“Instructions for Survival” is a music album by the group “Civil Defense”, which includes 15 songs of the group “Instructions for Survival”, the authorship of which mostly belongs to Roman Neumoev. Egor Letov says:

The idea arose after a telephone conversation with Romych, the supreme head of the IPV - in which he extremely eloquently disowned everything he had godlessly created in the field of rock and roll, and categorically, flatly refused to ever and in any way participate in the recording of his own, composed in 87-88, but never recorded, or recorded ridiculously unsuccessfully, wonderful songs (“Continuous suicide”, “Motherland-Death”, “Everything will pass”, “H.Y”, etc.). To my question: “Can we, G.O., use all this motley and bitter belongings in this case?” Romych not only answered in the affirmative, but also gave his full and absolute permission to do whatever he wanted with his material, which was translated into reality literally over the next few days - no one had time to open their mouths. I have rarely sung with more joy and release in my life. After almost every take, my voice broke and I had to literally BURN my throat with hot boiling water to start the next one. After the next recorded song, a new repetition of a very painful procedure followed. In the end, my throat was swollen, and Jeff had to sing “H.Y.”, ​​which he performed so BEST GENIUSLY that even the most authoritative Author had to admit it later. The album turned out to be extremely lively and colorful, despite the fact that it was recorded in a blatantly simple manner.

Egor Letov, September 1990
(from the article “Official albumography of GroB-Records”)

List of tracks:

1. Dedication to A. Kruchenykh (M. Nemirov / R. Neumoev / A. Kruchenykh)

All songs - “Instructions for Survival” 1986-1988
Staging, arrangement, etc. - Egor Letov And Igor "Jeff" Zhevtun
Material used with personal permission Roman "Romycha" Neumoev.

Recorded from March 31 to April 1, 1990 at GroB studio Egor Letov with assistance from Kuzy Wo And Jeff.
Mixed for the first time in this version on April 4, 1990 Egor Letov at the Grob studio.
With deep and sincere feeling it is dedicated to Romych-Pomych, “Instructions for Survival”, her environment and in general those good, bitter, naive and legendary times in Tyumen when these songs were born there.

Igor "Jeff" Zhevtun- vocals (2.14), backing vocals, electric guitar, bass
Egor Letov- vocals, backing vocals. bass (13), electric guitar (14), ac. guitar, drums
Kuzya Uo- metallophone (3.7), saxophone (6), backing vocals (3), effects

Producer: Egor Letov
Decor: Egor Letov
Mastering: Sergey Letov
Graphic arts: Georg Gross

© 1990 GroB Records
© 2002 hor-music

Civil Defense "Survival Instructions"
The first album of CIVIL DEFENSE of the 90s...
In 89, only 6 numbered albums were released under the GO brand, and in 90, only Instructions for Survival were intended to represent the first half of the year.
It is clear to everyone that something is happening with the domestic underground; more precisely, it simply does not exist. Naturally, this fact could not help but affect the work of Letov, who, from the moment he began his activities in 1982, for many personified the very left wing of the countermovement. The breakdown of consciousness that occurred with many former leaders forced Yegor and his like-minded people to “descend even deeper into the basements.” All these cataclysms have led to the fact that we have only one album in six months - for GO this is undoubtedly extremely little. There is no doubt that Letov's songwriting intensity has not diminished, but he is waiting...
It is also symbolic that this single album is not the fruits of Yegor’s creativity, but just versions of the songs of SURVIVAL INSTRUCTIONS. On the one hand, this fact can be regarded as the master’s desire to convey to listeners the work of his lesser-known brothers in faith, but if we take into account all of the above, the situation looks very deplorable. What Letov did before no longer satisfies him: you can take the sound of instruments to the limit, but this is not yet a new quality. And the Survival Instructions were written down precisely at that moment when Egor was in a state of searching for a new form, rethinking what had been achieved.
For many fans of GO, Yegor’s work shone with a new facet after the appearance of the acoustic Russian Field of Experiment - “electric acoustics” - but Jha himself disowned him as a semi-finished product. Concluding this near-musical rant, I would like to draw attention to the fact that Yegor is a man of ideas, and the collapse of such will mean death for him - not only moral, but also physical, since such people do not have a double life. And here I really feel scared for Yegor.
But closer to music. The 50-minute cycle contains very diverse songs: on the one hand, naive sketches like “Rock and Roll Front”, “Knife in the Back”, “Home” and the frankly strange thing “My X...”, the presence of which is on the album does not justify the fact that almost all the songs were recorded before 1988; and on the other - “Continuous Suicide”, “My Northern Country”, “Everything Will Pass”, “Crown” and especially “Hour Before Midnight”, which in terms of emotional impact can only be compared with “Everything Goes According to Plan” - although the structure of these The two songs are completely different from each other.
I repeat that the lyrics of some songs are of very low quality, and the thought that their authorship does not belong to Yegor is of little consolation, because in this case one can justify all the pop cheapskates who sing songs based on the verses of the Union of Composers - they say, “not they wrote it." In a number of compositions ("Afghan Syndrome", "Rock and Roll Front", "I Want to Be Loved") there is a so-called "song with fuzz", characteristic of the early albums of the Civil Defense period of 85-86, Jeff remembered the old ones - good times. The album was recorded with the personal consent of Roma Neumoev, who owns all the musical and textual material, and who decided to leave the world of rock and roll forever.
But don’t take all of the above too seriously: in the end, by the end of the year, Letov will probably release more than one full-blooded GO album, and then everything will fall into place.

01.1991, "Vinyl Addict"

I don't believe in anarchy (Collection of articles) Egor Letov

CIVIL DEFENSE "SURVIVAL INSTRUCTIONS"

The first album of the CIVIL DEFENSE of the 90s... In 89, 6 numbered albums were released under the GO brand alone, in 90, only the Survival Instructions was intended to represent the first half of the year.

It is clear to everyone that something is happening with the domestic underground - more precisely, it simply does not exist. Naturally, this fact could not help but affect the work of Letov, who, from the moment he began his activities in 1982, for many personified the very left wing of the countermovement. The breakdown of consciousness that occurred with many former leaders forced Yegor and his like-minded people to “descend even deeper into the basements.” All these cataclysms have led to the fact that we have only one album in six months - for GO this is undoubtedly extremely little. There is no doubt that Letov's songwriting intensity has not diminished, but he is waiting...

It is also symbolic that this single album is not the fruits of Yegor’s creativity, but just versions of the songs of SURVIVAL INSTRUCTIONS. On the one hand, this fact can be regarded as the master’s desire to convey to his listeners the work of his lesser-known brothers in faith, but if we take into account all of the above, the situation looks very deplorable. What Letov did before no longer satisfies him: you can take the sound of instruments to the limit, but this is not yet a new quality. And the Survival Instructions were written down precisely at the moment when Egor was in a state of searching for a new form, rethinking what had been achieved.

For many fans of GO, Yegor’s work shone with a new facet after the appearance of the acoustic Russian Field of Experiments - “electric acoustics” - but Jha himself disowned him as a semi-finished product.

Concluding this near-musical rant, I would like to draw attention to the fact that Yegor is a man of ideas, and the collapse of such will mean death for him - not only moral, but also physical, since such people do not have a double life. And here I really feel scared for Yegor.

But closer to music. The 50-minute cycle contains very diverse songs: on the one hand, naive sketches like “Rock and Roll Front”, “Knife in the Back”, “Home” and the frankly strange thing “My X...”, which is not present on the album justifies the fact that almost all the songs were recorded before 1988; and on the other - “Continuous Suicide”, “My Northern Country”, “Everything Will Pass”, “Crown” and especially “Hour Before Midnight”, which in terms of emotional impact can only be compared with “Everything Goes According to Plan” - although the structure of these The two songs are completely different from each other.

I repeat that the lyrics of some songs are of very low quality, and the thought that their authorship does not belong to Yegor is of little consolation, because in this case one can justify all the pop cheapskates who sing songs based on the verses of the Union of Composers - they say, “not they wrote it." In a number of compositions ("Afghan Syndrome", "Rock and Roll Front", "I Want to Be Loved") there is a so-called "song with fuzz", characteristic of the early albums of the Civil Defense period of 85-86, Jeff remembered the old ones - good times. The album was recorded with the personal consent of Roma Neumoev, who owns all the musical and textual material, and who decided to leave the world of rock and roll forever.

But don’t take all of the above too seriously: in the end, by the end of the year, Letov will probably release more than one full-blooded GO album, and then everything will fall into place.

01.1991, "Vinyl Junkie".