Lev Theremin is a forgotten “man of the future.” Lev Theremin - inventor of electronic music, Soviet intelligence officer, political prisoner and Stalin Prize laureate

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 to the Nikolaev Engineering School, and then to officer electrical courses. The revolution found him a junior officer in a reserve electrical battalion serving the most powerful Tsarskoye Selo radio station in the empire near Petrograd.

Being quite a versatile person Theremin invented many different automatic systems (automatic doors, automatic lighting, etc.) and security alarm systems. In parallel, since 1923, he collaborated with the State Institute of Music Science in Moscow. In 1925-1926 he invented one of the first television systems - “Darnovision”.

In 1927, Theremin received an invitation to the international music exhibition in Frankfurt am Main. Theremin's report and demonstration of his inventions were a huge success and brought him worldwide fame.

The success of his concert music exhibition such is that Theremin is bombarded with invitations. Dresden, Nuremberg, Hamburg, Berlin saw him off with applause and flowers. There are enthusiastic reviews from listeners of “music of the air”, “music of ethereal waves”, “music of the spheres”. The musicians note that the idea of ​​a virtuoso is not constrained by inert material, “a virtuoso touches spaces.” The incomprehensibility of where the sound is coming from is shocking. Some people call the theremin a “heavenly” instrument, others a “spherophone”. The timbre is striking, simultaneously reminiscent of both strings and wind instruments, and even some special human voice, as if “grown from distant times and spaces.”

American period

In 1928, Termen, remaining a Soviet citizen, moved to the United States. Upon his arrival in the United States, he patented the theremin and his security alarm system. He also sold the license for the right to serially produce a simplified version of the theremin to RCA (Radio Corporation of America).

Lev Termen organized the companies Teletouch and Theremin Studio 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 whose “roof” Soviet intelligence officers could work.

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

Soon Lev Theremin became a very popular person in New York. George Gershwin, Maurice Ravel, 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.

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

Repression, work for state security agencies

In 1938, Theremin was recalled to Moscow. He secretly left the United States, having issued a power of attorney to the owner of Teletouch, Bob Zinman, to dispose of his property and manage patent and financial affairs. Theremin wanted to take his wife Lavinia with him to the USSR, but he was told that she would arrive later. When they came for him, Lavinia happened to be at home, and she got the impression that her husband was taken away by force.

In Leningrad, Theremin tried unsuccessfully to get a job, then he moved to Moscow, but did not find a job there either.

In March 1939 he was arrested. There are two versions of what charge was brought against him. According to one of them, he was accused of involvement in a fascist organization, according to another, of preparing the murder of Kirov. He was forced to incriminate himself that a group of astronomers from the Pulkovo Observatory was preparing to place a landmine in the Foucault pendulum, and Theremin was supposed to send a radio signal from the USA and detonate the landmine as soon as Kirov approached the pendulum. A special meeting of the NKVD of the USSR sentenced Theremin to eight years in the camps, and he was sent to a camp in Kolyma.

At first, Theremin served time in Magadan, working as a foreman of a construction team. Theremin’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 (to the so-called “Tupolev sharaga”), where he worked for about eight years. Here his assistant was Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, later a famous designer space technology. One of the activities of Theremin and Korolev was the development of unmanned aircraft radio-controlled prototypes of modern cruise missiles.

One of Theremin’s developments is the Buran listening system, which uses a reflected infrared beam to read glass vibrations in the windows of the room being listened to. It was this invention of Theremin that was awarded the Stalin Prize of the first degree in 1947. But due to the fact that the laureate was a prisoner at the time of presentation for the prize and the secretive nature of his work, the award was not publicly announced anywhere. [ ]

Not without difficulty, Theremin 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 who wanted to listen to his work and study the theremin; Only a few people attended the seminars. Formally, Theremin was listed as a mechanic at the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University, but in fact continued to work independently Scientific research. Active scientific activity L. S. Termen’s work 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, he met Clara Rockmore.

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

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

In 1992, the Theremin Center was created in Moscow, with its main goal of supporting musicians and sound artists working in the field of experimental electroacoustic music. Lev Theremin had nothing to do with the creation of the center named after him.

In 1989, a meeting 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 Russian musicians Mikhail Malin and Lydia Kavina.

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

Family

• Lavinia Williams - wife in second marriage (no children);
• Maria Gushchina - wife in her third marriage;
• Elena Termen - daughter;

Natalya Termen - daughter;

Olga Termen - granddaughter;

1. Maria Theremin - granddaughter;
2. Pyotr Theremin is a great-grandson.
3. The operating principles underlying the theremin were also used by Theremin when creating a security system that reacts to a person approaching 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 Theremin joined the CPSU. He explained his decision by saying that he had once made a promise to Lenin to join the party, and that he wanted to hurry to fulfill his 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 to join the party he needed to study at the department of Marxism-Leninism for a year, which he did, 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 backwards: “Theremin - does not die.” see also Notes BNF ID: Open Data Platform - 2011.
4. SNAC - 2010. Termen Lev Sergeevich // Simon - Heiler. - M.: Soviet encyclopedia Soviet composer , 1981. - (Encyclopedias. Dictionaries. Reference books: Musical Encyclopedia: [in 6 volumes] / chief ed. Yu. V. Keldysh
5. ; 1973-1982, vol. 5). Termen Lev Sergeevich// Musical encyclopedic dictionary / ch. ed. [ ]
6. G. V. Keldysh . - M.: Sov. encyclopedia, 1990. - 672 p. - 150,000 copies - ISBN 5-85270-033-9.
7. Date of birth of Lev Theremin - August 15th Julian calendar 150,000 copies was recalculated in accordance with the Decree on the introduction of the Western European calendar in the Russian Republic, but it was not taken into account that in the 19th century the difference between the calendars was 12 days, not 13. However, it was August 28 that became the official birthday of Lev Theremin.

Zhirnov E.

Lev Sergeevich Termen was born on August 28, 1896 in St. Petersburg into a noble Orthodox family with French and German roots. From his youth he was fascinated by physics and astronomy. Theremin sought to know the inexhaustible the world"deeply, without any mysticism and fantasy through the senses and logical thinking" .

Lev Theremin and his theremin

Lev Theremin had diverse interests, was fond of both science and music. He graduated from the Conservatory (cello class in 1916), 3 years of Petrograd University, the Higher Officers' Electrotechnical School (1916, second lieutenant of the engineering troops), the physical and mechanical faculty of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute named after M. I. Kalinin (1926). Since 1920, he was an employee of the X-ray (Physical and Technical) Institute (PTI), from 1925 to 1931. - was the head of the laboratory of electrical oscillations of the Physicotechnical Institute.

Being an inventor musical instrument Theremin, Theremin in 1924-1927. made concert tours throughout Russia and Europe. In 1928-1938 carried out assignments for Soviet intelligence services in the United States. In 1939 he was repressed (rehabilitated in 1957). From 1947 to 1951 was the head of the MGB laboratory. Laureate of the Stalin Prize in 1947. In 1952-1967. collaborated with the KGB. From 1964 to 1968 he was an employee of the sound recording laboratory of the Moscow Conservatory and the department of acoustics of the Faculty of Physics of Moscow University.

Participated in festivals of experimental music (France, 1989), "Schoenberg-Kandinsky" (Netherlands, 1991). Since 1991 - member of the CPSU.

Invented the following musical instruments.

• Theremin (1920). We will talk about it below.
• Light theremin (1923) - an instrument that uses light and shadows to create sound.
• Cello Fingerboard theremin (1930) - fingerboard electronic instrument.
• Terpsiton is an instrument that allows the dancer to combine body movement with music and light.
• Rhythmikon (1932) - the first rhythm machine, that is, a device for creating periodic drum fragments.
• Theremin Harmonium (1930-60s) - an electronic instrument for working with choral performances.
• Polyphonic theremin (1960s) – polyphonic theremin.

In addition to musical instruments, the scientist created contactless security alarm systems, a radio watchman (1922); far-vision device (forerunner of television, 1925); listening device "Buran" (1945).

Lev Termen and the Polytechnic University

The connection between the legendary Theremin and the Polytechnic Institute is mentioned briefly everywhere. But the period of scientific formation of the scientist is associated with this place.

Theremin came to the Polytechnic in 1920 at the invitation of A.F. Ioffe, who was the dean of the Physico-Mechanical Faculty of the Polytechnic Institute and at the same time the director of the Physico-Technical Institute.

Lev Termen began working at the Department of Physics of the Polytechnic Institute. For his laboratory, he was given “an empty, cold drafting room with 14 windows, some of them blocked with plywood.” The first thing he started his work with was placing two brick stoves in the middle of the hall, and leading the pipes from them to the windows. It was in this laboratory, on one of the drawing tables, Theremin created the first theremin. And it was at the Polytechnic Institute that he first introduced the theremin to the public.

Lev Theremin demonstrates his invention (1928)

Theremin and his laboratory at the Polytechnic

Theremin – voice of Theremin

The most unusual and interesting invention scientist of that time - this is a theremin.

Since Lev Theremin was also a musician (he mastered playing the cello as a child), he came up with the idea of ​​trying to control the frequency of sound by making passes with his hand near the antenna, and thus play a melody. Playing the theremin involves the musician changing the distance from his hands to the antennas of the instrument, due to which the capacitance of the oscillating circuit and, as a result, the pitch of the sound changes.

He combined “physics and lyricism, science and art, electricity and sound” in this instrument.

The very first demonstrations made a huge impression on the public. An empty stage on which stands a small box with a short shiny antenna sticking out of it. A musician approaches him and begins to conduct. To conduct the music itself, which is born from his hand, out of nothing, out of thin air. An instrument without keys and without strings. The connection between the instrument and the musician’s hands is immaterial, it is at a distance. This is truly a great miracle!

Theremin sounds: in the album "Territory" of the group "Aquarium", the composition "Good Vibrations" by the pop group "Beach Boys", on the disc Led Zeppelin "Lotta's Love"; in films: Spellbound ("Enchanted", Hitchcock), "The Lost Weekend" (B. Wider), "Alice in Wonderland" (Disney). Based on the biography of L. Theremin, the film “The Electronic Odyssey of Leo Theremin” was made (USA, 1993, directed by Steve Martin).

One of the first photographs of the theremin and its inventor

Modern theremin

Book gallery

Exhibition bibliography

Theremin, Lev Sergeevich (1896 - 1993). Physics and musical art/ L.S. Termen.- Moscow: Knowledge, 1966.- 31, p. ; 21 cm - (New in life, science, technology. Ser. 9. Physics. Mathematics. Astronomy; 8).

Danilov, Sergey. About theremins and paradoxes / S. Danilov // Technology for youth: monthly popular science and literary-art magazine. - M.., 2012. - No. 6 (945). - P. 20-24: phot. .- (World of Hobbies) .- ISSN 0320-33IX.

Repressed polytechnics: [in 2 books].- St. Petersburg: LLC Printing House "Beresta", 2008-2009.- ISBN 978-8-91492-023-1.

Book 1 / [compiled by: V. A. Smelov, N. N. Storonkin, preface: L. P. Romankov] .-, 2008 .- 439, pp., l. portrait ; 23 cm.- With a dedicatory inscription from V. A. Smelov SPSTU: 8012462 .- Donated by D. Yu. Raichuk SPSTU: 390663 .- Donated by Yu. P. Goryunov SPSTU: 0 (OBF) .- Bibliography. in footnotes. - ISBN 978-8-91492-023-1.

Memories of A.F. Ioffe / USSR Academy of Sciences; Physico-Technical Institute named after. A. F. Ioffe; [rep. ed. V. P. Zhuze] .- Leningrad: Science. Leningr. department, 1973 .- 250, p., l. portrait .- Rep. ed. indicated on the back tit. l..

Khoteenkov, V. The cunning one wins / V. Khoteenkov; artist S. Novikov; V. Blinov // Around the World: monthly popular science magazine. - M.., 2003. - No. 7. - P. 154-163.

Galeev, Bulat Makhmudovich. Soviet Faust: (Lev Theremin - pioneer of electronic art) / Bulat Galeev. - Kazan, 1995 .- 96 p. : ill., portrait, fax. ; 22 cm.- (Panorama. Library of the magazine "Kazan", No. 9-12/94).- Gift of I. A. Bryukhanova SPSTU: No. 7481442 .- With a dedicatory inscription from the author. SPSTU: 7253722 .- Bibliography. in the footnotes...

Figures of Russian science of the 19th-20th centuries / Russian Academy Sciences, Institute of History of Natural Science and Technology named after. S. I. Vavilova, St. Petersburg branch; [ed. I. P. Medvedeva] .- St. Petersburg, 2000-2008 .- ISBN 5-86007-259-7.

Issue 3: Russian science in biographical sketches / comp. T.V. Andreeva, M.F. Hartanovich.-: Dmitry Bulanin, 2003.- 507 p. : ill. .- Bibliography in note .- ISBN 5860073917.

Revich, Yu.“I promised Lenin...” / Yu. Revich // Knowledge is power: monthly popular science and scientific-art magazine. - M.., 2003 .- No. 8 .- P. 102-107 .- ISSN 0130- 1640.

10.

Cheparukhin, Vladimir Viktorovich (1938-2012). L. S. Termen and the Polytechnic Institute (Petrograd-Leningrad, 20s) / V.V. Cheparukhin, Yu.I. Ukhanov // Science and technology: Questions of history and theory: Theses of the XVIII year. conf. SPb. departments of the National com. in history and philosophy of science and technology. (24-26 Nov. 1997). Vol. XIII .- St. Petersburg, 1997 .- P. 102-103 .- (History and philosophical problems physics) .- Bibliography: p. 103.

11.

Berezhkov, A. You don't know theremin? Then get acquainted! / A. Berezhkov // Echo of the planet: General-political. ill. weekly. - Moscow., 2002. - No. 34 (749). - P. 34-35: ill. - (Fates).

Private bussiness

Lev Sergeevich Termen (1896 - 1993) born in St. Petersburg in noble family. His father, Sergei Emilievich Termen, was famous lawyer, mother Evgenia Antonovna, was engaged in painting and music..

Since childhood, the boy was interested in technology, was fond of mathematics, physics, and carried out experiments. His parents organized a laboratory at home especially for him, in which something was always exploding, and at the dacha 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 University. At the same time, he studied cello at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, graduating in 1916.

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

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

Termen Lev Sergeevich (Teremin Leon) (1896-1993). Physicist, inventor, musician. In 1920 he created the Theremin electromusical instrument with a completely unusual sound.

In 1926 he invented the electromechanical television. In 1923-1929. worked at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. In 1927, he showed Stalin a television of his own design. In 1931-1938. was director joint stock company on production various models"Theremin" in the USA. These instruments were used to score many motion pictures in America. Musical works Theremin was performed by the best musicians of the New World (N. Slonimsky, L. Stokowski). D. Shostakovich knew him well.

In 1935, Termen was kidnapped by the OGPU (according to other sources, he collaborated with the OGPU) and taken to the USSR with all his equipment. In Moscow, he worked in a closed design bureau, where he developed equipment for an unmanned aircraft.

According to Theremin’s memoirs, published in 1989 in the newspaper “Top Secret”, on the instructions of L.P. For Beria, he created the “Buran” listening device and installed microphones to listen to Stalin’s apartment.1 Theremin was charged with not only listening to the recorded tapes, but also clearing them of interference and extraneous noise. The equipment designed by Theremin made it possible to record conversations taking place on any floor of the building. Window glass was used as a membrane, the light beam read sound vibrations glass and converted them into electrical signals. The range of the device is one kilometer. Using Theremin's invention, Beria thus tracked Stalin's conversations at his nearby dacha.

The idea of ​​eavesdropping was probably borrowed from Stalin himself. Being the head of the NKVD, Beria could not help but know that the leader was listening telephone conversations even by “turntable” (an automatic telephone exchange with a limited number of numbers, designed to ensure the confidentiality of conversations between government and party leadership). Such telephones were installed in the offices of members of the Central Committee, people's commissars and their deputies; members of the Politburo - also in their apartments. B.G. Bazhanov writes: “In Stalin’s struggle for power, this secret is one of the most important: it gives Stalin the opportunity, by listening to the conversations of all the Trotskys, Zinovievs and Kamenevs among themselves, to always be aware of what they are up to, what they think, and this weapons of colossal importance. Stalin is the only sighted one among them, and they are all blind” (Bazhanov B.G. Memoirs former secretary Stalin. M., 1990. P. 56-57).

In 1938, Theremin was arrested and spent seven years in the camps. For some time he worked in Tupolev’s sharashka on the Yauza. After his release, he worked on secret projects for the military-industrial complex. Since 1966 - researcher at the Department of Acoustics, Faculty of Physics, Moscow State University. Lomonosov. At the same time he worked at the Moscow Conservatory.

In 1974, Theremin was accidentally recognized on the street in Moscow by a correspondent for the New York Times newspaper and wrote an article about him (in the USA it was believed that he died in the Gulag). Very old man he came to America again, visited his former studio, and met his students. He received a prize for his inventions.

Theater of Archetypes by Irina Cheglova in faces. Introducing: A magician hiding behind the mask of a Jester or Lev Theremin.

On December 31, 2015, a concert of organ music was held in St. Andrew's Cathedral in Moscow, where the organ met the theremin, the invention of a very interesting compatriot of ours. The voice of the instrument created by Lev Theremin seems to have come from oblivion and led us to heaven. This is the name of the performed composition. Who is this man, Lev Theremin? Wizard, spy, man with a capital M?

TERMEN Lev Sergeevich (1896-1993) - inventor, physicist, musician.

Creator of the world's first electronic musical instrument, the theremin (1919-20); one of the first long-range television systems (1925-26); the world's first rhythm machine, Rhythmikon (1932); security alarm systems, automatic doors and lighting; the first and most advanced listening devices, etc.
Born in 1896 in St. Petersburg. He graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in cello and studied at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University.
Since 1919 - head of the laboratory of the Physico-Technical Institute in Petrograd, at the same time since 1923. - collaborated with GIMN ( State Institute musical science, Moscow).
In 1927, he was sent by the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR on a foreign business trip. He traveled all over Europe, was one of the most popular people in New York, and was part of the millionaires' club. In 1931-38 - Director of the joint stock company Teletouch Inc. (USA). Such people visited and worked in his New York studio outstanding people of his time, such as emigrant Albert Einstein, conductor Leopold Stokowski, actor Charlie Chaplin, artist Marie Hélène Bute, etc. and so on. His inventions, made in the 20-40s, have firmly entered our everyday life.
At the end of 1938 he returned to the USSR. Arrested in 1939 and sentenced to 8 years in the camps. Spends a year in Kolyma, but most term - in the legendary "Tupolev" sharashka. After his release, he worked at the KGB research center, developing various electronic systems.
Since 1963 - employee of the acoustic laboratory of the Moscow Conservatory. In the late 60s, due to disagreements with the administration after the publication of an article about Theremin in the American newspaper The New York Times, Lev Sergeevich was expelled from the conservatory with a scandal, and he was forced to go to work at Moscow State University.
Since 1966 - employee of the Department of Acoustics, Faculty of Physics, Moscow State University.

For the last twenty-five years, Theremin has worked in the acoustics laboratory of Moscow State University. Mechanic 6th category. He slowly worked on his theremins - he restored some, improved some, and even came up with one in which the sound through a system of photocells arose from just the musician’s glance.

His most widely known invention is the theremin, which Lenin liked. Playing the theremin involves the musician changing the distance from his hands to the antennas of the instrument, due to which the capacitance of the oscillating circuit and, as a result, the frequency of the sound changes.

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

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

But not only the theremin...

He invented:

1. Group of electric musical instruments:
◊ theremin
◊ rhythmikon
◊ terpsiton

2. Security alarm

3. Unique eavesdropping system “Buran”

4. The world's first television installation - far vision
worked on:

◊ speech recognition system
◊ human freezing technology
◊ voice identification in forensics
◊ military sonar.

Already in 26, he demonstrated television in the Kremlin.

At that time, televisions with screens the size of Matchbox, and his TV had a huge screen (1.5 x 1.5 m) and a resolution of 100 lines.
In 1927, the scientist demonstrated his installation to Soviet military leaders K.E. Voroshilov, I.V. Tukhachevsky and SM. Budyonny:
State minds watched in horror on the screen Stalin walking through the Kremlin courtyard.

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

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

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

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

Was he really a millionaire? It is not known for certain. Some say that a huge amount of money for Theremin personally, and Soviet Russia brought by Teletouch Corporation. And others claim that Theremin was financed by military intelligence. Because the true purpose of his business trip to America was espionage activity.

Every two weeks Lev Sergeevich came to a small country cafe, where two young men were waiting for him. They listened to his reports and gave him new tasks. However, these tasks were not burdensome and did not particularly distract Theremin from his work. And he was already completely carried away by the most fantastic of his ideas - an instrument that gave birth to music from dance. In fact, this is a type of theremin: the sound is created not only by the hands, but also by the movements of the whole body, and the name was given to it accordingly - terpsiton - after the goddess of dance Terpsichore. In this case, each sound corresponded to a lamp of a certain color. Can you imagine what an extraordinary spectacle it was, because any movement of the dancer was echoed by sounds and the flickering of multi-colored lights!

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

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

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

In Moscow he was arrested as a “defector”, and after a month of skillful processing by socialist legality at Lubyanka, Lev Termen confessed everything.
For example, in the fact that, together with a group of astronomers, he planned the murder of Kirov.
The version was like this:
Kirov (who by that time was already long dead!) was going to visit the Pulkovo Observatory.
Astronomers planted a landmine in a Foucault pendulum.
And Theremin, 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 Foucault’s pendulum is not in Pulkovo, but in the Kazan Cathedral.
Lev Sergeevich was given eight years and sent to Kolyma.
In the camp, he immediately invented a self-propelled car on a monorail, and he was soon taken to Tupolev’s so-called “sharashka,” where he had Sergei Pavlovich Korolev as his assistant.
The war began and he developed radio control equipment for unmanned aircraft and radio beacons for naval operations.
But not only. Termen also developed the famous “Buran” eavesdropping system in this sharashka.
They say it is still in use.

The crowning achievement of this creation was a wooden panel that was given to the American ambassador by Soviet pioneers.
The panel was hung in the ambassador's office, and... soon they began to look for where the colossal information leak was coming from.
Only seven (!) years later, a cylinder with a membrane was discovered in this panel.
For another year and a half, American intelligence engineers struggled with the riddle - what is it?..
But it turned out that a beam was directed from the house opposite to the office window, and the membrane, oscillating in time with the speech, reflected it back.
Along with the speech, which was recorded.
Subsequently, Theremin further improved the invention: it was possible to do without even a membrane; its role was played by window glass.
The Soviet authorities were so delighted with this useful invention that they awarded Termen the Stalin Prize, 1st degree, right in prison.
And then they even released me, which was simply an outstanding act of humanism and the triumph of socialist legality, so dear to some.

From 1964 to 1967, Theremin worked in the laboratory of the Moscow Conservatory, devoting all his efforts to the development of new electric musical instruments, as well as the restoration of everything that he managed to invent in the 1930s. According to some reports, during this period Theremin worked “on a voluntary basis”, for free.
In 1967 musical critic Harold Schonberg found himself at the conservatory and recognized the man he met there as Lev Theremin. The news was published in The New York Times, and the publication of the “bourgeois press” aroused the indignation of Soviet leaders. Theremin’s studio was closed, “all his instruments were chopped up with an ax and thrown away,” he was fired from the conservatory (according to other sources, he retired).
It was not without difficulty that he 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 who wanted to listen to his work and study the theremin; Only a few people attended the seminars. Formally, Theremin was listed as a mechanic at the Physics Faculty of Moscow State University, but in fact continued independent scientific research. The active scientific work of L. S. Termen continued almost until his death.
In 1989, a trip took place (together with her daughter, Natalia Theremin) to a festival in the city of Bourges (France).
In 1991, together with his daughter, Natalia Termen and granddaughter, Olga Termen, he visited the United States at the invitation of Stanford University and there, among other things, he met Clara Rockmore.

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 for “terrible crimes” he was not accepted into the party. So Termen became a communist only in 1991, simultaneously with the fall of the USSR.

In 1992, unknown persons destroyed a laboratory room on Lomonosovsky Prospekt (the room was allocated by the Moscow authorities at the request of Valentina Grizodubova), all his instruments were broken, and part of the archives were stolen. The police did not solve the crime.

In 1992, the Theremin Center was created in Moscow, with its main goal being to support musicians and sound artists working in the field of experimental electroacoustic music. The center's leaders did not respond to Lev Termen's request to remove his name. Lev Theremin had nothing to do with the creation of the center named after him.

In 1993, Lev Theremin died. As the newspapers later wrote: “At ninety-seven years old, Lev Theremin went to those who made up the face of the era - but behind the coffin, except for his daughters with their families and several men carrying the coffin, there was no one ...”
He was buried at the Kuntsevo cemetery in Moscow.

Currently, Natalia Termen continues her work to develop the maximum musical capabilities and performing culture of the theremin.

Interesting Facts:

Lavinia Williams - wife in second marriage (no children);

In 1921, Lev Theremin met with Lenin at the VIII All-Russian Electrotechnical Congress. Theremin's invention delighted Lenin, and in 1922 they met in the Kremlin.

On February 9, 1945, US Ambassador Averell Harriman, who was invited to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Artek pioneer camp, was presented with a wooden panel made from valuable wood species (sandalwood, boxwood, sequoia, ivory palm, Persian parrotia, mahogany and ebony, black alder) , featuring the Great Seal of the United States. An eavesdropping device developed by Theremin, the Zlatoust endovibrator, was installed in it, which made it possible to listen to conversations in the ambassador’s office for almost 8 years. The design of the “bug” turned out to be so successful that when examining the gift, the American intelligence services did not notice anything. After its discovery, the “bug” was presented to the UN as evidence of the intelligence activities of the USSR, but the principle of its operation remained unsolved for several years.

In 1946, Theremin was nominated for the Stalin Prize of the second degree. But Stalin, who endorsed the lists of those awarded, 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 Theremin joined the CPSU. He explained his decision by saying that he had once made a promise to Lenin to join the party, and that he wanted to hurry to fulfill his 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 to join the party he had to study at the department of Marxism-Leninism for a year, which he did, passing all the exams.

Until his death, Lev Theremin was full of energy and even joked that he was immortal. As proof, he suggested reading his last name backwards: “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.

Using the theremin in 1963, the original theme song series "Doctor Who".