Svetlana Alexievich
Author of Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster
About the Author
Svetlana Alexievich was born in Stanislav, Ukraine, Soviet Union on May 31, 1948. She became a journalist and wrote narratives from interviews with witnesses to events such as World War II, the Soviet-Afghan war, the fall of the Soviet Union, and the Chernobyl disaster. Her books include Zinky show more Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War and War's Unwomanly Face. She won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2005 for Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster and the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Svetlana Alexievich, 2021
Works by Svetlana Alexievich
Associated Works
The Art of Fact: A Historical Anthology of Literary Journalism (1997) — Contributor — 225 copies, 1 review
Writing War: The Best Contemporary Journalism About Warfare and Conflict from Around the World (2003) — Contributor — 15 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Alexievich, Svetlana
- Legal name
- Алексиевич, Светлана Александровна
Алексіевіч, Святлана Аляксандраўна
Alexievich, Svetlana Alexandrovna - Birthdate
- 1948-05-31
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Belarusian State University (journalism)
- Occupations
- investigative reporter
- Organizations
- Revue "Neuman" (Directeur du département d'essais et de journalisme (1976|1984)
Journal républicain " Selska Gazeta " (1973-1976)
Journal régional « Phare du communisme », Beroza (1972)
Journal régional « Pripyatskaya pravda », Narovlia (1966)
Ecole de sept ans Belazhevity du district de Mazyrskyi (Professeur, Histoire et allemand, 19 66)
Centre PEN biélorusse (Membre, 19 89 | ) (show all 7)
Union des écrivains soviétiques (Membe, 19 83 | ) - Awards and honors
- Ryszard Kapuściński Award (2011 ∙ 2015)
Friedenspreis des deutschen Buchhandels (2013)
Officier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la République française (2014)
Nobel Prize (Literature, 2015) - Agent
- Galina Dursthoff
- Short biography
- Elle a reçu de nombreux prix prestigieux pour son ouvrage La Supplication - Tchernobyl, chronique du monde après l'apocalypse (1997) (dont le Prix de la paix Erich-Maria-Remarque en 2001). Ce livre reste cependant toujours interdit en Biélorussie.
Elle est aussi l'auteure de La guerre n'aura pas un visage de femme (1985), ouvrage retraçant par des interviews le récit de femmes soldats de l'Armée rouge durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, de Cercueils de zinc (1990, 1991 pour la version française), qui recueille des témoignages de soviétiques ayant participé à la guerre russo-afghane, de Ensorcelés par la mort, récits (1995), sur les suicides de citoyens russes après la chute du communisme et de Derniers témoins (2005), témoignages de femmes et d'hommes qui étaient enfants pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. En 2013, son livre La Fin de l’homme rouge ou Le Temps du désenchantement remporte le Prix Médicis essai.
Wikipedia - Nationality
- Belarus
- Birthplace
- Stanislaw, Ukraine, USSR (today: Ivano-Frankovsk, Ukraine)
- Places of residence
- Narovl, Gomel oblast, Byelorussian SSR, Soviet Union
Beresa, Brest oblast, Byelorussian SSR, Soviet Union
Minsk, Byelorussian SSR, Soviet Union
Paris, France
Gothenburg, Sweden
Berlin, Germany (show all 7)
Minsk, Belarus - Map Location
- Belarus
Members
Reviews
Alexievich, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2015, interviewed hundreds of people affected by the Chernobyl explosion. There are the pregnant wives of the firefighters who were sent onto the roof of the reactor and died of radiation poisoning within weeks, or of the soldiers who survived for a year or two, whose children were born dead, or damaged; scientists who tried to tell the truth; refugees from Chechnya so desperate that they moved into the contaminated zone; old people who show more moved back home to their farms; young women for whom giving birth is a sin; young men and women who will spend their lives alone because noone will marry a survivor of Chernobyl. People went to watch the burning reactor. Their children played outside in earth that will be contaminated with radioactive isotopes for thousands of years. 20% of the land in Belarus is contaminated. Radioactive milk, meat, fruit and vegetables were sold at markets outside the contaminated zone and people bought them because they were cheaper.
This book was agonising to read, but too important to avoid. show less
This book was agonising to read, but too important to avoid. show less
Remembering is not a passionate or dispassionate retelling of a reality that is no more, but a new birth of the past, when time goes in reverse. Above all it is creativity. As they narrate, people create, they "write" their life.
It is truly amazing how Alexievich has created her own distinct polyphonic style of historical non-fiction, this hauntingly beautiful mix of facts and feelings, challenging traditional ideas of what history is and how it should be remembered and recorded.
Here, she show more presents a more rounded picture of the roles that Russian women had held in WWII, young idealistic women - some still girls - who fought for their country as snipers, sappers, nurses, launderers, underground partisans, and more. It offers a complementary counterpoint to the oft-told stories of idealistic young men who joins the fight due to patriotism or for the sense of adventure or even under the false impression of the invincibility of youth, and end up disillusioned by the senselessness and horror of the daily war they witness then and afterwards. The book itself places the women and their stories as the focus, and in doing so, makes it more than about the war, but also about that very specific Russian ideal, that strong bond to the Motherland and the ingrained belief in self-sacrifice for the greater good, and Russian history that produced it.
Near the end, Alexievich touches on what could be a fascinating standalone topic for another book, the dark aftermath of Victory: how to rebuild lives that have been put on hold for years after such a life-changing event; the constant reminders of the war - in hidden unexploded mines destroying post-Victory lives and morale, the crippled survivors, the PTSD, the destroyed landscape -; the stigma of being a woman at the frontline and the double-standards of people in wartime and peacetime; the continuation of Stalinism that questioned the very survival of decorated heroes and sent them to the gulags.
Truly an important oral history of Russian women in WWII.
Aside: It's difficult to reconcile the enormity of the physical efforts involved in wars with the ideals and abstractions that create and sustain the very same wars. How intense the physical and mental hardships were, made endurable by simple morale boosts, be it letters from home, a clean shirt, or even a soft peal of laughter or music. Somehow an ongoing battle can suddenly cease, all because both sides received words of Victory for one. In the split second before and after the victory/defeat was announced, nothing physical on that battlefield has changed except the whole mentality and yet that's what ultimately decides wars. And what about the aftermath of these wars. The horrors can be glossed over with clinical accounts of major and decisive battles, the dead collectively memorialised as brave statistics, and the survivors' entire wartime experiences reduced to little medals. show less
It is truly amazing how Alexievich has created her own distinct polyphonic style of historical non-fiction, this hauntingly beautiful mix of facts and feelings, challenging traditional ideas of what history is and how it should be remembered and recorded.
Here, she show more presents a more rounded picture of the roles that Russian women had held in WWII, young idealistic women - some still girls - who fought for their country as snipers, sappers, nurses, launderers, underground partisans, and more. It offers a complementary counterpoint to the oft-told stories of idealistic young men who joins the fight due to patriotism or for the sense of adventure or even under the false impression of the invincibility of youth, and end up disillusioned by the senselessness and horror of the daily war they witness then and afterwards. The book itself places the women and their stories as the focus, and in doing so, makes it more than about the war, but also about that very specific Russian ideal, that strong bond to the Motherland and the ingrained belief in self-sacrifice for the greater good, and Russian history that produced it.
Near the end, Alexievich touches on what could be a fascinating standalone topic for another book, the dark aftermath of Victory: how to rebuild lives that have been put on hold for years after such a life-changing event; the constant reminders of the war - in hidden unexploded mines destroying post-Victory lives and morale, the crippled survivors, the PTSD, the destroyed landscape -; the stigma of being a woman at the frontline and the double-standards of people in wartime and peacetime; the continuation of Stalinism that questioned the very survival of decorated heroes and sent them to the gulags.
Truly an important oral history of Russian women in WWII.
Aside: It's difficult to reconcile the enormity of the physical efforts involved in wars with the ideals and abstractions that create and sustain the very same wars. How intense the physical and mental hardships were, made endurable by simple morale boosts, be it letters from home, a clean shirt, or even a soft peal of laughter or music. Somehow an ongoing battle can suddenly cease, all because both sides received words of Victory for one. In the split second before and after the victory/defeat was announced, nothing physical on that battlefield has changed except the whole mentality and yet that's what ultimately decides wars. And what about the aftermath of these wars. The horrors can be glossed over with clinical accounts of major and decisive battles, the dead collectively memorialised as brave statistics, and the survivors' entire wartime experiences reduced to little medals. show less
“No two persons ever read the same book.” Literary critic Edmund Wilson's observation should preface every review and critique written since an author's efforts create only half the experience of consuming a book, the other half being quite dependent upon the reader's background, preexisting knowledge, and expectations. That said, I cannot extol Svetlana Alexievich's The Unwomanly Face of War too highly. This “oral history of women in World War II” is among the most memorable books show more that I have read within recent memory. It is, by the way, the third book by Alexievich that I have read, and, while the first two were excellent, this one surpasses them.
As with the author's other works, this one was written in Russian, and I can comprehend only the English translation, this one by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. A translation, obviously, puts the reader at two removes from the topic. First, we never touch a topic itself in a book; rather, we have the author's recounting, interpretation, and perhaps even analysis of it. Next, we have the translator's interpretation of the author's intent. A competent translator will accurately capture the nuances and connotations intended by the author and will create syntax and vocabulary that is natural to the English language while retaining the atmosphere intended by the author. Since I am not competent to compare this translation with the original, I must take on faith that it is an accurate rendering of Alexievich's words, tones, and emotions. Too often, translators of published books remain maddeningly anonymous, but not so here. The book includes a brief professional biography of both translators, and the works on which they have collaborated comprise an impressive list indeed. That the translators are so thoroughly identified reassures the reader that the original work is well and accurately presented.
The content of the book is “typical Alexievich.” As with her other books, she is not concerned with the great events of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II. Those are recounted in countless history texts and need no additional repetition. Rather, her focus is on the personal experiences, the feelings, the thoughts, and the lasting impressions and impacts of the war on the Soviet women that participated in it. Her method is to interview these women, to record their stories, and then to turn those stories into readable vignettes.
Through these numerous first-person accounts, the reader is often transported to the “front” in 1941 and for the four years following until the “Victory” in 1945. So what did Soviet women –women!--have to do with front line war? With their land invaded and occupied by Hitler's troops, Soviet women frequently volunteered for military duty, many demanding to be sent to the front. Unlike the United States, which did not permit female soldiers to train in combat specialties until 2015, the Red Army saw women serving as snipers, pilots, foot soldiers, sappers, antiaircraft gunners, commanders of machine gun platoons, as well as doctors, nurses, and medical assistants in tank companies. Several women were in the fighting forces that even reached Berlin as the German war machine collapsed.
The experiences recounted by Alexievich's interviewees are sometimes shocking, sad, maddening, surprising, happy, remorseful—indeed, the entire gamut of human emotions. The book is, in a word, powerful. Once begun, it is difficult to put down and tempts readers to stay up long after their bedtimes. This not a book that one will easily or quickly forget, and it is one that will fascinate any reader who is interested by human natures and how those natures react when confronted with the horror of war on their doorsteps! show less
As with the author's other works, this one was written in Russian, and I can comprehend only the English translation, this one by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. A translation, obviously, puts the reader at two removes from the topic. First, we never touch a topic itself in a book; rather, we have the author's recounting, interpretation, and perhaps even analysis of it. Next, we have the translator's interpretation of the author's intent. A competent translator will accurately capture the nuances and connotations intended by the author and will create syntax and vocabulary that is natural to the English language while retaining the atmosphere intended by the author. Since I am not competent to compare this translation with the original, I must take on faith that it is an accurate rendering of Alexievich's words, tones, and emotions. Too often, translators of published books remain maddeningly anonymous, but not so here. The book includes a brief professional biography of both translators, and the works on which they have collaborated comprise an impressive list indeed. That the translators are so thoroughly identified reassures the reader that the original work is well and accurately presented.
The content of the book is “typical Alexievich.” As with her other books, she is not concerned with the great events of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II. Those are recounted in countless history texts and need no additional repetition. Rather, her focus is on the personal experiences, the feelings, the thoughts, and the lasting impressions and impacts of the war on the Soviet women that participated in it. Her method is to interview these women, to record their stories, and then to turn those stories into readable vignettes.
Through these numerous first-person accounts, the reader is often transported to the “front” in 1941 and for the four years following until the “Victory” in 1945. So what did Soviet women –women!--have to do with front line war? With their land invaded and occupied by Hitler's troops, Soviet women frequently volunteered for military duty, many demanding to be sent to the front. Unlike the United States, which did not permit female soldiers to train in combat specialties until 2015, the Red Army saw women serving as snipers, pilots, foot soldiers, sappers, antiaircraft gunners, commanders of machine gun platoons, as well as doctors, nurses, and medical assistants in tank companies. Several women were in the fighting forces that even reached Berlin as the German war machine collapsed.
The experiences recounted by Alexievich's interviewees are sometimes shocking, sad, maddening, surprising, happy, remorseful—indeed, the entire gamut of human emotions. The book is, in a word, powerful. Once begun, it is difficult to put down and tempts readers to stay up long after their bedtimes. This not a book that one will easily or quickly forget, and it is one that will fascinate any reader who is interested by human natures and how those natures react when confronted with the horror of war on their doorsteps! show less
This one took me a while to get through, I think in part because it is not a novel, but rather a series of monologues. Spoken by individuals who lived the Chernobyl disaster zone at the time of the accident, as well as people who moved to the area after the incident, it was a chilling tale that felt like science fiction. I learned a lot - for example, I learned that refugees are moving to Chernobyl because it's practically abandoned and no one will kick them out. I learned more about what show more the effects of living in a radioactive zone. One eerie thing about this book is that in some ways I felt like I was reading about life during quarantine - we are not in an active war, but everything feels dangerous and people are still dying. There is a fear of going out and living life, but at the same time, life must be lived and sometimes we forget about what's going on in the larger scheme of things, and just have our own interactions with our community as if nothing ever happened.
It was the final line of the book that really gave me chills, though. The author was speaking about how many nuclear bombs and reactors exists around the world, and how technically this book is about history, but, she notes, "I felt like I was recording the future." show less
It was the final line of the book that really gave me chills, though. The author was speaking about how many nuclear bombs and reactors exists around the world, and how technically this book is about history, but, she notes, "I felt like I was recording the future." show less
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THE WAR ROOM (1)
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Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 30
- Also by
- 6
- Members
- 8,331
- Popularity
- #2,897
- Rating
- 4.3
- Reviews
- 287
- ISBNs
- 364
- Languages
- 28
- Favorited
- 22
