"The Soul of Tomsk, Sung to the Guitar"

The Aelita Entertainment Center is sold out on Sunday evening. A week and a half before the event, not a single ticket remains. From the packed hall, chants of "Let's have the Olympics!" echoed—the Tomsk audience thanked the artists and lamented the smallness of the hall for such a grand event and such popular love. The gala concert of the 14nd Marat Akhmetshin City Yard Song Competition, "Constellation of Our Yards," had just concluded. Fourteen musical compositions, a guitar, live music from the USSR VIA under the direction of the ever-present Marat Nagaev, and simple, heartfelt stories. They spoke of love for the city, for its people, for its courtyards and streets.

This love, like the competition itself, was born 22 years ago within the walls of the Media-FM radio holding, part of the Tomsk Media Group, which grew out of the Tomsk television company TV2. The television company, Media-FM, and the Tomsk Media Group were an important part of Tomsk public life from the early 90s and for a quarter of a century, widely known not only in their city but also beyond. They were known not only for their media work but also for their many initiatives that brought people together. One such initiative was "Dvorovaya Pesnya."

At the origins of this competition stood the man whose name "Yard Song" bears today—Marat Akhmetshin. Marat joined TV-2 in the early 90s. It wasn't by chance. He had been childhood friends with the company's founder, Arkady Maiofis. They'd gone to the Pioneer House together in the 70s and were members of the Tomsk Pioneer Headquarters. These are not random details. Both TV-2 and the Tomsk Media Group are very Tomsk-based, local stories. Stories of long friendships and enduring human connections. "Yard Song" is about that.

Origins: Courtyards, Acoustics, and Personal History

"We need to come up with a project for Radio Shanson (one of the network radio stations that was part of the holding – ed.) – make it more soulful, intelligent, and humane. The kind of Shanson we should have in Tomsk," Marat Akhmetshin, then the program director of Media-FM, once said. This is how one of the competition's creators, Valentina Churaeva, recalls the conversation that launched "Dvorovaya Pesna."

Having adapted the idea of ​​songs in courtyards for "Chanson," the team set off on a city tour. "Marat gave me a tour of Tomsk that one could only dream of," Churaeva recounts. "He talked about courtyards from an acoustic perspective—where a guitar sounds best, where a voice bounces off the walls, where a song fits perfectly. The city took on a new sound. For the first time, I saw Tomsk as a living organism with its own music. We toured all the iconic courtyards: the triangle on Dzerzhinka, the area near the Sports Palace, Akademgorodok, where the Academy of Yard Songs was later born, Kashtak, Beloye Ozero, Buff Garden. And then Marat asked, 'Would you like me to show you the courtyard where I grew up?'"

It was this personal connection, the warmth of memories of the courtyard where she spent her childhood, that became the soul of the future competition. "Warm, lively, sincere. It combined simple human stories, love for the city, and music," says Valentina.

The atmosphere of a large family and the "soul of Tomsk"

Marat Akhmetshin didn't just invent the competition. He created its unique atmosphere. Sergey Lapenkov, former director of a radio holding company and longtime morning anchor on TV-2 and radio host, recalls: "He was the man who defined the welcoming atmosphere of 'Dvorovaya Pesnya.' Because he was a man of immense warmth, a kind person in the best sense of the word, he knew how to create an atmosphere of a big family."

People who came to the auditions literally became attached to Marat with all their souls, trusting him with their creative successes and doubts.

"Marat deeply understood the very nature of the street song," Lapenkov continues. "He understood that it was a special blend: original lyrics, chanson, pioneer songs copied in notebooks, and even works by professional composers stylized as street folklore."

Arkady Moiseevich Ratner (longtime director of the TSU-62 jazz orchestra, head of the city administration's Department of Culture, and an active participant in the "Yard Song" group) accurately defined this genre as "a musical story told by a person." Here, the plot, the living word, always came first. A successful melody is certainly a gift from heaven, but the real miracle happened in the lyrics, in these simple and oh-so-real stories.

Marat was able to delicately balance all these components. His passing was an irreparable loss, and it was perfectly natural that the competition took his name. I'd like to believe that the current participants feel, at least in a small way, just a little bit, what a remarkable person Marat was."

The competition erased boundaries. "When someone picked up a guitar and walked out to the audience, it didn't matter who they were before—an important official or someone no one had heard of," says Lapenkov. "All that mattered was how they sang and what they sang."

“One day, the famous Tomsk jazz musician, Askhat Saifullin, told me, ‘Every city has a soul.’ And I felt it at the concerts of the street song contest,” recalls Valentina Churaeva. “I stood, looked at the people gathered, and listened. And suddenly I caught myself thinking: here it is, the soul of Tomsk: happy faces, spontaneously gathered together; passersby pausing half a step to listen; a guitar passing from hand to hand. And the songs – as varied as the city itself. They intertwined heartfelt lyricism and intelligent sadness, playful street chants and outright hooligan bravado. That’s how I saw our city at that moment – ​​so contradictory, polyphonic, yet painfully sincere and open. And that’s how it was, at least for me.”

Evolution: From the Yard to the Big Stage

Marat passed away in 2012. That same year, the competition was named after him. Over the years, the competition grew. Songs from the courtyard qualifying rounds made their way to the big stage. The qualifying rounds, held in Tomsk's squares and courtyards, maintained an authentic atmosphere, but it was important to give these songs their full potential.

Sergey Lapenkov recalls: "We are eternally grateful to Arkady Moiseevich Ratner, who assisted us with this, and to the Tomsk State University Cultural Center for providing the stage. It was there that concerts were transformed into true theatrical performances with a unified script. I remember how we made the show 'Journey to the Future'—it was a complete TV music installation! We shot a futuristic video and added incredible sound effects. A huge thank you to the guys at TV-2, who helped us with the editing. We worked miracles, creating sets literally out of nothing, and it was an incredible time of incredible dedication. Sergey Kolotovkin, Igor Dmitriev, Pavel Kamenev, Alexander Reshetnikov, Valya Churaeva—the people who made this whole story come to life."

The year when Vladimir Markin was a festival guest was particularly memorable. "He absolutely loved our atmosphere," Sergei recalls. "And the people of Tomsk liked him because he fit right in with our 'shroom-burum.' He didn't try to be a star, although he was certainly a highlight of the program with his hits—from 30s romances to songs familiar to many from their backyards. He appeared on stage with that year's finalists in a theatrical performance, and it was unforgettable."

A special thank you to our musicians—the vocal and instrumental ensemble led by Marat Nagaev, who have been the heart of our orchestra all these years. It was vibrant, professional, and genuine."

A particular source of pride is the "Academy of Yard Song," which inducted those who embodied this phenomenon. Over the years, academicians included Alexander Rosenbaum, Vladimir Markin, Alexander Novikov, Trofim, and the mayors of Tomsk. The title of Academician of Yard Song was also awarded to the most prominent participant in the gala concert.

The Present: Nostalgia, Challenges, and Devoted Love

Those who run the competition today talk about its modern life.

Margarita Mikhailova, director of the Aelita Entertainment Center: "This year, many young people participated in the tours, which is encouraging, considering that original songs are fading into the background among young people. But there's also a challenge: many young musicians are interested in other genres, popular songs. We have more veterans. But there are no tickets for the gala concert! People go to see the performers they've loved for years. They have a well-established, loyal audience."

In 2025, the competition was held in a cozy, in-house format—in the courtyard and halls of Aelita, hence the cosmic name "Constellation of Our Yards." "Plans? Of course, to expand and expand to larger city venues," says Margarita. "And I really want to attract a younger audience and find a new twist. Time passes, and songs change. What was a yard song yesterday is now a different composition."

Oleg Matern, the concert's host and scriptwriter, explains: "My goal is to bring lightness, humor, and a touch of good-natured irony to the celebration. And where would it be without it? The very idea of ​​a street song contest already contains a subtle paradox: the winner of the qualifying round becomes the 'cutest guy in the yard,' and the finalist becomes a true 'academician.' This sincere, almost homely pathos is poetry in its own right. My role is simply to continue this story."

And he continues it. The script morphed the jury into a high council of Jedi, VIA "USSR" into Guardians of the Galaxy, and Oleg himself into "Olezha," the utterly relatable guy from the next building. Even the cosmic theme of "Constellations of Our Yards" wasn't born out of nowhere: "The location itself suggested it—"Aelita," after all, she's the Martian princess from Tolstoy's novel! Why shouldn't our yards become part of the greater universe?"

He admits he joined the project three years ago almost by accident, remembering how he participated in the very first competition in 2003. "A friend and I saw a simple ad: 'Street Song Contest.' We took a minibus, rode there, and sang something. And now I'm hosting. It's addictive. And people like it."

Winners' Voices: Music Born in the Yards

This year, the title of "Academician" and the grand prize—a professional guitar from the Premiere salon—was awarded to the creative duo from Seversk: Nadezhda Myasnikova and Vladimir Savitsky.

When asked whose song they were performing, Vladimir replies: “The music is mine, and the words are my friend, Nikolai Rastorguev, a guy from Seversk.”

"I think this song is truly a yard song," he adds. "Nostalgic, Soviet. You can almost imagine an old courtyard, people still living there, and all this 'oompah-oompah-oompah-oompah.'"

Both winners are not professional musicians; they perform, as they say, from the heart. Their sincerity is the very currency that is valued in this competition above any technical perfection—the currency that Marat Akhmetshin founded it 22 years ago. And while people gather with guitars in Tomsk courtyards and gala concerts fill to capacity, the soul of Tomsk continues to resonate—simply, without pretense.

The TV-2 television company and the holding created on its basis were destroyed The authorities in 2014-15. The main ideas on which this media story was built—freedom of speech, support for local initiatives—all proved incompatible with the atmosphere emanating from the federal center. However, some of TV-2's (Tomsk Media Group) local initiatives outlived the media outlet that spawned them and continue to be a part of Tomsk life. Lives winter football tournament, which the television company supported for more than two decades, is supported by a charitable foundation An Ordinary Miracle, born from a TV-2 initiative. And the songs continue to be heard annually in the courtyards of Tomsk.