Biography
Natalya Naumenko is the ex-wife of Mike Naumenko, musician of the Zoo group. She was a direct witness to the heyday of Russian rock and roll and rock. Musicians who later became legends gathered in their communal apartment on Borovaya: Viktor Tsoi, Boris Grebenshchikov, Alexey Rybin and others. In 2021, Kirill Serebrennikov’s film “Summer” will be released, telling about little-known facts from the lives of Viktor Tsoi, Mike Naumenko and Natalia.
Biography of Mike Naumenko
Mike Naumenko (real name Mikhail Vasilyevich Naumenko) is a musician, singer, songwriter, lead vocalist and art director of the 80s rock band Zoo.
Rock musician Mike Naumenko
Mike Naumenko can rightfully be considered one of the founders of Russian rock. The musician did not follow the path of the bard tradition, which took root in Russian culture; in his songs he adapted Western rock - to some extent, Naumenko was the pioneer of this genre for the “advanced” Soviet listener.
Although some of the compositions of the Zoo group, musically and semantically, clearly referred to the original foreign songs taken as a basis, Mike managed to endow them with distinctive features: he always carefully worked on the lyrics, which sometimes surprised listeners with their irony and frankness. According to connoisseurs of his work, there was no plagiarism in his writings, but only playing rock and roll and other genres he loved.
Mike Naumenko
The lyrics of many songs from the musician’s legacy were created based on compositions by Western authors and were essentially their interpretations. Often he left the original melody in them - so, he introduced domestic listeners to. For example, the famous “Boogie Every Day” is more than similar to “I Love To Boogie” by the British rock band T.Rex, “Call Me Early in the Morning” is a clear analogue of Bob Dylan’s “Meet Me In The Morning”, and Mike's inspiration for "Fleabag" was Iggy Pop and Lou Reed.
Subsequently, almost all Russian rock performers recognized his influence on their work.
The film “Summer” about Mike Naumenko and Viktor Tsoi In 2021, Kirill Serebrennikov’s biographical film “Summer” was released, which told about the Leningrad underground rock culture, Mike Naumenko (Roma the Beast), his relationship with his wife Natalya (Irina Starshenbaum) and the participation of Mike and Boris Grebenshchikov in the fate of Viktor Tsoi (actor Theo Yu). The film, where the songs of Naumenko and Tsoi were performed by the group “Zveri”, participated in the main program of the Cannes Film Festival, was greeted with applause from the audience and received an award for best soundtrack.
The group "Zoo" - the founders of Russian rock
Career
When Natasha met Mike and they decided to get married, she had to go to Teploenergo, since the organization’s employees were given rooms. Everything was new for the petite girl. Unknown mechanisms of unimaginable size in the boiler room instilled fear that she had to overcome. She worked as a gas boiler operator, simply a fireman.
Natalia Naumenko
But at the same time, she managed to read books at work, learn English and write letters to friends.
In 1997, Alexey Rybin published the book “The Right to Rock,” which included Natalya’s memories of life with Mike. Its part received the title “Hotel called “Marriage””.
Personal life
The girl met her future husband, musician and leader of the Zoo group Mikhail Naumenko, when she was 19 years old. She first saw him in a communal apartment on Vasilievsky Island; her cousin Vyacheslav introduced him to Natalya. A month later they met again at Slava’s wedding, Mike joked a lot, and then invited the girl to rehearsals at the Bolshoi Puppet Theater, where he worked at that time.
Natalya Naumenko and Mike Naumenko in their youth
Soon the young man proposed to the girl, but they decided to postpone the wedding, since the housing issue had to be resolved first. Natalya became pregnant and had to go to the hospital. And as soon as she was discharged, Mike immediately took the girl to the registry office. He wanted to legitimize their relationship. Therefore, there was no preparation for the wedding; everything went quickly and chaotically.
In July, Natalya had a son. They originally planned to name the boy Mark, after Marc Bolan. But as soon as the baby was born, everyone immediately began to dissuade new parents from using this name. Therefore, they waited for a long time and decided, and in the end they gave their son the name Evgeniy.
Natalya Naumenko with her son
They lived extremely poorly, but, like everyone else in their youth, they did not realize their poverty. Moreover, then everyone in the country lived approximately the same. There were always guests in their communal apartment, among them the leader of the Kino group, Viktor Tsoi.
Unlike Mike, who had difficulty finding a common language with the baby, Victor often helped Natalya. He handled little Zhenya with such ease, as if he had already raised at least three children.
There is a version that there was an affair between Natalya and Victor. In 2007, the woman, at the request of Alexander Zhitinsky, who was writing a book about Tsoi, provided the writer with her diary entries. But initially Natasha agreed with Zhitinsky that her memories would be to help him, and not for publication.
Viktor Tsoi and Mike Naumenko
Later he assured her that everything looked noble and everything should be left in the book as she had written. The woman agreed. In an interview with “Arguments and Facts”, which Natalya gave in 2021, she said that it would have been much easier for her to live if she had not succumbed to Zhitinsky’s persuasion, but “now she is unraveling.”
At that time, Tsoi constantly disappeared in Naumenko’s house; friendly and trusting relationships developed between Natasha and Vitya. They talked a lot, although in the company Tsoi was known as an eternal silent man. One day, before the girl’s 22nd birthday, she asked Mike to give her a gift - to allow her to kiss Tsoi. And although the husband was surprised by such a question, he allowed it.
On her birthday, Mike was at work: he left for a day and was absent from the celebration. Then their first kiss happened, but not the last. True, the woman describes their relationship as “kindergarten”; they even kissed as if they were classmates at a school party. According to Natalya Naumenko, for a short period they had a tender friendship, but nothing more. Although Mike believed that such friendships were much more dangerous than anything else.
Mike Naumenko and Natalia Naumenko
Natalya lived with Mike for 10 years. The couple divorced on August 15, 1991. They did this without scandals and unnecessary showdowns. Together with her son, the woman moved to Moscow. On August 27, 1991 - 12 days after the official divorce - Mike died. The cause of death was cerebral hemorrhage. But the circumstances under which it happened still remain unclear.
On her social network page, the woman wrote that she is married, has three children and two grandchildren. She is interested in knitting and creates dolls using the felting technique from wool. Spends a lot of time with his grandchildren.
Wife Natalya Naumenko
Natalya Naumenko (nee Rossovskaya), the ex-wife of Mikhail Naumenko, became a direct witness, as well as an indirect participant in the birth of rock and roll in our country.
The future spouses met in the communal apartment of a mutual friend on Vasilievsky Island, where 19-year-old Natalya came with her cousin Vyacheslav. The next meeting was a month later at the wedding of Vyacheslav himself, where Mikhail joked a lot and showed signs of attention to the young girl in every possible way, and then invited her to his rehearsal at the Bolshoi Puppet Theater, where he worked at that time.
Natalya Naumenko with her son Evgeniy
A chance acquaintance grew into a whirlwind romance, Natasha became pregnant, and Mikhail did not hesitate to propose marriage. Although the girl agreed, the wedding was postponed for some time due to financial difficulties and the search for housing. Then the marriage took place among the closest people. The young couple had a son, Evgeniy.
The family did not have enough money; they lived very modestly in a communal apartment. Regular guests of their communal apartment were aspiring rock stars Viktor Tsoi and Boris Grebenshchikov. Tsoi was a close friend of the family and willingly babysat Mike's little heir. A light flirtation ensued between Natalya and Victor, which, according to Natalya, did not go beyond the bounds of decency.
Mikhail Naumenko and Viktor Tsoi
However, the story received a public outcry when the diary entries of Mikhail Naumenko’s wife became known to the public, which she gave to Alexander Zhitinsky, who was writing a book about the legendary Viktor Tsoi. Later, Natalya regretted that she had succumbed to the writer’s persuasion and now she has to deal with the consequences of incorrectly presented facts to the public.
One way or another, the couple were moving towards separation. And the reason for this is not the love triangle, but Mikhail’s developing alcoholism. Having lived together for 10 years, Mike and Natalya Naumenko divorced their marriage without any unnecessary disagreements or disputes. This happened on August 15, 1991. And just 12 days later, on August 27, 1991, Mikhail Naumenko tragically died from a cerebral hemorrhage. The circumstances of his death have not yet been fully clarified.
Natalya Naumenko now
In 2021, director Kirill Serebrennikov will present the film “Summer” at the Cannes Film Festival. The events of the film unfold in the summer of 1981 in Leningrad. The plot centers on the lives of Viktor Tsoi, Mike Naumenko and Natalia. The woman was played by Irina Starshenbaum, known to viewers from Fyodor Bondarchuk’s blockbuster “Attraction.” The roles of musicians went to Theo Yu and Roma the Beast.
Irina Starshenbaum and Roman Bilyk as Natalia and Mike Naumenko
However, even before the screening, a scandal erupted around the film. Boris Grebenshchikov, the founder of the Aquarium group, after reading the script, said that it was all a lie from beginning to end. According to him, the characters in Serebrennikov’s painting have nothing in common with the people he knew personally.
Documentary director Alexander Lipnitsky was also skeptical about the film. He believes that the plot is “sucked out of thin air.” At one time, he made a documentary about the Kino group and talked with Alexander Zhitinsky.
Alexander Zhitinsky
From their conversation, he realized that between Natasha Naumenko and Viktor Tsoi there was an easy romantic relationship, at the level of flirting. Lipnitsky noted that he doesn’t really believe in this whole story with the novel, and even if it’s true, it clearly doesn’t fit into the plot of the film.
Natalya answered the question about the current situation around the film ambiguously. She liked what she saw on the set; she believes in director Kirill Serebrennikov. But I don’t think it’s right to express my opinion about a picture without seeing it.
Andrey Zabludovsky (“The Secret”)
-The first time I heard Mike’s songs was on the album “Mike and Boris”, and I didn’t particularly like Mike’s songs, unlike BG’s songs. Later, when I heard “County City N,” I began to listen and realized that Mike was a figure and a poet. Later, around 1979, we met.
— I played in the group “Vykhod”, and Mike came to our rehearsals. In 1981, I saw him on stage for the first time and it was indescribably cool. Such a drive!
- Already in “The Secret” I suggested that the guys add “You and Me” to our first album - “Major Rock and Roll” (the Beatles also sang Chuck Berry). Everyone agreed, especially since the group “Secret”, before me in 1982, played the song “Major Rock and Roll” with Mike in Moscow, where they met.
— I’m afraid that we won’t open new fans, but there is hope, although weak.
