Grigory A. Yavlinsky is the founder and chief whip of the Russian liberal party Yabloko. He studied Economics at the Plekhanov Moscow Institute, worked at the Academy of Sciences and in the Russian Ministry of Labour. In 1990 he was Deputy Prime Minister and one year later became President Gorbachev’s
Grigori M. Pasko worked as a military journalist for the Russian Pacific floats. After a Japanese television station broadcast his film »Highest Danger Zones«, which showed how a tanker belonging to the Russian navy disposed of radioactive waste in the Japanese Sea, Pasko was accused of high treason and spying
Grigory Oster , presented with awards many times over for his satirical, humorous texts, was born in Odessa on the Black Sea in 1947. He is considered one of the most important living Russian authors of children’s books and has written a great number of short stories, fairy tales, (puppet)
The lyric poet Gennady Aygi was born in 1934 as Gennadi Nikolayevich Lisin in Shaimursino in what today is the Chuvash Republic. He belonged to the Chuvash ethnic minority, an ethnic group distantly related to the Huns. His assumed Chuvash name means »he over there«, »the same one«. His first
Eugene Ostashevsky was born in Leningrad, in the former USSR, in 1968 and emigrated with his parents at the age of eleven to the USA. He studied Comparative Literature at Stanford University, has also studied or worked at universities in Italy, Turkey, and France and today teaches literature at New
Dmitry Glukhovsky was born in 1979 in Moscow. In 1996, he began studying journalism and international relations in Jerusalem. Afterwards, he spent three years as an editor for EuroNews in Lyon. In 2005, he returned to Russia and worked for the news channel Russia Today for three more years. As
Dmitry Golynko was born in 1969 in Leningrad, USSR. Following his studies in Art Theory and Russian Literature he graduated with a dissertation on the Russian post-avant garde at the end of the 20th century. He was guest professor for two years at Cheongju University (Slavic Department) in South Korea
was born 1946 in Velsk (Arkhangelsk). He studied history and concerned himself academically with the history of the Soviet Union in the 20th century. In 1981, he was sentenced to four years in prison on political grounds. He co-founded the organization Memorial, which campaigns for human rights and for the
poetess, artist and passionate doll-maker Anna Russ was born in Kazan (Russia) in 1981. Started in 2002 with winning the »International Debut Award« for writers under 25 (children’s literature). In 2004 she gained the »Open Russia« literature award, in 2005 the »Sokoloff Prize« for poems and in 2006 the »Big
born 1974 in Kiev, after her graduation in St. Petersburg in 1992 she studied Psychology, Sociology and Political Science in Gießen. She worked with the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt and on her dissertation about social changes in post-Soviet Russia. She is an active member of the human rights organization »Memorial«
Born in St. Petersburg, where she grew up, Anna Nowok moved to Germany in 1994. She did an apprenticeship as a copywriter and worked as a translator, waitress, and shop assistant in different German cities. She now lives in Berlin, and has been participating in slams and readings since 2005,
