Where does Alekseevich the writer live? Svetlana Alexievich: biography, personal life and creativity
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.
Svetlana Aleksandrovna Alexievich (born 1948) is a famous Soviet and Belarusian writer and journalist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. He creates his works in Russian. The book “War Doesn’t Have a Woman’s Face” became a real bestseller, staged on the stage of dozens of theaters across the country. Svetlana Alexievich is well known far beyond the borders of the post-Soviet space. Her books have been published in 19 countries around the world, and 21 documentaries have been made based on the scripts of the talented author. The writer is the winner of numerous literary awards and prizes, including international ones.
Childhood and youth
Svetlana Alexievich was born in the Ukrainian city of Stanislav (now Ivano-Frankivsk) on May 31, 1948. Her father, a Belarusian by nationality, was a military man, and after his dismissal from the army, the family moved to Belarus. Here the parents began working as teachers in a rural school. After receiving her certificate, Svetlana got a job at the editorial office of a regional newspaper, because while still in school, she began writing poetry and short notes. Having received the required two years of experience, she entered the Faculty of Journalism of BSU. Alexievich took an active position and took part in various student work competitions at the republican and all-Union levels.
While still a student, Svetlana read A. Adamovich’s books “I am from the village of fire” and “The Siege Book,” which left a deep imprint on her girlish soul. After graduating from the Faculty of Journalism in 1972, Alexievich rushed about for a long time in search of herself. She managed to study science, journalism and even work as a teacher at school. And only after getting acquainted with these works, the girl realized that she had everything to become a writer. To this day she calls Adamovich her teacher. “I always wanted to capture authenticity,” says Alexievich. This genre, invented by Ales and which he called the “testimony novel,” became very close to her.
Nevertheless, Svetlana continued to engage in journalism at Selskaya Gazeta. Then she moved to the Neman magazine, first as a correspondent and then as a department head, while continuing to write journalistic works and stories. In 1983 she was admitted to the Union of Writers of the USSR.
Writer with a capital letter
The first large-scale literary work, “I Left the Village,” was prepared for publication in 1976. This is a collection of monologues by residents of one of the Belarusian villages who migrated to the city. She came across serious criticism of the Republican Communist Party for its misunderstanding of agricultural policy. Alexievich later refused to publish, describing her work as overly “journalistic.”
In 1983, Alexievich wrote the book “War Doesn’t Have a Woman’s Face.” In the era of late stagnation, she was not given the opportunity to publish, accusing the author of excessive naturalism, pacifism and leveling the heroic image of the Soviet woman. Such critical remarks raised serious concerns, because the writer managed to acquire a reputation as an ardent anti-Soviet. Alexievich herself calls her brainchild a “novel of voices.” Indeed, this is a work about that side of the war that few people knew. But she was, and the author, drawing his heroes, creates a collective image from the many voices of unknown women who gave their lives for the freedom of their homeland.
At the beginning of perestroika, several publishing houses dared to publish the work. He was highly appreciated by famous front-line writers - B. Okudzhava, D. Granin, G. Baklanov. Today the total circulation of the novel exceeds 2 million copies. Performances based on “War Has No Woman’s Face” were staged in dozens of theaters across the country, and director V. Dashuk made a series of documentaries with the same title, which were awarded the USSR State Prize.
In the same year, “The Last Witnesses” appeared, the second book in the artistic and documentary cycle “Voices of Utopia.” The writer dedicated it to the image of war seen through children's eyes. The work consists of hundreds of children's stories about the war. Its truth is terrible and even more bitter for those who failed to protect children's souls from this hell. Alexievich is sure that such truth is very necessary: “A person without memory can only give birth to evil,” she is sure.
Creative flourishing
In 1989, Soviet troops left Afghanistan. At this time, from the pen of Alexievich, the journalistic novel “Zinc Boys” was published, exposing this war. The writer again told the unpleasant truth about how and why the young soldiers died and in the name of what ideals they went to certain death. To show everything as it is, Svetlana Alexandrovna collected materials for four years, talked with mothers of soldiers, and visited Afghanistan. A frank new look at the Afghan war has caused an intellectual shock in society, forcing many to rethink their values.
The author was again subjected to sharp criticism, and a show trial was even organized in Minsk. Despite this, the book became a real bestseller, many performances were staged based on it, and feature films and documentaries were made.
In 1993, “Enchanted by Death” was published, which became a reflection of the spiritual breakdown that struck a sixth of the land after the collapse of a seemingly eternal empire. People accustomed to communist ideals could not stand the test of time and took their own lives. The book, which tells how society emerged from the captivity of the great illusion, formed the basis of the feature film “The Cross.”
Svetlana Aleksandrovna admits that the hardest thing for her was “The Chernobyl Book,” the creation of which was not at all in the spirit of the established tradition of writing books about the war. It took her five years to realize the scale of the disaster and create the concept of her work. She says that this book is not about Chernobyl, but about the world after Chernobyl. How life has changed in a new reality, still incomprehensible and unconscious. People are gaining new knowledge that they will need to avoid repeating this nightmare.
The theme of war occupies a central place in the works of the Belarusian writer. The author herself explains this by the constant presence of this event in the history of the country. It had a huge impact on society, crippling human destinies and shaping ideals. Another cross-cutting theme is criticism of the communist regime, which Alexievich repeatedly calls “a great and terrible utopia.”
Svetlana Alexievich today
In 2013, the book “Second-hand Time” (The End of the Red Man) was published, raising the question of the revival of a totalitarian machine capable of squeezing the “red man” out of us drop by drop. This is a story about the last two decades of Russian history, intertwined with twenty different human destinies. And again, voices appear before the reader, soulfully telling about their difficult lot, aggression and hopelessness reigning in the minds of people.
Back in the late 90s, she decided to write a book about love. The work was given the title “The Wonderful Deer of the Eternal Hunt.” In it, the author talks about a time of love that does not coincide with the usual course of our lives.
Alexievich became the first writer from the post-Soviet space to be awarded the Nobel Prize (2015). The presentation of such a prestigious award was not an event in Belarus, where it has not been published for two decades. This is not surprising, since Svetlana Alexandrovna is one of the irreconcilable critics of the current President A. Lukashenko. This forced her to migrate to the West, so since the early 2000s she has lived in Italy and France, although she has now returned to her homeland.
The presentation of the highest literary award was met with ambiguity in Russia, because the writer is known as a consistent critic of the current authorities. Many argued that the choice of Svetlana Alexandrovna was made for political reasons to spite Russia.
Today, the writer continues to be concerned about the problems of the fate of the Fatherland. Even as a deep expert in the issues of the “red man,” she cannot confidently say why human suffering cannot be converted into true freedom and why slavery has sunk so deeply into the souls of millions.
Svetlana Alexievich was born on May 31, 1948 in the western Ukrainian city of Stanislav. Father is Belarusian, mother is Ukrainian. After his father’s demobilization, the family moved to his homeland, Belarus, his father and mother worked as rural teachers. My father’s mother died of typhus in the partisans, two of her three sons were missing, and Svetlana Alekseevich’s father returned from the front. Mother's father died at the front. My father's great-grandfather was also a rural teacher. According to her, she spent her entire childhood in a Ukrainian village, in the Vinnytsia region.
In 1972, the future writer graduated from BSU. Svetlana Alexievich’s work biography began from work at school. At first she worked as a teacher in a boarding school, then she taught history and German to students in the Mozyr region. Alexievich had long been attracted to writing, and she got a job as a correspondent for the regional newspaper Pripyatskaya Pravda. Then she moved to another newspaper - “Mayak Communism” in one of the regional centers of the Brest region.
From 1973 to 1976, Svetlana Alexievich worked at the regional Selskaya Gazeta. In 1976, she was offered a position as head of the essay and journalism department at Neman magazine. Alexievich worked there until 1984. In 1983, she was accepted into the USSR Writers' Union.
Since the early 2000s, Svetlana Alexievich lived abroad. First in Italy, then in France and Germany. For the last 2 years, the writer has been living in Belarus again.
Svetlana Aleksandrovna Alexievich says that each book took from 4 to 7 years of her life. During the period of writing, she met and talked with hundreds of people who witnessed the events described in her works. These people, as a rule, had a very difficult fate behind them: they went through Stalin’s camps, revolutions, fought in various wars, or survived the Chernobyl disaster.
The first book that begins the creative biography of Svetlana Alexievich is “War Has Not a Woman’s Face.” This is a book about women who fought at the front during the Great Patriotic War. They were snipers, pilots, tank crews, and underground fighters. Their vision and perception of the war was completely different from that of men. They experienced other people's deaths, blood, and murders more difficult. And after the end of the war, a second front began for female veterans: they needed to adapt to peaceful life, forget about the horrors of war and become women again: wear dresses, high-heeled shoes, give birth to children.
The book “War Has Not a Woman’s Face” was not published for 2 years, having lain in the publishing house. Alexievich was accused of distorting the heroic image of Soviet women, of pacifism and excessive naturalism. The work was published only during the years of perestroika and was published in several thick magazines.
The fate of subsequent works also turned out to be difficult. The second book was called "The Last Witnesses." It consisted of 100 children's stories about the horrors of war. There is even more naturalism and terrible details, seen through the eyes of children from 7 to 12 years old.
War occupies a central place in the works of Svetlana Alexievich. The writer herself explains this by saying that the entire Soviet history is connected with the war and is imbued with it. She argues that all the heroes and most of the ideals of the Soviet man are military.
The fifth work entitled “Chernobyl Prayer” is about peace and life after the Chernobyl disaster. Svetlana Aleksandrovna claims that after the Chernobyl accident, not only did the gene code and blood formula of the population of a large country change, but the entire socialist continent disappeared under water.
Svetlana Alexievich has been a contender for the Nobel Prize in the Literature category since 2013. But then the prize was awarded to Canadian writer Alice Munro. In 2014, the French writer Patrick Modiano received it.
The Nobel Prize was nevertheless awarded to Svetlana Alexievich on October 8 in Stockholm. The news of awarding the prize to the Belarusian writer was met with ambiguity both in Russia and in Belarus.
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.
Aleksievich Svetlana (Aleksievich Svyatlana) - Belarusian writer, journalist.
Born on May 31, 1948 in Ukraine in the city of Stanislav (after 1962 - Ivano-Frankivsk). Father is Belarusian, mother is Ukrainian.
After his father’s demobilization, the family moved to his homeland, Belarus. Graduated from the Department of Journalism of the Lenin State University (1972). She worked as a teacher in a boarding school, as a teacher (1965), in the editorial offices of the regional newspapers “Prypyatskaya Prauda” (Narovlya, 1966), “Beacon of Communism” (Bereza, 1972-1973), and the republican “Rural Newspaper” "(1973-1976), magazine "Neman" (1976-1984).
She began her literary activity in 1975. The “godfather” can be called the famous Belarusian writer Ales Adamovich with his idea of a new genre, the exact definition of which he was constantly looking for: “conciliar novel”, “oratorio novel”, “testimony novel”, “people telling about themselves”, “ epic-choral prose”, etc.
Alexievich’s first book, “War Has Not a Woman’s Face,” was ready in 1983 and remained in the publishing house for two years. The author was accused of pacifism, naturalism and debunking the heroic image of the Soviet woman. At that time this was more than serious. “Perestroika” gave a beneficial impetus. The book was published almost simultaneously in the magazine “October”, “Roman-Gazeta”, in the publishing houses “Mastatskaya Literatura”, “Soviet Writer”. The total circulation reached 2 million copies.
The fate of the following books was also difficult. "The Last Witnesses" (1985) - children's view of the war. “The Zinc Boys” (1989) - about the criminal war in Afghanistan (the publication of this book caused not only a wave of negative publications in communist and military newspapers, but also a protracted trial, which was stopped only by the active defense of the democratic public and intellectuals for abroad). “Enchanted by Death” (1993) - about suicides. “Chernobyl Prayer” (1997) - about the world after Chernobyl, after nuclear war... Now Alexievich is working on a book about love - “The Wonderful Deer of the Eternal Hunt.”
Member of the Union of Journalists of the USSR (1976), the Union of Writers of the USSR (1983), and the Belarusian PEN Center (1989). Books were published in 19 countries of the world - America, England, Bulgaria, Vietnam, Germany, India, France, Sweden, Japan, etc. Laureate of the literary prizes of the USSR SP named after N. Ostrovsky (1984), named after K. Fedin (1985), Leninsky Prize Komsomol (1986), awarded the international prizes of Kurt Tucholsky (Swedish PEN) for “courage and dignity in literature”, Andrei Sinyavsky “for nobility in literature”, the Russian independent prize “Triumph”, the Leipzig Prize “For European Understanding-98”, the German “For the best political book” and the Austrian named after Herder.
Based on Alexievich’s books, films have been made and theatrical performances staged. A series of documentaries based on the book “War Has Not a Woman’s Face” was awarded the USSR State Prize (1985) and the “Silver Dove” at the international documentary film festival in Leipzig.
She is known for her consistently negative position towards the foreign and domestic policies of President A. Lukashenko, and therefore has been subjected to judicial and extrajudicial persecution. Since the early 2000s he has lived in exile (Italy, France).
He is raising the daughter of his sister who died early.
