Arkady Arkanov

Arkady Arkanov
Arkady Arkanov in 2009
Birth name	Arkady Mikhailovich Steinbock Аркадий Михайлович Штейнбок
Born	7 June 1933 Kiev, Ukraine
Died	22 March 2015 (aged 81) Moscow, Russia
Alma mater	I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University
Genres	Comedy, melodrama

Arkady Mikhailovich Arkanov (Russian: Аркадий Михайлович Арканов; 7 June 1933 – 22 March 2015) was a Russian writer, playwright and stand-up comedian.

Arkanov was born Arkady Mikhailovich Steinbock in Kiev, Ukraine. At the onset of World War II in 1941, he was evacuated to Siberia, together with his mother and younger brother. In April 1943, the family was reunited with their father in Moscow.

In 1957, Arkanov graduated from the I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University and before becoming a writer worked as a family doctor. Between 1963 and 1967, he was a satirist at the journal Yunost. In 1966, he changed his last name, and in 1968 became a member of the Union of Soviet Writers. In the 1960s–70s, he collaborated with Grigori Gorin, with whom he wrote several plays for the .

Arkanov was married twice, first to Maya Kristalinskaya, a singer; they were married in 1967, but the marriage did not last and Arkanov soon remarried to Yevgeniya Morozova. He had a son, Vasily Arkadievich Arkanov (born 1967), a Russian-English translator and journalist who lives in New York since 1993. Arkanov was a lifelong fan of the football club FC Torpedo Moscow. He was a holder of the title People's Artist of Russia and awarded the Order of Honour.