Vladimir Pimonov
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Vladimir (Volodya, Volodja) Pimonov (Russian: Владимир (Володя) Иванович Пимонов, March 31, 1955, Moscow, USSR) is a Russian-born Danish journalist, author and literary scholar. As a journalist he is best known for his investigative reporting on the
Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
/Russian affairs. His literary research focuses on
Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
,
classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...
,
plot (narrative) In a literary work, film, or other narrative, the plot is the mapping of events in which each one (except the final) affects at least one other through the principle of Causality, cause-and-effect. The causal events of a plot can be thought of as ...
theory and the concept of theatricality (
metatheatre Metatheatre, and the closely related term metadrama, describes the aspects of a play that draw attention to its nature as drama or theatre, or to the circumstances of its performance. "Breaking the Fourth Wall" is an example of a metatheatrical de ...
). His work is held in almost 100 major public and university library holdings around the world.


Early life and education

Pimonov was born on March 31, 1955, in Moscow, USSR (Soviet Union). He graduated from Maurice Thorez Moscow State Institute of Foreign Languages (now Moscow State Linguistic University) and earned his
Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...
degree ( Ph.D in
Philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...
) from Moscow State Pedagogical University. He finished Copenhagen Language School (
Studieskolen Studieskolen is a language school in Copenhagen, Denmark. The school has been teaching languages to adults under the name Studieskolen since 1977. Studieskolen provides courses in Danish as well as in 30 other languages, with courses starting all ...
) and completed a
Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...
course in macroeconomics at
Birkbeck, University of London Birkbeck, University of London (formally Birkbeck College, University of London), is a Public university, public research university located in London, England, and a constituent college, member institution of the University of London. Establ ...
. He is a professor
emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...
at the GITR Film and Television School in Moscow, Russia.


Career

In the late 1970s and early 1980s in Moscow, alongside his academic work Pimonov was a writer for ''64-Chess Review'' magazine (
64 (magazine) ''64'' is a Russian language, Russian chess magazine and draughts publication, published in Moscow. Its name referred to the number of squares on a chessboard. The magazine awarded the Chess Oscar annually. History When it first appeared in 1 ...
). He left the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
in 1988 and settled in Denmark where he worked for a national daily newspaper ''
Ekstra Bladet is a Danish tabloid newspaper, published by JP/Politikens Hus in Copenhagen.About
(in Danish) . Retrieved 22 Se ...
'' in Copenhagen for over two decades and also served as a Moscow correspondent. Pimonov was nominated for the Danish journalist award the Cavling Prize for a series of articles on the Soviet clandestine operations in Denmark during the
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
and the Danish Association for Investigative Journalism Award ( Foreningen for Undersøgende Journalistik) for exposing poor working conditions and willful violations of safety rules in the Russian coal mines in Siberia that supply coal to Denmark. He was awarded the Pushkin medal by the Academy of Russian Literature for his books about Russia. He published evidence of the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
's covert support for PFLP's (the second-largest of the groups forming the
Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinians, Palestinian people in both the occupied Pale ...
) terrorist activities prior to
Yasser Arafat Yasser Arafat (4 or 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), also popularly known by his Kunya (Arabic), kunya Abu Ammar, was a Palestinian political leader. He was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004, Presid ...
's winning the
Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...
, Moscow's illegal financing of the
Communist Party of Denmark The Communist Party of Denmark (, DKP) is a communist party in Denmark. The DKP was founded on 9 November 1919 as the Left-Socialist Party of Denmark (, VSP), through a merger of the Socialist Youth League and Socialist Labour Party of Denma ...
and revealed
Ayman al-Zawahiri Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri (; 19 June 195131 July 2022) was an Egyptian-born pan-Islamism, pan-Islamist militant and physician who served as the second general emir of al-Qaeda from June 2011 until Killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri, his dea ...
's (the co-founder of
Al-Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...
) activities in Denmark. Working with colleagues at
Ekstra Bladet is a Danish tabloid newspaper, published by JP/Politikens Hus in Copenhagen.About
(in Danish) . Retrieved 22 Se ...
he published a series of investigative articles on connections (via
British Virgin Islands The British Virgin Islands (BVI), officially the Virgin Islands, are a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands and north-west ...
' shell companies) between Icelandic banks,
Kaupthing Bank Kaupthing Bank (, ) was a major international Icelandic bank, headquartered in Reykjavík, Iceland. It was taken over by the Icelandic government during the 2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis and the domestic Icelandic-based operations were ...
in particular, and major Russian holdings with close ties to the Kremlin. During his career Pimonov reported on a broad range of issues, including military conflicts, terrorism and espionage.


Activism

In the mid-1980s in Moscow Pimonov participated in human rights activities and campaigned for the release of political prisoners, freedom of movement and the right to leave the country for Soviet citizens. The authorities kept him under house arrest after he wrote an open letter to the Soviet leader
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 ...
protesting against the Kremlin's use of violence to suppress a peaceful demonstration in Moscow for the release of Jewish
political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although ...
s.


Chess

Pimonov is a
chess master A chess title is a title regulated by a chess governing body and bestowed upon players based on their performance and rank. Such titles are usually granted for life. The international chess governing body FIDE grants several titles, the most pres ...
and played in USSR Junior Championships and USSR quarter-final tournament. As a chess player and writer for the Soviet magazine ''64-Chess review'' he appeared as one of the major characters in the 1988 book ''
Searching for Bobby Fischer ''Searching for Bobby Fischer'', released in the United Kingdom as ''Innocent Moves'', is a 1993 American drama film written and directed by Steven Zaillian in his directorial debut. Starring Max Pomeranc in his film debut, Joe Mantegna, Joa ...
'', by the American novelist Fred Waitzkin. Pimonov commented the
World Chess Championship The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Gukesh Dommaraju, who defeated the previous champion Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship 2024, 2024 World Chess Championship. ...
matches between
Anatoly Karpov Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov (, ; born May 23, 1951) is a Russian and former Soviet Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, ⁣and politician. He was the 12th World Chess Champion from 1975 ...
and
Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, ra ...
for the Soviet and Western media.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pimonov, Vladimir Living people 1955 births Journalists from Moscow Russian literary scholars Danish journalists Russian chess players Chess players from Moscow