Bulat Okudzhava

Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava was a Soviet and Russian poet, writer, musician, novelist, and singer-songwriter of Georgian-Armenian ancestry. He was one of the founders of the Soviet genre called "author song", or "guitar song", and the author of about 200 songs, set to his own poetry. His songs are a mixture of Russian poetic and folk song traditions and the French chansonnier style represented by such contemporaries of Okudzhava as Georges Brassens. Though his songs were never overtly political, the freshness and independence of Okudzhava's artistic voice presented a subtle challenge to Soviet cultural authorities, who were thus hesitant for many years to give him official recognition.

9 May 1924

Born on the same birth day (9 May): Baldur von Schirach • Daniel Berrigan • Frederick Weld • Graham Harman • János Batsányi • Lucian Blaga • Majlinda Kelmendi • Marie-José Pérec

Born in the same month (May 1924): Anthony Dryden Marshall • David Chavchavadze • Dawda Jawara • Francis Tombs, Baron Tombs • Karlheinz Deschner • Ken Tyrrell • Lars Bo • Maria Koepcke • Patricia Kennedy Lawford • Paul Hébert • Priscilla Pointer • Terry Southern • Theodore Bikel • Zelmar Michelini