"And the accordion calls somewhere, far away, easily leads. No, what an amazing people you guys are... "These lines from Alexander Tvardovsky's poem "Vasily Terkin" contain a strikingly accurate assessment of the Russian folk instrument - the accordion. It is she who fascinates with her sounds, wakes up the forgotten past, evokes light and good, unites people, makes them kinder and stronger.

Not so long ago, not a single wedding party, not a single party, could do without an accordion in Russia. Talyanka sang and exulted in all voices on holidays, and in sad moments comforted, leading a touching conversation. Truly accordion is the soul of the Russian people.

For a long time it was believed that the German master Bushman invented this musical instrument, but in many recent studies it is proved that the birthplace of the accordion is Mother Russia. This is stated in the book "Russian national musical Instruments: Oral and Written Traditions" by V. Volfovich. He is echoed by the famous Russian researcher A. Mirek. He's writing: "At the beginning of the XX century in St. Petersburg, earlier than in the West, the harmonica was already known. The idea of creating instruments with sliding tongues from St. Petersburg reached Warsaw (1789), then Tula, which became the center of mass domestic production of "playing bars" (1800-1820) and harmonics (1830). The main points of commercial distribution of instruments are Tula and Nizhny Novgorod. According to the principle of sound extraction, the harmonic that appeared was no longer a new instrument."

However, such disputes are probably not so important. The point is quite different. The fact that only in Russia the accordion has become the instrument to which the attitude is special. According to Gennady Zavolokin, only our harmonicists feel the accordion so deeply, worry and worry about it, it's easier to say- " they breathe unevenly to it." This is similar to parental care and love. But these feelings do not die.

Even in the very appearance of the instrument, you can see its folk character. Calico furs, sometimes bright crimson, sometimes with variegated meadow flowers. And what patterns on the slats: then strange old mother-of-pearl birds, then whimsical ornaments of herbs. But almost always this drawing is sustained, there is no skomoro-sheche gaudy variegation in it. It is the beginning of the character of the owner of harmony. And the continuation is in the harmonica player's game.

And how many mysterious and romantic names harmony has. They contain either the name of the city where the instrument was made-livenki, tulki, Vyatka, Saratovka, cherepashki (from Cherepovets) or the name of the musical harmony system - khromki, talyanka (odnoryadki), "twenty-five by twenty-five" and so on. Often the concertos were named after the masters who made them.

Hand-made instruments were especially appreciated by harmonicists. It is clear that each accordion was different from the other in the timbre of sounds, "spill", that is, what is elusive for the uninitiated. As the accordion players themselves say , every accordion has its own soul.

"...Together with Zavolokinskaya's " chastushka "I had a chance to visit Omsk in 1997... And there I saw an accordion, such as I had never seen before in my life, and I was sure I would never see again. On the left side, instead of the standard keys, there are bullet casings from pistol cartridges! Only then did I see the owner: an elderly man with a large set of order slats on his jacket. I said to him, "Father, where does this accordion come from?" It turned out that the owner of Harmony was a tank driver during the war. And one day, after the battle, I saw an accordion in a broken bus. I picked it up and played it. But soon the tank was hit, and the tanker had to fight in the infantry. But he didn't give up the accordion, he carried it in his backpack. And then one day, in battle, when he was crawling like a plastunsky, a shard cut off the entire bass keyboard. What to do? And there was a way out. Parabellum used a German pistol to shoot out the cartridges and used shell casings instead of keys. Military, in the full sense of the word, the accordion reached Victory with the tanker and sings in peacetime. I regret that in the rush I didn't ask the name of the veteran harmonica player..."

Valery Kleiko (from a letter to the Zavolokin brothers)

An experienced harmonica player will already determine from the sound where the accordion comes from, what city it is from. And there were in these cities, where musical instruments beloved by the Russian people were made, whole settlements, where harmonica music was played every day. The masters had their own traditions, their own brand secrets. Harmonicas from Tula and Nizhny Novgorod, from Saratov and Lieven, from Vologda and Cherepovets, from Tomsk and Vyatka were famous. It is appropriate to recall that Sergey Yesenin, Alexander Zharov, Alexander Tvardovsky, Viktor Bokov, Nikolai Rubtsov liked to listen to the heartfelt voices of Taglian women. Not only loved,but created entire works dedicated to the Russian harmony. And they themselves masterfully played on odnoryadkah and dvuhryadkah. Once in the circle of journalists Doctor of Philosophy, at one time a teacher of the Literary Institute named after him. Boris Leonov said that Nikolai Rubtsov once recited all his poems to the accompaniment of an accordion during one of the feasts. And each poem was accompanied by a new melody.

...Russian accordion players cried their hearts out, seeing off their masters to the front in 1941. Together with the soldiers of the three-row group, it was also in the battle formation. At the end of the summer of 1941, according to directive No. 220 of the People's Commissariat of Defense, 12 thousand harmonies were sent to the active army, and by the fall their number was already more than 60 thousand.

Completely different songs were sung by the accordion after the war, when depopulated villages, post-war devastation, front-line wounds suggested terrible thoughts:

"Don't judge me, Praskovya:

That I came to you like this,

I wanted to drink to your health,

And I must drink to the repose... "

"It was in Tajikistan. In 1942-1943, front - line soldiers who were out of action began to return home. Among them were: Misha Shoshav without a left arm up to the elbow; Pavlik without a right arm, too, up to the elbow; Vanya Semikozov without one leg completely. And all the guys are 18 - 20 years old. In the evenings we would go to Pavlik's house for a dance. Misha played on the right keyboard, Pavlik - on the left. One accordion was pulled by two people, and Vanya danced on one leg, supported by crutches.

It was a terrible sight, many could not stand it and, moving aside, cried."

A. S. MUKHAMEDZHANOV (from a letter to the Zavolokin brothers)

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But there was more and more jubilation in the sounds of harmony as the country rose from the ruins and ashes after the war. And then harmonics ' voice began to fade. It was heard mainly in distant villages. There were many reasons for this. One can be considered the fact that the accordion was replaced by bayans and accordions. And later, fashionable electric music began to score the bright, gentle voice of a folk instrument.

And suddenly the Zavolokin brothers appeared: Alexander Dmitrievich yes, Gennady, Dmitrievich. The remarkable Russian poet Alexander Denisenko wrote about it like this:

"...The day came, and in the quiet of peaceful life, the songs of the Zavolokin brothers began to sound in full force. The brothers, it can be said, single-handedly won another patriotic war. It is a pity That no one counted how many villages and cities they have cleared, freed from foreign musical captivity. It was time to announce on the radio: yesterday the Zavolokin brothers liberated Novorossiysk, took Belgorod and continue their offensive on Brest... And wherever they appeared with their Russian three-rows, like soldiers with three-lines at the ready , they were met everywhere, as during the war of the soldiers-liberators..."

All this is best described by Gennady Dmitrievich Zavolokin:

- Recently, I found a document (my own entry on a piece of paper) in my own book "Play, Accordion!". I quote you: "March 22, 1983 was Zherdev. An idea! Hold a concertina convention... " This was the beginning of a big and very important TV conversation about the accordion. Later - about folk art in general. I didn't know then, on March 22, 1983, what would be hidden behind this hurried recording after a conversation with the driver Anatoly Ivanovich Zherdev, a native of the Moshkovsky district of the Novosibirsk region...

And the musical life of our family began, perhaps, after we moved from the taiga village of Para-bel in the Tomsk region (where our grandfather Zakhar was exiled, it is still unclear why) to the village of Suzun in the Novosibirsk region... Here our father Dmitry Zakharovich bought the first accordion. I must say that he himself was a wonderful harmonica player in his time. But after his arm was badly damaged by shrapnel during the war, he didn't play the accordion for more than thirty years. And yet my father played on our holiday. Could Alexander and I have been different? Since childhood, we have seen the example of our parents, an example of good human relations, love for our neighbor, diligence in work, and reverence for the Law of God. We worshipped and worked.

And here are other words about harmony:

"It was the summer of 1944. There was a fierce battle near Belovezhskaya Pushcha. I was 13 years old, and I came under fire: the Germans did not give up the village of Losinki. For three days, everything burned, and the wounded were carried to the forest. And then there was a small lull, a heavy rain passed, and crying was heard everywhere. Then we saw three cars come out of the forest with the words "Death to the German invaders!"written on them. They were Katyusha cars. Their tents were thrown off. And soon the harmonica player appeared, began to play and sing ditties. I still remember the words, because I was standing next to the harmonica player:

"We will take Minsk with bombing,

Bialystok with an accordion.

Other cities

The gentlemen themselves will hand it over!"

The harmonica player was very young. His mother-women kissed his hands, stroked his hair, and regretted that they would kill him. Death was near at hand every minute, and German snipers were firing all the time.

That's right, accordion is the heart of your Russia. Its sound then went over the fields, over the forests, and people, forgetting about death, listened to the music and cried. Then the ground shook again, the Katyushas hit, and we were buried in the pits.

The Germans soon retreated. The harmonica player was still alive. Is he still alive? His soul has remained with us as long as we live. Let the accordion play forever."

The convict of CHERNETSK. Poland (from a letter to the Zavolokin brothers)

Almost everyone knows about the Zavolokin brothers today. The number of super-popular programs that they have prepared has exceeded four hundred. They receive hundreds of emails every day. The brothers themselves wrote several autobiographical books: Gennady - "Play, accordion", Alexander - "Golden Bars".

I want to mention the magazine "Play, accordion", published in Novosibirsk under the editorship of Gennady Zavolokin. This is a well-illustrated publication designed for the broad masses of the people. So far, two of its issues have been published with a circulation of twenty thousand copies. Even now, in Siberian villages, it is passed from house to house, from family to family. In general, the Zavolokin brothers do everything to make the Russian accordion live as long as the Russian soul lives.

Colonel Viktor SAIDAKOV, Senior Permanent Correspondent of Orientir magazine for the Siberian Military District

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