Unofficial Stories: Conversation with Svetlana Alexievich

For those who don't know, Alexievich won last year's Pulitzer Prize for books such as "Voices from Chernobyl" and "Zinky Boys", an account of Russia's war in Afghanistan. She writes something close to non-fiction -- heavily edited oral histories of people who have survived disaster and war. The books are incredibly moving, and as well written as any work by Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky. You won't waste your time reading her.

“Which country do you want to live in, a great country or a normal country?”

The problem is, neither one is offered anywhere to anybody. You end up living in a depressed shard of Russian State with fake history, be it Russia, Belarus or Ukraine.

Russia a bit richer, Belarus a little bit more "normal", Ukraine the third one.

The concept of "normal country" is very Soviet and peculiar on its own. Every country out there stems from its history. You can't really have a blank slate "normal country" where you want it much like you could not have "a democracy" in place of Iraq or Libya. It has to be about something.