“All wars come at the expense of human life. No one thinks about the little man”

"War". Drawing by Polina Zherebtsova made in 1995.

The writer, journalist and human rights activist Polina Zherebtsova spent ten years of her childhood and youth caught up in the wars declared by Russia on the Chechen Republic, which dreamed of independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union. She described her experiences from that period in poignant diaries, several novels and poems. She warns the world about the Kremlin, totalitarianism and violence, which are indispensable parts of every sphere of Russian reality. She also recalls the victims of the Chechen wars, forgotten by the world.

KAROLINA ZUB-LEWIŃSKA: What are you currently working on? What actions are you taking in the field of human rights protection?

POLINA ZHEREBTSOVA: I am a writer and journalist. Many people turn to me for advice and help. Someone fleeing persecution in Russia asks for advice on political asylum, someone requests protection by applying to migration services of a particular country in Europe, as the family may be deported. In my spare time, I lecture at universities, including the famous Free University. Lectures on what war is and how to survive during war.

I do not represent any human rights organization. On my own behalf, I help those who have asked me for help as a human rights activist. I write appeals to the migration authorities, I come to the refugee camp as a volunteer, I help fill out forms for those who are new in the country and just learning the language, and if possible, I bring things and food. My help is completely selfless. After all, my family once came to Europe. We were refugees ourselves and someone helped us too, there were many volunteers. The state of Finland helped us greatly. The law in Finland works well. I would very much like to see it start working in Russia as well, and for Russians to learn what law and human rights are.

In 2013, my husband and I were granted political asylum, and in 2017 we received Finnish citizenship. My books are published in Europe and have been translated into thirty languages worldwide.

Polina Zherebtsova in Grozny

Why is Russian reality permeated with violence in practically all spheres?

The state system has long been using violence as the main method of managing citizens. This manifests itself in everything: changing the constitution in accordance with President Vladimir Putin’s wishes, tightening criminal law, monstrous repressions, igniting armed conflicts, and so on. If we look from the general to the specific, almost every Russian child has experienced violence from kindergarten teachers; a student experiences humiliation from a teacher at school; and a soldier from a senior officer in the army. Harassment and intimidation are practiced, which at the national level are perceived as the norms essential to raising a person.  

This evokes in Russian society not a rebellion but love for the “hand of the master” and the “Stalinist order”, because for decades the authorities saw violence as the main instrument of governance. It claimed that, otherwise, the system would collapse because we are surrounded by enemies. Every day, in fact, we are reminded of this by propagandists on all leading TV channels.  

The socio-psychological methods used by the leaders in Russia are designed for vast crowds of people and are based on coercion and incentive. People are initially driven into inhumane conditions, and then to those who become useful sycophants, the government throws crumbs from its table, thus elevating them above the rest of the powerless citizens.

Those who were fortunate to survive the war and genocide in Chechnya received no compensation for their injuries or the death of their loved ones. They were wandering, starving to death… They received neither medical nor financial assistance. This is what the Kremlin had for the citizens of their own country. I did not receive any compensation for the destroyed apartments of my ancestors in Grozny. Not a single rouble. And everyone from Grozny will respond the same. Meanwhile, Ramzan Kadyrov receives billions from the Russian budget. This is a concrete example of “justice” in Russia.

It seems that Russian society is incapable of rebellion

The totalitarian state drives citizens to such a point that they are happy to still be alive, without thinking about fighting and justice. Those few who try to oppose corruption and dictatorship end up like General Lebed, who was blown up, or the politician Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead, and the oppositionist Alexei Navalny, who was poisoned. This is why Russian society prefers not to complain, but to obey and sometimes even vigorously applaud the Kremlin’s decisions, excusing the authorities and supporting the decisions of those who can take the last thing from them – their life. The authorities can send children, grandchildren and the citizen himself to death, even if he is a father of five children, even if he is disabled.

Human rights, social security and the privilege of education have long been taken away from Russians. In fact, since the time of Ivan the Terrible, a person’s life has not been worth a dime. At times it was a little better, and at times even worse. However, it has not been possible to achieve stability in the country. From generation to generation, people, being in extreme situations, tell themselves that not opposing the circumstances and government’s decisions is the only way to survive. The same reaction of the condemned could be seen around the world during World War II in the humility of the victims of mass terror. Violence as a means of social control is very effective. As Jean-Jacques Rousseau noted: “Nothing can be more certain than that every man born in slavery is born for slavery. Slaves lose everything in their chains, even the desire of escaping from them: they love their servitude, as the comrades of Ulysses loved their brutish condition.”

How is it possible that public opinion supports Russian crimes in Ukraine?

Public opinion is very diverse in Russia. There are, of course, people who stand for peace; they are against the war in Ukraine. They are imprisoned for this, persecuted as traitors. The authorities are basically unconcerned about public opinion. However, they do not like activists. Once the aforementioned politician Boris Nemtsov collected a million signatures from Russians to end the war in Chechnya. The war started again, and Nemtsov was killed by Chechens with the help of the Russian special services just outside the walls of the Kremlin.

Chechens in the modern Chechen Republic joyfully dance the Lezginka and meet their “heroes” who fought, killed and stole in Ukraine. Russians, on the other hand, invite participants of the war in Ukraine to meet children in schools and kindergartens. And this is despite the fact that participants of the war are often maniacs, sadists and paedophiles with criminal charges. Vladimir Putin, however, has allowed the recruitment of contract volunteers for the war against Ukraine. They are released from prisons and their sentences are overturned. Human rights activists and journalists are sounding the alarm, publishing specific cases of brutal murders committed by these “heroes” in their homeland, but the Russian authorities are not responding to it in any way.

War heroes in modern Russia are often those who have raped, dismembered and tortured their own citizens, sometimes minors, sometimes young children. At the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Russia sent 18-year-old conscript soldiers to the slaughter, yesterday’s schoolchildren, who quickly died, and now they are sending just these prison “heroes”. After giving ammunition and weapons to professional sadists and murderers, they are sent to another country to “restore order” among its citizens. This is simply insulting to the old veterans who once fought against fascists and Nazis during World War II. Now the “defenders of the homeland” look different…

Is there a real chance that Russian war criminals and the entire state apparatus will be held accountable for crimes in Ukraine?  

In 2005, after analysing Red Cross records and reports from human rights activists, the Chechen authorities officially announced the losses incurred since the early 1990s: 160,000 dead, of which about 30,000 were ethnic Chechens (including Chechen fighters). The rest of those killed as a result of the war and genocide were Russians, Armenians, Ukrainians, Jews, Poles, Greeks, Tatars and other Chechen inhabitants. Taus Dzhabrailov, head of the Chechen State Council, stressed that he had reviewed official documents from the Ministry of Interior Affairs of Ichkeria and provided a figure for fifteen years of conflict. Missing persons were also included. At the peak of the fighting in Grozny, 95 to 97 per cent of Russian-speaking residents with children remained under bombardment, while Chechen fighters who came to fight from villages to the capital took their relatives to Russian regions and mountain auls in advance. Local Ingush rushed to flee to Ingushetia. Along with the doomed Russian speakers, some Vainakhs [an ethnic term for Chechens and Ingush – editor’s note] and those rare Chechen families who were not picked up by their relatives in time to take them to their villages or Ingushetia remained in the capital to guard their homes from looters. During moments of calm, Chechens and Ingush would return to Grozny.

So far, the Russian authorities have not been able to bring people to justice for the deaths caused by bombs and missiles, for the lack of intervention in horrific acts of genocide or registered war crimes! This is a terrible injustice to all the citizens of Chechnya. You are asking about Ukraine. I understand that there is a new war going on there now. When it’s over, in 50 to 70 years, witnesses, civilians from both sides who were under fire, will write down their memories, accuse the authorities, and demand justice – this always happens. Unfortunately, the real war criminals may escape punishment, as in the case of Chechnya. That is why journalists record the fate of ordinary people and write publicly about injustice, so our descendants can analyse what is happening and not make the same mistakes: not to elevate barbarians and tyrants to power, but to rely on human rights and politicians with humanistiand progressive views.

What will happen if Russia wins? What awaits Europe and the world?  

It is not so straightforward – Russia will win, Russia will lose. In the case of such a huge war, so many people have died on the two sides that no one will win anymore. In Ukraine, nothing will be the same as before either. Most likely a compromise will be made with the participation of the US and several European countries. Ukraine as this sovereign, independent state, which existed for thirty years within certain borders, will not exist within the same borders. This will be a compromise. I am not a military officer, I am not a political scientist. I’m a writer and journalist, and I see this compromise as some kind of division of territory, in which Russia will also take part. Human rights are not respected in Russia and the system is very complex, there is a lot of negativity in politics, laws are violated or do not work at all, depending on the region, officials are robbing the state… It is simply a catastrophe!

Despite this, however, Russia remains a powerful country. Powerful because its rulers from the earliest times until today have never hesitated to expend human resources. And the human resources are immense. You can raise an army of a million or two million and wage long, terrible battles with outdated methods. I think everyone will be forced to make compromises so that a “fragile peace” will prevail, because a “fragile peace” is better than a big, bloody war like World War III… It will be even worse for everyone if God forbid it happens.

For me as a human being, the most important thing is that they stop shooting. The longer the war goes on, the more old men, women and children die. Therefore, the most important thing is for the war to end, and for the politicians to come to some kind of compromise, which, it may happen, will not be satisfactory to everyone.

Polina Zherebtsova’s family home in Grozny

When the war in Ukraine is over, the rulers of various countries will shake hands, and hundreds of thousands of people will not return… All wars come at the expense of human life. No one thinks about the little man. Rulers often think about resources, territories, domination. Therefore, in my opinion, the most important thing is the institution of professional negotiators, that is, those who negotiate with terrorists. Perhaps then it will be possible to prevent larger armed conflicts – by entering into negotiations with implacable presidents.

Polina Zherebtsova is a Chechen Russian diarist and poet. She is the author of Ant in a Glass Jar, which covers her childhood, adolescence and youth that witnessed two Chechen wars.

Karolina Zub-Lewińska is a specialized translator of Russian (listed in the register of translators of the Polish Chief Technical Organization), an Eastern expert looking at the post-Soviet area through the prism of security and business opportunities, and a researcher in the field of security. She is a member of the Polish Society of Sworn and Specialized Translators (TEPIS), the Polish Society for Security Studies, and the Polish Society for International Studies (section on Russia and the post-Soviet area, section on international security, and section on studies of polar regions).

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Chechnya, Russia, Russian invasion of Ukraine, War