{{Infobox artist | name = Kirill Medvedev | image = For a free Russia without repression and despotism 317 (cropped).jpg | caption = Medvedev in Moscow on June 10, 2018 in a rally "For a free Russia without repression and despotism" | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1975|6|19}} | birth_place = Moscow, Soviet Union | notable_works = ''It's No Good'' (poetry collection) | website=http://kirillmedvedev.narod.ru/ }}
'''Kirill Medvedev''' ({{langx|ru|Кирилл Феликсович Медведев}}; born 19 June 1975) is a Soviet and Russian activist, musician, translator and author who notably gave up the copyright to all his works in 2004.<ref name="guard">{{Cite news |last=Kirill Medvedev |date=September 17, 2015 |title=Why I gave up my copyright: Kirill Medvedev |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/sep/17/why-i-gave-up-my-copyright-kirill-medvedev |accessdate=March 3, 2018}}</ref> He is a key member of the musical group "Arkadiy Kots."
== Early life and education == Kirill Medvedev was born on June 19, 1975, in Moscow. His father Feliks was a well-known post-Soviet journalist and writer.<ref name="paris">{{Cite news |last=Lucy McKeon |date=April 8, 2013 |title=New Emotion: On Kirill Medvedev |work=The Paris Review |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2013/04/08/new-emotion-on-kirill-medvedev/ |accessdate=April 9, 2018}}</ref> From 1992 to 1995 he studied in the history department at the Moscow State University.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Михаил Бойко. Беседа с Кириллом Медведевым |url=http://mikhail-boyko.narod.ru/interview/kmedvedev.html |access-date=2023-05-03 |website=mikhail-boyko.narod.ru}}</ref>
==Career== thumb|upright|left|Medvedev reading his poems at the Moscow Poetry Biennale 2019
Medvedev published two collections of poetry in his mid twenties: ''Everything is Bad (or It’s No Good)'' and ''Incursion''; these were dismissed by some critics as they were autobiographical free verse, which is unusual among Russian poets. He also translated Charles Bukowski into Russian.<ref name="paris" />
In 2003, he renounced his copyright in his "Manifesto on Copyright".<ref name="manifesto">{{Cite book |last=MEDWEDEW |first=KIRILL |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6Z_NDwAAQBAJ&dq=Medwedew+%22auf+dem+Weg+der+Piraterie%2C+d.h.+ohne+Zustimmung+des+Autors%2C+ohne+jegliche+Kontakte+und+Absprachen+mit+ihm%2C+was+im+Impressum+vermerkt+werden+muss&pg=PT113 |title=ANTIFASCHISMUS FUR ALLE : manifest, essays und gedichte;manifest, essays und gedichte. |date=2020 |publisher=MATTHES & SEITZ Verlag |isbn=978-3-95757-649-1 |edition=1ST |location=Berlin |language=German |translator-last=Matthias Meindl, Georg Witte |oclc=1139663155}}</ref><ref name="paris" /> Literary scholar Annette Gilbert has interpreted Medvedev’s manifesto and his turning away from the established literary world as a continuation of the resistance of Russian authors against a state-regulated publishing system and samizdat.<ref name="dlfweb">{{Cite web |last=Annette Gilbert |date=2021-10-10 |title=Kampf gegen das Urheberrecht |url=https://www.deutschlandfunknova.de/beitrag/kirill-medwedews-kampf-gegen-das-urheberrecht-vortrag-von-annette-gilbert |access-date=2021-10-14 |website=Deutschlandfunk Nova |language=de}}</ref>
In 2007, Medvedev founded the Free Marxist Press, which publishes the works of Ernest Mandel, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Herbert Marcuse, Terry Eagleton, and Russian authors.<ref name="paris" />
In 2012, ''It’s No Good: poems/essays/actions'' a collection of poems, essays, and actions were published in English for the first time, by n+1 / Ugly Duckling Presse.<ref name="uglyduck">{{Cite book |last=Medvedev |first=Kirill |title=It's no good |date=2016 |publisher= Ugly Duckling Press |isbn=978-1-937027-82-7 |edition=Second |location=Brooklyn |language=English |oclc=937392721}}</ref><ref name="paris" /> In it he described his perspective in and among the mainstream poets, the inextricable "link between politics and culture," and how refusal of copyright or recognition for his works is part of a fundamental role of art to challenge existing power systems.<ref name="nyt">{{Cite news |last=Dwight Garner |date=March 20, 2013 |title=A Litany of Betrayals, Petty Yet Terrifying |work=New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/books/its-no-good-by-kirill-medvedev.html |accessdate=April 9, 2018}}</ref><ref name="bomb">{{Cite news |last=Chris Cumming |date=March 13, 2013 |title=Revolting Russians |work=BOMB Magazine |url=https://bombmagazine.org/articles/revolting-russians/ |accessdate=April 9, 2018}}</ref>
{{Quote |text=For an artist to take part in this system is to support and encourage it, even as he justifies himself with the idea that 'pure art is outside ideology and politics.' |author=Kirill Medvedev |title="Brecht Is Not Your Aunt" |source=''It's No Good'' (2012) }}
=== Musician === Medvedev has been performing vocals and guitar in the Arkadiy Kots Band, a riot-folk band based in Moscow which formed in 2010.<ref>{{cite news|title=Arkadiy Kots Band official site|url=http://arkadiykots.ru/|accessdate=April 9, 2018|archive-date=January 13, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150113224156/http://arkadiykots.ru/|url-status=dead}}</ref> The band draws its name from the Russian socialist poet Arkady Kots who translated The Internationale into Russian.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Kirill Medvedev's Personable Provocations|author=Robert P. Baird|url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/kirill-medvedevs-personable-provocations|magazine=The New Yorker|date=September 30, 2013|accessdate=April 9, 2018}}</ref>
=== Activism === In the early 2000s Medvedev joined a small socialist party called Vpered ("Forward").<ref name="paris" /> In 2017, Medvedev announced he was running in the municipal elections in the Meshchansky District.<ref>{{cite news|title=In Russia, a poet declares his candidacy|url=https://www.mhpbooks.com/in-russia-a-poet-declares-his-candidacy/|work=Melville House|date=May 24, 2017|accessdate=April 9, 2018|archive-date=November 1, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181101135940/https://www.mhpbooks.com/in-russia-a-poet-declares-his-candidacy/|url-status=dead}}</ref> On 12 September 2017, he announced on the party's Facebook page that he received about 11% of the vote (379 votes) and was not elected.<ref>{{cite news|title=Штаб Вместе на Мещанке|url=https://www.facebook.com/vmeste.meschanka/|work=Facebook page|date=September 12, 2017|accessdate=April 9, 2018}}</ref>
==Personal life== In 2015 Medvedev said, that for several years he "was a stay-at-home father; more recently I have worked as a delivery man for several companies as well as a freelance book editor".<ref name="guard" />
== Works in english translation == '''Books'''
Kirill Medvedev. "It's No Good." Translated by Keith Gessen, Mark Krotov, Cory Merrill, Bela Shayevich (n+1/New York: Ugly Duckling Press, 2016). [https://whcavantgardes.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/km-selections.pdf]
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == * {{YouTube|channel=UC4ZG1tNPhORZWp2iOaNvhig|title=Arkadiy Kots Band (Группа Аркадий Коц)}} * {{Facebook|id=ArkadiyKots|name=Arkadiy Kots Band|link=no}} * [https://web.sas.upenn.edu/yourlanguagemyear/resources/#Medvedev Bibliography of poetry in English translation]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Medvedev, Kirill}} Category:Writers from Moscow Category:Soviet male poets Category:Soviet poets Category:21st-century Russian poets Category:1975 births Category:Living people Category:Open content people Category:Maxim Gorky Literature Institute alumni