Personal matter: Selected quotes from musician Yegor Letov. Quotes and sayings by Egor Letov Quotes by Egor Letov about love

Last year, Yegor Letov would have turned 50, and the Civil Defense group celebrated its 30th anniversary without him. At the same time, the documentary film “Healthy and Forever” was shot, dedicated to the early work of the group. And yet, it would be undeserved to ignore his quotes, which largely shed light on our reality. Letov saw life from the hard side and at the same time objectively.

If I make you sick, please vomit for your health.

There are such things in life that when you comprehend them, when you encounter them, you understand - and after that it is very difficult to continue living, to remain - or become - a person. Apparently, most active people who become “soldiers of fortune,” mercenaries, climbers, drug addicts, and creative people in general belong to a similar state. The fourth and final state is fiery, which is already death. Or holiness.

I believe that Christ is something inhuman. What he brought to Earth has very little to do with humanity. These are essentially inhuman truths. This has been proven by history. Christ brought love, in fact, from the point of view of modern Christianity, Christ was Satan, because he was, first of all, the Antichrist, that is, a man who carried complete freedom of choice, that is, what religion has never given and does not now gives.

You know, I am very pessimistic - somehow I don’t believe (and especially after what has been done) that all of humanity will suddenly become wiser and begin to live differently. The only hope is that at least a few will survive good people, LIVING people. But I think that they will simply arise as a new stage of evolution, maybe they will not be people at all. Life will still go on - there is no death.

There is no tomorrow here. At any moment you can be beaten, robbed, tools thrown out the train window... They can pass some new law and deprive you of everything. At any moment they can imprison you, and even kill you without trial or investigation.

- You, I see, don’t really favor citizens. Where does this hatred come from?
- This is not only hatred, it is also panicked animal horror. And it’s not so much a fear of them, but rather a pathological rejection. It’s not even I who fear and hate—it’s something in me that fears and hates. All the time, when I walk down the street, it seems to me that I am not a person, but something like a Martian, disguised, made up, more or less successfully, as a citizen. And at any moment this mimicry, this na..ka can reveal itself and then p...t! I haven’t left the house without a weapon for a long time, and still I’m absolutely defenseless before them. I'm a stranger. Naturally, initially alien. Forever a stranger. And they all know it, they feel it like sharks’ blood. I am a stranger to all of them, and all their swollen joys and sorrows, ideals and vices, everything they live by and dream about are alien and extremely disgusting to me. This is my innate instinct. Here I am a saboteur, thrown into enemy territory. A sort of Stirlitz.

For me, a person is initially NOTHING, he is shit in the hole, a fig in his pocket. However, he can, is capable of growing to the Great Above the Heavens, to Eternity - if, say, an Eternal Idea, an Eternal Truth, an Eternal system of values, coordinates - whatever you like - is formed behind him. That is, the entire value of an individual is equal to the value of the idea that he personifies, for which he is capable of dying - not even like that... - without which he CAN’T LIVE. Here we’re not even talking about an idea, but about an ESSENCE that is higher than all ideas, which, most likely, you don’t even choose. The true, REAL (I just like this word) for me is that which is IMPORABLE, imperishable - that which is FREE. The broader and freer the idea, the truer it is.

A well-mannered person plays the way he was raised. But we are uneducated people and can play jazz, rock, and punk. We can play both minimal music and noise.

We buried many friends from our team. But people love life too much to be alive. “Too strange to live, too rare to die” - this is about us. Animals do not have the consciousness to comprehend death. Even children have it. Therefore, by and large, I don’t feel sorry for people. It’s just that a person is somehow protected by the consciousness of this end. But they don't.

We are by no means bespectacled intellectuals who sit at home, read smart books and listen to smart music.

To become a good poet, you don't need to study poetry. The education system is needed for those who specifically intend to work, for example, as a doctor. I studied normally at school, and if I had had to, I would have gone anywhere. At least to Oxford. I achieve what I want, and there are no such obstacles to achieving any goal at all, and this applies to everyone. And therefore everyone gets exactly what they need. What is called, “serves him right.”

Life for me is an incessant search, obtaining new books, music, films, “digesting” them, experiencing them and possible return, or “to the bins.”

Everyone is some kind of species or individual, the main thing is to figure out in time and not be mistaken who you are. And live according to the laws of the type of beast that you are.

I don't think that my songs are the songs of a normal adult. These are the songs of a child who was brought to the point where he picked up a machine gun, let’s say...

The world is with you, the world rests on you. Hold the whole World on you, the world lives only by you. So keep it to yourself.

If there is no holiday, then no one needs this life.

On September 10, the legendary Russian musician Yegor Letov would have turned 48 years old. There are a hell of a lot of different hoaxes associated with his life, which he himself willingly supported - not out of feigned mystery, but out of a desire to protect the truth. Letov was the author of more than a thousand songs and a member of many iconic groups - “Civil Defense”, “Egor and the Opizdenevshie”, “Communism”, “Instruction for Defense” and so on - their formation, collapse, rebirth are strongly connected with spiritual, mental, physical experiences of their ideologist.

FURFUR has collected some of the musician’s statements, from which it is clear that he has a lot to learn from.

Egor Letov

Musician, leader of the group "Civil Defense",
classic of Siberian punk

About calling.I was about eight years old. Brother (saxophonist Sergei Letov. - Note ed.) came from Novosibirsk and brought several records. He didn’t listen to rock himself, but brought it solely from a commercial point of view - to record The Beatles, The Who, Shoking Blue for three rubles per copy - such a side income for a student. And then I accidentally heard The Who’s 1966 album “A Quick One,” which changed everything in me. I realized that this is mine, this is real.

About ordinariness. The tragedy of my life lies purely in the fact that I am a very ordinary, ordinary person, who all my life wanted to be in the center of the field, to be some kind of midfielder, like Smertin, to do my job and be surrounded by some beautiful people. I prefer to live more comfortably and be a consumer than a producer, a creator. But all my life it turns out that I have to score goals, be at the forefront of the attack, do something, stir things up, invent, create new mythologies, new value systems. After all, no one wants to do anything. And pull, pull it all on yourself.

About perspective. You can't live here. Here you can only fight, get sick, survive, make your way somewhere with battles and losses. There is no tomorrow here. At any moment you can be beaten, robbed, tools thrown out the train window... They can pass some new law and deprive you of everything. At any moment they can imprison you, and even kill you without trial or investigation.

About survival. Our country is a merciless, ominous testing ground. Since you find yourself here, please accept the rules of the game... If you don’t break, you are a hero for all time, and if it doesn’t work out, then you don’t exist and never existed.”

About emigration.Firstly, I would like to live where I am not afraid (I mean the “metamorphoses” of civilization), that is, somewhere in the forests or in the mountains. In California, Australia or Canada. And I would work as something like an eco-terrorist or something close to that. In any case, in the field of ecology, it doesn’t matter by whom, the main thing is that it is useful. I can at least pick up the trash.

About the apocalypse.The type of life activity that is civilization has come to an end. This is so obvious that it is clear to anyone. A new round will come. I don’t think it will be humanity; most likely, some new species of living beings will appear, completely different from humans, and that makes me happy!

About the work of consciousness. Any reflection causes withdrawal. Detachment is alienation. Alienation is given by digestion: a person understands something, overcomes some level, and it disappears for him.

About choice. A person - no matter what kind of person he was initially - ideological or unideological, reaches the limit of steepness, where at a certain point a moment of choice occurs. Stay here, in this reality, or move on. If a person moves on, then he leaves here, like Ian Curtis or Jim Morrison, say. And not necessarily death, he could simply go crazy or go to the mountains. Either the person remains in reality, exits the elevator as if on a certain floor, and the elevator leaves. And on this floor he begins to become embittered, bitter, cynically and viciously sell himself. This is the most dangerous thing.

About fear. Is it clear, for example, to a hungry person that he is hungry, and to a well-fed person that he is full? Or, for example, it is now clear to any, so to speak, financially secure person that he is scared. There has been a split in society into those who are afraid and those who are not afraid. Those people who are not afraid - they do what they want and will do: they will come to power. This is us.

About the need to act. It's not about what you personally feel and think, but about how you act. But you have to act as if there is nothing - neither God there, nor anything else.

About mutual assistance. I never tire of repeating that it is very important that if you were offended, you could knock on the door and shout: “Help, they are killing!” - and the entire entrance jumped out to defend.

About the winners. Winners - wise people, and each of them has a state of accomplishment, and it is sad. A wise man - he pays with everything he has, with himself, so that others may feel good. This is a necessary sacrifice.

About suicide.All suicidal themes that can be traced in my texts almost constantly are a consequence of the belief that a person then begins to enjoy life and truly live when he reaches the maximum state at the level of suicide, death, the state of choice.

About the joy of life.Those who don’t know us are very surprised and even shocked when they see that in life we ​​are cheerful and very sociable people. I generally like living.

About death. I consider myself a living person. For me, death is what is called life, such a concentration of energy that is no longer possible in physical form - and a person throws away the body. Existence begins on another level.

About life. Life will still go on - there is no death.

He recorded dirty and primitive things in the “Siberian punk” style he invented and psychedelic albums of the late 90s and 2000s, combined the poetic heritage of futurists and Oberiuts and vigorous swearing in the lyrics, fought against the System in the 1980s and even ended up in a mental hospital and became one of the founders of the National Bolshevik Party in the early 90s, his concerts were attended by intellectual aesthetes and fans of the groups Gaza Strip and Red Mold...

On the occasion of Yegor Letov’s birthday, we decided to make a selection of his quotes and statements about him by his fellow musicians and other media personalities.

Egor Letov: quotes

• You know, I am very pessimistic - somehow I don’t believe (and especially after what has been done) that all of humanity will suddenly become wiser and begin to live differently. The only hope is that at least a few good people, living people, will survive. But I think that they will simply arise as a new stage of evolution, maybe they will not be people at all. Life still goes on - there is no death.
• A well-mannered person plays the way he was raised. But we are uneducated people and can play jazz, rock, and punk. We can play both minimal music and noise.
• In my understanding, rock is an anti-human, anti-humanistic movement, a certain form of the elimination of man as a psychologically viable system. Man is a creature that is endowed with logical consciousness - and because of this, he cannot live here and now. Therefore, he is immersed in the past or in the future. Only children live here now.
• Anarchy is a world order that is only for one. Two is too much, too much.
• Not a single Catholic will allow himself to be Christ, but I can openly declare that inwardly I am truly like the ascending Christ in Grunewald’s painting!
• One wise man came to the conclusion that there is no God. They called him Buddha. Then he died. From his sayings they made a religion, and from him - a God.
• Everyone is alive, everyone is real - universally, ugly alone. Only the crooked mob is “together.”
• Love, in my opinion, in general is a very strange thing. In the usual sense. Everything real is generally strange.
• No, I don't feel responsible to the fans. Why should I feel responsible? They can't follow my example. I am a person from a different era, I live by different principles than they do - this is one, and secondly, I am guided by the fact that we need to take an example from ourselves. That is, if you act correctly, then no examples are needed.
• “Too strange to live, too rare to die” - this is about us.

About him:

• Yuri Shevchuk:

  For me, it has always been that extreme line, the boundary of freedom, beyond which, probably, there is complete chaos! This is such gaping black and sparkling white, absolute absorption and attentive attitude, sympathetic living with this dirt of life and a breakthrough into some spiritual heavens, peaks. Darkness and light - that’s what Egor Letov is.

• Boris Grebenshchikov:

  Theoretically, Egor is a very talented person. In theory. In practice, I don’t understand him as a person and his gloom with such a hopeless sense of the world. I judge by what I heard, but I didn’t hear everything. But, again, Letov does what he has to do.< …>For me it is somewhere in the direction of Nekrasov. The ancient Russian people's will - this is the current. He worries about the Russian people.

• Oleg Garkusha:

  He was a wonderful man. An insane number of young and older people grew up listening to his songs - songs of protest, challenge and freedom.

• Yuri Naumov:

  Letov is important. Many thinking people aged 15-22 years old have a need to come into contact with the “wrong side of the world” and feel it, get an idea about it - without such experience a whole dimension is lost in life... Letov, as I see it, is one of the guides to this “wrong side” the world, and a tough, direct and effective guide.

• Sergey Kalugin:

  This is a man who managed to write songs from the other side of death during his lifetime.

• Artemy Troitsky:

  I don’t have the slightest sympathy for the personality of Yegor Letov, whom I consider a poser, a misanthrope, a paranoid, and generally an unpleasant type. I'm not even talking about some of his fascist-chauvinist sympathies... As for the work of the Civil Defense group, it is not without interesting moments.< …>In any case, I do not share the enthusiasm that some of my friends among intellectual music critics have about Yegor Letov and “ Civil Defense" For me, this group might not even exist. She didn't make the slightest contribution to rock as such.

• Eduard Limonov:

  Egor was our comrade in arms and one of the founders of the now banned NBP. He was a fiery revolutionary and adhered to absolutely left-wing ideal communist views.

Date of Birth:

10.09.1964

Date of death:

19.02.2008

Occupation:

Musician

Artist

Egor Letov is a Soviet and Russian musician, poet, graphic artist, founder, leader and only permanent member of the Civil Defense group. The younger brother of saxophonist Sergei Letov, with whom he collaborated creatively in some musical projects. He also stood out as a political figure: he was a co-founder and member of the National Bolshevik Party from 1993 to 1998, although he later became disillusioned with politics and distanced himself from the activities and ideology of the party. The personality of Yegor Letov is a key figure in the so-called “Siberian underground” of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Curled up in a ball
Flew around a dandelion
The bell rang
For the rest of my life.
Shy rage
Coquettish sorrow
Playful despair
For the rest of my life.
Polite rage.

Humanity is specifically finishing itself off.

Houses full of pink people
Wet callus, slippery snot
Sweaty nude details
I shoot on sight
through the hole in my head.

I've never been able to do what I wanted.

Do not lose hope and conscience, do not fall into the sin of despondency, do not lay down your arms, do not give up. Stop rotting alive in your cozy traps. Leave your dusty, musty corners - go out into the godless light, take a deep breath. The homeland is waiting for you - hopelessly young, desperate and rebellious. Demand and achieve the impossible! Step on the throat of your melancholy, apathy, laziness. Execute your fear. Act in such a way that Death flees from you in horror. The world is holding on - it's still holding on! - on each of us - alive and invincible. And even if there are few of us - there have always been few of us - but it is we who have moved and are moving history, driving it forward along a shining spiral. Where there was no time, there is no time and there never will be. To eternity. So don’t disgrace yourself and your future. Get up!

We also made a revolution. But it’s not that no one noticed her. Those who needed it noticed. For example, our fans.

All the people are having fun and rejoicing,
And it's like I
Returned from the war.

The human masses are flowing with urine.
They are faceless
They are endless.

After all, soldiers are not born, soldiers die.

Everyone is some kind of species or individual, the main thing is to figure out in time and not be mistaken who you are. And live according to the laws of the type of beast that you are.

I have always felt extremely uncomfortable when I tried to express something through speech. Here a thought arises, not even a thought, but some kind of image... not even an image, but something light, clear, and at the same time infinitely polysemantic - and how to express this, what volumes, encyclopedias, collected works!.. I just have hands go down.

There are such things in life that when you comprehend them, when you encounter them, you understand - and after that it is very difficult to continue living, to remain - or become - a person. Apparently, most active people who become “soldiers of fortune,” mercenaries, climbers, drug addicts, and creative people in general belong to a similar state. The fourth and final state is fiery, which is already death. Or holiness.

One of the most interesting rumors about you: they say that before 1991 you didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, didn’t use drugs. Then something happened and you snapped. There were rumors that it was related to the death of your friend Yankee. This is true?
- No, I drank and used before... That’s not the point. It’s just a form of shocking when you appear in public in such a state when it’s unclear how you can stand on your feet. This is also a certain destruction of the canons. We are by no means bespectacled intellectuals who sit at home, read smart books and listen to smart music.

It seems to me that the further I live, the more I am convinced that everyone has their own personal path, their own road, and it is impossible to influence anyone in any way. And what’s more, it’s almost completely realistic, but not impossible at all! Because a person is what he is, so he is, and still the curve will somehow lead him onto his path.

To become a good poet, you don't need to study poetry. The education system is needed for those who specifically intend to work, for example, as a doctor. I studied normally at school, and if I had had to, I would have gone anywhere. At least to Oxford. I achieve what I want, and there are no such obstacles to achieving any goal at all, and this applies to everyone. And therefore everyone gets exactly what they need. What is called, “serves him right.”

Quotes Egor Letov

Egor Letov (real name: Igor Fedorovich Letov; September 10, 1964 in Omsk - February 19, 2008 in the same place) is a Russian rock musician, poet, leader of the rock group “Civil Defense”. The younger brother of the famous saxophonist Sergei Letov, with whom he also collaborated creatively.

He began his musical activity in the early 1980s in Omsk, forming together with like-minded people (the most famous of them, who is Letov’s constant associate, Konstantin Ryabinov (Kuzya Uo)) the rock group “Posev” (1982), and later the rock band group "Civil Defense" (1984). At the dawn of their activities, the musicians of Civil Defense, due to political persecution by the authorities, were forced to record their musical works in semi-underground apartment conditions.

To become a good poet, you don't need to study poetry. The education system is needed for those who specifically intend to work, for example, as a doctor. I studied normally at school, and if I had had to, I would have gone anywhere. At least to Oxford. I achieve what I want, and there are no such obstacles to achieving any goal at all, and this applies to everyone. And therefore everyone gets exactly what they need. What is called, “serves him right.”

Life for me is an incessant search, obtaining new books, music, films, “digesting” them, experiencing them and possible return, or “to the bins.”

Houses full of pink people Wet calluses, slippery snot Sweaty details of naked bodies I shoot on the spot through the hole in my head. Firm steps, slow tweezers Viscous saliva, stairs to the basement Someone is looking for a sure reason to ban me He is trying to crawl through the hole in my head. Who knows how to tremble, who knows how to get high, who knows how to smash, who knows how to jump, who knows how to be free, who knows how to be captured, who knows how to watch through the hole in my head.

All the people are having fun and rejoicing, And it’s as if I’ve returned from the war.

Curled up into a ball, Flowed around like a dandelion, Ringed like a bell, For the rest of my life. Shy rage, Coquettish sorrow, Playful despair, For the rest of your life. Polite rage.