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The newsletter to fuel â and thrill â your mind. Read for deep dives into the unmissable ideas and topics shaping our world. Mar 29, 2022 Today As Vladimir Putinâs illegal war in Ukraine continues, itâs time to consider Russian voices, present and past, who have sung from a very different hymn sheet. Putinâs forces have been shelling Ukrainian cities for over a month. Hitting both military and civilian targets, the Russian leader has ignored international law and pleas to stop the bloodshed. Meanwhile, back at home, his regime has clamped down on the press and arrested anti-war protestors. In todayâs Daily Dose, we focus on what Russians through the ages have said about oppression and war in their country.
Russian Voices of Opposition Alexei Navalny [Alexei Navalny]( (b. 1976), the Russian opposition leader and anti-corruption activist, was arrested in January 2021. His arrest and trial inspired the countryâs biggest protests in years. Navalny was poisoned in 2020 by the nerve agent novichok which is believed to be Putinâs preferred method of assassination. Navalny has recently been given a[nine-year prison sentence]( in a âstrict regime penal colony,â replacing his current three-and-a-half-year sentence on seemingly trumped up embezzlement charges. [Navalny tweeted on March 22]( that âthe best support for me and other political prisoners is not sympathy and kind words, but actions. Any activity against the deceitful and thievish Putin regime. Any opposition to these war criminals.â Marina Ovsyannikova Marina Ovsyannikova (b. 1978) was an editor at the Russian Channel One television station. On March 14, Ovsyannikova burst onto the set of the live evening news program shouting: âStop the war. No to war.â She held up a sign behind the news presenter saying: âDonât believe the propaganda. Theyâre lying to you here.â It added in English that the message was from âRussians against the war.â Ovsyannikova was fined $280 for this protest. [She said in an interview](, âI could see what in reality was happening in Ukraine. And what we showed on our programs was very different from what was going on in reality.â In the last few days Ovsyannikova has been accused of being a [British Spy]( by Kirill Kleimyonov, head of Channel Oneâs news division. Garry Kasparov Garry Kasparov (b.1963), the famous chess grandmaster, was jailed for five days in 2007 by Putinâs regime and beaten by police in 2012. He has been one of the most outspoken Russian critics of Vladimir Putin for years. Kasparov warned the world in early 2021 that âPutin is not just a Russian imperialist. He has a much bigger agenda. He is an existential threat to the free world.â As he said in an interview in [The Guardian](: âIn the west there is a lot of self-deception, multiplied by business interests and apathy, about Putinâs true intentions.â He warned, long before the war in Ukraine started, âno one wants confrontation. But people need to recognize that Russia is a fascist dictatorship, which has no restrictions when it comes to destroying political opponents â in and outside â of Russia.â
Dissident Women Svetlana Alexievich Svetlana Alexievich (b. 1948) won the Nobel prize for literature in 2015. Alexievich has spent a lifetime reporting and writing about Russian wars and their effects, criticizing the political regimes of the Soviet Union, Russia and Belarus. Her books The Unwomanly Face of War, The Last Witnesses: 100 Unchildlike Stories and The Boys in Zinc all deal with the disastrous results of war in the Russian sphere of influence. âIf you look back at the whole of history,â she says, âboth Soviet and post-Soviet, it is a huge common grave and a blood bath â an eternal dialogue of the executioners and the victims.â [Alexievich recently called Putinâs order]( to put Russiaâs nuclear weapons on high alert an indication of an âinsaneâ person. Anna Akhmatova Anna Akhmatova (1889 â 1966) was one of [Russiaâs greatest poets]( but her work was suppressed by the communist regime of the USSR. The infamous Soviet police known as the Cheka executed her husband Nikolay Gumilyov in 1921, and her son Lev Gumilyov was jailed as a warning that she not speak out about Soviet oppression. In her most famous poem, âRequiem,â she wrote that war âwas a time when only the dead could smile.â Nadezhda Mandelstam Nadezhda Mandelstam (1899 â1980) was the wife of the poet Osip Mandelstam. Osip was imprisoned and exiled for writing the poem âStalinâs Epigram,âin which he called Stalin a âmurderer and peasant slayer.â Osip died in 1938 on his way to a Gulag (or forced labor camp). In Nadezhaâs memoir, [Hope Against Hope](, she wrote of the trauma of living under Stalinâs authoritarian regime and being exposed to its terrors, including this line: âthe only good life is one in which there is no need for miracles.â [Take Our Poll](
Watch Scarlett Johansson [Behind the Scenes of 'Black Widow']( on The Carlos Watson Show What the Philosophers Thought Leo Tolstoy Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), the theorist and author of War and Peace, became one of the worldâs most famous advocates of pacifism and [non-violence](. He regularly attacked the Russian government for fighting wars. He called on his fellow Russians to say no to a government that wished âto make me a participator in murder; you demand of me money for the preparation of weapons; and want me to take part in the organized assembly of murderers.â In words that seem meant for today,he wrote: âNo arguments can take away this plain fact, that a man with any sense of his own dignity cannot enslave himself to a master whose business is killing.â Mikhail Bakhtin Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975) was a philosopher exiled by Stalin. Bakhtin was perhaps one of the greatest advocates for freedom of expression. He believed that â[two voices]( is the minimum for life.â For Bakhtin, truth can only exist in a society if people are allowed to speak their minds. Isaiah Berlin Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997) was one of the great liberal thinkers of the twentieth century. Born in Riga when it was part of the Russian Empire, he lived most of his life in England, and the [message he brought back]( concerning Stalinâs regime was this: âthose who believe that such a system is simply too heartless and oppressive to last, cruelly deceive themselves ⦠The governed, a passive, frightened herd, may be deeply cynical in their own fashion, and progressively brutalised, but ... they will, be able to find their lives just â if only just â sufficiently bearable to continue to exist and toil and even enjoy pleasures.â Sanctions, Berlin might have argued today, might not be enough to bring Putin down. Community Corner What would your message be to Putin? Share your thoughts with us at OzyCommunity@Ozy.com. ABOUT OZY OZY is a diverse, global and forward-looking media and entertainment company focused on âthe New and the Next.â OZY creates space for fresh perspectives, and offers new takes on everything from news and culture to technology, business, learning and entertainment. [www.ozy.com]( / #OZY Curiosity. Enthusiasm. Action. Thatâs OZY!
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