Mike was born in Kuibyshev. From the seventh grade until he turned 45, he lived 200 meters from the Volga River. He spent his nights writing poetry on the Volga embankment. He didn’t know how to rhyme until he wrote a sonnet in 1977. Once he learned to rhyme, he spent five years writing a wreath of sonnets. Over the course of 10 years, he gradually transitioned from mechanical engineer to psychologist. Perestroika came, and in 1989, he stopped writing. In 1998, he moved to Chicago and changed his name from Mishka to Mike. Around 2010, he gradually began writing again. He worked as a massage therapist for 15 years but was forced into retirement at the beginning of the quarantine. He has authored a dozen books and, in 2017, started “A Poet’s Video Blog” on YouTube.