Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava

Okudzhava, Bulat Shalvovich

 

Born May 9, 1924, in Moscow. Soviet Russian poet. Member of the CPSU since 1955. Fought in the Great Patriotic War.

In 1950, Okudzhava graduated from the University of Tbilisi. His works were first published in 1953. The main themes of his lyric poetry, including the collections Islands (1959), The Merry Drummer (1964), and The Magnanimous Month of March (1967), are drawn from impressions from the front during World War II and from the romance of everyday life. His verse combines the highly emotional with the conversational. He writes and performs lyrical songs.

Okudzhava’s prose works include a novel about P. I. Pestel’, A Gulp of Freedom (1971; published as Poor Avrosimov in 1969), as well as a satirical novella set in the mid-19th century, Merci, or the Adventures of Shipov (1971). He has also written screenplays.

REFERENCES

Krasukhin, G. “To grusten on, to vesel on.…” In Voprosy literatury, 1968, no. 9.
Kuniaev, St. “Inertsiia akkompanementa.” In Voprosy literatury, 1968, no. 9.
Solov’ev, V. “Po chertezham svoei dushi.” In Zvezda, 1968, no. 5.
Shtorm, G. “Istoriia prinadlezhit poetu. …” In Literaturnaia gazeta, Oct. 8, 1969.