Arkady Severny
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Arkady Dmitriyevich Severny ( Zvyodzin ; 12 March 1939 – 12 April 1980) was a
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
folk singer. He was very popular in the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
in the 1970s, primarily because of his criminal songs. He sang more than 1,000 songs based on criminal folklore and literature. Severny worked with well-known Russian jazz and restaurant musicians. He recorded more than 80 albums, both solo and orchestral.


Early life

Arkady Dmitriyevich Zvyozdin was born in the town of Ivanovo, near
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
. Contrary to popular belief, in his childhood years he was neither a hooligan nor a poor pupil. He belonged to the so-called "golden youth", with his father occupying a senior position on the Ivanovo railroad. The young Arkady did well at school, and loved to play the
seven-string guitar The seven-string guitar adds one additional string to the more common six-string guitar, commonly used to extend the bass range (usually a low B) or also to extend the treble range. The additional string is added in one of two different ways: b ...
. Owing to a near-
eidetic memory Eidetic memory ( ; more commonly called photographic memory or total recall) is the ability to recall an image from memory with high precision—at least for a brief period of time—after seeing it only onceThe terms ''eidetic memory'' and ''pho ...
, he could perform a large number of songs. His older sister once gave him a thick copybook filled with song lyrics, including numerous prison songs; he quickly learned this peculiar repertoire and eagerly sang such songs in polite company. After graduating from school in 1957, Severny left for
Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, where he enrolled in the S.M. Kirov Forestry Academy, and participated in amateur musical and theatrical productions, including student ensembles that wrote and performed their own songs written in English in the style of Louis Armstrong. Having become completely engrossed in student amateur art, he did not study very diligently and after each term was on the verge of being expelled. Finally, he had to discontinue his studies for a while and took an academic
leave of absence The labour law concept of leave, specifically paid leave or, in some countries' long-form, a leave of absence, is an authorised prolonged absence from work, for any reason authorised by the workplace. When people "take leave" in this way, they are ...
.


First recordings

Once, in the company of friends, Severny sang about a dozen songs, which he recorded on tape. In 1963, his first recordings, with a total recording time of 35–40 minutes, were released. Upon receiving his degree in 1965, he was given an administrative job at SoyuzEksportLes (Wood Export Union). Nevertheless, working in an office environment was of little interest to him; he wanted to sing. In the summer of 1967, Severny became acquainted with one Rudolf Fuchs, a person who recorded singers and songwriters who played the guitar. Fuchs had the idea of producing the novice's first album in the form of a refined hoax, specifically a non-existent radio program, which was allegedly broadcast on the Soviet airwaves. Severny performed prison songs on the radio at the request of the program's listening audience. The fake radio program turned out to be a major success, due to the provocative nature of the songs that were allegedly performed on Soviet radio. The pseudonym Severny was adopted as a matter of style. In the 1960s, many of the Soviet Union's
Gulags The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the State Political Directorate, GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= ...
were located in the north of Russia. Severny, being the Russian word for "northern", fit Severny's carefully cultivated image as a prison singer perfectly. Secondly, the pseudonym served as a cover, since in those years one could actually be sent to prison for giving underground concerts.


Popularity

In 1968, Severny was discharged from the
Soviet Army uk, Радянська армія , image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg , alt = , caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army , start_date ...
, where he had served as lieutenant for a year in a helicopter regiment not far from Leningrad. Having demobilized, the singer learned that during the period of his mandatory service, his popularity as a singer had grown considerably. He then received an invitation from producer Sergei Maklakov. Severny performed his songs throughout an entire evening at Maklakov's residence, resulting in 500 meters of recordings on the now outdated reel-to-reel tape recorder that were quickly disseminated throughout the entire Soviet Union and eventually gave rise to the popularity of the performer's prison songs. It was with great pleasure that music lovers all over the country listened to the singer's slightly hoarse voice performing such revived songs as ''Roast Chicken'', ''School of Ballet Dance'', ''I Lived in Noisy Odessa'', ''Mother, I’m In Love With A Pilot'', ''Tram #10 Passed By'', and many others. During the recording, Severny would shout interjections such as "In Odessa-''"'', "Back when I was in Odessa-", and other similar lyrics, mimicking the style found in the city of Odessa, known for its criminal culture. This, too, was part of his carefully cultivated image. Indeed, many of Severny's listeners actually believed that he was from Odessa.


Death

On 12 April 1980, Severny died from a massive intracerebral hemorrhage while staying at a friend's house in Leningrad. Due to circumstances which are not entirely clear, the urn containing his ashes disappeared before burial could take place. Therefore, his "tomb" in Saint Petersburg is in fact a
cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenot ...
.


Legacy

Severny managed to combine and concentrate practically the entire international lexicon of the "prison song" genre. Moreover, although it was understood that Severny himself performed as a character, and was not himself a criminal, the genre remained one of the most prominent in the 1970s and 1980s underground scene. It should also be noted that the official culture of the Soviet "stagnation" period not only had as its foil the light non-conformism coming from the direction of the intelligentsia, but also the
dark culture Dark culture ( German ''Schwarze Szene''; Portuguese ''cultura obscura''; Spanish ''escena oscura''; Italian ''scena Dark'' or ''scena gotica''), also called dark alternative scene or Darkly-Inclined, includes goth and dark wave culture, most o ...
of the Soviet criminal underworld. Because Severny was not recognized by the authorities as a singer, he became a
cult figure A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. A ...
in the Soviet Union, with the population clamouring to get recordings of his underground concerts. Russian criminal culture thus became an essential integral part of the greater
Russian culture Russian culture (russian: Культура России, Kul'tura Rossii) has been formed by the nation's history, its geographical location and its vast expanse, religious and social traditions, and Western influence. Russian writers and ph ...
.


External links


Northern Encyclopaedia
- Photos, songs in Mp3, art-projects about Arcady Severny, articles.
severnij.dp.ua
- recordings *


Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Severny, Arcady 1939 births 1980 deaths Russian chanson Soviet male singers Seven-string guitarists Saint-Petersburg State Forestry University alumni 20th-century Russian singers 20th-century guitarists 20th-century Russian male singers