Eastern partnership literary review 2016, 1-2 by EP Literary Review

The Eastern Partnership Literary Review (EPLR), founded in 2014, is a semi-annual journal published by Porta Danubiana, o.z. for Comenius University in Bra slava in English.

This issue of the journal is published as part of the Visegrad Eastern Partnership Literary Award project, funded by a grant of the Interna onal Visegrad Fund. To subscribe to Eastern Partnership Literary Review please contact: veapla@veapla.eu

ISSN: 1339-7583

Eastern Partnership Literary Review authors, books & literary life in Eastern Partnership countries Vol. 3 (2016), No. 1-2

Editorial board Anton Eliáš (Editor), Ľubor Matejko (Managing Editor), Mária Kusá, Ivan Posokhin, Tereza Chlaňová, Paulina Olechowska, Lajos Pálfalvi

Contents Visegrad Eastern Partnership Literary Award 2016 Kateryna Kondratenko – Ivan Posokhin

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LITERATURE, ART & SOCIETY Post-Soviet Literatures and the Soviet Metanarra ve .......................................... 15 Ľubor Matejko Methods of Assessing Social Change Through the Language of Literature in the Countries of the Eastern Partnership Danslav Slavenskoj What is New in Ukrainian Literature a er Maidan 2013-2014? Iryna Zabiiaka

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Goodbye Lenin: The Heritage of the Soviet Metanarra ve in Fic on and Nonfic on .............................................................. 27 Sylvia Mičíková WHAT´S ON IN LITERARY LIFE Anastasia Kholdakovskaya on Literary Life of Odessa ........................................... 33 Interview by Svetlana Fedoruk Susanna Harutyunyan on Humanism and Armenian Literature Interview by Nina Cingerová

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EAP LITERATURE ABROAD The President’s Cat and Other Talks on Georgian Literature with Guram Odisharia .......................................................................................... 43 Katarína Hrčková Virtuosity ............................................................................................................. 46 Daniel Cristea-Enache Stone Dreams in Slovak and Czech ....................................................................... 49 David Sasai Talks on Ukraine with Yuri Andrukhovych ............................................................. 51 Jakub Bartók 4

Visegrad Eastern Partnership Literary Award 2016 Kateryna Kondratenko – Ivan Posokhin* One of the main objec ves of the Visegrad Eastern Partnership Literary Award project is to present writers from the Eastern Partnership countries to Visegrad Four readers. The books nominated for 2016 were representa ve of all countries involved in the project, with the excep on of Azerbaidjan. The judges were forced to reject some nominated books as not being in accordance with the requirements of the project as regards to the year of publica on (for VEaPLA 2016, only books published no earlier than the year 2013 could be considered). What follows is an introduc on of the VEaPLA 2016 short-list.

Վահրամ Մարտիրոսյան: Սերը Մոսկվայում

tec ve “shell”, too fragile, however, to completely isolate them from reality. The novel bears many signs of personal experiences which the author uses as a way to build up the feeling of sincerity, but Mar rosyan warns against interpre ng the story as strictly autobiographical.1 Furthermore, Love in Moscow is one of the first novels in contemporary Armenian literature which vividly depicts present-day Russia and presents the image of Moscow from the perspec ve of an Armenian living there. Mar rosyan

(Vahram Mar rosyan: Love in Moscow), Yerevan, Antares, 2015, 424 pp., ISBN 978-9939-51-750-6

Love in Moscow, Vahram Mar rosyan’s 2015 novel, took him nearly 6 years to write. For Mar rosyan it was his first attempt to write a “roman c” story, which, generally speaking, is not a thriving genre in contemporary Armenian literature. However, despite love being central to the plot, Mar rosyan did not ignore the present-day reality which he incorporated it in his work. The novel tells a story of two lovers, an Armenian author Tigran and Belarusian model Maria, who met in Moscow. For Tigran and Maria, their love becomes a pro-

VISEGRAD LITERARY AWARDS

* Kateryna Kondratenko, Comenius University in Bra slava; konkateryna@hotmail.com; Ivan Posokhin, Comenius University, Bra slava; ivan.posokhin@gmail.com

h p://www.aravot.am/2015/06/12/580961/

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adds: “The novel speaks not only about Moscow, it deals with the problem of finding one’s iden ty, iden es clash. <…> There are Vienna and Paris in the novel as well, there is diaspora, it talks about modern people, their emo onal experiences”.2 In February 2016, Mar rosyan received the Year’s Bestseller Award from Armenpress as “year’s best Armenian author”.3

of her wri ngs began. Her most famous books, the first of which garnered much atten on already in 1980s, are much closer to what one would call non-fic on rather than to tradi onal fic on, since they mostly present recorded memories of real people which are framed by a specific concept or theme: women’s views on the war, the Chernobyl tragedy, or the Afghan war. Her latest novel, Secondhand Time, is the last instalment of a series of the books brought together under the tle Voices of Utopia. In this book, Alexievich focuses on the tragedy of the so-called homo sovie cus, or peoples of the last Soviet genera ons who are dealing with their recent past, struggling in the mes of uncertainty, moral emp ness, and personal tragedies: “One thinks it is a tragic character, others call him a “sovok.” I believe that I know this sort of person, I know him very well, I’ve lived side by side with them for many years. This person represents my parents,, my friends, myself.”4 Since 2013, Secondhand Time has been translated to many languages, including English, German, Spanish, Czech and Slovak.

Vahram Mar rosyan’s other notable works ► Սողանք [Landslide], 2000 ► Հանուն խաչի ծպտվածները [Disguised in the Name of the Cross], 2002 ► Եվրոպական պատմություն [European Story], 2003 ► Փախուստ ավետյաց երկրից [Escape from the Promised Land], 2004 ► Բվերը [Owls], 2005

* Светлана Алексиевич: Время секонд хэнд (Svetlana Alexievich: Secondhand Time), Moscow, Vremya, 2013, 512 pp., ISBN 978-5-9691-1129-5

Svetlana Alexievich’s other notable works ► У войны не женское лицо [The Unwomanly Face of War], 1985 ► Цинковые мальчики [Zinky Boys], 1991 ► Чернобыльская молитва [Voices from Chernobyl], 1997

When in 2015 the Nobel commi ee announced that Svetlana Alexievich had won the prize “for her polyphonic wri ngs, a monument to suﬀering and courage in our me,” many discussions about the nature 2 3

h ps://news.am/rus/news/271364.html h p://www.lragir.am/index/eng*/0/society/view/35281

h p://www.ozon.ru/context/detail/id/22887106/

Visegrad Eastern Partnership Literary Award 2016

მორიდებული ზურმუხტი

Vladimir Beşleagă: Voci sau Dublul suicid din Zona Lacurilor (Vladimir Beşleagă: Voices or Double Suicide from Lake Area), Chișinău, Arc, 2014, 196 pp., ISBN 9789975617796

(Aka Morchiladze: The Shy Emerald), Bakur Sulakauri Publishing 2013,1 360 pp., ISBN 9789941159466

Aka Morchiladze is a penname of Georgi Akhvlediani, one the most talked-about contemporary Georgian writers and journalists. He’s been ac ve since 1992, and has published more than 20 books. His 2013 novel, The Shy Emerald, is a great example of a style marked by irony and strong feeling for history. This me, however, history in Morchiladze’s hands gets an “alterna ve” twist. The writer creates an imagined world where Georgia is ruled by the Emperor Vakhtang VII alongside the black Bri sh Empress Kathryn Barkley, who symbolises something exo c to Georgians.5 The novel has several parallel storylines which, in the end, intertwine, pain ng a larger picture. As it o en happens in novels with plots based around an alterna ve history and alternave worlds, themes and ideas o en transcend their fic onal character, and so it is in the case of The Shy Emerald where “historic facts subtly echo Georgia’s current reality”.6

Vladimir Beşleagă is a dis nguished novelist, essayist, journalist and translator. His first novel Zbor frânt (which has gone through numerous edi ons) is recognized as an outstanding work of the postwar period, and it has influenced literary life of Moldova7 quite a bit. V. Beşleagă received an award for the novel Voices or Double Suicide from Lake Area at Interna onal Book Saloon held in Chișinău in 2014.8 The tle Voices was not chosen by accident as the book consists of a series of dialogues accep ng mul ple openings, including interpreta on. The second tle, the detec ve novel Voices or Double Suicide from Lake Area admonishes us that the suicide is a double one, not only from the metaphysical and transcendental point of view, but it is also in the universe created by the author. The book is a sort of author’s experiment. Voices or Double Suicide from Lake Area is a drama, which includes autobiographical moments by default, but exceeds it through irony and a mixture of genres: a crime novel, a Socra c dialogue, reflec ons, medita ons, analysis, essays, meta-narra ve.9 The reader will find a pa-

Aka Morchiladze’s other notable works ► მოგზაურობა ყარაბაღში [A Trip to Karabakh], 1992 ► სანტა ესპერანსა [Santa Esperanza], 2004 ► ძველი გულებისა და ხმლისა [Of Old Hearts and Swords], 2007 5 6

7 https://argumentul.info/2016/07/25/scriitorul-vladimirbesleaga-a-implinit-85-de-ani/ 8 http://trm.md/en/cultura/au-fost-desemnati-laureatiisalonului-international-de-carte-2014 9 http://www.jc.md/un-alt-besleaga/

h ps://issuu.com/floydianmike/docs/rights_catalogue_2015, p. 6 Ibidem. 7

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In An American in Chișinău Dumitru Crudu describes post-revolu onary life in Romania in the 1990s in a realis c way. The readers become engaged in the character’s journey through the troubles of life. Desperate situa ons however, never lower themselves to the level of pathos, as the author saves them with large doses of humor. All sorrows, shortcomings, weaknesses, and nega ve aspects of society are shown through the main character — Anton Şleah ţchi, who despite this becomes less credible. He may be considered to be himself a metaphor produced by the author to distract us from reality, a kind of ficon imposed upon the reader. In his novel Dumitru Crudu perfectly intertwined the fantas c, the real and the imaginary. The result is a vivid novel, which shows the dark reality of Romania of 1990s, but is unexpectedly op mis c.10

rade of characters in tragic or comic situaons, allegory, the author’s metaphysical alter ego and a kind of bi er self-irony, which deals with the reali es of our me, for example, the story about the irony of the work of writer in a world reluctant to read. Vladimir Beşleagă’s other notable works ► Dialoguri Literare [Literary Dialogues], Ţipătul lăstunului [Scream swi s], Versuri [Lyrics], 2006 ► Des ne Transnistrene [Des ne Transnistrian], Misterioasele sfere [The Mysterious Spheres], 2010 ► Morţii cei vii şi vii cei morţi [Dead are Alive and Alive are Dead], Nunta de aur [Golden Wedding], 2013

* Dumitru Crudu’s other notable works ► Salvați Bostonul [Save Boston], 2001 ► Duelul și alte texte [Duel and Other Texts], 2004 ► Măcel în Georgia [Slaughter in Georgia], 2008 ► Oameni din Chișinău [People from Chisinau], 2012 ► Esarfe in cer [Scarves in Heaven], 2012

Dumitru Crudu: Un american la Chișinău (Dumitru Crudu: An American in Chișinău) Casa de Pariuri Literare, Bucureș , 2013, 202 pp., ISBN: 9786068342894 In Romanian speaking countries, Duitru Krudu is probably the most famous and most successful writer, novelist, and poet of his genera on. An American in Chișinău was wri en in 1995 but for five years it was sequestered. Later, the author rewrote the novel and, according to his opinion, the rewri en work became a completely new novel.

h p://filme-car .ro/car /un-american-la-chisinau-dedumitru-crudu-45144/

Visegrad Eastern Partnership Literary Award 2016

says are devoted to the problem of commercializa on of literature. Moskalets defends high cultural values and considers that modern Ukrainian poetry has the prospect to achive the recovery of a “lost sensi vity” a er the era of stereotypes, and believes that such poetry will open up new horizons for the Europeaniza on of Ukrainian literature.

Костянтин Москалець: Сполохи. Літературна критика та есеїстика (Kostyantyn Moskalets: Alarm. Literary Cri cism and Essays), Lviv, Piramida, 2014, 172 pp., ISBN: 9789664413388

Kostyantyn Moskalets’ other notable works ► Символ троянди [The Symbol of the Rose], 2001 ► Гра триває [The Game Lasts], 2006 ► Досвід коронації [Experience of Corona on], 2009 ► Мисливці на снігу [Hunters in the Snow], 2011 ► Вечірній мед [Evening honey], 2013

Kostyantyn Moskalets was awarded the Na onal Taras Shevchenko Prize of Ukraine in 2015 for the book Alarm. Literary Cri cism and Essays which became a remarkable phenomenon of the modern Ukrainian literary cri cism and essay form.11 The book can be divided into two unequal parts: the first contains only six “alarms,” or essays wri en in the genre dzuihitsu which is “a kind of synthesis of wri ng and drawing, a kind of black-and-white film that manages to capture the crea on of ideas and impressions <...> warping memories, poems, jokes” according12 to the author. The wri ng of Kostyantyn Moskalets is based on a delicate aesthe c taste, a familiarity with works of philosophy, aesthe cs, and cultural studies, as well as the ability to capture trends of certain works of literature and analy cal thinking. The significance of these essays and literary cri cism is their return to a direct, immediate vision that respects uniqueness, individuality of every living thing and encourages personal reflec on and recep on, of thinking beyond stereotypes. The second part of the book consists of eleven essays of literary cri cism focused and full of careful observa ons. Some es11 12

* Ростислав Чопик: Mенталітети (Rostyslav Chopyk: Mentali es) Ukrainska vydavnycha spilka im. Yu. Lypy, Kyiv, 2014, 176 pp.) Rostyslav Chopyk’s literary debut Mentali es nominated for the Yuriy Shevelov Prize, entered the final short list ra ngs of Litaktsent of the Year and Book of the Year in 2014.13 Mentali es is a collec on of essays on literary cri cism. All essays are rich in intertextuality, every text contains some conscious and unconscious reference to cultural, literary,

h p://knpu.gov.ua/content/ h p://zbruc.eu/node/39344

h ps://krytyka.com/ua/reviews/mentalitety

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es.15 The text is divided into a reflec on upon the events, a retelling of jokes, and appeal to Russian readers. Khersonskyi’s lyrics are based on a rethinking of established concepts, cultural associa ons, on bright imagery transi ons, on a con nuous work of personal and historical memory, and on civilian experiences. The book tells us the writer’s story of discovery, of finding himself among Ukrainian ci zens. It opens with a poem in Russian and it ends with the same poem in Ukrainian. Khersonskyi’s “immersion in Ukraine,”16 his increasingly consistent and comprehensive awareness of belonging to the Ukrainian na on are important as a material for thinking about what and how a person contributes to or hinders to Ukrainan society from without certains boundaries, mul cultural territories, be they geographic or mental, and how one feel in rela onship the country and interact with it. At the same me, being a Russian-speaking poet of Jewish origin, and a professional psychiatrist, Boris Khersonskyi acts as an independent observer who tries to analyze Ukrainian society. The high level and depth of understanding reality and the sense of ironic detachment deac vates aggressive ideological construc ons.

and historical sources. The name of the book is in plural form and this suggests to a poten al reader that these are mul -faceted stories which describe the life of diﬀerent na ons, but despite this diversity, what disnguishes Mentali es from other collec ons of essays it is its integrity. The author focuses on everything related to the na onal way of thinking of Ukrainian writers and other historical figures. The smooth flow of themes and mo ves, as well as some cycliza on of internal texts is preparatory for explaining the culmina on, a “book in the book,” — the largest essay dedicated to the famous Ukrainian M. Soroka. Chopyk purposes to define the place of the Ukrainian na on in the context of other ethnic groups. The book Mentali es is also appeals to the Maidan as a historical place of movements and poli cal changes sugges ng this through diachronic analysis.14

* Борис Херсонский: Открытый дневник (Boris Khersonskiy: Open Diary) Dukh i Litera, Kyiv, 2015, 312 pp., ISBN: 9789663784021

Boris Khersonskyi’s other notable works ► Спірічуелс [The Spirituals], 2009 ► Сімейний архів [Family Archive], 2010 ► Поки ще не темно [Till it’s not dark], 2011

This book, organized as a diary, is a publica on of important texts from the website of Khersonskyi, having to do with Maidan, Russian aggression against Ukraine, and the ac ons of the new Ukrainian authori14

http://litakcent.com/2014/12/24/kod-hajvazovskyj/ http://www.korydor.in.ua/ua/stories/vidkryta-knygahersonskogo.html

h p://m.day.kyiv.ua/ru/ar cle/ukraincy-chitayte/ moe-pogruzhenie-v-ukrainu

Visegrad Eastern Partnership Literary Award 2016

the era. The writer has skillfully combined rhythm, symbolism and a flair which, as a result, provide readers with psychological and aesthe c pleasure.

Сoфiя Aндрухoвич: Фелікс Австрія (Sofiya Andrukhovych: Felix Austria), Lviv, Vydavnytstvo Staroho Leva, 2014, 288 pp. ISBN: 978-6176-79-082-2

Sofiya Andrukhovych’s other notable works ► Літо Мілени [Milena’s Summer], 2002 ► Старі люди [Old People], 2003 ► Жінки їхніх чоловіків [Their Men’s Women], 2005 ► Сьомга [Salmon], 2007

Felix Austria became the best book of the year of 2014 according to BBC-Ukraine and for this novel Sofiya Andrukhovych was awarded a special prize at the Ukrainian Publishers’ Forum. Literary cri cs note that Felix Austria is wri en in a unitary style: it has a perfectly thought-out composi on; the strength of the novel is its structure – that of a diary.17 The author refrained from making comments, lyrical digressions and it even lacks a preface or an a erword. While reading the main character Stefa’s diary, the reader begins to iden fy themselves with her, to observe through her eyes the ght world of Stanislaviv, now Ivano-Frankivsk, a small town in Austro-Hungarian empire in the year 1900. Stefa’s vision of the world and the reality around her o en do not coincide. The author alludes to the myth of a “happy empire”18 but shows that it has also an empty side. The problema c situaon of Ukrainians and Jews in this large empire is shown through the eyes of the characters of the book. However, Felix Austria is not a historical novel. There are no historical details, no events of global significance. The novel is singularly determined by details depic ng

* We congratulate Sofiya Andrukhovych, the winner of this year’s Visegrad Eastern Partnership Literary Award 2016 for the novel Felix Austria. The decision was made at the jury mee ng on October 16, 2015. The following points from various reviews were discussed by the jury members while judging this nomina on: 1) The novel’s singularity lies in its extraordinary, unitary style, in its perfectly thought-out composi on. Even though Felix Austria is not a historical novel, it brings to the readers an image of the beginning of the 20th century through the chronotope of a provincial town, through numerous details. The author uses the descrip on of numerous streets in Stanislaviv, now known as Ivano-Frankivsk, stories about then conteporary fashion trends, both in clothes and food, dialects, and sayings to lull the reader’s atten on with the purpose of unexpectedly surprising them at the high point of the novel. Unlike the usual eﬀects like scheming or aggrava on, this method helps to emo onalize the readers.

https://krytyka.com/ua/reviews/feliks-avstriya-roman http://www.bbc.com/ukrainian/entertainment/2014 /12/141204_book_2014_reader_review_andruhovych4

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dium of main character Stefa’s diary, Andrukhovych gives us a perspec ve into the transforma ve way of the social realm towards illusion, passing through the prism of internal percep on which assumes absurd values. The author alludes that the myth of “happy Austria” had a blank side and tries to show how problema c situa on of Ukrainians and Jews was in this big empire through the characters of the book. One of the parculari es of the novel is that it allows various interpreta ons. The dynamics of the novel at the beginning are slow but it gathers pace quickly towards the end. The writer has skillfully combined rhythm, symbolism and a flair, which, as a result, provides reader with psychological and aesthe c pleasure. It makes Felix Austria a work that certainly deserves reader’s a en on. 4) Felix Austria is the second novel by the young modern Ukrainian writer Andrukhovych. The jury agreed that it is a remarkable novel, the plot of which does not resemble that of any other novel. The author succeeded not only in describing the complex rela onship between the characters but also in recapturing the atmosphere and life of the city of Stanislaviv in 1900: people speaking different languages, clothes, customs, holidays, buildings, streets, kitchen life and even smells. The language with which the book was wri en, leaves a special impression on readers, not only foreigners but also Ukrainian speaking as well. That said, the VEaPLA jury concluded that Felix Austria is a work that doubtlessly deserves the Visegrad Eastern Partnership Literary Award 2016.

2) By using the genre of a diary, Andrukhovych tells us a story in first person. This method allows us to discover much deeper the psychology of the protagonist and encourages the reader to gradually idenfy themsleves with the main character, to discover the life of a small town in Austro-Hungarian empire in the year 1900 through their own eyes. It brings to us the consciousness of the protagonist and the reader and fills this rela onship with trust. The author systema cally refrained from making comments, lyrical digressions, there is no preface or a erword. 3) The novel shows the background of the era through the fate of two closely intertwined women’s lives. Through the me-

Eastern Partnership Literary Review Vol. 3 (2016), No. 1-2

Sofia Andrukhovych: writer, translator and journalist

drukhovych stands next to such established Ukrainian writers as T. Prokhasko, S. Zhadan, N. Sniadanko and T. Malyarchuk who were awarded the same prize in previous years. Her new novel Felix Austria (2014) became the best book of the year for 2014 according to BBC-Ukraine, and won a special prize at the Ukrainian Publishers’ Forum and the Lesya and Peter Kovalev American Founda on Award in 2015. In 2016 Felix Austria was translated into German and Polish language. Currently work on a screen version of the novel is in progress.

Sofia Andrukhovych was born in IvanoFrankivsk, in a family of the famous Ukrainian writer Yuriy Andrukhovych. Milena’s Summer was published in 2002, and became her literary debut. However, real fame came to her with the first novel Salmon (2007). Sofia Andrukhovych describes the features of her style as “a game on the verge of openness and imagina on.” She is the author of a books of prose Old People (2003), Their Men’s Women (2005), and a book for children Hen’s Constellation (2016). Andrukhovych works as the copy editor of the magazine Chetver and has a number of ar cles in various periodicals. In 2015 Andrukhovych won Joseph Conrad Korzeniowski Literary Prize which is awarded every two years to a Ukrainian author under 40 for “consistency in the implementa on of crea ve ways, innova ve forms of destruc on of stereotypes and for a universal message.” Now An-

Eastern Partnership Literary Review Vol. 3 (2016), No. 1-2

Literature, Art & Society

Literature, Art & Society Post-Soviet Literatures and the Soviet Metanarra ve

ously, in one way or another, were not visible on the literary scene of a specific country, or were marginally or not at all represented, for example, postmodern literature. This ar cle will focus on the literary process and literary life in three post-Soviet countries: Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Ukraine. Special a en on will, at the same me, be given to the ques on of the role of the legacy of the Soviet metanarra ve in the discourse of a new iden ty of literature. A empts to compare the legacy of the Soviet metanarra ve were seen at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s in all literatures of the post-Soviet sphere. The ques on of the rela onship to the Soviet metanarra ve is closely connected with the strengthening of the role of new na onal narra ves, the development of which became the basis of notable public discourse and an unavoidable condi on of the rebirth of na onal culture in countries which formally gained independence. We can note that the rise of na onalism did not only touch the postSoviet sphere in the narrow sense, but also Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, and moreover it is connected to the revitaliza on of na onal concepts, which were born back in the 19th century, but remained unactualized in the first stage of their development. Their level of success was, towards the end of the 20th century, at a significant level, predetermined by the level of development of these same concepts and the readiness of a specific society to move towards a transforma on from the Soviet metanarra ve towards its own na onal narra ve. There, where such a change was completed successfully, the meaning of the revitalized na-

Ľubor Matejko* The range of problems rela ng to the study of the development of literature which began to evolve a new sense of iden ty a er leaving the space of “mul na onal Soviet literature” is rather wide. We can find a certain understanding of it, for example, in the special edi on of the journal Word Literature Today 2011, which was prepared twenty years a er the collapse of the USSR. [13] Especially interes ng is the ques on of the character and rate of change of the iden ty of literature, that is, the falling out of the sovok component in na onal literatures, and the budding within these literatures, of new dis nc ve elements. A compara ve view of the situa on in different countries shows that together with general tendencies, we can clearly see noceable par cular differences, which are closely related to specific transforma ve processes which affected all areas of public life in post-Soviet countries over the course of the last twenty-five years. These differences are no ceable in the lives of specific authors, and even whole genera ons of writers, creators of en re corpora of literature, as well as in the development of local book markets and literary life. They are also seen in shi ing thema c priori es, types of characters, and the development of new literary movements, which previ* Ľubor Matejko, Comenius University in Bra slava; lubor.matejko@phil.uniba.sk

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enced the self-iden fica on of a new wave of Ukrainian literature. In commentaries of poli cal analysts, it has been o en noted, that in rela on to the legacy of the Soviet metanarra ve in Ukraine, there are significant regional differences, which regularly appear, for example, in parliamentary elec on results. This regional template may be, to some extent, applicable to the literary process as well. From our point of view, it is necessary to note, for example, the special role of the literary revitaliza on of the pre-Soviet heritage in Western Ukraine, which was aﬀected by the Soviet metanarra ve only in the 1940s. One of the newest examples, in this regard, is the novel by S. Andrukhovych, Felix Austria, which received the Visegrad Eastern Partnership Literary Award for 2016. It is true, however, that it would be too simplisc to exaggerate the influence of the regional element in the development of contemporary Ukrainian literature as a whole. Although literary centers such as L’viv, Chernivtsi or Uzhhorod played an important role in this process, the par cipa on of Eastern Ukraine cannot be underes mated. [cf. 3] The ques on of the a tude towards the Soviet metanarra ve is closely connected with the language ques on, which in the case of Ukrainian literature is, from the very beginning, par cularly acute. Many Ukrainian authors consider it important that their posi ons regarding this issue to become public. Thus, Yu. Andrukhovych, during the me of the Orange Revolu on, signed his name under a collec ve le er, representave of the Ukrainian intelligentsia, which was directed against the presiden al candidate Yanukovych and was against the Russian language in Ukraine, which was, in the le er, called the “language of criminal

onal concepts could gradually lessen, and condi ons for a wider diffusion of postmodernist or globalist concepts in society could occur. Because, in the case of Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Ukraine, the development of na onal concepts was, due to par cular historical developments of the 19th and 20th centuries, to some degree retarded, the change from the Soviet metanarra ve to the na onal, took on rather difficult paths. Ukrainian Literature and the Change from the Soviet Metanarra ve Towards the Na onal Among the three countries, Ukraine appears to have had the most no ceable change in the apparent rejec on of the Soviet metanarra ve and has moved towards the creaon of a new iden ty through new Ukrainian literature. We can measure the shi in priori es in the themes and types of characters as seen rather vividly, for example, in the opposi onal pair village-city: in the 1990s, urbanized literature began to successfully compete with the tradi onal stereotype of folk mentality and the symbolical ethnos, land, and work influenced by social realism, which soon brought about a destruc on of this tradi onal stereotype. [9] Degenera ve phenomena, typical for the village-type discourse was accompanied by a shock produced by the rapid development of open society. In this process, a key role was played by a new genera on of authors, who began to publish works in the 1980s, affected by the atmosphere of perestroika. A significant influence on the literary process was the work of Yu. Andrukhovych, whose name is connected with the beginning of contemporary Ukrainian literature abroad. This interest, in turn, undoubtedly influ16

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and the Club of Home Reading, of the large German media group Bertelsmann. [2]

and pop songs.”[5] It is symptoma c that subsequently, the signatories of the le er stated that this statement had to with not Russian language per se, but to the way it was used by Yanukovych and his followers. The connec on between the ques on of language and new Ukrainian literature and in rela onship to the legacy of the Soviet metanarra ve can be seen not only in the declara ve rejec on of Russian language, but also in the language of the prose of Yu. Andrukhovych, which is a parody of oﬃcial language and pseudo na onal clichés, and also features the introduc on of Ukrainian slang into literature. [9] It is natural that in all post-Soviet countries, the ques on of the language of literature has its own economic, or rather, commercial aspect. From the view of sales, the mul million book market of the “Russian World” beyond the borders of Russia, is a force to be reconned with, as we are talking about millions of copies and millions of dollars. If we consider that un l 2014, more than 90 % of books which were sold in Ukrainian bookstores were from Russia, and by this we mean, naturally, books in the Russian language, and that a er 2014 the percentage of Ukrainian language edi ons in bookstores rose to 20-23 %, that means that a por on of these millions, changed their des na on. The process of distribuon of Ukrainian edi ons was accompanied and was supported by a change of ownership structure of the companies which are involved in the distribu on of books. Besides this, in connec on a great demand for Ukrainian edi ons, mo vated by poli cal events, recently chains of stores which specialize in Ukrainian language literature have become very ac ve. Among these are Kniharnia E, owned by the Austrian ECEM Media GmbH <www.book-ye.com.ua/shop/>

Literature in Belarus and the Condi on of Hybridity In the literature of post-Soviet Belarus, the ques on of the legacy of the Soviet metanarra ve presents itself somewhat diﬀerently. Here, in the 1980s and 1990s, there appeared tendencies which were analogous to ones which we have discussed earlier about Ukraine: thanks to a new genera on of authors, there appeared avant-garde texts, a wide use of games, of shock eﬀects, of primi vism, and an a empt to “create a boom” in literature, for example, by the crea ve society Bum-Bam-Lit, which was founded in 1995. [1] However, in light of the specifics of the poli cal situa on, this did not lead to a breakdown of the legacy of the Soviet metanarra ve and in me, there appeared a situa on which was to become popularly known as a hybridiza on of some degree. In the Belarusian literary world, as well in society at large, the presence of the Soviet metanarra ve is dominant, however, at the same me, there is a place for in the “aquarium” for alternave forms. The formal aspects of this situaon are reflected in the reten on of journals of the Soviet era, which con nue to be published with governmental support, and at the same me of the existence of the “alterna ve” publica on Dzieyaslou, which has been published since 2002 and which has apriori rejected the Soviet metanarrave. [4] A similar distribu on of forces can be seen also in the publishing business. The main player on the market of crea ve works is the publishing house Mastatskaya Litaratura, which receives support from the gov17

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phere of perestroika, got such a nega ve reac on from the conserva ve part of society, that a group of “mothers of internaonalist warriors” filed a lawsuit against her for distor ng the image of the Afghan War soldier. The lawsuit stemmed from the drama za on of her book on the stage of the Belarusian Yanka Kupała Theater. Her book about Chernobyl and the fate of the Soviet man of the era also caused controversy. [11] From 2000 to 2013, the Alexievich lived abroad. Her posi on as a “renegade” can be illustrated by several controversial issues closely related to the ques on of the legacy of the Soviet metanarra ve. A er Lukashenko came to power, she has consistently opposed his policies, so much so that the state publishing house stopped prin ng her books. However, it is characteris c that at the same me, she cri cized the opposi on for the fact that it has “no poli cians,” but rather “specialists in culture, dreamers and roman cs.” The cri cal posi on of Alexievich towards the legacy of the Soviet metanarra ve can be seen in such topical issues as the annexa on of Crimea to Russia. This topic, of course, has not yet found its expression the literature of Alexievich, but her posi on as a respected author on this issue has been already heard not only in public discourse but also in the literary world of the country. Alexievich condemned the Russian policy towards Ukraine at a press-conference on October 8, 2015, the same day the Nobel Prize was awarded, and contrasted the “good Russian world, the humanitarian Russian world, that world, which is respected by all: of literature, ballet, and great music” with the world she disliked, of Beriya, Stalin, Pu n, and Shoygu. The public aspect of her cri cal posi on makes it clear

ernment. The catalogue of this publishing house is rather large, but authors from the “alterna ve” circle are not to be found in it. The majority of them work with the private publishing houses Lohvinaŭ and Haliyafy. [11; 6] It is symptoma c, that in the state of hybridity, there coexist several literary genera ons: the “classics” of the Soviet period are seen as the core of “oﬃcial” literature, while the new genera on is connected more with the “alterna ve.” It is true, that a form of hybridity is likewise seen in the texts of authors of the new genera on. An exemplar in this regard is the novel Minutochka by I. Babkov, in which a desire to deal with the legacy of the Soviet metanarra ve is seen, and in which the feeling of helplessness of the Belarusian intellectual who grew up with the idea of the correctness of the tradi onal na onal concep on, must reconcile with the reality of the condi ons of Soviet life. Naturally, in the works of this new genera on of writers, which is oriented towards non-Soviet forms of modern or postmodern literatures, new tendencies can be seen more dis nctly. However, one must note, that even the “classics” such as B. Bykov and N. Gilevich tried to sense and crea vely rework the new reality. In this context, is especially interes ng to see the place of Svetlana Alexievich in the literary process, and in literary life. Born in 1948, she is formally part of the “classic” genera on of literature, and connues to develop tradi onal themes such as war and the fate of the Belarusian village. However, her approach is so original, that it can hardly be sa sfactory for a reader oriented towards the legacy of the Soviet metanarra ve. Her work Zinky Boys (1989), which is the result of the atmos18

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aquarium. [11]” Today, just like in the 1980s and 1990s, we can o en see discussions which express the idea that wri ng in the Belarusian language is useless, because the language has “prac cally gone out of use.” However, these “pocket” and “insignificant” authors are considered to be writers who have the widest range of ideological orienta on and aesthe c values. In such a situa on, can we really see works wri en in the Russian language, or even published in Russia, as Belarusian literature? This ques on has become especially poignant a er Alexievich was awarded the Noble Prize. Alexievich herself said that she considers herself part of the Belarusian world, and her statement was not missed by the public. This led to a shi and to her being considered not as a Russian but as a Belarusian author. [7]

who is ul mately responsible for this situaon in Russia, a country in which “86 % of the popula on is happy how people are being killed in Donetsk, and laugh at these khokhols.” [7] In connec on with this feeling of being in a helplessness posi on, we can note that some skep cism in the works of Alexievich can be seen using linguis c corpus analysis. An analysis of the coloca on of the keywords “to be”, “to be able to” and “person” showed a tendency towards a pessimis c understanding of the capabili es of man to be someone or to achieve something. [12] The image of hybridity is also seen in the specific language situa on in Belarus, which in general is characterized by an official dual language policy, but prac cally speaking, the Russian language dominates and Russian language literature is en rely dominant in the book market, both according to the number of tles and according to the number of sales. The situa on is to a large degree influenced by a policy of governmental support of state owned publishing houses. Accordingly, Belarusian language literature is mainly connected with the opposi on and with “alterna ve” culture. It is wri en exclusively by so called “pocket authors” for the “Belarusian

The Literature of Azerbaijan and the State of Inhibi on The legacy of the Soviet metanarra ve in the literary process and literary life of Azerbaijan seems to take specific forms. In the 1980s and 1990s, the country also saw a revitaliza on of a na onal movement, and with it, a movement towards a filling of 19

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to con nue the tendency, which appeared at a late stage of the development of “Soviet Literature” in the atmosphere of perestroika: a tendency towards a thema za on of guilt and repentance. From this point of view, this novel in post-Soviet Azerbaijan is excep onal to the same degree, in as much as its ethical posi on is excep onal in Azerbaijani society as a whole. [10] That is why it is not surprising that Stone Dreams, which first appeared in the Russian language in the Moscow journal Friendship of Na ons, received such a sharply nega ve reac on from the Azerbaijani public, and first of all, from the poli cal elite. Although Aylisli is famous, and has received many awards, he became a vic m of cruel persecu on. In Azerbaijan, his books were publicly burned, and he was deprived of all state awards, including the tle of People’s Writer of Azerbaijan, and his pension forfeited. [10] The ques on of the language of literature and the establishment of a new literary iden ty of Azerbaijan appears to play a marginal role. The illustra ve case is Aylisli’s novel Stone Dreams. Although it is wri en by an Azerbaijani author, it became famous due to an authorized transla on into Russian, and being published in Russia and in Russian, it entered the reality of public and literary life of Azerbaijan. Thanks to the controversy, which was accompanied by its publica on, it is now well known to a broad range of the public, although it appears that not all who protested its appearance, have actually read the work. Thus, in the state that Azerbaijan is in, a novel wri en in Russian, and further, according to the tradi ons of the perestroika variant of “Soviet Literature,” becomes an instrument of transference of the values of Europeaniza on of literature.

“white holes of the na on’s history.” However, under the hereditary regime of the Aliyevs, literature became an “interest of the state” and this, naturally, was reflected in literary life and in the literary process. Thus, although Azerbaijani literary historians characterize the 1990s in general as a period of searching for new aesthe c direc ons and postmodern and ironic revitaliza on of classical literature, the examples given by them usually refere to the fact that authors are relying on theore c and aesthe c principles of European authors, and that the framework of new theore cal and aesthe c principles of Azerbaijani prose are seen in the widening of elements of the detec ve story, fantasy, an utopy, Turkic mythology, and Western surrealism.[8] In reality, a solid posi on in the course of the first two post-Soviet decades was held by the “classics” of the Soviet period such as Anar, I. Guseynov, the brother Ibragimbekovs, E. Efendiyev, and A. Aylisli. [8] Among the most successful authors of the younger genera on, we can men on E. Safarli, the works of whom have large press runs in Moscow. However, these reflect rather the commercial face of literature of post-Soviet Azerbaijan. In the works of the “classics” you won’t find a rejec on of tradi onal forms, nor a search for new genres, nor irony, and in this regard, they don’t go beyond the literary borders defined by perestroika. It is exactly towards this border, that Aylisli’s novel Stone Dreams is poin ng to, touching upon the painful theme of crimes commi ed by the Azerbaijani side against the Armenian side in the context of the Nagorno-Karabakh War, and in the wider historical context of the 20th century. In the ideological sense, the novel can be considered to be rare in the post-Soviet literary scene, for its a empt 20

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Literature 1. БЕЛЬСКІ, А. Сучасная літаратура Беларусі: Дапаможнік для настаўніка. Минск : ТАА «Аверсэв», 2000. 127 с. ISBN 985-6389-61-5. С. 13 2. ВЛАДЕЛЕЦ «Читай-Город» инициировал свое банкротство. delo.ua 10 ноября 2014. [онлайн, доступ 08 марта 2017]: h ps:// delo.ua/business/vladelec-chitaj-gorod-iniciiroval-svoe-bankrotstvo-282895 3. POLISHCHUK, Y. 2015: Premoni ons of War. In: Eastern Partnership Literary Review, Vol. 2, 2015/2, с.25-30 4. Пра Дзеяслоў. [онлайн, доступ 08 марта 2017]: h p://dziejaslou.by/пра-дзеяслоў/# 5. РУССКИЙ на Украине: «язык попсы и блатняка»? Русская служба ВВС 24 октября 2004. [онлайн, доступ 08 марта 2017] h p://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/russian/talking_ point/newsid_3945000/3945397.stm 6. СИНЮК, Е. Суд постановил прекратить деятельность издательства «Логвинов» из-за выпуска «экстремистских» материалов. [онлайн, доступ 08 марта 2017]: h p://news.tut.by/society/375313.html 7. «Я СЕБЯ чувствую человеком белорусского мира» в газете Салiдарнасць ot 8 ок-

тября 2015. [онлайн, доступ 08 марта 2017]: h p://www.gazetaby.com/cont/art. php?sn_nid=102701 8. CƏFƏROV, T. 2015: Azerbaijani Literature of Post-Soviet Period. In: Eastern Partnership Literary Review, Vol. 2, 2015/1, с. 5-10. 9. DULEBOVA, I. 2014: Ukrainian Literature: Current Status and Perspec ves. In: Eastern Partnership Literary Review, Vol. 1, 2014/1, с. 7-11. 10. MATEJKO, Ľ. – PACZELTOVÁ, P. 2015: Stone Dreams as a Repentance Novel. In: Eastern Partnership Literary Review, Vol. 2, 2015/2, с. 13-17. 11. POSOKHIN, I. 2014: The Literary Situa on in Contemporary Belarus.In: Eastern Partnership Literary Review, Vol. 1, 2014/1, с. 13-18. 12. SLAVENSKOJ, D. 2016: Corpus Methods of Analysis of Slavic Language Literature: A Small Corpus of Svetlana Alekseyevich’s Works. In: Вестник Карагандинского университета. Серия Филология 3(83)/2016, c. 23-27. 13. WORLD Literature Today, November 2011. Post-Soviet Literature: Twenty Years A er the Fall. Доступно онлайн: h p://www. worldliteraturetoday.org/2011/november

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Methods of Assessing Social Change Through the Language of Literature in the Countries of the Eastern Partnership

text of literature in non-Russian language majority territories; 3) the issue of freedom of expression of the author in varying legal and societal contexts; 4) the changing posi on of the author in society, and the changing place of literature in the broader social context. As iden fied by Matejko, language, both the choice of it, and how it is used, serves as an important criteria indica ve of specified types social change. [4] Measuring the choice of language used in a par cular work or broadly in the book marketplace seems at first to be a simple task. Focusing on the two Slavic language countries, Ukraine and Belarus, it is possible to iden fy key problems in assessing language change which have to do with, as iden fied by Matejko, the changing role of the Russian language in these socie es. As Posokhin [3] noted in an earlier edi on of the Eastern Partnership Literary Review, among “characteris c traits of present-day literary Belarus,” “the dominance of Russian language on the book market.” With regards to Ukraine, according to Krouglov, “Russian… remains one of the major languages in Ukraine by the number of speakers and its use in the media. However, no two sta s cs about language use agree and they are imperfect at best.” Using bibliographic databases of books in print It is possible to iden fy the works, and from then one can see various trends in the emerge. However, in the case of Ukraine and Belarus, where Russian language literature is o en imported from Russia rather than printed in the country itself, data on sales rather than books in print may be more reflec ve of the actual market. This data, however, is not readily available. Therefore, any study of the choice of language would have to be specifically limited in scope: surveying, for example,

Danslav Slavenskoj* How can we track changes in langauge with regards to social change in the countries of the Eastern Partnership? Popular literature is a reflec on of what interests society, it may be a vehicle for a sort of collec ve self consciousness of a society, less popular literature, then, is reflec on of a certain more narrow interest, which may be relevant in a more limited contact. Seeing this social change through literature provides us with insight into new developments in language and literary style. Since literature provides us with a reflec on of the way a society perceives itself, we can also make some esma on of the direc on in which a par cular society is headed. However, before this assessment is made, a suitable methodology must be selected, which, given the specific par culari es of the countries of the Eastern Partnership, needs special a enon. In his presenta on at the Literature and History of Slavic Studies Conference, which took place in Bra slava on April 12, 2016 – April 13, 2016, Ľubor Matejko outlined four major categories which are broadly reflecve of the type of social change which may be seen in the literature of the countries of the Eastern Partnership overall. According to Matejko, these are: 1) new literary phenomena, the ques on of the choice of language; 2) the rela onship of the author to the Russian language, especially in the con* Danslav Slavenskoj, Comenius University in Bra slava; danslav.slavenskoj@uniba.sk

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language, but also Ukrainian and Belarusian and other languages in which literary works are published. Previously unknown words appear a er 1991, driven by, why may propose, by the rapidly changing poli cal and social landscape. New words may enter via adver sing, transla ons of new texts, contact with other cultures, or through the poli cal realm. The use of these words, therefore is indicave of social change, and can be measured. How can we most eﬀec vely track changes in lexis with regards to social change? Beyond simply iden fying new words, it is important to see how they are being used in a text. One of the most reliable approaches is a corpus based one. According to Koteyko [2], “the vast majority of corpus-based analyses tend to rely on texts wri en in English or other languages of the European Union”, which only underlines the importance of such an approach to studying literature in this region.

only those books published in a certain country. This limita on, however, would mean that any such assessment would not be indica ve of what readers where actually engaging. Therefore, it would be necessary to separate an assessment which accounted for language use from a readerconsumer-percep on centered approach to that of an author-work-centered approach. Not only the choice of language can be assessed, but also the language itself. According to Ryazanova-Clarke [1] a er 1991, with “the disappearance of the despo c Soviet state and, together with it, the ritual Communist Party rhetoric and the ideological prevalence over public speech could not but incur deep shi s in the Russian language,” a change which aﬀected “lexis, word forma on and morphology.” In linguis cs, lexis refers to the en re collec on of words which are used, therefore, this means a change in word choice. Presumably, this change aﬀected not only Russian Literature 1. RYAZANOVA-CLARKE, L.: “Developments in the Russian Language in the Post-Soviet Period.” Journal of Communist Studies and Transi on Poli cs 18.1 (2002): pp. 97-116. 2. KOTEYKO, N.: Language and Poli cs in PostSoviet Russia: A Corpus-Assisted Approach. Houndmills 2014.

3. POSOKHIN, I.: The Literary Situa on in Contemporary Belarus. In: Eastern Partnership Literary Review 1.1, Bra slava 2014. 4. SLAVENSKOJ, D.: Literature and History of Slavic Studies: Conference Report. In: Slavica Literaria 19, Brno 2016.

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What is New in Ukrainian Literature a er Maidan 2013-2014?

porary means that, which has appeared a er Maidan. Literature which has somewhat different themes, purposes, ways of existence and a different audience. Let us talk about these differences.

Iryna Zabiiaka*

Diﬀerent Themes

For several years I have taught a university course about contemporary Ukrainian literature. The first lecture is always devoted to the ques ons: What is contemporary? When does the contemporary Ukrainian literature begin and why? Un l this year, the answer was clear, and it was supported by the famous Ukrainian literary cri c Tamara Hundorova and her work Post-Chernobyl Library: Ukrainian Literary Postmodernism (Kyiv, 2013, 3rd ed.) In it Hundorova declares that contemporary, or in her terms postmodern literature in Ukraine began in 1986, a er the Chernobyl accident, when the society changed. This trauma, for Hundorova, is the point which brings a new vision and a new art, a new literature. In 2013-2014, Ukrainian society got a new trauma, which is s ll changing it drama cally. We are now living as part of this process, we are in the process of transformaon and incipience of something diﬀerent. Tamara Hundorova wrote in her blog for Krytyka magazine “Maidan as a Symptom: Trauma, Wound, and Crypt,” in the April 2014 issue, that “Ukrainian culture will be changed by Maidan. We are collec ng the archive of post-trauma c memory: the quodian memories of the witnesses and parcipants.”1 And this year’s answers from the students to the ques on: “What is contemporary Ukrainian literature?” confirm this. Contem-

A er the events on Maidan and during the the war on the territory of Ukraine, the elements of real life have become a central theme. The focus of Ukrainian literature for long periods of me, from the Independence un l today, was one of a focus on the past. This was mixed with the need to aﬃrm the existence of Ukrainian history and culture, to remember the past, to understand it and give it a meaning in the present. It was a process of self-iden ficaon. Texts with such a theme became popular both inside and outside of Ukraine. In 2009, the most important novel by Oksana Zabuzhko, The Museum of Abandoned Secrets, was published, and it deals with diﬀerent periods of Ukrainian 20th century history. It was popular not only in Ukraine, but also received the Angelus Central European Literature Award in Poland. The main topic of the novel is how Ukrainians see their own history (Holodomor, Soviet Union period, Independence un l the Orange revolu on) and how they see their role in all these events. The next popular novel from the last ten years is Voroshylovgrad by Serhiy Zhadan, which was published in 2010. The novel got the The Book of the Decade prize from the BBC and several prizes outside of Ukraine. It tells the story of a town in Eastern Ukraine near Luhansk. It is wri en in a mysterious style, we do not know any details about the place, but we see the past, mainly Soviet, which is s ll present nowadays.

* Iryna Zabiiaka, Taras Shevchenko Na onal University of Kyiv; iryna.zabiiaka@gmail.com 1 h ps://krytyka.com/en/community/blogs/maidansymptom-trauma-wound-and-crypt

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posts, addresses on the Internet, fragments of the news.” These books do not pretend to be works of fic on; they are o en presented as non-fic on or even news reporng. The events, which started a er Maidan and which are taking place to the present, are even more drama c and long-termed. Their influence on the society is not s ll clear. We are living though them right now, so we are not able to make any statements with any certainty. That is why the texts about the war may be divided into such categories: 1. poetry, 2. non-fic on, or literature which is close to non-fic on, and 3. literature for women and children. All of them have something in common, their main point being a reac on to the present situa on with facts or feelings, but not with though ul analysis. In the first category, there are three poetry books, which show some specific tendencies. First is the book The Marie’s Life by Serhiy Zhadan, and it is an example of good poetry about the war by already well-known author. It is perhaps the best work by Zhadan. The second is the book Poems from the War by Borys Humenyuk, this is the poetry which was born right on the war and shows the real feelings of its par cipant. The third is the book Apricots from Donbass by Lyubov Yakymchuk, who comes from Luhansk and describes her feeling about the region and its destruc on. In the second includes a book formed from reports wri en by journalists The War in Three Le ers, and the most popular Airport by Serhiy Lojko, which describes in text and photos the period of defense of Donetsk Airport. Books typical of the third group are The War, Which Changed Rondo by the Crea ve studio Agra a, a book which helps children to understand what the war is, and the novel Process in

In 2012 the novel The Tango of Death by Yuriy Vynnychuk was published. It also became a book of the year, awarded the BBC Prize. The novel is situated in several periods, but primarily before and during the Second World War and today, the loca on is Lviv. It deals with the historical period of me, when the life of different na ons living together in Lviv was interrupted by the Holocaust, the war and the Soviet period. The last novel I would like to men on, is Felix Austria by Sofia Andrukhovych, which was published in 2014. It received many prizes, including the BBC Prize of the Year. The story is takes place in the 1900s, in Stanislav, now Ivano-Frankivsk, and presents the period of the history which show the border of old and new life of the region, then part of Austria-Hungery. Most of the popular Ukrainian novels from the recent mes are concerned with traumas of the past, and some historical points, important for Ukrainians — the end of Russian and Austria-Hungarian Empires, the Second World War and the events right before and a er it, Soviet and post-Soviet life. But a er the changes in the state of affairs, which began in 2013, literature turned its focus on contemporary events, not only the revolu on and war in Ukraine, but on many aspects of everyday life. The theme of Maidan became very popular in 2014, but it was mostly represented in non-fic on and poetry, not in prose. Popular edi ons (for example, Chronicle by Eyewitnesses: Nine Months of the Ukrainian Opposi on, or Euromaidan. Chronicle of Feelings) were just trying to record the events, thoughts and feelings of different people, to quickly make a portrait of the me, not to analyze or evaluate anything. For example, the first book is “made up of the most popular in that me social media 25

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tours for book promo on, and they take an ac ve part in cultural events. Contemporary literature appears in the form of theatre or cinema, for example, the film Yakov’s Century, which was based on one of the most popular recent books by Volodymyr Lys. There are also many transla ons of the classics and contemporary European and world literatures, which bring new ways of thinking and a new quality of language. The important processes of self-presentaon, for example par cipa on in large scale book fairs in Frankfurt or Bologna, of Ukrainian literature outside of Ukraine, is also taking place more o en, and that means that interest in Ukrainian literature in spreading.

Mariupol by Halyna Vdovychenko, who tells about the war from a woman’s point of view. There were several other books, which try to work with war as a material of art, for example, Ukry by Bohdan Zholdak or 2014 by Vladyslav Ivchenko, but they didn’t become very popular. Diﬀerent Purposes Literature during last several years has become very important for the purposes of describing and explaining Ukraine in diﬀerent aspects of its life. This purpose became important for Ukrainians who started to reopen their country for themselves, and for foreigners, who are interested in Ukraine because of poli cal and social changes that take place here. That is why many non-ficon books, which describe current events, problems and changes in Ukraine, appear. Two of them are representa ve examples: Saint Porno by Bohdan Lohvynenko, a biographical book about the life of a Ukrainian porn-actress, and Father on Maternity Leave by Artem Chapaj, which tells his story, which is not common in Ukraine. Both of these books are about something which is really happening nowadays in our country, but what is rarely spoken of, it is hidden. Some of these plots become important in society as it changes. They are not about the war, but about Maidan and the events a er it, which are men oned in both of them. They show other processes which, I suppose, is part of an important social aspect of Ukrainian life.

A Different Audience And that brings us to the last difference, the audience. Ukrainian literature tries to be interes ng — for Ukrainians, and there it is successful, and for foreigners, and there it has a difficult road to tread. More and more Ukrainians go to presenta ons and discussions about literature, and this growing interest may be explained by different reasons, that literature became more actual, that people are looking for answers to some philosophical and historical ques ons, which may be found in books. The transla ons from Ukrainian, however are not so widespread. There are problems with self-presenta on and with the ability of the Ukrainian state to support this process, but nevertheless s ll it takes place. It seems, Maidan and the war a er it brought new ways of existence of Ukrainian culture and literature. So, perhaps, it is me to speak of a new period in Ukrainian literature.

Diﬀerent Ways of Existence Ukrainian literary life has become more bustling. There are many examples of how new fes vals and book fairs, writers go on 26

Literature, Art & Society

Goodbye Lenin: The Heritage of the Soviet Metanarra ve in Fic on and Nonfic on

and tells the story of four classmates, Vova, a powerful Russian oligarch, Vadik, a senior colonel in the Kremlin Palace Guard, and Venya, a surgeon living in Israel, and Vitya, a professor at the University of Copenhagen who reunite to celebrate together their 50th birthday. Ini ally Tarn opens with a sa re on post-socialist Russian oligarchs, who can do everything with the requisite Russian eccentricity: a hippo hurtles around the palace; naked ballerinas dance an ero c Swan Lake. Friends, fed up with the synchronized swimming of the naked ballerinas and the hippo defeca ng, decide to move from the palace to the old cemetery, where they used to spend their me as boys. They are sipping low-class vodka and ea ng salami with a significant content of cat meat. One of the friends, Vova, is s ll very much upset because of a terrible state secret. Tomorrow, Lenin’s corpse will be taken from the mausoleum to be buried. Moreover, it is Vova’s birthday tomorrow. The friends, encouraged by the vodka, conceive of a plan to steal the mummy from the mausoleum to fulfill Vladimir Ilyich’s birthday wish (Vova’s full name is Vladimir Ilyich Voznesenskij). With Vadik’s money and Vova’s contacts in security circles, it is not a problem to steal Lenin in broad daylight. They succeed and take the corpse to the oligarch’s yacht; however, a commando sinks the yacht. Just two of friends survive, Venya and Vova, and Lenin, who is resurrected and begins to organize a new revolu on. In his pursuit to regain power over Russia, Lenin’s goes on a journey that retraces some historical milestones of his own past: his return to Russia in a sealed carriage, his stay in Razliv. He gets entangled with an extremist party with the peculiarly schizophrenic name the Russian Na onalis c-Communist Party of Bolsheviks-Leninists and succeeds impressing the masses at

Sylvia Mičíková* Des ny of the cult of Lenin in the post-Soviet period is complex, diﬃcult to grasp, and full of passions. Despite its reflexion in newspapers, the process of coming to terms with the cult of Lenin is depicted in several contemporary literary works. A grotesque, and by the end, even tragi-grotesque approach is presented by Aleks Tarn in the novel Steal Lenin. The novel was published in Moscow by publishing house Eksmo in 2008, and shows how the cult of personality has changed in contemporary Russia. The basis for this historical phantasmagoria is illustrated through the Tale of Koschei the Immortal, whose magical palace is not located in the Never Land: it stands right in the Red square. It is the Mausoleum. Undoubtedly, in the background of the novel there is a discussion, which has dragging on for years, about whether the mummy of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, be er known as Lenin, has its place on the Red square or not. Aleks Tarn, also known as Aleksey Tarnovitsky, was born in 1955 in the Russian Far East, in Primorsky Krai, and grew up, studied and worked in Leningrad. Since 1989 he has lived in Israel. Tarn began his literary career rela vely late, in 2002, with a novel The Protocols of the Elders of Zion nominated for the Russian Booker Literary Prize. In 2015 Aleks Tarn was awarded Yuri Stern Prize for Literature “for special contribu on to society and culture.” The novel Steal Lenin, was wri en a er author’s nostalgic journey to St. Petersburg, * Sylvia Mičíková, Comenius University in Bra slava; miciksylvia@gmail.com

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ing house did not no ce that a malicious foreigner is not just bi ng, but spi ng in the face of great Russia, its great people and its great literature.” At the end of 2007, he corresponded with the publishing house Eksmo, which consistently rejected everything that he sent. Having already lost faith in their joint future, he sent them the text of Lenin. To his surprise, they liked the novel very much. According to the editor, “they laughed to tears — the whole editorial office.” Very soon, apparently under the influence of cri cs, their rela onship deteriorated. Condi ons to establish such a grotesque image of the cult of Lenin in the Russian book market were, in 2008, more favorable than they are today. From 2000 to 2008, the Russian economy grew at a rate of 7 %2 and the Russian economy was on track to become one of the biggest economic powers, and this posi vely influenced the sen ment prevailing in the society. Would it be so easy to publish such a caricature by in any serious publishing house in Russia today? The complexity of the development of the cult of Lenin can be traced through Russian media discourse. Just one month a er the failed 1991 Soviet coup d’état a empt, the newspaper Izves a published an ar cle tled “Minus Leniniza on of the En re Country”3, with a sub tle expressing the ideological polariza on in society characteris c for the period of transi on: “Monuments are being dismantled, ideals are collapsing. For some — a tragedy, for others — libera on.” The author Nikolay Andreyev approaches the process of de-Leniniza on not as the ul mate liquida on of cult of Lenin, but he rather proposes a “shi ing of

a May Day demonstra on. The grotesque turns to the tragi-grotesque. Lenin’s pilgrimage ends in a cacophony of protests in the streets of St. Petersburg. The riots suddenly cease when Lenin vanishes upon deciphering the secret of Lenin’s resurrec on, symbolically borrowed from a Russian fairy tale, Koschei the Immortal. Koschei is depicted as a very old and ugly-looking man who cannot be killed by conven onal means targe ng his body, and neither can Lenin die a er the a ack of the commando, nor upon the accidental separa on of his head from his body, hence the reference to the Soviet poli cal slogan “Lenin lived, Lenin lives, Lenin will live!”The fairy tale reveals that Koschei’s, or other monster’s, soul, or death, is hidden separately from his body, inside a needle, which is inside an egg, in the case of our story, the mummy’s genitals were stolen, which is inside a duck, and it is actually placed in a duck shaped urinal bo le, which is inside a hare, which is inside a chest, a cardboard shoebox, which is buried under a green an oak tree, or alterna vely on an oak tree, located on the island of Buyan, in this case, Vasilevskiy Island in St. Petersburg. Anyone possessing the egg has Koschei in their power. He begins to weaken, becomes sick, and immediately loses his magical abili es. If the needle is broken, Koschei will die, or alterna vely, another monster, Lenin, suddenly disappears. Tradi onal and historical image of Lenin as the leader of revolu on in Tarn’s interpretaon turns into a caricature. Leader or not, the grotesque handles nobody with kid gloves and Lenin instead of being tled “Leader” deserves at best the tle “shorty” or at worst “the embalmed rhotacizing asshole.” The author on his website1 refers to reviews which he saw on the Internet: “The reviewers… were oﬀended: cri cs were surprised at how such a venerable publish-

www.alekstarn.com h p://mytvorimehospodarstvo.sk/ruska-ekonomika-nakolenach/ 3 h p://www.yeltsincenter.ru/digest/release/den-za-dnem -16-sentyabrya-1991-goda 2

Literature, Art & Society

proposal of the mayor of St. Petersburg, Anatoly Sobchak, to transfer the corpse from the Red Square to St. Petersburg and bury it in accordance with na onal and religious rites in Volkovsky Cemetery did not ignite nega ve responses in society. The experience of Bulgaria and Mongolia with the peaceful burial of na onal communist leaders encourages the author to believe that “we will apparently witness the burial of Lenin’s corpse.” Moreover, he bases his claims upon the results of a sociological survey showing that 68.2 % of the respondents, Muscovites, supported the burial of the body and only 25.5 % disagreed. The author’s belief in desacralisa on of Lenin and the mausoleum can be a ributed to the apparent influence of the atmosphere following failed coup a empt of the conservave part of the communist nomenclature. Communism, in addi on to material heritage, le behind a legacy of non-material nature. Lenin’s premium, the Order of Lenin, Lenin’s Prize - are these compromised by their ideological bias? The author asks further rhetoric ques ons: “Who and for what is to be awarded with the Order of Lenin?” Finally, the author addresses the issue of coping with the legacy of Leninism le in the form of toponymical names. Although the names of some towns and villages like Leninabad, Leninakan and obviously, Leningrad, quickly disappeared from the map, the author appeals to stay calm and slow down the process of renaming towns, villages, streets, and squares, as he believes rather in natural and peaceful ways and refers to prac cal issues connected with such changes. Andreyev hopes that readers will not accuse him of the repudia on of Lenin, rather, he a empts to understand both Lenin’s personality and Leninism and the en re communist ideology while not rejec ng one’s own past. He interprets his a tude

[the cult] to the periphery.” The next secon examines further fate of monuments, busts, portraits and memorials sta ng that the process of their removal has been launched and cannot be stopped. The opponents of the process declare that Lenin did much for the country and deserves a place in the memory of the na on. Nonetheless, the author seeks to provide a balanced account of Lenin and Leninism. Further, the author ponders over the ars c value of the monuments of Leninism. Their low ar s c value4 legi mates their removal. The author’s subjec ve opinion is supported by the fact that no respected art ins tu ons have shown any interest in acquisi on of these works. Their removal should be neither construed as a physical destruc on nor are they to be thrown away at the dump. The crea on of a park of sculptures and other monuments of totalitarianism in front of the New Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, aspiring to become another tourist a rac on, serves as an example of good prac se. The author con nues with his reflec on on the possible fate of several museums, a significant part of the tangible heritage of Leninism. Their expected reduc on should preserve5 only those in which Lenin will not be the central exhibit but only one of several exhibits. Thus, Lenin as a person, shall become a pure object of historical research, not the object of poli cal rite. Andreyev in his reflec ons on coping with the communist past, could not omit the sensi ve issue of the fate of Lenin’s mausoleum and the burial of Lenin’s remains. The 4

The topic on ar s c value of memorials is elaborated by Dario Gamboni in The Destruc on of Art, Iconoclasm and Vandalism since the French Revolu on, Reak on Books, London 2007. 5 Sankt Petersburg itself counted 11 museums at the me of wri ng the ar cle.

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is manifested non-drama cally, uncontroversial. Change in the manifesta on of historic vigilance occurs at a cri cal period of me: if this approach is applied to the contemporary Russian experience, namely to the failed coup a empt in 1991 and the subsequent disintegra on of the USSR, the policy of memory and especially that of memorials comes to the foreground, if not directly to the centre of the construc on of a new na onal iden ty, dis nct from the iden ty which existed in the context of the former Soviet Empire. Forrest and Johnson examine the fate of places of memory of Soviet memorials in search of a new Russian iden ty, and analysed the rela onship between historical memory, na onal iden ty, and memorials. Such memorials are divided into co-opted or glorified, disavowed, and contested.9 Coopted or glorified memorials are maintained or exulted further. Disavowed memorials are literally or symbolically erased from the landscape, either through ac ve destruc on or neglect of the state. The contested remain the object of poli cal conflict and are neither clearly glorified nor disavowed. Contemporary Russian media discourse shows that statues of Lenin play an important role in the acute phase of Russian postimperial trauma. They are interpreted as a symbol of Russia and of the unity of the Slavic na ons of the former USSR. A certain shi in the interpreta on of the poli cal meaning of these symbols is apparent while their historical value is used as an argument. This is well illustrated by comments on the recent events in Ukraine, where the ini al-

towards the heritage of Leninism as a programma c departure from Leninist tradions. However, he understands that for a part of society, the departure from Soviet metanarra ve represen ng an integral part of its past is painful. The ar cle illustrates one of the first a empts to deal with the communist regime, and even though it was wri en a month a er the a empted communist coup, it provides a sober perspecve and ra onal approach. A realis c assessment of the situa on can be seen in the formula on: “The ques on is not which legacy is to be rejected but rather which legacy we are not able to leave behind.” The post-imperial trauma of the Russian poli cal elite repeatedly arising in connecon with the dismantling the monument of the Soviet Empire is not a par cularly excep onal phenomenon. Analogous processes are observed in postcolonial discourse in virtually all empires, which were formed like Russia was at the beginning of the modern age, and which suﬀered from collapse and gradual poli cal, economic and cultural release of former colonies from dependence upon parent imperial centres. Pierre Nora6 in his extensive cultural and geographical work, argues that in modern mes tradi onal forms of memory have been replaced by places of memory (lieux de mémoire)7, an analysis of which allows tracing basic con nui es and discon nuies in the poli cs of na onal iden ty. Although monuments as permanent signs of memory and history appear to be strong, they s ll require both physical and symbolic maintenance, which Nora described as commemora ve vigilance.8 During a peaceful poli cal situa on, monumental vigilance

8 Nora, Pierre (1996) Between Memory and History, Realms of Memory, Rethinking the French Past, Volume I, Conflicts and Divisions. New York: Columbia University Press 9 Forrest B, Johnson J. Unravelling the Threads of History: Soviet-Era Monuments and Post-SovietPost-Soviet Na onal Iden ty in Moscow, at h p://www.dartmouth.edu/~crn/ crn_papers/Forest-Johnson.pdf

Nora, Pierre (1984 – 1992) Les lieux de mémoire. (three volumes) Paris: Gallimard 7 Specific loca ons where formal and folk memories are formed, argued and take root.

Literature, Art & Society

ly spontaneous destruc on of statues was legalized by the adop on of an Act on the Condemna on of the Communist and Naonal Socialist Totalitarian Regime in Ukraine and on the Prohibi on of Propaganda of their Symbols.10 In context of the events in Ukraine, the press and not only in Russia or Ukraine, introduced the neologism leninopad (“Leninfall”) — the destruc on or dismantling of Lenin statues. The website www.leninstatues.ru in the sec on Leninopad records in detail the situa on, and not only in Ukraine. According to the latest data, a total of 1,221 statues and monuments to Lenin were dismantled in Ukraine in the period from December 2013 to June 2016. Radical rejec on is represented by the Russian poli cal scien st Oleg Bondarenko in an ar cle in the daily Izves a en tled “New Ones. Russians.” “…Meanwhile, dismantling of monuments to Ilyich, mockingly called by Euro-bandits Leninfall, now threatens to dismantle the en re country.”11 The author was apparently inspired by Leninfall in the crea on of his own neologism Ukrainefall, “…the destruc on of monuments to Lenin is followed by disintegra on of something which seemed to be un l recently a single country — to paraphrase the Euromaidanists, the Leninfall led to Ukrainefall.”12 The daily Sovetskaya Rossiya used in rela on to Leninfall, another neologism, the antonym Leninrise, “…As if there was no Leninrise in the east of Ukraine, as the answer of the pro-Russian Ukrainians to the Leninfall of Kiev and of West Ukrainians…”13

The author oﬀers his own interpreta on of the concept of Leninfall: “In the ‘revolu onary’ Ukrainian media this series of a acks on monuments received even a special name – Leninfall.” Rustem Vachitov, of course, dis nguishes between the situa on in Western Ukraine and Kiev and the situa on in the East of the country where the Leninfall was not encountered. While the destrucon of statues in the West of the country is perceived as a divestment of the last relics of “cursed sovietchina” (everything that refers to the Soviet past), in the East of the country, nightly patrols protec ng Lenin monuments are organized, the par cipants of which are o en members of the Communist Party of Ukraine and pensioners, who lived their life in the USSR. Many opponents of the removal of Lenin statues even admit that their a tude towards Lenin’s ideas is nega ve. One explains that the former symbol of the poli cal regime in the new condi ons acquired a completely new value — na onal: “It just happened that Lenin in the East of Ukraine turned into a symbol of Russia, a symbol of Slavic unity, a symbol of the unity of the na ons of the former USSR.” He explains that these symbols in revolu onary mes have the power to reconcile the communists with their otherwise staunch enemies. Lenin is repeatedly referred to as a symbol of Russia: “Lenin as the symbol of Russia was chosen by the people of Ukraine, and by both of its hos le poles — the people of Western Ukraine and the people of Eastern Ukraine.” Monuments to Lenin as a symbol of the Russian na on are undoubtedly a topic subject to dispute by opposing par es. The crea on of the neologism Leninfall is interpreted as an appeal addressed to the State authori es to confirm oﬃcially the connec-

10 h p://w1.c1.rada.gov.ua/pls/zweb2/ webproc4_1?pf3511=54670 The Act came into force on 21 May 2015 and requires dismantling all memorials dedicated to Lenin and other oﬃcials of the communist regime within six months. 11 h p://izves a.ru/news/566852 March 2, 2014 12 h p://izves a.ru/news/571434 May 25, 2014

h p://www.sovross.ru/modules.php?amp&file=ar cle& name=News&sid=596396 March 25, 2014

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on between Lenin and Russian patrio sm: “to formalize this link of the image of Lenin and Russian patrio sm.” A similar approach towards Lenin as the symbol of patrio sm is chosen in an ar cle published in the daily Izves a en tled “The second bap sm of Rus’.”14 Poli cal analyst Anton Sviatenkov advocates that it was Lenin who created the Soviet Union as an incubator of na on’s states, the meaning of which vested in crea on of union of states by Russia. Their subsequent independence, which was unavoidable, was a reflec on of the Soviet Cons tu on, which gave the republics the right to secession: “The Kiev authori es, which organized the ‘Leninfall’ throughout Ukraine, are surprised when they are told that the true author of the modern Ukrainian iden ty is ‘Ilyich’ himself.” Izves a addressed the issue in another ar cle en tled “Medinsky Promised to Protect Monuments to Lenin.”15 Vladimir Medinsky, the minister of culture at the me, noted that an -Sovie sm was used as a tool of an -Russian propaganda, and stated that an -Sovie sm and Russophobia are not the same. Interviewed experts and historians commented on Leninfall in Ukraine. The poli cal analyst Sergei Markov perceived Leninfall as poli cal murder, while the historian Ta ana Chernikho spoke out against any removal of statues of Lenin because she was convinced that they had reminded one of the horrors of the Soviet past. For this very reason, a representa ve of the associa on Memorial, Nikita Petrov, on the contrary, disagreed with the removal of all Lenin statues, since a celebra ve remembrance of an atheis c of the regime oﬀends the feelings of the faithful. Another synonym of Leninfall, which quite frequently appears in Russian media

is that of vandalism and barbarism: “of course, old style vandalism, without which the “heroes of Ukraine” cannot survive even a day”.16 An ar cle of the daily Argumenty i Fakty is en tled “Ukrain-barbarians. Ukrainian Na onalists Demolished the Monument to Lenin in Kharkov.” The associa on of barbarism and vandalism with pro-Western oriented protesters is underlined by mul ple warnings, that it was not damage or destruc on of “an ordinary” work of art, but of an object of cultural heritage, the damage of which can give rise to criminal proceedings for destruc on or damage of objects of cultural heritage. Selected ar cles from contemporary Russian media show Lenin as a key symbol of the Soviet metanarra ve which survives in the post-Soviet discourse in a transformed form. The interpreta on in collec ve memory is split into a symbol of communist ideology and a symbol of Russian imperial power. The imperial component dominates in the context of liquida on of statues in Ukraine and revitaliza on of the imperial ambi ons of Russia, although par ally, the original content of the Soviet symbol survives. Simultaneously, the Russian media present statues of Lenin as a symbol of the unity of Russia and the Slavic na ons of the former USSR. In the terms of the defenders of the statues of Lenin, the ideological content, that is, Lenin as a key element of the communist metanarra ve, has shi ed towards that of historical value, that is, Lenin as a part of the imperial metanarra ve. Opponents of the statues of Lenin perceive them as symbols of a dark past, but there is li le consensus among them on the important issue of their fate: some ask for their ul mate removal, while others seek preserving them as a deterrent to totalitarian regimes.

h p://izves a.ru/news/589341 July 29, 2015 h p://izves a.ru/news/586706 May 20, 2015

h p:/ /www.aif.ru/euromaidan/predic on/1348374 September 29, 2014

What´s on in Literary Life

What´s on in Literary Life Anastasia Kholdakovskaya on Literary Life of Odessa Interview by Svetlana Fedoruk*

It was a rainy, but surprisingly warm, late autumn evening. The yellowed leaves were already falling down from the trees, the sky blazed with crimson glow of sodden lanterns. The conversa on was friendly and warm, painted in golden shades. Perhaps this eﬀect of golden pollen was created by my interlocutor Anastasia Kholdakovskaya. She is a lady who is famous in the circles of journalism and in the literary life of Odessa. Despite her young age, Anastasia has already released a book about journalism, regularly publishes ar cles in diﬀerent publica ons, and is a frequent guest at social events. She is a respected person in Odessa literary circles for her quality poetry and prose. Addi onally, for the past three years, Anastasia has been holding literary evenings and manages a literary “Club of Poetry and Prose by Anastasia Kholdakovskaya”, which gathers more than a hundred admirers of literary art.

read, yet there are lines, which allow us to see something ordinary in a new way.

How does inspira on come to you? More o en, some separate lines appear spontaneously, those later combine in a complete verse. For me, poetry is not that much a process of some repe ve work, but, rather, a spontaneous inspiraon, a kind of a stream which one can modify later. I think that a good poem comes not out of mind but from the heart. It is necessary to dis nguish real poetry from rhyme-making. Real poetry is when the unusual view of usual things is expressed in such a way, that the meaning is clear to every reader. For example, the poems of Sergei Yesenin, a classical poet of the Silver Age of Russian literature. His poems can simultaneously touch the both connoisseurs of poetry as well as ordinary people. They are easy to

Who visits your literary evenings more often: connoisseurs of poetry or ordinary people? Different people come to us: their poetry is different, their favorites are different too, but, despite this, a kind of unity is always felt during these evenings. And that is good. Thanks to this unity there occurs a co-creaonal process which contributes to crea on of en rely new works: both in form and in content. While working together, we can all learn something and support each other. It is also possible to prompt the crea ve colleague with words: “here, for example, the third line is rather weak” or “in that part, the verse makes for a weaker emo onal background than needed”. However, this is pos-

* Svetlana Fedoruk, Odessa; svetlanka1989@inbox.ru

Eastern Partnership Literary Review Vol. 3 (2016), No. 1-2

Over the course of a year, we organize approximately twelve mee ngs and evenings. Each me we choose a diﬀerent author and a diﬀerent topic. It helps us to develop. Last autumn, for example, our choice was the great creator of classical Russian literature: Mikhail Lermontov and Alexander Blok.

sible only if there is a team of like-minded people, who try to help one another. I thought it is like this in all crea ve studios… Unfortunately, crea ve people o en encounter a situa on when a number of experienced literary cri cs allow themselves to sharply cri cize beginners, who have only recently embarked on the literary way and, have decided to share their crea vity for the first me. I am against harsh cri cism. A er all, when a human being has created something and dares to read a poem, unlike many others who simply write poetry des ned for the drawer, to share what is on their mind with others, and by way of response, they hear: “You write not in a proper way! You are doing it wrong!” such a case has two possible outcomes. If a person is strong, they will not pay a en on to it, and, maybe, they will even listen to the cri cs’ advice, as they are o en right. But if the person does not have suﬃcient confidence, if they are very sensi ve or introverted, such cri cism can destroy their desire to share their crea vity. They will probably con nue to create, but will newer show their poetry to anyone. Friendliness to everyone who comes to us is a feature of our studio. We try, even if a person does not write that well, to prompt them with some nuances concerning their stage speech or presenta on. It is not enough to write good verse, you must be able to read well, so that the listener can feel what message is hidden in the text. Some mes, we also try to help with versifica on. All that is needed is to tap into the desire that a crea ve person has. The best way to advance one’s literary development is to read classical literature, to broaden ones’s personal outlook, and perhaps, inspira on will start to come by itself.

Yes, I’ve heard very good reviews about the event. Why has the studio chosen these literary figures specifically? It is not possible to minimize the level of Lermontov’s and Block’s contribu on into the history of poetry. We hold our evenings once a month and we could not aﬀord to not to pay our a en on these poets. I like their crea vity very much. Especially, Blok’s crea vity. He is my favorite poet. If I am not mistaken, Blok was born on the 28th of November, and Lermontov was born on the 15th of October. I think that to hold a literary evening in the month in which the poet was born is best. It allows us to focus on his biography. You mean, the choice to hold the event, devoted to these creators, in the same day, is only due to the fact that they were born in autumn? Or there is some other reason? I find that these authors are very similar. Lermontov in certain things, certain emoons, precedes Blok. The season itself begs us to recall these poets. They were born in the same season, and they, in some measure, represent the late autumn. Both in the works of Lermontov and in the works of Blok we can see a certain number of tragic elements. At the same me, there is a subtle beauty in this tragic element. In the works of Blok, lanterns are very o en men oned. He even has a poem en tled “Night, street, street-light, drugstore” 34

What´s on in Literary Life

The third part is “open mic”, when anyone present person can read any poem written by themselves or by any classic author. This part is aimed at those who have joined us for the first me and to those who were not sa sfied with the one poem reading. We keep a strict order. Many poets come to us, and if each of them will start reading two or more poems, the literary evening will never end. Some mes musicians and bards indulge us with their presence. We are glad to see everyone. We try to support every person who has a desire to share their own crea vity. It is already important that they have decided to take this important step, from which all further steps take their beginning.

At the end of November, you may no ce, there is a special glow from street lights. It is when the light from street lights creates a special shade, making it a li le crimson. This crimson glow I associate with Blok himself. As I have said already, I see poems in different colors… As far as I know, this is not the first poetry evening organized by you. Tell us a li le about your previous experience from similar evenings. “Club of Poetry and Prose of Anastasia Kholdakovskaya” has existed for about four years. During this me, we held our evenings in different places and dedicated to different authors. We have held it in a Chrisan café, in restaurants, and even in a women’s prison. We have par cipated in various fes vals and compe ons. Talking about the loca on of our events, it always inspires people when you’re in a pleasant space. We try to find places that evoke a roman c, poe c spirit, where the atmosphere itself encourages a performance, our ability to read, to share our crea vity.

Could you could hold your evenings much more o en…? Certainly, but I think once a month is the most op mal me for a person to devote themselves to crea vity, no ma er how busy they are. In addi on, during a month’s me, one can manage to prepare a worthwhile program. It is possible to consider both the quality of performances and the best me available for all par cipants. It is not necessary to hold a literary evening o en, the main thing is to have a great evening.

What structure do literary evenings usually have? Our literary evenings consist of three parts: The first part is educa onal. In this part, we speak a li le about the biographies of the poets, that which we remember. Crea ve people must know the lives of other poets to understand their psychology be er, to feel the meaning of their lyrics deeper. We talk about their crea vity, analyze it, and dedicate me to read their works: at this me each par cipant recites one poem of the chosen classics. In the second part we read our own poems. Every poet has to read one of his own poems.

What does inspire you to organize such evenings? What is the goal of such events? The desire to help crea ve people be inspired. I am pleased that I am able to do something good for crea ve people. I believe that all crea ve people are fellows in some way. We must support each other. I do not wish to spend my life doing roune work only. I wish to do something good for other people and for the world. This striving to do something, inspires me. Our 35

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bring their sisters, brothers, and friends. Now many people find us by themselves — mostly through friends, by way of television and via social networks. We have our own page on vk.com and our own channel on Youtube.

studio is, to a great extent, a charitable one, not a commercial one. Addi onally I really like to communicate with crea ve people. Such an environment helps one develop. Yes, I’ve no ced how many crea ve people a end poetry evenings of the studio. Ar sts, musicians, journalists, and, of course, writers and poets… How do you find an audience? I never used to search for an audience. Many crea ve people from my surroundings started to visit the studio from its very beginning. However, at first, I o en performed on various TV channels and was interviewed by various journals. For example, Odessa TV channel named had a show “We Have Something to Say”. There we had to talk about our ac vi es in the scope of ten minutes. I talked about the crea on of the studio for crea ve people, who did not know where to perform, and had the opportunity to find a place where they could be supported and no ced. Then, a er the broadcast, diﬀerent people started to call me, they were people of diﬀerent categories. Among them were both the true lovers of poetry, as well as and the divorced and lonely, far from literature, who simply liked me (laughs). But s ll, some people, a er that broadcast started visi ng our literary evenings. I won’t say that I deliberately informed others about our evenings. It happened that I found those who were interested in the studio while a ending various events and talking to crea ve people. Later, the founders of other literary events visited my literary evenings and found an audience. A kind of crea ve symbiosis. It also happens that I, a er arranging an evening, tell others about it and hear in reply: “Oh, but my sister writes!” and people

Is every thing held according to the plan and regula on or the words “crea vity” and “order” are incompa ble things? For me, in crea ve disorder there must be order! There were, of course, cases where there was a crea ve mess, but now I act strictly according to the rules, a crea on of verse in a place of clu er. However, the evening should be strictly organized. The best criterion of crea vity, its success, and the most truthful valua on of art comes not from cri cs, not from writers, not from some great figures, but from the audience. From the common man, who liked your poem or did not. If you see that a group of people likes your poems, you can be sure they have some value. Various cer ficates, awards, are nothing if your poem cannot touch the heart of a person deeply. So, as a priority, our evenings are focused on the audience. And in any case, the audience must not see a crea ve mess; they must see something beau ful, structured and interes ng. It happens that at the end of the evening we have a kind of compe on for poets, which mo vates them to read well and keeps them in a shape. Then, we appreciate not just a poem, but the quality of its reading. For the best reading, they receive some special prize associated with poetry. Usually we present notes, pens and books: all that is necessary for poets. But there are special cases. Once there was an evening with the name “Boots can’t trample the soul”, dedicated to Vladimir Vysotsky. The 36

What´s on in Literary Life

The youth can be different. There are young people who are not interested in literature, and I heard that there is a large percentages of them. Personally I do not see this group of people, because I am in a different environment. It seems to me that among our youth there are many smart, educated, well-read people who are interested in literature, and they study it not superficially, but very deeply. Their range of interests varies. Some direc on of youth towards literature is important. There should be a policy at the global level in the field of culture, aimed to cul vate an interest in literature in various ways. We can say that the aim lies in the populariza on of certain slogans, like: “Reading is fashionable!”, “To know literature classics is fashionable!” “To know your literature is fashionable!”… At the regional level, there already exist different studios which popularize literature. A person is able to go somewhere in their free me to relax in a warm, soulful place to hear poetry and to have a moral relaxa on. Such an outlet also helps to replace bad habits with useful ones. A er all, just like you can replace smoking with running, you can replace going to unsuitable places with going to a literary salon.

evening was named that way in reference to of one of the lines of his song, the essence of which is: despite all of life’s obstacles, despite the fact that that our world is some mes rough, despite that o en, everything goes wrong, in any case, a human should not lose the romance in their soul, the love of beauty and the urge to create something good and bright! Humans should not lose their own light! Inspired by this idea, that evening we decided to present to the winners a symbol which matched the slogan “Boots can’t trample the soul.” That day, we had two winners: a lady received a boot, inside of which grew alive flowers, and to a young man we presented a moulage of a li le violin also hidden in a boot. By the way, I would like to know about the age category of the poets and listeners who take part in such events. People from 14 to 70 years come to us. Among our guests is a tango dancer, who is already in the category of people over 60 years and young people in age group of 14 – 16. The most ac ve are about 25 years old. Most are students. The student years are a me when in the soul of a human there are s ll blooming hopes and expecta ons, when a person is s ll able to dream, is in a constant crea ve searching. Enthusiasm is burning inside, and, as we know, this enthusiasm keeps the world alive. I am truly glad that there is an older category which does not lose its romance. Mostly, they are poets – roman c, vulnerable, sensi ve, able to feel the world…

And what is connected to your interest in poetry and how did it appear? My interest in poetry arose one day because of a fascina on with a crea ve person, or, be er to say, with crea ve people who I was surrounded with at the me. A desire to live not an ordinary life, but to con nuously learn new things, to develop non-standard ways, this also mo vated me. I started my literary journey mostly because of curiosity. Verses started to come to me later as a stream. I tried to write and

What do you think can be done today for promo on of classical literature among young people? Or the person must come to the understanding of the beauty himself? 37

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appear at in any moment and then reappear again. It may happened in the life of every crea ve person – that for some period of me it is not possible to create anything new. A similar situa on is when you rise to some level, and people expect that you’ll be able to produce more and be er crea vely, but you’re not able to. Because, if you’ve reached the peak of your abili es, it is not possible to overcome yourself. When a person experiences this kind of crea ve problem, they may start doing destruc ve things. It is called “a crea ve crisis”.

realized that I really do like it. And from that, a desire to develop in this direc on appeared. What is the subject of your poems? How long have you been wri ng poems? I have been wri ng poems for three years already. My poems are laconic, as I hold the opinion of another classic of the Russian literature – Anton Chekhov: “brevity is the sister of talent.” Although, of course, there are brilliant poems, such as “Mtsyri” by Mikhail Lermontov, “A Le er to Women” by Sergei Yesenin, “A Cloud in Trousers” by Vladimir Mayakovsky… But personally I love brevity: the moment of a par cular mood, the moment of a par cular emo on. My lyrics are mostly philosophical: either of philosophy, or of love; I would call it “the philosophy of love.” A er all, everything exists in this world is associated with love. Human life is based on either love or on its absence. Love can be diﬀerent, of different objects, in diﬀerent manifesta ons. Love experiences are a great source of crea vity. In fact, any emo on is a raw material for crea vity.

What do you think of modern poetry? Can modern poets expect such literary success as, for example, the heroes of the evening Lermontov and Blok? Of course, they can expect success if they keep on constantly working on their crea vity. Many of our poets are already famous. Many of them have published their poems in anthologies, they have experience par cipa ng in fes vals, and they have received some kind of tangible reward… I think that in future they will rise to new heights. Crea vity is a kind of adventure. You create, but you never know whether it will be interes ng in a hundred years or whether it will turn to dust. Have you no ced that the best poets appear at a me of historical crossroads? Wars, revolu ons, natural disasters always push poets to create art. The crea ve spirit ac vates at mes like this. If we follow thought, we will no ce that there are not many famous poets who write during a me of peace…

Do you think a person learn wri ng poetry or is some innate talent is required? I believe that the ability to write poetry is a gi from God. O en it can be a gi , but of course you must constantly work at it. God gives you a diamond, and you, if you are capable, must have it cut, and create a polished stone from it. It is most curious that at some stage you have this gi , but it can spontaneously dis-

Suddenly our conversa on was interrupted by a young man who arrived to Odessa from Minsk. “Excuse me, I managed to accidentally overhear your conversa on. I would like to know how can I a end your literary event…” Anastasia smiled to me and said… “You see, this way poets find each other…” 38

What´s on in Literary Life

Susanna Harutyunyan on Humanism and Armenian Literature Interview by Nina Cingerová*

Novelist and playwright Susanna Harutyunyan was born in 1963 and in the seven es she started to publish in literary journals. Since her first book of short stories Eternity (Հավերժությունը, 1996) a couple of books followed, such as Monday at the end of the century (Դարավերջի երկուշաբթին, 2002) Rumors of life (Լուրեր կյանքից, 2006), Legacy of Spring (Ժառանգաբար փոխանցվող գարուն, 2007), It is spoken about the autumn (Խոսքը աշնան մասին է, 2009), Map without land and water (Քարտեզ առանց ցամաքի եւ ջրերի, 2010). The author par cipated in the writer’s ini a ve in Armenian-Azerbaijani rapprochement and contributed to the portal Mediafairplay. org with a new short story.1

What is it like to be a writer in contemporary Armenia? Our planet was always an uncomfortable place for talented people, and, because Armenia now lives in extreme circumstances: war, blockade, the influence of globalizaon, these inconveniences grow among us. If we have two words to describe the state of Armenian writers, then we can say that they are like newly orphaned children of the handicapped. They need love, a lot of it, they need someone to devote their life to them, to protect them, to feed them un l their death, otherwise, no ma er how talented a writer, they will be doomed. However, this approach we don’t see, neither form society nor from the government, which is why many talented people are leaving their homeland.

How would you describe the literary process in contemporary Armenia? Can we speak, in connec on with it, about some kind of established tendencies, direc ons, or pathways? Modern Armenian literature is as diverse and mul faceted as life itself. Here we can find any kind of literary direc on, beginning from the most ancient to the most modern, or rather, a mix of them. However, to be honest, the most successful are those authors, who write in tradi onal styles and genres. Not long ago, I found the book Pleyada Yuzhnogo Kavkaza, an anthology, which was published at the conclusion of the Contest of young Russian language poets of Transcaucasia. What is the state of Russian language literature in Armenia? I’ve heard of the book… In Yerevan there is also an authors’ club, and for those wri ng in Russian, the Union of Writers has a Russian language sec on, there are seminars, with editors from Russian a ending, which — following old Soviet ideas, are convinced of the fact that they can teach us in master classes, and that we have a need for such.

* Nina Cingerova, Comenius University in Bra slava; nina. cingerova@gmail.com 1 h p://mediafairplay.org/litlab/arm-writers/susannaharutyunyan/

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Today we have great literature, especially prose, and readers prefer, at least in regards to themselves, to read about themselves in their na ve language. From all the literary genres only adventures, fantasy, and science fic on are read in Russian, because we do not yet have any kind of authors wri ng in these genres, and not enough of this sort of literature is available in transla on. Of course, there are writers who were educated in Russian, who write in Russian. However, they are not very popular, because of the reason men oned above: demand, and, because of the absence of excep onal talent. In Armenia, the journal Literary Armenia is published, where works of modern Armenian writers are published in Russian transla ons. It is available on the Internet. Ninety-nine percent of authors, if we don’t include Yazidis, Kurds, and Assyrians, write in Armenian, because Armenia today is, with regards to ethnicity, almost heterogeneous, and therefore authors, and readers, for the most part, are consumers of Armenian language. Without doubt, it is superfluous to speak of a border between Russian language and Armenian language literature, because today Armenia has no Russian language literature.

Which language is preferred by authors and publishers, and based on what (if we make a comparison, for example, with other countries of the former USSR)? We can say with confidence, that today in Armenia, no Russian language is being produced in the Russian language. However, it is curious that there is a demand for it from the reader’s side. Among us, literature in Russian is consumed, however it is not created. This is because prac cally nobody remains who is acquainted with this language. During the me of the Soviet regime, there were mixed marriages, and Russian speaking children born of these marriages, however today, because of difficult social condi ons, they have le for Russia. Our government was also not able to keep refugees from Azerbaijan, for whom Russian was, although not na ve, but because Armenian was for them forbidden, and Azerbaijani, they disliked. They preferred to resort to a third language: they were all educated in Russian, and in their families they ini ally spoke Russian. In other words, today there is not a big enough ethnic Russian or Russian speaking popula on, to allow for an intelligentsia to form. However, there is some demand from readers. Even today, we absorb scien fic, cultorological, and poli cal literature in Russian, it is because it is not offered to us in Armenian, and we want to communicate with the world, yet in regards to works of fic on, the situa on is rather different.

There are two literary languages in Armenia: Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian. What the posi on of these two languages in modern literature? It so happeneds that the Armenian people became divided into two parts, and Armenian spiritual, and cultural heritage, likewise is divided: we have two na ve lands, two languages, two Catholicos… Western Armenian is a wonderful language, and as a writer I can say that, Western Armenian is much

Are there many cases in contemporary Armenian literature where we can even speak of a strongly marked border between Russian language and Armenian language literature? 40

What´s on in Literary Life

Kavkaz, which, in regard to genre, contained prose, poetry, essays and among other genres. I hesitate to say, however, if it was a con nua on of the project, however. Nevertheless, it was a very interes ng anthology, and upon reading it, one understands clearly: life is the same everywhere, the goals of man and the pursuit of happiness is naturally the same for all.

more expressive. It has a lexical basis much richer that Eastern Armenian, which is the language in which we speak and write at present. Before the Genocide of 1915, in this language, excep onal literature was created. Unfortunately, as a result of the Genocide, this language began to disappear, as those who used this language, and wrote in it, we killed. Among the vic ms of this Genocide was the Pléiade of Armenian authors, including the poet, Daniel Varoujan, who, undoubtedly, not only in the eyes of the emo onal Armenian, but also for many foreigners, is one of great geniuses of world poetry.

How great is the resonance of the theme of war, in contemporary Armenian literature? The theme of war, unfortunately, remains for us, an ac ve one, because literature is a reflec on of life. In Armenia, there are about 30 writers, who took direct part in military ac on, this naturally, whether they wished it, or not, is reflected in their work. The uncertain situa on on the border, the daily casual es… an Armenian, who by mistake crossed the border, who is savagely tortured and killed, acts of diversion, blockade… unfortunately, all of this is part of our lives today, and people who write can not avoid these things, to be dishonest in front of a blank sheet of paper. War darkens the youth, today it darkens their children, and it appears that there is no end to it, that the world never had, and never can gain its conscience, and say the truth: in petrodollar rela onships of major powers, the life of an individual does not ma er. And because literature is a force which keeps the humane in a person, the an -war theme remains relevant. This year will be the centennial of the Genocide of Armenians in the O oman

Are there writers, who un l today, write literature in the Western Armenian language? The first and second genera on who escaped from the Genocide, those who found themselves in various countries, could, somehow, save this language: they spoke and wrote in Western Armenian. However, the next genera on assimilated to their countries of residence. And today, we have many famous Armenians who speak and write in other languages. Western Armenian today, is a dying language, few write in it. Despite this, and several genera ons of spruk writers, as well as writers in Armenia, all of us, un l today, cannot forgive the world the Armenian Genocide and this theme remains the current and the only one that unites the many Armenians worldwide and authors of Armenian extrac on. I became acquainted with your stories in the anthology Vremya Zhit’. Does this project con nue? A er this anthology, in 2012,2 2013,3 and 2014, appeared also three edi ons of the thick, Russian language almanac Yuzhny

2 Dostupné na adrese: h p://apsnyteka.org/file/Yuzhnyi_ Kavkaz_1-2011.pdf 3 Dostupné na adrese: h p://www.interna onal-alert.org/ sites/default/files/publica ons/201203SCaucasusLitAlman acRU2ndEd_FINAL.pdf

Eastern Partnership Literary Review Vol. 3 (2016), No. 1-2

book of was simultaneously translated and published by three publishing houses, and the en re press run was sold out. Everything, including our authors, were impressed by it. In Armenian and in foreign literature, there are many excep onal works about the Armenian Genocide. In both Armenian and foreign literature there are excep onal works about the genocide of Armenians, about Turko-Armenian or Amneinan-Azerbaijani rela ons, about the Nagorno-Karabakh War war. However, few of the authors of these works, created their books in such condi ons. We were especially impressed by the bravery and humanity of the author.

Empire, and in parallel with the military theme of our literature, another topic has become a trend: that of genocide. Although this theme is present in many outstanding works of literature, both in Armenian and in world literature, nevertheless, each contemporary author is bound by a duty to say something new: as a symbol of their resistance to fate, and to honor the memories of the vic ms of the massacre. The Visegrad Literary Award 2015 was given to Akram Aylisliâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s DaĹ&#x; yuxular. How was this book received by you, or Armenian writers in general? Aylisliâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s book had a great impact on us. The

EaP Literature Abroad

EaP Literature Abroad On the President’s Cat and on Georgian Literature with Guram Odisharia

genius loci of Sukhumi and it is not really important what me period we are talking about — flowers in the garden are blooming all the me regardless of the course of history. Several storytellers are accompanying us through life of Mikhail Temurovich, showing us his ideas and dreams, describing his adventures not only with Khrushchev or Fidel Castro but with ordinary people us well. Did you know that J. F. Kennedy gave him a red haired cat? And that he was so generous he gave it to his friend? Yes, please, meet Mikhail Temurovich himself! When you get to know him and understand him you can understand the city as well. Sukhumi is an inseparable part of his life, just like Mikhail Temurovich is an inseparable part of the life of Sukhumi. The reader can expect that Mikhail Teurovich is as eternal as the Caucasuses and the Black Sea. There is just one thing which can destroy that eternal cycle of seaside life — war. War was so rude that it had courage to ruin life of Mikhail Temurovich, the life of his city and of his country as well. Through the story of Mikhail Temurovich and his city, the reader can find out more not only about Abkhazia — there is a wider story behind it — they can also find out that during diﬃcult mes, God is carrying his people in his hands.

Katarína Hrčková* Guram Odišarija: Prezidentov kocúr, Slovart, Bra slava, 2015. Transl. by Ivana Kupková. ISBN 978-80-556-1335-2

What are your associa ons when you hear the word Abkhazia? What do you imagine? Mountains, wars, ruins? The sea, the sun, or palm trees? Maybe for some of us, none of the above. Abkhazia is just a place somewhere in Georgia, a place we know nothing about. Is is just a loca on somewhere. Guram Odisharia in his book The President’s Cat shows us how wrong we are. Abkhazia, well, to be honest, mainly Sukhumi, is, or was, a place full of life, a place of pleasant smells, of seas and cafes. The novel is set in the seaside city Sukhumi, where main character Mikhail Temurovich Bghazhba lives a life of a gene c and poli cian. By way of Mikhail Temurovich, the author depicts not only typical features of Abkhazian nature but life in the city as well. He masterly depicted the

Could you please kindly describe literary situa on in Georgia in general? There is a very interes ng process ongoing in contemporary Georgian literature. Once I asked my friend from Paris, a Frenchman, what is going on in French literature. They all know Houellebecq, he is very popular

* Katarína Hrčková, Comenius University in Bra slava; hrckovak@gmail.com 43

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Guram Odisharia (*1951, Sukhumi, Georgia) graduated in 1975 from the Department of History and Philology of Abkhazia University. He was a journalist, editor of the magazine “Ritsa” and director of Abkhazia branch of Merani Publishing. He was in Sukhumi during the war me and le the city only on the 27th of September 1993, the day when Sukhumi fell. Since than he is ac ve in the field of conflictology. He held the posi on of Minister of Culture during the years 2012-2014. He is an author of nine collec ons of poetry, ten books of prose, plays, and film and television scripts. His best known novels are: The Black Sea Ocean, Return to Sokhumi, and The President’s Cat. on that saw all these wars and was in a diﬃcult poli cal situa on in the USSR before that. We were all happy that the country we used to live in disappeared, but a er the dissolu on of the Soviet Union, many problems appeared in Georgia. First there were economic problems and then these conflicts. A genera on grew up, and at the me when they were supposed to see and learn, there was a war going on, people were killing one another and so on, so emo onally this genera on can share this very masterfully.

among my friends, but nevertheless he said that he is very cri cal towards his literature, a literature which is rich and which can give more when there is a lot of ac on is going on in the country. In Georgia, there are a lot of things going on a er the dissolu on of Soviet Union – the internal conflict in Abkhazia, South Osse a, conflicts of our neighbors in Kharabakh and so on, a very diﬃcult poli cal life. That is why contemporary writers are writing so much nowadays. I am very happy because of this. I always had friends among young writers because they have new views and I think that all old problems are supposed to be solved by these new views. Each region of Georgia is diﬀerent, and young writers have innova ve novels, prose and poetry that could be interes ng for everyone.

Are there any obstacles in the process of literary crea on, problems in literature like a lack of financial support or literary magazines? Of course, all of these are obstacles for the crea on of literature. But on the other hand, in the Soviet era, there were no problems of an economic kind, all authors were printed, many books were wri en by, to put it mildly, not very good writers, and they were also printed, books of conforming writers who were wri ng ar cles or reviews. There is no such situa on in Georgia anymore. There are journals which work and which are being published, and if a person is talented, he will appear in them for sure.

What could you recommend to us? Some Georgian writers you personally like? I can recommend Lasha Bugadze, he is a very ac ve person, he is wri ng a lot, he is playwright, a literary scien st, analyst, and he has several projects for television. Then there is Dato Turashvili, an author, some mes very much like Houellebecq, and Zaza Burchuladze, who now lives in Berlin, in Germany. He is quite young, about forty years old, and belongs to the genera44

EaP Literature Abroad

Let’s talk a bit about your book. Were you a friend of Mikhail Temurovich? Yes, we were friends, in fact, he was a friend of my father, he was in our house o en as a guest and he is very interes ng person.

In general, only writers whose books are not selling are complaining, because they are not popular now, they were wri ng twenty years ago and they are s ll wri ng in same style today. In the other hand, it is very unfortunate that today there is an opportunity to publish a book for everyone. People are publishing — someone wants a book, they find the money, they finds a donor and now they are publishing books. Those books are lying on bookshelves in stores and they have flooded the shelves. But talented people, they are recognized, of course. However, before, there was a possibility to organize book presenta ons in great halls, now this is not possible, but the authors are recognized by true readers.

In your book, you depicted Sukhumi in a very colorful and beau ful way. But as far as I know, nowadays you live in Tbilisi. Do you miss Sukhumi? Sukhumi is a sea town, it used to be a mulethnic, beau ful town, many tourists were coming, including people from Czechoslovakia, so Slovaks were coming as well. We even filmed movies together, for example, the very popular movie in Georgia “Racha, My Love.” By the way, yesterday I was in Racha, here in Bra slava. There is another movie as well, which I remember from the me when I was a li le boy, and it is called “Interrupted Song”, a story about a Georgian and a Slovak who fell in love with the same girl during the war. So, it means that there is a connec on between Slovakia and Georgia through literature and culture. Tbilisi is a capital, a big city, and there are many opportuni es there, but I miss Sukhumi, and despite all misunderstandings I travel there. Last me, I was there visi ng my friends and what I especially like, it is the fact, that my novel “The President’s Cat” was on their bookshelves. They are all reading this book and it will be published this summer in Abkhazian language — Abkhazian people love Mikhail Bghazhba as well. Somehow this novel has become very popular, and it was translated and published in Azerbaijan as well as here in Slovakia. The best edi on is however, the one released here in Bra slava – the graphics of a very high quality, and the transla on is magnificent.

We spoke about Soviet Union. What is the posi on of Russian language in Georgia nowadays? Is it s ll so important for transla ons abroad? Today, the poli cal rela onship between Russia and Georgia is strained. Because of internal conflicts, there are no diploma c rela ons between Russia and Georgia and it is, of course, making the situa on worse. However, Russian literature is a great literature, and my genera on is reading freely and young people, however with some difficul es, they are reading it as well. A Russian theatre is func oning in Tbilisi. The theatre is very good and famous, great actors, even Georgians, are working there. There are also Russian newspapers being published, and we can communicate in Russian. This language helps Georgian writers — when they are published in Russian they are introduced to many more readers. So, in general, we can say that there is the rela onship with Russian is very good.

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Virtuosity

A transla on into the German language in now in progress, and the book has already been translated into Ukrainian. It was also translated into English, and there are ongoing nego a ons regarding publishing this transla on. My friends from Abkhazia are very pleased that the picture of Sukhumi is known in various languages.

Daniel Cristea-Enache* Dumitru Crudu, Salutări lui Troțki, Univers, Bucharest, 2016, 160 pp. ISBN 978-606-8631-21-9

You depicted war in very impressive way in your book. What do you feel when you are thinking about that war now? There was a tension before the war of course, but no one could imagine that a full scale war will break out. Everyone was sure that we can somehow avoid war. Unfortunately, we were not able to avoid it, and people from both sides died. At the me, I was chief editor of the journal “Ritza” which was published in the Georgian language but we promoted Abkhazian writers as well. I was sure that if we stop our dialogue with Abkhazs, mister Kalashnikov will start to speak. I was saying all the me that it is important not to stop the dialogue, I was sure, it was not possible to fight. The Abkhazs remembered it and even a er the war, when we started to see each other again, they were saying that Guram Odisharia is a man of peace, that he was always against war. Unfortunately, we were not able to avoid the war however. It is a duty of mine and of all others to try to prevent all possible types of conflicts now.

It is a gra fying fact that the volume of manuscripts which won the contest, published by the Romanian publishing house in 2015, is one of short stories. It may be a sign that the ‘short’ genre is revitalizing, capturing the interest of readers and publishers, who through the law of supply and demand, will mo vate local authors to write new short stories. It has become quite diﬃcult for a writer to approach this preten ous genre, taking in considera on that our editorial market requires, in the last decade, a short story. The short story is known as a pretenous genre, because the author who writes short stories should have at least two skills: depth of knowledge and detailed linguis c ability in the language in which they write their stories (especially, if these are of in a fic onal or realis c mode), as well as being rich literarily. From Radu Cosasu to Razvan Petrescu, and of course classics such as Sadoveanu, this double condi on is quite checkered and illustra ve. At once, fic onal reality is viewed quickly and intensively, the story or short story designs are based upon a previous alterna ve literary coding. * Daniel Cristea-Enache, University of Bucharest;

EaP Literature Abroad

on” was in the story, and in dissipated in elements with its implied aspects.Each story has an epic autonomy and this can be felt apart from others — but put together, dozens of stories in the book are composed of a fresco of Bessarabia separated from the Soviet Empire, disintegrated at the me of “that one with stain on the forehead” (Gorbachev). It is a rela vely exo c world for Romanian “brothers” beyond the Prut, but natural enough for the Bessarabians from other side. The error of perspec ve of some Bessarabian writers without talent was to write in a language loaded with idioms, doubling in this way the exo cism through a specific language. Crudu has done this intelligently, exposing pages of unintelligible Bessarabian terms and phrases for us — and using the standard language that through its “transparency”, the Bessarabian perspec ve could be be er seen. All is old and all is new: Calinescu eulogies writers like Sadoveanu and Creanga for their ar sc ins nct not to waste idioms. Throught the transparent language and “neutral” Gree ngs to Trotsky, life situa ons are more easily discernible, and conflicts can be followed to a point, in a realis c coherence. Writers and other socio-professional categories do not have much money or much to lose, since they have already lost almost everything. A birthday with cottage cheese dumplings is memorable, an unusual story in the volume where the main character is a woman: a poor woman, who on her birthday, lives out the joy from having bought some co age cheese dumpling. She shortchanged the seller, chea ng the scales, and obtained a bucket of water without paying. This me, the end was provided explicitly and was characterized by the condi on of most of the pensioners from both sides of the Prut’s shores:

From “small” gestures of character from a new story, which we read, there are whole literary chapters viewed also by the author, and by the approved lecturer. From this perspec ve, a story wri en by a cultural ignorant, an ingénue short story, represents a contradic on in terms. The second thing which should be menoned about the award and stories’ book publica on of Dumitru Crudu, is the author’s age: he was born in 1967, the author of the Gree ngs to Trotsky volume is no longer so young; but he is part of the promo ons aﬃrmed a er 1990, being a “product” of both systems, the old and the new one. He is an author who debuted with an editorial during the me of and culture the of market economy and published in 2016 stories of this caliber — this is a signal that other writers which are s ll young people can also do it. In this contextual frame, but also independent of it, Gree ngs to Trotsky is a remarkable volume. Gabriela Gheorghisor used a significant, a stronger formula in her chronicle România literară (Literary Romania) to define the author’s technique: Blitzkrieg (narra ve). Indeed, almost all texts in the book are well built and move along quickly, to points of realis c or absurd insolitar (insolit absurde). One story which is some how longer, Don’t Shoot, becomes more grotesque as it advances; it needed more textual space so that the degrada on of the rela onship between elderly parents and their son well trained by his wife, becomes epically specified and fades. Dumitru Crudu can make do on equal level, even with very short texts. The reader expects “a clarifica on” of the situa on or of the conflict, but the story ends abruptly, without providing an explicit interpre ve key. On re-reading, we find that “the explana47

Eastern Partnership Literary Review Vol. 3 (2016), No. 1-2

even though they do not know exactly for what condi ons already, and who will not change through the protest. The atmosphere of this volumes’ writer, who was born in Flutura, resembles with that one of the 1990’s: the decade in which Romania had a privileged class and a mass of impoverished people in the post-communist period. A er the rally, we are shown what happened besides chan ng, people have the illusion that something will change: “The mass mee ng has ended and people has been sca ered. People who came from distant districts moved forward in a hurry to their buses, unlike the townspeople who le the square in even smaller groups and with reeling steps, as if not wishing to leave. And they did not want to go. The rally has finished and they had no idea what to do next. For long they cried in the square, taking over the chan ng of their leaders, from they had felt inspired. But now, the excitement had le and they crawled from the square, disappointed and deflated. They would have wanted that the mass mee ng had never ended and that they could connue chan ng in the square.” (p. 42). Most of Crudu’s characters have “riddled” pockets, except gangsters or those from the social milieu of which these stories take place in post-revolu onary Romania. Before such successful exemplars, writers, painters, and in general, starving ar sts of Gree ngs to Trotsky go “in reverse gear.” These confronta ons have a predictable result. The poor man was in the wrong place at the wrong me, and escaped from being beaten only by throwing at random, as in the tular story, the names of Trotsky’s “bouncers” and “gorillas,” “gadabouts” “clevers” (or “dodgers”), ta ooed stalwarts with thick napes from the Kokos bar, with its “opaque and pink” windows. Kicked out

“From the hallway I heard water dripping in the kitchen. Splash-splash. I stripped oﬀ my clothes and entered the kitchene e. From the tap, several water drops were coming oﬀ and were tumbling into the bucket. I approached myself near the bucket and whistled happily. It was almost full. Part of the water, I poured into a saucepan, over co age cheese dumplings, and I lit the fire into the stove. The drops connued to fall down in the bucket. I went to the water meter to see if revolves. No, it wasn’t spinning, and I clapped happily. I was happy because I was using the water, but I had not paid it already several months a er I discovered this method how to shoot a sliver to those from Apă-canal (the Water Channel Company). More than in a good mood, I telephoned Elizaveta Petrovna and I called her to come quickly, ’ ll the co age cheese dumplings were not cold. A birthday with co age cheese dumplings and with Elizaveta Petrovna at the table. If my husband died and my daughter went to Canada, what else could I want for my birthday? The dumplings were good!”(pp. 64-65). As the Bessarabian leadership has led popula on to poverty and hopelessness, here’s a happy woman that “shoots a sliver” (shoot one’s bristle) to those from the Apa-canal (Water Channel Company). This volume abounds in “slivers” and other similar pi ful maneuvers; a whole series of characters enters into the category of such called famishe, starving people; a more fortunate subcategory is that one of stakeholders — and from all these circles, the social space of Crudu’s stories is outlined and highlighted. The logic, in such a framework, is that the collec ve character will be recurring: the protesters or the masses, protes ng 48

EaP Literature Abroad

ber of the Parliament of Azerbaijian. He was born in 1937 and became famous for his trilogy Peoples and Trees, which was translated into a number of languages of the former Soviet Union as well as other European and world languages. He worked as an editor for more than forty years and at the same me he translated literary works of world-famous writers into the Azerbaijani language. He also achieved success in the film industry, and there are several movies based on his works. In 2005, he was elected to the Azerbaijani parliament. In 2013, his novel-requiem Stone Dreams a racted the a en on of Azerbaijani people and provoked a violent reac on. The cause of this anger was a depic on in the novel of the pogrom which took place in 1989 in Baku and the massacre of Armenians in his na ve village in 1919. Moreover, in 2014, Aylisli was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for Stone Dreams. The novel was wri en already in 2006, but the author dared not publish it. He decided to do so in 2012 in the Russian literary magazine Druzhba narodov. Aylisli was mo vated by the murder of an Armenian oﬃcer in Hungary in 2012. The killer was in fact an Azerbaijani army lieutenant, Ramil Safarov, and he was sent home to serve the rest of his sentence in prison there. However, upon arrival in Baku, he was immediately pardoned, proclaimed a na onal hero, and promoted to the rank of major.1 Aylisli’s story is composed of deliberately picked out pieces of a puzzle representing real facts. Aylisli deliberately chose which pieces should be used, and which ones should not. This approach, and his “pro-Armenian” stance, have drawn fierce

from Kokos by the “bugbears” who follow him with inten on to maim, the an heroe beings screaming “randomly” and threatens them with Trotsky: magically, like as if he had been using a password, he is le alone. But I will not summarize, and allow the reader the pleasure of reading. These stories sure are to be read with much interest, for the writer has beside the sense of observa on, and realis c acuteness, and a rich prosaic pale e. Dumitru Crudu has passed the test of virtuosity in his short prose.

Stone Dreams in Slovak and Czech David Sasai* Akram Ajlisli: Kamenné sny, Brno, Větrné mlýny, 2015, 177 p. Transl. by Alexandra Stelibská. ISBN 9788074431593

Akram Ajslisli: Kamenné sny, Bra slava, Premedia, 2016; 144 p. Transl. by Nina Cingerová. ISBN 9788081593536

Akram Najaf oglu Naibov be er known by his pen name Akram Aylisli, is an Azerbaijani writer, playwright and former mem-

h p://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/ 2012/09/hungary-armenia-and-axe-murderer

* David Sasai, Comenius University in Bra slava; sasai.david@gmail.com

Eastern Partnership Literary Review Vol. 3 (2016), No. 1-2

out pain in their hearts. Stone Dreams are the pains in my heart, it is my sympathy with the two innocent na ons that are vicms of interests of world powers. Our naons s ll want to live side by side, but polics is an insidious and cruel ma er. It sees only its benefits and interests, serving them blindly without mercy or compassion.” The main character thereby demonstrates his opinion on poli cs and the poli cal system of Azerbaijan in a dialog with his boss and theatre director. According to him, the country is governed by corrup on and fear of the ruling elite, but his boss is willing to let this pass in silence and to do nothing. The author also oﬀers an indirect comparison of the first and last years of 20th century and demonstrates that nothing has changed. Another provoca ve aspect of the book is the depic on of religion and Islam. The author’s opinion concerning religion permeates the en re book, never in a direct way but rather through ephemeral indicaons, not avoiding sarcasm and irony. For example, the scene of circumcision celebra ons when Sadday is an honoured guest who should say just a few words and yet he starts to make fun of the ceremony and celebra ons, and even dares to ques on the Prophet and God. We suppose that Sadday’s story is to a certain extent the author’s own confession: it is a confession of wrongdoing which took place against Armenian na on. As an influen al figure in Azerbaijan, he blames himself for doing nothing to achieve peace between the two na ons. Anyone who knows this author well may no ce an analogy between his own life and that of his novel’s main character. Both are born in the same village, both enjoy life as famous ar sts in Baku, and importantly, both have made

cri cism from the Azerbaijani intelligentsia. To be able to understand the incen ve for the crea on of this book and to understand its internal structure, the reader should be familiar with the environment and the history of Aylisli’s puzzle pieces. Let us explore the story which caused such a s r. The novel relates the story of an actor named Sadday Sadykhly, and thanks to his friend, Nunavrish Karabahly, we learn the reason for Sadday’s stay in the hospital. He was severely beaten a er he had tried to rescue the other vic m of a fight — an Armenian as well. The protagonist fell into a coma and the author had the space for freedom of movement and complete immersion into the story. In this spiritual state, the author introduces several individual narra ves, their links and consequences, but he did not leave bits of real facts which form another part of the puzzle. The single point of intersec on of the two reali es came at the end of the book and with Sadday’s death. The core of the plot consists of reminiscences which depict the wrongs committed against the Armenians in the 20th century. Specifically, these grievances stem from the poli cal interests of the O oman Empire and of Azerbaijan. At the same me Aylisli ignores the suﬀering of his people on purpose, explaining it with the words: “Armenian writers must write about the pogroms commi ed in Khojaly Massacre.” He also notes that the people of Azerbaijan do not agree with this policy. This fact is deliberately woven into the dialogues between the other minor heroes of the novel. Akram Aylisli explains the message of this book in a le er wri en on the 5th of December 2015: “The conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia is very complicated ma er and no one can speak about it with50

EaP Literature Abroad

Talks on Ukraine with Yurii Andrukhovych

a break with the stereotypes of the Armenian and Azerbaijani na ons; as a result, both men find themselves in complicated and dangerous situa ons. The fic onal hero gives the author an opportunity to express his emo ons freely. Aylisli’s own memories and experiences are presented through the main character, and have given even a deeper emo onal meaning to this book. The taboo subject that was touched upon in the novel Stone Dreams, gave rise to nega ve reac ons among the Azerbaijani people, and in some cases their behaviour went to extremes that have no place in the 21st century. Among them: demonstra ons in Aylisli’s home village and in the capital city of Baku, during which people were burning his books and screaming “Death to Aylisli!”; members of his family were fired from their jobs, a reward in amount $13,000 was oﬀered by the leader of pro-government party for cu ng Aylisli’s ear oﬀ; the author was deprived of his presiden al pension and tle of “People’s Writer” by presiden al decree, and that is just the p of the iceberg. On the other hand, the author finally received a posi ve response from interna onal organisa ons such as Human Rights Watch, the Russian PEN-club, and a number of famous Russian writers came out in support for him, likewise he received support from a group of young Azerbaijani writers who also stood up for him. Stone Dreams is excep onal because it is one of the first pieces of art presen ng an a empt to break the stereotypes of the rela onship of Armenia and Azerbaijan. This is why it is interes ng to see what this new phenomenon may bring, and to see under what circumstances this topic will appear again and also if it has any poten al to affect the present state of social consciousness in general.

Jakub Bartók* Paweł Smoleński: Šče ne vmerla i ne vmre. Rozhovor s Jurijom Andruchovyčom. Žilina, Absynt, 2015. 176 pp. ISBN 9-788097-182366

The book offered in a Slovak transla on by the Absynt publishing house, is the result of Paweł Smoleński’s four-day interview with Yurii Andrukhovych, which took place at the end of June and the beginning of July in 2014. It is wri en in haste and at a me when nobody knew would be the future of Ukraine. Therefore, it is a book full of emo ons. The fact that it was written as a co-opera ve effort of a Polish and a Ukrainian author, makes it even more interes ng. A Slovak transla on en tled Šče ne vmerla i ne vmre. Rozhovor s Jurijom Andruchovyčom was published in 2015 by the Absynt publishing house. Even though the Ukrainian revolu on is no longer on the news, the situa on in Ukraine remains one of the most difficult one in the realm of current affairs. Translated from the Polish language by Slavomír Bachura, the translaon can be cri cized for some occasional gramma cal errors and sporadic unclear language. Since its establishment, the aim of the Absynt publishing house has been to * Jakub Bartók, Comenius University in Bra slava; jakub.bartok@gmail.com

Eastern Partnership Literary Review Vol. 3 (2016), No. 1-2

oned in the book: Yanukovych, Bandera, Donbas, and these require the reader to have a basic knowledge of Ukrainian as well as East European history and poli cs. Although the tle book may resemble the text of Ukraine’s na onal anthem Shche ne vmerly Ukrainy ni slava ni volya, as Yurii Andrukhovych explains,1 it is in fact, a paraphrase of the poem by Ivan Franko published in 1914. And it can thus be seen as a kind of symbolic gesture that a book with this tle was published a hundred years later in 2014. Yurii Andrukhovych begins his narra on by describing the situa on a er Yanukovych’s refusal to sign the European Union associa on agreement. He hurries to support the newly-formed movement in the Independence Square, known as Maidan. “We will not let those brutes beat our children!” That is how Yurii Andrukhovych expressed his indigna on with the violent interven on of the Berkut against the young protesters. Had Yanukovych had avoided such a violent ac on, the protest would have probably ended in a couple of days, and although most the protesters had no idea what was the associa on agreement about, a need for closer European integraon was on their minds. The author take us straight to Maidan. The dialogue oﬀers a vivid recollec on of the escala ng situa on in Kiev, and pays special a en on to the Ukrainian poli cal scene. When describing the situa on, Yurii Andrukhovych and Paweł Smoleński do not mince their words. For example, Andrukhovych’s says about the elec ons: “In our country the lesser evil is doing great.” Pa-

enrich the Slovak book market with the world-famous non-fic on literature and documentary photography. Its ambition is to publish especially those authors who were awarded prizes either for their works, or for their fight for human rights. It is a non-profit project, funded by its own, by book sale proceeds, grants and donations. Yurii Andrukhovych is a well-known Ukrainian poet, prosaic, translator and musician, also well known as an ac vist fighting for the rights of his na on. His novel The Moscoviad was published in 1993. Ten years later it also appeared in a Slovak transla on. These days, Yurii Andrukhovych performs with the Polish experimental band Karbido, and so far, they have released three records. At the end of May 2015, he took part in the Brak Bra slava Book Fes val where he introduced himself as a musician as well. He also works also as a translator from several European languages, and through his work in Polish, he became acquainted with Paweł Smoleński, the Polish journalist and writer. Paweł Smoleński began his career as a samizdat writer, and his works later appeared in Polish émigré journals published in Paris. Nowadays, he ranks among the best journalists who are working on the issues of the Middle East. His eﬀorts to write about those in need gave impetus to the birth of to Šče ne vmerla i ne vmre. Rozhovor s Jurijom Andruchovyčom. It oﬀers new perspec ves on the current situa on in Ukraine, and strives to answer ques ons that have not been answered before. It was wri en in the form of a dialogue, yet Paweł Smoleński enriches the interview with a story that draws the reader straight into a chain of events. Names of poli cians, and specific Ukrainian concepts, are o en men-

At a mee ng of a literary club, which was held on November 25, 2015, an event organized by the Absynt publishing house in Bra slava.

EaP Literature Abroad

taught that every Western project, and thus the queer, liberal, European Union as well, must be destroyed, taken apart, but preferably beaten at its own, Western game.” Damaging the West is, according to Andrukhovych, essen al to Russia. It helps Russia to forget its own problems. “Actually, Russia is a poor country. It is falling behind. Money from the marke ng of mineral and fuel resources is being spent. Russians don’t produce cars, cell phones or computers of their own design. They aren’t innova ve, they don’t have any new inven ons or technologies. They have already failed to launch rockets several mes and the number of launched rockets is decreasing every year. Large groups of the Chinese are living in Siberia. Russia is s ll great, but it’s constantly sinking. They keep on bragging, keep on ac ng like tough guys in front of the whole world. But when something cracks inside, not even Pu n will be able to fix it. Not even if he lives a hundred and twenty years.” The animosity and subjecve point of view that characterize the style of the whole book can be seen in this quote. Both writers share a strong an -Russian a tude. The text is full of vulgar words, sarcasm, and irony. The writers’ a tude is understandable, but a reader unfamiliar with the context might find it rather fana cal. Take for example, the nega ve a tude toward Russians is the following quote by Yurii Andrukhovych: “Russians are a gene c mixture of Mongols and Finno-Ugric peoples. They are not the Slavs. They are just barbarians from the Siberian steppes. That’s why we will never get along with them.” On the other hand, thanks to the coarse descrip on and the straight forward nature of the narra on, the reader can feel deeply touched by the situa on. A er all, we are

weł Smoleński agrees: the situa on in Poland is the same. One of the most interes ng parts of the book is a chapter dealing with the controversy over Stepan Bandera and Ivan Mazepa. While in Western Ukraine, they are considered heroes, in Eastern Ukraine they symbolize the evil in its purest form. The complicated rela onship between the Rightbank and the Le -bank Ukraine can be illustrated by Andrukhovych’s quote: “People from the Donbass region considered themselves more Russian than Ukrainian even in Ukraine’s heyday.” The fact that people from Eastern Ukraine are more pro-Russian oriented can be explained by them living in the Soviet “paradise” several decades longer. Andrukhovych’s retrospec ve narra ve is dedicated to his own experience in Soviet Russia when he was studying at the Ins tute of Literature in Moscow. The experience he gained during this period described by him in the novel The Moscoviad. He speaks of this period with strong sense of aversion and disgust: “At that me, Moscow was a city in a state of total collapse, decay. That’s how I saw it, and how I described it. Even the s fling Soviet atmosphere of the ins tute added to the overall mood of the book.” Andrukhovych’s depic on of the life of ordinary Russians and their feelings also deserves note: a er the dissolu on of the USSR, they, in fact, felt wronged and betrayed by the other Soviet republics. At the end of the book, the a en on of Paweł Smoleński’s interview with Yurii Andrukhovych turns to Ukraine’s eastern neighbour — Russia. It deals with Russia’s foreign policy, power ambi ons and, finally, its president Vladimir Pu n. In Andrukhovych’s opinion, Russia is a conquering state. It has always tended to expand and broaden its territories. “In the KGB academy, Pu n was 53

Eastern Partnership Literary Review Vol. 3 (2016), No. 1-2

context of the narra on, his ques ons are of great importance. They are not only humane, but by asking them, he can at same me, comment on the situa on and add new informa on.

talking about the second largest European country and our Eastern neighbor. Despite the book being devoted mainly to the opinions of Yurii Andrukhovych, credit must be given to PaweĹ&#x201A; SmoleĹ&#x201E;ski as well. In the

The Eastern Partnership Literary Review is devoted to problems of literary process, literary life and book culture in the post-soviet area, especially in Eastern Partnership countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine). It is a forum for academicians, writers and university students and the only journal in the field published within V4 countries. It has an interna onal readership and subscribers. All ar cles submi ed to EaPLR are subject to blind refereeing. The journal maintains an online archive.

EPLR welcomes manuscripts in English. Since the journal is made possible by «Eastern Partnership Literary Award» project, all authors are kindly requested to join the blog of the project www.veapla.blogspot.sk.

Manuscripts should be submi ed electronically (sent as an e-mail a achment in MS Word or RTF format). Ar cles normally should not exceed 10 pages in length (including footnotes). Book reviews and reports should not exceed 3 pages. If the ar cle is accompanied by images, the authors are requested to arrange permissions with image providers, and we ask for copies of permissions for our files prior to publica on.

All manuscripts should be addressed to: Katedra rusis ky a východoeurópskych štúdií Filozofická fakulta Univerzity Komenského Gondova 2 814 99 Bra slava SLOVAKIA E-mail: veapla@veapla.eu