Without income from Prilepin

The Wiedling Literary Agency , which is in Germany , engaged in the representation of the interests of mainly Russian (Russian -speaking) authors and the registration of rights to transfers their works in different states, decided to abandon further cooperation with Zakhar Prilepin.

Thomas Vidling, the head of the Wiedling Literary Agency, writer and translator, connoisseur of Slavicism, wrote the following to all his partners and authors:

"As you may have already learned from the Russian press, Zakhar Prilepin in the Donbass composed his battalion , became deputy commander and captured weapons himself. As a result of this recent information, the Wiedling Literary Agency decided to terminate the rights to the Literary works of Prilepin. The agency continues to fulfill its contractual duties to all partners - publishers - who are publishers. They publish Prilepin's works in translations .

Thomas Vidling

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In an interview with Radio, Freedom Thomas Vidling says that his decision is not political, but purely personal, adopted for moral reasons:

- I became aware that Prilepin himself took the weapon in his hands and is actively participating in the war. Therefore, I decided that I could no longer actively support it and represent it in the future. By my decision, I do not want to support any side or the other. The case of sanctions is not a matter of a literary agency. Unfortunately, I needed to correct those messages in the Russian media, where it is not very clearly said that I decided to give all the profits of Amnesty International. Of course, I can only sacrifice what belongs to the agency - commission deductions, but, of course, not the fees of authors that I am not free to dispose of.

- Are you talking about the agency’s commission for the publication of the translations of the books of Zakhar Prilepin?

- Yes, about this possible profit.

- Are you familiar with Zakhar Prilepin?

- Yes, personally familiar. Of course, I first talked about my decision with him. And only then he informed the partners about him, that is, to all the publishers of Zakhar Prilepin, who must know about this, as well as all the authors of my agency. By the way, I did not connect the press, because I did not want PR. But then someone told reporters. We are just agents who sell the rights to transfer to different publishers engaged in translations and publishing books. And the agency does not publish a book and does not translate, it is only an intermediary in the sale of rights.

Zakhar Prilepin and his books

- On your site there is a large list of books by Zakhar Prilepin, translated into different languages. The rights of them were sold to Poland, to Italy, to France and other countries. Are these contracts in force?

- Of course, because these are legal contracts. They cannot be canceled. If some publisher now decides not to publish more Prilepin, this is his decision.

-Is there a probability for you that you will ever resume the contract with Prilepin on the sale of rights to his subsequent books?

- It all depends on the person and on the circumstances. If he returns and admits that it was all wrong if it became known that he completely changed his opinion and began to assume that this conflicts cannot be resolved by military way, then maybe I will answer “yes”. But, of course, the barrier, through which you will have to step over again, is already raised now very high. You can’t just look at his next novel and say: “Oh, what a good prose!”, And so on. No. There is a conflict and different opinions, views on it. But by military operations, it is impossible to resolve it, in my opinion,. Only peaceful negotiations.

- Is there a public in Germany who knows Prilepin? And what are these people?

The Germans are always on his guard, be it extremism that left -wing, right -handed

- I don’t know this, I only know that the German publishers are very careful with all writers with, let’s say, regarding extremist positions. The French and Italians have already published 5-6 books of Prilepin, because they have a different tradition, another story, this also applies to extremist views. And the Germans are always on his guard, be it extremism that left, that right. Therefore, only one of his books was published in Germany, in one intellectual publishing a little left -wing. It is very difficult for us in Germany to understand how the left and right positions, and patriotic, are mixed in Russia.

- What personal impression did he make on you?

- A peaceful, but confident person who stubbornly affirms his position. Our last meeting in Germany took place relatively recently, during his performance in Munich, along with Elena Chizhova, who is on the opposite side of the political spectrum, let's say so. Unfortunately (perhaps due to the fault of the moderator), a living discussion did not work there, but only monologues. But she agreed with him to sit on the same stage and talk. And he, as always, was ready and open. He never swears in public, does not scream. You know that in Russia there are people whose views are close to him, talking in a completely different tone. Although, of course, a performance from the stage in Germany is something else than Facebook. Of course, a literary agent is always difficult to delve into the difference between the author and the person. I do not know which of our authors what does and what are the internal views of each of them. When they become known to me, then I can make some decisions.

It is always difficult for a literary agent to delve into the difference between the author and the person

- I understand that in Germany, by virtue of its history, a look at this story with Prilepin is not the same as, for example, in France. And yet, how do you personally feel about writers who have left and go to war?

- Maybe in 20 years you can look back and begin to judge more neutrally and analyze what is happening now. But I can’t pretend as if nothing was happening around me. Everything around me affects me. But in this case, these are already my principles. I do not recognize violence as a means of solving problems - neither in the family, nor in personal relations, nor in political. This does not mean that I am a pacifist. But for me there is a certain red line. Maybe after 20 years we will all understand that Prilepin was right and all the separatists in the Donbass were right. But now I don’t even want to judge who is right, who is to blame. Therefore, this is a personal decision. But at the same time, I am not such a person who will stop all contacts with him now.

- You just suspended your activities to sell rights to his works, but this does not mean that you cease to contact him and refuse to talk?

Permanent deductions come from publishers and so on. I must transfer them to him

- I can’t do it so easy, because permanent deductions come from publishers and so on. I am obliged to transfer them to him. And before our partners, of course, I fulfill my functions. I can’t confuse them and say: "I do nothing for you anymore. You will find it yourself." And then, for example, the Norwegian publisher will have to contact him in Russian. I met his works for a long time, when he was not yet the author of the publishing house Ad Marginem. His first book was published in some military publishing house. I was recommended to see her, it was about 2005-2006. The problem is that books are already written. And after the author decides to go to war. This can change the view of a person, but his books have already been written by him. Of course, each era looks differently at literary work. But this does not mean that all his books immediately became terrible! In my opinion, he never hid and did not pretend that he was one in literature and another in life. His works that we represented are high -quality prose and an interesting voice from Russia. And this is also our task - to represent different voices. I think that we all need to hear what the Russian authors with whom we disagree say.