Paul
Goble
Staunton, July 30 – Sergey Kovalyev, a political
prisoner in Soviet times and founder of the Memorial human rights group, says
that an essay he wrote a year ago about some truths almost equally unwelcome in
Russia and the West could not find a publisher in either place and had to be
issued on the contemporary equivalent of “Russian-English” samizdat: Facebook.
In February, he posted the Russian
original and an English translation by Catherine A. Fitzpatrick there (facebook.com/ivan.kovalev.7/posts/807913779260848:0?hc_location=ufi) just after it did appear in Polish on February 7,
2015 in Warsaw’s “Gazeta Wyborcza” (m.wyborcza.pl/wyborcza/1,105405,17371499,Nie_wolno_poblazac_agresorom__LIST_OTWARTY_SIERGIEJA.html).
Now,
Kovalyev’s new-style “samizdat” article has been published by Radio Liberty,
which distinguished itself during the Cold War by the collection, publication
and dissemination of Soviet-era samizdat and now appears to be getting back
into an updated version of that business (svoboda.org/content/article/27142838.html).
That history in and of itself is
instructive, but so too are the arguments Kovalyev makes in his article, ones
that have lost none of their power and importance despite his difficulties in
finding someone to publish them and that deserve the closest attention both in
Russia and in Western countries.
Below are some of the highlights of Kovalyev’s
piece. They are taken from Fitzpatrick’s elegant translation of the 950-word
article.
According to the 85-year-old human rights
campaigner, “the current political course of the West combines strength and
weakness, pride and prejudice.” It is a response to Russia’s return to the kind
of behavior that characterized the USSR: mass repressions, involvement in
international terrorism, support for totalitarian regimes, aggression, and
violations of the fundamental principles of law.
“Now,” he writes, “the West is firmly
resisting Russian expansion” in the case of Ukraine. That is a source of hope,
Kovalyev continues, but he notes that he has “serious concerns” because of “widespread
myths about Russia which have become rather prevalent in the West,” myths “reinforced
by experienced and skilled masters of deception” from the FSB.
One of these myths, Kovalyev continues, is
that “Russia freed the world from fascism. That is not true. Since the
emancipation of the serfs in 1861, Russia, the Soviet Union and the current
Russian Federation have never freed anyone. What they have done was enslave people,
including their own population.”
“It’s true that Hitler’s army was drowned in Soviet
blood and buried under Soviet corpses. It’s true that Europe and the United
States did less than they could and should have done during World War II. But
that is a completely different matter,” he writes. “The decisive motives for the Soviet Union’s major role
in the military victory were not at all liberation.”
“The peoples of Eastern Europe and Germany, who
were ruled by two successive tyrants -- Hitler and Stalin -- should remember
this.”
“Another
common and dangerous idea is that Russia’s immorality and political barbarism
are solely Russia’s internal affair. That isn’t true,” Kovalyev points out. “In
our present interdependent world, serious problems become global and affect
everyone. Russian (and not only Russian) totalitarian tendencies are fraught
with catastrophic global consequences.”
“No
one knows how to deal with this challenge,” he says, “but we should at least
know what simply must not be done. You cannot appease an aggressor. You must
not buy your safety, especially your gas supply, with other people’s lives and
fates. The acceptance of immoral political pragmatism is the shameful legacy of
the Munich Pact and the Yalta agreements.”
“Overcoming
this legacy is long overdue.”
“Alas,
the West’s deficit of political will nullifies its good intentions,” Kovalyev
says. “Russian expansion in the Caucasus exposed Western ‘forgetfulness.’ Each
stage of this expansion was met by the unfeigned outrage of the West. There was
the cruel ethnic cleansing of Georgians during the early 1990s in Abkhazia,
provoked by Russian ‘peace-keepers.’”
“In
2008, there was the creation of two Russian satellites on Georgian territory
which caused general indignation. But all such offenses were quickly forgotten.”
Moreover, and “in the same vein, there were the many years of incoherent,
ineffective fussing by the Council of Europe over Russia’s outrages in
Chechnya.”
Now,
Kovalyev continues, “it is Ukraine’s turn. The occupation of Crimea has already
been almost forgotten by the public.”
“There
was a time,” he writes, “when Europe imagined that the Cold War ended with the
demolition of the Berlin Wall. It’s not true. Russia only took a breather.
Imagine a post-war Germany that left the Gestapo untouchable. Or a Stasi lieutenant-colonel
Chancellor of Germany.”
If
that is ignored, Kovalyev argues, “that is and will be the Russia with which
you seek partnership and mutual understanding. Right now, it will play fair
only if forced to do so. It cannot be persuaded to do so.”
“Many
are ready to make concessions to Russia, arguing that a cornered rat is
dangerous. That’s true. But you must remember: a rat, whether cornered or left
in peace, is still a powerful carrier of plague. The plague under discussion
has lasted almost a hundred years and has killed millions of people. The choice
is limited -- you either fight the plague, or, in the words of Pushkin, you
“feast in the time of plague.”
Were
Academician Andrey Sakharov with whom Kovalyev closely cooperated at the end of
Soviet times alive today, the human rights advocate says, “he would urge the
civilized world to be more resolute in its stand against tyranny.” Among the
models for what can and should be done, he says, are the American Lend-Lease
Act and the Marshall Plan.”
In
place of the myths Moscow has promoted, Kovalyev says, the West needs to face
up to the fact that “effective resistance to the advance of the “evil empire”
demands a maximum effort now. Tomorrow may be too late.”
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