On October 4, 1916, the Soviet and Russian theoretical physicist, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and Professor Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg was born. In 2003, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for the development of the theory of superconductivity of the second kind and the theory of superfluidity of liquid helium-3".

Today we decided to remember all the Russian Nobel Prize winners and illustrate them in our photo selection.

Pavlov Ivan Petrovich Winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology in 1904 "for his work in the physiology of digestion."

Henryk Sienkiewicz. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905 "for outstanding services in the field of the epic."

Mechnikov Ilya Ilyich. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1908 "for his work on immunity".

Ostwald Wilhelm Friedrich. Winner of the 1909 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "in recognition of his work on catalysis, and for his investigations into the basic principles of the control of chemical equilibrium and reaction rates."

Maria Sklodowska-Curie. She was awarded the Nobel Prize: in physics (1903) and in chemistry (1911 "for outstanding services in the development of chemistry: the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element").

Vladislav Reymont. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1924 "for the outstanding national epic - the novel" Peasants "".

Ivan Bunin. Winner of the 1933 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the rigorous skill with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose."

Paul Karrer. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1937, together with the English scientist W. Haworth "for the study of carotenoids and flavins, as well as for the study of vitamins, A and B2."

Frans Emil Sillanpää. In 1939, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature "for deep insight into the life of Finnish peasants and an excellent description of their customs and connection with nature."

Artturi Ilmari Virtanen. Winner of the Nobel Prize in 1945 "for research and achievements in the fields of agriculture and nutrient chemistry, especially for the method of fodder preservation."

Tadeusz Reichstein. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1950 (together with Edward Kendall and Philip Hench) "for their discoveries concerning the hormones of the adrenal cortex, their structure and biological effects."

Waxman Zelman Abraham. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1952) for "the discovery of streptomycin, the first antibiotic effective in the treatment of tuberculosis."

From left to right: Cherenkov Pavel Alekseevich, Tamm Igor Evgenievich, Frank Ilya Mikhailovich. Nobel Prize in Physics (1958) - for the discovery and interpretation of the Vavilov-Cherenkov effect.

Boris Pasternak. In 1958 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, after which he was persecuted by the Soviet government.

Landau Lev Davidovich. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1962 "for his pioneering theories of condensed matter and especially liquid helium."

From left to right: Basov Nikolai Gennadievich, Prokhorov Alexander Mikhailovich. Winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1964 "for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which led to the creation of emitters and amplifiers based on the laser-maser principle."

Sholokhov Mikhail Alexandrovich Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1965 - "for the artistic power and integrity of the epic about the Don Cossacks at a turning point for Russia")

Granite Ragnar Arthur. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1967 (together with Holden Hartline and George Wald) "for their discoveries relating to the primary physiological and chemical visual processes occurring in the eye."

Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970 "for the moral strength with which he followed the immutable traditions of Russian literature."

Simon Smith Blacksmith. Winner of the 1971 Nobel Prize in Economics "for an empirically based interpretation of economic growth that has led to a new, deeper understanding of the economic and social structure and the development process as a whole.

Leontiev Vasily Vasilievich. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1973 "for his development of the input-output method and for its application to important economic problems."

Kantorovich Leonid Vitalievich Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1975 "for his contribution to the theory of the optimal allocation of resources."

Sakharov Andrei Dmitrievich. Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975 "for his fearless support for the fundamental principles of peace among men and for his courageous struggle against the abuse of power and any form of suppression of human dignity."

Ilya Prigogine. Winner of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his work on the thermodynamics of irreversible processes, especially for the theory of dissipative structures."

Isaac Bashevis Singer. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978 "for the emotional art of storytelling, which, rooted in Polish-Jewish cultural traditions, raises timeless questions."

Menachem Begin. Winner of the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize "for the preparation and conclusion of the fundamental agreements between Israel and Egypt."

Kapitsa Pyotr Leonidovich. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics (1978) for the discovery of the phenomenon of superfluidity of liquid helium, introduced the term "superfluidity" into scientific use.

Cheslav Milos. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, 1980, where he "demonstrated with fearless clairvoyance the insecurity of man in a world torn by conflict."

Joseph Brodsky. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1987 "for a comprehensive work, imbued with clarity of thought and the passion of poetry."

Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeevich. Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. He received the award "in recognition of his leading role in the peace process, which today characterizes an important integral part of the life of the international community."

Joseph Rotblat. Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for Efforts towards Nuclear Disarmament in 1995 "for great achievements in reducing the role of nuclear weapons in world politics and for many years of efforts to ban these weapons".

Alferov Zhores Ivanovich. Nobel Prize in Physics (2000 prize for the development of semiconductor heterostructures and the creation of fast opto- and microelectronic components).

From left to right: Abrikosov Alexey Alekseevich, Ginzburg Vitaly Lazarevich. Winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2003 "for the development of the theory of superconductivity of the second kind and the theory of superfluidity of liquid helium-3".

Gurvich Leonid Solomonovich. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2007 "for laying the foundations for the theory of optimal mechanisms".

From left to right: Andrei Konstantinovich Geim, Konstantin Sergeevich Novoselov. Winners of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics "for pioneering experiments in the study of the two-dimensional material graphene".

• The Main Directorate of Camps (GULAG) was formed by the decision of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of April 7, 1930 on corrective labor camps.
• Participants in the human rights movement in the USSR advocated the observance of the rights and freedoms of man and citizen.

The prizes established by the Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel are considered the most honorable in the world. They are awarded annually (since 1901) for outstanding work in the field of medicine or physiology, physics, chemistry, literary works, for his contribution to the strengthening of peace, the economy (since 1969). Nobel laureate receives diploma gold medal with the profile of A. Nobel and a cash prize. The award ceremony takes place in the capital of Sweden - Stockholm. Only the Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, the capital of Norway, as it is awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

RUSSIA AND ALFRED NOBEL

The Nobel family of famous Swedish industrialists has been associated with Russia since the middle of the 19th century. They founded an engineering plant in St. Petersburg (now "Russian Diesel"), owned oil fields in Baku. However, the Nobels became famous not only as successful entrepreneurs, but also as talented inventors. Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833-1896) himself created dynamite. The decision to establish the prize was not a random whim of a rich man for him - Nobel was interested in science from his youth. He considered one of his teachers the outstanding Russian chemist Nikolai Nikolaevich Zinin (1812-1880). Alfred Nobel highly valued the work of the physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov and therefore included the word "physiology" in the name of the prize in medicine.

In the scientific circles of Russia, the Nobel Prizes were treated with great interest, and in 1901 the Charter of the Nobel Committee was translated into Russian. One of the first laureates was I.P. Pavlov (1904).

RUSSIA AND THE NOBEL PRIZES

By 1991, Russians had received 18 Nobel Prizes, much less than representatives of the USA, Great Britain, France and Germany. The lag in the field of science is especially striking. Here, Russian scientists own only 8 awards, American - 138, English - 58, German - 55. In the field of literature, the gap is not so large: Russians have 5 awards, the French - 12, the Americans - 10, the British - 8.

There are several reasons for this. First, the well-known subjectivity of the choice of laureates, even for such an authoritative award. Suffice it to recall that the Russian writers Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy and Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov were not awarded the Nobel Prize; economist Nikolai Dmitrievich Kondratiev. Secondly, from Soviet Union, the country is largely "closed", information about scientific discoveries and new literary works came to the West with a great delay. Science does not tolerate isolation, and Russian scientists had practically no access to foreign scientific literature; only a few could go abroad for a conference and tell their foreign colleagues about their discoveries. In addition, the USSR lagged behind the leading Western countries in terms of technical equipment laboratories, the development of computer technology.

SCIENCE PRIZES

Our country has always been rich in talents. In pre-revolutionary Russia, physiology reached a high level of development, and therefore the list of the first Nobel laureates includes the names of physiologists I. P. Pavlov and I. I. Mechnikov. However, then the prizes in science were not awarded to Russians for more than 50 years! Only in 1956 was the "chain of failures" interrupted. The third Russian and the first Soviet scientist to receive a high international award was Nikolai Nikolaevich Semyonov. He received the prize for research in the field of mechanism chemical reactions. In the late 50s - early 60s. Soviet physicists achieve success - four awards! Achievements are partly explained by the fact that the Soviet government allocated large funds for the development of physics: without modern research in this area, it is impossible to increase the country's defense capability.

Often Nobel Prizes are awarded to works completed many years ago. This is natural because scientific world must understand and appreciate the discovery made. In the case of the Soviet laureates, the "lateness" is especially great. P. A. Cherenkov, I. E. Tamm, and I. M. Frank became laureates in 1958, and Cherenkov radiation was discovered and explained back in the late 1930s. L. D. Landau received the prize in 1962 for research carried out in the 1930s. A kind of record was set by P. L. Kapitsa: the Nobel Prize in 1978 was awarded to him mainly for research in the field of experimental physics, which the scientist conducted back in the 30s. The gap was more than 40 years! Such "lateness" is the result of the closed nature of science in the USSR. However, there is another reason. Each scientist applying for the prize speaks on his own behalf - these are the conditions of the Nobel Committee. But in the Soviet Union until 1988, candidates for the award were nominated by the Academy of Sciences after agreement with the party and state bodies. This approach forced the Nobel Committee to take a stricter approach to candidates from the USSR, and therefore Soviet scientists waited for the award, sometimes for many years.

Some Russians shared the Nobel Prize with foreign colleagues. Science is an international process. Scientists often come to the same conclusions without knowing anything about each other's discoveries. So, Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov shared the prize with the German doctor, bacteriologist and biochemist Paul Ehrlich, the chemist Nikolai Nikolaevich Semyonov - with the Englishman Cyril Hinshelwood. The inventors of the laser, Nikolai Gennadievich Basov and Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov, conducted research in parallel with the American physicist Charles Townes, so all three were awarded the same Nobel Prize. Linear programming and the theory of the optimal distribution of resources in the economy were also developed by two scientists at the same time - Leonid Vitalievich Kantorovich in the USSR and Tjalling Koopmans in the USA. Both became in 1975 laureates of the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics.

PRIZES FOR LITERATURE

Russian laureates in literature are people with different, sometimes opposing views. I. A. Bunin and A. I. Solzhenitsyn are staunch opponents Soviet power, and M. A. Sholokhov, on the contrary, is a communist. However, the main thing they have in common is their undoubted talent, for which they were awarded the Nobel Prizes. Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (1890-1960) was born in Moscow in the family of the famous artist Leonid Osipovich Pasternak. Mother, Rosalia Isidorovna, was a talented pianist. Maybe that's why in childhood the future poet dreamed of becoming a composer and even studied music with Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin. However, the love of poetry won. Glory to B. L. Pasternak was brought by his poetry, and bitter trials - "Doctor Zhivago", a novel about the fate of the Russian intelligentsia. The editors of the literary magazine, to which Pasternak offered the manuscript, considered the work anti-Soviet and refused to publish it. Then the writer sent the novel abroad, to Italy, where in 1957 it was published. The very fact of publication in the West was sharply condemned by Soviet colleagues in the creative workshop, and Pasternak was expelled from the Writers' Union. However, it was Doctor Zhivago that made Boris Pasternak a Nobel laureate. The writer was nominated for the Nobel Prize starting in 1946, but was awarded it only in 1958, after the release of the novel. The conclusion of the Nobel Committee says: "... for significant achievements both in modern lyric poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition."

In his homeland, the award of such an honorary prize to an "anti-Soviet novel" aroused the indignation of the authorities, and under the threat of expulsion from the country, the writer was forced to refuse the award. Only 30 years later, his son, Yevgeny Borisovich Pasternak, received a diploma and a medal for his father. Nobel laureate.

The fate of another Nobel laureate, Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn, is no less dramatic. He was born in 1918 in Kislovodsk, and his childhood and youth were spent in Novocherkassk and Rostov-on-Don. After graduating from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Rostov University, A. I. Solzhenitsyn taught and at the same time studied in absentia at a literary institute in Moscow. When did the Great Patriotic War, the future writer went to the front.

Shortly before the end of the war, Solzhenitsyn was arrested. The reason for the arrest was the critical remarks about Stalin found by military censorship in Solzhenitsyn's letters. He was released after Stalin's death (1953). In 1962, the magazine " New world" published the first story - "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", which tells about the life of prisoners in the camp. Most of the subsequent works were refused to be printed by literary magazines. There was only one explanation: anti-Soviet orientation. However, the writer did not back down and sent the manuscripts abroad, where they were published. Alexander Isaevich was not limited to literary activity - he fought for the freedom of political prisoners in the USSR, spoke out with sharp criticism of the Soviet system.

The literary works and political position of AI Solzhenitsyn were well known abroad, and in 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize. The writer did not go to Stockholm for the award ceremony: he was not allowed to leave the country. Representatives of the Nobel Committee, who wanted to present the prize to the laureate at home, were not allowed into the USSR.

In 1974 A. I. Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the country. He first lived in Switzerland, then moved to the United States, where he was, with a considerable delay, awarded the Nobel Prize. In the West, such works as "In the First Circle", "The Gulag Archipelago", "August 1914", "The Cancer Ward" were printed. In 1994, A. Solzhenitsyn returned to his homeland, having traveled through all of Russia, from Vladivostok to Moscow.

The fate of Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov, the only one of the Russian Nobel Prize winners in literature, who was supported by government agencies, turned out differently. M. A. Sholokhov (1905-1980) was born in the south of Russia, on the Don - in the center of the Russian Cossacks. He later described his small homeland - the farm Kruzhilin of the village of Vyoshenskaya - in many works. Sholokhov graduated from only four classes of the gymnasium. He actively participated in the events of the civil war, led the food detachment, which selected the so-called surplus grain from wealthy Cossacks. Already in his youth, the future writer felt a penchant for literary creativity. In 1922, Sholokhov arrived in Moscow, and in 1923 he began to publish his first stories in newspapers and magazines. In 1926, collections " Don stories" and "Azure Steppe". Work on "Quiet Don" - a novel about the life of the Don Cossacks in the era of the Great Break (First World War, revolutions and civil war) - began in 1925. In 1928, the first part of the novel was published, and Sholokhov finished it in the 30s. "Quiet Flows the Don" became the pinnacle of the writer's work, and in 1965 he was awarded the Nobel Prize "for the artistic strength and completeness with which he depicted a historical phase in the life of the Russian people in his epic work about the Don." "Quiet Flows the Don" has been translated into several dozen languages ​​in 45 countries.

WORLD PRIZES

The winners of the Nobel Peace Prizes are often people of various political views. So it happened with the Russians. On the one hand, A. D. Sakharov, a defender of democratic freedoms and human rights in the USSR, a harsh critic of the political and economic structure of the country. On the other hand, M. S. Gorbachev, the last leader of the USSR, a staunch supporter state system, with which Sakharov fought.

Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (1921 - 1989) - nuclear physicist, one of the creators of the Soviet hydrogen bomb (1953). He was born in Moscow in the family of a professor of physics. Sakharov showed his talent as a scientist very early. In 1942, he graduated with honors from the Faculty of Physics of Moscow University, at the age of 26 he became a doctor of science, and at 32 - an academician. A, D. Sakharov developed common doctrine about the universe, conducted theoretical research elementary particles and gravity (attraction). Many of his works are still unknown to the general reader: they are classified, since the scientist worked for the defense of the country.

Back in the late 50s. Sakharov began to advocate an end to nuclear testing. In the book Reflections on Progress, Peaceful Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom (1968), the scientist argued that the confrontation between the capitalist and socialist systems could turn into a tragedy for humanity. Nuclear war, hunger, ecological and demographic catastrophes, racism, the growth of violence are, according to Sakharov, a real threat. He saw the way out in the democratization of society, scientific, technical and social progress, which should lead to a peaceful convergence of the two political systems. After the publication of the book in the West, A. D. Sakharov was removed from secret work.

At the end of the 60s. an outstanding physicist became one of the leaders of the human rights movement in Russia.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. However, her wife Sakharova received it: the scientist was not allowed to leave the country.

In 1980 Andrei Dmitrievich spoke out against the invasion Soviet troops to Afghanistan. He was deprived of all state awards (and he was three times Hero of Socialist Labor!) and exiled to the city of Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod), which is "closed" to foreigners. The scientist was returned from exile in 1986 by MS Gorbachev. A kind of political testament of the great physicist and citizen was the draft of the new constitution of the country.

Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev - the first and last president The USSR is a country that is no longer on the world map. He was born in 1931 in the south of Russia, in the Stavropol Territory. After graduating from the law faculty of the Moscow state university until 1970 he was engaged in Komsomol and party work in the Stavropol Territory. In 1971 he became a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU, and in 1985 he was elected General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. The era of Gorbachev was called perestroika for a reason: Mikhail Sergeevich, a staunch supporter of socialism, wanted to carry out political and economic reforms without changing the foundations of the existing system "Thanks to Gorbachev, the arms race between the USSR and the United States stopped, relations between our country and the countries of the West improved. In 1990, M. S. Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. At the end of 1991, with the collapse of the USSR, Gorbachev was forced to resign from all government posts ., Later he created his own public foundation, which deals with scientific research publishes books and a socio-political magazine.

GEOGRAPHY OF THE WINNERS

Most of the famous Russians - Nobel Prize winners were born, spent their childhood and youth in the south of Russia. In the North Caucasus - M. A. Sholokhov, A. I. Solzhenitsyn and M. S. Gorbachev, and the homeland of I. A. Bunin, P. A. Cherenkov and N. G. Basov is the Russian Chernozem region. Also in the Black Earth, but in the Ukrainian (near Kharkov), I. I. Mechnikov was born. The physicist N. N. Semyonov was born in the Volga region and spent his childhood and youth.

Economists V. V. Leontiev and L. V. Kantorovich, physicists P. L. Kapitsa and I. M. Frank, poet I. A. Brodsky come from the former capital of Russia, St. Petersburg. However, many Russian laureates worked in the capitals - Moscow and St. Petersburg (the leading scientific institutes); some moved to the US and France.

Throughout the history of the Nobel award, Russian names have been heard in Stockholm many times.

Ivan Pavlov

Ivan Pavlov received his well-deserved Nobel Prize in 1904 "for his work on the physiology of digestion." Pavlov is a unique world-class scientist who managed to form his own school in the difficult conditions of a state under construction, to which the scientist made considerable claims. Pavlov was engaged in collecting paintings, plants, butterflies, stamps, books. Scientific research led him to refuse meat food.

Ilya Mechnikov

Ilya Mechnikov - one of the greatest scientists late XIX- the beginning of the XX century. So, it was Mechnikov who proved the unity of the origin of vertebrates and invertebrates. His wife died of tuberculosis, and Mechnikov, who was already contemplating suicide, devoted his life to fighting tuberculosis. Having retired in protest against the reactionary policy in the field of education carried out by the tsarist government and the right professors, he organized a private laboratory in Odessa, then (1886, together with N. F. Gamaleya) the second in the world and the first Russian bacteriological station to combat infectious diseases.

In 1887 he left Russia and moved to Paris, where he was given a laboratory at the institute created by Louis Pasteur. Mechnikov and Paul Ehrlich received the Nobel Prize for research in the field of immunity.

Lev Landau

In 1962, the Royal Swedish Academy awarded Landau the Nobel Prize "for his fundamental theories of condensed matter, especially liquid helium." For the first time in history, the award took place in a Moscow hospital, since shortly before the award, Landau was in a car accident. For 6 weeks, the scientist was unconscious, and then for almost three months he did not even recognize his relatives. Physicists from all over the world took part in saving the scientist's life. A round-the-clock duty was organized in the hospital. Medicines that were not in the Soviet Union were delivered by plane from Europe and the USA. Landau's life was saved, but, alas, after the accident, the scientist was never able to return to scientific research.

Petr Kapitsa

In 1978, Academician Petr Leonidovich Kapitsa was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "for fundamental inventions and discoveries in the field of low temperature physics." At the award ceremony, the Soviet scientist broke with tradition and devoted his Nobel speech not to the works that were awarded by the Nobel Committee, but to his own current research. Then Petr Leonidovich changed another tradition: he took the entire cash prize for himself, putting it into an account in a Swedish bank. Former Soviet laureates were forced to share with the state.

Alexander Prokhorov

One of the founders of quantum electronics and creator of laser technologies. Together with another Soviet scientist Nikolai Basov, in 1964 he won the Nobel Prize in Physics for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which led to the creation of generators and amplifiers based on the laser-maser principle.

Pavel Cherenkov

This Soviet physicist discovered the effect, which later received his name - the Cherenkov effect. And then in 1958 he received, together with other Soviet physicists - Ilya Frank and Igor Tamm, received the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery and interpretation of the Cherenkov effect.

Zhores Alferov

Every modern person enjoys the fruits of the discoveries of Zhores Alferov, the Russian Nobel Prize winner in 2000. All mobile phones have heterostructural semiconductors created by Alferov. All fiber-optic communication runs on its semiconductors and the Alferov laser. Without the "Alferov laser" CD players and disk drives of modern computers would be impossible. Zhores Ivanovich's discoveries are used in car headlights, traffic lights, and supermarket equipment - product label decoders. Alferov was one of the creators of the electronic reality that we encounter daily. At the same time, he began work on it at a time when it was not talked about not only here, but also in the West. Alierov made discoveries that led to qualitative changes in the development of all electronic technology back in 1962-1974. The Nobel Prize was awarded both to his “former” merits in physics and modern ones - the creation of ultra-fast supercomputers.

Dedicated to the great Russian writers.

From October 21 to November 21, 2015, the Library and Information Complex invites you to an exhibition dedicated to the work of Nobel laureates in literature from Russia and the USSR.

The Nobel Prize in Literature in 2015 was awarded to a Belarusian writer. The award was given to Svetlana Aleksievich with the following wording: "For her many-voiced work - a monument to suffering and courage in our time." At the exhibition, we also presented the works of Svetlana Alexandrovna.

The exposition can be found at the address: Leningradsky Prospekt, 49, 1st floor, room one hundred.

The prizes established by the Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel are considered the most honorable in the world. They are awarded annually (since 1901) for outstanding work in the field of medicine or physiology, physics, chemistry, for literary works, for contribution to the strengthening of peace, economics (since 1969).

The Nobel Prize in Literature is an award for literary achievement presented annually by the Nobel Committee in Stockholm on 10 December. According to the statute of the Nobel Foundation, the following persons can nominate candidates: members of the Swedish Academy, other academies, institutions and societies with similar tasks and goals; professors of the history of literature and linguistics of universities; laureates of the Nobel Prize in Literature; chairmen of authors' unions representing literary creativity in the respective countries.

Unlike the winners of other prizes (for example, in physics and chemistry), the decision to award the Nobel Prize in Literature is made by members of the Swedish Academy. The Swedish Academy brings together 18 figures from Sweden. The Academy is composed of historians, linguists, writers and one lawyer. They are known in the community as "The Eighteen". Membership in the academy is for life. After the death of one of the members, the academicians choose a new academician by secret ballot. The Academy elects from among its members the Nobel Committee. It is he who deals with the issue of awarding the prize.

Nobel laureates in literature from Russia and the USSR :

• I. A. Bunin(1933 "For the rigorous skill with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose")
• B.L. Parsnip(1958 "For significant achievements in modern lyric poetry, as well as for continuing the traditions of the great Russian epic novel")
• M. A. Sholokhov(1965 "For the artistic power and honesty with which he depicted the historical era in the life of the Russian people in his Don epic")
• A. I. Solzhenitsyn(1970 "For the moral strength with which he followed the immutable traditions of Russian literature")
• I. A. Brodsky(1987 "For a comprehensive work imbued with the clarity of thought and the passion of poetry")

Russian laureates in literature are people with different, sometimes opposing views. I. A. Bunin and A. I. Solzhenitsyn are staunch opponents of Soviet power, and M. A. Sholokhov, on the contrary, is a communist. However, the main thing they have in common is their undoubted talent, for which they were awarded the Nobel Prizes.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin is a famous Russian writer and poet, an outstanding master of realistic prose, an honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In 1920 Bunin emigrated to France.

The most difficult thing for a writer in exile is to remain himself. It happens that, having left the Motherland because of the need to make dubious compromises, he is again forced to kill the spirit in order to survive. Fortunately, this fate passed Bunin. Despite any trials, Bunin always remained true to himself.

In 1922, Ivan Alekseevich's wife, Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva, wrote in her diary that Romain Rolland nominated Bunin for the Nobel Prize. Since then, Ivan Alekseevich lived in hopes that someday he would be awarded this prize. 1933 All newspapers in Paris on November 10 came out with large headlines: "Bunin - Nobel laureate." Every Russian in Paris, even a loader at the Renault factory, who had never read Bunin, took this as a personal holiday. For the compatriot turned out to be the best, the most talented! In Parisian taverns and restaurants that evening there were Russians who sometimes drank for "their own" for their last pennies.

On the day of awarding the prize on November 9, Ivan Alekseevich Bunin watched "merry stupidity" - "Baby" in the "cinema". Suddenly, a narrow beam of a flashlight cut through the darkness of the hall. They were looking for Bunin. He was called by phone from Stockholm.

“And my whole old life immediately ends. I go home pretty quickly, but feeling nothing but regret that I didn’t manage to watch the film. But no. You can’t not believe it: the whole house is lit up with lights. ... Some kind of turning point in my life," recalled I. A. Bunin.

Exciting days in Sweden. IN concert hall in the presence of the king, after the report of the writer, member of the Swedish Academy Peter Galstrem on the work of Bunin, he was awarded a folder with a Nobel diploma, a medal and a check for 715 thousand French francs.

When presenting the award, Bunin noted that the Swedish Academy acted very boldly by awarding the émigré writer. Among the contenders for this year's prize was another Russian writer, M. Gorky, however, largely due to the publication of the book "The Life of Arseniev" by that time, the scales still tipped in the direction of Ivan Alekseevich.

Returning to France, Bunin feels like a rich man and, not sparing money, distributes "allowances" to emigrants, donates funds to support various societies. Finally, on the advice of well-wishers, he invests the remaining amount in a "win-win business" and is left with nothing.

Bunin's friend, poetess and prose writer Zinaida Shakhovskaya in her memoir book "Reflection" noted: "With skill and a small amount of practicality, the prize should have been enough to the end. But the Bunins did not buy either an apartment or a villa ..."

Unlike M. Gorky, A. I. Kuprin, A. N. Tolstoy, Ivan Alekseevich did not return to Russia, despite the exhortations of the Moscow "messengers". He never came to his homeland, even as a tourist.

Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (1890-1960) was born in Moscow in the family of the famous artist Leonid Osipovich Pasternak. Mother, Rosalia Isidorovna, was a talented pianist. Maybe that's why in childhood the future poet dreamed of becoming a composer and even studied music with Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin. However, the love of poetry won. Glory to B. L. Pasternak was brought by his poetry, and bitter trials - "Doctor Zhivago", a novel about the fate of the Russian intelligentsia.

The editors of the literary magazine, to which Pasternak offered the manuscript, considered the work anti-Soviet and refused to publish it. Then the writer sent the novel abroad, to Italy, where in 1957 it was published. The very fact of publication in the West was sharply condemned by Soviet colleagues in the creative workshop, and Pasternak was expelled from the Writers' Union. However, it was Doctor Zhivago that made Boris Pasternak a Nobel laureate. The writer was nominated for the Nobel Prize starting in 1946, but was awarded it only in 1958, after the release of the novel. The conclusion of the Nobel Committee says: "... for significant achievements both in modern lyric poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition."

In his homeland, the award of such an honorary prize to an "anti-Soviet novel" aroused the indignation of the authorities, and under the threat of expulsion from the country, the writer was forced to refuse the award. Only 30 years later, his son, Yevgeny Borisovich Pasternak, received a diploma and a Nobel laureate medal for his father.

The fate of another Nobel laureate, Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn, is no less dramatic. He was born in 1918 in Kislovodsk, and his childhood and youth were spent in Novocherkassk and Rostov-on-Don. After graduating from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Rostov University, A. I. Solzhenitsyn taught and at the same time studied in absentia at a literary institute in Moscow. When the Great Patriotic War began, the future writer went to the front.

Shortly before the end of the war, Solzhenitsyn was arrested. The reason for the arrest was the critical remarks about Stalin found by military censorship in Solzhenitsyn's letters. He was released after Stalin's death (1953). In 1962, the Novy Mir magazine published the first story, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, which tells about the life of prisoners in the camp. Literary magazines refused to print most of the subsequent works. There was only one explanation: anti-Soviet orientation. However, the writer did not back down and sent the manuscripts abroad, where they were published. Alexander Isaevich was not limited to literary activity - he fought for the freedom of political prisoners in the USSR, spoke out with sharp criticism of the Soviet system.

The literary works and political position of AI Solzhenitsyn were well known abroad, and in 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize. The writer did not go to Stockholm for the award ceremony: he was not allowed to leave the country. Representatives of the Nobel Committee, who wanted to present the prize to the laureate at home, were not allowed into the USSR.

In 1974 A. I. Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the country. He first lived in Switzerland, then moved to the United States, where he was, with a considerable delay, awarded the Nobel Prize. In the West, such works as "In the First Circle", "The Gulag Archipelago", "August 1914", "The Cancer Ward" were printed. In 1994, A. Solzhenitsyn returned to his homeland, having traveled through all of Russia, from Vladivostok to Moscow.

The fate of Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov, the only one of the Russian Nobel Prize winners in literature, who was supported by government agencies, turned out differently. M. A. Sholokhov (1905-1980) was born in the south of Russia, on the Don - in the center of the Russian Cossacks. He later described his small homeland - the farm Kruzhilin of the village of Vyoshenskaya - in many works. Sholokhov graduated from only four classes of the gymnasium. He actively participated in the events of the civil war, led the food detachment, which selected the so-called surplus grain from wealthy Cossacks.

Already in his youth, the future writer felt a penchant for literary creativity. In 1922, Sholokhov arrived in Moscow, and in 1923 he began to publish his first stories in newspapers and magazines. In 1926, the collections "Don Stories" and "Azure Steppe" were published. Work on "Quiet Don" - a novel about the life of the Don Cossacks in the era of the Great Break (World War I, revolutions and civil war) - began in 1925. In 1928, the first part of the novel was published, and Sholokhov finished it in the 30s . "Quiet Flows the Don" became the pinnacle of the writer's work, and in 1965 he was awarded the Nobel Prize "for the artistic strength and completeness with which he depicted a historical phase in the life of the Russian people in his epic work about the Don." "Quiet Flows the Don" has been translated into several dozen languages ​​in 45 countries.

By the time of receiving the Nobel Prize in the bibliography of Joseph Brodsky, there were six collections of poems, the poem "Gorbunov and Gorchakov", the play "Marble", many essays (written mainly in English language). However, in the USSR, from where the poet was expelled in 1972, his works were distributed mainly in samizdat, and he received the award, already being a citizen of the United States of America.

For him, the spiritual connection with the homeland was important. As a relic, he kept the tie of Boris Pasternak, he even wanted to wear it to the Nobel Prize, but the rules of the protocol did not allow it. Nevertheless, Brodsky still came with Pasternak's tie in his pocket. After perestroika, Brodsky was repeatedly invited to Russia, but he never came to his homeland, which rejected him. "You can't step into the same river twice, even if it's the Neva," he said.

From Brodsky's Nobel lecture: “A person with taste, in particular literary, is less susceptible to repetition and rhythmic incantations, characteristic of any form of political demagogy. It's not so much that virtue is no guarantee of a masterpiece, but that evil, especially political evil, is always a bad stylist. The richer the aesthetic experience of the individual, the firmer his taste, the clearer his moral choice, the freer he is - although perhaps not happier. It is in this rather applied than Platonic sense that Dostoyevsky's remark that "beauty will save the world" or Matthew Arnold's saying that "poetry will save us" should be understood. The world will probably not be saved, but an individual person can always be saved.

Since the delivery of the first Nobel Prize 112 years have passed. Among Russians deserving of this most prestigious award in the field literature, physics, chemistry, medicine, physiology, peace and economics became only 20 people. As for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Russians have their own personal history in this area, not always with a positive ending.

First awarded in 1901, bypassed the most important writer in Russian and world literature - Leo Tolstoy. In their address of 1901, the members of the Royal Swedish Academy formally paid their respects to Tolstoy, calling him "the venerable patriarch of modern literature" and "one of those powerful penetrating poets, which in this case should be remembered first of all", but referred to the fact that that, in view of his convictions, the great writer himself "never aspired to this kind of reward." In his reply letter, Tolstoy wrote that he was glad that he was relieved of the difficulties associated with the disposal of so much money and that he was pleased to receive notes of sympathy from so many respected persons. Things were different in 1906, when Tolstoy, having forestalled his nomination for the Nobel Prize, asked Arvid Järnefeld to use all kinds of connections so as not to be placed in an unpleasant position and refuse this prestigious award.

In a similar way Nobel Prize in Literature bypassed several other outstanding Russian writers, among whom was also the genius of Russian literature - Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. The first writer admitted to the "Nobel Club" was not pleasing to the Soviet government, who emigrated to France Ivan Alekseevich Bunin.

In 1933, the Swedish Academy presented Bunin with an award "for the strict skill with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose." Merezhkovsky and Gorky were also among the nominees this year. Bunin got Nobel Prize in Literature largely due to the 4 books published by that time about the life of Arseniev. During the ceremony, Per Hallstrom, a representative of the Academy, who presented the award, expressed admiration for Bunin's ability to "describe real life with extraordinary expressiveness and accuracy." In his response speech, the laureate thanked the Swedish Academy for the courage and honor it had shown the émigré writer.

A difficult story full of disappointment and bitterness accompanies the receipt of the Nobel Prize in Literature Boris Pasternak. Nominated annually from 1946 to 1958 and awarded this high award in 1958, Pasternak was forced to refuse it. Practically becoming the second Russian writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, the writer was hunted down at home, having received stomach cancer as a result of nervous shocks, from which he died. Justice triumphed only in 1989, when his son Yevgeny Pasternak received an honorary award for him "for significant achievements in modern lyric poetry, as well as for continuing the traditions of the great Russian epic novel."

Sholokhov Mikhail Alexandrovich received the Nobel Prize in Literature "for the novel The Quiet Flows the Flows Flows the Don" in 1965. It is worth noting that the authorship of this deep epic work, despite the fact that the manuscript of the work was found and a computer correspondence with the printed edition was established, there are opponents who declare the impossibility of creating a novel, indicating deep knowledge of the events of the First World War and civil war at such a young age. The writer himself, summing up his work, said: "I would like my books to help people become better, become purer in soul ... If I succeeded to some extent, I am happy."

Solzhenitsyn Alexander Isaevich, winner of the 1918 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the moral strength with which he followed the immutable traditions of Russian literature." Having spent most of his life in exile and exile, the writer created deep and frightening historical works with their authenticity. Upon learning of the Nobel Prize, Solzhenitsyn expressed his desire to personally attend the ceremony. The Soviet government prevented the writer from receiving this prestigious award, calling it "politically hostile." Thus, Solzhenitsyn never got to the desired ceremony, fearing that he would not be able to return from Sweden back to Russia.

In 1987 Brodsky Joseph Alexandrovich awarded Nobel Prize in Literature"for an all-encompassing work imbued with the clarity of thought and the passion of poetry." In Russia, the poet did not receive life recognition. He worked while in exile in the United States, most of the works were written in impeccable English. In his speech of the Nobel laureate, Brodsky spoke about the most precious thing for him - language, books and poetry...