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WRITER MIKHAIL SHISHKIN: on the transition from the «gift of obedience» to the gift of understanding

Author: Alexey Botvinov

Pianist, founder of Odessa Classics

WRITER MIKHAIL SHISHKIN: on the transition from the «gift of obedience» to the gift of understanding

Mikhail Shishkin / swissinfo.ch

SHORT PROFILE

Name: Mikhail Shishkin

Date of Birth: January 18, 1961

Profession: Writer

Beyond Russia — in Ukraine, Poland, Israel, France, and the United States — a new type of Russian culture is emerging, one that is free from the dictates of the Russian state and even in opposition to it. This is the view of Mikhail Shishkin — winner of the «Russian Booker», who has lived in Switzerland for many years and writes brilliantly in both German and Russian. Shishkin is often compared to Nabokov and Joyce, and his novels have been published in 30 languages.

Together with Swiss Slavists, Mikhail founded the literary prize Dar. Its purpose is to show that the Russian language is not a hostage of the Putin regime — it belongs to world culture.

Shishkin is also known for joint projects with Ukrainian writers and musicians, in particular with his longtime friend and friend of our almanac, pianist Alexey Botvinov, president of the Odessa Classics festival. We present to your attention fragments of an exclusive interview the Russian writer gave to the Ukrainian musician.

THERE IS NO MONOPOLY ON LANGUAGE!

he main enemy of Russian culture is the Russian state. Both Kharms and Mandelstam, and all those who tried to create free literature, were opponents of the regime simply because they wanted to take away its monopoly on the Russian language. Putin’s «ideologists» use the Russian language as a weapon in a total hybrid war.

A writer — the channel for language — must, in their understanding, irrigate patriotic fields with words, clearly explaining to readers that bloodthirsty enemies are everywhere. Therefore, one must «spare neither one’s property nor anything at all, sell estates, pawn wives and children, and bow down to whoever would rise to defend the true Orthodox faith and be our leader», in obedience to the famous call of Minin, who raised a militia to liberate Moscow from the Poles.

PATRIOTISM AS A TRAP

The regime has always used patriotism as a trap for the population, and culture — as bait. Critical thinking, respect for the individual are cultivated over generations — and only on condition of truly enormous, painstaking work to nurture the qualities of a free citizen in every school, every kindergarten, every family.

However, the task of the Russian Ministry of Education has always been quite different — to raise «soldiers of the fatherlan». And in fact, the main educator has always been the street, with its prison mentality and laws. And the L’Education sentimentale ⓘ was completed by mandatory military service. Whoever has been there knows what I mean.

HOW TO OVERCOME TRIBAL CONSCIOUSNESS

The problem is that the majority of Russia’s population still lives with a patriarchal tribal consciousness: «We are Russians, and all around are enemies who want to destroy us, therefore we must defend our homeland, our language, our Pushkin; we must sacrifice everything to preserve our beloved Fatherland» (read: the current regime). It must be understood that humanity, on its journey from the animal world to humanity, has so far taken only half a step.

It is not about computers and spaceships: both can be used for barbaric destruction. What matters is the transition from primitive tribal consciousness to individual consciousness, in the development of the individual who personally takes responsibility for everything rather than shifting it onto the authorities. The only tool for transforming tribal consciousness into individual consciousness is enlightenment.

PATRIOTISM IS SLAVERY

The Russian population supports this war not because it has read Chekhov or listened to Rachmaninoff, but because true culture — which is a means of awakening a sense of self-worth — has always been suppressed, while the population has been fed patriotic swill. Not a single teacher in this vast country will hang Tolstoy’s words under his portrait in the literature classroom: «Patriotism is slavery». It is easier to drag civilized people back into a tribe worshipping a führer than to raise a free individual.

THE EXAMPLE OF THOMAS MANN

I understand very well what Thomas Mann must have felt when he came to speak at an American university and students asked: «Why should we study the language and culture of a country that is waging a war of aggression?» Just as Thomas Mann fought for the dignity of the German language and German culture, now it is necessary to defend the dignity of my language, which the Putin regime has placed under attack all over the world.

Culture in any language is always part of world culture — it is those writers, artists, and musicians who have spoken out against war and in support of Ukraine, not those who supported aggression or loudly kept silent. We are now in a situation of a colossal turning point for all cultures in the Russian language, something unprecedented in history. The time has come to reassess all Russian cultural values.

THE ANTIDOTE TO FEAR

I have just returned from Germany, where I performed at the wonderful festival Odessa Classics in Elmau, on the same stage with stars such as Grigory Sokolov and Mischa Maisky. The founder of the Odessa Classics festival is the Ukrainian pianist Alexey Botvinov. Together with Alexey, we presented to the audience our literary and musical program. It is so important that Ukrainian and Russian musicians and writers stand together against the war.

Together we defend world culture from barbarism. We are not naïve — literature and music cannot stop the war. But this symbolic gesture matters to us because it speaks of hope. Culture is the antidote to fear, propaganda, and oblivion. Our joint performances — by a Ukrainian pianist and a Russian author — are a conscious moral act that requires courage.

WHAT IS REAL IMMORTALITY

We were born into a Christian world where, in fact, there is little of Christ — and that world has never been truly Christian, for it contains too much hatred and malice. Not to mention that the meaning of religion lies in overcoming the fear of death: «We will rise again, you’ll see!» I do not believe in resurrection. There is nothing there, everything is here. Death, of course, is undeniable.

But there is the transmission of the body. A person passes the body on to a child. The body of a composer becomes their music, the body of a writer — the book. A thousand years from now, someone may read these words — if by then anyone is still reading in Russian: «Misyus, where are you?» And at that very moment Chekhov will lay down his pen, stretch, and murmur into his mustache: «That was a good story I wrote!» If there is such a thing as real immortality, it is only this: in words, in music, in paintings.

THE STRUGGLE AGAINST ETERNAL EVIL

True art is not about «current politics». Today’s events should be written about in newspapers and Facebook posts. Art, literature, music fight not against today’s evil but against the eternal. My task as a writer is to create prose that helps the reader feel part of the world’s cultural consciousness, that awakens in them a sense of human dignity.

And then each person will decide for themselves — whether they are willing to remain a slave under dictatorship or to fight for the democratic reorganization of society. And, alas, there is no certainty that readers of the distant future will not face the same questions we do. And the main question will always be: what are you willing to sacrifice in order to preserve your dignity?

CULTURE WITHOUT EMPIRE

Culture without empire is not only the possibility of breathing, but also a responsibility that cannot be shifted onto anyone else. Culture will exist only if you do something for it. Belinsky emerged from Gogol’s overcoat. The society we were born into emerged from the gulag’s padded jacket and the guard’s greatcoat. Initiative is the privilege of free people.

Grassroots initiative, the sense of solidarity — these are what Russian power burned out of people for generations. Today, before our eyes, in countries where people value Russian-language culture as part of world culture, important events are taking place. We must find tools to support new independent publishers, journals, authors, and translators.

IS THERE LIFE BEYOND THE TRANSLATION WALL?

Last year, together with my friends, Swiss Slavists, I founded the Dar Prize. Over the past two decades, a huge number of books were translated from Russian — largely because Moscow provided grants for translation. Now, money for translating works by authors who oppose the war will not be given there. The new literature in Russian — and this includes not only émigré writers from Russia but also authors writing in Russian in other countries — has found itself before a translation wall.

This wall must be broken through. The main and only prize is a grant for translation into English, German, and French. Naturally, in its first — wartime — season, a Russian-language independent prize had to be dedicated to the war. It was both natural and absolutely right that Ukraine became the central theme. Submissions for the second season will open on September 1.

THE GIFT OF UNDERSTANDING

Dar is making literary history. But it is not about «Russian culture» or «Russian literature». All these notions already belong to the historical lexicon. The Russian language does not belong to the largest landmass on the planet, nor to the KGB scum on the throne, nor to the motherland with its mouth stuffed with corpses. Those who live and write in Russian in Ukraine, Lithuania, Israel, Belarus, America, and other countries are not Russian writers, and they are not creating Russian literature, but their own. And this is how it should be in a world ruled not by the «gift of obedience» but by the gift of understanding. «Russian literature» remains in textbooks. We are at a new cultural-historical stage, transitioning from Russian literature to literature in Russian.

CULTURE AS A TERRITORY OF FREEDOM

Creativity lives in a special space that does not exist on any geographical map. This space of world culture I share with Jews, Ukrainians, Georgians, Poles, Americans — with all people on planet Earth for whom art, music, and literature are a form of human dignity. It is a space of freedom, and in which language the free human creative spirit finds expression is no longer so important.

Alas, for culture, for free creativity, Russian territory is hostile. From generation to generation, from regime to regime, everything alive there was suppressed, destroyed, or driven into emigration. Everything that is hostile to culture and creative freedom, I hate. My books are a declaration of love to that force of free creativity which breaks through to life, no matter what.