THE LEGENDARY RADIO PRESENTER OF THE BBC RUSSIAN SERVICE TALKS ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF HIS PROGRAMS FOR THE SOVIET YOUTH, VIEWS ON WHAT’S GOING ON IN RUSSIA AT THE MOMENT, HIS MUSICAL TASTE, LIFESTYLE, THE CURRENT SITUATION IN THE BBC AS WELL MUCH MORE
Seva Novgorodsev is, without a doubt, a legendary and cult figure for many people who spent their youth in the Soviet Union during the 70s – 80s of the last century. In the era when the country was covered by iron curtain authorities, were really interested in the ideological purity of the nation and were taking care of it by jamming out radio broadcasts from the western world. Trying to catch BBC radio waves turned into a kind of risky national sport which improved the technical skills of many young Soviets that invented special antennas and even customized their radios by soldering extra diapasons in order to catch the voices from the other side.
One of the leading reasons for this technical resistance movement were Seva Novgorodsev’s musical programs which became one of the main sources of knowledge about what was going on at that moment in western music for the curious soviets. This made Seva a kind of a hero for forward and progressive thinking people of that time.
Novgorodsev says that he always tried to stay far away from the politics and was mostly interested in the spiritual and intellectual nature of his listeners. But anyway his gentle voice, relaxed manner of talking and a big amount of sought-after information helped a lot of generations of the Soviet people to expand their mind and understand that there was a bright and interesting world on the other side of the border.
We were lucky enough to have a chance to talk with the maestro of radio presenting, the one who dedicated almost 40 years of his life to providing a loyal service for the BBC Radio. In his interview to All Andorra, Seva Novgorodsev shared his thoughts about the situation in Russia and its current image for the western world, new projects, lifestyle, his views on what’s going on at the BBC at the moment and much more.
Interview: Dmitry Tolkunov
Hello Seva! What have you been up to after leaving the BBC 4 years ago? Have you mostly been enjoying a well-deserved break or you started some new exciting projects?
I want to start with a kind of metaphysical note –I believe that our life circumstances are created not by us but by supernatural forces. So, when a new page starts in my book of life I don’t think what I have to do, I just go and perform the mission.
And exactly this kind of thing happened with a series of public talks with my fans that I do now regularly in Russia. It all started in Feb 2018, in India, Goa. There is a big community of Russian downshifters there that are living in the area of Arambol beach and what they have is a special place there for their cultural entertainment called Ash. There was a live show there by the legendary Russian rock-star, Boris Grebenshikov, which was very successful. The owner of the venue Vasily Ash asked Boris’s advice after the show – who he thought would be suitable for the next big event. Boris (being stunned by the poetic beauty of the sunset over the Indian Ocean), immediately answered: “Invite Seva, he will tell you something interesting”. So, this is how my first public talk event happened. And it continued and developed further when I was invited to do a few more of these kinds of events during the year.
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