Kirill Igorevich SMIRNOV (Кирилл Игоревич СМИРНОВ) is a Russian journalist, media executive and filmmaker, born on 11 November 1985 in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg). In 2007, he graduated in political science from the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia. In 2014, he received a second higher education degree, in law, from the North-West Institute of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
After holding various positions in the press and communications departments of the Saint Petersburg city administration, he became editor-in-chief of the newspaper Петербургский дневник (Petersburg Diary) in 2017. Since 2020, he has also served as Director General of Petrocentr, the information and publishing centre of the Saint Petersburg government. He is a member of the Russian Union of Journalists and of the Civic Chamber of Saint Petersburg.
Under his leadership, Петербургский дневник began developing, from 2021 onwards, a documentary film production mainly devoted to the history and culture of Saint Petersburg. Smirnov has participated in several of these films as author, presenter or producer.
A long-time admirer of Joseph Brodsky, in 2025 he directed Тракторы на рассвете (Tractors at Dawn), devoted to the poet’s eighteen months of exile in the village of Norenskaya, in the Arkhangelsk region, in 1964–1965. The title is taken from a poem written by Brodsky during his exile. In 2026, the film received the award for Best Documentary Short Film at the “Literature and Cinema” International Festival in Gatchina.
