Sasha Filipenko: We need to take the Russian language away from Putin
Sasha Filipenko is a Belarusian writer who writes in Russian and whose novels have been translated into 16 European languages. These days in Germany, he presented at the international literary festival LitCologne his historical novel “Kremulator” – about Stalin’s repressions, executions and secret cremation of bodies – as an example of the fate of the first director of the Donskoy crematorium in Moscow in 1927-1941. a literary evening in Cologne, the writer gathered a full house.
Minsk-born Sasha Filipenko is not just the author of six books. The 38-year-old writer actively opposes the Lukashenka regime and the war unleashed by Putin in Ukraine: he publishes articles in leading European publications, meets with politicians and constantly communicates with the Western public. In 2020, he is forced to leave for the West, today he lives with his family in Switzerland. In an exclusive interview with DW, Sasha Filipenko spoke about why many in Russia are waiting for Stalin, about the West’s waning interest in Belarus and whether Belarusians need to prove that they are not co-aggressors, and also shared his scenario for the development of the conflict in Ukraine.
DW: You As–What he said, What Russian language No belongs Russia…
sasha Filipenko: I am firmly convinced of this. The Russian language really doesn’t belong in Russia. It belongs to us Belarusians, it belongs to the people of Ukraine. I know the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who are now on the line of contact, who are fighting, but they also speak Russian. It belongs to people who speak it in Georgia, Latvia and, of course, Russia. Exactly the same as the English language does not belong only to Americans and British. We really need to take the Russian language away from Putin and show that Russian can be the language of freedom, not just imperial values.
– His latest novel “Kremulator” is about the repressive machine under Stalin. Don’t you get the feeling that many in Russia are waiting for a new Stalin? In February, hundreds of people attended the opening of the monument to the “Father of Nations” in Volgograd…
– To some extent, perhaps, they waited. But I wouldn’t compare everything the same, because times are different. It makes no sense to compare horrors: war and repression. There are people who are really waiting for Stalin. There are people who sympathize with Putin. But I wouldn’t exaggerate the number of these Russians, because all these polls that we see now are polls in a concentration camp. In Russia, surveys are usually conducted by the police and it is strange to expect other responses. Unfortunately, we see a much more impressive part of Russians who do not take any stand, most somehow hide in everyday life.
– The novel “Kremulator” is based on the interrogation protocols of the director of the first crematorium in Moscow, Nesterenko, who worked in two shifts, burning the corpses of people secretly shot by the NKVD at night. And then he himself was arrested. But the first association with the name is about the Kremlin, and not about the crematorium.
– You just need to read the book, there is an exact answer to why “cremulator”. This is a device that turns cremation remains into powder. This is an important metaphor. I wanted to show how a country, how a regime destroys a person, leaving absolutely nothing of him. A person who works in a crematorium also becomes a cremator, he becomes a part of this machine, a mill, and I wanted to show how it works. Of course, people hear the word “Kremlin”. I think it’s symbolic. However, the meaning is a little different. But it’s nice when both the title and the book acquire meaning.
– A about put on No he wants romance to write?
– No, I am not at all interested in writing about Putin. If you go to any German store, you will see millions of books about Putin. After February 24 and the beginning of the war, there were so many “Putin experts”! I wonder where all these people were before? Why didn’t they warn that there would be a war? And they didn’t listen to the writers they warned.
– You were born and raised in Minsk. His parents and friends live there. How do you assess the situation in Belarus? What are the feelings?
– Deployed colossal fundamental repression, and people are trying to survive in these conditions. There are no protests and it is impossible to imagine that they start from somewhere now, because there are no prerequisites. My feeling is that people are certainly tired of being under this pressure. If they have the opportunity to live in a happy and free country, I don’t think anyone is going to turn it down and choose a dictatorship and say, “No, we want it the way it is now.”
– About west Lukashenka called last dictator Europe…
– It’s been a long time. He’s already number two.
– Lukashenka during his long political career often tried to sit on two chairs and even more than once tried to get closer to Europe. How did it happen that he nevertheless bowed to Putin?
– I don’t have the feeling that he bowed to the end, it will turn away from him 10 more times. It seems to me that this is the greatest weathervane in the history of politics. It seems to me that he continues to show signs that he is ready to be with Europe. Even the fact that he is now calling Zelensky hysterically, like in kindergarten, I think, in his understanding, demonstrates that, they say, look, I call names, but the troop does not enter. I don’t get the feeling he chose a chair. And he is not at all interested in choosing a chair. Now Putin assures him that he will be in power for the moment.
– In the elections, you voted for Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. How do you evaluate her role today, when she is exiled and far from her constituents?
– I voted for Tikhanovskaya not because I liked her program, but because she promised new elections. The second point – it seems to me that she has overgrown as a politician, she is doing a lot of diplomatic work. I see that she is doing important things, because Belarus is not forgotten. I would like to wish her the best of luck that her husband is free soon.
– Don’t you have the feeling that last year, in connection with the war in Ukraine, they somehow began to forget about Belarus?
– They forgot about Belarus, there is no such country on the agenda. I gave an interview, and a German journalist said that it’s good that everything is more or less normalized in Belarus. Or I spoke in Geneva and a Swiss journalist said to me: “What right do you have to talk about Belarus when there is a war in Ukraine?” The war in Ukraine is a tragedy, a pain, and we are all trying to help Ukraine in every way we can. But this does not negate the fact that nine million Belarusians remain hostages in the country. Nothing has been decided in Belarus, the conflict is not over, repressions continue. Europe in 2020 did not resolutely defend itself, did not stand up and hand over Belarus to Russia. We saw decisive individual measures taken by some diplomats who defended Svetlana Aleksievich near her apartment. But we have not seen a common position.
– In Belarus, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest after fraudulent elections. You also participated in them. In Russia, people went out to protest only in the first days of the war. Why don’t they, why are there so few of these people?
– In short – because there are no protest leaders, because a closed society – and Russia is now a closed society – always protests worse than an open society. Studying the Gulag and prisons is a useful thing. If you want to understand a country, it’s important to understand how prisons are organized there, because prisons are like small countries. They describe well what is happening. For example, inside the Gulag, Lithuanians gathered in groups, Ukrainians gathered in groups. And the Russians, being inside the Gulag, in Russia, never gathered in groups. Muscovites met Muscovites, Petersburgers met Petersburgers. And those are just a few reasons why they don’t protest the war in Ukraine. It makes no sense to compare Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia. People behave for a variety of childish reasons. But just to say that not all idiots are ready, let’s dig a ditch and let the crocodiles in, stretch the barbed wire and they will sort it out themselves … This does not happen. 500 thousand Ukrainians live in Moscow – they are not going anywhere.
– Some European politicians fear that the war will escalate into a global conflict. And you?
– The main mantras I hear are: you can’t let Putin win, because it will be a disaster for all of Europe, and you can’t let Putin lose, because it will also be a disaster for all of Europe. And then let’s prolong this conflict, let’s give so many weapons so that Ukraine doesn’t win, but also doesn’t lose? And Ukraine will simply be leveled to the ground all this time. The question is which mood will win: people who care about their personal well-being, or those who consider that the time has come to act decisively and decisively help Ukraine. I hear all the time, even in Germany, that we have filled Ukraine with weapons, that it is fully armed. And I’m talking to the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who are now in shambles, who have summer uniforms, who have all their trenches in puddles … The machine guns from the 1960s with which they are fighting are old, rusty. ..
– I know someone who, after reading 15 pages of the “Kremulator”, put it aside. Like, it’s so scary with what happens every day, everything is very terrible and difficult to read about the NKVD …
– If he read it, it would be easier for him. Yes, it is also a therapy.
Source: DW
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