Elizaveta Aleksandrova-Zorina

Elizaveta Aleksandrova-Zorina (1984) is a Russian writer and journalist. Her debut novel Маленький человек (Little Man) won the prestigious Novaya Slovesnost literary award in 2012. The novel is a merciless look at life on the Russian periphery, steeped in corruption. The book is about a conflict between an individual and the criminal system – about a victim of the system, an unassuming engineer who has to join outcasts and Samis to escape injustice but evolves into a real avenger on the fringes of society. The events take place on the Kola peninsula, in a small town in the Arctic Circle that is reminiscent of Elizaveta Aleksandrova-Zorina’s own the childhood. As a journalist and blogger, Aleksandrova-Zorina is also known as a critic of Vladimir Putin’s regime. For example, in an article in Gazeta.ru, she listed fifteen propaganda methods of the Russian regime, from dividing the world into ‘us’ and ‘them’ to actual conspiracy theories. Aleksandrova-Zorina is also in charge of the literary section of the book portal thankyou.ru. Elizaveta Aleksandrova-Zorina will talk to translator Ilona Martson.