The Moscow International Book Fair opened in Moscow on Wednesday. By tradition on this very day a special jury names the winners of the national Book of the Year 2010 contest. Here are some of the prize winners.
This year it was not a book but rather a library that won the contest. The jury gave the nomination to a series of books under the anthology of Russian thinkers from olden times to the early 20th century. The anthology comprises 119 volumes. When he was handing the prize to the authors and publishers Minister of Communications Igor Shchegolev joked that not every apartment has a room to house so many books.
In total 80 historians worked on the anthology including Leonid Topenkin. According to him the series would be useful for many modern Russian politicians.
Today we see a deep crisis of the public mindset. There is no clear goal seen in the country's development. We are trying to apply the European model to the Russian society and it does not work. But the Russian thinkers of the 19th and 20th century defined the essence of the Russian civilization. Their approaches can help us to see the ways of Russia's further development.
"Leo Tolstoy: Running from Paradise" a historical documentary novel by Pavel Basinksy won the prose prize of the year. The book's publication was timed to coincide with the of 100th anniversary of the death of the great Russian writer. Basinky is trying to tell the true story of Tolstoy's sudden flight from his family and the last days of his life. Tolstoy's departure is a very difficult and controversial topic, Pavel Basinksi said in an interview with the Voice of Russia.
"It was difficult for me to remain tactful because it is very easy to see a scandal behind such a story. An old man leaves his wife. This is what I did not want to do at all. In my book I tried to present the points of view of all people involved in the story, to understand their logic and not to impose my opinion upon readers . By the motive of leaving can be found in every book by Tolstoy: "Anna Karenina", "War and Peace", "Cossacks", "Walking Corpse".
British photographer James Hill received a special award for his album "Victory Day" with the portraits of the Russian war veterans. A special nomination was introduced this year for the books which deal with the theme of the Second World War. Over the last four years the photographer took photos of Russian veterans during their traditional meetings in the parks of central Moscow on May 9. Accepting the prize, James Hill said his words of gratitude in Russian.
"This project is very personal to me. In 2006 I decided to go to a park to take photos and it was a real pleasure for me. These moments will stay with me forever. I am happy that the British view found resonance in Russia. I would like to thank writer Boris Vasilyev who wrote the foreword for my album and first of all I am very grateful to all the veterans who were standing in front of me,. They are all different and special."
Thus the prizewinners of the Book of the Year contest have been named. They were chosen by the jury from 120, 000 books published in Russian over the last year.
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