"Alexander Galich" is the pseudonym of Alexander Arkadyevich Ginzburg. The daughter of the poet, playwright and performer of her own songs, Alexander Galich, once asked her father: "How old were you to write?" Father only laughed in response. And when she asked her grandmother about this, she thought for a while and said: “In my opinion, he began to compose poetry when he had not yet begun to speak
The childhood and youth of Alexander Galich
Alexander Ginzburg was born on October 19, 1918 in the city of Yekaterinoslavl (in Soviet times the city was called Dnepropetrovsk, since 2016 it has been called the Dnieper).
In 1923, the Ginzburg family moved to Moscow. Here Alexander went to school. At the age of 12 he began to study in a literary studio, and a year later he entered the Detkorovsky asset (literary brigade) of the newspaper Pionerskaya Pravda. In 1932, his first publication appeared in the newspaper - a poem: "Peace in a shout", in which imitation of Mayakovsky was clearly felt. The head of the literary brigade attracted the famous poet Eduard Bagritsky to work with young writers. Bagritsky, six months later, wrote in Komsomolskaya Pravda: “I systematically work with a literary group of pioneers and find here nuggets like Ginzburg, whose poem book I can print in a couple of years.” The poet did not have time to fulfill this promise, he died in 1934.
After graduating from the 9th grade, Sasha Ginzburg entered the Literary Institute and the Stanislavsky Opera and Drama Studio, but it turned out to be difficult to study at the same time in two places, and Alexander soon left classes at the Institute of Literature.
The beginning of a literary career
At the age of 21, Alexander Ginzburg entered the Studio Theater of Alexei Arbuzov and Valentin Pluchek. In this studio in 1940 he wrote songs for the play City at Dawn, in which he also took part in the script. In the same year, he began to sign with the pseudonym "Alexander Galich", which he invented by combining the first and last letters of his full name: "Ginsburg Alexander Arkadyevich."
In June 1941, the war began. Alexander Ginzburg received exemption from conscription to the front for health reasons (he was diagnosed with a heart defect), but with a group of friends he created the Komsomol Front Theater, for which he wrote songs and plays, performed with his troupe before the fighters.
At the end of the war, Alexander Galich writes plays that are successfully performed in the theaters of the country: “Taimyr calls you, ” “An hour before dawn, ” “How much does a person need.” According to his script, in 1954 the film "True Friends" was shot. In the fifties, Alexander Galich was admitted to the Union of Writers and the Union of Filmmakers of the USSR.
Conflict with the authorities
In 1958, at the Moscow Art Theater Theater Studio, under the direction of Oleg Efremov, a performance based on Galich’s play “Sailor's Silence” was being prepared. The performance was almost ready, and even received permission from Glavlit, but never reached the viewer. There was no official ban, but unofficially the playwright was told: “What do you want, comrade Galich, for a performance in the center of Moscow in a young metropolitan theater to tell how the Jews won the war ?!” They tried to stage the play several times in many theaters in the country, but each time there was a telephone call from party organs and, as a result, it was first played only in 1989.
At the end of the fifties, Galich concentrated on writing and playing his own songs to the seven-string guitar. In this work, he picked up the traditions of Alexander Vertinsky and became one of the most prominent representatives of the genre of the author’s song, along with Bulat Okudzhava and Yuri Visbor.
The unofficial ban on Sailor Silence drew additional attention to Galich’s work. In the early 60s he was accused of the fact that the songs he performed did not correspond to Soviet aesthetics. Galich continues his literary work. According to his scripts, the films “On the Seven Winds” and “Give the Complaint Book” are shot. For the film "State Criminal", released in 1965, Galich even received the prize of the KGB of the USSR. However, the songs of Alexander Galich, becoming more profound and politically sharp, each time cause more and more strong opposition from the authorities.
In 1968, at the author’s song festival in Novosibirsk, Galich performed his song “In Memory of B. L. Pasternak”:
So slander and debate fell silent
It's like taking time off from eternity
And the looters stood over the coffin, And carry the honorable
Guard!
The very next day, a flurry of criticism fell on the bard. Galich is no longer allowed to speak and publish his songs. In 1969, a collection of his songs was published at the emigration publishing house Posev, and soon Galich was expelled from the Union of Writers of the USSR. Following is the exclusion from the Union of Cinematographers. He is not being hired anywhere, and he is forced to sell books from his library in order to feed his family. In 1972, the poet had a heart attack, and he was given a second group of disabilities, but his pension for life is not enough. Party officials repeatedly offer Alexander Galich to voluntarily leave the USSR, but he does not agree for a long time. In 1974, a ban was issued in the USSR on all of his works, including previously published ones. In the summer of the same year, under pressure from the party and the KGB, Galich nevertheless left the country.
After leaving the USSR, Galich first lives in Norway, then moves to Germany, where he works for some time at the Radio Liberty station. After Germany, he moved to Paris, where on December 15, 1977 he died as a result of a tragic accident - an electric shock. He was buried at the Russian cemetery in Paris.
Family and personal life of Alexander Galich
Alexander Galich was married twice. With his first wife - actress Valentina Arkhangelskaya - he met at the beginning of the war, where he was with the troupe of the Studio Theater Arbuzov and Pluchek. Alexander and Valentina got married right after the troupe returned to Moscow in 1942, and a year later they had a daughter, Alena. Soon after the war ended, the family broke up, and in 1947 Galich married Angelina Nikolaevna Shekrot.
In 1967, Alexander Galich was born illegitimate son Gregory. Sofia Mikhnova-Voitenko, who worked at the Gorky film studio, became his mother.
