(25.1.1938 – 25.7.1980)

“In Russia, a poet is more than a poet. And Vladimir Vysotsky is the soul of Russian poetry – a soul that sings, sometimes sadly, sometimes joyfully, but always sincerely.” With these words, Academician Grigory Pototsky, creator of Vysotsky’s bust-monument in the Writers’ Alley, began his speech at its unveiling.

He spoke with admiration of the artist’s extraordinary personality – a poet, prose writer, stage and film actor, and screenwriter who spoke and sang with the voice of the Russian people during some of their most difficult years.

Born in Moscow into the family of a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, Vysotsky himself had no memories of the war, yet his songs about it – “Penal Battalions,” “Song of the Stars,” “Everyone Went to the Front,” “Mass Graves,” “He Did Not Return from Battle,” “The Letter” and others – created an enduring memory of the Russian soldiers who fought in it.

His theatrical education at the Moscow Art Theatre School, from which he graduated in 1960, gave the restless actor the opportunity to embody many different figures from history and contemporary life, while travelling throughout his country and getting to know its people. Their joys and sorrows inspired the words of more than 800 songs. Some were heard in stage productions and films, others survived in private archival recordings, while many were suppressed by the censorship of the authorities because of their sharply critical language.

Only after Vysotsky’s death did the great Russian poet Robert Rozhdestvensky manage to collect and publish some of his emblematic works in the book “Nerve” (1981).

A national survey ranked “Song of a Friend,” “The Rock Climber,” “Morning Exercise” and others among his most popular songs, while “Fastidious Horses” came to be regarded as one of Vysotsky’s signature works. In 1984, it also inspired the monument at his grave, created by Alexander Rukavishnikov.

Vysotsky also left several works of prose, including “Dolphins and Psychos” (written in 1968, published in 1989) and “A Novel About Girls” (written in 1977, published in 1988). Together with Leonid Monchinsky, he was also a co-author of the novel “The Black Candle” (1992).

His work gained a wide international following. His writings have been included in literature textbooks in the Czech Republic and Israel, and in 2009 a textbook by R. Jones, “Using the Music of Vladimir Vysotsky in Teaching the Russian Language,” was published in the United States.

Death overtook the poet and singer at the age of only 42, during the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. The authorities attempted to keep news of his death quiet, yet some 40,000 people joined the funeral procession, which stretched for around 10 kilometres through the streets of the capital.

It was perhaps the greatest testimony to the significance of a man who, despite all of life’s trials, sang of his love for life with the words:

“I will never grow tired of being alive.”

The bust was created by Grigory Pototsky, the internationally renowned Russian sculptor, founder and president of the International Academy of Kindness, and creator of the monuments to General Gurko and the Mother of God in Sofia, for which he received the Golden Muse Award.

More than 140 of his works serve as ambassadors of his philosophy of Kindness in 40 countries around the world. Its symbol is his sculpture “Dandelion,” whose seeds are represented as human hands.