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Aleksandr Arkhangelsky
One of the most brilliant literary scholars, cultural historians and journalists in Russia today, Arkhangelsky has a unique ability to place everyday events in a remarkably nuanced historical prospective. - Evgeny Dobrenko
Alexander Arkhangelsky was born in Moscow in 1962. He graduated in pedagogy and wrote a dissertation about Pushkin. At different times he has been a radio-journalist, written for literary journals and political newspapers, and has taught.
In 1990, he was invited to be a professor at the Geneva University, and at the same time was teaching at the Centre of humanitarian knowledge at the Moscos Conservatory. At the moment he teaches at the Higher School of Economics. His first book was published in 1990; since then he has written a wide range of books, ranging from literary criticism ('On the Front Porch: Literature and Culture During Glasnost', 1991), to historical literature ('Pushkin's Heroes', 1991), to historical essays. The biographical novel 'Alexander I' was published a number of times - in 2000, 2005, 2006 and in 2009 an audio version came out. The publishing house AST is preparing a new publication of the novel; in 2000 it was translated into French, and into Chinese in 2009. Alexander Arkhangelsky's political writings were published in the collections 'Polically Correct' in 2000, 'Humanitarian Politics' in 2006, 'Core Aims: How to Use' in 2006, and 'Scary Fascists and Weird Jews: The Mythology of the Third Reich' in 2008. In 2009, he was awarded the 'Power No. 4' prize as the 'Best Political Observer'.
In 2006, he debuted as a fictional author with his book '1962' (reprinted in 2007 and 2009). The book received the 'Globe' prize in 2007 for the 'Best Book Written by a Journalist'. In the summer of 2008 his novel 'The Price of Separation' was published to wide acclaim. The 'Russian Reporter' named it the 'Most Important Novel of the Year'.
Alexander Arkhangelsky is a member of the administrative council for the Russian Booker literary prize. He is also famous as a television presenter and director of documentary films. He produces the television programmes 'Against the Tide' (1992-3), 'Chronograph' (2002). Since 2002 he has presented the daily intellectual talk-show 'Those Days' on the 'Culture' channel', which is dedicated to key issues of cultural and social life. He was a finalist for the television prize TEFI in 2005 and 2006.
