January 25 marks the 80th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky. A poet, actor and singer-songwriter of his own songs, he was also a tireless traveler. Despite the severe bans on outbound tourism in force in the USSR, in the last seven years of his life, Vysotsky managed to visit several dozen countries. We will tell you about his most interesting and unusual trips.
The role of Ariadne, who with the help of a guiding thread led Theseus out of the Minotaur’s labyrinth, in Vysotsky’s life was played by his wife Marina Vladi, a French actress of Russian origin. She was not only a world-class movie star, but also the vice-president of the USSR-France society and even a member of the French Communist Party. During one of the high-level receptions, she directly addressed Brezhnev with a complaint that her husband, the famous Soviet actor Vladimir Vysotsky, had not been allowed to visit her in Paris for three years and asked for assistance in reuniting the family. Leonid Ilyich could not refuse the request of a beautiful woman, who was also a communist, and the issue of Vysotsky going abroad was quickly resolved. Moreover, Vysotsky was allowed not just a standard exit “maximum once a year”, but was given an unlimited visa to cross the Iron Curtain multiple times, which he did not fail to take advantage of, to the envy of his theater colleagues.
Germany
Vladimir Vysotsky driving his Mercedes, donated by Marina to Vladi (photo from the family archive of the Vysotsky family)
The first capitalist country that Vysotsky saw was Germany. More precisely, West Berlin. This happened in the spring of 1973. Vysotsky and Marina Vladi drove from Moscow to Paris in her car. Through Poland, the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany. Like most Soviet people who found themselves abroad for the first time, Vysotsky experienced a real shock. He was especially struck by the windows of grocery stores. According to Vladi’s recollections, he almost cried: “How can this happen? They lost the war, and they have everything, but we won, and we have nothing!”
But still, positive emotions defeated skepticism. Vysotsky was pleasantly surprised that “no one breaks glass or steals.” And two years later, answering a question from a German television correspondent, he even talked about his favorite German cities: “I’ve been to Germany several times, but, unfortunately, just passing through. Still, I saw some interesting cities – for example, Cologne. I even have sentimental places there that I love to visit. I visited several other cities, of which Gottingen was the most memorable. I was also passing through, true, but still I spent two days and a night there.”
In Cologne he gave his first foreign concert. More likely, even an apartment dweller. In January 1979, he gave a full concert in West Berlin, at the Kant-Kino cinema on Kantstrasse. And Vysotsky also gave his last foreign concert in Germany, in Cologne, in May 1980, two months before his death.
France
Vladimir Vysotsky and Marina Vladi in Paris (Photo: CORBIS/ALL OVER PRESS)
Vysotsky has been to France many times. I visited Paris several times a year, sometimes coming for just a week, and sometimes staying there for months. He used this city as a base camp from where he traveled around the world. They were organized, of course, by Marina Vladi, who also served as a guide and translator. Vysotsky could more or less express himself in French, but he did not speak English at all. So they went everywhere together.
In France, they mostly lived near Paris, in Marina’s huge house in the country estate of Maisons-Laffite. And in the city itself they rented a small apartment on Rue Rousselet, in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. The apartment was located on the second floor in house No. 28, opposite there was an Iranian restaurant where they often dined, and in the neighboring house No. 30 there was the studio of the artist Mikhail Shemyakin, a great friend of Vysotsky. It was here, from 1975 to 1980, that Shemyakin recorded seven famous Vysotsky albums at his home studio, which were distributed underground throughout the USSR, and in 1987 were released on vinyl in America.
Vladimir Vysotsky in Paris
Two more famous Parisian addresses of Vysotsky: the Bouffes du Nord theater, which hosted Vysotsky’s first concert in Paris in 1975, and the Resonance recording studio of Le Chant du Monde, where in the same year Vysotsky recorded his first major album (in the USSR he released only minions, small records that contained only four songs). The famous Bulgarian guitarist and composer Konstantin Kazanski helped him in the recording. He arranged all the songs and played guitar solos. Guitarist Claude Pavy and double bassist Pierre Moreillon also participated in the recording. The work continued continuously for three days, but the result was stunning: the musicians recorded 23 songs. The double disc “Interrupted Flight”, which was released after Vysotsky’s death in 1981, is considered by the singer’s fans to be the best in his work.
In Paris, Vysotsky’s business is going as well as possible. He appears on French television, meets many celebrities (of course, through the mediation of Marina Vladi),
he is close friends with Mikhail Baryshnikov, partying with Gerard Depardieu… He likes the way Parisians dress, he likes the fact that the smell of Chanel No. 5 is everywhere, that people sit in open cafes and drink champagne in front of everyone… He said to one of his close friends: “After Paris, Moscow seems like a plundered city.” But the deeper he plunges into Parisian life, the more pessimistic his attitude towards the capital of France becomes. As a result, a line appears, an appeal to a Moscow friend, actor of the Taganka Theater Ivan Bortnik: “Eh, Vanya, you and I are needed in Paris, like skis in a Russian bathhouse.”
USA
Vladimir Vysotsky, Marina Vladi, Milos Forman and Jessica Lange in Los Angeles (the four were photographed by Mikhail Baryshnikov – a legend of world ballet )
Vysotsky visited America several times. The first one was in July 1976. And immediately – a recording on New York television, in the television program “60 Minutes”, where they introduced him as “the Soviet Bob Dylan” and tried to label him “a fighter against the regime who sings protest songs.” But Vysotsky immediately outlined his position: “I am not a dissident, I am an artist. I sing about how people live, that they want to live better today than yesterday, and tomorrow better than today.”
Host Dan Rutter asks Vysotsky: “It seems to me that some people in the USSR are worried whether you will come back. I’m not mistaken?”
Vladimir Vysotsky: “What are you saying! This is the fourth or fifth time I’ve left and I always come back. That’s funny! If I were a person who is afraid to be allowed out of the country, this would be a completely different interview. I sit calmly in front of you, calmly answer your questions. I love my country and don’t want to harm it. And I never will.”
He liked New York madly. He even had a dream of opening a Russian artistic club here. Here he met Joseph Brodsky, visited him at 44 Morton Street. Brodsky signed a book of his poems for him: “To the best poet of Russia, both inside and outside. August 20, 1977.”
And here’s how Marina Vladi tells about their visit to Disneyland: “Having arrived early in the morning, we have time to ride all the rides, we go through all the horror rooms – endless little worlds that captivate you… I’m watching you, because everything here consists of tricks , and for a dedicated person working in cinema or theater, everything is sewn with white thread. But no, from your wide open eyes, moving from object to object, from your joyful face, it is clear that you are captivated by this spectacle.”
Vladimir Vysotsky and Marina Vladi in San Francisco (photo from the personal archive of Marina Vladi)
Vysotsky also visited Los Angeles and Hollywood. Film director Milos Forman talked about how Vysotsky played at a party hosted by De Niro in front of a whole bunch of Hollywood stars who, without understanding a word, listened to his songs for an hour, as if spellbound. In August 1978, Vysotsky and Vladi visited the Hawaiian Islands, the most exotic state of the USA, but nothing is known about the details of this trip.
In January 1979, Vysotsky made a grand tour of America, organized by producer Viktor Shulman. The poster gives an idea of the intensity of these performances: January 17 and 19 – two concerts in New York, at Brooklyn College and Queens College, January 20 – Boston and New Jersey, January 21 – Philadelphia, 22 – Detroit, 23rd – Chicago… Full houses everywhere. The audience is, of course, mostly Russian emigrants. On January 25, his birthday, he performs in Los Angeles. And two days later in Moscow he plays at the Taganka Theater in the play “In Search of a Genre.” Such is the rhythm of life. During these American tours, Vysotsky earned 38 thousand dollars, more than during his entire twenty-year career as an artist in the Soviet Union.
Canada
Vladimir Vysotsky on the Great Lakes
In August 1976, Vysotsky and Marina Vladi visited Montreal, where the Olympic Games were being held at that time. Vysotsky played for Soviet football players.
Marina’s acquaintance, producer Gilles Talbot, suggested Vysotsky record an album. The recording took place at RCA’s Morin Heights studio, located 60 kilometers from Montreal. John Lennon, David Bowie, and the Bee Gees recorded here. Vysotsky was assigned session musicians, and in a few days they recorded 24 songs. Only 11 of them were included in the album. During breaks, Vysotsky loved to sail in an Indian canoe on the lake, on the shore of which there was a recording studio.
Marina Vladi and Vladimir Vysotsky at the USSR Consulate in Toronto
A year later, Vysotsky again found himself in Montreal. This time his goal was an international film festival. Also during this trip, he and Marina Vladi attended a concert of the rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, held at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium.
Vysotsky also visited Toronto. During his second visit to Canada in April 1979, he gave two concerts here, although not as successful as in the United States. If in America several thousand people came to his concerts, then in Toronto “only” six hundred gathered.
By the way, Canada was the first country where Vysotsky’s poems were published translated into a foreign language.
Mexico
Vladimir Vysotsky during a performance on Mexican television. Still from the TV show “Musicalisimo 77”
Vysotsky ended up in Mexico in the summer of 1977. Marina Vladi starred here in Rene Cardona’s film “Secrets of the Bermuda Triangle”. They flew to Mexico via Madrid, where they spent two days. One of them was entirely dedicated to the Prado Gallery, where Vysotsky saw masterpieces of his favorite artists – Velazquez, Goya, El Greco and Bosch.
Filming takes place on the paradise island of Cozumel in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. The couple live in one of the rooms at the La Ceiba Hotel in the capital of the island. From Vysotsky’s letter to his constant respondent Ivan Bortnik: “Do you know, my unforgettable friend Vanya, where I am? Take, Vanya, a map, or better yet, a globe! Took? Now look, my dear, America… Not there, this, fool, is Africa. To the left! Here… exactly. Now find the hostile USA! So. And below is Mexico. And I’m in it. Now feel around Mexico with your finger, to the right until it turns blue. This will be the Caribbean Sea, and there’s this little tongue sticking out into it. This is the Yucatan Peninsula, where the Mayan Indians lived, who were brutally exterminated by the Spanish conquistadors, as evidenced by numerous ruins, skeletal remains, skulls and soil red from the abundant shedding of blood. At the very tip of the Yucatan, like a tip on the tongue, there is a paradise called Cancun, but I’m not there. I still have 4 hours by boat to the island of Cozumel – don’t look for it, Vanya, on the map – it’s not on the map, because it’s tiny, just like from you to Vnukovo.”
In another letter to Moscow, Vysotsky writes: “…In Mexico, I suddenly started writing! Such a small town, province. And so it came out of me… Straight up – Boldino autumn! It is known for sure that, among other things, at this time Vysotsky wrote a comic song “Letter to the editor of a television program «The obvious is the incredible» from a madhouse”, which talks about the Bermuda Triangle.
After Cozumel – moving to Mexico City, performing on Mexican television in the music program Musicalisimo. And then immediately – to Tahiti.
Tahiti
Vladimir Vysotsky and Marina Vladi
Vysotsky visited Tahiti twice. Marina’s second husband Vladi, the owner of the airline Jean-Claude Brouillet, lived here, with whom she maintained a good relationship. Her children from two previous marriages – Igor, Peter and Vladimir – were also often there. Jean-Claude Brouillet was the owner of the Qia Ora hotel on the island of Moorea, located half an hour by boat from Tahiti. So Vysotsky spent most of his time here. Brouillet later sold his hotel and moved to California. Now this hotel is called Sofitel. On his second visit to Moorea, Vysotsky and Vladi stayed at the Aimeo Hotel (he even wrote several songs on its letterhead). The hotel was later renamed Club Bali Hai.
On a postcard sent to his mother in Moscow, Vysotsky wrote: “Mommy! This is Tahiti, and we are here now. We have nowhere to write, because we don’t sit still – we either swim or fly. I’m black. I kiss you deeply. Volodya.” From this “swim-fly” it becomes clear that they visited several islands of Polynesia. From Tahiti and Mo’orea, within an hour you can fly to other Polynesian islands popular with tourists: Bora Bora, Huahine, Raiatea. And since Marina Vladi had no financial problems, we can assume that Vysotsky visited there too.
The result of the vacation in Tahiti was the song “One Scientific Riddle, or Why the Aborigines Ate Cook.”
Cruise Genoa – Casablanca – Canaries – Madeira – Barcelona – Genoa
Vladimir Vysotsky and Marina Vladi at the motor ship “Belorussia”
Vysotsky and Vladi even took part in this two-week cruise twice: in the spring of 1975 and then again, exactly a year later. Vysotsky always loved sea cruises. Before he became a “travel traveler,” every summer, starting in 1968, Vysotsky went on a cruise on a motor ship on the Black Sea from Odessa to Batumi, calling at Yalta and other ports of the Crimea and the Caucasus.
It is interesting that this time the ship was Soviet and was called “Belorussia”. Its captain was Felix Dashkov, an old friend of Vysotsky’s from the Black Sea.
This is how Vysotsky found himself in Africa for the first time. It is strange that neither the poet himself nor Marina Vladi left any memories of these cruises. There is only an interview with Dashkov, in which he recalls that one of Vysotsky’s most powerful impressions was how they ate lobster in one of the restaurants in Casablanca.
Vladimir Vysotsky in Rabat, Morocco
From Casablanca, Vysotsky went to the capital of Morocco – Rabat. A car was specially sent for him from the Soviet embassy to organize a concert for its employees. He gave another concert in Casablanca, at the representative office of the USSR Marine Fleet.
And as always – a postcard to mom: “Mommy! We are in Morocco. We sit, drink mint tea and walk around the market – everything here is copper and glitters. Warm. Lots of colors. Fine! Kiss. Volodya.”
Text author: Dmitry Rzhannikov
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