A poet, composer, chansonnnier in the genre “city song”, art director of the studio  "Novik - records".

   Born on the 31st of October 1953 on Kuril Islands, the island of Hump, settlement Burevestnik, in the family of a military pilot. His mother was a housewife. In 1969 he moved to Sverdlovsk, which he called it Yekaterinburg in spite of general practice. He absolutely refused to become a Komsomol member, criticized Soviet regime, as the result was watched by authorities from his young age.

   In 1970 A. Novikov finished secondary school № 110 in Sverdlovsk. He was a student of several establishments of higher learning: Ural Polytechnical Institute, Sverdlovskiy Mining Institute, Ural Forest industry Institute, but for different reasons was withdrawn from all of them.

   In the end of 1970s he got interested in rock music. In 1975-1979 he worked as a musician in restaurants "Uralskiye pelmeni", "Malakhit", "Kosmos". In 1981 he organized his studio "Novik-records" and his musical group "Rock-Poligon", he recorded an album with the same name. Concerts of the musical group were half legal, the same way as concerts of all other rock groups of that time. He also organized his production of electric musical instruments which were of higher quality in comparison with other domestic samples and was in high demand all over the country. The instruments were analogous to foreign ones, there was little difference in outside appearance and the quality of sound. Some instruments are still being used. In 1980-1984 Novikov A. worked in the capacity of a coach of industrial training in a sports and technical society.

    In 1984 Novikov dropped rock music and all over sudden recorded his famous album  "Tool me, my cab driver". Such musicians as: A. Khomenko, V. Elizarov, S. Pyankov, Yu. Abramov, V. Chekunov, S. Kuznetsov participated in the creation of this album. It was recorded in the basement of the Palace of Culture belonging to Uralmash plant. Although such activity was considered illegal, the director of the Palace of Culture Milyavskiy Z.A. allowed it to happen. All members of the musical group are grateful to him and regard it to be a big contribution to the creation of the famous album which broke all records in the amount of copies. Immediately after the musical album appeared, Novikov became the subject of supervision of the Ideological Sector of the Communist Party Central Committee and KGB. There was an order issued by the Party leaders to take Novikov A. under close observation. His car was subject to external observation by KGB, his flat was subject to audio interception and there appeared informers or “whistle blowers’ among his neighbours.
In the morning of the 5th of October 1984, he was arrested in the street by people in civilian clothes and taken to investigatory isolation ward № 1 in Yekaterinburg.  Criminal proceeding was started and there was a document entitled "A. Novikov’s songs expertise". The paper included critical reviews for each of his songs from the Album "Tool me, my cab man", written in the offensive manner and general resume with the recommendation to put the author either in a psychiatric clinic. On the request of the authorities this review was written by composer Evgeniy Rodigin, the author of the songs “Oy, Ryabina Kudryavaya” (“Locky Wild Ash”) and “Yedut novosyoli po zemle tselinnoy”  (“New residents are coming to wild lands”),  member of the USSR Writers’s Association Vadim Ocheretin and Head of the Department of Culture V. Olyunin.  Later, however, investigators refused from the idea of institution criminal proceedings against A.Novikov on the grounds of his songs in fear of unwanted political coloration of the proceedings. Instead, he was accused of "illegal manufacture of electric musical instruments and sales activity".

    In 1985 he was sentenced to 10 years in the camp of medium security by law court in Sverdlovsk. There were attempts “to put the screw on him” and make him refuse from his songs and poems and repent. Novikov endured these with dignity. He also refused from such encouragements as substitution of hard work by work in the recreation center, library and so on. He worked together with the rest of the prisoners doing hard work, such as tree cutting, timber rafting and construction, and won the respect and love of prisoners in Russia. A. Novikov served his undeserved sentence in penitentiary institution N-240-2/2 in the city of  Ivdel in the north of Sverdlovskiy region. In 1990 he was released in accordance with the decree of the Supreme Soviet of RF, and later the Supreme Court quashed the sentence "for lack of formal elements of a definition of a crime". That was the evidence proving that he had spent 6 years in prison as the result of a framed up case.

    Since 1990 A.Novikov was the art director of Aleksandr Novikov’s Theater of a Song and the studio "Novik-records". He was the first who openly blamed television people  in 1993 for bribes they take from singers for the demonstration of their clips. He called that “shameful practice”. He criticized clannish practice in domestic show business, spoke of degradation of Russian crooners’ creative work. As the result, Novikov became persona non grata for Russian television, but his popularity still grew among simple Russian people.

    In  1994 in cooperation with the best Ural craftsmen, Novokov A. designed  models and gave his money to cast  bells  as a gift to the church built in the place where the last Russian tzar and the whole of Romanov family were shot.  The bells are unique by their sound and decoration and represent by themselves work of art worthy of exhibiting at any museum. Each bell was given a name  - one of the names belonging to members of the tzar family. The smallest one got the name cesarevitch Aleksey, the biggest one (weighing about 400 kg) - Nikolay II.

    In November 2000 А. Novikov gave the bells to the friary which was built in the first burial place of the tsar family - the so called “Ganina Yama” in proximity to Yekaterinburg as the church in place where the family was shot was not built yet.

    In 2000 Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Aleksiy II visited Yekaterinburg and blessed the construction of the church, his Grace the archbishop of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye Vikentiy blessed Novikov’s bells erection in the belfry of the church  in Ganina Yama, the place of  the first deposition of the bodies of the tzar family, where these bells are still ringing.

   In 2002 A.Novikov initiated an act of charity “Bells of Penance” aimed at raising money for founding bells of the church of all the Saints who shone forth in the Land of Russia with the blessing of Russian Orthodox Church and with the support of Sverdlovsliy region Governor Rossel E.E. The church was erected in the place where the members of the tsar family were shot and called the Temple on blood. Some of those bells were found on the money given by Novikov and blessed by his Grace the archbishop of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye Vikentiy on the 6th of October 2002. On the 17th of October the bells were erected in one of the four belfries of the Temple.  The 16th of July 2003 was the opening day of the Temple on blood. Total amount of the bells - 14, the biggest ones weighing 1.3, 2.5,4 and 8 tons. The bells have unique artistic decoration and there are icons on each of them. The bells were manufactured in Kamensk-Uralskiy, by “Pyatkov and K”.

    During the period of his creative activity A.Novikov became the author of more than two hundred songs, among those a great amount of songs which became classics of the genre (“Girl, you remember…”, “The cabman”, “Cabaret singer” “Street–walking beauty”, “Ancient city” and others).  

   In 1994 he recorded his song "Cabaret singer", and made a video clip in cooperation with  producer К.Kotelnikov on the basis of Novikov’s scenario. The clip is unique in its technique combining real picture with animated cartoon. No computer technologies have been employed.  Animated cartoons are made by hand. There were produced some other music videos: "A street-walking beauty", "Embracing a beauty" (producer G. Kropivskiy), "Krasniye i beliye", "Puskay ti vipita drugim", "Izvozchik", "Yekaterinblyuz" and some other. In all cases the scenario is created by Novikov A. himself. There were also several documentaries: "I have just been released from the cage", "Do you remember, girl?", "Gop-stop show".

    In 1995 A.Novikov and producer K. Kotelnikov made a big documentary about the music group "Boney M" and its composer-producer Frank Forian  - "Oh, that Forian!". The film shooting took place in Luxemburg and Germany. The film is interesting and wanted but it didn’t appear on Central TV.

   In 1995 A. Novikov became “Ovatsiya” national prizewinner in nomination "City love song". In 1997 he created music to S. Yesenin’s poems and recorded a musical album "Sergey Yesenin", which became a most successful and significant work on the basis of his poems according to musical critics, art critics, and  public opinion.
А. Novikov created more than 200 songs, 10 records and gave birth to quite a new genre - the genre of modern city love songs, which he raised to the level of art.   
Thanks to his firm patriotic stand, sincere love to his fellow countrymen, he is a national hero, enjoying popularity and fame.

    Russian Association of independent newsmakers interviewed more than 85 000 respondents in 1998 and A.Novikov was named among outstanding poets of the 20th century alongside with Yesenin, Galich, Visotskiy.

    A. Novikov is married and has two children. His wife Mariya Fedorovna works in Ural State Academy of Civil Service. The children’s names are Igor and Natalya. Hobbies - fishing, hunting, fast driving.