Yuri Gagarin The First Man in Space

 

 

  Who Was Yuri Gagarin?

On board Vostok 1, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made history on April 12, 1961 when he became both the first person in the world to enter space and the first person to orbit the Earth. Dates: March 9, 1934 -- March 27, 1968
Also Known As: Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, Yury Gagarin, Kedr (call sign)

Childhood of Yuri Gagarin

Yuri Gagarin was born in Klushino, a small village west of Moscow in Russia (then known as the Soviet Union). Yuri was the third of four children and spent his childhood on a collective farm where his father, Alexey Ivanovich Gagarin, worked as a carpenter and bricklayer and his mother, Anna Timofeyevna Gagarina, worked as a milkmaid. In 1941, Yuri Gagarin was just seven years old when the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union. Life was difficult during the war and the Gagarins were kicked out of their home. The Nazis also sent Yuri's two sisters to Germany to work as forced laborers.

Gagarin Learns to Fly

In school, Yuri Gagarin loved both mathematics and physics. He continued on to a trade school, where he learned to be a metalworker and then went on to an industrial school. It was at the industrial school in Saratov that he joined a flying club. Gagarin learned quickly and was obviously at ease in a plane. He made his first solo flight in 1955. Since Gagarin had discovered a love of flying, he joined the Soviet Air Force. Gagarin's skills led him to the Orenburg Aviation School where he learned to fly MiGs. On the same day he graduated from Orenburg with top honors in November 1957, Yuri Gagarin married his sweetheart, Valentina ("Valy") Ivanovna Goryacheva. (The couple eventually had two daughters together.)
After graduating, Gagarin was sent on some missions. However, while Gagarin enjoyed being a fighter pilot, what he really wanted to do was to go to space. Since he had been following the Soviet Union's progress in space flight, he was confident that soon they would be sending a man into space. He wanted to be that man; so he volunteered to be a cosmonaut.

Gagarin Applies to Be a Cosmonaut

Yuri Gagarin was just one of 3,000 applicants to be the first Soviet cosmonaut. Out of this large pool of applicants, just 20 were chosen in 1960 to be the Soviet Union's first cosmonauts; Gagarin was one of the 20. During the extensive physical and psychological testing required of the chosen cosmonaut trainees, Gagarin excelled at the tests while maintaining a calm demeanor as well as his sense of humor. Later, Gagarin would be chosen to be the first man into space because of these skills. (It also helped that he was short in stature since Vostok 1's capsule was small.) Cosmonaut trainee Gherman Titov was chosen to be the backup in case Gagarin was unable to make the first space flight.

Launch of Vostok 1

On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin boarded Vostok 1 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Although he was fully trained for the mission, no one knew if it was going to be a success or a failure. Gagarin was to be the very first human being in space, truly going where no man had gone before.
Minutes before the launch, Gagarin gave a speech, which included:

You must realize that it is hard to express my feeling now that the test for which we have been training long and passionately is at hand. I don't have to tell you what I felt when it was suggested that I should make this flight, the first in history. Was it joy? No, it was something more than that. Pride? No, it was not just pride. I felt great happiness. To be the first to enter the cosmos, to engage single handed in an unprecedented duel with nature - could anyone dream of anything greater than that? But immediately after that I thought of the tremendous responsibility I bore: to be the first to do what generations of people had dreamed of; to be the first to pave the way into space for mankind.^*

Vostok 1, with Yuri Gagarin inside, launched on schedule at 9:07 a.m. Moscow Time. Just after lift-off, Gagarin reputedly called out, "Poyekhali!" ("Off we go!")
Gagarin was rocketed into space, using an automated system. Gagarin did not control the spacecraft during his mission; however, in case of an emergency, Gagarin could have opened an envelope left on board for the override code. He was not given the controls to the spacecraft because many scientists were worried about the psychological effects of being in space (i.e. they were worried he would go mad).
After entering space, Gagarin completed a single orbit around Earth. The Vostok 1's top speed reached 28,260 kph (about 17,600 mph). At the end of the orbit, Vostok 1 reentered the Earth's atmosphere. When Vostok 1 was still about 7 km (4.35 miles) from the ground, Gagarin ejected (as planned) from the spacecraft and used a parachute to land safely.
From launch (at 9:07 a.m.) to Vostok 1 touching down on the ground (10:55 a.m.) was 108 minutes, a number often used to describe this mission. Gagarin landed safely with his parachute about ten minutes after Vostok 1. The calculation of 108 minutes is used because the fact that Gagarin ejected from the spacecraft and parachuted to the ground was kept secret for many years. (The Soviets did this to get around a technicality about how flights were officially recognized at the time.)
Right before Gagarin landed (near the village of Uzmoriye, near the Volga River), a local farmer and her daughter spotted Gagarin floating down with his parachute. Once on the ground, Gagarin, dressed in an orange spacesuit and wearing a large white helmet, terrified the two women. It took Gagarin a few minutes to convince them that he too was Russian and to direct him to the nearest phone.
 http://history1900s.about.com/od/1960s/a/yurigagarin.htm

A Profile of Pyotr Tchaikovsky

Death:                                                              

November 6, 1893 - St. Petersburg

Tchaikovsky Facts:

• Above all the other composers, Tchaikovsky adored Mozart. He once referred to Mozart as "the musical Christ." Of other composers, Wagner bored him and he detested Brahms.
• Tchaikovsky was a shy person, a quality that intensified to almost manic like proportions. He once wrote in his diary that he could hold "incredibly animated conversations" with people but would rather "flee from them to the ends of the world."
• Tchaikovsky struggled with his sexuality and worked hard to keep his homosexuality a secret.

Tchaikovsky's Childhood:

Tchaikovsky was born to a fairly wealthy middle class family. His father, Ilya Petrovich (a two time divorcee) married Alexandra and the two had two sons, Pyotr and Modest. Tchaikovsky was a precocious child having learned to read French and German by the age of six. A year later, he was writing French verses. The family hired a governess to keep watch over the children, and she often referred to Tchaikovsky as the "porcelain child." Tchaikovsky, was ultra sensitive to music and was placed into piano lessons at a young age. He would complain at night that the music in his head would not let him sleep.

Tchaikovsky's Teenage Years:

When Pyotr was 10 years old, his family enrolled him into the School of Jurisprudence for a career in civil service, not fully comprehending his remarkable musical talent. Because the minimum acceptance age was 12, Pyotr was sent to boarding school. After turning 12, he entered into the senior classes at the school. Apart from singing in choir, he did not seriously study music. It wasn't until after he graduated in 1859, that he began to study music. In 1862, Pyotr began taking classes with Nikolai Zaremba at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. In 1863, Pyotr quit his day job as clerk at the Ministry of Justice.

Tchaikovksy's Early Adult Life:

After quitting his day job, Tchaikovsky devoted his life to music. Under the mentorship of Anton Rubenstein (director of the conservatory), Tchaikovsky went through the conservatory's curriculum. Aside from musical studies, he also studied conducting. Tchaikovsky had an immense fear of it, and would often hold his chin with his left hand while conducting after once imagining his head falling off his shoulders. Though he was not the best conductor, he was one of the best music students. In 1866, Tchaikovsky took a job as a harmony teacher for the Moscow Conservatory with Rubenstein's recommendation.

Tchaikovsky's Mid Adult Life, pt. 1:

In 1868, he had a brief flirtation with soprano Desiree Artot, but she later married a Spanish baritone. Though his personal life may have been unsuccessful, Tchaikovsky was steadily completing composition after composition. In 1875, Tchaikovsky's world premiere of his third symphony was given in Boston on October 25, and was conducted by Hans von Bulow. Despite there being pockets of opposition towards his music, his works and reputation began to spread across Europe. In 1877, he married a beautiful young woman named Anotonina Miliukova, but divorced her 9 weeks later because she "possessed little intelligence."

Tchaikovsky's Mid Adult Life, pt. 2:

During the same year of his disastorous marriage, Tchaikovsky also entered into another relationship - only instead of meeting face to face, they communicated through letters. This worked out very well for him given his extreme shyness, and also in part, he did not have to consummate the relationship. The woman was Nadeshda von Meck. Though it is unclear why she did not want to meet him, she sent him money as she greatly admired his work. Despite what it seemed on the outside, inside Tchaikovsky was emotionally troubled, weeping and doubting himself very often, and took to alcohol as a form of relief.

Tchaikovsky's Late Adult Life:

After enjoying numerous successes and frequent travels, Pyotr's money and letters from Meck came to a halt. In 1890, she claimed to be broke, though that wasn't the case. It wasn't the loss of the money that had greatly upset him, it was the sudden termination of his emotional companion of 13 years. This was a low blow for the already emotionally sensitive composer. In 1891, he fled to the US after receiving an invitation to the opening week of New York's Music Hall (which was renamed Carnegie Hall a few years later). He visited Niagara Falls and conducted in Philadelphia and Baltimore before returning to Russia.

The Death of Tchaikovsky:

Though there are many rumors about Tchaikovsky's cause of death, the most widely accepted explanation is that he died of cholera after drinking a glass of water that wasn't boiled. He died less than one week after premiering what is considered to be his greatest work, Symphony Pathetique. 

  http://classicalmusic.about.com/od/classicalcomposers/p/tchaikovsky.htm

Rudolf Nureyev

The Russian-born dancer and choreographer (a composer of dance) Rudolph Nureyev captured international acclaim as the greatest male ballet dancer of the 1960s and 1970s. His versatility (the ability to change easily) and energy were expressed in countless classical and modern roles, on both stage and screen.

Childhood

Rudolf Hametovich Nureyev was born on March 17, 1938, on a train travelling to Vladivostok in Russia, where his father was an instructor of Soviet soldiers. He was the youngest of the four children of Hamet and Farida Nureyev, who came from Asiatic Mongol ancestry. At the outbreak of World War II (1939–45; a war fought between the Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, and Japan—and the Allies: England, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States), his father joined the Soviet army and the family moved to Moscow, Russia. There, Nureyev, along with his three older sisters, grew up in terrible poverty, and the Nureyevs were forced to live with other families. At school he did not fair any better. Constantly teased and harassed by his fellow students for being raised so poor, Nureyev grew up lonely and isolated. But the young boy found enjoyment in one thing—music.

Rudolf Nureyev.
Reproduced by permission of

Archive Photos, Inc.

Nureyev, despite early discouragement from his parents, began his dancing career with amateur folk dance groups and the Ufa Opera Ballet. At the age of seventeen he entered the Leningrad Ballet School to study with the outstanding teacher Alexander Pushkin. After three years of training he joined the Kirov Ballet as a soloist, dancing full length roles in Don Quixote, Gayane, Giselle, La Bayadere, The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and The Sleeping Beauty.

Earning fame

Nureyev's offstage reputation was equally sensational, bringing him constant trouble with both the Kirov management and the Russian political authorities. In the Kirov's first-ever appearance in Paris, France, in 1961, Nureyev was an outstanding success, yet his resistance of company regulations sparked a command return to Moscow. On June 17, 1961, Nureyev cut his ties with the Soviet Union (the former country that consisted of Russia and several smaller nations) seeking political asylum (political protection) at Le Bourget Airport in Paris, France.
Within five days, Nureyev embarked on a six-month season with the international Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas, dancing the Prince and the Blue Bird in The Sleeping Beauty. As partner to Rosella Hightower, he made his London, England, debut in October 1961 at the Royal Academy of Dancing, where he met the ballerina Margot Fonteyn (1919–1991), who became his principal partner for many years. He became a regular guest artist with the Royal Ballet from 1962 to the mid-1970s, in addition to performing with Ruth Page's Chicago Opera Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and on U.S. and French television.
With an inexhaustible stamina, Nureyev continued to perform at a nonstop pace, acquiring over ninety roles and appearances with over thirty major ballet and modern dance companies. Frederick Ashton (1904–1988), the British choreographer, was the first to create a role specifically for Nureyev in Marguerite and Armand in March 1963. Nureyev's own first production was the last act of La Bayadere for the Royal Ballet in November 1963, and his first reconstruction was the nineteenth-century three-act classic Raymonda for the Royal Ballet in June 1964. His fascination with modern dance, which led to performances with American choreographers Martha Graham (1893–1991), Murray Louis, and Paul Taylor, began with Rudi Van Dantzig's Monument for a Dead Boy with the Dutch National Ballet in December 1968. He broke into film in 1972 with his directing debut of his own production of Don Quixote in Melbourne, Australia, and the creation of the film I Am A Dancer. The film Rudolph Valentino, directed by Ken Russell in 1976, gave Nureyev his debut as a film actor.
Self-reliance and a constant drive directed Nureyev's energy into a performing schedule around the world that only Anna Pavlova (1885–1931) could equal. His guest performances were slightly cut back with his assumption (the act of taking for oneself) of a three-year directorship of the Paris Opera Ballet in 1983. A rapidly changing character—shrewd, cunning, charming, and passionate—Nureyev demonstrated a commitment and a savage power equaled by no other dancer in his day. His last stage appearance was for a curtain call at the Palace Garner after the production of his dance La Bayadere had been performed. He succumbed to acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS; a disease that attacks the body's immune system) in Paris on January 6, 1993. He was fifty-four years old. "Any time you dance," Nureyev once said in an interview in Entertainment Weekly, "what you do must be sprayed with your blood."

Read more: http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ni-Pe/Nureyev-Rudolf.html#ixzz2kK5QNL3M

Mikhail Gorbachev

Biography >> Cold War

Mikhail Gorbachev

• Occupation: Leader of the Soviet Union
• Born: March 2, 1931
• Best known for: Bringing reform to the Soviet Union and helping to end the Cold War.
• Nickname: The Marked One

Biography:

Mikhail Gorbachev was the last leader of the Soviet Union before it dissolved in 1991. He brought many reforms to the Soviet Union including new freedoms which eventually led to many countries breaking away from the union claiming independence. His relationships with western leaders such as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher helped bring an end to the Cold War.

Where did Mikhail grow up?

Mikhail was born in Stavropol, Russia on March 2, 1931. His parents both worked in agriculture. Mikhail also worked in agriculture while attending school. His childhood was filled with difficult events. In 1933 a famine swept through much of Russia. Two of his sisters and an uncle died during the famine. In 1937 his grandfather was arrested for supporting the followers of Leon Trotsky. Later, in 1942, his town was occupied by the Germans in World War II.

In 1950 Mikhail went to Moscow University where he received a degree in law. He also met his wife Raisa Titorenko there and joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).

Rising in the Communist Party

After graduating in 1955, Gorbachev first worked as a member of the Communist Youth Organization. He became the leader of the division in Stavropol. In 1961 he was selected to be the delegate for Stavropol at the 22nd Communist Party Congress in Moscow.

Over the next several years Gorbachev became a leader in the Communist Party. First, in 1970, he became First Secretary for the entire Stavropol territory. Then, 1971, he moved to Moscow as the Secretary of Agriculture.

Mikhail quickly became a force in Moscow gaining influence with such powerful leaders as Yuri Andropov (KGB leader who later became leader of the Soviet Union). In 1980 Gorbachev was selected to be a member of the Politburo, the most powerful group in the Communist Party. He was the youngest member of the Politburo.

Becoming the Leader of the Soviet Union

Within a few short years, Gorbachev gained considerable influence on the Politburo. After two aging leaders died in 1984 and 1985, the Communist Party wanted someone young and healthy to take over as leader. On March 11, 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev became the General Secretary of the Soviet Union.

When Gorbachev took over as leader, the Soviet economy was struggling. He wanted to reform the economy as well as the government. In order to do this he needed support, so he began to replace some of the older members of the politburo with younger men who shared his vision.

Glasnost and Perestroika

Gorbachev announced two main areas of reform. He called them Glasnost and Perestroika. Glasnost called for increased openness in government. It also allowed for some freedom of speech and less censorship. Perestroika was a restructuring of the economy and industry. It allowed for some private ownership and economic reforms to try and improve the Soviet economy.

Peace with the West

Gorbachev also made attempts to end the Cold War and improve relations with the west. He met with US President Ronald Reagan and signed the INF treaty regarding nuclear weapons. He also removed Soviet troops from Afghanistan ending the Soviet Afghanistan War.

Gorbachev and Reagan signing the INF treaty

Gorbachev also indicated that the Soviet Union would no longer interfere with other countries in Eastern Europe. This caused a major change in the world. Without the fear of the Soviet Union, countries such as Eastern Germany, Poland, and Hungary got rid of their communist governments. In 1989 the Berlin Wall in Germany was torn down.

1991 Coup Attempt

In August of 1991, communist "hardliners" who didn't agree with Gorbachev's reforms tried to take over the government. They kidnapped Gorbachev and said he was sick and couldn't rule. Soon protests grew and Gorbachev was set free, but the damage to the government had been done.

Collapse of the Soviet Union

Although Gorbachev's reforms allowed for more freedom, many states used this freedom to protest and eventually claim independence from the Soviet Union. By the end of 1991, the Soviet Union had collapsed. On December 25, 1991 Gorbachev resigned as leader of the Soviet Union and the Union was split into 15 separate countries.

Later Activities

Since resigning Gorbachev has remain involved in politics. He started new political parties in Russia and even ran for president in 1996 (he didn't win). Recently he has criticized the rule of President Vladimir Putin.

Interesting Facts About Gorbachev

• He was heavily influenced by his grandfather who taught him about Marxism and Lenin.
• He had one child, a daughter named Irina.
• Gorbachev has received many awards for his work including the St. Andrew Award from Russia, the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award, the Indira Gandhi Prize, and the Nobel Peace Prize (1990).
• He has a large birth mark on his forehead which led to the nickname "The Marked Man".
• He was in a Pizza Hut commercial in 1997 with his granddaughter Anastasia.
• He once said "If what you have done yesterday still looks big to you, you haven't done much today."
•  http://www.ducksters.com/biography/world_leaders/mikhail_gorbachev.php

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Biography of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov  

Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (Russian: Николай Андреевич Римский-Корсаков, Nikolaj Andreevič Rimskij-Korsakov), also Nikolay, Nicolai, and Rimsky-Korsakoff, (March 6 (N.S. March 18), 1844 – June 8 (N.S. June 21) 1908) was a Russian composer, the best known of five Russian composers known as The Five, and was later a teacher of harmony and orchestration. He is particularly noted for a predilection for folk and fairy-tale subjects, and for his extraordinary skill in orchestration, which may have been influenced by his synesthesia.

Born at Tikhvin, 200 km east of St. Petersburg, into an aristocratic family, Rimsky-Korsakov showed musical ability from an early age, but studied at the Russian Imperial Naval College in St. Petersburg and subsequently joined the Russian Navy. It was only when he met Mily Balakirev in 1861 that he began to concentrate more seriously on music. Balakirev encouraged him to compose and taught him when he was not at sea. (A fictionalized episode of Rimsky-Korsakov's navy service forms the plot of the motion picture Song of Scheherazade (1947), the musical score adapted by Miklós Rózsa.) Through Balakirev he also met the other composers of the group that were to become known as "The Mighty Handful" (better known in English-speaking countries as "The Five"). While in the navy (partly on a world cruise), Rimsky-Korsakov completed his first symphony (1861-1865). This is sometimes claimed to be the first symphony by a Russian, but Anton Rubinstein composed his own first symphony in 1850. Before resigning his commission in 1873, Rimsky-Korsakov also completed the first version of his well known orchestral piece Sadko (1867) and the opera The Maid of Pskov (1872). These three are among several early works which the composer revised later in life.

In 1871, despite being largely group- and self-educated within The Five rather than being conservatory-trained, Rimsky-Korsakov became professor of composition and orchestration at the St Petersburg Conservatory. The next year he married Nadezhda Nikolayevna Purgol'd (1848-1919), who was also a pianist and composer. During his first few years at the Conservatory, Rimsky-Korsakov assiduously studied harmony and counterpoint in order to make up for the lack of such thorough training during his years with The Five.

In 1883 Rimsky-Korsakov worked under Balakirev in the Court Chapel as a deputy. This post gave him the chance to study Russian Orthodox church music. He worked there until 1894. He also became a conductor, leading symphony concerts sponsored by Mitrofan Belyayev (M. P. Belaieff), as well as some programs abroad.

In 1905 Rimsky-Korsakov was removed from his professorship in St Petersburg owing to his expressing some political views of which the authorities disapproved. This sparked a series of resignations by his fellow faculty members, and he was eventually reinstated. The political controversy continued with his opera The Golden Cockerel (Le Coq d'Or) (1906-1907), whose implied criticism of monarchy upset the censors to the point that the premiere was delayed until 1909, after the composer's death.

Towards the end of his life, Rimsky-Korsakov suffered from angina. He died in Lyubensk in 1908, and was interred in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg. His widow Nadezhda spent the rest of her life preserving the composer's legacy.

The Rimsky-Korsakovs had seven children: Mikhail (b.1873), Sofia (b.1875), Andrey (1878-1940), Vladimir (b.1882), Nadezhda (b.1884), Margarita (1888-1893), and Slavchik (1889-1890). Their daughter Nadezhda married the Russian composer Maximilian Steinberg in 1908. Andrey was a musicologist who wrote a multi-volume study of his father's life and work, which included a chapter devoted to his mother, Nadezhda. A nephew, Georgy Mikhaylovich Rimsky-Korsakov (1901-1965), was also a composer.


Legacy

In his decades at the Conservatory Rimsky-Korsakov taught many composers who would later find fame, including Alexander Glazunov, Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Stravinsky, Ottorino Respighi, and Artur Kapp.

Rimsky-Korsakov's legacy goes far beyond his compositions and his teaching career. His tireless efforts in editing the works of other members of The Five are significant, if controversial. These include the completion of Alexander Borodin's opera Prince Igor (with Alexander Glazunov), orchestration of passages from César Cui's William Ratcliff for the first production in 1869, and the complete orchestration of Alexander Dargomyzhsky's swansong, The Stone Guest. This effort was a practical extension of the fact that Rimsky-Korsakov's early works had been under the intense scrutiny of Balakirev and that the members of The Five during the 1860s and 1870s experienced each other's compositions-in-progress and even collaborated at times.

While the effort for his colleagues is laudable, it is not without its problems for musical reception. In particular, after the death of Modest Mussorgsky in 1881, Rimsky-Korsakov took on the task of revising and completing several of Mussorgsky's pieces for publication and performance. In some cases these versions helped to spread Mussorgsky's works to the West, but Rimsky-Korsakov has been accused of pedantry for "correcting" matters of harmony, etc., in the process. Rimsky-Korsakov's arrangement of Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain is the version generally performed today. However, critical opinion of Mussorgsky has changed over time so that his style, once considered unpolished, is now valued for its originality. This has caused some of Rimsky-Korsakov's other revisions, such as that of Boris Godunov, to fall out of favour and be replaced by productions more faithful to Mussorgsky's original manuscripts.

Although his operas are seldom performed outside of Russia, the music has been widely performed and recorded through the orchestral suites that he compiled from the scores, particularly in the case of Mlada, Tsar Saltan, and Le Coq d'Or. The music of his last opera is remarkably modern for its time and the four-movement suite extracted from its score has enjoyed considerable popularity via concerts and recordings.

His autobiography and his books on harmony and orchestration have been translated into English and published, providing remarkable insights into his life and work.

 http://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Nikolai_Rimsky-Korsakov

Zemfira Ramazanova

Show count:  93

Zemfira, officially Zemfira Talgatovna Ramazanova, Russian rock musician, she was born on August 26, 1976 in Ufa, Bashkortostan. She has been performing since 1998 and has been popular in Russia and other former Soviet republics.
An ethnic Bashkir, she was born in a middle-class family – her mother is a doctor, and her father is a history teacher. At the age of 4, Zemfira became interested in music, entering a music school the following year (where she studied piano performance and voice) and writing her first song when she was seven years old. Her older brother Ramil introduced her to rock music, which became her real passion – she listened to Black Sabbath, Nazareth and Queen, learning to play the guitar. In the 7th grade Zemfira split her time between music and basketball, becoming the captain of the Russian Girls’ Junior Basketball Team by 1990. She began to lose interest in classical music, preferring instead to hang out with friends in the streets of Ufa and covering songs by Russian rock groups such as Kino, Nautilus Pompilius and Aquarium (who reached the peak of their popularity in the early 1990s).
At the urging of her mother, Zemfira continued with piano studies and graduated music school with honors. In her last year of high school, basketball competed with school work, and the singer abandoned the sport in favour of music. She took the entrance exams for the Ufa College of Fine Arts and was admitted into the second year, studying vocal performance. During college, she performed jazz and rock and roll standards in various local bars and restaurants accompanied by her friend, saxophone player Vlad Kolchin. She graduated with honors, and in 1996 took a job as a sound engineer at the Ufa subsidiary of the radio station "Europe Plus".
For the next couple of years Zemfira spent her days making advertisement recordings at the station and her nights on a computer, where she recorded the songs that would later become the singles "Why" (Почему), "Snow" (Снег), and "Weatherman" (Синоптик). In early 1998, Zemfira invited Rinat Akhmadiyev, Sergei Sozinov, Sergei Mirolyubov, and Vadim Solovyov to join Zemfira. Their first professional gig took place on June 19, 1999 as part of a festival celebrating the anniversary of a local radio station Silver Rain Ufa. Shortly after Zemfira sent out promo tapes to multiple Moscow producers, one of whom (Ilya Lagutenko from Mumiy Troll) was smitten with the material, and invited the band for some sessions in Moscow.
On February 14 a collection of music videos was released. It contains all singer's clips, except AIDS and Traffic.
In May and June 2007, Zemfira embarked on a short concert tour titled 'Déjà Vu', with performances held in smaller venues (clubs and small theatres). The tour culminated with a Moscow performance at the Green Theatre which was filmed by Renata Litvinova. The tour program focused on stylish remakes of the singer's top hits, often reworked is styles such as jazz, ska, bossa nova, and blues. A new album, Thank You (Спасибо), was released at the beginning of October. It is described by Zemfira herself as 'very positive', in contrast to what she terms the 'restlessness' of Vendetta.
The final concert in support of Thank You was staged on April 1, 2008 at the Olimpiysky stadium in Moscow; some journalists considered it as the best performance in her career. Later in June Zemfira was awarded an independent Steppenwolf prize established by a musical critic Artemy Troitsky. She won in two categories: The Best Performance (for the Olimpiysky show) and The Best Album (Thank You).
In June 2010, Zemfira wrote on her official website: "vacation is over" and announced a mini-tour in support of a deluxe-edition of her first three albums (Zemfira, PMML and 14 Weeks of Silence). On August 1 she performed a set of 4 songs on the closing concert of a pop-music contest New Wave. It was her first performance since January 2009. The arrangements of this set were used in the mini-tour in September that included 5 cities: Saint-Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Minsk, Kiev and Moscow. Critics admitted that her old songs became more rhythmic and resembled demo-versions due to the new minimalistic style of arrangements. In October Zemfira took part in two tribute concerts "20 Years without KINO" in Moscow and Saint-Petersburg that were dedicated to the memory of Victor Tsoi. Her gig of four covers on Tsoi's songs was seen by some journalists as the most noticeable performance in the program.
On New Year's Eve 2011, the video version of two Moscow concerts staged in Crocus City Hall and Strelka Institute in September 2010 was broadcast on Dozhd' (Rain) TV channel. The video was directed by Renata Litvinova. Then the singer informed her fans that the release of her sixth album had moved to the fall 2011. The first single No Chance (Bez shansov) was presented on Nashe Radio on April 15. During the next three months she gave three performances: on May 28 Zemfira took part in the international rock festival Maxidrom along with The Prodigy, Adam Lambert, Korn, Brainstorm and other artists; then she became a Russian headliner of a Muz-TV Awards ceremony show at Olimpiysky stadium on June 3; on July 23 Zemfira performed at the Afisha Picnic outdoor festival in Moscow as the Russian headliner of the main stage. During that gig she presented a new song called "Money".
Reference:  http://ufacity.info/eng/history/people/127294.html