Nobel Writer Sees Politics Through Lens of Mistrust
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Version 0 of 1. BERLIN — Svetlana Alexievich, the recently announced recipient of this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature and a prominent critic of Soviet and post-Soviet regimes, offered a bleak assessment of the political situations in Russia and her native Belarus while addressing journalists in Berlin on Saturday. “Every four years, new European officials come to power and think they can solve the Lukashenko problem without knowing that he is a man who is untrustworthy,” Ms. Alexievich said. She spoke on the eve of a presidential election in Belarus in which President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, often referred to as Europe’s last dictator, is widely expected to win a fifth term. Ms. Alexievich described Sunday’s election as a rigged contest. “No one doubts that Lukashenko will win,” she said. “To paraphrase Stalin, it’s unimportant who votes for whom; what matters is who counts the vote. I don’t think we can expect any surprises.” European officials have said the European Union is prepared to suspend sanctions against Mr. Lukashenko after he released the country’s last political prisoners this year. A decision is expected before Oct. 31. Ms. Alexievich, who was awarded the Nobel for her sweeping nonfiction works about events like the Soviet-Afghan war and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, also described Russia as a place where “one can no longer speak of democracy” and “where ‘liberal’ is a dirty word.” “It isn’t about Putin,” said Ms. Alexievich, 67, referring to the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin. “It’s about the collective Putin. He has a huge approval rating, perhaps 80 percent.” “I now understand what Hannah Arendt meant when she talked about ‘dark times.’ Russia is now living in dark times,” she added, referring to the German-born political philosopher who wrote about totalitarianism. Because of her criticism of the government in Belarus, where press freedoms are under constant threat, Ms. Alexievich spent a decade in exile in Italy, France and Sweden, among other places. That time widened her horizons, she said, and helped her to “see the world in color.” Yet for most of her life, Ms. Alexievich has lived in the Belarussian capital, Minsk. It is only by being there and speaking to people, she said, that she can express the realities of their lives. “How people actually live — you can’t find that on the computer,” she said Saturday. Since 1994, her books have not been published in Belarus. Though she said she hoped that winning the Nobel Prize could mean expanded protection for her and other dissenting voices, Ms. Alexievich said she was less optimistic about whether the award could make a larger difference in political terms. “I’ve won a lot of international prizes, and that had no impact on our authorities, our government,” she said. |