Boris Sobinov
Encyclopedia
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
– 1956, Klin
Klin
Klin is a town and the administrative center of Klinsky District of Moscow Oblast, Russia, located northwest of Moscow. The M10 highway connecting Moscow to St. Petersburg and the Moscow-Saint Petersburg Railway run through the town. It was home to Klin air base during the Cold War. ...
) was a Russian composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and a son of Leonid Sobinov
Leonid Sobinov
Leonid Vitalyevich Sobinov , was an acclaimed Imperial Russian operatic tenor. His fame continued unabated into the Soviet era, and he was made a People's Artist of the RSFSR in 1923...
, Russia's leading lyric tenor during the first quarter of the 20th Century.
Boris was the first child born to Maria Karzhavina, a dramatic actress and Leonid Sobinov, a famous opera singer, who had met as schoolmates at the Philharmonic Society. Though their union dissolved after only a few years, Leonid remained an active and loving presence in the lives of Boris and younger brother Yuri (1897-1920).
Boris received a military education while obtaining musical training. His younger brother Yuri (1897–1920) was a visual artist and painted the pictured oil portrait of Boris at the piano (1910).
Both brothers served in the tsarist army, and then in the White Army in the Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
. Yuri was killed near Melitopol
Melitopol
Melitopol is a city in the Zaporizhia Oblast of the southeastern Ukraine. It is situated on the Molochna River that flows through the eastern edge of the city and into the Molochnyi Liman, which eventually joins the Sea of Azov....
. Boris, along with army baron Pyotr Wrangel, managed to escape to Germany. He later graduated from Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
's High Art School, where he later taught. Throughout his professorial years he continued to compose his own works.
Leonid and Boris reunited as Leonid toured Berlin. In 1931 Boris settled in Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
, where Leonid spent much of a one year sabbatical with his son, second wife Nina Mukina and daughter Svetlana. Eventually father and son toured Europe together, giving concerts in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Preserved programs of these concerts are on display in Russia's Yaroslavl
Yaroslavl
Yaroslavl is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historical part of the city, a World Heritage Site, is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl Rivers. It is one of the Golden Ring cities, a group of historic cities...
museum.
In 1945, when the Soviet troops entered into Berlin, Boris Leonidovich greeted victory with enthusiasm. At that time he lived in the American zone of Berlin and was invited to give a concert for Russian troops. But instead he was abducted by the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
, brought to the airport, and sent to Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
. He was convicted and spent 10 years in the prisons and labour camps of the GULAG
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
. He was rehabilitated in 1955, but with a "wolf ticket
Wolf ticket (Russia)
Wolf ticket is a literal translation of the Russian language term волчий билет , a colloquial expression to denote a version of a document with restrictive clauses in comparison to the full document...
" that means an internal exile without the right to settle closer than 100 km from large urban centers.
During the last year of his life he lived in Klin
Klin
Klin is a town and the administrative center of Klinsky District of Moscow Oblast, Russia, located northwest of Moscow. The M10 highway connecting Moscow to St. Petersburg and the Moscow-Saint Petersburg Railway run through the town. It was home to Klin air base during the Cold War. ...
at the Tchaikovsky's House-Museum, where Yuri Lvovich Davydov (the nephew of Pyotr Tchaikovsky) and his daughters Irina and Xenia gave him a refuge. Boris occasionally secretly visited the house of his father in Moscow and his dacha in Peredelkino
Peredelkino
Peredelkino is a dacha complex situated just to the southwest of Moscow, Russia.-History:The settlement originated as the estate of Peredeltsy, owned by the Leontievs , then by Princes Dolgorukov and by the Samarins. After a railway passed through the village in the 19th century, it was renamed...
. Boris Sobinov died in 1956 of cancer..
Quotations
"In 1945 Boris Sobinov was stolen from Berlin American Zone by the NKVD and was condemned to 10 years imprisonment in the USSR. He was liberated in 1955 and died in 1956. The Memorial Museum keeps his comb, spectacles and spectacle case. Nina and Svetlana Sobinov donated his musical scores, which were composed in Germany between 1920 and 1930. This music is unknown to the Russian musical scene because his works haven't been performed here yet. The time when this will happen is still approaching. The name of Boris Sobinov is another name of a talented composer whose music should be opened to people. His music was performed in Finland, Poland, France, and Germany where the musical scores and other documents could survive." (quoted from the The Memorial Museum's website)"Once in the early spring of 1955 on the Klin streets there was noted Boris Leonidovich Sobinov, the son of great tenor. It was not only the memory of Tchaikovsky that led him to Klin. Boris Sobinov intended to hire an apartment and live some time in Klin after release from the prisons, in the expectation of total rehabilitation. Klin housewives recalled with regret that he didn’t find a suitable apartment. Most likely, the vigilant organs of state security (KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
) did not permit him to settle in Klin. Klin nevertheless is not just 101st kilometre
101st kilometre
101st kilometre is a colloquial name for the law restricting freedom of movement in the Soviet Union.In the Soviet Union, the rights of an inmate released from the prison would typically still be restricted for a long period of time...
." (Anatoly Khomyakov)