Russia: Nikita Velichko interviews Lyudmila Ulitskaya by European Archive of Voices

Ludmila Ulitskaya is a Russian writer, screenwriter and translator, born 1943 in Davlekanovo, where her parents were evacuated to. Soon the family returned to Moscow, where Ulitskaya lived ever since. As a child she often was bored at school, but fascinated by the biochemical laboratory her mother worked in. That’s why she studied biology and afterwards worked for two years as a research assistant at the Institute of General Genetics – these experiences resulted in the novel "Kukotsky's Enigma” – until she was dismissed for illegally copying and distributing samizdat literature (russ.: “self-publishing”). In the following years, she not only had two children, but also started writing. In 1979 she was hired as a literary director in the Jewish drama theatre, which still surprises her today. Having a friend working as a translator in Paris, her first book was published in France in 1993. Several novels and short stories followed, which she preferred to write abroad, during scholarships in Germany or in her small apartment in Italy. Among others, Ulitskaya is a winner of the Russian Booker prize, an Officer of France's Legion of Honour and winner of the Austrian State Prize for European Literature for bringing together the Russian and Jewish narrative tradition with modern narrative art.

The conversation with Nikita Velichko took place after a book presentation in St. Petersburg. Ulitskaya explains why she dislikes authority in general, how she deals with politics today and why Moscow has never been part of Europe in her eyes. Moreover, she talks about her many trips and special relationship to America and France and last but not least why everyone should write diaries.