Who is that man?

Stalinist lecturing in the Irish Writers Centre,
or the Real Pryakhin File

I brokered the publication of Mr Pryakhin's collection of stories by Scotus Press, I am
organizing Mr Pryakhin's visit.

-- Jack Harte

Scotus Press is now going ahead with the publication of Pryakhin's book and with his Reading at the Writers' Centre on Monday 26 March at 8.00pm.

-- Jack Harte

Who is that man?

Georgy Pryakhin

a writer?

"Untalented fiction writer who, as a publisher, tries
to rescue his works from inevitable and well-deserved
oblivion."
- Znamya No 7, 2002.
[Znamya/Banner is the leading Russian literary magazine well respected in Russia and abroad.]


"Nobody here has read his works"
- A Member of the Academy of Russian Science, as quoted by Jack Harte himself. In Jack Harte's article published in his website, now shut down by the owner, it is one of a few true statements. http://www.pryakhinfile.com

So Pryakhin is a bad writer? Forgivable, of course: he is not the only one. But why has he been chosen?



Jack Harte's website: Russian translation of Jack Harte's novel entitled 'From Under Gogol's Nose' is to be published by Mr. Pryakhin's publishing house, "Voskresenye".


Well, I don't insist that this is the answer, but it gives you food for thought...

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Knowing Mr Pryakhin as a reactionary politician posing as a writer, I submitted a dossier on Mr Pryakhin and sent it to Jack Harte, as requested. The list of the quoted newspaper articles is available at the bottom of this web-page.

What followed?

Jack Harte's Bogus Investigation

Jack Harte: I employed a Bulgarian translator to take a look at Mr. Pryakhin's dossier supplied by Anatoly Kudryavitsky

Why Bulgarian? Of all Slavic languages, Bulgarian is the most dissimilar to Russian. Will you employ a Danish translator to work with English documents?

And by the way, who is that mysterious Bulgarian translator? Is he or is he not the Bulgarian author published by the same Scotus Press that is going to publish Mr. Pryakhin's book? If he is, what kind of 'independent investigator' can he be?

Anyway, let us see how he gets on with his task.


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From my e-mail quoted by Jack Harte:

Mr Pryakhin is not a member of the democratic Union of Russian Writers, like all the Russian writers we like to read. He belongs to the alternative Union of Writers of Russia. The name sounds very similar but the ideology is utterly different: Mr Pryakhin’s union of writers and its so-called “Academy of Russian Literature” are regarded in Russia as most reactionary Stalinist and Xenophobe organisations.

www.uvao.ru - the official Moscow’s Southeast Municipal District website.
Here is the list of the Union of Writers of Russia’s Sholokhov Prize winners, which includes, among the others,
- Radovan Karadzic
- Gennady Zyuganov, the Russian Communist Party leader
- Alexander Lukashenko, Belorussian dictator
- Igor Smirnov, “President” of the breakaway Pridnestrovye area of Moldova/Moldavia, not recognised by the UN or any other country but Belarus.
- Slobodan Milosevic
- Ex-general Valentin Varennikov, an active participant of the 1991 anti-Gorbachev coup.


Jack Harte: This is all about the extreme Right of Russian politics. They obviously have their own political movement with subsidiary organizations, and they have their own 'Sholokov Prize', which they award to their favourites, not to be confused with the Sholokov Prize.

Yes, these people, some of them calling themselves writers, are the extreme Right of Russian politics. Mr Pryakhin is one of them, Mr Prokhanov is another.

As to the Sholokhov Prize, I have to disappoint Investigator: it is the same Sholokhov Prize, because there is no other! Similarly, if you say, "the moon is not to be confused with the moon", this won't mean that we have two moons now.

Staying on the topic of confusions, don't confuse the highly respected Academy of Russian Science (remember? "Nobody here has read Mr Pryakhin's works") with the so-called "Academy of Russian Literature" established by the alternative anti-democratic Union of Writers of Russia which has Mr Pryakhin among its members. Along with Mr Prokhanov.

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So who is that man?

Georgy Pryakhin

A politician?

Mr. Pryakhin is a former high-ranked Communist party official who once supported Gorbachev (and still uses his name as a cover when he deals with Westerners), but then migrated to the Far-Right end of the political spectrum. He is currently one of the leaders of the Union of Patriotic Organisations, which is the leading Russian Stalinist and Xenophobe block of parties. The leader of this block is the infamous politician and writer Alexander Prokhanov.

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Jack Harte on Prokhanov:

Prokhanov's extremist activities are well documented. He belongs to the extreme of the Russian political spectrum, which would be Slavophile (in the ugly sense of this word), xenophobe, anti-Semitic, etc. No doubt he and his followers would be sympathetic towards their counterparts in Serbia, such as Karadzic and Mladic.

You couldn't put it in a better way. I confirm: this, and only this, part of the investigation is genuine.


Jack Harte: But Mr. Pryakhin is nothing like Prokhanov.

Do you seriously believe that Mr. Pryakhin, another leader of the same Union of Patriotic
Organisations, is a dove? Of course, he isn't. These two men have a very good working relationship within their pro-totalitarian and highly dangerous block of parties.

Another quote for Investigator:


Zavtra of 08.11.2006 "I was amazed to see how close the writer Alexander Prokhanov's mystic insight is to the mystic insight that the novelists Lichutin, Pryakhin, Salutsky and Bykov have."

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Sovetskaya Rossiya/Soviet Russia of 11.11.2002: "Russian Revival party, headed by Gennady Seleznev and Georgy Pryakhin, took the name of the illegal Russian fascist party that existed in USSR in the 1930s."

Jack Harte's response: If one looks at the array of parties in Russia today, it is a wonder that voters can distinguish one from another.

The voters can, and they will. But Investigator cannot. Does he want to? Or is this the way he deals with facts - just dismissing them?


Jack Harte: My Bulgarian translator couldn't locate the quote in the article.

It is not far from the beginning of the article, in the third paragraph, so it is hard not to notice it. Of course, if you don't overlook it deliberately.

Now, an exercise in Russian for our Investigator. Take a Russian dictionary and translate the following, word by word:

Партия возрождения России. По иронии судьбы точно так же называлась подпольная фашистская партия, существовавшая в СССР и в среде белой эмиграции в 30-е годы...

Which literally means:

"Russian Revival party. It took the name of the illegal Russian fascist party that existed in USSR and abroad, among the Russian expatriants, in the 1930s."

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Rodnaya Gazeta of 28.05.2004. Pryakhin and Seleznev on the objectives of the Russian Revival Party: the party won't support Putin, as they think him too much of a liberal. The party joins the Union of Patriotic Organisations, and aims at gaining power in Russia for the so-called Russian patriots (i.e. ultra-nationalists.)

This is what Investigator doesn't want to hear. So he has to distort the facts:


Jack Harte: What Kudryavitsky says is in the article, and what is really in the article are more or less opposite.

Wrong! I am not a bad translator from Russian myself, so let us call a spade a spade.


There is a very positive attitude to Putin, whom Russia Revival has been supporting unconditionally.

This is NOT what the article says! Does the Bulgarian translator know Russian at all??


There is no question of joining an ultra-nationalist coalition.

Wake up, my dear Investigator, they are already IN the coalition, for quite a few years now!

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Rossiysaya Gazeta/Russian Newspaper of 27.03.2004 - as quoted in the website of the Russian Revival Party. In his interview, Pryakhin expresses his dislike of the Belorussian democratic anti-Lukashenko opposition.


Jack Harte says, quoting his Bulgarian translator: Pryakhin often declares his dream of unification of Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan with Russia.

In my book, it is called annexation and land-grabs. We had enough of that before the Second World War when Stalin's occupied half of Eastern Europe plus part of Finland.

Would you welcome a politician who often declares his dream of unification of the Republic of Ireland with the United Kingdom, on the grounds of the same language being spoken in both countries?

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Trud/Labour of April 19, 2003. Pryakhin on the Russian Nazi Limonov's conviction: "It shouldn't have happened. He is a talented and unique writer. I sympathise with him and pity him".

Jack Harte: What Pryakhin is articulating in this interview in 'Trud' is the traditional liberal attitude to freedom of speech - ie, I may hate what you say, but I defend your right to say it.

The Russian Nazi Limonov was convicted by a Russian court for stirring racial hatred. Pryakhin defends Mr Limonov's right to do so. This has nothing in common with freedom of speech. A liberal attitude to murderous calls is nothing else but complicity.

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www.pravoslavie.ru - the official Russian Orthodox Church website referring to Pryakhin's television broadcast on the First Channel of Soviet Television on September 20, 1987. Mr Pryakhin lashing at the Jews who want to emigrate to Israel, at the people of the Baltic republics who want independence, and at the religious believers in general.

Jack Harte: This piece concerns the memories of a woman involved in a project to erect a monument to an Orthodox saint back in 1987. She says that Pryakhin (probably the official she was dealing with) was critical of the Jews who wanted to go to Israel and of the Baltic nationalists who wanted 'out' of the USSR. She says he also pointed out that this religious project was at odds with the canons of the Communist Party.

The official she was dealing with? Can the translator you employed understand Russian at all? The whole middle part of this piece is the report on the Pryakhin's television broadcast on the First Channel of the Soviet Television on September 20, 1987. The woman (a free-lance journalist) wrote that she was deeply offended by what Pryakhin said about religious believers and the national minorities in the Soviet Union. She also said that she was not the only one. The article states that there was a public outcry in the USSR about what Pryakhin said in TV interview, resulting in many people phoning the Soviet television to express their disgust.


Further on, Investigator quotes (without my permission, of course) my private e-mail sent to him to warn him about Mr Pryakhin's background:

Mr Pryakhin called the Jews emigrating to Israel 'Zionist traitors', and the people of the Baltic Republics calling for independence, 'Nationalist scum of our society'.



Jack Harte: There is no suggestion whatsoever that Pryakhin's language was immoderate. So the words 'lashing', 'Zionist traitors', 'Nationalist scum of our society', are totally of Kudryavitsky's coinage.

On Mr Pryakhin's wording in the course of that broadcast, I am the living witness, and I don't think I'll ever forget what Mr Pryakhin said and the way he said it.

Following that broadcast, the leading Russian journalist Andrey Tcherkizov openly accused the Central Committee of the Communist party of introducing anti-Semitism as the state policy. Read about it here



Jack Harte: Pryakhin was only a journalist then.

In 1987, Pryakhin was not merely a journalist but Acting Director of the Soviet State Television and the member of the Central Committee of the Communist party responsible for all ideological matters. Read about it here

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Mr Pryakhin is a self-published writer. In his anti-Semite novel called ‘Khazar Dreams’, Pryakhin blames Trotsky for all the Russian troubles, not because he was Trotsky but because he was Jewish and therefore "didn't belong in Russia". Pryakhin praises the assassination of Trotsky, and calls the hand of the man who murdered Trotsky with an ice-pick "the hand of God" Read about it here

This man is a dangerous extremist masquerading as a writer, and should be exposed as a hate-monger.

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Summing Up


The following articles were included in the dossier on Mr Pryakhin that I sent to Jack Harte:

1. Trud/Labour of April 19, 2003. Pryakhin on the Russian Nazi Limonov’s conviction: "It shouldn't have happened. He is a talented and unique writer. I sympathise with him and pity him".

2. Komsomolskaya Pravda of Dec 12, 2006 (Pryakhin on Pinochet: “We should have cloned Pinochet, so that we could install him as Governor of some Russian provinces.”

3. Literaturnaya Gazeta No 32, 2003. Pryakhin confesses to placing Stalin’s portrait on the cover of the book of Stalin’s correspondence published by “Voskresenye”.

4. Znamya No 7, 2002, on Pryakhin: “Untalented fiction writer who, as a publisher, tries to rescue his works from inevitable and well-deserved oblivion.” [Znamya/Banner is the leading Russian literary magazine well respected in Russia and abroad.]

5. www.pravoslavie.ru - the official Russian Orthodox Church website, on Pryakhin’s television interview broadcast on the First Channel of Soviet Television on September 20, 1987. Mr Pryakhin lashing at the Jews who want to emigrate to Israel, at the people of the Baltic republics who want independence, and at the religious believers in general.

6. Sovetskaya Rossiya/Soviet Russia of 11.11.2002: “Russian Revival party, headed by Gennady Seleznev and Georgy Pryakhin, took the name of the illegal Russian fascist party that existed in USSR in the 1930s.”

7. Rodnaya Gazeta of 28.05.2004. Pryakhin and Seleznev on the objectives of the Russian Revival Party: the party won’t support Putin, as they think him too much of a liberal. The party joins the Union of Patriotic Organisations, and aims at gaining power in Russia for the so-called Russian patriots (i.e. ultra-nationalists.)

8. Rossiysaya Gazeta/Russian Newspaper of 27.03.2004. Pryakhin expresses his dislike of the Belorussian democratic anti-Lukashenko opposition.

9. Zavtra/Tomorrow of 09.06.1998. Vladimir Bondarenko’s article on the objectives of the Sholokhov Prize Committee, elected by the Union of Writers of Russia: anti-democracy, anti-semitism, Slavic supremacy, Russia – for Russian patriots. “We are up for a fight for a new Russia dominated by the Slavs.”

10. www.uvao.ru - the official Moscow’s Southeast Municipal District website. The list of the Union of Writers of Russia’s Sholokhov Prize winners, which includes, among the others,
- Radovan Karadzic
- Gennady Zyuganov, the Russian Communist Party leader
- Alexander Lukashenko, Belorussian dictator
- Igor Smirnov, “President” of the breakaway Pridnestrovye area of Moldova/Moldavia, not recognised by the UN or any other country but Belarus.
- Slobodan Milosevic
- Ex-general Valentin Varennikov, an active participant of the 1991 anti-Gorbachev coup.

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As I show here, Jack Harte didn't disprove EVEN ONE of the facts gathered in the dossier.
The Bulgarian translator that he employed mis-understood and misinterpreted most of the Russian documents he examined.
Moreover, Jack Harte posted a misleading and slanderous article about me (!) in his website at www.pryakhinfile.com

Jack Harte - to me: Scotus Press has accepted my report and regards your campaign as totally dishonest and totally malicious.

Do they know that you have submitted a bogus report? They trusted you, Jack! So whose campaign is dishonest and malicious?

Let us see what the Scotus Press people will say to you when they read this.


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Some other hights of absurdity that Jack Harte reaches in his site.

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He insists that "the Russian Poetry Society is "a bogus entity, set up by Anatoly Kudryavitsky to endorse his own activities."

I was wondering where our Investigator dug out this rubbish.

Voila!

vavilon.ru - the website of a certain group of homosexual young Russian writers that also publishes a gay magazine called “Argo-Risk” and a few leaflets, including so-called 'Moscow Literary Life'. Their sexual preferences don’t matter here, but what matters is the fact that Vavilon is the organisation that has always been in a close contact with the jailed Mr Eduard Limonov's Nazi Bolshevik Party. Mr Alexey Tsvetkov Junior, one of the leaders of Vavilon, is a long-serving Committee member of the Nazi Bolshevik party and Mr. Limonov's right-hand man. This is the source Jack Harte is quoting in his website in a shameful attempt to blacken my name.

Jack Harte claims that he couldn't find any other information on the Russian Poetry Society.

Why not give him a hand?

The following is from the UNESCO website:
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Russian Poetry Society

Date of creation: 03.10.1998

The Poetry Society was established in 1998 by the leading Russian poets Genrich Sapgir (1928-1999), Gennadi Aigi, Konstantin Kedrov (the current President), Anatoly Kudryavitsky (President from 1998 till 1999), Tatyana Shcherbina and Larissa Miller. The aim of Russian Poetry Society society is to help poets and poetry thrive in today's Russia. The Russian Poetry Society is a strictly non-political membership organisation open to all poets.

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Is it enough to say that two of the six founding members of the Russian Poetry Society, Gennady Aigi and Konstantin Kedrov, were nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature? Some 'bogus organisation'!

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Jack Harte also denies me membership of the Irish Pen.

He is a nice man to know, Jack Harte. The only problem with him is that he doesn't know the meaning of a certain word, and the word is "truth".

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My comments here are always in red.


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I have since got many e-mails from the Irish writers and organisations who object against the Stalinist lecturing in the Irish Writers Centre.

This one came from Jenni Doherty, the Irish Pen

Sunday 11 March 2007

Hi Anatoly,
Thanks for bringing this to my attention, otherwise I'd have been none the wiser. I am not really sure how to respond, but I will say that I am quite appalled by the below and support you in all that you have remarked upon and stand by you also for it.

I'm assuming that the reading will still go ahead but I would hope that opposition to it will be made well known and that the local media and the centre itself are most aware. Not only is it out of order but the attitude of Mr Harte is most unprofessional and disrespectful.

I hope that a compromise is reached and that respect will be due. Do let me know how you get on.

All the best,

Jenni (in Derry, Northern Ireland)
irishpenjen at yahoo dot co dot uk

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It is frightening to realise that, in the wider world, such invitations
may be perceived as coming from, and supported by, the majority
of Ireland's creative writers - a perception which I am certain is
totally wrong. It highlights the need for an independent writers'
watchdog body to monitor what is done in 'our' name, without
our even being aware of it.'

-- Felicity McCall
freelance writer, actor and facilitator,
a co-founder of Handful Productions, Derry
founder of the Derry Scriptwriting Group

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Excellent and brave response of yours.

-- Helena Johnston, the Irish-Polish Society

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I certainly won't be supporting that event at the Irish Writer's Centre.

-- Maeve O’Sullivan, Haiku Ireland

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I won't be going to his reading. I'd find it hard to listen to his politics.

-- Noel Monahan

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Do let me know if you wish to see this protested in any concerted manner; I would certainly add my voice.

-- Bridget Farrell, Russian translator

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Among the other writers who e-mailed me expressing their concerns about the Stalinist's reading were Macdara Woods, Anne Le Marquand Hartigan, Pat Boran, Mary O'Donnell, Raymond Deane, Philip Casey, Paul Perry. I don't have their permission to publish quotes from their e-mails, however I keep them on file. They all told me that Jack Harte called all of them on the phone or e-mailed them to make them disallow the publication of what they had to say. I hope he didn't sound too intimidating!

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Latest News:

Jack Harte published my private e-mails to him on his website!!
Without my permission, of course.
I wrote to him demanding that he withdraw my e-mails but he didn't deign to reply.

Playing dirty Jack, yeah?

What else is he prepared to do to get his book published in Russia
(and immediately become The Great Irish Writer Jack Harte)?

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From: Anthony Anatoly Kudryavitsky
To: Jack Harte
Date: March 28, 2007
Re: The copyright offence: last warning

Sir,

In my e-mail of March 16, 2007 I have cautioned you that you have made my private e-mails available to the public without my permission. I referred to the publication in your web-site at the following address: http://www.pryakhinfile.com/02%20Kudryavitsky-Harte%20E-mails.pdf

In the afore-mentioned e-mail I demanded that you remove the file containing the infringing copies of my e-mails immediately. However you have chosen to ignore my warning and took no action.

I must warn you again that the publication of my texts without my written permission contradicts paragraph (1e), Section 140 of the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000, and is a copyright offence (see the definition of a copyright offence in the afore-mentioned Act.) A person who infringes the copyright in this way is guilty of an offence [paragraph (4), Section 140 of the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000.]

I give you three days beginning from today, March 28, 2007, to remove the infringing copy of my texts. Otherwise I will take legal action against you for breach of copyright. I hope you will understand that I have to take proper action to protect my legal and literary interests.

Anthony Anatoly Kudryavitsky

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The story has been vividly discussed on the Internet. Here is one link.

More will follow.

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The Western Writers Centre has been commenting on Pryakhin's visit, and at some stage I was satisfied that Fred Johnston presented a balanced case - until he published an article on Pryakhin book.

It is a review of the Pryakhin's book published by Scotus Press; it is written by... Surprise, surprise... by www.scotuspress.com

"Handsomely and clearly produced by Dublin-based Scotus Press..." Jeez, how modest...

"Good informative Introduction by Jack Harte..." I bet this was written by no one else but a certain Mr J H - he is such a big fan of the writer Jack Harte!

"Pryakhin is a well-published writer in Russia." Self-published, my dear Ja... sorry, www.scotuspress.com. Self-published. You probably know the difference.

His story "reads like a newspaper column piece..." Now, you're getting closer to the point, www: this man's prose always reads like hackneyed journalese...

So what's the fuss? Jack Harte publishes Pryakhin, Pryakhin publishes Jack Harte... What has it to do with literature, or vice versa?

Just thought that this page might have been called "Congratulations on an extra Green Bin Day, or more paper for recycling..."

The question is, why the Western Writers' Centre is prepared to publish promotional materials from publishers in their Kiosque? After that, who is going to take their Kiosque seriously? Definitely not me...

Read about it here.
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If you want to make your opinion known, please contact

Jack Harte:
jack @ jackharte. com

Scotus Press:
phone/fax: +353 (0)1 4126663
info @ scotuspress. com

The Irish Writers Centre:
19 Parnell Square Dublin 1
Tel: +353 1 8721302
Fax: +353 1 8726282
info @ writerscentre. ie

You can also contact me at
ak2004 @ planet-save. com