"What language do you write in — which country do you belong to"
A Russian writer is nothing without his native language and is considered a patriot by definition. At the same time, literature cannot be a textbook of life for the people and a servant of any ideology. Alexey Varlamov, writer and rector of the Literary Institute, told Izvestia at the Leo Tolstoy Museum Estate about the search for light in the gloomy books of modern authors, labeling of foreign agents and the importance of obeying the law, even if he does not agree with it.
"The world is fascinated by evil and the image of violence"
— The Yasnaya Polyana jury has announced a shortlist of modern Russian prose. You noted that if there had been a list of the best books of the award for all the years, they would not have been included there. Why?
— This is my opinion, which other members of the jury, as well as all participants in the literary process, may disagree with. It really seemed to me that there were no such bright books as, for example, last year's novel by Leonid Yuzefovich "A trip to the Bar-Hoto". He absolutely amazed me. Every year doesn't have to be fruitful. And a literary award is always a very subjective thing.
— At the same time, you identified two novels — "Emergency Exit" by Ilya Kochergin and "Sober Hussar" by Ilya Boyashov. Why?
— I have a feeling that we are living in an unexpectedly crazy world today. When the twenty-first century, the third millennium, began, it seemed at that moment that a wiser humanity had said goodbye to many of the problems and sores that had accompanied us for centuries. Suddenly, maybe after Covid, some kind of loss of common sense took hold of everyone. I see a complete irrationality in the behavior of people in general, and literature reacts sharply to this.
That's why there are so many sad, sad, poignant, heartbreaking, tragic and painful stories today. The world is fascinated by evil and the image of violence. It's pointless to blame directors and writers for writing or filming like that. As life is, so is art. But when books appear that counter this and differ from the general flow, they, of course, attract attention. Common sense prevails in them, where good is good, evil is evil. And I like that.
"Literature cannot be a textbook of life and a servant of ideology"
— On September 1, 2025, the rules on mandatory labeling of books mentioning drugs, childfree propaganda and the activities of foreign agents came into force. Will the book community be able to adapt to the new realities?
— I think one way or another he can. The history of Russian literature is long. And the 30-year period, well, a little more than about, when absolute freedom reigned, is rather an exception. Now, in a sense, we are back on track. Whether this is good or bad, let's see the results. Still, to be fair, it cannot be said that 30 years of freedom have given us more beautiful, interesting and great literature.
Maybe writers need to overcome something, and interacting with tougher working conditions will force them to be more inventive, resourceful, and original. Sometimes this gave rise to such masterpieces as "The Master and Margarita", "The Pit", "Chevengur", "The Gulag Archipelago", "Kolyma Stories" — you can name a lot of things. But as a writer, I absolutely do not want my books or my colleagues to be banned, so that the threat of criminal punishment looms over us for what we wrote wrong or about the wrong thing.
— The literature of the 20th century often turned to the themes of dependence, marginality and freedom of choice. Wouldn't these mandatory warnings turn classic texts into suspicious ones?
— I don't believe in it at all. It seems to me that you have to completely lose your common sense to rewrite the literature of the past and ban classical works, seeing there allegedly propaganda of drunkenness, drug addiction or God knows what, it's just madness.
From my point of view, the past should not be touched. Literature cannot be a textbook of life and a servant of ideology. She never serves anyone, she has her own voice. Literature primarily talks about diseases, problems, and difficulties.
"Breaking with your national language is an almost impossible thing"
— How do you explain to students and young authors at the Literary Institute where the line lies between an honest depiction of life and propaganda?
— A literary institute is an educational institution where different people with different views work, everyone can have their own point of view. We do not have, and have not had, any single ideological orientation in the past. This is a tradition of the institute. By the way, it is symbolic that it is located in the estate where Alexander Ivanovich Herzen, a Westerner, was born. After the birth of Herzen, the estate became a Slavophile nest. Aksakov, Khomyakov, Kireevsky, Gogol — Slavophile writers - visited there. And the fact that two trees of the Russian social movement have grown in one place — Westernizers and Slavophiles — is very important.
Writers from the sixties studied at the Literary Institute, people for whom the concept of individual freedom is most important, conditionally Bella Akhmadulina and Yevgeny Yevtushenko. On the other hand, there were writers such as Vasily Belov and Nikolai Rubtsov. I care about both at the same time, because they are all the history of our literature.
Today, of course, we are talking about different trends and roads in literature. You don't have to follow the path of Solzhenitsyn, Sholokhov, Fadeev or Pasternak. Anyone can be closer to you, it's the student's choice. The only thing I insist on is our language. We all write on it. The Russian language is, in a sense, the property of Russia as a huge cultural and historical phenomenon. We are all nothing without Russia, we are all nothing without the Russian language. We are all soil scientists, not in the ideological sense of the word, but rather in the biological sense.
It seems to me that a musician can be a cosmopolitan. Music is a universal concept. And the writer is chained, tied, and connected to language. Breaking with your national language is almost impossible. Maybe you can name Nabokov, but this is exactly the exception.
The writer is language-oriented, which means he is connected to his country. Therefore, he is by definition a patriot, if this word is understood not in a narrow sense, but in a broad sense, as a person of his homeland, country, language. I always try to convey this idea to the students. The Russian writer is a part of Russia, a historical path, space and time, because he chose this particular kind of activity. If you're a Russian writer, you can't become a French one. What language you write in is the country you belong to.
— How have the students changed recently?
— I don't look at students as a kind of community. Everyone is interesting not because they are similar to each other, but because they differ from each other. And the task of the Literary Institute is to identify individuality. There is no choir, ensemble, or orchestra in literature. Literature is always solo. And that's why it's important not how students change in general, but how a particular student changes. For example, some time ago they had a very popular fantasy genre, but now there is more attention to what is called auto-fixation. In my opinion, this is still a step forward: it is better to write about yourself than about some fictional worlds. In addition, it seems to me that the level of writing has increased in general.
— How do you feel about the use of AI in the work of a writer?
— I know that some authors use it. This causes an internal protest in me. I really would not like technology to interfere with humanistic creativity, which is literature. It should be absolutely free from any interference — government, scientific and technical - from anyone. The man and his text.
"No one can erase from Russian literature"
— The main city book fair starts in Moscow. Product prices are rising every year, but the choice is not increasing much. Does the reader even need to go there?
— Of course it is necessary. There are many wonderful writers working in Russia. By the way, the Yasnaya Polyana Award is a classic testimony to the existence of excellent books. And many of them can be bought at the fair. It would be unfair to say that our culture has suddenly become impoverished. I can't say that I don't feel sorry for those who left, either, because there are good writers among them. In the end, history will decide everything. My attitude to these events is that if there is a law, it must be followed. Even if the law is unfair, it's better than not having it. Therefore, we live in the circumstances that we are given, we meet with those writers who live and work here, and there are many of them, and we find food for our minds and hearts in their books.
— Does the status of foreign agents and mandatory labeling not make them non-Russian writers?
— No one can erase it from Russian literature. Russian literature has known times when writers were persecuted. Then time passes, and the criterion remains the library shelves, where Sholokhov stands next to Solzhenitsyn, Bulgakov next to Fadeev, Shukshin next to Dovlatov.
— The novel "Odsun" has become the most emotionally dear to you. Is it true that you weren't going to publish it at all?
— I've been writing it for more than four years, it usually takes less time for novels. This is a very important statement for me. It concerns history, modernity, and complex social, political, existential, and psychological issues.
I was really hesitant to give my book to the public, because at the time it seemed to me that it was too late. After all, the key theme of the novel is connected with Russia and Ukraine. I wrote it before February 2022. And when these events happened, it seemed to me that the topic had simply lost its relevance, because the story had gone in a completely different direction. And then I accidentally sent the manuscript to someone else's address. I made a mistake, pressed the wrong button, and I was afraid that it would fall into other hands. It is not known how it will be disposed of, so I sent the manuscript to the publisher next. Actually, thanks to the mistake, Odsun saw the light.
— Have you thought about making "Odsun", like "My Soul Pavel", a play or a film?
— You won't find a single writer who wouldn't like that. But I'm not sure that the novel "Odsun" can be staged. If someone would take up this idea, I would be only too happy and would give all the rights. But it's all very expensive: a performance, a movie. One day, director Vladimir Khotinenko wanted to make A Mental Wolf, but it all came down to money. While I'm busy with another job, I'm writing a book about Pushkin.
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