Kirill Medvedev

Kirill Medvedev (; born 19 June 1975) is a Soviet and Russian activist, musician, translator and author who notably gave up the copyright to all his works in 2004. He is a key member of the musical group "Arkadiy Kots."

Early life and education Kirill Medvedev was born on June 19, 1975, in Moscow. His father Feliks was a well-known post-Soviet journalist and writer. From 1992 to 1995 he studied in the history department at the Moscow State University.

Career

Medvedev published two collections of poetry in his mid twenties: Everything is Bad (or It’s No Good) and Incursion; these were dismissed by some critics as they were autobiographical free verse, which is unusual among Russian poets. He also translated Charles Bukowski into Russian.

In 2007, Medvedev founded the Free Marxist Press, which publishes the works of Ernest Mandel, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Herbert Marcuse, Terry Eagleton, and Russian authors.

Musician Medvedev has been performing vocals and guitar in the Arkadiy Kots Band, a riot-folk band based in Moscow which formed in 2010. The band draws its name from the Russian socialist poet Arkady Kots who translated The Internationale into Russian.

Activism In the early 2000s Medvedev joined a small socialist party called Vpered ("Forward"). On 12 September 2017, he announced on the party's Facebook page that he received about 11% of the vote (379 votes) and was not elected.

Personal life In 2015 Medvedev said, that for several years he "was a stay-at-home father; more recently I have worked as a delivery man for several companies as well as a freelance book editor".

Works in english translation Books

Kirill Medvedev. "It's No Good." Translated by Keith Gessen, Mark Krotov, Cory Merrill, Bela Shayevich (n+1/New York: Ugly Duckling Press, 2016).