Petr Aleshkovski

Russkaya khronika voiny

A Russian Chronicle of the War Documentary. Library Grinberg. Jerusalem 2022. 120 pages

Written day by day - from March until mid June 2022 - in direct response to what was happening in Russia in the early months of the war Russia unleashed. The author got into the car, drove to the province, 1000 kilometers from Moscow, and talked to people he met on the trip. Only direct contact could clarify something and convey the reactions to compatriots and the rest of the world. Stories about people, con- versations with them, their lively reaction - that was important to the author as direct evidence. Many were against the war from day one. Many, especially those who watched television, were under the influence of Putin‘s propaganda. The book conta- ins impressions of a journey through a country at war, but on whose territory no hosti- lities are taking place. But the war is felt by every cell of the body, and surprisingly the author met many who were against the war against the brother people of Ukraine from the very beginning.

The author‘s position is clear from the first line. The experience and horror of what happened is not hushed up, on the contrary, it is the driving force behind the book. The book was published in Israel because the author would have faced a long prison sentence in Russia. The author is sure that what is described is important for people who do not understand the situation in Russia very well, and he hopes that with him the reader will experience moments of hellish powerlessness and a sense of catastro- phe, shame and hopelessness that today very, very many people in his country expe- rience. The text of the book was printed day by day on the author‘s Facebook page and duplicated in telegram, with more than a thousand subscribers every day. Under the conditions of military censorship, this was the only way to communicate with com- patriots who share the author‘s views.