June 18, 2014

Yuri Vizbor: Soviet Renaissance Man


Yuri Vizbor: Soviet Renaissance Man

This Friday, June 20, would have been the 80th birthday of Yuri Vizbor (1934-1984), singer-songwriter, actor, teacher, journalist, mountain climber, and radio operator, among others.

These days, some 30 years after his death, Russians remember Yuri Vizbor primarily as a songwriter – someone who wrote “bard” songs or “author” songs, on par with Bulat Okudzhava, Aleksandr Galich, Vladimir Vysotsky, and other great poets of his generation. Some will remember that he was also an actor, albeit not a professional one. Some may deduce from his songs that he was an avid mountain climber. But he was much, much more.

Some of the most important events in Vizbor’s life – in his own telling – happened by accident. He claims he was born “due to negligence,” to a young Ukrainian woman and a passionate Lithuanian officer, Yusef Vizboras (the distinctively Lithuanian suffix –as was later lost in translation). The university he attended was similarly accidental: a classmate and friend of his convinced him to go look at the main building of the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute, and, impressed by the architecture, he agreed to join his friend and apply together. Little did he know, the place was teeming with “bards,” including Yuliy Kim and Ada Yakusheva (spoiler alert: Vizbor later married her). Vizbor quickly made a name for himself in these circles – plus, one of his songs is now the Institute’s (now University’s) official anthem.

Vizbor in the army

But, you might say, what was a songwriter doing at a Pedagogical Institute? As was true for many other bards, Vizbor’s most lasting legacy was a side project to a completely unrelated career. Upon graduation he was certified as a “Russian and literature” teacher, and was sent to Arkhangelsk to teach, but was almost immediately drafted into the army and stationed in Karelia (Kandalashka), where he was trained as a radio operator.

Songwriter, teacher, radio operator… Vizbor just kept adding job titles. Next he went into journalism, at times filing reports in song. He also participated in various extreme sports, going on mountain climbing trips all over the Soviet Union and even becoming a ski instructor. (When did he have time for all this?) Naturally, many of his most famous songs concern hiking through the woods, climbing his favorite mountains, and long road trips.

To round out his already well-rounded life, Vizbor was also an occasional actor. When a director called him out of the blue to cast him in an upcoming movie, he thought it was a prank – his diploma said “teacher,” not “actor”! But for an amateur actor he didn’t do too shabbily, appearing in over a dozen films and voicing several more. Ironically, in his most famous movie appearance – as Martin Bormann in Seventeen Moments of Spring – his distinctive, slightly out-of-tune voice was replaced with another actor’s.

Vizbor with his usual seven-string

Did Vizbor know he was going to end up with so many careers? Well, no. “For myself,” he writes in his autobiography, “I thought I was going to become either a soccer player, or a pilot.” Good guess, young Yuri, but life had a lot more in store for you!

 

Image credit: peoples.ru, nnm.me, vizbor.ru

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
At the Circus (bilingual)

At the Circus (bilingual)

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.
Russian Rules

Russian Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.
Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
White Magic
June 01, 2021

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.

Bears in the Caviar
May 01, 2015

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.

The Samovar Murders
November 01, 2019

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.

Fish
February 01, 2010

Fish

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.

Moscow and Muscovites
November 26, 2013

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 

Survival Russian
February 01, 2009

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.

Steppe
July 15, 2022

Steppe

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.

The Latchkey Murders
July 01, 2015

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...

Driving Down Russia's Spine
June 01, 2016

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955