Background
Yuri Vizbor was born in Moscow where he lived for most of his life. His mother was an ethnic Ukrainian from Krasnodar. In 1937, his father fell victim to Stalin"s purges.
Actor composer journalist poet
Yuri Vizbor was born in Moscow where he lived for most of his life. His mother was an ethnic Ukrainian from Krasnodar. In 1937, his father fell victim to Stalin"s purges.
In 1951, he graduated from high school and was accepted at the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute.
He worked as a teacher, a soldier, a sailor, a radio and press correspondent, a ski instructor, and an actor in many famous Russian films and plays. He participated in and documented expeditions to remote areas of the Soviet Union. His compositions included songs, poetic prose, plays, screenplays and short stories.
Vizbor"s father, a commander in the Red Army, was of Lithuanian descent.
His family name was originally Vizbaras. In 1941, Yuri and his mother moved to Siberia.
This period influenced the artist"s distaste for politics and his fascination with the wilderness. lieutenant was here that he wrote his first song, entitled "Madagascar".
After graduating with a degree in Russian Language and Literature in 1955, Vizbor worked as a teacher in Arkhangelsk.
In 1957 he joined the Army where he worked as a radio operator. In the late fifties and early 60"s Vizbor began to acquire fame as a songwriter by circulating homemade tapes. In March 1984, Vizbor wrote his last song, having written over 250 of them during the past thirty-three years.
His poetry had also been set to music by numerous musicians.
A minor planet 3260 Vizbor discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Zhuravlyova in 1974 is named after him.