Arbitman, Roman Emilievich

The son of the Saratov art historian Emiliy Nikolaevich Arbitman (1930, Kharkov - 2002, Saratov). He graduated from the philological faculty of Saratov State University (1984). In 1984-1987, he worked as a teacher in the Aryash secondary school of the Novoburas district, in 1987-1989 - as a proofreader at the publishing house of the University of Saratov. As a literary critic who has been speaking since the late 1980s, he was published in Literaturnaya Gazeta, Book Review, Today, Literator (St. Petersburg), and in the thick magazines Ural , Volga , and New World ”,“ Banner ”, etc., engaged mainly in science fiction and detective literature. Such a narrow focus seems to be a drawback for Andrei Nemzer : “I’m sure that Roman Arbitman would step aside with his“ fantastic detective ”principles, his role in criticism would be very significant” ^[2] .

Published under several aliases. Under the pseudonym Dr. Rustam Stanislavovich Katz published a monograph-hoax " History of Soviet Fiction " (1993). This pseudo-monography misled the sociologist Leonid Fishman, who in his book Fiction and Civil Society (2002) refers to it as a serious scientific work. Under the pseudonym Lev Gursky writes mainly ironic detective novels, one of which was filmed under the title " Detective Dubrovsky 's Dossier ." As Arbitman recalled, “Gursky was born because criticism of Arbitman — and the reader Arbitman too — lacked an ironic thriller like Donald Westlake's “ Damned Emerald ”in the Russian detective ^[3] . In addition, it is published in the press under the pseudonyms Arkady Danilov and Andrei Makarov.

In 2009, an alternative historical book by Lev Gursky, “ Roman Arbitman. Biography of the second president of Russia . " The main character, Saratov teacher Roman Ilyich Arbitman, becomes an adviser to President Boris Yeltsin , and then the second president of Russia. The book, the cover of which was stylized for the design of the series “The Life of Remarkable People ” and “ The Adventure Library ”, became the reason for the lawsuit against “Printerra” by the publishing house “ Young Guard ”.

In 2012, he won a trial against writer Alexander Amusin, who left an offensive comment on an article by Arbitman on the website of the newspaper Nasha Versiya ^[4] . In 2014, he was dismissed from the “Saratov Regional Newspaper”, according to him - under pressure “from above”, for criticizing the work of the Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky ^{[5] [6] [7]} .

Since October 2014, he has been conducting the weekly program “Visiting a Fairytale” on the OKTV Internet channel in Saratov ^[8] .

Member of the Union of Russian Writers (since 1993) and the Academy of Contemporary Russian Literature (since 1997), winner of several literary prizes. Member of the editorial board of Humpty Dumpty magazine. In 2012-2013, he led a column in the journal World of Fantasy .

Roman Arbitman is the prototype of one of the characters in the trilogy of Yulia Burkin and Sergey Lukyanenko “ Island of Russia ”, the “crazy scientist” Manarbit.

Roman Arbitman

• We live only twice (collection of articles). - 1991.
• The fate of Cassandra (collection of articles). - 1993.
• Rat fight with a dream: about books, people and so on (a collection of articles) - M .: Vremya , 2007. - 416 p. - ISBN 978-5-9691-0260-6
• Evil critic (collection of articles). - 2009
• Anti-guide to modern literature. 99 books that do not need to be read. - M.: Tsentrpoligraf , 2014 .-- 352 p. - ISBN 978-5-227-05129-5
• Serial favorites. 105 modern TV series, which are not a pity to spend time. - M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2016 .-- 416 p. - ISBN 978-5-227-06591-9
• Subjective Dictionary of Fiction - M .: Time, 2018 .-- 480 p. - ISBN 978-5-9691-1751-8

Rustam Stanislavovich Katz

• 1993 - History of Soviet science fiction (monograph-hoax)
• 2008 - A look at contemporary Russian literature (collection of articles)

Leo Gursky

• 1994 - Danger (novel)
• 1994 - Kill the President (novel)
• 1994 - Change of Seats (novel)
• 1996 - Put on Black (novel)
• 1997 - Apples of Discord (novel)
• 1998 - Save the President (novel)
• 2004 - Spear Trajectory (novel)
• 2005 - None but the President (novel)
• 2006 - And you are not a project? (collection of articles and stories)
• 2007 - Our Everything - All Our (playbook)
• 2008 - Yes, Mr. President (novel)
• 2009 - The Awakening of Denis Anatolyevich (novel)
• 2009 - 500 spoilers. World adventure movie in letters (collection of articles)
• 2009 - Roman Arbitman. Biography of the second president of Russia (biography-hoax)
• 2010 - Union of Writers of Atlantis (collection of articles)
• 2011 - Pie with breech filling (collection of articles)
• 2012 - Gotcha (storybook)
• 2013 - Jucheversia (collection of articles)
• 2014 - Goodbye, Valery Vasilievich (novel)
• 2014 - ANTI-guide on modern literature. 99 books that do not need to be read (collection of articles)

• 1993 - Interpresscon Prize for Best Literary Critical Work
• 1993 - Award " Bronze Snail " for the best literary critical work
• 1994 - “ Wanderer ” prize in the “journalism” nomination
• 1994 - Bronze Snail Award for Best Literary Critical Work
• 1994 - Interpresscon Prize for Best Literary Critical Work

• 1999 - Dossier of Detective Dubrovsky - 18-episode series based on the novel "Change of Seats"

• Roman Arbitman in the " Journal Hall "
• Roman Arbitman at the Fantasy Lab website