Top 15 literary awards, the laureates and nominees of which are worth paying close attention to. If you're wondering what to read, take a look here!
1. National Literary Award " Big book»
The prize was established in 2005 and is one of the most prestigious awards awarded for works of large form published in Russian in the reporting year.
The prize winners over the years were Dmitry Bykov, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Leonid Yuzefovich, Vladimir Makanin, Pavel Basinsky, Mikhail Shishkin, Zakhar Prilepin.
The award jury consists of about 100 people, which ensures the independence and breadth of the award’s expertise. The monetary fund is 5.5 million rubles, of which 3 million goes to the first prize winner. Becoming a winner of this award means not only attracting reader attention to the book, but also increasing consumer demand.
2. Nobel Prize in Literature
On the one hand, the prize, established by the Swedish chemical engineer, inventor of dynamite and industrialist Alfred Nobel, is the most prestigious in the world. On the other hand, it is one of the most controversial, criticized and discussed prizes in the world. Many critics consider the award to be politicized and biased. However, whatever one may say, the writer to whom it is awarded wakes up in the morning famous throughout the world, and sales of his books increase sharply.
Russian writers received the prize five times: 1933 - Bunin, 1958 - Pasternak (who refused the prize), 1965 - Sholokhov, 1970 - Solzhenitsyn, 1987 - Brodsky.
3. Pulitzer Prize
One of the most honorable US awards in the fields of literature, journalism, music and theater, invariably attracting the interest of readers around the world.
4. Booker Prize
It is rightfully considered one of the most prestigious literary prizes awarded for a work written in English. Salman Rushdie, Richard Flanagan, Kazuo Ishiguro, Iris Murdoch, Julian Barnes, Coetzee, Ondaatje and many others. The list of laureates since 1969 is impressive, some of them later becoming Nobel laureates in literature.
5. Prix Goncourt for Literature
France's main literary prize, established in 1896 and awarded since 1902, is awarded to the author of the best novel or collection of short stories of the year. French, but not necessarily living in France. The prize fund is symbolic, but its award brings fame, recognition and increased sales of his books to the author.
The prize winners were Marcel Proust (1919), Maurice Druon (1948), Simone de Beauvoir (1954).
6. Yasnaya Polyana Award
Established in 2003 by the museum-estate of L. N. Tolstoy “Yasnaya Polyana” with the support of Samsung Electronics.
Awarded in four categories: “ Modern classics", "XXI Century" - the winner of 2015 was "Zuleikha Opens Her Eyes" by Guzeli Yakhina, "Childhood. Adolescence. Youth" and "Foreign Literature".
7. “Enlightener” Award
The Enlightener Award for the best popular science book in Russian was established in 2008 by the founder and Honorary President of the Vimpelcom company (Beeline trademark) Dmitry Zimin and the Dynasty Non-profit Program Fund in order to attract readers' attention to the educational genre, encouragement authors and creating the prerequisites for expanding the market of educational literature in Russia.
8. Writer of the Year Award
The National Literary Award "Writer of the Year" was established by the Russian Union of Writers with the aim of finding new talented authors who can contribute to modern literature. Laureates receive contracts to publish their works, financed by the Russian Writers' Union. The competitive selection of authors is carried out on the literary portal Proza.ru.
9. National Award"Russian Booker"
The prize was established in 1992 on the initiative of the British Council in Russia as a Russian analogue of the Booker Prize and is awarded for best novel in Russian, published in the reporting year. Its laureates were Bulat Okudzhava, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Vasily Aksenov.
10. Award " National bestseller»
Established in 2001. The motto of the award is: “Wake up famous.” “The purpose of the award is to reveal the otherwise unclaimed market potential of prose works distinguished by high artistry and/or other merits.”
The prize winners were Leonid Yuzefovich, Zakhar Prilepin, Dmitry Bykov, Victor Pelevin.
11. “NOS” Award
Established in 2009 by the Mikhail Prokhorov Foundation “to identify and support new trends in modern literary literature in Russian.” Main feature awards - openness of the decision-making process, namely: the jury is obliged to publicly justify the choice of finalists and winner in the framework of a talk show in the presence and with the participation of journalists, writers and the cultural community. In addition to the winner of the main prize, the winner of the reader's vote is also determined.
12. “BOOK” Award
All-Russian competition for the best literary work for children and youth, where the final decision is made by a jury consisting of young readers aged 10 to 16 years.
13. “Debut” Award
An independent literary prize for authors writing in Russian and not older than 35 years. Established in 2000 by Andrey Skoch’s Generation Foundation. The award coordinator is writer Olga Slavnikova. It is important that a contract for the publication of his work is concluded with the prize winner in each category.
14. Book of the Year Award
Established in 1999 by the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications. Awarded during the MIBF in nine categories.
15. International Children's Literary Award named after Vladislav Krapivin
Established in 2006 by the Ural Writers Association. The prize accepts works for children and teenagers. It is important that the work be written in Russian with a volume of at least 1.5 author’s pages (60 thousand characters with spaces).
Dedicated to the great Russian writers.
From October 21 to November 21, 2015, the Library and Information Complex invites you to the exhibition, dedicated to creativity Nobel laureates in literature from Russia and the USSR.
Nobel Prize in literature in 2015 received Belarusian writer. The award was awarded to Svetlana Alexievich with the following wording: “For her polyphonic creativity - a monument to suffering and courage in our time.” At the exhibition we also presented works by Svetlana Alexandrovna.
The exhibition can be viewed at the address: Leningradsky Prospekt, 49, 1st floor, room. 100.
The prizes, established by the Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, are considered the most honorable in the world. They are awarded annually (since 1901) for outstanding works in the field of medicine or physiology, physics, chemistry, for literary works, for contributions to strengthening peace, economics (since 1969).
The Nobel Prize in Literature is an award for achievements in the field of literature, awarded annually by the Nobel Committee in Stockholm on December 10. According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, candidates can be nominated the following persons: members of the Swedish Academy, other academies, institutes and societies with similar tasks and goals; university professors of literary history and linguistics; Nobel Prize laureates in literature; chairmen of authors' unions representing literary creativity in the respective countries.
Unlike laureates of other prizes (for example, physics and chemistry), the decision to award the Nobel Prize in Literature is made by members of the Swedish Academy. The Swedish Academy unites 18 Swedish figures. The Academy includes historians, linguists, writers and one lawyer. They are known in society as "Eighteen". Membership in the academy is for life. After the death of one of the members, the academicians elect a new academician by secret vote. The Academy selects a Nobel Committee from among its members. It is he who deals with the issue of awarding the prize.
Nobel laureates in literature from Russia and the USSR :
- I. A. Bunin(1933 "For the strict skill with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose")
- B.L. Parsnip(1958 "For significant achievements in modern lyric poetry, as well as for continuing the traditions of the great Russian epic novel")
- M. A. Sholokhov(1965 "For the artistic strength and honesty with which he depicted in his Don epic historical era in the life of the Russian people")
- A. I. Solzhenitsyn(1970 "For the moral strength with which he followed the immutable traditions of Russian literature")
- I. A. Brodsky(1987 "For comprehensive creativity, imbued with clarity of thought and passion of poetry")
Russian literature laureates are people with different, sometimes opposing, views. I. A. Bunin and A. I. Solzhenitsyn are staunch opponents Soviet power, and M.A. Sholokhov, on the contrary, is a communist. However, the main thing they have in common is their undoubted talent, for which they were awarded Nobel Prizes.
Ivan Alekseevich Bunin - famous Russian writer and poet, outstanding master of realistic prose, honorary member St. Petersburg Academy Sci. In 1920, Bunin emigrated to France.
The most difficult thing for a writer in exile is to remain himself. It happens that, having left his homeland due to the need to make dubious compromises, he is again forced to kill his spirit in order to survive. Fortunately, Bunin escaped this fate. Despite any trials, Bunin always remained true to himself.
In 1922, Ivan Alekseevich’s wife, Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva, wrote in her diary that Romain Rolland nominated Bunin for the Nobel Prize. From then on, Ivan Alekseevich lived with hopes that someday he would be awarded this prize. 1933 On November 10, all newspapers in Paris came out with large headlines: “Bunin - Nobel laureate.” Every Russian in Paris, even the loader at the Renault plant, who had never read Bunin, took this as a personal holiday. Because my compatriot turned out to be the best, the most talented! In the Parisian taverns and restaurants that evening there were Russians, who sometimes drank for “one of their own” with their last pennies.
On the day the prize was awarded, November 9, Ivan Alekseevich Bunin watched the “cheerful stupidity” “Baby” in the cinema. Suddenly the darkness of the hall was cut through by a narrow beam of a flashlight. They were looking for Bunin. He was called by telephone from Stockholm.
“And immediately my whole old life ends. I go home quite quickly, but without feeling anything other than regret that I was not able to watch the film. But no. I can’t help but believe: the whole house is glowing with lights. And my heart squeezes with some kind of sadness ... Some kind of turning point in my life,” recalled I. A. Bunin.
Exciting days in Sweden. IN concert hall in the presence of the king, after the report of the writer, member of the Swedish Academy Peter Hallström about the work of Bunin, he was given a folder with Nobel diploma, medal and check for 715 thousand French francs.
When presenting the award, Bunin noted that the Swedish Academy acted very bravely by awarding the emigrant writer. Among the contenders for this year’s prize was another Russian writer, M. Gorky, however, largely thanks to the publication of the book “The Life of Arsenyev” by that time, the scales nevertheless tipped in the direction of Ivan Alekseevich.
Returning to France, Bunin feels rich and, sparing no expense, distributes “benefits” to emigrants and donates funds to support various societies. Finally, on the advice of well-wishers, he invests the remaining amount in a “win-win business” and is left with nothing.
Bunin’s friend, poetess and prose writer Zinaida Shakhovskaya, in her memoir book “Reflection,” noted: “With skill and a small amount of practicality, the prize should have been enough to the end. But the Bunins did not buy either an apartment or a villa...”
Unlike M. Gorky, A. I. Kuprin, A. N. Tolstoy, Ivan Alekseevich did not return to Russia, despite the admonitions of the Moscow “messengers”. I never came to my homeland, not even as a tourist.
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (1890-1960) was born in Moscow into a family famous artist Leonid Osipovich Pasternak. Mother, Rosalia Isidorovna, was a talented pianist. Maybe that’s why, as a child, the future poet dreamed of becoming a composer and even studied music with Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin. However, the love of poetry won out. B. L. Pasternak's fame was brought by his poetry, and his bitter trials by "Doctor Zhivago", a novel about the fate of the Russian intelligentsia.
The editors of the literary magazine, to which Pasternak offered the manuscript, considered the work anti-Soviet and refused to publish it. Then the writer transferred the novel abroad, to Italy, where it was published in 1957. The very fact of publication in the West was sharply condemned by Soviet creative colleagues, and Pasternak was expelled from the Writers' Union. However, it was Doctor Zhivago that made Boris Pasternak a Nobel laureate. The writer was nominated for the Nobel Prize starting in 1946, but was awarded it only in 1958, after the release of the novel. The conclusion of the Nobel Committee says: "... for significant achievements both in modern lyric poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition."
At home, the award of such an honorary prize to an “anti-Soviet novel” aroused the indignation of the authorities, and under the threat of deportation from the country, the writer was forced to refuse the award. Only 30 years later, his son, Evgeniy Borisovich Pasternak, received a diploma and a Nobel laureate medal for his father.
The fate of another Nobel laureate, Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn, is no less dramatic. He was born in 1918 in Kislovodsk, and his childhood and youth were spent in Novocherkassk and Rostov-on-Don. After graduating from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Rostov University, A.I. Solzhenitsyn taught and at the same time studied by correspondence at the Literary Institute in Moscow. When did the Great Patriotic War, the future writer went to the front.
Shortly before the end of the war, Solzhenitsyn was arrested. The reason for the arrest was critical remarks against Stalin, found by military censorship in Solzhenitsyn's letters. He was released after Stalin's death (1953). In 1962 the magazine " New world" published his first story - "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", which tells about the life of prisoners in the camp. Most of the subsequent works literary magazines refused to print. There was only one explanation: anti-Soviet orientation. However, the writer did not give up and sent the manuscripts abroad, where they were published. Alexander Isaevich did not limit himself literary activity- he fought for the freedom of political prisoners in the USSR, and sharply criticized the Soviet system.
Literary works and political position A.I. Solzhenitsyn were well known abroad, and in 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize. The writer did not go to Stockholm for the award ceremony: he was not allowed to leave the country. Representatives of the Nobel Committee, who wanted to present the prize to the laureate at home, were not allowed into the USSR.
In 1974, A.I. Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the country. First he lived in Switzerland, then moved to the USA, where, with a significant delay, he was awarded the Nobel Prize. Such works as “In the First Circle”, “The Gulag Archipelago”, “August 1914”, “Cancer Ward” were published in the West. In 1994, A. Solzhenitsyn returned to his homeland, traveling across all of Russia, from Vladivostok to Moscow.
The fate of Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov, the only one of the Russian laureates Nobel Prize in Literature, who was supported government bodies. M. A. Sholokhov (1905-1980) was born in the south of Russia, on the Don - in the center Russian Cossacks. My small homeland- the village of Kruzhilin of the village of Veshenskaya - he later described it in many works. Sholokhov graduated from only four classes of the gymnasium. He actively participated in the events of the civil war, led a food detachment that took away the so-called surplus grain from rich Cossacks.
Already in his youth, the future writer felt an inclination to literary creativity. In 1922, Sholokhov came to Moscow, and in 1923 he began publishing his first stories in newspapers and magazines. In 1926, the collections “Don Stories” and “Azure Steppe” were published. Work on "Quiet Don" - a novel about the life of the Don Cossacks in the era of the Great Turning Point (First world war, revolutions and civil war) - began in 1925. In 1928, the first part of the novel was published, and Sholokhov completed it in the 30s. " Quiet Don"became the pinnacle of the writer's creativity, and in 1965 he was awarded the Nobel Prize "for the artistic strength and completeness with which he epic work about the Don reflected a historical phase in the life of the Russian people." "Quiet Don" has been translated in 45 countries around the world into several dozen languages.
By the time he received the Nobel Prize, Joseph Brodsky’s bibliography included six collections of poems, the poem “Gorbunov and Gorchakov,” the play “Marble,” and many essays (written mainly in English). However, in the USSR, from where the poet was expelled in 1972, his works were distributed mainly in samizdat, and he received the prize while already a citizen of the United States of America.
A spiritual connection with his homeland was important to him. He kept Boris Pasternak's tie as a relic and even wanted to wear it to the Nobel Prize ceremony, but protocol rules did not allow it. Nevertheless, Brodsky still came with Pasternak’s tie in his pocket. After perestroika, Brodsky was invited to Russia more than once, but he never came to his homeland, which rejected him. “You can’t step into the same river twice, even if it’s the Neva,” he said.
From Brodsky’s Nobel Lecture: “A person with taste, particularly literary taste, is less susceptible to repetition and rhythmic incantations characteristic of any form of political demagoguery. The point is not so much that virtue is no guarantee of a masterpiece as that evil, especially political evil, is always a poor stylist. The richer the aesthetic experience of an individual, the firmer his taste, the clearer his moral choice, the freer he is - although perhaps not happier. It is in this applied rather than platonic sense that one should understand Dostoevsky’s remark that “beauty will save the world,” or Matthew Arnold’s statement that “poetry will save us.” The world probably won't be able to be saved, but individual person It’s always possible.”
IN literary world A wide variety of prizes are awarded: in the field of poetry and prose, drama and science fiction, lyricism and detective fiction. However, not every prize testifies to the quality of the literature that was awarded.
Generally recognized awards are collected in our Top 10 most prestigious literary awards. From among the winners of these awards, you can safely choose books worthy of reading.
The award was established in the United States by emigrants from Russia in 1999. It is awarded for contribution to the development of Russian-American culture and strengthening international ties between countries. The laureates were V. Aksenov, M. Epstein, V. Bachanyan, O. Vasiliev.
9. Prize H.K. Andersen
This prize is awarded in the field of children's literature, both for the works themselves and for illustrations to them. The prize winners were Astrid Lindgren, Tove Jansson, Gianni Rodari.
8.
The annual award in the field of literature is presented to laureates selected both by popular vote and by an expert commission. Holders book prize Runet 2013 has already been named on the pages.
7. Russian Booker
This prize is awarded for the best novel in Russian. The laureates of the Russian Booker were Bulat Okudzhava, Lyudmila Ulitskaya and Vasily Aksenov. Along with the main prize, the “Student Booker” is also awarded, the jury of which includes undergraduate and graduate students.
6. Southeast Asian Literary Award
This international literary prize recognizes the best poetry and prose works authors from ASEAN countries. The Chairman of the Prize Organizing Committee is the Prince of Thailand, Prem Purachatra.
5. ABS premium
The Arkady and Boris Strugatsky Prize is awarded for best works in the field of fiction, written in Russian. The award winners are Evgeny Lukin, Kir Bulychev, Dmitry Bykov.
4. Booker Prize
For many, this prize is the most prestigious in the world of English-language literature. The winner is awarded a check for 50,000 British pounds. Four times in history, Booker laureates have also received the Nobel Prize in Literature.
3. Prix Goncourt
The French literary prize has been awarded annually since 1903. According to the statute, the prize can be awarded to any author only once during his lifetime. Over the years, the Prix Goncourt was awarded to Marcel Proust, Simone de Beauvoir, and Alphonse de Chateaubriand.
2. Pulitzer Prize
This American prize has been awarded since 1911. The main prize is 10 thousand US dollars. Despite the fact that laureates almost never appear on book bestseller lists, the prize is considered one of the most prestigious in the literary world.
1. Nobel Prize in Literature
This prestigious award is given annually for achievements in the field of literature. The winners are mainly writers from Europe and the United States, so the award is often criticized for bias. Among Russian authors, Boris Pasternak, Mikhail Sholokhov, and Alexander Solzhenitsyn received the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Only five Russian writers have received the prestigious international Nobel Prize. For three of them, this brought not only worldwide fame, but also widespread persecution, repression and expulsion. Only one of them was approved by the Soviet government, and its last owner was “forgiven” and invited to return to his homeland.
Nobel Prize- one of the most prestigious awards, which is awarded annually for outstanding scientific research, significant inventions and significant contributions to culture and the development of society. There is one comical, but not accidental story connected with its establishment. It is known that the founder of the prize, Alfred Nobel, is also famous for the fact that it was he who invented dynamite (pursuing, however, pacifist goals, since he believed that opponents armed to the teeth would understand the stupidity and senselessness of the war and stop the conflict). When his brother Ludwig Nobel died in 1888, and newspapers mistakenly “buried” Alfred Nobel, calling him a “merchant of death,” the latter seriously wondered how society would remember him. As a result of these thoughts, Alfred Nobel changed his will in 1895. And it said the following:
“All my movable and immovable property must be converted by my executors into liquid assets, and the capital thus collected must be placed in a reliable bank. The income from the investments should belong to a fund, which will distribute them annually in the form of bonuses to those who, during the previous year, have brought the greatest benefit to humanity... The said interest must be divided into five equal parts, which are intended: one part - to the one who makes the most important discovery or invention in the field of physics; the other - to the one who makes the most important discovery or improvement in the field of chemistry; the third - to the one who makes the most important discovery in the field of physiology or medicine; the fourth - to the one who creates the most outstanding literary work of an idealistic direction; fifth - to the one who will make the most significant contribution to the unity of nations, the abolition of slavery or the reduction of the size of existing armies and the promotion of peaceful congresses ... It is my special desire that in awarding prizes, no consideration will be given to the nationality of the candidates ... ".
Medal awarded to a Nobel laureate
After conflicts with Nobel’s “deprived” relatives, the executors of his will - his secretary and lawyer - established the Nobel Foundation, whose responsibilities included organizing the presentation of bequeathed prizes. A separate institution was created to award each of the five prizes. So, Nobel Prize in literature came under the purview of the Swedish Academy. Since then, the Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded annually since 1901, except for 1914, 1918, 1935 and 1940-1943. It is interesting that upon delivery Nobel Prize Only the names of the laureates are announced; all other nominations are kept secret for 50 years.
Swedish Academy building
Despite the apparent disinterest Nobel Prize, dictated by the philanthropic instructions of Nobel himself, many “left” political forces still see obvious politicization and some Western cultural chauvinism in the awarding of the prize. It's hard not to notice that the vast majority Nobel laureates come from the USA and European countries(more than 700 laureates), while the number of laureates from the USSR and Russia is much smaller. Moreover, there is a point of view that the majority of Soviet laureates were awarded the prize only for criticism of the USSR.
Nevertheless, these five Russian writers are laureates Nobel Prize according to literature:
Ivan Alekseevich Bunin- laureate of 1933. The prize was awarded “for the strict mastery with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose.” Bunin received the prize while in exile.
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak- laureate of 1958. The prize was awarded “for significant achievements in modern lyric poetry, as well as for continuing the traditions of the great Russian epic novel.” This prize is associated with the anti-Soviet novel “Doctor Zhivago”, therefore, in conditions of severe persecution, Pasternak is forced to refuse it. The medal and diploma were awarded to the writer’s son Evgeniy only in 1988 (the writer died in 1960). It is interesting that in 1958 this was the seventh attempt to present Pasternak with the prestigious prize.
Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov- laureate of 1965. The prize was awarded “For the artistic strength and integrity of the epic about Don Cossacks at a turning point for Russia." This award has a long history. Back in 1958, a delegation of the USSR Writers' Union that visited Sweden contrasted the European popularity of Pasternak with the international popularity of Sholokhov, and in a telegram to the Soviet ambassador in Sweden dated April 7, 1958 it was said:
“It would be desirable to make it clear to the Swedish public through cultural figures close to us that the Soviet Union would highly appreciate the award Nobel Prize Sholokhov... It is also important to make it clear that Pasternak as a writer does not enjoy recognition among Soviet writers and progressive writers in other countries.”
Contrary to this recommendation, Nobel Prize in 1958, it was nevertheless awarded to Pasternak, which resulted in severe disapproval of the Soviet government. But in 1964 from Nobel Prize Jean-Paul Sartre refused, explaining, among other things, his personal regret that Sholokhov was not awarded the prize. It was this gesture of Sartre that predetermined the choice of the laureate in 1965. Thus, Mikhail Sholokhov became the only Soviet writer who received Nobel Prize with the consent of the top leadership of the USSR.
Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn- laureate of 1970. The prize was awarded “for the moral strength with which he followed the immutable traditions of Russian literature.” From the beginning creative path Solzhenitsyn only 7 years passed before the prize was awarded - this is the only similar case in the history of the Nobel Committee. Solzhenitsyn himself spoke about the political aspect of awarding him the prize, but the Nobel Committee denied this. However, after Solzhenitsyn received the prize, a propaganda campaign was organized against him in the USSR, and in 1971, an attempt was made to physically destroy him when he was injected with a toxic substance, after which the writer survived, but was ill for a long time.
Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky- laureate of 1987. The prize was awarded “for comprehensive creativity, imbued with clarity of thought and passion of poetry.” Awarding the prize to Brodsky no longer caused such controversy as many other decisions of the Nobel Committee, since Brodsky by that time was known in many countries. In his first interview after he was awarded the prize, he himself said: “It was received by Russian literature, and it was received by an American citizen.” And even the weakened Soviet government, shaken by perestroika, began to establish contacts with the famous exile.
The boom in literary awards in Russia is a sign of the last 20 years, but it cannot be said that they were invented only now. What if not a bonus were, for example, rings, snuff boxes and other valuable gifts, which Emperor Alexander I loved to give to writers in abundance. It is known that in 1802 alone, the tsar spent an amount unheard of at that time on encouraging writers - 160 thousand rubles .
Direct continuation imperial tradition became the main one Soviet prize- Stalin's. Now this is rarely remembered, but at first its fund was formed from the fees that Stalin received for publishing his works in different countries. That is, it was also a personal royal reward of 100 thousand rubles. After the death of the leader Stalin Prizes replaced by Lenin (10 thousand rubles) and State (5 thousand). This was an amount sufficient to buy a car.
The era of independent awards began in 1991 with the establishment of the Russian Booker. Russian literature then received reinforcements in the form of British money. The Booker Prize itself is of British origin, its name comes from the name of the Booker company, famous for the production of canned vegetables. In the early 1990s, Booker’s agents drew attention to the huge field of activity that Russian literature represented, but there was no clearly defined material gain being pursued. As with most other literary awards, by the way, their founders are driven more by image considerations.
“Russian Booker” did not remain the only major prize for long. In 1995, the management of Nezavisimaya Gazeta (and in fact, its owner Boris Berezovsky) established a competing award, which was called Anti-Booker. Its size was $12,001, that is, a dollar more than that of the Russian Booker. In 2001, with increased pressure on Berezovsky and the initiation of criminal cases against him, Anti-Booker ceased to exist.
But by that time, players began to appear one after another on the field of Russian literary awards. To date, their number has reached six hundred. Trud recalled the main ones.
Established in November 2005.
Prize fund: Positioning prize fund 5.5 million rubles, is one of the largest in the world. The size of the first prize is 3 million rubles, the second - 1.5 million, the third - 1 million.
Who gives money: founders are the Ministry of Culture, Rospechat, the Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, but the monetary component is mainly provided by Gazprom.
Distinctive feature: bonuses are not only works of art, but also literature in the non-fiction genre.
Established in 2008 on the personal initiative of Anatoly Chubais.
Prize fund: one prize of 50 thousand dollars is awarded.
Who gives money: at first it was supported by RAO UES of Russia; after Chubais left there, it came under the wing of the Future Energy fund, specially established by the businessman.
Distinctive feature: only living people can become laureates modern poets. Among the laureates are Sergei Gandlevsky, Timur Kibirov, Alexander Kushner.
Established in September 2003.
Prize fund: the prize in the “Modern Classics” nomination is equal to 900 thousand rubles, in the “ Literature XXI century" - 750 thousand.
Who gives money: established by the Leo Tolstoy Estate Museum in Yasnaya Polyana and the South Korean company Samsung Electronics, which sponsors the award.
Distinctive feature: supports works modern authors, developing humanistic ideas Leo Tolstoy.
Established in 1998 by Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
Prize fund: 25 thousand dollars.
Who gives money: The Alexander Solzhenitsyn Foundation, founded by the writer in 1974 and collecting royalties from all editions of his book “The Gulag Archipelago”.
Distinctive feature: awarded to writers living in Russia who created their works after the 1917 revolution. Genres: prose, poetry, drama, literary criticism and literary criticism.
Established in March 2009.
Prize fund: 700 thousand rubles. Reader's Choice Award - 200 thousand rubles.
Who gives money: established by the Mikhail Prokhorov Foundation. Part of the Book World project, led by publisher Irina Prokhorova.
Distinctive feature: created to support new trends in modern Russian literature.
Established in December 1991.
Prize fund: 12 thousand dollars.
Who gives money: main sponsor is British Petroleum.
Distinctive feature: being the first post-Soviet prize, it is distinguished by its emphasis on dissident literature. Among the laureates are Vasily Aksenov, Georgy Vladimov.
Established in 2001 on the initiative of literary critic Viktor Toporov.
Prize fund: 10 thousand dollars.
Who gives money: The award fund is formed from the funds of the investment and construction company “Vistcom”.
Distinctive feature: honors the best novel of the year. Information about which of the nominees nominates whom is open.
The biggest prizes in the world
Nobel (Sweden) - 1.05 million euros
Chino del Duca (France) - 300 thousand euros
Dublin (Ireland) - 100 thousand euros
IMPAC (Ireland - USA) - 100 thousand euros
“Miguel de Cervantes” (Spain) - 90 thousand euros
Goethe Prize (Germany) - 50 thousand euros
Writers who made the most money from awards
Lyudmila Ulitskaya
3.35 million rubles
The novels “The Case of Kukotsky” and “Daniel Stein, Translator” were awarded by the “Russian Booker” (2001) and the “Big Book” (2007).
Dmitry Bykov
3 million rubles
The biographical novel “Boris Pasternak” was awarded the “Big Book” and “National Bestseller” awards in 2006.
Mikhail Shishkin
1.3 million rubles
The novel "Venus's Hair" was awarded the "Big Book" award in 2006 and the "National Bestseller" award in 2005.
Lyudmila Saraskina
2.25 million rubles
Her biography “Alexander Solzhenitsyn” was awarded the “Big Book” and “Yasnaya Polyana” prizes in 2008.
