Alexander Bashlachev

• Name — Alexander Bashlachev Александр Башлачёв • Birth Name — Alexander Nikolaevich Bashlachev • Born — 27 May 1960 • Birthplace — Cherepovets, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union • Genre — Singer-songwriter, Bard rock, folk-punk • Instrument — Acoustic guitar • Years Active — 1983–1988 • Died — 17 February 1988 • Place of death — Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union

Bashlachev was born in Cherepovets, Soviet Union, the son of Nikolai Bashlachev and Nellie Bashlacheva. In 1977, Bashlachev graduated from Cherepovets High School in Cherepovets and worked as a painter at the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant with his father. Bashlachev was reported to be an intelligent child, able to multiply large numbers by the age of four, took part in literary competitions, and, as a teenager, published a collection of poems by Vladimir Vysotsky and Sergei Yesenin. In 1978, he resigned from the plant to enroll at the Ural State University in Yekaterinburg (then called Sverdlovsk) as a journalism major. Bashlachev graduated in 1983.

In early 1983, Bashlachev wrote "Griboyedov Waltz," his first song. Throughout the 1980s, Bashlachev wrote and composed music. After he graduated from Ural State University, Bashlachev left Sverdlovsk and returned to Cherepovets, where he worked for a year with the newspaper "The Communist." There, he wrote articles about the power plant and local cafés. In May 1984, Bashlachev attended the Leningrad Rock Festival in Leningrad, purchasing an acoustic guitar which he taught himself to play. In September, Bashlachev played some of his songs at his friend Leonid Parfyonov's apartment in Leningrad. Over the years, he would play several small apartment concerts, called kvartirniks. Kvartirniks were often held to promote a musician's work, to support the underground rock scene, and, in some instances, to work around governmental censors of music. Police raids of such concerts were not uncommon. In October 1984, Bashlachev met music journalist Artemy Troitsky, who invited Bashlachev to Moscow to write and compose music. In December 1984, Bashlachev settled in Leningrad. In March 1985, Bashlachev, along with Yuri Shevchuk, played at the Leningrad Rock Festival. The two performed before an audience of six hundred concertgoers at the Leningrad Veterinary Institute in Leningrad. A recording of this concert was released under the title of "Kochegarka." Officially a worker at a coal boiler station popularly known as Kamchatka (which also served as an underground rock venue), Bashlachev became a member of the Leningrad Rock Club. In June 1987, he performed at the Leningrad Rock Festival for the second and final time and was awarded the Nadezhda (Hope) prize.

• Illustration — Grave of Alexander Bashlachev. Shortly before his death, Bashlachev had difficulties with writer's block, rarely writing new songs and tending to avoid performing old ones. His last song, entitled "Cherry," was written in August 1987. Bashlachev was reported to become more isolated as his depression grew more severe. On 17 February 1988, Bashlachev died after falling from the window of the ninth floor of an apartment on Kuznetsov Avenue in Leningrad. In addition to signs of a deepening depression, he was reported to be troubled by housing and finance concerns, as well as the impending arrival of his son, Yegor, who was born approximately six months after his death. Bashlachev was buried at the Kovalevskoye Cemetery in Leningrad Oblast. Bashlachev's son, Yegor, was born to his girlfriend Anastasia Rakhlina in August 1988. Bashlachev was predeceased by his first son, Ivan, who died in infancy in 1985 and was the dedication of Bashlachev's song "Vanyusha." Yegor died by suicide in 2021, the same manner of death as his father. Anastasia Rakhlina died in June 2018 at the Sklifosovsky Institute for Emergency Medicine after being diagnosed with cancer earlier in the year. The Alexander Bashlachev Museum opened in Cherepovets around January 2021, featuring some of Bashlachev's personal effects, including his guitar, items of clothing, and numerous photographs. This was in addition to memorial plaques posted in Cherepovets at Bashlachev's childhood home and school.