Lecture: 'Made It to Berlin. A Creative Evening'

THIS MATERIAL (INFORMATION) HAS BEEN PRODUCED BY A FOREIGN AGENT, DMITRY BYKOV, WHO IS LISTED IN THE REGISTER OF FOREIGN MASS MEDIA ENTITIES THAT PERFORM THE FUNCTIONS OF A FOREIGN AGENT, DATED 29.07.2022.

On 22 April, the poet and writer Dmitry Bykov will visit Berlin for the first time for a major author’s evening. The program includes readings of poetry and prose, as well as answers to questions from the audience.

Dmitry Bykov is first and foremost a lyric poet—and this is a good reason to come and hear him live. He will read both long-loved and instantly recognizable texts, and completely new poems written just now—ironic and sad. And, as always, there will be the obligatory conversation with the audience—directly, without intermediaries.

“Everyone understands that ‘we can repeat’ is one of the main slogans of today. But what exactly is supposed to be repeated? What, specifically? If we are talking about the moment of a great spiritual upsurge that Russia experienced in 45—when it brought its victory to the world—then in today’s reality that is, to put it mildly, questionable. For me, ‘getting to Berlin’ means trying to show the best of what I can do: because victory is achieved not only by force, but also through an artistic leap—through culture, reading, literature—through something truly human and good. I want to get to Berlin in order to demonstrate that in Russia there is something that, in my view, we can be proud of. Not out of self-satisfaction and not out of a desire for revenge—rather, an aspiration to confirm the fidelity to that very ‘culture of the forefathers,’ about which so much is being said today. I will try to get to Berlin—I don’t know how successful I will be. I have complicated feelings about Germany: it seems to me that even today it has not fully overcome fascism and continues to live with that trauma. But we have plenty of trauma as well—and in that sense, we are at least interesting to each other.” – Dm. Bykov

In Russian.