1. Nikolai Ivanovich "Kolya" Vasin was a Russian music historian, writer, one of the main popularizers of the Beatles' creative work inside the USSR and Russia, collector who became prominent in the Soviet Union for collecting Beatles memorabilia.
20 Facts About Kolya Vasin
1. 2.
Kolya Vasin first came into contact with Beatles music via bootleg records in 1964.
3.
In 1970, Vasin entered into correspondence with John Lennon, and was said to be the only Soviet citizen to do so.
4.
Kolya Vasin amassed a large collection of Beatles memorabilia and turned his apartment into an impromptu museum.
5.
Kolya Vasin campaigned for greater recognition of the Beatles and rock musicians in Russia, proposing the renaming of Leningrad as "Lennongrad", public holidays and the construction of a 210-foot tall "John Lennon Temple of Peace and Love".
6.
Kolya Vasin is known as the biggest Beatles fan in the USSR and Russia.
7.
Kolya Vasin died in a fall from the third story of a Saint Petersburg shopping centre.
8.
Kolya Vasin became fascinated by the music and the band and converted his apartment into an impromptu Beatles museum with memorabilia that he collected.
9.
Kolya Vasin is said to have been the Beatles' biggest fan in Russia and to have been the only Soviet citizen to have been able to correspond with Lennon.
10.
Kolya Vasin held the first membership card of the Leningrad Rock Club.
11.
Kolya Vasin was a self-described "Beatles-ologist" and curated an exhibit for Saint Petersburg's Museum of Non-Conformist Art as well as writing many journal articles on the subject.
12.
Kolya Vasin claimed that the Beatles gave him more joy than having children would have.
13.
Kolya Vasin campaigned for one of the city's roads to be named "Lennon Street".
14.
McCartney again visited Russia in 2004, by an invitation of Kolya Vasin, to celebrate his own birthday and give concerts at the same time.
15.
Since 1989, Kolya Vasin has travelled extensively in the United States and the United Kingdom, communicating with Beatles researchers from around the world.
16.
In one of his first trips he met Allan Williams, the first manager of the band, who then began to come to Russia to join Kolya Vasin in celebrating the birthdays of Beatles members.
17.
Kolya Vasin campaigned for a museum-cum-shrine honouring John Lennon to be erected in Saint Petersburg.
18.
The temple has already been created, but Kolya Vasin wished to expand it into a vast tower.
19.
Kolya Vasin died on 29 August 2018, five days after his 73rd birthday, after a fall from the third storey of the Saint Petersburg Gallery shopping centre.
20.
Kolya Vasin left a suicide note which read the following:.