Lev Timofeev (russian: Лев Миха́йлович Тимофе́ев; born 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) (russian: Московский государственный институт международных отношений (МГИМО), also known as MGIMO University) is an institute of ...

Career

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

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

magazines such as ''

Novy Mir ''Novy Mir'' (russian: links=no, Новый мир, , ''New World'') 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 ...

'' and ''

Kommunist ''Kommunist'' (Russian: Коммунист), named ''Bolshevik'' (Большевик) until 1952, was a Soviet journal. The journal was started in 1924. The founders were Nikolai Bukharin, Georgy Pyatakov, and Yevgenia Bosch. It was the official ...

''. 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 and internal exile on the grounds of "

anti-Soviet propaganda Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda (ASA) (russian: антисове́тская агита́ция и пропага́нда (АСА)) was a criminal offence in the Soviet Union. To begin with the term was interchangeably used with counter-revolu ...

". 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 politician who served as the 8th and final 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 The Helsinki Committees for Human Rights exist in many European countries (the OSCE region) as volunteer, non-profit organizations devoted to human rights and presumably named after the Helsinki Accords. Formerly organized into the International ...

, a

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

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 List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. In 1993 Timofeev ran for parliament on the

Democratic Russia Democratic Russia (Russian: Демократическая Россия, abbreviation: ДемРоссия ''DemRossiya'') was the generic name for several political entities that played a transformative role in Russia's transition from Communis ...

ticket. He was appointed professor at the

Russian State University for the Humanities The Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH, RGGU; russian: Росси́йский госуда́рственный гуманита́рный университе́т, РГГУ, translit=Rossijskij gosudarstvennyj gumanitarnyj universit ...

, 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 ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...

. 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 political ...

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 (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

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 known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...

. 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