In a strange turn of events, Russian PEN has dismissed Svetlana Alexievich’s decision to leave the freedom of speech organisation, saying she cannot quit because she has never been a member – prompting the Nobel prize winner to reveal photographic proof of her membership.

Russian PEN officials released a statement saying that despite Alexievich’s announcement on 11 January that she was leaving as an act of protest, the celebrated reportage author had never been a member of the centre.

Addressed to American PEN, the statement read: “The Nobel prize winner Svetlana Alexievich has never been a member of the Russian PEN, so her declaration of leaving it sounds bizarre.”



Alexievich announced that she was quitting the Russian branch of the worldwide group because of the writers’ centre’s “shameful” expulsion of journalist and activist Sergey Parkhomenko. She joined an exodus of 30 other writers, including bestselling crime novelist Boris Akunin and poet Lev Rubinstein, who left after Parkhomenko was accused by Russian PEN of “destroying it from within” and for “provocative” and “rude behaviour”. The writers leaving said Parkhomenko’s expulsion came after he criticised the organisation for not supporting Ukrainian film-maker Oleg Sentsov, who is serving 20 years in prison.

In response to Russian PEN’s statement, Alexievich released a picture of her carnet online, showing she has been a member of the organisation since 1995. In addition, a screenshot of Russian PEN’s online list of members from May 2016, published by Parkhomenko, also confirms Alexievich’s membership.

A photo of Svetlana Alexievich’s Russian PEN membership.

Alexievich told the Guardian: “I think … Russian PEN is made out of really old people who don’t have an easy relationship with technology. They thought that if they excluded me from the [online members’] list I would disappear. They forgot that the internet stores everything.”

The author said that the Russian PEN scandal reflects the generally increased authoritarianism and “new patriotism” in Russia. “This is the regime’s genius way of undermining democratic, civil society from within – by putting their own members in all organisations.

“That’s the mood today. This so-called ‘new patriotism’ is a frightening phenomenon. I have lost many friends because I don’t support [Russia’s invasion of] Crimea … I’m instantly called a Russophobe, whereas they say of themselves: ‘We are Statalists, we are for Great Russia.’

“When I got out of the centre and said that the administration conducted themselves in a cowardly manner and that they are serving the government, and that this only happened this way in Stalin’s times, someone commented: ‘Svetlana, we do not lick the boot of the government, we admire its greatness and power, that finally a Great Russia has taken shape.’”

But Putin’s “new patriotism” was also sparking a backlash among intellectuals, Alexievich said: “This is the first time in the post-Soviet space when such a large number of writers said what they think without fearing the government.”

Russia’s PEN centre was established in 1989 as part of International PEN, a non-profit organisation of writers with 145 centres around the world.

Jennifer Clement, president of PEN International, said: “PEN’s charter makes it incumbent on members to oppose arbitrary censorship as well as deliberate falsehood and distortion of facts. These ideals are particularly important in times when critical and dissenting voices become the target of those in power.

“In recent weeks Svetlana Alexievich, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Lev Rubenstein and a number of other Russian PEN members have renounced their membership in their centre because their calls for the freedom of film-maker Oleg Sentsov were opposed by the board … Sentsov is currently serving a 20-year sentence in Siberia, after being tried by a closed military court. We fully support Russian writers who, at a time where space for free expression is shrinking, have the courage to stand for the freedom of others and are following these developments closely. Sentsov should be freed immediately and allowed to return home to his family.”