Arkady Kobyakov

Arkady Kobyakov was a Russian folk singer-songwriter noted for his songs of prison life, criminal underworld, and Russian chanson. He was born on April 7, 1962, in Kalinin, which would later be known as Tver. He was inspired by the music of Vladimir Vysotsky since his childhood. His stage name is derived from the word Russian word "Krug", which means circle. After completing service in the army, Krug entered a song contest in 1987, in which he would take first place with the song "About Afghanistan". Afterwards, he decided to seriously pursue songwriting as a career. Krug then recorded his first three albums, Tverskiye Streets (1989), Katya (1990), and an untitled third album. These albums were not released officially, but were distributed through piracy, to which Krug would give his blessing. Most of the songs on these three albums would be rerecorded for his later albums. His first official album, Zhigan-Limon (1994), featured one of his biggest hits, "Kolshchik". Krug often associated with criminals, who inspired his music. Many of Krug's songs invoke the secret code of Russian prisons and the symbolism of prisoner tattoos. Krug used a 1924 NKVD dictionary of underworld slang to help write his songs. He also wrote love songs and songs about Tver. During his lifetime, Krug was a supporter of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. In the late evening of June 30, 2002, Mikhail Krug was fatally assassinated in his house in Tver by several unknown intruders. He died in the hospital a few hours later. A 2012 DNA test revealed that Krug's killer was Dmitry Veselov, who was also murdered in March 2003 in Tver.