After high school Pelevin received a degree in electromechanical engineering from the Moscow Power Engineering Institute, then attended seminars in creative writing at the Literature Institute. As an editor of "Science and Religion" magazine, he was responsible for an ongoing series of articles on Eastern mysticism.

Pelevin's first story was published in 1989, and for the next three years his short stories appeared in various magazines and compilations. In 1992 a book of Pelevin's collected stories The Blue Lantern received the first annual Russian Little Booker Prize. His first novel, Omon Ra, appeared in 1992.

Pelevin rarely gives interviews; when he does, he is known to talk about the nature of the mind rather than his own writing. He has permitted all of his texts in Russian predating 2006 to be published on the Internet for non-commercial use [1]. Some novels are also available as voice files in Russian.

Pelevin's prose is usually devoid of dialogue between the author and the reader, whether through plot, character development, literary form or narrative language. This corresponds to his philosophy (both stated and unstated) that, for the most part, it is the reader who infuses the text with meaning. His novel Babylon bears on its cover the inscription, Any thought that occurs in the process of reading this book is subject to copyright. Unauthorized thinking of it is prohibited.

Short novels

• Hermit and Sixfinger / ????????? ? ?????????? (1990)
• Omon Ra / ???? ?? (1991)
• Prince of Central Planning / ????? ???????? (1992)
• The Yellow Arrow / ?????? ?????? (1993)

Novels

• The Life of Insects / ????? ????????? (1993)
• Buddha's Little Finger (aka Clay Machine-Gun) / ?????? ? ??????? (Chapayev and Void) (1996)
• Babylon (aka Generation ?, Homo Zapiens) / Generation "?" (1999)
• Numbers (as part of the book DTP(NN) - The Dialectics of the Transition Period (from Nowhere to No Place)) / ????? (????? ????? ???(NN) - ?????????? ??????????? ??????? (?? ???????? ? ??????)) (2004)
• The Sacred Book of the Werewolf / ????????? ????? ???????? (2005)
• The Helmet of Horror / ???? ????? (2005)
• Empire V / ????? ? (2006)
• P5: Farewell songs of the political pygmies of Pindostan / ?5: ?????????? ????? ???????????? ??????? ?????????? (2008)
• t (2009)

Essays, short stories

• Blue Lantern and Other Stories (1991)
• Zombification / ???????????? (1995)
• A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia / ???????? ???????? ? ??????? ?????? (1998)
• Bulldozer Driver’s Day / ???? ????????????? (1998)
• 4 by Pelevin' (2001)

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