May 9: Yanka Diaghileva's Death Day – Voices of the Siberian Underground
Yanka Dyagileva was a poet and musician from Novosibirsk, a member of the punk band "Civil Defense," and a legend of Siberian rock in the late 1980s. She died on May 9, 1991, at the age of 24. The exact circumstances of her death remain unknown.
From Novosibirsk to the Underground
Yanka was born in 1966 to a family of engineers. She attended music school for a year, but piano didn't excite her. Later, she began learning guitar at the club at the Zhirkombinat. At school, she disliked the exact sciences, but she read a lot—Tsvetaeva, Akhmatova, and Gumilyov. She was an excellent essay writer.
In 1984, she entered the Institute of Water Transport Engineers. She dropped out in her second year. In 1986, she lost her mother to cancer.
Meeting with Letov and the first recordings
In 1987, Yanka met Yegor Letov. Just a few months later, she recorded her first album, "Not Allowed." In the summer of 1988, she made her big stage debut, performing at a punk festival in Tyumen.
After a scandalous performance at the Novosibirsk Rock Festival—Civil Defense took to the stage without permission and sang anti-Soviet songs, including "Land of Fools" and "Mousetrap"—she and Letov spent six months hiding from the KGB, hitchhiking across the USSR. Their last stage performance took place in the fall of 1990.
She never sought popularity and refused interviews and recording discs:
"Just to talk—please. But there shouldn't be a single line in the newspaper." "But why? Maybe you don't need it, but others do?" "Those who need it will figure out who I am and why."
Last songs and death
Three months before her death, Yanka recorded her last songs: “Higher Feet than the Ground,” “On the Road a Pyatak,” “About the Devils,” and “Water Will Come.”
On the evening of May 9, 1991, she left her parents' dacha—near Izdrevaya station, 25 km from Novosibirsk—and never returned. She had suffered from depression in recent months, and two weeks before her death, she lost her half-brother due to medical negligence. On May 17, her body was found in the Inya River by a fisherman. On May 19, Yanka was buried in Novosibirsk, with over a thousand people attending. The official verdict was "drowning as a result of an accident."
Letov dedicated two songs to Diaghileva: during his lifetime – “Teddy Bear”, posthumously – “Ophelia”.
The fight for the memorial house
Novosibirsk is currently trying to save the Yanka Dyagileva Memorial House—an early 20th-century log cabin that ended up on the property of a developer associated with State Duma deputy Dmitry Savelyev (Rastsvetai Group). In 2019, the house was promised for preservation, but a 25-story building has been erected on the property, and the house itself is now behind a solid fence. Restoration is promised only for the end of 2028.
