Navalny and Putin, Two Poles of Russia
Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
What do we mean when we say Russia? Russia of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky? Russia of Lenin and Stalin, or Russia of Gorbachev? There are a lot of Russias. Today we have at least two. the Russia of Putin and the Russia of Navalny. What kind of future will we have after Putin?
Victor Erofeev is a prominent Russian writer. He became known worldwide for his novel Russian Beauty, published in 1989 and translated into 27 languages. In 1979, he was expelled from the Soviet Writers' Union for his participation in the literary tamizdat almanach Metropol, which included texts that were banned by Soviet censors. Erofeiev’s writing, particularly his novel Encyclopedia of the Russian Soul (1999), has been controversial among Russian nationalists. Erofeev's contributions to literature have earned him numerous accolades, including the Legion d'Honneur and the Ordre d’Art et Letters in France and the Kommandor Cross in Poland. Besides writing, Erofeiev has taught and lectured around the world in English, French, Russian, and Polish. He contributes regularly to German newspapers, including FAZ, Die Zeit, and Die Welt. In March 2022, Erofeiev left Russia and is now a professor of literature at Luneburg University in Germany. In April 2023, he published a collection of essays titled Naked Russia, dedicated to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. In his most recent work, The Great Gopnik (published in 2023 by Matthes & Seitz), he relates his biography to that of Vladimir Putin.