STORIES
Talented producer (Yuri Aizenshpis)
The group “Kino”, “Technology”, “Moral Code”, singer Linda, Vlad Stashevsky, Katya Lel, Dima Bilan... Many fans of these and some other Russian pop stars did not know and do not know that Yuri Aizenshpis lit them up.
Yuri Shmilevich Aizenshpis (1945-2005) was one of the brightest Russian show business producers. It was Aizenshpis who introduced the concept of “producer” into Russian show business, was one of the first producers in Russia and convincingly proved that “anyone can be made a pop star.”
“I call Aizenshpis the best producer. He worked all his life. He started with me... He and I are one of those who stood at the origins of Russian show business...
He was a very decent man. Tough, but respectable. He knew a lot about promotion. A large number of his wards achieved great heights with him. Many of his wards were not very grateful. But when they left him, everything went dark.
His life made a great impression on me. Serve 17 years and become the number one producer. He hardly ate, didn’t sleep, and kept working. In the last years of his life he did not have a single healthy organ. He worked all his free life, and did not laze around like some. This is a great man."
(Alexander Tolmatsky, producer of Decl, Oleg Gazmanov, group “Combination”)
Yuri Aizenshpis was born immediately after the war, on June 15, 1945, in Chelyabinsk, where his mother, Muscovite Maria Mikhailovna Aizenshpis (1922-1991), a Jew by nationality, was evacuated. Father - Shmil Moiseevich Aizenshpis (1916-1989) - a Polish Jew who fled to the USSR to escape the Germans, was a veteran of the Great Patriotic War.
The surname Aizenshpis translated from Yiddish means “iron peak.”
"I am Jewish. My mother is Jewish and my father is of the same nationality. And what from this? Absolutely nothing... I don’t revere Judaism, I don’t know its traditions and I’m not interested in its history. I don’t consider Jews the smartest, the most persecuted, or any exceptional people at all. They say that Jews in Russia have always been oppressed. I don't know, I'm not sure. In any case, just as my family was spared the Stalinist repressions, anti-Semitism did not affect me at all. Neither at school nor later in life did I hear offensive words like “kike” or “kike face” thrown at my face or back...
Many people talk about anti-Semitism and Zionism. These political phenomena somehow passed me by. I didn’t feel anything like this either at school or at college. And I didn’t feel it in prison.”
(From the book “Lighting the Stars” by Yuri Aizenshpis)
Hobbies
Since childhood, Yuri was very fond of sports. He was interested in athletics, handball, and volleyball. He could well have become a champion in one of these areas, but he had to leave the sport due to a leg injury.
“At school I was surrounded by athletes who in the future became champions of the Union, champions of the Olympic Games. I grew up among them, I’m proud that I knew many of them, and attended training camps together. But at the age of 17, due to an injury, I dropped out of big sport.
At that time I was into jazz. I had a tape recorder that I bought with my savings. My first recordings are jazz compositions by the world's leading musicians. John Coltrane, Woody Herman, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong... I could name about a hundred such names. He knew various styles - avant-garde jazz, jazz-rock, popular jazz. Then I was drawn to the origins of rock music, to the founders of such a movement as rhythm-blues. The circle of music lovers was small, everyone knew each other. If my friends had a record, I would rewrite it.
Then there were “black markets” that were constantly being dispersed. Neither exchange nor buying and selling was allowed. The discs could be confiscated, they could be prosecuted for profiteering. Records came to us from abroad through the strong barriers of customs laws and regulations. Some performers were simply banned. It was impossible to bring Elvis Presley, or, say, the Bary sisters. Well, it’s amazing. Nevertheless, the records were brought and stuck with connoisseurs.".
After school, Yuri Aizenshpis entered the Moscow Institute of Economics and Statistics with a degree in economic engineering and graduated in 1968. And, since his sports career was closed for him due to injury, he chose show business, despite the fact that at that time there was no such concept in the Soviet Union.
Impresario of the first Soviet rock band
A graduate of MESI, Yuri Aizenshpis did not like his boring specialty. He was drawn to music. At the age of 16, he organized underground concerts for the first Soviet rockers.
20-year-old Yuri began his promotional and production activities back in 1965 with the Beatles’ project “Falcon” - the first rock band in the country. Even then, his courage and business acumen were evident.
“When Beatlemania swept the whole world, echoes of it appeared here too. My fellow musicians and I created the country's first rock band. We lived in the Sokol metro area, and the group was also called “Falcon”. Now this group has already entered the history of the domestic rock movement. Initially, Beatles songs were performed in English. Then it was believed that the culture of rock music could only exist in such an international language as English.
Knowing my activity and organizational talent, my friends appointed me as something of an impresario. For all of us, the matter was new, unknown, and we looked like blind kittens. Nevertheless, the group grew both creatively and financially.".
Together with the group, he got his first job - at the Tula Philharmonic. Since the musicians toured a lot, Aizenshpis’s monthly income reached 1,500 rubles (Soviet ministers then received only a thousand).
Yuri even then developed an original scheme for selling tickets for performances by the Sokol group. After a verbal agreement with the director of a club (or cultural center) in which his group was going to perform, Aizenshpis bought all the tickets for the evening film screening in this club, and then distributed them at a higher price, already as tickets to a concert of the group.
“A musician cannot live without communicating with the audience. But in order to perform, it was necessary to undergo tariffication in some government agencies. Then I had the idea to organize a meeting of the Sokol group in a cafe with friends, like-minded people in music and lifestyle. Subsequently, other groups followed this path. This was the very first such party. Everyone was happy. Then, during the complete stagnation, nothing bright happened. We decided to make these meetings permanent. My responsibilities included technical support and organization of concerts. The number of people wishing to come to us quickly increased. This was taking on simply menacing proportions. So a lot of people stayed behind the doors.".
Usually there were more people wanting to listen to live music than there were seats in the hall, which sometimes made the situation tense. Therefore, in the 60s, Aizenshpis became the first in the Soviet Union to hire security to ensure order at concerts.
With the proceeds from the sale of tickets, he bought foreign currency, with which he purchased from foreigners branded musical instruments for the group and first-class sound equipment for equipping the stage (quality and purity of sound were always very important for Yuri). At that time, all foreign exchange transactions were illegal in the USSR, so he took a great risk by making such transactions.
“At first there was nothing criminal in my activities. Another thing is the ideological question. To those who monitored the education of young people, we seemed to be a kind of saboteurs, corrupters. The group has already stirred up entire layers - they began to invite us to institutes. That’s when the Komsomol and some officials from law enforcement and financial agencies became wary. They said: you don’t have the right to perform, your repertoire is not approved. Indeed, according to the then existing regulations, the group was illegal.
But we have developed. Technical equipment required constant modernization. Previously, instruments and amplifiers were homemade. Over time, when the level of the group became high, proprietary equipment was needed. I am a creative person. Once I hear a good sound - live, clear, real - I can no longer listen to another reproduction. I bought the most advanced equipment at that time. And here for the first time I encountered real criminal law. And he began to step over it. Started doing business. Today this is a respectable occupation, but then...”
Speculator and gold dealer
In 1968, 23-year-old Aizenshpis resigned from the Philharmonic and went to work as a junior researcher at the USSR Central Statistical Office with a salary of 115 rubles. But he rarely showed up at work. Using connections with store directors, he obtained scarce food orders for his colleagues. Therefore, they turned a blind eye to his constant absences. Such a free regime helped Aizenshpis lead a second, parallel life, which brought him completely different incomes.
Aizenshpis's guide to the world of currency fraud was Eduard Borovikov, nicknamed Vasya, who played on the Dynamo football team. “I bought foreign currency or checks, with which I purchased scarce goods in the Beryozka store and then sold them through intermediaries on the black markets.” In those days, the dollar cost on the “black market” from two to seven and a half rubles. Let’s say, a synthetic fur coat could be bought at Beryozka for $50 (from 100 to 350 rubles) and sold for 500 rubles.”.
His first major independent business was the purchase of Panasonic radios in the Beryozka currency store. These were elegant four-band products in two models - $33 and $50. Aizenshpis decided to take 25 Panasonics to Odessa, where they were still a curiosity and cost much more than in Moscow. And he was right – the receivers went flying.
In 1969, two outwardly imperceptible, but very remarkable events occurred in Moscow. First. A certain Mamedov, the first secretary of the Oktyabrsky district party committee of the city of Baku, opened a savings book in the capital in the name of his wife and put 195 thousand rubles on it - the then earnings of an ordinary worker for 108 years. And second. In the same year, a commercial office of Vneshtorgbank opened on Pushkinskaya Street, where they sold gold of the highest standard in bars weighing from 10 grams to one kilogram. Any citizen could purchase gold, but only for foreign currency.
What did these events have to do with Aizenshpis? The most direct. As the first event eloquently showed, the USSR was already rotting, and the shadow economy and corruption flourished in it, especially in the southern republics. In Azerbaijan, for example, positions were sold almost openly: theater director - 10 thousand rubles, secretary of the district party committee - 200 thousand, minister of trade - a quarter of a million. Buyers of positions, in order to justify their expenses, engaged in extortion and embezzlement. The money received had to be invested somewhere. It’s best to buy something “imperishable” – currency, diamonds or, as the second event suggested, gold.
The rich corrupt officials from the southern republics of the Union were traded in Moscow by about a hundred gold traders who dealt in currency and gold on a large scale. Aizenshpis also managed to find his theme. A kilogram of gold in that same Vneshtorgbank office was sold for one and a half thousand dollars. Even if you buy dollars for 5 rubles, a kilogram bar costs 7,500 rubles. Plus one ruble per gram was paid to foreign students who bought gold from the bank. As a result, 8,500 rubles per kilogram ingot. And it was sold to enterprising guys from Baku for 20 thousand rubles. A total of 11,500 rubles in profit - a gigantic profit, if you remember that the nurse then received 60 rubles a month.
Trade in the precious metal was brisk. Aizenshpis had to buy almost every day from one and a half to three thousand bucks at the rate of 2-3 rubles per dollar. Every evening he came into contact with a large number of people - taxi drivers, prostitutes, waiters and even diplomats (for example, the son of the Indian ambassador). “The volume of transactions I made reached up to a million dollars.”
“My business was connected with currency and gold - the most terrible, execution article. But the feeling of being right prevented me from correctly assessing the situation. There was no fear, not even a sense of danger. I thought that what I was doing was natural and normal. But much around, on the contrary, seemed unnatural and incomprehensible. Why is the initiative of one person stifled by government agencies - be it trade, production, culture? Why does the state dictate what to sing? I thought about this, but could not find an explanation; the worldview absorbed in the family, at school, at the institute got in the way. Somewhere deep down I knew I was right. And that my business (they didn’t say “business” back then) is my personal business. In short, I started with music and ended in prison. I served a total of 17 years.”.
Imprisonment
At the end of 1969, a prominent currency trader, Genrikh Karakhanyan, nicknamed Vorona, was arrested in Moscow, and on January 7, 1970, it was Aizenshpis’s turn. During his arrest, there were 15,585 rubles and 7,675 dollars in his apartment, that is, the salary for more than twenty years of work at his native research institute (as Yuri himself admitted in one of his interviews, he had even saved up more than 17,000 dollars and over 15,000 rubles). The main indictments in the Aizenshpis case were 154, part 2 (speculation on an especially large scale), and 88, part 2 (violation of foreign exchange transactions). Based on their totality, in the case of the first term, they usually gave no more than 5-8 years. But Aizenshpis received a ten. Moreover, a strengthened regime and confiscation of property. According to the court verdict, he was confiscated not only currency, gold, mohair (the list took seven pages), but also a collection of vinyl records of 5 thousand discs, and most importantly - a room of 26 square meters in the apartment where he lived with his parents and why - then I made a separate personal account.
After serving time in Krasnoyarsk, Tula and Pechora, Aizenshpis was released on parole in May 1977. But Yuri Shmilevich breathed the air of freedom for only three months, because... I'm back to my old ways again. Already in August, having bought 4 thousand dollars from foreigners, he and his companion were arrested on the Lenin Hills. Former track and field athlete Aizenshpis started to run. Along the way, he managed to throw away all the dollars, rubles and even the keys to the apartment.
It didn't help... This time he was given eight years. Plus the fact that he did not serve out his term of parole. A total of ten again. He served his second term in Mordovia, in the notorious Dubrovlag. The zone was called the “meat grinder” because almost every day someone was killed there.
“When Solzhenitsyn describes the nightmares of Soviet reality, as he calls them, I say: if only he had lived in the conditions in which I lived. He served his sentence among those convicted on mostly political charges. I was sitting among inveterate criminals. And this is truly a nightmare. Every day blood is shed, every day there is lawlessness, chaos. But they didn't touch me. I am a sociable person, I adapt to any conditions. I could become friends with the general who was sitting with me. He could have been talking to a total anti-Soviet guy. I could listen to an adherent of Marxist-Leninist ideology. I could talk to the last criminal and find a way into his soul.".
Despite the fact that more than half of the prisoners were starving, he circumvented this problem. Thanks to his entrepreneurial talent, he managed to arrange the secret transfer of bribes to the prison, which could make his existence in the zone more bearable than for many other prisoners. At least he wasn't starving.
Despite the fact that in prison Yuri was not kept in one place and was transferred to other zones, he knew how to adapt to each place and always had a high standard of living.
“There are 70 percent of prisoners there who are starving. I wasn't hungry. How? Money does everything, of course, unofficially. This is what my phenomenon is, my peculiarity. No matter what environment I found myself in, and I had to visit different colonies, different zones, different regions - everywhere I had the highest standard of living for an ordinary prisoner. This cannot be explained only by organizational skills, it is a phenomenon of character.".
Last sentence
In August 1985, Aizenshpis was released again on parole - for good behavior, the sentence was reduced by a year and eight months. Returning to the capital, he again took up his favorite speculation. I met a woman in a restaurant who was married to an Arab who often traveled abroad. A new friend suggested that Yuri Shmilevich update his wardrobe. The items offered were of higher quality than in the notorious “Beryozka”. At first Aizenshpis dressed himself, then he dressed his friends, and then he turned the resale of fashionable clothes into a business. His monthly income was several thousand rubles. Not comparable to what he had in gold, but still 5-6 times more than the ministers and secretaries of the Central Committee.
The troubles began when the resourceful Arab fell under the KGB cap. Tracking all his connections, the security officers found Aizenshpis. In October 1986, Aizenshpis drove a newly purchased sixth model Zhiguli car to the next meeting near the Mossovet Theater. Here he was detained by police officers. In the trunk they found several Grundig cassette recorders, a couple of super-scarce VCRs and video cassettes.
Aizenshpis was incredibly lucky that his Arab accomplice managed to escape abroad in time. Without the main defendant, the criminal case, through the efforts of lawyers, successfully fell apart. Yuri Shmilevich left the prison bunks in April 1988, after serving in a pre-trial detention center for about a year and a half. This was his last prison sentence.
Return
In total, Yuri Aizenshpis served 17 years for something that any citizen can do now. Despite such a long prison term, Aizenshpis did not become embittered, did not lose his human appearance and did not become a criminal. He subsequently received a formal apology from the state.
“The world changed while I was away. A new generation has appeared. Old acquaintances may not have forgotten me, but I didn’t know where to find them. Having freed myself, I fell into a state of terrible depression. A lot of time has been lost. Friends have achieved something. And I had to start everything from scratch. No money, no apartment, no family. When I was imprisoned, I had a girlfriend. What happened to her? Don't know.
I was afraid that I would never see my parents again. Fortunately, I saw it. They even caught my new takeoff. My father had his own opinion about this. My parents are war veterans, have awards, and are communists. It seemed abnormal to them that their son was interested in music and rock that they did not understand. My father thought I was guilty. The mother may have had doubts, but she did not admit it. She is internally a freer person, very courageous, very real, like millions of ordinary communists who went through the war and all the difficulties. She herself is from Belarus. Despite her health, my mother went to Minsk for a rally of partisans. And she died among her own people - where she was born. She outlived her husband by only a year.
I probably should have some kind of anger towards this system, towards everything Soviet. Serving 17 years in prison would make anyone angry. But I have no anger. In the most difficult period for myself, I managed to concentrate and gather my will. Maybe because it was already hardened. After all, it still exists - the struggle for existence. For survival."
“No matter what happens, I will never leave the country. Despite what I had to endure here, I am a patriot by nature. Like a bird that was born in this area, it will die in this area.”.
Show business shark
Once free, Aizenshpis found himself in the thick of perestroika. Soon, his friend Alexander Lipnitsky (stepson of Vadim Sukhodrev, Brezhnev’s personal translator) introduced him to the then rock party. At first, he headed the directorate of the Interchance festival, slowly studying the backstage and hidden springs of home-grown show business, and soon began producing domestic musical performers.
Yuri Shmilevich outlined his credo extremely frankly: “Promoting an artist is the functional responsibility of the producer. And here any means are good. Through diplomacy, bribery, threats or blackmail". This is exactly how he acted, earning the nickname “show business shark.”
His formula for success in show business: “The result is the product of the talent of the performer, the talent of the producer, the time spent by both, the money invested, mutual desire and luck.”.
There were many unknown musical performers who dreamed of making it onto the big stage. Aizenshpis looked for those who could hook the viewer, who had at least some more or less attractive repertoire. First, through the media, mainly through television, he promoted them and made them famous, and then organized tours.
Victor Tsoi
After his release from prison in 1988, Yuri got a job at the creative association “Gallery”, created by the city committee of the Komsomol. At first, Aizenshpis organized concerts of young talented performers. In 1989, he became the official producer of the Kino group, after which the group quickly reached a new level of popularity.
At the time of the start of cooperation with Aizenshpis, the Kino group was already quite famous. The most creatively and conceptually successful album, “Blood Type,” had already been recorded and mixed at home, after which, according to critics, Tsoi could not write anything for at least 2 years. Therefore, working with Kino also brought Yuri Shmilevich to a new stellar level of production activity and allowed him to earn authority in his business.
“For the first time after my release, I worked in a creative youth association. Like mushrooms after rain, they began to appear in the fields of all kinds of Komsomol and Soviet organizations. It was a kind of roof. The concept of “manager” had not yet appeared.
One of my first actions was organizing a concert of Leningrad rock bands. They performed then mainly in cultural centers, and I took them to the big stage.
And so I met Viktor Tsoi. In principle, this is not an accident. I found him myself and convinced him to work with me, convinced him that I was not an accidental person in music. He told me what he had experienced. This somehow had an effect on him, although I was a complete stranger to him, and Victor is not the kind of person who makes contact easily.
Our acquaintance turned into friendship. Then the friendship grew into a creative union. I don’t want to attribute unnecessary laurels to myself. Of course, Tsoi and the Kino group were known before our meeting. But they are known among fans of Leningrad basement rock. And I decided to make a rock star out of him. And it was a success. The work was carried out on the radio and in the press. On television, Tsoi appeared for the first time in the program “Vzglyad”, which was then watched by the whole country. The release was made by Mukusev. I convinced him that millions of teenagers need Choi now.
Internally, Tsoi is a very interesting person, unlike anyone else. His second wife greatly influenced him. She is an esthete, from film circles and was a very good friend to him. I think she also did a lot to create the image that is known to the broad masses. He turned from a hungry, angry Tsoi, imposing and mysterious. That’s how I recognized him – a mature performer who had already starred in “Assa”. And managed to help him turn into a superstar, or maybe even something more.".
After the tragic death of Tsoi in 1990, Aizenshpis released the last “Black Album” of the Kino group. Moreover, for the first time in post-Soviet history, he does this independently of the absolute monopolist in the recording market - the Melodiya company, having taken out a loan of 5 million rubles for this. The posthumous album was released in a circulation of 1,200,000 copies and brought Yuri Shmilevich 24 million rubles.
"Technology" (1991-1992)
The next stage of Aizenshpis’s career was the “Technology” group. And if “Kino” already had a certain initial speed at the start of working with him, then the producer sculpted the success of “Technology” practically “from scratch”, being already an experienced sculptor.
“My second project, “Technology,” showed that you can take guys of ordinary, average talent and also make stars out of them. I was basically dealing with amateur performances. Among the numerous motley ensembles was the Bioconstructor group, which later split into two subgroups. One was called "Bio", the other was still just hatching its musical concept. Only two or three songs could be shown. These are the songs I liked. Maybe I was the only one who liked them, because the concerts with their participation attracted no more than two or three hundred people. But I felt perspective in them.
First, I instilled in them confidence in their abilities: look, guys, you are working with me - you are already stars. This confidence gave them the opportunity to liberate themselves. And when a creative person relaxes, he has a surge of strength, he begins to create something genuine. So are they. After 4 months they became the group of the year and maintained the highest rating the entire time we worked together. Now their popularity is falling. There are many objective reasons for this, including, I believe, our breakup. So even a superstar without a talented producer cannot do anything today.
We can say that show business is an already formed industry - the same industry as car production or iron smelting. Here, too, there is its own technology and its own laws.”.
Ovation Award
In 1992, Aizenshpis received the Ovation Award as the country's best producer. And from this year to 1993 he was the producer of the groups “Moral Code”, “Young Guns”, singer Linda.
"Young Guns" (1992-1993)
The short history of the “domestic Guns’n’Roses,” as they were called in the press, is equally instructive and typical for both musicians and producers. Having released a couple of bright hits, the group simply exploded from the internal confrontation of the members. “Each of the Young Guns musicians wanted to be a leader, they constantly argued, fought, and broke instruments. It was my fault that I didn’t stop them in time.”.
Linda (1993)
In 1993, Aizenshpis noticed the young talented performer Svetlana Gaiman on the Jurmala stage and helped the singer take her first steps on the big stage. Soon the name of the singer Linda becomes known both to the audience and in musical circles. At this time, the songs “Non-stop”, I want your sex and the very first hit “Playing with Fire” (for which Fyodor Bondarchuk shot the singer’s first video clip) appeared. The collaboration between the artist and producer lasted less than a year, after which their creative paths diverged. Composer Maxim Fadeev was brought in to change the arrangement of “Playing with Fire,” who then wrote music for Linda for some time.
Vlad Stashevsky (1993-1999)
A sex symbol of the mid-nineties, a favorite of girls of all ages, Vlad Stashevsky, in collaboration with Yuri Aizenshpis, released 5 albums, each of which became a national bestseller. Yuri and Vlad met at the Master nightclub, where the Young Guns group produced by Aizenshpis performed. Yuri Shmilevich heard Vlad humming songs by Willy Tokarev and Mikhail Shufutinsky on an out-of-tune piano behind the scenes, and asked where he studied music. As a result, they exchanged phone numbers, and after a while Aizenshpis called Vlad and made an appointment. Arriving at the place, Stashevsky met Vladimir Matetsky. Together with Yuri Shmilevich, they arranged an audition for Stashevsky, and within a week the first song for his repertoire was ready. It was called “The Roads We Walk.” Stashevsky's first performance in public took place on August 30, 1993 at a festival in Adjara.
The debut album “Love Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” became the first release of the newly created company “Aizenshpis Records”. In 1996, Stashevsky’s third album “Vlad-21” sold 15,000 copies in the first week alone, which was an astronomical figure for the very young Russian CD market. In the same year, the performer rises to the top of another, unusual chart: the magazine expert recognizes him as the “most pirated” artist of the year. In 1997, at the invitation of the US Senate, Vlad Stashevsky gives a solo concert in Brooclin park in front of an audience of more than twenty thousand.
Other projects and achievements in show business
In 1994, Yuri was one of the organizers of the international music festival “Sunny Adjara”. Participated in the establishment of the Star Prize.
Based on the results of his creative activity in 1995, Aizenshpis again received the Ovation Award.
Then he was the producer of singer Inga Drozdova (1997), singer Katya Lel (1997), singer Nikita (1998-2001), singer Sasha (1999-2000), and the group “Dynamite” (2001).
In 2001, Yuri Aizenshpis was invited to take the post of general director of the largest production company at that time, Media Star.
Aizenshpis's latest project is Dima Bilan (2002).
Different roles of Yuri Aizenshpis
In 2005, he played a small role in the film “Night Watch”. He also proved himself as a writer, becoming the author of the autobiographical book “Lighting the Stars.”
Personal life
Yuri had a wife, Elena Lvovna Kovrigina, with whom he lived in a civil marriage and with whom he had a son, Mikhail, in 1993.
Death
Yuri Aizenshpis died on September 20, 2005 from a heart attack at the age of 60.
He was buried near Moscow, at the Domodedovo cemetery.
This man is called the first music producer of the USSR and Russia. It was he who, in the wake of Perestroika, introduced the audience to the first cult rock band “Kino”, and then, again, he was the first to deprive the state of its monopoly on the publication of records and music albums.
Note that his talent as a businessman and organizer manifested itself much earlier, only then did such activities fall under criminal charges. So in total, the future famous producer Yuri Aizenshpis spent almost 17 years behind bars.
"Golden" black marketeer
Violation of the rules on currency transactions was in another case. Having entered the institute, Yuri Aizenshpis, driven by his commercial inclinations, decided to turn to his other youthful hobby - sports. Among his friends were the guys who now played football in the Dynamo team, went abroad to friendly matches and received checks that in the USSR could be sold in the only currency store, Beryozka.
In those days, a dollar on the black market, that is, from hand, cost from 2 to 7.5 rubles. Yuri Aizenshpis, first through “old friends” and then through his own well-established channels, bought checks, purchased them at Beryozka, and then sold the purchased scarce goods at three times the price.
Using the proceeds from rubles, he bought currency from foreigners through hotel administrators and waiters, and then again checks. For example, an imported fur coat could be purchased at Beryozka for $50, and sold to a capital movie star for 500 rubles, purchased a dozen Panasonic radios for $35, and in Odessa sold the entire batch to the same huckster for 4,000 rubles. But this was not enough.
If he purchased dollars on the side for 5 rubles, then a kilogram of gold cost him 7,500 rubles. Another thousand had to be paid to a foreign student, who had the right to legally conduct transactions with currency, because an ordinary citizen of the USSR should not have had it. But Aizenshpis sold 1 kilogram of gold to a Republican party leader for 20,000 rubles.
The gain was mind-blowing, and it really drove many black marketeers crazy. Once, a burnt-out gold businessman from Armenia, in order to facilitate his accounting, handed over several of his “colleagues” to the authorities. Then, in the stagnant year of 1970, many criminals convicted on “economic” charges “the first time” received 5-8 years in prison, but Yuri Aizenshpis was sentenced to 10 years of strict regime, and besides, with the confiscation of all property, even his parents’ apartment .
From scratch
After 7 years, the former concert director was released on parole. There was no trace left of the old connections; we had to start “commercial activities” anew. Together with a certain friend, Yuri Aizenshpis decided to buy $4,000 “from hand” on the Lenin Hills. But the seller brought counterfeits and he had been under surveillance for a long time by criminal investigation officers. So after 3 months of freedom, the future famous producer again found himself in the dock. As a result, to the 8 years of imprisonment under the “currency article”, he was added another 3 years, which had previously been “knocked off” for the first term and sent to serve in Mordovia, in the notorious Dubrovlag colony, which had the unofficial name “Meat Grinder”, because every Every day, for “unknown reasons,” 3 to 5 people died there.
Seven years later he was released on parole. There was no trace left of the old connections; we had to organize “commercial activities” anew. Together with one friend, Yuri Aizenshpis bought $4,000 from his own hands on the Lenin Hills. But the seller had long been under the surveillance of criminal investigation officers and brought counterfeits. So, after three months of freedom, the future famous producer again found himself in the dock. As a result, to the 8 years of imprisonment under the “currency article”, he was added another 3 years, which had previously been knocked off (when he was serving his first sentence), and he was sent to Mordovia to the notorious Dubrovlag colony, which had the unofficial name “Meat Grinder”, because every day 3-5 people died there for “unknown reasons.”
Under the hood of the KGB
In 1985, Yuri Aizenshpis was again released on parole and returned to Moscow. Now he acted extremely carefully. Through a young Muscovite, the wife of an employee of the Arab diplomatic mission, Aizenshpis not only established a safe channel for the purchase of foreign currency, but also imported clothing and electronics, since the Arab was engaged in export-import. But the KGB always kept an eye on any foreigner in the USSR, and soon Yuri Aizenshpis found himself under surveillance.
In the summer of 1986, when he was driving around the capital in a new Zhiguli, he was stopped by police. When inspecting the car, it turned out that in the trunk there were several imported audio recorders and one super-scarce video recorder with video cassettes. So, at the instigation of KGB officers, Yuri Aizenshpis ended up in a pre-trial detention center. However, the case did not come to trial, since the Arab managed to leave the USSR in time, and without the main defendant, the “high-profile” speculative case soon fell apart. And then Perestroika struck. After serving almost 1.5 years in a pre-trial detention center, Yuri Aizenshpis was released and never returned to prison.
There was such a famous music producer who passed away not so long ago, but that’s not the point. Even if you have not heard of him, then perhaps as the conversation continues you will be interested in details about everyday life in the colonies of the Soviet Union.
The famous music producer Yuri Aizenshpis was convicted twice in Soviet times for currency transactions. In total, he served 17 years. But Aizenshpis realized his talent as a manager in the zone. On his first trip, he set up production at the construction of KrAZ, on the second, he managed a sawmill. Aizenshpis recalled that the smart man lived well even in the zone; his income was measured in thousands of rubles.
Here are the details...
Yuri Aizenshpis became a music producer at the age of 19. Then he studied to become an economist and worked at the Central Statistical Office. He combined music and service with currency transactions. In 1970, at the age of 25, he was imprisoned for the first time for 10 years for currency speculation. But he was released on parole for exemplary work in 1977. A year later he was convicted again under the same article and was released in 1988. In the book “From a black marketeer to a producer. Business People in the USSR,” he tells how his talent helped him become a manager in the colonies.
For five months in the Krasnoyarsk zone, I never touched a shovel or pickaxe. They could not work at a construction site either “for authority” or for money. I took more second. The parents promptly sent the starting advance amount, and then the foreman’s services were paid from “earned money.” For example, when you fulfill the plan norm, the foreman gives you orders for 160 rubles. If you work too hard to over-fulfill, for example, 200 rubles, then 80 goes to the zone for “wait”, and 120 goes to your personal account. After taxes, 100 remain. Of these, 50 go to you, and 50 to the foreman. No more than 10% of all prisoners participated in such a conspiracy, since the construction of the facility was also required. Not everyone knew how to find “paths” to the hillock, and even fewer could competently implement a scheme for transferring money home and back. Well, some work addicts simply worked like elephants and went home rich people. Just before I arrived in the zone, one such hard worker was released from there, having earned 5,000 rubles in two years!
This turned out to be an unexpected discovery: you can earn good money through forced labor. Not as significant as in foreign exchange transactions, but more than in research institutes. At the same time, only a maximum of 15 rubles per month was allowed to be spent in a kiosk shop: a basic amount of 9 rubles + 4 production rubles (if you meet the production norm) + 2 incentives, if you worked well and did not disturb the order. In general, it was sparse, and only two food parcels of 5 kg per year were allowed. However, the conditions and opportunities for quality food here turned out to be much better. All you had to do was apply a little intelligence and imagination, and correctly take into account local specifics.
And the specific thing was that when the cordon was removed, anyone could enter the territory of the facility under construction. And hide vodka, money, food - whatever you want - in one of the many secluded places! All you had to do was have money, not on a card, but in real money. The worked out financial scheme was as follows: money was transferred from the card to Moscow to my parents, then sent by reverse telegraphic transfer to a free resident of Krasnoyarsk, and then forwarded to me. As a rule, civilians who worked next to us. And although there were about 50 supervisors snooping around the entire construction site, although freemen were strictly forbidden to have contact with prisoners, it was not possible to detect numerous violations. And why, if it benefits everyone?
The zone built a large Komsomol shock construction project - KrAZ, Krasnoyarsk Aluminum Plant. Meanwhile, my career also took off: from a workshop worker, I rose to become an assistant in the plant management. An engineering position whose main functions are accounting and labor organization. Every day I kept track of the payroll, I knew exactly who was in which detachment and in which brigade, what term they received and for what they received it. At the request of the superiors, I instantly gave out information about where this or that prisoner was currently located - in the isolation ward, hospital or at work. If at work, then where exactly, what he does, what are his performance indicators. My statistical education has been of great use to me!
I was given a separate office, which I soon hung with graphs of operational reports, numbers of work output, labor productivity and other numerical characteristics. And I did this job better than many experienced business executives, of whom there were also plenty in the zone: both in the noisy business of the Ocean store and in the illegal export of diamonds to Israel. Although the salary was the same as that of an ordinary Soviet engineer - 120 rubles.
A high position also entailed certain life benefits, which in any zone are given to only a few of the most significant prisoners in the structure. I had lunch separately, which was much tastier and more nutritious than the others, sometimes I cooked it myself in the office on a small electric stove. He even organized feasts! My menu has always included scarce products. Through the civilian staff, I was actively in contact with the will, and sometimes even asked the senior warden to bring vodka and sausages. The contractors who were subordinate to me could take a person from one part of the zone to another, from residential to industrial. And not alone, but with a load. Do you understand how you can benefit from this?
The zone's leadership did not pay attention to the petty abuses of the contractors, and their privileged position was easily explained. This includes construction, repairs, and crafts—prison crafts. Checkers and chess, pens, knives, lighters - the need for cunning inventions. Both for your home, and as a gift to a big person, maybe even to sell at the market. Consumer goods are a completely separate topic in the life of the zone, one of the sources of money and concessions, and if you are handy, you will not be lost. Of course, only 15-20 people are in a privileged position, no more. Their jobs are closed at the expense of the main production, and they live like chocolate - no checks, no regime.
When I sat down for the second time, the word “colony” had already become slang; correctly this institution should have been called “ITU”. The ITU was headed by a chief and a number of his deputies: for operational work, political and educational, for production and for general issues. Each deputy had departments, and the deputy for production was also the director of the plant where the prisoners worked. The plant produced furniture and garden houses, but the main product range was housing for Soviet televisions.
More than 30 people were crammed into the large office of the head of the correctional facility - heads of all detachments, heads of various services. There, distribution took place among detachments and workshops. They called me on the carpet. I said that I was an engineer-economist by training and had serious work experience. He did not hide his ambitions and readiness for the most responsible positions. In general, I inspired such trust that I was immediately appointed head of the assembly shop.
This is how I, a simple Soviet prisoner, found myself in a leadership position. My responsibilities primarily included implementing the plan, visiting operational operations, and working closely with the administration and with convicts. We had to put pressure on the Bugors, who, by local standards, are very serious comrades. I had to argue with the administration, proving that I was right. I had to work a lot.
The quality of leadership is determined not so much by knowledge and education, but by experience and a special mindset and character. I not only had an understanding of statistics, accounting, and economic assessment of the situation, but also possessed the qualities of a leader, enviable energy and activity. I was interested in psychology and philosophy and successfully applied my knowledge in practice. Whether a tramp, a criminal, an authority figure or a hard worker, I found a common language with everyone and had good relationships. And, of course, the life and prison experience that I have already gained. At the same time, I always preferred to remain myself and do things according to my own understanding. So, for example, during all the years in captivity I did not make a single tattoo, considering it below my aesthetic principles.
My new status is the head of the assembly shop, my employees are 300 people. Our workshop received numerous wooden parts, covers, bottoms, and reflectors. They had to be processed, adjusted, glued and pre-polished before the final varnishing, which was no longer carried out by us. Clean the shirt. If there is a crack, open it with a scalpel, push the emulsion in there and “fry” it with an iron. Almost a surgical operation. Each prisoner had to give out 26 such boxes every day. And then the Quality Control Department begins to meticulously inspect them, outline all sorts of shortcomings and defects with white chalk, and sometimes reject up to half of the products.
The main and immediate task I saw was clearing the area from the rubble of defective products. 70% of the usable space was occupied by tall catacombs from floor to ceiling. Narrow corridors pierced them like ant passages, with the last rows often containing large “pockets”. There, the prisoners organized secluded rookeries, where they did God knows what. And I attacked the marriage with a powerful attack, and its number began to decrease. But all this horror accumulated over the years, passed from one boss to another along the balance sheet, and the numbers no longer corresponded to reality.
The director of the enterprise could not be happier and encouraged me in every possible way. And if earlier the workshop had difficulty fulfilling the daily plan, now other important nomenclature indicators that characterize economic activity have begun to increase: efficiency, productivity.
I also minimized theft, but in the zone they steal everywhere and everything. They steal what is needed and what is not needed, what is bad and what is good. It seems like there are fences and castles all around, thorns and security - don’t believe your eyes! Logs and plywood, boards and nails, fine and coarse sandpaper - if it can be dragged, it will be dragged. Go to the village, which is in the zone, and there you will certainly find a lot of everything stolen from behind bars. This has never happened to me, complete control over the storekeepers, no one will steal or take anything away. At night everything was locked with massive bolts, so even a mouse couldn’t get through.
All visiting inspections marked my workshop against the background of all others. Everything was flying for me, like on a conveyor belt, no one stood idle, no one was idle, everything was ticking like a clock. I received guests and inspectors in my personal office, with magnificent mahogany veneer furniture, treated them to good tea and delicious sweets, and for a while the sense of who was who was lost.
The workers in the assembly shop constantly felt my care; I was practically their own father. It manifested itself not only in beautiful locker rooms, cozy showers and simply in clean production. I encouraged and supported their diligence and ingenuity in every possible way: if they met the production quota, they got the opportunity to shop for an additional 3-4 rubles in a stall, if they exceeded the plan, I signed lists for additional tea. Up to 5 packs per month. He tried to ensure that they wore high-quality workwear; almost all working workers wore a shiny melustin uniform.
Of course, high status brought me certain dividends. Good food, free movement from the work area to the living area and back, the opportunity not to attend roll calls, unlimited contacts with civilians. I was granted visits of maximum duration twice a year for three days.
Then I began to step on the sawdust, made several improvement proposals, and even found buyers to whom I sent a hundred or even more wagons of compressed sawdust. The total economic effect of my innovations amounted to several million rubles, that is, even if I caused damage to the country with my speculation, now I have more than covered it.
I completely cleared the area of waste, and the village began to experience a shortage of firewood. After all, previously a truckload of wood was taken out of the zone gates for just a bottle of vodka! They even got angry at me, but I continued to do my job. For the implementation of rationalization proposals, I received a certificate from the Minister of Internal Affairs of Mordovia and a number of patents. And if I had not been a prisoner, they would have nominated me for the title of Honored Innovator of the RSFSR. But I still received a very large monetary reward—10,000 rubles—after leaving the zone. And in the wild it was very useful to me.
sources
Born on July 15, 1945 in Moscow.
In 1968 he graduated from the Moscow Institute of Economics and Statistics with a degree in economics engineering. He began his professional career in 1965, collaborating as an administrator with the rock group SOKOL. Developed an original scheme for the team's activities. After a verbal agreement with the director of the club to hold a concert, the administrator bought tickets for the evening screening of the film and distributed them at a higher price. For the first time, I involved people who ensured order during the group’s performance. On January 7, 1970 he was arrested. As a result of the search, 15,585 rubles and 7,675 dollars were confiscated. Convicted under Article 88 (gold and currency transactions). He was released from prison in 1977 and subsequently received an official apology.
For a short time he worked at the Gallery Gallery under the city committee of the Komsomol, organizing concerts of young performers. At the beginning of 1989, he produced the KINO group. He was one of the first to break the state monopoly on record publishing. Taking a loan of 5,000,000 rubles (1990), he released the last work of the KINO group - “Black Album”. From 1991 to 1992 he collaborated with the TECHNOLOGY group. Helps musicians release their debut album “Everything You Want”, organizes the production of various printed products (posters, postcards, etc.).
In 1992 he became a laureate of the national Russian music award “Ovation” in the category “best producer”. Between 1992 and 1993 worked as a producer with the groups “MORAL CODE” and “YOUNG GUNS”. Since the summer of 1994, he has been collaborating with singer Vlad STASHEVSKY (4 albums were recorded in 1997, the debut - “Love Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” - was released on the Aisenshpis Records label). He participated in the organization of the international festival “Sunny Adjara” (1994), as well as in the establishment of the “Star” music award. In 1995, based on the results of work for 1993-1994, he was again awarded the Ovation Prize. In 1997, he continued to work with Vlad Stashevsky, while simultaneously collaborating with the aspiring singer Inga Drozdova. From 1999 to 2000 he was involved in the SASHA project. From 1998 to 2001 - raised performer NIKITA to the heights of popularity.
He passed away on September 20, 2005 in Moscow. He was buried at the Domodedovo cemetery near Moscow.
Producer Yuri Aizenshpis
On July 15, the famous producer Yuri Aizenshpis would have turned 73 years old, but 13 years ago he passed away. He is called the first Soviet producer, since it was he who coined this term. Thanks to him, they achieved incredible popularity in the 1980-1990s. groups “Kino”, “Technology” and “Dynamite”, singer Linda, singers Vlad Stashevsky and Dima Bilan. Aizenshpis was one of the brightest and most controversial personalities in the world of show business; no one denied his professionalism, but among artists he earned the nickname Karabas-Barabas.
Yuri Shmilevich Aizenshpis was born in 1945 in Chelyabinsk, later the family moved to Moscow, where Yuri received an economic education. While still studying at the institute, he began producing, although at that time such a concept did not yet exist. Everyone knows about Aizenshpis’s projects of the 1980-1990s, but few people know that back in the 1960s. he organized semi-underground concerts of rock groups and was the administrator of the Sokol group, which toured the Union very successfully. 
Producer Yuri Aizenshpis
Natalya Vetlitskaya and Yuri Aizenshpis
At the same time, Aizenshpis engaged in activities that were then considered illegal, and later became known as business. Thanks to currency manipulation, he soon became an underground millionaire. “I bought foreign currency or checks,” said Aizenshpis, “with them in the Beryozka store I purchased scarce goods and then sold them through intermediaries on the black markets.” In those days, the dollar cost on the “black market” from two to seven and a half rubles. Let’s say, a synthetic fur coat could be bought at Beryozka for $50 and sold for 500 rubles.” 
Viktor Tsoi and Yuri Aizenshpis
In 1970, Aizenshpis was arrested and convicted under the articles “Speculation on an especially large scale” and “Violation of foreign exchange transactions.” He was sentenced to 10 years in prison with confiscation of property. In 1977, he was released, but spent only 3 months in freedom. Then he was arrested again for currency fraud and imprisoned. He served his sentence until 1985, and in 1986 he again went to jail for two years. 
The man who is called the godfather of domestic show business
After his release, Aizenshpis again began producing, and in the early 1990s. he was already called one of the “show business sharks.” In the 1989-1990s. he worked with the Kino group, which was already known before him. After that, he preferred to start working with artists “from scratch,” turning unknown young performers into real stars. In 1991-1992 he collaborated with the Technology group in 1992-1993. - with the Moral Code group, in 1993 he began working with Linda, in 1994 with Vlad Stashevsky, in 1999-2001 with singer Nikita, since 2000 he has been managing the affairs of the Dynamite group. His last project was Dima Bilan. 
Producer with the group *Dynamite*
Producer Yuri Aizenshpis
Many artists called him a tough and unprincipled man who did not disdain illegal and unethical methods of promotion, for which Aizenshpis received the nickname Karabas-Barabas of domestic show business. His wards had to obey him unquestioningly, and the producer received the main income from their performances. But at the same time, the result of cooperation was a win-win: all the artists became super popular. 
The man who is called the godfather of domestic show business
Singer Vlad Stashevsky and his producer
The producer did not deny that his methods were quite harsh: “Promoting” an artist is the functional responsibility of the producer, and for him there is no concept of “good” or “bad”. The main thing is the goal. At any cost. Through diplomacy, bribery, threats or blackmail. Ultimately, these are just emotions. But when moving towards the goal, you must act like a tank.” At the same time, Aizenshpis did not attribute the merits of others to himself - he admitted that at the time he met him, the Kino group was already quite popular, but, according to him, he helped them move from the circle of “fans of Leningrad basement rock” to the all-Union level. Thanks to him, Tsoi was talked about in the press, on radio and on television, and the group entered the big stage. 
Vlad Stashevsky, Yuri Antonov and Yuri Aizenshpis
Group *Technology*
The situation was different with “Technology,” which Aizenshpis “promoted” from scratch: “My second project showed that you can take guys of ordinary, average talent and also make stars out of them. I was basically dealing with amateur performances... Only two or three songs could be shown. These are the songs I liked. Maybe I was the only one who liked them, because the concerts with their participation attracted no more than two or three hundred people. But I felt perspective in them. First, I instilled in them confidence in their abilities: look, guys, you are working with me - you are already stars. This confidence gave them the opportunity to liberate themselves. And when a creative person relaxes, he has a surge of strength, he begins to create something genuine. So are they. After 4 months they became the group of the year and maintained the highest rating the entire time we worked together.” 
Aizenshpis often heard accusations against him that the artist’s talent is the last thing that interests him. They say that working with vocalists of Vlad Stashevsky’s level is an absolutely futile endeavor. Aizenshpis ignored such statements and did not deny the difference between his projects: “If Viktor Tsoi was a natural musician, then Stashevsky was a product of show business.” And his colleague, music producer Evgeny Frindlyand, not being a fan of the work of his charges, said: “Yuri Aizenshpis is a Master, a Professional with a capital P and, perhaps, was not looking for outstanding talents and obvious nuggets, but as a real and very talented artist on “ white sheets” of ordinary performers himself created paintings - magnificent and bright projects! Authors, directors, stylists, cameramen, PR people - he captured these people with his every “crazy” idea, hypnotized them, and they did the impossible.” 
Dima Bilan - Aizenshpis's latest project
Otar Kushanashvili wrote about him: “I heard about him that he is a Legend and a Tank. It turned out that he really is a walking mythology, but a tank is pale: Yu.A. – a fighter, an excavator, a bulldozer and a factory all at once. When he works, he is unbearable, because if you don't want to work, he will turn your life into a storm. His merits, his deeds are heterogeneous, but the height he has achieved is unique; who else will dare to conquer it? He works every single day: this is a rare certification lately, don’t you think?”
The years spent in prison undermined the producer's health. In addition, his workaholism and habit of not sparing himself led to complete nervous and physical exhaustion. On September 20, 2005, Yuri Aizenshpis died of a heart attack at the age of 60.
