Rendering №13

The article “Commemorating Vladimir Vysotsky -Russia's best-loved bard poet” was published on January 24, 2013 in “Russia Beyond the Headlines”. It contains memories of this timeless icon and his legacy. Benjamin Hutter pays attention that today, more than 30 years since his death in 1980, Vladimir Vysotsky continues to draw crowds in Moscow. The author met his son and several other Russian performers at the Jan. 19 tribute concert at Crocus City Hall, which commemorated what would have been his 75th birthday. It is an open secret that Nikita Vysotsky did not know his father well, since he divorced and remarried the French actress Marina Vlady in 1969. It is necessary to mention that for what would have been his father’s 75th birthday, Nikita has brought together a sprinkling of famous performers to sing, reminisce and revive Vysotsky’s art on stage at Crocus City Hall. The son He recalled the first time his father made a recording, when he was still an actor at the Taganka Theatre in Moscow. However, Vysotsky’s songs were never officially permitted in the Soviet Union; he was only recognized officially as a theatre and cinema actor.The reporter makes clear that on stage, wearing a pullover, he gave a revolutionary performance of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” and he made a lasting impression on the big screen with “The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed” (1979).

It is not necessary to explain that Vysotsky couldn’t make records legally but  “Even without posters and leaflets, everyone knew when and where his next underground concert would take place,” says actor Sergei Bezrukov, who played him in the film “Vysotsky, Thank You for Being Alive” (2011). Vladimir Shakhrin, leader of the group Chaif, did not discover Vysotsky through the secretly made cassettes; his father used Vysotsky’s songs to help teach him how to play guitar. The author points out that Shakhrin’s friends and he insisted that their street should be called Vysotsky Street, and they succeeded. By way of summing up, Shakhrin makes an interesting comparison: “Europe had its Beatlemania. We didn’t have the Beatles at that time – but we did have Vysotsky.” Ilja “Chjort” (a devil) Knabengof considers about Vysotsky that through his attitude and his deep, intellectual lyrics, he created Russian rock in the way it exists today. Vysotsky was the first Russian rocker. The article revealed that Vysotsky’s legacy is so profound that some see him as untouchable in terms of the heights he reached.

In conclusion the correspondent gave an opinion that the audience is also enchanted by this legacy. Moreover, this jubilee was attended by thousands of Muscovites, offering Vysotsky that which he desired above all else during his lifetime – immortality. As for me, I like Vladimir Vysotsky because he was very talented in music and cinema. The films with him are popular in our time and his songs are heard very often. He was and he is the legend for Russian people, even for us, people who had not found him alive.