A complete history of the Soviet rock band Resurrection

"Voskresenie" is a legendary Soviet rock band, whose songs have not lost their relevance among listeners. Despite the fact that its line-up has changed many times, Voskreseniye has managed to retain its influence and authority on the Russian rock scene to this day (considering that it was formed in the late 70s). Alexey Romanov remains the permanent leader of the band, while many other members either simply left the line-up or, unfortunately, left their fans only their bright memory... As for the band's style, it is unique: here you can find all shades of rock - from psychedelic to art-rock and rock'n'roll....

The beginning of their creative journey, breakups and reunions, lawsuits... What else didn't you know about your favourite band? Let's start in order...

The beginning of the journey: formation

The history of the cult band started at the end of the 70s... That's when drummer Sergey Kavagoe left Mashina Vremeni and together with his colleague created a new band, this time his own! In summer Yevgeny Margulis joined the new line-up. Alexey Romanov, the leader of the well-known "Kuznetsky Most", became the songwriter, and Alexey Makarevich (Andrey Makarevich's brother) became the lead-guitarist. This is how Resurrection was formed.

Early records...

In one month alone, the band made 10 tracks! The first successful hit of the band was "Who's to Blame?", followed by "Snow Baba" and "Sleep"... The most curious thing is that none of them belonged to the band itself! All 3 tracks were in the repertoire of Kuznetsky Most.

https://youtu.be/tEpQVRcKA7c

The first breakup

In September 1979 Margulis left the band (he was replaced by Sapunov). Fortunately, it did not prevent the band from organising its first concerts! By that time the band was already on the Olympus of fame... After the New Year the "grief-stricken bassist" returned, and together with him several new members of the brass section arrived in the ranks of Voskresenie: Sergey Kuzminok and Pavel Smeyan.

The following months turned out to be a great success and a creative breakthrough for the band: concerts, new hits, albums... By the way: the band's cassettes were selling out at breakneck speed! But... soon the white streak was replaced by a black one: the apple of discord fell in the band....

"Everyone was so fed up with each other that we literally couldn't see each other!" - Makarevich recounted.

https://youtu.be/K-Crdw3Mv2E

Soon the musicians decided that Makarevich - with his allegedly mediocre solo playing - had no place in the band. Alik Mikoyan, another ex-Machina Vremeni member, took his place. However, the arguments and scolding did not stop there. Eventually "Resurrection" ceased to exist in autumn 1980. Fortunately, not for long.

Margulis left to join the band "Araks", which did not just perform some of Romanov's songs... The musicians of the band wrote compositions on his poems! For this reason, Romanov was listed as a member of the group for some time....

Second try...?

We should pay tribute to Alexey Romanov's steadfastness of spirit. After the rest of his bandmates scattered (Margulis went to Arax, while Kavagoe and Makarevich left the music business altogether), he remained the only member of Resurrection, a band that had many challenges ahead of it!

https://youtu.be/oJbeRIocXo0

As for Margulis himself, the founder of this project, he was disappointed with the success of his brainchild:

"There was no reason to rejoice... Yes, we gave concerts, and our records flew off the shelves of shops. But it just wasn't the same. I started to pay attention to the fact that from one gig to another we had the same fans! And then Makarevich's unprofessionalism started to get very annoying...".

 

"...The rehearsals were so dull that I didn't want to come to them. We fought a lot between us lately... Then Sapun and I went on a wild bender! By the way: Sapun was the first to announce his departure. And then I also thought about it...".

After the breakup it seemed that the band had nothing to hope for... However, one phone call changed everything! Nikolsky, a well-known personality in the "rock crowd" and the author of the cult "Old Piano", offered Romanov to join the new line-up: Nikolsky himself, Sapunov and Shevyakov. Alexey was in no position to refuse. However, very soon he regretted his decision....

The revamped line-up can be characterised as the most interesting and most controversial of...

Firstly, Nikolsky's lyrics, although similar to "Voskresenskaya", had a completely different character... They were more "pathos" songs, which were quickly remembered by the listener. The album of the same name turned out to be rather strange in terms of musical style: the recordings were in the spirit of New Wave, which was not to the taste of the old fans of the band.

Secondly, Nikolsky, with his leadership temperament, quickly became a competitor for Romanov... In the end, the two captains could not share the same ship. The ship called "Resurrection" inevitably went down. The band disappeared from the stage again in 1982, when all concerts were cancelled because of Brezhnev's death... It should be noted that before that the band managed to give concerts in Russia.

Litigation ...

A little later, namely in the summer of 1983, Romanov and his sound engineer Alexander Arutyunov were arrested. The reason was "entrepreneurial activity", namely performances and concerts, for which they were paid a fee... During the investigation, Romanov's guitar (a red Fender) was confiscated, as well as all his money savings... But this did not solve the conflict: after the trial, Romanov was not only deprived of his property, but also sentenced to 3.5 years in prison! And if he was lucky to get off with a "suspended sentence", Alexander Arutyunov's case was much worse: the sound engineer was sentenced to three years in prison. The rest of the band members denied the fact that they received royalties for their performances. Later, Ilya Viktorovich Smirnov, a Russian journalist and publicist, wrote:

"So, the situation is as follows: someone from the group worked for money, and someone else just like that - out of the goodness of his heart. But this is complete idiocy! However, they had no right to imprison for idiocy, so some of them got away with it...".

The rebirth of an iconic band!

When in 1994 the group "Resurrection" announced its third revival, the fans did not know whether to believe and rejoice or to prepare for another break-up... Nevertheless, the group gave its first concert for many years: first the guys played in St. Petersburg, and afterwards - in the prestigious concert hall "Russia"! Nikolsky remained the clear leader: he announced that the band would not play any new songs! He was sure that his word would be decisive. And what was his amazement when a real revolt rose against him! This led to Nikolsky's departure from the band (which all the other members were obviously happy about)... Margulis was invited to take his place. From now on, "Resurrection" had no leader, as all the members were on equal footing.

Subsequently, Alexei Romanov recalled:

"Nikolsky came with his songs and left with them. No one disputes that he is a professional. However, it was the psychological component that was important for all of us... The group needed harmony. But neither he nor we were comfortable working with him...".

Soon the public was satisfied with the band's new records: the live album "We Love You", the acoustic "Alive More Than All the Living", "Seven Things" (the title refers to the number of songs inside). The 2003 album "In no hurry" was decisive: after its release Margulis left to join Mashina Vremeni, and together with him Shevyakov... However, since 1999 the band has been sticking to its tradition: once a year the members of Voskreseniye gather to play a big joint concert, just like in the good old days!

https://youtu.be/A5DON6AjMeY

True... unfortunately, over the years, there have been fewer musicians. In May 2018, Vladimir Sapunov, the band's director-administrator, died of cancer... In December 2020, his brother, Andrey Sapunov, also passed away: the legendary vocalist passed away due to a heart attack.

Conclusion...

Be that as it may, music history remembers everything: its pages record all the achievements of the Resurrection band, as well as the contribution of its members (both jointly and individually) to the development of the Russian rock scene... Resurrection is not a one-day band that is remembered today and not tomorrow. Despite the fact that the composition of the collective was constantly changing, its success and influence continued to live. "Resurrection" is the brightest phenomenon of Russian rock, a great band, which proved by its own example: only by putting your soul into creativity, you can talk about the fruits and influence in the future....