Absurdism and satire have been healthy strands in Russian literature for a very long time.
Although Oleg Kashin and Andrey Kurkov now live and work outside their native Russia and Ukraine respectively, both offer unique perspectives on these countries and their present troubles.
Kashin was born in Kaliningrad, and moved into journalism from an initial start in the Russian merchant navy. Engaging, informed and clearly no-one’s fool, Kashin spoke of both his journalistic and literary careers with ironic detachment but an acute sense of present realities.
He has said that many of his fellow Russian journalists ‘stick to the most base instincts of audience to enhance ratings, in exchange for political loyalty’ - a comment which, some at least might say, could be applied more widely.
‘Fardwor, Russia!’ is not, Kashin assured us, a satire, but rather a sort of science fiction style caricature of Russia, written in place of the political commentary it has become impossible to write, given that the present regime itself is impossible to satirise.
Following a serious physical attack, Kashin left Russia for the sake of his family, at which point his literary output began to become more prominent.
Andrey Kurkov watched the Maidan protests from the balcony of his Kiev flat, but his perspective is that of a Russian-speaking Ukrainian whose canny analyses lie behind his novel ‘The Bickford Fuse’, in which he takes the invention of a safety measure for the mining industry, developed in the nineteenth century as a metaphor of life in Russia in he years leading to the collapse of Soviet rule.
Both Kashin and Kurkov were entertainingly discursive while talking about their work, their familiarity with both the literatures of their own countries and the wider literary scene. It was possible to imagine one was seated at the next table of some bar or café, eavesdropping on the conversation of two very sharp and informed minds.
The appearance of Kashin and Kurkov represents one of the most interesting strands of this or any other book festival; the opportunity to encounter the writing and thinking of authors working outside the comfort and safety of our own experience and political and social frameworks.
Oleg Kashin's Fardwor, Russia!: A Fantastical Tale of Life Under Putin
Andrey Kurkov 'The Bickford Fuse