Staged Reading: ‘War and Myth’ by Mikhail Zygar

Pushkin House invites to join a staged reading of a one-man play by prominent Russian writer and journalist Mikhail Zygar. He has achieved international fame in recent years as the author of ‘All the Kremlin’s Men’ and ‘The Empire Must Die’, non-fiction books about Russian history that became international bestsellers. He is a TED speaker and a media entrepreneur who brings innovative formats to international audiences (his project 1968.digital launched in collaboration with BuzzFeed illustrates the pivotal year of the 20th-century by reconstructing the events of 1968 in social media). He is the founding editor-in-chief of independent Russian TV channel Dozhd (TV Rain). Zygar also received the International Press Freedom Award from CPJ in 2014. Pushkin House was the English-language partner for his Project 1917.

Over 16 years ago, Zygar started his career as a war correspondent covering Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Central Asia. His play ‘War and Myth’ is based on personal experience that tells the story of a young man in his 20s who goes to war and tries his best to stay sane, only to return and find that war has crept into his home country. Mikhail does this with his characteristic charisma and sense of humor, creating a riveting narrative.

While my friends went to nightclubs, I went to war. I first went to war just after I turned 20, and I spent another 10 years in warzones. Then I got lucky: I managed to get out. And I didn’t lose my mind. Many of my friends were not so lucky. I speak about what happened to me back then, drawing on my current experience. When I collected my articles as a correspondent into a book, War and Myth, it was a book about what happens to people at war. But what I speak about now is my own story: what happened to me, and to people in general who try to get over their own fears and prove something to others. This is less about war, and more about my own life’s journey.

In English