Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava (also transliterated as Boulat Okudjava, Okoudjava, or Okoudzhava; Russian:Була́т Ша́лвович Окуджа́ва) (May 9, 1924 – June 12, 1997) was a Soviet and Russian poet, writer, musician, novelist, and singer-songwriter. He was one of the founders of the Russian genre called “author song” (авторская песня, avtorskaya pesnya). He was born in Moscow and died in Paris. He was the author of about 200 songs, digests to his own poetry. His songs are a mixture of Russian poetic and folksong traditions and the French chansonnier style represented by such contemporaries of Okudzhava as Georges Brassens.
