72
Popular Culture Review
of the circuit’s capacitor, and the inventor’s hand formed the complementary
plate. By waving his right hand in front of the device, the capacitance of the
circuit increased, reducing its pitch, and creating a new difference tone, or “beat
frequency” between the two oscillators that was within the range of human
hearing (Glinsky 25).
A second horizontal antenna was added on the left side that created
minimal interference between the two circuits. Now the instrument’s volume
could be controlled by waving his left hand, and its pitch adjusted by waving his
right hand. When the new device—originally called the etherphone—^was
demonstrated in 1920, it sounded, and appeared quite magical. Now he was
ushered into the inner circle of Soviet Scientists.
Lenin himself seemed fascinated by the etherphone, and by Termen’s
work. Termen demonstrated it for him personally, and even arranged for him
play it, showing Lenin how to move his hands properly. He said that Lenin “had
a very good ear,” and described how he held Lenin’s hands and directed their
movement to produce sounds from the instrument. “In the middle of this piece,”
he said, “1 thought that he could himself, independently, move his hands. So I
took my hands off of his, and he completed the whole thing independently, by
himself” He remarked that Lenin “was very happy that he could play on this
instniment all by himself’ (Mattis 2). Lenin was impressed, and Ternien seemed
quite taken with the dictator and classical music aficionado, remembering him as
being “a very nice, pleasant person. . . . he treated me like a son” (Glinsky 29).
In May of 1922, Lenin suffered the first of a series of strokes, and
Termen would have no further contact with him. But Termen’s talent and
charisma had left an impression on Lenin. Termen had received an all-access
rail pass—^assuring him free, safe, and unrestricted travel throughout all of the
Soviet territories—to spread the propaganda of the marvels of electricity. Lenin
was not particularly interested in spreading electronic music throughout the
country—even though he seemed impressed by it. What he wanted was
modernization, and a lasting impression that only the Communist Party could
implement these kinds of changes. He thought Termen would be his public
relations person who could reach the masses.
In 1924 Lenin died and Joseph Stalin managed to seize power.
Deification of Lenin began to take place in an attempt to turn the mass murderer
into a decidedly secular saint. During this time Termen began to do a series of
concerts as relief efforts for the 25 million people starving in the Soviet
Territories. This was valuable propaganda for the Soviets, since they had
dismantled all of the bourgeoisie’s hunger relief efforts (Glinsky 33).
Also in 1924, Termen married Katia Constantinova and was granted a
patent for the etherphone. Although Lenin was dead, other Communist party
leaders such as Leon Trotsky—^he had been founder of the Red Army and
Lenin’s deputy comrade in anns—envisioned a global socialist revolution. They
planned a secretive Communist International that would have underground
Communist governments, loyal to the Soviets, operating illegally in every