See what "PEN club" is in other dictionaries. PEN Center. The main scandal of writers has acquired the scale of a movement. What is a Russian pen center
Russian PEN Center is a branch of the international PEN Club. This organization appeared in London in 1921, uniting professional writers. According to the charter, club members are responsible for monitoring the right to freedom of speech, protecting the rights of writers, journalists and cultural figures, as well as creative exchange with foreign colleagues. The Russian PEN Center, which is part of the PEN Club, was founded in 1989.
In the first days of the new year, several famous writers immediately announced their withdrawal from the Russian PEN Center, which unites about 400 people. Among those who left the organization were Boris Akunin and Svetlana Alexievich, poets Lev Rubinstein and Timur Kibirov. Several dozen remaining members of the Russian PEN issued a collective statement in which they demanded to immediately hold a general meeting of the organization in Moscow and expressed no confidence in its current Executive Committee.
Provocative activities of Parkhomenko
The next split of the Russian PEN Center began on December 24, 2016. At the end of last year, several dozen members of the organization, among whom was, turned to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a request to pardon the Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov. Sentsov was sentenced to 20 years for extremism in the case of the “Crimean sabotage and terrorist group” of the Right Sector organization banned in Russia.
He insisted that the authors of the appeal signed as private individuals, and not as members of the Russian PEN Center. Nevertheless, the press service of the PEN Center wrote in an official address to the president that the organization’s leadership has nothing to do with the statements of the “group of liberal oppositionists.”
He was expelled on December 28 after the publication of his column about how the Russian PEN Center fulfills its human rights functions. The organization nevertheless expressed its position on the Sentsov case, but the journalist did not like the way it did it.
Nikolai Podosokorsky
publicist, literary critic
I am sure that the decision to expel Sergei Parkhomenko and repress other members of the organization was wrong, and it could lead to the voluntary withdrawal from PEN and a number of other famous writers. Let me remind you that over the past few years, the Russian PEN Center, due to disagreement with the policies of the organization’s leadership, has included such famous writers and public figures as Sergei Kostyrko, Igor Irtenev, Lev Timofeev, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Natalya Mavlevich, Vladimir Mirzoev, Lyubov Summ, Irina Yasina, Olga Timofeeva, Zoya Svetova, Irina Surat, Boris Khersonsky, Nune Barseghyan, Grigory Revzin, Viktor Shenderovich, Vladimir Voinovich, Sergey Gandlevsky and Dmitry Bavilsky.
The forecast made on January 9 was confirmed the very next day. On January 10, the poet resigned from the Russian PEN Center.
Lev Rubinstein
The leadership of PEN proudly reports that, despite the “destructive work of various destructive forces,” they allegedly managed to “avoid a split.” No, it didn't work. Unfortunately, it didn't work out at all.
The PEN Center, by definition, is a writers' organization, that is, consisting, as it were, of writers. And it is known that no one is as sensitive as a writer (if he is a writer) to issues of language and style, behind which the true essence, the true content (or the complete lack of content) of any statement is always guessed.
So, unfortunately, a split occurred. And it is obvious. And this split did not so much pass over the surface of ideological or political convictions - which may be different for everyone, and this is normal - but rather revealed a completely essential stylistic incompatibility. These same “stylistic discrepancies”, which were once, albeit for a slightly different reason, brilliantly formulated by Andrei Sinyavsky, at another historical turn and in other socio-cultural circumstances, indicated - at least for me - the irrelevance and painful ambiguity of my very belonging to an organization whose leadership speaks - including on my behalf - on like this language.
After the announcement of leaving the organization, similar statements followed one after another from other well-known and already former members of the Russian PEN Center.
The writer and poet, winner of the Russian Booker and Big Book awards, joined the PEN Center “only because he was invited by Lyudmila Ulitskaya (former vice-president of the organization, who left it after a conflict with the ex-president - ed. ), and took this invitation as a kind of obligation." However now counted impossible to be a member of this organization.
One of the most prolific modern Russian writers wrote: “I am a supporter of liberalism and democracy, but I have nothing in common with the Liberal Democratic Party. In the same way, I share the views of the PEN movement, but I ask you not to associate me with the Russian Human Rights Center in any way in the future. I’m not a member of it anymore.”
Director of the St. Petersburg PEN Club, writer and Russian Booker laureate Elena Chizhova, that the St. Petersburg PEN Club stopped all contacts with the Moscow Russian PEN Center after the decision to expel the journalist from the organization.
On the departure of Nobel Prize laureate Svetlana Alexievich from the organization reported her friend Rita Kabakova: “From yesterday’s correspondence with Svetlana Alexievich: “Rita, after they expelled Parkhomenko, I also decided to leave this now strange organization. Today an old friend called me, I had the same feeling. We are more and more We are separated more terribly. Now anything can happen to us... Svetlana."
Co-founder of the Corpus publishing house Varvara Gornostaeva wrote, which comes out of the Russian PEN Center, “who slowly and surely turned and turned into an exemplary Sovpis, cowardly and servile”. In 2013, Gornostaeva had hopes that the PEN Center would become a human rights organization, but soon it “acted exactly as the state did: found internal enemies and declared war on them”.
Writer posted scan of the resignation letter, which also compares the Russian PEN Center with the Union of Writers of the USSR: “The Charter of the Russian PEN Center states: “PEN Club advocates for the protection of the principles of freedom of information within each country and between all countries, its members undertake to oppose suppression of freedom of speech in any form." When I once joined the Russian PEN Center, I joined a human rights organization for writers, and not the Union of Soviet Writers, which it has now become.”
Author of books about nurse Parovozov Alexey Motorov left Russian PEN Club, since “this organization has not followed its stated goals, the PEN Charter, or even its own charter for a long time.” “It’s probably better not to watch how writers behave, many of whom I considered decent people,” he added.
Came out from the writers' association and Russian-Australian philologist Tatyana Bonch-Osmolovskaya, “since this organization does not fulfill the main task written in the Charter of the International PEN Club - to be a human rights organization for writers.”
____________________________
President of the Russian PEN Center Evgeniy Popov, noted that it applies to him “and everything he does with great respect”. However, according to Gorodnitsky, the journalist “took a course towards denouncing the PEN Executive Committee, accused them of licking the ass of their superiors, and said that they need to speak out more radically on various issues, including political ones. The club includes people of different views, often opposing ones. And Parkhomenko and other people spoke on behalf of the entire PEN. This is wrong,” Gorodnitsky told reporters.
The bard also answered the question about Lyudmila Ulitskaya’s departure from the PEN Center - she was the vice-president of the organization and brought with her many new members: “I love Ulitskaya very much, she is a wonderful writer. But there were complaints against her that she accepted many journalists, which was not provided for by the Charter. And in 2014, at the congress in Kyiv, she made quite radical statements on behalf of PEN.”
Viktor Erofeev, one of the founders of the Russian PEN Center, who was a member of its Executive Committee together with Lyudmila Ulitskaya, and later, in his own words, turned into “PEN dust,” has not yet left the association. But about that. According to him, a split in the once active and well-functioning organization had been evident for a long time: “...When the situation with Crimea and Donbass arose, it was already clear that the gap could not be stopped at all.”
Victor Erofeev
writer
It seems to me that since I am one of the founders of the PEN Club, I also need to understand: either leave and thereby it will be clear that we will never gather those people who can return the PEN Center back to us, right? Well, if only angels remain there... The bastards all leave, the angels remain, then that means we will never cope with the angels. Or leave. Well, in general, time will tell. But this language of war was ugly from the point of view of the PEN Center. Although, it must be said that on the other hand, this is a Bolshevik conversation, the Bolshevik opposition... Now I’m not talking about Leva, but about other speakers of this language. It also seems wrong to me, because we, after all, are not waiting for the revolution of 17, we do not need coups.
Also with an open letter to the Executive Committee of the Russian PEN Center
An international non-governmental organization uniting professional writers, editors and translators working in various genres of fiction. The name of the PEN club is an abbreviation for the English words “poet”, “essayist”, ... ... Wikipedia
PEN Club is an international non-governmental organization that unites professional writers, editors and translators working in various genres of fiction. The name of the PEN club is an abbreviation for the English words “poet”, ... ... Wikipedia
- (P.E.N., abbreviated from English poets, essayists, essayists, novelists), an international association of writers pursuing humane and human rights goals; founded in 1921 by English writers J. Galsworthy and C. E. Dawson Scott (Dawson... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
- (P.E.N. abbreviated from English poets, essayists, essayists, novelists), an international association of writers; founded in 1921 by English writers J. Galsworthy and C. E. Dawson Scott. Pen club management: president... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
Pen club, pen club... Spelling dictionary-reference book
- [English] PEN CLUB Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
Noun, number of synonyms: 1 organization (82) ASIS Dictionary of Synonyms. V.N. Trishin. 2013… Synonym dictionary
- (P.E.N. International), an international association of writers. The name is made up of the first letters of the English words Poets (poets), Playwrights (playwrights), Essayists (essayists, essayists), Editors (editors) and Novelists (novelists). The goal... ... Collier's Encyclopedia
PEN club- PEN club/b, PEN club/ba... Together. Apart. Hyphenated.
Books
- , Zherebtsova Polina Viktorovna. “My truth,” writes the author of the book, Polina Zherebtsova, “is the truth of a civilian, an observer, a historian, a journalist, a person who, from the age of nine, recorded what was happening by hours and dates,...
- Ant in a glass jar. Chechen diaries 1994-2004, Polina Viktorovna Zherebtsova. “My truth,” writes the author of the book, Polina Zherebtsova, “is the truth of a civilian, observer, historian, journalist, a person who, from the age of nine, recorded what was happening by hours and dates,...
Serious ideological disagreements within the authoritative independent writers' organization are evidenced by a letter from its president Andrei Bitov, who criticized PEN vice-president Ulitskaya and recent changes in the organization's activities. There were loud accusations of “raiding” and demands for a revision of the development strategy. In fact, recently the Russian PEN Center has taken an active public position related to the protection of the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens and criticism of the totalitarian aspirations of the current Russian government. The website of the Russian PEN Center was updated, another vice-president (Lyudmila Ulitskaya) and several dozen new members were elected, a number of statements and appeals were adopted, including the Statement of the Russian PEN Center against the introduction of a “new information order” in Russia and the persecution of bloggers , Statement of the Russian PEN Center for freedom of expression and against violence, Statement of the Russian PEN Center “We are against aggression”, Appeal of the Russian PEN Center to the literary and journalistic community, Statement of the Russian PEN Center “On the violation of the constitutional rights of citizens...” etc. Against the backdrop of the wholesale closure and nationalization of various media and public organizations, the declaration of a number of uncontrolled NGOs as foreign agents, etc., PEN Center remained one of the few institutions that allowed itself to publicly criticize the unconstitutional actions of the authorities and counteract Putin’s cult of personality. And now, it seems, they also decided to end this with the hands of the members themselves. Either they put pressure on Bitov, or he himself got scared and wanted to protect the Russian PEN Center from being closed and possibly being declared a “foreign agent.” In any case, public proceedings indicate a deep split within PEN Center with unpredictable consequences. It is possible that in reality everything was heading towards the closure of the Russian branch by dissatisfied authorities, and Bitov’s letter is a desperate attempt to save at least something, making Russian PEN more loyal in the current conditions of authoritarianism. But I think that this attempt (if this is really the case) would be doomed to failure. And most likely the PEN Center in Russia will not exist for long.
Letter from the President of the Russian PEN Center and comments to it from site administrators
“Suddenly a sudden knock was heard...”(“Nevermore” translated by Balmont). The knock is faster than the Internet, as in Soviet times... I was sitting at the dacha near St. Petersburg, escaping with my great-grandson from the heat, where the Internet does not work - calls came to my mobile phone: did you read, did you see? This is about our new website. Now I’m finally reading into it... and I find that this chaotic set of statements is not only a violation of the charter of the Russian PEN Center, but also the charter of the PEN Club itself, which excludes confessional, party or nationalist interests. I’m not sure that World PEN has always been consistent in these principles, but we are committed to the Charter believed(and I have been busy with the affairs of the PEN club since 1987, from the very beginning of the very possibility of the emergence of a PEN center on the territory of the USSR, and in 1989 we achieved the maximum number of centers, including the Ukrainian one). We believed that it was the destiny and right of the PEN Club to protect freedom of speech and the rights of individuals to express personally their opinion in writing, using diplomatic methods rather than political games and declarations. It was diplomatically that Alexander Tkachenko and I managed to sometimes even defeat politics. Thus, in the landmark year 2000, the PEN World Congress was held in Moscow, which neither PEN International nor the Kremlin really coveted. And this was recognition of the activities of the Russian PEN Center.
And now I’m wondering who approved our new site? The Executive Committee, as I understand it, did not know about this. What does this have to do with the trident as his coat of arms (which arose under Mazepa as a variation of the Swedish crown)! *
What does this have to do with statements on behalf of one’s own, published as the opinion of the entire PEN Center... For example, this “Statement”:
The first step - the annexation of Crimea to Russia - has already been taken, the first blood has already been shed. Further steps on this path are fraught with bloodshed of an unpredictable scale, isolation of Russia, turning it into a rogue country, and ultimately into a third world country, thrown back from the path of civilization for decades.**
What Soviet, Bolshevik language is this written! Where does this swagger come from? Where does the Russophobe have such great power? arrogance towards third world countries (which, by the way, had highly developed civilizations while barbaric Europe, which subsequently robbed them, was still wearing their skins)?.. In addition to the quoted statement, other people’s materials are also reprinted, which have nothing to do with the activities of our Center ***.
I remind you of the history of the issue (too many new members). Since 1994, the PEN Center has been practically led by its general director, Alexander Tkachenko. (He and I invented the “tandem” much earlier than our leaders.) Sasha was already ready to become president and then he died suddenly, exposing me to responsibility from which I already considered myself free (however, I don’t know how he, as a native Crimean, would have survived the current centenary of the First World War, so vividly celebrated in Ukraine).
With the death of Tkachenko, our Center was practically decapitated; help was needed. Alexey Simonov, who had similar work experience, was elected vice-president, but it turned out to be insufficient (in the meantime, I was mechanically re-elected, without finding another candidate). Sasha was missing more and more catastrophically. We decided to “strengthen” the PEN Center with another vice president, a more active one. The election of Lyudmila Ulitskaya, which was at first encouraging, resulted in everything that I belatedly read, in the same language of Sharikov:
Now the intelligentsia is split, and a significant part of the people who formally belong to this stratum show an eager readiness to fulfill any desires and approve any reckless and even suicidal actions of the authorities. ****
There are no four right sides; this at least contradicts geometry. On the square wheel of Crimea, the cart of Ukraine cannot be rolled from East to West. No one is friendly with diplomacy, as with the head; it immediately degenerates into a confrontation between the intelligence services and the media, i.e. into politics. New old times! I, Andrei Georgievich Bitov, have never been a part of anyone, not a hero or a victim, but one man, who wrote and said what I think. And since I am alone, it is impossible to split me.
A revolution without mail and telegraph is nothing for us, Ilyich used to say. Well, that's why Charter violations, that's why the new site. From there, personnel decides everything (who used to say that?). And then there were violations of the charter of the Russian PEN Center, which once required two-thirds of the votes of all members of the Executive Committee for the admission of a writer to PEN. There has never been such a strong reception of new members since the last December meeting (45 people). I was not too lazy to look at the minutes of the meetings of the Executive Committee: all without a hint of a quorum, without written recommendations (based on only one word from Ulitskaya, and with verbal support from Simonov along the way). Fresh forces are good, but not usurpation (“raiding” in the new language) *****.
I try not to forget the wise advice of an old friend (Ava Zak), given half a century ago: “Don’t take the fat bait! remember, if something is done badly, it means it benefits someone.” And so it is. But I’m already an old man, and I’m embarrassed to indicate my experience both in literature and in the PEN club. I am not a politician, I have no time to change myself. All that remains is to say and write what I think: the Russian PEN Center is consistently framing the law on non-governmental organizations as “dragons”. Who benefits from this?
I ask, even demand, from all members of our PEN Center (including the newly elected ones) to finally appear in full force at the reporting and re-election meeting and openly discuss my letter.
“I asked: “What kind of cities exist in Chile?” Raven croaked: “Never!” \\And he was exposed". (Nikolai Glazkov, not a member of PEN Club)
Comments from site administrators
* -“What does the trident have to do with its [site’s] coat of arms”- the author of the letter mistakenly mistook for the coat of arms of the site the logo of the forum “Ukraine-Russia: Dialogue” (a trident transformed into a dove of peace with an olive branch in its beak), which for some time was located under the heading “Agenda”. Currently there is a banner with the words “Freedom for Kamil Valiullin”. The PEN logo (“coat of arms”) is permanently located in the upper left corner of the panel.
** - Andrei Bitov, who is one of the initiators of the Congress of the Intelligentsia (http://nowar-kongress.com/?page_id=292) quotes the “Statement of the Congress “Against war, against self-isolation of Russia, against the restoration of totalitarianism,” under which he stands , as a co-founder of the congress, signature (http://nowar-kongress.com/?p=16#more-16). And therefore the questions that followed the quote (“What Soviet, Bolshevik language is this written! Where does such swagger come from? Where does such great power come from? Russophobe?”) we leave without comment.
*** - During the existence of the new site, about 80 publications appeared on its news feed. Only six of them are not directly related to the activities of the PEN Center. but they touch upon the most pressing problems of cultural and social life (discussion of the “Fundamentals of Cultural Policy”, the emergence of the “Stop Censorship” movement, articles by psychologists helping modern people to master the rapidly changing reality, including the article by L. Petranovskaya “Empire as a loss” - one one of the leaders in traffic on our website).
All other publications are:
a) fragments of books by PEN members (preparing for publication or just published) - 31
b) letters and statements of the Russian PEN Center - 7
c) materials related to the International PEN Club - 4
d) congratulations to PEN members on anniversaries, prizes, awards - 11
e) obituaries - 2
e) publications about evenings held at PEN - 4
g) essays written specifically for the site by PEN members and their exclusive interviews - 7
h) posts of PEN members - 2
i) message about the admission of new PEN members - 1
j) materials about the congress “Ukraine-Russia: dialogue” (one of the organizers of which was the Russian PEN Center) - 3
**** - Andrey Bitov quotes the statement of the “Second Session of the Congress of the Intelligentsia” (http://nowar-kongress.com/?p=525), which was signed by members of the PEN Center Vladimir Voinovich and Irina Prokhorova , Lev Ponomarev, Viktor Shenderovich, Igor Irtenev, Konstantin Azadovsky, Gleb Shulpyakov, Lyubov Summ, Oleg Khlebnikov, Veronica Dolina, Lev Timofeev, Natalya Mavlevich, Mikhail Aizenberg, Viktor Esipov, Viktor Yaroshenko, Evgeniy Sidorov, Marina Boroditskaya, Olga Ilnitskaya, Konstantin Kedrov, Elena Katsyuba, Maxim Nemtsov, Alina Vitukhnovskaya, Irina Balakhonova, Alexander Gelman, Tatyana Kaletskaya, Nina Katerli, Irina Levinskaya, Marina Vishnevetskaya, Pyotr Obraztsov, Lev Timofeev, Igor Yarkevich, Sergey Gandlevsky, Vardvan Varzhapetyan, Margarita Khemlin, as well as vice -Presidents of the Russian PEN Lyudmila Ulitskaya and Andrey Simonov.
***** - List of those admitted to the Russian PEN Center at the last three meetings of the executive committee.
1. Alexander Arkhangelsky
2. Marina Akhmedova
3. Dmitry Bavilsky
4. Marina Vishnevetskaya
5. Ekaterina Gordeeva
6. Varvara Gornostaeva
7. Denis Gutsko
8. Alexander Ilichevsky
9. Maya Kucherskaya
10. Alla Shevelkina
11. Irina Yasina
12. Evgenia Dobrova
13. Viktor Esipov
14. Grigory Petukhov
15.Vladimir Puchkov
16.Alexander Chantsev
1. Irina Prokhorova
2. Natalya Mavlevich
3. Irina Balakhonova
4. Olga Timofeeva
5. Andrey Sorokin
6. Kristina Gorelik
7. Olga Romanova
8. Boris Khersonsky
9. Love Sum
10. Zoya Svetova
11. Andrey Zhitinkin
12. Maxim Gureev
13. Evgenia Safronova
14. Amarsana Ulzytuev
15. Evgeny Strelkov
16. Alexander Tsygankov
17. Anastasia Orlova
18. Farid Nagimov
1. Sergey Parkhomenko
2. Maxim Krongauz
3. Mikhail Aizenberg
4. Denis Dragunsky
5. Olga Dunaevskaya
6. Ekaterina Obraztsova
7. Tatyana Danilyants
8. Elena Isaeva
9. Leonid Bakhnov
10. Elena Ivanova-Verkhovskaya
11. Igor Sakhnovsky
So as not to drag it into the New Year. A new chapter will begin there... We still need to somehow complete this part of the epic with the Russian PEN Center, which in mid-December managed to organize perhaps the most shameful event in its long history: rigged elections of its president and executive committee.
For those interested in the sad fate of this “leadership” of a once glorious human rights organization, I recommend checking out the recently published “Statement” of the executive committee regarding Oleg Sentsov: this
It is characteristic that it does not have a title - just in case, because without a title it is not so scary: you would have to choose some meaningful word for it, such as “in defense”, “freedom”, “justice”, “pardon” "or something else so seditious. These writers apparently have difficulty finding words. And if there is no title, there is no problem with scary words. And in general, there is a chance that no one will notice anything.
The statement opens with the message that “The Russian PEN Center is concerned about the fate of Oleg Gennadyevich Sentsov and asks the President of the Russian Federation and the Russian courts to really help ease the conditions of detention of this film director and writer...”
Brave, right?
Decisively. Human rights. Freedom-loving. “...to help mitigate the conditions of detention...” What could be more accurate, more necessary and more timely when describing the case of Oleg Sentsov?
Moreover, as we see, someone else should soften it, for example, the World Wildlife Fund or, say, UNICEF, and the “President of the Russian Federation and the Russian courts” should somehow help. If possible. If they would be so kind, and if it wouldn’t be too much trouble.
Well, then the leadership of the PEN Center reports in detail, with reasoning, with mention of some articles of the Criminal Executive Code, why it is impossible to pardon Oleg Sentsov. Well, this is so that Their Excellency does not bother himself with searching for arguments for refusal. And so that, God forbid, he doesn’t get angry.
Such an amazing “human rights defense” happened because the Russian PEN Center is very afraid of troubles from two sides at the same time: in relations not only with various Excellencies in Russia, but also with the International PEN Club.
The fact is that several dozen members of the PEN Center (in their personal capacity, not on behalf of the organization, of course), as well as an even larger group of writers and historians, published a statement several days ago demanding Sentsov’s pardon. And the leadership of the Russian PEN Center had to publish a special refutation that he had nothing to do with it, was not asking anyone for anything, and in general, dude, please forgive me, it’s not us, it’s them over there, and we are nothing like that...
One can imagine how amazed the world PEN Club is at this trick of the Russian PEN Center, whose main task is to protect freedom of speech and organize actions of solidarity with those who have suffered from its infringement. Well, the Russian writing “leadership” has to sit on both chairs at once and carefully squeeze out of themselves drop by drop, through force... Otherwise, they won’t even invite you to the World Congress...
And finally - for those who still care about the election plot. Two days ago, the current “leadership” of the PEN Center completely calmly posted on its official website the falsified minutes of the meeting where this leadership was allegedly elected. By golly, they don’t have a person there who would explain to them that the use of knowingly false documents about the activities of a legal entity is an act provided for by the Criminal Code. And with every extra lie they produce, the hole under their feet only deepens. But they are adults, some even with some kind of bureaucratic experience. You might think that all this has not been reproduced thousands of times in the histories of all kinds of joint-stock companies and cooperatives. But for some reason they hope that it will pass, that if you are friends with the authorities, then the law is not written.
It contains a huge number of substantive things (specifically related to the norms of the organization’s charter, quorum, the nomination of candidates for the positions of president and members of the executive committee, the voting procedure, and the counting of votes) - simply cold-bloodedly distorted. Which is especially stupid, since a full video recording was made during the meeting, which makes it very easy to track how everything really happened.
Nikolai Podosokorsky
Vladimir Moshchenko
To the executive committee of Moscow
PEN Center
Before becoming a member of our organization, I had long conversations about it with my friends Alexander Tkachenko and Arkady Arkanov. PEN has become something close and dear to me. I could not even imagine that the time would come when the executive committee of the Moscow PEN would so demonstratively consign the Charter of the International PEN Club to oblivion. Alas, having recovered from my illness, I am forced with the bitterest feeling to announce my resignation from the Russian PEN Center.
Vladimir Moshchenko
Alisa Ganieva
Alexander Arkhangelsky
Denis Dragunsky
from Denis Viktorovich Dragunsky (membership card No. 504)
Dear Colleagues,
I hereby announce that I am leaving the Russian PEN Center because I do not agree with the actions of the Executive Committee, as well as with the majority of colleagues who agree with its actions.
With friendly regret and hope that the activities of the Russian PEN Center will sooner or later return to the framework of the Charter and values of the Charter of the International PEN Club,
Yours sincerely,
Victor Yaroshenko
To the directorate
Russian PEN Center
PEN International
World Association of Writers
Statement
I, Yaroshenko Viktor Afanasyevich,
Member of the Russian PEN Center since February 1999. (membership card No. 435),
It is with deep regret that I inform you that I am leaving the membership of the Russian PEN Center because of the short-sighted, stupid and aggressive policy of a group of people who found themselves in its leadership and which fanned the sparks of disagreement into a fire of hostility.
Now I no longer see any possibility for the consensus that many of us have been trying to achieve over the past two years.
Alla Shevelkina
To the Executive Committee of the Russian PEN Center
I ask you to exclude me from the membership of the Russian Pen-Center. It is impossible to be in an organization that violates its own charter, expels active members from its ranks as punishment and exposes them to others.
I was invited to join PEN by the wonderful writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya. Then it seemed to me that the Pen Center was a human rights organization that, using its international authority, fought for human rights, for the release, for example, of people like Nadezhda Savchenko or Oleg Sentsov. But instead, the Russian PEN is mired in quarrels and squabbles.
The latest event, the exclusion of Sergei Parkhomenko, makes my stay with this organization impossible.
Alla Shevelkina, journalist
Boris Sokolov
Twilight of Russian PEN
I wrote a letter of resignation from the Russian PEN Center. After the shameful decision to expel Sergei Parkhomenko and Grigory Petukhov, he turned into a pathetic parody of the Union of Soviet Writers and completely forgot about the human rights basis of his activities. The new president of PEN, Evgeny Popov, has long lost the memory of his dissident youth and turned into a “permitted” person; a human rights activist who is ready to defend the persecuted and persecuted, even in Kazakhstan, even in Uzbekistan, just not in his own country, so as not to quarrel with the authorities. This is exactly the same as Yevgeny Yevtushenko fought for the freedom of the patriots of Chile or Angela Davis in Soviet times.
This decline of PEN into imitation of human rights activities was due to the silent majority that was created within it. It was formed due to the writers who were accepted into PEN in recent years, who do not go to meetings, but vote by mail as the president and the Executive Committee say. Well, the government has taken over yet another previously independent public organization.
What is especially sad for me is that among those who voted for the shameful decision to expel was Alexander Gorodnitsky. I used to deeply respect him, but now I don’t respect him.
And the most tragic thing for me and other writers who have left or are planning to leave PEN these days is the impossibility of continuing to send collective letters to the authorities in defense of those who are being persecuted for their beliefs. Previously, we did this within the framework of the “Private Opinion” group established in PEN. Therefore, I propose to everyone who left PEN for ideological reasons to create some kind of new association so that we can continue the activities that the current leadership of the Russian PEN Center has abandoned.
Victor Esipov
To the self-proclaimed executive committee of the Russian PEN Center
I don’t think it’s possible to remain in an organization where there are no democratic principles and its own charter is falsified.
Member of the Moscow SP,
Ss IMLI RAS named after. Gorky
Victor Esipov
Anna Berseneva (Tatiana Sotnikova)
Vladimir Sotnikov
Maya Kucherskaya
Alexey Motorov
Mikhail Berg
Olga Drobot
STATEMENT
I joined the Russian PEN Center in 2014, inspired by its anti-war statements. In full accordance with the PEN Charter, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Lev Timofeev, Alexey Simonov and other members of PEN bravely fought against false and falsified publications, against turning the word into a political weapon.
The purpose of my joining PEN was to fight for freedom of speech and expression. I am a literary translator, this is an invisible profession, so the weight of my public word is not comparable to the weight of the word, for example, of Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich. PEN was invented as such an umbrella - it supports the human rights activities of writers and protects them from persecution by the authority of the World PEN. That's why I joined PEN, as you astutely noted, to use the PEN brand for its intended purpose. The letters in defense of Oleg Sentsov, Nadezhda Savchenko, Memorial, and the Ukrainian Library, which I signed as a “member of the Russian PEN Center,” were worth it. But with its latest actions - manipulations with the charter and elections, shameful persecution of dissidents, reluctance to firmly demand the release of Oleg Sentsov - the executive committee of the Russian Orthodox Church has actually disgraced the name PEN.
This is especially sad because in today's situation with freedom of speech and expression, the authority of the World PEN is needed more than ever for active human rights protection. Instead, the executive committee of the Russian Orthodox Church is concerned with receiving a presidential grant for the publication of “Scorching Flame” (this is political activity in its purest form).
I have great respect for my like-minded people who remain in the PEN Center, but I do not share Alina Vitukhnovskaya’s hope that the Russian PEN Center will return to its purpose. A repressively structured organization cannot fight for anyone's rights. When I joined the Russian PEN Center, it could never have occurred to me that it was in PEN that I would be faced with a deeply anti-democratic election system, with complete contempt for the opinion of the minority, with cruel and inexorable censorship and a completely unacceptable manner in which you and members of the executive committee allow themselves to write statements and comment in the press and on their Facebook pages. When we were in public correspondence a year ago, I said that a split in Russian PEN seems to me to be the worst-case scenario. Today this is a fact. The only way out of the situation would be the voluntary resignation of the president and executive committee, the convening of an extraordinary meeting and a return to democratic and simply respectful norms within the Russian PEN. Since I have no hope for this, I declare my resignation from the Russian PEN Center as of January 13, 2017. I continue to share the goals of World PEN stated in the Charter and will fight for them to the best of my ability.
Olga Dmitrievna Drobot, 01/12/2017
Andrey Makarevich
I read the letter about Lev Rubinstein’s resignation from PEN Club. With great regret I subscribe to every word he says. And I follow him.
Varvara Gornostaeva
Vladimir Sorokin
Vladimir Sorokin: Today I decided to leave the Russian PEN center, since our PEN has completely rotted. Now bark beetles and woodlice reign in it, and there is rot inside.
Leonid Bakhnov
To the Executive Committee of the Russian PEN Center
Considering it impossible for myself to remain in an organization whose leadership allows itself to manipulate the Charter and the election process, and prefers sanctions against colleagues to human rights activities, I ask you not to consider me any longer a member of the Russian PEN Center.
Leonid BAKHNOV,
membership card No. 514
January 12, 2017
Vitaly Dixon
Olga Varshaver
Pavel Nerler
Addressee: Ekaterina Turchaninova, Deputy Director of Russian PEN
Katya, as an ordinary member of PEN Center, I am tired of enduring all this shame. The most disgusting thing is the style with which this “discussion” is conducted - on both sides.
In addition, I am not happy with the fact that my rather fundamental proposal to PEN is to move away from the “crow” tactics (that is, writing statements that are fundamentally unaddressed and not calculated susceptible to response and therefore meaningless) to the tactics of “fighting” (that is, standing up for the persecuted not verbally, without shaking the air, but legally and systematically, filing lawsuits and bringing them to court decisions, whatever they may be). In my opinion, for a human rights trade union - and PEN is nothing else - this is a central issue, and I was offended by the way it was shelved.
In general, this is a statement of resignation from PEN, I ask you to confirm its receipt today, register it and publish it on the website.
With bitter feelings, Pavel Nerler
January 11, 2016.
Grigory Pasko
“Journalist Grigory Pasko wrote a statement about his resignation from the Russian PEN Center. He told Open Russia about this.
Olga Sedakova
announced her resignation from the Russian PEN Center on her Facebook page
I'm leaving PEN.
Statement.
I decided to leave the Russian PEN Center.
Like Lev Rubinstein, this decision is sad for me. It means that I have no hope left that our PEN in its present state can be an independent human rights organization of writers, that is, fulfill its direct purpose. I think that in those years when A.P. Tkachenko was its general director (1994 - 2007), the Russian PEN performed this task.
Members of any union or society may have different views, cultural, political, ethical. This is especially true for writers and intellectuals. But there is a topic that is not discussed: namely, the meaning and purpose of the voluntary union into which a person enters. Let’s say that there is no need for anyone who believes that nature is not worth protecting (or is worth protecting, but not always), and that those who believe that nature should be protected in any circumstances are “destructive forces” and “provocateurs” have no reason to join the environmental society. . And this is precisely the opinion of the current leadership and the majority of PEN members: to speak out or not to defend freedom of speech and the people who suffered for this freedom depends on the circumstances. More precisely, it depends on one circumstance: whether this will lead to a conflict with the authorities. This has nothing to do with the idea and practice of international PEN.
At the same time, the need for a human rights organization of this kind in modern Russia is obvious. The strength of PEN's statements is that they are a common, coordinated statement by people with public authority. Under the current PEN, such statements are no longer possible.
Olga Sedakova
Svetlana Alexievich
In response to our request to comment on the situation with the exclusion of Sergei Parkhomenko from the Russian PEN Center, she wrote in response:
I want to say that my comment on Parkhomenko’s expulsion can only be my statement of resignation
from the Russian PEN, the ideals of whose founders have been cowardly trampled upon. During the years of perestroika, we were proud of our PEN, but now we are ashamed. Russian writers behaved so servilely and humiliatingly only in Stalin’s time.
But Putin will leave, and this is a shame This page in the history of PEN will remain. And names too.
Today is such a time that we cannot defeat evil, we are powerless before the “red man,” but he cannot stop time. I believe in it.
Svetlana Alexievich
Akunin / Chkhartishvili
In modern Russia, many things are not what they say they are.
The Duma does not think, the parliamentary opposition does not oppose the government, the Liberal Democratic Party hates liberals and democrats, and so on, and so on.
The same goes for the Russian PEN Center. The main mission of the global PEN movement is to “fight for freedom of expression and be a powerful voice for writers who face persecution, imprisonment and threats to their lives for their views.”
The Russian PEN Center is not involved in this, which means it has nothing to do with the PEN movement. The goal of all the activities of the Russian Human Rights Center is only to avoid angering the authorities.
I am a supporter of liberalism and democracy, but I have nothing in common with the Liberal Democratic Party.
In the same way, I share the views of the PEN movement, but I ask you not to associate me with the Russian Human Rights Center in any way in the future. I'm no longer a member of it.
Lev Rubinstein
Dear Colleagues.
I have decided to leave PEN. This decision, I admit, has been a long time coming. But for quite a long time I did not dare to take this step.
I became a member of this organization a long time ago, since the early 1990s. And these were completely different times, a completely different socio-political climate. And the organization itself, and the principles it declared, and its various concrete steps were quite compatible with my basic ideas about, so to speak, good and evil.
The final straw was the news of expulsion from PEN or other repressive measures against several of my colleagues. And not just colleagues, but frankly, friends. And not just like that, but with completely unacceptable formulations and assessments of their personal qualities.
I just can’t “swallow” this. And I express my decisive protest in the way I can, and in the way I consider necessary.
The leadership of PEN proudly reports that, despite the “destructive work of various destructive forces,” they allegedly managed to “avoid a split.” No, it didn't work. Unfortunately, it didn't work out at all.
The PEN Center, by definition, is a writers' organization, that is, consisting, as it were, of writers. And it is known that no one is as sensitive as a writer (if he is a writer) to issues of language and style, behind which the true essence, the true content (or the complete lack of content) of any statement is always guessed.
So, unfortunately, a split occurred. And it is obvious. And this split did not so much pass over the surface of ideological or political convictions - which may be different for everyone, and this is normal - but rather revealed a completely essential stylistic incompatibility. These same “stylistic discrepancies”, which were once, albeit for a slightly different reason, brilliantly formulated by Andrei Sinyavsky, at another historical turn and in other socio-cultural circumstances, indicated - at least for me - the irrelevance and painful ambiguity of my very belonging to an organization whose leadership speaks - including on my behalf - in such language.
A split has occurred. And, unfortunately, it will deepen. And it will go deeper not so much because of obvious ideological and moral differences and fundamental differences in views on the current social state of the country and the world, on the boundaries of compromise, on those boundaries, having crossed which, a human rights organization becomes openly servile, on the very role of the writer and artist in society . This goes without saying, but this is not the main thing. All this can be argued, talked about and agreed upon. But only on condition that the conversation takes place in a common language. But he’s not there.
Not having the temperament necessary for the “internal struggle”, I find nothing more appropriate than to simply leave this organization, simply to say goodbye to it, no matter how difficult and painful it may be for me, no matter how good the memories remain with me about many colleagues and employees.
Nina Katerli
Alexander Ilichevsky
wrote on his Facebook page
TWIMC. From today I am not on the list of members of PEN RF. I joined it only because I was invited by Lyudmila Ulitskaya, and I took this invitation as a kind of obligation. However, now I find it impossible to be a member of this organization.
Tatyana Bonch-Osmolovskaya
wrote on her Facebook page
I am leaving the Russian PEN Center because this organization does not fulfill the main task written in the Charter of the International PEN Club - to be a human rights organization for writers.
Gennady Kalashnikov
To the President of the Russian PEN Center
E. A. Popov.
To the Executive Committee of the Russian PEN Center.
From a member of the Russian PEN Center
Kalashnikova G.N.
STATEMENT
Due to disagreement with the procedure and decisions of the general meeting of the PEN Center, with punitive measures directed against our common colleagues, I declare my resignation from the membership of this organization.
Oleg Khlebnikov
I am deeply disgusted by what is happening at the Russian PEN Center. It turned from a human rights organization into a club for the writers' pseudo-elite. It seems to me that we need to announce the establishment of an alternative Moscow PEN.
Oleg Khlebnikov
Evgeniy Bunimovich about leaving the executive committee of the Russian PEN Center
Dear Colleagues!
All the years in PEN, I saw the meaning of my activity in uniting writers who, despite differences in opinions, ideas and preferences, are ready to together defend the principles of freedom of speech, to defend writers and poets, journalists and publishers who are being persecuted for their texts, words, thoughts. For some time it seemed to me that this was possible and achievable, but recent events indicate otherwise.
Of course, the boundaries between human rights activities and directly political activities are not obvious; there are many other complex problems. This can and should be discussed, negotiated, found a common language, and sought compromise, while the path of public mutual insults, exclusion from the organization and other “simple solutions” only leads to crisis and split.
Alas, today on both sides of the PEN barricades there are writers and poets whom I respect and love, with whom I have long-standing friendly, friendly relations, and I do not want to make an unnecessary, imposed choice between Zhenya, Leva, Igor, Lyusya, Andrey, Grisha, Marina, Varya, Sasha, Valera, Kostya, other Sasha, Seryozha, Volodya, Maxim, Yulik, Olga, Oleg, Ira, Timur, Efim, Natasha, Slava, Vlad.
Stopping my participation in the work of the governing bodies of the Russian PEN Center, I, of course, as before, will participate in the human rights activities of the writing community, advocating for freedom of speech, in defense of writers who are subject to repression for their views and books.
Yours Evgeniy Bunimovich
Evgeniy Sidorov about leaving the executive committee of the Russian PEN Center
IN THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE RUSSIAN PEN CENTER
As the first secretary of the Moscow Writers' Union, I was ready to work on the Executive Committee of the Russian PEN Center, hoping for close and fruitful cooperation between our Union and the famous human rights organization. Unfortunately, the latest decisions of the Executive Committee, taken without my participation, force me to leave this governing body of the PEN Center.
Evgeniy SIDOROV