Lev Theremin is an inventor of electronic music, a Soviet intelligence agent, a political prisoner and a Stalin Prize laureate. Our Soviet Tesla! The extraordinary life of Lev Termen - inventor, millionaire, spy, prisoner and genius

22.04.2019

Proverbs where there are numbers Folk definition of a proverb

Cutugno with his wife. Biography. "I cheated, but I have only one woman of heart!"

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 the second year of the university, in 1916, he was drafted into the army and sent to accelerated training at the Nikolaev Engineering School, and then to the officer's electrical engineering courses. The revolution found him as a junior officer of the reserve electrical engineering battalion, which served the Tsarskoye Selo radio station, the most powerful 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 Musical Science in Moscow. In 1925-1926 he invented one of the first television systems - "Far Vision".

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 accompany him with ovations and flowers. The responses of the listeners of "music of the air", "music of ethereal waves", "music of the spheres" are enthusiastic. The musicians note that the idea of a virtuoso is not constrained by inert material, "the virtuoso touches spaces." The incomprehensibility of where the sound is coming from is shocking. Someone calls the theremin a “heavenly” instrument, some call it a “spherophone”. Striking a timbre that at the same time resembles both strings and wind instruments, and even some special human voice, as if "grown from distant times and spaces."

American period

In 1928, Theremin, while remaining a Soviet citizen, moved to the United States. Upon arrival in the United States, he patented the theremin and his security alarm system. He also licensed the serial production of a simplified version of the theremin to RCA (Radio Corporation of America).

Lev Theremin organized the Teletouch and Theremin Studio companies 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 USA, under the "roof" of which Soviet intelligence officers could work.

From 1931-1938 Theremin was the 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, Yasha Heifetz, Yehudi Menuhin, Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein have visited his studio. His circle of acquaintances included financial tycoon John Rockefeller and future US President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

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

Repression, work for state security bodies

In 1938 Termen was recalled to Moscow. He secretly left the United States, issuing a power of attorney in the name of the owner of the Teletouch firm, 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 come 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 moved to Moscow, but he also did not find a job there.

In March 1939 he was arrested. There are two versions of the charge brought against him. According to one of them, he was accused of involvement in a fascist organization, according to the other - of preparing the assassination of Kirov. He was forced to stipulate that a group of astronomers from the Pulkovo Observatory was preparing to place a land mine in Foucault's pendulum, and Theremin was to send a radio signal from the United States and detonate a land mine as soon as Kirov approached the pendulum. A special meeting at the NKVD of the USSR sentenced Termen to eight years in the camps, and he was sent to a camp on the Kolyma.

At first Termen was serving time in Magadan, working as a foreman of a construction brigade. Theremin's numerous rationalization proposals attracted the attention of the camp administration, and already in 1940 he was transferred to the Tupolev design bureau TsKB-29 (in the so-called "Tupolev sharaga"), where he worked for about eight years. Here his assistant was Sergey Pavlovich Korolev, later - the famous designer of space technology. One of the activities of Termen and Korolev was the development of unmanned aircraft radio-controlled - prototypes of modern cruise missiles.

One of Theremin's developments is the Buran eavesdropping system, which reads out the vibrations of the glass in the windows of the listening room with the help of a reflected infrared beam. It was this invention of Theremin that was awarded the Stalin Prize of the first degree in 1947. But due to the fact that the laureate at the time of presentation for the award was a prisoner and the closed nature of his work, the award was not publicly announced anywhere. [ ]

It was not without difficulty that Theremin got a job in a laboratory at the Physics Faculty of Moscow State University. In the main building of the Moscow State University, he held seminars for those wishing to hear about his work, to study the theremin; only a few people attended the seminars. Formally, Theremin was listed as a mechanic at the Physics Faculty of Moscow State University, but in fact he continued independent Scientific research... The active scientific activity of L. S. Termen continued almost until his death.

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

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

In March 1991, at the age of 95, he joined the Communist Party. When asked why he joined the crumbling party, Theremin 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 smashed, and part of the archives were stolen. The police did not solve the crime.

In 1992, the Termen Center was created in Moscow, which sets its main task 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 of two founders took place in Moscow electronic music- Lev Sergeevich Termen and English musician Brian Eno. The latter then included in his album Music For Films 3 a composition for the theremin, recorded by Russian musicians Mikhail Malin and Lydia Kavina.

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

A family

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

The principles of operation underlying the theremin were also used by Theremin when creating a security system that responds to a person's approach to a protected object. The Kremlin and the Hermitage were equipped with such a system, and later foreign museums.
In 1991, at the age of 95, a few months before the collapse of the USSR, Lev Theremin joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He explained his decision by the fact that he had once made a promise to Lenin to join the party, and that he wants to hurry up to fulfill the promise while it still exists. 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 in order to join the party, it was necessary to unlearn at the department of Marxism-Leninism for a year, which he did, having passed 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 surname the other way around: "Theremin - does not die."

Notes (edit)

BNF ID: 2011 Open Data Platform.
SNAC - 2010.
Termen Lev Sergeevich // Simon - Heiler. - M.: Soviet encyclopedia: Soviet composer, 1981. - (Encyclopedias. Dictionaries. Reference books: Musical encyclopedia: [in 6 volumes] / Ch. 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.
The date of birth of Lev Termen - August 15 according to the Julian calendar was recalculated according to the Decree on the introduction of the Western European calendar in the Russian Republic, while 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 became the official birthday of Lev Termen. [ ]
Zhirnov E. Red Terminator (unspecified) ... Kommersant. Power. (26.02.2002).
Drozd-Koroleva O., Korolev A. Theremin does not die (unspecified) ... mobimag.ru (02/01/2007).

On the evening of November 3, my friends and I had a stack of drinks to commemorate the soul of the inventor and musician Lev Sergeevich Termen. I have never seen this person 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. A group of electric musical instruments:

Thereminvox

Rhythmikon

Terpsiton

2. Security alarm

3. Unique eavesdropping system "Buran"

4. The first in the world television set- vision

worked on:

Speech recognition system

Human freezing technology

Military hydroacoustics

In the spring of 1926, engineer Lev Theremin demonstrated at the People's Commissariat of Defense the world's first television installation - far-sightedness. He set the camera lens on the street, placed the screen in the office, and the red commanders Ordzhonikidze, Voroshilov, Budyonny and Tukhachevsky screamed in unison with delight: Stalin was walking across the yard on the screen!

It took Termin only a year to solve a fantastic task - the creation of electric vision. However, for him, it seemed, in life there were no difficulties at all. From a young age he amazed those around him with his talents: he was fond of mathematics, physics, something always exploded in his room. At the University, Theremin studied simultaneously at the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, while studying cello at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.

Before the revolution, he managed to graduate from a military engineering school and even fight for the tsar-father in the rank of second lieutenant of a radio engineering battalion. But the Bolsheviks did not shoot him, but, on the contrary, took him into service in the electrotechnical battalion. And a year later he was appointed the head of the most powerful radio station in the country, Tsarskoye Selo.

After demobilization in 1920, he was invited to work at the Physico-Technical Institute by Professor Ioffe. Theremin receives the task to take up radio measurement of the dielectric constant of gases at variable temperature and pressure. During tests, it turned out that the device made a sound, the height and strength of which depended on the position of the hand between the plates of the capacitor. Perhaps just a physicist would not have attached any importance to this, but a physicist - a graduate of the conservatory tried to put together a melody from these sounds. And it worked!

This is how the Theremin was born - the voice of Theremin. And a simplified version of the theremin - a burglar alarm - built on the same principle: as soon as the attacker was in the electric field, a sound signal was heard. By the way, in our time, an alarm system is still installed in expensive cars, which is based on the invention of Theremin.

And in the life of Lev Sergeevich it was the first step on the path to fame. Although his colleagues laughed: "Theremin is playing Gluck on a voltmeter," the scientist was not at all embarrassed. In 1921, he demonstrated his invention at the VIII All-Russian Electrotechnical Congress. There was no limit to the surprise of the audience - no strings and keys, a timbre that was not like anything else. The newspaper "Pravda" published an enthusiastic review, concerts were held on the radio for wide audience... In addition, the GOELRO plan was adopted during the congress, and Theremin, with his unique power tool, could become an excellent promoter of the electrification plan for the entire country.

A few months after the congress, Theremin was invited to the Kremlin.

Halt who goes!

In the office, besides Lenin, there were ten more people. First, Theremin demonstrated a security alarm to the high commission. He attached the device to a large vase with a flower, and as soon as one of those present approached her, a loud bell rang. Lev Sergeevich recalled: “One of the military says that this is 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 squat slowly towards my alarm. turned out ".

And yet the theremin became the main "hero" of the audience. Lenin liked the instrument so much that he gave the go-ahead for Theremin's tour and ordered him to issue him a free train ticket “to popularize the new instrument” throughout the country.

By the way, another impressive touch of Theremin's life is associated with Lenin.

Lev Sergeevich was fascinated by the idea of fighting death. He studied work on the study of animal cells frozen in permafrost, and pondered what would happen to people if they were frozen and then thawed. When it became known about the death of the leader, Theremin sent his assistant to Gorki with a proposal to freeze Lenin's body, so that years later, when the technology was worked out, he would be resurrected from the dead. But the assistant returned with the sad news: the internal organs had already been removed, the body was prepared for embalming. With that, Theremin left research on the revitalization of man. And decades later, his idea was embodied in America, and now dozens of frozen lucky people are waiting for resurrection.

An episode that could be a milestone

After the demonstration of the television installation in the People's Commissariat for Education, Theremin showed it at the V All-Union Congress of Physicists in Moscow. The invention caused a furor, "Ogonyok" and "Izvestia" wrote with delight: "The name of Termen is included in the history of world science along with Popov and Edison!" It seemed that from experiment to serial production a stone's throw ...

Theremin was offered to create a television system for the border military units. But it did not reach the army: the country's technical base was too poor. Therefore, the developments were classified, and the title of discoverer in the field of television a few years later went to Vladimir Zvorykin, an emigrant from Russia.

KO "Grand Opera" and others

In the summer of 1927, an international conference on physics and electronics was held in Frankfurt am Main. The young Land of the Soviets had to present itself with dignity. And Theremin with his instrument became the trump card of the Russian delegation. He struck the Europeans with both a report on the theremin and concerts of classical music for the general public: "heavenly music", "voices of angels" - newspapers were choking with delight.

One after another followed by invitations from Berlin, London, Paris. Theremin's most enchanting concert took place in Paris: for the first time in its history, the conservative theater "Grand Opera" gave the hall for an entire evening to some unknown Russian. Such an influx of spectators (they even sold standing tickets in the boxes) and such success in the theater have not been seen for 35 years ...

Meanwhile, Ioffe, who was at that time in the United States, received orders from several companies for the production of 2000 theremins on 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 a young handsome Lev Termen sails on the ocean liner "Majestic" to America. The world famous violinist Jozsef Sighetti, who sailed on the same ship, was envious of the fees that were offered to Theremin by the largest American merchants 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 for the production of theremin in New York.

Things went brilliantly. Theremin's concerts were held in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Boston. Thousands of Americans enthusiastically began to learn to play the theremin, and General Electric and RCA (Radio Corporation of America) purchased licenses to produce it.

The "great crisis" that broke out at the turn of the 1930s ruined many rich people. But theremin he did not knock down. Of course, the people had no time for music, but the inventive Russian had another trump card - a burglar alarm. The Teletouch Corporation quickly reoriented to its production, and theremin's volume sensors were torn off with their hands. They were even installed in the terrible Sing Sing prison in the United States and in Fort Knox, where the American gold reserve was kept. So everything was in order with the business, but a crisis was outlined in the musical field.

Violinist Cake with Theremin

In the enthusiastic chorus of Theremin's admirers, voices of dissatisfied began to be heard: at concerts he is godlessly out of tune. The fact is that purely playing the theremin is incredibly difficult: the performer has no reference points (like, for example, keys on a piano or strings on a violin) and has to rely solely on ear 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 reputed to be a miracle child, a violinist with a great future. But either she outplayed her hands, or because of a hungry childhood, she had to part with the violin: the muscles could not withstand the loads. But the theremin was handed over, and Clara quickly learned to play it. Not without a whirlwind romance, especially since Theremin was free by that time.

For the first time, Theremin married in 1921 the lovely Katya Konstantinova, 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 a "family" life, a young man came to Termen 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 Theremin divorce his wife. Which he did. Therefore, by the time of the meeting with Klara, Lev Sergeevich was open to new love.

He is 38 years old, she is 18. They were a luxurious couple, they loved to visit cafes and restaurants. Lev Sergeevich courted very beautifully and loved to surprise his girlfriend with various miracles. For example, for her birthday, he gave her a cake that rotated on its axis and was decorated with a candle that lit up when approaching him.

A beautiful novel was not destined to end with a wedding. Clara chose another - Robert Rockmore, a lawyer and successful impresario, so her musical career was provided.

Why do walls float?

And Theremin plunged headlong into work. Even upon his arrival in America, he rented a six-story mansion on 54th Avenue for 99 years. In addition to personal apartments, it houses a workshop and studio. Here Lev Sergeevich often played music with Albert Einstein: a physicist - on a violin, an inventor - on a theremin. Einstein was fascinated by the idea of combining music and spatial imagery. And Theremin figured out how to do it: he invented the light-musical instrument rhythmikon. Huge transparent wheels with printed on them geometric pattern rotated in front of a stroboscopic lamp. As soon as the musician changed the pitch, the frequency of strobe flashes and drawings changed - the spectacle turned out to be impressive. Well, the fantasy began when the walls of the studio rose and fell. Of course, not for real, but with the help of the play of light. The mesmerized visitors gasped in surprise!

Rumors of these experiments attracted many to the studio. famous people... Theremin's guests included millionaires DuPont, Ford and Rockefeller. However, by the mid-30s, Theremin himself was included in the list of twenty-five celebrities of the world. And even was a member of the millionaire club.

Was he really a millionaire? It is not known for certain. Some say that Teletouch Corporation brought a lot of money both to Theremin personally and to Soviet Russia. Others argue that Theremin was funded by military intelligence. Because the real purpose of his trip to America was espionage.

Famous spy

Every two weeks Lev Sergeevich came to a small country cafe, where two young people were waiting for him. They listened to his reports and gave new assignments. However, these tasks were not burdensome and did not particularly distract Termin from work. And he was already in full swing was carried away by the most fantastic of his ideas - the instrument that gave birth to music from dance. In fact, this is a kind of theremin: the sound is created not only by the hands, but also by the movements of the whole body, and the corresponding name was given to it - terpsiton - after the name of the dance goddess Terpsichore. At the same time, a lamp of a certain color corresponded to each sound. Imagine what an extraordinary spectacle it was, because any dancer's movement responded with sounds and flickering of colored lights!

For creating concert program Theremin invited a group of dancers from the African American Ballet Company. Alas, it was not possible to achieve harmony and accuracy from them, the project had to be postponed. But in this troupe danced the beautiful mulatto Lavinia Williams, who conquered Lev Sergeevich not only as a ballerina, but also as a woman. Theremin decided to marry.

It never occurred to him that marriage with black woman will radically change his life. But, as soon as the lovers registered their marriage, the doors of many houses in New York were closed in front of Theremin: America then did not know political correctness. He lost informants, which caused serious discontent among 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 steamer.

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 Physicotechnical Institute. Theremin went to Moscow to look for work, but on March 15 they came to the hotel near the Kievsky railway station with an arrest warrant.

In Butyrskaya prison, the investigator told Termen that he, as a defector, would, of course, be shot if he did not cooperate. A month later, Theremin "confessed" that, together with a group of astronomers, he planned the assassination of Kirov. His version was this: Kirov (who by that time was already dead!) Was going to visit the Pulkovo Observatory. Astronomers planted a land mine in Foucault's pendulum. And Theremin was supposed to blow it up with a radio signal from the United States 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 the Kolyma.

But theremin spent only a year in the camp. He was appointed senior over the criminals who carried stones from the mountain and paved the way with them. Theremin mechanized the process by building a wheelbarrow with a monorail. The work is in full swing! The ration was tripled for the brigade, and the papers about the unusual prisoner went 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 crown of his stay in the sharashka was the invention of the Buran eavesdropping 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 special services lost their 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 beam was sent from the house opposite to the office window, and the membrane, vibrating 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 became unnecessary - 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 convict (!) Was awarded the Stalin Prize of the 1st degree. And after his release, Termen was given a two-room apartment on Leninsky Prospekt.

It seemed that the stupid and evil misunderstanding had ended and now the inventor would be heaped with honors. But Theremin did not receive any official titles, all of his patents were covered by the "Sov. Secret" stamp. And Lev Sergeevich continued to work in the secret laboratories of the KGB. Soon he found himself there new wife- the young typist Masha Gushchina, who bore him twin daughters.

For almost twenty years, Theremin was engaged in specific developments for the almighty department. At first, these were promising works - speech recognition systems, voice identification, military hydroacoustics. But over time, the priorities have changed. As Theremin recalled, "supposedly in the West they invented devices to determine where the flying saucers are, and we also had to fight over such devices. I understood that this was a scam, but it was impossible to refuse - and one day I decided that it was better to retire." ...

The employers did not mind, believing that nothing could be taken from the old man, and in 1964 Termen still parted with the special services, under whose invisible eye he had been for nearly 40 years.

Theremin - does not die!

70 years old. Life seemed to be over. But Lev Sergeevich, true to his motto "Theremin - does not die!" (this is how his surname is read, on the contrary), gets a job in the acoustic laboratory of the Moscow State Conservatory. Nothing disturbed the measured life of the old man until, in 1968, the New York Times correspondent, who was 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: in all American encyclopedias it was indicated that Theremin died in 1938. A stream of letters from his overseas friends poured into the name of Lev Sergeevich, reporters from various newspapers and television companies tried to meet with him. The conservative bosses, frightened by such an interest in the mechanic's modest person, simply fired him. And all the equipment was thrown into the trash.

For the last twenty-five years, Theremin has been working in the acoustics laboratory of Moscow State University. Mechanic of the 6th grade. He slowly worked on his theremins - he restored some, improved some, even invented one in which the sound through a system of photocells arose from just the look of the musician.

Even Lev Sergeevich often visited 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.

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 also invited to the Festival of Experimental Music in France. And he, 93, went!

But most of all, at the end of his life, Theremin surprised those around him by joining the CPSU: "I promised Lenin." Lev Sergeevich had 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, the 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 with sounds similar to those that give rise to the theremin. And many years later, in 1980, Steve Martin was looking for music for his film. And the 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 documentary about Theremin. But 11 years passed before he could come to Moscow, meet Theremin and invite him to America. The aged maestro walked in confusion along the streets of New York and hardly recognized the places where ten years of his life had passed. The most exciting meeting was with Clara Rockmore. Clara did not agree to her for a long time - years, they say, do not paint a woman.

Ay, Clarenok, well, what our age! - said 95-year-old Theremin.

After America he went back to the Netherlands for the "Schoenberg - Kandinsky" festival, and, returning to Moscow, he found in his room in a communal apartment a complete destruction - broken furniture, broken equipment, trampled records. Apparently, one of the neighbors badly needed his room. The daughter took Lev Sergeevich to her place. But his vitality dried up, 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 are still alive today. Among the many companies making them is Moog Mugic, which is owned by the inventor of the first synthesizer, Robert Moog. Once he said about Theremin: "This is just a genius who is capable of anything!"

He failed only one thing - to become the national pride of Russia ...

Theremin sounds in:

1. album "Territory" of the group "Aquarium"

2. compositions "Good vibrations", pop group "Beach Boys"

3. Hitchcock's film Spellbound

4. Bill Weider's "Lost Weekend"

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

Termen Lev Sergeevich

To the question "Who is Lev Theremin?" nine out of ten people, if they ever heard such a surname, will answer - “the inventor of the theremin”. Theremin is so poorly known at home that when a few years ago one of the journalists mistakenly called him "Lev Davidovich" (obviously, in consonance with Trotsky), this mistake began to wander from publication to publication, including even quite respectable media. But the biographer of Lev Sergeevich B. Galeev gives him the following description: "If there was a competition for a true representative of the XX century, Lev Theremin, probably, could apply for this title."

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

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

It is interesting that initially he was not engaged in music at all. He debugged a contactless radio signaling system - by changing the frequency of the oscillatory circuit, when an attacker approached it, a sound signal was triggered on the security console1. Today, motorists are well aware of the ultrasonic "volume sensors" based on a similar principle, which are included in the set of "cool" car alarms. Radio technician Theremin drew attention to the fact that the position of the intruder's body affects the tone of the signal in the speakers. A graduate of the Conservatory, Theremin realized that it was possible to make a real musical instrument, which had no analogues in the world until now. Theremin had two antennas - when the hand approached the first, the frequency of the signal changed, and with the help of the second hand, it was possible to control its volume with the other hand. Ioffe's staff characterized Termen's manipulations very expressively: "Theremin plays Gluck on a voltmeter!"

In the fall of 1921, Theremin demonstrates his miracle device at the VIII All-Russian Electrotechnical Congress, where the famous GOELRO plan was adopted, which once struck the science fiction writer H. Wells (remember his book "Russia in the Dark"). The performance of music by Massenet, Saint-Saens, Minkus on the theremin interested not only engineers. After an enthusiastic response in the Pravda newspaper, special concerts of radio music had to be held for a wide audience. And in March 1922, Theremin was invited to the Kremlin to show his achievements to VI Lenin.3 However, the main goal was to demonstrate the device in the contactless "radio guard" mode. But Lenin liked most of all how this universal "radio watchman" sang Chopin's Nocturne and Glinka's Lark. He even tried playing the theremin himself. His findings inspired the inventor: “Well, I said that electricity can work wonders. I am glad that we have such a tool ”. A few days later, Lenin writes to his then colleague Leon Trotsky:

“To discuss whether it is possible to reduce the guard of the Kremlin cadets by introducing electric signaling in the Kremlin? (one engineer, Theremin, showed us his experiments in the Kremlin ...). ”4“ Radio Watch ”was actually used later - in the State Treasury Store, the Hermitage, the State Bank. However, only specialists knew about it. But for the theremin, after Lenin's blessing, it was time for a triumphal march across the country. The radio music concerts are attended by composers Glazunov, Shostakovich, Gnesin. The inventor expands the scope of experiments - he combines the theremin with dynamic color, tries to achieve the synthesis of radio music with changing tactile influences (through specially equipped armrests of the chairs). And concerts - in many cities of the country, dozens, hundreds of performances, for the benefit of the propaganda of electrification, which turned out to be subject to art! It is difficult to refuse the pleasure of citing some press reviews that carry the flavor of that time: “The invention of Theremin is a musical tractor that replaces the plow”; “Theremin's invention did what a car did in transport. Theremin's invention has a richest future ”; “The solution to the problem of the ideal tool. Sounds are freed from the "impurities" of the material. The Beginning of the Radio Music Century ”.

Theremin perfected the theremin throughout his life. The most interesting for us are his attempts to control this system by means of a glance (more precisely, with the help of a photocell that monitors the pupil), and in another version, with the help of biocurrents. Such control systems, as you know, are beginning to be implemented only now - at a completely different technological level. But in fact, the theremin has retained almost all the features of the original invention to this day, only the amplifying lamps, of course, have been replaced by transistors and microcircuits. In the late 1920s, Theremin toured with his instrument - first in Russia, and then in Europe and America. This event was a resounding success with the public. The leader of the world proletariat was not alone in his delight - during the inventor's performances at the Parisian Grand Opera, people burned bonfires on the street at night to get to the concert. Theremin performed in the best concert halls Europe and America. One can imagine what kind of impression the “ideal instrument” made on contemporaries, according to the expression of the time. Although we are now accustomed to all sorts of electronic tricks, but the process of the game and now has an overwhelming effect on the audience. And in those days, when even an ordinary radio was still a curiosity, Theremin's stage manipulations gave the impression of a miracle: still, a person knows how to extract real music right out of thin air! By the mid-1930s, the American musicians' union had already registered 700 representatives of the new profession “thereminer” (“theremin” in English is spelled as “theremin” - because of the French origin of the inventor).

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

Yet the theremin was far from forgotten after the initial triumph. "Theremin's Voice" sounds on the soundtrack to the Disney movie "Alice in Wonderland" and in the musical of the same name, on Led Zeppelin's "Lotta Love", in compositions by the Beach Boys. Hitchcock used it. Now concerts of “theremin” music in Russia are held by the “Theremin Center for Electroacoustic Music and Multimedia” at the Moscow Conservatory, there are also classes there for those who wish. With a passion for the construction of theremins in the 50s, Robert Moog2, known as the creator of electronic synthesizer... Moog Music now produces theremins with a MIDI interface that allows you to connect the instrument to computers and synthesizers.

But let's go back in time. In the mid-20s, Theremin entered the St. Petersburg Polytechnic - to complete his physical education. With the consent of A.F. Joffe, he chose the transmission of images over a distance as the topic of his thesis. And he coped with it more than successfully! Several years before Zworykin's first experiments in America, he built a real electronic television. The TV had a screen no less than 150x150 centimeters (this is at the time when they experimented with screens in Matchbox), and a resolution of 100 lines. And he worked! In 1927, representatives of the military elite of the Soviets - Voroshilov, Tukhachevsky, Budyonny - watched Stalin with delight as he walked through the Kremlin courtyard. You could even distinguish between a mustache and a pipe. This demonstration was, as it turned out, fatal for the invention: it was classified in the hope of using it for border protection. Needless to say, it was never implemented, and Theremin's primacy in this matter has been proven only in our time.

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

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

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

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

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

Perhaps, former friend Einstein and Chaplin and would have perished in Kolyma, as if confirming his premature enrollment in the deceased by his American acquaintances. But he was rescued by chance and ineradicable craving for invention. In the camp, he invented a device for transporting wheelbarrows - a wooden monorail. The authorities reported upstairs, remembered his past, and since 1940 he has been working in a sharashka, together with A.N. Tupolev and S.P. Korolev. Indeed, it is not immediately possible to remember at least one famous figure in Russia and America of the twentieth century, be it politics, art or science, with whom the fate of Lev Termen would not intersect in one way or another. In the sharashka, he first deals with radio beacons for ships and aircraft, but at the end of the war he is tasked with developing a device for outdoor listening to conversations taking place in rooms.

It was truly a brilliant development. It was like this: in February 1945, chapter three allied powers gathered for the famous Yalta conference, during which plans were developed that determined, as it turned out later, the world order for almost 50 more years. Children who were resting near Yalta in the pioneer camp "Artek" presented the US Ambassador to Harriman with a touching gift - the American coat of arms. The bald eagle on the coat of arms was made from precious woods. American experts, having listened and tapped the gift for the presence of "bugs", gave an opinion on its safety. Harriman placed the coat of arms he liked over the table in the Moscow office, where the eagle hung for almost ten years, having outlived four ambassadors. In the department of Beria, the orlan was given the meaningful code name "Zlatoust". Uncovered it true purpose Americans indirectly - the detected information leak could only come from the ambassador's office. Having finally found the "bookmark", the Americans were still silent about the find until the beginning of the sixties - not only for reasons of a conspiratorial nature, but also out of elementary shame - even the very principle of action was not immediately guessed by overseas experts. The "bug" was a hollow metal cylinder with a membrane and a pin sticking out of it. No electronics! The secret was that when irradiated by an external electromagnetic field of a suitable frequency, the cylinder cavity entered into resonance with it and the radio wave was re-emitted back through the pin antenna. The membrane vibrating under the influence of sound vibrations modulated the frequency of the emitted wave. It was a matter of technique to detect the received signal.

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

In 1958, Lev Sergeevich was finally rehabilitated and even received an apartment at the Kaluzhskaya outpost in Moscow. But the formal restoration of his rights did not help him much - he could not get a job right up to 1964. Everyone who knew him in the twenties had already died or departed, there were no official degrees and titles, the time for the propaganda of electronic music was, to put it mildly, inappropriate - the struggle against jazz and "dudes" was in full swing.

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

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

Of course, it was a communal apartment, consisting of three rooms, in which, in addition to Lev Sergeevich, three elderly people lived. It is not known whether the sounds of the theremin interfered with them or not, but we think not, since Lev Sergeevich did not abuse music. Placing all the necessary ingredients serenely, he made theremins to order, received journalists, and sometimes stayed overnight. And he really liked it. But a little later, there were changes that Lev Sergeevich did not like too much. Since she died elderly woman, who occupied one of the rooms in the apartment and the Izvestia publishing house, guided by reasons unknown to us, gave this room to the employees of the utility department.

So, I entered the vacant room married couple with two children, and the youngest child was nursing, and the husband subsequently began to abuse alcohol. This situation upset Lev Sergeyevich and created a sufficient number of inconveniences, which, it should be noted, he coped very courageously and categorically refused to complain to anyone, although even the general telephone number and questions from neighbors to people who called Lev Sergeyevich directly, and not to neighbors, were unpleasant ... Nevertheless, it was still his laboratory, and he invited people there.

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

They began to poison the "old man" much later.
In 1989, Lev Theremin and Natalia Theremin went to the Sintez-89 electro-music festival, which is annually held in the French city of Bourget, where, in parallel with the authentic Theremin theremin, a new experimental model of the theremin was demonstrated.

Lev Theremin gave many interviews, the mayor of Bourget awarded him the medal of honorary citizen of the city, everything was very wonderful, only it was very sad that invitations for Lev and Natalia Theremin were sent to the Union of Composers of the USSR and Lev and Natalia Theremin made out their trip through the Union Composers. That in the future played a very sad role in their fate - every year the French sent invitations to Leo and Natalia Theremin, but for the first two years they made out a trip, but in last moment there were reasons why Lev and Natalia Termen could not come to the festival, which served as a very unpleasant signal.

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

In 1991, two weeks after submitting an application to the Union of Composers with a request to arrange a trip for Lev and Natalia Theremin to the festival in Bourges and to Stanford University (USA), threats began to come in the address of Lev Theremin and his family, with death threats due to publication in the newspaper Top Secret, which used the title “He Eavesdropped on the Kremlin” for the headline and featured a photograph of Lev Termen taken in Sweden.

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

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

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

If Lev Theremin was an "ordinary old man", then nothing would have happened. It is customary in our country to blame the Soviet government for everything. This is our old Russian tradition. But the tragedy happened during perestroika and it makes you think. Also, a tradition has developed, as soon as Theremin begins to communicate with foreigners, in Russia they begin to break his instruments. It was from the end of the 1980s that strange, false articles about Leo Termen began to be published, and in the aggregate it resembled a planned event.

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

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

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

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

Theremin was neither a convinced communist, let alone an anti-Soviet; rather, he can be called simply a patriot. The politician who did not release him from her embrace not for a moment in all his long life, starting from the moment in the eighteenth year, when he, an employee of the Red Army, had to flee from the advancing White Guards, as such he was of little interest to him. At every opportunity, he took up his favorite pastime - to invent. His behavior towards the authorities could be described as "one hundred percent conformism", if not for one case. Unexpectedly for everyone, in March 1991, at the age of 95, he became a member of the CPSU. When asked why he joined the crumbling CPSU, Lev Sergeevich replied: "I promised Lenin."

ღ The same Lev Theremin: Inventor, physicist, musician ღ

An old man lived in Moscow in a terrible buggy communal apartment opposite the Cheryomushkinsky market. When the neighbors needed his pitiful closet, in the absence of the old man, they destroyed his property, broke things, destroyed the records. The old man was forced to move in with his daughter, but he became so ill from all this that, as expected, he soon died. To the delight of the neighbors in the communal apartment: the room was vacated.
Living space. I used it, and that's enough.

So what? - you ask. - It's an ordinary story.
In communal apartments, it still does not happen, the neighbors could be an old man and, in general, tovo ...
Just think - how long have they been waiting for his square meters to be freed, they themselves have grown old.

And the old man, perhaps, also came in large numbers from somewhere. And the old man was not just a grandfather, which thousands of people live out in communal apartments.
And it was Lev Theremin.

THE MOST LEO THERMEN!

TERMEN Lev Sergeevich (1896-1993) - inventor, physicist, musician.
Creator of the world's first electronic musical instrument Theremin (1919-20); one of the first television vision systems (1925-26); the world's first rhythm machine rhythmikon (1932); security alarm systems, automatic doors and lighting; the first and most advanced eavesdropping devices, etc.
Was born in 1896 in St. Petersburg. Graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory, cello, studied at the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of St. Petersburg University.

Since 1919 - head of the laboratory of the Physico-Technical Institute in Petrograd, at the same time since 1923. - Collaborated with the National Anthem (State Institute of Musical Science, Moscow).
In 1927 he was sent by the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR to a foreign business trip. Traveled all over Europe, was one of the most popular people in New York, was a member of the club of millionaires. In 1931-38. - director joint stock company Teletouch Inc. (USA). In his New York studio, such outstanding people of his time, as an emigrant Albert Einstein, conductor Leopold Stokowski, actor Charlie Chaplin, artist Marie Helene Bute, etc. etc. His inventions, made in the 20-40s, have become part of our everyday life.

At the end of 1938 he returned to the USSR. Arrested in 1939 and sentenced to 8 years in labor camps. He spends a year in Kolyma, but most of the time - in the legendary "Tupolev" sharashka. After his release, he worked at the KGB research center, developing various electronic systems.

Since 1963 - employee of the acoustic laboratory of the Moscow Conservatory. In the late 60s, due to disagreements with the administration after the publication of an article about Termen in the American newspaper "New York Times", Lev Sergeevich was expelled from the conservatory with a scandal, he was forced to go to work at Moscow State University.

Since 1966 - a member of the Department of Acoustics of the Physics Faculty of Moscow State University.

Lev Theremin died in 93 in poverty and obscurity, persecuted by neighbors in a communal apartment. Legendary Theremin ...
His most widely known invention is the theremin, which Lenin liked. Playing the theremin consists in changing the musician's distance from his hands to the instrument's antennas, due to which the capacitance of the oscillatory circuit and, as a consequence, the frequency of the sound change.

The vertical straight antenna is responsible for the tone of the sound, the horizontal horseshoe - for its volume.

To play the theremin, you must have perfect pitch, since the musician does not touch the instrument while playing.
But not only the theremin ...

He invented:

1. A group of electric musical instruments:
-– theremin
-– rhythmikon
-– terpsiton
2. Security alarm
3. Unique eavesdropping system "Buran"
4. The world's first television installation - far-sightedness
worked on:
-– speech recognition system
-– human freezing technology
-– voice identification in forensics
-– military hydroacoustics.

Already in 26, he demonstrated television in the Kremlin.
At that time, TVs were created with screens the size of a matchbox, and his TV had a huge screen (1.5 x 1.5 m) and a resolution of 100 lines.

In 1927, the scientist demonstrated his attitude to the Soviet military leaders K.E. Voroshilov, I.V. Tukhachevsky and SM. Budyonny:
the minds of states watched in horror on the screen of Stalin walking through the Kremlin courtyard.

This picture scared them so much that the invention was immediately classified ... and safely buried in the archives, and television was soon invented by the Americans.

Termen struck the world scientific community with his theremin, on which he himself (and in addition to physics he also graduated from the conservatory) gave concerts of classical music.
“Heavenly music”, “voices of angels” - the bourgeois press groaned with delight.
The USSR received orders from several companies for the production of 2000 theremins with the condition that Theremin would come to America to supervise the work.
But instead of one assignment, Lev Sergeevich received two: one from the People's Commissar of Education Lunacharsky and the second from the military department.

Even upon his arrival in America, he rented a six-story mansion on 54th Avenue for 99 years. In addition to personal apartments, it houses a workshop and studio. Here Lev Sergeevich often played music with Albert Einstein: a physicist - on a violin, an inventor - on a theremin. Einstein was fascinated by the idea of combining music and spatial imagery. And Theremin figured out how to do it: he invented the light-musical instrument rhythmikon. Huge transparent wheels with geometric patterns applied to them rotated in front of a stroboscopic lamp. As soon as the musician changed the pitch, the frequency of strobe flashes and drawings changed - the spectacle turned out to be impressive. Well, the fantasy began when the walls of the studio rose and fell. Of course, not for real, but with the help of the play of light. The mesmerized visitors gasped in surprise!

Rumors of these experiments attracted many famous people to the studio. Theremin's guests included millionaires DuPont, Ford and Rockefeller. However, by the mid-30s, Theremin himself was included in the list of twenty-five celebrities of the world. And even was a member of the millionaire club.

To create the concert program, Theremin invited a group of dancers from the African American Ballet Company. Alas, it was not possible to achieve harmony and accuracy from them, the project had to be postponed. But in this troupe danced the beautiful mulatto Lavinia Williams, who conquered Lev Sergeevich not only as a ballerina, but also as a woman. Theremin decided to marry.

It never occurred to him that marriage with a dark-skinned 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 in front of Theremin: America then did not know political correctness. He lost informants, which caused serious discontent among 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 steamer.

The spouses did not see each other again. And Termen kept the marriage certificate issued by the Russian embassy in America until the end of his days.

The Great Depression that broke out at the turn of the 1930s ruined many.
But not Theremin: the inventive scientist had another trump card - a burglar alarm.

Theremin's sensors were torn off with hands. They were even installed at Sing Sing Prison and Fort Knox, where the American gold reserve was kept.
Thousands of Americans enthusiastically learned to play the theremin, and General Electric and RCA (Radio Corporation of America) bought licenses to produce it.
Theremin by the mid-30s was included in the list of twenty-five celebrities in the world and was a member of the club of millionaires.

In Moscow, he was arrested as a "defector", and after a month of skillful treatment with socialist legality at the Lubyanka, Lev Theremin confessed everything.
For example, in the fact that, together with a group of astronomers, he planned the assassination of Kirov.
The version was as follows:
Kirov (who by that time was already long dead!) Was going to visit the Pulkovo Observatory.

Astronomers planted a land mine in Foucault's pendulum.
And Theremin was supposed to blow it up with a radio signal from the USA (!!!) 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 the Kolyma.
In the camp, he immediately invented a self-propelled wheelbarrow on a monorail, and he was soon taken to the so-called "sharashka" of Tupolev, where Sergei Pavlovich Korolev was his assistant.
The war broke out and he developed radio control equipment for unmanned aircraft and radio beacons for naval operations.
But not only. Even Theremin, in this sharashka, developed the famous Buran eavesdropping system.
They say it is still in use today.

The culmination of this creation was a wooden panel, which was presented to the American ambassador by Soviet pioneers.
The panels were hung in the ambassador's office, and ... soon they began to look for the source of the colossal information leak.
Only seven (!) Years later, a cylinder with a membrane was found in this panel.
For another year and a half, American intelligence engineers fought over the riddle - what is it? ..

But it turned out that a beam was directed from the house opposite to the office window, and the membrane, oscillating in time with the speech, reflected it back.
Together with the speech that was recorded.

Later Theremin further improved the invention: it was possible to do even without a membrane, its role was played by window glass.
The Soviet authorities were so delighted with this useful invention that they awarded Termen the 1st degree Stalin Prize right in prison.
And then they even released it, which was simple outstanding act humanism and the triumph of socialist legality so dear to some.
And they even made him happy with two rooms of the same "free living space."

Well, who would not agree that Lev Termen was given two rooms for free? Of course he was literally gifted. Has he worked out two rooms for this country?

In the 60s, L. Termen again wanted to do electronic music, but some kind of party-geebish mug just spat in his eyes, pointing out that "electricity exists to execute traitors, and not to create music."
These are the thinkers who decided the fate of science in the country in general and the brilliant inventor Theremin in particular.
Of course, he remained highly classified and continued to work for intelligence, because he was not hired anywhere else.
First, he was engaged in military hydroacoustics, and then he was instructed to develop a "device for searching for flying saucers."
Such idiocy did not inspire him at all, and in 64 he finally left the organs and began to work quietly and peacefully in the acoustic laboratory of the Moscow Conservatory.

Yes, it would have worked if the New York Times correspondent had not been impatient to report on the conservatory.
And there the correspondent came across Lev Termen. The whole world was sure that he died in 38, grinded by a meat grinder of millions of repressions.

When the USA learned that the great Theremin was alive, it was a bomb. Sensation. Akhtung. Paragraph.
The scientific community in America and Europe literally roared.
An avalanche of letters from scientists and colleagues poured into Theremin, reporters and TV companies flocked to him in a crowd ...

He was invited to Stanford, to Paris, to Holland, to Sweden ...
The management of the conservatory was so frightened by all this that ...
Theremin was simply fired, and his equipment and developments were thrown into the trash.

And he developed a synthesizer, which was soon successfully developed by the Japanese Yamaha, making millions and millions on it ...

And for the next 25 years, the great scientist, who was probably not inferior in talent to Leonardo himself, the legendary inventor who was praised by Lenin and respected by Einstein - worked as a 6th grade mechanic in some kind of supernumerary laboratory.

He lived with his family in a two-room apartment, probably watched TV - which he was not allowed to invent - and on TV concerts of rock stars on Yamaha synthesizers.

The daughters grew up, started their own families, and five lived in a small two-room apartment on Leninsky Prospekt -
L. S. Termen, daughter Natalia with her husband and two children.
With great difficulty, he managed to get another room in a buggy communal apartment, where his neighbors hunted him down. "

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 also invited to the Festival of Experimental Music in France. And he, 93, went!

When, in 1991, a Hamburg theater decided to use the theremin, it turned out that practically the only performer in Europe was Lydia Kavina. Over the years, the situation has changed a lot: the theremin is taught in universities, and in different countries ah the world hold festivals.

October 10, 2004. Jean-Michel Jarre puts on another phantasmagoria at the Forbidden City in Beijing.

Lev Theremin was born into a noble Orthodox family with French roots (in French, the family name was written as Theremin). Mother - Evgenia Antonovna and father - famous lawyer Sergei Emilievich - did not spare money for Lev's education.

Carier start

The first independent experiments in electrical engineering Lev Termen carried out during the years of study at the St. Petersburg first male gymnasium.

In 1916, he graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory, cello, at the same time studied at the physics and astronomy faculties of St. Petersburg University.

He did not participate in the hostilities of the First World War. In 1916, he was drafted into the army and sent to accelerated training at the Nikolaev Engineering School, and then to the officer's electrical engineering courses. The revolution found him as a junior officer of the reserve electrical engineering battalion, which served the Tsarskoye Selo radio station, the most powerful in the empire, near Petrograd.

After the October Revolution of 1917, he was sent to work at the Detskoye Selo radio station near Petrograd (then - the most powerful radio station in Russia), later - to a military radio laboratory in the city of Moscow.

Career heyday

In 1919, Theremin became the head of the laboratory of the Physico-Technical Institute in Petrograd and was hired by Abram Ioffe at the Physico-Technical Institute in Petrograd.

In parallel, since 1923, he collaborated with the State Institute of Musical Science in Moscow. In 1920 he invented the Thereminvox, an electric musical instrument, which later made him very famous. The literature on 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 play Glinka's "Skylark" 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 - "Far Vision".

In 1927, with the assistance of Academician Ioffe Termen, he 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, Theremin, while 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 production of these devices to RCA (Radio Corporation of America).

At the direction of the head of Soviet military intelligence Yan Berzin, using the money he earned, Theremin 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 USA, under the "roof" of which Soviet intelligence officers could work.

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

With the best orchestras, Lev Theremin gave numerous concerts throughout America and Europe. Theremin orders came from different countries.

A popular in the United States, a talented ballerina and beauty, a black woman Lavinia Williams, became his wife (the marriage with his first wife broke up).

Repression and awards

In 1938 Termen was recalled to Moscow. He left the United States in secret, issuing a power of attorney in the name of 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 come 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 in America, Theremin was listed as deceased, and for many years in encyclopedic reference books there were dates (1896-1938) next to his surname.

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 the charge brought against him. According to one of them, he was accused of involvement in a fascist organization, according to another, which, among other things, his daughter Natalya Termen spreads in her interviews, he was accused of preparing the assassination of Kirov. He was forced to stipulate that a group of astronomers from the Pulkovo Observatory was preparing to place a land mine in Foucault's pendulum, and Theremin was to send a radio signal from the United States and detonate a land mine as soon as Kirov approached the pendulum. A special meeting at the NKVD of the USSR sentenced Termen to 8 years in the camps and was sent to a camp in the Kolyma.

At first Termen was serving time in Magadan, working as a foreman of a construction brigade. Theremin's numerous rationalization proposals drew the attention of the camp administration to him, and already in 1940 he was transferred to the Tupolev design bureau TsKB-29 (in 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 Termen and Korolev was the development of radio-controlled unmanned aerial vehicles - the 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 engaged, in particular, in the development of eavesdropping systems. One of his developments is the Buran eavesdropping system, which reads out the vibrations of the glass in the windows of the listening room with the help of a reflected infrared ray. 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 reported anywhere. In 1948, he and his wife, Maria Gushchina, had two daughters - Natalia Termen and Elena Termen.

Last years

From 1964 to 1967, Theremin worked in the laboratory of the Moscow Conservatory, devoting all his efforts to developing new electric musical instruments, as well as restoring everything that he managed to invent in the 1930s. According to some reports, during this period Termen worked "on a voluntary basis", free of charge.

In 1967, after the publication in the New York Times newspaper 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 I got a job in a laboratory at the Physics Faculty of Moscow State University. Formally, Theremin was listed as a worker, but in fact he continued independent scientific research. The active scientific activity of L. S. Termen continued almost until his death.

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

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

In March 1991, at the age of 95, he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. When asked why he joined the crumbling party, Theremin replied: "I promised Lenin."

In 1992, unknown persons destroyed the laboratory room on Lomonosovsky Prospekt, all of his instruments were smashed, and part of the archives were stolen. The police did not solve the crime.

In 1993 Lev Theremin died. As newspapers later wrote: "At the age of ninety-seven, Lev Theremin went to those who constituted the face of the era - but behind the coffin, except for daughters with families and several men carrying the coffin, there was no one ..."
Buried at the Kuntsevo cemetery in Moscow.

The principles of operation underlying the theremin were also used by Theremin when creating a security system that responds to a person's approach to a protected object. The Kremlin and the Hermitage, and later also 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.
On February 9, 1945, US Ambassador Averell Harriman, invited to the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Artek pioneer camp, was presented with a wooden panel made of valuable species of wood (sandalwood, boxwood, sequoia, elephant palm, Persian parrot, mahogany and ebony, black alder) , depicting the coat of arms of the United States. It was equipped with an eavesdropping device developed by Theremin, which made it possible for almost 8 years to listen to conversations in the ambassador's office. The design of the "bug" was so successful that when examining the gift, the American special services did not notice anything. After the 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 awardees, personally corrected the second degree to the first. In 1947, Theremin became the winner 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 Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He explained his decision by the fact that he had once made a promise to Lenin to join the party, and that he wants to hurry up to fulfill the promise while it still exists. 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 in order to join the party, it was necessary to unlearn at the department of Marxism-Leninism for five years, which he did, having passed 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 surname the other way around: "Theremin - does not die."
In 1989, in Moscow, a meeting took place between the two founders of electronic music, Lev Sergeevich Termen and the English musician Brian Eno.

Lev Theremin is an inventor of electronic music, a Soviet intelligence agent, a political prisoner and a Stalin Prize laureate. Our Soviet Tesla! The extraordinary life of Lev Termen - inventor, millionaire, spy, prisoner and genius

Read also

Biography

Carier start

American period

Repression, work for state security bodies

A family

see also

Notes (edit)

Lev Sergeevich Termen (1896-1993

Halt who goes!

An episode that could be a milestone

KO "Grand Opera" and others

Trump on the table!

Violinist Cake with Theremin

Why do walls float?

Famous spy

Kirov's killer

Trojan horse from the pioneers

Theremin - does not die!

a swan song

Theremin sounds in:

Carier start

Career heyday

American period

Repression and awards

Last years