I have a lot of hopes for Ukraine I have not so much hopes for Russia but you see of course I understand people want to listen to Russian experts explaining to them everything will be okay. A very well-known Russian writer is well known in the West he told me Misha what are you doing saying something optimistic it's your mistake. "Russia is a country of wonders of magics and so let's hope that another wonder will happen"
Mikhail Shishkin is one of the most celebrated living Russian novelists and the only author to have won all three major Russian literary prizes. All his books have been adapted for the stage in Russia and they have been translated into 30 languages. In conversation with historian Victor Sebastyen Shishkin traces the roots of Russia’s problems, from Kievan Rus via the Grand Duchy of Moscow, empire, revolution and the Cold War to the now thirty-year-old Russian Federation. He explores the uneasy relationship between the Russian state and its citizens, and set out his view that there are really two Russian peoples: the disillusioned and disaffected, who suffer from what he calls a slave mentality, and those who embrace so-called European values and try to stand up to oppression. And he addresses the most vital question of all: Will Russia continue its vicious circle of upheaval and autocracy, or will its people find a way out of history?
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