Anastas Alekseevich Mikoyan (born November 8, 1951, known professionally as Stas Namin) is a Russian rock musician known as the leader of the popular Soviet music group Tsvety (). He is also a composer, actor, record producer, and director, and lends his name to the theatre he created in Moscow, the Stas Namin Music and Drama Theatre (, also known simply as Stas Namin Theatre).
Background
Early years
Stas Namin was born on 8 November 1951 in Moscow. He is the grandson of Soviet politician of Armenian heritage Anastas Mikoyan. He spent his early childhood years with his parents on military bases, as his father Aleksey was an air force pilot, a veteran of World War II. His mother was a music historian and writer, and Dmitry Shostakovich, Aram Khachaturian, Mstislav Rostropovich, Alfred Schnittke and other celebrated musicians were all guests in the family's house. Namin's first music teacher was the composer Arno Babajanian.
Namin began school at age six. Four years later he entered the Suvorov Military School in Moscow, where he would receive seven years of military education.Stas Namin : «Ya nikogda ne byl nashim». Ogonek, 1 March 2010
1960s
While studying in the Suvorov School, Namin first hears The Beatles and The Rolling Stones and becomes involved with rock music. 1964 Namin forms his first band at military school, Charodei (the Magicians). 1967 Namin forms the band Politburo. 1969 Namin enters the Institute of Foreign Languages and becomes soloist and guitarist in the band Bliki (The Glimmers). Intrigued by the hippie movement's "flower children" rebellion against the existing order of society and inspired by the legendary Woodstock Festival, in late 1969 he forms a new band, the Flowers, which later becomes the first Soviet supergroup, in effect launching the rock-music movement in Soviet society.«"Tsvety" ne vyanut». Rossiyskaya gazeta . 25 February 2010
1970s
1973 The Flowers release their first single on the Melodiya label as a student ensemble. Unexpectedly, the record sells an unprecedented seven million copies. 1974 The Flowers release their second, equally successful, single. The Moscow press names the Flowers "the Soviet Beatles", and Namin and his band begin touring professionally. 1975 The USSR Ministry of Culture bans the Flowers and use of the band's name for "promoting of Western ideology and the hippie movement". Namin makes use of his forced hiatus from the band to finish studies at Moscow State University, where he’d matriculated in 1972. During this time, he’s in constant contact with dissident, nonconformist poets, writers and artists banned by the regime: Anatoly Zverev, Oleg Tselkov, Anatoly Brusilovsky, Joseph Kiblitsky, Alena Basilova, Venedikt Erofeev, Genrikh Sapgir, Yuz Aleshkovsky and others. Influenced by the Beatles and a visit to Moscow by Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Namin becomes involved in Indian music and Vedic culture.«"Tsvetam" stuknulo uzhe 40 let». The Moscow Post. 31 August 2009
1976 Namin reunites his band, and the Flowers begin appearing again without their forbidden name, as the Stas Namin Group. 1977 The Stas Namin Group releases its first single, which enjoys previous success, but the group remains officially banned. 1978–79 The singles "Too Early to Say Good-Bye", "Summer Evening" and others, now classics of their genre, are released.
1980s 1980 During the "thaw" in Soviet ideology brought on by the Olympic Games, the Stas Namin Group manages to release its first solo album in ten years, Hymn to the Sun, and make its first TV appearance. 1981 Namin meets and performs with Harry Belafonte in Moscow and joins the international organization Artists for Peace on the latter's invitation. Namin's song "Yurmala" enjoys country-wide popularity. To enthusiastic reviews by Time and Stern magazines, Namin organizes the first rock festival in Yerevan. After this the KGB forbids him from working and confiscates his passport, and the General Prosecutor seeks a pretext to open criminal proceedings against the group.
1982 Under serious political pressure and a complete creative ban from the regime, Namin writes songs of harsh social and political orientation; these are naturally rejected by censors and remain unpublished in the Soviet Union. The authorities now regard everything Namin writes, says and does as an act of dissidence. Even his pop song "We Wish You Happiness!", now a classic hit of thirty years’ standing, is forbidden for three years. Namin meets composer Georgy Sviridov and shows him his music. Remarking on Namin’s vivid, expressive melodies and their unusual developments, Sviridov advises him not to abandon music despite his problems with the authorities. Due to the bans, which make performing rock music entirely impossible, Namin finally decides to change his profession, entering the High Courses for Scriptwriters and Film Directors. There he studies under professors Lev Gumilyov, Paola Volkova, Anatoly Vasilyev, Alexander Mitta and other outstanding personalities. He will remain in close friendship with them long after graduation.
1983 Namin shoots his coursework, which the examination commission rejects, accusing it of promoting Western ideological influence. He composes a new series of songs with texts by semi-forbidden poets Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Andrei Voznesensky, David Samoilov, Nikolai Rubtsov, Andrei Bitov and others. This new repertoire of the Flowers is banned even from live concert performance. Only once does the group manage to illegally perform and record the songs: on local television in Alma Ata.
1984 Namin graduates from the Higher Courses for Screenwriters and Directors of USSR Goskino, where in fulfillment of his coursework he mounts his first stage productions. These are rejected by the commission on ideological grounds. As his diploma work, Namin shoots the country’s first music video on his song "Old New Year" (lyrics: Andrei Voznesensky), which has an openly political subtext. This work is also rejected and Namin is refused his diploma. Forbidden in the USSR, the video is first aired on American MTV in 1986.
1985 During a youth and student festival in Moscow, Namin receives visits at his home without authorization from the KGB. Visitors include Michel Legrand, Mikis Theodorakis, Udo Lindenberg, David Woollcombe, Dean Reed and other foreign musicians, with whom Namin enters into joint creative projects without the Ministry of Culture's sanction. He records the double album "We Wish You Happiness!", which is banned in the USSR. At a specially convened collegium, the Ministry of Culture officially accuses Namin and his group of supporting the policies of the Pentagon. Andrei Voznesensky invites Namin to his dacha in Peredelkino and introduces him to legendary American beat-generation poet Allen Ginsberg.
1986 Only after Mikhail Gorbachev's rise to power, the beginning of Perestroika and a half-year-long scandal is the Stas Namin Group finally able to perform in the West. The band makes a month-and-a-half-long tour through eighteen cities of the US and Canada, performing exclusively for local audiences. Namin meets and performs with world-class rock musicians at UN headquarters in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington and other prestigious venues.Стас Намин: «Menya vypustili za granitsu, kogda mne bylo uzhe 35 let». Gazeta "Severo-Zapad", 27 October 2014"Russian Rockers in Santa Monica". Los Angeles Times. October, 1986"Russian Rockers here 'TO PLAY JAM'. Los Angeles Times. September 30, 1986'Pease Child' arrives in Boston". The Boston Globe. September 12, 1986 After a concert and press conference at the Limelight in Manhattan on John Lennon’s birthday, followed by a press conference with the Flowers at the Hard Rock Café, Yoko Ono invites Namin to her and Lennon’s legendary apartment in the Dakota Building, where they spend many hours conversing about Lennon’s life and creative work. In December, on invitation of Peter Gabriel, Namin performs at the Japan Aid festival in Japan together with Gabriel, Steven Van Zandt, Lou Reed, Jackson Browne and other world-renowned rock stars. Then the group tours freely throughout Europe, Africa, Australia, North and South America and Japan, completing a world tour in four years."The Russians are coming". The Boston Herald. September 12, 1986 While in Japan, Namin and Gabriel decide to create alternative music companies. Gabriel creates Real World Records to support ethnic musicians throughout the world, and Namin creates the Stas Namin Centre (SNC) to support musicians, artists and poets forbidden by the Soviet regime.«Gruppa „Tsvety": staryy kayf, novyy drayv». Noyev Kovcheg. March 2010The Stas Namin Group. Daily Variety. October 3, 1986
1987 The alternative culture center SNC opens its doors in Moscow's Gorky Park without any official permission or documentation.«Mamut rabotal u was yuristom, Arkasha Novikov - v kafe» «Moskovskiy komsomolets» № 27629, 03.03.2018 Here Namin gathers talented banned musicians as well as progressive poets, artists and designers. The SNC becomes the country's only "factory" for new free art resembling Andy Warhol's studio in New York. Frank Zappa christens it "the Russian Bauhaus". The centre's visitors include Pink Floyd, U2, Quincy Jones, Peter Gabriel, Annie Lennox, Brian May, Ringo Starr, Robert De Niro, Arnold Schwarzenegger and many others. Inspired by the free, innovative atmosphere at the Centre in Gorky Park in the early 1990s, the rock band Scorpions writes its hit "Wind of Change", whose Russian lyrics are penned by Namin at their request. Here Namin creates his new band Gorky Park, the first and only Russian rock group to achieve worldwide fame."Sowjetischer Rockmusiker Stas Namin: Unsere Botschaft: Frieden". Frankenpost. April 11. 1987"Rock" vive para sempre. Noticias. November 16, 1987«Park Gorkogo». Rozhdenie Gazeta "Argumenty nedeli" № 30(572), 03.08.2017«Park Gorkogo». Padenie Gazeta "Argumenty nedeli" №31(573), 10.08.2017
1988 Frank Zappa comes to Russia to meet Namin. They become close friends, and Zappa will make several more trips to Russia. Namin introduces Zappa to Alfred Schnittke and young musicians and artists, and Zappa shoots a film about the Stas Namin Centre. On request of Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences Evgeny Velikhov, Namin is nominated to the board of trustees of the International Foundation for the Survival and Development of Humanity, organized jointly by Soviet and American scientists and cultural figures in 1987. While performing in New York, Namin is invited by Keith Richards to take part in recording his solo album Talk Is Cheap."Manly finale for boys from back in the USSR". The Sydney Morning Herald. October 24, 1988
1989 On Namin's initiative, the first ever Soviet cultural-political delegation to Alaska is organized. At the same time, regular flights from Russia to Anchorage begin. Stas Namin and American pop star Eddie Money make a joint tour of Alaska.«Russkiy Vudstok» zdes' i seychas. Radio EkhoMoskvy. 19 May 2011 In August Namin organizes the Moscow Music Peace Festival at Lenin Stadium (today’s Luzhniki), the first international rock festival in the USSR. Performing at the 200,000-spectator event are Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe, Scorpions, Ozzy Osbourne, Skid Row, Cinderella and Namin’s new group Gorky Park. The Western press names the event "the Russian Woodstock" and heralds a new era of freedom in Russia. The festival was broadcast in 59 countries and named the world’s number one event of the year. Namin creates the Moscow Symphony Orchestra (MSO), which gives a series of concerts in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory and Tchaikovsky Concert Hall under the baton of music director Konstantin Krimets.The first show business in new Russia. Passport to the world, July–August, 1993
1990s 1990 Namin stops performing with the Flowers and turns his attention to social projects.