Bulat Okudzhava was a Soviet and Russian poet, writer, and singer-songwriter of Georgian-Armenian ancestry, born in Moscow on the 9th of May 1924. He was one of the founders of the Soviet genre known as author song, or guitar song, and wrote about 200 songs set to his own poetry. His work blended Russian poetic and folk traditions with the French chansonnier style and spread widely through unofficial recordings before receiving official recognition.
What happened to Bulat Okudzhava's family during Stalin's Great Purge?
Okudzhava's father, Shalva, was arrested in February 1937 during the Great Purge and shot on the 4th of August that year, along with his two brothers. His mother, Ashkhen Nalbandyan, was arrested in 1939 and sent to the Gulag; she was released in 1946, arrested again in 1949, and not fully released until 1954. Both parents were rehabilitated in 1956.
What is magnitizdat and how did it spread Okudzhava's songs?
Magnitizdat was the underground circulation of unofficial audio recordings in the Soviet Union, the sound equivalent of samizdat text publishing. Okudzhava's songs were not released through official Soviet media until the late 1970s, so for roughly two decades they spread as amateur tape recordings copied across the USSR and into Poland, where young people learned and performed them independently.
How did Bulat Okudzhava play the guitar?
Okudzhava tuned his Russian guitar to the Russian tuning of D'-G'-C-D-g-b-d' and often lowered it by one or two tones to suit his voice. He played in a classical manner, finger picking ascending and descending arpeggio or waltz patterns with the thumb providing an alternating bass line. He started with three basic chords and by the end of his life claimed to know seven.
What awards did Bulat Okudzhava receive?
Okudzhava received the USSR State Prize in 1991 and the Russian Booker Prize in 1994 for his novel The Show is Over. A minor planet, 3149 Okudzhava, discovered by Czech astronomer Zdeňka Vávrová in 1981, was named in his honor.
Where is Bulat Okudzhava buried and how is he commemorated?
Okudzhava died in Paris on the 12th of June 1997 and is buried in the Vagankovo Cemetery in Moscow. A monument marks the building at 43 Arbat Street where he lived, and his dacha in Peredelkino has been converted into a museum that is open to the public.