The first years
Viktor Pelevin was born on November 22, 1962, in Moscow, into a family connected with education. His father, a member of the military department at Moscow State Technical University, was Bauman Oleg Pelevin. The mother Zinaida’s exact occupation remains unclear, with scattered reports suggesting she worked as a deli manager or taught English in school. The family initially lived in a communal apartment on Tverskoy Boulevard and later moved to Northern Chertanovo, a residence that is often associated with the author in later recollections.
During his schooling, Pelevin attended secondary school number 31, which offered a strong emphasis on English. In an interview, actor Andrei Lukyanov recalled the notable peers who studied there, including Mikhail Efremov, Yulia Rutberg, Anton Tabakov, and Viktor Pelevin. It is also mentioned that Nikita Khrushchev’s granddaughter studied in a parallel class at the time.
After finishing school in 1979, Pelevin enrolled at the Moscow Institute of Energy Engineering (MPEI) in the Faculty of Electrification and Industrial Automation. He later worked as an engineer in the Department of Electricity Transportation and defended a diploma on the topic of Electrical Equipment of an Asynchronous Traction Drive Trolleybus. In 1989 he entered the Gorky Literary Institute but left in his second year for undisclosed reasons.
Publications in journals
Seeking professional credibility, Pelevin joined Bilim ve Din magazine and sought admission to the Journalists’ Union. In 2001, a brief autobiography appeared in Nezavisimaya Gazeta, which he used to support his union application. The narrative described his educational path and early professional steps, outlining years of study at MPEI and Lit Institute, followed by work as a staff reporter at Face to Face and subsequent collaborations with Moscow-based newspapers and magazines. The autobiographical document is dated December 1, 1993.
Pelevin’s earliest published pieces appeared in Science and Religion, including a short story titled The Sorcerer Ignat and the People, alongside notable pieces such as Divination by Runes, or Ralph Bloom’s Runic Oracle and a fantastic tale Reenactor. In 1990 his story The Hermit and the Six Fingers was published in Chemistry and Life, with another story, The Life and Adventures of Cabin Number XII, appearing the following year in the same journal.
In 1991, four Pelevin stories appeared in Knowledge is Power, including Crystal World, Ruler, Lunokhod, and Kroeger’s Revelation.
Books and recognition
During his time at the Literary Institute, Pelevin formed valuable professional connections, notably with prose writer Albert Egazarov and poet Viktor Kulle, who co-founded the Den publishing house (later renamed Raven and Myth). As an editor, Pelevin helped shape a three-volume work by the writer and mystic Carlos Castaneda, an influence that helped shape his worldview. His first collection of short stories, The Blue Lantern, appeared in 1991. It did not attract immediate attention, but in 1993 Pelevin received the Little Bookstore Award for the collection. In 1992 the short story Omon Ra appeared in Znamya and earned Interpresscon and Golden Snail awards, and a year later The Life of Insects was published by the same outlet.
In 1993 Pelevin penned an article for Nezavisimaya Gazeta, addressing criticism of his work and linking it to topics such as John Fowles and liberalism in Russia. That same year he joined the Union of Journalists of Russia. The novel Chapaev and the Void, published in 1996, increased his fame and earned recognition including a nomination for the Dublin Literary Award and the Wanderer 97 Award. In 1998 he was listed among Europe’s top young writers by The New Yorker. Estimates of Pelevin’s earnings prior to his cult breakthrough include figures around ten thousand dollars for various projects, with his 1999 Generation P achieving global recognition and selling millions of copies.
Collaboration with Eksmo
From the early 2000s, Pelevin’s books were published by Eksmo. Titles ranged from Numbers and The Werewolf Bible to The Helmet of Fear: Creativity on Theseus and the Minotaur, Empire V, SNUFF, Batman Apollo and others, including Love for Three Zuckerbrins, Watcher, Methselah’s Lamp, iPhuck 10, Secret Views of Fuji, Invincible Sun, Transhumanism Inc., and KGBT+. A longstanding editorial relationship with Eksmo’s editor Olga Aminova later became a topic of discussion when she described not always knowing the author behind the works they produced together.
In 2006 Eksmo released Empire V, a novel that earned a place on the Big Book Award shortlist. The text reportedly circulated on the internet before the official release, a move Eksmo attributed to a theft, while some critics viewed it as a strategic marketing ploy.
Interview
Pelevin gave a single video interview in 1996, conducted with Canadian-American writer Clark Blaze. In that exchange, the author reflected on how critics viewed him as a postmodernist, noting that the term felt elusive given the absence of a strong modernist movement in his environment.
Until 2010, Pelevin gave numerous interviews, with sources listing at least 46 conversations on the public record. He described interviews as something he did on his own terms, saying, I do what I want. Rumors later circulated that he had sold an interview package to a magazine, but Pelevin emphasized that he preferred not to chase digital visibility and remarked that personal experiences often informed his plots more than substances did.
He stated that while reality shapes his writing, he did not rely on drugs for inspiration, noting that the most interesting experiences sometimes come with high costs and questions about value rather than financial gain.
The alleged photos of Pelevin
In 2021 a report circulated claiming that Pelevin had been living on Koh Samui, Thailand, for more than a year, with moments of travel occurring in late 2017 and 2018. The report suggested that he moved between Russia and Thailand and did not return after a flight from Moscow to Bangkok in 2019. The report also referenced alleged photographs and hotel contacts, with attempts to reach Pelevin through calls that were not answered.
One of the last widely circulated photographs dated back to 2001 at a literary symposium in Tokyo, after which Pelevin reportedly withdrew from frequent literary ceremonies and media premieres related to his works. In 2021 a different magazine ran a body double feature, and another outlet published a photo that allegedly resembled the author from 2020. Modern image analysis suggested a high degree of similarity to earlier appearances, though the authenticity of these images remained contested. [citation: media reports and image analyses, attribution pending]