Yury Davidovich Levitansky (; January 22, 1922,

Kozelets Kozelets (, ) is a rural settlement in Chernihiv Raion, Chernihiv Oblast, northern Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Kozelets settlement hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Kozelets is located on the Oster River, a tributary of the Dn ...

Chernigov Oblast Chernihiv Oblast (), also referred to as Chernihivshchyna (), is an oblast (province) in northern Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Chernihiv. There are 1,511 settlements in the oblast, with a total population of ...

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...

— January 25, 1996,

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

) was a Russian- language

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and translator from the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, a master of lyrical parody of genres, and Laureate of the

State Prize of the Russian Federation The State Prize of the Russian Federation, officially translated in Russia as Russian Federation National Award, is a state honorary prize established in 1992 following the breakup of the Soviet Union. In 2004 the rules for selection of laureates ...

in the field of literature and art in 1994. Levitansky fought in the

Great Patriotic War The Eastern Front, also known as the Great Patriotic War (term), Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union and its successor states, and the German–Soviet War in modern Germany and Ukraine, was a Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II ...

. Afterwards, his first collection of poems was released in 1948 in

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and , ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 587,891 Irkutsk is the List of cities and towns in Russ ...

.Левитанский Ю. Д. на Library.ru
/ref> In the years 1955-1957 Levitansky studied in the Higher literary courses at

Maxim Gorky Literature Institute The Maxim Gorky Literature Institute () is an institution of higher education in Moscow, Russia. It is located at 25 Tverskoy Boulevard in central Moscow. History The institute was founded in 1933 on the initiative of Maxim Gorky, a writer, foun ...

. In 1957, he became a member of the Writers' Union.Словарь Новая Россия: мир литературы
In 1963 he published a collection of poems called ''Earthly Heaven'', which sprung him into fame as an author. Many of Levitansky's poems were set to music, sung and performed by popular

bard In Celtic cultures, a bard is an oral repository and professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's a ...

s. Some of these songs are found in the movies ''

Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears ''Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears'' () is a 1980 Soviet romantic drama film made by Mosfilm. It was written by Valentin Chernykh and directed by Vladimir Menshov. The leading roles were played by Vera Alentova and Aleksey Batalov. The film won ...

'' and ''Chivalric Romance''. In 1993 he signed the

Letter of Forty-Two The Letter of Forty-Two () was an open letter signed by forty-two Russian literati, aimed at Russian society, the president and government, in reaction to the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis. It was published in the newspaper ''Izvestia'' on 5 O ...

. In 1995, at the ceremony of the aforementioned State Prize, Levitansky appealed to then

Russian President The president of Russia, officially the president of the Russian Federation (), is the executive head of state of Russia. The president is the chair of the Federal State Council and the supreme commander-in-chief of the Russian Armed Forces. I ...

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1961 to ...

to halt the

First Chechen War The First Chechen War, also referred to as the First Russo-Chechen War, was a struggle for independence waged by the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria against the invading Russia, Russian Federation from 1994 to 1996. After a mutually agreed on treaty ...

.Слово для любви и для молитвы
/ref>

References

External links

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Cтихи Юpия Лeвитанскoгo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Levitansky, Yuri 1922 births 1996 deaths Ukrainian Jews Russian-language poets Soviet poets Soviet male writers 20th-century Russian male writers Russian male poets Soviet translators 20th-century Russian translators State Prize of the Russian Federation laureates Ukrainian parodists Russian parodists Writers from Donetsk Burials at Vagankovo Cemetery