"In song lies my life," — the words of one of Alexandra Pakhmutova's songs describe her best. She composed music for over 450 pieces, many of which have become truly beloved by the people. Alexandra Pakhmutova was born in 1929 in a suburb of Volgograd. She wrote her first melodies at the age of 3 and a half and never parted from music again. Even when the Great Patriotic War began and her family was evacuated to Kazakhstan, she continued her studies at a local music school. In 1943, she traveled to Moscow to study at the Central Music School affiliated with the Conservatory. "Bialowieza Forest," "How Young We Were," "Hope," "The Main Thing, Guys, is Not to Grow Old at Heart," "And the Fight Goes On," "Our Youth Team," "A Coward Doesn't Play Hockey" — Pakhmutova wrote many of these songs in collaboration with her husband, poet Nikolai Dobronravov. Among them was the famous "Goodbye, Moscow," played as the symbol of the 1980 Moscow Olympics — the bear — soared into the sky. Pakhmutova also composed music for symphony orchestras and ballets. Her melodies can be heard in films such as Girls, Three Poplars at Plyushchikha, and The Battle for Moscow. Her acquaintance with Yuri Gagarin inspired her to create several songs, including Embracing the Sky, and the first cosmonaut himself was very fond of Pakhmutova and Dobronravov's song Tenderness.