But let's not be brothers

Ivan Davydov - about whether it is worth listing Russia, Ukraine and Belarus through a comma (even the Nobel Committee)

After the Nobel Committee awarded the world to human rights activists from the "neighboring countries" on October 7, disputes began on social networks about whether to emphasize the commonality of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus in 2022. The poet and publicist Ivan Davydov did not participate in these disputes, but now that they have subsided, expresses his opinion on the problem of the “Brotherhood of the Peoples”.

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The time is such that strange correspondence disputes arise as if by themselves. Well, look. There is, for example, (or was) an important propaganda narrative about the "fraternal Ukrainian people." Until February 24-eight or longer years-the situation was described something like this: the fraternal Ukrainian people are stupefied by anti-Russian propaganda, but we remember about historical kinship! After it became tougher: the fraternal people groan under the yoke of neo -Nazis and Americans, it was time to free him.

In response from the other side, of course, it regularly arrived: “We will never be brothers!” But we are from this side-so let's talk about ourselves.

The President of the Russian Federation, who decided to work in combination with the chief modern historian, is not that loves the phrase “fraternal people”. Especially lately. For him, Russians and Ukrainians, as you know, are “ one n and a kind ”, and he made many of his decisions based on this. But the chiefs of the rank lower, and even more so the information service service - these everyone loved to talk about the Brotherhood. The famous political scientist Sergei Markov in certain circles completely avoided the words “Ukraine” and “Ukrainians”, preferring to talk about the “unfortunate fraternal country” and “fraternal people”. However, now he overcame this fear of his names.

And since every word of the leader is a diamond, the question of the correct understanding of his words becomes fundamental for the system. Dmitry Peskov, for example, specifically explained why Putin calls Ukrainians and Russians a single people, and Belarusians - the fraternal people. “These are synonyms,” Peskov said on July 2, 2021.

I indicate the exact date, because then Peskov said something else: “We have no desire to place the Russian flag in Ukraine. We respect the sovereignty of Ukraine. ” There were times! But this is the past.

In the present, the theme of the Brotherhood was lost somewhere. When the prominent representative of the party in power (and the deputy Petr Tolstoy, of course, is a prominent representative of the party in power) directly declares : “We will have to drive Ukraine in the XVIII century. Then, after the victory, we will restore everything, ”it is completely embarrassed to discuss the fraternity. The trend, in general, is clear: the more strategic regrouping and waste to more profitable positions at the front, the less fraternal love in the rear. The more intense attacks on “critical infrastructure objects”, the deaf memories of former unity. In a sense, this is even natural.

This is on the one hand, but we are about correspondence disputes, and on the other hand, the Nobel Peace Prize. Nearby are human rights activists from the Ukrainian “Civil Freedom Center”, Belarusian Ales Belyatsky is political prisoner, who is already facing a second term - and the Russian “Memorial”. The organization was recognized as a NKO-foreigner, the activity was terminated by court decision, awarded the Nobel Prize of the World 2022-how it sounds!

Time pushes the symbols to an overdose, makes you look for signs everywhere. Psychiatrists have such a term - apothenia - this is the patient’s craving in any random events to see the system. Well, we are all patients now, only without a doctor and tablets. The decision of the Nobel Committee immediately gave rise to a storm in the ranks of those, I mean who does not support the Putin regime. For lovers of a bossy boot, everything is just simple: the enemies from the West decided to support their agents, it should be so. Some slandered the Great Stalin, the other attempted on Belarusian statehood, and others - in general, Ukrainians. What to be surprised?

I won’t sink into details: all of you probably followed these disputes or even participated in them yourself. But in short, everything boils down to two polar positions: either this year only Ukrainians deserved a bonus and in no case could we put Russians next to them, even the most worthy, or thanks to the Nobel Committee, we were reminded that we were still brothers, despite what.

By the way, in the official justification from the Nobel Committee, the notorious "Brotherhood" also flashes. The choice is justified by the desire to celebrate “three outstanding human rights fighters, democracy and peaceful coexistence of neighboring countries: Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. With their persistent efforts in the name of human values, antimilitarism and the principles of legality, the laureates of this year revived and felt the ideas of Alfred Nobel about the world and the brotherhood of peoples - ideas most in demand in today's world. ”

But the nuances are important. You can, for example, say: "All the people are brothers!" It is trite, but so it is. This is what the Nobel Committee says. And we can say: “Now I will teach you, a dumb younger brother, I will teach rockets how to live right!” This is an official Russian version.

If we have the future (I'm not sure, but I hope), then this is a difficult future. And it’s not only about the economy with politics. We will have to painfully deal with our own deployment in the past for a long time. With the habit of modernity and their own actions within the present, to justify with events that happened not to us and 80 years before us. Or for a thousand. This habit is characteristic not only by our current bosses. It is important to learn how to live now. It’s not at all a trifle - to finally understand that the current international treaties for a relevant policy are more important than the “Tale of Bygone Years”.

Many of our troubles are just growing out of the habit of dragging archaic into the relevant life, political ideas, borrowed at best from the century before last, or, worse, completely justify the current actions with primitive ideas about the structure of the patriarchal family.

Yes, we have a cultural proximity, and a linguistic and impressive piece of general story (which, by the way, can be interpreted in different ways). But this gives or, alas, made it possible to better understand each other - and nothing more. This does not give any special rights to anyone. No one is the youngest, no senior - to hell with this battered metaphor of Brotherhood. We are neighbors, you can’t argue with geography; And no matter how the current catastrophe ends, we will remain neighbors. And we need to somehow build a relationship. Normal, human, respectful.

Now the task seems insoluble, but try to imagine how this can be achieved at all is a much more important thing than disputes about the correctness or non -fraud of the Nobel Committee. Let's no longer be imposed in the brothers. Let's try to become normal neighbors. At least unpretentious for others.

How to hell, how? I don’t know, it is doubly painful, but there is nowhere to go from this. And if there is any hope, then it is in people. In people who even now protect freedom. In those, for example, who got the Nobel Peace Prize. I have no illusions: even this is a weak hope, but you have to hold on to something.

The author’s opinion may not coincide with the opinion of the editorial office.