Conversation at the Television Set

In 1979, the text of Conversation and other poems by Vysotsky were included in the uncensored anthology of poetry and prose by twenty-three famous writers, the almanac Metropol (compiled by Vasily Aksyonov, Andrei Bitov, and others).

Researchers include the work in various poetic cycles of Vysotsky and find in it the influence of both comic couplets popular in the 1950s and short stories by Mikhail Zoshchenko.

Art historian Natalia Rubinstein says that Vysotsky's song is a kind of "play with a developed mise-en-scène," which means it has elaborate scenery and two characters.

[13] While watching the TV program, they manage to discuss a lot of relevant topics, but the overall outcome of the conversation is considered by researchers as a "communicative failure".

Balbesa appeared in popular comedies by Leonid Gaidai (Bootleggers, Operation 'Y' and Shurik's Other Adventures, Kidnapping, Caucasian Style) and Yevgeny Karelov (Seven Old Men and A Girl).

[12][8][20] Zinina's factory life may also be connected with the line: "And your friends, Zin, // All knit hats for winters" refers to a type of additional income that was punishable under the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (article Private Entrepreneurship) to supplement the meager family budget.

Experts who study text say that the "dairy cafe" refers to a type of restaurant that serves only food where alcohol is not allowed.

[29][30][31] The poet's text was printed in 1977 in Paris in a collection of poems called Songs of Russian Bards,[32][33] and then in the fall of that year it was recorded for the album La corde raide.

In 1978, a part of the song, called Conversation at the television set, was performed by Kira Smirnova, who played the role of one of the heroines (the old woman Malanya) in the movie A Dog walked along the Piano.

Five years later, in 1976, the Melodiya company released the song on the record Protracted Jump (the twelfth of the series On Vladimir Vysotsky's Concerts, M60 49341 006).

That evening, Vysotsky performed Conversation at the television-set, and Shemyakin wrote about it as a work where the audience saw "a unique 'mockingbird,' observant, subtle, ironic, and kind".

This deliberate offering of different "concert performances" to the listener was lamented by Alexander Galich, who, while speaking warmly of Vysotsky, nevertheless believed that he was not always demanding of his repertoire (Anatoly Kulagin and Andrei Krylov see the reason for this statement in the publication of "obviously raw and inferior works").

"[8] In the drafts, which were studied by Vysotsky scholars Arkady Lvov and Alexander Sumerkin, were discovered and later published lines from the sketches of the song: "She's going to fall off these benches!

Despite the fact that such a classification is very tentative and the boundaries of the criteria are shaky and blurred, Vysotskologists place the story of Vanya and Zina on the same level as such poetic texts as Comrades of Scientists, Family Affairs in Ancient Rome, and the Envy Song.

"), the poet noted that the title of the cycle contained a parodic reference to Friedrich Engels' work The History of the Family, Private Property and the State, which was included in all university programs at the time.

At the same time, the literary scholar does not exclude that the dialogic form of couplets about the Mesozoic culture could have a certain influence on the song about Vanya and Zina, as well as on other works of Vysotsky created in a similar genre.

[55] An entertainment performance in the arena, watched by a couple, was the reason for including Conversation at the television set in Vysotsky's so-called Circus Cycle.

Researchers compare the characters watching the performance of clowns and acrobats from the outside with a person living inside this action - we are talking about the hero of the poem To Yengibarov from the audience".

[56] According to Marina Vlady's recollections, Leonid Yengibarov, who worked "in minor tones," was one of Vysotsky's favorite artists: "He is also a kind of poet, he makes you laugh and cry".

Being a miniature play, it is close in genre to the topical comic couplets popular in the mid-20th century by the members of the pop music duo Shurov and Rykunin.

At the same time, according to Vysotskologists Andrei Skobelev and Sergei Shaulov, any even hypothetical attempt to divide the song about Vanya and Zina between two performers is doomed to failure.

Despite the fact that Conversation belongs to the dramatic genre, it retains the characteristics of a lyrical work and contains a penetrating authorial beginning: "That is why the author-performer is so interesting, masterfully intoning the parts of the characters, changing the timbre of the voice, constantly splitting, but - united".

In terms of its poetics, it is close to such songs as Instruction Before Traveling Abroad, Letter from the Tambov Factory Workers to the Chinese Leaders, and Police Protocol.

In addition, in the plot of "Conversation" researchers see a certain influence of the poem written in 1961 by Andrei Voznesensky "Our Neighbor Bukashkin Lives with Us", included in the collection Antimiry: "Why do Antimiras meet in the middle of the night?

For example, in the second half of the 1960s, Dolsky wrote Orpheus the Bandit, which is a parody of the "song about the impure" and contains the lines: "He pounded his guitar mercilessly, / Like a hangover lion beating dominoes.

[64][65] Among Dolsky's songs, which, as the researcher Andrei Syomin writes, "clearly imitate Vysotsky's character", Parade Entrance stands out ("Don't put it on the windowsill, Valya, / Residents walk here, they'll see it.

The duet of Agraphena and Marker from this work was, according to his testimony, "witty, satirical, effective, melodically infectious..." and became an almost obligatory number for "assembly" concerts of musical theater artists.

The beauty of this duet number, in his opinion, is that "by parodying popular everyday intonations and forcing his characters to express themselves with hackneyed musical phrases, the composer emphasizes the standardization of their thinking and feelings, their philistine outlook and spiritual inferiority".

[71] Evidence of the popularity of Conversation at the television set during the author's lifetime is an episode from the feature film by Vladimir Grammatikov A Dog Walked Along the Piano (1978), in which the folklorist Chizh, who has come to the village, asks the local inhabitant —grandmother Malanya— to sing an old song that was part of the repertoire of her parents and grandparents.

[75] The art historian Natalia Rubinshtein notes that Vanya's tirade "When you come home, there you sit", which has become a proverb, embodies "historically accumulated family and communal irritation of the Soviet man against his neighbor".