Dmitry Bykov


Dmitry Lvovich Bykov is a Russian writer, poet and journalist. He is also known as biographer of Boris Pasternak, Bulat Okudzhava and Maxim Gorky.

Biography

Being one of the most prolific modern Russian writers, in recent years he has gained additional recognition for his biography of Boris Pasternak, published in 2005. The biography earned Bykov the 2006 National Bestseller and Big Book awards. He later wrote biographies of Maxim Gorky and Bulat Okudzhava.
Bykov graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of the 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 MGIMO. 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.
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". Yefremov reads poems, written by Bykov, which are usually satirical comments on the contemporary Russian society, politics and culture. Each poems 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 towards Russian government. Currently, the show is hosted in audio format by Echo of Moscow radio station.
Bykov is known for his pro-Soviet views. According to him, "the USSR was the highest point of Russia's development".

2016 scandal

In August 2016 the phrase about "narrow-eyed migrant workers" in Bykov's book caused a scandal in Kazakhstan as it seemed offensive to many Kazakhstanis. They accused Bykov of chauvinism and contempt for the Asians. As a result, Bykov cancelled his visit to Kazakhstan.

Prose fiction