The phrase mentioned, "which brings us all together here today," alludes to Oleg Mityaev's famous bard song "How Wonderful That We're All Gathered Here Today," which by 1993 had already become the unofficial anthem of the Russian author-song (bard music) movement.
This song was written and first performed by Oleg Mityaev in 1978 at the Ilmen Festival of Author's Song. The story behind the song is that, in the mid-1970s, Mityaev, while vacationing on Lake Ilmen, stumbled onto a bard-song festival, which made a strong impression on him. Inspired by the festival's atmosphere, he returned the following year with his own first composition — "How Wonderful That We're All Gathered Here Today." According to the author himself, the song was written during a lecture on the history of navigation.
Notably, in Mityaev's original performance he uses the perfective future-tense verb form — "you will embrace" — in the first line, though in the way it's usually performed by others, the imperfective present-tense form — "you embrace" — is more common.
The curve of the yellow guitar, you'll embrace it tenderly,
A string, like a shard of an echo, will pierce the taut sky.
The dome of heaven will sway, vast and starry-snowy...
How wonderful that we're all gathered here today!
By 1993, when the novel is set, the song had already achieved nationwide fame, becoming an informal symbol of unity among people sharing common values and interests. The song was traditionally performed at the end of bard concerts and festivals, often sung by everyone present together.
In 1990, the song appeared on Mityaev's first official album, "Let's Talk," which further boosted its popularity. It first appeared on television in 1987, in the documentary film "Two Hours with the Bards" by director Alexander Stefanovich.
The mention of this phrase in the characters' conversation in 1993 is typical of the era, when bard songs and author's music were an important part of cultural life and carried special significance for the intelligentsia, often associated with gatherings of friends, heartfelt conversations, and sincere fellowship.