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Hi Eric, thanks for taking an interest in the video. It's been some time since I made this video, and I struggled to find the annotations I’d used for writing the script. I wish I’d taken more care to document the research. If there were specific points in the video you were curious about, you can share them here. I think most claims have been pretty well documented, so could probably be verified by double checking online. I’ve since noticed a great deal of new English language online sources arising since I made the video itself. Perhaps those are helpful. Generally though, what really helped me was to use a Google Translate plugin and search Russian language sources. For example, one easy way I got started was following any links from the Russian language Wikipedia article on Tsoi and Kino, using a translate plugin. From there, you can find original sources in their annotations. ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A6%D0%BE%D0%B9,_%D0%92%D0%B8%D0%BA%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80_%D0%A0%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87 ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%BE_(%D0%B3%D1%80%D1%83%D0%BF%D0%BF%D0%B0) For more English language sources, you could search for Joanne Stingray, an American who was part of the scene and married to Yuri, the guitarist from Kino. That said, I did find some old notes and found the following links: www.rferl.org/a/russia-music-kino-tsoi/27185480.html www.nytimes.com/1990/08/22/obituaries/viktor-tsoi-singer-and-songwriter-28-star-of-soviet-rock.html?searchResultPosition=1 vladey.net/en/lot/4131 evg-crystal.ru/kartiny/kartina-coya.html vladey.net/en/lot/3636 meduza.io/en/feature/2017/06/21/how-viktor-tsoi-s-most-famous-song-became-the-post-soviet-world-s-protest-anthem-against-the-rock-legend-s-own-wishes www.mutualart.com/Artist/Viktor-Tsoi/C64A212B425A02B7/Artworks www.new-east-archive.org/articles/show/8741/viktor-tsoi-rockstar-soviet-music I’m not sure if these links are going to post correctly, but you can parse and paste from here. Hope this helps.

@@freesiderxl thank you so much for your quick reply! I'm sure that this will help for my school project! Keep doing what you do!

Read about 'The Death of the Author' by Roland Barthes. After the creation is finished, it lives its own life. It does not matter what the author wanted to say, from the social standpoint only public perception and the cultural context have meaning.

And btw, Tsoi simply could be not totally sincere when talking about the song is not political. He could have said this just to be not perceived as a political writer, because it was not appealing to him. Don't take people's words at face value.

@@MetalGearyaTV You're partially right but it is also to mention that AT THAT TIME (of Viktors living) the perception of his art also was not that political as some today's western critics or Gorbachov say. I lived during this time in the Soviet Union. For example if you watch the concerts of Kino especially the largest concert in Luzhniki you can see the fans waving the "new" tricolor of the current Russia same as the "old" red flag of the Soviet Union which is indicating that the people were apolitic in regards of the existence of the SU and just were waving the flags they had or at last they had split opinions. Also there are poster pictures of Kino band under the red SU flag. I personally doubt that Viktor would be glad to see the changes followed his death and especially the dissolving of the SU and what happened after it during the 1990ies although there were of course some positive aspects as in any changes.

@@MetalGearyaTV If you think Tsoi was somehow afraid of the regime for displaing his true political opinion you are probably wrong. The thing is: at that time (perestroika, late 1980ies) it was really on vogue to bash communism or the SU in any possible way. The biggest anticommunists were the Comunist Party themselves as strange as it may sound (exactly them dissolved the SU without asking the peoples opinion or even despite peoples opinion). Viktor had in this regard little to fear. In contrary he even criticized people who told "We want changes" is a political song. He said: after perestroika was proclaimed everyone is running wild to shout out his political opinion. THERE ARE ACTUALLY some statements of him where he is openly criticizing Comunism or the way how the Communism was interpreted in the SU also in one of his TV talk-show interviews he said on camera that the state is the biggest mafia (answering the question about mafia in society). This statement was not somehow a political no-no on TV, it was a common thing during those times, at last it was not something overly outrageous. So in my opinion, when late Viktor wanted to say something political he said it direct way without much fear but when he had to say something more general and deep he used the language of symbols and subtle analogies to be perceived by individuals on the soul level without the deceiving politics layer.

i appreciate the civil conversation taking place, which encouraged me to reach out. to start with, i do NOT think Viktor wanted the collapse of the SU. knowing what we know now, I'm not sure anyone would think that was the best outcome. Nor do I think Viktor wanted his work to be viewed as overtly or uniquely political, not because it was NOT political, but because if he made it specifically political, than that is all it could be. Viktor was an artist, not a politician, and I think he wanted his art to express the entirety of his being, of which, part of him was political, living in very political times. To deny the time's influence on his art I think removes it from the necessary context to be understood. But to only view his art as a political statement denies Viktor's far reaching inner life, which no one wants to do. Perhaps this last point is what you take issue with. I agree with your original statement that his songs are deeper than simple protest songs, but simply put, he lived in a time of political protest. To say the song was NOT political, same as most of his songs, ignores this. Yes, he had pressures and cultural conditions that did or did not allow him to say exactly what he wanted. Still, had he written We Want Change in the USA during the same time period, it might have been co-opted to sell a new recipe of Coca-Cola, changing both the perceived meaning and his artistic intent yet again. But to paraphrase George Orwell-- keeping politics out of art is itself a political act. In light of that idea, I think it might be necessary to hold two competing ideas in our head simultaneously, and appreciate that Viktor, like most artists, had a complex interior life. we're lucky we got to see the art that came from that. thanks for watching.

I probably agree you that Viktor would NOT have wanted the collapse of the SU. I don't think this video tries to make that claim, but what it does try to do is highlight Viktor's courage, desire and call for change, which I believe are universal and necessary even today, regardless of the uncertain struggles along the way.

I agree

Complete bs. Communism died, and left economic devastation and ruins after itself, that's the reason for the crisis of the 90s. And Putin is a dictator and a war criminal.

Same

@@Theworldsucks-kg5jv OOOO I FINALLY FOUND ANOTHER ONE

Tsoi crashed in Latvia, and Latvia is not Russia, it's a much more Western country institutionally. But still tires could be stolen anyway.

He didn’t…

@@Bruno_bm151 He did ban several of KINO songs. Illegal to play in public now

@@martinlatvian5538 I’d like to see some proof of that

Что за чушь, это вам по вашим зомбоящикам сказали? =))

Probably 'Легенда', but I am not sure. Just a guess.

@@MetalGearyaTV thank you it took some time to find the same version in the video but thank you so much

@@jdp7735 you know we Russians know a lot of Kino songs, even if we are not always hardcore fans. Personally I've never even heard this song consciously. But it has one of the greatest Tsoy's quotes: 'Death is worth living, and love is worth waiting'. It sounds more epic in Russian.

@@MetalGearyaTV thank you!

@@MetalGearyaTV i have come to the point Легенда is not the song in the video