Before February 24, 2022, one could have made the case that a victory in a just war—the Great Patriotic War—was one of the foundations of many Russians’ collective identity. It's hard to make this case now. Rethinking the V-Day. A 9-point thread on May 9
In the public imagination, the history of WWII outweighed other pages of Russian history. There is nothing unique in this. Every nation deals with the pain of history in its own way. Russian society has coped with shame thanks to the memory of May 9… 1/
The reality of Russia’s criminal war against Ukraine means that May 9 can no longer prevent Russian society from confronting its history. Propaganda, self-deception, unwillingness to know the truth, unwillingness to leave a moral comfort zone can no longer serve as excuses. 2/
The nightmare of what is happening now should make every Russian face it, own it: it all did not start on February 24, 2022, nor did it start in 2014. In our past and present, there is a willingness to use violence against entire peoples who appear disloyal to Moscow. 3/
Russian citizens can no longer pretend that the past is merely an issue for academic discussion. In our past and present, we follow a policy of colonialization in neighboring countries as well as in our own country. 4/
In our past and present, people—whether citizens of other countries or of Russia—are seen as expendable in the eyes of the authorities. The Russian (and especially the Soviet) state has never limited itself in its methods. 5/
In our past and present, the state has arrogated to itself extraordinary authority, unlimited by laws and institutions. In our past and present, expediency—defined ideologically and now arbitrarily—is valued more than human life. 6/
The means that the Soviet authorities used included summary executions, arrests, forced labor, requisitioning of food and property, attacks on civilians, hostage-taking, torture. This “past” is now the present in Ukraine. 7/
The current war has been made possible by the fact that the Russian state’s historical crimes have never been put on trial and that the perpetrators have never faced a day in court. It has been made possible by the impunity of the Russian leadership. 8/
If Russia as a national and cultural project would like be part of the global community again, then the first new institution established in Ru after the war should be a court empowered to investigate the crimes of the Russian state in all its guises, past and present. 9/9
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