Who we are
An association of independent, anti-authoritarian, anti-war literary figures writing in various languages of the Russian Federation.
Members of PEN Languages of Russia include poets, prose writers, playwrights, essayists, translators, critics, organisers of literary initiatives, editors of publishing houses and academic writers.
We plan to launch versions of this website in Avar, Udmurt, Chuvash, Komi, Dolgan, Bashkqort, Kumyk and other languages.
What we want
to develop literatures in the languages of the Russian Federation,
to abolish the hegemony of the Russian language and to have other languages gain the right to be heard on an equal footing.
to provide the international community with an annual report
on what is happening in literatures in different languages of the Russian Federation, focusing on censorship, coercion, collaboration and violations of language rights.
to help artists and language activists persecuted by the Russian authorities
make oppression visible to the international public especially against the authors representing languages of Russia.
to support independent communities of writers and readers
within the Russian Federation, to find safe ways to promote and discuss uncensored / free texts.
What we do
We plan to compile an anthology, tentatively called “Captive Languages.” This multilingual book will include 20-25 modern texts of various genres written in languages of Russia and translated into English. The theme is the broad history of these oppressed yet and resistant languages, and thetheir struggle for linguistic rights, history, and identity.
While compiling the anthology “Captive Languages”, we are going to organize several writing laboratories and translating workshops. The laboratories will focus on restoring and developing creative skills in the native language, while the workshops will work with translations from the languages of the Russian Federation into world languages.
Based on existing practice, we will continue to work with created texts: reading and discussing them in open or closed reading groups. This, in turn, may attract new authors, who will become participants in our laboratories.
An online magazine with collective editing will become a platform for publishing texts in various languages of the Russian Federation, working with translations, developing new genres, and discussing topics important to our Center.
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