In 1990, after their high-profile concert at the Luzhniki Stadium, Tsoi briefly relocated to Latvia with bandmate Yuri Kasparyan to work on the band's next album.

[8][9] He is regarded as one of the most important pioneers of rock music in Russia and is credited with popularizing the genre throughout the Soviet Union.

The family lived in the notable "general's house" at the corner of Moskovsky Avenue and Basseynaya Street (the building is now an architectural monument).

[19] In his youth, he was a fan of Mikhail Boyarsky and Vladimir Vysotsky, and later Bruce Lee, after whom he started modelling his image.

In the 1970s and the 1980s, rock music was an underground movement limited mostly to Leningrad; Moscow pop stars, endorsed by the Soviet state, ruled the charts and received the most exposure from the media.

'Chamber # 6'), met at the house of Andrei "Svin" Panov, in whose apartment people and musicians often gathered, and also where his own punk band Avtomaticheskie udovletvoriteli rehearsed.

Tsoi and Rybin, as members of Автоматические удовлетворители (Avtomaticheskie udovletvoriteli), went to Moscow and performed punk-rock metal at Artemy Troitsky's underground concerts.

During a similar performance in Leningrad on the occasion of Andrei Tropillo's anniversary, Tsoi and Rybin first met Boris Grebenshchikov.

[22] Grebenshchikov, who had already been a relatively established musician in the Leningrad underground scene, was very impressed by Tsoi's talent and helped him start up his own band.

At the Leningrad Rock Club, Tsoi played as a solo artist supported by members of the band Aquarium.

In the summer of 1981, Tsoi, Rybin, and Oleg Valinsky formed the band Garin i giperboloydy (Russian: Гарин и Гиперболоиды, lit.

As a result, Kino recorded the album 46, which was initially thought of as a demo for Nachalnik Kamchatki (Russian: Начальник Камчатки, lit.

The sound and lyrics of the album made Tsoi a hero among Soviet youth and Kino the most popular rock band ever.

Kino's finest hour came in 1990 with a concert at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium; 62,000 fans filled the stands to celebrate the triumph of the USSR's most successful rock group.

In 1988, Viktor Tsoi starred as the protagonist in The Needle (Russian: Игла, romanized: Igla), directed by Rashid Nugmanov and written by Aleksandr Baranov and Bakhyt Kilibayev.

The investigation concluded that Tsoi had fallen asleep while driving, possibly due to fatigue;[26][27] he had not consumed alcohol for at least 48 hours before his death.

[28] At the time he fell asleep Tsoi was driving at a speed of at least 100 km/h, causing his dark blue Moskvitch-2141[29] to turn into the oncoming lane and collide with an Ikarus 250 bus, 35 kilometers on the highway from Sloka.

While neither the driver nor the bus were badly injured or damaged, Tsoi's car was completely destroyed to the point that one of its tires was never found.

[32] Kasparyan left for Leningrad prior to the collision, with a tape containing the only recording of Tsoi's vocals for the band's next album.

The apartment building boiler room he worked at was nicknamed "Kamchatka", and is now the site of a museum and rock club dedicated to Tsoi.

In 2000 some of the nation's top rock bands came together and released their interpretations of Kino's best songs as a tribute to Viktor Tsoi on what would have been his 38th birthday.

[citation needed] In 2012, on what would have been Tsoi's 50th birthday, the remaining members of Kino gathered to record the song "Ataman" (Russian: «Атаман»), with his vocals that were recovered from his car crash but never used because of its poor quality.

The drummer Georgiy Guryanov died shortly after, making "Ataman" the last song recorded by Kino and its members.

Fans across the country commemorated his death, especially in his home city of St. Petersburg where a number of events and concerts were organised, as well as at the Tsoi Wall in Moscow.

[35][36] The South Korean rock band YB covered the song "Gruppa krovi" (Russian: «Группа крови», lit.