He left the school in the eighth grade and worked as a gasman and metalworker before entering Moscow State University.
Though he was refused to be treated in the Soviet Union, Kistyakovsky was buried at Dolgoprudnenskoye Cemetery.
[3] Kistyakovsky's translation of the Darkness at Noon was favoured by its author Arthur Koestler.
[4] Kistyakovsky was praised particularly for "accurate Church Slavonicisms" and "ingenious translations of non-existent verses".
[6] Kistyakovsky's translations of William Faulkner, Robert Duncan, C. P. Snow, Flannery O'Connor and of some other authors were published in the former Soviet Union.