{"id":467,"date":"2020-04-27T00:23:09","date_gmt":"2020-04-27T04:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/russian-poetry\/?page_id=467"},"modified":"2021-08-19T19:17:17","modified_gmt":"2021-08-19T23:17:17","slug":"biography-vladimir-vysotsky","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/russian-poetry\/biography-vladimir-vysotsky\/","title":{"rendered":"Biography Vladimir Vysotsky"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky<\/strong> (1938 \u2013 1980), poet, singer, actor, and composer has often been called the \u201cBob Dylan of the USSR.\u201d His fame is due to his being a leading representative of the so-called bards and minstrel\u2019s movement, which was initiated in the sixties and reached its peak in the mid-seventies. A gifted actor, he early discovered his true vocation around which his life had revolved — performing in theater and movies. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 1964 and 1980,\u00a0Vysotsky worked at the\u00a0Taganka Drama and Comedy\u00a0Theater<\/em>. Actors made use of circus-style acrobatics, modern dance sequences. Part of Vysotsky’s acting style was the performance of songs to guitar accompaniment, created Despite the pressure and obstacles, the Taganka<\/em> managed to deliver cutting-edge, effervescent performances. While there was no politics in Hamlet<\/em>, there was something that was threatening to Soviet authorities \u2013 open conversation.\u00a0 At the Taganka stage, <\/em>performing art articulated and commented on social issues. The brash style of Liubimov’s theatrical productions attracted Vysotsky and he played over the twenty title roles, including Hamlet, one of his most famous roles. In\u00a0Hamlet<\/em> (1971), Vysotsky’s costume\u2014a black sweater and jeans\u2014made him a man of the people rather than a prince, and his troubles of conscience could be shared by the audience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vysotsky, like the other \u201cbards\u201d, composed both the verses and the tunes of his songs and performed them in person and, when his public performances were barred, began to tape his singing.\u00a0\u00a0He performed his own songs with a deep, hoarse, and intense voice, tuning\u00a0his guitar to\u00a0the”low pitch A”.\u00a0He was influenced by”standard” folk melodies, which he utilized to elevate the genre of amateur songwriting. He created more than\u00a0700 songs and took part in over 2000 public and private performances.\u00a0Since his songs assumed to threaten the social order, Soviet authorities banned his public performances and during his lifetime, Soviet television did not broadcast his concerts, however, his fans would record the songs on their reel-to-reel tape players, and cassette-tape recordings of live performances of his songs achieved wide circulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a songwriter, he became famous at 35 with his\u00a0stylized\u00a0outlaw songs,\u00a0then even more so with songs that ranged from lush and romantic topics to\u00a0various issues considered taboo in the Soviet culture, such as un-heroic aspects of war,\u00a0ever-watchful neighbor, corruption, the tyrannical bureaucracy,\u00a0psychiatric hospitals. Vysotsky rendered the narrator\u2019s voice as that of a man looking back on his experiences with a greater perspective. His first-person narration allowed alter-ego for himself to say shocking things about\u00a0convicts, drunkards, recent political returnees, sailors, athletes, scientists, and survivors of the Gulag, war veterans, gold miners, historic, mythological, or folkloric figures or animals.\u00a0Whatever the mask, the narrator always proves very intelligent and deeply introspective, saying things that people would have loved to say, but never dare to show of themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0He was way ahead of his time at laughing at public obsessions and Soviet politics. Despite common belief that Vysotsky is a satirist, some of his songs are obvious allegories.\u00a0He has an ability for combining satire and lyricism almost in the same line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KGB might have been monitoring his correspondence for quite some time and was probably following his every move. Nevertheless,\u00a0due to his very public presence as an actor, he was\u00a0the most recognized Russian bard. At the same time, Vysotsky never\u00a0gained direct access to the media and\u00a0remained an enigmatic figure.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soviet authorities ignored even his death that occurred when Moscow was hosting the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games.\u00a0A true testament to his symbolic power in the society was his funeral when\u00a0dozens of thousands of Muscovites came to Vagankovskoe Cemetery to say their farewell to the most famous Russian bard.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Astrakhan, Vadim. Vysotsky in English<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

New World Encyclopedia<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vlady, Marina. Vladimir or the Interrupted Flight<\/em>.<\/a> 1987<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky (1938 \u2013 1980), poet, singer, actor, and composer has often been called the \u201cBob Dylan of the USSR.\u201d His fame is due to his being a leading representative of the so-called bards and minstrel\u2019s movement, which was initiated in the sixties and reached its peak in the mid-seventies. A gifted actor, he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17249,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":32,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/russian-poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/467"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/russian-poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/russian-poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/russian-poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17249"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/russian-poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/russian-poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3116,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/russian-poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/467\/revisions\/3116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/russian-poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}