Weller's biography. Mikhail Weller, biography, news, photos. Russian writer, member of the Russian PEN Center, winner of a number of literary awards

“I recently bought a terrible book from a tray, which was called something like “Pink Notebook with Some Strings.” It says that the author is you, and this is from previously unpublished work. Did you really write this or is it a parody of you?

– This is really my book. I actually "baked" several of these stories. But they were not intended for publication. They were produced only for internal use by editors of the prose departments of Soviet publications. The goal was simple - so that the editors, after reading this to each other, cackling and making salty jokes, would remember my last name well. And when I sent my real stories, they would read them carefully and with a positive emotional attitude.

I never in my life thought that this would be published. It was a technological move.

– There is a phrase: “Behind every famous man there is a great woman.” Who is behind you?

“And there is a Swiss proverb: “Behind every rich man there is a devil, and behind the back of a poor man there are two.” Regarding the woman behind my back, I find it difficult to answer. I know that a great woman stood behind Mohammed. The great woman stood behind Disraeli. But who stood behind Napoleon? Josephine?

– If it had not been there, the map of Europe might have been different.

– And also the association with the woman behind him is the painting “Comrade Stalin and the Muse.” She is behind him and gently strokes his cheekbone. I have no Muse, no woman, no wings behind me. Besides the bitter years I have lived, believe me, I have nothing behind me.

– Do you often think: “Who is my equal here?” I'm talking about literature.

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– You know, a journalist once asked Victor Hugo who he considered the first poet of France. Hugo winced, grimaced and groaned for a long time and finally muttered: “The second is de Vigny.”

- So who do you think is second?

- ABOUT! A lot of them. Wonderful people.

- You won’t name it?

- Well, what are you talking about! Then others will be offended.

– Do you feel like a fulfilled person?

“I can’t imagine such a person.” Each of us always has a reserve. But it’s a sin for me to complain about unfulfillment. On the contrary, I often need to think that everything is much better than it is and could be. And you need to regularly address words of inner gratitude to the one at the top.

– I read this from Brodsky.

– I can’t stand Brodsky.

– In general, you have very emotional assessments of your fellow workers.

– You know, in my opinion, Griboyedov wrote the best play in Russian classics. In my opinion, “Woe from Wit” is an absolutely wonderful thing. And a person “must dare to have his own opinions.” I don't force them on anyone. I don't require anyone to separate them. I only insist that I have the right to my own opinions, as long as I do not express them in a public, offensive manner. This is my point of view. Why should I dance around her and make some passes with my hands, observing internal literary political correctness?

– Are you planning your creativity? Or do you write spontaneously?

– Our plans are through the roof! I have a dream (“I have a dream.” - “NI”), as Martin Luther King, who fought for the liberation of blacks, said. I also have a dream - I would like to have several “blacks”. Is it true. As one Balzac hero said, “I am, in essence, almost a failure. I’m already so many years old, but I don’t have a single slave.” If I had slaves, they would sit in the workshop at desks. Simple, plank, no need to waste money. Everyone would have a paper in front of them and they would write. I would look there around noon and ruffle their necks. I would correct some words with the hand of a master. I would yell: “What the hell! I’ve been plowing for eight years and haven’t learned anything!” And then I would fulfill a large percentage of my plans.

- But the "Negro" will not be able to write the way you.

- This will upset me. I will get him to do what I can. I'll stop feeding him. So the plans are just fine. You know, I really love Kostya Melikhan - there is such a wonderful satirist in Leningrad. He has a phrase at the level of genius: “A person can do everything as long as he does nothing.” Isn't that great?

– Readers were quite surprised by your new book “The Great Last Chance.” What is it about?

– This book is an analysis of what is happening here and now, written in normal human language, the way people talk to each other, without swearing, but without mincing words. The point is that over the past 15 years, some important concepts have been elegantly and imperceptibly replaced, and thus not everyone can figure out how we ended up where we ended up. For example, the concept of “democracy,” which everyone liked so much in the early 90s, was liked by few people in the 2000s. And if in 1990 the concepts of “communism” and “socialism” made everyone sicker than a bitter radish, then already in 1996 all the prohibitive black resources were included so that the communists would not win the elections, because in conditions of fair play they won without any options. Because the majority of the population would vote for the Communist Party.

– This is called “democratic elections”, you should know.

- No. Quite rightly, about 250 years ago, Franklin, depicted on a hundred dollar bill, gave the following definition: “Democracy is a space of agreement between independent armed men.” Since more than 90% of our population does not fall into this category, either in terms of independence or in terms of weapons, we do not have democracy.

What were the ancient Greeks so proud of and what did the Romans adopt from them? Civil society and the rule of law. A law that is higher than any. True, it was in Greece that they acquired the art of oratory. Because it was necessary to influence the voices of those who came to the agora. And a more skillful speaker was able to use his speeches, even if he lied and was wrong, to attract votes to his side. What political strategists are doing on television now.

In our country, as democracy developed, it turned out that television, newspapers and radio are far from the people, and we now have democracy and economic liberalism for approximately five or ten percent of the country's population. These are people who consider each other because they know how to force themselves to be reckoned with. They have the power of money, the power of weapons, and they directly influence power. The remaining 90% does not affect anything. They are classic proletarians and lumpen proletarians. All they can do is sell their labor. They can sell themselves, and if they are not bought, they are unemployed.

– They may also think well...

– Jump up with all your might and go into the few percent of those in power, becoming bandits, politicians, and so on? Certainly. They can also leave the country and emigrate to another. But since overall production is falling, for the most part they are still getting poorer.

- And all this because...

- ... because when a normal builder sees that a house is dilapidated, he first thinks about what kind of new house he can afford, how to distribute the available funds in order to build a new one that will have enough money, and where to live while the new one is built The house is being built, but the old one has already been demolished. Therefore, a reasonable politician - and reasonable politicians are very rare - first plans what he will build next, and then breaks what is now. But politicians are people of high energy and ambition, and when the opportunity presented itself to pull the rug out from under Gorbachev’s feet, no one could resist. “It doesn’t hurt to break, it doesn’t hurt your soul,” and all the dissatisfied people united to destroy the baron’s castle. And everyone was dissatisfied. And today we are where we are and have what we have.

It is quite natural that the most greedy, the most selfish and the most vile were at the top. Not bound by any moral principles and ready to do any act in order to snatch their piece. And now the funniest, coolest and most unscrupulous guys find themselves so firmly at the top that they are absolutely not going to share their pie with those below. And at this time, the Democrats say: “Anything, but the command conditions will remain with us.” And that's where they were wrong. Because whoever has the money begins to determine the political course one way or another. This is associated with great disappointments of a number of oligarchs who brought President Putin to power and decided that a new stagnation had begun. He will represent and they will rule. But Putin, who went through the KGB school, had his own views on this life, and a number of guys did not pass all the numbers in the program. The surprise was boundless, and the grief was simply bottomless. This is roughly what the book is about.

– Why do you take everything so close to your heart?

– Because the country has some problems. There are fewer and fewer people. And it's not that there is no money. And in the richest countries the people are very bad. The same Swedes and French do not want to reproduce, but in impoverished Africa there are 12 children in a family, everyone has nothing to eat, and everyone demands to be supported. Right now there is unrest in Zimbabwe, white farmers were expelled from there, but, as the TV presenter quipped, when they ran away, they forgot to warn that their fields needed to be cultivated. Now nothing grows there. So, this decreasing population is not able to maintain its territory. And when there are even fewer people, the question will be asked: “Guys, why the hell do you need territory if you don’t have people there?” The Chinese, with their three-thousand-year history, have a very good historical memory, and they do not at all consider some of our lands to be ours. And today they are clearly showing that they will wait until there are fewer of us, and then Primorye will naturally become their territory again.

– And what do you see as a way out?

– In order for the country not to fall apart, as it tends to do, it is necessary to create conditions for normal democracy. It is impossible to solve this democratically, because they want the money forever. Gordian knots cannot be untied. They are chopping. The introduction of a constitutional dictatorship for a limited period, say from two to five years. This is not a dictator who, having brought tanks into the streets, will say: “Your freedoms are over, now you will only do what I said!”, but a dictator in the Roman sense of the word, whose candidacy was considered by the Senate, discussed by the people, approved at a general meeting . He was given specific tasks, and he was put in this position in order to solve them within the period for which he was assigned. And it is not needed for anything else.

– Are there any other options for a great and last chance?

– There is also a heroic option. Since there are always heroes, in principle, we cannot exclude the possibility that a group of people will appear for whom doing everything for the people and the country is more important than making millions and achieving fame. This option can never be ruled out. Because even now I do not fully understand all the motives that motivated State Duma deputy Roizman, who was not yet a deputy when he began to eradicate the Yekaterinburg drug mafia. He risked his life 24 hours a day for nothing. He had everything. He was an average businessman - strong and successful. He had a good family, strong, reliable friends. Why is he alive? Happenes. So the guy upstairs is taking care of him.

– If this hypothetical hero or group of heroes appears, what is the guarantee that they will not be shot at the first pass?

- No guarantees. At one time, this is exactly how they killed first Gracchus’s older brother in the ancient world, and then his younger brother. They only wanted what was good for their people and their country. When they were killed, they were made national heroes. From a logical point of view, Napoleon could not survive after the Arcold Bridge. From a logical point of view, Hitler is a completely different stylistic figure. After four dozen attempts on his life, he also could not survive. From the point of view of logic, Stalin - a gray mouse of Caucasian origin - could not become the head of this country, having defeated such titans of the revolution as Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev... The people who founded the parties stole tens of millions, signed dozens and hundreds of death sentences.

– And do you think such people would give up their powers as dictator in five years?

– Such people, I think, are now doing other things. Yes, it's very difficult. But it is impossible to say that it is impossible. Who could believe in the early eighties that everything would be according to Sakharov? And that Sakharov will say from the rostrum of the congress what he has always tried to say? In 1717, it seemed unthinkable that a pathetic handful of Bolsheviks would retain power. Much seemed impossible. But, most likely, of course, everything will develop according to the scenario in which it is going. Russia will continue to creep in, fall apart, and in the middle of the twenty-first century will cease to exist within its current borders, in its current form. But since there are people who don’t want this, it’s possible that everything will be different after all...

Mikhail Iosifovich Weller was born into a Jewish family on May 20, 1948 in the city of Kamenets-Podolsk in the family of an officer.

Studies

Until the age of sixteen, Mikhail constantly changed schools - moving around the garrisons of the Far East and Siberia.

In 1966 he graduated from school in Mogilev with a gold medal and entered the department of Russian philology of the Faculty of Philology of Leningrad University. Becomes Komsomol organizer of the course and secretary of the university Komsomol bureau. In the summer of 1969, on a bet, without money, he travels from Leningrad to Kamchatka in a month, using all types of transport, and fraudulently obtains a pass to enter the “border zone.” In 1970 he received academic leave from the university. In the spring he leaves for Central Asia, where he wanders until the fall. In the fall he moves to Kaliningrad and takes the accelerated second-class sailor course as an external student. Goes on a voyage on a trawler of the fishing fleet. In 1971 he was reinstated at the university and worked as a senior pioneer leader at school. His story was published for the first time in the university wall newspaper. In 1972 he defended his thesis on the topic “Types of composition of modern Russian Soviet short stories.”

Job

In 1972-1973, he worked on assignment in the Leningrad region as a teacher of an extended-day elementary school group and as a teacher of Russian language and literature in a rural eight-year school. Dismissed at his own request.

Gets a job as a concrete worker at the ZhBK-4 prefabricated structures workshop in Leningrad. In the summer of 1973, as a forest feller and digger, he traveled with a brigade of “shabashniks” to the Kola Peninsula and the Tersky coast of the White Sea.

In 1974, he worked at the State Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism (Kazan Cathedral) as a junior researcher, tour guide, carpenter, supplier and deputy director for administrative and economic affairs.

In 1975 - correspondent of the factory newspaper of the Leningrad shoe association "Skorokhod" "Skorokhodovsky worker", acting. O. Head of the Culture Department, and O. Head of the Information Department. The first publications of stories in the “official press”.

From May to October 1976 - a driver of imported cattle from Mongolia to Biysk along the Altai Mountains. According to mentions in the texts, I remembered this time as the best in my life.

Since 2006, he has been hosting a weekly program on Radio Russia “Let’s Talk” with Mikhail Weller.

Creation

Returning to Leningrad in the fall of 1976, he switched to literary work; his first stories were rejected by all editors.

In the fall of 1977, he entered the seminar of young Leningrad science fiction writers under the leadership of Boris Strugatsky.

In 1978, the first publications of short humorous stories appeared in Leningrad newspapers. He works part-time as a literary edit of war memoirs at the Lenizdat publishing house and writing reviews for the Neva magazine.

In the fall of 1979, he moved to Tallinn (Estonian SSR) and got a job at the republican newspaper “Youth of Estonia.” In 1980, he resigned from the newspaper and joined the “trade union group” at the Estonian Writers' Union. The first publications appeared in the magazines “Tallinn”, “Literary Armenia”, “Ural”. From summer to autumn, he travels on a cargo ship from Leningrad to Baku, publishing reports from the journey in the newspaper “Water Transport”.

In 1981, he wrote the story “Line of Reference,” in which he first formalized the foundations of his philosophy.

In 1982, he worked as a commercial hunter at the Taimyrsky state industrial enterprise in the lower reaches of the Pyasina River.

In 1983, the first collection of stories, “I Want to Be a Janitor,” was published, and the rights to the book were sold abroad at the Moscow International Book Fair. In 1984, the book was translated into Estonian, Armenian, and Buryat languages; individual stories were published in France, Italy, Holland, Bulgaria, and Poland.

In the summer of 1985 he worked on an archaeological expedition in Olbia and on the island of Berezan, and in the fall and winter he worked as a roofer.

In 1988, the Aurora magazine published the story “Testers of Happiness,” outlining the foundations of his philosophy. The second book of short stories, “Heartbreaker,” is published. Admission to the USSR Writers' Union takes place. Works as head of the Russian literature department of the Tallinn Russian-language magazine “Rainbow”.

In 1989, the book “The Technology of Story” was published.

In 1990, the book “Rendezvous with a Celebrity” was published. The story “Narrow Gauge Railway” is published in the magazine “Neva”, the story “I want to go to Paris” - in the magazine “Zvezda”, the story “Entombment” - in the magazine “Ogonyok”. Based on the story “But those shish”, a feature film was produced at the Mosfilm studio “Debut”. Founder and editor-in-chief of the first Jewish cultural magazine in the USSR, Jericho. In October-November he lectures on Russian prose at the universities of Milan and Turin.

In 1991, the first edition of the novel “The Adventures of Major Zvyagin” was published in Leningrad under the label of the Estonian publishing house “Periodika”.

In 1993, a book of short stories “Legends of Nevsky Prospekt” was published in Tallinn by the Estonian Cultural Foundation in a circulation of 500 copies.

The top ten of the “Book Review” of 1994 is headed by the next hundred thousand edition of “The Adventures of Major Zvyagin”. Gives lectures on modern Russian prose at the University of Odense (Denmark).

In 1995, the St. Petersburg publishing house "Lan" published the book "Legends of Nevsky Prospect" in mass cheap editions. Reprints of all books follow in "Lani", publishing houses "Vagrius" (Moscow), "Neva" (St. Petersburg), "Folio" (Kharkov).

In the summer of 1996, he and his entire family left for Israel. In November, a new novel, “Samovar,” is published by the Jerusalem publishing house “Worlds.” Gives lectures on modern Russian prose at the University of Jerusalem. In the spring of 1997 he returns to Estonia.

In 1998, the eight-hundred-page philosophical “universal theory of everything” “Everything about Life” was published, outlining the theory of energy evolutionism.

Trip around the USA in 1999 with performances before readers in New York, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago. A book of short stories, “Monument to Dantes,” is published.

In 2000, the novel “The Messenger from Pisa” (“Zero Hours”) was published. Moving to Moscow.

2002: “Cassandra” is the next iteration of Weller’s philosophy, written abstractly and in places even academically. The name of the philosophical model also appears: “energy vitalism”. But two years later the collection “B. Babylonian”, where in the story “White Donkey” it is corrected to “energy-evolutionism”. There the author cites the distinctive features of his model.

On February 6, 2008, by the decision of the President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Mikhail Weller was awarded the Order of the White Star, 4th class. The order was presented on December 18, 2008 at an informal meeting at the Estonian Embassy in Moscow.

In 2009, the book “Legends of Arbat” was published.

Currently lives in Moscow and Tallinn.

Philosophical views. Energy evolutionism

In the book “The Meaning of Life,” published in 2007, Mikhail Weller revealed the main provisions of his philosophical theory of “Energy Evolutionism,” according to which “all subjective and objective human activity is completely consistent with and lies in line with the general evolution of the Cosmos, which comes down to the complication of material and energy structures, increasing the energy level of material systems, and from the beginning of the Universe has been developing with a positive balance, in increasing progression.” Its forerunners can be called Julius Robert von Mayer, who expressed several rather original ideas on the topic of conservation of energy in living and inanimate matter, Nobel laureate Wilhelm Friedrich Ostwald, as well as the Soviet philosopher Evald Vasilyevich Ilyenkov, who presented a similar hypothesis in his work “Cosmology of the Spirit”. Weller draws bold conclusions from concepts such as “significance” and “feelings.” For example: “The desire for the meaning of life is the desire for one’s own significance,” or “Human life is the sum of sensations.” The Russian philosopher unites all this under the general guise of “Energy Evolutionism,” proving that the main goal of man, in an objective sense, is energy transformation, and that not a single animal on Earth was capable of using the energy of the surrounding world on such a scale, transforming the Universe, and even destroying it. But after the destruction of one another will appear, a new World will be born; man must follow this path as the most perfect creation of the Cosmos. The existing energy, according to Weller, must be released, otherwise a person may commit suicide without finding a way out and realization for it. The author pays special attention to transpersonal values, that is, those that, in a person’s understanding, stand above everything in the world, above life itself, and notes: “if you have nothing to serve, you will serve what was supposed to serve you.” The author attributes to kindness, or rather to good deeds, the desire of people to “directly” extend their feelings, thoughts and actions to other people, that is, to increase their significance.

Criticism

Philosopher David Dubrovsky criticized Weller for amateurism in the field of philosophy, characterizing energy evolutionism as “a mixture of platitudes, commonplaces with theoretically unclear, incorrect statements.”

Political Views

In September 2011, Mikhail Weller called for voting for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, arguing: the turnover of power should give all parties the understanding that at the next elections they will “re-elect and throw out the party” if it does not meet the expectations of voters. He is also convinced that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is the only independent party in 2011. Weller said that it is necessary to vote, even if you don’t like any party, since “at least something in these Augean stables will be cleaned out.”

Family

• Wife - Anna Agriomati
• Daughter - Valentina (b. 1987)

Works

Stories and novels

• Rendezvous with a Celebrity (1990)
• The Adventures of Major Zvyagin (1991)
• Seryozha Dovlatov's Knife (1994)
• Samovar (1996)
• Messenger from Pisa (2000)
• Fierce (2003)
• Novels (2003)
• My Business (2006)
• Not a knife, not Seryozha, not Dovlatova (2006)
• Makhno (2007)

Collections

• I want to be a janitor (1983)
• Heartbreaker (1988)
• Legends of Nevsky Prospekt (1993)
• Cavalry March (1996)
• Rules of Omnipotence (1997)
• But those shish (1997)
• Monument to Dantes (1999)
• Fantasies of Nevsky Prospekt (1999)
• Memorizer
• The Forgotten Rattle (2003)
• Legends (2003)
• B. Vavilonskaya (2004)
• Short prose (2006)
• Love is Evil (2006)
• Legends of Various Crossroads (2006)
• About Love (2006)
• Legends of Arbat (2009)
• Ambulance Tales
• Mishaherazade (2011)

Journalism, philosophy, literary criticism

• Story Technology (1989)
• All about life (1998)
• Cassandra (2002)
• Performances (2003)
• Great Last Chance (2005)
• To the Last Chance (2006)
• Understander (2006)
• A General Theory of Everything (2006)
• Song of the Triumphant Plebeian (2006)
• Civil history of a mad war (co-authored with Andrei Burovsky) (2007)
• The Meaning of Life (2007)
• Russia and recipes (2007)
• Word and profession: how to become a writer (2008)
• Perpendicular (2008)
• Man in the System (2010)
• Energy evolutionism (2011)
• Psychology of energy evolutionism (2011)
• Sociology of energy evolutionism (2011)
• Aesthetics of energy evolutionism (2011)
• Our Fathers are Merciful (2011)
• Term for President (2012)

Mikhail Iosifovich Weller is a popular writer, philosopher, and public figure. An active participant in television debates, in which he cannot always restrain his emotions.

Childhood and adolescence

Mikhail was born in the small ancient town of Kamenets-Podolsky in western Ukraine, into a family of hereditary Jewish doctors. His father was a military doctor, so he was forced to frequently move from place to place, changing garrisons. As a child, Mikhail had to change more than one educational institution, wandering with his parents to military camps in the Far East and Siberia.

This did not prevent the talented boy from graduating from school with a gold medal and entering the philological faculty of Leningrad University. But, despite his extraordinary abilities and outstanding organizational skills (he was a Komsomol organizer of the course, secretary of the university bureau), Mikhail did not study at a prestigious university for long. He was so interested in life in all its multifaceted manifestations that he soon abandoned his studies and went traveling.

First, on a bet, the young man, penniless, traveled as a “hare” from Leningrad to Kamchatka, and a year later, having taken an academic leave, he left for Central Asia. After this, Weller moved to Kaliningrad, where, having completed an external course for sailors, he went to sea on a fishing boat.

Having wandered around the country and gained impressions, in 1971 Mikhail returned to the university and a year later successfully defended his diploma. After graduating from high school, the young man served two years in the army and upon his return was assigned as a Russian language teacher to a rural school, where he also stayed for only a year.

"Duel": Weller VS Khakamada

During his life, Weller, by his own admission, had about thirty different types of activities: felled wood in Komi, worked as a hunter-procurer in the Arctic, drove cattle in Mongolia, worked as a teacher, pioneer leader and kindergarten teacher, and mastered many construction specialties.

Writer's career

By the end of 1976, Mikhail finally realized that he wanted to devote his future life to literary work. He wrote his first story while still studying at the university, and since then, a notebook and pencil have become his constant companions on trips around the country.

He tried to begin his literary activity in Leningrad, but his works did not find understanding and were rejected by all editors. Weller had to limit himself to publishing short humorous stories and writing reviews for the Neva magazine.

But the aspiring writer was not satisfied with this state of affairs, and two years later, having given up everything, he left for Tallinn and began exclusively writing books. In 1983, his first collection of short stories, “I Want to Be a Janitor,” was published, which was published in several Western European countries, including France and Italy.

From that moment on, Weller's writing career began to actively gain momentum, and now he is the author of more than fifty literary works, translated into many languages ​​of the world. The writer's track record includes many philosophical works devoted to the place and role of man on the scale of the Universe. You can read in detail about his views on the universe in the book “The Meaning of Life,” on the pages of which he outlined his theory of “Energy Evolutionism.”

Excerpts from Weller’s book “All About Life”

By 2017, his bibliography included 10 novels: the controversial “The Adventures of Major Zvyagin”, “Samovar”, “All about Life”, “Cassandra”, “The General Theory of Everything”, “Perpendicular and others; 13 stories (6 of them were published in a separate collection “Cruel”), and several dozen short stories published in 18 collections.

Political Views

Since 2011, Mikhail has been seriously interested in the political situation in the country, calling on his like-minded people to vote for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which he considers the only party in Russia independent of the oligarchs. Weller often defends his point of view in various television debates and political talk shows, some of which, due to the writer’s excessive emotionality, end in scandals and brawls. Mikhail Weller lost his temper on Echo of Moscow

A similar incident occurred a month later on the radio program “Special Opinion” (“Echo of Moscow”). Mikhail Weller shouted at presenter Olga Bychkova, tore the microphone, threw a mug of water and left the studio, and later announced that he was breaking off his cooperation with the radio station that had lasted since 1993. He explained his behavior by saying that the presenter behaved unprofessionally and constantly interrupted him.

One of the most emotional and scandalous writers of our time is Mikhail Weller. There is still a lot of controversy around his creativity, political views and philosophical statements.

Childhood and youth

Mikhail Iosifovich Weller was born in Kamenets-Podolsky on May 20, 1948. The family often changed their place of residence, since the father, on duty, was obliged to travel to the garrisons of the Far East and Siberia. The parents of the future writer and Mikhail himself are Jews by nationality. I. A. Weller worked as a military ophthalmologist; his mother was also a graduate of the medical institute in Chernivtsi.

Joseph Weller became famous for his work in the field of medicine. One of them: “Side effects of psychotropic drugs on the organs of vision.” The son did not follow in the footsteps of numerous relatives associated with the medical profession. Having received a gold medal and a certificate of excellent completion of the Mogilev 3rd school, Mikhail became a student at the Faculty of Philology of Leningrad University.

During his studies, Weller showed leadership qualities, becoming a Komsomol organizer for the course, and also holding the position of secretary of the university's Komsomol bureau. In 1969, the future writer went to Kamchatka from Leningrad on a bet without a livelihood. He got there without money and cunningly entered the “border zone.”

Mikhail Weller near the institute

In 1970, Mikhail Weller took an academic leave from the university and moved to Central Asia, where he wandered for about six months, and then to Kaliningrad. There, after special courses, Mikhail Iosifovich went on a voyage on a fishing boat.

Since 1971, Weller has continued his higher education. In the same year, he showed his first work in the student wall newspaper. In 1972, Mikhail Iosifovich graduated from Leningrad University with a thesis on the topic “Types of composition of a modern Russian Soviet story.”

Career and literature

After studying, Mikhail Weller was called up for military service. He received the position of officer in an artillery unit and served for about 6 months, then he was commissioned. In 1972, the future writer worked at the Leningrad school, where the university provided him with a place. Mikhail taught an extended day group, as well as Russian language and literature classes in an eight-year school.

Mikhail Weller in the army

Mikhail Weller's career continued in Leningrad. He left school voluntarily and got a job at the local workshop of prefabricated structures ZhBK-4 as a worker. From 1973 to 1976, Mikhail Iosifovich changed his place of work several times and also moved often. With a group of workers he went to the Kola Peninsula, and then a year later to Leningrad, where he worked at the State Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism.

Weller's first works were published in 1975 on the pages of Skorokhodovsky Rabochiy, a printed publication of the Leningrad shoe association Skorokhod. The writer himself admitted that an important period for future creativity occurred in 1976, when he moved through the Altai Mountains, driving cattle from Mongolia to Biysk. In the same year, Weller's literary activity began. However, not a single editorial office agreed to cooperate with the young talent.

Then Mikhail decided to gain experience at the seminars of the popular writer. A year later, attending classes for aspiring Leningrad science fiction writers bore fruit: short stories with humorous content began to appear in city newspapers. Along with this, Weller collaborated with the Neva magazine: he wrote reviews.

Since the autumn of 1976, Mikhail Iosifovich lived and worked in Tallinn (the writer has Estonian citizenship), and became a member of the Estonian Writers' Union. At the same time, his works saw the light of day, appearing in local magazines (“Tallinn”, “Literary Armenia”, “Ural”) and the newspaper “Water Transport”. By the way, Weller wrote reports for the latter from aboard a cargo ship while traveling from Leningrad to Baku.

In 1981, Weller first introduced the reader to the basics of his philosophical views in the story “The Report Line.” Another successful work was done in 1983. The work “I want to be a janitor” has been translated into Estonian, Armenian and Buryat languages. The book was a success not only within its native country, but also in Italy, France, Holland, Bulgaria and Poland.

One of Weller’s latest and most high-profile publications is the book “Tales from the Ambulance,” a humorous work about the life of medical personnel. This work aroused particular interest among the public and many discussions of the writer’s subtle, peculiar humor. By the way, on the Internet you can find jokes written by Mikhail Iosifovich.

The celebrity has

1948

1950

1964 g. - Moving to Belarus.

1965

1966

1967-68

1969

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Mikhail Iosifovich Weller was born on May 20 1948 years in the city of Kamenets-Podolsky in Ukraine in the family of an officer.

1950 g. - The family moves to the father’s new place of service in Transbaikalia. Until the age of sixteen, Mikhail changed schools - constantly moving around the garrisons of the Far East and Siberia. Glider pilot courses at the regional DOSAAF.

1964 g. - Moving to Belarus.

1965 g. - First publication of poems in a republican newspaper.

1966 g. - Finishes school in the city of Mogilev with a gold medal and enters the department of Russian philology of the philological faculty of Leningrad University. Lives in the family of his grandfather, a “professor-biologist”, head of a department at one of the Leningrad institutes.

1967-68 gg. - Summer trips to student construction teams in Mangyshlak and near Norilsk.

1969 g. - In the summer, on a bet with friends, leaving Leningrad without money, in a month I reached Kamchatka as a “hare”, using all types of transport and, by deception, received a pass to enter the “border zone” along the way, which became part of the legends of the Leningrad Philological Faculty. At the same time - Komsomol course organizer, one of the secretaries of the university Komsomol bureau.

1970 g. - Feigns mental illness in a psychiatric clinic in order to obtain academic leave from the university. In the spring he leaves for Central Asia, where he leads a wandering life in different places for six months. In the fall he moves to Kaliningrad, where he takes an accelerated course as a second-class sailor as an external student and goes on a voyage on a trawler of the fishing fleet.

1971 g. - He is being reinstated at the university, while simultaneously working as a senior pioneer leader at school. The first “publication” in Leningrad was a story in the university wall newspaper.

1972 g. - Graduates from university. Defends a thesis on the topic:

"Types of composition of a modern Russian Soviet story." The diploma was not accepted for the charge of “formalist bias.” Repeated defense was scheduled in the Pushkin House /Leningrad Institute of Russian Literature at the USSR Academy of Sciences/. The same diploma is protected. Assigned as a teacher to the Leningrad region. Due to lack of places, she works as a teacher for an extended day group at an elementary school.

1973 g. - Teacher of Russian language and literature in a rural eight-year school. Dismissed at his own request and at the request of the teaching staff.

A concrete worker at the prefabricated structures workshop 4-ZhBK in Leningrad In the summer, he travels with a team of so-called “shabashniks” to the Kola Peninsula, the Tersky coast of the White Sea. Logger and digger.

1974 Junior researcher at the State Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism /Kazan Cathedral/. Scientific topic: "The emergence of religion and its early forms." Leads tours of the cathedral. For economic reasons, he was transferred by the director of the museum to joiners, then to a supplier and deputy director for administrative and economic affairs. Dismissed "due to his own brutality."

1975 Correspondent of the factory newspaper of the shoe association "Skorokhod" "Skorokhodovsky worker", acting. Head of the Culture Department, Acting Head of the Information Department. The first publications of stories in the "official state press". Annual newspaper award for the best material on culture. Dismissed "due to moral idiosyncrasy."

1976 From May to October he works as a driver of imported cattle from Mongolia to Biysk along the Altai Mountains. According to mentions in the texts, I remembered this time as the best and coolest time in my life.

In the fall, returning to Leningrad, he switches entirely to literary work. The classic version: the first stories are rejected by all editors.

1977 g. - In May, he goes on foot and by passing cars to the Black Sea. Until October, it wanders along the Black Sea coast from Odessa to Batumi.

In the fall he enters a seminar of young Leningrad science fiction writers under the leadership of Boris Strugatsky. For the story "The Button" he received first prize at the North-West science fiction competition.

Participates in the Conference of Young Writers of the North-West. The stories were marked and approved, but were not recommended for publication by the conference management /?!/.

Doesn't work anywhere. A period of complete beggary.

1978 g. - The first publications in city Leningrad newspapers were short humorous stories.

Leto is a timber feller at the Ust-Kulomsky state farm in the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, a foreman of railway construction workers there.

Autumn-winter - short-term service in the Soviet Army: senior officer of a ground artillery battery, senior lieutenant.

1979 g. - Stories continue to be rejected by all magazines and publishing houses.

Prize at the next North-West science fiction competition.

Lithographic processing of war memoirs at the Lenizdat publishing house and reviews in the Neva magazine.

Joining the prose studio at the Zvezda magazine with the intention of facilitating publication. There should be no publications.

Autumn - moving to Estonia, to Tallinn, in an attempt to publish a collection of short stories in a local publishing house. Work in the republican newspaper "Youth of Estonia".

The book was rejected by the publishing house "Eesti Raamat".

1980 g. - First publications in magazines: “Tallinn”, “Literary Armenia”, “Ural”.

Dismissal from the newspaper.

Joining the "trade union group" at the Estonian Writers' Union, which gave the right not to officially work in the USSR.

Summer-autumn - a journey from Leningrad to Baku on a cargo ship, reports from the journey in the newspaper "Water Transport". Wandering in the Caucasus and Transcaucasia.

1981 g. - The book has been approved and accepted by the publishing house.

The Estonian Puppet Theater staged the play "The Real Baby Elephant" and paid a fee.

1982 g. - Work in the state industrial enterprise "Taimyrsky" in the lower reaches of the Pyasina river as a hunter-commercial.

1983 g. - Publication of the first book - a collection of stories “I Want to Be a Janitor”. First reviews, recommendations to the Writers' Union from Boris Strugatsky and Bulat Okudzhava. Participation in the Moscow International Book Fair. Selling rights abroad.

1984 g. - Translation of the book into Estonian, Armenian, Buryat languages. Translations of individual stories in France, Italy, Holland, Bulgaria, Poland.

1985 g. - Summer work on an archaeological expedition in Olbia and on the island of Berezan. Autumn-winter: roofing worker.

1986 g. - Marriage to a graduate of the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow University, Anna Agriomati.

1987 g. - Birth of daughter Valentina.

1988 g. - Release of the second book of stories “Heartbreaker”. Admission to the USSR Writers' Union.

Head of the Russian literature department of the Tallinn Russian-language magazine "Rainbow" The first publications of Brodsky, Dovlatov, Aksenov, Mandelstam, Vvedensky.

The first edition of Orwell's book "Animal Farm" in the USSR.

1989 g. - First edition of the book "Technology of Story".

1990 g. - Publication of the story “Narrow Gauge Railway” in the magazine “Neva”,

the story “I want to go to Paris” in the magazine “Zvezda”, the story “Entombment” in the magazine “Ogonyok”.

Status of a professional writer.

The book "Rendezvous with a Celebrity" is published.

The appearance of publications of stories in the emigrant Russian press.

Based on the story “But those shish”, a feature film was produced at the Mosfilm studio “Debut”.

Editor-in-Chief and founder of the first Jewish cultural magazine in the USSR, Jericho. Release of the first issue.

October-November - lecturing on Russian prose at the universities of Milan and Turin.

1991 g. - The first edition of the novel "The Adventures of Major Zvyagin" - in Leningrad, but under the brand of the Estonian publishing house "Periodika". The 100,000th circulation sold out in three weeks.

1993 g. - Not a single Russian publishing house accepts the book of short stories “Legends of Nevsky Prospekt”. Circulation: 500 copies. it is published in Tallinn by the Estonian Cultural Foundation.

1994 - The next hundred thousandth edition of “The Adventures of Major Zvyagin” tops the top ten of the “Book Review”.

Lectures on modern Russian prose at the University of Odense /Denmark/.

1995 g. - The St. Petersburg publishing house "Lan" publishes "Legends of Nevsky Prospect" in cheap mass editions - about 800,000 copies are sold. The most read book of the year in St. Petersburg. Reprints of all books follow in "Lani", publishing houses "Vagrius" (Moscow), "Neva" (St. Petersburg), "Folio" (Kharkov).

At the autumn Moscow Book Fair, Weller is the most published Russian writer of the year.

1996 g. - In the summer, he and his whole family go to Israel for a long time.

In November, the first edition of the new novel "Samovar" is published by the Jerusalem publishing house "Worlds". Presentations of the book at the government press center and at the Tel Aviv New Year's fair.

Lectures on modern Russian prose at the University of Jerusalem.

1997 - April - return to Estonia.

September - release of a four-volume book with a circulation of two hundred thousand by the St. Petersburg financial holding company "United Capital".

1998 g. - Release of the eight-hundred-page philosophical “universal theory of everything” “Everything about life”.

A trip to Germany with reading meetings and performances in Hamburg, Bremen, Berlin, Dresden, Hanover, Cologne, Aachen.

Readers' meetings in Holland - Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

A Dutch film based on the story "The Ring" was presented at the Amsterdam Film Festival.

1999 - The OLMA-PRESS publishing house reprints Weller's books more than twenty times in different formats and covers in mass editions.

Trip around the USA with speeches to readers in New York, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago.

Publication of the book of short stories "Monument to Dantes".

2000 g. - New novel “The Messenger from Pisa”, also originally “Zero Hours”. Countless reissues. Moving to Moscow.

2002 Mr. “Cassandra” is the next iteration of Weller’s philosophy, written abstractly and in places even academically. The name of the philosophical model also appears: ENERGOVITALISM. But two years later the collection “B. Babylonian”, where in the story “White Donkey” it is corrected to ENERGY-EVOLUTIONISM. There the author cites the distinctive features of his model.

December 18 2008 By the decision of the President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Mikhail Weller was awarded the Order of the White Star.

2009 - The book “Legends of Arbat” was published.

In September 2011 Mikhail Weller called for voting for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, arguing: the turnover of power should give all parties the understanding that at the next elections they will “re-elect and throw out the party” if it does not meet the expectations of voters. He is also convinced that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is the only independent party in 2011 year. Weller said that you must vote, even if you don’t like any party, because... “at least something in these Augean stables will be cleaned.”