Yovan Savovich, the IT entrepreneur behind influential early Russian-language blogging sites, has died following a long illness.

Yovan Savovich, a web designer and IT entrepreneur who founded the collective blogging platforms Dirty and Leprozorium, has died at age 43. People close to him reported that he had been suffering from multiple sclerosis. Savovich’s work is credited with shaping the Russian-language internet, or Runet, during the era before the rise of modern social media.

Early Life and Career

Born in Sarajevo in 1982, Savovich moved to the Soviet Union with his mother, an interpreter, during the conflicts in Yugoslavia. He later attended Moscow State University, studying at the School of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics and the School of Journalism. In 2004, he founded the company Futurico, which managed his various online projects.

The Impact of Dirty and Lepra

Savovich launched the invitation-only blog Dirty in 2001. In 2004, he established a private section called Leprozorium for users who violated site rules, which eventually became an independent, highly exclusive platform known as Lepra. While neither site achieved mass-market scale—with Dirty reaching approximately 100,000 members by 2013—they were instrumental in popularizing internet memes and "Olbanian," a style of Russian writing characterized by deliberate misspellings.

Later Years and Health

Savovich served as a product manager for Yandex Zen from April 2018 until December 2019. In his final years, he dealt with significant health challenges. Reports indicated he was using a wheelchair, and he had expressed interest in obtaining Russian citizenship to access the country's mandatory health insurance system. His death was announced on the Dirty website on August 20, 2026.