Lev Timofeev (; born 8 September 1936) is a Russian economist, political commentator and novelist. The son of a high-ranking government official, Timofeev graduated from the

Moscow State Institute of International Relations Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) (, also known as MGIMO University) is an higher education, institute of higher education located in Moscow, Russia. The institute is run by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia), Russian ...

Career

In the late 1960s and 70s, Timofeev worked as a journalist for

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

magazines such as ''

Novy Mir ''Novy Mir'' (, ) is a Russian-language monthly literary magazine. History ''Novy Mir'' has been published in Moscow since January 1925. It was supposed to be modelled on the popular pre-Soviet literary magazine ''Mir Bozhy'' ("God's World"), w ...

'' and '' Kommunist''. Timofeev's 1985 book ''The Technology of the Black Market or the Peasant Art of Starving'' was published in the West by Telos Press. The book presented a harsh condemnation of the Communist economic system. Timofeev was arrested and sentenced to 11 years of

hard labour Penal labour is a term for various kinds of forced labour that prisoners are required to perform, typically manual labour. The work may be light or hard, depending on the context. Forms of sentence involving penal labour have included inv ...

and internal exile on the grounds of " anti-Soviet propaganda". He was freed in 1987 by a special decree signed by

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

. In the late 1980s, Timofeev published Referendum magazine and served as chairman of the Moscow

Helsinki Committee for Human Rights Helsinki Committees for Human Rights exist in many European countries (and in the wider OSCE region) as volunteer, non-profit organizations devoted to the protection of human rights. It was presumably named after the Helsinki Accords. It was for ...

, a

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

watchdog. Timofeev became one of the most vocal proponents of

economic liberalization Economic liberalization, or economic liberalisation, is the lessening of government regulations and restrictions in an economy in exchange for greater participation by private entities. In politics, the doctrine is associated with classical liber ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. In 1993 Timofeev ran for parliament on the

Democratic Russia Democratic Russia (; abbreviation: ДемРоссия, ''DemRossiya'') was the generic name for several political entities that played a transformative role in Russia's transition from Communist rule. In 1991–1993, the Democratic Russia Move ...

ticket. He was appointed professor at the

Russian State University for the Humanities The Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH; ), is a university in Moscow, Russia with over 25,000 students. It was created in 1991 as the result of the merger of the Moscow Urban University of the People (est. 1908) and the Moscow Sta ...

, Timofeev was for many years director of the Center for Research on Extralegal Economic Systems and advised the government of

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1961 to ...

. In the mid-1990s he joined the

Transnational Radical Party The Transnational Radical Party (TRP), whose official name is Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty (NRPTT), is a political association of citizens, members of parliament and members of government of various national and politic ...

and became a member of its General Council. Timofeev is one of the leading theorists of drug decriminalization. In early 2000 Timofeev retired from

politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

and teaching and embarked on a career of a novelist: since 2004 he published three novels and a collection of short stories. His 2006 novel ''Negative'' was nominated for the

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...

. Between 2011 and 2015 Timofeev regularly published his short stories in the Russian Riviera magazine.

Family

Lev Timofeev has three children: Sofiya, Yekaterina and Anton.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Timofeev, Lev 1936 births Living people Russian male journalists Soviet dissidents Moscow State Institute of International Relations alumni Moscow Helsinki Group