Satirist Writer Mikhail Zadornov Has Died

It was announced today that satirist Mikhail Zadornov has passed away at the age of 69 from cancer.

In October 2016, the writer reported that he had been diagnosed with brain cancer and would undergo a course of chemotherapy. The artist had to cancel part of his concerts and withdraw from several projects during his treatment. The satirist underwent chemotherapy at one of the clinics in the Baltics.

At the beginning of November, Archpriest Andrei Novikov reported that Zadornov had converted from neo-paganism to Orthodoxy and had confessed in the Kazan Cathedral in Moscow in September. Novikov emphasized that he wrote about this with the consent of the satirist's closest relatives.

Zadornov was born on July 21, 1948, in Jūrmala. In 1974, he graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute with a degree in "mechanical engineering." That same year, he began publishing short stories and humorous sketches. At MAI, Zadornov headed the student theater. From 1984 to 1985, the satirist was the head of the humor department at the magazine "Yunost." Since 1982, Mikhail Zadornov performed with television acts. He gained widespread fame by performing humorous monologues on television. He was the author and host of several TV shows, including "Anshlag" and "Smekhpanorama," and wrote more than 10 books. He was the author of satirical collections "Suddenly Out of Nowhere," "I Love America," and others.