Svetlana Alexievich from Belarus won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Six Nobel Prize laureates with Belarusian roots Nobel laureate in literature Alexievich

Belarusian writer, Nobel Prize winner in literature Svetlana Aleksandrovna Alexievich was born on May 31, 1948 in Ivano-Frankovsk (Ukraine) in the family of a military man. After his father was demobilized from the army, the family moved to Belarus.

In 1972 she graduated from the journalism department of the Belarusian State University.

In the 1960s, Alexievich worked as a teacher at a boarding school, as a teacher, and also in the editorial office of a newspaper in the city of Narovlya, Gomel Region.

After graduating from university, from 1972 to 1973, she worked for the newspaper "Mayak Communism" in the city of Bereza, Brest Region.

In 1976-1984 - correspondent, head of the department of essays and journalism of the literary and artistic magazine "Neman" - the organ of the Union of Writers of Belarus. Literary activity started in 1975. Alexievich’s first book was a collection of essays, “I Left the Village,” which included monologues of people who left their homes.

In 1983, she wrote the book "War Has No woman's face", which lay in the publishing house for two years. The author was accused of pacifism, naturalism and debunking the heroic image of the Soviet woman. In 1985, the work was published almost simultaneously in the magazine "October", "Roman-Gazeta", in the publishing houses "Mastatskaya Litaratura" and "Soviet writer", the total circulation was two million copies.

In 1985, Alexievich’s second book, “The Last Witnesses (One Hundred Non-Children’s Stories),” was published. In 1989, her book "Zinc Boys" was published - about Soviet soldiers in the Afghan War, and in 1993 - the book "Enchanted by Death". In 1997, the book "Chernobyl Prayer" was published.

Since the early 2000s, Alexievich lived in Italy, France, and Germany.

In 2013, the writer’s book “Second-hand Time (The End of the Red Man)” was published, which became the final book in the artistic and documentary cycle “Voices of Utopia”. The cycle includes her works “War Doesn’t Have a Woman’s Face”, “The Last Witnesses”, “Zinc Boys” and “Chernobyl Prayer”.

Alexievich's books were published in Bulgaria, Great Britain, Vietnam, Germany, India, USA, France, Sweden, Japan and other countries.

In April 2018, the crowdfunding project “Voices of Utopia”, dedicated to the publication of a series of books by Svetlana Alexievich in the Belarusian language, was completed.

Films have been made and staged based on Alexievich’s works. theater performances. Cycle documentaries based on the book “War Has Not a Woman’s Face” was awarded the USSR State Prize (1985).

Svetlana Alexievich is a laureate of the Lenin Komsomol Prize (1986), awarded Literary Prize named after Nikolai Ostrovsky (1985), Literary Prize named after Konstantin Fedin (1985), as well as the Triumph Prize and the Andrei Sinyavsky Prize (1998).

Among her foreign awards are the Kurt Tucholsky Prize (Swedish PEN, 1996), German Prize"For the best political book" (1998), Austrian Herder Prize (1999), Peace Prize of the German Book Trade Association (2013), Polish Feather of Freedom Prize (2013), Polish Ryszard Kapustinski Prize (2011, 2015), American Book Prize Arthur Ross (2017).

On Thursday, October 8, the Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich, almost unknown in Russia, received Nobel Prize in literature, becoming the first Russian-speaking writer in 28 years to receive such an honorary award. Thus, Alexievich stood on a par with Joseph Brodsky, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Mikhail Sholokhov, Boris Pasternak and Ivan Bunin.

The selection of applicants, as always, was carried out in the strictest confidence, but it is assumed that among the possible candidates for the award were the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami - he has not left the top lines in the bookmakers' lists for many years, as well as the Kenyan playwright Ngugi Wa Thiong'o.

“We welcome the decision of the Nobel Committee to award the 2015 Literature Prize to our compatriot, Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich. This first prize received by a citizen of our sovereign country will go down in the history of the formation of the Belarusian nation, society and state,” says the official statement of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry.

Presenting the award, Nobel Committee Alexievich called the books “a monument to the courage and suffering of our time.” "This outstanding writer, a great writer who created a new literary genre, going beyond ordinary journalism,” commented the Secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Sarah Danius on the decision of the Nobel Committee. Alexievich herself formulates main idea of his books like this: “I always want to understand how much personality there is in a person. And how to protect this person in a person.”

She believes that the prize was awarded to her not for any specific book, but for the whole creative activity. Alexievich said at a press conference in Minsk that the prize she received would allow her to continue working on her books without being distracted by everyday problems. “I always buy freedom with bonuses. I write books for a long time - 5-10 years.”

Svetlana Alexievich was born on May 31, 1948 in Ivano-Frankovsk, Ukraine, from where her family then moved to Belarus, where her parents taught at rural school. There, the future writer entered the Faculty of Journalism of the Belarusian State University in Minsk. After graduation, she worked in local newspapers and in the literary magazine Neman.

At the same time, Alexievich was preparing her first book, “War Doesn’t Have a Woman’s Face” about women front-line soldiers of the Great Patriotic War. Patriotic War. This book, like all subsequent works of the Belarusian writer, is compiled from numerous interviews with eyewitnesses minimum quantity author's comments. For two years they refused to publish the book because of the unpleasant details of how victory in the war was achieved. The author was accused of pacifism and debunking the heroic image of Soviet women. “This book was created from what they told me: ‘Sveta, this doesn’t need to be published,’” says the writer. Now the total circulation of the book has reached 2 million copies.

In the same year, Alexievich’s second book, “The Last Witnesses,” was published. dedicated to women and children in war. Critics called both works "a new discovery" military prose" Four years later, “The Zinc Boys” was published, a documentary book about the Afghan War, which collected the memories of girlfriends, mothers and wives of Soviet soldiers who died during the conflict.

In the 2000s, the writer moved to Europe and lived in Italy, France, and Germany. Two years ago, Alexievich returned to Belarus to prepare her new book, Second Hand Time, about perestroika and the 90s. “The experience of the books that I wrote, the experience of my conversations with people shows that the layer of culture is very thin, it flies away very quickly. And if this only happened in war, in the camp. This does not require an extreme situation, even in peaceful life, once - and a certain dehumanization occurs,” says Alexievich.

The work of Svetlana Alexievich evokes mixed reviews. Some make films and stage plays based on her books, others consider the writer a mouthpiece for post-Soviet smut. She is credited with inventing a new genre in literature - the confessional novel on behalf of specific person. Alexievich herself said in an interview that she dreams of collecting a hundred stories told by 50 women and 50 men to create a story about the emotional experiences of witnesses to the life and fall of the Soviet empire.

“The most interesting thing now is not politics, not the redivision of the world, but this space little man. But at the same time, our culture and our history are highlighted through this space.”

Childhood and youth

Svetlana Aleksandrovna Alexievich was born in the Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankovsk (then Stanislav) on May 31, 1948. The writer's family is international. My father was born in Belarus, my mother in Ukraine. After demobilization, the head of the family moved his relatives to Belarus, to the Gomel region. There, Svetlana Alexievich graduated from school in 1965 and entered the university, choosing the faculty of journalism. In 1972, the future writer received a diploma from the Belarusian State University.

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Svetlana Alexievich

Work history Svetlana Alexievich's career began with work at school. At first she worked as a teacher at a boarding school, then she taught children history and German in the Mozyr region. Alexievich had long been attracted to writing, and she got a job as a correspondent for the regional newspaper Pripyatskaya Pravda. Then she moved to another publication - “Beacon of Communism” in one of the regional centers of the Brest region.

From 1973 to 1976, Svetlana Alexievich worked at the regional Selskaya Gazeta. In 1976, she was offered a position as head of the essay and journalism department at Neman magazine. Alexievich worked there until 1984. In 1983 she was admitted to the USSR Writers' Union.

Since the early 2000s, Svetlana Alexievich lived abroad, first in Italy, then in France and Germany, and eventually returned to Belarus.

Books

Svetlana Aleksandrovna Alexievich says that each book took from 4 to 7 years of life. During the period of writing, she met and talked with hundreds of people who witnessed the events described in the works. These people, as a rule, had very difficult fate: went through Stalin's camps, revolutions, fought in different wars or survived the Chernobyl disaster.

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Writer Svetlana Alexievich

The first book that begins creative biography Svetlana Alexievich - “I left the village”, exposing the state’s attitude towards rural residents. The publication was prepared for printing back in the mid-70s, but the book never reached the reader. Typography was banned by the party leadership, and later the author herself refused to publish.

“War Doesn’t Have a Woman’s Face” is a book about women who fought on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. They were snipers, pilots, tank crews, and underground fighters. Their vision and perception of war is completely different from that of men. They experienced other people's deaths, blood, and murders more difficult. And after the end of the war, a second front began for female veterans: they needed to adapt to peaceful life, forget about the horrors of war and become women again: wear dresses, high-heeled shoes, give birth to children.

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Svetlana Alexievich - “War does not have a woman’s face”

The book “War Has Not a Woman’s Face” was not published for 2 years, having lain in the publishing house. Alexievich was accused of distorting the heroic image Soviet women, in pacifism and excessive naturalism. The work was published during the years of perestroika and was published in several thick magazines.

The fate of subsequent works also turned out to be difficult. The second book was called "The Last Witnesses." It consisted of 100 children's stories about the horrors of war. There is even more naturalism and terrible details, seen through the eyes of children from 7 to 12 years old.

In the third work, Svetlana Alexievich spoke about the crimes of the Afghan war. The book "The Zinc Boys" was published in 1989. Its release was accompanied by a wave of negative reviews and criticism. And also by the trial, which was stopped after Western human rights activists and the public came to the defense of the disgraced writer.

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Svetlana Alexievich signs books for fans

War occupies a central place in the works of Svetlana Alexievich. The writer herself explains this by saying that all soviet history associated with war and imbued with it. She argues that all heroes and most ideals Soviet man– military.

The fourth book, entitled Spellbound by Death, was published in 1993 and also received mixed reviews. This work is about suicides recorded in the first 5 years after the disappearance of the USSR. In it, the author tries to understand the reasons and “charm” of death, which claims the lives of thousands of people - ordinary communists, marshals, poets, officials who committed suicide after the collapse of a gigantic empire. As Alexievich herself states, this is a reflection on how the country emerged from the “anaesthesia of the past” and the “hypnosis of the great Deception.”

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Svetlana Alexievich - “Chernobyl Prayer”

The fifth work entitled “Chernobyl Prayer” is about peace and life after the Chernobyl disaster. Svetlana Aleksandrovna believes that after the Chernobyl accident not only the gene code and blood formula of the population changed big country, but the entire socialist continent disappeared under water.

Throughout all of Alexievich’s books there is a debunking of the communist idea or, as the writer claims, “the great and terrible Utopia - communism, the idea of ​​which has not completely died not only in Russia, but throughout the world.”

“The Wonderful Deer of the Eternal Hunt” is a work about love, but again from Alexievich’s specific angle. Previously, in Svetlana’s works, the hero found himself in extreme situations. In the new story, love becomes an environment in which human qualities manifest themselves with no less zeal and depth.

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Svetlana Alexievich - “Second hand time”

“Second Hand Time” (“The End of the Red Man”) is dedicated to the memories of 20 people about the time from the beginning of perestroika to the beginning of the 21st century. These people talk about the hopes they had for the change political system in the country, about how they survived in the “dashing 90s”, when everything that was worth at least some money was sold, about how loved ones died in unnecessary Chechen conflicts.

Svetlana Alexievich has been a contender for the Nobel Prize in the Literature category since 2013. But then the prize was awarded to Canadian writer Alice Munro. I received it in 2014 French writer Patrick Modiano.

Presentation of the Nobel Prize to Svetlana Alexievich

In 2015, Alexievich was again among the candidates who, in addition to the prize, could become the owner of a monetary reward of 8 million Swedish kronor ($953 thousand). In addition to her, the candidacies of the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, the Kenyan Ngui Wa Thiong'o, the Norwegian Jun Fosse and the American Philip Roth were considered.

On October 8 in Stockholm, the Nobel Prize was nevertheless awarded to Svetlana Alexievich. The news of the award to the Belarusian writer was met with ambiguity both in Russia and in Belarus.

Many people talk about the political choice of the candidate. Alexievich is an ardent anti-Soviet, known for her criticism of internal and foreign policy presidents and The writer is accused of speculative and tendentious journalism and an anti-Russian position.

Personal life

When asked about her personal life, Alexievich replies that she can’t be happy. As the media found out, Svetlana does not have a husband, nor do she have any children of her own. The writer raised her niece Natalya, the daughter of her prematurely deceased sister. The girl has her own family; she gave her granddaughter, Yana, to her named mother. Photos of loved ones practically never appear in the press; mostly photographs of Alexievich are published.

Svetlana Alexievich now

In 2018, Svetlana Alexievich became a laureate of the name award for “bravely speaking about the injustice” existing in countries former USSR, “criticized Russia’s annexation of Crimea and human rights abuses in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, as well as growing nationalism and oligarchy in Ukraine.” The award was presented by the human rights organization Reach All Women in War.

Why did the writer Alekseevich receive the Nobel Prize?

Continues to accuse Russia of occupying Crimea and justify the Kyiv authorities Nobel laureate in literature Svetlana Alexievich. She expressed her position on June 19 in an interview with a REGNUM correspondent.

Regarding the events that led to the change of power in Ukraine, Alexievich stated: “No, it was not a coup. This is nonsense. You watch a lot of TV."
Alexievich stated the following about the pro-fascist orientation of Maidan supporters and repression by the authorities: “Poroshenko and others are not fascists. You understand, they want to separate from Russia and go to Europe. This also exists in the Baltic states. Resistance takes on fierce forms. Then, when they really become an independent and strong state, this will not happen. And now they are tearing down communist monuments, which we should also tear down.”
Alexievich commented on the murder of the Ukrainian writer Olesya Buzina as follows: “But what he said also caused bitterness.”
True, Alexievich recovered in time: “These are not excuses. I just imagine that Ukraine wants to build its own state.”
During the interview, the correspondent pointed to a Gallup study, which found that 83% of Ukrainians think in Russian. When asked whether it is possible to abolish the Russian language taking this into account, Alexievich replied: "No. But maybe for a while, yes, to cement the nation.”
At the end of the interview, commenting on the right of Donbass residents to protest against the abolition of the Russian language and their reluctance to praise Bandera, the writer “reminded” of Russian tanks, Russian weapons, Russian contract soldiers and the downed Boeing: “If it weren’t for your weapons, there would be no war. So don't fool me with this nonsense that fills your head. You succumb so easily to all propaganda. Yes, there is pain, there is fear. But this is on your conscience, on Putin’s conscience. You invaded another country, on what grounds? There are a million pictures on the Internet of Russian equipment going there. Everyone knows who shot down [the Boeing] and everything else. Let's end your idiotic interview already. I no longer have the strength for him. You are just a bunch of propaganda, not a reasonable person.”
Let us remind you that Svetlana Alexievich won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2015 with the wording “for her polyphonic work - a monument to suffering and courage in our time.”

P. S. The REGNUM correspondent asked questions that Alekseevich herself was uncomfortable answering, because she still had remnants of her Soviet conscience, and this irritated her.
It is clear that she was given a prize for her anti-communist views. Monuments to suffering instead of communist ones - is this her ideal? You repent, suffer, but do not be indignant; this turns out to be the essence of Alekseevich’s worldview. Of course, the West will applaud such a position.
Sorry, but at one time these were advanced views, a natural development of philosophical thought. All the best that is in a person was put at the forefront and this was proclaimed. What Alekseevich or anyone else can offer now is pity for oneself and others or freedom to worship the whims of one’s body. Of course, this direction can be endlessly procrastinated and shown that this is the knowledge of the truth. But practice, as a criterion of truth, shows that the world is sliding towards global aggression under the slogan of everything, against everyone. Her ideological position, in fact, of not resisting the growing evil leads to a world catastrophe, and this “chicken” Alekseevich sees nothing beyond her literary views and Russophobia.

Most recently, the Nobel Committee decided to award the prize for literature. Its winner was the writer Svetlana Alexievich, whose biography is little known to modern readers.

Let's talk in more detail today about life and creative destiny this ascetic in the literary field.

Brief biographical information about birth and childhood

The future writer was born in Western Ukraine (the city of Ivano-Frankivsk) in 1948. Her father was Belarusian, and her mother was Ukrainian. The life of her family was scorched by the war. The families of both mother and father suffered greatly during the occupation of Ukrainian and Belarusian lands. My father went through the war and was demobilized only after the victory. At the same time, he moved his wife and little daughter to a Belarusian village in the Gomel region. The writer's father and mother worked as teachers.

Svetlana Alexievich has seen a lot in her time, her biography is proof of this.

Having successfully completed school, Svetlana entered the Faculty of Journalism at the prestigious Belarusian University by Soviet standards. State University. After graduating from university, she tried a lot of professions: she worked as an educator, teacher and journalist. Its first newspapers were the publications “Pripyatskaya Pravda” and “Beacon of Communism”.

Mature years

Svetlana became interested in writing in her youth, her essays and short stories began to be published in the Soviet press, and then she was awarded the honor of being admitted to the Union Soviet writers(this event took place in 1983). Until now, she is considered one of the creators of Belarusian literature, which is reflected in the wording of the Nobel Prize: “Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich.” Her biography and personal life took place in Belarus, hence the truth of such formulations.

During the years of perestroika, the writer published several books that caused a lot of noise and classified her as a dissident (we will talk about these publications a little later). In the 2000s. Alexievich moved to Europe, lived and worked in France, Germany and Italy. Recently returned to Belarus.

Svetlana Alexievich: personal life

Question about women's fate The writer has always been of interest to fans of her work, but very little is known in this area.

In her works, Svetlana Aleksandrovna told a lot about women's stories, but for all the journalists who interviewed her, the topic “Svetlana Alexievich: personal life” was closed. The writer devoted herself to literature as the main calling of her life; in all questionnaires she indicates that she is unmarried woman. It is known that for a long time she raised her niece - the daughter of her sister who died early.

Although it cannot be said that Svetlana Alexievich is a deprived person. Her family consists of her books, film scripts and journalism.

First literary experiments

Writer Svetlana Alexievich has always been interested in polemical topics in the history of our country.

Her first book, “I Left the Village,” prepared for publication in 1976, was devoted to the theme of the gradual extinction of the Russian village. The author rightly pointed out that such a mass exodus of the peasantry from the villages was provoked by the authorities with their unreasonable and inhumane policy of general collectivization. Naturally, such interviews (and the book itself is based on these interviews) did not cause delight among the then Soviet officials, so the book was not published in the USSR.

The writer's second book was published in 1983 and caused a lot of noise. It was called “War Doesn’t Have a Woman’s Face.” In this work, the writer collected the memories of many Soviet women who participated in the Great Patriotic War. Some of the memories were cut out by censorship (later the author inserted them into post-Soviet publications). Alexievich actually debunked the image that was created before her in books about the war. In her work, women talk not about exploits and victories, but about fear, suffering, ruined youth and the cruelty of war.

The work “The Last Witnesses: A Book of Non-Children's Stories” (1985) became equally polemical. It was dedicated to the children's memories of terrible events Great Patriotic War. Sad childhood stories were told to readers by Svetlana Alexievich, whose family itself found itself under occupation during the war.

Famous works of the writer

The work “Zinc Boys” (1989), dedicated to sad events for our country, created a lot of noise. Afghan war. Here Alexievich talks about the enormous grief of mothers who lost their sons and do not understand why their children died.

The next book, “Enchanted by Death” (1993), told about the practice of mass suicides of people who lost faith in previous ideals after the collapse of the USSR.

The writer’s work “Chernobyl Prayer” (1997), which told about the sad events of the disaster, became widely known. The author collected in her book interviews with still living participants in the liquidation of the consequences of this disaster.

As we see, over our long writer's life Svetlana Alexievich created many books, reviews about these books are very different. Some readers honor the author’s talent, while others curse Alexievich, accusing her of populism and speculative journalism.

Genre originality and ideological content of the writer’s books

The writer herself defines the genre of her prose as artistic and documentary. She's attracted to how fiction, and journalistic documentary.

Since the themes of her books concern so many people, the writer’s work is the object of close attention from critics. And they differ in their assessments.

Thus, some modern Western literary figures believe that Svetlana Alexievich, whose biography and work are directly related to Soviet Union, like no one else can tell the truth about what the USSR was for its citizens. It turns out that the USSR was a real empire evil, which did not spare its people for the sake of achieving illusory political goals. People were exterminated en masse in the Gulag, driven to slaughter on the fields of World War II, sparing neither children nor women, soviet government plunged the country into the abyss of the Afghan war, allowed Chernobyl disaster And so on.

Other critics, who consider themselves to be part of the traditional “Russian world,” on the contrary, reproach the writer for the fact that she can only see negative sides Soviet and Russian reality, without noticing it positive aspects. These critics accuse the author of actually betraying the interests of his homeland. They say that Svetlana Alexievich, whose biography is directly connected with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, has never said anything good about the importance of the unity of these three countries in her entire life. These critics believe that the author deliberately distorts in his works real facts, creating for Western and Russian readers the image of “evil and insidious Russia.”

The writer's political views

The topic “Svetlana Alexievich: biography, personal life” attracts the attention of journalists, but their greater interest is focused on political views writers.

The fact is that Svetlana is a consistent supporter of Westernist views; she has repeatedly criticized political position both the President of Belarus A. Lukashenko and the President of Russia V. Putin. The author accuses both of them of creating a second-hand empire ( last book The writer’s title is “Second Hand Time” (2013)). Alexievich believes that Putin and Lukashenko want to resurrect the terrible and inhumane Soviet project, therefore, in their public speaking the writer condemns all the actions of the current Belarusian and Russian leaders. She condemns the revival of military power Russian Federation, considers Putin to be the culprit for the deaths of people in Donbass, etc.

Nobel Prize: history of the award

The writer was nominated for the Nobel Prize twice: in 2013 and 2015. In 2013, the prize was awarded to another Canadian author.

In 2015, the Nobel Committee decided to award this prize to Svetlana Alexievich. Immediately after the announcement of this decision, many began to be interested in such a person as Svetlana Alexievich. The Nobel Prize was awarded to her for a reason, and this arouses even greater interest.

This prize has not been awarded to Russian-speaking writers for quite some time. Moreover, it was often used as a tool in the political struggle between Russia and the West: throughout its history, the prize was awarded, as a rule, to those who had clear differences in views with the official authorities Soviet Russia(for example, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Boris Pasternak, Ivan Bunin).

A brief overview of the writer's Nobel speech

By tradition, the Nobel Prize winner in literature gives a speech of gratitude, in which he sums up the unique results of his work.

Svetlana Alexievich also gave such a speech. The Nobel Prize for Literature is given once in a lifetime, so the writer created one of her best texts.

The theme of Alexievich’s speech was the image of the “red man,” that is, a person with a Soviet psyche who still lives in the minds of Russian people and forces them to make certain decisions. Alexievich condemns this man as a product of the totalitarian era.

The author calls Russian people “slaves of Utopia,” who imagine that they have a “special Russian path,” a special spirituality that differs from the spirituality of Western countries. The writer sees the salvation of our country in the denial of this eternal slavery and the appeal of Russian people to the values ​​of Western civilization.

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