Email wcheunBiographical Chronology
1956: born as Grigorii Shalvovich Chkhartishvili (future Akunin) to the family of a military officer in Zestafoni, an industrial city of the former Socialist Republic of Georgia
1958: moved to Moscow due to his father’s new assignment (his mother was a school teacher)
1973: graduated from high school No.36, one of Moscow’s foreign language schools, where the language of instruction was English
1979: graduated from the Institute of the Countries of Asia and Africa of the Moscow State University (Institut stran Azii i Afriki pri MGU)
1979-1986: worked at the publisher “Russkii iazyk,” which specialized in publishing Russian language learning materials for foreigners. Renamed “Russkii iazyk. Kursy” since 1993
1986-2000: worked at the prestigious monthly Inostrannaia literatura and was promoted to assistant editor-in-chief in 1996
1990: received an award of the journal Literaturnoe obozrenie for his literary criticism
1996: received an award from Znamia, one of the oldest literary journals of the Soviet Union, for his essay “Obraz iapontsa v russkoi literature”
1998: first novel Azazel’ published by Zakharov under the name “B. Akunin,” which started the first series “Novyi detektiv” (1998-2009). Also appointed chairperson of the board of “Pushkinskaia biblioteka,” a national project of library collection development sponsored by the Open Society
1999: non-fiction Pisatel’ i samoubiistvo published by “Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie”
2000: won the Anti-Booker (“Brat’ia Karamazov”) Prize; named by the Moscow International Book Fair (Moskovskaia mezhdunarodnaia knizhnaia vystavka-iarmarka) “writer of 2000”; Altyn-tolobas published by OLMA-Press marking the end of the Fandorin series, and the beginning of the “Provincial detective series,” also called “Pelagiia series,” with Pelagiia i belyi bul’dog.
2002: won "TEFI" Award (Russian TV Academy) for his scenario "Azazel'"
2000-2003: three titles under the new series “Provintsial’nyi detektiv” published
2000-2006: four titles under another series “Prikliucheniia magistra” published
2009: awarded the Order of the “Rising Sun” of Japan
