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 25 years in the Russian army. By nationality, he was either Russian, or Moldovan, or Jew. It is only known that Pavel was a tailor, married a Georgian woman named Salome and fathered three daughters. The eldest of them later 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. It was not easy for him to get used to the harsh Siberian conditions after living in a friendly and sunny region.

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 a 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 of the Soviet troops only after 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. Between 1956 and 1967, the most famous songs Bulat Shalvovich - “On Tverskoy Boulevard”, “Song about the Komsomol Goddess”, “Song about the Blue Ball” and others.

Official recognition

Okudzhava Bulat Shalvovich first performed at 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 for eighty films.

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. Personal life of this wonderful person during that period is 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. He showed a negative attitude towards Lenin and Stalin, and 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 for the 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 - a block of stone with the name of the bard written in handwritten 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, a 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.

Bulat Okudzhava- Soviet and Russian bard, poet, translator, composer, philologist and film actor. During his biography, he composed more than two hundred songs.

Okudzhava, along with Vysotsky and Galich, is considered one of the brightest representatives of the art song genre of the Soviet era. It contains many interesting events and facts, which we will tell you about right now.

So, in front of you short biography of Bulat Okudzhava.

Biography of Okudzhava

Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava was born on May 9, 1924 in. He was born into a Bolshevik family, as a result of which he was brought up in the spirit of communist patriotism.

His father, Shalva Stepanovich, was a party leader. His mother, Ashkhen Stepanovna, supported her husband in every possible way and had the same political convictions.

Childhood and youth

Initially, everything went well in the Okudzhava family. The head of the family rapidly climbed the party ladder, occupying various leading positions.

But one day a conflict arose between Okudzhava Sr. and Lavrentiy Beria, which shook his position in the party.

Soon a false denunciation was made against Okudzhava. He was detained and sentenced to death, which was executed on August 4, 1937. It is worth noting that both of Shalva Okudzhava’s brothers were also shot on false charges.

After this, the mother and son settled in one of the Moscow communal apartments. The woman understood perfectly well that sooner or later they would also come for her, since she was the wife of an “enemy of the people.” And so it happened.

Less than a year later, she was arrested and exiled to a camp in Karaganda, where she stayed for about 9 years.

After the arrest of both parents, Bulat Okudzhava lived with relatives in.

Bulat Okudzhava in his youth

After graduating from high school, he got a job as a turner. In 1942, an 18-year-old boy found himself in the ranks of the Red Army. During these years of his biography, he first began to compose songs.

Returning home, Okudzhava successfully passed the exams at Tbilisi University at the Faculty of Pedagogy. After receiving his diploma in 1950, he taught at a village school for more than 2 years.

During this period of his biography, he composed poems and other works.

Literature and music

In 1954, a year after his death, Bulat Okudzhava read his poems at one of the creative evenings. His works received good reviews, as a result of which the young poet began to be published in the local newspaper.

Bulat Okudzhava on stage

Over the 40 years of his creative activity, he published about 15 poetry collections, including “65 Songs,” “Dedicated to You,” and “Waiting Room.”

During the biography period 1970-1990. Okudzhava published dozens of prose works. In addition, several historical novels came from his pen, including “The Journey of Amateurs,” “A Date with Bonaparte,” and “The Photographer Zhora.”

It is interesting that Bulat Okudzhava also wrote for children. The most famous fairy tale is “Charming Adventures,” which has been translated into many languages.

It is worth noting that in addition to his writing activities, Bulat Okudzhava also translated poetry from Arabic, Finnish and Swedish languages. In addition, until 1961 he was the editor of the publishing house "Young Guard", and also headed the poetry department at " Literary newspaper».

However, having gained fame and felt confidence in own strength, Okudzhava quit, after which he was engaged only in creative activities.

In the early 60s, Okudzhava gained particular popularity as a bard. He often gave concerts, which always attracted a lot of people.

Soon he visited many Soviet cities, performing his own songs.

The work of Bulat Okudzhava seriously influenced such famous artists as Yuri Vizbor and Alexander Galich. Everyone knew and sang his songs.

Vladimir Vysotsky and Bulat Okudzhava

The most famous compositions of the bard Okudzhava are:

• Let's join hands, friends;
• Prayer by François Villon;
• Take your overcoat, let's go home;
• Song of the fox Alice and the cat Basilio;
• A song about dashed hopes;
• Your Honor, Lady Luck.

In parallel with this, Bulat Shalvovich wrote songs for films. The most popular song was “We Need Victory,” which was performed in the film “Belorussky Station.” This composition was greatly loved by his compatriots, and especially by former front-line soldiers.

In total, Okudzhava’s songs were performed in more than 70 films.

At the end of the 60s, Okudzhava visited, where he recorded a record with his own compositions. After that, he released several more albums in the USSR.

During his biography, Okudzhava starred in 8 films, playing both himself and minor characters. In addition, he wrote scripts for four films.

Personal life

Throughout his life, Bulat Okudzhava showed great interest in the fairer sex. His first wife was Galina Smolyaninova.

In this marriage they had a daughter (who died at an early age) and a son, Igor, who later became a drug addict and went to prison.

In 1964, Bulat and Galina decided to separate. One year later ex-wife Barda died of a broken heart.

Over time, Okudzhava met physicist Olga Artsimovich, who later became his wife.

In this family union they had a boy, Anton, who also became a musician. This marriage turned out to be quite happy.

However, in the mid-80s, Bulat developed a relationship with singer Natalya Gorlenko. He cohabited with her for several years without breaking off relations with his legal wife.

Death

Bulat Okudzhava spent the last years of his life in. He experienced the death of his eldest son very painfully, as a result of which his health was seriously undermined.

Soon he fell ill with the flu, which caused complications on his kidneys. The disease progressed, as a result of which doctors were unable to save him.

Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava died on June 12, 1997 at the age of 73 in the French city of Clamart.

The outstanding Russian bard was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery in Moscow. It is interesting that a few days before his death he was baptized, since he believed in God all his life.

Photo by Bulat Okudzhava

Below you can see selected photos of the bard Okudzhava.

V.A. Zaitsev

The name of Bulat Okudzhava is widely known to readers and poetry lovers. It is impossible to separate him not only from the unique sociocultural phenomenon of the 1950s-90s - the art song, of which he was one of the founders, but also from the main paths of development of Russian lyric poetry and, more broadly, literature of the second half of the 20th century. Many reviews and critical articles have been published about his works and creativity - perhaps the “mournful summer of ninety-seven” was especially abundant in this regard. And yet, the phenomenon of Okudzhava, the secret of the influence of his poetic word, the specifics of the artistic world in many ways remain a mystery and a riddle and still require careful study; they have attracted and will attract the close attention of researchers.

Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava (1924-1997) was born in Moscow. His childhood was spent on Arbat, in those very courtyards and alleys, the memory of which became his poetic memory, carrying not only bright memories, but also the features of a complex, tragic era. In 1937, he was arrested, accused of “Trotskyism” and soon his father was shot, his mother was sent to the camps. The boy stayed with his grandmother.

When the Great Patriotic War began, he lived with relatives in Georgia. In 1942, he volunteered for the front, fought - first as a mortar operator, then as a radio operator of heavy artillery, was wounded, and all this affected his future creative destiny. His poems were first published in army newspapers of the Transcaucasian Military District in 1945. After the war, he graduated from Tbilisi University and worked for several years as a teacher of Russian language and literature in the Kaluga region and then in Kaluga itself. There his first poetry collection, “Lyrics” (1956), was published, which he later recalled: “It was a very weak book, written by a man suffering from Kaluga provincial arrogance.” He soon moved to Moscow, where in 1959 his book “Islands” was published, the poems of which attracted the attention of readers and testified to the birth of a great artist with his own unique poetic world.

Over the years of his creative activity, Okudzhava clearly showed himself as an original poet and prose writer, the author of a number of poetry books: “The Cheerful Drummer” (1964), “On the Road to Tinatin” (1964), “Magnanimous March” (1967), “Arbat, my Arbat "(1976), "Poems" (1984), "Dedicated to you" (1988), "Favorites" (1989), "Songs of Bulat Okudzhava" (1989), "Drops of the Danish King" (1991), "Grace of Fate" ( 1993), “Waiting Room” (1996), “Tea Party on the Arbat” (1996).

He wrote the historical novels “A Sip of Freedom” (“Poor Avrosimov”), “The Journey of Amateurs”, “A Date with Bonaparte”, the autobiographical story “Bless you, Schoolboy” (1961) and short stories (the book “The Girl of My Dreams”, 1988) , film scripts “Loyalty”, “Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha”, novel - “ family chronicle" - "Abolished Theater" (1995). Answering questions related to his turn to prose, the poet said: “You see, I don’t make a fundamental difference between poetry and my prose: for me these are phenomena of the same order... Because both there and there I fulfill the main task, who stands in front of me, talking about herself using the means at my disposal... My lyrical hero is the same in both poetry and prose.”

Okudzhava’s creative activity is diverse. But what brought him the greatest fame at an early stage were, as he himself called them, “modest city songs”, which in his own performance, to the accompaniment of a guitar, found their way to the hearts of numerous listeners, giving rise to a number of other equally original phenomena of the author's song ( N. Matveeva, A. Galich, V. Vysotsky, later V. Dolina, etc.).

Although Okudzhava first declared himself in the late 50s together with the poets of the “thaw” period - the “sixties” (E. Yevtushenko, A. Voznesensky, B. Akhmadulina, etc.), but in essence he is still one of the poets military or front-line generation - those whose talent was formed in severe trials, on the front line, under artillery and machine-gun fire, in the trenches and dugouts of the Patriotic War.

Speaking to audiences back in 1961, the poet noted: “Most of my poems - both those that I read and those that I sing - are on a military theme. When I was 17 years old, I left the ninth grade to go to the front. And I didn’t write poetry then, and then, obviously, these impressions of youth were so strong that they still follow me on my heels. So you won’t be surprised by the predominance of the military theme in my work.” Therefore, it is natural that in his poems and songs, such an important place is occupied by experiences and impressions, images and motives caused by the war. The titles of the poems themselves speak about this: “The first day on the front line”, “Song about soldiers’ boots”, “Goodbye, boys”, “Song about the infantry”, “Don’t believe the war, boy”, “From the front diary”, etc. They reveal the spiritual world of a person who has passed the test of fire and retained in his soul faith, hope and love for all life on earth.

The poet and his hero are characterized by acute rejection, denial of war - precisely as death and destruction, and at the same time - affirmation of life, faith in its triumph, in victory over death: “No, don’t hide, be tall, / don’t regret no bullets, no grenades / and don’t spare yourself, / and still / try to go back.”

But the thematic and figurative range of Okudzhava’s songs is by no means limited to war. His lyrics affirm the beauty and poetry of ordinary everyday life. The earthly foundation is clearly felt in it, living soil, on which the feeling-experience grows, and at the same time - romantic inspiration in the perception and creative recreation of the most ordinary phenomena.

We are earthly people. And to hell with fairy tales about the gods!
We simply carry on our wings what we carry in our arms.
You just need to really believe in these blue beacons,
and then an unexpected shore will come out of the fog towards you.

Throughout creative path the holistic and dynamic artistic world of B. Okudzhava is revealed, consistently deepening and turning with different facets. This is a very real, earthly, but at the same time sublime, romantic world of a poet who tirelessly transforms reality with creative fantasy. According to the correct remark of L.A. Shilov, in his poems “the ordinary can instantly turn into the fabulous,” and this is one of the essential internal properties of his artistic style.

In Okudzhava’s artistic system, the everyday and earthly, literally before our eyes, are transformed into the unusual and sublimely romantic, forming “his own poetic world, his own poetic continent,” the presence of which he so valued in the work of his younger brothers in the poetic workshop, the creators of the original song: V. Vysotsky, N. Matveeva, Y. Kim and others.

The role of tropes in the creation of this poetic world by Okudzhava himself is undeniable. In his songs, “Woman, Your Majesty” appears before us, whose eyes are “like the vault of the autumn sky”, “two cold blue stars”, they are like “blue lighthouses”, reminiscent of an “unexpected shore”, which becomes a “close shore”. Those. the unusual turns out to be nearby: “she lives on our street”, she has “chapped hands and old shoes”, “her coat... is light on her”...

In Okudzhava’s metaphors, the everyday, the earthly and the romantic, directed upward and into the distance, the heavenly and the sea, merge and are combined. In his poems, an ordinary Moscow street flows “like a river,” its asphalt is transparent, “like water in a river.” In them, “The midnight trolleybus floats across Moscow, / Moscow, like a river, fades away...” Everything that happens is perceived surrounded by the water element: “at the table of the seven seas,” and even “Time passes, no joke, no joke, / like the sea a wave will suddenly surge and hide...”

In Okudzhava’s poetic world, the most important place is occupied by the theme and image of the motherland, home and road, the motive of movement and the hope associated with it, the moral and philosophical understanding of life, the very foundations of existence, and - already as a form of embodiment of all this - the musical and pictorial principle. All this together forms a living, integral, moving artistic system.

One of the key themes for Okudzhava is the theme of the homeland, which finds a multifaceted poetic embodiment in his work. In this regard, it is perhaps necessary to say specially about what can be called the theme of the “small homeland”, “country of childhood”, associated with Moscow and the Arbat, to which he dedicated so many poems and songs different years(“In the Arbat courtyard...”, “Arbat melodies”, “Arbat romance”, “Arbat inspiration”, cycle “Music of the Arbat courtyard”, etc.).

“My historical homeland is Arbat,” Okudzhava said in one of his later speeches. And in another case, he explained: “Arbat for me is not just a street, but a place that for me, as it were, personifies Moscow and my homeland.”

The “Song about Arbat” (“You flow like a river. Strange name!..”), written back in the 50s, is widely known. In it, behind this ancient Moscow street, something immeasurably greater arises for the poet, artistic space and time are unusually expanded:

Your pedestrians are not great people, their heels click - they are in a hurry to do business.
Ah, Arbat, my Arbat, you are my religion, your pavements lie beneath me.
You won’t be cured of your love by loving forty thousand other pavements.
Ah, Arbat, my Arbat, you are my fatherland, I will never completely pass you!

Commenting on his poems and, obviously, comprehending the origins of his own poetic creativity and the role of the “small homeland” in its formation, Okudzhava noted: “The history of Moscow, by its inexplicable whim, chose this particular area for the most complete self-expression. Arbat does not have backyards, but there is Arbat in general - a district, a country, a living, vibrant history, our culture... I even suspect that it has a soul and for several centuries it has been emitting invisible waves that have a beneficial effect on our moral health.” .

Arbat, and with it many other names of ancient Moscow streets and squares (Smolenskaya, Petrovka, Volkhonka, Neglinnaya, Malaya Bronnaya, Tverskaya, Sivtsev Vrazhek, Ilyinka, Bozhedomka, Okhotny Ryad, Usachevka, Ordynka) not only reproduce the territory that has evolved over centuries, the geographical space of the ancient capital, but also convey its spiritual atmosphere, the inner world of its resident, who felt himself an integral part and a living, active force in the centuries-old history of the country and people:

I’ve been walking not for thirty years, but for three hundred years, imagine, along these ancient squares, along the blue ends. My city wears highest rank and the title of Moscow, but he always comes out to meet all the guests himself.

The quoted poem “Moscow Ant” is among many that recreate a romantically colored image hometown: “Song about Moscow militias”, “Song about Moscow tram”, “Song about Moscow at night”...

And it is no coincidence that in the last of the named “songs” the very process of the birth of a verse set to music is reproduced, and before our eyes there appears a surprisingly capacious, “key” image for Okudzhava’s lyrics, running through the refrain at the end of each stanza:

But not only Moscow and Arbat - old, pre-war and post-war, but not today's - reconstructed - are so close and dear to the poet. “Arbat is my home, but the whole world is my home...” - he noted, as if casually, but very meaningfully in one of the poems of the 70s. And in this sense, the “small” and spiritual homeland of the poet is the epicenter of the artistic world, expanding infinitely in space and time.

The names of the poems themselves are characteristic: along with “Song about Moscow at Night” - “Leningrad Elegy”, “Autumn in Tsarskoe Selo”, “On the Smolensk Road”, “Conversation with the Kura River”, “Georgian Song”. Behind them arises the idea of ​​a large, native country for him. A poem called “Motherland” is dedicated to love and loyalty to her. In poems about the Fatherland, nature, art, history, “eternal” themes and the very fundamental principles of existence and creativity are inseparable for the poet.

The “Georgian Song” has expressive folk poetic symbolism: life-giving and earthly firmament, airy and water element concretized in visible, plastic-picturesque images:

I will bury a grape seed in the warm earth, and kiss the vine, and pick ripe grapes, and call friends, set my heart to love... Otherwise, why do I live on this eternal earth?

And when the sunset swirls, flying around the corners, let the blue buffalo, and the white eagle, and the golden trout swim in reality again and again before me... Otherwise, why do I live on this eternal earth?

The poet himself once remarked: “This, in general, is not really a Georgian song, but its symbolism is close to Georgian folklore, and I called it that...”

At the same time, the image of “this eternal land” running through the refrain gives the poem a universal sound. It is with him, with this image of the “warm” and “eternal” earth that the motive of mortal and beautiful human life in its deepest manifestations of the most tender and intimate friendly and loving feelings and relationships is correlated, grows out of it, goes into it and is invariably revived (“. ..and I will call my friends, I will set my heart to love..."; "...and I will listen, and I will die of love and sadness...").

In Okudzhava’s lyrics, the depth of spirituality is captivating, moral purity, affirmation of truth and justice in human relations. His poems reveal integrity and richness inner world personality, a generous range of living human feelings: love, friendship, camaraderie, tenderness, kindness. Many lines of poems and songs speak about this (“Sentries of love stand on Smolenskaya...”; “Loneliness recedes, / love returns”; “How much, imagine, kindness...”; “...this same tenderness and timidity, / these very bitterness and light...."; "Let's hold hands, friends...").

The poet's feeling is broad and multifaceted. This is love for a woman, mother, homeland, peace, life, hard-won love, filled with mercy for people. And it is no coincidence that the poem “The Musician” (1983) ends with the lines: “And the soul, that’s for sure, if it is burned, / it is fairer, more merciful and righteous.”

“I really love this personality (musician),” said Okudzhava. - I love the words “music”, “musician”, “string”. I consider music the most important of the arts, even higher than the art of words.” Indeed, music and its creator (performer), the musician, is one of the central motifs of his poetry.

Let us recall, for example, the poem “Wonderful Waltz”, which, from the first to the last line, is “stitched” with end-to-end patterns that carry the theme of this, in the words of the poet, “the most important of the arts”: “A musician in the forest under a tree plays a waltz... He has been playing for a whole century music... The musician pressed his lips to the flute... And the musician grows into the ground... Music has been playing for a whole century... And the musician plays.”

In Okudzhava’s poems, a variety of instruments are “involved,” forming a polyphonic orchestra, in which each performer leads his own part: “ringing organ notes” and “copper pipes,” the voices of violin and flute, clarinet and bassoon sound... In his songs, “cheerful the drummer / takes maple sticks in his hands,” “plays out a melody / some upcoming trumpeter,” “...the clarinetist is handsome as hell! / The flutist, like a young prince, is graceful...” And the music itself comes to life before our eyes, becoming an animated being: “And the music dances flexibly in front of me... / And the swift body of music / floats...” (“Music”) .

Okudzhava’s artistic world is moving, alive, constantly changing, sounding and colorful; it generously and diversely presents images and motifs associated with painting and the artist’s work. This is again evidenced by the titles of the poems themselves (“Painters”, “How to learn to draw”, “Frescoes”, “Battle painting”, “Why are you sad, artist...”) - in the latter case the word itself receives an expanded meaning - he is a “painter, poet, musician,” whose tools and tools are “canvas and paints, pen and bow.”

Obviously, Okudzhava could repeat after N. Zabolotsky: “Love painting, poets!” In his poems there are many examples of the mastery of painting with words - from the program “Painters, dip your brushes / into the bustle of the Arbat courtyards and into the dawn...” - and to the implementation of this program, in particular, in the already quoted “Georgian Song”, or, say , in the poem “Autumn in Kakheti”, marked by amazing plasticity, picturesqueness, dynamics and spirituality in the depiction of nature:

Suddenly appeared autumn wind, and he fell to the ground. The red hawk was drowned in red leaves as if in paint. There were leaves strangely cut, similar to faces - crazy cutters cut these leaves, mischievous, lively seamstresses sewed them...

The leaves fell on their fawn fingers.

And at the very threshold where the road ends, a slightly intoxicated autumn leaf, a crimson leaf, a leaf with absurd carvings was having fun, and spinning, and dancing... At the hour when the sad hawk flies out to rob.

One of the defining motifs in Okudzhava’s world is the road motif: this is both parting with one’s home and moving along the endless roads of war in the poems “Goodbye, boys...” and “Song about Soldier’s Boots.” But this is also a road as a symbol of the path of life, in which today’s everyday reality is intertwined and merges with the eternal, existential, cosmic (“Along the Smolensk Road”). The motive of the movement was stated already in the first verse-songs (“Midnight Trolleybus”, “Sentries of Love”, “Merry Drummer”),

“My life is a journey...” wrote Okudzhava, and this applies not only to movement in space. It is no coincidence that his “Main Song” in the poem of the same name “circles over the intersection of roads,” and that is why the names of the poems themselves are so significant: “Song about a Long Road,” “Road Song,” “Road Fantasy”...

The poet's artistic world is always real and at the same time fantastic. In addition to “Road Fantasy”, in Okudzhava’s work, especially in the 80s, a whole series of fantasies arise, in particular related to trips abroad, but not only: “Paris Fantasy”, as well as “Danube”, “ Kaluga", "Japanese", "Turkish", "American"... At the same time, back in the 70s, Okudzhava wrote a capacious and meaningful poem, which can be considered as an ironic reflection on failed social utopias:

About fantasy on the theme of the triumph of good over evil!
Within the solar system you are scrapped.
This dump triumphs and roars like a surf...
I don’t feel sorry for those fantasies - I’m sad about you and me.

In Okudzhava’s poems and songs, the socio-historical and the eternal, universal are always closely intertwined. His desire for harmony, for highlighting the beauty in life and man, associated with faith, hope and love, is inseparable from the feeling of the drama and tragedy of existence in the world.

In one of the relatively recent poems dedicated to Novella Matveeva, Okudzhava characterized the time of “thaw” hopes, which gave rise, in particular, to such a phenomenon as the author’s song: “We are romantics of the old school / from a bygone and terrible time. / We came into the world under a stick, / to sing the praises of the city courtyards.” The romantic worldview of youth, naturally, underwent significant changes, having absorbed the sadness and bitterness of the “Muse of Irony,” which encourages us to rethink the images of our own poems:

My temple looked askance on the blood, however, just like other construction sites. The New Year's tree is in the trash.

No hopes, no fate, no love...

Acute empathy causes suffering native land in the tragically colored elegiac-romantic lyrics of Okudzhava in recent years. The hardest thing for the poet who returned from a trip abroad was to see “the sick, dear face of his homeland.” Thoughts about own life and fate retreats before the pain about the fate of the country and the entire suffering world. Hence the sad lines: “It’s only a pity that the homeland has faded, / no matter what they sing about it.” Hence the sorrowful thoughts about the present and future of the earth-planet:

While life has not yet gone out, sparkling, has not disappeared into the darkness...
How beautiful everything would be on this green earth,
whenever it were not for the dirty paws that pass judgment on the wrong,
not abusive shouts, not volleys, not tears that flow like a river!

Sharply social motives are intertwined in Okudzhava’s late lyrics with philosophical reflections. The sad conclusion and outcome of the years lived (“The story of our life is instantaneous, / such a short period ...”) does not lead to despondency, but once again encourages us to look for the “golden grain” of true poetry “between the eternal and between the fleeting,” “between the lived and between the future..."

In the poetic collection-cycle “Firing Lessons” (“Znamya”, 1997, No. 1), new motives arise that have absorbed the experience of what has been experienced and carried in the heart. “Firing lessons are useless...”, “...battlefields are not for me these days” - this is now the humanistic and moral-aesthetic position of the poet. The highest value for him again and again appears to be “the music of verse”, “the words of a lonely influx”, “a strange phrase of a dim silhouette”, in which he sees “a special meaning and inspired light”. And he finds the very origins of true poetry in the primordial, eternal human feelings and experiences - simple and ordinary, devoid of any pomp and pathos:

Power! Motherland! A country! Fatherland and state! This is not what we cherish in our souls and will take to the grave with us, but a tender look, and a kiss - love’s sweet deceit, Krivoarbatsky Lane and quiet chatter about this and that.

Okudzhava’s poems, included in the books “Mercies of Fate” (1993), “Waiting Room” (1996), and finally, in the final collection “Tea Party on the Arbat” (1996), are distinguished, as before, by earthly simplicity, sometimes everyday life of intonations, everyday words and phrases and - inner beauty, organic nature of artistic, visual and expressive means, verbal, musical integrity and completeness of his artistic world.

As for the poetic “teachers”, the “nominal” traditions of Russian and Western European classics, Okudzhava answered questions about his favorite poets: “Of the poets I love Pushkin, Kipling, Francois Villon, Pasternak,” also mentioning the names of Blok, Akhmatova, Zabolotsky . Regarding contemporary poets, he said: “I really love David Samoilov, Boris Slutsky, Oleg Chukhontsev, Bella Akhmadulina, Yunna Moritz, Alexander Kushner...”, always speaking positively about the “sixties”: E. Yevtushenko, A. Voznesensky, R Rozhdestvensky, as “bright talents”, people “from my poetic cohort”, he also considered very gifted, wonderful poets I. Brodsky, N. Rubtsov.

Bulat Okudzhava’s lyrical creativity is based on its inseparability with folk life and fate, organically absorbed by the experience and traditions of Russian poetry and, of course, folklore origins (including urban romance). The very combination of verse, melody, and at an early stage his own performance of his poems and songs to the accompaniment of a guitar reflected an appeal to the most ancient, primordial traditions of poetic creativity, their bold and original continuation and renewal.

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According to short biography Bulat Okudzhava was born on May 9, 1924 in Moscow into a multinational family: his father, Shalva Okudzhava, was of Georgian blood, and his mother, Ashkhen Nalbadyan, was of Armenian blood.

Two years after the birth of their first child, the whole family moved to their father’s homeland - Tbilisi. There, Shalva Okudzhava, a convinced communist, simply rose through the ranks. First, he served as secretary of the Tbilisi city committee, and then in 1934 he was asked to accept the post of first secretary of the Nizhny Tagil city party committee.

However, in those years the Soviet repressive machine was already established and working non-stop. In 1937, Okudzhava's father was arrested and sentenced to death on the basis of false evidence. And Ashkhen was exiled to the Karaganda camp in 1938. She returned after 12 long years.

Okudzhava was raised by his grandmother, and in the 1940s he moved to relatives in the capital of Georgia.

War years

With the beginning of the war against the fascist invaders, Bulat Okudzhava decided to get to the front as soon as possible, no matter what. But my young age did not allow me to carry out my plans. Only in 1942 did he volunteer to serve straight from the ninth grade. First, two months of training, and then a mortarman in the 5th Guards Don Cavalry Cossack Corps.

Participated in the battles near Mozdok. But at the end of 1942 he was seriously wounded. It is worth briefly noting that, according to the poet himself, he was wounded out of stupidity - a stray bullet. It was insulting and bitter, because so many times under direct fire I remained unharmed, but here, one might say, in a calm environment, I received such an absurd injury.

After recovery, he never returned to the front. He served as a radio operator in a heavy artillery brigade. The first song in Okudzhava’s biography appears at the front - “We couldn’t sleep in the cold heated vehicles.”

Prose writer, poet and bard

In the post-war years, Okudzhava returned to his native Tbilisi, took exams for high school and entered the specialty “philologist” at Tbilisi University. During his studies, he met Alexander Tsybulevsky, a student and aspiring lyricist, who largely influenced his development as a poet. In 1950 he received a diploma higher education and teaches Russian language and literature in high school in the village of Shamordino, located near Kaluga. In 1956, the first collection of poems, Lyrics, was published.

Moscow

In the same year, 1956, the 20th Congress of the CPSU took place, the main result of which was the condemnation of Stalin’s personality cult.

It was after him that the poet’s mother was rehabilitated and the two of them were allowed to move to Moscow again. In the capital, Bulat Okudzhava first holds the position of deputy editor for the literature section at Komsomolskaya Pravda, then works as an editor at Young Guard, and finally moves to the Literary Gazette publication.

The work of the young poet and aspiring prose writer does not stand still either. In 1961, Konstantin Paustovsky published the collection “Tarussky Pages,” which included Okudzhava’s work “Be Healthy, Schoolboy.” Despite sharp negative criticism for its pacifist content, four years later the story was filmed under a new title - “Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha.” But it was not only the author’s prose that received criticism. In the 60s, the bard’s songs were also persecuted. According to the conclusion of the official commission, they could not fully express the mood and feelings of Soviet youth. However, the youth themselves did not know about this, and always tried to get to the concerts and recitals of the famous bard.

National fame came to Okudzhava after the release of the feature film “Belorussky Station”. It contains a powerful, deep and at the same time subtle song “The birds don’t sing here...”.

Personal life

On a personal level, the poet and bard was not and could not be alone: ​​“he has two official marriages on the books.” Unfortunately, Bulat Shalvovich's first marriage to Galina Smolyaninova ended in divorce. The background was largely served by two tragedies that happened in the family: the daughter died at a very young age, and the son subsequently became addicted to drugs.

Olga Artsimovich, a physicist by profession, becomes Okudzhava’s second wife. This marriage was much happier. In it, a son, Anton, is born - a wonderful composer in the future.

Other biography options

• There were many legends about Bulat Shalvovich during his lifetime. For example, many believed that his talent was born and blossomed during the war. However, his wife Olga argued the opposite. At the front, his lyrics were amateurish, and most of them have not survived. The best works were created in the 50s.
• Creative people, as a rule, do not pay any attention to everyday life. But Bulat Okudzhava was not one of them. He knew how to do everything: wash dishes, cook, and work with a hammer. At the same time, the head of the family was still Olga Okudzhava. She decided how to act and when. He loved her and obeyed her.
• In 1991, Bulat Okudzhava was found to have serious illness heart. An operation was immediately required, which at that time cost tens of thousands of dollars. Of course, the family did not have such a sum. Best friend The poet Ernst Neizvestny was even planning to take out a loan against his house as collateral. But the money was collected by the whole world: some a dollar, some a hundred.
• Okudzhava was an atheist, and kept saying that he did not believe in God. But just before his death, at the insistence of his wife, he was baptized. She believed that a man of such a huge soul could not be an unbeliever.

Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava(1924-1997) - Soviet and Russian poet, composer, prose writer and screenwriter. The author of about two hundred songs written on his own poems, one of the founders and most prominent representatives genre of art song.

Biography

Bulat Okudzhava was born in Moscow on May 9, 1924 into a family of communists who came from Tbilisi to study at the Communist Academy. Father - Okudzhava Shalva Stepanovich, Georgian, mother - Ashkhen Stepanovna Nalbandyan, Armenian.

First place of residence - st. Arbat, 43, communal apartment on the 4th floor.

Soon after Bulat's birth, his father was sent to the Caucasus to work as a commissar of the Georgian division. Mother remained in Moscow, worked in the party apparatus. Bulat was sent to Tbilisi to study and studied in a Russian class. Father was promoted to secretary of the Tbilisi City Committee; because of the conflict with Beria, he sent a letter to Sergo Ordzhonikidze with a request to send him to party work in Russia, and was sent to the Urals as a party organizer for carriage factory. Bulat's father sent the family to live with him in the Urals.

After the arrest of his parents in 1937 - his father was shot on false charges in 1937, his mother was exiled to a Karaganda camp, from where she returned only in 1955 - Bulat and his grandmother returned to Moscow.

In 1940, Bulat Okudzhava moved to relatives in Tbilisi. He studied and then worked at a factory as a turner's apprentice.

In April 1942, at the age of 17, Okudzhava volunteered for the front. Was sent to the 10th Separate 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 practically took no part in hostilities; was accidentally wounded near Mozdok.

His first song, “We Couldn’t Sleep in Cold Warehouses” (1943), dates back to this time, the text of which has not survived.

The second song was written in 1946 - “Ancient student song” (“Frantic and stubborn…”).

After the war, Okudzhava entered Tbilisi State University. Having received his diploma, in 1950 he began working as a teacher - first in a rural school in the village of Shamordino, Kaluga region and in the regional center of Vysokinichi, then in Kaluga.

In 1955, impressed by his mother’s return from the camp, Bulat Okudzhava joined the CPSU.

In 1956, Okudzhava returned to Moscow. In the same year, he began performing as the author of poetry and song music and performing them with a guitar, quickly gaining popularity. The composition of many of Okudzhava's most famous early songs dates back to this period (1956-1967) ("On Tverskoy Boulevard", "Song about Lyonka Korolev", "Song about the Blue Ball", "Sentimental March", "Song about the Midnight Trolleybus", "Not tramps, not drunkards", "Moscow Ant", "Song about the Komsomol goddess", etc.).

He worked as an editor at the Molodaya Gvardiya publishing house, then as head of the poetry department at Literaturnaya Gazeta. Participated in the work of the literary association "Magistral".

In 1961 he left the service and no longer worked for hire, focusing exclusively on creative activities.

Since 1962 Okudzhava has been a member of the USSR Writers' Union.

In 1970, the film “Belorussky Station” was released, in which a song was performed to the words of Bulat Okudzhava “The birds don’t sing here...”. Okudzhava is the author of other popular songs for films (the film “Straw Hat”, “Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha”, etc.)

The first disc with Okudzhava’s songs was released in Paris in 1968. Since the mid-seventies, Okudzhava’s discs have also been released in the USSR.

The songs of Bulat Okudzhava, spreading in tape recordings, quickly gained popularity, primarily among the intelligentsia: first in the USSR, then among Russian speakers abroad. The songs “Let's join hands, friends...”, “While the Earth is still spinning...” (“Prayer of François Villon”) have become the anthem of many PCB rallies and festivals. In addition to songs based on his own poems, Okudzhava wrote a number of songs based on poems by the Polish poetess Agnieszka Osiecka, which he himself translated into Russian.

In 1961, Okudzhava made his debut as a prose writer: his autobiographical story “Be Healthy, Schoolboy” was published in the anthology “Tarussky Pages” (published as a separate publication in 1987).

Published 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" (part 1. - 1976; part 2. - 1978) and "Date with Bonaparte" (1983).

Since the beginning of perestroika, Bulat Okudzhava has taken an active democratic position and participates in current politics.

Since 1989 - founding member of the Russian PEN Center.

In 1990 he left the CPSU.

Since 1992 - member of the commission on pardons under the President of the Russian Federation; since 1994 - member of the commission for State Prizes of the Russian Federation.

Also:
Member of the founding council of the Moscow News newspaper.
Member of the founding council of Obshchaya Gazeta.
Member of the editorial board of the newspaper "Evening Club".
Member of the Council of the Memorial Society.

Since the early 1990s, the poet has lived mainly in Germany. On June 23, 1995, a concert by Bulat Okudzhava took place at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.

On June 12, 1997, Bulat Okudzhava died in Paris (in the suburb of Clamart), in a military hospital.

He was buried at the Moscow Vagankovskoe cemetery. There is a monument to him near house 43 on Arbat, where Okudzhava lived.