[5] Born in Moscow to a family of geologists, the writer participated geological expeditions to north Russia and Central Asia between 1995 and 2002.

[6] Between 2000 and 2014 Lebedev worked as Deputy Editor of Simon Soloveychik’s pedagogical newspaper Pervoe Sentiabria.

With the exception of the Baltic countries, the USSR disintegrated into smaller post-Soviet entities that still carry the legacy of totalitarianism.

Society’s acceptance of its share of responsibility for tolerating the past totalitarian regime should be reflected in concrete legal steps that condemn Soviet crimes, set up a mechanism for material compensation, open up the archives and develop a programme of commemoration; in relation to the present day this should take the form of lustration that will restore functioning democratic institutions by barring from power anyone who has committed crimes against democracy in the new Russia.’[10] Following Russia’s 2022 full-scale attack on Ukraine, Lebedev emphasized: ‘The world doesn’t just need a Russia without Putin – the world needs a Russia without imperial consciousness.’[11] The writer signed the open letter of Russian-language writers against the war.

I can assure you that this would be a hard experience, because Russia's nations are being diminished by Putin's regime and at the same time used in a traditional colonial way as a source of manpower for aggression against Ukraine.’[21] Novels Stories Poetry