Vasily Lebedev-Kumach

Vasily Ivanovich Lebedev-Kumach (Russian: Василий Иванович Лебедев-Кумач); 5 August [O.S. 24 July] 1898 — 20 February 1949) was a Soviet poet and lyricist.^[1]

Vasily Lebedev-Kumach
Native name	Василий Лебедев-Кумач
Born	(1898-08-05)5 August 1898 Moscow, Russia
Died	20 February 1949(1949-02-20) (aged 50) Moscow, Soviet Union
Pen name	(Vasily) Kumach
Occupation	Poet and Lyricist
Education	Moscow State University

Biography

Vasily was born on 5 August 1898, to a shoe maker.^[2] He went on to work in the printing department of the Revolutionary Military Council, moving on to ROSTO. He attended Moscow State University.^[3] 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.^[4][5]

Vasily's satirical verses published in such papers as Rabochaia gazeta, Krest’ianskaia gazeta, Gudok, and Krokodil led to his growing popularity.^[3] 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),^[6] Гимн партии большевиков (Hymn of the Bolshevik Party) 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. Composer Lyubov Streicher used Lebediv-Kumach‘s text for her song "A Simple Soviet Man", which was recorded commercially by pianist Maria Yudina in 1937.^[7] He was also one of the first persons to use the term blat (блат) in print, when Krokodil published the poem Blat-not.^[8]