Who didn't get a Nobel Prize. Nobel Prize winners from Russia and the USSR

Briton Kazuo Ishiguro.

According to the testament of Alfred Nobel, the award is awarded to "who created the most significant literary work of an idealistic orientation."

The editors of TASS-DOSIER have prepared material on the procedure for awarding this award and its laureates.

Awarding and nominating candidates

The prize is awarded by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm. It includes 18 academicians who hold this post for life. The preparatory work is carried out by the Nobel Committee, whose members (four to five people) are elected by the Academy from among its members for a three-year period. Candidates may be nominated by members of the Academy and similar institutions in other countries, professors of literature and linguistics, award winners and chairmen of writers' organizations who have received special invitations from the committee.

The nomination process runs from September to January 31 of the following year. In April, the committee draws up a list of the 20 most worthy writers, then reduces it to five candidates. The winner is determined by academicians in early October by a majority vote. The award is announced to the writer half an hour before the announcement of his name. In 2017, 195 people were nominated.

The five Nobel Prize winners are announced during Nobel Week, which begins on the first Monday in October. Their names are announced in the following order: physiology and medicine; physics; chemistry; literature; peace prize. The winner of the Swedish State Bank Prize in Economics in memory of Alfred Nobel will be named next Monday. In 2016, the order was violated, the name of the awarded writer was made public last. According to the Swedish media, despite the delay in the start of the laureate election procedure, there were no disagreements within the Swedish Academy.

Laureates

During the entire existence of the award, 113 writers have become its laureates, including 14 women. Among those awarded are such world famous authors as Rabindranath Tagore (1913), Anatole France (1921), Bernard Shaw (1925), Thomas Mann (1929), Hermann Hesse (1946), William Faulkner (1949), Ernest Hemingway (1954), Pablo Neruda (1971), Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1982).

In 1953, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was awarded this award "for the high skill of works of a historical and biographical nature, as well as for brilliant oratory, with the help of which the highest human values ​​​​were defended." Churchill was repeatedly nominated for this prize, in addition, he was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, but never won it.

As a rule, writers receive an award based on the totality of achievements in the field of literature. However, nine people were awarded for a particular piece. For example, Thomas Mann was noted for the novel "Buddenbrooks"; John Galsworthy for The Forsyte Saga (1932); Ernest Hemingway - for the story "The Old Man and the Sea"; Mikhail Sholokhov - in 1965 for the novel "Quiet Don" ("for the artistic power and integrity of the epic about the Don Cossacks at a turning point for Russia").

In addition to Sholokhov, there are other our compatriots among the laureates. So, in 1933, Ivan Bunin received the prize "for the strict skill with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose", and in 1958 - Boris Pasternak "for outstanding achievements in modern lyric poetry and in the field of great Russian prose."

However, Pasternak, who was criticized in the USSR for his novel Doctor Zhivago, published abroad, refused the award under pressure from the authorities. The medal and diploma were presented to his son in Stockholm in December 1989. In 1970, Alexander Solzhenitsyn became the laureate of the award ("for the moral strength with which he followed the immutable traditions of Russian literature"). In 1987, the prize was awarded to Joseph Brodsky "for a comprehensive work, saturated with clarity of thought and passion for poetry" (he emigrated to the United States in 1972).

In 2015, the Belarusian writer Svetlana Aleksievich was awarded for "polyphonic compositions, a monument to suffering and courage in our time."

In 2016, American poet, composer and performer Bob Dylan was honored for "creating poetic imagery in the great American song tradition."

Statistics

The Nobel website notes that of the 113 laureates, 12 wrote under pseudonyms. This list includes the French writer and literary critic Anatole France (real name François Anatole Thibault) and the Chilean poet and politician Pablo Neruda (Ricardo Eliécer Neftali Reyes Basoalto).

The relative majority of awards (28) were awarded to writers who wrote in English. 14 writers were awarded for books in French, 13 in German, 11 in Spanish, 7 in Swedish, 6 in Italian, 6 in Russian (including Svetlana Aleksievich), 4 in Polish, 4 in Norwegian and Danish three people, and in Greek, Japanese and Chinese two each. Authors of works in Arabic, Bengali, Hungarian, Icelandic, Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Turkish, Occitan (Provençal French), Finnish, Czech, and Hebrew were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature once each.

Most often awarded were writers who worked in the genre of prose (77), in second place - poetry (34), in third - dramaturgy (14). For works in the field of history, three writers received the prize, in philosophy - two. At the same time, one author can be awarded for works in several genres. For example, Boris Pasternak received the prize as a prose writer and as a poet, and Maurice Maeterlinck (Belgium; 1911) as a prose writer and playwright.

In 1901-2016, the prize was awarded 109 times (in 1914, 1918, 1935, 1940-1943, academicians could not determine the best writer). Only four times the award was divided between two writers.

The average age of laureates is 65 years old, the youngest is Rudyard Kipling, who received the prize at 42 (1907), and the oldest is 88-year-old Doris Lessing (2007).

The second writer (after Boris Pasternak) to refuse the prize was the French novelist and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre in 1964. He stated that he "does not want to be turned into a public institution," and expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that when awarding the prize, academicians "ignore the merits of the revolutionary writers of the 20th century."

Notable writer-nominees who did not win the award

Many great writers who were nominated for the award never received it. Among them is Leo Tolstoy. Our writers such as Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Maxim Gorky, Konstantin Balmont, Ivan Shmelev, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Vladimir Nabokov were not awarded either. The outstanding prose writers of other countries - Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina), Mark Twain (USA), Henrik Ibsen (Norway) - did not become laureates either.

Over the past two weeks, the Nobel Committee has named scientists whose merits will be recognized. We tried to figure out who and for what received awards this year.

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Every year at the beginning of October, special attention is riveted to what is happening in the Swedish capital - Stockholm. During this period, the winners of the most prestigious scientific award, the Nobel Prize, are determined here. Over the past two weeks, the Nobel Committee has named scientists whose merits will be recognized. We tried to figure out who and for what received awards this year.

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This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to Japanese scientist Yoshinori Ohsumi for his discovery of the mechanisms of autophagy. Autophagy is a process in the cell that allows you to get rid of unnecessary or non-functioning components. The term “autophagy” is translated from Greek as “eating oneself”. The concept itself originated back in the 60s, but Osumi's experiments, which he began in the 90s, were a breakthrough. In the Nobel Committee, they are called studies that turned the paradigm of perception upside down.

The scientist conducted his experiments on yeast cells, but proved that similar processes occur in the human body. As noted in the Nobel Committee, these experiments allowed us to take a fresh look at how recycling occurs at the cellular level. “These discoveries opened the way to understanding the fundamental importance of autophagy in many physiological processes, such as adaptation to hunger or response to infections,” the Nobel Committee website notes.

At the same time, scientists now know that a violation of autophagy is associated with serious diseases such as Parkinson's disease, diabetes or cancer. At the moment, medicines for various diseases are being actively developed, which will be built on knowledge of this process.

Osumi was born in 1945 in Tokyo. After several years in the US, he returned to Japan and founded a research group. Since 2009, he has been a professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

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This year's Physics Prize was awarded to three American scientists. The award was shared by physicists David Thuless, Duncan Haldan and Michael Kosterlitz. In their research, scientists applied a complex mathematical method - topology - to the study of rare aggregate states of matter, such as superconductivity, superfluidity, etc. "This year's laureates opened the doors to unknown worlds where matter can acquire atypical states," the website notes. premiums.

Scientists hope that these studies will open up new possibilities in materials science and electronics, for example, in the creation of new types of electrical engineering or superconductors, as well as in future quantum computers.

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The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to the Frenchman Jean-Pierre Savage, the American Fraser Stoddart and the Dutchman Bernard Feringa for creating "the world's smallest machines". At what not just small, but really miniature. Their invention is molecular machines. “A miniature elevator, artificial muscles, a minimotor. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Jean-Pierre Savage, Ser Fraser Stoddart and Bernard Fehringe for the design and manufacture of molecular machines.

The essence of the discovery of these scientists is to create molecules that can move in a controlled manner and perform certain tasks when they receive energy. The first step in this process was taken by Savage, connecting two ring-shaped molecules into a network, called catenanes, linked by a mechanical bond. “To be able to complete a task, a machine must be made up of parts that can move relative to each other. Two interlocking rings fulfilled exactly this requirement,” the Nobel Prize website notes.

The second step was carried out by Stoddart, and the third step was taken by Feringa, creating the first molecular motor. "Molecular machines are likely to be used in the creation of new materials, sensors and energy storage systems," the award's website notes.

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This year there were 376 nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize. As a result, the committee decided to honor Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for his determined efforts to end more than 50 years of civil war that has cost the lives of at least 220,000 Colombians and forced about six million people to leave their homes. committee.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee believes that although the peace agreement with the FARC group, which emerged as a result of negotiations initiated by Santos, was rejected by the majority of Colombians in a referendum, the Colombian leader's attempts "bring closer the possibility of a peaceful end to the bloody conflict" and meet the spirit and will of Alfred Nobel.

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The Swedish Bank Prize in Economics in memory of Alfred Nobel, the so-called Nobel Prize in Economics, which was introduced in 1969, awarded two American scientists - Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmström for developing the theory of contracts. Contracts play an extremely important role in economic relations and are its link, the committee noted. The work of Hart and Holmström provided an essential foundation for analyzing the contracting process in order to make it as efficient as possible.

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The award of the Nobel Prize in Literature was perhaps one of the biggest surprises of this year's award, surprising both the public and bookmakers. The winner of the award this year was the American singer, legend of rock music - Bob Dylan. The Nobel Committee recognized Dylan's poetic merits by awarding him a prize for "creating new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition."

Dylan, born in 1941 in New York, became famous in the 60s for his "protest" creativity and participation in the civil rights movement. The singer's discography includes more than 35 studio albums, including such well-known ones as The Times They Are a-Changin', The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.

Probably, only the desire of mankind for self-expression and heroic deeds contributes to the emergence of unusually tenacious initiatives. So a gentleman by the name of Nobel took it and decided to leave his money to his descendants in order to reward the gentlemen who distinguished themselves in one area or another. He has long rested in the damp earth, and the people remember him. The population is waiting (some impatiently) when the next lucky ones will be announced. And the candidates try, set goals, even intrigue, trying to climb this Olympus of glory. And if everything is clear with scientists and researchers - they receive their awards for real achievements or discoveries, then how do the Nobel Peace Prize winners stand out? Interesting? Let's figure it out.

Who awards the prize and for what?

There is a special committee whose main task is to select and approve
nominations for the highest award in the field. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to people who have distinguished themselves in promoting security and stability on the planet. It is issued annually. The procedure takes place in Oslo, the tenth of December. At the same time, both international organizations and national governments can propose a candidate who will become a laureate. They are listed in the Charter of the Committee. Any person who has been or is a member of the Nobel Committee is also eligible to participate in the nomination process. In addition, the Charter gives such privileges to university professors involved in politics or history.

When they study who received the Nobel Peace Prize, they will definitely come across the name of another political figure whose activities do not cause criticism. Such a person is Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai Lama. This is an absolutely outstanding personality. From an early age, he was forced to take on spiritual leadership. Buddhists recognized the boy as the incarnation of the deceased lama. Subsequently, he had to shoulder the political responsibility for Tibet (at the age of sixteen). All his work is based on kindness, tolerance and love (from the wording of the Nobel Committee). It should be added that he was unable to reach an agreement with the Chinese government. Now he lives and carries out his ideas in exile.

It turns out that not everything is so simple!

There are also very controversial winners of this high award. The committee is often criticized for being too politicized. Residents of the post-Soviet space consider Mikhail Gorbachev to be such a figure. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to such a controversial person from the point of view of the world community as Yasser Arafat.

This decision of the Committee is considered scandalous on the grounds that this laureate did not deny military ways to achieve his goals. On his account not only battles, but also terrorist acts. He himself proclaimed the destruction of an entire sovereign state (Israel) as his goal. That is, despite the fact that Arafat fought for the well-being of the inhabitants of the Middle East, it is difficult to assign the title of peacemaker to him. Another scandalous figure is Barack Obama. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to him in 2009. It must be said that the Committee had to put up with a flurry of criticism of this decision.

More about Obama

In the world press, the opinion is still flickering that the President of the States was awarded the award "in advance". At that time, he had just taken office, he had not yet distinguished himself in anything significant. And the initiatives and decisions that he subsequently took do not at all explain why he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Obama is considered the president who unleashed the largest number of military conflicts. Their victims are incalculable due to the "hybrid nature" of these collisions (the term appeared quite recently). He had to make decisions about bombing and ground operations. He is criticized for the invasion of Syria, unrest in Iraq and Ukraine. Nevertheless, Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize and is listed among its laureates.

This "advance reward" leads to more and more scandals. As hotspots emerge, some politicians are speaking out in favor of removing the award. There is an opinion that such non-peaceful behavior dishonors a high premium. In the Russian Federation, of course, they believe that V.V. Putin is a more worthy candidate. The Nobel Peace Prize may yet be awarded to him for his true tenacity in conflict resolution.

About money

People are often interested not so much in the achievements of the individuals awarded this award, but in its amount. The Nobel Peace Prize really can amaze the imagination. The fact is that all the funds of the Committee do not just lie in financial institutions. They "work", increasing in size. According to the will, the profit is divided into five parts. They are not the same and become more and more impressive from year to year. So, the very first amount, handed in 1901, was equal to forty-two thousand dollars. In 2003, the amount was already 1.35 million. Its size is influenced by the state of the world economy. Dividends that go to payments can not only increase, but also decrease. For example, in 2007 the amount of the premium was 1.542 million, and by 2008 it "melted" (1.4 million dollars).

These funds are distributed in five equal shares according to nominations, and then - according to the number of laureates, in accordance with the rules according to which the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded. How much money will go to awards in each year is determined by the Committee, having carried out the appropriate calculations of earnings from securities and other assets.

Russian laureates

Our fellow citizens received such an award only twice. In addition to Gorbachev, the scientist Andrei Sakharov was awarded such an honor. At the same time, it was not his scientific works that became the reason for awarding the prize. Sakharov was considered a human rights activist and a fighter against the regime. In Soviet times, he was subjected to sharp criticism and persecution. The scientist worked on the creation of hydrogen weapons. Despite this, he openly advocated a ban on testing weapons of mass destruction, against the arms race. His ideas were very popular in society and did not like the ruling elite at all.

Sakharov is considered to be a passionate champion of peace, who suffered for his views. The Nobel Committee used the wording: "for courage in the fight against abuse of power ...". Nevertheless, he was rather an idealist, a kind and non-aggressive person (according to the recollections of his colleagues). More Russians did not receive high awards, which does not mean that worthy personalities do not live in our country. Rather, this fact can be perceived as a political partisanship of the Committee, the use of an award in geopolitical competition.

Who has not received an award, but deserves it?

Many politicians believe that Mahatma Gandhi, more than all other figures, deserved a high award. This man dealt with the organization of the struggle of the Indians against the colonialists. Gandhi not only had to devise ways in which the weak and unarmed population could oppose the British army, but they also had to be correlated with the characteristics of the local religion. This method was invented by him. It has been called non-violent resistance and is often used today. Mahatma Gandhi was proposed to the Committee five times. Only there were "more worthy" candidates (which again can be explained by the politicization of this organization). Subsequently, the officials responsible for awarding the Nobel Prize expressed their regret that Gandhi never became a laureate.

Incidents of the Nobel Committee

There are such incredible things in the history of this organization that today can only be perceived anecdotally. So, as you know, none other than Adolf Hitler was nominated for this award in 1939. Fortunately, he did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize. And it's not about the money. What would be the prestige of an organization that would call a peacemaker a person guilty of the death of millions of inhabitants of our planet? The Nobel Committee refused to award it, explaining its decision by the attitude of the Nazis towards the Jews.

Nevertheless, at the time of his nomination, Hitler's activities looked quite progressive for the German intelligentsia. He had just concluded two large peace agreements, raised industry, took care of the development of science and art. Nowadays, people understand how absurd and unfounded Hitler's claims for the award were. But at that time, the inhabitants of Germany perceived him as a real leader, leading them to a brighter life. Yes, it was true to some extent. He really cared about the Germans, only at the expense of people of other nationalities. To the credit of the members of the Nobel Committee, they understood this and refused his candidacy for the prize.

Collective laureates

This award was awarded three times to organizations that are somehow connected with the Red Cross. If we take into account the first laureate - its organizer, then four. It should be noted that this international organization undoubtedly deserves such a high appraisal. Its representatives always find a field for activity. Whether in areas of bloody conflict or epidemics, they are often at the center of the action, lending a much-needed hand of support to unfortunate people in distress. By the way, once the UN became the laureate of the award (2001), earlier its peacekeeping forces (1988) and the refugee service (1981) were noted. Of the not very well-known organizations-winners, the International Labor Organization (1969) can be mentioned. It is possible that we do not hear about the wave because a lot of time has passed since its influence in the world was so great that it was awarded an award.

There are many winners of this major award. The names of some went down in history with courage and courage, others - with scandals and intrigues. The third is not remembered at all. Nevertheless, people want this award to fall into the hands of truly worthy individuals, regardless of the political situation.

On December 10, 1933, King Gustav V of Sweden presented the Nobel Prize in Literature to the writer Ivan Bunin, who became the first Russian writer to receive this high award. In total, the award, established by the inventor of dynamite Alfred Bernhard Nobel in 1833, was received by 21 natives of Russia and the USSR, five of them in the field of literature. True, historically, the Nobel Prize was fraught with big problems for Russian poets and writers.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin handed out the Nobel Prize to friends

In December 1933, the Paris press wrote: Without a doubt, I.A. Bunin - in recent years - the most powerful figure in Russian fiction and poetry», « the king of literature confidently and equally shook hands with the crowned monarch". The Russian emigration applauded. In Russia, however, the news that a Russian emigrant received the Nobel Prize was treated very caustically. After all, Bunin negatively perceived the events of 1917 and emigrated to France. Ivan Alekseevich himself experienced emigration very hard, was actively interested in the fate of his abandoned homeland, and during the Second World War he categorically refused all contacts with the Nazis, having moved to the Maritime Alps in 1939, returning from where to Paris only in 1945.

It is known that Nobel laureates have the right to decide for themselves how to spend the money they receive. Someone invests in the development of science, someone in charity, someone in their own business. Bunin, a creative person and devoid of "practical ingenuity", disposed of his bonus, which amounted to 170,331 crowns, completely irrationally. The poet and literary critic Zinaida Shakhovskaya recalled: “ Returning to France, Ivan Alekseevich ... apart from money, began to arrange feasts, distribute "allowances" to emigrants, and donate funds to support various societies. Finally, on the advice of well-wishers, he invested the remaining amount in some kind of “win-win business” and was left with nothing.».

Ivan Bunin is the first émigré writer to be published in Russia. True, the first publications of his stories appeared already in the 1950s, after the death of the writer. Some of his novels and poems were published in his homeland only in the 1990s.

Dear God, what are you for?
He gave us passions, thoughts and worries,
Thirst for business, glory and comfort?
Joyful cripples, idiots,
The leper is the happiest of all.
(I. Bunin. September, 1917)

Boris Pasternak refused the Nobel Prize

Boris Pasternak was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature "for significant achievements in modern lyric poetry, as well as for continuing the traditions of the great Russian epic novel" annually from 1946 to 1950. In 1958, last year's Nobel laureate Albert Camus again proposed his candidacy, and on October 23, Pasternak became the second Russian writer to be awarded this prize.

The writers' environment in the poet's homeland took this news extremely negatively, and already on October 27, Pasternak was unanimously expelled from the Writers' Union of the USSR, at the same time submitting a petition to deprive Pasternak of Soviet citizenship. In the USSR, Pasternak was associated with receiving the award only with his novel Doctor Zhivago. The Literary Gazette wrote: “Pasternak received “thirty pieces of silver”, for which the Nobel Prize was used. He was rewarded for agreeing to play the role of bait on the rusty hook of anti-Soviet propaganda ... An inglorious end awaits the resurrected Judas, Doctor Zhivago, and his author, whose lot will be popular contempt ".

The mass campaign launched against Pasternak forced him to refuse the Nobel Prize. The poet sent a telegram to the Swedish Academy, in which he wrote: Because of the significance that the award awarded to me has received in the society to which I belong, I must refuse it. Do not take my voluntary refusal as an insult».

It is worth noting that in the USSR until 1989, even in the school curriculum on literature about Pasternak's work, there was no mention. The director Eldar Ryazanov was the first to decide to massively acquaint the Soviet people with the creative work of Pasternak. In his comedy "The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!" (1976) he included the poem "There Will Be No One in the House", transforming it into an urban romance, performed by the bard Sergei Nikitin. Later, Ryazanov included in his film "Office Romance" an excerpt from another poem by Pasternak - "To love others is a heavy cross ..." (1931). True, he sounded in a farcical context. But it is worth noting that at that time the very mention of Pasternak's poems was a very bold step.

Easy to wake up and see
Shake verbal rubbish from the heart
And live without clogging in the future,
All this is not a big trick.
(B. Pasternak, 1931)

Mikhail Sholokhov, receiving the Nobel Prize, did not bow to the monarch

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1965 for his novel Quiet Flows the Flows Flows the Flows the Flows the Flows the Don and went down in history as the only Soviet writer to receive this award with the consent of the Soviet leadership. The diploma of the laureate says "in recognition of the artistic strength and honesty that he showed in his Don epic about the historical phases of the life of the Russian people."

Gustav Adolf VI, who presented the award to the Soviet writer, called him "one of the most outstanding writers of our time." Sholokhov did not bow to the king, as prescribed by the rules of etiquette. Some sources claim that he did it intentionally with the words: “We, the Cossacks, do not bow to anyone. Here in front of the people - please, but I will not be in front of the king ... "

Alexander Solzhenitsyn was deprived of Soviet citizenship because of the Nobel Prize

Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn, the commander of the sound intelligence battery, who rose to the rank of captain during the war years and was awarded two military orders, was arrested in 1945 by front-line counterintelligence for anti-Sovietism. Sentence - 8 years in camps and life exile. He went through a camp in New Jerusalem near Moscow, Marfinskaya "sharashka" and the Special Ekibastuz camp in Kazakhstan. In 1956, Solzhenitsyn was rehabilitated, and since 1964 Alexander Solzhenitsyn devoted himself to literature. At the same time, he worked immediately on 4 major works: The Gulag Archipelago, The Cancer Ward, The Red Wheel and In the First Circle. In the USSR in 1964 they published the story "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", and in 1966 the story "Zakhar-Kalita".

On October 8, 1970, Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize "for the moral strength gleaned from the tradition of great Russian literature." This was the reason for the persecution of Solzhenitsyn in the USSR. In 1971, all the writer's manuscripts were confiscated, and in the next 2 years, all his publications were destroyed. In 1974, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was issued, which, for the systematic commission of actions that are incompatible with belonging to the citizenship of the USSR and detrimental to the USSR, ”Alexander Solzhenitsyn was deprived of Soviet citizenship and deported from the USSR.

Citizenship was returned to the writer only in 1990, and in 1994 he and his family returned to Russia and became actively involved in public life.

Nobel Prize winner Joseph Brodsky in Russia was convicted of parasitism

Iosif Alexandrovich Brodsky began to write poetry at the age of 16. Anna Akhmatova predicted a hard life for him and a glorious creative destiny. In 1964, in Leningrad, a criminal case was opened against the poet on charges of parasitism. He was arrested and sent into exile in the Arkhangelsk region, where he spent a year.

In 1972, Brodsky turned to Secretary General Brezhnev with a request to work in his homeland as a translator, but his request remained unanswered, and he was forced to emigrate. Brodsky first lives in Vienna, in London, and then moves to the United States, where he becomes a professor at New York, Michigan and other universities in the country.

On December 10, 1987, Joseph Brosky was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his comprehensive work, saturated with the clarity of thought and the passion of poetry." It is worth saying that Brodsky, after Vladimir Nabokov, is the second Russian writer who writes in English as his native language.

The sea was not visible. In the white mist
swaddled on all sides of us, absurd
it was thought that the ship was going to land -
if it was a ship at all,
and not a clot of fog, as if poured
who whitened in milk.
(B. Brodsky, 1972)

Interesting fact
At various times, such famous personalities as Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Franklin Roosevelt, Nicholas Roerich and Leo Tolstoy were nominated for the Nobel Prize, but never received it.

Literature lovers will definitely be interested - a book that is written with disappearing ink.

1. THE AWARD WAS BORN TO TAKE EYES FROM NOBEL'S DISCOVERIES

The creator of the award, Alfred Nobel, was an avid pacifist, which did not stop him from making an impressive capital in the arms trade and the invention of dynamite. He believed that the very presence of dangerous weapons should intimidate the enemy, preventing wars, terrorist attacks and bloodshed. The insight was painful. When the newspapers buried Alfred Nobel ahead of time, confusing him with his brother Ludwig, who died in St. Petersburg, he was greatly surprised by the morning headlines: "Seller of Death", "Bloody Rich Man", "Dynamite King". In order not to go down in history as a blood millionaire, Alfred Nobel immediately called a lawyer and rewrote the will, which stated that after death all the multi-million dollar property should be placed in a reliable bank and entrusted to a fund that would divide investment income into five equal parts and hand them over annually in the form of a bonus . The idea was a success: now few people remember who invented dynamite, but even a child knows about the Nobel Prize.

2. ECONOMY WAS NOT INCLUDED IN THE LIST OF PRIZES

Initially, the prize was awarded in five categories: chemistry, physics, medicine, literature and peacekeeping achievements. Later, in 1969, the Swedish Bank added an economics prize to this list. Since the field of economics was not listed in the will, it is handed over not from the Nobel fund, but from the fund of the Swedish Bank, but at the Nobel Prize ceremony. The descendants of Nobel do not support the addition of the economic area to the prize. “Firstly,” they say, “the whole meaning of the prize collapses. If it is named after Nobel, then it should be awarded only in those areas that Nobel himself listed in his will. Secondly, Nobel simply did not like economists and bypassed their attention in the will is not accidental."

3. PREMIUM FALLS IN PRICE

In terms of the current exchange rate, when the Nobel's movable and immovable property was converted into cash equivalent, the fund received about 250 million dollars. Part of the capital was immediately invested in securities, and prizes were awarded to the laureates from the profits. The fund is currently worth $3 billion. Despite the growth of the capital of the Nobel Prize Fund, in 2012 it was decided to cut it by 20% (from 1.4 million to 1.1 million dollars). Such a move, according to the directors of the fund, will help create a reliable financial cushion and ensure a high monetary level of the premium for many years to come.

4. UNUSUAL WINNERS AND NOMINATES

The award was very rarely given to anyone a second time. For all the years of its existence, this happened only 4 times. Federick Segner received both Prizes in Chemistry, John Bardeen in Physics, Linus Pauling in Chemistry and the Peace Prize. Marie Skłodowska-Curie was the only woman to win two Nobel Prizes.

Maria Sklodowska-Curie

Stanley Williams, leader of the Crips crime group, was nominated for the Nobel Prize 9 times: as a writer and as a humanist. Initially, the Crips group opposed police lawlessness on the streets of Los Angeles, but when it grew, it turned out to have several police deaths and, for some reason, a bank robbery. Stanley Williams was arrested and sentenced to death. The books that Stanley wrote while incarcerated became bestsellers, and he even won the US President's Award. This still did not soften the hearts of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and in 2005 the leader of the Crips gang was executed.

5. PRIZE FOR MATH

Many people know that the Nobel Prize is not awarded in the field of mathematics. Also, many are sure that the reason for this is Nobel's beloved, who went to mathematics. Indeed, in the will, mathematics was originally included in the list of areas in which the prize is awarded, but later crossed out by Nobel himself. In fact, there is no evidence of a romantic story related to the refusal of the Nobel to give the prize to mathematicians. More likely is the fact that the main contender for the prize in mathematics before the death of Nobel was Mittag-Leffler, whom the founder of the prize had long disliked for importunately soliciting donations for Stockholm University. Deciding to be true to himself and not give Mittag-Leffler any money, Nobel crossed mathematics off the list and replaced it with the Peace Prize.

6. BANQUET AFTER THE AWARDS

The banquet is held immediately after the awards ceremony in the Blue Hall of the Stockholm City Hall. The chefs of the restaurant at the town hall and the best culinary specialists, who were awarded the title of "Chef of the Year" in the year of the award, are involved in the preparation of the gala dinner. Three months before the banquet, members of the Nobel Committee taste three varieties of the menu and decide which one is worthy of serving the guests at the banquet. For dessert, ice cream is traditionally served, but its variety is kept in the strictest confidence until the very evening of the ceremony.

The hall is decorated with more than 20,000 flowers from San Remo, and the movements of the waiters are rehearsed to the nearest second. Exactly at 7 pm, guests of honor, led by monarchs, descend into the Blue Hall. The Swedish king leads a Nobel laureate by the arm, and if there is none, then the wife of a physics laureate.

The banquet service has its own unique design: it is made in three colors of the Swedish Empire: blue, green and gold and consists of 6750 glasses, 9450 knives and forks, 9550 plates and one tea cup for Princess Liliana, who did not drink coffee. After the death of the princess, the cup began to be kept in a special mahogany box with the princess's monogram. The saucer from the cup was stolen not so long ago.

7. NOBEL IN SPACE

Most often, the name of Alfred Nobel is immortalized by astronauts. In 1970, the International Astronomical Union named a crater on the Moon after Alfred Nobel, though on its dark side. And in 1983, asteroid number 6032 was named after him.

8. WHEN PRIZES ARE NOT AWARDED

If there are no worthy candidates for an award in any of the areas, it is simply not awarded. This has happened five times with the Medicine Prize, four times with the Physics Prize, and most of all with the Peace Prize. According to the rules that were adopted in 1974, the prize can only be awarded during the life of the laureate. The rule has only been broken once, in 2011, when medical award winner Ralph Steiman died of cancer two hours before the ceremony.

9. CASH EQUIVALENT OF THE PRIZE AND STRANGE WAYS TO SPEND IT

The cash equivalent of the premium is floating, but usually amounts to more than a million US dollars. Not every scientist spends such a sum on the development of his scientific research. Ivan Bunin, with all the scope of the Russian soul, spent money on parties. The poet Rene Francois Armand Sully-Prudhomme organized his own prize, which was not as successful as the Nobel, but lasted six years and was awarded to masters of poetry. Hungarian writer Irme Kertes gave his prize to his wife, thus appreciating her heroic loyalty to him in hardship and poverty. "Let her buy herself dresses and jewelry," the writer commented on his decision, "she deserved it."

Paul Greengard, who explored the interconnection between nerve cells that later led to the creation of antidepressants, used the award money to create his own Pearl Meister Greengard award. It is often presented as an analogue of the Nobel Prize for women, because in the scientific world, according to Greenard, there is a huge discrimination against women. The scientist dedicated the award to his mother, who died during childbirth.

10. PEACE PRIZE

The most controversial and politically charged of the six areas in which the prize is awarded is the Peace Prize. At different times, such unconditional villains as Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin were nominated for the award.

Last year, 2014, Vladimir Putin was nominated for it. Seventeen-year-old Malala Yusufai from Pakistan, who took away the victory from Putin, became the youngest Nobel Prize winner. Her struggle for the education of girls in Islamic countries has led to worldwide recognition and a prestigious award. Radical Islamic groups declared jihad (holy war) to the girl and immediately after the award was given, they tried to kill her, but Malala survived and continues to fight for women's rights to education.

Unlike all other areas, the Peace Prize is not awarded in Stockholm, but in Oslo.