Putin can launch bombs and missiles, but he will never destroy Ukrainian culture

Famous theater actress Oksana Shvets and Artem Datsishin, soloist of the National Opera Ballet, were buried in Kyiv in recent days. These artists were killed after being hit by ballistic missiles in Kyiv. At the same time, a Russian bomber “carefully” dropped a half-ton bomb on the Mariupol Drama Theater. Inside, more than 1,000 civilians, including children and the elderly, took refuge in the airstrikes. The total war that Putin declared on Ukraine is aimed at making sure that Ukraine ceases to exist along with its culture, history and language.

On March 17, a meeting was held in Moscow between officials and figures of Russian culture. A statement issued after the meeting said that Russian cultural figures fully supported Russia’s “special operation” against Ukraine and would work with the Kremlin on the “cultural front.”

The Russian “cultural front” is already open and is invading Europe. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said that only Putin is fighting Ukraine and the rest of the country is not to blame. So the Russian writers and poets who signed the open letter of support for Putin were published in St. Petersburg. Literaturnaya Gazeta On March 4, they are not guilty.

For its part, the German PEN Center opposes a boycott of Russian cultural products, while Ukrainian writers and musicians who support a boycott of Russian culture accuse it of radicalism and hate speech. Ukrainian writers are urged to sit down with Russian cultural figures to discuss reconciliation on the Paris and Berlin stages.

Countless victims

The more bombs and rockets fall on Ukrainian cities, the more radically Ukrainian writers and cultural figures will respond to these demands. Not everyone answers, though only those who are still alive. Among the recent victims of the war is Alexander Kislyuk, a professor at the Kiev Theological Academy, a well-known translator of Ancient Greek, Latin, Old Slavic, English and French. Thanks to him, the books of Aristotle, Tacitus, Thomas Aquinas and many other ancient philosophers and scientists were translated into Ukrainian. He can no longer take part in discussions about reconciliation with his Russian counterparts. He was shot dead on March 5 near the village of Bucha near Kiev.

In the basement of the town of Klavdievo, near Bucha, refugee writer Vladimir Rafenko and his wife are hiding from the incessant bombing. They tried to escape from Claudio to Kyiv, but the constant bombardment on the outskirts of the capital made it impossible. They were met in Cladievo, at the summer home of Ukrainian writer Andrei Bondar. Half of the town of Claudio is destroyed.

At the beginning of the war, a Russian bomb fell on a museum dedicated to Maria Primachenko – the most famous Ukrainian “naive” artist – in the city of Ivankov, north of Kiev. During the fire, locals removed the paintings from the museum and hid them so that the collection could be exhibited again after the war, when a new museum will be built.

During the first week of the war, Kiev museums received instructions from the Ministry of Culture to evacuate their collections to western Ukraine. Some museums simply hid their collections in basements; Others have packed everything in boxes and are now waiting for transport to get out of town. But transport is scarce: priority has been given to evacuating people and delivering humanitarian supplies. Protecting our cultural heritage must come to the fore.

The importance of education

Universities, libraries and schools were destroyed in eastern, southeastern and central Ukraine. Educational institutions have no strategic value, but are used as humanitarian centers, repositories, and refugee centers. Russian troops simply want to destroy any public infrastructure, regardless of the number and nature of casualties.

However, education in schools and universities across Ukraine will resume from 1 April. Lessons, lectures and seminars will be conducted online, both for the safety of students and professors, as well as for the physical demolition of university and school buildings.

The decline in the quality of education is an inevitable result of this war, which was compounded by two years of decline due to the pandemic. But with the bitterness and pain, students can also feel a new wave of motivation to learn better and enlighten themselves at a time when education has become a secondary profession. After all, now the main task of all citizens of Ukraine is to survive the war.

Another victim of Russian aggression is Russian culture itself. Ukrainians directly reject it as a spontaneous reaction that does not require a parliamentary decision. Indeed, the Ukrainian parliament has passed a law banning the import of Russian books and publications for sale. In the occupied territories, of course, there will be no Ukrainian books until they are released. By this time everything there will be Russian. Ukrainian radio and television have been shut down and only Russian channels broadcasting Kremlin propaganda can be seen. There are still Ukrainian writers, journalists and scientists in the occupied territories, but their fate is unclear. Many of them have been without contact with the outside for several days.

Blacklists of intellectuals

Two weeks ago, agents of the Russian Federal Security Service began marching through the streets of the occupied city of Melitopol in the southeast, with lists of names and addresses in hand. They searched for Ukrainian intellectuals, journalists and activists for questioning. Ukrainian detainees and their relatives were deprived of their mobile phones, computers and other means of communication, leaving them completely isolated. There is no predicting what will happen after them.

The main concern in Kyiv today is the security of the main sanctuary of Russia in Kiev – St. Sophia Monastery and Cathedral. The complex, whose ancient structures date back to the 12th century, is located on top of one of the hills in Kiev, very close to the headquarters of the Security Service of Ukraine, the border guards and the Police Department of Ukraine. City. . These three buildings will sooner or later become the target of Russian missiles, and any attack on them will damage Hagia Sophia if it does not completely destroy it.

The Ministry of Culture maintains a register of destroyed historical and cultural sites. Dozens of new items are added to the list every day. But Ukrainian culture cannot be destroyed by bombs and missiles. It will survive, just as the Ukrainian language has survived, despite being banned by more than 40 Tsarist decrees in the 19th century, despite Ukraine’s Soviet policy of Russification, despite Russia’s current violent hatred of everything Ukrainian.

Andrei Kurkov is a Ukrainian novelist, author Death with a Penguin (Blackie Books).

Translated by Julian Knochaert