Questions tagged [svetlana-alexievich]
Questions about the works of the Belarusian investigative journalist and author Svetlana Alexievich (born 1948) and her life as a writer. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2015. Use with the tag [russian-language].
17 questions
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What song about a little eagle is the widow of a Chernobyl clean-up worker referring to?
In Chernobyl Prayer (or Voices from Chernobyl), the widow of a clean-up worker talks to Svetlana Alexievich about the heroism they believed in before the demise of the Soviet Union and says,
At one ...
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6
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1
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878
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Where did Anna Akhmatova write, "Half of the country imprisoning, half of the country imprisoned"?
In Chernobyl Prayer (or Voices from Chernobyl), one of the persons interviewed by Svetlana Alexievich is a historian who says,
Because the zeks didn't inhabit a separate world of prisons that were ...
- 51.1k
3
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1
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62
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What differences are there between the two editions of "Voices from Chernobyl"?
The Wikipedia article for Voices from Chernobyl (published as Chernobyl Prayer in the United Kingdom) states that:
Chernobyl Prayer was first published in Russian in 1997; a revised, updated edition ...
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2
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1
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Which part of the Bible supposedly prophesies a time when everything would be lush but man wouldn't be able to use any of it?
In Chernobyl Prayer (or Voices from Chernobyl), one of the persons interviewed by Svetlana Alexievich says,
Many years ago, my grandfather read in the Bible that there would come a time on earth when ...
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3
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1
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101
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Who wrote The Cleaners and what is the book about?
In Chernobyl Prayer (or Voices from Chernobyl), one of the persons interviewed by Svetlana Alexievich says,
As a boy, I read a marvellous book called The Cleaners — I've forgotten who wrote it — ...
- 51.1k
3
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1
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931
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What was "the amnesty" that Voices from Chernobyl refers to?
Voices from Chernobyl contains the following:
There was one guy. He came back here from jail under the amnesty. He lived in the next village.
What was "the amnesty"?
3
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1
answer
72
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Where did Sergey Bulgakov write that the world cannot altogether fail?
In Chernobyl Prayer (or Voices from Chernobyl), one of the persons interviewed by Svetlana Alexievich says,
I found this by Father Sergey Bulgakov: 'as God most certainly created the world, the world ...
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8
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1
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2k
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Which part of the Bible supposedly talks of a leader with a mark on his forehead?
In one of the early chapters of Svetlana Alexievich's Chernobyl Prayer (or Voices from Chernobyl), a woman is cited saying the following (translation by Anna Gunin and Arch Tait, Penguin, 2016, page ...
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16
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3
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Were Soviet doctors and nurses actually as callous as "Voices from Chernobyl" portrays in the prologue?
In the prologue to Voices from Chernobyl, Svetlana Alexievich includes a story from the wife of one of the firemen, Vasily Ivanovich Ignatenko, who put out the initial fire after the meltdown at ...
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0
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What happened to the USSR hospital at Khmelnitsky?
An interview with a major in Zinky Boys (day 2, track 8 in the audiobook) referred to a hospital of some kind in Khmelnitsky for long-term casualties who couldn't or wouldn't go home for various ...
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2
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101
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Was Vietnam referring to the Vietnam War in Zinky Boys?
In an interview with a major (track 8, day 2 in the audiobook), the interviewee mentions having friends who were in Ethiopia, Angola, and Vietnam. Is this likely referring to the Vietnam War (except, ...
4
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2
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122
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What were Bulgarian biscuits?
In Zinky Boys (track 7 in the audiobook), a female doctor complained that the girls she stayed with mostly talked about things like rubles, foreign currency vouchers, and how to steal meat and other ...
4
votes
1
answer
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Who wrote this particular poem in Zinky Boys?
Zinky Boys refers to the following (rather morbid in my opinion) poem:
Women and wine are fine
But a real man needs more
The sweet taste of war
The interviewee mentioned that that bit of verse was ...
3
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1
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101
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Why did so many people in Zinky Boys give the temperature as 70 degrees Celsius?
In Zinky Boys, numerous people quoted complained that the temperature was 70 degrees Celsius. In fact, so far, everyone who mentioned an exact temperature gave that as the number. Why was that?
3
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1
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Why were Afghanistan veterans treated so poorly relative to World War II veterans?
A recurring theme in Zinky Boys is how little the general population knew about the war in Afghanistan (especially at first). The Soviet government told everyone that they were building bridges and ...
2
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1
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What was the long list of names in the beginning of "Zinky Boys"?
Toward the beginning of Zinky Boys, Svetlana Alexievich states that she didn't use people's real names in the book (mostly to protect their privacy) but kept a record of them in case her sources ever ...
3
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1
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Why did Svetlana Alexievich write "Zinky Boys"?
In the beginning of Zinky Boys, Svetlana Alexievich states that she didn't want to write another war book and talks about how strongly and negatively writing her previous war book had affected her. ...