1 April 1995 - The Opening of Titanik

Oleg Tsodikov:
«After the success of the "Gagarins", we started looking for premises for a club. The process dragged on right up to 1994, and we found the spot for the club, as usual, by chance. One day Haas and I were driving past the Young Pioneers Stadium, I saw that blank wall and - that was it. From then on it all took off.
At the time the club's future site was a track-and-field hall - a horrible space, knee-deep in mud, with wrecked plumbing and a leaking ceiling. The sight was catastrophic. When we showed this hall to our investor, all he could say was: «Guys, I won't comment on anything. You know what you're doing».
But the space itself was unusual. The very first thing "Titanik" started with was the multi-level space. The first idea - to sink the cloakroom two metres down - came into my head. Everything else was thought up by Lyosha Haas. To this day I know of no artist his equal, who could inhabit any space with such ease. Together with his brother Andrei they drew it all. I still don't know whether there are any parallels in the world to that organisation of club space, like the one in "Titanik".
The construction dragged on for a year and a half and turned out to be a very expensive process. But if you compare "Titanik" with other club and casino projects of that time, it turns out we spent our money far more efficiently.
The club's name has a story of its own. For six months various names were written up on the office wall - probably a million variants. But right up to the last moment we didn't like any of them. Every so often some wild names would surface. For example, I remember one variant - «Porolon» ("Foam Rubber").
A couple of months before the opening I watched the film "Titanic" and one night I suddenly realised that the club simply had to be called that. Inspired, I announced it at a meeting, and people, despite all its strangeness and the ship's sad fate, agreed to it.
Back then we worked exactly the way we would when organising any party. The finish line for us was the very moment the club opened.
Several months before "Titanik" opened, crowds of people started coming to us, curious about what it would be. Journalists tried to get interviews. Loads of acquaintances called, trying to find out the details. The buzz was colossal, and from the very start "Titanik" was perceived as the city's main club. In short, by the time of the opening our main task was not to offend our friends and to let in as many people as the club could hold.
We stretched the opening out over two days. The first was commercial, with pop acts performing and people in tailcoats. It was terribly dressy, terribly crowded and terribly drunk. Andrei Fomin, in an admiral's cap, shouted from the stage: «Now we're going to sink!». That was his showman debut. But on that very first day the foundation was laid for "Titanik's" future policy, which envisaged a mix of different crowds - from ladies in evening gowns to mad artists in wild outfits. Before, these people simply couldn't have crossed paths. Now they had "Titanik".
The second day was aimed at people who want to dance. It was a purely DJ affair, and a fairly young crowd came to the club. I think Volodya Trapeznikov played that time. He was also the one who brought the foreigners, DJs from Belgium, to the opening.»