2023-10-01 12:30:12
Of the great correspondents that journalism has had in the Soviet Union and then in Russia, Pilar Bonet (born in Ibiza, always on the staff of the newspaper The countrynow retired) he has written an unusual, admirable book for the reader who wants to know what happened to those republics and to Russia presided over by Vladimir Putin. There, in the middle of this reality, she has lived for 34 years. The result is an immense amount of information, of which this new book is an impressive journalistic and personal testimonyin which there is not only what he has experienced as a journalist, but also what he has come to know thanks to his frequent dealings with people of all ranks and conditions.
Written in the first person, with dialogues with people he dealt with personally, whose identities he keeps largely under assumed names, and with data that is first-hand, Shipwrecked of the empire. Border notes (Galaxia Gutenberg) explains the suffering, the silence and the mystery that mark the existence of these successive faces, one of which is a country fighting, with all its strength, against a neighbor whose brother he was… Ukraine is therefore largely the plot of the play.
We speak with Pilar Bonet in Madrid, during the promotion days of her book.
A book written in the first person: the journalist sees closely what happens, it is not explained.
My intention was for other people to speak. It is my task to tell the experience, to explain the notes I have been taking.
Many protagonists you talk to tell you their stories and stay in touch with you. This is fundamental in a correspondent…
It is true that sometimes personal relationships are established and this allows you to go further in what is the normal relationship between the questioner and the answerer: then they tell you more.
Thus, he tells in the first person what others would be slow to perceive, surely…
I have been there since 1984. Historical times have passed, which are also personal times: you have seen many things up close, you have met many people. The accumulated experience, therefore, allows you to keep your own view on everything, so that it is not conditioned by that of colleagues who are supposed to represent other, more prestigious media. I have always tried to define my relationship with reality, whatever it is, period. This explains my work with people: knowing that what they tell me comes from the reality that I have to explain.
From the USSR to Russia, what a lot of pain still.
The destinies of the 15 countries that broke away from the USSR were very diverse… Each one looked for itself, one by one they reinterpreted themselves, and even invented the past, which in definitely everyone does, that identities are sought with constructions that never existed. As in families in which there are younger brothers, they all tended to assert themselves against the older one, which was Russia, the empire. The others tended to act in terms of decolonization, which does not mean that they were formerly colonies, although that was partly the case. It was, in short, a search for each one. Global research, individual research, to work on a history, a biography that would allow there to be a personal or collective space, an environment from which to act as a State.
Yours is a journalist’s look, but you appear there, your compassion as a human being is there…
When I talk about Ukraine, for example. What moves me the most in this case is the feeling of helplessness that Ukrainians experience. The feeling of being helpless, of being as if lost. And that explains the word castaways which is in the title of the book. And that’s how people ended up shipwrecked. It has lost its points of reference, which may have been dictatorial or authoritarian and which, in the face of Russia’s attacks, become those who would shout “Ukraine, Ukraine!” to speak out in favor of Russia… These people don’t even have the tools to reflect on their condition, but the situation is so overwhelming that I don’t think they can be blamed for anything. They’re just lost, they don’t know where to turn, and they go with the first one that comes along.
“I don’t want to blame the West, because I don’t like to blame, it seems very stereotypical. But it seems to me that it was not known how to treat these people, or it was not considered appropriate to do so»
The USSR, Russia… They seemed to harbor a mystery, and now they seem to be the names of suffering…
Imagine that you are left without a country, you are left without your parents, you have lost your job, you have moved away from your brothers… You had life assured and suddenly everything is up in the air… In Russia everyone the roles have been reversed. An engineer who went on to put rockets on the Moon becomes an oligarch’s taxi driver. I don’t want to blame the West, because I don’t like to blame, it seems very stereotypical. But it seems to me that it was not known how to treat these people, or it was not considered appropriate to do so. It was thought that nothing was happening here, in these countries, and now look what is happening… In a way what is happening reminds me of what happened with the Spanish loss of the colonies. I don’t know how long it took here to get over 98…
Maybe until today…
exactly And why should we ask for something else from those who are living a familiar past, looking for a future they cannot find?
What have been the main damages experienced by these countries?
Everyone has had a different experience. Russia, for example, has experienced the pain of going from being a global power to becoming a regional power, and this has caused it to feel belittled, besieged, with the impression that everyone is against it.
There are many people sensitive to propaganda, and not only in Russia, but also in the West. Because there are clichés of thought that are comfortable»
Ukraine is now the big drama. What is your impression at this point?
A real tragedy. They do not deserve, in any case, what they have done, what has happened to them, what they are going through. The invaders try to destroy them. You have to study what the Nazis did to understand what the Russians are doing with Ukraine. Resentment, frustration and war… Like what the Germans argued to mount that war, now the Russians are doing the same. There is a parallel between Hitler’s Germany and today’s Russia… It is the game of propaganda, and there are many people sensitive to propaganda, and not only in Russia, but also in the West. Because there are clichés of thought that are comfortable. Although I think many of the people who originally supported Putin in this war have had to keep quiet. And I think there is a lot of Putin hidden.
What impression did this book leave on you?
A feeling of tiredness. I wrote it in Ibiza, at our house; there was my sister, who said that the house was full of ghosts, the ones who visited me while I was writing it. She was stuck in a kind of bubble, experiencing everything very intensely, even though she was in the distance. While there, in Ukraine, those who were there lived under the bombs, of course, living it in a different way. But I have experienced everything very emotionally. Now I see that I have to distance myself from it.
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