How a Soviet scientist invented the first electronic musical instrument. Lev Sergeevich Termen

Private bussiness

Lev Sergeevich Termen (1896 - 1993) was born in St. Petersburg into a noble family. His father, Sergey Emilievich Termen, was a well-known lawyer, his mother, Evgenia Antonovna, was engaged in painting and music.

From childhood, the boy was interested in technology, was fond of mathematics, physics, and experimented. Parents specially for him organized a laboratory at home, in which something always exploded, and in the country there was a small observatory. In 1914, Lev graduated from the St. Petersburg First Men's Gymnasium with a silver medal and entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg State University. At the same time, he studied cello at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1916.

In 1916, right from the second year of the university, Termen was drafted into the army and sent for accelerated training to the Nikolaev Engineering School, and then to officer courses in electrical engineering. When the revolution began, he served as a junior officer in a reserve electrical battalion serving the most powerful radio station in the country, the Tsarskoye Selo radio station near Petrograd.

After the establishment of Soviet power, he first continued to work at the same radio station, and later was sent to Moscow to a military radio laboratory.

On the evening of November 3, my friends and I drank a shot to commemorate the soul of the inventor and musician Lev Sergeevich Termen. I have never seen this man in my life, but I have been fascinated by his magical talent since childhood, when I first heard the amazing musical instrument theremin, from which all modern electronic music went.

Lev Sergeevich Termen (1896-1993

invented

1. A group of electric musical instruments:

Theremin

Rhythmicon

terpsiton

2. Burglar alarm

3. Unique eavesdropping system "Buran"

4. The world's first television installation - distant vision

worked on:

Speech recognition system

human freezing technology

Military sonar

In the spring of 1926, engineer Lev Termen demonstrated the world's first television installation, far vision, at the People's Commissariat of Defense. He installed the camera lens on the street, placed the screen in his office, and the red commanders Ordzhonikidze, Voroshilov, Budyonny and Tukhachevsky all exclaimed with delight: Stalin was walking around the yard on the screen!

Only a year was needed for Theremin to solve a fantastic problem - the creation of electric far-sight. 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, Termen studied at the same time at the physics and astronomy departments, at the same time studying at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in the cello class.

Before the revolution, he managed to graduate from a military engineering school and even fight for the tsar-father with the rank of second lieutenant of the radio engineering battalion. But the Bolsheviks did not shoot him, but, on the contrary, took him to serve in the electrical battalion. And a year later he was appointed 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 a task - to engage in radio measurement of the dielectric constant of gases at variable temperature and pressure. During the 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 capacitor plates. Perhaps just a physicist would not attach any importance to this, but a physicist - a graduate of the conservatory - tried to compose a melody out of these sounds. And it worked!

Thus was born the musical instrument theremin - 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 an electric field, an audible signal was heard. By the way, in our time, in expensive cars, an alarm is still installed, which is based on the invention of Theremin.

And in the life of Lev Sergeevich, it was the first step on the path to glory. Although colleagues chuckled: "Theremin plays Gluck on a voltmeter," the scientist was not embarrassed at all. In 1921, he demonstrates 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 not like anything else. The Pravda newspaper published an enthusiastic review, and radio concerts were held for a wide audience. In addition, the GOELRO plan was adopted during the congress, and Termen, with his unique power tool, could become an excellent propagandist for the electrification plan for the whole country.

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

Stop who's coming!

And yet the main "hero" of the audience was the theremin. Lenin liked the instrument so much that he gave "the go-ahead" for Termen's tour and ordered that he be given a free railway ticket "to popularize the new instrument" throughout the country.

By the way, another impressive touch of Theremin's life is connected 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 the body of Lenin, so that years later, when the technology was worked out, he could be resurrected from the dead. But the assistant returned with sad news: the internal organs had already been removed, the body was prepared for embalming. With that, Theremin left research on the revival 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 have been a milestone

After demonstrating the television installation at the Narkompros, Termen showed it at the Fifth All-Union Congress of Physicists in Moscow. The invention caused a furor, "Spark" and "Izvestia" enthusiastically wrote: "The name of Termen enters the history of world science along with Popov and Edison!" It seemed that from the experiment to serial production is within easy reach ...

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

In the knockout "Grand Opera" and others

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

In the meantime, Ioffe, who at that time was in the USA, received orders from several firms for the manufacture of 2,000 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 Commissar of Education Lunacharsky and from the military department.

Trump on the table!

And here is a young handsome Lev Theremin sailing on the ocean liner "Majestic" to America. The world-famous violinist Jozsef Szigetti, who sailed on the same ship, was envious of the fees offered to Theremin by America's largest businessmen 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, Termen founded the Teletouch studio in New York for the production of theremin.

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

The "great crisis" that broke out at the turn of the 1930s ruined many rich people. But he did not knock down Theremin. Of course, the people were not up to music, but the inventive Russian had one more trump card - a burglar alarm. Teletouch Corporation quickly refocused on its production, and Termen's volume sensors were torn off with their hands. They were installed even in the terrible US prison Sing Sing and in Fort Knox, where the American gold reserves were stored. So everything was in order with the business, but there was a crisis in the musical field.

Cake for violinist with theremin

In the enthusiastic choir of Termen's fans, voices of dissatisfied people began to be heard: at concerts, he godlessly out of tune. The fact is that it is incredibly difficult to play the theremin cleanly: the performer does not have any reference points (like, for example, the keys of the piano or the strings of the violin) and one has to rely solely on ear and muscle memory.

Termen clearly lacked performing skills. A virtuoso was needed here. And then fate brought him together with a young emigrant from Russia, Clara Reisenberg. As a child, she was known as a miracle child, a violinist with a great future. But either she outplayed her hands, or because of a hungry childhood she had to part with the violin: her muscles could not withstand the loads. But the theremin was on hand, and Clara quickly learned to play it. Not without a stormy romance, especially since Termen was free by that time.

The first time Termen married in 1921 was 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 love each other. And then it became known that the visitor is a member of a fascist organization. And in the Soviet embassy they demanded that Termen divorce his wife. Which he did. Therefore, by the time of the meeting with Clara, Lev Sergeevich was open to new love.

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

Why are the walls floating?

And Theremin plunged headlong into work. Even upon arrival in America, he rented a six-story mansion on 54th Avenue for 99 years. In addition to private apartments, it housed a workshop and a studio. Here Lev Sergeevich often played music with Albert Einstein: the physicist played the violin, the inventor played the theremin. Einstein was fascinated by the idea of combining music and spatial images. And Termen figured out how to do it: he invented the light-musical instrument rhythmicon. Huge transparent wheels with a geometric pattern applied to them rotated in front of a strobe lamp. As soon as the musician changed the pitch, the frequency of the strobe flashes and the patterns changed - the spectacle was impressive. Well, fantasy began when the walls of the studio went up and down. Of course, not really, but with the help of the play of light. The bewitched visitors gasped in surprise!

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

Was he really a millionaire? It is not known for sure. Some say that Teletouch Corporation brought a lot of money to Termen personally and to Soviet Russia. And others claim that Termen was financed by military intelligence. Because the true purpose of his business 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 tasks. However, these tasks were not burdensome and did not particularly distract Theremin from work. And he was already carried away with might and main by the most fantastic of his ideas - an 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 goddess of dance Terpsichore. At the same time, each sound corresponded to a lamp of a certain color. Imagine what an extraordinary sight it was, because any movement of the dancer responded with sounds and flickering of multi-colored lights!

It never occurred to him that marriage to a black woman would radically change his life. But as soon as the lovers registered their marriage, the doors of many houses in New York closed before Theremin: America did not yet know political correctness. He lost informants, which caused serious dissatisfaction with the Soviet intelligence. And in 1938 Termen was ordered to leave immediately for Russia. Lavinia was told that she would come to her husband on the next boat.

The spouses never saw each other again. And Termen until the end of his days kept a marriage certificate issued by the Russian embassy in America.

Kirov's killer

Ten years after leaving Russia, Termen arrived in Leningrad. And it turned out that no one needed him: there were almost no old workers left at the Physico-Technical Institute. Termen went to look for work in Moscow, but on March 15, they came to the hotel near the Kyiv railway station for him with an arrest warrant.

In the Butyrskaya prison, the investigator told Termen that, as a defector, he 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 as follows: Kirov (who was already dead by that time!) Was going to visit the Pulkovo Observatory. Astronomers have planted a land mine in a Foucault pendulum. And Termen, with a radio signal from the USA, was supposed to blow it up as soon as Kirov approached the pendulum. The investigator was not even embarrassed by the fact that the Foucault pendulum is not in Pulkovo, but in the Kazan Cathedral! Lev Sergeevich was given eight years and sent to Kolyma.

But Termen spent only a year in the camp. He was appointed senior over the criminals who carried stones from the mountain and paved the road with them. Theremin mechanized the process by building a wheelbarrow with a monorail. Work is in full swing! The brigade's rations were tripled, and the papers about the unusual prisoner went to Moscow.

In the winter of 1940, he was transferred to Omsk, to Tupolev's aviation sharashka, where throughout the war he developed equipment for radio control of unmanned aircraft and radio beacons for naval operations. But the crowning achievement of his stay in the sharashka was the invention of the Buran listening system.

Trojan horse from the pioneers

On Independence Day, July 4, 1945, the American ambassador to Russia, Averell Harriman, received a wooden panel depicting an eagle as a gift from the Soviet pioneers. The panel was hung in the ambassador's office. And then the American intelligence services lost their peace: a mysterious leak of information began. Only 7 years later, a mysterious cylinder with a membrane inside was discovered inside the gift. Engineers struggled for a year and a half to unravel this trick. The secret turned out to be simple: an invisible beam was directed from the house opposite to the study window, and the membrane, vibrating in time with the speech, reflected it back, and it was recorded on a special device.

Then Theremin so improved his "Buran" that the membrane was no longer needed - its role was played by window glass. Rumor has it that "Buran" is still in service with our secret services.

The Soviet government highly appreciated the merits of the inventor - in 1947 the 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 showered with honors. But Termen did not receive any official titles, all his patents were covered with the heading "Sov. Secret". And Lev Sergeevich continued to work in the secret laboratories of the KGB. Soon he found himself a new wife there - a young typist Masha Gushchina, who bore him twin daughters.

For almost twenty years, Theremin was engaged in specific developments for the all-powerful department. At first, these were promising works - speech recognition systems, voice identification, military hydroacoustics. But over time, priorities have changed. As Termen recalled, "supposedly in the West they came up with devices to determine where flying saucers were, and we also had to fight over such devices. I understood that this was a scam, but you couldn’t refuse - and one day I decided that it was better to retire" .

Employers did not mind, believing that you could not take anything from the old man, and in 1964 Termen nevertheless parted ways with the special services, under whose invisible eye he had been for almost 40 years.

Theremin - does not die!

70 years old. It seemed that life was over. But Lev Sergeevich, true to his motto "Theremin - does not die!" (this is how his last name is read backwards), 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, found out that the great Theremin was alive.

This sensational news in America was perceived as a resurrection from the dead: all American encyclopedias indicated that Theremin died in 1938. In the name of Lev Sergeevich, a flood of letters poured in from his overseas friends, reporters from various newspapers and television companies tried to meet with him. The conservative authorities, frightened by such an interest in the modest person of a mechanic, simply fired him. And all the equipment was thrown into the trash.

For the last twenty-five years Termen has been working in the Acoustics Laboratory of Moscow State University. 6th class mechanic. He slowly worked on his theremins - he restored some, improved some, even invented one in which sound through a system of photocells arose from the mere glance of a musician.

Lev Sergeevich also frequented the Scriabin Museum, where he took part in the creation of a musical synthesizer. The long-awaited time has come - the era of electronic instruments. Theremin, as if from the air, caught ideas that sometimes seemed utopian. And later it turned out that the Japanese company Yamaha worked independently on these ideas.

Well, Lev Sergeevich taught his niece Lida Kavina to play the theremin. By the age of twenty, she had become a virtuoso performer and traveled all over Europe with concerts. In 1989 Termen was also invited to the Experimental Music Festival in France. And he, 93-year-old, went!

But most of all, at the end of his life, Termen surprised those around him with his entry into the CPSU: "I promised Lenin." Lev Sergeevich tried before, but he was not accepted into the party for "terrible crimes". So Termen became a communist only in 1991, simultaneously with the fall of the USSR.

a swan song

In 1951, future American director Steve Martin saw the film The Day the Earth Stood Still. But it was not 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 film about Theremin. But 11 years passed before he was able to come to Moscow, meet Theremin and invite him to America. The aged maestro walked in bewilderment through the streets of New York and hardly recognized the places where ten years of his life had passed. The most exciting was the meeting with Clara Rockmore. Clara did not agree to her for a long time - years, they say, do not paint a woman.

Ah, Clarenok, what is our age! - said 95-year-old Theremin.

After America, he went to the Netherlands to the Schoenberg-Kandinsky festival, and, returning to Moscow, he found complete destruction in his room in a communal apartment - broken furniture, broken equipment, trampled records. Apparently, one of the neighbors really 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 theremin live to this day. Among the many companies making them is Moog Mugic, owned by the inventor of the first synthesizer, Robert Moog. Once he said about Theremin: "He's 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" by the group "Aquarium"

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

3. Hitchcock's Spellbound ("Charmed")

4. Bill Weider's The Lost Weekend

Awards and prizes:

Lev Sergeevich Theremin(August 15, St. Petersburg - November 3, Moscow) - Russian and Soviet inventor, creator of the original musical instrument - theremin (). Laureate of the Stalin Prize, I degree (1947) for the creation of listening devices.

Biography

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 - a famous lawyer Sergei Emilievich - spared no money for Lev's education.

Carier start

Lev Termen carried out his first independent experiments in electrical engineering while still studying at the St. Petersburg First Men's Gymnasium.

Being a very versatile person, Theremin invented many different automatic systems (automatic doors, automatic lighting, etc.), alarms and security devices. In -1926, he invented one of the first television systems - "Far-vision".

At the direction of the head of Soviet military intelligence, Yan Berzin, Termen organized the Teletouch company with the money he earned 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.

Soon Lev Theremin became a very popular person in New York. George Gershwin, Maurice Ravel, Jascha Heifetz, Yehudi Menuhin, Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein visited his studio. His circle of acquaintances included financial tycoon John Rockefeller, future US President Dwight Eisenhower.

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

Lev Sergeevich is divorcing his wife Ekaterina Konstantinova.

Firsthand:

I got married for the first time in Leningrad. My wife was the sister of one of the employees of our institute. She went on tour with me to Paris, London, Berlin, and when I left for America, she followed me. Here she was offered a place at a medical school located fifty kilometers from New York, so we began to meet only on weekends. Once a young man came to my office and asked for my consent to divorce his wife, as they supposedly love each other. At first I refused, but then it turned out that this young man was one of the leaders of the American fascists. This became known in the Soviet embassy. I was advised to get a divorce. And I got divorced. About four years later I married a Negro dancer, Lavinia Williams.

Popular in the United States, a talented ballerina and beauty, a black woman, Lavinia Williams, became his wife.

Repressions and awards

At first, Termen served time in Magadan, working as a foreman of a construction team. Termen's numerous rationalization proposals attracted the attention of the camp administration to him, and already in 1940 he was transferred to the Tupolev design bureau TsKB-29 (in the so-called "Tupolev sharaga"), where he worked for about 8 years. Here his assistant was Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, later a well-known designer of space technology. One of the activities of Termen and Korolev was the development of unmanned aerial vehicles controlled by radio - prototypes of modern cruise missiles.

Personal life

Maria Gushchina - wife; Natalya Termen - daughter; Elena Termen - daughter; Maria Theremin - granddaughter; Olga Theremin - granddaughter; Peter Theremin - great-grandson;

The principles of operation underlying the theremin were also used by Theremin when creating a security system that responds to the approach of a person to a protected object. The Kremlin and the Hermitage, and later foreign museums, were equipped with such a system.
In 1921, Lev Termen met with Lenin at the VIII All-Russian Electrotechnical Congress. Termen's invention delighted Lenin, and in 1922 they met in the Kremlin.
On February 9, 1945, US Ambassador Averell Harriman, invited to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Artek pioneer camp, was presented with a wooden panel made of precious woods (sandalwood, boxwood, sequoia, elephant palm, Persian parrotia, mahogany and ebony, black alder) , featuring the coat of arms of the United States. A listening device developed by Theremin was installed in it, which made it possible to listen in on conversations in the ambassador's office for almost 8 years. The design of the "bug" turned out to be so successful that the American intelligence services did not notice anything when examining the gift. 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 more years.
In 1946 Termen was presented with 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 a laureate of the Stalin Prize of the first degree.
In 1991, at the age of 95, a few months before the collapse of the USSR, Lev Termen joined the CPSU. He explained his decision by the fact that he had once made a promise to Lenin to join the party, and that he wanted to hurry to fulfill the promise while it still existed. To join the CPSU, Lev Sergeevich, at the age of 90, came to the party committee of Moscow State University, where he was told that in order to join the party, he had to study at the department of Marxism-Leninism for five years, which he did after passing all the exams.
Until his death, Lev Theremin was full of energy and even joked that he was immortal. As proof, he offered to read his last name in reverse: "Theremin - does not die."
In 1989, a meeting took place in Moscow between the two founders of electronic music, Lev Sergeevich Termen, and the English musician Brian Eno.

Notes

Literature

Ginzburg V., Pulver V. A television. Transfer of moving images according to the method of L. S. Termen. // Radio amateur, 1927. - No. 1. - p. 13-16.
Teodorchik K. F. Long-range vision // Uspekhi fizicheskikh nauk, 1928. - Issue 1 - p. 98-104
Theremin L.S. Birth, childhood and youth of the "theremin" // Radio engineering, 1972. - Volume 27, No. 9 - p. 109-111
Theremin L.S. Polyphonic theremin // Proceedings of the IV All-Union Scientific and Technical Conference on Electric Musical Instruments, 1981. - Part II
Termen L. S., Korolev L. D. Electric musical instrument of the theremin type, Copyright certificate No. 1048503, 1983
Urvalov V. A. Essays on the history of television. - M.: Nauka, 1990.
Galeev B. M. Soviet Faust (Lev Theremin - pioneer of electronic art) // Supplement to Kazan magazine, 1995.
Kovaleva S. No more and no less. Life of Lev Theremin // Russian Thought, 1998. - No. 4248
Lobanova Marina. Lew Termen: Erfinder, Tschekist, Spion. // Neue Zeitschft für Musik, 1999, H. 4. S. 50-53.
Mahun S. Doctor Faustus of the 20th century. Lev Theremin, ahead of his time - "no more, no less" // Zerkalo Nedeli, 2004. - No. 46 (521), November 13-19, 2004.

Lev Sergeevich Termen(-) - Soviet inventor, creator of a family of musical instruments, the most famous of which is the theremin (1920).

Biography

Carier start

From his second year at the university, in 1916, he was drafted into the army and sent for accelerated training at the Nikolaev Engineering School, and then for officer courses in electrical engineering. The revolution caught him as a junior officer of the reserve electrical battalion, serving the most powerful Tsarskoye Selo radio station in the empire near Petrograd.

Being a very versatile person, Theremin invented many different automatic systems (automatic doors, automatic lighting, etc.) and burglar 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 an international musical exhibition in Frankfurt am Main. Termen's report and demonstration of his inventions were a huge success and brought him worldwide fame.

The success of his concert at the music exhibition is such that Termen is bombarded with invitations. Dresden, Nuremberg, Hamburg, Berlin see him off with applause and flowers. Enthusiastic responses from the listeners of the "music of the air", "music of ethereal waves", "music of the spheres". The musicians note that the idea of the virtuoso is not constrained by inert material, "the virtuoso touches on spaces." The incomprehensibility of where the sound comes from is amazing. Someone calls theremin a "heavenly" instrument, someone "spherophone". The timbre is striking, at the same time reminiscent of both strings and wind instruments, and even some special human voice, as if “grown up from distant times and spaces”.

American period

In 1928, Termen, remaining a Soviet citizen, moved to the United States. Upon arrival in the United States, he patented the theremin and his burglar alarm system. He also licensed the right to mass-produce 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 United States, under the "roof" of which Soviet intelligence officers could work.

From 1931-1938 Theremin was a director of Teletouch Inc. At the same time, he developed alarm systems for Sing Sing and Alcatraz prisons.

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

Repressions, work for state security agencies

In 1938 Termen was recalled to Moscow. He secretly left the United States, having issued a power of attorney to the owner of Teletouch, Bob Zinman, to manage 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 had been taken away by force.

In Leningrad, Termen unsuccessfully tried to get a job, then he moved to Moscow, but he also did not find work there.

In March 1939 he was arrested. There are two versions of what charges were brought against him. According to one of them, he was accused of involvement in a fascist organization, according to another, 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 the Foucault pendulum, and Termen was supposed to send a radio signal from the USA and blow up the land mine as soon as Kirov approached the pendulum. The Special Meeting of the NKVD of the USSR sentenced Termen to eight years in the camps, and he was sent to a camp in Kolyma.

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

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

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

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

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

In March 1991, at the age of 95, he joined the CPSU. When asked why he was joining the crumbling party, Termen replied: " I promised Lenin".

In 1992, unknown people smashed the laboratory room on Lomonosovsky Prospekt (the room was allocated by the Moscow authorities at the request of V.S. Grizodubova), all his tools were broken, and some of the archives were stolen. The police did not solve the crime.

In 1992, the Theremin Center was established in Moscow, with the main task of supporting musicians and sound artists working in the field of experimental electro-acoustic music. Lev Theremin had nothing to do with the creation of the center named after him.

In 1989, a meeting took place in Moscow between two founders of electronic music - Lev Sergeevich Termen and English musician Brian Eno. The latter then included in his album "Music For Films 3" a composition for theremin, recorded by Russian musicians Mikhail Malin and Lydia Kavina.

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

Family

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

The principles of operation underlying the theremin were also used by Theremin when creating a security system that responds to the approach of a person to a protected object. The Kremlin and the Hermitage, and later foreign museums, were equipped with such a system.
In 1991, at the age of 95, a few months before the collapse of the USSR, Lev Termen joined the CPSU. He explained his decision by the fact that he had once made a promise to Lenin to join the party, and that he wanted to hurry to fulfill the promise while it still existed. To join the CPSU, Lev Sergeevich, at the age of 90, came to the party committee of Moscow State University, where he was told that in order to join the party it was necessary to study at the department of Marxism-Leninism for a year, which he did after passing all the exams.
Until his death, Lev Theremin was full of energy and even joked that he was immortal. As proof, he offered to read his last name in reverse: "Theremin - does not die."

Notes

BNF ID: Open Data Platform - 2011.
SNAC-2010.
Termen Lev Sergeevich // Simon - Heiler. - M.: Soviet encyclopedia: Soviet composer, 1981. - (Encyclopedias. Dictionaries. Reference books: Musical encyclopedia: [in 6 volumes] / ch. ed. Yu. V. Keldysh; 1973-1982, v. 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.
Lev Termen's date of birth - 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. Nevertheless, it was August 28 became the official birthday of Lev Theremin. [ ]
Zhirnov E. Red Terminator (indefinite) . Kommersant. Power. (26.02.2002).
Drozd-Koroleva O., Korolev A. Theremin does not die (indefinite) . mobimag.ru (01.02.2007).

Lev Sergeevich Termen was born on August 28, 1896 in St. Petersburg into a Russian noble Orthodox family with German and French roots (in French, the family name was written as Theremin).

The first independent experiments in electrical engineering Lev Termen carried out during the years of study at the St. Petersburg First Men's Gymnasium, which he graduated with a silver medal in 1914.
Young Theremin simultaneously entered the conservatory and the physics, mathematics and astronomy departments of the university. However, the outbreak of World War II prevented his studies: he only managed to graduate from the conservatory in the cello class with a diploma of a "free artist". In 1916, he was drafted into the army and sent for accelerated training at the Nikolaev Engineering School, and then for officer courses in electrical engineering.
Fortunately for Theremin, he was not sent to the front, and the revolution caught him as a junior officer of the reserve electrical battalion, serving the most powerful Tsarskoye Selo radio station in the empire near Petrograd.

After the October Revolution of 1917, he was sent to work at the Detskoselskaya radio station near Petrograd (then the most powerful radio station in Russia), later - to a military radio laboratory in Moscow. Since 1919, Termen became the head of the laboratory of the Physico-Technical Institute in Petrograd. At the beginning of the same 1919, he was arrested in the case of the White Guard conspiracy. Fortunately, the matter did not reach the Revolutionary Tribunal. In the spring of 1920, Lev Sergeevich was released.
One morning, the future father of Soviet physics, Abram Ioffe, was in a hurry to work at the Radiological Institute. "Abram Fedorovich!" - came from behind him. He turned and saw a long figure in a tattered knitted scarf and an officer's overcoat without epaulettes. The soldier's boots on the young man's feet were clearly in need of repair.
"Hello, I'm Lev Theremin," the officer introduced himself. Theremin spoke about his misadventures: how he was in charge of an electrical laboratory and how, in early 1919, he was arrested on charges of a white conspiracy. "Really released?" Ioffe was surprised. "I can't believe it myself," answered Lev Theremin. "So what now?" - "Yes, no one takes a job. They say that the contra is unfinished," Termen complained cheerfully. "Well, this grief is easy to help," Ioffe laughed. "I've been told a lot about you. Do you want a laboratory?" Theremin agreed without hesitation.

Theremin receives a task - to engage in radio measurement of the dielectric constant of gases at variable temperature and pressure. During the 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 capacitor plates. So in the same year, the world's first electronic musical instrument was invented, originally called by him eteroton (sound from the air, ether). Soon it was renamed in his honor and became known as the theremin. The highlight of the instrument was that music is extracted from it without the touch of hands. The main part of the theremin are two high-frequency oscillatory circuits tuned to a common frequency. Electrical oscillations of sound frequencies are excited by a vacuum tube generator, the signal is passed through an amplifier and converted into sound by a loudspeaker. Antenna-shaped rod and an arc "look out" - they play the role of the oscillatory system of the device. The performer controls the operation of the Theremin by changing the position of the palms. By moving a hand near the rod, the performer adjusts the pitch of the sound. "Gesticulation" in the air near the arc allows you to increase or decrease the volume of the sound.
In the same 1920, at the II Congress of the All-Russian Astronomical Union, Termen was elected a member of the Association of Astronomers of the RSFSR. He addressed the members of the Union with a report on the problems of radiophysics and photometric properties of planetary systems. He was awarded several honorary certificates of the astronomical society.

Catherine
Konstantinov

In 1921, Lev Termen married the sister of his employee Ekaterina Konstantinova.

Since 1923 Termen began to cooperate with the State Institute of Musical Science in Moscow.

Theremin and Lenin

In 1921 Termen demonstrates 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 not like anything else. The Pravda newspaper published an enthusiastic review, and radio concerts were held for a wide audience. In addition, the GOELRO plan was adopted during the congress, and Termen, with his unique power tool, could become an excellent propagandist for the electrification plan for the whole country. A few months after the congress, Termen was invited to the Kremlin.
The invention of the theremin had a dual character - after all, if it makes sounds from the movement of hands, then a burglar alarm can work according to the same principle, reacting to the approach of strangers.
A few months after the congress, Termen was invited to the Kremlin.

In the office, besides Lenin, there were ten more people. First, Theremin showed the high commission a burglar alarm. He attached the device to a large flower vase, and as soon as one of those present approached it, a loud bell rang. Lev Sergeevich recalled: “One of the military says that this is wrong. Lenin asked:“ Why is it wrong? turned out."
And yet the main "hero" of the audience was the theremin. Lenin liked the instrument so much that he gave "the go-ahead" for Termen's tour and ordered that he be given a free railway ticket "to popularize the new instrument" throughout the country. By the way, another impressive touch of Theremin's life is connected 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 the body of Lenin, so that years later, when the technology was worked out, he could be resurrected from the dead. But the assistant returned with sad news: the internal organs had already been removed, the body was prepared for embalming. With that, Theremin left research on the revival of man. And decades later, his idea was embodied in America, and now dozens of those frozen after death are waiting for resurrection.

Theremin and television

In 1924, the director of the Physico-Technical Institute, Professor A. F. Ioffe, suggested that L. S. Termen develop technology for wireless "long-range vision." The television screenwriter Alexander Rokhlin writes in the book “This is how far-sightedness was born” that in April 1963 Marshal Budyonny told him how he watched “TV” in 1926. This device was highly classified and was intended for the border troops. Before sending it to the border, it was decided to install it in the office of the People's Commissar of Defense. The People's Commissar invited Budyonny to his place, and they began a kind of game. The technician-operator pointed the transmitting camera at the visitor passing through the courtyard of the people's commissariat, and they tried to guess who was shown on the screen. “We were so excited,” the marshal recalled, “that at first we did not even recognize well-known people. But it was so only in the first minutes, and then we almost unmistakably began to find out who the operator was showing. This device was invented by Lev Theremin.

He designed and manufactured four versions of the television system, which includes a transmitter and receiver. The first version, a demonstration one, created at the end of 1925, was designed for a 16-line image expansion. On this setup, it was possible to "see" elements, for example, the faces of a person, but it was impossible to know exactly who was being shown. In the second, also demo version, 32-line interlacing was already used.
In the spring of 1926, the third version was made, which formed the basis of Termen's thesis. It used interlaced scanning for 32 and 64 lines, the image was reproduced on a screen measuring 1.5x1.5 m.

From this electromechanical installation, one step remained to a real electronic TV. But it did not reach the army: the technical base of the country was too poor. As a result, the engineer Vladimir Zworykin, who emigrated from Russia, is considered the inventor of television, who invented the kinescope, which made mass television possible.

Abroad

In the summer of 1927, an international conference on physics and electronics was convening in Frankfurt am Main. The young Land of the Soviets needed to present itself with dignity. And Termen with his instrument became the trump card of the Russian delegation.
The Fourth Directorate of the Red Army Headquarters (intelligence) decided that a talented engineer could see and hear a lot in Germany. Theremin was invited to a conversation with the head of military intelligence, Jan Berzin, who introduced himself to him as Peteris. Berzin explained to his interlocutor that Germany posed the greatest danger to the USSR, and posed questions to which he would like to receive answers after Termen's return.

Lev Theremin stunned the Europeans with a report on the theremin and with classical music concerts for the general public: "heavenly music", "voices of angels" - the newspapers choked with delight.
One after another, invitations from Berlin, London, and Paris followed.

In December 1927, the famous Parisian Grand Opera, having canceled the evening performance, provided Lev Theremin. In itself, such a cancellation is an exceptional case. But for the first time in the history of the theatre, even the seats in the gallery were sold out a month in advance. There were so many people who wanted to listen to the concert that the administration was forced to call additional police squads. The reason for this break in tradition was undoubtedly the success of Termen's previous performances in concert halls in Germany, including the Berlin Philharmonic, and in the prim hall of London's Albert Hall.

Life in America

And here is a young handsome Lev Theremin sailing on the ocean liner "Majestic" to America.
Lev Termen did not succeed in working for Soviet intelligence in Germany.

The world-famous violinist Jozsef Szigetti, who sailed on the same ship, was envious of the fees offered to Theremin by America's largest businessmen 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, Termen founded the Teletouch studio in New York for the production of theremin.
Things went brilliantly. Termen's concerts were held in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Boston. Thousands of Americans enthusiastically began to learn how to play the theremin.
At first, income from performances allowed Termen to live in a big way. He even rented a six-story building on West 54th Street in downtown New York for 99 years. In addition to private apartments, it housed a workshop and a studio. Here Lev Sergeevich often played music with Albert Einstein: the physicist played the violin, the inventor played the theremin.

Theremin sold the license for the manufacture of theremins to the General Electric Corporation and RCA (Radio Corporation of America), and, with the permission of the Soviet authorities, founded the Teletouch Corporation studio in New York to produce theremins.
Theremin, however, could not provide a large profit: only a professional musician could play them, and even then only after long exercises (even Theremin was regularly accused of being godlessly out of tune). Accordingly, only about three hundred theremins were sold in the States, and Teletouch Corporation switched to the second Theremin invention - capacitive signaling. Only for the metal detectors for the famous Alcatraz prison, Termen's company received about $10,000. There were orders for similar devices for the equally famous Sing Sing prison and the American gold depository in Fort Knox, as well as for the development of a burglar alarm for the equipment of the US-Mexico border. The Coast Guard offered Termen to develop a system for remote detonation of a group of mines using a single cable. It was this direction that allowed Teletouch Corporation to survive the Great Depression that erupted at the turn of the 1930s.

Theremin after theremin

In the US, Theremin continues to invent, developing and improving his early inventions. As a development of the theremin idea, a terpsitron appears - a device for directly converting dance into music; experiments with color-music systems are underway. Far-sighted work continues: a security camera is in the New York home of the inventor, Termen is successfully experimenting with the transmission of a color image over a distance. Signaling systems have also been improved. Nevertheless, according to Theremin himself, he hoped that with his inventions he would gain world fame, position and money, but he failed to achieve this and, in fact, until the day he left for the Soviet Union, he remained the owner of a handicraft workshop. In his old age, Theremin didn't mind being called an American millionaire. But this is a fairy tale. In all the companies founded with his participation, he was by no means the main shareholder. The Americans bought his security systems well, but Termen's manufacturing firms and partners received the lion's share of the profits.

Amorous affairs

Termen was not allowed to take her young wife to Germany, and she got out to her husband in the USA together with her brother, who was sent abroad as a television specialist. But in New York, Lev Termen's wife Ekaterina could only find work 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 love each other. And then it became known that the visitor is a member of a fascist organization. And in the Soviet embassy they demanded that Termen divorce his wife. Which he did.
Meanwhile, in the enthusiastic choir of Termen's fans, dissatisfied voices began to be heard: at concerts, he godlessly out of tune. The fact is that it is incredibly difficult to play the theremin cleanly: the performer does not have any reference points (like, for example, the keys of the piano or the strings of the violin) and one has to rely solely on ear and muscle memory.
Termen clearly lacked performing skills. A virtuoso was needed here. And then fate brought him together with a young emigrant from Russia, Clara Reisenberg. As a child, she was known as a miracle child, a violinist with a great future. But either she outplayed her hands, or because of a hungry childhood she had to part with the violin: her muscles could not withstand the loads. But the theremin was on hand, and Clara quickly learned to play it. Not without a stormy romance, especially since Termen was free by that time.

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 around its axis and was decorated with a candle that lit up when approached.
A beautiful romance was not destined to end with a wedding. Clara chose another - Robert Rockmore, a lawyer and a successful impresario, so that her musical career was secured.

Spy activity

In 1933, the United States established diplomatic relations with the USSR. A Soviet embassy appeared in Washington, and a consulate in New York. And the employees of the Soviet special services who settled under their roof began to show interest in the famous compatriot.

The methods of forcing cooperation with intelligence were not distinguished by sophistication and wit, but they turned out to be quite effective. In the same year, the Daily Worker and Daily Freiheit newspapers of the American Communist Party published a letter allegedly sent from the pro-fascist American organization "Friends of the New Germany" to Berlin. It was an obvious fake, but Theremin trembled. He agreed to meet once a week with "men in gray hats".
Here is the text of this letter (translated from the criminal case of Lev Theremin in 1939):

On the instructions of the leader of the new leadership
Heinz Spanknabel
Top secret
September 23, 1933
Berlin, Alexander Square, #8/2
To your letter of 5 September
The organization of the special department cannot go as fast as you wish, because the situation is more difficult than you imagine. We are being watched, and we must be prudent and careful. Count Sauermann is not suitable for the post offered to him, because he has no experience ... Count Norman returned from Berlin and brought his brother with him. Dr. Spaner asks that the representative of General Electric, who is in Germany, be observed persistently, because he intends to engage in espionage there. General Electric stole his invention from him and now wants to go against you. Since his brother did a lot for us at Medical Genger, for example, he recruited two professors there, and therefore we ask you to expedite assistance in the case of Dr. Shpaner.
Send us a young lady, interesting, very reliable. It is better if her father or brother are stormtroopers. She should be able to speak a little English and be fluent in Russian and should replace our agents at Amtorg...
I can't kill Van der Lube here, and it's better to throw him off the steamer when traveling to another country. Who do you want to hang instead of him in Germany? I fully agree with you that it would be good to inject syphilis into the damned communists from Leipzig. Then one could say that communism comes from the syphilis of the brain of some fools.
Send us a new key. We think that the old code can be left under the wall.
Spanknabel enters the room and conveys his best greetings to you. He wanted a reliable physics student from the exchange office to give him small assignments like this.
Theremin is very lazy and wants to have a lot of money, and at the same time he seems like a half-Jewish pig. He betrayed his country, and therefore we cannot trust him, despite all the assurances. Little Katya, as Count Sauerman calls Konstantinova, is a very stupid and imaginative girl, but she works well. Although now she cries every minute, and therefore I think it would be better to take her out of here. It can be used for Russian translation.
Let us know how things stand with Hitler's book. We will be successful in its dissemination. Making Americans anti-Semites is child's play.
Please work fast on the Shpaner case, it involves a lot of money.
Heil Hitler.
W. Haag,
Adjutant of the National Administration.

Theremin later recalled his intelligence work:

For these purposes, I came up with my own tactics: in order to learn something new, secret, you need to offer something new of your own. When you show off your new invention, it's easier to find out what they're working on. Of course, I managed to find out what was required, however, the tasks seemed simple to me: for example, there is an aircraft number such and such, they say, you need to find out the diameter of the muffler. Why this is necessary, I did not understand. Most of the questions I was assigned were non-essential.
Once a week, two or three young men at the same time invited me to a small restaurant, we sat down together at the table, and there I had to tell them all sorts of secret things. In order not to hide something, I had to drink at least two glasses of vodka at once. I didn’t feel like drinking at all, and I began to figure out how to be here. And I found out that if you eat about 200 grams of oil, after that alcohol will not work. And so, when I had to go to a meeting with them, in the morning of that day I ate less than half a kilo, but still a lot of butter. At first it was very difficult to swallow, then I got used to it.

To create a 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 the beautiful mulatto Lavinia Williams danced in this troupe, 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 to a black woman would radically change his life. But as soon as the lovers registered their marriage, the doors of many houses in New York closed before Theremin: America did not yet know political correctness. Termen's debts began to grow by leaps and bounds. He recalled that, despite all his efforts, he constantly owed from $20,000 to $40,000.
He lost informants, which caused serious dissatisfaction with the Soviet intelligence.

In addition, the scandalous marriage brought him to the attention of the US Immigration Service. And there they asked the question: why Termen has been living in the country for more than ten years and remains a Soviet citizen, although he could have become an American without any problems? In 1938, Theremin felt the very close attention of the authorities to his person. The Gray Hats were advised to return to their homeland.
Theremin hesitated for a while. He remembered the fate of his brother-in-law Konstantinov, who in 1936 succumbed to persuasion, returned to Leningrad and stayed free for exactly a month. Theremin said that he had to make an important invention for his homeland that would justify his long absence, that he had to pay off his debts. But something else was decisive. As he later admitted: “Upon my arrival abroad, I thought that with my inventions ... I would gain world fame, position and money, but I failed to achieve this. In fact, until the day I left for the Soviet Union, I remained a small owner of a handicraft workshop I did not want to remain in this position in the future." The last obstacle to departure was Lavinia: he said that he could not go without her. But then he believed the promises of the Chekists to deliver her to the USSR and agreed to go missing.
September 15, 1938, having previously issued a power of attorney in the name of the co-owner of Teletouch Inc. Bob Zinman to manage his property, patents and finances "in connection with the fact that I intend to leave the state of New York." Theremin disappears. Under the guise of an assistant captain, he boarded the Soviet ship "Old Bolshevik". The holds of the ship were stuffed with Termen's laboratory instruments with a total weight of three tons.
At the time, this was the standard way to transport people. In the captain's cabin there was a secret door to a closet, where only a narrow bunk could fit. Food was brought to the captain's cabin, and substantial portions were enough for two. During the border and customs inspections, secret passengers were moved to more secluded places like coal pits.
Lavinia was not brought to him on the next flight. The spouses never saw each other again.
And Termen until the end of his days kept a marriage certificate issued by the Russian embassy in America.
Lavinia Williams tirelessly sought permission to enter her husband in the USSR. In 1944, she filed a formal petition with the Soviet consulate in New York. The consulate supported her request, and there were no objections from intelligence. However, on the way of Theremin-Pool Grace Williamovna, as she was called in Soviet documents, the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs became a wall. Pyotr Strunnikov, a member of the board of the ministry, issued the following decision: "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR considers it expedient to reject Termen Grace's application for citizenship of the USSR in view of the fact that she is not related to the Soviet Union and cannot be useful for our country."

Theremin did not find work in Leningrad. He began to travel frequently to Moscow, knocking on the thresholds of various organizations, including those that had signed a business trip for him at one time. He quickly got tired of the officials: without housing, with a ship at the pier, loaded with some kind of devices. Moreover, with useless foreign contacts behind them. On his next visit to Moscow, without any explanation, on March 10, 1939, NKVD officers took Termen to Butyrka prison.

Obviously, Termen was helped by his first prison experience. He denied everything, did not get confused in his testimony and steadfastly endured the torture of insomnia when the interrogations continued without interruption for more than a day, and, surprisingly, did not give accusatory evidence against any of his acquaintances in the USSR. The investigators themselves could not collect anything significant on him, and as a result, he was accused of involvement in a fascist organization - the letter cited above, fabricated by Soviet intelligence, came in handy. Lev Theremin received 8 years in the camps, which he had to serve in the gold mines.

From the indictment in the case of Lev Termen
The available materials Termen Lev Sergeevich was exposed as a member of a fascist organization, on the basis of which he was arrested on March 10, 1939 ... He did not plead guilty to involvement in a fascist organization, but is exposed by the testimony of Konstantinov A.P. and materials placed in a communist American newspaper "Daily Walker".
Based on the foregoing, Termen Lev Sergeyevich, born in 1895, a native of Leningrad, Russian, a former nobleman, non-partisan, engineer-physicist, no previous convictions, is accused of:
- in 1927 he went on a business trip to Germany and, not wanting to return to the USSR, with the help of representatives of the German company "Migos" received a visa to enter the USA, where he moved to live in 1928;
- while in America, Termen organized a number of joint-stock companies to implement his inventions with the involvement of American capitalists Morgenstern, Zinman, Asher and Zuckerman, he himself held the post of vice president in them;
- during his stay in America, Termen sold a number of his inventions to the American police and the Department of Justice;
- had a close relationship with the German intelligence officer Markus, enjoyed his support in promoting his inventions.
The testimony of Konstantinov A.P. and materials published in the American communist newspaper Dele Walker ( so in the document.), is exposed as a member of a fascist organization, i.e. in the crimes under Art. Art. 58 p. 1a, 58 p. 4 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR.
The present case has been completed by investigative proceedings and is subject to consideration by the Special Meeting of the NKVD of the USSR.

However, according to another version, which appears in almost all articles about Theremin, including in an interview with his daughter, the inventor was convicted for allegedly planning the murder of Kirov. According to this version, Kirov (killed on December 1, 1934) was going to visit the Pulkovo Observatory. Astronomers have planted a land mine in a Foucault pendulum. And Termen, with a radio signal from the USA, was supposed to blow it up as soon as Kirov approached the pendulum. The piquancy of the situation lies not only in the exotic method of murder, but also in the fact that at that time the Foucault pendulum was not in Pulkovo, but in the Kazan Cathedral (it housed a museum of religion and atheism, and the pendulum clearly proved the fact of the Earth's rotation).

The USSR at that time was a closed country, there was no information about Theremin in the USA, and there he was considered dead until the end of the 60s. In encyclopedic reference books next to his name were the dates (1896-1938).

Theremin - prisoner

The camp period lasted about a year. As an engineer, Theremin led a gang of twenty criminals ("the politicals didn't want to do anything"). By inventing the “wooden monorail” (that is, by offering to roll wheelbarrows not on the ground, but on wooden guide rails), Termen proved himself to be the best in the eyes of the camp authorities: the rations were tripled for the brigade, and Termen himself soon - in 1940 - transferred to another place - to the Tupolev aviation "sharashka" in Moscow, which, after the outbreak of war, moved to Omsk. There Termen developed equipment for radio control of unmanned aircraft, radar systems, radio beacons for naval operations. Then he was transferred to a specialized radio engineering "sharashka".

The son of the Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Merkulov, Rem, turned out to be the subordinate of the convicted Termen. Here is what he said:

In 1942, I was sent to work in one of the research organizations of the NKVD, located in Sverdlovsk ... It was a large research center with a good team, with the production of small series of special equipment. For example, one of the laboratories was headed by the arrested Pavel Nikolaevich Kuksenko. He and his staff worked on the country's first radar model - a night combat device (PNB). Specialists-prisoners freely moved around the territory of the organization, if necessary, went beyond it - in this case they were accompanied by a guard. They could work - and really worked - at the workplace, as much as needed. Our organization was located in a large new building of the prison hospital, which was vacated for this purpose. Probably the only strict restriction for those arrested were contacts with women. I remember that one of them, seen in connection with a civilian employee, was immediately transferred somewhere.
My boss was Lev Sergeevich Termen, a smart, neatly dressed, middle-aged man with a tie and jacket. In a large room crammed with a large amount of equipment, several radio officers worked under him. But we always went to work in civilian clothes.
We worked on the creation of various devices - primarily for intelligence purposes. Our miniature transmitters for those times were widely used. We worked under foreigners - we installed all the components of the equipment American, so that if the agents failed, it would be impossible to determine its belonging by the equipment. There was an interesting episode. Batteries often leaked. Special rubber containers were needed, but they could not be quickly made. I suggested using condoms, Termen approved. In the pharmacy, where condoms for the NKVD were purchased by transfer, the saleswomen's eyes went wide.
We made radio fuses to carry out terrorist attacks behind enemy lines. And for the first time in the USSR, and perhaps in the world, a fuse for an aerial bomb was developed, which provided an explosion at a height of about two meters above the earth's surface. At the same time, the damaging ability of the bomb increased significantly. This system used the theremin principle: when approaching the ground, the signal tone in the bomb head changed, which, under certain conditions, led to an explosion. Unfortunately, an interesting idea did not go into series: it seemed too complicated for production managers.
Lev Sergeevich politely but insistently demanded that we carry out his instructions. He enjoyed great prestige among the management, and his opinion was always listened to at meetings of the scientific and technical council. In general, he was a cheerful person, he liked to joke, and if you did not know that after a working day he would not go beyond the fence, no one would have thought that he was a convict. I remember once, together with Theremin, we assembled a theremin in a couple of days, and he performed in front of a large audience with a concert. In our laboratory, receivers that received musical transmissions almost always worked. He liked to comment on what he listened to, explaining to us certain fragments of symphonies. In addition, he was keenly interested in what was happening in the world. During the war, all radios were confiscated from the population, but we could listen to foreign radio stations, and I even translated from German for him.
And that's what's important. Lev Sergeevich never calculated anything, but simply, thanks to his intuition, he gave out the right solutions. In radio engineering practice, this is perhaps correct, and I almost always followed this principle in further work.

Work for special services

The triumph of Lev Sergeevich in a new field was the operation "Chrysostom". On Independence Day, July 4, 1945, the American ambassador to Russia, Averell Harriman, received a wooden panel depicting an eagle as a gift from the Soviet pioneers. The panel was hung in the ambassador's office, after which the American intelligence services lost their peace: a mysterious leak of information began. Only 7 years later they discovered a mysterious hollow metal cylinder with a membrane and a pin protruding from it inside the gift of the pioneers, after which they unraveled its secret for another year and a half. There were no power sources, no wires, no radio transmitters.
The secret was as follows: a high-frequency impulse was directed to the panel from the house opposite. The membrane of the cylinder, oscillating in time with the speech, reflected it back through the rod-antenna, and the signal was demodulated on the receiving side.

At the end of 1946, with the help of the same microphone, information was received that two prominent specialists in the search for listening devices were going to Moscow. A real panic broke out in many divisions of the MGB.
“Comrade Stalin,” the state security veteran recalled, “highly appreciated objective information, in particular, records of tapped conversations. Even before the war, some premises of foreign embassies, primarily Germany and its allies, were equipped with appropriate equipment. In the autumn of 1941, when all diplomatic were evacuated to Kuibyshev, the guards of their buildings were handed over to us. And the idea arose to take advantage of the situation and equip all diplomatic missions with microphones at once. The Central Committee agreed. All the mansions were equipped with microphones - under the plinths and at the top, near the ceiling. The technology then was on the verge of fantasy! Huge " pucks" - you can kill with them, they won't fit into your pocket. But there was plenty of time, and they completely filled everything with microphones. Everyone was satisfied.
After the return of the embassies from Kuibyshev, the general microphonization brought good results for some time. But the embassies were by no means fools. They guessed that the state security was not sitting idle while they were in the evacuation. And here come the auditors.
Minister of State Security Abakumov called a meeting. The number of "washers" was measured in hundreds, and it is impossible to pull them out of the embassies in a few days, even if you die. A spokesman for the ministry's intelligence agency, which was in charge of sabotage and other delicate operations, offered to take the Americans out of work for a while, as he put it, "put them firmly on the potty." This proposal seemed to everyone the lesser evil.
Abakumov went to the Kremlin for a sanction. Dali. A group of nine people was formed. We prepared a good tool and started cleaning the embassies. According to the scheme, the diplomats were "bred" and went to the embassies. How "bred"? Counterintelligence. Each employee of the embassy was thoroughly studied: his habits, weaknesses, hobbies... The overwhelming majority of diplomats had a weakness, using which they could be forced to immediately drop everything and rush to the other end of Moscow. Gourmets were invited to dinners, conceited guys - to meetings with celebrities, for lovers of the weaker sex, who was also selected.
The Canadian embassy in Starokonyushenny Lane was the first to be cleaned. According to the surviving schemes, the plinths were removed, they collected an unbearable bag of "washers", put things in order and departed home. It was very difficult for us at the US Embassy: there were more people there than in other embassies, and there were more microphones. But they got over it too. At the same time, American specialists arrived. Doctors prepared medicines, and agents planted drugs in their food. As we were promised, the uninvited guests left the latrines for a week and a half only to sleep.
We hoped to round off by the target date. But the surprise was waiting for us where we least could have foreseen it - at the New Zealand embassy on Samoteka. Nobody was ever particularly interested in diplomats from this "sheep island", and, as it turned out, the counterintelligence officers did not even have a scheme to "divorce" the employees of this embassy. They began to improvise something on the go, but, no matter how hard they tried, at least one of the diplomats continued to vigilantly stick around in the embassy. Time passes, American specialists examined their embassy, switched to the rest, and we are fighting with our "shepherds". Abakumov was furious. He gathered everyone and yelled: “What are you talking about! You can’t find beautiful women for them?! Are they not people?! Or do they not like to drink?” They all loved, but strictly in turn.
Day after day, and we have no result. We decided to consult with Theremin, whether it is possible to come up with something so that the Americans do not find the microphones. He pondered and recommended sending a powerful radio emission to the embassy: it, they say, would drown out the Americans' instruments and would not allow them to find "washers". He was then, in my opinion, still a prisoner. They brought him with equipment, chose points around the embassy, installed transmitters and antennas. But the trial run of this system ended in complete failure. Theremin did not count a damn thing, everything by eye. The inventor, not the scientist, didn't make it.
I myself was not there at that moment, so I retell from other people's words. In the courtyard of the embassy, the janitor was chopping ice with a crowbar. When everyone turned on, he threw the crowbar, took off his hat, began to cross himself, yelling: "Holy, holy, holy!" - and rushed to the embassy. Our then questioned him, and he says: "The crowbar flew!" Nonsense, of course. The "shepherds" did not believe him either, they decided that he had taken too much on his chest, but they became alert and began to look closely at everything that was happening around the embassy. And Termen smiled a little and said: "Probably, they went too far with power."
He would not have been blown off his head if he had not come up with another very necessary thing at that time. And we decided to abandon the Termen miracles. It became a little easier for us when we learned that the New Zealanders refused to let American specialists in. But we rejoiced early. They found two microphones themselves. And two days later - a meeting of four foreign ministers - the USSR, the USA, England and France - in Moscow, at the Sovetskaya hotel. And Molotov got out. Still, the New Zealand embassy is a trifling matter. And we stayed intact."
However, it seemed to me that, speaking about the punishment for Termen, the veteran was deceitful. He was a recognized specialist in electronics and, according to other sources, could even afford to joke with Beria. They say that the "Lubyansk Marshal" wanted to include Theremin in the number of participants in the atomic project and asked the inventor what he needed to create an atomic bomb. "A personal car with a driver and one and a half tons of aluminum corner," Termen replied. Beria laughed and left him alone."

In the future, Termen was engaged in improving the device used in the operation "Chrysostom". The new listening device was called "Buran", for which in 1947 he was awarded the Stalin Prize of the first degree (they say that Stalin himself corrected the degree from second to first), and was also released into the wild - however, 8 years for which he convicted, just expired in 1947. Moreover, Theremin sat out an extra 4 months. Instead of the 100,000 rubles he was supposed to receive, he was given a two-room apartment in a newly built building on Kaluga Square, fully furnished. His daughter Elena recalled that many years later there were tags with inventory numbers on the furniture.
After his release, Termen continued to work in the same "sharashka" already as a civilian employee. He perfected his listening system.
"Buran" made it possible from a distance of 300-500 meters to register vibrations of window glass in rooms where people were talking, and convert these vibrations into sounds.
Thus, from a great distance it was possible to hear everything that was said behind the glass, and no additional "bugs" in the room itself, as was the case in Operation Chrysostom, were not required.
"Buran" was used to listen to the American and French embassies.
Now the same idea is being implemented on the basis of laser scanning of glasses. The idea to use a laser for this belongs to Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, and was also awarded, but not by the Stalin, but by the Lenin Prize.
In the same 1947, Theremin married Maria Gushchina, the most beautiful girl who worked in his organization, who was a quarter of a century younger than him. Soon twins were born - girls Elena and Natalya. From a formal point of view, Theremin became a bigamist. Lavinia Williams, who became Termen's wife during his life in the United States, continued to be her.

As Elena recalls, Termen was a caring father - he helped to do homework not only for children, but also for a young housekeeper who studied at night school; he checked his progress in playing the piano, and sometimes, according to his mood, he arranged home concerts, playing the theremin in turn with the children. He never rested on his own initiative, he loved it when friends from his family came to visit, he willingly played music, danced and had fun.
The only stumbling block, as the daughter recalled, was certificates from the place of work, which had to be submitted to the school. In Termen's certificate, it was only written that he was a KGB officer. “But you need to indicate the position,” the daughters said. “Who do you work for?” Theremin laughed it off: "Junior assistant to the senior janitor." “In general,” his daughter recalled, “if he didn’t want to say something, he didn’t say it. At the same time, he didn’t remain silent, but began to wind phrase upon phrase. Once he starts, Gorbachev is easier to understand.”

Retired

In addition to glass, he studied other structural elements of buildings in order to use them as a kind of microphone membranes. Here, everything went well for him, until a new element base appeared in electronics - transistors. As quickly as required by the authorities, Theremin could not reorganize. It was even harder for him when, under Khrushchev, the personnel leapfrog began in the KGB. With the new chiefs and curators of technical services, he, as he later admitted, could no longer find a common language.

According to him, the reason was the near-scientific demonism that came into vogue: UFOs, levitation, extrasensory perception. He was invited to study materials about these phenomena and give his suggestions. Theremin immediately replied that it was all nonsense. Then he was asked to study information from the Western press about the transmission of thoughts at a distance and do something similar for our illegal intelligence. And he knew it was time to retire.

But Lev Sergeevich, true to his motto "Theremin - does not die!" (this is how his last name is read in reverse), got a job at the Recording Institute and took on a couple more part-time jobs so that the family would not notice the loss in salary. And in 1965, when the Institute of Sound Recording was closed, Termen went to work at the Moscow Conservatory. He perfected theremins, finalized other ideas.
In 1967 Termen's student and his former love, Clara Rockmore, came to the USSR with a cultural delegation. After the rehearsal, she left the conservatory, and suddenly: a gray-haired man in a gray Soviet raincoat and a grocery bag in his hands flashed by. But this gait, this impeccable posture cannot be confused with anything. "Lev Sergeevich!" she screamed, afraid that he would disappear again, this time for good. Lev Theremin stopped and turned around. Both were numb for a while, and then they vied with each other to tell each other the events of the last decades.
Two months after Clara's departure, Theremin received a letter from the States - from Lavinia. She wrote that she was doing well, that she was married, that she had two charming daughters. They also dance on the terpsitone. Correspondence between Theremin and Lavinia lasted 30 years. But in 1990, Lavinia suddenly stopped writing. In 1991, Lev Sergeevich went to America and wrote a letter to his ex-wife. He made an appointment for her in the very house where they had once been happy. But in vain: Lavinia never came.
Until his death (in 1993), Lev Theremin continued to look for Lavinia - he could not come to terms with the idea that he had survived her.
Nothing disturbed the measured life of the old man until, in the same 1967, the New York Times correspondent, who was preparing a report on the Moscow Conservatory, found out that the great Theremin was alive.
This sensational news in America was perceived as a resurrection from the dead: all American encyclopedias indicated that Theremin died in 1938. In the name of Lev Sergeevich, a flood of letters poured in from his overseas friends, reporters from various newspapers and television companies tried to meet with him. The conservative authorities, frightened by such an interest in the modest person of a mechanic, simply fired him. And all the equipment was thrown into the trash.
After the appearance of this article, he could not find a job for a year. The next two years he spent in the Central Archive of Sound Recording. And yet the glimpse was not far off. Once Lev Sergeevich met with his fellow student at the gymnasium S. Rzhevkin, head of the Department of Acoustics at Moscow State University. And Termen was back in the laboratory, having the opportunity to experiment. But it didn't last long. Rzhevkin died in 1977 and the laboratory was immediately taken away.

When a vacancy opened up at the Department of Marine Physics of Moscow State University, Termen once again created a new laboratory.
He was a very sociable and cheerful person who did not lose interest in people. In the eighties, in addition to work, he lectured, performed with his instruments, played in concerts. Several documentaries were made about him during this time.

Theremin continued to work at the same pace, sometimes recalling with nostalgia the “sharashka”, where it was best to work: at least around the clock, and everything is at hand. Last but not least, his performance was based on the power system he developed. His portions were three times smaller than usual, and no matter how much they persuaded him at home or at a party, he would certainly answer: "My stomach is small and elegant." He drew all the necessary energy from granulated sugar, eating up to a kilogram of it a day. He sprinkled the porridge with a centimeter layer of sand, ate it along with the top layer of porridge and poured a new layer of sugar. On his desktop there was always a sugar bowl, from which he "recharged".
The problems of longevity also worried him as an inventor. He came up with a system for cleaning and rejuvenating the blood and went to the Central Committee. What happened on the Old Square shocked Theremin to the core. “They said,” he said, “that we need to feed the population, and not prolong his life.”
In 1989 Termen, together with his daughter Natalia Termen, made a trip to the festival in Bourges (France). In 1991, together with his daughter Natalya and granddaughter Olga Termen, he visited the United States at the invitation of Stanford University. And there he met with Clara Rockmore. Clara did not agree to her for a long time - years, they say, do not paint a woman.
- Oh, Klarenok, well, what is our age! - said 95-year-old Theremin.

The last performance of Lev Theremin. 1981

In March 1991, at the age of 95, he joined the CPSU. When asked why he joined the crumbling party, Termen replied: "I promised Lenin."
After America, he went to the Netherlands to the Schoenberg-Kandinsky festival, and, returning to Moscow, he found complete destruction in his room in a communal apartment - broken furniture, broken equipment, trampled records. Apparently, one of the neighbors really 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.

How a Soviet scientist invented the first electronic musical instrument. Lev Sergeevich Termen

Lev Sergeevich Termen (1896-1993

Stop who's coming!

An episode that could have been a milestone

In the knockout "Grand Opera" and others

Trump on the table!

Cake for violinist with theremin

Why are the walls floating?

famous spy

Kirov's killer

Trojan horse from the pioneers

Theremin - does not die!

a swan song

Theremin sounds in:

Biography

Carier start

Repressions and awards

Personal life

see also

Notes

Literature

Biography

Carier start

American period

Repressions, work for state security agencies

Family

see also

Notes

Theremin and Lenin

Theremin and television

Abroad

Life in America

Amorous affairs

Spy activity

Theremin - prisoner

Work for special services

Retired