WORLD WORLDWIDE CZECH RUSSIA News Journal Update - (en) Czech, AFED: Ilya Shakursky: A Letter to a Friend (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 A letter from one of the anarchists convicted by Russian justice in the

fabricated Network case --- As part of the International Week of
Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners , which runs from August 23 to 30,
we are publishing a letter written by Ilya Shakursky - one of the
anarchists convicted in the fabricated Russian Network case , who is
spending the third year in prison. He was sentenced to sixteen years. *
* * A friend once confided in me how disappointed he felt that
everything ended after my detention, as if everything was clearly
divided into "before" and "after". The life in which we had been
immersed for years - the atmosphere of the movement, concerts, events,
binges, travel, battles, theater - all seemed to disappear, dissolved in
the fear and rigidity that surrounded many, and faded into the images of
nostalgic reflections on the time, when it wasn't so dangerous to be
yourself in Russia.

My friend's conclusions are mainly based on the fact that the regional
movement still consists of a relatively narrow circle of people whose
enthusiasm is the basis of all activity, so it is not surprising that
after the spectacular arrest, silence reigned in the town. And now, at a
time when there is a tendency to analyze the history of the almost
destroyed anti-fascist and anarchist movement in contemporary Russia, in
a number of articles I increasingly come across the opinion that the
next defeat of the movement began precisely with the "Network" case.
According to my personal impressions, the movement was in a certain
state of fragmentation at that time, but it was in the years 2016-2017
that it manifested its desire for unity.

We are all well aware of the consequences of the crushing defeat of the
young and courageous movement of the zero years. It was then that the
authorities saw that they had lost control of the growing antifa,
subcultural movement, anarchists and environmentalists. Then everything
ended with the death of Fyodor Filatov, Ilya Dzaparidze, Ivan Chutorsky,
Markelov and Baburova, the Khimki case and emigration. The zero years
ended with the memorial book Exod us by Peter Silayev, which became a
hit among us young anti-fascists and anarchists.

And time passed. 2011 - retribution for the defeat of the movement,
radicalization of individual groups; 2012 - protests on Blatné námestí;
2014 - Maidan and the beginning of combat actions in Ukraine. We young
people were also shaped by these events and we tried to renew and
support the life of the declining movement. Concerts, trips, fights,
graffiti, lectures, FNB and free markets. We continued all this, it was
part of our culture, our self-expression and internal stimuli. We
continued to maintain contacts, absorbed the experience of older
comrades, the way of fighting, creating an atmosphere, we continued to
revive the movement - or at least we tried to. At some point, the
zeitgeist instilled in us a sense of the necessity of militarization, as
if the stakes were raised and we began to realize that the time was
approaching when we would have to defend ourselves in order to survive.
Times have changed...

Fall 2017. Arrest. Torture. Escapes from the country. Tightening of
laws. The "Network" case. Judgments. The suicide attempt of the
anarchist Mikhail Žlobický. Attempts at protest and resistance. People's
self-defense. The Case of the Cannes Anarchists . Torture and repression
again. The 1900s were coming to an end and this is now our "Exodus", but
not all made it through the desert. Some are still here. And so my
friend tells me about the emptiness that gradually took over after 2017.
Time flies, there is nothing of what we used to move and live in,
everything has been covered by fear. Some are tired, some have moved
away, some seem to have gone crazy and changed. The desert is drowned in
an endless void. Depression, apathy and disappointment are like shackles
on the hands of once optimistic and active children. There was very
little light left from the remaining fires.

The new reality is parties of braying frat boys, banners calling for the
signing of military contracts, daily arrests of opponents and sentences,
Prilepin[originally in opposition to Putin, now a defender of the
invasion of Ukraine]in the State Duma, anarchists and antifa outlawed,
Stalinism, quotes from[of the fascist thinker Ivan]Ilyin, imperial flags
and red banners.

When we were arrested, with each interrogation I realized that the
Chekists were not only supposedly suppressing criminal activity and
sowing fear, but that they were beginning liquidation - the liquidation
of the ideological enemies that we personified. By eliminating those
whose notions of freedom and equality are utterly foreign to them,
because they hate "dudes and buffoons" and love busty women and hunting
expeditions. In their offices hang the portraits of those who shot
anarchists in the last century, and in the name of returning to the
past, they only renewed the work of the Bolsheviks. It all started with
anarchists and rampant Nazis and ended with liberals and pacifists. The
desert melts in the heat of repression. No water, no life.

But why am I writing all this? This is a letter to my friend, whose
heart has been filled with sadness and longing, but when I write to him,
it means that I am also writing to all of you: those with whom we met in
the woods near Moscow at the concerts of Volodya Ukropa and Natasha
Chetverio; to those who listened to MDB on headphones on the train on
the way to battle with nazi skins; those who prevented the residents of
the Mosshelk hostel from being evicted; to those who put up a banner at
rallies in central Moscow in 2017; to those who took to the streets of
their cities every January 19[to honor the memory of the murdered
anti-fascists Markelova and Baburová]; to those who spoke about the
problems of discrimination; they wrote letters to Ljosh Sutug in prison;
to those who wore "The Power of Freedom" T-shirts; to those who read the
magazine A vtonom and throwing out the summons for questioning to
the[anti-extremist]center E. We have been through it all together and
now we are going through hard times together which are depressing us
inside. But, friends, we should not give up, we should not think that
this is the end of our fellowship and the eclipse of our spirit.

Kdyz se cekisté chytili termínu "sít", stále neco nechápali. Mysleli si,
ze se vzdáme vshech stranických prukazu a zrekneme se svých údajných
organizacních závazku, ale sít anarchistického hnutí existuje mimo
nejakou prísne vymezenou strukturu. Sít anarchistického a
antifashistického hnutí je vzájemný úsmev dvou neznámých lidí, kterí se
potkají v metru a podle nejaké charakteristické drobnosti se poznají; je
to, kdyz se ocitnesh v cizím meste a dostanesh císlo pokojíku, kde
muzesh zustat, a mesto prestane být cizí; je to, kdyz se známe díky
jednomu podání ruky a s nejvetshí pravdepodobností neznáme svá skutecná
jména; je to, kdyz muzeme cestovat stovky kilometru jen proto, abychom
pomohli kamarádum pri masové konfrontaci, podporili muzikanty, které
známe, nebo se pripojili k ekologickému táboru. A zádný vyshetrovatel,
prokurátor ani soudce to nedokáze pochopit, takze nás nedokáze znicit.

The European dictatorships of the 20th century wiped out those whose
experiences and heroism are an inspiration to many of us today. Franco
thought he had exterminated the Spanish anarchists, Hitler thought he
had exterminated all the German anti-fascists, but today we see how
massive the Berlin anti-fascist marches are and how large the
anarchist-occupied districts of European countries are.

It seems that we rebels, idealists, and dreamers have always been
foreign, misunderstood, and marginal to this country, and yet we are
home, and after each subsequent destruction and defeat, we keep being
reborn as a new force of youth right here, in this place. And therefore,
my friend, emptiness is not eternal. Yes, we have passed the next stage,
yes, now it seems that every day it is more terrible and difficult, but
the sincerity that encouraged in our hearts the unifying spirit of
freedom and the fight for it must be preserved no matter what.

Another blow of the movement spread us all over the world, but did not
break the threads of solidarity and friendship. Let's not wallow in the
darkness of time, let's continue to be ourselves and do everything to
dispel that darkness.

Ilya Shakursky, June 2023

 From source:
https://avtonom.org/news/ilya-shakurskiy-pismo-drugu

https://www.afed.cz/text/8002/ilja-sakurskij-dopis-kamaradovi
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