For what reasons the Nobel laureates refused the prestigious prize

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Leo Tolstoy refused the Nobel Prize before being its laureate, therefore he is not among the legal "refuseniks". In addition to Tolstoy, history knows seven cases when famous politicians, writers and scientists did not accept the award already awarded to them. Only two of them - Jean-Paul Sartre and Le Duch Tho - did it of their own free will. The rest took such a decision under pressure from the current government.

Leo Tolstoy is the first person to refuse to become a Nobel Prize laureate

The Russian Academy of Sciences nominated Leo Tolstoy for the Nobel Prize in 1906, four years before his death. Upon learning of the nomination, Lev Nikolaevich wrote a letter to his friend, translator of his works into Finnish Arvid Jarnefelt. The writer asked his friend, with the help of his Swedish colleagues, to do everything possible so that the award was not awarded to him. He explained his request by the fact that it would be very inconvenient for him to refuse the award directly.

In fact, Lev Nikolaevich was not a laureate of the prize, but this is the first time in history when a person refused the chance to receive it.

By that time, the great Russian writer and philosopher had clear convictions about material values. In addition to the medal, the Nobel laureate is awarded a monetary reward, and Tolstoy believed that money can only carry evil. Perhaps this was the main reason for the rejection of a potential reward. Jarnefelt kept his promise and helped Tolstoy. The prize that year was received by another author - the Italian poet D. Carducci.

Boris Pasternak, who refused the award against his will

Pasternak's candidacy for the Nobel Prize was considered several times - in the period from 1946 to 1950. and in 1957. In 1958, on the initiative of Albert, Camus Pasternak was finally awarded the prize, and he became the second Russian writer in history after Ivan Bunin to be awarded an honorary award in the field of literature.

The decision to award the award was provocative and put the writer in a difficult position at home. The Soviet government assessed this gesture with hostility and implemented all political tools to "crush" Pasternak's work with heavy criticism. On the initiative of Mikhail Suslov, the Central Committee of the CPSU adopted a resolution on "slander in the novel of B. Pasternak", in which the decision to award the writer was regarded as aggravating the Cold War.

Pasternak was subjected to real persecution by the Soviet press, trade unions and even colleagues in the shop. The poet received threats and unequivocal offers to leave the USSR in order to receive an award, which meant inevitable expulsion from the country. Unable to withstand the pressure, Pasternak sent a letter to Stockholm with a "voluntary" refusal of the award. And on October 31, 1958, he wrote to Khrushchev that he could not imagine his fate without Russia and prefers to refuse the prize, since moving away from his homeland for him is tantamount to death.

In 1989, almost 30 years after the poet's death, his son was awarded a medal and diploma.

Le Duh Tho - Waiver of the Vietnam Peace Restoration Award

In 1973, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Le Duh Tho, a member of the Politburo of the North Vietnamese Party, were awarded the Nobel Prize for their joint work in resolving the Vietnam conflict. Secret negotiations on a ceasefire and the withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam began in 1969 and lasted for more than three years. In 1973, an agreement was signed under which the United States must withdraw its troops, and Vietnam must recognize the sovereignty of the Thieu government, whose territories were held by South Vietnamese troops.

By its decision, the Nobel Committee wanted to emphasize that despite the difficult political situation, representatives of different ideologies and systems - Western and communist - were able to take an important step towards achieving peace in Vietnam.

The ceasefire envisaged by the Paris Agreement never actually took place. The United States withdrew its troops, but this did not stop the civil war in Vietnam.

Unlike Kissinger, Le Duh Tho declined the award, stating that he was not eligible for the award as the war continues to claim hundreds of lives.

The civil war ended only two years later with the victory of North Vietnam.

Why Jean-Paul Sartre did not want to receive the award

French playwright and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre was one of the few Nobel laureates who refused the prize for personal reasons. Explaining the reasons for his rejection of the award awarded to him in 1964, Sartre was very sorry that his act was taking the form of a scandal. In an interview with Swedish journalists, he said that at first he wanted to take a cash prize of 250 thousand kroons to support important social movements for him, but later abandoned this idea.

As personal reasons for refusing the prestigious prize, Sartre indicated, first of all, his rejection of the official marks of distinction of writing. The writer also regretted that the Nobel Prize was not awarded to the South American poet Neruda, Aragon or Sholokhov, and the only Soviet book that received the award was published abroad and banned in his native country. In this, Sartre saw not an objective assessment of literary work, but a certain political tool, as well as the desire of the Nobel Committee to reward exclusively writers from the West or "rebels" from the East.

Elfrida Jelinek, who refused an award, but not money

The most recent case of Nobel Prize refusal was associated with the Austrian writer Elfrida Jelinek, who was awarded the award in 2004. The prize was awarded to her for the musical style in short stories and plays describing "the absurdity of social stereotypes and their enslaving power." All over the world, Elfriede is known as the author of the novel "The Pianist", based on the plot of which the film of the same name by Michael Haneke was shot.

The writer refused to come to the Nobel Prize award ceremony, modestly declaring that she did not deserve such a high award. However, it is known for certain that she still took the monetary reward.

Why Hitler banned German scientists from receiving the Nobel Prize

Prominent German scientists Richard Kuhn, Adolf Budenandt and Gerhard Domagk refused the well-deserved award under Hitler's coercion. The radical German pacifist and critic of the theory of Nazism, Karl von Ossietzky, became a Nobel laureate in 1936, which in fact was an expression of world condemnation of Nazi politics. An angry Hitler declared that no German would accept the award again.

All German scientists who have received awards since 1937 were able to receive their diplomas only at the end of the war.

Remarkably, Hitler himself was nominated for the prize in 1939 by a Swedish parliamentarian. And although it is difficult to believe in it, the fact is confirmed by the archival documents of the Nobel Committee.

But Alfred Nobel himself killed his own brother.