of 1980, he assembled his own group, not without an eye to “Aquarium,” calling it “Zoo.” The first to be invited were two musicians from the student group “Farewell, Black Monday,” Alexander Khrabunov (guitar) and Andrey Danilov (drums), and then, on recommendation, bassist Ilya Kulikov from the group “Maki” was invited. The group began rehearsing in November 1980, the following year they were accepted into a rock club, and in the spring they gave their first concert with a program of Mike's songs, which caused a stormy, albeit ambiguous, reaction from the public.

For three years, “Zoo” regularly performed at home and traveled to Moscow, where Mike initially enjoyed much greater success than in Leningrad, was for some reason perceived by the local public as a punk, performed several times accompanied by musicians from the group “DK” and made a concert album "Blues de Moscow". In St. Petersburg during this time, Naumenko played a guitar solo at the debut concert of the Kino group in March 1981.

In 1982, Mike, with the help of friends, recorded the album “LV” (55 - the year Mike was born). The album is distinguished by its musical diversity and parody orientation, and is replete with dedications to St. Petersburg musicians.

The following year, Mike recorded the album “County City N” at the AnTrop studio, the title song of which, a 14-minute ballad, is called “the encyclopedia of our lives.” And the album “White Stripe” in 1984 made Mike’s name and his songs known throughout the country.

“By the way, in addition to his direct musical passions, Mike is also involved in the creation of one of the oldest St. Petersburg rock samizdat magazines, Roxy. At one time, he, together with BG and others, was on the editorial board of this magazine. What else did he do in life? Yes, probably the same as all the rockers of that time. Panker and I came to Mike at the place where he was engaged in creativity, wrote songs and... worked part-time as a watchman. As it should be in this world, it seems, for all artists, writers and musicians. They are guarding. It’s just unclear from whom. But they are watching. And who should be on guard, on the other hand, if not a writer, not a musician, not a poet? What Mike did there, among other things, was drinking port, meeting with friends and playing preference. In general, he was a very charming person...” - “About SashBash, about Kinchev, about himself, about life,” wrote Svyatoslav Zaderiy.

In May 1983, at the 1st rock club festival, pianist and singer Alexander Donskikh appeared as part of the Zoo. Although Zoo's performance was uneven and the group did not win, Mike himself received the prize for "Consistent Development of a Satirical Theme." A special nomination, the initiator of which was the writer-publicist Alexander Zhitinsky (Rock-Amateur). This is described in his book "Journey of a Rock Amateur." By the following winter, the original line-up of the group had disbanded.

In March 1984, Naumenko and Khrabunov appeared on the club stage, accompanied by the Aquarium rhythm section: Mikhail Vasiliev (bass) and Pyotr Troshchenkov (drums). Vasiliev, who at that time actually left the Aquarium, played at the Zoo until the end of the year, and Troshchenkov was replaced in April by the best drummer in the city, Evgeniy Guberman.

In 1984, “Zoo” recorded the album “White Stripe”, which in 1988 was released by the Melodiya company, cutting down the songs “Poverty” and “Forward Bodhisattva”. The album includes “Fear in Your Eyes” and “Gopniks,” which were not “covered” at the time by the Leningrad Rock Club.

But there is an opinion that, like “Zoo” and Mike, they sold out there...

To whom??

Well, “Melodies”, official...

First of all, I can honestly say that I didn’t lift a finger for this record to come out. Sell ​​to Melody? - so Melodiya doesn’t pay anything at all. Well, everyone who had records out took it all and sold it, or what? - From an interview with Mike.

The performance of “Zoo” at the 2nd Leningrad Rock Festival became one of its central events, despite the campaign launched at that time by the Ministry of Culture against amateur rock, inspired by the provocative articles of composer Alexander Morozov in “Komsomolskaya Pravda” and V. Vlasov in the Leningrad “ Change.” The group received the audience award and a special prize established by the Optical Institute. And the winner was the group “Secret”, which performed Mike’s song “Major Rock and Roll” at the festival and did not hide its admiration for his music.

In the summer of 1984, Andrei Tropillo recorded, as it later turned out, the last studio album of the White Stripe group. In November 1984, Mike and Khrabunov played one concert and “Zoo” disappeared for nine months. Only in August 1985 did the search for suitable musicians temporarily end, and a new “Zoo” appeared on the stage, including Sergei Tessul and Valery Kirilov.

The following spring, "ZOO" again surprised many by appearing on the stage of the 4th rock festival, accompanied by a spectacular vocal trio (Donskikh, Natalya Shishkina and Galina Skigina) and keyboardist Andrei Muratov. Chic arrangements, light theatricality, stylized doo-wop vocals - the old fans of “Zoo” were annoyed, the new ones were intrigued, and the jury was fascinated, as a result of which the group received the laureate title for the first time. This version lasted a year, made a number of scattered radio recordings, and disbanded in May 1987.

In September 1987, “Zoo” performed at the All-Union Rock Festival in Podolsk, toured the country a lot - at some stage it was the most concert band of the rock club, and perhaps the whole country. In 1988, Tropillo released a slightly stripped-down version of the White Stripe album on record. In April of the same year, Muratov left for DDT, and Zoo returned to the quartet, although the group’s activity from that moment began to decline sharply. In the fall of 1988, ex-guitarist of “Myths” Alexander Novikov rehearsed with them, but never joined.

During the years 88-90, Mike traveled all over Russia, and, despite the fact that the group had not changed its repertoire for a long time, almost everywhere at his concerts there was a full house. As the press wrote at that time, Zoo became the champion of the Leningrad rock club in terms of the number of concerts per year, surpassing even Aquarium and Kino.

In 1988, Zoo recorded its last album, Music for Film. In one of the songs on this album, “Shots,” there are the words: “Well, will there be tomorrow, a new day, again?” Mike probably didn’t believe in a “new day” for himself.

At the beginning of 1990, director Alexander Kiselev shot at the Leningrad Documentary Film Studio a film dedicated to the Zoo, Boogie Woogie Every Day, for which the group recorded several of their previously unreleased numbers, which were later included in the album Music for the Film. The decline in widespread interest in rock and roll, and with it touring activity, plus growing problems practically took Zoo out of the game: the attempt of Andrei Tropilo, who was elected director of the Leningrad Recording Studio in the summer of 1989, to bring the group into the studio was not successful.

Kulikov parted ways with Zoo again, and Nail Kadyrov became the bassist. March 14, 1991 Mike Naumenko in last time appeared on stage, performing his “Suburban Blues” accompanied by “Aquarium” at the festival dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the Leningrad Rock Club.

Mike died on August 27, 1991 in Leningrad, in his room in a communal apartment on Razyezzhaya Street. Doctors recorded death from cerebral hemorrhage. He did not live only two months before the 10th anniversary of the group.

Mike's life ended tragically. Returning home from a party after seeing off one of the band’s musicians abroad, he fell in his communal apartment, was dragged to bed by a neighbor, and lay motionless until the morning. Then the relatives who arrived called " ambulance", which stated the most incompatible with life of all injuries - a fracture of the base of the skull. In such cases, doctors do not move the patient even during examination, because even a slight movement is enough for death to occur. Mike was conscious until the end and behaved very courageously.

“Mike was a dreamer, in general - kindest person. I still don’t understand what happened to him. The circumstances of his death remain largely mysterious. With Tsoi, at least, everything is clear - if not in essence, then in form - how everything happened. For Mike, everything was almost the same as with Zhora Ordanovsky. He, as we know, simply disappeared without leaving any traces" - Excerpt from "Interview with Mike (last Rock" n "roller)" in DBP.

And we don't like them.
Everyone takes the subway
Well, we are not one of those.
Yeah, we're taking the motor,
Although there is a naked man in my pocket,
And we drink our port wine,
We drink someone else's cognac.
I don't like Taganka
I hate Arbat.
One more
And it's time to go back.
Nobody loves us here
And it doesn’t call for flat,
Doesn't serve beer
He doesn't cook lunch for us.
We keep everyone happy
They're making us happy all around,
In Sokolniki and in the center
One big bummer.
It's cold and nasty here
It’s not crazy here at all.
One more
And it's time to go back.
And young ladies in the policy
They won't fulfill it on us,
They don't like punk rock stars
And then there was a complete refusal.
The telegraph dynamizes me,
Without issuing a translation.
I have nowhere to hide
When your stomach hurts.
From a torn trouser leg
Looks at my bare butt.
One more
And it's time to go back.
We're scared in stores
Everything there is not like ours,
You can't get port wine there,
Only kvass is on sale.
The people there are brutal,
He hits each other face.
Nobody's heard the Stranglers
And only “Space” is in fashion.
From all this abundance
It makes me want to go to the mat.
One more
And it's time to go back.

Mike Naumenko

He was buried at the Volkovskoye cemetery in Leningrad.

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Director Kirill Serebrennikov is working on the filming of the film “Summer”. In the picture we're talking about about famous Leningrad rock musicians. The plot centers on the leaders of the Zoo and Kino groups Mike Naumenko and Viktor Tsoi.

Already at the production stage of the tape, many friends and acquaintances of both (now deceased) musicians attacked it with criticism. The love line was also criticized, suggesting some kind of romantic relationship between Tsoi and Mike’s wife. AiF.ru talked with Natalya Naumenko herself about how she views the hype around this story, as well as what actually connected her with Tsoi, and about what Mike himself was like.

Mike Naumenko at the funeral of Viktor Tsoi: Mike Naumenko’s wife spoke about her friendship with Tsoi

Natalia, could you comment on the situation with the film?

What for? I don’t want to be like those who haven’t read Pasternak but condemn him. Let's wait and see, then we can have a substantive conversation. What I was able to see on the set - the atmosphere, the relationship between the actors and the director - I really liked. I believe Kirill.

Yes, it would have been much easier for me to live if many years ago I had not succumbed to the persuasion of our old friend Alexander Zhitinsky: “I’m writing a book about Tsoi, but no one can really tell about him - not famous, not a poster boy, young...”. We agreed that Alexander would use my text exclusively for auxiliary purposes. That's why I opened up. But Sasha wrote letters asking him to leave everything as it was, because the heroes looked noble and all that jazz. I fell for it again. Now I’m unraveling...

— Was Mike jealous of you and Tsoi?

- There was no reason to be jealous. Although he believed that such friendships were much more dangerous than anything else. I don’t understand why they suddenly jumped into this story? I have a very good relationship with Vita, but I am not interested in being his “classmate” (relatively speaking), of whom there are probably already three classmates, a girlfriend, an unknown love, a known love... For a very short time, we had, I dare to hope, tender friendship. Congratulations on Girls' Day and Boys' Day (as in Japan, instead of February 23 and March 8) and endless conversations (no matter what anyone says about Tsoi-buk, Tsoi-silent). Deep person, smart. Not too often, but he could have fun and make you laugh with excellent jokes. And our whole “love story” is kindergarten. Thank God, you can remember without embarrassment, but with great tenderness.

What kind of relationship did Tsoi and Mike have? Were they friends?

- No, there was no special friendship. I think a friendly relationship... For a while, Mike was a teacher for him. Tsoi said that he definitely needed to know Mike’s opinion about the new song. At that time, he had a lot of complexes and was very unsure of himself. And he believed Mike.

Mike Naumenko at the funeral of Viktor Tsoi: Mike Naumenko about Viktor Tsoi

I met Viktor Tsoi in 1981. Then we lived nearby - near Victory Park, about four hundred meters from each other.

Perhaps we were not friends - more like buddies. It seems to me that he had no friends at all - some special vibe of loneliness always emanated from him.

I really liked his songs. Straightaway. Back then, out of my youth and stupidity, I considered myself a cool rock star and a master. Naturally, I began to give him advice. I recommended and corrected some things. He took some of this. Let’s say in “Idle Man” the word “mother” comes from me. And there are many such examples. I introduced him - in my opinion, at his request - to BG, who, in principle, made his entire career.

Tsoi and Rybin came to see my wife and me almost every second day, brought a bunch of dry wine (mostly Rkatsiteli on tap from Dagestan for 1 ruble 70 kopecks), sang new songs, chatted, and sometimes stayed overnight.

I remember how, after their very first recording, they, in a state of some euphoria, burst into our apartment around midnight and literally physically forced us to listen to the tape. It’s funny that, by a whim of fate, the “hired” drummer Valera Kirilov played with them at that time, who five years later became a member of our group ZOOPARK, where he works to this day.

Tsoi generally used people very skillfully. He always knew how to make the right contacts, and was very cold and calculating in relationships.

I didn't like the way he had changed in recent years. This is probably a disease that many rock musicians have had. Money, girls, stadiums - and you start to forget your old friends, keep your nose up and imagine yourself as super cool. Well, he is not the first and he is not the last. We are all humans. I’m just a little surprised that after death they are trying to make some kind of angel out of him. He was not an angel, just as he was not a demon. Like all of us, he was just a man with his pros and cons. But in our country it is desirable to die in order to become completely popular. While you are alive, for some reason you are not appreciated. There are plenty of examples of this, as everyone knows.

I remember the very first KINO concert at the Leningrad rock club. I even played lead guitar on one song (“Once You Were a Beatnik”). Mikhail Vasiliev from AQUARIUM played the bass guitar, and Andrey Romanov played the piano. Alexey Rybin (by the way, one of the two founders of the KINO group, which for some reason no one remembers) then had his pants torn right on stage in the most interesting place. So the concert was quite fun.

Generally speaking, I always liked Victor's earlier material better. Although, who knows?

Mike Naumenko at the funeral of Viktor Tsoi: biography of Mike

Mikhail Vasilyevich Naumenko (April 18, 1955, Leningrad, USSR - August 27, 1991, ibid.) better known by his stage name Mike, is a Soviet rock musician, founder and leader of the Zoo group. Author of such songs as “Sweet N”, “Suburban Blues”, “Fleabag”, etc.

Born on April 18, 1955 in a family of Leningrad intellectuals. His father (Vasily Grigorievich, 1918-2007) was a teacher at LISI, and his mother (Galina Florentyevna Naumenko-Braytigam, 1922-2010) was a library worker. I didn't play music as a child. His passion for music began when Mike first heard the music of The Beatles. Then Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, Marc Bolan, Lou Reed and others had a strong influence on his work.

He started writing songs in school, after his grandmother gave him a guitar. Mike composed his first songs in English. Naumenko studied at a special school and had a good command of the language. There he received the nickname "Mike". Ex-wife Mike, Natalya, claims that his school English teacher first called him that. The first texts in Russian were written in 1972 under the influence of Boris Grebenshchikov. In addition to music, he was interested in making airplane models, reading Soviet detective stories, and translating from English.

After school, at the insistence of his father, he entered LISI, but after the fourth year he dropped out. Worked as a sound engineer in Bolshoi Theater Dolls, then - as a watchman. All this time he remained a musician.

He died on August 27, 1991 in his apartment from a cerebral hemorrhage as a result of an accident. The drummer of the Zoo group, Valery Kirilov, expressed a different point of view: according to him, Mike Naumenko really died from a cerebral hemorrhage, but it did not occur due to natural causes, but due to a fracture of the base of the skull as a result of a brutal blow inflicted on Mike during a robbery in yard, as evidenced by the loss of the musician’s personal belongings. There is also testimony from one teenager who allegedly saw Mike being lifted from the ground in the yard. After the attack, Mike did not die on the spot, but managed to go up to his home, but there he became completely weak and lay unconscious for a long time, unnoticed by anyone in the communal apartment. When his loved ones finally found him and called an ambulance, it was already too late. However, many people familiar with the circumstances of Mike's death do not confirm this hypothesis.

He was buried at the Volkovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg.

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