Education
Born in Kazan into the family of a biologist, he graduated from Saint St. Petersburg State Electrotechnical University in 1963 and worked as an engineer until 1969. In 1970 he graduated from the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography.
Born in Kazan into the family of a biologist, he graduated from Saint St. Petersburg State Electrotechnical University in 1963 and worked as an engineer until 1969. In 1970 he graduated from the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography.
His first story was published in 1963 and his first collection, Yuzhnee, chem prezhde ("Further south than before") in 1969. During this period he was, along with Sergei Dovlatov, in a "group of aspiring young writers called Gorozhane (The Townsmen) — a group that included Vladimir Maramzin, Valery Popov, Boris Vakhtin, and Igor Yefimov." Jekaterina Young writes of these early stories:
His later works, "depicting surreal post-Soviet life, such as Days in the Harem (1994) and She-rascal (1996), utilize elements of the picaresque novel." He has also written a biography (2010) of his friend Dovlatov.
Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics Union of Writers.