Then & Now#4 - Teresa Cherfas in conversation with Andrei Kurkov

Our latest guest is the Ukrainian writer Andrei Kurkov. Andrei Kurkov became widely known to readers around the world in 2001 when his novel Smert’ postoronnego [Смерть Постороннего] was published in English translation as Death and the Penguin. Other novels followed and, in their wake, worldwide recognition and success at prominent international literary awards. His latest novel, Grey Bees, tells the story of an elderly beekeeper in the occupied territory of Donbas. The novel touches on the war in Donbas and on the violation of Crimean Tatar rights in Russian annexed Crimea. In 2015 his Ukraine Diaries was published in English and, recently, his Diary of an Invasion.

This recording took place on 14 April 2023.

Diary of an Invasion is published by Mountain Leopard Press, ISBN: 9781914495847, pp 304, London, 2022. It is a collection of Andrei Kurkov’s writings and broadcasts from Ukraine in the lead up to and during the war.

You can also listen to the podcast on our website, SoundCloud, Podcasts.com, Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts, Anchor and YouTube.

My questions include:

1. You started your Diary of an Invasion just before New Year at the very end of 2021. Do you always keep a diary?

2. What emotions did you feel when you learnt what had happened on February 24th?

3. How do you see the role of the writer during the war?

4. Before the invasion, your remarks in the Diary about Ukraine and your Ukrainian compatriots are quite multifaceted. But after you tend to write about them as if they were figures from Ukrainian historical myths (‘bylinas’) – how brave, freedom-loving they are, and how different they are from the Russians. It is as if those human traits that make your novels so memorable and touching aren’t relevant here. What explains that change?

5. You write about the traditions of the Ukrainian people and the creation of myths in times of crisis. What is the role of traditions and myths in the identity of a people?

6. Your native language, in which you became a famous writer, is Russian. Have you ever had any problems in your relations with Ukrainian writers or the public because of it?

7. What is your attitude to the Russian language in Ukraine now?

8. How do Russians around the world react to your advocacy for Ukraine – do you get hate mail from Russians?

9. Do you see the possibility for Russian-speaking Ukrainians to write in Russian again in the future?

10. You write in your Diary that you have an unfinished novel… will you be able to finish it or is it doomed to remain in the unfinished after the Russian invasion?

11. Do you believe in the concept of ‘good Russians’? Who is a ‘good Russian’ for you?

12. Has Russian culture played a major role in your own development as a writer?

13. Are there any commonalities between Russian and Ukrainian culture and traditions? (You write in the Diary about the feat of Russian PR in promoting Russian culture around the world, as if Russian culture would not be so highly regarded without it.)

14. How do you see the future of Ukraine? And of Russia?