21 February 2022
An open statement by the Congress of the Intelligentsia
Source: Moscow Helsinki Group [original source: Эхо Москвы, 21.02.2022]
To the Warmongers
The main topic of news in recent weeks has been war.
The most various kinds of people in Russia have publicly expressed their outright rejection of war, their condemnation of its fateful destructiveness for our country. These have ranged from intellectuals to retired colonel generals and experts of the Valdai forum.
In the different voices can be heard one emotion: horror at the very thought of a new outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine. A horror aroused by the realization that this could actually happen.
Despite the terrible price that both Ukraine and Russia will undoubtedly pay for this war, the Russian leadership continues its ruinous policy, at the least not reducing and, at worst, increasing the concentration of troops on the borders with Ukraine. Russia’s official rhetoric suggests a pretext may be fabricated to launch an invasion at any moment, even by means of the kind of direct provocations that Hitler used before invading Poland in 1939. In this case, Ukraine will be accused of aggression one way or another and Russia’s actions will be presented as a forced response to this aggression in the name of protecting our country and peaceful civilians.
But you cannot deceive history. The Reichstag fire has been exposed for what it was. Whether war starts or not depends today only on the decisions and actions of Russia’s political leaders.
And if a major war breaks out, you, the warmongers, will each be named. You will be cursed by present and future generations. And some of you will live to be put on trial.
Those who oppose war will not be divided by ideological differences or police truncheons.
The Congress of the Intelligentsia continues to collect signatures for this statement here.
The complete list will be renewed here.
- Lev Ponomarev*, human rights defender
- Leonid Gozman, politician
- Valery Borshchev, human rights defender
- Svetlana Gannushkina, human rights defender
- Dmitry Bykov, writer
- Liya Akhedzhakova, actress, People’s Artist of the Russian Federation,
- Garry Bardin, film director
- Andrei Smirnov, film director
- Natalya Fateeva, actress, People’s Artist of the RSFSR
- Andrei Makarevich, musician
- Alina Vitukhnovskaya, politician, writer
- Veronica Dolina, poet
- Grigory Amnuel, film director, producer, politician, journalist and commentator
- Boris Vishnevsky, politician, member of the St Petersburg legislative assembly, deputy chair of the Yabloko party
- Lev Shlosberg, politician, member of Yabloko federal political committee
- Lev Gudkov, sociologist
- Ksenia Larina, journalist
- Aleksei Tsvetkov, poet
- Andrei Piontkovsky, political scientist, journalist and commentator
- Nikolai Rozanov, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences
- Aleksandr Zorin, poet. Member of the Russian Union of Writers since 1979.
- Nina Katerli, writer
- Boris Sokolov, historian, writer
- Tatyana Voltskaya*, poet, journalist
- Evgeny Savostyanov, retired
- Andrei Nechaev, professor, chair of the Civil Initiative party
- Mikhail Shneider, Deputy Chair of the People’s Freedom Party
- Ilya Ginzburg, Professor, Researcher
- Svetlana Astrakhantseva, human rights defender
- Igor Chubais, historian,
- Aleksndr Zaslavsky, rock musician
- Andrei Zbarsky, editor,
- Elena Fanailova, poet, journalist
- Aleksandr Belavin, physicist
- Olga Varshaver, translator
- Yakov Feldman, teacher
- Victor Yunak, writer, journalist, PhD
- Natalya Skorokhod, professor, Russian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics
- Elena Karavaeva, retired teacher
- Aleksandr Musin, Doctor of History, archaeologist
- Marina Boroditskaya, writer
- Aleksandr Davydov, writer
- Anna Ozhiganova, senior researcher, IEA RAS
- Vitaly Dikson, writer
- Valeria Prikhodkina, human rights defender
- Alexander Obolonsky, PhD
- Aleksandr Tender, writer
- Aleksei Vasiliev, educator, researcher
- Aleksandr Demin, human rights defender
- Natalia Tumashkova, psychologist/psychodrama therapist
- Vladimir Zalischak, deputy
- Sergei Mitrofanov, journalist, commentator
- Igor Karlinsky, member of St. Petersburg Human Rights Council
- Viktor Yuknechev, journalist
- Viktor Nikolaev, film director and educator.
- Elena Efros, civic activist
- Aleksei Kursish, chair of the Solidarity trade union
- Tatyana Dorutina, human rights defender
- Maria Dmitrieva, scientist, PhD
- Natalia Mavlevich, translator, Member of Guild of Masters of Literary Translation
- Yulia Guseva, translator
- Alina Gladysheva, psychologist, historianTatyana Makarova, art historian. Retired
- Boris Rotenshtein, filmmaker
- Vladimir Grishkevich, pensioner
- Maria Kullanda, historian
- Daria Zueva, psychologist
- Irina Glushkova, PhD
- Yury Gimmelfarb, independent journalist
- Elena Fanailova, poet and journalist
- Liudmila Evdokimova, philologist
- Yury Sarygin, retired scientist
- Efim Hazanov, Academician, Russian Academy of Sciences
- Nina Dymshits, film critic
- Karina Sukhorukova, researcher
- Sergei Dmitriev, sinologist, teacher
- Oleg Motkov, lecturer
- George Shelike, Translator
- Konstantin Azadovsky, philologist
- Aleksandr Guryanov, historian
- Vitold Abankin, former political prisoner, human rights activist
- Irina Kraineva, Historian
- Vladimir Shavlovskiy, pensioner
- Mikhail Lavrenov, writer
- Stanislav Stanskikh, constitutionalist
- Valentin Skvortsov, professor at Moscow State University
- Nadege Kouleikina, assistant sociale
- Tatyana Bonch, Osmolovsky, philologist and writer.
- Natalya Pakhsaryan, Professor, Moscow State University
- Marina Tatarinova, musician
- Tatyana Yankelevich Bonner, human rights defender
- Elena Bukvareva, Doctor of Biological Sciences
- Oleg Elanchik*, citizen
- Konstantin Isaakov, travel journalist
- Elena Selezneva, doctor, member of Saratov branch of Memorial* Society
- Nikolai Prokudin, writer
- Valery Otstavnykh, documentary filmmaker, journalist, religious scholar.
- Sergei Krivenko, human rights defender
- Elena Movchan, Translator
- Valery Mastiuk, historian
- Aleksei Blagovidov, Biodiversity Conservation Expert, PhD
- Timofei Solovev, Poet
- Valery Dymshits, translator
- Yury Veshninskiy, PhD
- Anatoly Vershik, mathematician, member of the European Academy.
- Vadim Gromov, scientist
- Yury Kuznetsov, musician, pedagogue
- Valentin Mikhailov, the deputy of the 1st Duma, doctor of sciences
- Andrei Anzimirov, writer and human rights activist
- Vladimir Dvorkin, PhD
- Nikolai Mininkov, historian
- Katya-Anna Taguchi, artist, member of the Moscow Union of Artists
- Vasily Igorevich Abarenkov, programmer
- Tatyana Gavrilovna Romanenko, journalist
- Nikita Sokolov, historian
- Larisa Fefilova, lawyer
- Gulnara Yunusova, interpreter, charitable foundation employee
- Sergei Lutsenko, supervisor for animation
- Mikhail Lashkevich, physicist, researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences
- Ivanov Maksim, entrepreneur
- Elena Marinicheva, translator
- Evgeny Ass, architect
- Marina Efremova, bibliographer
- Stepan Sidorov, stage designer
- Aina Borisonva Liubarova, educator, interpreter.
- Irina Sitkova, Director
- Mikhail Rives, Lecturer
- Igor Pushchin, PhD in biology, senior researcher, NNCMB FEB RAS
- Mikhail Feigelman, professor of physics
- Dmitry Merkulov, Engineer
- Marina Klimova, theatrical designer, designer
- Vladimir Kirsanov, retired researcher
- Eglzhe Velkaev, freelancer, writer
* Lev Ponomarev has been designated as an individual foreign agent. Tatyana Voltskaya has been designated as an individual media foreign agent. Oleg Elanchik has been designated as an individual media foreign agent. Memorial has been designated as a foreign agent NGO.
Translate by Simon Cosgrove
