Born 26.12.1949, Moscow, in the family of the military engineer.

Graduated from Moscow State University, Philological Department (1973), and Institute of Slavonic and Balkan Studies (1983). Ph. D. 1983 (Slavonic Mythology: The Archaic Funeral Rite by the South and East Slavs). Doctor of Theology honoris causa - The European University of Humanities, Minsk 2003.

1983-1990 worked as a referent-observer of the foreign philological studies (Institute of Scientific Information in Humanities).

1990-1991 lectured at the Moscow Gorky's Writers Institute.

Since 1991 lectures at the Moscow University (Department of Philosophy). Senior researcher at the Institute of Theory and History of the World Culture (Moscow State University).

Lectured abroad:

1994 at the Universities of Great Britain (Russian Literature, Slavonic Mythology, Church-Slavonic language); 1995 Universita "La Sapienza" (Roma);

1997 at the University of Madison, USA (Modern Russian poetry); 1997 at the Lay Academy by the New Valamo Monastery , Finland (The Orthodox Roots of Classic Russian Lyrics).

In the Universities of Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense (Denmark, 1999). Wien, Bozen (2000), Sorbonne (2001), Princeton, Penstate, Bucknell (2003), Geneve (2003).
Public lectures:

April 1997, British Library. "Art of Translation: Some Remarks".

May 2000, "Two Vienne Lectures": "Stupidity by Pushkin", "Poetry and Anthropology".

July 2000, Bregenz. The opening lecture to the Bregenz Opera Festival. "The Power of Happiness".

August 2003, Rimini. "The Best University: Idea of Happiness in the Russian Culture"

Books of poetry, in Russia and abroad:

1.Ворота, Окна, Арки. YMCA-press, Париж, 1986.

2. Китайское путешествие, Стелы и надписи, Старые песни. Carte blanche, Москва, 1991.

3. The Silk of Time. Шелк времени. Bilingual Selected Poems. Ed. and itroduced by Valentina Polukhina. Ryburn Publihing. Keele Univ.Press,1994.

4. Стихи. Гнозис, Carte Blanche. Послесловие С.С.Аверинцева. Москва, 1994.

5. The Wild Rose. Approach Publishers. London 1997. (Bilingual). Transl. Richard McKane.

6. The Old Songs (in Hebrew), Carmel Publishing House, Jerusalem, 1997. Transl. Hamutal Bar Josef.

7. The Journey of the Magi. Moscow, Gnosis 2002.

Books of prose:

1. Reise nach Bryansk. (Two Journeys), in German. Transl. Erich Klein and Valeria Jager. - Wien, Folio Verlag. 2000.

2. Eloge de la poesie ( In Praise of Poetry), in French. Transl. Guislaine Bardet. - L'Age d'Homme 2001.
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"The Collected Works" in 2 volumes. Poetry and essays. Moscow, 2001.

Books of essays and poetry in print:

1. Waiting in the Earth. Poems (in German) . Transl. Walter Thumler. Ammann Verlag. 2004.

2. Poems and Elegies (in English). Transl. Slava Jastremsky and others. Bucknell University Press. 2003.

3. Poems (in Dannish). 2004.

Books of philological studies in print:

1. Church-Slavonic - Russian Dictionary. Moscow, 2004.

2. Mythology of Death by the East and South Slavs. Moscow, 2004.

Poems are translated into English, French, Italian, German, Swedish, Dutch, Finnish, Serbian, Hebrew, Polish, Serb, Albanian, Greek and other languages.
Published critical and philological works (on Russian and European poetry, Slavonic mythology, Church-Slavonic language). Some of them are translated into English, German, French, Italian, Albanian, Serb.
Published artistic translations (from R.M. Rilke, T.S. Eliot, P. Claudel, St. Francis of Assisi, Paul Celan and others).

Took part in the philological, philosophical and sociological
International conferences (Glasgow 1989, 1991, San Francisco Whittland Foundation 1990, Paris 1993, Rome 1994, Moscow 1995, Vatican 1996, Stockholm 1996, Rome 1998, Moscow 1998, Paris 1999, Stockholm 1999, Ferrara 1999, Rome 2000, Paris 2002).
Poet in Residence in Great Britain, Keel University (1994);
Visiting Poet, Bucknell University 1999; Amherst College 1999 (the United States);
Annual Speaker for the up graduate students, Harvard 2003.

Literary prices:

Andrey Bely Price (Leningrad 1980);
Parisian Price for Russian Poet (Paris 1991),
Alfred Toepfer Pushkin Price (1994)
Premio Europeo per le poesie (Roma, 1995).
"The Christian Roots of Europe", Vladimir Solovjov Price (Vatican 1998).
Aleksandr Solzhenitzyn Price (Moscow 2003).

Participated in the International Poetry Festivals:

Salerno, Italy 1991;
Hay-on-Way, England 1994;
Rotterdam Poetry International 1995;
Minsk 1996;
Visby, Sweden 1997;
Koln, Germany 1998;
London Poetry International, Royal Festival Hall 1998;
Ive-sur Marne, France 1999;
Africa Poetry 2000
Salerno (Italy) 2002

Lives in Moscow, single.

8 September 2003
Moscow