Russian Booker Prize

The Russian Booker Prize (Russian: Русский Букер, Russian Booker) was a Russian literary award modeled after the Booker Prize. It was awarded from 1992 to 2017. It was inaugurated by English Chief Executive Sir Michael Harris Caine.[1] It was awarded each year to the best work of fiction, written in the Russian language, as decided by a panel of judges, irrespective of the writer's citizenship. As of 2012, the chair of the Russian Booker Prize Committee was British journalist George Walden. The prize was the first Russian non-governmental literary award since the country's 1917 Revolution.[2][3]

Russian Booker Prize
Awarded forBest Russian-language literary work
CountryRussia
Presented byRussian Telecom Equipment Company (RTEC)
First awarded1992
Last awarded2017
Websitehttp://www.russianbooker.org Edit this on Wikidata

Each year, a jury choose a short list of the six best novels up for nomination from a "long list" of nominees. Initially, the winner received £10,000, roughly 48,000 RUB or $16,000.[3] This was increased to 600,000 rubles in 2011, roughly $20,000 (roughly £13,000), while each of the short listed finalists earned $2,000 (roughly £1,300).[4] The criteria for inclusion included literary effort, representativeness of the contemporary literary genres and the author's reputation as a writer. Length was not a criterion, as books with between 40 and 60 pages had been nominated.[3] From 1997 to 2001, the award was renamed the Smirnoff–Booker Literary Prize, in honour of entrepreneur and Smirnoff founder Pyotr Smirnov. From 2002 to 2005, Open Russia NGO was the general sponsor of the Booker Literary Prize in Russia, leading to its name change to the Booker–Open Russia Literary Prize during that time.[5] Before the announcement of the 2005 winner, the Booker Foundation decided to end its partnership with Open Russia after the foundation's chairman, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was sentenced to nine years in prison for tax evasion.[6] In 2005, the committee signed a five-year contract with London-based BP. In 2010, the prize ran into funding problems and preparations for the 2010 prize were suspended because no new sponsor could be found.[7] Since 2011 new sponsor is Russian Telecom Equipment Company (RTEC).[5]

In 2011, a "novel of the decade" was chosen due to lack of sponsorship to hold the customary award. Five finalists were chosen from sixty nominees selected from the prize's past winners and finalists since 2001. Chudakov won posthumously with A Gloom Is Cast Upon the Ancient Steps, which takes place in a fictional town in Kazakhstan and describes life under Stalinist Russia.[8][9] Lyudmila Ulitskaya holds the record for most nominations (five, winning once), followed by Andrei Dmitriev (four, winning once) and Alexey Slapovsky (four, no wins). No person has won the award more than once.

On 19 September 2019 Foundation Board and the Аward committee of the Russian Booker Prize officially announced the termination of the award. However, the Russian Booker Fund was not closed, "leaving the opportunity for the renewal of the award".[10]

Winners and nominees

1990s

  *   Winners

Year Author(s) Work Ref.(s)
1992 Mark Kharitonov* Lines of Fate [3][11][12][13]
1992 Friedrich Gorenstein Place [11][12]
1992 Aleksandr Ivanchenko Monogram [11][12]
1992 Vladimir Makanin Manhole [11][12]
1992 Lyudmila Petrushevskaya The Time Night [11][12]
1992 Vladimir Sorokin Four Stout Hearts [11][12]
1993 Vladimir Makanin* Baize-covered Table with Decanter [14][15]
1993 Viktor Astafyev The Cursed and the Slain [14]
1993 Oleg Ermakov Sign of the Beast [14]
1993 Semyon Lipkin Notes of a Lodger [14]
1993 Lyudmila Ulitskaya Sonechka [14]
1994 Bulat Okudzhava* The Show is Over [16][17]
1994 Peter Aleshkovsky Skunk: A Life [16][17]
1994 Yury Buida Don Domino [16][17]
1994 Igor Dolinyak Third World [16][17]
1994 Mikhael Levitin Total Indecency [16][17]
1994 Alexey Slapovsky The First Second Coming [16][17]
1995 Georgi Vladimov* The General and His Army [18][19]
1995 Oleg Pavlov A Barracks Tale [18]
1995 Evgeny Fyodorov The Odyssey [18]
1996 Andrey Sergeev* The Stamp Album [20][21]
1996 Peter Aleshkovsky Vladimir Chigrintsev [20]
1996 Viktor Astafyev The Will to be Alive [20]
1996 Andrei Dmitriev Turn in the River [20]
1996 Dmitrii Dobrodeev Back to the USSR [20]
1996 Nina Gorlanova, Vyacheslav Bukur A Novel About Education [20]
1997 Anatoly Azolsky* Cell [22][23]
1997 Dmitri Lipskerov The Forty Years of Changzhoeh [22]
1997 Yuri Maletsky I Love [22]
1997 Olga Slavnikova A Dragonfly Enlarged to the Size of a Dog [22]
1997 Lyudmila Ulitskaya Medea and Her Children [22]
1997 Anton Utkin Round Dance [22]
1998 Aleksandr Morozov* Strange Letters [24][25]
1998 Irina Polyanskaya Passing of the Shadow [24]
1998 Mikhail Prorokov Bga [24]
1998 Alexey Slapovsky Questionnaire [24]
1998 Alexandra Chistyakova Не много ли для одной (English title unknown) [24]
1999 Mikhail Butov* Freedom [26][27]
1999 Yury Buida The Prussian Bride [26]
1999 Alexandra Vasilieva My Marusechka [26]
1999 Leonid Girshovich The Prizelist [26]
1999 Vladimir Makanin The Underground, or a Hero of Our Time [26]
1999 Victoria Platova A Coast [26]

2000s

  *   Winners

Year Author(s) Work Ref.(s)
2000 Mikhail Shishkin* The Conquest of Izmail [28]
2000 Valery Zalotukha The Last Communist [28]
2000 Nikolay Kononov The Funeral of a Grasshopper [28]
2000 Marina Palei Lunch [28]
2000 Alexey Slapovsky Money Day [28]
2000 Svetlana Shenbrun Roses and Chrysanthemums [28]
2001 Lyudmila Ulitskaya* The Kukotsky Case [29][30]
2001 Anatoly Naiman Sir [29]
2001 Sergey Nosov The Lady of History [29]
2001 Tatyana Tolstaya Slynx [29]
2001 Alan Cherchesov Wreath for the Grave of the Wind [29]
2001 Alexander Chudakov A Gloom Is Cast Upon the Ancient Steps [29]
2002 Oleg Pavlov* Karaganda Ninth-Day Requiem or The Story of the Last Days [31][32]
2002 Dmitry Bortnikov Fritz Syndrome [31]
2002 Sergei Gandlevsky <Illegible> [31]
2002 Alexandr Melikhov The Love of Kinfolks Laid to Rest [31]
2002 Vadim Mesyats Treatment by Electricity: Novel of 84 Fragments from the East and 74 Fragments from the West [31]
2002 Vladimir Sorokin Ice [31]
2003 Rubén Gallego* White on Black [32][33]
2003 Natalia Galkina Renaud's Residence [33]
2003 Leonid Zorin Jupiter [33]
2003 Athanasius Mamedov Frau Scar [33]
2003 Elena Chizhova Laura [33]
2003 Leonid Yuzefovich Kazaroza [33]
2004 Vasily Aksyonov* Voltairiens and Voltairiennes [34][35]
2004 Oleg Zajaczkowski Sergeyev and the Town [34]
2004 Anatoly Kurchatkin The Sun was Shining [34]
2004 Marta Petrova Shilkloper's Horn [34]
2004 Lyudmila Petrushevskaya Number One or in the Gardens of other Opportunities [34]
2004 Alexey Slapovsky Quality of Life [34]
2005 Denis Gutsko* Without Way or Track [36][37]
2005 Boris Evseev Little Romance [36]
2005 Oleg Yermakov Canvas [36]
2005 Anatoly Naiman Kablukov [36]
2005 Roman Solntsev Bonanza [36]
2005 Roman Solntsev Except for Lavrikov [36]
2005 Elena Chizhova A Criminal [36]
2006 Olga Slavnikova* 2017 [38][39]
2006 Zakhar Prilepin Sanka [38]
2006 Dina Rubina On the Sunny Side of the Street [38]
2006 Denis Sobolev Jerusalem [38]
2006 Alan Cherchesov Villa Belle Letra [38]
2006 Peter Aleshkovsky A Fish [38]
2007 Aleksandr Ilichevsky* Matisse [40][41]
2007 Andrei Dmitriev Bay of Joy [40]
2007 Yuri Malecki The End of a Needle [40]
2007 Igor Sakhnovsky The Man Who Knew Everything [40]
2007 Alex Tarn God Does Not Play With Dice [40]
2007 Lyudmila Ulitskaya Daniel Stein, Translator [40]
2008 Mikhail Yelizarov* Librarian [42]
2008 Vladimir Sharov Be as Little Children [42]
2008 Ilya Boyashov Armada [42]
2008 Elena Nekrasova Schukinsk and Other Places [42]
2008 Galina Shchekina Grafomanka [42]
2008 German Sadulaev Crack [42]
2009 Elena Chizhova* The Time of Women [43][44]
2009 Roman Senchin Eltyshevy [43]
2009 Alexander Terekhov Stone Bridge [43]
2009 Boris Khazanov Yesterday's Eternity [43]
2009 Elena Katishonok Once Upon a Time an Old Man and Old Woman [43]
2009 Leonid Yuzefovich Cranes and Dwarfs [43]

2010s

  *   Winners

Year Author(s) Work Ref.(s)
2010 Elena Kolyadina* The Flower Cross [45][46]
2010 Oleg Zajaczkowski Happiness is Possible [45]
2010 Andrei Ivanov A Journey of Hanuman on Lolland [45]
2010 Mariam Petrosyan The House, In Which... [45]
2010 German Sadulaev Shali Raid [45]
2010 Margarita Khemlin Klotsvog [45]
2011 Alexander Chudakov* A Gloom Is Cast Upon the Ancient Steps [9][47][48]
2011 Oleg Pavlov Karaganda Ninth-Day Requiem or The Story of the Last Days [47]
2011 Zakhar Prilepin Sanka [47]
2011 Roman Senchin Eltyshevy [47]
2011 Lyudmila Ulitskaya Daniel Stein, Translator [47]
2012 Andrei Dmitriev* The Peasant and the Teenager [49][50][51][52]
2012 Marina Akhmedova Khadija, Notes of a Death Girl [49]
2012 Yevgeni Popov Arbeit, Or A Wide Canvas [49]
2012 Olga Slavnikova Light Head [49]
2012 Marina Stepanova The Women of Lazarus [49]
2012 Alexandr Terekhov The Germans [49]
2013 Andrei Volos Возвращение в Панджруд ("Return to Panjrud") [53]
2014 Vladimir Sharov Возвращение в Египет ("Return to Egypt") [54]
2015 Alexander Snegirev Vera [55]
2015 Alisa Ganieva Bride and Groom [55]
2015 Vladimir Danikhov The Lullaby [55]
2015 Yuri Pokrovsky Among People [55]
2015 Roman Senchin Flood Zone [55]
2015 Guzel Yakhina Zuleikha Opens Her Eyes [55]
2016 Peter Aleshkovsky Крепость ("The Citadel") [56]
2017 Aleksandra Nikolaenko Убить Бобрыкина. История одного убийства ("To Kill Bobrykin. The Story of One Killing") [57]

Criticism

The Russian Booker was famous for unpredictable and paradoxical decisions that did not always attract the approval of Russian literary experts.[58]

A number of writers expressed their fundamental rejection of the "Russian Booker". Already the first decision of the jury, as a result of which the award in 1992 was not received by the generally recognized favorite — the novel "The Time Night" by Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, met with almost unanimous disapproval.[59] Vladimir Novikov (ru) in 2000, describing the very first Booker prize winner - the novel "Lines of fate, or the chest of Milashevich" by Mark Kharitonov as boring, stated: "From the very beginning, the Booker plot did not succeed, it was failed to nominate a leader through the award, which modern prose writers would passionately want to catch up and overtake. But it is precisely in this [...] the cultural function, the cultural strategy of any literary prize"[60] Elena Fanaylova noted in 2006: "The Russian Booker does not correspond to its English parent either from a moral or from a meaningful point of view (it can be compared with the translated version of the Booker already available in Russia). The prize focuses on literature that is not interesting either on the domestic or foreign market, or, if it is a convertible author (Ulitskaya, Aksenov), it is awarded not for 'novel of the year', but 'for merits'."[61] Yuri Polyakov in 2008 pointed out that "people receive awards not for the quality of a literary text, not for some artistic discovery, not for the ability to reach the reader, but for loyalty to a certain party, mainly experimental-liberal direction. [...] Almost all the books that were awarded with the prize, [...] did not have any serious reader's fate, [...] [these books] received the award and were immediately completely forgotten."[62] Dmitry Bykov in 2010 noted the Booker jury's "amazing ability to choose the worst or, in any case, the least significant of six novels".[63]

Literary critic Konstantin Trunin, describing the 2018 crisis of the award, noted: "For all the time of its existence, the prize did not justify itself, each year choosing the winner as a writer who created work that is far from understanding by Russian people of the reality surrounding him. There was a direct propaganda of Western values, not Russian ones. Or on the contrary, to the West was shown literature that was not destined to create a close resemblance to the works created in Russia during the 19th century. And it is not surprising that year after year, the Russian Booker lost its authority among the emerging awards. Being handed twenty-six times, he faced the rejection of sponsors, as a result of which it became necessary to reconsider the meaning of existence, having found the transformation required by the reader to a truly Russian humanistic value system».[64][65]

References
  1. Ion Trewin (24 March 1999). "Obituary: Sir Michael Caine". The Independent. Independent Print Limited. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  2. Создание и создатели [Establishment and founders] (in Russian). Russian Booker Prize. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
  3. David Braund: The New Russia, "Lucrative literature: the Booker Prize in Russia", Sally Dalton-Brown, D. M. Pursglove, Intellect Books, 1995, ISBN 9781871516876, pp.23–33
  4. Процедура премии [Awarding procedure] (in Russian). Russian Booker Prize. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
  5. Попечители [Trustee] (in Russian). Russian Booker Prize. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
  6. "Booker Prize Dumps Khodorkovsky". Kommersant. ZAO "Kommersant. Publishing House". 7 December 2005. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
  7. von Twickel, Nikolaus (18 March 2011). "No Money for Russian Booker Prize". The Moscow Times. Sanoma. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
  8. Teri Tan (2 December 2011). "Russian Booker of the Decade Goes to Chudakov". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
  9. 'Русского Букера десятилетия' посмертно присудили Александру Чудакову ['Russian Booker Prize of the century' awarded posthumously to Alexander Chudakov] (in Russian). Lenta.ru. Retrieved 7 June 2012.
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  57. ЛАУРЕАТОМ «РУССКОГО БУКЕРА»-2017 СТАЛА АЛЕКСАНДРА НИКОЛАЕНКО (in Russian). russianbooker.org. 5 December 2017. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
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  59. П. Рыжова. «Время ночь» Л. Петрушевской // «Полка», 2018.
  60. Вп. Новиков «Скукер» // «Время и мы». 2000 — № 147. — C. 187
  61. Елена Фанайлова Русский Букер и все-все-все // «Критическая Масса». 2006. — № 2
  62. Юрий Поляков: «Букеровская премия нанесла ущерба литературе не меньше, чем КГБ» // Православие.Ru, 4 февраля 2008 г.
  63. Dmitry Bykov (6 December 2010). "Как выбирает "Букер"? Да как все: худшее…". «Novaya Gazeta», № 137, 6 December 2010. «Букер» в России появился в 1992 году и сразу же обозначил тренд — удивительную способность выбрать из шести романов худший или, во всяком случае, наименее значимый.
  64. Трунин К. Лауреаты российских литературных премий, 2018. — 765 стр. ISBN 978-5-4493-9805-5
  65. "О премии "Русский Букер"". 22 November 2018.
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