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Orthodox churches, autocracy and national traditions are supposed to form a new national ideology in Russia. This would mean that Russia would be overtaken by its past, and our past would be our future.

Vladimir Sorokin

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Vladimir Sorokin
Age: 69
Born: 1955
Born: August 7
Librettist
Painter
Playwright
Science Fiction Writer
Screenwriter
Visual Artist
Writer
Vladimir Georgiyevich Sorokin
Would
Supposed
Tradition
Overtaken
National
Autocracy
Church
Traditions
Future
Churches
Form
Orthodox
Past
Ideology
Mean
Russia

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Putin likes to quote a sentence from Czar Alexander III, who said that Russian has only two allies - the army and the navy. As a citizen, this makes me sit up and take notice. This is a concept of self-imposed isolation, a defense strategy that sees Russia surrounded by enemies.
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In Russia whenever you encounter a minor official, he lets you know that he is above you and that you depend on him. It is reflected in the superpower mentality that nourishes the Kremlin. An empire always demands sacrifices from its people.
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I'm not a prophet or a teacher, I just ask questions. I don't think a writer should be a teacher, but should know how to pose the questions and explain the problems.
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In Russia one can be as pure as can be and still lose everything in a flash and end up in prison.
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The Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov once said: In a Democracy, portraits of a nation's leader should never exceed the size of a postage stamp. That won't happen so quickly in Russia.
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When I turn on the TV in Russia I see a general calmly claiming that our missiles are ahead of the latest American models by three five-year plans. It's a nightmare. We are creating a concept of the enemy, just as they did in the Soviet era. This is a giant step backward.
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I have Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin to thank that a Russian writer can not only write anything he wants, but also publish it.
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The Khodorkovsky case is typical of the oprichnina - the system of oppression.
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