Curated playlist
Recipients of the USSR State Prize
- Valentin GlushkoValentin Petrovich Glushko was born on the 2nd of September 1908 in Odesa, and by the age of fourteen he was thinking about flight. Novels by Jules Verne had pulled him toward aeronautics. In 1923 he wrote a letter to Konstantin…
- Bulat OkudzhavaBulat Okudzhava claimed to know only seven chords, yet he wrote about 200 songs.
- Konstantin ChernenkoSoviet leader Konstantin Chernenko's obituary ran on page two. Page one celebrated his successor, Gorbachev.
- Alexei LeonovAlexei Leonov's spacesuit swelled in space until he could not fit back inside. He let air out through a valve.
- Eldar RyazanovEldar Ryazanov first refused to direct a comedy. He wanted to make serious films, but Carnival Night was a hit.
- Dmitri ShostakovichStalin walked out of Dmitri Shostakovich's opera in 1936, and the next day Pravda attacked it.
- Alexey IvakhnenkoAlexey Ivakhnenko found that the noisier the data, the simpler the best model must be.
- Alexander ProkhorovWhile studying ruby in 1957, physicist Alexander Prokhorov realized it could serve as a laser's active medium.
- Valery LegasovIn August 1986, Valery Legasov stood before the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna and spoke for five hours. The report he carried for the Soviet delegation ran to 388 pages. Legasov was a Soviet inorganic chemist, not a reactor…
- Sergey MikhalkovSergey Mikhalkov wrote a friendly giant policeman for children, then anthems for two countries.
- Georgy SviridovMillions of Soviet viewers heard Georgy Sviridov's music every evening without knowing his name.
- Vladimir VysotskyVladimir Vysotsky's death in 1980 drew tens of thousands into Moscow's streets. Officials had barely acknowledged him.