Kisin was born in Moscow in the former Soviet Union to parents Marina and Vadim, then 18 and 20 years old, respectively, and grew up in the USSR. His experiences in the country inform much of his own political worldview today.[2] He is of Russian, Greek, and Jewish descent.[3][4] Kisin's parents were semi-practising Orthodox Christians, though his paternal grandfather was a secular Jew.[5][6] Kisin has previously identified as Jewish.[7][8] At the age of 11, he moved to the United Kingdom.[9] He attended Clifton College boarding school, and subsequently Edinburgh University, which he left before finishing a degree.[10]
Career
Translation and interpreting
Kisin has worked as an English-Russian legal, financial and video game translator, and interpreter and has regularly given talks about the business side of translation.[11]
Podcasting
Since April 2018, Kisin has been co-presenter (with Francis Foster) of Triggernometry, a YouTube channel and podcast. The primary format of the channel is the prerecorded interview; the channel brands itself as holding "honest conversations with fascinating people",[12] and has been described as "anti-woke" by The Times and "hard-right" by openDemocracy.[13][14] Guests have included Jordan Peterson and Sam Harris.[15] A 2023 interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson, on the subject of "Have We Lost Trust in Science?",[16] was widely reported upon both by other YouTube channels and the mainstream media because of Tyson's statements on the subject of transgender rights.[17][18][19]
The podcast was named one of the "best 20 escapist podcasts" in The Daily Telegraph in 2020.[20]
After Kisin refused to agree to those terms and chose not to perform, the UNICEF on Campus society at SOAS apologised and clarified they did not wish to "impose that guests would have to agree to anything they do not believe in". The SOAS Students' Union said it did not require external speakers to sign any contract before appearances, and that the UNICEF on Campus society had been "overzealous" in interpreting the guidelines.[29][30][31][32]
Justifying his actions after it was claimed that Kisin had agreed to similar restrictions for a different gig in 2017, he stated he was "absolutely certain there was nothing about religion, atheism, respect or kindness in the rules [of the 2017 contract]. Had there been, I would not have agreed."[33]
Politics and punditry
Konstantin Kisin speaking at Alliance for Responsible Citizenship 2023 in Greenwich, London, UK, 31 October 2023
In March 2022 Kisin appeared as a panellist on the first edition of BBC Question Time following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He described feeling shame for his birth country Russia and discussed the bombardment that his family in Ukraine was undergoing.[34]
Kisin's 2023 speech at the Oxford Union student debating society in favour of the motion that "Woke Culture HAS Gone Too Far" went viral.[35][36] An article by Will Lloyd in the New Statesman, praised Kisin's speech as "not banal, not weighed down by predictable culture-war talking points", while concluded that "[a]way from his targets, Kisin’s observations on politics and history are relatively banal".[10]
In a keynote speech in London in late 2023 at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship, Kisin argued that the moment for restoring Western civilisation is at hand, describing it as "the fight for our lives".[37] In September 2023, the New Statesman named him as the 46th most influential right-wing figure in British politics.[38] Kisin has repeatedly rejected his chacterisation as right-wing, instead describing himself as a "Remainer with liberal and centrist views who has only voted Lib Dem or Labour" and criticised the use of the "right-wing" label as a "smear for those we disagree with".[39]
