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Soviet and Russian poet and prose writer, composer Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava was born on May 9, 1924 in Moscow into a family of party workers. His father, Shalva Okudzhava, was Georgian by nationality, and his mother, Ashkhen Nalbandyan, was Armenian.

In 1934, he moved with his parents to Nizhny Tagil, where his father was appointed first secretary of the city party committee, and his mother was appointed secretary of the district committee.

In 1937, Okudzhava's parents were arrested. On August 4, 1937, Shalva Okudzhava was shot on false charges, Ashkhen Nalbandyan was exiled to the Karaganda camp, from where she returned only in 1955.

After the arrest of his parents, Bulat lived with his grandmother in Moscow. In 1940 he moved to live with relatives in Tbilisi.

Since 1941, since the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he worked as a turner at a defense plant.

In 1942, after finishing the ninth grade, he volunteered for the front. He served on the North Caucasian front as a mortar operator, then as a radio operator. He was wounded near Mozdok.

Being a regimental leader, in 1943 at the front he composed his first song "We couldn't sleep in cold cars ...", the text of which has not been preserved.

In 1945, Okudzhava was demobilized and returned to Tbilisi, where he passed the secondary school exams as an external student.

In 1950 he graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Tbilisi State University, worked as a teacher - first in a rural school in the village of Shamordino, Kaluga Region and in the district center of Vysokinichi, then in Kaluga. He worked as a correspondent and literary employee of the Kaluga regional newspapers "Znamya" and "Young Leninist".

In 1946, Okudzhava wrote the first surviving song, Furious and Stubborn.

In 1956, after the release of the first collection of poems "Lyrika" in Kaluga, Bulat Okudzhava returned to Moscow, worked as deputy editor for the literature department in the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, editor in the Young Guard publishing house, then head of the poetry department in the Literary Newspaper ". He took part in the work of the "Magistral" literary association.

In 1959, the second poetic collection of the poet "Islands" was published in Moscow.

In 1962, having become a member of the Union of Writers of the USSR, Okudzhava left the service and devoted himself entirely to creative activity.

In 1996, Okudzhava's last poetry collection, Tea Party on the Arbat, was published.

Since the 1960s, Okudzhava has worked extensively in the prose genre. In 1961, his autobiographical story "Be Healthy, Schoolboy" was published in the anthology Tarusa Pages (published as a separate edition in 1987), dedicated to yesterday's schoolchildren who had to defend the country from fascism. The story received a negative assessment of official criticism, which accused Okudzhava of pacifism.

In 1965, Vladimir Motyl managed to film this story, giving the film the name - "Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha". In subsequent years, Okudzhava wrote autobiographical prose, which compiled the collections of stories "The Girl of My Dreams" and "Visiting Musician", as well as the novel "Abolished theater" (1993).

In the late 1960s, Okudzhava turned to historical prose. The stories "Poor Avrosimov" (1969) about the tragic pages in the history of the Decembrist movement, "The Adventures of Shipov, or Ancient Vaudeville" (1971) and the novels "Journey of Amateurs" written on the basis of historical material of the early 19th century (1976 - the first part; 1978) were published as separate editions. - the second part) and "Date with Bonaparte" (1983).

Poetic and prose works of Okudzhava have been translated into many languages and published in many countries of the world.

From the second half of the 1950s, Bulat Okudzhava began to act as an author of poetry and music for songs and their performer, becoming one of the universally recognized founders of the author's song. He is the author of over 200 songs.

The earliest known songs of Okudzhava date back to 1957-1967 ("On Tverskoy Boulevard", "Song about Lyonka Korolyov", "Song about the blue ball", "Sentimental march", "Song about the midnight trolleybus", "Not tramps, not drunkards", "Moscow ant", "Song about the Komsomol goddess", etc.). Tape recordings of his speeches instantly spread throughout the country. Okudzhava's songs were heard on radio, television, in films and performances.

Okudzhava's concerts were held in Bulgaria, Austria, Great Britain, Hungary, Australia, Israel, Spain, Italy, Canada, France, Germany, Poland, USA, Finland, Sweden, Yugoslavia and Japan.

In 1968, the first disc with Okudzhava's songs was released in Paris. Since the mid-1970s, his CDs have also been released in the USSR. 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.

Andrei Smirnov's film "Belarusian Station" (1970) brought national fame to the performer, in which a song was performed to the words of the poet "Birds do not sing here ...".

Okudzhava is also the author of other popular songs for such films as "Straw Hat" (1975), "Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha" (1967), "White Sun of the Desert" (1970), "Star of Captivating Happiness" (1975). in total, Okudzhava's songs and his poems are heard in more than 80 films.

In 1994, Okudzhava wrote his last song - "Departure".

In the second half of the 1960s, Bulat Okudzhava acted as a co-author of the script for the films Loyalty (1965) and Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha (1967).

In 1966 he wrote the play "A Sip of Freedom", which a year later was staged in several theaters at once.

In the last years of his life, Bulat Okudzhava was a member of the founding board of the Moskovskiye Novosti newspaper, Obshchaya Gazeta, a member of the editorial board of the Evening Club newspaper, a member of the Council of the Memorial Society, vice president of the Russian PEN Center, a member of the pardon commission under the President of the Russian Federation ( since 1992), a member of the Commission on State Prizes of the Russian Federation (since 1994).

On June 12, 1997, Bulat Okudzhava died in a clinic in Paris. According to the will, he was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery in Moscow.

Okudzhava was married twice.

From his first marriage to Galina Smolyaninova, the poet had a son, Igor Okudzhava (1954-1997).

In 1961, he met his second wife, the niece of the famous physicist Lev Artsimovich, Olga Artsimovich. The son from his second marriage Anton Okudzhava (born in 1965) is a composer, father's accompanist at creative evenings of recent years.

In 1997, in memory of the poet, by decree of the President of the Russian Federation, the regulation on the Bulat Okudzhava Prize was approved, awarded for the creation of works in the genre of author's song and poetry that contribute to Russian culture.

In October 1999, the State Memorial Museum of Bulat Okudzhava was opened in Peredelkino.

In May 2002, the first and most famous monument to Bulat Okudzhava was opened in Moscow near house 43 on the Arbat.
The Bulat Okudzhava Foundation annually holds an evening "Visiting Musician" in the Concert Hall named after P.I. Tchaikovsky in Moscow. Festivals named after Bulat Okudzhava are held in Kolontaevo (Moscow region), on Lake Baikal, in Poland and in Israel.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources

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

Biography of Bulat Okudzhava (9.05.1924-12.06.1997)

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

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

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

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

Creativity of Bulat Okudzhava

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

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

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