Alexievich on the role of intellectuals

Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich in the program "TOK" mentioned the case when a teacher tore up her portrait in front of the children. And told why she believes that not all is lost:

"A few years ago there was such a thing. The teacher told everyone to write about their favorite author. And one of the high school studentы wrote about me. She comes to class with a picture of me. And in front of the kids she rips up the picture. And says that I'm a fascist, a Russophobe, the whole arsenal.

And the children are silent. And it looks like a disaster. It's the children who take it all in. But there was someone, a boy or a girl, who took a picture of it. And we saw her doing it."

"The business of the elite to which we belong is to draw conclusions and materials for reflection and for the future. So that young people who grow up somewhere will think about it," the writer adds.  "People is a very big concept. It is a lot of different things. We must help the bright to be strong".

In 2020, Svetlana Alexievich joined the main body of the newly created Coordinating Council. After being summoned for questioning by the Investigative Committee and having her house visited by law enforcement officers (foreign ambassadors came to protect the Nobel Prize winner), she was forced to leave Belarus.

Now 76, Alexievich lives in Berlin. She has been writing a new book for several years.