Vasily Ivanovich Lebedev-Kumach ()

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

, — 20 February 1949) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

and

lyricist A lyricist is a songwriter who writes lyrics (the spoken words), as opposed to a composer, who writes the song's music which may include but not limited to the melody, harmony, arrangement and accompaniment. Royalties A lyricist's incom ...

Biography

Vasily was born August 5, 1898 to a shoe maker. He went on to work in the printing department of the Revolutionary Military Council, moving on to ROSTO. He attended

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

. He adopted the nickname Kumach, a Turkish name for a variety of red cloth used to symbolize revolution. In time the nickname was added to his surname. Vasily's satirical verses published in such papers as ''Rabochaia gazeta'', ''Krest’ianskaia gazeta'', ''Gudok'', and ''

Krokodil ''Krokodil'' ( rus, Крокодил, p=krəkɐˈdʲil, a= Ru-крокодил.ogg, ) was a satirical magazine published in the Soviet Union. It was founded in 1922 as the satirical supplement to the '' Workers' Gazette'' (called simply «При� ...

'' led to his growing popularity. He also wrote songs for the film '' Late for a Date'' (1936). Vasily wrote numerous songs, the most famous being probably ''Священная война'' ( Svyaschennaya Voyna, 'The Sacred War'), ''Песня о Родине'' (A Song About the Motherland), ''Гимн партии большевиков'' (

Hymn of the Bolshevik Party The Hymn of the Bolshevik Party () is a song composed by Alexander Alexandrov. Its lyrics are written by Vasily Lebedev-Kumach. The opening bars of the song is sampled from '' Life has Become Better'' (), one of Alexandrov's previous pieces. Fro ...

) and ''Как много девушек хороших'' (Such a lot of nice girls!), later immortalized as the Argentine Tango song '' Serdtse'' (Сердце-Heart) by Pyotr Leshchenko. He worked closely with the composer

Isaak Dunayevsky Isaak Osipovich Dunayevsky (russian: Исаак Осипович Дунаевский ; also transliterated as Dunaevski or Dunaevskiy; 25 July 1955) was a Soviet film composer and conductor of the 1930s and 1940s, who composed music for operett ...

. Composer

Lyubov Streicher Lyubov Lvovna Streicher (3 March 1888 - 31 March 1958) was a Russian composer, teacher, and violinist, as well as a founding member of the Society for Jewish Folk Music. Streicher was born in Vladikavkaz. She graduated from the St. Petersburg Con ...

used Lebediv-Kumach‘s text for her song “A Simple Soviet Man,” which was recorded commercially by pianist Maria Yudina in 1937. He was also one of the first persons to use the term '' blat'' (блат) in print, when ''Krokodil'' published the poem ''Blat-not''.

External Links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lebedev-Kumach, Vasily 1898 births 1949 deaths Musicians from Moscow People from Moskovsky Uyezd Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Soviet poets Russian male poets Soviet male writers 20th-century Russian male writers Soviet songwriters Russian lyricists 20th-century Russian poets Soviet military personnel of the Winter War Soviet military personnel of World War II Stalin Prize winners Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the Order of the Red Star