V. Voinovich biography. Vladimir Voinovich - biography, information, personal life

Contemporary Russian literature

Vladimir Nikolaevich Voinovich

Biography

VOYNOVICH, VLADIMIR NIKOLAEVICH (b. 1932), Russian writer. Born on September 26, 1932 in Stalinabad (now Dushanbe, Tajikistan) in the family of a teacher and journalist, after whose arrest in 1937 the family moved to Zaporozhye. As a boy he was a collective farm shepherd; After graduating from a vocational school, he worked in construction and served in the army. After unsuccessful attempts to enter the Literary Institute. A. M. Gorky entered the Moscow Pedagogical Institute, from where, from the 2nd year, on a Komsomol voucher, he went to the Kazakh steppes to develop virgin lands.

Back in the early 1950s, while serving in the army, he began writing poetry. With the text of the Song of the Cosmonauts (“I know, friends, caravans of rockets ...”, 1960), Voinovich gained fame, supported by the publication of the stories We Live Here (1961), Two Comrades (1967; dramatized by the author), the stories I Want to Be Honest (author's title - Who I Could Become; dramatized by Voinovich), the play The Domestic Cat of Average Fluffiness (1990; co-authored with G.I. Gorin, filmed under the title Shapka).

Voinovich's active human rights activities (letters in defense of A. Sinyavsky, Yu. Daniel, Yu. Galanskov, and later A. Solzhenitsyn, A. Sakharov) were combined with work on documentary stories - historical, about Vera Figner (Degree of Confidence, 1973), and about his own topical struggle with the nomenklatura bureaucracy for the right to buy a cooperative apartment (Ivankiada, or the Story of the writer Voinovich moving into a new apartment, 1976; published in Russia in 1988).

In 1974, Voinovich was expelled from the Union of Writers of the USSR, published in samizdat and abroad, where he first published his most famous work - the novel The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of the Soldier Ivan Chonkin (1969−1975) with its sequel - the novel A Contender to the Throne ( 1979), novels-“anecdotes”, in which, using the example of absurd, funny and sad stories that happen to the ordinary soldier Ivan Chonkin, associated with the image of the “good soldier Schweik” from the novel by J. Hasek, the true absurdity of modern life is shown in a grotesque-satirical manner existence - the suppression of the “higher” and not always understandable to the “lower” state necessity of simple and natural human desires and destinies, as well as the story Through Mutual Correspondence (1973−1979).

In 1980, Voinovich went abroad at the invitation of the Bavarian Academy of Arts, and since 1981 he has been deprived of Soviet citizenship and lives in Munich. Since the beginning of the 1990s, he often comes to his homeland, actively acts as a publicist (the book Anti-Soviet Soviet Union, 1985), showing in this genre the politically pointed paradoxism of his thinking. This feature, as well as the tendency of Voinovich’s artistic style towards “collage” and productive eclecticism, was reflected in the dystopian novel Moscow 2042 (1987), which showed the imaginary Soviet reality of the 21st century brought to the point of absurdity and continued what Voinovich began in the “not very reliable a story about one historical party" Voinovich among friends (1967) the theme of ridicule of communist leaders ("Comrade Koba" - I.V. Stalin, Leonty Ari - Lavrentiy Beria, Lazer Kazanovich - Lazar Kaganovich, Opanas Marzoyan - Anastas Mikoyan, etc.) and in the novel The Plan and the story Case No. 34840, published in the late 1990s, where the story of the assassination attempt on Voinovich by KGB officers is conveyed in the writer’s characteristic mixture of essayism and biographical documentary. Voinovich’s works are ambiguously perceived by readers and critics and are sometimes accused of “anti-patriotic” nihilism, continuing the satirical traditions of Russian literature (N.V. Gogol, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, M.A. Bulgakov) and at the same time absorbing the achievements of modern world dystopia, grotesque socially accusatory prose (O. Huxley, J. Orwell), are characteristic of the 20th century. an example of successful philosophical and political actualization of fiction.

Vladimir Nikolaevich Voinovich was born in September 1932 in Stalinabad (now Dushanbe). Mom is a teacher, father is a journalist, arrested in 1937, after which the family moved to Zaporozhye. First, the future writer studied at a vocational school, then worked in construction, and then served in the army, where he began to write poetry. Right from my second year at the Moscow Pedagogical Institute, I went to Kazakhstan to develop virgin lands. Voinovich is the author of songs, stories and plays, as well as documentary stories, and was active in human rights activities. In 1974, he was expelled from the Writers' Union of the Soviet Union, so he had to publish in “samizdat” and in foreign publications. There, abroad, his novel “The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of the Soldier Ivan Chonkin” was published, and after that its sequel “The Contender to the Throne”. These novels can be called anecdotes, because they tell about the funny things that happen to the ridiculous soldier Ivan Chonkin.

The Bavarian Academy of Arts invited Voinovich in 1980, and the writer went abroad. The Soviet government deprived Voinovich of Soviet citizenship in 1981, so the writer lived in Munich. Already in the 90s he visited his homeland and wrote articles. In the book “Anti-Soviet Soviet Union,” Vladimir Nikolaevich ridiculed the leaders of communism. At the end of the 90s, he published the novel “The Plan” and the story “Case No. 34840,” in which, in a mixed form of essay and documentary biography, the story of the assassination attempt by KGB officers on Voinovich was conveyed.

Voinovich's work is perceived ambiguously by readers and critics. The writer tried to continue the satirical traditions of the classics of paradox - N.V. Gogol, M.A. Bulgakova, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. But the features of modern dystopia are also evident in his works.

MINSK, July 28 – Sputnik. Writer Vladimir Voinovich died at the age of 86, journalist Viktor Davydov and writer Viktor Shenderovich reported on Facebook on Saturday night.

The cause of the writer’s death was a heart attack, Davydov wrote.

The writer’s wife, Svetlana Kolesnichenko, has not yet decided on the exact date and place of the funeral, but suggested that farewell to Voinovich will take place on Monday, July 30.

Biography of Vladimir Voinovich

Vladimir Voinovich is a famous prose writer, playwright and poet.

Voinovich was born on September 26, 1932 in Stalinabad (Tajik SSR; now Dushanbe, Tajikistan) into a family of journalists. His father was arrested in 1936 and released in early 1941. He returned from the war disabled.

Vladimir was drafted into the army in 1951, where he began collaborating with the army newspaper. Twice he entered the Literary Institute.

The song “Fourteen minutes before launch” made Voinovich famous throughout the country and became the unofficial anthem of Soviet cosmonauts.

I believe, friends, caravans of rockets
They will rush us forward from star to star.
On the dusty paths of distant planets
Our traces will remain

In total, Voinovich wrote more than 40 songs.

Voinovich wrote his first prose in Kazakhstan, where he went to conquer virgin lands.

In the late 1960s, Voinovich became an active participant in the human rights movement. His most famous work, the trilogy “The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Soldier Ivan Chonkin,” was officially published in the West earlier than in the USSR, where it was distributed only as samizdat.

In June 1981, Voinovich was deprived of Soviet citizenship for dissident activities. He received German citizenship and lived for 9 years in West Germany and the United States of America, where he collaborated with Radio Liberty.

In August 1990, the writer was returned to Soviet citizenship, after which he returned to his homeland.

Bibliography of Vladimir Voinovich

Voinovich wrote the dystopia "Moscow 2042", a trilogy of novels about the soldier Ivan Chonkin "The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of the Soldier Ivan Chonkin" (1969-1975) and the story "The Degree of Trust" (1972).

Also among his most famous works are “The Contender to the Throne” (1979), “The Displaced Person” (2007), the play “Domestic Cat of Medium Fluffy” (1990), the novel “Monumental Propaganda” (2000), “Portrait against the Background of Myth” (2002) and "Self-portrait. The novel of my life" (2010).

In 2000, the writer received the State Prize of the Russian Federation for the novel “Monumental Propaganda.”

Aphorisms of Vladimir Voinovich

— Big politics mainly consists of petty intrigues.

— A rally is an event when a lot of people gather and some say what they don’t think, while others think what they don’t say.

“Sometimes we dream about something unpleasant, but we don’t always want to wake up.” And when something unpleasant happens in life, we always want to fall asleep. And it is right. Because sleep is much richer than life. In our dreams we eat what we want, we have the women we want, in our dreams we die and are resurrected, but in life we succeed only in the first half.

“I’m only talking about what I saw with my own eyes.” Or heard it with my own ears. Or someone I really trust told me. Or I don’t trust it very much. Or I really don’t trust it. In any case, what I write is always based on something. Sometimes it’s even based on nothing at all. But everyone who is even superficially familiar with the theory of relativity knows that nothing is a version of something, and something is also something from which something can be extracted.

Member of the Russian PEN Center.

Biography

Vladimir Voinovich was born in Stalinabad, in the family of a journalist, executive secretary of the republican newspaper “Communist of Tajikistan” and editor of the regional newspaper “Worker of Khudzhent” Nikolai Pavlovich Voinovich (1905-1987), partly of Serbian origin and originally from the district town of Novozybkov, Chernigov province (now Bryansk region ), and an employee of the editorial office of these newspapers, and later a mathematics teacher, Rosalia Kolmanovna (Klimentyevna) Goikhman (1908-1978), originally from the town of Khashchevatoye, Gaivoronsky district, Kherson province (now Kirovograd region of Ukraine).

In 1941, with his recently freed father and mother, he moved to Zaporozhye. After the war, he often changed his place of residence and worked as a shepherd, carpenter, carpenter, mechanic and aircraft mechanic.

In 1950 he was drafted into the army for 4 years, during his service (Poland) he tried to master the skill of versification.

In 1956 he came to Moscow, entered the Literary Institute twice, but was not accepted. He studied for a year and a half at the Moscow Pedagogical Institute (1957-1959), traveled to the virgin lands in Kazakhstan, where his first prose works were written (1958).

The publication of the story “We Live Here” (“New World”, 1961 No. 1) contributed to strengthening the writer’s fame.

Since 1962, Voinovich was accepted into the Union of Writers of the USSR.

The novel “The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Soldier Ivan Chonkin,” written since 1963, was published in samizdat. The first part was published (without the author's permission) in 1969 in Frankfurt am Main, the entire book - in 1975 in Paris.

In the late 1960s, he took an active part in the human rights movement, which caused a conflict with the authorities. For his human rights activities and satirical representation of Soviet reality, the writer was persecuted - in 1974 he was expelled from the Writers' Union of the USSR, but was accepted as a member of the PEN Club in France.

In 1975, after the publication of Chonkin abroad, Voinovich was summoned for a conversation by the KGB, where he was offered to publish in the USSR. To discuss the conditions for lifting the ban on the publication of some of his works, a second meeting took place - this time in room 408 of the Metropol Hotel, where the writer was poisoned with a psychotropic drug, after which he felt unwell for a long time, which affected his work on the sequel to Chonkin. . After this incident, Voinovich wrote an open letter to Andropov and a number of appeals to foreign media.

In December 1980 he was expelled from the USSR, and in 1981 he was deprived of Soviet citizenship by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (returned in 1990 by decree of M. Gorbachev). In 1980-1992 he lived in Germany, then in the USA. Collaborated with Radio Liberty.

According to Wolfgang Kazak, “a realist writer who wonderfully depicts human characters and has a special gift for vividly capturing individual scenes.”

He is engaged in painting - his first personal exhibition opened on November 5, 1996 in the Moscow gallery “Asti”.

Family

First wife - Valentina Voinovich.
- Daughter - Marina Vladimirovna Voinovich (1958-2006)
- Son - Pavel Vladimirovich Voinovich (born 1962)

Second wife (since 1964) - Irina Danilovna Voinovich (née Braude, 1938-2004); her first marriage was to the writer Kamil Akmalevich Ikramov (1927-1989).
- Daughter - German writer Olga Vladimirovna Voinovich (born 1973)

Third wife - Svetlana Yakovlevna Kolesnichenko.

Essays

“Song of the Cosmonauts” (“Fourteen minutes before launch”, 1960)

I believe, friends, caravans of rockets
They will rush us forward from star to star.
On the dusty paths of distant planets
Our traces will remain...

Major works

Trilogy about the soldier Ivan Chonkin: “The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of the Soldier Ivan Chonkin” (1969-1975), “Contender to the Throne” (1979), “Displaced Person” (2007)
"Moscow 2042" (1986)
“Domestic cat of medium fluffiness” (play, 1990, together with G. I. Gorin), based on the story “Shapka” (1987)
“Monumental Propaganda” (2000) - a satirical story that continues some of the plots of “Chonkin” and is dedicated to the phenomenon of “mass” Stalinism

“Self-portrait. The novel of my life" (novel, autobiography, EKSMO Publishing House, 2010)

Publications, editions

IN THE USSR

Voinovich V. We live here [: story] // New World. 1961. No. 1.

Abroad

Voinovich V. The life and extraordinary adventures of soldier Ivan Chonkin [: Part 1] // Grani: Frankfurt am Main. 1969. No. 72.
Voinovich V. Incident at the Metropol // Continent: Paris. 1975. No. 5.
Voinovich V. Ivankiada, or the Story of the writer Voinovich moving into a new apartment. Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1976.
Voinovich V. Contender to the throne [: the second book of “Chonkin”]. R.: YMCA-Press, 1979.
Voinovich V. Writer in Soviet society // Posev: Frankfurt am Main. 1983. No. 9. P. 32.
Voinovich V. If the enemy does not surrender...: Notes on socialist realism // Country and World: Munich. 1984. No. 10.

In the USSR during perestroika and in the Russian Federation

Voinovich V. Life and extraordinary adventures of soldier Ivan Chonkin // Youth. 1988. No. 12; 1989. No. 1-2.
Voinovich V. Tribunal: A court comedy in 3 parts / Preface. M. Shvydkogo // Theater. 1989. No. 3. P.2-37.
Voinovich V. Through mutual correspondence // Friendship of Peoples. 1989. No. 1.

Voinovich V. I want to be honest: Novels and stories. M.: Moscow worker, 1989.
Voinovich V. Zero solution [: collection. articles]. M., 1990. - 46 p. (“Library “Ogonyok””; No. 14)
Voinovich V. Anti-Soviet Soviet Union // October. 1991. No. 7. P.65-110.
Voinovich V. Moscow 2042 [: Roman]. M.: All Moscow, 1990. - 349, p.; The same: in the collection Evening in 2217 (Series: Utopia and dystopia of the 20th century). M.: Progress, 1990. P.387-716. Circulation: 100,000 copies. ISBN 5-01-002691-0; The same: Petrozavodsk: Kareko, 1994; The same: M.: Vagrius, 1999. - ISBN 5-264-00058-1. The same: M.: Eksmo, 2007. - ISBN 978-5-699-24310-5.
Voinovich V. Life and extraordinary adventures of soldier Ivan Chonkin / Afterword by B. Sarnov. M.: Book Chamber, 1990; The same: Petrozavodsk: Kareko, 1994; The same: M.: Vagrius, St. Petersburg: Lan, 1996; The same: M.: Vagrius, 1999.
[Voinovich V.] Vladimir Voinovich [: author’s number ] // Russian wealth: Journal of one author. 1994. No. 1 (5).
Voinovich V. Fairy tales for adults [: “Moscow 2042”, fairy tales]. M.: Vagrius, 1996. - 448 p. - ISBN 5-7027-0345-6
Voinovich V. The smell of chocolate: Stories. M.: Vagrius, 1997
Voinovich V. Anti-Soviet Soviet Union: Documentary phantasmagoria in 4 parts. M.: Continent, 2002. - 416 p. - ISBN 5-85646-060-X

Voinovich V. Small Collected Works: in 5 volumes. M.: Fabula, 1993-1995.

Voinovich V. Two comrades: Stories. M.: Eksmo, 2007. - ISBN 5699200398

Filmography

Films based on the works of V. Voinovich

1973 - Not even a year will pass... (dir. L. Beskodarny) - co-author of the script, together with B. Balter, based on the story “I Want to Be Honest”
1990 - Hat (dir. K. Voinov)
2000 - Two comrades (dir. V. Pendrakovsky)
2007 - The Adventures of Soldier Ivan Chonkin (dir. A. Kiryushchenko)
2009 - Not now (dir. V. Pendrakovsky)

Actor

2006 - Gardens in autumn (dir. O. Ioseliani) - episode

Films about V. Voinovich

2003 - Vladimir Voinovich. “The incredible adventures of V. Voinovich, told by himself after returning to his homeland” (author and director Alexander Plakhov).

Awards

Prize of the Bavarian Academy of Arts (1993),
Prize of the Znamya Foundation (1994),
Triumph Award (1996),
State Prize of the Russian Federation (2000), for the novel “Monumental Propaganda”
Prize named after A. D. Sakharova “For civil courage write

Vladimir Nikolaevich Voinovich - prose writer, screenwriter, playwright, publicist - born September 26, 1932 in Dushanbe. Father is a journalist, mother is a teacher.

The first poetic experiments date back to his time in the army ( 1951-1955 ); After demobilization, Voinovich, who once studied carpentry, works as a carpenter in Moscow. Twice - in 1956 and 1957- entered the Literary Institute, but was not accepted. Then he entered the Moscow Pedagogical Institute, but after studying there for a year and a half, he left for the virgin lands. After returning to Moscow he worked on radio, in 1960 wrote the words to the “Cosmonauts’ Song,” which very soon became famous. After at the meeting Yu.A. Gagarin sang a few words from this song from the rostrum of the Mausoleum N.S. Khrushchev, Voinovich was, in his words, received “with great pomp” in 1962 in SP.

Voinovich did not become a poet: in 1961 headed by A.T. Tvardov’s magazine “New World” published his first story, “We Live Here,” which was favorably received by critics. But the story “I Want to Be Honest” that soon appeared ( 1963 ) testified to the emergence of a sharp critical note in the writer’s work, which sounded even more clearly in the story “Two Comrades” ( 1967 ). The independent position of the writer, who was not going to agree with the increasingly louder reproaches against him, and who took part in numerous protest campaigns against the massacre of dissidents, made Voinovich’s position in his homeland more and more difficult. When first in samizdat, and then abroad (in Frankfurt am Main, 1969 ) the first part of the satirical novel-anecdote “The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Soldier Ivan Chonkin” appeared, in it they saw a mockery of the Soviet Army and its soldier, the author was accused of not taking seriously the tragic events in the life of the people - the Patriotic War. In 1975 the novel was published in full, in 2 parts; the continuation of the events associated with the image of the unlucky soldier was the novel “The Contender to the Throne” ( 1979 ).

According to Voinovich, “every writer is a dissenter. If he thinks like everyone else, then what interest is there in him?”, but he does not consider himself a political dissident: the state and the citizen, Voinovich is convinced, must be mutually loyal to each other. However, this went against the inherent order of a totalitarian state, which explains Voinovich’s fate: in 1974 he was expelled from the joint venture and was then accepted into the international PEN club.

From that time on, satire occupied the main place in the writer’s work. Voinovich’s works could no longer see the light of day in his homeland, criticism against him took on a threatening character, unequivocal threats began to be heard, incl. physical violence. Voinovich spoke about how he was literally pushed out of his native land, subjected to endless humiliation in the book “Case No. 34840” ( 1994 ). All this forced Voinovich December 12, 1980 leave the country. He was soon deprived of his Soviet citizenship, which was restored 10 years later. Now Voinovich spends most of his time in Russia, without breaking at all with the country that sheltered him during his exile - Germany.

The absurdity of the actions that drive the plot in each of Voinovich's satirical works lies at the basis of life itself. The meek and trusting Vanya Chonkin finds himself in absurd situations not out of stupidity, but only because he does not accept the rules of the game accepted in society.

Voinovich does not invent the plots of his satirical works - they are generated in abundance by reality itself. This is how “Ivankiada” appeared ( 1976 ), in the center of which is a lawsuit for a vacant apartment in a writers' cooperative house, which a certain Ivanko, who considers himself a member of the creative union, wants to take over, but works not in literature, but in the field of the KGB. This is how “The Hat” appeared - a story about the torment a Soviet writer can experience because in the atelier of the writers’ union they must sew a hat for him, but only from cat fur, which indicates that, in the eyes of the leadership, he is third-rate. This is how the book of artistic journalism “Anti-Soviet Soviet Union” appeared ( 1985 ): much of what those who lived in the Land of the Soviets had become accustomed to appears here from an unexpected perspective, revealing its truly non-Soviet essence. This also applies to actively - by all possible means - propaganda, which, as is known, often had an effect on a person that was directly opposite to its intended purpose.

The most significant thing Voinovich created after leaving Russia was the satirical dystopian novel Moscow 2042 ( 1987 ).

The future depicted here appears as a focus of amazing - well-recognized - absurdities. Here is the putsch of generals who decided to change life for the better using purely army methods - orders, and the situation of total control from above over the life of every citizen, and the replacement of the true content of concepts with symbolism, and finally, general impoverishment, with the help of loud words passed off as prosperity.

Voinovich left Russia, refusing to “adapt too much,” but even while in exile, he said with conviction: “I am a Russian writer. I write in Russian, on a Russian theme and in the Russian spirit. I have a Russian worldview.”

Voinovich's latest works are the novel "The Plan" and the documentary story "Case No. 3480", which is based on a detective story about the assassination attempt on Voinovich by KGB officers. The plot of the novel is branched. One of the lines is the biography of Voinovich himself. The other is a woman's manuscript that accidentally came to the author of the novel. The third line is the present life of the writer, excerpts from his works, observations on modern life and memories. In the final chapter of the novel, the temporal and spatial planes unexpectedly shift, and the characters in the work meet each other.

Merry Prophet

Vladimir Voinovich is a living classic, what can I say. Only this definition does not suit him in any way, it is not for him. With such a sense of humor - and in freedom! I didn’t go to jail, thank God, but in Brezhnev’s blessed times I was expelled from everywhere I could be expelled from, and I left. Yes, Germany warmed him up. But the totalitarian system collapsed, and Voinovich returned. Lives nearby here, in New Moscow. Just reach out, call... and you will meet a living classic. With such a sense of humor! And free.

Vladimir Voinovich

“They say they are following you, but you have a suede jacket.”

- Vladimir Nikolaevich, is everything bad?

To say that it was good, no one would believe it.

Ask 90% of the people: even despite this whole crisis, they watch TV and therefore will say that everything is fine.

I don't think 90% would say that; in any case, I'm pretty sure that number has gone down. Maybe they think that Obama is to blame, or someone else, but I don’t think that 90% now feel that they are living well and are not worried because prices are rising, and the dollar is rising, and the ruble is falling. Even those who perhaps never use dollars, by the way, feel it more personally than those who do. Their incomes are much lower.

- Well, you know how: we haven’t lived well and there’s nothing to start with. What's wrong with you?

I’m a social animal, I feel that some events are happening in Russia... I don’t want to look pretentious, but I see that life is very disturbing, because it partly smells of war.

When I left, many people believed that I left voluntarily, that I even sought this. But firstly, I didn’t achieve this, and secondly, I didn’t want it. In addition, when I was in such a specific position of an internal exile (from everywhere - I was expelled from the Writers' Union and from other organizations), I was persecuted in every possible way, and I resisted for seven years. They sent me specially prepared calls from Israel, bungled somewhere in Lubyanka with all the seals, with all the relatives... Then there were threats that I should leave...

Threats? I remember your “Medium Fluffy Cat”, aka the film “Hat”, where after the writer Rakhlin bit a high-ranking comrade, he received calls. He picks up the phone: “We are with you!” Then another call: “Get out of here, you Jewish face!” Did they call you like that too?

Approximately. It was reported from one of the high ranks of the KGB that there was supposedly a table conversation that Voinovich would soon die in the basements of the Lubyanka. Apart from all the stuff about poisoning, you probably heard... Hooligans attacked me... Well, in a variety of ways.

- Listen, how similar it is at least to that.

Well, of course, they didn’t come up with anything new.

- And everything comes back?

These methods are returning, including murder. The murder of Nemtsov, the murder of Politkovskaya, the murder of Larisa Yudina from Kalmykia...

Natalia Estemirova. But you are here. You say this - in “MK”, on “Echo of Moscow”, in “Novaya”, on “Svoboda”... This is not a complete immersion there, at a time where the scoop and the power of the KGB are? Although yes, a lot is similar. But you don’t slam the door, don’t shout angrily: “I’m leaving this damned country again for Munich!”

But I don’t know how I will behave when these cracks close too.

So there are smart people there, in my opinion, they don’t think of closing this. They understand that the lid cannot be closed as tightly as in the USSR, otherwise there will be an explosion.

Well, yes. But when I was a completely banned writer in the USSR, I knew that I existed here as a writer. That people read me, that my books are published in samizdat...

Vladimir Voinovich with his wife Svetlana Yakovlevna

- Excuse me, but what did you live on?

I lived quite well, even before that worse than later. When I was already being persecuted, and I was still trying to maintain my Soviet status and behaved more or less quietly, they simply strangled me economically. And then, when I was already angry and went with my visor open, I began to demonstratively publish in the West and began to receive royalties.

- From there?

From there. At first, by the way, the money even went officially, through Vneshtorgbank. Then this thing was closed - and people started coming to me and saying that they needed dollars. And I needed rubles. I had a lawyer in Seattle, America, he had my account, he collected my fees, and I wrote to him: “Give so-and-so a thousand dollars.” He gave it away. And this man gave me 4,000 rubles, that was the rate then. So financially I lived very well, which gave some people a false idea of my life. I remember once I met the poet Igor Shaferan. And he told me: “They say you’re being followed, but you have a suede jacket...”

- Two!

It’s as if a person can’t feel very comfortable in a suede jacket. Then, by the way, they sent me a sheepskin coat, I wore a good sheepskin coat. They also said: he walks around in such a sheepskin coat, where are they chasing him?! Now, if I walked around in cast-offs, then yes, they would believe me.

- That is, the KGB did not block this source of existence for you?

The KGB behaved very strangely. After I left, for example, my apartment remained with me for some time. And some writers contacted the KGB, saying that we had a waiting list, but here the apartment was empty. They were asked: “Does he pay the rent?” - “Pays.” - “Well, what’s your business?..” Then, when I returned in 1992, I went to a conference: “KGB - yesterday, today, tomorrow.” There, one after another, KGB officers came up to me and said how much they loved Chonkin.

- Well, of course, the people were not stupid, they read.

Yes, I have a funny story on this topic. 11 years ago I was in Tajikistan, in my homeland, in the city that is now called Khujent, and before that Leninabad. I performed there. I was there with my daughter, then we went with her to Tashkent. Nobody knew me there, but I was already used to being recognized everywhere, I got spoiled. We get into the car: the driver, next to him are Tajik passengers. Suddenly one passenger turns around: “When will there be a continuation of Chonkin?” I was surprised: “Have you read Chonkin?” - "Certainly. Do you know why? I served in the KGB."

And when I was leaving, there was a man named Idashkin, a member of the Writers' Union. So he was sent to me as an intermediary from the KGB. And he told me: “Believe me, many people here respect you…” He may have lied...

“Who are you to attack Solzhenitsyn?!”

- When did you start attacking Solzhenitsyn? Here or already there?

No, only there. Here, on the contrary, I defended him, by the way. And he defended it quite zealously. This was one of the reasons, although not the main one, why I was punished.

When Solzhenitsyn appeared, I received him with delight, like many others. Even later, when I was expelled from the Writers' Union, I wrote a phrase for which I was later a little ashamed: “They pushed our greatest citizen abroad.”

Solzhenitsyn, however, was unhappy with this, because he thought that I should have said “the greatest writer.” But, in any case, I stood up for him until his departure. But abroad he changed dramatically. Before leaving, Solzhenitsyn was a very wise man, he said the most important things. And back in Stockholm, he gave a speech about the connection between lies and violence. About the fact that violence has nothing to hide behind except lies, and lies has nothing to justify itself except violence. And then after a while I started talking nonsense and relaxed there, in the West. But I endured it for a long time, watched... Then I got tired of it.

But when you immortalized the image of Solzhenitsyn in “Moscow 2042” in the form of Sim Simych Karnavalov, and then wrote a large exposing book about him - for this it was necessary to have a scale no smaller than that of him, the classic? So that later they don’t say: “Well, who is it that is attacking our giant of thought?”

And at first I myself thought: who am I? When I found myself in the West, I was often compared to Solzhenitsyn, and I said: well, Solzhenitsyn is a great figure, and I... But I saw how he treated people, how rude he was. I saw that he allowed himself a lot of things that he would not have allowed if he no longer had such world fame. Solzhenitsyn wrote the story “For the Good of the Cause,” published in Novy Mir. In my opinion, a very bad story. I told someone, and to me: “How dare you?!” Who are you to say that?” And I say: “Yes, it’s just a reader.” I can say that I don’t like Tolstoy’s “Kreutzer Sonata,” but I can’t say about Solzhenitsyn? Finally I thought, “Why can’t I?” This is where it started.

Honestly, I was a very big fan of “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”, “In the First Circle”, and in general, at first it often seemed to me that there were no writers in Russia except Solzhenitsyn. That is, I placed myself and everyone else very far from him. And then I read, for example, “August the 14th”, yawned, I was just bored. I was surprised at some stupid things there. Then the “Red Wheel” started... He also once said that the Americans invented a bomb that, falling on a city, destroys only ethnic Russians. That’s how he went down and down for me...

But the life of Russian emigration in the West is a different story. A ball of snakes, “who are you friends against” - it’s simply terrifying! You also participated in these debates.

Well, not really. I once wrote a note in “Russian Thought” on this matter, “Who is the best”, it was called. Like, this one is better because he writes better, this one is better because he was in prison longer... but all this is nonsense, because everyone knows that I am the best! But I tried to stay away from all this.

- How did Alexander Isaevich react to you? To "Moscow 2042"?

They told me that he was offended. Solzhenitsyn wrote that I invented everything “from hooves to feathers.” And he also wrote that I was being compared to Rabelais (actually, I was compared to others, to Saltykov-Shchedrin, to Gogol, and not to Rabelais) and now he grabbed an apartment from someone - once! - and wrote a great work. And I answered him that his description of me was similar to a feuilleton from the magazine “Crocodile”.

Isn’t this eternal abuse of the Russian emigration similar to how the democratic public here and now quarrels with each other all the time?

Well, it seems, it seems. This is generally a problem for Russia and Russians. I don't mean ethnic Russians, but Russian Jews.

Or maybe this is a natural process for smart people who get together? Two Jews - three opinions, each with their own ambitions, arrogance, and nothing can be done about it.

Everyone wants to be in charge, I think that’s the point. And no one wants to be an ordinary participant in the process. Yes, all people with ambitions, especially those who engage in politics in such extreme conditions.

- And this bickering between liberals doesn’t irritate you? Especially after Ukraine.

It's not annoying, but upsetting. But those liberals with whom I am are all on the same side as I am. But Limonov and Prilepin are complete strangers to me.

That is, there is “friend or foe” for you too? But a “stranger” is also a person, you can at least feel sorry for him. You are a writer.

Regret as much as you like. I even wrote a novel, “Monumental Propaganda,” where my heroine, with whom I sympathize even more than others, a fan of Stalin, brought a Stalin monument into her house and lives with it. If I examine the soul of this person, his character, I can feel sorry for him. I can even feel sorry for Hitler, you know?

- This is difficult for me to understand. Although for a dramatic work...

This is a tragic figure - Hitler. He thought that he would destroy all the Jews and build a wonderful country. And he committed suicide. All his hopes for a great Germany collapsed, his faith in the German people collapsed, who turned out to be unworthy of him. He said so...

- You lived in Germany for a long time, maybe it has that effect on you?

No way. I can say the same about Stalin and Lenin. Stalin lived his entire life in fear. You know, I saw Stalin once, not in a movie, but live. It was 1952, not long before his death. There was some kind of reception in the Kremlin, the ambassadors presented their credentials. The diplomats are all dressed in gold and ailets, and suddenly an old man in a shabby jacket comes out. He came out and immediately turned his back to the wall. I look: it’s Stalin! So small and pathetic. I was told that persecution mania manifests itself, among other things, in the fact that a person stands with his back to the wall so that he is not attacked from behind. What was going on in his soul was simply terrible, God forbid. People all suffer, even the most terrible bandits.

“I haven’t killed a single German and I’m very pleased with that.”

Now there is so much hatred around both among the liberal public and among the anti-liberal one. Are you infected with this?

No, I hope not. I once wrote an article called “The Fourth Side of Humanism.” There was a poet Surkov who wrote “Fire beats in a small stove.” And he also wrote that humanism includes patriotism and something else, but also hatred. To the enemies. Yes, sometimes I don’t like some people, but I never wanted them to feel bad. I just wanted some people who run the country to just leave.

- It’s not your age - do you love everyone so much now?

No, I have had this since childhood. During the war, when everyone hated, and I was 9 years old, I came up with the idea of executing Hitler. I wanted him to be caught, harnessed to a cart and so that he would drive this cart, and they would beat him with whips. But then, when I imagined this, I felt sorry for Hitler. Besides, my upbringing was like this. My father was drafted into the army on the third day after the start of the war. He just returned from prison. He did not fight for long; in December 1941 he was wounded. By the way, near Debaltsevo. I always thought that no one knows this name except me...

- Now everyone knows.

Yes. My father became disabled and spent eight months in the hospital. He returned with a yellow ribbon, which indicated a serious injury (a red ribbon - a minor one).

And I, like all children, asked: “Dad, how many Germans did you kill?” He looked at me and said: “I didn’t kill a single one and I’m very pleased with that.”

And I had a negative attitude towards the Germans for quite a long time, such hostility, although I understood that Germans are different. But once, during Soviet times, the only time I was abroad was in Czechoslovakia (not counting the fact that I served in the army in Poland). It was 1967. I was sailing on a boat somewhere near Bratislava along the Danube and photographing something.

A group of Germans was sitting nearby, they started pointing at me and laughing. I just hated them at that time. But then I realized that they were laughing because I didn’t remove the lens cap. And he laughed too. After this, the hatred ceased to exist, and many Germans became my friends.

And I have a great attitude towards the Germans. Only when I watch Schindler’s List, for some reason I want to take a machine gun and go to Berlin, to Munich. After 15 minutes it goes away. Until the next screening of this film.

I just see modern Germans who are very ashamed and worried about their past. One of my German friends told me that his father was a member of the NSDLP, but did not fight, he only worked at a factory. And when the Americans arrived, they sent him to a camp and began to re-educate him. They called and asked: how do you feel about Hitler? He said: Hitler is a great man. Okay, then sit still. He sat, a year later they asked him again. He again: Hitler is a great man. Three years later he finally said: no, in my opinion, he’s not great after all. Understood.

- Do you also put the Stalinist and Hitlerite regimes on the same level?

Yes, I bet. I am very sensitive to these things and believe that Stalin’s crimes are generally unforgivable - and there will be no forgiveness for him forever and ever. Just like Hitler.

But many war veterans will not forgive you for this. Although there were others - Viktor Astafiev, Viktor Nekrasov, who thought the same as you.

And my father thought so.

Presentation of the State Prize. year 2001.

“After Putin there will be an attempt at a new perestroika, inevitably”

Regarding “The Medium Fluffy Cat”... You wrote wonderfully there about these writer’s privileges: some have a mink hat, some a raccoon hat, some a cat’s... And now everything has changed for your brother, is there no longer this hierarchy?

It’s hard for me to say, because I’m not involved in the general writing life right now. There are no longer these passions, that pie that needs to be divided - dachas, all kinds of privileges, positions, clinics...

- So Yevtushenko recently said that it is necessary to revive the Writers' Union.

Wow, I remembered this too. And now there are writers who still dream: you pay us, and we will serve you, we will write correctly what you want. I think this does not apply only to Yevtushenko.

Remember Solzhenitsyn's letter to the Leaders of the Soviet Union? Who would you compare the current leader - Vladimir Vladimirovich?

With Lenin. They said about Lenin that he was a genius. But he was not a genius. Because a genius foresees something, but all of Lenin’s plans and ideas simply failed.

- So Lenin was a good tactician, but not a strategist?

That's it. Lenin as a statesman was simply stupid.

- That's a moot point.

He decided to build something, some kind of shining building on the sand. What, Lenin wanted to build a state where there was freedom, equality and brotherhood?

- This is all a cover.

What did he want? When he was underground, he lived abroad, he wanted to start a revolution. For what?

But he built something opposite, some kind of monster.

- So Putin recently said that Lenin became the founder of the collapse of a large country.

In this case, I partially agree with Putin, although I don’t know what he means by this.

- How does Putin differ from Nicholas I, say? He is absolutely in the trend of many of our kings and general secretaries.

Yes, Putin wants to remain in history. To be a figure like, perhaps, Peter I, a unifier of Russian lands. But he did not understand at all that his behavior was incompatible with this. This distribution of wealth to closest friends...

- But he’s not bloodthirsty! Look, you are slandering here, but they are not coming for you, there are no “craters” near the house.

And Nemtsov, Politkovskaya, Estimirova?..

- This is for Kadyrov.

But Kadyrov is to some extent subordinate to Putin? So it is not safe to be in the opposition.

Well, the last question. "Moscow 2042" is forever. One can recall at least the hero of the Buryat-Mongol War and the resident of Soviet intelligence in Germany. As you predicted, this is what happened, and much earlier than in 2042. What do you think will happen next in this case?

I study trends, nothing else. In the 70s, I saw that the role of the church in the USSR was growing. Secretaries of district committees go to church, secretly get baptized, get married, baptize their children... At the same time, it was clear that the KGB was strengthening. So I imagined where this was going. And now... Just five years ago I would not have undertaken to predict, it was not clear to me. And now it’s clear: we have come to a dead end. After Putin there will be an attempt at a new perestroika, inevitably.

- And after perestroika, the country collapsed again?

Quite possible. Gorbachev is accused of the collapse, but he only wanted to preserve the Soviet Union by all means. But the system was not repaired; it was outdated. Under Putin, the system became outdated, and very quickly.

- A terrible end or horror without end?

Anything is possible, even civil war. Or maybe it will work out. And in 200 years we will unite again as the European Union.