 There Nikolai finished school and afterwards served his term for the army.Curious to explore, Kolya tried to play bayan, but as he was growing up, his attention shifted more and more firmly to singing; first in the school choir, then as a solo performer, winning one of his first awards at a local singing contest at the age of fourteen.The lead singer of the school band, he performed the hits of the Beatles, Creedence Clearwater Revival and other western rock bands, bending to the wave of rock’n’roll music, then surgent amid the Soviet youth.