Alexandra Litvina, Anna Desnitskaya. The Story of an Old Apartment

Alexandra Litvina graduated from the Philology Department of Moscow State University and completed her postgraduate studies at the Institute of World Literature, then worked as an editor for various publishing houses. Together with Ekaterina Stepanenko, she wrote a children's guidebook for the State Historical Museum and several historical game books.

In 2015, the artist and artist Anya Desnitskaya published their first collaborative work, "Metro Above and Below the Ground." In 2017, "The History of an Old Apartment" was published, opening the door to Europe for Samokat Publishing House. Publication rights were acquired in Germany, France, China, and the United States.

INTERVIEW

I think every educational children's book is like a giant funnel. For just a few drops to spill out, a huge amount of material—thoughts, facts, feelings, emotions—must flow in. And as with any book, it's not always possible to program everything. Some character suddenly demands attention, or some situation suddenly begins to unfold.

Pravmir.ru

The Story of an Old Apartment raises many questions, but we didn't set out to explain every phenomenon or describe every motivation. There's an approach I'd call the style of the pre-war magazine "Koster." Some writers have this approach, too, like Gaidar, for example. He's a remarkable stylist, but he often writes things like, "She walked down the street and thought about the most important thing." And then he goes on to explain what that most important thing is, the most correct thing. We didn't want that kind of book. We wanted it to be read by a wide range of parents, regardless of their views or family histories. It's clear that many of the events described in the book have a unique meaning for each family. Each family will choose its own approach—how to tell children about the revolution, how to tell them about the war, what exactly to tell them, and why.

Papmambook

Anna Desnitskaya is a Moscow-based artist, illustrator, and collagist. She is a graduate of the Moscow State University of Printing Arts.

Desnitskaya has illustrated several children's books, including "Two Trams" by Osip Mandelstam, "Aliens Among the Egyptians" by Eduard Shenderovich, "What's What" by Vadim Frolov, and "Look, I'm Growing Up" by Boris Almazov (all published by Samokat), and "The Metro on the Ground and Under the Ground" (published by Peshkom v istorii). Anna has participated in competitions for designer toys and applied arts. She also conducts doll and dollhouse making workshops for adults and children.

Anya Desnitskaya's major and important project, "The History of an Old Apartment," was created in collaboration with Alexandra Litvina. They told the entire history of the 20th century through the eyes of children from a fictional communal apartment on Chistye Prudy.

In 2017, Anya Desnitskaya participated in the International Biennial of Illustration in Bratislava (Bienále ilustrácií Bratislava) and won the Golden Apple Award (GOLDEN APPLE BIB), one of the most important awards for illustrators from around the world.

In anticipation of the 2019 Frankfurt Book Fair, "The Story of an Old Apartment" was included in the highly selective and prestigious catalog of the world's 100 best contemporary illustrated books, compiled by the DPICTUS Association of Publishers of Quality Illustrated Books. At the 2021 CIS International Book Art Competition, "The Art of the Book," a first-place diploma was awarded to Anya's book, "Transsib. The Train Departs!", in the "Art of Illustration" category.

INTERVIEW

For Anya and me, the stories in "The Old Apartment" are deeply personal, even though we rarely drew directly on our family histories. We want people to pick up our book and find something to talk about with their children while they're still interested and while their mothers remember and know. "Grandma was little, Grandpa was little, and everything was completely different." Conversations about the past are difficult, but you don't necessarily have to immediately bring up the revolution, the Great Terror, or the war. Of course, there have been and still are topics that parents don't discuss with their children not because they're politically inconvenient, but because they can't talk about them without anger and bias, or even without internal pain; it's difficult and impossible for them.

History lessons

It was important to me that I could include characters from my family and family belongings in the book. I always feel sad about things that pass away. For example, we have an apartment where my grandmother now lives. Our family has lived there since the building was built. And I'm sad that this apartment is no longer the same as it was in my childhood. And I could draw some of the pieces from there that are dear to me, or, for example, people, in the book.

Pravmir.ru

"It's wrong to give a child the task of 'draw an orange squirrel with a white belly in the center of a sheet of paper.' A better approach, in my opinion, would be for children to first look at photographs or paintings of forests and squirrels, or to remember being in the forest in the summer and feeding squirrels, or to read a story about a squirrel. Then let everyone draw their own story about a squirrel and a forest—and some will have a big squirrel with a white belly in the center of the sheet, while others will have a small, gray one in the corner."

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