March 14, 2015
A 77-year-old writer and public figure has died in Moscow. Valentin Rasputin. Master of "village prose".
You don't need many words to understand each other. You need many to not understand.
There is nothing easier than getting lost in yourself
Born under Irkutsk Born in 1937 to a farming family, he was the first to leave his village after primary school, 50 km away from home, to continue his secondary education. He would later write his famous short story "French Lessons" about this period, which would later be made into a film.
A person grows old not when he reaches old age, but when he ceases to be a child.
In 1959, he graduated from the History and Philology Department of Irkutsk State University. He began writing while still a student, working part-time at a youth newspaper. After graduating, he worked for local publications, publishing novellas and short stories.
In the 70s, he became famous for his works about the war (“Live and Remember”) and about parting with one’s roots (“Farewell to Matera”).
He called the story about the death of an old village woman, “The Last Term,” his main book.
How good we all are individually, and how recklessly and so much, as if on purpose, we all do evil together!
Anyone can fall. But not on your knees. You have to maintain your posture in any position.
Without shame, old woman, you won't wear out your face
He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
In the late 80s, he became active in public life. He spoke out against perestroika and signed a letter criticizing Ogonyok magazine. In 1990, he was one of 74 authors of the "Letter from Russian Writers" to the highest authorities.
In 1989, as a people's deputy, he first proposed that Russia leave the USSR.
Perhaps Russia should leave the Union, if you blame it for all your troubles, and if its underdevelopment and clumsiness weigh down your progressive aspirations? Perhaps that's better? Incidentally, that would help us solve many problems, both present and future.
In the early 90s, he was briefly a member of the Presidential Council of the USSR under Gorbachev, which he later regretted.
In 1991, he signed the "Word to the People" against liberal reforms, and 10 years later, he signed an open letter of 43 people demanding "an end to the death reforms." It called on Putin and the secret services to get rid of Yeltsin's entourage.
The secret service agents, the "chekists" who followed Putin into power, instilled state will, selflessness, and the idea of service into politics. They are suffocated by the rotten Yeltsin cadres who are poisoning state institutions. They will become the patriots' undoubted allies in the "personnel revolution," in healing the ailing state.
In the mid-2000s, he supported Zyuganova and was a supporter of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. He revered Stalin's historical role.
He was a member of the Patriarchal Council for Culture under the Russian Orthodox Church and one of the initiators of the opening of an Orthodox girls' gymnasium in Irkutsk.
National humiliation isn't just the betrayal of national interests in politics and economics. It's also the mockery of folk customs, the desecration of sacred sites, alien modes of thought and dress, signs and advertisements in a foreign language, the displacement of domestic art by the lowest-quality Western consumer goods, rampant pornography, alien morals, alien manners, alien soles—everything alien, as if nothing of our own existed.
In 2012, he supported the criminal prosecution of the punk band Pussy Riot. In 2014, he signed an appeal from the Union of Writers approving Russia's actions regarding Crimea and Ukraine.
He died in his sleep, four hours before his 78th birthday. According to Irkutsk time, it was already March 15th, so his fellow countrymen believe he died on his birthday.
