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Draft:Kirill Kobrin

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Kirill Kobrin
Kirill Kobrin in the Yeltsin Center 26 october 2021
Kirill Kobrin in the Yeltsin Center 26 october 2021
BornAugust 23, 1964
Occupationessayiste

Kirill Kobrin (Russian: Кири́лл Рафаи́лович Ко́брин; born 23 August 1964) is a historian and writer writing in Russian and English.

Biography[edit]

Kirill Kobrin was born in Gorky, USSR, on 23 August 1964[1]. In 1986 Kobrin graduated from the History Department of Gorky State University. From 1986 to 2000, he taught courses on European and American history at Gorky State Pedagogical University (later renamed Nizhny Novgorod State Pedagogical University). In 1993 he defended his PhD thesis in Medieval Studies, long afterwards remaining the only specialist in medieval Wales in Russia[2].

In the late 1980s, Kobrin was active in the Soviet underground rock scene.[3] He wrote lyrics and took part in the recording sessions of the band Khronop (Russian: Хроноп, after Julio Cortázar’s book of parables Historias de cronopios y de famas (Cronopios and Famas), 1962), which he had co-founded; together with his bandmate Vadim Demidov, he also launched a side project called Holden Caulfield. In 1987, he helped found the Gorky rock club. Kobrin published the first local samizdat magazine, ProRock[4], dedicated to underground music, as well as another music periodical in Gorky later on. He left the Soviet rock underground scene at the height of perestroika, in 1989, as the ideological censorship and government-imposed bans were being lifted.

Kobrin has been writing fiction and non-fiction prose since the mid-1980s and appearing in Russian literary periodicals since the early 1990s. In 1992, together with the Nizhny Novgorod poet Marina Kulakova, he began publishing Urbi, a literary almanac. Since 1994, the journal has been published in St. Petersburg and co-edited by Alexei Purin.[5] Kobrin resigned from Urbi in 2000.

His first book, a collection of short stories entitled Подлинные приключения на вымышленных территориях (Real Adventures in Imaginary Territories), came out in 1994; since then, he has released 30 more fiction and non-fiction books.

Since 2000 Kobrin has lived in Prague, London, Chengdu, Riga, Bucharest, Sofia, Vienna, and Berlin.[6]

In 2000, having moved to Prague, he joined the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Russian Service, where he worked up until 2013, occupying the position of managing editor for the last three years.[7][8]

At the same time, in 2000 Kobrin joined the editorial team of the journal Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie (New Literary Observer), and in 2005 became editor of the journal Neprikosnovennyj zapas (Emergency Rations), where he has been editor-in-chief since 2021 until present.[9]

From 2006 to 2017, he was a columnist for Latvian (Rigas Laiks, Arterritory, Studija)[10] and Russian print and online periodicals (Polit.ru, Colta.ru, Vedomosti). From 2016 to 2020, Kobrin regularly contributed to OpenDemocracy’s project oDR, and since 2018 he has been writing for the Lithuanian magazine Nemunas. Together with Andrey Levkin, he founded post(non)fiction, an online project about literature and art.

In 2017 Kobrin returned to teaching. Since then, he has been a visiting professor at Sichuan University (Chengdu, Sichuan, China, 2017–2018)[11], the University of Vienna (2022), and the Art Academy of Latvia (2018–present).

His books have been translated into English, Ukrainian and Latvian; his essays and short stories have been published in Latvian, English, Lithuanian, German, French, Italian, Turkish and Chinese.

Writing style[edit]

Kirill Kobrin is one of the few writers writing in Russian that cultivate the essay genre. He predominantly identifies with the Anglo-Saxon tradition of essay writing that dates back to Thomas De Quincey, G. K. Chesterton and George Orwell, leading all the way up to Christopher Hitchens, Bruce Chatwin and Julian Barnes. Some critics have hailed him as the “Russian Borges” and “one of the founders of Russian psychogeography”[12], noting the versatility and encyclopedism of his literary and academic work. When it comes to fiction, Kobrin is known for writing detective prose; aside from the greats of the mystery genre, he has been strongly influenced by Vladimir Nabokov[13], Alain Robbe-Grillet, Bruce Chatwin, Julio Cortázar and Flann O'Brien.

Together with Andrey Levkin, Kirill Kobrin invented a new genre, post(non)fiction -- a mixture of essay, fiction, literary sketch, and even academic analysis.

Kobrin’s approach to academic historical research is a combination of the history of ideas, British Marxist historiography, and classical positivism of the late 19th century.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Подлинные приключения на вымышленных территориях. (Real Adventures in Fictional Lands) — Нижний Новгород: Деком, 1995. — 116 с. (Совместно с Валерием Хазиным.)
  • Профили и ситуации. (Profiles and Situations) — СПб.: ЗАО «Атос», 1997. — 136 с. — (Urbi: Литературный альманах. Выпуск двенадцатый).
  • От «Мабиногион» к «Психологии искусства». (From “Mabinogion” to “Psychology of Art”)— СПб.: Журнал «Звезда», 1999. – 152 c/
  • Описания и рассуждения: Книга эссе (Descriptions and Reflections) — М.: Модест Колеров; Дом интеллектуальной книги, 2000. — 153 с.
  • Гипотезы об истории (Hypotheses About History) — М.: Прагматика культуры, 2002. — 108 с.
  • Книжный шкаф Кирилла Кобрина. (Kirill Kobrin’s Bookcase) — М.: Языки славянской культуры, 2002. — 140 с.
  • Письма в Кейптаун о русской поэзии и другие эссе (Letters to Capetown About Russian Poetry) — М.: Новое литературное обозрение, 2002. — 128 с.
  • Где-то в Европе (Somewhere in Europe) — М.: Новое литературное обозрение, 2004. — 200 с.
  • Мир приключений (World of Adventures) — М.: Новое литературное обозрение, 2007. — 154.
  • Путешествие на край тарелки (A Journey to the Edge of a Dish). – М.: Новое литературное обозрение, 2009). -- 136–. (Совместгно с Ольгой Назаровой).
  • «Беспомощный»: книга об одной песне (Helpless)— М.: Новое литературное обозрение, 2009. — 129 с. (Совместно с Андреем Лебедевым.)
  • The Last European. London: Galley Beggar Press, 2013. – 24 p.
  • Европа: конец нулевых (Europe: The End of the Noughties). -- М.: Новое литературное обозрение, 2011. — 461 с.
  • Книга перемещений (Book of Transitions). — М.: Новое литературное обозрение, 2013. — 144 с.
  • Modernitè в избранных сюжетах (Modernité: Selected Cases). — М.: Изд. дом Высшей школы экономики, 2015. — 240 с.[14]
  • Шерлок Холмс и рождение современности: Деньги, девушки, денди Викторианской эпохи (Sherlock Holmes and A Birth of Modernity. Money, Girls and Dandies of Victorian Times). — СПб.: Издательство Ивана Лимбаха, 2015. — 184 с.
  • Средние века: очерки о границах, идентичности и рефлексии (Middle Ages: Essays About Borders, Identities and Self-Reflection). — СПб.: Центр гуманитарных инициатив, 2016. — 218 с.
  • Eleven Prague Corpses. – Funks Grove, Illinois: Dalkey Archive, 2016 – 168 p. (Russian and Ukrainian versions: Kharkiv: Folio, 2016.)
  • Постсоветский мавзолей прошлого. Истории времён Путина (Post-Soviet Mausoleum of The Past. Stories from Putin Times). — М.: Новое литературное обозрение, 2017. — 264 с.[15]
  • Разговор в комнатах. Карамзин, Чаадаев, Герцен и начало современной России (A Talk in The Room. Karamzin, Chaadayev and Herzen and the Beginning of Modern Russia). — М.: Новое литературное обозрение, 2018. — 224 с.
  • На руинах нового: эссе о книгах (On the Ruins of The New). — СПб.: Издательство Ивана Лимбаха, 2018. — 332 с.
  • История: Work in Progress (History. Work in Progress). — [Rīga]: Орбита, 2018. — 112 c. (Latvian version: Riga: Orbita, 2018.)
  • Поднебесный Экспресс (The Celestial Express). — М.: Новое литературное обозрение, 2019. — 256 с.
  • Лондон: Арттерритория (London: Art-territory). Санкт-Петербург: Арка, 2020 – 1008 с.
  • Призраки усталого капитализма. Эссе последних лет о политике, искусстве и прочем (The Ghosts of Weary Capitalism. Recent Essays on Politics, Art and More). -- Екатеринбург: Кабинетный ученый, 2020. – 200 с.
  • Письма из карантина (Letters from The Quarantine). – Санкт-Петербург: Masters Journal, 2020/ -- 30 c.
  • На пути к изоляции (On the Road to an Isolation). – М.: Новое литературное обозрение, 2021 – 248 с.
  • Пять эссе о войне и болезни (Five essays on War and Sickness). – Тель Авив: Бабель, 2024 – 136 c.

External links[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Bibliothèque nationale de France Record #158632164".
  2. ^ Кобрин, Кирилл. "Уэльс и английская монархия : (Последняя треть XI-начало XIV в) : автореферат дис. ... кандидата исторических наук : 07.00.03". Russian State Library (in Russian).
  3. ^ "Кирилл Кобрин. История свободного разговора в России". Афиша Лондон.
  4. ^ "Кирилл Кобрин". Журнальный зал.
  5. ^ "Кирилл Кобрин". Новая Карта Русской Литературы.
  6. ^ "Kirill Kobrin, Historian, author - Eshkolot | Jewish culture in edutainment format". Eshkolot | Jewish culture in edutainment format.
  7. ^ "Кирилл Кобрин - Информация об авторе - Радио Свобода". Радио Свобода.
  8. ^ "Кирилл Кобрин: «Журналист "Свободы" – не робот»". OpenSpace.ru архив. 2011-01-31.
  9. ^ "Авторы и переводчики: Кирилл Кобрин". НЛО (in Russian).
  10. ^ "Events : Talk by the writer Kirill Kobrin "The Spectre of the Future which Never Happened: Hauntology and Art Today"". Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art.
  11. ^ "Russia: The End of the Post-Soviet Period. What Next?". Global Studies. 11 September 2018.
  12. ^ Kobrin, Kirill (2016-02-26). Eleven Prague Corpses. Translated by Lakatova, Veronika. Victoria, TX: Dalkey Archive Press. ISBN 978-1-62897-134-7.
  13. ^ ""I'm a master of balance, I am." #elevenpraguecorpses @Dalkey_Archive". Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings. 2024-03-25.
  14. ^ Балла-Гертман, О. (2015-03-08). "К типологии нетипичного". Радио Свобода. Archived from the original on 2016-11-04.
  15. ^ Onosov, Ivan (15 September 2018). "Kirill Kobrin, Постсоветский мавзолей прошлого. Истории времен Путина". Revue des études slaves. 89 (LXXXIX-3): 491–495. doi:10.4000/res.2134.
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