Svetlana Alexandrovna Alexievich (born 31 May 1948) is a Belarusian

investigative journalist Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years rese ...

, essayist and

oral historian Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...

who writes in Russian. She was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time". She is the first writer from Belarus to receive the award.

Background

Born in the west Ukrainian town of Stanislav (Ivano-Frankivsk since 1962) to a Belarusian father and a Ukrainian mother, Svetlana Alexievich grew up in Belarus. After graduating from high school she worked as a reporter in several local newspapers. In 1972 she graduated from

Belarusian State University Belarusian State University (BSU) ( be, links=no, Белару́скі дзяржа́ўны ўніверсітэ́т, ; russian: links=no, Белору́сский госуда́рственный университе́т) is a university in Mins ...

and became a correspondent for the literary magazine ''Nyoman'' in

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...

(1976).

FM-2019-1-3-6-194 Niggl-Radloff-B-Portrait-Villa-Waldberta-ONLINE

In a 2015 interview, she mentioned early influences: "I explored the world through people like

Hanna Krall Hanna Krall (born 1935), is a Polish writer with a degree in journalism from the University of Warsaw, specializing among other subjects in the history of the Holocaust in occupied Poland. Personal life Krall is of Jewish origin, the daughter of S ...

and

Ryszard Kapuściński Ryszard Kapuściński (; 4 March 1932 – 23 January 2007) was a Polish journalist, photographer, poet and author. He received many awards and was considered a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Kapuściński's personal journals in bo ...

." During her career in journalism, Alexievich specialized in crafting narratives based on witness testimonies. In the process, she wrote artfully constructed

oral histories Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...

of several dramatic events in Soviet history: the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Afghan War War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to: *Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC) *Muslim conquests of Afghanistan (637–709) *Conquest of Afghanistan by the Mongol Empire (13th century), see als ...

dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

, and the

Chernobyl disaster The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two nuc ...

. In 1989 Alexievich's book ''Zinky Boys'', about the fallen soldiers who had returned in zinc coffins from the Soviet-Afghan War of 1979 – 1985, was the subject of controversy, and she was accused of "defamation" and "desecration of the soldiers' honor". Alexievich was tried a number of times between 1992 and 1996. After

political persecution Political repression is the act of a state entity controlling a citizenry by force for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing the citizenry's ability to take part in the political life of a society, thereby ...

by the

Lukashenko Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko (as transliterated from Russian; also transliterated from Belarusian as Alyaksand(a)r Ryhoravich Lukashenka;, ; rus, Александр Григорьевич Лукашенко, Aleksandr Grigoryevich Luka ...

administration, she left Belarus in 2000. The

International Cities of Refuge Network The International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN) is an independent organisation of cities and regions which offers shelter to writers, journalists and artists at risk of persecution, with the goal of advancing freedom of expression. History It ...

offered her sanctuary, and during the following decade she lived in Paris,

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

and Berlin. In 2011, Alexievich moved back to Minsk.

Influences and legacy

Alexievich's books trace the emotional history of the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and post-Soviet individual through carefully constructed collages of interviews. According to Russian writer and critic

Dmitry Bykov Dmitry Lvovich Bykov ( rus, links=no, Дмитрий Львович Быков, p=ˈdmʲitrʲɪj ˈlʲvovʲɪdʑ ˈbɨkəf, a=Dmitriy L'vovich Bykov.ru.vorb.oga; born 20 December 1967) is a Russian writer, poet, literary critic and journalist.< ...

, her books owe much to the ideas of Belarusian writer

Ales Adamovich Aleksandr Mikhailovich Adamovich ( be, Аляксандр Міхайлавіч Адамовіч, translit=Aliaksandr Michailavič Adamovič, russian: Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Адамо́вич; 3 September 1927 – 26 January ...

, who felt that the best way to describe the horrors of the 20th century was not by creating fiction but through recording the testimonies of witnesses. Belarusian poet

Uladzimir Nyaklyayew Uladzimir Prakopavich Nyaklyayew ( be, Уладзі́мір Прако́павіч Някля́еў, Łacinka: ''Uładzimir Prakopavič Niaklajeŭ''; rus, Владимир Прокофьевич Некляев, Vladimir Prokofyevich Neklyayev) ...

called Adamovich "her literary godfather". He also named the documentary novel ''I'm From Fire Village'' ( be, Я з вогненнай вёскі) by Ales Adamovich,

Janka Bryl Ivan Antonovich "Janka" Bryl ( be, Янка Брыль; 4 August 1917 – 25 July 2006) was a Soviet and Belarusian writer best known for his short stories. He was one of the older generation of Soviet writers who had begun their literary ...

and Uladzimir Kalesnik, about the villages burned by the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

troops during the occupation of Belarus, as the main single book that has influenced Alexievich's attitude to literature. Alexievich has confirmed the influence of Adamovich and Belarusian writer

Vasil Bykaŭ Vasil Uladzimiravič Bykaŭ (often spelled Vasil Bykov, be, Васі́ль Уладзі́міравіч Бы́каў, russian: Василь Влади́мирович Быков) (19 June 1924 – 22 June 2003) was a prolific Soviet and Belarus ...

, among others. She regards

Varlam Shalamov Varlam Tikhonovich Shalamov (russian: Варла́м Ти́хонович Шала́мов; 18 June 1907 – 17 January 1982), baptized as Varlaam, was a Russian writer, journalist, poet and Gulag survivor. He spent much of the period from 1 ...

as the best writer of the 20th century. Her most notable works in English translation include a collection of first-hand accounts from the war in Afghanistan (''Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from a Forgotten War'') and an oral history of the Chernobyl disaster (''Chernobyl Prayer / Voices from Chernobyl''). Alexievich describes the theme of her works this way:

Works

Her first book, ''War's Unwomanly Face'', came out in 1985. It was repeatedly reprinted and sold more than two million copies. The book was finished in 1983 and published (in short edition) in ''Oktyabr'', a Soviet monthly literary magazine, in February 1984. In 1985, the book was published by several publishers, and the number of printed copies reached 2,000,000 in the next five years. Quote: "Первая книга — «У войны не женское лицо» — была готова в 1983 и пролежала в издательстве два года. Автора обвиняли в пацифизме, натурализме и развенчании героического образа советской женщины. «Перестройка» дала благотворный толчок." This novel is made up of

monologue In theatre, a monologue (from el, μονόλογος, from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes a ...

s of women in the war speaking about the aspects of World War II that had never been related before. Another book, '' The Last Witnesses: the Book of Unchildlike Stories'', describes personal memories of children during wartime. The war seen through women's and children's eyes revealed a new world of feelings. In 1992, Alexievich published "Boys in Zinc". The course of the Soviet-Afghan War (1979-1989) is told through emotive personal testimony from unnamed participants of the war; from nurses, to commissioned officers and pilots, mothers and widows. Each provides an excerpt of the Soviet-Afghan War which was disguised in the face of criticism first as political support, then intervention, and finally humanitarian aid to the Afghan people. Alexievich writes at the beginning of the book: Alexievich was not embedded with the Red Army due to her reputation in the Soviet Union; instead, she travelled to Kabul on her own prerogative during the war, and gathered many accounts from veterans returned from Afghanistan. In "Boys in Zinc", Alexievich calls herself 'a historian of the untraceable' and 'strive desperately (from book to book) to do one thing - reduce history to the human being.' She brings brutally honest accounts of the war to lay at the feet of the Soviet people, but claims no heroism for herself: 'I went o watch them assemble pieces of boys blown up by an anti-tank mineand there was nothing heroic about it, because I fainted there. Perhaps it was from the heat, perhaps from the shock. I want to be honest.' The monologues which make up the book are honest (if edited for clarity) reproductions of the oral histories Alexievich collected, including those who perhaps did not understand her purpose: 'What's your book for? Who's it for? None of us who came back from there will like it anyway. How can you possibly tell people how it was? The dead camels and dead men lying in a single pool of blood, with their blood mingled together. Who wants that?' Alexievich was brought to trial in Minsk between 1992 and 1996, accused of distorting and falsifying the testimony of Afghan veterans and their mothers who were 'offended ..that their boys were portrayed exclusively as soulless killer-robots, pillagers, drug addicts and rapists...' The trial, while apparently defending the honour of the army and veterans, is widely seen as an attempt to preserve old ideology in post-communist Belarus. The Belarus League for Human Rights claims that in the early 1990s multiple cases were directed against democratically inclined intelligentsia with politically motivated verdicts. In 1993, she published ''Enchanted by Death'', a book about attempted and completed suicides due to the downfall of the Soviet Union. Many people felt inseparable from the

Communist ideology Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

and unable to accept the new order surely and the newly interpreted history. Her books were not published by Belarusian state-owned publishing houses after 1993, while private publishers in Belarus have only published two of her books: ''Chernobyl Prayer'' in 1999 and ''Second-hand Time'' in 2013, both translated into Belarusian. As a result, Alexievich has been better known in the rest of world than in Belarus. She has been described as the first

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

to receive the

Nobel Prize in Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...

. She herself rejects the notion that she is a journalist, and, in fact, Alexievich's chosen genre is sometimes called "documentary literature": an artistic rendering of real events, with a degree of poetic license. In her own words: On 26 October 2019, Alexievich was elected chairman of the Belarusian PEN Center.

Political activism

During the 2020 Belarusian protests Alexievich became a member of the

Coordination Council Coordination Council may refer to: * Coordination Council (Afghanistan) * Coordination Council of Leftist Forces, a political alliance in Azerbaijan * Coordination Council (Belarus), an opposition council of Belarusians aiming to transfer power fr ...

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya Sviatlana Heorhiyeuna Tsikhanouskaya (' Pilipchuk;, , ; russian: Светлана Георгиевна Тихановская, , Svetlana Georgiyevna Tikhanovskaya, , , born 11 September 1982) is a Belarusian educator and the leader of the Bel ...

. On 20 August, Alexander Konyuk, the Prosecutor-General of Belarus, initiated criminal proceedings against the members of the Coordination Council under Article 361 of the Belarusian Criminal Code, on the grounds of attempting to seize state power and harming national security. On 26 August, Alexievich was questioned by Belarusian authorities about her involvement in the council. On 9 September 2020, Alexievich alerted the press that "men in black masks" were trying to enter her apartment in central

. "I have no friends and companions left in the Coordinating Council. All are in prison or have been forcibly sent into exile," she wrote in a statement. "First they kidnapped the country; now it's the turn of the best among us. But hundreds more will replace those who have been torn from our ranks. It is not the Coordinating Council that has rebelled. It is the country." Diplomats from Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, and Sweden began to keep a round-the-clock watch on Alexievich's home to prevent her abduction by security services. On 28 September 2020, Alexievich left Belarus for Germany, promising to return depending on political conditions in Belarus. Prior to her departure, she was the last member of the Coordination Council who was not in exile or under arrest. In August 2021, her book ''The Last Witnesses'' was excluded from the school curriculum in Belarus and her name was removed from the curriculum. It was assumed that the exclusion was made for her political activity. Following the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

, she commented that "providing a territory for an aggressor country is nothing but complicity in a crime" in relation to

Belarusian involvement in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine Belarus, a close ally of Russia, has supported its eastern neighbour in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Before the start of the offensive, Belarus allowed the Russian Armed Forces to perform weeks-long military drills on its territory; ...

Awards and honours

Alexievich has received many awards, including: * Saint

Euphrosyne of Polotsk Euphrosyne (; grc, Εὐφροσύνη), in ancient Greek religion and mythology, was one of the Charites, known in ancient Rome as the ''Gratiae'' (Graces). She was sometimes called Euthymia (Εὐθυμία) or Eutychia (Εὐτυχία). Fa ...

Medal (Медаль имени Святой Евфросиньи Полоцкой) * 1984

Order of the Badge of Honour The Order of the Badge of Honour (russian: орден «Знак Почёта», orden "Znak Pochyota") was a civilian award of the Soviet Union. It was established on 25 November 1935, and was conferred on citizens of the USSR for outstanding ...

(USSR)Сергей Чупринин: Русская литература сегодня: Зарубежье. М.: Время, 2008 г. * 1984 Nikolay Ostrovskiy literary award of the

Union of Soviet Writers The Union of Soviet Writers, USSR Union of Writers, or Soviet Union of Writers (russian: Союз писателей СССР, translit=Soyuz Sovetstikh Pisatelei) was a creative union of professional writers in the Soviet Union. It was founded ...

* 1984 Oktyabr Magazine Prize * 1985 Литературная премия имени Константина Федина of the

* 1986

Lenin Komsomol Prize Lenin Komsomol Prize () was a Soviet annual award for the best works in science, engineering, literature or art carried out by young authors of age not exceeding 33 years. Komsomol was the abbreviated name of The Communist Union of Youth (Russia ...

— for the book «У войны не женское лицо» * 1987

Literaturnaya Gazeta ''Literaturnaya Gazeta'' (russian: «Литературная Газета», ''Literary Gazette'') is a weekly cultural and political newspaper published in Russia and the Soviet Union. It was published for two periods in the 19th century, and ...

Prize *1996 Tucholsky-Preis (Swedish PEN) * 1997 Премия имени Андрея Синявского of ''

Novaya Gazeta ''Novaya Gazeta'' ( rus, Новая газета, t=New Gazette, p=ˈnovəjə ɡɐˈzʲetə) is an independent Russian newspaper known for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs. It is published in Mo ...

'' — «За творческое поведение и благородство в литературе» * 1997 Prize * 1997 (Russia) * 1997 Andrei Sinyavsky Prize * 1998 Leipziger Book Prize on European Understanding * 1998 Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung-Preis * 1999

Herder Prize The Herder Prize (german: Gottfried-von-Herder-Preis), named after the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803), was a prestigious international prize awarded every year from 1964 to 2006 to scholars and artists from Central and Sout ...

* 2005

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Oxfam Novib/PEN Award Oxfam Novib/PEN Award for Freedom of Expression is a literary award made in collaboration with PEN International Writers in Prison Committee, the PEN Emergency Fund, and Oxfam Novib (the Dutch affiliate of the international Oxfam organization). ...

* 2011

Ryszard Kapuściński Award The Ryszard Kapuściński Award ( pl, Nagroda im. Ryszarda Kapuścińskiego) is a major annual Polish international literary prize, the most important distinction in the genre of literary reportage. History The award was founded to celebrate and ...

(Poland) * 2011

Angelus Award The Angelus Central European Literature Award also known as Angelus Award (Polish: ''Nagroda Literacka Europy Środkowej Angelus'') is a Polish international literary award established in 2006 and presented by the city of Wrocław, Lower Silesia ...

(Poland) * 2013

Peace Prize of the German Book Trade is an international peace prize awarded annually by the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (English: ''German Publishers and Booksellers Association''), which runs the Frankfurt Book Fair. The award ceremony is held in the Paulskirche in ...

* 2013

Prix Médicis essai Prix was an American power pop band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1975 by Tommy Hoehn and Jon Tiven. The group ended up primarily as a studio project. Its recordings were produced by Tiven along with former Big Star member Chris Bell, who als ...

, ''La Fin de l'homme rouge ou le temps du désenchantement (for her book Secondhand Time)'' * 2014 Officer of the Order of the Arts and Letters (France) * 2015

* 2017

Arthur Ross Book Award The Arthur Ross Book Award is a politics-related literary award. History and administration It was endowed in 2001 by Arthur Ross, an American businessman and philanthropist, for the purpose of recognizing books that make an outstanding cont ...

Bronze Medal given by the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...

for her book ''Secondhand Time'' * 2017 Golden Plate Award from the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet o ...

. * 2018

Belarusian Democratic Republic 100th Jubilee Medal The Belarusian Democratic Republic 100th Jubilee Medal ( be, Мэдаль да стагодзьдзя Беларускае Народнае Рэспублікі) is a medal awarded in 2018 by the Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic (the gov ...

* 2020:

Sakharov Prize The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, commonly known as the Sakharov Prize, is an honorary award for individuals or groups who have dedicated their lives to the defence of human rights and freedom of thought. Named after Russian scientis ...

for Freedom of Thought by the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

(one of the named representatives of the democratic opposition in Belarus) * 2021

Sonning Prize The Sonning Prize ( da, Sonningprisen) is a Danish culture prize awarded biennially for outstanding contributions to European culture. It is named after the Danish editor and author Carl Johan Sonning (1879–1937), who established the prize by h ...

*2021

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellect ...

(Commander's Cross) Alexievich is a member of the advisory committee of the

Lettre Ulysses Award The Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage has been given annually since 2003 for the best texts in the genre of literary reportage, which must have been first published during the previous two years. The award was initiated by Lettre Intern ...

. She will give the inaugural

Anna Politkovskaya Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya (;, ; uk, Ганна Степанівна Політковська , 30 August 1958 – 7 October 2006) was a Russian journalist and human rights activist, who reported on political events in Russia, in partic ...

Memorial Lecture at the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

on 9 October 2019. The lecture is an international platform to amplify the voices of women journalists and human rights defenders working in war and conflict zones.

Publications

* ''У войны не женское лицо'' (U voyny ne zhenskoe litso, ''War Does Not Have a Woman's Face''), Minsk: Mastatskaya litaratura, 1985. **(English) ''The Unwomanly Face of War'', (extracts), from ''Always a Woman: Stories by Soviet Women Writers'', Raduga Publishers, 1987. **(English) ''War's Unwomanly Face'', Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1988, . **(Belarusian) ''У вайны не жаночае аблічча''. Minsk: Mast. lit., 1991. . **(Belarusian) ''У вайны не жаночы твар''. Minsk: Mast. lit., 2019. Translated by Valiancin Akudovič. . **(Hungarian) ''A háború nem asszonyi dolog''. Zrínyi Katonai Kiadó, 1988. . **(Finnish) ''Sodalla ei ole naisen kasvoja''. Helsinki: Progress: SN-kirjat, 1988. Translated by Robert Kolomainen. . New edition: Keltainen kirjasto. Tammi, 2017. . **(English) ''The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II'', Random House, 2017, . **(German) ''Der Krieg hat kein weibliches Gesicht.'' Henschel, Berlin 1987, . **(German) New, expanded edition; übersetzt von Ganna-Maria Braungardt. Hanser Berlin, München 2013, . **(Korean) ''전쟁은 여자의 얼굴을 하지 않았다'' 문학동네, Seoul, South Korea 2015, . **(Portuguese) ''A Guerra não Tem Rosto de Mulher''. Elsinore, 2016. . **(Georgian) ''ომს არ აქვს ქალის სახე''. თბილისი: ინტელექტი, 2017. . **(Turkish) ''Kadın Yok Savaşın Yüzünde''. Kafka Yayınevi, 2016. Translated by Günay Çetao Kızılırmak. . **(Hungarian) ''Nők a tűzvonalban''. New, expanded edition. Helikon, 2016. . **(Catalan) ''La guerra no té cara de dona''. Raig Verd, 2018. Translated by Miquel Cabal Guarro. **(Ukrainian) ''У війни не жіноче обличчя''. Kharkiv: Vivat, 2016. Translated by Volodymyr Rafeyenko. * ''Последние свидетели: сто недетских колыбельных'' (Poslednie svideteli: sto nedetskikh kolybelnykh, ''The Last Witnesses: A Hundred of Unchildlike Lullabies''), Moscow: Molodaya Gvardiya, 1985 **(Russian) ''Последние свидетели: сто недетских колыбельных.'' Moscow, Palmira, 2004, . **(English) ''Last Witnesses: An Oral History of the Children of World War II.'' Random House, 2019 , translated by

Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky are literary translators best known for their collaborative English translations of classic Russian literature. Individually, Pevear has also translated into English works from French, Italian, and Greek. The ...

. **(German) ''Die letzten Zeugen. Kinder im Zweiten Weltkrieg.'' Neues Leben, Berlin 1989; neu: Aufbau, Berlin 2005, . (Originaltitel: '' Poslednyje swedeteli''). Neubearbeitung und Aktualisierung 2008. Aus dem Russischen von Ganna-Maria Braungardt. Berlin: Hanser-Berlin 2014, **(Portuguese) ''As Últimas Testemunhas: Cem histórias sem infância''. Elsinore, 2017. . **(Hungarian) ''Utolsó tanúk: gyermekként a második világháborúban''. Európa, 2017. . **(Turkish) ''Son tanıklar - Çocukluğa Aykırı Yüz Öykü''. Kafka Yayınevi, 2019. Translated by Aslı Takanay. . **(Georgian) ''უკანასკნელი მოწმეები''. თბილისი: არტანუჯი, 2018. . **(Catalan) ''Últims testimonis. Un solo de veus infantils''. Raig Verd, 2016. Translated by Marta Rebón. * ''Цинковые мальчики'' (Tsinkovye malchiki, ''Boys in Zinc''), Moscow: Molodaya Gvardiya, 1991. **(English, US) ''Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War''. W W Norton 1992 (), translated by Julia and Robin Whitby. **(English, UK) ''Boys in Zinc''. Penguin Modern Classics 2016 , translated by Andrew Bromfield. **(German) ''Zinkjungen. Afghanistan und die Folgen.''

Fischer Fischer is a German occupational surname, meaning fisherman. The name Fischer is the fourth most common German surname. The English version is Fisher. People with the surname A * Abraham Fischer (1850–1913) South African public official * Ad ...

, Frankfurt am Main 1992, . **(German) New, expanded edition; Hanser Berlin, München 2014, . **(Hungarian) ''Fiúk cinkkoporsóban''. Európa, 1999. . **(Portuguese) ''Rapazes de Zinco: A geração soviética caída na guerra do Afeganistão''. Elsinore, 2017. . **(Turkish) ''Çinko Çocuklar''. Kafka Yayınevi, 2018. Translated by Serdar Arıkan & Fatma Arıkan. . **(Catalan) ''Els nois de zinc''. Raig Verd, 2016. Translated by Marta Rebón. * ''Зачарованные смертью'' (Zacharovannye Smertyu, ''Enchanted by Death'') (Belarusian: 1993, Russian: 1994) **(German) ''Im Banne des Todes. Geschichten russischer Selbstmörder.'' Fischer, Frankfurt am Main, 1994, ). **(German) ''Seht mal, wie ihr lebt. Russische Schicksale nach dem Umbruch.'' Berlin (

Aufbau ''Aufbau'' is a term which was used in publications from 1919 to 1947 in the German language. The term can be translated as "structure", "construction" or as "rebuilding", "reconstruction". Peter Galison advocated its use as a "keyword", in the s ...

, Berlin 1999, . ** (Japanese) '死に魅入られた人びと : ソ連崩壊と自殺者の記錄 / Svetlana Aleksievich & Taeko Matsumoto. Shi ni miirareta hitobito : Soren hōkai to jisatsusha no kiroku'. Tóquio: Gunzōsha, 2005. ** (French) ''Ensorcelés par la mort." Paris: Plon, 1995. * ''Чернобыльская молитва'' (Chernobylskaya molitva, ''Chernobyl Prayer''), Moscow: Ostozhye, 1997. . **(English, US) '' Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster''. Dalkey Archive Press 2005 (), translated by Keith Gessen. **(English, UK) ''Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future''. Penguin Modern Classics 2016 (), translated by Anna Gunin and Arch Tait. New translation of the revised edition published in 2013. **(German) ''Tschernobyl. Eine Chronik der Zukunft.'' Aufbau, Berlin 2006, . **(Portuguese) ''Vozes de Chernobyl: Histórias de um desastre nuclear''., Elsinore, 2016. **(Hungarian) ''Csernobili ima''. Európa, 2016. **(Turkish) ''Çernobil Duası - Geleceğin Tarihi''. Kafka Yayınevi, 2017. Translated by Aslı Takanay. . **(Georgian) ''ჩერნობილის ლოცვა''. თბილისი: არტანუჯი, 2015. . **(Finnish) ''Tšernobylista nousee rukous. Tulevaisuuden kronikka''. Helsinki: Tammi, 2015. Translated by Marja-Leena Jaakkola. ISBN 978-951-31-8951-8. **(Catalan) ''La pregària de Txernòbil. Crònica del futur''. Raig Verd, 2016. Translated by Marta Rebón. * ''Время секонд хэнд'' (Vremya sekond khend, ''Second-hand Time''), Moscow: Vremia, 2013. . **(Belarusian) Час сэканд-хэнд (Канец чырвонага чалавека) / Святлана Алексіевіч. Перакл. з руск. Ц. Чарнякевіч, В. Стралко. — Мн.: Логвінаў, 2014. — 384 с. — (Бібліятэка Саюза беларускіх пісьменнікаў «Кнігарня пісьменніка»; выпуск 46). — . **(German) ''Secondhand-Zeit. Leben auf den Trümmern des Sozialismus.'' Hanser Berlin, München 2013, ; als Taschenbuch: Suhrkamp, Berlin 2015, . **(Hungarian) ''Elhordott múltjaink''. Európa, 2015. . **(English, US) '' Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets''. Random House 2016 (), translated by Bela Shayevich. **(Portuguese) ''O Fim do Homem Soviético''. Elsinore, 2017, . **(Brazilian Portuguese) ''O Fim do Homem Soviético''. Companhia das Letras, 2016, . **(Polish) ''Czasy secondhand. Koniec czerwonego człowieka''. Czarne 2014 , translated by Jerzy Czech **(Turkish) ''İkinci El Zaman - Kızıl İnsanın Sonu''. Kafka Yayınevi, 2016. Translated by Sabri Gürses. . **(Georgian) ''სექენდ ჰენდის დრო''. თბილისი: არტანუჯი, 2017. . **(Finnish) ''Neuvostoihmisen loppu. Kun nykyhetkestä tuli second handia.'' Helsinki: Tammi, 2018. Translated by Vappu Orlov. . **(Catalan) ''Temps de segona mà. La fi de l'home roig''. Raig Verd, 2015. . New revised edition. Raig Verd, 2022. Translated by Marta Rebón.

References

External links

Svetlana Alexievich's website
- Contains biography, bibliography and excerpts.
Biography at the international literature festival berlin
* including the Nobel Lecture 7 December 2015 ''On the Battle Lost''

Interviews

"''The Guardian'', A Life In..."
Interview by Luke Harding, April 2016
"A Conversation with Svetlana Alexievich"
Dalkey Archive Press
Between the public and the private: Svetlana Aleksievich interviews Ales' Adamovich
Canadian Slavonic Papers/ Revue Canadienne des Slavistes

Excerpts

Selections from ''Voices From Chernobyl''
in ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip ...

'', 2015

Articles about Svetlana Alexievich

"The Truth in Many Voices"
Timothy Snyder, ''NYRB'', October 2015
"The Memory Keeper"
Masha Gessen, ''The New Yorker'', October 2015.
"From Russia with Love"
''

Bookforum ''Bookforum'' is an American book review magazine devoted to books and the discussion of literature that was based in New York City, New York. The magazine was founded in 1994 and announced in December of 2022 it would cease publishing after ...

'', August 2016.
A conspiracy of ignorance and obedience
''The Telegraph'', 2015
Svetlana Alexievich: Belarusian Language Is Rural And Literary Unripe
, Belarus Digest, June 2013
Belarusian Nobel laureate Sviatlana Alieksijevič hit by a smear campaign
Belarus Digest, July 2017

Academic articles about Svetlana Alexievich's works

Escrita, biografia e sensibilidade: o discurso da memória soviética de Svetlana Aleksiévitch como um problema historiográfico
João Camilo Portal
Mothers, father(s), daughter: Svetlana Aleksievich and The Unwomanly Face of War
Angela Brintlinger
"No other proof": Svetlana Aleksievich in the tradition of Soviet war writing
Daniel Bush
Mothers, prostitutes, and the collapse of the USSR: the representation of women in Svetlana Aleksievich's Zinky Boys
Jeffrey W. Jones
Svetlana Aleksievich's Voices from Chernobyl: between an oral history and a death lament
Anna Karpusheva
The polyphonic performance of testimony in Svetlana Aleksievich's Voices from Utopia
Johanna Lindbladh
A new literary genre. Trauma and the individual perspective in Svetlana Aleksievich's Chernobyl'skaia molitva
Irina Marchesini
Svetlana Aleksievich's changing narrative of the Soviet–Afghan War in Zinky Boys
Holly Myers

Other

Lukashenko's comment on Alexievich
(1''12 video, in Russian, no subtitles)
Svetlana Alexievich
at

Goodreads Goodreads is an American social cataloging website and a subsidiary of Amazon that allows individuals to search its database of books, annotations, quotes, and reviews. Users can sign up and register books to generate library catalogs and read ...

Svetlana Alexievich Quotes With Pictures
at Rugusavay.com *
List of Works
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexievich, Svetlana 1948 births Living people 20th-century women writers 21st-century women writers Belarusian journalists Belarusian Nobel laureates Belarusian people of Ukrainian descent Belarusian women writers Belarusian women journalists Belarusian essayists Nobel laureates in Literature Oxfam Novib/PEN Award winners Russian-language writers Soviet journalists Women Nobel laureates People associated with the Chernobyl disaster Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Recipients of the Lenin Komsomol Prize Herder Prize recipients Prix Médicis essai winners 20th-century Belarusian writers 21st-century Belarusian writers