What is our life? The game...
Yuri Aizenshpis: "17 years in prison is too heavy a punishment for the mistakes of youth. During all this time I had three contacts with women"
On September 20, the legendary producer died. He gave the last interview to "Boulevard"
Aizenshpis was the first in the Soviet Union to test Western show business technologies.
Aizenshpis was the first in the Soviet Union to test Western show business technologies. He brought Viktor Tsoi to the stadiums, made the Tekhnologiya rock group mega-popular, created Vlad Stashevsky out of nothing and Dima Bilan out of the same. It was Yuri Shmilevich who introduced the concept of "producer" into the everyday life of Russian show business and convincingly proved that anyone can be made a pop star. In 1970, Aizenshpis was convicted and served a total of 17 years. After his release in 1988, he took on his most famous project - the Kino group, headed by Viktor Tsoi. With his help, "Kino" became the main group of the Union. After the death of Tsoi, Aizenshpis was the first to break the state monopoly on the production of records and published the last work "Cinema" - the mourning "Black Album". The years spent in prison did not go unnoticed. The producer hid his diagnosis to the last, although, by and large, Aizenshpis died due to a number of serious illnesses. But the root cause was cirrhosis of the liver on the background of hepatitis B and C. With severe gastrointestinal bleeding, Yuri Shmilevich was admitted by ambulance to one of the Moscow clinics. The doctors did everything possible to prolong the life of the terminally ill producer, but a severe attack led to a myocardial infarction.
"MEDICINE COULD NOT HELP ME, AND I WAS ENGAGED IN MUSIC"
- Yuri Shmilevich, you are a well-known producer, but your name does not mean anything to the layman.
I never aspired and never aspire to popularity. I have already gone through all this. I'm just doing my favorite thing - producing. By the way, during the Soviet Union, I was the first to call myself a producer. This I officially declare to you. I try not to give interviews and not participate in TV programs - for this I need to be divorced.
Since I managed to get you to an interview, let's talk about the word "first" in your life. Is it true that you were the first in the Soviet Union to create a rock band, the first to use Western technologies to promote an artist, the first to break the state monopoly on the release of records?
Everything is true. In the early 60s, when I was still a student, my friends and I created the first rock group in the Union, Sokol. Everyone lived in the Sokol metro area, so they decided to call the group that way. I took over organizational functions: I took out instruments, made concerts. Everything happened in the underground, but I managed to promote the group in such a way that it was known not only in Moscow, but also far beyond its borders. Moreover, in the Western press, Sokol was compared with the Beatles.
- From whom did you learn the wisdom of producing skills?
Oh, then even the concept of this was not - the producer. There were impresario, director. But neither one nor the other suited me. These are all administrative functions, and I considered myself a creative person. And in general he was a terrible music lover.
- Why did a creative person and a terrible music lover enter the Institute of Economics?
One does not interfere. I graduated as an engineer-economist. Seriously engaged in athletics, had high achievements. But he received a serious injury to the meniscus. Soviet medicine could not help me. I had to leave sports, and I became interested in music: jazz, rock, pop ... Love resulted in collecting music records.
By the age of 18, despite the Iron Curtain, he managed to collect a huge collection of very rare vinyls - about seven and a half thousand pieces. And the original recordings, not a reprint. Believe me, it was an expensive pleasure: each plate cost about 150 rubles - this is the salary of a Soviet engineer. So, unlike many modern musicians, I know a lot about the evolution of jazz-rock-pop music.
- How did you get collectible records?
Thanks to friends. I spoke with foreign diplomats.
- Was it really an ordinary Soviet citizen on a short footing with a foreign diplomatic corps?
I was a very contact person. Well, there are such enterprising people who make the right connections with the right people. I had many friends from among the children of ambassadors. At that time, he knew very well the son of the ambassador of India, the daughter of the ambassador of France, the son of the ambassador of Yugoslavia ...
At that time, such an acquaintance was a dangerous occupation, since it was associated with buying and selling. This could be seen as a crime. And, in the end, they saw it. They put me behind bars.
- Where is your collection now?
When I was prosecuted, everything was confiscated. Today I restored the collection, only now not on vinyls, but on CDs. It is a pity that the first collection could not be returned... After all, now musical recordings are not as exclusive as before, today you can buy any record.
"IN PRISON I SAT WITH THE SON OF THE HEAD OF THE KGB Investigation Department"
From the autobiographical book of Yuri Aizenshpis "Lighting the Stars. Notes of a Pioneer of Show Business": “While buying and selling music discs, I felt a taste for money and a beautiful life. Then jeans, equipment, furs followed. Then gold and currency. It was in 1965 that I first saw and felt American dollars ...
In 1969, an office of the Vneshtorgbank of the USSR was opened in Moscow, where they sold gold in bullion ... Almost every day I bought gold in this amazing office ... But the most laborious work was to acquire the maximum possible amount of currency. And I did this all the time, day and night...
Fartsovschiki bought me the currency throughout the city. Up to a dozen taxi drivers brought me their foreign exchange earnings, even foreign exchange prostitutes or prostitutes supplied "greens" ... By the way, in those years I used the services of prostitutes not only in a commercial sense. Sometimes even in their immediate specialty with discounts.
- Why were you arrested?
Article 88 and 78 of the Criminal Code: "Smuggling and violation of the rules of foreign exchange transactions."
- How was the arrest?
Well... (Very long silence).
If you don't want to talk, we can change the subject...
It's not that I don't want to, it's just a conversation for more than one hour. I was taken on January 7, 1970. I was then 24 years old. The apartment was searched. They arrested him, took him to the isolation ward, and sentenced him to 10 years. I did my time, was released, and a few weeks later I pulled off a major operation to buy and sell 50,000 counterfeit dollars. Sat for another seven years.
Why didn't your diplomat friends help you?
What does "helped" mean? Then the society was not so corrupt. I was in prison with the son of the head of the KGB investigation department. And there were many such examples. It is now possible to close a criminal case for money. Then it was very difficult.
- What was the most terrible in that period?
Never mind! Believe me, the only thing that helped me endure a cruel punishment was faith in myself and a great love for life. 17 years in prison is too harsh a punishment for the mistakes of youth. Although I don't think it's a mistake. There were just such laws, we lived in such a state. It is now to go abroad and bring what you like - equipment, clothes, currency, is not a crime.
I went through everything: a small cell where another 100 convicts were sitting, and liquid stew instead of food, and ... In general, everything. You know, in movies and books it's very embellished and distorted. And I experienced, experienced, felt in my own skin. Because he was in those places not for one or two years, but for 17 years and eight months.
- Was it really impossible to apply for an amnesty?
- (smiling). You talk in a very modern way. I was convicted under articles that did not provide for an amnesty. I was a state criminal. All.
- The prison could not but affect your health ...
While I was in the zone, my medical record was clean. That is, health was excellent. Although those who served three to five years, they necessarily acquired professional prison ailments: stomach ulcers, tuberculosis, venereal or mental illness. God had mercy on me.
- How did you fit into the prison hierarchy?
Fine. The prisoner always has traces of beatings on his head. If you cut my head baldly, there will not be a single bruise, not a single scar. Because not a single hair fell from my head in the zone. This is my uniqueness. That's how I put myself.
"WHEN I RELEASED, I FALLED INTO A DEEP DEPRESSION WHICH LEAD TO A HEART"
- Sorry for the incorrect question, but how did a healthy man manage without women for 18 years?
- (Sharply interrupts. Very defiantly). Yes, that's it! For all the time I managed ... three times ... there were such contacts with women. It was very dangerous, because they were employees... that is, employees, civilian employees. If the authorities had found out, she would have been fired, I would have been transferred to another zone. It usually ended up like this.
“When Solzhenitsyn describes the nightmares of Soviet reality, I say: he would have lived in the conditions in which I lived. He was serving a sentence among those convicted under articles mainly political. I was sitting among inveterate criminals: blood is shed every day, lawlessness is every day, lawlessness. But they did not touch me. I am a sociable person, I adapt to any conditions ...
... There, 70 percent of the prisoners are starving. I didn't starve. How? Money does everything, of course, unofficially. This is what my phenomenon, my peculiarity, consists in. Whatever the environment, but I had to visit different colonies, different zones, different regions - everywhere I had the highest standard of living for an ordinary convict. This cannot be explained only by organizational skills, it is a phenomenon of character."
Today you are a wealthy person, occupying a fairly high position in society. Former cellmates do not pester?
At first, there were faces, let's say so, who knew me and asked for help. I helped them. Those who did not know also contacted. But I refused them, because I was not obliged to help them out.
- After your release, they refused to cooperate with you because of the prison past?
At first, there was a certain discrimination against convicts. But I did not notice this, such things are not openly done. Especially when it was the height of perestroika. And it turned out that almost the entire Soviet country consists of criminals.
- And today you complex because of your past?
Not! Khodorkovsky is sitting, prime ministers, presidents are sitting ...
You know, in the zone I had friendships and relationships with people whose gravity of crime caused horror. But they become criminals due to certain circumstances. It happens that a person is not able to control himself, commits a crime in a state of passion. But these are not fallen people. They just happened to stumble. Believe me, many convicts have much higher human qualities than politicians.
- Do you have friends from the zone?
Yes. I still keep in touch with them. But there are very few of them left, many have long been in the next world.
You know, I've lost quite a bit of time in my life. It left a mark on my mind, but it didn't make me cruel. This is a feature of my psyche. There were also dangerous situations in the zone, but I passed them. It hardened my will. He came out of there as a man capable of building life in a new way. Which is what I did.
- So simple - forgot almost 18 years in prison and started all over again?
Not right away. When I was released - on April 23, 1988, I was already 42 - I looked around at the world around me and fell into a deep depression. He came out completely empty: no family, no money, nothing. Friends managed to achieve a lot in life: who went into politics, who became a businessman, reached great heights. And I - without a stake, without a yard. In general, depression led to a heart attack.
- Why did depression arise after, and not during, imprisonment?
Because in the zone a person is always in tension. You can’t relax there, because the main thing is to go free. And as he came out - some kind of relaxation leans along with depression.
From the book by Yuri Aizenshpis "Lighting the Stars ...":“The world has changed while I was gone. A new generation has appeared. Old acquaintances may not have forgotten me, but I didn’t know where to find them ... A lot of time was lost ... No money, no apartment, no family. When I was imprisoned, I had a girlfriend. What happened to her? I don’t know. I first got married and became a father only at the age of 47.
Love passed me by. I did not experience this feeling in adulthood and in mature forms ... As for the idea of marriage ... In my youth, there were options for interesting marriages, but they did not attract me. For example, with the daughter of a Yugoslav diplomat. After my release, there was another promising option - the daughter of one of the leaders of the Foreign Trade, who wanted to pay for my marriage to his daughter with a "Zhiguli". I refused...
Now, when I have a family with which I don’t live, even though I don’t live, a son, a certain position in society, somehow I don’t want to start serious novels ... If the mood and desire allow, then why not have free sex?
In the year of liberation, you became the producer of Viktor Tsoi and his Kino group. Were famous musicians not embarrassed by your criminal past?
I met Tsoi two years before his death. Then I wanted to return to what I did in my youth - to produce rock bands. It was a pleasure meeting Victor. Doubly pleasant, because we immediately found a common language. You know, the real glory came to Tsoi when we started working together.
We were introduced by a common friend Sasha Lipnitsky. The group "Kino" was known only in the musical crowd, was a member of the Leningrad rock club. I had no doubt that only television and radio would make Kino popular. But at that time there were no commercial radio stations, only state ones. There was no television that would widely cover musical events. There were only two musical TV programs - "Morning Mail" and "Spark". It was impossible to get on the air, then it was believed that "Kino" was amateur performance.
I started by popularizing Kino. With the help of his connections, he managed to promote the group to the then popular Vzglyad program, and then to Morning Mail. Well, the press slowly connected.
With me, Victor recorded two albums, with me he died. I was directly involved in organizing the funeral. And he fulfilled his desire - he released the last "Black Album" of the Kino group.
"STASHEVSKY WAS AN ARTIST"
- Yuri Shmilevich, where did another of your charges disappear - Vlad Stashevsky?
Ouch. (Sighs). Many people ask me about this. He had some creative attempts after me. But they were fruitless. This suggests that a producer is necessary for an artist. Even for the talented. Vlad, unfortunately, is a product, unlike my artists today.
- What does "product" mean?
This is when, with the help of technology, I made a finished product of show business. Roughly speaking, many years ago I did with Vlad Stashevsky what they are doing now at the Star Factory. He was an artificial artist.
Why did you volunteer to work with him?
I just wanted to prove to myself and others the importance of a producer. When our contract ended, Vlad felt like a big star. I thought that I could continue to exist in show business on my own. That's all.
- Your current ward - Dima Bilan - has not caught star disease yet?
He is a man of a different upbringing and, unlike Vlad Stashevsky, a real talent, not a synthetic product. I met Dima at a concert-presentation of a youth magazine. As always, there were many strangers wandering backstage. How they get there is still a mystery to me. Among these people was Dima. I immediately noticed him among the crowd: an interesting, lively young man who danced and sang along all the time. He came up to me and said: "But I know you. You are Yuri Aizenshpis." - "It's very good that you know," - I answer. And gave him the phone. But we met much later. Every time I put it off: it is always difficult to start, and there was no time. When he nevertheless came to the studio, we started talking. It turned out that Dima is studying at the faculty of academic vocals at the Gnessin School. That is, in front of me was a person professionally studying vocal skills. That was enough for me to start working with him.
- How much money do you need to make a show business product?
On average, from 700 thousand to one and a half million dollars. Although there are artists who have invested five million dollars.
However, much depends on the potential of the artist. Every day they call me, come to the office, to the studio, hundreds of girls and boys who say: I am talented, I sing so-and-so, I even have an album recorded. Everyone has the same diagnosis - they imagined themselves to be stars. And in fact, it turns out that they are not only far from stellar peaks, but also from just a good performance.
- But what about the statement that the performer is, first of all, appearance plus charisma?
For me, the main thing is vocal data.
- How long does it take for the investment to make a profit?
In the case of Dima Bilan, it is too early to talk about this: there is constant reproduction, the creation of clips. You know, I'm generally a creative person. Therefore, business in this matter is a second matter. I do not save money, but I spend everything on fast and high-quality promotion of the artist. I think Dima will pay for himself soon...
P.S. Three days before his death, Yuri Aizenshpis had a heart attack. He was hospitalized. The producer felt better, and he begged the doctors to let him go home: he really wanted to support Bilan at the award ceremony for the Russian version of the prestigious MTV-2005 music award. Yuri Shmilevich did not live to see the triumph of his pupil for exactly two days. He died at the age of 61, and Bilan was recognized as the "Best Performer" and "Best Artist" in 2005. Dmitry went up on stage with Aizenshpis's eight-year-old son Misha, and the audience froze in a moment of silence ...
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Yuri Shmilevich Aizenshpis. Born July 15, 1945 in Chelyabinsk - died September 20, 2005 in Moscow. Soviet and Russian music manager, producer.
Father - Shmil (nee Shmul) Moiseevich Aizenshpis (1916-1989), was born in Poland, then fled to the USSR, fleeing the Nazis. He fought during the Great Patriotic War, reached Berlin. The real name Shmul was confused by the passport officers, who recorded him as Shmil.
Mother - Maria Mikhailovna Aizenshpis (1922-1991), originally from Belarus, grew up in the village of Starye Gromyki, her elder brother Andrei Gromyko taught at her school. In 1941 she graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of the Minsk University, but did not receive a diploma due to the start of the war. She fled to Rechitsa, later ended up in the Rechitsa partisan detachment, wrote leaflets, and ran a partisan newspaper. Then she joined the advancing Red Army. She was awarded medals and orders.
It is known that the parents of Yuri Aizenshpis met in 1944 at the Belorussky railway station in Moscow.
The younger sister is Faina Shmilievna Nepomnyashchaya (Aizenshpis) (born July 22, 1957), teacher of history and social studies, teaches at the Lauder Etz Heim School of Leadership No. 1621.
Aizenshpis's mother was evacuated to Chelyabinsk due to pregnancy. There she gave birth to a son.
Parents worked in the Main Directorate of Aerodrome Construction (in GUAS).
Until 1961, they lived in a wooden barracks, then they got an apartment in the prestigious Sokol district of Moscow. From childhood, he was friends with classmate Vladimir Alyoshin and went to the same sports school with him.
In his youth, Yuri went in for sports - handball and athletics. He achieved good results, but due to a leg injury, the sport had to be abandoned.
In 1968 he graduated from the Moscow Institute of Economics and Statistics with a degree in engineer-economist.
He worked at the CSO (Central Statistical Office).
Was fond of music. "In my youth I was a terrible music lover, and I had a unique collection of vinyl discs in Moscow - about seven thousand. I did not just collect them, I felt everything"- he said in an interview.
Since 1965, as an administrator, he collaborated with the rock group Sokol. In a roundabout way, he got records with recordings of foreign stars - Elvis Presley, Bill Haley, the Beatles, which were then performed by the Sokol group. At first, the team performed only in the nearest cafe, occasionally in the area of the House of Culture and on dance floors.
But Yuri Aizenshpis achieved that in 1966 the group came under the wing of the Tula Regional Philharmonic and all its members received official status - already as the Silver Strings VIA. Now the group could tour the country, recorded their only song "Film, Film" for Fyodor Khitruk's cartoon "Film, Film, Film".
Criminal record of Yuri Aizenshpis
Developed an original scheme of the team's activities. After an oral agreement with the director of the club to hold a concert, the administrator bought up tickets for the evening demonstration of the film and distributed them at a higher price. For the first time, he involved in the work of people who ensured order during the performance of the group.
January 7, 1970 was arrested. During the search, 15,585 rubles and 7,675 dollars were confiscated. During interrogations, the young director claimed that he dreamed of getting a branded electric guitar for the guys. That is why, for his own money, he bought tickets for a concert at the state price at the box office of the Palace of Culture, and then sold them on the street with an extra charge. Convicted under article 88 (Violation of the rules on foreign exchange transactions) and 78 (Smuggling) for 10 years.
Released from prison in 1977 on parole.
However, almost immediately after his release, he again engaged in currency fraud. Yuri Aizenshpis bought up checks, sold them at Beryozka, and then sold the acquired scarce goods. With the proceeds, through the administrators and waiters of hotels, he bought foreign currency from foreigners, and then checks again. At that time, Vneshtorgbank began to sell gold in Moscow for foreign currency. Yuri Aizenshpis took up gold fartsovka. He bought gold bars with dollars at the branch of Vneshtorgbank and sold them to Caucasian businessmen.
As a result, he was re-arrested and received 10 years of strict regime with confiscation of property (including his parents' apartment).
He sat in the Krasnoyarsk-27 zone, where he launched a lively speculation in tea, sugar and vodka. Then he began to occupy leadership positions at local construction sites.
The term was reduced, he was released in 1985. And a year later, he again ended up in a pre-trial detention center - in the summer of 1986, policemen found several imported tape recorders and one VCR with video cassettes in his car. But the matter did not reach the court - Perestroika broke out. After serving almost 1.5 years in a pre-trial detention center, Yuri Aizenshpis was released.
In total, Yuri Aizenshpis spent almost 17 years behind bars. Later received corroborating documents on all counts.
In the 1980s, for some time he worked at the Gallery at the Komsomol city committee, organizing concerts for young performers.
Producer activity of Yuri Aizenshpis
From December 1989 until his death in 1990, he was the director and producer of the Kino group. In 1990, using borrowed funds, he released the Black Album (the last work of the Kino group), one of the first to violate the state monopoly on the release of records.
In 1991-1992, he collaborated with the Technology group.
Then he was the producer of the groups "Moral Code", "Young Guns".
In 1992-1993 he produced the singer.
In 1993-1999 - producer of the singer. According to some reports, Aizenshpis was assisted in the promotion of Vlad Stashevsky by the criminal authority Alexander Makushenko, known as "Sasha Gypsy". The producer himself said about this project: “In the case of Stashevsky, I wanted to show everyone the role of a producer. For the first time, I called myself a producer when I started working with Tsoi. When he died, I had to do something, and I decided to make such a project: to find a person who would absolutely even did not dream of a career as an artist, and make him an artist".
Yuri Aizenshpis became one of the most respected Russian show business figures, with whom many stars considered it an honor to do business. He had great connections and opportunities. Winner of the national Russian music award "Ovation" in the nomination "Best Producer" in 1992 and 1995.
Participated in the organization of the International Festival "Sunny Adzharia" (1994) and in the establishment of the music award "Star".
In 1999-2001, he promoted the singer Nikita, as well as the singer.
Since 2000, he has been promoting the Dynamite group.
Yuri Aizenshpis and the Dynamite group
Since 2001 - General Director of Media Star.
His last project was subsequently a popular singer.
"I don't work for 'thank you'. I work for my own interests, and I enjoy it. It can be compared to the work of a gardener who works in the garden all his life. I like the creative process, and although show business is at the forefront of the show ", for me, creativity is more important, business - later. This is true. If I were a businessman, I would not have achieved the results that I have"- said Yuri Aizenshpis.
Death of Yuri Aizenshpis
On September 21, 2005, the MTV RMA-2005 ceremony should take place, where Aizenshpis' ward Dima Bilan was nominated in the nominations "Best Performer", "Best Composition", "Best Pop Project", "Best Artist" and "Best Video". And on September 22, the presentation of the first DVD of Dima Bilan was scheduled. But the producer did not see the success of his protégé.
Yuri Aizenshpis had diabetes and a heart condition. On September 19, 2005, Aizenshpis was hospitalized at the City Clinical Hospital No. 20 for examination, he felt better. But on September 20, 2005, at about 20:00, Yuri Aizenshpis died of a myocardial infarction at the age of 60.
He was buried near Moscow next to his parents at the Domodedovo cemetery.
"I think that the prison did its job. So many years of life are actually lost. Every day is a struggle for existence, health is ruined. Everyone told him that he needed to rest, work less. But he did not listen to anyone, for him it was a normal existence" , - noted his sister Faina Aizenshpis.
The growth of Yuri Aizenshpis: 165 centimeters.
Personal life of Yuri Aizenshpis:
Mikhail Aizenshpis was detained by the police in February 2014 on suspicion of drug use, 1.5 grams of cocaine and a suitcase with money were confiscated from him.
After the death of Aizenshpis, Elena Kovrigina married Leonid Alexandrovich Goiningen-Gühne, director of television programs for TNT, Ren-TV, DTV channels. She sued Dima Bilan because of his failure to fulfill the contract and the use of a pseudonym invented by Aizenshpis.
Filmography of Yuri Aizenshpis:
2005 - Day Watch - guest
2005 - How the idols left. Viktor Tsoi (documentary)
Bibliography of Yuri Aizenshpis:
"Lighting Stars. Notes and advice of the pioneer of show business»
“From a farmer to a producer. Business people in the USSR
Viktor Tsoi and others. How the stars light up
The foreign word “producer”, unknown to Soviet citizens, was first introduced into the lexicon by Yuri Aizenshpis. Before him, people involved in the organization of concert activities were usually called administrators, impresario or concert directors. Aizenshpis' innovation affected not only the formal name, but the very essence of the activity. In addition to organizing tours and solving purely domestic issues on trips, he invested his own money in the artist, in his advertising and promotion, and in return, by “promoting” him, he made a profit.
Yuri Aizenshpis was a businessman to the core and raised the domestic music industry to a new level. The pioneer of domestic show business was barely 20 years old when he tried to put into practice his ideas about the profession of a producer. He took the Moscow rock band Sokol under his wing. It was 1965 outside. In the country of the Soviets, performers like Valery Obodzinsky were considered an extreme manifestation of the musical avant-garde. Officially recognized music was represented by the immortal Iosif Kobzon, Lyudmila Zykina and someone else like that.
The era of domestic vocal and instrumental ensembles has not yet begun, and Yuri Aizenshpis has already begun to operate with the phrase “rock group”, which is absolutely incomprehensible to the average Soviet ear, taken from the Western music industry. The very first producer of the Soviet Union got acquainted with modern music from vinyl records, which he successfully sold.
His parents, veterans of the Great Patriotic War, could not imagine that their son from a young age would become an asocial element in the USSR and spend 17 long years in prisons. His father is a Jew with Spanish roots, whose ancestors moved to Poland. In 1939, with the flow of Polish refugees fleeing the advance of the Nazi troops, he ended up in his new homeland, which he had to defend with a rifle in his hands. Mom - a native of Belarus, 3 years partisan in the forests.
Yuri Aizenshpis was born in 1945 in Chelyabinsk. Parents moved to the capital, where they lived very modestly - in an ordinary barracks. Only in 1961 they moved to the "Khrushchev" near the metro station "Sokol". Aizenshpis went to study at the Moscow Institute of Economics and Statistics. He had to study economics not only in the classrooms of a higher educational institution, but also on the street, where he “pushed” the Beatles and Rolling Stones discs to connoisseurs of rock music.
The fartsovschik himself turned into a frenetic music lover, having collected a rare collection of albums by Western rock musicians. After the records came the turn of fashionable imported clothes, scarce fur products and musical equipment. Gradually, Aizenshpis had a network of customers and suppliers in his hands. He made connections with foreigners. Among his acquaintances were ambassadors of foreign countries and their children. As a student, he no longer lived in poverty, as in childhood. Everywhere and always since then, he has managed to provide himself with a standard of living well above the average face value. Then he tried to earn money by producing a musical group, but he had to continue his first experience almost after 2 decades.
Upon graduation, Yuri Aizenshpis got a job as an economist at the Central Statistical Office. The work did not bother him much. The underground business has reached gigantic proportions. Yuri Aizenshpis switched to foreign currency and gold. The turnover of illegal operations almost equaled the budget of the institution where he was an employee. Numerous agents of an ordinary economist bought currency from Moscow taxi drivers and prostitutes. In those days, Vneshtorgbank was already officially trading in gold bars.
The ubiquitous KGB dealt with the "currency" in the USSR. In 1970, Aizenshpis was quite expectedly arrested. During a search of his apartment, they found $ 17,000 and 10,000 "wooden" rubles - gigantic sums of money at that time. The underground millionaire was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Being a "huckster" according to the thieves' classification, Aizenshpis, however, did not live in poverty in the "zone". Records and currency were replaced by tea, cigarettes and alcohol. A born businessman did not waste time in the colony. After 7 years, he will be released on parole. He will return to Moscow, but literally in a few weeks he will again be in a pre-trial detention center and all under the same “currency” article. This time, during the search, $50,000 will be found, but all the bills will turn out to be counterfeit.
Again 10 years of captivity. In April 1988, having gone beyond the "ban", Yuri Aizenshpis will find himself in a completely new world. He saw that he was very unlucky in life. He got two convictions for nothing. In the future, he will achieve his full justification. It will not be possible to return only a unique collection of "vinyl". Speculation persecuted in a socialist state will receive a different interpretation - ordinary business, a market economy. Aizenshpis had no interest in resuming trading operations with currency or other goods. Age is not the same, and health was greatly undermined by prison. He acquired a bouquet of chronic diseases - diabetes, cirrhosis of the liver. In prison, he had to recover from hepatitis 2 types.
Producer Yuri Aizenshpis
Yuri Aizenshpis decided to take up music seriously. Initially, the recidivist was sheltered by the creative association "Gallery", which worked under the wing of the city committee of the Komsomol. Yuri Aizenshpis has always been distinguished by high communication skills and an incredible ability to adapt in any conditions. It helped him in his work. Ideological Komsomol members felt the taste of money and were not averse to earning extra money on young talents. Aizenshpis quickly got up to speed in the music business and soon abandoned his patronage, starting to work for himself.
His first production project was the Kino group and its leader. Then he first called himself a producer. In 1990, Yuri Aizenshpis was the first in the USSR to fully pay for the release of the “Black Album” of the Kino group with his own funds. Before him, no one dared to do so. After Tsoi, he was engaged in rock groups "Technology", "Moral Code" and "Dynamite". Following the bands, it was the turn of solo performers - Vlad Stashevsky, Katya Lel, Dima Bilan and several others of a smaller caliber.
To finance the project of Stashevsky, Aizenshpis attracted Alexander Makushenko, whom he knew well from the years of imprisonment, whom he knew as Sasha Gypsy. Music in the hands of a businessman turned out to be an attractive tool for making big money. In 2001, Aizenshpis became the general director of the entire Media Star enterprise. Everything would be fine, but my health was very disturbing. Yuri Aizenshpis was forced to adhere to a constant diet, regularly see doctors and constantly swallow a bunch of pills.
Yuri Aizenshpis - cause of death
In September 2005, he will start bleeding from the stomach. A perforated ulcer will be added to a huge bouquet of diseases. Doctors successfully eliminate a new problem, but the next day the patient dies of myocardial infarction. The first time a heart attack overtook him immediately after the second release from the "zone". He will be buried at the Domodedovo cemetery in the suburbs of Moscow.
The most successful projects of producer Aizenshpis are considered the first and last in a row. Viktor Tsoi is still considered a cult singer among rock fans, and Dmitry Bilan is the only Russian pop singer who won the most prestigious victory at Eurovision. The producer will not be able to wait for the success of the singer, which will come 2 days after his death.
After the death of the producer, Dima Bilan will become the object of attack for the common-law wife of Aizenshpis, Elena Kovrigina, who tried to substantiate in court her right to the artist's name brand, which, as she believed, completely belongs to the common-law husband and claimed that the "star" did not fulfill any conditions of the contract. She failed to defend her rightness. Dima Bilan fell into the hands of another producer, Yana Rutkovskaya.
11 years after the funeral of Yuri Aizenshpis, his name will again appear in criminal reports. The police will arrest the son of the producer Mikhail, in whose things one and a half grams of cocaine will be found. Despite his demonstrated proclivity for crime, the son did not fully follow in his father's footsteps. Music was not for him.
One of the most famous producers of Russian show business, Yuri Shmilevich Aizenshpis, was born on July 15, 1945 in Moscow.
In 1968 he graduated from the Moscow Institute of Economics and Statistics with a degree in engineer-economist. After graduating from the institute, Aizenshpis worked for some time at the Central Statistical Office (CSO).
I am an independent producer and build my work independently of anyone. However, I always have to deal with the problems of this very corporatism.
Aizenshpis Yuri Shmilevich
While still a student, Yuri Aizenshpis devoted all his free time to his passion - music, so it so happened that he began his professional career in 1965, working as an administrator with the Sokol rock group.
By 1969, the Sokol group became famous thanks to the organizational skills of Aizenshpis, who purchased musical equipment and instruments from foreign guest performers, or rather, from their technical staff. They had to pay with currency, any transactions with which in the USSR were illegal and severely punished by justice.
In January 1970, Yuri Aizenshpis was arrested and convicted under Article 88 of the USSR Criminal Code (“Illegal currency transactions on an especially large scale”). He spent ten years in prison in Mordovia, Krasnoyarsk, Komi.
After a short period of freedom, he again received a sentence and was imprisoned for seven years and eight months.
The experience of Western gentlemen was unknown to me. Everything came from my own ideas and initiatives.
Aizenshpis Yuri Shmilevich
In total, Yuri Aizenshpis served 17 years in prison, finally being released only on April 23, 1988.
The first time after his release, he worked in the creative youth association "Gallery" under the city committee of the Komsomol, organizing concerts of young performers.
In 1988, he met Viktor Tsoi, who had just released the album "A Star Called the Sun". Soon their joint work began.
From 1988 to 1990, Aizenshpis was the director of the Kino group, he organized tours and television broadcasts for the group. With the advent of Aizenshpis, the group, by that time already quite well known in the country, acquired the status of a cult.
Yuri Aizenshpis himself wrote about this: “Of course, Tsoi and the Kino group were known even before our meeting, but they are known among fans of Leningrad basement rock. And I decided to fashion a rock star out of it. And I succeeded.”
Aizenshpis was one of the first to break the state monopoly on the release of records, releasing in 1990 the Black Album of the Kino group with money borrowed. This was the band's last album.
From 1991 to 1992, he collaborated with the Technology group, which he assisted in releasing their debut album, Everything You Want. In the period from 1992 to 1993 he worked as a producer with the groups "Moral Code" and "Young Guns". Since the summer of 1994, he collaborated with singer Vlad Stashevsky, whose debut album was released under the Aisenshpis Records label. In 1997, while continuing to work with Vlad Stashevsky, he collaborated in parallel with the aspiring singer Inga Drozdova.
At various times, Aizennshpis produced the singer Sasha (from 1999 to 2000), raised the singer Nikita to the heights of popularity (produced him from 1998 to 2001).
In recent years, Yuri Shmilevich has been closely engaged in the career of the singer Dima Bilan and the Dynamite group.
Aizenshpis participated in the organization of the international festival "Sunny Adjara" (1994), as well as in the establishment of the "Star" music award.
Since 2001, he has served as General Director of Media Star.
In 2005, he starred in a small role in the film Night Watch 2.
Yuri Aizenshpis was twice the winner of the National Russian Music Award "Ovation" in the nomination "Best Producer" (1992, 1995).
He was buried in Moscow at the Domodedovo cemetery.
Yuri Aizenshpis was divorced, he had a son, Mikhail.
Yuri Shmilevich Aizenshpis - quotes
I am an independent producer and build my work independently of anyone. However, I always have to deal with the problems of this very corporatism. 
The experience of Western gentlemen was unknown to me. Everything came from my own ideas and initiatives.
Show business, twice laureate of the Ovation music award. He helped many current Russian pop stars ascend to the horizon of show business. And the creative teams and solo singers and singers with whom he worked still evoke a response in the hearts of the public.
Family and childhood of Yuri Aizenshpis
Yuri Aizenshpis, whose photo can be seen in this article, was born in Chelyabinsk, immediately after the war, on June 15, 1945. His father Shmil Moiseevich was a veteran of the Great Patriotic War. Mother's name was Maria Mikhailovna. The surname Aizenshpis means "iron peak" in translation from the Yiddish language. Yuri's parents were Jews, they worked in the Main Directorate for the construction of airfields.
At first, the family lived in a wooden barrack. But in 1961 they received an apartment in Sokol (it was a prestigious Moscow district at that time). Yuri Aizenshpis was very fond of sports since childhood. Most of all he was fascinated by athletics, handball and volleyball. He could very well become a champion in one of these areas. But he still had to leave the sport. This was due to a leg injury at the age of 16.
First steps in show business
After school, Yuri Aizenshpis entered the university as an engineer-economist. He graduated from it in 1968. In addition to his passion for sports, Yuri had something else. Music attracted him. Since his sports career was closed for him due to injury, he chose show business.
And his first job was as an administrator of the rock group "Sokol". He sold tickets for the concerts of the creative team according to the original scheme, which helped to technically equip the stage with first-class equipment. And the quality and purity of sound for Yuri were always very important.
At first, he negotiated with the directors of the clubs for the performance of the group. Further, Aizenshpis bought up all the tickets for evening concerts and then personally sold them at a higher price. Yuri was the first in the Soviet Union to start hiring security guards to ensure order during the show.
Yuri Aizenshpis: biography. Arrest
With the proceeds from ticket sales (mostly dollars), Aizenshpis bought musical instruments for the group and high-quality sound equipment from foreigners. But at that time in the USSR, all foreign exchange transactions were illegal, and he took a lot of risks by making such transactions. If he had been caught, they could have been imprisoned for a serious period.
Law enforcement agencies drew attention to his "speculative" activities. On January 7, 1970, Aizenshpis was arrested. During the search, more than 7 thousand dollars were found and confiscated (as Yuri himself admitted in an interview, he even saved up more than 17 thousand dollars) and over 15,000 rubles. Aizenshpis Yuri Shmilevich was convicted under the article for currency fraud. He was sentenced to ten years in prison. Yuri was sent to serve his sentence in the city of Krasnoyarsk.
After he was released, he did not enjoy it for long. And again ended up in prison under the same article. But this time he was given seven years and eight months in prison. In total, he served seventeen years in prison. And he was finally released only in April of the eighty-eighth year.
Imprisonment
Yuri was imprisoned to “wind the term” among inveterate criminals. Every day he watched cruelty, blood and lawlessness. But he was not touched. The main reason, most likely, was his sociability. He knew how to listen and communicate. Being a very contact person, Yuri Aizenshpis was able to quickly adapt in an environment alien to him.
Although more than half of the prisoners are usually starving, he avoided this pitfall. The money, although secretly transferred in the form of bribes to the prison, managed to make his existence in the zone more bearable than for many. At least he didn't starve.
Yuri was not kept in one place, he was transferred many times to other regions and zones. Only in any place he was distinguished by his unbending character and high standard of living.
The first "star" group of Yuri Aizenshpis
After being released from prison, where Yuri Aizenshpis served a total of seventeen years, he got a job at the Gallery, which created the city committee of the Komsomol. Aizenshpis first organized concerts of young talented performers. In the eighty-ninth year he became the official producer of the Kino group. Yuri was among the first to break the state monopoly on the release of records. The last record of the Kino group, the Black Album, was released by Aizenshpis in 1990, taking a loan of 5 million rubles for this. It was his first band that he brought to the world stage.
Further activities in show business
In 1991-1992 producer Yuri Aizenshpis worked closely with the Technology group. He helped release their first album, Everything You Want, which became their debut. He widely launched advertising activities, producing printed products with the image of members of the Technology group: postcards, posters, etc.
In 1992, he received the Ovation Award as the best producer in the country. And from this year to the ninety-third he collaborated with the "Moral Code" and "Young Guns". In the summer of 1994, he began working with Vlad Stashevsky. During their collaboration, four music albums were recorded. The debut was "Love Doesn't Live Here Anymore".
In the same year, Yuri was one of the organizers of the international music festival "Sunny Adjara". Participated in the establishment of the "Star" award. According to the results of his creative activity in the ninety-fifth year, Aizenshpis Yuri Shmilevich again received the Ovation Award.