Viktor Vladimirovich Erofeev

Viktor Erofeev, 2009

Viktor Yerofeyev ( Russian Виктор Владимирович Ерофеев , scientific transliteration Viktor Erofeev Vladimirovič; * 19th September 1947 in Moscow ) is a Russian writer .

Life

Erofeev's father Vladimir Erofeev (1920–2011 in Moscow) was a French interpreter and translator for Stalin and, from 1955, a Soviet cultural attaché in Paris. The family lived there until 1959 and then returned to the USSR.

Viktor Erofejew studied literature and linguistics at Moscow's Lomonosov University . After graduating in 1970, he conducted research at the Institute for World Literature until 1973 , where he also wrote his dissertation on Fyodor Dostoyevsky and French existentialism . His brother Andrej is an art historian and was a curator at the Moscow State Tretyakov Gallery between 2002 and 2010.

Viktor Erofejew has been literary since the mid-1970s. In 1979 he was expelled from the Union of Writers of the USSR because of his participation in the Metropol literary almanac. Further circles he became known during the period of perestroika with his novel The Moscow Beauty (Русская красавица, 1990), which has been translated into 27 languages.

In interviews and public statements, Erofeev has repeatedly expressed himself critical of the policies of the Russian government and of President Vladimir Putin . As early as 2009 he had declared that when Putin took office as president, a "coup d'état" would have taken place:

“It is impossible to give the exact date, because there was none. It just so happened that somehow the wind came up, the sky closed, and it started to rain. There you have the whole coup. A natural disaster. Normal for the climate in our latitudes. It's pouring out of buckets, but you still walk around without an umbrella because they tell you the sun is shining. "

- Viktor Erofeev in the summer of 2009

In 2014 he had stated that since Putin took office, Crimea had been hanging by a thread that could only be cut at the right moment - on the fact that this cannot be done in the 21st century, Erofeev said: “Who says that Russia is in the 21st century? ”Putin would have received a large leap of faith from the West, but he does not believe in Western values.

He described the Euromaidan in Ukraine as a "success carried by real revolutionaries", at the same time he characterized the influence of Russian foreign policy on the further development of the country with the words:

"Putin's interest will be to prevent a positive development - he will not leave Ukraine alone."

- Viktor Erofeev in the summer of 2015

He called the war in Ukraine a war between two civilizations - the Russian authoritarian and the Western civilization of humanistic values.

Works (selection)

• Жизнь с идиотом . 1980
  • Living with an idiot . Stories. S. Fischer, Frankfurt 1991, ISBN 3-10-037104-6
  • Libretto for the opera Life with an Idiot by Alfred Schnittke based on Jerofejew's story of the same name. The work in 2 acts and 4 scenes was premiered in 1992 in Amsterdam.
• Русская красавица. Moscow 1990
  • The Moscow beauty . Novel. S. Fischer, Frankfurt 1990, ISBN 3-10-037102-X ; Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt 1993, ISBN 3-596-11410-1 ; Berliner Taschenbuch-Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-8333-0392-0
• In the labyrinth of cursed questions. Essays. S. Fischer, Frankfurt 1993, ISBN 3-10-037105-4
• (Ed.): Русские цветы зла. 1997
  • Tiger love. Russian narrator at the end of the 20th century. An anthology. Berlin-Verlag, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-8270-0110-2
• Страшный суд. Moscow 1996
  • The Last Judgement. Berlin-Verlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-8270-0111-0
• Мужчины. Moscow 1997
  • Men. An obituary. Kiepenheuer and Witsch, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-462-02924-X
• with Gabriele Riedle : river. Novel. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-351-02848-2 (Russian edition: Пять рек жизни. Moscow 1998)
• (Ed.): Preparation for the orgy. Young Russian literature. Translated from Christiane Körner . Dumont, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-7701-5230-1
• Хороший Сталин. Moscow 2004
  • The good Stalin. Novel. Berlin-Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-8270-0113-7 ; Berliner Taschenbuch-Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-8333-0336-0
• The moon is not a saucepan. A Russian traveling. Marebuchverlag, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-936384-21-5 ; Berliner Taschenbuch-Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-8333-0445-3
• De profundis. Stories. Berlin-Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-8270-0637-0
• Русский апокалипсис. 2006
  • Russian apocalypse. Berlin-Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-8270-0711-7
• with Andreas Herzau : Moscow Moskau street. Braus, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86228-028-5
• Акимуды. Ripol Klassiks, Moscow 2012.
  • The Akimuds. A non-human novel. Hanser, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-446-24370-5

Web links

Commons : Victor Erofeyev  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Viktor Wladimirowitsch Erofejew in the catalog of the German National Library

Footnotes

1. ↑ Susanne Beyer, Matthias Schepp: Stalin is in our genes (interview with Viktor Erofejew). On September 9, 2013 on spiegel.de
2. ↑ Simone Schlindwein: Soviet Union - "I had a beautiful Stalinist childhood" (interview with Viktor Erofejew). In: one day . March 5, 2008
3. ↑ Jerofejew, Andrej Wladimirowitsch. In: Exile Archives
4. ↑ Viktor Erofejew: Armaments: Putin's Russia has an image problem (translated from Russian by Beate Rausch). In: The world . February 13, 2007
5. ↑ Matthias Schepp: Interview with the writer Erofejew: “The people wanted a harsh punishment” . In: Spiegel Online . 17th August 2012
6. ^ The Vertical of Power , Handelsblatt, August 16, 2009
7. ↑ Russia and the West: What divides, what connects? , Deutsche Welle, June 7, 2014, from minute 4:30
8. ↑ Andreas Breitenstein : "Putin wanted the whole of Ukraine" (interview with Viktor Erofejew). On July 20, 2015 on nzz.ch
9. ↑ Viktor Erofejew - Love Russia - Interview in Sternstunde Philosophie , SRFKultur, September 13, 2015, at the beginning of the interview.