€197K: Belarus govt gives cold shoulder to Alexievich, but taxes her Nobel Prize money
On February 11, the first-ever Belarusian Nobel laureate in Literature participated in the Minsk Book Fair, where the authorities allocated just a small corner for her.
“They failed to provide us with a hall, we had very little room. As always. Nothing new… Our government pretends that there is no Nobel Prize winner in Belarus,” said Svetlana Alexievich.
The writer paid €197,000 tax from the Nobel Prize winnings, although previously it was assumed that the writer would be granted a remision from taxation. However, in 2016, the Ministry of Taxes and Duties reported that it was only within the purview of president Alyaksandr Lukashenka to sign a special decree and exempt the famous Belarusian from income tax.
“Such things hardly happen in the world. Nobel Prize amounts are non-taxable. But I had to pay €197,000 [income tax in Belarus is 13% – Belsat.eu],” she stressed.
Svetlana Alexievich is a Soviet and Belarusian investigative journalist and prose writer. Her most notable works are War’s Unwomanly Face (monologues of women in the war speaking about the aspects of the Second World War which were hardly mentiond before), Zinky Boys (first-hand accounts from the war in Afghanistan ).
After persecution by Lukashenka regime, she left Belarus in 2000. The International Cities of Refuge Network offered her sanctuary and during the following decade she lived in Paris, Berlin and Gothenburg. In 2011 Alexievich moved back to Minsk.
In 2013, after receiving the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade Union the writer said that the Belarusian government ‘took no notice of her’.
Belsat TV was be the only Belarusian television channel broadcasting online the ceremony of Svetlana Alexievich receiving the Nobel award for literature. State-run Belteleradiocompany, ONT and STV ignored the event.
