Russian PEN Center

The idea to create a PEN center in the USSR was proposed in 1975 by writer Vladimir Voinovich . In response, the KGB was instructed to conduct a “warning conversation” with him ^[1] .

The Russian PEN Center was established in 1989 ^[2] . From 1989 to 1991, Anatoly Rybakov was the president of the Soviet PEN center , from September 1991 he became honorary president of the Russian PEN center, and Andrei Bitov was elected president. He was repeatedly re-elected and held this position until 2016. The person to whom “Russian PEN owes human rights fame” ^{[3] [4]} was Alexander Tkachenko , director of the organization from 1994 to 2007. He was a public defender of the journalist Grigory Pasko , convicted of treason ^[3] , ”recalls Grigory Pasko. Tkachenko played a large role in the trial of the writer Alina Vitukhnovskaya . According to Alina Vitukhnovskaya, “almost 90% of the PEN club was held by the late Alexander Tkachenko, who pulled on himself both my process and the process of Pasko and other others, which was actually interested in freedom and democracy in our country” ^[5] .

In December 2016, Evgeny Popov was elected President of the Russian PEN Center ^[6] .

During their lifetime, they were Vice Presidents: Andrei Voznesensky , Fazil Iskander and Bella Akhmadulina . For 2017, the vice presidents are Igor Volgin , Boris Evseev , Valery Popov.

The Executive Committee is Boris Bartfeld , Efim Bershin , Alexey Varlamov, Konstantin Kedrov , Marina Kudimova, Mikhail Kuraev, Afanasy Mammadov, Yuri Miloslavsky, Andrey Novikov-Lanskoy, Daniel Orlov, Vladislav Otroshenko , Vyacheslav Petsuh .

Split

The origins of the conflict in the Russian PEN center come from 2013-2014 ^[7] . In 2013, Lyudmila Ulitskaya became vice president and the work of the PEN center intensified. PEN, on the initiative of Ulitskaya, accepted many new members, including journalists, who had previously shunned ^[8] . Ulitskaya and newly admitted members engaged in active human rights and political activities. PEN Center President Andrei Bitov criticized Ulitskaya’s activities, even using the word “usurpation” ^[9] . Ulitskaya was reproached for turning PEN’s activities into political ones, receiving journalists and making radical statements on behalf of PEN ^[10] . Ulitskaya left PEN ^[11] . In 2015, the writer Lev Timofeev ^[12] and the poet Igor Irtenyev ^[13] also announced the withdrawal from the PEN Center. Despite attempts by the leadership of the Russian PEN center to disown the human rights activities of the “liberal wing” of the organization, the writers included in it continued to sign letters in defense of various victims for their views, statements or allegiance to the principles of unhindered exchange of information - for example, Ukrainian directors defended libraries in Moscow ^[14] . After a letter from opposition-oriented members of the PEN Center in support of director Oleg Sentsov ^[15] , convicted of terrorism, the Executive Committee hastened to disassociate itself from this letter ^[16] .

Vladimir Voinovich criticized the leadership of the PEN Center, saying that it ignored him, deleted from various lists (for example, from the delegation to the PEN Congress in Prague). Voinovich decided that such a PEN is not needed ^[17] .

In December 2016, at a closed meeting of the executive committee, journalist Sergei Parkhomenko was expelled from the PEN Center. He was blamed for rudeness, insults to colleagues, defamation ^{[10] [7]} . A strict warning was also issued to Marina Vishnevetskaya and the membership of Grigory Petukhov was suspended for a year ^[18] . In response, members of the club wrote a letter of protest, which was signed by more than 40 people ^[19] . Many members of the Russian PEN center, including Boris Akunin , Svetlana Aleksievich , Vladimir Voinovich , Vladimir Sorokin , announced their withdrawal from the Russian PEN center. In their statements they wrote about their disagreement with the leadership’s policy and usurpation of power, about the impossibility of conducting human rights activities under the current leadership, about moving away from the Charter and violations of the charter, etc. As a sign of disagreement with the rhetoric and actions of the Executive Committee, Evgeny Sidorov announced his withdrawal from the PEN leadership ^[20] . In response to a statement by Svetlana Aleksievich, the Executive Committee announced that she had never been a member of the Russian PEN Center ^[21] , to which Svetlana Aleksievich showed a membership card number 544 issued in 1995 ^[22] . After that, the Russian PEN Center stated that there were never and never had any documents on Svetlana Aleksievich's admission, she did not pay membership fees and raises the question ticket number 544, given that in 1995 there were about 200 members in the Russian PEN Center ^[23] .

A stream of criticism fell upon the leadership of the PEN center ^[24] . As a result of the conflict around the PEN Center in January 2017, Evgeny Bunimovich and Alexander Gorodnitsky announced the resignation of the duties of vice presidents ^{[25] [26]} .

In an interview, President Yevgeny Popov and Vice President Boris Evseev answered the following questions about the Charter:

BE : We lived according to our Charter, but neither in 2008 nor later did the Ministry of Justice approve it. There was for this reason - relations with the International PEN Club, apostille, etc. But we lived and live according to that Charter. And they say, “We have a different charter!” Yes, there is another Charter - another edition of the Charter, which says in parentheses what was abandoned back in 2008, as unnecessary counter-productive things.

MA : What does it say in parentheses?

BE : That each member can nominate the president, members of the Executive Committee, raise any question at the meeting, and so on. This is a blocking package, it will not allow the organization to work " ^[27] .

• Russian PEN Center
• Association "Free Word". Human Rights Association of Writers, Journalists, Bloggers
• PEN Club website in St. Petersburg
• Blog released from the Russian PEN Center