Dear Russians, it is time you show your real faces
Even though I’ll be using a game reference and writing this with my friends and acquaintances in mind (gamers and industry people), I dedicate this to every citizen of the Russian Federation. Today your own homegrown hitler started waving his nuclear dick. Perhaps it’s a bluff, perhaps a fair warning, but the fact is that this doesn’t increase safety. Not to you, not to anyone. You absolutely must remind us of your true faces now. I’ll try to explain, why I feel like I forgot what you look like.
In recent days I had quite a few conversations with Russians, I’ve listened to even more. In various groups, chats, and social platforms. Yes, I feel the sentiment that you’re unhappy. I was harsh towards some of You hours after your hitler finished his address. I’m not sorry for that, although now I realise that in some cases we just started on the wrong foot.
Let me try and correct that.
Even though I see a lot of anti-war messages, usually they either share your fears or try to tackle various challenges that wait ahead. How to protect business, how to deal with sanctions, how to retain a sense of normalcy and where to put eyes full of shame while contacting friends and partners from the free world. Not much about doing something to damage putler and his ability to wage war.
When I (or anyone else) ask why won’t you stand up, right then and there, on the morning of 24th? There’s always the same response: there’s nothing we can do. There’s no way to withstand the onslaught of the national guard and ОМОН. Just appearing on the street is dangerous, I might lose my health, my life, my freedom, my future. Let me assure you, I believe you, but…
I can’t comprehend what future are you talking about? How do you dream about it? Where do you get the faith, that your future will be different? When I ask this, I get another response: you don’t understand our internal situation, you’re not here, you have no idea what you’re talking about. And it hurts. Do you know why? It’s because you don’t understand that we understand. We know a lot about the terror and aggression of Russian origin. And even those without empathy can feel you in this context, simply because we went through the same. Numerous times.
It became evident, that you don’t really understand or think about it this way. You feel unique that you’re in a unique hostage situation, forgetting, that many hostages already fought their way out. It was evident when so many Russians got angered by the depiction of Russian paratroopers and their role in global conflicts in „Call of Duty: Modern Warfare“. Why the outrage? I’ll tell you. Because it’s not the image you’d like to see. Because you don’t want to be associated with that image. But the problem is that in our minds it’s not some sort of fantasy. It’s a reflection of drunk, dim eyed berserks pacifying innocent people. You keep insisting, that not all of you are like this, we keep on hiding that image among memories, but don’t you dare to tell us, that we’re not familiar with a monster, you’re so scared of.
Look at the image of this article. This is the face of the Russian, etched into the heads of millions of people throughout post-soviet space and recently among countries who witnessed an image of a paratrooper drunk on ozverin. Almost every modern Eastern European nation had to fight for its freedom. And die during peaceful protests, or on the fields of battle. We grow up with an image of dirty, smelly Ivans and leather-clad NKVD officers taking, raping, killing and exiling people for no reason. And then we meet you, the ones who love the phrase „not all Russians are like that“. We meet you at events or while visiting Russia. We accept you as partners, tourists, and friends. We work, dine and drink together. We may discuss politics sometimes, we may have disagreements sometimes, but usually, everything is ok. You are ok. You help change the face of Russia and send that image of a rapist to a shelf of bad memories.
The problem is that those memories are constantly refreshed by your other countrymen. For example, when your nation arms a bunch of idiots and they shoot an international airliner, killing hundreds. Minutes after the crash, the internet bursts with videos of groups of marauders, stealing passenger belongings. A group of half humans, that your country chose to support and protect. This probably didn’t happen you’ll say. Agreed, maybe it didn’t, but we still believe it. Simply because we’ve seen it before. In moments like that, an image of a drunken soldier reappears and your faces disappear in a shade.
But look it’s the same monster you’re scared of. Half of Europe fought it and won. Ukraine kicks its ass pretty hard as we speak, while I still can’t see your face. Yes, there are demonstrations and heroes being arrested in thousands. It’s a shame they suffer in vain because millions of you still didn’t show up. You want to do something, but avoid huge risks? Well, then figure out a way to take the smaller risk. Do anything and everything to convince the world, that there’s a lot of you and that you’re against war and its further escalation. Get fucking creative and make that sentiment strong, well known and unwavering. putler acts with confidence because you’re silent. Not me, not anyone doesn’t care about the shape and form of your action, but it’s very important to dominate the headlines telling, that Russian nation resists war and supports Ukraine. With increasing sanctions and further escalation of war, there will be less and less opportunities to do it. If you miss them…Regardless of how this will end, you’re fucked. I hope you understand that victorious putler will further consolidate his power over you. And in case of Ukrainian victory, he’ll probably go nuts and you’ll pay the price of this war for generations to come. By protecting your own future, you may be denying it to the Russian kids of today. Please find strength and ideas to resist this madness before we reach a point of no return. Before an image of a rapist gets etched into the minds of even more people of the free world.