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Rockets and People
The physics teacher organized a radio study group. Soon the group’s activity
extended beyond the confines of school—I became a member of the school
section of the Central Ham Radio Club, which was located on Nikolskaya Street.
There I saw professor Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bonch-Bruyevich in person for the
first time, and ham radio operators and engineers who were already well-known
to me from radio journals: Shaposhnikov, Pavel Nikolayevich Kuksenko, and Lev
Sergeyevich Theremin, inventor of the world’s first electronic musical instrument.
My next meeting with Kuksenko took place twenty-one years later in the office
of the Minister of Armaments. I will write about the events of this meeting in the
chapter “Air Defense Missiles.”
In 1926, at the ham radio club at No. 3 Nikolskaya Street, Lev Sergeyevich
Theremin demonstrated the first electronic musical instrument in the world, the
thereminvox—the Voice of Theremin.This concert sparked enormous interest not
only among radio aficionados, but also among professional musicians. The audience
was captivated by the elegant thirty-year-old engineer who literally pulled
sounds from the air.The wooden box had two antennas: one in the form of a loop,
the second a rod. Using light, fluid hand movements Theremin changed the pitch
and volume of the sound.The music emanating from out of nowhere was reminiscent
first of a violin, then a flute, then a cello.
The leader of our section told us that Lev Sergeyevich first demonstrated his
instrument in 1921 for the Eighth All-Russian Electrical Engineering Convention,
and then again at the Kremlin for Lenin himself. Not long thereafter we
were distressed to learn that there would be no Theremin concerts in Moscow
for the time being—he was going abroad. I forgot about Theremin for a
long time.
In 1928, I subscribed to the Technical Encyclopedia.This was a costly publication,
but my parents, encouraging my passion for engineering, spared no expense.
The twenty-six volumes condensed a colossal mass of technical knowledge
encompassing the enormous realm of the applied science and practical technology
of the time. In the last volume I discovered a description and electrical diagram of
the thereminvox. It turned out that the box contained a circuit assembled from
eleven electronic tubes. No mention was made about the fate of Theremin himself
after he emigrated from the USSR.
Sixty-five years after the concert on Nikolskaya Street, I once again heard the
sounds of the thereminvox and saw—it seemed incredible—Theremin in person.
The meeting took place in the apartment of Natalya Sergeyevna Koroleva, the
daughter of Sergey Pavlovich Korolev. In honor of her father’s birthday, Natasha
gathered his relatives and colleagues. She used to track down and invite people to
these events who had known Korolev long before he became Chief Designer.
Only after the gathering at Natasha Koroleva’s home did I find out a bit about
the astounding fate of Theremin. A talented writer or journalist could simply
describe Theremin’s active, creative life and—without making anything up—
produce a bestseller.
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