Matvei Isaakovich Blanter

Born Jan. 28 (Feb. 10), 1903, in Pochep, Chernigov Province. Soviet composer. People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1965).

Blanter studied in the music colleges of Kursk and Moscow and took lessons in composition from G. E. Konius. From 1921 to 1933 he worked in various theaters as a composer and director of their music divisions. One of the masters of the Soviet popular song, he wrote “Katiusha,” which achieved worldwide popularity, and the songs “The Partisan Zhelezniak,” “Song of Shchors,” “Good-bye, Cities and Huts,” “In the Frontline Forest,” “My Loved One,” “Under the Balkan Stars,” “Nothing Better Than Apple Blossom,” and “The Birds of Passage Are Flying,” among others. Blanter’s songs have been written to the words of M. Golodnyi, V. Lebedev-Kumach, K. Simonov, A. Surkov, M. Svetlov, and other poets. More than 20 songs were written in collaboration with the poet M. Isakovskii. Blanter composed several operettas, including On the Shores of the Amur (1938; produced in 1939 at the Moscow Operetta Theater), as well as music for shows, films, and radio productions. He was awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1946, the Order of the Badge of Honor, and various medals.