Tag: war

“In The Rear View” Documentary

Chicago International Film Festival is in progress, and I had absolutely no time to see anything. Except for when I saw that documentary in the list of participating films, I knew I would find a non-existent time.

It was not even in the Siskel Center, but fortunately, on my way from work to home (I had to leave about an hour earlier to make it, but there were only two screenings of this film!).

It’s an unimaginably difficult film to watch. Even though there is no fighting, no shooting, no explosions, and even though we’ve seen footage of buildings damaged by Russian shells, you feel it differently watching from inside an evacuation minibus. Most of the people whom Maciek was evacuating were Russian speakers, and it was especially horrible to hear them referring to the “Russian tanks” as enemy tanks. About twenty minutes into the documentary, I started to cross my heart and didn’t stop till the end.

Maciek Hamela was there! The funniest thing is that he entered the building right before me, and like I, he was a little bit uncertain about where theater 13 was, where the screening was about to take place. And I heard him talking in Polish on the phone, and I thought that he might be going to the same screening, but I could never imagine it was a filmmaker!
He talked a little bit before the screening and after (he answered many of the same questions in the interview below), and then he answered questions from the audience. And then people started to thank him and started to come down and hug him, and then I left.
May those who brought this war to the land of Ukraine burn in hell!

Official trailer

An interview with Maciek Hamela:

***

Last week, Boris was in Barcelona for his conference, and sure, there were many conversations about the war, about Russia, the world, aid for Ukraine, and all related. Since this conference was very European and initially Eastern European, the conversations were deep and serious, not like the casual conversation with “preset” opinions we (unfortunately) often have here in the US.

One thing that surprised me was that people asked him, “Why does Putin keep fighting despite massive manpower losses?” Naturally, Boris answered, “Because, at least for the past thousand years, Russia never counted men’s losses when fighting.” I was still surprised that those who asked didn’t know the answer as if Russia ever gave any reason to doubt it. Still, they asked why people in Russia do not protest when the losses are so massive and why they don’t protest in general.

Again, I could at least partially understand such questions at the beginning of the war, but I am surprised people are still asking them.

Also, when replying to somebody about a “peaceful solution,” Boris cited our friend with whom we had this discussion in Berlin last fall: If not for Ukraine, Russian tanks would already be in Berlin. Not in Estonia. In Berlin.

The positive thing is that in Europe, the war didn’t move to the background…

Girl’s Weekend – Saturday

We planned this last August weekend as a “summer in Chicago” thing because, last summer, things ended up so busy that we didn’t have a single beach day together. Also, we wanted to go together to Chalk Howard and create a picture on asphalt together.

We had that and much more, and it was overall a very happy weekend without which the summer would be incomplete.

Initially, we wanted to go to Chalk Howard twice: to draw our own thing in the beginning and then to see what other people had created in the evening, but we ended up doing just the afternoon because everybody was tired by that time.

Continue reading “Girl’s Weekend – Saturday” →

Mega March Unbreakable Nation

Good News!

Yesterday, I spoke to an old colleague of mine with whom I do not speak so often. Even when we speak, that’s usually a quick exchange on our careers. Yesterday, I spoke to him for longer than three minutes, and I asked him whether he would attend my next meetup, which will feature Bruce Momjian. He replied: It would be great, but I will be in Ukraine! My jaw dropped. I know his wife, and I know she’s Ukrainian, but as I said, we do not talk much recently. Sensing my unspoken question, he continued: You probably don’t know that N. (his wife) quit her job as a lawyer and now runs a non-for-profit. They supply all sorts of equipment to Ukraine, and she was going there every two to three months. They are opening a new distribution center, and this time, I am going to accompany her.

I can’t even describe how good it made me feel (and how inadequate I feel myself, trying to be everywhere and not committed enough to anything; at least, that’s how I feel sometimes.

Happy Independence Day, Ukraine!

Anti-Putin Rally

I am sure that Igor will post about today’s event in more detail, but I still want to post a couple of his pictures. He reports that the meeting went really well, and the participants were especially ecstatic seeing Putin jailed.

Come To Anti-Putin Rally On August 20!

Details of the event are here.

Also, i wanted to make a copy of Igor’s Instagram post:

I couldn’t agree more with what Igor is saying. I can’t stress enough how critical it is to continue to oppose the war, to say no to Putin.

I think about it a lot recently – people tend to forget that the war is going on. Too many people reverse to “We should end this war – somehow,” not understanding that nothing had changed – it is still the same war, people are dying, and a big portion of Ukraine is occupied. It can’t be ended because “everybody is tired.” And it can’t be peace “at all cost.”

Today, I finished listening to Mikhail Zygar’s War and Punishment – such an awesome book! I picked it after I heard a short interview with Zygar on NPR. I was immediately taken by the way he spoke: clear, to the point, talking about his guilt in what was happening. And that’s how the whole book goes. I was reading about the events which happened “on my watch,” and I was horrified at how ignorant I was, how I was not following the events, and how I didn’t take the time to analyze the root causes of events.

War And Punishment

Yesterday, I listened to Michail Zygar interview on WEZ, where he talked about his new book War and Punishment. OMG, he is brilliant!!! Unfortunately, they do not have this interview as a separate episode on their website, so I can’t embed it here, but it was so good! So to the point!

And it turned out that although the book is currently unavailable on Kindle and is back ordered as a hardcover, it is available as an audiobook! I am going to start listening right away!

The War And The Media

Over the weekend, I had a conversation with a person who is not only very intelligent and hold very progressive views but is also not ignorant of what’s happening in Europe—someone who knows that there is the rest of the world outside of the US.

Still, my account of how the war is unfolding and what is really going on at the front appeared to be a revelation. She asked me whether I think the American media does a good job reporting about the war, and I said – no, gave multiple particular examples, and spoke about the trend in general. The war disappeared from the front pages, and even during the latest mutiny, the interest was directed toward Russia, not Ukraine. And I cited my friend, who said that no photographs and no reports could capture the horrors of destruction.

She listened to me with great attention and said: we live in a bubble that the media created. And we do not even know we live in a bubble.

I blogged about it so many times that I lost count. People do not understand the gravity of the situation; they push away the fact that the war didn’t stop, that people keep dying – every day.
And they keep explaining to me why NATO will never get directly involved, and I, in turn, keep explaining the consequences of that and the inevitability of confrontation with Russia, if not now, then in the future. And all of this feels hopeless.

Thoughts On What’s Happening…

SCOTUS decisions … I do not even want to talk about it. During my escort shift on Saturday, we talked about what happened last week, and the verdict was unanimous: we don’t know what was worse; every day was just new craziness. However, I think that the end of affirmative action is the worst. I don’t know what universities will do. I do not know how in the world these judges could think it was a great idea… How were they thinking?!

… upon returning from Finland, I started to go to the beach each time I worked from home. Same as last summer, it is a most satisfying relaxation, even if for a very short time. Most days, the Park District Day Camp is out there. Each time, I pass a large group of eight-nine-year-olds playing in the sand, splashing in the water, building castles, hugging and piggy-backing, all skin colors mixed – a perfect emblem of Rogers Park. I hope these beach memories will stay with them for the rest of their lives…

***

So, the recent events didn’t bring Ukraine back to the front pages… They brought Russia to the focus of attention. Since the start of the war, I have become used to the adverse reaction to the fact that I am Russian. These reactions subsided through the last year, but on Saturday, I had it again: “You are dangerous; what are you guys doing?” I replied to the effect that “it’s them, not us,” because I do not want to be associated with the fight between two evils. Maybe I am not expressing it clearly, but I would be instead blamed for Russian aggression toward Ukraine than the mutiny and what’s not. I am sad that people focus more on Russian internal affairs than the war. 

***

We had heavy rain for most of the weekend, but especially today, and our gym flooded again! Less damage that time, but still…

And working on the book – lots of tedious tiny things…