In Russian literature of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries there were many brilliant writers and poets. However, many of them received well-deserved recognition only after death. Fortunately, this is not always the case. Sometimes in this country they still manage to appreciate great people during their lifetime. Among such lucky ones is the famous modern writer, poet, biographer and teacher Dmitry L. Bykov. Let's find out about his life, as well as literary activities.
Biography of Dmitry Bykov: the early years
The future writer was born on 12/20/1967 in a classic intelligent family: doctor-father - Leo I. Silbertrud and mother teacher - Natalia I. Bykova.
Unfortunately, when Dmitry Bykov was still a child, this marriage union broke up, and in the future all the hardships of raising a boy were assumed by his mother. By the way, it is for this reason that the writer bears her maiden name.
Natalia Iosifovna’s efforts were not in vain - her son not only “excellently” studied at school and received a gold medal at the end of her school, but also with all her heart fell in love with the subject she taught her students — Russian literature.
Journalist and presenter
After leaving school in 1984, Dmitry Lvovich Bykov already knew that he was eager to connect his future with literature. However, he entered not the philological, but the journalism faculty of Moscow State University.
Unfortunately, in 1987, I had to interrupt my studies for several years, as the young man was drafted into the army and got to serve in the navy.
Having given his homeland a debt, the young man returned to his native university and in 1991 received the long-awaited red diploma. By the way, in the same year, another significant event took place in his fate - Bykov was admitted to the Union of Writers of the USSR, which soon broke up.
While still a student, Dmitry Bykov managed to establish himself as a good journalist. Therefore, without a diploma, the guy was already published in the well-known Soviet periodical "Interlocutor".
After receiving the diploma, the happy graduate began to write for other well-known Moscow publications - “Capital”, “Seven Days” and others.
With the advent of the new millennium, the biography of Dmitry Bykov was filled with numerous and interesting events. First of all, they were associated with professional activities. So, writers began to be invited to work in many well-known publications of the country, and on an ongoing basis. In many of them, the author led his own columns - in Ogonyok, Russian Life, Health, Company, Profile, Labor, Novaya Gazeta and many others.
Bykov also for three years was the chief editor of the first Russian political glossy magazine - Moulin Rouge (Moulin Rouge).
Unlike some of his fellow writers, Dmitry Bykov was distinguished not only by his ability to write well, but also by his ability to be an interesting and attentive interlocutor, who was also fluent in impromptu art. These qualities helped the writer to find work on radio and television, and even today he is unusually in demand in these areas.
Among the first interesting projects of this kind in the biography of Dmitry Bykov are evening programs on the Yunost radio station, which the writer conducted in 2005-2006. True, at that time Bykov was not the only one, but one of the leading ones, but later on, in the wake of City-FM, he got the opportunity to conduct his own program, City Show with Dmitry Bykov.
And from 2012 to 2013, the writer, along with Andrei Norkin, worked at the evening radio show "News in the Classics" at Kommersant FM.
As a TV presenter, Bykov first tried himself in the early nineties. However, his first major achievement was his own ATV program, Good Bulls.
The writer was also one of the leading talk shows “Vremechko” (ATV) and “Born in the USSR” (“Nostalgia”), “Oil Painting” (“Channel Five”).
Since 2011, Dmitry Bykov begins to lead his own program on the TV channel "Nostalgia" under the name "Flask of Time".
In the fall of 2015, the writer begins a series of literature programs “100 Lectures with Dmitry Bykov”. This project is still over and continues to be broadcast on the Dozhd channel today.
Educational activities
Despite being busy in many television and radio projects, Bykov also finds time to educate the younger generation. Considering that although this work is not very grateful, it is more interesting and useful compared to journalism.
Dmitry Bykov began his teaching career in the nineties with the teaching of Russian and Soviet literature at the 1214th Moscow school.
Later, the writer also began to teach these subjects at the Golden Section private school, as well as at the Intellectual state boarding school.
In addition to schoolchildren, Dmitry Bykov also educates students by lecturing at Moscow State Pedagogical University. Among other things, he also heads the Department of World Literature and Culture at MGIMO.
The most famous novels of Bykov
Although the books of Dmitry Bykov are in the tens, he earned the most literary prizes precisely for his novels.
The writer first took up such a difficult genre in 2001. It was then that Dmitry Bykov made his debut with the novel “Justification: a linear plot with excursions”. Being an ardent opponent of the canonization of Stalin’s personality, the writer in this philosophical and fantastic work tried to offer his own justifying version of the repressions of the 1930s and 1940s, which still excite the blood, not only because of its cruelty, but also its senselessness.
According to his theory set forth in The Justification, all those millions of unmotivated arrests were carried out to select the most worthy and noble citizens who did not let themselves be intimidated and were ready to defend their ideals in the face of painful death. Those who passed such inhuman selection were "shot" according to documents, but in reality they received a new life to fulfill a special mission.
After such a successful start, two years later Bykov published another science fiction novel, Spelling. And this time, the writer chooses the very beginning of the Soviet era of 1918 as the time of action.
The reader’s next work, “Tow Truck” (2005), was not less, but even more successful with readers. It was dedicated to the love of a Moscow girl and an alien seeking to save her from death.
The next novel of the writer - "Railway" - caused a lot of controversy, because in addition to the plot traditional for the author, the main place in the book was given to thoughts on the topic of love for the motherland.
Among other well-known major works by this author are “Ostromov, or Sorcerer's Apprentice” (the story of the experienced fraudster a la Ostap Suleiman Bert, Maria Bender Bey and his naive student in the style of Bulgakov Yeshua), “Written Off” (a novel about the screenwriter, which turned on in an unknown list and trying to find out who wrote it there and why) and the latest fiction of the author - “June” (a book about the time before the start of World War II).
Poetry collections Bykov
As sad practice shows, not every poet is a good prose writer and vice versa. However, Dmitry Bykov is a happy exception to this rule. Indeed, in addition to exciting unusual novels, he writes excellent poems.
The first author’s poetry collection “Declaration of Independence” was published shortly after Bykov graduated from Moscow State University - in 1992.
Two years later, he released a more voluminous book of his poems - "Message to the Young Man." And in 1996 - the collection "Military coup".
Subsequently, almost every few years, the author printed books with his poetic works and does not leave this tradition to this day.
The most famous of them are “Draftee” (2003), “Letters of Happiness” (2005), “Last Time” (2007), “New Letters of Happiness” (2010), “New and Latest Letters of Happiness” (2012), “Bliss” " other.
Other books of the writer
In addition to fantastic philosophical novels and catchy poems in the work of Dmitry Bykov there are a lot of works on literary criticism and similar projects.
In this area, the author was best known for his biographical books about Pasternak, Gorky, Bulat Okudzhava, and the latest about Mayakovsky.
Also, Bykov has a lot of short stories, which were initially published in various periodicals. But subsequently they were published in separate collections: “How Putin became President of the USA”, “Railway Stories”, “Farewell, Cuckoo”, “Chernysh Syndrome” and others.
In addition to short artistic prose, several collections of journalism by Dmitry Bykov were published: “Chronicles of the Coming War”, “From scratch”, “Thinking of the World”, “Farewell, Cuckoo”, etc.
In addition to all of the above, several plays have come out from the pen of this author. All of them were published in one book - The Bear.
"Citizen poet"
Particularly dangerous fame for the writer brought participation in the unusual project "Citizen poet."
Its essence is that for short videos, Bykov composed poems that touched on many pressing problems, stylizing them to the poetry of Russian and British classics. Read these works was entrusted to the famous Russian theater and film actor - Mikhail Olegovich Efremov. To do this, the artist changed into the image of a classic whose poem was spoofed by Bykov.
Initially (in 2011) Citizen Poet was a project of the Russian television station Rain. In the future, due to numerous problems with censorship and prohibitions, new videos began to be posted on the Internet for free access. There they were watched by millions of viewers from all over Russia and abroad.
This huge popularity, which each new issue acquired, contributed to the creation on their basis of a whole interactive performance with Efremov, Bykov and producer Andrei Vasilyev in the lead roles.
In the future, this trio gave live concerts not only in large cities of the Russian Federation, but also in Ukrainian cities - Kiev and Odessa.
Vasiliev and Bykov acted as leading concerts, telling the background of writing different videos and showing various videos about it. And Mikhail Efremov, dressed in different classics, read Bykov’s poems.
The culmination of each such concert was an improvisation poem composed by Bykov to order from the audience right at the time of the performance.
In March 2012, Citizen Poet was closed, but instead of it, in May of the same year, a similar project appeared - "Mr. Good." However, poetry for him was written not only by Dmitry Bykov, but also by Andrei Orlov, better known as Orlusha.
As for Citizen of the Poet, even after its closure, non-numbered new videos with Efremov periodically appeared on the Web.
civil position
In addition to creativity, the writer Bykov is widely known in his homeland due to his active participation in the socio-political activities of the country.
He was not only one of the organizers of the Voter League, but also the creator of the Vote Against All public movement. The main goal of participation in these organizations, Bykov set the opportunity to achieve fair elections for the state.
Because of this position, the writer gained quite controversial fame. At the same time, in many of his interviews, Dmitry Bykov emphasizes that he values ​​and loves his country and its extraordinary culture. However, he soberly realizes that it is impossible to live in such a way that has developed in the state today. However, the author does not believe that the new revolution is really a way out of this situation. Since, according to the writer, she will not bring anything good, except for numerous victims and unnecessary pathos controversy.
The culprit of many troubles in his country, the writer Bykov considers the inertia of the Russians, which is firmly entrenched in their mentality. According to Dmitry Lvovich, it is easier for many of his compatriots to follow the crowd, turning off their brains, rather than thinking with their own heads and taking responsibility for the results of decisions made.
Writer Awards
For his literary and journalistic activities, Dmitry Bykov was awarded many literary prizes. There are more than a dozen of them, and this is not the limit.
Twice the writer was awarded the Bronze Snail for the science fiction novels Tow Truck and Decommissioned.
In Bykov’s piggy bank there are four International Literary Prizes named after A. and B. Strugatsky for Spelling, Tow Truck, Railway and X.
Twice he received the famous literary award “Big Book” for the biographical work “Boris Pasternak” and the novel “Ostromov, or Sorcerer's Apprentice”.
Bykov was also once nominated for this award for "Railway". However, reaching the finals, he never got it.
For “Boris Pasternak” and “Ostromov ...” Bykov was also awarded the “National Bestseller” in 2006 and 2011.
In addition to all of the above awards, the writer is the owner of two "Portals". And his first novel “Justification” was included in the 50 most striking debuts of the beginning of the third millennium according to the version of Literary Russia.
What does the writer do today
Although the bibliography of Dmitry Bykov is already quite impressive (as is the list of his awards and achievements), however, the author does not allow himself to be lazy and continues to set new goals for himself and achieve them.
Since 2015, he begins to conduct the radio program “One” on “Echo of Moscow”. Also, Bykov periodically stars in various television programs, prints articles in the press.
In September 2015, the Dozhd TV channel launched the program “One Hundred Lectures with Dmitry Bykov”. In a series of lectures, Dmitry talks about Russian literature from 1900 to 1999, in each of the programs he dwells in detail on one work published in the corresponding year. Within the framework of the presented cycle, Bykov also gives general lectures that are not tied to a specific year, and also dwells separately on some works for children and youth. As of the end of March 2017, more than seventy lectures were published in the cycle.
Of the most recent works of the author in the field of literature are the novels “Quarter. Passage ”(2014) and“ June ”(2017), collections of his poems“ Clear. New poems and letters of happiness ”(2015) and“ If not: new poems ”(2017).
Among the other new books of Dmitry Bykov is “The Thirteenth Apostle. Mayakovsky. The tragedy-buff in six acts ”(2016) and the entertaining children's manual on zoology“ I am a Wombat ”.
In 2017, the writer also published a separate edition of the radio talk about the literature of the Ekho Moskvy radio station - One: 100 Nights with a Reader.
Personal life of Dmitry Bykov
Fortunately, in his life, the author managed to find her beloved woman and win her heart. The beautiful, and most importantly, smart wife of Bykov was Irina Lukyanova, whom he met while working in the Interlocutor.
The writer’s wife turned out to be him: a writer, poet, athlete (first category in rhythmic gymnastics), an excellent needlewoman and just an interesting and charming woman. She gave birth to two children, Dmitry Bykov: son Andrei and daughter Zhenya.
At the same time, becoming a married lady, Lukyanova did not stop writing books, especially since her husband actively helped her in this. Together, they published two works: "Animals and Animals" and "In the World of Tummies."
Entertaining facts
- In the family of Dmitry Bykov, he was the first to become a professional and successful writer of prose and poetry. Prior to this, there were doctors on the paternal side of the family (Father and Uncle Bykova specialized in otorhinolaryngology).
- The maternal writer’s grandfather was awarded the Order of the Red Star during the Great Patriotic War.
- Today, Dmitry Lvovich has the academic title of “professor”.
- At the dawn of his literary career, Bykov published two collections of prose (“66 Days. The Jungle Orchid” and “Harley and Marlborough. Wild Orchid-2”) under the pseudonym Matthew Bull.
- The favorite genre of writer Dmitry Bykov is fiction. Moreover, the best authors of this kind, in his opinion, are Andrey Lazarchuk, Sergey Lukyanenko, Maria Galina, Vyacheslav Rybakov and the creator of a series of humorous books about the mythical hero Zhikhar - Mikhail Uspensky. By the way, Dmitry believes that science fiction should be studied at school.
- Bykov considers Fazil Iskander and Lyudmila Petrushevskaya the most worthy of attention and respect among modern writers.
- Other contemporary Russian writers whose work is of interest to the writer include Pelevin, Prilepin, children of Victor Dragunsky: Denis and Ksenia, Alexander Kuzmenkov, Mikhail Shcherbakov, Oleg Chukhontsev, Marina Kudimova, Valery Popov, Igor Karaulov, Marina Boroditskaya and the like.