“There are lives that seem remarkable, but if you look closely, you’ll see that another could have done as well,” writes Russian author Sergei Lebedev. “There are lives, however, that are an ideal fit. You can’t imagine anyone else doing the same. Yury Dmitriev is one of those.

“Journalists have called him Khottabych (or even Gandalf), a wizard or a folk hero. At first this seemed amusing and appropriate. Yet at some point it ceased to be helpful: it was as though the writers themselves weren’t sure what to do with Dmitriev — where to place him, how to describe him.” 

One of Russia’s most significant contemporary writers, Sergei Lebedev, describes the work of Yury Dmitriev in a place that both men know well: the far North.

Eurozine presents Lebedev’s essay for the first time in English, translated by Antonina W. Bouis.

“On Yury Dmitriev”, Eurozine, 10 November 2017

(R source: “The man who is saving us all”,
Colta.ru, 27 September 2017)