Oleg Grigoriev

• Name — Oleg Grigoriev • Born — 6 December 1943 • Birthplace — Vologda Oblast, USSR • Died — 30 April 1992 • Place of death — Saint-Petersburg, Russia • Occupation — poet, artist

Oleg Grigoriev was born during the evacuation of the Vologda region in World War II. After the war, Grigoriev's father became an alcoholic after returning from the war, with Grigoriev and his mother moving to Leningrad. At an early age, he started to paint and write poetry (he wrote one of his most famous poems, "I have asked electrician Petrov...," at the age of 16). After finishing secondary school, Grigoriev enrolled in art school, but was soon expelled for painting "in an inappropriate way". Afterwards, Grigoriev worked as a guard, a stoker, a postman, a seasonal worker, and a yard-keeper. In 1970 he published his first book, "Oddballs" («Чудаки»), a collection of children's poetry. Soon after, he was charged with parasitism and sentenced to public works building an industrial plant. In 1975 he took part in art exhibition in DK Nevsky. In 1981, his second collection of children's poetry, "Growth Vitamin" («Витамин роста»), was published. Poems from the book were widely popular, but attracted criticism from the Soviet literary apparatchiks and parts of the literary establishment, including Sergey Mikhalkov. Reportedly, the main reason for the Mikhalkov's outrage was a verse where a bird says that a branch is similar to a cage, but the rods on the branch are not as close to each other, which Mikhalkov interpreted as a subliminal anti-Soviet statement. As a result, two editors of the book were fired and Grigoriev was denied membership in the USSR Union of Writers, which would have made it possible for him to write full-time. His drinking problem developed in the labor camp deepened. Grigoriev's next children's book, "Talking Raven" («Говорящий ворон»), was published in 1987. In 1989, he received a suspended sentence for a drunk fight with a policeman. The sentence could have been harsher, but several Russian writers, including Andrey Bitov and Bella Akhmadulina, asked court to pardon the poet. In 1991, Grigoriev was finally granted membership into the Union of Writers. Oleg Grigoriev died on April 30, 1992, from a perforated ulcer. He was buried in Volkovo Cemetery in Saint-Petersburg. His first book of adults' poetry was published after his death in 1993. Since then his poems, both for kids and adults, are republished several times every year and some his works have been translated into German and French.