Curated playlist
Writers from Moscow
- Bulat OkudzhavaBulat Okudzhava claimed to know only seven chords, yet he wrote about 200 songs.
- Andrei TarkovskyIngmar Bergman called Andrei Tarkovsky the greatest of all filmmakers. Tarkovsky directed only seven feature films.
- Andrei BelyIn Andrei Bely's novel Petersburg, a young man is assigned to kill his own father. The target is a government official.
- Alexander PushkinAlexander Pushkin could not speak Russian well until he was ten years old. He grew up speaking mostly French.
- Mikhail LermontovLermontov wrote a poem about Pushkin's death and was banished to the Caucasus. It made him famous as Pushkin's heir.
- Peter KropotkinAnarchist thinker Peter Kropotkin refused a cabinet seat in Russia's Provisional Government.
- Denis FonvizinLines from Denis Fonvizin's comedies became Russian proverbs. He wrote them under a powerful nobleman's protection.
- Andrei SakharovAndrei Sakharov built the Soviet Union's most devastating weapon, then spent his life trying to limit its damage.
- Semyon FrankOn the 29th of September 1922, some 160 prominent Russian intellectuals and their families boarded a ship at Petrograd. Among them was the philosopher Semyon Frank. The Soviet authorities called it an expulsion, and they made the…
- Boris PasternakBoris Pasternak won the 1958 Nobel Prize in Literature, then his government forced him to decline it.
- Alexander HerzenFor three years, Alexander Herzen's Russian press in London did not sell a single copy.
- Ivan KrylovIvan Krylov found his calling as a fable writer only at age 40.
- Victor PelevinSome people have seriously suggested Russian novelist Victor Pelevin is really a computer. He rarely appears in public.
- Sergey MikhalkovSergey Mikhalkov wrote a friendly giant policeman for children, then anthems for two countries.
- Vladimir VysotskyVladimir Vysotsky's death in 1980 drew tens of thousands into Moscow's streets. Officials had barely acknowledged him.
- Vladimir Solovyov (philosopher)Philosopher Vladimir Solovyov, a famous historian's son, died homeless and poor. He sought to reunite divided faiths.