The war hasn’t ended: it’s only getting started. The war is on and that means all of us—people who write, talk, and think—are walking on a minefield. On a minefield of words. We have to be very careful about what we say, to make sure we don’t let the war slip into our words and thus become its accomplices.

Today things are said that provoke in me an instantaneous reaction of protest, rage, and the desire to struggle. Because I know what is behind such words. Or, at least, what such words might mean. Even if the danger is hypothetical, it is wrong to talk that way all the same. There are moments in history when seemingly neutral words—for example, “Russian” or “Jew”—cease to be neutral. The political context strips them of their neutrality, and these are moments when naively ignoring this context is a crime. Continue reading “Ekaterina Degot on Saying No to War in Russia” →