Alexievich on the role of intellectuals

Speaking on Nasha Niva's TOK talk show, Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich mentioned a case when a teacher in a state-run school tore up her portrait in front of the children. The writer explained why she believed that not all was lost. She said:

"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 students 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 repertoire.

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

"The business of the elite to which we belong is to draw conclusions and materials for reflection and 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, amid the massive post-election protests, 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.