This man lived a very long and surprisingly eventful life. Having gone through war, deprivation and adversity, he never betrayed himself or the only calling of his life, in nine decades he turned from the best balalaika performer of the country into a legendary teacher, becoming a real era of folk instrumental art.
Origins
The birthplace of Grigory Nikolaevich and Alexandra Mikhailovna, father and mother of Yevgeny Blinov, was the village of Serebryanka, located at the confluence of the small Silver River into the Chusovaya River, the famous transport artery of the Urals, where a small factory was located. Grigory Nikolaevich, who was good at playing the guitar and the balalaika, had an even better understanding of finances and was in charge of the accounting department of this plant. However, both parents of Eugene had outstanding singing abilities and sang in the church choir. There they met, and in 1918 they became husband and wife.
When the civil war that broke out during this period reached Serebryanka and the Reds came to the village, Grigory Nikolayevich was appointed manager of the local factory.
In a fewyears, the parents of Evgeny Grigorievich Blinov, whose biography and achievements this article is devoted to, moved to Nevyansk, and then to Sverdlovsk, where the father of our hero became the chief accountant at one of the factories.
On October 6, 1925, the first-born was born in the Blinov family, and three years later the second son was born. Grigory Nikolaevich, a great lover of the opera "Eugene Onegin", named his eldest son Eugene, in honor of Onegin. The younger one was named Vladimir, in honor of Vladimir Lensky.
Childhood
By the will of fate, both childhood and youth of Yevgeny Blinov were deprived of any kind of settled way of life and constancy. As soon as he managed to make new friends, his family moved somewhere again.
So, in 1931, the head of the Blinov family was invited to work as the chief accountant at the Malorossiyka state farm, located in Kazakhstan. There they had a big house, land and farm. It was here, in the Kazakh steppes, that six-year-old Evgeny first picked up a balalaika. The boy was taught the basic basics of playing it by his father, and his coachman Semyon taught him to play the polka.
Then large-scale construction of the Uralvagonstroy plant began in Nizhny Tagil. Grigory Nikolaevich was again called to head the accounting department. They have moved again. Passion for music continued with Evgeny Blinov and there. In 1933, he first appeared on stage, playing the balalaika at the first regional Sverdlovsk Children's Olympiad.
Already two years later, the Blinovs moved again, this time to the Arkhangelsk region, where anotherlarge defense industry enterprise.
And then disaster struck. The year 1937 came, the time of mass repressions, exiles and executions. Yevgeny's father received ten years in the camps.
After the arrest of her husband, Alexandra Mikhailovna, together with her children, went to her brother, who lives in the town of Kushva in the Urals. They had to divide a small dark room into three, and Yevgeny, continuing to diligently do school homework, soon began to lose his sight from the dim lighting.
Youth
When Evgeny Blinov was 15 years old, he made the first important decision - to connect his life with music, which required entering the Sverdlovsk Music College. Despite the fact that he never managed to learn the notes, and he played all the melodies exclusively by ear, the selection committee still appreciated his talent and zeal, and Evgeny managed to enter.
The first year of study at the Sverdlovsk Music College, the impressions from the concerts, the very creative atmosphere of the educational institution became the basis for the formation of the personality of a novice musician. When, after the first year, exams were passed and students were expected to have summer holidays, the Great Patriotic War began. The youth of yesterday's boys and girls suddenly ended, as did the childhood of millions of children in the country.
During the harsh war years, Evgeny Blinov, along with the rest of the students of the school, spoke to the wounded in hospitals until he was called to the front in June 1943. And this despite serious problems withsight.
He was enrolled in an anti-tank company and for some time, along with everyone else, was trained in military craft. However, he was soon transferred to the regimental army ensemble and even sent for three days to Sverdlovsk for a balalaika.
Performances before front-line soldiers as part of the ensemble lasted almost two years. On October 5, 1945, Eugene was finally demobilized and sent home.
Kyiv Conservatory
In the summer of 1946, Blinov arrived in Kyiv, where he studied at the Kyiv Conservatory until 1951, experiencing all the difficulties of the post-war years. There was no food, no money. The students of the conservatory survived as best they could.
Despite all the hardships, Evgeny Blinov, whose photo can be seen in this article, remained an inquisitive, persistent and striving for constant improvement student. However, as a result of persistent malnutrition and overwork, the young man began to experience a constant temperature and malaise. In the fourth year, he alth problems reached such a level that he was sent for several months to be treated in one of the Crimean sanatoriums.
In his fifth year of study, Evgeny got a job as a teacher of folk instruments at the Kyiv Children's Music School No. 2, and a year later, becoming a certified graduate of the Kyiv Conservatory, he became an assistant trainee at the department of folk instruments, having worked in this position until 14 July 1962, when he was awarded the title of Associate Professor.
Ural State Conservatory
In 1963 Blinov left the Kyiv Conservatory and moved to Sverdlovsk. On September 20, 1963, he was enrolled as an associate professor of the folk instruments department of the Ural State Conservatory, as well as the acting head of this department. On December 6, 1967, Evgeny Grigorievich Blinov was approved as a professor at the Department of Folk Instruments, the development and strengthening of which he devoted the next eight years.
In 1975, unexpectedly for Blinov himself, a proposal was received from the local regional committee of the CPSU to nominate him for the post of rector of the conservatory.
Evgeny Grigorievich refused three times. However, there was a party card in the pocket of his jacket, and jokes with the Communist Party at that time were fraught. There was no exit. Blinov had to agree, despite the fact that he himself considered his candidacy unworthy of such a high rank.
One way or another, but on June 16, 1975, Evgeny Grigorievich was appointed rector of the Ural State Conservatory, having worked in this position until 1988, after which he left his post, but continued to work at the conservatory, supervising the department of folk instruments, and only in 2006, writing an application for his release from his position as a professor in connection with his move to Kyiv.
Private life
Evgeny Blinov was married twice.
His first wife was a student of the Kyiv Conservatory Lyudmila Arkadievna Borovskaya, with whom he officially registered relations back in 1947. Lyudmila was a talented performer of chamber vocal music, romances and songs. Often performed with her husband.
In 1952, Evgeny and Lyudmila had a son, Alexander.
With his second wife, Iskrina Borisovna Sherstyuk, he met during the war years, speaking in an army ensemble. Iskrina was also a participant in these performances. Many years later, fate brought them together again.
Awards and achievements
Evgeny Grigorievich played a decisive role in the development of the balalaika performing art in Russia and Ukraine, ensuring the flourishing of the balalaika on the stage.
The merits and awards of Evgeny Blinov speak for themselves. In 1953, he won the first degree of an international competition within the framework of the IV World Festival of Youth and Students in Bucharest. In 1960 he was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the Ukrainian SSR, and in 1974 - the honorary title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR. In 1984, Blinov was awarded the title of People's Artist of the RSFSR, in 2001 he became a full member of the Petrovsky Academy of Sciences and Arts. He was awarded the medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War", as well as the Order of Honor.
Evgeny Grigorievich passed away on November 9, 2018 at the age of 93. On his last journey, he was seen off with military honors, as it should be to see off a soldier of a front-line army ensemble.
