Who is Mikhail Weller? Mikhail Weller. Russian writer, member of the Russian PEN Center, laureate of a number of literary awards

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.”

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'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

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 Estonian President 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.”

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 boils 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)

Date of Birth: 20.05.1948

Soviet, then Russian writer, publicist, philosopher, playwright.

Mikhail Iosifovich Weller was born in the city of Kamenets-Podolsky in Ukraine into the family of an officer. Until the age of sixteen, Mikhail changed schools, constantly moving to garrisons in the Far East and Siberia. In 1965, the family moved to Belarus, where in 1966 Mikhail graduated from school with a gold medal and entered the department of Russian philology of the Faculty of Philology of Leningrad University. Lives in the family of his grandfather, a biologist professor, head of a department at one of the Leningrad institutes. The future writer’s student years were not without adventures:

In a month without money, I “hare” got from Leningrad to Kamchatka, using all types of transport,

To obtain academic leave, he feigned mental illness,

Having received this leave, he led a vagabond life in Central Asia for six months, and then worked as a sailor on a trawler of the fishing fleet in Kaliningrad.

In 1971, Mikhail Weller was reinstated at the university and graduated a year later. The future writer managed to defend his diploma on the topic “Types of composition of a modern Russian Soviet story” only the second time (the first time the work was rejected for “formalist bias”). After graduating from the institute, he worked for some time 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. Subsequently, he tried many professions: a concrete worker in a prefabricated structures workshop, a timber feller, a digger, a junior researcher at the State Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism (Kazan Cathedral), a tour guide, deputy director for administrative and economic affairs, a correspondent for the factory newspaper of the Skorokhod shoe association. , a cattle driver from Mongolia to Biysk along the Altai Mountains.

In the fall of 1976, having returned to Leningrad, Mikhail Weller switched entirely to literary work, but his first stories were rejected by all editors. Enters the 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. However, Weller is still not published, and a period of “complete beggary” begins for the writer. Only in 1978 did the first publications appear in Leningrad city newspapers - short humorous stories. The lack of means of subsistence once again prompts Mikhail to take up various ways of earning money; he even briefly serves in the army as an officer in a ground artillery battery, earns extra money by lithographing military memoirs, and writes reviews for Neva magazine. Hoping to publish his first book, Mikhail Weller moves to Tallinn; the book is rejected, but some publications appear in periodicals. In 1983, the first book was finally published - a collection of stories “I Want to Be a Janitor.” Boris Strugatsky and Bulat Okudzhava recommend accepting Mikhail Weller into the Writers' Union, but he was accepted only after the publication of the second book in 1988. In 1986, the writer married Anna Agriomati, a graduate of the Faculty of Journalism at Moscow University, and a year later the couple had a daughter.

Since the early 90s, he has been involved in literary and publishing activities - he worked as the head of the Russian literature department of the Tallinn Russian-language magazine "Rainbow", later he was the editor-in-chief and founder of the first Jewish cultural magazine in the USSR "Jericho", and gave lectures on Russian prose at various foreign universities .

In 1988, Mikhail Weller’s eight-hundred-page philosophical book “Everything about Life” was published, which contains the foundations of his philosophical system and becomes the beginning of a cycle of philosophical works. In 2003, the writer called his system of views on the Universe and man “energy-evolutionism.” According to this theory, “all subjective and objective human activity is completely consistent with and lies in line with the general evolution of the Cosmos, which boils 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.”

Currently, the writer lives in Moscow and Tallinn, continues to work on his journalistic and philosophical books, hosts his own program “Minority Opinion” on the radio station “Echo of Moscow” and the talk show “Let's Talk” on Radio Russia.

M. Weller has two work books, but they were not enough to record all the places of his work - in one there is an insert, in the other there are two.

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.

Writer's Awards

Order of the White Star, 4th class (Estonia, 2008)

Bibliography

Large fiction
(1990)
(1991)
(1994)
(1996)
(2000)
(2003)
(2003)
(2006)
(2006)
(2007)

Collections
(1983)
(1988)
(1993)
(1996)
(1997)
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(1999)
(1999)
(2003)
(2003)
(2004)
(2006)
(2006)

Mikhail Weller was born in the Ukrainian city of Kamenets-Podolsk in 1948. His father was a military man, so the family often moved from one city to another throughout the Soviet Union. He spent most of his childhood in garrisons in Siberia. The future writer graduated from school in Belarus, and went to Leningrad to enter a higher educational institution. There Mikhail mastered philological sciences, wrote his first works and periodically published in local newspapers.

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Biography

After finishing his studies at the university, Mikhail Iosifovich did not work in his specialty. He cunningly prepares documents for himself and goes to the north of the country, trying to discover something new and unknown for himself. He was interested in the work of a museum employee, he was a hunter-trade in the Arctic, a teacher in children's summer camps, a logger in the Komi Republic, a builder on the island of Mangyshlak, a teacher of Russian language and literature, a silk-screen printer, a journalist, and a digger. He mastered many other specialties, which in the future helped him create vivid images in his works. An interesting fact from the writer’s life is the huge number of entries in his work book. Firstly, the writer has two books, and both are supplemented with inserts.

Seven years after graduating from university, with a lot of experience and his own stories, Mikhail Weller goes to Tallinn.

Here Mikhail decided to devote all his time to writing books. He abandoned his usual rhythm of life, communication with friends and family. The writer practically starved, since he did not have the means to buy food for himself. Mikhail told reporters that at that time he only drank tea and smoked. Mikhail Weller was unable to find a sponsor to publish his books; he had to earn his own living. His life was divided into two parts. He worked for one half of the year, mastering new specialties again and again. The other one was writing books.

The writer's debut book was published in 1983. His collection of short stories, entitled “I Want to Be a Janitor,” was not received well by critics. Unexpectedly, the book's success came from abroad. The author's works have been translated into many languages ​​and published in Estonia, Armenia, Buryatia, France, Italy, Poland, Bulgaria and other countries.

In 1993, one of the writer’s best books, “The Adventures of Major Zvyagin,” was published. Literally a year after its publication, the book is among the top ten best works of Russian writers.

Currently, Weller lives in Estonia, travels to other countries and regularly releases his new works.

Personal life

Very little is known about the writer’s personal life. His wife is Anna Agriomati, they have a daughter, Valentina. Mikhail Weller does not consider it necessary to talk about his family; he is convinced that the personal life of one person should not concern others.

The writer's biography would not be complete without highlighting his philosophical views. In 2007, he published his book “The Meaning of Life,” in which he outlined in detail his own theory of “Energy Evolutionism.” Mikhail harbored similar ideas for a long time and studied the literature of his predecessors. Weller is aware that his conclusions are something new for readers; there will be many who disagree with the presentation of his thoughts. But he still publishes the book. The writer believes that the main value for a person is an understanding of his objective integrity in the Universe. Man is capable of using the Earth's energy on any scale.

According to his theory, human energy can be compared with the energy of the Universe. Humanity is the highest creation on the entire planet; it represents the total amount of sensations and aspirations to obtain the most powerful actions to change the environment and the world as a whole.

Readers liked the writer’s simple and interesting style. In his books, Mikhail Weller presents in accessible language things and concepts that are at first glance difficult for humanity. His books are permeated with male chauvinism, personal experiences in the form of a traveler, Don Juan, a devourer of films and fiction, and many others.

In 2010, Weller takes part in the international philosophical forum, where he gives his lectures. At the end of the forum, his theory was awarded a medal. The following year, the writer was able to publish his new four books on the same philosophical topic. His works have been translated into many languages ​​and published in other countries. Some of his judgments remain controversial; Weller's work has been criticized by modern authors.

The writer’s political views also differ from the usual slogans heard on television screens. He openly gives interviews regarding the political situation in Russia and its relations with other countries.