Alexander Prokhanov | |
|---|---|
 Alexander Prokhanov | |
| Native name | Александр Проханов |
| Born | February 26, 1938 (1938-02-26) (age 87) Tbilisi,Georgian SSR,Soviet Union |
| Occupation | Writer, chief editor |
| Language | Russian |
| Alma mater | Moscow Aviation Institute |
| Period | Contemporary |
| Genres | |
| Literary movement | |
Alexander Andreyevich Prokhanov (Russian:Алекса́ндр Андре́евич Проха́нов; born 26 February 1938) is a Russian writer, a member of the secretariat of the Writers Union of theRussian Federation, and the author of more than 30 novels and short story collections.[1] He is the editor-in-chief of Russia'sextreme-right[2] (or radical-reactionary)[3] newspaperZavtra (Завтра,Tomorrow), that combinesultranationalist andanti-capitalist views.[4][5]
Alexander Prokhanov was born inTbilisi,Georgia, to which his ancestors, members of the Russian Christian "Molokan" sect, had been deported byCatherine the Great. His grand-uncleIvan Prokhanov was a leader of the All-Russian Union of Evangelican Christians (1908–1928) and the one-time vice-President of the Baptist World Alliance who left the USSR in 1928 and died as an emigré.[6][7][8]
In 1955, Prokhanov enrolled into theMoscow Aviation Institute where for the first time he started to write poetry and prose. After the graduation he worked as an engineer at aMinistry of Defense factory, then, in 1962–1964, as aforester inKarelia and theMoscow Oblast.[6] In the late 1960s he started writing essays and reports for numerous magazines (Krugozor,Smena,Selskaya Molodyozh), later citingAndrei Platonov andVladimir Nabokov as major influences.[9]
Prokhanov's short story "The Wedding" (1967) garnered some critical praise and is considered his breakthrough.[7] Two years later, he was working for the Soviet newspapers,Pravda andLiteraturnaya Gazeta.[10] As a foreign correspondent, Prokhanov visitedAfghanistan,Nicaragua,Cambodia,Angola, andEthiopia, these assignments providing him with material for future literary work. Prokhanov was the first to report on the March 1969 events onDamansky Island during theSino-Soviet border conflict.[6][7]
In 1971, his first bookI Am Going My Way was published. His literary mentorYury Trifonov provided a foreword for it. Prokhanov later remembered: "He liked the expressiveness, experiments with language, the flow of metaphors, my naive youthfulpantheism. ... But my first social-oriented novellas made him skeptical, his tone became tougher and he entrusted me with another patron,Vladimir Makanin, who was my good friend at the time."[10][11]
In 1972, Prokhanov became a member of theUnion of Soviet Writers. In the mid-1980s, he was an active contributor toMolodaya Gvardiya,Nash Sovremennik, and the newspaperLiteraturnaya Rossiya. In 1990, Prokhanov emerged as a candidate for the post ofLiteraturnaya Gazeta'seditor-in-chief, but the staff ignored him, preferring Fyodor Burlatsky,Mikhail Gorbachev's protégé.[10] In 1989–1991, Prokhanov worked as the editor-in-chief ofSovetskaya Literatura, a magazine published in nine languages in more than one hundred countries.[7] Enjoying his reputation of a hard-line communist, he never joined theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union.[7]
In December 1990 (while still head ofSovetskaya Literatura), Prokhanov foundedDen (День,Day), and became its editor-in-chief. Initially an organ of the Union of Soviet Writers, in the summer of 1991,Den moved under the patronage of the Union of Writers of Russia. Sporting the subheading "Organ of the spiritual opposition", it became arguably the most radical Russian newspaper continually challengingBoris Yeltsin and his team ofliberal reformers. Regarded by Prokhanov as the "patriotic alternative" to pro-liberal, nomenclature-ledLiteraturnaya Gazeta,Den managed to attract authors from the conflicting flanks of the Russian opposition movement, united by their hatred of the liberal reforms but divided in their attitude towards Communism. Among them wereultra-nationalists, whose publications caused outrage, several Jewish organizations condemningDen asantisemitic.[6][11][12][13]
It was Prokhanov who, in July 1991, wrote the text of "A Word to the People", a politicalopen letter subsequently signed byGennady Zyuganov,Vasily Starodubtsev,Igor Shafarevich,Valentin Rasputin,Valentin Varennikov, andEduard Volodin among others. The document calling for the formation of a united "patriotic front" was seen, in retrospect, as an ideological platform for thefailed August coup d'etat attempt. The publication of the manifest brought about the rift between Prokhanov and GeneralAlexander Rutskoy (whom he once helped to be rescued from captivity in Afghanistan and later backed his election campaign). The latter, speaking on Russian TV, promised his former friend "ten years in jail."[10]
During the failed August 1991 coup, Prokhanov supported the junta calling itself theState Committee on the State of Emergency.[6] In 1992, he joined theNational Salvation Front's leadership, alongsideGennady Zyuganov,Nikolai Pavlov,Mikhail Astafyev andIgor Shafarevich, among others. The same year he created theDay Movement in an attempt to turn his newspaper's readership into a political force.[10] During theSeptember 1993 Russian constitutional crisis,Den became a mouthpiece for the radical opposition and Prokhanov gained notoriety as a harsh critic of Yeltsin. After the Russian Parliament's demise in October that year,Den was banned by the Russian Ministry of Justice.[10] The newspaper re-emerged asZavtra on 5 November 1993.[12]
For the rest of the 1990s, Prokhanov felt persecuted and marginalized. "Even in Soviet times I had the reputation of an 'ode-singer to the State', they called me 'the Army Headquarters' Nightingale'. Now in all of their [new] dictionaries I've got demonized. While my friends, likeAnatoly Kim, emerged as theaesthetes, I have been presented as anobscurantist. They advised Western publishers against translating me, putting me under blockade," Prokhanov complained, speaking toZakhar Prilepin.[14] This situation changed in the early 2000s when Prokhanov found himself among the Russian literary elite, even if his prose was getting increasingly morbid,surreal andapocalyptic. As the1999 terrorist attacks upon residential houses shocked Russia, Prokhanov accused thestate secret services in plotting these attacks and based his next novel upon these suspicions. In 2002,Mr. Hexogen (2001) brought him theNational Bestseller Award.[11][13][15]
In the mid-2000s, writing several books a year (including numerous re-makes of his best-known 20th-century work), Prokhanov became an omnipresent character of the Russian media, frequenting TV talk shows and disputes as a token "opposition's spiritual leader". Since 2003, he has been a regular guest ofVladimir Solovyov's prime time political showsOn the Stand andDuel. From 2007–2014, Prokhanov had a one-hour weekly slot at thepro-liberalEcho of Moscow radio station.[16] Another station he has contributing to since 2009 is the Russian News Service where he has two one-hour programs a week.[13] In 2013–2014, he appeared regularly at theRussia-24 TV channel with his "Replika" ("A Comment") slot.[17]
Prokhanov debuted with a short story collectionI Am Going My Way (1971), starting out as a proponent of theVillage Prose movement, portraying the life of the ordinary Soviet villagers obsessed with keeping the old traditions and customs going. "The theme of Russia and Russian people for Prokhanov is not a vogue, but part of his very soul; this young author's prose is incredibly sincere,"Yury Trifonov commented in a foreword. It was followed byThe Unburnt Blossom (1972), the collection of sketches from the Soviet country life, andThe Grass Gets Yellow (1974), a collection of stories and novellas much in the same vein.
Prokhanov's first novelThe Nomadic Rose (1975) dealt with the Soviet life inSiberia and Russian Far East which he had travelled over extensively by this time.The Time is Noon (1977),The Locale (1979) andThe Eternal City (1981) continued exploring the technological progress versus nature theme.[17]
In the 1980s, Prokhanov moved into the field of war and politics, using his vast foreign correspondent experience.The Tree in the Center ofKabul (1982), theCampuchea chroniclesHunter of the Isles (1983), theAfricanist (1984) and theNicaraguan epicAnd Then Comes the Wind (1984) formed "The Burning Gardens" tetralogy, all four novels characterized by dynamic action, over-the-top style of language and idealized, heroic protagonists. TheAfghan War was the subject of his next two novels,Drawings of a Batalist (1986) and600 Years After the Battle (1988).[17]
Among Prokhanov's well-known work of the time were novellas "Polina" (1976), "The Unseen Corn" (1976), "By The Moon-Ray", "Snow and Coal" (both 1977), "Grey-Haired Soldier" (1985), and "The Armourer (1986), as well as short novelsThe Admiral (1983) andLighter Than Asure (1986). Prokhanov's 1989 novella "The Muslim Wedding" brought him TheAnton Chekhov Prize (for the Story of the Year).[17]
According to critic P.V.Bekedin, everything that has been written by Prokhanov since 1991 goes under the heading "the literature of Russian resistance."The Last Soldier of the Empire (1993) told the story of the 1991 Coup and the demise of the USSR.Brown-Red (1999),[18] a surreal portrayal of the nightmarish events of 3–4 October 1993, has been defined by Prokhanov himself as "theCatechism of resistance."[17]
In the 1990s, Prokhanov made several journeys toChechnya and a series ofChechen War-themed books followed, writerYuri Bondarev callingThe Chechen Blues (1998) the best book Prokhanov has ever written.[19] "Filling those pages I felt like I was paintingfrescos, with soldiers as angels and saints,BTRs andtanks for horses andhalos," Prokhanov said in an interview.[20] It was followed byThose Marching Through the Night (2001), the novel on thesecond Chechen campaign, highlighting the author's belief that Russians andChechens were two brother nations destined to live in peace and love but torn apart by enemies from abroad.[17]
Mr. Hexogen (2001), a surrealist thriller telling the story of a jointRussian secret services andoligarchs' plot aimed at wiping out the existing political elite via blowing up houses, has been compared toDostoevsky'sDemons. In May 2002, the novel brought him the National Bestseller Prize. In 2003, thepost-modernist satire,The Cruiser Sonata, came out, its exclusive edition's 500 copies illustrated by the author himself in his favoritelubok style. "Avant-garde has finally got to Prokhanov," commentedKommersant critic Irina Kulik.[21]
His 2005 novelPolitical Scientist featured a character named Dyshlov, a thinly veiled caricature of Zyuganov whom Prokhanov has been completely disillusioned with recently and holds responsible for the inefficiency of the Russian left.[14] Speaking of this novel, poet and novelistDmitry Bykov remarked: "Prokhanov is an immensely gifted writer, yet his prose is but a puke."[14]
Prokhanov's 2012 book,The Tread of the Russian Triumph (2012) is a fictionalized treatise on Russian history promoting the author's very own "Fifth Empire" doctrine stating that the currentEurasian Economic Union has already started to evolve into a new geo-political giant, the successor to the four previous Empires:Kievan Rus'/Novgorod Republic,Moscovy, theRomanovs'Russian Empire, andStalin'sUSSR.[22] "There will be a place for everyone in it: the left and the right,Orthodox Christians andMuslim fundamentalists,synagogues and big business... like theBolsheviks used the potential of the Romanov Empire, the Fifth Empire is to be composed of all kinds of disparate elements," he commented.[14]
State awards[edit] | Literary awards[edit]
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A controversial figure, Prokhanov is seen in Russia by some as an original author sporting "a rare combination ofpostmodernist ethics and imperialist agenda,"[24] and by others as a purveyor of extremist nationalistic views which formed the ideological platform ofZavtra, the ultra-conservative newspaper he's been the leader of since 1993. Another Russian ultra-nationalist,Aleksandr Dugin, credited Prokhanov with being "the godfather of theNew Russia opposition movement" even if deploring his refusal to take a more active part in it and choosing instead to back up political figures Dugin referred to as "theStaraya Square monsters".[10]
In 1991, during theRussian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic presidential election, Prokhanov worked for the campaign of GeneralAlbert Makashov, an ultra-conservative candidate. In September 1992, Prokhanov was one of the initiators of theNational Salvation Front, of which— until April 1994— he was a co-chairman. In September 1994, as one of the organizers of the All-Russian Congress of Patriotic Forces, Prokhanov was among those who signed the petition demanding the President's resignation.[10][17]
In July 1991, he signed the open letter, "A Word to the People", sometimes considered a program for theAugust coup makers.[12] During the failed August 1991 coup, Prokhanov supported theState Committee on the State of Emergency.[10] In the summer of 1992, Prokhanov formed the so-called "Day Movement", as an attempt to turn the newspaper's readership into a political movement.[25][26]
On 4 October 1993, theMinistry of Justice of Russia ordered a stop to the editorial and publishing activity of the newspaperDay; its office was raided byOMON, archive files and property was confiscated, staff members were physically assaulted.[6] On the same day, after theSupreme Soviet's defenders' defeat, Prokhanov went into hiding in the woods on the outskirts ofRyazan. A week later he managed to publish several issues ofDen inMinsk. In November 1993, Prokhanov's son-in-law Alexander Khudorozhkov registered the newspaperZavtra (Tomorrow). Prokhanov became its editor-in-chief.[10]
In the1996 Russian presidential election, Prokhanov supported the leader of theCommunist Party of the Russian Federation,Gennady Zyuganov. In 1997, he co-founded the Agency of Patriotic Information. Twice (in 1997 and 1999), he was physically assaulted, the first of these accidents ending with him hospitalized, suffering severeconcussion.[11]
In 1999, together withKonstantin Kasimovsky, Prokhanov invited formerklansmanDavid Duke to visit the Russian Federation.[27]
In 2003, Prokhanov,Boris Berezovsky, andViktor Alksnis issued a joint statement concerning theNord Ost terrorist attack, blaming the Russian authorities for the heavy loss of life and accusingVladimir Putin of inefficiency. Also in 2003, Berezovsky and Prokhanov issued another joint memorandum, this time blaming the authorities for the murder ofSergei Yushenkov, and warning the people against the "great dangers coming from theKremlin."[13]
His newspaper,Zavtra, had supported theCommunist Party of the Russian Federation since the mid-1990s, but in 2005 it switched his support to theRodina ("Motherland") party.[28] Commenting on theRussian war with Georgia, Prokhanov said that Russia "has not been defeated by the West in theCold War, because the Cold War continues. We lost gigantic territories, but we held Moscow. From here we launched ourcounterattack."[29]
Prokhanov foundedIzborsky Club, a Eurasian think tank, in 2012.[30]
During the 2014 conflict inUkraine, Prokhanov praised the Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed pro-RussianDonetsk People's RepublicAlexander Borodai as a "true White Russian nationalist".[31]
In November 2014, a Russian court ordered Prokhanov to pay 500 thousandrubles toAndrey Makarevich whom he falsely accused (in theIzvestia-published article) of entertaining paratroopers inSloviansk ("where he was heard by people in basements with broken hands and put out eyes") while the singer in fact performed inSviatohirsk, singing for refugees.[13]
A widower, he has a daughter and two sons. One is the journalist Andrey Fefyolov, who is a member ofZavtra staff. His other son, Vasily, contributes toZavtra, as a photo correspondent.[32]
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