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Svetlana Alexievich

スヴェトラーナ・アレクシエヴィチ

Svetlana Alexievich

Aliases: Svetlana Aleksievich / Sviatlana Alexievich / Svyatlana Alaksandrawna Aleksiyevich

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1948-05-31 （Stanislav (now Ivano-Frankivsk), Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union）
Nationality
Belarus
Languages
Russian
Residence History
Minsk, Belarus → Paris, France → Gothenburg, Sweden → Berlin, Germany → Left Belarus for Germany in 2020; has spent periods back in Minsk

Career

Occupations
journalist, essayist, oral historian, writer
Active Years
1972-2025
Affiliations
Belarusian PEN Center (elected chair 2019), Advisory committee, Lettre Ulysses Award, International Cities of Refuge Network (beneficiary of sanctuary)
Memberships
Belarusian PEN Center, Lettre Ulysses Award (advisory committee)
Influenced By
Ales Adamovich, Vasil Bykaŭ, Hanna Krall, Ryszard Kapuściński, Varlam Shalamov

Education

Belarusian State University
Faculty of Journalism
Degree: 学士
Period: 1968–1972
Year of Graduation: 1972
Country: Belarus (then part of the Soviet Union)
After graduation worked as a local reporter and later as a correspondent for a literary magazine

Awards

Nobel Prize in Literature
2015
Work: For her polyphonic writings (body of work)
Organization: Swedish Academy
Result: 受賞
Peace Prize of the German Book Trade
2013
Organization: German Book Trade (Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels)
Result: 受賞
Prix Médicis (essay)
2013
Work: Secondhand Time
Category: エッセイ
Organization: Prix Médicis committee
Result: 受賞
Order of Arts and Letters (Officer)
2014
Organization: French government
Result: 叙勲
National Book Critics Circle Award
2005
Work: Voices from Chernobyl
Organization: National Book Critics Circle
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

War's Unwomanly Face (The Unwomanly Face of War)

1985 oral history, documentary literature

A collage of testimonies from women who experienced World War II, offering a female perspective on war often omitted from conventional histories.

memory of warwomen's experiencestestimony and narrative
Translations
  • English translation available (The Unwomanly Face of War)

Zinky Boys (Boys in Zinc)

1991 oral history, documentary literature

Collected testimonies from participants, families and witnesses of the Soviet–Afghan War, portraying the human consequences of the conflict.

war traumastate vs individualdeath and loss
Translations
  • English translations available (Zinky Boys / Boys in Zinc)

Voices from Chernobyl

1997 oral history, non-fiction

An oral history compiling testimonies of victims, rescuers and evacuees of the Chernobyl disaster, documenting its human and social impact.

nuclear disasterradiation harmmemory and mourning
Translations
  • English translations available (Voices from Chernobyl / Chernobyl Prayer)

Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets

2013 documentary literature, oral history

A long-form oral history gathering voices about life after the fall of the Soviet Union, dealing with nostalgia, loss and societal change.

post-Soviet memorynostalgiapersonal testimony
Translations
  • English translation available (Secondhand Time)

Bibliography

  • U voyny ne zhenskoe litso (War's Unwomanly Face) (1985)
  • Poslednie svideteli (Last Witnesses) (1985)
  • Tsinkovye malchiki (Zinky Boys / Boys in Zinc) (1991)
  • Zacharovannye Smertyu (Enchanted by Death) (1993)
  • Chernobylskaya molitva (Voices from Chernobyl) (1997)
  • Vremya sekond khend (Secondhand Time) (2013)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
documentary literature built from edited oral testimonypolyphonic, multilayered narrativefactual yet lyrical approach to voices
Recurring Motifs
memory and traumawar and lossreconstruction of history through individual voicesfragmentation of the Soviet/post-Soviet grand narrative

Legacy

Internationally acclaimed for compiling testimonies to produce the emotional history of the Soviet and post-Soviet eras. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2015, the first writer from Belarus to receive it. Though she has faced political persecution at home and exclusion from curricula, she remains a central figure in documentary literature worldwide.

Quotes

  • If you look back at the whole of our history, both Soviet and post-Soviet, it is a huge common grave and a blood bath. An eternal dialog of the executioners and the victims... This is the theme of my books.
    Source: Interview / public statements (2015 and other sources) (2015)

Trivia

  • First Nobel Prize in Literature laureate from Belarus.
  • Writes primarily in Russian though of Belarusian-Ukrainian descent.
  • Known for establishing documentary literature built from oral testimonies.
  • Experienced political pressure in Belarus and spent periods living abroad.