New Summer and New Life

Have you ever had that feeling that summer flies by unnoticed? And even more, that life itself was flying by unnoticed? That you need a new summer to replenish your happiness and inner energy? I have that feeling now. It came about when I decided to afford a little vacation and go to Turkey for a week. I went to the beautiful resort city of Antalya on the Mediterranean coast. It was the only opportunity for me to see my wife, who lives in London and whom I hadn’t seen in almost six months since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine began.

We were separated by distance and time; this summer seemed destined to bring us together. We were separated by the madness of the people who started the monstrous and destructive war in the 21st century. And also by the bureaucracy of the British government who for 5 months could not give me a visa. (But of course, as my wife sometimes tells me, we must leave all judgment to God).

In February 2022, we flew from London to Moscow two weeks after our wedding. It was to be our short honeymoon and a first foreign trip together. Six days later, the war broke out, and I escorted my wife to the airport as it was one of the last planes leaving for London before flights to Russia were completely cut off. She left the country, and I stayed.

Living in Moscow all these months, I had a strange feeling. The people around me didn’t seem to notice anything. Their lives went on as usual. While Russian missiles, bombs, and shells flew on Ukrainian cities, while my grandmother in Ukraine lived in Russian-occupied territory without electricity, water, heating, or mobile communications, the ordinary Russians noticed nothing. They still went to work, met with friends or family members, sat in restaurants, bars, and cafes. Women’s and children’s laughter could often be heard on the streets. Only high prices and the empty store windows of international brands sometimes made a few of them think.

Spring came, and then summer. Nothing had changed. It was as if life had come to a standstill, as if people were inert and lethargic in their indifference to what was going on. Of course, a large part of this was mass war hysteria, fomented by state propaganda, completely under the control of the Putin regime. Actively speaking out against the war, I was able to see firsthand the destructive power of this propaganda machine. My friends, whom I had known for two decades, on hearing about my anti-war views, promised to put me in prison for 15 years (according to the new Russian laws everyone who publicly opposes the war faces such a term).

Yes, people have truly lost their minds. Snitching and spy mania, “foreign agent” status, broken families, and long-standing friendships shattered in an instant are only a small part of what is going on in Russian society today. Society is divided, people have become enemies, as if the time of the Civil War (1917–1922) has returned. And now the victims of negative artificial selection and social engineering, in full accordance with Darwin’s theories, survive, mindlessly living their lives as if it were their last day. Most of all, this state of affairs reminded me of the social dystopias of which the 20th century was so rich. And it’s not even George Orwell’s famous book, 1984, but Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We, which deeply influenced world literature 100 years ago. The story of the resistance and struggle of two loving souls confronting the destructive and soulless state killing machine.

It was with these thoughts in mind that I flew to Turkey, to Antalya and its subtropical paradise. I was again reunited with my wife for a couple of days. The place was really nice. I had never, anywhere, seen such beauty. I would very much like to share this beauty with you.

However, this beauty did not bring me peace. It could not help me cope with my internal pain. The beauty of nature, the gentle sound of the sea and the fabulous mountain vistas did not let me forget for a moment the lives of millions of people ruined. It only made me realize that another life, a new life, exists.

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