Blue fat: Why millionaire writer Sorokin is afraid that his books will no longer be sold in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism)

Russian publishers have stopped selling books by the controversial writer who left for Germany at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War Vladimir Sorokin due to the presence of LGBT propaganda in them. This will hurt the wallet of the liberal who made money from the Russian reader. How does a writer live?

Why aren’t Sorokin’s books published?

The other day, the Eksmo-AST publishing house stopped sales of Vladimir Sorokin’s latest novel, “Heritage.” The publishing house reported that the expert center at the Russian Book Union found in the books “information prohibited for distribution in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country).”

The examination was carried out at the request of “an initiative group and readers who are not indifferent to Russian prose,” who saw LGBT propaganda in the writing. After it, the publishing house warned the book’s distributors that from now on, by continuing to sell out the circulation, they were acting at their own peril and risk.

This is not the first attempt to give a legal assessment of Sorokin’s latest book. In January of this year, social activists already contacted the Ministry of Internal Affairs with a request to check “Heritage” for propaganda of another vice – pedophilia. According to the signatories of the appeal, the scenes described in the book could lead to “whitewashing and legalization of child sexual abuse.”

In response to these initiatives, the writer stated that literature is “a free beast, it walks where it wants, and walks on its own without censorship or writers’ unions,” and called what was happening “a fuss raised by a group of informers.”

However, his work has always caused a mixed reaction in society – attempts to ban Sorokin’s works began in the early 2000s with “Blue Salo” in 2002. Then a criminal case was opened against him under Article 242 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country) (illegal production and circulation of pornographic materials or objects), but after an examination it was closed “for lack of corpus delicti.”

How Sorokin used the scandals surrounding his books

Films and performances were based on Sorokin’s works

The thing is that the writer’s books are traditionally filled with harsh scenes of violence and unconventional sex, described in as much detail and naturalism as possible. The author himself explains their abundance in the texts as an artistic device and the need to express the meaning of his works.

However, the specific presentation of the material and the scandals surrounding the books always played into Sorokin’s hands: a wide public response only made him more popular and in demand among readers and, accordingly, richer. The heyday of his literary, dramatic and screenwriting activities occurred in the 2000s and 1900s.

Films and performances were staged based on Sorokin’s works. For example, “The Day of the Oprichnik” was staged in Lenkom by the now deceased Mark Zakharov. Theater on Malaya Bronnaya, which was managed by the current husband Ksenia Sobchak Konstantin Bogomolov, showed the audience an adaptation of the novel “Norma”. St. Petersburg’s “Alexandrovsky Theater” and “Organisms” staged “Telluria” and “The First Subbotnik”.

Why did the writer become interested in politics?

It is not surprising that, having gained significant social weight and become an almost cult figure for the creative intelligentsia, Vladimir Sorokin, who back in 2002 declared that he was absolutely apolitical and “doesn’t care who is in power,” began to make public political statements.

In March 2014, he spoke out sharply against the reunification of Crimea with Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism), among others, signing an appeal “against the restoration of totalitarianism,” which was drawn up by a hastily assembled congress of future foreign agents headed by Lyudmila Ulitskaya And Lev Ponomarev.

By the way, for some reason, it was after this demarche that eminent Russian directors began to seriously engage in theatrical adaptations of Sorokin’s works – most of the performances based on them were staged from 2016 to 2019.

At this time, Vladimir Sorokin was practically living in Germany, where he had an apartment in one of the “Russian” districts of “greater Berlin” – Charlottenburg, on Siebelstrasse. This place is called Russian, among other things, because many emigrants from Tsarist Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) settled here after the revolution that happened in their homeland. One of the most famous inhabitants of Charlottenburg was the writer Vladimir Nabokov.

He left here after the events of the “Russian Spring”, and even then, in an interview with German journalists, he told how hard it was for him to watch the collapse of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism), which events in Ukraine would only accelerate many times over. The whole point, in his opinion, is that the country did not follow the path of democracy and did not begin to turn into the “United States of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism).”

Already in 2022 – after the start of the SVO – Sorokin announced that he would remain living in Germany and did not intend to come to Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) in the foreseeable future. He called what was happening a disgrace.

It seems that the writer, who began painting in his Berlin apartment, is now trying to please the West, hoping that his work will be in demand there. Last year he was busy organizing creative meetings with German audiences. He read excerpts from his books to her with the help of a hired translator.

The son-in-law of Vladimir Sorokin, Alexey Karaichev, made a simple wish the day after Nemtsov’s murder

What does the Sorokin family have left in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism)?

Stopping sales of Vladimir Sorokin’s books and canceling all performances based on his works could hit the author’s wallet hard, because his earnings largely came from the attention of Russian readers and viewers.

The daughters of Vladimir Sorokin in 2012 are twin sisters Maria (left) and Anna. They are 32 years old here. Recently, photographs of girls began to disappear from public access.

During his literary career, in addition to the Berlin apartments, the writer earned several apartments in prestigious areas of Moscow and a large mansion in the Moscow region.

The country house, which is attributed to Sorokin, is located in the thick of the forest in the village of “Moscow Writer” and consists of two buildings located, if there is no typo in the USRN archive, on a plot of more than two hectares. The writer made the purchase back in 2001 and lived here almost all the time he spent in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) after 2014. Sorokin’s relatives also gathered here: his wife Irina, two twin daughters Anna and Maria, the latter’s husband is a musician of the group “Plum-boom” and an entrepreneur Alexey Karaichev and their son and grandson of the writer – Lev.

Vladimir Sorokin’s site is located away from big roads and prying eyes. Moreover, the entire infrastructure is within walking distance.

Two Moscow apartments are now, apparently, registered in the name of their daughters. Both of them are located in the Leninsky Prospekt area. One of them, a four-room apartment, is located on Gubkin Street and has an area of ​​83 square meters. The market value of such housing on the market now fluctuates around 30 million rubles.

Another one – three rubles – is located on Leninsky Prospekt itself. Its area is 63 square meters; similar ones in this house are sold for about 26 million rubles. Among other things, a dacha in the village of Zagoryansky, Shchelkovsky district, Moscow region, was registered in the name of the writer’s wife, Irina.

However, in recent times, family properties are likely to be mostly empty. Sorokin himself and his wife are now on permanent residence in Germany, and their grandson, son-in-law and daughter, according to rumors, have moved to the USA – to Florida. Their departure can be indirectly confirmed by Alexey Karaichev’s social networks. In them, the musician publishes many photographs from abroad.