Warfare #4: Social History
This week I have been pondering recent Russian history, thinking of my old Russian friends, and wondering how much they know of the atrocities next door in Ukraine.
I’m thinking of my Russian friends from a long time ago
And of this Ukraine war, what atrocities do they know
Rostaslav and Gennady
Georgy and Anatoly
I once worked with them all, deep in downtown Moscow
Communism had collapsed, the Soviet Union was lost
It had opened to the world, with perestroika and glasnost
The Berlin Wall
Down it would fall
International relations could finally defrost
And we owe our gratitude to Mikhail Gorbachev
With the courage to call, the nuclear arms race fully off
And to charm and engage
On the Western world stage
But deposed by Boris Yeltsin, drinking Smirnoff from the trough
Yeltsin’s coup made Russia, an independent nation
But he was in a constant state of inebriation
So Putin was appointed
The successor anointed
Two dark decades have followed, of corruption and damnation
But back to my friends, Gennady and Pakhomova
I met them when the Cold War was only just over
An early business adventure
A Russo-Western joint venture
With toasts to Mother Russia, not always sober
Invited to dinner in their humble Moscow homes
Behind security doors as solid as stone
A most massive feast
And vodka not least
Generous Russian hospitality was always shown
My colleagues came to London, anxious and wide eyed
Saw such a different world, and they almost cried
So much food on shop shelves
People enjoying themselves
Civil liberties that had been, for so long denied
So I wonder where my Russian friends are today
What would they think of Putin’s frenzied foray
Of the evil violation
The brutal annihilation
Mutilated bodies discarded in horrific display
Slaughtered civilians buried in shallow graves
Grisly scenes, sickening and so depraved
My friends would be ashamed
And they should not be blamed
For it’s Putin and his generals, who’ve so abhorrently behaved
For this is not the Russian people’s war
Not fighting back Nazis, like the war before
As for Rostaslav and Timofey
I think of them like yesterday
And do they know of the genocide, in the country next door?
Just imagine the pain of the guilt they would feel
If they were shown the same confronting newsreel
Gennady and Nicolai
Blinded by Putin’s lies
But wait until the ugly, reality’s revealed
Putin is responsible for untold human misery
Yet so much of that monster’s still shrouded in mystery
Far too long in power
But now is the hour
For somebody to please … commit this man to Russian history
I think of my dear friends from so long ago
Of the brutal truth, just how much do they know
But for fear of reprisal
They keep stum for survival
I compare our lives and lament … they’ve been denied a fair go!
Kevin Holmes • 6th April 2022
