Popular Culture Review Vol. 18, No. 2, Summer 2007 | Page 76

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