The Master and Margarita

Venya Dyrkin - Margarita

English > Adaptations > Music > Russian bards > Venja Dyrkin

Venya Dyrkin is the pseudonym of Alexander Mikhailovich Litvinov (1970-1999). He was a young Russian language bard, poet, artist, painter and writer of fairy tales from Dolzhansky near Lugansk, Ukraine, who died at the age of 29 in Korolev.

When he was bearly 7 years old, he started writing some poetry, and when he was 12 he began drawing, making oil paintings, and learning to play guitar. His high school was not so successful, so he started working as a driver in Myronivsky, Ukraine, while he also started writing songs. In 1991 he tried to study again by enrolling at the National Institute of Agricultural Mechanics in Lugansk. At that time he also recorded his first songs.

In 1993, Dyrkin began performing his songs on stage while he worked successively as a metal worker, artist and construction worker. Only in 1997 he started to get more gigs, mainly in Moscow, but his ascent was halted when he started to get signs of Hodgkin's disease.

His illness didn't stop Dyrkin from writing more than 300 songs, of which he could record only less than half though.

The song Margarita dates from the early days of Venya Dyrkin's singing career and is a tribute to the heroine of The Master and Margarita. He recorded it in 1991 for his album Донецкая бобина [Donyetskaya bobina], which was released as a cassette tape.