May 16, 1957
Born in the Magadan region Yury Shevchuk — rock musician and leader of the band DDT. Legend.
Every concert should be like the last, otherwise it's a lie Sometimes it seems to me that in our time, being a human is already a feat.
As a child, he was seriously interested in drawing and after school he entered the art and graphic arts department, working part-time as a designer.
We went to decorate pig farms and cowsheds. Since then, I can draw Lenin or Brezhnev with my eyes closed.
He became interested in music in high school: he learned to play the button accordion and guitar and performed in school ensembles.
At 23, he was invited to join an unnamed band rehearsing at the Ufa Community Center. The name DDT wasn't coined until a couple of years later, when they won the all-Union Komsomolskaya Pravda competition with the song "Don't Shoot."
In 1980, we received the first coffins from Afghanistan—a classmate of mine who'd served there brought them. We spent the whole night talking. We'd been hearing on TV that we were building kindergartens there. And somehow, the next morning, this song came out of me.
Fame came quickly, and with it came conflicts with the authorities. First, they had to leave Ufa, then Sverdlovsk.
In 1985, he moved to Leningrad. He worked part-time as a janitor, a stoker, and a night watchman. During the perestroika years, DDT emerged on the big stage, and even after Yeltsin's victory, it retained its rebellious spirit, continuing to criticize the government and the war in Chechnya.
In 2010, Shevchuk asked Putin directly whether he intended to truly democratize the country and when the persecution of dissent would end.
The only way out is for everyone to be equal before the law: both the boyars and the tax-paying people. So that the individual in the country is free and self-respecting.
In May 2022, he spoke out on stage against the war in Ukraine, for which he was fined and had his concerts cancelled. He continues to release new albums, performs internationally, and lives in Russia.
The Motherland, friends, is not the president's ass, which must be constantly chewed over and kissed. The Motherland is a beggar granny at the train station, selling potatoes.
It's all up to you: the songs you sing will shape our country.
