Aleksey Koblov – journalist, music critic, eyewitness and witness of the incredible, one of the apostles of domestic counterculture. He collaborated with publications such as Zombi, Urlight, Kontur Kult Ur’a, Fuzz, Rolling Stone, MK, AiF and many others. He was engaged in organizing concerts and festivals featuring many bright representatives of Russian-language rock 'n' roll, becoming not only an observer but also a part of the history of Russian Woodstock. There has long been a need to collect together the direct speech of Yegor, his numerous interviews, monologues, conversations with friends, letters, and to give the opportunity to see him speaking exclusively in his own words, without elaborate reviews, meticulous analysis, and critical reviews, except for a few explanatory comments. In English-speaking practice, there is such a form – … in his words, which actually means: in his own words. And in the case of Letov, this is doubly valuable – he was someone who truly wielded words as another weapon, a means of conveying to the world what he lived for, what occupied and troubled him. In a certain sense, this is the only possible attempt to compensate for the books of dialogues and conversations with Yegor that were suggested to him during his lifetime and never materialized. The collection, covering the period from 1986 to 1997, features both iconic texts that influenced entire generations of readers and listeners, program statements, and sharp rhetoric – all that constituted parts of a unified whole or, as Yegor himself said, a great multitude. There are also little-known interviews, detailed concert monologues, letters, photographs, autographs, and illustrations. All this resembles a kaleidoscope with endless new combinations. The contradictory yet astonishingly cohesive personality of Yegor Letov continues to evoke unflagging interest. Aleksey Koblov
