2023-04-21 18:20:00
Since 1991, the German city of Osnabrück has awarded the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize every two years. The famous writer and author of the anti-war novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” was born in this city, located about 45 kilometers from the Westphalian Münster, also strongly associated with the cause of peace. After all, it was in these two cities that the Peace of Westphalia was concluded in the 17th century, which put an end to the Thirty Years’ War in Europe.
In the past, this award was awarded to Lev Kopelev, Svetlana Aleksievich and Yuri Andrukhovych. This year it will be awarded to the Russian writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya, who has been living in exile in Berlin since March 2022. A special award was given to the Ukrainian artist and illustrator Sergei Maidukov.
The organizing committee wished “that the current Peace Prize be perceived as a sign of hope: the logic of war should not have the last word,” explained Susanne Menzel-Riedl, head of the award jury and head of the University of Osnabrück.
Ukrainian artist Maydukov refused to receive it together with Ulitskaya. “So far, there is enough Russian presence in my life,” he explained his decision.
Since the beginning of the war between Russia and Ukraine, illustrations by a native of Donetsk Maidukov, conveying the atmosphere of the military life of Ukrainian cities, were published in the leading publications of the world, in particular, in the German magazine Zeit Magazin, as well as in The New Yorker, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal and others. As a volunteer, he visited Irpen, Bucha and other de-occupied cities, saw all the horrors of the consequences of the Russian invasion.
In an interview with DW, Sergey Maidukov noted that he is still emotionally difficult to endure the information wave that has risen around the award. “I want this to disappear and I feel calm,” the illustrator said, sharply criticizing the very idea of the organizers to bring Ukrainian and Russian cultural figures under one roof.
“Cultural bridges” out of time
Attempts to build cultural bridges between conflicting parties are not uncommon. Notable initiatives include the legendary Led Zeppelin performance at Belfast’s Ulster Hall in 1971 in support of peace in Northern Ireland, the “Yutel for Peace” concert in Sarajevo in 1991 just before the start of the war in Yugoslavia, the Jewish-Arab singer duo Noa and Mira Awad from Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song “There must be another way”. However, such attempts at dialogue through culture often concern protracted conflicts that are not in a “hot” phase.
But even with the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation in different countries, creative actions “for peace” began to be organized, many of which included attempts in various formats and under different “sauce” to bring Ukrainians and Russians together on one platform. This caused a protest in Ukrainian society.
Against the backdrop of active hostilities, when more and more new victims of Russian aggression are buried in Ukraine every day, such attempts ended in a scandal. So, last spring, the then Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, called the “Solidarity Concert” organized by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the Bellevue Palace, which was attended by musicians from Germany, Russia, Ukraine, “a slap in the face for Ukrainians” in the spring of last year. and Belarus.
During last year’s Easter procession in the Vatican, a Ukrainian woman and a Russian woman from Italy were assigned to carry the cross. This idea caused considerable indignation among Ukrainian Catholics as well. In the same place, in Rome, a controversial graffiti of crying Ukrainian and Russian women appeared, and later in Melbourne, Australia, after the intervention of the Ukrainian ambassador, a similar scandalous mural was removed with the embrace of the Ukrainian and Russian military.
Similar troubles accompanied the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to nominees from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. Last December Oksana Romanyuk, director of the Kiev Institute of Mass Information (IMI), turned down the German Prize for Freedom of Speech after learning that it had been nominated with Alexei Venediktov, former editor-in-chief of the now-defunct Ekho Moskvy radio station. “We are now experiencing the experience of violence, the experience of protecting our identity, and it is impossible for us what Western Europe offers us – to lend a hand to the enemy,” Romanyuk explained her decision in an interview with Voice of America.
“Ukrainians decide when and how to go for reconciliation”
The refusal of Sergei Maidukov to receive the Remarque Prize was accepted by many in Germany with understanding. “These German attempts at reconciliation are insensitive and somewhat intrusive, just like the “Solidarity Concert” of the federal president in 2022,” comments Franziska Davies, a specialist in the history of Eastern Europe from the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich, commented. “The head of the jury said that “the logic war should not have the last word. “However, at the moment the war is still going on. First of all, the Ukrainians themselves decide when and how to go for reconciliation, they cannot be forced to do this,” Davis is convinced.
Her opinion is shared by the columnist and editor of the Rhein Zeitung newspaper from Koblenz, Thomas Leurs (Thomas Leurs). “We in the West can’t even imagine what the Ukrainians have to do now … I completely understand Maidukov,” Loyers wrote in a comment on Twitter.
In turn, Vladislav Davidzon, a cultural observer, an expert at the Atlantic Council Eurasia Center and a commentator for Foreign Policy magazine, says that he has no particular complaints about the organizers of the award from Osnabrück, because they really could be guided by quite bright intentions.
Davidzon believes that the root of this and other similar “clumsy” initiatives is the long-standing manner of treating everyone with the same brush, not distinguishing between Russian and Ukrainian creative personalities. “I recognize, respect and confirm this decision (Sergey Maidukov. – Ord.) refuse to receive the award on the same day as the Russian (awarded. – Ord.), he said in a comment to DW. “At the height of the war, his position is absolutely legitimate and should be respected: when the war is over, Russia will lose, if a new regime is possibly established there, Moscow will apologize, pay reparations and start some kind of reconciliation process – then there will be another conversation.”
Cato Young, an American columnist and culturologist from the Cato Institute, considers the situation surrounding the award to be ambiguous. On the one hand, she says, bringing Ukrainian and Russian prize winners together could look like an artificial attempt to create an image of reconciliation and incite Ukrainians to resent being expected to participate in this ritual. “On the other hand, to see Lyudmila Ulitskaya, a wonderful writer, humanitarian and absolutely sharp critic of the Putin regime, who called her a “foreign agent”, as a representative of the Russian state and the Russian war, looks extremely wrong,” Yang said in a comment to DW and added that On an emotional level, he fully understands the rejection of Ukrainians. “But the bitter paradox is to ask the Russians, ‘Why don’t you oppose the war and the regime?’ and then avoid those who oppose them,” said Cathy Young.
The main Remarque Peace Prize ceremony is scheduled for June 22 in Osnabrück.
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