Nikolai Komyagin, a poet, musician, actor and the frontman of Shortparis, has died at the age of 39. The band’s manager, Marina Kosukhina, confirmed his death without giving details. According to journalist Ksenia Sobchak, the artist felt unwell after a boxing workout and his heart gave out.
Born in Novokuznetsk, Komyagin founded Shortparis in 2012 with Alexander Ionin and Pavel Lesnikov; Danila Kholodkov joined later. The band’s concerts became experimental performances combining music, movement and dramaturgy. The group appeared at major festivals, opened for The Kooks and alt-J, and its video for “Strashno” drew more than 11 million views on YouTube.
Shortparis’s music was featured in the films Leto, Captain Volkonogov Escaped, Tchaikovsky’s Wife, Anna’s Feelings, Limonov. The Ballad of Eddie, and in the series Fisher. Komyagin himself played the lead in the short film Complex Subordinate, screened in the Cinefondation section at Cannes and at Kinotavr, and also appeared as Vladimir Mayakovsky in the series Karamora.
He also worked in theater. In Savva Saveliev’s production Take Care of Your Faces, based on texts by Andrei Voznesensky, Komyagin performed as an actor while Shortparis wrote the full soundtrack. The premiere took place in Moscow on May 12, 2022, becoming the last work of the Gogol Center before it was closed amid censorship.
After Shortparis spoke out against Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the band’s concerts in Russia began to be canceled. At the same time, the group continued touring in Europe and staged a run of performances in China in 2024–2025. The musicians chose not to emigrate. In February 2023, Komyagin said he had found his answer to leaving in a folk song:
“We heard an important answer. The grief our country is going through now is grief we must endure together, living through this time together.”
After news of his death, journalists, critics and colleagues described the loss as a severe blow to culture and remembered Komyagin as a rare talent whose live performances had a particular force.