Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky (Russian: Ð'ладимир
СемÑ'нович Ð'Ñ‹Ñ Ð¾Ñ†ÐºÐ¸Ð¹, IPA: [vlÉ Ëˆdʲimʲɪr
sʲɪˈmʲɵnÉ™vʲɪtÉ• vɨˈsotskʲɪj]; 25 January 1938 â€" 25 July
1980) was a Soviet singer-songwriter, poet, and actor whose career had
an immense and enduring effect on Soviet culture. He became widely
known for his unique singing style and for his lyrics, which featured
social and political commentary in often humorous street jargon. He
was also a prominent stage and screen actor. Though his work was
largely ignored by the official Soviet cultural establishment, he
achieved remarkable fame during his lifetime, and to this day exerts
significant influence on many of Russia's popular musicians and actors
years after his death.Vladimir Vysotsky was born in Moscow at the 3rd
Meshchanskaya St. (61/2) maternity hospital. His father, Semyon
Volfovich (Vladimirovich) (1915â€"1997), was a colonel in the Soviet
army, originally from Kyiv. He was Jewish. Vladimir's mother, Nina
Maksimovna, (née Seryogina, 1912â€"2003) was Russian, and worked as a
German language translator. Vysotsky's family lived in a Moscow
communal flat in harsh conditions, and had serious financial
difficulties. When Vladimir was 10 months old, Nina had to return to
her office in the Transcript bureau of the Soviet Ministry of Geodesy
and Cartography (engaged in making German maps available for the
Soviet military) so as to help her husband earn their family's
living.Vladimir's theatrical inclinations became obvious at an early
age, and were supported by his paternal grandmother Dora Bronshteyn, a
theater fan. The boy used to recite poems, standing on a chair and
"flinging hair backwards, like a real poet," often using in his public
speeches expressions he could hardly have heard at home. Once, at the
age of two, when he had tired of the family's guests' poetry requests,
he, according to his mother, sat himself under the New-year tree with
a frustrated air about him and sighed: "You silly tossers! Give a
child some respite!" His sense of humor was extraordinary, but often
baffling for people around him. A three-year-old could jeer his father
in a bathroom with unexpected poetic improvisation ("Now look what's
here before us / Our goat's to shave himself!") or appall unwanted
guests with some street folk song, promptly steering them away.
Vysotsky remembered those first three years of his life in the
autobiographical Ballad of Childhood (Ð'аллада о
Ð´ÐµÑ‚Ñ Ñ‚Ð²Ðµ, 1975), one of his best-known songs.As the World War II
broke out, Semyon Vysotsky, a military reserve officer, joined the
Soviet army and went to fight the Nazis. Nina and Vladimir were
evacuated to the village of Vorontsovka, in Orenburg Oblast where the
boy had to spend six days a week in a kindergarten and his mother
worked for twelve hours a day in a chemical factory. In 1943, both
returned to their Moscow apartment at 1st Meschanskaya St., 126. In
September 1945, Vladimir joined the 1st class of the 273rd Moscow
Rostokino region School.
СемÑ'нович Ð'Ñ‹Ñ Ð¾Ñ†ÐºÐ¸Ð¹, IPA: [vlÉ Ëˆdʲimʲɪr
sʲɪˈmʲɵnÉ™vʲɪtÉ• vɨˈsotskʲɪj]; 25 January 1938 â€" 25 July
1980) was a Soviet singer-songwriter, poet, and actor whose career had
an immense and enduring effect on Soviet culture. He became widely
known for his unique singing style and for his lyrics, which featured
social and political commentary in often humorous street jargon. He
was also a prominent stage and screen actor. Though his work was
largely ignored by the official Soviet cultural establishment, he
achieved remarkable fame during his lifetime, and to this day exerts
significant influence on many of Russia's popular musicians and actors
years after his death.Vladimir Vysotsky was born in Moscow at the 3rd
Meshchanskaya St. (61/2) maternity hospital. His father, Semyon
Volfovich (Vladimirovich) (1915â€"1997), was a colonel in the Soviet
army, originally from Kyiv. He was Jewish. Vladimir's mother, Nina
Maksimovna, (née Seryogina, 1912â€"2003) was Russian, and worked as a
German language translator. Vysotsky's family lived in a Moscow
communal flat in harsh conditions, and had serious financial
difficulties. When Vladimir was 10 months old, Nina had to return to
her office in the Transcript bureau of the Soviet Ministry of Geodesy
and Cartography (engaged in making German maps available for the
Soviet military) so as to help her husband earn their family's
living.Vladimir's theatrical inclinations became obvious at an early
age, and were supported by his paternal grandmother Dora Bronshteyn, a
theater fan. The boy used to recite poems, standing on a chair and
"flinging hair backwards, like a real poet," often using in his public
speeches expressions he could hardly have heard at home. Once, at the
age of two, when he had tired of the family's guests' poetry requests,
he, according to his mother, sat himself under the New-year tree with
a frustrated air about him and sighed: "You silly tossers! Give a
child some respite!" His sense of humor was extraordinary, but often
baffling for people around him. A three-year-old could jeer his father
in a bathroom with unexpected poetic improvisation ("Now look what's
here before us / Our goat's to shave himself!") or appall unwanted
guests with some street folk song, promptly steering them away.
Vysotsky remembered those first three years of his life in the
autobiographical Ballad of Childhood (Ð'аллада о
Ð´ÐµÑ‚Ñ Ñ‚Ð²Ðµ, 1975), one of his best-known songs.As the World War II
broke out, Semyon Vysotsky, a military reserve officer, joined the
Soviet army and went to fight the Nazis. Nina and Vladimir were
evacuated to the village of Vorontsovka, in Orenburg Oblast where the
boy had to spend six days a week in a kindergarten and his mother
worked for twelve hours a day in a chemical factory. In 1943, both
returned to their Moscow apartment at 1st Meschanskaya St., 126. In
September 1945, Vladimir joined the 1st class of the 273rd Moscow
Rostokino region School.
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