Yuri Vizbor

Moscow, RSFSR, USSR

Biography

Soviet songwriter (bard), film actor, journalist, writer, screenwriter, poet, one of the founders of the author’s song genre, creator of the reportage song genre, author of more than 300 songs. In 1955 he graduated from the faculty of Russian language and literature of the Moscow Pedagogical Institute. In the same year, he wrote the text for his first song - Madagascar (the music was borrowed from the performance of Sergei Obraztsov “Under the rustle of your eyelashes”). While studying at the institute, he began to write songs - usually in his own poems. From 1950 to 1960 - composed about 40 songs. He worked as a teacher, served in the army. Since 1958 he worked on the All-Union Radio, in 1962 he initiated the creation of the youth radio station "Youth". Since 1964, together with a group of like-minded people, he published the magazine Krugozor, where he created the unique genre of "song-reporting". Since 1970, he worked as a screenwriter and editor of the cinema association "Screen" of the Central Television. The first role was played in the film "July Rain." Among the most interesting roles of Vizbor are Begounyok in the Red Tent, Sasha in You and Me, Balashov in the Belorussky Train Station, Borman in Seventeen Moments of Spring. More than forty documentaries, as well as the feature film "Year of the Dragon" and the television movie "Captain Frackass", have been delivered according to the scripts of Vizbor. Vizbor is considered one of the founders and the most prominent representatives of the author's song. He wrote a number of scripts and plays that were performed in many theaters in the country. The tales and stories of Vizbor were published mostly after his death. The book "I left my heart in the blue mountains" (1986-1989) had a circulation of 250 thousand copies. Passed away on September 17, 1984 from liver cancer in the Moscow Cancer Center on Kashirskoye Highway. He was buried at the Kuntsevsky cemetery of the capital.

Movies