5 stories about the Nobel Prize for literature
In this post I collected several stories about Russian writers of the XXth century who were nominated for the Nobel prize. Some of them received the award, some didn’t, but each case is interesting in its own way. It was especially difficult to get the prize for the authors who lived in the USSR, because the Soviet government was negative about its writers receiving this award and persecuted them.
Ivan Bunin
Bunin has been suggested for the Nobel prize by the Russian emigre writers for several years since 1922. He received the prize in 1933 with the explanation of the award as following:
«For the strict artistry with which he has carried on the classical Russian traditions in prose writing» [1].
In the art circles the reaction to the award was controversial. S. Rakhmaninov for example was among the first to send a congratulatory telegram from New York, while M. Tsvetaeva stated that Gorkiy or Merezhkovkiy deserved the award much more than Bunin. After receiving the news about his award Bunin got about 2000 letters from different people with difficult financial issues and shared a part of his prize with those who were in need.
Vladimir Nabokov
Nabokov was nominated for the Nobel prize 8 times, but haven’t received it. On Ada’s publication, John Leonard of the New York Times had written: «If he doesn’t win the Nobel Prize, its only because the Nobel Prize doesn’t deserve him» [2]. «After the Nobel Prize went to Solzhenitsyn in 1970, Solzhenitsyn wrote to Nabokov that he was far more deserving of the award, and acting on that conviction he nominated Nabokov himself. But whatever other writers, reviewers, and readers may have thought, the Swedish Academy never managed to agree on Nabokov» [2].
In 2014th the Swedish Academy published documents concerning the selection of the winner of the Nobel prize in 1963. It turned out, that one of the permanent members of the Swedish Academy blocked Nabokov’s candidacy. He explained that the author of such an immoral novel as Lolita couldn’t be considered a candidate for the award.
Boris Pasternak
Pasternak has been nominated for the Nobel prize since 1946, 11 years before «Doctor Zhivago» was published. But his candidacy didn’t attract the attention of the committee for a long time. In 1958 5 literary scholars at a time suggested Pasternak’s candidacy to the Nobel Committee and Pasternak was finally awarded the prize (23.10.1958). It was given to him for his novel «Doctor Zhivago» and the explanation of the award was as following:
«For his important achievement both in contemporary lyrical poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition» [3].
In the Soviet Union Pasternak receiving the prize was regarded as a political act against the Soviet Union. Being highly appraised abroad in the USSR «Doctor Zhivago» was perceived as the slander of the Soviet nation and a primp on the Soviet government, almost high treason. At the end of October 1958th the Soviet press began to harass Pasternak and his novel. Pasternak was excluded from the Writers’ Union which also requested the writer’s expulsion from the Soviet Union and the deprivation of his Soviet citizenship. «Doctor Zhivago» was condemned by public opinion, although a lot of people who rejected it had no idea about the novel because they have never read it. Pasternak accepted the Nobel prize at first, but a week later he declined it (29.10.1958) because of this hounding of the USSR government [4].
The Nobel prize for literature in 1958 was not given to anybody. The long campaign of harassment weakened Pasternak’s health and accelerated the developing lung cancer from which he died in 1960. In summer 1988 after «Doctor Zhivago» received recognition in the USSR Pasternak’s diploma was sent to Moscow and the medal was awarded to the members of his family at a reception in 1989.
Michael Sholokhov
Sholokhov became the only soviet author who got the Nobel prize with the consent of the USSR leadership. He has been nominated for it 11 (!) times. From the middle of the 1950-x the USSR government joined the struggle for Sholokhov’s Novel prize. (Before that time the Writers’ union and the Academy of Science of the USSR did not put forward their candidates for this prize). The Soviet officials perceived Sholokhov as an alternative candidate to B. Pasternak and tried to convince the academicians that the prize was to be given to him. Sholokhov’s novel «Quiet Flows the Don» unlike Pasternak’s novel was very well perceived in the USSR and Sholokhov himself was recognized and praised in the Soviet Union. In 1965 he was finally given the award:
«For the artistic power and integrity with which, in his epic of the Don, he has given expression to a historic phase in the life of the Russian people» [5].
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Solzhenitsyn got the Novel prize in 1970 with the explanation of the award as following:
«For the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature» [6].
Only 8 years passed from first publication of Solzhenitsyn’s text to the award — it has never happened in the history of Nobel prizes for literature neither before, nor after that. The Soviet government organized a strong anti-Solzhenitsyn propaganda campaign and he was suggested to leave the country, but he didn’t. He left the USSR only in 1974, when he was stripped of the Soviet citizenship.
If you know some interesting facts about other writers getting the Nobel prize you’re always welcome to share them in the comments!
P.
Literature
- https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1933/summary/
- Boyd B. Vladimir Nabokov. The American years. New Jersey, 1993. 804 p.
- https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1958/summary/
- Bykov D. Boris Pasternak. M., 2005. 1260 p.
- https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1965/summary/
- https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1970/solzhenitsyn/facts/
