Alexander Karasyov

Alexander Karasyov was born in Krasnodar, Russia, in 1971. He received degrees in history and law from the Kuban State University and worked as a mechanic, engineer, teacher, and legal advisor. He served in the army, taking part in the fights in Chechnya.^[7][8]

Since 2003 he has been published in literary journals. He was awarded the Bunin Prize (2008) and the Second O. Henry Prize "Dary Volhvov" (The Gift of the Magi) (New York, 2010). He is the author of the books "The Chechen Stories" (Chechenskye Rasskazy) and "Traitor" (Predatel').^[1][9]

Alexander Karasyov, like Arkady Babchenko and Zakhar Prilepin, is considered a representative of the Russian "New Realism" movement of the 21st century, continuing the tradition of the "lieutenant prose" of the 1960s and 1970s and military prose of the 1990s.^[4][9]

It seems that our younger generation of writers, already labelled "New Realists", understand this. A generation raised in a free Russia, they combine both Gogol's trends. With a command since childhood of foreign languages, to which their forefathers had no access, enjoying freedom of speech, the absence of censorship, the opportunity to travel all over the world – for example, to spend time in Gogol's beloved Rome, where he wrote Dead Souls and to read books that used to be banned, they are creating a new type of literature. They clearly see everything wrong with new society and are far from conformist, but nevertheless are not "rebels" in the 20th-century sense (eg, anarchists, hippies, France's 1968 "revolutionaries"). They are writers who assume there is a place for preaching in journalism, social and political writing and the media, but that "direct action" is the responsibility of civil society. Their names are not yet well known to "general readers", but – believe me – the future belongs to them. That's why I'll mention a few I know personally: Zakhar Prilepin, Alexander Karasyov, Dmitriy Faleyev, Vladimir Lorchenkov, Tatyana Zamirovskaya, Peter Orekhovskiy, Anton Nechayev, Ivan Klinovoy, Alexander Silayev, Yevgeni Bevers, Andrey Mukhin, Marta Ketro, Alexander Snegiryov and Viktoria Lebedeva. I recommend you make a note of these names, just in case. After all, good writers are always in short supply.

— Yevgeni Popov^[9]

• Сhechen Stories (Russian — Чеченские рассказы, transl. Chechenskiye Rasskazy). — Moscow: Literary Russia, 2008. ISBN 978-5-7809-0114-3.
• Traitor (Russian — Предатель, transl. Predatel'). — Ufa: Vagant, 2011. ISBN 978-5-9635-0344-7.^[10][11]

In his Chechen Stories and Traitor, which are regarded as examples of modern Russian War Prose,^[12] Alexander Karasyov gives insights into life in the Russian army during the Second Chechen War. Presenting a modern war and modern warfare,^[11] the author does not rely on second hand information but on his own experience. The short stories are often as tragicomical as the Russian army itself and show Karasyov's characters not only in the war but also in their lives outside the war in their civilian life, or their so-called "life in peace" (“мирная жизнь”).^[10][13]

Alexander Karasyov's stories and essays have been published in the following Russian literary magazines: Novy mir (Новый мир), Oktyabr' (Октябрь), Friendship of Peoples (Дружба народов), Kontinent (Континент), Neva (Нева), Ural (Урал), Nash sovremennik (Наш cовремменик), Belskie prostory (Бельские просторы).^[14][15]

• Современная литература народов России (Modern Literature of the Peoples of Russia) (2005). Moscow: Pik. ISBN 978-5-7358-0288-4
• Народ мой — большая семья: Литература наших дней. (My People — A Big Family. Literature of Our Days) (2007). Moscow: Literaturnaya Rossiya. ISBN 978-5-7809-0111-2
• Четыре шага от войны (Four Steps from War) (2010). Sankt Saint Petersburg: Limbus Press. ISBN 978-5-8370-0538-1
• Дары волхвов 2.0 (The Gift of the Magi) (2012). New York.

• Silver, Courtney. Criticism and Complaint In Soldiers’ Narratives of the Chechen Wars. Master thesis. University of Colorado, Boulder, 2017.
  • v