Quote

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.

Vladimir Sorokin

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Vladimir Sorokin
Age: 69
Born: 1955
Born: August 7
Librettist
Painter
Playwright
Science Fiction Writer
Screenwriter
Visual Artist
Writer
Vladimir Georgiyevich Sorokin
Demands
Lets
Kremlin
Russia
Encounter
Nourishes
Whenever
Empire
Superpower
Demand
Mentality
Sacrifices
Sacrifice
Empires
Reflected
Depends
Encounters
Minor
Always
Depend
Minors
People
Officials
Official

More quotes by Vladimir Sorokin

Image
In Russia only those who are loyal to the people in power can become wealthy.
Vladimir Sorokin
Image
As a storyteller I was influenced by the Moscow underground, where it was common to be apolitical.
Vladimir Sorokin
Image
Nothing has changed in Russia since Ivan the Terrible when it comes to the divide between the people and the state. The state demands a sacred willingness to make sacrifices from the people.
Vladimir Sorokin
Image
The word people is unpleasant to me. The phrase Soviet people was drummed into us from childhood on. I love concrete people, enlightened people who live conscious lives and do not simply sit there and vegetate. To love the people you have to be the general secretary of the Communist Party or an absolute dictator.
Vladimir Sorokin
Image
The citizen lives in each of us. In the days of Brezhnev, Andropov, Gorbachev and Yeltsin, I was constantly trying to suppress the responsible citizen in me. I told myself that I was, after all, an artist.
Vladimir Sorokin
Image
Germans, Frenchmen and Englishmen can say of themselves: I am the state. I cannot say that. In Russia only the people in the Kremlin can say that. All other citizens are nothing more than human material with which they can do all kinds of things.
Vladimir Sorokin
Image
In Russia there are special people who are permitted to do anything. They are the sacrificial priests of power. Anyone who is not a member of this group has no clout with the state.
Vladimir Sorokin
Image
The bureaucracy has grown such powerful roots in Russia, and corruption is so widespread, that people from opposition have no interest in changing anything.
Vladimir Sorokin
Image
I ask myself whether Russia is moving in the direction of democracy. I don't believe it is! Bit by bit, Russia is slipping back into an authoritarian empire.
Vladimir Sorokin
Image
The West should be even more vocal in insisting that the Russians respect human rights.
Vladimir Sorokin
Image
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.
Vladimir Sorokin
Image
I have Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin to thank that a Russian writer can not only write anything he wants, but also publish it.
Vladimir Sorokin
Image
The Khodorkovsky case is typical of the oprichnina - the system of oppression.
Vladimir Sorokin
Image
The worst thing that can happen to Russia is indifference in the West - that is, if it were interested in nothing but oil and gas.
Vladimir Sorokin
Image
As a child I perceived violence as a sort of natural law. In the totalitarian Soviet Union, oppression held everything together. It was the sinister energy of our country.
Vladimir Sorokin
Image
In Russia no one is surprised when an official accepts a bribe while at the same time portraying the state as some sacred entity to which the bourgeois should pay homage. This all sounds absurd. But for Russians it is completely normal.
Vladimir Sorokin
Image
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.
Vladimir Sorokin
Image
Everyone in Russia must awaken the citizen within himself.
Vladimir Sorokin
Image
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.
Vladimir Sorokin
Image
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.
Vladimir Sorokin