Igor Krotov

Igor was born in Moscow, in the USSR, on September 7, 1958. He developed an early interest in American life and culture and blue jeans, which led him to befriend every American he could find in the Soviet Union and, eventually, to America itself, where the quantities of blue jeans were unlimited. Igor’s excellent English (and, for that matter, Russian), friendly and lighthearted style, and deep-seated empathy drew people to him at every walk of life. He made many, many friends in Moscow with whom he spent many, many hours going to the movies, hanging out outside the synagogue, and talking over the kitchen table. Among those friends was his wife, Katya Ardayeva, whom he married on September 17, 1982. Igor and Katya’s son, Mark, was born on September 4, 1985.

Toward the end of the 1980s, Igor’s familiarity with English speakers and the English language paid off, and he started to work for American media organizations—first Newsday and then CNN, where he would work for the next twenty-three years or so. As a young producer at CNN at the end of the cold war, Igor saw history up close: he traveled to South Ossetia, interpreted for Mikhail Gorbachev, and even got to meet Jane Fonda. (This last one may have been a bigger deal to others than to Igor himself.)

Along with Katya, Mark, and his mother-in-law Erlena, Igor immigrated to the US in 1991, assisted greatly by friends on both sides of the Atlantic. The family settled in Atlanta once Igor was hired at CNN HQ, and over the next two decades he worked at the storied International Desk, surrounded by colleagues who quickly became parts of the family. Many other friendships emerged in Atlanta, too, and it was unusual for a day or two to pass without a phone call from someone close by or far away.

Igor loved Bruce Springsteen (solid), Billy Joel (questionable), and the Sex Pistols (admirable). He and Katya and Mark watched hundreds of movies and he liked to read widely, though in later years novels like Philip Roth’s Goodbye, Columbus (solid) got swapped out for Wall Street Journal opinion columns (questionable). He loved good food and was known at the International Desk for his treks to Atlanta’s hinterlands in pursuit of Szechuan food and exotic sausages. He was devoted to his espresso machine, which he cleaned with an obsessive passion, and in his later years he liked nothing more than to sit out on the deck in the warm sunlight with his espresso, his cigarette, and his phone, which he used to call dozens and dozens of friends and relatives and tell them about his granddaughter, Daria, who turned 5 last month.

He will be missed by everyone who ever encountered him.

A memorial service honoring Igor will be held on Sunday, April 9, 2023 at 12 PM at the Roswell Funeral Home, located at 950 Mansell Road, Roswell, GA 30076. All are welcome.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.roswellfuneralhome.com for the Krotov family.