- a famous Russian poet and prose writer. A bright representative of the art song genre. He is the author of almost two hundred compositions. Year of birth: May 9, 1924 (Moscow).

Brief biography:

Father (Georgian) and mother (Armenian) were party workers, with whom Bulat was separated in 1937. The father was arrested and shot, and the mother was sent to a camp (Karaganda), where she was until 1955.

In 1940 - Bulat moved to live in Tbilisi with relatives, where he studied and worked.
Already at the age of 17, he volunteered for the front (1942). During the hostilities near Mozdok he was wounded.

During this difficult time (1943), he wrote the first song "We couldn't sleep in the cold cars." But the text, unfortunately, has not survived to our times.

"An old student song" - became the second in a row (1946).

When the war is over Okudzhava was enrolled in the State University of Tbilisi. After graduation (1950), he worked as a teacher in a rural school (Kaluga region).

In 1954, Bulat read his poems at a meeting of writers. After kind criticism and support, he began to cooperate with the Kaluga newspaper "Young Leninist". And so his first collection of poems called "Lyric" (1956) was born.

Returning to Moscow in 1959, Bulat began performing in front of a large audience. Performances, in addition to poetry, began to include the guitar. From that moment on, his popularity began to grow.

In parallel, he was the editor of the publishing house "Young Guard", then worked in the "Literary Gazette".
Since 1961 - Okudzhava began to engage only in his work and no longer worked for hire.

In the same year, the official concert of Bulat Okudzhava took place in Kharkov for the first time.
In 1962, he also starred in the feature film "Chain Reaction" for the first time, where he performed the composition "Midnight Trolley Bus".

Also a year later, his song “And we need one victory” was performed in the film “Belorussky Station”. Now, Bulat's songs and his poems are heard in about eighty films.

To all other Okudzhava wrote several songs to poems by Ogneshka Osiecka (Polish poetess), which he had previously translated into Russian.

The singer Natalya Gorlenko also played a special role in his work. They had a long romance. (1981).

In the 90s, he often lived at his dacha in Peredelkino (Moscow Region). He gave concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg. He also performed in Canada, USA, Germany and Israel. In Paris was his last concert. (1995).

June 12, 1997 - Bulat Okudzhava died in a hospital in the suburbs of Clamart (Paris). He was buried in Moscow at the Vagankovsky cemetery.
In 1999, the State Memorial Museum of Bulat Okudzhava was opened in the Moscow Region.
Also in his honor, already in Moscow itself, 2 monuments were erected (2002, 2007).

The name of Bulat Okudzhava is known to many former Soviet citizens, because he was a singer and composer of that time, who gave an incredible atmosphere and became a symbol of his era.

Bulat Okudzhava was born on May 9, 1924 in Moscow, but his relatives were from Armenia and Georgia, which is why Bulat bore a non-Russian surname. The childhood of Bulat Okudzhava did not take place at all in the capital of the USSR, but in the city of Tbilisi. In Tbilisi, Bulat Okudzhava's father was lucky, because he got a seat in the party and became one of the most successful party leaders. Very often, Bulat's family moved, but it did not last too long, because according to a denunciation, unfortunately, Bulat's father ended up in camps, and then was sentenced to death (that's the party system).

At first, Bulat stayed with his mother, they tried to flee, returning back to Moscow, however, this did not save them, and Bulat's mother also ended up in a camp for wives who were married to traitors to the motherland. Bulat Okudzhava's mother stayed in the camp for twelve years, and all this time the boy stayed with relatives in Tbilisi.

Bulat Okudzhava's career began as a turner at a factory. For the average Soviet person, it was a completely normal and ordinary job. In 1942, he decided to volunteer for the front. In 1943 he was wounded, but nevertheless, having recovered, he went to the front line. Bulat Okudzhava wrote his first song at the front. She became quite popular, but after which he did not have a creative take-off, but rather, on the contrary, a lull. The name of this song is "We couldn't sleep in cold cars."

After the war, Okudzhava decided to study at the University of Tbilisi, and after receiving his diploma, he managed to work as a village teacher. But Bulat Okudzhava did not abandon his creative activity, he continued to write poetry, which he later used as musical texts.

The first poems of Bulat Okudzhava were published in the newspaper "Young Leninist" after very interesting events. The start of his career and recognition was laid when, at the speech of the famous writers Nikolai Panchenko and Vladimir Koblikov, Bulat Okudzhava simply approached them and offered to read his poems and give them an assessment. As you can see, such a talent of the young poet could not be hidden, so recognition came very quickly.

In 1955, Bulat Okudzhava began to earn money as a songwriter. The first creative successes were "Sentimental March", "On Tverskoy Boulevard" and others, which brought him great popularity. Already in 1961 there was the first concert of Bulat Okudzhava in Kharkov. The public appreciated his work. After that, concerts became a common phenomenon in the life of Bulat Okudzhava, and his work began to be recognized everywhere.

Bulat Okudzhava also gave concerts in many European countries, especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Bulat spent the last years of his life in Paris, where he died in 1997, due to his long illness, however, he was buried at home, in Moscow, at the Vagankovsky cemetery.

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Bulat Okudzhava is a recognized founder of the author's song. Success came to Okudzhava because he turned not to the masses, but to the individual, not to everyone, but to each individual. The subject of poetry in his world was ordinary, everyday life.

Poems began to write in childhood. For the first time, Okudzhava's poem was published in 1945 in the newspaper of the Transcaucasian Military District "Fighter of the Red Army" (later "Lenin's Banner"), where his other poems were also published during 1946. In 1953-1955, Okudzhava's poems regularly appeared on the pages of Kaluga newspapers. In Kaluga, in 1956, the first collection of his poems, Lyrica, was also published. In 1959, Okudzhava's second collection of poetry, Islands, was published in Moscow. In subsequent years, Okudzhava's poems were published in many periodicals and collections, books of his poems were published in Moscow and other cities.

Okudzhava wrote more than 800 poems. Many of his poems are born along with music, there are already about 200 songs.

For the first time he tries himself in the genre of song during the war. In 1946, as a student at Tbilisi University, he created the "Student Song" ("Furious and stubborn, burn, fire, burn ..."). Since 1956, one of the first begins to act as an author of poetry and music songs and their performer. Okudzhava's songs attracted attention. There were tape recordings of his speeches, which brought him wide popularity. Recordings of his songs were distributed throughout the country in thousands of copies. His songs were heard in films and performances, in concert programs, in television and radio programs. The first disc was released in Paris in 1968, despite the resistance of the Soviet authorities. Disks came out noticeably later in the USSR.

At present, the State Literary Museum in Moscow has created a fund of Okudzhava's tape recordings, numbering over 280 items.

Professional composers write music to Okudzhava's poems. An example of good luck is V. Levashov's song to Okudzhava's verses "Take your overcoat, let's go home." But the most fruitful was Okudzhava's collaboration with Isaac Schwartz ("Drops of the Danish King", "Your Honor", "Song of the Cavalier Guard", "Road Song", songs for the TV movie "Straw Hat" and others).

Books (collections of poems and songs): "Lyric" (Kaluga, 1956), "Islands" (M., 1959), "Merry Drummer" (M., 1964), "On the road to Tinatin" (Tbilisi, 1964), "Magnanimous March" (M., 1967), "Arbat, my Arbat" (M., 1976), "Poems" (M., 1984, 1985), "Dedicated to you" (M., 1988), "Selected" (M., 1989), "Songs" (M., 1989), "Songs and Poems" (M., 1989), "Drops of the Danish King" (M., 1991), "Grace of Fate" (M., 1993 ), "A song about my life" (M., 1995), "Tea drinking on the Arbat" (M., 1996), "Waiting room" (N. Novgorod, 1996).

Such people are rightly called the conscience of the nation, real intellectuals of the spirit. Their departure is always perceived especially acutely - as the end of an entire era. So it was with academician D.S. Likhachev, with Yu.V. Nikulin. This is how many perceived the death in June 1997 of Bulat Okudzhava.

Biography of Bulat Okudzhava (9.05.1924-12.06.1997)

Born on the Arbat in the family of an Armenian woman and a Georgian on May 9, 1924. Father and mother were subsequently repressed. Later, the poet immortalized the already famous Moscow street in several songs. In memory, he often returned to the Arbat, although he never returned there for permanent residence. He fought in the Caucasus, near Mozdok, was wounded. He remembered hunger and cold, the constant fear of death.

The war also “has come around” more than once in his song and prose work. Upon returning from the front, he studied at the Tbilisi Pedagogical University. By distribution, he worked for several years as a teacher of Russian language and literature near Kaluga. He turned to songs in the second half of the 1950s, in the wake of Khrushchev's "thaw". He quickly became "widely known in a narrow circle."

The songs were recorded on tape recorders and scattered everywhere. Soon he began to speak publicly. He was subjected to derogatory and unfair criticism in the press, but without obvious consequences. The main songs were written in the 60s. Later, for almost a whole decade, he left poetry, turned to fiction, to historical prose. He wrote a lot for cinema. Some of these songs have long been torn off from the author and have taken on an independent life: “We will not stand up for the price” - from the film “Belorussky Station”, “Cavalier Guards, the age is not long” - from the film “Star of Captivating Happiness”, songs from the film for children “ Adventures of Pinocchio" and others.

On the wave of "perestroika", Okudzhava resumed performing with songs, was actively involved in social activities, and signed a number of open letters. In 1993, he publicly supported the actions of President B. Yeltsin in the fight against the opposition parliament, which he later regretted very much. In 1992, he underwent heart surgery. With performances he visited many countries of the world and Europe. He died in a Paris military hospital from acute pneumonia. He was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery in Moscow.

Creativity of Bulat Okudzhava

Okudzhava himself modestly and unpretentiously called many of his works "songs". He repeatedly stated that he works exclusively by ear, that he is not musically educated, that he knows only a few guitar chords. It is no coincidence that in recent years his son Anton accompanied him on the piano, new arrangements of old songs appeared. The simplicity of his "songs" is deceptive. Okudzhava is philosophical and profound. He thought big and wide. Behind the external intimacy and “quietness” of the performance is the epic nature of the narration, the breath of the era, a freely chosen and freely defended position.

Speaking in Pushkin's way, Okudzhava defended the "independence of man." Under the conditions of a totalitarian regime, his songs were perceived as a breath of fresh water and clean air. Okudzhava worked professionally with the word. Poems and songs coexist harmoniously in his work. Some of Okudzhava's songs, already during the author's lifetime, were perceived as peculiar hymns of the intelligentsia - especially "Francois Villon's Prayer", "Let's exclaim", "Let's join hands, friends."

• The first full-fledged biography of Okudzhava was written several years ago by the poet and publicist Dmitry Bykov and was published in the popular ZhZL series. It is undeniable, but it is imbued with sincere love for the hero and the desire to dive as deeply as possible into the artistic fabric of his works.
• The heartfelt affection of Okudzhava in the 80s. was an actress and singer Natalya Gorlenko. She was inspired by such poems as “After the rain, the sky is spacious” (even a joint performance in one of the films is known) and “Farewell to the New Year tree”.
• In Paris, in 1968, his first disc with author's songs was released.
• Shortly before his death, Bulat Okudzhava received the sacrament of baptism with the name John.

Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava, whose biography deserves great attention, was a famous Soviet singer, composer, and poet. The talented performer himself wrote songs for his poems, being one of the most famous representatives in the genre of art song. His work spanned an entire era. The poet and composer have long been dead, and the poems and songs of Bulat Okudzhava are still heard in companies and on TV screens.

Bulat Okudzhava lived a difficult but interesting life. He was born on May 9, 1924 in Moscow to a Georgian Shalva Stepanovich Okudzhava and an Armenian Ashkhen Stepanovna Nalbandyan. His parents were communists by conviction: his father was a prominent party leader, and his mother also found a place in the party apparatus.

When Bulat was two years old, the family moved to Tbilisi, then to Nizhny Tagil. They always followed their father, who was rapidly making a party career. Shalva Stepanovich held important positions until a quarrel with Beria and a false denunciation turned his life upside down. Okudzhava Sr. was arrested, sent to a camp, and shot there. For a year, Bulat lived with his mother and grandmother in Moscow, in a communal apartment on the Arbat. In 1938, Bulat's mother was exiled to a camp in Karaganda as the wife of a traitor to the motherland, and Ashkhen had a chance to return from there only in 1947.

After his mother's arrest, Bulat lived with a family of relatives in Tbilisi. The boy studied at school, then entered the factory as a turner. In 1942, the young man volunteered for the front, participated in many fierce battles. In 1943 he was wounded near Mozdok. During this period, Okudzhava wrote his first song, “We couldn’t sleep in cold cars.”

When the war ended, Bulat Shalvovich entered the Tbilisi State University at the Faculty of Education. He graduated from high school in 1950 and began working as a teacher in a rural school. According to the distribution for two and a half years, the future bard ended up in the village of Shamordino, Kaluga region. At this time, Okudzhava constantly wrote poetry, many of which later became songs.

Literature and music

The start of his literary career dates back to 1954. Bulat Okudzhava was at a meeting of writers N. Panchenko and V. Koblikov with readers, and after the end of the event he plucked up courage and offered them his poems. I liked the poems - soon Okudzhava began to print the Kaluga newspaper "Young Leninist".

In 1956, in the same place, in Kaluga, a collection of poetry "Lyric" was published. I liked Bulat Okudzhava's poems. In 1961, the almanac Tarusa Pages published the writer's story Be Healthy, Schoolboy. In 1987, the autobiographical work was published in a separate edition. In just four decades, about 15 collections of poetry were published, including "Islands", "Merry Drummer", "Magnanimous March", "Arbat, my Arbat".

Bulat Okudzhava did not leave aside the works for children and youth, the most famous of which was the fairy tale "Charming Adventures". The writer created a children's story by describing his everyday life in Yalta in fairy-tale language in letters to his little son. Bulat Shalvovich's bibliography also contains one play, which he wrote in 1966 - "A Sip of Freedom".

Bulat Okudzhava was also engaged in translations from Arabic, Swedish, Finnish, translated mainly poetry. Until 1961, the author worked as an editor at the Young Guard publishing house and was in charge of the poetry department at the Literaturnaya Gazeta. Then he quit and never worked for hire again - he was engaged in creativity.

Bulat Okudzhava became a songwriter in 1958. By that time, the writer had already returned to Moscow - his parents were rehabilitated.

Okudzhava's concerts were sold out: there were no posters in the capital, but word of mouth worked perfectly. In the early 60s, Bulat Okudzhava was one of the most popular Soviet bards. His songs "On Tverskoy Boulevard", "Sentimental March" and others were remembered and loved by the audience. The musician also paid tribute to his historical homeland - Georgia, creating the musical composition "Grape Seed".

The first official concert of Okudzhava took place in Kharkov in 1961. After that, the poet and singer began to tour the cities of the USSR. The performer became a prominent representative of the Russian author's song - this was his main creative direction.

The work of Bulat Shalvovich influenced the development of the bard movement, which also included,. Two songs by Okudzhava - “Let's join hands, friends ...” and “Francois Villon's Prayer” (“While the Earth is still spinning ...”) - received the status of anthems of art song rallies. Until now, there are festivals named after Bulat Okudzhava in Moscow, Perm, on Lake Baikal, in Israel, and there is also a gathering of songwriters "And I will call my friends ...".

In 1962, he wrote the first song for the movie - it was a composition for the film "Chain Reaction". Unfortunately, the film was not a success. But the next song for the cinema instantly became a super hit: “We need a victory”, performed in the film “Belorussky Station”, sounded on the radio and from tape recordings.

Bulat Okudzhava wrote songs for the films "Straw Hat", "Star of Captivating Happiness", "Key without the right to transfer", "Pokrovsky Gates". The song "Your Honor, Lady Luck" for the cult film "White Sun of the Desert" was also written by Okudzhava. In total, the bard's songs were performed in almost 80 Soviet films.

In 1967, Okudzhava was in France, where he recorded 20 of his compositions - they became the basis for the disc, which was released in Paris a year later. In 1974, Okudzhava recorded the first long-playing plastic in the USSR, but it came out two years later. In 1978, another disc was recorded, and in the mid-1980s, two records of songs about the war were released, which included musical compositions already known from the films “Goodbye boys”, “Take your overcoat, let's go home”, “Song about the infantry” and others.

The songs of Bulat Okudzhava are still not forgotten, they are performed by many pop artists -,.

Speaking about the biography of Bulat Okudzhava, one should also note his participation in the cinema. The roles of the artist were only episodic, he appeared in the role of a cameo, and sometimes he was not listed at all in the credits. These are the films "Chain Reaction", "Key without the right to transfer", "Outpost of Ilyich", "Keep me, my talisman". A larger role went to Okudzhava in the eight-episode feature film Strogoffs, where Bulat played an officer.

Okudzhava also tried himself as a screenwriter. With his participation, the script for the film "Fidelity" was created, the director and second screenwriter of which he became. The film told the story of a young soldier, a former tenth grader Yura Nikitin (Vladimir Chetverikov), who met his love, the girl Zoya (), when he was already a student at an infantry school. But a few days after the meeting, the young man is sent to the front, where he dies.

The film received the main prize of the II All-Union Film Festival, as well as the Venice Film Festival award in the Best Debut nomination. In the mid-60s, Okudzhava also participated in the creation of scripts for the film "Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha" and the unstaged film about.

Personal life

From an early age, Okudzhava was distinguished by great amorousness. Even at school, Bulat showed romantic feelings for classmates. Each time, due to another move from city to city, the platonic relationship collapsed.

When, after the war, Bulat Okudzhava returned to Moscow for a while, he met a girl, Valentina, who, like him, lived on the Arbat. The lady of the heart studied at the studio. and showed no interest in the short, black-eyed fellow. Later, the girl became a person no less famous throughout the Soviet Union - she was rightfully called the legend of Soviet television.

Bulat Okudzhava managed to settle down early. There was a longing for home comfort, which the young man was deprived of due to the repression of his parents, and then participation in the war.

His first wife, Galina Smolyaninova, studied with Bulat at the same university. The students got married in their second year. In this marriage, the couple had two children. But the daughter died at an early age, and the son Igor, being an adult, became addicted to drugs, ended up in prison. In 1964, the family broke up. Exactly one year later, on the day of the divorce, Galina died of a broken heart: she was 39 years old.

Bulat's second wife was Olga Artsimovich, a physicist by education. The son Anton was born in the family, who followed in his father's footsteps and became a musician and composer. Relations in this marriage developed happily, although there are few photographs and other evidence.

Since the mid-80s, Bulat Okudzhava's personal life has been associated with another woman, singer Natalya Gorlenko. They lived in a civil marriage for several years, but the bard did not dare to part with Olga. In the last days and hours of the poet's life, it was Artsimovich who was next to Bulat.

Death

Okudzhava spent the last years of his life in Paris. After the tragic death of the eldest son Igor, the health of the maestro collapsed - Okudzhava always felt guilty for the fate of his first child. The poet was hospitalized with the flu, which gave a complication to the kidneys. The doctors' prognosis was not encouraging. Okudzhava always considered himself a believer and was baptized a few hours before his death. Bulat Shalvovich was named after.

Bard died on June 12, 1997 at the age of 73 from kidney failure in a military hospital outside Paris. Bulat Okudzhava was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery in Moscow.

Bibliography

• 1956 - "Lyric"
• 1959 - "Islands"
• 1966 - "A sip of freedom"
• 1967 - "The front is coming to us"
• 1967 - "Magnanimous March"
• 1971 - "Charming Adventures"
• 1976 - "Arbat, my Arbat"
• 1985 - Date with Bonaparte
• 1987 - "Be healthy, schoolboy!"
• 1991 - "The Adventures of a Secret Baptist"
• 1993 - Grace of Fate

Songs

• 1958 - Goodbye Boys
• 1966 - "Song about the infantry"
• 1967 - "Grape Seed"
• 1967 - Union of Friends "
• 1967 - "Your Honor, Lady Luck! ..."
• 1971 - "We need one victory"
• 1974 - "I'm getting married"
• 1975 - "Song of the Cavalier Guard"
• 1975 - "Song of the Field of Miracles"
• 1975 - "Wishing Friends"
• 1982 - “It has not yet been sewn, your wedding dress ...”