Why they matter

Kino moved from Leningrad’s underground music scene to the center of Soviet popular culture in less than a decade. The band came together around Viktor Tsoi, who wrote songs, sang, played guitar, sometimes acted, and painted. Tsoi’s simple voice and honest images turned personal doubts and strong determination into songs that many people loved.

Tsoi grew up drawing and studying at art school, then formed early bands with Maxim Pashkov. They started out mimicking hard rock but eventually moved on to creating catchy originals with a 60s beat flavor. In 1980–81, he started getting noticed on the scene, playing gigs in apartments, and for a short time with Avtomaticheskie Udovletvoriteli (AU). He also started Garin i Giperboloidi with guitarist Alexey “Riba” Rybin. By late 1981, they were performing at the Leningrad Rock Club, and by 1982, they had a new name—Kino—and a first recording: The 45 was produced at Andrei Tropillo’s studio, with some key help from Boris Grebenshchikov and friends from Aquarium and Zoopark.

Vintage Soviet rock musicians Kino band performing on stage with acoustic guitars, showcasing early era of Soviet rock history.

It was a bit of a rough year. The studio attempts stalled; the lineup wobbled; Rybin circulated the “46” demos via engineer-drummer Alexey Vishnya (the band never accepted it as canonical). The reset came in early 1984, when Tsoi and Yuri Kasparyan rebuilt Kino in the studio with rotating rhythm sections (Aquarium’s Alexander Titov on bass, among them), yielding Nachalnik Kamchatki. Two months later, the group—now with Georgy “Gustav” Guryanov on drums—stunned the II Rock Club Festival, going from a fragile project to an undeniable live act.

By late 1985, Igor Tikhomirov had replaced Titov, solidifying the classic quartet that would carry Kino to its peak. They were inspired by bands like The Cure and The Smiths, with their post-punk textures, but they still kept Tsoi’s melodic style. They recorded Eto ne lyubov’ (This is not love) with Vishnya; meanwhile, Tropillo compiled and released Noch’ (Night), Kino’s first Melodiya LP. That was an official breakthrough with massive sales that lifted them beyond the rock-club niche.

Soviet rock musicians Kino performing on stage, showcasing the vibrant history and impact of Soviet rock music in the 1980s era.

Cinema briefly took a break from his music, but it actually made him a better writer. Gruppa krovi (1988) was a fully formed statement—tight, fatalistic, and singable—and, along with a flash in Sergei Solovyov’s film Assa, ignited a country-wide “Kinomania.” There are more tours coming up, like the Next Stop dates in Denmark, a slot at Bourges in France, and the Soviet-Italian Back in the USSR festival. Management changed hands, with Yuri Belishkin, a scene veteran, passing the torch to Yuri Aizenshpis, a Moscow impresario. This move signals Kino’s foray into the world of big-league logistics.

In 1989, Kino delivered Zvezda po imeni Solntse (A star called the Sun), the band’s only album tracked in a proper professional studio, which captured their late-period sound—stripped rhythm guitars, skeletal drums, and Tsoi’s stark, near-mythic imagery. The sprint ended suddenly on August 15, 1990, when Tsoi died in a car accident near Jūrmala at age 28. The rest of the band finished up his demo reels as the Black Album—a serious coda to a career that had already reshaped the language and posture of Russian rock.

After 1990, the members went their separate ways. Guryanov got into visual art, Tikhomirov got into production work and DDT, and Kasparyan started doing solo instrumentals and collaborations before co-founding Yu-Piter. Meanwhile, the managers, peers, and family were busy curating reissues, books, and memorial projects.

Back in 2012, a few band members got together to lay down a studio version of the song “Ataman,” using some old archival vocals by Viktor Tsoi.

In 2020, the group got back together for good and started preparing for live concerts. For these, the musicians did the instrumental parts, while Tsoi’s original vocals were played from studio recordings.

In 2021, Kino made a comeback with a series of concerts, playing live on stage again after decades.

For 2022–2023, a major tour was planned across cities in Russia and in the republics of the former Soviet Union.

Kino’s songs were used in a bunch of different ways, like in films, tribute shows, and re-releases. But the most important thing he left behind was this: short, powerful songs that made people’s personal courage known to everyone, giving a generation its soundtrack as the Soviet world fell apart.

Selected Discography

  • Kino — 45 (1982)
    Albums

    Kino — 45 (1982)

    The debut Kino’s album was recorded at the Pioneers’ Palace, which later became the AnTrop studio, assembled by Andrei Tropillo from equipment collected from various organizations. Tropillo had already seen Tsoi and Rybin at an apartment concert,…

Key milestones

Kino Band Members