“If a person is weeping – leave…” Poet and human rights colossus Alexander Tkachenko dies in Russia By Grigory Pasko, journalist The phoned me from the radio station «Liberty» and told me that Alexander Petrovich Tkachenko had died. Director-General of the Russian PEN-centre, poet, novelist, human rights advocate. He had died in the 63rd year of life. In one of his last books of poems, there are the following lines: “Do not go out of a house if a bird is crying. If a person is weeping – leave.”