Olga Sedakova

At an early age, she traveled with her father overseas, enabling her to gain a different view of the world. She graduated from Moscow State University (faculty of philology) in 1973. Subsequently, she went to graduate school. In 1985, she obtained a degree of Candidate of Sciences (philology). She befriended Venedikt Yerofeyev and kept the manuscript of Moscow-Petushki in her house. A deeply religious person, Sedakova started writing poetry in 1960. Her Christian themes made her Neoclassical works unpublishable in the Soviet Union until 1989. Her poems were translated into a number of languages including English, French, German, and Italian. It was through her mentor Sergey Averintsev that Sedakova became involved in the ecumenist movement. She is known to have exchanged poetry collections with John Paul II who presented the inaugural Vladimir Solovyov Prize to her (1998). She also criticised the Russian Orthodox Church for taking an intolerant stance on other forms of Christian faith. Sedakova is the recipient of several major literary prizes, including the Andrei Bely Prize (1980), Paris Prize for Russian Poets (1991), European Prize in Poetry (1995), Vladimir Solovyov Prize for Advancement of Culture (1998), and Solzhenitsyn Prize (2001).

Olga Sedakova studied at Philological Faculty of Moscow State University and Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The recorded working language is Russian. Employment is recorded with Lomonosov Moscow State University. Distinctions recorded are Andrei Bely Prize, Solzhenitsyn Prize and honorary doctorate from the European University of Humanities.

Olga Sedakova is recorded as having studied at Philological Faculty of Moscow State University and Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.