May 25, 1947
Celebrates his birthday Igor Irtenyev. "A poet and truth-teller", journalist, representative of the ironic trend in modern Russian poetry.
There is a grave
Who knows whose,
But still, it's cute,
What is not mine
Born in Moscow, into a family of Soviet intellectuals. His birth surname was Rabinovich. Both his father and mother were historians by training. In the late 1960s, he enrolled in the correspondence department of the Leningrad Institute of Film Engineers and almost immediately found work as a film technician at a television station. He worked in the newsreel department and wrote that "I traveled all over the country for 20 years, but had no inclination whatsoever toward engineering, so my diploma was never put to good use."
The landscape outside the window is sad,
Like a debtor's song,
But nevertheless, he is ours,
He's still Soviet
And we won't give it up.
Neither NATO nor OPEC,
As long as at least one is alive
A non-drinker
(1989)
His father instilled in him a love of poetry—he was a great admirer of it. He sometimes wrote himself, quite fluently, in his son's opinion. But he never published, except for front-line newspapers. He amassed a large poetry library, much to the delight of his family.
By the age of fifteen, I had reread all of this stuff several times, but somehow I had avoided the youthful illness of writing poetry, at least its most difficult for those around me, the lyrical variety.
(About me)
My poems, simple in appearance,
Simple at first glance only
And not to any individual
They say a lot <>
They are at once thick and at once empty,
And sometimes nothing at all,
But every time they are art
Submit your trademark
It goes in my cultural layer
Uncontrollable process,
Formally connected to the land,
But approved from heaven
(1995)
He began writing after turning 30. He began publishing almost immediately—his literary debut came in 1979 in Literaturnaya Gazeta with the story "Transcendent on a Tram." He signed his pen name, Irtenyev (borrowing his grandmother's surname). He became Irtenyev in his passport in 1984. He also wrote poetry in parallel. While he was a writer Andrey Kuchaev did not convince me that the poems turn out better.
Great guys, great country
We recently returned from a great war,
Unlike a whole bunch of guys,
Which remained on her.
They were given a wonderful welcome by the wonderful people,
Who lives well in that country,
He built excellent hospitals for them,
Where there are only one hospital bed for every two people
(1989)
In 1986, he became the founder and president of the Moscow club "Poetry", which included the most prominent representatives of the literary underground - Dmitry Prigov, Lev Rubinstein, Evgeny Bunimovich and others. Since 1994, he was the editor-in-chief of an ironic magazine founded Mikhail Zhvanetsky, "Shop". Worked together with Andrey Bilzho — the magazine's chief artist.
United by a common ideal,
Having divided the cash according to the understandings,
Under the family cotton blanket
Power and crime were at rest
He was a regular participant in the program "Itogo," which aired on the old NTV channel from 1997 to 2001. He also wrote for "Free Cheese" and "Processed Cheese." Author and host Viktor Shenderovich Irtenyev created the image of a "truth-telling poet" who recited his poems on topical issues. For example, this is how Irtenyev responded to the news that, in early 2003, cultural and show business figures had joined the ranks of United Russia en masse.
Your fidgety natures
Just beckon with a loaf of bread.
Who are you with today, masters of culture?
How? To whom? And most importantly, for how much?
In 1996 and 2003, he called for an end to the wars in Chechnya. In 2014, he condemned Russia's actions in Crimea. A few days before the war with Ukraine, a poem circulated online:
Homeland, take off your chain mail already,
Hide your sword, Kladenets, away,
Don't shout "war!" to the whole district,
Sit down already and relax finally <>
Well, come up with something first.
The simplest and most straightforward
Mend the fence, fix the gate,
Feed the children for once
Today Igor Irtenyev turns 78 years old.
I go against the axe,
Clutching a crowbar in his hand
As a symbol of the triumph of goodness
In his fight against evil
