When Autocracies Have No Respect for the Nobel Prize

As both the fi rst writer and the fi rst woman from Belarus to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, Svetlana Alexievich became a centre of public attention worldwide.While the fi rst tweets from the Nobel announcement room generated some confusion regarding this unknown writer from an unknown land -with about "10,000 reporters googling Svetlana Alexievich" (Brooks 2015) -the subsequent media coverage of the writer in such publications as The Guardian, The New Yorker, and Der Spiegel sketched out a broad picture of Alexievich's life, career and main works.Meanwhile, the Belarusian state media remained reluctant to give the award much attention: the upcoming presidential elections and Lukashenka's visit to Turkmenistan took priority.In a couple of cafes and art spaces in Minsk young people gathered to watch Alexievich's speech live via the Internet.Independent and alternative websites offered platforms for discussion and the exchange of opinions.Interestingly, the general public was divided over the question of the "Belarusianness" of Alexievich.The identity of the protagonist in Alexievich's books caused a heated discussion among Russian intellectuals as well.They could hardly accept that Alexievich's works might epitomize the experience of a genuinely Soviet individual, as they set out to.There was also much speculation on whether Alexievich should be acknowledged as a Russian writer, or whether the West treated her as Belarusian in order to chastise Russia.The events surrounding Alexievich's Nobel Prize represent a revealing example of the all-encompassing nature of autocratic political systems, as well as how confusing and interwoven national identities can be.Researcher Volha Charnysh explains the controversial reactions to Alexievich's Nobel Prize in Belarus by pointing out the growing politicisation of language choice and interpretation of history.According to her, in the Belarusian cultural sphere "both the regime's opponents and supporters alike practice the denunciation of writers who do not follow the political script" and remain "prisoners to Belarus's Soviet past and authoritarian present" (Charnysh 2015a).Moreover, contrasting reactions to Alexievich's work "refl ect deepening divisions in post-Soviet space" and indicate

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