The dissident Russian writer is a visiting scholar at Rochester.
俄国诗人, 记者, 教授, and literary critic Dmitry Bykov is no stranger to the power of words. 他的讽刺诗犀利犀利 political commentaries—often aimed squarely at Russian President Vladimir Putin—did not amuse their subject.
“I think Russian officials hardly know my novels,Bykov说。, who arrived in January as the 人文中心《流亡十大赌博正规老平台》. 但是有几行 公民的诗人 在俄罗斯精英中很有名吗,” he says of actor Mikhail Efremov’s performance of his satirical verses. “They used to visit our performances and my lectures, which was fashionable in late 2020.”
该中心创建了 流亡十大赌博正规老平台 program last year with funding from its own resources as well as from the 艺术学院 & 科学. The idea behind the program is twofold—to demonstrate a commitment to global academic freedom and to bring prominent and endangered scholars into the campus community where they can work directly with students.
尽管他身兼数职, Bykov sees himself as a poet first—in Russia, 一个被比作“先知”的职业, 公民不服从的支柱, 最好的爱人, 我们想让他成为谁就成为谁,” 正如Bykov告诉记者的那样 《洛杉矶书评 in 2016. 他以机智和魅力著称, he was so popular that people would line up to pay admission to his public lectures on literature.
然而,, as a radio and television personality and one of Russia’s most outspoken public intellectuals, Bykov击中了痛处. Running afoul of the Kremlin is what ultimately drew him out of Russia and to the United States.
Bykov’s woes came to a head in April 2019 during a domestic flight to the western Russian city of Ufa. 在去公开演讲的路上, 他突然病得很厉害, 最终失去意识, 然后陷入昏迷. 五天后, he awoke in the intensive care unit of a specialized neurological clinic in Moscow with no doubt in his mind that he had been poisoned.
“They are typical bureaucrats and feel danger only if you participate in some organized activities,他在谈到俄罗斯政府时说. 早在2012年, Bykov had been a member of the now-defunct Russian Opposition Coordination Council that had tried to plan strategies for opposing Putin’s regime. Clearly that membership had been deemed organized enough. 随后, he was banned from appearing on radio or television, fired from universities and two editorial offices, 包括报纸 《生意人报》, well known for its liberal, independent views.
The council’s roster—which also included Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader who died in prison in February in what Bykov describes as a murder—soon became a checklist for Kremlin-directed secret operatives.
“The poisoners followed the list systematically,Bykov说。, an admirer of Navalny who calls his role as a regime critic “quite modest” in comparison.
Writing frequently about Russian and Soviet historic and contemporary figures and themes, Bykov is a well-known biographer of Russian stalwarts, 比如作家鲍里斯·帕斯捷尔纳克, Bulat Okudzhava, 马克西姆·高尔基. 2005年，他写道 How Putin Became President of the USA: New Russian Fairy 故事.
While his work has garnered a variety of Russian literary prizes, including the National Bestseller Prize, 三大图书奖, and the Strugatsky International Literature Prize, some of the titles alone have placed him directly in the Kremlin’s crosshairs. 2022年初, 就在俄罗斯入侵乌克兰之前, the Kremlin declared him a foreign agent and many Russian booksellers pulled his works—some 90 total, 包括小说, 文学传记, 论文, and poetry collections—off their shelves.
Before his move to the United States in 2022, Bykov had held temporary visiting positions at American universities, including at UCLA and Princeton University. In 2022–23, he was a visiting critic at Cornell University’s Institute for European Studies.
贝科夫现在在十大赌博正规老平台做 visiting assistant 教授 in Russian 整个2024-25学年.
“He is a huge figure in Russian culture, and it’s something of a miracle that he’s here in Rochester,约翰·吉文斯说, 俄语教授.
今年春天, Bykov is teaching courses in the Department of Modern Languages and 文化s, 包括苦役, 流亡, Prison: The 文化 of Incarceration in Russia, and Nikolai Gogol and the Creation of Ukrainian Literature.
“It’s not every day that a student can take a class from someone who was poisoned by Vladimir Putin for using his status as a celebrated writer and the public performance of his writings as weapons,吉文斯说。. “This is a powerful message to students—the ability of art to speak truth to power, and the power of the individual to stand up to tyranny.”
Most recently, Bykov wrote a literary biography about Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, VZ: Portrait Against the Background of the Nation (《十大赌博正规老平台》，2023年).
在秋天, he will teach two courses: Russian Folklore: Ballads, 恋情, 故事, 箴言, Anecdotes and Poetics of Horror: Gothic, 惊悚片, 和悬疑故事. 他还计划举办几场公开讲座.
与此同时, Bykov is certain that one day he’ll return to Russia, ideally splitting his time between the US and his homeland. 他说，普京不会长久. “他对新俄罗斯没有任何想法.”
Once Putin is deposed—whether by his inner circle, 叛乱, or military defeat—Bykov predicts brief turmoil, “followed by a period of peaceful and fruitful development, 心理康复.”
And that, he says, he can’t wait to be part of.
