Aleksandr Galich (1918–1977)

Galich began as a playwright after World War II; later he also wrote screenplays. During the 1960s and 1970s, along with Bulat Okudzhava and Vladimir Vysotsky, he achieved great fame as one of the most popular unofficial "bards," writing and performing his poem-songs to his own guitar toon meer accompaniment. Though they were never published, recordings of his concerts circulated widely on cassette. Galich's modes range from the satirical to the tragic, and he covers such subjects as the fate of Russian writers, the Holocaust, and the situation of Soviet Jews. He was expelled from the Union of Writers in 1971, emigrated to Europe in 1974, traveled widely on concert tours for emigre audiences, and died in Paris in an accident. In recent years, recordings of his songs and collections of the texts have been issued in the Soviet Union. (Bowker Author Biography) toon minder