Translation
of the text published on January 1st, 2015
on Grani.ru:
and Radio Liberty :
Our
conscience urges us today to respond to a recent letter from some descendants
of the first Russian emigration after 1917. It was published on the website of
the organization "Russian World", which is a type of propaganda
weapon for "Russian compatriots abroad." In the context of the
current Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the signatories are declaring their support
for Vladimir Putin's policies and opposing the leadership of Ukraine.
Not
wanting to indulge in polemics, we must at the same time note with regret that
there are those among our family and friends who currently support the
adventurist policy of the Kremlin. However, we who also represent the Russian
emigration cannot accept the fact that its legacy is being used by the current
leadership of Russia for propaganda purposes.
Kremlin
propaganda has always, today as in the era of the all-powerful KGB, played on
the patriotic feelings of the Russian emigrants. Certainly the majority of
Russian immigrants of all generation continue to experience their connection to
Russia, Russian culture and the Orthodox faith.
But the Russian intelligentsia - from Berdyaev to Bukovsky - at all
times was able to distinguish between the sacred spirit of freedom and truth of
the "Russian idea" and the nationalistic policies of the Kremlin,
whether pro-Communist or pro-Eurasian. Emigrant associations, media and youth
organizations in Paris, London or New York align themselves with the Russia of
Pushkin and Sakharov, not the Russia of Dugin and Zyuganov. Within the Russian
emigrant community there is neither a pro-Communist nor pro-Eurasian
party. A majority of Russian émigré
parishes in France are under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of
Constantinople, and in the US many are under the Orthodox Church in America and
the Russian Church Abroad, rather than the jurisdiction of the Moscow
Patriarchate. For they have long since abandoned the heresy of ethnophyletism,
which favors the Russian world, language and nation to the detriment of the
unity of professing one baptism.
The main
argument of those calling themselves the heirs of the Russian emigration and
who support the politics of Vladimir Putin, is that the Ukrainian leaders are
carrying out military operations in the Donbass. But they should know that Russia is the
aggressor because those armed men who have seized Crimea and who today
destabilize the situation in the Donets Basin are Russian citizens. They need
to know that the current Ukrainian leadership is conducting a defensive and
anti-terrorist struggle and, unlike the previous government, supports political
decentralization. They need to know that there are many inhabitants of Crimea
who are not Russians but Russian-speaking, and that today they deeply regret
the accession by Russia as is evidenced by their unwillingness to give up their
Ukrainian passports. They also need to know that, according to a public opinion
poll, three-quarters of Donbass residents wish to remain a part of Ukraine.
From the press and the Internet they know that Russia's policy towards Ukraine
has been condemned by the majority of countries - members of the UN, and that
Russia has been deprived of the right to vote in the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe (PACE). They know that Ukrainian President Poroshenko had
repeatedly called for a ceasefire and a peaceful settlement and that these
calls were not heeded by either the Ukrainian separatists or the Russian
mercenaries.
However,
all these arguments are rejected by those Russian emigrants because of their
need to be recognized by the "Motherland", notwithstanding that the
majority of the signatories have long been European citizens. They have lost
confidence in the Western democracies, which makes them increasingly aligned
with the ultra-right, populist and extremist parties that represent a minority
in the European politics. Finally, they are completely unaware of the Ukrainian
culture and its unique identity.
In spite
of everything, we the undersigned are trying to establish a dialogue with the
pro-Putin emigrant community. We are
trying to explain to them that even Russian oligarchs have more confidence in
Western democracies than the current authoritarian regime in Russia. Consequently, they prefer to live in Europe
or in the United States and send their children to study there. We want to remind the Russian pro-Putin
emigrants of the horrible disillusionment of those Russian émigrés blinded by
nationalism who had defended Stalin's Russia, only to receive a bullet in the
back of the head upon their return to the USSR. We want to remind them of
Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s covenant to "live not by lies" and call upon
them to reject the lethal myth of “gathering of the Russian lands." We
advise them to read the works of the outstanding Russian historian George
Fedotov, who taught at St. Sergius in Paris and St. Vladimir's Seminary in New
York: an ardent Russian patriot, who recognized the uniqueness of the
centuries-old Ukrainian culture, along with the Moscow Rus as the successor to
Kiev Rus. We want to remind them that
Russia was great when it was open to the world and respected international law.
That is the Russian tradition that deserves the show of solidarity. We should also support those citizens of
Russian who struggle to defend truth, peace and human dignity.
But, alas, the pro-Putin emigrants do
not hear us. They are fascinated by the growing power of the Russian
kleptocracy. They believe the lie that Crimea has always been the Russian land
(on the contrary, Crimea only became part of tsarist Russia at the end of the
XVIII century), that Prince Vladimir was a Russian prince, and that Moscow
should become the “Third Rome”...
Dmitri Akhtyrsky, USA
Antoine Arjakovsky, France.
Andrei Bessmertny Anzimirov, USA
Anna Brodskaja-Bomke, Germany
Anna Bykhovskaia, Germany
Tamara
Candala, France
Pauline
Gruental, USA
Artemij
Keidan, Italy
Inga
Leonova, USA
Toma
Shevliakova, USA
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