The following is my translation of a broadcast by the Russian radio station Ekho Moskvy (8/6/2016) on the subject of the iconic singer Vladimir Vysotsky and his Jewishness [x]. Throughout the text, I will offer several clarifications, and full translations of various songs are available on request. For a full biography of Vladimir Vysotsky and his impact on Russian culture and the world, read his damn Wikipedia page.
It’s difficult to explain Vysotsky to non-Russians; he didn’t have much of a singing voice, his style was peculiar and his genre was the often esoteric Soviet criminal ballad - but, like a true poet, he screamed his truth when truth was scarce and illegal.
I have chosen the above picture, though it does not appear in the original show transcript (which is rich in other illustrations) because it perfectly summarizes the Bard for me. Vysotsky, as Hamlet, at a famed Moscow theater not far from my former home. A Russian Jew as the conflicted Dane. A poet doomed to an early death, speaking soliloquy to a prop skull. A romanticized figure, whose bones we pore over even now.
But This Great Luminary Was, Unfortunately - a Jew
It’s natural for the average person to be interested in his roots, his ancestors and the history of his people.
What’s strange, however, is when this subject becomes a topic of interest for other people, and when an individual’s ethnicity becomes the basis for conclusions about both his character and his oeuvre.
The Jewish roots of Vladimir Vysotsky have, for many years now, served as fertile ground for incomprehensible arguments and absurd conclusions, although his biography contains no secrets or, in fact, anything out of the ordinary.
A very young Vysotsky had written in one of his song sketches:
In days when ugly moral principles
Turned to dust under ruling power
The Jews Vysotsky lived in Rome
Unknown to the upper class.
Of course, the Vysotskys never lived in Rome – this is an artistic impression – but it is thought that the ancestors of Vladimir Semyonovich [Vysotsky] hailed from the shtetl Seletz, not far from Brest-Litovsk.
Vysotsky fanatics have in great detail traced his genealogy, as well as all patrilineal ancestors* – from his grandfather Volf Shlimovich Vysotsky, a near namesake of the poet, to great-great-grandfathers Akhim Reich and Mordechai Bronshtein.
And it cannot be said that Vysotsky himself was indifferent to his ethnic background. His cousin, Irena Vysotskaya, recalled, “Of course, Volodya [Vladimir] and I talked at length about our Jewishness.” From childhood, he knew various Yiddish** words and amusing sayings, and because his uncle Aleksei Vladimirovich and his father sometimes sang Jewish songs, Vysotsky himself gave his due to Jewish folklore.
But in 1964, in a letter to his wife Lyudmila Abramov, “Volodya” wrote that he had “come to resemble a Russian lout, and of Jewishness there remained not a trace.”***
However, that very same year, Vysotsky performed his famous song about the “Jewish issue” in the USSR:
Vladimir Vysotsky, “Anti-Semite” listen (Notable line: “And I smash the kikes/and I save Russia”)
It should be noted that in the Soviet passport, there was the infamous “fifth paragraph,” where, in required order, appeared the nationality of an individual. However, in common parlance, the “fifth paragraph” almost always implied Jewishness. And this same “fifth paragraph” had ruined the lives and careers of many notable people, because under the officially proclaimed internationalism, there existed secret quotas for Jews. Jewish people could not hold certain positions, study at certain universities, and in general, were considered “suspicious” people.
[Soviet passport with “Jew” indicated as nationality in the “fifth paragraph”]
Despite this, in 1968 Vysotsky performed a song dedicated to his good friend, the renowned [Jewish] neurosurgeon Eduard Israelevich Kandel.****
[Song text. Notable line – “But this great luminary/Was, unfortunately, a Jew”]
Of course, of Jews and Israel, Vysotsky sang not only in a social, but also in a partly political sense. His famous “Lecture about the International Status” is a satirical song. It should be noted, however, that as far as the “enemy state of Israel” and its leaders were concerned, Soviet people were not even allowed to joke or create satire. It was all very, very serious.
Vladimir Vysotsky, “Lecture about the International Status…” listen
(For context, a “lecture about the international status” was a common form of “enlightening” propaganda for the masses. People gathered in a hall, and the lector explained to them a current event and the Party’s policy on relevant international issues). [the lyrics are fucking otherworldly, ask for translation if needed]
However, on the subject of the Jewish theme in the artistry of Vladimir Vysotsky, the majority of people***** probably remember this song:
Vladimir Vysotsky, “Mishka Shiffman” listen
[One of many Notable lines: “He told me such a thing/It was so beautiful/That I damn near fell/Into the claws of Tel Aviv”)
From the end of the ‘60s to the beginning of the ‘80s, over a hundred thousand Jews left the USSR for Israel. But Vladimir Vysotsky never seriously discussed a desire to go anywhere, let alone Israel. Although he had numerous opportunities to become an émigré, he always felt himself to be a Russian poet and could not imagine himself without his country.*******
*Vladimir Vysotsky was a Soviet Jew as his father was Jewish.
**The Russian word “yevrei” (Jew) often came to represent all facets of the Eastern European Jewish experience. Although here, the author uses the Russian word for “Jewish,” it almost certainly means “Yiddish” in context.
***”Looking Jewish” was/is very much a thing in Russia. Whether this excerpt referred to common physical traits of Ashkenazi Jews, or the stereotype that Jewish men weren’t “strong” or “rough” like Russians, is unclear.
****The original text doesn’t mention Kandel’s being a Jew, which should serve as another example of Russian perceptions of Jewishness; his name alone is evidence enough in a show meant for the Russian public.
*****Of course, I know nothing about the ethnicity of the show’s author, but as far as most Russian Jews I know are concerned, we all favor the directness and brutal take-down of the USSR’s ugliness in “Anti-Semite.”
*****This is the reflection of the radio host. It is suspiciously reminiscent of ever-present Russian propagandist notions that no one could ever possibly want to leave the Motherland. Vysotsky’s own thoughts on the matter are far from clear; as he died very young, we will unfortunately never know the truth.
