Dmitry Glukhovsky is fighting in his novels, against the abuse of power in Russia. Now his new novel is “Text”. A settlement with the political System of Vladimir Putin?
Deutsche Welle: with the exception of biographical books, the novel “the Text is” her first book about contemporary life in Russia. How is it come to this?
Dmitry Glukhovsky: at some point I realized that no matter what I write about Russia’s future in my books and no matter what utopian metaphors I use to describe the Russian reality, the reality is still more astonishing, more desperate and more absurd than my strangest fantasies. Much has been written about the past. Often the desire, to wash you clean, stand behind it. Who writes about the future, doing the usually associated with the fear of tomorrow’s day. About the present, and the largest problems of the people, unfortunately, was written almost nothing. Therefore, I decided to Express myself.
A German newspaper considers the novel a “Text” for a reckoning with the political System of President Vladimir Putin. How political the book is?
Paradoxically, it is the least political of my books. I used to work very much with futuristic metaphors to talk about the political aspect of the Russian presence. For example, people do not want to leave in the book “Metro 2035” 20 years after the end of the third world war, the Bunker. No one wants to believe that the war is coming to an end. The course was in a direct connection with the Situation within the company after the Takeover of Crimea, but also with the vulnerability of the Russian society of militaristic Propaganda, and drew back the language of the Cold war. The Propaganda has politicized the society today in a very specific way. It is a completely distorted world was created in the image to distract from the current economic problems in everyday life.
In the novel, a “Text” is the politics is more of a backdrop. He is more of the Russian society, the people, and, in the situation you’re in today. It’s not even a question of the lack of freedom, because from my point of view, the people in Russia have certain personal freedoms. It is only political freedoms.
Book cover of “Text” by Dmitry Glukhovsky
The main problem of today’s Russian society is another. All belonging to the ruling caste, politicians, civil servants, security forces, and representatives of the Pro-government press and the Church, despise all other people. You want to the precepts of morality. Those who belong to this ruling caste, to such an extent untouchable and you are so privileged that they don’t want to accept any restraint. You refuse to believe that there is the Good and the Evil, the truth and the lie. Anyone who reads looks in Russia, television or newspaper, you understand without my help that the people in power lie and do not steal, that they will hesitate to justify a murder, when he met, in their view, a purpose.
The other caste is the second, the lower are the ordinary and simple people. They are completely disenfranchised. You are not guaranteed any rights, even the right to life, let alone the right to property. At any time you can be by a decision of a public authority or from one of the security officers arbitrarily took everything. People can lose their freedom and, in extreme cases, even your life. Later on, no one can prove anything. Cynics, on the insistence of these simple people with ideas of justice and injustice, of Good and Evil, as well as the idea of a higher Mission of Russia. This is probably the most important political component of the book is reflected in the plot. It is the story of a Philology student from a modest background, in a night club with a man in an armed unit that works for the drug police. The young man pushed drugs and he is sentenced to seven years in prison.
What is the role of the city of Moscow in this social contrast to the Rest of the country?
Moscow is the richest city in Russia. It is maintained best, the most petted, and the state makes the most bribed. As we know, revolutions take place in the main cities. To prevent revolutions, one must vote the residents in every possible way kind. With the exception of the million cities, the limp Moscow, a little behind, is the Rest of the country is somewhere in the middle of the 90s stuck. People are forced to take loans predatory interest rates, to buy necessary things. They live from salary to salary, and see no particular prospects in your life.
In an Interview, she said that Facebook is in Russia today, what was the kitchen for Intellectuals in the 1970s to the 1980s. What do you mean?
You have to say, that the social networks are very different. Facebook has taken, in fact, the space in the kitchen for intellectuals in the Brezhnev Era, held 40 years ago, where people came together, and on political, social and economic problems discussed. Facebook is still, in spite of political provocateurs and trolls, an island of freedom.
How do Russian readers to your novel “Text”?
Of all the reactions the most flattering for me, to rate the novel as completely realistic. What is described there, is held to be absolutely possible. That a young man who can’t buy from the police, the investigators and the Prosecutor’s office, and according to trumped-up allegations behind the grill for seven years in a prison camp, not as a fiction to be perceived. Many believe that this story really happened.
Dmitry Glukhovsky is one of the most successful Russian writers of the present day. Politically, he is a fierce critic of the conditions in Russia under President Vladimir Putin.
The conversation Efim Schuhmann led