[Newmag Summer Fest] What are the challenges of contemporary Russian literature? (video in Armenian)

Russian literature has never been given so much freedom, there is almost zero censorship, agents of special forces are not attached to the writer. However, we witness the opposite picture. Current affairs and problems are missing from modern literary works. Roman Nadiryan, who is a lecturer in the Armenian-Russian university believes that the freedom should firstly be within the author. “Many masterpieces have been published in the most censored time periods. On the other hand, we can’t feel the same now, when the authors have almost all the freedom that they could wish for. Hence, it should be concluded that freedom comes from within the author. His literary pieces are uncensored, creative and free, if the author has those qualities himself.”

Both the problem and the solution should be discussed in terms of the inner freedom that the authors possess. Writers won’t be able to simply create masterpieces if their mind is not free and creative. Lecturer Anush Sedrakyan mentions that it will be a mission impossible to find truly inspiring, free and creative literary pieces in contemporary Russian literature. “There was a period when censorship could be found everywhere, but it was also a time period when authors published books with 100% free mindset. Authors were followed by special agents, who would question each and every literary piece. However, even in such circumstances authors wrote about the most censored topics in their books.”

Another important challenge to discuss is the fact there is almost no reference to the problems and characteristics of the modern person in contemporary Russian literature. Ruben Ishkhanyan claims that when reading Tolstoi’s or Dostoevski’s literary pieces the reader can clearly see the situation, problems and reality of that specific time period. Modern writers write about the past, but completely ignore the present. “There are only a few authors that write about current issues and topics. Most of the writers try to discuss the present while writing about the past. There are some really interesting writers now, but we will learn about them only in 10 years.”

In contemporary Russia, the challenges and topics of our days are rather reflected in Russian hip hop. Yegor Glumov believes that the reality of that country should be found there. “Many Russian writers currently live abroad, specifically in Europe. However, even that fact won’t help them to express their ideas freely, if the freedom is not coming from within. On the other hand, you can get a sense of the present issues in Russian hip hop.”

When opening books published in 2020 or 2021 it is quite a challenge to understand which century those books cover. The modern human is absent in those books. The main characters are from our past.