Lev Shlosberg

19 November 2024

by Lev Shlosberg

Source: Facebook

The greatest lesson learned from a thousand terrible days and nights is: the world has not learned how to prevent catastrophes. For several decades after World War II, there was a “vaccine” against war: leading nations were governed by people who had personally lived through it, either as participants or witnesses. The global catastrophe of war united people through a shared tragic experience. These war-scarred politicians understood that war was unacceptable. Gradually, they left power and passed away. The vaccine against war wore off, because it cannot be passed on through handshakes or written words.

Now we live in the era of those who never fought, never outgrew their toy soldiers, never witnessed the blood, tears, and the filth of war.

18+ THIS MATERIAL (INFORMATION) WAS PRODUCED, DISTRIBUTED BY FOREIGN AGENT LEV MARKOVICH SHLOSBERG OR CONCERNS THE ACTIVITIES OF FOREIGN AGENT LEV MARKOVICH SHLOSBERG [Under Russian law Lev Shlosberg is obliged to label his publications with this tag. We include it here solely for the purpose of informing readers who may wish to know about some of the many restrictions imposed on Russian individuals and organisations under the country’s repressive ‘foreign agent’ law.]

The road to a great tragedy is made of many small steps. Each step might seem minor, insignificant, non-decisive, not fatal. Just a step. And another. Yet this is the road to the abyss, and those walking it fail to understand this. Until everything collapses, and catastrophe strikes.

The birth of a catastrophe is like a whirlpool. It begins with a refusal to engage in dialogue, a rejection of compromise, and a loss of trust. It grows from the stoking of hatred, from lies, from the propagation of violence, from arrogance, bravado, cynicism, and cruelty.

Catastrophes are the result of deliberate, malevolent steps. Steps that cross thresholds of pain and compassion. Steps driven by the desire to harm, by festering imperialist sores, by disdain for others’ opinions, by hubris, and, ultimately, by the denial of the value of human life. Every war in history has been born from the denial of the value of human life.

The post-Soviet history of Russia and Ukraine is riddled with dozens of these steps. With each one, politics became soaked in blood. And the leaders, upon whom the fate of millions depended, seemed blind to this, stumbling forward as if in a fog. These leaders lacked the vaccine against war.

No one is trained in the art of managing the dissolution of empires. There are no textbooks for it. The responsibility of politicians is to make sure that an empire’s collapse does not lead to war. Everything else is secondary. Everything can be mended—except death.

Do you all remember what furious disputes we had? The price of gas? Loans? The status of the Russian language? The rights of Churches? Statues of Pushkin and Catherine the Great? History textbooks? Political maps that did or didn’t include Ukraine? Euro-(non)integration? NATO (non)membership?

How do all these “problems” look now—next to the thousands upon thousands of people dead in Ukraine and Russia? Are all the uncompromising politicians satisfied? Have all ambitions been fulfilled? Do the dead haunt the living?

Almost every year since 1991, the Russian-Ukrainian tragedy could have been prevented—or at least stopped later. But at nearly every crossroads, politicians chose the path to war instead of peace and saving lives. Like blind men, they couldn’t see the obvious, dreadful future and rushed straight into it.

All of these politicians are alive today. Thousands of others are not. The former is temporary. The latter is forever.

In February 2014, everyone was still alive. By 24 February 2022, those who hadn’t died since February 2014 were still alive. And yet, in a fatal and horrifying turn, the willingness to sacrifice lives outweighed the ability to sacrifice ambitions and “state interests.”

The deadliest consequence of years of darkness and a thousand bloody days is the loss of human lives. They are the true victims of this catastrophe—not just of direct violence, but of the ultimate cruelty, indifference, and inhumanity that are the midwives of war. Blind, angry, insatiable.

Today is 19 November 2024. Thousands upon thousands of people are dead. Millions more remain alive—for now. Today is the first day of the rest of world history. A history wading knee-deep in blood, marching towards a Third World War. There was not enough of a vaccine against war. Not enough reason. Not enough love for humanity.

Stopping a catastrophe is much harder than starting one. With every death, vengeance and hatred cloud our vision. The cost of not having a vaccine against war is terrifyingly high.

Translated by James Lofthouse