Nobel Prize – one of the most prestigious world prizes is awarded annually for outstanding scientific research, revolutionary inventions or major contributions to culture or society.
On November 27, 1895, A. Nobel drew up a will, which provided for the allocation of certain cash for award awards in five areas: physics, chemistry, physiology and medicine, literature and contributions to world peace. And in 1900, the Nobel Foundation was created - a private, independent, non-governmental organization with an initial capital of 31 million Swedish crowns. Since 1969, on the initiative of the Swedish Bank, awards have also been made prizes in economics.
Since the establishment of the awards, strict rules for selecting laureates have been in place. Intellectuals from all over the world participate in the process. Thousands of minds work to ensure that the most worthy candidate receives the Nobel Prize.
In total, to date, five Russian-speaking writers have received this award.
Ivan Alekseevich Bunin(1870-1953), Russian writer, poet, honorary academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1933 “for the strict skill with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose" In his speech when presenting the prize, Bunin noted the courage of the Swedish Academy, which honored the emigrant writer (he emigrated to France in 1920). Ivan Alekseevich Bunin is the greatest master of Russian realistic prose.
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak(1890-1960), Russian poet, laureate of the 1958 Nobel Prize in Literature “for outstanding services to modern lyric poetry and to the field of great Russian prose.” He was forced to refuse the award under threat of expulsion from the country. The Swedish Academy recognized Pasternak's refusal of the prize as forced and in 1989 awarded a diploma and medal to his son.
Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov(1905-1984), Russian writer, laureate of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Literature "for artistic power and the integrity of the epic about Don Cossacks at a turning point for Russia." In his speech during the awards ceremony, Sholokhov said his goal was to “extol the nation of workers, builders and heroes.” Having started out as a realistic writer who was not afraid to show deep life contradictions, Sholokhov in some of his works found himself captive of socialist realism.
Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn(1918-2008), Russian writer, winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the moral strength derived from the tradition of great Russian literature." The Soviet government considered the decision of the Nobel Committee “politically hostile,” and Solzhenitsyn, fearing that after his trip, returning to his homeland would be impossible, accepted the award, but did not attend the award ceremony. In his artistic literary works, as a rule, he touched upon pressing socio-political issues, actively opposed communist ideas, political system The USSR and the policies of its authorities.
Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky(1940-1996), poet, laureate of the 1987 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his multifaceted creativity, marked by acuteness of thought and deep poetry.” In 1972 he was forced to emigrate from the USSR and lived in the USA ( world encyclopedia calls it American). I.A. Brodsky is the youngest writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. The peculiarities of the poet's lyrics are the understanding of the world as a single metaphysical and cultural whole, the identification of the limitations of man as a subject of consciousness.
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HISTORY OF RUSSIA
“Prix Nobel? Oui, ma belle". This is what Brodsky joked long before receiving the Nobel Prize, which is the most important award for almost any writer. Despite the generous scattering of Russian literary geniuses, only five of them managed to receive the highest award. However, many, if not all, of them, having received it, suffered enormous losses in their lives.
Nobel Prize 1933 "For the truthful artistic talent with which he recreated in prose the typical Russian character."
Bunin became the first Russian writer to receive the Nobel Prize. This event was given a special resonance by the fact that Bunin had not appeared in Russia for 13 years, even as a tourist. Therefore, when he was notified of a call from Stockholm, Bunin could not believe what had happened. In Paris, the news spread instantly. Every Russian, regardless of financial status and position, squandered their last pennies in a tavern, rejoicing that their compatriot turned out to be the best.
Once in the Swedish capital, Bunin was almost the most popular Russian person in the world; people stared at him for a long time, looked around, and whispered. He was surprised, comparing his fame and honor with the glory of the famous tenor. 
Nobel Prize ceremony.
I. A. Bunin is in the first row, far right.
Stockholm, 1933
Nobel Prize 1958 "For significant achievements in modern lyric poetry, as well as for continuing the tradition of the great Russian epic novel"
Pasternak's candidacy for the Nobel Prize was discussed by the Nobel Committee every year, from 1946 to 1950. After a personal telegram from the head of the committee and Pasternak’s notification of the award, the writer replied in the following words: “Grateful, glad, proud, embarrassed.” But after some time, after the planned public persecution of the writer and his friends, public persecution, sowing an impartial and even hostile image among the masses, Pasternak refused the prize, writing a letter of more voluminous content.
After the award of the prize, Pasternak bore the full burden of the “persecuted poet” firsthand. Moreover, he carried this burden not at all for his poems (although it was for them, for the most part, that he was awarded the Nobel Prize), but for the “anti-conscience” novel “Doctor Zhivago”. Nes, even refusing such an honorable prize and a substantial sum of 250,000 crowns. According to the writer himself, he still would not have taken this money, having sent it to another, more useful place than his own pocket.
On December 9, 1989, in Stockholm, Boris Pasternak's son, Evgeniy, was awarded a diploma and the Nobel Medal to Boris Pasternak at a gala reception dedicated to the Nobel Prize laureates of that year. 
Pasternak Evgeniy Borisovich
Nobel Prize 1965 “for the artistic strength and integrity of the epic about the Don Cossacks at a turning point for Russia”.
Sholokhov, like Pasternak, repeatedly appeared in the field of view of the Nobel Committee. Moreover, their paths, like their offspring, involuntarily, and also voluntarily, crossed more than once. Their novels, without the participation of the authors themselves, “prevented” each other from winning the main award. It makes no sense to choose the better of two brilliant ones, but such different works. Moreover, the Nobel Prize was (and is) given in both cases not for individual works, but for the overall contribution as a whole, for a special component of all creativity. One day, in 1954, Nobel Committee did not award Sholokhov the award only because the letter of recommendation from Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences Sergeev-Tsensky arrived a couple of days later, and the committee did not have enough time to consider Sholokhov’s candidacy. It is believed that the novel (“ Quiet Don") was not politically beneficial to Sweden at that time, but artistic value always played a secondary role for the committee. In 1958, when Sholokhov’s figure looked like an iceberg in the Baltic Sea, the prize went to Pasternak. Already gray-haired, sixty-year-old Sholokhov was awarded his well-deserved Nobel Prize in Stockholm, after which the writer read a speech as pure and honest as all his work. 
Mikhail Alexandrovich in the Golden Hall of Stockholm City Hall
before the start of the Nobel Prize presentation.
Nobel Prize 1970 "For the moral strength gleaned from the tradition of great Russian literature."
Solzhenitsyn learned about this prize while still in the camps. And in his heart he strived to become its laureate. In 1970, after he was awarded the Nobel Prize, Solzhenitsyn replied that he would come “personally, on the appointed day” to receive the award. However, as twelve years earlier, when Pasternak was also threatened with deprivation of citizenship, Solzhenitsyn canceled his trip to Stockholm. It's hard to say that he regretted it too much. Reading the program for the gala evening, he kept coming across pompous details: what and how to say, a tuxedo or tailcoat to wear at this or that banquet. “...Why does it have to be a white bow tie,” he thought, “but not in a camp padded jacket?” “And how can we talk about the main task of our whole life at the “feast table”, when the tables are laden with dishes and everyone is drinking, eating, talking...”
Nobel Prize 1987 "For a comprehensive literary activity distinguished by clarity of thought and poetic intensity."
Of course, it was much “easier” for Brodsky to receive the Nobel Prize than for Pasternak or Solzhenitsyn. At that time, he was already a persecuted emigrant, deprived of citizenship and the right to enter Russia. The news of the Nobel Prize found Brodsky having lunch at a Chinese restaurant near London. The news practically did not change the expression on the writer’s face. He only joked to the first reporters that now he would have to wag his tongue for a whole year. One journalist asked Brodsky who he considers himself to be: Russian or American? “I am a Jew, a Russian poet and an English essayist,” Brodsky replied.
Known for his indecisive character, Brodsky took two versions of the Nobel lecture to Stockholm: in Russian and in English. To last moment no one knew in what language the writer would read the text. Brodsky settled on Russian.
On December 10, 1987, Russian poet Joseph Brodsky was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for his comprehensive creativity, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity.”
First laureate. Ivan Alekseevich Bunin(22.10.1870 - 08.11.1953). The prize was awarded in 1933.
Ivan Alekseevich Bunin, a Russian writer and poet, was born on his parents' estate near Voronezh, in central Russia. Until the age of 11, the boy was raised at home, and in 1881 he entered the Yeletsk district gymnasium, but four years later, due to the family’s financial difficulties, he returned home, where he continued his education under the guidance of his older brother Julius. WITH early childhood Ivan Alekseevich read Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov with enthusiasm, and at the age of 17 he began writing poetry.
In 1889 he went to work as a proofreader for the local newspaper Orlovsky Vestnik. The first volume of poems by I.A. Bunin was published in 1891 as an appendix to one of the literary magazines. His first poems were full of images of nature, which is typical for all of the writer’s poetic work. At the same time, he began to write stories that appeared in various literary magazines, and entered into correspondence with A.P. Chekhov.
In the early 90s. XIX century Bunin is influenced by the philosophical ideas of Leo Tolstoy, such as closeness to nature, occupation manual labor and non-resistance to evil through violence. Since 1895 he lives in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Literary recognition came to the writer after the publication of such stories as “On the Farm”, “News from the Motherland” and “At the End of the World”, dedicated to the famine of 1891, the cholera epidemic of 1892, the resettlement of peasants to Siberia, as well as impoverishment and the decline of the small landed nobility. Ivan Alekseevich called his first collection of stories “At the End of the World” (1897).
In 1898 he published the poetry collection “Under open air", as well as the translation of Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha", which received very high praise and was awarded Pushkin Prize first degree.
In the first years of the 20th century. actively engaged in translating English and French poets into Russian. He translated Tennyson's poems "Lady Godiva" and Byron's "Manfred", as well as works by Alfred de Musset and François Coppet. From 1900 to 1909 many famous stories of the writer are published - “ Antonov apples", "Pines".
At the beginning of the 20th century. writes his best books, for example, the prose poem “Village” (1910), the story “Sukhodol” (1912). In a prose collection published in 1917, Bunin includes perhaps his most famous story"Mr. from San Francisco", a meaningful parable about the death of an American millionaire in Capri.
Fearing the consequences October Revolution, in 1920 he came to France. Of the works created in the 20s, the most memorable are the story “Mitya’s Love” (1925), the stories “Rose of Jericho” (1924) and “ Sunstroke"(1927). Received very high criticism from critics autobiographical story“The Life of Arsenyev” (1933).
I.A. Bunin was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1933 “for the rigorous skill with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose.” Following the wishes of his many readers, Bunin prepared an 11-volume collection of works, which was published by the Berlin publishing house Petropolis from 1934 to 1936. Most of all I.A. Bunin is known as a prose writer, although some critics believe that he managed to achieve more in poetry.
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak(10.02.1890-30.05.1960). The prize was awarded in 1958.
Russian poet and prose writer Boris Leonidovich Pasternak was born into a well-known Jewish family in Moscow. The poet's father, Leonid Pasternak, was an academician of painting; mother, born Rosa Kaufman, famous pianist. Despite their rather modest income, the Pasternak family moved in the highest artistic circles pre-revolutionary Russia.
Young Pasternak entered the Moscow Conservatory, but in 1910 he abandoned the idea of becoming a musician and, after studying for some time at the Faculty of History and Philosophy of Moscow University, at the age of 23 he left for the University of Marburg. Having made a short trip to Italy, in the winter of 1913 he returned to Moscow. In the summer of the same year, after passing university exams, he completed his first book of poems, “Twin in the Clouds” (1914), and three years later, the second, “Over the Barriers.”
The atmosphere of revolutionary change in 1917 was reflected in the book of poems “My Sister is My Life,” published five years later, as well as in “Themes and Variations” (1923), which put him in the first rank of Russian poets. He spent most of his later life in Peredelkino, a summer cottage village for writers near Moscow.
In the 20s XX century Boris Pasternak writes two historical-revolutionary poems “Nine Hundred and Fifth” (1925-1926) and “Lieutenant Schmidt” (1926-1927). In 1934, at the First Congress of Writers, he was already spoken of as the leading modern poet. However, praise for him soon gives way to harsh criticism due to the poet’s reluctance to limit his work to proletarian themes: from 1936 to 1943. the poet failed to publish a single book.
Owning several foreign languages, in the 30s. translates classics of English, German and French poetry into Russian. His translations of Shakespeare's tragedies are considered the best in Russian. Only in 1943 was Pasternak’s first book in the last 8 years published - the poetry collection “On Early Trips”, and in 1945 - the second, “Earthly Expanse”.
In the 40s, continuing his poetic activity and doing translations, Pasternak began work on famous novel“Doctor Zhivago,” the life story of Yuri Andreevich Zhivago, a doctor and poet, whose childhood was at the beginning of the century and who became a witness and participant in the First World War, revolution, civil war, and the first years of the Stalin era. The novel, initially approved for publication, was later considered unsuitable "due to the author's negative attitude towards the revolution and lack of faith in social change." The book was first published in Milan in 1957 in Italian, and by the end of 1958 it had been translated into 18 languages.
In 1958, the Swedish Academy awarded Boris Pasternak the Nobel Prize in Literature “for significant achievements in modern lyric poetry, as well as for continuing the tradition of the great Russian epic novel.” But due to the insults and threats that fell upon the poet, and exclusion from the Writers' Union, he was forced to refuse the prize.
For many years, the poet’s work was artificially “unpopular” and only in the early 80s. attitudes towards Pasternak gradually began to change: the poet Andrei Voznesensky published memories of Pasternak in the magazine “ New world", a two-volume volume of selected poems by the poet was published, edited by his son Evgeniy Pasternak (1986). In 1987, the Writers' Union reversed its decision to expel Pasternak after publication of the novel Doctor Zhivago began in 1988.
Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov(05/24/1905 - 02/02/1984). The prize was awarded in 1965.
Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov was born on the Kruzhilin farmstead Cossack village Veshenskaya in the Rostov region, in southern Russia. In his works, the writer immortalized the Don River and the Cossacks who lived here both in pre-revolutionary Russia and during the civil war.
His father, a native of the Ryazan province, sowed grain on rented Cossack land, and his mother was Ukrainian. After graduating from four classes of the gymnasium, Mikhail Alexandrovich joined the Red Army in 1918. The future writer first served in a logistics support detachment, and then became a machine gunner. From the first days of the revolution he supported the Bolsheviks and advocated for Soviet power. In 1932 he joined the Communist Party, in 1937 he was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, and two years later - a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
In 1922 M.A. Sholokhov arrived in Moscow. Here he took part in the work literary group“Young Guard”, worked as a loader, laborer, and clerk. In 1923, his first feuilletons were published in the Yunosheskaya Pravda newspaper, and in 1924 his first story, “The Birthmark,” was published.
In the summer of 1924 he returned to the village of Veshenskaya, where he lived almost forever for the rest of his life. In 1925, a collection of feuilletons and stories by the writer about civil war under the title "Don Stories". From 1926 to 1940 working on “The Quiet Don,” a novel that brought the writer world fame.
In the 30s M.A. Sholokhov interrupts work on “Quiet Don” and writes the second world famous novel"Virgin Soil Upturned" During the Great Patriotic War Sholokhov is a war correspondent for Pravda, author of articles and reports on the heroism of the Soviet people; after Battle of Stalingrad the writer begins work on the third novel - the trilogy “They Fought for the Motherland.”
In the 50s publication of the second and final volume of “Virgin Soil Upturned” begins, however a separate book the novel was published only in 1960.
In 1965 M.A. Sholokhov received the Nobel Prize in Literature “for the artistic strength and integrity of the epic about the Don Cossacks at a turning point for Russia.”
Mikhail Alexandrovich married in 1924, he had four children; The writer died in the village of Veshenskaya in 1984 at the age of 78. His works remain popular among readers.
Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn(born December 11, 1918). The prize was awarded in 1970.
Russian novelist, playwright and poet Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn was born in Kislovodsk, in the North Caucasus. Alexander Isaevich's parents came from peasant backgrounds, but received a good education. Since the age of six he has lived in Rostov-on-Don. The childhood years of the future writer coincided with the establishment and consolidation of Soviet power.
Having successfully graduated from school, in 1938 he entered Rostov University, where, despite his interest in literature, he studied physics and mathematics. In 1941, having received a diploma in mathematics, he also graduated from the correspondence department of the Institute of Philosophy, Literature and History in Moscow.
After graduating from the university A.I. Solzhenitsyn worked as a mathematics teacher in the Rostov high school. During the Great Patriotic War he was mobilized and served in the artillery. In February 1945, he was suddenly arrested, stripped of the rank of captain and sentenced to 8 years in prison followed by exile to Siberia “for anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda.” From a specialized prison in Marfino near Moscow he was transferred to Kazakhstan, to a camp for political prisoners, where the future writer was diagnosed with stomach cancer and was considered doomed. However, having been released on March 5, 1953, Solzhenitsyn underwent successful radiation therapy at the Tashkent hospital and recovered. Until 1956 he lived in exile in various regions of Siberia, taught in schools, and in June 1957, after rehabilitation, he settled in Ryazan.
In 1962, his first book, “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,” was published in the “New World” magazine. A year later, several stories by Alexander Isaevich were published, including “The Incident at Krechetovka Station”, “ Matrenin Dvor" and "For the good of the cause." The last work published in the USSR was the story “Zakhar-Kalita” (1966).
In 1967, the writer was subjected to persecution and newspaper persecution, and his works were banned. Nevertheless, the novels “In the First Circle” (1968) and “ Cancer building"(1968-1969) end up in the West and leave there without the consent of the author. From this time begins the most difficult period of his literary activity and further life path almost until the beginning of the new century.
In 1970, Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for the moral strength drawn from the tradition of great Russian literature.” However, the Soviet government considered the decision of the Nobel Committee to be “politically hostile.” A year after receiving the Nobel Prize A.I. Solzhenitsyn allows the publication of his works abroad, and in 1972 in the London publishing house on English"August the Fourteenth" comes out.
In 1973, the manuscript of Solzhenitsyn’s main work “The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: Experience” was confiscated artistic research" Working from memory, as well as using his own notes, which he kept in the camps and in exile, the writer restores the book that “turned the minds of many readers” and prompted millions of people to take a critical look at many pages of history for the first time Soviet Union. The “GULAG Archipelago” refers to prisons, forced labor camps, and exile settlements scattered throughout the USSR. In his book, the writer uses the memoirs, oral and written testimonies of more than 200 prisoners whom he met in prison.
In 1973, the first publication of “Archipelago” was published in Paris, and on February 12, 1974, the writer was arrested, accused of treason, deprived of Soviet citizenship and deported to Germany. His second wife, Natalia Svetlova, and her three sons were allowed to join her husband later. After two years in Zurich, Solzhenitsyn and his family moved to the United States and settled in Vermont, where the writer completed the third volume of The Gulag Archipelago ( Russian edition- 1976, English - 1978), and also continues to work on the cycle historical novels about the Russian revolution, begun by “August the fourteenth” and called “The Red Wheel”. At the end of the 1970s. In Paris, the YMCA-Press publishing house published the first 20-volume collection of Solzhenitsyn's works.
In 1989, the magazine “New World” published chapters from “The Gulag Archipelago”, and in August 1990 A.I. Solzhenitsyn was returned to Soviet citizenship. In 1994, the writer returned to his homeland, traveling by train across the country from Vladivostok to Moscow in 55 days.
In 1995, on the writer’s initiative, the Moscow government, together with Solzhenitsyn’s Russian Philosophy and the Russian publishing house in Paris, created the “Russian Abroad” library-fund. The basis of its manuscript and book fund were more than 1,500 memoirs of Russian emigrants transmitted by Solzhenitsyn, as well as collections of manuscripts and letters from Berdyaev, Tsvetaeva, Merezhkovsky and many other outstanding scientists, philosophers, writers, poets and the archives of the commander-in-chief of the Russian army in the first world war Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich. A significant work in recent years has been the two-volume work “200 Years Together” (2001-2002). After his arrival, the writer settled near Moscow, in Trinity-Lykovo.
On December 10, 1933, King Gustav V of Sweden awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature to the writer Ivan Bunin, who became the first Russian writer to receive this high award. In total, the prize, established by the inventor of dynamite Alfred Bernhard Nobel in 1833, was received by 21 people from Russia and the USSR, five of them in the field of literature. True, historically it turned out that for Russian poets and writers the Nobel Prize was fraught with big problems.
Ivan Alekseevich Bunin distributed the Nobel Prize to friends
In December 1933, the Parisian press wrote: “ Without a doubt, I.A. Bunin is for recent years, - the most powerful figure in Russian fiction and poetry», « the king of literature confidently and equally shook hands with the crowned monarch" The Russian emigration applauded. In Russia, the news that a Russian emigrant received the Nobel Prize was treated very caustically. After all, Bunin reacted negatively to the events of 1917 and emigrated to France. Ivan Alekseevich himself experienced emigration very hard, was actively interested in the fate of his abandoned homeland, and during the Second World War he categorically refused all contacts with the Nazis, moving to the Alpes-Maritimes in 1939, returning from there to Paris only in 1945.
It is known that Nobel laureates have the right to decide for themselves how to spend the money they receive. Some people invest in the development of science, some in charity, some in own business. Bunin, a creative person and devoid of “practical ingenuity,” disposed of his bonus, which amounted to 170,331 crowns, completely irrationally. Poet and literary critic Zinaida Shakhovskaya recalled: “ Returning to France, Ivan Alekseevich... in addition to money, began to organize feasts, distribute “benefits” to emigrants, and donate funds to support various societies. Finally, on the advice of well-wishers, he invested the remaining amount in some “win-win business” and was left with nothing».
Ivan Bunin is the first emigrant writer to be published in Russia. True, the first publications of his stories appeared in the 1950s, after the writer’s death. Some of his works, stories and poems, were published in his homeland only in the 1990s.
Dear God, why are you
Gave us passions, thoughts and worries,
Do I thirst for business, fame and pleasure?
Joyful are cripples, idiots,
The leper is the most joyful of all.
(I. Bunin. September, 1917)
Boris Pasternak refused the Nobel Prize
Boris Pasternak was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature “for significant achievements in modern lyric poetry, as well as for continuing the traditions of the great Russian epic novel” every year from 1946 to 1950. In 1958, his candidacy was again proposed by last year's Nobel laureate Albert Camus, and on October 23, Pasternak became the second Russian writer to receive this prize.The writing community in the poet’s homeland took this news extremely negatively and on October 27, Pasternak was unanimously expelled from the Union of Writers of the USSR, at the same time filing a petition to deprive Pasternak of Soviet citizenship. In the USSR, Pasternak's receipt of the prize was associated only with his novel Doctor Zhivago. Literary newspaper wrote: “Pasternak received “thirty pieces of silver,” for which the Nobel Prize was used. He was awarded for agreeing to play the role of bait on the rusty hook of anti-Soviet propaganda... An inglorious end awaits the resurrected Judas, Doctor Zhivago, and his author, whose lot will be popular contempt.”.
The mass campaign launched against Pasternak forced him to refuse the Nobel Prize. The poet sent a telegram to the Swedish Academy in which he wrote: “ Due to the importance that the award given to me has received in the society to which I belong, I must refuse it. Please don't take my voluntary refusal as an insult.».
It is worth noting that in the USSR until 1989, even in school curriculum There were no references to Pasternak’s work in the literature. The first to decide to introduce en masse Soviet people with the creative work of Pasternak, director Eldar Ryazanov. In his comedy “The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!” (1976) he included the poem “There will be no one in the house”, transforming it into an urban romance, which was performed by the bard Sergei Nikitin. Ryazanov later included in his film “ Office romance"An excerpt from another poem by Pasternak - “Loving others is a heavy cross..." (1931). True, it sounded in a farcical context. But it is worth noting that at that time the very mention of Pasternak’s poems was a very bold step.
It's easy to wake up and see clearly,
Shake out the verbal trash from the heart
And live without getting clogged in the future,
All this is not a big trick.
(B. Pasternak, 1931)
Mikhail Sholokhov, receiving the Nobel Prize, did not bow to the monarch
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1965 for his novel “Quiet Don” and went down in history as the only Soviet writer to receive this prize with the consent of the Soviet leadership. The laureate's diploma states "in recognition of the artistic strength and honesty that he showed in his Don epic about the historical phases of the life of the Russian people."
Award presenter Soviet writer Gustav Adolf VI called him "one of the most outstanding writers of our time." Sholokhov did not bow to the king, as prescribed by the rules of etiquette. Some sources claim that he did this intentionally with the words: “We Cossacks do not bow to anyone. In front of the people, please, but I won’t do it in front of the king...”
Alexander Solzhenitsyn was deprived of Soviet citizenship because of the Nobel Prize
Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn, commander of a sound reconnaissance battery, who rose to the rank of captain during the war years and was awarded two military orders, was arrested by front-line counterintelligence in 1945 for anti-Soviet activity. Sentence: 8 years in camps and lifelong exile. He went through a camp in New Jerusalem near Moscow, the Marfinsky “sharashka” and the Special Ekibastuz camp in Kazakhstan. In 1956, Solzhenitsyn was rehabilitated, and since 1964, Alexander Solzhenitsyn devoted himself to literature. At the same time, he worked on 4 major works at once: “The Gulag Archipelago”, “Cancer Ward”, “The Red Wheel” and “In the First Circle”. In the USSR in 1964 the story “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” was published, and in 1966 the story “Zakhar-Kalita”.
On October 8, 1970, “for the moral strength drawn from the tradition of great Russian literature,” Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize. This became the reason for persecution of Solzhenitsyn in the USSR. In 1971, all the writer’s manuscripts were confiscated, and in the next 2 years, all his publications were destroyed. In 1974, a Decree was issued by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, which deprived Alexander Solzhenitsyn of Soviet citizenship and deported him from the USSR for systematically committing actions incompatible with belonging to USSR citizenship and causing damage to the USSR.
The writer’s citizenship was returned only in 1990, and in 1994 he and his family returned to Russia and actively became involved in public life.
Nobel Prize winner Joseph Brodsky was convicted of parasitism in Russia
Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky began writing poetry at the age of 16. Anna Akhmatova predicted for him hard life and a glorious creative destiny. In 1964, a criminal case was opened against the poet in Leningrad on charges of parasitism. He was arrested and sent into exile in the Arkhangelsk region, where he spent a year.
In 1972, Brodsky turned to Secretary General Brezhnev with a request to work in his homeland as a translator, but his request remained unanswered, and he was forced to emigrate. Brodsky first lives in Vienna, London, and then moves to the United States, where he becomes a professor at New York, Michigan and other universities in the country.
On December 10, 1987, Joseph Brosky was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for his comprehensive creativity, imbued with clarity of thought and passion of poetry.” It is worth saying that Brodsky, after Vladimir Nabokov, is the second Russian writer who writes in English as his native language.
The sea was not visible. In the whitish darkness,
swaddled on all sides, absurd
it was thought that the ship was heading towards land -
if it was a ship at all,
and not a clot of fog, as if poured
who whitened it in milk?
(B. Brodsky, 1972)
Interesting fact
For the Nobel Prize in different times nominated, but never received it, such famous personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Franklin Roosevelt, Nicholas Roerich and Leo Tolstoy.
Literature lovers will definitely be interested in this book, which is written with disappearing ink.
Briton Kazuo Ishiguro.
According to Alfred Nobel's will, the award is given to "the creator of the most significant literary work idealistic orientation."
The editors of TASS-DOSSIER have prepared material about the procedure for awarding this prize and its laureates.
Awarding the Prize and Nominating Candidates
The prize is awarded by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm. It includes 18 academicians who hold this post for life. Preparatory work is led by the Nobel Committee, whose members (four to five people) are elected by the Academy from among its members for a three-year period. Candidates may be nominated by members of the Academy and similar institutions in other countries, professors of literature and linguistics, award winners, and chairmen of writers' organizations who have received special invitations from the committee.
The nomination process lasts from September until January 31 of the following year. In April, the committee draws up a list of 20 most worthy writers, then narrows it down to five candidates. The laureate is determined by academicians in early October by majority vote. The writer is informed about the award half an hour before his name is announced. In 2017, 195 people were nominated.
The winners of the five Nobel Prizes are announced during Nobel Week, which begins on the first Monday in October. Their names are announced in the following order: physiology and medicine; physics; chemistry; literature; peace prize The winner of the State Bank of Sweden Prize in Economics in Memory of Alfred Nobel will be announced next Monday. In 2016, the order was violated; the name of the awarded writer was made public last. According to Swedish media, despite the delay in the start of the laureate election procedure, there were no disagreements within the Swedish Academy.
Laureates
Over the entire existence of the prize, 113 writers have become its laureates, including 14 women. Among the recipients are such world-famous authors as Rabindranath Tagore (1913), Anatole France (1921), Bernard Shaw (1925), Thomas Mann (1929), Hermann Hesse (1946), William Faulkner (1949), Ernest Hemingway (1954), Pablo Neruda (1971), Gabriel García Márquez (1982).
In 1953, this award “for the excellence of works of a historical and biographical nature, as well as for the brilliant art of oratory with which the highest human values were defended,” was awarded to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Churchill was repeatedly nominated for this prize, in addition, he was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, but never won it.
As a rule, writers receive a prize based on their total achievements in the field of literature. However, nine people were awarded for a specific piece. For example, Thomas Mann was recognized for his novel Buddenbrooks; John Galsworthy - for The Forsyte Saga (1932); Ernest Hemingway - for the story "The Old Man and the Sea"; Mikhail Sholokhov - in 1965 for the novel "Quiet Don" ("for the artistic strength and integrity of the epic about the Don Cossacks at a turning point for Russia").
In addition to Sholokhov, our other compatriots are among the laureates. Thus, in 1933, the prize was received by Ivan Bunin “for the strict skill with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose,” and in 1958 by Boris Pasternak “for outstanding services in modern lyric poetry and in the field of great Russian prose.”
However, Pasternak, who was criticized in the USSR for the novel Doctor Zhivago, published abroad, refused the award under pressure from the authorities. The medal and diploma were presented to his son in Stockholm in December 1989. In 1970, Alexander Solzhenitsyn became the laureate of the prize (“for the moral strength with which he followed the immutable traditions of Russian literature”). In 1987, the prize was awarded to Joseph Brodsky “for his comprehensive creativity, imbued with clarity of thought and passion of poetry” (he emigrated to the USA in 1972).
In 2015, the award was awarded to the Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich for “polyphonic works, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.”
In 2016 the winner was American poet, composer and performer Bob Dylan for "creating poetic images in the great American song tradition."
Statistics
The Nobel website notes that of the 113 laureates, 12 wrote under pseudonyms. This list includes French writer and literary critic Anatole France (real name François Anatole Thibault) and Chilean poet and political activist Pablo Neruda (Ricardo Eliecer Neftali Reyes Basoalto).
The relative majority of awards (28) were awarded to writers who wrote in English. For books in French, 14 writers were awarded, in German - 13, in Spanish - 11, in Swedish - seven, in Italian - six, in Russian - six (including Svetlana Alexievich), in Polish - four, in Norwegian and Danish - each three people, and in Greek, Japanese and Chinese - two each. Authors of works in Arabic, Bengali, Hungarian, Icelandic, Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Turkish, Occitan (Provençal dialect) French), Finnish, Czech, and Hebrew were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature once each.
Most often, writers working in the genre of prose were awarded (77), poetry was in second place (34), and drama was in third place (14). Three writers received the prize for works in the field of history, and two for philosophy. Moreover, one author can be awarded for works in several genres. For example, Boris Pasternak received a prize as a prose writer and as a poet, and Maurice Maeterlinck (Belgium; 1911) - as a prose writer and playwright.
In 1901-2016, the prize was awarded 109 times (in 1914, 1918, 1935, 1940-1943, academicians were unable to determine the best writer). Only four times the award was shared between two writers.
The average age of the laureates is 65 years old, the youngest is Rudyard Kipling, who received the prize at 42 years old (1907), and the oldest is 88-year-old Doris Lessing (2007).
The second writer (after Boris Pasternak) to refuse the prize was in 1964 French novelist and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. He stated that he “does not want to be turned into a public institution,” and expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that when awarding the prize, academicians “ignore the merits of revolutionary writers of the 20th century.”
Notable candidate writers who did not receive the prize
Many great writers nominated for the prize never received it. Among them is Leo Tolstoy. Our writers such as Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Maxim Gorky, Konstantin Balmont, Ivan Shmelev, Evgeny Yevtushenko, Vladimir Nabokov were not awarded either. Outstanding prose writers from other countries - Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina), Mark Twain (USA), Henrik Ibsen (Norway) - also did not become laureates.