International Pen Center. Statements by members of the Russian Pen Center to leave the organization. Why Sergei Parkhomenko was expelled

Sergei Parkhomenko was expelled from the Moscow Russian-PEN Center for life. They voted unanimously, among those voted - bard Alexander Gorodnitsky, who explained that Parkhomenko "tired everyone."

What do they think about what happened in the PEN-club of St. Petersburg, the correspondent of MP7.ru asked Elena Chizhova, director of the PEN-club St. Petersburg, writer, winner of the 2009 Booker Prize:

The split in the Moscow Russian PEN Center happened quite a long time ago, when Lyudmila Ulitskaya and many others left it. But the current problem is that the last general meeting held on December 15 was rigged in the Moscow Russian PEN Center. last year, - the very one whose record appeared on the Web.

The bottom line is that on the website of the Moscow Russian PEN Center there is a falsified Charter, from the text of which several very important points were released concerning the way of electing the chairman of the executive committee of the Moscow Russian PEN and its members. The original Charter says that the candidacy of the chairman is nominated by the executive committee, but the general meeting can also propose it, the same applies to the members of the executive committee - their candidates can also be nominated by the general meeting. This is what disappeared from the site. Sergei Parkhomenko began to talk about exactly this - that during the general meeting, the hall was not allowed to nominate candidates. The group led by Marina Vishnevetskaya wanted to propose for voting the candidatures of Yevgeny Sidorov or Alexander Arkhangelsky for the post of chairman of the PEN center, so they were not allowed to do this, lay down with bones, as they say. And about this there was a terrible scandal.

We watched this recording in St. Petersburg, and the executive committee of the St. Petersburg PEN club wrote a corresponding statement stating that before a new meeting was held, without violating the Charter, our St. Petersburg PEN club would cease all contacts with the Moscow PEN center. Sergei Parkhomenko told this whole story quite openly.

And after Parkhomenko called on the human rights (!) Moscow Russian PEN Center to write a petition to pardon Oleg Sentsov, the Moscow executive committee headed by Yevgeny Popov became brutalized and dissociated himself, by the way, St. Petersburg Popov - Valery, as a member of the executive committee, also dissociated himself.

They dissociated themselves from the letter regarding Sentsov, and yesterday, apparently believing that this was not enough for the state to pat them on the head, they also made this absolutely ugly decision to exclude Sergei Parkhomenko from the Moscow Russian PEN Center for life and issued a "severe warning" to Marina Vishnevetskaya.

Lev Rubinstein left the Russian PEN Center today in protest, says Chizhova.

At the same time, no one leaves the St. Petersburg PEN-club, a year ago, when the Moscow Russian PEN-Center tried to exclude Ulitskaya and 8 other people, they declared their position that they did not agree with this. Today, Konstantin Azadovskaya, Yakov Gordin, Natalia Sokolovskaya expressed their disagreement on the expulsion of Parkhomenko on the air of Echo of Petersburg.

As a reminder, PEN Club is a human rights international associationfounded by John Galsworthy in 1921. P.E.N .: Poets (poets), Essayists (essayists), Novelists (novelists, in the Russian version - novelists). The capital letters of these words are the same in many European languages, and together they form the word pen - pen. More full version: Poets (poets), Playwrights (playwrights), Editors (editors), Essayists (essayists), Novelists (novelists), and now also journalists, historians, critics, translators, screenwriters, editors, bloggers, publishers - regardless of ethnicity affiliation, language, color, sex and religion. The main area of \u200b\u200bthe PEN-Club is the protection of writers' rights, the fight against censorship, the fight for freedom of speech, freedom of the individual.

Nikolay Podosokorsky

Vladimir Moschenko

In the executive committee of the Moscow
PEN Center

Before becoming a member of our organization, I had long conversations about it with my friends - Alexander Tkachenko and Arkady Arkanov. PEN has become something close and dear to me. I could not even have thought that the time would come when the Moscow PEN Executive Committee would so demonstratively consign the Charter of the International PEN Club to oblivion. Alas, but, having come to my senses after an illness, I have to announce with the most bitter feeling that I am leaving the Russian PEN Center.
Vladimir Moschenko

Alisa Ganieva

Alexander Arkhangelsky

Denis Dragunsky

from Dragunsky Denis Viktorovich (membership card number 504)

Dear Colleagues,
I hereby declare that I am leaving the Russian PEN Center, as I do not agree with the actions of the Executive Committee, as well as with most of my colleagues who agree with its actions.

With friendly regret and hope that sooner or later the activities of the Russian PEN Center will return to the framework of the Charter and the values \u200b\u200bof the Charter of the International PEN Club,
Yours sincerely,

Victor Yaroshenko

Directorate
Russian PEN Center
PEN International
World Association of Writers

Statement

I, Yaroshenko Victor Afanasevich,
member of the Russian PEN Center since February 1999 (membership card number 435),
I am deeply saddened to announce that I am quitting the Russian PEN Center because of the short-sighted, stupid and aggressive policy of a group of people caught up in its leadership and fanning the spark of dissent into a fire of hostility.
Now I no longer see any opportunities for the consensus that many of us have tried to achieve over the past two years.

Alla Shevelkina

At the Executive Committee of the Russian PEN Center

Please expel me from the membership of the Russian Pen-center. It is impossible to be in an organization that violates its own charter, expels active members from its ranks as punishment, and makes it appear to others.
I was invited to join PEN by the wonderful writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya. Then it seemed to me that the Pen Center is a human rights organization that, using its international authority, fights for human rights, for the release, for example, of people like Nadezhda Savchenko or Oleg Sentsov. Instead, the Russian PEN is mired in quarrels and squabbles.
The last event - the expulsion of Sergei Parkhomenko, makes my stay with this organization impossible.

Alla Shevelkina, journalist

Boris Sokolov

Twilight of Russian PEN

I wrote an application to quit the Russian PEN Center. After the shameful decision to expel Sergey Parkhomenko and Grigory Petukhov, he turned into a pitiful parody of the Union of Soviet Writers and completely forgot about the human rights basis of his activities. The new president of PEN, Yevgeny Popov, has long since lost the memory of his dissident youth and turned into a “permissible” one; a human rights activist who is ready to defend the persecuted and persecuted even in Kazakhstan, even in Uzbekistan, but not in his own country, so as not to quarrel with the authorities. This is exactly the same as Yevgeny Yevtushenko fought for the freedom of the patriots of Chile or Angela Davis in Soviet times.

A similar slide of PEN to an imitation of human rights activities was due to the silent majority that was created in it. It was formed due to the PEN adopted in last years writers who do not attend meetings, but vote by mail as the President and the Executive Committee say. Well, the authorities have taken over another previously independent public organization.

It is especially sad for me that among those who voted for the shameful decision to expel was Alexander Gorodnitsky. Previously, I deeply respected him, now I do not respect him.

And the most tragic thing for me and other writers who have left or are going to leave PEN these days is the impossibility of sending further collective letters to the authorities in defense of those who are persecuted for their beliefs. Previously, we did this within the framework of the Private Opinion group formed in PEN. Therefore, I propose to everyone who left PEN for ideological reasons to create some kind of new association so that we can continue the activities that the current leadership of the Russian PEN Center has abandoned.

Victor Esipov

To the self-proclaimed executive committee of the Russian PEN Center
I do not consider it possible to remain in an organization where there are no democratic principles and their own charter is falsified.

Member of the Moscow JV,
Sns IMLI RAS them. Gorky
Victor Esipov

Anna Berseneva (Tatiana Sotnikova)

Vladimir Sotnikov

Maya Kucherskaya

Alexey Motorov

Mikhail Berg

Olga Drobot

STATEMENT
I joined the Russian PEN Center in 2014, inspired by his anti-war statements. In full compliance with the PEN Charter, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Lev Timofeev, Aleksey Simonov and other PEN members bravely fought against false and falsified publications, against turning the word into a political weapon.
The purpose of my joining PEN was to fight for freedom of speech and expression. I am a literary translator, this is an inconspicuous profession, so the weight of my public word is not comparable to the weight of a word, for example, nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich. PEN was invented as such an umbrella - it supports the human rights activities of writers and protects them from persecution by the authority of the World PEN. Therefore, I entered PEN, as you sagaciously noted, to use the PEN brand for its intended purpose. The letters in defense of Oleg Sentsov, Nadezhda Savchenko, Memorial, and the Ukrainian Library, which I signed as a “member of the Russian PEN Center,” were worth it. But with its latest actions - manipulations with the charter and elections, shameful persecution of dissidents, unwillingness to firmly demand the release of Oleg Sentsov - the executive committee of the Russian Orthodox Church actually disgraced the name PEN.
This is especially sad, because in today's situation with freedom of speech and expression of one's opinion, the authority of the World PEN is needed more than ever for active human rights protection. Instead, the executive committee of the Russian Orthodox Church is preoccupied with receiving a presidential grant for the publication of "Scalding Flame" political activity in its pure form).
I have great respect for my like-minded people who remain in the PEN Center, but I do not share Alina Vitukhnovskaya's hope that the Russian PEN Center will return to its mission. A repressive organization cannot fight for anyone's rights. When I joined the Russian PEN Center, it never occurred to me that it was in PEN that I would face a densely anti-democratic election system, with complete contempt for the opinion of the minority, with cruel and inexorable censorship and a completely unacceptable manner in which you and members of the executive committee allow themselves to write statements and comment in the press and on their Facebook pages. When we were in public correspondence a year ago, I said that the split of the Russian PEN seems to me the worst scenario. Today it is a fact. The only way out of the situation would be the voluntary resignation of the president and the executive committee, convening an extraordinary meeting and a return to democratic and simply respectful norms within the Russian PEN. Since I have no hope for this, I declare my withdrawal from the Russian PEN Center on January 13, 2017. I still share the goals of the PEN Worldwide stated in the Charter and will fight for them to the best of my ability.
Olga Dmitrievna Drobot, 12.01.2017

Andrey Makarevich

I read the letter about Lev Rubinstein's withdrawal from the PEN Club. With great regret I subscribe to his every word. And I follow him.

Varvara Gornostaeva

Vladimir Sorokin

Vladimir Sorokin: Today I decided to leave the Russian PEN center, since our PEN has completely rotted away. Now it is dominated by bark beetles and wood lice, and inside - dust.

Leonid Bakhnov

At the Executive Committee of the Russian PEN Center

Believing it is impossible for myself to remain in an organization whose leadership allows itself to manipulate the Charter and the election process, and prefers sanctions against colleagues to human rights activities, please do not consider me a member of the Russian PEN Center anymore.
Leonid Bakhnov,
membership card number 514
January 12, 2017

Vitaly Dixon

Olga Varshaver

Pavel Nerler
Addressee - Ekaterina Turchaninova, Deputy Director of Russian PEN

Katya, as an ordinary member of the PEN Center, I am tired of enduring all this shame. The most disgusting thing is the style with which this "discussion" is conducted - from both sides.
In addition, I am not happy with the fact that my rather principled proposal to PEN is to move away from the tactics of “crowing” (that is, writing statements that are fundamentally unaddressed and not calculated responding and therefore senseless) to the tactics of “fight” (that is, to stand up for the persecuted not verbally, without shaking the air, but legally and systematically, filing lawsuits and bringing them to judgmentswhatever they are). In my opinion, for the human rights trade union - and PEN is nothing else - this is a central issue, and I was jarred by how it was shelved.

In general, this is a statement of withdrawal from PEN, I ask you to confirm its receipt today, register and publish it on the site.
With a bitter feeling, Pavel Nerler
January 11, 2016.

Grigory Pasko

“Journalist Grigory Pasko wrote an application to withdraw from the Russian PEN Center. He told about this to Open Russia.

Olga Sedakova
announced her withdrawal from the Russian PEN Center on her Facebook page

I'm leaving PEN.

Statement.
I decided to leave the Russian PEN Center.
As for Lev Rubinstein, this decision is sad for me. It means that I have no hope that our PEN in its present state can be an independent human rights organization of writers, that is, to fulfill its direct purpose. I think that in the years when A.P. Tkachenko was its general director (1994 - 2007), the Russian PEN fulfilled this task.
Members of any union or society can have different views, cultural, political, ethical. This is even more true in relation to writers and people of mental labor. But there is a topic that is not discussed: namely, the meaning and purpose of a voluntary union, into which a person enters. Let's say that there is no need to join an environmental society to someone who believes that nature should not be protected (or is worth it, but not always), and that those who believe that nature needs to be protected in any circumstances are "destructive forces" and "provocateurs" ... Namely, this is the opinion of the current leadership and the majority of PEN members: whether or not to speak up in defense of freedom of speech and people who suffered for this freedom depends on the circumstances. More precisely, from one circumstance: whether it will lead to a conflict with the authorities. It has nothing to do with the idea and practice of international PEN.
Moreover, the need for a human rights organization of this kind in modern Russia obvious. The strength of PEN’s statements is that it is a common, agreed-upon statement of people with public authority. Within the framework of the current PEN, such statements are no longer possible.
Olga Sedakova

Svetlana Alexievich

to our request to comment on the situation with the expulsion from the Russian PEN Center, Sergei Parkhomenko wrote in response:

I want to say that my comment on the exclusion of Parkhomenko can only be my statement of withdrawal
from the Russian PEN, the ideals of the founders of which are cowardly violated. During the years of perestroika, we were proud of our PEN, but now we are ashamed. This is how obsequious and humiliated Russian writers behaved only in Stalin's time.
But Putin will leave, and this shame naya page in the history of PEN will remain. And the names too.
Today is such a time that we cannot defeat evil, we are powerless in front of the “red man”, but he cannot stop time. I believe in it.
Svetlana Alexievich

Akunin / Chkhartishvili

In modern Russia, many things are not what they call themselves.
The Duma does not think, the parliamentary opposition does not oppose the government, the Liberal Democratic Party hates liberals with democrats, and so on, and so on.
The same is with the Russian PEN Center. Among the main tasks of the global PEN movement is to "fight for freedom of expression and be a powerful voice in defense of writers who are persecuted, imprisoned and threatened for their views."
The Russian PEN Center is not engaged in this, which means that it has nothing to do with the PEN movement. The task of all the activities of the Russian HRC is only not to anger the authorities.
I am a supporter of liberalism and democracy, but I have nothing to do with the Liberal Democratic Party.
In the same way, I share the views of the PEN movement, but I ask you not to associate me with the Russian LC in the future. I am no longer in it.

Lev Rubinstein

Dear Colleagues.

I made a decision to leave PEN. This decision, I confess, has matured a long time ago. But I did not dare to take this step for quite a long time.

I became a member of this organization for a long time, since the early 1990s. And these were completely different times, a completely different socio-political climate. And the organization itself, and the principles it declared, and its various concrete steps were quite compatible with my basic ideas about, so to speak, good and evil.

The last straw was the news of the expulsion from the PEN or other repressive measures against several of my colleagues. And not just colleagues, but, frankly, friends. And not just like that, but with completely inadmissible formulations and assessments of their personal qualities.

I cannot "swallow" it in any way. And I express my resolute protest as I can and as I consider it necessary.

The PEN leadership proudly announces that despite the "destructive work of various destructive forces," they allegedly managed to "avoid a split." No, it didn't work. It was not at all possible, alas.

The PEN Center is, by definition, a writers' organization, that is, consisting, as it were, of writers. And it is known that no one, like a writer (if he is a writer), is so sensitive to questions of language and style, behind which the true essence, the true content (or complete emptyness) of any statement is always guessed.

So the split, unfortunately, happened. And it's obvious. And it was not so much that this split took place on the surface of ideological or political convictions - which can be different for everyone, and this is normal - as it revealed a completely essential stylistic incompatibility. These same "stylistic differences", which were once, albeit for a slightly different reason, were brilliantly formulated by Andrei Sinyavsky, at another historical stage and in other socio-cultural circumstances indicated - at least for me - the irrelevance and painful ambiguity of my very belonging to an organization, the leadership of which expresses itself - including on my behalf - in such a language.

A split has occurred. And, unfortunately, it will deepen. And it will deepen not so much due to obvious ideological and moral differences and fundamental differences in views on the current social state of the country and the world, on the boundaries of compromise, on those boundaries, crossing which, the human rights organization becomes frankly servile, on the very role of the writer and artist in society ... It goes without saying, but this is not the main thing. All this can be argued, talked about and negotiated. But only on condition that the conversation takes place in a common language. But he is not.

Lacking the temperament that is necessary for the "inner struggle", I do not find anything more appropriate than just leaving this organization, just saying goodbye to it, no matter how difficult and painful it may be for me, no matter what good memories I have. about many colleagues and employees.

Nina Caterly

Alexander Ilichevsky
wrote on my facebook page

TWIMC. From today on I am not on the list of members of the PEN RF. I joined it only because I was invited by Lyudmila Ulitskaya, and I took this invitation as a kind of obligation. However, now I consider it impossible to be a member of this organization.

Tatiana Bonch-Osmolovskaya
wrote on my Facebook page

I am leaving the Russian PEN Center, as this organization does not fulfill the main task written in the Charter of the International PEN Club - to be a human rights organization for writers.

Gennady Kalashnikov

To the President of the Russian PEN Center
E.A. Popov.
To the Executive Committee of the Russian PEN Center.
From a member of the Russian PEN Center
Kalashnikova G.N.

STATEMENT
In connection with my disagreement with the procedure for holding and decisions of the general meeting of the PEN Center, with punitive measures directed against our common colleagues, I declare my resignation from the members of this organization.

Oleg Khlebnikov

I am deeply disgusted with what is happening in the Russian PEN Center. He turned from a human rights organization into a pseudo-elite writers club. It seems to me that it is necessary to declare the establishment of an alternative Moscow PEN.
Oleg Khlebnikov

Evgeny Bunimovich on leaving the executive committee of the Russian PEN Center

Dear Colleagues!

All the years in PEN, I saw the meaning of my activity in uniting writers who, despite the difference of opinions, ideas and preferences, are ready to together defend the principles of freedom of speech, defend writers and poets, journalists and publishers who are persecuted for their texts, words, thoughts. For some time it seemed to me that this was possible and achievable, but recent events indicate the opposite.

Of course, the boundaries between human rights activity and direct political activity are not obvious; there are many other complex problems. It is possible and necessary to argue about this, negotiate, find a common language, seek a compromise, while the path of public mutual insults, exclusion from the organization and other “simple solutions” only leads to crisis and split.

Alas, today on both sides of the PEN barricades there are writers and poets whom I respect and love, with whom I have long-standing friendships, and I don’t want to make an unnecessary, imposed choice between Zhenya, Lyova, Igor, Lyusya, Andrey, Grisha, Marina, Varya, Sasha, Valera, Kostya, other Sasha, Seryozha, Volodya, Maxim, Yulik, Olga, Oleg, Ira, Timur, Efim, Natasha, Slava, Vlad.

By stopping my participation in the work of the governing bodies of the Russian PEN Center, of course, as before, I will participate in the human rights activities of the writers' community, speaking for freedom of speech, in defense of writers who are subjected to repression for their views and books.

Yours Evgeny Bunimovich

Evgeny Sidorov on leaving the Executive Committee of the Russian PEN Center

IN THE EXECUTION OF THE RUSSIAN PEN CENTER
As the first secretary of the Moscow Writers' Union, I was ready to work in the Executive Committee of the Russian PEN Center, hoping for close and fruitful cooperation of our Union with a well-known human rights organization. Unfortunately, the last decisions of the Executive Committee, taken without my participation, force me to leave this governing body of the PEN Center.
Evgeny SIDOROV

Serious ideological differences within the authoritative independent writers' organization are evidenced by a letter from its president Andrei Bitov, who criticized the vice-president of PEN Ulitskaya and recent changes in the organization's activities. There were loud accusations of "raiding" and a demand to revise the development strategy. In fact, in recent times The Russian PEN Center took an active public position related to the protection of the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens and criticism of the totalitarian aspirations of the current Russian government. The site of the Russian PEN Center was updated, another vice president (Lyudmila Ulitskaya) and several dozen new members were elected, a number of statements and appeals were adopted, including the Statement of the Russian PEN Center against the introduction of a "new information order" in Russia and the persecution of bloggers , Statement of the Russian PEN Center for freedom of expression and against violence, Statement of the Russian PEN Center "We are against aggression", Appeal of the Russian PEN Center to the literary and journalistic community, Statement of the Russian PEN Center "On violation of the constitutional rights of citizens ..." and others. Against the background of the general closure and nationalization of various media and public organizations, the announcement of a number of non-profit organizations that were not controlled by foreign agents, etc., the PEN Center remained one of the few institutions that allowed itself to publicly criticize the unconstitutional actions of the authorities and oppose Putin's personality cult. And now, it seems, they also decided to end this with the hands of the members themselves. Either they pressed Bitov, or he himself got scared and wanted to secure the Russian PEN Center from being closed and possibly declared a "foreign agent". In any case, public hearings show a deep split within the PEN Center with unpredictable consequences. It is possible that in reality everything was heading towards the closure of the Russian branch by the dissatisfied authorities, and Bitov's letter is a desperate attempt to preserve at least something, making the Russian PEN more loyal in the current conditions of authoritarianism. But I think that this attempt (if it really was so) would be doomed to failure. And most likely the PEN Center in Russia will not have long to exist.

Letter from the President of the Russian PEN Center and comments from the site administrators

"Suddenly a sudden knock rang out ..." ("Nevermore" in Balmont's translation). Knocking faster than the Internet, like in soviet times... I was sitting in a dacha near St. Petersburg, fleeing with my great-grandson from the heat, where the Internet does not take, - calls went to my mobile phone: did you read, did you see? This is about our new site. Now I am finally reading it ... and I find that this chaotic set of statements is not only a violation of the charter of the Russian PEN Center, but also of the PEN Club charter itself, which excludes confessional, party or nationalist interests. I'm not sure that the World PEN has always been consistent in these principles, but we are in the Charter believed (and I found myself busy with the affairs of the PEN club since 1987, from the very beginning of the very possibility of the emergence of a PEN center on the territory of the USSR, and in 1989 we achieved the maximum number of centers, including the Ukrainian one). We considered it to be the PEN Club's destiny and right to protect freedom of speech and individual rights to express personally their opinion in writing, the instrument is diplomatic methods, not political games and declarations. It was diplomatically that Aleksandr Tkachenko and I sometimes managed to defeat even politics. Thus, in the landmark year 2000, the PEN World Congress was held in Moscow, which was not so much coveted by either the International PEN or the Kremlin. And this was a recognition of the activities of the Russian PEN Center.

And now I'm wondering who our new site was coordinated with? The Executive Committee, as I understand it, was not aware of this. What does the trident have to do with his coat of arms (which arose under Mazepa as a variation of the Swedish crown)! *

What does this have to do with statements on behalf of their own, published as the opinion of the entire PEN Center ... For example, such a "Statement":

The first step - the annexation of Crimea to Russia - has already been taken, the first blood has already been shed. Further steps on this path are fraught with bloodshed of an unpredictable scale, isolation of Russia, turning it into a rogue country, and ultimately into a third world country, thrown from the civilizational path for decades. **

What a Soviet, Bolshevik language it is written in! Where does this swagger come from? Where does the Russophobe have such great power? arrogance towards third world countries (which, by the way, possessed highly developed civilizations, while barbarian Europe, which subsequently robbed them, was still walking in skins)? .. In addition to the quoted statement, other people's materials are reprinted, which have nothing to do with the activities of our Center ***.

I remind the history of the question (too many new members). Since 1994, the PEN Center was practically led by him cEO Alexander Tkachenko. (He and I invented the "tandem" much earlier than our leaders.) Sasha was already ready to become president and then suddenly died, placing me under responsibility, from which I already considered myself free (however, I do not know how he would have survived as a born Crimean the present century of the First World War, so vividly marked in Ukraine).

With the death of Tkachenko, our Center was practically beheaded, help was needed. Aleksey Simonov, who had similar work experience, was elected vice-president, but he was not enough (in the meantime, I was mechanically re-elected, not finding another candidate). Sasha was missing more and more catastrophically. We decided to “strengthen” the PEN-center with one more vice-president, more active. The election of Lyudmila Ulitskaya, at first encouraging, resulted in everything that I read belatedly, in the same language of Sharikov:

Now the intelligentsia is split, and a significant part of the people who formally belong to this stratum are showing a quick readiness to fulfill any desires and approve any reckless and even suicidal actions of the authorities. ****

There are no four right sides; this contradicts at least geometry. On the square wheel of the Crimea, the cart of Ukraine cannot be rolled from East to West. With diplomacy, like a head, no one is on friendly terms, it immediately degenerates into a confrontation between the special services and the media, i.e. into politics. New old days! But I, Bitov Andrey Georgievich, never a layer to anyone, not a hero and not a victim, but one manwho wrote and said what I think. And since I am alone, it is impossible to split me.

Revolution without post and telegraph is nothing for usIlyich used to say. Well, that's why the Charter is violated, that's why the new site. Then the personnel decide everything (who used to say?). And then there were violations in the charter of the Russian PEN Center, which once demanded two-thirds of the votes of all members of the Executive Committee for admitting a writer to the PEN. There has never been such a strong reception of new members since the last December meeting (45 people). I was not too lazy to look through the minutes of the meetings of the Executive Committee: everything without a hint of a quorum, without written recommendations (just one word from Ulitskaya, and with the oral support of Simonov along the way). Fresh forces are good, but not usurpation ("raiding" on a new move) *****.

I try not to forget the wise advice of an old friend (Ava Zak), given already half a century ago: “Don't bite the bait! remember, if something is done badly, then it is beneficial for someone. " And so it is. But I am already an old person, and I am embarrassed to indicate my experience both in literature and in the PEN club. I am not a politician, I have no time to change myself. It remains to say and write what I think: the Russian PEN Center is consistently substituted under the "dragons" of the law on non-governmental organizations... Who benefits from this?

I ask, even demand that all members of our PEN center (including the newly elected) finally appear in full force at the reporting and re-election meeting and openly discuss my letter.

"I asked:" What are the cities in Chile \\\\ There are cities? "\\\\ Raven croaked:" Never! " \\\\ And he was exposed "... (Nikolay Glazkov, not a member of the PEN club)

Comments of site administrators

* - "What does the trident have to do with his [site's] coat of arms" - the author of the letter mistakenly mistook the logo of the forum "Ukraine-Russia: Dialogue" (a trident transformed into a dove of peace with an olive branch in its beak) for the coat of arms of the site, which for some time was located under the heading "Agenda". Currently, there is a banner with the words "Freedom to Kamil Valiullin". The PEN logo ("coat of arms") is permanently located in the upper left corner of the panel.

** - Andrey Bitov, who is one of the initiators of the Congress of Intelligentsia (http://nowar-kongress.com/?page_id\u003d292) quotes the "Statement of the Congress" Against the war, against the self-isolation of Russia, against the restoration of totalitarianism " , as a co-founder of the Congress, signature (http://nowar-kongress.com/?p\u003d16#more-16). And therefore the questions that followed the quote ("What Soviet, Bolshevik language is this written! Where does such arrogance come from? Where does such great power come from? a Russophobe? ”) we leave without comment.

*** - During the existence of the new site, about 80 publications have appeared on its news feed. Only six of them are not directly related to the activities of the PEN Center. but touch upon the most acute problems of cultural and public life (discussion of the "Fundamentals of Cultural Policy", the emergence of the "Stop-Censorship" movement, articles by psychologists that help modern man master the rapidly changing reality, including the article by L. Petranovskaya "Empire as a Loss" - one of the leaders in terms of attendance on our website).

All other publications are:

a) fragments of books by PEN members (upcoming or just published) - 31

b) letters and statements of the Russian PEN Center - 7

c) materials related to the International PEN-Club - 4

d) congratulations to PEN members on anniversaries, prizes, awards - 11

e) obituaries - 2

f) publications about the evenings held in PEN - 4

g) written specifically for the site essays by PEN members and their exclusive interviews - 7

h) posts of PEN members - 2

i) message on the admission of new PEN members - 1

j) materials about the congress "Ukraine-Russia: Dialogue" (one of the organizers of which was the Russian PEN Center) - 3

**** - Andrey Bitov quotes the statement of the "Second session of the Congress of the intelligentsia" (http://nowar-kongress.com/?p\u003d525), which was signed by members of the PEN Center Vladimir Voinovich, Irina Prokhorova , Lev Ponomarev, Viktor Shenderovich, Igor Irtenev, Konstantin Azadovsky, Gleb Shulpyakov, Lyubov Summ, Oleg Khlebnikov, Veronika Dolina, Lev Timofeev, Natalia Mavlevich, Mikhail Aizenberg, Viktor Esipov, Viktor Yaroshenko, Evgeny Sidorov, Marina Boroditskaya, Olga Kedrov, Elena Katsyuba, Maxim Nemtsov, Alina Vitukhnovskaya, Irina Balakhonova, Alexander Gelman, Tatiana Kaletskaya, Nina Katerli, Irina Levinskaya, Marina Vishnevetskaya, Petr Obraztsov, Lev Timofeev, Igor Yarkevich, Sergei Gandlevsky, Vardvan Varzhapetyan, Margarita Kheemlin - Presidents of the Russian PEN Lyudmila Ulitskaya and Andrey Simonov.

***** - List of those admitted to the Russian PEN Center at the last three meetings of the Executive Committee.

1. Alexander Arkhangelsky
2. Marina Akhmedova
3. Dmitry Bavilsky
4. Marina Vishnevetskaya
5. Ekaterina Gordeeva
6. Varvara Gornostaeva
7. Denis Gutsko
8. Alexander Ilichevsky
9. Maya Kucherskaya
10. Alla Shevelkina
11. Irina Yasina
12. Evgeniya Dobrova
13.Viktor Esipov
14. Grigory Petukhov
15.Vladimir Puchkov
16.Alexander Chantsev

1. Irina Prokhorova
2. Natalia Mavlevich
3. Irina Balakhonova
4. Olga Timofeeva
5.Andrey Sorokin
6. Christina Gorelik
7. Olga Romanova
8. Boris Kherson
9. Love Sums
10. Zoya Svetova
11.Andrey Zhitinkin
12. Maxim Gureev
13. Evgeniya Safronova
14. Amarsana Ulzytuev
15. Evgeny Strelkov
16. Alexander Tsygankov
17. Anastasia Orlova
18. Farid Nagimov

1.Sergey Parkhomenko
2. Maxim Krongauz
3. Mikhail Aizenberg
4. Denis Dragunsky
5. Olga Dunaevskaya
6. Ekaterina Obraztsova
7. Tatiana Danilyants
8. Elena Isaeva
9. Leonid Bakhnov
10. Elena Ivanova-Verkhovskaya
11.Igor Sakhnovsky

So that in new Year do not drag. There, a new chapter will begin ... We must somehow finish this part of the epic with the Russian PEN Center, which in mid-December managed to organize, perhaps, the most shameful event in its long history: rigged elections for its president and executive committee.

For those interested in the sad fate of this "leadership" of the once glorious human rights organization, I recommend examining the recently published "Statement" of the Executive Committee on Oleg Sentsov:

It is characteristic that it does not have a title - just, just in case, because without a title it’s not so scary: you would have had to select some meaningful word for it, such as “in defense”, “freedom”, “justice”, “pardon "Or something else so seditious. These writers, as you can see, have difficulties with the selection of words. And if there is no headline, there is no problem with scary words. Anyway, there is a chance that no one will notice anything.

The statement opens with a message that “Russian PEN Center is concerned about the fate of Oleg Gennadievich Sentsov and asks the President Russian Federation and the Russian courts can really help ease the conditions of detention of this film director and writer ... "

Boldly, right?

Decisively. Human rights. Freedom-loving. “… To help ease the conditions of detention…” What could be more precise, more necessary and timely in describing the case of Oleg Sentsov?

Moreover, as we can see, someone else should soften, for example, World Fund wildlife or, say, UNICEF, and the "President of the Russian Federation and the Russian courts" should somehow help. If possible. If they would be so kind, and if not difficult.

And then the leadership of the PEN Center in detail, reasoned, with the mention of some articles of the Criminal Executive Code, reports why it is in no way possible to pardon Oleg Sentsov. Well, this is so that Their Excellency does not make it difficult to find arguments for refusal. And so, God forbid, not get angry.

Such an amazing "protection of rights" happened because the Russian PEN-Center is very much afraid of troubles from two sides at the same time: in relations not only with their various Excellencies in Russia, but also with the International PEN-Club.

The fact is that several dozen members of the PEN Center (in their personal capacity, not on behalf of the organization, of course), as well as an even larger group of writers and historians, published a statement a few days ago demanding a pardon for Sentsov. And the leadership of the Russian PEN Center had to publish a special refutation that it had nothing to do with it, that it wasn’t asking anyone for anything, and in general, uncle, please forgive, it’s not us, it’s over there, but we’re nothing like that ...

One can imagine in what amazement the world PEN Club, whose main task is to protect freedom of speech and organize actions of solidarity with those who suffered from its infringement, is in amazement at this trick of the Russian PEN Center. Well, the Russian writers' "leadership" has to sit down on both chairs at once and gently squeeze out of itself drop by drop, through force ... And then, after all, the World Congress, what good, will not be invited ...

And finally - for those who still care about the electoral plot. Two days ago, the current "leadership" of the PEN Center completely coolly posted on its official website a falsified protocol of the meeting, where this leadership seemed to have been chosen. Honestly, they don't have a person there who would explain to them that the use of knowingly false documents about activities legal entity, - an act provided for by the Criminal Code. And with every extra deceitful paper they produce, the hole under their feet only deepens. But adults, some even with any bureaucratic experience. One might think that all this has not been reproduced thousands of times in the histories of any joint-stock companies and cooperatives. But for some reason they hope that it will carry them over, that if you are friends with the authorities, then the law is not written.

It contains a huge number of meaningful things (just related to the norms of the organization's charter, with a quorum, with the introduction of candidates for the positions of the president and members of the executive committee, with the voting procedure, with the counting of votes) - they are just cold-bloodedly distorted. Which is especially stupid, since a full video was made during the meeting, which makes it very easy to track how everything really happened.

Russian PEN Center is a branch of the international "PEN Club". This organization appeared in London in 1921, bringing together professional writers. According to the charter, members of the club are engaged in monitoring the provision of the right to freedom of speech, protection of the rights of writers, journalists and cultural workers, as well as creative exchange with foreign colleagues. The Russian PEN Center, which became part of the PEN Club, was founded in 1989.

In the first days of the new year, several well-known writers announced their withdrawal from the Russian PEN Center, which unites about 400 people. Among those who left the organization are Boris Akunin and Svetlana Aleksievich, poets Lev Rubinstein and Timur Kibirov. Several dozen remaining members of the Russian PEN issued a collective statement in which they demanded to hold a general meeting of the organization in Moscow without delay and expressed no confidence in its current Executive Committee.

Parkhomenko's provocative activities

Another split of the Russian PEN Center began on December 24, 2016. At the end of last year, several dozen members of the organization, including and, turned to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a request to pardon Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov. Sentsov was sentenced to 20 years for extremism in the case of the "Crimean sabotage and terrorist group" of the organization "Right Sector" banned in Russia.

He insisted that the authors of the appeal signed as individuals, and not as participants in the Russian PEN Center. Nevertheless, the press service of the PEN Center wrote in an official appeal to the president that the organization's leadership had nothing to do with the statements of the "group of liberal oppositionists."

Expelled on December 28 after the publication of his column on how the Russian PEN Center fulfills its human rights functions. The organization nevertheless expressed its position on the Sentsov case, but the journalist did not like how it did it.

Nikolay Podosokorsky

publicist, literary critic

I am sure that the decision to expel Sergei Parkhomenko and repressions against other members of the organization was wrong, and it could lead to the voluntary withdrawal from PEN and a number of other well-known writers. Let me remind you that over the past few years, the Russian PEN Center, due to disagreement with the policy of the organization's leadership, such famous writers and public figures like Sergey Kostyrko, Igor Irteniev, Lev Timofeev, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Natalia Mavlevich, Vladimir Mirzoev, Lyubov Summ, Irina Yasina, Olga Timofeeva, Zoya Svetova, Irina Surat, Boris Kherson, Nune Barseghyan, Grigory Revzin, Sergey, Viktor Shenderovich, Gandlevsky and Dmitry Bavilsky.

The forecast made on January 9 was confirmed the very next day. On January 10, the poet left the Russian PEN Center.

Lev Rubinstein

So the split, unfortunately, happened. And it's obvious. And it was not so much that this split took place on the surface of ideological or political convictions - which may be different for everyone, and this is normal - as it revealed a completely essential stylistic incompatibility. These very "stylistic differences", which once, albeit on a slightly different occasion, were brilliantly formulated by Andrei Sinyavsky, at another historical stage and in other socio-cultural circumstances indicated - at least for me - the irrelevance and painful ambiguity of my very belonging to an organization whose leadership expresses itself - including on my behalf - on such language.

After the announcement of the withdrawal from the organization, one after another followed by similar statements from other well-known and already former members of the Russian PEN Center.

The writer and poet, laureate of the Russian Booker and Big Book prizes joined the PEN Center “only because he was invited by Lyudmila Ulitskaya (ex-vice-president of the organization that left her after the conflict with the ex-president - ed. ), and took this invitation as a kind of obligation. " However now counted impossible to be a member of this organization.

One of the most prolific modern russian writers wrote : “I am a supporter of liberalism and democracy, but I have nothing to do with the Liberal Democratic Party. In the same way, I share the views of the PEN movement, but I ask you not to associate me with the Russian LC in the future. I am no longer in it. "

Director of the St. Petersburg PEN-Club, writer and laureate of the "Russian Booker" Elena Chizhova, that the St. Petersburg PEN-Club ceased all contacts with the Moscow Russian PEN-Center after the decision to expel the journalist from the organization.

Nobel laureate Svetlana Aleksievich left the organization reported her friend Rita Kabakova: "From yesterday's correspondence with Svetlana Aleksievich:" Rita, after they expelled Parkhomenko, I also decided to leave this now strange organization. An old friend called me today, it was the same feeling. We are more and more we share more terrible. Now everything can be with us ... Svetlana "".

Co-founder of the publishing house "Corpus" Varvara Gornostaeva wrote that comes out of the Russian PEN Center, "Which slowly and surely turned and turned into an exemplary Sovpis, cowardly and servile"... In 2013, Gornostaeva hoped that the PEN Center would become a human rights organization, but soon he "He did exactly what the state did: he found internal enemies and declared war on them".

The writer posted scan of the statement of resignation, which also compares the Russian PEN Center with the Writers' Union of the USSR: “The Charter of the Russian PEN Center says:“ The PEN Club advocates the principles of freedom of information within each country and between all countries, its members undertake to oppose suppression of freedom of speech in any form. " When I once joined the Russian PEN Center, I joined a human rights writers' organization, and not a union of Soviet writers, into which it has now become. "

The author of books about the nurse Parovozov Aleksey Motorov left Russian PEN-club, because "this organization has long ceased to follow the declared goals, the PEN Charter and even its own charter." “It’s probably not worth observing how writers, many of whom I considered decent people, behave,” he added.

Came out from the Writers' Association and the Russian-Australian filiologist Tatiana Bonch-Osmolovskaya, "since this organization does not fulfill the main task recorded in the Charter of the International PEN Club - to be a human rights writers organization."

____________________________

President of the Russian PEN Center Evgeny Popov, noted that refers to him "And with great respect for everything he does"... However, according to Gorodnitsky, the journalist “took a course towards denouncing the PEN Executive Committee, accused them of licking their bosses' ass, said that it was necessary to speak more radically on various issues, including political ones. The club includes people of different views, often opposite. And Parkhomenko and other people spoke on behalf of the entire PEN. This is wrong, ”Gorodnitsky told reporters.

The bard also answered the question of Lyudmila Ulitskaya's leaving the PEN center - she was the vice-president of the organization and brought along many new members: “I really love Ulitskaya, she is a wonderful writer. But there were complaints against her that she received many journalists, which was not provided for by the Charter. And in 2014, at the congress in Kiev, I made quite radical statements on behalf of PEN. "

Viktor Erofeev, one of the founders of the Russian PEN Center, who, together with Lyudmila Ulitskaya, was a member of its Executive Committee, and later, in his own words, turned into “PEN's dust”, has not yet left the association. But about that. According to him, the split in the once active and well-functioning organization was outlined for a long time: “... When the situation arose with the Crimea and Donbass, it was already clear that the gap could not be stopped at all”.

Victor Erofeev

writer

It seems to me that since I am one of the founders of the PEN-club, I also need to understand: or leave, and thus it will be clear that we will never gather those people who can return the PEN-center back to us, right? Well, if only the angels remain there ... The bastards all leave, the angels remain, then it means that we will never cope with the angels. Or leave. Well, in general, time will tell. But this language of war was ugly from the point of view of the PEN Center. Although, I must say that on the other hand, such a conversation is the Bolshevik, the Bolshevik opposition ... I'm not talking about Lyova, but about other speakers of this language. It also seems to me incorrect, because we, after all, are not waiting for the revolution of 1917, we do not need coups.

Also with an open letter to the Executive Committee of the Russian PEN Center

International Pen Center. Statements by members of the Russian Pen Center to leave the organization. Why Sergei Parkhomenko was expelled

Parkhomenko's provocative activities

The last

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