Chagadaev, Alexander Sergeevich

Born May 31, 1889 in Moscow, in the family of the Vilnius commandant adjutant. From childhood he was fond of playing the balalaika , took lessons from her playing with B. S. Troyanovsky . Studied at the law faculty of St. Petersburg University .

In 1908 he became a member of the Great Russian Orchestra of Andreev . In the fall of 1909, he left with the orchestra on tour in England, and stayed there until 1916, having founded the first foreign balalaika orchestra in London, in which he participated as a conductor and soloist. He received his musical education at the London School of Music. Chagadaev remained in England at the personal request of King Edward VII , teaching at the Court in the Guards Regiment, and giving private lessons in playing the balalaika.

Upon his return from abroad, he organized other orchestras of Russian folk instruments in various organizations and parts of the Red Army , and directed them. Chagadaev was enlisted as a volunteer in the symphony orchestra of the Life Guards Grenadier Regiment .

In the fall of 1919, while imprisoned in the Tagansk prison , he organized the Great Russian Orchestra in it. On Monday, February 7, 1921, at 19.00, a farewell concert of the Great Russian Orchestra of Former Prisoners was given in the premises of the Solitary Corps ^[1] . February 16, 1921, together with other orchestras, was released into the wild. After liberation, the orchestra continued its performances, being housed in a hostel of the Central Punitive Department ^[2] . A. S. Chagadaev was convicted of “extorting bribes” in the “Rasmeko case”. A. S. Chagadaev worked as a secretary in the General Directorate for the Distribution of Metals of the Supreme Economic Council (Rasmeko). Together with Chagadaev, in the same case, the head of the Rasmeko Department of Foreign Metals, Sergei Mikhailovich Sukhotin (1887-1926) , an accomplice in the murder of G. E. Rasputin, was imprisoned in Taganskaya Prison. Sukhotin helped Chagadaev organize a prison orchestra.

After leaving prison, he directed orchestras in the labor communes of the NKVD in Bolshevo (near Korolev) and the city of Lyubertsy .

In the last years of his life, he worked at the Musical College named after The October Revolution , leading a class of folk instruments.

The author of two books and ten collections of plays ^[3] .

• Chagadaev A. S. Guide to the organization of Great Russian orchestras (domra, balalaika). - M .: Mussector of the State Publishing House, 1925 .-- 23 p.
• Chagadaev A.S.V.V. Andreev. - M.-L .: Muzgiz, 1948 .-- 28 p.
• Chagadaev A. S. Work with string circles in work clubs // Music and Revolution: Journal. - 1928. - No. 1 . - S. 11-14 .

• Letters to V.V. Andreev // V.V. Andreev. Materials and documents / Comp. Bb Granovsky. - M .: Music, 1986. - S. 179-182. - 351 p.
• Svidzinskaya M. S. The Great Russian Orchestra of Prisoners of the Taganskaya Prison (1919-1921) // New Historical Bulletin: Journal. - 2009. - Issue. 22 .