Sviatlana Alexievich Presented Her Russian PEN Center Membership Card

The Nobel laureate called "second-hand" the center’s lies that she had never been its member.

Leaders of the Russian Writers' Union announce that Sviatlana Alexievich has never been a member of the PEN center. That way they react to the writer’s decision to leave the organization. Sviatlana Alexievich’s name has disappeared from the list of members on the site. Writer Sergei Parkhomenko, after whose expulsion from the organization the conflict started, has posted a photograph of her membership card on Facebook.

"It’s all second-hand, that there is nothing to say", – Alexievich commented on the situation with a smile to Radio Svaboda. She does not regret about her decision to withdraw from the PEN center.

"How can I feel sorry, if the organization is like this? At present, 50 people have left it. 45 have signed a paper that a new assembly and new elections are needed. That is, the PEN does not exist as such," – the writer says.

She notes that the behavior of the large part of the Russian writers, who came out of the PEN-center and require its restructuring, testify to their dignity.

"I am very pleased that the Russian writers have managed to unite. There has been a serious demarche among the democratic institutions for the first time. After all, most of the people have caved in to power – found self-justification or gone into internal exile. And here for the first time the writers have said "no", – Alexievich says.

"There is no other democratic organization, which would demonstrate such dignity today, as writers, –the writer says. – You can imagine how many people have refused to participate. That is the meaning of what happened. It will not pass in vain for other people. The power acts in the following way – it penetrates into the organization and destroys it from inside. We know this from what is being done in Belarus. Kazulin remained motionless due to that. Many other organizations have been buried or completely rebuilt in the lapdog way.

It seems, here it’s not the case. I do not know what the Russian authorities will come up with further on. But this experience is very useful for us."

Sviatlana Alexievich, Lev Rubinstein, Boris Akunin and other prominent members of the Russian PEN Center left the organization in protest against writer Sergei Parkhomenko’s expulsion from its ranks. Late last year, he, along with other members of the organization, appealed to Vladimir Putin, asking to pardon Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov, who is serving a 20-year term, being accused of extremism.