The Nobel Committee voted unanimously to award the prize to Svetlana Alexievich. “This is an outstanding writer, a great writer who created a new literary genre, going beyond ordinary journalism,” explained the committee’s decision, the secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Sarah Danius, who announced the name of the laureate.
Svetlana Alexievich was born on May 31, 1948 in Ivano-Frankivsk. Her father is Belarusian and her mother is Ukrainian. Later the family moved to Belarus, where mother and father worked as rural teachers. In 1967, Svetlana entered the Faculty of Journalism of the Belarusian State University in Minsk, and after graduating, she worked in regional and republican newspapers, as well as in the literary and artistic magazine “Neman”.
In 1985, her book “War Doesn’t Have a Woman’s Face” was published - a novel about women at the front. Before this, the work lay in the publishing house for two years - the author was reproached for pacifism and debunking the heroic image of the Soviet woman. The total circulation of the book reached 2 million copies, and several dozen performances were staged based on it. The book The Last Witnesses, published the same year, was also dedicated to the war - from the point of view of women and children. Critics called both works “a new discovery of military prose.”
“I create an image of my country from the people living in my time. I would like my books to become a chronicle, an encyclopedia of the generations that I have seen and with which I go. How did they live? What did they believe? How were they killed and did they kill? How they wanted and couldn’t be happy, why they couldn’t do it,” said Svetlana Alexievich in an interview.
Her next chronicle was a novel about the Afghan war, “The Zinc Boys,” published in 1989. To collect material, the writer traveled around the country for four years and talked with former Afghan soldiers and mothers of dead soldiers. For this work, she was harshly criticized by the official press, and in Minsk in 1992, a symbolic “political trial” of the writer and the book was even organized.
"Her technique is a powerful mixture of eloquence and wordlessness, describing incompetence, heroism and sadness,— wrote The Telegraph after “Chernobyl Prayer” was published in the UK.— From the monologues of her characters, the writer creates a story that the reader can really touch, being at any distance from the events.”
The writer’s latest book, Second Hand Time, was published in 2013.
Her books have been published in 19 countries and have been adapted into plays and films. In addition, Svetlana Alexievich became the winner of many prestigious awards: in 2001, the writer was awarded the Remarque Prize, in 2006 - the National Criticism Award (USA), in 2013 - the German Booksellers Criticism Award. In 2014, the writer was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Arts and Letters.
Svetlana Alexievich formulated the main idea of her books as follows: “I always want to understand how much personality there is in a person. And how to protect this person in a person.”
Women have won the Nobel Prize in Literature 13 times. The first to receive this award was Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf, and the last to date was Canadian-born Alice Munro in 2013.
Svetlana Alexievich became the first author since 1987 to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, who also writes in Russian.Most often, the prize went to authors writing in English (27 times), French (14 times) and German (13 times). Russian-speaking writers have received this prestigious award five times: in 1933, Ivan Bunin, in 1958, Boris Pasternak, in 1965, Mikhail Sholokhov, in 1970, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and in 1987, Joseph Brodsky.
Soviet and Belarusian writer, journalist. Writes in Russian. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2015.
The most famous were her books in the genre of artistic and documentary prose “War Doesn’t Have a Woman’s Face”, “Zinc Boys”, “Chernobyl Prayer”, “Second-Hand Time”. Alexievich’s works are dedicated to the life of the late USSR and the post-Soviet era, imbued with feelings of suffering and humanism
Svetlana Alexievich was born in the western Ukrainian city of Stanislav (now Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine). Father is Belarusian, mother is Ukrainian. Later the family moved to Belarus. In 1965 she graduated from high school in Kopatkevichi, Petrikovsky district, Gomel region. She worked as a teacher, history and German language teacher in schools in the Mozyr region, and as a journalist for the newspaper “Pripyatskaya Prauda” (“Pripyatskaya Pravda”) in Narovlya. In 1972, she graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of BSU and began working at Mayak Communism, a regional newspaper in Bereza, Brest Region. In 1973-1976 she worked at Selskaya Gazeta, in 1976-1984 she was the head of the essay and journalism department of the Neman magazine. In 1983 she was admitted to the USSR Writers' Union.
Since the early 2000s, she lived in Italy, France, and Germany. Since 2013, he has been living in Belarus again. Alexievich names Ales Adamovich and Vasil Bykov among his teachers. The poet Vladimir Neklyaev said that if all Russian literature came from Gogol’s “The Overcoat,” then all of Alexievich’s work came from the documentary book “I am from the fiery village” by Ales Adamovich, Yanka Bryl and Vladimir Kolesnik.
Alexievich’s first book, “War Doesn’t Have a Woman’s Face,” was written in 1983. This documentary story, based on records of stories of women who participated in the Great Patriotic War, was first published in the magazine “October” at the beginning of 1984 (in a magazine version), several more chapters were published in the same year in the magazine “Nyoman”. Soviet critics accused the author of pacifism, naturalism and debunking the heroic image of the Soviet woman. In 1985, the book was published as a separate edition simultaneously in several publishing houses, the total circulation by the end of the 1980s reached 2 million copies.
Some critics call Alexievich “a brilliant master of artistic and documentary prose,” while others characterize Alexievich’s work as speculative and tendentious journalism.
Until 2015, Alexievich became the winner of many foreign literary prizes and awards. Among them are the Remarque Prize (2001), the National Criticism Award (USA, 2006), the Reader's Choice Award based on the results of the reader's vote of the Big Book Award (2014) for the book Second Hand Time, as well as the Kurt Tucholsky Prize for Courage and dignity in literature”, Andrei Sinyavsky Prize “For Nobility in Literature”, Russian independent Prize “Triumph”, Leipzig Book Prize “For Contribution to European Understanding”, German Prize “For the Best Political Book” and the Herder Prize. In 2013, Svetlana Alexievich became a laureate of the International Peace Prize of German Booksellers; received a gold medal at the Belarusian competition “Brand of the Year 2013”.
In 2013, she was considered one of the contenders for the Nobel Prize in Literature, but the prize was awarded to the Canadian writer Alice Munro.
In 2015, she won the Nobel Prize in Literature with the wording “for her polyphonic work - a monument to suffering and courage in our time.” Svetlana Alexievich - the first Nobel laureate in the history of independent Belarus; she became the first Russian-speaking writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature since 1987. For the first time in half a century, the prize was awarded to a writer primarily working in the genre of nonfiction; Moreover, for the first time in history, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to a professional journalist
The cash prize of the award was 8 million Swedish kronor (about 953 thousand dollars at that time)
Svetlana Alexievich (birthday May 31, 1948) - Russian-speaking writer and journalist from Belarus, awarded the Nobel Prize for creativity in literature.
Facts from the biography of childhood and adolescence
Svetlana Aleksandrovna Alexievich was born on Ukrainian soil in the town of Stanislav (now Ivano-Frankivsk). When Alexander’s dad was fired from service, the family moved to Belarus. There parents got jobs as school teachers. As the writer herself says, her childhood years were spent on a farm in the Vinnitsa region.
After graduating from secondary education in 1965, she worked as a reporter. At that time, to enter the university to study journalism, work experience in the relevant specialty was required. Since 1967, Svetlana Alexievich has been successfully studying at the university. During her studies, she was repeatedly awarded the title of laureate of all-Union and republican competitions among students.
Further biography
After university, she was assigned to the Brest region, to the regional newspaper in the city of Bereza. A year later, she moved to the republican “Rural Newspaper”. Since 1976, she began to head one of the departments of the Neman magazine, where she worked for eight years.
The works of Ales Adamovich in the genre of the testimonial novel had a great influence on the work of Svetlana Alexandrovna Alexievich. This new genre of “conciliar novel” or “epic-choral prose” was invented and developed by A. Adamovich. His unusual style showed the aspiring writer his path in artistic journalism.
Creation
The first book was written back in 1976, but its set was scattered. It was called “I Left the Village” and was narrated from the perspective of villagers who went to live in the city. The work was not published, and Svetlana Alexievich was accused of anti-government and anti-party views.
The famous work “War Doesn’t Have a Woman’s Face,” published in 1984 in a magazine version, is compiled from the memoirs of women who participated in the war. To date, the circulation of this book has reached two million. In 1985, the book “One Hundred Non-Children’s Stories” was published, written based on the memories of people who survived the war as children. It has been published frequently and has been critically acclaimed many times.
In 1989, the book “Zinc Boys” was published, written in the words of unfortunate women who lost their sons in Afghanistan. To write the work, Svetlana Alexievich collected materials for 4 years and went to the Afghan war. The author was tried for this work.
In 1993, the book “Enchanted by Death” was published. It tells about people who have not found their place in the modern world without the socialist idea. About those who decided to commit suicide. Four years later, the book “Chernobyl Prayer” was published, compiled from recordings of conversations with eyewitnesses of the Chernobyl accident. The entire circulation of foreign publications exceeded 4 million, the work received three big awards.
Books
1. Second hand time.
2. Fascinated by death.
3. The last witnesses (one hundred non-children's stories).
4. The last witnesses. Solo for children's voice.
5. War does not have a feminine face.
6. Zinc boys.
7. Chernobyl prayer. Chronicle of the future.
Personal life
According to the writer, her personal life, like many others, was not very happy. “Sadness all the time, waiting for something...” The main thing for her is to maintain balance and friendliness to the world within herself. The writer is currently writing a book about love. She notices that it is becoming increasingly difficult for her to love people.
Svetlana Alexievich took in raising the daughter of her sister who passed away early. There are no other children in Svetlana Alexievich’s family. In an interview with the writer about her personal life, she prefers not to talk about it. Even in the biography written by Svetlana Alexievich herself, there is no information about her personal life.
For the last two years, Svetlana Alexievich has been living in her homeland in the city of Minsk, although her works are not published here and are not judged. According to the writer, she wants to live at home where everyone understands each other on a symbolic level. Before that, she emigrated for a long time. Been to Italy, Germany, France, Sweden. The writer’s personal life abroad is a sealed secret.
About the Nobel Prize
In October of this year, Svetlana Alexievich was awarded the Nobel Prize. Her work was called polyphonic, her works became a monument to suffering and courage. The announcement of the Nobel Prize being awarded to Svetlana Alexievich was received differently both in Russia and in Belarus. Many people think about political motivation in choosing a candidate. No matter what, this is a significant fact in the biography of Svetlana Alexievich.
About Russia, about Crimea, about Putin
When presenting the Nobel Prize, Svetlana Alexievich emphasized that she could not say anything bad about Russian culture. Theater, ballet, ... - the wonderful “Russian world” that she embraces. “The world of Beria, Stalin, Putin... is a world alien to me, I don’t like it,” says the writer.
She calls modern Russia a pit, an abyss, with nuclear weapons, crazy geopolitical ideas and complete ignorance of international law. All this gives her a feeling of defeat.
The writer condemns Russia's policy towards Ukraine. Svetlana Alexievich, commenting on the armed conflict that took place in Crimea, says that it is scary when people kill each other. She explains this by the fact that over the past two hundred years people have fought a lot and lived very poorly, all of which she openly reflects in her work.
Svetlana Alexievich is an active anti-Soviet, known for her condemnation of the domestic and foreign policies of the Russian leader Putin.
The final, fifth book in Svetlana Alexievich’s famous fiction and documentary series “Voices of Utopia.” “Communism had an insane plan,” says the author, “to remake the “old” man, the old Adam. And it worked out... Maybe the only thing that worked out. For more than seventy years, in the laboratory of Marxism-Leninism, a separate human type was developed - homo soveticus. Some believe that this is a tragic character, others call him a “scoop.” It seems to me that I know this man, he is familiar to me, I have lived next to him, side by side for many years. He is me. These are my acquaintances, friends, parents.”
Socialism is over. And we stayed.
Without this book, which has long become a world bestseller, it is no longer possible to imagine either the history of the Afghan war - an unnecessary and unjust war, or the history of the last years of Soviet power, which was completely undermined by this war. The grief of the mothers of the “zinc boys” is inescapable; their desire to know the truth about how and why their sons fought and died in Afghanistan is understandable. But upon learning this truth, many of them were horrified and abandoned it. Svetlana Alexievich’s book was tried “for libel” - in a real court, with a prosecutor, public prosecutors and “support groups” in power and in the press. Materials from this shameful trial are also included in the new edition of The Zinc Boys.
The most famous book by Svetlana Alexievich and one of the most famous books about the Great Patriotic War, where the war was first shown through the eyes of a woman. “War Doesn’t Have a Woman’s Face” has been translated into 20 languages and included in school and university curricula.
The second book (the first was “War Doesn’t Have a Woman’s Face”) in Svetlana Alexievich’s famous artistic and documentary series “Voices of Utopia.” Memories of the Great Patriotic War by those who were 6-12 years old during the war - its most impartial and most unfortunate witnesses. A war seen through children's eyes is even more terrible than one captured through a woman's gaze. Alexievich’s books have nothing to do with that kind of literature where “the writer writes and the reader reads.” But it is in relation to her books that the question most often arises: do we need such a terrible truth? The writer herself answers this question: “An unconscious person is capable of giving birth only to evil and nothing else but evil.”
“The Last Witnesses” is a feat of childhood memory.
For several decades, Svetlana Alexievich has been writing her chronicle “Voices of Utopia.” Five books have been published in which the “little man” himself talks about time and himself. The titles of the books have already become metaphors: “War Doesn’t Have a Woman’s Face”, “Zinc Boys”, “Chernobyl Prayer”... In fact, she created her own genre - a polyphonic confessional novel, in which small stories make up a big history, our 20th century.
The main man-made disaster of the 20th century is twenty years old. “The Chernobyl Prayer” is published in a new author’s edition, with the addition of new text, with the restoration of fragments excluded from previous editions for censorship reasons.
The most famous book by Svetlana Alexievich and one of the most famous books about the Great Patriotic War, where the war was first shown through the eyes of a woman. “War Doesn’t Have a Woman’s Face” has been translated into 20 languages and included in school and university curricula.
In the most terrible war of the 20th century, a woman had to become a soldier. She not only saved and bandaged the wounded, but also shot with a sniper, bombed, blew up bridges, went on reconnaissance missions, and took tongues. The woman killed. She killed the enemy, who attacked her land, her home, and her children with unprecedented cruelty. This was the greatest sacrifice they made on the altar of Victory. And an immortal feat, the full depth of which we comprehend over the years of peaceful life.
The second book in the famous artistic and documentary series “Voices of Utopia” by Svetlana Alexievich, who in 2015 received the Nobel Prize in Literature “for her polyphonic creativity - a monument to suffering and courage in our time.” “The Last Witnesses” contains memories of the Great Patriotic War of children, its most impartial and most unfortunate witnesses. The war, seen through the eyes of children, turned out to be even more terrible than that captured by a woman’s gaze in the book “War Doesn’t Have a Woman’s Face.” “The Last Witnesses” is a feat of childhood memory. Like the rest of the books in the series, it is published in a new edition by the author.
Svetlana Aleksandrovna Alexievich (1948) - Soviet and Belarusian writer, journalist, documentary film screenwriter. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2015.
Svetlana Alexievich was born on May 31, 1948 in the city of Stanislav, Western Ukraine (now Ivano-Frankivsk). Her mother was Ukrainian, and her father was Belarusian. Svetlana spent her entire childhood in a village in the Vinnytsia region. Later they moved to Belarus. Her paternal grandmother and maternal grandfather died at the front, and two of Svetlana’s father’s brothers went missing during the war. Her father was the only one who returned from the front. Svetlana Alexievich's parents were teachers in a rural school.
Svetlana graduated from school in the village of Kopatkevichi, Petrikovsky district, Gomel region in 1965.
Journalistic activity
The journalistic biography of Svetlana Alexievich begins in 1972, after graduating from university (BSU, Faculty of Journalism), when she became an employee of the regional newspaper "Mayak Communism" in the Brest region. From 1973 to 1976, he worked as a journalist in the Belarusian Selskaya Gazeta, and from 1976 to 1984, as the head of the essay and journalism department of the Neman magazine.
Creation
Svetlana Alexievich writes in the genre of artistic and documentary prose. She calls Ales Adamovich and Vasil Bykov her teachers. All of Alexievich's books are based on in-depth interviews with people who experienced some difficult event or with their surviving relatives.
Svetlana Alexievich's first book, “I Left the Village,” was prepared for publication in 1976. The book was a collection of monologues by residents of a Belarusian village who moved to the city. However, this book was never published; on the instructions of the propaganda department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the BSSR, the book was scattered. The writer was accused of criticizing the strict passport regime and “misunderstanding the agrarian policy” of the party. Later, Alexievich herself considered her work too “journalistic” and refused publication.
Since 1983 - member of the Union of Writers of the USSR.
In 1983, a documentary story was written based on interviews with Soviet women who participated in the Great Patriotic War, “War Doesn’t Have a Woman’s Face,” which brought Alexievich fame. In 1985, the story was published, it was the first published book by Svetlana Alexievich.
Alexievich’s books form a cycle, which she herself defines as a “chronicle of the Great Utopia” or the story of the “red man.”
The most famous were her books in the genre of artistic and documentary prose “War Doesn’t Have a Woman’s Face”, “Zinc Boys”, “Chernobyl Prayer”, “Second-Hand Time”. Alexievich’s works are dedicated to the life of the late USSR and the post-Soviet era, imbued with feelings of compassion and humanism.
Documentary films based on scripts by Svetlana Alexievich.
“Difficult Conversations” (Belarusfilm, 1979), director Richard Yasinsky
“War does not have a woman’s face” (together with Viktor Dashuk) - a series of seven documentary television films (1981-1984, Belarusfilm), directed by Viktor Dashuk. “Parental Home” - (Belarusian Television, 1982), director Viktor Shevelevich
“Portrait with Dahlias” - (Belarusian Television, 1984), director Valery Basov
“Soldiers” - (Belarusian television, 1985), director Valery Basov
“I’m talking about my time” - (Belarusian television, 1987), director Valery Zhigalko
“The past is yet to come” - (Belarusian television, 1988), director Valery Zhigalko
“These Strange Old People” (Belarusfilm, 1988), director Joseph Pickman
Cycle “From the Abyss” (script together with Marina Goldovskaya), director Marina Goldovskaya (OKO-media, Austria-Russia)
"Men of War" (1990)
"People of the Siege" (1990)
Afghan cycle - documentaries based on the book “Zinc Boys” (script together with Sergei Lukyanchikov), director Sergei Lukyanchikov, Belarusfilm
"Shame" (1991)
“I’m out of control” (1992)
“Cross” - (1994, Russia). Director Gennady Gorodny
"Children of war. The Last Witnesses", directed by Alexey Kitaytsev, script by Lyudmila Romanenko based on the book "The Last Witnesses". Svetlana Alexievich takes part in the film. MB Group Studio, Moscow, 2009. The film was awarded a special prize at the Open Documentary Film Competition “Man and War” (Ekaterinburg, 2011).
Films based on books by Svetlana Alexievich
"On the Ruins of Utopia" (1999, Germany)
"Russia. The Story of a Little Man" (2000, NHK, Japan), directed by Hideya Kamakura.
“The Door” (Ireland, 2008), directed by Juanita Wilson, is a short film based on the book “The Chernobyl Prayer.”
“Voices of Chernobyl” is a dramatic film based on the book “Chernobyl Prayer.”
Theater productions
Performance based on the book “Chernobyl Prayer”, Geneva, 2009
Living and working abroad
From 2000 to 2013, a new stage begins in the biography of Svetlana Alexievich: she moves to Italy, and later lives and works on her books in France and Germany. In 2013, she returned to her homeland again and currently lives in Belarus.
Among the numerous awards, orders and prizes of Svetlana Alexievich are the Order of the Badge of Honor (USSR, 1984), the Nikolai Ostrovsky Literary Prize of the Union of Writers of the USSR (1984), the Leipzig Book Prize for contribution to European understanding, the Officer's Cross of the Order of Arts and Letters (France) , 2014). She was also awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature (2015) - “for her polyphonic work - a monument to suffering and courage in our time”
Books by Svetlana Alexievich as documentary prose, literary journalism, documentary monologues, oratorio novels, reportage, testimonial novels. The writer herself defines the genre in which she writes as “the history of feelings.”
Svetlana Alexievich's books have been translated into English, German, Polish, French, Swedish, Chinese, Norwegian and other languages. The total circulation of foreign editions of the Chernobyl Prayer amounted to more than 4 million copies.