Truth, poetry, pain

Boris Ekimov became the winner of the Alexander Solzhenitsyn Prize

The eleventh decision of the jury of the Alexander Solzhenitsyn Prize is equal parts predictable and joyful. Boris Petrovich Ekimov (born in 1938, lives in the city of Kalach-on-Don) is perhaps the most indisputable active Russian writer. A deep, not at all theoretical, but “earthly”, “homely”, “carnal” knowledge of the past and present of Russian rural life in its everyday concreteness is combined in his prose with intense attention to the mystery of the “common” person, a rich and fascinatingly convincingly written texture - - with a restrained, but therefore especially touching poetry of style, a sober and often bitter assessment of modern disorder (not only rural, although Ekimov writes sparingly about the city) - with an amazing ability to maintain trust in dissimilar, but living people and the big world order, cordiality - with charming humor.

One of Ekimov’s best (relatively recent) stories is called—as if in dispute with its tragic content—“Don’t Cry.” It is not necessary, both because you cannot help your grief with tears, and because life does not come down to bold and impudent evil, and because being moved by “misfortune from a book” should not replace participation in the troubles of many, many of our brothers. No need. But when you read about the thorough and heroically faithful boy Fetisych, about the stubborn collective farm resuscitator whom angry fellow villagers call Pinochet, about refugees from Central Asia, about a man who was seduced by the “pyramid” games of the early 90s and was drawn into their gluttonous cycle of neighbors, about the old men and women living in the farmsteads and other heroes of Ekimov, a tear still wells up by itself.

Boris Ekimov was awarded the prize “For the poignancy and pain in describing the lost state of the Russian province and reflecting the ineradicable dignity of a modest man; for the source of living folk language that flows in the writer’s prose.” We will be grateful to the jury (Natalia Solzhenitsyna, Lyudmila Saraskina, Pavel Basinsky, Boris Lyubimov, Valentin Nepomnyashchy, Nikita Struve) not only for rewarding a great artist, but also for this thoughtful and heartfelt formulation. How grateful we will be to Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn for his word about the new laureate, which, contrary to custom, was heard even before the award.

“In recent decades, when, it seems, the very existence of the Russian village has fallen out of our sight, not to mention the eye of art, Boris Ekimov entered literature as a new “village” writer. In many vivid stories and essays, Ekimov depicts the unfamiliar environment of today's rural areas with its new way of life, alluring opportunities and steep threats. This living stream of Ekimov’s paintings, expanding our ideas about the difficult life of today’s village, helps restore, at least mentally, the unity of the national body. And how interesting it is to listen to opinions from the Don hinterland about the latest events.” More precisely, if anything is said about Ekimov, it won’t be soon.

The ceremony honoring the laureate will take place on May 15.

Andrey NEMZER