Ryklin and Koenen

In early 2007, during the Leipzig Book Fair, two journalists/authors were awarded the Leipziger Buchpreis zur Europäischen Verständigung.
Koenen had recently published a book on the German perception of the "East" between 1900 and 1945; Ryklin a striking testimonial of the trial of the organisers and curators of the Moscow exhibition "Caution! Religion!" (Achtung Religion) in 2003. The exhibition had been staged in the Moscow Sacharow Center and had been destroyed 3 days after the start of the exhibition by religious vandals. Interestingly not the vandals were put to trial but the organisers of the exhibition. Ryklin's wife, Anna Altschuk, was among the accused.

(A nice couple. Courtesy of Anne Faden and Jörg Bauer)

In a highly interesting interview he gave with the German daily der Tagesspiegel in late 2006 he said about the trial:

"We spent five months in court, pretty much the whole time. At first the trial was against the perpetrators but the public prosecutor acquit them on a pretext. Then there was a trial against those who had been attacked. Against the director of the Sakharov Centre for "fomenting national and religious strife." The artists were threatened with prison sentences. The national Duma claimed before the attorney general that the artists had offended the sensibilities of orthodox believers. "

In the first chapter of his book "With the rights of the stronger" (Mit dem Recht des Stärkeren) he gave a very top line, but compelling explanation why things like the trial are possible in Russia today:

1. A persitent obedience to authoritarianism (Csar, Sowjet, President)
2. A pathological division between different social levels
3. A strong nationalistic and conservative-religious tradition

Who could have summed it up better?