"Tsoi's Wall" on Arbat

A wall of fan graffiti dedicated to the late Soviet rock star Viktor Tsoi on Moscow's famous Arbat Street, facing the Krivoarbatsky Pereulok (address: 37 Arbatskaia ulitsa). The “Tsoi Wall” (Stena Tsoia) is one of the oldest and most enduring examples of commemorative street art, originating in the USSR in August of 1990 and evolving to the present day. On August 15, 1990, the day that Soviet rock star Viktor Tsoi died, a single inscription appeared on the side of a building on 37 Arbatskaya Street in central Moscow: “Today Viktor Tsoi has died. We will hold respect for you” (“Segodnia pogib Viktor Tsoi. My budem uvazhat’ tebia). Sometime later, an additional “response” appeared to the original inscription: “Tsoi lives” (Tsoi zhiv), a phrase, which has been inscribed on countless residential buildings, schools, and many other public spaces across the USSR, as a self-perpetuating public tribute to the late musician. The wall became a significant pilgrimage site for Russia’s growing subculture of Kino fans, with young people holding vigils there, using the wall to communicate with one another, and taking photographs of its changing visual content. Tsoi’s enduring legacy and cultural status has undergone changes over the three decades since his death, and the Tsoi Wall remains a reliable reflection of the musician’s public veneration, as well as of the variety of sociopolitical messages that his image has been used to represent. For example, in 2021, a year prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a new layer of graffiti was added next to a spray painted portrait of Tsoi, quoting the refrain of his Perestroika-era anthem: “Our hearts demand changes!”