How Lev Theremin became a millionaire in the United States and survived in Kolyma

Lev Theremin created a musical instrument called the Termenvox, which was admired by Rachmaninov, Einstein and Charlie Chaplin, the first alarms and bug Zlatoust, which for years delivered news to the Soviet special services from the US ambassador’s office in Moscow.

Photo: YouTube frame / Peter Theremin

In the interview Jewish.ru his great-grandson Pyotr Termen told how his great-grandfather became a millionaire in the USA, why he survived in Kolyma and why he was hanging out with electronic engineers in his 90 years.

Your great-grandfather created a unique musical instrument, about which not many have heard from us. How did the tool history evolve?
- Almost a hundred years have passed. All this time, the sound and appearance have changed greatly, but in the basic things the technical revolution has not touched it. Today's models of theremin, in general, are worse in sound quality than those that were, for example, 70 years ago. And if Lev Theremin put quite a lot of understanding of music, sound quality and capabilities into the instrument, then modern engineers often approach it from the standpoint of electronic engineers and produce not very complex musical devices. It is as if highly skilled, but still a carpenter, made a violin. The theremin is often positioned as the simplest synthesizer with spatial control, and this greatly simplifies its essence. It was used in different ways - in 30-s it got into cinema and was popular in foreign cinema from 1940-s to 1960-s.

He recently sounded in The Simpsons and in the series about Hannibal Lector. In electronic music, it is used quite often, one of the theremin fans is Jean Michel Jarre. It was used in jazz and rock - Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Sting, singer Zaz, in Russia - the group "Splin", Shklarsky from "Picnic", many others. But rock culture basically uses it as a noise tool. For example, Shklarsky told me in an interview how he bought a theremin, wanted to learn how to play, but failed, and then he began to use it as an expressive noise paint.

Lev Sergeevich purposefully developed the Termenvox?
- He was recruited as a physicist and scientist Abram Ioffe, headed the laboratory of electrical oscillations at his institute and was engaged in the creation of various measuring instruments. Including developing a device for measuring the electrical density of gases - in this work, there was a Theremin. I think that the general principle was known to him even earlier. Anyway, in 1919, he demonstrated the first model, and then he modified it, expanding the timbre and performance capabilities.

The instrument was presented personally to Vladimir Ilyich. How did Lenin perceive him?
- First, in 1921, he was presented to the public at the All-Union Congress in Moscow. The electrification plan of the country was just being adopted, and the idea of ​​electrifying music flowed into it successfully. The news of the new instrument reached the leader of the revolution, who decided to see for himself what it was. As you know, Lenin was a rather enthusiastic person in terms of new achievements of science and technology.

In 1922, Lev Theremin came to Lenin's office and played a number of works on theremin. He was accompanied by secretary Fotieva - she was a pianist. Lenin independently tried to play Glinka's The Lark. "The Lark" entered the repertoire of the Termenukoksists as the very composition that Lenin played.

Photo: YouTube frame / Web Story

A serious part of the biography of Lev Termen was made in America. What brought him there?
- The foreign audience already knew about the theremin and wanted to hear it for a long time - patent applications at the beginning of 20's were filed in different countries of Europe. And Lev Theremin began to be invited to speak in different cities of Germany, France and Great Britain. He performed at the Grand Opera and Albert Hall, then went to America. Rachmaninov listened to him, Einstein and many other prominent personalities of that time met him. There was an open-air concert at Carnegie Hall. This greatly contributed to the country's image, for Lev Termen was an innovative invention created in young Soviet Russia. He also brought some utilitarian developments to America - for example, an electric security alarm. He first invented it, and it was established in the Hermitage and many other museums in Europe and America.

In general, my great-grandfather arrived there on a business trip, but he was late on the spot - too many lucrative offers came from the Americans. As a result, he opened a company in the USA that installed alarm systems and various interactive devices - in the 30s, for example, they developed self-opening wooden doors. In America, Leo Theremin became a millionaire. Of course, part of the proceeds went to Russia.

I do not know the specific amounts, but there are data that allow us to think that they were impressive. In America, the great-grandfather created terpsiton, theremin cello, a whole orchestra of the Theremins. The first students appeared, the theremin began to be mass-produced, and one of them even bought Charlie Chaplin! The business trip lasted until 38, when the great-grandfather with three tons of equipment left America.

Was he called? He told why and why?
- It was clear that the case goes to war, and his mind is needed for military development. After all, an inventive genius can be universal. He was determined to continue working on the theremin in his homeland, but everything turned out differently. Immediately he was not put. He tried to find a job, to apply the equipment that he had brought, but as a result everything ended typically. He was charged with the popular accusation at the time - the murder of Kirov.

And how in the case explains his participation in this terrible crime?
- Ostensibly the murder of Kirov was planned to produce a beam from overseas. The beam was supposed to send Lev Theremin across the ocean, and this beam was to be reflected in the Foucault pendulum, into which, according to the prosecution, astronomers laid a bomb. The way in which the Foucault pendulum was supposed to be in the Pulkovo Observatory, which Kirov was supposed to inspect, remains a secret, but this did not stop the fantasy of the investigators. However, it was a time of insane accusations, and no one cared if they coincided with reality, the main thing was the result.

Photo: YouTube frame / Peter Theremin

As a result, he fell into sharagu to Tupolev?
- First to Kolyma, where he spent a year in prison. And I think that this, of course, is a very big success for all of us, that he managed to survive. For a man born in a noble family who became a millionaire in America, suddenly coming to the Kolyma and carrying a wheelbarrow with soil in a wild frost ... They threw him from camp to camp, in one of them he created a monorail that helped transport materials and made life much easier . Labor productivity in their team increased sharply, for which everyone was very grateful to him.

I read that he was escorted as a native.
- They say they donated a fur coat and were generally very good to it. He even organized a small orchestra there, which played classical music. There were some good musicians among the prisoners. As far as I understand, he even managed to assemble the theremin. In general, he was recalled to the Central Clinical Hospital, where he was destined to work with Korolev.

Tupolev saw Lev Sergeevich carve a model of an airplane out of plywood, and gave him an assistant, Korolev. It was a very interesting encounter between two prominent personalities. Great-grandfather spoke warmly about meeting Korolev and maintained friendship with his family.

In Sharaga, he developed the same eavesdropping device that was incorporated as a gift from the Soviet pioneers and presented to the US ambassador to the USSR, Harriman, in 1945, at Artek?
- It became the most famous of the inventions developed in the conclusion. The war is over, nuclear fever has begun. It was important for all parties to receive information about the plans of the enemy. Great-grandfather created a listening installation that amazed with its elegance. US Ambassador Harriman received as a gift from the pioneers in "Artek" a beautiful eagle - the emblem of America. The security service checked him and did not find anything suspicious. It was great made - an impressive artifact of possible friendship between countries. In general, he calmly hung in the embassy in Harriman's office, without causing any suspicion for nine years! And all the information that was voiced in the office became the property of Soviet intelligence.

Once the British intelligence officer was near the American embassy in Moscow, listened to the frequencies and discovered that some kind of suspicious activity was taking place. We conducted an audit, stopped at an eagle, found a small carnation and a membrane inside. They took me to America - they did not understand how it works. Sent to the UK, their engineers managed to unravel the rebus and create a clone - in fact it was the world's first passive radio transmitter. Microwave radiation was directed to the office, the carnation became an antenna, and the membrane became a microphone, and the signal was shot back with a huge amount of interference. Lev Sergeevich created a special system that allowed to clear the signal from them. The Soviet country learned a lot of interesting things from the first mouth of the Chekists in the building next to the embassy.

Great-grandfather was awarded the Soviet prize of the first degree. This was not written in the newspapers, since he remained imprisoned, and the invention was classified. The public would probably never know about it. But at the UN Summit in 1961, the Soviet side raised the issue of espionage from America, there was a proven case. And the American side was forced to show the eagle to declare that espionage is mutual. So with the invention of Lev Termen met the heads of the UN member countries.

Photo: YouTube frame / Peter Theremin

In America, by the time he was recorded in the dead at the hands of the regime?
- They rather quickly recognized him dead - in the biography they set the date of death for 1938 year. The marriage with Lavinia Williams was not recognized due to the fact that she was an African American, and the rights to inventions were transferred to the public. And in 1967, a journalist New York Times met Theremin in Moscow and wrote an article that the inventor is alive and well.

Great-grandfather was immediately expelled from the conservatory, where he then worked. They explained the decision to him rather roughly - they say, electricity is not for music, but for an electric chair, so his instruments have nothing to do at the music conservatory. Some tools just thrown in the trash. Began the search for a new place in which to work. They became the Moscow State University, where Lev Sergeevich occupied a rather conventional position - a highly qualified mechanic. There he developed the polyphonic theremin, on which you can play not one voice, but several.

In 80, his daughter Natalya Termen started playing on the Theremin, they performed together. First, inside the Soviet Union, then beyond its borders: in France, Holland, Sweden and America. These performances were held at the largest electronic music festivals. Finally, the audience saw Lev Theremin - the person with whom electronic music began. And I heard how the theremin sounds in the hands of his daughter. He was pleased with the attention that turned out to him and to the theremin.

Perestroika began, everything could turn out very well. But it was at the end of 80 in Russia that rather weird artistic things began to be written about great-grandfathers. In 1990, people started threatening to call both him and his entire family. After that, his laboratory was destroyed in 1992 - some of the archives were stolen, almost all tools were broken. The police did not reveal anything. In parallel, some people began to illegally use his name and even call themselves his relatives. In general, a whole series of events, rather sad.

It would seem that the most monstrous for the great-grandfather should have been the end of 30's, but the story in 90 was beyond good and evil. By the way, Lev Sergeyevich sometimes said that the years spent in the sharashka were quite happy from the point of view that there was an opportunity to work, there was modern technology, access to it at any time. This opportunity was not given to him fully, either in the days of the Union or in perestroika.

Did he have a desire to return to America?
- As far as I know - no. He treated her very carefully. Do not forget that the American society 30-ies had its weighty unpleasant nuances. What is, for example, the reaction to the dark skin of his wife: Lavinia was not allowed into the restaurant with him, and in general, the appearance in the light was perceived according to the heyday of racism. Then - it was the golden age of the American mafia.

Photo: YouTube frame / Peter Theremin

What is the contribution of Lev Theremin to the development of domestic television networks?
- Great-grandfather was actually the first to do a fully-fledged vision, a system that allowed us to observe without wires what was happening in the next room. The resolution was not very good, but the system worked. It was an electro-mechanical installation, which made a huge impression on the scientific audience. And not only on scientific: far-sightedness was soon classified, and subsequent investigations were held behind closed doors.

It was supposed to use it to protect state borders. This installation became the thesis work of Lev Termen, since he did not have a de facto complete scientific education, he was a student at St. Petersburg University - he immediately studied in two faculties, but did not finish, the First World War began. Its development ahead of its time, but the fate of the developer of mass television was prepared for another engineer of Russian origin.

You are now the main guardian of the Theremin culture. What are your plans?
- Returning to authentic sources, to the key in which Lev Theremen himself saw the development of the instrument. The school of theremin in Russia was created by our family to educate a generation of people who perceive a certain sound culture, the culture of the sound of the theremin. Often, people themselves grope for technology, and not always successfully. I began to lecture on the Theremin, to systematize knowledge about the history of the tool, because it is very important that people understand the context.

It is a tool that musicians of the level of Rachmaninov applauded, it has fantastic potential. We will be doing the orchestra of the theremins this year, and Natalia Lvovna and I have extensive plans for concert projects. There will be both modern and classical music. Of course, the task is to restore the original instrument and create an adequate concert model, since there are none. Lev Sergeevich himself first of all positioned the Theremin as an academic tool.

The music that he, his students, performed was academic, specially written or revised for theremin. It is in this context that the Theremin is of the greatest interest, because most of the academic tools are already fully implemented, and this one is quite young, its possibilities are not fully explored, and there is a lot of room for the performer and the composer. But this does not negate the fact that it can be used in other musical directions.

Where can I learn to play termenvox?
- The first biggest school is in Japan, there are really thousands of people who are learning to play on the theremin and made it a pop story. The second school in Russia - Russian Theremin School - we conduct classes and master classes in different cities of the country. There is a project Kid Cool Theremin School in New York, children are taught there with their parents; they improvise on several theremines in the process.

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