The Soviet Children Who Survived World War II
Svetlana Alexievich’s Last Witnesses, a 1985 collection of testimonials from then-Soviets who were children during the Second World War, has been translated into English and excerpted at the Paris Review. “It became connected like that in my memory, that war is when there’s no papa.”
On the Battle Lost: Nobel Lecture by Svetlana Alexievich
“I do not stand alone at this podium … There are voices around me, hundreds of voices.” A moving speech by Svetlana Alexievich, 2015 Nobel Prize winner for Literature.
Voices from Chernobyl
We were newlyweds. We still walked around holding hands, even if we were just going to the store. I would say to him, “I love you.” But I didn’t know then how much. I had no idea . . . We lived in the dormitory of the fire station where he worked. I always knew what was happening—where he was, how he was. One night I heard a noise. I looked out the window. He saw me. “Close the window and go back to sleep. There’s a fire at the reactor. I’ll be back soon.”