Venya D'rkin

Venya D'rkin (Веня Д'ркин; 11 June 1970 in Dovzhanskyi, Luhansk Oblast, Soviet Union, now, Ukraine – 21 August 1999 in Korolyov, Moscow Oblast, Russia), real name – Alexander Mikhailovich Litvinov (Александр Михайлович Литвинов), was a Russian language bard, poet, artist, painter and writer of fairy tales. He wrote over three hundred songs. As usual in the bard genre, the songs contain deep and imaginative lyrics, but, less commonly, are also very melodic. During the late 1990s, he performed some of his songs accompanied by other musicians, notably the violinist Veronica Belyayeva.

In his 1998 interview (Russian Rock-n-Roller newspaper, 4 November 1998) the name was explained by his "agent" Natalia as follows. At one festival he jokingly registered himself as "Venya Dyrkin from Maksyutovka" (Веня Ды́ркин из Максютовки; funny-sounding names from an old local joke). Surprisingly he became a prize winner at the festival; his fake name was shown on big screen, and in this way it became his stage name.

Venya D'rkin died of cancer (Hodgkin's lymphoma) on 21 August 1999.

Even though D'rkin was not widely known in his lifetime, he has since become a significant name in the genre. This can be attributed to the fact that before his death, just two of his albums were released, and even those were distributed in only a very small number of copies. He also never played in front of a large audience; most of his public performances were in music festivals and in house concerts.

A story in song D'rkin had written was posthumously released on CD.