The underrated 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 believed that Ilya Kormiltsev was much more than anything that was done to him. His pursuits and interests were surprisingly diverse. He was engaged in poetry, prose, music, cinema, history, translations, publishing. Friends endowed him with unique qualities, combining a sharp mind and infinite goodwill.
Small homeland
The date of birth of Ilya Kormiltsev is September 26, 1959. The poet's native city was Yekaterinburg (at that time Sverdlovsk). His parents divorced early, the boy stayed with his mother. Grandmother on the part of her father took an active part in the education of Ilya. Also a great influence on growing up had a future poet's passion for reading. In Sverdlovsk, he graduated from a special school with a focus 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 Department of Chemistry. Then he returned to his small homeland as a student of the Ural State University, graduating in 1981 in the same specialty. During his student days, the future chemist wrote poetry, was busy working in the popular 220-volt disco, and had a secret addiction to making and exploding bombs. After university, he wrote the lyrics to the songs, working with the Urfin Djus group. He participated in the authorship of the songs of the Sverdlovsk rock club, which included: Nastya Poleva, Yegor Belkin, the group "Grandchildren of Engels", the group "Cocktail" and the group "Kunstkamera".
With Nautilus
In eighty-third, 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 "Chained in one chain." It was a bold challenge to a real rebel towards the Soviet Caesura. The joint project of the Nautilus Pompilius band 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”, “Just to be”. The album earned the title of the best collection of those years. Interestingly, Ilya Kormiltsev wrote the song "Casanova" just before the recording. The band’s musicians did not expect it to become a national hit.
Music break
In 1988, Ilya Kormiltsev and Butusov stopped working together. The author of the Nautilov hits decided to take up publishing, edited the Sverdlovsk magazine "We and Culture Today". At this time, he made his living by 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 the ninetieth year, Kormiltsev wrote a collection of poems "Chained in One Chain." Upon release, it was framed by drawings made by Vyacheslav Butusov. In 1992, he resumed work in the group, moved to Moscow, became the producer of the project “Report for 10 years” and continued to write lyrics (“Tutankhamun”, “Black Birds”, “Morning of Polina”, “Wings”, “People on the Hill” ") until the collapse of Nautilus in 1997.
"Aliens"
In the late nineties, Ilya Kormiltsev together with the former instrumentalist of Nautilus Pompilius Oleg Sakmarov implemented the electronic project “Aliens” that was ahead of the time. In 1999, the album was recorded. It included the songs "Skydiver", "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 became understandable and popular only to a narrow circle of listeners.
Work as a translator
Ilya Kormiltsev from early childhood had an amazing ability to learn languages. He himself admitted that he did not know the exact number of dialects known to him. Friends of the poet say that Ilya was not difficult to learn a new language in a day. Therefore, it is not surprising that translations became one more thing of life after music for him. He translated for "Foreign Literature", "Foreigners" and other magazines and publishers, leaving many works:
- W. Burroughs' novels - "Western Lands" and "Space of the Dead Roads";
- the works of G. Adera - "Love and Death on Long Island" and "Dreamers";
- the story of L. Bernier - "Treasure of the Mamasites";
- poems by L. Jones;
- E. Kosinsky - "Ferris Wheel", "Gardener", "Steps";
- the novel of F. Berdebeder - "Vacations in a coma";
- novel by O. Colfer - "Four Desires";
- the story of F. Brown - "Do not look back";
- the novel by B. Ellis - "Glamor";
- the story of F. MacDonald - "Our Feathered Friends";
- I. Welsh - "On the Needle", "Party What You Need";
- M. Welbeck - poems;
- plays by T. Stoppard - "An Artist Walking Down the Stairs", "Day and Night", "Travesty, or Comedy with Changing Clothes";
- novels by R. Brotigan - "Lawn Revenge", "Trout Fishing in America";
- A. Crowley - Cocaine;
- R. Gulik's novel - "Chinese Killing";
- S. Home's work - “Rise (c) before Christ and kill love”;
- storybook S. Logan;
- poems by F. Manatee;
- verses by A. Ginsberg;
- the novel by N. Cave - "And the donkey of the angel of God will see";
- C. Lewis novel - “Until We Found Faces”;
- novel by C. Palanika - Fight Club;
- P. Oster’s novel “Timbuktu”;
- the story of W. Sensome - "The Vertical Staircase";
- L. Ferlinghetti - The Dog;
- the story of R. Westall - "Hitchhiker";
- Tales of D. Tolkien - "Farmer Giles from Ham", "The Blacksmith of Big Wootton", "The Apparition of Tuor to Gondolin";
- M. Faber’s novels - “Quintet Courage”, “Stay in my shoes”.
For high-quality translations, Ilya Kormiltsev was awarded three times the prize of the journal "Foreign Literature".
"Ultra.Culture"
Publisher Ilya Kormiltsev "Ultra.Kultura" was created in conjunction with the group "U-Factor" in 2003. This was an attempt to publish real literature, which, according to Kormiltsev, should have the courage, challenge and freedom of thought. The publishing house published "forbidden literature" by such scandalous authors as Eduard Limonov, Adam Parfrey, Lidia Lunch, Alina Vitukhnovskaya, Boris Kagarlitsky, Ernesto Che Guevara, Dmitry Gayduk, Andrey Bychkov, Subcomandante Marcos, Alexander Prokhanov, Vadim Shtepa. After the release of one of the provocative books (Dmitry Nesterov, “Skins. Russia Awakens”), Kormiltsev was suspended from work at the Foreigner Publishing House.
"Ultra.Kultura" was accused of distributing pornography, promoting terrorism and drug addiction. In 2004, publishing houses were prohibited from selling. 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 antiheroes of scandalous books appeared to readers as foolish and repulsive personalities, so there was no question of propaganda. Despite this, they were suing the publisher, they tried to lead him to collapse. Which happened in January 2007. It is noteworthy that the song "Broke the Dream" of the group "Agatha Christie" for Ilya Kormiltsev at that moment was one of the most beloved. Her words fully reflected the emotional state of the poet in the early 2000s.
Illness and care
Since October 2007, Kormiltsev began to feel worse. The poet complained of back pain for a long time. But problems with the publisher did not give the opportunity to do health. Seeing a doctor in December was too late. In a London hospital, Kormiltseva was diagnosed with the last stage of spinal cancer with extensive metastases. Friends and relatives of the poet until the last hoped for miraculous healing, announced the collection of money for treatment. Kormiltsev himself until the last day kept his spirits, talked about the future, made creative plans, wrote poems. He believed that there would be a specialist with a special, unconventional 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 angel smile on his lips. The funeral took place on February 9th. The burial place was the Troekurovsky cemetery in Moscow. The memorial service, the venue of which was a large hall in the House of Writers, was attended by Nautilus musicians (Dmitry Umetsky and Alexey Mogilevsky), the creators of the Agatha Christie band (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 were not left indifferent by Kormiltsev’s departure.
Family relationships
Kormiltsev 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 is a musician of the band Nim_b. Eugene recalls his brother with warmth and love. The musician admits that he really lacks an older brother. For him, Ilya was a very big person who taught a lot - basically the ability to be critical of the whole surrounding reality, including himself.
Ilya Kormiltsev was married three times. From the first two wives - Svetlana and Marina - the poet left a daughter Lisa and two sons - Stas and Ignat. The eldest son, Stas, gave Kormiltsev a grandson, Luka, with whom, due to his busy work, his grandfather spoke mostly on Skype. The third wife - Belarusian singer Mankovskaya Alesya Adolfovna was 15 years younger than Kormiltsev. She remained with her husband until her last breath. In this marriage, the daughter of Carolina was born.
Memory
The departure of Kormiltsev became tragic for many, so he did not remain without respectful attention:
- In London, Lincoln's Inn Fields in 2008 installed a bench.
- In 2009, an evening was held in memory of the poet in honor of his fiftieth birthday. He went to the club "Bi-2".
- The artist Alexander Korotich designed the monument to Kormiltsev, which was installed at the Troekurovsky cemetery.
- In 2012, the documentary "In vain, you have new songs ..." was shot.
- For Agatha Christie, Ilya Kormiltsev was an inspiration and role model. Therefore, Gleb Samoilov performs "Break the Dream" at every concert.
- In 2014, Ilya Valerievich was awarded the title of “Honorary Citizen of Yekaterinburg”.
- A memorial plaque is installed on the university building where the poet studied.
- The embankment in Yekaterinburg is named after him.
- In his honor, the group "Black Obelisk" wrote the song "Doesn't matter", and the group "Bi-2" shot the clip "Bird on the windowsill."
- In 2016 he was awarded posthumously the Chart Dozen Prize.
- In 2017, Alexander Kushnir wrote a book of memory: “The breadwinners. Space as a memory.”
Porthole
The album of songs written in the words of Ilya Kormiltsev "Porthole" was created in 2016. It is dedicated to the decade 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 "Picnic", "Kalinov bridge", "Tea", "Kukryniksy", "Dancing minus", "Semantic hallucinations", "Aquarium" and others. The CD with the Porthole recording is accompanied by a booklet consisting of sixty pages with photographs and lyrics.
Awards
A special award "For Honor and Dignity" Ilya Kormiltsev was awarded posthumously, being the laureate of the national prize "Big Book".
In November 2007, the editor of Ultra.Kultury Vladimir Kharitonov instituted a new prize named after Ilya Kormiltsev. This award will be able to receive radical authors who write alternative works.
Memories of relatives and friends
Everyone who was familiar with Ilya Kormiltsev speaks of him as a bright, extraordinary person with encyclopedic knowledge and a constant desire for freedom.
He is remembered as an excellent conversationalist with whom it is interesting to spend time. Many artists are grateful to him for the success in the work that he helped to achieve. According to relatives, Ilya Kormiltsev is a talented, sparkling, intelligent, open, charming, cheerful person who passionately loved life and was eager to change the world for the better.