Questions about Vladimir Vysotsky
Short answers, pulled from the story.
Who was Vladimir Vysotsky and why was he famous in the Soviet Union?
Vladimir Vysotsky was a Soviet singer, songwriter, poet, and actor born on the 25th of January 1938 in Moscow. He became famous for his raspy voice, his seven-string guitar, and lyrics filled with social and political commentary delivered in street jargon. Despite being largely ignored by the official Soviet cultural establishment, he became extraordinarily popular through amateur tape recordings that spread across the country, with cosmonauts even carrying his music into orbit.
Why did the Soviet government suppress Vladimir Vysotsky?
In June 1968 the Soviet press launched a coordinated campaign against Vysotsky, with Sovetskaya Rossiya condemning him for promoting criminal values and a Ministry of Culture official calling him "anti-Soviet scum." His songs were seen as ideologically dubious and his unsanctioned concerts were investigated by authorities. Of nearly 800 poems he wrote, only one was published in the Soviet Union during his lifetime, and not a single performance or interview was broadcast by Soviet television while he was alive.
What was Vladimir Vysotsky's role at the Taganka Theatre?
Vysotsky debuted at the Taganka Theatre on the 19th of September 1964, playing the Second God in Bertolt Brecht's The Good Person of Szechwan. He became closely associated with director Yuri Lyubimov and took on major roles including Galileo in Life of Galileo (1966) and, most famously, the lead in Lyubimov's Hamlet, which premiered on the 29th of November 1971. He played Hamlet for the last time on the 18th of July 1980, one week before his death.
How did Vladimir Vysotsky's music reach the Soviet public without official releases?
Vysotsky's songs spread primarily through amateur reel-to-reel tape recordings, and later cassette tapes, made at his live performances. Melodiya, which held a monopoly on the Soviet music industry, rarely authorized his recordings. His 1967 breakthrough came with the film Vertical, and when Melodiya finally released a vinyl record of its songs in January 1968, the initial pressing sold out immediately and stores began ordering directly from factories without authorization.
Who was Marina Vlady and what was her relationship with Vladimir Vysotsky?
Marina Vlady was a French actress of Russian descent. Vysotsky fell in love with her in 1967 while she was working at Mosfilm on a joint Soviet-French production. They married on the 1st of December 1970. For ten years they maintained a long-distance relationship; Marina joined the Communist Party of France, which gave her an unlimited-entry visa into the Soviet Union and provided Vysotsky with some protection against government prosecution. After his death she wrote a book about their years together, published in France in 1987.
What were the circumstances of Vladimir Vysotsky's death in 1980?
Vysotsky died on the 25th of July 1980, aged 42, apparently of a myocardial infarction, at his apartment in Moscow. He had suffered from alcoholism for most of his life and had developed a severe drug dependency around 1977. His personal physician, Anatoly Fedotov, had sedated him and then fell asleep on the couch beside him; he awoke to find Vysotsky dead with his eyes open. An autopsy was prevented by Vysotsky's parents, so the true cause of death was never officially established. No official government announcement of his death was made.