Russian poet Maria Stepanova wins Leipzig Book Prize

Maria Stepanova, a powerful contempory voice of Russian literature now living in exile in Berlin, has been awarded the prestigious Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding in 2023.

The Russian-Jewish author, whose novel "In Memory of Memory" explores Stalinism and the fall of the Soviet Union, was nominated for the Booker Prize in 2021, was honored in Leipzig on Tuesday for her volume of poetry, "Girls Without Clothes." It is described as a sensitive and highly poetic study of often hidden violence against the female body and the power imbalance that drives this oppression.

In a statement, the jury praised the "unconditionality with which she insists on the poetic perception of the world," adding that Stepanova's "work is at the same time an echo chamber of world literature in which Dante, Goethe and Walt Whitman are just as present as Ezra Pound, Inger Christensen and Anne Carson."

The prize ceremony was held at the opening of the 30th Leipzig Book Fair on April 25. Presented since 1994 for the "advancement of reconciliation" in Europe, another Russian exile, the journalist Masha Gessen who lives in the US, won in 2019 for her book "The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia."

A Russian voice of dissent

Somewhat controversially, the 2023 award for the Russian-Jewish poet, novelist and journalist who was born in Moscow in 1972 comes amid Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine — which has been partly carried out under the guise of saving Russian language and culture in the former Soviet state.

Stepanova, a harsh critic of Vladimir Putin's regime, has praised Ukraine's resistance to the invasion, calling it a fight of "good against evil" in an interview with German public broadcaster RBB.

The Leipzig Book Prize jury noted the importance of a Russian writer willing to speak out.

"She helps the non-imperial part of Russia have a literary voice that deserves to be heard throughout Europe," read the jury statement.

Ukrainians reject 'good Russians'

But Stepanova's award has triggered resentment among some Ukrainians. 

"I'm fed up with the Germans and their 'good Russians' and don't want to hear anything about Russian culture, because this culture has achieved nothing, only evil," a Ukrainian journalist living in Germany wrote on her Facebook account. She rejected a DW request for further comment.

Similar sentiments were expressed across social media. Awarding the prize to a Russian-language author is regarded as an affront to citizens of the besieged country fighting for its territorial integrity, but also for the right to its own culture, its own language, its own historical image and vision of the future. Much Russian literature and music was accordingly banned in Ukraine after the invasion. 

"I can certainly understand the feelings of my Ukrainian colleagues," Stepanova told DW. "In this situation, which is agonizing for us and immeasurably more terrible for Ukrainians, you can actually hardly imagine a dialogue right now, hardly a table where Russians and Ukrainians would sit together."

But the writer who also headed an influential Russian online platform for culture and art, colta.ru, before it was banned, says the Russian language should not be conflated with Putin's imperialist regime.

"Ukrainians should also be interested in ensuring that the Russian language does not remain the sole property of those who unleashed this war back in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea," she said. "After all, Russian is also the native language of numerous Ukrainian citizens and an important voice in the unique, diverse choir of Ukrainian culture."

Russian language a minefield

Maria Stepanova also regards her literary work as a struggle for her language.

"I think the Russian language needs us more than we need it," she told DW. "And it is in poetry, which is always a language of the future, that salvation lies."

After receiving the Leipzig Book Prize, Stepanova compared the Russian language of today to a "minefield."

"As a poet in dark times, I work like a mine defuser," Stepanova told Deutschlandfunk radio. "I dig up language and clean it up, try to give it a new existence."

This article was originally written in German.