# Andriy Valentynov

Andriy Valentynov / Andrey Valentinov (Ukrainian: Андрій Валентинов, Russian: Андрей Валентинов; born March 18, 1958) is the pen name of a Ukrainian Russian-speaking science/fantasy fiction writer Andriy Valentynovych Shmalko. Valentinov is a distinguished Ukrainian historian and archaeologist and works as an associate professor at Ukrainian studies department of Kharkiv National University. He resides in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and writes in Russian. Valentinov collaborates with other Russophone Ukrainian writers, such as H. L. Oldie and Marina and Sergey Dyachenko.
Valentinov's genre is often defined as cryptohistory. He is the author of 40 novels, about 50 stories and more than 60 essays about the problems of contemporary speculative literature. He has 164 science fiction and fantasy literary awards. At Eurocon 2013 in Kyiv, the European Science Fiction Society named Valentinov Europe's best writer of 2013.
Valentinov resides and works from Kharkiv, Ukraine. Valentinov has often collaborates with other Ukrainian-born Russophone writers, such as H. L. Oldie and Marina and Sergey Dyachenko.

## Biography

Andriy Shmalko was born in Kharkiv, Soviet Ukraine, on March 18, 1958. He began writing poetry in 1970, and wrote his first novel while at school. His first pen name was Alexander Nexø. From 1978 till early 2000s he was participating in different archaeological expeditions exploring the sites of Khazar culture, Scythian burial mounds, Genoese castle and especially his favourite Chersonesus, an ancient Greek colony founded approximately 2,500 years ago in the south-western part of the Crimean Peninsula.
In 1980 he graduated from Kharkiv National University and became a school teacher of history. From 1982 till 1985 he was a post-graduate student at the Department of Ancient and Medieval History of Kharkiv National University. In 1985 he defended his PhD dissertation in Ancient History, Roman Policy in the Southern Black Sea Region in the 1st Century BC. From 1985 to 1992 he taught history at Kharkiv University of Arts, also known as the Kharkiv Conservatory, where he introduced the first course of the Bible Studies in Ukraine that used to be a primarily atheistic state during the Soviet times.
In 1992 he finished his novel The Oversteps, which was published in 1995 under the pen name of Andrey Valentinov.
Valentinov is married.

## Main Images and Motifs

Valentinov creates his fictional world with the help of the repeating themes, images and motifs. One of them is about the people or race of Dhars (other names: Dars, Dergs, Logres and Chugs; Russian: дхары, дары, дэрги, логры, чуги). The etymology of their names might be Aryan (Dhars or Dars, compare with the Slavic dar – gift, talent), Eastern (Dergs), Celtic (Logres, also Logris or Loegria is the name of King Arthur's realm) or Slavic (chugs as diminutive for chugaisters or chugasters, kind wood goblins for Western Ukrainians living in the Carpathians). According to Valentinov, they are ambiguous creatures: half human, half bearlike, whose origin is very ancient and mysterious. The Dhars live in different places of the world and are endangered because of many enemies, from ignorant cruel people to the evil forces. They keep ancient secret knowledge and have psychic abilities. They usually look like humans, but some of them can transform into werebears. The Dhars might be the descendants of fallen angels and human females. Valentinov suggests that King Arthur whose name meant “bear” was one of them. They are presented in many Valentinov's books, especially in the Logrian series and The Eye of Power Series.