Besides Victor Tsoy and Mayk Naumenko, several characters known only by their first names or nicknames are stand-ins for real musicians, popular in the Soviet rock scene. In 1980's Leonid (Filipp Avdeyev) represents Aleksey Rybin of 'Kino' fame. 'Punk' is a stand-in for Andrey 'Svin' Panov (Aleksandr Gorchilin), leader of 'Avtomaticheskiye ydovletvoreniye' punk band and one of the pioneers of punk genre in USSR. Bob (Nikita Efremov) is Boris Grebenshchikov, leader of rock band 'Akvarium' and Artyom (Andrey Khodorchenkov) represents Artemiy Troitskiy, pioneer of rock music in USSR and organizer of multiple rock concerts and festivals.