Anna Gerasimova (russian: link=no, А́нна Гео́ргиевна Гера́симова, born 19 April 1961, Moscow), also known by her nickname Umka (russian: link=no, У́мка), is a Russian rock singer-songwriter, the leader of the group

Umka and Bronevik Umka and Bronevik (russian: Умка и Броневик, "Umka and the Armoured Car"), sometimes abbreviated as Umka & Bro, is a Russian band playing in the American and British guitar rock styles of 1960-1970s, ranging from classic rhythm-and-b ...

. She is also a poet, literary translator, literature researcher, traveler, and a significant person in the Russian

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...

movement.

Songs

Songs written and sung by Umka have become well-known among the Soviet hippies since 1986. In 1986–87 she recorded five homemade albums with different musicians, and these albums have been widely spread on tapes in the USSR and abroad. In 1988 she stopped writing songs and switched to philological work and translations; in 1989 she defended her PhD dissertation about OBERIU literary group. In 1995 she returned to active song-writing and performing. She started to perform with occasional musicians in a number of concerts and recorded several homemade albums. Eventually her band has gained the name ''Bronevichok'' ("Small Armored Vehicle"; in 2005 the name was changed to ''Bronevik'', "Armored Vehicle"). The first studio album by '' Umka & Bronevichok'' was released on tapes in 1997; the first compact disc titled ''The CD'' was released in 1998. In these years they have been generally considered as 'underground' musicians, though never willing to remain underground. Since 1998 about 20 albums were released on CDs. Umka and her band travel extensively; they toured in many cities of the former USSR and many countries abroad (USA, United Kingdom, Israel, Germany, Netherlands). The total number of published songs is above 250; many songs were never released.

Literary translations

Literary and poetic translation was Anna Gerasimova's major field during her studies in the

Maxim Gorky Literature Institute The Maxim Gorky Literature Institute (russian: Литературный институт им. А. М. Горького) is an institution of higher education in Moscow. It is located at 25 Tverskoy Boulevard in central Moscow. History The insti ...

. She published translations from German, English, French, but mostly from

Lithuanian Lithuanian may refer to: * Lithuanians * Lithuanian language * The country of Lithuania * Grand Duchy of Lithuania * Culture of Lithuania * Lithuanian cuisine * Lithuanian Jews as often called "Lithuanians" (''Lita'im'' or ''Litvaks'') by other Jew ...

( Tomas Venclova, Gintaras Patackas, Antanas A. Jonynas,

Henrikas Radauskas Henrikas Radauskas (born in 1910 in Kraków, Poland, died in 1970 in Washington, D.C.) was a Lithuanian poet and writer. Radauskas spent his childhood in Panevėžys; subsequently his family relocated to Novonikolayevsk, currently Novosibirsk, wh ...

). Her most significant published translations include

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian a ...

's '' The Dharma Bums'' (1994) and ''

Big Sur Big Sur () is a rugged and mountainous section of the Central Coast of California between Carmel and San Simeon, where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. It is frequently praised for its dramatic scenery. Big Sur ha ...

'' (2002). She has also translated several autobiographic books and interviews of British and American rock musicians: Keith Richards,

Iggy Pop James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter and actor. Called the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Godfather of Punk", he was the vocalist and lyricist of ...

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by wikt:nonconformity, nonconformity, Free improvisation, free-form improvisation, sound experimen ...

Maureen Tucker Maureen Ann "Moe" Tucker (born August 26, 1944) is an American musician and singer-songwriter who was the drummer for the New York City-based rock band the Velvet Underground. After they disbanded in the early 1970s, she left the music industry ...

and others.

Philology and literary criticism

As a professional philologist, Gerasimova published scholarly articles on history of the

Russian avant-garde The Russian avant-garde was a large, influential wave of avant-garde modern art that flourished in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, approximately from 1890 to 1930—although some have placed its beginning as early as 1850 and its e ...

literature, including the legacy of the OBERIU members Alexander Vvedensky, Daniil Kharms and Konstantin Vaginov. She has edited several publications of their previously unpublished works.

Personal life

Gerasimova was married to writer Yegor Radov from 1981 to 1986 with whom she has a son, Alexey Radov.

External links

Official site
(English)
Official site
(Russian)

(with mp3s and self-translations) * Photo galleries

Audio and video archive

Umka and Boris. Live session on mastanmusic.com podcast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerasimova, Anna 1961 births Living people Russian bards Russian women singers Russian rock singers Russian women singer-songwriters Singers from Moscow Soviet songwriters Maxim Gorky Literature Institute alumni