Melville House Books

The recent death in Russia of poet Tatyana Bek “has led to speculation that a falling-out with her fellow poets provoked her to commit suicide,” according to a Moscow Times report by Victor Sonkin. The falling out concerned the announcement by poet Yevgeny Rein and others that they would “translate the poems of Turkish President Saparmurat Niyazo“; Bek said the announcement’s “praise for Turkmenbashi [Niyazov's honorary title] the Great Poet more indecently pragmatic than outright crazy.” Tensions apparently grew rapidly. “I spoke to her every day on the phone these last days; she was in very bad shape,” her friend, novelist Vladimir Voinovich says. Sonkin reports “Some media outlets speculated that this ‘falling-out with friends’ was the real cause of her death, rather than the officially reported heart attack. The radio station Ekho Moskvy reported that Bek had committed suicide.”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.