Zemlyane

Zemlyane
Zemlyane, circa 1984
Background information
Origin	Leningrad, Soviet Union (now St. Petersburg, Russia)
Genres	Pop rock, space rock, synthrock, art rock, new wave
Years active	1978–present
Labels	Melodiya
Associated acts	Alisa
Website	www.zemlyane.com
Members	Sergey Skachkov Oleg Khovrin Andrey Smirnov Andrey Ismagilov Sergey Kolchin
Past members	Igor Romanov Boris Aksenov Pavel Borisov Boris Dolgikh Gennadiy Martov Sergey Vasiliev Yuriy Babenko Aleksandr Krivzov Georgiy Tonkelidi Andrey Kruglov Nikolay Kudryavtsev Viktor Kudryavtsev Veronika Stepanova Yuriy Starchenko

Zemlyane (Russian: Земляне, meaning Earthlings) is a Soviet, and later Russian rock band which enjoyed great popularity in the early 1980s. The band was formed in Leningrad, Soviet Union in 1978 and remains active to this day.

A key artist in "VIA" (vocal-instrumental ensemble) wave of Soviet music, it was one of the first officially state-recognized bands to feature elements of rock music in USSR. Zemlyane used to mix hard rock music with synthpop, and Zemlyane's frontman Sergey Skachkov plays keytar. Most of their lyrics deal with risk, courage, and masculinity. They sang about cosmonauts, stunts, pilots, and sailors.

In 2010, their 1980s hit "Trava u doma" ("Grass by the Home") was awarded with the official status of the first anthem of Russian cosmonautics. Russian cosmonauts have traditionally taken this song with them getting assigned for orbital deployments.

In 2015 "Zemlyane" supported actions of Vladimir Putin in Ukraine and gave a concert in Sevastopol, reunited with Russia.

Zemlyane was formed in 1968 by students of Leningrad Radiopolytechnical College. Followers of bands such as Deep Purple, Iron Butterfly, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, they played mainly cover versions of these bands' music until 1974 when they started creating compositions of their own.

In 1978 Zemlyane stopped performing on stage for several months for reasons of reorganization and rest.

Their former administrator Andrey Bolshev and drummer of rock band April, Vladimir Kiselev, decided to take advantage of this situation. They put together totally different musicians passing them off as real Zemlyane. Protests from original Zemlyane rock band were abruptly ignored. (The accession of the Soviet Union to the Universal Copyright Convention, which became effective on May 27 was formal and no one dared to sue for copyright violation or infringement.)