“There is no need to be afraid”. Closing statement of professor Alexander Nesterenko who was sentenced to three years for Ukrainian songs on his socials

I hope that this statement is my last in this auditorium, but not my last all together. To start with, I wish everyone here a happy Christmas, with hopes of miracles and of changes for the better. About this, there’s [Iosif] Brodsky’s poetry: the stronger is Herod, the more certain the inevitable wonder. We’re putting our hopes on that.

In the late 80s and the 90s, if someone had said that there would be political prisoners in Russia again, that the sentences for saying things would be longer than they are for murder, I would have thought that that person was insane.

But here I am, already in my second year in prison, because, among the 400 or so songs in many of the world’s languages on my VKontakte playlist, are a few in Ukrainian. That was the basis for my arrest on charges of “inciting hatred or antipathy.” This “incitement” was against Russians: the charges passed over the Russian Federation’s many other nationalities in silence, as second-class citizens not even worth a mention. It wasn’t specified who I incited to hatred and antipathy against Russians, but it’s not hard to guess that they had in mind people who speak Ukrainian.

At the last minute, without any explanation, the charges on which I have been held behind bars for two years, as a terrorist and extremist, were dropped. It turned out that the impression created, of a whirlwind of activity on my case by dozens of law enforcement officers, was all in vain. They undertook search operations, prepared expertise and made investigations of my case … instead of defending citizens from actual terrorists. And now I am charged only with advocating extremist activity.

Both songs that are mentioned in the charges – the third one is not, and never was, in my playlist – have lyrics written a hundred years ago. They have nothing whatever to do with the Russian Federation, nor with Russians, nor with the current world situation. I am not their author and I didn’t perform them. I didn’t put them on line. No-one has designated them extremist or included them in lists of banned items, and none of the social media channels have blocked them. They are right there, being listened to by other VKontakte users, from whom I took them, to add to my playlist for future study, to follow up on my research interests. Which, in case anyone is interested, are: imagined communities, historical memory, group identities, historical narratives and similar subjects.

In other words, the charges under the relevant article of the Criminal Code do not fit with the circumstances of the case. They are unlawful.

What has happened to me, and to other prisoners of conscience, demonstrates clearly this government’s real character. It is based on lies and violence. Its aim is to force us to become sheep, marching to the beat of drums made from our own skins. But in spite of the merciless repression, in Russia there were and there are people who have not renounced their ideals, their truths, because only those truths are worthy of devoting their lives to. And for me it’s a great honour that, by the will of fate, I now stand by side with these wonderful people.

I admit, in full, my guilt, in that to preserve your power, you are ready to commit any crime. I am guilty of not being among those heroes who were thrown into dungeons right at the start, for being faithful to their ideals. Because, unlike them, I, like many of us, had not found for myself the answer to the question, “what can I do?”. Now I know the answer to that, and I hope I have the moral right to say what it is.

First, however banal this sounds: there is no need to be afraid. They want to terrify us, because any power is itself afraid, above all, of its own people. But they can not put half the country in prison. If we all stop being afraid, then no cough will stop us from yelling out the truth: the emperor has no clothes.

Second, no-one can force us to obey criminal orders. We carry them out by our own free will, always finding justifications for our timidity, instead of courageously and honestly doing the duty required by our conscience.

The only way to defy spiritual freedom is to retain freedom in your own soul. Because freedom isn’t external, it is inside us. In detention I have become freer, because in prison you feel more intensely genuine freedom – freedom of the soul.

In conclusion, I would like to mention some beautiful fairy tales, rays of light in the darkness that is swallowing us: “The Dragon” by Schwartz, “The Giant Cockroach” by Korney Chukovsky, Tamara Gabbe’s “City of Masters”, “Tale of Cipollino” by Gianni Rodari, and “Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien. I wouldn’t be surprised if tomorrow these publications were denounced by some Grima Wormtongue or Unter Prishibeev. I wouldn’t be surprised if these tales were found to advocate extremist activities, and their authors were added to the notorious list of extremists and terrorists, on which I too have been lucky enough to land.

Finally: we must not forget that, whatever the circumstances, our fate and our future lies only in our hands. It depends on us ourselves, no-one else, what we do with our lives: vegetate, or achieve moral victory.

Thank you for your attention.

Editor: Anna Pavlova

Translated by Simon Pirani