Машина Времени (Mashina Vremeni)

Машина Времени (Mashina Vremeni, or Time Machine in English) is a Soviet and Russian rock band formed in Moscow in 1969 by Andrey Makarevich (Андрей Макаревич). The group is among the earliest and most significant rock acts to emerge from the USSR, developing an audience during a period when rock music occupied an unofficial and often restricted position within Soviet cultural life. Makarevich remained the central figure and primary songwriter throughout the band's history, which has extended across several decades and multiple lineup changes.

During the Soviet era, Машина Времени circulated largely through unofficial recordings known as magnitizdat — self-distributed magnetic tape recordings passed between listeners — before eventually gaining access to official state recording infrastructure. Their first official releases on the Melodiya label appeared in the 1980s, making those pressings important documents of a band that had already built a substantial underground following over the previous decade. The band continued recording and performing into the post-Soviet period, releasing material through Russian labels as the music industry restructured.

For collectors, early Melodiya pressings and any documentation of the band's pre-official period are the primary points of interest. The scarcity of authorized Soviet-era vinyl, combined with the band's foundational role in the history of Eastern Bloc rock, makes their records consistent targets for those focused on Soviet popular music. Magnitizdat recordings, where they surface in physical form, are also of documentary interest to specialist collectors.