Beilin, Grigory Borisovich

Grigory Borisovich Beilin was born on April 24, 1919 in Petrograd. A few years later, the Beilins family emigrated to Latvia. In 1937 he graduated from the Riga Jewish High School "Ezra". In the same year, Gregory Beilin entered the University of Jerusalem. While studying at the university, Beilin collaborated with the Latvian newspaper “Jaunākās ziņas” and sent correspondence about life in Palestine.

In 1939, Grigory Beilin arrived on vacation in Riga, but failed to return to study in Jerusalem, as the Second World War broke out and all citizens of Latvia were obliged to hand over their foreign passports. Having stayed in Riga, Beilin continued his studies at the Faculty of Philology of the Pedagogical Institute, while simultaneously studying at the School of Journalism and Writing Skills of the famous journalist and writer, emigrant from Russia Pyotr Pilsky . In the same period, Grigory Beilin worked in the literary part of the Latvian Opera . In 1940, Grigory Beilin took part in the international competition of young Russian-speaking writers in Paris and received the first prize at it. The prize was awarded by the chairman of the jury, poet Igor Severyanin . Until the incorporation of Latvia into the USSR in August 1940, Grigory Beilin actively collaborated with magazines published in Russian, “For You” (Riga) and “Abroad” (Harbin, China). At the same time he was engaged in translations: he translated poems from the Russian and Ukrainian languages ​​into Latvian, and verses from Latvian poets from Latvian to Russian.

On June 14, 1941, during the deportation of residents of Latvia and other territories annexed to the USSR, the entire Beilins were deported to Siberia as “socially alien elements”. In 1942, the family was moved even further - to the Far North - to the Taimyr Peninsula. In 1944, Grigory Beilin received permission to move to the city of Yeniseisk, where he graduated from the Yenisei Pedagogical Institute in 1945. After graduation, Beilin worked for 12 years as a teacher of Russian and German at schools and technical schools in the city of Kansk, Krasnoyarsk Territory.

In 1957, Grigory Beilin received permission from the authorities to return to Riga. Upon returning to Riga, he became a professional writer. Over the years preceding his departure to Israel, Grigory Beilin wrote more than two hundred poems for songs in four languages, which he was fluent in: Russian, Latvian, German and Yiddish. He collaborated with such well-known Latvian pop composers as Vladimir Hvoynitsky , Raymond Pauls , Alexander Kublinsky , Elga Egenberg, with the “King of Tango” Oscar Strok, Jan Frenkel and others. Songs to the words of Grigory Beilin repeatedly became laureates and diplomats of international pop contests and festivals, sounded in the movies. Grigory Beilin owns the words of the song “Nocturne” (“Somewhere in the narrow streets of Riga ...”), which has become a kind of lyrical symbol of this city. The songs to Beilin’s words were performed by leading Soviet performers: I. Kobzon, O. Voronets , M. Magomaev, L. Leshchenko, A. Vedishcheva, E. Gorovets, V. Mulerman, L. Mondrus, V. Troshin and others. Along with poetry for songs, Grigory Beilin wrote pop monologues, created scripts for pop performances.

A special place in the work of Grigory Beilin is occupied by the oratorio "In memory of the victims of the Riga ghetto" written in 1961 together with composer Mendel Bash. In the USSR, it was performed only once seven years later under the title “In Memory of the Victims of Nazism” and only after Latvia gained independence was performed under its original name.

In 1974, Gregory Beilin with his family repatriated to Israel. Here he published poetry in the Russian-language press and worked on an autobiographical book under the alleged title “Too Much For One Life,” which remained unfinished.

Gregory Beilin died after a long illness on November 16, 1981 in Jerusalem.

Wife - Beilina (nee Goldberg) Rebeka (Rainey) Volfovna (10.16.1919 - 11.13.1986) Son - Bentsion (Boris) was born in 1946 - a doctor, professor, lives in Israel