6 June 2022
Source: Witnesses Against War
Witnesses Against War is an anonymous international group of journalists, writers, historians and translators, who live in Moscow and London. For reasons of security, their project is anonymous. In addition to the above websiste, you can also find them on Instagram / Инстаграм and Telegram / Телеграм.
‘Civil War Has Begun’
From Telegram Channel Super, created by Russian journalist Roman Super.
I was born in 1968 in Uzbekistan, in the ancient city of Bukhara. In 1976, after an earthquake, our family moved to the Crimea. It was the Soviet Union, and Crimea then belonged to the Ukrainian SSR. I studied Ukrainian language and literature at school. In the village where we lived, there were many Ukrainians and Russians. But everyone spoke surzhyk [a mixture of Ukrainian and Russian]. At the age of 21 I moved to Leningrad where I still live. I am half Uzbek, half Russian. And I have three Motherlands: Uzbekistan, Ukraine and Russia.
After February 24, when I saw a video on the internet, where our conscripts were taken prisoner, I began sobbing uncontrollably. I heard my native Ukrainian language, I saw confused little-boy-conscripts, the same age as my son. And my heart broke. For me, both sides were family. And a feeling took me over completely – that civil war has begun. But after Bucha, I stopped watching such videos. Now I believe that the Russian military should not follow criminal orders. I’ve heard that refusing to do so can lead being imprisoned. But prison is better than becoming a criminal, a murderer, and would save both life and conscience. I have sent my son abroad, and while this bloody massacre carries on, I will not let him back into Russia.
No to war!
