May 2, 1929
Kola Beldy was born in the village of Mukha in the Nanai District of Khabarovsk Krai. He was a Soviet pop star from the 50s to 80s, performing the hits "I'll Take You to the Tundra" and "The Chukchi in the Chum Waits for the Dawn."
...No crowding, no fuss,
Let's say for an example,
There is no struggle for a place
And not a policeman.
A snowball is flying behind
Riding sledges with steeps.
Steam locomotive - good,
The steamboat is good,
The plane is nothing,
And deer are better!
Born into a hunting family, he lost his parents at an early age and grew up in a boarding school. One day, he got lost in the woods, suffered a traumatic experience, and developed a stutter. During the war, he ran away to the front, lying about his age for two years. He served as a cabin boy in the Pacific Fleet. Afterward, he entered the Saratov Conservatory.
I'll take you to the tundra, take you to the gray snow
I will throw them at your feet with a white bear skin...
In 1957, he won a prize at the World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow. He caught the attention of Minister of Culture Furtseva, and the singer was invited to work in the capital. In 1972, Kola Beldy reached the finals for Song of the Year. A year later, he won second prize at the Sopot Festival. He was almost as popular in Europe as he was in the USSR.
We'll go, we'll race on reindeer early in the morning
And we will desperately rush straight into the snowy dawn.
You will find out that in vain they call the extreme north
You will see, it is endless, I give it to you
Kola Beldy sang on behalf of all the small peoples of the Far East, the Far North, and Siberia. His songs featured the Nanai, Chukchi, Khanty, and Nivkh peoples. He celebrated their occupations—fishing, hunting, reindeer herding—and their native lands: Naryan-Mar and Sakhalin in particular, and the tundra and taiga in general.
And the Chukchi in the chum awaits the dawn,
And the dawn will come in summer,
And in the winter dawn in the tundra
There is no Arctic Circle
He collected folklore from northern peoples. He consulted with Akira Kurosawa on the film "Dersu Uzala." He died in 1993 in Khabarovsk.
