YouSaid · the spoken record

Andrey Kurkov

lines on the record: 45
first: 2022-10-03
most recent: 2022-10-03
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I would ask you actually to read one on fiction books about Ukraine because there are wonderful books in English. I mean like Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands An Applebaums Red Hunger East West Street by Philip Sense The Gates of Europe by Sergei Plochi People should see the difference in history, should understand that actually the Ukrainian history is not part of Russian. It can be quite separate and of course I mean people should understand Ukrainian culture. Do you know that Ukrainian classical writers are still not translated in many languages? So whenever people think about classical writer of Ukraine they think immediately about Russian classic because Russia was always funding translations, was supporting promoting their culture Ukrainians were not doing this unfortunately but it's high time to do that”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They sometimes like Poroshenko, I mean, he got more than 50% in first goat during the war. And almost immediately everybody started criticizing him. In Russia, you accept, I mean, the Tsar is given by God. You love him and you defend him and you do what he says. If he is very nasty, you kill him and you love the next Tsar. This is not applicable to Ukrainians. Ukrainians will not come close to the Tsar.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, the Thai is, I mean, Russians and Ukrainians used to love strong drinks, but actually this changed also because now beer and wine is more fashionable than vodka in Ukraine. And Ukrainians were always trying to eat a lot when they were drinking. So, I mean, the food is much more important for Ukrainians than for Russians because Ukrainians survived artificial famine of 1932-33. Generally, Ukrainians were always anarchists and never had respect for central power or for their leaders or for the Soviet leaders because they used to elect the Getmans, the heads of their territory. And in two or three days after elections, they would try to topple them and to elect somebody else. Sometimes I think actually Ukrainians today elect presidents just choosing those whom they will hate after the elections, after the victor of this person. Because, I mean...”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I'm following all the stories, including actually agricultural stories. And I have a friend in Kiev who is representatives of Dutch company who is supplying farmers with seeds, with the high quality seeds of new sorts of wheat and bark wheat and everything else. And he was even managing to deliver the seeds to the farmers who remained on occupied territories. There will be crop next year, but the problem is now that probably twenty percent of the surface of Ukraine is filled with shells and mine, many of which are unexploded. So I mean, we will have victims and we have already many victims among the farmers and tractor drivers, but it will stay on and some of the fields actually are blocked. I mean, the military will not allow to work on them. So the crop will be smaller. And depending on the weather.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I mean, I'm very happy that I started writing three years ago about 1919. I mean, I got so deep into the material of that time and the texture of this time. I learned a lot from archives. And I'm still sort of there in 1919. And these past actually keeps me sane and reminds me about the necessity to write about this past. So I think if I didn't have this project in my head, I wouldn't feel so confident about my future novels. But now actually, I know what I want to come to after the war. I have no doubts about it. The war distracted me and distracts me and actually sort of keeps me away from this material, from these novels. The voice over, I will go back.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He wouldn't actually create so many problems for economy in Russia. He wouldn't get rid of ethnic Yakutsk Kalmiksa, Chechens and Murats sending them to be slaughtered in Ukraine. So, I mean, he is actually trying to solve now future problem of separatist movements inside Russia by actually mobilizing these ethnic minorities and sending them to the front line.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Again, actually, we should follow now the events in Russia, I mean, Russia didn't protest against kid in Ukrainians, but I mean, now they are sort of escaping. They are protesting against mobilization. And maybe, I mean, these processes will change something inside Russia. For Ukraine, victory is just to return of Ukrainian territory, nothing else. I mean, Ukrainians don't want Russian part of territory, even if it used to belong to Ukraine many centuries ago. I mean, I understand actually when people say that it is dangerous to upset Russia, they mean Putin, they don't mean Russia. And Putin is not Russia. For Putin, like the Soviets were dying for the motherland and for Stalin. But Putin is not Russia. Putin actually doesn't really care about future of Russia, otherwise he wouldn't start this war.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, you cannot have a deal with Putin who was lying actually one day before the war that there will be no war and no aggression. It would be suicidal to have a deal with him. The deal with the next leader is possible, but we don't know who will be next one. I mean, there will be probably quite a bloody fight in Kremlin between different groups to get to power there. So, I mean, of course, in the end there will be negotiations, but I cannot predict with whom and what conditions will be laid for these negotiations.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But generally, I mean, ethnic Russians and Russian speakers, it's not a minority issue. It's a social phenomena. When this social phenomena becomes minority phenomena, sort of when Armenians and Jews and Greeks stop speaking Russian between each other and start speaking Ukrainian, we'll use Ukrainian as inter-ethnic language, that actually Russian will stay only among ethnic Russians who decide to keep it.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“With Russian culture. So I mean, Russian language in Ukraine is not connected with Russian literature with Russia, and it will be even further away from Russia with the years to come. In fact, actually it's interesting because, I mean, Ukrainians are very proud always to express externally they have been Ukrainian, especially during the festive seasons. I mean, they have embroidered shorts, Vyshavanki, beautiful white shirts with different decorations. And Ukraine, I mean, Russians historically also have their own national shirt, which is called Kasavarotka, and nobody would wear it, neither, I mean, I don't know about Russia, but no ethnic Russian in Ukraine would wear it. Maybe except for the religious old believers who live on the border with Romania, who escaped from Catherine II in 18th century. They are sort of special Russians. They might have them at home.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, 40% of Ukrainians speak Russian. I mean, many people who are living in the Russian-speaking cities like Kharkiv, like Odessa, I mean, they will carry on speaking Russian, but many of younger people will also learn Ukrainian or I think they already speak Ukrainian because actually Ukrainian is quite fashionable language among the young Ukrainians. So it will remain It will be less used. I think actually in the future we will be talking about 20% and then 10% of population and then it will be a minority language and there is nothing bad about it because I mean we have minority languages in Ukraine like Crimean Tatar language and Hungarian and Gagaus and others in this sense Russian will not disappear because there are several millions of ethnic Russians who will preserve the language but at the same time they will not preserve the connection”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, but I'm interested not only in Ukrainian history, for the book which is called Schengen Story or Vilnius Paris London, which is not published yet in English. I did a lot of research into the history of the First World War in northern France, and I find actually history fascinating because the politicians are trying quite often, I mean, and in Russia always, to rewrite the history. And then actually, when you know the official version, you accept it as a true version, and it's so wonderful to discover that actually it is a lie. And you can go deeper and you can find the descriptions of real events. I think it's like archaeology. I was dreaming as a child to become an archaeologist, to dig out the treasures. And for me, actually now the historical knowledge is the treasure that I want to dig out.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I mean, in the last years, I read much more nonfiction than fiction, and among my favorite books, I can definitely name East West Street by Philip Sense and The King of America by Martin Pollock from Austria. It shows that actually the non-fiction books can be more interesting and more exciting than novels than fiction. So, I mean, I don't think I can write non-fiction on this highest level. So I will keep on reading non-fiction. But now I don't mind. I mean, I like writing essays. I like real life to follow it to observe it and then to write about it. So I think that the diary of an invasion is definitely not the last non-fiction book to be published.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I mean, Bulgakov definitely influenced me, but less than Andrei Platonov, Danil Harms, Franz Kafka, Knudgamson. I'm just thinking, I mean, maybe Gogol also, because I mean, Gogol is a very Ukrainian writer. In classical Russian literature, you will not find humor or magic humor, only in Gogol's words. And he made actually Ukraine fashionable among Russian aristocracy, which is not very good, I think, because since then actually Russians cannot live without Ukraine.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't know. I was asked several times about SQL. I can think about this when the war is over. But again, I mean, if the war is over, so everything depends on how the war ends. And election is quite painful to think about the characters, about potential prototypes of these characters. Would they survive this war? Are they deported by Russians to Sakhalin to border with China? they are still somewhere in Donbass but already in a different place in somebody's else's house and village”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't feel nostalgic, but I feel sorry for my characters because this gray zone doesn't exist anymore, except one small part the district part of the town of Devka in Donbass, which is still under Ukrainian control, but it's empty. I mean, there are no people living there. It's just actually a battlefield that is bombarded all the time and nobody can control it. So I do feel sad, but I don't feel nostalgic. Maybe I would say I feel nostalgic for the beginning of 2000 when I was traveling in peaceful Donbass and when I saw actually people which were different from people other regions, but they were nice, they were hardworking, they were friendly. And it's actually their life, their region is destroyed.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, humor is much more important than absurdities because actually humor is a remedy. It's a weapon. I mean, if you want to stay sane, you go for good jokes. I mean, you are trying to sort of find something funny even about the most sad situation. Because otherwise, if you become sad, if you start crying, if you become depressed, you are giving up. You just say goodbye to your life.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I grew up in the Soviet Union. I mean, I spent 30 years of my life in the Soviet Union. And in 1991, when Ukraine became independent, I felt a bit sort of sorry and sad thinking that they will be completely civilized life. There will be no absurdities happening around me because the Soviet Union will be gone. Well, thanks, I don't know, to the tradition to inertion of the society. The life remained as absurd as it was before, but without Communist Party and without other things which were connected with the Soviet society. Not even in Ukraine, but also in other countries. So an absurdity is something, I don't know, I mean, it's like fertilizer for my imagination”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm very positive. I'm an optimist in general, but I'm in the resilience, the defiance of Ukrainians, and the way they were helping each other in the beginning of the war when I also became a displaced person. I mean, it sort of made me to believe that Ukraine will survive no sure. Whatever happens, even against the country which is hundredth time bigger than Ukraine.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Function is it was always alive and probably is still alive. But since 2014, we have a huge number of Donbass war veterans who became a very powerful and militant part of society. They created their own literature, they set up their own publishing houses, they became business people, and they started protecting each other from corruption and from criminals. And after this war, there will be more people like this, motivated war veterans who are not afraid of anything, who don't care about any threats or any sort of importance of politicians. So I am sure that Ukrainian society will deal with corruption much more efficiently after this war.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I mean, the situation was changing every year in Ukraine, especially after Orange Revolution after 2004, 2005. Before 2004, actually, corruption was on the grassroots level in the schools, in the hospitals, among traffic police. And I remember that I was stopped when I was driving for no reason by policemen who were just expecting that I will pay out my way and further drive further. As a right, I was always carrying my books in the car. So instead of money, I would say the time I write, I don't have money. Would you like my book with a signature? And usually they would take it. But generally, after 2005, it never happened. I was never stopped because of nothing on the road. And the same actually with the schools and universities. The corruption was halfway. I mean, on the higher level of politicians and states.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The dej is inevitable. I mean Russians are fatalists, Ukrainians are not because if the Ukrainians were fatalists they would give up this war but actually they joined in hundreds of thousands as volunteers. So thanks to you now I have another vision also.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, in fact, actually, I mean, you are very right because Ukrainian society evolved far away from that state of, I would say, conscious ignorance of what is happening around. The Russian society never moved away from 1990s, from the beginning of 1990s when cruelty and violence was a daily occurrence on every street. So, I mean, Russians became more rich in big cities, more poor in the countryside, but they remained the same passive and the same passive observers who will not react until something happens to them. So, I mean, they will not help on the street if somebody is attacked because it's not them who is attacked. And what is happening now when they are escaping from the mobilization instead of protesting on the streets, it's also, I mean, it's the same reaction away from danger.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, Victor creates some kind of artificial family around himself for psychological protection. I mean, later actually he gets suddenly a girl, five years old, Sonia, who is not his child, but a local small mafiosi who helped Victor once actually asks him to look after her for a couple of days, but he never returns. So he needs a nanny to look after this girl and comes a nanny who wants to become sort of wife or feels herself a wife and mother to this child and a pet penguin. And that's why he is not taken seriously even his own role when he writes obituaries about dedicated to still live in VIPs. He's just doing his job earning his $300 a month. And actually, and here is okay until he understands that somebody might be writing an obituary about him now.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Controlled and programmed by nature. So if you take away one penguin from the group and put it on the island with no other penguins, he will disorientate it. He will lose the sense actually of direction and sense of use of life. And the same happened to Soviet people after the collapse of the Soviet Union because they were raised to be relying on each other. And suddenly actually in the crisis time in 1991, nobody wanted to help anybody because everybody wanted to survive on his own. So, I mean, everybody became separated penguins. And in most of my books, actually, I mean, the animals are playing some kind of metaphorical social role.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I mean, of course, they are useful. But the reason why I have so many animals in the books is not because I decided that it's useful to have animals. It's just because all my pets had very tragic destinies. Because most of my pets died because of neglect or because of accidents. And I think actually I started putting animals in my books just in order to get rid of my guilt, to give them second chance to become to make them eternal as literary characters. And Penguin Misha is one of them, but of course he's in the novel Not for Nothing. I mean, he's representative of penguins. Penguins are the only real collective animals and they are very similar in their behavior, in the patterns of behavior, to Soviet people. I mean, the Soviet people were commanded by and programmed by the Communist Party what to do, how to spend holidays, where to go. The penguins were...”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I mean, this is not a book about war, about battles. It's a human story. I mean, and humans are good naturally. They can be spoiled by politicians, by the systems, by the regimes and dictators, by the ideologies and populists, but in their nature, they are born like flowers. Even if you, yes, I mean, if you don't give them water, they will try to survive and they will try to look nice and to behave nice.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In this situation, he associates himself with bees because he is just ordinary working guy who worked all his life, who never wanted anything, who never went to Crimea actually and always dreamed of going to Crimea. He is learning actually. He is learning in a very slow way what is happening in Ukraine and which side he should be on.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Actually, he used only to differentiate between good and evil, between black and white, or between, I would say, gray and white. Because, I mean, the first time I went to Donbass, it was long before the war. I was shocked by the lack of calories because the mentality of people in Donbass remained collective Soviet, almost Russian mentality where people don't want to be seen. They want to become invisible. They don't want to have house which sticks out because of the different color of fence or because of nice windows. So, I mean, this kind of collectiveness, it also, I mean, it is similar to bees life. I mean, bees are the same. I mean, you have only the queen bee, the mother bee who is the head figure, but of course, I mean, in...”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But now have to deal with each other almost friendly. And Serge what is important about him, he is beekeeper. I mean he was abandoned by his wife and his daughter they went to live in a big city in Vinica. He remained with his six beehives.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But they don't have access to medicine. So he brings them medicine or he was bringing the medicine or whatever they were asking him for. And in exchange, they would give him some pickles. And I understood actually that he was talking about gray zone and I found a map, so military war map, and I understood that actually the gray zone has the same length as frontline. At that time, it was 430 kilometers. And in this gray zone, which was sometimes several hundred meters wide, sometimes several kilometers wide. In this zone, actually there were dozens of villages. Some of them were empty. Some of them were almost full because, I mean, they thought they are safe. And a lot of them were almost abandoned, actually on this village that I described had only or has only two remaining inhabitants, the same age who hated each other from childhood.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“First of all, actually, they live in the gray zone, and I wasn't going to write this book at all. I didn't want to write about the war. But what happened that after 2014, we got a lot of refugees and resettlers from Donbass and Kyiv. And we got also middle class inhabitants of Donetsk who decided to do small business in Kiev and live in Kiev because they didn't want to live on separatist territories. And one of them actually opened a small cafe on the outskirts of Kievan. I met him at my friend's apartment for a party and he told me that every month he goes by car practically to the front line because there is a village with only seven families remaining and everybody else abandoned the village and there is no shop, no electricity, no post, no authority, no police in this village. So they are surviving trying to grow potatoes and vegetables.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Ukraine will remain and probably will remain also heated. But Sergei actually is more under suspicion because he is one of the inhabitants of Donbass and Ukrainian politicians in the beginning and then they were supported by some Russian so-called liberals like Zirinowski, they created these two clich ⁇ s which damaged so much internal relationship in Ukraine. I mean the clich ⁇ s is number one is that all people from Donbass are criminals and bandits and the cliche number two is that all inhabitants of western Ukraine are extreme right, radicals, nationalists and hate everybody who speaks Russian so I mean I think actually nobody now talks about this cliche but they settled in the heads of many people in Ukraine and the mistrust was there especially among the intellectuals.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, for some part of Ukrainians, of course, especially for Russian speakers and for those who live in the south and in the east of the country. But I wouldn't call them guilty of this or I wouldn't criticize them. It's quite uncomfortable. I mean, for many intellectuals now to speak Russian, to write in Russian, but at the same time Russian is not privatized by Kremlin and Russian became one of the world languages. But it is difficult to separate Russian language now from the language, official language of Russian army. And as you know, maybe that Russian language is the official language of all Russian prisons. If you calmic or buryat or Armenian and you want to write a letter to your friend or your family member in Russian prison, you can write only in Russian because otherwise it will be destroyed or returned. So this issue will remain and the discussions about Russian language.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Valentin, who just had his legs amputated before the war because of diabetes, and he was abandoned practically on the top floor of the hospital in central Kiev. And then his wife was fighting to move him down where there were more nurses and more doctors. And then they were waiting for possibility to be evacuated. And now I visit them. I visited them twice actually recently in Germany. They are now in mines. But dreaming about coming to Kiev. I wish I could accompany them on this journey back to Kiev. It won't be easy and it won't be tomorrow.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I mean, I was trying to write these essays as my diary entries, but much wider. I mean, I was an I am collecting stories. I'm in touch with lots of people. I mean, until end of June, we were living in western Ukraine with my wife, our youngest son was in Kiev. Our friends were even under occupation and were managing to send messages from Melitopol and Kerson. So, I mean, I was getting these stories and I was digesting them. I was actually putting them on the paper, on the screen of the computer, but through my own eyes, sort of actually trying to understand and to put things together and to find tendencies and what is typical for this time. I mean, some of these stories are still going on. I mean, like I mentioned very often my friend who is quite old.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In Kyiv from the same site, from northern western side, from Belarus and they were bombing central part of Kyiv from Swetoshen district. It's the same actually is the direction of Butcher and Gastomi which were devastated by Russian aggressors now.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Things and details of daily life in the novel. So for me it is historical book, but for the readers it will be actually adventure crime story, but with the depiction of real events and real crazy absurdities that were brought by the Bolsheviks to Kiev's life, like for example one of things they did, they introduced underwear tax. Every Kiev's family had to give to Red Army soldiers trip three pairs of underwear and it was not important whether they are female or male because the soldiers had no underwear. There was a furniture tax. Every family was sent that they have right to have only one chair per member of the family and one chair for guests. Everything else should be confiscated and put into the offices of the new Soviet power. In fact actually in 1918 Bolsheviks were attacked.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh no, no, no, no been, no bin around my table. Actually, I mean, this book I want to write, I want to finish, and this is the third book in a series about events in Ukraine and in Kyiv in 1919. Actually, the events which are quite similar, because from 1918, Russian Bolsheviks were trying to occupy Ukraine to erase Ukrainian independentist movement. Ukraine announced its independence in 1918 and it was independent for some months with the government, with the head of the government, with the Speaker of the Parliament. And the Russians, actually, the Bolsheviks had four attempts to occupy Ukraine. And from the fourth attempt, they succeeded in 1921. And then Ukraine became Soviet Republic. But generally, I mean, what I write is a historic crime story, but I put lots of unknowns.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“From the books just published as well as the paper which was not damaged and was not used was also found and it was taken to western Ukraine to be used”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, no, no. I mean, I'm very happy. I mean, as a writer, I'm very happy. I mean, at the age of 13, somebody told me that writers don't go to work. They stay at home. And I decided to become a writer, but I managed to become a writer only at the age of 36. And now I'm 61. And I think I got what I wanted. But, I mean, the books are not published and not much read during the war. And actually one of the victims of this war is publishing industry. It's not only that writers cannot publish their books. The publishers actually have to look for the books that survived bombings. Because, I mean, my publisher folio in Kharkiv, they had their printworks bombed in Dergachi, in town Dergachi, between Kharkiv and Russian border 20 kilometers from the border. So actually he sent people to recover what was left.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Then people lose this identity, they lose the link with their land, they understand that this is not their land, this is land of Russian Empire, and they can be moved to Sakhalin, to Siberia, and should feel at home there. So, I mean, this is the reason of libraries being destroyed and now actually libraries are censored in the occupied territories. I mean, the books of not only school books, Ukrainian school books, but also books by Ukrainian contemporary writers are taken out as extremist literature.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, culture is part of identity, actually. And this war also is against Ukrainian identity. And in this sense, this war is going on for 400 years. Because the first time Ukrainian identity was attacked. I think 1715 or something after Poltava battle, which was in 2009, when Peter the Great crashed Ukrainian forces which were supported again by Swedish king Carl XII. And after that, he signed a decree banning Ukrainian religious books in Ukrainian language. I mean, culture, history, and language are making the identity. Identity creates the link between people and the land they are living on, between them and the country. And so if you destroy this link, if you destroy the culture, if you force everybody to speak Russian,”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I think I also thought actually that this war can be frozen and will become another Donbass war. But the difference will be that before 24th of February, we had 430 kilometers of frontline and of gray zone. And now we have probably 2,000 kilometers. But to keep 2,000 kilometers long frontline going, you need actually probably two or three million from each side. So it's unlikely that this war will be frozen, this front line which exists now. And obviously, I mean, the events in Russia are speeding up. I mean, he is in a hurry. I mean, he is competing with the history. He wants to go faster than the history goes, but it will never happen. I mean, there is a very good joke now in Ukraine regarding the nuclear. That Ukrainians are not only ready for the end of the world, they have already some plans for the time after this.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So when he is dead, maybe somebody will say thanks to him, but it will be probably in two hundred years time when Mushagastome and Kharkiva forgotten or not forgotten, but I mean they are in the school books of history.”
2022-10-03 · Intelligence Squared · Ukraine’s Best Known Novelist Andrey Kurkov on Life, Literature and the War in Ukraine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT