Writers (Modern)

For the purposes of this site, we have defined “modern” authors as those that spent most of their careers after 1953. We have chosen this date as, first, a generational marker. Many late-tsarist authors continued working after the revolution, while many late-Soviet authors are still working today. Those still working today are likely to have been born after 1953 (making them under 70 today), the same year that political and social restrictions began to be relaxed after the death of Stalin. The anti-communist movement in the US also occurred around the same time, which means that authors working after this date are much less likely to be known in the US. In preparing material for this section, however, we have tried to concentrate mostly on living authors.

Boris Ryzhii, Russia’s Bandit Poet of the 90s

No other Russian poet of the 90s stands out like Boris Ryzhii. He received some of Russia’s highest literary honors, including honorable mention for the Anti-Booker Prize, and, after his early death, the Northern Palmyra. Composed amidst the chaos and crime of perestroika, his poems stand like opponents in a boxing ring, where ugliness and […]

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