Parents
Misha was born on November 18, 1950 in Moscow.
His parents were educated and intelligent people. Mom, Elena Rafikovna, had mixed Russian-Tatar roots. She wrote and defended her dissertation in two years, worked as a teacher at the Moscow Technological Institute of Meat and Dairy Industry, and headed the department of electrical engineering.
The father, Vladimir Sergeevich, had a noble origin and was a distant relative of the famous Russian playwright and diplomat A. S. Griboedov. Russian and Buryat blood was mixed in his father’s veins. In his youth, he was only able to enter a higher educational institution on his fifth attempt; he was not accepted because he belonged to the noble class. Nevertheless, he still graduated from the institute, studied hydraulics, worked as a senior researcher, and became a scientist. My father went through the entire war and had the status of a veteran. Vladimir Sergeevich was also a polyglot; he translated from seven languages and spoke four fluently.
Childhood and school years
Mikhail was raised in strictness. His mother was the kind that could beat him with ropes and dirty rags. If she said that she needed to come home at nine o’clock in the evening, then the nosebleed had to be returned by that time. Even when Mikhail was already a teenager, he called and asked her: “Can I stay for another hour?”
Mom didn’t tolerate bad grades, so Misha got “excellent” grades at school. One day she allowed her son to have pigeons. They lived in a multi-storey building in the Novoslobodskaya area, and Mikhail built a dovecote right on the balcony. I became so carried away by my birds that my grades at school dropped noticeably, and sometimes I even started getting C grades. The mother quickly set her son on the right path: she forced him to sell the pigeons and dismantle the dovecote.
According to the musician, he practically did not have a carefree childhood, in the sense of kicking a soccer ball or running in the yard with the boys. From an early age, Misha’s parents tried to keep Misha busy with the full program - studies, sections, clubs.
He studied at a music school and graduated in cello. He devoted a lot of time to sports activities, from the first grade he attended the swimming section, achieving the title of master of sports in this event. He was seriously interested in boxing, he has the first category. He studied at a school with a physics and mathematics focus. Additionally, he took English classes outside of school hours, because they studied French at his school.
And on weekends there were obligatory family hikes. From the age of eight, Misha was already kayaking with his parents. What he remembers most is the camping trip when his parents were on vacation in the summer, and they went on a kayak trip along the river, sailing almost 240 km from Lipetsk to Voronezh.
Among all the activities, the craving for music was overwhelming; in the eighth grade, Mikhail began composing songs and organized a vocal and instrumental ensemble with his classmates called “Crystal Cacti”, the guys played at school dances.
Education
After school, Mikhail became a student at the Moscow Technological Institute of the Meat and Dairy Industry, where his mother worked. Having defended his thesis in 1971, the guy decided to get a second higher education and in 1972 continued his studies at the Mendeleev Moscow Institute of Chemical Technology at the Faculty of Biochemistry.
In 1972-1973, Mikhail served in the ranks of the Soviet Army, he ended up in a sports company. Returning, he continued his studies. Little by little he was engaged in blackmail, buying records from the Yugoslavs with recordings of the Beatles and resold them at three times the price. He also sold jeans, turtlenecks, and various radio equipment.
Then there was graduate school, where Muromov worked on a dissertation on the topic “Research into the process of changing some biochemical properties of meat dried in a liquid heat-carrying medium under vacuum conditions.” He even dabbled in inventions; he invented and patented three devices used in the food industry. According to the singer, these devices are now produced and used in the production of sausages.
However, all these studies and inventions did not bring the young man complete moral satisfaction. He was drawn to the stage, especially since back in 1969 he was called as a vocalist and guitarist in the English-language Soviet rock band “Slavs”, with which he performed for almost three years, combining concerts and studies.
Working in the restaurant business
Perhaps he would have defended his dissertation and become a scientist if not for chance. While on vacation in Sochi, Mikhail met the director of night taverns near Moscow, Igor. They vacationed at sea for almost a month and during this time they managed to become good friends. At the end of the vacation, the man offered Muromov to work as his deputy. Mikhail thought about what salary he would get as a senior researcher after defending his dissertation, and succumbed to Igor’s persuasion. True, I went to work for him not as a deputy, but as a head waiter at the Old Castle restaurant.
Mom was shocked that her son abandoned science. But Mikhail began a completely different life, which he liked. At that time, having a head waiter in a restaurant was cool. He learned how to work with a warehouse and do some things. The establishment had a currency bar, and attracted a specific audience - prostitutes, gamblers, thieves. It was a sin to complain: Muromov lived very well then. In the winter I went to the mountains, in the summer to Sochi, water skiing, fishing, in general, I had a full rest. He earned so much money that he had three brand new Zhiguli cars.
While working in a restaurant, he continued to write songs, strum the guitar, sometimes the audience asked, and he sang for them. Mikhail felt that people liked his music, and at some point he wanted it to be heard from screens, radio and records. I decided to quit the restaurant business and make my way onto the stage.
Muromov sang until he lost consciousness
Moscow has probably never seen such a concert and is unlikely to see it again. In the midst of a sultry June, in the restored building of the Mayakovka branch, lost in Sretensky alleys, Fr. The performer of one of the main disco hits of the last five-year plan of Soviet power, the mega-popular singer Mikhail Muromov in the 80s, after many years of oblivion, tried to return to the capital's public. The latter would have guessed what kind of performance was in store for her in the hall, pardon the pun, there would be nowhere for the apple to fall.
Young playful punks from all over Rus' can go to the buffet. Compared to pop veteran Misha Muromov, they seem low-key and ostentatious. Come on our punks. The spectacle in the mini-Mayakovka would have lifted Iggy Pop himself out of his chair. It's a pity he wasn't there. But the leader of the grotesque-brutal formation “Boni NeM” Kirill Nemolyaev unexpectedly appeared and tirelessly shouted “Bravo!” the idol of Soviet women of Gorbachev's era.
Insignificant advertising, an absolutely disastrous hall and an equally disastrous day of the week for concerts - Monday, coupled with Muromov's controversial reputation in recent years, led to the fact that 15 minutes before the start of the performance, 22 tickets were officially sold for "Apples on the Snow". Consider one viewer for every year of the existence of an imperishable song (and this despite the obvious current boom in the nostalgic stage). Then a number of more guests arrived, but still the atmosphere in the hall was reminiscent of a get-together between neighbors down the street. The artist’s slightly puzzled representatives recommended that the Izvestia columnist not go to the concert at all: “You’ll write some nasty stuff later anyway.”
As far as I understand, the hero of the event personally took care of me. But as soon as I looked into his dressing room, Muromov continued the passage of his administrators. “Why don’t I welcome journalists? Whatever you say to them, they then only write nonsense. One wrote that I was wearing some kind of “worn sweatpants.” Yes, these “sweatpants” cost 200 dollars. The other is that I performed drunk. But this has never happened, just ask my musicians. And someone else claimed that not a trace remained of my former athletic figure. Yes, look at my biceps now...” I had difficulty digesting the stream of Mikhail’s trash revelations. He spoke with relish and, of course, not without irony (Muromov is generally a cheerful person), but it is quite difficult to distinguish irony from remarks generated by wounded pride. Still, no matter how you twist or spare this retro star, she (he), according to the criteria of show business, belongs to the category of “downed pilots.”
However, the singer, as they say, swaggers and gives a comprehensive explanation to some episodes of his career: “I haven’t written songs for seven years, because my neighbor, who lives on the floor below, knocks on the radiator. The noise, you see, bothers her. I say, let me buy you a house outside the city and give you more money to live on. Refuses. It’s more interesting for her to complain about me.” At the end of the sparkling speech, Mikhail invited me to try peas. He himself peeled the green pods with appetite, a pile of which was displayed on the table in his dressing room. And there was nothing else there. Muromov prepared accordingly for an extremely ascetic-looking performance (black backdrop, sparse, monotonous light, three people on stage, three microphones, two guitars, the rest with backing tracks).
The 56-year-old ex-stadium conqueror, whose fate is partly similar to the story of Valery Obodzinsky, and whose current appearance and gestures sometimes evoke associations with Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, appeared in front of a hall that was once unthinkable for him with the same trusting and foolish attitude with which he reasoned about the vicissitudes of life behind the scenes. He began with a deliberate stumble in front of the microphone (who could have imagined that it would turn out to be prophetic...). Like, you know what they write about me in the tabloids - “I got drunk, withered, became decrepit,” well, you see, I can barely stand on my feet... Immediately, however, Mikhail straightened up, moved his shoulders and showed that he was still able. Not forgetting to bestow succinct characteristics on many of his acquaintances in show business, Muromov opened the evening with a remark addressed to the poet Andrei Dementyev: “I have recorded a large block of his songs, but he never did the main thing - he did not help in his time to push through the release of my record. But he combs his hair well...” This was followed by a pathetic theme: “Live, Mother Russia, it’s too early for us to die, the power of the cross and the heavenly army are with us!” Muromov finished the composition with another prosaic recollection of how he “went to pick up” the murdered Igor Talkov from St. Petersburg to Moscow in 1991 and how he had to prepare “two sarcophagi”...
Dressed in black trousers, a white shirt, a colorful embroidered vest and adorned with a whole chain of gold chains around his neck, the singer proceeded to recite Soviet poems about the love of steamships. The action consistently turned into an absurdist one-man show, the kind that Pyotr Mamonov probably couldn’t create. Mikhail was “on fire”, and the atmosphere was approaching parody-relaxed, only it was noticeable that singing itself was becoming more and more difficult for the artist. Firstly, he was obviously wheezing (and he himself admitted a little later that “his voice got hooked on the day of the concert”), secondly, he was just as obviously short of breath, or, as the athletes say (and Muromov does not forget that he was a versatile athlete) “physicist”. When the theme of “Nights in Sochi” sounded, Mikhail completely gave up, the second part of the song was essentially sung for him by his bandmates Viktor Bolshakov and Andrey Zubkov, Muromov himself only managed to give out another pearl “in code”: “Here I have girls before they sang, but now they are gone.”
Further, the punk self-destruction of the stately soloist of the former Union led to a circumstance that shocked the audience. Muromov leaned over to drink something from a bottle standing in the corner of the stage, returned to the microphone and began...to settle. For about 15 seconds no one could understand what was happening, but then a cry was heard: “An ambulance,” call a doctor!”, and Bolshakov and Zubkov carried the singer off the stage in their arms. “Break bye, break!” - the organizers of the event announced, and stunned citizens slowly filed into the foyer. At that moment it was somehow blasphemous to discuss whether Muromov would continue to sing. Nevertheless, the people did not leave, they waited.
And here the faded star made another punk or simply symbolic gesture worthy of Hollywood melodramas. Twenty minutes later, Mikhail returned. They had already installed a huge chair on the stage for him and brought him a fan. He defiantly pushed back his chair, walked to the front of the stage and sang a cappella. People looked at this number with pain and delight at the same time. “It’s stuffy here on stage, I’m starting to choke,” Muromov explained what happened, and then a completely different concert began. He sang harder and harder, in some places he saved himself with a “plus” phonogram, but the very fact that the artist worked to the end and frankly “wear and tear” was appreciated by those gathered. Sensing the situation, Muromov - without any irony - performed the legendary “My Way” by Frank Sinatra, and tortured himself with an attempt at a “live” performance of “Strange Woman”. Well, as an encore, of course, he gave two versions of “Apples in the Snow,” including the one that many Soviet companies used as a drill song in the 80s. By the end, Mikhail had already returned to his original tone and in the “apple” chorus sometimes added: “Apples in the snow, with pink-tender skin, hit me in the face, I can’t do it for myself...”.
Creation
Mikhail had money, so he bought a synthesizer and equipped a small recording studio in his rented apartment. He created musical compositions for theatrical productions, films, and ballets. But it was his pop songs that brought him fame throughout the country. He wrote many compositions on the Afghan theme:
- "Afghanistan";
- “A combatant is awarded an order”;
- "Ask the Desert";
- "Risk zone";
- "Guys from Afghanistan."
Muromov's debut on the big stage took place in 1985, quite late for singers; he was already well over thirty. The most famous song from his early creative period is “Blue Wing Bird,” which he performed together with Olga Zarubina. Then there was the musical composition “The Flight Attendant,” which was not shown on television, but was played constantly on airplanes.
The song “Apples on the Snow” brought Mikhail all-Union fame. True, before it was first heard, it was removed from television eight times. The high authorities didn’t like this “song about anything.” The singer himself considers this composition an allegory, listening to which you can imagine anything. Although the song had its own funny story. The author of the words, Andrey Dementyev, went for a walk in the park with a group of friends before the New Year, taking champagne and apples with him. To cool the champagne, they buried the bottle in the snow and scattered apples on top. It turned out to be a nice picture, and Andrei immediately came up with poetry.
Muromov lived at that time next door to Dementiev, Misha rented an apartment on Bolshaya Spasskaya, and Andrey in Astrakhansky Lane. They were introduced by the famous Soviet TV presenter Angelina Vovk, who was also Muromov’s neighbor; every morning they met in the park in front of the house for a jog. Andrei gave Mikhail a notebook with his poetry, he read for a long time, and came up with music for what he liked. This is how several songs were born. When he called Andrey and played the tune “Apples...”, the poet said that this was a 100% hit.
Personally, Muromov liked other songs more, but it was “Apples on the Snow” that made him famous. It was first performed in 1986, and the following year, 1987, it was released on cassettes and gradually began to gain popularity.
The song was liked not only by Soviet listeners. In the late 1980s, Mikhail performed at a rock festival in the German town of Gera, local residents sang along with him, not understanding the Russian words, and kept the artist on stage for a long time. The secretary of the Ostankino party committee, Vladimir Shmakov, seeing such a warm reception, then helped promote the song on Soviet television, and Mikhail sang it at the final of “Song of the Year.” And after television, the song ended up in the recording studio “Melody” in the popular collection “Happy New Year!” and after that it sounded from every radio and tape recorder.
And then there were many other good compositions. If on Sunday some new song was played on the Morning Mail program, then in the evening it was played in Soviet restaurants. The compositions “The Witch” and “Ariadne” were very popular. And Mikhail considers the song “Strange Woman”, created in collaboration with Larisa Rubalskaya, to be the pinnacle of his creativity.
Good fees began, royalties began to flow into the account, Mikhail began to live more freely. Soon his fees exceeded a thousand rubles, while his father (professor) received four hundred, and his mother, who headed the institute department, received five hundred.
In the mid-1990s, Muromov disappeared from the stage for some time and was engaged in the construction of a country house. Then he appeared with new songs “Orinoco”, “Cossack”, “What a Late Spring”, “Malibu”, “Late Love”.
Music career
Mikhail managed to return to music again only in 1980 - he bought himself a synthesizer and even organized a small recording studio in his apartment. It was within its walls that in 1982 he created the music for the film “Simply Horror.”
Mikhail Muromov at the beginning of his creative career
In the same year, Muromov recorded his debut song, “Blue Wing Bird,” which he performed together with Olga Zarubina. However, from his debut performance, the singer began to be mercilessly cut off from television. According to the artist himself, first the Union of Composers was against him, and then Alla Pugacheva herself. His songs of subsequent years - “Blizzard” and “Stewardess” - were played everywhere at first, except on radio and television.
Everything changed after the release of “Apples in the Snow” in 1986, which instantly became a #1 hit in the entire country for a long time. It became increasingly difficult to pretend that Muromov did not exist on television; in addition, the singer was helped by the host of the “Wider Circle!” program. Olga Molchanova, who got him into her program. In 1988, Muromov released the lyrical songs “Strange Woman” and “Ariadne” based on poems by Larisa Rubalskaya. The handsome and attractive singer instantly fell in love with millions of Soviet women, and they began to invite him to “Songs of the Year” concerts.
Mikhail Muromov and Larisa Rubalskaya
Men also appreciated Muromov’s work, especially after the release of his Afghan song cycle, with which he toured the USSR and Afghanistan itself during the war in support of soldiers. His soulful fighting songs quickly became quotable, and in 1992, Mikhail even received the Medal of Glory from the Democratic Youth Organization of Afghanistan.
Mikhail Muromov disappeared from show business at the peak of his fame
In the early 1990s, at the peak of his fame, Mikhail suddenly disappeared from show business. He decided to devote this time to solving personal problems - first he built a large country house for his mother, and later he struggled with alcoholism.
Since 1997, his career began to develop again, but at his concerts the singer performed mainly old hits that the public loved so much. In 2001, Mikhail pleased listeners with a new disc called “Names for All Times,” and in 2005 he released an album with his main hits called “Grand Collection.”
How does the singer live now?
In Soviet times, singer Mikhail Muromov was paid a fixed amount for one concert - 14 rubles, and for performing at a stadium - 28 rubles. Of course, he was far from being paid to the mega-stars of the Soviet stage (Magomaev and Kobzon received 300 rubles for one stadium concert, and Pugacheva received the entire 1000 rubles). But Mikhail did not complain, he had enough, since he gave a lot of concerts.
Today, the singer still continues to perform, but not as much as before. He travels around Russian cities, in Moscow he sings in clubs and at corporate parties. Sometimes they pay very well. Mikhail is pleased with the way the public treats him; people respect him for singing live.
Once Muromov had to sing in Podolsk at a gangster gathering. Three teams arrived at a large and expensive restaurant, all dressed in gold and diamonds. But what struck the singer most of all was their polite attitude towards him. And speaking in Mordovia in front of old people at the Day of Older People, Mikhail first sang, and then began to recite the poetry of Gumilyov and Merezhkovsky by heart. After reading four poems, he decided to continue the concert, and his grandparents shouted in one voice: “Don’t, read on!”
Sometimes Muromov’s musical compositions are bought for remixes and decent money is paid for it. So the singer does not experience financial problems. He is going to make his dreams come true - to write a book about the back side of the stage and draw at least a couple of pictures.
Mikhail is grateful to fate for the fact that in his life there were such songs as “Flight Attendant”, “Captains”, “Warm Showers”, “Blizzard”, and, of course, “Apples on the Snow”. As the singer himself says: “Not everyone can sing the USSR anthem, but every resident of our country knows the words from “Yabloki...”.” Such a long audience memory makes him very happy.
Mikhail Muromov now
Now Mikhail Vladimirovich periodically appears on the stage. He participates in Retro-FM radio broadcasts and also performs at the radio station’s concerts. Photos and videos of Muromov’s performances often appear on his Instagram page.
In the fall of 2020, he took part in a gala concert at the State Kremlin Palace “Hits of the 20th Century” along with Soviet pop stars Yuri Antonov, Vyacheslav Dobrynin, Lev Leshchenko and others.
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A post shared by Mikhail Muromov (@mmuromov) on Nov 7, 2020 at 8:19am PST
Mikhail Muromov and Andrey Malakhov
In September, the film crew of the “While Everyone is Home” program visited the singer. The artist received Timur Kizyakov in the company of his relatives. Despite the fact that his relatives are second cousins and brothers, Mikhail is very friendly with them. Muromov spoke about his pedigree, which is rich in extraordinary personalities. The singer also mentioned that he had saved several people during his life, and more than once at these moments he himself was in danger.
Personal life
Muromov's personal life was always very stormy, but he officially married only once. While studying, I met a young graduate student, Tamara Nikolaevna. Their love was crazy, the wedding was celebrated luxuriously in the mirrored hall of the Prague restaurant for one hundred guests. But soon Mikhail realized that marriage was not for him. The young man was constantly captivated by new love relationships. Tamara found out about this, so their marriage lasted only three years. Now the former spouses maintain friendly relations, occasionally call each other and communicate.
About the other women, Mikhail says that for him they are like a global cosmic theme. He abused them too much, how many there were before and after the wedding is impossible to count. The singer has the same situation with children. There were no children in his marriage to Tamara, and Muromov cannot even guess how many were born out of wedlock. He recognized four illegitimate sons (Mikhail, Kostya, Pavel and Arthur), and helped them financially until they reached adulthood. But now the children are adults and don’t really pamper their dad with their attention.
Personal life of Mikhail Muromov
The artist does not hide the fact that he had many women, incl. and during the period when he was married: “Women for me are such a global-cosmic theme. I overuse them too much. I can’t count how many of them I had before and after marriage, as well as during it.”
There were legends about Muromov's novels. He was credited with having a love affair with many famous actresses and singers. However, he himself considers his relationship with Svetlana Shevchenko, who at the time of meeting Mikhail was working as deputy director of a thrift store, to be one of the most striking and dramatic moments of his life. “I couldn’t resist her. She's in front of me, apparently, too. Unfortunately, then Sveta was caught for some violations and imprisoned for seven years,” the singer recalled.
Was married once. The wife's name was Tamara. The marriage lasted three years. During this time, the couple did not have any children together.
As the artist said, he remained on good terms with his ex-wife. “We are still friends with her, we occasionally call each other and communicate. She is a professor, a specialist in polymers. At one time she headed a plant for the production of packaging materials for dairy products. We met when we were graduate students. We had crazy love. But our marriage lasted only three years - from 1973 to 1976. I quickly realized that family life was not my thing. I was captivated by new love interests. And Tamara was too jealous,” he said about his only marriage.
“We didn’t have children in our marriage to Tamara. And there were about as many of them outside marriage as there were cities in the USSR. According to physiognomic and anthropological data, I recognized several sons as my own. I raised them until they were 18 and paid for everything for them. In theory, now my sons should help me. But they don’t really pamper me with their attention,” he said.
It is precisely known about Muromov’s four illegitimate sons - Mikhail, Nikolai, Pavel and Arthur. They are all born from different women.
