‘ CITIZEN- POET’ TAKES BIG APPLE
This June, American audiences will meet Dmitry Bykov, Russia’s man of letters and controversy.
Imagine a Russian Jon Stewart, Calvin Trillan, and Walt Whitman rolled into one and you will have the provocative Dmitry Bykov, whom Read Russia has called “one of Russia’s most colorful, versatile, and recognizable public intellectuals.” Russia Beyond The Headlines described his 2013 London tour as “a rollercoaster of politics and poetry from one of Russia’s great satirical writers.” As part of the 13th Annual Russian Heritage Month ® , Mr. Bykov will be in town for programs at the New York Public Library ( June 13, 2: 00 pm), the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research ( June 7, 6: 30- 8: 00 pm), and Washington D. C.’ s Kennan Institute ( June 11, 4: 00 pm).
Mr. Bykov first gained recognition in Russia with his “Citizen Poet” TV series, in which he showcased his satirical political poetry, read by iconic actor Mikhail Yefremov. After being censored from Russia’s last independent channel, Dozhd’ ( Rain), it has successfully migrated to YouTube, where Bykov’s other, more serious programs on literature, produced by the independent Russian- language network RTVi, attract hundreds of thousands of avid viewers.
His biography of Boris Pasternak ( of Doctor Zhivago fame) won Russia’s 2006 National Bestseller and Big Book awards. He won the National Bestseller again in 2011 for his novel Ostromov, or the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, about Freemasons in Leningrad during the 1920s, which was also shortlisted for the 2011 Big Book prize.
His only novel available in English translation, Living
Souls is, according to the New York Review of Books, “a futuristic geopolitical fantasy and a panoramic satire of post- Soviet life … hyped by its Russian publisher as ‘ the most politically incorrect book of the new millennium’.” Its Russian title, ZhD ( two Cyrillic initials) may be read as a mysterious acronym or may refer to a Russian racial slur for Jews.
The subject of Mr. Bykov’s upcoming talks at the New York Public Library and the Kennan Institute is what Bykov says is a common plotline among multiple great Russian novels of the 20th century. “Each story features main heroines, symbolizing Russia, who are defiled by their fathers,” and this “becomes a metaphor of power that depraves the country through criminal methods of governing.” If one of the purposes of literature is “to help avoid repeating the mistakes of the past,” Bykov says that “Russian history has proved cyclical, and this cycle is tragic.
Joseph Dresen, Program Associate at the Kennan Institute, places Bykov in the larger tradition of Russian literature. “Russian writers have a particular talent to convey meaning about the society in which they live. It is a subtle yet profound means of influence, which helps explain the enduring legacy of Russian writers’ many contributions to world literature.”
According to Jonathan Brent, the Executive director of YIVO, who will be joining him to discuss Russian- Jewish author Isaac Babel, Mr. Bykov “brings a wide knowledge of the Russian context.” With the rise of nationalism, being a Russian- Jewish writer is becoming an ever- deeper contradiction. According to Brent, the subject of dual identity “was the central problem in Babel’s life. He wrestled with it throughout his work and I expect to explore this, which by the way is also central to the work of most Jewish American writers…. As [ the critic] Lionel Trilling noted: Literature is a kind of politics; the voice of a writer can help guide thought and feeling as well as reflect it.”
President of the Russian American Foundation Marina Kovalyov, who organized Bykov’s tour, says that the organization “is thrilled to be hosting Dmitry Bykov. Through his multifaceted work as a poet, journalist, teacher, and seemingly everything else, Bykov has been an inexhaustible contributor to Russian and global literary culture. We’re sure audiences will find him to be energetic, brilliant, and endlessly fascinating.”