He was born on November 12, 1954, in Moscow to a working-class family. Polyakov's abilities were first identified by his school literature teacher I. A. Osokina. He graduated from the Faculty of Russian Language and Literature of the
Krupskaya Moscow Polytechnic Institute, specializing in Russian philology. candidate of philological sciences. In the same year, he was accepted into the
Union of Soviet Writers. In the 2000s, he came out with a series of publicistic essays-pamphlets ("The Silence of the Kremlin" and others) - about the role of literature in the life of post-reform Russian society, writerly conformism and the levers of manipulation of the literary process. Critics single out Polyakov as a leader in the genre of "grotesque realism", in historical retrospective characteristic of the clash of eras; note the unique and always recognizable language of Polyakov's works, filled with allegories and metaphors, elegant descriptions of eroticism, saturated with subtle irony, imperceptibly turning into lyricism. In the writer's novels and stories, fragments of which are of a journalistic nature, a brightly satirical picture of the life of the Russian creative intelligentsia is given. In 2012, the collection "Running Away from Love" was published, which included both early and new stories by Polyakov, who continues to study the psychology of a successful Russian intellectual, often a successful entrepreneur, in search of himself and his, in the original expression of the writer, "original" life. Polyakov's works have been translated into many languages of countries near and far abroad. His prose is included in school and university courses in modern Russian literature. “Data” (
MTK,
TV Centre), from October 2010 to June 2012 he was the host of the final program “Context” on the
Russia-Culture TV channel. In February 2012, he was included in the list of trusted persons of the candidate for President of Russia Vladimir Putin. Explaining his decision, he noted: “I became Putin’s trusted person, believing that he had begun a revision of Yeltsin’s disastrous policies and should see things through to the end…”. In December 2015, for his political position and views on the Ukrainian events of 2013–2014, Polyakov was included in the blacklist of Russian citizens who are “persona non grata” on the territory of Ukraine. The author of a theatrical adaptation based on the book by the
Russian Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky, "The Wall". The premiere of the play was scheduled for 2017 on the stage of the Gorky Moscow Art Theater. Since August 2017, Polyakov has ceased to be the editor-in-chief of the
Literaturnaya Gazeta, but he remained in the position of chairman of the editorial board of the
Literaturnaya Gazeta. On November 20, 2018, as a result of rotation, he left the council under the president of the Russian Federation for Culture and Art. In March 2022, he signed an appeal in support of
Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In 2024, he acted as an expert for Arkady Mamontov's documentary film "Foreign Agents", which aired on the
state television channel
Russia-24 in April 2024. ==References==