Lev Theremin was born into a noble Orthodox family with French roots (in French family name spelled Theremin). His mother, Evgenia Antonovna, and his father, the famous lawyer Sergei Emilievich, spared no money on Lev’s education.
Carier start
Lev Termen carried out his first independent experiments in electrical engineering during his years of study at the St. Petersburg First Men's Gymnasium.
In 1916 he graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in cello, and at the same time studied at the physics and astronomical faculties of St. Petersburg University.
He did not take part in the fighting of the First World War. 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.
After October revolution In 1917, he was sent to work at the Detskoselskaya radio station near Petrograd (then the most powerful radio station in Russia), and later to the military radio laboratory in Moscow.
Career blossoming
In 1919, Termen became the head of the laboratory of the Physico-Technical Institute in Petrograd. He was hired by Abram Ioffe to work at the Physico-Technical Institute in Petrograd.
In parallel, since 1923 he collaborated with the State Institute of Music Science in Moscow. In 1920 he invented the Theremin electromusical instrument, which later made it very famous. The literature devoted to Lenin's life describes his meeting with Theremin in the Kremlin in March 1922. During the meeting, Lev Sergeevich showed his instrument, explained the principle of its operation, and Lenin tried to perform Glinka’s “Lark” on the theremin.
Being a very versatile person, Theremin invented many different automatic systems (automatic doors, automatic lighting, etc.), alarms and security devices. In 1925-1926 he invented one of the first television systems - “Darnovision”.
In 1927, with the assistance of Academician Ioffe, Theremin received an invitation to the International Conference on Physics and Electronics in Frankfurt am Main. Theremin's report and demonstration of his inventions were a huge success and brought him worldwide fame.
American period
In 1928, Termen, remaining a Soviet citizen, moved to the United States. Upon arrival in the United States, he patented the theremin and his security alarm system and sold the license for the right to manufacture these devices to RCA (Radio Corporation of America).
At the direction of the head of Soviet military intelligence, Yan Berzin, with the money he earned, Termen organized the Teletouch company 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 a director of Teletouch Inc. At the same time, he developed alarm systems for the Sing Sing and Alcatraz prisons.
Soon Lev Theremin became a very popular person in New York. 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.
With the best orchestras, Lev Theremin gave numerous concerts throughout America and Europe. Orders for theremins came from different countries.
A talented ballerina and beauty, popular in the USA, black woman Lavinia Williams, became his wife (the marriage with his first wife broke up).
Repressions and rewards
In 1938, Theremin was recalled to Moscow. He secretly left the United States, having issued a power of attorney to the owner of the Teletouch company, 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. From then until the end of the sixties, Theremin was listed as deceased in America, and for many years in encyclopedic reference books there were dates next to his name (1896-1938).
In Leningrad, Theremin unsuccessfully tried 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, which his daughter Natalya Termen also disseminated in her interviews, he was accused 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 8 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 (the so-called “sharashka”), where he worked for about 8 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.
In 1947, he was rehabilitated, but continued to work in closed design bureaus in the NKVD system, where he was involved, in particular, in the development of eavesdropping systems. One of his developments is the Buran eavesdropping system, which uses a reflected infrared beam to read glass vibrations in the windows of the room being tapped. It was this invention of Theremin that was awarded the Stalin Prize of the first degree. But due to the very piquant status of the laureate (at the time of presentation for the prize, Theremin was still a prisoner) and the closed nature of his works, the award was not publicly announced anywhere. In 1948, he and his wife, Maria Gushchina, had two daughters - Natalya Termen and Elena Termen.
Last years
From 1964 to 1967, Theremin worked in the laboratory of the Moscow Conservatory, devoting all his efforts to the development of new electric musical instruments, as well as the restoration of everything that he managed to invent in the 1930s. According to some reports, during this period Theremin worked “on a voluntary basis”, for free.
In 1967, after the publication in the New York Times of a note that Theremin was alive and working in the USSR, he was fired from the Moscow Conservatory, all his instruments were chopped up with an ax and thrown into a landfill. It was not without difficulty that he got a job in a laboratory at the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University. Formally, Theremin was listed as a worker, but in fact continued independent scientific research. Active scientific activity L. S. Termen’s work continued almost until his death.
In 1989, a trip took place (together with her daughter, Natalia Theremin) to the festival in 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, 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 the laboratory room on Lomonosovsky Prospekt, all his instruments were broken, and part of the archives were stolen. The police did not solve the crime.
In 1993, Lev Theremin died. 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.
- 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 1921, Lev Theremin met with Lenin at the VIII All-Russian Electrotechnical Congress. Theremin's invention delighted Lenin, and in 1922 they met in the Kremlin.
- February 9, 1945 to the person invited to celebrate the 20th anniversary pioneer camp“Artek” presented the US Ambassador Averell Harriman with a wooden panel made of valuable wood species (sandalwood, boxwood, sequoia, ivory palm, Persian parrotia, mahogany and ebony, black alder), depicting the coat of arms of the United States. A listening device developed by Theremin was installed in it, which allowed him to listen to conversations in the ambassador’s office for almost 8 years. The design of the “bug” turned out to be so successful that when examining the gift, the American intelligence services did not notice anything. After its discovery, the “bug” was presented to the UN as evidence of the intelligence activities of the USSR, but the principle of its operation remained unsolved for several years.
- 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 had to study at the department of Marxism-Leninism for five years, 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 took place in Moscow electronic music Lev Sergeevich Theremin and English musician Brian Eno.
In the early 1990s in Moscow, opposite the Cheryomushkinsky market, a 97-year-old old man lived in a tiny room in a communal apartment. One day, in the old man’s absence, someone destroyed his closet, which served him not only as a home, but also as a scientific laboratory: he broke his instruments and destroyed his notes. The old man was forced to move in with his daughter, and there he soon died. The crime remained unsolved. But it’s unlikely that anyone would be interested in destroying the laboratory, except for the neighbors in the communal apartment - who would like it when an ancient old man occupies a room, and even carries out some incomprehensible experiments?
This old man's name was Lev Theremin.
Perhaps not everyone reading these lines is familiar with this name. First, let's briefly talk about what he invented. Theremin Lev Sergeevich (1896-1993) - inventor, physicist, musician. Creator of the world's first electronic musical instrument, the theremin (1919-20), one of the first televised vision systems (1925-26), the world's first rhythm machine, Rhythmikon (1932), security alarm systems, automatic doors and lighting, the first and most advanced listening devices, etc. The principles of the theremin were also used by Theremin when creating a security system that responded to a person approaching a protected object. The Kremlin and the Hermitage, and later foreign museums, were equipped with such a system.
Lev Theremin was born on August 15, 1896 in St. Petersburg into a noble Orthodox family with French Huguenot roots; his father was a famous lawyer. In 1916 he graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in cello. And in parallel - the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Petrograd University. 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.
Already in 1919, the legendary professor A.I. Ioffe, with whom Lev studied at the university, invites him to head the laboratory of the Physico-Technical Institute. A year later, a young scientist, based on an electrical measuring instrument he developed, invents the famous theremin - an instrument that could be played simply by the slightest movements of the hand in the air. The musician moves his hands slightly closer or away from the instrument's antennas - the capacitance of the oscillatory circuit changes and, as a result, the frequency of the sound.
World-famous theremin virtuoso Clara Rockmore performs “The Swan” by Saint-Saëns
Soon the device was demonstrated to Lenin. The young scientist explained how a security alarm would work based on a theremin, and Lenin tried to perform Glinka’s “Lark” on the instrument. It is not known whether he succeeded, because to play the theremin you need to have a perfect musical ear. However, the leader appreciated the scientist’s work and Theremin continued to invent.
In those years, he invented many different automatic systems: automatic doors, automatic lighting, security alarm systems. And in 1925 he invents one of the first television systems - “far vision”.
Lev Theremin, conductor Sir Henry Wood and physicist Sir Oliver Lodge, London, 1927.
In 1927, Theremin was invited to an international music exhibition in Frankfurt am Main. His report and demonstration of the theremin are simply a resounding success: “the virtuoso touches space,” newspapers write, his music is “the music of the spheres.” After this, Termen, remaining a Soviet citizen, moved to the USA: on the one hand, as a great inventor, on the other, of course, “on instructions from the Motherland.”
In the USA, he patented the theremin and his security alarm system. Developed alarm systems for Sing Sing and Alcatraz prisons. He 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.
Soon Theremin became a very popular person in New York. In the mid-1930s, he was one of the world's twenty-five celebrities and a member of the millionaires' club. 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.
Theremin also divorced his wife Anna Konstantinova and married Lavinia Williams, a dancer of the first American black ballet. Obviously, it was this step that displeased the Soviet authorities - after all, by marrying a black woman, Theremin became persona non grata in many houses and lost a significant part of his informants.
Lavinia Williams in 1955
In 1938, Theremin was recalled to Moscow. They didn’t allow me to take my wife with me - they said 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. They never saw each other again.
Then events unfold in a completely unpredictable way for Theremin. In Leningrad he tries to get a job - unsuccessfully. He moves to Moscow - and there is no work for him, a world-famous scientist. In March 1939 he was arrested.
There are two versions of what charge was brought against him. According to the first, he was accused of involvement in a fascist organization, according to the other, of preparing the murder of Kirov. He was forced to testify 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.
The investigator was not even embarrassed by the fact that Foucault’s pendulum was not in the Pulkovo Observatory, but in St. Isaac’s Cathedral. A special meeting of the NKVD of the USSR sentenced Theremin to eight years in the camps, and he was sent to Kolyma.
At first, Theremin served time in Magadan, working as a foreman of a construction team. However, his 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. His assistant here was Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, who later became 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.
Another development of Termen is the Buran listening system, which uses a reflected infrared beam to read the vibrations of glass 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.
Soviet endovibrator inside a replica of the Great Seal of the United States, National Museum of Cryptography at the US National Security Agency. Photo: Wikipedia
Finally, here he created the Zlatoust endovibrator, a listening device without batteries and electronics based on high-frequency resonance. Such a device was installed in the office of the American ambassadors (it was hidden in a wooden panel that was given to the embassy by Soviet pioneers) and worked undetected for eight years. Moreover, the principle of operation of the device remained unsolved for several years after the discovery of the “bug”.
In 1947, Theremin was rehabilitated, but continued to work in closed design bureaus in the NKVD system of the USSR, where he was engaged, in particular, in the development of eavesdropping systems. Then he married for the third time, to Maria Gushchina. They had two daughters, Natalya and Elena. Natalya today is one of the world's most famous performers of theremin music.
Lev Theremin plays the theremin. 1954
In 1964, Theremin got a job in the laboratory of the Moscow Conservatory. Here he devotes himself entirely to the development of electromusical instruments. However, in 1967, he was recognized by the music critic Harold Schonberg, who was at the conservatory. He writes an article about him in the New York Times. In the USA, the article becomes a sensation - after all, everyone there has long been convinced that Theremin was shot back in 1938. And he, it turns out, is alive and well, only now the greatest scientist is working in some godforsaken place. In the USSR, this article also attracted attention - and Theremin was fired from the conservatory.
After this Theremin, already very old man, not without difficulty got a job in a laboratory at the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University. Formally listed as a mechanic at the department, he held seminars in the main building of Moscow State University for those who wanted to hear about his work and study the theremin. But now his performances, which once thrilled audiences in Europe and the United States, attracted only a few oddballs.
Theremin did not lose heart, he continued to work and was generally distinguished by a rare love of life. When, in the 1970s, his second wife Lavinia, having learned that her Leon was still alive, began corresponding with him, he even asked her to marry him again. He joked about his own immortality - and as proof he suggested reading his last name backwards: “Theremin - does not die!” And the world did not forget about him. In the late 80s - early 90s, he finally got the opportunity to travel abroad, he was invited to the festival in Bourges (France) and to Stanford University.
Lev Theremin at Stanford University. 1991
In his homeland he finds it difficult, with the help of Hero Soviet Union, the legendary pilot Valentina Grizodubova, managed to knock out a tiny room for a research laboratory. The same one that was destroyed by unknown vandals. Theremin died on November 3, 1993. Later newspapers wrote: “At ninety-seven years old, Lev Theremin went to those who made up the face of the era - but behind the coffin, except for his daughters with their families and several men carrying the coffin, there was no one ...”
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 the State Institute of 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 the virtuoso is not constrained by inert material, “the virtuoso touches spaces.” The incomprehensibility of where the sound is coming from is shocking. Some 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, Theremin, 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, Termen 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 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 he continued independent scientific research. The active scientific work of L. S. Theremin 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 being to support 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.”
see also
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] / main 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).
On the evening of November 3, my friends and I drank a glass to commemorate the soul of the inventor and musician Lev Sergeevich Termen. I have never seen this man in my life, but I have been fascinated by his magical talent since childhood, when I first heard the amazing musical instrument theremin, from which all modern electronic music originated.
Lev Sergeevich Termen (1896-1993
invented
1. Group of electric musical instruments:
Theremin
Rhythmicon
Terpsitone
2. Security alarm
3. Unique system eavesdropping "Buran"
4. The world's first television installation - far vision
worked on:
Speech recognition system
Human freezing technology
Military sonar
In the spring of 1926, engineer Lev Theremin demonstrated at the People's Commissariat of Defense the world's first television installation - far vision. He installed the camera lens on the street, placed the screen in his office, and the Red commanders Ordzhonikidze, Voroshilov, Budyonny and Tukhachevsky cried out in delight: on the screen Stalin was walking across the yard!
It took Termen only a year to solve a fantastic problem - the creation of electrical foresight. However, for him, it seemed, there were no difficulties in life at all. From a young age, he amazed those around him with his talents: he was fond of mathematics, physics, and something was always exploding in his room. At the university, Theremin studied simultaneously in the physics and astronomy faculties, while simultaneously studying cello at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.
Before the revolution, he managed to graduate from a military engineering school and even fought for the Tsar Father with the rank of second lieutenant in a radio engineering battalion. But the Bolsheviks did not shoot him, but, on the contrary, took him into service in the electrical battalion. And a year later he was appointed head of the most powerful radio station in the country, the Tsarskoye Selo radio station.
After demobilization in 1920, he was invited to work at the Physico-Technical Institute by Professor Ioffe. Theremin receives the task of doing radio measurements of the dielectric constant of gases at variable temperatures and pressures. During testing, it turned out that the device produced a sound, the height and strength of which depended on the position of the hand between the plates of the capacitor. Perhaps a simple physicist would not have attached any importance to this, but a physicist - a graduate of the conservatory - tried to compose a melody from these sounds. And it worked!
This is how the musical instrument theremin was born - the voice of Theremin. And a simplified version of the theremin - a security alarm - built on the same principle: as soon as the attacker found himself in the electric field, a sound signal was heard. By the way, nowadays in expensive cars The alarm system, which is based on Theremin’s invention, is still being installed.
And in the life of Lev Sergeevich it became the first step on the path to fame. Although his colleagues chuckled: “Theremin plays Gluck on a voltmeter,” this did not bother the scientist at all. In 1921, he demonstrates his invention at the VIII All-Russian Electrotechnical Congress. The surprise of the audience knew no bounds - no strings or keys, a timbre unlike anything else. The Pravda newspaper published an enthusiastic review, and radio concerts were held for a wide audience. In addition, during the congress, the GOELRO plan was adopted, and Theremin, with his unique power tool, could become an excellent propagandist of the plan for electrification of the entire country.
A few months after the congress, Termen was invited to the Kremlin.
Stop, whoever is coming!
In addition to Lenin, there were about ten other people in the office. First, Theremin showed the high commission a security alarm. He connected the device to a large vase with a flower, and as soon as one of those present approached it, a loud bell rang. Lev Sergeevich recalled: “One of the military men said that this was wrong. Lenin asked: “Why is it wrong?” And the military man took a warm hat, put it on his head, wrapped his arm and leg in a fur coat and began to slowly crawl towards my alarm on his haunches. The signal again it worked out."
And yet the main “hero” of the audience was the theremin. Lenin liked the instrument so much that he gave the go-ahead for Theremin to tour and ordered that he be given a free train ticket “to popularize the new instrument” throughout the country.
By the way, another impressive feature of Theremin’s life is connected with Lenin.
Lev Sergeevich was passionate about the idea of fighting death. He studied studies of animal cells frozen in permafrost, and wondered what would happen to people if they were frozen and then thawed. When news of the leader’s death became known, Theremin sent his assistant to Gorki with a proposal to freeze Lenin’s body so that years later, when the technology had been worked out, he could be resurrected from the dead. But the assistant returned with sad news: internal organs have already been removed, the body is prepared for embalming. With that, Theremin abandoned research on human revitalization. And decades later, his idea was embodied in America, and now dozens of frozen lucky people are waiting for resurrection.
An episode that could have been a milestone
After demonstrating the television installation at the People's Commissariat for Education, Theremin showed it at the V All-Union Congress of Physicists in Moscow. The invention caused a sensation, Ogonyok and Izvestia wrote with delight: “Theremin’s name is included in the history of world science along with Popov and Edison!” It seemed that it was a stone's throw from experiment to serial production...
Theremin was offered to create a television system for border military units. But it did not reach the army: the country’s technical base was too poor. Therefore, the developments were kept secret, and the title of pioneer in the field of television a few years later went to an emigrant from Russia, Vladimir Zvorykin.
Knocked out "Grand Opera" and others
In the summer of 1927, an international conference on physics and electronics was held in Frankfurt am Main. The young Country of Soviets needed to present itself with dignity. And Theremin with his instrument became the trump card of the Russian delegation. He amazed the Europeans with his report on the theremin and with classical music concerts for the general public: “heavenly music”, “voices of angels” - the newspapers were choked with delight.
Invitations from Berlin, London, and Paris followed one after another. Theremin's most enchanting concert took place in Paris: the conservative Grand Opera theater for the first time in its history gave the hall to some unknown Russian for the whole evening. Such an influx of spectators (even standing tickets for boxes were sold) and such success in the theater have not been seen for 35 years...
Meanwhile, Joffe, who was in the USA at that time, received orders from several companies to produce 2000 theremins with the condition that Theremin would come to America to supervise the work. But instead of one business trip, Lev Sergeevich received two: from the People’s Commissar of Education Lunacharsky and from the Military Department.
Trump on the table!
And so the handsome young Lev Theremin sails on the ocean liner Majestic to America. The world-famous violinist József Sighetti, who was sailing on the same ship, became envious of the fees that the largest businessmen in America offered Theremin for the honor of being the first to hear the theremin. But the inventor gave the first concert for the press, scientists and famous musicians. The success was impressive, and with the permission of the Soviet authorities, Theremin founded the Teletouch studio company in New York for the production of theremins.
Things went brilliantly. Theremin concerts took place in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Boston. Thousands of Americans enthusiastically began to learn to play the theremin, and General Electric Corporation and RCA (Radio Corporation of America) bought licenses to produce it.
The “great crisis” that broke out at the turn of the 1930s ruined many rich people. But he didn’t knock Theremin down. Of course, the people had no time for music, but the inventive Russian had one more trump card - a security alarm. Teletouch Corporation quickly refocused on its production, and Theremin volume sensors were torn off with their hands. They were even installed in the terrible US prison Sing Sing and in Fort Knox, where the American gold reserves were kept. So everything was fine with business, but there was a crisis in the music field.
Cake for a violinist with a theremin
In the enthusiastic chorus of Theremin's fans, voices of dissatisfaction began to be heard: at concerts he was shamelessly out of tune. The fact is that playing the theremin purely is incredibly difficult: the performer has no reference points (like, for example, the keys of a piano or the strings of a violin) and has to rely solely on hearing and muscle memory.
Theremin clearly lacked performing skills. A virtuoso was needed here. And then fate brought him together with a young emigrant from Russia, Clara Reisenberg. As a child, she was known as a miracle child, a violinist with a great future. But either she overplayed her hands, or because of a hungry childhood, she had to part with the violin: her muscles could not withstand the load. But the theremin was within reach, and Clara quickly learned to play it. Not without whirlwind romance, especially since Theremin was free by that time.
For the first time, Theremin married the lovely Katya Konstantinova in 1921, and before coming to America, their family life was smooth and stable. But in New York, Katya was able to find work only in the suburbs and came home once a week. After six months of such “family” life, a young man came to Theremin and said that he and Katya loved each other. And then it became known that the visitor was a member of a fascist organization. And the Soviet embassy demanded that Termen divorce his wife. Which is what he did. Therefore, by the time of his meeting with Clara, Lev Sergeevich was open to new love.
He is 38 years old, she is 18. They were a luxurious couple, they loved to go to cafes and restaurants. Lev Sergeevich courted her very beautifully and loved to surprise his girlfriend with various miracles. For example, for her birthday, he gave her a cake that rotated around its axis and was decorated with a candle that lit up when approaching it.
The beautiful romance was not destined to end with a wedding. Clara chose someone else - Robert Rockmore, a lawyer and successful impresario, so she music career was provided.
Why do walls float?
And Theremin plunged headlong into his work. Upon his arrival in America, he rented a six-story mansion on 54th Avenue for 99 years. In addition to personal apartments, it housed a workshop and a studio. Here Lev Sergeevich often played music with Albert Einstein: the physicist on the violin, the inventor on the theremin. Einstein was fascinated by the idea of combining music and spatial images. And Theremin figured out how to do this: he invented the rhythmicon, a light-musical instrument. Huge transparent wheels with a geometric pattern printed on them rotated in front of a strobe light. As soon as the musician changed the pitch of the sound, the frequency of the strobe flashes and the patterns changed - the spectacle was impressive. Well, the fantasy began when the walls of the studio rose and fell. Of course, not for real, but with the help of a trick of light. The spellbound visitors gasped in surprise!
Rumors about these experiments attracted many famous people to the studio. Among Theremin's guests were millionaires DuPont, Ford and Rockefeller. However, Termen himself by the mid-30s was included in the list of twenty-five celebrities of the world. And he was even a member of the millionaires' club.
Was he really a millionaire? It is not known for certain. Some say that Teletouch Corporation brought huge amounts of money to Theremin personally and to Soviet Russia. And others claim that Theremin was financed by military intelligence. Because the true purpose of his business trip to America was espionage activity.
Famous spy
Every two weeks Lev Sergeevich came to a small country cafe, where two young men were waiting for him. They listened to his reports and gave him new tasks. However, these tasks were not burdensome and did not particularly distract Theremin from his work. And he was already completely carried away by the most fantastic of his ideas - an instrument that gave birth to music from dance. In fact, this is a type of theremin: the sound is created not only by the hands, but also by the movements of the whole body, and the name was given to it accordingly - terpsiton - after the goddess of dance Terpsichore. In this case, each sound corresponded to a lamp of a certain color. Can you imagine what an extraordinary spectacle it was, because any movement of the dancer was echoed by sounds and the flickering of multi-colored lights!
To create a concert program, Theremin invited a group of dancers from the African American Ballet Company. Unfortunately, it was not possible to achieve harmony and accuracy from them, and the project had to be postponed. But in this troupe danced the beautiful mulatto Lavinia Williams, who captivated Lev Sergeevich not only as a ballerina, but also as a woman. Theremin decided to get married.
It never occurred to him that marriage to a black woman would radically change his life. But as soon as the lovers registered their marriage, the doors of many houses in New York were closed to Theremin: America did not yet know political correctness. He lost informants, which caused serious dissatisfaction with Soviet intelligence. And in 1938, Theremin was ordered to immediately leave for Russia. Lavinia was told that she would come to her husband on the next ship.
The spouses did not see each other again. And Termen kept the marriage certificate issued by the Russian embassy in America until the end of his days.
Kirov's killer
Ten years after leaving Russia, Theremin arrived in Leningrad. And it turned out that no one needed him: there were almost no old workers left at the Physico-Technical Institute. Theremin went to look for work in Moscow, but on March 15, they came for him to a hotel near the Kievsky railway station with an arrest warrant.
In the Butyrka prison, the investigator told Theremin that he, as a defector, would, of course, be shot if he did not cooperate. A month later, Theremin “admitted” that, together with a group of astronomers, he planned the murder of Kirov. His version was this: Kirov (who was already dead by that time!) was going to visit the Pulkovo Observatory. Astronomers planted a landmine in a Foucault pendulum. And Theremin, using a radio signal from the USA, was supposed to blow it up as soon as Kirov approached the pendulum. The investigator was not even embarrassed by the fact that Foucault’s pendulum is not in Pulkovo, but in the Kazan Cathedral! Lev Sergeevich was given eight years and sent to Kolyma.
But Termen spent only a year in the camp. He was appointed senior over the criminals who carried stones from the mountain and paved the road with them. Theremin mechanized the process by building a wheelbarrow with a monorail. Work is in full swing! The brigade's rations were tripled, and the papers about the unusual prisoner were sent to Moscow.
In the winter of 1940, he was transferred to Omsk, to the Tupolev aviation sharashka, where throughout the war he developed equipment for radio control of unmanned aircraft and radio beacons for naval operations. But the crowning achievement of his stay in the sharashka was the invention of the Buran listening system.
Trojan horse from the pioneers
On Independence Day, July 4, 1945, the American Ambassador to Russia Averell Harriman received a wooden panel depicting an eagle as a gift from Soviet pioneers. The panel was hung in the ambassador's office. And then the American intelligence services lost peace: a mysterious information leak began. Only 7 years later, a mysterious cylinder with a membrane inside was discovered inside the gift. For a year and a half, engineers struggled to solve this trick. The secret turned out to be simple: an invisible ray was directed from the house opposite to the office window, and the membrane, oscillating in time with the speech, reflected it back, and it was recorded on a special device.
Then Theremin improved his Buran so much that the membrane was no longer needed - its role was played by window glass. Rumor has it that Buran is still in service with our secret services.
The Soviet government highly appreciated the merits of the inventor - in 1947, the prisoner (!) was awarded the Stalin Prize, 1st degree. And after his release, Termen was given a two-room apartment on Leninsky Prospekt.
It seemed that the stupid and evil misunderstanding was over and now the inventor would be showered with honors. But Theremin did not receive any official titles; all his patents were covered with the stamp “Soviet secret”. And Lev Sergeevich continued to work in secret KGB laboratories. Soon he found himself a new wife there - a young typist Masha Gushchina, who gave birth to twin daughters.
For almost twenty years, Theremin was engaged in specific developments for the all-powerful department. At first, these were promising works - speech recognition systems, voice identification, military hydroacoustics. But over time, priorities have changed. As Theremin recalled, “supposedly in the West they came up with devices for determining where flying saucers were, and we also had to fight over such devices. I understood that this was a scam, and I couldn’t refuse - and one day I decided that it was better to retire.” .
The employers did not object, considering that they could not take anything from the old man, and in 1964 Termen finally parted with the special services, under whose invisible eye he had been for almost 40 years.
Theremin doesn't die!
70 years old. It seemed like life was over. But Lev Sergeevich, true to his motto “Theremin never dies!” (this is how his last name is read backwards), gets a job in the acoustic laboratory of the Moscow State Conservatory. Nothing disturbed the old man’s measured life until, in 1968, a New York Times correspondent, preparing a report on the Moscow Conservatory, learned that the great Theremin was alive.
This sensational news in America was perceived as a resurrection from the dead: all American encyclopedias indicated that Theremin died in 1938. A flood of letters from his overseas friends poured into Lev Sergeevich’s name, and reporters from various newspapers and television companies tried to meet with him. The conservative authorities, frightened by such interest in the modest person of the mechanic, simply fired him. And all the equipment was thrown into the trash.
For the last twenty-five years, Theremin has worked in the acoustics laboratory of Moscow State University. Mechanic 6th category. He slowly worked on his theremins - he restored some, improved some, and even came up with one in which the sound through a system of photocells arose from just the musician’s glance.
Lev Sergeevich also frequented the Scriabin Museum, where he took part in the creation of a musical synthesizer. The long-awaited time has come - the era of electronic instruments. Theremin seemed to catch ideas out of thin air that sometimes seemed utopian. And later it turned out that the Japanese company Yamaha was working on these ideas independently of him.
Well, Lev Sergeevich taught his niece Lida Kavina to play the theremin. By the age of twenty, she had become a virtuoso performer and toured all over Europe with concerts. In 1989, Theremin was invited to the Experimental Music Festival in France. And he, 93 years old, went!
But most of all, at the end of his life, Termen surprised those around him with his entry into the CPSU: “I promised Lenin.” Lev Sergeevich tried before, but for " terrible crimes“He was not accepted into the party. So Termen became a communist only in 1991, simultaneously with the fall of the USSR.
a swan song
In 1951, future American director Steve Martin saw the film “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” But it was not the aliens that shocked him, but the unearthly sound of the theremin that accompanied the action. For several years he communicated with his brother using sounds similar to those produced by a theremin. And many years later, in 1980, Steve Martin was looking for music for his film. And his search led him to Clara Rockmore, who told the director about the legendary inventor. It was then that Martin had the idea to create a story about Theremin documentary. But 11 years passed before he was able to come to Moscow, meet Theremin and invite him to America. The elderly maestro walked confusedly through the streets of New York and had difficulty recognizing the places where ten years of his life had passed. The most exciting thing was the meeting with Clara Rockmore. Clara did not agree to her for a long time - years, they say, do not make a woman beautiful.
Hey, Klarenok, how old are we! said 95-year-old Theremin.
After America, he went back to the Netherlands for the Schoenberg-Kandinsky festival, and, returning to Moscow, found his room in a communal apartment in complete destruction - broken furniture, broken equipment, trampled records. Apparently, one of the neighbors really needed his room. The daughter took Lev Sergeevich to her place. But vitality it ran out, and a few months later, on November 3, 1993, Theremin died.
Steve Martin's film "The Electronic Odyssey of Lev Theremin" was released after the death of the hero. But his theremins still live today. Among the many companies producing them is Moog Mugic, owned by the inventor of the first synthesizer, Robert Moog. He once said about Theremin: “He’s just a genius who is capable of anything!”
He failed in only one thing - to become the national pride of Russia...
Theremin sounds in:
1. album "Territory" by the group "Aquarium"
2. compositions "Good Vibrations" by the pop group "Beach Boys"
3. Hitchcock's film Spellbound ("Charmed")
4. Bill Weider's film "The Lost Weekend"
No, actually, why is that? Why does one man live peacefully with his wife and household, never get more than a hundred miles from his estate in his entire life, and arrange his existence so decorously, so boringly, that biographers may shoot themselves or hang themselves, but it’s as if there’s nothing to write about? .
But the other one will be so deliciously smeared across the canvas of history, across the world map, through the intricacies of everyday life, that such life experience would be enough for a whole dozen people. At the same time, it is absolutely not necessary to have an adventurous character and a round-the-clock readiness for adventure: the role of an individual with a bright destiny may well fall to calm people, armchair scientists, and quiet bores.
Stormy Overture
Lev Theremin plays a musical synthesizer of his own invention (theremin), 1930s.
Levushka Theremin has been exactly like this since childhood. The thoughtful, calm boy learned to read at the age of three and loved this activity most of all. I started studying music at the age of five. And from the age of seven, he also became addicted to experiments in his home physics laboratory, which doubled as an engineering workshop. The parents equipped the laboratory especially for Levushka - they could afford to encourage a gifted child. The Theremin family was ancient, of French roots, and managed to advance in Russia. Since the 14th century, the existing Theremin motto sounded like
“No more, no less” and fully reflected the moderation characteristic of the family that chose him. Theremins were rich, but avoided pomp; noble, but did not strive to revolve in high society. Levushka graduated from a regular metropolitan gymnasium with a silver medal and entered two educational institutions: to the conservatory for cello class and to the physics and mathematics department of the university. He managed to finish the conservatory, but did not succeed in science. The year 1916 began, the war was on, and the twenty-year-old student was drafted into the army.
He was lucky enough not to get to the German front - by the beginning of the revolution, Lev was still working at the Tsarskoye Selo radio station, where he was sent immediately after graduating from the Nikolaev Military Engineering School. After the Bolsheviks seized power, he, along with the entire staff of the radio station, was enrolled in the Red Army, without being particularly interested in the political views of the newly minted Red Army soldiers.
Young Leo, like a true scientist, accepted changes in fate with praiseworthy calm. However, this did not save him from the attention of the new government, and in 1919 he was arrested as a nobleman, an officer and a possible participant in a possible rebellion. The years of the Red Terror passed, and Lev was quite likely to get a bullet in the back of his head after a minute farce at the revolutionary tribunal, but he was lucky. The lottery of death kept Theremin's black ticket, and six months later the bureaucratic-punitive institution spat out its victim on the cobblestones of the St. Petersburg street - more or less free and not quite understanding what, in fact, happened to him.
Having looked around and appreciating the scale of the changes that had taken place in the world, the young technical genius directed his steps in the only direction available to him - to the first physics laboratory he came across. A month after his release, he was already working in the physical and technical department of the Radiological Institute.
Theremin - the wild voice of the era
On instructions from his supervisor, Professor Ioffe, Theremin worked in the laboratory to create a device for studying the properties of gases. According to the conditions of the experiment, the gases were placed in an electric capacitor, and Theremin was interested in the fact that the device began to react when the researcher’s hands approached it - the gases inside the capacitor changed their parameters when the mass approached from the outside. Eventually, Theremin connected a condenser to a microphone and began experimenting with the resulting sounds. They were very unusual; he had never seen anything similar in nature. The resulting hum was simultaneously reminiscent of the howling of the wind, the voice of a person, and the sound of a cello. Theremin was not only a talented physicist, but also an excellent musician. He was able to appreciate the wild beauty of this mechanical sound born of science.
This is how the theremin appeared - the very first musical synthesizer.
Although even before the first theremin (or etheroton, as Theremin first christened his brainchild) was finally modeled, the Radiological Institute had already reported on the creation of a sound signaling apparatus. Theremin led a group of specialists who were tasked with bringing the security system to fruition. Because music is lyrics, but a box that roars when someone approaches it is a politically correct, extremely important thing!
However, the music box was also not deprived of attention. At least in 1921, when Theremin and his invention were sent to the All-Russian Electrotechnical Congress, the general public was delighted and the newspapers did not skimp on praise. The theremin was called “an instrument of the proletariat,” “a device that can make anyone a musician,” and “a musical tractor.” (The word “tractor” did not mean then exactly what it means now. To understand how the Soviet people of the 20s perceived it, try saying out loud several times: “500 gig processor, 50 RAM, wireless, high technology... "Yes, something like this.) And on your iPhone, the theremin sounded a ringtone called Sci-fi.
How it works?
The basis of this musical instrument is two electric generators. One of them creates an electrical signal of a constant (or reference) frequency Ch1 - about 100 kHz. The frequency of the signal from the second generator Ch2 can fluctuate depending on whether something affects the antenna protruding from it or not.
Both signals are fed to a frequency converter, which compares their parameters. When the device is quietly collecting dust in the corner, Ch1 is equal to Ch2. The transducer is inactive and the theremin is silent. But if someone passes their hand over the antenna, the parameters of the oscillating circuit of the second generator change. After all, the human body has its own electrical capacity. Hand in in this case capacitor brought to the antenna. The converter registers the difference between Ch1 and Ch2 and creates a new signal with frequency Ch3 (Ch1 minus Ch2). The Ch3 signal is sent to the amplifier, and then to the speaker. This is how the sound is produced (quite disgusting if a beginner raises his hand).
Most theremins have two antennas. The straight line is responsible for the tone of the sound, the arcuate line is responsible for the volume. To play the instrument you need to have perfect pitch, because hand movements cannot be “adjusted” once you start playing. The device reacts to any movements and immediately shows trembling in the hands or falsehood.
And the leader is red
The invention of the 25-year-old genius so excited the country's public that Lenin personally expressed his desire to meet the scientist. Theremin was an easy-going person. It never occurred to him to screw a box of explosives to the theremin or otherwise hint to the head of the new government that Lev Theremin had not forgotten either about the prison or about the nationalized property of the family. On the contrary, Theremin happily performed several classical works in front of Lenin, and then excitedly controlled the clumsy hands of the leader, who tried to extract something more or less harmonious from the theremin.
Lev Theremin plays the theremin.
Lenin also expressed interest in the everyday reincarnation of the theremin - a sound alarm - and soon after the meeting he sent several letters to various organizations with a proposal to adapt the invention to the needs of the revolution. Ilyich strongly advised Theremin himself to join the party. He promised to think about it.
After this meeting, Theremin remained in reverence for Lenin for the rest of his life. A big shock for the scientist was the information that after the leader’s death, his brain was removed from his skull and placed in a jar of alcohol. Just at that time, Termen became interested in the ideas of freezing living organisms and begged to freeze Ilyich’s body in order to be able to soon resurrect the political genius for the common good. But alcohol killed brain cells, and Theremin perceived this as a fatal fact (after all, they knew almost nothing about genetics and cloning at that time).
When, in his decrepit age, Theremin was asked what particularly struck him about the leader, he answered: “The most unexpected thing for me was that he was bright red. You don’t see this in black and white photographs.”
No, all of me will not die!
It was in the 1920s that Termen began to think deeply about immortality. This atheist, it must be said, treated death without any respect; he considered it physiological nonsense, harmful and unfair. In the depths of his soul he suspected that it would not affect him (however, we all suspect this, don’t we?), but he considered it wise to take measures in advance. Theremin saw a guarantee of immortality in freezing the bodies of the dead until the time when science could restore life to them again. In those years, Lev Sergeevich made his first will, in which he asked to bury himself in permafrost. Even though there are reliable signs that he is not in danger of death (for example, the surname “Theremin” is read backwards as “does not die”), but you never know what can happen!
Theremin began conducting biological experiments with freezing. Unfortunately, he was not a biologist, and this did not end in anything epoch-making. But at the same time, he continued to work at his place of duty and in passing almost invented a television - the first in the world. Or a “far-sighting system”, according to his own definition. It worked in much the same way as a modern TV, only very, very poorly. The image on the screen was shaking and extremely blurry, but in 1926 Theremin’s “visionary” seemed like a complete miracle. The leadership of the Red Army was the first to put its paw on the invention. Personally, Comrade Voroshilov shook Theremin’s hand for a long time, and then ordered the installation of a “far viewer” in his office.
Defector
Inventor Lev Theremin (left), conductor Sir Henry Wood and scientist Sir Oliver Lodge (right), at a demonstration of broadcast music, at the Savoy Hotel, London, 1927.
In 1927, Theremin was sent to the Frankfurt Music Exhibition to present to the world a Soviet musical innovation - the theremin. The decision to send was made by the leadership of the Red Army intelligence department, and before leaving, the scientist was personally instructed by the head of military intelligence, Yan Berzin. What tasks were set for Theremin? He never talked about it, but, apparently, he was ordered to spy a little - on Russian emigrants or German colleagues. Knowing Theremin’s character, we can suggest that he did not angrily refuse the dubious role of a spy, but chose to quietly and peacefully ignore the assignment, seemingly nodding respectfully at what was located between those ears.
The Frankfurt exhibition turned into a grand tour throughout Europe. Theremin and his fantastic musical apparatus were eager to be seen in Paris, Marseille, London, Berlin, Rome... Any of his concerts was accompanied by a full house, the audience swooned from the “inhuman music of the highest spheres.” Albert Einstein was enormously impressed by his performance in Berlin, and wrote later that he was “really shocked by this sound emerging from space.” The sound that emerged from the void in front of the hands making mysterious passes seemed not so much a technical progress, but rather a mystical action, communication with the spirits of composers of the past, a spiritualistic session. The image of Theremin began to smell fairly redolent of holiness and charlatanism, and therefore he became one of the most scandalous and desirable heroes. It is not surprising that at one point he began to receive tempting offers from US impresarios, who felt that the Old World seemed to be going to squeeze an extremely interesting thing from them.
This is how Theremin ended up in New York. The Motherland did not express its opinion on this matter. No cries of “Come back, you damn traitor!” did not follow, he was regularly sent the necessary documents from the Soviet consulate. And just as peacefully, without scandal, the US authorities accepted Theremin’s request for an immigration visa.
O brave new world!
In America, Termen gained even greater fame. The best musicians in the country took lessons in playing the theremin from him. The doors of the most respectable houses were wide open to genius. Manufacturing companies fought desperately for the right to acquire any of his patents. Money poured in like a river, and in a matter of months Theremin found himself: a) a member of the New York millionaires' club; b) director joint stock company; c) owner multi-storey building in NYC.
The brightest people of the era tried to get to know him. Charlie Chaplin came to visit him. Albert Einstein, who emigrated from Germany, loved to play music with Theremin. Gershwin and Bernard Shaw, Rockefeller and Dwight Eisenhower were proud to know the brilliant Russian. The famous beauties were not at all against his company. The latter especially inspired the young physicist, especially since his wife, Ekaterina Konstantinova, who had arrived from Moscow, suddenly unexpectedly divorced him and married some young German, with whom she left for Germany. (Subsequently, Ekaterina Konstantinova became a member of the National Socialist Party and a convinced fascist - these are the interesting things that happened to people in the distant twentieth century). And then Theremin began to make mistakes - one after another.
Firstly, he turned out to be a very bad businessman: money floated out of his hands at the speed of light.
Secondly, he hurried to sell the patent for theremin to a company that failed to implement it.
Thirdly, he married a mulatto. And in the 30s to marry blacks in America is approximately equivalent as if today you have to publicly speak there about how you despise all the black -haired bastards.
Spy passions
The mulatto was amazingly good. Her name was Lavinia Williams and she was a dancer. Especially for Lavinia, Theremin tried to invent an apparatus that could “extract music from the movement of a dancer.” But the invented “terpsiton” turned out to be a completely helpless accompaniment: he either wheezed, or squeaked, or was silent, no matter what dizzying steps the dark-skinned prima performed. The money was melting away with exceptional speed. Good friends began to communicate with the Theremin spouses in an icy voice. Termen was finally finished off by a series of newspaper publications about how hospitable New Yorkers had harbored a Soviet spy on their breasts. Theremin was accused of being an intelligence agent, collecting information about his high-society friends and prominent scientists.
The stupidest thing about this situation was that Termen actually went to the appearances. All these years, the Soviet consulate regularly contacted him and invited him to “conversations.” He walked obediently. I drank vodka with the “consuls”. It was impossible not to drink: they forced me in a very aggressive manner. Then there were conversations about nothing - about wives, performances, European politics, the successes of the socialist economy and other nonsense. It would have been easier to send consular friends a long time ago, but open confrontation was never in the nature of Lev Sergeevich. Moreover, they always willingly helped him with documents: they divorced him from Katya, married him to Lavinia. In general, no one took away Termen’s Soviet citizenship, and he himself did not refuse. Who knows?
Spy passions-2
So “you never know” has come. Debts were threateningly clicking their teeth, no new income was expected, the American intelligence services began to cut circles around the bush. As if Theremin hasn't done enough for America! Who, for example, installed the latest sound alarms on the most famous US prisons - Sing Sing and Alcatraz?
Secular acquaintances renounced him because of his black wife, scientific ones - because of his reputation as a spy. The only people who understood him and appreciated him as they should were “their own”. It was in the Soviet consulate that Lev Sergeevich was encouraged, protected and protected during this difficult period. Because they won’t abandon their own. These were approximately the thoughts that tormented the poor genius’s head and tormented him to the point that in 1938, with his own feet, he boarded the ship “Old Bolshevik” and illegally (hidden in the captain’s cabin) went home. Lavinia remained in the USA. The consular guys promised to deliver her to the USSR immediately after the scandal subsided and Lev Sergeevich re-established himself in a flourishing and prettier homeland. Here he will receive the position of director of the Institute of Acoustics, honor and respect in society, and then his wife will fly openly and with dignity - to the happy country where they live free people who don't care what skin color they have.
Bad memory, good nostalgia and the Soviet press do terrible things to the human brain. The American spy Theremin spent only a few months at large - almost in complete isolation, because “at home” everyone understood well what it was like to communicate with defectors, Americans and traitors. In 1939 he was arrested and received eight years in the camps.
Sharashka
Theremin spent his first year honestly laying the Magadan highway and almost exhausted the survival resource allotted to man. But he was lucky again: he ended up in the famous “Tupolev sharashka” - special zone for prisoners-scientists, from whom, in exchange for more or less decent feeding, they were required to advance Soviet science to new horizons. Termen spent the entire war in the sharashka and felt relatively well there after Kolyma. His team performed the most noble work - they designed listening devices for the NKVD: microscopic, camouflaged, for radio beacons, for airplanes, for telephone lines, for embassies, for institutions, for citizens' apartments. All these years, Theremin’s wife attacked the Soviet consulate with a demand to immediately transport her to her beloved husband, but the consulate remained silent. Lavinia became aware of her husband's fate only in the late 50s.
The Bald Eagle Case
In 1947, Lev Theremin was not only released, but was even awarded the Stalin Prize of the first degree for a brilliant operation involving the installation of wiretapping in the American embassy. Theremin's team has developed a unique “bug” of a completely new modification. It was a hollow metal cylinder, devoid of any electronic filling, with a membrane and a pin protruding from it. The secret was that when irradiated by an external electromagnetic field of a suitable frequency, the cavity of the cylinder came into resonance with it and the radio wave was re-radiated back through the pin antenna. The “bug” was built into the American coat of arms, made of valuable wood. During his visit to Yalta, the American ambassador was presented with the coat of arms by the Artek pioneers. The ambassador was touched and hung it in his office. The “bug” functioned properly for almost 20 years, informing the authorities about literally every word spoken in the ambassador’s reception room.
One more life
After his release, Lev Theremin remained in the sharashka, already a civilian employee, because there was absolutely nowhere to go. Then he was given a two-room apartment. Theremin married a young lady, and they had two daughters. In 1956, Theremin was completely rehabilitated, and for almost forty years he continued to do what he loved - inventing. True, he no longer made great discoveries and ingenious inventions, such as the theremin, far-vision or sound signaling. To work, Theremin required serious subsidies, laboratories and qualified assistants, but he was assigned to manage small objects, insignificant for a figure of such a scale. But he didn’t want to return to the KGB laboratory. I managed to explain why in one of my last interviews. “All sorts of nonsense took up time from my inventive work. Allegedly, in the West they came up with devices to determine where flying saucers are, and in order to find out who launches them and why, we also had to work on similar devices. Then - supposedly the Americans created equipment for transmitting mental energy (and aggressive energy) over long distances - and fight again! I understood that this was a scam, and I couldn’t refuse. And one day I decided that it was better not to do this, but to retire. I left in 1966.” Late 80s external world for some reason I remembered Termen again: several articles dedicated to him were published in the West, where he was called a KGB agent, informant and informer. Almost at the same time, Theremin received invitations from France and the USA to visit places of “military glory” - to give a series of Theremin concerts where he played 60 years ago. Her daughter, one of several dozen professional theremin players in the world, undertook to accompany her father on this tour.
In 1991, Lev Sergeevich suddenly remembered Lenin and regretted that he had disappointed his hopes - he had not joined the party. Theremin decided to make amends to the leader and managed to become a member of the CPSU - exactly a few months before its closure.
And in 1993, the scientist died, having lived a whole century without three years. And not just any century, but the very same century, the twentieth, the living embodiment of which Lev Theremin happened to become. Although, strictly speaking, he didn’t really ask for it, but simply obediently went where the tenacious paws of fate dragged him. Journalist and writer Elena Petrushanskaya, who managed to interview Termen several times in last years his life, says that he himself was aware of this humility: “Life, no matter how long it lasts, must be lived with dignity to the end. It seems that Theremin did not succeed.
Tim Blake of Hawkwind performing in London in February 2014
Beach Boys "Good Vibrations" (single, 1966).
Led Zeppelin “Whole Lotta Love” (concert film/soundtrack “The Song Remains The Same”, 1976).
Pixies "Velouria" (Bossanova, 1990).
Aquarium “Under the bridge, like Chkalov” (“Territory”, 2000).
Films: Spellbound (1945), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Ed Wood (1994), Hellboy: Hero from Hell (2004).