Russian Booker Prize

Russian Booker Prize
Awarded for	National literary award for best Russian-language fiction
Presented by	Russian Telecom Equipment Company (RTEC)
Country	Russia
Currently held by	Elena Kolyadina's The Flower Cross
Official website	Official Website

The Russian Booker Prize (Russian: Русский Букер, Russian Booker) is a Russian literary award modeled after the Booker Prize and inaugurated in 1992 by English Chief Executive Sir Michael Caine. Now established as the country's premier literary prize, it is awarded to the best work of fiction written in the Russian language each year as decided by a panel of judges, irrespective of the writer's citizenship. The head of the Russian Booker Prize Committee is currently British journalist George Walden. It is the first Russian non-governmental literary prize since the Russian Revolution in 1917.

Each year, the jury of the contest chooses from among all the participants, the "long list", the six best novels which forms a "short list". The winner receives a cash prize of 600,000 ruble, estimated US$20,000, while each of the shortlisted finalists earns US$2,000. The first Russian Booker Prize was awarded to Mark Kharitonov for his novel Lines of Fate. In 1997 the award was renamed to Smirnoff–Booker, in honor of sponsor P.A. Smirnov. From 2002 to 2005, Open Russia NGO was the general sponsor of the Booker Literary Prize in Russia, leading to its name change into the Booker–Open Russia Literary Prize during that time. Before the announcement of the 2005 winner, the Booker Foundation decided to end its partnership with Open Russia because its chairman, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was sentenced to nine years in prison for tax evasion. The committee signed a five-year contract to sponsor BP. In 2010 the prize ran into funding problems and preparations for the 2010 prize were suspended because no new sponsor could be found. Since 2011 the new sponsor is Russian Telecom Equipment Company (RTEC).

Five out of sixty books were nominated for the novel of the decade prize, which will be awarded in 2011. These are Aleksandr Chudakov's Haze Sets upon the Old Steps, Oleg Pavlov's Funeral Rites in Karaganda, or, a Tale of Recent Times, Zahar Prilepin's Sankya, Lyudmila Ulitskaya's Daniel Stein, Translator and Roman Senchin's The Eltyshevs.

Winners

Rubén Gallego became the first non-Russian as well as the first disabled writer to win this award.

Year	Recipient	Book	Ref
1992	Kharitonov, MarkMark Kharitonov	Lines of Fate
1993	Makanin, VladimirVladimir Makanin	Baize-covered Table with Decanter
1994	Okudzhava, BulatBulat Okudzhava	The Show is Over
1995	Vladimov, GeorgiGeorgi Vladimov	The General and His Army
1996	Sergeev, AndreyAndrey Sergeev	The Stamp Album
1997	Azolsky, AnatolyAnatoly Azolsky	Cell
1998	Morozov, AleksandrAleksandr Morozov	Strange Letters
1999	Butov, MikhailMikhail Butov	Freedom
2000	Shishkin, MikhailMikhail Shishkin	The Capture Of Izmail
2001	Ulitskaya, LyudmilaLyudmila Ulitskaya	The Kukotsky Case
2002	Pavlov, OlegOleg Pavlov	Ninth Day Party in Karaganda: or the Story of the Recent Days
2003	Gallego, RubenRubén Gallego	Black on White
2004	Aksyonov, VasilyVasily Aksyonov	Voltairiens and Voltairiennes
2005	Gutsko, DenisDenis Gutsko	Without a Way
2006	Slavnikova, OlgaOlga Slavnikova	2017
2007	Ilichevskii, AleksandrAleksandr Ilichevskii	Matisse
2008	Yelizarov, MikhailMikhail Yelizarov	Librarian
2009	Chizhova, YelenaYelena Chizhova	A Time of Women
2010	Kolyadina, ElenaElena Kolyadina	The Flower Cross
2011	Chudakov, AlexanderAlexander Chudakov	Haze Sets Upon the Old Steps

External links

• Russian Booker Prize, official site