Denis Dragunskiy

Denis Dragunsky was born on December 15, 1950. He is the son of the well-known children’s writer Viktor Yuzefovich Dragunsky, the prototype of the hero of his Denis’s Tales. He is the brother of playwright Kseniya Dragunskaya and the father of journalist and designer Irina Dragunskaya. In 1973, he graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University. From 1973 to 1991, he taught Greek at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. From 1975 to 1982, he wrote screenplays for the following films: * In Secret to the Whole World (1976) * The Amazing Adventures of Denis Korablev (1979) * The Clown (1980) * Behind the Old Fence (short film, 1982) In 1994–1995, he worked as a political analyst and journalist at the news agency Postfactum, and for the magazines Vek XX i Mir, DN, Itogi, and Novoye Vremya; and as a senior researcher at the United States Institute of Peace. Since March 1999, he has been a member of the Ideology Commission of the Federal Political Council of the Union of Right Forces party. Since March 2000, he has been the founder and scientific director (until 2005) of the Institute of the National Project “Public Contract”; he is currently a member of the board of directors. In 2002, he received a Candidate of Philosophy degree and developed a theory of national self-awareness. From 2005 to 2007, he was editor-in-chief of the newspaper Right Cause. Since 2000, he has been editor-in-chief of the magazine Cosmopolis. Denis Dragunsky’s collection of short stories There Is No Such Word was shortlisted for the 2009 Book of the Year competition in the Prose of the Year category. In addition to fiction, he is also the author of a number of journalistic articles.