Roman Mikhailov

Mikhailov's career has two distinct lives, and they don't overlap much. The first was in mathematics — a long, productive run that included positions at the Steklov Mathematical Institute, the laboratory "Modern Algebra and Applications" at St. Petersburg State University, the Institute for Advanced Studies, and the Institute of Chemical Physics of the University of Latvia (TMDB). In 2010, he defended his doctoral thesis on "Homotopy theory of normal series in groups," cementing his standing as a serious theorist (TMDB). More than 60 scientific papers. A monograph. A sustained collaboration with Inder Bir Singh Passi. Then, in 2022, he closed that chapter entirely. The literary career ran parallel for a while. Hard to say if Mikhailov always intended to move toward narrative art, or if the writing just pulled him there — but by the early 2020s his fiction was being taken seriously in Russian literary circles. Quotes from his books were used as the title and epigraph of the Second Triennial of Contemporary Russian Art in 2020 (TMDB). A stage adaptation of his stories — "The Tale of the Last Angel," directed by Andrei the Mighty — won the Golden Mask Award in 2021, which is about as significant as Russian theater prizes get (TMDB). That same year brought the Andrei Bely Prize for prose. The film work arrived in October 2022 with "A Fairy Tale for the Old," which Mikhailov co-directed with actor Fyodor Lavrov; both men also starred in it (TMDB). Festival first. Prize won. Then came a run of films in 2023 that would be ambitious for any established director: "Snow, Sister and Wolverine" (February 2023), "Heritage" (June 2023), and "Let's Go to Macau With You" — also 2023 — plus the completion of shooting on "October Vacation" around the same period (TMDB). Four films in roughly a year. Whether that pace is sustainable, or even desirable, we'll see — but it signals someone who isn't easing into a new medium.