31/08/2024
Three important posts / texts / thoughts, all three in Russian and directly or indirectly related to recent politics. I want to reduce the flow of politics-related content at least here on my Facebook and finally switch more to nature conservation & pomology writing (even made a separate page, but keep on scrolling the news). But I think all three texts / news / statements – they deserve sharing and it is important to share. I make English summaries first, then do full translation of the two (even test ChatGPT with creative version for one longer text); one more text is worth reading only if you understand Russian and a lot of nuances of living in Siberia.
Text 1. By Dmitry Front. It is important he writes it from Moscow. Dmitry’s post was called “Children and War”, and I read it 1st to JJ, he gave me some hints to have the text reduced to a shorter version, but I think it is decent for the author that his writing is translated in full. The most important message: how to grow younger generation kind, but not hating each other. This translation in full is below the three summaries.
Text 2. Very short message from the trial / 8 years jail sentence for Sergey Mikhailov, “Listock” founder/writer/publisher in Gorno-Altaysk. Just do this in full, screenshot & link coming in comments:
The founder of the Gorno-Altai newspaper “Listock” Sergey Mikhailov is sentenced to EIGHT years in a general regime colony on charges related to “fake news” about the Russian Armed Forces. Mikhailov was arrested in April 2022. He was accused of publishing materials in “Listock” that allegedly contained “deliberately false” information about the activities of the Russian military, particularly in Bucha and in Mariupol.
Mikhailov did not plead guilty. “I totally disagree with the charges. I have spent all these years writing what I believe to be the truth, even if that truth is bitter. I do this not out of hatred for certain political figures, but out of a commitment to the truth and a love for it,” he declared in his final statement. “I hope that our actions have led to fewer zinc coffins in the Altai Republic. Even if there is one coffin less—these 10 years of work have not been in vain.”
Text 3. This text I won’t translate, it is written by a Siberian contemporary writer and published in the famous “Novy Mir”, it is about one family in a Siberian town where the husband goes to war (it is definitely not a documentary text).
Translated from the post referred to in comment 1. Native English speakers: I am curious if you understand the task I gave to ChatGPT while doing a sort of creative speedy translation (that I certainly read first prior to sharing). I am curious if ChatGPT indeed added that one old politician reminiscence… Guess the name!
Children and War (translation of the full text by Dmitry Front)
Foreword: While I was typing these words, I was suddenly interrupted by a call from a friend W., who called me directly from the frontline. A Ukrainian, he fights where the fight is the most fierce. A man of means, he sent his family to the safety of France, but he himself took up arms. We spoke for fifteen minutes before the connection was lost. W managed to tell me that he understands me and others like me - that he is a rational man, no matter the horror surrounding him. And the horror is real. Blood flows freely on both sides. He shoots at Russians, killing Russians; Russians shoot at him, killing Ukrainians. There is no end in sight. He is aghast at what is happening. Yet, W knows and cherishes Russian culture, having been educated in a Soviet school, just as I know and love Ukrainian culture, having received the same education. But now I am in Moscow while he is on the frontlines. I find myself in my own apartment or travelling through Russia, writing essays and meeting interesting people, while he lies on the floor, staring up at the shattered ceiling of what was once somebody’s home. And a rifle lies beside him. After our conversation ended, I continued writing about the children of our time…
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On both sides of this tragic division the children are the ones who will be most deeply scarred for years to come. As they grow, hatred will seep into their consciousness as if they drank with their mother’s milk. One side will loathe the other and vice versa. This hatred will be most intense among the Ukrainians, for they live and breathe the war each day. In Russia talks of the war is rare, spoken in whispers, as people try to live as though it does not touch them. I understand them, though I believe this avoidance is detrimental to the psyche. People become less than human. And when they do speak, it is with bitterness and anger, and the children hear, absorbing the hatred as readily as they absorb water. Even in the nursery and at school, children speak of war. They have told me so themselves.
Hatred, it seems, is easier for a child’s mind to grasp than kindness. Kindness must be nurtured, explained; it requires years, perhaps a lifetime, of learning. But hatred needs no instruction. It clings effortlessly.
What will become of these kids when they are grown, when they begin their lives as adults? It is difficult to imagine. Parents struggle to explain to a child of seven to twelve years what is happening - in a way that does not leave them scarred. Usually, parents pass on their own trauma to the child, directly, or as it is portrayed on television. Rarely do they speak to their children honestly and sincerely, in simple terms, without hiding the truth, to prevent the child’s world from being clouded with confusion between black and white.
But for the Ukrainians, it is far worse. Their children see the war first-hand. Many have lost relatives, parents - often in front of their very eyes. This is an all-consuming trauma. How can they be shielded from a pervasive hatred of all Russians? This is an immense problem, one of universal scale, though it plays out on a patch of land a mere hundred thousand or a million hectares in size.
It is impossible for a person to harbour hatred for a lifetime or to let it seep out in small doses without a living nightmare that is makes, regardless of how justified the hatred might seem. Hatred is the yearning for revenge – a sort of an eternal craving. It is a destructive force. Hatred is never just; it has no need for justice. It is simple. But hatred is more insidious than any missile barrage. It corrodes both body and soul, consuming a person’s entire existence. It drains the energy needed to live, to create, to love.
The aggressors are more straightforward (at least). The aggressor will drink to drown the scars and the remnants of limbs, will vent his rage on those near and far. Especially when the aggressor faces unexpected resistance. He was promised victory, after all. Thus, alcoholism will continue to gnaw away at the largest country on earth, passed down like an inheritance. Drunkards are loved by no one, anywhere. It is pure evil, born of emptiness. Vodka saves during wars; in the peacetime it kills—and not only those who drink.
But for those who defended their country, who lost the loved ones, I believe it will be easier to emerge from the nervous shock of wartime when the war finally ends. They will be helped. They will be reached out to. There will be difficult, yet constructive, positivity surrounding them. They will have a purpose - to restore peace to their land, to rebuild ruined cities, to breathe life back into them.
Yet, hatred… Hatred for outsiders will eventually consume the good will towards loved ones. How can children be protected from it? It is difficult, but we must tell children what is not said on television. Ukrainian adults must understand that not all Russians are aggressors, that Russians do not want war, that Russian culture is neither militant nor a menace to all humanity. There is no imperialism in it. There is vastness, yes, born of a significant territory, a blend of many cultures, but there is no imperialism in Russian culture. It does not need words like "great." It is simply culture, simply people. Otherwise, hatred will become mutual and everlasting.
Children must be protected from hatred. Shielded by our bodies and spirits. Only with words, only through education. And this will be the hardest task we and you will face after the war.
END of Text 1 translation.
Some screenshots and all the links in comments.
