Ukraine now clung to the handrail of the last car of the present, – Igor Pomerantsev
Writer, journalist and human rights activist Igor Pomerantsev told to Focus on his “sense of Ukraine” about the wine dissidence and erotic relationship with language
Writer, journalist, human rights activist, Igor Pomerantsev was born in 1948 in Saratov, with the five years he lived in Chernivtsi, where he graduated from high school and the faculty of romance and Germanic Philology at Chernivtsi University. Worked as a school teacher in the Carpathian village of Selyatyn, in Kiev, translator in the patent office. In 1976, the KGB arrested on charges of possessing and distributing anti-Soviet literature. In 1978 emigrated with his family in Germany. In 1980 he moved to London, a British subject. Worked in the “Russian service” Bi-Bi-si, 1987 — on the radio “Freedom” (London, Munich), since 1995 lives in Prague; moderator of radio “Over the barriers”. One of the founders of the literary festival Meridian Czernowitz and the literary prize for translators Metaphora.
Tell us about your “sense of Ukraine”: it has always been or appeared over time?
Patriotism or a sense of home appears in critical situations. The childhood and youth of the home resemble sporting events. Turns out, you’re rooting for her. So, is “their” and “their”. The decisive event for understanding of “homeland” may become the war, the enemy’s aggression. Creative writing requires thinking about tools first and foremost about language. It’s hard for me to overestimate the presence in the Ukrainian language. He lives in my Russian: intonational, lexical, emotionally. In England there is no dispute, any writer to consider Walter Scott or R. L. Stevenson. Yes, they wrote in English. But in all guides they are called Scottish writers. So from the English point of view, N. Gogol — Ukrainian writer. We do not live only in the here and now, but also in historical time. And it is changing our optics, corrects the scale of values. Astronomer Copernicus in the head would not come to consider themselves “Polish”. He wrote in Latin and German. In XV‒XVI centuries there was no concept of “national”. Copernicus was a European humanist, he studied in Bologna, taught in Rome, in Padua, after he lived in the Episcopal castle. I would be curious to fly a time machine in the XXII century and to dig in future dictionaries. Suddenly I find in them a modest place, and then I’ll know who I was: Ukrainian, Russian, Jewish, Tatar, British, or only the father of the British writer Peter Pomerantsev.
A “feeling of Europe” — as it echoes and intersects with a “sense of Ukraine”?
— As a rule, the concept of “the West”, “Europe” is a metaphor. They often operate, but it is “rough” operation. The meaning of Europe in polyphony, the coexistence of different. Imagine the faces of Irish, Italian, Byelorussian, Udmurt, and you’ll understand what I’m talking about. I have long referred Bukovina to the space, which is called “Far the Mediterranean”. Bukovina was always part of the States bordering the Mediterranean basin. So the “my Europe” is a huge Mediterranean oecumene, and Ukraine registered in it.
Igor Pomerantsev: “In the culture — Ukrainian and Russian — I’m the dissident, Yes, wine dissident in vodka and gorelochnoe cultures. So pay to stand somewhere on the side, and decent people jostle in rumochnaia”
You are a patriot of Chernivtsi, what is special about this city?
— I often speak and write about their city. I will say that before had spoken. As a child I did not understand what a huge role education plays in architecture. Architecture is a way of life. People build the city as much as their heart desires, so that soul feel “at home”. Chernivtsi is a city of bourgeois architecture. In the bourgeois era people want to live comfortable and spacious. I think that the bourgeoisie is the most creative and at the same time the most versatile team in the history of mankind. Architecture of Chernivtsi made me vaccinated individualism. In the bourgeois city you free, but it does not deprive you of a sense of duty and demands of himself.
As far as Ukraine is a European country and what’s annoying is it neuropahty?
— We traditionally mean by the word “European” is something positive. Meanwhile, Europe has its losers, its repetition, “vorovaiki”. Even eighty years ago such a “repetition” was Germany. Young, Thomas Mann wrote critically about “the West” that is about the Anglo-Saxon world, and proud to say that Germany and her spirituality opposed to materialistic “West.” Anything filled with blood the whole of Europe, they themselves drowned in the blood, and become a benchmark in the “West”. God forbid such a price to pay for joining the “European club”. Ukraine grabbed the handrail of the last car of our time. Here she is, climbing with all his might, almost in the vestibule. I 35 years ago, I wrote in German the following verses:
Gripping the handrail of the car
fleshy hand
she climbs into the vestibule.
She doesn’t care that the whole station
sees her panties.
Sits down, pulls out a bag
hard-boiled eggs, thumps on the table.
What is the name of the aunt?
— Eastern Europe.
Now it is not “aunt”, it looks quite comme Il faut. But what’s in his head? Yes, all sorts of things. It is very difficult to get used to the fact that the state is not an enemy, but a part of you, and you are a part of the state. The process of docking, customization, fine tuning.
Mental is different than Eastern Europe from the Central and Western?
Is too General. It’s all different communities. For example, Slovakia — the homeland of clerical fascism. Poland is by nature passionate, and if she is unable to compete with Western leaders, it can try to become the leader of destructive processes. It all depends on the proportions of constructive and destructive to the national psyche, from what is more: the will to live or will to die.
Igor Pomerantsev: “I would be curious to fly a time machine in the XXII century and to dig in future dictionaries. Suddenly I know who I was: Ukrainian, Russian, Jewish, Tatar, British, or only the father of the British writer Peter Pomerantsev”
When you first felt like a dissident?
— That I am a dissident, first learned of the interrogation to the KGB. I think it’s ridiculous to feel an outcast. But in the culture — Ukrainian and Russian — I’m the dissident, Yes, wine dissident in vodka and gorelochnoe cultures. So pay to stand somewhere on the sidelines, and good people are pounded in a bar. I broke away from his roots: my great-grandfather Ivan Andreevich Kovalev served as a publican at the tavern in Volchansk.
Your work on bi-Bi-si and “radio Liberty” is the continuing dissident activity or a different area?
Journalism is a profession. My dissent on the radio affected the choice of genres. I think radio kind of art, like the radio language, the plasticity of this language. How many unusual sounds I recorded and broadcast: sea lions, peacocks, cobras, jackals, leopards etc., etc. People also passed, but not much.
Have you ever wanted to go on TV? There were offers?
— Radio classics does not happen. Two or three years of not going on air, and you are no more. Twenty years ago I seriously thought about working in TV: I just love the genre leaps and risks. But it was too late: in fifty years of career in television don’t begin.
Your son, Peter Pomerantsev, like you, the journalist — a different generation. What his generation is like and not like yours?
Peter is a writer working in the genre of documentary prose, as Orwell or Kapuscinski. Among artistically talented people there are intellectuals, albeit rarely. I hope Peter will not become a scientist. We have more in common: our conversation seems to never end. But he, as a representative of his generation, besides British, konzervativna me. I’m for it too avant-garde.
It happens that you find it difficult to find him, his generation?
— In different ways. I remember Peter once, arriving from Moscow, where he worked as a television producer, told me: “I never before was familiar with the young people who even can not think a little bit to change the world for the better.” That’s close to me, this vision of the world. I find it hard to find a common language with the poets of my generation: they Rimoshevsky. They did not notice that the rhyme in modern verse killing poetry.
You write in Russian, you translate on Ukrainian, but they themselves go to the Ukrainian language in their work plan?
— I write in their native language. Of course, I can write a note in Ukrainian. In the fall of 1978 I came at the invitation of the Ukrainian version of “Freedom” in Munich. He wrote in Ukrainian, a few notes about secret Ukrainian poets. I edited the famous Ukrainian poet Igor Kachurovskii. He did not make any edits. But poetry is different, it’s erotic relationship with language.
Do you think that Russian language is already out of Moscow’s control?
English took root in North America, in Australia, in New Zealand. He won because he defeated the Anglo-Saxon model of democracy. The zone of influence of the Russian language skukozhivaetsya in the eyes, because Russia is now the flagship of the reaction. I’m really sorry. All writers are selfish, they want to read them as many readers as possible. But at my age readers enough. You know, Nobel prize winner Isaac Bashevis singer once asked: “Why do you write in Yiddish? It’s a dying language.” He replied: “Yiddish is dying for several centuries. But never succeeded in this.” I quote from memory.
Igor Pomerantsev: “the Zone of influence of the Russian language skukozhivaetsya in the eyes, because Russia is now the flagship reactions”
In today’s Ukraine Russian language — the language of the Soviet past, military present or future multilingual?
I do not know. In Ukraine it is a problem for people with Imperial psychology. They are driven by laziness, coupled with arrogance. To know the state language is the norm. All my Russian friends in Ukraine, well they read and speak Ukrainian, while Russian is their mother tongue.
You have about two dozen books in various genres — which one’s your favourite?
— I have four favorite books, but they are not yet available. They need to collect, edit, something to add. It’s the book of air, book of moisture, book soil and fire book. Turns out, I wrote them all my life.
When to expect your new book? What will it be?
— Finished the rough manuscript of the book “Notes on air fields” (radiogenic writer). I hope it will be released in 2018.
