Yuri Levitan

Yuri Borisovich Levitan (; 2 October 1914 – 4 August 1983) was the primary Soviet radio announcer during and after World War II. He announced on Radio Moscow all major international events in the 1940s–60s including the German attack on the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, the surrender of Germany on 9 May 1945, the death of Joseph Stalin on 5 March 1953, and the first manned spaceflight on 12 April 1961.

Biography Born in a Jewish family in Vladimir to a tailor and a housewife, Levitan traveled to Moscow in the early 1930s, hoping to become an actor, and was rejected because of his provincial accent. He secured a position on a Moscow radio station owing to his characteristic deep voice. In January 1934, after hearing Levitan broadcasting, Joseph Stalin called up the radio station and requested that from then on Levitan read his announcements. Consequently, Levitan became the personal announcer for Stalin and the leading Soviet radio personality. and streets were named after him in Almaty, Dnipro, Odesa, Orsk, Tver and Ufa. An Aeroflot passenger plane and a container cargo ship carry his name.