Blanter, the son of a Jewish craftsman, was born in the town of Pochep, then in the Chernigov Governorate of … See more

Blanter's first songs were composed in the 1920s. At the time, he wrote light dance and jazz music, including "John Gray" (1923), a foxtrot that became a major hit. In the 1930s, as Soviet culture grew more ideologicall… See more

• Stalin Prize (1946) (for the songs "Under the Balkan Stars", "In a way, a path far", "My beloved", "In the forest, front-line")
• People's Artist of the RSFSR (1965)
• Order of the Badge of Honour (1967)… See more

Ayn Rand's 1936 novel We the Living, set in Petrograd between 1923 and 1925, has a passage devoted to the huge popularity of "John Gray."
In the 1966 novel The Last Battle, Cornelius Ryan records … See more