Birgit Beumers is a reader in Russian at the University of Bristol, specializing in contemporary Russian culture. She is the author or editor of many books, including A History of Russian Cinema and The Post-Soviet Russian Media.

Mark Lipovetsky is associate professor of Russian studies and comparative literature at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has written several books on Russian literature and culture, including Paralogies: Transformation of (Post)modernist Discourse in Russian Culture of the 1920s–2000s.