Great Russian writers who did not receive the Nobel Prize. Nobel Prize winners in literature: list. Nobel Prize laureates in literature from the USSR and Russia Nobel Prize laureates among writers

Five Russian writers who became Nobel laureates

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 last 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 of the emigrant writers 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” annually 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. Later, Ryazanov 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."

Gustav Adolf VI, who presented the prize to the Soviet writer, 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 laureate Iofis 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 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 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 language as in 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 time 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.

In 1933, Bunin became the first Russian writer to receive the Nobel Prize "for the truthful artistic talent with which he recreated the typical character." The work that influenced the jury's decision was autobiographical novel"The Life of Arsenyev." Forced to leave his homeland due to disagreement with the Bolshevik regime, Bunin is a piercing and touching work, full of love for the Motherland and longing for it. Becoming a witness October revolution, the writer did not come to terms with the changes and loss that had occurred Tsarist Russia. He recalled with sadness old times, curvy noble estates, measured life on family estates. As a result, Bunin created a large-scale literary canvas in which he expressed his innermost thoughts.

Boris Leonidovich Pasternak - prize for poetry in prose

Pasternak received the award in 1958 “for outstanding services in the modern and traditional field of great Russian prose.” Critics especially praised the novel Doctor Zhivago. However, a different reception awaited Pasternak in his homeland. The profound work about the life of the intelligentsia was negatively received by the authorities. Pasternak was expelled from the Union of Soviet Writers and virtually forgotten about its existence. Pasternak had to refuse the award.

Pasternak not only wrote works himself, but was also a talented translator.

Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov - singer of the Russian Cossacks

In 1965, the prestigious award was received by Sholokhov, who created the large-scale epic novel “Quiet Don”. It still seems incredible how a young, 23-year-old aspiring writer could create a deep and voluminous work. There were even disputes over the authorship of Sholokhov with supposedly irrefutable evidence. Despite all this, the novel was translated into several Western and Eastern languages, and Stalin personally approved it.

Despite the deafening fame of Sholokhov in early age, his subsequent works were much weaker.

Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn - rejected by the authorities

Another Nobel Prize Winner Who Wasn't Recognized home country- Solzhenitsyn. He received the award in 1970 “for the moral strength drawn from the tradition of great Russian literature.” Having been imprisoned for political reasons For about 10 years, Solzhenitsyn was completely disillusioned with the ideology of the ruling class. He began publishing quite late, after 40 years, but only 8 years later he was awarded the Nobel Prize - no other writer had such a rapid rise.

Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky - the last laureate of the prize

Brodsky received the Nobel Prize in 1987 "for his comprehensive authorship, full of clarity of thought and poetic depth." Brodsky's poetry aroused rejection by the Soviet authorities. He was arrested and was in custody. Afterwards, Brodsky continued to work, was popular in his homeland and abroad, but he was constantly being monitored. In 1972, the poet was given an ultimatum - to leave the USSR. Brodsky received the Nobel Prize in the USA, but he wrote the speech for the speech

Throughout the history of the Nobel Prize Russian writers awarded 5 times. Nobel Prize laureates included 5 Russian writers and one Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich, author of the following works: “ The war has no woman's face », « Zinc boys"and other works written in Russian. The wording for the award was: “ For the polyphonic sound of her prose and the perpetuation of suffering and courage»

2.1. Ivan Alekseevich Bunin (1870-1953) The prize was awarded in 1933 " for the true artistic talent with which he recreated the typical Russian character in an artistic rose, 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 in honoring the emigrant writer (he emigrated to France in 1920).

2.2. Boris Pasternak- Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1958. Awarded " for outstanding services in modern lyric poetry and in the field of great Russian prose» . For Pasternak himself, the prize brought nothing but problems and a campaign under the slogan “ I haven’t read it, but I condemn it!" The writer was forced to refuse the prize 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.

Nobel Prize I was lost, like an animal in a pen. Somewhere there are people, freedom, light, And behind me there is the sound of a chase, I can’t go outside. Dark forest and the shore of the pond, Spruce felled log. The path is cut off from everywhere. Whatever happens, it doesn't matter. What kind of dirty trick have I done? Am I a murderer and a villain? I made the whole world cry over the beauty of my land. But even so, almost at the grave, I believe the time will come - The power of meanness and malice will be overcome by the spirit of good.
B. Pasternak

2.3. Mikhail Sholokhov. The Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded in 1965. The award was presented to " behind artistic power and the integrity of the epic about Don Cossacks at a turning point for Russia». In his speech during the award ceremony, Sholokhov said that his goal was " extol the nation of workers, builders and heroes».

2.4. Alexander Solzhenitsyn– laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1970 « for the moral strength gleaned from the tradition of great Russian literature». Government Soviet Union considered the decision Nobel Committee « politically hostile", and Solzhenitsyn, fearing that after his trip he would not be able to return to his homeland, accepted the award, but was not present at the award ceremony.

2.5. Joseph Brodsky- Laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1987. Prize awarded « for his multifaceted creativity, marked by sharpness of thought and deep poetry». In 1972, he was forced to emigrate from the USSR and lived in the USA.

2.6. In 2015, the prize was sensationally received by a Belarusian writer and journalist Svetlana Alexievich. She wrote such works as “War Doesn’t Have a Woman’s Face”, “Zinc Boys”, “Enchanted by Death”, “Chernobyl Prayer”, “Second Hand Time” and others. It’s quite a rare event in recent years when a prize was given to a person who writes in Russian.

3. Nobel Prize nominees

The Nobel Prize in Literature is the most prestigious award, which has been awarded annually by the Nobel Foundation for achievements in the field of literature since 1901. A writer who has been awarded the prize appears in the eyes of millions of people as an incomparable talent or genius who, with his creativity, managed to win the hearts of readers from all over the world.

However, there are a number famous writers, whom the Nobel Prize for various reasons passed over, but they were worthy of it no less than their fellow laureates, and sometimes even more. Who are they?

Half a century later, the Nobel Committee reveals its secrets, so today we know not only who received awards in the first half of the 20th century, but also who did not receive them, remaining among the nominees.

First time among the literary nominees Nobel“Russians” dates back to 1901 - then Leo Tolstoy was nominated for the award among other nominees, but he did not become the winner of the prestigious award for several more years. Leo Tolstoy would be present in the nominations every year until 1906, and the only reason, according to which the author “ War and Peace"did not become the first Russian laureate" Nobel”, became his own decisive refusal of the award, as well as a request not to award it.

M. Gorky was nominated in 1918, 1923, 1928, 1930, 1933 (5 times)

Konstantin Balmont was nominated in 1923,

Dmitry Merezhkovsky -1914, 1915, 1930, 1931 – 1937 (10 times)

Shmelev – 1928, 1932

Mark Aldanov – 1934, 1938, 1939, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951 – 1956,1957 (12 times)

Leonid Leonov -1949,1950.

Konstantin Paustovsky -1965, 1967

And how many geniuses of Russian literature were not even declared among the nominees Bulgakov, Akhmatova, Tsvetaeva, Mandelstam, Yevgeny Yevtushenko... Everyone can continue this brilliant series with the names of their favorite writers and poets.

Why were Russian writers and poets so rarely among the laureates?

It is no secret that the prize is often awarded for political reasons. , says Philip Nobel, a descendant of Alfred Nobel. - But there is one more important reason. In 1896, Alfred left a condition in his will: the capital of the Nobel Foundation must be invested in shares of strong companies that provide good profits. In the 20-30s of the last century, the fund's money was invested primarily in American corporations. Since then, the Nobel Committee and the United States have had very close ties.”

Anna Akhmatova may have received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1966, but she... died on March 5, 1966, so her name was not later considered. According to the rules of the Swedish Academy, the Nobel Prize can only be awarded to living writers. The prize was given only to those writers who had quarreled with Soviet power: Joseph Brodsky, Ivan Bunin, Boris Pasternak, Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

The Swedish Academy of Sciences did not favor Russian literature: at the beginning of the twentieth century, it rejected L.N. Tolstoy and did not notice the brilliant A.P. Chekhov, passed by no less significant writers and poets of the twentieth century: M. Gorky, V. Mayakovsky, M. Bulgakov and others. It should also be noted that I. Bunin, like later other Nobel laureates (B. Pasternak, A. Solzhenitsyn , I. Brodsky) was in a state of acute conflict with the Soviet regime.

Be that as it may, great writers and poets, Nobel Prize laureates, whose creative path was thorny, with their brilliant creations they built a pedestal for themselves. The personality of these great sons of Russia is enormous not only in Russia, but also in the world literary process. And they will remain in people’s memory as long as humanity lives and creates.

« Exploded Heart»… This is how you can characterize state of mind our compatriot writers who became Nobel Prize laureates. They are our pride! And our pain and shame for what was done to I.A. Bunin and B.L. Pasternak, A.I. Solzhenitsyn and I.A. Brodsky by the official authorities, for their forced loneliness and exile. In St. Petersburg there is a monument to Nobel on Petrovskaya Embankment. True, this monument represents sculptural composition « Exploded tree».

Fantasy about Nobel. There is no need to dream about the Nobel, After all, it is awarded by chance, And someone, alien to the highest standards, Keeps joyless secrets. I have not been to distant Sweden, As in the dreams of snow-covered Nepal, And Brodsky wanders around Venice And silently looks into the canals. He was an outcast who did not know love, slept in a hurry and ate unsweetened, but, having changed the plus for the minus, he married an aristocrat.

Sitting in Venetian bars and having conversations with counts, He mixed cognac with resentment, Antiquity with the Internet age. Rhymes were born from the surf, I had the strength to write them down. But what about poetry? They are empty, Once again Nobel came out of the grave. I asked: - Let the genius be Brodsky. Let him shine in a pair of tails, But Paustovsky lived somewhere, Not Sholokhov in a pair of cognac. Zabolotsky lived, fell into the abyss, and was resurrected, and became great. Once upon a time Simonov lived, gray-haired and sober, counting the Tashkent ditches. Well, what about Tvardovsky? Nice sidekick, that's the one who molds the lines so well! Where are you looking, Uncle Nobel? Mendel.

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 - in 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 their 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. The 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 the school literature curriculum there was no mention of Pasternak’s work. The first to decide to introduce the Soviet people to Pasternak’s creative work was 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. Later, Ryazanov 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."

Gustav Adolf VI, who presented the prize to the Soviet writer, 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 a hard life and a glorious creative destiny for him. 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
At various times, such famous figures as Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Franklin Roosevelt, Nicholas Roerich and Leo Tolstoy were nominated for the Nobel Prize, but never received it.

Literature lovers will definitely be interested in this book, which is written with disappearing ink.

1933, Ivan Alekseevich Bunin

Bunin was the first Russian writer to receive such a high award - the Nobel Prize in Literature. This happened in 1933, when Bunin had already been living in exile in Paris for several years. The prize was awarded to Ivan Bunin "for the rigorous skill with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose." It was about the major work writer - the novel “The Life of Arsenyev”.

Accepting the award, Ivan Alekseevich said that he was the first exile to be awarded the Nobel Prize. Along with his diploma, Bunin received a check for 715 thousand French francs. With the Nobel money he could live comfortably until the end of his days. But they quickly ran out. Bunin spent it very easily and generously distributed it to his fellow emigrants in need. He invested part of it in a business that, as his “well-wishers” promised him, would be a win-win, and went broke.

It was after receiving the Nobel Prize that Bunin’s all-Russian fame grew into worldwide fame. Every Russian in Paris, even those who had not yet read a single line of this writer, took this as a personal holiday.

1958, Boris Leonidovich Pasternak

For Pasternak, this high award and recognition turned into real persecution in his homeland.

Boris Pasternak was nominated for the Nobel Prize more than once - from 1946 to 1950. And in October 1958 he was awarded this award. This happened just after the publication of his novel Doctor Zhivago. The prize was awarded to Pasternak "for significant achievements in modern lyric poetry, as well as for continuing the traditions of the great Russian epic novel."

Immediately after receiving the telegram from the Swedish Academy, Pasternak responded “extremely grateful, touched and proud, amazed and embarrassed.” But after it became known that he had been awarded the prize, the newspapers “Pravda” and “Literary Gazette” attacked the poet with indignant articles, awarding him with the epithets “traitor”, “slanderer”, “Judas”. Pasternak was expelled from the Writers' Union and forced to refuse the prize. And in a second letter to Stockholm, he wrote: “Due to the significance that the award given to me received in the society to which I belong, I must refuse it. Do not consider my voluntary refusal an insult.”

Boris Pasternak's Nobel Prize was awarded to his son 31 years later. In 1989, the permanent secretary of the academy, Professor Store Allen, read both telegrams sent by Pasternak on October 23 and 29, 1958, and said that the Swedish Academy recognized Pasternak’s refusal of the prize as forced and, after thirty-one years, was presenting his medal to his son, regretting that The laureate is no longer alive.

1965, Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov

Mikhail Sholokhov was the only one Soviet writer who received the Nobel Prize with the consent of the leadership of the USSR. Back in 1958, when a delegation of the USSR Writers Union visited Sweden and learned that Pasternak and Shokholov were among those nominated for the prize, in a telegram sent to Soviet ambassador in Sweden, it was said: “it would be desirable, through cultural figures close to us, to make it clear to the Swedish public that the Soviet Union would highly appreciate the award of the Nobel Prize to Sholokhov.” But then the prize was given to Boris Pasternak. Sholokhov received it in 1965 - “for the artistic strength and integrity of the epic about the Don Cossacks at a turning point for Russia.” By this time his famous “Quiet Don” had already been released.

1970, Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn

Alexander Solzhenitsyn became the fourth Russian writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature - in 1970 "for the moral strength with which he followed the immutable traditions of Russian literature." By this time the following had already been written outstanding works Solzhenitsyn as “Cancer Ward” and “In the First Circle”. Having learned about the award, the writer stated that he intended to receive the award “personally, on the appointed day.” But after the announcement of the award, the persecution of the writer in his homeland gained full force. The Soviet government considered the decision of the Nobel Committee "politically hostile." Therefore, the writer was afraid to go to Sweden to receive the award. He accepted it with gratitude, but did not participate in the award ceremony. Solzhenitsyn received his diploma only four years later - in 1974, when he was expelled from the USSR to Germany.

The writer’s wife, Natalya Solzhenitsyna, is still confident that the Nobel Prize saved her husband’s life and gave her the opportunity to write. She noted that if he had published “The Gulag Archipelago” without being a Nobel Prize laureate, he would have been killed. By the way, Solzhenitsyn was the only Nobel Prize laureate in literature for whom only eight years passed from the first publication to the award.

1987, Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky

Joseph Brodsky became the fifth Russian writer to receive the Nobel Prize. This happened in 1987, at the same time it was published big Book poems - "Urania". But Brodsky received the award not as a Soviet, but as an American citizen who had lived in the USA for a long time. The Nobel Prize was awarded to him "for his comprehensive creativity, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity." Receiving the award in his speech, Joseph Brodsky said: “For a private person and the particularity of this whole life public role preferred, for a person who has gone quite far in this preference - and in particular from his homeland, for it is better to be the last loser in a democracy than a martyr or the ruler of thoughts in a despotism - to suddenly find himself on this podium is a great awkwardness and test.

Let us note that after Brodsky was awarded the Nobel Prize, and this event just happened during the beginning of perestroika in the USSR, his poems and essays began to be actively published in his homeland.