Popov, Mikhail Mikhailovich

Father is an artist, mother is an English teacher. Childhood was mainly spent in Kazakhstan , in 1961-1975. He lived in Belarus , graduated from the Zhirovitsky Agricultural College in the Grodno region , and served in the army (1975-1977).

From 1978 to 1984 he studied at the A. Gorky Literary Institute (seminar of the literary critic A. A. Mikhailov ), after which he worked in the journal Literary Studies (1983-1989), then as deputy editor-in-chief of the Moscow Herald magazine ( 1989-1997).

Member of the editorial board of the almanac "Realist" (since 1995), editorial board of the "Roman Newspaper of the XX Century" (since 1999 ). Since 2004, he heads the Prose Council at the Union of Writers of Russia ^[1] .

The first publication, during the army service, is a poem about partisans in the military newspaper “For Homeland”. The first significant poetic publication is poetry in the Moscow almanac "Day of Poetry" ( 1980 ).

The first significant publication of prose is the story “Minion of Fate” (Literary Studies, 1983 ).

The first novel by M. Popov “Feast” was published in the publishing house “ Soviet Writer ” in 1986 . The hero of the novel is trying to escape from the realities of the world in a mental hospital, but here he does not find peace, just here all sorts of adventures begin.

In 1987, the publishing house " Sovremennik " published the first poetic collection "Znak", in 1989 at the publishing house " Young Guard " - a poetic book "Tomorrow's Clouds."

One after another, the novels The Gentle Killer ( 1989 ), the novels and short stories The Minion of Fate and Caligula ( 1991 ) are published.

He is the author of more than 20 prose books published by the publishing houses “ Soviet Writer ”, “ Young Guard ”, “ Contemporary ”, “ Veche ” and others. Besides psychological and adventure novels, biography novels are noteworthy: “Sulla”, “Tamerlan”, “Barbarossa” "," Olonne ".

The works were also published in the magazines “ Moscow ”, “ Youth ”, “ October ”, “ Our Contemporary ”, “Moscow Herald” and other periodicals.

Mikhail Popov is the author of the scripts for two feature films: “The Arithmetic of Murder ” (prize of the “Film Shock” festival) and “ Gadzho ”.

Critics note the versatility of the artistic interests of Mikhail Popov and his peculiarity by realistic means to convey even "zaum":

Mikhail Popov managed to achieve a very interesting result in his writings: the most complete, oddly enough it sounds in a literary conversation, independence from language.

In fact, what only Popov does not write about. Here are modern Moscow dramas, and phantasmagoric worlds of the future, and the Palestinian epic Templar , and medieval France , and the phantasmagoria of Ancient Egypt ...

The language, the way to express oneself is one and the same, and the “presence effect” in each case is one hundred percent. Moreover, within the framework of the same strictly classical discourse, Popov is able to realize, if necessary, the most desperate idea, using purely realistic means to arrange the coolest “sur”, to generate virtuality of any severity. To perform any kind of artistic task, he does not need stylization or “metalanguages” - he creates what he needs not by means of language, but as if he establishes a decree in his works ^[2] .

Literary critic S. Dmitrenko likes the paradox of Popov’s novels:

He calls to play a literary hoax and immediately unauthorizedly exposes it, he offers the reader, it seems, a tabloid novel ... and on the very first page of this novel from the life of pirates and civilizers of the 17th century rains down on you with the power of the ninth rampart of Captain Greenaway, reminiscent of a charming movie story, Colonel Fahrenheit, recalling the hop of Bradbury prose ... ^[3]

Belarusian politician and art critic Zenon Poznyak criticizes Popov for participating in the information war:

Hurriedly even “fiction” appeared - for example, Mikhail Popov - where Belarusians are roughly shown by such subhuman, primitive and backward, and the Belarusian state - by misunderstanding ^[4]

I figured it out (very, of course, approximately and self-confidently), the majority of the processes taking place in him [in the literary space] are controlled by five main parties. The word "party" does not mean that its members gather every day, drink coffee or vodka and sip persistent plans to master all the minds of Russian reality. Members of one such party may hate each other or never see each other. These are some humanoid models that reproduce a certain principle of understanding the world. Two are liberal. Relatively speaking, the “sixties”: Bitov , Makanin , Anninsky , Rodnyanskaya and others like them. Specific names, as you understand, can easily be replaced by more adequate ones for someone, the list is supplemented as you like. The second liberal party is, relatively speaking, “new scribes” (although which are already “new”): Nemzer , Arkhangelsky , Erofeev , plus all kinds of networked men. Again, ready to take any names back. There are two large patriotic parties: neopagan imperialists (Prokhanov and his entourage, in some ways Kunyaev , somewhere Polyakov ) and Orthodox-cathedral writers grouping around Komsomolsky Prospekt, building 13. The fifth party is “the stars of the scattered galaxy”. From Vladivostok and Volgograd to Munich and London with a fuzzy center in St. Petersburg ^[5] .

• Volga Magazine Prize (1989)
• Prize of the joint venture of the USSR “For the best first book” (1989)
• Andrey Platonov Prize “Smart Heart” (2000)
• Moscow Government Prize for the novel "The Plan of Salvation of the USSR" (2002)
• Goncharov Prize (2009)
• Moscow International Prize — PENNE 2011
• Gorky Literary Prize (2012)

• Sign. - M., 1987.
• Feast. - M., Soviet writer, 1988. - ISBN 5-265-00402-5
• Gentle killer. - M., Sovremennik, 1989. - ISBN 5-270-00820-3
• Caligula, 1969. - M., 1991. - ISBN 5-7012-0102-3
• Minion of fate. - M., Young Guard, 1991. - ISBN 5-235-01301-8
• White slave. - M., 1994. - ISBN 5-7121-0245-5
• Cage for frostbitten. Novels. - M., Veche, 1995. - ISBN 5-7141-0110-3
• Dreams of a pimp. - M., Veche, AST, 1996. - ISBN 5-7141-0299-1
• Timur. - M., 1996. - ISBN 5-7632-0147-7
• Citadel. - M., 1998. - ISBN 5-300-01653-5
• Barbarossa. - M., Armada, 1998. - ISBN 5-7632-0778-5
• Dictator. - M., 1998. - ISBN 5-7632-0696-7
• Let's talk! - M., Terra, 1998. - ISBN 5-300-01632-2
• The plan of salvation of the USSR. - M., Armada, 2001.
• Fiery monkey. - M., 2002. - ISBN 5-17-014464-4
• The doomed prince. - M., Young Guard, 2004. - ISBN 5-235-02705-1
• Sails of death. - M., 2006. - ISBN 5-9533-1353-5
• Pleroma. - M., 2006. - ISBN 5-91064-017-8
• A curse. - M., 2006. - ISBN 5-94848-303-7
• Babylonian car. M., 2007. - ISBN 978-5-91293-027-0
• The plan of salvation of the USSR. - M., 2007. - ISBN 978-5-91293-024-9
• Bullet for the Archduke. - M., 2007. - ISBN 978-5-9533-2004-7
• Who wants to be president? - M., 2007. - ISBN 978-5-17-047171-3
• The darkness is Egyptian. - M., 2008. - ISBN 978-5-9533-2906-4
• Dark waters of the Tiber. - M., 2010. - ISBN 978-5-9533-4679-5
• Moskal. - M., 2010. - ISBN 978-5-9533-3557-7
• "Bad" grandfather. - M., Veche, 2011 .-- ISBN 978-5-9533-4982-6
• Transfiguration Square. - M., 2012. - ISBN 978-5-4225-0044-4
• Larochka. - M., 2014. - ISBN 978-5-386-07394-7
• Idleness. Poems. - M.: At the Nikitsky Gate, 2014 .-- 94 p. - ISBN 978-5-91366-807-3
• Moscow Nights. - M .: At the Nikitsky Gate, 2015. - ISBN 978-5-906787-77-4

• Belay A. Portrait of a prose // Literary studies. 1991. No. 5. - S. 126-130.
• Dmitrenko S. About Popovs // Realist, 1997. Issue. 2. - S. 220—237.
• Zarovannykh O. New Realism // Literary News, 2004, June. No. 77. - S. 2.
• Kaznacheev S. The Sinking Liberal Mikhail Popov // Who is Who in the Modern World. 1995. No. 4.
• Kalyuzhnaya L. Last deception or promise // Literary studies. 1995. No. 2-3.
• Kalyuzhnaya L., Filimonov A. Poetry of Mikhail Popov from two points of view // Lepta, No. 23, 1994. - P. 108-115.
• Kostyrko S. In search of the literary process // Consent. 1991. No. 2.
• Lyusy A. Collective Figaro // Literary Newspaper , 2002, No. 10.
• Neverov A. In the mirror of the "National Bestseller" // Trud , 2002, April 16.
• Lyasheva R. Pir and PR // Literary Russia , 2003, January 31.
• Shaturin S. The painful search for kinship // Moscow , 1997, No. 6.

• Artworks on the site rospisatel.ru
• Mikhail Popov: Trying to cross a snake and a hedgehog
• Mikhail Popov: The writer is a soldier
• A rare disease. A fragment of the novel by Mikhail Popov "To Chaadaev." // NG EXLIBRIS
• Mikhail Popov. Sails of death. Novel
• Mikhail Popov. Forelock. Story
• Mikhail Popov. Fantastic novel "Pleroma"
• Mikhail Popov "Shamed and Dumbfounded." // Independent newspaper
• Mikhail Popov. You can manipulate the national soul, but not for long // Literary Newspaper, 2019, June 26