Background
Kryvelev was born in Moscow and graduated from the Moscow Institute of History and Philosophy in 1934.
Kryvelev was born in Moscow and graduated from the Moscow Institute of History and Philosophy in 1934.
From 1959 until his death Kryvelev was affiliated with the Etnography Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences (now Institute of Anthropology and Ethnography). By the end of the 1980s Kryvelev remained as virtually the only proponent of Christ myth theory in Soviet academia. From 1932 he taught philosophy.
During World World War II he fought in the military.
In 1947-1949 Kryvelev worked in the Philosophy Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Along with Soviet Armenian philosopher Suren Kaltakhchyan, Kryvelev published antireligious articles in Komsomolskaya Pravda.
Kryvelev"s critical article spurred a reply from Soviet poet Yevgeni Yevtushenko in December 1986. Yevtushenko argued that Kryvelev had made a mistake by confusing the opinions of the novel"s hero with those of Aitmatov himself.
Kryvelev died in Moscow in 1991.
In the academic career Kryvelev declared his adeherence to the Marxist-Leninist worldview, being convinced that "the objective elucidation of historico-religious problems leads to the revealing of those aspects of religion which characterise it as the opium of the people, as a reactionary ideology acting against the interests of mankind".