Ilya Kormiltsev: biography, personal life, photo of the poet, date and cause of death

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The underestimated genius of the Russian underground. This is how Ilya Kormiltsev is presented in the book of the popular writer and music journalist Alexander Kushnir "Kormiltsev. Space as a memory". Colleagues in creativity believed that Ilya Kormiltsev was much more than everything that he had done. His occupations and interests were remarkably varied. He was engaged in poetry, prose, music, cinema, history, translations, publishing. Friends endowed him with unique qualities, combining a sharp mind and endless goodwill.

Small motherland

Date of birth of Ilya Kormiltsev - 1959-26-09 Yekaterinburg (at that time Sverdlovsk) was the poet's hometown. His parents separated early, the boy stayed with his mother. Grandmother on the father's side took an active part in the upbringing of Ilya. Also, the future poet's passion for reading had a great influence on growing up. In Sverdlovsk he graduateda special school with an emphasis on learning foreign languages, which later allowed the musician to become a successful translator from three languages: English, Italian and French.

Youth

After graduating from school, Kormiltsev entered the Leningrad State University, choosing the Faculty of Chemistry. Then he returned to his small homeland as a student at the Ural State University, having completed his studies in 1981 in the same speci alty. During his student days, the future chemist wrote poetry, was busy working in the popular 220 Volt disco, and had a secret passion for making and exploding bombs. After university, he wrote words for songs, working with the Urfin Juice group. Participated in the authorship of songs of the Sverdlovsk rock club, which included: Nastya Poleva, Yegor Belkin, the Engels Vnuki group, the Cocktail group and the Kunstkamera group.

With Nautilus

In 1983, Ilya Kormiltsev and Vyacheslav Butusov met. They decided to start cooperation. The leader of the "Nautilus" was immediately interested in the first text written for the group by Ilya Kormiltsev "Bound in one chain". It was a bold challenge of a real rebel in the direction of the Soviet caesura. The joint project of the group "Nautilus Pompilius" with Ilya Kormiltsev continued with the release of the album "Separation" in 1986. It included such hits as "View from the Screen", "This Music Will Be Eternal", "Our Family", "Totalonly to be". The album deserved the title of the best collection of those years. Interestingly, Ilya Kormiltsev wrote the song "Casanova" before the recording itself. The band's musicians did not expect that it would become a national hit.

Music break

In 1988, Ilya Kormiltsev and Butusov stopped working together. The author of Nautilov's hits decided to go into publishing, he edited the Sverdlovsk magazine "We and Culture Today". At this time, he made a living translating fiction, made the first attempts at writing in prose. A striking episode of the perestroika years for the poet was the refusal to receive the Leningrad Komsomol Prize, which was awarded to Nautilus Pompilius in 1989.

Return to the group

In 1990 Kormiltsev wrote a collection of poems "Bound in One Chain". When released, it was decorated with drawings made by Vyacheslav Butusov. In 1992, he resumed work in the group, moved to Moscow, became the producer of the Report for 10 Years project and continued to write lyrics (Tutankhamun, Black Birds, Polina's Morning, Wings, People on the Hill ") until the collapse of the Nautilus in 1997.

Aliens

In the late nineties, Ilya Kormiltsev, together with the former instrumentalist of "Nautilus Pompilius" Oleg Sakmarov, brought to life the electronic project "Aliens" ahead of its time. An album was recorded in 1999. It included the songs "Parachutist","Chemical woman", "Pharmacology", "Handbag", "Doesn't matter", "Departure", "Candle and fly", "Lonely voice". The place of writing was Kormiltsev's home studio. It was an attempt to show what real rock means. Unfortunately, the project has become understandable and popular only to a narrow circle of listeners.

Translator work

Ilya Kormiltsev had an amazing ability to learn languages from early childhood. He himself admitted that he did not know the exact number of dialects known to him. The poet's friends say that it was not difficult for Ilya to master a new language in a day. Therefore, it is not surprising that translations became another matter of life for him after music. He translated for "Foreign Literature", "Foreigner" and other magazines and publishing houses, leaving many works:

• W. Burroughs' novels - "Western Lands" and "Dead Road Space";
• works by G. Adair - "Love and Death on Long Island" and "Dreamers";
• story by L. Bernier - "The Treasure of Mamacita";
• poems by L. Jones;
• E. Kosinsky - "Ferris Wheel", "Gardener", "Steps";
• F. Berdeber's novel - "Vacations in a Coma";
• novel by O. Colfer - "Four Wishes";
• F. Brown's story - "Don't look back";
• B. Ellis's novel - "Glamorama";
• F. McDonald's story - "Our Feathered Friends";
• I. Welsh - "Trainspotting""Party right";
• M. Welbeck - poems;
• plays by T. Stoppard - "The Artist Descending the Stairs", "Day and Night", "Travesty, or a comedy with disguises";
• R. Brautigan's novels - "Revenge of the Lawn", "Trout Fishing in America";
• A. Crowley - "Cocaine";
• R. Gulik's novel - "Chinese Murder";
• work by S. Home - "Stand before Christ and kill love";
• collection of short stories by S. Logan;
• poems by F. Manatee;
• poems by A. Ginsberg;
• N. Cave's novel - "And the donkey saw the Angel of God";
• K. Lewis's novel - "Until we found faces";
• Ch. Palahniuk's novel - Fight Club;
• P. Oster's novel - "Timbuktu";
• W. Sensome's story - "Vertical ladder";
• L. Ferlinghetti - "Dog";
• R. Westall's story - "Hitchhiking";
• fairy tales by D. Tolkien - "Farmer Giles of Ham", "The Blacksmith of Great Wootton", "The Appearance of Tuor in Gondolin";
• M. Faber's novels - "Courage Quintet", "Stay in my shoes".

For quality translations, Ilya Kormiltsev was awarded the prize of the magazine "Foreign Literature" three times.

Ultra. Culture

Ilya Kormiltsev's publishing house "Ultra. Culture" was established in 2003 together with the "U-Factoria" group. It was an attempt to publish real literature, which, according toKormiltsev, must have courage, challenge and freedom of thought. The publishing house published "forbidden literature" and such scandalous authors as Eduard Limonov, Adam Parfrey, Lydia Lanch, Alina Vitukhnovskaya, Boris Kagarlitsky, Ernesto Che Guevara, Dmitry Gaiduk, Andrey Bychkov, Subcomandante Marcos, Alexander Prokhanov, Vadim Shtepa. After the release of one of the provocative books (Dmitry Nesterov - "Skins. Russia is awakening"), Kormiltsev was suspended from work at the Foreigner publishing house.

"Ultra. Culture" was accused of distributing pornography, propaganda of terrorism and drug addiction. In 2004, the publisher's books were prohibited from being sold. Kormiltsev tried to prove that it is better to know evil and be ready to fight it than to turn a blind eye to it. In addition, the anti-heroes of scandalous books appeared to readers as narrow-minded and repulsive personalities, so there was no question of propaganda. Despite this, they sued the publishing house, they tried to bring it to collapse. Which is exactly what happened in January 2007. It is noteworthy that the song "Tore the Dream" by the group "Agatha Christie" for Ilya Kormiltsev at that moment was one of the most beloved. Her words fully reflected the state of mind of the poet in the early 2000s.

Illness and care

Since October 2007, Kormiltsev's he alth began to deteriorate. The poet complained of back pain for a long time. But problems with the publishing house made it impossible to deal with he alth. Seeing doctors in December was too late. In a London hospital, Kormiltsev was diagnosed with the laststage of spinal cancer with extensive metastases. Friends and relatives of the poet until the last hoped for a miraculous healing, announced a collection of money for treatment. Until the last day, Kormiltsev himself maintained good spirits, spoke about the future, made creative plans, and wrote poetry. He believed that there would be a specialist with a special, non-standard approach to treatment.

Ilya Kormiltsev died on the morning of February 4 in the presence of his wife and friend. According to them, he left with an angelic smile on his lips. The funeral took place on February 9th. The place of burial was the Troekurovskoye cemetery in Moscow. The memorial service, which was held in the large hall in the House of Writers, was attended by the musicians of Nautilus (Dmitry Umetsky and Alexei Mogilevsky), the founders of the Agata Christie group (Gleb and Vadim Samoilovs), writer and publicist Dmitry Bykov, publicist and gallery owner Marat Gelman, writer and journalist Alexander Prokhanov, musician Alexander F. Sklyar and many other artists who did not leave Kormiltsev indifferent.

Family Relations

The breadwinner was not the only child in the family. His brother Eugene also chose the path of creativity. He is a poet and musician. He became the author of texts for the groups "April March", "Nastya", "Insarov". Since 2005 he has been a musician of the Nim_b band. Eugene remembers his brother with warmth and love. The musician admits that he really misses his older brother. For him, Ilya was a very great personality who taught a lot - mainly the ability to be critical of everythingsurrounding reality, including himself.

Married Ilya Kormiltsev was three times. From the first two wives - Svetlana and Marina - the poet had a daughter, Liza, and two sons, Stas and Ignat. The eldest son Stas gave Kormiltsev his grandson Luka, with whom, due to his great employment, his grandfather communicated mainly via Skype. The third wife, the Belarusian singer Mankovskaya Alesya Adolfovna, was 15 years younger than Kormiltsev. She remained by her husband's side until her last breath. In this marriage, daughter Carolina was born.

Memory

Kormiltsev's departure became tragic for many, so he was not left without respectful attention:

• A memorial bench was installed in London's Lincoln's Inn Fields in 2008.
• In 2009, an evening in memory of the poet was held in honor of his fiftieth birthday. He went to the club "B-2".
• Artist Alexander Korotich designed the monument to Kormiltsev, which was installed at the Troekurovsky cemetery.
• In 2012, a documentary film "In vain, you new songs …" was filmed.
• For "Agatha Christie" Ilya Kormiltsev was the inspiration and role model. Therefore, Gleb Samoilov performs "Tore the Dream" at every concert.
• In 2014, Ilya Valeryevich was awarded the title of "Honorary Citizen of Yekaterinburg".
• A memorial plaque was installed on the building of the university where the poet studied.
• An embankment in Yekaterinburg is named after him.
• In his honor, the group "Black Obelisk" wrote the song "Doesn't matter", andgroup "Bi-2" filmed the video "Bird on the windowsill".
• In 2016, he was posthumously awarded the "Chart Dozen" award.
• In 2017, Alexander Kushnir wrote a book of memory: "Breadwinners. Space as a memory".

Porthole

The album of songs written to the words of Ilya Kormiltsev "Illuminator" was created in 2016. It is dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the author's death. The album consists of 26 tracks recorded by Vyacheslav Butusov, Nastya Poleva, Tatyana Bulanova, Ekaterina Mechetina, Linda, Alesya Mankovskaya, Alexei Mogilevsky, groups "Piknik", "Kalinov Most", "Chayf", "Kukryniksy", "Dancing Minus", "Semantic hallucinations", "Aquarium" and others. The "Illuminator" CD is accompanied by a 60-page booklet with photos and lyrics.

Awards

Ilya Kormiltsev was awarded a special award "For Honor and Dignity" posthumously, becoming the winner of the national "Big Book" award.

In November 2007, the editor of "Ultra. Culture" Vladimir Kharitonov established a new award named after Ilya Kormiltsev. This award will be available to radical authors who write alternative works.

Memories of relatives and friends

Everyone who knew Ilya Kormiltsev,speak of him as a bright, extraordinary personality with encyclopedic knowledge and a constant desire for freedom.

He is remembered as a wonderful conversationalist with whom it is interesting to spend time. Many people of art are grateful to him for the success in creativity, which he helped to achieve. According to relatives, Ilya Kormiltsev is a talented, sparkling, intelligent, open, charming, cheerful person who passionately loved life and longed to change the world for the better.