Douglas Smith wins inaugural Russian non-fiction book prize
Sir Rodric Braithwaite and Douglas Smith at the announcement at Hay. Photograph: Waterstones
US historian Douglas Smith has won first prize and £5,000 in a new literary competition, former UK ambassador Sir Rodric Braithwaite and James Daunt, managing director of Waterstones, announced at the Hay Festival in Wales today. Smith’s book, Former People: The Last Days of the Russian Aristocracy, explores the fate of the Russian aristocracy after the revolution of 1917.
Braithwaite, who headed the panel of five judges, said: “Former People is original, well-researched and written with style, passion and a strong narrative drive ... It is the first to tell the harrowing story in English of what happened to those members of the Russian aristocracy who stayed in Russia after the revolution, and their commitment and contribution to the good of their country.”
The inaugural Pushkin House Russian Book Prize, offered by the London-based culture centre in collaboration with the Waterstones chain of bookshops, is designed to “encourage and reward the very best non-fiction writing on Russia, whilst promoting serious discussion on the issues raised”.
In a statement earlier this year, Andrew Jack of the Financial Times and co-chairman of Pushkin House, said: “Our aim is to encourage intelligent, popular writing and stimulate wider public discussion of the issues ... Russia is a rich source of culture that has inspired the world, but its creativity is often neglected in the headlines.”
The shortlist of six books was announced in April and included: Wheel of Fortune by Thane Gustafson on the growth of Russia’s oil industry; The Man Without a Face by Masha Gessen, a profile of President Vladimir Putin; Iron Curtain by Anne Applebaum, a history of control and defiance in post-war Eastern Europe; Moscow, 1937 by Karl Schlogel about the emergence of Stalin’s Terror; and Soviet Baby Boomers by Donald Raleigh, an oral history of Russia’s Cold War generation.
The prize was open to any popular non-fiction books written in English on Russia or the Russian-speaking world. It attracted more than 40 entires. In addition to Braithwaite, the panel of judges included Lord Skidelsky, professor of political economy at Warwick University, and Rachel Polonsky, lecturer in the department of Slavonic Studies at Cambridge University.
