Okudzhava's biography is brief and interesting. Okudzhava Bulat - biography, facts from life, photographs, background information

Secondary school No. 2 in Rossoshi

Essay

on the topic of:

“The life and work of Bulat Okudzhava”

Completed by: Bastrygin Alexander,

student of class 6 "A"

Rossosh

2016

Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava (1924 - 1997) is one of the most original Russian poets of the 20th century, the recognized founder of the art song.

Until 1940 he lived on Arbat. Both the date and place of the poet’s birth acquired a symbolic character over time. May 9 was the day of the end of the most terrible and inhumane war, about which front-line soldier Okudzhava managed to say a new word in his songs. Arbat, in the poet’s lyrical system, became a symbol of peace, goodness, humanity, nobility, culture, historical memory- everything that opposes war, cruelty and violence. A significant part of Okudzhava’s lyrics were written under the impressions of the war years. But these songs and poems are not so much about war as against it: “War, you see, is an unnatural thing, which takes away from a person by nature this right for life. I am wounded by it for the rest of my life, and in my dreams I still often see dead comrades, ashes of houses, the earth torn apart by craters... I hate war.” Before last day, looking back, admiring the victory, proud of the participants in the Great Patriotic War, the poet never ceased to hope that we, people, will learn to do without blood when solving our earthly affairs. Okudzhava’s last poems contain the lines:

The soldier walks with a rifle, he is not afraid of the enemy.

But here’s the strange thing going on in his soul:

He hates guns, and he is not happy about wars...

Of course, if it’s not a bast shoe, but a soldier.

And yet: “The war has become so ingrained in me that it’s hard for me to get rid of it. We would all probably be glad to forget about the war forever, but, unfortunately, it does not subside, it follows on our heels... How long will we, people, defeat this war?

Bulat's life was not easy. In 1937, the poet's father, a major party worker, was arrested and then shot. The mother was sent to a camp. Bulat Okudzhava himself barely managed to avoid being sent to Orphanage as the son of an “enemy of the people.” From the ninth grade of a Moscow school, he went to the front, where he was a mortar man, a machine gunner, and, after being wounded, a heavy artillery radio operator. From 1945 to 1950, Okudzhava studied at the Faculty of Philology at Tbilisi University. That’s when his first song “Fierce and stubborn, burn, fire, burn...” was born.

In this small, but extremely dynamic and rich text, one can see a kind of grain of the genre, which will then receive widespread development. What is striking here is the combination of external simplicity, apparent artlessness with the depth of thought and experience. What is the song about? Yes, about everything in the world: about the inexhaustible mystery of life, about the fullness of being that we comprehend only on the path of tragic trials. The most serious things are spoken here with artistic ease, almost carelessness. The song creates an atmosphere of sincerity, trust, and inner freedom. The song was born among students, but its author was not yesterday’s schoolboy, but a man wise with life and military experience, who knew not from books what “the most doomsday" It is no coincidence that today, so many years later, Okudzhava’s first song is not at all outdated; its romantic and philosophical mood is still close to many. Both the poet himself and the knights of the author’s song who followed him carried this “fierce” and “stubborn” fire through the decades.

After graduating from university, Okudzhava worked as a teacher of Russian language and literature in rural school near Kaluga. In 1956, his first poetry collection “Lyrics” was published in Kaluga. Okudzhava moves to Moscow, where his mother returned after rehabilitation. Soon, many of the poet's songs became famous among Moscow writers, which he first performed in a friendly circle, and from about 1959 - publicly. In the 60s, the need for a genre that would later be called the “art song” turned out to be extremely great. The pattern of its appearance, its natural entry into the culture of that time was accurately expressed by David Samoilov:

Former defenders of the state,

We missed Okudzhava.

Bulat Okudzhava is the recognized founder of the original song. Success came to Okudzhava because he addressed not the masses, but the individual, not everyone, but each individual. The subject of poetry in his world became ordinary, everyday life.

He began writing poetry in childhood. Okudzhava's poem was first 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 published during 1946. In 1953-1955, Okudzhav’s poems regularly appeared on the pages of Kaluga newspapers. In Kaluga, in 1956, the first collection of his poems, “Lyrics,” was 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 owns more than 800 poems. Many of his poems are born together with music; there are already about 200 songs.

For the first time he tries himself in the song genre during the war. In 1946, as a student at Tbilisi University, he created the “Student Song” (“Furious and stubborn, burn, fire, burn...”). Since 1956, he was one of the first to act as the author of poetry and music, songs and their performer. Okudzhava’s songs attracted attention. Tape recordings of his performances appeared, which brought him wide popularity. Recordings of his songs were sold throughout the country in thousands of copies. His songs were heard in films and plays, in concert programs, on television and radio broadcasts. The first disc was released in Paris in 1968, despite the resistance of the Soviet authorities. Noticeably later, discs were released in the USSR.

Currently in the State literary museum A fund of Okudzhava’s tape recordings has been created in Moscow, numbering over 280 storage units.

Professional composers write music to Okudzhava’s poems. An example of luck is V. Levashov’s song to Okudzhava’s poems “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 Cavalry Guard", "Road Song", songs for the television film "Straw Hat" and others).

Books (collections of poems and songs): "Lyrics" (Kaluga, 1956), "Islands" (M., 1959), "The Cheerful Drummer" (M., 1964), "On the Road to Tinatin" (Tbilisi, 1964), "Magnanimous March" (M., 1964) 1967), "Arbat, my Arbat" (M., 1976), "Poems" (M., 1984, 1985), "Dedicated to you" (M., 1988), "Favorites" (M., 1989), " Songs" (M., 1989), "Songs and Poems" (M., 1989), "Drops of the Danish King" (M., 1991), "Grace of Fate" (M., 1993), "Song about My Life" (M., 1995), "Tea Party on Arbat" (M., 1996), "Waiting Room" (Nizhny Novgorod, 1996).

Since the 1960s. Okudzhava works a lot in the prose genre. In 1961, his autobiographical story “Be Healthy, Schoolboy” (published as a separate edition in 1987), dedicated to yesterday’s schoolchildren who had to defend the country from fascism, was published in the almanac “Tarussky Pages”. The story received a negative assessment from supporters of official criticism, who accused Okudzhava of pacifism.

In subsequent years, Okudzhava constantly wrote autobiographical prose, compiling the collections “The Girl of My Dreams” and “The Visiting Musician” (14 short stories and novellas), as well as the novel “The Abolished Theater” (1993), which received the International Booker Prize in 1994 as the best novel of the year Russian language.

At the end of the 1960s. Okudzhava turns to historical prose. In 1970-80 The stories "Poor Avrosimov" ("A Sip of Freedom") (1969) about tragic pages in history Decembrist movement, "The Adventures of Shipov, or Ancient Vaudeville" (1971) and written on historical material early XIX century novels “The Journey of Amateurs” (Part 1. 1976; Part 2. 1978) and “A Date with Bonaparte” (1983).

Books (prose): “The Front Comes to Us” (M., 1967), “A Breath of Freedom” (M., 1971), “Lovely Adventures” (Tbilisi, 1971; M., 1993), “The Adventures of Shipov, or Ancient Vaudeville” (M. , 1975, 1992), “Selected Prose” (M., 1979), “Travel of Amateurs” (M., 1979, 1980, 1986, 1990; Tallinn, 1987, 1988), “Date with Bonaparte” (M., 1985 , 1988), "Be healthy, schoolboy" (M., 1987), "Girl of my dreams" (M., 1988), " Selected works" in 2 vols. (M., 1989), "The Adventures of a Secret Baptist" (M., 1991), "Tales and Stories" (M., 1992), "Visiting Musician" (M., 1993), "Abolished Theater "(M., 1995).

Okudzhava's performances took place in Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Hungary, Israel, Spain, Italy, Canada, Poland, USA, Finland, France, Germany, Sweden, Yugoslavia, Japan.

Okudzhava’s works have been translated into many languages ​​and published in many countries around the world.

Books of poetry and prose published abroad (in Russian): "Song about Fools" (London, 1964), "Bless you, Schoolboy" (Frankfurt am Main, 1964, 1966), "The Merry Drummer" (London, 1966), "Prose and Poetry" (Frankfurt am Main) , 1968, 1977, 1982, 1984), “Two Novels” (Frankfurt am Main, 1970), “Poor Avrosimov” (Chicago, 1970; Paris, 1972), “Lovely Adventures” (Tel Aviv, 1975), "Songs" in 2 volumes (ARDIS, vol. 1, 1980; vol. 2, 1986 (1988).

Dramatic performances were staged based on Okudzhava’s play “A Sip of Freedom” (1966), as well as his prose, poetry and songs.

Productions : “A breath of freedom” (L., Youth Theater, 1967; Krasnoyarsk, Youth Theater named after the Lenin Komsomol, 1967; Chita, Drama Theater, 1971; M., Moscow Art Theater, 1980; Tashkent, Russian Drama Theater named after M. Gorky, 1986) ; "Mercy, or ancient vaudeville" (L., musical comedy theater, 1974); “Be healthy, schoolboy” (L., Youth Theater, 1980); "Music of the Arbat Courtyard" (Moscow, Chamber Musical Theatre, 1988). Films: cinema and television.

Since the mid-1960s. Okudzhava acts as a film playwright. Even earlier, his songs began to be heard in films: in more than 50 films, more than 70 songs based on Okudzhava’s poems were heard, of which more than 40 songs were based on his music. Sometimes Okudzhava acts in films himself.

Film scripts:

“Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha” (1967; co-authored with V. Motyl; Production: Lenfilm, 1967);

“The Private Life of Alexander Sergeich, or Pushkin in Odessa” (1966; co-authored with O. Artsimovich; film not produced);

Songs in films (most famous works):

to your own music:

"Sentimental March" ("Zastava Ilyich", 1963)

“We will not stand behind the price” (Belorussky Station, 1971)

"Wish to Friends" ("Untransferable Key", 1977)

"Song of the Moscow Militia" ("The Great Patriotic War", 1979)

"Happy Draw" ("Legitimate Marriage", 1985) to the music of I. Shvarts:

"Drops of the Danish King" ("Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha", 1967)

"Your Honor" ("White Sun of the Desert", 1970)

"Song of the Cavalry Guard" ("Star of Captivating Happiness", 1975) songs for the film "Straw Hat", 1975

"Road Song" ("We were not married in church", 1982) to the music of L. Schwartz

"The Cheerful Drummer" ("My Friend, Kolka", 1961) to the music of V. Geviksman

"Old Pier" ("Chain Reaction", 1963) to music by V. Levashov

“Take your overcoat, let’s go home” (“From Dawn to Dawn”, 1975; “Aty-Bati, the soldiers were walking...”, 1976).

Books:

"Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha..." (M., 1968)

"Drops of the Danish King". Film scripts and songs from films (M.: Kinotsentr, 1991).

Works in the frame:

Feature (fiction) films:

"Ilyich's Zastava" ("I am twenty years old"), Film Studio named after. M. Gorky, 1963

"The key without the right of transfer", Lenfilm, 1977

"Legitimate Marriage", Mosfilm, 1985

"Keep me safe, my talisman", Film Studio named after. A.P. Dovzhenko, 1986

Documentaries:

"I remember wonderful moment"(Lenfilm)

"My contemporaries", Lenfilm, 1984

"Two hours with bards" ("Bards"), Mosfilm, 1988

"And don't forget about me", Russian television, 1992

His life became a legend. No tape recording will convey the full richness of the intonations of his wonderful voice, although, of course, there is nothing elaborate or pretentious in his voice. Bulat Okudzhava's poems and songs reflect Big world human values ​​that exist both in time and in space; it would be more accurate to say - universal human values.

On June 12, 1997, tragic news came from France to Russia - Bulat Okudzhava died. A decade later, any brief Internet encyclopedia will give every curious person dry information: “Poet, prose writer, film scriptwriter. Author and performer of songs, founder of the art song movement.” But then it was immediately clear to several generations of people - another great era became only a "property".

Bulat Okudzhava pitied everyone in his songs: both good and bad. He felt sorry for himself, the tired travelers, the girls, the girls, married women and grandmothers, he felt sorry for the “blue ball”, the infantry, the boys, again himself, again the women, and finally, his soul.

Bulat Okudzhava is known in our country as a poet and composer, as well as a screenwriter, prose writer and simply a very talented and interesting person. He argued that the creation of songs is a great mystery, incomprehensible, like love. We will talk about the fate of this great bard in our article.

Origin

Okudzhava Bulat, whose biography interests many, was born in 1924, on May 9. He grew up in a family of convinced Bolsheviks. His parents came to Moscow from Tiflis to study at the Communist Academy. The father of the future celebrity, Shalva Stepanovich, is Georgian by nationality. He was a prominent party leader. Mom - Ashkhen Stepanovna - is Armenian by origin. She was a relative of the famous Armenian poet Vahan Teryan. On his mother’s side, the celebrity had relatives with a military and controversial past. His uncle, Vladimir Okudzhava, being a terrorist, attempted to assassinate the governor of Kutaisi. He later happened to appear on the passenger list of a mysterious sealed carriage that carried leading revolutionary leaders from Switzerland to Russia in 2017.

Distant ancestors

Okudzhava Bulat Shalvovich was aware of the fate of his ancestors from his childhood. His paternal great-grandfather Pavel Peremushev settled in sunny Georgia in the mid-19th century. Before that, he served for 25 years in Russian army. By nationality, he was either Russian, or Moldovan, or Jew. What is known is that Pavel was a tailor, married a Georgian woman named Salome and fathered three daughters. The eldest of them subsequently married Stepan Okudzhava. He served as a clerk. Eight children were born in his marriage. Among them was the future father of our hero, Shalva Stepanovich.

Childhood and youth

Since childhood, Okudzhava Bulat endured various trials. The biography of the future poet was associated with constant moving. The fact is that his father was a party leader. Immediately after the birth of his son, he was sent to the Caucasus to command the Georgian division. Bulat's mother, meanwhile, remained in Moscow. She held a position in the party apparatus. The boy was sent to Tiflis to study. He attended a Russian-language class. His father soon received a promotion. He became secretary of the Tiflis city committee. However, he failed to stay in this position due to conflicts with Beria. With the assistance of Ordzhonikidze, Shalva Stepanovich was transferred to work in Nizhny Tagil. He moved his entire family to the Urals. Bulat studied at school No. 32. Get used to the harsh Siberian conditions After living in a friendly and sunny region, it was not easy for him.

Arrests

In 1937, tragedy struck. The boy's father was arrested. He was accused of having connections with the Trotskyists, as well as an attempt on the life of Ordzhonikidze. On August 4 of the same year he was shot. After this, Bulat moved to Moscow with his mother and grandmother. The family settled in communal apartment on Arbat. But the troubles didn't end there. In 1938, Ashkhen Stepanovna was taken into custody. She was exiled to Karlag. She returned from there only in 1947. Aunt Bulat was shot in 1941. In 1940, our hero moved to Tbilisi. Here he graduated from school and got a job at a factory as a turner's apprentice.

War years

Bulat Okudzhava, whose poems are known to everyone, sought conscription into the army in April 1942. However, he was drafted into the ranks Soviet troops only upon reaching adulthood. In August of the same year, he was sent to the tenth reserve mortar division. Two months later he was sent to the Transcaucasian Front as a mortarman. He served in the cavalry regiment of the 5th Guards Don Cossack Cavalry Corps. At the end of 1942, the future poet was wounded in the battle of Mozdok. After treatment, Bulat Shalvovich did not return to the front line. In 1943, he enlisted in the Batumi reserve rifle regiment, and was later deployed as a radio operator in the 126th howitzer artillery brigade, which at that time covered the border with Iran and Turkey. In the spring of 1944, our hero was demobilized. For conscientious service he was awarded two medals - “For the defense of the Caucasus” and “For the victory over Germany.” In 1985 he was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, first degree.

First creative experiences

After demobilization, Okudzhava Bulat returned to Tbilisi. The poet's biography was scorched by the war. However, he firmly decided to return to his normal life and do what he loved. First, the young man received a certificate of secondary education. Then, in 1945, he entered the Faculty of Philology at Tbilisi University. He successfully graduated in 1950 and worked as a teacher in the Kaluga region for two and a half years. All this time, our hero wrote talented poetry. His first song is considered to be the composition “We Couldn’t Sleep in the Cold Warehouses.” It was created during the poet’s service in an artillery brigade. The text of the work has not been preserved. But the second creation has survived to this day. This is an "Old Student Song" written in 1946. The author’s writings were first published in the garrison newspaper entitled “Fighter of the Red Army”. He published under the pseudonym A. Dolzhenov.

Career development

In the Kaluga region, Bulat Okudzhava collaborated with the publication “Young Leninist”. The poet's poems were first published in large numbers in 1956 in the collection “Lyrics”. In the same year, the poet’s father and mother were rehabilitated. After the XX Congress of the CPSU he joined communist party. Three years later he moved to Moscow and began giving concerts of original songs. As a bard, he quickly began to gain popularity. In the period from 1956 to 1967, the most famous songs of Bulat Shalvovich were written - “On Tverskoy Boulevard”, “Song about the Komsomol Goddess”, “Song about the Blue Ball” and others.

Official recognition

Okudzhava Bulat Shalvovich performed for the first time on his official evening in 1961. The benefit took place in Kharkov. In 1962, the poet made his debut as an actor. He played in the film "Chain Reaction". Here he had the opportunity to perform one of his most famous songs - “Midnight Trolleybus”. In 1970, Soviet viewers saw the film “Belorussky Station”. In it, the actors sang the unspoken anthem of Soviet citizens who overcame the monstrous trials of the Great Patriotic War, - "We need one victory". Okudzhava became the author of other beloved songs from the films “Straw Hat” and “Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha”. The author wrote musical compositions to eighty paintings.

Records

In 1967, Bulat Okudzhava traveled to Paris. The poet's songs became known not only in Russia, but also abroad. In France, he recorded twenty of his songs at the Le Chant du Monde studio. A year later, based on these tracks, the bard's first album was released. During the same period, another Okudzhava album was released. It included songs performed by Polish singers. The composition “Farewell to Poland” was recorded in the author’s interpretation.

The work of Bulat Okudzhava was gaining more and more popularity. In the mid-1970s, his records were also released in the Soviet Union. In 1976 and 1978, Soviet giant discs with recordings of the singer and poet went on sale. The mid-1980s were also very fruitful for Bulat Shalvovich. He created two more albums - “Songs and Poems about War” and “The Author Performs New Songs”.

The poet Bulat Okudzhava composed several songs based on texts by the Polish author Agnieszka Osiecka. He himself translated the poems he liked into Russian. In collaboration with composer Schwartz, our hero created thirty-two songs. Among them are “Your Honor, Lady Luck”, “The Cavalry Guard’s life is short…”, “Love and Separation”.

Cultural heritage

Okudzhava Bulat became one of the brightest representatives of the art song genre in Russia. The poet's biography has become the subject of close study. People admired his work and tried to imitate him. With the advent of tape recorders, soulful original compositions became known to a wide audience. Vladimir Vysotsky called Bulat Shalvovich his teacher. A.A. Galich and Yu. Vizbor became his followers. The author and performer managed to create a unique direction in Russian song culture.

Bulat Okudzhava gained strong authority among the intelligentsia. Celebrity songs were distributed on tape recordings. First they became famous in the USSR, then they became popular abroad among Russian emigrants. Some compositions - “Let's join hands, friends ...”, “Prayer of Francois Villon” - have become iconic. They were used as anthems at rallies and festivals.

Personal life

Bulat Okudzhava was married twice. The poet’s personal life was not easy. For the first time he married Galina Smolyaninova. However, the couple's life together did not work out from the very beginning. Their daughter died while still a baby, and their son became a drug addict and eventually went to prison.

The second attempt was more successful. The poet married physicist Olga Artsimovich. Bulat Okudzhava's son from his second marriage, Anton, followed in his father's footsteps and became a fairly famous composer.

There was another beloved woman in the bard's life. His common-law wife for a long time there was Natalya Gorlenko. She herself felt music very subtly and performed songs. Bulat Okudzhava was happy with her. The personal life of this wonderful man at that time was associated with the most pleasant impressions.

Social activity

Perestroika in the Soviet Union captured Bulat Shalvovich. He began to take an active part in political life countries. showed negative relationship towards Lenin and Stalin, had a negative attitude towards the totalitarian regime. In 1990, the bard left the CPSU. Since 1992, he worked in commissions under the President of Russia. He dealt with issues of pardons and awarding State Prizes of the Russian Federation. He was a member of Memorial. He sharply re-dressed the military operations in Chechnya.

End of Life

In the 1990s, the poet settled in his own dacha in Peredelkino. During this period he actively toured. He went with concerts to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Canada, Germany and Israel. In 1995 he appeared on stage in last time. The performance took place in Paris, at UNESCO Headquarters.

The poet died in 1997. He died at the age of 74 in a military hospital in the suburbs of Paris. Before his death, he was baptized with the name John in honor of the holy martyr John the Warrior. This happened after the blessing of one of the spiritual leaders of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery.

Our hero is buried in Moscow, at the Vagankovskoye cemetery. His grave is decorated simply and unpretentiously - block of stone with the bard's name written in cursive font.

Monuments

The first monument to Bulat Okudzhava was opened in 2002 in the capital. It stands at the intersection of Arbat and Plotnikov Lane. Its author is Georgy Frangulyan. The creation of the monument was timed to coincide with two memorable dates - Victory Day and the poet’s birthday. The creators recreated a piece of the old Arbat courtyard: a gateway, two benches, living tree... In the center of the composition is the figure of a bard. This sculptural complex recalls the work of the bard and his nostalgic memories.

The second monument was erected on Bakulev Street. The monument represents the young poet. He fearlessly looks to the future. On his shoulders is a rakishly draped jacket. From under the floors one can see a faithful companion - a guitar. The composition is on a hill. The pedestal is a flowerbed hill. Two paths lead to its foot. This is connected with the bard’s unforgettable lines about two roads, one of which is “beautiful, but in vain,” and the other “apparently in earnest.”

Conclusion

Now you know what kind of life Bulat Okudzhava lived. The poet's family retained the best memories of him. This man lived and worked according to the dictates of his heart. And his heartfelt poems are about you and me. About love, temptations, duty, personal involvement, the ability to empathize, overcome difficulties, and not be afraid of future trials. About a trembling dream, reckless youth and touching maturity, covered with memories. The bard's legacy has forever entered the foundation of Russian and world culture.

(1924 - 1997)

This is what Bulat Shalvovich himself told Ogonyok correspondent Oleg Terentyev about his life:
- Well, what can I tell you. I was born in Moscow, on Arbat in 1924. I am Georgian by origin. But, as my Moscow friends say, Georgians are of the Moscow flood. My native language is Russian. I am a Russian writer. My life was ordinary, the same as the life of my peers. Well, except for the fact that in 1937 my father, a party worker, was killed here in your wonderful city (Sverdlovsk). I lived in Nizhny Tagil for three years. Then he returned to Moscow. Studied at school. After ninth grade, at the age of seventeen, he voluntarily went to the front. Fought. He was a private. Mortarman. Was injured. Remained alive. He studied at the university at the Faculty of Philology. Graduated. Went to a village school in the Kaluga region. Worked as a teacher. He taught Russian language and literature. Well, like most, I wrote poetry. Of course, he didn’t take this seriously. But gradually, gradually it all intensified in me. He began to publish in the regional Kaluga Newspaper. Then, when Stalin died, and democratic norms began to be established normal life in our country, I was offered to work at the regional Komsomolskaya Gazeta. I was in charge of the propaganda department. And there, in Kaluga, my first small book of poetry was published. But since there were no other poets in Kaluga, I was considered the best. I felt very dizzy. I was very arrogant. It seemed to me that I had already reached the greatest heights. Although these poems were very weak, imitative. They were dedicated mainly to holidays and seasons. Then I moved to Moscow. There I got into one literary association. There were very strong young poets there who beat me soundly. At first, in the first minutes, I thought that they were jealous. Then I realized that I myself was to blame for this. I wrote nothing for about a year in despair. But then nature took its toll. I started writing. Whether it's good or bad is not for me to judge. But the way I write to this day. At the end of 1956, that is, exactly thirty years ago, in the fall of 1956, I first picked up a guitar and sang my comic poem to the accompaniment. This is how the so-called songs began. Then there were more of them, and finally, when there were already six or seven of them, they began to be heard... And at that time the first tape recorders appeared. And at work - I worked at the publishing house "Young Guard" - calls began to ring in, and people invited me home to sing their songs. I happily took the guitar and drove to an unknown address. About thirty quiet intellectuals gathered there. I sang these five songs of mine. Then I repeated them again. And he left. And the next evening I went to another house. And so it dragged on for a year and a half. Well, gradually - the tape recorders worked - it all spread very rapidly, quickly. Well, people appeared who found it necessary to fight me. Now I understand that these songs were very unusual after what we usually sang. Some people thought it was dangerous. Well, as always, the Komsomol was the skirmisher. The first feuilleton about me was published in the Leningrad newspaper Smena on instructions from Moscow. But since it was hastily made, there was a lot of humor in it. Well, for example, there was this phrase: “A suspicious man came onto the stage. He sang vulgar songs with a guitar. But girls won’t follow such a poet. Girls will follow Tvardovsky and Isakovsky.” This is a way to determine the quality of literature - who girls will follow. Now it all sounds funny, but then, believe me, it wasn’t very funny to me. It was very difficult. This means there were a lot of incidents and absurdities. I was rushing about. I felt like I was doing something interesting, but I was met with opposition. One day I was invited to a very high authority. And I had one of my first songs - “Song about Lenka Queen”. Maybe you've heard it. Well, I was told by a high authority, a person who was burdened with great knowledge about culture, he said that this song should not be sung, because it incorrectly orients young people. “How is she oriented incorrectly?” - I asked. - “But you have these lines there: “he went to fight and died, and there is no one to mourn his life.” How, that is, there is no one? After all, there are people left, all sorts of organizations ... "
But I didn’t believe this man’s taste and continued to sing this song. About three years later I came up with the song “About Fools.” This man invited me again and told me: “Listen! You had a wonderful song about Lenka Korolev. Why do you need to sing about fools?” Well, I realized that time does its job. This is the best judge. It removes weak things, but leaves good things. Therefore, we do not need to fuss, judge, decide. Everything will be resolved by itself. Art is such a thing. Long-suffering. Well, then, after these feuilletons and all the noise began to appear, my friends in the Writers' Union decided to discuss me. There was a very heated discussion. And I was accepted into the Writers' Union. But after that I felt a little better, books of poetry began to come out. Some singers began to sing my songs. Although a very small number, because the songs were unusual, and they had to go through the artistic council. And the artistic councils were afraid of these songs and rejected them. But someone sang. Then these songs sounded in films, in some, in plays. Then they began to get more used to them. I started traveling around the country to perform. Then I was sent abroad. I performed abroad. I started releasing records. Then I began to write prose... And they got so used to me that even one summer day, when, according to tradition, tenth graders go out to the embankments of Moscow at night to say goodbye to school, there was such an occasion. A television machine rushed to the embankment to record the songs of these young people. We approached one group. There's rock and roll. We drove up to another group - there was also something of this type. They began to rush about. And finally we saw - near St. Basil's Cathedral there was such a small group with a guitar, and they were singing my song. They were so happy to hear theirs that they recorded it and broadcast it. And so I was legitimized. Here you go. And then a normal period of literary life began. And now I already have five novels and several books of poetry and records under my belt. And now a record with new songs should be released. So in my literary life I am a happy person, because I went through fire, and water, and copper pipes. And he resisted. And I remained myself, as far as my character allowed me to. And I continue to work. Alive and well.
short biography
Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava was born on May 9, 1924 in Moscow into a family of party workers (father - Georgian, mother - Armenian). He lived on Arbat until 1940. In 1934 he moved with his parents to Nizhny Tagil. There, his father was elected first secretary of the city party committee, and his mother was elected secretary of the district committee. In 1937, the parents were arrested; the father was shot, the mother was exiled to the Karaganda camp. O. returned to Moscow, where he and his brother were raised by their grandmother. In 1940 he moved to relatives in Tbilisi.
During his school years, from the age of 14, he was an extra and a stagehand in the theater, worked as a mechanic, and at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War - as a turner at a defense plant. In 1942, after finishing the ninth grade of high school, he volunteered to go to war. He served in a reserve mortar division, then after two months of training he was sent to the North Caucasus Front. He was a mortarman, then a heavy artillery radio operator. He was wounded near the city of Mozdok. In 1945 he was demobilized.
Graduated as an external student high school and entered the philological faculty of Tbilisi University, where he studied from 1945 to 1950. After graduating from the university, from 1950 to 1955 he was assigned to teach in the village of Shamordino and the regional center of Vysokinichi, Kaluga region, then at one of the secondary schools in Kaluga. There, in Kaluga, he was a correspondent and literary contributor to the regional newspapers "Znamya" and "Young Leninist".
In 1955, the parents were rehabilitated. In 1956 he returned to Moscow. Participated in the work of the literary association "Magistral". He worked as an editor at the Molodaya Gvardiya publishing house, then as head of the poetry department at Literaturnaya Gazeta. In 1961 he left the service and devoted himself entirely to free creative work.
Lived in Moscow. Wife - Olga Vladimirovna Artsimovich, physicist by training. Son - Bulat Bulatovich Okudzhava, musician, composer.
On June 12, 1997, he died after a short illness in Paris. Last interview
The last interview given by Okudzhava to Denis Levshinov, a student of the Faculty of Journalism at Moscow State University, in the spring of 1997 and published in Izvestia on June 14 of the same year.
- Bulat Shalvovich, how do you feel about your popularity?
- You know, I am not a vain person, but an ambitious one. Vain man tries to be known, but the ambitious tries to be. I've never been interested in the buzz around my name. But as an author, of course, it’s nice to know that they treat me well.
- Many consider you almost a folk hero.
- If I lived on a desert island, I would do the same thing - this is my profession, my calling. I can’t live any other way, and then, the real admirers of my work, thoughtful and serious people, they don’t throw up their hands when they see me. Some, especially earlier, when I started performing with a guitar, perceived me as a pop performer - they made noise, squealed, but quickly calmed down and went to other halls, and not very many remained with me, but very faithful and thinking people.
- Are you writing anything now, I see you have drafts of poems scattered everywhere?
- I write all the time and work all the time.
- Do you write music?
- I have never written music in the full sense of the word: I don’t know the notes. And now I have completely lost interest in it.
- Why?
- I don’t know, maybe because performing my poems was not my main profession, but a hobby - I liked it, my friends liked it, so I sang. Then I never learned to play the guitar, maybe this is due to the lack of professional interest, and maybe with age. In any case, I came up with the last song about two years ago. I can’t say that I worked very actively in this area before - out of the hundred poems that I wrote, a maximum of five turned into songs.
- So, you are first and foremost a poet?
- First of all, I am a person who writes poetry, but I don’t know whether I’m a poet or not.
- Do you have any special education, musical or literary?
- No, no, I’m a philologist, a Russian specialist, I graduated from the Faculty of Philology. Once upon a time as a child I was sent to music school, but that was all over.
- What is your relationship with cinema now?
- It so happened that I was involved in cinema, I had wonderful director friends, I was involved in writing scripts, I wrote scripts mostly ineptly, suffering, resorting to the help of friends. Some things worked out well. But then I returned home, stayed alone and wrote my novels and poems, and that was the main thing.
Now I have left this circle. There was a time - they offered me, I refused, that time is over. I fulfilled my purpose, I did what I could. Then they stopped using songs of this genre, this style in films. In general, art began to change. Everywhere is at the level of a restaurant, but a restaurant song is a restaurant song, and God bless it, you won’t listen to Cavaradossi’s aria in a restaurant. But when this music takes over, it's terrible. Lately, some mediocre, voiceless, grimacing performers have appeared, they are called stars, they take it seriously about themselves, this vulgar restaurant stuff is bad. But I think it will pass.
- Bulat Shalvovich, do you like Yuri Shevchuk or Boris Grebenshchikov?
- I don’t know anything about rock music. I don’t want to say that this is bad, but I don’t understand anything about it, I’m an old-fashioned person. As for Grebenshchikov, I have known him for a long time, and I am interested in him primarily as a poet; he has several things that simply fascinated me. The same goes for Yuri Shevchuk. The man is gifted, bright, original, but I perceive only his poems.
- Don’t you get annoyed when actors or musicians suddenly become businessmen or politicians?
- No, I don’t care at all and it doesn’t affect me in any way, I just sometimes feel sorry for them. An actor should not be a politician. Participate in public life it is possible, but only at the citizen level. But to be elected somewhere, to be re-elected, to become a deputy - this is all ridiculous and many have already understood this.
- What is, in your opinion, an intelligent person?
- An intelligent person is, first of all, one who strives for education. This is a person who is against violence. It happens that an academician is a redneck, and a worker is an intellectual. They say Lenin is an intelligent person. He was never an intellectual, because an intellectual is opposed to violence.
- What meaning do you put into the concept of “freedom”?
- Freedom is, first of all, something that is unknown in Russia. When people say freedom in Russia, they mean freedom. What does will mean? Do what you want, and freedom is will within the framework of the law. We either have the will or complete servility, which is why we are suffering now. Freedom is, first of all, respect for the individual. I live within the framework of my own destiny, but I will never allow myself to disturb the peace of a neighbor or the way of life of another person for my own sake - this is freedom. We are now shouting - democracy, freedom, but we don’t have any democracy, democracy is a state of blood, it is developed not even over decades, but over generations, it must be inside a person.
-Are you a religious person?
- I am Orthodox according to my ancestors. But at heart I am an absolute atheist and today I will not lie. And I must say that I am not in awe of our Orthodox Church, because she is at the same level as our society, I don’t like her. Although I have nothing against the church, I know the priests - brilliant people. My wife is a true believer, I sincerely respect her passion for faith.
- As far as I know, your wife is a doll collector.
- No, she is not a collector, she created the Moscow Museum of Dolls and she is surrounded by poor talented puppeteers.
- Bulat Shalvovich, who are your friends now?
- You know, I have never been a widely sociable person. Those who were my friends remain. True, now we see each other very rarely. This is age related.
- Tell me, Bulat Shalvovich, what is love?
- I can’t explain, I can see love and say - oh, this is love, but I can’t classify it.
- Do you like people?
- Good - yes, bad - no. You cannot love all people; there are people whom it is not a sin to hate. I have the following lines in a poem: “I love not the people, but their individual representatives.”
Bibliography
Poetry and songs
He began writing poetry in childhood. Okudzhava's poem was first 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 published during 1946. In 1953-1955, Okudzhav’s poems regularly appeared on the pages of Kaluga newspapers. In Kaluga, in 1956, the first collection of his poems, “Lyrics,” was 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 owns more than 800 poems. Many of his poems are born together with music; there are already about 200 songs.
For the first time he tries himself in the song genre during the war. In 1946, as a student at Tbilisi University, he created the “Student Song” (“Furious and stubborn, burn, fire, burn...”). Since 1956, he was one of the first to act as the author of poetry and music, songs and their performer. Okudzhava’s songs attracted attention. Tape recordings of his performances appeared, which brought him wide popularity. Recordings of his songs were sold throughout the country in thousands of copies. His songs were heard in films and plays, in concert programs, on television and radio broadcasts. The first disc was released in Paris in 1968, despite the resistance of the Soviet authorities. Noticeably later, discs were released in the USSR.
Currently, the State Literary Museum in Moscow has created a collection of tape recordings of Okudzhava, numbering over 280 storage units.
Professional composers write music to Okudzhava’s poems. An example of luck is V. Levashov’s song to Okudzhava’s poems “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 Cavalry Guard", "Road Song", songs for the television film "Straw Hat" and others).
Books (collections of poems and songs): “Lyrics” (Kaluga, 1956), “Islands” (M., 1959), “The Cheerful 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), “Favorites” (M., 1989), “Songs” (M., 1989), “Songs and Poems” (M., 1989), “Drops of the Danish King” (M., 1991), “Mercy of Fate” (M., 1993 ), “A Song about My Life” (M., 1995), “Tea Party on the Arbat” (M., 1996), “Waiting Room” (Nizhny Novgorod, 1996).
Prose
Since the 1960s. Okudzhava works a lot in the prose genre. In 1961, his autobiographical story “Be Healthy, Schoolboy” (published as a separate edition in 1987), dedicated to yesterday’s schoolchildren who had to defend the country from fascism, was published in the almanac “Tarussky Pages”. The story received a negative assessment from supporters of official criticism, who accused Okudzhava of pacifism.
In subsequent years, Okudzhava constantly wrote autobiographical prose, compiling the collections “The Girl of My Dreams” and “The Visiting Musician” (14 short stories and novellas), as well as the novel “The Abolished Theater” (1993), which received the International Booker Prize in 1994 as the best novel of the year Russian language.
At the end of the 1960s. Okudzhava turns to historical prose. In 1970-80 The stories "Poor Avrosimov" ("A Sip of Freedom") (1969) about the tragic pages in the history of the Decembrist movement, "The Adventures of Shipov, or Ancient Vaudeville" (1971) and the novels "The Journey of Amateurs" (1971) were published in separate editions. Part 1. 1976; Part 2. 1978) and “Date with Bonaparte” (1983).
Books (prose): “The Front Comes to Us” (M., 1967), “A Breath of Freedom” (M., 1971), “Lovely Adventures” (Tbilisi, 1971; M., 1993), “The Adventures of Shipov, or Ancient vaudeville" (Moscow, 1975, 1992), "Selected Prose" (Moscow, 1979), "Journey of Amateurs" (Moscow, 1979, 1980, 1986, 1990; Tallinn, 1987, 1988), "Date with Bonaparte" (M., 1985, 1988), “Be healthy, schoolboy” (M., 1987), “The Girl of My Dreams” (M., 1988), “Selected Works” in 2 vols. (M., 1989), “The Adventures of a Secret Baptist” (M., 1991), “Tales and Stories” (M., 1992),
"Visitor Musician" (M., 1993), "Abolished Theater" (M., 1995).
Abroad
Okudzhava's performances took place in Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Hungary, Israel, Spain, Italy, Canada, Poland, USA, Finland, France, Germany, Sweden, Yugoslavia, Japan.
Okudzhava’s works have been translated into many languages ​​and published in many countries around the world.
Books of poetry and prose published abroad (in Russian): “Song about Fools” (London, 1964), “Be Healthy, Schoolboy” (Frankfurt am Main, 1964, 1966), “The Merry Drummer” (London, 1966), “Prose and Poetry” (Frankfurt am Main, 1968, 1977, 1982, 1984), “Two Novels” (Frankfurt am Main, 1970), “Poor Avrosimov” (Chicago, 1970; Paris, 1972 ), "Lovely Adventures" (Tel Aviv, 1975), "Songs" in 2 volumes (ARDIS, vol. 1, 1980; vol. 2, 1986 (1988). Okudzhava published more than 100 articles and speeches. Published about Okudzhava more than 1000 articles and works.
Titles and awards
Member of the CPSU (1955-1990).
Member of the USSR Writers' Union (1962).
Member of the founding council of the Moscow News newspaper.
Member of the founding council" General newspaper".
Member of the editorial board of the newspaper "Evening Club".
Member of the Council of the Memorial Society.
Founding member of the Russian PEN Center (1989).
Member of the Commission on Pardons under the President of the Russian Federation (1992).
Member of the Commission for State Prizes of the Russian Federation (1994).
Medal "For the Defense of the Caucasus". ...
Order of Friendship of Peoples (1984).
Honorary medal of the Soviet Peace Foundation.
USSR State Prize (1991).
Prize "For Courage in Literature" named after. A.D. Sakharov independent writers' association "April" (1991).
First prize and the Golden Crown prize at the poetry competition "Struzhskie Evenings" in Yugoslavia (1967).
Prize "Golden Guitar" at the festival in San Remo in Italy (1985).
Honorary Doctorate Degree humanities Norwich University in the USA (1990).
Prize "Penyo Penev" in Bulgaria (1990).
Booker Prize (1994).
The name of Okudzhava was assigned to a small planet (1988).
Okudzhava’s name was given to the Bulgarian-Russian Friendship Club in Yambol in Bulgaria (1989-90).
Honorary citizen of Kaluga (1996).
Theater
Dramatic performances were staged based on Okudzhava’s play “A Sip of Freedom” (1966), as well as his prose, poetry and songs.
Productions:
“A Sip of Freedom” (L., Youth Theater, 1967; Krasnoyarsk, Youth Theater named after the Lenin Komsomol, 1967; Chita, Drama Theater, 1971; M., Moscow Art Theater, 1980; Tashkent, Russian Drama Theater named after M. Gorky, 1986);
"Mercy, or ancient vaudeville" (L., musical comedy theater, 1974);
“Be healthy, schoolboy” (L., Youth Theater, 1980);
"Music of the Arbat Courtyard" (Moscow, Chamber Musical Theatre, 1988).
Films: Film and Television
Since the mid-1960s. Okudzhava acts as a film playwright. Even earlier, his songs began to be heard in films: in more than 50 films, more than 70 songs based on Okudzhava’s poems were heard, of which more than 40 songs were based on his music. Sometimes Okudzhava acts in films himself.
Film scripts:
“Loyalty” (1965; co-authored with P. Todorovsky; Production: Odessa Film Studio, 1965);
“Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha” (1967; co-authored with V. Motyl; Production: Lenfilm, 1967);
“The Private Life of Alexander Sergeich, or Pushkin in Odessa” (1966; co-authored with O. Artsimovich; film not produced);
“We loved Melpomene...” (1978; co-authored with O. Artsimovich; film not produced).
Songs in films (most famous works):
to your own music:
"Sentimental March" ("Zastava Ilyich", 1963)
“We will not stand behind the price” (Belorussky Station, 1971)
"Wish to Friends" ("Untransferable Key", 1977)
"Song of the Moscow Militia" ("The Great Patriotic War", 1979)
"Happy Draw" ("Legitimate Marriage", 1985)
to music by I. Schwartz:
"Drops of the Danish King" ("Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha", 1967)
"Your Honor" ("White Sun of the Desert", 1970)
"Song of the Cavalry Guard" ("Star of Captivating Happiness", 1975)
songs for the film "Straw Hat", 1975
"Road Song" ("We were not married in church", 1982)
to music by L. Schwartz:
"The Cheerful Drummer" ("My Friend, Kolka", 1961)
to music by V. Geviksman:
"Old Pier" ("Chain Reaction", 1963)
to music by V. Levashov:
“Take your overcoat, let’s go home” (“From Dawn to Dawn”, 1975; “Aty-Bati, the soldiers were walking...”, 1976).
Books:
"Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha..." (M., 1968)
"Drops of the Danish King". Film scripts and songs from films (M.: Kinotsentr, 1991).
Works in the frame:
Feature (fiction) films:
"Ilyich's Zastava" ("I am twenty years old"), Film Studio named after. M. Gorky, 1963
"The key without the right of transfer", Lenfilm, 1977
"Legitimate Marriage", Mosfilm, 1985
"Keep me safe, my talisman", Film Studio named after. A.P. Dovzhenko, 1986
Documentaries:
"I remember a wonderful moment" (Lenfilm)
"My contemporaries", Lenfilm, 1984
"Two hours with bards" ("Bards"), Mosfilm, 1988
"And don't forget about me", Russian television, 1992
Sheet music editions of songs
The first musical edition of B. Okudzhava's songs was published in Krakow in 1970 (there were repeated releases in later years). Musicologist V. Frumkin was unable to push through the release of the collection in the USSR, and, having left for the USA, released it there. That same year, we also published a large collection of songs. Individual songs were published many times in mass collections of songs.
Bulat Okudzhava. 20 songs for voice and guitar. - Krakow: Polish Music. publishing house, 1970.- 64 p.
Bulat Okudzhava. Songs / Musical recording, editing, compilation by V. Frumkin. - Ann Arbor, Michigan: Ardis, 1989. - 120 p.
Songs of Bulat Okudzhava. Melodies and texts / Compiled and author of the introductory article by L. Shilov. - M.: Muzyka, 1989. - 224 pp.; 100,000 copies (Musical material recorded by A. Kolmanovsky with the participation of the author)
Gramophone records
The list does not include foreign discs (the most famous of them was released in Paris by Le Chant du Mond in 1968). In the 70s, a recording of his songs that Bulat really liked was made by Polish dramatic actors with a very careful arrangement. Along with the book about our bards "Poets with a Guitar" a disc of songs was released in Bulgaria ("Balkanton", Bulgaria, 1985. VTK 3804).
Songs of Bulat Okudzhava. "Melody", 1966. D 00016717-8
Bulat Okudzhava. "Songs". "Melody", 1973. 33D-00034883-84
Bulat Okudzhava. Songs (poems and music). Performed by the author. "Melody", 1976. M40 38867
"Songs based on the poems of Bulat Okudzhava." "Melody", 1978. M40 41235
Bulat Okudzhava. "Songs". "Melody", 1978. G62 07097
Bulat Okudzhava. "Songs". Performed by Bulat Okudzhava. "Melody", 1981. С60 13331
Bulat Okudzhava. Songs and poems about the war. Performed by the author. Recording of the All-Union Recording Studio and phonograms of films from 1969-1984. "Melody", 1985. M40 46401 003
Bulat Okudzhava. "New songs". Recording 1986 "Melody", 1986. С60 25001 009
Bulat Okudzhava. “A song as short as life itself...” Performed by the author. Recording 1986 "Melody", 1987. С62 25041 006
CDs
Bulat Okudzhava. "While the earth is still turning." Records of M. Kryzhanovsky 1969-1970. SoLyd Records, 1994. SLR 0008
Bulat Okudzhava. "And how is first love..." Licensed by Le Chant du Mond, recorded 1968. SoLyd Records, 1997. SLR 0079
Compact cassettes
Bulat Okudzhava. "While the earth is still turning." Records of M. Kryzhanovsky 1969-1970. Licensed by SoLyd Records. Moscow Windows LLP, 1994.

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Biography, life story of Okudzhava Bulat Shalvovich

Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava (May 9, 1924 - June 12, 1997) - poet, novelist, film screenwriter. The founder of the art song direction.

Childhood and adolescence

Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava was born on May 9, 1924 in Moscow into a family of party workers (father – Georgian, mother – Armenian). When the boy was born, his parents named him Dorian (in honor of the hero of Oscar Wilde's novel Dorian Gray). However, a month later, when it was time to register the child, the father decided that this name did not really suit his son. He invited his wife to register the boy under the name Bulat. She, after thinking a little, agreed.

Lived on Arbat. In 1934 he moved with his parents to Nizhny Tagil. There, his father was elected first secretary of the city party committee, and his mother was elected secretary of the district committee. In 1937, the parents were arrested; the father was shot, the mother was exiled to the Karaganda camp. Okudzhava returned to Moscow, where he and his brother were raised by their grandmother. In 1940 he moved to relatives in Tbilisi.

During his school years, from the age of 14, he was an extra and a stagehand in the theater, worked as a mechanic, and at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, as a turner at a defense plant. In 1942, after graduating from the ninth grade of high school in Tbilisi, he volunteered to go to war. He served in a reserve mortar division, then after two months of training he was sent to the North Caucasus Front. He was a mortarman, then a heavy artillery radio operator. He was wounded near the city of Mozdok. In 1945, Okudzhava was demobilized and returned to Tbilisi.

Education and work

He graduated from high school as an external student and entered the philological faculty of Tbilisi University, where he studied from 1945 to 1950. After graduating from the university, from 1950 to 1955, he was assigned to teach in the village of Shamordino and the regional center of Vysokinichi, Kaluga region, then at one of the secondary schools in Kaluga. There, in Kaluga, he was a correspondent and literary contributor to the regional newspapers "Znamya" and "Young Leninist".

CONTINUED BELOW

In 1955, the parents were rehabilitated. In 1956 Bulat returned to Moscow. Participated in the work of the literary association "Magistral". He worked as an editor at the Molodaya Gvardiya publishing house, then as head of the poetry department at Literaturnaya Gazeta. In 1961 he left the service and devoted himself entirely to free creative work.

Personal life

The first wife is Galina Vasilievna Smolyaninova. Children from his first marriage - son Igor (born in 1954, died at the age of 43), daughter (the girl died immediately after birth). Bulat broke up with Galina in 1964, and a year after the divorce, the woman died of a heart attack.

The second wife is Olga Vladimirovna Artsimovich, a physicist by training. Son - Bulat (Anton) Bulatovich Okudzhava (born in 1965), musician, composer.

In the early 1980s, Bulat Okudzhava had a serious affair with singer Natalya Gorlenko (his lover was 31 years younger than him).

Death

Bulat Okudzhava underwent heart surgery in the USA. He died on June 12, 1997 after a short serious illness in Paris. Before his death he was baptized under the name John. He was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery in Moscow.

Poetry and songs

He began writing poetry in childhood. Okudzhava's poem was first 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 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, “Lyrics,” was 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 owns more than 800 poems. Many of his poems were born along with music; there are about 200 songs. He first tried himself in the song genre during the war. In 1946, as a student at Tbilisi University, he created the “Student Song” (“Furious and stubborn, burn, fire, burn...”). Since 1956, Okudzhava was one of the first to act as the author of poetry and song music and their performer. Okudzhava’s songs attracted attention. Tape recordings of his performances appeared, which brought Okudzhava wide popularity. Recordings of Okudzhava's songs were sold throughout the country in thousands of copies. His songs were heard in films and plays, in concert programs, on television and radio broadcasts. The first professionally recorded disc was released in Paris in 1968, despite the resistance of the Soviet authorities. Noticeably later, discs were released in the USSR.

The State Literary Museum in Moscow has created a collection of tape recordings of Okudzhava, numbering over 280 storage units.

Professional composers write music to Okudzhava’s poems. An example of luck is V. Levashov’s song to Okudzhava’s poems “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 Cavalry Guard", "Road Song", songs for the television film "Straw Hat" and others).

Books (collections of poems and songs)

Sheet music editions of songs

The first musical edition of B. Okudzhava's songs, known to us, was published in Krakow in 1970 (there were repeated editions in later years). Musicologist V. Frumkin was unable to “pull through” the release of the collection in the USSR, but, having left for the USA, he released it there. In 1989, a large collection of songs was released in our country. Individual songs were published many times in mass collections of songs.

Prose

Since the 1960s, Okudzhava has worked a lot in the prose genre. In 1961, his autobiographical story “Be Healthy, Schoolboy” (published as a separate edition in 1987), dedicated to yesterday’s schoolchildren who had to defend the country from fascism, was published in the almanac “Tarussky Pages”. The story received a negative assessment from supporters of official criticism, who accused Okudzhava of pacifism.

In subsequent years, Okudzhava constantly wrote autobiographical prose, compiling the collections “The Girl of My Dreams” and “The Visiting Musician” (14 short stories and novellas), as well as the novel “The Abolished Theater” (1993), which received the International Booker Prize in 1994 as the best novel of the year Russian language.

At the end of the 1960s, Okudzhava turned to historical prose. In 1970-80, the stories “Poor Avrosimov” (“A Sip of Freedom”) (1969) about the tragic pages in the history of the Decembrist movement, “The Adventures of Shipov, or Ancient Vaudeville” (1971) and novels written on historical material of the early 19th century were published in separate editions “The Journey of Amateurs” (part 1, 1976; part 2, 1978) and “Date with Bonaparte” (1983).

Abroad

Okudzhava's performances took place in Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Hungary, Israel, Spain, Italy, Canada, Poland, USA, Finland, France, Germany, Sweden, Yugoslavia, Japan.

Okudzhava’s works have been translated into many languages ​​and published in many countries around the world.

Theater

Dramatic performances were staged based on Okudzhava’s play “A Sip of Freedom” (1966), as well as his prose, poetry and songs.

Films: Film and Television

Since the mid-1960s, Okudzhava has been acting as a film playwright. Even earlier, his songs began to be heard in films: in more than 50 films, more than 70 songs based on Okudzhava’s poems were heard, of which more than 40 songs were based on his music. Sometimes Okudzhava acted in films himself.

Film scripts

Bulat Okudzhava created four scripts for films, but only two films were shot - “Loyalty” (1965) and “Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha” (1967).

Awards and prizes

Bulat Shalvovich was awarded more than 20 different awards. Among them are medals for courage during the war, and prizes for incomparable writing talent.

In 1997, the State Literary Prize named after Bulat Okudzhava was established.

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

Brief biography:

His father (Georgian) and mother (Armenian) were party workers, from whom Bulat was separated in 1937. The father was arrested and shot, and the mother was sent to a camp (Karaganda), where she remained 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 heated cars.” But the text, unfortunately, has not survived to our times.

“Ancient student song” became the second in a row (1946).

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

In 1954, at a meeting of writers, Bulat read his poems. After kind criticism and support, he began to collaborate with the Kaluga newspaper “Young Leninist”. This is how his first collection of poems, entitled “Lyrics” (1956), was born.

Returning to Moscow in 1959, Bulat began performing in front of large audiences. In addition to poetry, performances began to include guitar. It was from this moment that his popularity began to grow.

At the same time, he was the editor of the Molodaya Gvardiya publishing house, then worked at Literaturnaya Gazeta.
Since 1961 - Okudzhava began to focus only on his creativity and no longer worked for hire.

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

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 based on the poems of Ognieszka Osiecka (Polish poetess), which he previously translated into Russian.

Singer Natalya Gorlenko also played a special role in his work. They had a long affair. (1981).

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

June 12, 1997 – Bulat Okudzhava died in a hospital in the suburb of Clamart (Paris). He was buried in Moscow at the Vagankovskoye 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).