Alice Ganiyeva: “The true beauty of the Caucasus is in our diversity”

By Vestnik Kavkaza

Alice Ganiyeve is a writer and literature reviewer. She began to write under the pen-name of Gulla Khirachev. Recently Alice presented her novel “The Holiday Mountain” which sparked a wave of reviews and criticism. Reviewers were shocked by a hypothetic idea that the Caucasus as if to be separated by a wall from Russia. Alice Ganiyeva told Vestnik Kavkaza about herself and her books.

-    I am from Dagestan. When I was 17 I came to Moscow to study at the Gorky Literature Institute. I wanted to be a reviewer, not a writer. When I was a student and after my graduation I dealt with literary reviews, published my works as a reviewer and analyst of modern literature and major works by my peers – young writers who were born in the 70-80s. This modern literature was very interesting for me because it reflects a transitional period for the country, and it is a new generation of writers who were raised after Perestroika; they have a unique mentality and their texts reflect this.

I had been waiting for a long time for a new author to appear in the Caucasus, not necessarily a young author, but a new name who will creatively reconsider the very interesting processes which are now happening in the Caucasus – social, religious, and other processes. But there was no such a writer, unfortunately. That is why, 4 years ago, I created the writer by myself. I even gave him a name. The writer was called Gulla Khirachev – it was my male pen-name. I wrote a novella titled “Salam to you, Dalgat!” It was my first work describing one day of a young Makhachkala resident.

Then I sent this novella to the literary competition “Debut” for young authors. At that time the age requirement was 25. My hero called Gulla Khirachev at first got onto the long-list, then onto the short-list for the award. And the novella began to be discussed. It caused interest among Moscow and Dagestani journalists. Moscow journalists wanted to know what was going on in the Caucasus, to hear an internal voice. They were looking forward to the talented guy who had to come to the awards in Moscow and saw him. But the Caucasus journalists tried to find out who he was, who was wearing a mask, who was hiding. I was an active participant in the mystification. For several months I was wearing the mask in icq, e-mail, I gave interviews on behalf of this young man, i.e. I did a lot of stuff. And at last my identity was revealed, when I had to come up on stage and get the award. Of course, everybody saw that, first of all, I wasn’t a man, and secondly, I was a person who had been living in Moscow for several years.

Then, I began to write novellas and last autumn, in 2012, my second book was published by “AST.” This is my first novel, it is called “The Holiday Mountain.” It describes the hypothetical separation of the Caucasus from Russia. This scenario is being discussed by everybody today: from liberals to nationalists, from ordinary people to philosophers and politicians. For me, the scenario is a writer’s technique. The novel is not about politics and even not about separation, but the small fates of many people. There are a lot of characters, they all develop, discuss, go to protest actions, get married, die. In this text I play with the language, including various stylizations and parodies. I hope that this book will be interesting to absolutely anyone, including those who don’t live in the Caucasus and have never been there and who are interested in looking at small unique cultures in the modern world, which have found themselves at the crossroads of various globalizations – Western globalization in a cheap and primitive sense and Eastern globalization - as shallow forms of Islam. Thus, I look forward to feedback from my readers, who are always very active – they write letters to me, comment, disagree, criticize. But, as I am a reviewer myself, criticism is welcome.

-    So what would Russia look like without the Caucasus?

-    It would be disastrous, if such a wall is built between the Caucasus and Russia. It would be spread by rumors, communications would be cut, at some point it would turn into a revolutionary and destructive process; sooner or later some extremist forces would come in office, I believe only for a short period of time. However, it is not so important because I describe certain people and breaking of their life – how they began to run, fuss, realize what they don’t know what they life for and how they should look at their motherland and their identity. How are they – Russians or Caucasians? And what does it mean to be a Caucasian today when our identity becomes unclear, some crucial notions have passed into the past, my peers permanently face the fact they don’t know their history or deviate it? This is one side. On the other hand, the Caucasian young people are traditional and are interested in their own history, support their identity. But these two processes are parallel to each other and disturb each other. I describe it as well.

-    What Caucasian writers are you interested in?

-    There are few young writers. Several years ago I was lucky to coordinate an assembly of young writers of the Caucasus, which took place in Kabardino-Balkaria, in Nalchik. Writers under 40 from various North Caucasian republics came there. I get acquainted to many of them there –poets and writers. I pointed out several bright names. These are authors from Chechnya: Suleiman Musayev and Aslan Shatayev. Reviewing is very strong in Chechnya, for example Lidia Dovletkireyeva. There are interesting poets in Dagestan: Vadim Keramov, Fazir Dzhaferov. They write in Russian. It is one of the Caucasus problems – what language to use? But they introduce some national features. As for the elder generation of writers, I like Kanta Ibragimov and Gazimagomed Galbatsov.

-    What is the true beauty of the Caucasus?

-    I think the true beauty of the Caucasus is in our diversity. This diversity gives freedom to imagination. Whatever is happening in the Caucasus, whatever is created by a person, people won’t be surprised because the Caucasus has everything, any ethnic groups, any costumes, any languages, any mentalities, any traditions, and any customs. Readiness for something new makes our life beautiful.