A message about the work of Vysotsky. Vladimir Vysotsky. Brief biography of Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky, personal life and creativity. The beginning of an artistic career
Vysotsky’s biography and his work still excite people’s hearts, although the cult actor and singer-songwriter passed away long ago. How did his star journey begin and why did it end so early?
Biography of Vysotsky. Summary. Childhood and youth
Vladimir Vysotsky was born in Moscow in 1938. During World War II, little Volodya’s father rose to the rank of colonel at the military communications headquarters. The boy looked like his father not only in appearance, but even in his voice. Mother - Nina Maksimovna - was a translator-referent by profession. Unfortunately, two years after the war, the parents of the future actor divorced.
After the war, Vladimir and his mother continued to live in a Moscow communal apartment; there was a catastrophic lack of money. When his father offered to go with his new wife, Evgenia, to Germany to his place of service, his mother let Volodya go. It was in Germany that Vladimir Vysotsky, whose brief biography is in one way or another connected with music, began to become familiar with the art of playing the piano.
Evgenia Stepanovna Vysotskaya managed to become more than just a stepmother to the boy. She took care of him and was close to the poet and actor until the end of his days. As a sign of his special respect for his second mother, Vladimir Vysotsky was baptized in Armenian Church(Evgeniya was Armenian).
Civil Engineering Institute
Vysotsky’s biography is a clear confirmation that the actor was restless since childhood. He was acutely aware of injustice, so he often got into fights. He was tenderly attached to his family and friends. Vysotsky loved to read domestic and world literature. At the age of 15, he even attended a drama club led by actor V. Bogomolov. But it was necessary to decide on a future profession, and strict father I didn’t want to hear anything about the theater institute. This is how Vladimir Vysotsky ended up at the age of 17 at the Moscow Institute of Civil Engineering. Kuibyshev to the Faculty of Mechanics.
For six months Vladimir tried to cope with the institute program. The first session was approaching, it was urgent to complete the drawings, without which there could be no talk of admission to the exams. Having suffered with his friend until midnight, Vysotsky deliberately ruined his drawing and declared that “this is not his business.” Knowing that he had another six months to prepare for admission to a theater university, Vysotsky began selecting the repertoire.
Beginning of acting
The Moscow Art Theater School-Studio is where Vysotsky entered in 1956. His biography as an artist was just beginning. One of the teachers of the future actor was Pavel Massalsky, a famous Soviet actor.
Vladimir’s first theatrical role was the role of Porfiry Petrovich, a character from the student play “Crime and Punishment.” At the age of 21, shortly before graduating from studio school, Vysotsky received his first film role. He was involved in an episode of the film “Peers” by Vasily Ordynsky.
Then Vladimir entered the service of the Moscow Drama Theater named after A. S. Pushkin. But in 4 years of work there he did not receive a single leading role. Being content with little is not what Vysotsky was striving for, the actor’s biography - bright that confirmation. Therefore, he leaves the Pushkin Theater and goes to serve at the Taganka Theater. He was 26 years old. And three years later, Vysotsky played the main role in Stanislav Govorukhin’s film “Vertical”, and everyone started talking about him. Soviet Union not only as an actor, but also as a singer-songwriter.
Vysotsky: short biography and creativity. Vysotsky - poet
It was after the release of “Vertical” that Vysotsky’s talent as a bard became widely known. Five songs of his authorship were performed in the film (the famous “Song about a Friend”, “Top”), and then were released as a separate album.
Vysotsky, whose brief biography cannot do without mention of his poetic gift, wrote poems since school. But in the 60s, Vladimir began to try to set his poems to music, and this is how his first songs began to appear.
At first, the so-called “thieves” theme was close to him. This is quite strange, because as a person from a good family, Vladimir Vysotsky had no contact with representatives of the criminal world.
Ultimately, the actor left behind 200 poems and 600 songs. He even wrote a poem for children. Since the texts still played a dominant role in his songs, we can assume that about 800 poetic works came from Vysotsky’s pen.
Vysotsky's musical talent
Vladimir did not immediately pick up the guitar. He knew how to play the piano, accordion, and then began to tap rhythms on the body of the guitar and sing his own poems or others’ poems to them. This is how Vysotsky’s first songs appeared. After his triumph in Vershina, the biography of the author-performer began to be replenished with new film projects, for which he wrote soundtracks.
Although Vysotsky was immediately classified as a bard, connoisseurs of musical art can confirm that his manner of performance cannot entirely be considered bardish. Vladimir Vysotsky himself was categorically against such a classification of his work. From his numerous interviews it is clear that he “does not want to have anything to do with them.”
The topics that the singer-songwriter touched on in his songwriting are replete with variety: politics, and love lyrics; songs about friendship (“If a friend suddenly appeared”), about human relationships; about courage and perseverance (“Top”). And even comic first-person stories about inanimate objects(“Microphone Song”) are found in his repertoire.
Film career
Vysotsky, whose biography and work are widely known not only within former USSR, but also abroad, he did not play many leading roles in films. In fact, until the age of 30, he played in episodes or supporting characters.
For the first time in the film “Vertical”, Vladimir got one of the main roles. This was followed by the melodrama “Brief Encounters,” where, in tandem with Nina Ruslanova and Kira Muratova, Vysotsky becomes the central hero of a love triangle.
Then there were other notable characters: Brodsky from the tragicomedy “Intervention”, Ivan Ryaboy from “The Master of the Taiga”, Georges Bengalsky from “Dangerous Tours”, Ibrahim Hannibal from “The Tale of How Tsar Peter Married the Arab”. But the most colorful and striking role was to be played much later - in 1979.
"Meeting place can not be Changed"
The crowning achievement of Vysotsky’s acting career can rightfully be considered the legendary Gleb Zheglov from the TV series “The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed.” Not only the character, but the film itself as a whole has become a cult favorite. The texts voiced by the actors turned into aphorisms. And the image of Zheglov, if you are careful, is still visible in many heroes of modern films about criminal investigation.
It is noteworthy that after the publication of the novel by the Weiner brothers (on which the film was based), Vysotsky personally came to visit them and confronted them with the fact that if a movie was made, he would play the role of Zheglov.
However, when the chaos swirled around the Weiners’ new novel, and Stanislav Govorukhin had already approved Vysotsky for the role, according to the director’s recollections, Vladimir came to him and asked him to find someone else: the actor admitted that he could not waste time, since he “didn’t have much time left.” Vysotsky's creative biography was nearing its end. Vladimir understood this and wanted to leave behind more songs and poems. But Govorukhin persuaded him, and filming began.
Thus, Soviet cinema acquired a new colorful hero - the principled and decisive Gleb Zheglov.
Vysotsky's directorial experience
Vysotsky's biography includes cases when the actor acted as a screenwriter ("Signs of the Zodiac", "Vienna Holidays"), but he did not make a single film as a director. Although there was a case in his life when he managed to prove himself in the director’s role - during the filming of the film “The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed.”
Vladimir has a direct bearing on the fact that Stanislav Sadalsky’s character “Brick” appeared in the film. There was no lisping pickpocket in the Weiner brothers' novel. This image was created during filming after a corresponding proposal from Vladimir.
For reasons beyond his control, the director of the film, Stanislav Govorukhin, had to leave the set. At such moments, he left Vysotsky to lead the process. In particular, the scene of the interrogation of the suspect Gruzdev was completely staged by the actor.
First marriage
Vysotsky's biography - bright and rich - of course, could not do without women. The actor married early for the first time - at the age of 22 - to Iza Zhukova, with whom he studied at the Moscow Art Theater. She was a little older than him - a third year student. Moreover, Iza already had one marriage behind her.
Vladimir met a girl while participating in a joint student play. In fact, since 1957 they lived together. The wedding took place when both received diplomas.
But as in any early marriage, the spouses did not calculate their strength, or rather, Vladimir did not calculate. He was young, he was still drawn to noisy companies with gatherings until the morning and drinking. Iza, on the contrary, was counting on home comfort and a quiet family life. Thus began a series of endless quarrels.
They didn't live together for even four years. The divorce was not finalized immediately. Since Isolde bore the surname Vysotskaya, she recorded her illegitimate son, who appeared after their separation from the actor, under the surname of Vladimir.
Second marriage
Vysotsky’s student marriage did not end with him family biography. Vysotsky is remembered with a certain amount of bitterness by his second wife, Lyudmila Abramova, who, by the way, gave him two sons.
Vladimir met Lyudmila in St. Petersburg during the filming of “The 713th Requests Landing” in 1961. Vysotsky was still officially married to Isolda Zhukova, and Abramova in 1962 already gave birth to his first son, Arkady. Two years later Nikita was born. The whole family lived in the same apartment with Vladimir’s mother, Nina Maksimovna.
But this marriage did not last more than five years. In 1970, the divorce was officially filed, and Vysotsky had a new lover.
Third marriage with Marina Vladi
One day, the famous French actress Marina Vladi saw Vysotsky playing on the stage of the Taganka Theater in one of the performances. The biography and personal life of these people changed dramatically after meeting in 1967.
The novel between Marina Vladi and Vysotsky is one of the most discussed and famous. Marina Vladi, a world celebrity, was amazed by the self-confidence with which Vladimir sought her. In 1970, the defense collapsed, and Vladi became the actor’s wife. But family life in the full sense of the word did not work out for them. The main difficulty is “ iron curtain”, who did not allow the spouses to see each other when they wanted.
Marina Vladi did a lot for the career of her beloved man. She sought to have his poems published abroad, even organizing a musical tour for Vysotsky in America and Europe. But even then Vladimir suffered from alcohol addiction, a little later - from drugs. Therefore, Marina had to face not only positive features her husband’s character, but also with very difficult trials.
Death
It is noteworthy that immediately before his death, Vysotsky was going to break up with Marina, who had endured inconvenience for 12 years for his sake, sacrificed her career, etc. When the actor was 40 years old, he became interested in eighteen-year-old Oksana Afanasyeva. Marina Vladi was in France and still considered herself his wife, while Vladimir had already bought wedding rings and made an agreement with the priest who was supposed to marry him and Oksana. But this did not happen - on July 25, 1980, he died of a myocardial infarction.
Since the 60s, Vysotsky suffered from alcoholism. The biography and photos of the popular actor and performer became more and more in demand, and his “inner restlessness” grew at the same time. Vysotsky was very emotional person, he had a lot of fears, partly he suffered from lack of fulfillment, and alcohol was a way to drown out everything that he didn’t want to show to other people.
Repeatedly, the actor’s kidneys failed and he developed serious problems with his heart, he once suffered clinical death. Doctors saved Vladimir with the help of morphine and amphetamine. Vysotsky himself understood that he needed to stop drinking alcohol. But, unable to find the strength to give up ethanol-containing drinks, he found a replacement for them - drugs. It is reliably known that by the age of 39, Vysotsky began to inject himself regularly.
Numerous trips to hospitals did not help. Doctors noted that Vladimir had a psychological need for stimulants, so the treatment was not productive.
An autopsy was not performed after the death of Vladimir Vysotsky. Doctor Anatoly Fedotov, who was next to the actor at the time of his death, suggested that a myocardial infarction killed him.
So many people gathered for Vysotsky’s funeral that Marina Vladi involuntarily compared the procession to a “royal” one. Despite his addictions, Vladimir Vysotsky managed to win people's love.
The main secret of the charm of Vysotsky as a person, as well as his creativity, is the complete sincerity of the author. According to a survey conducted All-Russian Center studying public opinion in 2010, modern Russians consider Vysotsky a person who stands on the pedestal of idols right after Yuri Gagarin. And this name can no longer be erased from the history of Russian culture.
Vladimir Vysotsky, whose biography will be presented in this article, is a Russian poet, performer and songwriter, actor. He was born in 1938, on January 25, in a maternity hospital in Moscow, located at Shchepkina, 61/2.
Vysotsky's parents
The parents of the future poet are Semyon Vladimirovich Vysotsky and Nina Maksimovna Seregina. They lived together for about five years. Vladimir's father met another woman at the front and therefore left the family. Nina Maksimovna remarried after some time.
Young Vladimir's relationship with his stepfather did not work out from the very beginning. This man had no authority in the boy's eyes. Apparently, this was one of the reasons that Vysotsky asked his own father to take him to Germany with him, where, as an officer Soviet army, Semyon Vladimirovich was sent to serve in January 1947.
Life in my youth
Vladimir Vysotsky, whose biography interests us, until October 1949 lived with his father and his second wife, Evgenia Stepanovna Likholatova, in the city of Eberswalde, in a military garrison. Then the family was returned to their homeland. The father went to serve in Kyiv, and his wife and Vladimir settled in Moscow, in Bolshoy Karetny Lane, in house No. 15. Evgenia Stepanovna lived here with her first husband, who died before the war.
Vysotsky was excused from physical education classes in the seventh grade due to ill health. Doctors discovered a murmur in his heart. They advised Volodya's parents to make sure that the boy behaved moderately - he jumped and ran less.
Company from Bolshoi Karetny
Vova, starting from the seventh grade, began to skip classes often. Sometimes he would be absent for up to a month a year. He visited the Hermitage, a garden theater where they performed famous artists, as well as cinemas located nearby: “Moscow”, “Screen of Life”, Metropol”, “Central”, etc. A noisy company after visiting these places usually gathered at the apartment of Levon Kocharyan, who lived in the same building where Vysotsky lived, with several floors above. Here friends played cards, listened to music, drank. According to the recollections of Marina Vladi (the wife of Vladimir Semenovich, about whom we will talk later), Vysotsky first tasted wine at the age of 13 in this company from Bolshoi Karetny.
Faculty of Mechanics
Vladimir Vysotsky (the biography compiled by us only briefly describes the main events of his life and work) in 1955 entered the mechanical faculty of the Civil Engineering Institute. But he didn’t study there for long - he dropped out of school after three months, firmly deciding to enter drama school.
Study at the Moscow Art Theater
In the summer of 1956, Vladimir Vysotsky applied to the Moscow Art Theater and entered there the first time, to the surprise of his loved ones. Visits to the drama club, led by V.N., helped. Bogomolov. During his studies, Vladimir Semenovich met a girl who became his first wife. Her name was Iza Zhukova. She was in her third year and was a year older than Vladimir. The acquaintance occurred at the moment when Vysotsky was invited to participate in the play “Hotel Astoria” - course work third-year students. He played the wordless role of a soldier in it.
Iza Zhukova becomes Vysotsky's first wife
Vladimir Vysotsky will create songs for theater and cinema a little later. At this time, he was captivated by work in the theater and attended all rehearsals. Quite quickly, in a word, he became a friend among the third-year students, which was not too difficult given his sociable character. At the same time, I became closely acquainted with Iza Zhukova. He began dating this girl, and in 1957, in the fall, he persuaded her to finally move from the hostel on Pervaya Meshchanskaya to live with him. The girl only had a small suitcase, so this move did not cause much trouble for the young couple.
The wedding took place only in May of the following year (1958), when Iza Zhukova completed her studies and received a diploma. At the insistence of Vysotsky’s parents, she was celebrated at Bolshoi Karetny.
Iza was by that time an independent girl, so family life was not burdensome for her. The same could not be said about the 20-year-old artist. Even after becoming a family man, Vladimir Vysotsky did not change his old habits and continued to visit men’s companies, in which he was much more interested than at home. The young people soon began to have serious quarrels on this basis.
Film debut
Vladimir Vysotsky made his film debut in 1959. In the film "Peers" by Vasily Ordynsky, he played a cameo role as a student at a theater institute. Appearing in the frame only for a few seconds, Vladimir uttered only one phrase: “Chest and trough.”
First performance on stage
Vladimir Semenovich appeared on stage for the first time that same year. He mastered playing the guitar immediately after graduating from school and by that time managed to create several songs of his own composition. He performed them on the stage of the MSU student club and was a success with the public. True, Vladimir Semenovich was not able to sing all the songs then, since P. Pospelov, a candidate member of the Politburo and one of his guards, demanded that the performance be stopped.
Vladimir Vysotsky (biography, whose photo is presented in our article) successfully graduated from the Studio School in June 1960 and was faced with the problem of choosing a place to work. Because of his youth, he wanted the thrill and novelty, so Vysotsky chose the Theater. Pushkin. At that time, Boris Ravenskikh, a new director, came to his management. He offered Vladimir only roles in the crowd, which is why he began to have breakdowns, and he began to disappear from the theater more and more often.
Songs, plays and films
Singer Vladimir Vysotsky, whose biography is presented in this article, based his work on the traditions of domestic urban romance. At the Taganka Theater since 1964, he participated in the performances “Pugachev”, “Hamlet”, “The Cherry Orchard” and others. Below is a photograph of Vladimir Semenovich while performing his role in the play “Pugachev”.
Vysotsky starred in the following films: “Vertical”, “Brief Encounters” and “The meeting place cannot be changed” (1967, 1968 and 1979, respectively), etc.
Hero of Vysotsky
He had an “avalanche” powerful temperament. The truly tragic hero of Vladimir Vysotsky is a lone rebel who is aware of doom, but does not allow even the thought of surrender, strong personality. In comic genres, Vladimir easily changed social masks, while achieving absolute recognition of his “sketches from life.” In dramatic roles and “serious” songs, a deep force came out, a longing for justice, tearing at the soul. Vladimir Vysotsky (biography, whose personal life in subsequent years is presented below) posthumously, in 1987, received the USSR State Prize.
Trip to Krasnodar region
In 1965, on November 4, the premiere of the play “Fallen and Living” took place at the Taganka Theater. In the same year, cinema offered him two roles: in the films “The Cook” and “Our House”. To participate in the first one in July-August I went to Krasnodar region Vladimir Vysotsky. The biography and personal life of this artist are described in our article, in which we tried to include the most significant episodes related to the life and work of Vladimir Vysotsky. These include this trip, which was necessary as an opportunity to get away from home problems at least for some time. Vladimir did not take the role itself seriously.
However, on this business trip, Vysotsky did not find the necessary peace. He started drinking again, and therefore Keosayan, the director of “The Cook,” was forced to kick him out of filming twice. However, this was not the first and not the last director to do this with Vysotsky. The same story happened at the beginning of 1965 with the actor and A. Tarkovsky.
Seeing how the whirlpool of booze was sucking Vladimir deeper and deeper, relatives and friends attracted Yu. Lyubimov to their side. This was a man whose authority for Vysotsky in those years was indisputable. He persuaded him to go to the hospital.
Marriage to Marina Vladi
On December 1, 1970, Vladimir Semenovich officially registered his marriage with Marina Vladi. Immediately after the ceremony, the newlyweds went on a trip (Odessa-Sukhumi-Tbilisi). Upon arrival in Moscow, a wedding took place on 2nd Frunzenskaya. In mid-January, before the echoes of the feast in honor of the wedding had died down, after a conflict with Lyubimov, Vysotsky started drinking again and went to the Sklifosovsky Institute for three days. Vladi, distraught with despair, packed her things and went to France.
"Hamlet"
Vladimir Vysotsky in 1970, on January 24, almost strangled his wife, tore off the door, and broke the windows. In 1971, on November 29, the premiere of “Hamlet” took place at the Taganka Theater. It was Lyubimov's production. Vysotsky performed the role of Hamlet. This role, without a doubt, became a star in the career of Vladimir Semenovich. The seventies began - a time later dubbed the “era of Vysotsky.” Hamlet formed the image of Vladimir Semenovich as a fighter against the era of timelessness, and served as an impetus for further reflection about his place in the world, the chosen path, the meaning of life.
Concert activities in 1972
Vladimir's creative activity continued to gain momentum in 1972. His concert routes stretch from Moscow to Tyumen. The halls at all performances were always packed to capacity. Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky was already a very popular artist at that time. His biography can be supplemented by the appearance of numerous songs. A whole series of them comes from his pen. They became extremely popular among the people. Vladimir Vysotsky wrote and performed the following songs at that time: “We Rotate the Earth”, “Rope Walker”, “In the Reserve”, “Hymn to the Chess Crown”, “Mishka Shifman”, “Fasicky Horses” (these are only the most famous works among the people) .
Vysotsky again at the Sklifosofsky Institute
In 1977, on April 6, the premiere of “The Master and Margarita” took place at the Taganka Theater (production by Beloved). Vysotsky Vladimir Semenovich, whose biography was already marked at that time by successful work in the theater, was supposed to play the role of Ivan Bezdomny in it. However, he did not bring it to the premiere. At the beginning of April, he was again admitted to the Sklifosofsky Institute, as his body functions had shut down. One kidney did not work at all, the second barely functioned. The liver was severely damaged. Vysotsky was constantly tormented by hallucinations, he had partial swelling of the brain, and he was delirious. When Marina Vladi entered the room, Vladimir Vysotsky simply did not recognize her. The (short) biography of this man’s life is already approaching the end.
Clinical death of Vladimir Semenovich
In 1979, on July 25, exactly a year before his death, Vysotsky experienced clinical death. He went on tour throughout Central Asia at the end of July. Clinical death occurred due to the fault of the artist himself. When Vladimir ran out of drugs, he injected him with medicine used for dental treatment. Vysotsky immediately felt ill. It was only by a miracle that he was saved.
The accident that Vladimir Vysotsky survived
The biography and creativity (briefly) of the last year of his life are marked by the following events. In 1980, on January 1, Vladimir Semenovich had an accident (crashed into a trolleybus) due to the fact that the artist ran out of drugs. Vladimir Vysotsky himself (the brief biography does not describe all the details of this story) was almost unhurt, but his fellow traveler was less fortunate: Yanklovich had a concussion, and Abdulov had a broken arm. Fortunately, the accident occurred opposite the hospital, so the victims were immediately taken there.
An attempt at a cure
In 1980, on January 25, Vysotsky decided on his birthday to try to recover again. Only three guests were in his apartment that day: Shekhtman, Yanklovich and Oksana Afanasyeva. Fedotov (Vysotsky’s doctor) says that they locked themselves with him for a week in an apartment located on Malaya Gruzinskaya. The doctor put Vladimir on a drip, which relieved the withdrawal symptoms. However, psychological and physiological dependence develops from drugs and alcohol. They were able to remove the physiological one, but the psychological one was more difficult...
Death of Vysotsky
In the same year, on July 25, Vladimir’s heart stopped between 3 and 4.30 am “due to a heart attack.” Doctor A. Fedotov gave Vysotsky an injection of sleeping pills at about two o’clock in the morning, and he finally fell asleep, sitting on an ottoman in a large room. Fedotov came home from his shift exhausted and tired. So he lay down for a while and fell asleep at about three o'clock. The doctor woke up from an ominous silence. He rushed to Vysotsky, but it was too late. Cardiac arrest occurred between three o'clock and half past five. It was an acute myocardial infarction, judging by the clinic. This is how Vladimir Vysotsky died. His biography ends here, but his memory continues to live in the hearts of many.
Nationwide love
They still argue about who Vysotsky was more - a poet or an actor. Some argue that his poems and songs are very ordinary, and only the brilliant performance of them by Vladimir Semenovich makes them real works of art. Others believe that none of his roles on screen or stage can compare in terms of talent and originality with the songs that Vladimir Vysotsky created.
His biography and work arouse constant interest. This discussion is legitimate, which will probably never end as long as they remember, watch and listen to Vladimir Semenovich. One side of his creativity is inextricably linked with the other. This must be remembered when we talk about a person like Vladimir Vysotsky. His songs are most often monologues on behalf of various characters: military, ordinary people, fairy-tale heroes, punks... B last years he wrote mainly on his own behalf. The acting, acting, and deeply personal essences of Vladimir Semenovich are mixed in his work. The same mixture can be found in his best roles: on stage - Hamlet and Galileo, on the screen - a White Guard officer ("Two Comrades Served"), a geologist ("Brief Encounters"), a radio operator ("Vertical"), Gleb Zheglov (" Meeting place can not be Changed").
Memory of Vladimir Semenovich
Vysotsky’s songs are relevant and popular today. His style and manner of performance gave birth to a new genre in our country, called “Russian chanson”. Even among greatest personalities Russian art is not lost, Vladimir Vysotsky is not lost. This suggests that his work and life were not in vain. A photo of the monument located in Poland is presented below.
Since 1994, a permanent exhibition has been held on Gogolevsky Boulevard (Moscow), which presents amateur and professional photographs from the life of Vladimir Semenovich.
The annual “Own Track” award named after him was established in 1997. In 1999, Taganka actors staged a play called “VVS” (stands for Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky). In 2013, a film about him was released - “Thank you for being alive.” In Yekaterinburg there is a skyscraper named after Vysotsky (photo below).
So, we introduced you to such an interesting artist as Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky. short biography was described by us as succinctly as possible. However, facts about the life and work of this person can be supplemented. Today, quite a lot is known about such a great artist as Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky. A short biography, memoirs and entire books about him were created by many of his contemporaries. For example, Anatoly Utevsky, a friend of Vysotsky, to whom he dedicated a song called “On Bolshoi Karetny,” created a book about him (“And again on Bolshoi Karetny”). It describes the biography of Vladimir Vysotsky. Summary We used it (among other sources) when compiling this article.
In Moscow, in the family of a military man.
In the first years of the war, his mother served in the transcription bureau at the Main Directorate of Geodesy and Cartography of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, then worked as a translator and assistant for the German language in the foreign department of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, and as a guide at Intourist. Father is a military signalman, colonel, veteran of the Great Patriotic War, holder of more than 20 orders and medals.
After his parents' divorce, in 1947 Vladimir moved to live in new family father and until 1949 lived at his place of service in the city of Eberswalde (Germany).
Returning to Moscow, the family settled in Bolshoy Karetny Lane, where Vladimir entered the fifth grade of school No. 186.
Since 1953, Vysotsky attended the drama club in the Teacher's House, which was led by the Moscow Art Theater artist Vladimir Bogomolov.
In 1955, at the insistence of his relatives, he entered the mechanical faculty of the Moscow Institute of Civil Engineering, which he left after the first semester.
In 1960 he graduated from the Moscow Art Theater School, course of Pavel Massalsky.
His first theater work became the role of Porfiry Petrovich in the educational play “Crime and Punishment” (1959).
In 1960-1962, Vysotsky worked at the Moscow Theater named after A.S. Pushkin, where he played the role of Leshy in the play “The Scarlet Flower” based on Aksakov’s fairy tale, as well as about 10 other roles, mostly episodic.
In 1962-1964 he was an actor at the Moscow Theater of Miniatures.
In 1964-1980, Vladimir Vysotsky worked in the troupe of the Moscow Taganka Drama and Comedy Theater under the direction of Yuri Lyubimov. Played leading roles in the plays "The Life of Galileo" and "Hamlet", participated in the performances " a kind person from Szechwan", "Anti-Worlds", "Fallen and Living", "Listen! ", "Pugachev", "The Cherry Orchard", "Crime and Punishment", etc.
He made his film debut in 1959 in the cameo role of student Petya in the film “Peers” directed by Vasily Ordynsky. At the beginning of his film career, Vysotsky was busy mainly in episodes and supporting roles. He starred in such films as “The Career of Dima Gorin” (1961), “The 713th Requests Landing” (1962), “The Sinner” (1962), “Our House” (1965), “The Cook” (1965), “Sasha -Sasha" (1966), "Vertical" (1966), "Intervention" (1968). He played leading roles in the films “Brief Encounters” (Maxim, 1967), “Two Comrades Served” (Brusentsov, 1968), “Master of the Taiga” (Ryaboy, 1968), “Bad good man"(von Koren, 1973), "The Tale of How Tsar Peter Married the Arab" (Arap, 1976), "Little Tragedies" (Don Guan, 1979), "The meeting place cannot be changed" (Zheglov, 1979).
Vysotsky wrote his first poem, “My Oath,” dedicated to the memory of Joseph Stalin, as an 8th grade student in March 1953. In the early 1960s, Vysotsky's first songs appeared. One of the first songs was “49 days” (1960) about the feat of four Soviet soldiers, drifted and survived in Pacific Ocean, and “Tattoo” (1961), which marked the beginning of a cycle of “thieves” themes.
He first performed his first songs in a narrow circle, and from 1965 he sang from the stage.
Poetic and song creativity, along with work in theater and cinema, became the main work of his life. Vysotsky's songs were performed in 32 feature films.
In 1968, Vladimir Vysotsky's first flexible disc with songs from the film "Vertical" was released, in 1973-1976 - four original minions, and in 1977, three more original discs were released in France.
On February 13, 1978, by order of the Minister of Culture of the USSR, according to the entry in the artist’s certification certificate, Vladimir Vysotsky was awarded the highest category of pop vocalist-soloist, which was official recognition Vysotsky as a “professional singer”.
Vysotsky's many years of concert work constantly faced external difficulties; the widest popularity of his texts was accompanied by an unspoken ban on their publication. For the first time and in last time During his lifetime in the USSR, Vysotsky's poem ("From a Travel Diary") was published in 1975 in the Soviet literary and artistic collection "Poetry Day".
In total, Vladimir Vysotsky wrote about 600 songs and poems.
In the second half of the 1970s, he often visited abroad, giving concerts in France, the USA, Canada and other countries. Vysotsky gave more than one thousand concerts in the USSR and abroad.
The artist’s last performance took place on July 16, 1980 in Kaliningrad (now Korolev) near Moscow. On July 18, 1980, Vysotsky made his last appearance in his most famous role at the Taganka Theater - the role of Hamlet.
On July 25, 1980, Vladimir Vysotsky died in Moscow. There was no official report of death - the Moscow Olympics were taking place at that time. On the day of the funeral, about 40 thousand people came to say goodbye to their beloved artist. He was buried on Vagankovskoe cemetery in Moscow.
In 1981, Vysotsky’s first collection of poems, “Nerve,” was published, and in 1988, the collection “I, of course, will return...”
In 1986, Vladimir Vysotsky was posthumously awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR; in 1987, the USSR State Prize was awarded (posthumously, for participation in the television series “The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed” and the author’s performance of songs).
A monument by sculptor Alexander Rukavishnikov, unveiled on October 12, 1985, was erected at Vysotsky’s grave at the Vagankovskoye cemetery.
At the Petrovsky Gate in Moscow on July 25, 1995, on the 15th anniversary of the poet’s death, a monument to Vysotsky, sculpture by Gennady Raspopov, was erected.
The actor and singer were opened in various cities of Russia and abroad.
A monument to Vladimir Vysotsky by sculptor Alexander Apollonov was unveiled in Crimea in Simferopol.
In 1992, the State Cultural Center-Museum of V.S. Vysotsky "Vysotsky's House on Taganka".
In 1997 Charitable Foundation Vladimir Vysotsky, the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Committee for Culture of the City of Moscow established the annual Vysotsky Prize “Own Track”. The prize is awarded to people whose life and work are consonant with the themes of Vysotsky’s poetry.
The Taganka Actors' Community staged the play "Air Force" (Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky).
A huge amount has been filmed about the life and work of the actor and poet. documentaries and television programs.
On December 1, 2011, the film “Vysotsky. Thank you for being alive,” directed by Pyotr Buslov and written by Vysotsky’s son Nikita, was released.
Vladimir Vysotsky was married three times. The first wife is actress Iza Zhukova, the second is actress Lyudmila Abramova. This marriage produced two sons: Arkady (born in 1962), who became a screenwriter, and Nikita (born in 1964), who, like his parents, became a theater and film artist. Since 1996, Nikita Vysotsky has been the director of his father’s State Museum.
The third wife of Vladimir Vysotsky is a French actress of Russian origin Marina Vladi.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
Name: Vladimir Vysotsky
Age: 42 years
Place of Birth: Moscow
A place of death: Moscow
Activity: Actor, poet, singer
Marital status: married to Marina Vladi
Vladimir Vysotsky - biography
Vladimir Vysotsky in his biography was not like anyone else, and yet in any company, in front of any audience, he was always one of them. As Yuri Lyubimov said: “Volodya had an amazing gift, he knew how to love a person. That’s why people were so drawn to him.”
Marina Vladi wanted to place a fallen meteorite on his grave. Vysotsky lived a bright, but short life, having burned in the too dense atmosphere of the Soviet state. He paid a high price to remain himself - a real man.
In our country, he was Che Guevara, James Dean and John Lennon rolled into one. A freedom fighter, a singer who packed stadiums, an alcoholic and drug addict, a talented actor, a great poet. Vysotsky was never anti-Soviet, but even the mention of his name caused an allergic reaction among party officials. Vysotsky was not allowed to act in films, criminal cases were opened, and he was the first to be removed from the lists of those nominated for state awards and titles. The poet, who today is put on a par with Pasternak, Akhmatova and Brodsky, did not even dream of seeing his poems published.
Vysotsky's main crime is that he was not like everyone else. Too free and strong. He remained the only Soviet actor who played heroes who in our time would be called “macho.” Not collective farmers, proletarians or intelligent spies, but people with animal magnetism and calm, restrained strength.
Vladimir Vysotsky belonged to a generation that always believed that they were “too late to be born.” It seemed that after the end of the Great Patriotic War there was no longer room for heroism in the world. Perhaps this is where Vysotsky’s sometimes slightly ostentatious masculinity has its roots. The poet spent his whole life proving that even if he was born too late, he is worthy of those who were in the war.
Vladimir Vysotsky - childhood, family
However, Vysotsky just found the war. He was born on January 25, 1938 at 9:40 am in the maternity hospital on Third Meshchanskaya (now Shchepkina Street). He spent the first years of his life in the same area of Moscow, on First Meshchanskaya, in the building of the former Natalis Hotel, divided into communal apartments.
Even as a child, Vysotsky was diagnosed with a “heart murmur”, so he was later declared unfit for military service. But many of Vysotsky’s relatives were in one way or another connected with the army - it is no coincidence that he has so many songs about the war, about soldiers and pilots. For example, the brothers of Vysotsky’s mother, Sergei and Vladimir, were military men.
Test pilot Sergei Seregin in pre-war years commanded the squadron. But in 1939 he was arrested, accused of being more concerned about the lives of the crew members than about the safety of the plane during an emergency landing. And his brother Vladimir was a military signalman. It was he who introduced his sister Nina to his colleague, Semyon Vysotsky.
Vladimir Vysotsky's parents did not live together for long. In 1941, Semyon Vysotsky went to the front. This was one of little Volodya’s first memories. He so wanted to go to war with his father that they did not dissuade him and allowed him to board the carriage with Semyon Vladimirovich. But before departure, Volodya was invited to take a walk on the platform, and the train left without him. The boy was so upset that he had to be carried.
Semyon Vladimirovich never returned to the house on Pervaya Meshchanskaya. During the war, he met Evgenia Stepanovna Likhalatova, who worked in the Main Directorate of Highways of the NKVD, and, having returned from the front, settled with her on Bolshoi Karetny.
But this was still a long way off. Nina Maksimovna and Volodya were on duty on the roofs, extinguishing incendiary bombs, hid in a bomb shelter. Then Vysotsky’s biography included two years of evacuation in a Ural village: the Chapaev distillery, where Nina Maksimovna worked, a log hut, forty-degree frosts. Volodya had to be sent to kindergarten for six days. Coming home one day, he said: “Happiness is when there are no lumps in the semolina porridge.”
In 1943 they returned to Moscow. And two years later Volodya went to school. He studied well, but was not an excellent student - he misbehaved a lot, imitated his classmates and teachers, and wrote some poems and fables in class. Vysotsky was considered a talented lazy person - there are usually such people in every class. Somehow in primary school the teacher kicked him out of class. Volodya, having collected his things, went to a parallel class: “Now I will learn from you.”
In 1946, Vysotsky’s parents officially divorced. Nina Maksimovna got married again, but Volodya’s relationship with his stepfather, to put it mildly, did not work out. Therefore, when Semyon Vladimirovich received an appointment to the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, it was decided that Vladimir would go with his father and his new wife.
The biography of Vysotsky’s childhood can hardly be called unhappy. It was just somehow unsettled: mother and stepfather, father and stepmother, constant moving - any child would get confused about where his real family was. Although life in Germany must have seemed like a fairy tale to anyone his age: a separate three-room apartment, made especially for Volodya military uniform, a bicycle given by my father. True, he didn’t ride this bike for long - he gave it to a German boy who lived next door. Volodya explained to Semyon Vladimirovich: “I have you, but his father died at the front.”
There are many such stories from Vysotsky’s childhood. If we were talking about another person, they could be considered a figment of the imagination of his biographers - about great people it is supposed to write that they were smart, kind and brave even in childhood. But you can’t help but believe the story with the bicycle: even many years later, Vladimir, without hesitation, gave away his things as gifts. Just as one cannot help but believe that a couple of years later, at a dacha near Moscow, he persuaded his friends to untie a neighbor’s boat and let it float down the river. The boys took revenge on a family of doctors living in the village who refused to help a sick child.
By that time, Vysotsky was already living in Moscow again - in an apartment on Bolshoi Karetny, together with Semyon Vladimirovich and Evgenia Stepanovna. At first the yard company did not accept the stranger, who was nicknamed “American” because of his bright foreign jacket. Volodya had to bring friends from First Meshchanskaya and “explain who the American is here.”
There, on Bolshoy Karetny, glorified by Vysotsky, his code of conduct was formed. Without hesitation, get into a fight if someone tries to insult you. Protect the weak. Never betray your friends. Vysotsky’s company even had its own charter. For example, friends vowed to treat women not in a “comradely” manner, as prescribed at that time by the Komsomol Charter, but in a knightly manner.
Irene Vysotskaya, Vladimir’s cousin, recalls a biography of that time: “He is almost sixteen... a happy time of awakening feelings, first meetings. One of Volodya’s first romantic attachments was a young relative of our neighbor, the famous Transcarpathian artist Erdeli, an extremely beautiful girl. I can see it: she stands on one side of the fence separating our houses, he stands on the other. The conversations drag on past midnight. And even then, in these timid courtships, the chivalrous, respectful attitude towards a woman so characteristic of him throughout his life is manifested: be it his mother, his beloved, any close person or even a stranger...”
The courtyard code of honor of Bolshoy Karetny was somewhat similar to the strict rules by which the heroes of the street boys lived - criminals and political prisoners who returned from the camps. “Blatnoy” in a cap and a fixative was for many an example of a real man. Not because of robberies and murders, but because he constantly risked his life and did not lose his self-esteem.
Vladimir Vysotsky also could not stay away from this thieves’ romance. It is no coincidence that his first songs were parodies and imitations of heartbreaking criminal romances. Although even then they, as a rule, turned out much better than the originals.
Vladimir Vysotsky - studies
Igor Kokhanovsky, the author of the song “Indian Summer,” which has long been attributed to Vysotsky, taught Volodya the simplest guitar chords. Anatoly Utevsky introduced him to actor Sabinin, who in turn brought Vysotsky to Vladimir Bogomolov’s theater group. At that time, Vysotsky was finishing school and already knew for sure that he wanted to become an artist. But his father forbade him to enter the theater school. Semyon Vladimirovich believed that his son should first get a “normal profession.” Vysotsky and Kokhanovsky decided to go to civil engineering - MISS. But Vladimir categorically did not like drawing drawings and making calculations. Having suffered through the entire first semester, before the winter session he took the documents from the institute.
The following year, Vysotsky entered the Moscow Art Theater School. This turned out to be difficult - some members of the commission considered him “professionally unsuitable” due to his hoarse voice. In other respects, Vysotsky bore little resemblance to the bohemian boys and girls who studied at the theater. He was always different from the others, but this is precisely what attracted many girls - even senior students, who usually did not pay attention to newcomers. Iza Zhukova, then a third-year student, said that Vysotsky was already “especially bright.” At nineteen years old, he was a man for real, in a big way, in a big way. So it’s no coincidence that many of the girls in our year, as they say, had their eyes on him. I was among them."
Vladimir Vysotsky - personal life
Vladimir met Iza at a party. She was then courted by a young teacher, but Vysotsky was not embarrassed by this. He simply took her hand and left the party with her. In the fall of 1957, they settled on First Meshchanskaya, where Vysotsky’s mother lived: he had almost no contact with his father after leaving MISS.
This marriage did not last long: four years later, Vladimir and Iza separated. Vysotsky never took his marriage or personal life seriously. When she and Zhukova came to submit an application to the registry office, they began to explain to them how to fill out the forms. Vladimir laughed: “You explain this to the bride. I don’t understand anything about this.”
In addition, Vysotsky, as he sang in one of the songs, “loved both women and leprosy too much.” While Zhukova was working in the Rostov theater, Vladimir, as he himself said, “fell in love with the most beautiful actress of the Soviet Union” - Lyudmila Abramova. “When I arrived in Leningrad for filming,” Lyudmila recalled, “they processed me, but they didn’t have time to give me my salary. And soon I spent the last of my money in the restaurant of the Evropeyskaya Hotel.
Late in the evening I went to the hotel, the guys saw me off. Each had three kopecks left to catch the tram to the other side of the Neva before the bridges opened. And I, literally without a single penny, walked up to the hotel and met Volodya. I didn’t know him by sight, I didn’t know that he was an actor. I saw a drunk man in front of me. And while I was thinking about how to get around him, he asked me for money. Volodya had an abrasion on his head, and despite the cold rainy Leningrad evening, he was wearing an unbuttoned shirt with torn buttons. I somehow immediately realized that this person needed help.”
Abramova gave Vysotsky an old ring so that he could leave it as collateral in the restaurant. Vladimir started a fight there and had to pay for broken dishes and broken furniture. A few hours later, Vysotsky came to Lyudmila’s room with a guitar and a bottle of cognac: “They gave me change.”
All night he sang Abram's songs - his own and others' - and in the morning he unexpectedly proposed to marry him. Lyudmila agreed. A year later, their son Arkady was born, and two years later - Nikita.
Vladimir knew that his voice had a flawless effect on women. Screenwriter Eduard Volodarsky recalled: “When he started singing, all the girls were his! It was not even interesting to go around with women with him. He just starts singing - that’s all his. You think: what are you doing here, fool! A powerful voice, completely captivating... A powerful man sat in it..."
Vladimir Vysotsky - the beginning of an acting career, theater
However, in the theater for this “powerful man” for a long time There were simply no roles of the appropriate intensity and scale. Vysotsky had to play Leshy in " Scarlet flower", some episodic characters in a play called "Pig Tails". After graduating from the Moscow Art Theater School, Vladimir changed more than one job.
Only in 1964, immediately after the birth of his second son, creative biography Vysotsky's Taganka Theater appeared. On September 19, Vysotsky already played the role of the Second God with Lyubimov in the play “The Good Man from Szechwan.” This was just the beginning - then the roles of Galileo, Hamlet, Khlopushi, Lopakhin followed. All of them - even Hamlet, who until that moment was usually portrayed as a pale, effeminate youth - performed by Vysotsky were primarily men. As the actor himself believed, “Shakespeare wrote a man. It was a cruel time, people ate meat off the knife and slept on skins.”
Those who saw Vysotsky on stage were not surprised that he could conquer almost any woman he liked - after all, he actually hypnotized hundreds of spectators for hours.
Alla Demidova, a colleague of Vladimir Vysotsky at the Taganka Theater, recalled: “He had amazing energy, which, accumulated on the image, like a beam of a strong spotlight, hit the audience. People felt this tension field even with their skin. Sometimes I deliberately went behind his back so as not to fall under this crushing force of influence...”
The short and thin Vysotsky transformed on stage. He seemed like a giant, a superman. Despite his small height (about 170 centimeters) and slim figure Vysotsky was an excellent athlete and tried to maintain good physical shape. He loved to impress girls by walking up stairs on his hands or doing somersaults. Vysotsky could even dance a few steps on a vertical wall.
Elena Sadovnikova, who worked at the Sklifosovsky Institute, said: “Volodya was simply amazingly built. As a doctor, I have seen many people, but no one had such a fine, beautiful, strong body.”
But physical strength is not everything. Much more important was inner strength - it was felt by everyone who saw Vysotsky in the theater or on the screen. He didn't just play the roles of rock climbers, American Marines, geologists, and investigators. Vladimir Vysotsky lived their lives - and sang songs about them. Many of his works begin with the pronoun “I” - and each time it was a different “I”.
For a long time, few people in the USSR knew real biography Vysotsky - everyone told their own legend. Someone fought with him, someone sat in the camp, someone climbed Elbrus. In any city one could meet a person who recounted in detail the circumstances of his meeting with Vysotsky the prisoner or Vysotsky the truck driver and refused to believe that the author of the famous songs was a Moscow actor who loved expensive cars and beautiful things.
This is how the same Alla Demidova described Vladimir Vysotsky: “He bought himself a brown jacket with fur inserts, synthetic, and was so proud of it, and all the time he went to the mirror and looked at himself all the time... He had a favorite red silk T-shirt , which hugged his biceps and wide chest. And the shoes were always very good, cleaned, with good soles. Aesthetically, he loved it... Once, at our next anniversary, he unexpectedly came in a beautiful blue blazer with gold buttons. Everyone groaned in surprise and delight. That's what he was counting on."
However, Vysotsky was never just a “dude.” When he last wife, Marina Vladi, was asked why she did not find a husband in France, she replied: “There is a barrel organ, and here is a man.” A French actress of Russian origin, finding herself in Moscow, saw Vysotsky for the first time at a rehearsal of “Pugachev”: “A half-naked man is frantically screaming and fighting on stage. He is wrapped in chains from waist to shoulders. It's a terrible feeling."
Later, she and Vysotsky ended up in the same company at the WTO restaurant. “Finally, I met you,” he said to the actress, and then spent the entire evening declaring his love to her. For a long time, it seemed to Marina that she did not have any feelings for Vladimir: a handsome and talented young man, nothing more. But when she returned to Paris, she heard from her mother: “Yes, you are in love, my girl.” And I realized that it was true.
A year later, Vysotsky broke up with Abramova. A long, exhausting romance with Marina Vladi began. She came to the Soviet Union on tourist packages, met Vysotsky at friends’ apartments, and went on tour with him. Only in 1970 did Vladi finally marry him.
Knowing that Vladimir would not be able to live abroad, Marina herself was ready to move to the USSR forever, taking with her the children from her first marriage. Vysotsky then decided to get his own house: “I decided to buy myself a house. About seven thousand... Marina came up with this idea... I have already found a house, with all the amenities, an ordinary wooden dacha in excellent condition, let's furnish it... I will have the opportunity to work there... Marina has a calming effect on me.. ."
Vladimir really began to build a house - on the territory summer cottage Eduard Volodarsky. But it was completed only in the spring of 1980, shortly before the poet’s death.
Vysotsky and Marina Vladi had to live either with friends or on rented apartments, then in hotels. But accustomed to luxurious life The Frenchwoman did not complain about her unsettled life. Having met a Russian “man,” Marina Vladi, whose real name was Marina Vladimirovna Polyakova-Baydarova, turned out to be a simple Russian woman.
According to the memoirs of Lyudmila Chursina, Marina, having married Vysotsky, “gained a little weight, her dress was a little unraveling at the seams, her shoes, probably her favorite ones, were not new, and her hair was simply loose. But she was so natural and felt great!..”
Once on the set, as one of Vysotsky’s acquaintances said, Vladimir asked Marina to go get some beer: “She tied a scarf around her head, took an ordinary can and went to the nearest baths, where they sold good beer.”
By that time, Vysotsky was already seriously ill. All his attempts to recover from alcoholism were unsuccessful. Vladimir went through the most painful procedures, including “blood purification,” but after a few weeks or even days he again broke into binge drinking. Marina Vladi wrote: “...Your condition is finally beginning to bother your drinking buddies. At first they are so pleased to be with you, to listen to you sing... But there always comes a time when, finally tired, sober, they see that all this pandemonium is turning into a nightmare. You become uncontrollable, your strength, increased tenfold by vodka, frightens them, you no longer scream, but howl.” Marina once even “sewed up” with Vysotsky to support him.
Marina Vladi was far from the only woman who helped the poet and looked after him. To say that Vysotsky owed everything he achieved to the fair sex would, of course, be untrue. But women really always tried to help him.
Vysotsky's fans who worked at film studios recommended the actor for roles and “pushed” his songs into films. The flight attendants persuaded the pilots to delay flights for his sake. Telephone operators once called all the hotels in Rome for several days to find Marina Vladi for Vysotsky, who was then on tour in Italy. Even Galina Brezhneva, daughter Secretary General, always tried to help him as best I could.
American Barbara Nemchik, the wife of Valery Yanklovich, one of Vladimir Vysotsky’s friends, recalled: “He treated women brilliantly! If it was a young girl, then Volodya began to tactfully “molest” her, and if she was a respectable older woman, he spoke completely differently: very politely and attentively.”
Vysotsky really knew how to care in different ways. He often liked to portray “a rich guy from the Moscow region,” persistently demanding the attention of the woman he liked. But one day, seeing a young sixteen-year-old girl in a smart white dress coming out of the entrance, who, apparently, was either going to dance or on a date for the first time, Vladimir simply walked up, kissed her hand and quietly said: “How are you today?” beautiful."
But Faina Ranevskaya knew a completely different Vysotsky. At one time they worked together in the theater. Once approaching the notice board, Ranevskaya saw several dozen orders in which Vladimir Vysotsky was reprimanded for various violations of discipline. “Who is this poor boy?” - the actress asked sadly. A short, slender young man standing nearby quietly answered: “I am.” Since then, Faina Georgievna took patronage over Vysotsky and constantly stood up for him before his superiors.
Vladimir Novikov, the author of a biography of Vladimir Vysotsky, nevertheless argues that in fact the poet usually “preferred male company to female company.” The statement is, of course, controversial. However, it really seemed to Vysotsky’s wives that his friends always came first for him. After all, for a real man, friendship is sacred.
True, after Vysotsky’s death it turned out that he had several dozen “best friends.” Perhaps all these people really often communicated with him, but we must not forget that the poet, especially in recent years, was extremely promiscuous in his acquaintances.
He, of course, was friends with his colleagues - Valery Zolotukhin, Vsevolod Abdulov, Ivan Bortnik, Oleg Dahl. But Vysotsky was always attracted to people with unusual biographies- sea captains, test pilots, mountaineers. Strong, brave - just like himself. Or, at least, how Vysotsky himself wanted to see himself.
On Bolshoy Karetny, his oldest friend, teacher and idol was Levon Kocharyan. Leva, as everyone called him, graduated from law school, worked at the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department, and then became a director at Mosfilm. One of Kocharyan’s colleagues spoke about Levon: “He was a man of extraordinary capabilities and colossal will. He knew how to do everything: fix things and break obstacles, prepare delicious dishes and eat glass wine glasses, catch scary bandits and make friends with especially scary ones, conduct learned conversations and fight with heads, be gentle and attentive to friends and mercilessly tough with enemies.”
Vadim Tumanov later became the same friend, and perhaps in some ways a teacher, for Vysotsky. He was one of the few with whom the poet could be friends “as equals.” At the time of their meeting, Tumanov, who once served as a navigator in the Northern Fleet, was a gold miner. He spent eight years in camps “for anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda,” which consisted of a passion for Mayakovsky, Yesenin and Vertinsky - during a search, several dozen records were confiscated from him.
Vysotsky saw in Vadim Tumanov a man who had experienced something that was not in the fate of the poet himself, and considered it an honor to call himself his friend.
Perhaps alcohol was for Vysotsky a “pass” to the life that his friends and idols lived - full of adventures and dangers. For those around him, he was a hero and superman, but the poet himself wanted more. Or maybe Vysotsky, who was constantly in an atmosphere of prohibitions and censorship, was thus trying to give vent to his energy, his passions. There was nothing else left for him: And, smiling, they broke my wings, My wheezing was sometimes like a howl, And I was dumb from pain and powerlessness, And I only whispered: “Thank you for being alive.”
Gradually, Vysotsky turned from an alcoholic into a drug addict. He first tried drugs in the mid-70s. During the tour, a woman told him that her husband was getting out of his drinking bouts with their help. Vysotsky decided to follow this example - and soon he could no longer go a day without an injection. Thanks to his connections, he could get any illegal drug.
Many who saw him on stage in recent years spoke about his “glassy” eyes - Vysotsky could no longer play without “doping.” In 1977, he was taken to the hospital straight from the play “10 Days That Shook the World.” Zolotukhin played the role of Kerensky for him. Vysotsky was diagnosed with cerebral edema. The liver and one kidney were destroyed. Doctors announced that with this lifestyle he would die or become mentally disabled.
Vysotsky seemed to be trying to get a taste of life, methodically destroying himself. In the late seventies, Valery Zolotukhin recalled, it sometimes seemed to Vladimir that he was seeing his life from the outside - as if he was watching a movie. Film about famous actor, a singer who sells out stadiums, a Russian man who married a French film actress and travels around the world.
Even Hollywood stars couldn't resist his charm. At one of the parties, Liza Minnelli and Natalie Wood listened to Vysotsky’s songs, spellbound, sitting at his feet. Marina Vladi was jealous: “Liza Minnelli, with her huge, full-face eyes and false eyelashes, casts a carnivorous look at you.”
Of course, with trips abroad, everything was not so simple, but thanks to his French wife, Vysotsky still became a “traveler.” Now he could walk with Mikhail Shemyakin through the Marseille port taverns, and could buy himself a Mercedes in Germany. However, Vladimir had no intention of staying abroad. Nobody needed him there. Vysotsky was not just a Real Man - he was a Real Russian Man. Even if he released records in France, even if Charles Aznavour himself admitted: “He is better than me. He doesn't sing - he vomits." All the same, Vysotsky was himself only in his homeland.
Vladimir Vysotsky - passing away, death
But he was also no longer able to live in the Soviet Union. The authorities did not need heroes. They began to kill Vysotsky slowly and methodically. And the poet himself seemed to be bringing his end closer with all his might - with alcohol, drugs, the frantic pace of life, when he slept three to four hours a day. That he lived to be forty-two years old was already a miracle.
Death occurred in the early morning of July 25, 1980. The official diagnosis is myocardial infarction. The worn-out body eventually gave up. IN last days Before his death, he almost did not get out of bed and screamed in pain. But he still refused to go to the hospital. He said that on July 27 he had to play Hamlet, and on the 29th he had to fly to Paris to see Marina Vladi. Although everyone who saw Vysotsky then remembers that he constantly talked about his imminent death. Perhaps he simply did not want to live anymore, did not want to be saved.
Of course, there were no announcements on radio or television that day, but by the evening all of Moscow already knew about Vysotsky’s death. On July 28, thousands of people flocked to Taganka. At the theater they said goodbye to Vladimir Vysotsky - poet, singer, musician, actor. A hero who believed that he was “too late to be born,” but still died in the war - in his own undeclared war.
Vladimir Vysotsky is a legend. His songs, performed with a guitar, were heard in all Soviet yards, he became a symbol of his time. His creative path is multifaceted and ambiguous: Vysotsky was adored by ordinary citizens and hated by the Soviet authorities, which is why he did not receive many roles. In the theater they either elevated him to the rank of star, or tried to fire him for absenteeism and drunkenness. Be that as it may, the bard’s works are close to representatives of different social strata, and they have not lost their relevance today.
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Biography
Vladimir Semenovich was born in 1938 in the capital. His early years took place in a huge communal apartment. Mother worked as a translator, father was a military man. When the boy was 3 years old, the Great Patriotic War. The mother was forced to leave with her son for the Urals, the father took part in hostilities.
When peace came, Volodya was brought to Moscow. He lived in a complete family for only two years: his father and mother soon divorced and moved away.
IN school age Vladimir ended up in the post-war GDR, where his father brought him. The boy received gloomy impressions from this protracted journey. His peers in Moscow courtyards felt much happier. In a foreign country, the future bard began to learn to play the piano.
Volodya's mother quickly arranged her personal life. The future actor and singer had a tense relationship with her husband. He was closer to his father’s new family, in which the young man settled in the late 1940s, returning to Moscow. His new home was an apartment in Bolshoi Karetny Lane, to which he dedicated one of his songs.
Here, in the very heart of Moscow, Volodya began to communicate with urban youth of the 1950s. Back then, courtyard romance, songs with a guitar and gatherings on the street were in fashion. This is how the relationship between Vysotsky and his “seven-string girlfriend” began.
In high school, Vladimir attended a drama club, but had no intention of devoting his life to acting. After school, he went to college to become an engineer. The decision to change fate was made unexpectedly on New Year's Eve 1956. Together with his friend Igor Kokhanovsky, the young man worked on the drawings that they needed for the exams. Having finished his work, Vysotsky poured a jar of ink on him and announced that in six months he would submit documents to the theater.
The young man’s wish came true: six months later he became a student at the Moscow Art Theater. In his third year, he was able to try his hand at the film “Peers.”
After receiving his diploma, Vladimir Vysotsky spent a long time searching for himself. He changed theaters, but never received satisfaction from his work. He managed to find “his place” only in 1964. He got a job at the Taganka Theater, where he worked all his life. Here he got many dramatic roles: Hamlet, Pugachev, Svidrigailov and others. The actor went on tour throughout Eastern Europe.
In 1967, Vladimir's career on television began. A film with him in the title role, “Vertical,” was released. Brilliant actor play delighted fans. In the 1970s, Vysotsky was hardly shown on television: he became a figure non grata for the Soviet regime, and many attractive roles passed the artist by.
According to Vladimir Vysotsky, Bulat Okudzhava became his idol and inspiration in his bard career. The actor wrote his first songs during his college years. He performed them with a guitar in the yard. Neither the author himself nor his neighboring listeners imagined how far his creative career would go.
The beginning of creative maturity was the composition “Submarine”. Today the bard's legacy includes more than 600 songs. His works were heard on the radio, from the stage of concert halls, in films where the talented actor took part. Soviet citizens knew the lines of bright hits by heart.
The bard's concerts always attracted full houses. His works were close to representatives of different social strata and different ages. Today they are known and loved, they are played on radio and television.
Personal life
The personal life of Vladimir Vysotsky is no less eventful than his creative path. He first tied the knot in 1960. A classmate became his chosen one. The family idyll did not last long: the couple quarreled without living together for even a year, and Iza left the capital.
The singer's second wife was Lyudmila Abramova. She gave birth to two sons to Vysotsky, but this marriage broke up just as quickly. The couple filed for divorce in 1968.
The actor’s third love was Marina Vladi. He dreamed of meeting the actress after the film “The Witch” with her participation. When the meeting took place, Vysotsky could not take his eyes off the beauty throughout the evening. The wedding took place in 1970. The bard lived with this woman for 10 years, she became his muse and reliable support.
The cause of many problems in personal life and creative path Vladimir began to crave alcohol. Due to alcohol addiction, the kidneys and heart suffered, and doctors were forced to use narcotic substances to bring the actor out of serious conditions.
Addiction caused the bard's untimely death in 1980. He died in his sleep and was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery.