"And we know that it has always been this way,
That we love more by fate,
Who lives according to the laws of others
And who should die young?
Viktor Tsoi, “A Star Called the Sun”
In 1990, Moskvich-2141 was at the peak of its popularity: queues were lining up for the new model of the capital's AZLK - it was prestigious and fashionable to own a front-wheel drive hatchback. In the same year, the owner of the “forty-first” became a person who was also at the peak of popularity - Viktor Tsoi, founder and leader of the Kino group.
At the very beginning of the nineties, “Muscovites” model 2141 had just begun to appear on the roads of the country - the car, work on which began in the late seventies, was too slow to reach consumers. The Leninsky Komsomol Automobile Plant released the first “installation” copy only on February 15, 1986, and mass assembly of hatchbacks started even later - on July 9, 1988. At the same time, the first copies of serial Moskvich cars were not distinguished by their quality: interior parts could be found in one car different colors(black, gray, brown and even yellow), the low corrosion resistance of the bodies also caused great criticism.
Almost immediately, model 2141 was dubbed with offensive nicknames: “a car obviously devoid of quality” (from the abbreviation AZLK), “cripple” (from the export name Aleko)... Although the project initially seemed interesting! The French hatchback SIMCA-1308 (incidentally, the “Car of 1976”) and the Audi 100 family, which became iconic in the post-Soviet space, served as an example for the plant’s designers to follow. The result was “French” on the outside and “German” on the inside, distinguished by an original layout: the engine was placed longitudinally (some of the cars were equipped with a VAZ-2106 engine, the rest were equipped with a 69-horsepower UZAM unit), a McPherson design was chosen for the front suspension, and they tried to make the interior as spacious as possible.
“Luxury” versions were equipped with “Bylina” radios, but “out of acquaintance” the cars were equipped with cassette radios, from the speakers of which “Combination”, “Tender May” and, of course, the group “Kino” thundered. For the lead singer of the latter, Viktor Tsoi, the “forty-one” became the first car: “At that time there was a real boom in the Moskvichi, they were considered the latest in fashion, and so it was difficult to easily buy them,” recalls producer Joseph Prigozhin. — But Yuri Aizenshpis (producer of “Kino” - author’s note) came to an agreement with the plant, and we drove up to AZLK to pick up the car. We chose a car the color of wet asphalt. They gave 32 and a half thousand rubles. Later it turned out that we were deceived for 2,500 rubles, we were even upset.”
Viktor Tsoi driving
What color Tsoyev’s car was is still debated today: some fans of the Kino group, like producer Prigozhin, remember the “Moskvich” color “wet asphalt”, another part and some journalists fanatically argue that the hatchback was light gray or even snowy -white... However, official documents clearly indicate that the idol of millions drove a dark blue car. True, he didn’t drive for long: Tsoi got a car in the spring of 1990, and his last trip driving the "forty-one" was committed just a few months later, in August of the same year. The Moskvich's odometer stopped at 3,400 km.
The tragedy that happened on that sunny August day will be described in detail by the dry lines of the police report, captured on film by one of the fans of the group: “The driver of the Moskvich-2141, dark blue (license plate “Ya 68-32 MN”), Viktor Robertovich Tsoi, 35 - kilometer of the Sloka-Tulsa highway, he lost control and drove off to the side of the highway, driving 250 meters along it. Then his car hit the fence post of the bridge over the Teitope River. From the impact, the Moskvich was thrown into the oncoming lane along which the Ikarus-250 bus was moving (license number 05-18 VRN, driver Janis Karlovich Fibiks), motor transport enterprise No. 29 in Tukums. The collision time was 11 hours 28 minutes. Weather: +28°C. Visibility is clear."
The lead singer of the Kino group ended up a few tens of kilometers from Riga because of his long-standing habit of traveling to the Baltic states in the summer - Victor liked the calm, measured rhythm of Latvian villages, which allowed him to take a break from the bustle of the capital: “We usually came for three months - from June to September. How did you rest? Well, the whole family went to the forest to pick mushrooms. They played badminton. We skated. He also often went fishing,” recalls Birote Luge, with whom Tsoi and his family stayed during his Baltic holidays. common-law wife Natalya and son Sasha. - No, he didn’t bring much fish, he was not a fisherman. He said he fishes for fun. And that you can’t have such a good rest in noisy Moscow, I repeated every time.”
So early in the morning of August 15, Victor went to the nearest lake to catch the morning bite, and on the way back a terrible accident occurred that claimed the life of the musician. Rumors immediately appeared about a conspiracy of security officers, about the witchcraft of psychics, but the opinion of experts and eyewitnesses was unanimous: Tsoi either fell asleep or was distracted, and the speed of movement was too high... The version is that the founder of the Kino group “relaxed” while fishing with alcohol, It was also not confirmed - no ethyl alcohol was found in the blood of the deceased. This is confirmed by Birote Luge: “I almost didn’t drink, during the whole evening I only had a glass or two, and then depending on my mood...” And the musician’s friends add: “He was quite calm about drinking, as well as about any kind of stimulant.”
What really stimulated Victor was the music. “I know that he composed songs everywhere, right on the go,” recalls the musician’s father, Robert Tsoi. “Who knows, maybe just at that moment it dawned on him, and he forgot about this turn...” Maybe Victor was looking for paper and pen on the go to write down a successful rhyme? They say that this was noticed about him: suddenly the author of “A Star Called the Sun” became completely detached and scribbled poetry on any suitable surface. The only official wife of the rock idol, Maryana, shares the same opinion: “Choi couldn’t fall asleep while driving! Perhaps, on that fateful morning, Vitya was not only in a dream, but in a state of some kind of euphoria, his soul sang, and he relaxed for a second, was distracted...”
The radio tape recorder could have caused the frontman of the Kino group to be distracted - there is a version that on the way the musician listened to a cassette, on which the group’s new songs had been recorded literally the day before: “We were on the road near Tukums, near Riga... The only surviving parts were the trunk lid with an unbroken glass, a rear axle and a compact cassette with a recording of the new album that we wrote in Riga. It was a rough recording,” the band’s guitarist Yuri Kasparyan later said. What tape was this? A draft that would later become the famous “Black Album.” These are the lines written by Tsoi: “Watch yourself, be careful.” Didn't follow - by official version, “Viktor Robertovich Tsoi fell asleep at the wheel, probably from overwork.”
See topic:
On August 15, 1990, Viktor Tsoi passed away. Much has been written about his death in a car accident. But the most complete and truthful, it seems to me, were two articles written by Oleg Belikov, based on the journalist’s trip to the site of the tragedy in November 1990. One was published in the newspaper "Live Sound", the second in the magazine "Rolling Stone".
These are the articles
Rolling Stone "There will be no cinema"
The idea of going to the place of Tsoi’s death did not arise from me. One of my acquaintances in the capital, a certain Svetka, told me: “We are going to hitchhike to Tukums in November, to the place where Tsoi crashed. Will you come with us?” This idea stuck so tightly in my head that I collected all the available cash - about 300 rubles, bought 2 cartons of Opal cigarettes and went to the editorial office of the local newspaper Znamya Oktyabrya. Having presented to Galina Ivanovna, the editor-in-chief, a proposal to send me on a business trip to “investigate the causes of the death of Viktor Tsoi,” I actually had absolutely no idea how I would conduct this investigation. And so I asked you to give me some official document. Credentials.
“We’ll give you paper, of course, but no money!” said Galina Ivanovna. “I’ll go to my own!” I answered, and we began to think about which “grandfather’s village” to address it to. The smartest decision seemed to be to choose the prosecutor of the Tukumsky district as the addressee (since there is a district, it means there must be a prosecutor, and he will always be the head of the police). The paper said that correspondent so-and-so was “sent to collect material about the last days of Viktor Tsoi’s life. Please provide him with all possible assistance.”
Having stuffed a camera, a flash, a dozen films and canned food into my bag, I soon stood in front of Svetka and her two friends, who also decided to “see the place.” Coming out of the metro, we wandered towards the highway. "To Riga". I had very little faith that such and such a truck driver would, behind some devil, put such a horde in his cab and drive it “for nothing” all the way to Riga. Therefore, decisively leaving the girls fifteen meters from the traffic police post, taking out my “safe conduct letter” and editorial ID, I went to the post. The policeman, carefully running his eyes over the papers and seeing the menacing word “prosecutor,” said: “Well, we’ll have to wait a little until we catch the right car. Are these also with you?” he nodded towards the girls. “Yes, correspondents too!” I answered as nonchalantly as possible.
The “right car” was found on the fourth try. “This, take the correspondents towards Riga,” the traffic cop said to the driver. “These?” the driver looked at us incredulously. “Yeah, the documents are in order, I checked.” “Well, let them sit down,” he replied doomedly. In the cockpit, we immediately take the Elektronika-302 tape recorder out of our bag and turn on Tsoi. About halfway, the driver drops us off and goes to sleep at some truck stop known only to him. We, invigorated, trudge along the highway. To top it all off, it's snowing inappropriately. Cold. Rare cars do not stop or “go the wrong way.”
Only at sunrise do we manage to fit into the brand new UAZ, which takes us all the way to Tukums. I leave the girls at the railway station and go in search of the prosecutor's office. Prosecutor Janis Salons, a man with kind eyes, carefully examines my papers. He clearly likes them. He picks up a big thick book that looks like a barn and starts leafing through it. Accidents are recorded in this book. The entry occupies one line: car make, license plate number, owner’s full name. The required entry is found when ten sheets of scribbled paper are flipped back. It seems like accidents happen here almost every hour.
I see the car is registered to Maryana. The case was led by investigator Erika Kazimirovna Ashman. The prosecutor picks up the phone and turns the dial. “Erika Kazimirovna? Now a journalist from Moscow will approach you, please introduce him to case number 480.” I ask: “Are you working today, since the holiday is November 7?” “Well, it’s a holiday for you there, in Moscow, but we don’t have any holiday. We are yours
We don’t recognize Soviet holidays.” Erika Kazimirovna initially greets me with hostility. The call from the prosecutor’s office apparently had no effect on her.
“I have no right at all to show you materials from this case, it is not yet closed, and, besides, your colleagues have already written in the newspapers something that did not happen, and then I got punished for allegedly showing them materials . No, no one came here, you were the first, only one called on the phone from MK, I read him some excerpts, and then he mixed everything up. They wrote that Tsoi was not drunk according to the results of an “examination of active brain cells.” , but we don’t have such an examination at all, we have a small town, maybe only in Riga they do such an examination, and I don’t know. They only did a blood test for alcohol, it wasn’t there, and that’s all. Why weren’t they taken to Riga? So no one knew, they just said that the young guy crashed. So I’ll let you look at the case materials, and then you write, and I’ll get it again!”
I feel that now they will say “Goodbye” to me, and I eagerly begin to explain that this is why I am here, to find out everything “first-hand” and to avoid any “inaccuracies.” And what happens in journalism? different people, as, in general, in other professions. “And you probably have those too!” The last argument works, and case No. 480 lies on the table in front of me. I scroll, scroll, scroll. Erika Kazimirovna: “This? This is about the initiation of a criminal case against Viktor Robertovich Tsoi. For what? As the culprit of the accident. But here is the resolution to terminate the case due to the death of the accused. Well, yes, if he had not died, then there would have been a trial, and you What do you think, for you he’s a singer, but for us he’s just a criminal. No, well, they probably wouldn’t put him in prison, but they would definitely fine him. What did you want, the damage was done to the car company - the Ikarus was just coming from repairs, and again stopped working for about two months ", and this is money! He didn’t travel, he didn’t carry passengers, the enterprise probably suffered losses of several thousand!"
I'm starting to write down all the most interesting things. A few minutes later I realize that a multi-page volume could take a couple of days of my life. I ask permission to retake some pages. “What are you talking about, I shouldn’t have shown you anything.” Then he gives up: “Okay, just don’t tell anyone, otherwise the case is not closed yet.” I quickly take out my camera and start shooting one page after another. "The driver of the Moskvich - 2141 dark blue (license number Ya6832MN) Viktor Robertovich Tsoi, at the 35th kilometer of the Sloka-Tulsa highway, lost control and drove to the side of the highway, driving along it for 250 meters. Then his car hit the fence post of the bridge over the Teitope River. The impact threw Moskvich into the oncoming lane along which the Ikarus-250 bus (license number 0518VRN, driver Janis Karlovich Fibiks), motor transport enterprise No. 29 in Tukums, was moving. Time of collision - 11 hours 28 minutes. Weather: +28. Visibility - clear."
Erika Kazimirovna explains to me how to find the landlady Birota Luge, from whom Tsoi rented a room: “Are you by car? Write down: Pliencems village, Zeltini’s house. And there are no house numbers there, just tell the taxi driver “Ziltini’s House”, he will find it. Or you “The locals will show you, ask, everyone knows there.” Saying goodbye, I take a photo of the owner of the office. “Why should I, don’t need me!” she suddenly becomes embarrassed.
The girls are waiting at the train station, near which there are several free taxis. Let's meet the driver. "Yanis. Last name? Why do you need it? Ahhh, journalists. From Moscow?! Material about Tsoi?! Melderis is my last name. I know where the accident was. And I took your fans there already. You have a lot of traveling ? Where?". The girls immediately turn on the tape with Tsoi. The driver doesn’t mind and even allows smoking in the cabin. The car rushes in the direction of the village of Plincems. About 20 minutes later we are already entering the village. Janis, leaning out of the window, asks a passerby in Latvian about “Zelini”.
He waves his hand in the direction the car is moving, explaining about the yellow sandstone finish. Hence the name. We're approaching. In the sun the house really shines gold. At the gate Mailbox with the inscription "Zeltini". I enter the yard. The door to the house is closed. I walk around the house. Another door. Also closed. The neighbors who are interested in me explain that Birote is at work, at a fish processing factory. I sit down and let's go. At the edge of the village there is a long one-story building. In front of him is a gate with open doors, into which we drive. I enter and go to look for the boss. Having found it, I explain that I need his employee Birote Luga, which is why we actually came from Moscow.
He nods sympathetically and leads me into the workshop directly to Birote’s workplace. She is sorting through fresh fish. “The journalists have come to you from Moscow. You can go home,” says the boss. She quickly and somehow bashfully wipes her hands, takes off her apron, and we go out into the street. Birote categorically refuses to get into the car, assuring that it will come anyway. We are waiting for her at the gate. The house has several rooms. We sit down in the living room. The hostess speaks Russian poorly, and taxi driver Yanis, who volunteered to be a translator, helps us out a lot.
“I recognized Victor through his friend Natalya. She has been coming here every summer for ten years, even with her first husband. And for the last three years with Victor. Sometimes they took Vita’s son Sasha with them. Usually they came for three months - from June to September . How was your vacation? Well, the whole family went to the forest to pick mushrooms. They played badminton. They skateboarded. He also often went fishing, he often took Sashka with him. No, he didn’t bring a lot of fish, he was not a fisherman. He said, he fishes for pleasure. And that you can’t have such a good rest in noisy Moscow, he repeated every time. He loved the sea very much, there it is - behind the house, behind the pine trees - already the shore. Natalya and I often went there, swam. Did I eat what? Yes, nothing special, that Yes, I really loved tomatoes!"
“Yes, I didn’t really communicate with him. Only when he asked what he could get where. I always brought good wine as a gift. But I hardly drank, during the whole evening maybe only a glass or two, and then depending on my mood. That the day before, he didn’t touch the wine at all. But they sat at the table for a while, started talking, and went to bed already late. In the morning, at about five o’clock, he got ready to go fishing, he wanted to take Sashka with him, but he got tired, and he felt sorry for him wake him up. One left... The Muscovite loved his very much, he liked it very much, he only bought it three months ago.” I ask what kind of music he listened to Lately. “I don’t even know. I don’t understand it, he had something playing on a tape recorder in his room. Sometimes he played something on the guitar and sang. No, I don’t have any photographs of him. Will you? Give it to me? Thank you. And Was he a famous musician?"
How did this happen...
We say goodbye to Birota and go to the scene of the accident. “This is near the Tautopnike farm, there is only one house there,” says Janis. "Fifteen minutes from here, if you drive." Let's go. Finally the highway turns sharply to the left. Just around the bend is a bridge over the Taitopu River. On the bridge there are already homemade posters with Tsoi’s image, all sorts of ribbons and “baubles”. In the center near the fence stands three liter jar with flowers. There are also flowers all around, right on the asphalt. Thrifty Svetka takes out a bottle of wine. I open it and we take turns taking a sip. I ask Janis to honk the horn. He nods understandingly and presses the horn several times.
Natasha and Zhenya's eyes begin to shine suspiciously. We finish the bottle and I go to a lonely house. The hostess comes out at my voice. This is Antonina Ivanovna Urbane. She says: “I was following this Ikarus, also on a bus. The driver agreed to give me a ride home. He was ahead of us the whole time. He was driving empty, just from repairs. Only for a few seconds he disappeared around the bend. We drove up, and there he was already that's it - the Ikarus is standing with its front wheels in the river, and the passenger car, all mangled, is in the middle of the road. The driver of the Ikarus had not even managed to get out from behind the wheel - he was in shock. Well, I sent my grandson Kolya Zvonnikov, he is coming to stay for the summer, " "and call the police. The first ambulance arrived, then the police. The doctors got that guy out of the car, he was pinned there. It was twenty minutes to twelve."
WITH right side of the bridge, pieces of concrete knocked out of the fencing by Ikarus and hanging on the reinforcement are visible. There are traces of bus wheels in the river. On the other side of the bridge there is also a chipped pillar on the side - the one that Moskvich crashed into. In the middle of the road there is a healthy, crooked scratch about three meters long - crumpled from a terrible blow, it was drawn by the cardan of Tsoev’s car. We get into a taxi. “Where to now?” asks Janis. “It would be nice to find that bus. This is automobile enterprise No. 29. Do you know where?” I say.
“I work there, and this bus is parked in our park; in my opinion, it hasn’t even left the line yet!” We are driving in the middle of a corridor of ship pines. Then lakes begin to appear on the left. It was on one of them that Tsoi cast his fishing rods. In the courtyard of the car park we drive up to that same Ikarus. There is no driver, he went to lunch, and it is not known when he will come. I take a photo of the bus and return to the car. “It would be nice to find Tsoi’s car!” I say. “Why look for it, it’s in our boss’s box, he took it from there!” We're going to the boss.
Sergei Alekseevich Konopiev, having learned about the purpose of the visit, broke into a sly smile: “Wow, I hide it from everyone, I don’t tell anyone, but somehow you found out. You are the first who found me. I put it in my box, and then they found out ! Okay, let's go - I'll show you. No one touched the car. I just took the fishing rods there, here they are in my office, and there were a few fish in the trunk, I threw them out, they'll be ruined anyway. Take a picture of the car? I don't know, that's I need to ask my relatives for permission!” he says and calls Leningrad-Maryana. She is not home. Tsoi's parents, Valentina Vasilievna and Robert Maksimovich, were clearly surprised by a call from Tukums with a request to photograph the car. “The car is registered in Maryana’s name, Victor drove by proxy, it’s up to Maryana to decide, but we can’t decide here.”
The head of automobile enterprise No. 29, Sergei Alekseevich Konopiev, opens the garage in which Victor Tsoi’s broken Moskvich stands. The girls are coming. As auto mechanics say, “the car cannot be restored.” The front of the car looks like an accordion: the hood has folded in half, and the roof has also reared up. The front seats were pressed into the back seat. Inside the salon we notice a strand of long black hair. The receptive Zhenya, seeing them, immediately begins to sob. Nika, knowing about the ban on filming, pushes me with her elbow and says in a conspiratorial whisper: “He’s turned away and isn’t looking - let’s film!” I answer that I can’t do that.
Sergei Alekseevich opens the trunk. The rear of the car is completely intact, the impact was frontal. In the trunk there is a shabby backpack (apparently for fish) and several folded posters from the MK festival in Luzhniki. On them is the announcement of the gala concert "Soundtrack" and in the center is written large - the group "Kino". The car is dark blue (and not white, as some Moscow publications wrote), and its engine is in place. We are leaving the box. Everyone is in a depressed mood
“And here, by the way, is the bus that carried the coffin to Leningrad,” says Sergei Alekseevich, and points to a yellow PAZ-672 with license plate 2115 LTR. “You can take pictures of him, just don’t write his number. Otherwise, fans in Moscow will meet him and break the windows with stones. Why? After all, he brought the coffin. No, I also think that the bus has nothing to do with it, what if? bus driver Vladimir Guzanov, he brought it straight from the Tukumskoe morgue to the Bogoslovskoe cemetery. They took Natasha’s coffin, she was here, then Maryana arrived, and, in my opinion, Aizenshpis also came.
We issued the driver travel allowance for two days. After all, no one wanted to take it, everyone refused. Well, first of all, the road to Leningrad is long, and you can’t drive quickly - there’s a coffin after all. And Volodya “fell asleep” before this while drinking, so they sent him away as punishment." Saying goodbye, Kopiev gives me his business card with a request to send me the material when he gets out. We are driving back to the station. It’s starting to get dark. Driving past the scene of the accident, Janis is already without our requests are given by a long beep.
Please stop at a store and buy cigarettes and candy. The store is full of both, but the stern saleswoman asks me business card buyer. I leave the store with nothing. Seeing my upset face, Janis asks what’s the matter. I explain that I wanted to buy a couple of boxes of chocolates, but they don’t sell them. “Wait, my friend’s driver is unloading, give me 25 rubles.” I give it, and a minute later he returns with two boxes of chocolates. Finally we arrived at the station. There are 23 rubles and kopecks on the meter. The girls whine that they have very little money left. I take out a twenty-five-ruble note and say that “there is no need for change,” but it would be better if he honks his horn again when he passes the place of Tsoi’s death. He promises
Live sound "The Death of Tsoi: as it really is"
Introduction
This year Viktor Tsoi would have turned 35 years old. The date is round, but I didn’t live to see it. August 15 will soon come, the day on which a new, already eighth year of life without Tsoi will begin. Many KINO fans are still confident that the death of their idol was not accidental. In those days, some media tried to instill in the public the idea that death had been waiting for the musician for a very long time and was simply choosing the right opportunity to attack.
Some movie fans still believe that Tsoi is alive. Vitina’s most devoted fans tried to conduct their own investigations into the incident, which is why so many rumors, myths and legends arose around a simple accident that it was time to publish a thick book dedicated to the death of the artist. Journalist Oleg Belikov brought unique materials dedicated to that disaster to the editorial office of the newspaper “Living Sound,” including an interview with Vitina’s mother Valentina Vasilyevna Tsoi, dated February 1991 and never published before. Since there is no doubt about the reliability of the factual information, we decided to publish the most truthful version of the tragedy. And finally put an end to this story.
Holidays
One of the income sources of Latvian Birta Luge, who worked at a fish processing plant, was her house, nicknamed “Zeltini” by neighbors in the fishing village of Pliencems (near Riga), or “Golden” in Russian.
Birta met Natalya Razlogova a long time ago - even when she was in her first marriage. So when Razlogova arrived in Pliencems one day with a silent, dark-haired guy named Viktor Tsoi, Ms. Luge simply took note of the changes in the personal life of her regular client. Birta learned only later that he was a musician, and a famous one at that.
Valentina Vasilievna Tsoi: “I know what a car accident is, I know that he died. I can’t help but believe Natasha’s story. I am a biologist by training, and therefore that act is an undeniable argument for me. I remember, however, that after the first time I tried to read it, I couldn’t approach him for two months. Actually, you need to be prepared to read papers describing your child’s injuries. That is, I’m ready for the physiological and anatomical details of anyone’s death, but that’s another matter , when this is written about my son! However, there is no escape from this! Life and death - they always stand side by side. I am not going to be specifically interested in the circumstances of his death, from that act I understood that he had a terrible hole in his chest, and he died instantly. But the guys from the Bogoslovskoe cemetery constantly torment me with suggestions that he is not dead. It’s very difficult for a mother.”
Natasha came with Victor and his son Sasha every year for the entire summer - from June to September. The head of the family always brought a bottle of good wine as a gift to the hostess, which they drank immediately after the meeting. According to Birta, Vitya always said that he never relaxes as well anywhere as in “Zeltini”. And it’s not surprising - behind the house, made of yellow sandstone, there was a small row of pine trees, and right behind them the waves of the bay were already visible. And it was unusually quiet.
Victor and Natasha really appreciated the peace that the fishing village radiated. As a family, they loved to pick mushrooms, play badminton, skateboard and, of course, fish. It was hard to believe that Vitya was “one of those hairy ones” who were always yelling something into the microphone on TV. The guy did not correspond too much to popular ideas about rock music - although he brought a guitar and a tape recorder with him, he did not scream songs in a heart-rending voice. Victor often played something, but this happened only in his room and very quietly.
Valentina Vasilyevna Tsoi: “We were walking from the cemetery here, I see signs all around that say “Vitya is alive.” And I said: “Robert, how can you believe that your Vitya is gone?!” And recently the phone rang. I picked up the phone and heard “ Mom!" I, the only thing I could answer, was “Oh, what?!” But it wasn’t Vitka’s voice, apparently they mixed it up. And they hung up. After that, I was “twisted” all evening. And then - even worse. I really love those guys that live on Bogoslovsky. Vitya went through their fate, and my grief is their grief. And they are trying to prove to me that Vitya is alive. They say: “Valentina Vasilievna, you know, there is such a sign that animals bypass places where The dead are buried. You will never see them at the grave." I answer: "The crows flew in with me, they are not afraid of anything. First they sat on an umbrella, and then flew even closer to the grave." And they: “A squirrel also sat on his grave..." And, imagine, these children, who are always there, next to Vitya, also begin to doubt. One boy from Bogoslovsky, Stas told me: “You know, at night there is some kind of glow on the grave, something completely unearthly rises up...” In general, they have faith in Vitina’s supernatural power.”
Sashka, the son of Victor and Maryana Tsoi (the musician’s first wife), loved to go fishing with his father. The “men” usually returned home tired but happy, even though there was usually little fish. Apparently, they simply liked the process itself: first, getting ready for fishing, packing equipment, loading it into the car, then driving along the night road and a long vigil by the river.
Valentina Vasilyevna Tsoi: “There was a moment when I wanted to leave. I had accumulated a large number of notebooks of Vita's fans with dedication poems. There's a ton of poetry there, and they're so... killer! And then, at that time, it was quite easy to go to him, you know? Then I kept crying, “sitting” on pills... I hesitated, but constantly persuaded myself that I had someone to live for: firstly, it is not clear what will happen to Sasha next, since Maryana is creating new family; secondly, Irina Nikolaevna, Maryanina’s mother is a person in need of help. In addition, I have a sister who is somewhat weak - her mother died, her father died, and I was left with her alone. In short, I decided that I have someone to live for! Need to live! I even have to live! After all, both Robert and his son Lena need me...
Does Robert have a son?
Yes, Lenya, a very good boy. Robert left us, married someone else, and then came back again. Now his son is already 17 years old, but until he was 14, the guy didn’t even know that he had a brother, Vitya. His mother immediately gave the child her last name - Kuznetsov, and did not allow Robert to see him. The only thing Lenya knew was that his father’s last name was Tsoi. But at the end of the conference, she allowed Robert to call Lena, and they began to communicate - they met, went fishing, and immediately everything worked out. The boy was always drawn to us, he understood Vitka. Now Lenya is taking our last name, he decided so himself. You see, he also needs to live, and we must help him."
Tragedy
At the beginning of twelve in the morning on August 15, the sun was already starting to get hot, +24. Vitya was returning home from a night fishing trip. This time Sashka did not go with him, because he fell asleep in the evening without waiting for his father. The straight line of asphalt on the Sloka-Tulsa highway between two rows of ship's pines flew under the wheels of Tsoi's car at a speed of 150 km/h. In the trunk were a couple of fishing rods and a catch - several fish. An Ikarus - 250 with license plate 0518 BPH was driving towards him, driven by Janis Karlovich Fibiks. He was transporting an empty bus from repair to his native motor depot No. 29. A lonely one-story house, nicknamed “Teitopnik” in the area, was ahead of the path, both the first and the second.
The owner of Teitopnik, Antonina Urbane, was traveling behind Ikarus on another bus. The Ikarus driving ahead was constantly in her field of vision and only disappeared from sight for a minute - when turning around the house. When Urbane drove up to the house, she saw that the Ikarus was already parked in a roadside ditch, its front wheels having driven off the bridge into a small river. His driver was still in the cab. And in the middle of the road there was a Moskvich with a crumpled hood, from strong blow turned across the highway. The dashboard of the car drove into front row seats, pinning the driver to the seat. And the roof of the car, deformed, pinched his head. The crumpled driveshaft left a deep scratch about a meter long on the highway.
The roads in Tukums are not the same as in Russia. They are well paved, so high speeds are not uncommon there. Hence the frequent accidents. For local residents, numerous incidents have become commonplace. And for the investigator of the Tukums Department of Internal Affairs, Erika Ashmane, who was in charge of case No. 480 about the accident on the 35th km of the Sloka-Tulsa highway, the accident that happened was not something out of the ordinary. In order to record this case, only one paragraph of official paper was needed in the ovedesh documentation. And over the course of a year, this department of internal affairs accumulates dozens of pages with similar records. Antonina Urbane sent her grandson to call an ambulance. The clock showed 11 hours 40 minutes. The ambulance doctor, who arrived at the scene of the accident before the traffic cops, confirmed the death of Viktor Robertovich Tsoi. Somewhere in the archives of the Tukumsky Department of Internal Affairs there is still a petition to initiate a criminal case against citizen V.R. Tsoi as the culprit of the accident. The case was dropped "due to the death of the accused"
Whether Tsoi fell asleep at the wheel or was lost in thought - no one will know. But it is definitely established that the Moskvich crashed into a bridge fence post, and it was after this that the car was thrown into the oncoming lane under the wheels of the Ikarus. And before that, the car drove about 250 meters along the side of the road.
Did Vitya doze off? Did you move out thinking? Sudden cardiac arrest? Loss of consciousness?
Valentina Vasilievna Tsoi: “Once Yura Kasparyan told me: “Vitya was a great magician, he controlled thousands of people with the help of the power that he possessed. I can't understand how he managed it. He must have been a very strong character...” And I remembered how one day Vitka came home, and I told him: “Listen, you’re so ordinary, why are people going crazy about you?” He is silent in response. “You Tell me, how are you doing?” - “Mom, I feel very, very good.” - “Vit, is it difficult to be like this?” -2Very difficult.”
Funeral
According to the Leningrad program "600 Seconds", in the first days after the death of Viktor Tsoi in Leningrad, the number of suicides jumped by 30%. These were mostly young men and girls who had not yet reached 21 years of age.
The bus with the remains of Viktor Tsoi arrived from Tukums to the gates of the Theological Cemetery (in St. Petersburg) at noon. But his fans said goodbye to Vitya in the morning. First - in a rock club on Rubinshteina 13, then - in Kamchatka (in the boiler room where Tsoi worked). There was never a civil funeral service. It was replaced by the construction of an improvisational exhibition on the cemetery wall. There are photographs, drawings, badges, posters, and dedication poems everywhere. In the lattice of the building there are two bowed Russian flags. And a sea of people with mourning ribbons, tape recorders and guitars. Tsoi's music is everywhere. The coffin, upholstered in dark blue material, is lowered into the grave, and a granite slab with the inscription “Tsoi Viktor Robertovich. 1962 - 1990” is installed. Nearby are two large portraits of Tsoi, a wreath with the inscription: “To the singer and citizen Viktor Tsoi. With regret. Korean society.” After farewell at the grave there is a funeral procession along Nevsky Prospekt. In front are portraits of Tsoi, they are carried in their arms. Bowed flags. Columns of people are accompanied by police. Moving slowly, like an honorary escort. The procession occupies one side of Nevsky. Cars driving behind carefully avoid the marchers. On the palace square, under the arches, people begin to chant “Victor is alive!”
D him August 15, 1990 music world The tragic news spread that the leader of the Kino group, Viktor Tsoi, died in an accident on the highway near the Latvian city of Tukums. It became known that during the day, Tsoi was returning from fishing in his dark blue Moskvich-2141 at a speed of 130 km/h, flew into the oncoming lane and collided with an Ikarus intercity bus. The investigation established that the musician was absolutely sober, and lost control of the car because he fell asleep. Tsoi's relatives and fans were shocked, and soon, in the wake of general hysteria, many doubted the official data. How could you sleep in a Moskvich if at 130 km/h it hums and trembles like a taking off corn crop? And if Tsoi was not sleeping, why did he run under the bus? On the 25th anniversary of the death of the last rock hero of the USSR, we remember alternative versions of events.
1. Black producer
Tsoi was not the victim of an accident. He was killed. As soon as it comes to the fact that the car accident was rigged, the director of Kino, Yuri Aizenshpis, who later became one of the most successful producers in Russian show business, is first named as a likely customer. Why was the man who turned a semi-underground group into the first and only Soviet gods of stadium rock appointed as the main villain? Yes, because Tsoi’s true fans hate him! It was he who turned the last rock hero into a teenage idol like Yura Shatunov. It was he who, for the sake of money, forced Kino to wander around the country and play three concerts a day - but what about creativity? It was he who dragged the group into murky affairs - after all, before meeting with Tsoi, he spent almost 18 years in prison for financial fraud. And it was he who gave Tsoi that very ugly “Moskvich”. Why did Aizenshpis kill a cash cow? Why - he understood that the team’s popularity would eventually go away, and so he made a fortune from sales of the “posthumous” “Black Album”. What can I say, it was always customary to demonize Yuri Shmilevich - and he himself was flattered by his reputation “ dangerous person“- however, there were no serious facts proving his involvement in Tsoi’s death. Aizenshpis himself will not tell anything - in 2005 he died after a heart attack.
2. Criminal Russia
One of the most incomprehensible circumstances of the accident: why did Tsoi, having entered a sharp turn at speed and found himself on the side of the road, suddenly turn the steering wheel sharply to the left and rush straight into the oncoming traffic? Some researchers of the question have an answer: the rocker was cut off by another car, and then, pushing the Moskvich to the side of the road, it began to slow down right in front of him. Trying to avoid the obstacle, Tsoi flew under the Ikarus. Who could pursue a musician on a deserted road in the Latvian wilderness? Of course, racketeers! Dashing times, the eve of the 90s, and Tsoi attracted attention - at that time he had a lot of money. Fans of the film “Needle” insisted that drug dealers were angry with the musician for something; others recall that in the last year Tsoi appeared in public with security guards. Finally, in the mid-2000s, another stuffing appeared. Allegedly, a certain Janis contacted the editors of a crime magazine, who said that in 1990, a strange guy approached him and his friends, asking them to “scare a fisherman.” The guys found Tsoi while fishing and informed him about the kidnapping of his son. With a cry of “Kiya!” the musician, who was fond of martial arts, scattered the Latvian youngsters, jumped into the Moskvich and rushed to help his son out. Well, what happened next happened. If this Janis existed, he did not come to the meeting appointed by the journalists. But instead, strong guys showed up, convincingly advising the journalists not to poke their noses into something that wasn’t their own business.
3. Lubyansky passage
By 1990, almost everyone understood that Soviet Union Not long left. In these, any figure who had influence on mass consciousness automatically became political. Tsoi, who spoke at maximum volume about the expectation of change and spoke in Vzglyad with very sharp attacks on the authorities, was certainly such a figure. Of course, after his death, democratic conspiracy theorists immediately started talking about the fact that he was removed by the KGB, which did not need another informal leader at all. The version is impossible to verify: of course, the law enforcement officers were able to competently “correct” the car, intimidate the driver of the Ikarus (or was he in uniform?), ruin the investigation, etc. But the KGB at the turn of the decade was “no longer the same” , and he had enough other things to do at that time. Here, another theory (as usual, unconfirmed) even seems more plausible, that Tsoi’s Moskvich accidentally cut off the service Volga of one of the Latvian officials, and they decided to hush up the matter in order to avoid popular anger. Be that as it may, Tsoi did not live to see the 1991 putsch, did not speak at the White House, did not receive medals from Yeltsin, but he still remains a rock hero, and most of those who lived, performed and received, are now This title is clearly not worthy.
4. He left on his own
The version of Viktor Tsoi’s suicide was obviously born from grief-stricken fans, since none of them close circle rocker did not note that in last days something was bothering him. Among possible reasons to settle accounts with life: of course, unhappy love (allegedly Tsoi did not get along with new girl Natasha), fatigue from the touring race (that Aizenshpis again!) and, finally, permanent depression (“Vitya always had such sad songs!”). This all sounds very strange, given that many noted how organically Tsoi took on the role of a rock hero. The famous last concert of “Kino” at Luzhniki was like a show of world-class stars. And the method of suicide is quite wild: it is doubtful that the “last hero” would deliberately ram into a bus that could have people on it.
5. Thank you for being alive
Hendrix is alive. Morrison is alive. Elvis is alive. Lennon is alive. Everyone is healthy, regularly visiting each other and quietly jamming together. Occasionally, when the aliens allow it, Gagarin drops by. Tsoi, of course, is also alive. He even called the editorial office of “Yellow Gazeta” (the musician apparently had no contacts for other publications) and said: I’m alive, there was a mistake in 1990, but I’m so tired of everything that I decided to fly to Japan (of course , where else can a Russian Korean go?), I am involved in the auto business, write music and poetry. By the way, Tsoi completed the “Black Album” personally - in London. Of course, it didn’t work out very well with those fans who, after the announcement of the disaster, went to cut their wrists, but it’s a cruel world. The desire to resurrect an idol or at least refute the fact that he died in a banal accident is understandable, but is it worth falling into madness when it is enough to turn on any Kino album to understand that Viktor Tsoi, in essence, never left us?
Viktor Robertovich Tsoi is a legendary Soviet rock musician, singer, guitarist and songwriter, founder and lead singer of the cult group “Kino”. In addition, Viktor Tsoi became famous thanks to his work in cinema, having played in the famous films of the perestroika era “Assa” and “Igla”.Family and childhood
Viktor Tsoi was born on June 21, 1962 in Leningrad. His parents were physical education teacher Valentina Vasilievna and engineer Robert Maksimovich. Victor owes his Korean surname and appearance to his paternal grandfather, a Korean who came to the Northern Capital from Kazakhstan. Victor was the only child in the family. 
From early childhood he read a lot, loved to draw and sculpt, and in the fifth grade he became interested in playing the guitar. When the boy was eleven, his parents divorced. The father left the family, but a year later ex-spouses got back together. But Victor always had a warmer relationship with his mother. “I completely trusted him... I myself was interested in how talented people are formed. The main thing is that I wanted to help Vita open up and develop his abilities,” she later wrote.
Education
In parallel with secondary school in 1974-1977, Victor went to art school. According to the art teacher, the boy had excellent abilities, but he was not at all inclined to regular and painstaking work: “If he wants, he draws, and he draws wonderfully, but if he doesn’t want, you can’t force him.” 
After graduating from the eighth grade in 1978, Victor entered the art school named after V. Serov. Devoting more and more time to music lessons and not wanting to draw propaganda posters or generally do anything that did not bring moral satisfaction, Victor abandoned his studies and was expelled from school for poor academic performance.
Then, in 1979, the young man entered SGPTU-61 and received the profession of woodcarver. In those same years, he developed respect for the iconic Soviet singers and actors Mikhail Boyarsky and Vladimir Vysotsky, and later added a serious passion for the work of Bruce Lee. Victor began to practice karate and imitate his idol.
The beginning of creative activity
Victor first started playing in a group as a 13-year-old schoolboy - it was the group “Ward No. 6”, led by his fellow “artist” Maxim Pashkov. According to Pashkov’s recollections, Victor loved music very much, but at first he couldn’t play the guitar at all. The three of them chipped in and bought him a bass guitar at a thrift store: they thought it would be easier to learn to play because it “only has four strings.” The third member of the group banged on a pioneer drum, and together they performed hard rock in the style of Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath. The guys grew up and progressed very quickly in the game. 
In the late 1970s, Victor met Alexei Rybin, who played in the amateur group “Pilgrims”. They began to communicate a lot and began playing together with Mike Naumenko (“Zoo”) and Andrey Panov, known by his nickname Pig. At the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, Svin was considered “the main punk of Leningrad,” and a new punk group, “Automatic Satisfiers,” which included Viktor Tsoi and Alexey Rybin, began rehearsing in his apartment. Thanks to numerous apartment shows, the group gained fame outside of Leningrad and began to regularly travel to Moscow to see Artemy Troitsky’s apartment shows.
Getting to Moscow sometimes had to take “dogs” - several trains with transfers, and during one of these trips, Tsoi singing in the carriage was noticed by Boris Grebenshchikov, the leader of the rock movement of that time. He later wrote about this meeting: “When you hear the right and necessary song, there is always such a trembling of a discoverer who has found gem or an amphora from God knows what century - I had the same thing then.” Grebenshchikov promised the young musician his support, and later introduced him to Andrei Tropillo, Sergei Kuryokhin and other famous people.
In the summer of 1981, Viktor Tsoi, Alexey Rybin and Oleg Valinsky organized new group called “Garin and the Hyperboloids”, and already in the fall this group became a member of the Leningrad rock club. But soon one of the founders, Oleg Valinsky, left to serve in the army, and the group changed its name to the laconic “Kino”.
“Garin and the Hyperboloids” – My mood
Formation of the Kino group
Having acquired a new name, the group immediately began working on recording their first album. BG’s patronage played an important role in this matter as well: it was he who brought Victor and his team to Andrei Tropillo’s studio in the House of Young Technicians, and also “shared” the missing musicians from his group “Aquarium”.The album was ready in the summer of 1982. The total duration of the songs on it was 45 minutes, which determined its name - “45”. While working on the album, the group played their first electric concert at the Leningrad rock club festival, and the entire concert was accompanied by a drum machine, since Kino did not yet have its own drummer.
In the fall of the same year, the group recorded several songs with the drummer of “Zoo” at Andrei Kuskov’s studio, including the songs “Spring” and “ Last Hero", but this recording for an unknown reason was rejected by Tsoi and was not distributed.
Cinema – The Last Hero (1990, live at the Olympic Stadium)
On February 19, 1983, a large joint concert was given by the groups “Kino” and “Aquarium”, at which the songs “Electric Train”, “Aluminum Cucumbers” and “Trolleybus” were performed. At the same time, Yuri Kasparyan joined the main composition of the group, and soon after that Alexey Rybin left the group.
After rehearsals with the new guitarist, the album “46” was recorded, which was planned as a demo recording of the future album “Chief of Kamchatka”, but slowly began to spread among listeners as an independent album. Unfortunately, his musical activity had to be interrupted for a short time: in 1983, conscription into the army was hanging over Victor, and in order to avoid it, the singer feigned a suicide attempt and went to hospital for a month and a half for examination. mental asylum on the Buckle.
After his discharge, Tsoi wrote the song “Tranquilizer,” and in the spring of 1984 the Kino group performed at the second rock club festival, where they were awarded the title of laureate. The festival opened with the song “I declare my home a nuclear-free zone,” which was recognized as the best anti-war song. Then, in 1984, Georgy Guryanov (“Gustav”) joined the group as a drummer, backing vocalist and arranger.
The rise of a musical career
In the summer of 1984, the Kino group began recording the album “Chief of Kamchatka” in Andrei Tropillo’s Antrop studio, and again Boris Grebenshchikov came to the rescue, joined by Sergei Kurekhin. Soon the final, “golden” line-up of the group was formed: Viktor Tsoi, Yuri Kasparyan, Georgy Guryanov and a new member - bass guitarist Igor Tikhomirov. 
In 1985, in the same Antrop studio, the group began working on the album “Night,” but progress was slow: the musicians wanted to find a new sound and playing techniques. Leaving work on this album for a while, Viktor Tsoi moved to Alexey Vishny’s studio and quickly, in just over a week, recorded the album “This Is Not Love.” “Night” was released a little later, in January 1986, and included the famous songs “Saw the Night” and “Mama Anarchy.” At the suggestion of Andrei Tropillo, fans lovingly called this album “gateway music” - music “played by punks.”
Life is like a movie. Documentary about Viktor Tsoi
Also in 1986, work began on the album “Blood Type”. An American friend of the musicians, the famous rock enthusiast Joanna Stingray, brought a home four-channel portable studio “Yamaha MT 44” to Leningrad, and the musicians firmly settled in Gustav’s home. Here the whole group, according to Artemy Troitsky, “hanged out, rehearsed, painted pictures and - from time to time - listened to and recorded new songs.”
In 1987, the album “Blood Type” was released, and the group received widespread recognition and real fame. On the wave of popularity, having played the famous joint concert with “Aquarium” and “Alice” at the MIIT House of Culture in Moscow, the “Kino” musicians went on a triumphant tour to the cities of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. At the end of 1988, the album “A Star Called the Sun” was recorded, and in 1989 the group acquired a new producer, Yuri Aizenshpis.
“I liked his work, I liked it for its sincerity, its energy, and from the very first minutes of communication I liked the author himself: calm, thorough, friendly,” Aizenshpis recalled. The new producer began organizing numerous performances and filming on television: the popularity of “Kino” quickly gained an all-Union scale, and youth “film mania” began.
The album “The Last Hero” was recorded in 1989 in France. On June 24, 1990, the last concert of Viktor Tsoi and the Kino group took place - at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, where in honor of this event the Olympic flame was lit for the first time since the 1980 Olympics. After that, Tsoi and Kasparian closed themselves off from everyone at their dacha near Jurmala and began working on a new, final album. It was released after the death of Viktor Tsoi and received the unofficial name “Black Album”.
Works in cinema
Viktor Tsoi’s debut film work was his role in Sergei Lysenko’s graduation film “The End of Vacation,” filmed in 1986. This film consists of four clips from the Kino group, interconnected by a narrative with another plot, in which Victor also played one of the main roles. After the film “The End of Vacation” in 1986, Tsoi starred in the film “Ya-Kha” directed by Rashid Nugmanov, a short non-fiction film about Leningrad rock and its “fathers”. 
In 1987, the musician took part in the filming of the cult film “Assa” directed by Sergei Solovyov, which featured a brilliant cast: Stanislav Govorukhin, Tatyana Drubich, Sergei Bugaev (“Africa”), Alexander Bashirov, Alexander Domogarov and others. And although the role Victor’s role in this film was not great and only one of his songs was performed (“Changes!”), Many people recognized and fell in love with him after this performance, and the song “Changes!” became the unofficial anthem of Perestroika.
Fragments of films with Viktor Tsoi
The pinnacle of Tsoi's acting career can be considered main role in the full-length feature film “Needle” by Rashid Nugmanov with the participation of Pyotr Mamonov - the film was shot in Almaty, and for the sake of filming the Kino group had to temporarily interrupt their concert activities. And this sacrifice was not in vain: the film received several prizes at prestigious film festivals, became one of the leaders at the box office, and Viktor Tsoi was recognized as the best actor of 1989 according to a survey by the Soviet Screen magazine.
Personal life of Viktor Tsoi
Viktor Tsoi was a calm character, but a rather reserved, detached person. According to the memoirs of Alexander Titov, “he was an absolutely inconspicuous person, unable to present himself, even shy in company.”On March 5, 1982, while visiting mutual friends, 19-year-old Tsoi met Maryana Igorevna Rodovanskaya, who turned 23 that day. At that time, Maryana was far from musical life. She worked in a circus as the head of production departments and dreamed of entering the Mukhinsky School and receiving an art education.
She had several acquaintances with musicians, whose work she was cool about, but Viktor Tsoi became a happy exception. Later, in her story “Starting Point,” Marianna wrote: “The feeling that I experienced when I heard it for the first time can rather be called amazement rather than delight... I did not expect such agility from nineteen-year-old Tsoi!” The girl fell in love with Victor and became seriously interested in his music; she soon left the circus and became the administrator of the Kino group, a reliable assistant and colleague of the musicians.
In February 1984, Maryana and Victor got married. Almost all the famous rock performers of that time walked at their wedding: Boris Grebenshchikov, Mike Naumenko, Alexander Titov, Yuri Kasparyan, Georgy Guryanov (“Gustav”) and many others. “A hundred people crammed into our miserable apartment,” Maryana recalled. On August 5, 1985, Viktor Tsoi’s only child, son Alexander, was born.
In 1987, the couple separated, but the divorce was not officially filed. The last period of Victor’s life lived in Moscow with translator and film expert Natalya Razlogova, who after his death remarried and left for the USA. Natalya was not only last love Victor, but also his good and true friend. Film critic and esthete, she seriously influenced external image Tsoi: according to Yuri Aizenshpis, “he turned from hungry and angry to imposing and mysterious.”
In order to have an official place of work, as was required in the USSR, and to avoid criminal prosecution for “parasitism,” Viktor Tsoi, like many other people associated with informal art, had to look for some not too burdensome position.
For example, in the summer of 1986, Victor was a cleaner in a bathhouse on Veteranov Avenue, where he had to wash the room by dousing it with water from a fire hose. The work took only one hour a day, but this hour fell in the evening, when musical life was in full swing - and it was inconvenient.
In the fall of the same year, Sergei Firsov invited Tsoi to work as a fireman in the Kamchatka boiler house, where they both spent time until 1988. In this famous boiler room in different time Other famous musicians also worked: Alexander Bashlachev, Svyatoslav Zaderiy, Andrey Mashnin, etc. “Parties” and unofficial concerts also took place here. It was only necessary to throw coal into the firebox from time to time, and otherwise the fireman could feel, in the words of Tsoi himself, “completely free.” Now in this boiler room there is a club-museum of Viktor Tsoi.
Death of Viktor Tsoi
Viktor Tsoi died in a car accident on August 15, 1990 at 12:28 p.m. This happened on the Sloka-Talsi highway near the village of Kesterciems in Latvia, not far from the dacha where he and Kasparian worked on the album. According to the official version, Victor fell asleep at the wheel, and his dark blue Moskvich flew into the oncoming lane and collided with an Ikarus bus. 
The funeral took place on August 19 in Leningrad, among a crowd of thousands of fans. The death of Viktor Tsoi caused a real shock and a wave of suicides among Kino fans.
His songs remain popular and in demand to this day, and he will forever remain one of the “pillars” of Russian rock. After the death of the musician, about a dozen films were released using previously filmed materials about Viktor Tsoi and the Kino group, the most famous of which were “The Last Hero” by Alexei Uchitel (1992) and “Tsoi - “Kino”” by Natalia Razlogova and Evgeny Lisovsky ( 2012). In June 2018, the premiere of Kirill Serebrennikov’s feature film “Summer” about Tsoi’s youth also took place (while filming was frozen in August 2017 due to the case of Serebrennikov’s embezzlement of budget funds).
Several monuments have been erected to Viktor Tsoi: on the Sloka-Talsi highway at the site of his death, at the railway station in the city of Okulovka, Novgorod region (previously this monument stood on Nevsky Prospekt in the courtyard of the Aurora cinema, and then inside the cinema itself), a monument -bas-relief at the Kamchatka boiler house and a monument in Barnaul. In 2017, a new monument was erected in Karaganda.
Monuments are awaiting installation in Vilnius, St. Petersburg and Moscow - however, in the capital in Krivoarbatsky Lane there is a “spontaneous” memorial wall with photographs of Tsoi, numerous inscriptions “Tsoi is alive” and quotes from his songs. Similar walls exist in the city of Dnepr (formerly Dnepropetrovsk) in the Dnepropetrovsk region, as well as in Minsk and Mogilev.
Streets in four settlements in Russia, as well as two public gardens - in St. Petersburg and Krasnoyarsk - are named in honor of Viktor Tsoi. In addition, asteroid No. 2740 is named after him.
The departure of such an iconic figure of Russian rock as Viktor Tsoi could not help but generate numerous myths and legends. In particular, most fans of his work refused to believe that the death of their idol was an absurd tragic accident, so they even preferred to believe in the version of murder. This can be explained by the fact that it is easier for a person to consider someone guilty than to come to terms with the inexorability of chance. Many fans for a long time were convinced that the unfortunate accident was a carefully planned crime.
This version of events was also considered by people quite close to Tsoi. For example, Dmitry Levkovsky, administrator of the “Games” and “People’s Militia” groups, notes: “... maybe I’m paranoid, but I’m still sure that this was a well-prepared murder... Too serious an authority for young people Tsoi became, and if he had released the “Black Album”, then at least he would have led a revolution.”
It is noteworthy that the version of the accident is also refuted by independent technical expert Yuri Antipov. He claims that all available photos of the famous “Moskvich” Tsoi are fake, since in those photographs that can be found on the Internet, the registration number does not match the real one. In addition, the expert notes: “Something clearly fell on this car. We see the crushed central part cabins, but the front part is intact. The damage to Tsoi’s car should be completely different.” After analyzing all the possible circumstances of the incident, Yuri Antipov came to the conclusion that Tsoi’s car was stopped long before the bus appeared, and the singer himself was rendered incapacitated, after which they pushed the car to the turn, waited for the Ikarus to appear and sent it towards him, staging an accident .
However, Tsoi’s friends and relatives believe that the musician did not have obvious enemies and ill-wishers capable of such an act, and the songs of “Kino” do not have the political and social overtones that were attributed to them after the death of the group leader.