Vitali Vitaliev
Encyclopedia
Vitali Vitaliev is a Ukrainian
-born journalist
and writer who has worked in Russia
, England
, Scotland
, Australia
and Ireland
.
. He graduated from Kharkov University in French
and English
, working as an interpreter and translator before becoming a journalist in 1981. He worked as a special correspondent for Krokodil
magazine in Moscow
when he appeared as Clive James
' 'Moscow Correspondent' on Saturday Night Clive. On 31 January 1990 he and his family 'defected', moving first to London
, then taking up residence (and citizenship) in Australia
. After a few years there he moved back to the UK
, living in London
. He is now back in London again after spending some time in Edinburgh
and Dublin.
included stories and investigative essays for Ogonyok
, Literaturnaya Gazeta
and Nedelya
as well as Krokodil, earning him the Golden Calf Literary Award, five annual Krokodil Awards, the Journalist of the Year Honorary Diploma for 1987 and the 1989 Ilf and Petrov
Prize for Satirical Journalism.
Vitaliev was the first Soviet journalist to publicly expose organised crime, the so-called Soviet Mafia, as well as the existence of prostitution, political prisoners and Soviet neo-Nazis. It was largely due to all those ground-breaking investigations and the resuling threats from both the criminal underworld and the KGB that he was forced to defect.
Vitaliev then worked for newspapers in Australia and the UK; and for the Irish magazine Village
. In the UK he has written for Punch
, The Listener, The Observer
, The Spectator
, The Independent
, Russian London Courier, The Sunday Times
and The Sunday Telegraph. At different times, he was a staff writer and/or regular columnist for The Guardian
, The European
, The Herald, The Australian
, The Age
, The Canberra Times
, South China Morning Post
, The Daily Telegraph
, The Sunday Herald Sun and some other newspapers and magazines. In 1997-98, he worked as Associate Editor of Transitions, in 2006-07 - as Editor-at-Large of Entrepreneur
magazine, and at present is Features Editor of E&T magazine (circulation 160,000; distribution in 120 countries). =
, ABC
and the BBC
, including Tasmania, Moscow Central, Vitali's Australia, My Friend Little Ben (in BBC1's Byline series, 1990) and The Train To Freedom – a program in the series Travels With My Camera (Channel 4, 1994). He has been a regular on BBC TV's "Saturday Night Clive", broadcasting from Moscow and later from Melbourne live via satellite, and a guest on After Dark and Have I Got News for You
. For almost 3 years, he appeared regularly in Europe Direct, BBC World's magazine program on weekday evenings. His appearances on BBC Radio 4 include Breakaway, Excess Baggage and his own series "Eye on the East". In 2007, he was a researcher and script-writer for the multi-award-winning BBC comedy quiz TV show QI
.
In October 2010, Vitaliev's factual drama (feature) film treatment “The Pavlovsk Station” made it to the shortlist of ten (out of 270 submissions) in the prestigious “Inspired
by Science” film treatment award competition at London Screenwriters Festival.
newspaper's list of Top Ten Best New Books. In April 2011, he was again shortlisted for a prestigious PPA UK Columnist of the Year Award.
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
-born journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and writer who has worked in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
.
Biography
Vitaliev was born in Kharkov, UkraineUkraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
. He graduated from Kharkov University in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, working as an interpreter and translator before becoming a journalist in 1981. He worked as a special correspondent for Krokodil
Krokodil
Krokodil was a satirical magazine published in the Soviet Union. It was founded in 1922. At that time, a large number of satirical magazines existed, such as Zanoza and Prozhektor...
magazine in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
when he appeared as Clive James
Clive James
Clive James, AM is an Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet and memoirist, best known for his autobiographical series Unreliable Memoirs, for his chat shows and documentaries on British television and for his prolific journalism...
' 'Moscow Correspondent' on Saturday Night Clive. On 31 January 1990 he and his family 'defected', moving first to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, then taking up residence (and citizenship) in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. After a few years there he moved back to the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, living in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. He is now back in London again after spending some time in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
and Dublin.
Journalism
Vitaliev's journalism work in the former Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
included stories and investigative essays for Ogonyok
Ogonyok
Ogoniok is one of the oldest weekly illustrated magazines in Russia, issued since . It was re-established in the Soviet Union in 1923 by Mikhail Koltsov....
, Literaturnaya Gazeta
Literaturnaya Gazeta
Literaturnaya Gazeta is a weekly cultural and political newspaper published in Russia and Soviet Union.- Overview :...
and Nedelya
Nedelya
Nedelya was a Russian liberal-Narodnik political and literary newspaper. It appeared in St. Petersburg from 1866 to 1901....
as well as Krokodil, earning him the Golden Calf Literary Award, five annual Krokodil Awards, the Journalist of the Year Honorary Diploma for 1987 and the 1989 Ilf and Petrov
Ilf and Petrov
Ilya Ilf Ilya Ilf Ilya Ilf (Ilya Arnoldovich Faynzilberg and Evgeny or Yevgeni Petrov (Yevgeniy Petrovich Kataev or Katayev were two Soviet prose authors of the 1920s and 1930s...
Prize for Satirical Journalism.
Vitaliev was the first Soviet journalist to publicly expose organised crime, the so-called Soviet Mafia, as well as the existence of prostitution, political prisoners and Soviet neo-Nazis. It was largely due to all those ground-breaking investigations and the resuling threats from both the criminal underworld and the KGB that he was forced to defect.
Vitaliev then worked for newspapers in Australia and the UK; and for the Irish magazine Village
Village (magazine)
Village is an Irish current affairs magazine founded by Vincent Browne. It was launched in October 2004 and was published weekly. In January 2007, it was announced that Village Magazine would be published monthly...
. In the UK he has written for Punch
Punch (magazine)
Punch, or the London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 50s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration...
, The Listener, The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
, The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
, The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, Russian London Courier, The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
and The Sunday Telegraph. At different times, he was a staff writer and/or regular columnist for The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, The European
The European
The European, billed as "Europe's first national newspaper", was a British weekly newspaper founded by Robert Maxwell. It lasted from 11 May 1990 until December 1998....
, The Herald, The Australian
The Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
, The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
, The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times newspaper was founded in 1926 in Canberra, Australia by Arthur Shakespeare.It was the second paper to be printed in the city, the first being The Federal Capital Pioneer. The paper was sold to the Fairfax group in the 1960s by Arthur Shakespeare on the condition that it continue...
, South China Morning Post
South China Morning Post
The South China Morning Post , together with its Sunday edition, the Sunday Morning Post, is an English-language Hong Kong newspaper, published by the SCMP Group with a circulation of 104,000....
, The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, The Sunday Herald Sun and some other newspapers and magazines. In 1997-98, he worked as Associate Editor of Transitions, in 2006-07 - as Editor-at-Large of Entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
magazine, and at present is Features Editor of E&T magazine (circulation 160,000; distribution in 120 countries). =
Television, Radio, Film
Vitaliev has written and presented several television documentaries for Channel 4Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
, ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
and the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, including Tasmania, Moscow Central, Vitali's Australia, My Friend Little Ben (in BBC1's Byline series, 1990) and The Train To Freedom – a program in the series Travels With My Camera (Channel 4, 1994). He has been a regular on BBC TV's "Saturday Night Clive", broadcasting from Moscow and later from Melbourne live via satellite, and a guest on After Dark and Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...
. For almost 3 years, he appeared regularly in Europe Direct, BBC World's magazine program on weekday evenings. His appearances on BBC Radio 4 include Breakaway, Excess Baggage and his own series "Eye on the East". In 2007, he was a researcher and script-writer for the multi-award-winning BBC comedy quiz TV show QI
QI
QI is a British comedy panel game television quiz show created and co-produced by John Lloyd, hosted by Stephen Fry, and featuring permanent panellist Alan Davies. Most of the questions are extremely obscure, making it unlikely that the correct answer will be given...
.
In October 2010, Vitaliev's factual drama (feature) film treatment “The Pavlovsk Station” made it to the shortlist of ten (out of 270 submissions) in the prestigious “Inspired
by Science” film treatment award competition at London Screenwriters Festival.
Awards
In the West, Vitaliev has won several literary and journalistic awards, including The Royal Melbourne Show Journalism Award (First Prize) in Australia, RTS Award for the best TV entertainment Show of 2007 (as part of the QI team) in the UK and was appointed Nieman Fellow in Journalism (Harvard University, USA) in 1990. In 2009, was shortlisted and "Highly Commended" in the UK Columnist of the Year category of the PPA Awards. In July 2010, he was declared Winner of the USA Trade Association & Business Publications International Awards (TABPIE) in three categories. In spring 2010, "Life as a Literary Device" made it to The IndependentThe Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
newspaper's list of Top Ten Best New Books. In April 2011, he was again shortlisted for a prestigious PPA UK Columnist of the Year Award.
First editions
- 1987 King of the Bar Pravda Publishers. A collection of articles written for Krokodil magazine (in Russian).
- 1990 Special Correspondent – Investigating in the Soviet Union, Hutchinson, ISBN 0-09-174297-8; translated into German (Econ Verlag), French & Japanese (Shinchosa).
- 1991 Dateline Freedom – Revelations of an Unwilling Exile, Hutchinson, ISBN 0-09-174677-9.
- 1991 Vitali's Australia, Random House, ISBN 0-09-182554-7
- 1993 The Third Trinity (with Derek Kartun), Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 0-340-55366-9; Seven editions in Germany: Aufbau Taschenbuch, Rutten & Loening, Fischer Taschenbuch etc.
- 1995 Little is the Light- Nostalgic Travels in the Mini-states of Europe, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-671-71925-4
- 1997 Dreams on Hitler's Couch, RC Books, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 1-86066-088-6
- 1999 Borders Up! Eastern Europe Through the Bottom of a Glass, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-684-81810-8
- 2008 Vitali's Ireland. Time Travels in the Celtic Tiger, Gill & Macmillan, September, ISBN 978-0717140763
- 2008 Passport to Enclavia. Travels in Search of a European Identity, Reportage Press, October, ISBN 978-0955830297; Russian translation (SNOB magazine, March 2009); Italian edition in 2010 (FBE Edizione)
- 2009 Life as a Literary Device, Beautiful Books, 31 October, ISBN 978-1-905636-44-0
Anthologies
- Granta 64, Winter 1998 Russia, The Last Eighteen Drops (15 pages).
- QI Annual, Faber & Faber, 2007. In collaboration.
- Nastoyashcheye Vremia magazine - an anthology of Vivisection columns (in Russian) - 2006
- The Best of Ogonyok. The New Journalism of Glasnost. William Heinemann, 1990. Three stories.
- The New Soviet Journalism: The Best of Soviet Weekly Ogonyok, Beacon Pr, 1991, Three stories.
- The Penguin Book of Fights, Feuds & Heartfelt Hatreds. An Anthology of Antipathy. Hardcover: Viking, 1992. Paperback: Penguin Books Ltd, 1993. One story
- Central Asia: Threats, Attacks, Arrests & Harassment of Human Rights Defenders. One of three authors/editors. Front Line, 2006
External links
- More than a dozen of his travel articles
- A piece from The Guardian
- Several articles from The Daily Telegraph
- worlds wildest police video's