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Anne Applebaum |
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Anne Applebaum studied Russian history and literature at Yale and International Relations at the London School of Economics and St Antony’s College, Oxford. She has been a writer for the Economist and foreign and deputy editor at the Spectator, and columnist for the Evening Standard and Sunday Telegraph. She is now a columnist and a member of the editorial board of the Washington Post.
Anne Applebaum speaks to us about her writing rituals, inspirations and influences and of course, her experiences of Russia.
What inspired you to write Gulag?
In the late 1980s, I spent several years living in Poland and travelling a good deal in the former USSR. While doing so, I met a number of people who had been in Soviet camps - and realized that I knew surprisingly few details about these camps. I started to ask myself why. At first, I wanted to write a book that would talk about 'Western perceptions of Soviet camps'. Then I realized that it was possible to write about the camps themselves, using archives - and I decided to try it.
How did you tackle such an enormous subject?
Very systematically. When taking notes - which I did on a computer - I filed them in 'chapter' files so that when I got around to writing a particular chapter, I’d have them. Of course the system fell apart, somewhat, and I wound up writing with a stack of books by my side, so that I’d always be able to turn to them. In my acknowledgements, I listed a handful of writers who helped me more than others and that is literally true: I read some memoirs over and over again. In a very real sense, they kept me going.
How often do you travel to Russia and what was your most memorable experience there?
When I was writing the book, I went about every other month. At the moment, I’m going once or twice a year. I’ve had so many memorable experiences in Russia it’s hard to know what to choose. They range from going to one of the first serious nouveau riche mafia nightclubs in Moscow in 1992 to nearly being arrested for photographing a factory in Leningrad in 1986. During the writing of the book, I was deeply affected by visiting the sites of some of the former camps, in Vorkuta, Solovetsky and Perm. Until you see where they are - and how far away they are from everything else, and how big the country is - you can’t understand how isolated the prisoners felt.
Is there a particular book or author that has had a significant influence on you as a writer?
Different books influenced me at different times. But the most important recent influence was Primo Levi’s If This is a Man, his account of his experiences in Auschwitz. I first read this book when I was much younger. At the time, it was the first account of the Holocaust I had read that did not describe the events only as a tragedy, but also as a profound test of individual character. Levi’s descriptions of why some prisoners survived - and others did not - remains the classic account of how different kinds of people respond to extreme circumstances, how vices can become virtues in a concentration camp, and how individual and unpredictable are human reactions to suffering. Later, while doing the research for my book about the Gulag, I read it again, several times, mostly because I was struck by Levi’s tone, and in particular his ability to empathize with the people he writes about, but not to sentimentalize them. I aspire to achieve something similar.
What did you read when you were growing up?
Books I cared about when I was younger, in no particular order :
Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace is a book I’ve read several times, and found something different in it each time. The first time I read it, I skipped the battle scenes; the second time I read it, I realized that the battle scenes were the best part, because they show how warfare (and history itself) is completely confusing to people who are living through it: at the time, you don’t know who’s winning or losing, and what will happen next. Everything can be explained in retrospect, but at very chaotic moments, nothing seems logical at all.
Vladimir Nabokov’s Ada - another Russian writer, but a completely different one. In the case of Nabokov, his astonishing use of language is what I love. In Ada, he makes puns in three languages - you actually have to know Russian and French to realize that he’s making them.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby - it’s still the best book ever about America, aspiration, and the elusive nature of success. I first read it in about ninth grade, and it was one of the first adult books I attempted to understand.
Graham Greene’s The Quiet American - an amazingly prescient novel, written before the Vietnam War but set in Vietnam. Although partly a love story, the real theme is the unintended consequences of American idealism in farflung corners of the world. You could set it in the Middle East, or almost anywhere, today.
What books are on your wishlist this year?
At the moment, I’ve developed an addiction to hardback, classic childrens’ books, which I keep buying for my children, for birthday parties, for my nephews: Alice in Wonderland, The Railway Children, Doctor Doolittle, and so on. Sometimes it feels odd reading about Edwardian or Victorian children to a twenty-first century American child, but I keep at it - and would buy more if I could.
Did you know? [a little known fact about yourself....]
Here’s one: I met my husband because he and I decided to drive to the Berlin Wall on the night that it was first opened - we drove there, together with another friend. Since he’s from the East - he grew up in Poland - and I’m from the West, we’ve always liked the symbolism of that encounter.
Do you have any special writing rituals? For example, what do you have on your desk when you’re writing?
I write best in the morning, and have a lot of trouble staying focused in the afternoons. However, I have one ritual which almost always serves as the perfect cure for writers’ block or afternoon writer’s fatigue: a twenty minute nap. When you wake up it’s like starting the day over again.
What tips or advice do you have for writers still looking to be discovered?
Write about subjects you care about
