It has never been easy to be a dissident in Russia. But the war with Ukraine has made it increasingly difficult to be a Russian dissident in Europe. After more than seven months of carnage that seem to have left most Russians unconcerned, those who have always been critical of Moscow feel doubly helpless. This week, the Nobel committee announced that the Peace award went to the Belarusian activist Alés Bialiatski, the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine and the historic Russian NGO Memorial. Including the latter upset some in Kyiv. "Hatred against Russia, against the Russian language and against Russian culture at the moment is understandable," says Russian historian Irina Scherbakova, one of its founders and one of the greatest experts on Stalinist repression. Scherbakova, who spoke to La Vanguardia from her German exile, confesses that, at the moment, the organization's work is practically "impossible".
How does it feel to share the Nobel Peace Prize with Belarusian and Ukrainian activists right now?
Our situation is very difficult. I am now in Germany, I left Russia in March, after the start of the war. I spent a couple of months in Israel and now I am a visiting professor at the University of Jena. There are a lot of people from Ukraine here, and for Ukrainian intellectuals, and not only for them, it is very difficult, impossible, to remain silent. Hatred against Russia, against the Russian language and against Russian culture at the moment is understandable to me. But only in this case we need solidarity… From the beginning, Memorial has been against the Putin regime, but the reaction of many Ukrainians to being awarded the Nobel Prize has been critical. There has been hate speech. But for us it would have been inconceivable to receive the award alone, it was only possible to share it.
The award comes at the most critical time for your organization.
Memorial has been nominated many times, but this year was totally unexpected. The situation was absurd, at the same time that the Nobel committee gave us the prize, our colleagues in Russia sat on the bench. A day later they confiscated our offices. It has been crazy. Memorial has been liquidated.
Do they still have the capacity to work in Russia?
There are people who are trying, but the situation is very difficult for those who are still in Moscow and most of our work is now impossible.
The war in Ukraine has accelerated the persecution of dissent. Is there any hope for democracy in Russia?
Right now, I don't think so. When the war started, in Moscow and St. Petersburg there were protests. Hundreds of dissidents were arrested. But most people believed that this was not a war and that the Ukrainians were fascists, Nazis. Then summer came and my friends told me that nothing had changed in the city. The weather was fine, people were filling the restaurants, there were no signs of the war. But now everything has changed because Ukraine is succeeding and Putin has decided to call for mobilization. Now we can see what people really think about this war. Hundreds of thousands of people are leaving the country for Kazakhstan, Central Asia, Georgia… wherever they can. Some estimates speak of a million people. This has changed the situation. You no longer see men - young and not so young - on the streets of Moscow. They don't want to walk around the city too much; in the subway, in restaurants, even in offices they don't feel safe because the police can come and send them to the recruitment centers. It is dangerous.
It sounds scary.
It is. And the situation of our army is also very bad. They don't have enough equipment, they're running out of weapons, there isn't enough food… And when winter comes, conditions will get worse and a lot of unprepared people will die. People don't want to go to war, no matter if they are for or against Putin. But if that's strong enough to make it fall, I'm not sure. I have absolutely no hope of that happening any time soon.
Is there any chance for a negotiated end to the war?
No no no. In 2014, after the annexation of Crimea and the war in the east, the West proposed negotiations. We had Minsk I and Minsk II, and they only served for Putin to prepare for this war. After these bloody war crimes, I don't think there will be any negotiations. A negotiation would mean that Putin tries to win this war. I think that the situation can only change if Ukraine wins the war. There is no other solution. There is no other solution for us critics in Russia. Only the victory of Ukraine.
Is Ukraine's victory the only thing that can bring about change in Russia?
Yes. And that Putin wins the war also means danger for Europe.
Very few foresaw the war in Ukraine, but you claim that this is just Putin's way of doing things, like in Chechnya, Georgia...
Putin wants to destroy Ukraine. His dream is to build something like a mix between the Soviet Union and a Russian empire. These poisonous, archaic, traditionalist ideas about Russian nationalism and Russia's role in the world are creating a new model of postmodern fascist. It is a very dangerous situation. We are dealing with a person who has an absolute lack of empathy for human life. He wants to destroy Ukraine, and if we let him, then he will go to him for the Baltic countries, Moldova… If he wins this war, we will not be able to stop him. As a historian, the situation is absurd. The people of Memorial could see how dangerous these historical policies were, their propaganda, their image of the enemy, how they portrayed the West… But I don't know if we came to believe that Putin could start this war.
Why did you decide to leave Russia?
I felt helpless and filled with hate. I grew up in the Soviet Union and we had censorship, there was no freedom, but we didn't have a war between Russia and Ukraine. It is a horror of such magnitude that I could not stay. I did a lot of work with Memorial, with academics, with students, education programs, exhibitions, books… And I don't see the possibility of doing it now in Russia. It's not that I have a personal fear. If something happens to me, I don't care. It was a psychological decision.
