Dear dear Aleksei,
I experienced a kind of shock when I received a letter from you. The very idea that he came directly from SHIZO, where he already spent 128 days, thrills in a way that an old man would when receiving a letter from his “alma mater”, the university where he spent many years of his youth. .
I respond not only as “author to reader,” but also as your admirer.
As “author to reader”:
When I was writing my book “Fear No Evil,” just after my release in February 1986, almost all of my friends and comrades-in-arms were imprisoned in gulags or in battle. So I imagined this book not only as a memoir, but also as a kind of textbook or manual on how to behave in a confrontation with the KGB. But by the time it was published in Russian, the USSR was already collapsing. Therefore, as the years passed, the book was increasingly interpreted as a historical novel about the dark Middle Ages. And now: “The idiot’s dream has come true!”
First Volodya Kara-Murza7 and now you have written to me about how this book “works” in a modern-day Russian prison. My misfortune has brought about this positive side.
And now—as a fan:
Aleksei, you are not just a dissident: you are a “stylish” dissident! My horror at your poisoning turned to shock and elation when you launched your own independent investigation.
I was very angry at the question from a certain European correspondent the day after his return to Russia. “Why did he come back? We all knew he would be arrested at the airport. Don’t you understand such simple things? My response was quite rude: “You are the one who doesn’t understand something. If he believes his goal is to survive, then he is right. But his real concern is the fate of his people, and he is telling them, “I am not afraid and you should not be afraid either.” “
I wish that, no matter how difficult it is physically, you maintain your inner freedom.
In prison I discovered that in addition to the law of universal gravitation of particles, there is also the law of universal gravitation of souls. By remaining free in prison, you, Aleksei, influence the souls of millions of people around the world.
Aleksei, it’s really sad that the past can come back so quickly and easily. Volodya Bukovsky once insisted, after the fall of the USSR, that communism must be put on trial. But there were few who supported this idea; After all, the free world won “without a bullet being fired.” Why go back to the past?
I hope that now, after all these shots, it is clear why it was necessary then and why it will be necessary tomorrow.
XXX
By the way, I am writing to you the day before Passover, the celebration of the liberation of the Jews from Egyptian slavery 3,500 years ago. That is the beginning of our freedom and our history as a people. Tonight, Jews around the world sit at the Christmas table and read the words: “Today we are slaves; Tomorrow, free peoples. Today we are here, next year, in Jerusalem.”
On this day I am sitting at the celebration meal wearing a kippah, which was made 40 years ago, from my sock, by my cellmate, a Ukrainian inmate in Chistopol prison. That’s how twisted everything is in this world! I wish you, Aleksei, and all of Russia, an Exodus as soon as possible.
Hugs,
Natan Sharansky