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Sviatlana Alexievich: I Didn’t Think that Russian Society Was Ill to such an Extent.

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Sviatlana Alexievich: I Didn’t Think that Russian Society Was Ill to such an Extent.
Sviatlana Alexievich
PHOTO BY DPA

Russians were really surprised that a Belarusian won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Euronews talked to Sviatlana Alexievich about the Nobel Prize, airwoman Nadezhda Savchenko, and peace and war.

Sviatlana Aliaksandrauna, thank you for agreeing to an interview for Euronews. Many and many writers dream of the Nobel Prize. How did your world change after you found out you’d won the Nobel Prize?

- It’s so recent that is hasn’t really sunk in yet. So far my pace of life has changed; I meet a lot of people and I’m traveling a lot. It's still early to talk about.

But did you feel that somehow your position, your influence in society has changed?

- My position is the same. But yes, for example, when at the first press conference I was asked about Ukraine, I said that I think it is an occupation and that, in general, Putin unleashed a civil war. Civil war, if you like, can be unleashed anywhere. In Belarus you can unleash it, you can set Poles against Belarusians; it’s all possible. And I always said it but before Mr. Peskov, Putin’s press attache, wouldn’t have answered. But now he says to me: Mrs. Alexievich does not have all the information. However, he answered. Yes. It's a different thing. Yes, he answered. To support Nadezhda Savchenko, as well as Ukraine, I sent her my books and wrote a letter. But the fact is that today it makes no difference nowadays; you can be a three-time Nobel Prize winner, but authoritarian rulers in general don’t listen to us. They are burst into despair, impotence.

- When you speak of leaders, do you mean Lukashenka and Putin?

- Yes.

- How did the Belarus president, Lukashenko react to your award?

By the end of the day he congratulated me, it was already after Gorbachev, after the Presidents of Germany and France. But Belarus was just holding elections, the presidential elections, there were a lot of foreign observers... As soon as the elections were over and the observers left, he immediately said that I was badmouthing my country. Nothing new, everything as it was.

- Have your relations with Lukashenka improved?

- No-no.

-The news of your Nobel Prize was explosive in Russian society. Many Russians say that you have been given the award for your stance against Putin. Were you surprised by this reaction? Or did you expect it?

No, I didn’t expect to be honest. I didn’t expect such an attitude especially from other writers. I didn’t think that Russian society was ill to such an extent. But all Russian writers who’ve won the Nobel Prize, have been subjected to harassment in the country. Bunin, Solzhenitsyn, Brodsky and Pasternak. That is astonishing. What kind of country is it?? Why do these people? It's hard to find an answer.

- Maybe it’s not just about Putin. Perhaps, many Russians don’t not like the fact that you pressed on difficult aspects of Russian society?

- There are many reasons. Firstly, I’m from Belarus, from a small country, which many Russian people living Russia don’t take seriously. The Belarusian language – Is this a language? Come on, Sviatlana, it is just a spoiled dialect of Russian! It was a surprise that a Belarusian would be a winner. My genre makes a difficulty. It seems to me that Russian society is closed, like it’s never opened up to the world. The first failures after perestroika have caused it to reject the world, and the country is again closed. And ‘liberal’ became a dirty word. And many Russians are much closer to what Putin says: a great Russia surrounded by enemies. But it’s like an old call sign, working in the public mind. Just think – it took just a few months to set brother against brother – Russians and Ukrainians. It’s impossible to imagine. My mother is Ukrainian, my father is Belarusian. And there are so many people like that. It's hard to imagine, but it's happened. You can do everything you want with a person in the era of technologies.

- You call for the liberation of the Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko, who is now in a Russian prison. Do you see Nadezhda as a symbol of freedom and hope for Ukraine?

- Yes, I was amazed by this woman. From the very beginning, as soon as I saw her. I don’t know whether you remember or not the first interrogation, and the dignity that she showed. She was surrounded by men, rather arrogant, they behaved towards her in a boorish way. But she behaved calmly: Yes, you can kill me, but I’ll tell you, the whole of Ukraine is against you. And she said it quietly. I really liked that. I think they thought: Well, she is just a simple woman. And they wanted to exploit her somehow. But they found themselves confronting a powerful personality, a Joan of Arc. She has suffered a lot. She's been for several years there already, I think. Not all men could stand it. She's a strong, sincere woman. I wish I could help her.

- Sviatlana, in your books you follow the fate of people in the Soviet and post-Soviet society. How naturally-determined was the return of the Soviet people to the church? And is it possible today to draw the line between faith and propaganda in Russia?

I think that after perestroika the Soviet people were freed from the power of ideas, strong ideas, but the Russian people used to live as such a united powerful national body. That was the reason, I think, why Marxist ideology took the lead in Russia. Russia was the one that dared take such an experiment. A person was left helpless. He used to never stay alone and was never responsible for himself. He used to be only a part. And, of course, he was scared and mixed-up when was left alone. He started seeking a place to lean on. The Church was a real way out then. And they went there. But I know there are a lot of good, honest people. And interesting people went there. But somehow very quickly, over 10 years, the true church was gone. It became a part of the propaganda. There is a sort of linkage between the state and the church. And I can say that I’m simply shocked by some statements, for example the senior Moscow cleric Chaplin says. He says as follows: Thank God, full years are over. It does not suit Russian nation. We need self-devotion, we should suffer! But what is that? It's none other but barbarism. On the one hand, we bomb and shoot, on the other, we say: thank God that people live in poor conditions. Children from far-away villages are taken away from their mothers and given back in coffins. What can I say? It's sad.

- However, your books are popular in Russia.

- Yes. You know it's the largest country to set control in like in Belarus. Belarus is a small country and easy to control. Russia...experienced Yeltsin, Gorbachev times, as well as many others. You can observe an open harassment. Everything's possible.

- Do you still believe in Russia?

- Yes, I do. It seems to me (I have recently travelled across Russia) that Russian nationalism runs strong. It's scaring. People behind Putin's back may be even more disastrous. It is hard to predict future. Neither philosophers nor futurologists could predict future in respect to Russia. And nobody knows what is going on inside that boiler.

- And do you think that Ukraine has a future in Europe?

- I think so. I have been recently to Ukraine. I visited the Kiev-Mohyla Academy, I’ve have been to the Maidan Square, to its makeshift museum. I saw faces of these young people, saw their desire to live in a different country. I think that Ukraine is the first post-Soviet that tried to break the umbilical cord with Russia and to take off into another world, to take off into Europe. Another thing is that it ended in blood. Russia is just not willing to let go. What is Russia without Ukraine? It’s no longer the great Russia about which Russians dream. So Ukraine will be free. But it should happen with less bloodshed.

- It's clear that you treat your works with heart. What book do you like the most?

- It takes much time to write a book. It seems like I grow them up. I like all of them. They are different. Chernobyl Prayer has lots of intellectual issues. That was a new experience for humankind. I had nothing to lean on. The Unwomanly Face of War is the first book. That was fabulous experience. Metaphysicists, as well as women, percept the world. All books were hard to write.

- What do you have plans for the future?

- Yes, sure. I plan to write books about love between a man and a woman.

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