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`I Did Not Fit the Mold'; Thousands of Soviets Gather at Memorial For Dissident Balladeer Vladimir Vysotsky

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From: The Washington Post
Date: 19900726
Author:Michael Dobbs

They can love only the dead.

Alexander Pushkin

The line to honor Vladimir Vysotsky began a half-mile outside the cemetery, in the pouring rain. Kitschy portraits of the long dead bard were displayed along the side of the road, and the rasping, recorded voice known to nearly every Soviet citizen boomed out from dozens of loudspeakers.

It was the ordinary people who were the heroes of Vysotsky's songs-the workers, the derelicts, the little old ladies, the students, the soldiers-and today they shuffled forward with heroic patience to reach his grave. They gazed at the lifelike bronze statue ...

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