Alexievich: People argue with me a lot, but the Russian language is not to blame.
Writer and Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich held a creative meeting in Warsaw at the Museum of Modern Art. She reflected on modern dictatorships and the current attitude towards the Russian language, writes Belsat.
Speaking about people who, after the start of the war in Ukraine, began to blame Russian culture for everything, the Nobel laureate once again spoke out in defense of the Russian language.
«Many argue with me, but my view is that the language is not to blame. Yes, we can find imperial poems in Pushkin, even in Brodsky. I don't know, we can find it in everyone. But they were people of their time. So it's the time, not the language. You see, we blame them for the time, for living in their time. But the Russian language has nothing to do with it,» Svetlana Alexievich asserted.
She admitted that she is not going to give up the Russian language.
«I write all my books in Russian. I have been doing this from the very beginning, so that «red idea» that I wrote about, I expressed at that time precisely in Russian… And we must not falsify the time. Then there was such a time, now there is such a time. And we must not betray our language. People spoke and still speak in Russian. And what Ukraine is experiencing now is understandable. Despair and pain. But I think this will pass. As for the language, this will definitely pass. After all, the main thing is not the language, the main thing is the ideas. It is not the language, but the ideas that are responsible,» Alexievich concluded.
The writer also reflected on modern dictatorships.
«We must understand that dictatorships are not temporary phenomena. These are schemes that operate for a very long time. Someone says: «Putin will be gone, and there will be freedom.» No, there will be no freedom! Because after himself he will leave a whole generation of people who want to live exactly like that, who see Russia exactly like that. The same goes for Lukashenko. Even if he left today, it would not solve our problems, if it became necessary again for the people to rise up. Modern dictatorships today are not as safe as we thought they were,» said Svetlana Alexievich.
She noted that everyone is now looking for a new language and new forms of resistance.
«But as for my country, in order to win, as many people as possible must participate in this resistance. Just like it was in 2020, when we observed a civil resistance. Today, it is already very difficult to pick up such a pace and such a number of protesters. I'm afraid it will take us many years to return to what we did in 2020,» the writer predicted.
According to Alexievich, a new language of resistance may be solidarity, which is needed today not only by Ukraine and Belarus, but also by other countries. Because dictatorships are very good at dividing countries.
According to her, today's world is becoming more right-wing, and small countries that have come under the rule of right-wing populists and right-wing ideas were the first to be captured. They are in great need of help.
«Modern dictatorships cannot be defeated on their own,» Svetlana Alexievich is convinced.
«And there is simply no world mechanism that could resist this emerging Putin's fascism. We also defeated Hitler without a mechanism, and now the same thing is happening before our eyes — and the world is helpless again. I don't know… I only know that we will be able to win only when each person decides to stand on the side of good, says to himself: «I am here, and not on the side of evil.» There is no other way.»
The writer's last words during the meeting at the Warsaw Museum of Modern Art sounded like this: «And love needs strength, that's the whole point, and I just wish you all strength for love, and not for hatred…»
Comments
- не мы такіе - жысць такая
- памры ты сёння, а я заўтра
Супер. Аўтарка, прамаўляй яшчэ.
Але розіца, што ў нашай культуры, чалавек індывідуальна нясе адказнасць за свае словы і справы, а не "час", "абставіны" ці абстрактныя "ідэі" ў вакууме.
Што тое, што з'яўляецца адметнай рысаю нашага народу ад суседзяў вы любіце?
Ну, мо толькі дранікі. Вы мяркуеце, што жэрці дранікі - гэтае дастаткова, каб паказаць сваю любоў да Радзімы ды быць патрыётам Белай Расеі. На большае вы не вартыя.