We perceive Viktor Tsoi as a protestant, loud, whiplash. A rocker who looks mysteriously into the camera or raises his chin in a black leather jacket with a challenge. Choi is already a mythological hero, a romanticized fighter with dreams of change, an image of the era.

But what was the real Choi like: off the stage, outside the image of songs, outside of public activity?

How he changed during his life: what he was shy about, how he studied and what fame influenced
Father Robert Tsoi said that his son had a lot of complexes in childhood. For example, because of the voice: "I remember, he locks himself in the bathroom so that we don't hear, and plays. His voice was breaking then, so he was shy. Even us. And he kept asking his mother: "Why do I have such a high-pitched voice like a girl?"

For Asian appearance, peers teased "Korean" or "Japanese": both in school years and in youth. The first guitarist of "Cinema" Alexey Rybin believed that this made Tsoi shy:

"Vitya was humiliated because of his nationality. What phrases have we not heard enough about him at the pubs! Of course, this made it closed. He was teased at school, then the gangsters molested us on the street."

Another observation of the young Choi is from the first teacher Lyudmila Kozlovskaya. She saw in him an ordinary and even diligent student:

"He was the same as everyone else. Was not a clear leader. Did not participate in any fights, incidents. I went in a black sweater, a white shirt, boots, I remember, were so high. In class, he sat at the second desk, listened quite attentively, never chatted, and he was never kicked out of class. He wasn't a slob in that sense. I didn't skip lessons, and Choi's notes could always be safely given to everyone as an example."

An important and turning point is the acquaintance with his first wife Marianne. It was a bookish, romantic and dramatic story. The guitarist of "Cinema" Alexey Rybin described: "Marianne was an incredibly strong and intelligent woman. And she was for Choi, if not salvation, then the most important catalyst. She determined the vector of his movement, his entire future fate. Everyone noticed it – how Choi changed. Vitya gained confidence, he straightened up, completely stopped complaining, the songs went one after another – and one is better than the other, and all the songs were now about love."

Vitaly Kalgin researched Tsoi, talked to dozens of people from his entourage and wrote several books about him. He identifies two periods in Tsoi's life – Leningrad and Moscow: "The first is much longer, and the second is more eventful and probably more significant. We know about the first period only from the words of Tsoi's relatives and his friends, and they are not contradictory, the image is solid and clear. The second period is covered by a lot of publications in the press, they create confusion. He is more mythologized and contradictory."

Artemiy Troitsky– a rock journalist and comrade of Tsoi, distinguished three periods of his life: "During the ten years that I knew him, he changed.

When we first met, he was a punk. A sharp guy, very mocking, slightly hooligan. But among the whole company – the quietest and to some extent gentle.
Then came the period of early "Cinema" (1982 – 1986), and here Choi showed himself most naturally and sincerely. A very simple guy, sociable, a little shy. Cute and romantic. Very funny – he had a great sense of humor. Choi wasn't a tough guy, he wasn't macho. I hadn't seen him with girls before Marianne.
And the last period – how he was in the movie "Needle". A lone knight, all in black, all Gothic, inaccessible. He is so imprinted in the memory of our youth."
Many of Tsoi's entourage said that in recent years he had changed and seemed confused. Because of his great popularity, he closed himself off, limited his circle of friends, and even hired a bodyguard.

The bassist of "Cinema" Alexander Titov saw it live: "In the last two years he was very lonely. There is no one to rejoice with, to pin on something. Besides, lately it has been difficult for him to communicate with people purely technically. Outsiders kept coming to him. Choi was burdened. He claimed that he appreciates success, but does not like excessive publicity."

The director of the Kino group, Yuri Aizenshpis, has continued to communicate closely with Tsoi in recent years. And, on the contrary, I thought that he remained the same:

"Neither fame nor money changed him. In my memory, he has always remained a kind, honest and modest guy. He dressed exclusively in black. Even when he had money and could afford expensive things abroad, he still bought only black jeans, jackets and shirts. Vitya was a domestic person, absolutely unpretentious in everyday life. And very, very calm. I have never seen him yell at anyone, insulted. But his authority in the group was unquestionable and his discipline was almost ironclad. He spoke quietly, but there was will in his voice."

How did the image of Choi appear (upturned chin, black clothes, sharpness) and how truthful is he
The last years of his life are just a lot of popularity, shooting in films, leaving the simple life. All this formed an image. Artemiy Troitsky was watching this: "The image that exists among young people corresponds to the image of Choi in the film "Needle". Such a "dark knight", all of himself, lonely, mysterious, unsmiling.

It was imposed on him by his girlfriend Natasha Razlogova and the director of "Needle" Rashid Nugmanov. They probably said, "Vitya, you're too simple. Be more difficult, and people will reach out."

And he created a mysterious and complex image. Which, I think, was given to him not without pleasure and at the same time not without difficulty. Vitya became a hostage of his own star status. And it is not worth confusing this with the fact that he is arrogant."

The musician of "Alice" Svyatoslav Zaderiy said the same thing: "Now they are trying to present Tsoi as a kind of romantic stoker, but in fact it was only an image of a short episode of his life. By doing this, he rather threw coal into the furnace of rock and roll history."

But, perhaps, the image began to form a little earlier – when the album "Blood Group" was released, after which "Cinema" became famous. Alexander Titov spoke about this: "After the release of the album, the band began to dress in black. Everyone became different: chin up, heroism, brutality. Apparently, the material required this and it was necessary to comply with it."

But many believed that there was no pose in Tsoi. That he was just changing and growing up, and heroism was natural. Choi himself was talking about himself:

"I'm generally silent, I try not to talk when I can not talk. I didn't save or create any image. I'm just like this and hello."
Choi as a person: temperament, character, habits, role in companies
Choi is not easy to understand, not only because of his changes and image, but also because of the combinations of opposite character traits. He was easy to communicate, while many did not understand what was on his mind. Taciturn by nature, but liked to be in the company. Closed and shy, but ironic and provocative.

From the research book "Choi Forever": "He was a sociable person, despite restraint and isolation. And not a leader by nature. Choi felt comfortable a little to the side, in a proud and beautiful pose.

Without arrogance. He was just fenced off from everyone. But I noticed that this is not immersion in oneself at all, when a person does not notice anyone, carried away by thoughts. It looks like a high fence, which he fenced off, and keenly observes what is happening. He was not visible, we were all in his palm."

Alexey Rybin said something similar: "He was usually silent, but not mysterious. His face always shows the mood in which he was at the moment, whether he approves of something or not. A real observer by nature. And he never complicated anything, on the contrary, he laid out any situation according to the principle of "good-bad". And not from a lack of intelligence, but from a desire to get to the bottom of what is happening. He was a brilliant photographer: he grasped the situation, and then showed it to us in the light in which it was photographed, without adding or subtracting anything. So he once recorded all of us and himself too – and showed it in twenty minutes: instantly, in one breath, he wrote, as it seems to me, his best song – "My Friends".

Artemy Troitsky said that Tsoi differed from the company in conservatism and restraint. He was in a crazy rock 'n' roll crowd, but always behaved with dignity: "He, unlike many, was not a pathological drunk. Drunkenness was the norm among Leningrad rockers. They all drank a lot, some became very ill and died. Choi drank for the company, but I don't remember a single case that he brawled or fought, he didn't allow himself uncivilized antics."

The same thing was observed by musician Maxim Pashkov: "Although Tsoi participated in our crazy events, he kept a human face, a sense of humor against the background of others and did not stoop to vulgarity. He was much more conservative than the rest of the company and in our amusements he never went to the end. There was never any unbridledness in him." Andrey Panov supplemented: "Vitya has always been so silent. He'll make a joke and sit there. By the way, he had a way of squatting in a corner. Or in a chair, with his feet on the table. So that the legs are always on top."

One of Tsoi's traits – in music, in interviews, and even in films – is minimalism. He spoke little and briefly. I liked to touch the maximum of meaning through the minimum number of words. Tsoi's acquaintance Pavel Krusanov wrote about this in detail: "In everyday life, he was taciturn, always spoke briefly, and sometimes weightily. However, without a second thought and calculated multi-steps. He even joked like this: in a Spartan, lapidary way, as if he was carving words on stone and trying to make them smaller.

At the same time, Choi did not look sullen. His face was lively, smiling, and his attitude to everything that was happening around him was instantly reflected on it: to the interlocutor's speech, the wind that blew, the snow that fell during the night. Already printed in facial expressions, words sometimes really turned out to be superfluous."

Another friend of Tsoi – Alexey Didurov: "His speech is calm, clear and simple. He spoke in short, precise phrases, with bursts of laughter, with a school-friendly, kindly laugh."