POP/ROCK - Nov. 9, 1987

After years of underground, unsanctioned popularity, Soviet folk singer Vladimir Vysotsky has won official recognition from the Soviet government in the form of a state prize--more than seven years after his death in 1980. Soviet television said Vysotsky was among a long list of cultural personalities awarded the State Prize of the Soviet Union for 1987 on Saturday as part of the country’s celebrations of the Bolshevik Revolution’s 70th anniversary. Vysotsky, who has acquired the status of a national folk hero, was honored for his role in a detective film as well as for his gravelly-voiced musical rendition of poetry.