Okudzhav’s biography is the most important thing. Biography. Songs written for films

Bulat Okudzhava is a whole era in Soviet art song. He is so different and at the same time recognizable. Among his poems, every person will find some kind of text that will touch them to the depths of their souls.

This cannot be said about every poet. His texts are both simple and complex at the same time. The works of Bulat Shalvovich reflect the good and bad moments of the author’s life.

Name change

Bulat Okudzhava was born on May 9, 1924 in Moscow. Parents who admired the writer Oscar Wilde, and especially his work “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” named their newborn son Dorian. By the time of the necessary registration of his son, Shalva decided that the name “Dorian” was too pompous for a young Soviet citizen. And it was changed to a more modest and familiar to the Georgian ear name “Bulat”. Subsequently, Okudzhava will also name his son Bulat, but at home the child will be called “Antoshka”, in honor of his favorite toy.

Childhood nickname

Okudzhava’s childhood nickname was “ Cuckoo" There are two main versions of the origin. The first says that the poet’s infant crowing resembled the cry of a cuckoo. That's how it seemed to his paternal grandmother. And according to the second version, Bulat was called that because he constantly wandered among the relatives of his father and mother. The bard wrote about this in his autobiographical novel “The Abolished Theater.” Reproaches that Ashkhen throws her son to various relatives and does not raise him herself were attributed to Aunt Sylvia.

Lavrenty Beria and the Okudzhava family

According to the legend of the Okudzhava family, Lavrentiy Beria was in love with Bulat Shalvovich’s mother, Ashkhen. Allegedly, one of the reasons for hatred of Shalva Okudzhava was this love for a beautiful Armenian woman. It was because of disagreements with Beria that Shalva was transferred from Georgia to Russia. However, the conflict occurred more on political grounds than on personal grounds.

Subsequently, in 1939, being in complete obscurity after the arrest of Shalva, Ashkhen turned to Beria for help. He promises to help and quickly sends her away. But Shaliko Okudzhava was already dead by this time (the trial in his case took place on August 4, 1937, on the same day the sentence was carried out). The day after the visit to Beria, Bulat’s mother will be arrested, sentenced to five years in the camps and subsequent exile.

Shot

ABOUT this fact The poet's biography is known only from his novel " Abolished theater" But it’s unlikely that they come up with this on purpose.

When Bulat was eleven years old, he was friends with thirteen-year-old Afanasy Dergach, who worked at a construction site. The friendship was somewhat unequal, the son of the party organizer Okudzhava and the ragamuffin Dergach. But Afonka and Bulat each found their own in each other. Bulat retold Afonka's school lessons. And Bulat himself was attracted to a certain “maturity” in Dergach. Of course, he works at a construction site and lives an independent life.

And one day, apparently wanting to show off boyishly, Okudzhava stole his father’s Browning and, together with Afonka and his friends, went to the taiga. The autobiographical novel does not explain how the shooting happened, but it happened. Luckily for the party organizer’s son, the bullet did not hit Afonka’s vital organs and went right through. But Dergach never forgave Okudzhava. When they met, Afonka hit Bulat in the nose with his fist. That's it for them life paths separated.

School ringleader

At twelve years old, Okudzhava was far from a quiet boy. The leader of the class, as they say, is the first guy in the village. Then he will come up with French wrestling classes in the hallway of his house, where he acts as a gambling referee. Then he organizes an orchestra, and now all the students of his school imitate a xylophone, trumpet or ukulele. Or he will persuade the whole class to hum quietly, irritating the teacher and disrupting classes.

He also organized the Union of Young Writers (SYUP), to join which you had to write a story. All these pranks ended after his father was arrested and Bulat was declared “the son of an enemy of the people.” After these events, something inside the poet broke. And from a leader he turned into an inconspicuous and shy boy.

Confession in Ogonyok

Okudzhava, in an interview with Ogonyok magazine, recalls another of his unseemly acts. In 1945, he left home and settled with one of his institute friends. A friend was visiting and renting a room. My classmates lived poorly, even hungry. And when the friend went to visit relatives for a while, Bulat stole a piece of fabric hidden in his suitcase.

He later sold the cut at the market and spent the money very quickly. The returning friend discovered the loss, but did not openly blame Okudzhava for it. But it was precisely this circumstance that subsequently separated the friends.

Farewell to Anna Akhmatova

Few people know about this, but the song “Farewell to the New Year Tree” was written in memory of the wonderful poetess Anna Akhmatova, who died in March 1966. Her thin and bright image is clear in these verses.

"A deadly fire awaits us..."

According to actor and director Andrei Smirnov, the co-author of the music for the song “We will not stand for the price...”, heard for the first time in the film “Belorussky Station”, was composer Alfred Schnittke, who almost completely changed the musical composition of the work. At the same time, Schnittke insisted that his name not be indicated in the credits and that the authorship belonged entirely to Bulat Okudzhava.

Political activities of Bulat Okudzhava

According to Alexander Ginzburg, the poet served as a liaison between the Solzhenitsyn Foundation in Paris and Soviet political prisoners. He gave them money from the fund.

Okudzhava carried anti-Soviet literature in his trousers and skillfully imitated sciatica at customs if he suddenly had to bend over. He was never caught doing this.

In 1993, on October 4, Bulat Okudzhava became one of those who signed the “letter of forty-two.” That is, he supported and, in his own way, approved the actions of the government, or shared responsibility for these actions with it. After this, many sharply condemned the bard, and Vladimir Gostyukhin publicly trampled the record with Okudzhava’s songs. These events left a significant mark not only on the poet’s soul, but also undermined his health. Until his death, these reproaches haunted Shaliko's son.

Okudzhava and Poland

The poet has always been loved in the USSR, but not nearly as much as in Poland. After all, Bulat’s very first record was published in Poland. True, the songs were performed not by Bulat Shalvovich himself, but by Polish artists. Since 1995, Poland began to hold annual festivals in honor of the bard.

There were many interesting events in the poet’s life; they cannot all be included in one article, or even in one book.

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 took off career ladder. 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 young age everything 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 in “ Komsomolskaya Pravda", then works as an editor at Young Guard, and finally moves to the Literaturnaya Gazeta 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 their moods and feelings 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 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 diagnosed with a serious heart disease. 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 OKUDZHAVA – POET-SYMBOL

With name Bulat Okudzhava There are many legends associated with it. It’s not surprising, since such personalities appear in poetic and musical world Rarely and deservedly become legendary.

His poems have been analyzed into quotes, his songs have become iconic and symbolic for the era of the sixties, and he himself Bulat Shalvovich was the brightest representative of his generation.

Unenviable childhood

It just so happened in nature that fate talented people full of personal tragedies, struggles, searches, wanderings and other adversities. Probably, only a person who has experienced and experienced a lot can create works that last for centuries. Only then are they filled with true meaning, deep and meaningful, penetrating into souls and finding a response there. Such was fate Bulat Okudzhava.

His life coincided with an era of change, the globality and consequences of which only a few could understand and appreciate. born 1924 in Moscow. His parents came to the capital to study under the party line. Father Bulat was Georgian, and his mother was Armenian. At the same time, they named their son Dorian in honor of the famous literary hero.

Two years later, the whole family returned to the capital of Georgia, where Shalva Stepanovich was moving up the party ladder. Then he had a conflict with Lavrentiy Beria, after which his father Bulat Okudzhava asked to be sent to work in Russia. This is how the family ended up in Nizhny Tagil.

Thunder struck (as it did for many families of that bloody period Soviet history) in 1937, when Shalva Stepanovich was arrested on a false denunciation about his allegedly counter-revolutionary Trotskyist work. Then came the verdict and execution. The same fate befell his father's siblings. In 1939, his mother was also arrested. Okudzhava- Ashkhen Stepanovna. First she was sent to the camps of the Karaganda region, and ten years later she was sentenced to eternal settlement in the vast expanses of Krasnoyarsk Territory. Bulat My grandmother moved me and my brother Victor to Moscow, and then my aunt from Tbilisi took me in for upbringing.

First successes

He graduated from school in Georgia, worked at a factory as a turner's apprentice and was looking forward to coming of age to go to the front. In August 1942, he was sent to a mortar division, in which he participated in battles, and in 1943 he was wounded near Mozdok. Okudzhava demobilized and sent to the rear. He passed the exams as an external student, received secondary education and entered the philological department of Tbilisi University.

After graduating from high school, he went to work as an ordinary teacher of Russian language and literature in the most ordinary Kaluga village. At home after work, he tried to write poetry, although he took his hobby completely frivolously, but over time, the poetic style Bulat became brighter and more confident. Some of his poems even began to be published in the newspaper, and after Stalin’s death in 1953, he was offered to head the propaganda department in the regional newspaper. It was there, in Kaluga, at Okudzhava The first small book of poems was published.

The young poet had no creative competitors in the provincial town, so his first successes made him dizzy. Later Bulat Shalvovich he said that his poems were mostly imitative, but the awareness of his own success in the literary field gave him strength to move forward.

Bard Bulat Okudzhava

In 1956, after the famous XX Congress of the CPSU, parents Okudzhava leucorrhoea rehabilitated. Myself Bulat even joined the party, and in 1959 he moved to Moscow. There he met young poets - Andrei Voznesensky and others. It was then that he first picked up a guitar (paradoxically, but musical education Okudzhava did not have and did not even know musical notation) and began to accompany his poems. This is how his bardic creativity began, or rather, he became one of the founders of the art song.

When he already had several such songs behind him, Bulat Friends and simple acquaintances began to invite them to their homes to perform these original songs. If there was a tape recorder in the house, singing Okudzhava Be sure to write it down. In this way, Moscow quickly became acquainted with his work.

He continued to work in newspapers, write poetry and try himself in other literary genres. Konstantin Paustovsky included his story “Be Healthy, Schoolboy” in the literary almanac, and director Vladimir Motyl later made a film based on this work - “Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha.”

Bulat Shalvovich became popular in narrow circles of people who understand and think. During that period of time, he wrote the songs “Midnight Trolleybus”, “Not Tramps, Not Drunkards”, “Sentimental March”, “Song about Lenka the Queen” and others.

System counteraction

Soon creativity Bulat Okudzhava became interested in the “competent authorities”; his songs with a guitar turned out to be too unusual for many. They began to publish custom-made feuilletons about him in newspapers, which means his poems did not leave anyone indifferent. Indignation, irritation, rejection are also reactions to Okudzhava, the main thing is that there was no indifference.

Myself Bulat I experienced this period in a difficult way, rushing about in search of the right solution, but he understood that now he was on the right path and was doing something extraordinary, interesting, exciting, which was encountering a wave of opposition from the system. Then he realized that art requires a lot of patience and endurance, only in this way will time put everything in its place, leaving in people’s memory the most powerful creative works, and the weak ones will be relegated to the background of history.

Took up Bulat and in the Writers' Union of the USSR. His songs were mercilessly criticized, believing that such art was not appropriate for Soviet heroic youth and did not reflect their ideals, aspirations, and aspirations. Criticism also attacked his novels “Poor Avrosimov” and “The Adventures of Shipov,” but the intelligentsia, on the contrary, showed genuine interest in them. But it was his membership in the Writers' Union that allowed him to publish several books of his poems. His songs began to be performed by some other singers (there were not many of them, because often artistic the council did not release to the masses musical works inaccessible to its understanding).

However, for some reason the author himself did not like this, just as he did not like speaking in front of a large audience. He was a chamber singer; all he needed was a hall with 200 seats, in which he could see the eyes of every spectator who came to listen to him. Sometimes he complained that on tour in different cities Officials and their wives who understood nothing about his work came to his concert, which made him feel awkward.

Your Honor Bulat Okudzhava

Many at that time were annoyed by the non-publicity Bulat Okudzhava, he had no signs of star fever, he did not pursue fame. Despite membership in the CPSU Bulat Shalvovich did not experience euphoria from the activities of the party, allowed himself some freethinking, but did not speak too critically of the leadership. He was never among the dissidents, although his whole family suffered grief from the Soviet regime. The officials did not like him, but it is likely that they secretly listened to his songs, as was the case with. With his decency, he seemed to challenge the existing system, he never caved in to the system, but could have worked on the stage, received decent fees, written songs to order, scripts for films.

with his first wife Galina

Finest hour Bulat Okudzhava struck when the film “Belarusian Station” was released, in which his shrill march “We need one victory” was heard. Screenwriter Vadim Trunin suggested including this so-called trench song in the film. Okudzhava presented the composition to the judgment of director Andrei Smirnov and composer Alfred Schnittke. The reaction of the two masters was radically different - Smirnov did not like the melody at all, but Schnittke heard it in the tune Okudzhava future military movie hit. Schnittke wrote an orchestral version of this march and insisted that on the record that was released after the film, the authorship of the music should be assigned to Bulat Shalvovich.

"And don't forget about me"

After such a confession Okudzhava were allowed to go on tour abroad. There he began releasing records, and then he began to try his hand at prose works. So it began white stripe his literary life, when he could publish what he wrote. Five of them saw the light historical novels, several collections of poetry, he created scripts for four films, and released several records with new songs. This allowed Bulatu Okudzhava feel happy, having gone through years of trials, maintaining humanity, integrity, feeling self-esteem, and his hoarse voice will become one of the symbols of a bygone era.

with his second wife Olga

Songs “Your Honor, Lady Luck” (from the film “White Sun of the Desert”), “Take your overcoat, let’s go home” (from the film “Aty-Bata soldiers were walking”), compositions from the films “Pokrovsky Gate”, “Dirk”, “ Straw Hat", "The Adventures of Pinocchio" and others were made Bulata Okudzhava everyone's favorite. But his first records appeared in his homeland only in the mid-1970s, although before that they were released in Poland and France.

During his tours abroad, he was often offered to stay forever in European countries, but he loved Moscow and could not imagine his life in another city or outside the country in which his ancestors lived. Only once did he decide to stay in France to improve his failing health. There he died in a military hospital in the suburbs of Paris in 1997 after suffering from the flu.

He was idolized, envied and hated. This typical situation for the outstanding person that he was. Time judged everyone and (as he himself said) preserved his best works for people. He managed to capture the hearts of several generations and gave hope to many with his prayerful poetry.

with Natalia Gorlenko

DATA

The famous song “The Prayer of François Villon” Okudzhava dedicated to his first wife Galina, whom he left for another woman. Galina died of cancer, and Bulat Blamed himself for her illness.

At his dacha, which has now become a museum, he collected bells. They occupied the entire ceiling of the room. The collection was started by the poetess, who brought an exquisite bell from a distant country. Since then, all guests periodically brought Bulat Shalvovich precisely these ringing objects.

Updated: April 8, 2019 by: Elena

He once admitted: “All my life I have been doing what gave me pleasure - prose, poetry, songs. When some process ended, I moved on to another.” He was like that in love - sincere, intolerant of falsehood, unable to lie. This spring Bulat Okudzhava, a wonderful poet and bard, would have turned 88 years old.

Two eternal roads - love and separation - pass through my heart...” These lines Bulat Okudzhava I wrote, being wise from life experience, having repeatedly ignited and extinguished the fire of love in my heart. In a heart that did not know how to lie in anything - not in actions, not in poetry, and especially in love... Perhaps there are more of them - the heroines of his novels. But this is not the main thing. Each of them was His Majesty a Woman, as he wrote in his poems...

First love came early. Bulat was barely 11 years old. He was handsome boy with huge brown eyes and thick curly hair. It was in his mature years that he seemed withdrawn and reserved. And then he was known as a ringleader and a favorite of girls. He and Lelya studied at a Nizhny Tagil school in the fourth grade. Lessons ended in the evening, it got dark early, and the lights at school were often turned off. As soon as the light went out, Bulat rushed headlong to Lyola’s desk, sat down next to her and, while no one was looking, pressed his shoulder to her. And he was silent.

He was transferred to another school. But he did not forget about his love. One day, Lelya’s mother received a letter, and in it was a photograph of a boy. On the back it was written: “Lele from Bulat.” He was waiting for an answer from her. And without waiting, he ran away from classes and came to school, to Olya. After class, I walked her home. Their next meeting took place 60 years later! Lelya kept his photo all these years. They met again in 1994. For three years, until his death, he wrote letters to her.

Sara Mizitova is also one of her school hobbies. He was impressed by her rosy cheeks and slanting Tatar eyes. At first they just looked at each other with Sarah, and then they began to walk together. She was the first to take his hand, which completely conquered him...

In 1942, as a 17-year-old boy, Bulat volunteered for the front. And, sitting in the trenches, he yearned for the girl with whom he lived in the same Arbat courtyard. He even burned her initial – the letter “K” – on his hand. When the war ended, he returned to Moscow and wanted to see her. He came to that same yard and met a fat, unkempt woman hanging laundry on a line. She did not recognize Bulat. He left, realizing that in love one can never return to the past.

His next novel took place in post-war Moscow. Valya lived on Arbat. She was studying at the Moscow Art Theater School when she met a short guy. He didn't seem very handsome to her, and he wasn't tall enough either. But he was cheerful and smart.

The guy wrote her amazing poems. Then he left for Leningrad, and she was sent to the Tambov theater. When Valya became the famous TV presenter Valentina Leontyeva, and Bulat Okudzhava became a symbol of the generation, they met again.

Leontyeva called him to invite him to her program “With all my heart.” He refused, and then the TV presenter read him that same poem. He never published it. As he later explained, the poems were too personal. On his last book, Okudzhava wrote to her: “We met 50 years later. I now terribly regret that we lost these years without seeing each other - how many things could have been different!”

Bulat lost his family early - his father was shot on a false denunciation, and his mother was exiled to Karlag. This is probably why he got married so early - in his second year, apparently, he was in great need of family warmth. With Galya, future wife, they studied at the university together. After graduating, we went together to teach in Kaluga region, to the village of Shamordino. Galina was simple, sincere and loved Bulat recklessly. Their first child, a girl, died as soon as she was born.

Then a son, Igor, was born. But the marriage has already cracked. In the late 50s, they felt like strangers to each other. But Okudzhava did not dare to divorce for a long time - he felt like a traitor. When the family moved to Moscow, he met Olga Batrakova. It was to her that he dedicated “Song about the Moscow Ant”,

"And when surprisingly close." And although his relationship with his wife was bursting at the seams, he behaved indecisively with Olga - she was fourteen years younger than him. He got her a job at Litgazeta, where he worked and took her to visit friends. But he never decided to get married. She married someone else, but their romance continued for several more years... In 1989, Okudzhava accidentally met her and found out that she did not have his “Chosen One”. Soon Batrakova received the parcel. On the volume with poems it was written: “Ole with thirty years of love.” For the sake of truth, it must be said that in 1960 Okudzhava experienced another love. This time his queen was actress Zhanna Bolotova, he dedicated the song “On the Smolensk Road” to her. And immediately after he began a relationship with another actress, Larisa Luzhina. This romance lasted for a whole year. But Larisa chose someone else...

A company of academicians invited him to the apartment on Pekhotnaya, 26. In this community he was especially favored. Among the guests were Pyotr Kapitsa and Artem Alikhanyan, some of their students, about fifteen people in total. Okudzhava came with his wife Galina. At that time, they already lived in different apartments, but maintained a relationship, the bard took her with him to performances.

In this company was Olga Artsimovich, the niece of a famous physicist and herself a physicist by training. At that time she was already married. But, noticing the famous poet’s interest in herself, she reciprocated. True, I didn’t think that the acquaintance would continue. Okudzhava called the next morning her uncle, with whom Olga was staying in Moscow, because she lived in Leningrad. By chance, Bella Akhmadulina became their pimp. It was she who asked her to call her to the phone at Bulat’s request. He invited Olga to meet at the Central House of Writers. They talked for three hours. Artsimovich later admitted that she had never felt so comfortable with anyone. She felt an absolute kinship with the poet. Only at 12 o'clock at night did they leave the House of Writers. Okudzhava hugged her and timidly asked: “Will you marry me?” She agreed. She had to return home to her husband and explain to him. Soon Okudzhava arrived in Leningrad, stayed at a hotel and a month later moved to Olga for good.

A year later, his first wife, Galina, died of acute heart failure. She had a heart defect since her youth.

In appearance, she calmly reacted to the final break with her husband. But it seems that this external calm was difficult for her. Okudzhava considered himself guilty of her premature departure. He blamed himself for tragic fate son Igor.

After the death of his mother, the boy lived with her relatives. Okudzhava wanted to take his son to live with him, new family, but with Olga they lived in a cramped apartment, they had a child, Bulat Jr., and Galina’s relatives protested.

However, Okudzhava did not show much persistence. Igor later began to see his father regularly. He grew up kind, soft, but weak-willed. I never found myself in life. He was either a musician or a butcher. And then he started drinking, became a hippie, used drugs, got into a criminal history, and lost his leg. He died early, at 43 years old. And all the time he was the inconsolable pain of his father.

...It happened on April 3, 1981. Okudzhava was invited to speak at the Institute of Soviet Legislation. Natasha Gorlenko, who was barely 26 years old, worked there after graduating from MGIMO. She loved his songs since childhood.

Especially "Prayer". After the concert, they drank tea, and Natasha’s friends praised her to the bard: “You should listen to how she sings!” The girl came out to see him off. Her husband was waiting for her; she was pregnant. They exchanged phone numbers. But her child died as soon as he was born. Natalya and Bulat have not seen each other for a year. Gorlenko called Okudzhava herself. Thus began their secret meetings. He was encrypted - he left the house supposedly to walk the dog. And in 1984 they began performing together. They sang “Grape Seed” and “After the Rain” in two voices. As Natalya assures, there was a period when Bulat Shalvovich left home and they lived together. And then they decided to break up. But we met again and again...

Olga could not stand the gossip and demanded that Okudzhava leave his family. The bard admitted that it was difficult for him to live double life. But I couldn’t make a final decision. In May 1997, Bulat and Olga went on their last trip abroad. First to Germany, where he received treatment, and then to Paris. There, Bulat Shalvovich developed an ulcer, the bleeding did not stop, and he was transferred to intensive care. On June 11, doctors warned that his situation was very serious.

His wife decided to baptize him, giving him the name John. He was unconscious.

Poet, bard. He acted in films as an actor, screenwriter, and author of songs and poems.

His parents were repressed, the boy grew up with his grandmother in Moscow, and in 1940 he moved to relatives in Tbilisi.
Participant of the Great Patriotic War.
Graduated from Tbilisi State University(1950). Worked as a teacher.
Published since 1953, performed in concerts. One of the generally recognized founders of the “art song”. He wrote songs for films by Marlen Khutsiev, Valery Rubinchik, Pyotr Todorovsky, Vladimir Motyl, Dinara Asanova, Andrei Smirnov and other directors.
Author of unforgettable songs: “It’s spring again in this world,” “I met hope again,” “Sentries of Love.” Collections of poems: “Lyrics” (1956), “Islands” (1959), “The Cheerful Drummer” (1964), “On the Road to Tinatin” (1964), “Magnanimous March” (1967), “Arbat, my Arbat” ( 1976). Stories: “Be healthy, schoolboy” (1961), “The front is coming to us” (1967). Historical stories: “Poor Avrosimov” (1969, “A Sip of Freedom” - 1971), “Mercy, or Shipov’s Adventures. Vintage Vaudeville" (1971). Novels “The Journey of Amateurs” (1-2 books, 1976-1978), “A Date with Bonaparte” (1983).
In 1997, a decree of the President of the Russian Federation approved the regulations on the Bulat Okudzhava Prize for “creating works in the genre of original songs and poetry that contribute to Russian culture.”
The B.Sh. Museum has been opened in Peredelkino (Moscow region). Okudzhava.