Commercial success came to the group in 1988 after Arkady Kudryashov, who worked with
Andrei Razin as an administrator for the band
Mirage, discovered them. While on tour in
Alma-Ata, Kudryashov accidentally heard the song
Belye Rozy (“White Roses”). Impressed, he bought a cassette of the band's songs and brought it to Moscow. Although others dismissed the music as “primitive,” Kudryashov obtained contact information for the Orenburg musicians from a local acquaintance. According to Andrei Razin, who had earlier been the first producer of
Mirage, he later created multiple touring line-ups of
Laskovyi Mai performing to Shatunov’s pre-recorded vocals. In 1988, Razin traveled to Orenburg to invite the original group to
Moscow for professional studio recordings at
SPM Records with producer
Yuri Chernavsky. During these sessions, Kuznetsov insisted that the real Shatunov perform the vocals. The core members were: •
Yuri Shatunov (lead vocalist) • Konstantin Pakhomov •
Andrei Razin (from 1988, band leader) • Musical director and composer Sergey Kuznetsov • From 1989, composer Vladimir Boyko The group lived and worked at Moscow Boarding School No. 24 on Kakhovka Street, where the “Laskovyi Mai Studio” was also located. Because Shatunov was still in school, Razin also recorded several of Kuznetsov’s new songs with his own vocals, becoming a full-fledged soloist and later the band’s manager. Razin’s activity generated many controversies, one of which he tried to diffuse by spreading the rumor that he was
Mikhail Gorbachev’s nephew. When the scandal over duplicate line-ups could no longer be hidden, Razin officially founded the
Laskovyi Mai Studio, allowing him to create multiple “official” versions of the band. The first manager of the group was Rashid Dairabayev. In 1989, after Kuznetsov’s departure, Razin appointed Vladimir Boyko, founder of the group
Belye Rozy, as musical director. All tracks were re-recorded at the
Rekord studios by sound engineer
Anatoly Meshayev. As the first Soviet teenage pop group performing in the
Euro-disco style of the 1980s,
Laskovyi Mai achieved unprecedented popularity among both youth (aged 13–18) and adults. However, tensions between Razin and Kuznetsov escalated in 1989 over financial and creative disputes. Kuznetsov left, believing the group could not survive without him. After his departure, the quality of the group’s songs declined, though commercial success continued due to the multiple touring line-ups. Between 1989 and 1990,
Laskovyi Mai performed to packed stadiums (40,000–60,000 spectators) and set records for the number of concerts per day. During the winter holidays of 1989–1990, the band held 13 sold-out solo concerts at Moscow’s
Luzhniki Olympic Complex with the program
White Roses – in White Winter… Attendance across the Soviet Union reached up to eight concerts per day and over forty per month. Although later attempts to recreate the success of
White Roses and
Pink Evening were less successful,
Laskovyi Mai had a lasting influence on the development of
Russian pop. In November 2022,
Sergey Malinkovich, the Chairman of the
Communists of Russia political party, accused musician
Andrey Razin of treason for selling the rights to the songs of Laskovyi Mai to an American company. ==Members==