Yelena Chizhova

Elena Semenovna Chizhova (Russian: Еле́на Семёновна Чижо́ва; born 1957) is a Russian writer, whose work is characterized by its reexamination of Russian history and society. She is best known for her 2009 novel Vremia zhenshchin, which won that year's Russian Booker Prize. Vremia zhenshchin was translated into English in 2012 as The Time of Women.

Early life and career Elena Chizhova was born in 1957 in Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg, Russia. Her father's side of the family was Jewish.

After finishing secondary school, Chizhova attended Herzen University in Leningrad. Having trained as an economist, But she continued to write, producing various poems and plays, as well as some works of literary criticism. It tells the story of a student's recollections of her brilliant and demanding teacher, and an offers a contemplation on the meaning of art. Her subsequent novels were both nominated for the Russian Booker Prize: Lavra ("The Monastery") in 2003 and Prestupnitsa ("The Criminal") in 2005.

Then, her 2009 novel Vremia zhenshchin won that year's Russian Booker Prize, Set in Leningrad, the book centers on Russian women's efforts to quietly resist and keep the memory of loved ones alive in the post-World War II period, and it explores the legacy of the Soviet Union.

Chizhova has since published several more novels, including Terrakotovaya starukha ("The Terracotta Old Woman") in 2011, Planeta gribov ("Mushroom Planet") in 2013, Kitaist ("The China Specialist") in 2017, and Povelitel' veshchei ("Master of Things") in 2022. In 2018, her debut novel Kroshki Tsakhes was released in English translation by Carol Ermakova as Little Zinnobers.

In 2019, Chizhova drew controversy in Russia when she wrote an article, tied to her new family memoir Gorod, napisannyy po pamyati, arguing that Stalin shares blame with Hitler for the Siege of Leningrad. Her memoir details her family's own experience during the siege, in which almost a million civilians died, many starving to death. In equating Stalin and Hitler, arguing that Stalin failed to help the people of Leningrad due to a personal vendetta, she was accused of "rehabilitation of Nazism."

Selected works

Kroshki Tsakhes (2000) Lavra (2003) Prestupnitsa (2005) Orest i syn (2007) Vremia zhenshchin (2009) Terrakotovaya starukha (2011) Planeta gribov (2013) Gorod, napisannyy po pamyati (2019) Povelitel' veshchei (2022)