KVN - The Rah-rah and Quick-witted Club (Klub Veselykh i Nakhodchivykh)

By Vitaly Kolmanovsky

The word KVN says nothing to foreigners although it is an integral part of the student culture on the territory that used to be the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The crack of the country caused destruction in many fields but KVN survived and now became a unifying point for students all over the former USSR and even beyond. In effect, it is a competition between student teams represented as comic and jocular performance. KVN literally means The Rah-rah and Quick-witted Club (Klub Veselykh i Nakhodchivykh). Baku is "KVNish" by tradition and this tradition has a worth-to-tell history.

I was lucky to play up in the establishing and triumphal success of the first Baku KVN team captained by Yuli Gussman. All this began with the start of Moscow TV broadcasting that included KVN programs as well. The latter enthused the young folk of Baku to spontaneously group up into KVN teams. So were the teams of Azerbaijan State University, Petroleum Chemistry Institute, Medical College, and Technology Institute and Neftechimpribor Design Bureau established. In autumn 1966 the brain center was organized that consisted of Yuli Gussman and Kolmanovsky brothers. The organizational efforts of Yuli Gussman and talented authorship of Kolmanovsky brothers allowed the first Baku KVN championship in 1967 won by Neftechimpribor Design Bureau team.

By that time Yuli Gussman managed to successfully contact Moscow TV and invite them to the tournament. Among the guests were V. Sokolov, chief editor of Moscow TV youth department, and a founder of KVN Albert Axelrod. In the summer of 1966 the editors of Moscow TV M. Krasnanskaya and B. Sergeeva came to Baku to decide the fate of Baku KVN on Moscow TV.

They liked the Baku teams and invited us to participate in Moscow TV contest. The need for the united national team arose which was established soon after and had Ilich Culture Palace (Dvorets Kultury Ilicha) as its meeting place. The team included members from all the existing teams. They were: A. Veinstein, M. Nogonovsky, Arif Musaev, V. Teller from Neftechimpribor, Adil Ismailov from Medical Institute, Emin Aliev from Azerbaijan State University, G.Shirin, A. Gurevich, Ali Aliev from Economy Institute, Kamal Kassimov and Vagif Abdullaev from Technology Institute. It was a piece of luck for the team to acquire a young and very talented composer and musician Leonid Veinstein who composed and arranged all the musical background of the games. Kolmanovsky brothers continued to be the main authors and Yuli Gussman the director of the team. The team was titled Baku Boys (Parni Iz Baku) - the name still borne by the nowadays Baku KVN team.

In the late autumn of 1967 Baku Boys first appeared on Moscow TV. The next year the two victories that had been gained over Kuybishev and Moscow Civil Engineering University teams won the Baku Boys the champion title.

In the season of 1969 the winners of the previous ten years competed for the title of The Champion of Champions. With the three games won Baku Boys gained that title, too.

In one or two years KVN was discontinued on Moscow TV for the period of more than 10 years and was reopened only in 1986. The new Baku Boys captained by Anar Memmedkhanov was established and gained the championship in 1990. Now no Baku teams participate in Moscow KVN competitions although internal championship is held.

Photos courtesy by Emin Aliyev