Random things. What happens when you protest in Russia? You are immediately arrested. It’s not a game of chance, it’s a guarantee. All protests are forbidden. We are not allowed to call the war – the war, you’ll be fined at best, arrested at worst if you do. In fact, as of today, if you’re caught at an anti-war protest, you’re considered a member of a radical extremist group and are facing 6 years in jail. People “detained” for protesting are invariably beaten. Concussions, contusions, broken bones. Men more so than women, though women can’t rely on it. You can be asked to strip since they “need” to check your underwear. You’ll be verbally abused and threatened the entire time. And yes, of course, it doesn’t stop there, since they now know you and your family and where you all work and live. In this country, there is nothing truly independent, there never was. If the words “1937” mean nothing to you, you are very, very fortunate. For us, it’s this again, only a thousand times worse because now it’s empowered by technology.
The other day they arrested a bunch of kids. Literally kids, four of them, aged seven to eleven. They, along with their mothers were carrying flowers to the Ukrainian embassy and a small simple poster “No to War”. They were all detained and immediately separated, kept locked up for the night. We don’t know how the kids were treated. Mothers had their possessions confiscated, not allowed to call anyone, stripped, yelled at, threatened. The harshest threat was to be stripped of parental rights on the spot, never see their kids again. The kids were released closer to morning when a lawyer from a group that helps people in these situations arrived. I have no idea how these lawyers are still allowed to function. Small mercies. (Support them here: https://donate.ovdinfo.org/)
But it’s not just the pain of punishment or jail sentence. It’s the utter uselessness of it all. He won’t care if half the population comes out to say “No to War”. He won’t care if it’s all of us.
A few days ago, every school in the country received instructions to hold special classes to explain to kids why “the liberating military operation” was necessary and what happens now. The teachers have been given manuals on what to say and how to answer the kids’ questions. Some of the answers include: “Don’t worry if you hear that some countries don’t want to be friends with us anymore. There are other countries who do, and besides, Russia is a very big country, so we have everything you can possibly need right here.” By “other countries”, my guess is, they mean North Korea. After the class, the kids are supposed to take a test. It’s electronic, entered through a QR code, and the answers are automatically logged in. Questions include: “Explain why the liberating military operation was necessary” and “Expand on what the Russian government is doing to help people of Lugansk and Donetsk.” The results of the test are tallied, and if some kid doesn’t give the right ones, their parents are called in for “a talk”.
We will either end up with a bunch of really smart kids or another generation of completely deluded people. The last time something like this had happened was in 1991, when the Soviet Union was falling, and my classmates and I were asked to make a choice of do we want to pledge allegiance to the communist party or not. I was ten. My class, as I remember, was split roughly in two. The kids who voted “yes” looked at the rest of us with teary eyes and whispered “our parents told us to do it, they are too afraid.” And we got it. We all got it. Nobody hated anybody for the choice, because we all knew that fear and we all knew what it was like, to be hostage of the regime. We who voted “no” knew what we were risking. At ten years old, we were more politically savvy than a lot of full-grown adults across the ocean. It’s not a good thing.
For roughly twenty-something years, we lived in the illusion that we were out of that prison. Sure, our democracy was not perfect, but whose is? It was maybe incredibly naïve of us, but can you blame us that we wanted to believe it? That we still desperately want to, which is why there are a lot of really confused people in the country right now who still can’t grasp that their leadership has betrayed them?They will, in fact, believe anything but this. They will sooner believe him and ignore the facts, because a) they’re not getting the facts, and b) the truth is terrifying.
Nothing has changed. We’re still in the USSR. Yesterday, in Nalchik, students of the local university were ordered to go out and express their support for the president. They had no warning. At some point the university staff members entered their classrooms, handed out banners and t-shirts, and ordered them to go outside “to stand in solidarity” with the president. Refusal was not an option on pain of expulsion. Among other statements, they were made to hold up banners saying #wearenotashamed which should tell you everything you need to know about how the Russian people really feel.
I’m not going to talk about the independent media, because the last survivors of this extremely rare breed are being shut down as we speak. Meduza is still holding up by some miracle, but their turn can be any hour. They have been declared “a foreign agent” some years back, which means that they can no longer be properly financed and have to preface every single post and article with a huge all-caps statement that this information was created by a foreign agent, presumably to turn “loyal citizens” away. They have been subsiding on crowd-funding this whole time, can’t imagine how, since all transactions are now traceable and giving them money is not without consequences. (Support them here: https://support.meduza.io/)
The world has turned away from us, and I get it, but they don’t understand what they’re doing. Or maybe they do but don’t care. I don’t mean this on an emotional level, but purely practical. The more they punish the Russian people, the more, unfortunately but sadly naturally, the Russian people will unite in their support of He Who Must Not Be Named. He will feel even more legitimate in his actions and he won’t stop. Not that I can imagine anything that could make him stop now but… It’s not helping. It might make a lot of people out there feel better about themselves, but it’s not helping.
Worst of all, we can’t help Ukraine. So much as saying that we’re fighting a war or that we are losing that war can earn you up to 15 years in prison for “spreading misinformation.” It’s impossible to send over money, and as for supplies we can only gather those for the refugees that are fleeing to Russia. Our economy is on the brink of collapse, and the people that are running from the war and come here will have to share it with us. We’re doing what we can for them. It’s not enough.
And personally… My mornings these days start like this. I wake up. I don’t want to get up. I do eventually. Splash water on my face etc. Take my heart medication. Wait for it to take effect. Then I open Telegram and see if Meduza is still broadcasting. Read the overnight update. Learn that the horror continues in a multitude of fresh new horrifying ways. Remind myself that I have no right to sympathy or feeling sorry for myself or any of that. I was not the one who spent the night in a bomb shelter. I was not the one whose house was destroyed. I wish I was but I’m not. I’m just a useless spectator who’s too chickenshit to even go get beaten up and who rationalizes her cowardice any way she knows how. I want you to know this about me before you decide to continue knowing me. I am unaccountably grateful having known all of you.
I don’t know what else to say except maybe this. Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Inspired by the brave Ukrainian woman who told the invading Russian soldier “Put sunflower seeds in your pocket so that sunflowers will grow when you die here.”
Right now, holding up a sign in St. Petersburg condemning this war is the textbook definitionof “neither safe nor careful.”
But they’re proving to anybody in Russia who thought they were the only ones who opposed this war, that they’re not, and reminding the rest of the world that a government is not the people it claims to represent, and I am deeply moved by their courage.
Like so many people around the world I have been utterly horrified by the news of what is happening in Ukraine and to the Ukrainian people.
I’ve also been devastated and heartbroken to see the posts by @nocturne-viand@wistfulpoltergeist. I don’t know either of them personally, but I’ve followed them both for a while and love their content. Seeing their posts and knowing how scared they are for themselves and their families has brought me to tears along with seeing the awful news coverage.
If like me others in the simming community are feeling the same and also feeling helpless and wondering how we can help them. I thought I would put a list of all the Ukrainian simmers together so we can do our best to support them. If they have a Patreon account or any form of account for their creative content then I was hoping we could share their details here in order for those that can afford to subscribe to them can. I know it’s not much, but it’s the only way I can think of right now.
Even if you cannot help financially by subscribing to them then at least share this post and share their content and DM me so I can add as many of their accounts to this post as I can so they know we are here for them and can show them our support.
I’m from Ukraine, I couldn’t sleep because of the explosions. Russia started a war against us…
As a white American I cannot fathom what is happening here. The closest I can come to understanding from a Slavic perspective is a close friend that lived through the atrocities in Serbia during the 90s before literally winning her visa to the US in her home country’s lottery. She spoke of a few terrifying things, but most of them were unspeakable to her. She would simply silence the conversation in a rush of tears and change the subject.
The American media is a propaganda machine I haven’t trusted in years. Is there an accurate news outlet I can follow to hear and see the truth? What can I personally do to help? Can we lift the voices of our Ukrainian simmers? I feel so lost.
“This is the window of an urban researcher Lev Shevchenko in Kyiv. He barricaded himself with books to keep the glass from flying into the room during the bombardment.“
Second off, Eurovision literally began to try to bring Europe together to encourage friendship between our countries after WW2. Like we all take the piss of Eurovision (with good reason like we - Ireland - literally sent Dustin the fucking turkey to compete for us, like people have the right to take the piss of it lmao) but it’s never not been political. If anything this is the most Eurovision thing to ever happen in Eurovision. Solidarity between our countries standing in support of Ukraine and her people.
