107 years ago Leo Tolstoy refused Nobel Prize. Then his step was repeated - consciously or forcedly - by eight more people. The ninth refused the mathematical analogue of the Nobel Prize. We have collected these stories.
Money is evil
Having learned that Russian Academy Sciences nominated him as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Leo Tolstoy on October 7, 1906, in a letter to his friend, Finnish writer and translator Arvid Järnefelt, asked that the prize not be awarded to him.
“If this happened, I would be very unpleasant to refuse,” wrote the author of War and Peace. Järnefelt complied with the request and the prize was awarded to the Italian poet Giosue Carducci. As a result, everyone was happy: both Carducci and Tolstoy. The latter wrote: “This saved me from great difficulty in disposing of this money, which, like all money, in my opinion, can only bring evil; and secondly, it gave me the honor and great pleasure to receive expressions of sympathy from so many people.” , although not familiar to me, but still deeply respected by me."
Hitler vs Nobel
Offended by the fact that the Swedish committee's award was given to Nazi critic Carl von Ossietzky, Adolf Hitler banned German citizens from receiving Nobel Prizes in 1937. As a result, chemists Richard Kuhn, Adolf Butenandt and physiologist Gerhard Domagk, who became Nobel laureates in 1938 and 1939, were unable to attend the award ceremony. The medals were awarded to scientists after the end of World War II, and the money remained in the Nobel Foundation.
Poet and citizen
The winner of the 1958 Nobel Prize in Literature, Boris Pasternak, was forced to refuse the award under unprecedented pressure from the Soviet authorities.
The prize was awarded to Pasternak with the wording “for outstanding achievements in modern lyric poetry and in the field of great Russian prose.” The Central Committee of the CPSU considered that the reason for the award was Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago, published abroad, which was recognized as ideologically harmful in the USSR.
For a week, the writer endured insults, personal threats and persecution in the press, but when his beloved Olga Ivinskaya was fired from her job, Boris Pasternak sent a telegram to Stockholm: “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.” And another one to the Central Committee: “I refused the prize, return Ivinskaya’s job.”
The Nobel Committee considered the refusal forced, and in 1989 the diploma and medal were awarded to the writer’s son.
Principles above
Another writer who refused the Nobel Prize for the sake of his beliefs was Jean-Paul Sartre, winner in 1964. In a statement to journalists, he said: "In the current climate, the Nobel Prize is in fact an award reserved for writers of the West or "rebels" from the East. For example, Neruda, one of the greatest poets South America. Aragon's candidacy was never seriously discussed, although he is well deserving of the prize.
It is regrettable that the Nobel Prize was awarded to Pasternak, and not Sholokhov, and that the only Soviet work, which won the prize was a book published abroad that was banned in its home country. Balance could be restored with a similar gesture, but with the opposite meaning. During the Algerian War, when I and others signed the Manifesto of the 121st, I would have accepted this prize with gratitude, because it would not only have honored me alone, but glorified the cause of freedom for which we fought. But this is not happened, and the prize was awarded to me when the war was already over."
Red wheel
In 1970, Alexander Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for the moral strength drawn from the tradition of great Russian literature.” As in the case of Pasternak, the decision of the Swedish committee in the USSR was perceived with hostility. True, there was no pressure on the author of The Gulag Archipelago - they knew it was useless. But they didn’t let me go to the awards ceremony either.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn received the prize, diploma and laureate medal in 1975, after being expelled from the USSR.
In 1973, the Peace Prize was awarded to Le Duc Tho, a member of the Politburo of the Vietnamese Workers' Party, and US Secretary of State Henry Kissenger for "joint work to resolve the Vietnam conflict." Le Duc Tho refused the prize, saying that his negotiations with Kissinger and the resulting agreement did not end the war. The American accepted the award.
Practical solution
Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek, who won the 2004 Literature Prize, said that she received the prize undeservedly and refused to go to the presentation ceremony. But she took the money - 10 million Swedish crowns or 1.4 million dollars.
Perelman's axiom
It is impossible not to mention in this series the St. Petersburg mathematician Grigory Perelman, who in 2006 refused the Fields Prize, an analogue of the Nobel Prize, since the Swedish committee does not award mathematicians.
Perelman's Fields Medal was awarded for his proof of the Poincaré conjecture. In 2010, the American Clay Institute, which included the Poincaré hypothesis among the seven problems of the millennium, awarded Perelman a million dollars, but the scientist refused this award as well.
I refused. You know, I had a lot of reasons in both directions. That's why it took me so long to decide. To put it very briefly, then main reason is a disagreement with the organized mathematical community. I don't like their decisions, I think they are unfair. “I believe that the contribution of the American mathematician Hamilton to solving this problem is no less than mine,” Perelman explained.
In 1996, Grigory Perelman refused the youth prize of the European Mathematical Society awarded to him.
When turning to the more than century-long history of this prize, from the very beginning the bias of the members of the Swedish Academy who decided on who would be the Nobel laureate becomes clear and undeniable. Thus, during the period of awarding the first prizes, he was undoubtedly the greatest representative of world literature. Leo Tolstoy. However, the most influential secretary of the Swedish Academy, Karl Virsen, recognizing that Tolstoy created immortal creations, still categorically opposed his candidacy, because this writer, as he formulated, “condemned all forms of civilization and insisted in their place to accept a primitive way of life, divorced from all institutions high culture... Anyone who encounters such inert cruelty (-) towards any form of civilization will be overcome by doubt. No one will agree with such views...”
Already after the first dubious award, public opinion in Sweden and other countries was shocked by the decision of the Nobel Academy. A month after the scandalous award, in January 1902, Leo Tolstoy received a protest address from a group of Swedish writers and artists:
“In view of the award of the Nobel Prize for the first time, we, the undersigned writers, artists and critics of Sweden, want to express our admiration for you. We see in you not only a deeply revered patriarch modern literature, but also one of those powerful soulful poets about whom in in this case you should remember first of all, although you, in your personal judgment, never aspired to this kind of reward. We feel the need to address you with this greeting all the more vividly because, in our opinion, the institution to which the award was entrusted literary prize, in its present composition does not represent either the opinions of writers-artists, or public opinion. Let them know abroad that even in our remote country, the main and most powerful art is considered to be that which rests on freedom of thought and creativity." This letter was signed by more than forty prominent figures of Swedish literature and art.
On January 24, 1902, an article by the writer August Strindberg appeared in the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, stating in it that the majority of members of the Academy “are unscrupulous artisans and amateurs in literature, who for some reason are called upon to administer justice, but the concepts of these gentlemen about art are so They are childishly naive that they call poetry only what is written in verse, preferably in rhyme. And if, for example, Tolstoy forever became famous as an artist. human destinies“If he is the creator of historical frescoes, then he is not considered a poet by them on the grounds that he did not write poetry!”
Another judgment on this matter belongs to the famous Danish literary critic Georg Brandes: "Leo Tolstoy belongs to first place among modern writers. No one inspires such a sense of reverence as he does! We can say: no one but him inspires a feeling of reverence.”
Numerous appeals and demands for the restoration of outraged justice forced Tolstoy himself to speak out: “Dear and respected brothers! I was very pleased that the Nobel Prize was not awarded to me. Firstly, this saved me from the great difficulty of managing this money, which, as and any kind of money, in my opinion, can only bring evil; and secondly, it gave me the honor and great pleasure to receive expressions of sympathy from so many people, although unknown to me, but still deeply respected by me. an expression of my sincere gratitude and best feelings. Leo Tolstoy."
Many “defenders” of Nobel experts refer to Tolstoy’s own refusal to accept the prize if he is awarded it. This statement of the writer actually took place, but later, towards the end of 1906. In 1905, Tolstoy's new work, The Great Sin, was published. In this work, Tolstoy spoke out in the most categorical form, reasoned and extremely convincingly against private ownership of land. The Russian Academy of Sciences had a completely understandable idea to nominate Leo Tolstoy for the Nobel Prize. In a note compiled for this purpose by outstanding Russian scientists, academicians A.F. Koni, K.K. Arsenyev and N.P. The Kondakovs gave the highest praise to War and Peace and Resurrection. And in conclusion, on behalf of the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences, a wish was expressed to award Tolstoy the Nobel Prize.
This note was also approved by the Class of Fine Literature of the Academy of Sciences. On January 19, 1906, along with a copy of Tolstoy’s “The Great Sin,” the note was sent to Sweden.
As soon as he heard about such a great honor, Tolstoy wrote to the Finnish writer Arvid Ernefeld: “If this happened, it would be very unpleasant for me to refuse, and therefore I very much ask you, if you have - as I think - any connections in Sweden, try to make sure that I am not awarded this prize. Maybe you know one of the members, maybe you can write to the chairman, asking him not to disclose this, so that this is not done. I ask you to do what you can. , so that they don’t give me bonuses and don’t put me in a very unpleasant position - to refuse it.”
On October 8, 1906, Leo Tolstoy refused the Nobel Prize. It's actually not that surprising. After all, Leo Tolstoy was a man of principles. He had a negative attitude towards various monetary rewards. Throughout the history of the Nobel Prize, great people have refused it more than once, but more often they were forced to refuse than they refused because of their convictions. Today we decided to talk about seven laureates who refused the Nobel Prize.
The Nobel Prize is one of the most prestigious international awards, awarded annually for outstanding scientific research, revolutionary inventions or major contributions to culture or society. Many people have long considered it a great honor to receive such an award, but not everyone.
Leo Tolstoy
The great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, having learned that the Russian Academy of Sciences had nominated him as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, fervently asked in a letter to his friend the Finnish writer and translator Arvid Järnefelt to ensure that the prize was not awarded to him. The fact is that Leo Tolstoy himself was categorically convinced that the Nobel Prize is, first of all, money. And he considered money a great evil.
Jean-Paul Sartre
Not only Leo Tolstoy voluntarily refused the Nobel Prize. Writer Jean-Paul Sartre, winner in 1964, also refused the award due to his beliefs. To all the questions that were put to him on this subject, he answered quite clearly that in the current situation the Nobel Prize is in fact an award intended for writers of the West or "rebels" from the East. Sartre believed that only certain types of writers receive the prize; those talented and prize-worthy writers who do not fit the category will never receive the prize.
Boris Pasternak
Boris Pasternak in his life became a worthy winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1958. However, Pasternak was forced to refuse the award under intense pressure from the Soviet authorities. The prize was awarded to Pasternak “for outstanding achievements in modern lyric poetry and in the field of great Russian prose.” But Soviet authorities Pasternak was not allowed to receive the prize because of his novel Doctor Zhivago, which was published abroad. The USSR considered the novel “ideologically harmful.”
Richard Kuhn
In 1937, Adolf Hitler banned German citizens from receiving Nobel Prizes because he was offended that the Swedish committee's award had been given to Nazi critic Carl von Ossietzky. Richard Kuhn, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1938, was due to receive this award for his work on carotenoids and vitamins, but was eventually forced to refuse the prize due to Hitler's fundamental ban on German citizens receiving Nobel Prizes.
Adolf Butenandt
Another German chemist, who was a Nobel Prize laureate in chemistry together with the Swiss scientist L. Ruzicka, was forced to refuse it in the same way as Richard Kuhn due to Hitler's ban on German citizens receiving the Nobel Prize. However, it is known that Butenandt’s research on the biochemistry of hormonal substances in insects was awarded a prize to them. P. Ehrlich.
Video
From the history of the greats scientific discoveries: Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt
Gerhard Domagk
Gerhard Domagk was an outstanding German pathologist and bacteriologist. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1939 “for his discovery of the antibacterial effect of prontosil.” He became the third person on the list who was forced to refuse the award due to the ban of Adolf Hitler.
110 years ago, on October 8, 1906, the first Russian writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature could have been the publicist and philosopher Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy.
But the 78-year-old writer became the first person to refuse the Nobel Prize since the founding of the Nobel Prize in 1901.
the site tells how and why this happened.
The Russian Academy of Sciences nominated Leo Tolstoy for the Nobel Prize in 1906, four years before his death. By that time, the writer had published almost all of his works, including “War and Peace,” “Anna Karenina,” “Resurrection,” “The Kreutzer Sonata,” as well as many stories, plays and articles.
Leo Tolstoy learned about the academy’s initiative and decided not to refuse the prize directly, but to write a letter to his friend, writer, and translator of his works into Finnish, Arvid Järnefelt.
Lev Nikolaevich asked his friend, with the help of colleagues from Sweden, to make sure that he was not awarded the Nobel Prize, since it would be very unpleasant for him to refuse it.
“Firstly, this saved me from great difficulty in disposing of this money, which, like any money, in my conviction, can only bring evil; and secondly, it gave me the honor and great pleasure to receive expressions of sympathy from so many people, although unknown to me, but still deeply respected by me,” wrote Leo Tolstoy.
Probably, the reason for the writer’s decision was his beliefs, because one of the principles of the religious and ethical movement - Tolstoyism - is simplification - a life not burdened by material values.
Arvid Järnefelt carried out his friend's instructions.
In 1906, the Italian poet Giosue Carducci received the prize for literature.
The winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature will be announced very soon. In the entire history, only five Russian writers and poets - Ivan Bunin (1933), Boris Pasternak (1958), Mikhail Sholokhov (1965), Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1970) and Joseph Brodsky (1987) - were awarded this prestigious award. Meanwhile, others were also vying for the prize. prominent representatives Russian literature - but they never managed to receive the coveted medal. About which of the Russian writers could have won the Nobel, but never received it, is in the RT material.
Secret bonus
It is known that the Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded annually since 1901. A special committee selects candidates, and then, with the help of experts, literary scholars and laureates of past years, a winner is selected.
However, thanks to archival finds at Uppsala University, it became known that the literature prize could also be awarded in XIX century. Most likely, it was established by Alfred Nobel's grandfather, Emmanuel Nobel Sr., who in late XVIII century, in correspondence with friends, he discussed the idea of establishing an international literary prize.
The list of prize winners found at a Swedish university also includes the names of Russian writers: Thaddeus Bulgarin (1837), Vasily Zhukovsky (1839), Alexander Herzen (1867), Ivan Turgenev (1878) and Leo Tolstoy (1894). However, we still know little about the mechanism for selecting winners and other details of the award procedure. Therefore, let's turn to official history award, which began for Russia in 1902.
Lawyer and Tolstoy
Few people know, but the first person nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature was not a writer or poet, but a lawyer, Anatoly Koni. At the time of his nomination, in 1902, he was an honorary academician of the Academy of Sciences in the category of fine literature, as well as a senator in the general meeting of the First Department of the Senate. It is known that his candidacy was proposed by the head of the department of criminal law at the Military Law Academy, Anton Wulfert.
A more famous nominee is Leo Tolstoy. From 1902 to 1906, his candidacy was persistently proposed by the Nobel Committee. Leo Tolstoy by that time was already well known not only to the Russian but also to the world community for his novels. According to the expert community, Leo Tolstoy was “the most revered patriarch of modern literature.” In a letter that was sent to the writer from the Nobel Committee, the academicians called Tolstoy “the greatest and most profound writer.” The reason why the author of War and Peace never received an award is simple. Alfred Jensen, an expert on Slavic literature who acted as one of the advisors to the nomination committee, criticized Leo Tolstoy's philosophy, describing it as "subversive and contrary to the idealistic nature of the prize."
However, the writer was not particularly eager for the award and even wrote about this in a response letter to the committee: “I was very pleased that the Nobel Prize was not awarded to me. This saved me from a great difficulty in disposing of this money, which, like any money, in my conviction, can only bring evil.”
Since 1906, after this letter, Leo Tolstoy was no longer nominated for the prize.
- Leo Tolstoy in his office
- RIA Novosti
Merezhkovsky's calculation
In 1914, on the eve of the First World War, the poet and writer Dmitry Merezhkovsky was nominated for the Nobel Prize. The same Alfred Jensen noted “ artistic skill images, universal content and idealistic direction” of the poet’s work. In 1915, Merezhkovsky's candidacy was again proposed, this time by the Swedish writer Karl Melin, but again to no avail. But the first one was walking world war, and only 15 years later Dmitry Merezhkovsky was again nominated for the award. His candidacy was nominated from 1930 to 1937, but the poet had to face serious competition: Ivan Bunin and Maxim Gorky were nominated along with him during the same period. However, the persistent interest of Sigurd Agrel, who nominated Merezhkovsky for seven years in a row, gave the writer hope of becoming one of the winners of the coveted award. Unlike Leo Tolstoy, Dmitry Merezhkovsky wanted to become a Nobel laureate. In 1933, Dmitry Merezhkovsky was closest to success. According to the recollections of Ivan Bunin’s wife, Vera, Dmitry Merezhkovsky invited her husband to share the prize. Moreover, if he won, Merezhkovsky would give Bunin as much as 200 thousand francs. But this did not happen. Despite the fact that Merezhkovsky persistently wrote to the committee, convincing its members of his superiority over his competitors, he never received the award.
Gorky is more needed
Maxim Gorky was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature 4 times: in 1918, 1923, 1928 and 1933. The writer’s work presented a certain difficulty for the Nobel Committee. Anton Karlgren, who replaced Alfred Jensen as an expert on Slavic studies, noted that in the post-revolutionary work of Gorky (meaning the revolution of 1905. - RT) there is “not the slightest echo of ardent love for the homeland” and that in general his books are a complete “sterile desert.” Earlier, in 1918, Alfred Jensen spoke of Gorky as a “double cultural-political personality” and “a tired, long-worn-out writer.” In 1928, Gorky was close to receiving the award. The main struggle was between him and the Norwegian writer Sigrid Undset. Anton Karlgren noted that Gorky’s work is like an “extraordinary renaissance”, which provided the writer with “ leading place in Russian literature".
- Maxim Gorky, 1928
- RIA Novosti
The Soviet writer lost due to a devastating review by Heinrich Schük, who noted in Gorky’s work “the evolution from bad May Day rhetoric to direct discrediting of the authorities and agitation against it, and then to Bolshevik ideology.” The writer’s later works, according to Shyuk, deserve “absolutely damning criticism.” This became a powerful argument for conservative Swedish academics in favor of Sigrid Undset. In 1933, Maxim Gorky lost to Ivan Bunin, whose novel “The Life of Arsenyev” left no chance for anyone.
Marina Tsvetaeva was subsequently indignant that Gorky was not awarded the prize in 1933: “I’m not protesting, I just don’t agree, because Gorky is incomparably greater than Bunin: greater, more humane, more original, and more necessary. Gorky is an era, and Bunin is the end of an era. But - since this is politics, since the King of Sweden cannot pin orders on the communist Gorky...”
"Star" 1965
In 1965, four were nominated for the prize. domestic writers: Vladimir Nabokov, Anna Akhmatova, Konstantin Paustovsky and Mikhail Sholokhov.
Vladimir Nabokov was nominated for the award several times in the 1960s for his acclaimed novel Lolita. A member of the Swedish Academy, Anders Österling, spoke of him as follows: “The author of the immoral and successful novel Lolita cannot under any circumstances be considered as a candidate for the prize.”
In 1964 he lost to Sartre, and in 1965 to his former compatriot (Nabokov emigrated from the USSR in 1922. - RT) Mikhail Sholokhov. After its 1965 nomination, the Nobel Committee called Lolita immoral. It is still unknown whether Nabokov was nominated after 1965, but we know that in 1972 Alexander Solzhenitsyn approached the Swedish committee with a request to reconsider the writer's candidacy.
Konstantin Paustovsky was eliminated at the preliminary stage, although Swedish academics spoke well of his “Tale of Life”. Anna Akhmatova competed with Mikhail Sholokhov in the final. Moreover, the Swedish committee proposed dividing the prize between them, arguing that “they write in the same language.” Andreas Esterling, a professor and long-term secretary of the Academy, noted that Anna Akhmatova’s poetry is full of “genuine inspiration.” Despite this, the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1965 was awarded to Mikhail Sholokhov, who was nominated for the seventh time.
- King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden presents Mikhail Sholokhov with an honorary diploma and a Nobel laureate medal
- RIA Novosti
Aldanov and company
In addition to the above nominees, from Russia to different times Other, no less honored writers and poets were also nominated. For example, in 1923, Konstantin Balmont was nominated along with Maxim Gorky and Ivan Bunin. However, his candidacy was rejected unanimously by the experts as clearly unsuitable.
In 1926, Vladimir Frantsev, a Slavist and literary historian, nominated for a prize in literature white general Petra Krasnova. Twice, in 1931 and 1932, the writer Ivan Shmelev applied for the prize.
Since 1938, the writer and publicist Mark Aldanov has been competing for the award for a long time, becoming the record holder for the number of nominations - 12 times. The prose writer was popular among the Russian emigration in France and the USA. IN different years he was nominated by Vladimir Nabokov and Alexander Kerensky. And Ivan Bunin, who became the prize winner in 1933, proposed Aldanov’s candidacy 9 times.
The philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev was nominated four times, the writer Leonid Leonov was nominated for the prize twice, the writer Boris Zaitsev and the author of the novel “The Fall of the Titan” Igor Guzenko, a Soviet defector cryptographer, were nominated once each.
Eduard Epstein