At all times, to justify war crimes, those in power appeal to the defense of the homeland. Leonid Filatov described this theme with his inherent subtle irony in his play “Lysistrata”.
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Post editors - Victoria Zherdenovska, Editor-in-chief of the Trust but Verify project, Mark Beygelzimer, Head of the project.
Reference: Leonid Filatov (December 24, 1946 - October 26, 2003) was a Soviet and Russian theater and film actor, film director, poet, playwright. He wrote the play “Lysistrata” in 1998, based on the comedy of the same name by Arstophanes. The protagonist proposed the most original way to stop the endless wars waged by ancient Athens.
An excerpt from the play Lysistrata
(Printed from the edition: Leonid Filatov. Lysistrata. EXMO Press, 2000. The English text below is a verbatim, not a literary translation of the Russian-language original)
Commander:
While you've been blithely yammering away:
“A man is such and such a man!"
Shameless women, we've been protecting you,
We've been protecting your foolish peace.
Lysistrata:
Wait!... You're confusing something in the heat of the moment!
Every kid knows that:
You weren't attacked. You were attacked.
You were the first to start a war.
You promised the citizens protection,
But it turned out to be a scandal.
Who were you protecting and from whom,
When no one was attacking you?
Oh, there are so many vile people on earth!
Such are the times!
You present meanness as a heroic deed,
And ask for medals for it!
Commander (haughtily):
Let me say to you with reproach -
And get it out of your head as soon as you can! -
We do our duty to the Fatherland,
A sacred duty to the Motherland!
Lysistrata (thoughtfully):
It's certainly inconvenient in front of the Motherland....
Debts, of course, must be repaid...
But why does she, to pay her debts.
requires you to kill someone?
And if you have such debts to her,
that even your life is nothing to pay them,
I want to ask you, my dears,
Why did you borrow so much?
When the Motherland strikes you from behind,
So much so, that it makes your eyes water,
It's better, my dears, not to get involved
You'd better not go into debt to this terrible Motherland!
Because your sons will hardly understand
for what lofty ideas,
Why and for what purpose you fought
and orphaned your own children!
(Leonid Filatov, 1998)
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Editor's Comment
Today, in the place of the Commander, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would look very organically, who, after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army on February 24, 2022, repeatedly stated that “we did not attack Ukraine” and “Ukraine started a war against us”. It is only a pity that modern wars cannot be stopped in the way that Lysistrata once suggested....
On the cover - photo of Leonid Filatov from Zen
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