Russian Literature Does Not Belong to the Russian State
The designation of “foreign agent” is used by the Russian government to label individuals and organizations that receive foreign support or are (more nebulously) deemed to be under “foreign influence.” Those so designated are subject to extensive reporting and labeling
The Russian literary award, the Dar Prize, aims to award excellent writing in the Russian language regardless of the writer's citizenship or nationality. The prize offers winners translation into English, German, and French, granting them access to a global audience. The Dar Prize's website declares its goal to establish a world where literature in Russian "takes its rightful place in the world, being responsible to humanity, and not to dictatorships."
This ambitious goal challenges modern nationalism's claim that languages and literary traditions belong to one people or state. The prize's co-founder, Mikhail Shishkin, believes that living literature has been outlawed in Russia, and thousands of books continue to be published under duress. The Dar Prize has sought to correct this moral omission by recognizing three authors who tackle the issue of war and its impact in their works.
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