Beylin Grigory (24.04/24.12.1919, Leningrad (St. Petersburg) – 1981, Jerusalem) – poet, educator, and laureate of numerous song competitions and festivals.
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Early life and education
In the mid-1920s, Grigory Beylin’s family illegally emigrated from the Soviet Union to Latvia and settled in Riga.
In 1937, he graduated from Ezra Jewish Gymnasium in Riga, where instruction was in German. That same year, he moved to Palestine and enrolled at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he studied alongside Dov Milman and Chaim Beinart, also from Riga.
Grigory Beylin worked as a correspondent for the newspaper “Jaunākās Ziņas” (Latest News).
In summer 1939, he returned to Riga for vacation but was unable to leave due to the outbreak of World War II.
In 1940, he studied at Peter Pilsky’s Private School of Writing in Riga and worked in the literary department of the Riga Opera Theatre.
The same year Grigory Beylin won first place in a Russian-language poetry competition in Paris in 1940, where Igor Severyanin was a jury member.
He was fluent in Russian, Latvian, German, and Yiddish.
Deportation and exile
On 14 June 1941, his entire family was deported to Siberia and then to the Russian Far North. In 1944-1945 Grigory Beylin completed studies at Yeniseisk Pedagogical Institute. After that, he lived in Kansk, where he taught German, Russian, and literature at local secondary schools, a library college, and a mining and geology technical school. There he also directed amateur theatre, wrote scripts, and staged plays that won awards in Kansk and Krasnoyarsk Krai.
Return to Riga and literary career
In 1957, Grigory Beylin returned to Riga, where he continued writing poetry, scripts for variety shows, and translations of Latvian composers' songs. He translated works of Jānis Ozoliņš (9 songs), Marģeris Zariņš (4 songs), and Arvīds Žilinskis (7 romances). Grigory Beylin wrote most of the translations in Alfrēds Kalniņš' collection of songs published in Russian.
In the 1960s-70s, Grigory Beylin wrote plays for the People’s Theatre of Miniatures at the Wagon-Building Plant and scripts for the Riga Variety Orchestra.
Grigory Beylin wrote the text for the Oratorio in Memory of Holocaust Victims (music by Mendel Bash), performed on 22 December 1969 at Riga Philharmonic Hall.
A close friendship with composer Vladimir Khvoinitsky led to 139 songs written on Beylin’s lyrics.
Grigory Beylin’s famous songs include “Samotsvety,” “U lyubvi vsegda vesna,” and “Bessonnoi nochyu.” His songs were performed by Muslim Magomayev, Iosif Kobzon, Laima Vaikule, Lev Leshchenko, and Larisa Mondrus.
Grigory Beylin is the author of one of V. Khvoinitsky’s most popular songs, “Help Me, Buratino”, which has been performed in a dozen languages. He is also the author of the operetta “Russian Souvenir”, staged at the Riga Operetta Theatre. His play [title missing] was performed at the Norilsk Polar Drama Theatre named after Mayakovsky.
In April 1974, Grigory Beylin emigrated to Israel and settled in Jerusalem. Until his final days, he continued publishing his poetry in the newspaper Nasha Strana, as well as in the journals Vozrozhdenie, Menora, and other Russian-language publications in Israel. One of the central themes of his poetry was Jerusalem. Two of Grigory Beylin’s songs in German were recorded for Berlin Radio in the 1970s.
References:
• Kroders, Gunar. About Time, About Norilsk, About Myself: Memoirs. Vol. 2. Edited by G. I. Kasabova. Moscow, 2002, pp. 318–365.
• Belopolskaya, I. A Memorial Evening in Jerusalem. Nasha Strana, 12 November 1982.
• Berezovskaya, A. When Everything Around is Just Memories. Sovetskaya Molodyozh?, 1994.
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