Lyudmila Ulitskaya is 70. Prose of life

On February 21, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, one of the most famous and widely read modern Russian writers, turns 70 years old.

Lyudmila Ulitskaya, a graduate of the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University, an employee of the Institute of General Genetics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, was fired in 1970 for distributing samizdat and got a job in the literary department of the Jewish Chamber Theater. The first publications in the 1980s went unnoticed; success came with the release of the story "Sonechka", recognized in France as the best translated book of 1994. Ulitskaya is a laureate of the Big Book literary awards (2007) and the Booker Prize (2001), and a holder of the French Order of Academic Palms, awarded for achievements in the field of culture and education. Her collection of short fiction and essays, Sacred Trash, was included in the top ten best-selling books of 2012 according to Forbes magazine.

We remembered what Ulitskaya said in her books, what she discussed in interviews, who she defended, with whom she argued, and whom she predicted to be future president.

About how I became a writer

“I was simply kicked out of work. There was a moment in my life when absolutely everything broke down. I divorced my husband, was left with two small children. Biology as an occupation abruptly ended... It’s very easy to start from “point zero” - and so I started all over again. Then I was brought into the theater... Dramaturgy is the basis of traditional literature... I wrote essays, reviews, reviewed plays at the Ministry of Culture. I also translated poetry interlinearly... Maybe the knowledge of how life can be broken, suggesting new paths helps me now to be calm about my writing work. I know: this will end - something else will happen, and if I have the strength and the opportunity, I’ll do a third thing, and this doesn’t scare me at all.” (From an interview with Compatriot magazine)

About children

“Admittedly, the Gospel metaphor “be like children” is a subject for discussion. A smart preacher, when interpreting it, always makes a reservation - in what sense “like children.” Well, unless we mean infants, whose needs are limited to food and warmth. Older children sometimes show such cruelty that adults are incapable of. Children know how to live in the moment, not make plans, not foresee the consequences of their actions... No, the society of teenagers scares me, I don’t feel any admiration for the cult of youth and beauty. and wealth." (From an interview with Afisha magazine)

About the main character of the book "Daniel Stein, Translator"

“Compared to him, I am an ignoramus. Brother Daniel was a very educated man... There is such a cultural gap between us that I don’t even dare to say that there are my and his points of view. In fact, we are talking only about the method of life. Method, which he demonstrated - endless honesty and a desire to perceive anew every day what surrounds us, and an unconditional attitude towards service... How can I be compared with him? He is a saint, and I am a normal person. He charmed and amazed me." (From an interview with "Gorod" magazine)

Photo: ITAR-TASS

About God and the Holocaust (from the book "Daniel Stein, translator")

“For the first time I read the New Testament and received an answer to the most painful question for me at that time: where was God at the time when five hundred people from the Em ghetto were being shot? Where is God in all these events that my people are experiencing? What to do with God’s justice? And then it was revealed to me that God was with the suffering. God could only be with the suffering and never with the murderers. He who suffered with the Jews was my God.”

About depression

“I can say with confidence that the help of a psychologist speeds up the process of getting out of a difficult situation. In my middle-young years, I experienced quite severe depression and came out of it myself, but it took me a very long time. I am sure that if I had had good psychological support, I would have gotten out faster and with fewer losses. However, I admit that these losses had their own value.” (From an interview with the magazine "Psychological Navigator")

About fairness

“It’s a great talent to find a common language with life without losing yourself. The pathos of struggle with life, reproaches of injustice are alien to me. Since the creation of the world there has never been social justice. But we know people who were able to realize justice in their lives.” . (From an interview with the newspaper "Book Review")

About geniuses (from the book "Green Tent")

"Now it has become clear to everyone that he (Brodsky - PublicPost) is a genius. Well, in the Russian sense of the word, not in the European... not just a man with a divine gift for poetry or music, but a man who, like an ice drift, goes ahead of time and breaks the wall, breaks the ice, paves a new road, and all sorts of small ships and boats can already sail after him, the most sensitive, most capable people rush to the trail of the genius, and then the crowd, and the revelation becomes commonplace. average people - no, I’m talking about myself, not about you - thanks to geniuses and the very flow of time, we understand more and more. And they are ahead of time.”

About stupidity (from the book "Kukotsky's Case")

“I used to think that stupidity is not a sin, but a misfortune. Now I have changed my thoughts. Stupidity is a great sin because it contains self-confidence, that is, pride.”

Photo: ITAR-TASS

About married life (from the book "Medea and Her Children")

“There are marriages that are cemented in bed, there are those that bloom in the kitchen to the fine music of a table knife and a whisk for whipping egg whites, there are construction spouses who carry out repairs, purchasing cheap lumber for their summer cottage, nails, drying oil and glass wool on occasion, others are held together by inspired scandals. The marriage of Masha and Alik took place in conversations.”

About dislike for the rich (from “Dialogues” with Mikhail Khodorkovsky)

“I have my own personal story: I actually don’t like the rich. I have a heightened sense of social justice, I’m ashamed of the rich.

This is my prejudice, I admit. Others also have weakly motivated preferences: some do not like Jews, others Tajiks, still others policemen, and still others don’t like pit bull dogs.

I was not particularly interested in Yukos or Khodorkovsky until I discovered while traveling around our vast homeland that, wherever I went, Khodorkovsky’s programs were working everywhere: in orphanages and colonies, in schools and universities. And I must say, several years ago I was at Stanford University, invented and built with the money of one very tough and even tarnished capitalist, Mr. Stanford. I studied this story carefully. I admired Stanford. And I realized that our country lacks such people. That is, they - the Botkins, Soldatenkovs, Shchukins, Khludovs, Tretyakovs - were in abundance at the beginning of the twentieth century, but the Soviet government exterminated them. And it was precisely when I drew attention to the enormous scope of social charity of Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky that I was happy and thought: our cause is not so hopeless.”

About civic position and future presidents (Lyudmila Ulitskaya’s speech at a rally on February 4, 2012 in Moscow)