About Bashkiria
The meeting began with a conversation about Bashkortostan, with whom Alexei Ivanov has been associated since childhood.
– Bashkiria is a hospitable, well-groomed land, where you can see a lot, I pay tribute to its cultural and natural riches. For me personally, Bashkiria is a beautiful sunny country of my childhood. My parents were engaged in water tourism and they took me with them. The summer trip along the local rivers was the main event of the year. And before rafting, we always visited Ufa. And since then I have a very warm and sympathetic attitude towards the republic.
I fondly remember working on the Pitchfork book. I visited all the places associated with the Pugachev region, often in the hinterland, where I made amazing discoveries. Such, for example, was the museum of Kinya Arslanov in the village of Kinya-Abyz, on the edge of geography. I was even surprised that there are such wild places in Bashkiria.
Of course, I read historical materials about the Pugachev uprising. I was amazed at the depth with which his scientists study the history of their region, what fundamental generalization works there are. I used them too. I have a large library of thick books on the history and geography of Bashkortostan at home.
Local historians also dig very deep and extract amazing facts. But they are presented in small brochures with a circulation of one hundred copies, which are only sold in local museums. This information is not available anywhere else.
Who are you, Alexei Ivanov?
Alexey Ivanov is the author of urban prose, historical novels seasoned with legends, and highbrow thrillers. The language of one book is not similar to the language of another, and readers wonder who he is: a historian, a local historian, and does he write everything himself?
– I am a writer, a professional who tells interesting stories, – says Alexei Ivanov. – You can do this with reference to reality, or you can make it up entirely. I prefer the first. I am not a historian, I do not sit in the archives, I do not carry out archaeological expeditions, but I use the works of historians. If someone finds in my works some inconsistencies with historical truth, then these are echoes of a clash between historians. As an author, I have to take one side or the other. My works are not historical, but culturological, but history is presented in them in the most complete and objective way. For example, the book “Pitchfork” tells about the Pugachev rebellion from a cultural point of view.
The writer explained that he takes style very seriously. For each work he develops his own lexicon, dictionaries. For the “Gold of Riot” he compiled a dictionary of rafters. For “Tobol” there are even some – “Petrovsky Newspeak”, dictionaries of schismatics, foreigners, artillerymen. In addition, for each novel, collections of specific idioms of a particular stratum are formed.
– This is the normal job of a writer. If he does not do this, then he is working unprofessionally,-emphasized Alexey Ivanov.
facts and fantasy
– I like to add, if it helps the cause and, of course, I do it only in novels, and not in non-fiction books, where I rely a lot on documents. In novels, I can think, present a hypothesis in the form of a fact, the writer admits.
By the way, Ufa Dalia Khabibova drew attention to this in the new novel “Armored Steamships”. One of the stories takes place around the Arlanskoye camp in 1918.
“Considering that actually the Arlanskoye field was discovered in 1955 and released in 1958, I asked the writer’s official website whether it was true or fiction,” Dalia said. He replied that it was fiction. “Neither Gubkin nor the Nobels yet knew about the oil in Belaya. I thought that the story of the armored fleets alone would not be enough for the novel, it should be strengthened with stories about the Grand Duke Mikhail, about” Kolchak’s gold “and about the fight between the Nobel Prize winners and Shell” (more precisely, the shipping companies). Such an expansion would connect the theme of the river fleet with the theme of the industrial development of Russia, and I wrote a novel about progress, more precisely, about the ethics of preserving an unknown future.
At the meeting, Dalia gave the writer a photograph representing the places described in the book. She promised to hang the painting in her house.
Introducing “Armored Steamers”, the author emphasized that this is the first historical novel that did without mysticism, it would not be organic there. A book about the river fleet.
– I am the son of river engineers, river boats are one of the main memories of my childhood. He lived in a district called Vodniki, where everything was related to ship repair and shipyards. He knew the history of the river fleet quite well, and the civil war was the brightest page for him.
The theme will continue in the new novel, which the writer is currently working on. The book is divided into two parts: before and after the revolution.
– Before the revolution, the entire river fleet of Russia was private and was the most powerful river fleet in the world. Because it was a free business. The fact that there is no river fleet now means that we either have no business, or it is not free. With the freedom of private enterprise, the river fleet will also return, the writer is sure.
Tastes cannot be discussed.
Alexei Ivanov does not read reviews, he has big complaints about her.
-I think that criticism as an institution has died in the modern cultural situation. As soon as new media appeared, in particular social networks, critics turned into literary bloggers, and these are completely different professions. If you use culinary terms, then the critic talks about the recipe of the dish, and the blogger talks about the taste. Tastes, as you know, do not argue. Bloggers talk about their experiences, which do not interest me at all, I want a professional conversation. However, I am aware of what they write about me. My producer Yulia Zaitseva reads all this and gives me good reviews to read.
The book and the movie are not the same.
Many of Alexei Ivanov’s works have been filmed: “The Geographer Drank His Globe”, “The Hostel”, “The Food Unit”, “The Heart of Parma”.
– The film adaptation is a translation from one artistic system to another, from literature to the language of cinema, and it is always associated with some losses, changes, additions. I really liked The Heart of Parma, despite the difference with the novel. The main requirement for a movie is that it should be a good story in itself, even if half the plots are lost and half the characters have changed characters. The author’s attitude towards his works is the same as that of a mother of many children towards her children. She loves them all, but each for their own. So I like “The Geographer Drank His Globe Away” for the feeling of Russian melancholy, “Pishcheblok” – for the accuracy of the casting, the writer says.
Are all genres good?
Alexei Ivanov started out as a science fiction writer. But he now resorts to fantasy only as a means of expression, and not as a genre.
– As you get older, the world around you becomes more interesting than the fictional one. The more she learned about the world, the more she felt its infinite variety, its fantasy, and there was no need to fly to fictional universes, she explained.
The reason for writing the book is not the facts as such, but the possibility of creating a closed world, even hermetic.
– Now, if this event has a similar world, then it attracts me. “Heart of Parma” – a closed world, this is the last Old Russian principality surrounded by pagans. “Pishcheblok” – pioneer camp, “dormitory…” – students. “Psoglavtsy” – a degrading village and its inhabitants. If there is a possibility of creating a closed world, then I begin to think about whether this event should be taken as the basis of the novel. I like events that took place far from the capitals.
