Alexey Viktorovich Ivanov - Russian writer. Born in 1969 in Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod) in a family of shipbuilding engineers. In 1971, the family moved to Perm. In 1987, after leaving school, Alexey entered the Ural State University at the Faculty of Journalism, which he left the following year. In 1990, he re-entered the Ural State University at the Faculty of Art History and Cultural Studies, which he successfully completed in 1996, defending a diploma in art history. The debut publication is the fantastic story "The Hunt for the Big Dipper," which took place in 1990 in the journal Ural Pathfinder (Sverdlovsk). Returning to Perm, Alexei Ivanov changed many professions: he worked as a watchman, school teacher, journalist, university teacher, as well as a guide guide in a travel agency, which led him to a passion for local history.