Presentation "Russian writers - Nobel Prize laureates." Russian Nobel Prize Laureates in Literature

The winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature will be announced very soon. In the entire history, only five Russian writers and poets - Ivan Bunin (1933), Boris Pasternak (1958), Mikhail Sholokhov (1965), Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1970) and Joseph Brodsky (1987) - were awarded this prestigious award. Meanwhile, other prominent representatives of Russian literature also applied for the prize, but they never managed to receive the coveted medal. Read about which of the Russian writers could have won the Nobel, but never received it, in the RT material.

Secret bonus

It is known that the Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded annually since 1901. A special committee selects candidates, and then, with the help of experts, literary scholars and laureates of past years, a winner is selected.

However, thanks to archival finds at Uppsala University, it became known that the literature prize could have been awarded in the 19th century. Most likely, it was established by Alfred Nobel's grandfather, Emmanuel Nobel Sr., who at the end of the 18th century, in correspondence with friends, discussed the idea of establishing an international literary prize.

The list of prize winners found at a Swedish university also includes the names of Russian writers: Thaddeus Bulgarin (1837), Vasily Zhukovsky (1839), Alexander Herzen (1867), Ivan Turgenev (1878) and Leo Tolstoy (1894). However, we still know little about the mechanism for selecting winners and other details of the award procedure. Therefore, let us turn to the official history of the prize, which began for Russia in 1902.

Lawyer and Tolstoy

Few people know, but the first person nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature was not a writer or poet, but a lawyer, Anatoly Koni. At the time of his nomination, in 1902, he was an honorary academician of the Academy of Sciences in the category of fine literature, as well as a senator in the general meeting of the First Department of the Senate. It is known that his candidacy was proposed by the head of the department of criminal law at the Military Law Academy, Anton Wulfert.

A more famous nominee is Leo Tolstoy. From 1902 to 1906, his candidacy was persistently proposed by the Nobel Committee. Leo Tolstoy by that time was already well known not only to the Russian but also to the world community for his novels. According to the expert community, Leo Tolstoy was “the most revered patriarch of modern literature.” In a letter that was sent to the writer from the Nobel Committee, the academicians called Tolstoy “the greatest and most profound writer.” The reason why the author of War and Peace never received an award is simple. Alfred Jensen, an expert on Slavic literature who acted as one of the advisers to the nomination committee, criticized Leo Tolstoy's philosophy, describing it as "subversive and contrary to the idealistic nature of the prize."

However, the writer was not particularly eager for the award and even wrote about this in a response letter to the committee: “I was very pleased that the Nobel Prize was not awarded to me. This saved me from a great difficulty in disposing of this money, which, like any money, in my conviction, can only bring evil.”

Since 1906, after this letter, Leo Tolstoy was no longer nominated for the prize.

Leo Tolstoy in his office
RIA News

Merezhkovsky's calculation

In 1914, on the eve of the First World War, the poet and writer Dmitry Merezhkovsky was nominated for the Nobel Prize. The same Alfred Jensen noted the “artistic mastery of the image, the universal content and idealistic direction” of the poet’s work. In 1915, Merezhkovsky's candidacy was again proposed, this time by the Swedish writer Karl Melin, but again to no avail. But the First World War was going on, and only 15 years later Dmitry Merezhkovsky was again nominated for the award. His candidacy was nominated from 1930 to 1937, but the poet had to face serious competition: Ivan Bunin and Maxim Gorky were nominated along with him during the same period. However, the persistent interest of Sigurd Agrel, who nominated Merezhkovsky for seven years in a row, gave hope to the writer to be among the winners of the coveted award. Unlike Leo Tolstoy, Dmitry Merezhkovsky wanted to become a Nobel laureate. In 1933, Dmitry Merezhkovsky was closest to success. According to the memoirs of Ivan Bunin’s wife, Vera, Dmitry Merezhkovsky invited her husband to share the prize. Moreover, if he won, Merezhkovsky would give Bunin as much as 200 thousand francs. But that did not happen. Despite the fact that Merezhkovsky persistently wrote to the committee, convincing its members of his superiority over his competitors, he never received the award.

Gorky is more needed

Maxim Gorky was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature 4 times: in 1918, 1923, 1928 and 1933. The writer’s work presented a certain difficulty for the Nobel Committee. Anton Karlgren, who replaced Alfred Jensen as an expert on Slavic studies, noted that in the post-revolutionary work of Gorky (meaning the revolution of 1905. - RT) there is “not the slightest echo of ardent love for the homeland” and that in general his books are a complete “sterile desert.” Earlier, in 1918, Alfred Jensen spoke of Gorky as a “double cultural-political personality” and “a tired, long-worn-out writer.” In 1928, Gorky was close to receiving the award. The main struggle was between him and the Norwegian writer Sigrid Undset. Anton Karlgren noted that Gorky’s work is like an “extraordinary renaissance” that provided the writer with a “leading place in Russian literature.”

Maxim Gorky, 1928
RIA News

The Soviet writer lost due to a devastating review by Heinrich Schük, who noted in Gorky’s work “the evolution from bad May Day rhetoric to direct discrediting of the authorities and agitation against it, and then to Bolshevik ideology.” The writer’s later works, according to Shyuk, deserve “absolutely damning criticism.” This became a powerful argument for conservative Swedish academics in favor of Sigrid Undset. In 1933, Maxim Gorky lost to Ivan Bunin, whose novel “The Life of Arsenyev” left no chance for anyone.

Marina Tsvetaeva was subsequently indignant that Gorky was not awarded the prize in 1933: “I’m not protesting, I just don’t agree, because Gorky is incomparably greater than Bunin: greater, and more humane, and more original, and more necessary. Gorky is an era, and Bunin is the end of an era. But - since this is politics, since the king of Sweden cannot pin orders on the communist Gorky...”

"Star" 1965

In 1965, four domestic writers were nominated for the prize: Vladimir Nabokov, Anna Akhmatova, Konstantin Paustovsky and Mikhail Sholokhov.

Vladimir Nabokov was nominated for the award several times in the 1960s for his acclaimed novel Lolita. A member of the Swedish Academy, Anders Österling, spoke of him as follows: “The author of the immoral and successful novel Lolita cannot under any circumstances be considered as a candidate for the prize.”

In 1964 he lost to Sartre, and in 1965 to his former compatriot (Nabokov emigrated from the USSR in 1922. - RT) Mikhail Sholokhov. After its 1965 nomination, the Nobel Committee called Lolita immoral. It is still unknown whether Nabokov was nominated after 1965, but we know that in 1972 Alexander Solzhenitsyn approached the Swedish committee with a request to reconsider the writer's candidacy.

Konstantin Paustovsky was eliminated at the preliminary stage, although Swedish academics spoke well of his “Tale of Life”. Anna Akhmatova competed with Mikhail Sholokhov in the final. Moreover, the Swedish committee proposed dividing the prize between them, arguing that “they write in the same language.” Andreas Esterling, a professor and long-term secretary of the Academy, noted that Anna Akhmatova’s poetry is full of “genuine inspiration.” Despite this, the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1965 was awarded to Mikhail Sholokhov, who was nominated for the seventh time.

King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden presents Mikhail Sholokhov with an honorary diploma and a Nobel laureate medal
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Aldanov and company

In addition to the above nominees, other, no less honored writers and poets were nominated from Russia at different times. For example, in 1923, Konstantin Balmont was nominated along with Maxim Gorky and Ivan Bunin. However, his candidacy was rejected unanimously by the experts as clearly unsuitable.

In 1926, Vladimir Frantsev, a Slavist and literary historian, nominated the white general Pyotr Krasnov for the literature prize. Twice, in 1931 and 1932, the writer Ivan Shmelev applied for the prize.

Since 1938, the writer and publicist Mark Aldanov has been competing for the award for a long time, becoming the record holder for the number of nominations - 12 times. The prose writer was popular among the Russian emigration in France and the USA. Over the years, he was nominated by Vladimir Nabokov and Alexander Kerensky. And Ivan Bunin, who became the prize winner in 1933, proposed Aldanov’s candidacy 9 times.

The philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev was nominated four times, the writer Leonid Leonov was nominated for the prize twice, the writer Boris Zaitsev and the author of the novel “The Fall of the Titan” Igor Guzenko, a Soviet defector cryptographer, were nominated once each.

Eduard Epstein

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Books

According to the will. Notes on the laureates of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Ilyukovich A.. The basis of the publication consists of biographical sketches about all laureates of the Nobel Prize in Literature over 90 years, from the moment it was first awarded in 1901 to 1991, supplemented by...

1933, Ivan Alekseevich Bunin

Bunin was the first Russian writer to receive such a high award - the Nobel Prize in Literature. This happened in 1933, when Bunin had already been living in exile in Paris for several years. The prize was awarded to Ivan Bunin "for the rigorous skill with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose." We were talking about the writer’s largest work - the novel “The Life of Arsenyev”.

Accepting the award, Ivan Alekseevich said that he was the first exile to be awarded the Nobel Prize. Along with his diploma, Bunin received a check for 715 thousand French francs. With the Nobel money he could live comfortably until the end of his days. But they quickly ran out. Bunin spent it very easily and generously distributed it to his fellow emigrants in need. He invested part of it in a business that, as his “well-wishers” promised him, would be a win-win, and went broke.

It was after receiving the Nobel Prize that Bunin’s all-Russian fame grew into worldwide fame. Every Russian in Paris, even those who had not yet read a single line of this writer, took this as a personal holiday.

1958, Boris Leonidovich Pasternak

For Pasternak, this high award and recognition turned into real persecution in his homeland.

Boris Pasternak was nominated for the Nobel Prize more than once - from 1946 to 1950. And in October 1958 he was awarded this award. This happened just after the publication of his novel Doctor Zhivago. The prize was awarded to Pasternak "for significant achievements in modern lyric poetry, as well as for continuing the traditions of the great Russian epic novel."

Immediately after receiving the telegram from the Swedish Academy, Pasternak responded “extremely grateful, touched and proud, amazed and embarrassed.” But after it became known that he had been awarded the prize, the newspapers “Pravda” and “Literary Gazette” attacked the poet with indignant articles, awarding him with the epithets “traitor”, “slanderer”, “Judas”. Pasternak was expelled from the Writers' Union and forced to refuse the prize. And in a second letter to Stockholm, he wrote: “Due to the significance that the award given to me received in the society to which I belong, I must refuse it. Do not consider my voluntary refusal an insult.”

Boris Pasternak's Nobel Prize was awarded to his son 31 years later. In 1989, the permanent secretary of the academy, Professor Store Allen, read both telegrams sent by Pasternak on October 23 and 29, 1958, and said that the Swedish Academy recognized Pasternak’s refusal of the prize as forced and, after thirty-one years, was presenting his medal to his son, regretting that The laureate is no longer alive.

1965, Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov

Mikhail Sholokhov was the only Soviet writer to receive the Nobel Prize with the consent of the USSR leadership. Back in 1958, when a delegation of the USSR Writers Union visited Sweden and learned that Pasternak and Shokholov were among those nominated for the prize, a telegram sent to the Soviet ambassador in Sweden said: “it would be desirable to give through cultural figures close to us "To understand the Swedish public that the Soviet Union would highly appreciate the award of the Nobel Prize to Sholokhov." But then the prize was given to Boris Pasternak. Sholokhov received it in 1965 - “for the artistic strength and integrity of the epic about the Don Cossacks at a turning point for Russia.” By this time his famous “Quiet Don” had already been released.

1970, Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn

Alexander Solzhenitsyn became the fourth Russian writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature - in 1970 "for the moral strength with which he followed the immutable traditions of Russian literature." By this time, such outstanding works of Solzhenitsyn as “Cancer Ward” and “In the First Circle” had already been written. Having learned about the award, the writer stated that he intended to receive the award “personally, on the appointed day.” But after the announcement of the award, the persecution of the writer in his homeland gained full force. The Soviet government considered the decision of the Nobel Committee "politically hostile." Therefore, the writer was afraid to go to Sweden to receive the award. He accepted it with gratitude, but did not participate in the award ceremony. Solzhenitsyn received his diploma only four years later - in 1974, when he was expelled from the USSR to Germany.

The writer’s wife, Natalya Solzhenitsyna, is still confident that the Nobel Prize saved her husband’s life and gave her the opportunity to write. She noted that if he had published “The Gulag Archipelago” without being a Nobel Prize laureate, he would have been killed. By the way, Solzhenitsyn was the only Nobel Prize laureate in literature for whom only eight years passed from the first publication to the award.

1987, Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky

Joseph Brodsky became the fifth Russian writer to receive the Nobel Prize. This happened in 1987, at the same time his large book of poems, “Urania,” was published. But Brodsky received the award not as a Soviet, but as an American citizen who had lived in the USA for a long time. The Nobel Prize was awarded to him "for his comprehensive creativity, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity." Receiving the award in his speech, Joseph Brodsky said: “For a private person who has preferred this whole life to some public role, for a person who has gone quite far in this preference - and in particular from his homeland, for it is better to be the last loser in democracy than a martyr or a ruler of thoughts in a despotism - to suddenly appear on this podium is a great awkwardness and test.”

Let us note that after Brodsky was awarded the Nobel Prize, and this event just happened during the beginning of perestroika in the USSR, his poems and essays began to be actively published in his homeland.

RUSSIAN HISTORY

“Prix Nobel? Oui, ma belle". This is what Brodsky joked long before receiving the Nobel Prize, which is the most important award for almost any writer. Despite the generous scattering of Russian literary geniuses, only five of them managed to receive the highest award. However, many, if not all, of them, having received it, suffered enormous losses in their lives.

Nobel Prize 1933 "For the truthful artistic talent with which he recreated in prose the typical Russian character."

Bunin became the first Russian writer to receive the Nobel Prize. This event was given a special resonance by the fact that Bunin had not appeared in Russia for 13 years, even as a tourist. Therefore, when he was notified of a call from Stockholm, Bunin could not believe what had happened. In Paris, the news spread instantly. Every Russian, regardless of financial status and position, squandered their last pennies in a tavern, rejoicing that their compatriot turned out to be the best.

Once in the Swedish capital, Bunin was almost the most popular Russian person in the world; people stared at him for a long time, looked around, and whispered. He was surprised, comparing his fame and honor with the glory of the famous tenor.

Nobel Prize ceremony.
I. A. Bunin is in the first row, far right.
Stockholm, 1933

Nobel Prize 1958 "For significant achievements in modern lyric poetry, as well as for continuing the tradition of the great Russian epic novel"

Pasternak's candidacy for the Nobel Prize was discussed by the Nobel Committee every year, from 1946 to 1950. After a personal telegram from the head of the committee and Pasternak’s notification of the award, the writer responded with the following words: “Grateful, glad, proud, embarrassed.” But after some time, after the planned public persecution of the writer and his friends, public persecution, sowing an impartial and even hostile image among the masses, Pasternak refused the prize, writing a letter of more voluminous content.

After the award of the prize, Pasternak bore the full burden of the “persecuted poet” firsthand. Moreover, he carried this burden not at all for his poems (although it was for them, for the most part, that he was awarded the Nobel Prize), but for the “anti-conscience” novel “Doctor Zhivago”. Nes, even refusing such an honorable prize and a substantial sum of 250,000 crowns. According to the writer himself, he still would not have taken this money, having sent it to another, more useful place than his own pocket.

On December 9, 1989, in Stockholm, Boris Pasternak's son, Evgeniy, was awarded a diploma and the Nobel Medal to Boris Pasternak at a gala reception dedicated to the Nobel Prize laureates of that year.

Pasternak Evgeniy Borisovich

Nobel Prize 1965 “for the artistic strength and integrity of the epic about the Don Cossacks at a turning point for Russia”.

Sholokhov, like Pasternak, repeatedly appeared in the field of view of the Nobel Committee. Moreover, their paths, like their offspring, involuntarily, and also voluntarily, crossed more than once. Their novels, without the participation of the authors themselves, “prevented” each other from winning the main award. There is no point in choosing the best of two brilliant, but very different works. Moreover, the Nobel Prize was (and is) given in both cases not for individual works, but for the overall contribution as a whole, for a special component of all creativity. Once, in 1954, the Nobel Committee did not award Sholokhov only because the letter of recommendation from Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences Sergeev-Tsensky arrived a couple of days later, and the committee did not have enough time to consider Sholokhov’s candidacy. It is believed that the novel (“Quiet Don”) was not politically beneficial for Sweden at that time, and artistic value always played a secondary role for the committee. In 1958, when Sholokhov’s figure looked like an iceberg in the Baltic Sea, the prize went to Pasternak. Already gray-haired, sixty-year-old Sholokhov was awarded his well-deserved Nobel Prize in Stockholm, after which the writer read a speech as pure and honest as all his work.

Mikhail Alexandrovich in the Golden Hall of Stockholm City Hall
before the start of the Nobel Prize presentation.

Nobel Prize 1970 "For the moral strength gleaned from the tradition of great Russian literature."

Solzhenitsyn learned about this prize while still in the camps. And in his heart he strived to become its laureate. In 1970, after he was awarded the Nobel Prize, Solzhenitsyn replied that he would come “personally, on the appointed day” to receive the award. However, as twelve years earlier, when Pasternak was also threatened with deprivation of citizenship, Solzhenitsyn canceled his trip to Stockholm. It's hard to say that he regretted it too much. Reading the program for the gala evening, he kept coming across pompous details: what and how to say, a tuxedo or tailcoat to wear at this or that banquet. “...Why does it have to be a white bow tie,” he thought, “but not in a camp padded jacket?” “And how can we talk about the main task of our whole life at the “feast table”, when the tables are laden with dishes and everyone is drinking, eating, talking...”

Nobel Prize 1987 "For a comprehensive literary activity distinguished by clarity of thought and poetic intensity."

Of course, it was much “easier” for Brodsky to receive the Nobel Prize than for Pasternak or Solzhenitsyn. At that time, he was already a persecuted emigrant, deprived of citizenship and the right to enter Russia. The news of the Nobel Prize found Brodsky having lunch at a Chinese restaurant near London. The news practically did not change the expression on the writer’s face. He only joked to the first reporters that now he would have to wag his tongue for a whole year. One journalist asked Brodsky who he considers himself to be: Russian or American? “I am a Jew, a Russian poet and an English essayist,” Brodsky replied.

Known for his indecisive character, Brodsky took two versions of the Nobel lecture to Stockholm: in Russian and in English. Until the last moment, no one knew in what language the writer would read the text. Brodsky settled on Russian.

On December 10, 1987, Russian poet Joseph Brodsky was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for his comprehensive creativity, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity.”

The most prestigious literary prize in the world, awarded annually by the Nobel Foundation for achievements in the field of literature. Laureates of the Nobel Prize in Literature, as a rule, are world-famous writers recognized in their homeland and abroad.

The first Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded on December 10, 1901. Its laureate was the French poet and essayist Sully Prudhomme. Since then, the date of the award ceremony has not changed, and every year on the day of Alfred Nobel’s death, in Stockholm, one of the most significant awards in the literary world is received from the hands of the King of Sweden by a poet, essayist, playwright, prose writer, whose contribution to world literature, in the opinion of Swedish Academy, worthy of such high praise. This tradition was broken only seven times - in 1914, 1918, 1935, 1940, 1941, 1942 and 1943 - when the prize was not awarded and no awards were given.

As a rule, the Swedish Academy prefers to evaluate not a single work, but the entire work of the nominated writer. In the entire history of the prize, specific works have been awarded only a few times. Among them: “Olympic Spring” by Karl Spitteler (1919), “The Juices of the Earth” by Knut Hamsun (1920), “The Men” by Vladislav Reymont (1924), “Buddenbrooks” by Thomas Mann (1929), “The Forsyte Saga” by John Galsworthy ( 1932), “The Old Man and the Sea” by Ernest Hemingway (1954), “Quiet Don” by Mikhail Sholokhov (1965). All these books were included in the Golden Fund of World Literature.

To date, the list of Nobel laureates consists of 108 names. Among them there are Russian writers. The first Russian writer to receive the Nobel Prize, in 1933, was the writer Ivan Alekseevich Bunin. Later, in different years, the Swedish Academy appreciated the creative merits of Boris Pasternak (1958), Mikhail Sholokhov (1965), Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1970) and Joseph Brodsky (1987). In terms of the number of Nobel laureates (5) in the field of literature, Russia is in seventh place.

The names of candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature are kept secret not only during the current award season, but also for the next 50 years. Every year, experts try to guess who will win the most prestigious literary award, and especially gambling people place bets in bookmakers. In the 2016 season, the main favorite to receive the literary Nobel is the famous Japanese prose writer Haruki Murakami.

Premium amount- 8 million crowns (approximately 200 thousand dollars)

date of creation- 1901

Founders and co-founders. The Nobel Prize, including the Prize for Literature, was created by the will of Alfred Nobel. The award is currently administered by the Nobel Foundation.

Dates. Applications must be submitted by January 31st.
Identification of 15-20 main candidates - April.
Determination of 5 finalists - May.
Announcement of the winner's name - October.
Award ceremony - December.

Objectives of the award. According to Alfred Nobel's will, the Literature Prize is awarded to the author who has created the most significant literary work of an idealistic orientation. However, in most cases, the prize is awarded to writers based on their combined merits.

Who can participate? Any nominated author who receives an invitation to participate. It is impossible to nominate yourself for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Who can nominate? In accordance with the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, members of the Swedish Academy, other academies, institutes and societies with similar tasks and goals, professors of literature and linguistics of higher educational institutions, Nobel Prize laureates in literature, chairmen of author's unions, representing literary creativity in different countries.

Expert council and jury. Once all applications have been submitted, the Nobel Committee selects candidates and presents them to the Swedish Academy, which is responsible for determining the laureate. The Swedish Academy consists of 18 members, including respected Swedish writers, linguists, literature teachers, historians and lawyers. Nominations and prize fund. Nobel Prize winners receive a medal, a diploma, and a monetary award, which varies slightly from year to year. Thus, in 2015, the entire Nobel Prize prize fund was 8 million Swedish kronor (approximately $1 million), which was divided among all laureates.