Dmitry Bykov

Russian writer, poet, literary critic and journalist, also known as a biographer of Boris Pasternak, Bulat Okudzhava and Maxim Gorky. Born into a Jewish family, his father was a prominent medical scholar, Lev Zilbertrud.

Bykov graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of the elite Moscow State University. Dmitry Bykov taught literature and the history of Soviet literature in Moscow's secondary schools. He was a professor at the Department of World Literature and Culture of Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), often considered the most elite university of the USSR. As a journalist and critic, Bykov has been writing for the magazine Ogoniok since 1993. He has also periodically hosted a show on the radio station Echo of Moscow, which ran until 2008. Earlier, he was one of the hosts of an influential TV show Vremechko.

In 2022 Bykov, who has criticized the Russian invasion of Ukraine, was declared by Russian government to be a "foreign agent". Subsequently, many booksellers started withdrawing sales of his books in Russia. Since being declared a "foreign agent", Bykov has been fined for not declaring his status as such, and is subject to a criminal case. On 14 July 2025, it was reported that Dmitry Bykov was added to Russia's federal wanted list for spreading false information about the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (Article 207.3), as well as for evading duties required by foreign agents (Article 330.1).