September 7, 1988. At the Saratov cafe "Interklub," the group "Kombinaciya" plays its first concert - six young women assembled by a former OBKhSS officer, Alexander Shishinin, and the composer Vitaly Okorokov. By the end of 1989 the group will have its first all-Union hit, "Russian Girls," and a single on the Melodiya label, while "Modnitsa" ("Fashionista") and "Russkie Devochki" ("Russian Girls") will become two of the most covered Soviet pop numbers of the transitional period. The group's Saratov origin is not biographical trivia but the key to its sound: a provincial line-up, a provincial studio, a provincial restaurant instead of a professional studio - and hits written without looking over the shoulder at Moscow's production standards.
Saratov origin: OBKhSS, the conservatory, and a "Mirage" concert
"Kombinaciya" was founded in 1988 in Saratov. The group was created by Alexander Shishinin, a former OBKhSS (the department for combating the theft of socialist property) employee who became the group's director, and the young composer Vitaly Okorokov. According to the creators, the idea for a female group was inspired by a "Mirazh" ("Mirage") concert they had seen shortly before - the very group we covered in our breakdown of Soviet Mirage-clone groups.
The name "Kombinaciya" ("Combination") was provocative for the late 1980s: it was associated with women's lingerie. Okorokov explained in interviews that the reference was not to underwear but to a combination of styles in music. Embedded in that provocative gesture is the group's entire aesthetic: social-everyday themes delivered through a female voice and a dance rhythm section.
The first line-up was assembled from Saratov sources. The conservatory student Alyona Apina was brought in by Okorokov. The singer Tatiana Ivanova, still a schoolgirl, was found by Shishinin on a Saratov street. Keyboardist Svetlana Kostyko (Zosya) and guitarist Tatiana Dolganova came from the Saratov Music College. Bass guitarist Olga Akhunova commuted to rehearsals from the neighbouring city of Engels. Yulia Kozyulkova became the drummer.
First concert and first album
On September 7, 1988, the group played its first concert at the Saratov cafe "Interklub" - this date is considered the collective's birthday. That same year, the first album, "Khod Konyom" ("A Knight's Move"), was released as samizdat, recorded at the Saratov restaurant "Tsentralny." It included the songs "Bely Vecher" ("White Evening"), "Chyornaya Nitka" ("Black Thread"), "Znayu, Chto Ne Lyubish" ("I Know You Don't Love Me"), "Khei, Mama" ("Hey, Mama") - minimal arrangement, maximum live tempo. With this album the group set off on regional tours - a classic scheme for a provincial group: a restaurant recording, cassettes passed hand to hand, regional concerts.
"Khod Konyom" was never released on Melodiya - it was pure samizdat, recorded not in a studio but in a restaurant hall. The sound quality matches: live room reverb, drums in the background, vocals up front. But it was this recording that spread on cassettes and gave the group its first following in the Volga region - before Moscow had even heard of "Kombinaciya."
"Russian Girls" and "Modnitsa": 1989
In 1989, the first hit arrived - the song "Russian Girls," which brought the group all-Union popularity. The track was included in the ensemble's first official release - the EP "Show-Group 'Kombinaciya,'" issued by the Melodiya label. The collective tours the Soviet Union, and songs such as "Ne Zabyvai" ("Don't Forget") and "Modnitsa" ("Fashionista") are added to its repertoire.
In 1990, at the "Gala" studio, the plate "Russkie Devochki. Novaya Versiya" ("Russian Girls. New Version") was recorded and released on Melodiya - the album, among other things, contained an updated version of "Russian Girls." The group appeared in the film "Mordashka" ("Plain Jane") - three "Kombinaciya" songs are heard in the picture: "Ne Zabyvai," "Bayka" ("A Tale"), and "Malchik Moy, Ya Ne Lyublyu Metall" ("My Boy, I Don't Like Metal"). For a pop group in 1990, cinema was an extra rotation channel: not everyone had a VCR, but film inserts ran on Central Television.
Also around 1989, the entire group - together with Shishinin and Okorokov - moves to Moscow. Touring intensifies: "Kombinaciya" plays up to 60 concerts a month. Shishinin keeps the members on a tight leash: after a concert he does not let them go anywhere, keeps them locked in hotel rooms, forbids smoking and drinking. This is not a metaphor but a specific production regime, without which 60 concerts a month would have been impossible.
Who wrote "Modnitsa" - and why this is disputed
The music for "Modnitsa" was written by Vitaly Okorokov - this part is not disputed. The lyrics are more complicated. On the early "Kombinaciya" albums, the lyricist was mostly listed as the group's producer, Alexander Shishinin. However, the poet Yuri Druzhkov claimed to be the actual author of some of these texts, though he was never paid for them. There is no legal confirmation of Druzhkov's claims.
In the registry of the Russian Authors' Society (RAO), Druzhkov is listed as the author of lyrics for the songs:
- "Bereg Krasny, Bereg Bely" ("Red Shore, White Shore")
- "Vishnyovaya 'Devyatka'" ("Cherry 'Nine'")
- "Lyubov Ukhodit Ne Spesha" ("Love Leaves Slowly")
- "Mily Moy, Rodnoy" ("My Dear, My Own")
- "Poydyom So Mnoy" ("Come With Me")
- "Syeryoga"
- "Khvatit, Dovolno" ("Enough, That's It")
- "Popurri" ("Medley")
At the same time, in the 2004 reissues of "Kombinaciya" albums, the lyricist for "Ne Grusti" ("Don't Be Sad"), "Modnitsa," and "Poydyom So Mnoy" was changed from Shishinin to Druzhkov. That is, formally, "Modnitsa" was re-attributed in 2004 - but the RAO's main registry does not list "Modnitsa" under Druzhkov, and Okorokov said in interviews that of the big hits Druzhkov wrote only the lyrics to "Vishnyovaya 'Devyatka.'" Alyona Apina added that Druzhkov's texts were of low quality and had to be reworked by members of the group. The dispute remains a dispute - we confirm only what is documented: the RAO registry and the fact of the 2004 re-attribution.
Detail: "Modnitsa" and "Ne Grusti" are the two songs for which the 2004 reissue changed the author from Shishinin to Druzhkov. "Poydyom So Mnoy" is the third. All other texts of the first line-up in the reissues stayed with Shishinin.
"Moskovskaya Propiska," "American Boy," Apina's departure
The third album, "Moskovskaya Propiska" ("Moscow Residence Permit"), almost immediately shot to the top of the hit parades. The songs "American Boy" and "Bukhgalter" ("Accountant") instantly went viral; the latter largely thanks to an inventive clip directed by Sergey Kosach. "Moskovskaya Propiska" was the last album released by the first line-up: Ivanova, Apina, Kostyko, Akhunova, Kovaleva.
In 1991, Alyona Apina unexpectedly leaves "Kombinaciya" and starts a solo career under the direction of Alexander Iratov, who later became her husband. Shishinin takes this step as betrayal. The group begins an urgent search for a new lead singer - the choice fell on Tatiana Okhomush from the city of Ivanovo, but she worked in the group for a very short time: no recordings with her survive.
In January 1992, Okhomush is replaced by Svetlana Kashina, a resident of Nizhny Tagil, spotted at the final of the "Utrennyaya Zvezda" ("Morning Star") contest. With her, "Kombinaciya" releases the album "Dva Kusocheka Kolbaski" ("Two Little Pieces of Sausage"), which included the hits "Syeryoga," "Bereg Krasny, Bereg Bely," "Luis Alberto," "Vishnyovaya 'Devyatka,'" and a medley of old songs. "Syeryoga" and "Vishnyovaya 'Devyatka'" are precisely the texts that in the RAO are credited to Druzhkov.
March 1993: the murder of Shishinin
On March 5, 1993, Alexander Shishinin is murdered in the entrance of a building on Metallurgov Street, where he rented an apartment. After the producer's death, the composer Vitaly Okorokov gradually steps away from the group. The producer becomes Alexander Tolmatsky. In collaboration with Igor Sarukhanov, the album "Samaya-Samaya" ("The Most-Most") is recorded - less successful than the previous ones, but the songs "Samaya-Samaya," "Kakie Lyudi v Gollivude" ("What People in Hollywood"), "Vstrecha na Maneshnoy" ("Meeting at Manezhnaya"), and "A Ya Lyublyu Vyonnykh" ("And I Love Military Men") became hits.
In July 1994, due to disagreements with Tolmatsky, Svetlana Kashina leaves the group - together with her husband, the group's sound engineer Viktor Rukavishnikov. The group's popularity drops sharply. The last disc was the 1998 lyrical album "Davay Pobolstayem" ("Let's Chat"), which did not gain wide recognition.
Why "Modnitsa" and "Russian Girls" still work
"Modnitsa" and "Russian Girls" are built on one logic: a simple social plot (fashion, a Western boy) + a dance rhythm section + a recognisable female vocal. The tempo sits around 120-128 BPM, the harmony is not complicated, the chorus repeats twice - a corridor convenient for both the dance floor and karaoke. "Kombinaciya" was generally distinguished by pointedly social themes: almost every song reflected a concrete phenomenon of the 1989-1991 threshold - the universal shortage of goods, youth fashion, the boom of Latin American telenovelas, the reverence for all things Western. "Modnitsa" is about fashion, "Russian Girls" is about a stereotype of Soviet girls, "American Boy" is about the dream of a foreign fiancé, "Luis Alberto" is about a telenovela hero, "Dva Kusocheka Kolbaski" is about food shortages. This is documentary pop music of a transitional era, and that is exactly why it is still played at retro concerts: the texts read as a chronicle.
"Kombinaciya" is a parallel branch to what we analysed in the article about Valentina Legkostupova's "Yagoda-Malina" and in the breakdown of the Gazmanovs' "Lyusi": three Soviet pop phenomena of one transitional period, 1987-1989. They have different origins - a TV studio, a composer-teacher, a provincial cafe - but a shared mechanism: a simple image + a dance rhythm + a minimal arrangement. The same principle by which Soviet synth-pop and Russian synth-pop of the late 1980s worked, only without synthesisers and with a live rhythm section.
The Disco Magic catalogue includes a version of "Modnitsa", built on the same scheme as our other treatments: a new rhythm section, the original vocal preserved, tempo close to the original. A song from a Saratov cafe in 1989 remains danceable in the 2020s - and it works precisely because the social plot of "Modnitsa" (fashion, shortage, the dream of a beautiful life) is universal for any era of change.
"Kombinaciya" today
Since the move to Moscow in 1989, "Kombinaciya" has performed at retro concerts and corporate events. In June 2018, Apina and Ivanova reunited and shot a clip for a new joint song, "Poslednyaya Poema" ("The Last Poem"). In October of the same year, the anniversary tour "A Nam 30!" ("And We're 30!") started, with the group performing in its original line-up - more than 30 concerts across Russia and Germany. September 7, 1988, the date of the first concert at the "Interklub" cafe, remains the point of reference: from Saratov samizdat to the anniversary tour, exactly thirty years passed, and "Modnitsa" and "Russian Girls" have not lost either their recognisability or their danceability in that time.
