A year after the brutal invasion of #Ukraine, the reflections of Lev Kopelev have never been more timely. As an officer in the Soviet army Kopelev had taken part in the invasion of the German territory of East Prussia at the end of WW2, and was ashamed and horrified at the treatment of the civilian population there. In his book ‘Aufbewahren für Alle Zeit’ (‘To Be Preserved Forever’), he asked:
What happened in East Prussia? Was such a brutalisation of our people really necessary and unavoidable– rape and pillage – did it really have to be like that?… In the newspapers, on the radio, we called for holy vengeance. But what kind of revenge was this – and on whom was our vengeance exacted? Why did so many of our soldiers turn out to be selfish thugs who raped women and girls at the side of the street in the snow, in the entrances to houses, who shot dead those without weapons and destroyed and burned whatever they could not carry – purely out of mindless vandalism. How did any of this become possible?
Kopelev’s stance cost him dearly. Charged with the ‘crime’ of having ‘shown pity for the enemy’, he was arrested and imprisoned for nearly ten years. Had he been around today, I am pretty sure that Kopelev would have been asking the same questions about the horror that is unfolding in #Ukraine. And I’m equally confident that the answer to his question about whether any of the misery that has been inflicted in the past year was necessary would have been a resounding ‘No!’ As for his ‘crime’ of having had the courage and empathy to imagine what it might feel like to be another human being, regardless of their nationality – let this be an inspiration to us all.
