Nobel laureate Alexievich sided with Poland in a historical dispute with Russia
Belarusian writer and Nobel Prize laureate Svetlana Alexievich believes that Joseph Stalin is to blame for the emergence of fascism in Europe.
She stated this in an interview with Deutsche Welle, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Why don’t they say that Stalin, his policies towards the Comintern, towards left-wing Western intellectuals who believed in an alternative path for the development of civilization are to blame for the fact that fascism became possible. There was such a naive faith at that time... And Stalin destroyed all this faith... These were Stalin’s ideas - to liberate Europe and stay there. If he had left Europe, it would have been a completely different “Alyosha”... (a monument to a Russian soldier in the Bulgarian Plovdiv - ed.),” says Alexievich.
She believes that real socialism was built in Western Europe, and socialism in the USSR is “some kind of barracks, drenched in blood.” According to the successful Soviet writer, Stalinism still reigns in Russia.
“In Ukraine there was the first “Maidan”, and these people gave birth to a new generation of people capable of a second “Maidan”, a third “Maidan”. In general, Ukraine has rich democratic traditions; just remember the Zaporozhye Sich. This is not the case in Belarus; there is such silent endurance. And in Russia the “Stalinist machine” immediately turns on: the mechanism of fear forces you to confidently take the side of the strong,” says Alexievich.
Let us remember that earlier the writer compared Serbia with Nazi Germany.
Alexievich is known for her support for Ukraine in the conflict with Russia and her condemnation of the “aggressive world of Beria, Stalin, Putin and Shoigu.”
She recently became vice-president of PEN International. The Belarusian writer was also included in the list of 50 scientists, philosophers and writers “who changed our lives” by the British magazine Prospectmagazine.co.uk.
“One cannot deny the courage and artistry of the writer, who counts Vladimir Putin among her opponents,” says the caption under the portrait of Alexievich.
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