Mikhail Bushuyev, Deutsche Welle
The head of Swiss publishing house Unionsverlag, Lucien Leitess, said in an interview with Deutsche Welle about perception of Chingiz Aitmatov in the West, importance of Kyrgyzstan for the writer and his role for image of Kyrgyzstan.
Chingiz Aitmatov is a very popular writer in Europe, especially in German-speaking country. His story Jamila is one of the most affecting love stories narrated in the XX century. One of the major publishers of his creative work is a Swiss publishing house Unionsverlag during the last ten years.
The head of Swiss publishing house Unionsverlag, Lucien Leitess, said in an interview with Deutsche Welle about perception of Chingiz Aitmatov in the West, importance of Kyrgyzstan for the writer and his role for image of Kyrgyzstan.
Deutsche Welle: Mr Leitess, how many books by Chingiz Aitmatov were published in German? How many books are published now?
Lucien Leitess: Books by Chingiz Aitmatov are published in German within ten years. First, books appeared in East Germany, former German Democratic Republic, then in the West.
It is impossible to name exact number of published books. It is clear that it deals with hundreds of thousands of copies, more precisely, millions of bought and read novels by Aitmatov.
It is difficult to appreciate popularity in the east of Germany. Many books were published there. But even more books were read. There was shortage of books.
Half a million of Jamila story's copies was published in various publishing houses. Afterwards, copies were printed in addition. In general, one can confidently tell that no other writer from the former Soviet Union had so many readers of his books in German during long time.
Deutsche Welle: How Aitmatov's prose was perceived in the West? How is it perceived now? What is its value?
Lucien Leitess: The answer to this question was different at different times. Chingiz Aitmatov was a writer personified humanity in the German Democratic Republic. He was as human face of socialism.
Critical, utopian aspect, as well as contrasting of a human being to political requirements of time, were always in his novels. I would call it as part of scandal, element, causing indignation. Almost all of Aitmatov's stories cover the conflict between a man and politics. It is not only resistance to dictatorship, but antagonism between personal happiness and needs of war, collective, society.
You can read Jamila this way. Jamila is a woman who values her love more than patriotic war. People read about this conflict in the east.
People in the West drew more attention to ecological element, responsibility of a person for blue planet, for the future and continuation of tradition. So, Aitmatov's multi-dimensional creativity met time requirements differently.
Deutsche Welle: Chingiz Aitmatov is likely to be the most famous Kirghiz in the world. Is everyting done to preserve Aitmatov's heritage in Kyrgyzstan?
Lucien Leitess: Aitmatov is sure to be lone huge tree in the literature and culture of Kyrgyzstan. I do not know whether there was a similar author in Kyrgyzstan. And every government of country which cares about its welfare and preservation of its traditions, will do its best to keep a deserving memory of this writer.
I know that Aitmatov's family is disagree that nothing is done one year after his death. There is no grave stone, as far as I know, the authorities promised to rename the street in honor of Aitmatov but it was not occurred yet.
I hope that goal to preserve Aitmatov's heritage, who is the best writer, and real gift for the country will be more significant than momentary political struggle. I hope that proper honor will be rendered to him. Nobody made Kyrgyzstan such a well-known country in the world and obliged readers to love Kyrgyzstan except Aitmatov.
Deutsche Welle: People say that many stories by Aitmatov left unpublished. Do you plan to publish them?
Lucien Leitess: We observe appearance of new novels by Chingiz Aitmatov closely within the last twenty years. We published complete works of six volumes in 2008. It includes some fragments of his new books. For example, it includes rough copies of the novel The Virgin in the snow, which Aitmatov began, but failed to complete due to various reasons. These fragments were published in Russian in various magazines. As far as I know, rough copies were not published in a separate book. I also know that he worked on a new novel last years. There are some completed fragments. We hope that if they are available for us, we will sure to publish them in German.
Deutsche Welle: Mr Leitess, you were acquainted with Aitmatov. Did you discuss last events in Kyrgyzstan? Did he speak about them?
Lucien Leitess: Regarding with current Kyrgyz leadership, he refrained from comments. But in general, he was worried about development of Kyrgyzstan after collapse of the Soviet Union. He was not always pleased with changes. He observed complicated situation in Kyrgyzstan.
He worried about destructive attitude to the Kyrgyz resources. He worried that the Kyrgyz mountains become object of blind exploitation. His latest novel, When the mountains fall down, is a kind of requiem. It is one of the greatest works of the past ten years, written about the era of collapse of Soviet socialism and establishment of democracy.
Opinions expressed in this article may be different of those held by Trend