Now the current generation sees everything clearly, marvels at the delusions, laughs at the foolishness of its ancestors, it is not in vain that this chronicle is scribbled with heavenly fire, that every letter screams in it, that a piercing finger is directed from everywhere at him, at him, at the current generation; but the current generation laughs and arrogantly, proudly begins a series of new delusions, which will also be laughed at by descendants later. "Dead Souls"
For what? Like an inspiration
Love the given subject!
Like a true poet
Sell your imagination!
I am a slave, a day laborer, I am a merchant!
I owe you, sinner, for gold,
For your worthless piece of silver
Pay the divine price!
"Improvisation I"
Literature is a language that expresses everything that a country thinks, wants, knows, wants and needs to know.
In the hearts of the simple, the feeling of the beauty and grandeur of nature is stronger, more alive a hundred times than in us, enthusiastic storytellers in words and on paper.
"Hero of our time"
Everywhere there is sound, and everywhere there is light,
And all the worlds have one beginning,
And there is nothing in nature
No matter how love breathes.
In days of doubt, in days of painful reflections on the fate of my homeland, you alone are my support and support, O great, powerful, truthful and free Russian language! Without you, how not to fall into despair at the sight of everything that happens at home? But one cannot believe that such a language was not given to a great people!
Poems in prose "Russian language"
So, complete your dissolute escape,
Prickly snow flies from the bare fields,
Driven by an early, violent blizzard,
And, stopping in the forest wilderness,
Gathering in silver silence
Deep and cold bed.
Listen: shame on you!
It's time to get up! You know yourself
What time has come;
In whom the sense of duty has not cooled down,
Who has an incorruptible heart,
In whom is talent, strength, accuracy,
Tom shouldn't sleep now...
"Poet and Citizen"
Is it possible that even here they will not allow and will not allow the Russian organism to develop nationally, by its organic strength, but certainly impersonally, servilely imitating Europe? But what to do with the Russian organism then? Do these gentlemen understand what an organism is? Separation, "split" from their country leads to hatred, these people hate Russia, so to speak, naturally, physically: for the climate, for the fields, for the forests, for the order, for the liberation of the peasant, for Russian history, in a word, for everything, hate for everything.
Spring! the first frame is exposed -
And noise broke into the room,
And the blessing of the nearby temple,
And the talk of the people, and the sound of the wheel ...
Well, what are you afraid of, pray tell! Now every grass, every flower rejoices, but we hide, we are afraid, just what kind of misfortune! The storm will kill! This is not a storm, but grace! Yes, grace! You are all thunder! The northern lights will light up, it would be necessary to admire and marvel at the wisdom: “the dawn rises from the midnight countries”! And you are horrified and come up with: this is for war or for the plague. Whether a comet is coming, I would not take my eyes off! Beauty! The stars have already looked closely, they are all the same, and this is a new thing; Well, I would look and admire! And you are afraid to even look at the sky, you are trembling! From everything you have made yourself a scarecrow. Eh, people! "Storm"
There is no more enlightening, soul-purifying feeling than the one that a person feels when he gets acquainted with a great work of art.
We know that loaded guns must be handled with care. But we do not want to know that we must treat the word in the same way. The word can both kill and make evil worse than death.
There is a well-known trick of an American journalist who, in order to increase the subscription to his magazine, began to publish in other publications the most brazen attacks on himself from fictitious persons: some printed him out as a swindler and perjurer, others as a thief and murderer, and still others as a debauchee on a colossal scale. He did not skimp on paying for such friendly advertisements, until everyone thought - yes, it’s obvious that this is a curious and remarkable person when everyone shouts about him like that! - and began to buy up his own newspaper.
"Life in a Hundred Years"
I ... think that I know the Russian person in his very depths, and I do not put myself in any merit for this. I did not study the people from conversations with St. Petersburg cabbies, but I grew up among the people, on the Gostomel pasture, with a cauldron in my hand, I slept with him on the dewy grass of the night, under a warm sheepskin coat, and on the Panin’s swaying crowd behind circles of dusty manners ...
Between these two colliding titans - science and theology - there is a stunned public, quickly losing faith in the immortality of man and in any deity, quickly descending to the level of a purely animal existence. Such is the picture of the hour illuminated by the radiant midday sun of the Christian and scientific era!
"Isis Unveiled"
Sit down, I'm glad to see you. Cast away all fear
And you can keep yourself free
I give you permission. You know one of these days
I was elected king by the people,
But it's all the same. They confuse my thought
All these honors, greetings, bows...
"Crazy"
- What do you need abroad? - I asked him at a time when in his room, with the help of servants, his things were being packed and packed for shipment to the Varshavsky railway station.
- Yes, just ... to come to your senses! - He said confusedly and with a kind of dull expression on his face.
"Letters from the Road"
Is it really a matter of going through life in such a way as not to offend anyone? This is not happiness. Hurt, break, break, so that life boils. I am not afraid of any accusations, but a hundred times more than death I am afraid of colorlessness.
Verse is the same music, only combined with the word, and it also needs a natural ear, a sense of harmony and rhythm.
You experience a strange feeling when, with a light touch of your hand, you make such a mass rise and fall at will. When such a mass obeys you, you feel the power of a person ...
"Meeting"
The feeling of the Motherland should be strict, restrained in words, not eloquent, not chatty, not “waving your arms” and not running forward (to show yourself). The feeling of the Motherland should be a great ardent silence.
"Solitary"
And what is the secret of beauty, what is the secret and charm of art: in a conscious, inspired victory over torment or in the unconscious anguish of the human spirit, which sees no way out of the circle of vulgarity, squalor or thoughtlessness and is tragically condemned to appear self-satisfied or hopelessly false.
"Sentimental Remembrance"
Since my birth I have been living in Moscow, but by God I don’t know where Moscow came from, why it is, why, why, what it needs. In the Duma, at meetings, I, along with others, talk about urban economy, but I don’t know how many miles in Moscow, how many people there are, how many are born and die, how much we receive and spend, for how much and with whom we trade ... Which city is richer: Moscow or London? If London is richer, then why? And the jester knows him! And when some question is raised in the thought, I shudder and the first one starts shouting: “Submit to the commission! To the commission!
Everything new in the old way:
The modern poet
In a metaphorical outfit
Speech is poetic.
But others are not an example for me,
And my charter is simple and strict.
My verse is a pioneer boy
Lightly dressed, barefoot.
1926
Under the influence of Dostoevsky, as well as foreign literature, Baudelaire and Poe, my passion began not for decadence, but for symbolism (even then I already understood their difference). A collection of poems, published at the very beginning of the 90s, I entitled "Symbols". It seems that I was the first to use this word in Russian literature.
The run of changeable phenomena,
Past those flying, speed up:
Merge into one sunset of accomplishments
With the first gleam of gentle dawns.
From the lower life to the origins
In a moment, a single review:
In the face of a single smart eye
Take your twins.
Immutable and wonderful
Blessed Muse gift:
In the spirit of the form of slender songs,
There is life and heat in the heart of the songs.
"Thoughts on Poetry"
I have a lot of news. And all are good. I'm lucky". I am writing. I want to live, live, live forever. If you only knew how many new poems I have written! More than a hundred. It was crazy, a fairy tale, new. I am publishing a new book, completely different from the previous ones. She will surprise many. I changed my understanding of the world. No matter how funny my phrase sounds, I will say: I understood the world. For many years, perhaps forever.
K. Balmont - L. Vilkina
Man is the truth! Everything is in man, everything is for man! Only man exists, everything else is the work of his hands and his brain! Human! It's great! It sounds... proud!
"At the bottom"
I'm sorry to create something useless and no one needs now. A collection, a book of poems at the present time is the most useless, unnecessary thing ... I do not mean by this that poetry is not needed. On the contrary, I affirm that poetry is necessary, even necessary, natural and eternal. There was a time when whole books of poetry seemed necessary to everyone, when they were read in full, understood and accepted by everyone. This time is past, not ours. The modern reader does not need a collection of poems!
Language is the history of a people. Language is the path of civilization and culture. Therefore, the study and preservation of the Russian language is not an idle occupation with nothing to do, but an urgent need.
What nationalists, patriots these internationalists become when they need it! And with what arrogance they sneer at the "frightened intellectuals" - as if there is absolutely no reason to be frightened - or at the "frightened townsfolk", as if they have some great advantages over the "philistines". And who, in fact, are these townsfolk, "prosperous philistines"? And who and what do the revolutionaries care about, if they so despise the average person and his well-being?
"Cursed Days"
In the struggle for their ideal, which is “freedom, equality and fraternity”, citizens must use such means that do not contradict this ideal.
"Governor"
“Let your soul be whole or split, let your understanding of the world be mystical, realistic, skeptical, or even idealistic (if you are unhappy before that), let the creative techniques be impressionistic, realistic, naturalistic, the content be lyrical or fabulous, let there be a mood, an impression - whatever you want, but, I beg you, be logical - may this cry of the heart be forgiven me! – are logical in design, in the construction of the work, in syntax.
Art is born in homelessness. I wrote letters and stories addressed to a distant unknown friend, but when a friend came, art gave way to life. Of course, I'm not talking about home comfort, but about life, which means more than art.
"We are with you. Diary of love"
An artist can do nothing more than open his soul to others. It is impossible to present him with predetermined rules. He is still an unknown world, where everything is new. We must forget what captivated others, here it is different. Otherwise, you will listen and not hear, you will look without understanding.
From Valery Bryusov's treatise "On Art"
Well, let her rest, she was exhausted - they exhausted her, alarmed her. And as soon as it's light, the shopkeeper will rise, she will begin to fold her goods, she will grab a blanket, she will go, pull out this soft bedding from under the old woman: she will wake the old woman, raise her to her feet: it's not light, it's good to get up. It's nothing you can do. In the meantime - grandmother, our Kostroma, our mother, Russia!
"Whirlwind Rus'"
Art never speaks to the crowd, to the masses, it speaks to the individual, in the deep and hidden recesses of his soul.
Mikhail Andreevich Osorgin (Ilyin) (1878 - 1942)
How strange /.../ How many cheerful and cheerful books there are, how many brilliant and witty philosophical truths - but there is nothing more comforting than Ecclesiastes.
Babkin dared, - read Seneca
And, whistling carcasses,
Take it to the library
In the margins, noting: "Nonsense!"
Babkin, friend, is a harsh critic,
Have you ever thought
What a legless paraplegic
Light chamois is not a decree? ..
"Reader"
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A critic's word about a poet must be objectively concrete and creative; the critic, while remaining a scientist, is a poet.
"Poetry of the word"
Only great things are worth thinking about, only great tasks should be set by the writer; set boldly, without being embarrassed by your personal small forces.
“It’s true, there are both goblin and water ones here,” I thought, looking in front of me, “or maybe some other spirit lives here ... A mighty, northern spirit that enjoys this wildness; maybe real northern fauns and healthy, blond women roam in these forests, eating cloudberries and lingonberries, laughing and chasing each other.
"North"
You need to be able to close a boring book...leave a bad movie...and part with people who don't value you!
Out of modesty, I will be careful not to point out the fact that on the day of my birth the bells were rung and there was a general rejoicing of the people. Evil tongues associated this jubilation with some great holiday that coincided with the day of my birth, but I still don’t understand what else is there to do with this holiday?
That was the time when love, good and healthy feelings were considered vulgar and a relic; no one loved, but all were thirsty and, like poisoned ones, fell to everything sharp, tearing apart the insides.
"The Road to Calvary"
- Well, what's wrong, - I say to myself, - at least in a short word for now? After all, exactly the same form of farewell to friends exists in other languages, and there it does not shock anyone. The great poet Walt Whitman, shortly before his death, said goodbye to readers with a touching poem "So long!", which means in English - "Bye!". The French a bientot has the same meaning. There is no rudeness here. On the contrary, this form is filled with the most gracious courtesy, because here the following (approximately) meaning is compressed: be prosperous and happy until we see each other again.
"Live Like Life"
Switzerland? This is a mountain pasture for tourists. I've traveled all over the world myself, but I hate those ruminant bipeds with a Badaker for a tail. They chewed through the eyes of all the beauties of nature.
"Island of Lost Ships"
Everything that I wrote and will write, I consider only mental rubbish and do not respect my literary merits. And I wonder and wonder why apparently smart people find some meaning and value in my poems. Thousands of poems, whether mine or those poets whom I know in Russia, are not worth one chanter of my bright mother.
I am afraid that Russian literature has only one future: its past.
Article "I'm afraid"
For a long time we have been looking for such a task, similar to lentils, so that the combined rays of the work of artists and the work of thinkers directed by it to a common point would meet in a common work and could ignite and turn even the cold substance of ice into a fire. Now such a task - a lentil that guides together your stormy courage and the cold mind of thinkers - has been found. This goal is to create a common written language...
"Artists of the World"
He adored poetry, tried to be impartial in his judgments. He was surprisingly young at heart, and perhaps even in mind. He always looked like a child to me. There was something childish in his clipped head, in his bearing, more like a gymnasium than a military one. He liked to portray an adult, like all children. He loved to play the “master”, the literary bosses of his “humil”, that is, the little poets and poetesses who surrounded him. Poetic children loved him very much.
Khodasevich, "Necropolis"
Me, me, me What a wild word!
Is that one over there really me?
Did mom love this?
Yellow-gray, semi-gray
And omniscient like a snake?
You have lost your Russia.
Did you resist the elements
Good elements of gloomy evil?
No? So shut up: took away
Your fate is not without a reason
To the edge of an unkind foreign land.
What's the point of groaning and grieve -
Russia must be earned!
"What You Need to Know"
I never stopped writing poetry. For me, they are my connection with the time, with the new life of my people. When I wrote them, I lived by those rhythms that sounded in the heroic history of my country. I am happy that I lived in these years and saw events that had no equal.
All the people sent to us are our reflection. And they were sent so that we, looking at these people, correct our mistakes, and when we correct them, these people either change too or leave our lives.
In the wide field of Russian literature in the USSR, I was the only literary wolf. I was advised to dye the skin. Ridiculous advice. Whether a painted wolf or a shorn wolf, he still does not look like a poodle. They treated me like a wolf. And for several years they drove me according to the rules of a literary cage in a fenced yard. I have no malice, but I am very tired ...
From a letter from M. A. Bulgakov to I. V. Stalin, May 30, 1931.
When I die, my descendants will ask my contemporaries: "Did you understand Mandelstam's poems?" - "No, we did not understand his poems." "Did you feed Mandelstam, did you give him shelter?" - "Yes, we fed Mandelstam, we gave him shelter." "Then you are forgiven."
Maybe go to the Press House - there is one sandwich with caviar and a debate - "about the proletarian choral reading", or to the Polytechnic Museum - there are no sandwiches, but twenty-six young poets read their poems about the "locomotive mass". No, I will sit on the stairs, shivering from the cold and dream that all this is not in vain, that, sitting here on the step, I am preparing the distant sunrise of the Renaissance. I dreamed both simply and in verse, and the result was boring iambs.
"The extraordinary adventures of Julio Jurenito and his students"
Modern Russian literature has been developing dynamically since 1991, the year of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Four generations of writers of different genres fill its inner essence, creating the best Russian books.
Russian literature received a new round of development during the years of perestroika. Writers and books that graced that period:
- Ludmila Ulitskaya "Medea and her children";
- Tatyana Tolstaya "Circle";
- Olga Slavnikova Waltz with a monster.
These books cover social and political issues.
Modern Russian prose of the 21st century also does not stand still. A whole creative galaxy of writers was formed, among which are such famous names as Daria Dontsova, Boris Akunin, Alexandra Marinina, Sergey Lukyanenko, Tatyana Ustinova, Polina Dashkova, Evgeny Grishkovets. These authors can be proud of the maximum circulation.
Modern literature is created by writers in various genres. As a rule, these are works within the framework of such trends as postmodernism and realism. Of the most popular genres, one can note dystopia, blogging literature, as well as mass literature (this includes horror, fantasy, drama, action films, detective stories).
The development of modern Russian literature in the style of postmodernism goes hand in hand with the development of society. This style is characterized by the opposition of reality and attitude towards it. Writers subtly draw the line between the existing reality and in an ironic way convey their vision of the change in the social order, changes in society and the prevalence of disorder over peace and order.
It is difficult to decide which book is a masterpiece, because each of us has our own ideas about the truth. And therefore, thanks to the fruitful work of poets, playwrights, science fiction writers, prose writers, publicists, the great and mighty Russian literature continues to develop and improve. Only time can put an end to the history of a work, because true and authentic art is not subject to time.
The best Russian detectives and adventure books
Fascinating and captivating stories in the detective genre require logic and ingenuity from the authors. It is necessary to think through all the subtleties and aspects so that the intrigue keeps readers in suspense until the last page.
Modern Russian prose: the best books for grateful readers
The top 10 most interesting books of Russian prose include the following works.
10 main writers of modern Russia
When it comes to contemporary literature, the reader often forms his reading circle based on existing ratings. But each niche of the book market has its own leaders, and none of them is an absolute literary authority. We decided to hold a kind of championship of Russia among writers. Out of 50 different writers, from best-selling authors to darlings of intellectual criticism, through complex calculations, we have identified 10 champions. These are writers who broadcast those ideologies that are in demand by the majority of readers and therefore are important today for the whole country.
1 place
Victor Pelevin
What did you get
For the painstaking and consistent deciphering of the present and the explanation of the life of the new Russia through absurdity and metaphysics.
How he does it
Starting with the first stories published back in the late 1980s, Pelevin has been doing the same thing: X-raying his contemporary society, revealing the “true” background of any events in Russia’s recent history.
He seems to offer us another Russia - a metaphysical, magical, absurd empire, in which "werewolves in uniform" turn into real wolf people ("The Sacred Book of the Werewolf"), cadets at the Maresyev Flight School are amputated ("Omon Ra") , instead of real politicians, the country is controlled by PR people through digital characters from the TV (“Generation “P””), and oil appears because the skull of a motley cow is crying with real tears over the bitter lot of Russian security forces (“The Sacred Book of the Werewolf”). At the same time, Pelevin’s portrait of Russia is almost always photographically accurate: in “Chapaev and Void” (1996) he gave a cut of the 90s with their “new Russians” and kitsch fashion for Eastern esotericism, in “Generation “P”” (1999) predicted the coming realm of PR and the agonizing search for a national idea that we embarked on in the 2000s.
Pelevin is the most sought-after writer in our country, in which the conspiracy spirit is still strong and many are sure that the authorities are hiding everything from them, but no one knows exactly what and how.
Points
- Prizes - 3("National Bestseller", 2004, "DPP NN" - 300 thousand rubles).
- Confession experts -5 (Even his consistent critics recognize Pelevin's importance for modern culture).
- Circulations - 5(since the mid-2000s, the starting circulation of his new books is about 200 thousand copies).
- The presence of fans - 5(the collective madness around Pelevin has been around for 15 years, in 1999 a rally of his fans even took place in Moscow).
- Publicity - 3(ignores the press, gives one or two interviews a year, but is still one of the key cultural newsmakers).
- Availability of screen adaptations - 5(The film "Generation "P"" is released in February 2010).
- Reputation - 5(no one knows his political views; people of various views find confirmation of their hypotheses and conjectures in his prose).
- Total 31
2nd place
Ludmila Ulitskaya
What did you get
For affirming the simple truth that modern man is essentially not so bad.
How does she do it
Ulitskaya is most interested in people. In this sense, she is unique. The focus of her attention is not fashion, not current politics, not the surprises of history, but people, our contemporaries with their shortcomings, virtues, sins, talents, faith and unbelief. She feels sincere sympathy for her characters, much like the protagonist of the novel “Sincerely Yours Shurik” feels sympathy for all women on her way.
Until 2006, Ulitskaya described simple, sometimes even average people, showing different facets of their characters. And then she created a “superman” from the same material - the translator Daniel Stein from the novel of the same name, who set as the goal of his life nothing less than the reconciliation of different nations and religions.
Points
- Prizes - 5("Russian Booker", 2001, "Kukotsky's Case" - 300 thousand rubles; "Big Book", 2007, "Daniel Stein, translator" - 3 million rubles).
- Expert recognition - 5(Ulitskaya is loved by critics of various kinds).
- Circulations - 5(“Daniel Stein, translator” - more than 400 thousand copies).
- The presence of fans - 1(Ulitskaya's novels are usually about too intimate experiences, so her fans usually keep quiet and hide their feelings).
- Publicity - 3(does not like publicity, although he periodically gives interviews).
- Availability of screen adaptations - 5(film "The Case of Kukotsky" (2005) based on the book of the same name).
- Reputation - 5(the human theme chosen by Ulitskaya turns out to be a universal key to the hearts of a wide variety of readers of all age groups and sometimes opposing views).
- Total 29
3rd place
Leonid Yuzefovich
What did you get
For explaining our present through the past and our past through the present.
How he does it
Yuzefovich composes historical thrillers, and in real history he finds plots richer and more interesting than any fiction. In his books, there is a conspiracy of Esperantists in the Urals during the Civil War; a Mongol prince trying to sell his soul to the devil; Russian impostor wandering around Europe in the 17th century. All this is a hybrid of historical reality and myths, which every time turns out to be relevant and helps the reader to understand the events of today. Yuzefovich nowhere claims that history is cyclical, but at the same time, for example, the Time of Troubles from his novel "Cranes and Dwarfs" is strikingly reminiscent of the Russian 90s, and the problems of the police in the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th century are very similar to those solved by "cops " Nowadays. It turns out that we have already gone through all this, but we have not drawn any conclusions.
Points
- Prizes - 5(“National Bestseller”, 2001, “Prince of the Wind” - 300 thousand rubles; “Big Book”, 2009, “Cranes and Dwarfs” - 3 million rubles).
- Expert recognition - 5(unanimously approved by almost all critics).
- Draws - 3(less than 100 thousand copies).
- The presence of fans - 1(The books of Yuzefovich did not give rise to a fan movement as such; he requires the reader to think and analyze the facts, and the mass audience is not always ready for this).
- Publicity - 3(does not rush into public characters, but communicates with the press).
- Availability of screen adaptations - 5(the film “Detective of the Petersburg Police” (1991) based on the story “The Situation in the Balkans”; the series “Kazarosa” (2005) based on the novel “Club Espero”; the series “Detective Putilin” (2007) based on the novels “Harlequin Costume”, “ Dating House”, “Prince of the Wind”).
- Reputation - 5(causes respect in different political camps - caution and deliberation of statements).
- Total 27
4th place
Vladimir Makanin
What did you get
For a detailed and merciless analysis of the most painful and acute social issues.
How he does it
Makanin keeps his own chronicle of Russian life, recording and analyzing such important components as the fate of the intelligentsia (“Underground, or Hero of Our Time”) or the war in the Caucasus (“Prisoner of the Caucasus” and “Asan”).
Makanin works as a mirror of Russian reality with the effect of multiple magnification. This is not to say that he shows what is not there, but not everyone likes his pictures - just like few people can like the reflection of their own face with all its pores and blackheads. Six months after the Big Book award was presented to him, the novel Asan was awarded the title of “worst book of the year” on the Internet: this happened through the efforts of veterans of the Chechen wars, who were deeply offended by the writer.
Makanin is sometimes accused of "cheap provocations." Cheap or not, but “provocation” is the exact definition: the writer chooses the most difficult topics for society and presents their research to the reader. And then everyone is free to either be indignant that everything is so bad with us, or to admire how skillfully the writer shows that everything is so bad with us.
Points
- Prizes - 5(“Russian Booker”, 1993, “A table covered with cloth and with a decanter in the middle” - $ 10 thousand; “Big Book”, 2008, “Asan” - 3 million rubles).
- Expert recognition - 4(liberal-minded critics appreciate Makanin for the "truth of life", patriots are indignant and accuse the writer of distorting historical facts).
- Circulations - 5(At the end of the Soviet era, Makanin was published in thousands of copies).
- The presence of fans - 1(As such, Makanin did not acquire fans, there are only loyal readers).
- Publicity - 3(does not seek publicity, but gives interviews from time to time).
- Availability of screen adaptations - 5(the film "Eagle and Tails" (1995) based on the story "On the first breath"; the film "Prisoner" (2008) based on the story "Prisoner of the Caucasus").
- Reputation - 4(he enjoys absolute authority among liberals, for the conservative-patriotic part of society he is a liar and a provocateur).
- Total 27
5th-7th place
Alexander Kabakov
What did you get
For a true reflection of our fear of the future.
How he does it
Kabakov was able to capture the spirit of the times as early as the late 80s, when he wrote the story "Defector" - a dystopia that captured the premonition of civil war that was then hanging in the air. For the first time in Soviet history, the future began to frighten the broad masses, and Kabakov verbalized the fear that was popular in those years: the total circulation of official publications alone exceeded 200,000 copies.
20 years after The Defector, Kabakov again wrote a dystopian novel, The Fugitive, set in 1917, the last months of pre-Soviet Russia. It would seem that these are things of the past, why be afraid of them? But the events of 1917 are painfully similar to our time. And most importantly, both then, and now, and 20 years ago, the future still scares us. In modern culture, Kabakov plays the role of a pessimistic reasoner who pronounces his “memento mori” (remember death) in place and out of place.
Points
- Prizes - 4(“The Big Book”, 2006, “Everything is fixable” - 1.5 million rubles).
- Confession experts -4 (causes respect, but not everyone, often scold him).
- Circulations - 5("Defector" - over 200 thousand copies).
- The presence of fans - 1(Kabakov has no ardent fans).
- Publicity — 3 (does not rush into public characters, but often appears in the media).
- Availability of screen adaptations - 5(film "Defector" (1991) based on the story of the same name).
- Reputation - 4(His moderate-liberal and moderate-conservative views both attract and repel both camps of critics).
- Total 26
5th-7th place
Sergey Lukyanenko
What did you get
For the popularization of conformism and traditional values.
How he does it
Like Pelevin, Lukyanenko shows the hidden mechanisms of the functioning of the reality around us. In "Patrols" and "Draft" you can find an explanation for a variety of events in modern life, from political to everyday. But the explanations offered by Lukyanenko are much simpler than Pelevin's: his world is Manichean-style divided into good and evil, black and white. At the same time, each political force tends to see its opponents in the "dark" Day Watch, and itself in the "light" Night Watch.
True, sometimes it turns out that evil is not so evil, and good uses its fists for no reason. But still, against the background of social postmodernism, which does not fundamentally distinguish between good and evil, Lukyanenko's prose looks like a breath of traditionalism. He continues to bend the line of Soviet science fiction, familiar to everyone since childhood. And his characters are for the most part conformists: even the most heroic of them now and then cease to be heroic and go with the flow. In this, the writer managed to catch the spirit of the time: the mass reader of the 2000s, a man of the “stability” era, happily accepted this conformism, combined with the patriotic-conservative views of Lukyanenko himself.
Points
- Prizes - 1(did not receive).
- Expert Recognition - 3(Lukyanenko is the only one of the science fiction writers who is regularly written about by critics who are not from the science fiction crowd. True, he is rarely praised).
- Circulations - 5(starting circulation of 200 thousand copies for Lukyanenko's books is a common thing).
- The presence of fans - 5(For a good ten years now, Lukyanenko has been the idol of the masses, role-playing games are being played based on his books).
- Publicity — 3 (does not like publicity, but shows up in public and gives interviews).
- Availability of screen adaptations - 5(films “Night Watch” (2004) and “Day Watch” (2006) based on the novels of the same name; film “Aziris Nuna” (2006) based on the book “Today, Mom!”; several more films are planned).
- Reputation - 4(he is an authority for a large group of adherents of traditional values \u200b\u200band “stability”; others rather repel his views).
- Total 26
5th-7th place
Boris Akunin
What did you get
For creating the escapist myth of Russia's golden age.
How he does it
The first novels about Erast Fandorin had a dedication: "To the memory of the 19th century, when literature was great, faith in progress was boundless, and crimes were committed and revealed with grace and taste." At the end of the 1990s, at the height of the revision of Russian history from new ideological positions, the novelist Akunin began to create an escapist myth for the "smart" but not very intelligent reader - the myth of beautiful Russia at the end of the 19th century.
Akunin found an era that, on the one hand, is well known to everyone, and on the other, does not cause much controversy. From the language of classical literature of the 19th century, familiar to everyone from the school curriculum, from elegant detective constructions and the general good-heartedness of heroes, even negative ones, he created the ideal world of an escapist, where one could escape from default, wars in Chechnya, politics and troubles at work. Akunin gave a whole generation of Russian office workers a safe haven from the present.
Points
- Prizes - 1(He was not nominated for a prize and has no chance: prizes do not like entertainment literature).
- Expert Recognition - 3(“Intellectual” critics don’t like him, but for glossy publications he is a favorite).
- Circulations - 5(average circulation - more than 200 thousand copies).
- The presence of fans - 5(The world of Fandorin, Pelagia and other Akunin characters has been the subject of mass insanity for almost a decade).
- Publicity - 3(does not like to appear in the press, but sometimes reminds of himself with bright media gestures: for example, an interview with Mikhail Khodorkovsky in Esquire magazine).
- Availability of screen adaptations - 5(films "Azazel" (2001), "Turkish Gambit" (2004), "State Councilor" (2005), as well as the series (2009) "Pelagia and the White Bulldog").
- Reputation - 4(known as a convinced liberal, for which we appreciate some and hate others).
- Total 26
8th place
Dmitry Bykov
What did you get
For the ability to find a common language with everyone - regardless of beliefs, political affiliations, etc.
How he does it
They once joked about Bykov that he, like a gas, fills any space allotted to him. He hosts programs on radio and, until recently, on television, publishes articles, reviews and columns in newspapers and magazines of various kinds. For lovers of poetry, he offers poetry, for lovers of prose - novels, moreover, written in the stream of fashion trends of his time. For those who do not like fiction, there is non-fiction: biographies of Boris Pasternak and Bulat Okudzhava.
For intellectuals, Bykov draws a portrait of Okudzhava as a representative of a special Soviet aristocracy, for pessimists - a scary dystopia "Decommissioned" about how a variety of people suddenly found themselves in ominous lists compiled by someone who knows why. The ideal universal writer of the era of the total crisis of all ideologies.
Points
- Prizes - 5(“National Bestseller”, 2006, “Boris Pasternak” - 300 thousand rubles; “Big Book”, 2006, “Boris Pasternak” - 3 million rubles).
- Expert recognition - 4(some critics do not like his ideological omnivorousness, but each new book by Bykov becomes an event).
- Draws - 2(not a single book has yet been published with a circulation of more than 50 thousand copies).
- The presence of fans - 3(there is a small but well-organized fan movement and fan clubs).
- Publicity — 4 (one way or another, he is constantly present in the media: he writes columns in magazines, a program on the City-FM radio, hosted the TV program Vremechko).
- Availability of screenshots 1 (so far they are only being negotiated).
- Reputation - 4(Bykov could be an authoritative writer, but he is harmed by the fact that he is not “above” any ideologies, but, on the contrary, is in solidarity with any of them).
- Total 23
9th-10th place
Evgeny Grishkovets
What did you get
For the chanting of the joys of life and everyday life of a simple modern person.
How he does it
Lenin stated that "the electron is as inexhaustible as the atom". Evgeniy Grishkovets proves that a person - and first of all his life, daily actions and thoughts - is as inexhaustible as an electron. His stories, novels and plays are statements of the most ordinary tales, diary entries, memories of his youth, school and university years, anecdotes about neighbors, fellow travelers or casual acquaintances, which are interspersed with reflections on the meaning of being. Readers can easily recognize themselves in all the above stories, tales and anecdotes, and even reflection in the works of Grishkovets is quite archetypal.
At the same time, Grishkovets' life of an ordinary person turns out to be joyful: even if there are sad episodes, they still cannot spoil the overall bright impression. All the troubles are drowned in a sweetly benevolent and forgiving style of presentation. Grishkovets, like a good storyteller, lulls the neurotic generation of 30-40-year-olds who have survived more than one crisis.
Points
- Prizes - 1(didn't get anything).
- Expert Recognition - 3(critics treat him coldly, but new books are still reviewed).
- Circulations - 4(in recent years, the average circulation has been more than 100,000 copies).
- The presence of fans - 3(there are active fan clubs of Grishkovets).
- Publicity - 4(Flashes in the press and on television, hosted his own TV show, but in the end he considered this experience unsuccessful).
- Availability of screen adaptations - 4(there are many theatrical productions based on the works of Grishkovets).
- Reputation - 3(it is not a moral authority of its own choice, since it prefers not to speak publicly on global issues at all).
- Total 22
9th-10th place
Aleksey Ivanov
What did you get
For the glorification of the Russian provinces and equalization of its rights with the capitals.
How he does it
Ivanov cut a window to the east of Russia, giving his Perm a semi-sacred status. It is possible that it was through this window that Marat Gelman and state money for culture came to Perm.
It cannot be said that before Ivanov no one had ever written about the Russian provinces. For example, Leonid Yuzefovich himself lived for many years in Perm, and in this city the action of his "Kazaroza" unfolds. But it was Ivanov who managed to create a stable myth about the self-sufficiency of the province in our centripetal country, where, according to the generally accepted opinion, everything that exists tends to move to Moscow, or at least to St. Petersburg.
In "Heart of Parma" and "Gold of Riot" the Permian version of history is much more interesting than the official one, which comes from Moscow and St. Petersburg. In the official version - kings, emperors, serfdom, decrees, ministers, riots and wars, everything is boring and faceless; in Perm - magic, fighting elks, siege sleds, mysterious Voguls, beautiful rituals and the great river Chusovaya.
Points
- Prizes - 1(did not receive anything, although he was shortlisted several times).
- Expert recognition - 4(Among critics, Ivanov has both ardent supporters and ardent opponents).
- Draws - 3(the average circulation is not more than 100 thousand copies).
- The presence of fans - 5(The Permian public wears Ivanov in their arms, especially in his confrontation with Marat Gelman. Role-playing games are held based on his books, and in the summer of 2009, the Ivanov Heart of Parma festival was held in Perm).
- Publicity - 3(rarely leaves Perm, does not rush into public characters, but gives interviews).
- Availability of screen adaptations - 1(negotiations are underway, but the shooting has not yet reached).
- Reputation - 5(moral authority, has a reputation as a sage from the Ural hinterland, who can be contacted on especially important issues).
- Total 22
Illustrations: Maria Sosnina
On December 10, 1933, King Gustav V of Sweden presented the Nobel Prize in Literature to the writer Ivan Bunin, who became the first Russian writer to receive this high award. In total, the award, established by the inventor of dynamite Alfred Bernhard Nobel in 1833, was received by 21 natives of Russia and the USSR, five of them in the field of literature. True, historically, the Nobel Prize was fraught with big problems for Russian poets and writers.
Ivan Alekseevich Bunin handed out the Nobel Prize to friends
In December 1933, the Paris press wrote: Without a doubt, I.A. Bunin - in recent years - the most powerful figure in Russian fiction and poetry», « the king of literature confidently and equally shook hands with the crowned monarch". The Russian emigration applauded. In Russia, the news that a Russian emigrant received the Nobel Prize was treated very caustically. After all, Bunin negatively perceived the events of 1917 and emigrated to France. Ivan Alekseevich himself experienced emigration very hard, was actively interested in the fate of his abandoned homeland, and during the Second World War he categorically refused all contacts with the Nazis, having moved to the Maritime Alps in 1939, returning from there to Paris only in 1945.
It is known that Nobel laureates have the right to decide for themselves how to spend the money they receive. Someone invests in the development of science, someone in charity, someone in their own business. Bunin, a creative person and devoid of "practical ingenuity", disposed of his bonus, which amounted to 170,331 crowns, completely irrationally. The poet and literary critic Zinaida Shakhovskaya recalled: “ Returning to France, Ivan Alekseevich ... apart from money, began to arrange feasts, distribute "allowances" to emigrants, and donate funds to support various societies. Finally, on the advice of well-wishers, he invested the remaining amount in some kind of “win-win business” and was left with nothing.».
Ivan Bunin is the first émigré writer to be published in Russia. True, the first publications of his stories appeared already in the 1950s, after the death of the writer. Some of his novels and poems were published in his homeland only in the 1990s.
Dear God, what are you for?
He gave us passions, thoughts and worries,
Thirst for business, glory and comfort?
Joyful cripples, idiots,
The leper is the happiest of all.
(I. Bunin. September, 1917)
Boris Pasternak refused the Nobel Prize
Boris Pasternak was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature "for significant achievements in modern lyric poetry, as well as for continuing the traditions of the great Russian epic novel" annually from 1946 to 1950. In 1958, last year's Nobel laureate Albert Camus again proposed his candidacy, and on October 23, Pasternak became the second Russian writer to be awarded this prize.The writers' environment in the poet's homeland took this news extremely negatively, and already on October 27, Pasternak was unanimously expelled from the Writers' Union of the USSR, at the same time submitting a petition to deprive Pasternak of Soviet citizenship. In the USSR, Pasternak was associated with receiving the award only with his novel Doctor Zhivago. The Literary Gazette wrote: “Pasternak received “thirty pieces of silver”, for which the Nobel Prize was used. He was rewarded for agreeing to play the role of bait on the rusty hook of anti-Soviet propaganda ... An inglorious end awaits the resurrected Judas, Doctor Zhivago, and his author, whose lot will be popular contempt ".
The mass campaign launched against Pasternak forced him to refuse the Nobel Prize. The poet sent a telegram to the Swedish Academy, in which he wrote: Because of the significance that the award awarded to me has received in the society to which I belong, I must refuse it. Do not take my voluntary refusal as an insult».
It is worth noting that in the USSR until 1989, even in the school curriculum on literature about Pasternak's work, there was no mention. The director Eldar Ryazanov was the first to decide to massively acquaint the Soviet people with the creative work of Pasternak. In his comedy "The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!" (1976) he included the poem "There Will Be No One in the House", transforming it into an urban romance, performed by the bard Sergei Nikitin. Later, Ryazanov included in his film "Office Romance" an excerpt from another poem by Pasternak - "To love others is a heavy cross ..." (1931). True, he sounded in a farcical context. But it is worth noting that at that time the very mention of Pasternak's poems was a very bold step.
Easy to wake up and see
Shake verbal rubbish from the heart
And live without clogging in the future,
All this is not a big trick.
(B. Pasternak, 1931)
Mikhail Sholokhov, receiving the Nobel Prize, did not bow to the monarch
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1965 for his novel The Quiet Flows the Flows Flows the Flows Flows and went down in history as the only Soviet writer to receive this award with the consent of the Soviet leadership. The diploma of the laureate says "in recognition of the artistic strength and honesty that he showed in his Don epic about the historical phases of the life of the Russian people."
Gustav Adolf VI, who presented the award to the Soviet writer, called him "one of the most outstanding writers of our time." Sholokhov did not bow to the king, as prescribed by the rules of etiquette. Some sources claim that he did it intentionally with the words: “We, the Cossacks, do not bow to anyone. Here in front of the people - please, but I will not be in front of the king ... "
Alexander Solzhenitsyn was deprived of Soviet citizenship because of the Nobel Prize
Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn, commander of a sound reconnaissance battery, who rose to the rank of captain during the war years and was awarded two military orders, was arrested in 1945 by front-line counterintelligence for anti-Sovietism. Sentence - 8 years in camps and life exile. He went through a camp in New Jerusalem near Moscow, Marfinskaya "sharashka" and the Special Ekibastuz camp in Kazakhstan. In 1956, Solzhenitsyn was rehabilitated, and since 1964 Alexander Solzhenitsyn devoted himself to literature. At the same time, he worked immediately on 4 major works: The Gulag Archipelago, The Cancer Ward, The Red Wheel and In the First Circle. In the USSR in 1964 they published the story "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", and in 1966 the story "Zakhar-Kalita".
On October 8, 1970, Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize "for the moral strength gleaned from the tradition of great Russian literature." This was the reason for the persecution of Solzhenitsyn in the USSR. In 1971, all the writer's manuscripts were confiscated, and in the next 2 years, all his publications were destroyed. In 1974, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was issued, according to which, for the systematic commission of actions incompatible with belonging to the citizenship of the USSR and damaging the USSR, Alexander Solzhenitsyn was deprived of Soviet citizenship and deported from the USSR.
Citizenship was returned to the writer only in 1990, and in 1994 he and his family returned to Russia and became actively involved in public life.
Nobel Prize winner Joseph Brodsky in Russia was convicted of parasitism
Iosif Alexandrovich Brodsky began to write poetry at the age of 16. Anna Akhmatova predicted for him a hard life and a glorious creative destiny. In 1964, in Leningrad, a criminal case was opened against the poet on charges of parasitism. He was arrested and sent into exile in the Arkhangelsk region, where he spent a year.
In 1972, Brodsky turned to Secretary General Brezhnev with a request to work in his homeland as a translator, but his request remained unanswered, and he was forced to emigrate. Brodsky first lives in Vienna, London, and then moves to the United States, where he becomes a professor at New York, Michigan and other universities in the country.
On December 10, 1987, Joseph Brosky was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his comprehensive work, saturated with the clarity of thought and the passion of poetry." It is worth saying that Brodsky, after Vladimir Nabokov, is the second Russian writer who writes in English as his native language.
The sea was not visible. In the white mist
swaddled on all sides of us, absurd
it was thought that the ship was going to land -
if it was a ship at all,
and not a clot of fog, as if poured
who whitened in milk.
(B. Brodsky, 1972)
Interesting fact
At different times, such famous personalities as Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Franklin Roosevelt, Nicholas Roerich and Leo Tolstoy were nominated for the Nobel Prize at various times, but never received it.
Literature lovers will definitely be interested - a book that is written with disappearing ink.
