Please join the Harriman Institute for a talk with Mikhail Shishkin. Moderated by Mark Lipovetsky.
Mikhail Shishkin is a prominent author of fiction and essays. His work has been recognized with multiple awards, including the Russian Booker, the National Bestseller Prize, the Big Book Prize, and, most recently, the Italian Strega Prize. He is a longstanding and outspoken critic of the Putin regime, whose essays have been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Le Monde, and elsewhere. Since 1995, he has lived and worked in Switzerland. Nowadays, he is among intellectuals globally representing Russian culture alternative to nationalism and war. When asked about the subject of his lecture, he defined it as follows:
“It hurts to be Russian. My language, the language of Pushkin and Tolstoy, Tsvetaeva and Brodsky has become the language of war criminals and murderers. My country, blessed with stunning nature and wonderful culture, keeps turning into a monster that devours its own and other countries’ children -- why? The aim of Russia’s "special military operation" is to destroy democratic Ukraine. The result will be the destruction of Putin’s Russia. But what then? Is Putin the disease or just a symptom? Does the way to Bucha lead through Russian literature? What can a writer do?”
