Yevgeny Bazhanov: "Book about Natalia Bazhanova will be interesting to readers abroad"

On October 5, Margarita Rudomino All-Russia State Library for Foreign Literature will host presentation of the book "Natalia Bazhanova: A Radiant Life", dedicated to the scientific work of Natalia Bazhanova. In an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza, rector of the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Yevgeny Bazhanov, discussed upcoming event, as well as work on sixth and seventh volumes of "The Moment and Eternity" book.

- Two books from multi-volume "The Moment and Eternity" were recently published. What are these books about? What aspects of life did you write about?

- These are memoirs, but I tried not to focus on me and my family, but on the world in which we lived and live. That's what they are about. The fifth volume was dedicated to Perestroika - the time when I worked in the Central Committee of the CPSU. In 1991 began to work at the Diplomatic Academy, where I was deputy rector for science. I describe how our country looked after the collapse of the USSR, what kind of sentiments people had, what problems people faced, what problems we had in our relations with the outside world.

The sixth volume is dedicated to trips to the US, to Australia, to Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea. It describes our stay in these countries to a certain degree, but mostly I wrote about how these countries looked, about interesting, curious, important things we saw there, how they treated us in these countries.

There was an attempted coup in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed after it. We were in Australia at that time, where local scientists, husband and wife, told us that they child was born on August 19. Wife had difficult delivery, and when she came to her senses, her first question was: "What happened in Russia?" They were so concerned about us!

In the seventh volume I describe Israel, as well as events in the academy, in Moscow, in Russia, in the world in 1993-1996. Right now I'm finishing the eighth volume. It will be dedicated to our trips in 1994-1996 - to New Zealand, to Japan, to Germany, to Great Britain, to the US, twice to South Korea. I tried to not just describe these countries, but to provide an analysis. I described the history of Japan, its features, what kind of relations we had in the 19th century, when Russians first came to Japan and Japanese didn't want to deal with the outside world. I talk about economic miracle of Japan, analyse reasons for this miracle, how did they achieved it.

In the the ninth volume I will talk about next period - 1997.

- What can you tell about the book "Natalia Bazhanova: A Radiant Life"?

- This book will published in English. Before that, I published my wife's book, her works, reviews of her works, letters she received, memories of 150 people about her, which I collected in four months. Two volumes were published in Russian. Americans helped me to translate it to English. When I show this book to native speakers, they can't find a single mistake. I'm very proud of this. The book "Natalia Bazhanova. A Radiant Life" is called differently in Russian version, but it was difficult to translate it word for word to English, so we changed the title a little bit.

Margarita Rudomino All-Russia State Library for Foreign Literature will host presentation on October 5, on October 8 we hope to present this book in TASS, and on November 14 there will be a presentation in South Korea. South Koreans themselves translated it. Presentation will be held in our embassy in Seoul, where all specialists on South Korea will gather. A lot of them knew my wife. She was academic advisor of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, and current ruling party was headed by Kim Dae-jung. So I think there will be interest in this book. It includes articles by Natalia Bazhanova, which she published in South Korea. She had two books on the Korean War and on the North Korean economy, which were published in South Korea. People there remember Natalia.