Alexander Galich (writer)
| Alexander Arkadievich Galich | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Native name | Александр Аркадьевич Галич |
| Born |
Alexander Aronovich Ginzburg October 19, 1918 Ekaterinoslav (now Dnipropetrovsk), Ukraine |
| Died | December 15, 1977 (aged 59) Paris, France |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Citizenship | Soviet Union |
| Occupation | poet, screenwriter, playwright, singer-songwriter, and dissident |
| Known for | his songs and participation in Soviet dissident movement |
Alexander Arkadievich Galich (Russian: Алекса́ндр Арка́дьевич Га́лич, Ukrainian: Олександр Аркадійович Галич; born Alexander Aronovich Ginzburg, Russian: Алекса́ндр Аро́нович Ги́нзбург, Ukrainian: Олександр Аркадійович Гінзбург, 19 October 1918, Ekaterinoslav – 15 December 1977, Paris) was a Soviet poet, screenwriter, playwright, singer-songwriter, and dissident.
Galich is a pen name, an abbreviation of his last name, first name, and patronymic: Ginzburg Alexander Arkadievich. He was born on 19 October 1918 in Ekaterinoslav (now Dnipropetrovsk), Ukraine, into a family of Jewish intellectuals. His father, Aron Samoilovich Ginzburg, was an economist, and his mother, Fanni Borisovna Veksler, worked in a music conservatory. For most of his childhood he lived in Sevastopol. Before World War II, he entered the Gorky Literary Institute, then moved to Konstantin Stanislavski's Operatic-Dramatic Studio, and then to the Studio-Theatre of Alexei Arbuzov and Valentin Pluchek (in 1939).
He wrote plays and screenplays, and in the late 1950s, he started to write songs and sing them accompanying himself on his guitar. Influenced by the Russian city romance tradition and the art of Alexander Vertinsky, Galich developed his own voice within the genre. He practically single-handedly created the genre of "bard song". Many of his songs spoke of the Second World War and the lives of concentration camp inmates—subjects which Vladimir Vysotsky also began tackling at around the same time. They became popular with the public and were made available via magnitizdat.
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