Dedicated to the memory of the great Russian poet Konstantin Kedrov

The Great Russian Poet Konstantin Kedrov

On Wednesday, April 16, 2025, at 1:30 p.m., after a prolonged illness, the poet of the Sixties generation, philosopher and literary critic, author of the term metametaphor and the philosophical theory of metacode, founder of his own school of metametaphorist poets, Candidate of Philological Sciences, Doctor of Philosophy, and Professor at the Maxim Gorky Literary Institute, Konstantin Alexandrovich Kedrov, passed away at the age of 82.

Konstantin Kedrov was born on November 12, 1942, in the city of Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Oblast, into the family of theater director Alexander Berdichevsky and actress Nadezhda Yumatova. He was a grand-nephew of Russian surrealist painter Pavel Chelishchev (1898–1957). From 1974 to 1986, he worked as a senior lecturer in the Department of Russian Literary History at the Maxim Gorky Literary Institute. In 1983, Kedrov formulated his own poetic principle—the metametaphor. He authored more than 30 poetry collections. In 1984, together with his wife Elena Katsyuba, poets Andrei Voznesensky, Alexander Chernov, Alexei Parshchikov, and art historian Olga Sviblova, he founded the literary circle DOOS (The Voluntary Society for the Protection of Dragonflies).

In 2019, in Baku, together with Olzhas Suleimenov and Margarita Al, he proposed the creation of the World Organization of Writers (WOW). In 2022, in Cairo, a memorandum establishing WOW was signed.

In 1999, Konstantin Kedrov initiated the celebration of World Poetry Day, which was later officially established by resolution of the 30th session of the UNESCO General Conference. In 2000, the first celebration took place at the Taganka Theatre with the participation of the theatre’s director Yuri Lyubimov and poet Andrei Voznesensky. Since then, World Poetry Day has been celebrated annually in Russia on March 21, the day of the spring equinox.

Kedrov was a member of the High Literary Council of the World Organization of Writers (WOW), a member of the Union of Writers of the USSR and the Russian Union of Writers, a member of the executive committee of the Russian PEN Club, and a member of the International Union of Nobility. He was also co-chair of the Literary Council of ANEiA. According to media reports, he was a nominee from Russia for the Nobel Prize in Literature from 2003 to 2005. He was a laureate of the World WOW (LIFFT) Prize, the South Korean Manhae Prize, and the Pushkin Prize of the Russian Union of Writers.

The funeral of Konstantin Alexandrovich Kedrov will take place on Friday, April 18. A funeral service will be held at 8:00 a.m. at the “Small Ascension” Church on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street, followed by a farewell ceremony from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Central House of Writers.