Venya Drkin

Venya Drkin (Russian: Веня Д’ркин; 11 June 1970 in Dolzhansky, Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine – 21 August 1999 in Korolyov, Moscow Oblast, Russia), real name - Alexander Litvinov, was a Russian bard, poet, artist [1] and writer of fairy tales [2]. He wrote over three hundred songs [3]. As usual in the bard genre, the songs bear deep and imaginative lyrics, but, less commonly, are also very melodic. During the late 90's, he performed some of his songs with accompaniment of other musicians, notably violinist Veronica Belyayeva.

Although Venya died in 1999, his music is still gaining more acknowledgement as the time passes. This can be attributed to the fact that before Venya's death, just two of his albums were released, and even those were distributed in very small number of copies. He also never played in front of a large audience; most of his public performances were in music festivals and in house concerts.

Venya Drkin died of cancer (Hodgkin's lymphoma) on 21 August 1999.