Nobel Prize in Literature announced. Nobel Prize in Literature

Nobel Prize – one of the most prestigious world prizes is awarded annually for outstanding Scientific research, revolutionary inventions or major contributions to culture or society.

November 27, 1895 A. Nobel made a will, which provided for the allocation of certain funds for the award awards in five areas: physics, chemistry, physiology and medicine, literature and contribution to world peace. And in 1900 the Nobel Foundation was created - a private, independent, non-governmental organization with an initial capital of 31 million Swedish kronor. Since 1969, at the initiative of the Swedish Bank, awards have also been made economics awards.

Since the inception of the awards, strict rules have been in place for the selection of laureates. The process involves intellectuals from all over the world. Thousands of minds are working to get the Nobel Prize for the most worthy of the applicants.

In total, five Russian-speaking writers have received this award so far.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin(1870-1953), Russian writer, poet, honorary academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1933 "for the strict skill with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose". In his speech at the award ceremony, Bunin noted the courage of the Swedish Academy, which honored the émigré writer (he emigrated to France in 1920). Ivan Alekseevich Bunin is the greatest master of Russian realistic prose.

Boris Leonidovich Pasternak(1890-1960), Russian poet, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1958 "for outstanding services in modern lyric poetry and in the field of great Russian prose." He was forced to refuse the award under the threat of expulsion from the country. The Swedish Academy recognized Pasternak's refusal of the prize as forced and in 1989 presented a diploma and a medal to his son.

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov(1905-1984), Russian writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1965 "for the artistic power and integrity of the epic about the Don Cossacks at a turning point for Russia." In his speech during the awards ceremony, Sholokhov said that his goal was to "exalt a nation of workers, builders and heroes". Starting as a realistic writer who is not afraid to show the deep contradictions of life, Sholokhov, in some of his works, became a prisoner of socialist realism.

Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn(1918-2008), Russian writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970 "for the moral strength gleaned from the tradition of great Russian literature." The Soviet government considered the decision of the Nobel Committee "politically hostile", and Solzhenitsyn, fearing that after his trip, returning to his homeland would be impossible, accepted the award, but did not attend the award ceremony. In his artistic literary works, as a rule, he touched on acute socio-political issues, actively opposed communist ideas, the political system of the USSR and the policies of its authorities.

Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky(1940-1996), poet, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1987 "for a multifaceted work, marked by sharpness of thought and deep poetry." In 1972 he was forced to emigrate from the USSR, he lived in the USA (the world encyclopedia calls him American). I.A. Brodsky is the youngest writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. The features of the poet's lyrics are the understanding of the world as a single metaphysical and cultural whole, the identification of the limitations of a person as a subject of consciousness.

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RUSSIAN HISTORY

Prix ​​Nobel? Oui, ma belle". So joked Brodsky long before receiving the Nobel Prize, which is the most important award for almost any writer. Despite the generous scattering of Russian literary geniuses, only five of them managed to receive the highest award. However, many of them, if not all, having received it, suffered enormous losses in their lives.

Nobel Prize 1933 "For the truthful artistic talent with which he recreated in prose a typical Russian character."

Bunin became the first Russian writer to receive the Nobel Prize. The fact that Bunin had not even appeared in Russia for 13 years, even as a tourist, gave a special resonance to this event. Therefore, when he was informed of the call from Stockholm, Bunin could not believe what had happened. In Paris, the news spread instantly. Every Russian, regardless of financial status and position, spent his last pennies in a tavern, rejoicing that their compatriot turned out to be the best.

Once in the Swedish capital, Bunin was almost the most popular Russian person in the world, they stared at him for a long time, looked around, whispered. He was surprised, comparing his fame and honor with the glory of the famous tenor.



Nobel Prize ceremony.
I. A. Bunin in the first row, far right.
Stockholm, 1933

Nobel Prize in 1958 "For significant achievements in modern lyric poetry, as well as for the continuation of the traditions of the great Russian epic novel"

Pasternak's candidacy for the Nobel Prize was discussed in the Nobel Committee annually, from 1946 to 1950. After a personal telegram from the head of the committee and Pasternak's notice of the award, the writer replied with the following words: "Grateful, glad, proud, embarrassed." But some time later, after the planned public persecution of the writer and his friends, public persecution, sowing an impartial and even hostile image among the masses, Pasternak refused the prize, writing a letter with a more voluminous content.

After the prize was awarded, Pasternak bore the entire burden of the “persecuted poet” firsthand. Moreover, he carried this burden not at all for his poems (although it was for them, for the most part, that he was awarded the Nobel Prize), but for the “anti-Sovestvenny” novel Doctor Zhivago. Nes, even refusing such an honorary award and a solid amount of 250,000 crowns. According to the writer himself, he would not have taken this money anyway, sending it to another, more useful place than your own pocket.

December 9, 1989, in Stockholm, the son of Boris Pasternak, Yevgeny, on solemn reception, timed to coincide with the Nobel Prize winners of that year, were awarded a diploma and the Nobel medal of Boris Pasternak.



Pasternak Evgeny Borisovich

Nobel Prize 1965 "for the artistic power and integrity of the epic about the Don Cossacks at a turning point for Russia".

Sholokhov, like Pasternak, repeatedly appeared in the field of view of the Nobel Committee. Moreover, their paths, like their offspring, involuntarily, and voluntarily too, crossed more than once. Their novels, without the participation of the authors themselves, "prevented" each other from winning the main award. It is pointless to choose the best of two brilliant, but such various works. Moreover, the Nobel Prize was given (and is being given) in both cases not for individual works, but for the overall contribution as a whole, for a special component of all creativity. Once, in 1954, the Nobel Committee did not award Sholokhov an award only because the letter of recommendation from Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences Sergeev-Tsensky arrived a couple of days later, and the committee did not have enough time to consider Sholokhov's candidacy. It is believed that the novel ("Quiet Flows the Don") at that time was not beneficial to Sweden politically, and artistic value always played a secondary role for the committee. In 1958, when the figure of Sholokhov looked like an iceberg in the Baltic Sea, the prize went to Pasternak. Already a gray-haired, sixty-year-old Sholokhov in Stockholm was awarded his well-deserved Nobel Prize, after which the writer read the same pure and honest speech as all his work.



Mikhail Alexandrovich in the Golden Hall of the Stockholm City Hall
before the start of the Nobel Prize.

Nobel Prize 1970 "For the moral strength gleaned from the tradition of great Russian literature."

Solzhenitsyn learned about this award while still in the camps. And in his heart he aspired to become its laureate. In 1970, after he was awarded the Nobel Prize, Solzhenitsyn replied that he would come for the award "in person, on the appointed day." However, just like twelve years earlier, when Pasternak was also threatened with deprivation of his citizenship, Solzhenitsin canceled his trip to Stockholm. It's hard to say that he regretted it too much. Reading the program of the gala evening, he kept coming across pompous details: what and how to say, a tuxedo or tailcoat to wear at a particular banquet. "... Why is it necessary to have a white butterfly," he thought, "but you can't wear a camp padded jacket?" "And how to talk about the main business of all life at the" banquet table "when the tables are laden with dishes and everyone drinks, eats, talks...".

Nobel Prize 1987 "For a comprehensive literary activity distinguished by clarity of thought and poetic intensity.

Of course, it was much "easier" for Brodsky to receive the Nobel Prize than for Pasternak or Solzhenitsyn. At that time, he was already a hunted emigrant, deprived of citizenship and the right to enter Russia. The news of the Nobel Prize caught Brodsky at lunch in a Chinese restaurant near London. The news practically did not change the expression of the writer's face. He only joked to the first reporters that now he would have to talk his tongue out for a whole year. One journalist asked Brodsky whether he considers himself a Russian or an American? “I am a Jew, a Russian poet and an English essayist,” Brodsky replied.

Known for his indecisive nature, Brodsky took to Stockholm two versions of the Nobel Lecture: in Russian and in English. Until the last moment, no one knew in which language the writer would read the text. Brodsky stopped in Russian.



On December 10, 1987, the Russian poet Iosif Brodsky was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his all-encompassing work, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity."

Briton Kazuo Ishiguro.

According to Alfred Nobel's will, the award is given to "the person who created the most significant literary work idealistic orientation.

The editors of TASS-DOSIER have prepared material on the procedure for awarding this award and its laureates.

Awarding and nominating candidates

The prize is awarded by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm. It includes 18 academicians who hold this post for life. The preparatory work is carried out by the Nobel Committee, whose members (four to five people) are elected by the Academy from among its members for a three-year period. Candidates may be nominated by members of the Academy and similar institutions in other countries, professors of literature and linguistics, award winners and chairmen of writers' organizations who have received special invitations from the committee.

The nomination process runs from September to January 31 of the following year. In April, the committee draws up a list of the 20 most worthy writers, then reduces it to five candidates. The winner is determined by academicians in early October by a majority vote. The award is announced to the writer half an hour before the announcement of his name. In 2017, 195 people were nominated.

The five Nobel Prize winners are announced during Nobel Week, which begins on the first Monday in October. Their names are announced in the following order: physiology and medicine; physics; chemistry; literature; peace prize. The winner of the Swedish State Bank Prize in Economics in memory of Alfred Nobel will be named next Monday. In 2016, the order was violated, the name of the awarded writer was made public last. According to the Swedish media, despite the delay in the start of the laureate election procedure, there were no disagreements within the Swedish Academy.

Laureates

During the entire existence of the award, 113 writers have become its laureates, including 14 women. Among the awardees are such worldwide famous authors like Rabindranath Tagore (1913), Anatole France (1921), Bernard Shaw (1925), Thomas Mann (1929), Hermann Hesse (1946), William Faulkner (1949), Ernest Hemingway (1954), Pablo Neruda (1971), Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1982).

In 1953, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was awarded this award "for the high skill of works of a historical and biographical nature, as well as for brilliant oratory, with the help of which the highest human values ​​​​were defended." Churchill was repeatedly nominated for this prize, in addition, he was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, but never won it.

As a rule, writers receive an award based on the totality of achievements in the field of literature. However, nine people were awarded for a particular piece. For example, Thomas Mann was noted for the novel "Buddenbrooks"; John Galsworthy for The Forsyte Saga (1932); Ernest Hemingway - for the story "The Old Man and the Sea"; Mikhail Sholokhov - in 1965 for the novel "Quiet Don" ("for the artistic power and integrity of the epic about the Don Cossacks at a turning point for Russia").

In addition to Sholokhov, there are other our compatriots among the laureates. So, in 1933, Ivan Bunin received the prize "for the strict skill with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose", and in 1958 - Boris Pasternak "for outstanding achievements in modern lyric poetry and in the field of great Russian prose."

However, Pasternak, who was criticized in the USSR for his novel Doctor Zhivago, published abroad, refused the award under pressure from the authorities. The medal and diploma were presented to his son in Stockholm in December 1989. In 1970, Alexander Solzhenitsyn became the laureate of the award ("for the moral strength with which he followed the immutable traditions of Russian literature"). In 1987, the prize was awarded to Joseph Brodsky "for a comprehensive work, saturated with clarity of thought and passion for poetry" (he emigrated to the United States in 1972).

In 2015, the Belarusian writer Svetlana Aleksievich was awarded for "polyphonic compositions, a monument to suffering and courage in our time."

In 2016, American poet, composer and performer Bob Dylan was honored for "creating poetic imagery in the great American song tradition."

Statistics

The Nobel website notes that of the 113 laureates, 12 wrote under pseudonyms. This list includes French writer and the literary critic Anatole France (real name François Anatole Thibault) and the Chilean poet and politician Pablo Neruda (Ricardo Eliécer Neftali Reyes Basoalto).

The relative majority of awards (28) were awarded to writers who wrote in English. 14 writers were awarded for books in French, 13 in German, 11 in Spanish, 7 in Swedish, 6 in Italian, 6 in Russian (including Svetlana Aleksievich), 4 in Polish, 4 in Norwegian and Danish three people, and in Greek, Japanese and Chinese two each. Authors of works in Arabic, Bengali, Hungarian, Icelandic, Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Turkish, Occitan (Provençal French), Finnish, Czech, and Hebrew were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature once each.

Most often awarded were writers who worked in the genre of prose (77), in second place - poetry (34), in third - dramaturgy (14). For works in the field of history, three writers received the prize, in philosophy - two. At the same time, one author can be awarded for works in several genres. For example, Boris Pasternak received the prize as a prose writer and as a poet, and Maurice Maeterlinck (Belgium; 1911) as a prose writer and playwright.

In 1901-2016, the prize was awarded 109 times (in 1914, 1918, 1935, 1940-1943, academicians could not determine the best writer). Only four times the award was divided between two writers.

The average age of laureates is 65 years old, the youngest is Rudyard Kipling, who received the prize at 42 (1907), and the oldest is 88-year-old Doris Lessing (2007).

The second writer (after Boris Pasternak) to refuse the prize was the French novelist and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre in 1964. He stated that he "does not want to be turned into a public institution," and expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that when awarding the prize, academicians "ignore the merits of the revolutionary writers of the 20th century."

Notable writer-nominees who did not win the award

Many great writers who were nominated for the award never received it. Among them is Leo Tolstoy. Our writers such as Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Maxim Gorky, Konstantin Balmont, Ivan Shmelev, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Vladimir Nabokov were not awarded either. The outstanding prose writers of other countries - Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina), Mark Twain (USA), Henrik Ibsen (Norway) - did not become laureates either.

The 107th Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded in 2014 to the French writer and screenwriter Patrick Modiano. Thus, since 1901, 111 authors have already received the Literature Prize (four times the award was awarded simultaneously to two writers).

Alfred Nobel bequeathed to present the prize for "the most outstanding literary work in an ideal direction", and not for circulation and popularity. But the concept of a “bestseller book” existed already at the beginning of the 20th century, and sales volumes can at least partly tell about the skill and literary significance of the writer.

RBC made a conditional rating Nobel laureates in literature based on the commercial success of their works. The source was the data of the world's largest book retailer Barnes & Noble on the best-selling books of Nobel laureates.

William Golding

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1983

"For novels that, with the clarity of realistic narrative art, combined with the diversity and universality of myth, help to comprehend the existence of man in the modern world"

For nearly forty years literary career English writer published 12 novels. Golding's novels Lord of the Flies and The Heirs are among the best-selling books by Nobel laureates according to Barnes & Noble. The first, coming out in 1954, brought him worldwide fame. In terms of the significance of the novel for the development of modern thought and literature, critics often compared it with Salinger's Catcher in the Rye.

The best selling book on Barnes & Noble is Lord of the Flies (1954).

Toni Morrison

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1993

« A writer who, in her dreamy, poetic novels, brought to life an important aspect of American reality."

American writer Toni Morrison was born in Ohio, in a working-class family. She got her start in art while studying at Howard University, where she studied " English language and literature." Morrison's first novel, The Bluest Eyes, was based on a short story she wrote for a university writers' and poets' circle. In 1975, her novel Sula was nominated for the National book award USA.

Barnes & Noble's best-selling book is The Bluest Eyes (1970)

John Steinbeck

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1962

"For his realistic and poetic gift, combined with gentle humor and keen social vision"

Among Steinbeck's most famous novels are The Grapes of Wrath, East of Paradise, Of Mice and Men. All of them are included in the first dozen bestsellers according to the American store Barnes & Noble.

By 1962, Steinbeck had already been nominated for the prize eight times, and he himself believed that he did not deserve it. Critics in the United States met the award with hostility, believing that his later novels were much weaker than subsequent ones. In 2013, when the documents of the Swedish Academy were revealed (they have been kept secret for 50 years), it turned out that Steinbeck is a recognized classic American Literature- Awarded as he was "the best in bad company" of the nominees for that year's award.

The first edition of The Grapes of Wrath, with a print run of 50,000 copies, was illustrated and cost $2.75. In 1939 the book became a bestseller. The book has sold over 75 million copies to date, and the first edition in good condition is worth over $24,000.

Ernest Hemingway

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1954

"For his storytelling once again in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the impact he has had on contemporary style"

Hemingway was one of nine literature laureates to be awarded the Nobel Prize for a specific work (the story "The Old Man and the Sea"), and not for literary activity in general. In addition to the Nobel Prize, The Old Man and the Sea won the Pulitzer Prize for the author in 1953. The story was first published in Life magazine in September 1952, and in just two days 5.3 million copies of the magazine were bought in the United States.

Interestingly, the Nobel Committee seriously considered awarding the prize to Hemingway in 1953, but then chose Winston Churchill, who wrote more than a dozen books of a historical and biographical nature during his life. One of the main motives for “not delaying” the awarding of the former British Prime Minister was his advanced age (Churchill was 79 at the time).

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1982

"for novels and short stories in which fantasy and reality come together to reflect the life and conflicts of an entire continent"

Marquez became the first Colombian to receive a prize from the Swedish Academy. His books, including Chronicle of a Declared Death, Love in the Time of Cholera, and Autumn of the Patriarch, have outsold every Spanish book ever published except the Bible. One Hundred Years of Solitude, called by Chilean poet and Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda "the greatest creation in Spanish since Cervantes' Don Quixote", has been translated into more than 25 languages ​​and has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide.

The best-selling book on Barnes & Noble is One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967).

Samuel Beckett

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1969

"For innovative works in prose and drama, in which tragedy modern man becomes his triumph

A native of Ireland, Samuel Beckett is considered one of the most prominent representatives modernism; along with Eugène Ionescu, he founded the "theater of the absurd". Beckett wrote in English and French, and his most famous work, Waiting for Godot, was written in French. The main characters of the play throughout the action are waiting for a certain Godot, a meeting with which can bring meaning to their meaningless existence. There is practically no dynamics in the play, Godot never appears, and the viewer is left to interpret for himself what kind of image this is.

Beckett loved chess, attracted women, but led a secluded life. He agreed to accept the Nobel Prize only on the condition that he would not attend the award ceremony. His publisher, Jérôme Lindon, received the award instead.

William Faulkner

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1949

"For his significant and artistically unique contribution to the development of the modern American novel"

Faulkner initially refused to go to Stockholm to receive the award, but his daughter persuaded him. In response to an invitation from US President John F. Kennedy to attend a dinner in honor of the Nobel Prize winners, Faulkner, who said to himself "I'm not a writer, but a farmer," replied that he was "too old to travel so far to dine with strangers."

According to Barnes & Noble, Faulkner's best-selling book is When I Was Dying. The Sound and the Fury, which the author himself considered his most successful work, did not have commercial success for a long time. In the 16 years after its publication (in 1929), the novel sold only 3,000 copies. However, at the time of receiving the Nobel Prize, The Sound and the Fury was already considered a classic of American literature.

In 2012, the British publishing house The Folio Society released Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, where the text of the novel is printed in 14 colors, as the author himself wanted (so that the reader can see different time planes). The publisher's recommended price for such a copy is $375, but the circulation was limited to only 1,480 copies, and already at the time of the book's release, a thousand of them were pre-ordered. On the this moment on eBay you can buy a limited edition of The Sound and the Fury for 115 thousand rubles.

Doris Lessing

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2007

"For a skeptical, passionate and visionary insight into the experience of women"

British poet and writer Doris Lessing is the oldest winner literary prize Swedish Academy, in 2007 she was 88 years old. Lessing also became the eleventh woman - the owner of this prize (out of thirteen).

Lessing was not popular with the mass literary critics, since her works were often devoted to acute social issues (in particular, she was called a propagandist of Sufism). However, The Times magazine ranks Lessing as fifth on its list of "The 50 Greatest British Authors Since 1945".

The most popular book on Barnes & Noble is Lessing's The Golden Notebook, published in 1962. Some commentators rank it among the classics of feminist prose. Lessing herself strongly disagreed with this label.

Albert Camus

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1957

"for his enormous contribution to literature, highlighting the importance of the human conscience"

Algerian-born French essayist, journalist and writer Albert Camus has been called "the conscience of the West". One of his most popular works - the novel "The Outsider" - was published in 1942, and in 1946 sales began in the USA. English translation, and in just a few years, more than 3.5 million copies were sold.

During the presentation of the prize to the writer, Anders Exterling, a member of the Swedish Academy, said that "Camus' philosophical views were born in a sharp contradiction between the acceptance of earthly existence and awareness of the reality of death." Despite the frequent correlation of Camus with the philosophy of existentialism, he himself denied his involvement in this movement. In his speech in Stockholm, he said that his work is built on the desire to "avoid outright lies and resist oppression."

Alice Munro

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2013

The prize was awarded with the wording " master of the modern short story genre"

Canadian novelist Alice Munroe has been writing short stories since she was a teenager, but her first collection (Dance of Happy Shadows) was not published until 1968, when Munroe was 37. as a "novel of education" (Bildungsroman). Among other literary works - collections "And who are you, in fact, such?" (1978), Moons of Jupiter (1982), The Fugitive (2004), Too Much Happiness (2009). The 2001 compilation Hate, Friendship, Courtship, Love, Marriage was the basis for the Canadian feature film Away from Her, directed by Sarah Polley.

Critics have called Munro the "Canadian Chekhov" for his narrative style, characterized by clarity and psychological realism.

The best selling book at Barnes & Noble is Dear Life (2012).

Only five Russian writers have been awarded the prestigious international Nobel Prize. For three of them, this brought not only worldwide fame, but also widespread persecution, repression and exile. Only one of them was approved by the Soviet government, and its last owner was "forgiven" and invited to return to his homeland.

Nobel Prize- one of the most prestigious awards, which is awarded annually for outstanding scientific research, significant inventions and a significant contribution to culture and society. One comical but not accidental story is connected with its establishment. It is known that the founder of the award - Alfred Nobel - is also famous for the fact that it was he who invented dynamite (pursuing, nevertheless, pacifist goals, since he believed that opponents armed to the teeth would understand all the stupidity and senselessness of the war and stop the conflict). When his brother Ludwig Nobel died in 1888, and the newspapers erroneously "buried" Alfred Nobel, calling him a "merchant of death", the latter seriously thought about how his society would remember him. As a result of these reflections, in 1895 Alfred Nobel changed his will. And it said the following:

“All my movable and immovable property must be turned into liquid values ​​by my executors, and the capital thus collected is placed in a reliable bank. The income from investments should belong to the fund, which will distribute them annually in the form of bonuses to those who during the previous year have brought the greatest benefit to mankind ... The indicated percentages must be divided into five equal parts, which are intended: one part - to the one who makes the most important discovery or invention in the field of physics; the other to the one who makes the most important discovery or improvement in the field of chemistry; the third - to the one who will make the most important discovery in the field of physiology or medicine; the fourth - to the one who will create the most outstanding literary work of an idealistic direction; fifth - to the one who will make the most significant contribution to the rallying of nations, the abolition of slavery or the reduction in the number of existing armies and the promotion of peace congresses ... My particular desire is that the nationality of candidates should not be taken into account when awarding prizes ... ".

Medal awarded to Nobel laureate

After conflicts with Nobel's "deprived" relatives, the executors of his will - the secretary and the lawyer - established the Nobel Foundation, whose duties included organizing the delivery of bequeathed prizes. A separate institution has been established to award each of the five prizes. So, Nobel Prize Literature was included in the competence of the Swedish Academy. Since then, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually since 1901, except for 1914, 1918, 1935 and 1940-1943. It is interesting that upon delivery Nobel Prize only the names of the laureates are announced, all other nominations are kept secret for 50 years.

Swedish Academy building

Despite the apparent lack of commitment Nobel Prize, dictated by the philanthropic instructions of Nobel himself, many "left" political forces still see obvious politicization and some Western cultural chauvinism in the award of the prize. It is hard not to notice that the vast majority of Nobel laureates come from the USA and European countries (more than 700 laureates), while the number of laureates from the USSR and Russia is much smaller. Moreover, there is a point of view that most of the Soviet laureates were awarded the prize only for criticizing the USSR.

Nevertheless, this five Russian writers - laureates Nobel Prize on literature:

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin- Laureate of 1933. The prize was awarded "For the strict skill with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose." Bunin received the award while in exile.

Boris Leonidovich Pasternak- Laureate in 1958. The prize was awarded "For significant achievements in modern lyric poetry, as well as for the continuation of the traditions of the great Russian epic novel." This award is associated with the anti-Soviet novel Doctor Zhivago, therefore, in the face of severe persecution, Pasternak is forced to refuse it. The medal and diploma were awarded to the writer's son Eugene only in 1988 (the writer died in 1960). Interestingly, in 1958, this was the seventh attempt to present the prestigious award to Pasternak.

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov- Laureate in 1965. The prize was awarded "For the artistic strength and integrity of the epic about the Don Cossacks at a turning point for Russia." This award has a long history. Back in 1958, a delegation of the Union of Writers of the USSR, who visited Sweden, countered the European popularity of Pasternak with the international popularity of Sholokhov, and in a telegram to the Soviet ambassador in Sweden dated 04/07/1958 it was said:

“It would be desirable, through cultural figures close to us, to make it clear to the Swedish public that the Soviet Union would highly appreciate the award Nobel Prize Sholokhov ... It is also important to make it clear that Pasternak, as a writer, is not recognized by Soviet writers and progressive writers in other countries.

Contrary to this recommendation, Nobel Prize in 1958, it was nevertheless awarded to Pasternak, which led to severe disapproval of the Soviet government. But in 1964 from Nobel Prize Jean-Paul Sartre refused, explaining this, among other things, by his personal regret that Sholokhov was not awarded the prize. It was this gesture of Sartre that predetermined the choice of the laureate in 1965. Thus, Mikhail Sholokhov became the only Soviet writer who received Nobel Prize with the consent of the top leadership of the USSR.

Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn- Laureate in 1970. The prize was awarded "For the moral strength with which he followed the immutable traditions of Russian literature." From start creative way Solzhenitsyn before the award was only 7 years old - this is the only such case in the history of the Nobel Committee. Solzhenitsyn himself spoke about the political aspect of awarding him the prize, but the Nobel Committee denied this. Nevertheless, after Solzhenitsyn received the prize, a propaganda campaign was organized against him in the USSR, and in 1971 an attempt was made to physically destroy him, when he was injected with a poisonous substance, after which the writer survived, but was ill for a long time.

Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky- Laureate in 1987. The prize was awarded "For comprehensive creativity, saturated with clarity of thought and passion of poetry." The award of the prize to Brodsky no longer caused such controversy as many other decisions of the Nobel Committee, since Brodsky was known in many countries by that time. He himself, in the very first interview after he was awarded the prize, said: "It was received by Russian literature, and it was received by a citizen of America." And even the weakened Soviet government, shaken by perestroika, began to establish contacts with the famous exile.