Dmitry Bykov was a force in Russian cultural life; now he’s effectively in exile, probably for as long as Putin remains in power.
Dmitry Lvovich Bykov (born 20 December 1967) is a Russian writer, poet, literary critic and journalist. He is also known as biographer of Boris Pasternak, Bulat Okudzhava and Maxim Gorky.
Bykov graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of the elite Moscow State University. Dmitry Bykov taught literature and the history of Soviet literature in Moscow’s secondary schools. He was a professor at the Department of World Literature and Culture of Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), often considered the most elite university of the USSR. As a journalist and critic, Bykov has been writing for the magazine Ogoniok since 1993. He has also periodically hosted a show on the radio station Echo of Moscow, which ran until 2008. Earlier, he was one of the hosts of an influential TV show Vremechko.
Being one of the most prolific modern Russian writers, he gained additional recognition for his biography of Boris Pasternak published in 2005. The biography earned Bykov the 2006 National Bestseller (Национальный бестселлер) and Big Book (Большая Книга) awards. He later wrote influential biographies of Maxim Gorky and Bulat Okudzhava.
In 2008 a documentary called Virginity was released in which Bykov was a co-writer.
In 2009, Bykov was named assistant editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine Profile. He is also the editor-in-chief of the monthly literature-focused magazine What to Read.
Together with actor Mikhail Yefremov, he created project “Citizen Poet” (a pun on Nikolay Nekrasov’s poem “Poet and Citizen”). Yefremov reads poems, written by Bykov, which are usually satirical comments on contemporary Russian society, politics and culture. Each poem parodies the style of a famous poet of the past, e.g. Pushkin, Nekrasov, Kipling, among others. It was originally broadcast on Dozhd TV channel, but the project was closed because the poems were too critical of the Russian government. For years, the show had been hosted in audio format by Echo of Moscow radio station.
In mid-April 2019, while aboard a domestic flight en route to Ufa, Bykov fainted and was hospitalized upon arrival. Initially, Russian media covered the story regarding Bykov’s health status in different ways. Echo of Moscow reported that a chronic illness was responsible for Bykov’s condition, which was specified by online portal Otkrytye Media as being diabetes, and that Bykov suffering from a hyperglycemic crisis. In addition, a source told RIA Novosti that Bykov had experienced severe circulatory failures in his brain.
However, the next week, on 25 April, Bykov denied having diabetes. After the doctors at the hospital in Ufa told him that they could not find the cause of his illness, he concluded that it was poisoning. In early September 2020, Aric Toler, director of research and training at Bellingcat, suspected that a nerve poison was used. The possible poisoning of Bykov by Russian government agents was reportedly investigated, along with other similar cases, by Christo Grozev of Bellingcat. Bellingcat describes a “striking resemblance” between the poisoning of Bykov and the poisoning of Alexei Navalny.
New Yorker Radio Hour – Interview with Bykov
Dymitry Bykov was a force in Russian cultural life; now he’s effectively in exile, probably for as long as Putin remains in power. Bykov speaks with David Remnick about the state of Russia—and Russians—under Putinism, which he describes as “the final stage of Russian decline.” His country, he says, is the land of the “most free slaves.” Plus, the YouTuber known as Nerdwriter talks with the producer Ngofeen Mputubwele about the essay in the age of the Internet. And Kelefa Sanneh, who writes about music and more for The New Yorker, recommends some of the notable songs playing on country radio right now.