With an ironic smile, a sudden frown, or a lively wave of the hand, Gouzel Iakhina expresses her freedom as best she can. Since the beginning of “Special Operation” in Ukraine, according to Kremlin understatement, “everything has become more complicated…” in today’s Russia, sighs the author, one of the leading faces of the new Moscow literary generation. Unlike so many other writers like her who were hostile to Vladimir Putin’s regime and opposed to his military offensive, Gouzel Yakhina chose to stay in Moscow.
The affront to stay
Ludmila Oulitskaïa took refuge in Paris, Vladimir Sorokine in Berlin. Dmitri Glukhovski, author of the best-selling Metro 2033, found himself on the list of people wanted by Russian justice. He faces up to ten years in prison for, on social networks, having criticized the Russian army since the start of the intervention in Ukraine on February 24. Gouzel Iakhina does not want to leave Moscow: “It’s my city, my life, my country”. Writer and mother of a teenage daughter, she insists: “We can be against and stay. But I have to be careful what I say publicly, especially to a foreign journalist,” she warns.
Discreet and cautious, Gouzel Iakhina welcomes guests at a table a few metro stations from the center of the capital. “We are now living under censorship,” she recalls. Allusion to the new law providing for up to fifteen years in prison for any publication of information on the army deemed false by the authorities. The writer speaks of” operation “, without using the more obvious word to describe the current military event, but subject to legal action. However, Gouzel Iakhina recounts having “called a spade a spade” in a post on social networks denouncing the offensive, as early as February 24. Since then, she hasn’t changed her mind. But no longer conveys its message.
To criticize, Gouzel Iakhina knows how to trick, between verbal contortions and facial gestures. A grimace is an answer to questions about Vladimir Putin’s regime. Russians must fight for more freedom? “I will reply by quoting Dmitry Medvedev who once said: ‘Freedom is better than the absence of freedom’. » All in sarcasm, the remark refers to the recent remarks of the former Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin’s understudy, long considered a liberal but who, now a hawk of the regime, described Western liberals as “bastards and degenerates”. Gouzel Iakhina laughs and launches: “The main difference between Europe and Russia? Freedom. » New complicit smiles.
“The past to better understand the present”
“But let’s talk about my books instead!” No politics…” enthuses Gouzel Iakhina. While many new Russian authors, rebellious in soul and style, project themselves into science fiction, the writer takes refuge in history. The Kremlin regime avoids any collective reflection on the Soviet past. On the contrary, the books of Gouzel Iakhina offer a lesson in historical humility. “And so, in a way, a path to freedom”she slips. Zuleikha opens her eyes (1), the story of a Tatar peasant woman in Stalinist dekulakization, was her first bestseller, selling more than a million copies worldwide.
Gouzel Iakhina. / Philippe Matsas/Opale
Similarly translated into French, his second novel Children of the Volga (1) returns to another tragic page of the first Soviet decades, that of the German colonies along the famous Russian river, superb but crossed by so many historical tears. “These are times of drama and energy, blood and creation, tears and enthusiasm,” explains Gouzel Iakhina who, inspired by the past, says she cannot write about the present. “Testimonials, our books are bridges between generations”, she insists. Without saying more about his ulterior motives.
“It is a mistake to believe that because the communist regime collapsed in 1990, the USSR fell. She’s still alive, in our headssays Gouzel Iakhina. Writing about what happened under the Soviet Union remains very relevant today. » This is why she prefers to delve into history, describing all the shades of gray of Russian society, without black and white clichés. “The past to better understand the present…, does she sum up, in order to find this tenacious reality in our country, far from freedom: people are afraid. » Between the lines, everything is said.