When the Ukrainian writer Andrei Kurkov saw a book flyer from a Dutch publisher at the Frankfurter Buchmesse this weekend, he did not believe his eyes. He saw a book called The Last Penguin of Kyivthat in title and introduction to his own book, Death of a Penguinreferred, without his knowledge.
But even more shocking to him, the book featured a contribution from Aleksandr Dugin, the Russian political philosopher known for his fascist theories, his long-held desire to annex Ukraine into Russia, and his close relationship with Putin. Dugin was still in the news in August when his daughter was killed in a bomb attack that was probably intended for himself.
‘Great thinker’
Kurkov put the book flyer on social media and called the Dutch publisher ‘an agent of Putin’. Suspecting that the other authors — including Yuval Harari, Slavoj Zizek and Tim Parks — were unaware that they were in a book with Dugin, the Ukrainian asked to share his post and tagged the authors. It didn’t take long for the first authors to come forward and say that they were indeed not aware of this.
In a twitter conversation with author Tim Parks Kurkov explains his criticism. “It may not be an outright anti-Ukrainian book, but the fact that Putin’s chief ideologist participates – especially because he’s in a chapter called ‘truth’ – makes it so. It legitimizes Dugin as an international author and as an acceptable philosopher.’
‘Unsubtle defamation’, says Boudewijn Richel. He is the organizer of the annual philosophy and economics festival G10, which attracts many international speakers and publishes the book. The book is not political, he says, but a mix of fiction and non-fiction stories, essays, interviews and dialogues about borders, identity, freedom and truth, ‘in the tradition of Foucault’. ‘It may not be without obligation what his philosophy claims, but Dugin is also a great thinker.’
‘good books’
Doegin was a guest at the G10 festival in the Zuiderkerk in Amsterdam four years ago, but there was little fuss about his role in the Netherlands at the time. An older contribution by the Russian about ‘the danger of liberal feminism’ would appear in the book. Richel: ‘We didn’t just want to let Western neoliberal thinkers have their say. There are already so many good politically correct books.’
Indeed, the publisher did not inform the other authors that they would be in one book with him, Richel says. “But they call me a spy, I’m definitely not.” When asked what will happen to the book now, Richel sighs. “I think I’ll have to get the Dugin piece out because of the accusations.”