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A Nobel for Svetlana Alexievich is an award for Belarus

A Nobel for Svetlana Alexievich is an award for Belarus
Andrei Sannikov

By honouring a writer who depicts the sufferings of ordinary people with clarity and compassion, the Nobel prize in literature has recognised work that is of vital importance to the post-Soviet world.

The Swedish Academy couldn’t have chosen a better time to give Nobel prize in literature to a Belarusian writer, nor could they have found a better person to award it to than Svetlana Alexievich. Belarus is going through the most difficult period of its history, having lived under the dictatorial rule of Alexander Lukashenko for 21 years.

On Sunday the country goes to the polls. The dictator is supremely confident that he will be “re-elected”, but all of a sudden the spotlight has fallen on somebody who speaks loudly, clearly and frankly about what is going on in this part of the world.

Alexievich’s books are not an easy read. From her very first works she goes deep inside human beings, spelling out uncomfortable and controversial truths. In War’s Unwomanly Face, she writes about women in war; in Zinky Boys, she tackles the tragic consequences of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In Voices from Chernobyl, about the effects of the 1986 disaster, she points out that life can actually kill if it is contaminated with radioactivity. Life can kill. That was what her Chernobyl voices said to me.

Her latest book, Second-hand Time – to be published in English next year – writes the obituary of the Red (Wo)Man. Maybe this declaration is premature but Alexievich presents a horrifying picture of those who came after “homo sovieticus”. Though she wrote the book before Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, you can look to it for answers as to why this happened.

However Alexievich is never didactic in her writing. She is an honest reporter of our life and behaviour in critical circumstances. I have always wondered how she could cope with the sheer volume of emotions contained in her books, and stay strong and resolute on her path. She not only listens to people, but has to absorb their sufferings in order to present them with the passionate attitude of a fighter for humanity.

I also have my own reasons to be happy today. Some time ago I asked Alexievich to read my book about my experience as a presidential candidate and a prisoner of conscience after the 2010 election in Belarus. It’s named “Belarusian ‘Amerikanka’ or Election under Dictatorship” – “Amerikanka” being the notorious KGB prison in Minsk where I was held. She read it, liked it and encouraged me to continue writing. She also was kind enough to write a foreword for the book, which is to be published soon.

There will inevitably be controversy around her name and her writings – she is too strong a personality to escape them, and she is not shy of raising difficult issues. In Russia they will try to claim her as one of their own at the same time as blaming the Nobel committee for being politicised and russophobic, since Alexievich recently made strong statements rejecting Russian aggression in Ukraine. In Belarus, Lukashenko will try to use the award for his own ends, forgetting the years of oblivion in her homeland to which his regime consigned Alexievich.

This Nobel is not only a breakthrough for Alexievich herself, but also for the non-fiction she writes, for post-Soviet countries and for women in post-Soviet countries. Most importantly it’s a breakthrough for Belarus. We’ve waited a long time for it, hoping that the Nobel committee would recognise Vasil Bykau for his truth about the war, or Ryhor Baradulin who, in his last poems, became a true interlocutor with God. An honour for Alexievich is also a tribute to Ales Adamovich, the great Belarusian intellectual whose tradition she has followed and developed.

Since the award, I have received many calls from Belarus, from Europe, from the United States. From people happy for Alexievich, for my country and for something really important that Belarus can give to the world. 

Andrei Sannikov, The Guardian

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