Writer Zherebtsova Polina Viktorovna: biography

Georges Clemenceau called the war a series of catastrophes leading to victory. The French politician was mistaken. War always leads to defeat. And most of all from the disasters that accompany it, children suffer. And they are the most objective and impartial witnesses. Zherebtsova Polina is the author of diaries translated into many languages of the world. She is compared to Anna Frank and Tanya Savicheva. Polina Zherebtsova, whose biography began in Chechnya, told the whole world about what was happening in her homeland in the nineties. Creativity and life of this writer - the topic of the article.

A family

Zherebtsova Polina Victorovna was born in 1985. Her hometown is Grozny. The family in which Paulina Zherebtsova was born was multinational. In the library, which numbered several dozen volumes, the Bible, the Koran and the Torah had equal rights. Works of ancient philosophers and the works of Tolstoy Zherebtsov Polina began to study already in adolescence.

The name of the writer came from her maternal relatives. Stallions were long Cossacks, freedom-loving noblemen who fled from the monarch's disgrace to the free Don lands. Pauline's father was a lawyer, but died when she was very young. In peacetime, her mother worked as a senior commodity expert at a large enterprise. Grandfather died in the first Chechen campaign. Zherebtsova Polina spoke extremely warmly in her diary about this man. He worked for more than twenty-five years on local television. Was an operator. Killed tragically during the capture of the hospital in Pervomaisk.

Zherebtsova Polina Viktorovna kept diaries in which she expressed her secret thoughts in Russian. However, among the ancestors of this author were Chechens, Ukrainians, Poles, Spaniards, and French. In the family of the author, for whom the Russian language was native, it was customary to take pride in the pedigree, in which representatives of different peoples intertwined in a bizarre way. Those who are familiar with Zherebtsova's creativity may find it strange that in later works she increasingly emphasizes her non-involvement in Russian culture.

Before the war

The neighbors of the Zherebtsov family were people of different nationalities: Russians, Ingush, Avars, Ukrainians, Armenians. The Chechens were few. Before the war, relations between the residents of the city, according to the memoirs of the writer, were amicable. Zherebtsova Polina does not remember the quarrels on the national soil. In addition, families were, as a rule, mixed.

Everything changed in 1994. With the outbreak of the war, the residents of Grozny began to share each other on their own and others', on Chechens and non-Chechens. And it was in 1994, Polina Zherebtsova, whose biography includes tragic events, which can not be carried by every adult man, began to keep a diary. She was only nine years old. This diary is not easy to read. But this must be done. What did Polina Zherebtsova write in her diary?

Biography (unknown)

About the life of the author "An ant in a glass jar" and other works everyone knows who read "Chechen Diaries". However, Pauline herself edited the original a little before the first publication. The writer excluded some facts and removed her own emotions, so as not to impose their point of view on the reader. Unknown facts from his life Polina Zherebtsova, whose photo is below, told reporters many years after the end of the war.

In 1996, in the entrance, which housed the future writer, hit a shell. Neighbors who a minute before this event peacefully spent time, were lost. Polina remembered many years later that her clothes were soaked with blood, and yet, what exactly at that moment she realized - in this country she would never be her own.

His and others'

The writer Zherebtsova Polina Viktorovna is known all over the world today. In Russia, her works were published only in 2012. In her diaries, Zherebtsova described childhood and youth experiences, quarrels with her mother - in short, everything that the ordinary world of an ordinary girl of nine or thirteen years is usually filled with. However, all this was set out against the background of suffering, famine, devastation, and regular shelling.

In adolescence Polina wandered about the ruins, she slept on the icy parquet floor, heard the shells buzzing, and was constantly searching for food. This way of life led to the fact that the girl at the age of twelve began to drop her teeth, there were problems with health. At school, she was often beaten only for her Russian surname. But, in spite of this, Polina Zherebtsova did not divide people into her own and others'. In one of the interviews she confessed that she was on the side of those who do not know how to shoot.

Consequences of the war

Today it is not difficult to read the diaries, which more than twenty years ago began to lead Polina Zherebtsova. Interesting facts from this author's memoir prose can serve as a lesson for those who consider the war to be some kind of struggle between good and evil. Zherebtsova is convinced that war kills all the good that is in a person. And only those who inflame it are to blame. And the worst thing is that the war does not end with the signing of a peace agreement. It remains forever in the lives of those who have suffered from it.

Pauline and her mother did not have the opportunity to leave Grozny. They were forced to survive in unbearable conditions, in the midst of poverty, constant shelling and hatred from their fellow countrymen. But, nevertheless, after graduation from the school, Zherebtsova continued her education at the local pedagogical institute. Then she worked as a journalist.

People who once were in the war zone, the psyche is forever broken. Such citizens in developed countries are compensated. However, the population affected by the bombings in Grozny, is forced to rely only on their own strength. In 2007, Polina Zherebtsova wrote a letter to Alexander Solzhenitsyn with a request to help in the publication. The writer did not have time to read the letter of the young author. However, the staff of the Solzhenitsyn foundation rendered Zherebtsova assistance. They helped with the move to Moscow. In those years, not a single Russian publishing house decided to publish the Chechen Diaries. Polina Zherebtsova sued the Ministry of Defense. Due to sixteen wounds, hunger and constant stress, her health was undermined. However, Zherebtsova's compensation was not paid.

Dangerous prose

After Polina managed to publish the first book, she began to receive threats. Not for nothing did the progeny of the native of Grozny not want to publish many publishers. Polina and her husband began to receive threats by phone and by e-mail. They, as the author claims, have been attacked more than once. But telling people the truth, according to Zherebtsova, is a writer's duty. To survive, she had to leave Russia. Polina Zherebtsova asked for political asylum in Finland. Today she lives in this country, is safe and continues to work.

In Finland

In 2012, Polina Zherebtsova and her husband decided to leave their homeland. They bought a tourist ticket and went to the capital of Finland. Russian border guards missed refugee tourists. At the Finnish border guard service, Russian citizens raised suspicions. In his bag, his wife had almost no personal belongings. But there were a lot of manuscripts. One of them was a detailed biography of the author of "Chechen Diaries" in English. Despite minor difficulties, Polina Zherebtsova and her husband were missed.

The next day they went to the police, where they asked for political asylum. They gave it to him. And along with this - medical care, the opportunity to attend language courses and quite a decent allowance. Polina Zherebtsova, having behind herself the experience of a Chechen refugee, said in an interview: "Little Finland can. Russia is not. " People from Chechnya are forced to wander around their relatives. They are entitled to a benefit of one hundred rubles a month, which hardly every refugee receives.

Creation

The works of Polina Zherebtsova were highly appreciated by professionals. Combining documentary and artistic genre, in her work she achieved high skill. Critics compare this author with Varlam Shalamov, recognizing that Zherebtsova's diaries are not only a documentary, but also a psychological document. The main achievement of Zherebtsova as the author is an extremely realistic picture of how people, being in danger and suffering from constant need, gradually turn into non-humans.

Awards

Polina Zherebtsova was twice awarded the Janusz Korczak Prize. In 2012, she received the Andrei Sakharov Award with the phrase "For journalism as an act". In Finland, the novel "The Ant in a Glass Bank" was published. For this work Zherebtsova was nominated for a literary prize "Yasnaya Polyana."

Stockholm syndrome

This term means the hostage has a sympathy for his invader. It is caused by severe stress. Polina Zherebtsova is the author, in the early works of which the cases of violence by the local population of Chechnya are extremely often mentioned in relation to people who have Russian roots. However, at the same time she speaks exceptionally positively about the people, among whose representatives the theft of the bride in the 21st century is quite normal. But even today, while in Finland, she continues to publish articles criticizing the Russian authorities. At the same time, he regularly recalls the peaceful neighborhood of Russians and Chechens before the outbreak of the war.

Was Russophobia present in Chechnya before 1994 - a difficult question. Discuss it - the destiny of political observers and historians. However, there is an opinion that the authorities are only guilty of failing to provide security for the indigenous population of Chechnya. As a result, civilians found themselves in intolerable conditions. When Zherebtsova's diaries fell into the hands of one of the human rights activists, the young writer realized their true value. In order to get out of hell, in which she spent her childhood and adolescence, she had to significantly thicken the colors.