Sergei Shargunov: “A Russian writer should be for mercy”

– Sergey Alexandrovich, let’s start with the pressing issues. Do you think that Russian literature is in a state of crisis today? What awaits our prose and poetry tomorrow? Has the influence of Russian literature on world literature diminished because of the so-called “abolition of Russian culture”? Or is it impossible to cancel Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky?

– You know, it is people who read little who constantly talk about the crisis or the dying of literature. For me, such statements are a sign of reader, and even spiritual laziness. It is much easier to bury a literary process than to follow it. Any long list of “Yasnaya Polyana”, “Big Book” or “National Best” opens a picture of a lively, full-blooded, colorful life. There are many talented writers, especially among young ones. I see this both as the editor-in-chief of Yunost, and in terms of the participants in the ASPIR workshops, all-Russian and regional, and in terms of students. Another thing – the same poets or critics must be supported, given them space to realize their gift, supported financially and informationally. It is no coincidence that I am doing the Open Book program on the Kultura channel, in which I talk in detail with writers about their books. These are the young, and the elderly, and beginners, and venerable, and traditionalists, and innovators … The audience’s interest is becoming reader’s. Having discovered the writer, you go to the bookstore. It is necessary to introduce our people to modern literature more, to educate, all the more so there is such a reciprocal thirst. The nearest plans of the Association include serious relations with the theatrical and cinematographic world, so that books turn into plays and films.

I think there will be no total cancellation of Russian classics. Russian classics are invulnerable. Yes, perhaps there will be gaps in the repertoires, omissions, international cultural ties, projects will suffer – they are already suffering … But I really want to hope that this will pass.

– Since we are talking about the Association of Writers’ Unions – tell me, why did you need to unite them? The original project provided for the merger of all into a single Union, as was the result of the literary struggle in the USSR in the 30s? Have plans changed as of January 2023?

– The creation of the Association is a response to the vital needs of the writing and publishing communities. There is no need to put pressure on the writer, there is no need to limit his creative freedom, and what is really needed is social protection, assistance in literary earnings (few people live on royalties), trips around the country, meetings with readers, the opportunity to work in residence. Or here is a writer in a crisis situation (illness, fire, some kind of misfortune) – who will help him? We all started to succeed.

The Association brought together the largest unions that arose thirty years ago after the collapse of the Union of Writers of the USSR, and many more famous, bright, readers-loved authors. Of course, they are all still very different not only ideologically, but also aesthetically. But I don’t and can’t have any plans to impose some sort of unification on anyone. She is not needed. There is a main task – to create conditions for work. How exactly? It is necessary to save thick literary magazines, to transfer the skills of mastery to new generations of writers (for this, children’s centers are being created throughout the country and workshops for beginners in all federal districts). And it is also necessary to translate national literature, support the Russian language and literature, where possible. What we are doing.

– As a writer, are you interested in Soviet classics? In the ZhZL series, you wrote a volume about Kataev, why about him? What place does Valentin Petrovich occupy in literature – “Soviet”, “anti-Soviet” or “golden mean”? Is it a coincidence that Kataev headed Yunost in the 60s, and you in the 21st century? Or did this fact sign up “on the subcortex” during the research and predetermine your fate?

– Kataev was not about ideology, but about beauty. A brilliant stylist, a first-class writer who managed to maintain aesthetic freedom in the most difficult times. He, yesterday’s white officer, was almost shot in the Odessa Cheka, but decades later he was also hung with a gold star of the hero of Socialist Labor. It can be said that he was a pre-Soviet, Bunin’s student, who is fascinating to compare with Nabokov. The line of visible and spiritualized memory made Kataev belong to the Silver Age more than to his era, and in such a way that the era did not notice it. But it is absolutely certain that Kataev, with his artistic passion, has never been a middle man, fifty-fifty is not about him.

My appointment to Yunost is, of course, a mystical story for me. Probably, some higher, heavenly direction worked here, otherwise I don’t know how to explain it. I wrote a book about Kataev, who invented Youth, then I dreamed about him in the editorial office and shook hands, then they called from there and invited me … As Kataev’s daughter says, Valentin Petrovich would be pleased with the current life of his magazine.

– XXI century – the time of magazines, paper or electronic books? Or something else? Which carrier will “win” in the end?

– I believe in paper, in strong binding, in the smell of typography… The book in Russia is still an important fact of material culture. A person needs to touch a book, flip through it, come back, bend the corners, feel its weight on the hand… Today, the share of e-books in our total book circulation is only about 16 percent. Despite fierce prices, people go to bookstores, there are no crowds at fairs, 70 percent of books are sold through bookshop networks – a heavy, costly, native business. And the love of the paper book is returning all over the world. I am glad that I just passed an important law in the State Duma supporting bookstores as social enterprises. I read a lot from the screen, but I carefully put the shelves in my cabinets.

As for the magazines, the Association tries to help them, but I tirelessly ensure that, with state support, they get into the libraries of the country – this can really help the “fat men”, without whom there is no national culture.

– How do you feel about the departed writers. Now there are calls to return to Russia all those who left the country after February (Other options are being voiced on how to deal with them, but we won’t talk about that). Who would you like to “bring back” from your colleagues in the writing business?

– I don’t know how you can bring someone back with calls. But of course it’s important to keep the doors open. People left for different reasons – and they should return for different reasons too. The main thing is that on your own …

What I definitely do not support is aggression, harassment, denunciation, a feverish search for “enemies”. This leads to the destruction of culture, society, humanity. A Russian writer should be for mercy.

For myself, I decided to live and work here, and as long as there is an opportunity, continue to do what I consider important and kind.

– Your maternal and paternal grandfathers died on the fronts of the Winter War and the Great Patriotic War. How did the family treat the Victory? How was May 9th celebrated?

– As a child, I often opened an album with photographs of my ancestors, and this holiday is associated for me with peering into their faces. My parents didn’t know their fathers. I remember that on the ninth of May my father, a priest, always remembered this story. His father pinned his photograph to his chest, as a fellow soldier later said. So, the kid was playing on the floor in the hut during the war and suddenly began to cry, shouted: “The folder was killed, the folder was killed!” At a great distance, he felt the death of his father, to whom the bullet hit right in the heart, breaking through this photo.

And my mother, according to her mother, said that she, pregnant, stood at the window on a sunny morning and suddenly it darkened around. At that moment she became a widow. I immediately felt and understood that my husband had been killed.

For me, May 9 is a family, home, personal holiday. This is no reason to show off, throwing crackling phrases. This is a bright holiday, in which memory and pain. For example, in addition to grandfather Ivan, three more of his brothers died and my grandmother had four, and all from the same village.

– What work of contemporaries would you include in the school curriculum? Who do you think is the largest living prose writer of the Russian Federation?

– It seems to me that before adding someone to the school curriculum, you need to think it over and discuss it carefully, consult with teachers, writers, parents, and children as well.

Of contemporary writers, I always read with interest Alexei Varlamov, Roman Senchin, Evgeny Vodolazkin, Pavel Basinsky, Dmitry Danilov, Olga Slavnikova, Marina Stepnova and many others.

– Please, tell us about the labeling of books for children and teenagers, and the removal from the law of the classics studied at school that followed the labeling. How did you vote for these laws?

– Well, how could I vote if I was one of the initiators of the bill on making the relevant changes? Now not only school classics have been removed from the zone of age restrictions, but also great religious books – the Bible, Tanakh, Koran, Kanjur. This is absurd – Gospel 16+, or not to sell Yesenin’s book to a teenager. This absurdity has been corrected.

– What are you writing now? When is the next book?

– Wrote a novel. Thinking about when to publish. It will take a little, probably. And I am writing a book about Yuri Kazakov, a wonderful Russian storyteller, whose fate itself is like a story, broken off, bitter for this, but also mysteriously charming.

– And it is possible a lyrical question? If ONE book from each country were sent into the boundless space, which one, in your opinion, should represent our literature?

– Let it be Anna Karenina.