The final statement
«Freedom is the process by which you develop a habit for being unavailable for servitude.»
I think, or it has always seemed so to me, that our shared past dictates several essential lessons.
My father came back from World War II disabled. So did his brother. And yet they were lucky, compared to many others. But they were carrying out – and did carry out! – their sacred duty to defend their Fatherland from the enemy. I still remember Moscow in the 1960s – with its war veterans who had lost their arms, their legs, their vision. There were quite a few of them in our house. I grew up among them.
The survivors of that war were reluctant to tell stories about it. As I got older, I realized why that was the case: In and of itself, as a human activity, no matter what synonym one chooses, war is the basest, the vilest, and the dirtiest business of all. It is a business unworthy of a human being, for the Universe and evolution have entrusted humans with caring for the preservation and nursing all forms of life on our planet.
I am convinced that war is the fastest means of dehumanization – a state of affairs when the line between good and evil is blurred. War is always violence and blood, mangled bodies and severed limbs. It always means death. I do not accept it, and I renounce it.
That’s what our shared past has taught me. And I am not the only one: Russia’s Criminal Code includes Articles 353 and 354, which envision severe penalties for preparing, waging, and propagandizing a war of aggression. And I believe that Russia exhausted its allowance for wars back in the 20th century.
And yet our present day is called Bucha, Irpin, Gostomel… Do the names of these towns ring any bell? I advise you to inquire into what happened there, if you do not know yet. So that later you do not say you had no idea.
For the past five months Russia has been conducting military activities on the territory of a neighboring state, calling it bashfully a ‘special military operation.’ We are being promised victory and glory. If so, why do so many of my fellow citizens feel shame and guilt? Why have so many left Russia and others are on their way out? And why has our country got so many enemies all of a sudden?
Perhaps there is something wrong with us? Let us give it a thought! At least give us a chance to discuss what is happening, to share our views about it. It is our constitutional right, after all!
As a matter of fact, this is exactly what I did: I stated my opinion, my position as a human being with regard to the issue at hand during our ward council meeting.
I followed my beliefs in providing my justification for this opinion and this position. And the majority of those present supported me!
And now I am in court.
It looks like this latter situation is also a familiar one from our shared past, from yet another lesson that we failed to learn: persecuting people for their statements; trumped-up charges; rapid-fire court hearings; and then, a belated awakening: “We have no idea how this could have happened,!”
In the t of Stalin’s Great Terror, my grandfather was charged with calling for the overthrow of the Soviet system – even though he had participated directly in its creation and consolidation. My grandfather lived long enough to get fully exonerated – half a century later.
I hope that my exoneration will require much less time. But for now, I am here, in this courtroom.
My criminal case is one of the first to be heard, yet hundreds more of such cases have been filed in Russia against my fellow citizens who think about what is going on and who speak out. Families are being destroyed; the lives of young people are being crippled.
And when speaking here, I speak for all of those to be brought to the courtroom.
A handful of sentences that I uttered at a routine meeting of the District Council of Deputies were put under a microscope. A team of nine investigators was formed, six of them specializing in ‘high-profile cases.’ Five experts, including linguists and psychologists, have been called up. They dug into my thoughts, trying to understand: what was really behind the opinion that I shared with my fellow Councilmen on one of the many issues of the session agenda? What was my secret purpose and hidden motivation? What was truly behind those words that I uttered? These people have produced two expert testimonies 120-pages long….
Meanwhile, Article 29 of the Russian Constitution guarantees everyone freedom of thought and speech – as long as it is not a propaganda of hatred, enmity, or superiority. Everyone has the right to freely seek, receive, transmit, produce, and disseminate information by any lawful means. Freedom of mass media is guaranteed. Censorship is prohibited.
During the days of the August 1991 coup, I also was an elected councilman [in one of Moscow’s districts]. I stood at the headquarters of our Republic’s Supreme Council – known as our ‘White House’ back then – along with other defenders. We were defending our future, our right to live freely – that is, to speak freely, to express our thoughts, to gather and share information.
Had I been told back then that thirty years later I would be tried for my statements, for my opinion by a court of criminal justice , I would not have believed it. Identifying the reasons for such a regrettable outcome of our society’s journey will require historians to do a careful study and make sense of it. And not just to make sense of it, but also to draw conclusions from this experience. It will not be easy, but we will have to acknowledge that a war is a war. We will have to exonerate the victims and put the perpetrators on trial. We will have to work on restoring the reputation of our people, and our country. <…>
And for now, I wish our authorities wisdom.
To the court, I wish sound judgment.
To everyone facing this new wave of repression, I wish resilience, as I do to all the people of Ukraine.
To myself, I wish to one day serve as Russia’s ambassador to Ukraine.
To everyone who has supported me, near or far—stay strong! I am with you!
Meshchansky Court, Moscow, Russia
July 8, 2022
Source: https://semnasem.org/articles/2022/09/07/poslednee-slovo
More about the case: https://memopzk.org/figurant/gorinov-aleksej-aleksandrovich/
Photo: telegram channel «Свободу Алексею Горинову!» («Freedom for Alexei Gorinov!»).
Share on social networks:
